FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MISSION OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM              1930


NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. L          JANUARY, 1930          No. 1
     The First General Assembly of the South African Mission was held at "Alpha," Ladybrand, Orange Free State, from September 28th to October 1st, 1929, Bishop N. D. Pendleton presiding. The meetings were well attended, reaching a maximum on Sunday morning, September 29th, of over seven hundred people.

     The majority of the Ministers, Leaders and Teachers of the entire Mission in South Africa were present. The Assembly was also honored by the presence of Chiefs Masopha, Majara, and Sauer.

     The Paramount Chief of Basutoland sent a message of greeting to the meeting.

     The members and friends of the General Church present were:-Bishop N. D. Pendleton and Mrs. Pendleton; the Rev. and Mrs. Theodore Pitcairn; the Rev. and Mrs. E. C. Acton; the Rev. and Mrs. F. W. Elphick; Mr. and Mrs. J. Forfar and Miss Beatrice Forfar, of Durban; Mr. and Mrs. S. F. Parker, of Alpha; Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Ridgway, of Durban; Mr. and Mrs. N. A. Ridgway, and Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Waters, of Alpha.

     On Saturday morning at 10 o'clock the visitors inspected the work done by the pupils of the Alpha School. This comprised printing, carpentry and leather work for the boys and sewing for the girls. At 11.00 a.m., there was an assemblage on the Mission Campus. The Alpha School and the three schools from Basutoland-Khopane, Lukas' and Mafika-rendered Songs, including a special song of welcome to the visitors from overseas. The boys of the Alpha Hostel gave a flag-drill display,-a happy blending of the Stars and Stripes, the Union Jack and the new flag of the Union of South Africa.

     THE SUNDAY SERVICES.

     On Sunday morning at eleven o'clock, Divine Service was held at the Alpha Church. Owing to the great number attending, a covered chancel was devised, and erected outside the church building. This enabled all to join in the service and witness the Ordinations,-an impressive ceremony which was followed by the administration of the Holy Supper. The service was conducted in English and Sesuto, the Bishop being assisted by the Rev. F. W. Elphick and Leader Twentyman Mofokeng.

     Eight candidates presented themselves for Ordination into the First Degree of the Priesthood. These were: Leaders John Jiyana, Julius Jiyana, Berry Maqelepo, Twentyman Mofokeng, Jonas Motsi, Jonas Mphatse, Nathaniel Mphatse and Philip Stole.

     On Sunday afternoon, a short service was conducted by the Rev. E. C. Acton, assisted by Revs. Twentyman Mofokeng and Jonas Motsi, when there were two adult baptisms and one infant baptism. The Rev. E. C. Acton gave a short discourse on the Ten Commandments.

     First Session.

     Monday, September 30th, 1929, 10.00 a.m.

     Prior to the opening of the First Session, a short service was held in the Alpha Church, when the Bishop ordained four ministers into the Second Degree of the Priesthood. These were: Rev. Moffat Mcanyana-who was ordained into the First Degree at the General Assembly held in London last year-and Revs. John Jiyana, Jonas Motsi and Berry Maqelepo.

     After the service, all met in the Alpha Church, and the First Session opened. Bishop Pendleton presided, and gave the following extempore address, this being interpreted into Sesuto by Mr. C. H. Mofokeng:

     THE BISHOP'S ADDRESS.

     In opening this Assembly, I wish to express to you the delight I feel in being here present. I rejoice to be with you on this day.

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The Lord said, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Two or three are more than one, and many together are still more. As two or three gathered together call for the presence of the Lord among them, so the same is true of many, only much more so. It is a natural law that several men are stronger than one man. It is a spiritual law that several minds are stronger than one mind. In the union of many there is strength; and when many minds are joined together, then there is a more powerful opening of the mind to the Lord. In union there is strength, and in union there is an increased power of the Lord in the lives of men. When many minds are joined together, they are raised to heaven and to the Lord in thought. Therefore it is the will of the Lord that men shall gather together, that they may draw near to Him. He encouraged men to do this when He said, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." When the Lord spoke of being in the midst of two, He meant that He would be in their minds and hearts, uniting two to Him. Such union as this makes the church on earth and also the heavens. Therefore the Lord said, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them."

     This gathering together in the name of the Lord is a spiritual assembly of men, and this assembly of the General Church Mission is for this purpose. It is given that you may be more nearly drawn to the Lord our Saviour Jesus Christ. This assembly is also unique in this, that it is the first of its kind. It is the first assembly that you have had in its largest form. You have with you, indeed, members of the Church from many places in South Africa and elsewhere. You have now, for the first time, joined together with a priesthood in all its three degrees. You have amongst you priests of your own people in the First and Second Degrees. These priests are empowered to perform all the rites of the church except that of ordination. They are empowered to perform the two great sacraments. Baptism introduces into the Church, and by the Holy Supper men are introduced into heaven as to their spirits. This, therefore, stands for a full and complete state of the church among you. It is, therefore, a great day for the New Church and for you.

     When the Lord was on earth, He not only taught men the way to heaven and led them therein, but He Himself, by His glorification, ascended into heaven and above heaven; and in so doing He drew all men who could be saved unto Himself.

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When the Lord was on earth, He promised to come again. He promised to come in the clouds of heaven, but He was speaking of the spiritual clouds of the spiritual heaven. He was speaking of the clouds through which the sun of heaven shines, even as the sun of this world shines through clouds.

     The Lord came again in truth. He revealed Himself in truth. He revealed Himself in the Scriptures which He had given. This revelation of Himself in truth at this time is His Second Coming. The Lord's Second Coming is one with the revelation of the New Church, whereby the contents of the Scriptures have been explained, and whereby the mysteries of heaven have been revealed, telling of the life after death in general, and giving wonderful teaching of the state of life after death. Men may now be certain that, when they die as to the body, their spirits will be raised into the other life,-into heaven with those who were good on earth, and with the evil on earth, into hell. For men make themselves, under the leading of the Lord. They make their spirits, whether good or bad; and as they make themselves on earth, so they remain after death, but with this difference,-the good are much better and the evil are much worse.

     The Lord has come for a second time in glory. He has come in the glory of His truth, which lies in the internal of the Scriptures, and by means of this He has made all things new-new as to the spirit. He has given us a new doctrine concerning Himself as the one and only God. He has given a new doctrine concerning faith and charity, and concerning the Old and New Testaments; for they contain within themselves an internal sense, now revealed by this doctrine. The Lord has come to us in the spirit. He has come again in His Holy Spirit, which He promised to send as a Comforter to all men.

     This, my brethren, is a general idea of what the New Church is It is my hope that this doctrine may enter ever more deeply into your minds, so that you may be spiritually enlightened. We have great faith in the future of this Church in Africa; for the Writings tell of some remarkable things concerning your people.

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We are told that your people-the good among them-are of a celestial nature, loving and kind and of a good heart. That which is revealed is true. Therefore, I believe that the Church with you has a great future. I think that you will receive these doctrines with loving hearts, and that you will carry them on in a good life to the glory of God and to your own salvation.

     Discussion of the Bishop's Address.

     Bishop Pendleton.-The meeting is now open, and I shall be glad to hear from you.

     Rev. John Jiyana (Cundycleugh, Natal.)-The coming of the Bishop in this country is more than we can appreciate. This is the first General Assembly. We have had gatherings here in South Africa before, but this is the first of its kind. Our Bishop has touched on three great points: Unity; the Coming of the Lord; the preparation of man's life in the world. The Bishop spoke of spiritual unity. I remember a story when I was at school. An old man had seven sons who continually quarreled. He appealed to them to stop, but it was in vain. He then took a bundle of sticks, and gave a stick to each son, asking him to break it. He then tied those sticks into a bundle, and gave it to them to break; but none could do it. Then he said to them, "Behold the bond of unity! You are strong when united; otherwise you are weak before the enemy!" Unless there is a true church, there can be no unity. It is unity which forms the church and heaven. The New Church tells us what is meant by true redemption and charity; and we cannot become angels in the other world unless we start in this world. We believe in the Second Coming, and so we know that the Word in the letter is as a cloud, through which the spiritual meaning shines.

     Rev. Moffat Mcanyana (Durban, Natal.)-I have listened with great interest to the Bishop's speech. I was touched in my heart when he spoke about unity. I have been thinking that this occasion is as a morning star, and the opening of the New Jerusalem among the Africans. If we do not have this union, the New Church will not grow. If we have this union, we shall have more power in forming a society of the Church and the Priesthood, and it will help to establish the New Church among our people.

     Rev. Jonas Motsi (Quthring, South Basutoland.)-The Bishop has said that there is a communion of souls in the other life. Suppose I come and live with you next door, and suppose our love is not the same; we can be friends in this world, but the real difference will be seen in the other life. The Bishop has mentioned about the Second Coming of the Lord in the Word. It is said that the stars will fall, and that the sun and moon shall be darkened. The sun and stars are larger than this earth, and so could not fall upon the earth. Through Swedenborg we also learn that people live on other earths. Therefore the Lord, in the Scriptures, taught the way, but men could not understand Him. The Lord does not regard temporal things, but is looking to the end.

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I thank the Bishop, and appreciate his presence amongst us. It is a great delight.

     Chief Sauer (Berea, Basutoland.)-I am a Basuto. I hope you will bear with me. In the first place I thank the Superintendent for sending me word that the Bishop and the Rev. Pitcairn were to visit us here. I thank God. May God bless your journey back to your home! For a long time I have heard that there was a Bishop at the head of this Mission, and now it has pleased God that we see a Bishop amongst us here. I do not belong to this Mission, but I have friends in this Mission who take the trouble to inform me of anything which takes place. I have great pleasure in seeing the Bishop. I greet you Bishop, and also the Rev. Pitcairn. I hope that, as a result of your presence, the work of this Mission may grow. God be with you on your journey!

     Rev. Theodore Pitcairn.-Since I am to speak this afternoon, I thought I would not speak this morning, but I am very happy to be here, and to see this great beginning of the ministry among the African peoples; as also to see how the New Church and Mission is growing, and how it has advanced since four years ago. It is the Lord's New Church, which will save the world; and the Lord has come again to save those who are truly New Church. He came a first time, but the Christian Church was not faithful; therefore He came a second time to save the Church again. He will save those who are truly New Churchmen. Now that a ministry is established among the natives of this country, we pray for a blessing on the Church here. The New Church is ever NEW; but if the hearts of men are not in it, they are not in the Church in the sight of God. We pray for the people to be in the Church with all their heart and soul, with all their mind and strength, and that they will sacrifice, and do all they can to follow the Lord in His Second Coming. Then the Church will be firmly established, and continue for ever and ever.

     Benjamin Ngiba (Tongaat, Natal.)-Through the pleasure I have received I am bound to rise and speak. It has given us a great hope to have the Bishop amongst us, and a great hope that the New Church may grow in Africa. It was a great pleasure to hear the address by the Bishop. He said that in union there is strength. If our Leaders can come together, the New Church will grow among the Africans. There must be union amongst the Leaders first, because they have studied the Doctrines more fully; and then, through them, the Church will come to the people. The Lord has made His Second Coming because the Old Church is consummated; and if the Lord had not come a second time, no flesh could have been saved. Our Bishop also touched upon the prophecy in the Writings concerning the Africans in the spiritual world. There is great hope that the New Church will be among the Africans, but it must be among the Africans in the other world who are in the New Church, because the Church must first be established in heaven.

     Rev. Twentyman Mofokeng (Alpha, Ladybrand.)-We are very glad to have the Bishop amongst us. He encourages us-little weak natives-by coming to us from overseas. This is a great encouragement.

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Although a weak people, we shall be strong. In reference to the matter of the doctrine of the Lord, it has not been known who God is. It has been the same question: "Lord, show us the Father?" But the answer to that question was not for that day, but it is given in the Second Coming at the time of the New Church. All things are to be changed. We have been expecting, because the Christian Church says the Lord is coming a second time. We are surprised to find that this Coming is not in the natural clouds of heaven, but in the Spiritual Sense of the Word. Also, we learn that "the kingdom of God is within you," and that heaven is not that which we see with our natural eyes.

     The Session here terminated with the benediction, pronounced by the Bishop.

     Second Session.

     On Monday afternoon at 3 o'clock, the Bishop opened the Second Session with prayer and a reading from the Word. He then called upon the Rev. Theodore Pitcairn to give an Address.

     THE REV. THEODORE PITCAIRN'S ADDRESS.

     With Mr. C. H. Mofokeng translating into Sesuto, the speaker addressed the meeting as follows:

     Bishop and Members of the Assembly: In the Bishop's Address this morning, he spoke about the verse in the Rook of Revelation, "Behold, I make all things new." He pointed out that this was a prophecy of the New Church, and that in that Church everything would be made new. I want you to think of this verse in connection with a statement in the work called Heaven and Hell which tells us that everyone has a place in the spiritual world according to his idea of God. If a person has a wise and true idea of God, he has a high place in the spiritual world. If he has not a wise idea, but a simple idea of God, he has a lower place in the other world. This is true also of the church. If the church has a wise and exalted idea of God, then it is a true church. If it has a false idea of God, then it becomes a false church. The primary doctrine of the New Church is in the idea of God; and that idea of God is, that there is one God who is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom,-a God who is infinite and unchanging, and who came down and was born on earth.

     Why is it that we have our place in the other world according to our idea of God? The reason is, that we should come into the image and likeness of God. If we have a false idea of God, we come into a false image and a false likeness of God.

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Now when we say "an idea of God," this does not mean only what we say with the mouth, but also what we think in our thoughts. A person who thinks little about God has little idea of God. A person who thinks much about God, and how he may do the will of God, gets a great idea of God. It is, therefore, according as we try to obey God's Word that we get a true idea of God. We may have been told about God, but if we do not try to obey the will of God, then we have not a full idea of God. Because we think of God as being like ourselves, and because we are evil, then our idea of God is evil. But if we love the
Word of God, and love to obey God, and not love to do our own will, then we come into the image and likeness of a true God.

     The New Church has a new idea of God. That new idea of God makes everything new. It makes everything of our mind new. If we love the things of the New Church, it will make everything of our life new.

     The prophecy of the New Church in the Book of Revelation uses the word "new" in several different places. As we have said, the Lord said that He would "make all things new." The Church, which is the main thing, is called the "Church of the New Jerusalem." Those who belong to this Church will have a "new name." This Church was signified by the "new earth," which would take the place of the "former earth," and this New Church is NEW primarily because it has a new idea of God. We are told in the Heavenly Doctrine that the rest of the Christian Church is no longer a true Church, because it has not a true idea of God.

     I would like to pause a moment on this subject. What is the idea in the other churches which is not true? They have the idea that God has three persons, and they think that the Father got angry with the human race, and that He cursed the human race, and was going to damn the whole human race. But the Son came into the world, and got the Father to change His mind, to save those who would believe in Him. If you reflect, you will see that this is a cruel idea of God. A God who would curse the people whom He created is not a God of love. It is also said that He changed His mind, and saved those who believed on His Son. God can never change His mind. So you see that, if you have the idea of God as cruel, and as changing His mind, then if we were in His image we would be cruel and change our minds.

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Thus the church becomes spoilt. And so it is very important to have an idea of a God who loves everyone and never changes His love; a God who wants to help everyone, that is, everyone who will let Him help him, because He cannot help you unless you let Him help you. If we try to live so that we may be in the image and likeness of God, we shall be unchanging in our love of the neighbor, that is, the good of our neighbor.

     From this new idea of God the New Church is formed. And because it is the New Church, it is separate and distinct from other churches-not a part of other churches. It is a New Church formed by a new coming of the Lord, and therefore we must have a new ministry,-a new priesthood. And that we started among the peoples of Africa to-day and yesterday.

     Everything of the New Church is new. We have a new Baptism, because we believe in one God who is in one Person. We have a new Holy Supper. We see in the wine a representation of His Divine Wisdom, which changes not. We see in the bread a representation of His Divine Love, which changes not. We also have a new marriage in the New Church. This is not the same marriage as other marriages. It is not a marriage such as the Basutos had before the Christians came. It is not the same marriage as other nations have. It may appear to be the same, but that appearance is not true. It may be the same outwardly, but it is not the same inwardly. This is because a new idea of God makes everything new. Other churches think of marriage from the idea that God permits marriage; but the New Church idea of marriage is that God wished it to be. It is a marriage of the spirit as well as of the body-a marriage which, if in order, we wish to last forever in the other world. It is a marriage which is pure and holy, because it represents the marriage of the Lord and the Church which is the holiest thing there is-a marriage of love and wisdom. Now if the members of the New Church try to follow the Lord, they will think of marriage as most holy, and therefore they will ever strive and work to make the marriage of the spirit. They will not permit anything to interfere with this holy marriage, and will fight against all evils which might spoil it-and this, because they see in it the most holy representation.

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That marriage must necessarily be between one man and one woman is because the New Church is one and the Lord is one, and marriage is a representation of that.

     We have said that the New Church is NEW, and is represented by the "new earth" which was to be formed, and yet you have been told that the Lord is not going to destroy this earth on which we live. The new earth, therefore, refers to a new spiritual earth. There is no reason for destroying this earth which we see with our eyes. Yet it is true that even the earth we see with our eyes must be made new. This is so, because when you come to understand the Doctrines of the New Church, then you will see the earth not only as stones and mountains and hills, as rivers and streams and things which grow on the ground, but you will see them as a representation of the Lord's Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. The Lord created it to show forth His Divine Love and Wisdom before our eyes, so that when we look on the world, and our eyes are opened, we may see the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom of Him who created them. This is what is meant in the Writings of the New Church when it is said that the earth is a theater, representative of the Divine. If you look at the world in that way, you will see that there is truly a new earth. The hills have not changed, but you see them in a new way; thus the earth is made new. It is made new, because your mind is made new, and you see new things in it.

     I may take one more illustration of how everything is to be made new. Everyone has to live by eating, and everyone eats in more or less the same way, but if you know of spiritual eating-that eating which is in the spiritual representation of the Holy Supper-then that eating becomes new. When we sit down to eat together, and especially if we speak about heavenly things and charity, then the mind is being fed at the same time as the body. Our eating together represents a spiritual feeding which satisfies our minds. Whatever way you look, and whatever we do in the New Church, if we do it from a love of God and a love of the New Revelation which He has given to us, and from a love of obeying His will, there is nothing which is not made new.

     These things, however, are not all made new in a day, or in a week. They are not made new in a year, nor even in a few years. To begin with, we have much evil. We love the old, and it is only little by little that we change. It is the same with the New Church. The New Church must always become more and more new, the more we understand the Lord's words.

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The more we understand the Heavenly Doctrines, and the more we try to obey them, the more NEW will the New Church become. We speak of the Church becoming new. Every person of the Church must also become new; and that becoming new is called in the Word the new birth, or regeneration, which is the same. The reason we are on earth is that we may become new. The New Church is new in name to begin with, and its Doctrines are new, but as to the life, this only becomes new in so far as men are born anew; and men are born anew in so far as they shun evils and try to follow the Lord and keep His Word.

     Discussion of the Rev. Theodore Pitcairn's Address.

     Rev. Berry Maqelepo (Greylingstad, Transvaal.)-I am very glad to listen to the addresses given by the Bishop and the Rev. Pitcairn. Really, on my part, it is more than can be expressed in words. It is rather high for me. But I will give a few words. Mr. Pitcairn spoke about the New Church, where it is said in Revelation that all things are to be made new. He said that the new idea of the New Church is in connection with a new idea of God, because in the Doctrines of the New Church we learn the essential doctrine of the New Church, that it is to obey and worship one God, who is Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is the Divine Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As to Essence, He is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, and He assumed the human from the mother Mary, and finally He made His Second Coming through the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, Servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the actual coming of the Lord in the spiritual sense of the Word. If the Lord had not come again, no flesh could have been saved. By the Lord's coming again, He redeemed angels and men. So we appreciate the coming of the New Church to the natives of South Africa, to teach us the way to heaven, and to give us the new idea of God; to give us a new life in connection with Jehovah, the God of the Old Testament, who is called Jesus Christ in the New Testament, and Who is God, the only God-God who is born in time, the Redeemer and Regenerator for evermore.

     Rev. John Jiyana (Cundycleugh, Natal.)-I really appreciate what the Rev. Pitcairn has given us this afternoon, explaining the chapter in the Revelation which contains the words, "Behold, I make all things new." Of course, it can be seen among the Africans of the South how things have been made new in the material form. At least sixty, or a little over one hundred years ago, when the first Missionaries came to this new country, the natives had no idea of God, save the name only. We had the name "Umvelinqanga," which means the First Being, but we did not have modes of worshipping that Being. When the Europeans came, the Missionaries brought the idea of God, how to love that God and how to worship Him. There was a sudden change of state in Africa.

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That state was a preparatory state for the reception of the New Church and the Second Coming of the Lord. It served to prepare us, so that when the New Church came to this country we should be ready to receive it.

     By all things being made new, many people think of modern inventions submarines, etc.-and yet that is not what the Lord meant. He meant the things of heaven, the things of the spiritual life of man. When we read the Word of the Lord, we do not gather anything from the literal sense only. When we read the Word of the Lord in the light of the New Church, which reveals the spiritual meaning, we find that all we thought we had known is made new. The mind of man must be made new; likewise his will, the things of his love and the things of his faith.

     The speaker touched on the subject of marriage. Marriage, as understood by the Christian world, is permitted by God. But in the New Church we learn that it signifies the marriage of the Lord and the Church: (Reference was here made to C. L. 56 and the Temple of Wisdom.) We shall be very glad when our people in South Africa come to a real state of conjugial love, because monogamical marriage signifies the marriage of the Lord with the Church, or the conjunction of good and truth.

     Rev. Twentyman Mofokeng (Alpha, Ladybrand.)-I think we all appreciate the address given to us by the Rev. Pitcairn. There are one or two points which struck me. The first is this: We become in form like the God we worship. If our idea of God is cruel, we will be cruel, and become forms of cruelty. If our idea of God is in any way evil, and we think that God has created evil, the evil will not be with God, but with us, because there is nothing evil in God. So that we should try and find the right idea of God. Let us ask in everything the guidance of His Providence. Let us know that in everything that takes place we should be content, and know that there is the hand of Providence in it, even though there is an appearance of misfortune outside. God will not do anything which is not for our spiritual welfare. We have an idea that God is Divine Love and Wisdom, and once that idea is implanted in us we may become forms of charity. It is expressed in the Writings that the angels are forms of charity, and that they are being formed by charity. If we have a true idea of God, we are going to become these forms of charity.

     The other point was concerning marriage. It is said that marriage is a representation of the holiest of all things, and that there is one God and one Church. If we have an idea of three or more gods, it brings into our life a wrong idea of marriage. If a man can believe in three gods, he can believe in three husbands or three wives. We may know that this is the reason by which our marriages have been so much spoiled. The idea of marriage is lifted up by the idea of one God and one Church. If we believe in more than one God, our idea of marriage becomes wrong, and the church is consummated.

     Rev. Nathaniel Mphatse (Mefika-Lisiu, Basutoland.)-We appreciate the meeting today. I think the young people will welcome the addresses which have been given, because they give a new idea and a new feeling. I would like to make a statement in regard to what Mr. Pitcairn said concerning marriage. It is a very promising matter, because that represents God united with His Church,-one God united with one Church, which is the New Church.

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That is evident to everyone who sees it. Marriage originates in heaven from Divine Love, and results in love between one man and one woman. The old marriage was not a pure marriage. It was a natural, external marriage which had merely respect to worldly things. We are told that there is only one marriage which is a pure marriage from heaven. We are very glad now to have a new idea from the New Church Doctrine. May the Lord grant us that the New Church may grow in all our hearts in South Africa, and give us light for evermore! Amen.

     Rev. Philip Stole (Springfeld, Durban, Natal.)-I am not going to speak much now at this time, because from the morning to the afternoon we have been fed with spiritual food. I am going to express my thanks for the Assembly with our Bishop and the Rev. Theodore Pitcairn. In the Bishop's morning address, he touched on the most important thing,-unity in the Church, and that in unity there is strength. We learn in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem that everything that is good from the Lord has its opposite from hell; so the most important thing is to shun evils as sins.

     Mr. Pitcairn spoke this afternoon of the New Church in Revelation, and that it is a NEW Church, because we learn that everything which is new is from the Lord. We receive it from the Lord in our minds, and receive a new understanding and a new will, so that the new thing comes from within. I thank very much for the instruction given by the Bishop, because it is more encouraging, especially to the Leaders of the Church. We must unite together, because the hells will try to assault the Lord's Church on earth, as the dragon persecuted the woman and the child in the wilderness. We hope that in future the Lord will give us strength from above, which will keep us together in zeal and love for the Church, love for the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Church, because it is the only hope that we can be made new. The Lord will keep and guide His Church through struggle and temptation.

     Bishop Pendleton.-I speak for Mr. Pitcairn, as well as for myself, in saying that we are more than delighted with the response that you have given the addresses today. I see very clearly that the New Church in the New Revelation is in the minds and hearts of those of you who are leading. That being so, I am sure that the blessing of the Lord is upon you, and upon the great work which you have before you. Nothing in my life has affected me more deeply than to see the Church-our beloved Church-take such deep root with you. I shall go back to America and to Bryn Athyn, the center of our Church, with a story to tell them that will also give them very great rejoicing. For nothing delights a New Churchman more than to give of his very precious spiritual treasures to another, and to have another receive it. Because of the evils which we have inherited for many generations, it is very difficult to establish the New Church at this day amongst Christians; though I think that, despite all the evil influences with which we are surrounded, our Church is growing under the hand of the Lord.

     I look to your Church here in Africa for a new impulse-a new movement forward in the life of our glorious Church.

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I see that your hearts are open to it, and that your minds understand the great essentials that are involved in it. There is nothing I so much desire as that the New Church be established with you; that you should have your own Church, according to your own genius and your own Priesthood, yet one in heart and mind and purpose with our Church in European countries. Now you must make yourselves Missionaries of this Church, and go forward and convert as many as the Lord will bring to you. This Church is not mine to give you. It is yours to have for yourselves as your own; for the Church is your own, even as the Lord is your God-even as the Lord is my Lord and my God. Take up, therefore, the Evangel of the Second Coming of the Lord, and go forward with it. Explain it; teach it; and lift your people up by it spiritually. May the Lord Jesus Christ, our only God, be with you day by day in this work.

     The meeting was then closed with the benediction and the closing of the Word.

     Before the Assembly dispersed, the Superintendent asked the company to be seated for a short time, to allow opportunity for a pleasant event. Three deputations-representing three sections of the Mission-then presented Bishop and Mrs. Pendleton and the Rev. and Mrs. Theodore Pitcairn with gifts, as tokens of the appreciation of their visit to South Africa. Each deputation also presented a signed address.

     Thus terminated a memorable day for the Mission.
MINISTERS' AND LEADERS' COUNCIL MEETING 1930

MINISTERS' AND LEADERS' COUNCIL MEETING       FREDERIC W. ELPHICK       1930

     On Tuesday, October 1st, at 10 a.m., the Bishop met the Ministers and Leaders of the Mission in Council. A whole morning was devoted to the discussion of problems relating to the Mission work, respecting native custom, marriage, and their relation to New Church Doctrine.

     There were present:

     Bishop N. D. Pendleton, presiding; Revs. E. C. Acton (Secretary), F. W. Elphick, Theodore Pitcairn.

     Revs. John Jiyana, Julius Jiyana, Berry Maqelepo, Moffat Mcanyana, Twentyman Mofokeng, Sofonia Mosoang, Jonas Motsi, Jonas Mphatse, Nathaniel Mphatse, Benjamin Ngiba, Philip Stole.

     Leaders: J. N. Lunga, L. M. Nyokana, Peter Sabela.

     Students: J. Kandisa, S. B. Mkize. Total 20.

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     [Picture of Ministers and Leaders Council Meeting.]

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     [Picture of Meeting of Ministers, leaders and Teachers.]

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     MEETING OF MINISTERS, LEADERS AND TEACHERS

     On Tuesday afternoon at 3 o'clock, the Ministers, Leaders and Teachers met in the Alpha Church. The Bishop presided, and after opening the meeting with Prayer and a reading from the Word, he invited the Rev. Theodore Pitcairn to read a paper on the "Causes of Representations and Correspondences."

     This contribution also brought a very good discussion, the majority of speakers giving expression to the wish that the paper be published, so that they might study the subject for themselves. There were present: The Ministers and Leaders before mentioned, together with Teachers S. Kojoana, L. Lebona, Mrs. C. Letele, C. H. Mofokeng, O. Mphatse, Miss V. Nsomi, E. Sematlane, Miss A. Thahe. Total 29.

     SUNDAY SERVICE, OCTOBER 6TH, 1929.

     Though not part of the Assembly proper, the Bishop conducted Divine Service at the Alpha Church on Sunday morning, October 6th. At this Service three Ordinations look place. Leaders S. Mosoang and Benjamin Ngiba were ordained into the First Degree, and Rev. Twentyman Mofokeng into the Second Degree.

     In concluding this Report, thanks are due to the Rev. E. C. Acton and Mrs. Elphick for the assistance given in the taking of notes during the Sessions. A comparison of these with the notes taken by the undersigned has resulted in a fairly accurate account of the proceedings, while every endeavor has been made to preserve the characteristic atmosphere of the occasion.
     FREDERIC W. ELPHICK.

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SOUTH AFRICAN MEMORIES 1930

SOUTH AFRICAN MEMORIES       BEATRICE CHILDS PENDLETON       1930

     To the ocean voyager, land is ever a welcome sight. And after seventeen days at sea the prospect of a hitherto unvisited continent is particularly inviting. Also, the approach to Capetown, cradled by mountains of solid stone, is a sight to arouse the admiration of even the most blase globe-trotter. Unfortunately this satisfaction was denied us, for after a forty-eight hour struggle with the "Cape rollers" we slipped into the harbor before dawn on a Monday morning, and awoke to find ourselves anchored at dock, just opposite far-famed Table Mountain. Capetown is the front door to South Africa, and a pleasant custom prevails of greeting the overseas traveler there with telegrams and letters. We received our quota and felt ourselves warmly welcomed, though Durban was still far away. Our traveling companions,-the Rev. and Mrs. Theodore Pitcairn, and Mr. James Forfar of Durban (the latter, homeward bound, we were fortunate to meet on the boat), having decided to make the trip overland to Durban, we were left to our own devices. Fortunately Mr. Thudicum, of the de Hoek Estate, having come to meet Mr. Pitcairn, took us under his care, and, in company with his wife and children, drove us for miles through Capetown's beautiful environs, enabling us to see from many angles the surrounding mountains. We spent a delightful hour at Kirstenbosch at the foot of Table Mountain on the land side, where are collected the many species of South African wild flowers, shrubs and trees. It surprised me to find periwinkles literally twice the size of ours, clumps of arum lilies in shady places, and freesias and gladioli growing wild among the flowers of many hues and varieties of which I had no previous knowledge.

     Between the towering mountains we always were coming unexpectedly upon vistas of blue water-on one side the Atlantic, on the other the Indian Ocean. Driving back to Capetown, we followed a road that skirted the Twelve Apostle Range and overlooked the sea. It was a beautiful scene,-the water deep blue, the sands along the rocky beaches glistening white, and the waves dashing with tremendous force against the great boulders, throwing foam in rainbow colors high into the sunshine.

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Overhead white clouds drifted serenely in a heaven of living sapphire.

     It is the fate of passengers who have booked for Durban, and not taken advantage of the forty-eight hour rail route at Capetown, to spend six days in reaching their destination, a thousand miles away. This is because the proud Atlantic liner, which has spurned all inducement to stop over between Madeira and Capetown, being the authorized carrier of His Majesty's mails, and due at a certain hour on a certain day at her destination, having discharged that duty, becomes a complacent freighter, and loiters up the East Coast, putting off and taking on huge quantities of boxes, barrels, crates, hides, bales and what-not at Capetown, Port Elizabeth, East London and Durban, which last port she makes in a leisurely fashion on the following Sunday morning. However, it is an experience not to be missed, at least the first time out. The hours after leaving Capetown, when the ship is skirting the Cape Peninsula, are alone worth the trip. We were fortunate in having a beautiful sunny afternoon, with low hanging clouds alternately veiling and revealing the mountain tops. It was the view of the day before reversed,-the mountains from the sea. All the way from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Agulhas, which is the southernmost tip of Africa, a rampart of mountains face the south, defying time and tide.

     It is interesting to watch the business of unloading and loading cargo in these waters. As the ships cannot dock either at Port Elizabeth or East London, all freight must be transferred in large flat-bottomed boats, which are moored alongside and filled by means of winches and the skillful labor of deft, hard-working natives, ragged, barefooted and untiring. At the end of a day of unremitting toil, they receive an average of two and six pence, and depart as cheerfully as they came. At East London, the sea being too rough to allow tugs to moor alongside, even the passengers have to come and go by means of a big hamper, holding perhaps eight or ten. All this work is in charge of the natives.

     From East London to Durban is a run of about sixteen hours. The afternoon was warm and pleasant, and we were close enough to shore to see something of the coast. It was a peaceful scene. The ruggedness of the Cape had given way to rolling, hilly country suitable for pastureland and human habitation.

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Doubtless there were numberless round, inconspicuous native kraals, but our eyes had not as yet been trained to see them.

     [Map of South Africa - Cape of Good Hope.]

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     Sunday morning, September the eighth, the good ship "Arundel Castle" sailed into the harbor at Durban, having quite recovered her dignity and seemingly forgotten the intervening days of toil and travail, and the hurrying of the bare black feet across her decks. We were early at the rail, scanning the waiting crowds for a face we knew. Finally I discovered a girl in a grey suit, waving in our direction, and then, close by, a slim young man whose shining head immediately stamped him; and the girl became Mrs. Elmo Acton, late of Bryn Athyn, and the youth the Rev. Elmo Acton himself. A chubby baby girl, who takes after her father in coloring, completed the picture. A few minutes later we discovered our erstwhile traveling companion, Mr. Forfar, and a little lady we knew to be his wife, and quite suddenly we felt ourselves at home in Durban.

     Having passed through customs with amazing celerity, we were taken in charge by the Forfar family and whisked away to their house in Musgrave Road, which became our home for all of our Durban visit. For sixteen days we were pampered and feted and spoiled, to our exceeding great content, until we wondered what it would seem like to be just ordinary mortals again.

     It was comforting to find ourselves in church after so many Sundays. The familiar ritual, used by all the societies of the General Church, always gives one a sense of belonging, he the language Swedish, Dutch or Sesuto; and when English is the medium, one slips easily into the sphere of worship and is at home.

     During the afternoon a reception was held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Forfar, that the visitors might meet the members of the society. Mostly New Church Durbanites are either Cockerells or Ridgways or descendants of both families, or they belong to the Mauritius group and are of Rouillard lineage. It is a great assistance to the puzzled visitor to remember this. One can always say, "You are a Mr., Mrs., or Miss Cockerell? Ridgway? or Rouillard?" and not be very far wrong. As it happened, this was the last occasion of old Madame Rouillard's coming among us. Two days later she fell, breaking her hip, and in a week's time passed away. It is pleasant to remember her as she was that afternoon, surrounded by her descendants, entering into and enjoying everything.

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     It was a great pleasure to meet again our three Bryn Athyn girls,-Mrs. Kenneth Ridgway, Mrs. Acton and Mrs. Scott Forfar. And to see, in their own environment, many who have been pupils of the Academy during the last ten years.

     On Monday evening, while the Bishop attended a Men's Meeting, I had the pleasure of being a guest of the Durban Chapter of Theta Alpha, and found it an active organization, functioning in assistance of local uses and helping the school in various elder sisterly ways.

     On Wednesday evening, September the 11th, the First South African Assembly opened with an address by Bishop Pendleton on "The Personality of Man and the Person of God." I shall leave the description of the various addresses and subsequent discussions to others better qualified than I. It is sufficient here to say that all were well received, and that each speaker, as usual, stressed the necessity for further study, and urged that the addresses be published!

     The serving of tea and light refreshments is a regular part of all evening meetings in South Africa. In fact, every gathering seems an occasion for at least a cup of tea. Tea is the great South African national drink. Tea on waking, tea at eleven, tea for breakfast, lunch and dinner, tea at four and tea at ten. In America we would be agitating a Twentieth Amendment!

     On Thursday, the Women's Guild gave a luncheon for the women visitors at the home of Mrs. Acton, whereat reigned much jollity and good will. The only afternoon session of the Assembly followed, and was addressed by Mr. Acton on "Significatives, Representatives and Correspondences." At the third session, on Thursday evening, Mr. Elphick read an interesting paper on "Distinctiveness," in which he drew comparisons between the early Christians and the New Church of today.

     Mr. Pitcairn's paper on Friday evening dealt with the subject of "Correspondences Drawn from the Word." The request for an Assembly address had been radioed to the ship in mid-ocean, and Mr. Pitcairn had chosen his subject in ignorance of Mr. Acton's. However, the field is so vast that the two papers merely touched on different phases, and in a sense complemented each other. After due comment there followed a discussion on Assemblies; properly speaking, a discussion as to how often Durban should hold an Assembly.

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There was such an animated give and take, and so many views were advanced, that I may be forgiven for leaving the final decision to be announced by a more authentic source, lest I inadvertently give wrong information.

     On Saturday evening, the Assembly Banquet was held in the schoolroom immediately adjoining the church. It was an inspiring occasion. Mr. Henry Ridgway acted as toastmaster, and made an excellent presiding genius, introducing and connecting the speakers with just the right amount of seriousness and humor. The set speeches were thoughtful and interesting, the service beyond criticism, and everyone seemed in the humor to appreciate to the utmost all the effort which contributed to the success of the occasion.

     All day Sunday it rained dismally, but so strong was the sphere of the Assembly that it seemed to make little difference in the matter of attendance at either morning or evening service. Three priests officiated in the morning, Mr. Acton taking the service, Mr. Elphick reading the lesson, and Bishop Pendleton preaching the sermon. The Holy Supper was then administered, with the Bishop as celebrant and the two Pastors assisting. The choir sang special selections at both services, adding greatly to the occasion.

     The following days were given up to social events and sightseeing, and passed most pleasantly. Durban is a unique city to American eyes. The population is apparently about equally European, native and East Indian; and the street scenes are consequently most picturesque. Especially interesting are the rickshaw boys, gorgeously attired in short, bright-colored garments decorated with beads, their bare legs painted white in intricate patterns, as high as the knee, and their headdresses bristling with feathers and horns, very much after the fashion of our own American Indians. And the Zulu girls, just in from the kraals, wrapped in a single strip of cloth, bare-shouldered and barelegged, stepping along with a gait any queen might envy. And the Indian women and children, by contrast, dressed in sleazy garments of silk and cotton material, in magenta, yellow and white or green, covering them completely from head to foot, their noses and ears decorated with gold ornaments, and bracelets on their legs and arms. All add interest and color to eyes weary of the civilized sameness so prevalent today.

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     The vegetation in Durban is semitropical, and the palms and bright flowering trees and shrubs are as interesting to a visitor as the people themselves. September is early spring in the antipodes, so we missed some of the more brilliant summer bloom, but were fortunate in the matter of the hibiscus, Kaffir boom and bougainvillea.

     On Thursday morning, September 19th, we set off in two cars for Zululand, which is directly north of Natal, on the coast. Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ridgway, Mr. and Mrs. Pitcairn, Mr. and Mrs. Acton, Mr. Elphick and ourselves made up the party. Ishowe, the capital, is in the mountains, three thousand feet above sea level, and the seven-hour drive was one of constantly increasing beauty. It is forbidden the Indian to live or own land in Zululand, and it was a relief to get away from the ubiquitous corrugated iron huts and untidy banana groves which everywhere disfigure Natal. The native huts, on the contrary, are built of earth and thatch, and are as indigenous as the nests of the birds, and almost as unnoticeable to the untrained eye.

     The mountains of Natal and Zululand are more kindly than those of the Free State and Basutoland. Sugar cane grows luxuriantly, and of late years wattle plantations have proved lucrative. The wattle tree is a species of Acacia and was imported from Australia. It grows rapidly and is proving a great blessing to an otherwise almost woodless country.

     Mr. Pitcairn's object in visiting Zululand was to find a suitable farm on which to start among the Zulus another mission similar to Alpha. He was fortunate in locating a large farm, beautifully situated among the mountains, and within easy reach of many native kraals. The intention is to put the farming into the hands of Mr. Fred Frazee, and to entrust the mission work to the Rev. Moffat Mcanyana, the native Zulu who was ordained during the General Assembly in London last year. Mr. Acton will have immediate supervision, under Mr. Elphick, who is Superintendent of the mission work in South Africa. The natives in Zululand promise to be good material for the New Church, in their primitive state. They are said to be sincere, honest and receptive of spiritual things. Physically they are a handsome race. In their native dress, which consists principally of a yard or so of cloth and beads for the adults, and beads or nothing at all for the children, they are beautiful.

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One group of young women bathing in a mountain stream beside the road was as charming a picture as any Grecian conception of wood nymphs imaginable, and the little brown bodies of naked children at play will always flash uppermost in my mind when I remember Zululand. It seemed a glimpse of the Golden Age returned.

     At Durban, on the following Sunday, the Bishop confirmed three young men and three young women, and afterwards preached. At the conclusion of the service the postponed Assembly picture was taken. It saddened us somewhat to realize that this part of our visit was drawing to a close, and that in all probability we should never again have the privilege of worshiping in the beautiful little church, nor meet on their own soil our many Durban friends.

     [Picture of ASSEMBLY GROUP AT DURBAN.]

     However, there was one more meeting scheduled, of more than passing importance. It took place on Monday evening, and related to the New Church day school established by Miss Elsie Champion on her return after her studies in Bryn Athyn. For some years, the school has been essentially a Church use, and supported as such, but the time had come for the Church to acknowledge its responsibility and assume it. Many interesting things were said by various speakers, including Miss Champion, who introduced the subject, and the Bishop who closed it.

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In the end, by unanimous vote, the school became the recognized educational organization of the Durban Church of the New Jerusalem, and Miss Champion's dream was realized. It is a very promising school, with a group of New Church teachers working under Miss Champion and the pastor, and a live and promising lot of youngsters. The Church in Durban is to be congratulated on having so active a branch of the Academy in her midst. Durban appreciates this fact, as also she appreciates her earnest young pastor and his wife, and the excellent work being done in church and school. After the meeting we said our goodbyes. It was surprising how hard it was. We had been among these New Church people only two weeks, yet we seemed to have known them all our lives.

     II.

     On Tuesday morning, September 23d, two cars set out for Alpha. In the order of their going the first contained Mr. and Mrs. Acton, their two babies, Miss Beatrice Forfar, and innumerable packages, suitcases, etc. The second, Mr. and Mrs. Forfar, ourselves, and also the inevitable collection of impedimenta. The day was fine, our hearts were light, and the rain, which had been threatening for several days, seemed to have reconsidered. So all promised well. And for the first day all promises were kept.

     We took the road to Pietermaritzburg, through the beautiful Valley of a Thousand Hills. Don't expect me to describe South African scenery in an article like this. There is that in it which beggars description. A grandeur, a desolation, a quality of beauty that defies language. And, to my mind, a something inimical to the white man, as though the country disdained him and his puny efforts at civilization. Whereas the native villages or kraals, often an enclosed group of circular huts made of clay and thatched over, belong as naturally to the country as do the white ant heaps that cover the land.

     Everything is on a colossal scale. On every hand are great mountains of solid rock. Frequently they stand alone and are flat on top, a feature of South African mountains, of which Table Mountain at Capetown is a striking example; or often they are in grotesque shapes, as though of primitive historic monsters turned to stone. Everywhere are vast grey mountain ranges, with here and there patches of dwarf vegetation.

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Desolating dongas abound,-ravines constantly cut by the torrential rains,-draining the Free State of her life's blood, and carrying away every year to the sea untold quantities of her precious soil. Soil which by turns is black, or grey, or deep yellow, and often the most glorious red. How can one who is not an artist essay to describe this land of purple shadows and glaring sunshine, of barren mountains and treeless donga-threatened levels, of titanic ranges of solid rock, and stone-ridden fields suggesting that perhaps here were collected, in antediluvian days, the materials destined for the building of that Tower which was to reach up to heaven itself?

     Amid all this beauty and desolation we wended our way through three never-to-be-forgotten days over the worst roads imaginable. During our first night at Estcourt the storm descended. However, as it looked like clearing in the morning, we decided to chance it. At first all went well, but that was because we were climbing and the roads drained quickly. Presently we reached a level stretch, and then the excitement began! I shall never see butter sliding on a hot griddle without remembering our drive from Estcourt to Harrismith. The mud was deep, the mud was sticky, but there was a slippery, slithery quality to it entirely unique. However, Mr. Forfar was not to be daunted. The one thing we couldn't afford to do was to stop. And on ahead we could see Mr. Acton's unlighted pipe, jauntily defying the elements to do their worst. "We follow the pipe," quoth Mr. Forfar. And follow we did for some twenty or more miles. Presently we found ourselves climbing the Drakens Berg Mountains; and the good Buick, to which mountain climbing is mere child's play, carried us by the tortuous method characteristic of mountain roads, still following the pipe, now emitting cheerful clouds of smoke, through scenes of surpassing grandeur, to the Pass of Van Reenan, where for a little while we stood and surveyed the world at our feet. After Van Reenan we struck mud again, more dangerous this time as we were descending, and it was a rather bedraggled but thoroughly thankful little group of travelers who decided at four o'clock to call it a day and put up at Harrismith for the night.

     The next morning was a shining, glorious one. So we made an early start, in the hope of reaching Alpha, one hundred and sixty miles away, before dark.

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One hundred and sixty miles may seem an inconsiderable distance, but remember the experience of the previous day and the peculiar qualities of the Orange Free State mud! However, we made it, and just in time. For if there is a more intricate Chinese puzzle than the road from Clocolan to Alpha, I, for one, could never believe it. Reached the "Homestead" at dusk, where we found Mr. and Mrs. Pitcairn and Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ridgway (who, with great foresight owing to previous experience, had made the trip by train), and with them the entire Alpha Circle, composed of Mr. and Mrs. Elphick, Mr. and Mrs. Waters, Mr. and Mrs. Parker and Mr. and Mrs. Norman Ridgway, our kind hosts during the subsequent ten days of our stay at Alpha.

     III.

     The First South African Native Assembly deserves a section to itself. Readers of the LIFE are familiar with the history of the General Church Mission in South Africa. How from a few scattered natives, who had come into touch with the Writings, and were visited by the Rev. Frederick Gyllenhaal in 1915, it has grown to a recognized Mission, with headquarters at Alpha, comprising a church building, a theological school, primary and secondary classes, and a staff of native leaders and teachers under the direction of the Rev. Frederick W. Elphick.

     Perhaps I cannot do better than give an outline of each day's activities, beginning with the school exercises on Saturday, the 28th, and an inspection of the printing, carpentry, leather work and sewing, and the buildings in which the various courses were carried on. This included meeting the instructors, Messrs. Frederick Shangase, Silas Motsi, Thaddea Ukoko and Mrs. Catharine Letele. Everything was in spick and span order, and the exhibits showed ability and efficient training.

     Beside the Alpha School, three other schools took part in the singing exercises which followed:-Lukas under Mr. Samuel Kojoana, Khopane under Mr. O. Mphatse, and Mafika-Lisieu under Mr. E. Sematlane. We gathered in a large semicircle on the campus. Many visitors had come for the Assembly from Basutoland, as well as representatives from Zululand, Natal, Transvaal and Cape Colony, who, together with the visiting schools and the Alpha colony, made a large assemblage.

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     The first item on the program was a greeting, composed by Mr. Twentyman Mofokeng, the leader of the Native Society and one of the teachers in the school. It was sung by the Alpha congregation in Sesuto, most beautifully, and deeply touched our hearts.

     GREETINGS.

Greetings, honoured ones,
Ye missionaries from overseas!
How very glad we are
That you are still alive,
And have been able to come
To the land of the Basutos.
Praised be Jesus Christ,
Who gave you life!

On your way from America
To Basutoland,
You have been on billows.
But you have been content,
And were not discouraged
By the difficulties of the journey.
Blessed be the Lord,
Who gave you strength!

You have not been ashamed
To come to the people of Africa,
A nation beset with weaknesses,
Laughed at by the mighty ones.
But you crossed
Breakers of the ocean, to help.
Let Jehovah be thanked,
Who gave you noble hearts!

May your work,
Dear Missionaries,
Grow among us,
And become something to give thanks about!
May it be blessed by the bounteous Saviour!
We thank God,
Who doeth wonderful things.
                    (Translated by Mr. Mofokeng.)

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     Afterwards the schools sang in turns, but unfortunately I was not able to secure the translation of their songs. The Africans sing well, as everyone knows. There is a plaintive minor and a true sense of harmony, combined with a real joy in singing which gives richness and quality. I have never heard our "Heavenly Father, hear our prayer" so beautifully modulated as during the services at Alpha. A flag drill by the older boys of the Alpha Hostel (Boarding School) brought the exercises to an end. The same rhythm prevailed in song and drill, bespeaking not only native aptitude, but careful training. This school is under the supervision of Mr. Herman Mofokeng, brother of Mr. Twentyman Mofokeng, teacher of religion and singing.

     On Sunday, eight candidates were ordained into the first degree of the priesthood,-five Basutos, Messrs. Berry Maqelepo, Jonas Motsi, Twentyman Mofokeng, Jonas Mphatse, and Nathaniel Mphatse; and three Zulus, Messrs. John Jiyana, Julius Jiyana and Philip Stole. Owing to the size of the congregation-it was estimated that some seven hundred were present-it was decided to hold the service in the open air. Fortunately it was a beautiful morning. A platform was erected, and covered with a canopy on the side of the Church near the vestry rondavaal. The altar and reading desks were brought out, and the floor covered with native matting. Chairs were placed for the officiating clergymen and the candidates. To the left sat the visiting chiefs, none of them members of the Church, but present to show the good will of the Paramount Chief Griffiths of Rasutoland, Chief Masopha, Chief Majara and Chief Sauer. The congregation sat directly in front, on benches and on the ground. Except for the members of the choir, the men sat on one side and the women on the other. The women's side was particularly picturesque, because in addition to the ubiquitous Basuto blanket of many colors (made usually in England), they are fond of wearing many skirts, after the old Dutch custom, and headdresses of brilliant hues. Many brought their babies, who behaved neither better nor worse than babies of other races under similar circumstances.

     The service was a most impressive one. The lessons were read both in English and Sesuto. The singing was, of course, all in Sesuto.

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The ritual used by the General Church is followed literally as far as the singing of the Sanctus, and again we were privileged to feel that we were worshiping with our own people, even though not a word except the "Amen" was intelligible to us. After the lessons, the ordinations followed. It was a moving thing to see those eight white-robed men standing before the Altar of God, each kneeling to await in his turn the laying on of hands, with "the promise of the Holy Spirit" and the blessing which followed. The white stole, which designated them as "priests of the Lord's New Church in the first degree thereof," and as members of the clergy of the General Church commissioned to the mission field in South Africa, was placed upon their shoulders, and they were enjoined to go forth, converting all men to the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ in His Second Coming. The hymn which followed, and immediately preceded the Holy Supper, was also composed by Mr. Twentyman Mofokeng. It reminded me of the air, "In the sweet by and by," but nowhere else could one have heard the plaintive yet joyous rhythm with which the chorus sang, defying death and denial, "Yes, certainly there is a Spiritual World."

     THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.

Certainly there is a Spiritual World
Where we shall one day go.
Some will go to heaven,
But some will be lost.
     Yes there is, yes there is,
     Certainly there is a Spiritual World.

The Lord's place is in heaven;
In the life of use and happiness:
No tongue can declare
The admirable beauty thereof.
     Yes there is, yes there is,
     Certainly there is a Spiritual World.

The lover of self's place is in detriment,
In the societies of evil and perdition:
No tongue can declare

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The terrible darkness thereof.
Yes there is, yes there is,
Certainly there is a Spiritual World.

Brethren, let us have preparation
By asking for strength from the Lord:
Blessed is he that will overcome
The encompassing evils.
     Yes there is, yes there is,
     Certainly there is a Spiritual World.

Who is the King of Glory?
It is Jehovah of Hosts,
Who overcame, Who overcame.
The King of Glory is Jehovah,
     Who overcame, Who overcame.
     Alleluia, Alleluia.

     In the afternoon a second service was held, at which Mr. Acton baptized two adults and a child. As in the morning, the lessons were read in English and Sesuto, and Mr. Acton's sermon was translated into the native language. Just before the sermon, the clouds became so threatening that many of the congregation took to their heels. Mr. Acton, anticipating the immediate storm, ordered the return of the chancel furniture to the Church, and told the remaining congregation to file in quietly, taking the benches with them. In a very short time the removal was completed, and during the singing of a hymn Mr. Acton and the native ministers took their places on the chancel and continued the service to the accompaniment of lightning, thunder and the subsequent downpour, as though nothing unusual had happened.

     On Monday morning, four priests presented themselves for ordination into the pastoral degree of the priesthood,-the Revs. Moffat Mcanyana, Berry Maqelepo, Jonas Motsi and John Jiyana, the three latter having received ordination the day before. Of course, this is a most unusual procedure, but owing to the fact that all these men had been leaders for several years, and could better serve as pastors than as ministers, and the unlikelihood that an ordaining bishop would again visit Africa for some time, it was considered the only way to meet the situation.

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     Immediately after the ordinations, the first session of the Assembly opened, the Bishop in the chair. In his address, which was translated into Sesuto and Zulu, the Bishop spoke of his delight in being present, of his great interest in the work in Africa, and his hope for a future branch of the General Church among the natives of Africa, developed along lines best suited to the genius of the African people. He advised earnest study of the Word and the Writings, through which would come the only true illustration. A number of speakers voiced their appreciation of the Bishop's having come among them to ordain, to counsel and to strengthen the work in Africa. The remarks were brief, but many spoke and the words rang true. Chief Sauer, who had remained over for the morning session, made a speech of welcome, and expressed the good wishes of the Paramount Chief toward the work of the Mission.

     At the afternoon session, short addresses were made by Mr. Pitcairn, Mr. Acton, Mr. Elphick and a number of native leaders. At the close of the discussion, just as the Bishop had requested the singing of the hymn which had so delighted him the day before, "The Spiritual World," Mr. Elphick indicated that there were further ceremonies, and Mr. Mcanyana, heading a deputation of Zulu leaders, came forward and read the following address:

     "To the Rt. Rev. and Mrs. N. D. Pendleton, on the occasion of their visit to South Africa:

     "We, the undersigned leaders of the Mission of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, representing small scattered societies along the coast, tender to you a hearty greeting, and humbly offer you a great welcome to this part of South Africa. We trust your visit here will have a splendid result, of not only strengthening the loyalty of the present societies, but of bringing more members to the Church.

     "We take opportunity to express to you our gratitude for your guidance, and in our minds we have likened it to a wonderful comet, that will leave behind it a bright light in its path.

     "We fully appreciate the efforts of the New Church, whose purpose is to lift the Bantu Race, and is determined to lift more to that position where (as the Lord would have so ordered it) racial feelings are no bar to the singing of a hymn, and where color has freedom of prayers.

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We wish you a safe and prosperous voyage home.

     "As a token of gratitude we had arranged a small present of four Zulu-made walking sticks, one for the Bishop, one for Mrs. N. D. Pendleton, one for Mrs. Pitcairn, and the other for Rev. T. Pitcairn. Before their preparation was completed, we had to leave for Natal, being under the impression that the Bishop would embark from Durban. We have now directed that they be forwarded to Capetown.

     "Signed on behalf of the societies:
"Mayville           Moffat Mcanyana
"Springfield      Philip Stole
"Turner's Ave.      Luke Nyskana
"Tongaat           Benjamin Ngiba
"Impapala           Peter Sabela"

     The canes of which Mr. Mcanyana spoke were duly found on the "Windsor Castle" at Capetown, and will be lifelong treasures to the recipients.

     A second delegation, represented by Mr. Jiyana, came forward, and with the following address presented a silver tea set:

     "To the Rt. Rev. and Mrs. N. D. Pendleton, on the occasion of their visit to South Africa:

     "September, 1929.

     "We, the natives of the northern part of Natal and the Transvaal, have had the great good fortune of receiving the Second Advent of the Lord during our days; for over a hundred years ago, since the first coming of the early missionaries in this country, we were obliged to accept anything brought to us and taught concerning God.

     "We had no idea at all of any false belief or doctrine until the coming of the New Church to South Africa, and yet these early missionaries spread a faith which was already falsified.

     "We thank the Lord for giving us the New Revelation during our days, the Revelation that has come through the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, the Servant of the Lord.

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     "We understand that the Rt. Rev. Bishop N. D. Pendleton paid a visit to Basutoland a little over ten years ago, during which visit he ordained quite a few Basutos, who were at that time leaders, and ordered them to Preach the Second Coming of the Lord in that country. We, the Zulu tribe, had not the least idea of the Writings, neither a leader to preach to us the acceptable year of our Lord.

     "Your visit among us we call our Sun Rise, or the Dawn of Our Age. It is more than we can appreciate, your visit together with our mother, Mrs. N. D. Pendleton. We therefore greet you both, we members of the northern part of Natal and Transvaal.

     "Although we have no opportunity of meeting you in person, but through this little gift alone, and besides our representative leaders, you shall remember that we have met you in spirit. We are present with you as to our spirit wherever you are, and wherever you hold meetings with the members of our mission in this country.
               
"Signed on behalf of the societies:
"Lusitania           John M. Jiyana
"Esididini           Johannes M. Lunga
"Newcastle           Julius S. Jiyana
"Transvaal           Berry M. Maqelepo"

     This message from so many absent members of the Church touched us deeply, and we "shall remember" always "that we have met in spirit." The silver tea service is to be suitably engraved and used in affectionate memory of our "children" in northern Natal and the Transvaal. Mr. Pitcairn was at the same time presented with a curiously carved cane which he greatly values.

     And lastly a third delegation arose, representing the societies and schools in Basutoland, and presented, with the address which follows, a collection of native pottery and weaving. On the following day a selection of blankets was sent to the house, that we might choose one to complete our collection of native treasures.

     "September 30, 1929.

     "To the Rt. Reverend N. D. Pendleton, Mrs. Pendleton, the Reverend Theodore Pitcairn and Mrs. Pitcairn:

     "We, the undersigned, on behalf of the Societies and Schools in Basutoland, have the honour to present to you these little presents as a token of appreciation for your visit amongst us.

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     "Your presence amongst us is a most encouraging event, and we hope that in the Lord's Divine Providence this tells much about the future welfare among us, both spiritually and naturally.

     "Signed: Carl Herman Mofokeng,
               Jonas Motsi,
               Jonas Mphatse,
               Sofonia Mosoang,
               Nathaniel Mphatse,
               Twentyman Mofokeng."

     The Bishop and Mr. Pitcairn both responded, expressing their deep appreciation, but somehow I couldn't look into that sea of kindly faces without saying, "Thank you," too. So with the aid of Mr. Jonas Mofokeng, I made my one and only Assembly speech. "I want to thank you, too," I said. "It was most kind of you to give us all these beautiful presents. We shall treasure them always, and as for myself, I assure you I feel like a happy little girl at Christmas time." My audience was most appreciative. After the singing of the requested hymn, the Benediction was pronounced, and the First Native Assembly came to an end. To all of us who were privileged to be present, I think it will ever remain a precious memory.

     The following morning the Bishop spent in council with the ministers and leaders. In the afternoon a meeting of the ministers, leaders and teachers was held at the Church, to which Mr. Pitcairn delivered the paper on "Correspondences" which he had read in Durban. At this meeting the three women teachers were present, Mrs. Letele and Miss Thake of the Alpha School, and Miss Vienna Msomi of Greylingstad School in the Transvaal.

     On Wednesday morning the visitors left, and the hardworking Superintendent, Mr. Elphick, who had been all things to all people during the days prior to and during the Assembly, became, perhaps, a fraction less busy, though there were so many odds and ends to finish up, and threads of normal life at Alpha to put in order, that I am wondering whether he has even yet really straightened things out to his meticulous liking.

     On the following Sunday, at the native service, three more ordinations took place: The Rev. Twentyman Mofokeng into the second degree, and Mr. Sofonia Mosoang of Khopane, Basutoland, and Mr. Benjamin Ngiba of Tongaat, Natal, into the first degree. After the ordinations, Mr. Mofokeng preached the sermon.

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The entire service, with the exception of the ordinations, was in Sesuto. And for the last time we heard the beautiful singing which will always be a memory in itself. Afterward we said goodbye, for early on the morrow we were to leave Alpha on the first lap of our long journey home.

     IV.

     The first five days at Alpha were spent in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Elphick, that the Bishop might be in closer contact with the activities of the Mission. The latter half of the visit we were at the Homestead, where Mr. and Mrs. Pitcairn and Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ridgway were also guests. The Circle at Alpha consists of the four families already mentioned, eight adults and eight children in all. The first Sunday evening, the Bishop dedicated the Chapel, which will henceforth be the place of worship, a very attractive and suitable little building, nestling close to the Homestead group. The Holy Supper was then administered, Mr. Pitcairn assisting. On the second Sunday afternoon, the infant son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Parker was baptized. So already Alpha Chapel has witnessed three of the rites of the Church.

     On Monday evening a banquet was held at the Homestead, to which nineteen people sat down. The table was beautifully laid, the repast sumptuous, and the speeches which followed passed by easy stages from the humorous to the serious, so that the evening was a satisfying one from every angle. There was an unusual thrill in the honoring of the old toast, "Our own Academy," with this little Circle of New Church men and women gathered from so many parts of the world, under the African skies.

     On Wednesday, the Forfar family deserted us and commenced their slippery descent to Durban. We were filled with unbounded admiration for their courage, but disliked seeing them go. However, life is made up of meetings and partings, particularly the life of travelers. The consolation is that you have your memories.

     On Friday, two cars set forth for a day's jaunt in Basutoland. We went via Ladybrand to Maseru, and, after lunching in an aromatic grove beside the Little Caledon, proceeded to Lukas Village, where we inspected the church building, met Mr. and Mrs. Mphatse, the presiding minister and his wife, and dispensed candy as long as it lasted, to the young and old natives clustering about the cars.

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A large family in Basutoland does not entail a big mending basket, as the costumes of the children are reduced to blankets, beads or nothing at all. The older children act as nurses to the younger ones, carrying the babies strapped to their backs by means of shawls, as is the custom in Zululand, Basutoland and perhaps all over Africa. It is a very usual sight to see the mother walking along in the heat of the day, the baby with its little face pressed close against her back, either sleeping peacefully or gazing unconcernedly into the blazing sunlight.

     I am not going to be led into any further description of scenery. This article is too long already, and besides, it can't be done. It is all on too grand a scale. To appreciate it you must see it, and having seen it, describe it if you can.

     A thunderstorm which came suddenly in the middle of the night following the Sunday afternoon downpour exceeded, for intensity of lightning and tumultous thunder, any I had ever experienced. The flashes were constant and blinding; the thunder crashed as though Titans at war with each other had determined in their mad fury upon the utter annihilation of man and beast. Finally the rain came, to the relief of the inhabitants, who have reason to fear a "dry storm," the former church building having been destroyed in such a storm only last year.

     The time allotted to Alpha passed all too quickly, between church and social activities and the many cups of tea. On the last afternoon, after the baptism, we all attended a sort of christening and farewell party down by the tennis court, where young Barrie John's health was drunk and his parents felicitated, and where we, who were leaving on the morrow, were again the subjects of presentation speeches, and some very handsome pieces of Chinese brass, in memory of the Alpha Circle.

     But all things must come to an end, and next day we were on our way, being taken as far as Bloemfontein by our kind friends, Mr. and Mrs. Elphick, in their car. The party of five, augmented by Mr. Henry Ridgway, proceeded to de Hoek, via Kimberly, the Karroo, and the Hex River Valley.

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We saw the famous Kimberly diamond mines, which from the train windows present the appearance of huge mounds of grey mud, fenced round by carefully constructed barbed wire barricades. Very interesting were the spring bok, or South African deer, and the ostriches that we glimpsed, and the wild karroo itself, covered with coarse underbrush and a wealth of wildflowers of every hue. The mountains which hem in the Hex River Valley, for height and continuity equal in grandeur any I have ever seen, and the Valley itself with its trim white houses, fertile farms and reforestation affords a pleasant relief to the eye, long disheartened by so much arid waste.

     De Hoek, where live Mr. and Mrs. Rogers, whom we had the pleasure of meeting at the Assembly in Durban, is a large estate of some five thousand acres belonging to Mr. Pitcairn. Many acres are already under cultivation, planted in pines, oaks and other hardy trees, and the next few years will see all arable land under timber. Here again the stone mountains literally take up foreground and background, the homes nestling at their base as though seeking protection from the despoiling elements.

     Our two days in the Rogers' home,-a little spiritual oasis in a desert land,-passed very happily. We had so much to share in common, though we had barely met. The two young people of the family having recently departed for Bryn Athyn was one bond of interest, but the main topic of conversation was the Writings and interpretation of doctrine drawn from them.

     Again we were on the wing. This time our destination was Capetown, some seventy miles to the south, where we spent a restful twenty-four hours before embarking. We went to a symphony concert at the Town Hall that evening. It was in strange contrast with the experiences of the past few weeks,-the finished, man-made beauty in comparison with the wild beauty of nature.

     A short drive after lunch ended at the pier, where the "Windsor Castle," sister ship to the "Arundel" (twin in every respect, even to the pictures in the lounge), received us and made us very much at home. Mr. Ridgway saw us safely aboard, and then made a characteristic "get away," evidently unable to stand the strain of the long lingering farewells which the departure of a steamer always involves for those determined to see the last of her.

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     A sheaf of telegrams and letters from friends in Africa, wishing us "bon voyage," a handful of ever welcome home letters, the roses from the ladies of the Durban Church, and the welcome sight of our trunks, from which we had been parted ever since we left Durban; the walking sticks from our Zulu friends, and the company of Mrs. Garth Pemberton, who traveled with us to England, all contributed to our sense of well-being. The only thing that didn't seem quite natural was the absence of Mr. Forfar, who took us under his wing both aboard and ashore, and then deserted us in the wilds of Africa!

     And so end my African annals. Inadequate as they are, they represent my effort to repay, in some small degree, my debt to all who made our trip so happy and worth while.
     BEATRICE CHILDS PENDLETON.
CONJUNCTION WITH THE DIVINE 1930

CONJUNCTION WITH THE DIVINE              1930

     "The spiritual of every man is in conjunction with the Divine, since it can think concerning the Divine, and also can love the Divine, and be affected with all things which are from the Divine, such as those which the church teaches; consequently it can be conjoined to the Divine in thought and will, which two faculties are of the spiritual man, and constitute its life. And that which can thus be conjoined to the Divine cannot die to eternity; for the Divine is with him, and conjoins him to Itself." (L. J. 25.)
LAW OF INTERPRETATION 1930

LAW OF INTERPRETATION              1930

     "By means of doctrine the Word is not only understood, but also shines in the understanding, for it is then like a candlestick with a lighted light. Man then sees more things than he had seen before, and also understands those things which before he had not understood. Things obscure and discordant he either does not see, and passes over, or he sees and explains them so that they may agree with the doctrine." (T. C. R. 227.)

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NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1930

NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS       Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1930

     Theological Extracts from Swedenborg's Correspondence.

     Swedenborg's correspondence contained relatively little of a doctrinal character, and most of this is collected in the assigned Readings for December. A newly discovered letter to Dr. Messiter, embodying the autobiographical material also sent to the Rev. Thomas Hartley (Post. Theol. Wks. I, pp. 6-8), will appear in an early issue of the LIFE to make our collection of extracts more complete. Another important doctrinal contribution, six printed pages in length, is the Nine Questions concerning the Trinity, etc. which is appended to some translations of the Doctrine of the Lord, but is omitted from the Post. Theol. Works. It consists of answers to questions proposed by the Rev. Thos. Hartley, in 1771, and contains important statements about the relation of the representative Human of the Lord before the Advent to the glorified or Divine Human.

     We have already pointed out in our "Notes" (January, 1929, pp. 45, 46) that Swedenborg's doctrinal statements in letters to friends are as authoritative and valuable to the New Church as the books he actually published. For he "did not receive anything that pertains to the doctrine of that Church from any angel, but from the Lord alone while reading the Word." Still, additional care must be exercised in interpreting statements which are given in answer to specific questions or are accommodated to special states. This is a reason why the lives and characters of Swedenborg's correspondents become a profitable topic of research for New Church students.

     Swedenborg's Correspondents.

     A brief sketch of the chief correspondents mentioned in the December Readings must open with GABRIEL A. BEYER, Doctor of Philosophy and Theology, who, next after Swedenborg, seems to have been the first actual New Churchman in this world. Profound in learning, beautiful in his life, a beloved teacher of unique ability in the Gymnasium at Gothenburg, Sweden, he and his journalistically inclined colleague, Dr. Rosen, became the chief objects of the famous persecution centering in the so-called "Gothenburg Trial," beginning in 1769.

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The story of this is told graphically by the late Rev. C. T. Odhner in NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1910.

     Beyer received the Heavenly Doctrine when Swedenborg, in the summer of 1765, stopped off in Gothenburg on his way from Stockholm to Holland. The curiosity centering about the name of the learned Swedenborg, who had recently become known as the author of the Arcana and other books, led to his being invited everywhere, and so he met Dr. Beyer, who listened with avidity to his teachings, and whose introduction into an angelic society Swedenborg shortly proclaimed. In 1768, it was rumored that a private society had been formed in the city, under the name of the "Philanthropic Society," which included the names of Swedenborg, Beyer, Rosen, and others. Dr. Beyer procured all the Writings and began to compile the first Swedenborg Concordance,-the Index Initialis.

     In 1769, the opposition to Beyer and Rosen developed. Their teachings and printed articles and sermons, as well as all the published Writings of Swedenborg, were subjected to a heresy trial in the Consistory, referred to the city court, the Diet, the Upsala Faculty, the Ecclesiastical Committee and the King himself for condemnation.

     The outcome was an Order in Council, April 12, 1770, condemning the doctrines of Swedenborg-which by now had spread among the priesthood of Southern Sweden-as heretical, and the books containing them subject to quiet confiscation; Beyer and Rosen, as his partisans, were to be forbidden to give any theological instruction, but a clement treatment of them was recommended. Soon afterwards, however, their entire deposition was urged by the Consistory. The trial having advertised the "Swedenborgian" doctrines in Southern Sweden, a policy of silence was now attempted. Swedenborg meanwhile objected strenuously to the Royal Council's acting as pontifex maximus in religious matters-a very wholesome democratic protestation. (P. T. W., I, pp. 585 and 599.)

     The appeal of Drs. Beyer and Rosen was finally placed before the Court of Appeal, which referred the charge of heresy to the Upsala Consistory, who sought to avoid a verdict by not reporting on their findings. Dr. Rosen died in 1773, and the Royal Council ordered the Court of Appeals to rest the case.

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In 1779, Dr. Beyer was permitted by Royal Resolution to resume theological instruction if opportunity should offer, but he died a month or two later, three weeks after he had completed his Index Initialis, which was published later in the same year.

     F. C. OETINGER, whose search for some outward "sign" of Swedenborg's authority is noted in the Seer's letter to him (p. 570), rejected Swedenborg's doctrine of the Spiritual Sense. (See the Notes in the July, 1929, issue, p. 410, which also speak of the Gothenburg Trial.)

     AUGUSTUS ALSTROMER, a merchant of Gothenburg, was honored by Swedenborg's friendship, and was counted among the first receivers. He was the son of Jonas Alstramer, one of the greatest patriots and industrial philanthropists of Sweden. (See N. C. LIFE, 1911, p. 157.)

     GUSTAVUS VON BONDE (P. T. W., I, P. 588), president of the College of Mines and thus Swedenborg's superior, 1721-1727, Chancellor of the University of Upsala, 1737-1739, and later a Senator, remained a deserving friend of the Revelator until his death (in 1764). Dr. Tafel-whose work we draw upon in these sketches-adds that he was said to have taken an interest in astrology and mystical calculations which he afterwards forsook. A Baron von Hatzel used the pious Count as an intermediary in transmitting a persuasive appeal to Swedenborg to disclose which verses in the Bible would-when used as a magical formula-give man the power to hold converse with spirits, as was alleged by necromancers. Swedenborg makes this foolish appeal the occasion for a rebuke to those who seek open intercourse with the other world, and points out the dangers of what is now labeled "spiritism." These warnings he asks Count Bonde to forward to von Hatzel. (Docu. 215-217.)

     The LANDGRAVE OF HESSE-DARMSTADT, born in 1719, and his minister (?) VENATOR (DOCU. II, P. 1154), were apparently also among those who wished to procure the secret of how to converse with the dead. Swedenborg seeks to impress them, therefore, that while the stories of his power of clairvoyance and similar "signs" were true, they should not be regarded as miracles.

     The KING OF SWEDEN, to whom Swedenborg wrote in defense of Dr. Beyer and Dr. Rosen (P. T. W., I, pp. 594-598), was ADOLPHUS FREDERIC, Duke of Holstein Gottorp, and elected Crown-Prince of Sweden in 1743.

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He reigned 1751-1771. He was a good natured man, very much married to the proud, ambitious and intellectual Louisa Ulrica, sister of Frederic the Great of Prussia. This Queen was the one to whom Swedenborg revealed a secret conversation with her brother, thus creating the famous incident known as "The Queen's Secret."

     Swedenborg and the Mystics. (P. 569.)

     The disclaimer on Swedenborg's part that he had ever read the works of either Bohme or L(aw)*, and was, before heaven was opened to him, forbidden to read writers on dogmatic and systematic theology, (Journal of Dreams, n. 180), is one which has puzzled our critics and irritated our foes. To them it is inconceivable that anyone could have had revelations from another world unless he had already been "influenced" by "mystical" tendencies or inspired by the example and the thoughts of former alleged seers and pseudo-prophets. To us, the matter of what Swedenborg had read is of somewhat more remote interest, for we know his revelation to be one of things actually "seen and heard."
     * Jacob Bohme, a German mystic (1575-1624), who founded a sect resembling the early Quakers. William Law (1686-1761), an English theologian and mystic, is presumably meant.

     None the less, it is of interest to read the considered opinion of Dr. Martin Lamm that Swedenborg, even though not a reader of Bohme, yet must have been acquainted with many of his ideas, and especially with the part of his system which was taken over in the writings of Dippel, of whom Swedenborg speaks in S. D. 3486, etc. Dr. Lamm considers it a "frightful anachronism to suppose that any cultured man could be unacquainted with mystical views in an age when mysticism to a great extent dominated religion and science." The writings of Mme. Guyon and Mme. Bourignon were at that time popular as devotional literature. Swedenborg undoubtedly was most interested in the very problems which most closely occupied the attention of the mystics. His library contained several alchemistic and occult books. But his philosophy itself sweeps aside the cobwebs of the Middle Ages and accepts only the most reasonable and patent elements from ancient as well as contemporary thinkers.

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His revelations were based upon nothing but the Word; for after the warning given him by the Lord in 1744, he abstained from dogmatic and systematic theology of every human brand, and studied the Word itself, finding therein the light of illustration from the Lord.

     A New Clergy from the Universities. (P. 570.)

     Dr. Beyer's question, "How soon may a New Church be expected?" was answered by Swedenborg by hopeful references, first, to the New Heaven then in process of formation, and, secondly, to the universities of Christendom, whence would come new ministers. The revelator had no hope of the old clergy, confirmed in their doctrine of faith alone. But the universities were becoming freed from the shackles of tradition, and thence would come a new generation of learned men, some of whom might accept the New Jerusalem and teach it to others. Historically, this actually came to pass to a limited extent; in fact, Dr. Beyer and Dr. Rosen were already working for that end in the Gothenburg Seminary. The universities of today are no longer of the character that Swedenborg had in mind. The New Church must look forward to its own universities from which are to step forth "new ministers" who are prepared to proclaim the doctrine of the New Church. (See an article by the late Bishop W. F. Pendleton, NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1912, pp. 261-267.)

     Miracles in the New Church (P. 570.)

     "Signs and wonders do not take place at the present day, because they compel externally, and internally do not convince." The sign of the truth of the New Church will be the presence of enlightened teaching,-"an enlightenment which speaks." Such illustration will convince without persuading in a compelling way, or taking away from others the freedom of thought.

     We may at times wish with some impatience for the talent and opportunity to convince the unbelieving world of the heavenly truths whose custodian the New Church is; but in saner moments we realize that no conversion by persuasion is in the least worth while, but would rather be a source of danger to the Church. Only those who, by education and under the Lord's Providence, have been prepared for the reception of the doctrine can be kept in its truths and goods to the end of life.

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And only these can be admitted by the Lord interiorly into the truths of wisdom and the goods of love. (D. P. 232, 233.) This is a safeguard, granted by the Lord to the Church, against profanation of its holy internal. We incline to believe that the New Church is different from every other past Church in this, that its internals can never become perverted. Our ecclesiastical bodies may wax or wane; the Church may altogether pass from us and from our children (unless the uses of educational preparation are continued); it is even a conceivable thing that our whole race might become so evil as to reject the means of salvation, and perish utterly upon this globe; but still, the interior things of the New Church, so far as they have been received interiorly, cannot he perverted or perish with any man. And this is essentially what is meant by the statement that this Crown of the Churches shall last forever. It is in its essence eternal, and all the laws of Divine Foresight will collaborate to make it so actually.

     This endless preservation of the Church appears to us now as only a promise. But increasingly, as untold ages roll on, its miraculous propagation will become a sign of the truth of its mission.

     Swedenborg and Religious Liberty.

     "If our freedom be interfered with in this respect, I would rather live in Tartary than among Christians." In such words Swedenborg expressed his scorn of the oppressive measures initiated by the Gothenburg Consistory for the suppression of "Swedenborgianism" in Sweden. He shows, in his letter to Dr. Beyer (P. T. W., vol. I, p. 579), that the point of issue was whether it was allowable to approach our Redeemer and Savior directly, or only through a circuitous way-viz., through "God the Father" as another Person in the Trinity. He is astonished that there should be persecution against anyone because he approached the Savior, if at the same time he acknowledged a Trinity. He proves also that his view about the Son of God (as born in time) was apostolic and scriptural, and in harmony with certain statements in the Protestant creed, but adds, "If anyone else be willing to go further-to a 'Son from eternity'-he is at liberty to do so."

     Liberty of conscience and religious belief and teaching was thus granted by the Revelator towards those who differed. Freedom is always a mutual thing. If we wish it for ourselves, we must grant it-and not grudgingly-to others.

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     A reading of Swedenborg's letters from 1769-1771 shows that Swedenborg was utterly fearless in his demand for justice and freedom. He uses emphatic language, does not mince his words, does not hedge any issue, does not "soft pedal" any of his claims to inspiration. He speaks as one having authority, and not as many of his partisans of later ages of the New Church. He rises to heights of indignation when injustice is shown, and when he hears rumors that his own person is not safe, he, conscious of no trespass, dismisses them as unbelievable.

     Meanwhile (we infer from the whole story of the "Gothenburg Trial") the Government of Sweden acted as if it were greatly embarrassed by the whole situation. There was many a Nicodemus within the aristocracy who was vaguely conscious of the stupidity of the government in trying to decide about profound truths by a majority vote, and settle issues that pertained not to this world. In modern times this perception has apparently increased, and questions of conscience are mostly left to the individual. The Church no longer dominates the State; but the ultimate danger is that the pendulum of progress will swing too far, and make the State the arbiter of so much in our lives that it becomes oppressive to all religious individuality.

     The Second Volume of the Posthumous Theological Works.

     From the second volume of the Posthumous Theological Works we have selected very few readings. Yet it is a work which is essential in the New Churchman's library. The Summaries of the Internal Sense of the Prophets and Psalms are best studied in conjunction with the reading of the Psalms. We suggest that this could easily be done in connection with the readings from the Word which begin next June. Scripture Confirmations are useful for reference, but do not lend themselves to continuous reading. The fragmentary work On Marriage, known as De Conjugio, is of great importance, and contains many arcana concerning the conjugial life not found elsewhere. In this age, when the subject of sex is ventilated with freedom, even by immature, brutal and profane tongues, we need more than ever to be fanned by the breath of the heavenly truth which shows that sex without love from the Lord is animal and unhuman, whereas love truly conjugial-being a gift from heaven-contains nothing of lasciviousness, but bears within it "the inmost of conscience."

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The present fragment on Marriage is not included within our reading course, but it is recommended for individual study. Other main treatments on Marriage are found in the Apocalypse Explained, nos. 981-1010, where the Sixth Precept is explained, and, of course, in the work on Conjugial Love as a whole.

     "The Precepts of the Decalogue."

     Despite the fact that the fragment bearing the above title contains notes rather than continuous reading-matter, they are included in the Calendar, partly for the subject matter, and partly because it familiarizes the reader with Swedenborg's method of composing the Writings. It is clear that he collected passages from the Word, arranged a series of logical propositions, and finally wrote these up into chapters and subheadings. His revelation was not a blind dictation, but an enlightenment of the understanding. His reason was not put to sleep, but was used as a conscious tool of the Spirit of Truth.

     THE ARCANA COELESTIA.

     To commence to read the Arcana through is for the New Churchman to undertake a spiritual pilgrimage,-a visit to our sacred places. Not that the reading by itself brings any absolutions or any merit with it. But it brings a peculiar blessing,-an understanding, deeper than ordinary, of the mysteries of the Word in which the Lord made His Second Advent, His coming in the clouds with power and great glory. Doctrine, we are taught, is in its power when seen in the sense of the letter of the Word. "If man knew that there is a spiritual sense, and should think from some knowledge of it when he reads the Word, he would come into interior wisdom and would be still more conjoined with heaven, since he would enter into ideas similar to those of the angels." (H. H. 310.)

     The Arcana was the first work published by Swedenborg under command and inspiration of the Lord. His "call" had come many years before, and is variously dated in 1743, 1744 and 1745. In 1745, he had commenced writing down the increasing results of his expositional studies of the Scriptures, beginning with the History of Creation and the Adversaria (now being translated under the name "The Word Explained"), which latter covers both historical and prophetical books, and mainly concerns itself with the internal historical sense, but which also yields a wealth of expositional detail of broader scope, and an accumulating information from his spiritual experiences.

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He at the same time compiled a Bible Index for himself, and in 1747 began the writing of those Memorabilia from the other world which continued up to 1765, and have been published posthumously as the Spiritual Diary. The eight successive quarto tomes of the Arcana Coelestia were published in London by John Lewis, 1 Paternoster Row, appearing at intervals between 1749 and 1756, and for many years after that the author was known to but few, as the work was published anonymously.

     The Arcana contains the revelation of the internal sense of the first two books of the Old Testament,-Genesis and Exodus. In reality, however, it displays, by cross-references, the spiritual meaning of the rest of the Word also, and by its interjected doctrinal summaries it gives the definite and familiar outlines of all the towers and bulwarks of the Holy City descending from God out of heaven,-the New Jerusalem,-the true crusader's goal.

     The publication of the eight Latin volumes was the immediate preparation by the Lord for the Last Judgment in the world of human spirits, whose trumpet blasts rang out in the closing days of 1756. And we suggest to the reflecting reader that the study of these volumes day by day in sequence may have the same function in our own lives as New Churchmen, in stirring our minds to make the preliminary adjustments necessary if we are to receive the Lord worthily in His Second Advent. For the real Advent occurs when there is reception.

     The January assignments cover nos. 1-109 of the Arcana, and treat of the first chapter and a portion of the second chapter of Genesis. Creation is here the subject of the literal sense. Two legends were combined, say the "higher critics": the first portion, they aver, traces its origin to a nation which took Elohim as their creator-god, the second to a people which acknowledged Jehovah. Throughout the Pentateuch these two strata of legendary material are to be observed, they say, especially by the use of either the name Elohim (translated God) or the name Jehovah (the Lord). Genesis 1:1 to 2:3 comes from the Elohistic source, and the rest of the second chapter from the Jehovistic source.

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     The use of many documentary and traditional sources for the composition of the Word as we now have it seems not altogether a wrong supposition. Surely such headings as are found in Genesis 2:4, 5:1, 6:9, 10:1, etc., might be interpreted to indicate the use of many documents in the books of Moses, especially in that early portion which, we are told, was copied by him from surviving elements of the Ancient Word.

     But modern criticism went mad on this topic. The Word was dissected into small incoherent bits which were in turn traced from the most sensual relies of ancient superstition, so that men were utterly blinded to any Divinity in its pages. The final claims-that the Bible was a structure of mere legends-were so fantastic and unhistorical that the archeological researchers of this century were forced to defend the general historicity of the Scriptures.

     The interesting fact is that the first step in assigning different sources for the Elohim and the Jehovah passages in Genesis is credited to Jean Astruc's "Conjectures on Genesis" (1753). Actually Swedenborg, in our text (published 1749), had already pointed to the same dual account to confirm the presence of a spiritual sense in the Word (A. C. 89, 709, etc.); "Jehovah" being used where the celestial, or the will part in man, is treated of, and "Elohim" (God) where the spiritual, or the understanding, is the subject in the internal sense. The true explanation was thus given to mankind four years before Astruc unwittingly opened the way for the devastating falsities of the later critics.

     That God created the earth and all things upon it, inanimate and living, in the course of six days, was generally held in the 18th century, since it was then considered that God created by a Divine "Let there be," out of nothing, by a pure miracle, without making use of any natural laws. In his preparatory works, Swedenborg, however, takes the ground that there was an orderly process in God's actions, that He created the universe, not from nothing, but from His own Divine substance; and that the universe was formed, one plane from another, by the use of natural laws as well. The six days of creation he takes to be so many epochs or periods, and the account in Genesis he explains as being the apparent order of the formation of the natural world. For, of course, he realized that the sun and moon existed before the grassy lands of the earth, their creation on "the fourth day" being only an appearance. (Compare "History of Creation," in W. E. no. 4.)

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     But in the Arcana we are led into a new and higher world! The purpose of the Word, the Revelator shows, is not to teach geology, but to convey spiritual truths in whatever symbolic garb the ages can furnish. It was spiritual creation,-the marvel of the rise of human thought and affection-dominant and glorious, within the beast like body of the race,-and the formation of this new creation into the image and likeness of God; it was that which the Most Ancient Seers sought to tell when they fashioned their story of Beginnings, full of profound wisdom, yet clothed in the simplicity of a beautiful legend. It is therefore the creation of the soul, or of the seven stages of the regeneration of man from spiritual chaos and darkness to celestial wisdom, that is described in the first chapters of the Arcana.

     But the race itself developed in an order similar to that of regeneration. At first, mankind was born in barren chaos and spiritual night, from which it was raised by God and made fruitful and alive, and finally truly human. In the early stages of this racial development the race was Pre-Adamite,-not yet fully formed, as to the spiritual capacities which it later enjoyed in the "Golden Age" of the Most Ancient Church, when Jehovah made man celestial.

     We discern in this story of Creation several distinct layers of meaning, one within the other, connected only by the common bond of mutual "correspondence."

     First, there is the literal sense, which is only for man in the world, and which, with its ideas of persons, places and times, vanishes before the angels when they are present with men who read the Word: Instead there appears before the angels the Word as it is in the heavens. This is threefold, being differently perceived in each heaven. The proximate sense, called the spiritual moral, is for the lowest heaven; and it treats especially of the internal history of the race, or of the spiritual state of the nation or people spoken of in the letter, although, in a broader application, it embraces all men and spirits in its references. The more remote sense, perceived in the middle heaven, is called the celestial-spiritual sense, and describes the life of regeneration, in the individual and in the church.

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Finally, there is the supreme sense, which treats of the Lord alone, and of His relations with the church of men and angels,-His Advent, His liberation of the spiritual world, and His Glorification. The seven days of Creation, in this sense, signify the successive stages of the Lord's glorification, whereby He made His Human, assumed on earth, Divine. The inmost sense is the only series which we can perceive as unbroken, continuous and complete in the various books of the Word. The testimony of Jesus is the very spirit of prophecy.
BOOK OF REVELATION 1930

BOOK OF REVELATION       Rev. GEORGE DE CHARMS       1930

     AN ADDRESS TO CHILDREN

     INTRODUCTION

     The Lord loves all men alike. He cannot love one more than another, because He gives all His love to everyone. But all do not love the Lord in the same degree. Some love Him more and some less. Now the Lord can bring us nearer to Himself, and He can do more for us, the more we love Him. He wants to do everything for all men, to bring them all into heaven and make them happy, but He can do this only so far as we love Him. Because that is the case, it looks as though the Lord loved some more than others, because He is able to do more for some than for others.

     Of all the apostles of the Lord-the twelve apostles who followed Him in the world-John loved the Lord more than all the rest. He was called the beloved apostle, and the Lord was able to keep him closer to Himself. At the Last Supper, just before the Lord was crucified, it was John who sat next to the Lord, and leaned his head on His breast, to show how much he loved Him.

     Because John had so deep a love for Him, the Lord promised to do something for John that He could not do for the other disciples. He promised that he should wait until He came. John did not know what that meant; neither did the other apostles who heard the Lord speaking; but in our services this year, we are going to learn something about what it meant,-something about what it was that the Lord did for John that it was not possible to do for the other apostles.

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     You know that, after the Lord was crucified, His disciples were scattered at first. They were afraid, because of the Jews who had slain the Lord on the cross, and they hid themselves. But then the Lord appeared to them after His resurrection. He opened their eyes, and they saw Him in the other world. He spoke with them, and they knew that He was still present to lead them. And then, at the Lord's command, they began to Preach and to teach, and to gather together those all over the world who believed in the Lord and worshiped Him. They went forth to teach that the Lord had come, to tell what He had spoken to them, to recount the miracles which the Lord had performed,-healing the sick, raising the dead, giving sight to the blind. And gradually others began to believe in the Lora, and to follow Him, and to bring strangers to worship Him. John, among the others, preached about the Lord after His resurrection. But he stayed a long time in Jerusalem, where he became one of the great leaders of the Christian Church. Now there was a persecution of the Christians in Jerusalem. They were cruelly driven out, and many of them were killed by the Jews. John escaped from the city, and went to Asia Minor; and there he came to a city called Ephesus. He became the leader of a small society of Christians, and began preaching to them and teaching them. And he journeyed to other cities in Asia Minor, telling them all about the Lord and what He had done and said, so that they might know Him and worship Him.

     Now you know that, at that time, all the world was governed by the Romans, and there was an emperor in Rome whose name was Domitian. He was a cruel man, and did not know about the Lord. He thought only of his own power, and wanted all men to worship him. And when he heard about how the Christians were gathering together into societies for the worship of the Lord, he thought they ought to be thinking more of the emperor than of the Lord. He was afraid they might be plotting a revolt against him. Therefore he sent out a decree that all the Christians should either stop worshiping the Lord, or else they would be banished. The Christians could not stop worshiping the Lord. They had seen Him; they knew that He was the God of heaven and earth, and that to worship Him was more important than all the emperors in the world.

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     So John refused to be governed by that decree, and he was arrested. He was brought to court in Rome, and was tried. And they said that because he would not keep the command of the emperor, he should be banished-that is, sent away to an island in the middle of the sea. He was sent to the little island called Patmos, off the coast of Asia Minor, and there he was to remain until the emperor said he might go back. So they put him on a ship and took him to the island, and there he lived alone in a cave for a number of years.

     This seemed very hard to John. He loved to work for the Lord; he loved to teach about the Lord. That was the one thing he lived for. But now he was taken from the people, and was unable to do anything for them. It seemed like a cruel thing to do; it seemed as though he could do nothing more of the Lord's work. But John kept on thinking about the Lord and what he could do for Him. He knew that the Lord was everywhere-on every island of the sea-that there is no place they could take him where the Lord would not be with him, see him and take care of him.

     So it was that the Lord came to him on the island of Patmos, and did a wonderful thing for him and for us; that is, He called him, and took him up into the other world, and there showed him how He Himself-the Lord-is seen in heaven among the angels: also how the Lord was going to come again and establish a New Church in the world where all men would see Him and know Him as He is seen and worshiped by the angels. That is the wonderful thing the Lord did for John.

     It was on the Lord's Day, and John was in this cave in the island of Patmos, very sorrowful because he could not Preach and teach about the Lord, for there was no one to preach to. Suddenly he heard a voice behind him; it was the voice of the Lord, calling him to come into the other world and see wonderful things and write them down.

     Now it was the Lord who allowed him to be put on the island of Patmos. John could not have been given that wonderful vision unless he had been taken from the work he wanted so much to do and put on an island, where he would be alone and have time to think and reflect, so that the Lord could take him out of this world and take him into the other. If he had been busy all the time in the work of this world, that could not be done. So it was of the Lord's Providence that he should be taken away.

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For this reason the Lord allowed Domitian to do this, although it appeared cruel and unjust.

     We are going to learn this year some of the things that John saw in the other world. And all those things will help us to see how the Lord is worshiped in heaven by the angels, to get a picture in our minds of the way He is seen in heaven.

     You know many people saw the Lord in the world. Even the Jews who crucified Him saw Him when He was in the body. Then He looked like any other man, and they could not see the difference. A few of the disciples-peter, James and John-were allowed to see the Lord in the other world. He went on one occasion into a mountain, and there He was transfigured before them. His face did shine as the sun, and His garments were white as the light. That is the way He is seen in the other world; and by that vision they knew that He was more than an ordinary man.

     Eleven of the twelve apostles were allowed to see Him after His resurrection. They saw Him in the other world. But none of them saw Him in the way that John saw Him,-as He is in heaven as the angels see Him, as He said He would come again in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. That is the way we are to see Him in the New Church. What John wrote about Him was a prophecy of the way in which He would be revealed, long afterward by Emanuel Swedenborg, His servant. So you see there are many wonderful things to be learned in that book-the last book of the Word-written by John, and called the Book of Revelation.

LESSON: Revelation 1.
HYMNAL: pp. 81, 200. 143.

     The above is the first of a series of Addresses to Children on the Book of Revelation, to be published monthly in our pages.-EDITOR.

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Church News 1930

Church News       Various       1930

     COLCHESTER, ENGLAND.

     On August 7th, Mr. Fred J. Cooper, of Bryn Athyn, very kindly repeated his lecture on "The Diamond and the Pearl," which he had delivered at a meeting of the New Church Club in London. The lecture traced the history from the mine and the ocean to the fortunate possessor of the finished gems, and also mentioned many of the tragedies and vicissitudes which have beset the possessors of so many world-famous diamonds. Not the least satisfying part was his treatment of their correspondence, as revealed in the Doctrines. Our pleasure, too, was much enhanced by fine specimens of the diamond as found embedded in its matrix, and of the pearl as developed in the oyster and contrasted with some fine specimens of the finished gems. Mrs. Rey Gill had invited us to her home for the lecture, and practically the whole society was present. It was an added pleasure to have with us Mrs. Mary Blair, of Pittsburgh, and Miss Edith Potts, of Bryn Athyn. It was a most useful and enjoyable occasion.

     Our Harvest Thanksgiving Service was held on September 29th. The Rev. R. G. Cranch, who was visiting Colchester on his way to South Africa, delivered the sermon, his text being three verses of Psalm 103. In connection with the "oil that flowed down upon the beard and garment of Aaron" and "the dew of Hermon," he commented upon the fruits of harvest referred to in the address which had been given by our Pastor to the children before they brought up their harvest offerings. This dwelt upon the meaning of Psalm 147,-the blessings which the Lord sends upon the earth in all the Seasons. A Memorable Relation was also told, illustrating the full measure of praise and worship of the Lord. The chancel was tastefully decorated with fruits and flowers, and the congregation numbered fifty-six.

     On October 6th, our Pastor paid a visit to our isolated members, Mr. and Mrs. Alan Waters and family at Romford. An address was given to the children, and the Holy Supper was administered.

     On Tuesday, October 29th, Bishop and Mrs. N. D. Pendleton visited Colchester, and in the evening, by invitation of the Rev. and Mrs. V. J. Gladish and Mrs. Rey Gill, the members of the Society met them at the latter's home. There was a large attendance. At the request of our Pastor, the Bishop gave us a most interesting account of his journey. We learned, for instance, that the transport facilities from Durban to Basutoland are not, on the whole, up to our standard of comfort and speed, and that the roads, or the lack of them, if not perilous or dangerous to the traveler, certainly render the journey tedious and at times disconcerting.

     In speaking of the work of the Mission among the Basutos and Zulus, the Bishop pointed out the different genius of these peoples, and expressed the hope that the work of the church could be developed and built up by these people themselves from the nucleus of the priesthood which has now been established. He commented favorably upon the action of the Durban Society in taking over the New Church Day School, and said that every society should endeavor to establish this use, if it would thrive and prosper. He added that, whereas the primary use of a society is Divine Worship and the administration of the Sacraments, yet other supports can be added to this use, and will make for spiritual growth and stability, if kept in due subordination.

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Such use is the school, and another is the organization of the Sons of the Academy. Mrs. Pendleton also delighted us by filling in many incidents of their journey in lighter vein.

     The Bishop also spoke of the pleasure it had given him to receive an application from the Colchester Society, requesting that the Rev. Victor J. Gladish be appointed Pastor. He then made the appointment, and said that from now on Mr. Gladish would be the Pastor of the Colchester Society. Mr. Gladish suitably responded. We all much appreciated the visit of our Bishop and Mrs. Pendleton. It was a great help and stimulus to all.

     The 100th meeting of the New Church Club was held at the Old Bell Inn, London, on October 30th. The fact that Bishop and Mrs. Pendleton would be present, and that the ladies were invited, made a large attendance, and I believe I am correct in saying that over one hundred people were present. Close upon that number sat down to a splendid dinner at 7:30 p.m.

     At 6:45 p.m., a meeting of the Sons of the Academy was called for the purpose of forming a Chapter in this country, the Rev. V. J. Gladish acting as chairman. The following were appointed to serve for one year, with power to add to their number, if necessary: Mr. T. S. Pryke, of Northampton, President; Mr. Wilfred Pike, of London, Secretary; Mr. Archie Stebbing, of London, Treasurer. This accomplished, the chairman declared the meeting closed.

     During the dinner that followed, several toasts were honored, and one calls for special mention. It was to "The Founder of the New Church Club,-the Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal." Bishop Tilson, President, in proposing this toast, referred to the formation of the Club by reading the first notice that was issued, and speaking of other matters of interest in this connection. He then called upon the company to respond, which was heartily done, all singing, "For he is a jolly good fellow." Our only regret was that Mr. Gyllenhaal was not present to respond, but his ears should have been tingling about this time!

     Dinner over, we had a great treat in store, the Bishop reading a wonderful paper of all-absorbing interest, entitled "The Personality of Man and the Divine Person of God." The writer hopes that the opportunity may be provided for quiet perusal and reflection upon so interior a subject.

     Colchester was well represented, about twenty making the journey for this memorable occasion.
     F. R. COOPER.

     REPORT OF THE VISITING PASTOR.

     On Thursday and Friday evenings, November 14th and 15th, doctrinal classes were held at MIDDLEPORT, OHIO. At the first of these, the subject was the Lord's appearance in heaven "by aspect " (H. H. 121) and at the second, the marriage of the Lord and the Church, which is in the particulars of the Word. (S. S. 80.) On Saturday afternoon, instruction was given to six children, who became much interested in visual representation of the arrangement of the encampment of the Sons of Israel round about the tabernacle. Adapting it to their comprehension, I explained how this order was an image of heaven; for which reason Balaam, on beholding the encampment, could not curse, but had to bless the Sons of Israel, saying, "How good are thy tents, O Jacob; thy tabernacles, O Israel!" On Sunday morning, a service was held, at which there were present seven adults and four children. All the adults partook of the Holy Supper. In the evening there was another doctrinal class, at which the order of progress in regeneration was considered. The attendance at the classes was five, eight and eight, respectively. All the meetings were held in the church. Recently the members of the Circle have again been approached with an offer to purchase the church building; but the proposition was not in the least entertained.

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The Circle, although now very small, holds on bravely with courage and hope. And it is ever a pleasure to minister to them.

     From Middleport I went to COLUMBUS, where, on Monday evening, a service was held in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Wiley, at which seven persons were present, four of whom partook of the Holy Supper. We had the pleasure of having with us Mrs. Lucy Grant Boggess, of Middleport. Tuesday evening, instruction was given the young son of the house, the rest of the family also attending. As a preparation for Christmas, now approaching, the lesson was concerning the Wise Men following the Star and bringing their gifts to the Lord. Afterwards we had a doctrinal class, when I presented the teaching that the internal man must first be regenerated, and then by means of it the external. Lively questioning made the class very enjoyable.
     F. E. WAELCHLI.

     STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN.

     As it is some time since a news report from this society appeared in your pages, I will review some of the events of the past year, beginning with the celebration of our Pastor's fiftieth birthday anniversary on October 14, 1928. Our congregation gathered for a coffee party in the church hall, and expressed their gratitude to Mr. Baeckstrom by presenting him with a box of silver suitably inscribed, while the Young People's Club made him a gift of a fountain pen. Congratulatory telegrams were received from all over Sweden.

     Christmas a year ago was observed with a children's service and an adult service with the administration of the Holy Supper. A gay Children's Festival was arranged by the Young People's Club.

     In January. Swedenborg's Birthday was celebrated in an exceptional manner, the arrangements being made by the local Chapter of Theta Alpha. The Academy colors were everywhere in evidence in the hall; even in the salad with the cherries and whipped cream. At the head of the table a bust of Swedenborg stood upon a pedestal draped in a large Swedish flag. The long table was illuminated with a great number of candles, and the festivities began with the singing of The Academy March as we circled the table. Pastor Baeckstrom read a most interesting paper on the subject of "Revelation," beginning with the nature of enlightenment with the men of the Most Ancient Church, and ending with the great blessing we have from the Lord in the Revelation of the New Church. Dr. Alfred Acton read a paper in Swedish. He began by saying that the evening was a unique experience for him,-celebrating Swedenborg's Birthday in Sweden, and within a stone's throw of the Revelator's home. He then gave a very clear account of the early years of Swedenborg's life. The rest of the evening was spent informally in conversation, singing and toasting, and closed with a short play depicting Swedenborg and his gardener folk, acted by members' of the Young People's Club.

     On March 22nd, Theta Alpha entertained the Society with a social evening. Miss Senta Centervall read a paper on "The French Dramatists of the Sixteenth Century," and it proved to be an excellent prelude to the play that was given later in the evening. Miss Hakansson sang several beautiful songs, and the Misses Harriet and Brita Loven demonstrated how spirited are the dances of Italy. Then came the French play, in which Miss Benita Acton (speaking Swedish) took the part of a countess, Miss M. Boyesen the part of a charity worker, and Mr. Eric Sandstrom that of an exceedingly humorous servant. The play was a success, owing largely to Miss Acton's great talent and perfectly spoken Swedish. After refreshments there was dancing, and the young people enjoyed themselves to the full.

     A very successful Bazaar was given on April 12th by the young people's Vigor Club, their object being to contribute something to their church and society. Owing to the fact that we have no church building, they have not had the opportunity to manifest their desire to help, but the Bazaar offered a means of working unitedly with this idea at heart.

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All of the articles sold at the Bazaar were the handiwork of the club members, both girls and boys. The decorations were made by the boys, who spent many exciting hours in painting and putting them up. All the booths were in the form of old Swedish country houses. During the evening several beautiful violin solos were played by a friend of one of the members of Vigor. The whole evening was lively, and reminded one of a market in the olden times. Vigor was greatly encouraged by the success of the undertaking, and, of course, by the unusually fine profits of the evening.

     Since Christmas, Dr. Acton has held classes in the homes of the members, treating of the subject of the Laws of Divine Providence. Many a question and (to us) unsolved problem was more than satisfactorily answered and solved by him in those classes. It is a fact that the more interiorly and spiritually a man meditates, the more simply he can explain even the deepest problems. So it was with Dr. Acton, who shed light upon many misty spots in our train of thought. He treated the subject with such thoroughness and interest that no one liked to miss a single minute of his classes. I am sure that everyone enjoyed them more than words can describe, and we all look forward to the time when he may be among us again.

     On June 19th a party was given for the members at the nice and cozy home of Pastor and Mrs. Baeckstrom. The material entertainment was enjoyed out in the garden, and afterwards we went indoors, where the Pastor spoke of the growth of the New Church, and how the members ought to strive to maintain and beautify the spirit of truth and love within the Church. The audience was caught by his spirited words, and the sphere of close friendship that arose prevailed throughout the evening. Afterwards, Dr. Acton spoke in Swedish about his research work in Sweden, and we were amazed at its results. His humorous sketches of his occasional adventures were fully enjoyed.
     T. E. L.

     CHICAGO, ILL.

     Sharon Church has made a fresh start at Building Fund. We feel greatly the need of a church building and parish house. The subject will be kept actively before the society on every suitable occasion, and we have set as our goal the sum of $50,000. It is planned to get together socially et once a month, beginning Friday, October 25th. A bowling club has been organized among the men of the society, to meet weekly.

     A recent doctrinal class considered the subject of asking questions and discussing the topics presented by the Pastor, based upon this from C. L. 183: "After this the angel said, Let us communicate together by questions and answers, since the perception of a thing imbibed by hearing only does indeed inflow, but does not remain unless the hearer also thinks of it from himself and asks questions about it." In the same connection the Pastor delivered several sermons on the subject of "Prayer."

     At another class our Pastor placed before us this query: "Wanted-a Use for Sharon Church." We have been considering it for several weeks, and finally this solution was placed before us for our approval: The Use of Evangelization. To perform this use we must build a church much nearer Glenview, in a modest residential district, but a good neighborhood. In this way the children of Sharon Church could be educated in the well-equipped school of the Immanuel Church; a bus being provided to transport them to and from school, and it would not be necessary for families to move away from us, as so many have done in the past.

     We often have strangers at our services on Sunday, but we are so crowded in our present quarters that our members then feel called upon to retire to the basement to make room for them. If we had a neat little church in a good neighborhood, we feel certain that we would reach some who are looking for the truth.

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But how are we to attain this object? With sixty members, our present building almost paid for, a fund of $6200 accumulated by hard saving and generously aided by our dear friend, the late Mr. Nels Johnson, we feel that we have a beginning. And so we are devising various schemes to add to the Building Fund, and a number of delightful social occasions of late have brought substantial contributions, the best phase of this being that all subscribe. If this building project can be carried out, the Immanuel and Sharon Churches will be cooperating, the one providing education for all the children, the other devoting itself to a program of evangelization.
     E. V. W.

     GLENVIEW, ILL.

     The feature news of the month was the celebration of Immanuel Church Day on November 13th and 14th, in commemoration of our fiftieth anniversary, Sharon Church joining with us for the event. An elaborate banquet, with about 150 present, marked the evening of the 13th. The program began with a felicitous address by our Pastor. Next we listened to the voice of our first pastor, Bishop William F. Pendleton, in his address to the Immanuel Church (preserved by phonographic record). Rev. Norman Reuter followed with an address dealing with the Beginnings of our Church. The Rev. Gilbert Smith then spoke of Mutual Love as one of the four things by which we can be united with the Lord. He earnestly urged more general reading and study of the Writings, and particularly urged united worship and group study. As the result of this address, and of the talk following, a reading class has been formed of the young folks from about 16 to 30 years of age. This class meets every Sunday evening, and has started out in good numbers and enthusiastic. The third banquet address was by the Rev. Willis L. Gladish, Pastor of Sharon Church, on "The Establishment of the Church." The speeches were interspersed with church songs, and the note of the entire evening was a serious vein of strong loyalty and promised service to the Church.

     The second evening of the celebration took the form of a general entertainment under the direction of Mr. Hubert Nelson and his aids. There was not an idle or dull moment in the long and interesting program. Feature succeeded feature, and some were particularly enjoyed as dealing with the early days of the Immanuel Church. It was one of the best entertainments ever held by us, if not the!

     Besides the newly formed class aforesaid, which is studying the Apocalypse Revealed, the ladies of the society are continuing their class for the study of the Arcana Celestia.

     The Friday Class is booming with an unprecedented attendance. Our Pastor is giving us supper talks on Psychology in the light of the Writings, and showing many of the fallacies extant in the world. The subject is very deep and hard to follow, but well worth the needed effort.

     Classes in Public Speaking, for men and women on alternate weeks, are being conducted for us by a university professor, and we may shortly expect to note a great improvement in the correct use of our mother tongue.
     J. B. S.

     PITTSBURGH, PA.

     The Pittsburgh Society is deeply grieved and shocked by the sudden passing of Mrs. Eldred E. Iungerich to the spiritual world on December 5th. But we feel with Mr. Iungerich that Providence has a higher use for her to perform, and that we must not allow natural feelings and worldly sadness to hamper the progress of her spirit. In the short time that Mrs. Iungerich has lived here, she has made herself an integral part of the society, and we shall miss her very much. The Pastor held a memorial service on December 6th at the home of Mr. and Mrs. A. P. Lindsay. The burial took place in Bryn Athyn on Saturday, December 7th.

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     During the Fall months our Pastor has been treating the subject of Regeneration in a most enlightening way at the biweekly doctrinal classes. He has presented one copy of Divine Providence and five copies of Heaven and Hell to various persons in the neighborhood of Le Roi Road, the locality in which our new buildings are situated.

     Due to severe weather and much rain, progress On the new buildings has been somewhat retarded, and our hope of holding the Christmas Services in the Community Hall has been abandoned. Mr. and Mrs. A. P. Lindsay have offered their home for the Children's Service on Christmas Eve. The Society feels most appreciative and grateful for their hospitality on all occasions. Mr. Harold T. Carswell, our architect, spent Saturday, November 30th, in Pittsburgh, meeting with committee of the Ladies Society and the Building Committee.

     The children of the society were entertained at a Hallowe'en party on Thursday afternoon, October 31st, at the home of the pastor. The children came attired in Mother Goose costumes, and some time was spent in guessing what these represented. Games were played, the spirit of fun predominated, and all the refreshments were consumed.

     Armistice Day was observed at the Church School by a shore service at the usual school hour, followed by a brief declamation by Virginia Blair and George Brown, and a thrilling address by Mr. Silas E. Walker, in which he described the various units of the A. E. F., and also gave some of his own experiences as a bombing aviator. The program was interspersed with patriotic songs. The exercises closed with a pledge of allegiance, recited by the school, and a salute to the flag.

     Thanksgiving Day was observed with a special service for the School on Wednesday morning, November 27th, and for the adults on the following Sunday, the Pastor giving appropriate addresses on both occasions.

     Last July, the Rev. and Mrs. Walter E. Brickman, with their family, moved to Edenburg, Texas, resigning their membership in our society. Mr. Brickman writes that the Kitzelman family, of Chicago, have recently taken up their residence in the same neighborhood and have asked him to conduct worship and doctrinal classes. The Misses Bernice and Amy Kitzelman attended the Academy Schools in Bryn Athyn. The two families make a group of thirteen, and we believe there is a good prospect of developing a society in that locality.

     Among recent visitors in Pittsburgh, Messrs. Frederick and Donald Merrell, of Ohio, were entertained by the Philosophy Club on November 22nd at the home of Mr. S. S. Lindsay, Sr.
     E. R. D.

     MISSIONARY JOURNEYS.

     Sweden.

     In August, 1929, I visited two small towns,-Novitalje and Osthammar,-where there are several interested persons, including the parents of Mrs. Mauritz Larsson, of North Arlington, N. J. The attendance at the lecture given in Novitalje was 215 persons, at Osthammar 109, and books to the value of 23:55 kroner ($6.31) were sold.

     In September I visited the western part of the country, lecturing in Uddevalla, Vanersborg, Amal and Karlstad, the audiences being 210, 190, 106 and 150 respectively. Books were sold to the value of Kr. 101:70 ($27.25). In Karlstad there is quite a circle of isolated New Churchmen whom I should like to visit at least once year, and in the nearby city of Kristinehamn I held a service, with the Holy Supper, for the five remaining members of a group of earnest receivers, all but one of whom I baptized when I used to visit them regularly some years ago.

     A third journey took me to the southern parts of Sweden, where I lectured in the small towns of Vadstena and Motala, in the larger towns of Linkoping and Novikoping, as also in a small place called Finspong. The attendance was 116, 204, 231, 125 and 85 persons, respectively, while the sale of books amounted to Kr. 96 ($25.73).

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In Finspong there is a circle of twelve men-all men, no women-and one of them is a minister of the State Church. Most of them seem to be very much interested, and I gave them some books as the beginning of a lending library.

     Norway.

     At the beginning of November I went to Norway, but this time I visited only the cities of Oslo and Hamar, as I did not wish to be absent from Stockholm on a Sunday. The journeys mentioned above were all undertaken between Sundays. I had the misfortune to be in Oslo at the same time that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was giving two public lectures in the largest hall in the city to overflow audiences. He dealt with the subject of the life after death and spiritistic phenomena, and the newspapers had made a good deal of his visit, printing articles for and against him for many days before he arrived. This was a great hindrance to me, and no doubt accounted for the small attendance of 40 and 43 at my two lectures.

     Our own people in Oslo hold their reading classes regularly. Miss Anna Boyesen, formerly a teacher, takes the leadership. I held a class with them, and read the paper on "Progress" delivered by the Rev. Albert Bjorck at the General Assembly in London, 1928. Three ladies, newcomers, attended the class, one of them as a direct result of my two public lectures. Another day I held a service at the Boyesen home, and administered the Holy Supper.

     This was my seventh visit to Norway in recent years, and I have been going to Oslo twice a year as planned. The general public interest in the lectures is not as great as it was, but a certain number attend who are really interested, and it would seem best to direct our efforts to these.

     At Hamar I met a group of five earnest receivers, three ladies and two men, and at the lecture held there 152 persons were present. In this place and at Oslo the sale of books amounted to Kr. 62:75 ($16.82). For the most part, my lectures have been given in the larger towns and cities of Norway and Sweden, but in the smaller places all over the country there are many people whom I have not been able to reach, as we have not had the means to advertize our books. Recently, however, I have published a book which we propose to advertize extensively. Its title is Efter Doden (After Death), answering the question: "Will friends, husbands and wives, parents and children, meet after death?" Among other things it contains a lecture of the same title which I have delivered nineteen times in Stockholm and four times in Oslo, as well as in many other places. This lecture has been very successful in its appeal, and has been very well received by the newspapers. It would seem that the way has been prepared for a favorable reception of the book on the same subject. We have already sold a large number of copies, orders for ten to fifteen copies coming in every day, and one day for twenty-nine copies. The orders come from all parts of the country, chiefly from small places of which I had never heard, and from all kinds of people. They will all receive our magazine, Nova Ecclesia, for a time, in the hope that they will subscribe. It is in this way that we shall follow up the sale of the book, in the effort to maintain a connecting link with the purchasers. In that way we have obtained most of our subscribers. We have recently published another book on the Tabernacle as an Image of Heaven. In addition, I am revising a new Swedish translation of the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, made by a Mr. Holm, a postmaster, who is deeply interested in the Church and a regular attendant at our services.
     GUSTAF BAECKSTROM.

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BRITISH ASSEMBLY 1930

BRITISH ASSEMBLY       Editor       1930




     Announcements.



     We have now received a Report of the Twenty-second British Assembly, and this will be published in our next issue, together with Addresses delivered on that occasion.
     W. B. CALDWELL,
          Editor.

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ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS 1930

ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS              1930

     BRYN ATHYN, PA., FEBRUARY 3RD TO 9TH, 1930.

Monday, February 3.
     3:00 p.m. Consistory.

Tuesday, February 4.
     10.00 a.m. Council of the Clergy.
     3:00 p.m. Council of the Clergy and General Faculty.
          Address: Professor Frederick A. Finkeldey.
          Subject: "Scale Determination of Ability in the Classroom."

Wednesday, February 5.
     10:00 a.m. Council of the Clergy.
     3:00 p.m. Council of the Clergy and General Faculty.
          Address: Miss Louise Gladish.          
Subject: "In the Sixth Day of Creation."

Thursday, February 6.
     10:00 a.m. Council of the Clergy.
     3:00 p.m. Council of the Clergy and General Faculty.
Address: Bishop N. D. Pendleton.
     8:00 p.m. Public Session of the Council of the Clergy.
          Address: Rev. F. E. Waelchli.

Friday, February 7.
     10:00 a.m. Council of the Clergy.
     3:00 p.m. Executive Committee.
     7:00 p.m. Philadelphia District Assembly. Banquet.

Saturday, February 8.
     10:00. a.m. Joint Council.
     3:00 p.m. Joint Council.

Sunday, February 9.
     11:0 a.m. Divine Worship.
     8:00 p.m. Service of Praise.

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RISEN LORD AND THE COMMUNION 1930

RISEN LORD AND THE COMMUNION        N. D. PENDLETON       1930


NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. L          FEBRUARY, 1930          No. 2
     "And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the (mother) of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him. And very early in the morning the first (day) of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?

     "And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away for it was very great. And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment, and they were affrighted. And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: He is risen; He is not here: behold the place where they laid Him."

     When Jesus rose from the grave, a dying age revived, a new church came into being. The news of His resurrection spread far and wide. Men questioned, saying, "What think ye? Do we rise from the grave to new life?" This question is at the heart of all men in every age. Their hope, their faith, their doubt, their denial rises and falls. They never quite give up all hope. They are never altogether free from doubt and its temptation. The veil between the two worlds varies in density; sometimes little or no light passes through; and again, it becomes all but transparent. This with the varying influence of religion, the decrease or increase of faith.

     A fallen religion encourages doubt and increases pessimism, A new church brightens the light from heaven, and faith strengthens until it imparts a realizing sense of certainty and security. In the beginning of a new church, heaven draws near, and men become spiritually minded.

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Their hearts turn to the life beyond as to a future home. Their interest is engaged with the new truth that is revealed. A new revelation and church are companion parts; one is not given without the other. A new church is a new religion, which brings with it a new age. A new church is not a mere reformation, or a schismatic development. This last divides the church, and at last brings it to an end.

     The Lord came to establish a new church. The old had fallen through successive ages, until it became a denial of that which brought it into being. The circle of its life was completed. Its morning had passed into a lasting night, a Sadducean night, in which there is denial of a resurrection,-no hope of a new spiritual day. In this night our Lord was buried; yet He came forth from the darkness of death, in the early morning, at the rising of the sun, to signify the commencing of a new church, the dawning of a new spiritual age, and the rising of a new spiritual sun.

     He, after His resurrection, was the Sun of heaven renewed, with an increase of glory. Yet He was a Man Divine, and the same with Himself as He was a man in the world, and known to His disciples. As such He was seen by them for a period after His resurrection and prior to His ascension. He was seen by them, not with their natural but their spiritual eyes; but they knew not the difference. His Resurrection Body could not be seen in the light of the natural sun; yet it was as if they so saw Him, as if He stood before them in a material body. It was thus that they witnessed His resurrection; and their witness was accepted by those who were ready to believe, not by others. This witness was called for. It was a spiritual requirement, and it became a natural ground of faith.

     Yet this witness was not in itself sufficient for the unbelieving, to compel their faith. A miracle, if at first accepted, is soon discredited. The simple in heart were convinced by this witness of the disciples. Their trusting minds were perceptive. Their confidence was of the spirit. Their proof came from an inner light. In this they transcended the witness of the eyes, and overcame the doubt of natural reason. Their faith was based upon the heart's necessity, and its sense of immortality. This is more certain in its convictions than any outward proving. Its discernment is derived from the self-evidencing reason of love, which is unerring in its divining.

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It perceives truth and senses realities, not knowing how. Its apperceptions go deeper into spiritual causes than the reasoning mind can see. This is the sight of true faith; not of faith as a formula or a persuasive dogma, but of faith as an inner state of life, This is the faith of love. It is also called the faith of God. It is the faith of the God-fearing and God-loving mind, in which there is nothing of self, with its conceit in its powers of reasoning, which turns the back to God, and the thought away from heaven. This self of man can perceive no spiritual truth, cannot see God as the pure in heart do. It is engaged with its self-concern and its relation to the world. To such a mind, no spiritual vision is given.

     There were many in Jerusalem,-a multitude,-to whom the Lord's resurrection passed as a thing unknown, or as at once discredited. Only a chosen few saw Him, and of these there was one who doubted. Yet the fact, the truth, of His resurrection ruled the world for ages thereafter. This is the high proving of Providence. It is a fact of history, incomprehensible on any other ground than that of truth.

     The angel said to the women who came to the sepulchre early in the morning, "Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: He is risen: He is not here: behold the place where they laid Him." The stone was rolled away, and the body was not there. This meant that He was raised, even as to the body,-His body made Divine. There was a difference between this and the body that was carried to the tomb. Something happened in the sepulchre,-a miracle, which time cannot explain to the carnal mind, but which is affirmed by revelation. There was a dissipation of the residue of the maternal human. This happened in the tomb. (Ath. Cr. 161, 162.) His Resurrection Body was there clearly glorified. It was in this Glorified Body that He appeared to His disciples, their eyes being opened, They beheld Him in spiritual vision, not in the fancy of their imagination. In spiritual vision realities are seen,-spiritual realities. He appeared to them in His own Divine Body, on the plane of their spiritual sensual sight, on the plane of that outward spiritual vision of which the disciples were capable, and which brought Him before them even as they had known Him on earth. It was this that enabled them to testify in truth that He had risen.

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     A more interior vision of the Divine Human was later given, but that pertained to another age, to the time of His Second Coming when He, in His Divine Human, presented Himself as the Divine Truth, as the Truth of Divine Revelation. The two Advents are distinguished, the one from the other, in this, that at His First Coming He appeared in the world, in His Second Coming He appeared in the Word. At His First Coming He appeared in person, as a man; at His Second Coming He appeared in the truth of the Word revealed. And the reason given, why His Second Coming was effected in and by this truth, and not in person, was that, after His ascension, He was in His Glorified Human, which cannot come again into the world, cannot appear in person before the natural eyes of men, but can become visible to their spiritual sight only. And therefore it is recorded that, when He showed Himself to His disciples after His resurrection, it was not to their bodily, but to their spiritual, eyes. This also is that which happened to them on the occasion of His transfiguration. (T. C. R. 777.)

     While the vision of the Divine Human as the Divine Truth united with the Divine Good, given at the time of His Second Advent, is a more interior revealing than that of His Human Body Form which was given to His disciples immediately after His resurrection, yet His appearing to His disciples in His ultimate Human Form was of order, and it was a true vision of His Human Glorified. This is clear from the teaching that while He appeared to them, and presently did not appear, yet He was a Man when seen and when not seen,-that is, He did not put on an appearing body for the occasion, and then put it off again. (C. L. 31.) His so appearing was therefore not imaginary. It was a real presence and a real appearing of Him as He was.

     The disciples' witness to this fact was vital to beginning Christianity, and it is vital to the Church at this day, as the ground of the Second Advent faith, which faith, however, calls for and receives an interior manifestation of the Divine Human adapted to a later and more rational age. While it should be noted and emphasized that the faith of the New Church is interiorly and essentially dependent upon its own revelation, yet that revelation supports by rational interpretation the original inspired account. In this way the two Advents and the truths thereof make a complete unity.

     On the occasion of His ascension, it is recorded that "while they beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

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And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." (Acts 1:9-10.)

     "In like manner." What is the meaning of this? Men have concluded that, in the last day, they would behold Him descending from the starry heaven to the earth, even as they thought they saw Him ascend. But it is manifest that, on this occasion also, their eyes were opened. His ascent was seen in spiritual vision, and His Body then seen was the Resurrection Body, which cannot become visible to natural eyes. That which made Him visible in the world of nature was put off in the sepulchre. It follows that His Resurrection Body would become manifest at His Second Coming, not to the natural, but to spiritual sight. And indeed He was so seen by the Seer, whose eyes were opened, and also by the very many gathered for judgment in the spiritual world. But the higher revealing of Himself at the Second Coming was through and by means of that which is signified by the "cloud" which received Him on the occasion of His ascension, namely, the Word in its letter, which was the ultimate means of an internal manifestation of Him glorified, of Him manifest in the Body of His Divine Truth, which Truth alone is also one in Essence and Identity with His first seen Resurrection Body, the only difference being the planes of manifestation,-the plane of external spiritual sight, and that of rational spiritual perception.

     The Resurrection Body, clearly and fully glorified, and one in Essence with the Divine Human of the Second Advent revelation, is the sole object of our worship. And this it is which is representatively administered in the Holy Communion of the New Church. And it is in this specifically that that Communion is new. This is a matter of no little importance,-the significance of the Communion before and after the Second Coming. The Writings tell us that the doctrine of the Church enters into the Communion, that that which is administered is qualified by the doctrine concerning it. Clearly, in the New Church, it is the Divine Human which is administered; for this is nowhere else known or acknowledged. This is that which is represented to us by the bread and the wine. Truly then, the Communion in the New Church is a new thing-distinctly so, even as the doctrine of the Divine Human is a new doctrine.

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     The Holy Supper was first administered by the Lord Himself, and this prior to His death. It was then administered in the evening, signifying the last time of the Church,-the night in which the Church went down, and also the darkness of the grave into which He was to enter. Many have felt that the evening was the fitting, the significant, time for the administration of the Supper. As a historical memorial this is so. But note again that, in the New Church, that which is administered is not the body as it went down into the grave, but the Human ascended and glorified. This Human first stood forth in the fulness and completion of its glory early in the morning of the resurrection day, at the rising of the sun, which symbolized His Human Glorified as the Source of all light in heaven, and as well the true light of the world.

     The Lord's last Supper with His disciples indeed involved all this, and interiorly looked to it, but the occasion of that Communion obviously pointed to the night in which the Church went down; pointed to the death and the grave for Himself. For of that evening Supper He said, "With desire I have desired to eat of this Passover with you before I suffer." (Luke 22:15.) In this, the Sacrament was a memorial of His death. But we worship Him, not as He hung upon the cross, nor as He lay in the grave. In the new Communion there is no symbol of death, but all is Life Divine, Life ascending, even as the Sun in its continual rising. It follows from this that the new Communion is a morning Communion-the resurrection Communion. Of this the Lord spoke when He said, "I will not anymore eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God." (Luke 22:16.)

     The Communion as a death memorial called for its fulfillment in and after the resurrection. This was involved in His saying that He would drink no more of the fruit of the vine until He drank it "new" in the kingdom of God (Mark 14:25), or until He should drink it new with them in the kingdom of God. The significance of this is clear. There was to be another and a new Communion after His resurrection, and indeed, in consequence thereof, such a Communion as could not be given before, because it was only after His resurrection that "all Divine Truth in heaven and the Church proceeded from His Divine Human," ascended and glorified. And it was because of this that He said that He would drink of the fruit of the vine new with them in His Father's kingdom.

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For only after His resurrection did all the Divine proceed from Him,-that is, then only did the Divine proceed from His Human in fulness. (See A. E. 376:20.) The mortal human,-the maternal with its infirmities,-was always more or less an inhibiting medium; but with the resurrection the last of this human was put off, so that He in Body was totally Divine. It is this total Divinity, therefore, which is signified in and be the new wine of the heavenly Communion, and it is this which is signified by and represented in the new Communion of the New Church. Amen.

     Lessons: Psalm 68. Mark 16. Heaven and Hell 76.
VISION OF THE SON OF MAN 1930

VISION OF THE SON OF MAN       Rev. L. W. T. DAVID       1930

     AN ADDRESS TO CHILDREN.

     You have been told how the Apostle John came to be in the Island of Patmos-that he was sent there as a prisoner of the Roman Government, in order that, if possible, the Christian Church might be destroyed in those days. But, under the Lord's Providence, his banishment to that isle was a great blessing, both to John and to those who came after him.

     While he was there he thought a great deal about the Lord, especially on that day which the early Christians called "The Lord's Day," the day we now call "Sunday." We may well imagine that John was thinking about the great events that had happened on the first Lord's Day-how they had heard that the sepulchre, in which the Lord's body had been laid away after His crucifixion, was Opened, and that nothing was found there; of how he and Peter ran to the sepulchre to see if they could find out anything about the Lord. They did not understand what had happened. Although the Lord had told them beforehand that He would rise on the third day, they did not understand. But later in the same day, in the evening, the Lord appeared to them, and He showed them His hands and His feet, and they saw that it was the Lord, and that He had risen from the grave and was alive.

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     These events were a wonderful memory for John. He thought about them a great deal. But there were still many things he wished to know, so that he might understand better. So while he was thinking, deep in his heart, about the Lord, he heard behind him a voice-a great voice, as laud as a trumpet-and this voice said: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last!" And when John heard those words, he knew that it was the Lord, the Divine Man, speaking to him; for no one could say such words but the Lord. So John turned to see who it was that had spoken, and when he had turned, he saw seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst of those candlesticks he saw "one like unto the Son of Man." Now the Son of Man was the Lord. He had been called by that name before, while He was still on earth. He had called Himself by that name many times when talking to the disciples or preaching to the multitude. So when John saw this vision, he knew that it was the Lord, and he called Him by that same name,-the Son of Man.

     But we note, as we read the story of the vision, that the Lord did not appear just the same as He had while on earth. He now appeared in great glory, in a wonderful vision such as no earthly eye could see. For the Lord had opened John's ears to hear in spirit, and had opened his eyes to see in spirit, and he saw the Lord as He is in heaven, as He is sometimes seen in His Divine glory by the angels.

     It is said that He was clothed with a garment down to the feet. This garment is not described here, but elsewhere we are told about it. For when the Lord was on earth, He once led Peter, James, and John into a high mountain, and there their eyes were opened, and they saw Him in His heavenly glory. And they tell us that He was clothed with a garment white as the light and glistening. So may we think of the garment seen in this vision,-that it was white as the light, and glistening with the brilliance of that light.

     In the Old Testament it was said of the Lord that He "clothed Himself with light as with a garment." Thus the vision that John saw was a vision of light, a most brilliant light, such as we cannot see in this world, but such as could be seen in heaven. This was to show that the Lord is Truth, that from the Lord comes the truth; that we see the Lord in truth, garmented by truth. And if we learn the truth from His Word, we will be able to see the Lord.

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his was the thing that John was to learn-that he would see the Lord in the Divine Truth which the Lord reveals to His Church. We also may, and do, see Him in that truth, if we love Him sincerely and keep His Word most precious.

     It is said that His head and His hair were white like wool, as white as snow. This may bring to us the thought of an aged man, one who has grown old in the labor and usefulness of his life, who has done many good and useful things, and has become very wise because he has thought truly and justly about all the things of life. It is well to think of those who are aged as being wise. When it is said of the Lord that His head and His hair were white like wool, as white as snow, it shows that He is very wise; for the whiteness shone and sparkled like new snow in the sunshine. He is wiser than any man or angel can ever be. He is so wise that He sees right into our hearts, and understands all the things of our lives. He understands those things wisely; He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows all things, for He is Wisdom Itself.

     His eyes were as a flame of fire, This is because He loves very much. The Lord loves men as no man can ever love others. We have what we call "love." We feel it as something warm inside of us. And because we love our fathers and mothers, our companions and friends, we do many things for them so as to make them happy. We do the best we know how. And when we are thinking about those we love, or about the things we love to do, our eyes shine. You have often seen the eyes of people shine when they had love in their hearts and were thinking of someone they loved, or were doing something they loved to do. But the Lord loves much more than you and I do. He loves the whole human race. He loves every man and child in the universe. Not one is ever forgotten. And He loves to do for them the best and wisest things. He has made us because He loves us and wants to make us happy. And He does everything possible to lead us to heaven, that He may give us there the things that will make us blessed forever. It is that perfect love which shone in His eyes, and caused them to be flames of fire, when John saw Him in vision. This love of His is so great that it also shone in His face and in His whole body, so that we are told that "His face was as the sun shineth in its strength," and that "His feet were like fine brass, as if they burned in the furnace."

     Again, it is said that "He had in His right hand seven stars."

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He was holding them in His hand. Those stars are the truths of the Lord's Word; for every truth is like a light shining. Every truth that you learn makes a light in your mind. When you learn something that you did not know before, you say that you "see,"- that is, you understand something that you did not understand before. It is because that truth then makes a light shine in your mind where before everything was shadow.

     So every truth is a light. But those truths which give real light,-a light that will show us the road that leads to heaven,-are the truths of the Lord's Word. There are many truths in His Word, so many that we cannot count them, any more than you can count all the stars you see in the sky. And because of the many truths that the Lord has revealed to men, it is said there were "seven stars" in His hand. The number "seven" means all the truth which the Lord tells us, and that all this truth is holy, because it is the truth of His Word. The Lord held the stars in His hand to show that He has power in those truths. It is by those truths that He teaches us what is right and what is wrong, and it is by the power of those truths that He makes us good and true men and women. By truths He protects us from evil spirits, and from doing what is wrong, and by truths He prepares us for heaven, and leads us into heaven.

     Another thing is said of Him, that "out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword." Perhaps this seems a strange thing,-that a sharp two-edged sword went out of His mouth. But this also is to tell us of the truth that the Lord reveals. For what is it that comes out of the mouth but words? And what kind of words come from the Lord's mouth? None but true words. All the words that the Lord speaks are true. All that comes from His mouth is truth, and the truth that comes from His mouth is the Holy Word, where we read about Him and about heaven, where we read about how He works with men to save them, where we learn how we must live that we may become angels. And this truth must penetrate deep into the heart; that is why it is so sharp. But also, because it is sharp, it is able to destroy what is evil and false. And if we love the Word, it fights for us against the evil spirits from hell. The sword of truth comes from the Lord to wage battle against all the hells, and to destroy all their deceptions, so that men may journey safely as they go on their way toward heaven.

     The Lord wishes us to be saved.

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He wishes to lead us to heaven, where we may see Him and love Him as the angels see and love Him, where we may see Him sometimes in such a vision as John saw. And he wishes us to remain in heaven forever. We could not do this unless the Lord protected us, unless the Lord guarded us against the evil ones who would destroy us. So there is always a battle against evil, and the Lord wages that warfare by the Word of His mouth. No evil spirit can stand' the power of His Word. Thus all in His kingdom are protected, and are made happy to eternity, just so far as they love Him and trust in His Word.

     LESSON: Revelation 1: 9-20.
HYMNS: Hymnal 119, p. 194; 121, p. 195; 84, p. 162.

     The above is the second of a series of Addresses to Children on the Book of Revelation, to be published monthly in our pages.-EDITOR.
EYES 1930

EYES              1930

     "The eye is the most noble organ of the face, and communicates more immediately with the understanding than the rest of man's sensory organs It is also modified by a more subtle atmosphere than the ear, and therefore the sight penetrates to the internal sensory in the brain by a shorter and more interior way than speech perceived by the ear. Hence also it is that some
animals, inasmuch as they are devoid of intellect, have as it were two subsidiary brains within the orbits of their eyes; for their intellectual depends upon their sight. Not so man, who possesses a large brain, so that his intellectual may not depend upon his sight, but his sight upon his intellectual. That the sight of man depends upon his intellectual is manifestly evident from this, that his natural affections effigy themselves representatively in the face, whereas the interior affections, which are of the thought, appear in the eyes from a certain flame of life and consequent evibration of light, which sparkles forth according to the affection in which the thought is. This also man knows and observes, although not instructed by any science. The reason is, that his spirit is in society with spirits and angels in the other life, who know it from evident perception." (A. C. 4407.)

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CHURCH UNIVERSAL, SPECIFIC, PARTICULAR;ITS ORGANIZATIONS AS "DISTINCTIONS," "INDICATIONS," AND "SIGNS." 1930

CHURCH UNIVERSAL, SPECIFIC, PARTICULAR;ITS ORGANIZATIONS AS "DISTINCTIONS," "INDICATIONS," AND "SIGNS."        R. J. TILSON       1930

     Photograph of the Bryn Athyn Cathedral - North Wing.

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     Photograph of the Choir Hall Cloister.

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     (Delivered at the Twenty-second British Assembly, 1929.)

     The subject about to be presented will doubtless be deemed a well-worn and very familiar one; but it is presented under the strong conviction that it is one which should be frequently in mind, and also one which can never be exhausted. The subject of the Church is the burden of Divine Revelation, and innumerable are the angles from which it can be approached. Three brief declarations from the Gospel of the Second Advent will surely establish the position now taken. First, then, it is written:

     "Hence it is that, unless there were a church where the Word exists, and where by means of it the Lord is known, the human race could not be saved." (H. D. 246. Notes from A. C.) Secondly, in H. D. 245, it is revealed:

     "Everyone with whom the church is, is saved; but everyone with whom the church is not, is condemned."

     And, thirdly, it is recorded in A. R. 191:

     "Whosoever separates the church in the world from the church is heaven, and these from the Lord, is not in the truth."

     The three aphorisms surely form a basis for a profitable study of the subject of the Church and Church Organizations.

     As a mental foil to these statements from the Heavenly Doctrines, it may be useful to hear the opening sentences of an article by the former "Chaplain to Ripen Hall, Oxford," recently published in one of our most widely read dailies. In this article, the Rev. J. C. Hardwick writes as follows:

     "We hear a good deal about empty churches and chapels, but we have not yet begun to ask what will happen if they all close down and organized religion goes into liquidation. The question is certainly an important one, and not merely of academic interest; for if present tendencies continue we shall soon be in sight of such a consummation." Continuing, he writes:

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     "The decay of dogmatic religion," says Mr. Bertrand Russell, "is, for good or evil, one of the most important facts of the modern world. Its effects have hardly yet begun to show themselves: what they will be it is impossible to say, but they will certainly be profound and far-reaching." "Some do not hesitate to affirm that with the disappearance of churches and chapels we should all be much better off-happier and more free in every way. They would declare that religion is a product of fear-especially of the unseen world-and has always been interested in making people afraid. It gets hold of them when they are young, and fills their minds with phobias and morbid fancies. Such, I think, would be, more or less, the view of Mr. Bertrand Russell himself."

     The second foil consists of an extract from a remarkable book recently published under the title of Survivals and New Arrivals, by Mr. Hilaire Belloc, one of the foremost lay apologists of. The Roman Catholic Church. He writes concerning the Word and the Church, as follows: "The Bible depends on the Church, not the Church on the Bible." And again: "Though no Bible had existed, the Church would have sufficed."

     The third foil comes from the pen of the chief editor of A New Commentary on Holy Scripture, published but a year ago. Bishop Gore writes:

     "Jesus showed no signs of anticipating any future science or criticism. He did show marked dissatisfaction with the scribal method of interpretation, and presumably would be dissatisfied with the like methods wherever pursued. . . . While He Himself shows no disposition to leave His disciples tied by written documents, but preferred the living voice, and renewed for His apostles the same sort of authority which had been exercised by the scribes in interpreting the Word of God, yet He plainly did not identify such authority with infallibility, but taught us where necessary to appeal against it to the reason and conscience of men.

     The Bishop of Birmingham, preaching in Westminster Abbey a few Sundays ago, contended that the application of exact inquiry to the Gospels had led to an increasing disbelief in miracles, and asserted that the churchman of today was now completely free to examine the Bible in the light of the knowledge of his era; and, evidently preferring the findings of scientists to the teachings of the theologians, the Bishop is reported as saying:

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     "The men who can speak with authority of the implications of the doctrine of relativity, of the quantum theory, or of the new astronomy, receive, when they discuss the philosophico-religious aspects of their knowledge or ignorance, an attention denied to official divines. . . .To a vision of ever wider horizons, science leads us today; and men turn to science because they believe scientific leaders to be honest guides, free from the temptations of orthodoxy."

     Lastly, Dean Inge, in reviewing a book by Bishop Gore, entitled Jesus of Nazareth, makes himself the apologist for those who are called the "Liberal Theologians," otherwise Modernists, and, after giving a remarkable summary of the successive crises in the history of the so-called Christian Church, concludes by saying:

     "This is the situation with which we are confronted today. The development of Religion has been arrested; the development of science has not been arrested. The Church has a long leeway to make up."

     The Dean continues: "The Liberal theologian is no dogmatist. He knows that both in science and scholarship new discoveries may invalidate theories now held. There is no finality in human knowledge. The 'last word' may be left to the last man, who would seem to be the right person to speak it. But he does not see why the Christian should be condemned to live in a pre-Copernican and pre-Darwinian universe. It was no part of the sacrifice which Christ demands from us that we should have to outrage our intellectual conscience."

     But it is very probable that already some of my listeners may be prompted to ask the why and the wherefore of these foils,-these instances of the "opposites" to the truths as revealed? The reply is, that they have been purposely given, under the conviction, supported by direct teaching of the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem, that, for the inrooting of the truth in the mind as a conviction, the opposite must be shown, and thus the reader or student be left in freedom to decide, as of himself, which he will adopt as his faith. Many examples of this may be found in the Writings themselves.

     It is seriously suggested that here lies a matter of vital concern for the establishment of the Church. Does not the history of the Church provide this fact, that, at the time when there was the greatest manifestation of growth in the outward organization, there was a persistent endeavor to show the error of the old theology, in contrast with the truth of the new?

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Among the many old stalwarts, think of the writings of De Charms the eldest, of Benade, Noble, Proud, Woodman, and especially of Robert Hindmarsh, and you will find that they not only made manifest the truths of the Second Advent, but they also in no equivocal manner contrasted them with the falsities of the old beliefs.

     That it is in accordance with the teachings of the Heavenly Doctrines that the opposite should be presented, as well as the truths themselves, so that conviction may result, is plainly taught in the Arcana Celestia as follows:

     "It is according to the laws of order that no one ought to be persuaded instantaneously of a truth, that is, that no truth should, instantaneously, be so confirmed that no doubt remains. The reason is, that the truth which is impressed in this way becomes persuasive truth, admitting of no extension, and also incapable of yielding. Such a truth is represented in the other life as hard, and as such as not to admit good into it that it may become capable of being applied. Hence it is that as soon as any truth is presented by manifest experience before good spirits in the other life, there is directly afterwards presented some opposite, which causes doubt. Thus they are enabled to think and consider whether it be so, and to collect reasons, and thereby to bring that truth rationally into their mind. This gives the spiritual sight extension as regards that truth, even as far as to opposites. Hence it sees and perceives with the understanding every quality of truth, and can admit influx from heaven according to the states of things: for truths receive various forms according to circumstances. This, too, is the reason why the magicians were allowed to do the same as Aaron; for thereby doubt as to whether the miracle was Divine or not was excited in the Children of Israel, and by this means they were enabled to think and weigh whether it was Divine, and at length to assure themselves that it was." (A. C. 7298.)

     Under the influence of teaching such as this, we have given this somewhat prolonged introduction to the consideration of the subject now before us, which is that of the Church and its Organizations.

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     II.

     To begin with, the very term itself, in the light of the Lord as revealed, the word "church" is derived from the Greek word kyria, which is the feminine form of the substantive kyrios, which means a ruler, a master, and also the Lord. The feminine, therefore, will mean a wife; and as this derivation and meaning of the word "church" is heard, surely the words of the Apocalypse come irresistibly to the mind: "And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."

     These words signify a New Church, founded upon the good of love to the Lord, and thus upon the good of life, which was signified by the Apostle John. The Church, we are taught, appeared to John as a "city" because by a city is signified doctrine; and "holy" means from the Lord, Who alone is holy in Himself. And this Holy City is said to have come down from God out of heaven, because the church on earth is formed through heaven by the Lord. For the church is first formed in the other world, before it can descend and be organized in this world.

     Essentially, therefore, the Lord is the Church; for, to use the very words of the work on Heaven and Hell: "The Divine of the Lord makes heaven, and not the angels from anything of their own." To which should be added the statement of the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine which declares: "That which constitutes heaven with man also constitutes the church." Therefore the Divine of the Lord makes the church.

     The Divine of the Lord, however, is the Lord's infinite Love, which is manifested in His infinite Truth, as given in His Word, by which term "Word" is embraced all Divine Revelation. The Word of the Lord therefore makes the church. But to do this with man, the Word must be rightly understood, and it can be understood only by means of revealed doctrine, rationally and affirmatively received. Yet doctrine alone cannot make the church, but there must also be the life of charity, which is doctrine applied to life.

     But, while it is of the first importance to remember that the true church consists of true doctrine, that is, of Divine Truth, and that therefore the true church of the Lord is eternal, and is above and beyond the will and proprium of man, yet it is of importance to ask how the church of the Lord is to be ultimated or organized among men.

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     Now, in those Divine Doctrines in which the Lord has made His Second Advent, it is taught that the church of the Lord upon earth is universal, specific, and particular. Let us consider briefly these three forms of the church among men.

     FIRST, THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH OF THE LORD. This is, as its name implies, spread over all the globe, and is composed of all those who believe in one God, and who live in some form of charity according to the truth contained in their religion. The basis, so to speak, of the Universal Church of the Lord, is the possession of good, even though that good may be of a low form. Those who are generally termed "heathen" and "gentiles," even though they are really ignorant of the Lord as to His real character and attributes, have within them, to use the very words of the Writings, "the worship and tacit acknowledgment of Him, when they are in good; for in all good the Lord is present." (A. C. 3263.) Such, therefore, form part of the Universal Church of the Lord. Similarly, all those in the Christian world who are really in good works, and in no truths of doctrine, are in the Universal Church, if their works are done from some genuine principle allied to truth. (A. R. 110.)

     The dimensions and limits of this Universal Church are known to the Lord alone; and, in His sight, all those who are of that Church form one Gorand Man. For the church on earth, like heaven in the other world, is in the human form in the sight of the Lord.

     Such, then, is the Universal Church of the Lord. And, at this point of our study, we would call attention to a distinction which does not seem to be generally recognized in the organization calling itself the New Church upon earth. Reference is thus made to the distinction between the Church Universal and the "Universal New Church." The distinction which should be made is this: The Church Universal includes the good in all religions throughout the whole world, as has already been said. But the Universal New Church includes only those who are the good in the Christian world, who are indeed those who are described by the Seven Churches in Asia, unto whom messages were sent by the Lord through the Apostle John, as revealed in the first three chapters of the Apocalypse.

     This is clearly shown in the Apocalypse Revealed in these words: "Hence it is that the Universal New Church, with its varieties, is now described in the following by the seven churches." (A. R. 66, 73.)

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To this may be added the suggestive passage from the Apocalypse Explained: "By the seven candlesticks and the seven churches are signified all those who will be in the New Heaven and in the New Church." (A. E. 91.) Note well the "will be." The Lord, being omnipotent, as well as omnipresent, wills the salvation of all, and makes provision for the same. Hence the "Church Universal" and the "Universal New Church."

     SECOND, THE SPECIFIC CHURCH. This is "where the Lord is acknowledged, and where the Word is." (N. J. H. D. 242.) It is of this Specific Church that the Lord speaks where it is written: "The church is nowhere else than where the Word is rightly understood: and such as is the understanding of the Word among those who are in the church, such is the church." (S. S. 79.)

     Now this Specific Church performs the same essential and vital uses to the Church Universal as do the heart and lungs to the human body. By means of this Specific Church, influx and communication is kept up between the Lord and the whole human race, and the heavens themselves find a foundation upon which to rest in the Specific Church. Because of this, it is revealed that it is continually provided by the Lord that there should always be a church upon earth, and that a new church should be established before an old church comes fully to its end. (S. S. 104.)

     Thus the Specific Church is the very center of life from the Lord to and for the whole human race, and the gate of admission into this Church is the Divinely appointed gate of Baptism. At the present time this Specific Church is the New Church of the Lord upon earth,-the Church of the Second Advent. And this Church, as constituted of the right understanding of the Divine Word, is greater and more precious than is, or can be, any organization which men may form for ultimate uses on earth.

     The Church Specific is the Church directly organized by and from the Word of the Lord,-that Word which is the completion of Revelation, the Spiritual and Angelic Word, which is one with the Word in the spiritual heaven. In this way,-that is, in and by Revelation,-this Specific Church becomes a visible Church, in which man may meet the visible God, even the Lord Jesus Christ in His Divine Human.

     This Specific Church is threefold. To be perfect it must needs be so.

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It is celestial, spiritual, and natural; for it is written: "There are three kinds of men within the Church, namely, those who are in love to the Lord; those who are in charity towards the neighbor; and those who are in the affection of truth." (A. C. 3653.) Nor are there these in the Church in any mere restricted sense, but in the broadest possible degree. This Specific Church is the Crown of all the Churches. It will eventually rise higher than the Most Ancient Church; and in the natural degree it will descend with its saving influences below anything that was possible in the former Christian Church. In it will be "the called, the chosen, and the faithful," that is, those who are especially in its externals, those who are in its internals, and those who are in its inmosts. (See A. R. 744.) It is indeed most essential that this should be remembered; for there is the ever-present danger that with some the Specific Church may be regarded as a code of doctrine, unto which a rigid adherence must be given just in the way and after the manner of their predilection; and, regarded thus, the Church is not realized to be as a real spiritual presence, and a direct association with the societies of the Lord's New Heaven.

     THIRD, THE PARTICULAR CHURCH OF THE LORD. As the very name indicates, this is the church in the individual. "Man is a church when he is in good and truth, and a company of such men constitutes the church in general." (A. C. 6113.) Elsewhere it is revealed that "he who is not in spiritual good, that is, in the good of charity, and in spiritual truths, that is, the truths of faith, is not of the church, notwithstanding his having been born within it; for the whole heavenly kingdom of the Lord is in the good of love and faith, and unless the church be in similar good, it cannot be a church, because not conjoined with heaven. For the church is the Lord's kingdom on earth. The church is so called, not from its having the Word and doctrinals thence, nor from the Lord being known there, and the sacraments being there administered; but it is a church from this, that men live according to doctrine from the Lord, and in such a manner that doctrine is the rule of life." (A. C. 6637.) And, the passage continues: "Those who are not of this character are not of the church, but are without it. . . . It also ought to be known that everyone who lives in the good of charity and of faith is a church and kingdom of the Lord. . . .

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The church in general is constituted of those who are churches in particular, however remote they are from each other."

     Thus the most particular form of the church of the Lord is that which exists in the individual member of the church, by means of regeneration. Hence the Lord said: "The Kingdom of God is within you." (C. L. 130.)

     These, then, form the general trine of the manifestations of the Church on earth; the Universal, known only to the Lord, but worldwide; the Specific, where the Lord is acknowledged and the Word is rightly understood; and the Particular is found in the individual man or woman whose heart is the home of good, whose mind is the storehouse of truth, and whose life is the manifestation of virtue and justice.

     But, while these are the general forms or divisions in which the Lord's church is to be found in the world, there will of necessity be many creations of and in those forms,-creations or organizations by which the uses of those forms may be exercised. Therefore, it is of the greatest importance that the great and vital distinction between the church and an organization of the church should be rationally seen and carefully remembered. The organization is not the Church, save in the sense in which an instrumental may be called by the name of the principal. This is most plainly taught as follows:

     "If man individually were not a church, there would not be any church in general; a congregation in general is what is commonly called a church, but in order that it may be a church, every individual in the congregation must be a church; for every general thing implies parts similar to itself." (A. C. 4292.)

     Organizations may and do come and go, according to the needs and states of the times and the states of men; but the real church of the Lord, as to Divine Truth, is, and for ever must be, eternal. Still, whilst holding fast to this great fact, which carefully differentiates between the church and the organizations which the church creates, it must also be realized that the necessities of earthly life require manifold forms and organizations for the ultimation of spiritual life, and for the proper performance of the duties of life in this world. This is in accordance with the teaching that "it is according to order that a first should proceed to its ultimations, both in general and in particular, in order that variety may exist in all things, and, by means of varieties, every quality." (T. C. R. 763; see also no. 210.)

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Ultimations are absolutely necessary. The New Church must have its externals-its distinctive externals-in order that it may be in its completeness and its power. Without these, the New Church cannot perform its uses of charity, and make manifest its distinctive love of the neighbor. The church is the third of the steps which reach from earth to heaven in the gradation of the neighbor who is to be loved,-the third of the rounds of that ladder, at the top of which, Divine Revelation tells us, stands the Lord Himself.

     III.

     Now, coming to the most general form of the church, as manifested in congregations of those who desire that the church should be established in them, it is here that difficulties must surely arise. Every member coming into the church's organization brings a human proprium with him or her. This every Pastor knows only too well; nor does he forget that into it he brings a proprium all his own. The human proprium is the obstacle to be overcome for the harmonious working of all the organizations of the church. Two things, therefore, should be constantly prominent before the members of a church organization; first, to see the use they can perform towards its progress, and to perform it faithfully; and secondly, to learn to mind one's own business, and thus to respect the freedom of the fellow men.

     The first consideration with all is the recognition that the church organization, for its real success, must and, will depend upon the recognition of order and its laws, as revealed by the Lord. The laws of order are both general and particular; and the order is that generals or universals should precede, and that particulars should follow. (A. C. 920.) And it is written: "Everyone also receives good in proportion as he loves the general good; for as far as anyone loves the community, so far he loves all and each." (H. H. 217.) There should be cultivated the disposition to seek the good of the general body. The Writings clearly inculcate the need for unity in generals, and for variety in details; provided the varieties always look to the Lord. (A. C. 1285.)

     Use, and use alone, must be the determining factor in any organization of the church; for the worth of any organization will ever be according to the degree in which the principles making the church enter into and govern the use, the methods, and the policy of that organization.

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     All things of the organization will depend for their efficacy and power upon the degree in which true order enters into and marks its work and doings; for all forms depend upon order for their life and power, and it is a teaching of Divine Revelation that order demands distinctions, and distinctions necessitate indications, and indications require signs, in order that the highest may descend into things lowest, and give them life. This is surely evidenced by the teaching of T. C. R. 680, in which the question is asked: "Moreover, what is order without distinction, and what is distinction without indications (or evidences), and what are indications without signs by which qualities are recognized?"

     Time forbids our entering categorically into what is especially meant by "distinctions, indications, and signs." In brief, it may be stated that distinctions are recognized in the Writings by such statements as that "the societies in the heavens are so distinct that nothing could be thought of more distinct." (A. C. 1394.) Again: "The reason why times and spaces were introduced into the world was that one thing might be distinguished from another." (T. C. R. 29.) And again: "The form makes one more perfectly in proportion as the things which enter into it are distinctly different, and yet united." (D. P. 4.)

     It will be apparent to all that, for the smooth working of any organization, distinctions must be made,-distinction between the uses of the priesthood and the laity; distinctions of temperament; distinctions of environment necessitated by the varieties of employment; distinctions of genius, inclining on the one hand to the celestial! and on the either to the spiritual; distinctions of viewpoint, from which one is wont to regard things in contradistinction to the viewpoint of another. All these and many other distinctions are required to be observed that true charity may be exercised towards the neighbor, and that real and not fictitious unity in variety may be attained.

     The need for indications will be apparent from the very necessity of the case, which is that one must know what are the offices of use which need to be performed; who are set apart to be responsible for their performance; and also when and how those uses are to be done.

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These uses will largely be self-evident to all who from a genuine affection for the church as the Lord's kingdom, desire to promote the well-being and utility of the organization of the church.

     As to the need for signs, that is shown especially in connection with the very gate or entrance into the Church by the holy ordinance of Baptism, which is itself "a sign in the spiritual world that a person belongs to Christians." (T. C. R. 680.) Again, by the Sacrament of the Holy Supper, the partaking of which is for a sign and seal that the communicants are children of God, if they worthily approach the Sacred Table. (See also Doctrine of Charity; Chap. VIII.)

     Finally, there may be called to mind the "great sign in heaven," mentioned in Apocalypse 12:1, which is said to signify "revelation respecting the New Church." (A. R. 532.) That "Sign"-Revelation-the Lord's own Word in trinal form,-is the joy and hope of all who have been called, in the Lord's mercy, into His New Church. For those thus called are privileged to enter into the glories of that Revelation, as it is seen and read by the angels, as it was spoken to the Apostles, and as it was given to Moses and the Prophets. And, being thus Divinely favored, they can realize, each in his own degree, the promise given in that portion of the prophecy of Isaiah which is said to treat spiritually of "the Advent of the Lord, and a New Heaven, and a New Church at that time,"-"And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem."

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MUSIC EDUCATION 1930

MUSIC EDUCATION       BESSE EDMONDS SMITH       1930

     ITS RELATION TO THE MUSIC OF THE CHURCH SERVICE.

     (An Address to the General Faculty of the Academy of the New Church, November, 1929.)

     Educators have announced seven objectives,-health, fundamental skills, worthy home membership, vocation, citizenship, worthy use of leisure, and ethical character. These are all valuable, but only as they have within them, before them and beside them the real, main object which gives them enduring worth,-namely, the spiritual motive; not only instruction in spiritual things, but the motivation of all those natural objectives as a basis for spiritual life. Bodily health, as an external of spiritual health; fundamental skill, that one may be a useful member of the external church; worthy membership in a home where the church is put first; vocation, as a part of the life of use by which may come regeneration; good citizenship, which makes one's country a safe home for the church; worthy use of leisure, which cultivates association with those of like spiritual thought and feeling; and true ethical beauty, resting on a spiritual foundation. Music has its part in all these objectives, but most of all in the development of the spiritual life, which should be at the root of all.

     Considering the mind of man in its two main divisions,-the intellect and the affections, music has its sure place as one of the many intellectual activities, but it takes a leading part in the life of the affections. It has the greatest power to move the will of the individual and of the group, and so has its peculiar value in our church life, because it is essentially communal or co-operative.

     All of the arts,-poetry, music, the drama, painting, sculpture, architecture,-had their birth, their origin, in Divine Worship; and in the church, all of the arts should return to their true source, to give of their best to build up the externals of worship, as a fitting receptacle of true, internal worship. We read:

     "The church cannot exist unless there be what is internal and what is external there. The internal without an external would be something indeterminate, unless it terminated in some external.

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For man is such, for the most part, that he does not know what the internal man is, or of what belongs to the internal man. Wherefore, unless there were external worship, he would know nothing whatever about that which is holy. When such men have charity, and a conscience therefrom, they have with them an internal worship in the external; for the Lord operates with them in charity, and in conscience, and causes all their worship to partake of what is internal." (A. C. 1083.)

     "By some kinds of musical instruments are expressed natural affections of one quality, by others natural affections of another quality; and when suitable harmony conspires, they actually call forth these affections. They who are skilled in music are aware of this, and also act accordingly in applying the several instruments to the purpose intended. This circumstance has its ground in the very nature of sounds, and of their agreement with the affections. Man learnt this at first, not from science and art, but from the hearing and its exquisite sense. Hence it is plain that it does not originate in the natural world, but in the spiritual, and in this case is derived from the correspondence of things which flow from order in the natural world with things in the spiritual world. Harmonious sound and its varieties in the natural world correspond to states of joy and gladness in the spiritual, and states of joy and gladness in the spiritual world exist from affections which in that world are affections of good and truth. From this it is manifest that musical instruments correspond to the delights and pleasantnesses of spiritual and celestial affections." (A. C. 8337.)

     As the affections are moved by music, so are they touched and molded by all the arts. It would seem, then, that artistic education is an important factor in the training of the will. That music is strongly influential in molding the will, was remarked by Plato when he quoted a wise man as saying, "Let me write the songs of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws."

     There is among educators a general recognition of music as a potent factor for good, as a means of expressing common affections, which are strengthened by such expression, so leading to a motivation of a field of conscious effort. I do not mean to belittle the intellectual side of music. I might speak at length on the fundamental harmonic basis that underlies the music of the simple "Amen" that we sing in the church service, or, let us say, on the theory of sound as it enters into the construction and the playing of the wind instruments of the orchestra, and it would show how the composer, the orchestra conductor and the teacher must have a mental training that compares favorably with that of the advanced mathematician and scientist.

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This is what Dr. Charles Eliot meant when he said: "Music is the best mind trainer of them all." Dr. Eliot did not know of the twofold structure of the mind, as we understand it. He had observed the intellectual development of men who had traversed the field of musical composition. There is striking evidence of this in the record of Magdalen College at Oxford, running over a period of thirty years. At Magdalen 10 per cent. of the students study music, 90 per cent. do not. But this 10 per cent. who are specializing in music take 75 per cent. of all the prizes and scholarships. The scholarships and prizes are open to all the students, but the 90 per cent. must be content with 25 per cent. of them.

     But I am turning aside from my subject,-music education as a training for the externals which clothe worship. In the long and varied story of man's spiritual development, music holds an honored place. It is the one art which has maintained a close relation to religion, and has always had its place as an external of worship. It is a universal language, needing no translation, It would sound strange to us to hear a Whittington Psalm in Sesuto, but the music would echo in our hearts, just as when we hear it sung: "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof. Who is He, this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty!" The potencies of music as an external of worship are as yet scarcely realized. Not only in psalms and hymns where familiar words are heard, but also in great anthems of praise, the organ and harp, string and wind ensembles, pure music comes as a spiritual creation, the servant of that inner state of genuine worship.

     What of the music teaching? Does it contribute to this end, congregational singing, all joining in chant, psalm and hymn; the choir of picked voices, representative of the congregation, and leading it; leaders, organists and other instrumental players? As yet we have only scratched the surface. In my own mind I have always held this as a goal, but formerly I kept it to myself. Now I present it to the students, and I would like to shout it from the housetops. The first use of the voice is to sing praises, and our voices are given us that we may use them in Divine worship.

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What kind of course have we in our schools, leading to this much-to-be-desired state of congregational music in the church, where everyone joins in the singing, and the most talented will play as well?

     Beginning with the kindergarten, the children listen and sing, taking active part in games and songs that train their sense of pitch and rhythm. In the primary grades, many songs are sung, and there is plenty of listening, with the general objective of music appreciation. With this foundation of musical experience, the children are ready for the technical training which begins in the second grade, learning to read a notation which will express the rhythm, the melody, the sense of key and phrase which is already developed. Through all the grades the reading of music goes hand in hand with song singing and listening lessons. In the last two years, when boy's voices begin to change, an elementary study of harmony is begun. I well remember when our present Boy's Academy Seniors were in the eighth grade, how interested they were to discover the harmonic form of the "Amen" sung in the church service. Throughout the grades, the music of the Morning Worship and the Children's Service is given first place.

     When the students enter the Secondary Schools there are several problems. For a time some of the boys can sing very little. Most of them are shy about using the new bass or tenor voice they are acquiring. I must go slowly with them, and not insist steady return, but try to interest them in listening and some students come from other schools where they have had more musical training than the average; there are others who have had little or no training. I have had several boys and girls come to us at sixteen or more years of age who have never sung a tone. One of these never learned to sing at all; another, after much private training, acquired only his Fraternity song and the first phrase of "Hodhoo." But another of these, who had never sung at all, took a prominent part in an opera in his second year here. With classes of such diversity, what technical training can I give? In most High Schools there are elective courses for those who have a special taste for music. We have no electives. But we recognize the importance of music in the church service, and the whole body of students receives as much training in choral singing as is given in the best High Schools, if not more.

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     I will not weary you with my tale of breathing exercises, tone production, and diction, but you may be interested in the Listening Lesson, which is tucked in whenever time for it can be managed. I usually have a record on the phonograph, ready for listening when the voices are tired. What a change the phonograph, the radio, the children's concerts have brought about in the familiarity with good music! While jazz is still prime, most of the students are familiar with the sound of many classics, and are ready to choose a favorite,-a symphony movement, a solo instrument or a voice. I use vocal records to give them an ideal of voice quality, both solo and chorus. But quiet listening must be cultivated, and it should be. As the young People need to grow familiar with Shakespeare, Longfellow or George Bernard Shaw, so also they must come in contact with the great minds of Beethoven, Wagner and Debussy.

     The problem is, how to cover the ground in two Periods per week. The projects are music for Morning Worship, for the Sunday Service, for the special occasions that come throughout the year,-Charter Day, Christmas, Swedenborg's Birthday, and Commencement, or music for a Pageant, an Operetta or a Cantata.

     Educators recognize the project as of especial importance in an art class, where the lesson consists in doing as well as thinking. We have plenty of projects, but almost entirely in the field of music for worship. There is need also of secular music, to give expression to the feeling that is turned toward the natural world. However, there is a splendid responsive interest in the music of worship. The students are always ready to study a Psalm, and frequently make their own choice. But they are apt to prefer the one that was studied last year or the year before, and I try to cover as much of the Psalmody as possible in the cycle of four years. In the last four years we have learned fourteen Psalms well, also parts of five Psalms for the Pageant, besides shorter passages at the end of the Psalmody.

     Chanting is not popular with the students, though I present it carefully, with historical sanction, as the means of singing the letter of the Word with simplicity. Recently some girls requested more chanting, not that they liked it, but, as it must be done, they would like to do it well.

     In this connection I would like to quote a passage from the Writings:

     "There is a speech of good spirits, and of angelic spirits, composed of several speaking at the same time, particularly in gyres or choirs.

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The speech of those who discourse in choirs has often been heard by me; it flows with a sort of rhythmical cadence. . . . The reason of this is, that they think and speak in society, and hence the form of discourse has cadence according to the connection and unanimity of the society. Such, in old times, was the form of canticles, and such is that of the Psalms of David." (A. C. 1648.)

     As to the Hebrew Anthems, there is much variety in the attitude of the students. Most of those who have had Dr. Acton's course in Hebrew like to sing it, and can read it; many more do not know the language at all, and are inclined to make fun of it. When the passage to be sung has been presented in the Hebrew by a priest, probably in a class in religion, there is an improvement in the general attitude, which makes it possible for my teaching to reach the students. But after they know, a Hebrew anthem, there is no mistake about the general satisfaction in singing it. There is a sphere that proceeds from the singing of it, that reaches every scoffer, and they sing it while dishwashing, shaving, walking on the road at midnight, and even while shoveling coal at the coal pile.

     What of the College students whose voices have reached a maturity that is ready for individual voice training? Many of them have a general knowledge of the music of our Church, and a general vocal training. Of those who come from isolated places, many have little or no knowledge of the music of the Church. A few have not used their voices at all, owing to the tendency towards specialization in High School education. The College students should be a foundation for our real choir in the cathedral. Here are the mature voices; here are the students with whom the love of the church music has been developed in the Boys' Academy and the Girls' Seminary. Here also is a small group who may enter the Theological School, and whose future use would greatly benefit by such training. At the other extreme is a group of students who spend from one to three years in our College, and leave with no instruction in music as an external of worship.

     We have college courses in music, but they are for those specially interested in music, not for the whole group. The courses in History and Appreciation of Music are always well attended and enjoyed. They are similar to the courses given in any college, except that I make a strong point of the history of church music, and of hearing many records, beginning with ancient Greek and Jewish music, Georgian music, Palestrina and Bach, following this with our own church music,-Psalmody, Liturgy and Hymnal.

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     In alternate years, I give a course in teaching school music, the principles of education applied to school music teaching. This course has been fruitful in providing teachers of music for several of our elementary schools. Along with this, a number of students take private lessons in the manual arts of the organ and piano, specializing in accompanying. One of these students generally serves as organist and accompanist in the Morning Worship of the Academy Schools, intending to use this experience in the development of church music in other centers. A part of the course in Music Education is practice teaching. Last year we took charge of the music in the second grade of the elementary school, the students doing the teaching in turn under my direction. I think the results of this course have been satisfactory to those who have employed these teachers, but it would be far more satisfactory if sufficient time was given to it. It should be a three-hour course instead of a two-hour course.

     In the Theological Schools of the Christian Church a thorough course in church music is given. I have talked several times with Mr. Waldo Selden Pratt, who occupies the Chair of Music at the Hartford Theological Seminary, and I formerly studied with Clarence Dickinson, who holds a like post at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Their subject matter includes music in relation to the church service, a study of hymns, anthems, chants, choirs, leaders, organs and organists, and a brief survey of the history of church music. Without the technical training of the choir leader, 'but given a knowledge of the fundamentals of church music, the minister thus has the ability to control the quality of the music of the church service, and guides its spirit. In our churches, some of our ministers have had considerable knowledge of music, and have found it vastly useful, even to the extent of taking the direction of the music when a leader is lacking. Recently I had a two-hour session with a young minister who wanted to conduct his congregational singing practice, and came to me for help in various technical matters. When our ministers have a clearer idea of what our church music should be, then our congregational music will improve greatly. Also, when a new service book is being prepared, such as the Liturgy, Hymnal or Psalmody, it is vitally necessary that at least one minister should be a musician.

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Bishop W. F. Pendleton, who gave us our Liturgy and Hymnal, often spoke with regret of his lack of a musical education; yet he had a great insight as to the quality of music, and taught me many things about the kind of music that is essentially worship. Other musicians worked on the Liturgy, but the one who combined the office of priest with skilled musicianship, Rev. W. B. Caldwell, made it possible for us to have a book of worship of such musical excellence.

     Another point at which we fall short is in the development of instrumental music. Recent years have seen such an advance in instrumental music in Public Schools as almost surpasses belief. We have had many students come to us, from such wide apart portions of our circumference as Glenview and South Africa, who had already had the experience of playing in a High School band or orchestra, and who wanted to continue here in this form of activity. All over the country, in every High School and Junior High School, there is a band or an orchestra. Even in such small schools as the Lower Moreland High School in Huntingdon Valley, there is a small orchestra. Naturally, the resulting sounds are often torturing to the ears; but such a beginning is much better than no beginning at all. Many schools have really fine orchestras, and on more than one occasion I have known Dr. Walter Damrosch to compliment, a school orchestra to the extent of conducting them through a number. Many of the children who begin with harmonicas, ukeleles and saxophones go on to the orchestral instruments, or to the piano or organ. I know that our curriculum is crowded, but a place should be made for this, not so much because other schools do it, but because the children need this form of expression, and there is a place for it in our church worship. We made a good beginning a few years ago, and we should carry on.

     With an ideal of vocal training in our schools, instrumental music for all who desire it and have the capacity, we should then have material for a choir director to use. What of the office of choir director? What qualities does he need? And if we have such a man in the church, would we grant him the authority, and provide the means, to give full scope to his abilities! "Music director" is the proper name for him, for he should have full power, under the pastor, to develop the possibilities of the singers in choir and congregation, the organist, and other instrumentalists who may play in the church.

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He needs many complex qualities, for he must be both teacher and leader, and these are not synonymous. He needs a voice to talk to a crowd. (Few women can do that, so I am not considering a woman director, though many times we have a woman director, because she is more apt than a man to give her services without remuneration.) He needs a singing voice for illustration; a knowledge of the organ and piano goes without saying; also experience in conducting an orchestra. He must have personality, to interest those who are giving their services freely under his direction. He must have endless patience and tact, to manage group-work, particularly since this group-work is of a kind to stir the affections and also use physical activity; for this combination makes discipline difficult. Yet, without order, much time is wasted, little is accomplished. He must know the music of the church, and musical literature in general. Most of all, he must be something of a New Churchman. I say "something," for we none of us know how much of a New Churchman we are (or the other fellow is), but at least our music director must feel a call to work in this particular field. I have been thinking of this for a number of years, and surveying the men outside of the Church who have these qualities. They are occupied with the music of large cities,-directors of choirs, schools, universities and orchestras. Only one such who was drawn to the teachings of the New Church could be persuaded to occupy himself with our problems.

     We need such a leader greatly, and we ought to find one, and entreat him to come with us. We have artists engaged in carving stone and metal and wood in the service of the church. We have our church kept warm in winter, and kept clean always. Many strangers come, and admire all except our music. Let us have a leader to build up the music, so that it will be a fit offering in the service of Divine Worship. The office of the director of music should be one of honor. This is generally the case in the Christian churches. I know of one choir director who was publicly consecrated to the duties and privileges of his office. Also, I find in the South, where the former Church has a much greater appearance of life, there is a custom of having, as a pastor's assistant, a man who trains a choir of adults, and another of children, and takes an active part in Sunday School work, even conducting church service in the absence of the pastor.

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In England, the musician who is responsible for the music of the church service is placed upon a much more serious and dignified footing. The profession of choirmaster, called "precentor," is one of honor. Arthur Sullivan, composer of "Pinafore" and "The Mikado" was first a choir boy, later a precentor; Cesar Franck was a choir director and organist in Paris; Johann Sebastian Bach spent most of his life training choir boys to sing, and directing the work of St. Thomas School and Church in Leipzig.

     But let us not leave the music of the church service wholly to the choir and the music director. Sharing in the musical part of the church service is a right of every member, and should be a duty and a pleasure. Our slogan should be: "Every New Churchman for music, and music for every New Churchman!" An inspiring leader should fill the chapel for music practice after doctrinal class, especially when all know that he is there for that exact purpose, and filled to the brim with enthusiasm for the cause. Community singing we should also have, whenever there is a community gathering. When the Civic and Social Club meets or holds a club night, when the Younger Generation or the Woman's Guild meet, or any group doctrinal class, why not have a "sing" for fifteen minutes? Home and community songs, if preferred; for they will develop the voices, and the songs will strengthen those external affections by giving them united expression. A Psalm might also be practiced, if the majority agrees. Or a practice of the music for the next Sunday service might be the deliberate plan of the committee in charge. A practice of the Sunday service music might be held in the dormitories one evening each week. There are a dozen people in the community capable of leading such community sings or congregational practices. It is the united effort of every member of the society that will make it successful.

     In the days when I was working under Father Pendleton in the music of the school, choir and congregation, he often talked to me about the power of music. He saw all the arts as molding the will, but especially music, because it is the one art that can be used by all the people as a universal or common expression. The power of song is so great as to be a potent factor in enabling people of various strong individualities to work together in a cause, to think alike sufficiently to be bonded together for uses. The presentation of truth often leads to a disposition to argue, but psalms and hymns render a valuable service, in that they remove those special hindrances and difficulties which obstruct the entrance of truth into men's hearts.

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     All art is concerned with Doing with Beauty. And the ritual of the church is the art of arts, using all the arts in a speech and an action which is representative of holy things, and by this representation brings the heart and mind of man into conjunction with the Lord. It is the will of man that must be moved by the arts, in order that he may turn his thought to receive instruction.

     As the church grows in its use of music in worship, may we not expect much more of original composition, to express the state of the church? We have our great book, the Psalmody, which Mr. Whittington wrote for us, and there is some little original work in the Liturgy and Hymnal. We should look forward to creative activity, but we must develop our music, to form a basis upon which this creative music may rest. For a new art must grow in the thought and affection of the people; it is given expression by the one who has the technique and the genius to clothe it.

     I would suggest to a budding composer that we need settings for many Psalms which are not included in the Whittington collection, also for many passages in the New Testament, particularly in the Apocalypse; simple unisonal songs which all can sing, with instrumental harmonic background, something like the hymn "Patience," or "Calm on the Listening Ear of Night," or like the 3rd Psalm in the Psalmody. The harmony should be boldly expressive of the general internal thought, and the melody should grow out of this harmony and rest upon it.

     Our most pressing need is for a correct notation of the Hebrew anthems. Modern notation is much more carefully written than the notation from which most of our Hebrew anthems were copied. I have been working on this for some time, but what is needed is an agreement among the teachers of Hebrew as to the relative value of long and short vowels. Will my present use of the grace note for the schwah satisfy you as a help to correct pronunciation? I am ambitious to make a notation of the old favorites among these Hebrew anthems that will lend itself to the correct and beautiful sound of the language.

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     MUSIC AT THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

     In closing, I would like to speak of the need of preparing music for the Church Services at the coming General Assembly. This should be planned now, and published at the time of the February meetings, so that all the societies may join with us in this preparation. The whole church joining together would add greatly to the sphere of worship at the Assembly services. For the Nineteenth of June Service we might prepare to sing the 18th Psalm, with orchestral accompaniment. It was sung in 1898 at the Assembly in Glenview. It divides perfectly into four parts, which might follow each other after the three Lessons, and an orchestral interlude which might be drawn from it.

     Let me conclude with a brief passage from the True Christian Religion describing a festival in heaven: "On these days of festivity there are concerts of instrumental and vocal music in places of public resort, surrounded by latticework of interwoven vines, from which hang clusters of grapes. Within the lattices, in three rows, one above another, sit the musicians with stringed and wind instruments, high-toned and low-toned, some powerful and some sweet. Singers of both sexes are at the sides, and they delight the citizens with the sweetest jubilees and songs, choruses and solos, varied at intervals. On these days of festivity, this is continued from morning until noon, and then again until evening. Every morning, also, the sweetest songs of virgins and young girls are heard from the houses around the public places, with which the city resounds. There is some one affection of spiritual love that is sung every morning, sounded forth by modifications or modulations of the musical voice; and that affection is perceived in the singing, as if this were the affection itself. It flows into the souls of the hearers, and excites them to correspondence. Such is heavenly song." (T. C. R. 745.)

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NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1930

NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS       Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1930

     The Books of Judges and I Samuel.

     The period during which Israel was ruled by judges marked a chaotic interlude in the history of the chosen nation, and can be understood only in the light of the recurring statement, "In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes." (Judges 17:6, etc.) An article dealing with this obscure period will appear shortly in the pages of the LIFE. The Writings do not treat extensively of it, but the following statement furnishes light upon the general representation of the government by judges:

     "In the representative Church among the posterity of Jacob, there was first a kingdom of judges, afterwards a kingdom of priests, and lastly a kingdom of kings; and the kingdom of judges represented the Divine Truth from the Divine Good; the kingdom of priests, who were also judges, represented the Divine Good from which Divine Truth comes; and the kingdom of kings represented the Divine Truth without the Divine Good; but when something of the priesthood was added to the kingly office, then the kings also represented the Divine Truth in which there was so much of good as there was of the priesthood added to the kingly office. All these things were instituted in the Jewish Church, that they might represent the states of heaven; for in heaven there are two kingdoms, one of which is called the celestial, and the other the spiritual kingdom; the celestial kingdom is what is called the Lord's priestly office, and the spiritual is what is called His regal one; in the latter the Divine Truth reigns, in the former the Divine Good; and as the representative of the celestial kingdom began to Perish when they desired a king, therefore, that a representative of the Lord's kingdom in the heavens might still be continued, the Jews were then separated from the Israelites, and the Jewish kingdom represented the Lord's celestial kingdom, and the Israelitish His spiritual kingdom.

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Those who are acquainted with these things may know why the forms of government among the posterity of Jacob were successively changed; also why, when they asked a king, Samuel said to them from Jehovah that by so doing they rejected Jehovah from reigning over them (I Samuel 8:7); and that he then declared to them the right of a king (ver: 11), by which is described Divine Truth without Good. Those who are acquainted with the things mentioned above may also know why something of the priestly office was granted to David, and why, after the time of Solomon, the kingdom was divided into two,-the Jewish and Israelitish kingdoms." (A. C. 8770.)

     The Arcana Readings.

     The doctrinal readings for February (A. C. 110-241) disclose the spiritual sense of the two trees in the Garden of Eden, the creation of the woman, and the eating from the forbidden tree. Elsewhere in the Writings it is pointed out that the two trees, between which man was placed, testified to a state of free agency which existed from the beginning,-an, equilibrium, at first between a higher and lower kind of good (C. L. 444), and later between good and evil. (T. C. R. 466, 469, and 475 to 478; A. E. 739:5-12.)

     The serpent which deceived the woman, and which stands as the cause of human miseries, was not a disguise of the Devil (personal or abstract), but represents the sensual degree, which, with its instincts of self-preservation, also has its humble place in the paradise of God. It was used by the Ancients to denote circumspection, prudence and even Divine Wisdom; and therefore, when fiery serpents infested the camp of Israel, a brazen serpent was raised by Moses to procure a miraculous deliverance, since that serpent represented the Sensual of the Divine Human that was to come. Thought from the senses and their appearances and fallacies leads to a persuasion that life is one's own, which is the root of all falsity and the ground of all disobedience and evil. The false philosophy which, confirmed by sciences unknown to the Ancients, disputes the substantial reality of spiritual things and abstracts all concreteness from them, is at the present day the type of such wisdom of the serpent. (A. C. 196.)

     The man Adam stands for the rational understanding, which the imagination (the woman), allured by the affections of the sensual, bends to its own purposes.

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     The primitive celestial state of the race perished when men began to think from confirmations rather than from the perception of the truth. The celestial must not touch scientifics. (A. C. 202.) Even those of the spiritual genius are not allowed to think from confirmations, for only the evil do this. (Matt. 5:37.) The spiritual should think from faith and from that spiritual perception which is called conscience. Spiritual truths can never be explored by scientifics or apprehended by our senses or by philosophy, but if these dead tools are elevated above their place, truths will be denied, despite their truth. (A. C. 233.)

     The fig leaves with which the fallen couple girded themselves signify a state of natural good, and especially the excuses and reasonings by which men hide their evils. Natural good is still accompanied with something of shame on account of evil. When this sense of shame also passes, evil becomes rampant and the break-up of society is near. The depravity of more modern days is referred to (in A. C. 217), when men, so far from blushing for their wickedness, make it their boast. The fig has fallen from the fig tree, and the foliage withers away. This is the end of the Church. But Jehovah God "made for the man and his wife coats of skin, and clothed them." The Lord gives external revelation when the voice of perception has been silenced; and thus men can again be clothed, now with spiritual and natural good. (A. C. 292, 295.)

     Resuscitation from Death.

     The first published treatment of the doctrine of the resurrection is found in nos. 168 to 189. This and subsequent sections on the other life were later expanded into the work on Heaven and Hell (published 1758), and a full treatment of the present topic is there found, in chapter XLVI.

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FIFTIETH YEAR 1930

FIFTIETH YEAR       Editor       1930


NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office a Publication, Lancaster, Pa.
Published Monthly By
THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
BRYN ATHYN, PA.
Editor                    Rev. W. B. Caldwell, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager          Mr. H. Hyatt, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address and business communications should be sent to the Business Manager.

     TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
In the United States, $3.00 a year, payable in advance. Single Copy, 30 cents.
     As all uses may be said to have both an initiament and a beginning (initium and principium), so it is of record that NEW CHURCH LIFE, now in its fiftieth year, had a "previous existence" in the form of a Manuscript Paper, issued and circulated before the publication of its first printed number in January, 1881, when it made its bow to the New Church public as "A Monthly Journal for the Young People of the New Church," with a Board of Editors, five in number: Andrew Czerny, Charles P. Stuart, E. J. E. Schreck, Gee. G. Starkey, and E. P. Anshutz, who was also Business Manager. In the opening editorial we read: "Our paper will be managed by the younger members of the Church, but we hope and trust to make it full of interest for New Church people of all ages." The purpose and animating spirit of the new venture are made evident in the first-page announcement which we herewith reprint:

     NEW CHURCH LIFE.

     "A few years ago, about thirty of the young people connected with the New Church in Philadelphia formed a Club for intellectual and social culture. In the fall of 1879 they began a Manuscript Paper for their own use. In its contents, the paper was somewhat miscellaneous, treating of topics doctrinal, literary and social. Some of the articles were intended to instruct and others merely to amuse. Of the later numbers of the periodical, manuscript copies were made and sent to friends in other cities. The paper met with so favorable a reception that its continuance was called for.

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This led to the conclusion that its sphere might profitably be enlarged so as to embrace the Young People of the New Church generally. Measures were accordingly taken to Print and publish the paper, and as the result we herewith present the first number of 'NEW CHURCH LIFE.' Devoted to the interests of the Young People of the New Church, our journal will, we hope, satisfy a great want in our literature. The NEW CHURCH LIFE will be very similar in its character to the manuscript paper; only that the Department of Correspondence and Church News will be greatly enlarged. As formerly, contributions will, for the most part, be from the young people themselves.

     "The NEW CHURCH LIFE is to be thoroughly and distinctively a New Church paper, designed to promote the culture of the Young People in the doctrines and life of the Church; thus, if possible, leading them to embrace fervently the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem as the only means of becoming true men and women.

     "And, finally, by bringing the Young People into closer relations with one another, the NEW CHURCH LIFE, it is hoped, will become an ultimate of that bond of love which must always exist among those whose one great aim is to become useful members of the New Church, which, in heaven and on earth, is 'the Crown of all Churches.'"
Title Unspecified 1930

Title Unspecified       Editor       1930

     The favorable reception accorded the new journal is acknowledged by the editors in the second number, where we read:

     "Since the sending out of the first number of NEW CHURCH LIFE, we have received a number of hearty responses that we should like to lay before our readers if space permitted. One subscriber says: 'I am much pleased with the strong and pure New Church sentiment pervading its leading articles. I am in hearty sympathy with the ends and objects of your enterprise, and wish you every success.' Another says: 'I am very much pleased with the first number of the LIFE, and hope it will be a long Life, as I know it will be a useful one. I trust you will soon find it necessary to make it a weekly instead of a monthly journal.'"

     It would seem, however, that the "youthful" enterprise quickly "grew up." With the beginning of the second volume in 1882, NEW CHURCH LIFE appeared simply as "A Monthly Journal." It continued under the same editorial management for several years, but had now entered the wider field of a church periodical, filling the need for a vehicle of expression for Academy thought and opinion, furnishing a chronicle of church and school activities, and eventually becoming the official organ of the General Church.

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     We shall not here attempt to review the career which has brought the magazine to its fiftieth year of continuous publication, but would mark the occasion by paying a warm tribute to the founders of what has proven to be such a useful instrumentality in the development of the Academy movement. It is a fact that, from the first number, as the editors hoped, the contents of NEW CHURCH LIFE Were "full of interest for New Church people of all ages." In the first number we find articles on "Natural Truth in the Writings," "Selfishness of Man," "Anatomy and Psysiology in the Light of the New Church"; also Reporter's Notes and Correspondence recording the news of the Church; and a humorous treatment of "Proverbs,"-the first of a long series of delightful skits and stories, chiefly from the facile pen of Mr. E. P. Anshutz, which enlivened the pages of the LIFE for more than a decade. By then it had become more of a "theological journal," though we should be loth to believe that, in its altered character, the magazine has ever lost the youthful spirit and sound purpose of its inaugural days.

     A FIFTY-YEAR INDEX.

     Down through the years, NEW CHURCH LIFE has become a storehouse of valuable material, embodied in sermons, doctrinal articles, historical records and general information, which should be readily available to the student and general reader of the Church today. It is true that each volume has been furnished with an Index of Contents, and that we have an Index covering the first nineteen volumes, 1881-1899; also that the later Rev. David H. Klein prepared a card-index for Volumes 1900-1920, and that the Rev. L. W. T. David is now engaged in bringing this up to date. But all of this should be brought together in a single volume, and it is our hope that this may be accomplished, and that after the close of the present year we shall be able to publish a Fifty-year Index.

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HANDBOOK TO THE "ARCANA COELESTIA." 1930

HANDBOOK TO THE "ARCANA COELESTIA."       Rev. W. L. GLADISH       1930

     THE WORLD WITHIN THE BIBLE. A Handbook to Swedenborg's Arcana Coelestia. By William F. Wunsch. New York: The New-Church Press, 1929. Cloth, 161 pages. Price, $1.50.

     The Preface of this work states: "In a first book like this on Swedenborg's Arcana Coelestia one cannot hope to have achieved the comprehensiveness which the scope of that mighty work invites, or, of course, anything like the penetration which its depth allows. The writer will be much gratified if only this Handbook proves helpful. It may aid reader and student, perhaps, to discover new things in the Arcana, or to take a more appreciative grasp of familiar things, or just to read and study with increased facility. Some who would not attempt that extensive work may be glad to avail themselves in Chapters viii and ix of a summary acquaintance with what is the heart of the Arcana,--its serial interpretation of Genesis and Exodus."

     And the publisher's announcement says that Mr. Wunsch's book "presents Swedenborg's idea of an inner sense in Scripture. It is specifically a handbook to his chief Scripture exposition, Arcana Coelestia, which is so unusual in the field of Bible exposition, and so voluminous, that it very much needs an introduction, and a condensation, too, of what chiefly it has to offer, namely, interpretation of the deeper meaning of Genesis and Exodus. The Handbook summarizes the Arcana's interpretation of Genesis and Exodus, first in narrative form, and then in several charts. Part 1 is an introduction to the Arcana, and discusses the general nature of Swedenborg's Bible interpretation. Part 2 is the summary of the interpretation. Part 3 examines Swedenborg's methods of interpretation in the Arcana, and gives help with many terms which he uses. The book is addressed to general reader and student both, and is serviceable with the Arcana and apart from it."

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     The book is attractively gotten up, good paper and type, well bound. The style of treatment is interesting,-impartial and judicial rather than partisan. It shows deep thought and study of the Arcana, and is doubtless the result of years of classwork in the Theological School at Cambridge. It also shows unusual familiarity, for a New Churchman, with modern Bible criticism, In fact, one cannot help feeling that the author wrote with one eye all the time on Dr. Fosdick and other expositors of Sacred Scripture who reject all above the plain grammatical sense. This, of course, anyone may do who cares to do it, but I cannot imagine any more barren ground for the New Church.

     I confess to a great deal of sympathy with Mr. Wunsch's purpose,-to popularize the Arcana, to remove unwarranted "bogies" or " ghosts," to bring out the beauties of a connected internal sense, so that the contents of so great a work may be seen as a whole. And in many respects the work is well done. It is a very readable little book. The author has a way that carries his reader along with him,-a persuasive way that makes one feel that whatever he says is true.

     And yet I cannot but doubt whether the Handbook will lead anyone to the Arcana Coelestia who is not already a devoted reader of it. In the first place, it eliminates too much, telling us that the essentials of the Arcana's eight thousand pages can be contained in three hundred! Then why waste one's time reading the seventy-seven hundred superfluous pages?

     Would it not be a stronger appeal,-if one really believes the Arcana is worthwhile reading for the average man and woman,-to show how essential, how beautiful, how interesting, are the whole contents of the great work?

     And surely this might be done. Who that believes in God, and in His power to do what He will with the sons of men, can doubt that, when the time came to open His Word, He would provide that it should be done in the best possible way? Does not our Lord know the constitution of the human mind? Does He not know what is best calculated to appeal to that mind,-the best possible form in which to clothe His Divine Love and Wisdom? Was He not able to raise up and prepare a human instrument to do this work as it should be done? When He had provided such a man, prepared him from infancy, trained and educated him, called him and filled him with His Spirit, that he might be His Servant, can we doubt the revelator's wisdom in the fulfillment of this mission?

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We may rest assured that the form of the Arcana, thus given by God Himself, is the very form of heaven, the form of the Word, of the Divine Mind Itself, and the form into which the mind of the regenerate man is to be brought. There is no redundancy, no superfluity.

     Think of the occasion, and of all that is involved. This is to be the crown and fulfillment of the Divine purpose which has run through all the ages. The Lord, Who came in the flesh, and Who yet, after seventeen centuries, is not known as the God of the Church, is to present Himself in another form, is to make His Second Advent, in Spirit and in His Word, to raise up a genuine and internal Church, which shall make one with the Church in heaven. We may be sure that the Divine Love would desire, and the Divine Wisdom provide, that the work of opening the Divine Word and revealing the Lord would be done in a way that would make the strongest possible appeal to man. It is our contention, therefore, that the Arcana Coelestia is a perfect work, fitted as it stands to make the strongest possible appeal to the salvable human mind and heart.

     This is no argument against drawing from the waters of that great lake and offering a cupful to any particular form of mind. I hope there will in time be many handbooks, introductions, summaries and explanations of the Arcana. But I want to see them all quicken one's thirst for the Arcana itself, leading one there, that he may take deep and joyous drafts of the water of life. This Handbook does not seem to me to do that, but rather to minimize the necessity of "wading through" so vast an accumulation of materials. In fact, I rise from a second reading of the book with the impression that the author thinks the modern world knows more about the Bible, or, let us say, about the letter of the Word, than Swedenborg knew. For he says:

     "The sense of the letter exists for him (Swedenborg), and there is a right and spiritually profitable grasp of that sense. Only with it he is not immediately concerned; it is not his part to expound it. In brief, it is not his field." And again: "We offer here only the general conclusion that when Swedenborg makes what are fairly numerous comments on Scripture or on problems with it, he does so by the way, not affecting to make contributions as in his own field of the spiritual sense.

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He is reciting the thought of the Biblical world, fashioning an argument in the light of what was deemed to be the fact, and So on. The comment is actually in the field of the Word's literal sense, but is nothing that Swedenborg feels he has to give." (P, 161)

     Notice especially the words: "He is reciting the thought of the Biblical world, fashioning an argument in the light of what was deemed to be the fact."

     But it is in Appendix II that Mr. Wunsch shows how entirely he trusts the conclusions of modern Bible critics, and distrusts Swedenborg when he is not in harmony with them. For this purpose, the whole eight pages of the Appendix might be quoted, for there is never any effort to show that Swedenborg might have been right in his critical notes on the letter of the Word; but wherever differences are noted, and many are noted, there is some kind of apology or explanation for Swedenborg's "mistake." To quote from Appendix

     "When Abraham's name is changed from its first form to its second, by combining a different second word with the first, Swedenborg speaks of the introduction of an 'h' only, and from the Divine name, where it is the sole Divine letter." (P. 158.)

     Now the whole of the internal sense pertaining to the Lord's glorification and man's regeneration, as represented by the change of the names of Sarah and Abraham, hangs upon the introduction of the letter 'h' from the Divine name. Yet the author of the Handbook says, in opposition to Swedenborg, that the change was made "by combining a different word with the first."

     Again: "In numerous statements Swedenborg seems to deny meaning to Scripture short of the deeper meaning. Such statements will trouble the reader who finds meaning in the letter." (P. 159.) "He says of a passage that it has no meaning unless it has a spiritual sense. . . .In the former of these passages a plain meaning is called in question; in the latter a passage given sufficient meaning in any commentary is called (without the spiritual sense) 'only sounding words.' Words of the Lord's own are said to be unintelligible, or to amount to nothing, without the spiritual sense. . . ." "These are difficult attitudes to Scriptures which have an undeniable and solid literal meaning. Swedenborg is dropping into a field in which he does not mean to make any contribution; he thinks he is finding argument for the spiritual sense so; and it would seem to be out of order to Press his declarations too hard.

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It seems clear that in many instances only unimaginativeness shuts one out of meaning." (P. 160.)

     The "one" whose "unimaginativeness shuts him out of the meaning of the letter" is Swedenborg At least, so I understand the statement and the whole force of the argument.

     And again: "Sometimes, when meaning is assigned the letter, it is inadequate, or less than the letter has actually had for readers; an intended meaning is denied."

     If the writer of the Handbook were willing, and therefore able, to rise out of the atmosphere of the modern Bible critic, where the fogs of self-intelligence obscure the Sun of heaven, into the light in which Swedenborg's mind moves, his difficulties would be removed; his apologies would be for the other school of thought.

     Think for a moment who this man was, whose work he criticizes so lightly. Emanuel Swedenborg had a mind trained as few minds have been trained through the whole gamut of mechanics, science, and philosophy. Without doubt, he had a mind more open to the light of genuine intelligence, and to the wisdom of heaven, than any other mere man has ever had. When his call came to the higher office of revelator and servant of the Lord, he put away all other studies, all other books, but the Word of the Lord in various languages, including the original languages in which it was written. For a number of years he devoted himself to the study of the Word exclusively. Think what this would mean, with his abilities, and with his habit of most minute and painstaking examination of all authorities before forming his conclusions.

     Moreover, he had access to the men who wrote the Word, saw and talked with Moses and the other sacred writers. He insists that the fulness, holiness and power of the Word is in the sense of the letter. He was associated with the angels, and entered into their light. But he was at the same time associated with the Jews, who were in the sense of the letter alone. He was gifted with the faculty of thinking internally and externally at the same time. And he was filled with the Lord's Spirit, so that he might take nothing from the mouth of any angel or spirit, but from the mouth of the Lord alone. (T. C. R. 779.)

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     Would not such a man know a thousandfold more about the sense of the letter of the Divine Word than men who dissect it as the dead literature of past ages, with no thought that the Lord has spoken it and preserved it, and has opened its genuine natural meaning, as well as its internal sense?

     "It is to be known that in the spiritual sense all things cohere in continuous connection, for the fitting together of which every single word in the sense of the letter, or natural sense, contributes. Wherefore, if a single little word were taken away, the connection would be broken and the bond perish. . . . In order to prevent this, it has come to pass, of the Lord's Divine Providence, that all the details, even to the letters, were numbered; this by the Massorites." (S. S. 13.)

     "The wisdom of the angels of heaven subsists upon the knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom of men from the sense of the letter of the Word. . . . Hence it is that, of the Divine Providence of the Lord, it has come about that the Word,-as to the sense of the letter, from its first revelation, has not been mutilated, not even as to a word or a letter in the original text; for every word is a fulcrum, and to a certain extent even every letter." (A. E. 1085.)

     Can anyone read these statements of the Writings concerning the interrelation of the spiritual and natural senses of the Word, and still think that Swedenborg could open for men the internal sense, and yet be in ignorance or error concerning the sense of the letter?

     Our Lord once said, "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight." (Luke 10:21.)

     Let those who wish seek to convince men of the glories of the Heavenly Doctrine by admitting all the errors and imperfections that the Bible critic may allege against Swedenborg's Writings. But I believe that a more successful appeal will be to those who are childlike enough to believe that the Lord Who gave the Word, and has preserved it in its integrity, the same Lord Who fulfilled it as to every jot and tittle, has Himself come again and opened it. Here is the very light of truth in its fulness and perfection.

     I know that not all can receive this truth; but, even as at His First Advent, there must be a judgment and separation between those who follow the traditions of men and those who are willing to leave all and follow the Lord.

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NEW BEGINNING IN SWEDEN 1930

NEW BEGINNING IN SWEDEN              1930

     "The Divine Providence is different from all other leading and government, in that Providence continually regards the eternal." (A. C. 8560.) With this sentiment as a motto, a new periodical of the New Church makes its appearance in the capital of Sweden, after a "palace-revolution " within the "Swedish Societies of the New Church," the organization headed up to 1920 by the late Rev. C. J. N. Manby, and since then by his successor, the Rev. David Rundstrom.

     A split occurred in the society a few years after Mr. Manby's death, and the Stockholm papers were soon treated to intimate tidbits while the rival parties within the society indulged in mutual disparagements, in court and out. The outcome was the formation of a separate little group around Mr. F. G. Lindh, the painstaking Swedenborg investigator, who is also editor of the NYA KYRKANS TIDNING. But the group of dissentients could only maintain a skeleton organization, which now holds in trust the well-endowed Book Room.

     The Rev. Rundstrom's policies continued to alienate a number of the staunchest members of the society, and, after his prolonged absence on a missionary trip to Finland last summer, he was relieved of his editorship of the society's organ, FORSAMLINGSBLAD. Soon afterwards, on August 20th, 1929, a younger man, a Finn, Viscount Eric von Born, Ph.D.," of Berlin, "who had been filling the pulpit in the meantime, was chosen to succeed him. Strange to say, Mr. Rundstrom made a desperate effort to retain his seat of power in the Society by appealing to all foes of the Academy to come to his assistance. In his last issue of FOSRSAMLINGSBLAD (July-August, 1929) he glories in his fancied position as the chief obstacle in the road of the dastardly plots and machinations of the Academy! He accuses the Academy of trying to swallow up his Society, buildings, funds and all, and of scheming to prevent a reconciliation with the "New Church Book Room": and pictures the sad end, when the present members will have to sit and listen to how their incomes are disposed of "by Academy people and Bishops from Bryn Athyn who dictate the conditions," etc., etc. He even tells how Pastor Manby's spirit appeared to him one day in Paris, and warned him, "Do not sell your society for a mess of pottage!"

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     Presumably these arguments brought no conviction, and Mr. Rundstrom's persecution-mania was recognized for what it was. For the Society dispensed with his services, and issued a new periodical with the title SWEDENBORG'S MINNESKYRKA (Swedenborg's Memorial Church),-the name of the building which the Society recently erected with the aid of funds subscribed abroad. An appendix to the issue contains a resolution endorsed by the Church board, in which the society repudiates the actions of their former pastor thus: "Before we can build up the Society anew, from those higher points of view which alone should govern, we wish first of all to express our sincere regret to all who, during the last ten years, have been unjustly accused and injured by what has gone on during that regime, and thus to some extent make up for the harm done to them." Specific instances of this injustice are then mentioned, and a scathing rebuke is given the former leader.

     These paragraphs next follow:

     "Lastly we express our deep regrets that lies and slanders have also been aimed outwards, against another society of the Church-Nya Kyrkanks Forsamling*-its Pastor and members, and against New Church people in America, who have been accused of intrigues and interventions totally groundless in fact, which charges especially were expressed in an irresponsible report by Pastor Rundstrom, published in NYA KYRKANS TIDNING in May, 1922, and in an Appeal to our Society in the last issue elf the Society's journal. While we deplore these libelous and unwarranted attacks, we wish also to make our acknowledgments of the totally neutral position of the aforesaid Society in our internal dissensions.
     * The name of the Society of the General Church in Stockholm, under the pastoral care of the Rev. Gustaf Baeckstrom.

     "We declare that the Appeal in the mentioned issue of our Society journal contains in part incorrect and false statements which we cannot explain in any other way than that Pastor Rundstrom seized whatever means he could to maintain himself in the position he occupied."

     The supplement ends with the citation. "First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift."
Dr. von Born 1930

Dr. von Born       Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1930

     Dr. von Born is to be congratulated upon the vigor of the contents of the first issue of the new periodical.

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A special article on "Order and Authority within the New Church" shows the need of law and order, refers to the Catholic Church and the Society of the Jesuits as an instance of the abuse of authority, speaks of the maintenance of the Divine authority of the Word as the source of the Church's strength, and refers (somewhat vaguely) to an inner authority which is created in the mind through the light which the Writings shed upon the Word. Yet even the external institution of the Church must rest upon law, order, and authority.

     As to Society organization, he feels that purely religious questions belong to the priesthood, and economic affairs to the lay council. But he would refer to the lay council the acceptance of new members in the Church, which seems inconsistent to us; and we would suggest that if the right of excluding individuals from the Church organization is a necessary prerogative of the priestly governor (H. D. 318), the acceptance of new members must also be a function of the priest. Order is indeed requisite to true progress, but only if the order that is chosen be derived from the Writings, which are the Charter of our Church.
     H. L. O.
DUTCH VERSION OF THE ARCANA COELESTIA 1930

DUTCH VERSION OF THE ARCANA COELESTIA       Editor       1930

     HEMELSCHE VERBORGENHEDEN (Arcana Coelestia). By Emanuel Swedenborg. Volume IV, nos. 2894-3750, Genesis xxiii-xxviii. The Hague: Swedenborg (Genootschap (Society), 1929. Cloth, 710 pages.

     A copy of this fourth volume of the Dutch version of the Arcana Coelestia has just been received. In style of printing and binding it is uniform with the previous volumes of this edition, and we assume that the translation maintains the high standard of fidelity to the original Latin and fluent Dutch which characterizes this version. It is the work of Mr. Anton Zelling, with whom the Rev. Ernst Pfeiffer is in co-operation.
     EDITOR.

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TWENTY-SECOND BRITISH ASSEMBLY 1930

TWENTY-SECOND BRITISH ASSEMBLY       Various       1930

     HELD AT COLCHESTER, AUGUST 3-5, 1929.

     The Twenty-second British Assembly included two Divine Services, four sessions, and a social, all of these functions being held in the building of the Colchester Society. A large proportion of those attending on each of the three days partook of tea served in a tent on the church grounds, as also dinner on Sunday and Monday.

     First Session.-Saturday, 8 p.m.

     After opening worship, conducted by the Rev. Victor J. Gladish, Bishop Tilson took the chair, as President of the Assembly by appointment of the Bishop of the General Church. He then read the following letter from Bishop Pendleton:

Dear Bishop Tilson:
     Please convey my greetings to the British Assembly, and my hope that this Assembly will bring with it a blessing to all who attend its meetings. It would be a great pleasure to be present, but my engagements on the Continent during a part of the months of July and August make it impossible for me to do so.

     You will be interested to know that, while in Durban, we shall hold a South African Assembly, this being the first Assembly ever held in that country; and it will, I trust, be an occasion of more than usual importance.

     While on the Continent, I shall go to Paris, The Hague, and Thoury-Ferrottes, which places I did not visit last summer. On my return from South Africa, I shall be in England for several days, and hope to meet as many of our friends as may be possible.

     In the meantime, the British Assembly of this year will have passed into history, and, I am convinced, with the usual record of good service to our beloved Church, under your presidency.

     I have read with much interest the report of your visit to Failsworth, Manchester and York.

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In addition, Mr. Dawson has written to Mr. Caldwell an account of your visit. We must carry the message of the General Church wherever Providence opens the way; and, in my view, the will of Providence is sufficiently evidenced by an invitation given. The claim that this or that person belongs to my Church, and that you should keep away from him, even though he invites you to his house as a guest, is an absurdity born of fear lest your host be converted. We do not attempt to throw any such mantle of protection about our members. We recognize their right to do what they please, go where they please, and entertain whomsoever they will. Of course, if the General Church were only an external division of the organized New Church, there would doubtless be some propriety in the claim of "my field and thy field." But we hold that the General Church embodies a new spirit and a new life, the imparting of which to all who will receive of it is a supreme duty which we owe to any and all who go by the name of New Churchmen.

     Remember me affectionately to all friends,
          As ever yours,
               (signed) N. D. PENDLETON.

     The President then read the following cablegram from the Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal: "Heartiest greetings to the Twenty-second British Assembly! Wish I could be with you." Messages of greeting were also received from the Society in Jersey, from Mr. and Mrs. Percy Dawson, Miss Annie Coop, and Miss Eunice Holland, of Failsworth, and from Mr. and Mrs. Imlah Dawson, of Bristol. The President then extended a cordial welcome to our visitors from abroad: Mr. and Mrs. F. J. Cooper, of Bryn Athyn; Mrs. Mary Blair, of Pittsburgh; Miss Edith Potts, of Bryn Athyn; Miss Vander and Mr. Vellenga, of The Hague; and to the two members of General Conference who were present,-the Rev. W. H. Claxton and Mr. F. A. Gardiner. A message of sympathy was sent to Mrs. Theodore Bellinger and Miss Celia Bellinger at the London Homeopathetic Hospital, where they were detained by the serious illness of the latter.

     Bishop Tilson then delivered the Presidential Address on the subject of "The Church-Universal, Specific, and Particular; its Divisions as Distinctions, Indications, and Signs." The address was appreciatively and interestingly discussed by a large number of speakers.

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In the course of the discussion it was emphasized that the lack of clear distinctions is the chief cause why a large part of the organized New Church is losing ground. Among the many other points discussed was the teaching concerning the "Universal New Church," a phrase and an idea new to most of those present. After the discussion Bishop Tilson replied, and then brought the first session to a close.

     The Services.--Sunday, August 4th.

     In the morning, Bishop Tilson preached the Assembly Sermon, taking as his text Psalm 48:12-14. (See NEW CHURCH LIFE, November, 1929, p. 653.) The Rev. V. J. Gladish conducted the service, and there was an attendance of 110 persons.

     At 4:30 p.m., the Holy Supper was administered to 76 communicants by Bishop Tilson, assisted by the Rev. V. J. Gladish.

     Second Session.-Sunday, 7 p.m.

     After the brief opening worship, the President read a cablegram from Mr. and Mrs. Edward Waters and Mr. and Mrs. Fred Parker, of the Alpha Farm, South Africa. He then introduced the Rev. Albert Bjorck, expressing the pleasure with which he welcomed him back to England, and to the uses in the Church which his improved health enabled him to perform. Before reading his paper on "Perception of the Divine Human is According to Regeneration," Mr. Bjorck remarked that, after his address had been written in April, a paper by the Rev. W. L. Gladish on "The Glorified Body of the Lord" had been published in NEW CHURCH LIFE and had caused him to consider changing the scope of his paper; after reflection, however, he decided to leave it as it was, except for a change in the title from "The Divine Human" to the one given above.

     Mr. Bjorck's address was followed by a long and interesting discussion, many things being said in favor of his point that perception of the Divine Human is according to regeneration, and some things in opposition to it. A similar reception was accorded his emphasis on the belief that the Writings are a "part of the Letter of the Word." In replying, Mr. Bjorck said that, while the statement of his title was true, it might be misunderstood, depending upon one's understanding of what perception is.

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He was glad of the discussion, and thought it a useful thing that the newer ideas had met with some opposition.

     The President then closed the session by pronouncing the benediction.

     Third Session.-Monday, 11 a.m.

     The Rev. Albert Bjorck conducted the opening worship, after which the President introduced the Rev. Victor J. Gladish, who gave a paper on "Some Practical Aims and Practical Problems of New Church Education." The object of the paper was to discuss what we were doing in England at the present time in the cause of New Church education, why we were doing it, and what we could do further. In part, the paper was designed to bring out the opinion of the members of the Church there assembled concerning a certain movement in support of educational work amongst us. It had been felt by a number of the men that the extension of the school work among us, and a better knowledge of the New Church doctrinals concerning education, would be furthered by the organization of an active chapter of the Sons of the Academy in England. Since the priests of the Church in England approved of the movement, an opportunity was given at this session for an expression of opinion on the matter.

     The paper was discussed at some length. There was found to be a general sentiment in favor of the "Sons" movement, but there was doubt as to just what could be done. There was considerable disagreement with the attempt in the paper to place on record the exact status of the Colchester School, and the bearing of the experiment there-in taking children into the School who were not baptized into the Church-upon our efforts for the future. Some felt that the Colchester School was a purely local matter, but Mr. Gladish stated in his reply that in his opinion any departure from the traditional Academy interpretation of the Doctrine in regard to education was important enough to claim the interest of the whole Church, and that the whole Church should have authentic information concerning it.

     As the discussion had not been concluded when the time for adjournment arrived, it was decided to open the 4th Session at 2:30 p.m., instead of 3 p.m., for the sake of those who desired to continue the discussion.

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     Fourth Session.-Monday, 2:30 p.m.

     The discussion of Mr. Gladish's paper was continued until 3:45 p.m.

     Messages of greeting were read from Miss Dorothy Cooper, of Bryn Athyn, and from Mr. and Mrs. Philip Oyler, of Woodgreen, England.

     At 4 p.m., Mr. Colley Pryke, of Chelmsford, delivered an address on "Our Inheritance." The paper presented the riches of the ages,-the spiritual wealth of the churches since creation,-as the inheritance of the New Church.

     The President voiced his appreciation of the address, as did Mr. Fred J. Cooper. Mr. Bjorck, in the course of his remarks, said that few men in the Church could have presented this theme as ably and beautifully as we had just heard it done. Comment and appreciation were also expressed by Miss May Waters, Mr. J. S. Pryke, Mr. Godfrey, and Mr. Parker.

     With the singing of the 45th Psalm, and the pronouncing of the benediction by the President, the sessions of the Assembly then closed.

     The Social.-Monday, 7:30 p.m.

     The Assembly Social Committee introduced a novelty in the method of our entertainment, for our entertainers were invisible to us. A screen was erected at the end of the church building, and from a radio amplifier projecting through it we listened to artists broadcasting from various quarters of the globe. At least, so we were told! But we have definite information that the radio announcer was, in private life, none other than Mr. Archie Stebbing and the sonorous names and titles which he announced had characteristics reminiscent of well-known friends.

     After this thoroughly entertaining portion of the social, Mr. James Pryke, as toastmaster, proposed the toasts of the evening. As an experiment, he had selected laymen only for the prepared speeches, the program being as follows:

     1. The Church.-Its Dual Aspect: (a) Divine-the Lord. Human-and its adjunction to man.-Response by Mr. Fred J. Cooper.

     2. The Priesthood and Teaching.-Mr. Godfrey.

     3. The Laity and Perception.-Mr. Fetter.

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     4. The Home and the Full Human Reciprocal.-Mr. Boozer.

     5. Assemblies and the Corporate Affirmation of Faith and Purpose.-Mr. Conrad Howard.

     The toastmaster then proposed the final toast, as the first, to "The Church," and asked Bishop Tilson to respond to it, which he did in a short but stirring speech on living the doctrines of the Church, finishing with the quotation, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, etc."

     The attendance at the meetings was as follows: Saturday, tea 53; first session 65. Sunday Service 110; dinner 94; tea 78; second session 75. Monday, third session 75; lunch 82; fourth session 77; tea 68; social 102. This compares favorably with the Assemblies held in recent years.

     Preceding the Assembly, a meeting of the London "New Church Club" was held at the Old Bell Restaurant, Holborn, at which Mr. Fred J. Cooper gave a much appreciated lecture on "The Diamond and the Pearl." All were delighted at his applications of doctrine to the discovered facts concerning these two jewels.

     The Twenty-second Assembly, like its predecessors, was felt to be a useful and an enjoyable series of meetings. The undersigned is not able to make any personal comparisons with the former Assemblies, as this is the first one he has attended, but he wishes to record his delight in the well-oiled machinery which has been built up for conducting the British Assemblies, and to express his delight with the spirit which was manifested throughout the meetings.
     Respectfully submitted,
          VICTOR J. GLADISH,
               Secretary.

     [EDITORIAL NOTE:-The text of the four Addresses delivered at the British Assembly has been placed in our hands for publication as space is available.]

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Church News 1930

Church News       Various       1930

     GLENVIEW, ILL.

     At the last regular meeting of the local chapter of the Sons of the Academy, the speaker of the evening was Dr. Harvey Farrington. He spoke on the subject of "Homeopathy," quoting extensively from the Writings, and tracing many correspondences in the study of diseases and their cures. His brief was a masterful one, and the subject held the attention longer, and provoked more questions and argument, than any previous subject brought up in these meetings. In fact, several of the members adjourned to a home where the talk was continued to a late morning hour.

     Our Christmas celebration and festival was as full and stirring as ever, with the largest attendance of all. Gifts to the children were better than in previous years, because more funds were available. A feature of the celebration was a recitation by the school children while they stood before the representation of the Nativity on the stage of the assembly hall.

     New Year's Eve was marked by a party lasting long after midnight. There was a cabaret and a pageant of seasons concluding with the appearance of Old Father Time himself. Many were present and enjoyed the diversified program. The watch-night service was omitted this year.

     The Day School resumed sooner than usual after the holidays, because of the necessity of closing early for the General Assembly in June. A Kindergarten is now being formed. The young people's class which started so enthusiastically in the study of the Writings holds its good attendance of about twenty-six.

     Visitors and home-comers are: Miss Volita Wells, of Bryn Athyn; Miss Edith Goerwitz, from Kansas; Mr. Gerald Nelson, from the University of Illinois; and Miss Martha Schroeder, of Denver, now a teacher at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.

     After many years waiting for it, gas has at last been piped from the public street into the Park, and up to the kitchen of the church building. A fine gas stove and other improvements are expected to make the kitchen more convenient for the ladies.
     J. B. S.

     REPORT OF THE VISITING PASTOR.

     Responding, with pleasure, to the desire of the DETROIT Circle for more frequent ministrations, a visit following soon after the preceding one was made from Saturday, December 7th, until the following Wednesday morning. A service was held in Miss Pearse's studio on Sunday afternoon, with an attendance of twenty-two. We had the pleasure of having with us the pastor of the Detroit Convention Society and his wife, the Rev. and Mrs. W. H. Beales. After services all remained to a social supper. Then some, having come a long distance, and the roads being bad, had to leave. But others came in their stead, and there were twenty present at doctrinal class. Our subject was the marriage of the Lord and the Church as being in all particulars of the Word, because of the celestial sense having relation chiefly to the Lord, and the spiritual sense to the church. Another class was held on Tuesday evening at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Day. Eleven persons attended, nearly all of them young people. The doctrine presented was, that the Lord acts at the same time through inmosts and through ultimates with man, and that man's cooperation is in ultimates. Lively questioning made the class very enjoyable. There followed a pleasant social time, provided by the host and hostess.
     F. E. WAELCHLI.

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     JAMES WATERS.

     AN OBITUARY.

     "Found, apparently asleep, in an omnibus traveling along Norwood Road, S. E., Mr. James Waters, aged 76, of Norbury Hill, was discovered to be dead." In this abrupt manner the daily press of London on November 11th conveyed the news of the death of our dear brother. To his bereaved ones the notification by the police came as a great shock, for he had just gone out to make some calls before dinner. On his way he had posted a letter to his daughter May, in which he referred to the Armistice Day Service at the Cenotaph which he had heard by radio. "What a difference it makes," he wrote, "to join with all our fellow men and women in such a magnificent ceremony of praise and thankfulness! This may be a great help to the effort for peace in our time. The speeches of the Premier and the leaders and teachers of the Nation all seemed to converge upon and support this final appeal for peace and rest: 'And there shall be war no more.' It is a state greatly to be desired, and it is possible to attain it from time to time, and, may we hope, to eternity, as we advance from state to state." An epitome of his own state reflected in that of the Nation, and to which he so much desired others might attain.

     The preparation for this sudden transference had been taking place for some time. There were many little things he had been "finishing up," as it were, not knowing that his end was so near. That evening he had expected to see the play, "The Journey's End," with his two sons, but instead he realized his own "Journey's End" by entering into his permanent home. Be had just completed a beautiful frontispiece to a Bible. It was his custom to give one to each grandchild on its seventh birthday.

     James Waters was born at Maidstone, Kent, in May, 1853, of devout, God-fearing parents. His keen mind had been religiously formed, but could find no satisfaction in any of the Old Church institutions. During his young manhood he came under the influence of his life-long friend, Frederick Elphick, a sterling New Churchman of New Church parents. Together they came to London to seek their fortunes, Mr. Waters having previously become affianced to his future wife, Mary Elphick, sister to his friend. The two friends found their way to the Flodden Road Church, and there Mr. and Mrs. Waters were married in 1878.

     In 1891, the mind of our friend came under the influence of the Academy teachings, and when the Hall of Worship and School were opened at Brixton in 1892, he moved to that locality so that he and his family might worship there. Under the powerful teachings of Bishop Benade and Revs. R. J. Tilson and E. C. Bostock, he soon became convinced of the necessity of New Church education, and the three of his children who were of school age were sent to the Burton Road Academy School.

     Then came the disturbances of 1897, but after recovering from his great disappointment he was among the first to join the newly-formed General Church of the New Jerusalem. His intelligent activities were exerted toward keeping the flock interested until, under Divine Providence, a shepherd should be sent to gather them together again. He made provision, with others, to meet at various private houses, where they could read and study the Writings they so much loved. His house was made an ever-open meeting place where one could talk of the wondrous revelations. For a weary five years this continued, until, in 1902, the Rev. Andrew Czerny was sent to take charge of the society.

     When, in 1903, a House of Worship and a School were established in Holland Road, Mr. Waters sent his four younger children to the school. Mr. Czerny went to Colchester on alternate Sundays, and during his absence Mr. Waters and Mr. McQueen would take the services in London, carrying them through with great humility and acceptance. In 1910, Mr. Waters represented our society at the Swedenborg Congress.

     His heart and mind were in everything relating to New Church education.

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At one of our Assemblies he said: "Where the Church neglects the duty of education, it dies out. If we train a child in the way it should go, it will remain faithful to the truth of the Church." This great sentiment he strove to carry out, and he was permitted to see the reward of his labor; for of his eight children the seven remaining are all members of the General Church. Including his eight children, twenty-seven grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren, his descendants number forty. One of each generation had gone before him to the higher world, being there to welcome him home. The remaining thirty-seven are left to carry on the work he so devotedly loved,-the work of the Church of the New Jerusalem.
     HORACE HOWARD.

     KITCHENER, ONT.

     Thanksgiving Day, on November 11th, was celebrated by a banquet in the schoolroom, which was artistically decorated with fruits and flowers. The program of speeches was on the general subject of "The Support of the Church," and the comparative value of internal to external support was stressed, showing that, although external and financial support are necessary, they are secondary in importance.

     We are glad to report an increased attendance of three pupils at our school. They are the children of Mr. and Mrs. A. Steen, who have recently returned to live in Kitchener after an absence of some months. We were sorry to have them go, and gladly welcome them back.

     Late in the Fall, Miss Olive Cooper, of Colchester, England, visited Kitchener. Such visitors from societies afar off make us realize how near we in the New Church are to one another, even though thousands of miles apart. We renewed through her our acquaintance with friends in England.

     As Christmas drew near we felt that we could not celebrate adequately without the use of our regular Chapel Room, and began to wonder whether the place could not be fixed up for temporary use. A scheme was at last thought out, and executed under the direction of a committee, which resulted in making it possible for us to have our Christmas services in the hall of worship on the upper floor of our church building, damaged by fire last October. It was a gigantic task undertaken on short notice, but was ably and successfully accomplished. We hope to be able to have our regular services there until we start rebuilding.

     The first event of the Christmas program was the tableaux on December 20th. There were four scenes, depicting: The Annunciation; The Heavenly Host Appearing to the Shepherds; The Wise Men Following the Star; and Mary and Joseph, with the Babe in the Manger. Appropriate songs by the choir, given before each scene, added much to their enjoyment. On the Sunday following, the adult Christmas Service was held in the morning, and in the afternoon the Children's Festival, at the close of which the children viewed a table representation of the Christmas Story, and each received a package of fruit and nuts.

     Dr. Alfred Acton was a welcome visitor over New Year's Day. He gave us two very interesting addresses dealing with his work while in Europe. The first one was delivered at the New Year's eve banquet, and the other, by special request, the following evening. The occasional visits by ministers of the New Church are always much appreciated by the members of the society. Other visitors during the holiday included Miss Venita Roschman, Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Rothermel, Misses Dora Brown and Christina Craig, Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph Potts and Mr. Ronald Potts, and Miss E. Izzard of Guelph.
     C. R.

     ELIZABETH SIMONS IUNGERICH.

     AN OBITUARY.

     Mrs. Iungerich passed into the spiritual world on December 5, 1929, after a brief and sudden illness.

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On the following day a memorial service was held in Pittsburgh, and the burial took place in Bryn Athyn on December 7th, the Rev. W. H. Alden officiating at the commitment.

     Elizabeth Simons Iungerich was born on November 10, 1873. In 1897, she received a certificate from the University of Pennsylvania as teacher of Botany, and taught that subject until 1906 in the Philadelphia High School for Girls at 17th and Spring Garden Streets. It was through the Rev. W. H. Alden that she became a member of the New Church in 1902. During 1906 and 1907, she taught in the Academy Schools at Bryn Athyn, and again, in 1927-1928, gave a course in Teaching Nature to Children in the College Department of the Academy. She was president of Theta Alpha from October, 1919, to June, 1923, and served on the Scholarship Committee of that body for several terms. Her marriage to Eldred Edward Iungerich took place on May 25, 1907.

     Their union was blest with six children, four of whom are living. Their honeymoon took the form of a journey to Spokane, Washington, which also marked the beginning of the General Church Circle in that city. Again, in 1921, Mrs. Iungerich accompanied her husband to Brazil, and was present at the initial steps which inaugurated the General Church Society in Rio de Janeiro. During the summer of 1928 they traveled in Europe and were present at the General Assembly in London. It was in September of that year that they moved from Bryn Athyn to Pittsburgh, Mr. Iungerich having accepted a call to the pastorate there.

     Mrs. Iungerich was most competent as a pastor's wife, and entered wholeheartedly into the life and uses of the society, inspiring enthusiasm and affection among the parishioners, and markedly in her help and work with the young people and children. Needless to say, she leaves only friends in Pittsburgh, Bryn Athyn, and throughout the Church-who think of her with warm regard, and who will remember her for her sterling qualities as a New Church woman, for her intellectual gifts and attainments, and for her diligent effort in everything that pertained to education and the upbuilding of the Church.
     E. R. D.

     PITTSBURGH, PA.

     On Sunday, December 15th, at 3:30 o'clock, a short dedicatory service was held in the school rooms of the new buildings on Le Roi Road, with a brief sermon on the words of the 127th Psalm, "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it." It is planned to continue the afternoon services until further notice.

     The Christmas service was held on December 24th at 5:30 p.m. in the home of Mr. and Mrs. A. P. Lindsay, with an excellent attendance, as there are no epidemics among us to date. There were no tableaux this year, but in place of them the pastor gave brief addresses, and the children carried out the representation by appropriate recitations and singing. The service was followed by the usual presentation of gifts to the children.

     Rev. E. E. Iungerich officiated on December 28th at the marriage of Miss Mary Stull to Mr. W. F. Koop, of Long Island, N. Y. Mrs. Koop is a niece of Mrs. W. L. Grubb. The wedding was held at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Grubb in Wilkinsburg.

     Rev. Homer Synnestvedt visited Pittsburgh during the holidays and delivered the sermon at our service on December 29th, the first time he has preached since recovering from his illness.

     The school rooms of the new building are plastered and will be completely finished in a few weeks. It is planned to open school there on February 1st. Miss Zoe Iungerich is staying in Pittsburgh until June, when she will return to Philadelphia to continue her course in nursing. She is keeping house for Mr. Iungerich and Stevan, and proves a genial hostess and good housekeeper.
     E. R. D.

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     GLENVIEW, ILL.

     "New Church Life" Meeting.

     Although not reported for some time past, there has been no break in the regular weekly meetings of the "New Church Life" Reading Meeting. The first invitation to attend a weekly meeting for reading the Life and other literature by New Church writers was issued in January, 1920. Since that date we have held about 350 meetings.

     January 7th being our tenth birthday, a slight departure was made from the usual routine. The first part of the program was the reading of the beautiful account of the Bishop's trip to South Africa in the January issue. There was nothing but praise for the successful bringing of the sphere of the trip by the writer of "South African Memories," as well as a feeling of delight that the work of the General Church Mission in South Africa promises to become an important step in the establishment of the New Church in that continent.

     The time having arrived for coffee and "sticky buns" (the latter being a kind of institution with this meeting), the host announced that some kind friends had furnished a birthday cake and accompaniments. So toasts were offered to the "Future Success of the 'Life' Meeting," and to "Our Host," and the rest of the evening was devoted to conversation about years gone by, and the benefits derived from these weekly gatherings.
     G. A. MCQUEEN.

     NEW CHURCH LIFE.

     PICTURES.

     By using another kind of paper in the publication of NEW CHURCH LIFE, we are now able to adorn our pages with more illustrations, and we believe that the usefulness of the magazine will be enhanced by this feature. And we would ask the co-operation of the members of the Church everywhere, inviting them to send us pictures and photographs suited to our purpose, whether present-day or historical, of persons, places or objects. When possible, photographs should be accompanied with the film or plate, which will be returned to the owner.

     "THE SOCIAL MONTHLY."

     During the years 1879-1880, the Young Folk's Social Club of Philadelphia issued and circulated a Manuscript Paper known as "The Social Monthly," which, in January, 1881, became the printed periodical, NEW CHURCH LIFE, as noted on page 105 of our present issue.

     The Academy Library has no copies of "The Social Monthly," and wishes to obtain a complete set. Anyone willing to donate, sell or loan one or more issues of this paper will confer a favor by writing to the Rev. R. W. Brown, Librarian, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

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SWEDENBORG TO DR. MESSITER 1930

SWEDENBORG TO DR. MESSITER              1930




     Announcements.





NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. L          MARCH, 1930          No. 3
     A FRIENDLY REPLY.

     (Translated from the Latin by Mr. Philip N. Odhner. See Dr. Acton's comments upon this Letter in the editorial department.)

     I rejoice in the friendship to which you bear witness in your letter addressed to me; and for both the friendship and the letter I thank you. Persevere, I pray you, in the truth of faith which you have embraced. As regards the twofold Humanity in Christ, this may be seen illustrated in the Summary Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church, no. 117, a work which you have at hand. The prior Humanity was the Divine Celestial Humanity, but the latter was the natural Humanity which He took on that He might fight with the hells, and might reduce into order all things therein, and in the Heavens and also on earth; and, moreover, that He might be more nearly present with men in the world and within them, who are all natural. The Divine Celestial Humanity was in the Lord interiorly when He was in the world, and He took from that Humanity so far as pleased Him, especially when He performed miracles; but when He underwent temptations, and above all when He suffered the cross, He concealed that Humanity interiorly within Himself; and then, at all such times, He was in the state of exinanition. Afterwards He fully united this Humanity to His Divine Celestial, and this state is the state of His glorification. From these few remarks it can be seen what is meant by His words, "Father, glorify Thou me with the glory which I had with Thee before the foundation of the world." In the state of exinanition He prayed lo the Father as to another than Himself, whereas in the state of glorification He was Himself the Father. But this will be fully demonstrated in the work itself, On the Doctrine of the New Church, which I shall compose under the Lord's auspices when I return to Sweden.

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     As concerns myself, I was born at Stockholm, in the year 1689, on the 29th of January, my father being Jesper Swedberg, who was Bishop of West-Gothland, a man well-known in his time; he was also a member of the Society for the Propagation of Faith, elected and admitted by that English Society. During the year 1716 and afterwards I frequently conversed with Charles XII, King of Sweden, who showed me great favor, and appointed me to the office of Assessor in the College of Mines, which office I afterwards performed until the year 1747, when I resigned, retaining the salary of that office as long as I live. I resigned solely to the end that I might have more leisure for the new function enjoined upon me by the Lord. A higher post of honor was then offered to me, but this I altogether refused, lest pride should infest my mind. In the year 1719, I was ennobled by Queen Ulrica Eleonora, and named Swedenborg, and from that time in the Diets, which meet every third year, I have been among the nobles of the Equestrian Order. I am a fellow and member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, which is at Stockholm, to which I was formally invited. I have never sought membership in any society of the learned elsewhere, because I am in Angelic Society, and in this only such things as are of Heaven are treated, while in the Societies of the learned only such things as are of the world.

     In regard to my relations, I had four sisters. One was married to Eric Benzelius, who afterwards became Archbishop of Upsala, and thus I was connected with the two succeeding Archbishops there, who were the younger brothers of the above mentioned Benzelius. Lars Benzelstjerna, who was a Provincial Governor, married my second sister. These men, however, are dead, but two Bishops, connected to me, are still living. One, called Filenius, Bishop of Ostrogothia, who is now in the Diet at Stockholm, where he presides in the House of the Clergy in the place of the Archbishop, who is sick; he married the daughter of my sister. The other is the Bishop of Wessmanland, who is the son of my second sister; not to mention others who are in positions of dignity. Moreover, in Sweden, my native country, all the Bishops, who are ten in number, and also the Senators, who are sixteen in number, and other great personage, love me, and from love honor me, and with them I live familiarly, as friend with friends, the reason being that they know that I am in company with Angels.

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The King himself, and the Queen, and the three princes, their sons, greatly favor me. Once, also, I was invited by the King and Queen to dine with them at their table, a favor which is granted to none but great personages; and likewise afterwards with the Crown Prince. All are eager for my return and for this reason I fear nothing less in my own country than the persecution which you kindly mention in your letter. If they persecute me elsewhere, this will not affect me.

     But what I have said here I regard as comparatively of little moment. For what is above all is the fact that I have been called to the apostolic Office by the Lord Himself, who manifested Himself to me in Person in the year 1743. From that time my sight has been opened into the Spiritual World, and it has been granted me to speak with spirits and Angels, which continues even to this day. The fact that I have sometimes journeyed from my native land to foreign parts was due to no other cause than the desire of performing uses, and of disclosing the Arcana entrusted to me. Moreover, I possess sufficient wealth, and neither seek more nor desire it. I am led by your letter to note down the above, in order that ill-conceived prejudices may be removed, as you say. Farewell, and from my heart I wish you all happiness, both in this world and in the world to come. Nor do I doubt but that you will attain them, if you look and pray to our Lord.

     London 1769, Aug. 5th.

     NOTE: The following subscript we suppose to be in the handwriting of Mrs. Messiter:

     This letter was addressed to Dr. Husband Messiter at Broomhouse, Fulham. The superscription I gave to my friend Cromek.

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IN THE DAYS OF THE JUDGES 1930

IN THE DAYS OF THE JUDGES       Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1930

     There is a book in the Word of God according to the Old Testament which is called "Judges." It is a book seldom referred to in the Writings. Only scattered glimpses of its spiritual sense are revealed. Yet it is not less important on that account, for it is inspired from heaven in its writing, and every word and situation, yea, every letter thereof, is replete with Divine teaching. At some future time, through the study of scholars of the New Church, the doctrines of its internal sense will come into clearer light, since, indeed, the whole Spiritual Word is now opened, in as far as we have vision to discern it. In the meantime, it is the will of the Lord that we should learn from this book whatever truth we may see in the light that is furnished at the present day, in the belief that the Lord will cause us to see in it what we need to know for our confirmation and guidance. For the Word is the stream of Providence. We dare not reject the revealed truth; even if we may not understand its inner wisdom; but must hold it in our minds, as a holy thing which as yet is not glorified to our understanding; and thus we are kept in a state of receiving light upon it. We cannot force illustration by impatience, nor cast the ultimate truth aside.

     We may at least see in the book of Judges a series of very absorbing stories-the tale of the childhood of a people chosen to typify the ideal, but falling far below that ideal; a people that was a living prophecy of a future spiritual church, but which sought, in stubbornness and blind ill-will, to prevent the fulfillment of that very prophecy.

     We read of Ehud and of Barak and Deborah, of Gideon and his brave little army; how they delivered Israel from the foes which beset the land from all sides. And each of the many battles seems to represent the victories of the regenerate man's will over the hereditary and actual evils and their falsities that appear at times to captivate his spirit and cause his natural man to own allegiance to other gods than the Lord.

     But there is another story running beside the heroic theme of this strange tale.

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Closely intertwined with the religious and national fervor of the judges, we see the scarlet thread of cruelty and revenge, of sensuality, vice, and idolatry. Crude passions were the means even of expressing their devotion to Jehovah. We see this in Ehud, who delivered Israel by means of a bloody assassination; in Deborah when she glorifies one who stabbed Sisera while asleep; and even in the great Gideon, who of the spoil taken from Midian made graven idols for himself.

     It is stated in the Book of Creation that from the Garden of Eden there flowed a river which divided into four heads. This fourfold river represents the wisdom of the people of the celestial church; it was a fourfold celestial perception of wisdom, intelligence, reason and knowledge. This perception was inscribed on their hearts, and was to them for the Word of God. When, later, the Word became a written source of truth, this Word also divided into four heads; for it flowed into four planes of meaning, or into four layers of truth, called the four senses of the Word. Inmostly is the supreme sense, treating of the Lord, His glorification and His work of redemption; then follows the spiritual sense, concerning the Lord's kingdom, or the church and heaven; the internal natural sense, concerning the internal history and states of the nations of whom the letter of the Word treats; and lastly, the literal or merely natural sense.

     When, therefore, we find within the book of Judges a twofold series of ideas,-one describing the representative victories of the regeneration of the church and the individual man in their struggles against falsities of evil, and the other showing the character of Jewish worship, the governing affections and internal nature of their national life,-we may know that here are recounted two planes of development, one within the other, seemingly confused, yet really entirely distinct,-two branches of that great stream of Divine Truth which is called the Word of God.

     But while there are four general planes of truth-degrees of understanding-involved in the Word, the subject matter is twofold. The truth may be the truth shout good states of life or the truth about evil states of life. And, what is marvelous, the spiritual and celestial senses may describe the development of the goods of the church, and the glorification of the Lord, while the internal natural sense may be describing-in the same sentence or chapter-the decline of the Jewish Church and the domination of evil spirits over it.

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We see this in the story of David, whose career from shepherd to king represented a part of the glorification of the Lord and His victories over the bells, although, in fact, the character of David was all the while becoming more interiorly evil.

     It is well known that external success and enrichment may, and all too often do, mean spiritual defeat and misery. Yet an evil man may represent a good cause. And so it is that the people of Israel, as long as they lived in the order of their representation-despite their outcropping evils, despite their enormous spiritual ignorance, despite their cruelty and deceit-could still represent a celestial church.

     But times were when Israel could not even represent celestial things, when there was nothing but disobedience, cupidity and dissension. The celestial sense of the Word, which speaks of the Lord and of His works, then found no mirror in their life; no spiritual progress could be pictured by their external history. They were such that the Spirit of Jehovah-the Spirit which had molded them as a prophetic people-seemingly had to forsake them.

     Such was their state during the period of the Judges. Again and again they departed from their representation, and became the very opposite of a celestial church. When Israel thus declined, the series of the internal sense of their national story also changed. Inmostly it does not change; inmostly it speaks of the Lord-of Providence and its unseen, continual guidance of human affairs. Nor does it appear that the celestial and spiritual senses, in the abstract, are altered: for they contain the steady progress of regeneration-which leads through the things of the world of sin and self into the heavenly kingdom. But this sense as it were retires-withdraws towards the interiors of the Word; for there is little but opposites and disorders in the natural sense. We therefore find it more difficult to observe it and study it, and when we do, it seems disconnected,-isolated from the context.

     But there are certain highlights even in the latter part of the Judges: we see the gradual formation of a natural from the celestial. By this is meant the natural which springs from a state of innocence or from a celestial state. Every state, when developing, seeks to express itself in the natural. And because the Israelites as a nation were in a primitive, very ignorant state, and, like most primitive peoples, were not reserved, but passionate, affectionate and emotional, they had, along with all their vices, something that was childlike and simple, and thus could image the celestial state of love and obedience.

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Their evils, however gross they were, had often an element of childlike ignorance and irresponsibility in them, and this could distantly represent true innocence; and as they then acted from this state, their evils and their actions, of whatever kind, gave a picture of unsophisticated childhood. Like children, they were easily misled into evils, and nearly as easily brought into a state of abject repentance. They were non-reliant upon self, and could trust in Jehovah and His miracles to a most astonishing degree. They were readily brought into idolatry; they craved graven idols as an ultimate of worship; even as children are unable to think of anything abstract, but must have images, pictures, and word-pictures to arose their imagination and affection.

     The last ten chapters of Judges will illustrate this circumstance. First we hear of Jephthah, the wild outlaw, who vowed to sacrifice to Jehovah the first that came to meet him from his house, if he should return victorious over Ammon; and who, in keeping his oath, sacrificed his only daughter on the altar, though with her own consent. Then we hear of Samson, whose rough achievements of valor and whose wondrous strength were undermined by the seductive voice of a woman, but who at the last redeemed himself by destroying his enemies at the expense of his own life. Next we hear of the band of Danites who stole the idols and ephod of Micah, that they might-as they thought-the better worship Jehovah in their new inheritance in the far North. And the book closes with the account of how a certain terrible crime committed by the sons of Benjamin so struck horror and aversion in Israel that they unhesitatingly arose as one man to a war of extermination against the guilty tribe; and how at last, in bitterness and anguish of spirit, they spared a remnant and permitted them to steal maidens for wives, lest a tribe of Israel be blotted out. And so the book of Judges ends with that oft-repeated phrase which seemed to explain-though not to justify-so much of the chaos and lawlessness of those times: "In those days there was no King over Israel, but every man did what was right in his own eyes."

     Plainly, the spiritual state here represented is not utterly iniquitous. It is not a state of hell.

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It is a state where a certain good is present, and yet no truth-no king-to instruct and lead. From celestial the Israelites, by reason of their faults, had come to represent a natural state; and from a natural state nothing can elevate man except truth. But while in the early part of regeneration-while man is still natural-he glimpses truth when particular need arises, now and then, it does not shine with a steady light until he has made this truth King over the whole mind. And of Israel at this time it was said, "In those days there was no king over Israel, but every man did what was right in his own eyes."

     We find a similar situation with most countries in their beginnings. There are civil dissensions, struggles, lack of any ruling principles. Every district, tribe, or group does what is right in its own eyes. No common faith, no common tradition, nor any common principles of government draw these groups together, except for temporary needs.

     In the childhood of a man, again the same! There is no steady principle of truth, no single purpose or ambition, in the child. He lives from varying motives and impulses. The child's life is not unified, nor rational; it is imaginative, impulsive; its virtues all relate to obedience, and its understanding to a faith in authority.

     The most striking era within the period when Israel was yet ruled by judges is not mentioned in the book of that name. We refer to the time of Samuel, the last judge, who gave his name to the two Books of Samuel. He was called to his sacred mission as a child, and was a priest as well as a judge; and he became the counselor of two kings. In Samuel the childlike virtue of Obedience, which runs as a leading idea through the whole period of the judges, reaches a climax. From the time that he, as a child, replied to the Lord's call his "Speak, for Thy servant heareth," unto the time when he reproved King Saul with the words, "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams," Samuel's personal feelings were always made subservient to the will of the Lord.

     And now we may see the scope of the rule of the judges as a whole. The governing idea throughout is that of obedience; and, as an opposite, the story treats as often of disobedience. The period between the time of Moses and the rule of kings is a preparatory period. Moses gave the Law. The law received by Israel caused them as a people to become an ultimate plane of obedience. The development and culture of this plane was the work of the Judges.

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That period was the testing-time of the Church of Israel, and when finally the monarch or kingdom was fully established, another process began, which was that of organization-the organizing of the nation, now a united people, as to all things a representative form, with an established worship in the temple of Jerusalem.

     Now it is important to realize the universal nature of this threefold series,-Law, Obedience, and Organization. Every church progresses in the same order. A revelation of truth is given, and gradually it meets with reception by people obeying it; an then the organization of the church follows,-an organization of government and uses. Reflect, if you please, upon the formation of the human spirit itself. The spiritual law of the soul inflows into the body, which, with all its senses, is its obedience, and by reaction forms the intermediate things which we call the human mind or the human spirit, which is the organization of the soul's truth and wisdom and love in the man.

     What is here called obedience may also be called reception, or consent. It is real, ultimate, living consent. This obedience is the basic thing, common to all virtues, upon which they rest., and it springs from innocence, which is the soul within all the virtues. Innocence is the acknowledgement that all things belong to the Lord,-the humble acknowledgment of one's self as devoid of merit or saving-power. But obedience is not of the same kind with al men. We are told that the celestial angels are in the most complete obedience, because they receive truths directly into their hearts and lives. Yet the statements are found in the doctrine that obedience in itself does not regenerate, that it can only reform, but still is the governing state of the first or lowest heaven, that is, among the natural angels. By such obedience is meant a state of external subjection to a command which is not yet loved; and obedience which has little love or delight in it, little affection for the neighbor, but only fear lest one should break the command of the Lord.

     It is such obedience-from fear and awe-that children have. And in the first states of regeneration, when man compels himself to do the things he knows are desirable, even though he feels no delight in doing it, except later on a certain easing of the conscience and a vague feeling of satisfaction, yet it is the will of doing truth from command, or from exhortation alone, that is active.

     And it is of this obedience that the Lord says, "Despise not one of these little ones!" For this obedience is the foundation of all the goods of higher, freer, more delightful order.

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If we do not learn to obey, we can never be saved. Delight is added later; affection is a thing that comes as a reward of obedience. But the spirit of childhood obedience is what opens the way to heaven and all its delights. If we should never have learned to obey, then our pride would be touched whenever we hear a law or a command, and we would come to reject Truth, merely because it comes in a manner which is distasteful to us. Thus we would never be able to humiliate ourselves before the Lord as a little child. And thus neither could we ever come into that higher obedience which is filled with wisdom and overflows with love and gratitude-the obedience which pours itself out in service to the Lord and to fellow men-the obedience which is oblivious of self, and leads to a life of use among celestial beings in the heaven of innocence.

     To obey with the body is not difficult. To live according to the laws of justice and morality among men on earth, gaining the esteem and friendship of those who are about us, is not a disagreeable or hard task. Such obedience is taken for granted in well-ordered society. But the obedience to truth which must be the concern of the man who desires to be reformed and regenerated and saved is an obedience even of the mind, and of the thought and imagination. This means a state of continual consent to Truth-an effort to remain always in a state of affirmation, open to see new truths and teachings from the Word, and to guide his thoughts and intentions by them.

     The vacillations and backslidings of the Children of Israel represented what is going on continually in the mind of the man of the church. They were by turns disobedient and obedient in acts. We are in the same alternate, uncertain states, at least as to the mind. They represented what most men would be actually if the restraints of natural affections and the bonds of external civilization were suddenly relaxed, and if all the rash thoughts and purposes and impulses and ignorant idolatries which rise out of our native proprium were displayed in the light of day.

     The obedience of faith which is the first state of regeneration can only become celestial and internal and delightful by a process of discipline; by hardships, and a learning by experience; by continual perfection of the understanding, until the understanding is rendered open and ready to receive new truths. Understanding is the road to love, with those who are natural.

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The interior reasons why the commandments of the Lord were given are the means of teaching man to love to obey them. The Lord, in His great mercy, condescends to open His heart and His wisdom to His people, to come down and teach them the interior reasons for the commands which He gives, that they also, to the best degree that they are able, may see and rejoice! May see the love that animates even the law that seems harshest and hardest to obey; far love cannot come to us of the spiritual church except by our comprehending the rational causes for the laws which the Lord has given us for our salvation.

     And now, in His Second Advent, the Divine Wisdom stands glorified among men! No longer can it be justly said that there is no King over Israel! The Lord has revealed the character of man, the quality of true happiness, the conditions under which conjunction with heaven is possible. He has opened all before us. We can now see, in a rational light, why we should obey the Law, and thus, through obedience, organize our minds into the order of truth and charity. And thus we-though of a nature opposed to love and obedience-can be enabled to receive a new will from the Lord, a will that is filled with the sense of the Lord's mercy and compassion, and with a desire to cooperate in a complete and self-oblivious way with the wiser Providence of God

     It has never been granted before-to any men since most ancient days-to see all things in the Lord's light, and to taste the full delights of complete surrender to His laws of order. Now men can do this if they will. It was nor possible with the Sons of Israel. But their story, as given in the Word, is yet a portion of the stream of life, the steady stream of Providence, which goes ever forward, and never turns back; and the stream of human life, with its back-currents and eddies. The four streams-the four planes of the Word-will again unite in their final fulfillment. For as they well forth as one out of the Eden of the Golden Age, so as one they are seen again in the Holy City, New Jerusalem,-a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb; with the tree of life at its sides, with its twelve fruits and its leaves that are for the healing of the nations. Amen.

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PERCEPTION OF THE DIVINE HUMAN 1930

PERCEPTION OF THE DIVINE HUMAN       Rev. ALBERT BJORCK       1930

     PERCEPTION OF THE DIVINE HUMAN: THAT THIS PERCEPTION WITH MAN IS ACCORDING TO THE STATE OF HIS REGENERATION

     (Delivered at the British Assembly, 1929.)

     In the Apocalypse Revealed, no. 294, following the exposition of the 5th chapter, there is a wonderful Memorable Relation. It commences by telling us that in the spiritual world we cannot think one thing and say another. A congregation of spirits, consisting of clergy and laity, Catholic and Protestant, decided to try. Those who had confirmed themselves in the idea of a trinity of persons in God were told to say "One God," but they could not. Again, it was said to those who had confirmed faith separate from charity that they should name "Jesus." But, although they could say "Christ," and also "God the Father," they could not say "Jesus," because they had prayed to God the Father for the Son's sake, and not to the Savior Himself; for the name "Jesus" signifies Savior.

     It was further said to them that from thought concerning the Lord's Human they should say "Divine Human." Not one of the clergy there present could do so, but some of the laity could. The subject was then taken up for discussion. Various passages from the Gospels were read to them, all showing that the Lord's Human is Divine; but although they wished to utter "Divine Human," they could not do so.

     The Relation ends by saying that "heaven was then seen to be opened, and there were seen tongues as little flames descending and flowing in with some; and these then celebrated the Lord's Divine Human, saying, Remove the idea of three Gods, and believe that in the Lord dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and that the Father and He are one, and that God is not wind or ether, but that He is a Man, and then you will be conjoined with heaven, and will thereby be able from the Lord to name Jesus, and to say 'Divine Human.'" (A. R. 294.)

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     As New Churchmen, we all derive from the Writings the idea we have of the Lord's Human; in other words, from what the Lord Himself in His Second Advent has revealed to us. From what we have learned thence we have the idea that the Lord's Human is Divine, and we think and speak of the Divine Human. Among us, however, there are differences in our conception of the Divine Human of the Lord. These differences arise from the fact that we differ in our understanding of how the Human of the Lord became Divine, that is, of His glorification. And because our ideas differ, it would seem that we, when we come into the spiritual world, will give different pronunciation, accent or tone to the words "Divine Human" when uttering them. And, as the Lord's Divine Human is the visible God of the New Church, we shall also see Him differently.

     Some of us conceive of the glorification as a process by which the human from the mother was gradually changed by the Lord, or transmuted to what is Divine; others that it was united to the Divine, so that both exist in the glorified and risen Lord. Others, again, hold the idea that the human from the mother was gradually put off, the Divine Itself taking its place.*
     * See editorial note on p. 175.

     Accordingly, some think that the Lord, in His ascension, has taken something with Him which He had not before, while the thought of others may be expressed thus-that the human from the mother was only a servant used by the Divine as that in which He might reveal Himself to men in time; and that, His glorification fully accomplished, His Divine is the Infinite unchanged, as it was before He assumed the Human on earth, but of which men may now have some idea as Man, because of His having lived in and revealed Himself through a human form like ours.

     From the days of Robert Hindmarsh these different conceptions have existed within the Church, and have been defended from time to time in published articles.

     II.

     It may be said that it does not matter much that we do not think alike on this subject, if only we are in mutual love, or charity. And this is true. Our varying understanding of the Lord's Divine Human does not prevent our forming an idea that conjoins us to heaven, and to the idea which the angels have.

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We are told this in the Writings, as where it is said that there is nothing in the Heavenly Doctrine that does not proceed from the Divine Human. (A. C. 5321.) The Divine Human is the Lord Himself revealed, that is, infinite love and wisdom, or good and truth, in a form that can be apprehended by man to some extent as a Divine Man, concerning Whom some idea can be formed from the Human. And "the idea which is formed of the Human, whatever it may be, is accepted so long as it flows from the good of innocence, and is in the good of charity." (A. C. 5321. See also A. C. 2094.)

     This shows conclusively that anyone, New Churchman or not, who in simple faith thinks of the Lord's Human after the ascension in a way similar to the human form from the mother in which He lived in the world, but at the same time thinks of that Human as Divine, and is led to charity by following His teaching, can pronounce "Divine Human" in the spiritual world, and will find heaven opened to him.

     But it is also true that a progressive interior understanding of the Heavenly Doctrine revealed to us by the Lord at His Second Advent is dependent upon our understanding of His glorification, or of His Divine Human. For all the particulars of the Doctrine revealed to us in the Writings cohere; and, taken together, they are the Lord's Divine Human, because the Divine Human is the Divine Good and Truth revealed in human form. (A. C. 1990.)

     It may be objected that the Lord's glorification transcends human understanding; and it is true that the Writings state this as a fact (A. C. 6716, 6727), but this statement is modified by others which declare that the explanation of it does not fall "so well" into man's idea as does regeneration (A. C. 4353), and that the regeneration of man is an image of the glorification of the Lord. (A. C. 6716.)

     Though the Divine Human of the Lord, because it is infinite, must always transcend the understanding of finite beings, men or angels, the rational understanding of a man may develop a constantly progressive understanding of it. Man's rational is developed by means of the truths of faith which he knows, as he lives according to them. The truths of faith revealed to us by the Lord in the Writings furnish means for that development,-means which men had not before,-means that will make it possible for the man of the New Church to see ever more clearly how the particulars of the Heavenly Doctrine cohere. And as these particulars, taken together, proceed from and are the Divine Human, the Divine Human will be progressively seen as their coherence as a one is seen.

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     The Memorable Relation from which we quoted in the beginning of this paper shows that those who have not confirmed themselves in the false doctrines of the Christian Church can, from their thought of the Lord's Human as revealed in the Gospels, get an idea of it as Divine, and therefore say "Divine Human" in the spiritual world. But for a deeper, more spiritual-rational understanding of the Lord's Divine Human we must turn to the truths revealed to us by the Lord in the literal sense of the Writings.

     Nor do we, in so doing, diverge from the rule that doctrine should be drawn from the literal sense of the Word; for the Writings are the Word of the Lord to His New Church. The truths revealed in them are from the Lord, and accommodated to the apprehension of men on earth. In A. C. 6221, we read that "the Word, which as to all things has descended from the Lord and passed through heaven even into the world, in the descent has clothed itself with forms adequate to the apprehension in the threefold heaven, and at length with a form adapted to the apprehension of man, which is the literal sense." The same truth is stated in A. C. 2069 thus: "The sense of the letter simply furnishes objective forms, as is done by human words, for causing its meaning to be understood."

     The Writings are the Word of the Lord, a revelation of Divine Truths more interior than any before revealed, adapted to the comprehension of men on earth. The words and sentences we read there are the objective forms in human words by which men may learn to understand the Divine Truths revealed by them. When we say that the Church must draw its doctrines from the Word, we do not mean that the Doctrine is not revealed in the Writings, which we accept as the Word of the Lord to His New Church, but it is a recognition of the fact that the letter of that Word can be differently understood in different states of knowledge and rationality.

     In A. E. 948 it is said that, "when the Lord came into the world, the interior Word was opened; for the Lord, when He was in the world, revealed interior Divine Truths which were to be serviceable to the New Church to be established by Him, and also were serviceable. At this day also, for like reasons, the interior Word is opened, and Divine Truths still more interior are thence revealed for the use of the New Church, which will be called the New Jerusalem."

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     The Christian Church drew doctrines from the interior truths of the Law and the Prophets revealed by the Lord in the literal sense of the Gospels, and the New Church of the New Jerusalem must draw doctrines from the more interior truths revealed by the Lord in His Second Advent in the words and sentences of the Writings, or the literal sense of the Word to the New Church, by which they can come to the understanding of men. The teachings of the Church, in which its understanding of the Writings is formulated, may properly be called doctrinals, so distinguishing them from the revealed Doctrine or Word from which they are drawn.

     This is in accordance with what is said in many places in the Writings, as where we read: "There are two ways of procuring the truths which are of faith,-by doctrinals and by the Word. When man procures them only by doctrinals, he then has faith in those who have drawn them from the Word, and he confirms them in himself to be true because others have said so; thus he does not believe them from his own faith, but from that of others. But when he procures them for himself from the Word, and thereby confirms them in himself to be true, he then believes them to be true because they are from the Divine, and so believes them from faith given from the Divine. Everyone who is within the Church first procures the truths which are of faith from doctrinals, and also must so procure them, because he has not yet sufficient strength of judgment to enable him to see them himself from the Word; but then those truths are to him nothing but acquired knowledge. When, however, he is able to view them from his own judgment, if he then does not consult the Word, in order to see from it whether they are true, they remain in him as mere knowledges; while, if he does consult the Word from an affection and end of knowing truths, he then, when he has found them, procures for himself the things of faith from the genuine fountain, and they are appropriated to him from the Divine." (A. C. 5402.)

     This shows that by doctrinals are meant the understanding within the church, or with the men of the church who teach,-the understanding of the truths of faith revealed in the Word, as that understanding is formulated in teaching. The teachers in the New Church draw their understanding of the truths of faith from the Word of the Lord in His Second Advent-the Writings; and the part of the Word from which a New Churchman can procure truths of faith for himself is the same as that from which his teachers had drawn their doctrinal teaching.

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     As the Heavenly Doctrine, in all its particulars, has descended from the Divine Human of the Lord, and as all these particulars cohere, and are the Divine Human, it follows that the progress of the church on earth depends upon the progress which the members of the church are making in understanding the coherence of the particular doctrines revealed in the Writings. In this manner the rational of the men of the church is developed, so that they may come to see the Divine Human in and through the particulars of the revealed doctrine as a whole. Even the progress of the heavens depends up this. For "all who are in heaven are instructed by the Lord from truth Divine which is with men, thus from the Word." (A. C. 9430.)

     The development of the rational goes hand in hand with progress in regeneration. The church is a unit: composed of many individuals, in different states of reformation and regeneration. Still it is like one man in this, that it can grow like an individual man from knowledge of truth to love for the good it teaches, and so into wisdom. We know that the New Church is to be the crown of all churches, and will progress in perfection through all the ages. The church must, therefore, progress as a unit in regeneration. And because the unit is composed of individuals, the regeneration of the church as a whole depends upon the progressive regeneration of its members.

     As the church provides instruction in Divine Truth and education for life to one generation after another, the essential means for the progressive regeneration of its members and of the church as a whole are given. As this progressive regeneration develops a higher spiritual rationality within the church, it will be able to reformulate its understanding of what the Lord has revealed in the Word; and even the Lord's glorification may come to be seen in an image that truly reflects it, and brings it within the view of the human mind.

     III.

     In order to make this thought clearer, let me illustrate it by supposing a situation that may arise any day.

     Suppose that two young New Churchmen from different cities meet and get acquainted. One of them has been brought up and instructed in a society whose pastor held one of the views of the Lord's Divine Human to which we have referred, and the other under a pastor who held another view.

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The two young men are equally gifted with a capacity for clear thinking and logical reasoning. Both are earnest in their desire to know the truth, and therefore to understand the revelation where it is to be found. Yet neither of them has hitherto seen any reason for questioning the correctness of his pastor's view, but has accepted it as the teaching of the Writings. What each knows and believes on the subject has been acquired from another, and believed from faith in that other.

     Conversing together, they come to speak of their common faith from the Heavenly Doctrine, and soon they may find that they have a somewhat differing understanding of the Lord's Divine Human. One or both may know and call to mind the teaching in A. C. 5402, already quoted, or that in the White Horse 8: "They who are in an affection of truth for the sake of truth, when they come to years of maturity and are able to see from their own understanding, do not implicitly abide in the doctrines of their church, but examine from the Word whether they be true."

     Each then turns to the Writings, which are the Word from which their respective pastors have drawn their understanding of the subject. As an aid to their study, they would be likely to turn to the Concordance, where statements from the literal sense of the Writings on different subjects are brought together. The degree of success they would have in their search would depend upon their state of rationality, and that again would depend upon their state of regeneration. If there is enough of self in them to make them wish to defend the positions they have accepted from their pastors, each would find plenty of statements in the Concordance to support the view he had accepted; and so they would not get any nearer the truth. And, if possessed by any pride in his own intelligence, each might get irritated with the other on account of what would then seem to be a dullness of understanding or defective reasoning with the other; and so they might easily become estranged instead of drawn closer together by their studies, and each more confirmed in his own view.

     On the other hand, if they are both humble and acknowledge that no man has any truth unless it be given him by the Lord in the Word, they will both recognize how difficult it is to harmonize the apparently contradictory statements found in the Writings.

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Seeing this they may unite in an endeavor to solve the difficulty, and this without doubting the truth of either set of statements. They may note the teaching in A. C. 2519, "that doctrinals of faith are all from the Divine, which is infinitely above the human rational, and that from the Divine the rational takes its good and its truth." Recognizing the imperfections of their own rationality, they may then try as eagerly as before to find the truth and to be illumined by the Divine in the Word in their search.

     Going on with their study in this state of mind, one or both would be likely to note the teaching in T. C. R. 351, where it is said that "the disposition of the truths of faith is into series, and as it were into fascicles." (See also A. C. 2102.) This teaching is exemplified by showing that in the first chapter of the True Christian Religion the truths of faith are so disposed, or divided into a series of sections. "The first is on the Unity of God; the second, on the Esse of God, or Jehovah; the third, on God's Infinity; the fourth, on the Essence of God, which is Divine Love and Wisdom; the fifth, on God's Omnipotence; and the sixth, on Creation. The arrangement of each section into its articles makes a series, binding the contents as into bundles. These series, in general and particular, thus jointly and severally, contain truths which, according to their abundance and coherence, exalt and perfect faith." (T. C. R. 351.)

     Reflecting upon this teaching, and that it applies to the whole Word, or to all revelations of Divine Truth; and that the substances in the human mind are similarly arranged; and that man by this means has power of rational analysis; they will see the truth that all statements of Divine Truth cohere and make one body in a way similar to that in which all the organs of the human body cohere and make a one. When this truth has been seen, they will not be satisfied to rest their rational analysis on the more or less disconnected statements they find in the Concordance, but will read them in the Writings connected with the series in which they appear. Then they may come to see that the apparent contradiction in the statements arises from the imperfect state of their own rationality; that Truth Divine must necessarily take on different successive states in man, as he progresses in regeneration and rationality; and that this may be perfected to such a degree that the Lord's glorification can be seen in a true image. (A. C. 6716.) Proceeding with their study, eliminating themselves as far as possible, their minds will be more and more illuminated by the Lord. If so, the apparent contradictions in the literal statements of the Writings may slowly dissolve.

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     The statements giving us to understand that the Lord, unlike any man, rose with the body with which He was clothed or encompassed in the world (A. C. 1729, 2083, 5078, 10825; T. C. R. 170; D. L. W. 221; J. Post. 87; Inv. 56, and others), as well as those declaring that the Lord's glorification was brought about by the gradual putting off of the human from the mother, and that He finally dissipated the last residue in the sepulchre (A. C. 1745, 1999, 2159, 2265, 2649, 10252; T. C. R. 102; Lord 16, 35; Ath. Cr. 162), as well as many which state that He united the Divine with the Human, and the Human with the Divine, reciprocally (A. C. 1432, 1587, 1815, 2004, A. R. 820, etc.),-all can be looked upon as equally true statements of one and the same Divinely revealed Doctrine.

     IV.

     When the rational of man is illuminated by the Lord, it is successively opened to receive more and more interior truth, because it then becomes more and more able to see that the literal statements in the Word, through which they are revealed, are all connected with each other; that all cohere, and, taken as one whole, or seen in their coherence with each other, they are the Divine Human.

     The truths which we learn from the Word, and the doctrinal teachings we have and receive in our external understanding, are not faith, but matters of faith. "By faith in the Word nothing else is meant than love to the Lord and charity to the neighbor, and thus life from these loves. The doctrinals and dogmas are not faith, but matters of faith, for they are, one and all, for the sake of the end that a man may become such as they teach him to be." (A. C. 2116.)

     The doctrine of the Lord's glorification, like all doctrines revealed to us by the Lord, is given us for the end that we may learn to love the Lord and the neighbor. Before we realize that truth, and apply it to that end, the Word is an external thing. Or, as it is said in A. C. 1770, "The Word of the Lord is a dead letter, but in him who reads it is vivified by the Lord according to his capacity." As the capacity in man is developed, the mind is illuminated by the Lord's love, and man becomes progressively able to see the Divine Human revealed in the Word.

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The literal sense is vivified with His good and truth.

     A man's "first rational is conceived and born through the influx of his internal man into the life of the affection for knowledges in his external man; but his second rational, from the influx of the good and truth from the Lord through his internal man. This second rational he receives from the Lord when he is being regenerated; for he then perceives in his rational what the good and truth of faith are." (A. C. 2093.)

     The whole doctrine of the Word is the doctrine of love to the Lord and charity to the neighbor. These two loves are the truly human qualities. The Lord inflows with His love into man's internal, and the truths revealed by the Lord in and through the letter of the Word, or in doctrinals of the church drawn from it, bring these two loves to man's conscious knowledge. They are present in the whole Word, and in all its parts. They are from the Lord, and are the Lord in His Divine Human.

     As man permits the Lord to make him such as the truths proceeding from infinite love, and bearing that love within them, teach him to be, his rationality can be developed to see the Word interiorly, not as books or doctrines made known to us by others, but as the Lord Himself in His Divine Human, manifesting His infinite love to men.

     In the Word the Lord's infinite Life,-Love Itself,-has finited Himself, and becomes manifest in the truths that proceed from His Love; and, because they are one with it, they lead men to it. The Lord reveals to us in the Writings how He glorified His Human. The story of Abram, Sarai, Hagar and Ishmael; of Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac; contains, in its supreme sense, the description of how the Lord made His human rational Divine; and in its internal sense how created men are regenerated, or how their natural rational can be made spiritual and celestial by the Lord. The latter is the image of the former, and falls more easily into the idea of man. Still, it is not easy to understand, and cannot in fact be truly understood by us, except as we progress in regeneration. And it is worthy of note that the description of the Lord's glorification of His human rational, so making it Divine, in some of the series goes before, and serves as a means for a better understanding of man's regeneration.

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     In the exposition of the internal sense of the 18th Chapter of Genesis in the Arcana Celestia, the state of the Lord's thought and perception as His Human was becoming Divine is very fully described, and it is said (A. C. 2249) that, though this may appear to man of not so great importance, it is of the greatest moment. The angels have all been men, and the ideas concerning the Lord which they formed as men had falsities insinuated into them. "In order that such things may be dispersed, so much is said in this chapter in its internal sense about the conjunction of the Lord's Human with His Divine, and about His perception and thought. Now when the Word is read, these things are so presented to the perception of angels that their former ideas, formed from other sources, and from difficulties easily springing therefrom, are gradually dissipated, and new ideas are insinuated, conformable to the light of truth in which angels are. This takes place more with spiritual angels than with the celestial; for, according to the purification of their ideas, they are perfected for the reception of celestial things." (A. C. 2249.)

     And if the angelic ideas need to be purified, in order that their reception of celestial things may become more perfect, surely the ideas of men need to be purified, which takes place as their understanding of the Lord's Divine Human is perfected.

     Until we become celestial men, and the church thereby becomes celestial, it will be impossible for us to see clearly, even in an image, how the Lord as Divine Truth becomes Divine Good, one with infinite Love; but on that last Phase of the Lord's glorification the Writings also contain truths in a series, which by their abundance and coherence can exalt and perfect our faith, that is, our love to the Lord and to the neighbor, and so make us constantly more fit for exalted uses as parts of the Gorand Man, which is the Divine Human in the heavens; though the Divine Human itself, or the Lord from the beginning, infinite Love and Wisdom, must always transcend human or angelic understanding, and therefore will always be perceived by all as above the heavens.

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OUR INHERITANCE 1930

OUR INHERITANCE       COLLEY PRYKE       1930

     (A paper read at the British Assembly, 1929.)

     In the doctrines of the Church we are taught that the Divine purpose in the creation of the universe was the formation of an angelic heaven from the human race. It is well for the mind to return from time to time to this thought, to reflect upon it, and to use it as a viewpoint from which we may regard the course of the ages, and see in better perspective our own times and the future which is before the Crown of all the Churches. Let it be our Mount Pisgah from which we may view the goodly land into which the Lord will lead His Church.

     This angelic heaven-the Divine plan-to be formed by the inflowing of infinite love and wisdom into finite receptacles, is not a heaven of automata, but of beings gifted with freedom and rationality,-free to choose good or evil, to turn to the right or to the left, to look downwards to self and the world or upwards to heaven and the Lord Himself; gifted with rationality that enables the mind to rise above the mere allurements of the body into a clearer light, where rational and spiritual truth may be seen, and, when seen, used to purify the will and the life.

     With this Divine plan kept in mind, it is our purpose this afternoon to glance very briefly over the Churches of the past, to survey our inheritance, to lift our eyes to the Promised Land, in the hope that these words may stimulate the thought and speech of others present, whose words can stir our hearts and give us fresh enthusiasm, whose insight into the Doctrines may arouse in us anew the vision of what shall be if men are faithful to the things revealed.

     Of the birth of the race we have but little idea. The manner of its inception is nowhere given with Divine Authority. The work entitled The Worship and Love of God is familiar to us, and we all have been charmed by the poetic setting in which its theory is enshrined. Some of the present-day scholars of the Church have presented other theories for our consideration, but it would not be wrong to say that the thought of the Church is not yet finally formed.

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May it not well be that some of these problems which now engage our attention must wait for solution until those far-distant times when men will again have immediate contact with the other world and sit at the feet of angelic instructors?

     I must confess that to me the precise method of the formation and birth of the human race, whilst of living interest, does not seem of vital importance. This is not said in disparagement of the work of those scholars who have explored this field, but is rather an admission of a lack in one's own mental make-up, and a consciousness of other tasks nearer to hand. The average man, engrossed in his own uses, and circumstanced by his own limitations, mental and material, may cast longing glances at these studies, but need not, we submit, feel deeply disturbed if the solution is not to hand.

     We are told, however, that these first men-pre-Adamites, as they are called-were far different from the man of today; not indeed a low type, but possibly an undeveloped type,-the infants of our race, with an infantile and innocent reliance upon their Heavenly Father.

     Of the first of the five great Churches-the Most Ancient Church-we have a vast store of teaching, and it is not surprising to note in the literature of the Church how the mind of man has constantly turned towards this Golden Age. To these men was vouchsafed the blessing of truly conjugial love in all its priceless integrity. They were interiorly horrified at adulteries. The family was the center of their life, and such was their state, we are told, that in the heaven of the Most Ancient Church whole families are found dwelling together as on earth, with scarcely a member missing. Their dwelling together in families was that the Church might be preserved with them, and further because each household was of a peculiar genius. They were content so to live. They dwelt in tabernacles and worshiped on mountains. They were of a celestial nature. The sensual things of the body with them yielded obedience and service to their internal man. Innocence reigned with them, and with it wisdom.

     In this connection, it is interesting to remark the statement that the more the Most Ancients were in scientifics from the objects of sight and hearing, the more inferior were their perceptions. They lived on earth, and were at the same time together with angels. There was immediate revelation, and they worshiped the Lord as a Man.

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Heaven acted as a one with the men of that Church. Their interiors were manifest in their faces; they could not dissemble. They had internal breathing, and the state of their reception was circumstanced exactly according to the state of their love and faith. They knew nothing of sacrifices; it did not occur to them to worship the Lord in this way.

     What a picture we have here! Loving and obedient children of the Heavenly Father, living in a state of integrity; contented, therefore happy; innocent, yet wise. Unfortunately, time does not permit of a more detailed account of their lives, but all are familiar with the Memorable Relation in which a visit to the Golden Age is described. (C. L. 75.) This Church represented the Lord's celestial kingdom. If it had remained in its original integrity, there would have been no need for the Lord to be born a man.

     Even amongst profane writers there is some faint perception of the character at least the external circumstances-of this Golden Age of the youth of the race on this earth.

     In its decline, the posterity of the Most Ancient Church did not want to dwell alone, but to be among the nations like the Jewish Church. They were not at first evil, but still good; and as they wanted to live in the external man, or in the proprium, it was granted them by the Lord; but from mercy the celestial spiritual was insinuated. Later they began not to believe things revealed unless they saw and perceived with their senses that they were so. Their dominant evil became the love of self, and not so much the love of the world as at this day. Finally they became so immersed in external things that they did not wish to hear truths or do goods. The last state of this Church-the last judgment upon it-is described in the Word by the Flood.

     It was followed by the Ancient Church-representing the Lord's spiritual kingdom. It is sometimes called the Noachic Church. In one passage we are taught, in order to illustrate the difference between the Most Ancient and the Ancient Churches, that if a man of the Most Ancient Church had read the historical or prophetical Word he would have seen its internal sense without any previous instruction or explication; whereas, if a man of the Ancient Church had read the Word, he could not have seen its internal sense without previous instruction and explication.

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     In the Memorable Relation just referred to the people of the Ancient Church are described as being of the Silver Age.

     It was a representative Church. All things of its external worship represented the celestial and spiritual things of the Lord's kingdom. In it the science of correspondences seems to have reached its zenith amongst men. The men of that Church worshipped God under a human form, and many of them knew that the Lord was to come into the world; but when they turned aside from good to evil, they began to worship the representatives themselves, such as the sun, moon, stars, etc. They worshipped in groves and gardens under trees. There were writings in that Ancient Church, and part of their Word is incorporated in the Word as we have it today.

     In its first state there was no other doctrine than the doctrine of love and charity. They did not then know of any doctrine of faith separate. Man had lost the state of internal breathing, which was the special gift to the celestial man; the intimate contact with the other world was broken, but they often heard spirits who rebuked or comforted them.

     The, Most Ancient Church, we are told, was in the Land of Canaan and the country round about. The Ancient Church was spread through many lands, and extended at last as far as Tartary, and into all the countries of Africa. This Church was consummated through idolatries, for when the Ancient Church declined, they began to worship as many gods as there were names of the one only God, until at last every family had its own god. Spiritual things were represented by them in visible forms; those forms or images were placed in their houses, temples, streets, etc. Later those forms became their objects of worship. They had lost the spiritual ideas which those images portrayed. Here again the mind is recalled to the Memorable Relation and the account of the Silver Age. On the confines of that heaven, Swedenborg and his angel guide saw figures of various kinds carved in wood and stone.

     The decadent posterity of the Ancient Church spread throughout the world-an evil stream of idolatry. Its traces are everywhere apparent to the instructed mind even at this day, and afford striking confirmation, if such were needed, of the truths revealed in the Writings. Yet the Higher Critic is so blinded by the love of self-intelligence that the universality of the story of the Flood (the correspondential account of the vastation of the Most Ancient Church) and the widespread survival of the imagery of the Ancient Church have for him no real significance, except that he regards the frequent recurrence of the legend of a Flood as proof of the human origin of the Word.

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For him the real splendor of these Ancient Churches does not exist. He has lost his way in the swamp of folklore and legend. For him the mists of the valley hide the light on the hills. To the reflecting man of the Church, however, this history of the ancient peoples is full of suggestion, of meaning, and of warning that we maintain our faith in its purity, that it may spread a vivifying stream down the ages to come, that its truths may so mold our lives that in the conjunction of good and truth in man may be imaged the conjunction of the Lord and the Church.

     It is with some reluctance that we leave the consideration of these Churches; to us they must ever be of living interest. We have been given much information with reference both to their spiritual states and the natural conditioning of their lives.

     And so to the Israelitish or Jewish Church,-the third great accommodation of the Divine to human states. For we must remember that even the Most Ancient Church in its beginning stood in need of accommodation.

     The word "Divine" is so bandied about in the literature (I had almost said the scribblings) of today, that I submit we do well to remind ourselves of what it really means, and, as it were, again lake hold of the truth that between the Divine and finite man there is no ratio. The profoundest wisdom of the sage is hardly more than the babbling of the babe when we are considering infinite wisdom.

     The Jewish Church is but another stage in the decline of man. At its end, the power of the hells had become so strong that the human race would have perished, if the Lord, in His mercy, had not assumed the human in the virgin womb, come into the world, conquered the hells, and raised up a New Church. "His mercy endureth for ever." (Ps. 136.)

     We stand in awe and wonderment. The Lord, the Creator of the universe, "bowed the heavens and came down." Here, if anywhere, the finite mind should get some grasp, some faint impression, of the Divine mercy, an impression which may almost overwhelm us, and yet is totally inadequate.

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May we say, with a full sense of the holiness of the ground upon which we tread, that to the Divine mercy, in its overmastering love for mankind, no sacrifice was too great to ensure the fulfilment of the Divine purpose. Birth into the world; childhood in Galilee; the earthly ministry amongst a rude, uninstructed, indeed a depraved, people; the agony of Gethsemane; the passion of the cross;-all to preserve our inheritance, to prepare in the Father's house the many mansions.

     A large portion of the Old Testament is devoted to the portrayal of the race history of the Israelitish people,-one of the most dramatic race-histories of all time. A sensual and degraded people, ever on the verge of idolatry, ready to fall away into the most direful evils, the representative of a Church was established with them only with the greatest difficulty. It needed the terrors of the plagues of Egypt, with their own marvellous protection from them, to set these people in motion towards the Promised Land. They had scarcely shaken the dust of Egypt from their feet when they were murmuring against Moses, their Divinely appointed leader. The many signal acts of Providence in their favor did not prevent their relapse into the worship of the golden calf whilst Moses was in the mount. Their history in the wilderness is one long story of murmuring and disobedience. It would hardly be too much to say that they were led into their inheritance almost against their will. They believed there were many gods, but that their God Jehovah was the most powerful. We are told in the Writings that there was no charity or faith with them, but only the representative of a church, and that this representative of a church came to an end when the Lord came into the world and abolished the washings and purifyings, the sacrifices and rituals, of the law of Moses. When its use as a representative had departed, the Jewish race was quickly scattered to the four corners of the world. Their temple-the very centre of their religion-was razed to the ground, in fulfilment of the Lord's prophecy that not one stone should be left upon another.

     Wonders are revealed to us in the Writings of the Second Coming concerning the spiritual significance of every recorded act in the history of the Jews, and concerning their state in the spiritual world, but time forbids more detailed treatment.

     The assumption of the human by the Lord, His life in the world and His victories over the hells, brought about the final vastation of the Jewish Church and the establishment of the first Christian Church,-the fourth of the great Churches.

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The veil of the temple had been rent in twain; representatives were abolished. God had revealed himself in the Human Form. The hidden Jehovah of the Old Testament had come into the world as the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ of the New Revelation. There was once more a genuine Church on the earth.

     It is true "He was despised and rejected of men." To us who have been bred into a belief in the Lord in His First Coming (and many of us into an acknowledgment of him in His Second Coming) it is difficult to realize how little stir the first coming of the Lord made in the world at that time. Only a search amongst the profane writers of the times brought home to scholars the fact that this stupendous happening passed practically unnoticed by the world at large. Sometimes we are infested by the questioning, "Can the writings of an 18th century philosopher and theologian really constitute the Second Coming of the Lord? Surely something more arresting than this was meant by 'the coming in the clouds with power and great glory'!" The world seems to pass us by; its hurrying feet do not stop at our doors. At times its seemingly benevolent indifference exasperates us. Again, like children suddenly left alone, we dread we know not what. Our faith is weak. But let us take heart! The inception of the first Christian Church was with a few simple fishermen. For a time the crowd "strewed branches in the way, crying Hosanna," but when the Lord was brought before Pilate He stood alone; and at the cross, women stood afar off. Truth cannot be either confirmed or disproved by mere numbers. The Lord is concerned with eternal ends, and these will prevail.

     The first Christian Church, established, as we have said, among a few fishermen, began to spread. There was a remnant, as there always is, who thirsted for the living water, and to whom the coming of the Lord and the establishment of a New Church was as a release from lifelong imprisonment. They heard the word gladly; shaking off, in Judea, the bloodstained rites and ceremonies, and in other countries renouncing the dismal idolatries which had taken the place of true faith. It is interesting, as we trace the record of these early days, to notice how the truth, when accepted, turned into a band of brothers men of widely varying earthly conditions; for although the Church started with the poor and simple, soon men in other stations saw the light and abandoned all to follow it. And what enthusiasm, what self-sacrifice!

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These men, one might almost say, were fresh from the earthly presence of the Lord. To surrender life itself for their faith seemed as nothing to them. The reality of their faith made the things of this world trivial. Here, if ever in the world's history, was it true that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church."

     Alas! this early state was destined to last but a short time. Ere the tiny rivulet had reached the proportions of a river, its waters were polluted by the false doctrine of the Nicene Council. From this time the first Christian Church was doomed. Instead of freeing men from spiritual bondage the Church riveted their chains more tightly upon them. The pope claimed the power of opening and closing heaven; the priesthood withdrew the Word from the common people. A vast army of lazy and self-indulgent clergy spread over the land, enslaving the people, overriding the civil power, amassing wealth by "grinding the faces of the poor," at the same time denying them the blessed comfort of a true religion.

     This state of affairs was not by any means confined to those countries where the Roman Church had sway. The Eastern or Greek Church had a similar deadening effect upon the peoples with whom it came in contact. In Western Europe, however, there were some to whom this state of affairs became intolerable; and amidst trial, suffering and persecution, the Reformation was born. Unfortunately, in its fight against some falsities, it invented others as direful, but it gave back the Word to the common people.

     Those few words narrate what may be called (without a misuse of adjectives) an epoch-marking change in the world. The fountain of Divine Truth which had been stopped up by man was again opened. Again we see the thirsty crowds gathering round. Wherever was found one who could read the Word aloud, hundreds flocked to hear. The Lord pursuing His "unceasing purpose,"-the salvation of the human race,-blessed mankind with a knowledge of the art of printing, and there started from the printing press a stream that shall never cease to flow. Year after year, more and more copies of the Divine Word were printed and circulated; and when this use shall flag in the hands of a dead and vastated dispensation, the New Church will stand ready to carry on the work.

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     The Reformation was, however, but a gleam of light in the gathering darkness of the Christian Church, hastening to its end. Then was "the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet." (Matt. 24.) The imaginary heavens had so obscured spiritual light that the human race was again in danger of perishing. We are told that there was no knowledge of the Lord, of the Word, of Redemption, of Faith or Charity; no knowledge of heaven or hell, no knowledge of Baptism or the Holy Supper; that there was no religion, and therefore no Church. (Abom.)

     We have endeavored to trace briefly (we are conscious that we have done it very inadequately) the life-story of the four previous Churches, that through the history of the past we might see the golden thread of the Divine purpose. Viewed from the standpoint of the fallen human race, we have seen that our inheritance is wholly evil. The proprium of man, of each man and woman of us, is wholly evil. It is only by the signal mercy of the Lord that we can be saved from it. Nothing but the arm of the Lord has wrought salvation for us.

     We want, in the few minutes left, to look at the other side of the picture. The Children of Israel, when speaking of their inheritance, had in mind the Land of Promise; but the inheritance of the New Church man or woman-their Land of Promise-is all that the New Revelation involves:-A knowledge of the Lord. A knowledge of the Word. The promise of Love Truly Conjugial. A knowledge of the life after death. The hazy guesswork of the Old Church swept away by a revelation which makes the future life even more real than the present. The knowledge that in that world we shall have the blessed privilege of a life of use; for without use there can be no contentment, and contentment is at the core of all true happiness, as distinct from mere pleasure. A glorious heritage indeed!

     Into a world of evil and falsity the Lord has made His Second Coming. A man prepared from youth for the office of Revelator was used as the instrument of this. Through the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord has once more restored to the earth the true Christian Religion in all its purity,-magnificent in its simplicity, infinite in its scope! This Divine Revelation restores the Word once more to men, and by it effects conjunction with heaven.

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In Divine accommodation to the needs of fallen men, the true Christian Religion can be understood of the simple, whilst it contains stores of Divine Truth that cannot be exhausted to eternity. These are not mere phrases, invented to run easily off the tongue, and to sway the mind into a momentary enthusiasm. They embody Divine Truth.

     Who is so simple-minded that he cannot grasp the Faith of the New Heaven and the New Church, as set forth in the True Christian Religion? Yet this Second Coming is a revelation of the Lord Himself. The infinite, all-loving, all-wise, Father reveals Himself again. The doors of the Temple of Divine Truth are flung wide open, and no finite mind can exhaust its treasures. Between the Divine and the finite there is no ratio. Through eternity the humble searcher for truth will find fresh wonders. I repeat, these are not mere phrases. Let us not rest content with the words. Let us try to grasp the vision.

     On this, the most external and sensual of all earths, the Lord became incarnate. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." (John 1.) On this same earth He has come again, as He promised. Every coming of the Lord embraces a vastation of the Old Church, the establishment of the New. This is effected by the Divine Truth; for the coming of the Lord is a revelation of Himself as the eternal Divine Truth. It is a parting of the curtain.

     The restoration of freedom to man by the destruction of the imaginary heavens has had many effects, but they are chiefly apparent on the external plane, for at present there is no throng at the gates of the New Jerusalem. Coincident with the Last Judgment began an era of material development unequaled in the history of the world. The natural sciences have advanced by leaps and bounds. We will not stop here to consider where these advances are leading them, or in what direction they tend. Everything contributing to comfort and ease,-the external expansion, one might say, of life in this world,-has increased a thousandfold. As a belief in the spiritual world receded, life in the natural world has seemed increasingly important, and the mad rush for material satisfaction has gone on. The natural sciences, which should have been the handmaidens of a true religion, have usurped the kingdom. Evils have spread apace, and men, freed from their bondage to others, have become slaves to their own desires. Side by side with the so-called development of the race, we have seen wars, revolutions and upheavals, "and the end is not yet."

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We are sickened with talk of "moral uplift," when we see around us the same old loves of self and the world. These things must needs be. Their manifestations-the ultimations of internal states-necessarily precede and prepare the way for the final establishment of the crown of all the Churches. Here is no cause for despondency. These things are of Divine Providence. May we not stand aside, "and see the works of the Lord"? Not in self-satisfaction, but in extremest gratitude that the Lord has provided for us a "City of Refuge." We who live at this day of the consummation of the first Christian Church (many of us, by the special mercy of the Lord, having been led out of it) have indeed cause for gratitude.

     When, after all their wanderings in the wilderness, the Children of Israel at last came in sight of the Promised Land, the Lord led Moses to the top of Pisgah, and said unto him: "This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed." So today, the Lord has led His Church out of the darkness of the old dispensation, the truths of which were obscured by man-made falsities, into the glorious light of the new truths. The Promised Land is stretched out before us, if we will enter in. We today are but a beginning of a Church; our feet are on the brink of Jordan and the Promised Land is ahead.

     "Behold, I make all things new!" In His own way, and in His own good time, the Lord will lead His Church forward. And if its members are faithful, such a future stretches out as the mind of man has never conceived. As the Church progresses into a more and more interior understanding of the Divine Truth and an application of that truth to life, the whole face of life in this world will be changed, Steadily, step by step, slowly at first, but with ever-increasing strength, the tide of new life-life founded on the new truths-will roll forward, blotting out the death of the Old Church. Guided by Divine Truth, and molding its actions upon it, the New Church will become an ever more perfect instrument in the hand of the Lord "for the establishment of a heaven from the human race." Let us make no mistake! There is no phase of life which the Church will not profoundly modify in the course of time, and we can best prepare for this by striving to see what the truths teach and applying them. It is a hard thing, but surely worth the effort.

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     We hear of the "riddle of the universe," of the problem of this and the problem of that. Where shall we turn, if not to the Church, for the solutions? Can a vastated Church, which has rejected her Lord, profaned His temple, and spurned His teachings, heal the sickness of our times? We know from the Doctrines that the evils of the time flow from the denial of the Lord and all that this involves. What can cure but an acknowledgment of Him in His Second Coming! If we attempt to solve the world's problems in the light of the world, how do we differ from those around us! If we condemn the state of the Christian world, how can we share its activities! Our regeneration demands that we shall be in the world, although not of it. Even in the dust of the conflict, let us pause to look out over the land of our inheritance.

     It is frequently said that the man of today is the "heir of the ages." This is true; for "others have labored, and we have entered into their labors." If the world around us can see that the present bears the imprint of the past, and that today contains the seed of the future, how much more is this true of the New Church man, who is enabled by revelation to trace the workings of Divine Providence through the ages, and for whom the veil of the future has been raised? Though the future of individuals is mercifully hid, the Lord ever holds before us the vision of the future of His Church.

     To the young people of the Church, in particular, we would say: "Lift up your eyes, and behold the goodly land of your inheritance!" "Be not content with the narrow strip that has so far been wrested from the old inhabitants of the land. Go forward, and let each succeeding generation plant the standard of the Lord farther and farther in the Land of Canaan."

     But with humility,-with humility! These things are not ours, but we may enter into them. The Church is the Lord's; ours may be the priceless inheritance of membership therein. Man cannot lead the hosts of the Lord when they go forth to war. Truly has it been said, "The Lord of Hosts our captain is." Sufficient for us if, all unworthy, we are permitted to enlist under His banner, to wield in His name the sword of truth, and, if we trust in Him, to rout in our hearts the armies of hell. Then will it be true, as was said of old: "Ye shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers, and ye shall by my people, and I will be your God."

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HALL OF JUDGMENT 1930

HALL OF JUDGMENT       Rev. GEORGE DE CHARMS       1930

     AN ADDRESS TO CHILDREN.

     You remember how John, the beloved Apostle of the Lord, because he taught men to worship the Lord, was put in prison by the wicked emperor of Rome. You remember also how he was sent to live all alone on the Island of Patmos, and how the Lord came to him there, took him up into heaven, and showed him a wonderful vision. He saw the Lord Himself, as He is seen by the angels, surrounded by a brilliant light, far brighter than that of the sun. He was standing in the midst of seven golden candlesticks. He held in His right hand seven stars. Out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His face was as the' sun shineth in his strength. John fell down to worship Him, trembling with fear, because he was in the presence of God. But the Lord " laid His right hand upon him, saying, Fear not; I am the First and the Last: I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter."

     After this, the Lord took John into the other world many times, showing him wonderful things, and these John has written down in the Book of Revelation, in order that we may know about heaven, and about how the Lord is going to establish a New Church. One day John's spiritual eyes were opened. Looking up, he saw a door opened in heaven, and he heard the Lord's voice like the sound of a trumpet calling to him. The Lord said "Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter."

     John was lifted up in spirit, and was led into a great hall in heaven, called the "hall of judgment." In ancient times there were no courts such as we have today. But during certain hours every day the king would come into the hall of judgment, where he would sit upon a throne. There the people of the kingdom would come before him, to tell him of any wrong that had been done, or of any crime that had been committed.

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The king would listen to them, and would judge between the evil and the good, causing the evil to be punished or to be cast into prison, and giving honors and rewards to those who had served him faithfully and well.

     Now you know that every one at heart is either good or evil. But because evil men can pretend to be good, and because good men often make mistakes and do evil things without knowing that they are evil, it is impossible for any man, even a king, to know whether, deep in their hearts, they love and worship the Lord or not. Even the angels cannot tell this, though they are very much wiser than men on earth. The Lord alone is able to judge men. When we die, and come into the spiritual world, we come into the presence of the Lord, just as people in ancient times came into the presence of their king. If we have lived an evil life on earth, and have broken the Lord's commandments, then we must suffer punishment. We cannot enter into heaven, but are led away among the evil spirits, and come at last into hell. But if we have kept the Lord's Word, and have done His will on earth, then the Lord will give us the reward of our faithful service. He will give us the garments of angels, and will provide for us a beautiful home in heaven.

     This judgment does not always take place as soon as we come into the other world. Sometimes we must live in the world of spirits, which is between heaven and hell, for many years before we can be brought into the hall of judgment. During this time, evil spirits and good spirits are together, even as they were on earth, the evil pretending to be good, and making the good spirits believe that they also love and worship the Lord. But from time to time the Lord comes down into heaven, entering into the great hall, and sitting upon His throne there. Then the spirits who have been living in the world of spirits come before Him to be judged. And the Lord then separates the good from the evil, casting the evil into hell, and raising the good into heaven.

     When John came into that hall of judgment in heaven, he saw the Lord there sitting upon His throne. The throne of a king was always made as rich and beautiful as possible. It was a chair wonderfully carved in wood or ivory, covered with gold, and set with precious stones. It was usually set up above the floor on a platform, with steps leading to it, while over it was a canopy of richly embroidered silks in many colors. But the throne which John saw in heaven was much more beautiful than any which could possibly be made on earth.

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It was so beautiful that it could not be described. Instead of colored silks, it was surrounded by a rainbow of living color, green like an emerald, and it was through this rainbow that he saw the Lord sitting upon the throne, His face shining like the sun.

     In front of the throne, at some distance from it, in a semi-circle, were placed seats, on which were sitting twenty-four wise angels, clothed in glistening white garments, with golden crowns upon their heads. Between these angels and the throne, there were seven lamps of fire burning, and the light of the lamps was caught and reflected from the floor, which was smooth like glass, so that the light filled the great room with a golden splendor. Still nearer to the throne, immediately around it, were four strange animals, placed as guards, lest any one should draw too near to the Lord. They were not like any animal that. is seen on earth. The first was like a lion. The second was like a calf. The third had the face of a man, and the fourth was like a flying eagle. And each animal had six wings, full of eyes within,-eyes with which they could see everyone that came into the hall. These animals gave warning, day and night, that the Lord was there, and that no one should draw too near to Him; and their voices could be heard, even to the farthest corner of the hall, saying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and which is, and which is to come." And when these animals gave glory, and honor, and thanks to the Lord, the wise angels fell down on their faces before the throne, casting their crowns upon the floor in front of the Lord, and saying, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power: for Thou hast created all things, and by Thy will they are and were created."

     It was necessary that the way to the throne should be carefully guarded, first by the wise angels, who were to bring the spirits into the hall, and prepare them to stand in the presence of the Lord, then by the seven lamps of fire, then by the four animals, and lastly by the rainbow of green light. For if anyone should come too near to the Lord, it would be like coming too near to the sun; he would be burned up in an instant. The Lord came into this hall of judgment, not to hurt anyone, but to bring happiness and peace to all who loved and worshipped Him; and so He set guards, lest they should come too near. We shall learn next time about how this judgment took place,-how the Lord opened the book of life, and read out of it the things that men had done during their life in the world, so that He might show before all the angels whether they were good or evil, and whether or not they could come into heaven.

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LESSON: Revelation 4.
HYMNAL: pp. 135, 178, 174.

     [The above Address is the third in a series on the Book of Revelation to be published monthly in our pages.-EDITOR.]
NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1930

NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS       Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1930

     The March "Readings" from the Letter of the Word include the part of the story of David which begins just after his battle with Goliath (I Samuel 17) and ends with his estrangement from his son Absalom (II Samuel 13). In the Arcana the assignments for the month cover nos. 242 to 377, treating of the spiritual sense of Genesis 3:14 to 4:10.

     The Representation of the Kings.

     All the kings of Israel, by virtue of their royalty, and despite their character, represented the Divine Truth ruling in the Church; but the significance of each varies with the state of the kingdom. Saul very evidently represents Divine Truth as it is present in the sense of the Letter.

     Saul, on being anointed, was searching for his father's stray asses; suggesting that truth such as is accepted in the natural and rational degree is here referred to. Jonathan, David's beloved friend and admirer, seems to signify that in the sense of the Letter which testifies of the spiritual sense. Jonathan is associated with a bow (I Samuel 20:35-40; II Samuel 1:17-27), which stands for the doctrine of genuine truth from the Letter of the Word.

     There is an appearance of rivalry between the truth of the Letter and that of the Spiritual Sense. This is seen represented in the relations of John the Baptist and the Lord (John 3:26-36, Matt. 11:2-19), and in Saul's envy of David.

167


David represents the Divine Truth in the Lord's spiritual kingdom, which was established by the Lord at His first advent. Therefore David was born in Bethlehem, and his career was an obvious prophecy of the Messiah to come, who was to be hailed as the "Son of David." David was also a harpist; for a harp, as a stringed instrument, signifies the delights and harmonies of a spiritual use of truths which disperses falsity and evil, but which, in certain states, is very annoying to the literalistic mind, even as David's playing was to Saul. (A. E. 323, a, b, c. S. D. 1996-8.) As the Letter of the Word is compelled, as if unwillingly, to prophecy against itself, so Saul on several occasions is cast into a prophetic ecstasy, much to his own chagrin. In one case, David was saved by this occurrence. (I Samuel 19:18-24.) In the Spiritual Diary, nos. 2272-2283, Swedenborg records how he was shown the manner of Saul's obsession by being brought experimentally into a similar state.

     The Slaying of Goliath.

     The fact that the flood at the time of Noah was a spiritual one allows for the survival of some of the ancient Nephilim, or "giants" (Gen. 6:4), not alone into fairy-lore and mythology, but into historic times. We meet with them again as the aborigines of Canaan, under many names (Numbers 13:28, 33; Deut. 2:19-21, 3:11). Goliath, the Philistine of Gath, over nine feet tall, may have been of this giant brood. (Joshua 11:22.) He represents the intellectual pride of a decadent theology or an evil doctrine, which is overthrown by the truths of life which come from the Word when spiritually perceived. The five pebbles from the stream, slung by the shepherd boy David, prevailed over all the worldly armor and skill of the Philistine. Five signifies "remains."

     David and the Tabernacle.

     David's eating of the shewbread in the Tabernacle, which was then at Nob, is defended by the Lord. (Matt. 12:3, 4.) David represented the Lord in His Human. The shewbread signified the Divine Good of Mercy,-a holy gift which the Lord dispenses to any who may be in need of receiving, quite apart from ecclesiastical regulations of the Pharisaical type. At the time of the Lord the Church was consummated and spiritually ineffective, and consequently was a hindrance rather than an aid in this dispensation.

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     The first act of David as king, after he had made Jerusalem his capital, was to move the Ark, by three stages, into a new tabernacle pitched on Mt. Zion. This is fully elucidated in the Apocalypse Explained, no 700f. The Ark-the containant of the Tables of the Law, the Covenant of Israel-represents the Word in its inmost spirit, which is properly lodged in love to the Lord-the celestial love. But because the period of David's reign, with its many wars, represents the spiritual stage of regeneration and glorification, with its struggles of temptation, David was not Permitted to erect the building which should finally and gloriously harbor the Ark. For the Temple, raised by Solomon, the king of wisdom and pacific culture, was the outward token of the final state of regeneration, the serene sabbath of celestial perception. In the inmost sense, the Temple, like Solomon the builder, signified the Lord in His state of glorification. (D. P. 245.)

     David's Decadence.

     The evils described in the Word vanish before the angelic thought when the Word is lifted into a spiritual plane of understanding. Such a thing as the polygamy of the kings of Israel (who all represented something of Divine Truth) is translated into the love of the Lord for the universal race, even for the souls who are not of His proper Church. The Lord's Specific Church-which is one-is alone called His Bride and Wife. The polygamy and other evils which are seen gradually developing in David and other kings, notably Solomon, signify, first of all, the hereditary evils which the Lord discerned in His earthly, inherited human. But these hereditary evils were put off by the Lord, and for them there were substituted during His glorification the very Divine virtues of which these evils were perversions. Hence the angels see the Divine virtues where evils are presented in the literal sense of the Word. David's sins represent the Lord's temptations, but also-more interiorly-they represent positive Divine acts of mercy, mirrored in the sinful futilities of men. David's taking Bathsheba, the Hittite, to wife represents the love of the Lord for the Gentiles, for the sheep of another fold. (D. P. 245; A. C. 3246.)

     David's sins were visited upon him, and especially by the rebellion of his son Absalom. Absalom, a Judas character whose princely charm and almost feminine beauty seduced the hearts of Israel, represents the literal sense of the Word, which-when superficially regarded, in the manner of contemporary Modernism-leads the mind away from the holiness and justice of the internal sense into a profane state of adulterated goods and falsified truths.

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Absalom's latter fate-being hanged by his fatally long hair in the gnarled branches of an oak-tree-is no doubt significant of the ultimate end of the journey of Modernism in the grip of an agnostic rationalism.

     The First Messianic Prophecy.

     The Arcana, in nos. 250 to 260, explains the first prophecy given to mankind that the Lord would be born "seed of the woman" to "bruise the head of the serpent," or to subdue hell. If the celestial church had not fallen, there would have been no necessity for the Lord to be born. With the need came the prophecy of the ultimate remedy; but this prophecy was itself sufficient to maintain a spiritual equilibrium, during the untold centuries of the Most Ancient and Ancient Churches, until the Advent. In a similar way, a threat of punishment or a law is frequently sufficient to maintain order among evil or rebellious men for a long time, before it becomes necessary to apply the penalty of that law.

     The Subjection of the Wife.

     The law of marriage which requires that the wife shall be subject to the prudence of her husband is shown in the Arcana to have a celestial origin (no. 266). In a later paragraph (no. 568), where the fallen race is treated of, it is told that cupidity took the place of will, and phantasy the place of the truths of the understanding. Still, it is shown, it is in the understanding that the hope of redemption lay. The male sex thus bears a greater responsibility, for something intellectual or rational can still be given to the understanding, if it predominates over the fickle will. This, the cited number concludes, is the reason why so many laws were enacted in the Jewish Church concerning the prerogative of the husband and the obedience of the wife.

     In no wise do we believe this teaching to constitute any Divine sanction for the subjection of wives. Conjugial love is averse to domination. Yet the life of conjugial love presupposes a state of the church wherein the rational dominates in matters of faith and doctrine.

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Women, the doctrine implies, are not to be "affected with knowledge, but with the truths and goods themselves when they hear them and perceive them in others. Such affection is common with good women, but the affection of the knowledge of truth is common with men. Therefore it is that they who are in spiritual perception love women who are affected with truths, but do not love women who are in knowledges. For it is according to Divine order that men should be in knowledges, but women only in affections, and thus that women should not love themselves from knowledges, but should love men, and that from this should come conjugial love...." (A. C. 8994.) Other passages, bearing on the limitations of womanly uses, and on uses that may prove fatal to the feminine mind, are the following: C. L. 175, 218, 165 (compare 296), 168, 393; S. D. 4940, 436D. L. W. 361. (Compare also A. C. 8994, at the end, with A. C. 48232.)

     In a state of conjugial love there is no sex-rivalry. Love is the only solution of this, as of all other human problems. And the shallow critic who casts slurs on the understanding of women, merely because it is more closely conjoined to the will, would do well to ponder the following doctrine: "Everyone, whether man or woman, possesses understanding and will; but with the man the understanding predominates, and with the woman the will predominates, and the human being is (sexed) according to that which predominates. Yet in heavenly marriages there is no predominance, for the will of the wife is also that of the husband, and the husband's understanding is also the understanding of the wife. . . ." (H. H. 369. See A. E. 710:25.)

     The Pre-Adamites.

     In the year 1655, a work entitled Praeadamitae was published in Paris by Isaac Peyrerius, which caused a lively discussion in Europe as to the claim of the author that men existed on earth before Adam. This discussion is referred to by Swedenborg in the True Christian Religion, no. 466. From the Arcana, however, it is apparent that these Pre-Adamites were of a lower spiritual and cultural level than those among their descendants who reached the state of the Church "Adam." They are described as "those who lived like wild animals (ferae), but at length became spiritual men." (A. C. 286.) These were described, as to regeneration, by the first six days of creation.

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Later there were those of this spiritual race who became truly celestial, but their posterity gradually declined. (A. C. 280-285.) Yet all those descending from this celestial or Most Ancient Church retained in them "a celestial seed" (A. C. 310), and are said to be of the celestial genius, characterized by a dangerously perfect unity of mind for better or for worse. Whether the more "gentile" descendants of the Pre-adamites were of a relatively "spiritual" genius, and thus more receptive of the teachings of the later Ancient Church, is a question of great interest.

     The Cherubim.

     When Adam and his wife were expelled from the paradise of their former innocence, the Lord "made to dwell from the east toward the garden of Eden cherubim, and the flame of a sword turning itself, to keep the way of the tree of lives,"

     The cherubim are popularly pictured as tremendous archangels with a flaming sword, and the literalist finds in this a confirmation of his belief in a race of angels that were created before this world began. But the cherubim, like the seraphim, may also be thought of as described in the prophetic visions, namely, as composite animals with partially human features, merely symbolic of the complex powers of Divine Providence in guarding the holy things of celestial life. (A. C. 9082.) Such composite animals appear at the entrances of heaven to represent protection.

     The flame of a sword, apparently, was an angel's weapon. Actually, however, it signifies the self-love of man which insanely defeats its own desire for entering into the holy things, by "turning itself" to earthly and corporeal things.

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Title Unspecified 1930

Title Unspecified              1930

     Photograph of the Chapel of the Alpha Circle with Rev. and Mrs. F. W. Elphick and family in the foreground.

173




     Photograph of the Chapel of the Alpha Circle - interior; in Ladybrand, Orange Free State, South Africa.

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NOTES AND REVIEWS 1930

NOTES AND REVIEWS              1930


NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office a Publication, Lancaster, Pa.
Published Monthly By
THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
BRYN ATHYN, PA.
Editor                    Rev. W. B. Caldwell, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager          Mr. H. Hyatt, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address and business communications should be sent to the Business Manager.

     TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
In the United States, $3.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single Copy, 30 cents.
     A HISTORY OF MINISTERIAL USES.

     THE ORDER OF TEACHING, LEADING AND BLESSING THROUGH THE AGES. By the Rev. F. W. Elphick. Printed and Published by the General Church Mission at Alpha, Ladybrand, O. F. S., South Africa, 1929, in English, Sesuto and Zulu. Paper, 50 pages.

     "From the earliest times men have thought of the spiritual world and thought of the spiritual life. With every race and nation there has, therefore, been religion. Religion is reverence on the part of man toward a Supreme Being. Reverence implies worship; worship involves order, or a mode-a method-of teaching, leading and blessing. Clearly, the kind of teaching, the manner of leading and the nature of blessing depend upon the idea of the quality of the Supreme Being, and of how that Supreme Being imparts knowledge, protection and blessing to finite creatures."

     Following these introductory sentences, Mr. Elphick proceeds to trace the history of the priestly functions of teaching, leading and blessing in the religions and churches of the past, closing with a description of the inauguration of the priesthood of the New Church, as recorded by Robert Hindmarsh. As the writer states, it is but a sketch, but the presentation is of interest to the general reader of the New Church, and was doubtless of special value to those Leaders of the Native Mission in South Africa who were looking forward to ordination and preparing for it.

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The paper was delivered as the Superintendent's Address to the Annual Meeting of the Ministers and Leaders, held at Alpha, January 22nd to 29th, 1929, and its publication in three languages complies with a request made at that Meeting.

     A FLAXMAN RELIC.

     "The Swedenborg Society is in possession of a beautiful silver inkstand which was at one time the property of John Flaxman, the sculptor. It bears the inscription, The gift of Robert Henry Rendell to his esteemed friend, John Flaxman, May 4th, 1797. It was found in a silversmith's shop in May, 1886, and presented to the Committee of the Society with a request that it be placed on a table of the Committee Room at 36, Bloomsbury Street. It was evidently felt by the Committee that the gift should be carefully preserved, and an oak box was specially made for its preservation. It may here be mentioned that the New Church Society at Kensington has a number of bas-relief figured in stone and marble, the work of John Flaxman. At the University College, beneath the dome of the Hall, there is a gallery containing original models and drawings by him. Flaxman, who was a New Church member, lived at 7, Buckingham Street, Soho, 1796-1826, the year of his death." (NEW-CHURCH HERALD, Oct. 26, 1929.)

     Our readers will recall Mr. Arthur Carter's biography of John Flaxman in NEW CHURCH LIFE for May, June and July, 1928, including a description of outstanding examples of his art, and illustrated by one of his Wedgewood vases in the British Museum.

     THE DIVINE ITSELF AND THE DIVINE HUMAN.

     In listing the different conceptions of the process of the Lord's glorification, the Rev. Albert Bjorck, in his paper on "Perception of the Divine Human," states:

     "Some of us conceive of the glorification as a process by which the human from the mother was gradually changed by the Lord, or transmuted to what is Divine; others that it was united to the Divine, so that both exist in the glorified and risen Lord. Others, again, hold the idea that the human from the mother was gradually put off, the Divine Itself taking its place."

     We have a feeling that the use of the term "Divine Itself" in the closing sentence was inadvertent on Mr. Bjorck's part, in view of the distinction between the terms "Divine Itself" and "Divine Human" in the Writings; as, for example, where we read: "The Lord had two states while He lived in the world, namely, a state of humiliation and a state of glorification.

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His state of humiliation was when He was in the human which He derived hereditarily from the mother; His state of glorification, when in the Divine which He had from Jehovah His Father. The former state, that is, the human from the mother, the Lord completely put off, and put on the Divine Human, when He passed out of the world, and returned to the Divine Itself, in which He was from eternity (John 17:5), together with the Human made Divine, from both of which is the Holy which fills the universal heaven. Thus, from the Divine Itself and the Divine Human, through the Holy Proceeding, He rules the universe." (A. C. 2288.)

     It may be that there are those in the Church who hold the idea that "the human from the mother was gradually put off, the Divine Itself taking its place," as stated by Mr. Bjorck, but in that case there is still another view, not mentioned by him, namely, that "the human from the mother was gradually put off, the Divine Human from the Divine Itself taking its place." (Doctrine of the Lord 352.)

     To state this latter view more fully: In the Lord when He was born into the world were the Divine Itself and the Divine Human,-the Divine Human as to the Divine Celestial, Divine Spiritual and the Divine Natural in potency, the latter not in actuality until the glorification was completed. It was specifically this Divine Natural which the Lord, by glorification in the world, put on from the Divine Itself, the Father, and superinduced upon the Divine Celestial and Divine Spiritual, as to which degrees He had glorified the Human before the incarnation. (See D. L. W. 221, 233, 234.) It was specifically this Divine Natural that took the place of the human from the mother as this was gradually put off, and finally and fully by death and the dissipation of the residue in the sepulcher. (See T. C. R. 109.)

     These truths were undoubtedly in the mind of the writer of the paper in using the term "Divine Itself" for that which took the place of the maternal human.

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And it is true that we are to think of the glorified Human of the Lord as purely Divine, as the Divine Itself with angels and men; when yet we acknowledge those degrees, infinite and uncreate, in the Divine Human of the Lord which are cow depicted before the rational thought in the Revelation given to the New Church.

     Our remarks are made in the interests of that careful distinction of terms which is found throughout the Writings, and the observance of which should contribute to a closer approach toward unity of view in the Church; for the terms of the Heavenly Doctrine are the vessels into which the light of heaven is to flow, even as they were the ultimation of such a light in the mind of the revelator through whom they were given.

     "Many men, many minds." In respect to the glorification, as on other subjects, various forms of mind and various modes of interpreting the revealed statements will ever produce a variety of conceptions in the Church,-a variety, but not a diversity, among those holding like generals of faith. Above, within, and distinct from these conceptions, or deductions from doctrine, will be the individual perceptions of the Divine Human, which, as Mr. Bjorck has shown, are according to the state of regeneration, or that conjunction of good and truth in the mind which is the origin of perception. In thus distinguishing concept from perception we avoid making the validity of a truth expressed dependent upon the state of the individual who utters it, and escape the pitfall of pseudo-celestialism and its subtle claim to a higher concept of doctrine because of a more advanced state of regeneration. Yet there will be, and should be, a voicing of perceptions in the Church as it grows in the life and faith of the Heavenly Doctrine, emulating that communication of all thoughts in heaven whereby angelic minds share the Divine gifts with others.
THREE SWEDENBORG LETTERS. 1930

THREE SWEDENBORG LETTERS.              1930

     In this issue we print the first of three letters by Emanuel Swedenborg which have recently been brought to light, namely, a letter to Dr. Messiter, dated London, August 5, 1759, and two letters to Bishop Menander dated, respectively, July 20, 1770, and July 6, 1771.

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     The letter to Dr. Messiter is of particular importance. On August 2, 1769, the Rev. Dr. Hartley wrote to Swedenborg asking him to give some particulars concerning his life, in order that his English friends might be able to answer any attacks that might be made upon him during his absence in Sweden.* Swedenborg's answer was published by Hartley as an octave sheet, with the title Responsum ad Epistolam ab Amico (Answer to a Letter from a Friend), London, 1769. (See Docu. 2.) This published Answer is without date, and does not enter into the doctrinal question raised by Hartley. All trace of the original seems to have disappeared soon after the letter was published, and several considerations have led scholars to view this loss with particular regret.
     * Dr. Hartley also included in his letter a question concerning the Lord's Humanity.

     In the first place, it was thought very probable that the autograph contained Swedenborg's answer to the doctrinal point raised by Hartley, and that he omitted this from the published letter as having no bearing on the object which he had in view, namely, the presentation of Swedenborg's life. Moreover, in the early days of the Church a doubt arose as to whether the figures "1743," which appear in the printed letter as being the year when the Lord first manifested Himself to Swedenborg, would not be found in the original letter to be "1745." With the discovery of the letter now published, both these points are fully satisfied; for it is now seen that Swedenborg did answer Dr. Hartley's doctrinal question, and that he undoubtedly wrote "1743." Moreover, the autograph gives us the exact date when the letter was written.

     The discovery of this letter also brings to light another fact which has hitherto been completely unsuspected, the fact, namely, that Swedenborg wrote two letters, one to Hartley and one to Messiter. A comparison of the autograph letter to Messiter with the printed letter to Hartley shows:

     1. That with the exception of the opening sentence, which is a graceful acknowledgment of friendship, the first and doctrinal paragraph in the letter to Messiter is not contained in the letter to Hartley. It is not improbable that this paragraph was also a part of the autograph letter to Hartley, but was omitted from the printed letter for the reason given above.

     2. That (again with the exception of the opening sentence already referred to) the opening paragraph of the letter to Hartley is not contained in the letter to Messiter.

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This paragraph consists of a quotation from Hartley's letter, as to the reasons given why the latter desired Swedenborg to write a brief account of his life.

     3. That otherwise the two letters are practically identical, though with some slight verbal variations.

     That Swedenborg wrote a short autobiography to Messiter was well known in the early days of the New Church; but it was then supposed that the printed letter which had been assumed to have been written to Hartley was in fact written to Messiter. In the edition of Heaven and Hell published in London, 1817, the letter is printed, and in a footnote thereto, on p. xlviii, the translator, the Rev. John Clowes, says: "It has been generally supposed that the friend here addressed was Mr. Hartley,... but this is a mistake, the friend in compliance with whose request the above letter was written having been ascertained to be the late Dr. Messiter, a physician of eminence in his day." Mr. Clowes had been a personal friend of Dr. Hartley's, but his information as to the recipient of the letter seems to have come to him long after Hartley's death.

     On the other hand, a copy of the first Latin edition of this letter (1769), now preserved in the library of the London Swedenborg Society, contains a note written by H. Peckitt, one of the very earliest members of the New Church, which reads: "This epistle was written by the Baron Emanuel Swedenborg to the Rev. Thomas Hartley, Rector of East Malling in Kent."

     With the discovery of the present autograph, both Mr. Clowes' statement and Mr. Peckitt's are entirely reconcilable. For the present autograph proves beyond a doubt that Swedenborg wrote two letters, one to Hartley and the other to Messiter, doing this perhaps because the two friends lived at what was in those days a considerable distance from each other, the one being in London and the other near Maidstone, Kent.

     At the end of the letter to Messiter are written, presumably by Mrs. Messiter, the words: "This letter was addressed to Dr. Husband Messiter at Broomhouse, Fulham. The superscription I gave to my friend Cromek."

     The original letter is now in the possession of Dr. Erik Waller, physician-in-chief of the hospital at Lidkoping, Sweden.

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Dr. Waller is an enthusiastic collector of MSS and autographs, especially of such as pertain to medicine, and it was in the course of enlarging his already considerable collection that he purchased the Messiter letter, together with four other Swedenborg documents. These he very kindly sent to Upsala University for Dr. Acton's inspection, and he subsequently consented to the making of the photostats which are now in the possession of the Academy of the New Church.

     Accompanying the Messiter letter, in Dr. Waller's collection, is an English and a Swedish translation. At the end of the latter comes the following note (written in Swedish): "The note at the bottom [i.e., Mrs. Messiter's note] seems to be in a woman's style of handwriting, and would be of a date relatively much later than the letter itself. The address reads:

     'Dr. Husband Messiter
          at Broomhouse, Fulham.'

     Should 'Husband' not be Messiter's Christian name, the woman who wrote this note is perhaps Doctorinna Messiter.* Who Cromek was can perhaps be found out. In respect to Swedenborg's friends, Hartley and Messiter, Johan Sundblad** has various particulars to tell in his book, Emanuel Swedenborg, the Spiritual Columbus (translated from the English, second edition, Stockholm, 1906, Nykyrklige Bokforlaget, Sergelgatan 4). An extract from a letter from Swedenborg to Hartley is given in this book. This extract shows a striking agreement with the contemporaneous letter to Messiter. (Sundblad, p. 130 seq.)"     
     A. A.

     [The two letters from Swedenborg to Bishop Menander, together with Dr. Acton's comments, will be published in a subsequent issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE.-EDITOR.]

     * Dr. Messiter's Christian name has not hitherto been known, so far as we are aware. It now appears that "Mr. H. Messiter" stands for "Mr. Husband Messiter." The name is sufficiently strange to lead the writer of the Swedish note to suggest that Mrs. Messiter, being accustomed to hear herself called "Doctorinna Messiter," felt justified in calling her spouse "Dr. Husband
Messiter."
     ** Sundblad was merely the translator. The English author was William Spear, but the work was published anonymously.

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Church News 1930

Church News       Various       1930

     BRAZIL.

     Rio de Janeiro and Curityba

     Letters from the Rev. and Mrs. Henry Leonardos convey the interesting information that services are now being held every Sunday morning in both these cities. On Christmas Day the Rev. Henry Leonardos administered the Holy Supper to twenty-seven persons and baptized three adults and five children. Their names were not given to me, saving that of the youngest, Dicea Lima, his youngest granddaughter, the fifth child of his daughter Alice and her husband, Major Antonio Caetano de Silva Lima.

     Curityba is the capital of the state of Parana. The family of the Rev. Joao de Mendonca Lima, who is also a major in the Brazilian army, are now located there; as also Senhor Leonardos' younger daughter, Leila, with her husband, Senhor Hugo Dutra Hamann, and their two children. The Rev. Lima holds services in the Hamann home, and on Christmas Day baptized Alvaro, the youngest son of the Lima family.

     Prof. Othon H. Leonardos, the oldest son of Senhor Leonardos, is at present prosecuting a three months' course of study at the Institute of International Education, 2 West 45th St., New York City. He is on leave of absence from his Chair of Mineralogy in the Polytechnical Institute of Rio de Janeiro. His course of study in America takes him to Columbia. University under the Carnegie Institute Endowment. Before terminating his stay in New York in March he hopes to visit Bryn Athyn and some other Church centers.

     Senhora Alice Leonardos Lima has recently emulated her younger sister, now a noted authoress, by publishing a book entitled Ouvindo Estrellas (Hearing Stars). A complimentary copy was sent to the undersigned, and also, I believe, to Bishop de Charms. It is beautifully bound, and illustrated quite profusely. The hero of the story, an elderly man who strikingly resembles the author's father in personal appearance, is shown gazing out upon the constellation of the Pleiades.

     Each of its nine stars speaks to him in turn, telling a story of patient self-abnegation and heroism belonging to some epoch of Brazilian history. A very touching one is about a negro slave who was escaping from a cruel master. During the pursuit the master fell into a swift river, and was on the point of drowning, when the slave voluntarily went back to save him, and so forfeited his freedom.

     The two youngest sons of Senhor Leonardos,-Oliveiro and Henry are now working on a large fazenda (Spanish, Itacienda). Oliveiro, who has his diploma as an agricultural engineer, is there as a technical expert in charge of the planting, raising and grafting of the orange trees grown on the estate of 200 square miles belonging to the Fazendas Reunidas de Normandia. Henry, who attended the Academy at Bryn Athyn for a semester in 1928-1929, is in the packing department.
     E. E. IUNGERICH.

     TORONTO, CANADA.

     Our place in the pages of the LIFE has been vacant since December, and so these notes will cover the period from mid-November to mid-January.

     The first half of the season's doctrinal classes was concluded on December 4th, during which period we covered the first six numbers of the Doctrine of the Lord, besides special classes on other subjects.

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On December 11th, the quarterly business meeting of the Society was held, when reports were presented and routine business transacted. The business session was preceded by a thoughtful paper by the Pastor on "The Ultimation of Charity," showing how the works of charity make a necessary foundation for the upbuilding of organizations of the Church. December 20th marked the dose of the Autumn Term of the Day School, all of which was preparatory to the Christmas celebrations, which began on December 22d, and may be said to have continued until December 31st.

     This year, a very pleasant Christmas present-as our Pastor aptly described it on one occasion-was ours, in the added pleasure and inspiration we derived through the presence with us of the Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Acton, who are always welcome visitors to Toronto.

     The first events of the season's program, on December 22d, were the Christmas Tableaux, which commenced with the procession and the offertory for the Orphanage Fund and continued through a short service with appropriate hymns and an address from the Pastor suited to the state of the children, leading up to the following tableaux, which were presented by connective and descriptive readings from the Word: (1) "Samuel Anointing David at Bethlehem"; (2) "The Annunciation"; (3) "Mary Visiting Elizabeth"; (4) "The Nativity"; (5) "The Angel and the Shepherds," following the antiphonal singing of "O tell me, gentle Shepherd" by one of the younger children and a male voice representing the Shepherd, with the congregation joining in the chorus; (6) "Adoration of the Wise Men." The children themselves represented the various characters in the tableaux, and did it very beautifully, bringing before us in an impressive way all the beauty of the Christmas story. The lighting effects we thought exceptionally good this year; seemingly, each year calls forth some little improvement leading to ever more perfect results. All who took part in this event are to be congratulated upon their effective presentation.

     For three Sundays we had a series of sermons leading up to the Lord's Advent, which was observed by holding Divine Worship on the morning of Christmas Day at which a good congregation was present.

     The Children's Christmas Tree party was separated from the tableaux this year, and was held on the evening of December 27th, when some fifty children foregathered and had a good time together with the adults. A program of recitations, games, etc., had been provided, and Dr. Acton addressed the children. He also played "Father Christmas" to them when it came time to distribute the presents from the tree.

     Dr. Acton also conducted worship and preached to us on Sunday, December 29th, and in the evening gave us a most minute and interesting account of his travels, investigations and research work in Europe, in the collecting of further documentary information regarding Swedenborg, his writings, and collateral literature and papers relating thereto. The importance of this work to the Church can- not be overestimated, and we are very grateful for having had the opportunity of hearing this account, and of renewing our acquaintance with our friends Dr. and Mrs. Acton.

     We finished off the old year with a social dance catered for by the younger generation. Mr. Albert E. Lewis made a most capable master of ceremonies, and, aided by his committee, kept things swinging along in great style, with favors of a great variety for all. A good hot supper-the basis of which was chicken patties with creamed peas-was served somewhere between midnight and 1 a.m. Then, on with the dance again, and we left them to it at 2 a.m. The music, provided by an automatic combination radio-phonograph set, was excellent. A most successful dance-social it was.

     Condensing two months' activities into one report will prevent our giving the space they deserve to the last three meetings of the Forward Club, and we will content ourselves with a brief mention of each.

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     At the 85th meeting on November 21st, Mr. Frank Longstaff, Jr., was chairman, and Mr. A. Van Paasen gave a paper on the "History of Religion," a big subject, and one with which it was impossible to deal adequately in the time available-as the speaker confessed. His treatment of the subject was redolent of a strong affection for the church and its religion, and he carried his hearers with him all the way in sympathetic and close attention. As visitors at this meeting were Messrs. Daric and Wynne Acton, of Bryn Athyn; Jean Roschman, of Kitchener; the Rev. Dr. Goddard and two or three members from the College Street Society.

     At the meeting on December 19th, Mr. Albert E. Lewis was chairman. The speaker, Mr. R. S. Anderson, addressed us on "The Fall of the Pyramids" (the stock market crash). So lucid was his analysis of this almost cataclysmic financial calamity that when he was through we knew all there was to be known about it, the proper remedies to be applied to these things in a "New Church way," and thus avert a repetition. Mr. Anderson's stock as a "market-expert" has risen perceptibly.

     At the meeting of January 16th, Mr. Desmond McMaster presided, and the subject for consideration was "The Relationship of Capital and Labor." The speakers were Messrs. T. Smith and R. M. (Bob) Brown. We had two very excellent presentations, sympathetic in the main, strongly sympathetic, we might say, to the view that seems to be gaining headway amongst intelligent people and circles everywhere-for indeed it seems to be consonant with intelligence-that good and equitable relations should exist between these two elements, so absolutely essential to the comfort and orderly progress of the world. They are the complement of each other, and their proper functioning will lead to an ever greater amelioration of the distressful conditions prevalent in the world today. And, as the pastor pointed out in his closing remarks, the events which took place at the last judgment would, in the Divine Providence of the Lord, work increasingly to this end. The attendance at these meetings was well maintained, from twelve to fifteen speakers taking part in the discussions. And we are trying to keep before us the watchword: "Thinking from the Writings."

     Sunday, January 5th, was a day to be remembered in the history of our Society, owing to the reception of four of our young people into the full communion of the Church through the gate of Confirmation: Misses Mary and Ruby Smith, and Messrs. K. M. Brown and B. B. Carter. It was a touching and happy occasion, bringing with it a cogent reminder that "the Lord is mindful of His own," and is constantly providing for the carrying on of the uses of the Church on earth. The sacrament of the Holy Supper was administered on this occasion.
     F. W.

     BRITISH COLUMBIA.

     Peace River Country.

     Since the pastoral visit of the Rev. Henry Heinrichs last July, there have been rapid developments in this region, and the numbers of New Church people have been considerably augmented. As predicted in Mr. Heinrich's report (December issue, p. 759), Mr. and Mrs. William Hamm, Mr. Benjamin Hamm and Mr. George C. Starkey, all of Glenview, Ill., have joined us. In the Spring the John and Erdman Heinrichs families expect to move to the land they have bought, which is located about three miles from our homestead. Another arrival, unpredicted, was that of Mr. J. E. Hawley, of Kitchener, Ontario. He and the Messrs. William and Benjamin Hamm have now obtained homesteads at Sunset Prairie, about thirty-five miles from here, in a district which had just become easily accessible through the completion of a new bridge over the Kiskatinaw River. The homesteads near us which they had hoped to obtain have been reserved for a proposed town site and railroad extension. However, owing to the setting in of cold weather, they are still with us, and we are able to meet for worship on Sundays, and to enjoy an occasional evening together.

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Mr. George C. Starkey has a quarter section adjoining ours.

     There are at present four nuclei for New Church settlements in the Peace River Country, namely: Gorande Prairie, Alberta, on the railroad; Pouce Coupe, B. C., forty miles from the railroad; Dawson Creek, B. C., fifty two miles from the railroad; and Sunset Prairie, B. C., seventy miles from the railroad. Prairie and Dawson Creek there is still some land available for homestead and for purchase, while in the other two places mentioned there Is plenty of land, but the best of it is rapidly being taken up. We shall be delighted to correspond with anyone desiring information concerning this region, and would recommend that they read the booklet entitled "The peace River Country," issued free by the Natural Resources Intelligence Bureau, Ottawa, Ont., Canada.

     It seems quite possible that within a very few years there may be a sufficient number of New Church people here to support a pastor. For the present we look forward to the annual pastoral visits provided by the General Church. No one unaccustomed to living apart from a society of the Church can quite appreciate what the Visiting Pastor, the New Church Life and the New Church Sermons really do for the isolated. In the way of personal news I may mention that the E. Marshall Millers have a new daughter. About the time of her arrival, however, their house burned to the ground, with the additional loss of two hundred bushels of potatoes stored in the cellar. While their new house is under construction, they are living in a cabin.

     In August, Mrs. Charles Brown, who had been visiting us, returned to Toronto, being entertained by the Lemkys at Gorande Prairie on her way home.
     HEALDON R. STARKEY.
          Pouce Coupe,
Peace River Block, B. C.

     REPORT OF THE VISITING PASTOR.

     On Saturday evening, January 11th, I arrived at DETROIT to minister to our Circle there. As our service next day was not to be held until afternoon, I attended that of the Convention Society in the morning and heard an excellent sermon by the pastor, the Rev. W. H. Beales. The Writings are read in the service, though not as a lesson from the Word. At our afternoon service there was an attendance of nineteen. In the evening a doctrinal class was held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Synnestvedt, with fifteen persons present. Our subject was the affection of truth as the essential quality of the church. It was shown how by this affection the General Church has been led to acknowledge the Writings as the Word.

     On Monday morning, the Rev. Mr. Beales and I spent several hours together, and we discussed a number of subjects relative to the faith and life of the church. In the afternoon, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Bellinger, East Windsor, Ont., instruction was given a child, and in the evening a class was held.

     On Tuesday evening another doctrinal class was held at Detroit, in the home of Mr. and Mrs. William Walker, with an attendance of thirteen. The subject of Sunday evening was continued, this time to consider objections raised-though not by any of the Circle-to the principle that the Writings are the Word. We also considered the principle that there should be a new baptism on entrance into the New Church from the Old, and showed that the unwillingness to acknowledge it, prevailing in the New Church generally, except in the General Church, is due to the belief that the Christian Church, as to all its denominations, including the New Church, is today the Lord's Church Specific, and not instead the New Church alone, completely distinct from and superseding the old vastated church.
     F. E. WAELCHLI.

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     THE CHURCH AT LARGE.

     Miss Helen Keller, denying newspaper reports that she had been converted to the Persian religious cult of Baha-U-Llah, has written the Rev. Paul Sperry, President of the General Convention, reaffirming her faith in the doctrines of Emanuel Swedenborg.

     "It is most important to me," she wrote, "that I should not be misinterpreted in my religion. As you know, since I was sixteen years old I have been a strong believer in the doctrines of Emanuel Swedenborg. Why should I change my faith, since it opens my spiritual eyes to all that is beautiful and noble in the thoughts and beliefs of men, and makes my dark, silent world sweet and livable?"

     Miss Keller attributed the incorrect report of her conversion to the Persian religion to the misconstruction placed upon an address she delivered before a gathering of the New History Society on December 1st. "I have profound respect," she wrote further, "for the teachings of Baha-U-Llah, just as I have for the noble thoughts of all great prophets and seers, but it never occurred to me that any one would think I had adopted the Persian religion because I was speaking to Bahai followers."

     The Rev. William R. Reece has resigned as Minister of the Society in Brisbane, Australia, and will sail for America on March 7th, having accepted a call to Brockton, Mass. He went to Australia in July, 1928, retiring at that time from the pastorate of the Convention Society at Portland, Oregon.

     The General Convention this year will meet at Boston, Mass., the opening session of the Council of Ministers taking place on June 17th.-Messenger.

     SOUTH AFRICAN MISSION.

     Since the Mission Assembly we have settled down to the usual routine, but we have had the pleasure of entertaining more visitors. In November, Dr. Loram and the Superintendent of Native Education for the Orange Free State visited our schools. They gave both pupils and teachers a searching examination, as well as encouragement and advice. Dr. Loram was interested in the educational venture being attempted at "Alpha," and asked several questions concerning the New Church faith. At one turn of the conversation he classed us as Fundamentalists, at another as Modernists-seeing that we keep up-to-date in scientific knowledge. In August last, Dr. Loram was lecturing at Teachers' College, New York.

     In November and December the Rev. Raymond G. Cranch, of Bryn Athyn, made a sojourn of several weeks. For the most part he was engaged on matters relating to the Alpha Estate, with its farm and orchard activities, but he conducted a Sunday service at one of the Mission Stations in Basutoland, addressed the school children at Alpha on the day we closed for the Christmas holidays, and visited the Theological Class. He also officiated at two Sunday services in the Chapel for the Alpha Circle, and these were much appreciated.

     Our visitors from Durban have been: Miss Alma Cockerell; Mr. P. D. and Miss V. Ridgway; Mr. and Mrs. T. H Ridgway; Miss Champion. A report from Durban tells of the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. F. C. Frazee and their visit to the newly purchased Zululand Farm, at which they will eventually be stationed. January portends to be a busy month. Alpha, Ladybrand, O. F. S., December 31st, 1929.
     F. W. ELPHICK.

     CHICAGO, ILL.

     The celebration of Swedenborg's Birthday on January 29th was quite the happiest and most satisfactory meeting we have had in Sharon Church for a long time. The tables, set for fifty-two, were beautifully decorated in the Swedish colors by Miss Esther Cronwall, while Mrs. Cronwall and Mrs. Anderson prepared delicious feast. Mr. David F. Gladish made an inspiring and appreciative toastmaster, while his wife accompanied the singing in her usual spirited style.

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The toastmaster started the program by saying that, as we had chosen Evangelization for the special use of our church, it would be in order for the members to advise us of their manner of approach in their efforts to interest strangers. He spoke of Mr. Barren's experience that 42 per cent. of the people who answered his inquiry wrote that they had come into the Church because of conversations with New Church friends.

     Dr. Farrington was the first speaker. He had had many conversations with interested inquirers, and believed that answering questions and giving literature to those who showed an interest was the best manner of approach. Mr. John Pollock said that he had no experience in evangelizing, but he thought that church building to which we could invite interested strangers would be a great help. Mr. Neville Wright spoke of our being only in the first stages of New Church development, but he felt strongly that the life of a spiritually minded regenerating New Church man or woman was the best manner of calling the attention of strangers to our Church. He had had experiences in France during the Great War which proved to him this belief. Mr. Rex told of his own experience in coming from the Old Church to the light of the New. He was pleased with the authority and rationality of the Doctrines, and with the character of New Church people. Mr. Henry Jasmer said he had always been attracted by the clean, honorable, intelligent faces of the New Church people whom he had met; but he did not feel he had a clear idea of the cardinal doctrines, though he had been associated with the Church a long time. He wanted a pamphlet simply and clearly written which he could hand to inquirers. Mr. Theodore Gladish said that if we could clearly and forcefully expound the four leading doctrines-The Lord, The Scriptures, the Regenerate Life, and the Second Coming-that might be a successful way of interesting inquirers. Mr. Norman Jasmer greatly regretted his lack of New Church schooling as he had never attended school at Bryn Athyn. He said that he had made good resolutions to read the Writings and attend church more regularly.

     Our Pastor concluded the speeches of the evening by stating that the leading doctrines were so simple that anyone could understand them. They were also the leading doctrines of all the other churches, from the Most Ancient to the Christian. But our distinctive doctrine was that of the Second Coming of the Lord. This doctrine we should study in its fulness so that we could explain how and why the Lord came a second time; what "coming in a cloud" meant; why it was not necessary to come in person twice; the work of Swedenborg, and the purpose of the Writings. The meeting closed with the singing of our song, "Sharon Church and a vote of thanks and appreciation for the work of our toastmaster, and of the ladies who had so satisfactorily managed the banquet.

     On January 24th, Miss Jean Headsten managed a very successful Bunko Party, which added to our building fund and gave us a good social time.
     E. V. W.

     SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA.

     Various things have hitherto hindered the chronicling of this report, the principal one being the breakdown in health suffered by Miss Taylor, who took on Miss White's duty in this respect during the latter's stay in Bryn Athyn. Nevertheless our society has continued in the steady performance of its uses since the last report, which appeared in the June, 1929, issue, and I am able, from Miss Taylor's notes, to give a fair idea of them to the readers of the Life.

     The first relates to our first Home Dedication, which had its genesis in our Sunday School. It came about this way.

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Two little children, Tommy and Nellie, who are scholars, used to relate at home every Sunday what they were taught in Sunday School. This aroused their parents' interest, and Mr. Taylor, who had been a chorister in the Church of England in London, but who had given up all church affiliations on account of its irrational teaching, as well as the questionable lives of some of its adherents, began to attend our services, and took charge of the singing and, later, of the boys' dub. He and his wife are now regular participants in all our activities, as well as devoted members of the daily reading circle, which, by the way, does not include, in Australia, a "Thanksgiving Day"; and we suggest that merely local matters be omitted from the Calendar Readings. The splendid children's address by Bishop de Charms, published in the Life for December, shows how absolutely dependent we are upon the Lora for every good.

     So grateful are Mr. and Mrs. Taylor for and to the Church that in the porch of their new home, Mr. Taylor, who is a tiler, has made a panel in which Bryn Athyn reappears in Australia. The name is formed of white tiles, having a frame composed of purple and dark red tiles. It is seen quite plainly from the street. Then, in the dining-sitting room, is a Receptacle for the Word in its literal and spiritual senses. Quite recently it has been enriched with a complete set of the Arcana Coelestia. It was from this Receptacle, on Sunday the 28th of April, 1929, that the books were taken for the dedication service. At this service there were fifteen present, and all feelingly concurred with Master Ossian Heldon, a youth of nearly eighteen, who is most active in the work of the Church, when, in a short speech at the close, he referred to the "fine sphere that prevailed." And Miss Taylor, in her notes, remarks that "Mr. Morse made a short appropriate speech at the dose. A delightful, indescribable sphere prevailed, and all said that it had been good to be there."

     New Church Day was celebrated in a way similar to last year. The children's celebration was held on June 22d, and commenced with sumptuous repast such as children love. This was followed by two tableaux. The first represented the Eleven Disciples at the Ascension; and the second represented John Viewing the Holy City. Both were excellently presented, and could hardly be surpassed in the professional sphere. This latter part is a solemn service. The Tableaux are described, and suitable hymns are sung. The adult celebration was held on Sunday, the 23d, and took the form of a banquet. Papers were read, and the usual toasts honored.

     Our July social, which commemorates the birth of our Society twenty-four years ago, took the usual form of a Dress-up. The excellent and ingenious work that is exhibited at these socials is worthy of much praise. In her notes, Miss Taylor remarks: "As it is the anniversary of our Society, it seems incongruous that it should take such a form. When we began to recognize that day, we had so many young people of various ages that we conceded to them something that they could appreciate, and it has just stayed that way. Perhaps it will some day take form in a service of praise, with a thanksgiving supper; for a church, to be internal, must worship the Lord Jesus Christ, and take His Revelation to it as its guard and guide."

     "Our Society (the notes continue) tendered Mr. Morse a dinner on his seventieth birthday anniversary. The tables were decorated with flowers from his own garden; and as winter was just leaving us, the variety of flowers was commented upon. Other decorations were in red and white. The 70-candle birthday cake was ornamented on the top with a red circle within a white triangle, and rested upon a flat base, shaped in the form of a star, upon which, also, all the candles were placed. When the time arrived for cutting the cake, the candles were lit and the electric lights were switched off.

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Then the cake appeared outlined as a bright star. Our minister was kept out of the secret until the afternoon of the day. The toasts responded to were

     'The Church' and 'Our Minister. Mr. George Guthrie presided, and, in a brief prayer, gave thanks for our minister, ending with the Lord's Prayer. During the evening, suitable songs and recitations were given. Little Alwyn Kirschstein, of three years, sang with his big voice from the Song Book, 'May he live in peace and clover!' Mr. J. R. Taylor sang, 'My Task,' and a quartet sang, 'Friendship.' A very pleasant evening ended with all singing, 'Our Glorious Church!'"

     The welfare of the Church on the natural plane has been contributed to by the construction of a tennis court at the end of Mr. Morse's ground, and opposite the portion recently bought for a playground.

     The Wednesday evening club maintains its interest, and helps to keep the young people together.

     On the 22d of December, an evening service was held in place of the usual doctrinal class. At its conclusion, three tableaux were presented, representing the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Shepherds. Words alone cannot express the feelings and thoughts that occupied the mind during those holy scenes. The persons were represented by children, who lost their own personalities in their Eastern robes and reverent attitudes.

     During the evening of the 23d, a Christmas tree bedecked with variety of pretty and useful things was the center of attraction to a lot of happy children, each receiving a present from it.

     Miss Annie Taylor has booked her passage by the Makura, and will arrive in San Francisco on June 6th and Bryn Athyn about the 10th. After spending a little over a month in the United States, she and Miss White will leave Vancouver on July 23d, arriving home on August 16th after an experience that can hardly fail to benefit her both spiritually and physically.

     Miss White's return, after an absence of nearly two and a quarter years, will be a great event; for that absence is regarded as being fraught with much spiritual blessing for the children of Hurstville.     
     RICHARD MORSE.
          January 10, 1930.

     PITTSBURGH, PA.

     This year the children celebrated Swedenborg's Birthday on Tuesday evening, January 28th, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Horigan. Mrs. Horigan served a most delicious banquet at a table very attractively decorated with the Swedish flag, daffodils, pussy-willows, and dainty yellow baskets. A yellow cake decorated with blue candles held prominent place in the center of the table. Mr. Iungerich was toast master, and every child, from the youngest to the oldest, gave a short talk on some subject dealing with Swedenborg's life or works. His birth, home, appearance, character and uses were treated by the oldest children, while his visits in heaven and to the other planets were described by the small children. Appropriate songs were sung at intervals between the speeches, and the evening was brought to a close with the singing of "Our Glorious Church."

     The society celebration of Swedenborg's Birthday took the form of a card party at the home of Mr. and Mrs. A. P. Lindsay. This was progressive bridge party, each table being designated as a place where Swedenborg had visited or lived at one time or another; so that one progressed from Stockholm to London, to the British Museum, and so forth. During the refreshments, Mr. Iungerich gave an appropriate address, and toasts to the Church and Swedenborg were honored. The evening closed with dancing in the Lindsay basement, which has been most attractively arranged. It was unanimously declared a successful evening.

     Miss Ruth Schoenberger recently gave a reception for Miss Jennie Gaskill, of Bryn Athyn, who spent two weeks here.

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It was delightful to have Miss Gaskill with us again. Mrs. J. J. Kintner, of Johnstown, also visited her daughter, Mrs. S. E. Walker, for several weeks. The society enjoyed having these visitors at the church services and the celebration of Swedenborg's Birthday.

     On January 27th, Miss Freda Schoenberger received a diploma from the Henry Clay Frick Training School for Teachers. We congratulate Miss Freda and wish her much success.

     Mr. Arthur Williamson, of Niles, Ohio, who attended the Academy Schools several years ago, has been working with the Asplundh Tree Company in the Pittsburgh district, and has attended church services when possible. We regret to say that he was seriously injured on a recent Sunday evening when returning in his automobile from Pittsburgh to his work in Greensburg, and is now in the Westmoreland Hospital, suffering from shock and exposure. With the thermometer at zero, he was attacked by men who were having a free ride in his car, and who left him unconscious by the roadside. We all hope for his recovery without serious lasting consequences.
     E. R. D.

     BRYN ATHYN.

     The Christmas observance this year was simpler than in the past, no attempt being made to present tableaux or a dramatization of Scripture. This omission served, however, to bring into greater prominence the services of worship which solemnized the celebration of the anniversary of the Lord's birth, and possibly something was gained in this simpler way of doing things, and in emphasizing in worship the spiritual aspect of the occasion.

     First came the Children's Service on the afternoon of December 24th, its beauty enhanced by the long procession, the choir bearing lighted candles, and the children their offerings, while they sang "From the Eastern Mountains" and "Come, All Ye Faithful." The songs included many of the old favorites, as well as the Hebrew anthem "Odhekha" and in Greek the song of the angels heard by the shepherds. As an interlude, "Holy Night" was played by muted horns. The address was given by the Rt. Rev. George de Charms, and made very vivid to the children the coming of the Wise Men to Jerusalem under the guidance of the star. After the service the whole congregation filed out to the Choir Hall, where were three beautiful representations, modeled by Mr. Winfred Hyatt, and showing in the central scene the stable at the inn with the Holy Family and those who came to see and worship the Child, while on the one side was shown the angel giving his message to the shepherds, and on the other the wise men following the star through the desert. At one end of the room were tables loaded with stockings, so that each child received one well filled with good things.

     Christmas morning, the congregation was summoned to the church by the blowing of trumpets from the church tower, as has now been the custom for some years. And, as on the day before, the singing of the Christmas hymns seemed to give a special exaltation to the worship. Bishop Pendleton preached, taking as text Genesis 3:16: "Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and, they conception; in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."

     At a meeting of the Younger Generation Club on January 18th, Mr. Donald Rose spoke about the state of the world as to the things of religion, analyzing in a very informative manner the prevailing states of opposition to revealed religion and spiritual standards of life, but also showing that there is an urgent search for something to explain life and make it satisfying. He led up to a suggestion as to a method of approach in our effort to impart a knowledge of New Church teachings, namely, by presenting the knowledge of personal immortality, with our full and rational statement of what that means.

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A lively discussion followed.

     On January 25th, the Sons of the Academy gave the annual banquet to the young men students of the Academy Schools. The event was very successful, and was graced by several good speeches, some of them by the students. Such occasions should certainly tend to develop understanding and fellowship between the boys in school, the Faculty, and the men of the Church.

     Swedenborg's Birthday

     The Friday Supper on January 31st was made an observance of the anniversary of Swedenborg's birth. Instead of the usual class, a lecture was given by Dr. Acton on Swedenborg's publications and the reviews of them that appeared in contemporary periodicals. After mentioning the poems which were Swedenborg's first printed productions, and the Selectae Sententiae, the Doctor spoke more at length on the early scientific and philosophical works in their chronological order. The Daedalus Hyperboreus was the first learned publication in Sweden, and was modeled after the Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Swedenborg, while in England, had been introduced into a new world of freedom of thought and breadth of view, and he wished Sweden to keep pace with the rest of the learned world. The Daedalus was the occasion of the first mention of Swedenborg in the Stockholm newspapers.

     Following this, Swedenborg issued other works year by year, and began to receive notices in the learned journals in ever-widening circles Thus the work on Longitude (1715) was noticed in the German Neuen Zeitung; and several works published in 1719 were quite fully and favorably reviewed in the Acta Eruditorum; while an attack on his work was made in another German journal. Finally, in 1734, the Principia attracted very favorable comment in Germany, and was noticed also in France and England. This was as far as Dr. Acton could carry the subject in one evening, but it introduced us to an exceedingly interesting study concerning Swedenborg which should sometime appear in print for the use of New Churchmen.

     Council Meetings.

     With the first week of February came the Annual Council Meetings, a report of which will shortly appear in the Life and in the Journal of Education. We shall note only a few features of the public gatherings.

     On Sunday, February 1st, the Rev. E. E. Iungerich, of Pittsburgh, gave us a very instructive sermon on the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The following Sunday, the Rev. W. L. Gladish, of Chicago, preached on the spiritual relation of this earth to the other earths in the universe, especially as bearing on the two facts, that the Word is given here in written form, and that the Lord came to this earth in the flesh. On the evening of the 8th, a service of song and praise was held, at which an address was given by the Rev. Alan Gill, of Kitchener, and there was special music of a choral and instrumental nature. Among the latter was a beautiful number for organ, string quartet, oboe and horn, composed for use in the Cathedral by Mr. H. Waldo Warner, of London.

     On Thursday evening, February 6th, the Rev. F. E. Waelchli, of Cincinnati, gave the Annual Address to the public session of the Council of the Clergy, his subject being "The Progress of the Church." He made an eloquent plea for continued and constant devotion to the Writings, and showed that the real progress of the church is spiritual, and consists in the implantation of Divine Doctrine in the affection of truth,-that all the leading of the Church is by this affection, dominated by the acknowledgment of the Writings as the Word of God.

     The Banquet.

     The Banquet of the Philadelphia District Assembly on Friday evening had as a topic "Factors in the Progress of the Church."

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An excellent supper was enjoyed by a large and festive company of people. The tables were prettily decorated with red streamers, red candles, and many vases of flowers. After the supper, the Rev. H. Lj. Odhner, as toastmaster, introduced the subject of the evening, remarking that the sphere of charity underlies all true progress of the Church, and announced the song, "First in Our Hearts."

     He then introduced the Rev. E. E. Iungerich, who spoke on "The Divine Spirit in the Church." Two texts were quoted as giving the gist of the matter: "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it," and "He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God; for God giveth not the Spirit by measure." To the New Church the inspired Revelator is the one sent; his words are the words of God; the Writings are filled with the Spirit. "All religion is of revelation, and all revelation is the Word of God." Even in the preparatory works we must recognize some giving of the Spirit, for Swedenborg declares that in that period he was led by God, and sometimes he says, "This is true because I have the sign." In the Word Explained, Swedenborg speaks of having "living colloquies with angels," and of things "written in the presence of spirits." He says further that what he wrote was "from the Lord only," that "not a word is mine that "Providence ruled the acts of his life from youth, to the end that he might be an instrument."

     When we had sung "Dear Academia," the toastmaster then introduced Prof. O. W. Heilman, who spoke on the subject of "The Doctrine of Remains as an Essential Factor in Education." After many humorous remarks, a solo with guitar accompaniment, and a relation of his recent experiences at George School, Mr. Heilman settled to his theme, dwelling upon the endeavor of our schools to develop interest in the Word and thus to implant re mains by affection for the Word. These remains are the foundation of education and of all after life. Educators in the world do not understand children, because they know nothing of remains. The development of the Doctrine of Remains will be the chief basis for our progress in education. Remains given in childhood bring many gifts in after days, and in particular they are the basis and origin of character.

     The third song was "Friends Across the Sea," after which the Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal was called upon to address us on "The Doctrine of the Priesthood in Relation to the Progress of the Church." The understanding and application of this doctrine, he said, has been a gradual growth in the Church. Our present position in regard to it was quoted from "The Order and Organization of the General Church." But in the beginning of the Church there was a recognition of the real nature of the Writings and of their Divine Authority; and with this it was seen to be necessary that the New Church have a new Priesthood, and steps were taken to inaugurate such priesthood, both in England and America. Thus the true basis was laid for the subsequent progress of the Church in ecclesiastical order, and for an effective leadership of the Church.

     There followed another song, "Then Together Let us Stand," after which the toastmaster introduced the last topic of the evening,-"Spiritual Thought as a Factor in the Life of the Church." Dr. Alfred Acton responded to this in a deeply moving address. He showed that spiritual truths may be seen in natural light or lumen, but that this sight does not advance the Church. Truth must be seen in spiritual light, which comes to us by means of the Word, and then only when obscurations are removed; that is, the loves of self and the world must be removed, for these blind the eyes to any real spiritual light The eager seeking for worldly pleasures is most deadly to spiritual thought. All such obstacles must be removed. Swedenborg's real preparation for his mission as revelator was in receiving the light of heaven, and this in all humility.

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He came into the deepest humility, and laid aside all things of the world. Even before he had open visions, his mind was opened to see truth in spiritual light. In the Diary he says, "If men were in faith in the Lord, heaven would be opened. . . almost as with me." This should be the state of the Church; not that there is to be an open intercourse with spirits, but that there is to be a seeing of truth in the light of heaven, so that our thoughts are one with those of the angels-truly a one; for the church is to be heaven on earth. To think spiritually is to see that it is so because the Lord has said it. As the hour was now becoming late, the program was not prolonged further, but was concluded with the singing of "Our Glorious Church."
     L. W. T. D.
FOURTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1930

FOURTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY       HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1930




     Announcements.



     PRELIMINARY ANNOUNCEMENT.

     By invitation of the Bryn Athyn Church, the Fourteenth General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, June 13th to 19th, 1930.

     Further announcements will be made in the April issue of this journal.
     HUGO LJ. ODHNER,
          Secretary.

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PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH 1930

PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH       Rev. F. E. WAELCHLI       1930


NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. L           APRIL, 1930           No. 4
     (At a Public Session of the Council of the Clergy, February, 1930.)

     The Church must progress. There can be no standing still. Where there is not progression, there will be retrogression. A body of the New Church that does not progress will less and less fulfill the purpose in its institution, and in time will cease to be.

     The New Church, which is to endure into the ages of ages, can have but one line of progress, which is progression toward interior things, eternally. The nature of such progression is taught in the following words of doctrine:

     "Progression towards interior things is but little known in the world. It is not progression into scientifics, for this often takes place without any progression towards interior things, and frequently with egression. Neither is it progression into virile judgment, for this also sometimes takes place with egression from interior things. Neither is it progression into the cognitions of interior truths, for cognitions have no effect unless man is affected by them. Progression toward interior things is progression toward heaven and the Lord, through the cognitions of truth implanted in the affection thereof, thus through the affections." (A. C. 4598.)

     From this teaching it is evident that there can be a body of the New Church in which those who constitute it gather scientifics of doctrine in abundance, who then, by virile judgment, skillfully draw from the scientifics various conclusions, theories, and principles, and who further may devote themselves earnestly to the study of cognitions, which are knowledges more exalted than scientifics-devote themselves to the cognitions of interior truths, and make great progress into such cognitions.

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And yet such a body of the church may be making no genuine progress.

     There must, indeed, be in a church the gathering of scientifics, and virile judgment therefrom; and especially must there be the acquisition of the cognitions of interior truths. These things, although they do not constitute the progress of the church, are the means to it. Progress, we are told, takes place when "man is affected by the cognitions of interior truths." And we read further: "Progression towards interior things is progression towards heaven and the Lord, through (per) the cognitions of truth implanted in the affection thereof, thus through the affection."

     We are here told, first, that man must he "affected by" cognitions of truth; and then that there must be with him "the affection" of such cognitions. The use of the two expressions, "affected by" and "affection," calls to our attention what is meant by the word "affection," so frequently used in the Writings. Affection is the state of being affected. That is of man's affection which affects him, which appeals to him, moves him, brings into activity his love, gives him delight. The affection of the cognitions of interior truth means, therefore, that these cognitions affect man, imparting to him joy and happiness. The primary definition of the word "affect" is "to act upon," to "produce an effect or change." The cognitions of interior truth must act upon man; have an effect upon him; bring about a change in him. This they do when he comes to realize their real spirit and the great purpose for which they are given. This spirit, this purpose or end, in all cognitions of interior truth, is that by the affection of them man may enter into genuine progress, which, as our doctrine tells us, is "progression towards heaven and the Lord."

     To quote again: "Progression towards interior things is progression towards heaven and the Lord, through the cognitions of truth implanted in the affection of them, thus through the affections." It is not said that the implantation is into the affection for cognitions, but into the affection of them. Affection is inherent in all cognitions of truth as their very spirit. It is from that "spirit of truth" which is the Holy Spirit. When there is with man this affection of spiritual cognitions, then, when a new truth comes to his perception it is implanted in that affection, ennobling it by its own peculiar quality of affection, and bringing to him a fuller influx of the Holy Spirit.

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Thus the progression towards heaven and the Lord is effected, as the doctrine states, "when the cognitions of truth are implanted in the affection of them, thus through the affections." Note the closing words,-"thus through the affections." It is through the affections of truth that a church makes genuine progress. According to the measure of such affection a church is truly a church, wherein "the Spirit of truth leadeth into all truth,"-into that truth which is the way to heaven and to the Lord, yea, which is heaven and the Lord.

     It is the conviction of those who are of the General Church of the New Jerusalem that this church is such a church. Had they not this conviction they would not be of it. There may indeed be those among its members who have not its spirit. Whether so, is known to the Lord alone. But we are speaking, and in this address shall continue to speak, of this church as a church. Its very spirit and life is the affection of truth. This has been its progressively increasing inheritance since the day of its beginning in the institution of the Academy of the New Church. Consequently, there has been and there continues to be progress,-that progress which is "progression towards heaven and the Lord."

     This may seem a bold assertion; yet we are asserting what we firmly and deeply believe. Can anyone believe otherwise, and continue to be of our church? It is true that we are regarded otherwise by most of those of the New Church not of our body. Their estimate of us is that we are an organization that maintains its life principally by the gathering of scientifics, the formation of theories and principles from them, and the accumulation of the cognitions of interior truth; that we largely lack the element of affection; that we follow strict lines of truth, narrowly interpreted; and that, because of such narrowness of interpretation, there results a spirit of intolerance and bigotry, and an unwillingness to recognize the goodness and truth so largely prevailing in the world, even though Swedenborgian doctrine be unknown there.

     Such views are entertained, because the nature of the affection which characterizes the General Church is not comprehended, that it is the affection of truth,-that affection which is the spirit of truth, meaning by truth solely and only the Revelation given by the Lord to His New Church. The affection of that Revelation is our affection, and through it is our progress as a church.

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That such is the General Church is not understood by those who are not of it, and this because to a great extent an affection of truth, which is of the Writings, and of them only, is not understood.

     The inability to understand the General Church evidences itself in the manner in which our calling the Writings the Word is regarded. It is frequently said, and probably generally believed, that we are merely "insisting on a term," which term, it is said, involves no fuller acknowledgment of the Writings as a Divine Revelation than there is with those who believe them to be Divine Truth, Divine Authority, and the Second Coming of the Lord. And in saying that the General Church is merely insisting on a term, there seems to be the idea that the theologians of our body, in order to give our church some great distinguishing principle, have applied themselves to the scientifics of doctrine, and, by the selection of certain passages of the Writings, have from them established this term, in regard to which they are constantly quibbling, in the manner of the scholastics of old. As we have said, the General Church is not understood. There is no comprehension of the fact that we have been led to the acknowledgment of the Writings as the Word by nothing other than the affection of truth.

     II.

     Let us trace the steps by which a New Churchman, believing the Writings to be the Second Coming of the Lord, is led to acknowledge them as the Lord's Word of that Coming.

     First of all, he comes to the realization that the Second Coming of the Lord is the Lord Himself coming as those Writings,-the Lord revealing Himself to mankind. This is for him the dawning of a great truth, and with it there comes to him the affection of that truth, filling him with delight; and the truth itself is implanted in the affection. A great joy it is to him that the Lord has come; and this joy, this affection, with him is open to the reception of further truth concerning that Coming. He reads the words, "Unless the Lord come again into the world, in the Divine Truth, which is the Word, no one can be saved." (T. C. R. 3.) Herein there becomes manifest to him the very purpose of the Lord's Second Coming, the very purpose of the Revelation, namely, that there may be effected the salvation of mankind.

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These Writings, he sees, are salvation, are the Lord saving, are the Lord the Savior. "Here," he says, "in these books is salvation; to them must I go for salvation; in and by them the Lord saves me."

     Wondrous is the affection of this truth, and in it cognitions of truth are implanted ever more fully. He sees in the Writings everywhere, wherever he reads, the Lord's love for the salvation of mankind. The Lord's Truth reveals to him the Lord's Love, moving his heart. He knows that when he takes those books in hand, he is in the very presence of the Lord, in the presence of the Lord in His Divine Human. He sees in them the Lord in His Divine Human; yea, he sees that they are the Lord in His Divine Human, revealing Himself to the New Church as Divine Doctrine. With love and adoration, in all the fulness of affection of truth, he follows his Lord and Savior, thus revealed ever more fully in every cognition of interior truth, along the path of progress that leads to heaven and to the Lord there.

     When the Writings are thus seen to be the Lord in His Divine Human, the Lord the Savior, the Lord as Divine Doctrine effecting salvation, the Lord present, teaching, guiding, leading to heaven and to Himself, what else can the man conclude, to what other conclusion can his affection of truth lead him, than that the Writings are the Word of the Lord in His Second Coming?

     Thus it is that the General Church of the New Jerusalem has been led to this acknowledgment.

     When the Writings are read in that acknowledgment, there is an affection in the reading that cannot exist where there is not that acknowledgment, namely, the affection which pertains to reading the Lord's Word. This is so self-evident that it is unnecessary to dwell upon it. So also is it self-evident that truth implanted in this affection-truth implanted in the affection of reading the Writings as the Lord's Word-shines in a glory that does not pertain to it where it is not implanted in such affection.

     May it not be evident, therefore, that the General Church acknowledgment of the Writings as the Word is far from being a mere deduction from a study of the scientifics of doctrine for the sake of setting up a distinction in a term, but that it is the logical consequence of its affection of truth centered in the Writings which are the Lord in His Second Coming? And it is our firm belief that only in this acknowledgment can a body of the New Church make true progress,-that progress of which the Lord speaks when He says: "Progression towards interior things is progression towards heaven and the Lord, through the cognitions of interior truth implanted in the affection of them, thus through the affections."

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     III.

     Quite general in the New Church is the acknowledgment that the Writings are Divine Authority. There is no denial of any portion or passage. But at the same time all but a few of the teachers of the Church who are not of the General Church totally ignore great portions of the Revelation presenting general doctrine, never quoting them, never making them the subject of instruction. Why is this? It is because there is not affection of, nor consequent affection for, these things of doctrine. And herein lies one of the principal reasons for the unwillingness to acknowledge the Writings as the Word. There is no disposition to regard what is unpalatable as being the Word of God.

     An outstanding example of this is the doctrine that the Old Church is consummated and dead; that the New Church is the Lord's living and true church; and that this New Church is completely distinct from the old. Abundant is the teaching on this subject throughout the Writings, and it constitutes the great closing and crowning chapter of the True Christian Religion. Yet how seldom is it presented elsewhere than in the General Church of the New Jerusalem!

     There are some among the clergy in other bodies of the New Church who claim that they are strong in their belief in the distinctiveness of the New Church. But the distinctiveness in which most of them believe is not that which the Doctrines teach, not a distinctiveness from a dead church, but instead from a living church, from the old Christianity as a living church; for they believe that this church is still the Lord's church specific.

     That they so believe is evident from the fact that they will not acknowledge that entrance into the New Church from the old calls for a new Baptism. They claim that any Christian Baptism is of the same efficacy as that of the New Church. Should this be true of Baptism, it would be true also of the Holy Supper, and of all worship. Where, then, is the distinctiveness?

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     There can be but one distinctiveness of the New Church,-that of a church completely new in every way, to which the Lord has come anew, and superseding the church totally old and dead, from which the Lord has departed. There are decided indications that the unwillingness to acknowledge that the Old Church is dead is due to a spurious charity, which seeks to see a wealth of spiritual good and truth in the churches about us; and to justify this charity there are adduced quotations of doctrine concerning the church universal, and applied to the church specific. Associated with this broad charity is the endeavor to win a good opinion on the part of the Old Church for the New. And probably a weighty reason for the unwillingness to acknowledge that the New Church has a form of the Word of God which others have not is the fear of what others might say of such a claim.

     It is because of the affection of truth that the General Church acknowledges and teaches that "the present day is the last time of the Christian Church, which last time is the very night into which former churches have gone down." (T. C. R. 757, 760.) "Just so," some may say, "you have affection for such teaching; you delight in dwelling upon the dark side of the states of the world; you find pleasure in presenting men's weaknesses and shortcomings." Again, the General Church is not understood.

     The affection of the truth we have just quoted from the True Christian Religion is the affection of the Divinely given warning against all things of that dragon which ever seeks to destroy the Lord's true church. The Lord Himself exposes the dangers. In His doing this is His mercy. There is in this, His teaching, the affection of His mercy. Let men not avert their faces, lest they see that mercy! Further, there is in the teaching quoted the affection which, in the midst of dark night, looks to the glory of the morning, and which, realizing how terrible is the darkness, rejoices in the splendor of the new day from thankfulness of heart. And herein, again, is the affection of the Lord's mercy.

     On the part of the General Church the affection in the doctrine concerning the consummation of the age, the coming of the Lord, and the New Heaven and the New Church, is an affection of the Word. This doctrine, as all other doctrine of the Writings, is the Word of the Lord. Loving it as such, we follow it in the building up of the New Church as a church in every way distinct from the old. In this endeavor can be the progress of the church "towards heaven and the Lord, through the cognitions of truth implanted in the affection of them, thus through the affections."

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     All our endeavors in the upbuilding of the church, serving the Lord in so doing, must be according to His Will as revealed in His Word to His Church. Therefore it is that the General Church lives the Doctrine concerning ecclesiastical government which the Lord gives. Herein, again, is the affection of the Lord's Word. Little do they understand the General Church who suppose that we seize upon this doctrinal teaching because of a certain high-church predilection. The fact is that not a few have come to our body with anything but such a predilection. But coming into the spirit of the affection of the truth of the Lord's Word to His church, they came also into the affection of the cognitions concerning ecclesiastical government. To come into this is at the same time to come into the affection of the cognitions of Divine order, which order descends from the Lord, who is Order Itself, through the heavens into the life of the church, even to ultimates. Where there is the Lord's own Divinely revealed order, present in affection, thought, and deed, there can be progress.

     IV.

     The progress of the General Church, as being through the affection of truth, we have illustrated by a consideration of three of its distinguishing principles,-the Writings as the Word, the distinctiveness of the New Church, and order in ecclesiastical government. We might adduce further illustrations by considering a number of other distinguishing principles. But we shall speak of only two more, briefly.

     It is a principle of the General Church that there should be marriage within the church. It holds this principle not merely theoretically, but also practically. The reason why this is so, is because in our body the members are "affected by" the truths concerning conjugial love; or, what is the same, there is the "affection of" those truths. But for this, there would be no such principle. And in accordance with the same our church progresses. For the state of the church is according to the state of conjugial love in it.

     It is a principle of the General Church that the children and young people of the New Church should be educated in New Church schools.

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This principle, too, is because the truths concerning education, abundant in the Writings, "affect" those of our body. And herein, again, there is the progress of the church, generation by generation, through an ever more interior affection of truth.

     There are in the Writings certain other expressions meaning much the same as "the affection of truth." One of these is "the love of truth for its own sake." Note, not love for truth (though this is involved), but love of truth,- the love which is inherent in truth. This love is for truth's sake, so that truth,-the Lord's revealed truth, His Word,-may be the all of life.

     This expression,-"the love of truth for its own sake,"-is used by Bishop W. F. Pendleton, in his address on "The Principles of the Academy," as describing THE great principle of the Academy. As he there presents what we have endeavored to set forth; but in a far better way than has been our attempt, and at the same time briefly, we shall quote his words. After treating of twelve principles of the Academy, he says:

     "However, what makes the church is not so much its doctrine as its spirit; for the essential of doctrine, the essential of faith, the essential of law, is the spirit that is in it; and while it may be said that doctrine makes the church, yet it is not the doctrine itself, but the spirit and life within it, that makes the church. It is so with the Academy. The most important principle of all, therefore, has not yet been stated, the principle that is within all, the truth which is within the doctrine of the Academy, the law that is within the law, which is the spirit of the law-this spirit of the Academy, the spirit of its doctrine and law-is the love of truth for its own sake. Whatever spirit other than this may have entered-however much individual men may have failed, even though some have stumbled and turned aside, and all have fallen short of the ideal-still we may speak with a confident faith and say that this spirit, which is the spirit of truth, the spirit which makes the truth the all in all, was present in the initiament of the Academy, and gave character and quality to the teaching and work which followed; and we may speak with the same degree of confidence, that without this spirit, without this principle, within the principles of the Academy, its confession of doctrine is a mere form, a mere letter, a mere body of faith without the life of faith."

     May there ever abide in the General Church this love of truth for its own sake!

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Or, to use the words of doctrine that have been our theme, may there ever abide the affection of truth as that in which the cognitions of interior truth are implanted! And to the end that it may abide, may it increase eternally from that beginning of it which is with us now; though it will always be but in its beginning,-the beginning of progress toward heaven and the Lord.
FORGIVENESS 1930

FORGIVENESS       Rev. KARL R. ALDEN       1930

     "And when ye stand praying, forgive." (Mark 11:25.)

     We live between two worlds,-the world without, and the world of the human heart; between the world in which other men see us, and the world of deep emotions, poignant passions,-love, hatred, revenge, forgiveness,-the world seen only by the Lord, and known only to ourselves.

     To "stand praying" is a gesture of the outer world. Men see us when we stand praying. But forgiveness is primarily of the inner world. It is there-in the secret chambers of the heart-that forgiveness assumes the reality of a state of mind. It is not hard to do the external thing which men see, but to effect the internal thing that is known to God alone, this is difficult. Yet it is only the effort that belongs to the internal state that counts for salvation. The Arcana reveals that "to stand praying" here signifies the whole of external worship, and from the same source we learn that external worship devoid of internal is from hell. In order to hallow our service, and raise it to heights of spiritual blessing, it must contain within it all that is signified by the injunction to "forgive." "When ye stand praying, forgive."

     The Lord spake this admonition to His disciples on the second day of the last week of His earthly life. To be sensitive to the message His words contain, we must recall to mind the contrasts of that final week. In the daytime He taught in the magnificent temple of ivory and gold which had been built by Herod, and which was now the pride of the Jewish nation.

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It was on the previous day that He had overturned the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and had exclaimed: "Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves."

     In the daytime His preaching was public, uttered in the very center of the Jewish worship. There He stood in the temple, surrounded by friends and foes, eagerly questioned by the multitude, artfully catechized by the scribes and the elders, the Pharisees and Sadducees. In rapid succession His enemies heaped their ensnaring questions upon Him. The priests, the scribes, and the elders, demanded by what authority He did these things; the Pharisees and the Herodians tried to entrap Him with the question of paying tribute to Caesar; the Sadducees sought to entangle Him by their question concerning the resurrection; and a lawyer attempted to undermine His authority by asking Him which was the first commandment of all. These assailants, one by one, were put to rout by the Lord's answers, till at length no man durst ask Him any question.

     In contrast with these events of His public ministry in the daytime was the private life which He shared with His disciples, sheltered by the quiet evening shadows of the Mount of Olives. In these intimate discourses He sought to reveal to them the inner mysteries of the kingdom of God. He knew what went on in the inner recesses of the mind. "He needed not that any should testify of man; for He knew what was in man." (John 2:25.) As He sat alone with His disciples, He sought to open to their wondering gaze the splendor of His heavenly kingdom. He told them of the glory of sacrifice, and instructed them as to the spiritual meaning of His approaching crucifixion and death. It was into the inner kingdom of forgiveness that He sought to lead them.

     Every day, as they journeyed across the valley that separated the Mount of Olives from Jerusalem, He continued His discourses. As they passed the barren fig tree,-that symbol of a life of faith without charity,-and the disciples wondered that it had withered so soon after it had been cursed, the Lord instructed them concerning the kind of faith that will remove mountains, and said: "Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. And when ye stand praying, forgive."

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     It was not an uncommon sight to see men standing and praying in the temple. This was regarded by the people of the time as a sign of piety. The Pharisees, most pious of the Jews, even sounded a trumpet before them, that they might attract attention and be seen of men to pray. They loved to stand in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, uttering long prayers. They lived for that outer world where men see, and men judge, and men reward. They knew little of the inner essence of prayer, and the doctrine of forgiveness was unknown to them.

     The Lord spake a parable concerning this kind of prayer,-a parable designed to bring into sharp contrast the two worlds,-the world that man sees, and the world that God knows. "Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God I thank Thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner." (Luke 18:10-13.)

     It is not the outward gesture of the body that has communication with heaven, but the internal state of the mind. The Lord, therefore, instituting a new kind of prayer with His disciples, said: "When ye stand praying, forgive." The only prayer that is heard in heaven is the prayer that proceeds from a forgiving heart. It is the forgiving heart that qualifies all external worship. It is the forgiving heart that brings forgiveness to the sinner; it is the forgiving heart that converts the hollow sham of merely external worship into an eternal blessing. Unless man has in his heart forgiveness toward his fellow man, he cannot utter any real prayer to God. This is what the Lord meant when He said: "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way, first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." (Matthew 5:23, 24.)

     The Writings declare that the Jewish Church had no knowledge of internal worship. And so, as we enter into the subject of forgiveness, as applied between man and man, we find few examples in the Hebrew. Scriptures of the Old Testament.

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Yet there is one out standing case in the story of Joseph and his brethren. In forgiving his brethren the wrongs they had done him, Joseph said: "Fear not; for am I in the place of God! But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive." Joseph forgave because he recognized the Divine Providence in the evil which they had brought upon him. Does not this furnish a clue to the understanding of all forgiveness on the part of man for his fellow man? So far as we are concerned, no evil from without can befall us that is not of the permission of Divine Providence. It may seem like a cruel blow at the time; it may appear to be our undoing; and we may be filled with hatred and revenge toward the perpetrator. Yet the truth is, if we can but see it, that no evil ever happens to us that is not overruled for our eternal salvation. Our attitude toward those who wrong us must be like that of Joseph toward his brethren. We may recognize that they did it with malignity of purpose; they meant it for evil, "but God meant it unto good, to save much people alive,"-that is, by calling for the exercise of forgiveness, to enlarge the inner recesses of our souls, and thus to be more nearly and closely conjoined with God, the Maker and Preserver of all life.

     From the fact that there is so little about forgiveness in the Old Testament we may understand the necessity for the Lord's frequent reference to it in the Gospel. The old Jewish dispensation had be- come a dead formalism; He had come to raise up a living Church. The old was a shell, a hollow externalism; He had come to teach a religion of the heart, the mind, the soul. The Jews were interested in worldly power, a natural kingdom, a military hero; He came to bring them the kingdom of heaven, power over sin, and a Divine Savior. He came in answer to prayer, and to show how prayer may be answered.

     The law of retaliation prevailed with the Jews,-an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, killing for killing, burning for burning. This is what an external religion, devoid of a genuine internal, must come to; but the Lord taught another Gospel: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you."

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His gospel was the gospel of love, and the gospel of love is the same as the gospel of forgiveness, which teaches that, from love toward the neighbor, we are to be perpetually in the attitude of forgiveness toward him, to forgive him, not seven times only, but "seventy times seven."

     Let us see why man must forgive when he stands praying. If he does not forgive, from what state of mind does his prayer ascend! The opposite of forgiveness is a thirst for revenge, and this springs from enmity, cruelty and hatred. The Heavenly Doctrine has much to say about these three evils. They say that those evils form the essence of hell. As love reigns supreme in heaven, so hatred, with its offspring of revenge and cruelty, reigns triumphant in hell.

     Swedenborg describes the lot of one in hell who had never been able to forgive his enemies. His thirst for revenge had led him to poison the person who had wronged him, and in the other life he was cast into a miry lake. While there he said that he would not forgive the offence, although it was a light one, because he was of such a character during his life in the world that he would never forgive anyone against whom he entertained hatred. Then, from another part of Gehenna, there appeared a large sack, and when it was opened there issued a dense, black smoke which rolled itself upwards, and this was representative of such hatreds. (S. D. 3562.) This dense, black smoke was the visible reality of the cloud that hatred brings between man's soul and the sun of heaven. In this world we are unaware of this cloud, but in the life after death it becomes visible, and its infernal significance all too apparent.

     When we have suffered injuries at the hands of our neighbor, hatred instantly arises in us, and we thirst to be revenged upon him. This springs from the unregenerate state into which we are born. There are many generations of hereditary evil behind it, and the hells have a ceaseless yearning to flow into it. Man nurses hatred and revenge because in his heart he loves himself and the world above all else. Any injury to these loves stirs up resentment, and in the degree that he gives free rein to this passion he becomes a plane into which the hells may inflow.

     How often are we aware that we are cherishing resentment against others? And do we realize the enormity of the evil when, with a stubborn spirit, we refuse to forgive the trespass of an erring brother?

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Do we realize how deeply the injury penetrates into our own soul, when we refuse to forgive? It is only now that the veil has been lifted, and the state after death of those who have hated in this world is revealed; and in the light of this knowledge we are able to recognize the full meaning of the Lord's words, "When ye stand praying, forgive."

     It is not that our forgiveness matters to the one we forgive, but it matters to us. And because it is so very important, the Lord incorporated these words in the daily prayer: "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. For if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your trespasses." The Lord cannot forgive man his trespasses as long as he retains hatred, revenge and enmity in his heart. The Lord indeed forgives all men, but the law according to which He forgives them is the same to all. It is by repentance, reformation and regeneration that man receives the Divine forgiveness.

     For in one respect spiritual laws are like natural laws. They are constant. If a man touches a hot stove, the stove is not angry with him, but he must nevertheless suffer the pain of his action. To be forgiven, in that sense, is to learn not to touch the stove. It is the same with all natural laws. They do not bear resentment; yet the man who breaks them must suffer the consequences. The like may be said of spiritual laws. After death, where hypocrisy is not tolerated, evil brings its inevitable punishment, because all evil carries its penalty within it. The same is true of the spirit of man while he lives in the world. Forgiveness of the fellow man is a sign of his spiritual state. To forgive is to love the neighbor, to love society, and to love the Lord's kingdom. If one is a judge, it is not forgiveness to pardon the criminal; yet, in imposing the penalty the judge is not actuated by sentiments of revenge. The just judge loves society and its protection; he even loves the criminal for what he may become by amendment. In reality he does not administer the punishment; the crime carries its own penalty within it, which the law itself inflicts. For our endeavor should be to make the laws of this world one with those of the spiritual world.

     "When ye stand praying, forgive." What, then, do these words mean to the New Church?

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They mean that the very quality of our external worship derives its quality from a great internal principle. "The kingdom of heaven is within you," our Lord said. It is in that internal kingdom that the seed of true religion must be planted and grow. The New Church is not to be a church of merely external rites and ceremonies. These things, beautiful and uplifting as they are, must not be regarded as ends in themselves, but as the means of calling us to a deeper faith, a more thorough repentance, a stronger effort to shun our evils as sins against God.

     It is only the unregenerate man who separates the two worlds in himself, whose body prays when his heart may hate. The hope and the glory of the New Church is that these two worlds will be united in men, that sincerity of heart will shine forth in bodily gestures, that all our internal worship will be manifest in our external worship. Then, when we "stand praying," we will forgive, even as Joseph forgave, because he knew that the wrong he suffered was permitted of the Divine Providence of the Lord. No evil can be heaped upon us from which we cannot derive spiritual good-if we forgive. Forgiveness purifies the heart and mind of all those petty grudges, trivial wrongs and human injustices that we may nurse inwardly, and which give birth to a great black cloud of hatred that will cut us off from the beneficent rays of the sun of heaven. To forgive is to remove the power of these evil affections to embitter our lives. To forgive is to enjoy a foretaste of the kingdom of heaven. To forgive is to create in ourselves a love of the neighbor which is charity itself,-a love which, because of its greatness, because of its nobility, because of its Divine source, will enable us to receive forgiveness of the Lord.

     "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Our Lord spake these words in the Sermon on the Mount, His first public discourse during that life upon earth which is the perfect example after which our regeneration is to be fashioned. When those words were uttered, there was little opposition to His teachings, but as His life drew to a close His enemies became more and more bitter and malign, while His doctrine of forgiveness became ever clearer and more beautiful. And at the end, when His foes had accomplished their earthly purpose, when they had succeeded in having Him condemned to death, in His last bitter hour of temptation as He hung upon the cross and looked down upon those who taunted and reviled Him, even then He uttered the words that shall stand forever as the most perfect example of forgiveness, when He cried out: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do!"

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     But men cannot now plead such ignorance. The Lord has revealed the hidden evils of the human heart, and if men are to be worthy of the Divine mercy and forgiveness they must repent. Only thus can they fulfill the injunction of the text, "When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any, that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses."
Amen.

     LESSONS: Genesis 45. Mark 11. D. P. 280.
SCIENCE OF CORRESPONDENCES 1930

SCIENCE OF CORRESPONDENCES       PHILIP T. OYLER, M.A., OXON       1930

     Modern science has now reached a point-in many phases of inquiry, for that matter-beyond which it does not seem possible to proceed with much hope of success; for it has come face to face with infinity, so to speak. Whether we extend our natural vision with the telescope, microscope or spectroscope, for example, our rationality compels us to admit that, though we see more than with the unaided sight, we are still met by the illimitable. And the same applies to any field of scientific investigation. Which means-to put it bluntly-that we have arrived at a position in which the five senses of man can no longer be considered a very serviceable guide, even though we supplement them by any number of mechanical devices. But whereas modern science in its youth behaved-as we all do as youths-with excessive self-confidence, it has grown in its maturity to a more humble and less didactic mood; for it has made discovery of things whose quality cannot be analyzed, but whose reality cannot be denied. For instance, we know that there are sounds that we cannot hear, scents that we cannot smell, and rays that we cannot see; not on one side only, but on both sides of our field of sensible facts; there being sounds too high as well as too low for us to hear, rays above the violet as well as below the red of the spectrum, electric currents too strong as well as too weak to affect as, and so on.

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     The sum total of all scientific knowledge can be shown indeed by the following:

     A     B
F     E     C     D

     AB represents all that our five senses appreciate, i.e., what we may term known facts.

     BC and AE represent those things which we have discovered by deduction from known facts and by mechanical devices; such are x-rays, gravitation, food vitamins, electricity, etc. These too are known facts, but with this distinction. Of these we must say: "We know that they are, but do not know what they are."

     CD and EF represent infinity in either direction-the biggest fact, exasperating to the material mind, but acceptable to the rational mind.

     Something else also becomes clear, namely, that the things which we can appreciate with our five senses are of less import or force, call it what you will, than those which we cannot analyze. For example, the complete absence of any vitamin in a food is more detrimental than the absence of albumen; the absence of the violet ray is less dangerous than that of the ultra-violet, and so on. And clearly, even this class of things, of which we are aware though invisible, is of less import than life itself, of which these are only expressions. The source of all force is hidden from our sight, is beyond the scope of scientific examination. We see around us countless effects and natural causes, but know that there are causes prior to these, and know too that the method of deduction, trial and error has its obvious limits. Hence some conclude that the unknown is unknowable.

     That there is any other way of approach is unfamiliar to the general public of to-day, for the science of correspondences, called by Swedenborg the "science of sciences," is equally unfamiliar. Yet in this science we have undoubtedly the key that will unlock the doors to those dark places which our senses cannot penetrate. Briefly stated, this science shows the relation or correspondence between the visible and invisible, the natural and spiritual, between matter and substance; not physical substance to be sure, but substance in its true sense, as that on which all subsists.

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It is readily seen that there is some such relation, for it is difficult to describe any abstract idea without reference to visible things.

     A few examples in daily language will suffice to demonstrate this. If we merely say, "I see," it is not clear whether we refer to mental vision or bodily sight. If we simply say, "He aimed too high," none can tell whether we mean with a gun or his ambition. If we speak of a person as being "in the dark," only the context will make it clear whether we refer to a physical or spiritual state. A "white man" may be one who is white as to his skin or his character. Such instances are countless in the common speech of any individual, as well as in all literature. And the reason is, of course, that just as a child learns a language by learning first the names of things, so mankind in its childhood made its languages by naming first the visible objects around it.

     The statement in Genesis 2:20, that "Adam (i.e., early man) gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field," is clearly a historical fact, though it must be equally clear that the name given was such that it conveyed to the man the interior quality or character of the animal. By living experience he became acquainted with the character of each animal, and saw in himself affections that were akin to the general character of each animal. Thus names originally described the quality of the thing as well as the thing itself, and man could represent spiritual ideas by symbols of the visible objects to which those ideas corresponded. Here was the birth of the science of correspondences,-the wisdom of the past; and though the key to it had been lost for ages, nevertheless our modern languages are still full of it.

     Such expressions as "the long arm of coincidence," "giving the cold shoulder," "food for thought," "blue blood," "hard facts," "wounded feelings," a "dry" book-expressions which can be multiplied a thousand times at anyone's leisure-are clearly not intended to be taken literally. They clothe a spiritual idea or an inner meaning with some symbol of the external world. We still know what they mean, though we have lost sight of their origin; but to a later age they would be just as much misunderstood (if interpreted literally) as are (for example) the Old Testament, the fables of Greece or the triads of the Druids-when these are construed according to the sense of the letter.

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For these, being of the past, are written according to the correspondence of spiritual and natural things, and have a meaning quite different from that which they appear to have. Common sense dictates that the Genesis story of creation does not describe the birth of the first man and woman, or the actual development of this globe, but it also dictates that there must be some truth behind this story, as well as in the fables of Greece, or they would not have been venerated by such countless thousands for so long a time.

     Turning again to our common speech, and considering for example the use of colors, we have such instances of the language of correspondences as black magic, green with envy, seeing red, being in a broken study, a white man, true blue, the yellow, press, the pink of condition, and so on. Such expressions, often used as a mere habit of speech, certainly would and do appear senseless to those who do not look below the surface of things; but a rational mind, even if ignorant of their origin, can detect without difficulty that there must be some reason for them, can see, in fact, by associating ideas, that they are not the result of accident.

     We have innumerable examples of adjectives, other than those of color, used correspondentially. Just to mention a few that at once come to mind, we speak of hard sayings, soft hearts, hot tempers, cold calculations, high minds, later morals, peaceful days, cheerful colors, dart ages, dry literature, wholesome influences, wounded feelings, feverish excitement, innocent pleasures, stinging criticism, poisonous ideas, dirty language, foul weather, clouded vision, sunny dispositions; and, associating ideas with metals, we speak of the golden age, silvern speech, an iron rule.

     If we turn our attention to nouns, we find that we also use these correspondentially. When we call a person a cat, a serpent, a pig, a lamb, a, dog, a butterfly, a sponge, a vampire, a bee, we are simply using a familiar object of nature, possessing some well-known general character, to describe what we conceive to be the inner quality of a person. And we even use symbols of inanimate objects for the same purpose, for we can speak of a person as being a rock, a pearl, a stumbling-block, a rag, a gem, a brick. Even number, weight and measure are to some extent and in a general way used correspondentially.

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We can weigh our words, take the measure of a man, or number our days. We can have a single purpose, be double-faced or square. So also do we describe our spiritual garments. We can be naked, clothed in true blue, or be "wolves in sheep's clothing." Moreover, a man can be a Philistine, no matter what country he inhabits; a Jew, no matter to what race he belongs; a Pharisee, no matter what creed he professes. Anyone can be a Jonah or a Mrs. Grundy, while the general character of a whole nation can be visualized as John Bull or Uncle Sam.

     It would be possible for anyone to add an enormous list to the instances given, but these will suffice to shew that there exists in men's minds, and so in their speech, a relation between the natural and the spiritual. Whereas this is more or less unconscious and haphazard at the present day, it was in the past a conscious and definite science. This of necessity, because it is obvious that there were originally no words to describe abstract ideas. It would be interesting to follow the gradual change in the meaning of words from concrete to abstract, but this diversion must be confined to one instance. Take the word "spirit"-spiritus-and its associates. In the past it referred, first, to air or wind, so to breath, and by correspondence to the spirit,-the very breath of life. In its form of "spirit," we still employ it concretely to describe various volatile liquids in commercial use, as well as employ it abstractly. But in its associate forms, "inspire" and "inspiration," it has lost its concrete application. We no longer "inspire" our lungs or our motor tyres, but conversely we can, if unstable, be said to be "blown by any wind," and do (in vulgar speech) "get the wind up."

     In a somewhat similar way many surnames originated. For example, the names of Butcher, Baker, Carpenter, Taylor, Smith, Chandler, Fisher, Fowler, Falconer, Forester, etc., had reference to the trade in which the men were engaged. Somewhat similar too was the origin of alphabets. Each of the Hebrew letters and signs at first had a meaning of its own, and hence the saying of the Lord that "not one jot or tittle" in the Law was to pass. Egyptian hieroglyphs and Chinese characters were, of course, simply symbols or pictures of natural things representing spiritual ones, as no doubt even totem poles were.

     Though the rationality of man may have steadily evolved, his spiritual perception has certainly been subject to frequent rise and fall, and all modern archaeological discovery seems to support Swedenborg's contention that the Golden Age and the Fall of Man were not myths, and that there was a time when man saw clearly the relation between spiritual and natural things, and represented the former by the latter, and that, when he fell, he began to worship the external symbol instead of that which it represented.

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At any rate, it is certain that words conveying abstract ideas are very recent in time compared with symbols conveying such ideas, and it is equally certain that the wisdom of the distant past was far greater than our present civilization has been in the habit of imagining. In fact, if ages are to be judged by what they leave behind them, we shall at some future date be weighed in the balance and found wanting in every field of craftsmanship. Be that as it may, many instances of expressions in daily use that convey spiritual ideas by means of natural similes, such as we have cited above, are sufficient evidence that we have still a perception of the relation, however incomplete or unconscious, between internal and external things, and that this perception has come down to us from the distant past.

     It is easy to see how the childhood of the race, like any child, would acquire such perception. We arrive in the world, and through our five senses we first become aware of our mother, then of our homes, and lastly of the world without. We see the varying expressions of our mother's lace, the movements of her hands-natural things, indeed-but we soon learn the corresponding thoughts and feelings that prompt them. We do not need to be taught that a smile expresses pleasure, tears, sorrow; that one cry may be of joy, another of pain; that one tone of voice is inspired by kindness, another by annoyance. In fact, we learn unconsciously to see the correspondence of the expressions of the face, the tones of voice, the motions of the hand, with the thoughts and feelings.

     Here, where the spiritual and natural are combined in ourselves, the relation of the one to the other is clearly seen, and it is obvious that the spiritual is the cause of the natural, and not the reverse. It is the thoughts and feelings that are the cause of all speech and action. And it is well to keep this relation in mind; for when we look at the world of natural objects without us, we are apt to forget that they must inevitably be the effects of spiritual causes. We can, indeed, see this to some extent; for we notice that everyone, as far as possible, chooses or makes his surroundings to accord with his tastes.

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We can all read something of people's characters by their houses, their dress, their gardens, as well as by their walk or handwriting. And all would, if they could, make their surroundings correspond with their ideals, good or bad.

     Moreover, we all perceive some relation between spiritual and natural things, even when such things do not bear the direct imprint of human hands. We see a storm, and call it fierce or cruel. We enjoy a lovely sunset on a still day, and speak of a peaceful evening. We watch a glorious sky, and remark on its cheerful colors, and so on. We recognize in these natural things a relation between them and our own feelings. More than that, we invest nature with an almost personal character, so that we can speak of a smile on nature's face or a tone of nature's voice, for every phenomenon awakes some corresponding thought or feeling in our minds. Indeed, we can go much farther than that, and say that we could have no perception of spiritual things if we had none of natural ones. This becomes clear when we consider the fact that even in material things we can make no judgment without comparisons. We appreciate the size of things by comparing one with another, distance by comparing objects close at hand with those farther away, color by comparing shades, and so on.

     So, too, our perception of spiritual things is gained by comparing things seen with things felt. Our conception of a lofty ambition is acquired by measuring with the eye the height of a mountain, tree or building; of broadmindedness by experience of scanning a wide expanse; of deep thought by remembrance of looking down into a valley or pit. Quite commonly we even employ a double comparison. For instance, we speak of a high tone or a lower taste; and thereby we recognize (albeit unconsciously with many people) not only the correspondence between spiritual and natural elevation, but also that between spiritual and natural senses. Tone implies hearing and (spiritually) obeying, taste eating and (spiritually) eating food for thought. Thus frequently in the Bible-all through it in fact-do we find this correspondence. Just a few examples: "Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good." "O taste and see that the Lord is good." "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness." "If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever." "Give us this day our daily bread."

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     So far we have been considering isolated words and phrases used correspondentially, and it is clear that some of these are quite recent in origin; such as "seeing red," "gone west," "getting the wind up." Some may, therefore, assume that, as they cannot explain how these expressions arise, they are merely coincidental. That, however, is not the case. We all know that every impression of the natural world inflows through our senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. And as natural laws are not (because they cannot be) at variance with spiritual laws, so all desires and thoughts, good or bad, inflow from the spiritual world,-the world of causes, the world of those who have finished their natural lives.

     Anyone who is sincere will admit that all thoughts enter the mind from without, and the common saying that "things are in the air" admits a common origin of inspiration. Hence we find similar symbols used in widely separated races, similar theories entering the minds of men far apart from one another, similar inventions thought of by several people at almost the same time. Telepathy is no explanation of their origin, even if it explains their transference. The existence of thoughts implies the existence of thinkers in the spiritual world as well as in this. And the origin of thoughts, as of all things, must be there. It appears, of course, as if man had life in himself, thought in himself, power in himself; for if it did not so seem, he would have no free will; but the rational mind can see that this is only an appearance, the fact being that he is only a vessel or recipient of these.

     Whereas mankind nowadays can understand spiritual things rationally, but is unconscious of spiritual influx, early man must have had spiritual perception instead of rationality, or perhaps as well as it. Most certainly he had a definite knowledge of spiritual things, and the farther we go back in time, the more exact it appears. To make this statement clear, it is necessary to follow up more closely the study of correspondences. This can be done through Babylonian, Assyrian, Egyptian, Druidic or any of the records left by the distant past, but as the Bible is most commonly known, this will be taken for the purpose of interpretation.

     Let us take the word "love," and remember that, being an abstract thing, originally it could have been expressed only by a symbol of the external world, that symbol being oil-olive oil, of course, in general use for internal consumption, external application, for lamps, for dressing wounds, for oiling wheels, and for many sacred uses.

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We recognize the correspondence at once when it is pointed out. We say that love makes the wheels of life run smoothly, as oil does all the machines of commercial use. We say that conversation becomes heated and there is friction, when people lacking love come in contact, just as heated bearings and friction occur in any machine when there is lack of oil. Again, we speak of a person storming when his anger is aroused, and of another "pouring oil on the troubled waters" in a loving endeavor to create peace; and we know that love is the only way to calm brain-storms, just as oil is the only means of quieting angry waves. Note once more the double correspondence-storms in the brain and anger in the waves, whereby we recognize within us a simile of a natural phenomenon, and without us a personal element in natural things.

     Remembering that olive oil is and was used for dressing wounds, as well as for burning in lamps, we can understand why we can speak of love as warming the heart and soothing wounded feelings, and giving us light to see how we may be of service. The candles that burn in churches to-day are but the modern substitute for the oil-burning lamp, with which we are all familiar in ancient art, and that in its origin was a symbol and reminder that love should perpetually burn in our hearts. In the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-12), of whom five were wise and five were foolish, only the wise took oil in their lamps, and only they were fitted for heavenly life. The lamps-forms of worship-are empty things, unless filled with loving endeavor to live up to the truth that we know. A lamp without oil is faith without charity, truth without good, wisdom without love; for these two must always combine in order to be of use,-use, spiritual or natural, being the end for which man and all creation obviously exists. So in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:34), we are told that he took pity on the man who had fallen among thieves, and bound up his wounds, "pouring in oil and wine," indicating not only the healing agency of oil when applied to actual wounds, but also, because it is a parable, having the deeper significance that those who have been afflicted by evil can be helped by love (oil)-though love should be associated with the wisdom of discretion (wine). For any rational mind can see that indiscriminate charity can do as much harm as good.

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     Now, if throughout the Word we think of love where oil is mentioned, we can see that there is an inner meaning within all those statements which appear to be merely statements of facts. Let us consider a few of these facts. Oil was burned in the sacred lamp (Exodus 27:20); it was used for anointing men to be kings and priests, a combined office (Leviticus 8:10-12); it was part of many offerings (Numbers 7:13-79); and it was mixed with fragrant spices to form the ointment used in consecrating the tabernacle and its implements to the service of God (Exodus 30:22-30).

     It is not difficult to see that this sacred oil represents, not human love, but the loving-kindness of the Lord. Hence the Lord was the Anointed,-the Messiah in Hebrew, and the Christ in Greek,-being Love in its very essence. So, too, we can see the deep significance in such statements as these: "At night He went out and abode in the mount that is called the Mount of Olives." (Luke 21:37.) "And He came out and went, as He was wont, to the Mount of Olives." (Luke 22:39.) "They went out into the Mount of Olives," after the last supper, and came "unto a place called Gethsemane" (the oil-presses). (Matthew 26: 30, 36.) "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head. (Psalm 133.) "The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth." (I Kings 17:14.) "And thou shalt command the children of Israel that they bring unto thee pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually." (Exodus 28: 20.) "I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him." (Psalm 89:20.) "Oil to make his face to shine." (Psalm 104:15.)

     We know that, if the body is covered with oil, it does shine. We know, too, that kindness shines through natural features and makes them radiant. And any rational mind can see that the holiness of the Bible, and especially of the Old Testament, cannot be the literal sense, any more than the holiness of worship can be ritual, or creation be God, or the physical body be man. The spiritual is clothed in material form, is hidden from the view of the external senses, but is visible to the eye of the understanding, through its correspondence with everything that is within and without us.

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LAMB, AND THE BOOK OF LIFE 1930

LAMB, AND THE BOOK OF LIFE       Rev. GEORGE DE CHARMS       1930

     AN ADDRESS TO CHILDREN.

     You remember the great Hall of Judgment in the other world, to which John came when the Lord took him up from the Isle of Patmos. In it there was a throne, on which the Lord sat holding in His right hand a little book sealed with seven seals. It is the Lord's book, which is called the Book of Life, and in it the Lord writes down everything that you think and everything that you do all through your life on earth, in order that when you come into the other world you may be judged.

     Now you know that many things come into your minds which you do not say anything about. Other people in this world do not know perhaps, that they are there. Some of those things are good and kind, but some of them are evil. Especially when you think things that are evil, you want to hide them. You are ashamed of them, and you do not want anybody to know that you are thinking evil things. It is evil spirits who are with you that make you think evil things; and they try to make you do evil things. And then they keep you from telling what you have done, because they make you afraid that you might be punished. Suppose you should go into the other world having these evil things in your mind, and suppose you should come into heaven, and carry those evil things there, you would not be happy in heaven; you would be very unhappy, and you would take away the happiness of the angels; for that is what evil does.

     Heaven is a place where the angels can be happy because there is no evil there, and the Lord protects them and guards them so that no evil can come into heaven. So as long as you have evil things in your mind the Lord will not let you come into heaven, lest you should bring unhappiness to the angels. That is the reason why the Lord writes down in this little book everything you think. It is not because the Lord wants to see you punished. It is because the Lord loves you, and He wants you to be happy and come into heaven, and live there forever with the angels, and know the joy that the angels know.

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He writes down everything you think, so that when you come into the other world He can show them to you; and when He shows them to you, if you really love Him, you will be sorry that those things were in your minds, and you will repent of them and cast them out, and so you will make your minds clean, innocent, free from evil. Only then can you come into heaven. That is what the judgment is in the other world-bringing out the evil things in your minds, that you may be sorry for them and cast them out into hell where they belong.

     Now notice this in the story of the Word,-that the little book was sealed with seven seals, and that no man in heaven or on the earth was found worthy to open that book. And so all the angels were sorry. They were very sad. And John was so sad that he wept much because no one was found worthy to open the book. Why was he sad? Because he knew that unless that book was opened, men could not be saved or come into heaven. Even those who were good and loved the Lord could not come into heaven until the book had been opened,-until they were given to see the evils in their minds, so that they could cast them out.

     Why could not that book be opened? Because men had become so wicked that they had evil spirits around them. Evil spirits do not want the book to be opened; they do not want us to see the evil in our minds. They want us to keep these evil things there, because then they can have power over us. They keep the angels away, and they keep the Lord away, because the Lord and the angels would help us to see our evils and to cast them out. That is what had happened in the other world. A great many evil spirits,-devils and satans,-had come into that world, and had gathered like a cloud all around those who were good; and the Lord could not draw near, and heaven could not draw near, and the little book could not be opened, and all those good people were held there as if they were prisoners. They were kept out of heaven. That is the reason why the Lord came into the world. That is the reason why He was born as a little baby in Bethlehem and grew up on earth.

     Why? He came into the world because it was only by coming here on earth that He could fight against those evil spirits, drive them back into hell, and set free those good people. And then He could draw near to them and open the little book so they might be prepared to come into heaven.

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When He had done this, He had power to open the little book. And for this reason one of the wise angels said to John: "Weep not, for the Lion of the Tribe of Judah has been found worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof." The angel was speaking of the Lord, who had come on earth and fought against all the hells, and he called Him a Lion because He was so strong.

     Right after that it is said that John saw a Lamb in the midst of the throne, standing as if it had been slain. That was the Lord too. He was called a Lion because He was so strong that He could fight against all the hells, and He was called a Lamb because He was so gentle, so kind, so merciful and so loving. You know there is no animal in the world so gentle as a lamb. That is why children like to play with lambs perhaps more than with any other animal. Lambs love little children, and will never do them any harm. The Lord was called a Lamb because He was not only strong but gentle.

     The Lord was strong so that He could have destroyed all the evil spirits and cast them back into hell in a moment. The Lord did not have to come on earth to do that. He was so strong He could have destroyed them. But the Lord loves everyone, even those who are evil. He did not want to destroy anyone. He wanted to be gentle and kind to all of them. So He came on earth, and used His strength to fight against the hells. But at the same time He was very gentle, very careful that no one might be hurt who loved Him, and who really wanted to come into heaven. That is the reason why He was called the Lamb, because He was so gentle. That is the reason why, when the Lord was on earth, John the Baptist, standing at the fords of Jordan, pointed Him out, and said: "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world!"

     So it was because the Lord loved men so much that He was able to loose the seals of the book and set free those who had been held bound, that they might come into heaven. That is the reason why, when the Lamb took the book out of the hand of Him who sat upon the throne, all the angels rejoiced with great joy, and sang a great song of praise to the Lord, because now they knew that the little book would be opened, and the way to heaven would be opened for all who were good and who worshiped the Lord.

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     There are two things especially that I want you to remember about this wonderful story of how the Lamb opened the book. The first is this: We want to be strong like a Lion, even as the Lord was strong. We all like to be strong, and able to fight against our enemies-able to overcome the enemies of our country when they attack us in this world, and to overcome the evil spirits who attack us in the other world. But while we want to be strong, we also want to be gentle. If we use our strength without being gentle, then we will do harm; we will do injury to others; we will get angry, and we will fight against some who are smaller than we are. Anyone who uses his strength against those who are weak is a bully. That is not being brave; that is not the strength we admire. That is what makes the spirit of hell-to try to harm others, to delight in bringing suffering upon others. If we would be brave, we must use our strength to fight only against what is wrong.

     I will tell you how to be strong, and how to use your strength. When you do something wrong, the evil spirits tell you to hide it because they make you afraid. And so they make you tell a lie and pretend that you did not do or think anything wrong. That is cowardly. If you want to be brave, tell the truth. When you do this, then the Lord and the angels can draw near. The Lord can open the little book, and you can see how wrong is the thing you have thought or done, and you can be sorry for it, and you can make up your mind that you will never do it again. That is the way to be really strong, brave, and honorable.

     But there is another thing to remember. Always be gentle in your strength. Do not fight against those who are weaker than you. Always try to use Your strength to protect and guard those that are weak-little children who are smaller, animals that are helpless. Be kind to them, knowing that the Lord is always kind to you, and that you need His help, and His love. He came into the world, and suffered many things, even the passion of the cross, in order that He might protect and guard you again the evil spirits who are always trying to destroy your spiritual life. It was with love and mercy that He used His great strength. That is what He wants you to do. Be strong and brave as a lion, but gentle and kind as a lamb. That is the ideal the Lord has given us by His life in the world. And that is the thing that will make it possible for you after death to come into heaven among the angels.

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For although the angels are much stronger than the evil spirits, they are also very kind and gentle.

LESSON: Revelation 5:1-12.
HYMNAL: pp. 133, 172, 139.
SWEDENBORG TO BISHOP MENANDER 1930

SWEDENBORG TO BISHOP MENANDER              1930

     TWO RECENTLY DISCOVERED LETTERS.


     (The original Swedish text of these two letters was published in Nova Ecclesia, Stockholm, for Nov.-Dec., 1929. Editor: Rev. Gustaf Baeckstrom, Svedjevagen, Appelviken, Stockholm. See comments by Dr. Alfred Acton in the editorial department.)

     First Letter.

     To the Right Reverend Herr Doctor, Bishop, and Pro-Chancellor:

     In a few days I shall journey to Amsterdam, and shall give out the Theology of the New Church, whose foundation will be the worship of the Lord our Savior; on which foundation, if a Temple be not now built, brothels might later be erected.

     Inasmuch as I have learned that the religious issue in respect to Doctor Beyer and Rosen in Gothenburg has been decided in the Council* in an unexpected way; and seeing that during my absence the matter will likely be talked about here and there; also, in order to counteract malicious comments which otherwise would probably issue from the mouths of certain persons, and this from their stupidity and the inner ill nature of their disposition; and, moreover, because of the importance of the matter; I take upon myself to communicate to you what I have presented to his Royal Majesty on this matter.**
     * That is, the Riksrad or Privy Council.
     ** This, without doubt, refers to an enclosure consisting of Swedenborg's letter to the King; see 2 Docu., 373-77.

     I heard from two gentlemen in the Court of Appeal that in religious matters the Council is the Pontifex Maximus. At the time I made no answer, but in case I should again hear them make such a statement, I will answer that the Council is by no means the Pontifex Maximus, but the vicar of the vicar of the Pontifex Maximus; for Christ our Savior is alone the Pontifex Maximus.

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The Estates of the Realm are his vicar; wherefore they are responsible to him; and the Privy Council again, being a commissioned body, is the vicar of the Estates. Thus the Council is the Vicar of the Vicar of the Pontifex Maximus. The fact that the Roman Pope calls himself the Pontifex Maximus comes from arrogance; for he has taken and assumed to himself all the power of Christ our Savior, and has set himself upon His throne, and lets the people believe that he is Christ on earth.

     Every lesser Pontifex or vicar of the Pontifex Maximus should have its consistory. The estates of the Realm have theirs in the venerable House of the Clergy; the Council has its more especially in the universities. But in the determination of the present issue it has constituted as its consistory the Consistory of Gothenburg, by whose deliberations it seems it abode word for word, not knowing that this was the most important issue which has come before any council or privy council for 1700 years, because it concerns the New Church which is foretold by our Lord in Daniel and the Apocalypse, and is in agreement with what the Lord says in Matthew, chapter xxiv, verse 22.

     I remain in the observance of all honor and devotion,
          Venerable Herr Doctor, Bishop and Pro-Chancellor,
               Your most respectful servant,
                    EMAN. SWEDENBORG.

     Stockholm, July 20, 1770.

     P.S. I have not yet received an answer from the Council. It has been under consideration once, and it was concluded to let the matter rest until the arrival of those members of the Council who have already been over it.

     Second Letter.

Right Reverend Herr Doctor and Bishop:
     Here in Holland I have now come to an end with my last work, called the True Christian Religion, and therefore I have sent over two copies thereof, one for Herr Bishop [Benzelstierna] and one for Herr Bishop Menander. To no other person have I dared to send a copy, inasmuch as the Privy Council has issued so strict a prohibition in respect to the importation of my books.

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The two copies are sent at the hand of a skipper who leaves here in a few days. I have written Agent Seele* to get the books from the ship and deliver them. This work has already been bought by many persons, and the printed copies will likely be sold before long. It consists of 68 sheets,** and costs 5 guilders, that is, with postage, 1 ducat. Were it released, I would send presentation copies to the libraries, and to those of the venerable House of the Clergy who have a desire for the truth and, when they see it, find light in themselves.
     *Carl William Seele was Swedenborg's business agent in Stockholm. See 1 Docu., 633.
     ** One "sheet" makes 8 pages 4to.

     Here, outside my own country, the first fight is with Dr. Ernesti, of Leipzig; but from him I must expect no real combat, but only a verbal one, as can be seen from the enclosed* which is directed against him. The Gothenburg Consistory has behaved toward me in the same way, as can be gathered from the publication on Swedenborgianism** and, later, from the Consistory's opinions addressed to the Royal Senate,*** to which the latter body has given its assent to the very letter, and this without my having anywhere been heard ever since my homecoming; nor did I receive the least knowledge of anything pertaining to it, any more than a babe in the cradle; and yet it has been done in a fashion that concerns my honor and reputation. That such a proceeding is directly opposed to the law of Sweden is evident. The real wheel in this matter is Bishop Filenius, who has instigated it both openly and in secret. That he has done it openly can be shown from the fact that in Norrkoping he confiscated my books on Marriage,**** and also that he afterwards wrote two letters to the Gothenburg Consistory, which were also printed in that city.*****

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That he also did it secretly, will likely be found when that part of the matter is taken up; otherwise, from whence has come the hot zeal shown by the Chancellor of Justice,****** and the Privy Council?
     * The enclosure referred to wast without doubt, the little printed slip which Swedenborg had printed in Amsterdam in answer to Emesti. See 1 Docu., 57-58, and N. C. Life, 1912, p. 197.
     ** This refers to the Handlingar rorande Swedenborgianismen (Proceedings concerning Swedenborgianism) which were published almost every week by Assessor Aurell as a part of his persistent attack against Dr. Beyer. They consisted of all the current Minutes of the Gothenburg Consistory, as far as these concern Swedenborgianism.
     *** That is, the Privy Council.
     **** In the Spring of 1769, the Swedish Diet met at Norrkoping, and Swedenborg sent to this city a number of copies of Conjugial Love, which had recently been published in Amsterdam. They were intended for distribution to the members of the House of the Clergy, but Filenius took opportunity to confiscate them, and this without giving the House, over which he then sat as presiding officer, any information on the matter. See 2 Docu., 306.
     ***** Swedenborg seems to have made a slip in stating that Filenius wrote two letters to the Gothenburg Consistory, for only one of Filenius's letters was printed in Gothenburg. The "two letters" are undoubtedly: (1) the letter from Aurell to Filenius, dated December 9, 1769, urging the latter, as the presiding officer of the House of the Clergy, to take action against Swedenborgianism, and (2) Filenius' answer, dated December 28, 1769, containing an abusive attack upon Swedenborg's teachings. The latter letter was presented by Aurell to the Gothenburg Consistory, and was published in the Handlingau, referred to in a previous note. Aurell's letter, on the other hand, was not given to the Consistory, but, nevertheless, was included by Aurell in the printed Handlingar.
     ****** Chancellor Johan Rosir.

     As soon as the Diet has come into some settled order, I will prefer my complaints respecting this matter. I remain, with all reverence.
     the Right Rev. Herr Doctor's and Bishop's
          most obedient servant,
               EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.
Amsterdam, July 6,1771.

     [Inscription on the back of the above letter]:

     His Royal Majesty's True Man and Pro-Chancellor and Bishop
          the Right Rev. Herr Doctor
               Carl Fred.
Menander, Stockholm

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YEAR OF JUBILEE 1930

YEAR OF JUBILEE       Rev. VICTOR J. GLADISH       1930

     "And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall re unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you." (Leviticus 25:8-10.)

     From earliest times the meaning of fulness, completeness, and holiness has belonged to the number seven. Thus, from the first Divine Revelation written and recorded for men, the seven representative days of creation have been preserved for us. And the power of this number-a correspondential power from spiritual influx-is so great that its ultimate effect is strongly felt, even in our modern semi-pagan world, where the spiritual origin of earthly things is scarcely considered. It is from this spiritual origin that we still have seven days of the week. It is from this origin that such phrases as the "seven wonders of the world," the "seven seas," etc., till linger in our speech.

     Now it is indicated in both the Old and New Testaments, and is plainly stated in the Revelation of the Second Coming, that multiples of seven may signify, in still greater degree, the fulness and holiness for which seven stands. Thus Peter was told that he should forgive his brother until seventy times seven, which, in the internal sense, means "as often as there is need," or continually to eternity. (A. E. 257.) And in the representative Israelitish Church, the seventh day was a holy day, the seventh year was a holy year, and at the end of seven times seven years a year of jubilee was proclaimed.

     The word "jubilee" is one of those expressions whose spirit is breathed in the very sound of the syllables. No doubt some of the meaning of the word would be conveyed even to a hearer quite unfamiliar with the term. "Jubilee" is derived from the Hebrew "yobel," which has been defined as the "sound of the trumpet," but which has the earlier meaning of a "ram" and "the horn of a ram." (Joshua 6:4.)

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In the tenth day of the seventh month of the year of jubilee, they were to make the trumpet sound throughout all the Land of Canaan, and we have every reason to believe that the trumpet which was sounded was actually the horn of a ram. What sound can be more joyous, and at the same time inspiring, than the voice of the trumpet? And the reason why it possesses such a character may be seen in the following words of the Heavenly Doctrine: "The trumpet, as a high sounding wind instrument, corresponds to the affection of celestial good. From it, therefore, the jubilee derived its name, which represented the marriage of good and truth in the inmost heaven." (A. C. 8802.) The Latin and other languages have words related to the Hebrew "yobel," and from these we derive such words as "jubilant," "jubilation" and others, all retaining that flavor of festive rejoicing.

     In the light of the things which we have adduced, it is seen how appropriate a title is that of "Jubilee" for the fiftieth year, when every man was to return to his inherited possession, when slaves were to be freed, when the children of Israel were to live upon the threefold increase of the land, neither sowing nor reaping,-a year representative of the entrance upon regenerate life, and prophetic of the Lord's coming with healing in His wings. (Malachi 4:2.)

     The "seven sabbaths of years," in a more full and complete manner than the six days of the week or the six days of creation, represented the full time of labor, of toil and of temptation; and the fiftieth year was the entrance into the fruit of victory in these combats,-the "blessed peace which passeth thought." Thus the inmost reference of the fiftieth year is to the glorification of the Lord's Human. Next in order its reference is to the heavenly life, in which the proprium of man can be laid asleep, and the battles against evil can cease, because the good fight has been fought and the victory won. There is, however, a more general and less strict significance of the fiftieth year; for we are told that it stands for the full implantation of truth in good, even to the first of a new state. (A. C. 9295.) Thus the fiftieth year can represent states obtainable in this world, when the proprium is indeed present and operative, but relatively quiescent, being reduced to essential obedience, because the truths from which man has so long battled against the proprium have become enrooted in good, because a union has thus been achieved between the truths of doctrine and an acquired spiritual charity.

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     The Levites entered the service of the tabernacle at the age of thirty, and ceased the active work at fifty years of age, in order that they might represent this entrance into the state of good by means of the combats of regeneration. It is significant that in the original tongue their peaceful work is named "the warfare of the tabernacle," and this for purely correspondential reasons-the actual warfare referred to being a battle from truths against falsities. In the merely representative church, the fruition of the priestly work could be typified only by the cessation of its active forms, but in the Church of the New Jerusalem the priestly work, whether as performed by the Lord in the salvation of the individual man, or as entrusted to human stewards of the Divine Priesthood, must continue throughout the earthly life. That is to say, the regenerating man must continue his combats, even though they have taken on a different character through the enrooting of truth in good; and the work of the priests or ministers continues to be that of marshaling truths against falsities, even though a comparative state of jubilee be attained as the fruit of faithful labor.

     But, after many years of an unfaltering cultivation of the ground and planting of the seed, there must be progression toward the jubilee,-the acceptable year,-both with the sower of the seed and the ground which has received it. From what we are told in the Doctrines concerning the representation of old age, or the state of life after sixty years as the state of wisdom, and from the knowledge that in a true church those of this age will actually be looked to for wisdom of life and weighty counsel, we may justifiably conclude that there should be a very close connection between the years of service in the priesthood and the attainment of the jubilee state. The minister who has attained to the years of wisdom may justifiably hope that his work has entered the stage represented by the cessation of the Levites from the active labors, from the stages of fruition and harvest, with perhaps the adjunction of counsel and direction, and then a relinquishing of the preliminary cultivation of the soil,-the hand-to-hand combat with falses and evils-to the younger Levites who have entered upon the warfare of the tabernacle.

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     If this be the case with him who has passed his fiftieth year, and yet remains in the Levitical service, what shall we say of one who has completed fifty years of active and unremitting toil in the priestly work, who has entered the Canaan of the Lord's ministry in His Crowning Church, and has labored seven sabbaths of years for the salvation of souls! This is no ordinary deed of service. Well may he be thankful to whom this span of years has been granted! Well may they be thankful who have heard, and do hear, the message of the Lord's Word at his mouth! Well may the whole church be grateful that he whom we have come together to honor has borne the torch so long and so well!* For, apart from any length of years, his labors have been notable in the history of the organized New Church. At the beginning of the half century now completed, he raised the standard of the Divine Authority of the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, and that standard has never been lowered. Through many vicissitudes, through gathering clouds and full-voiced storm, this banner has been held high and ably defended.
     * This Address was delivered at a meeting held in Michael Church, London, on October 10, 1929, in celebration of Bishop Tilson's fifty years in the ministry of the New Church. See New Church Life, December, 1929, p. 755.

     It is not given to men to make judgments as to the interior motives and character, nor should we wish to do so, but we may with propriety say of a man or of an action: "In so far as human judgment may be trusted, we have cause to be thankful, and we have an example to inspire us." The page of history which today we turn back is such a one as may inspire all to stand firm upon the wall of Divine Doctrine.

     No more can be asked of any man than that he use faithfully and fully the talent the Lord has given him in toiling for "the right as God gives him to see the right." And when a priest of the Lord's New Church performs this great benefit to mankind through seven sabbaths of years, the Church rejoices with him, saying in the words of the prophet, " The priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." (Malachi 2:7.)

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NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1930

NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS       Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1930

     The Arcana readings for March treated of the decline of love to the Lord in the celestial church, when mankind disobeyed the Lord's command and ate of the forbidden fruit. The results of that disobedience are shown in the April readings (nos. 378-482), which treat of the destruction of love to the neighbor, under the symbol of the killing of Abel by Cain, his brother.

     Am I My Brother's Keeper

     So much abuse has been made of the sentiment that everyone should be his brother's keeper, that it is well to point out the true meaning of this phrase, as now revealed.

     We are not our brother's supervisor or overlord, to dictate to him what he shall or shall not do, restricting his freedom of differing from us or of acting on his own conviction in his own field or in his own home. Such a spirit of aggressive "reform" comes from intolerance and from domination, and breeds hatred in others. It kills the atmosphere of charity, which is precisely what "Cain" did.

     A "keeper" does not mean a master, but a servant, like a doorkeeper or a porter. (A. C. 372.) We are to be our brother's keeper in serving our uses of charity, and in looking ever to the permanent good, and especially to the freedom of others, be our functions humble or exalted.

     Abel's Sacrifice.

     Animal sacrifices or burnt-offerings were unknown in the most ancient times. To slay animals and eat their flesh would have been a wickedness to those who lived in those times. (A. C. 1002.) "Altars were built before men had any idea of slaying oxen and sheep upon them, but as memorials." (A. C. 921, 920.) Burnt offerings were introduced into the Hebrew Church, (A. C. 1343), as an accommodation to paganized customs, and in order to prevent the Hebrew and later the Israelitish Church from rushing into the abomination of human sacrifice. (A. C. 2818.)

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Even as the story of Noah's burnt-offering (Genesis 8:20) was a "made-up" history, written by such " representatives and significatives "as the Hebrew Church would be able to interpret to some extent, so also the sacrifices of Abel and Cain are correspondential pictures of an internal state of worship. But let us note that, in the Word, no mention is made of the offerings of the two brothers being made by fire.

     The Mark upon Cain.

     The Lord set a mark upon Cain, "lest anyone finding him should slay him." Cain signified a faith which was separated from charity. Still, it was a faith in truths, not in falsities, and faith in truth must be preserved, even in states where charity is absent. Faith was therefore distinguished in the mind of fallen man, by the separation of the will from the intellectual mind. Gradually this led to the development of a new "genius" within the human race,-a spiritual genius whose salvation was to come about by means of doctrine derived from a written Word.

     Cain fled to the land of Nod ("exile"), and built a city there, named after his son, Enoch. In fact, in a historical sense, Cain (who was not, like Abel, a shepherd, but an agriculturist) represents, with his descendants, the externalized civilization which sprang up from the seeds of envy and violence: cities, fenced for protection and ruled by laws of external order; governments, based on physical might, but serving to promote agriculture, cattle-herding (a domestic form of hunting), commerce, wealth and art. The invention of the harp and the organ, and the beginning of the use of metals (Gen. 4:20-22) mark the phases of the external life whose culture of material resources has maintained itself as a dominant note in the symphonic march of civilization, which has now reached a screaming crescendo, and threatens to drown out every celestial perception in the mighty roar of the machine age.

     And faith-divorced from real charity-is still a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth! The clash of creeds has never stopped, since faith first raised its hand against its brother, charity, whose protector it was meant to have been.

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     The Descendants of Seth.

     Seth was born to "the man and his wife" to take the place of the murdered Abel; and he signifies a faith through which charity ("Enosh") is restored into its place in human life. The Arcana explains that the "parent" of this new church is the remnant from the vastated church named "Lamech"; which indicates that the Seth and Enosh here mentioned (Gen. 4:26) were churches contemporaneous with the "Ancient Church," signified by Noah, who also was the son of "Lamech," but another Lamech. (A. C. 640.) "Then began men to call upon the name of Jehovah." (Gen. 4:26.)

     But when, in the fifth chapter of Genesis, we are told of Seth and his descendants, the spiritual sense has changed, and the Seth and Enosh of that chapter represent two churches in the eventide of the Most Ancient Church. The patriarchs descended from Seth now represent various churches or religious movements which marked the decline of this most ancient dispensation. For there were many churches, then as now. Their state is described in the Arcana (nos. 1114-1125). But Adam, Seth and Enosh are the three churches which properly constitute the Most Ancient Church (A. C. 505, 502.) We must, therefore, arrange the genealogies of Cain and Seth to accord with the spiritual series, as follows:

     Adam           Adam           Adam           Most
                    Abel           Seth           Ancient
                               Enosh           Church
Cain                     Kenan
Enoch                Mahalalel
Irad                     Jared
Mehujael                Enoch
Methusael                Methuselah
Lamech                Lamech
Seth                          Noah           Ancient
Enosh                               Church

     The similarity of the names in the two lists is noticeable, and owes its origin to the fact that the development of faith and that of charity necessarily take place on somewhat parallel lines.

     As to the question of a historical background for these correspondential lists of names, the revelator definitely discourages us from regarding them as lists of persons, the enormous ages ascribed to them being sufficient indication that no literal meaning need be sought. (A. C. 515.)

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On the other hand, legends from Babylonia are said to give lists of prehistoric "kings" of even longer life-times, and bearing names distantly resembling those of the Biblical patriarchs. If this theory should be confirmed, we may come to recognize other mythic echoes of these churches from the hoary past

     Spirit and Extension.

     The doctrinal inserts,-nos. 320-323, 443-448, and 449-459,-have the special purpose of stressing the reality of the spiritual world and the substantial nature of spirits and angels. The revelator, from his experience with spirits, testifies that they are not abstractions like "thought," nor like phantoms without form or environment. They live in a world of light (A. C. 322), not in the darkness which so many, from time immemorial, have associated with the disembodied spirit. They have senses far keener than those of men. (A. C. 322.) They are organic substances, extended in relation to their own environment, even as men's bodies are extended in respect to the world in which they live. (A. C. 444.) And this is illustrated by the fact that the spirit or mind, while in the world, extends itself in the human body, and especially in the brain, which would not be needed if the spirit, with its interior senses, were mere thought apart from organic substance.

     The organic view of the mind and of the surviving spirit is basic to the whole doctrine of an after life, and in the memorable relations of the revelator we are given the imaginative basis and thought-ultimate for all our perceptions and ideas about the eternal life. To go beyond the outward appearances of the spiritual world, and into the actual understanding of its laws, is indeed necessary, lest we confuse these two worlds, which are so discretely and radically different in essence. But this penetration into the arcana of heaven is not accomplished by geometrical correlations or mechanical parallels alone, still less by piling up philosophical terms, but rather by studying the subtle, living relations of love and wisdom. And this may be done also by the simple, who often have a truer idea of heaven than have the learned.

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     RICHARD ROSCHMAN.

     AN OBITUARY.

     On February 17th, Mr. Richard Roschman, one of the oldest members of the Kitchener Society, passed into the other world at the age of eighty-two years less one month, after an illness of six days' duration. Always of an active disposition, he retained all his faculties until the end, and, with the exception of the last day of his life, refused to spend the entire day in bed.

     [Picture of MR. AND MRS. RICHARD ROSCHMAN.]

     Mr. Roschman was born at Ulm, an old fortified town on the banks of the Danube River in Germany. His parents were of the Lutheran faith, and their union was blessed with ten children,- five sons and five daughters. He learned the trade of gunsmith, and in his early youth spent some time working in Switzerland and France. He lived for a number of years in Paris, and became well acquainted with the French language and the French people. During the Franco-Prussian war, he acted as interpreter to the French prisoners confined in the fort at his home town of Ulm, and one of his duties consisted in reading and distributing the letters which came to them by mail.

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At the close of the war, being unable to endure the thought of further training under the Prussian military system, which had become distasteful to him, he decided to take "French leave "of his country and go to some foreign land. His almost miraculously providential leading to Canada, Kitchener (then Berlin), and the New Church, was told by himself in the pages of NEW CHURCH LIFE not many years ago (February, 1927, p. 83).

     There followed him to this country several years later, one at a time, his youngest brother Rudolf, and his two sisters, Minnie (Mrs. Charles Brown) and Miss Emma, each in turn thinking to set him straight as to this new religion with which he had been "taken in," but each in turn, after something of a struggle, being "taken in" by it themselves.

     Ever since coming to the New Church, Mr. Roschman has been a regular and devoted reader of the Writings. Rising early in the morning, before the rest of the family was astir, he always spent his quiet hour with the Writings, and in the last years of his life a great deal of his time was occupied in this manner.

     Although not well adapted to public speaking, being of a very modest disposition, his affectional remarks on occasion added themselves with benefit to many general gatherings of the church.

     By his family he will always be remembered as a just and loving father, by his business acquaintances as an honorable and courteous associate, and by the Church at large, and especially by the Society in Kitchener, as one of those who, by his earnest and loyal support, helped to see the church successfully through many of its earlier struggles.

     Since the passing of his beloved wife a year ago, his fondest desire has been that he might be permitted to join her soon, and he was heard to remark very shortly before his last illness that "Mother seemed very near to him of late." So I think we may safely conclude that, with his passing into the other world, his fondest desire and his greatest happiness has been fulfilled.
      FREDA ROSCHMAN STROH.

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EASTER THOUGHTS 1930

EASTER THOUGHTS       Editor       1930


NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office a Publication, Lancaster, Pa.
Published Monthly By
THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
BRYN ATHYN, PA.
Editor                    Rev. W. B. Caldwell, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager          Mr. H. Hyatt, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address and business communications should be sent to the Business Manager.

     TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
In the United States, $3.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single Copy, 30 cents.
     THE PASSION.

     The Gospel accounts of the Lord's humiliation at the hands of the ecclesiastical and civil powers of the time, His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and appearing to many-these are not only historical, but also representative, and the details are significative. For we read:

     "The Lord Himself, as the Greatest Prophet, represented the state of the church as to the Word. That He was betrayed by Judas, signified that He was betrayed by the Jewish nation, with which the Word then was; for Judas represented that nation. That He was taken and condemned by the chief priests and elders, signified that He was so treated by the whole Jewish Church. That they scourged Him, spat in His face, buffeted Him, and smote Him on the head with a reed, signified that they had done the like to the Word as to its Divine Truths, all of which treat of the Lord. That they put a crown of thorns upon Him, signified that they had falsified and adulterated those truths. That they divided His garments, and cast lots for His vesture (tunic), signified that they had dispersed all the truths of the Word, but not its spiritual sense, which His vesture signified. That they crucified Him, signified that they had destroyed and profaned the whole Word. That they offered Him vinegar to drink, signified things merely falsified and false; wherefore He did not drink it, and then said, 'It is finished.'

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That they pierced His side, signified that they had completely extinguished all the truth of the Word, and all its good. That He was buried, signified the rejection of the residue of the human from the mother. 'That He rose again the third day, signified glorification." (Doctrine of the Lord 166.)

     Because the Lord thus represented the state of the church as to the Word, therefore, "after He had been scourged and brought forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe put upon Him by the soldiers, He said, 'Behold the Man!' (John 19:1, 5). This He said because by 'man' (homirtem) is signified the church, thus the Word. From this it is evident that 'to bear iniquities' means to represent and effigy in one's self sins against the Divine Truths of the Word. But the Lord endured and suffered such things as the Son of man, and not as the Son of God; for 'the Son of man' signified the Lord as to the Word." (Ibid.)

     These acts of the Jews, whereby they violently rejected their God, were the judgment of their Church and the Divine triumph over the powers of hell. For in the humiliation of the human, even to its death, burial and dissipation, the Divine Human, all glorious and powerful to redeem and save forever, was put on and manifested to men. But the full revealing of this glory and power was of necessity postponed until the prophesied Second Coming. To the unprepared minds of the time our Lord said: "I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." And it was foreseen that the Christian Church, with deeper guilt because with fuller knowledge, would also reject its God, and this by defiling His Word through falsifications of faith and evils of life. This rejection, too, is pictured in the events of the passion; because they are not only historical, but also representative, their inner significance is for every age. Self-love hates the Divine Truth, the Divine Good, the Divine Innocence, and burns to violate and destroy them. So are we told that to break the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," means, in its supreme sense, to be "rashly angry with the Lord, to hold Him in hatred, and to want to blot out His name. Of such it is said that they crucify Him, which also they would do, in like manner as the Jews did, if He were to come again into the world as before." (T. C. R. 311.)

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     Today, because self-love reigns among men, such fires of hatred against the Lord smoulder beneath the formal survival of Christianity, also beneath the apparent indifference toward religion arising from naturalism and worldliness. This latter condition, indeed, keeps men in ignorance of spiritual things, and thus prevents their profaning the holy Truth in which the Lord has manifested Himself at His Second Advent. It is of Providence that "this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart " for what they do not know they cannot violate. (A. C. 3398. Yet the hidden fires of hatred against the Lord break forth with those bolder spirits who today are endeavoring to destroy all religion,-the so-called "intellectuals" who, in their dire conceit, are producing a voluminous literature and an organized propaganda of Atheism, and making a determined effort to abolish all faith in God, all reverence for the Word and the holy things of the Church, and all hope of eternal life-to crucify the Lord in the minds of men, and especially to banish Him from the hearts and minds of the young.

     THE GLORIFIED LORD.

     The real significance of the dark events of the Passion can be realized only by one who takes up his cross daily to follow the Lord in the way of His salvation,-the way of regeneration, the way of victory over evil in spiritual temptation, victory over the evil of self-love and its hatred against God and man,-receiving in its place the gift of good, the good of charity toward the neighbor and love to the Lord. To such among Christians the Lord can manifest His Divine Human in the spiritual sense of the Word now disclosed, wherein He comes again in Divine glory as the everlasting Redeemer and Savior, to be received in a new faith and a new life.

     The Lord, in this new Revelation, is now to be seen, known and acknowledged as He could not grant to Christians. They saw Him as He appeared in Person, ascribed Divinity to Him, and received the Gospel Doctrine as His Word, even to the founding of a Church in faith and life. "In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the God-head bodily" was the primitive faith. (T. C. R. 638.) In this way have the best of Christians acknowledged the Divinity of Christ.

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But the quality of such thought of the Lord is not purely spiritual, and so the Christian Church could not be a purely spiritual church. Its faith has largely been characterized by thought from Person to Essence, by a natural thought in which was something spiritual, in the degree of the perception and acknowledgment of the Lord's Divinity. And as the idea of God makes the inmost of the mind with all who have religion, forming the understanding and the will with them, and thus qualifying the whole life, so the charity of Christians, like their faith, has been a natural charity in which there was something spiritual in the degree of their enlightened thought of the Lord's Divinity. On this we read:

     "Man in the Christian world cannot be in the life of charity unless, when he thinks of the Lord, he thinks of His Divine. . . . Everyone who thinks of the Divine of the Lord when he is thinking of the Lord is in the life of charity, for the Lord leads him." (S. D. 5881.)

     A purely spiritual faith is now made possible by the light of the Heavenly Doctrine, wherein the Divine Essence is revealed to rational and intellectual comprehension. In this light men may now see the Lord spiritually, and think from His Essence concerning His Person, and also, in spiritual faith, acknowledge Him as God. (A. R. 611.) And from such a spiritual faith the man of the New Church may come into a spiritual charity which is superior to a natural charity wherein is something spiritual; for charity derives its quality from the truths of faith, when these are made of the heart and will by life. The man of the church then becomes an image and likeness of the Lord's Divine Human, of the Divine Trinity of Love, Wisdom and Use, and so fulfills the end and purpose of the Lord's revealing of Himself.

     "After the Lord had assumed the Natural Human, and this glorified had united to His Divine, and thus had conjoined in Himself the Divine Celestial, Divine Spiritual and Divine Natural into one, then by this He could conjoin Himself to man in the natural, yea, in his sensual, and at the same time to his spirit or mind in his rational, and so enlighten his natural lumen with celestial light." (Coronis 51:2.)

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     It is in the Divine Truth of the Heavenly Doctrine that the Lord has now revealed the glorified Human to the rational of man. There the Divine Essence is made manifest in the spiritual sense of the Word, even as the Divine Person was revealed in the Divine Truth of former Revelations. (Inv. 44.) "The Spirit of truth has now come to lead men into all truth, and to tell them plainly of the Father."

     The end and purpose of this Revelation is that God the Lord in His glorified Human may be seen and known, may be approached in faith and love, and thus be conjoined to man, and man to Him. By a reception of the Lord in the Divine Truth in which He has come,-reception in spiritual faith and spiritual love,-man becomes an image and likeness of the Divine Human, wherein Divine Good and Divine Truth are united. In the man of the church these are conjoined by a process which is an image of the process of the Lord's glorification. To this end, all the wonders of the Divine Order in both the glorification and regeneration are now manifested to rational thought in the Heavenly Doctrine, and there confirmed by interior natural truths concerning the processes of renewal and purification in nature and the human body.

     If the study of such revealed truths be merely an indulgence of curiosity springing from the love of knowing, or as gratifying to the intellect and its conceit of intelligence, they never fulfill their real purpose in man, never penetrate to that interior amendment of life which is brought about by the regenerative process, which follows a like order to that by which the Lord glorified His Human. It is by suffering the Lord to regenerate him, by learning and living the truths revealed, that he "takes up his cross daily to follow the Lord," and so receives the joys of salvation from Him, and in the world to come eternal life.
NOTES AND REVIEWS. 1930

NOTES AND REVIEWS.              1930

     HEARING WITHOUT SIGHT.

     The telephone and the radio are undoubtedly cultivating a keenness of the auditory sense, with an accompanying imaginative of sight which should some day be superseded by television.

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For who does not picture, even vaguely, a face to go with the voice of the unseen speaker? And do we not detect something of personal character, quality and state in the tone and inflection of the voice, as well as in the things said? In so doing we approximate in a measure the conditions in the spiritual world, of which we read: "Because the ruling affection or love is in everything of a man, the wiser angels, because they perceive this, know all the state of a spirit from his speech. I have heard the angels disclosing the life of another merely from hearing him speak." (H. H. 236.)
THREE SWEDENBORG LETTERS. 1930

THREE SWEDENBORG LETTERS.              1930

     In the March issue we spoke of three letters by Emanuel Swedenborg which have recently been brought to light, namely, a letter to Dr. Messiter, dated London, August 5th, 1759, and two letters to Bishop Menander dated, respectively, July 20, 1770, and July 6, 1771. We offered some comments upon the letter to Dr. Messiter, which was printed in that number, and will now speak of the two letters to Bishop Menander, which appear in the present issue.

     The two letters from Swedenborg to Bishop Menander were found in the Public Library in Leningrad, where they are preserved among the papers of Count Suchtelin. The latter, who died in 1836, was Russian Ambassador to Sweden for over a quarter of a century, and was a noted collector of books and manuscripts. Both letters are noted in the Swedish periodical, Ur Dagens Kronika, Stockholm, 1887, pages 17-18, in the course of an article written by the editor, who was then On a visit to St. Petersburg, and who discovered these documents in his examination of Count Suchtelin's collection of manuscripts, then preserved in the archives of the Russian Foreign Office. The first letter, with the exception of one or two words which he could not decipher, was transcribed by the editor and printed as a part of his article. But, being unable to decipher the second letter, he printed only a few words from its opening paragraph. Both letters are in Swedish, and are written in very fine handwriting which is extremely hard to read.

     The first, dated July 20, 1770, is almost word for word the same as several other letters written by Swedenborg at the same time to the Universities of Upsala, Lund, and Abo, and to the Chancellor of Justice, Baron Rosir, in connection with the Gothenburg Trial.

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It is translated in 2 Documents Concerning Swedenborg, 380-81.

     The second letter, dated July 6, 1771, has hitherto been entirely unknown, and it supplies us with some interesting particulars as to the publication of the True Christian Religion, and as to Swedenborg's view of the attack made upon his writings by the celebrated German theologian Ernesti.

     Photostats of these two letters are in the library of the Academy of the New Church.

     SWEDENBORG'S LETTER TO OETINGER.

     While writing on this subject, we may be pardoned if we again revert to Dr. Waller's collection, to note one document contained therein which has an interesting history. We refer to the letter from Swedenborg to Oetinger, dated November 8, 1768, a translation of which is given in 2 Documents Concerning Swedenborg, 268-69.

     In 1733, this letter was in the possession of Professor Veesenmeyer in Ulm, who allowed Dr. J. Fr. Im. Tafel to print a copy of it in his Swedenborg Documents. After the death of Professor Veesenmeyer, the letter could not be found, and its whereabouts was unknown in 1877 when Dr. R. L. Tafel published his Documents Concerning Swedenborg. About 1884, it was discovered among the MS collection belonging to Mr. Gunther, a candy manufacturer of Chicago, who kindly permitted Mr. John Forrest, of the Immanuel Church, to take a photograph of it for the Academy of the New Church. At Mr. Gunther's death some years ago, it was reported that his manuscripts had been sold to the Chicago Historical Society, but inquiries addressed to officials of that institution failed to locate the letter. They, however, informed the writer that part of the manuscripts had been sent to the American Art Association, of New York, for disposal by auction. Inquiries at the American Art Association showed that the manuscripts so sent had already been sold, but the Secretary of the Association kindly furnished the writer with the addresses of all purchasers of items which might possibly include the missing document. Letters were addressed to these purchasers, and this on the day prior to the writer's departure for Europe, but with no result.

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One can well imagine, therefore, the delight which was felt when Dr. Waller's documents were received in December of the same year, and among them the much traveled and long sought-for letter to Oetinger.
     A. A.

     THE LETTER TO DR. MESSITER.

     At the end of Swedenborg's letter to Dr. Messiter, published in the March issue (p. 131), we appended as a Note the following subscript which we suppose to be in the handwriting of Mrs. Messiter: This letter was addressed to Dr. Husband Messiter at Broomhouse, Fulham. The superscription I gave to my friend Cromek.

     Our investigations now lead us to surmise that the "Cromek" here mentioned may be Robert Hartley Cromek (1770-1810), an engraver of some note who had many dealings with William Blake. Dr. Messiter died in 1785, when Cromek was only fifteen years old. When Mrs. Messiter died is not known to us, but if Mr. R. H. Cromek is the one referred to in the subscript, she must have given him the envelope with Swedenborg's writing on it between 1785 and 1810. Cromek was interested in the collection of literary remains, and it would seem that he asked for the envelope in question as an addition to his literary collection.
     A. A.
"THE WEDDING GARMENT" IN FRENCH. 1930

"THE WEDDING GARMENT" IN FRENCH.              1930

     LE MESSAGER DE LA NOUVELLE EGLISE (Geneva), monthly journal of the French Federation, has begun in its January number the serial publication of a French translation of The Wedding Garment, under the title "La Robe de Noces," prefaced by the following announcement:

     "We begin with the present number of LE MESSAGER the publication of the work of Mr. Louis Pendleton entitled The Wedding Garment, a work which has had a great success and circulation in English (un grand succes de librairie en anglais), and which has been translated into many languages. In the form of a romance, it describes for us in an attractive manner the survival and evolution of the soul in the hereafter."

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Church News 1930

Church News       Various       1930

     DENVER, COLORADO.

     Looking back over the period that has elapsed since our last news report, we find little deviation from our usual course. Our readers, however, may be interested in a resume of it. First, there was the annual meeting, with its review of the previous year's activities, the recital of which always gives us the feeling that something has been accomplished. This year, the feeling was augmented somewhat by the fact that the review showed improvement in some respects over the previous year. To mention three things: there had been more social life; the general maintenance expenses had increased, but there was no deficit to speak of; we were the richer by a building fund of one hundred dollars. The feeling of having accomplished something is important to us. Being a small society, and feeling the need for growth, we dwell for the most part under a cloud of frustration. We would like to grow, but we do not seem to be able to. The annual meeting was notable in another respect, that for the first time since its inception the society, in annual meeting assembled, was unable to elect Mr. G. W. Tyler to the office of Secretary, as he had removed to Bryn Athyn, where he has since departed from this world. A resolution of appreciation for his long services was passed, and forwarded to him. The new Secretary is Mr. O. A. Bergstrom.

     We have had three occasions for the entertainment of the children,-a Hallowe'en party, the Christmas Festival, and Swedenborg's Birthday party. In connection with the Christmas Festival, we noted a revival of interest in the representation. It was very well prepared under the capable hands of Mr. Jack Lindrooth, as heretofore. We suspect that the revival might be attributed to the fact that it was located in another place,-on the opposite side of the chancel. The children received gifts as usual.

     The Christmas season was a happy one. The weather was ideal, and there was no sickness among our members. The commemoration of the Advent in the sermons was carried over three Sundays, namely, the two Sundays preceding December 25th, and the Sunday following. On the day itself there was a devotional service, with the administration of the Holy Supper. In lieu of a sermon, the Pastor read extracts from the Doctrine of the Lord.

     On New Year's Eve there was social at which we indulged in our usual pastime of cards and conversation until 11 o'clock. Then followed refreshments and more conversation until 11.40, when we had a twenty-minute service with a twelve-minute address, the whole timed so that we concluded with the Lord's Prayer at the stroke of midnight. Afterwards there was the exchange of New Year's wishes, and toasts to the Church and to the Society.

     Having been informed of the passing of Mr. G. W. Tyler on January 15th, a memorial meeting was held on the Sunday evening following his death. The meeting was opened with prayer and readings from the Writings, after which the Pastor and others spoke in tribute to him.

     In commemoration of Swedenborg's Birthday, the Pastor gave a sketch of the Revelator's life to the children in Sunday School, and announced that, at the children's party, he would question them on things mentioned in the address, and that prizes would be awarded those able to answer the most questions correctly. This was done at the supper table, and the results were most gratifying. Only two points in the whole address were not remembered, and the largest part was remembered by almost everyone.

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     The adult celebration of Swedenborg's Birthday took place on Sunday evening, January 26th, with supper and speeches. Mr. O. A. Bergstrom presented an outline of Swedenborg's activities, calling our attention especially to the difficulties of printing in those days. It is evident that the labors involved in publishing his works must have occupied considerable of Swedenborg's time. The Pastor then spoke at length on points disclosed and explained in Dr. Acton's Introduction to the Word Explained, treating of Swedenborg's preparation. The writer of these notes would here express his appreciation of that book, not only for the subject matter, but also for its great use in making Swedenborg's Birthday celebrations new and interesting.

     In the Ladies Society we have not planned any regular course of study this year, but instead the Pastor has given lectures on such subjects as "Infants in the Other Life," "The Laws of Presence in the Spiritual World," and "The Resurrection." To judge by the extended discussion of these topics they proved very acceptable.

     A recent improvement in our Chapel property is the installation of natural-gas heating units to replace the coal stoves, making a little more space available, besides improving the appearance and having other advantages.

     We have tried to convey in the above notes that we have had some happy and useful times thus far in the progress of the year. As we like to have a reason for all things, we attribute them to the auspicious beginning which the much-appreciated visit of the Rev. and Mrs. F. E. Waelchli provided; and, of course, we know that ultimately they are of the Lord's good Providence. One thing that we have regretted is the absence of our dear and staunch friend, Mrs. Howland, whose health compelled her to seek a less rigorous climate in Los Angeles, California.
     HENRY HEINRICHS.

     GEORGE WILSON TYLER.

     AN OBITUARY.

     The passing of Mr. Tyler into the spiritual world at Philadelphia on January 15th, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, marked the close of a life of signal devotion to the cause of the New Church.

     Born August 11th, 1866, he and his mother, Mrs. Sylvia E. Tyler, came to Denver from Minnesota in the year 1877. Here the family was brought into touch with the New Church Society under the pastorate of the Rev. Richard de Charms, Jr., at whose hands the mother and five children received baptism into the New Church. Mr. Tyler was the only one of the five who at maturity maintained any affiliation with the New Church, and he was evidently a ready subject for Mr. de Charms' strongly distinctive instruction.

     When the division of the church in Denver occurred in the year 1888, he and his mother were among those who took their place on the side of the Divine Authority of the Writings and the other Academy doctrines. A young man of twenty-two, he was at that time elected to the office of secretary of the new society, which position he held until within nine months of his death, when he left Denver to sojourn with his daughters, Mrs. Ariel Gunther and Mrs. Robert Synnestvedt, in Bryn Athyn. In him, more than in any other person, has the continuity of this society been vested. When, at various times, the society found itself without a pastor, he it was who conducted the services at the request of the members and by appointment. Under similar circumstances he officiated at funerals.

     Beginning in 1896, he was both secretary and treasurer for some years, and also acted as agent for the Academy Book Room. In this latter capacity he was in regular communication with the manager of the Book Room, providing a link with the center of the Church which no doubt had its part in the destiny which led him ultimately into affiliation with the General Church.

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In a letter to Mr. Carl Hj. Asplundh, manager at the Book Room during the trying period which preceded the organization of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, Mr. Tyler said: "I hope I find myself in harmony with the new movement." This hope was fulfilled, for he was of the same spirit that animated the Academy from its inception, possessing that independence of thought, and at the same time that humility which was the soul of the perception of the Divine Authority of the Writings, as also of the loyalty which was given to the Priesthood in the Academy. He had that quiet forcefulness which is the strength of the Church, inrooted, as it is, in a rational faith.

     A humble, retiring man, he yet was called upon to lead in the affairs of the Church. His voice was sought and heard at all banquets; and in the periods of obscurity which attend the changes of state that lead to new developments, his voice had the true sound of a defined faith. Of worldly learning he possessed little, but in the rational truth of the Writings he was a learned man. From his first acquaintance with the Heavenly Doctrines, and even to the end of his life, he was a constant reader of the Writings. Of the vicissitudes of this life he had his share and more, but never did they master him. His faith, sustained by reading, was his strength, and to those who were acquainted with him, and saw him bear his afflictions, he was an example of the power of the teachings of the New Church to comfort, sustain, and conquer.

     A veteran and a victor in the spiritual and natural battles of the Church in this world, he will add no little strength to the cause of the Church in the other world, where also he will enter into the reward of his tried love and wisdom. And no little joy will it be for him to rejoin his wife, who preceded him there by four years; and he will also rejoice to meet his first and beloved Pastor, the Rev. Richard de Charms.
     HENRY HEINRICHS.

     MRS. JAMES M. COOPER.

     AN OBITUARY.

     Long a resident of Bryn Athyn, an ardent New Church woman, well known and endeared to us during her eighteen years as hostess of The Inn, Mrs. Cooper, nee Mary Amity Grant, passed into the spiritual world on January 4th in her eightieth year. Her husband, James Madison Cooper, to whom she was married in 1870, preceded her to the other world in February, 1925.

     Before coming to Bryn Athyn, Mr. and Mrs. Cooper were active members of the church in Middleport, Ohio, where their children were early brought under the instruction of the Rev. Richard de Charms, Jr., and three of them,-Dr. George M. Cooper, Mrs. Charles E. Doering and Mrs. Ernest A. Farrington,-were sent to Philadelphia to receive their education in the Academy Schools. Mrs. Cooper was a granddaughter of the Rev. J. M. Hibbard, a pioneer New Churchman in southern Ohio, uncle of the Rev. John Randolph Hibbard, a Charter Member of the Academy of the New Church. The members of the Grant family were among those who formed the nucleus of the Middleport Society, laboring devotedly toward its establishment.

     WASHINGTON, D. C.

     Our little circle hasn't enough social life to come into print very often, but the secretary did slip up on an important fall event, namely, the wedding of Mr. Winfred S. Hyatt and Miss Margaret M. Stebbing, which took place on November 27, 1929, in the hall where we have been holding our church services for the past year and a half, the Rev. Alfred Acton officiating. The hall was attractively decorated with greens and flowers, and there were about forty people present. The bride was dressed in a lovely King's blue velvet dress with a gold lace hat, and wore a corsage of gardenias. Those who came from Bryn Athyn for the event were: Mrs. Mary L. Hyatt, Mrs. Alfred Acton, Mrs. Hubert Synnestvedt, Mr. Ernest Stebbing, Miss Lois Stebbing, Miss Emily Boatman, and Miss Xandree Hyatt.

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     We have had our usual share of illness this winter, which cut down attendance at meetings to a great degree. Capt. Robert Coe has been ill for some time, and Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Schott have been confined to their home in Laurel, Md. Most of us have been driving the twenty miles out there for our Saturday evening classes.

     We very much appreciate having our pastor, Dr. Alfred Acton, with us again this year, and look forward each month to his enlightening talks on the subjects we are all most interested in. His splendid delivery without any notes for his sermons brings us into a strong sphere of the Lord as he talks to us.          
     E. H. G.

     REPORT OF THE VISITING PASTOR.

     On the return journey from the Bryn Athyn meetings, a visit was made at MIDDLEPORT, OHIO, beginning Thursday, February 13th. A doctrinal class was held that evening, at which the subject treated was that man must act according to the appearance that he leads and teaches himself, but at the same time must be in the acknowledgment that he is led and taught by the Lord alone. (D. P. 154.) The next evening there was another class, when the teaching was presented that all creation is effected by the Lord as the Word. On Saturday afternoon instruction was given to five children, and on Sunday morning a service was held. In the evening we had another class, considering the doctrine that "heresies can be drawn from the sense of the letter of the Word, but it is hurtful to confirm them." (S. S. 91.) All the meetings were held at the church. Due to the fact that some members are in the South for the winter, and also owing to bad roads at this season, the attendance was smaller than usual. At class there were eight, five, and six, respectively; at the service there were ten, of whom seven partook of the Holy Supper.
     F. E. WAELCHLI.

     THE CHURCH AT LARGE.

     A London Celebration.

     The Swedenborg Society (Inc.) arranged for a celebration of Swedenborg's Birthday on January 29th, 1930, in the Conway Halls, Red Lion Square, London, and there was an attendance of over 300 members and friends of the Society. The speakers of the evening were David Wynter, Esq., as President, Miss A. B. McDowall, and the Revs. H. Gordon Drummond and Victor J. Gladish. The program also included musical numbers and tableaux. A collection was taken on behalf of the Swedenborg House Fund, which still requires about L1,000 in order to extinguish the debt on the new premises.

     A New Historical Society

     We learn from rice Helper of March 5, 1930, that a new organization, to be known as the Swedenborg Historical Society, was formed on December 18, 1929, in the Parish House of the First Philadelphia Church of the New Jerusalem. To quote:

     "It is the outgrowth of a series of notable celebrations of Swedenborg's birthday by the Frankford (Philadelphia) Church of the New Jerusalem during the years 1919 to 1925 inclusive. The organizers of the Swedenborg Historical Society are members of both of the two Philadelphia congregations, but its membership is open to any citizens. Its purpose is to keep before the public the achievements of Swedenborg as a scientist and philosopher as well as a theologian, and to collect and present data about his life and times which may be of historical interest. Miss Edna R. Worrell, of the editorial staff of the Ladies' Home Journal, Philadelphia, is the President.

     "On Wednesday evening, January 29, 1930 (the 242d birthday anniversary of the great revelator), the Society presented a very beautiful program in recognition of the day. Judge Allen M. Stearne presided, and Mrs. Wm. E. Rees, soprano, sang several numbers, with Mr. Rollo F. Maitland at the piano. Rev. John W. Stockwell reviewed briefly the origin of the Society.

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Dr. Leonard I. Tafel had written an historical sketch to be illustrated with tableaux. This was read by the Rev. Charles W. Harvey and directed by Miss Worrell. There were 12 tableaux, as follows: A Dream of New Sweden; Return of Charles XII of Sweden; The Boy Swedenborg Entrusted to Benzelius; Swedenborg the Student; Linnaeus Introducing Swedenborg to the Royal Academy; Swedenborg with the Sciences; Swedenborg Ennobled by Queen Ulrica Eleonora; Swedenborg with the Angels; Swedenborg Shows a Child an Angel; Swedenborg's Servants Pledging Their Loyalty; Auction of Glen's Swedenborg Books at Bell's Book Store, 3d below Walnut Street, Philadelphia, 1784,-the Commencement of the New Church in America; Finale. The character of Swedenborg was represented by Mr. E. H. Alden."

     Christmas Festival in Berlin.

     The New-Church Messenger of February 5, 1930, gives an account of a Christmas celebration in the New Church Society at Berlin, Germany, the program including tableaux of exceptional interest. To quote:

     "Word comes from the Rev. Erich L. G. Reissner, of Berlin, describing the 1929 Christmas festival at the Schubertsaal, which was one of the most successful in the Society's history and had an attendance of almost 350 people. Besides solos and recitations, there was presented a series of pictures or tableaux called "The Path of Light." The first picture showed the Manger with the Shepherds and the Wise Men. During this, the Words telling of 'the light which shineth in the darkness' were read. The second picture showed 'the cleaving of the light.' A Papist read part of the Athanasian Creed in Latin, surrounded by a group, all in costumes of the sixteenth century, telling their beads. On the other side of the stage, a character representing Luther quoted some of the great reformer's words concerning the inviolability of the Scriptures. The third picture was a scene from the spiritual world showing 'the flickering light.' True Christian Religion, n. 693, was the source from which Mr. Reissner had gathered the text for this tableau, which represented three wise men, two newcomers from the earth, a priest, a statesman, and a philosopher giving their views of the life after death. The scene closed with the words of the wise man complaining of the ignorance and folly on earth. It made a deep impression upon the audience. The actors were all young men from Mr. Reissner's study class. The fourth picture was called 'The New Light,' the text being taken from the True Christian Religion, n. 508. As the curtain rose, one saw Swedenborg sitting at his table, writing. A little girl in white brought a paper to the desk with the words 'Nunc licet.' While Swedenborg kept on writing and thinking aloud, five angels came on the stage bearing the Word with the inscription, 'Jesus-Jehovah.' After they had grouped, the other characters came slowly in and knelt before the opened Word. An effort was made to obtain photographs of these scenes, and The Messenger hopes to be able to publish these when they are available."

     GLENVIEW, ILL.

     Our celebration of Swedenborg's Birthday took place on January 29th. At the conclusion of the banquet supper, our Pastor delivered an address on "The Tremendous Significance of Swedenborg's Illumination," in which he dwelt upon the fact that its significance is so great to New Church people that our attitude toward it will determine the future, and its acceptance by people who are looking toward the New Church will amount to a complete revaluation of all things of life. Others had been invited to speak upon any subject connected with Swedenborg and the New Church, and several availed themselves of this opportunity, The Rev. Norman Reuter spoke enthusiastically for New Church Education, and showed the need of revised material and texts.

     The January meeting of the local chapter of the Sons of the Academy had the record attendance of forty-seven men, and these gatherings have a larger attendance of men than any other. The luncheon this time was served by the young men who cooked bacon and eggs on the brand new gas range in our recently refitted kitchen.

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If you have ever seen farm hands at a harvest dinner, you will know how we appreciated the repast. After the meal, Mr. William H. Junge presented a well-prepared paper dealing with various uses which might be undertaken by individual members of the Sons.

     The February meeting of the Sons was held in Sharon Church, Chicago, whose members belong to the Glenview Chapter. After a bountiful supper, served by the ladies of Sharon Church, the Revs. Gilbert H. Smith and Norman Reuter gave brief accounts of the recent Council Meetings which they had attended in Bryn Athyn. The Rev. W. L. Gladish then read a paper on "The Sixth Day," which Miss Louise Gladish had delivered at the recent meetings in Bryn Athyn. This we heard and discussed with much earnestness.

     Continued interest is being shown in the class in Public Speaking, which meets each Wednesday at Glenview under the direction of a Professor of Northwestern University. The subject prepared for the last meeting was "The Distinctiveness of the New Church," and the speakers applied this theme to the various contacts of the Church with the world, in the field of business, social life, etc. Much study and research and careful preparation were evidenced by the speakers, and the professor, who is not a New Churchman, not only praised the mechanical skill displayed, but was also very manifestly interested in the subject, and doubtless absorbed plenty of good New Church doctrine.

     Our Park Commissioners called out all the forces on Sundays, February 24th and March 9th, which proved to be unusually beautiful days for work in The Park. Over thirty men and boys labored faithfully until sundown, with evident results. The experienced young men did the fine work in the swaying treetops, while the heavier and less skilled worked on the ground, sawing, chopping and gathering brush. The next improvement is to be a sandy beach on the shore of the lake, with fresh water piped into it.
     J. B. S.

     PITTSBURGH, PA.

     Community Building Five.

     The Society is much shocked and grieved by the fire in the practically completed Community Building on Le Roi Road, early Wednesday morning, February 19th. The damage has not yet been estimated, but it is hoped that the building is fully covered by insurance, although this will not compensate for the loss of time. We had counted on opening school there March 1st, and holding services in the Community Hall early in March. The school is continuing in the rooms of the Homewood Realty Company, and services are still being held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. A. P. Lindsay. The Sunday afternoon services, of course, have been discontinued for the present.

     Four of the firemen were hurt fighting the fire, and are still in the hospital. Three of them will be discharged shortly, but one man will be in the hospital for many more weeks. He was trapped on the third floor when the ceiling fell, and only Mr. A. P. Lindsay's efforts in rescuing him saved his life. He suffered severe burns and cuts about the face and head, as well as body bruises. Mr. Iungerich and members of the Society have called upon the injured men.

     Work is progressing nicely on the Church, but the insurance adjusters have not permitted any work to be done on the Community Building as yet.

     The sudden death of Miss Agnes Pitcairn, on March 4th, in St. Petersburg, Florida, where she was spending the winter, was a shock to all of us. Mr. Iungerich conducted the services at her home on Stratford Avenue on March 8th. Interment followed at the Allegheny Cemetery.

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Miss Pitcairn was a staunch supporter of the church, and weathered the many vicissitudes of the Pittsburgh Society.     

     A number of the Pittsburgh Society and district have visited in St. Petersburg this winter,-Mrs. D. E. Horigan, Miss Madeline Horigan and Master Daniel Horigan (eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Horigan), Miss Janet Richey, and Mr. and Mrs. Sharp. We understand that there is quite a New Church circle there, including friends from Glenview, Bryn Athyn and Pittsburgh, and that services and doctrinal classes are held regularly.

     The school children celebrated Washington's Birthday by a party at the home of Mr. and Mrs. G. P. Brown. This was a pleasant occasion and was much enjoyed.

     Mr. and Mrs. D. P. Lindsay are to be congratulated on the birth of a son on February 11th.

     The Society welcomed Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert M. Smith and their daughter Miriam, of Reading and Bryn Athyn, who have recently moved to Pittsburgh.

     Our sympathy is extended to Mrs. Charles McElroy (nee Edna Renkenberger), of Youngstown, Ohio, on the passing of her husband to the spiritual world on February 22d. Mr. Iungerich, Mr. and Mrs. G. P. Brown, and Miss Barbara Rhodes attended the services in Youngstown.

     There have been a number of visitors during the month. Mrs. Frank Barry, of Glenview, and two of her children spent several weeks with her aunt, Miss Katherine Norris. Mr. Harold and Mr. Donald Lindsay visited their parents. Mr. Donald Lindsay is showing gratifying recovery from the injury shortly before Christmas to his left hand which caused the loss of several fingers. Mrs. Daric Acton and her son Gareth are spending several weeks with their family here.
     E. R. D.

     DURBAN, NATAL.

     A bulky issue of The South African New Church Open Letter for December, 1929, is called the "Assembly Number," its pages being devoted chiefly to a report of the Banquet held during the First South African Assembly of the General Church, on September 14th, 1929, Mr. J. H. Ridgway being toastmaster. The addresses given on that occasion are printed in full, and dealt with the following subjects: "Our Relations to the General Church," by Mr. T. H. Ridgway; "The Priesthood," by the Rev. Theodore Pitcairn; "The Academy," by the Rev E C Acton; "New Church Mothers-Womanhood," by Mr. R. M. Ridgway; "The Native Missions," by the Rev. F. W. Elphick; and "Other Societies and Our Visitors," by Mr. E. J. Waters. "The Bishop wound up the memorable banquet with an address which touched us all in its characteristic affectionate appeal and prophecy. Being unwritten, and beyond the skill of our notists, we regret our inability to reproduce a veritable masterpiece."

     This number of the Open Letter also gives an account of the wedding of Mr. Louis Levine and Miss Enid Cockerell, and contains extensive news notes of South African activities, closing with a list of those who attended the Assembly.

     TORONTO, CANADA.

     Swedenborg's Birthday falling this year on Wednesday,-the night of our weekly supper and doctrinal class,-we made it the occasion of a celebration of this important event in New Church history, and, we believe, in the world, as the full significance and import of Swedenborg as a world figure comes to its just recognition.

     After supper we opened with the singing of "Our Glorious Church," followed immediately by the Pastor's introductory remarks on the importance and need of celebrating this event, connected, as it is, with the Second Coming of the Lord, and leading up to it. The following interesting contributions were made by the speakers mentioned: "The Pre-Intromission Period in Swedenborg's Life," by Mr. R. S. Anderson; "List of Spiritual Gifts received by Swedenborg during his Intromission Period," by the Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal; "Swedenborg's Preparation for his Mission as Revelator," by Mr. E. Craigie; "Two Memorials by Swedenborg to the Swedish Diet," by Mr. A. Sargeant. These were: (1) Memorial in 1755, chiefly respecting the Liquor Traffic in Sweden (Documents I, p. 493); (2) Memorial upon reading a book by Nordencrantz (Documents I, p. 511).

     The reading of the last mentioned Memorial gave the writer of these notes unalloyed pleasure, on account of the breadth of mind it displayed, its depth of charity and good-will, and, not least, the penetrating quality of its analysis of human nature.

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Coming, as this Memorial does, from the evening of life's experience, when Swedenborg was seventy-three years of age, it is a pronouncement worthy alike of its maker and the cause he was espousing at the time. It has seemed difficult at times to compile a Swedenborg's Birthday program containing the elements of freshness and things new; yet it has been our experience that there has always been something of worth while interest in these celebrations, and this year's was no exception. The Pastor also provided the connective commentary between the various contributions, thus making a continuous narrative of the whole.

     Social events during the period under review have been: A Sale of Work at the home of Mrs. C. Ray Brown on February 4th, when a substantial sum of money was raised for the uses of the Ladies' Circle; a St. Valentine's Day Social, February 14th, with Mr. Alec Craigie as Master of Ceremonies; the monthly social far Day School and Sunday School pupils twelve years of age and under, on February 28th; and that for our children and young people over twelve and under the "grown-up" age, on March 14th; all of which in their several spheres were much enjoyed and appreciated by the participants.

     On February 12th we had the pleasure of listening to instructive and interesting reports of the Annual Council Meetings in Bryn Athyn, given by our Pastor and Miss Dora Brown, our Day School teacher. And so we are looking forward with considerable anticipation to the appearance of some of the papers in print.

     The regular quarterly business meeting of the Society was held on March 12th, when a full agenda of business consisting of reports and matters of immediate and future interest were dealt with and arranged for. The attendance at this meeting was good, and the Pastor took occasion to stress the importance and desirability of such attendance on the part of all who can possibly come, as this is always favorably reflected in the life and activities of the Society.

     Richard Roschman.

     In common with our friends and brothers of Carmel Church, Kitchener, we have to record the passing of a New Churchman who was held in the greatest respect and affection by all members of both societies, and indeed of the whole of the Ontario District, with whom he was actively associated during the whole of his life-time since coming to Canada, fifty-nine years ago. We refer to the late Richard Roschman. One of the outstanding characteristics of our friend and brother was a uniform and consistent geniality, which always impressed us as being the embodiment and expression of a contentment that had its roots firmly embedded in an abiding faith in the "True Christian Religion." It would be difficult to imagined more consistent, loyal and devoted follower and supporter of the Church than Mr. Roschman. He was always to be found at our Local and District Assemblies, and was a frequent visitor in Toronto.

     At our doctrinal class on February 19th, suitable and sympathetic references were made by the Pastor and Mr. Frank Wilson, and on February 20th by Messrs. E. Craigie and F. R. Longstaff at the meeting of the Forward Club. Resolutions expressive of our respect for Mr. Roschman and sympathy for his family were passed at both meetings by a silent standing vote.     
     F. W.

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     SIGHT AND HEARING.

     "There are two senses given to man which serve as means of receiving the things whereby the rational is formed, and also the things by which man is reformed. These are the-sense of sight and the sense of hearing. The remaining senses are for other uses. Those things which enter by the sense of sight enter into man's understanding and enlighten it; wherefore, by 'sight' is signified the enlightened understanding; for the understanding corresponds to the sight of the eye, as the light of heaven corresponds to the light of the world. But those things which enter by the sense of hearing enter into the understanding and at the same time into the will; wherefore, by 'hearing' is signified perception and obedience. Hence it is customary in human languages to speak of hearing and hearkening to anyone, to signify perceiving and obeying. This has flowed down into human languages from the spiritual world, where man's spirit is. The origin of this in the spiritual world will also be told. "Those who are in the province of the ear are obediences from perception. And the province of the ear is in the axis of heaven; into it, therefore, or into those who are there, the whole spiritual world flows, with the perception that thus it is to be done; for this is the reigning perception in heaven. From this it is that those who are in that province are obediences from perception.

     "That the things which enter by hearing enter immediately through the understanding into the will, may be further illustrated by the instruction of the angels of the celestial kingdom, who are the wisest. They receive all their wisdom by hearing, and not by sight; for whatever they hear about Divine things, they receive in the will from veneration and love, and make it of their life; and because they receive these things immediately in the life, and not previously in the memory, those angels do not talk about the things of faith, but when these are stated by others they respond, 'Yea, yea,' or 'Nay, nay, according to the Lord's words in Matthew (5: 37).

     "From all these things it is evident that hearing has been given to man chiefly for the reception of wisdom, but sight for the reception of intelligence. Wisdom is to perceive, to will, and to do; intelligence is to know and perceive." (A. E. 14.)

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FOURTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1930

FOURTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY              1930




     Announcements.




     By invitation of the Bryn Athyn Church, the Fourteenth General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held at Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 13th to 19th, 1930. All members and friends of the General Church are cordially invited to attend, and those expecting to do so are requested to notify Mr. Loyal D. Odhner, Bryn Athyn, Pa., at the earliest possible time, in order that proper accommodations for housing may be made. Meals will be served on the restaurant plan throughout the Assembly, commencing with breakfast, June 13th. Further details about the arrangements will be published in the May issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE.

     PROGRAM OF MEETINGS.

Friday, June 13.
     10.00 a.m. Commencement Exercises of the Academy Schools.
     3.00 p.m. Open Meeting of the Corporation and Faculties of the Academy of the New Church.

Friday, June 13.
     8.0 p.m. Assembly Reception.

Saturday, June 14.
     10.00 a.m. Opening Session of the General Assembly. Address by the Bishop of the General Church.
     3.00 p.m. Academy Finance Association.
     8.00 p.m. Pageant.

Sunday, June 15.
     11.00 a.m. Divine Worship.
     8.00 p.m. Evening Service.

Monday, June 16.
     10.00 a.m. Second Session.
     11.00 a.m. Address.
     8.00 p.m. Third Session. Addresses.

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Tuesday, June 17.
     10.00 a.m. Fourth Session.
     11.00 a.m. Address.
     3.00 p.m. Meeting of the Corporation of the General Church.
               Meeting of Theta Alpha.
     8.00 p.m. Fifth Session. Address.

Wednesday, June 18.
     10.00 a.m. Sixth Session.
     11.00 a.m. Address.
     1.00 p.m. Theta Alpha Luncheon.
     1.00 p.m. Sons of the Academy Luncheon.
     2.30 p.m. Sons of the Academy, Annual Meeting.
     8.00 p.m. Seventh Session. Address.

Thursday, June 19.
     11.00 a.m. Divine Worship. The Holy Supper.
     3.00 p.m. Informal Concert.
     7.00 p.m. Assembly Banquet.

     A more detailed program will be published in the May issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE.

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GOD IN ONE PERSON 1930

GOD IN ONE PERSON       Rev. T. S. HARRIS       1930


NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. L           MAY, 1930           No. 5
     It is of great importance that we think of God, and speak of Him, as One Divine Being, and not as several coequal personalities. There is an influx from the Divine into the souls of all human beings, that there is a God and that He is One; and injury is done to this Divine influx into the soul if the mind entertains the idea of several coequal Divine Persons while thinking about God.

     The dogma of a tripersonal God was formulated by the early Christians as a protection against the heresy which denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ. Arius taught that God is but One Person, and that therefore Jesus Christ could not be a Divine Being. Athanasius contended that the One God consisted of three Persons,-Father, Son and Holy Spirit,-and thereby provided an asylum for those Christians who desired to believe in the Divinity of Jesus Christ. It was of the Divine Providence that such an asylum was furnished the Christians of those days, for without this refuge the Church would have perished then, through the denial of the Lord's Divinity. It is evident that to deny the Divinity of Christ is more harmful to the Church in man than to believe in a tripersonal Deity.

     These two conflicting ideas concerning the Unity of God, which began about 300 A.D., still exist in the Christian World, and are now distinguished from each other by the names Unitarian and Trinitarian. But the Lord, by His Second Advent, has provided an asylum, a refuge, a retreat from both the Arian heresy and the Athanasian error. Now it is no longer necessary to believe in a tripersonal God to escape denying the Divinity of Jesus Christ.

     The Heavenly Doctrine relative to the Divine Trinity reveals most clearly that God is One Person only, and that this Divine Person is Jesus Christ the Lord.

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     But this New Church doctrine regarding the Divine Trinity is strenuously rejected by both Unitarians and Trinitarians, although its reception seems to be the only means whereby they can become reconciled on this subject. Unitarians contend for the Unity of God, while Trinitarians contend for the Divinity of Christ; and we may wonder why they do not solve the problem which separates them by seeing that Jesus Christ is the One God, whose Humanity is Divine.

     But Unitarians persist in considering Jesus Christ as being a mere man, the son of Joseph and Mary, and they are shocked at the idea of calling Him God. They are willing to concede that He was the best man that ever lived on this earth, and that He now occupies the highest place among finite beings in the other world, but to worship Him as God they deem to be rank idolatry. One is forced to acknowledge that this is the only consistent attitude for them to take, so long as they reject the Divinity of the Lord. But we know that the good among them, when they come into the other world, and find no other God but Jesus Christ, will worship Him with joy and gladness.

     Let us examine some of the arguments set forth by Trinitarian theologians today in the defense of the Athanasian Creed and what it teaches on the subject of the Divine Trinity.

     One writer, in an effort to illustrate the reasonableness of the Divine Trinity, takes as an example three men. He says: "Each man is a distinct, separate human person, but all three have a common human nature; and God is One only in the sense that human nature is one. As humanity is merely that which the three men possess in common, so in the Blessed Trinity, each of the three Divine Persons possesses the Divine Nature, and all the attributes of the Godhead are possessed by each of the three Divine Persons. Hence each of the three Divine Persons is Eternal, and yet there are not three Eternal natures, but only one Divine Nature which is Eternal, just as each of three men is human, and yet there are not three human natures. Three men do not make up the whole of humanity, whereas the case is different in the Blessed Trinity, where the three Divine Persons make up the whole Of Divinity."

     We see that in this process of reasoning the name "God" is used as a generic term, in the same manner in which the term "man" is used relative to humanity.

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It is inferred that God is one in the same sense as humanity is one with this difference, that mankind consists of many millions of persons, while Divinity consists of but three individuals. Thus the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, just as Peter is human, James is human, and John is human. But the weakness of this argument is evident from the fact that the plural of the term man is men, and we use it to designate several persons of the human race. Why then, are Trinitarians forbidden to use the term "Gods" when speaking of more than one Divine Person! If Peter, James and John are the names of three men, why are not Father, Son and Holy Spirit the names of three Gods? They who formulated the Athanasian Creed saw the danger that its receivers would be led to believe this very thing, and so they warned people against saying that there are three Gods and Lords. But their refraining from saving it does not prevent them from thinking that three Divine Beings must be three Gods.

     Reason and common sense may see the fallacy in the illustration just quoted. The writer holds that, because the common human nature may be shared by three men, therefore the Divine Nature can be shared by three Divine Persons. But this fails to take into consideration the qualities or attributes of the Divine Nature. Among these, for example, are omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence. Reason sees that if one of the Divine Persons is omnipotent-all-powerful-the other two cannot be, for the one would be all-powerful over them. It would be the same with omnipresence and omniscience. Another attribute of the Divine Nature is infinity. But if the infinite be limited or divided, it ceases to be infinite and becomes finite, and is no longer Divine. The human nature is finite, and so can be divided, and can be shared by three or more men.

     Here is the argument now advanced to prove the eternal existence of the Second Person in the Trinity: "The names of the three Divine Persons are relative names, each one implying and supposing the other. The Father implies the Son, for Fatherhood would be meaningless without Sonship; and an Everlasting Father implies an Everlasting Son, without any priority in time. Similarly the Son implies the Father, and the Holy Spirit implies the Father and the Son, whose Spirit He is."

     This implies that one of the Divine Persons could not be an Everlasting Father unless He had a Son begotten from all eternity.

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But the question at once presents itself to the mind: How could two Divine Persons who are coequal as to their eternal existence be related to each other as Father and Son? A father must exist before his offspring, for otherwise the son could not have been begotten. Thus a Son of God without a beginning is unthinkable. If two Divine Persons always existed, then one cannot be the Son of the other. It is true that a father implies an offspring, and that an offspring implies a father. Thus it was that the angel said unto Mary, "The power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; and that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." That holy thing was a human which Jehovah God assumed in the womb of a virgin; that holy thing was the Son of God brought into existence by the process of conception and the law of generation; that holy thing was the Son of God begotten and born in the days of Herod the king; that holy thing born of Mary was not a distinct and separate Person from the Highest which overshadowed her. There is not one Divine Person who is the Father, and another Divine Person who is the Son of God, but the Father is the soul of the Son, and both make one Divine Person, as the soul and body of a man make one human person. Thus Jesus Christ, speaking of His Human, could say: "I and my Father are one," "He in me and I in Him." "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father."

     Another attempt to prove that God is a plurality of persons is based upon His moral nature. " God is not only a personal Being, but He is also a Moral Being, and all moral qualities can only be thought of as existing between two persons. No one can be good unless there is another person to whom he can be good. Therefore, since God possessed His attribute of goodness from all eternity, it follows that there must have existed more than one Divine Person from all eternity." Yes, God is Good because He is Order Itself, and Order in the Divine does not depend upon the existence of another Divine Being. Order Itself can be thought of as existing in One Divine Being.

     This writer continues: "Love is a quality of God, and love itself requires a plurality of persons; and since love has always been an attribute of God from all eternity, it requires more than one eternal person to be loved. Not only this, but love in its perfection, as it is found in God, can exist only between two beings of the same nature.

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Hence the plurality of persons of the same Divine Nature is required." Such reasoning may appear very plausible to one who does not know what love is, as seems to be the case with this logician.

     "Men know that there is such a thing as love from common conversation, . . . but although love is often mentioned, yet scarcely anyone knows what love is.... When one thinks of love as merely something flowing in from sight, hearing, touch, and conversation with associates, one has no true conception of what love, is." (D. L. W. 1.) If man is altogether ignorant of the fact that love is his very life, then he will fall into all kinds of fallacies when he begins to reason about it, and attempts to draw conclusions from such reasoning. Love is not something which flows into the mind through our association with others. "God alone is Love Itself, because He is Life Itself; and angels and men are recipients of life or love from Him." (D. L. W. 4.) "But God does not receive His life from any source whatever, for He has Life in Himself. And as Life in Him is Love Divine, therefore He does not require a plurality of Divine Persons that it may exist in Him. Yet there are many who think that the argument just quoted is a very reasonable presentation of the doctrine of the Divine Trinity, and are fully satisfied with it.

     Let us be glad that so many good people have found, do find, and will find in this doctrine a refuge from the denial of the Lord's Divinity; for Trinitarians do believe that Jesus Christ is God, as is clearly evident from the Athanasian Creed, which teaches that "the Father is God and Lord, the Son is God and Lord, and the Holy Spirit is God and Lord." By this Creed they are compelled to confess each Person singly to be God and Lord; it is this clause which has preserved a belief in the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and thus it fulfills the purpose for which it was formed. (A. E. 1109:5)

     There are a few modern Trinitarians who assert that the term "Person," as used in the Athanasian Creed, does not mean an individual, but refers to a mask or costume which a stage-player assumes when he represents different characters in a drama. This, they say, is the original meaning of the Latin word Persona, and in this sense only is it to be understood relative to the Christian doctrine of the Divine Trinity.

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They believe that there is but One Divine Being, and that He, in the great drama of revelation, plays three roles, first as Creator, second as Redeemer, and third as Sanctifier. According to this view the statement found in the Athanasian Creed should read: "There is one Persona of the Father, another Persona of the Son, and another Persona of the Holy Spirit; and yet there are not three Gods, for the term Persona does not mean the same as our English word Person."

     We cannot help admiring this ingenious effort to overcome the contradiction found in the expression, "God in three Persons, Blessed Trinity." It does not seem to be as far removed from the New Church doctrine of the Divine Trinity as the view held by the vast majority of Trinitarians. But the idea of God as a play-actor is not an appropriate suggestion, for the comparison lacks the dignity and reverence which such a sublime subject demands. The Divine Being, who from everlasting to everlasting is God; the same yesterday, today and forever; with whom is "no variableness, neither shadow of turning," is not as a player on the stage impersonating three characters by exhibiting Himself in different costumes, thus suggesting that as Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier He is not the same individual. But if by the Divine of the Father the like is understood as by the soul in man, and by the Divine Human the like is understood as by the body of that soul, and by the Holy Spirit the like as by the operation which proceeds from both, then this incongruity is avoided, and the mystery explicable. This is the New Church doctrine of the Divine Trinity. It was not formulated by men, but revealed by the Lord. It is, therefore, a most reasonable doctrine, worthy of the assent of reasonable beings.

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PLEASANT AND UNPLEASANT TRUTHS 1930

PLEASANT AND UNPLEASANT TRUTHS       Rev. F. E. GYLLENHAAL       1930

     "And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey, and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter." (Revelation 10:9, 10.)

     The text is part of a vision seen by John. The vision was of a mighty angel descending from heaven with a little book open in his hand. John, in obedience to a voice from heaven, asked the angel for the book. The angel gave it to him with instructions to eat it, and predicted that it would be sweet in his mouth, but bitter in his belly. John obeyed, and the prediction came true.

     The general internal meaning of the vision concerns the Word of the Lord. The internal meaning of the text is, that the external or literal sense of the Word is delightful and pleasant, but that its internal or spiritual sense is undelightful and unpleasant. This very general statement of the internal meaning of the text is qualified by the internal meaning of the particulars of the text and of its context. For example, the context reveals that this state exists at the end of a church, when the majority of the people who profess to belong to the church consider the literal sense of the Word delightful and pleasant, but regard the internal sense as unpleasant, and take no delight in it.

     Let us try to understand clearly just what all this means. If we think about it abstractly first, and then concretely, we shall avoid the prejudices and resultant confusion which so often are inseparable from personalities. And the subject is not difficult to understand when abstracted from persons. It is simply the difference between the natural meaning of the Word and its spiritual meaning, on the one hand, and between the reception of each meaning, on the other. The difference between the two meanings is so great in places that the one seems to be opposed to the other. Very often the difference between the reception of the one and the other is equally great.

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     There is a difference between the natural and spiritual meanings of the Word because the Word is Divine Truth which has been accommodated by the Lord to both angels and men. The Divine Truth comes down from the Lord, and is successively clothed and thus accommodated, just as a man's thought is clothed in words, and thus accommodated and adapted. The Divine Truth comes down to planes or degrees which have been created in a series, and which are called celestial, spiritual and natural. The celestial is the highest, and the natural is the lowest.

     The Divine Truth is not created, but it clothes itself with ideas which are symbols of created things belonging to the plane to which the ideas belong. In like manner life, which is uncreate, clothes itself with a natural-material body in the natural world, and with a spiritual-substantial body in the spiritual world. These ideas contain the Divine Truth, and by means of them thought about the Divine Truth is possible. On our earth these ideas are clothed with words, which are symbols of the created things of earth, of the experiences of created beings, of the revealed spiritual world and experiences there, and of the manifestations of God, and thus of His Essence and Person.

     The Divine Truth on our earth, therefore, is contained in a Word which has been accommodated by the Lord to the lowest states of men. The literal meaning of this Word is farthest removed from the Divine Truth as it is in Itself. And as the Divine Truth Itself is Divine Love and Wisdom, so the successive degrees of that Truth, from highest to lowest, must represent a gradual decrease from what is ineffable to what is common. Accordingly, the internal meaning of the Word must be purer, and more delightful and pleasant, than the natural meaning of the Word. This is true. The Word's internal or spiritual meaning is superior to its natural meaning, and therefore it is pleasanter and capable of giving greater delight. It is less accommodated. It is like the light of the sun compared with the darkness of clouds. And just as clouds have all their wonderful coloring and beauty from the light of the sun, so the natural or literal sense of the Word derives all its glory from the internal or spiritual sense that is within it.

     The text, however, declares the contrary to be the case, or that the literal sense is pleasant, and the internal sense is unpleasant. This is true of the recipient, or of a man's reaction to the two senses.

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The literal sense is pleasant to him, but the internal sense is unpleasant to him. There are, indeed, many portions of the literal sense which treat of what is ugly and even abhorrent to many people; but these very portions confirm what is said in the text; for they are pleasant to the evil, and their internal meaning is unpleasant to the evil. For example, the evil delight in adulteries, hatreds, cruelties and deceits, but abhor heavenly marriages, love of the neighbor, mercy and sincerity; and the latter are the subjects of the internal sense, and are contained in the stories of the Word about the former subjects. But there are many portions of the Word which are beautiful and delightful in their external sense; as, for instance, in the Psalms and the Gospels, and yet the internal sense of these portions is unpleasant and even hateful to seemingly good people.

     Now the reason why the external or literal sense is delightful, is because this sense admits of being unfolded by interpretations in everyone's favor. Moreover, it must be delightful, in order that man may receive it, that is, be introduced into it, and not be deterred at the very threshold. The internal sense, on the other hand, is distasteful or unpleasant, because it discloses man's interiors, and teaches conduct which is opposed to his natural inclinations. (A. C. 5620:15.)

     What makes the internal sense seem unpleasant is the perversion of the literal sense. For the relation of correspondence between the two senses is such in itself as to make both seem pleasant and delightful to a humble, affirmative and regenerate man. But every man whose mind is ruled by the perversions and adulterations of the literal sense perceives the internal sense to be unpleasant, because it is so utterly contrary to his understanding of the literal sense.

     Take, for example, the attitude of the Jews toward the Old Testament, on the one hand, and toward the New Testament, on the other. They believed from the literal sense of the Old Testament that they were chosen by the Lord in preference to others, and therefore were a holy nation; that their Jerusalem, the temple there, the ark, the altar, and innumerable other things, were holy of themselves. To them the spiritual sense is undelightful and even hateful, because it reveals that they were not a holy nation, but worse than every other nation; that they were not a chosen people; and that the things which they regarded as holy of themselves were holy only as representatives of the Lord and of His Proceeding Truth.

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They deny these truths, because they have adulterated the sense of the letter; and therefore the truth is undelightful to them. (A. E. 619.) The concrete and objective expression of the internal or spiritual sense of the Old Testament was first given to the Jews in the teaching of the Lord while He was in the world, and then in the Gospels which they reject.

     Let us take, as another example, the attitude of Christians toward the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one God of heaven and earth. This, indeed, is specifically what is meant by the prophetic vision of our text, and by John's eating of the little book, which was "sweet in his mouth, but bitter in his belly,"-describing the reception of the true doctrine concerning the Lord by the Christian Church at its end, when this doctrine is revealed. For Swedenborg expressly declares: "I will disclose what was in the little book. In the little book were contained the things which are in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Love, from beginning to end." (A. R. 472.)

     That the little book was sweet at first, but afterwards bitter, means, with respect to Christians and their attitude toward the doctrine of the Lord, that an acknowledgment that the Lord is the Savior and Redeemer is grateful and pleasing to them, but that an acknowledgment that He alone is the God of heaven and earth, and that His Human is Divine, is unpleasant and difficult to receive by reason of their falsifications of the sense of the letter of the Gospels, as also of the Old Testament. The falsifications by which that doctrine is made disagreeable and difficult of reception consist chiefly in not acknowledging the Lord to be one with the Father, although He Himself so taught, and in not acknowledging His Human to be Divine, although that Human is the Son of God (Luke 1:35); and thus it may be said that they have made God three, and the Lord two; not to mention the falsities that follow from this. From these falsities flow the doctrine of faith alone, and faith alone afterwards confirms these falsities. (A. R. 481.)

     Note carefully that the old Christians do not deny that there is one God, but they deny that the Lord is that God. Some New Church people, especially those who have been born in the Church, are either ignorant or obscure in regard to the distinction here made. They think that the doctrine of the Trinity means a denial of one God.

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Actually it does amount to such a denial. Yet, professedly the old Christians do not deny that there is one God, but they deny that the Lord is the one God. Accordingly, their doctrine of the Trinity is erroneous, because the Trinity is in the Lord as the one God, which they deny. They believe, however, that the Lord is the Savior and Redeemer and therefore a God, or the second person in the Trinity. They believe the Holy Spirit to be the third person. Thus they make three Gods and two Lords.

     The point of this example is, that the literal sense, or rather a falsification of it, confirms the doctrine of the old Christian Church, and so this sense is pleasant and delightful to them; whereas the internal sense, which teaches plainly that the Lord is the one God of heaven and earth, is unpleasant and even hateful to them. And as this is the most essential truth and doctrine of the Church, it is of the utmost importance that every member of the Church should have a clear understanding of it and an unequivocal belief in it.

     The two examples given may seem to be inapplicable to us. But are they? Is it not possible for us new Christians actually to deny that the Lord is the One God of heaven and earth? It is, indeed, possible. The understanding of the Divine Human, and the intelligent acknowledgment of it, result not only from much study of the subject, but especially from a life according to the Heavenly Doctrine revealed in the Word of the Lord's Second Advent. We are prone also to imagine ourselves a chosen people, as the Jews did, and accordingly to regard the church as ours, and not as the Lord's.

     But let us take examples such as seem more applicable to us. The Book of Revelation, from which our text is taken, is pleasant and delightful to us in its literal sense. The descriptions of the visions of John are powerful and remarkable. The symbolism appeals to us, even though we do not understand it? But what about its internal sense? Is it pleasant and delightful to us? It reveals the interiors of the old Christian churches, the lamentable state of the Christian world, and therefore our own interior nature. Is this doctrine pleasant to old Christians today. Is it pleasant to many professed new Christians, or New Church men and women! The wicked state of the so-called Christian world and the consummation of the old Christian churches are not pleasant subjects, and it may be objected that the interpretation of the text which has been given would make them in themselves pleasant.

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But what the internal sense reveals exists in the natural world, and is a natural state, not a heavenly one. Because the old Christian churches, from a falsified literal sense of the Word, are regarded as the eternally living, true Church of God, therefore the revelation of the internal sense, exposing their interiors and thus their genuine quality, is unpleasant, and is rejected by many. But the internal sense also reveals the beauty and glory of the truly living Church of God, of the Bride and Wife of the Lamb, which is the new Christian Church, or the Church of the New Jerusalem. How many accept the revelation of this internal sense! To how many is it delightful and pleasant?

     The internal sense, which reveals the state of the so-called Christian world, is unpleasant to us because we have many friends and even relatives in that state, and in the consummated churches; and we are also acquainted with many naturally good people there. For the same reason, the internal sense which teaches about marriage and conjugial love is unpleasant and undelightful to us. We may indeed say that the New Church doctrine about marriage and conjugial love is beautiful and delightful, but most of us find ourselves actually opposed to that doctrine, so far as our natural inclinations and desires are concerned. And so that doctrine is actually unpleasant and undelightful to us, although, owing to the separation of the will and understanding in every one of us, we can at the same time recognize and even realize that it is true, and that it will result finally in heavenly happiness. The doctrine forbidding marriages between two of different religions, and especially of one in the Church with one outside the Church, gives only pain and sadness to those who are in circumstances such as to make them desire such a marriage; yet they can understand and acknowledge the soundness of the doctrine, and see it overwhelmingly confirmed by the experiences of men; and their new understanding strengthens their new will in, its life according to the doctrine.

     The doctrine concerning the Divine Providence might be taken as another example. For the simple teaching of the literal sense of the Word relating to the miraculous operations of Divine Providence is pleasant and delightful. The internal sense, on the other hand, is unpleasant because it teaches that much responsibility rests with men, and that the Lord never acts in favor of men against His eternal laws of Divine order.

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     We might cite many other examples, but the ones we have given will suffice to show clearly the intent of the internal sense of the text, and to confirm its truth. The text itself is an example of its own internal doctrine, for it is pleasant reading, but its internal sense is not altogether pleasant or delightful. That is, naturally we do not like to think, still less to believe, that at any time or in any circumstances the internal sense of the Word is unpleasant and undelightful to us. Yet such is the truth which is taught in the words of John: "And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book: And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey; and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter." Amen.

     LESSONS: Ezekiel 2 and 3:1-4; Revelation 10; A. E. 6143 or A. R. 480, 481.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE LORD 1930

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE LORD              1930

     "The essential of the doctrine of the New Church, which is called the New Jerusalem, is that concerning the Lord, and he who wishes to be therein acknowledges it. For that Church is the very Christian Church, and no one is admitted thereto but he who thinks and believes in one God, thus the Lord alone. It is to be known that one is admitted to heaven according to his confession of God; he is examined as to the quality of his thought and faith concerning God; for through that confession is conjunction; and when there is conjunction, there is enlightenment in particulars. Everything of his love and faith is dependent thereon; wherefore, they who deny God are in hell, because there is a disjunction. The first and primary thing, therefore, is to know and acknowledge, to believe and love, God; all other things depend upon this." (Athanasian Creed 147.)

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NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1930

NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS       Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1930

     The stories from the Word which fall within the compass of the May Calendar concern the glory of King Solomon, the division of the kingdom into two parts, Israel and Judah, and the reigns of many kings, most of whom were evil. (I Kings 8 to II Kings 9.) A succession of prophets was necessary, therefore, to counteract the disloyalty of the monarchs. A significant emphasis is laid on the two prophets, Elijah and Elisha, whose lives, spread over some eighteen chapters, furnish the setting of Israel's story during this period. It was an age of miracles.

     The supreme sense within these stories concerns the process of glorification whereby the Lord's Human was made Divine. Solomon would seem to represent the celestial and inmost degree of the Lord's rational, which was glorified before the maternal human with its evil potentialities could be utterly put off. The evil kings, and the false cults which they introduced, represent the falsities and evils of hell that sought to rule in the inherited natural of the Lord's human, and the eventual overthrow of Israel by Assyria, and of Judah by Babylonia, signifies the total rejection of His maternal inheritance by the death upon the cross.

     While the evil kings represent falsities and evils of perverted heredity, the good kings and the prophets signify the Divine Truth from the Divine Good, which worked the miracle of Glorification, and thus caused the deification of the Lord's Human. The miracle on Mount Carmel, when, at Elijah's sign, the Divine fire from heaven lit the sacrifice, and even consumed the altar stones themselves, and Elijah's final ascent to heaven, are both prophetic of the glorification of the Lord's Human even as to its ultimates of flesh and bones, and His ascent into heaven. A later incident (2 Kings 13:21), which tells how a dead man was revived when thrown into the tomb of Elisha, has a similar reference to the ultimate truths of the Word, which, when seen as the means of the Lord's presence, have the power to revive the church within man.

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     Elijah and Elisha.

     The striking differences between the two prophets, Elijah and Elisha, may readily be noticed, despite the similarity of some of their miracles. Elijah,-rough, of hermit temperament, striking king and people with awe, calling down fire to destroy his foes (compare Luke 9:54), and dispensing quick justice on the priesthood of Baal,-prepared the Way for a restoral of the religion of Jehovah when all hope Seemed gone. He was a prototype of John the Baptist. And, as if to confirm his fiery zeal, his miracles were closely associated with the element of fire.

     Elisha, on the other hand, was apparently wealthy, a man of the world, accepted as the councillor of kings. His characteristic miracles had reference to spiritual sight. He saw (by what the world calls clairvoyance) into the council-chambers of the Syrian king. Opened the eyes of his servant to see his spiritual protectors, and struck a whole army blind. The contrast between the two prophets is reflected in the relations between John the Baptist and the Lord. (Matt. 11:7-19.)

     Both Elijah and Elisha represented the Lord as to the Word. But the former stood for the Word in a more ultimate form, while the Word seen as to its internal sense is represented by the prophet of the opened eyes, who wore "soft clothing" and "dwelt in king's houses." (Matt. 11:8.)

     The "Perceptive" of the Church.

     The Arcana Readings this month take us to the declining days Of the Most Ancient Church. (A. C. 483-609.) The decadence of its perfection is marked out by a list of names, each of which signifies a difference in the ruling perception of what is good and true, not so much in matters of civic society as in matters pertaining to the love of the Lord and to faith in Him.

     Each church or society forms for itself an atmosphere of thought and a distinctive sphere of use. In the individual man also there grows up a certain mental background from which his thoughts emerge, and to which they again seem to retreat, a field of perceptions, ripened and confirmed, yet above the scrutiny of his ordinary reasoning processes. With the regenerating individual this body of conscious perceptions forms a conscience, an internal dictate, which is the arbiter of truth and falsity, of good and evil.

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     In the New Church, such a "perceptive" rules, and gives it a distinctive character. It is formed as a sum total of essential acknowledgments, mutually cohering, present in every truth of doctrine and common to every distinctive use of the Church. And this common sphere of perceptions and kindred affections of use stimulates and exalts the perceptive of its members.

     The Perceptive of the Most Ancient Church.

     The dictate of conscience with spiritual men is only an "analogue" of perception itself as this existed with the celestial church. (A. C. 1442.) "At this day perception is a thing utterly unknown, so much so that some imagine it to be a kind of continuous revelation, or to be something implanted in men; others that it is merely imaginary, and others other things . . ." Yet perception is the very celestial itself given by the Lord to those who are in the faith of love. (A. C. 536.)

     The Most Ancient Church had immediate revelation from the Lord by consort with angels and spirits, as also by visions and dreams; whereby it was also given them to have a general knowledge of what was good and true,-such general truths as that the Lord governs the universe, that all life is from the Lord, and that the proprium of man is evil and in itself dead. These general principles were then confirmed day by day by innumerable perceptions of things which supported the truths. (A. C. 597.) In the race-memory of mankind these perceptions survived in various forms, and traces of them may still be found in primitive religious practices, and in such beliefs as "animism" which fills all things of nature with the presence of life, yet confuses the natural with the spiritual.

     The Reformation of Enoch.

     "They who are in perception have no need to learn by formulated doctrine that which they already know." (A. C. 521.) There was thus no need for a written Word in the most ancient times. But when only a general and obscure perception remained, as was the case with the little communion called Enoch ("teacher"), it was permitted them to put into doctrine the perceptive things which still remained with men, to collect into a systematic form the correspondences know to the most ancients, and thus to reduce them into a written Word, not so much for the use of that generation as for the instruction of succeeding churches. (S. S. 21; A. C. 464, 519, 521, 609, 920, 2722:6.)

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By writing, the traditions of the celestials could be preserved against the fury of the last generation of those who lived before the flood. (A. E. 728:2)

     On visiting a great library in heaven, Swedenborg found-in its innermost recess-"books for the most ancient people, from which the society called Enoch had collected correspondences" for the use of later generations. (S. D. 5999.) These books served as doctrine for the new church called Noah, who placed the same faith in these Writings as Christians do in the written Word. "These doctrinals were their Word." The writings of Enoch were thus regarded as the Word before the cumulative body of revelation which we refer to as the Ancient Word had become written. (A. C. 1068, 1071, 1241.) That they were doctrinal writings did not prevent them from being the Word of God.

     Enoch, in the most ancient dispensation, stands out as a "reformer," somewhat like Eber in the Ancient Church, the prophets in Israel, and Luther and others in Christian history.

     In the times of the apostles, a work purporting to be written by "Enoch, the seventh from Adam," was well known in Judea, and it is referred to by Jude in his epistle (v. 14). It was, however, a visionary book, composed in the period of Jewish Independence. (See further descriptions of this literature in NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1926, pp. 587ff.) This book was recovered in 1773, and is now available for study in a Slavonic and an Ethiopic version; but, although it contains correspondential passages (A. E. 735), it is not the genuine book of Enoch.

     The legend that Enoch and Elijah were-like the Lord Himself-taken up into heaven with their bodies which they had upon the earth, persisted in the Jewish and the Christian Churches among those who believed that eventually all men, or at least all the just, would rise from their graves in purified but material bodies. Actually, of course, no such statements are made about either of these two men. Enoch "was not, for God took him,"-which was a way of saying that this ancient doctrine disappeared for a time from the ken of men, but was still preserved by the Divine Providence. A similar thing is said of the doctrine of the New Church, signified by the man-child whom the dragon wished to devour, but who was snatched up to God and to His throne. (Rev. 12:5; A. R. 545.)

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Elijah was taken up by a "chariot of fire." Undoubtedly this was so seen by the watching Elisha, because a chariot signified prophetic doctrine elevating men's minds to heaven. What became of Elijah's earthly body is of little moment, the alternatives being many and not worth our speculations.

     The Sons of God.

     The sixth chapter of Genesis speaks of the degeneracy of mankind as resulting from a marriage of the "sons of God" with the daughters of men. Giants were born from this union, by which, in the spiritual sense, is signified that doctrinal truths were profaned by conjunction with the cupidities of the proprium, giving rise to direful persuasions, which eventually led to a destruction of all that was holy with that race. These "sons of God" were the actual fallen angels and evil gods of storied fame. Mythology teems with these giants and other monstrous offspring of the Saturnian age, products of Heaven (Ouranos) marrying Earth (Gaea). An important key by which to unlock the meaning of ancient myths may be found in Coronis, n. 38, where the hells of these antediluvians are described, and their terrible fantasy, that they were themselves divine, is shown. For this was the obsessing falsity by which these Nephilim spirits-flooding the spirit-world with their hypnotic sphere-struck terror among the souls who inhabited that world in the days before the Lord's coming, prevented rational progress in the Ancient Church, and perverted its theology into pantheism. Although the Lord overcame and confined these ancient hells, the influence of pagan pantheism remained, and at the present day the age-long crop is being harvested in the conceits of "humanism," the fancies of "theosophy" and the follies of "Christian Science."

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SUPPORT OF THE PASTORAL OFFICE 1930

SUPPORT OF THE PASTORAL OFFICE        W. H. BENADE       1930

     (Reprinted at the suggestion of Mr. Alvin E. Nelson, at whose instance the subject was discussed at the meeting of the Joint Council, February 8, 1930.)

     At the 63rd Meeting of the General Church of Pennsylvania, held in Allegheny City, Pa., November 15-18, 1888, a recommendation contained in the report of the Council of the Laity led to the consideration of the financial support of the ministry. During the discussion the Bishop addressed the meeting as follows:

     "All contributions to the Church, whether made by subscription or by weekly or daily offerings, are voluntary, or at least they ought to be voluntary. There seems to be a misunderstanding of facts. The offerings referred to and made at the time of worship, were considered acts of worship, and these, to be true, must be of the free will. In considering this question, we need to separate the support of the pastor from the maintenance of the externals of the church.

     "To maintain the church, to keep it in order, and to provide for its externals, is one thing, and to support the pastor is another. Let us remember that the pastoral office is the Lord's office, and not man's. In my judgment, men have no more right to fix a pastor's salary than they have to fix the income of a lawyer or a physician. The pastoral office is the Lord's office. The support of this office is a good of charity from the good of love to the Lord, and not an act of mere business, but of business in the sense of spiritual charity and worship of the Lord. To worship the Lord, man must live the life of the Lord, as that life is revealed to him in the Lord's Truth. He who recognizes that the priest's office is not man's office will see that the office is to be supported, and not the man. There is a great difference between the support of the Lord's office among men and the support of a man's natural existence. Let the maintenance of the former be derived from the Lord's treasury, in which every member of the church places his offering when he comes to worship. Let this offering be made as an act of worship,-the first act of worship on entering the House of the Lord.

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And let every man give according to the ability which the Lord has given him. In this return to the Lord, there is the acknowledgment that all that a man has is a gift of the Lord's. The giving of a tenth or tithe in the Jewish Church represented this acknowledgment, and was prescribed by the Lord; it was a tax on each man of one-tenth of his income for the uses of the Church."

     The Bishop continued, saying that one-tenth was to be given in the representative of a church because ten represented all remains, and when a man gives to the church according to his ability, he gives the tenth. It is an acknowledgment that all he has is from the Lord, and that of himself man cannot acquire anything. When he contributes to certain uses, he must remember that he gives of the Lord's goods and not of his own.

     The Bishop returned to the point he first made, that the two things,-the support of the pastor, and the payment of the expenses of the church,-should be kept distinct. Supporting the pastoral office as the Lord's office, by free-will offerings given as the first act of worship when one enters into the state of piety (for the Sunday worship is of piety, and not of charity), will be an act entering into all succeeding states, carrying with it the benefit of this acknowledgment of the Lord. It will be an acknowledgment in ultimate form-the very lowest form-that whatever the Lord gives is given to enable us to live a life of true charity. This, thought the Bishop, was the real point in the case. Making a distinction between this and the support of the external church uses, the latter can be given into the hands of the lay council, while the former is retained as the privilege of every man.

     As to the pastor's attitude in this case, when his income may appear rather uncertain, it is a matter of trust. The pastor does not know from one year to another what he will have for his own support. He is in precisely the same position as other men. He may sometimes not have enough for his own expenses; but he will have enough in the sense of enough being as much as is good for him. For there is nothing that man has that is not from the Lord's mercy. If each will hold himself responsible to the Lord and not to his fellow men, for the performance of his duty, if each will go forward to do that duty day by day, he will find that his trust in the Lord will grow stronger than it ever could grow were he to entertain ideas of worldly prudence.

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In this case-by consulting worldly prudence-man assumes too much responsibility. He must rely upon the trust in the Lord which is enjoined by Him. All that is not of an implicit trust in the Divine Providence ought to be eliminated from our thoughts in this matter.

     Whatever is given for the support of the Lord's office of the priesthood is not given to the man, but to the Lord, and is an acknowledgment of what He has done and is continually doing for us- that is, giving us everything good that is conducive to our spiritual life, and also at the same time to our natural life. Were we to try to cultivate that idea, and go forward in that spirit, the pastor would not be limited by any salary which would be fixed for him, but it would be left to the Lord's Providence. We have no right to fix the salary of a pastor, and say: "So much he ought to have and no more." Let his income be like that of the laymen. Let them do unto others as they would that others should do unto them. If a society grows in ability, and a number of the members become wealthy in this world's substance, and give in proportion to their wealth (and it is their duty-a sacred duty-to give according to their increase), then the pastor's salary would also increase, and rightly so. If this course of action were pursued, we should not see the things which we so often see, and so frequently hear about: A pastor, who has worn out his life in the service to the people, requiring support in his old age. Why and how is it that the pastors cannot have means as well as the laymen? Why laymen can store up riches for themselves, and their pastors cannot do the same? Why cannot the pastors have something to save and spare for the time when they can labor no more?

     The Bishop hoped that the members of the Church would take that matter into consideration. That, it seemed to him, was the true business-like view of the case, because it is of true charity and true justice. The minister's great use is a form of charity, just as the layman's is-with this difference, that his is the spiritual, and the laymen's are the natural uses of charity. The speaker could not see why the natural uses of charity should be elevated so far above the spiritual uses-which are really higher-which are the Lord's uses of spiritual charity provided by Him, and why an official of the Church should be limited in the performance of his duty. They should think, rather, that it is the Lord's office, and that no one ought to limit it, but that the contribution to the support of the priest is a very holy offering given to the Lord in order to maintain His office in the Church.

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     We cannot do better than to look to the angels in heaven, for the Lord is with them. The office of priest is the most responsible office-the most exalted. No king, no monarch, no emperor holds an office equal in exaltation to that of the priest, whose function is the Lord's office among men-the office of saving human souls-the Lord's mediation among men on earth for the salvation of human souls. The angels rejoice over a single soul that is saved; and not only one society rejoices, but tens of thousands rejoice over the salvation of one human soul. With what a joy, therefore, do they rejoice in the establishment of the Lord's office by which such salvation may be effected.

     "I do not say these things because I am in the office of the priesthood. My time here is not long, but the priesthood is for eternity and in eternity. And, believe me, whatever you do, you can do nothing that will advance the interests of the Church so much as the exaltation of that office for the salvation of human souls, which is the end that the priesthood has in view, the end for which the Church exists, the end for which the Lord came upon earth and assumed the human form and glorified it. It is the end for which the Lord has come again and revealed to man that most excellent revelation of the Doctrines of the New Church. It is the end for which the Lord has given us the laws of Divine government for the establishment of the priesthood, the end for which He has prevailed from the beginning, and still prevails."

     [Reprinted from NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1888, P. 183.]

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FOUR HORSEMEN 1930

FOUR HORSEMEN       Rev. L. W. T. DAVID       1930

     AN ADDRESS TO CHILDREN.

     You have been told how the Lord sat upon His throne in heaven, and how all in the world of spirits were gathered before Him in the great hall of judgment. You have been told about the little book, which was called the Book of Life because in it was written down everything that men had done, and even the most secret things which they had thought and desired. No one could be saved, or brought into heaven, until this little book was opened, and until the hidden things written there were made known.

     For the Lord does not judge any man from things that appear on the outside, in his face and actions. He does not judge men according to what they seem to be, but according to what they really are. He judges according to the loves that are deeply hidden in the heart, and according to the thoughts that men delight to hold in their minds.

     At that time, many evil spirits were pretending to be good, pre tending to be angels; and many other spirits, who could only see what was on the outside, were deceived, not knowing that they were inwardly evil. Besides, most of those who were deceived were good spirits, who really loved the Lord, but who had not been taught what is true. And so they often did and said wrong things, not knowing that they were wrong. And because these wrong things appeared outwardly, wicked spirits accused them of being evil, and tried to punish them. No one but the Lord could see what they really were like. He alone could open the book of life, and loose the seals thereof, so that these hidden things could be seen and known.

     This is the reason why, before the judgment could take place,-before the good and the evil could be separated, and the good raised up into heaven,-the seals of the little book had to be broken. So now the Lord took the book, and began to break open its seven seals, one by one. Every time a seal was broken, something wonderful happened,-something which John saw, and wrote down in the Book of Revelation, so that we also might know about it.

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     When the first seal was broken, John saw a man on a beautiful white horse. He was a strong man, a warrior, having a bow in his hand and a crown upon his head. And it was said that he was "going forth conquering and to conquer." This man on the white horse was a living picture of all those in the world of spirits who were good, who loved the Lord and kept His commandments as well as they knew how. Even though they had done something wrong, not knowing any better, still the Lord, looking upon them from within, saw what they wanted to be, what they were trying to be. And it was according to this that they were to be judged.

     They were seen riding upon a white horse, because they were pure in heart. They carried a bow, because they were soldiers fighting against evil spirits. They really loved truth, and when the Lord had taught them the truth, they could shoot straight, and destroy what was false and evil. They wore a crown, because the Lord could make them wise, and bring them into heaven. They were said to "go forth conquering and to conquer," because the Lord was with them, to make them strong, and give them victory over the evil spirits from hell.

     When John had seen this beautiful vision, the Lord broke the second seal, and then there appeared a man riding on a red horse. This horse was not beautiful, as the white one had been. It was an ugly red, and seemed to be very strong, but it was fierce and wild looking,-the kind of horse that would make you afraid. The man who rode upon it was strong, but cruel; and he had a great sword in his hand, with which he was allowed to take away peace from the earth. The man on the white horse had been a soldier, fighting only to protect the good from evil spirits. But this man loved to fight because he loved to hurt and to destroy. This is the way those looked inside, who, although they pretended to be good, really hated the Lord in their hearts. They loved themselves, and wanted to make themselves great,-and to inspire fear in all others. Especially did they like to compel those who were good in heart to become their slaves. But they were not brave enough to fight against evil spirits, but they were afraid of them, because they were cowards in heart. They were bullies, using their strength to bring pain and suffering upon the weak, and finding delight in doing this.

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This is what they were really like inside, although they often pretended to be gentle, kind, and polite, so that others might not know how wicked they were.

     When this cruel horseman had ridden past, the Lord opened the third seal, and at once John saw a man riding on a black horse. It was not a beautiful shiny black, but a rough, dull, ugly black, and the man who rode upon it had a pair of balances in his hand, a pair of scales in which things could be weighed. And then there came a voice out of heaven, saying, "A measure of wheat for a penny, and two measures of barley for a penny, and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine." This is the way those looked, in the eyes of the Lord, who, although they pretended to be wise and learned in the things of the Word, did not love the Lord's Truth, but tried to deceive men, and make them believe what is false. Such were seen riding on black horses, because they turned themselves away from the Lord, so that their minds were black with falsity, as when the earth turns itself away from the sun at night, and all things become dark, because then there is no light.

     They were seen with a pair of balances, because they tried to make people think they were very wise, and could decide what is right and what is wrong, and so could teach men what they ought to do. But the voice from heaven saying, "A measure of wheat for a penny and two measures of barley for a penny," was a sign that they did not care for what is really true and good. The wheat and the barley represent the things that the Lord wants to give men, to make them grow, to make them strong and wise. But for these things they cared so little that they valued them almost as nothing. They would sell a measure of wheat for a penny and two measures of barley for a penny. The only thing they cared about was that people should think they were wise, and would follow them and obey them. So they would teach what was false, as if it were from the Lord, and by means of it try to hurt people and make them suffer. But this the Lord would not allow them to do. He protects everyone who really loves Him. And so this evil rider was warned by the words from heaven, "See thou hurt not the oil and the wine!"

     After this horseman had departed, the Lord loosed the fourth seal, and at once John saw a terrible rider on a pale horse. He was horrible to look upon, striking all who saw him with terror and fear.

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His name was Death, and Hell followed with him, and he had power to kill with the sword, and with hunger, and with death. This is the way those who were worst of all appeared in the sight of the Lord. The rider on the pale horse could destroy with the sword, like the red horseman; he could destroy with hunger, like the black one that despised good food; and he could destroy with death. This was to show that, when good is destroyed, and when truth is destroyed, the soul dies. In their hearts these spirits hated the Lord; they hated everything of heaven; they hated the Word; and above all they wanted to destroy the Lord Himself; and take heaven away from Him, so that they themselves might become rulers and kings over all.

     These were the kinds of spirits who were living together in the world of spirits at the time when the Lord came to judgment. But they were all hypocrites. They all pretended to be good. They pretended that they could make people happy. They pretended that their places were in heaven. By using magic, they built beautiful cities, and made gardens and parks that appeared like those of heaven. No one could tell which among them were good, and which were evil inside, until the Lord came, and opened the seal, of the little book. And then they were seen as they really were,- the good as strong; heroes, riding upon beautiful white horses; and the evil as cowardly, false, and wicked men, riding upon ugly horses.

     When those who were good, and who loved the Lord, saw the evil ones as they really were, they were horrified; and went away. They would not remain in the magic cities. And when they were separated from the evil, the Lord gave them white horses, and a bow, and a crown. And He gave them power from on high to fight against the evil spirits. And so He sent them forth, conquering and to conquer.

LESSON: Revelation 6:1-8.
HYMNAL: pp. 200, 104, 178.

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Title Unspecified 1930

Title Unspecified              1930

     [Photos of School Choir with Teacher, Alpha, South Africa and School Choir with Teacher, Lukas', Basutoland. School flag: red and white.]

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BELIEF IN THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST 1930

BELIEF IN THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST       Editor       1930


NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office a Publication, Lancaster, Pa.
Published Monthly By
THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
BRYN ATHYN, PA.
Editor                    Rev. W. B. Caldwell, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager          Mr. H. Hyatt, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address and business communications should be sent to the Business Manager.

     TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
In the United States, $3.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single Copy, 30 cents.
     There are those in the Christian world who say that they would believe that the Human of the Lord is Divine, if it could be shown them how it was effected. It is to be doubted, however, whether many of these would believe if the process of glorification were made known to them; for this has been done in the Heavenly Doctrines, and few accept it. The same is to be said of those who claim that they would believe in the existence of another life, if one of the departed were to return and inform them. The Lord's own answer to this state is familiar to us: "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." (Luke 16:31.) In other words, if men have not acquired a measure of faith in eternal life from the Scriptures, they will not be convinced by other means. And similarly, if men have not a faith in the Divinity of Christ from the Gospels, they will not be brought to it by a knowledge of the process of glorification. There must be some beginnings of a belief in Revelation,-a belief that it is true because God has revealed it,-a belief in the Divinity of the Lord because He declared and manifested it by doctrine and act when He was in the world. To the unbelieving of that time He said: "For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?" (John 5:46, 47.)

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     The Heavenly Doctrines, and their revelation of the Lord and His kingdom, have been received by a remnant among Christians who had a measure of faith in former Revelations. We are not to assume that all of the remnant have received the Doctrines; it is doubtless better for some among Christians in this world to remain in their simple faith, and in ignorance of the New Church until after death, when they will be enlightened. But it would seem that those who have been brought to the New Church in this world are such as could be enlightened in the spiritual things of the Word without a loss of their first faith in the Lord and the Scriptures. For without something of faith in the former Revelations, they could not have received the new Revelation. They were of an inquiring mind, and characterized by a willingness and a longing to be instructed by the Lord, and so they could be enriched in faith and love by a knowledge and understanding of heavenly mysteries. Thus their belief in another life was strengthened and confirmed by what was revealed through Swedenborg, and their faith in the Lord as God,-in the Divinity of Christ,-and their adoration from love, is continually exalted by the knowledge of the actual mode of the glorification, now disclosed in the Heavenly Doctrines.

     These thoughts have been suggested by the following statement in the Arcana Celestia, where it is describing how the Rational of the Lord was made Divine:

     "Some may suppose that to know these things is little conducive to faith, if only it be known that the Lord's Human Essence was made Divine, and that the Lord is God as to both. The case, however, is thus: They who believe this in simplicity have no need to know how it was done, for the knowledge of how it was done is only for the end that they may believe that it is so. There are many at this day who believe nothing unless they know by reason that it is so, as is manifestly evident from the fact that few believe in the Lord, although they confess Him with the mouth because it is according to the doctrine of faith. But still they say within themselves, and among themselves, that if they knew that it could be so, they would believe. The reason why they thus speak, and yet do not believe, is because the Lord was born like another man, and was like another in external form. Such persons can never receive any faith unless they first grasp in some measure how it can be so; therefore these things are made manifest.

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But those who believe the Word in simplicity have no need to know all these things, because they are in the end, to which the former cannot attain except through the knowledge of such things. Moreover, these are the things that are contained in the internal sense, and the internal sense is the Word of the Lord in the heavens, and those who are in the heavens perceive it so." (A. C. 2094.)

     A strange paradox! They who believe have no need to know how; for they who wish to know how would not believe if it were revealed to them; and yet this knowledge is of the internal sense, and is of supreme delight to the angels. May we not reconcile the apparent contradiction by saying: It is better to believe in simplicity than to be enlightened, only to fall into doubts and denial; it is still better to believe in enlightened faith,-a faith enlarged, enriched and exalted interiorly by the spiritual truths now revealed concerning the way in which the Human of the Lord was glorified. Such ever pray:

     "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief!"
NOTES AND REVIEWS. 1930

NOTES AND REVIEWS.              1930

     DR. ACTON'S DISCOVERIES.

     Some of the fruits of Dr. Alfred Acton's labors abroad last year have already been made available to our readers in the Letters of Swedenborg to Dr. Messiter and Bishop Menander, which appeared in the March and April issues. In the June number we shall have the privilege of publishing, with Dr. Acton's comments, a long letter of Dr. Gabriel A. Beyer, addressed presumably to Mr. C. F. Nordenskjold, but never before made public. The letter contains matter of great interest and historical value to the New Church, and sets forth, among other things, Dr. Beyer's view as to the status of the Writings.

     Other results of Dr. Acton's investigations abroad are being printed in THE NEW PHILOSOPHY, and the 160-page issue for 1929 should be in the hands of all our readers. Under the title, "Swedenborg and His Scientific Reviewers," this number publishes the first installment of what is to be "a translation of all known contemporaneous reviews and notices of Swedenborg's publications other than the theological.

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With a single exception, none of these has ever before been translated; and, in the case of many of them, their very existence has hitherto been unknown to the student of Swedenborg's writings."
IS CATHOLICISM LESS A BABYLON THAN IN 1757? 1930

IS CATHOLICISM LESS A BABYLON THAN IN 1757?              1930

     After translating no. 55 of the work on the Last Judgment, in EL HERALDO DE LA NUEVA IGLESIA of December; 1929, the editor, Mr. J. H. Anderson, Valencia, appends the following footnote:

     "The description of modern Babylon here given by Swedenborg evidently refers to the hierarchy and clerical system of Roman Catholicism such as it was 170 years ago. Since then the Catholic clergy has doubtless abandoned many false principles and accepted many spiritual truths; for the Revelation made by the Lord through Swedenborg has to a certain extent insinuated itself into all religions. The Sacred Scriptures, now translated into the Spanish tongue by the Catholic Church, are within the reach of all. Among Roman Catholics are certainly to be found Christians as good and sincere, and as ready for heaven, as in any sect of the Reformed Church. This being the case, it is improbable that either the former or the latter achieved its improvement by means of the teachings or doctrines of its own Church, but rather by abandoning these teachings, and by means of a rational faith in spiritual truths and a life in accordance with the precepts of the Decalogue."

     Mr. Anderson would doubtless have been less sanguine in this matter, if he had reserved his comment until he had translated no. 74 of the same work, wherein it is said that "the angels have slender hope of the men of the Christian Church, but much of a nation far removed from the Christian world and remote from infesters thence." While it is true that, in the conditions of greater spiritual freedom that now exist, men have become more critical and outspoken in expressing disapproval of obvious forms of tyranny and idolatry in the Catholic world, there has been little effect of the Writings of Swedenborg in improving the spiritual character of its people. Nor can the Writings have any such effect so long as they are regarded merely as the works of Swedenborg, and not as the Word of the Lord in His Second Coming.

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For the Psalmist says: "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it."

     Beginning with an installment in the November, 1929, number, the HERALDO is printing in serial form a Spanish translation of the Rev. Theodore Pitcairn's work, The Book Sealed with Seven Seals.     
     E. E. I.
Title Unspecified 1930

Title Unspecified              1930

     The Swedenborg Society, Inc., London, has sent us a copy of New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine in neat pocket size (18mo) with limp cover. It has recently been published by The New-Church Press, Ltd., London, at one shilling, and is especially suited to evangelistic uses.
ATHANASIAN DOCTRINE. 1930

ATHANASIAN DOCTRINE.              1930

     "It was of the Divine Providence that each and everything of the Athanasian Doctrine respecting the Trinity and respecting the Lord is a truth and is concordant, if only, in place of three persons, we understand one Person in whom is a Trinity, and it is believed that the Lord is that Person. . . . It was of Divine permission that the doctrine respecting God and the Lord, which is the chief of all doctrines, was so conceived by Athanasius; for it was foreseen by the Lord that in no other way would the Roman Catholics have acknowledged the Divine of the Lord; even to this day, they separate His Divine from His Human. Neither would the Reformed have seen the Divine in the Human of the Lord, for those who are in faith separate from charity do not see this. But still, both of them acknowledge the Divine of the Lord in a trinity of persons. But this doctrine, which is called the Athanasian Creed, was so written, of the Divine Providence of the Lord, that all things in it are truths, if only, in place of three persons, one Person in whom is a Trine is recognized, and it is believed that the Lord is that Person. Moreover, it was of Providence that they are called 'persons,' for a person is a man, and a Divine Person is God who is Man. This has been revealed at this day for the sake of the New Church, which is called the Holy Jerusalem." (A. E. 1109:2.)

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ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS 1930

ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS       Various       1930

     BRYN ATHYN, PA., FEBRUARY 4TH TO 7TH, 1930.

     COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY.

     The Thirty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the Council of the Clergy was held in the Council Hall of the Bryn Athyn Church, February 4th to 7th, 1930, Bishop N. D. Pendleton presiding. Two Bishops, nineteen Pastors and one Minister were in attendance.

     The Council held four regular morning sessions, one public session, and three joint afternoon sessions with the Academy Faculty and visiting teachers from societies of the General Church.

     At the first session, the Bishop announced, with reference to the Consistory: (1) the resignation of the Rev. W. B. Caldwell; (2) the appointment of the Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal; and (3) the appointment of the Rev. Gilbert H. Smith.

     The Bishop further made the following announcement:

     "I desire to lay before this body the question of the election of an Assistant Bishop of the General Church. It is also my purpose to have this matter considered by the Joint Council, with a view to possible action by the General Assembly in June."

     After a thorough discussion of the last-named question, the following resolution was moved, seconded and unanimously carried:

     "That this Council approves of the Bishop's recommendation that an Assistant Bishop of the General Church of the New Jerusalem be provided."

     As was the case last year, (see NEW CHURCH LIFE, May, 1929), various practical policies of the Church were to the foreground, rather than prepared papers or studies of a more abstract nature. These discussions included: (1) Our society and pastoral relations with non-New Church people in or near our societies; (2) As to how far certain past doctrinal interpretations should be sustained by present thought; (3) the efficacy and improvement of the Calendar Readings; (4) the report on NEW CHURCH SERMONS; (5) revision of the Liturgy; etc.

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     It was generally agreed that a thorough revision of report blanks should be made to meet changed conditions.

     At the suggestion of the Secretary, it was agreed that it would be more orderly, in future, for the Secretary of the General Church to record the proceedings of the Joint Council, which acts for the General Assembly ad interim.

     At the final meeting, on Friday morning, a paper was presented by the Rev. E. E. Iungerich on: "The Safeguarding of Foetuses and Infants for Heaven." This was followed by a thorough, interesting discussion.

     The annual Public Session was held in De Charms Hall on Thursday evening, February 6th, when the Rev. F. E. Waelchli, of Cincinnati, delivered the Annual Address, in which he made a vigorous appeal for a genuinely spiritual church, builded upon the love of the Writings as the Second Coming of the Lord. An affirmative discussion followed.

     The joint sessions of the Council with the teachers of the Church are reported elsewhere in this issue.

     For a detailed report of the Banquet of the "Philadelphia District Assembly," see the account by the Bryn Athyn correspondent in "Church News" in NEW CHURCH LIFE, March, 1930, pp. 190-192.


     COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY AND GENERAL FACULTY.

     The 1930 sessions of the Council of the Clergy and the Faculty of the Academy and other schools were held on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons, February 4th to 6th, in the Council Hall. The attendance was slightly in advance of last year, registering an average of 61.

     The first (Tuesday) afternoon's paper, by Professor Frederick Finkeldey, Director of Physical Education in the Academy Schools, was on the semi-technical theme of "Scale Determination of Ability in the Classroom." As this paper appears in full, with its accompanying diagrams, in the April issue of the Academy's JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, we will only say that the speaker essayed to establish a more general grouping of class-room ability, in order to establish a norm of average ability upon which more accurate and just marks could be given in New Church schools.

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The speaker felt that a more scientific basis should be substituted for the relatively untrustworthy and shifting judgments of teachers.

     Professor Finkeldey's avowed purpose of "starting a little argument " succeeded in starting quite a series of arguments, ranging all the way from Dr. E. E. Iungerich's witty indictment of ultra-scientific absorption in external methods, to Dr. C. R. Pendleton's analysis of the psychological and pedagogical aspects of the problem presented. Other speakers taking part in what proved to be more or less of a debate were: Bishop George De Charms, Professors K. R. Alden, Homer Synnestvedt, R. W. Brown, W. Whitehead, W. B. Caldwell, and Mr. W. Howard. Bishop N. D. Pendleton, from the chair, summed up the discussion in a few words of wise counsel.

     Wednesday afternoon's paper, by Miss Louise Gladish, Instructor in History and Latin in the Academy Schools, was entitled, "In the Sixth Day of Creation," and proved to be a series of charming and frank reactions to an educational course recently given by the Rt. Rev. George de Charms on "The Growth of the Mind." (For text of this paper, see JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, April.)

     After the Bishop had expressed his appreciation of the paper, and commented on the new line of thought opened therein, the Revs. E. E. Iungerich, K. R. Alden and H. Lj. Odhner made various suggestions analyzing the possibilities of the use of the exegetical method in education. The Rt. Rev. George de Charms said he accepted full responsibility for the exegetical matters involved in the paper. He had come to the general position involved in the paper after much study and struggle. He believed we had reached the point where we should examine states more specifically, year by year. The power of our original movement had been that Bishop Benade took the truths of the Writings and applied them to the education of his day. We needed a continual renewal of inspiration. Our minds required that we should see truth from many different angles. This was true of education as well as of religion as such. We needed bold thinking, even if the next generation threw it out. After further remarks by Mr. Otho W. Heilman and the Rev. Enoch S. Price, the meeting ended with a round of hearty applause for Miss Gladish's stimulating paper.

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     On Thursday afternoon, the Rev. C. E. Doering took the chair while Bishop N. D. Pendleton read a paper on "Ideas, Moods and Sense Impressions." Here we can only refer the reader to the paper itself, which appears as the leading article in the April JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.

     In the discussion which followed, Rev. E. E. Iungerich dwelt on the idea that, in the beginning of the Church, the Writings are the Lord; and yet later they are seen to be "the thoughts of the angels brought down to earth." The states of the men of the Church must be met. Four qualities seemed to mark the various intermediations performed by angels and men, viz., (1) strenuosity; (2) God-fearing; (3) that truth is in them; and (4) that they are not looking for gain. Rev. K. R. Alden felt that the paper especially encouraged us to see God in all living forms,-to see His true Humanity. Rev. Alfred Acton justly described the paper as an unsurpassed and new perspective of "the problem of thought and what are ideas." Certainly the soul did not pour its ideas into the mind. Something must actually appear before the mind. Something living must provide the element that gives sight and life. The first living ultimate of the idea of God was the Lord Jesus Christ as the ultimate sensual idea presented. Rev. W. B. Caldwell pointed out that man was never forbidden to learn from without; but he was warned not to approach higher things from lower things. The paper was especially appropriate to teachers and parents. Rev. H. Lj. Odhner spoke of the idea that it was necessary to have a sense of the whole before a knowledge of the parts. We must have a general category before special ideas. Rev. G. H. Smith and the Rt. Rev. George de Charms spoke of the relation of the subject to the education of children.

     In closing the series of joint educational meetings, Bishop N. D. Pendleton pointed out that all education is a Divine work,-the process of coming to see God,-to realize God. There was a Divine Order by which this process should take place. There was a Divine ordering, from within, of man's mental growth. This was the work of Divine Providence. The Divine process should be studied and followed .
     WM. WHITEHEAD,
          Secretary.

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JOINT COUNCIL 1930

JOINT COUNCIL       Various       1930

     BRYN ATHYN, PA., FEBRUARY 8TH, 1930.

     First Session-10:00 a.m.

     1. The Thirty-Seventh Annual Meeting of the Joint Council of the Clergy and the Executive Committee of the General Church of the New Jerusalem Opened by worship conducted by the Bishop, the Rt. Rev. N. D. Pendleton.

     2. There were present:

     COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY:

     Bishop Pendleton, presiding; Rt. Rev. George de Charms; the Rev. Messrs. Alfred Acton, K. R. Alden, W. H. Alden, R. W. Brown, W. B. Caldwell, L. W. T. David, C. E. Doering, A. Gill, W. L. Gladish, F. E. Gyllenhaal, T. S. Harris, E. E. Iungerich, H. L. Odhner, Enoch S. Price, N. H. Reuter, G. H. Smith, H. Synnestvedt, F. E. Waelchli, W. Whitehead (Secretary). Total: 21.

     EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE:

     Messrs. R. Pitcairn (Vice President, G. S. Childs (Secretary), H. Hyatt (Treasurer), E. C. Bostock, R. W. Childs, C. R. Brown, C. G. Merrell, A. E. Nelson, H. F. Pitcairn, and W. C. Childs (Honorary member). Total: 10.

     3. At the suggestion of Rev. William Whitehead, Secretary of the Council of the Clergy, the subject of the Secretaryship of the Joint Council was considered. Mr. Whitehead expressed the belief that while in the past the Secretary of the Council of the Clergy had acted as the Secretary of the joint meetings, it would be more proper that the Secretary of the General Church be Secretary of this Joint Council, which acted for and in the place of the General Assembly.

     The Bishop called attention to the fact that two views could be taken about the status of the Joint Council; from one point of view it was simply a joint meeting; from another it represented the Assembly ad interim. From the latter point of view, it would be appropriate that the Secretary of the General Church also act as the Secretary of the Joint Council. This view was confirmed by the meeting, and the Rev. H. L. Odhner took over the position of Secretary of the Joint Council.

     4. The Minutes of the Thirty-sixth Annual Meeting of the Joint Council, February 9th, 1929, as printed in NEW CHURCH LIFE, May, 1929, pp. 302-305, were adopted without reading.

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     5. The Report of the Secretary of the General Church was read, adopted and filed. (See p. 298.)

     6. The Rev. William Whitehead presented the report of the Council of the Clergy, adding the announcement by the Bishop of the resignation of the Rev. W. B. Caldwell from the Bishop's Consistory, and of the appointment of the Rev. Messrs. Frederick E. Gyllenhaal and Gilbert H. Smith as members of the Consistory. On request, the report of the Rev. Enoch S. Price was incorporated in the epitome of ministerial activities, and the Report of the Council of the Clergy, as thus amended, was adopted and filed. (See p. 301.)

     7. Rev. E. E. Iungerich gave the information that eight persons had been baptized on Christmas Day by the Rev. Henry Leonardos at Rio de Janeiro, and that Rev. H. de M. Lima had moved to the capital city of another state, where he performs services for a small group. He also stated that word had come from the Rev. Fernand Hussenet that New Church books in the French language were no longer available.

     8. Mr. G. S. Childs read the Annual Report of the Executive Committee, which, on motion, was received and filed:

     REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

     During the past fiscal year the Executive Committee has held three meetings, with an average attendance of eight members.

     Aside from the discussion and adoption of the annual budget, the Committee has considered a number of matters involving the advisability of special appropriations.

     It is of interest to note that it has been the Bishop's custom to advise the Committee from time to time of general matters affecting the state of the Church, but not requiring immediate action on the part of the Committee. As a result, the Committee finds itself in better position to take sympathetic and constructive steps when specific action is required.
     Respectfully submitted,
          G. S. CHILDS,
               Secretary of the Executive Committee.

     9. The printed Treasurer's Report for the year ending December 31st, 1929, was submitted by Mr. Hubert Hyatt, who also voiced appreciation of the work done for the Church by the small group of persons who acted as his representatives in various localities, mentioning especially Miss Synnestvedt of Glenview, Illinois.

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A steady growth might be observed in the incoming contributions during the last seven years, but at the same time he regretted to have to report a falling off in the actual number of contributors during the last two years. Only thirty nine percent of what the Treasurer calculates as the number of Potential Contributors have actually made contributions this last year. On motion, the Report was accepted and filed.

     10: On motion, the Report of the Treasurer of the Orphanage Fund was given by Mr. Walter C. Childs. (See p. 308.) Mr. Childs also reported with deep regret the resignation of Dr. Alfred Acton from the Orphanage Committee, whose Secretary he has been since its inception. Mr. R. W. Childs referred to the great value and the greater possibilities of the system of collections through Orphanage Boxes placed in the homes,-a system initiated by Dr. Acton,-and, on motion, Dr. Acton's resignation was accepted with regrets. The matter of appointing another member to the Orphanage Committee was referred to the Executive Committee.

     11. The Rev. William Whitehead made a report for the Committee on NEW CHURCH SERMONS, which, on motion, was received and filed. (See p. 308.) The Committee consists of the Rt. Rev. George de Charms and the Rev. Messrs. Whitehead and David. Acknowledgments were made by the Committee to those who had contributed sermons, and to Miss Gertrude Nelson whose Biblical stories have been greatly appreciated. For a special contribution for the defrayal of the additional cost in publishing these stories we are indebted to Mr. Alvin Nelson.

     12. It was pointed out that it would be proper to institute a custom of hearing a report from the Editor of the NEW CHURCH LIFE at the annual meeting of the Joint Council.

     13. On motion, the meeting took a recess of ten minutes.

     14. When the meeting had again been called to order, the Rev. K. R. Alden and others registered their personal appreciation of the excellence of the Report submitted by the Treasurer, Mr. Hyatt.

     15. The Bishop then brought up the proposal already discussed in the Executive Committee and Council of the Clergy, that an Assistant-Bishop of the General Church be provided.

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He believed that this was a needful provision, and should be effected, and asked the Joint Council's approval of the step, before bringing it before the General Assembly next June.

     The discussion was general and protracted. It sustained the Bishop's proposal, but some divergence of view was manifested as to what action was required of the Joint Council at the present time.

     Second Session-3:00 p.m.

     16. The discussion of the topic of the providing of an Assistant-Bishop was continued, and resulted in the unanimous adoption of the following three resolutions:

     Resolved, that it is the opinion of this Council that an Assistant-Bishop be provided.

     Resolved, that in the opinion of this body, the providing of an Assistant-Bishop has no reference to a successor to the Bishop.

     Resolved, that in the opinion of this Joint Council, no definition of the uses of the office of Assistant-Bishop is necessary or advisable at this time.

     It was further resolved that these resolutions be published in NEW CHURCH LIFE.

     17. It was unanimously resolved that a suitable resolution in memorial of the late Dr. Felix A. Boericke be spread upon the minutes, and' that a copy of the resolution be sent to Mrs. Boericke, as follows:

     Whereas the earthly life of our beloved and respected brother and coworker, Felix Ariel Boericke, was brought to a close on February 23rd, 1929, after years of devotion and service to the cause of the New Church by acting on its Councils, and contributing to the support of its many uses,
     We, the Joint Council of the General Church, desire to place on record our deep felt sense of loss, and our appreciation of his sterling, sincere and modest character, his wise counsel, his encouragement of scholarly work, and his cordial cooperation for the advancement of the Church.

     18. The question of "What is the ideal mode of supporting the pastoral office?" was taken up from the docket.

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The Bishop voiced the policy of our Church, in stating that it had been regarded as the ideal mode of support to dedicate to the priestly office the freewill offerings given at services. The feeling was that when such a ritualistic offering is made by the laity, all control of its use should pass away, which is not the case when the offering reverts to the congregation. It was pointed out that the General Church does not impose this as its policy upon local churches, each society being free to do what it wished, and believed to be suited to its particular needs and requirements.

     During the discussion it was brought out that an additional guaranteed salary was at times necessary. The offertory placed the priest in the ranks of professional men, and not looked upon as an employee. A certain dignity attached in the larger societies to the fact that the priest was supported by an unknown offertory. This also resulted in a beautiful relationship of trust existing between the clergy and the laity. It was pointed out that the offertories usually showed an amazing consistency. In smaller societies the offertories were not always so satisfactory. In one society, the freewill offering was devoted to the support of the Pastor, a free subscription was made for school uses and temporalities, and a separate fund existed to defray expenses connected with social life.

     19. It was unanimously resolved, that this Joint Council of the Clergy and Executive Committee wishes to convey to the ladies of the Bryn Athyn Society its warm appreciation of its hospitality, and of the social arrangement after the afternoon meeting.

     20. The Council adjourned at 4:50 p.m.
          HUGO LJ. ODHNER,
               Secretary.

298


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH 1930

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH       HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1930

     During the year 1929, 66 new members were received. Deducting 24 deaths, the net increase for the year was 42. As the total membership at the end of 1928 was 1950 members, this increase of 42 brings the total at the end of 1929 to 1992 members. There were no resignations.

     Geographically, the 66 members received during the past year were distributed as follows:

United States           40
Canada           11
England           4
Holland           4
Sweden          3
South America      4
                          66

     These figures do not include the membership of the South African Native Missions. According to the report of the Missions to December 31, 1929, there is a total of approximately 701 native members in various parts of South Africa.

     NEW MEMBERS.

     January 1, 1929, to December 31, 1929.

     A. IN THE UNITED STATES     
     
     Glendale, California.
Mr. Christian John Orff
Mrs. Anna Pauline Grebenstein Orff

     Denver, Colorado.
Mrs. Caroline Kathrine Stoesser Allen
Mr. John Edmund Lindrooth
Mr. George Theodore Tyler

     Macon, Georgia.
Mrs. Florene Cline Smith

     Chicago, Illinois.
Mr. Roy James Poulsen
Mr. David W. Rose
Mr. Charles Martin Ross

     Glenview, Illinois.
Mr. Walter Downing Barnitz
Mrs. Ruth McNamee Barnitz
Miss Alice Thankful Burnham
Miss Elizabeth Louise Pollock
Miss Collene Hera Carpenter Starkey

     Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Miss Elizabeth Mary Field

     Detroit, Michigan.
Mr. Norman Phillip Synnestvedt

Buffalo, New York.
Mrs. Clara Thorndike Grove

     New York, New York.
Mr. John Pendleton Caldwell

     Freewater, Oregon.
Mr. Thomas Lee Fine

     Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Alfred Wynne Acton
Miss Constance Arrington
Miss Alice Boysen Broadbridge
Mr. Philip Grant Cooper
Mrs. Violet Emily Goodwin Day
Mr. Karl Wilfred Doering
Mr. George Arthur Heath
Miss Nadezhda Iungerich
Miss Helena May Kaiser
Mr. Philip Nathaniel Odhner                    
Mr. David Sylvanus Powell
Miss Marjorie Frankish Robinson
Miss Winifred Simons

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Mrs. Mildred Bergstrom Synnestvedt
Mr. Richard Eugene Waelchli
Mr. Victor Emanuel Waelchli

     Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania.
Miss Susan Arrington

     Oak Lane, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Alfred Judd

     Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Miss Elinor Benade Ebert

     Renovo, Pennsylvania.
Miss Margaret Loudon Kendig

     Walla Walla, Washington.
Mr. Harry Edgar Littlejohn

     B. IN CANADA.

     Kapuskasing.
Mr. Eric Adrian Giobel

     Kitchener, Ontario.
Miss Julia Ann Lent
Mr. Maurice John Schnarr
Mrs. Margaret Louise Lent Schnarr

     Rosthern, Saskatchewan.
Mr. Walter Hamm

     Saint John's, New Brunswick.
Miss Sarah Annie Warrell

     Toronto, Ontario.
Mr. Alec Craigie
Miss Gwendolen Winifred Knight
Mr. Albert Edward Lewis
Mr. Charles Henry Lewis
Miss Nancy Vera Wilson

     C. IN ENGLAND.

     Blisworth, Northamptonshire.
Mr. Norman Ellis Williams

     Croydon.
Miss Helen Margaret McKerrow

     D. IN HOLLAND.

     Haarlem.
Miss Catharina Elisabeth Vander

     The Hague.
Mr. Charles Bernard Schuurmans
Mr. Cornelis Johannes Marinus Wegman

     Rijswijk.
Miss Anna Willemina Christina Schierbeek

     E. IN SWEDEN.

     Stockholm.
Mrs. Gerda Klara Elisabeth Hult
Miss Margaretha Witte

     Sundbyberg.
Miss Elisabeth Sandstrom

     F. IN SOUTH AMERICA.

     Rio de Janeiro.
Mr. Abdon Lyra
Mrs. Violeta Vicosa Nunes Magalhaes
Mr. Jose Alves Villela
Mrs. Rosa Dellisante Villela
     DEATHS.

     January 1, 1929, to December 31, 1929.

Mrs. Henry Hasenpflug (Louisa Kuhl), Kitchener, Ont., Canada, December 30, 1928.
Mr. Samuel Simons, Bryn Athyn, Pa., January 11, 1929.
Mrs. Elizabeth Gilles Prouse, Gait, Ont., Canada, January 17, 1929.
Mr. Joseph Benjamin Headsten, Chicago, Ill., January 20, 1929.
Mrs. Emil Hansen (Kirstine Marie Larsen), Spokane, Washington, January 24, 1929.
Dr. Felix Ariel Boericke, Bryn Athyn, Pa., February 23, 1929.
Mrs. George A. McQueen (Emily Martha Cockerell), Glenview, Ill., March 8, 1929.

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Mrs. Richard Roschman (Nancy Ahrens), Kitchener, Ont., Canada, March 23, 1929.
Mrs. Donald G. Dyne (Iris Elphick), Wallington, Surrey, England, March 31, 1929.
Mrs. Guernsey A. Hallowell (Anna Marion Shunk), Frankford, Pa., April 11, 1929.
Mr. Benjamin Glenn Smith, Bryn Athyn, Pa., April 22, 1929.
Mrs. Alwyne J. Appleton (Margery Waters), Colchester, England, April 27,1929.
Mr. Frank Raymond Kuhl, Toronto, Ont., Canada, May 8, 1929.
Mr. Harvey Patterson Skinner, Middleport, O., June 6, 1929.
Mr. George J. Deppisch, Kitchener, Ont., Canada, July 25, 1929
Mr. Benjamin F. Evans, Erie, Pa., August 7, 1929.
Mr. James Coleman Pendleton, Atlanta, Ga., August 20, 1929.
Dr. John Blair Smith King, Glenview, Ill., August 28, 1929.
Mr. William Frederick Roehner, Philadelphia, Pa., September 7, 1929.
Mrs. Jacob Renkenberger (Mary Ann Flickinger), Columbiana, O., October 17, 1929.
Mr. Benjamin F. Reynolds, Bryn Athyn, Pa., October 24, 1929.
Mr. James Waters, London, England, November 11, 1929.
Miss Anna Willemina Christina Schierbeek, The Hague, Holland, November 13, 1929.
Mrs. Eldred E. Iungerich (Elizabeth A. Simons), Pittsburgh, Pa., December 5, 1929.
     Respectfully submitted,
          HUGO LJ. ODHNER,
               Secretary.

301


REPORT OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY 1930

REPORT OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY       WM. WHITEHEAD       1930

     January 1st, 1929, to January 1st, 1930.

     Since our last Annual Report (see NEW CHURCH LIFE, May, 1929, pp. 308-312), this Council met with the Executive Committee on December 8th, 1929, to confer upon the program for the 1930 General Assembly at Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     At present, the Clergy of the General Church comprise 3 members of the episcopal degree (including the Bishop of the General Church); 39 members of the pastoral degree; and 3 members of the ministerial degree. In addition to these, and connected with the South African Mission, are 3 Basuto pastors and 3 ordained Basuto leaders; also 2 Zulu pastors and 3 ordained Zulu leaders.

     Up to February 1st, 1930, the Bishop of the General Church has received reports of the past year's activities from all members of the Clergy, except Pastors Elmo C. Acton, Henry Leonardos and Joao de Mendonga Lima,-all of whom live at too great a distance to make mail facilities easy,-together with several native ministers in Africa who were only recently ordained. The statistics accompanying these reports reveal that the Rites and Sacraments of the Church have been performed as follows:

ORDINATIONS                     16
BAPTISMS                          160
CONFESSIONS OF FAITH               43
BETROTHALS                          5
MARRIAGES                          18
FUNERALS                          49
HOLY SUPPER:
     Quarterly                    75
     Monthly                     41
     Private                     29
     Assisted                     31
DEDICATIONS:
     Ecclesiastical buildings     2
     Private homes                15

     In connection with the South African Mission to Natives, Superintendent Elphick reports 133 Baptisms and 12 Funeral Services during the past year. From the various individual reports received, the following facts have been selected as of possible general interest or import:

     BISHOP N. D. PENDLETON, Bishop of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, presided over the Annual Council Meetings held in Bryn Athyn, February 4th to 10th, 1929.

     In the latter part of May, he visited the Kitchener and Toronto Societies in Canada. At the former place he preached, administered the Holy Supper, read a paper at a meeting of the Society, and addressed the children of the school. At Toronto he delivered an address.

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     On June nineteenth, he laid the cornerstone of the new church building of the Pittsburgh Society; and afterwards addressed a ladies meeting; also a meeting of the children.

     On his way to South Africa, he visited Thoury-Ferrottes, The Hague, Brussels, Paris, and Woodgreen (England). At Thoury-Ferrottes he preached three times. At The Hague he preached and administered the Holy Supper, and met on several occasions the members of the Dutch Society. At Brussels he called on Madame Deltenre. At Paris, at a luncheon, he met the Rev. Mr. Hussenet and several members of the French Society. At Woodgreen, England, he dedicated the home of the Rev. and Mrs. Albert Bjorck.

     He presided at the First South African Assembly at Durban, Natal, on September 15th to 22nd, when he also preached and administered the Holy Supper. On the following Sunday he preached and confirmed three young men and three young women.

     He also presided over the First South African Native Assembly, on September 28th to October 1st, at Alpha, Orange Free State. On that occasion he ordained eleven native leaders into the first degree of the priesthood, and four into the second degree. He also administered the Holy Supper. Subsequently he dedicated the Alpha Chapel, administered the Holy Supper, and performed the rite of Baptism. Before sailing, he visited Mr. and Mrs. E. L. Rogen at De Hoek, near Capetown.

     On his return to England he visited Woodgreen, Colchester, and London. At Woodgreen he performed the rite of confirmation and administered the Holy Supper. At Colchester he gave an account of the trip to South Africa. At London he delivered an address to the New Church Club; presided over a council of ministers at the home of Bishop Tilson: and met the members of the Burton Road Society at a social gathering.

     As Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Society, he preached 9 times; conducted services regularly in the Cathedral when not away from home; and gave 3 doctrinal classes.

     He further performed the duties of President of the Academy of the New Church.

     BISHOP GEORGE DE CHARMS, as Assistant-Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Society, preached 11 times, and conducted a series of 6 doctrinal classes in March and April.

     Children's services were held from January to Easter, and from October 20th to Christmas. In this latter work he received valuable assistance from the Rev. L. W. T. David.

     He continued to supervise the work of the Bryn Athyn Elementary School, and to teach Religion to the 7th and 8th grades.

     He also continued to perform the duties of Dean of the College of the Academy.

     At the request of the Bishop, he presided at the New York District Assembly in May, preaching and administering the Holy Supper.

     On September 8th, at the Bishop's request, he ordained the Rev. H. W. Boef into the second degree of the priesthood of the General Church.

303




     BISHOP ROBERT J. TILSON, as Pastor of Michael Church, Burton Road, Brixton, England, has held services twice each Sunday; a weekly doctrinal class; also private reading groups; and made pastoral visits three days weekly.

     At the request of the Bishop, he presided at the Twenty-Second British Assembly at Colchester, from August 3rd to 5th.

     He has also visited Colchester, Failsworth, Kilburn, and Northampton, fulfilling various duties in connection therewith.

     By invitation of the Swedenborg Society, he gave an address at the celebration of Swedenborg's Birthday; and, in September, he was made a member of the Board for revising and publishing the books of the Writings. He has continued to act as the President of the New Church Club, and has contributed papers to the same.

     He notes that, in October last, it was his privilege to celebrate the completion of fifty years' service in the ministry and priesthood of the Lord's New Church.

     REV. ALFRED ACTON reports that, during his absence in Europe, he preached three times for Mr. Baeckstrom in Stockholm. He also conducted doctrinal classes of 16 to 20 persons at the houses of members there, every Sunday evening during his stay. He also came into active and useful touch with members at The Hague, in Copenhagen, and Prague. In Vienna, by invitation, he addressed the society on his work in Europe, and also on the doctrinal principles of the General Church. In Rome, he administered the Holy Communion to our members there for the third time;-these occasions being the only ones on which they had ever been able to take part in this holy rite.

     REV. KARL R. ALDEN continued, during the past summer, with the missionary services at Bryn Athyn, preaching twelve sermons. He reports that one man had "been baptized and joined the General Church purely as the result of the missionary services."

     REV. GUSTAF BAECKSTROM reports that, in addition to his duties as Pastor of the Stockholm Society, he has delivered forty-four public missionary lectures: one in Stockholm, and thirty-two in other places in Sweden, with an average attendance of 153 persons. Also eleven lectures in Norway, with an average attendance of 86. Books valued at about 3,600 Kr. have been sold during 1929.

     REV. ALBERT BJORCK has, since his arrival in England from Spain, at the beginning of July, acted as Pastor to the Circle at Woodgreen, Salisbury. Divine services have been held on every Sunday, also a weekly doctrinal class, except on four occasions when he preached in Colchester, and in the Michael Church, London.

     REV. H. W. BOEF, as acting Pastor of the Gabriel Church, Los Angeles, reports 17 members in the Society. There are also 16 children and young people not yet members.

     REV. W. B. CALDWELL reports that he has been engaged as Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE, and as Professor of Theology in the Academy. During the year he visited the New York Society eight times and the Washington Society once, conducting worship and a doctrinal class on each occasion. He also preached twice at Bryn Athyn.

304




     REV. EMIL. R. CRONLUND preached once at Bryn Athyn, and conducted three Sunday afternoon missionary services there.

     REV. L. W. T. DAVID, who has been engaged as private secretary to Rev. Theodore Pitcairn, has also, since October, conducted a weekly doctrinal class for the Advent Society, West Philadelphia. He has also worked towards the completion of a cumulative index for New Church Life. In August, at the request of the Rev. T. S. Harris, he held services and made visits in various points in New England. He has assisted in the children's services in Bryn Athyn; substituted for the Rev. Homer Synnestvedt in a class in the Elementary School; and assisted in editing New Church Sermons.

     REV. C. E. DOERING reports that, in addition to acting as Dean of Faculties in the Academy, he has preached once at each of the following places: Washington, Pittsburgh, Kitchener, Toronto, and Bryn Athyn. At the Bishop's request, he again visited the Church schools in Pittsburgh, Glenview and Toronto.

     REV. F. W. ELPHICK, as Superintendent of the General Church Mission in South Africa, reports five native pastors, six ministers, and six leaders. There are two theological students receiving regular instruction. The educational work comprises ten men teachers, three women teachers, and three native instructors in trades. There are six day schools, and three night schools.

     The estimated number of baptized members is 771, as against 700 for the previous year.

     There is still no organized group at Sterkstroom, C. P., whose minister, teacher, church and school are not included in the above figures, save as to membership by baptism.

     Mr. Elphick notes that during 1930 he hopes to make a thorough revision of the baptism and membership figures, as the reports from native leaders are still open to question in some instances, owing to native inability to keep accurate records.

     In addition to Mission duties, he has conducted one service in Durban, and assisted once in the same society. He has been the Acting Pastor for the unofficial circle at Alpha, where more or less continuous services and weekly doctrinal classes are held for the white members. Three children are also taught for two hours each day by Mrs. Elphick.

     REV. ALAN GILL, Pastor of the Carmel Church, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, reports that in October the Society sustained a considerable loss in damage by fire to its church building. However, the loss was covered by insurance, and, with the help of the $7,600 received for compensation, the society hopes to be able to rebuild in such a way that all the uses involved will receive adequate housing and even allow for the growth which seems adequately assured. The uses of the Church were only interrupted by the fire for a little over one week.

     Among the encouraging signs of growth have been the baptism of 7 infants, 2 marriages, and a roll of 24 pupils in the day school,-an increase of 7 over last year, with a prospect of steady increase for years to come. In fact, a second full-time teacher has been engaged.

305




     The past year has also witnessed the passing into the other world of several of the "old pillars" of the Church in Kitchener.

     REV. VICTOR J. GLADISH, formerly acting pastor to the Colchester Society, has, since October, been full Pastor there.

     In the Society are 30 children and young people not yet members of the General Church. In the school, under charge of a New Church teacher, there are, at the present time, five New Church children and eight from non-New Church homes.

     REV. W. L. GLADISH reports for the Sharon Church, Chicago, Illinois, that the efforts to raise sufficient funds for a distinctive place of worship are being continued with unabated zeal. The attendance at doctrinal class and bi-weekly suppers is equal to that at public worship.

     He notes a growing tendency of the Sharon and Immanuel Churches to draw nearer together, and he hopes the education of many of the 26 children and young people in and near Chicago may be taken care of by Glenview. A monthly social and a men's bowling league have recently added to the social life of the Society.

     REV. F. E. GYLLENHAAL, as Pastor of the Olivet Church, Toronto, Canada, reports that a children's address has been added to the usual service every Sunday; also, that the monthly evening services have been discontinued as from November, 1929, on account of small attendance, and to add to the weekly Young People's classes.

     As Headmaster of the Day School, he is teaching 23 periods a week in five subjects, viz., Religion, Hebrew, History Arithmetic and Reading. Although there are only nine pupils, there are five grades, making too much work for one teacher.

     He has also preached once in Bryn Athyn, twice in Kitchener, and twice in Palisades Park, Michigan.

     REV. T. S. HARRIS reports that the Arbutus Society, which fifteen years ago consisted of 25 members and about 30 children, has been reduced by removals, deaths and accessions to 15 members and 1 child. The Society has not received aid from the Extension Fund during the past few years, but has, instead, been selling its real estate to help meet expenses. After describing the method by which this is done, Mr. Harris remarks: "This seems to be a good plan, for it places the Society in the position of a crew on a ship that has sprung a leak, with the sailors working at the pumps to keep it from sinking."

     REV. HENRY HEINRICHS, Pastor of the Denver (Colorado) Society, reports that the first half of the year was marked by a gratifying increase of activity due to the presence of young people. The entire year has been characterized by constancy of effort and appreciation.

     A detailed account of his trip to the Canadian North-West during the summer was published in New Church Life, December, 1929. He adds that "prospects are hopeful for the growth of the Church in the Peace River country, which was visited last summer for the first time."

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     REV. E. E. IUNGERICH, Pastor of the Pittsburgh Society, notes that the outstanding features of the year have been the sale of the Wallingford Street property; the laying of the corner-stone of the new church building on Le Roi Road, on June nineteenth, by Bishop N. D. Pendleton; and the dedication of the community building, on December 15th, by the Pastor.

     During August he held Sunday services at Youngstown, Ohio, Johnstown, Pa., and Renovo, Pa.

     Beginning with December 15, brief ten-minute missionary services have been held in the community building on Sundays at 3.30 p.m.

     REV. MOFFAT MACANYANA, Pastor of the Mayville Society, Natal, South Africa, and Missionary in Natal and Zululand, reports 49 members in his society; also a Day School, in charge of a teacher, with 25 pupils in first term, and 15 in second term.

     In the first four and the last three months of the year he translated Heaven and Hell into Zulu. From May to August he did missionary work, and notes 16 baptisms.

     REV. HUGO ODHNER reports, as an Assistant-Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church, that he has preached there 14 times, assisted at 23 services, and conducted 6. He gave 8 society doctrinal classes, and (during the fall) gave 11 classes to a small young people's group. He also preached once at New York.

     He has conducted the monthly "Notes on the Calendar Readings" in New Church Life; acted as Secretary of the General Church; and been employed as Professor of Theology in the Academy, teaching in various departments.

     REV. THEODORE PITCAIRN reports that, besides acting as an Assistant-Pastor to the Bryn Athyn Society up to the middle of June, he also gave a course on the "Human Organic" in the Academy College. He accompanied the Bishop to South Africa, and assisted at the South African Assembly held at Durban; also at the Native Mission Assembly held in Alpha.

     REV. ENOCH S. PRICE reports that he has preached once in the Bryn Athyn Cathedral, and has twice administered the rite of baptism.

     REV. JOSEPH E. ROSENQVIST reports from Gothenburg. Sweden, that although engaged in secular work as a teacher of modern language, he has continued Sunday meetings with a small group. During the year he has translated almost all of Volume I of Swedenborg's Posthumous works into Swedish.

     REV. GILBERT H. SMITH, as Pastor of the Immanuel Church, Glenview, Illinois, reports that a Younger Reading Group for reading directly from the Writings, was established about December 1st, with an attendance of about 30. There is already a weekly Arcana class for the older ladies. The general idea arose out of the "Immanuel Church Day" celebration in November. The meetings are for one hour each Sunday evening.

     REV. HOMER SYNNESTVEDT reports at during the past year he has been employed as a Professor of Education in the Academy. By request of the Bishop, he presided at the Washington, D. C., District Assembly. He has also preached four times at Washington, twice at Pittsburgh, once at Arbutus, once at Glenview, and once in Bryn Athyn.

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     REV. F. E. WAELCHLI, as Visiting Pastor of the General Church, reports that during the year, in the Middle West, he visited Detroit five times; Middleport four times; Erie and Columbus each twice; Cleveland and Niles each once. In the South, Knoxville and Atlanta were visited during the month of March.

     On the Pacific Coast trip during the summer, the following places were visited: Los Angeles, Ontario and Burlingame, California; Portland, La Gorande and Baker, Oregon; Spokane and Walla Walla, Washington; and Denver, Colorado. Full reports of the work done in the above eighteen places, have appeared in the pages of New Church Life.

     As Pastor of the Cincinnati Circle, he officiated at 24 Sunday services. When he is absent on his duties as Visiting Pastor, the services are led by members. The regular Sunday School classes are also held under a similar arrangement. Weekly doctrinal classes are held by the Pastor.

     REV. WM. WHITEHEAD reports that he has conducted eight services and eight doctrinal classes in the New York Society; preached twice in Bryn Athyn; and edited New Church Sermons throughout the year.

     He remarks that in the New York Society there is a marked harmony; also both fact and promise of substantial progress.

     REV. RAYMOND G. CRANCH reports that he preached seven times in various places in South Africa; once in Colchester, England; once in Kitchener, Canada; and twice at Erie, Pa.

     REV. VINCENT C. ODHNER, as Minister by appointment to the Advent Society, Philadelphia, until June 21st, 1929, reports that he conducted 25 doctrinal classes during the above period. Due to his absence in New York several regular classes were missed.
     Respectfully submitted,
          WM. WHITEHEAD,
               Secretary, Council of the Clergy.

308


REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON NEW CHURCH SERMONS 1930

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON NEW CHURCH SERMONS       Various       1930

     Your Committee has, during the past year, continued the putting out of this General Church publication. During 1929, we published 27 sermons and 12 children's stores and addresses, making a volume of 373 pages.
     We wish to thank all those ministers who favored us with MSS. Also we would acknowledge the useful work done by Miss Gertrude Nelson, of Glenview, Ill., who has extended her use of presenting Bible stores to include the Writings, and stories conveying spiritual-moral lessons.
     May we suggest that ministers supply us with as many sermons as possible for this use before the beginning of the Fall each year, when our need is greatest? Especially is there a call for short sermons in connection with the church festivals.
     Your Committee wishes to invite any comments or suggestions with reference to the present policy of this journal, especially as to the reception of the stores for children at present being provided.
     We now have the materials for a ten years' Index to New Church Sermons, which we propose to publish at the end of the present volume.
     Respectfully submitted,
          GEORGE DE CHARMS, Chairman.
          WILLIAM WHITEHEAD, Editor.
          L. W. T. DAVID, Editor.
ORPHANAGE FUND 1930

ORPHANAGE FUND       WALTER C. CHILDS       1930

     Statement from January 1 to December 31, 1929.

     RECEIPTS

Cash Balance, December 31, 1928                                   $710.46
Interest on Investments                                             274.36
Bank Interest                                                  5.37
                                                            $990.19

     CONTRIBUTIONS

Orphanage Boxes                                        $530.12
Bryn Athyn Cathedral Boxes                              259.23
Denver Society                                        19.76
New York Society                                        48.90
Middleport Society                                   10.00
Kitchener Society                                        27.75
Kitchener Society, Children's Thanksgiving               3.10
Glenview Society, Christmas Offering                    4.85
Mr. Harold F. Pitcairn                                   360.00
Mrs. Cara S. Glenn                                   100.00
Mr. Louis B. Pendleton                                   25.00

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Mr. John Hamm                                        17.00
Mrs. W. S. Howland                                   12.00
Mrs. Raymond Pitcairn                                   800.00
Miss Josephine Sellner                                   18.00
Mrs. Selma M. Boericke                                   50.00
Miss Winnie Boericke                                   10.00
Mr. Colley Pryke                                        20.65
Rev. Gustaf Baeckstrom                                   1.00
Mr. Carith Hansen                                        3.50
Miss Rebecca E. Sullivan                              2.00
Mr. Walter C. Childs                                   25.00
Mrs. Florence K. Hyde                                   2.00
Mrs. George H. Johnson                                   1.00
Mrs. Regina Iungerich                                   10.00
Miss Ellen V. Wallenberg                              10.00
Miss Clara Wallenberg                                   5.00
Mr. Jacob Schoenberger                                   18.75
Mrs. F. O. Brietstein                                   5.00
Mrs. Wm. H. Alden                                        1.00
Mrs. M. D. Sorensen and Boys                              4.40
                                                       $2,405.00
     Total Receipts                                        $3,395.19

     DISBURSEMENTS.

Assistance to Sundry Persons                                   $2,820.00
     Cash Balance, December 31, 1929                         $575.19

     WALTER C. CHILDS,
          Treasurer.

     ORPHANAGE BOXES.

Bryn Athyn                                        $239.49
Chicago                                        33.40
Cincinnati                                        8.00
Colchester                                        14.49
Denver                                        7.29
Erie                                             11.00
Glenview                                        126.42
Kitchener                                        19.03
New York City                                   17.00
     Total, as above                                        $530.12

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Church News 1930

Church News       Various       1930

     THE SOUTH.

     On Tuesday, February 25th, I set out on my annual trip south. The same day I arrived at KNOXVILLE, TENN., where I was most kindly received by Mr. and Mrs. R. S. C. Hutchinson and their daughter, Ethel Rae. In the evening we went to the home of Mrs. Clarice Remington, where services were held; attendance, four. The next afternoon I had the pleasure of a doctrinal conversation with Mr. Hutchinson, who is a faithful student of the Writings. Our topic was the Divine Rational of the Divine Human of the Lord. In the evening we had a doctrinal class, missionary in character; attendance, five. After class I took train for the next place to be visited.

     Thursday morning I arrived at BIRMINGHAM, ALA., to be with Mr. And Mrs. A. M. Echols; as also with Mrs. Frost, the mother of Mrs. Echols, living with them. They have two children in the Bryn Athyn schools. There are also three children at home, and instruction was given the two older of these the same day. Mr. F. L. Kendig, a member of the General Church also lives in Birmingham, but unfortunately was out of the city for the entire time of my visit. A call was made on Mrs. Kendig. On Friday evening a class was held, and besides the people of the house a neighbor and his wife attended. Our missionary talk was on the Word and its internal sense, and so great was the interest, and so many the questions, that we continued until nearly midnight. A desire was expressed for another class the next evening, which was accordingly held, the subject being the life after death, the discussion continuing until a late hour.

     Sunday morning was given to the instruction of the children. In the afternoon a service was held at which all attending the classes were present and also four children, making nine persons. Mrs. Echols and the three children of the family received New Church baptism. Immediately after the service, questioning began and continued for two hours. And in the evening, at another class, we had three hours more. The interested persons expressed their determination to read the Writings, and notwithstanding my many disappointments in missionary work, I feel a deep assurance of their full reception of the Heavenly Doctrines.

     On Monday, March 3rd, began a week's visit at ATLANTA, GA., where I was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Barnitz. The next day, instruction was given their two older children, and also on three other days during my stay. Instruction was twice given to the five children of Mr. and Mrs. Crockett. This work of teaching the children at all places visited is our principal missionary endeavor. It was arranged that all meetings be held at the Crockett home, and on Tuesday evening we had our first doctrinal class there, with nine persons present, two of them strangers. Again on Friday evening a class was held, and, only members of the church being present, more interior doctrine was considered. On Sunday afternoon a service was held, at which there was an attendance of fourteen, including five children. Six persons partook of the Holy Supper. In the evening we had our final class, with nine persons present. Since my preceding visit to Atlanta, two members have passed to the other world, one of them being Dr. James Pendleton, a cousin of our Bishop; Mrs. Frost had moved to Birmingham; and her son, Mr. Chester Frost, had fallen into such poor health that he could not attend meetings. So the number is not so great. Our hope is in the children. The report of the visit here would not be complete without stating that I spent several enjoyable hours with Mr. J. A. Fraser, conversing about the state of the church and about our mutual friends in the church centers.

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     On Monday, the 10th, I went to MACON, GA., where I spent two delightful days with Mr. and Mrs. Sterling Smith. On the first evening we held a class, at which two friends, a man and wife, were present. As usual when strangers attend, the instruction was given a missionary turn. The visitors were greatly pleased with what they heard. On the second evening a service was held, including the Holy Supper. The gentleman visitor of the preceding evening could not come; but the lady came, and also a daughter. After the service there were many questions asked and answered; and at the end the lady exclaimed, "I have found my church!" Let us hope that what was found will abide.

     Thursday morning, the I arrived at the home of Mr. And Mrs. Seymour Nelson in ST. PETERSBURG, FLA., receiving a most hearty welcome from them and their family. In the afternoon of the next day, the members of the Circle, which meets at the Nelson house, gathered there to the number of twenty-one persons. Most of them are winter residents, and members of societies in the North. A class was held, at which the subject was the Written Word in the Heavens. Great interest and pleasure was manifested in the presentation. Then followed a delightful social supper, at the conclusion of which Mr. Nelson suggested that I relate some of the experiences of my work. To this I gladly responded, telling of the love for the church and the doctrines to be found in our small struggling circles and among the isolated,-of how in many cases one family (or sometimes only one person) regularly uses the New Church Sermons for Sunday services; also how the Children's Stories in that publication are serving an inestimable use in many localities.

     On Sunday morning a service was held, with an attendance of nineteen. Miss Marietta Meech received New Church baptism, and eighteen persons partook of the Holy Supper. After the service all went to the Suwannee Hotel for dinner, and, being joined by some who could not attend the service, we were twenty-two persons seated at one long table. Again we had a most enjoyable social time. Of the persons who attended the meetings, four were from St. Petersburg, five from Glenview, two from Chicago, three from Pittsburgh, two from Blairsville, Pa., two from Salem, Ohio, one from Middleport, Ohio, one from Orange, N. J., and two from Ottawa, Canada.

     On Monday, the 17th, I went to visit that staunch New Churchman, Mr. Joachim Fritz, residing near APOPKA, FLA., in the interior of the state, where he has a beautiful place-containing a mineral spring, and bordering on the Wekiva River-which he is developing as a resort, in the hope that members of the General Church may gather here and sojourn for rest, recreation, and the benefits of the healing waters. His plans include the erection of a chapel. At present he and his son and some hired help live on the place. In the evening of the second day we had a service to which there came a family of five persons, not of the church, from Apopka. What they heard awakened a desire to learn more, and so on the following evening a class was held at their home. The teachings presented were received with delight, because of the removal thereby of growing doubts and uncertainties as to spiritual things. And, as to two of the other places were missionary work was done, a determination to read the Writings was expressed. On the following day, Thursday, the 20th, Mr. Fritz and his son drove me by automobile to Jacksonville, a distance of 150 miles, where I took train for home.

     On this trip there was ministration to 69 persons. Of these, 37 are of the church; 9 are children; and 22 are not of the church. There were 5 baptisms: two of adults and three of children. At the administrations of the Holy Supper there were 28 communicants.

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     James B. Spiers.

     Since my preceding visit to the South, the Rev. Junius B. Spiers, for twenty-five years Southern Missionary of the General Convention, passed to the other world, and has been succeeded by the Rev. Frank Gustafson. Mr. Spiers believed in the Divinity of the Writings, and he sewed the seeds of a firm faith in them among the people to whom he ministered. He was a friend of the General Church, and not only defended its principles, but also dispelled much of the prejudice that prevailed against it in the minds of those who were misinformed and ignorant of its character, this resulting in many becoming subscribers to and index of New Church Life, and also in a number of children being sent to the Academy Schools at Bryn Athyn. His spirit of charity, honesty and love of justice endeared him to the members of the General Church who had the pleasure of knowing him. His visits were always welcomed by them, and the ministrations of his office were deeply appreciated.
     F. E. WAELCHLI.

     LOS ANGELES, CAL.

     Much to our regret, you have not had a report from our society for a long time. We are glad to state, however, that this failure on our part has not been due to inactivity or to a standstill in our church life. We have had an active and busy time, and have entered into the performance of several new uses.

     Early in October last year, through the efforts of Mrs. F. G. Davis, we were exceedingly fortunate in finding a suitable ball with three adjacent rooms, which could be rented at a very moderate price. The rooms, in which a branch studio of the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music is housed, suit our needs as well as we can expect. We feel that we have taken a forward step toward making our society life distinct; while the acquisition of the rooms has brought with it the satisfaction of worshiping in our own house of worship.

     On Sunday morning the little hall is metamorphosed into a small chapel, primitive indeed, but filled with a strong and affectionate sphere of worship, and this has been enhanced this year by the regular administration of the Holy Supper. The added space has made it possible for us to have our monthly suppers with all sitting at one table. The animated repast is usually followed by a short address from our pastor, after which we remain for a social evening. Young and old then join in the playing of games, dancing, and such entertainment as is provided by the ingenuity of our master of ceremonies, Miss Evangeline Iler, to whom the success and merriment of our social evenings has been largely due.

     Our church rooms have proved their usefulness in more ways than one. At Christmas, we were pleasantly entertained by the children, who gave a religious play. The story of Saul and David, adapted from the Word by our pastor, was enacted most successfully by them. We were glad to be surprised by their promising talent as actors. Though the staging and costumes were quite simple and unassuming, the whole performance was very impressive and touching, especially the Manger Scene at the end of the play.

     For the first time in our history we have entered as a society upon the use of external evangelization. Last February, a series of three public lectures was given, with the hope of extending our spiritual wealth to the others who might possibly join us and augment our numbers. It was a pity that our funds did not permit us to advertise in the papers. We resorted to the sending of persons to our Old Church acquaintances, with the result that ten of them attended. Since then, we have had about five more visitors; but though all seem to leave us quite impressed, we have net had the pleasure of seeing them return. Mr. and Mrs. D. W. Friesen, however, attended our services quite regularly. They were on a visit to their brother-in-law and brother, Mr. Abram Klippenstein, but we are sorry to say that they have now returned to their home in Canada.

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     Other visitors to Los Angeles were: Mrs. C. Kofod, of Bryn Athyn; Mr. Ray Brown, from Toronto; Mrs. Smith, from Kitchener; Mr. T. O. Rhodes, from Pittsburgh. Needless to say, it gives us great pleasure to me nor friends from the East, and we only regret that they stay with us for such a short time. We would take this opportunity to ask all those who came to Los Angeles to let us know when they are coming, that we may have the pleasure of extending our hospitality, and of seeing more of them. Mr. Peter Veilenga, of Palo Alto, Cal., was with us also, when he passed through on his trip to Holland, where he will visit his relations.

     At a private ceremony, held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Emil F. Stroh in Ontario, Cal., the wedding of Miss Ruth Stroh to Mr. Andrew Klein, of Bryn Athyn, took place. A beautiful and impressive ceremony marked the occasion. Our best wishes for their happiness go with Mr. and Mrs. Klein, who returned to Bryn Athyn to reestablish their residence there.

     At present there are in Bryn Athyn four young people from this society who are attending the Academy Schools. We feel their absence very strongly, and are looking forward to the time when they shall come back to help us make a success in the establishment of the Church here. It is with this hope that we shall be glad to see two mare of our young people leave us this year for Bryn Athyn Mr. Jack Davis, and Miss Mary Evelyn Davis, who will complete their High School education there.     

     Mr. And Mrs. Peter Klippenstein have left Los Angeles permanently for Bryn Athyn. We sincerely hope that all of Mr. Klippenstein's hopes for a bright and happy future will be fulfilled.

     In January, on a visit to his relations in San Francisco, Mr. Boef had the opportunity of conducting worship at the home of Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Bundsen now living in Palo Alto, Cal. Four others were present at the service: the youngest son of Mr. and Bundsen; Mr. and Mrs. Pierre Santa Cruz, Cal., who drove to attend; and Mr. F. N. Boef, brother of our pastor. They who doubt the power of our ritual should be present on such occasions, where only a few come together to worship.

     Only two of our members will be able to attend the General Assembly, them being our pastor and Miss Adamae Smith, with the possibility that Mrs. Abram Klippenstein may be able to go. Those who remain wish to extend their beat wishes for a happy reunion of all the friends.

     PITTSBURGH, PA.

     The members of the society enjoyed a pleasant and successful evening on March 15th in the form of a progressive supper. The supper began at Miss Zoe Iungerich's with hors d'oeuvres and soup, and progressed to Mm. W. C. Rott's and Mrs. Homer Schoenberger's for the main course, and ended at Mm. A. P. Lindsay's for dessert, coffee, bridge and dancing.

     A number have come together on several evenings to play bridge, sans prizes and refreshments, at twenty-five cents each. Those interested in cards have found this a pleasant way of adding to the funds. Since raising money seems to be a necessity at the present time, we have found many interesting way; of doing it.

     The semiannual meeting of the Pittsburgh Society was held on March 21st at the home of the late Mrs. Agnes Pitcairn on Stratford Avenue, in the home of Mr. and Mrs. S. S. Lindsay, Sr., where the meeting was to have been held, was under quarantine for measles. This meeting included the usual reports of Pastor, Secretary, Treasurer and Day School, with interesting discussions.

     On March 28th, the Philosophy Club met at the home of Mr. C. H. Ebert, with the banner attendance of the year. Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner was the guest of the evening, a an interesting paper on and Love of God."

314




     We are happy to report that the insurance on the Community Building has been adjusted, and work recommenced; that is, the destroyed portions are being torn out. We hope that the weather will permit rapid progress in rebuilding. The church proper is under roof, and will no doubt be ready for occupancy in the near future. So, in spite of setbacks, we are forging ahead.

     Them have been a number of visitors during the past month from Bryn Athyn: Mr. Raymond Pitcairn, Mr. R. W. Childs, Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner, Mr. H. T. Carswell, Mr. Samuel Croft, II, and the Rev. Homer Synnestvedt, who preached for us an April 6th. Mr. A. Wynne Acton spent his spring vacation visiting the Craig Street Schoenbergers and the Rev. E. E. Iungerich, and a number of social affairs were held in his honor.
     E. R. D.

     KITCHENER, ONT.

     Swedenborg's Birthday was commemorated by our School with a dinner at noon, followed by a party. At table the three eldest boys of the school gave speeches on three general phases of Swedenborg's life, namely, (1) His Earlier Years, (2) His Travels, (3) Preparation for His Great Mission. In the evening, the adult celebration took the form of a supper with speeches. Dr. Robert Schnarr was chairman, and had arranged for a series of papers on the general subject of Documentary Evidence concerning numerous things of interest about Swedenborg and the Writings, and these were read by Messrs. Carl Kuhl, Clarence Schnarr and Robert Schnarr, Jr.

     During the absence of our Pastor and Miss Anna Heinrichs, who attended the Annual Council Meetings at Bryn Athyn, the sessions of the school continued as usual, Miss Korene Schnarr having offered to take Miss Heinrichs' classes.

     The Young Peoples Club provided evening for the society, at which we were frequently reminded of the proximity of April Fool's Day. The Ladies' Guild is arranging a Baking Sale for April 30th, the proceeds to be used for school equipment.

     On March 31st, Miss Laurina Walker was called to the spiritual world after a lingering illness. She was in her eighteenth year, and was a member of our Young People's Class. A few days later, Mrs. Sarah Northgraves, one of our oldest members here, passed away. Her husband preceded her to the spiritual world about eighteen months ago. Of late years they had net been living in Kitchener, but came frequently to attend special church functions.
      C. R.

     GLENVIEW, ILL.

     The principal item of interest during March was the visit of the Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner and Mr. Randolph W. Childs, who came as the invited guests of the local chapter of the Sons of the Academy to participate in its annual meeting. The annual banquet was held on March 29th, with lady guests, and Mr. Odhner was the speaker of the evening, his subject being "Psychoanalysis." In an hour's talk he condensed a world of truths and information on the various "isms" under the general head of his topic, and the lesson we drew from it was to hold fast to the teachings of the Writings, and to judge the "isms" from them. At the banquet the newly elected officers were installed. Mr. Ralph Synnestvedt taking the chair se the president of the local chapter.

     On the following evening the regular meeting of the chapter was held, with Mr. Childs presiding and delivering the principal address, in which be dealt with miscellaneous matters pertaining to the uses and activities of the Sons of the Academy, and propounded the query as to the most acceptable position for the Sons to take in the various centers of the Church where there are members.

315


The Glenview chapter, of course, is committed to the organization system, having a formal status and some ritual. This they would like to are all over the world, each chapter being a subordinate lodge of the main and world-wide body. Mr. Childs appeared to be open-minded on the subject, and Mr. Odhner appeared to favor a very loose order of things, with little or no formality or organization. The meetings were a pronounced success, and we managed to keep Mr. Odhner over for a meeting with the ladies on Monday evening.

     On March 25th, we had the most severe and long-continued snow storm in the annals of the local weather bureau, but the effects have now disappeared and Spring is showing her face. Recent visitors were Mr. Ray Brown, of Toronto, who attended the Sons' meetings, and Mr. Doron Synnestvedt, of Bryn Athyn.
     J. B. S.

     OBITUARY.

     Mrs. R. W. Anderson.

     In the passing of Mrs. Anderson, the New Church in London loses the earthly presence of one of its most devoted members, and the Church in England one of its dearly loved friends. Florence Louise Anderson was the only daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Thomas C. Stebbing, who were members of the Academy of the New Church in its early days in London, and who formed put of the congregation which left the Conference and eventually joined the General Church of the New Jerusalem. In June, 1895, she was married to Mr. Roderic Whittington Anderson, nephew of Mr. C. J. Whittington, composer of the music of the Psalmody.

     Mrs. Anderson was characterized by an unobtrusive and retiring nature, but her gentleness of disposition, and her devotion both as daughter and wife, won her the admiration and affection of all who knew her. Her passing was of the sweetest character. She realized that she was leaving her loved ones, and expressed the hope that thy "did not mind." Almost the last words spoke, by her were: "O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever."

     The funeral at Brookwood, Surrey, on February 11th conducted by Bishop Tilson, and was attended by many friends, including the Rev. Victor J. Gladish, who represented the Colchester Society. Numerous beautiful wreaths were sent as tokens of loving memories, deeply-felt sympathy for the bereaved husband.
     R. J. T.

     Miss Agnes Pitcairn

     While visiting in St. Petersburg, Florida, Miss Pitcairn passed to the spiritual world on March 4, 1930, in her 70th year. She was born in Allegheny. Pa., on April 22, 1860, the eldest daughter of Alexander and Janet Pitcairn. The members of her immediate family who survive her are: Mrs. S. S. Lindsay, Sr., (Helen Pitcairn), Mr. Edward Pitcairn and Mr. David A. Pitcairn.

     Miss Pitcairn was a staunch New Church woman and a life-long student of the Writings, always being most active in church work. At one time she taught Art in the school of the Pittsburgh Society, and for many years was housekeeper at the Wallingford Street building. Her presence will be much missed, and she will be remembered with warm affection by all who knew her.
     E. R. D.

     Dr. Uriah O. Heilman

     Dr. Heilman, who passed into the spiritual world on March 17th, was a man of forceful character, and well-versed in the Doctrines of the New Church. Brought up a German Lutheran, he was very active in that Church, finally becoming a deacon. Here he met Esther Heckman, who became his wife and the mother of his six children. At the death of his wife's uncle, a Baptist minister, volumes of the Writings, gift books of the Iungerich Fund, came into their possession, and from that time they read together constantly and became fervent believers in the Second Coming of the Lord.

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     Enjoying a large practice as a physician in and about his home in Leechburg, Pa., Dr. Heilman became a prominent citizen, and this gave him many opportunities to discuss the Doctrines and to impact their message to others. With fervor did he combat the teaching of all the Old Church ministers with whom he came in contact, so that one with whom he talked, if not convinced, knew a great deal about the Unity of God, the inefficacy of Faith Alone, and the fallacy of Darwinism, from the Doctor's presentation of those subjects.

     Dr. Heilman is survived by his second wife, whom he married in his later years, and by his six children: Mrs. Alexander P. Lindsay, of Pittsburgh; Dr. Martin W. Heilman, of Tarentum, Pa.; Mrs. Herman Grote, of Pittsburgh; Prof. Otho W. Heilman, of Bryn Athyn; Mrs. Oswald Asplundh, Bethayres, Pa.; and Dr. Glenn Heilman, of Tarentum, Pa.; all but the last named being active members of the New Church.
     ZOE IUNGERICH.

     Benjamin Benade McQueen.

     At the age of only thirty-five, after four years of steadily increasing disability and much suffering, our dear friend, "Ben" McQueen, gained his release from pain on April 8th. His name should be added to the long list of those who gave their lives for the causes at stake in the World War; for his physical disability had its inception at Belleau Wood, where he was wounded in the ankle on the day before the Armistice. This, and other experiences of the conflict, seem to have been the cause of the long period of sometimes intolerable suffering through which he was obliged to pass. He terminated his service as Sergeant in Company M, 131st Infantry, 33rd Division, A. B. F.

     When the George A. McQueen family moved from Colchester, Glenview, Ben was about eleven years of age, and he became a pupil in the Immanuel Church School. Later, he attended the Boys' Academy, Bryn Athyn, 1910-1912, and then entered the banking business with the Harris Trust Company, Chicago, with whom he was engaged for thirteen years, or until his illness incapacitated him. In 1919, he married Miss Lenore Junge, and two children were born to them, Joyce and "Benny." In the fail of 1926, the family went to Arizona, but returned to Glenview in 1929 without the hoped-for improvement in Ben's health. Since their return, he has been the object of loving sympathy and concern on the part of all in the Immanuel Church, and the recipient of the most devoted cue at the Junge home.

     Ben was a spiritual-minded man, actively interested in the Church, and a reader of the Doctrines. Of clear cut and definite character, with mildness and good humor, he was devoted to his use in life, and most highly regarded by his employers. And we believe that be held fast to his faith in the Divine Providence which did not always seem kind to him. He will be remembered with warm affection by all his friends, and they are glad for him that he has been relieved of his great suffering.
     G. H. S.

     SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA.

     The Sunday School picnic is the next item in the order of succession on from the last report. It was held at National Park on Saturday, the 1st of February. This date is usually associated with an uncomfortably high temperature, but this day was perfect. Cricket and races were the chief amusements, and the children, especially, thoroughly enjoyed their annual outing. Including friends, the number present was fifty.

     National Park is a natural park, being a large slice of the great Australian bush, comprising thirty-six thousand acres, or fifty-six square miles.

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The guide bock states that it abounds in picturesque view and scenes of great natural beauty; whilst its fresh and salt water river offers unrivaled boating facilities." As the guide books of other States probably adopt the word "unrivaled"; and as the difference between "views" and "scenes" is too subtle for the understanding, no attempt will be made at explanation, except to say that the mystery of the "river" being both salt and fresh is solved by the knowledge that it is a branch of Port Hacking, running inland about three mile, and me ting fresh water streams from the highlands. Part, Hacking itself is a branch from the South Pacific Oman via Bate Bay.

     Our tennis court is gradually fulfilling its intended use as an adjunct in drawing the young and middle aged within the sphere of the Church. This feature and the monthly tem that were inaugurated on the suggestion of Miss Taylor have caused an increase in Sunday School and Doctrinal Class attendance.

     On the evening of Sunday, March 4th, we had the pleasure of entertaining the Rev. Wm. R. Reece and his wife. With them were the leader of the Thomas St Society, Mr. Burl, and Mrs. Burl, also three other members of that Society. No social evening in our history exceeded this for harmony and spirituality. There were thirty-six present: sixteen adults and twenty young people, some nearing adult age. The tables, which were formed in the shape of a T, presented a very pleasing sight, and called forth favorable comment from our guest. The head of the T was near the chancel, the curtains of which were closed; and seated at the head were Mr. and Mrs. Reece, Mr. and. Mrs. Burl and the Pastor, who had the two former on his right and the two latter an his left.

     We make a practice at such gatherings of not having speeches will the bodily appetite has been satisfied. So, after quoting from A. C. 7996, and singing, as a grace, Hymn no. 61 of the Hymnal, a very delightful repast was heartily partaken "within the church, in order that we might be consociated and conjoined as to love, and that we might instruct one another in those things which are of love and faith, thus in the thing, of heaven."

     As a prelude to the society's welcome to the guests all sang Hymn 54: "Zion rise to glory." The Pastor then expressed the pleasure it gave him to welcome Mr. and Mrs. Reece on behalf of the Hurstville Society, and his regret that they were leaving Australia. "The Church is one," he said. "It is the Lord's bride. No single society of the church is a church, but simply a member,-a collective member,-of the one Church, and then only if it accepts and lives according to the Revelation that is ever more and mom establishing the Church. Some societies are more in love to the Lord, and in the truths of doctrine, than others."

     To the music of the organ, Mr. and Mrs. Kirschstein contributed that spiritually stimulating hymn by Mr. E. W. Misson:

"Father, Lord, Redeemer,
While on our knees we pray,
Humbly we implore The,
To guide us on our way."

     Our guest then rose, and made an inspiring speech. He spoke in high appreciation of our efforts towards New Church education. He was delighted at the success attending it in Bryn Athyn, which center he had visited, and had attended some of the classes there. He made interacting reference to the fact of the first and second Advents being coincident with the summer and winter solstitial points in the earths evolution round the sun,-December 21st, and June 20th.

     Mr. Burl and others then spoke, and Mr. T. R. Taylor sang "Father in heaven, Thy children hear," after which all joined very heartily in singing "Our Glorious Church."

     A very delightful gathering the, melted slowly away, Mr. Reece here and there receiving the hopes of friends that he would be successful in his new pastorate at Brockton, Mass.
     R. M.

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FOURTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1930

FOURTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY              1930




     Announcements




     Bryn Athyn, PA., June 13-19, 1930

     PROGRAM

Friday, June 13.
     10.00 a.m. Commencement Exercises of the Academy Schools.
               Address by Mr. Sidney E. Lee
     3.00 p.m. Open Meeting of the Corporation and Faculties of the Academy of the New Church.

Friday, June 13.
     8.00 p.m. Assembly Reception.

Saturday, June 14.
     10.00 a.m. Opening Session of the General Assembly.
               Address by the Bishop of the General Church.
     3.00 p.m. Academy Finance Association.
     8.00 p.m. Assembly Pageant.

Sunday, June 15.
     11.00 a.m. Divine Worship.
     8.00 p.m. Service of Praise.

Monday, June 16.
     10.00 a.m. Second Session of the Assembly. Subject recommended for consideration: "NEW CHURCH LIFE."
     11.00 a.m. Address by the Rt. Rev. George de Charms.
     4.00 p.m. Third Session. Address by Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner.
     8.00 p.m. Presentation of "Outward Bound," drama by Sutton Vane, under the auspices of the Civic and Social Club.
     
Tuesday, June 17.
     10.00 a.m. Fourth Session. Subject recommended for consideration: "Church Finances."
     11.00 a.m. Address by Rev. Alfred Acton.
     3.00 p.m. Meeting of the Corporation of the General Church.
     2.30 p.m. Meeting of Theta Alpha.
     8.00 p.m. Fifth Session. Address by Rev. C. E. Doering.

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Wednesday, June 18.
     10.00 a.m. Sixth Session.
     11.00 a.m. Address by Rev. E. E. Iungerich.
     1.00 p.m. Luncheon for the Ladies, under the auspices of Theta Alpha.
     1.00 p.m. Luncheon for the Men, under the auspices of Sons of the Academy. Annual Meeting of the Sons of the Academy. Address by Dr. C. R. Pendleton, as Academy's representative at the Sons' meeting.
     8.00 p.m. Seventh Session. Addresses by various Pastors on "The State of the Church."

Thursday, June 19.
     11.00 a.m. Divine Worship. Administration of the Holy Supper.
     3.00 p.m. Informal Concert.
     7.00 p.m. Assembly Banquet.

     ASSEMBLY INFORMATION.

     By invitation of the Bryn Athyn Church, the Fourteenth General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held at Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 13th to 19th, 1930. All members and friends of the General Church are cordially invited to attend, and those expecting to do so are requested to notify Mr. Loyal D. Odhner, Bryn Athyn, Pa., at the earliest possible time, in order that proper accommodations for housing may be made.

     Meals will be served on the restaurant plan at $2.75 per day, commencing with breakfast on Friday, June 13th.

     Trains from Philadelphia to Bryn Athyn and Bethayres will be met by Assembly Committee representatives wearing red and white ribbons, and they will provide transportation for guests and baggage.

     The Assembly Committee will gladly answer any inquiries in regard to arrangements. Address: Mr. G. S. Childs, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

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LETTER FROM DR. BEYER 1930

LETTER FROM DR. BEYER       Dr. ALFRED ACTON       1930


NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. L                JUNE, 1930                    No. 6
     COMMENT

     The autograph letter from Dr. Gabriel Andersson Beyer, a translation of which is given below, is in the possession of Dr. Eric Nordenskjold. It has never before been made public. From the fact that it is a part of the Nordenskjold papers originally preserved in the Nordenskjold homestead at Frugard, Finland, as well as from other considerations, there can be little doubt but that it was addressed to Mr. C. F. Nordenskjold, a young man of 20 years of age who at the time was a secretary serving without pay in one of the most important departments of the Swea Hofratt or Law Court.

     This is perhaps a convenient place to note that it was not Nordenskjold, as is commonly supposed (see 1 Doc. 620, note 20), but Benedict Chastanier, of London, who requested Robsahm to write out his recollections of Swedenborg. This is shown by a note appended to a copy of Robsahm's Memoirs, now preserved in the University Library of Upsala. The note reads: "As an old friend and intimate of Swedenborg's, Robsahm has set up this account at the request of many. It was sent to England and, used by Pernety and many others who wrote on Swedenborg. The well-known Chastanier was the one who asked for the account. His letter hereon to Robsahm, I saw at Robsahm's son-in-law's, Prof. Pehr Kraft."

     Dr. Beyer's letter is an answer to two letters received from Mr. Nordenskjold, dated December 29, 1775, and January 25, 1776, wherein a number of doctrinal questions were submitted for solution by the Gothenburg lector who had enjoyed the advantage of corresponding with Swedenborg himself and also of personal intercourse with him, and who was regarded as the greatest living student of Swedenborg's theological writings.

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     The first question put before Dr. Beyer concerned a boy from Skara who possessed supernatural gifts of some kind. Presumably, this boy is the same as he of whom Dr. Beyer made some inquiry of Swedenborg himself. Writing on November 14, 1769, Swedenborg says in answer:

     If report concerning him is true, it is a testimony to the communication of spirits with men. A fine and wealthy family here in Stockholm is desirous of having the boy with them, and will meet the expense of educating him in whatever he may be found to have a bent to. Should this fall in with the boy's inclination, and an opportunity offer of his being sent here in someone's company, this would accord with the family's desire, and in such case 30 dalers silvermint could be given him in hand for traveling expenses and maintenance; and if, on his arrival, he will address himself to me, he will then be taken to the house.

     I will pass by the vision of the white serpents, since this occurred in his early childhood. For this reason its significance is passed by, and, moreover it can be taken negatively or affirmatively at pleasure. But the fact of his knowing the use of herbs, and also certain diseases, if this be the fact, is not due to there being such diseases and cures in the other life with spirits and angels; there, however, are found spiritual diseases and spiritual uses which correspond to the natural diseases and cures in this world; therefore, the correspondence is the cause of this taking place.

     It would appear that this boy did go to Stockholm, and it is probable that, when disputing with friends concerning Swedenborg's claims, Nordenskjold used him as an illustration of the possibility of communication with spirits.

     Another subject which Nordenskjold brought up, and one of the greatest importance, was the status of the Writings, and particularly as to what is involved in Swedenborg's statement that what he wrote was "from the Lord." Beyer evidently saw the fundamental implications involved in this question, and to its answer he devotes the greater part of his letter,-the part also which will be of the greatest interest to the student of today.

     Nordenskjold's second letter, of January 25th, seems to have contained many questions, brief answers to which occupy the latter half of Beyer's letter. An examination of the answers indicates that the questions themselves arose, in part at any rate, in controversy with opponents of Swedenborg's writings.

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Thus, Nordenskjold asks concernings the objection that Swedenborg did no miracles (Questions paragraph 1); concerning the charge that his writings contain contradictions (paragraph 2); that he is harsh in his statement in the True Christian Religion 137, concerning Ernesti (paragraph 3), and in his statements concerning the Old Church (paragraph 4); that his visions are delusions, that he makes hell too easy, and that even so he contradicts himself (paragraph 5-7), and that his True Christian Religion is obscure (paragraph 8).

     The question is then raised as to what can be offered in proof of the opening of Swedenborg's spiritual sight (paragraph 9). In this connection, the Revelation of John is spoken of, and also some other purported revelations made by men who claimed to see into the spiritual world. Such revelations had probably been brought forward by opponents with the intention of showing that Swedenborg was but one of many claimants to spiritual sight (paragraph 11). It is probably, in this connection, that Nordenskjold cited Oetilinger's Earthly and Heavenly Philosophy (see below, p. 330), where the author (who was easily convinced by men who claimed to have speech with spirits) cites the "News concerning Heaven and Hell given in the first quarter of the seventeenth century by Hans Englebrecht, an unlettered "seer" of Brunswick.

     Nordenskjold then turns to questions concerning the purity of the text of the Old and New Testaments, and also concerning the best versions (paragraph 12-17).

     The questions that follow are a reflection of the enthusiasm, the ambition and the high hopes of this young apostle of the truth. He evidently has it in his mind to write, or to get someone else to write, a life of Swedenborg, and asks Beyer as to sources (paragraph 18). Beyer assures him that, in view of the sources that will be available when the Index Initialis is published, a life of Swedenborg is at present a minor necessity." But he welcomes with great warmth Nordenskjo1d's announcement that translations of, the Writings are being undertaken by the friends in Stockholm, and he tells what translations he himself can after (paragraph 19); he also gives some useful and salutary rules for the guidance of translators.

     Nordenskjold then asks as to the advisability of presenting a memorial to the King, asking permission to have these translations printed in Sweden (paragraph 20).

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Beyer points out how useless this would be, and the Justice of his observations is shown by the fact that it was not until eleven years later (1787) that a theological work by Swedenborg was first printed in Sweden. How this came to be permitted does not appear but it is known that for the ten years following 1797 the receivers of the Writings were obliged to have their translations printed in Copenhagen.

     After dealing with translations, Nordenskjold then turns to some questions concerning a classification of the sciences, and particularly the cultivation of the science of correspondences, in which connection he asks for extracts from the Writings, presumably knowing that Beyer was engaged in making a general Index.

     Finally, be inquires as to the possibility of procuring Swedenborg's Latin Writings, which were already very rare and costly; and he promises to examine the Swedenborg MSS., and to write concerning them. It may here be of interest to note that it was the result of this examination that first brought the Word Explained to the knowledge of receivers of the Doctrines of the New Church; for in a letter to Nordenskjold, dated March 23, 1776, Beyer speaks of the MS of this work as something new.

     And now let us turn to Beyer's own letter.

     DR. BEYER'S LETTER.

     [Gothenburg] February 10, 1776
Honourable Sir:
     I should long since have answered Monsieur's1 very welcome letter of December 29, last year, if poor health and, what is more pressing work, of which Monsieur knows something, had permitted it. It has heartily pleased me, and several others with me,2 to perceive the considerable measure of enlightenment which has come to Monsieur within so short a time.

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This has also given me the assurance that an answer from me for the solution of the matters of dispute which Monsieur mentions would soon become unnecessary. Nevertheless, and because Monsieur has requested it, I will now take up Monsieur's points and make some brief remarks thereon.

     The reflection in regard to the Skara boy3 is partly good and partly permissible, when made for the further confirmation of spiritual truth which one has already accepted because of its own light and clarity; but if it is made for the purpose of acquiring certainty and conviction in respect to what is spiritual by way of the reason, then one should guard one's self against it, as something which easily leads into temptation, and into the danger of losing the truth. It is also forbidden by the Lord in the words: Let him that is in the field not turn back again far his garment [Mark 1316]. Moreover, to contend with opponents, or to dispute about the matter in that way, is vain, especially as regards the clergy, which, as the Old Man4 says in a letter, has confirmed itself in its dogmas at the Universities; for all confirmations in things theological are as though glued fast in the brain, and can hardly be removed; and as long as they remain, there is no room for the genuine truth.5 From this one can judge as to what can be done with a Kn:6 and such like persons.

326




     As regards writing from the Lord and from man, I may say in general that no writing is immediately divine except the books enumerated in the New Jerusalem [n. 266] and the White Horse [n. 16]. The Apostles' writings and Paul's are mediately divine. In a letter, the Old Man says of them that they are doctrinal writings, and so are not written in the style of the Word, like the writings of the prophets, David, the evangelists and the Apocalypse. The style of the Word consists entirely of correspondences, and therefore it effects immediate communication with heaven; but in doctrinal writings there is another style, which does indeed have communication with heaven, but mediately.7 For a distinct understanding concerning the Word and Doctrine from the Word, further information can be obtained from the collections of passages from the Arcana Coelestia cited in the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine and the White Horse. It is also very fitting in this connection to consider n. 154 of the True Christian Religion, and in this way one is in a position to view the Old Man's writings with due discrimination. These contain in part [1] the internal sense of the Word; in part [2] doctrine from the Word; in part [3] experience relating to the other world; in part [4] principles in philosophy and in natural sciences of various kinds, and this for the sake of spiritual things, so far as they are of service to these and are in harmony with them.

     [1] The internal or spiritual sense, which is the interior sense or meaning in the Word, is to be found in the Arcana Coelestia so far as regards the whole of Genesis and Exodus; and likewise in the Apocalypse Revealed, and also in all his works wherever the words and it signifies are written in connection with some passage taken from the Word. This sense is the Word itself, and is the holy in the Word. The same has been dictated to the Assessor from heaven (Ar. Coel., no. 6597), equally as the Word in the letter was dictated to the prophets; and therefore effects immediate communication with heaven. It is not a new Divine Word, but an unveiling, in the Word we have had, which is the crown of all heavenly Revelations.

     [2] The doctrine from the Word, which is the same as the understanding of the Word as to its inner meaning, and is an orderly summarizing for the Church, of those inner meanings, or of doctrinal points relating to Love and Faith, is found in the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, the 4 Special Doctrines, the Angelic Wisdom concerning Divine Love, and concerning Providence, and the True Christian Religion, called also the Universal Theology of the New Heaven and the New Church; likewise here and there in the Books wherever any theological dogma occurs.

327


As regards all that belongs to the Doctrine itself, it must be well borne in mind how that this apostle did not receive the least thing thereof from any angel, but from the LORD ALONE (T. Christ. Rel, n. 779; Div. Prov., n, 135; Apoc. Revel., Pref). This is manifestly evident in the case of the spiritual sense of the Word, which He has unveiled to him (T. Christ. Rel., n. 780). The doctrine is thus Divine as to all its contents, and effects immediate communication with the New Christian Heaven. It is the summary explanation of the Word; not written in the style of the Word by correspondences, representatives and appearances, but so written that, by means of expositions agreeable with reason, it falls within the understanding and comprehension of men living in time, in nature and the world.

     The manner of presenting the doctrine must have depended on the intelligence and skill of the scribe; and both these were incomparably and wonderfully great, having been prepared and most particularly directed by the Lord for this great work, from his earliest childhood, to use his own words, for the sake of the New Heaven and the New Church.

     [3] All this gives full assurance of inerrant truth in all his experiences in respect to the spiritual world; experiences which it is so highly necessary to know for the sake of eternity, and which, for the most part, have hitherto been considered as so fantastical or else non-existent. The Lord had opened to him the sight of his spirit, that sight which with all men is covered over by the external sight. He saw in the other world the same as in this. Being continually in the light of the Lord's Divine Human, and being surrounded by angelic spirits and angels, he saw and experienced with the utmost clearness and perspicacity. With him, after receiving his commission, enlightenment by the Lord was continual as to all that he wrote, taught, spoke, experienced in this connection.

328


One can judge of his manner of writing in these holy Books, and in regard to his constant and immediate consociation with angels, from that passage in Arcana Coel., no. 1638, where he treats in general of spirits when they come to a man and speak with him: "The words whereby they speak with him, that is, which they evoke or bring forth from the man's memory, and think to be their own, are choice and clear, full of meaning, distinctly pronounced, applicable to the subject; and, what is wonderful, they know how to choose the words better and lore promptly than the man himself." In regard to his experiences, which have been got by means of the opened sight and bearing of his spirit (just as all sciences and experiences in. this world are acquired mainly by means of these two senses, though then it is the senses of the body), I will adduce two circumstances. First: That at the Lord's command be has made known what he saw and heard (T. Chris. Relig., no. 771), in order that the world might be brought out of the deep darkness of its ignorance in respect to the things of the spiritual world. Second: That, by this opened sight and bearing, he learned the correspondences of which the whole Bible is composed (his own words*); for all that is seen in the other world corresponds or harmoniously answers to the interior which is with spirits and angels.
     * Quoted from Swedenborg's letter to Beyer of February, 1767.

     [4] As to philosophy and the sciences, of which he makes manifold use in the theological works, it behooves us to consider that they were necessary as vessels for the reception of things spiritual, and for the display of the splendor of spiritual truths, in the same way that frequent grinding furthers the luster and brilliancy of a diamond. In respect to spiritual nature and spiritual conditions, and likewise in respect to cause and end, and very frequently even to actual effects, the natural sciences are full of fallacies and subject to errors and uncertainties; but, illumined by light from the spiritual world, where are the causes of all things in the natural world, and regarded in heavenly light, they take their right place, are put in submission to spiritual truths, and are brought into unity and correspondence therewith; then they become true and infallible. Such they are, wherever a trace of them is met within his theological works.

     One now sees how the things which come up in his writings are to be regarded. All are not alike immediately Divine, though all are Divine, in part immediately, in part mediately; for every truth that is genuine is of and from the Lord and from His enlightening.

329


How wrong, then, are they who assert that he founded the doctrine and all else on the instruction of angels or spirits? (Angels never teach any man a single theological truth, for the Lord alone teaches him, but mediately through the Word in illustration. Div. Prov., no. 135); or who also reason that he wished to discover these things by his own labor and profundity? What his own thought was in regard to all this, is sufficiently apparent from what he himself says, namely: "To take one single genuine theological truth from any other source than the Lord alone is impossible (Summ. Expos. 98); yea, as impossible (he says) as to sail from England or Holland to the Pleiades, or to ride from Germany to Orion in the heavens. (Parenthetically I may mention that while I was reflecting on my answer to the former letter, I was honored by the later one of January 25th last; and it is to this also that I now refer.) Since everything in these writings comes from so high an origin, from such immediate enlightenment, and therefore from incontestable experience, where, then, is there room for phantasics, the aroused power of the imagination and such like things, which they have devised in order therewith to put themselves and others into deep sleep? They use against him reasonings of every sort which are high sounding, and which may easily captivate a man, yea, and tempt him with doubts if he dwells long upon them; but if he at once withdraw himself from them, and compares such reasonings with the written truths themselves, which, when closely considered, are ever accompanied by inspired assent from the Lord and confirmation from heaven, they vanish like smoke. A man such as Kn. wants to take a middle course by the acceptance of something and the ignoring of much. He is one of those who have strongly confirmed themselves in the old, both at the university and subsequently; perhaps he holds fast to the old idea of Redemption and Satisfaction, which is a fundamental error. It is with this leaning that he has given out his works in print.8 He is invested with office and dignity, and these might easily be imperiled, if he were to conduct himself other wise.

330


He must not be thought ill of. It is to his credit that he does demand real fear of God and service; but in regard to these writings he is no competent guide. It is deplorable that an Oetinger should be an oracle to him; a man who was in correspondence with me; I have a copy of the book by him which was cited9,- man who has read much in the Old Man's Writings, and thought in accordance with them; but after he has read, he lays everything aside and begins to weave and spin out of his own brain, in agreement with the principles he held before, together with an admixture of something Swedenborgian at pleasure. The internal or spiritual sense of the Word he will not understand; and with that, enough is said.

     May I further remark, as a very brief answer to the points that have been printed:

     1. The doctrine is not confirmed by miracles. They compel consent for a short time. Had they been means of faith, then would there have been no unbelieving Jew in the days of the Lord's personal presence among them. They were wrought for the sake of the simple and pious multitude; but it was not miracles that wrought any faith. As to the nature, use and necessity of miracles, Divine Providence from paragraph 130 should especially be read. At this time they are not necessary. The doctrine is everywhere so presented that it can be comprehended by the understanding and the reason, and in these it has its confirmation.

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A miracle greater than any that is known is that which has taken place with the Apostle of the New Church. I mean the Old Man.

     2. No one familiar with his writings has shown, or is able to show, contradictions in them.
     
     3. The vision concerning Ernesti and the man of Gothenburg10 in T. Christ. Relig. paragarph 137 should be read; then can one best judge for himself.

     4. His judgment concerning other sects, especially the Solifidian, truth; if he rebukes, it is done after the Lord's for instance: Ye are of your father the devil, etc., this adulterous generation; and much more that sounds hard, but is the burning zeal of mercy.

     5. That the Old Man was mistaken in his visions is a charge which carries with it its own mark of falsity. If it were true, what a triumph for the opponent! Why does not he who has convicted him of this come forward and inform the world concerning a thing of such great significance? But as yet no one has been so shameless, and has dared publicly to make any such assertion. Of lying stories, spread in secret, there is no lack. For the rest, the saying is willingly fulfilled: What man wills, that he believes.

     6. The statement that God's love in hell makes the latter too easy, shows an all too meager understanding of the evil of hell and its consequences. Because hell does not burn its inhabitants with unquenchable fire, they think that there is no pain and torment in hell; but read the book on Hell.

     7. As to differences, in the explanations, of the terrors depicted in the Bible, this no one will find if be keep in mind how one and the same meaning can be expressed by different words, whether in a general way or more specifically.

     8. The statement that there is a lack of clearness in the True Christian Religion comes to me as well-nigh more marvelous than all the rest. If clearness is to be found anywhere, it is surely there, where all the subjects are found in orderly arrangement under their main headings, classes, articles and separate subdivisions. But I imagine the reference is to one or two passages, three at the most, where a protasis lacks its apodosis. This was probably due to the printer's having napped; for the rest, it is no obstacle to a discreet reader, nor does it hide the meaning.

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With what eagerness they desire to get something to heckle at and find fault with!

     (In the paragraph on miracles [n. 1], I forgot to mention that I cannot call to mind a single miracle performed either by David or by any of the 14 Prophets; and yet their Books were accepted in their time.)

     9. What proof can ever be required of a sensible and rational man, as to that which be has seen and heard, other than a sacred oath, in which his eternal life and his salvation are involved? What else does one demand of a witness? In what other way can that which has been heard and seen be adequately testified to before doubters? Everyone who has known the man has borne him witness in regard to the high conscientiousness of his mind and the utter sincerity of his virtue.

     10. That the Revelation of John is a revelation of great import, is testified to both by the style of the Word used therein, and by its unbroken continuity, from beginning to end, in the internal sense.

     11. No writings revealed by the Lord have existed in Europe, or no Divine Word and Divine Doctrine, except the Books of the Old and New Testaments, the writings of the Apostles, and, now in particular, of the Apostle of the New Church. All other pretended revelations can in no way be compared with these. One may grant that some of them are the result of actual intercourse with spirits who may have been good and well-meaning; but as to any command by the Lord in this matter, this they did not have. Consider the doctrine they have conveyed; it rests, for example on three persons in the Godhead; but such a doctrine is not from the Lord; to say nothing of others. They had not the least knowledge of correspondences. The interior sense of the Word was unknown to them. Their experience with respect to things of the other world has been slight and limited beyond measure. For the rest, as to how those who are continually engaged in religious matters in much solitude finally bear spirits speaking with them,-this can be seen in the Book on Heaven and Hell paragraph 249.

     12. The Hebrew text we have always used, and which was delivered to us through the hands of the Jews, the most faithful guardians of the Bible in the letter, is the genuine and reliable one.

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Bengel's edition of the New Testament has the received reading in the body of the work. The variant readings are given at the back in his Critical Notes. The edition is a fine one and reliable.11

     13. As to versions, the one is worse than the other. The English, Danish and Dutch versions are praised above others. Sebast. Schmidius' Latin version12 although not good Latin, is in my opinion the best thus far made. But in any case, one cannot do without the original text.

     14. I venture to put before Monsieur my opinion that the work in which Kennicott is engaged13 serves to show that Christian copyists were not formerly as careful guardians of the purity and perfection of the text as the Jewish.

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As regards the New Testament, Mill's variant readings14 only serve to show the same thing.

     15. The translations used at the present time, whether German or Swedish, are for the more part very free, and are greatly lacking in that accuracy and reverence which is due the holy letter of the Word.

     16. The accents are rabbinical notae criticae, and the vowels do not properly belong to the Hebrew. In ancient times they used Bibles without points, just as they do now in the Synagogues.

     17. As to Swedenborg's writings, something was said on this subject above.

     18. An account of his life, as regards its external circumstances is to be found in brief form in his printed Latin letter to a friend in London, in the year 1769, and also in the Memorial Oration delivered over him by Counselor of Mines Sandels; and as regards his inner life, one has in the Index,15 under the article "Swedenborg," a gathering together, from all his works, of everything that he himself has related concerning it. Thus, a further description of his life is probably of minor necessity. Citations from all the Books, wherever anything is said concerning it, are brought forward in great abundance in the aforesaid Index. But as specifically concerns the manner and the time when, no account of this is described anywhere, beyond the statement that the Lord revealed Himself to him in Person in the year 1743.

     19. That translations of his works are being undertaken is indeed good news. The following have been translated and revised, viz.: New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, with the collected passages from the Arcana Coelestia; Summary Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church; Intercourse between Soul and Body; Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning Life and Faith. In this connection, I would observe that a niceness in the choice of words is highly necessary, and also a strict following of the text, even though this should not read as very smooth Swedish. No more suitable words can be found in the Latin than those used by the author in his writings. The leading words do not vary, but are constantly the same when the subject is the same or is of a similar nature. The like should be the case in translations; otherwise the significance, the solid understanding, and the clearness of the things involved will be lost. New things need new expressions; and one ought not, for example, to stumble at godheter, sanheter for bona, vera; andesinne, mens; lust-tycke, lust-tycken, affectio, affectiones; mansklighet, humanum; ondskor, mala; ondas, mali (genitive); fornimmelse, perceptio; fornufteligheter, rationalia; falskheter, falsa; inarta,16 imbuere, etc., etc. Uniformity of expression in the translations is highly desirable; and if one desires to make these translations with nicely balanced words and expressions, as should by all means he done, it will likely be found that the task is not as easy as it seems at first.

     20. As to a memorial to the King concerning the printing of these things, this I can by no means support. Moreover, it is likely to be wholly in vain, and in addition will be ill received; for the dreadful Royal letter of April 26, 1770, which entirely disapproves, rejects, and forbids them, lies in the way as an insurmountable obstacle.17

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When Monsieur waits upon his Excell. v. Hopken,18 it is likely that, from hints prudently received, it will develop in the conversation how the King and Council are minded in this matter, to wit, that perhaps, for the sake of general peace and tranquillity, all that concerns Swedenborgianism must be quiescent and as though it had died out.19 As yet there is no dawn for such things in Sweden; but perhaps it will come at some future Diet, if a plurality of enlightened representatives among the nobles and burghers should seek to shake off the papistical, tyrannical, priestly dominion and yoke in religious matters, and should procure for themselves due freedom in matters of confession, of writing, and of print. Meanwhile, it would be useful to know the sentiments of the Privy Council, as to whether there may be any hope of printing in this country a costly Index to all the works, provided strong assurance were given that the copies would be exported abroad.20 If this were granted, and the work were complete, it would likely amount to about 6 alphabets in quarto." Speaking in confidence, such a work, up to its second main division, was finished on the 7th of this month in 126 closely written arks;22 it would therefore be ready for printing.

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But Monsieur will be so good as to hide my person in every way, when moving in this matter.

     21. Sciences in general are concerned with [1] celestial things which are of love, good and wisdom; or [2] spiritual things which are of faith, truth and understanding; or [3) natural things which are of the kingdom and commonwealth, the citizenship and domestic economy, as being natural goods; and for the sake of these, the lawful cultivation of scientific truths, in the branches of science enumerated by Monsieur. These,-I mean the natural sciences, are necessary; for without them how shall a man do his work aright, or provide good uses, and thus, as behooves him, serve the neighbor, that is, exercise charity? Frequently, also, they are of immeasurable service to spiritual things; for, as stated above, the latter are not easily grasped and comprehended except in them as vessels. In the measure that a man living in time has performed uses to the neighbor, and according to the office in which be has here served and performed actual uses for the sake of the Lord, the good and the neighbor, in that measure is he appointed his condition and lot as regards eternal felicity.

     22. When the sciences are divided into interior and exterior, then those are the interior which, by sight and hearing, are acquired only by the Word and its Doctrine; and those are the exterior which flow in, also by sight and hearing, from the things of the world, the body and nature, and which, in the memory, are put under the intuition and examination of the understanding and the reason. The interior has influence on the exterior, but never the exterior on the interior; for this is contrary to order.

     23. On correspondences, something has already been said above. The subject is an extensive one, and it will he profitable to read carefully concerning it in Heaven and Hell from nos. 87 to 115. In many respects they are clearly evident, as for example, in action which answers to the will; in speech which answers to the thought; in countenance which answers to mental emotion, the latter being from the former,23 and both together making a whole, and this instantaneously. For the rest, one must accustom one's self to make applications little by little.

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The science of correspondences is by no means a pathway for going from externals to internals, save as this is understood in the sense that, when a man is at home in this science, he has the key to a knowledge of those spiritual things to which the natural things harmoniously answer.

     24. The use of cultivating the sciences of natural things is understood from what has been adduced already, and monsieur has himself given the right answer in this matter.

     25. In respect to congitiones, scientiae, scientifica, internus homo and externus, bonum and verum, etc. I would willingly help you with extracts if time and opportunity allowed, but the articles are altogether too extensive. In the Index, under all these words, numerous passages in his works are noted, to be looked up and considered,-and this is very necessary. But to make satisfactory extracts therefrom would constitute a labor of much time and would take many arks.

     26. At the present time I am unable to tell the price of the Swedenborg books, or to show how they may be procured. They are rare, and everyone keeps what he has.

     For the promise respecting information as to the Swedenborgian Manuscripts, I am deeply grateful. I desire more particularly that it be ascertained whether there can be found among them the internal sense of other Biblical books; any further refutation of the Theology of the present

     23. This is probably a slip for "the former being from the latter."
Day; and any account of what has taken place in the World of Spirits since the Last Judgment in the year 1757.

     I remain, with affectionate esteem,
          Monsieur's humble servant,
               BEYER.


1 In our translation we have preferred to retain the Swedish usage by which correspondents us always addressed in the third person; but since Min Herr cannot well be translated into English, we have substituted for it the French equivalent Monsieur. In one place in the letter this word is used by Beyer.
2 There were several readers of the Writings in Gothenburg, including Beyer's own brother, who was a prominent merchant of the town, and also his brother-in-law, Peter Hammarberg, who was net only a prominent merchant but also a city councillor and, either then or later, a member of the Swedish Diet.
3 It is very probable that this is the same "Skara boy" of whom Beyer made some inquiries of Swedenborg. On November 14, 1769, Swedenborg answered to the effect that if the reports concerning this boy were true, it would show the communication of spirits with man. Nothing is known of him beyond what Swedenborg relates in the above-mentioned letter.
4 Beyer and others frequently refer to Swedenborg as "the Old Man" (Gubben). At that time, of course, this term was consistent with the highest respect.
5 Quoted from Swedenborg's letter to Beyer of September 25, 1766.
6 The reference is to Anders Olafsson Knos, Dean of Skara, who, was a secret student of Swedenborg's theological writings. Toward the end of his life (he died in 1799), he mine out more or less openly as favoring "Swedenborginism," and not agreeing with the condemnation usually passed upon Swedenborg's writings. Be declared, however, that he could not be said to be a Swedenborgian, since he held that every utterance by Swedenborg must be proved by Scripture before being received. His autograph notes in his copies of Swedenborg's writings show that he adhered to this rule throughout his reading. (See Sv, Biog. Lex, sv., Knos.)
7 Quoted from Swedenborg's letter to Beyer of April 15, 1766.
8 In 1768, Knos published Institutiones Theologiae Practicae, and, in 1775, Compendium Theologiae Practicae. So far as we can see from an examination of the former work, them is no deviation from the orthodox Lutheran doctrine, still less any trace of a study of Swedenborg.
9 Presumably by Nordenskjold in one of the letters which Beyer is now answering. The work referred to is probably Oetinger's Swedenborgs und Anderer Irrdische und Himmksche Philosopie sur Prufung des Basten, aus licht Gestellt (The Earthly and Heavenly Philosophy of Swedenborg and Others, Placed in the Light for Proof), Franckf., 1765. In volume I of this work, Oetinger presents a summary of Swedenborg's earthly philosophy as given in the Principia and the Infinite. After this he gives a German translation of all the memorabilia interspersed by Swedenborg between the chapters in volume I of the Arcana Coelestia. The volume also contains a comparison of Swedenborg's philosophy with Jacob Behmen's,-always to the favor of the latter,-and this comparison is resumed in the second volume. The work well reflects the position held by Oetinger, that so far as the descriptions of the spiritual world are concerned, Swedenborg was Divinely commissioner, but that his doctrine of the internal sense was a putting aside of the Word of God.
10 The reference is to Dean Olof Ekebom, the arch Persecutor of Beyer and Rosen in the Gothenburg Trial.     
11 The reference is to a Greek edition of the New Testament by job, Albert Bengel which was published in Tübingen, 1734. It contained the Greek text as arrived at by Bengel after Comparison of twenty Greek MSS; variant readings printed in the margin; and an appendix wherein the principles of textual criticism, were discussed and the various readings critically considered.
12 This version was first published in 1696, the year of the translator's death. It contained many errors, which were corrected in the edition of 1740. The mm of the translator was to make an exactly literal translation regardless of Latin grammar or syntax. In the Word Explained and Index Biblicus, Swedenborg made greater use of Schaidius' version (1696 ad.) than of all others.
13 In 1753 and 1759, Dr. Kennicott had issued two volumes on The Slate of the Printed Hebrew Text. These volumes caused a great stir, inasmuch as they were thought to threaten the literal integrity of Revelation. They led, however, to a demand for an investigation of the Hebrew text. Dr. Kennicott their collated 600 Hebrew MSS, the result of his labors being the two volumes of his Vetus Test. Hebraicum cum variis Lectionibus. The first volume appeared in 1776, the year in which Dr. Beyer wrote the present letter, and the second in 1780.
Dr. Beyer's knowledge of Kennicott's work was doubtless increased by his friend and fellow lector, John Gothenius. an accomplished Hebrew scholar and translator, who in 1784 was seat to England by the Swedish Bible Commission, and stayed there several months in consultation with Dr. Kennicott. Gothenius probably received the annual reports of Kennicott's collation, which were issued to subscribers from 1760-69.
Kennicott's work revealed a great number of variant readings in the Old Testament, many of which, however, are of minor importance. But neither in number nor in importance are they equal to the variants found by Griesbach in the text of the New Testament, and which were published in 1774-75.
14 Dr. Beyer is here referring to the edition of the Greek New Testament by John Mills, D.D., published in folio at Oxford, 1707. The text followed was that of Stephens (the textus receptus), but it was accompanied by variant readings to the number of about 30,000. Mill's work was of a high order of critical scholarship, and his edition formed the "core" or "marrow" of Bengel's edition, published in 1734.
15 Namely, the Index Initialis, being an index to all Swedenborg's theological works (including Worship and Love of God), which Beyer was then compiling. It was published in 1779, but the author died soon after he had corrected the last proofs. The Index was divided into three parts, being an Index of (1) Words, names and things; (2) Dogmas and opinions; (3) Scripture passages. The article "Swedenborg" fills 21/2, quarto pages in Part I. Until the appearance of Le Boy des Guay's Scripture Index (in 1859) and Potts' Concordance, the Index Initialis was the only existing index to all the Writings; but from the beginning it was a costly work and hard to obtain.
16 At the time of Dr Beyer's writing, the Swedish words here offered as translations were either not in use at all or were not used in the same forms or with the same meanings. Thus godket is Swedish for goodness, but the plural form godket" was never used; andesinne is a word invented by Dr. Beyer for mens, to distinguish this from sinne (animus); and so in other cases. During recent years, however, New Church publications in Sweden have traded to introduce new words, and to give old words new meanings or new forms.
17 This letter, a translation of which may be seen in 2 Doc. 367-68, orders the withdrawal and confiscation of all Swedenborg's theological works (warning all booksellers to that effect) and forbids their importation under a heavy fine.
18 Count von Hopken, who was very well disposed toward Swedenborg and not unfavorable to his theological writings, was not a member of the Privy Council during the period when the Swedenborg matter was under consideration. In 1786, he was in friendly communication with the Philanthropic Society of Stockholm, and perhaps attended one of its meetings.
19 There can be little doubt that this was more or less the attitude of the King and his Council, as distinguished from the fanatical attitude of the church as exemplified by Bishop Ferelius, who was then the acting head and the driving force in the House of the Clergy. This is indicated by a letter from Pastor Hauswolff of Stockholm to his friend in the provinces, Pastor Stricker, in which he more than once speaks of criticisms passed on Lamberg and the Gothenburg Consistory. In a letter dated July 10, 1770, Hauswolff referring to the King's order of April 26, forbidding the sale and importation of Swedenborg's books, a copy of which he had managed to procure, writes: "Here it is held so secret and so locked up that there is no getting at it." The desire was evidently to hush up the whole affair.
20 It is evident that there was no hope; for Beyer's Index Initiaus was printed in Amsterdam, and. a significant fact, anonymously.
21 The printed work amounted to 894 pages or about 5 alphabets.
22 An ark equals 8 pages

339


DIVINE PROTECTION 1930

DIVINE PROTECTION       Rev. HENRY HEINRICHS       1930

     "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the death that wasteth at noonday." (Psalm 91:5, 6)

     The Ninety-first Psalm is considered to be one of the most excellent of the psalms, both in the beauty of its diction and in the sentiments expressed. This opinion but testifies to the universality of the appeal of its theme, which is that of the Divine protection, as we know from its opening words: "he that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God; in Him will I trust."

     Everything that is owes its existence to two things,-to the fact of its having been created, and the fact of its having been protected. Protection itself implies two things which are necessary to continued existence:-sustentation, by which there is renewal and growth; and preservation, by which there is a guarding against all destructive elements. Since there is not anything that does not ask for the continuation of its life, so the plea for protection is a universal of prayer. How comforting and consoling, therefore, when it comes, is the assurance that there will be Divine protection, bringing with it, as it does, the certainty of the continuation of life! Such consolation is breathed forth in every word of this Psalm, and is its dominant note, its ruling affection; and the particular expressions describe the various elements from which there must needs be, and will be, protection, in order that there may be complete safety and security.

     In this note of consolation, containing the assurance of protection, we find an index to the spiritual contents of this Psalm. Consolation always follows a time of stress or temptation; and the consolation is, in fact, a sign that something of influx has been received, or that a new conjunction of what is internal with what is external has taken place. So the subject treated of in the Psalm is not that of temptation itself, but of the conjunction with the Lord which results from victory in temptation.

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And in the supreme sense, or that which relates to the Lord alone, we will find described the state of His glorification; namely, that a complete separation from His Human of what is merely human and therefore evil has taken place, and that there has been an inletting of what is Divine, which is expressed in the affection of consolation.

     Consolation, let us note, is of affection. It is more than the mere uttering of truth or speaking only from thought. It always testifies to an activity or a stirring of the affections. And no one can really console another who is in difficulty unless his affections are touched. In the Gospels the promise was given by the lord that He would not leave his disciples comfortless, that He would send another Comforter, which is the Spirit of truth, and that this Comforter would bring to remembrance all things of the Lord's Word, and would "reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment." It is also said that the Comforter could not come unless the Lord departed. All this expresses and confirms what we have said respecting consolation.

     Before the Lord was glorified, His Natural Human was Divine Truth not yet conjoined with Divine Good. The stating of a truth apart from an affection for the neighbor is invariably intolerant, or, at its mildest, is unsympathetic. So also the Human of the Lord before glorification, being Divine Truth not yet conjoined with Divine Good, could not be the Comforter. "The Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified." Consolation is the voice of the Divine Love speaking,-Divine Love or Divine Good conjoined with Divine Truth; and it always involves that the hells have been met and overcome. In relation to the church, it brings with it the promise that what the Lord accomplished in Himself by the glorification will be communicated to the church. As He successfully resisted every attack of the hells, so He will protect the church whenever the hells assault. In relation to the heavens, it describes their safety, and their abiding confidence in their safety from all uprisings of the hells. It is one thing to be safe; it is another to be safe and to know that one is safe. The angels of heaven are not only safe from the attacks of the hells, but they also know that they are safe. All elements of fear are removed from them; with them is fulfilled the injunction of the text: "Be not afraid!"

     To have the knowledge of one's safety as a well-defined conviction is to make one free; and such a conviction, when built upon an assurance coming from the Lord, is a pledge and guarantee of the fulfilment of the life's love,-that all the loves and affections will have free exercise, will be allowed to go forth into ultimates without any promptings of fear, resulting in a state of complete satisfaction, in which nothing is wanting.

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This is the heavenly state, the state of all the angels. So much a part of the heavenly state is the knowledge of complete safety, as against safety without knowledge, that we may say it is heaven. It is what all men strive for, each in his own way. This is the reason for the universal appeal of this Psalm.

     Whenever any love comes into man's consciousness, it prompts him to make a mental survey, to determine whether conditions are favorable to its full expression in life. Every love has its fear; and its needs and seeks an assurance of definite knowledge, in order to be freed from its fear; and, being freed, it then descends into ultimates and incites man to action. An evil man, given the knowledge of his immunity from the consequences of his evil, or given reasonable hope of escaping the consequences of his evil actions, will not hesitate to satisfy his depraved loves. With men who are confirmed in evil, the craving for definite knowledge of their safety from the consequences of their evil deeds is the cause of their elaborate deceptions. In all their plottings their end is to make themselves secure, to rid themselves of the fear of consequences; and they plot until, in their own minds and to their own satisfaction, they know themselves to be safe. So long as there is doubt in regard to their safety, they hesitate. So do evil men strive after their heaven. But their heaven is an illusion. They may be able to deceive themselves and men generally as to the quality of their life, and thus escape before men the just rewards of their life; but in the eyes of the all-seeing One, their quality is known; and when they come into His presence, they may never have their knowledge of their security as a permanent possession.

     The evil must always be fear-ridden, and their fears are a part of the hells, which they have made for themselves. They must always be dominated by fear, because it is only the truth, which they have despised, that can impart the knowledge of safety, and this only to those who are in good,-only to those who are in good, because there is an affinity between truth and good, but not between truth and evil. Truth and evil can never be permanently conjoined; and those who are in evil remove themselves from the protection of truth. The Lord indeed protects evil men from the evil, and indeed from their own evils, to such extent as this can be done.

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But since He never takes away the essential human-the faculty of freedom-even from the evil, He can protect them only so far as they of themselves desist from evil: and since they will desist from evil only under the fear of punishment, so they must always live under the threat and fear of punishment.

     In reality, the knowledge of safety-the absence of fear-as a permanent gift is given only to these who are in heaven. The evil can never have it, nor can the good in this world have it without intermission, for the same reason that it is a heavenly gift. Good men in this world are on their way to heaven, but they are not yet there. As they advance in the way to heaven, new loves are continually inspired into them,-loves which are not yet their own, because not yet conjoined with truth in a life according to the precepts of truth. And, being unconjoined with truth, the loves are subject to the attacks of the hells, and so are also subject to fear. The regenerating man, therefore, by the very fact of his being on the way to heaven, must find himself in the throes of fear; but it is a fear of evil rather than a fear of punishment. To such, the Lord says, Thou shalt not be afraid!"

     To regenerating men these words come as an encouragement, and, taken in their context, mean two things: They contain the assurance that regenerating men will ultimately be able to receive heaven in themselves; and they urge them to avail themselves of the means of attaining heaven. Heaven, as a state in which there is confident knowledge of safety and security, comes only in the degree that fear, and evils as the cause of fear, are removed: and these are removed when there is trust in the Lord. Men are to trust in the Lord, because, as is said in the words preceding our text, "He is their refuge, Their fortress, their deliverer and protector." And He is all of these, because He is Divine Truth. "His truth shall be thy shield and buckler."

     The Lord, in defending men, acts from His Divine Love by means of His Divine Truth. The words, "Thou shall not be afraid," as an exhortation to men to overcome the evils which bold them in the thrall of hell and in fear of the hells, direct them to seek the protecting truth. Truth can protect men only when they have knowledge of it, and also acknowledge it from some affection. Just as the evil cannot be protected from punishment, except as they of themselves desist from evils, so the good, in the time of temptation, cannot be protected by the Lord apart from the knowledge and acknowledgment of truth.

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The Lord's Divine Truth defends man, but only through means which are in the man himself; and these means are knowledges, and the intelligence which the man has procured through knowledge.

     When it is said that the Lord defends men, it means that He defends their good or their love. It is love or good that makes a man and men are men from their good or love Good, let us recall, comes from within directly from the Lord, while Truth comes to men from without. Good descends through the internal man, and meets truth in the external; and knowledges are the things that open the way whereby the internal man, with its spiritual and celestial things, may advance toward the external, in which are the receiving vessels which are as many as are the knowledges of good and truth. The good thus inflowing, and received in knowledges, then, and only then, comes into fulness of existence; for thus it gains determination, form and quality, and thence power to effect other things. Thence also is there protection, in the ability to resist the attacks of the hells. This makes manifest the office of truth as a defense and protection to the regenerating man,-an office which is represented in the Word by many terms such as those used in this Psalm.

     The quality and the greatness of the power of truth as a protection to the angels, and to those who are in good, is represented in the various expressions of the text. Four things are specifically mentioned: "the terror by night," "the arrow that flieth by day the pestilence that walketh in darkness," and "the death that wasteth at noonday." And then follows the statement that a "thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee." All these things, in the presence of which man is protected, refer to the state of the hells, namely, damnation.

     The four things specifically enumerated signify two kinds of falsity and two kinds of evil which contribute to the state of damnation. The "terror by night" signifies falsity from evil,-the falsity directly conceived in evil and produced by evil. The "arrow that flieth by day" is the falsity resulting from the deliberate misapplication and perversion of truth. The "pestilence that walketh in darkness" and the "death that wasteth at noonday" are evils of life; the former evils of life which secretly destroy the truths of the Word, and secretly undermine the spiritual life; and the latter, evils of life which openly violate the precepts of the Word.

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The four, taken together, describe the character of the whole of hell in its opposition to heaven.

     What next follows describes the powerlessness of hell against heaven, which is protected by the Lord. "A thousand shall fall at thy side" depicts the powerlessness of evil, and the "ten thousand" are falsities. Both are as nothing compared with the power of heaven. This fact is stated and explained several times in the Writings, and is illustrated by the power of the angels, who, by a single look, are able to put an indefinite number of evil spirits to flight. The good are in such power against evil, because both evil and falsity are derived from this external man, whereas good and truth are from the Lord, and are interior and inmost in their origin; and it is a law that what is interior prevails immensely over what is exterior. It is according to this law that the Lord, who is supreme and inmost, is omnipotent in the universe. And it is in accordance with the same law that the angels, because their interiors are opened, and they have interiorly received the Lord in themselves, are in such power against evil spirits, whose internals are altogether closed, so that they are in an external devoid of any internal.

     Such is the power of the angels of heaven, and such is their protection. And such may also be the power and protection of the men of the New Church; for to this Church is given an abundance of truth which may serve for the opening of the interiors, through which that power and protection may descend. That power and protection is primarily a result of the glorification of the Lord. To the New Church alone, to which the Lord in His Divine Human has now made His Second Advent, is the benefit of the glorification given in full measure. All churches of the past have been consummated; all have been devastated by evils and falsities because they ceased to make use of the protection which was offered to them, and because that protection was not as complete as the protection that is now extended to the New Church. To the New Church alone is given the full assurance that no uprising of the hells shalt prevail against it, and that this Church is to be the Crown of all the Churches, "Thou shalt not be afraid! "Amen.

     LESSONS: Psalm 91. John 16. A. C. 5758:2.

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DEDICATORY ADDRESS 1930

DEDICATORY ADDRESS        N. D. PENDLETON       1930

     (In the new Assembly Hall, Bryn Athyn, May 9, 1930. See p. 377.)

     This Hall was built jointly by the Bryn Athyn Society and the Academy. The purpose in view was to house adequately assemblies of various kinds, whether of the Bryn Athyn Church or the Schools of the Academy, or, on occasion, Assemblies of the General Church. This use is one which is engraved upon the life of our Church, both in a small and in a great way, as indeed it is a necessary part in the life of any living and growing organization. The coming together, in the part and in the whole, is a life movement necessary to the well being of any body or corporation. If the whole is so great that it cannot assemble under one roof or in one place, it nevertheless does so in effect by sending delegates to represent and to act for the whole in matters vital to its welfare.

     The word "assembly" stands for something which we as a Church must have if we are to continue to live and prosper. This something is Divinely expressed by the words of our Lord, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." The Lord here mentions the least possible assemblies, composed of two or three, and He predicts His presence as the use involved. The Lord can be present in a gathering of least assemblies in a way that is not possible with an individual: and as this is so, then His presence and power may be increased in a great assembly. The presence of the Lord is the highest possible spiritual use, and from it all others are derived, in their various kinds and degrees. Every use has inmostly in it a representation of His presence; otherwise it would not be a use, but a perversion thereof. Uses, and the love of them,-the desire of performing them,-have from time immemorial drawn men together in assemblies, great and small, since in no other way may that which the use calls for be effected.

     In our own Church,-the General Church of the New Jerusalem and its Societies, Assemblies have been a characteristic feature from the beginning. We have delighted in coming together in the name of the Lord, with the vision of Him that is granted in the Writings.

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     The love of this vision is common to us all; and wherever such a love is held in common, it ultimates itself in the desire of communion with others of the same faith, with the intent that we may be joined together more livingly; or, what is the same, that the Lord may be more fully present with us-with His Church as a whole. Certainly the Church as a whole is an assembly before the Lord, called together in His name' When, therefore, we assemble, it is with the hope and expectation that the Church with us may be reimpowered by Him. This is our high spiritual ideal; and in the General Church and its Societies we have endeavored to give this ideal the first place. External affairs have ever been subordinated in our meetings to spiritual considerations. Business affairs have largely been relegated to councils and committees, in order that the mind of the Church in assembly may give thoughtful and affectionate consideration to the great and fundamental truths which have been revealed, in the hope that such considerations may exalt the minds of its members to that which is not temporal but everlasting, to that which must engage men's thought and affection, if, in the Lord's mercy, they are to find the way to heaven. The mission of the Church, then, is to engage in heavenly not worldly affairs, and if for a moment the world must have its way for the sake of temporalities, that moment should be brief and passing, so far as the Church in itself is concerned. These things are said of those assemblies which are more purely of and for the Church.

     But this Hall, while built indeed for such assemblies, yet was not primarily built as an ecclesiastical structure, that is, not for the celebration of Divine worship by the devotional performance of sacred rituals. Therefore, by its dedication it is not to be sanctified and set apart in a way that will make gatherings of other legitimate kinds inappropriate. On the contrary, while it is to serve assemblies for the intellectual discussion of matters of spiritual interest, it is not in any way to be disqualified for serving all the uses of a Society which are normal to the life and interest of young and old. And while it is to be dedicated in the name of the Lord, yet we know that He countenances all pleasures that are normal and in order, and indeed all undertakings which in some rightful way serve the ends of His Providence,-namely all uses which have a connection more nearly or remotely with our endeavor to cooperate with Him in the upbuilding of His Church.

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     he Bryn Athyn Society will use this Hall for its suppers and doctrinal classes, its Society meetings, its entertainments, its theatricals and its dances. In like manner, the Academy will use it for its school functions of every kind. And, in so doing, both bodies of our common Church will unite in serving and encouraging all legitimate activities, each of which has in view the supreme end and aim which has called this community into existence.

     So, therefore, it is now my duty, in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to dedicate this Hall to the use of assembly,-assemblies of all kinds which have in view the orderly activities of the Bryn Athyn Church and those of the Academy of the New Church.

     May the Lord's blessing be upon all these occasions, and upon all who meet here together! Amen,
SOULS UNDER THE ALTAR 1930

SOULS UNDER THE ALTAR       Rev. GEORGE DE CHARMS       1930

     AN ADDRESS TO CHILDREN.

     You have often heard the Lord called our Savior. You know that we give thanks to Him from joy of heart because He rescued us from some terrible danger which threatened to destroy all men. But do you know what that danger was, from which the Lord delivered us?

     Suppose a great giant had come to live near your home,-a very cruel giant, so strong that no man could fight against him. Suppose he could burn our homes, destroy our crops, steal cur goods, and force us to work very hard for him, and make us suffer hard things if we did not do what he told us to do. Suppose he had been oppressing us for many years, and we had been reduced to poverty, so that we had little to eat and little to wear, and were hungry and poor, weak and sick. And suppose there was no one in the world who could deliver us from the power of that terrible giant.

     Then suppose the Lord came-the Lord, a great Hero, and fought against that giant, and overcame him, and bound him with chains, and shut him in a dungeon, so he could do us harm no longer; and then the Lord came and set us free, and told us we could now enjoy our life without fear of the giant, because He would bold him in prison always.

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Would we not be glad and rejoice, and give thanks to the Lord, because of the way in which He had delivered us from our oppressor?

     You may think that this is just a story that I am telling you. But that is just what the Lord has done for us. If He had not done this, you and I, and all the people in the world today would even now be slaves of the giant. The giant was Hell, which before the Lord's coming had grown so strong as to reduce men to slavery. More and more evil men had gone from this world into the other, and they had formed a great army of evil spirits there, which had spread all over that world, even invading heaven and driving the angels away from men. Because the angels could not draw near to protect men, these evil spirits had gained power over them. They had taken possession of the minds of men, so that they could force them to do things that were wicked- even those who wanted to worship and to love the Lord. They made slaves of all men, and brought great unhappiness and distress into the world. They made men hate one another. They caused wars, famines and pestilences. All kinds of suffering came into the world because of that great army of evil spirits. And the angels, looking down from heaven, were very sad to think of the poor men and women living on the earth, and the poor little children there who had no one strong enough to deliver them from the power of that cruel giant.

     Then the Lord came down into the world. He put on a body, so that hell might come near to Him, and He to hell, and that He might fight against it. And all the evil spirits gathered their armies together in the world of spirits, and sent them against the Lord. All through His life while He was on earth the Lord fought against them. He fought alone against all the hosts of hell; and gradually, little by little, He overcame them, bound there in chains, cast them into the prisons of hell, and locked them up where they could no longer come into the world of spirits to do harm to men on earth.

     And there were many in the other world who were good people, who loved the Lord and wanted to worship Him. But they could not do this, because the giant did not tell them the truth about heaven.

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He lied to them, and told them that they were already in heaven. He blinded their eyes, so that they could not see the way to heaven. They were very sad because be forced them to work for him, giving them no reward for their labor. They longed for the day when the Lord would come, and they cried unto Him, and said: "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dust Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?"

     Now when John was in the spirit, he saw what the Lord was going to do. He saw it in prophecy, before it came to pass. He saw many of these poor people in the other world, waiting and longing for the Lord to come, praying for Him to deliver them. They are called "souls bound up under the altar." By the altar is meant heaven, because the altar is for the worship of the Lord, and all heaven is a place where the Lord alone is worshiped, That these good spirits were "bound under the altar" meant that they were kept out of heaven. The gates of heaven were closed against them by the great giant,-by the army of evil spirits. John saw them there, in what is called "the lower earth." He saw their sufferings, and he heard them cry unto the Lord for help.

     It was when the fifth seal of the Little Book was opened. You remember how, when the first four seals were opened, horses came out of the book,-first, a white horse, then a red horse, then a black horse, and at last a pale horse; and he that sat on it was called Death, and hell followed with him.

     When the Lord opened the seals of the book, He was getting ready to fight against the giant, that He might set men free. The evil spirits knew He was getting ready, and they were preparing to resist Him. Those who sat on the red horse, the black horse, and the pale horse gathered together the armies of evil spirits, and led them to fight against the Lord. Then it was that John saw the souls under the altar crying to the Lord for help. And he also saw that the Lord sent an angel to comfort them, telling them that the day of their deliverance was not yet come, but that they should be patient for a little while, for the Lord was now preparing to set them free. And the angel gave them white robes,-wonderful robes like those that the angels wear,-telling them that, if they would put these garments on, they would be protected until the time of their deliverance. For the evil spirits would then have no power over them.

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     This is how the Lord took care of them, even while He was fighting against the giant. We will learn later bow this was done, and what happened when the Lord overthrew the giant, and set them free. How glad they were! How they sang and rejoiced because the Lord had delivered them from the evil spirits I With what happiness they saw before them the road into heaven for which they had been looking so long, and which the evil giant had hidden from their eves! They went joyfully along that read, singing, and giving thanks to the Lord because of their deliverance.

     Now, what the Lord did for them, He has also done for us. We were in the same situation, and we would now be slaves of the giant, if the Lord had not come to deliver us. This, then, is the reason why we should be glad and rejoice, and give thanks to the Lord, who fought alone against all the hells to set us free. He is now present to guard and protect us against evil spirits, holding them locked in hell, so that they cannot make slaves of us unless we invite them-unless we open our minds to them, and ask them to come in, and then hold them there by thinking evil thoughts. If we do this, they can still make slaves of us. But if we really love the Lord-if we worship Him- the hells can no longer compel us to think and do evil things. The Lord gives us power, if we will, to drive the evil spirits away, because He Himself has conquered them and set us free.

     No one can now prevent us from going to the Lord, that we may serve and honor Him while we are on earth; and no one can now prevent us from going into heaven after death. This is our reason for rejoicing "more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased," because we know now that under the Lord's protection we can "lie down in peace and sleep." For "Thou, O Lord, alone makest us to dwell in safety."

LESSON: Revelation 6:9-11.
HYMNAL: Pages 200, 104, 178.

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NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1930

NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS       Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1930

     The story of the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel occupies the June Calendar readings from the Word. It is the tragic tale of spiritual defeats and political catastrophe-sweeping the doomed nations on into a whirlpool of disasters; it is a tale of hard hearts, which is yet relieved at times by depths of contrition and by the foreshadowing of a glorious destiny which the prophetic sense and stubborn self-consciousness of the Jewish people never allowed to be totally forgotten, and which occasional miracles keep alive.

     In the supreme prophetical sense, the downfall of Israel and Judah represents the Lord's vision of the evils and falsities of the church as these were reflected in the sensual degree of His assumed human, and as they were present in the perverted hereditary ultimates which He, throughout His glorification on earth, expelled from the human. The final dissipation of the maternal human took place at the death and burial of that human, and this event seems to be represented by the final captivity of Judah.

     In the spiritual sense, we have here the picture of the consummation of a church, the divorce of charity (Judah) from faith (Israel), resulting in the gradual perversion of charity in an increasing state of chaos within the understanding of the church. Both then become a prey to falsities and evils of every kind.

     There is a fairly clear historical analogy between the separation of Israel from Judah (I Kings 12) and the schism within the Christian Church which is known as the Reformation, when the Northern part of Europe seceded from the Roman Catholic Church owing to the excesses of Papacy. The teaching is also given us that the various nations mentioned in the Word had their representatives in the political arena of Christian nations at Swedenborg's day: but it was not permitted the revelator to disclose what the correspondence of those nations was. (D. P. 251.) Yet the progress of states within Christendom since the Reformation seems to parallel the story of Israel and Judah.

     Syria, Israel's neighbor to the north, signifies "cognitions," or knowledges of spiritual things; for in Syria were the last remains of the Ancient Church, elsewhere corrupted. (A. C. 3249.)

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It was the center of the Hebrew Church, and the home of Balaam, the prophet who knew Jehovah, and of the wise men from the East who followed the star of prophecy to Bethlehem.

     But, as the enemy of decadent Israel, Syria represents perverted religious knowledge which infests the church. Alliances with this Syria bring disaster to the consummated church, as has been shown by modern instances,-the invasion of Protestantism by "higher criticism," evolutionary sociology, etc. For such alliances only prepare the way for an attack by the jealous "Egypt" in its double guise of literalistic tradition and, later, of science.

     Assyria-a conqueror nation representing the reasonings from mere science-became the ultimate cause of Israel's downfall, even as the walls of Protestant theology have been leveled before the battering rams of rationalism, and the people have been led captive and lost their way in the mazes of modernistic sophistication, It may be pointed out as a remarkable coincidence that, even as Jerusalem in the time of Hezekiah and Isaiah,-a Jerusalem already spiritually judged,-could yet be saved from Sennacherib's Assyrian hosts (2 Kings 18, 19) through their insistence upon Divine intervention, so also the external structures of Catholicism, long after their spiritual defeat and judgment, have been able to maintain themselves fairly intact, despite the attacks of Rationalism. For such is the power of externals, and of stubborn adherence to a representative role long after this role has become an empty external. Judah was already inwardly pledged to Babylonia. The profane love of dominion ruled interiorly, and was only biding the time for its final doom.

     The Books of Kings bring the history of the Jews down to the time of Jerusalem's destruction and the Babylonian captivity. Further details of that period may be found in Jeremiah (chapters 39 to 43) and in the whole of Daniel. And the non-canonical books of Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah and Maccabees complete the story of the captivities, the eventual return of the Jews, and the era of Restoration.

     No Universal Deluge.

     Modern skepticism, which relegates the early Bible stories among the myths of folklore, was of gradual origin.

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At Swedenborg's time it was considered boldly heretical to suggest that the flood of Noah covered only a part of the' surface of the earth. When the Arcana declares, not only that there was no universal deluge of water, but that the flood story of the Word was never intended for a record of an earthly event, it was indeed a radically novel concept, which, had it not been so timely and needful for counteracting a rising tide of critical thought, would have rocked the foundations of Christianity. As it was, it afforded a refuge for rational thinkers who were unable to deny the difficulties of the literal narrative; the only tenable refuge for those who would retain their faith in the Lord's Word.

     The earth which was flooded was the "Church" of the Golden Age. The minds of men were floundering in a sea of phantasy. They were obsessed by the persuasion that their souls were identical with God's own Being,-that they were "like gods, knowing good and evil," and that their very actions were divine, The spirits of this profane antediluvian race ruled the spirit-world. And only one salvation was possible from this flood of evil persuasion that welled up from the pervert wills of the once celestial race; and this is represented by the ark which Noah built to keep abreast of the suffocating flood.

     The Ark of Noah.

     The ark represents the new kind of salvation which was offered to the human race when it had departed from the primitive order of its life, or, what is the same, when hereditary evils had entirely submerged the will and thus the understanding of the men of this church, with whom these two faculties acted as a one. The ark is thus a picture of the mind of those of the most ancient race and their gentile kin who still were salvable. For salvation thenceforth depended upon the ability to keep the remains implanted by the Lord in the understanding segregated from the dormant enormities of the lustful will. As we learn from the Arcana (nos. 641, 642, 652), this will must be "covered over" like the lowest "mansion in the ark. If a man were introduced into the passions of his animal-like will, or even became conscious of them suddenly all would be ever with his spiritual life. It is therefore provided, in mercy, that man's conscious life shall be carried on in the understanding, affections from the sensual will being admitted into this only by degrees, so far as man is ready to resist them, or else so far as he insists on plunging himself into them.

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Until then, the Lord keeps this bestial part of man "covered"; and even with angels who have overcome in the battles of life, this proprium is still such that they are restrained from it only by an irresistible force exerted without ceasing by the Lord. Unless man's mind be organized like the ark of Noah, he can in no wise respond to this saving power of the Lord.

     The building of the ark thus signifies a fundamental change in the constitution of mankind, a change gradually effected as need warranted. The flood was not a sudden event, and may have been of age-long duration.

     The Animals enter the Ark.

     Pairs of every living thing were brought into the ark unto Noah. This represents the furnishing of the mind, and the regeneration of all its states. Animals correspond to affections of the natural mind, birds to affections of thought, creeping things to sensual affections. Fishes correspond to knowledges and their affections, sort these, in a sense, are neutral to good and evil, and thus unaffected by this flood."

     Nothing really enters the mind unless it arouses some affection or delight, but the knowledge which comes to the mind by sensation is immediately adjoined to some corresponding affection. This is seen in the operation of the laws of association which bind our mental states together. (A. C. 3336:2, 4205:2, 5044:2.)

     Swedenborg Comforts the Unhappy.

     In the Arcana, n. 699, the revelator recounts one of his visits, under angelic protection, to the hells. There he found some among the unhappy who complained to God in despair, believing that their torments, due to infestation from certain evil spirits, were to be eternal. But Swedenborg "was permitted to comfort them." Unless the context is carefully noticed, this might appear as an indication that the hells are not, eternal, but rather in the nature of a "purgatory," which, however, the Writings elsewhere condemn as a fiction of the Catholics. The fact is that some spirits are let down amongst the hells to places of vastation which are called the "lower earth," and are there reduced to despair before their evils and falsities can be broken and they themselves elevated to heavenly societies. It was to such spirits that Swedenborg spoke.

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     In the Diary, n. 228, Swedenborg gives a fuller account of his visit, which occurred in the night of October 29th, 1747. He saw how these unhappy souls were comforted by a glorious vision which he himself also more dimly discerned; and he testifies that several were afterwards delivered and raised up into heaven. It appears that Swedenborg, at the time of this, his first excursion into hell, had not yet become fully informed as to the distinctions between the "lower earths" and the permanent hells.

     The Eternity of the Hells.

     In another passage of the Diary (n. 2826) a conversation is described in which it is brought out that "it would be contrary to Divine Wisdom . . . that a soul should be tormented to eternity without an end of good"; and that all punishments have correction as their purpose. This general teaching is consistently given throughout the Writings. For bell is not primarily a place of punishment, although penalties are the necessary consequences of their evils, and the means for reducing the devils into an external order for their own good.

     Equally consistent is the teaching that "they who have been vastated (of good and truth), and are once in hell, do not return," but remain there to eternity. (D. 5529; compare A. C. 7541 and A. E. 1164f.) Devils also told Swedenborg (with the frankness which is natural to the inhabitants in both heaven and hell) that "they would a thousand times rather live in bell than out of it." (D. 5830.) But this was nor because bell is lacking in horrors, as may be seen from the enlightening experiences of a spirit who had thought, while in the world, "that the bells were not so bad"! (See Diary 4921,)

     The Lord does not cease from desiring to save the devils from themselves, and thus from the hells they make for themselves. If a devil would suffer himself to be reformed as to purpose,. he would immediately be led out of hell. But by a devil is meant one who will not do this. A trial was made in the spiritual world with those who believed that the Lord could remove evils in the wicked, and could put goods in their place, and thus transfer all hell into heaven. But this was seen to be impossible. (D. P. 294:5.)

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NEW CHURCH AND YOUTH 1930

NEW CHURCH AND YOUTH       Rev. GILBERT H. SMITH       1930

     The New Church, if rightly understood, is a church in which young people ought to find an opportunity for leadership. This is not the case with churches as a usual thing; but the New Church, we believe, ought to be unusual in this respect. If we are wrong in this concept, we should like to know why it cannot be so. But we think we are right, and that the New Church will only be what it ought to be when it holds the interest and hearty support of youth.

     The meaning of the New Church is the same, or ought to be the same, as the meaning of religion. The Lord has promised the descent of it out of heaven-that is, the descent of a genuine religion. It is to have the "glory of God." To what extent is this promise fulfilled? What is our conception of a genuine religion, and what does religion mean to the young person of twenty?

     Looking out upon our modern world in general, see clearly that, as a general rule, religion means very little to young people. In comparison with worldly interests, it does not seem very attractive. In fact, most young people undergo a kind of recession from the things of the church, if not something like a revolt against them. Especially is this the case when they have been reared in the atmosphere of some church. A certain number of them get over this state, and return, and are confirmed, and join the church. It is entirely natural that such a state of recession should come. It is a kind of spiritual infestation which all must undergo to some extent. A man really has to confirm himself in the things of religion, or else reject them entirely.

     But why should young people return to the church? What has the church to offer them of interest or of appreciable value? It is usually the older people, and not all of these, who carry the heaviest part of the work of the church. And it is at considerable cost in effort and in money that the uses of the church are carried on.

     We have often wondered about this: Suppose the Lord Himself were to reappear in the same way as before; would young people go to hear Him? If He were to come again in Person, and teach in our streets and halls of learning, would there be crowds of the youthful flocking to hear Him?

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     The answer must be that there would be crowds of young people who would come and listen to His teaching,-if; if they really and fully believed that the Lord had "the words of eternal life." If they honestly believed that, they would be eager to bear Him and to follow His teachings. And not only so, but we imagine that all the facilities of the press and of the radio would be taxed, in order that the demand of the people to hear Him might be satisfied. But this imagined situation depends entirely upon the one condition,-that they would have to be convinced that the Lord had the words of eternal life.

     Well, the church of the Lord is supposed to repeat and perpetuate the teachings of the Lord. Why, then, should not the church be crowded with interested people? He promised that His Spirit was to be with the church forever, and in increasing fulness. And if this is so today, then we should think that, so far as salvation depends upon instruction, that instruction would be enthusiastically received by old and young together, and no matter what the cost might be.

     But the church in general-the Christian Church-has not succeeded in justifying so strong a belief in itself, at least net among the youth of America, This is said in general. But what may, be said of the New Church and its youth? We believe, with greater or less assurance, that the Heavenly Doctrine does contain the words of eternal life, and that there is conferred upon its priesthood the power to communicate the Spirit of the Lord. We believe more than that. We believe that in our Doctrine the words of eternal life-the things by which one is to be saved-are taught more fully and clearly than in the Lord's own personal instruction when He was upon earth in the flesh. If this were not true, then it would have been better for us to have lived our lives on earth nineteen centuries ago. And if it is true, then the knowledge of our Doctrine ought to be the one thing most sought after, and the teaching of it more earnestly supported than any other project in the world.

     Therefore we say that the New Church ought to be, in marked contrast with what we usually find in our modern world, a church of young people especially. The older ones may be supposed to have gained some knowledge of the Doctrine already.

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The church ought to be the beneficiary of the spirit and energy that youth can infuse into it. Youth should be active in all its functions. It should have the entire approval of the young people. And the requirements of religion ought to be so simple and evident that young men and women could find no occasion for criticism. They should be whole-heartedly behind it.

     We do not believe, as we so often read, that "man is incurably religious"-especially young men. They may destroy religion within themselves. But they have the remains of religion, upon the basis of which it may develop into something real. And they might take to a life of religion more readily if by some method it were possible to put into the word "religion" a meaning entirely different from that which is commonly in the minds of men. For, according to the usual connotation of religion, it is not very attractive to youth. But from the Doctrine of the New Church we believe it should be possible to wipe completely from the mind most of the ideas usually associated with religion, and to substitute something more reasonable and attractive, even to those of the age of twenty. So we raise the question: What can the New Church reasonably expect of young people in the matter of religion?

     There are many current misconceptions of religion. It is thought that religion demands an extraordinary amount of piety, and sets an undue limit upon the enjoyment of life. Many delightful things are thought to be in some way prohibited by the Ten Commandments. It is thought that religion requires an overdoes of serious-mindedness. The religion of the ordinary Christian has been made to prohibit many things of which young people do not want to be deprived. But the fact is that the Lord's Commandment is exceeding broad.

     The religion of the New Church requires very few and simple things of the youth. It requires nothing more than that he should worship the Lord and live a life in obedience to His Commandments. It lays no other burden upon man, young or old. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, heart, mind, and strength." This is the first commandment. And the second is like: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." In another place it is said that all that the Lord requires of man is that he should "do justly, and love mercy, and walk humbly with his God." And ought not these simple requirements of religion to be attractive to youth?

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Is there anyone who does not want to do this? Should not the young man or woman want to love God and the neighbor?

     But let us put these minimum requirements into another form of speech. There is no difference if we say that religion is nothing else than to worship the Lord and to be honest and sincere for his sake. For honesty is the sum-total of all morality, and sincerity comes from it. And religion consists in nothing more than morality, together with the love of the Lord. The moral life is the honest life, from which there is sincerity; and all that is required of man is honesty, together with the acknowledgment of the Lord. Anything more than this is not rightly required of any person. To "have a good time" is not forbidden, and too great a display of piety is not to be desired or expected.

     It is not to be expected that young people should go about with a mantle of solemnity upon their shoulders, devoting themselves entirely to serious thoughts, denying themselves many of the joys of living, giving long periods of their time to the things of doctrine, and deporting themselves with outward humility. It is admitted that to worship the Lord-which is the first commandment-does require some time and attention, but it is by no means excessive. And it is admitted that to keep the Commandments in spirit and in deed is not the easiest of all things to do. But it does not prevent people from enjoying life and "having a good time."

     A man, in outward conduct, may live very much in the enjoyment of natural pleasures and advantages, provided only that he does not set his heart upon these things alone, but reserves a time to consider the things of eternal life, and wishes honestly not to violate the spirit of the Decalogue. He may cultivate beauty and refinement as much as he chooses; may live as handsomely as he is honestly able; may provide as well as he can for the family and friends dependent upon him, and this not only for the present but also for the future. He may devote himself to the affairs of the world and of its business, and to the enjoyment of his leisure. He may eat, drink, and be as merry as he pleases; provided only that he honestly worships and loves the Lord and does not wish to do any harm to the neighbor. The very life of religion is to do good, and not to do evil because this is to sin against the Lord.

     An old friend of ours, now passed into the spiritual world, was once known to illustrate the prayer of an agnostic who had gotten into some difficulty.

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It was like this: "O God (if there be a God), have mercy on my soul (if I have a soul)!" And this was not said merely for the humor of it, but to point to the ridiculousness of the state of mind. There were too many reservations. We should not have any mental reservations as to the existence of God, nor as to the existence of our souls. We should have no reservations as to those two fundamentals of religion,-the will to love and serve the Lord, and the will to deal honestly and sincerely with all men.

     We certainly cannot do less than to assume that this is indeed the ideal of all right-minded youth. They want to have the spirit of the Lord, and they want to be honest and sincere. It may be that many in the modern world leave the Lord out of consideration, and believe that they can be sincere and honest without much attention to the work of the church or association with church people. Besides, there is the matter of the support of the church and its institutional uses. The church as an institution does not seem to youth as of such great importance and necessity as it is likely to appear when youth has given place to middle age. Therefore it is comparatively seldom that we see the young person of twenty assuming a place in the councils and in the management of the church, and undertaking full responsibility of membership in it, although there is really no good reason why be should not do so. There is no need for one to grow very solemn and pious before he can take an active part in the doing of the work of the church or assume responsibility of office in the organization. Neither is it necessary that he should be a heavy contributor to the support of the church, in order to be a most valuable member.

     Perhaps many young people may think that they are not in a position to help very much in the financial support of the institution of the church. In fact, few of them are. And so they hesitate to assume regular membership. No one should remain out for this reason. He can certainly help the church by performing services to it; and, as we have already suggested, the very presence of young people who are assuming an active part in the activities of the church is an inspiration to those older ones who have more or less "settled down," and who carry the bulk of the expense.

     Also, and of still more significance, is this: that the worship of the Lord, if it is to be a genuine and complete worship, includes the observance and benefit of the Holy Supper.

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Youth ought to be keenly aware of the evils of human nature, and of their own tendencies to evil, as people of more mature mind. And it should realize fully enough the need of the Lord's help in keeping the spirit of the Commandments. For the young person of twenty, or a little more, to imagine that the Holy Supper is not for him, or that there is nothing in his life that he needs to repent of, is really assuming a great deal more than he ought to assume. In the early days of youth, when one is thinking of such important things as marriage, and of his use in the world, one would think that he ought net to avoid this means of personal approach to the Lord, and ought not to delay in availing himself of this holy sacrament. It is the holiest thing of worship indeed, but one should not regard it as being so holy that he dare not partake of it, feeling that he is not worthy, or that it is not of much value.

     This is one of the important and valuable acts of piety, There is much less of presumption in preparing for the Holy Supper, and partaking of it, than there is in avoiding it. Certainly the youth has as many evils to combat as the older man or woman. To postpone that combat will not make it any easier. Anyone who is old enough for membership in the New Church is old enough to enter into this most important aspect of worship, and to partake of the Holy Supper. If he believes in the Lord, and wants to live a good life, with the Lord as his Father and Guide, the young person ought surely not to deprive himself of this approach to the Lord which is meant for him. It is a mistaken idea of religion that supposes that the Holy Supper is only for those of maturer minds and later life.

     Let us, however, get back to our original thought, that the New Church is a church in which young people should find full opportunity for leadership, and that while some piety and observance of the forms of worship may he expected with reason, it is by no means excessive. A little time, a little thought, a little effort, are required for the advancement of spiritual life. And the church which has a body of active young people who are making this advancement is a church which is living and growing. The New Church, ideally, is not one in which all the important functions and activities should fall to the aged and the middle-aged, but they should fall to the young people as well.

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We will even say that the more it can fall to the youth of the church, the more happy will the state of the church become, and the more full of promise for the future. If it cannot be so easily seen that youth needs the church, at least it can be seen that the church needs them. But both are true.

     If it is the ideal of youth to be honest and sincere in life, and if this is the sum-total of morality, then youth should be in hearty sympathy with the church. And if the other great purpose of the church is the worship of the Lord,-to make that morality spiritual,-and if this is the only other requirement of a genuine religion, it should have the hearty support of youth. And if the Lord were to come again in Person to teach the words of eternal life, who would not make sacrifices to hear Him? How much more ought this to be the case, when He has come again in Spirit, and when the words of eternal life are now more clearly spoken!
HIGHER EDUCATION 1930

HIGHER EDUCATION       Rev. W. L. GLADISH       1930

     One of the most noteworthy tendencies of the present day is the desire for higher education. Our colleges and universities are crowded. In spite of liberal endowments and continual expansion, thousands of students must be turned away every year.

     This intense desire for education does not come from a love of wisdom or intelligence, but from a love of becoming insane. When the Divinity of the Word and the Divinity of the Lord's Human are rejected, no spiritual love remains with man, and therefore no love of wisdom; there remain no loves but those of the merely natural man, and these in general are two, love of self and love of the world. These loves, unhindered by religion, drive the mind to the acquisition of false scientifics, whereby it confirms itself in the belief that no Creator is needed, but that Nature created and creates herself.

     That this is the underlying spirit and purpose of most of the higher education of the present day will be apparent to any one who impartially examines it in the light of the Heavenly Doctrine.

     We of the Academy are swept along by the current with our generation. Shall we yield and go with it, or shall we struggle against it?

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So far as it is bearing men on toward insanity in spiritual things, and hence toward hell, we surely must struggle against it. We certainly should keep our boys and girls out of educational institutions which are frankly agnostic or worse in their attitude toward Divine Revelation and a personal God.

     At the same time, we should welcome the desire for knowledge on the part of every New Churchman, and should be spurred to provide places where our sons and daughters can be truly educated in the sphere of the opened Word. This great desire for education,-though arising in Christendom from the prevalence of evil love and its desire for falsity,-an evil that can be turned into good, that can be made the very means of the establishment of the New Church, and consequently of the salvation of the human race.

     The New Churchman needs higher education. He needs it for two reasons: 1. For the healing of his own mind. 2. That he may perform his use as a New Churchman in providing true scientifics for the rescue of the remnant, which otherwise must be carried away in the flood of false science that is now inundating Christendom.

     No man can be a rational New Churchman, seeing the spiritual truths of the Word in their own light, Without some knowledge of the interiors of nature. He must, even though from afar, follow in the footsteps of the Lord's servant through whom the Doctrine was given. Without natural truths, man has no vessels to receive spiritual truths rationally. Nor can ignorant men hope to stem the tide,-even with the religious and well-disposed,-which is so strongly bearing Christendom toward agnosticism and naturalism.

     Therefore, it is of the greatest importance, both for our self-preservation and for our use to the world, that we should provide every possible facility for the education of our sons and daughters in the sphere of the Church and in the light of the opened Word; for in this light alone is there true intelligence and wisdom; and this light alone has power to dispel the shades of darkness and insanity.

     In the "midst of the street of the New Jerusalem, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." By these leaves are meant scientifics, true and living, which introduce to and support spiritual truth.

     "By the true scientific is meant every scientific by which spiritual truth is confirmed, and which has life from spiritual good.

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For by scientifics a man may be wise or he may be insane. A man is wise by scientifics when he uses them to confirm the truths and goods of the church, and he becomes insane by them when be uses them to invalidate and refute the goods and truths of the church. Sciences are only means to uses, and they are such as are the uses which spring from them. They are living when, by means of them, man acquires for himself intelligence and wisdom. All intelligence and wisdom are from truths which are from heaven. Such intelligence and wisdom, because it is from heaven, that is, from the Lord through heaven, is living, because it is the very spiritual life of man. But from falsities there can be no intelligence and wisdom; and if them are supposed to exist in anyone, they are dead, because from hell. When the truth and good which come from heaven find no receptacle in the cognitions and scientifics with man, but evils and falsities which are from bell are received, the scientifics are not living, but dead, and correspond to grass withered and burnt up. It is the same with man himself; for a man is such as are the cognitions and scientifics which are alive in him. From living scientifics he has intelligence, but from scientifics not living he has no intelligence; and if they are dead, in consequence of the confirmation of falsities by them, there is insanity and folly." (A. E. 507:2.)
GLEANINGS FROM NEW CHURCH HISTORY 1930

GLEANINGS FROM NEW CHURCH HISTORY              1930

     DURBAN PIONEERS.

     The first New Church people in Durban, and, so far as is known, the first in Natal, were Mr. and Mrs. James Ridgway and family, who sailed to South Africa from Liverpool, England, landing at Durban-then a village of five or six houses-in July, 1850.

     At first the Ridgway family, together with many other families that had arrived by the same ship, were obliged to live in tents pitched on a large area of ground at the Beach end of Pine Street. About nine months later, however, the family left Durban and located at the Umgeni, occupying the solitary house of that locality,-a house deserted for reasons then unknown and never afterwards discovered.

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In this isolated dwelling, which had only mud floors, and was furnished principally with home-made bushwood furniture, the first New Church Society in South Africa may be said to have had its beginning. For it was here that Mr. Ridgway gathered his children together and instructed them, developing in them a love for the Heavenly Doctrine.

     He had brought several boxes of books with him from England, and among these books were the Writings. These boxes were not unpacked until the family had been settled for some time at Umgeni, and then it was found that white ants had eaten up most of the books. But not a volume of the Writings had thus been destroyed. In some cases the bindings had been nibbled, but not a letter of the print had been touched. The family was very much impressed by this evidence of the special Providence of the Lord, and regarded it as nothing short of a miracle.

     During the two or three years following, several other houses were built near the Ridgway home, and these were occupied chiefly by Wesleyans, who regarded the Ridgways as heretics and did their utmost to "save" them. One man in particular, perhaps the most eminent of the Wesleyans there, was noted for the zeal with which he defended his own opinions, and also, what was remarkable, for his adoption of Mr. Ridgway's arguments and the use of them as his own on the next encounter with Mr. Ridgway, It may be that the truth sunk in during the interval, but he remained a Wesleyan to the end of his life.

     Among those who attended the services held by Mr. Ridgway was Mr. A. S. Cockerell, who later married Mr. Ridgway's eldest daughter, and still later became the lay reader to the little New Church Society. About the year 1872, Mr. and Mrs. Cockerell built a house on Berea Road, Durban, and here services were held regularly until 1892, when a small church building was erected on the adjoining property.

     The above information is reprinted from the first issue of the SOUTH AFRICAN NEW CHURCH OPEN LETTER, September 1, 1917, edited by the Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal, then minister of the Durban Society. The portraits of Mr. and Mrs. James Ridgway, pioneers and founders of the society, are photographic reproductions recently presented to the Bishop by the friends in South Africa.

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     [Photos of James Ridgway

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and Susannah Ridgway, South African Pioneers, Durban, Natal, July, 1850.]

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NEWS AND COMMENT 1930

NEWS AND COMMENT       Editor       1930


NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office a Publication, Lancaster, Pa.
Published Monthly By
THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
BRYN ATHYN, PA.
Editor                    Rev. W. B. Caldwell, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager          Mr. H. Hyatt, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address and business communications should be sent to the Business Manager.

     TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
In the United States, $3.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single Copy, 30 cents.
     CENSORSHIP.

     It was in the year 1769 that fifty copies of Swedenborg's De Amore Conjugiali were, through the instigation of Bishop Filenius, confiscated at the custom house of Norrkoping, during the Diet which was held there in that year; some of these copies being found later in a grocery shop in Stockholm, where they were being used as wrapping paper. (Documents 111, P. 71 1.) From that day to the present, the work on Conjugial Love, as is well-known to New Churchmen, has been the special object of attack both within and without the New Church. In one notable instance, it was "absolved" by a decision of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, in the year 1909.

     During the recent discussion of the subject of Censorship in the United States, it was stated that "Swedenborg's Amor Conjugalis, published in 1768, was excluded by the Philadelphia post office in 1909." This was mentioned in an article entitled "The Practice of Censorship," appearing in the ATLANTIC MONTHLY for January, 1930, written by Edward Weeks, a member of the ATLANTIC staff, who has made a close study of the machinery of censorship, and who regards "policing of this sort as little short of absurd."

     A Petition to Congress was placed before the Senate on March 7, 1930, signed by 560 prominent men and women from forty-three States, including the Rev. Paul Sperry President of the General Convention.

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The gist of the Petition may be gathered from the following excerpts:

     "Whereas section 305 of the existing tariff bill now contains a large and general power of censorship over imported literature, which permits customs inspectors and courts to exclude from entry works of Chaucer, Shakespeare, DeFoe, Swift, . . . Swedenborg, etc., We, the undersigned, respectfully request the Congress of the United States to remove the existing censorship from foreign literature and to decline to extend it." (Congressional Record, Vol. 72, No. 71.)

     On March 18th, the Senate adopted an amendment extending the present law by making district courts the final arbiters, instead of custom house officials.
FRENCH VERSION OF "THE WEDDING GARMENT." 1930

FRENCH VERSION OF "THE WEDDING GARMENT."              1930

     LE MESSAGER DE LA NOUVELLE EGLISE (Geneva) announces that the French translation of Louis Pendleton's story, The Wedding Garment, now appearing in monthly installments in that magazine, will be published in book form if a sufficient number of advance subscriptions are received. If ordered now, the price per volume will be 3 francs (Swiss) or 15 francs (French)-about 60 cents. Address: Rev. Alfred Regamey, 12, Quai des Eaux-Vives, Geneva, Switzerland.
NEW PERIODICAL IN HOLLAND 1930

NEW PERIODICAL IN HOLLAND              1930

     In January of this year the Dutch periodical. DE WARE CHRISTELIJKE GODSDIENST (The True Christian Religion), edited by the Rev. Ernst Pfeiffer, and published in the interests of the General Church Society at The Hague, was superseded by an enlarged monthly magazine (8vo, 32 pages), bearing the title, DE HEMELSCHE LEER (The Heavenly Doctrine). The contents of the four issues, January to April, include editorials, transactions of the Swedenborg Society at The Hague, and a number of articles by members of the Church Society there. The matter in these issues deals mainly with the theme of the "Doctrine of the Church," and in particular with the idea that the Writings, as the Latin Word, have both a literal and an internal sense,-a topic that was treated at some length by various writers in our pages last year.

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     A doubt may arise as to whether it is well to use titles of the Books of the Writings for the names of periodicals in the New Church. From a literary standpoint alone it would seem inadvisable to duplicate titles in this manner, causing confusion, and making it necessary to note the distinction when referring to or quoting from journals bearing such titles as "The True Christian Religion" or "The Heavenly Doctrine."
LETTER OF CONDOLENCE 1930

LETTER OF CONDOLENCE              1930

     The following letter, written by Benjamin Franklin on the death of a friend, furnishes evidence of his common-sense view of the transition from this life to the other. The letter was loaned to THE NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER by the Rev. Fred Sidney Mayer, of Baltimore, Md., and published in the issue of that weekly for April 23, 1930.

To Miss Hubbard:
     I condole with you. We have lost a most dear and valuable relation. But it is the will of God and nature that these mortal bodies be laid aside, when the soul is to enter into real life. This is rather an embryo state, a preparation for living. A man is not completely born until he is dead. Why, then, should we grieve that a new child is born among the immortals, a new member added to their happy society? We are spirits. That bodies should be lent us while they can afford us pleasure, to assist us in acquiring knowledge, or doing good to our fellow-creatures, is a kind and benevolent act of God, When they become unfit for these purposes, and afford us pain instead of pleasure, instead of an aid become an encumbrance, and answer none of the intentions for which they were given, it is equally kind and benevolent that a way is provided by which we may get rid of them. Death is that way. We ourselves, in some cases, prudently choose a partial death. A mangled, painful limb, which cannot be restored, we willingly cut off, He who plucks out a tooth parts with it freely, since the pain goes with it; and he who quits the whole body, part, at once with all pains and possibilities of pains and diseases it was liable to, or capable of making him suffer.

     Our friend and we are invited abroad on a party of pleasure which is to last forever. His chair was ready first, and he is gone before us. We could not all conveniently start together; and why should you and I be grieved at this, since we are soon to follow, and know where to find him?
     Adieu,
          B. FRANKLIN.

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SCIENCE OF GIVING TO THE CHURCH 1930

SCIENCE OF GIVING TO THE CHURCH       WILLIAM H. JUNGE       1930

     AN ATTEMPT TO BRING THIS SUBJECT BEFORE THE LAYMEN.

     I.

     Money for the support of the Church may come from any one of three sources:

     A. From offerings made as an act of worship.
     B. From benefactions.
     C. Income from endowments and the like.

     A.-Offerings:

     The offerings made as a return to the Lord are vital obligations, and when they have been made, the individual has discharged his full fiscal obligation to the Church.

     These offerings must be made intelligently, and with regard to the needs of the Church. While the extent of these offerings is the concern of each individual, and while the Church refrains from dictation or solicitation, yet no one can rightly disregard the moral obligation to make a return to the Lord as an act of worship.

     It is held that the current uses of the Church should be supported by these offerings, and conversely (if this ruling be Sound) Church uses should not be greatly expanded beyond what these offerings will support.

     B.-Benefactions:

     Benefactions are made at the good pleasure of the individual. They should be sparingly used to defray the expense of current uses. Permanent improvements, church, extension and unusual undertakings, seem to be the field for benefactions. They have no beating on salvation, and may properly be solicited. It is probably proper to consider monies from bazaars and entertainments as benefactions.

     C.-Income from Endowments:

     Them endowments usually we the result of benefactions or bequests, and should be used in such a way as not to displace the proper use of offerings.

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It can easily be shown that rich endowments improperly used would debauch the Church.

     II.

     The foregoing may be considered a citation of the old-fashioned theories as to the ways in which the several kinds of contributions to the Church should be used.

     It is plain that the offerings made as an act of worship without coercion are of first importance, both to the Church and to each individual member.

     It is also plain that every member of the Church should realize that be must make some offering, and also have a clear idea how to establish for himself, in freedom, the proper extent of his obligation to the Church according to b is own circumstances, and also according to the needs of the Church.

     Further, it is necessary that the individual should understand how to distribute his offering to the several uses of the Church.

     III.

     How may people learn that they have a real obligation to make a return to the Lord as an act of worship?

     How may they acquire the ability to compute for themselves the extent of their obligation?

     How may they discover which uses must receive percentages of the offering, as against Church uses which may or may not receive support at the pleasure of the giver?

     The priesthood should, from pulpit and in classes, teach the doctrine of giving, but should not attempt dogmatic instruction as to methods of determining how much to give or how to distribute offerings.

     The fiscal officers of the Church should inform inquiring members as to the consensus prevailing in the Church as to methods of giving and distributing offerings.

     It seems to me that the fiscal officers should, as a matter of duty, inquire of every member whether he accepts the teaching that be has an obligation to make an offering, and whether he is making and distributing such an offering. They should not withhold information as to suitable methods, should occasion require instruction.

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     IV.

     When the priests and fiscal officers have full functioned, then the Church will be aware of two facts:

     First: That all members who desire to give to the Church are giving what they deem proper.

     Second: They will know that the monies coming in are all that can be expected, excepting, of course, benefactions.

     With this knowledge, all efforts to increase contributions must cease; though instruction from the pulpit and cooperation of fiscal officers must be continuous, as wisdom may dictate.

     The work of the society may then have to be less than desired, but it will be definite. The society will discuss how best to perform uses, instead of perpetually discussing how to raise money.

     The cry of "insufficient funds" will be removed, and all will have an eager pleasure in doing as much as possible with the money that Providence has provided, and even in making personal sacrifices from love for the Church.

     V.

     An offering, if it is really to be an offering, cannot be casual. If casual, it becomes nothing more than a benefaction.

     As said above, it must regard the needs of the Church, and take into account the personal conditions under which it is made.

     It appears that such an offering should be segregated, put aside and kept carefully for its purpose by the giver, and that he should regard himself as a steward, and, as such, wisely administer this fund.

     It would be a beautiful thing if we could periodically lay this offering on the Altar, but there are many uses and many treasurers that must be considered, and we must be content to have our Sunday offering in church typify and celebrate our gift-our recognition of the blessings received from the Lord.

     VI.

     Rich and poor alike should make their offering in freedom. None should hold back the major part of what they intend giving, fearing that if they should give freely, others would not give at all.

     If we can banish the distrust and suspicion that many are not giving as they should, and substitute the knowledge that all are doing what they believe to be right, we shall have peace and plenty in the Church.

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     VII.

     It may be well to touch lightly on existing conditions.

     In all parts of the Church we are haunted by an insufficiency of funds. Throughout the Church we have the failing, common in the world, of discussing effects instead of causes, and as a result:

     We have obscurity throughout the Church as to the obligation to give. Let us remove that obscurity, and not talk about the percentage of members who do not give.

     We have obscurity as to how to arrive at a just estimate of what to give. Let us make sure that everyone knows how to find out.

     We have obscurity as to the proper distribution of our offerings. Let us explain how an offering should be divided among the various uses.

     Our people are loyal, and they will respond as soon as they understand. Providence has supplied us with ample means to carry on the uses properly.

     We need, throughout the Church, more orderly methods of contributing. That is certain. But fearless teaching, in place of sentimental half-truths, will make the correction.

     Why fear to tell the truth in the proper way at the proper time and in the proper place?

     WILLIAM H. JUNGE,
          Glenview, Ill., March 31, 1930.

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Church News 1930

Church News       Various       1930

     REPORT OF THE VISITING PASTOR.

     On Sunday afternoon, April 13th, a service was held at DETROIT with an attendance of nineteen, of whom thirteen partook of the Holy Supper. Most of those present then went to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Day for a social Supper, which was greatly enjoyed. This was followed by a doctrinal class, at which thirteen were present. The teaching presented was that it is not harmful to believe according to appearances of truth, provided these be not so confirmed as to cause denial of genuine truth.

     On Monday afternoon, at EAST WINDSOR, ONT., in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Bellinger, a children's lesson was given. In the evening a doctrinal class was held. Our subject was Time in Heaven, and the interest shown by the asking of many questions was sustained for two hours.

     On Tuesday evening another was held at Detroit, in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Synnestvedt. The doctrine considered was, that "no one is reformed by miracles and signs, because they compel." (D. P. 130-133.) Application was made to faith healing of bodily diseases, and the danger of this, as indicated in the doctrine. Afterwards we had another pleasant social time.

     A visit to MIDDLEPORT, OHIO, began with a doctrinal clam on Thursday evening, April 24th, at which our subject was concerning the Lord as the one only Essence, Substance and Form, from which all created essences, substances and forms are derived. (D. P. 157.) There was an attendance of nine. One of these was a stranger, who must have found the teaching given to be rather deep water, although he expressed appreciation of what he heard.

     The following day, instruction was given to six children; and as the preceding Sunday had been Easter, a part of the time was given to telling of the Lord's resurrection. In the evening we again had class, with eight persons present, and the doctrine considered was the Lord's becoming the Word in ultimates by His fulfilling the Scriptures. On Sunday morning a service was held, with an attendance of twenty, of whom seven were children and three were strangers. At the Holy Supper there were nine communicants. In the evening the concluding class was held, with an attendance of nine, the subject being Time and Eternity. As ever, our meetings were delightful, and the interest strong and earnest.
     F. E. WAELCHLI.

     CHICAGO, ILL.

     In spite of the rain on Easter Sunday, there was a full attendance at the service on that day, which included the baptism of four adults,-Mr. Oscar Mattsson, the Miss Gerta and Cora Malmstrom, and Miss Esther Cronwall,-and the ceremony of Confirmation for Mr. Charles Edward Anderson.

     Our annual meeting was held after a Friday Supper, and the chief subject discussed was that of the project for a new building to replace our present overcrowded quarters. Two plans were offered: One, a modest church building, with a home for the pastor on the same lot; the other, a three story building providing for all our requirements, the ground floor to be used for suppers and socials, the ground floor for worship, and the third for the pastor's resident.

     In the course of the pastor's report to the meeting, he mentioned that we now have a membership of seventy-five, of whom sixty live in the city of Chicago; three new members have been added during the past year.-the Misses Ruth M. and Natalie June Curtis, and Mr. Charles M. Ross. He stated further that he had recently been preparing a class of fear for baptism, and one for confirmation.

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Delightful meetings were held at the home of Mrs. Cronwall, and these will be continued. "There are indications," he said, "that our determination to take Evangelization of our use, supporting the Immanuel Church, Glenview, in their use of education, was a wise choice. The Lord has blessed us with more new members than we could have expected. And I have no doubt that He will add others as we prepare ourselves to be useful in them. Two things are necessary: 1. That we constantly grow in the knowledge and affection of the Heavenly Doctrine; for this is to know and love the Lord in His Second Advent. 2. That we grow in charity toward our brethren, loving them as ourselves, entertaining no spirit of criticism or ill-will, but ever guarding their freedom as we would our own. These are the essentials of the Church, and where they are found the Lord will bring such as are prepared to worship in spirit and in truth. We have had a busy and happy year, working and playing together, and raising money for a new church building. We need more room. But, no doubt, the Lord will indicate to us in His own time when and how we are to get it, if we do all we can. Ten years ago at Easter I took charge as Acting Pastor on the failure of the Rev. D. H. Klein's health. We have made some substantial gains during that time, and we look forward confidently to continual and greater gains in the future, provided we continue to walk in the law of the Lord."

     Miss Joan Headsten has generalled our monthly socials with great success, both as to amusement provided and funds counted for our longed-for building. Two weeks ago we had a "Television" program, at which Mr. Norman Jasmer made a graceful and fluent announcer. Mrs. Neville Wright appeared as a "dwarf," and convulsed the audience with her recitations in Pennsylvania Dutch. Dr. Farrington, as an Italian troubadour, sang a song with the touching refrain,-"I love spaghetti, for it has no bones." Then came five young pirates armed with dangerous looking instruments, and regaled us with so-called music. They called upon the audience for requests, but if they were asked to play "Drink to me only with thine eyes," like as not it would be "Over There."

     The Pastor and Mrs. Gladish have recently returned from a motor trip to St. Louis, Mo., when, they visited the home of Mr. J. C. Wilson. a service with the Holy Supper being held there. They also visited members of Sharon Church residing at Clinton and Wilmington, Illinois. They were accompanied as far as St. Louis by Theodore Gladish and Warren Reuter, en route to Texas, from whence they go by beat to Lima, Peru. They plan to see the world before returning.
     E. V. W.

     GLENVIEW, ILL.

     The approach of summer has been marked by intensified outdoor activities. The younger grades of the school held a grand clean-up of the school and park grounds, and as a pleasant wind-up, had a marshmallow roast and a jolly little party. The older grades will soon have their festivities attendant upon the closing of the school for summer vacation. The following will graduate from the eighth to the ninth grade of our school this year: Charles Cole, Lester Holmes, Carl Felix Junge, Kathleen Lee and John Scalbom.

     The principal thing in the air at the present time is the approaching General Assembly, with the question of who is going and how. Present indications are that there will be a very fair representation from Glenview, going chiefly by auto. This is a very sociable way to travel, and a party of four or five can have a delightful time on the trip, which can now be made in about three days for the thousand miles.

     The classes in public speaking, both the masculine and the feminine branches, met recently in a final banquet, the professor and his wife being present. The principal topic of the speeches was that of adult education, the speakers deploring the tendency to abandon systematic education at about the age of thirty years or younger.

377




     The sons of the Academy local chapter held its regular monthly session, and listened to a well-considered discourse by Mr. Kenneth Cole on the subject of "Liberty." An interesting discussion followed, and it was decided that hereafter we shall have more original papers of this character, instead of reading those already printed or prepared by outsiders.

     The Seymour Nelson family have returned from their winter sojourn in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Mr. nelson has resumed his seat at the organ on Sundays,-a use which he has so faithfully and capably performed for more than fifty years.
     J. B. S.

     BRYN ATHYN.

     The Assembly Hall.

     On the 9th of May, the people of Bryn Athyn, including the children, were called together to inaugurate into its use the latest of the buildings of this community,-a building that is to serve in many ways the Church at large, the School, and the people of Bryn Athyn. A full description, with pictures, will appear later in the Life, but here we may mention that it includes a large hall with stage, a large gymnasium, showers and athletic office, a club-room, and a kitchen. There are terraces at the sides, and nearby ample parking space for cars. For the exercises of the evening some of the chancel furniture of the School Chapel was brought over and suitably arranged upon the platform.

     The dedicatory service began at 6.35 p.m. with the singing of Hymn 63, "O Lord, our help in ages past," during which the Bishop and two assistant pastors entered. The Word was opened, and appropriate sentences and prayers were said. Then followed the Lesson from the Scriptures, Deuteronomy 11, descriptive of the blessings given by the Lord of the Church if it continues in a state of integrity and faithfulness to Him. This was read by the Rev. H. L. Odhner, and was followed by the Hymn, "Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah." A Lesson from the Writings was read by the Rt. Rev. George de Charms, being selections from the Arcana Celestia nos. 993-997, in which is told the function of pleasure in nourishing affections, and its relation to the internal things of spiritual life. This instruction was peculiarly apposite to the fact that the new building is intended to serve so many and varied social uses, and also is for the sports of the student body of the school. After the singing of "Jerusalem the Golden," Mr. Edward C. Bostock, as Chairman of the Building Committee, presented the building to the Bryn Athyn Society and the Academy of the New Church, who are to be its joint owners and users. Bishop Pendleton, on behalf of the Church and the School, then accepted the building and dedicated it to the uses of assembly. (The text of the Bishop's Dedicatory Address will be found on page 345.)

     The dedication was followed by a benediction and the singing of Hymn 36, "Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion city of our God," which brought the service to a close.

     Tables for supper were set in the gymnasium section of the new building, and provision was made for an extra large attendance. But the people who remained for supper were more than could be seated at the tables, and groups were to be found making a picnic of it on the terraces around the building.

     After supper the Spring Meeting of the Bryn Athyn Church was held, and naturally much was said concerning the building just dedicated which may be mentioned here briefly.

     Bishop Pendleton, as Pastor, congratulated the Society upon the acquisition of this Assembly Hall. He pointed out that we now have provision for the three primary uses of the Church. The first use, that of worship of the Lord, is provided for in the Cathedral; the second use, that of educating the young, is furnished in the school buildings of the Academy; and now the third use, that of assembly, is given practical means of functioning, and its rightful importance is emphasized, in our Assembly Hall.

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     Mr. de Charms called our attention to the fact that what had occurred this evening had really introduced us actively into the spirit of the General Assembly which is to come upon us very shortly.

     Certainly, we think, the three spheres characteristic of an assembly were with us this evening, namely: that of the spiritual vitality of the Church, that of its distinctive social life, and that of the actual growth and progress of the Church.

     Later in the meeting, votes of appreciation were passed for the work of the Building Committee, for that of the Architect, Mr. Harold T. Carswell, and for that of the Builders, Messrs. Synnestvedt & Leonard.
     L. W. T. D.

     THE SOUTH AFRICAN MISSION.

     During the first quarter of this year the daily round and common task of the Mission have given ample occupation, but there is little to draw upon for record at this date.

     January, however, brought a number of visitors from Durban to the Alpha Circle. These were the Rev. and Mrs. Elmo C. Acton and family, Miss Roena Acton, Miss Champion, and Miss Alma Cockerell. On two occasions, Mr. Acton conducted the Sunday Service in the Chapel, when he gave interesting and useful discourses.

     Swedenborg's Birthday was duly honored on the memorable date of January 29th. A party of thirteen sat round a festive table at the home of Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Waters, who were the host and hostess for the evening. With Mr. Waters as toastmaster, birthday honors were paid Emanuel Swedenborg, and the responses to the toasts dwelt upon the relationship between the Revelator and the New Church and its Doctrine.

     Mr. F. C. Frazee and Mr. J. H. Ridgway also visited Alpha early in the year for the purpose of attending the half-yearly Mission Council Meeting. Their stay was all too short, but Durban business and the preparation for the initial work at our new Mission Station in Zululand necessitated the curtailment of their visit.
     F. W. E.
          Alpha, Ladybrand, O. F. S.,
                    March 31st, 1930.

     TORONTO, CANADA.

     The period under review,-Mid-March to mid-May,-has not been notable for any events of an outstanding nature, unless it be the incursion into the realm of histrionics by the Forward Club, of which, more anon.

     The Easter Season was observed and celebrated along the lines of former years, the Pastor giving suitable instruction in doctrinal class for two or three weeks preceding. Palm Sunday was a special service with flower offerings, which were afterwards distributed amongst the sick. We also had our usual evening service on Good Friday; and at the Easter Sunday service the sacrament of the Holy Supper was administered to what seemed to us to be a somewhat larger number of communicants than usual.

     The Ladies Circle meeting of May 6th, held at the home of Mrs. E. Craigie, was made the occasion of a "kitchen shower" in honor of Mrs. A. R. Strowger (nee Ruby Hickman) whose marriage took place on April 17th, the Pastor officiating. This being "election night," the retiring officers were accorded hearty thanks for their services during their term of office, and the following new officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, Miss F. Edina Carswell; Vice President, Mrs. John A. White; Secretary, Mrs. F. R. Longstaff; Treasurer, Mrs. F. Wilson. These officers also constitute the Executive Committee, whose function it is to plan the activities of the Circle during their term of office.

     At the Forward Club's 88th and 89th meetings, on February 20th and March 20th, no papers were read, the time being devoted to rehearsal of the program for "Ladies Night," March 22d, when an excellent banquet-supper was served to about seventy persons (all adults), accompanied by the usual merriment associated with such occasions.

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After a brief interval,-during which the ladies were entertained by the Pastor, whilst the "debris" was being disposed of,-the Club made its entry into the field of histrionics, as above mentioned, by conducting two "Mock-Trials," the first of which was put on by the "younger young men," with the exception of the prisoner, "I. L. Steel," who ought to have been old enough to know better. The second, the kernel of which was the right of "Free Speech," was perhaps more pretentious in its scope, though neither more amusing or clever. As we ourselves were engaged in this, it would ill become our innate modesty to express in suitable terms the measure of success achieved in both of these ventures. It may be said, however, if the laughter and applause evoked were any criterion, that both "went over big." Indeed, one heard frequent exclamations indicative of the results usually to be expected from an inordinate indulgence of the risible faculties. The ladies, our guests, through their President, Mrs. H. P. Izzard, voiced a full appreciation of our efforts on their behalf, and, as we had thoroughly enjoyed doing it, everybody was happy and satisfied.

     The 90th meeting of the Club, April 17th, was under the Chairmanship of Mr. F. Down, and a paper was read by Mr. F. Wilson, being a descriptive account of a visit to Jerusalem, made available to the Club through the kindness of one of its members. This paper was a brilliant piece of descriptive writing, enthrallingly interesting, but at the same time carrying with it a somewhat saddening disillusionment of what one would like to be able to picture the "Holy City." This disillusionment was borne out by another recent account in our local press by one of Toronto's leading ministers, who has just returned from a trip to Palestine. At the 91st meeting, presided over by Mr. Alec Sargeant, two papers were read, one, on "Discrete Degrees," by Mr. J. A. White; the other, "Random Notes on the Soul and the Body," by Mr. D. McMaster. Heavy subjects both, but the presentation was good in each case, the former (without design) making a suitable introduction to the latter, which was presented in a series of twenty questions and answers. Whilst it is perhaps true to say that we did not get as far as we would like in our discussion and understanding of the subjects, though was stimulated and interest maintained throughout. Mr. B. B. Carter was initiated into full membership in the Club at this meeting, whist Mr. J. A. Hergeir was also initiated on March 20th. Unfortunately, Mr. Hergeir has had to leave Toronto for Montreal, where he was, we understand, taken a position as interpreter with the Canadian Pacific Railway. Our best wishes go with him in his new venture.

     And now we are looking forward to the General Assembly. Present indications seem to point to some thirty or more being present from Toronto.
     F. W.

     PITTSBURGH, PA.

     On Easter Sunday, the children's service was combined with the adult service, and there were seventy-six persons in attendance. The five Easter hymns in the Hymnal were sung by the children and congregation, Miss Bergstrom playing the accompaniment. The children brought offerings of cut flowers, which were afterwards taken to Mr. Karlen, the fireman who was most seriously injured during the fire in the Community Building last February, and who has just recently left the hospital. One hand is still in need of redressing, and he suffered the loss of several fingers.

     Mr. Harold Thorp Carswell spent Sunday, May 4th, in Pittsburgh. He made a thorough survey of the new buildings, met with the Building Committee, and gave a very encouraging outlook. He feels confident that the pastor will be able to occupy his apartment by the last of June, and that services may be held in the auditorium the last Sunday in May. The Building Committee is actively interested in securing a weather vane for the top of the bell cote; the vane to be surmounted by an eagle, with the points of the compass beneath.

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     At a recent meeting of the parents and teachers it was decided to open the school on September 8th, 1930. There is promise of an increased attendance next year.

     Mrs. Benjamin McQueen and her two children, Joyce and Benjamin have spent several weeks in Pittsburgh visiting her sister, Mrs. G. P. Brown. The Rev. G. H. Smith was in Pittsburgh Wednesday, April 30th. In the morning he visited the school, and attended an informal bridge party in the evening at Mrs. S. S. Lindsay, Sr.'s.

     Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Blair and family have moved from their house at 723 Ivy Street to Mrs. M. E. Blair's apartment on Walnut Street, where they will remain until their new home is completed and Graymore Road. Mrs. M. E. Blair is taking a boat trip to Cincinnati, and visiting the New Church center there. Mr. Wm. F. Blair is living with Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert M. Smith on Stanton Heights. Dr. and Mrs. Frank L. Doering are being congratulated on the birth of their daughter on April 9th. They have also moved office and residence to 472 Trenton Avenue, Wilkinsburg, and find that a house is much more adequate than an apartment.
     E. R. D.

     REV. GASTON J. FERCKEN.

     We learn from the New York Times that the Rev. Gaston J. Fercken died on March 15, 1930, at Yverdon, near Lausanne, Switzerland, at the age of 75 years. It will be recalled that Mr. Fercken visited the Theological School of the Academy of the New Church during the years 1914-1915, after which he was appointed to represent the General Church as Minister in Lusanne, Switzerland, officiating in that capacity for many years.

     BROADCASTING.

     "The Swedenborg Foundation, New York, has been taking an active interest in efforts to spread a knowledge of the New Church teachings by means of radio broadcasting. On the 26th of January, the Rev. John W. Stockwell gave a brief resume of Heaven and Hell under the auspices of the Foundation from Station WABC, and received some 350 replies to an offer of further information. The Foundation has also been assisting the broadcasting work of the Rev. Walter B. Murray, of Los Angels, Calif., making a financial contribution and providing large quantities of the Uniform Edition of Swedenborg's writings. During the period from April 1, 1929, to February 28, 1930, 6,085 volumes were thus supplied, and Mr. Murray estimates that since the beginning of his work more than 12,000 homes have received one or more books. The Foundation has contributed one hundred dollars and 1,500 books to the broadcasting work in Philadelphia." (The New-Church Messenger, April 9, 1930.)

     COMING FROM ABROAD.

     The following visitors from abroad will attend the Fourteenth General Assembly:

     Miss Annie Taylor, Hurstville, Sydney, Australia; Rev. and Mrs. Elmo C. Acton, and Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Ridgway, Durban, Natal, South Africa; Rev. and Mrs. Gustaf Baeckstrom, Stockholm, Sweden; Rev. Theodore Pitcairn, Thouray, France; Rev. and Mrs. Victor J. Gladish, Colchester, England.

     We regret to state that the health of Bishop R. J. Tilson is not such as to warrant his making the journey. There is a possibility that the Rev. Albert Bjorck may be able to attend.

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BRITISH ASSEMBLY 1930

BRITISH ASSEMBLY       VICTOR J. GLADISH       1930




     Announcements.



     August 2-4, 1930.

     Members and friends of the General Church of the New Jerusalem are cordially invited to attend the Twenty-third British Assembly, which will be held in London on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, August 2d to 4th, 1930. Everyone expecting to be present is requested to communicate as early as possible with Miss K. M. Dowling, 1a Loughborough Road, Brixton, London, S. W. 9.
     VICTOR J. GLADISH,
          Secretary.

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FOURTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1930

FOURTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY              1930

     BRYN ATHYN, PA., JUNE 13-19, 1930

     Program.

Friday, June 13.
     10.00 a.m. Commencement Exercises of the Academy Schools.
               Address by Mr. Sidney E. Lee.
     3.00 p.m. Open Meeting of the Corporation and Faculties of the Academy of the New Church.

Friday, June 13.
8.00 p.m. Assembly Reception.

Saturday, June 14.
     10.00 a.m. Opening Session of the General Assembly. Address by the Bishop of the General Church.
     3.00 p.m. Academy Finance Association.
     8.00 p.m. The Assembly Pageant.

Sunday, June 15.
     11.00 a.m. Divine Worship. Sermon by the Rev. Homer Synnestvedt.
     8.00 p.m. Service of Praise. Address by the Rev. Elmo C. Acton.

Monday, June 16.
     10.00 a.m. Second Session of the General Assembly. Subject recommended for consideration: "NEW CHURCH LIFE." Introduced by the Rev. W. B. Caldwell.
     11.00 a.m. Address by Rt. Rev. George de Charms. Subject: "Human Aspiration and Heavenly Peace."
     4.00 p.m. Third Session. Addresses by Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner. Subject: "Mind and Body."
     8.00 p.m. Presentation of "Outward Bound," drama by Sutton Vane, under the auspices of the Civic and Social Club.
     
Tuesday, June 17.
     10.00 a.m. Fourth Session of the General Assembly. Subject recommended for consideration: "Church Finances."

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     11.00 a.m. Address by Rev. Alfred Acton. Introduced by Mr. Hubert Hyatt.
2.30 p.m. Meeting of Theta Alpha.
     3.00 p.m. Meeting of the Corporation of the General Church.
     8.00 p.m. Fifth Session. Address by Rev. C. E. Doering. Subject: "A Phase of New Church Education."

Wednesday, June 18.
     10.00 a.m. Sixth Session of the General Assembly. Address by the Rev. E. E. Iungerich. Subject: "Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister." (Gen. 12:13.)
11.00 a.m. Address by Rev. E. E. Iungerich.
     1.00 p.m. Luncheon for the Ladies, under the auspices of Theta Alpha.
     1.00 p.m. Luncheon for the Men, under the auspices of the Sons of the Academy. Annual Meeting of the Sons of the Academy. Address by Dr. C. R. Pendleton, as the Academy's representative at the Sons' meeting. Subject: "Philosophic Influences on the Second Coming."
     8.00 p.m. Seventh Session. Address by various Pastors on "The State of the Church."

Thursday, June 19.
     11.00 a.m. Divine Worship. Administration of the Holy Supper.
     3.00 p.m. Informal Concert, in Choir Hall.
     7.00 p.m. The Assembly Banquet. Rev. K. R. Alden, Toastmaster.

     ASSEMBLY INFORMATION.

     By invitation of the Bryn Athyn Church, the Fourteenth General Assembly of the General Church of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held at Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 13th to 19th, 1930. All members and friends of the General Church are cordially invited to attend. If you have not already notified the Committee of your intention to attend the Assembly, kindly do so at once, indicating the time of your arrival, in order that proper arrangements may be made.

     Meals will be served on the restaurant plan, commencing with breakfast on Friday, June 13th. New arrangements have been made which have reduced the price of meals to $2.00 a day.

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     Trains from Philadelphia to Bryn Athyn and Bethayres will be met by Assembly Committee representatives wearing red and white ribbons, and they will provide transportation for guests and baggage.

     Trains from Reading Terminal, Philadelphia:

FOR BRYN ATHYN: A.M. 6.45; 9.25. P.M. 1.23; 4.26; 5.24; 5.44; 6.19; 11.32.
FOR BETHAYRES: A.M. 6.20; 8.09; 11.17. P.M. 12.49; 2.17; 3.17; 4.17; 4.45; 5.17; 5.49; 6.17; 8.23; 10.30; 11.30. Sundays: A.M. 8.20. P.M. 1.20; 3.17; 5.17; 6.50; 8.23; 10.30; 11.30. Daylight Saving Time.

     A Ketch Map of available Motor Roads from Philadelphia will be sent on application.

     The Assembly Committee will gladly answer any inquiries in regard to arrangements. Address: Mr. Geoffrey S. Childs, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH 1930

ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH       E. S. Klein       1930

     The Annual Joint Meeting of the Corporation and Faculty of the Academy of the New Church will be held in the Chapel of Benade Hall on Friday, June 13, 1930, at 3.00 p.m. The public is cordially invited to attend.

     At this meeting an opportunity will be given for discussion of the Annual reports of the officers of the Academy, which will have been published in the JOURNAL OF EDUCATION for June, 1930. The following subjects are likewise on the docket:

     1. The Working Scholarship Plan.
     2. The Place of the College in our Educational System.
     3. Which Department of the Academy is in Need of the Greatest Help?
     4. The Revival of the Two-session Day. (Referred to the General Faculty.)
     5. Other subjects of interest which may be added at the time of the meeting.

     E. S. Klein,
          Secretary.

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GLEANINGS FROM NEW CHURCH HISTORY 1930

GLEANINGS FROM NEW CHURCH HISTORY              1930


NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. L. JULY, 1930     NO. 7
     OLIVET HERESY TRIAL.

     About the middle of the last century, a number of the members of the Congregational Church at Olivet, Michigan, became receivers of the Doctrines of the New Church. The did not withdraw from membership in that denomination, but were zealous in spreading a knowledge of the New Gospel. In course of time this became objectionable to the orthodox members, who, in 1851, brought their recalcitrant brethren to trial, and "withdrew fellowship" from them for holding and propagating "heretical" views.

     Accounts of these developments at Olivet appeared from time to time in THE MEDIUM, a bimonthly New Church periodical published by Mr. Jabez Fox at Detroit. In 1852, a description of the trial, with a statement of the doctrinal issues involved, was written by Mr. A. C. Frost, a leading figure among the defendants, and published at Detroit in a diminutive volume of vest-pocket size. A copy of this little book, bearing on its cover the title "Olivet Heresy Trial," has recently been loaned us by Mr. Francis L. Frost, of Cranford, N. J., a grandson of the author, and son of the late Rev. Albinus F. Frost, to whom the book belonged. On the flyleaf is written: This is probably the only copy of the account of the Olivet Heresy Trail in existence. Albinus F. Frost, son of the A. C. Frost mentioned in the book, which he also wrote.

     The contents have their dramatic interest for present-day New Churchmen, and so we reprint below a History of the Case, together with a statement of the Charges which appears at the beginning of the volume.

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     CHARGES.

     Fundamental error in the following particulars:

     In denying the Scripture doctrine of the Trinity of persons in the one God.
     In denying the vicarious sacrifice of Christ.
     In denying the doctrine of Justification by Faith.
     In denying that God forgives sins for Christ's sake; holding that forgiveness of sins does not at all consist in the remission or setting aside the penalty of the law.
     In denying the doctrine of endless punishment for sins committed in the body.
     In denying the resurrection of the body

     HISTORY OF THE CASE.

     Some years since, say ten or twelve, a number of persons, some of whom had participated in the establishment of the Oberlin Institute in Ohio, set on foot an educational enterprise, of a similar religious and literary character, in the south part of Eaton County, Michigan. Having obtained a tract of wild land, a settlement was formed, a Congregational Church organized on the Oberlin platform, and the foundation of a religious educational institution laid. The name given to the village and institute was Olivet. They were a pious, earnest community, and labored, in God's name, for a great purpose; and the village grew, and the institution flourished. The leading spirits in this enterprise were-Smith and Deacon Wm. Hosford. Mr. Smith has since gone into the spiritual world.

     About four years since, Deacon Hosford received from Professor George Bush (his cousin) some knowledge of the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem, while he (Deacon Hosford) was on a visit at the east. Professor Bush also gave him some small works of the Church. The doctrines impressed mr. Hosford favorably. About this time, Hon. A. Silver (now a minister of the New Church), who was Commissioner of the State Land Office, at Marshall, had frequent occasion to pass through Olivet on his way to and from the capital of the State. Being an earnest advocate of the Heavenly Doctrines, he never allowed an opportunity of presenting them to go unimproved.

387


At Olivet he had conversations with Mr. Hosford, and also with Mr. Eben Curtis, Mr. A. C. Frost, and others; and finally delivered some discussions upon the doctrines. By this time a number of persons of both sexes had become much interested in the truths of the New Dispensation, most of whom were members of the Olivet Church. This, of course, awakened opposition, which has gradually grown more decided and hostile on the part of the minister and some active members of the Church, as the reception of the doctrines of the New Church has become more complete on the part of other members. But it is due to the eminent piety and Christian candor of the Congregational Church at Olivet, to say, that their opposition to the New Church has been marked with less of unchristian bitterness and unfairness than we have ever known in a similar case. It is a sever trial of the Christian charity of any religious body of the past dispensation to have to deal with brethren who embrace the faith of the New Jerusalem. To their creeds this faith is a heresy as much as Christianity was to the Jewish Church. But they cannot deal with it as with common forms of heresy; namely, disprove it to the satisfaction of their own minds of the greater part of the community around them. The more the doctrines of the New Church are examined in the dispassionate light of reason, by good men, the less they look like heresy. This, though no justification, is some apology, for harshness and unfairness.

     The enemies of the Olivet Institute began to report abroad that it had become "tinctured with Swedenborgianism"; and its officers, and some members of the Olivet Church, fearing that a harm might be done them, sought to avert it by the passage of some resolutions, by the Church, disclaiming such tincture. This brought the subject before the Church, and, although we believe the form of denial was abandoned as inexpedient, it served to show that a good many members of the Church were, more or less, so "tinctured," and to bruit the matter more abroad.

     Another yet more injudicious and unjustifiable act on the part of the minister of the church (who was also the principal of the institute) added to the difficulty. There were in the library of the institute, some works of the New Church, which had been given to that library by the General convention of the New Church, in accordance with a system of operations by which that body has supplied most of the colleges in the land with more or less complete sets of Swedenborg's writings.

388


Books so accepted, have never been appropriated to any other use than that for which they were given, by any institution; until the principal of Olivet Institute, "took the responsibility" of withdrawing those books from its library, and withholding them from those who had a right to the use of the library, and who wished to read them. This high-handed act, so exceedingly discreditable to a president of an institution of learning and religion, and a Christian minister, called froth decided remonstrances from those who were entitled to be heard; but it was persisted in; and this, evidently, from the settled conclusion, that so clear a wrong was justifiable for the sake of withholding the writings of the Church from those who were desirous to read. The professors at Olivet had learned that arguments and persuasions were in vain, in opposition to the truths of the new dispensations,-and experience had proven, that if intelligent and good persons read them they would believe them,-and there was no way to retard the growth of the New Church but by withholding a knowledge of its doctrines from honest and truth-seeking minds. And this is no new discovery of the Olivet professors. Abler men than Professor Bartlett came to the same conclusion long ago. We have heard many intelligent persons, who had begun to have some ideas of what those writings contain, frankly admit that they dared not read them, because they proved that they were so satisfactory and convincing as to compel belief. And we know of not a few highly respectable clergymen who avowedly endeavor to keep their congregations in ignorance of the writings of the Church.

     Finding that some members of their body had become full receivers of the New Doctrines, and exercised their right of teaching them, not only by conversation and lending books, but (one of them) by public lecturing; and that several were in the habit of attending New Church quarterly meetings in Calhoun County; and having lost all hope of reclaiming them, the Olivet church began to consider the propriety of excommunicating them, and placing them under the ban of the Orthodox Church, as heretics. To this end, about the first of September last, Messrs. Hosford, Frost, and Curtis were cited to appear before a council to consist of five ministers and as many lay delegates, to answer to the charge of holding "fundamental errors," in the particulars enumerated in the "charges."

389




     This Council, after hearing the answers of the accused brethren, were to advise the church whether they should excommunicate them.

     A week and a half was allowed the accused to prepare their reply to the charges, and the meeting of the Council was set down for the 16th of September.

     The day came, but not the Council. The time was adjourned till afternoon, but still there was no Council. The accused brethren asked the Church to hear their answer to the charges; but the Church declined to act without advice from abroad. It was determined to fix another day and call another Council, extending the number of invitations to about twenty. The minister declared the views entertained to be erroneous, but wanted counsel as to whether they were sufficiently erroneous to warrant excommunication.

     The Council finally met on the 9th of October, in the hall of the Institute, which was thronged at an early hour with spectators, consisting of students and citizens from all parts of the town and vicinity. On calling the roll, only four of the Council were found to be present, and one other appeared before the close of the session. The proceedings of the Council are detailed in the following letter, which is dated

                                        Olivet, Oct. 11, 1851.
     "After the usual preliminaries, the Moderator called upon the Church to state the object for which the council had been called. Professor Bartlett, as the organ of the Church, stated in substance, that certain brethren of their communion were holding sentiments known to be radically at variance with the standard tenets of the Church, and hopeless labor having been spent to reclaim them; and those brethren having requested the privilege publicly to submit to the Church their own statement of views, the council was called, to sit with them, to hear and advise. Special charges having been preferred, their reading was called for. (Read.) The Moderator asked if they were to be confined in their investigation of the case, to the points contained in the charges; to which an affirmative answer was given. Replies to the charges were then called for, and the teachings of the New Jerusalem upon the various points were clearly presented. The Lord in His Divine Humanity was vividly set forth; and the wonderful act that he had performed for the redemption of the race was fervently delineated.

390




     "The council and audience listened for three-fourths of an hour with the profoundest attention to the New Jerusalem gospel. It was evident to every friend of the cause that a ray of divine truth had flashed across their pathway, with such vivifying brightness, as to reveal to their minds, for the moment at least, the infinite difference between light and darkness. So entirely had these doctrines been hitherto misrepresented and misapprehended, that we doubt if seven claps of thunder in one mighty blast had broken over their heads, whether they would have been more astonished and confounded.

     "Although it was not late, and it was universally expected that the Church and council would enter immediately into a critical investigation of the reply, yet the principal member of the council, to throw dust in the eyes of the people, and make them think that after all they had not heard a word about 'genuine New Church doctrines,' or 'pure Swedenborgianism,' arose and remarked that the views presented were evidently peculiarly our own-and were neither 'unadulterated Old Church orthodoxy,' nor unalloyed new Church orthodoxy, but a 'modification of both.' And the audience were immediately dismissed, and the council adjourned til eight o'clock the next morning, with the remark from the chief speaker that he wished to 'sleep on the matter,' and a remark, also, in substance, from Professor Bartlett (flatly contradicting the first instruction to the council), that inasmuch as we had said some things beyond the bounds of the charges (which, however, we could not see to be so), that he supposed the door was now open for the council to pursue their investigations beyond the charges, if they chose.

     "Accordingly, the first effort in the morning was to get us to avow ourselves to be the 'followers of Emanuel Swedenborg,' and the unqualified receivers of all his teachings-the object being to slip by the stubborn doctrines contained in the declaration of sentiments, and get Conjugial Love, and all that 'horrible stuff' into the debate-that work being publicly brought to the meeting undoubtedly for no other purpose.

     "You can judge how well this book is understood by a remark, in substance, some months since, from a respectable and professed intelligent ex-deacon, that Swedenborg carried his abominable doctrine of marriage in the other life to such a blasphemous extent, that he even said that the Lord Himself was eventually to be married to a beautiful virgin, who was to be clothed in purple robes!

391




     "At the first commencement of this affair, one member of the Church wished to have the charges preferred 'under the general head of Swedenborgianism'-that the 'council might know how to act' in the case. We remarked that we `hoped Swedenborg was not to be disciplined over our shoulders.' Professor Bartlett said that he was `willing that the brethren should stand upon their own merits.'-We therefore scrupulously avoided in our declaration, the least reference to any ism; and any person who was otherwise ignorant of the fact, could not have learned from our remarks that there was a New Jerusalem Church or a Swedenborgian in the wide universe of God.

     "We silently kept our seats, and left them to enter upon the labors of the day, after their own fashion. The consoling idea was first dwelt upon somewhat at length, that inasmuch as these brethren had as yet strayed only about half way from 'genuine truth' to `bewildering error,' there was yet hope that they might be wooed back to safety-further insinuating and catering to blind the unsuspecting as to the real nature of the doctrines set forth the previous evening. Finally, it was seriously objected that it was better not to urge us to commit ourselves on the spur of the moment fully to 'Swedenborgianism'-as the committal, once made, a certain 'pride and dignity of reputation' would tend to lead us to maintain that committal even at the expense of our own convictions of faith. The Rev. Mr. Kedsey, of Kalamazoo, was the chief organ of the council, and was obtained by the church to help them put down 'Swedenborgiansim,' openly and expressly declaring that they considered him 'used to the business,'-this declaration being made by the brother who named him as one of the council. Mr. Kedsey evidently has a general knowledge and apprehension of the teachings of the New Church; but we must say that we never saw a professed minister of Jesus Christ so completely given to the sin of misrepresentation and deception. Perhaps, however, he considers it a virtue to state barefaced untruths about 'Swedenborgianism.' One among the many untruths that he stated was, that Swedenborg taught that Mahomet was 'in heaven, enjoying his polygamy there.' And yet he doubtless knows that he teachings that a man cannot be a Christian even, and have more than one wife.

392


No corrections were made to such declarations, for the reason that such palpable misrepresentations, made by the same man in a lecture that he delivered in this some months since, made several converts to the New Church, and we doubt not more will be led into the truth in the same way. The whole drift of the talk was not against the doctrines set forth as our reply to the preferred charges, but against the immorality of Swedenborg's teachings. Finally, we gave the audience distinctly to understand that the views set forth in our defense were 'pure, unadulterated New Church doctrines, and nothing else.'-So far we committed ourselves upon the occasion to the teachings of the New Church, and no farther; stating, however, that if the brethren were yet unsettled as to our real position, and wished to prefer other written charges, that we held ourselves in readiness to appear, within suitable time, to investigate them, and give a written reply.

     "We had determined in our own minds to stick to our text, whether the church and council thought proper to stick to theirs or not. Some attempts were at last made to show the errors in the declaration of sentiments itself; and with two exceptions, the same mystifying and wire-working tactics were used before.-For instance-the effort was made to show that we held to more than one person in the trinity, as well as they, because we said Christian the image of the invisible God; and of course a mere image of God could no be the same as the real identical God Himself. An explanation immediately followed, that the Divine Humanity was the image of the indwelling invisible Deity: as a man's body is the image of his indwelling invisible soul. -Then again, our doctrine called for the exercise of the same 'blind faith,' as the tri-personality did, because 'no one could understand how human flesh and bones could by any transformation become divine.' The strongest argument advanced in proof of the tri-personality of God was the fact, that while Jesus, the Son, was baptised upon earth, Jehovah, the Father, spoke from the clouds, and the third person descended in the in the form of a dove upon Christ.

     "The denial of the 'vicarious atonement' was the most vigorously attacked, and the strongest arguments of the occasion used in its defense; -such as declaring that the 'pascal lamb' prefigured such a sacrifice, and repeating the teachings of Isaiah, that 'all we, like sheep, have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all' and such like passages.

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They accused us of 'denying the Lord that brought us;' and yet one member of the council, taking the document in his hand containing the declaration, declared that he 'neither loved, revered nor obeyed the God that that paper held up;' and yet 'that paper held up' the Lord Jesus Christ as God, and the only God.

     "At the close of the discussion, the Clerk was, of course, called upon to read the minutes, in which he had incorporated `charges sustained'; but the clause was ordered to be stricken out, and a resolution, in substance, was passed, that the council considered our view contrary to the teachings of the Word of God; and they advised the Church to labor with us in a kind and Christian manner, and thus further endeavor to reclaim us,-if we still persisted in our course, to cut us off from the Church; incorporating a prayer, that we might not go on, and stumble and fall irrecoverably into 'bewildering error.'

     "None but the kindest feelings were manifested towards us during the entire session. Tears of genuine sorrow were shed on the part of many of our brethren, at the thought of a separation.

     "Brother Bartlett said that it had always been a question with him whether brethren ought to be excommunicated on the ground of doctrinal belief alone. He said that he had nothing against many other members of the Church, or they might with propriety bring against himself. If these brethren were expelled, he should still feel like taking them by the hand when he met with them, and call them brother."

     The Church seems to have done nothing with the accused brethren up to the present time; but they have gone so far that it does not appear possible to stop short of an excommunication. And yet, whoever will take the charges preferred, and read the defense of the accused, cannot fail to be surprised that body professing the faith of the Bible should exscind some of its best members for entertaining the views therein expressed.-Whatever may be done eventually with these members, this is certain, -that the more the subject is agitated, the more the doctrines of the New Church will be examined; and the more this done, greater the number of the receivers of them will be.

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And if these three are cut off, several others must share the same fate; for there are other members of the Congregational Church at Olivet who hold to the "fundamental errors" charged against these.

     Brother Frost is laboring zealously in Olivet and the neighboring towns to spread a knowledge of the truth, and seems to be blest with success. The good work is going forward in that region, and anathemas and bulls of excommunication will not retard it. Nor will it be possible for any man or any ecclesiastical body to seclude the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg from the intelligent population of Olivet and vicinity.
VERDICT 1930

VERDICT              1930

     The above concludes Mr. A. C. Frost's "History of the Case," as given in the little book, entitled Olivet Heresy Trial. For the final act of the trial we turn to THE MEDIUM for February 1, 1852, and quote from Mr. Frost's letter, dated at Olivet, January 14th, 1852:

     "It may not be uninteresting to the readers of the MEDIUM to learn the final decision of the Olivet Church with respect to those who were called to an account for 'avowing themselves the followers of Emanuel Swedenborg.' On Sunday, the 11th instant, Prof. B. came out with a 'pointed' church discipline sermon, arousing the brethren to the remembrance of the responsibilities that rested upon them to proceed to the 'cutting off of a right hand and the plucking out of a right eye,' if necessary for the 'purification of the church.' The result was the calling of a special meeting on Monday evening to bring these lingering matters to a termination. A prayer was offered by the Moderator, earnestly soliciting the Divine guidance, that the Divine will might be done in the solemn transaction of the evening; all reliance upon self-wisdom was discarded, and the Lord invited to assist them in their painful duties. The business was entered upon reluctantly, but with a manifest determination. . . . Andy further forbearance on the part of the church was deemed to be useless, and liable to be construed by the community as a 'halting between the two opinions.'"

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     The letter then gives a report of various speeches at the meeting, and concludes:

     "Prof. B. though that if these persons had only held these views as 'private opinions,' and had not entered upon the work of disseminating their doctrines and 'using all their eloquence to gain proselytes,' they might have been permitted to remain in the church. Prof. H. though these persons might after all be Christians, and that, if they were, they ought not to be separated from the church as those guilty of the highest offence, but should be left in such relations not to be 'counted as enemies, but admonished as brethren.' He would therefore move the suspension of the vote to excommunicate, and offer the following Preamble and Resolution:

     "Whereas a council, called to give advice in respect to certain members of the church who had embraced the doctrines of Emanuel Swedenborg, did advise conditionally that those brethren be separated from the church; and those conditions having been fulfilled without bringing about any satisfactory results:

     "And whereas Brothers Frost and Curtis are diligently inculcating their views, to the detriment of the cause of truth;

     "And whereas the church cannot consistently stand responsible for the propagation of what we regard as fundamental error, by retaining its advocates in the church;

     "Therefore be it Resolved, That we withdraw fellowship from those brethren, at the same time earnestly and solemnly admonishing them to return from their errors to the faith delivered to the saints.

     "This Resolution was unanimously adopted." (THE MEDIUM, p. 46.)

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GREAT EARTHQUAKE 1930

GREAT EARTHQUAKE       L. W. T. DAVID       1930

     AN ADDRESS TO CHILDREN

     You learned about "the souls bound under the altar,"-those poor people who loved the Lord, and who wished to serve and honor Him, but who were kept out of heaven and held in slavery to evil spirits for many ages. Those evil spirits had blinded their eyes, so that they could not see the way to heaven, and had lied to them, telling them they were already in heaven. They were magicians and sorcerers who, by their wicked acts, created a false heaven to deceive all who were good. For by this means they wanted to hold them under their power. You remember how those poor people cried to the Lord for help, and how He promised that before long He would come to save them, and how in the meantime He gave them beautiful white garments to wear. When they had put on these garments the evil spirits could not hurt them, and so they were given protection from their oppressors until the Lord should come.

     And now the time of the Judgment was at hand. The Lord was preparing to drive out the evil spirits, and lock them up in hell. The evil knew this, and they were preparing to fight against the Lord. They were gathering together their armies, and making ready for war. But all the hosts of hell could have no power at all against the Lord. And so now we read of what happened when the sixth seal of the little book was opened.

     "There was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood. And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth. . . . And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places." This was in the world of spirits. It was in the land which the evil spirits had built by magic. It was in that false heaven which they had made to deceive the good. In order to turn men away from the Lord, who is in the Sun of heaven, appear in the sky in the opposite direction from the Lord's sun, and they made men believe that this was the real sun of heaven.

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They made a moon, and many stars, which looked like the moon and the stars the Lord had made; but they were nothing but magic appearances.

     Then they built beautiful palaces, and gardens, and churches, all richly decorated with gold and silver and precious stones, telling all who came into their power that this was heaven. They pretended to worship the Lord, but they really loved themselves, and hated the Lord, and tried to make the good people bow down and worship them. All who would not do this, they would persecute, and treat cruelly, making them work very hard, and then taking away from them the reward of their labor. These evil spirits were very proud. They thought they were stronger than the Lord. They called themselves "kings of the earth, and great men, and rich men, and chief captains, and mighty men," and they laughed at the idea that the Lord would come and take away their power. For they did not believe in the Lord.

     But now, when the sixth seal of the little book was opened, the Lord came near. This land had been turned away from Him. It had really been night there, and in the darkness the evil spirits could perform their works of magic, and create false lights which would appear like the sun and the moon of heaven. But now the Lord turned it round, so that the light of the real sun might shine in it. This the evil could not endure. They could not perform magic when that light shone upon them. And so that world which they had created by sorcery, and which they had made men believe was solid earth, strong and real, began to tremble and shake, and fall to pieces. When the light of the Lord's sun fell upon it, their magic sun became black, and their moon, instead of giving a silvery light, became dull and reddish like blood, giving no light at all. And all the false stars which had appeared in that sky fell down to the earth, and the sky itself seemed to roll up like a scroll, and disappeared. And when the earthquake shook the ground, the palaces and churches which they had built broke and fell to pieces. All the gold and silver and precious stones which they had made to appear in them were turned to dust, and of all that which they had made the good people believe was heaven nothing remained but heaps of ruin.

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     Then those who had called themselves kings of the earth who had though that they were stronger than the Lord, who had laughed at the idea that He would take away their power, were greatly frightened, and fled away in terror from the face of the Lord. They tried to hide themselves in the dens and caves of the rocks. Yet even there they were afraid, for the Lord seemed to pursue them wherever they went. And they cried out in fear to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?" And so they went deeper and deeper into the earth, trying to flee away from the Lord, and found their way into hell, where the Lord locked them up, so that they could not practice deceit and wickedness any longer to bring suffering upon the good.

     The evil spirits who were punished in this way at the Coming of the Lord were hypocrites. That is, they made believe that they loved and worshiped the Lord, when in their hearts they loved only themselves, and wished to make others worship them. This is the worst of all evils. The Lord teaches us in the Word that we must hate hypocrisy above all things. When we do something wrong, we must learn to acknowledge it, to confess it, to admit that we have done it, that we are sorry because we know it is evil, and that we will not do it again. In this way we will be honest, and we will be brave.

     For our first impulse, which is suggested to us by evil spirits, and by the fear that we will be punished, is to hide what we have done, to lie about it, and to pretend that we are good. This is cowardly. It turns us away from the Lord, so that He cannot help us to shun the evil. It shuts that evil up inside of us, where people cannot see it, and so where no one can help us to get rid of it. We then live in fear that it may be discovered. So long as we hold and cherish that evil inside of us, the hells can have power over us. They can make slaves of us. We cannot be saved from their clutches until the evil has been brought out, made known, and put away.

     Only by facing our evils bravely and honestly, and fighting against them, can we come into the real heaven of the Lord after death. If we do not do this, evil spirits will lead us to that magic heaven in the world of spirits where nothing is real, and where, when the Lord comes, all the wealth and beauty which we thought was there will crumble into ruins.

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But if we confess our faults, the Lord will help us to fight against them; our parents and teachers can help us to fight against them; and we will be able to put them away, so that the evil spirits cannot draw near to torment us by means of them. Then the Lord can protect us from all the hells, and can lead us along the path that will bring us at last to a place which He has prepared for us in heaven, where He can bless us with joy and happiness forever.

LESSON: Revelation 6;12-17.
MUSIC: Hymnal, pp. 142, 145, 168.
JEWEL OF LIFE 1930

JEWEL OF LIFE       Rev. E. E. IUNGERICH       1930

     "From the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh; so then they are no more twain but one flesh." (Mark 10:6-8.)

     Every love that is essential to a man's life remains with him after death. The ruling love, being the head of them all, persists to eternity; and minor loves consonant with it, when subordinated, will persist likewise. For the loves of a man are assets of his spirit which lives on forever, and only derivatively of his body, which is laid down when its use here is ended. But the quality of the love that rules with a man determines his character here, and fixes his lot hereafter.

     The Lord's love,-the essence of which is to love others, to wish to be one with them, and so to bless them,-determined the creation of a universe where beings would be raised up capable of satisfying this Divine need. In correspondence with the relation between God and such a heaven from the human race, there arises what is called the internal conjugial sphere of the union between love from God and the reactive from men inspired by God to receive it. We also call this the sphere of the union of good and truth. Everything created is bathed by it, and carried on to useful purposes by its influence. But its definite end and purpose is not accomplished until human minds open up as organs to allow it to penetrate them, much as the eye and ear do when, as portals, they permit beauty and melody to affect the man.

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     Minds which only receive this sphere in the external or natural degree are said to be affected with the love of sex. For the masculine mind is so constituted as to be influenced primarily by the reactive element of that sphere, called afflowing truth, which spurs him to labors of achievement; whereas the mind of the woman invites primarily the descending element of God's love, called inflowing good, in order to cherish and foster the particular ones who need her care. Normally, all minds are affected as to this natural or external degree, except where spiritual corruption and perversity have so accumulated that degeneracy has descended to contaminate this ultimate plane. For under degenerate conditions, individuals are led to make a vow of celibacy or even to pride themselves on being men or women haters; and if they do mate from unworthy motives, they confirm themselves against having children.

     But minds which receive this sphere in the spiritual or internal degree are affected on that higher plane with the love of one of the sex. If this higher degree predominates over the lower natural plane, then the more general love of the sex there below, which is not restricted to one, but extends appreciatively to all of the opposite sex, is called the chaste love of the sex. It is then chaste and pure because it does not seek for intimacies that would violate the superior plane the love of an only one, nor is it disloyal to the being to whom that love is eternally plighted.

     The loves between man and man, or between woman and woman, have in them a strong element of competition, but that between a man and a woman ties the understanding of the one to the will of the other. One of these two poles represents vigor in achievement, though under control so as to be sensed as morality in form; the other has a caressing grace which is sensed as beauty in form.

     The potentiality of truth vigorously organized in the male mind has a clarion appeal to the other sex. The subtle insinuation of affection in the guise of beauty is the counter appeal of woman to man. Six causes were adduced by angels as to why her beauty is so alluring. First, woman was created the affection of the wisdom of man, and the affection of wisdom is beauty itself. Secondly, having been created by means of his wisdom, she is its form inspired with the affection of love.

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This latter, as it is the life of wisdom, is beauty itself. Thirdly, since she was given a perception of the deliciousness of conjugial love, her body as the habitation of that perception cannot but be beautiful. Fourthly, because the Lord took beauty and elegance of life from the man, and transcribed these into the woman, the man without reunition with these is churlish and self-absorbed in his sapience; but when reunited to them through the woman, he is rendered lively, pleasant and amiable. Fifthly, she was therefore created beauty for the sake of the man, in order that she might soften him when both together should become one flesh. Sixthly and finally, nothing more beautiful was created in the entire perfection of the universe than a woman of comely face and decorous manners. Accordingly a man should thank the Lord for this gift, and evince his gratitude by receiving wisdom from the Lord. (C. L. 56.)

     Viewed in itself, this chaste love of the sex,-the ultimation on the natural plane of the higher conjugial love,-is a spiritual friendship, which is chaste because it partakes not of the flesh but of the spirit, and is sweet because the beauty of a woman from an innate inclination enters at the same time into the mind. (C. L. 55) It exists with normal beings who by regeneration have also attained on the superior plane to the love of one of the sex. Its efficacy is as an urge to unite society. For to a natural society of human beings who have as their internal bond some laudable project to carry out in their joint activities, it constitutes an important external bond which keeps them functioning happily together.

     Similarly, when the conjugial sphere has penetrated to the higher degree, and has turned the minds of a pair to rely intimately upon what comes from the Lord through each to the other, it constitutes an all-embracing external bond on that plane to keep them functioning blessedly together in that joint use of service to God and the neighbor which unites them from within. Each is accordingly ruled from within by an aspiration to serve the Lord, and from without by that which comes from the Lord through the other; that is, by a love truly conjugial.

     Since all essential loves belong to man's spirit, and persist after death, such universal loves as the love of the sex and conjugial love or its opposite will therefore persist after death, inasmuch as they had been grounded in a man's interior will and though while living here.

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The result of this is, that two married partners in the first or external state in the world of spirits generally meet, recognize each other, and live together for a time. But gradually, as these externals which masked the true interiors of their minds are removed, they discover whether or no they are interiorly compatible. If they are not, each is thereupon led to find one who is compatible, with whom, if both are regenerate, there will then be a heavenly life to eternity.

     The Sadducees asked the Lord which out of seven husbands would be the partner of a woman who had had them all. No direct reply was made to this then, beyond the general teaching that in heaven such marriages of the flesh as they had in mind did not exist. In the Revelation of the Second Coming, however, it is disclosed that in the first or external state in the world of spirits, during which internals are hidden, one who had had several partners may meet each in turn and be with him or her for a season. But as soon as externals are removed, and the true internal state is revealed, there can be but one partner to eternity for one whose state is spiritual.

     Where death has intervened between two partners who were conjugially united on earth, and a long period of time elapses before the second one dies too, there may be adjoined to the partner in the other life one who is supposed to be the original consort. (De Conj. 24.) But when the latter arrives, he or she is at once recognized as the true partner, and the original union is re- established, to be no longer served. I may here venture the thought that such a temporary relation during the interim of separation may have been occasioned by the one on earth having remarried for reasons apart from an internal conviction that the one who had gone was his real partner; for in so doing, a temporary cloud may have interposed between the pair, since otherwise it would hold "that two are not separated by the death of one of them, since the spirit of the one who has died continually dwells with the spirit of the one who is still on earth, and this until the latter's death, when they again meet, and are reunited, and love each other more tenderly than before, seeing that they are in the spiritual world." (C. L. 321; see No. 215.)

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     Conditions of excessive externalism on this earth have made mismating prevalent. Those who do not enter upon regeneration cannot have a true heavenly mate hereafter; and of those who do finally enter upon it, few enter into marriage from any internal perception of love, or pray in unison with the consort they have wedded that the Lord will bless their union with eternity. Most enter into marriage from an external impulse, which conceals an internal realization of their true states toward one another, being largely swayed by the glamor of wealth, dignity, beauty, elegance, and even unchaste longing. In some cases, lack of opportunity to meet many of the opposite sex has limited the field of choice, and has made it impossible to meet a partner who was internally compatible. It is as a result of this that rearrangements must occur after the first state in the world of spirits has passed.

     But on other earths, as originally on ours, the conditions are and were much superior. For as the Lord declared to the Pharisees: "From the beginning of creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh; so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." (Mark 10:6-9) "Hence now it is [because of the low spiritual conditions on earth at the present day] that separations then occur [in the world of spirits], and afterwards fresh conjunctions with such as are similar and homogeneous, unless these had been provided on earth, which occurs with those who from youth had loved, wished for, and besought of the Lord a legitimate and lovable companionship with one, and who spurn and loathe wandering lusts." (C. L. 49.)

     Among the duties incumbent upon the New Church,-custodian, as it is, of a revelation on Conjugial Love,-is that of rectifying these low conditions by training a new population which shall raise up its teachings as laws for their conscience. But innumerable difficulties beset this noble effort. There is, first of all, a reluctance to read books on spiritual subjects. A special aversion has also arisen with many in reference to studying this particular subject, having its grounds either in a false modesty or in a fear that they would feel hampered in doing as they pleased. A number, too, are unwilling to second any organized effort to train the people under the influence of the Church along distinctive lines endorsed by the Heavenly Doctrines.

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Finally, even those who have read, studied, and by training have come to favor intellectually a life according to these Doctrines, are not always able to resist plausible excuses in favor of lesser goods which appeal to the lower ranges of our nature. Still, if Providence vouchsafes us one or two in a generation who are cast in a heroic mold that spurns all but the highest ideals, and leads them to abide faithful and loyal to these till the end of life, there influence in raising the morale of what men consider worth-while to make of their conscience will count more than the group inertia of thousands who seldom allow ideals to restrain them from doing just what they please.

     "For this cause (said our Lord) shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife." The dominance of the natural man, so firmly established over human minds during the Israelitish era that the Lord established an elaborate ritual to provide some representation of Divine things among His people, was to be broken along with the abrogation of that ritual. A spiritual church was to be established, in which the Lord would open the internals of human minds and write upon them as prime concerns the laws of a spiritual conscience. (C. L. 340.)

     "One truly a Christian, who knows the Lord, has the Word, and belongs to a church founded on it, has, above one who is not so [situated], a faculty to be regenerated, to become spiritual, and also to attain to love truly conjugial, for all these things cohere." (C. L. 339.) Such a one, on leaving this world, not only lays down bodily shell of the grossest things of nature, which like a glove had covered the cutaneous envelope of the finest things of nature that shrouds the living man hereafter, but also puts off what is called the "old man,"-the external or material man, "sown in corruption," to put on the new man, the internal or spiritual man, "raised in incorruption." Or he will have put off the concupiscences of the world which look to ends here, in order to put on the affections of heaven, and, as a new man, look to ends there. (A. C. 4063.) The thoughts of his understanding will also have kept pace with this transformation of his will, which is the real man, enabling him to view the Lord's instruction on marriage, from which our text is taken, not in a literal manner, as the old man sown incorruption views it, but in a spiritual way becoming the temper of angelic minds that have been raised incorruption.

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     God's "creating them in the beginning male and female" then means to him the persistence in heavenly conditions hereafter of marriages between those united by having similar spiritual thoughts and affections. The corresponding understanding which is salient with the man. There is thus a single life to the twain from this correspondence,-a life full of love.

     A man's "leaving his father and mother so as to cleave to his wife" means the giving up of evil impulses and false notions which defile the understanding. Hereditary evil and the false theology of a corrupt church must be seen, weighed, and resisted. For only when the understanding is separated from this defilement can it be conjoined with its corresponding affection, meant by the wife to which one is to cleave. "Evil spirits cannot endure the idea or the spiritual sphere of what is feminine; for they cry out as those who are being tortured, and flee away." (S. D. 6110 67) this is because "the interior feminine is to love the husband tenderly" (ibid., 6110 2), and to lead him to follow his wife to the heavenly society to which her affection belongs. The two thence become one affection of truth and good, meant by the "one flesh" into which they coalesce, each being of the other in transmitting to a loving recipiency that which inflows from the Lord.

     Swedenborg cites our text as a prima facie evidence that there is a spiritual sense in the Word for it cannot be true in any natural sense that husband and wife ever become one flesh. (De Verbo 5) The expression obviously stands for the continual spiritual desire of those in love truly conjugial to become one man. Those not in this love, because of the disunion of their souls and minds, continually think they are two, and, as the Writings declare, "do not comprehend what is meant by being no more two, but one flesh." (C. L. 215.)

     But those who regenerate as to the will,-putting off the old and natural man, and putting on the new or spiritual man, or displacing concupiscences coveting the world by affections looking heaven-wards,-are, as to their understandings, being freed from the trammels of earth-bound literalistic notions, and are in the desire to see a spiritual sense that transfigures the time-honored statements of the Word.

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And this vision is granted them when they are "raised up in incorruption" after death.

     In the Lord's Divine mercy, an intellectual vision of a host of similar spiritual verities has been recorded in the Writings of the New Church, and is available to anyone who will make the effort to turn their pages. But, as the regeneration of the will and the appreciation of the spiritual sense go hand-in-hand, it is evident that no others will be moved to undertake this study than those with whom the two faculties of the mind are in the desire to be "one flesh."

     In an angel, with whom both the will and the understanding are so united, the good of the will and the truth of the understanding are not two, but one; for each is of the other, as instanced in his willing what he thinks and thinking what he wills. Thought and will thus make one man. For the thought forms or sets forth that which the will thinks, and the will gives to sensate as delightful that which has moved to and fro in the thought. (H. H. 372.)

     In the home of an angelic couple, the conjugial love between the twain unites their souls, and to them this union of souls is that very love in its origin. Such a union of souls is being effected when the love towards the sex has been refined in a religious crucible, so that out of it the noble elixir of a love towards one alone has been elicited. In the supreme abode of their minds, conjugial love is spiritual, holy, and pure, inasmuch as the soul of every man is a heavenly thing, above all contaminating defilement, and immediately receiving from the Lord Himself the unsullied emanations that make for blessedness of life. From this,-their union of souls,-conjugial love, in its spirituality, holiness, and purity, flows down into the living pulsations of both their bodies, and infills these with reinvigorating felicities.

     There is a significant reiteration in the Scripture of the holy words of our text. In Matthew we read first: "And they twain shall be one flesh," and then this is reiterated as an echo of heavenly cadence: "Wherefore they are no more twain, but a flesh [that is] one." In Mark the first part of the antiphon is also: "And they twain shall be one flesh," but the response has as a slight variant: "So then (or wherefore) they are no more twain, but one flesh."

     Throughout their married life to eternity their union has its constantly recurring seasons when they are drawn slightly apart, and of promptly ensuing times when they come more closely together than before, on account of the adjustment between them of some point in which they had not previously been united.

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For to human beings, finite creatures as we are, the blessedness of living together would become insipid without the bitter sweetness of such infinite readjustments. Prior to each such temporary severance, their state is expressed in the words of the first part of this heavenly antiphon: "And they twain shall be one flesh." But after the pang of the slight estrangement is over, their delight in a reconciliation that binds them more closely than ever is expressed in the thankful response: "Wherefore they are no more twain but a flesh [that is] one." "So then they are no more twain, but one flesh." Amen.

     LESSONS: Genesis 2. Mark 10:1-16. C. L. 178.
ESTABLISHING THE CHURCH 1930

ESTABLISHING THE CHURCH       Rev. W. L. GLADISH       1930

     There are three parties to the establishing of the church,-the Lord, the neighbor, and self; the Lord from whom, the neighbor to whom, and self by whom, uses are to be done. For the church is the Lord's kingdom on earth, and His kingdom is a kingdom of uses. The Lord and the love of His kingdom is the end from which uses are done; the neighbor and the love of his welfare is the cause; and the regeneration of man is the effect.

     It is possible to set the eyes and fix the heart upon any one of these three. He who centers his love upon himself becomes a natural man. If he regard only uses to himself, to the exclusion of the other two, he becomes a perverted natural man,-a devil or satan. But if h keeps the Law of God from religion, he finds his place in the natural heaven. He who regards primarily the neighbor, and performs uses from love of his welfare, becomes a spiritual man, and finds his home in the spiritual heaven. But he who, from a purified heart, is so conjoined with the Lord that he does uses from Him and for the sake of His kingdom,-such a one becomes a celestial man, and finally an angel of the celestial heaven.

     The natural man performs uses only on the natural plane, the plane of effects, and from obedience only.

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The spiritual man performs uses on the spiritual plane, in the light of a regenerated understanding, and from a knowledge of causes. The celestial man performs uses from the love of use itself received from the Lord in a regenerate heart. The celestial man is the only complete or perfect man, having all three degrees of life open, so that the Lord's life in him flows unhindered, in full measure, down into his natural man. He is not only created into the image, but is also made into the likeness of God.

     It is the will of the Lord's Divine love to draw every man up to Himself in the third heaven, to regenerate him, not only as to outward life, but also as to understanding, and finally as to will. And it is the privilege, nay, it is the duty, of every New Churchman to cooperate with the Lord to this end; even from his early days to lift up his eyes to the Delectable Mountains and seek a home there. The means are not wanting. The way lies clearly before us. The rewards are great beyond our fondest dreams.

     The means are provided in the opened Word, in the descending city, New Jerusalem; in the knowledge of the Lord god the Savior, Who, from pure love and mercy, came to redeem and save the human race; and in the revelation of the steps by which He glorified His Human, and made it Divine. In Him we can know our God, and set our hearts upon Him as the One altogether lovely; and in His strength, upheld by His hand, we can follow in His steps.

     The way is not hidden, nor is it too hard for us to follow. "I have had proof that this is true," says the Lord's Servant, "from angels of the third or inmost heaven, who are in the greatest wisdom and happiness. When asked how they had become such angels, they said that it was because, during their life tin the world, they had regarded filthy thoughts as abominable, and these had been to them adulteries; and in like manner had regarded frauds and unlawful gains, which had been to them thefts; also hatreds and revenges, which had been to them murder; also lies and blasphemies, which had been to them false testimonies; and so with other things.

     When asked, again, whether they had done good works, they said that they loved chastity, in which they were because they had regarded adulteries as abominable; that they love sincerity and justice, in which they were because they had regarded frauds and unlawful gains as abominable; that they loved the neighbor because they had regarded hatreds and revenges as abominable; that they loved truth because they had regarded lies and blasphemies as abominable, and so on; and that they perceived that when these evils had been put away, and they had acted from chastity, sincerity, justice, charity, and truth, it was not done from themselves, but from the Lord, and thus that all things whatsoever they had done from these (principles) were good works, although they had done them as if from themselves; and that it was on this account that after death they had been raised up by the Lord into the third heaven." (A. E. 902:4.)

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     In a kind of humility,-a pseudo-humility dictated, not by the Lord, but by the enemy or our souls,-we are accustomed to set our standards and our aims too low. Let us begin by leading our very little children to love the Lord Jesus and His service as the supreme and only worthy love that becomes a man. We know that this love in the human itself, and the only human principle. In the degree that a man has this, he becomes a man and an angel; lacking it wholly, he becomes a beast, and at length a wild beast.

     And our little ones will respond to this teaching, because their hereditary evils are not yet opened, and they are in the sphere of innocence of the third heaven. And why should not the church set the complete regeneration of man, even to the third degree (the will) before every one of her children? The soul is of three degrees, and these degrees every man has in perfection from the Lord, his Heavenly Father. In that soul, and from it, every man longs for the Lord and the life of His love, even "as the heart panteth for the brooks of water." The lust of evil is only in the natural degree; and there as an external covering over the human soul proper. Moreover, the Lord stores in this natural, which is from earthly parents, heavenly remains from all three heavens and in abundant measure, and from these remains the angels can fight for man against the hells.

     Therefore, every child is to be regarded as the child of the Lord, in which the church seeks to lead forth by education the likeness of his Heavenly Father. And we should ever keep before our eyes this vision of the inner soul of man as a child of God, that we may not think of the life of heaven as put on from outside, but may realize that it is germane to man himself, because he is created and fitted to live from the Lord, and because every fibre of his inner being longs for that life as the lungs for air.

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     In all our work as men and women of the church, therefore, let us set our hearts and fix our thoughts on the universals which make His kingdom; on the inmost things of man which make him to be human; on the love which is the life of man, and which gives quality to all his thoughts and deeds; on the Lord in His Divine Human, Who is Life,-the only life of every soul that lives. Then we shall think of innocence from charity as the inmost thing of angelic and human life. And innocence is simply the desire to be led and ruled by the Lord alone through His Word. And the first offspring of innocence is conjugial love. So shall we treasure, as the jewel of human life, the hope of conjugial marriage in the church and the kingdom of the Lord. And the inmost joy of our minds will be to study in the Word the story of the Lord's assumption and glorification of His Human; for in this study we shall find the God of our worship and the way of our regeneration, and He will thereby conjoin our souls with Him by faith and love, and make us fit to perform living uses in His eternal kingdom.
RELAXATION 1930

RELAXATION              1930

     There are diversions of charity for everyone who is in office or employment, but actually they are diversions of the affections from which one engages in his work. There is an affection in every employment, and it strains the mind, and keeps it intent upon its work or study. This, if it be not relaxed, becomes dull, and its desire flags like salt that has lost its savor, so that it has no pungency or relish; or like a bended bow, which, unless it be unbent, loses the power that it derives from its elasticity. Just so the mind, kept from day to day in the same ideas, without variety. So the eyes, when they look only at one object, or continually upon one color. If one looks continually at the snow, the sight is destroyed; but it is enlivened by looking upon many colors. Hence it is that the rainbow is more charming than the light itself. (Doctrine of Charity 190.)

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MISS ALICE E. Grant 1930

MISS ALICE E. Grant              1930

     On May 16th, 1930, at Bryn Athyn, one who had given almost fifty years of zealous and devoted service to the cause of education in the New Church passed into the spiritual world. Alice Eliza Grant was born at Pomeroy, Ohio, on June 19th, 1858. Her parents, Cyrus and Charlotte Hibbard Grant, belonged to that group of earnest New Church people who formed the nucleus of the Middleport Society. Mrs. Grant was the daughter of the Rev. J. M. Hibbard, a pioneer New Churchman in southern Ohio, uncle of the Rev. John Randolph Hibbard, a Charter Member of the Academy of the New Church.

     Miss Grant received her early education in the Ohio Public Schools, in which also she was a teacher from 1876 to 1884, when she went to Philadelphia to assist Mrs. J. R. Hibbard in the Girls' School then forming under the auspices of the Academy. She taught the elementary grades of the school in Philadelphia and Bryn Athyn until 1906, when she became Principal of the Girls' Seminary. In 1918, she was made Dean of Women, but continued teaching one or more courses in the College of the Academy until prevented by illness in December last. Her influence, however, extended beyond the classroom, both in a consultative capacity and in her encouragement and instruction of normal students, to whom she communicated her own enthusiasm for distinctive education. Her stimulating message was carried to the societies and schools of the General Church when, in 1920-1921, she visited the principal centers in America and England.

     Preferring to do her work through the medium of the living voice, Miss Grant did not write extensively, but of late years was encouraged to publish the valuable papers which have appeared in NEW CHURCH LIFE: "Education for Women" (1922); "The Heritage of Our Schools" (1923); "A Christmas Talk to Young People" (1923); "Fifty Years of New Church Education" (1926); "The Academy University of the future" (1927); "Knighthood-Chivalry" (1929).

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[Photograph of Miss Alice E. Grant.]

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FUNERAL ADDRESS 1930

FUNERAL ADDRESS       Rev. GEORGE DE CHARMS       1930

     Life is the activity of love. When love goes forth to the attainment of an end of use, it produces the delight of life. Inmostly considered, there is but one all-embracing love,-the love of God,-which seeks to attain a single, all-embracing end,-the creation of a heaven from the human race. There are unnumbered means, each contributing to the performance of this greatest of all uses, and every such means is a subordinate end, to be sought b the activity of a finite love. Every man is created such a finite love, with which the Lord continually inflows to impart life, with its activity and its delight. So deeply is the influx hidden that the love appears to the man to be his own. He seems to possess life in himself, and from it to derive intelligence to see the end or purpose of his love, and power to achieve that purpose. Thus the Lord imparts to him a use, as if it were his own, to the end that, in fulfilling this use, he may perceive the delight of life, and so enter into the joy of his Lord. Because the Divine end of a heaven from the human race is an eternal use, those minute but necessary means to that end which have been, as it were, given into the hands of men, are likewise eternal; and herein likes the secret of man's immortality. Heaven is indeed a kingdom of never-ending, eternally increasing uses.

     All genuine human happiness resides in use. We wish to feel that we possess some special gift, some particular power, the activity of which is desired, nay, is needed, by our fellow men. The ability to fill such a need gives us a place which we may call our own,-a part in the great drama of life. It creates a bond of affection and of understanding with others. If the sense of such a need be lost, there is no impulse to action, no stimulus to effort; nothing seems to be worth while, and life is reduced to a mere existence, an aimless drifting without use or purpose.

     It is the deepest desire of the human heart to create, each for himself, some such place in the world of men. This is of the Divine Providence, that he may become a use. Every human soul is indeed a love, which is a use in potency.

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But the faculties and powers by which that use may be fulfilled, and its delights enjoyed, are first to be developed, by growth, by education, by study, by labor, and by experience. The mind, which perceives the love, which is affected by its activity, and which enjoys its delight, must be builded slowly by measure steps. In childhood and youth this progression is assisted by training and education. Then first are we prepared to find a place, and to fill a need, in the world of men on earth. Then first we are ready to assume the responsibilities and enjoy the delights of a natural use.

     Yet this place also must be slowly builded, and the ability to fill the need must be perfected gradually by the judgment and the wisdom of experience. This work of building goes forward throughout life. Because we labor with material things, to meet the requirements of human society and to solve the problems of human life on earth, the place which we make for ourselves appears to be in the world of nature. It seems to us, and indeed to others, that we are needed here. All the currents of our thought become inwoven with the achievement of natural ends and bound up with the lives and thoughts of others. They seem to become essential to the attainment of important natural purposes. And then, with mind fully formed, with special skills perfected, with technique mastered,-though with the use scarcely begun for which, after a life-time of patient labor, we have at last become prepared,-then we are called away by death. Inevitably there is a deep sense of loss. It is hard to give up the place, the work, the use, which has become our life. No other is prepared, by a perfection of the same powers of the mind, to fill the place left vacant. The work will, in outer form, be taken up and carried forward by other hands, but its vital essence will be altered. The inner human use will be a different one. Every death brings with it a vacancy that cannot be replaced.

     The truth is that it has no need to be replaced. Natural uses are not eternal. Conditions change, and that which we have built with so much labor no longer fills a vital need. When its real purpose,-not that which we see in it, but that hidden purpose which the Lord sees in it,-is accomplished, death comes to tell us that, however it may seem to human eyes, our work on earth is fully done. In reality this is not the end, but only the beginning.

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     In very truth, all our labor, directed consciously toward the achievement of some external end, has been a Divinely guided preparation for a spiritual and eternal use in heaven. Unwittingly we have been created a place, building a home, becoming equipped to fill a need, in a heavenly society. The Lord has been molding our spirit, forming our mind, developing our faculties, that we may participate forever in the uses of His kingdom, that we may enjoy the delights of those uses,-that we "may have life, and that we may have it more abundantly." To fulfill that use, and to enter into the enjoyment of its life, incomparably greater than we can know on earth, the body must be laid aside. This is the mercy of the Lord which lies concealed in death.

     It is according to this mercy that she whom we affectionately called "Miss Alice," whom we all have known and deeply loved, has, to all outward seeming, been taken from us. Her life was completely devoted to the great work of the Academy,-the work of New Church Education. In the year 1884, at the age of twenty-six, she began to teach in the Girls' School, then first forming under the leadership of Bishop Benade. It was the day of small things, but she saw the vision, and faced the tremendous difficulties of that first beginning with the faith and courage of a full conviction. To the task she brought talents of a high order. A deep love of children, a mind perceptive of their states, a clear understanding of their high spiritual destiny, and unswerving devotion to the Divine teaching of the Heavenly Doctrine, a strong personality and a dominant will,-all these combined to crown her labors with undreamed success.

     Mastering the art of teaching with the very young, seeking especially to develop the training of girls for the exalted uses of womanhood, she attained a high degree of proficiency in meeting the difficult demands of adolescents. With a rich background of experience, she was enabled to make a unique contribution to the training of teachers; to be of inestimable help to mothers, both through personal contact and through correspondence; to give encouragement, and counsel, and inspiration to many who struggled to establish schools; and to prepare children for the Church, wherever the faith in the Heavenly Doctrine found reception. With indefatigable energy, she opened every avenue of helpful service, and gave all her talents to the work of building the walls of the Holy City, New Jerusalem, into the minds and hearts of every rising generation.

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The forty-six years of her labors in the cause have made an indelible impression upon the life of the Church. Her efforts will long be remembered with fond affection and deepest gratitude by those who have had the benefit of her instruction; and though she has been called away, the fruits of her endeavors will long remain.

     When illness came, and her physical powers failed, it was hard for her to break the bonds that held her to the work she loved. There seemed so much still to be done. With harvest more plentiful than ever, the laborers were few, and ever widening fields beckoned with insistent call. It seemed impossible that she must indeed lay aside her tools. She hoped, almost to the end, that she might return to carry on the work. Yet, when the will of Providence was clear, and she knew that she was going to the land of the living, she knew that there was a place there to fill and work to do. And at last she longed to be released.

     When we realize that every little child who dies must be trained and educated in heaven; when we read of the angel mothers who are assigned to care for them; of the schools established for their training; of the heavenly societies devoted to this use; we catch a glimpse of the endless opportunities which will be opened to her in that higher realm. If we reflect upon the wonders of that world, where mind can speak to mind with a perceptive grasp unknown on earth; where children learn by living representations which touch the deepest affections and impart truths illumined with the light of inner understanding; and where there is the harmonious sphere of charity and mutual love surrounding all, inspiring and uplifting; we can, in some small measure, realize the surpassing delights which she has in store.

     She is called to a great work, a special work, which only her years of preparation here could render possible,-a teaching and an education based upon an intimate knowledge of the Heavenly Doctrine, received in this world as a lasting basis of her thought. There is need for that work in the other world. It was that need, above all others, for which the Lord, in His secret Providence, was preparing her while she was teaching here. The result of that work will be the strengthening, the building up, and the perfection of that heaven from which the New Church must descend to earth.

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In that work she will find need for all those particular faculties and powers which were the crowning achievement of her life below. Through it she will enter into life, and joy, and inmost happiness, and by it she will form new bonds of friendship, and of mutual love that will continue to grow in depth and fulness to eternity.

     We shall miss her here. We acknowledge freely the debt we owe, and the benefits which have accrued to us and to our children as a result of her long and faithful service to the church. Her passing marks the close of a period in history of the Academy,-a period to which we shall ever look back with love and admiration, a period with which Miss Alice was inextricably bound up. Its effect upon the church will be deeper than before, although unseen. And our hearts are with her in that work, for it is interiorly our own; and it will keep her near us in affection and in thought, still laboring with us for the everlasting establishment of the Lord's kingdom among men.
MISS Grant AND CHILDHOOD EDUCATION 1930

MISS Grant AND CHILDHOOD EDUCATION       Rev. HOMER SYNNESTVEDT       1930

     The passing of Miss Alice Grant marks an important milestone in the development of the Academy, and it will pay us to reflect at this time upon the old question: Whence have we come in our educational ideals and practices, and whither are we tending? For no single person still living was so intimately connected with the work and the inspiration of that far-seeing genius in education, Father Benade, to whom we owe our start. She it was, more than any other, who brought to his side the choice gifts of an ever-youthful zeal, as well as a background of experience which enabled her to appreciate what he was trying to accomplish with the children, and which she brought to bear effectively upon their primary education.

     Every great leader and philosopher contemplates a world order of some kind, and a deep and far- reaching change in prevailing habits of thought and ways of living. Especially will this be true of those who possess the Revelation that has been given to the New Church, and who know of the Last Judgment.

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Sooner or later they will come up squarely against the question of how to bring about in practice the changes so clearly discerned to be necessary. The answer, of course, is education-chiefly, and the most difficult of all in practice, the providing of new ultimates in the early years, where alone it is possible to effect any basic and lasting reform. We come upon new foundations all the way down to the early days of infancy.

     When Miss Grant came upon the scene in the year 1884, the Academy had already made considerable progress in its undertakings. The great vision of Father Benade, Richard de Charms, "General" Stuart, and all those who realized that the New Church was actually the Second Coming of the Lord, something quite apart from the former Church, and that the Lord Himself was present and speaking to men with Divine Authority in the new Revelation, had culminated in the Charter (1877) and the actual beginning of an institution of learning that was to take the lead in building a really new and distinctive life and worship by means of education, as well as by preaching and the press. It was to have worship and the priesthood at its center, and had begun at the top by brining together a few theological students under the able instruction of Bishop Benade and his associate ministers and learned men. Then it became necessary to add college courses, and then secondary courses for boys; for it became clear at once that the new wine required new bottles, and the sphere of a new loyalty and a new attitude all the way back, until it was decided to open a school for girls, and finally a kindergarten.

     It was at this point that Miss Grant came to Philadelphia to assist Mrs. Sarah de Charms Hibbard in the opening of a girls' school. At the same time, Father Benade began his weekly lectures or "conversations" on education. He was powerfully attracted by the sphere of this elementary work with both boys and girls, and for some years seemed to concentrate his attention upon it. It is not too much to say that Miss Alice was his good right hand in bringing his principles to bear upon the elementary work, always the most difficult in practice. The intense zeal of the parents, too, was what sustained it, as also the faculty meetings, which became centers of an inspired study of the same problems.

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     No principles of education, and especially no effective reform that is fundamental, can be understood or developed except by those who go back to the beginnings of things in childhood. It was her training in this field that so well fitted Miss Alice to take charge later of the education of adolescent girls, and to work so appreciatively with Father Pendleton in the growth of that department. Some of our learned professors used laughingly to expostulate at the attention given to childhood's problems at our general meetings of teachers; but has not time shown the wisdom and the necessity of all this? What else but remains of religion and of cultured appreciation, deeply impressed in early life, could endure and hold our Church upon its course, as we have happily seen it done?

     It seems inevitable that the most gifted workers should pass through an evening state of anxiety, lest the things for which they have labored so long and so zealously be lost; but the historian can see that the Holy City cannot be built in one generation. We long to see the ultimate fruition of our visions in this world before we leave it. But all growth goes forward by waves; first a new advance, and then a period of rest and assimilation. Let us hope that this will be the case with our own Academy, and that when we rejoin our beloved pioneers on the other side, we shall be able to reassure them with much happy news.

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MAGIC 1930

MAGIC       J. S. PRYKE       1930

     (A Paper read at the New Church Club, London, December 13, 1929.)

     One day, not too far distant, let us hope, some enviable writer will give the Church the benefit of a study of the mutations of words, together with the inversions of their meanings. This, not merely as a pleasant literary diversion, but as something of real importance to the future welfare of his Church. We imagine that, amongst many other instructive matters, he will show that, although words may change as to their forms, and their root ideas become shaded into their actual opposites, yet the things, states, or conditions, the significance of which they originally came into existence to express, remain unaltered, and indeed, are even active to this very day, albeit working along different planes and with new media.

     A reflection of this character came to us strongly almost immediately the collection of material for this paper was begun; and the extension of thought brought about by even a cursory inquiry into the subject of Magic is in itself sufficiently noteworthy.

     As all the terms which naturally group around the subject have undergone an almost complete reverse of significance, we will merely remind you of how common it is to hear such expressions as "the witchery of a moonlight night," the "enchantment of a pastoral scene," and the "magic of a voice." These are employed to describe perfectly legitimate mental or physical emotion or charm. Yet their original connotation is lined with magic,-that is, the employment of the occult, the evocation of spirits, the exercise of the Black Art or magical power by compact with evil spirits; or, expressed otherwise, they indicate the attempt to take unfair advantage of others by invoking the aid of powers which are hidden behind the veil.

     It will be understood that the danger and heinousness of such nefarious practices has been seen from the earliest times onwards, and consequently they have been forbidden by all civilized communities, under severe penalties ranging up to the death penalty itself.

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     Such investigation into the subject as we have been able to make leads to the definite conclusion that, although the open practice of necromancy may now have almost disappeared from the crust o modern society, yet it is as rampant as ever in the halls and the world of spirits, frequently descending thence into human minds, whether consciously or unconsciously.

     When we reflect that man, while living his natural life, is continually, that is, without intermission, being acted upon by influxes from heaven and from hell, and that his constant tendencies lean either to the one or to the other, the business of getting clear ideas as to who the agents of these contacts are, and in what manner they operate, will be readily acknowledged as of great importance to rational and spiritual development. Evil influxes into man undoubtedly occur through the agency of those who either belong to hell or are qualifying for residence there; and in numberless instances, startling as it may conceivably seem at first glance, their favorite methods are those of magic, phantasy, sorcery, witchcraft, and the like.

     Sad to relate, female sirens are all too often the willing instruments of these iniquities. In general, the operation is into the minds of mankind, and thence through their bodies, so far as the evil is allowed to come forth. Lest, however, the picture grow too gloomy, let us remind ourselves at the outset that by virtue of that First Advent, coupled with the effect of that Second Advent which is the fount of all our knowledge, the Lord took to Himself all power, and that a single angel, acting as His messenger, can disperse a whole troop of plotting infernals.

     THE LITERATURE OF THE SUBJECT.

     Quite naturally, a theme of such vast importance to the human race could not fail to attract to itself an immense literature al down the centuries; and the studious or the curious will find ample to satisfy their reading propensities for the rest of their natural lives. For ourselves, we make no claim to have reached even the border of it, and must perforce be content with a passing reference to three works: (a) The Golden Bough, by Sir James Frazer, in the realm of philosophy, (b) The History of Magic and Experimental Science, by Lynn Thorndike, in the field of history; and (c) the story by Marjorie Bowen, called Black Magic, in the domain of romance.

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     The Golden Bough is the quintessence of a much larger work extending to twelve volumes. It is a close investigation into the various species of magic known to mankind, arranged into three main groups according to the laws of thought which underlie them: (1) Sympathetic Magic-the Law of Sympathy; (2) Homeopathic Magic-the law of Similarity; and (3) Contagious Magic-the Law of Contact. These are traced through upwards of 700 pages, in relation to kings, priests, and medical practitioners; in relation to the weather, vegetation, and industry; to marriage, and indeed to all the affairs of human existence. It is concerned with taboo, sacrifice, myths, and the transference or expulsion of evils; with scapegoats; and with festivals which have been observed for hundreds of years. And it leaves no room for doubt as to the reality of the effect which a recognition of magic has had upon the human race.

     Thorndike's work, comprehensive in itself, is also extremely valuable as a guide over the field of research and historical record upon the subject. He furnishes in chronological order a long list of those who have worked in the field, with a great deal concerning what they did and wrote that is useful to the new Churchman. His work runs into two volumes and some 1800 pages. In using this language, we desire to treat this work (as also the one previously mentioned) with the greatest respect upon its own plane. It is painstaking, scholarly, and, we should judge, as far as may be, exact; well worth the careful study of those who, having grasped a knowledge of the sources of magic, are capable of tracing the manner of its manifestation throughout many centuries.

     But as we are here concerned with a consideration of causes, and with an orderly release from their baneful effects, we can linger for no more than a glance at one or two matters of special interest. Thorndike quotes Hegel's saying, to the purport that magic has existed among all peoples and at every period, and shows how it was connected with almost every object in the universe and every event of life; how there used to be white as well as black magic; how magic was largely the precursor of the medical art; and how, after a period of complicity with the Church, it inevitably came into conflict with it.

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Indeed, it appears that no single circumstance of human existence was dissociated from its magical formula and practice. The justice of this conclusion will, we think, be seen from what comes later in this paper. It simply means that a belief in another world, obscure and twisted as it was, as being the abode of good spirits and demons, still lingered. Disease was due to hostile spirits, and against these magic alone could avail. Everywhere magic was bound up in myth, literature, and history.

     Here are some of these precious magical prescriptions: Apply the heart of an owl to the right breast of a woman, and she will tell secrets in her sleep. By binding to the boot the nail which has been trodden on, the pain is assuaged. Eating five bitter almonds permits one to drink freely without experiencing intoxication. Tying two toes together is a certain cure for sore eyes. The epileptic may be cured by driving an iron nail into the sport where his head rested. Then there was a remarkable efficacy in amulets. For instance, a remedy which never failed to help headache was to be had from a little bone taken from a snail which had been found between two cartruts. Equally wonderful ravages came from the use of love-charms and incantations which we forbear to name. Moreover, vast powers over nature were attributed to magic. By its mutterings, swift streams were said to be reversed, the sea calmed, the sun stopped, foam drawn from the moon, stars torn form the sky, and even day changed into night.

     An example of maleficent magic was to fashion wax images of your enemy, and either lacerate them with knives or melt them before a huge fire, according to the particular harm desired against him. If your enemy journeyed by sea, you could easily cause his ship to sink by merely submerging his wax effigy.

     What incalculable human suffering might have been averted during the Great War, if only we had remembered and acted upon an effective recommendation given to Charles V. of France, who desired the expulsion of the English from his kingdom. We read that earth was procured from the center and the four quarters of France, and under a selection constellation five images of lead or tin were constructed in the form of men. Upon the forehead of each the name of the King of England was written, and upon each jaw and breast certain astrological characters and names were inscribed. The images, being hollow, were filled with the earth mentioned, and as the proper moment buried in the five regions, accompanied by an incantation to the effect that this was the perpetual burial and total destruction of the said king and his adherents.

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The images were then buried face down, with their hands behind their backs, and-believe it or not-within a few months all the English enemies had fled from the realm!

     Difficult as it may be to repress a tolerant smile at such doings, they do show that at first magic was allied with some conception of another life, and that the forces of good were enlisted to countervail the efforts of the evil. Then, as this conception faded, the power, good or bad, as the case might be, was deemed to rest in merely material substances. Afterwards, the Black Art only held sway until, finally, natural science advanced and was able to fight successfully against these grosser forms of superstition and ignorance.

     IN THE LIGHT OF REVELATION.

     But, for ourselves, we are not now concerned closely with this type of magic. Rather does our present path lie across the world of spirits. It may be that, while traversing it, we shall be tempted to pause and ask: Since magic is still extant, in what guise may it be deemed to ultimate itself in the world around us today? In this, let heaven's light be our guide.

     The spiritually-minded will instinctively revert to the many references contained in the Letter of the Word, both to wise men and magi and magicians, witches, sorcerers and their kin. A thorough mastery of the teaching given in the Writings concerning them would be the task of years.

     The most familiar and best-loved mention in the Word is that of the three magi who, led by their star, sought the presence of the Christ Child with intent to acclaim Him as the Savior, an inner wisdom urging them to the object of their adoration. We are told that a state of wisdom then flourished in Arabia, from whence they came, also that not only they but all wise men of that time were called "magi." They were the "Sons of the East," being in the knowledges of goodness and truth, and of the rituals of the worship of the Ancient Church. Hence they were able to know that the Lord was about to be born, and were acquainted of the actual fact by the star which appeared to them in the East and guided them to the manger.

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Alas! This happy condition was even then in process of transformation, and the wisdom of the magi rapidly deteriorated into the knowledge and practice of magical arts. The association with heaven which was made possible by a belief in goodness and truth, or, in other words, a life of charity, was changed into a connection with hell, brought about the distortion of these knowledges to evil ends. For, as we learn, magic is nothing else than a perversion and perverted application of such things as are of order in the spiritual world. From thence magic itself descends.

     Before turning to a rather more particular examination of the magical arts which are still being practiced, let us see how magic itself grew more and more debased and gross as time went on. Without attempting to draw any exact chronological parallel between the teaching of the Church and the record of history, we may say that the latter does without doubt demonstrate, as hinted already, that the Black Art underwent many mutations, and always worsened, until at length the knowledge of it has been to a large extent withdrawn from the plane of material things.

     EGYPTIAN ORIGINS.

     In its sources, then, magic was a knowledge of spiritual things deflected to natural ends, and the cradle of magic was in the East. The First Ancient Church was spread far and wide over the face of the globe, particularly in Asia, and all the significatives and representatives which that Church received orally from the Most Ancient Church-and they all had respect to the Lord and His wisdom-became turned by some nations into idolatrous rites, and by others into magical ceremonies. Especially was this the case in Egypt, because of its devotion to science, but also in ancient Babylon, as we know from the book of Daniel. (See A. E. 1182:5)

     Merely scientific rituals, we are taught, are predicated of those who wish to frame their worship upon the investigation of spiritual and celestial subjects by reasonings. Such rituals, because man devises them from himself, are called "scientific rituals," and they hold in them nothing spiritual or celestial. This was the origin of the idols and the magical arts of the Egyptians. The result of man's impiously trying to fashion a worship for himself was, that knowledge in Egypt became magical; or, as it is said in another place, the very magic of the Egyptians originated in this, that they were acquainted with the correspondences of the natural world with the spiritual, which they subsequently abused to magic.

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     More generally, with regard to the Ancient Church, whose external worship originally represented the things of the Lord's kingdom, while the internals had reference to charity, we learn that in process of time it turned aside to idolatrous practices and magical things, and that, just as it receded from charity, so heaven also receded from it, and in its place there came spirits from hell who thenceforth led it. There we are plainly taught that magic has its roots, not in the giving up of knowledge, but in its perverted application.

     The teaching concerning what may be called the declension from magi to magicians is summarized in an Arcana number of absorbing interest (5223), where the difference between good or non-mystical scientifics, on the one hand, and magical and illusory arts on the other, is clearly set forth. In essence it is once more the difference between the love of the neighbor and the love of self. The magi were concerned with spiritual interests; they solved enigmas and taught the causes of natural things. The magicians of that time were also acquainted, by means of correspondences, with the phenomena of the spiritual world, and thus were able to communicate with spirits, to acquire fantastic arts, and to work magical miracles, until finally they came to abominate the very names of religion and the church, since perverted knowledges destroy faith and charity, and also invert order.

     In a different way the same thing is said in A. C. 10437, namely, that the Egyptians in ancient times were amongst those with whom there was a representative church. In their knowledge of representatives and correspondences they excelled all the other nations in Asia, but when from internal they became external men, they turned this knowledge into magic, which is always the case when internal things of worship relating to life and faith are separated, external representative worship still remaining, together with the knowledge of interior things.

     The practice of magic in this world probably reached its greatest height with the Egyptian magicians, and this because correspondences and representatives were the scientific more cultivated amongst them than amongst surrounding nations.

427


In that era, we are told, some of those who lived in the good of charity had open communication with heaven, while those who were opposed to charity sometimes had open intercourse with evil spirits, who perverted all the truths of the church and destroyed its goods, whence magic came into the world. The very hieroglyphics of Egypt testify to this, for they made use of sacred subjects, had spiritual significations, and perverted Divine order.

     Note well the fact that the power of the ancient Egyptians came from their knowledge of the other life and the co-operation of the wicked there. We thus see why, at the preparation for the Exodus, the magicians of Egypt were able, by the aid of their enchantments, to counterfeit the miracles performed by Aaron, until that of the turning the dust of the land into lice was reached, when their failure caused them to confess to Pharaoh that "the finger of God was in it," since to "smite the dust of the land meant to remove those things which are damned in the natural mind, and the attempt to pervert true order to that extent was frustrated. In the light of the foregoing, we wonder if the present feverish activity in the field of Egyptology is destined to have harmful repercussions for civilization. To the member of the Church the garnerings of information ought to be useful, and they can also serve as a guide-post to the "way of the fail."

     Ancient Egyptian magic and enchantment were but spurious imitations, differing from Divine marvels as hell does from heaven; and it is well to understand clearly the difference between the two classes of effects. All divine miracles, we are instructed, proceed from Divine order, and advance according to it into effects in ultimates. They stand for states of the Lord's kingdom in heaven and upon earth; and so all the miracles wrought by the Lord Himself while He sojourned amongst men signified some approaching state of the church; as, for instance, opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the cars of the deaf, and loosing the tongue of the dumb. All these acts indicated those who were spiritually afflicted, and healed as a result of the Lord's coming into the world. On the contrary, magical miracles involved nothing whatever, being performed by the evil in order to acquire for themselves power over others. They appeared similar in outward form, it is true, but that was because they flowed from order, and order appears similar in ultimates, on which plane miracles are presented to view.

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For example, Divine Truths have power in the ultimates of order; wherefore, the evil acquire power to themselves by means of truths, and so gain dominion over others.

     But there came a time when man could no longer be trusted with even this modicum of knowledge; and so, lest the representative and significative things of the church should be any further changed into things magical, the Israelitish people were selected in order that this knowledge might be restored amongst them. The Israelites were of such a character that they could not thence fabricate anything magical, being altogether in externals, with no belief in the existence of anything internal, still less of anything spiritual; and with such as these magic cannot exist.

     Magic, we are further warned, can only come from the perversion of order and the abuse of correspondences. It is so with the man who believes that all things we of blind influx, and that if anything comes forth which is determined, it is from his own prudence. So he turns order aside and applies it to himself. And those who believe, or who are desirous to believe, that they are wise from themselves are said to "kiss the calves," that is, to embrace magic, In fact, so far-reaching are the possibilities of this direful iniquity that it would not be too wide to define it as being whatever appears to be other than what it really is.

     IN THE OTHER LIFE.

     For our surer protection against their wiles, let us now learn something about the activities of magicians, sorcerers, witches and enchanters in the other life.

     We are told that selfish, indulgent, and insinuating women become witches in the after-life, and seize upon arts which are unknown here. They speak as if they were elsewhere, so that the voice is heard as if it came from good spirits. They can avert the things which flow from good spirits. They can induce the likeness of another by means of ideas which they catch and effigy. They can inspire everybody with affection for them, or suddenly become invisible. They can simulate innocence, as by representing infants and kissing them. They inspire into others, against whom they bear hatred, the desire to murder them, because they know that they cannot die.

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They excited from the memory of Swedenborg whatever of evil he had thought, and while be was asleep they spoke to others false and obscene things as though they emanated from him. They could only be held in restraint from these and other enormities (of which description is not permitted) by frightful punishments with pain and torture.

     One such females who was the subject of witches, endeavored by means of phantasy to enter Swedenborg's lungs, while yet another wanted to murder him magically. Others again eagerly make themselves familiar with all things which exist in the other life, even which points of doctrine, so that they may apply them to magical purposes, and so gain authority over others. Time and again Swedenborg was infested by thee awful creatures throughout the night and in endless ways, their evil being so diabolical that he was not allowed to particularize concerning it. In short, these sirens can by fantastic arts cause evil to simulate good, and vice versa; and one of them proved so utterly abandoned that she could only be kept in subjection by punishments so severe that they shred to aimed her very bones.

     Before taking leave of this phase of the subject, it will be both interesting and instructive to remember that there are ancient as well as modern witches who still trust in staves, "which they construct for themselves by phantasy, and in which they place their power. They are to be seen adhering along the length of a kind of stave,-a most curious thing, in view of the association of the witch and her broomstick in the popular mind to this day. And it affords an instance, we suggest, of the direct working out of correspondences. It also serves as a warning against dismissing these matters as trivial. The influences are still operating, even if we are uninformed as to them.

     But, unpleasant as the subject may be felt to be, it will prove useful to inquire somewhat further into the various types of this danger which man perforce has to encounter during his passage through this life and the world of spirits before be can reach the security of his heavenly home.

     Sorcerers in the other life are able fantastically to make others believe that they can be everywhere simultaneously, which would appear to be a perversion of the concept of the Divine omnipresence.

430


By means of arts not known in this world they can introduce themselves into the interiors of another, and so pervert his knowledges that they can only be employed to favor filthy cupidities-an effort at actual soul-destruction. These who in this life cunningly and successfully devise arts to defraud others, until at length they attribute all things to their own prudence, in the other life from their acquaintance with correspondences, are able to make representative shoulders, arms and hands, and so exercise magical powers. By the abuse of power and the inducement of fallacies, they are able to cause fallacies to descend upon their victims by interrupting influx from heaven. They even dare to work this wickedness by means of truth from the Divine. They can operate by means of intuition (or a look), supposing that they can effect all things by its aid. We are told that this is very common, and was much practiced by the ancients. We are inclined to think that most studious New Churchmen have suffered it at some time or another.

     Even Swedenborg marveled at the adroitness with which magical spirits could infuse evil. In one instance, actual murder was committed by a certain magical art,-an art for the most part hidden, although still in the possession of some on earth who are able to kill by a magical stopping of the breath. Perhaps we feel startled at that, but the insistent attacks upon the soul are more dangerous. Sorcerers can allure by looking upon the right side of the face and muttering magical formulas to themselves, and the passage in the Writings which describes this and similar practices gives a definite warning that magical things are now increased.

     Some magicians in the other life employ magically-written characters with lines of varying direction and curvature that cheat the eyes and at the same time the thought, thus inducing by persuasions. Such are confined in caves. Mechanicians who in the world have denied God and eternal life, thus the things of the church, after death turn to magic as a means of achieving their ends. This would seem to be the counterpart of the teaching that those who trust in their own prudence and power are of the same quality.

     Here the thought occurs that those who are inordinately devoted to the production of mechanical devices, to the shutting out of everything above nature, and who thus engender a purely mechanistic thought concerning existence, are acting contrary to order, and that an age which can hail a Robot has proceeded a long way along the path of the destruction of the human image.

431




     As illustrative of the law that evil carries its own punishment within it, we may cite the particular case of those in that hell where enmities, bickerings, revenge, and ferocity are both prevalent and open, and the inhabitants torment each other by the aid of phantasy.

     Interior magic, we are told elsewhere, is nothing but interior adultery, for it engenders adulterous things; yea, it is secret hatred against the Lord and innocence. This is surely a striking piece of evidence for the Divinity and. thus essential unity of the Revelation through Swedenborg. On the one hand, it instructs that magic interiorly makes one with adultery; on the other band, in an entirely different work, it says that the addiction to magical practices is a legitimate reason for divorce.

     There are very many at this day, it is declared, especially of the more reputable class in the world, who altogether disbelieve that anything at all flows from God, thinking that such things are from self-intelligence, and affirming that everyone is the architect of his own fortune. Magic is derived from these. This saying as to everyone's being the architect of his own fortune is in general use with many people. There is, of course, a sense in which it is true, but in view of its real origin and associations the New Churchman should be guarded in his use of it, if only because of its possible effect upon others.

     A peculiarly unpleasant species of fantastic infestation is that which keeps the thought fixed intently upon one object, whereby sorcerers can fill it with phantasies, and then infuse lusts into those-an infestation which is quite common at the present day. Consider, in this connection, the effect of the serial advertisement, as also of the reiterated newspaper article, when it is intended to foist some pet panacea upon an unthinking populace.

     This matter is most clearly put in A. R. 462, which states that enchantments among the ancients were performed in three ways. First, they kept the hearing and the mind of another continually intent upon their own savings, and at the same time by an aspiration and inspiration of thought conjoined with affection through the breath, by which the hearer could not think anything from himself. Secondly they infused a persuasion by detaining the mind from everything of a contrary nature, and fixing the thought exclusively upon the idea uttered by themselves.

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Hence the spiritual sphere of their minds stifled the spiritual sphere of the other person, which was the spiritual fascination used by the magicians of old, and spoken of as "tying up the understanding." Thirdly, the hearer kept his mind so fixed in Ns own opinion that he almost shut his ears against anything from the speaker, which was effected by holding his breath.

     These three kinds of enchantments prevailed among the ancients, and still prevail among infernal spirits, but with men in the world the third kind alone remains. It so operates that truths are not received.

     Again, in the other world, there is a magical use of lights; as, for instance, a white flame encircling the bead to simulate innocence. This reminds us of the spotlight of the theater, by which the performer is for the time being made to appear far other than the actually is. There is also, in the other life, an ever-burning lamp produced by artifice for the purpose of religious rule. It may be a little alarming at first to learn that men may be unconsciously infested by the dead who cherished hatred against them while living.

     Finally, we are told, as it were in a single word, that at the time of the First Advent the hells had grown to their monstrous height because the whole earth was completely alienated from God by reason of idolatries and magic, and that at the present time it is crowded with those who are immersed in naturalism and are falsifiers of the Word, that is, who are magicians, soothsayers, witches, sorcerers, enchanters, and the like.

     CONCLUSION

     Well! What kind of mental picture has been painted by the foregoing? Every student of the Writings will realize that our presentation of the subject is only indicative and not exhaustive. Do we see the ideas presented as being in fundamental accord with Divine Revelation? Or are we inclined to estimate what has been said as, in its turn, something fanciful and illusory? We respectfully suggest that the first would be the more accurate conception of the matter, as being at one with doctrinal teaching, historical record and spiritual philosophy.

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     It is well known to us that both heaven and hell are centered in man, the dominant love of those in either place being to make all others images of their own quality, which means that by a long intermediation the particular influences which are interesting us this evening proceed from a variety of infernal assemblies, and urge their ultimation, either in the minds or in the bodies of men, perchance through both. This is a thought to give serious pause, in that we may in our personal experience try to discover with the aid of doctrine how and by whom we are being affected, and thence obtain an orderly release from these evil agencies, which is a prerequisite to really rational life here and heavenly peace hereafter.

     How very closely and practically this unites with the teaching that if man would only consider that all his thoughts and desires in their inception, impulses either from heaven or from hell, and that he is responsible for the welcome or the repulse which he extends to them, the life of regeneration would be simpler and more sure! Lastly, can we, with the preceding teaching before us, see in reflection around us some of the conditions which have been described, and so be helped in our struggle to avoid them?

     We desire to hold in the utmost respect the opinions of those who differ from us in matters of religious, civil, and scientific thought; yet, in that spirit, let us try to see what is to be found in the religious world around us, remembering that Revelation is available to all. At the end of the Church. Divine Truth is turned into things fantastic and magical. It will be immediately recognized how great a part the word "mystical" plays in the religious language of our day.

     Says T. C. R. 82, in so many words, "What can be more ridiculous than to say that the soul of our Lord was derived from the mother Mary!" Again, a God, who is rightly described as omniscient, is claimed to have abdicated to a succession of earthly vice-gerents the power of the keys of heaven and hell. Or, what are we to think of the conception of an omnipresent God localized in a consecrated wafer, whether insuffused or not, which by human agency can be changed into veritable flesh and blood? Further, how are we to regard the stupendous magical miracle which is able, by means of a muttered incantation of belief at the end of his life, to transform a bad man into a good one?

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Or, of the declaration that out of nothing a whole universe could be formed, which yet in some mysterious way proves to be self-supporting? The most charitable verdict that we can dare to pass upon such beliefs is that they are fantastic and delusory, originating in a perverted conception of true order.

     Take, too, the question of the relation of the sexes. We know that the inner core of conjugial love is the hope of its eternity; also, that woman, in a very special sense, is the keeper of that priceless jewel. Is there any real difficulty in the acceptance of the teaching that female sirens are addicted to most direful practices, and labor incessantly to destroy every vestige of confidence and happiness between man and woman, which same is yet one of the foundation stones of the Holy City? Is not this state reflected around us in a thousand different ways? More and more boldly the permanence of the marriage union is being derided; and net only is divorce itself appallingly prevalent, but temporary connubial alliances are now being openly advocated-for the more complete happiness and betterment of the human race! Is it anything less than fatuous to imagine that the fabric of society can bold together if the very basis of it is thus weakened? Even now the finger is making its tracing upon the wall, and one of the characters is the absurd claim put forth by the latest examples of clamant womankind.

     Once again, can any concept be more magical than that of a world existing without a first cause; or, to those who know the truth, the idea that human life begins in the womb and ends in the grave? An amplification of the same fallacy is the growing contention that life can continue apart from active, honest use to society, and that idleness is not the devil's pillow. If these words should reach the eye of anyone who finds an attraction in the rapidly spreading cult of spiritism, let him be warned by its fallacious character. At the best, it tries magically to recall to earth them who have passed over, and this under the pretense of an extension of activity into the realm of spiritual existence.

     In the domain of science, wonder-working as it is in many aspects, let us at least exercise the utmost care to discriminate between ascertained fact, deduction and mere speculation. In this matter, a careful study of Prof. Charles Pendleton's recent paper upon the "Limitations of Science" will prove of high value in separating the solid from file fanciful, and in coordinating our thought upon the subject.

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For ourselves, we feel free to confess that it is long since a single article upon this theme has proved of equal assistance.

     After all, we have merely been repeating the old familiar suggestion as to thinking spirituality about matters and conditions mundane, By an attempt to bring these into a sane relationship we may go through this life with our body indeed here, but with our thoughts, perceptions, and affections polarized to the glorious land of causes.

     Shall we, then, feel fearful of our destiny, and of the malignity of the wicked? Nay! There are heavens as well as hells, and a single messenger of our Father in the Heavens can cause a battle of safaris to flee, and by directing one beam of heavenly light upon them can make them momentarily to perceive their own inner quality, and strive above all things to escape, not only from the presence of the angel, but also-marvelous thought!-from themselves.
RENEWAL 1930

RENEWAL              1930

     Because the ministries, functions, offices and labors of everyone keep the mind upon the stretch, and this is what is to be relaxed, restored and recuperated by diversions, the affection of use remains interiorly within such diversions, and this affection, while it is thus resting, is gradually renewed. A longing for one's work breaks or ends them. For the Lord flows into them from heaven and renews; and He also gives an interior sense of pleasure in them, of which they who are not in the affection of charity know nothing. He breathes into them a fragrance and sweetness perceptible only to one's self,-a fragrance by which is meant a spiritual pleasantness, and a sweetness by which is meant spiritual delight. (Doctrine of Charity 192, 193.)

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NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1930

NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS       Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1930

     The July Readings from the Arcana treat of the Flood of Noah, which describes in correspondential language the temptations of those who were salvable from the corrupted Most Ancient Church, and the desolations of those who could not be regenerated.

     At the end of each church or dispensation, there occurs, we are taught, a Coming of the Lord and a Judgment wrought with a view to the separation of the evil from the good in both worlds. The coming of the Lord to the Christian Church and to the new Church was a coming of the Lord as Divine Truth, or as the Word, and was essentially effected by the opening of the internal meaning and purpose of the former revelations, and by the teaching of genuine truths of doctrine. (A. E. 641.)

     It is by such revelations of truth that the good may become separated from the evil, and a new church be established in both worlds. For judgment comes from truth as an ultimate; and to be an eternal, lasting judgment, it must be made on the basis of eternal and Divine truth.

     The Divine in the Human Race.

     Besides minor or partial judgments, only three "last judgments" have occurred in the world's history, viz., that described by the "Flood," that which was brought about by the Lord's incarnation, and that which Swedenborg witnessed in and about the year 1757 A. D.

     But the Flood is marked off from the other two great Assizes in this, that it was accomplished "from the Divine which yet remained in the human race; thus that the Divine effected it from its own therein, thus also from firsts by ultimates: the ultimate at that time was the Divine in the remnant of the human race." (Ath. Creed 49.) The remains of the Divine persisting with those called "Noah" were productive of "rational truth and natural good."

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It is a suggestive fact that the Writings of Enoch, which were the first of the Ancient Word with the Church Noah, were the outward sign of the Divine then remaining in the human race, being a record of truths seen from a celestial perception since passed. The people at the dawn of the Church Noah may have heard the voice of God in these ancient Writings without the need of any prophets who claimed special inspiration or authority, for the ancient celestials were in a manner all prophets, and the tradition of their perceptive wisdom was sufficient to call the faithful remnant into the safety of the ark, sufficient to make them flee from the false persuasions of the corrupt antediluvians.

     On the other hand, the actual judgment upon the Nephilim who perished came from the remnant of Divine-celestial order existing in their own minds. This caused them eventually to be judged, as in their own minds. This caused them eventually to be judged, as it were automatically, "when they arrived at the summit of such persuasion" as was theirs. They were self-condemned to actual racial extinction by a species of suffocation, because "they could no longer respire with the angelic heaven"; and this was necessary for the very maintenance of their physical life, owing to the order of their celestial genius and constitution. (A. C. 805, 607, 1120.)

     The judgment upon the Most Ancient Church was thus wrought "from the Divine that yet remained in the human race"; and this may have been the reason for the inconclusive nature of that judgment. For hordes of antediluvian spirits soon began again to rove about the world of spirits, petrifying spirits with their terrible persuasiveness, and at last threatening the freedom of men on earth. The Ancient Church-in its latter days-was powerless to secure these spirits in their hells; for the representatives and prophecies which gave power to that Church rested on the faulty ultimates of men. It was not until the Lord Himself became flesh that the antediluvian hells could be finally confined.

     Spiritual Inundations.

     The thought of man corresponds to his breathing. In the other world, spirits who are in terrible power of persuasion can temporarily overwhelm other spirits in such a way as to take away their thought and thus induce a spiritual suffocation. And, if order did not forbid, they could have the same power over men. Such were the obsessive powers of the profane spirits who perished with the Flood.

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They were, so to speak, drowned in the flood that they had let loose.

     In the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, the Lord prophetically likens the state of the consummated Christian Church to the Flood of Noah. "For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be." This is explained to mean that the men of the church will then not know that they are inundated by evils and falsities, and will therefore reject Divine Truth when it comes. (A. C. 4334.) This prophecy is fulfilled at this day.

     Among the incidents observed by Swedenborg at the final judgment in 1757 are recounted vastations which took the visible form of a flood in the world of spirits. (S. D. 5813) The Seer witnessed as it were human bodies floating or struggling in the sea. (S. D. 3370) The spirits immersed by such a flood are named "modern Nephilim"; some were "of the papal crew." That there are men at this day of a genius somewhat like the Nephilim, is clear from the Arcana, n. 736, where we are told that men of that genius can only be regenerated with difficulty. Among modern Nephilim spirits, the most noteworthy are the "sirens," who in this world lived for pleasure, but were regarded as decorous and polished, and esteemed for intellectual endowments. Inwardly they are adulterous, magical and profane, yet extremely alluring and clever, operating secretly into men's minds, even through good affections, taking away freedom of thought by immersing one's ideas in the sensual, and causing lasting obsessions. Their eventual judgments also take the form of a flood. (S. D. 4454) And as they constitute a tremendous danger to man's spiritual life, their deceits are displayed in great detail in the Spiritual Diary, lest we forget the profundities to which our self-examinations must reach.

     The Book of Psalms.

     The Hebrew Psalter is named in the Writings by its frequent title, the Psalms of David. According to Biblical students, the Shepherd King is generally conceded the authorship of Psalms x-xli, li-lxxi, and at least seventeen others.

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The Psalter, having grown by additions for over five centuries, was probably compiled in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, thus after the return of the Jews from Babylon. It sets to music the emotions of the heart of Israel under all the vicissitudes of their life and throughout their changing history. Many of the Psalms concern the well-known events of David's own life, as shepherd, as fugitive, as victor, as sinner, and as king. Others speak of the temple and its worship, and were sung in its festival ritual. A few review the story of Israel, its past glories, and the mercies of God. Still others describe the anguish of captivity or the thrill of the homeward march of the returning Jews.

     In their spiritual sense, the Psalms are prophetic of the Lord incarnate. This is no doubt the reason why the dates of their composition seem to cover so large a period of Israel's history; for the whole people was needed to give a prophetic picture of the Lord to come. One king was not sufficient. Yet David is the principal figure in the Psalms, and represents the Lord as to the Divine Truth, or as to the Divine Human. That the Christ is prefigured by David, is known and accepted in most of the old churches, because of statements in the New Testament.

     Those who are following the Calendar in their private readings may find an added interest in the Psalms by following the internal sense of each psalm, as given in summary in the little work Prophets and Psalms, which forms a part of the second volume of the Posthumous Theological Works used in last year's Readings. There it may be seen that the main subject of the spiritual sense in the Book of Psalms is the relation of the Father or the Soul of the Lord to His Human during His life, His temptations and His glorification, while on earth. The book ends with a crescendo of praise, significant of the state of the Lord's glorification.

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NOTES AND REVIEW. 1930

NOTES AND REVIEW.              1930


NEW CHURCH LIFE
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     DE QUINCEY AND CLOWES.

     A biographical work treating of Thomas de Quincey and his associates has this to say of the friendship existing between the Rev. John Clowes and him:

     "A family of the name of Clowes had been from earliest days great friends of his father. One of this family was the Rev. John Clowes, M. A., of St. John's, Manchester. He was a Swedenborgian, and by his writings and otherwise had done not a little to recommend Swedenborgian doctrines to members and clergymen of the Church of England. De Quincey, whose thoughtful meditative ways made him a fit companion for scholarly people advanced in years, became a privileged friend of old Mr. Clowes, and, as he says, found free admittance at any time and at such times as most others would not have been admitted at all. He speaks of the reverential apostolic look of Mr. Clowes, and says he always reminded him of the Apostle John. De Quincey gives some taste of the conversation that passed between them on poetry, the classics, literature and so on, but always the conversation at last turned to sacred things."

     Clowes, as a "soldier of Christ, who must hourly keep watch and ward, to wait and to be vigilant," renounces his beloved classics, one by one, and finally presents his copy of Homer to De Quincey, saying: "This very day I have taken my farewell glance at Homer, for I must be no more found seeking my pleasure among the works of man; and, that I may not be tempted to break my resolution, I make over this my last book to you."

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Referring to this long afterwards, De Quincey writes: "Farewell, my early friend! Holiest of men whom it has been my lot to meet. Yes, thirty years are past since we parted, and I have yet seen few men approaching to this venerable clergyman in paternal benignity-none certainly in childlike purity, apostolic holiness, or in perfect alienation of heart from the spirit of this fleshy world." (Thomas de Quincey: His Friends and Associates. By Alexander H. Japp, LL. D. Copy in the library of Mr. Arthur Carter, pp. 27-29.)
NEGLECTING THE FERTILE FIELD. 1930

NEGLECTING THE FERTILE FIELD.              1930

     Over fifty years ago, those who instituted the Academy movement made it a part of their program to educate the young in distinctive New Church schools, believing this to be a vital means of stemming the decline in the New Church of that time, and an essential way to provide for future growth. Back of this, however, was a full acknowledgment of the Writings as given by the Lord for the establishment of a Church that is to be distinct from the Old in faith, worship and life.

     That like conditions prevail today in the older bodies of the Church, and that their numbers are not increasing but declining, has been admitted by writers in their journals in recent years, although there seems to be a kind of paralysis when it comes to any actual movement in the right direction,-that of establishing a fully distinctive system of New Church education.

     But that there are those among them who would like to do something, is evident from the stand taken by the Rev. W. R. Reese, who has recently returned from Australia to become pastor at Brockton, Massachusetts. Deploring the lack of numerical increase in the Church, and giving it as his belief that the cause lies in the failure to educate the young, he spoke plainly on this subject in a sermon delivered at Melbourne, Australia, on February 23d, and published in THE NEW AGE for May, 1930.

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Our readers will be interested in the following paragraphs from that sermon, and will sympathize with Mr. Reece's views, hoping that he may find substantial support in his desire to promote the growth of the Church by the only effective means. To quote:

     "As one whose life is bound up with the Church called New, I wish to speak with utmost frankness to men whose material and spiritual destinies are likewise bound up in that Church. I have now been in your country for nearly two years in the effort to awaken interest in a program for the forward growth of the Church. This effort has been defeated. I came here with high hopes, thinking Australia a virgin field, right for the establishment of a geographical and spiritual center of the New Church in Australasia, one which should be to New Churchmen in this part of the world what Rome is to the Catholics, Jerusalem to the Jews, and, to come closer home to our own communion, what Bryn Athyn so wonderfully is to the Academy Branch of the New Church, in the United States.

     "I repeat that the effort to make even a beginning toward the realization of this dream has been completely defeated, that the proposal has met with no favor. Apathy, fear and doubt seem everywhere to rest upon the Church, resulting in a general note of pessimism with regard to the future. This I find especially strong among the older members of the Church, particularly so in those who have been identified with the movement from well-nigh its beginning on this continent. These men and women are one in their testimony that the Church-as to membership-has shown no advance in fifty years; if anything, a decline in interest and numbers. I have heard that in both the Brisbane and Adelaide Societies there was once a time when extra chairs were required to be placed in the aisles. One of these societies now numbers only thirty- one; and the other has had for years no addition to membership save New Churchmen already so from older societies in England. I have tried-earnestly and prayerfully-to find the causes for this condition of the Church, a condition prevalent not merely in Australia, but in Great Britain and in America as well. . . .

     "The revival of the Church then-I believe-depends, first of all, upon the revival of educational facilities for the boys and girls of the Church. We dare not keep them wholly in Egypt if we would train them for life in Canaan.

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Two outstanding facts lead me strongly to this conclusion. First, Bryn Athyn, with its educational plant, costing over $3,000,000.00, and the Church behind that school spending more on the educating of its young than on all other purposes combined, and as a result proving itself the only branch of the New Church now increasing in numbers; and second, the fact, frequently brought to my notice, that elderly persons who come into the New Church almost invariably do so because of some root of New Church training in the early and impressionable years of life. The significance of these facts should not be lost to men and women earnest for the growth of the Church." (THE NEW AGE Australia), May, 1930, pp. 154, 157.)
NEW CHURCH BOOKS IN FRENCH 1930

NEW CHURCH BOOKS IN FRENCH              1930

     A CORRECTION.

     Commenting upon the remarks reported in our may issue, p. 294, to the effect that "New Church books in the French language were no longer available," we have received the following communication:
Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE:
     In my capacity of general manager of the New Church Book Rooms of French-speaking countries, I wish to state that most of Swedenborg's works are still available, and a very few only are out of print. Besides, we have a very great stock of New Church literature-collateral books and tracts. We have regular book depots operating at Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland, as well as at L'Eguille (Charente Maritime) and Bellevue (near Paris) in France, and it is our hope that another depot will be opened soon at Nantes (Loire). The works are regularly advertized in our monthly magazine, LE MESSAGER DE LA NOUVELLE EGLISE, and books are sold to anyone sending us an order. A new catalogue, listing all the works that are still available, is in course of preparation and will appear during the year.

     ALFRED REGAMEY,
12 Quai des Eaux-Vives,
Geneva, Switzerland,
May 13, 1930.

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Church News 1930

Church News       Various       1930

     REPORT OF THE VISITING PASTOR.

     On Sunday morning, May 11th, a service was held at DETROIT, with an attendance of fifteen. In the afternoon the members and friends motored to the farm of Mr. and Mrs. George Field, near Ann Arbor. An enjoyable social time and supper was followed by a doctrinal class, at which twenty persons were present. In response to a request made at a previous visit, the subject of Spiritism was considered,-how it is effected by evil spirits, and how great are its dangers. On Monday evening a class was held at WINDSOR, ONT. We had the pleasure of having with us members of another General Church family that has located there, so that we had an attendance of six. A general presentation of the internal sense of the Lord's Prayer was given. On Tuesday evening we again had class in Detroit, attendance ten, at which teaching was given concerning the nature of the visions described in the Word, and it was also shown why such visions have ceased.

     On Wednesday evening, May 14th, at CLEVELAND, in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Norman, the baptism of Mr. Norman into the New Church was performed, and also the baptism of their adopted infant. Then we went to the home of Mrs. Rouette Cranch, where a doctrinal class was held. Of the eleven persons present, eight were members of the General Church. Having first announced that an adult baptism had just taken place, the evening was given to consideration of the doctrine concerning New Church baptism as the door of entrance into the New Church.

     On Thursday evening, May 15th, I arrived at ERIE, PA., where a doctrinal class was held the same evening. Thirteen persons were present, of whom three were strangers. A missionary talk on the nature of the future life was given. On Friday evening we again had class, attendance seven, at which teaching was given concerning the three discrete degrees that are in every man from birth, and concerning the manner in which these can be successively opened. On Saturday I visited Mr. and Mrs. Marvin DeMaine, living at Springboro, about forty miles from Erie. During many years, while they lived at Middleport, Ohio, I was a frequent guest in their home, and it was a great pleasure to be with them again. In the evening there was another class at Erie, attendance nine, at which the doctrine concerning Time in Heaven was presented. On Sunday afternoon a service was held, at which ten persons were present, of whom eight partook of the Holy Super. Among those who attended our meetings were Doctor and Mrs. E. G. Weibel, members of the Cleveland Convention Society, who have a summer home near Erie. They kindly invited me to spend a few days with them. So, after services on Sunday, they took me to their home, where I had three delightful days. A doctrinal class was held there on Monday evening, the members coming from the city and making an attendance of nine. A desire had been expressed to hear the teaching concerning Spiritism, as I had told them about the class at Ann Arbor. And so this subject was again presented.
     F. E. WAELCHLI.

     SWEDEN.

     Early in April I paid a pastoral visit to members of the church in the southern part of Sweden and also delivered several lectures.

     At Malmo, on April 11th, I baptized the first child of Mr. and Mrs. Per Weise (Ingrid Tengstrom), who, with Mrs. Weise's mother, constitute a little circle at that place. My lecture in Malmo was attended by 168 persons, and books were sold to the value of Kr. 27:55 ($7.38).

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     At Jonkoping I visited a circle of interested people, of whom Mr. and Mrs. Sigstedt and their eight children have been baptized into the New Church. The other members of the circle are Mr. and Mrs. Svahm, who have eleven children, and an elderly lady, Mrs. Karlsson. In the past I have visited them once a year to administer the Holy Supper, which also I did on this occasion. Mr. Sigstedt, now resides in Pennsylvania, holds a brief service every Sunday in his home, and in other ways he and his wife are making every effort to educate their children in the Church.

     I also visited Vaxio and administered the Holy Supper for an isolated member living there. At the two cities, Angelholm and Trelleborg, I gave lectures, with an attendance of 77 and 233 persons, respectively. Books to the value of Kr. 29:25 and Kr. 12:50 ($11.19) were sold in these places.
     GUSTAF BAECKSTROM.

     KITCHENER, ONT.

     On April 18th-Good Friday-in place of the usual class, our Pastor gave us a very interesting address on the subject of the Passion of the Cross, showing the difference between the theology of the Christian Church and the New Church in relation to that subject. On Easter Sunday a service for the children was held at 9.30 a.m., and an adult service at 11.00 o'clock, when an inspiring sermon was delivered on the text, "So they went, and made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch." (Matthew 27:66)

     The following day, being our Easter Monday holiday, a banquet was held, with speeches on the subject of "Uses in Heaven." Mr. G. Harold Kuhl was toastmaster, and introduced the three speakers of the evening; Mr. J. Edward Hill, who spoke on "Home Life in Heaven"; Mr. Robert Schnarr, Jr., who spoke on "Employments and Occupations in Heaven"; and the Rev. Alan Gill, who spoke on "Happiness in Heaven." The topic proved very interesting, and brought forth a discussion by several other speakers.

     On the 24th of May a picnic was held on the church grounds, the committee providing a good program of games and races for young and old. After supper, which we ere obliged to eat indoors, as the weather was not what it might have been, there was a display of fireworks, and we ended up with a sing-song around the huge bonfire. Several families from Toronto and other places were with us for the day. This annual event is the first picnic of the season, and is always a delightful occasion.

     A joint meeting of the Forward Club, of Toronto, with our Men's Club was held here on May 31st, at which the subject of "Taxation" was presented by three members,-Messrs. John Schnarr, Fred Stroh and Alec Sargent,-and followed by a general discussion.

     The Rev. Fred Gyllenhaal, of Toronto, conducted services here on Sunday, June 1st, exchanging pulpits with our Pastor. On the previous day, Mr. Gyllenhaal officiated at the baptism of the infant daughter of the Rev. and Mrs. Alan Gill at a special service, during which he gave a particularly appealing address to the children of the society on the subject of Baptism.
     C. R.

     GLENVIEW, ILL.

     Our school has just concluded a successful year, graduating five pupils from eighth grade to our first-year high: Charles Cole, Leslie Holms, Carl Felix Junge, Kathleen Lee and John Scalbom. The manual training work and anatomy instruction given under the Rev. Norman Reuter were noteworthy, and showed excellent results. Professor Rydstrom's fine training in music was attested by the skill of the children in part singing, even the smallest tots singing out lustily and in tune. The graduating essays gave evidence of careful research and preparation. The "Americanism" contest for schools, held by the American Legion, was won this year by the essay of Kathleen Lee, whose name is now inscribed on the prize silver cup.

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Our school is one of many in this contest, and we have won two out of four. The school winning three will retain the cup.

     The Rev. Henry Heinrichs has just visited Glenview, stopping off on his way from Denver to attend the General Assembly in Bryn Athyn. On June 6th he gave the Friday class talk on the subject of "Conjugial Love," and delivered the sermon on Sunday, June 8th.

     The Rev. Gilbert H. Smith was the speaker at the regular monthly meeting of the local chapter of the Sons of the Academy, and dealt with the subject of the relation of the Sons of the Academy to the general and particular bodies of our Church. He favored an organic connection between them. The subject proved interesting, and a lengthy discussion ensued.

     A very jolly party was given at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Synnestvedt to a representative group of young folk at which the engagement of Miss Jean Synnestvedt, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John B. Synnestvedt, to Mr. Geradin Smith was announced.

     Mr. and Mrs. Frank Day and family have come to Glenview from Detroit, and expect to become permanent residents. Mr. and Mrs. Doron Synnestvedt and three sons have moved here from Bryn Athyn. Miss Gertrude Nelson has recently departed for Europe, and is to spend a year with the Rev. and Mrs. E. J. E. Schreck in England. About forty-four from here will attend the General Assembly in Bryn Athyn, and special arrangements for the celebration of the Nineteenth of June by those left behind will include a children's party at noon and a banquet with speeches in the evening, Mr. Felix Junge being in charge.

     Our Park Commissioners have established a beach on our lake, filling in at one end and thus providing a shore of fine, sifted gravel, which the little ones are greatly enjoying on the hot days.
     J. B. S.

     PITTSBURGH, PA.     

     On Thursday evening, May 15th, a picnic supper was held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Herman Grote on Winterburn Avenue. Ridge was played after supper, and a very pleasant evening was enjoyed by those who attended.

     A number of the men and women of the society met on three evening at the church, and moved into the Community Building the furniture and other equipment which has been stored in shacks on the property; the ladies dusting and cleaning the furniture before it was moved. The shacks will now be torn down and the grading done. So we progress daily toward the completion of the buildings and the dedication. This latter event is to take place, with its attending functions, on September 27th and 28th, as was decided at a meeting of the society on May 16th. Committees have been appointed to have charge of the various features of the program, the Pastor being chairman of all the committees, and having charge of the banquet program.     Mr. Elmer G. Horigan will be toastmaster of the banquet; Mr. C. H. Ebert has charge of invitations; Mr. J. E. Blair, printing; Mr. and Mrs. A. O. Lechner, music; Mrs. A. P. Lindsay and Mr. A. O. Lechner, arrangements for the banquet; Mr. D. P. Lindsay, seating in the church; and Mr. John Schoenberger, in charge of the social evening on September 26th.

     The Doctrinal Classes have ended for the season, as also the meetings of the Woman's Guild and the Philosophy Club.

     The closing exercises of the school were held in the Auditorium of the Community Building on June 8th. A playlet in Hebrew and English, entitled "The Judgment of Solomon," was given by the children in place of an address by the pastor. All of the children of the society who were present took part in the procession. The badges of red and white were awarded, and announcement of the achievements of the pupils made. The children and parents presented Miss Anita Doering with an antique pendant in recognition of her service here during the past seven years.

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After the formal exercises a picnic was held in Frick Woods, the whole society being invited. Games were played, and in the baseball match Miss Zoe Iungerich, Miss Angella Bergstrom, "Buddy" Schoenberger and Quentin Ebert made home runs, Quentin's being such a splendid hit that the ball was completely lost. The picnic was sponsored by the local chapter of Theta Alpha.

     On Sunday, June 1st, the church service was held in the school rooms of the Community Building, and on June 8th in the auditorium, the stage being used as the chancel. Services will be held in the auditorium until the dedication of the church building.

     Dr. and Mrs. W. L. Grubb celebrated their fifteenth wedding anniversary on June 1st, the society being invited to a reception at their home on Ross Avenue, Wilkinsburg, from three to six o'clock. This was a most pleasant occasion, and we all extend hearty congratulations to Dr. and Mrs. Grubb.

     Mr. Harold Thorp Carswell, architect of our buildings, spent June 8th in Pittsburgh, and met with the Building Committee. The belfry is almost completed, but lacks a bell; and the weather vane, with the flying eagle, has not yet been obtained. The Rev. E. E. Iungerich and his family will soon occupy their apartments in the new building. After July 1st, his address will be: 299 Le Roi Road, Pittsburgh, Pa.

     We have had a number of guests during the past month: From Bryn Athyn, Mrs. E. C. Iungerich, Mr. and Mrs. O. D. Synnestvedt and family, Mr. and Mrs. Lester Asplundh and family, Messrs. Dallam V. Smith, Mr. Laurence Odhner, and Mr. John Doering. From Niles, Ohio, came Mr. and Mrs. Williamson, Mr. Arthur Williamson and Miss Marie Lou Williamson.
     E. R. D.

     PITTSBURGH DEDICATION.

     The new House of Worship of the Pittsburgh Society will be dedicated on Sunday, September 28th, 1930. A banquet will be held on the preceding Saturday evening.

     The members of the Pittsburgh Society are desirous of entertaining all friends in the district, as well as members throughout the General Church to the extent that facilities permit.

     Those wishing to attend are requested to communicate promptly with Mr. Charles H. Ebert, 7031 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh 8, Pa.
     E. E. IUNGERICH, PASTOR.

     BRITISH ASSEMBLY PROGRAM.

     Meeting this year at Michael Church and Longfield Hall, Burton Road, Brixton, London, the sessions of the British Assembly begin on Saturday evening, August 2, at 7.30 p.m. when the Right Rev. R. J. Tilson will deliver the Presidential Address. At the service on Sunday, the Rev. Victor J. Gladish will deliver the sermon; the Holy Supper will be administered in the afternoon at 4.30; and at 7 o'clock the Rev. Albert Bjorck will deliver an address at the second session of the Assembly. On Monday there will be sessions at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., with accounts of the General Assembly and a program arranged by the British Chapter of the Sons of the Academy; a social in the evening concludes the program of the meetings.

     Prior to the Assembly a meeting of the New Church Club will be held at the Old Bell Restaurant, Holborn, London, E. C. 1, at 7 p.m. on Friday, August 1st, and all the men attending the Assembly are invited to be present. The Rev. Theodore Pitcairn will deliver the address.
     V. J. G.

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BRITISH ASSEMBLY 1930

BRITISH ASSEMBLY       VICTOR J. GLADISH       1930




     Announcements.



     August 2-4, 1930.

     Members and friends of the General Church of the New Jerusalem are cordially invited to attend the Twenty-third British Assembly, which will be held in London on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, August 2d to 4th, 1930. Everyone expecting to be present is requested to communicate as early as possible with Miss K. M. Dowling, 1a Loughborough Road, Brixton, London, S. W. 9.
     VICTOR J. GLADISH,
          Secretary.

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ADDRESS TO THE FOURTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1930

ADDRESS TO THE FOURTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY        N. D. PENDLETON       1930


NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL l          AUGUST, 1930          NO. 8
     THE LAST JUDGMENT AND THE DIVINE DOCTRINE.

     The phenomenal judgment in the spiritual world, which Swedenborg witnessed, took place continuously throughout the year 1757. It was, in effect, a clearance of that world from the abnormal growths of mixed societies, of good and evil spirits, which for many generations had increasingly blocked the way to heaven. In these societies the interiorly evil, who professed religion, ruled over many of the simple good, who could thus be victimized because they were in falsities of doctrine and some external evils of life, which had not as yet been removed. Because of this, these simple good were held in an evil bondage, and were thereby prevented from ascending into the angelic societies to which they rightly belonged. Moreover, because of this binding between the evil and the good, the evil thereby maintained themselves above hell and apparently secure in the quasi-heavens above the world of spirits, and this in some cases for a long period of time. These spurious heavens, having foothold in the intermediate world of spirits, and their inner heart in hell, were so successful in their ambitious enterprise against heaven that they seemed to have gained possession of the zenith. From thence their pressure upon the true heavens was such that the angels were oppressed, and their breathing was to some degree arrested. To such an extent had this spurious formation developed by the year 1757 that unless the Lord had come to judgment no flesh could any longer have been saved.

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     The judgment was brought about by an intensification of the Lord's power through the spiritual sun, whereby the higher heavens were drawn nearer to Him and carried forward over the false heavens. Prior to this concentration of the Divine power, the imaginary heavens were as a dark cloud obscuring the true heavens-so dark, indeed, that no unconfused ray of spiritual light could pass through to spirits in the world of spirits, or to men on earth. But after the judgment was accomplished, it is recorded that there was "joy in heaven, and also light in the world of spirits, because the infernal societies which had been interposed were removed." (C. J. 30) this general judgment was, in scope, not unlike the two former judgments, the one on the occasion of the flood, and the other at the time of the Lord's coming into the world, when, according to His own words, the "prince of this world was cast out."

     The judgment which Swedenborg witnessed as coincident with the Lord's Second Coming. It was effected upon all nations, as they were gathered in and around the world spirits, their spiritual states not being sufficiently unified to permit of their passing on either to heaven or hell. Interiorly speaking, the judgment was effective everywhere. Its influence was felt both in heaven and in hell, and also upon the earth; but its phenomenal manifestation was confined to the regions below the true heavens and above the fixed hells. Swedenborg describes it, as it unfolded before his eyes, under many and varies aspects. It was sometimes seen as a vast upheaval as of a violent earthquake, whereby cities were cast down and lands with their inhabitants displaced, in process of which a separation of the good from the evil took place, the good being raised into heaven, and the evil cast into hell. Sometime their appeared inundations, as of violent waters, suggestive of the Scriptural flood, destroying dwellings in their course-dwellings which before seemed as secure as heaven itself. These phenomena, with much variety, are pictured in the Writings, and their underlying causes indicated. We behold, as it were, a world destroyed, followed by the establishment of a new heaven and a new spiritual earth.

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     It is not my purpose to engage your time with a detailed description of this event, but to point to the fact that the judgment was both a sequence of, and a preliminary to, the giving of the revealed doctrine, and this with a difference. The doctrine in question, in its giving, was one with the Second Coming of the Lord, and it resulted in the establishment of a New Church on earth, signified by the Holy City which came down from God out of heaven. This city was called the "New Jerusalem," because the doctrine represented by it was a new doctrine, and the church thereby established was a new church. The city came down from God out of heaven, or through heaven, that is, through the new Christian heaven formed after the Last Judgment, which new-formed heaven was a necessary medium for the descent of the Holy City, or, what is the same, the revealing of the new doctrine. (A. R. 70) That is to say, the city, or the doctrine, could not descend into the world until the judgment had been effected, and a new Christian heaven formed in the place of the former spurious heavens which blocked the way. This is affirmed by repeated statements in the Writings; as, for instance: That revelations for the New Church were not made until the last Judgment was accomplished. (C. J. 12; A. E. 260) That genuine truths were not revealed until thereafter. (D. P. 264) the same is said of the spiritual sense of the Word (A. R. 804). And, as well, that it was not revealed that the Lord alone is the God of heaven and earth, until thereafter. (A. R. 804) Also, that the state of heaven and hell could not until then be revealed. (A. E. 1094) And finally, that the doctrine of the church could not be disclosed until the judgment was accomplished. (J. Post, 134; Coro. 20) The point being, that light from God could not pass through to men in the world until the intervening cloud of false heavens was dispersed, and a new medium of light transference was provided by means of the new-formed Christian heavens.

     Even so, the Arcana revelation was given prior to the year 1757, in which year the judgment is said to have begun and been finished. So far as I know, there are in the pages of the Arcana no references to the last Judgment as having taken place, nor any evidence of its being in process, save in the restricted sense to which we shall refer. The Last Judgment is indeed spoken of in the Arcana, but always as something to come to pass in the future.

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The judgment represented by the flood is there described, and also the judgment which occurred at the time of the Lord's first coming into the world; and, as well, certain intermediate judgments upon the several ancient churches after the flood are mentioned. Also, references are made to the final judgment which comes upon every man in the afterlife. But the Last Judgment upon the Christian Church is spoken of as a thing yet to be, when " the Lord would come in glory." (A. C. 900, 931.) While there is no reference to that judgment, save as an event to come, yet while Swedenborg was writing the Arcana the judgment was perceived by him as imminent. This is shown by his reference to it in Arcana Coelestia 2121, as being "at hand." This statement was published seven years before its actual accomplishment.

     In explanation of this statement, he writes: " At this day the world of spirits is full of evil genii and evil spirits, mostly from the Christian world, among whom there reign nothing but hatreds, revenges, cruelties, etc. Nor is this the case in the world of spirits only, but also in the more interior sphere of that world. This likewise is at the present day . . . thronged with such spirits who gather there for a time. By their means the souls who come from the world are frightful infested." (A. C. 2121.) Swedenborg here further notes that "all the good which flows in from the Lord through heaven into the world of spirits is there turned in a moment into what is evil. (A. C. 2123.) This condition was to his mind a sign of the times, viz., that the Last Judgment was indeed " at hand."

     Besides, it is evident that the mode and effect of the judgment was revealed to him by certain minor premonitory judgments. He says that in the other life there sometimes appears to the evil a kind of last judgment, when their societies are being broken up; and to the good when they are being admitted into heaven. (A. C. 2127.) And in the number following he states that " the idea of a Last Judgment, as presented to the evil, which I have seen two or three times, was as follows: When the spirits who were around me had combined into mischievous societies, so as to exercise predominance, and did not suffer themselves to be governed by the law of equilibrium, there appeared a band of spirits . . . at the approach of which a tumult was heard which rose and fell with a great sound, and as soon as the spirits heard it, they were seized with consternation, . . . and were dispersed, . . . and no one knew where his companion was.

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While this lasted, it appeared to the spirits just as if it were the Last Judgment, with the destruction of all things." (A. C. 2129) Other examples of this "idea of a Last Judgment" follow in series in this part of the Arcana. The section closes with the statement that, " of the Lord's Divine mercy, heaven has on two or three occasions been so far opened to me that I have heard a general glorification of the Lord . . . by a number of societies . . . A heavenly voice was heard far and wide, to an extent so immense that hearing failed to reach its end." (A. C. 2133).

     Certainly we have here a forerepresentation of the judgment that was to come some seven years later. The representation is a striking illustration of the statement in the Apocalypse Explained, that "before changes come forth, all things are preordained and prepared for the coming event, for all things are foreseen." (A. C. 258.) Clearly the mind of the Seer was prepared, and the Lord gave him to foresee. References to these anticipatory judgments were also made subsequent to the judgment itself, as the Last Judgment (Posthumous) 136, where Swedenborg writes, " I often saw societies cleansed and also destroyed, before the Last Judgment"; and in the same work, "There were quasi-judgment premonitory of the Last Judgment." (J. Post. 140.)

     It is obvious that the overveiling of the world of spirits by the imaginary heavens did not prevent the light of truth from descending into the mind of the man who was led and taught by the Lord alone. Moreover, it is of interest to note here that Swedenborg's mind was central to some, at least, of these premonitory judgments, even as the Heavenly Doctrine frequently appears as the ruling issue in many of the events of the great Judgment itself.

     As to the difference between these premonitory judgments and that of the year 1757, we are instructed that those which preceded it were effected upon the spirits who were more " exteriorly evil" (J. Post. 131), i.e., upon those whose evils were so far ultimated that they could not maintain themselves above hell until the final day. In this respect the premonitory judgments were more like those which are normal to the world of spirits at all times.

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     In that the Arcana was written prior to the Last Judgment, its revelations may in some phases be distinguished from those which followed after that event - not, however, in the matter of the authority and the Divinity of the truth revealed, but, if you please, in its address and direction. On the other hand, it is my belief also that the Arcana is to be differentiate from the earlier writings of Swedenborg, in that the Arcana is especially a revelation of the Divine doctrine, as that doctrine came forth in from as the internal sense of the Word. Yet we do not conceive that, at the moment of Swedenborg's beginning the Arcana, a sudden Divine light flashed upon his mind, like that which caused Saul to swoon as he approached Damascus. In the opening page of the Arcana it is written as follows: "Of the Lord's Divine mercy it has been granted me now for some years to be constantly and uninterruptedly in company with spirits and angels. I have been instructed in regard to the different kinds of spirits; the state of souls after death; hell, or the lamentable state of the unfaithful; heaven, or the blessed state of the faithful; and especially in regard to the doctrine of faith which is acknowledged in the universal heaven." (A. C. 5.)

     This doctrine of faith, in its central form, is belief in the Lord as the supreme and only God, and that belief is a prerequisite for entrance into heaven. Swedenborg here speaks of himself as being instructed in this faith, from which we may know that the knowledge of it was not given him as a sudden, compelling revelation, unconnected with any prior opening of his thought. His instruction on this subject was doubtless coincident with his several years intimate contact with spirits and angels, when he heard and saw wonderful things in the other life. Indeed, we know that his whole life from the beginning was guided to the end that be might become the medium of the Second Advent revelation. We know also that, prior to the opening of his spiritual sight, he was acquainted with the doctrine of degrees and correspondences, and that these two doctrines were involved in his early cosmic and organic philosophy, and that he there traced the series of all create forms, from their origin in the Infinite God, and furthermore, that in his philosophic work on the Infinite, he found place, not only for the Infinite God, but also for the Only-begotten Son of God, as the Nexus between the Infinite and the finite, maintaining, however, that this Nexus was also Infinite.

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His statement there is that, "by the fall and the dominion of the body over the soul, the connection was broken, and the end (in creation) would have been frustrated, but God provided against this by His Infinite Only-begotten Son, who took upon Himself the ultimate effect of the world, or a manhood and human shape, and thereby was Infinite in and with the finite, and consequently restored the Nexus, in His own person, between the Infinite and the finite, so that the primary end was realized." (Infinite, p. 79.) This statement of the redemptive intent and effect of the Lord's coming into the world is profoundly theological. In its form and application it is unique, and, so far as I know, is not to be found elsewhere; yet it accords with the after revelations given in the Writings. Even so, it does not stand as a challenge to the faith of Christendom, since that faith, provided for the reconciliation of God with man through the Only-begotten Son, who had put on the flesh of man for that purpose.

     Later, when Swedenborg engaged in an intensive study of the Scriptures, he applied his doctrine of degrees and correspondences to the sacred story of the Word, and interpreted its internal meaning as having an inward and constant reference to God Messiah. He also saw in the history of the patriarchs a symbol of future events with their descendants, and this in every least detail. For instance, he states in the Word Explained that in the life of Abraham there is not the least occurrence that does not, in a type, refer to what would exist in his posterity, even to the effigy itself, that is, to the Messiah." (Word. Ex. 174.) Also, be treats of God Messiah as one of three persons, yet it is certain that he himself never believed in three Gods. At that time the Athanasian Creed overshadowed the Christian world. It insisted on faith in one God in three persons. This curious anomaly, we are told in the Writings, was allowed of Providence, in order that the Lord, who was Alan, might be worshiped as God. This credal compromise was allowed for the further reason that men of the early church could scarcely conceive of the Lord as Jehovah. The obvious contradiction in the words of the creed is usually excused on the ground that it expresses an incomprehensible Divine mystery. It came to pass, however, that while some believed in one God while confessing three persons, many believed in three Gods while confessing one.

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The doctrine of a vicarious atonement accentuated the difficulty, by insisting on the separate qualities and actions of each of the persons.

     In the Word Explained, God Messiah appears as one of the three persons of the Godhead. During this period Swedenborg's appeal to God Messiah was intimate and constant. He was the God of Jewish prophecy who mine into the world, in Christian faith and understanding as the Son of God, and a third person. It should here be noted that, while the theology of the Word Explained does not break from the Christian formula of faith, it should be interpreted in the light of the fact that Swedenborg himself did not at any time believe in three Gods. His confession of three persons was credal and conventional. However, we cannot, I think, claim that the Word Explained reveals the Divine doctrine which characterizes the New Church.

     Swedenborg's constant appeal, at this time, to God Messiah, is in itself significant. He is looking to the Advent God, indeed, but to that God under His ancient name, who had come into the world as the Son of God. Not yet was Swedenborg's mind turned directly to the Lord of the Second Advent, who in His coming was to reveal Himself in the glory of His unity with the Father. It would appear, therefore, that the God Messiah period of Swedenborg's writings was transitional and preparatory. Yet we note its essential necessity as an ordered opening of his mind. It was a high link in the chain of his intellectual advance, and it reached to the very opening of the revelation of that internal sense which is one with the Divine doctrine.

     A word represents a thing, and also a state; and the use of a new word introduces a new state. With the opening of the Arcana, the phrase "God Messiah" is put aside once and for all, and the word "Lord" is introduced in its stead. The Lord now becomes the God of constant reference and intimate appeal. This God is the Lord of the resurrection, who gave promise of His coming again. In the Arcana revelation, and especially in the revelation of the internal sense of the lives of the patriarchs, the Lord's glorification, as it occurred when He was in the world, is exposed to view. This exposition is a demonstration of the process whereby the Human was united to the Divine, which union revealed is the Divine doctrine itself, and is the Second Advent.

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The Lord who came before as the Messiah, and as the Son of God, is therefore, in this His Second Coming, no longer the Son of God, but is the one and only God. For this reason we say that, with the opening of the Arcana, Swedenborg's mind turns directly to the God of the Second Advent, and calls Him "Lord." In this connection, remember what is said of Seth, who signifies a new church,-"Then began they to call upon the name of Jehovah." So Swedenborg now begins to call upon the name of the Lord, We feel deeply the change here indicated, signalizing, as it does, the opening of the authentic revelation of the Divine doctrine, which is one with the internal sense of the Word.

     In saying this, there is no disposition to invalidate the truths contained in his former writings-truths of many kinds and degrees, truths which open to the spiritual plane, truths Divinely guiding and increasingly luminous, and as well certain angelic revelations, afterwards amply confirmed. If it had been otherwise, Swedenborg would not have been rightly instructed or adequately prepared for his mission. The more clearly we perceive the nature of his inspiration, the more do we recognize the necessity of his progressive enlightenment. His life from the beginning was a. gradual development. Yet his was a human life; there were things left behind-things which, if confirmed just as they were written, might readily be turned into falsities, but which, when opened and explained in the light of more advanced states, confirm the higher truths. The more we realize the nature of Swedenborg's inspiration, the more may we perceive the need, not only of his gradual intellectual development, but also of his progressive advance in regeneration. His inspiration was the highest possible to man, and while it appears under the aspect of a rational achievement, yet it was, in fact, a Divine gift. The Divine doctrine was not of his own finding; nor was it imparted to him by spirit dictation; nor yet by angelic instruction, as such. It came as an inner light from God, on the plane of his rational mind; yet it was perceptibly and confessedly from the Lord alone. This light guided him at all times, but especially when he was reading the Word. It guided him whether in the presence of angels or under the pressure of evil spirits. His perception was from the Lord alone, who was indeed the God of old, and of every ancient Scripture, but who was now the Lord alone in the imminence and the presence of His Second Coming.

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     The "Divine doctrine" is an Arcana phrase. Its supreme statement is that it is the Lord Himself. It may be described as the revealed unity of the Lord God in His Second Advent. It denies a plurality of Gods. It denies a trinity of persons in the Godhead. It is more than the ancient unity of God. It is a unity achieved by glorification when the Lord was in the world. It is that unity made manifest in His Second Coming, and revealed in the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, and as such received and acknowledged by the angels of the new Christian heaven and the members of the New Church on earth.

     The Arcana opens with the inclusive statement that the writer had been instructed in the doctrine of faith which is acknowledged in the universal heaven. On entering upon an exposition of the internal sense of Genesis, Swedenborg interprets the days of creation in the terms of man's regeneration, and as a history of the successive stages in the upbuilding of the Most Ancient Church. In this series, the seventh day is the final stage, when man becomes celestial, and the Most Ancient Church is established.

     Of the significance of the Sabbath, he there says that it is the celestial man, and then that it is the Lord Himself, since He is the Lord of the Sabbath. This is the celestial signification, and it presents the Divine doctrine itself, in a first covering statement. Much later in the Arcana, no. 8495, the statement is made that "the reason the Sabbath was accounted most holy was because, in the supreme sense, it represented the union of the Divine and the Divine Human in the Lord. . . ." This was written after the doctrine of the glorification had come to the surface of the Writings in their treatment of the lives of the patriarchs.

     In the Arcana revelation there are obvious sequences and periods, as the truth revealed flows from a beginning to a conclusion and thence onward in a Divine series to new beginnings. Now the exposition is directed to the internal growth of the churches, now to the regeneration of man, and again to the glorification of the Lord. We know that in all points of the letter the three great senses are concurrent; and we also know that each of these senses may be understood by man according to the state of his mind. We know that, when the internal sense of any series is revealed, we face therein infinities of truth, and that the revealed interpretations present notable diversities.

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For instance, While the Story of Adam and Eve is explained in the Arcana in the terns of the establishment of the Most Ancient Church, with Adam as the representative of that church, yet in the near last words of the revelator he tells us of Adam as representing the Lord, and Eve the church, and that, as Eve was created out of the rib of Adam, so the church came forth from the Lord.

     The chief doctrine that stands out in the Arcana revelation is that of the glorification. This is the very Divine doctrine itself, which it was needful should be opened and inscribed on earth, even as it was before inwritten in the heavens. It was needful that it should be in the world prior to the Last judgment, and, indeed, in order that that judgment might be brought about. Its writing in the world was a necessary fulcrum thereto. The giving of the Arcana before the judgment also served the need of forming an internal heaven from Christians before the judgment was accomplished. The teaching is, that the external heaven of Christians was broken up by the judgment, but that an internal heaven was formed sometime before the judgment, and for sometime thereafter. (A. R. 878.)

     Let us here also note the teaching that at the end of the church the Lord opens the spiritual sense of the Word, and that this is given as a sign that the Last Judgment is at hand. The opening of the spiritual sense of the Old Testament was therefore necessary to the judgment; but another opening of the spiritual sense followed thereafter. This last opening is signified by the white horse of the Apocalypse, and by the great supper to which the angel, standing in the sun, gave invitation. (S. S. 25.)

     As we recognize a Divine continuity in the Writings, so also we perceive distinct demarkations therein; and if, in accord with the general thought of the church, we recognize the Arcana as the first of the authentic Second Advent revelations, we also recognize a certain distinction between the pre- and the post-judgment revelations. For instance, in the Arcana the judgment is yet to be. In the subsequent works it is an accomplished fact. In the Arcana, the Divine doctrine appears as the internal sense of Genesis and Exodus. After the judgment, the doctrine is seen to descend from God out of heaven, and thereafter it is called the Heavenly Doctrine.

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The Arcana treats of the glorification as it occurred where the Lord was a man in the world. The post-judgment Writings formulate the Heavenly Doctrine into lesser and greater doctrinal books, and in keen opposition to the creeds of the Christian Church. They present definitive statements of the faith of the New Church, as it is signified by the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, as a sequence of the Last Judgment. The Arcana speaks of the New Jerusalem, but as representing the spiritual church.

     After the Last Judgment, the spiritual sense of the Book of Revelation is given in the post- judgment series. This book, in its literal sense, is a prophetic description of the Last judgment, covering the events which immediately preceded and those which followed thereafter. John records concerning himself, "I saw, and behold, a door was opened in heaven; and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet speaking with me, saving, Come up hither, and I will show thee the things which must come to pass hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit: and behold a throne was set in heaven, and upon the throne One sitting." (Revelation 4:1-2.) This, we are told, signifies the arcana revealed concerning the things to come forth at the time of the Last Judgment-revealed by someone in the world to whom it was given by the Lord to see them, and to whom the spiritual sense of the Word had been revealed. (A. E. 260 1/2.)

     It is clear that the visions of John are interiorly paralleled by the mission and spiritual experiences of Swedenborg. Truly may it be said of the latter that, before the phenomenal judgment occurred, be saw a door opened in heaven, and heard a voice calling him, saying, "Come up hither," that he might learn the things which must come to pass; and he was "immediately in the spirit," and the arcana of heaven were revealed to him in a state of spiritual elevation of mind. Also, he saw the throne set for judgment. Yet the fact stands clear, as stated in the first part of this paper, that neither the "new doctrine," nor "revelation" for the New Church, nor "genuine truths," nor "the spiritual sense," nor "the state of heaven and hell," could be revealed until after the Last Judgment, and this in the face of the fact that the Arcana was written prior thereto.

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     Whether we explain by saying that the Last judgment, in its broadest sense, includes the period of Swedenborg's mission, or that the final clearance of the world of spirits was necessary before the doctrine could descend and be received by men in the world, both statements are true, and each in its part is an answer to the question. Certain it is that the Divine doctrine was revealed before the judgment of the year 1757. If we should imagine the possibility of that judgment being delayed until long after the giving of the Arcana, and ask as to the consequences, we cannot but think that, in such a case, the Arcana would have been again caught up to God. Certainly the minds of men would have remained closed to it until the world of spirits was freed by the clearance of the false heavens. This was necessary to the beginning of the New Church on earth that church which is called the Holy City, because of its sacred doctrine, and the New Jerusalem, because that doctrine was newly come down from heaven.

     This new doctrine is sometimes called genuine, sometimes Divine, and again heavenly. It is called the genuine doctrine and true when it is seen to be drawn from the letter of the Word and confirmed thereby, thus when it stands in contrast with those other false doctrines which are in like manner so derived and confirmed. It is called the Divine doctrine when it is perceived as manifesting the Lord in His glorified unity with the Father. It is called the heavenly doctrine when it is seen to come down from God out of heaven.

     As to just what is meant by the phrase, "heavenly doctrine," we are not left in doubt. In the foreword of the book entitled The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine, we have the following: "To add a few words respecting the doctrine which is delivered in the following pages. This also is from heaven, being the spiritual sense of the Word, which is the same as the doctrine that is in heaven. . . . But I proceed to the doctrine itself, which is for the New Church, and which is called the heavenly doctrine because it was revealed to me out of heaven. To deliver this doctrine is the design of the present work." (N. J. H. D. 7.)

     All revelation is dependent upon man's understanding of it. Its descent into human minds is variable according to reception. The heavenly doctrine in the book is the fixed form of the revelations the ultimate from which instruction is given in both worlds.

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Such instruction in the other life was signalized when the new doctrine was proclaimed by the disciples throughout the spiritual world some twelve years after the great judgment, and as if in final conclusion thereof. Coincident with the disciples' preaching this doctrine, the True Christian Religion was written, which book, with its addenda, is the crown of the Second Advent revelation, and the completion of the new doctrine continuously revealed under varying aspects and names from the time of the opening of the Arcana.

     The True Christian Religion gives us a new word and a new definition of the quality of that doctrine, namely, that it is "continuous." The usage of this word does not, however, directly refer to the continuity in revealing the doctrine, but to the fact that the doctrine itself is continuous from the Lord, that its descent from Him is unbroken. The fact of this continuity is given as the reason why it is safe for those who receive it to enter intellectually into the mysteries of faith. For others this is exceedingly dangerous; and to guard against the entrance of those who are not competent, one part of Christendom has been prevented from reading the Word, and the others have their minds closed by a blind faith. It is safe for those only who have received the continuous doctrine, because that decline, in that it leads directly to the Lord, protects them. Its first effect is to disperse all credal compromises, and as well, all human fabrications of faith.

     The doctrines of the New Church are truths continuous from the Lord, and this because the internal sense of the Word was dictated to Swedenborg from heaven (A. C. 6597), which fact be gives as the chief evidence of its truth. (Ibid.) It was dictated from heaven even while it was updrawn from the letter of the Word. (S. S. 25.) Yet, in its updrawing, it was not procured by a knowledge of Scriptural correspondences. (S. S. 56.) The doctrine was revealed from God, and the internal sense of the Scripture was seen in and from that doctrine, and as one therewith. Otherwise, we are informed, correspondences would draw the mind to what is false. (De Verbo 5.) Yet the teaching is, that the internal sense must be drawn from the letter, and that, if not so drawn, the internal sense has no power, and does not communicate with heaven. (De Verbo 18.) Nor is it in such case "perceived in heaven." (A. E. 356:5; A. C. 3857.)

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     Why this is so may be seen in the Apocalypse Explained, no. 16, where the words, "The time is at hand," are explained. "Time" there signifies "state." This is its "spiritual sense"; but, it is added, "if it had there been said `state' (instead of time) it would not have been understood by the angels, for they perceive all things in the Word according to correspondences." This is why the internal sense, by itself, does not communicate with, nor is perceived in, heaven. The ultimate of correspondence in such a case is lacking. Men in the world must think in the terms of time and space, in order that the angels may, by correspondence, perceive the qualities of state. Yet it is also given to men in the world, to whom the internal sense is revealed, to think interiorly, according to the qualities of state, thus to think like the angels. This interior thought of men affords a general rational agreement with the thought of the angels; but such thought, by itself, cannot stand, for in such case it would lack the needed ultimate. This is the same as to say that doctrine may be drawn from the internal sense, but only when that sense is seen to be in and from the letter. (A.C. 9375.)

     As the external thought of man is ever circumscribed by time, so man's interior thought, with that of the angels, is ever circumscribed by the finite qualities of state; and as no man in the world cart sustain his thought quite apart from time, so no angel in heaven can sustain his thought quite apart from the limiting sphere of human states. To do this would be to enter into Divinity. This is possible to God alone. Natural time, therefore, signifies spiritual state, and state signifies Divinity. Divinity is its own significance. Men think of God in time, and yet, if truly, not from time. The angels think of God in state, and yet not from state. To both these spheres of human thought, God manifests Himself in His Infinity, by representations of it, which are received and acknowledged. But for the maintenance of thought, in its spiritual status, the angels must, as said, rest upon the thought of time in the minds of men. Therefore, the natural sense of the Word deals with the idea of God in time, while its spiritual sense deals with the idea of Him in state. It is, however, through an apperception of the internal sense, as it is drawn from the letter, that men are conjoined with heaven. And while man's approach to heaven is through the internal sense, yet that approach must ever be based upon the letter of the Word, for this alone is the basic correspondent.

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This is the resting place of the state which is called heaven.

     They who make doctrine from any other source than the Word, which by correspondence contains heaven, do not make it in Conjunction with heaven. (A. E. 356:5.) The doctrine so made is a formed idea of the whole, a concept which qualifies the things to which it refers. In the light of the doctrine so made, all things are seen and understood, and this even with reference to things of Divine revelation.

     The Jews made doctrine to enable their understanding of Scripture. The Christians did the same with reference to the Old and New Testaments. At the Second Coming, the Lord revealed the Divine doctrine for the purpose of a right understanding of the literal Scriptures. But what of man's understanding of this Dew doctrine? Must we in turn make doctrine in order that we may understand the Writings? Is not that doctrine, as revealed, sufficiently self-explanatory? Yet men differ concerning it, not only as to just what it is, but as to bow it is to be understood. This is inevitable. Such differences may not at first appear. In the beginning all seems plain, and the truth obvious. But, almost unconsciously, differences of interpretation arise. These differences represent the kind and quality of the understanding of the church at the time, which is variable according to the changing states of the understanding.

     In the beginning of the Academy, its interpretations were called principles,-that is to say, they were "made doctrine," which arose out of certain intellectual issues in the church. These "principles" were based upon a recognition of that which was then called the Divine authority of the Writings. Later they were characterized as interpretive doctrines, and in the light which they afforded the new revelation was read and understood. Such made doctrines were, in the first Christian Church, called creeds. They were adopted and enforced by the authority of the church. At length they became fixed to such a degree that they could hardly be changed. The warning against councils in the Writings is fundamentally directed against this stationary condition of interpretations. A spiritually living and progressing church refuses to be thus credally confined. It insists upon an open mind, and calls for a constant reformation of perceptive truth in its search for higher light.

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While exercising both an inner and a literal loyalty towards its Divinely given revelation, the church none the less stands for a freedom of interpretation so great as to allow the advocacy of error, in the interest of human freedom, believing, as it does, that the Lord's leading will guide the church forward to higher and more enlightened interpretations as its spiritual state advances, and as it is brought into nearer conjunction with the higher angelic heavens, and with the Lord there.

     The safety of the church lies in the fact that the doctrine revealed at the Second Coming is continuous from the Lord. In this continuity lies the church's freedom also, and its power of spiritual progress. Our reliance, therefore, is in the clear presence of the Lord in His doctrine to guide the church in the "making" of perceptive interpretations which open to higher light; but the church refuses authoritative sanction to any and all credal formulas which would fixedly bind the church to past states of thought with their inhibiting limitations. Yet we acknowledge in a spirit of loyalty that the past holds a reserve of spiritual treasure which forms a providential base for every new awakening. We, today believe in the principles of the Academy, with little if any modification; but we believe in more besides. And we are confident that those who come after us will add other treasures, as the Lord opens their minds to further vision of truth, which will enable them to meet the spiritual issues of their day and generation.

     DISCUSSION OF THE BISHOP'S ADDRESS.

     The Chairman: The address of the Bishop, which has touched upon the most vital aspect of the life of our church,-the living understanding of that life which is the Lord with us,-is now before you for discussion. It has, I know, stirred you all. There remain about twenty minutes for comments and discussion.

     Dr. Acton: It is extremely difficult to discuss a paper in which so many points are treated; yet there are always one or two which strike individual listeners, and upon which they may have some comments to make. One point in the paper which greatly interested me was the relation of the Word Explained to the Writings. There is a very curious element in the Word Explained that is not to be found in the earlier works or in the later works,-the use of the language of the Athanasian Creed, treating of three Persons and of the Vicarious Atonement.

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If you read the works Swedenborg wrote before the Word Explained, you will find the teaching everywhere involved that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one God; but in the Word Explained we find mention of three Persons and the apparent teaching of the Vicarious Atonement. When listening to the Bishop's address it occurred to me that a kind of judgment took place in Swedenborg's own mind, and that, as a preparation for his office as Revelator, the creed, the doctrine and the form of expression of the falses of the Old Church had to be judged in his mind. In order that this might be done, he, as it were, used or adopted them in his preliminary march of the Sacred Scripture, and during that search they were judged and overturned. And therefore, with the beginning of the Arcana Coelestia, and even in the latter part of the Word Explained, we find no such mention of the term used in the Athanasian Creed.

     Another point was brought up in the latter part of the address, in speaking of the Heavenly Doctrine. The very order of our church is based upon the announcement that this revelation is the crown of all revelations that have hitherto been made; and being the crown, it is the final revelation. And so we stand firm and confident in the belief that the Heavenly Doctrine itself is now laid before men, that men will enter into it with deeper and deeper understanding, and yet that they will never exhaust it. This is the rock on which our church stands. This is the basis of our confidence, of our absolute belief that the Doctrine of the New Church will prevail against all falsities, all sciences and all religions which are directed against it.

     Rev. Homer Synnestvedt: What Dr. Acton has so plainly placed before us is the necessity of recognizing that the Lord has come, and be given in a full and vast revelation of Divine doctrine, so that we have there every supply for the information of the three planes of the mind, of the means far approaching the Lord and for deriving the teaching that is needed from time to time.

     One other point in the address that impressed me was the idea that angels must have the external form of natural images upon which their internal thought can rest, that they must rest upon what is in the minds of men, and that there must be some earth where men think of the ultimate letter of the Word, of the things that apply to the physical world, as representatives of heavenly things. Upon these various exteriors they must rest, because they can fill them all according to correspondences. And therefore it is said in one place that the angels, when they bear about the Holy City, think of a city in the external of their thought. They have this in common with men in the world, and what is left of their quiescent memory is simply formed by the external of their thought, through their association and conjunction with men in the natural world. Spiritually, they allow the external of their thought to rest down upon these things about the Holy City. . . . We must think of a city; and then, when the angels come into the interiors of our thought, they am this city as a beautiful "bride adorned for her husband," which is also an external idea, but one that is more complete. All their thought of higher degree must rest on those correspondences given from the Word. We must have these ultimate ideas, or else we come into confusion and obscurity.

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     Rev. W. L. Gladish: The Bishop's addresses to our assemblies always bring out something that purifies the thought of the church. . . . The subject this morning was the Last Judgment. The Last judgment was effected by the Heavenly Doctrine. Dr. Acton pointed to the fact that there was a judgment also in the mind of Swedenborg, when he came to study theology and walked in The way of Christian doctrine. By the light of the Heavenly Doctrine the judgment was effected in his mind. (The speaker then referred to T. C. R. 26, where angels told Swedenborg that if he held to the common idea of a Trinity of Persons, which they perceived in his thought, heaven would be closed to him; to which the revelator replied by asking them to enter more deeply into his thought and they would see an agreement.) After the discussion with the angels, his former ideas were dispersed. And in the same way, whenever the Heavenly Doctrine is presented, it effects a judgment in the minds of the men of the church.

     The doctrine of the Lord, and of the glorification of His Human, is clearly announced from the beginning of the Arcana, and is the keynote of our doctrine. . . . The judgment upon falsities and evils is always ripe; there are ideas to be dispensed with, progress to be made. . . . The doctrine of the Lord is the one doctrine of the Church,-the understanding of how God, the infinite Divine, became glorified. That is the one doctrine which, when brought into the life, establishes the church. But we cannot enter into the complete fulness of the true Christian Church all at once. It was almost nineteen hundred years after the Lord came into the world to glorify His Human that the Doctrine which is His Second Coming could be so seen. Wherever minds accept this doctrine of the Lord, there the Church exists. And it will be seen ever more clearly.

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SERVICES OF WORSHIP 1930

SERVICES OF WORSHIP       L. W. T. D       1930

     A congregation numbering 599 assembled at the Cathedral on Sunday morning, June 15th, for a service that was uplifting to all present, being filled with a profound sphere of the worship of the Lord in His Second Coming. The service was conducted by Bishop de Charms, the Lessons were read by the Rev. William Whitehead, and an excellent sermon was delivered by the Rev. Homer Synnestvedt on the test, "Behold, I make all things new." (Rev. 21: 5.) The Rite of Ordination was performed by Bishop Pendleton, introducing the Rev. Norman Harold Reuter into the Second Degree of the Priesthood. The special music included an anthem by the Choir, "Now Let Every Tongue Adore Thee" (Bach); and the Forty-fifth Psalm was sung from the Psalmody by the Choir and Whittington Chorus, accompanied by organ and orchestras superb rendering of this beautiful Psalm which deeply moved the congregation.

     The Service of Praise in the evening brought another large congregation to the Cathedral, 500 being present. The special music on this occasion was the congregational singing of the Thirty-ninth Psalm from the Psalmody, an anthem by the Choir, "0 Sing Unto the Lord" (Purcell), and instrumental numbers by the organ and by string quartet. The Rev. Elmo C. Acton delivered an effective and practical sermon on the text of Psalm 8:2. "Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise,"-the state of innocence that is the inmost of all genuine worship.

     On the morning of June 19th the call to worship came from the tower of the Cathedral in the form of sweet singing by the Chorus. The revised Holy Supper Service was used on this occasion, provided for the worshipers in printed form. The Lesson was from John 19:6-19, and the instruction read by the Bishop was taken from Arcana Celestia, nos. 3316 and 4217. The Sacrament of the Holy Supper was administered to 409 communicants.
     L. W. T. D.

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JOURNAL OF THE FOURTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM 1930

JOURNAL OF THE FOURTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM       HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1930

     HELD AT THE ASSEMBLY HALL, BRYN ATHYN, PA.,

     June 14th to 19th, 1930.

     First Session-Saturday, June 14th, 10.00 a.m.

     1. After worship conducted by the Rev. F. E. Waelchli, of Cincinnati, Ohio, the Bishop of the General Church, the Right Reverend N. Dandridge Pendleton, called the meeting into session, giving the following address of welcome:

     THE BISHOP'S OPENING REMARKS.

     Permit me to welcome you in the name of the Bryn Athyn Society.

     It is long since we have had an opportunity of entertaining an Assembly, none having been held here since the time of the dedication of the Cathedral.

     In the erection of this Hall to provide for Assemblies, both local and general, it is our hope that we may take, and for some years maintain, our place among the societies of the General Church which are able to entertain this largest of our gatherings. It is our conviction that the life of the church would suffer seriously if the spirit which calls us together should decline.

     Our Assemblies, great and small, stand for union, encouragement and advance. They are primarily designed for an exchange of spiritual ideas, and for an intercommunication of affections. These are the values we seek, and therefore, in these Assemblies, our engagements look primarily to such spiritual benefits.

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It has been so from the beginning of our Church. Because of this, we have encumbered our general meetings with but little business, as that word is generally understood. Our temporalities have been largely relegated to council sand committees. Yet the General Assembly is the foundation of our church organization. Upon it the superstructure is built. Its fundamental power is broad, and, with reference to all matters which come before it, its actions are conclusive. The Assembly stands for the whole church. It elects the Bishop of the General Church.

     I propose at this time to bring before you a need closely adjoined to the Bishop's office, namely, the choice of an Assistant Bishop of the General Church. This subject has been discussed in council, the results of which have been published. The three resolutions passed by the Joint Council, which body stands in place of the Assembly when not in session, are, I think, self-explanatory.

     The office of Assistant Bishop of the General Church is now called for, because the need exists, and also because, as I am convinced, we are prepared to provide for it. I may here note that the appointment of an Assistant Bishop of the General Church should be a concurrent action by the governing Bishop and the Assembly. Both are deeply concerned in the choice to be made.

     It is in accord with our ecclesiastical officers, whether in the General Church, as such, or in the local societies. With reference to the pastoral office, more than one should, if possible, be named, in order that the society may have a larger freedom of choice. In those cases where it appears to be feasible to nominate only one, there still remains the freedom of acceptance or non-acceptance. There is, however, one unavoidable exception to this rule, namely, the choice by the Assembly of the Bishop of the General Church. It does not appear to be of good order, or to the best interests of the Church, that a presiding Bishop should name his successor in office. In such a case, the priesthood as a whole should, by some acceptance mode, function in place of the Bishop.

     In the case of an Assistant Bishop, and in view of his close working relation with the Bishop, the customary order should prevail, and this also for the reason that the choice of an Assistant Bishop of the General Church does not carry with it a decision of the future choice of the Bishop of the General Church.

471


It is perhaps better for the freedom of the church, and of all concerned, that this should be clearly understood.

     The appointment of an Assistant Bishop means that the one so appointed would thereby be accredited before the whole church, and that he, by virtue of his office, would be enabled to assist in all the executive as well as the Third Degree uses of the General Church. No broader powers could e given to an Assistant, and no less would fulfill the need.

     It is therefore my duty at this time to place before you the name of the one who, in my judgment, is prepared to fill this office. I have in mind one with whom I have been intimately associated for many years. With reference to his qualifications, I shall confine myself to the ample statement that I have every confidence in him, and I am convinced that, with your approval, he will fulfill the duties of this office with distinguished ability.

     I give you the name of Bishop George de Charms.

     2. On motion of the Rev. Messrs. H. L. Odhner and F. E. Waelchli, it was

     Resolved, that the consideration of the Bishop's nomination of the Right Reverend George de Charms for the office of an Assistant Bishop be taken up as the first order of business at the Second Session of the General Assembly, which commences Monday morning at 10 o'clock.

     3. The Minutes being called for, the Secretary moved to dispense with the reading of the Minutes of the Thirteenth General Assembly, and to accept them as printed in NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1928, pp. 652-656. Carried.

     4. The Bishop appointed Miss Vera Craigie and Mr. Edward Allen a Committee on the Roll of Attendance.

     5. It was announced that the Reports of Officers and Committees had been printed and distributed for examination by the members of the Assembly, with a view that individual Reports may be taken up and discussed at the pleasure of the Assembly. (The Reports are printed on pp. 481.) See Minute 29, infra.

     6. It was moved and voted (1) that the subject of the NEW CHURCH LIFE, to be introduced by the Editor, the Rev. W. B. Caldwell, be made the first order of business on Wednesday morning, June 18th; and (2) that the subject of "Church Finances," to be introduced by the Treasurer, Mr. Hubert Hyatt, be made the first order of business on Tuesday morning, June 17th.

472




     7. After a number of announcements had been made relative to the arrangements and program of the Assembly, a recess of ten minutes was taken.

     8. At 11 a.m., the Rt. Rev. George de Charms presiding, the Rt. Rev. N. Dandridge Pendleton delivered an address on "The Last Judgment and the Divine Doctrine." (See p. 449 of the present issue.)

     9. After twenty minutes occupied in discussion (p. 465), the meeting adjourned at 12.30 p.m.

     Second Session-Monday, June 16th, 10.00 a.m.

     10. After a religious opening conducted by the Rev. T. S. Harris, Bishop Pendleton, presiding, called the meeting into session, and stated that the order of the day was the consideration of the nomination of Bishop de Charms as Assistant Bishop of the General Church.

     11. The Rev. Alfred Acton made the following motion:

     Whereas the Bishop has laid before us the present need of filling the office of Assistant Bishop; and

     Whereas he has named Bishop George de Charms as eminently suited for this office; be it

     Resolved that Bishop George de Charms be and he hereby is chosen Assistant Bishop of the General Church.

     DISCUSSION.

     Dr. Acton: the procedure in offering this resolution, and in taking the vote that will follow it, is very simple and yet very effective in securing the free cooperation of all the members of the General Church. According to the custom of our Church in all ecclesiastical appointments, the nomination should come from the Bishop; but most certainly the choice, assent and confirmation (call it what you will), must come from the body concerned; and in a nomination for Assistant Bishop it must come from the members of the General Church in General Assembly. In voting for this resolution, therefore, we simply assent, confirm or register our choice of the nomination that has been made by the Bishop of the General Church to the office of Assistant Bishop. I may add that this is not the appointment of a successor to the Bishop. I bring this up because it has come into people's minds.

473


Whatever implication may be involved in the action itself, nevertheless the question is simply the choosing of an Assistant Bishop, and nothing more, and it has always been the wise practice of our church to confine itself to the action that is indicated for the present.

     One further world I would say, and that is that Bishop de Charms is eminently qualified, both by his genius, temperament and experience, for this office; and I think that the church may be congratulated that only one candidate is thought of for the office at the time when the filling of the office is necessary. In every orderly government there should always be a plain indication of Divine Providence when uses are to be formed; this is the case in the spiritual world. On our earth we are so wedded to the idea of competition that we feel there is no freedom except in competition. I tell you, ladies and gentlemen of the Assembly, competition is not the ideal of freedom; the ideal of freedom is when the Divine Providence, by plain and sure indications, makes it clear to us what the wise action to be taken should be; and I think the wisdom of the action that is now proposed is clear to you all. It must be clear to all of you, not only that the Bishop has been wise in making this nomination, but also that Bishop de Charms is well fitted for this office, and should be chosen by this Assembly.

     Mr. Raymond Pitcairn: I should like to second this Resolution, and I believe that this choice is one in which the General Church has reason to rejoice.

     Rev. K. R. Alden wished to express the viewpoint of the younger ministers. Bishop de Charms had certain qualities which led him into the Third Degree of the priesthood, and now, with the consent of the Assembly, into the position of Assistant Bishop. That Bishop de Charms was an undoubted intellectual leader was manifested from an early period of his ministerial career. The Writings tell us that from Genesis to Revelation there runs a continuous thread of the internal sense. Bishops de Charms is the first minister who took the Old Testament and endeavored to find the actual correlation of its events with the corresponding periods of the Lord's life,-a study unique with him. In his contacts with the Elementary School, and then with the College Department, he has further applied that doctrine, so that from the internal sense of the Word he has developed a system of education by applying the Letter of the Word, with all its classes of truths, to different ages from childhood to the Theological School. We have been advised that, at a recent meeting of the Board of Directors of the Academy, Bishop de Charms was elected Vice president of the Academy. Now that he will have supervision of another system, this new development will in time lead to further work along the lines of distinctive New Church education. From the point of view of the younger men, he commands the respect and affection of us all. And all those who work with him know that his capacity as an executive is very unusual. The speaker who desired to "second" the nomination.

     Mr. Seymour Nelson: I am delighted, as a member of the Immanuel Church in Glenview, to add my word in seconding the nomination, and I wish to express my great affection for Bishop de Charms, and to assure you all that this is the affection of all the members of the Immanuel Church.

474




     Dr. Iungerich: . . . I would like to say, as far as I am aware in Pittsburgh, which has a proud feeling that it is somewhat in the nature of a mother of the General Church, that we are very pleased at the nomination, and that we look forward with great pleasure, when our buildings are to be dedicated, to have, not only the Bishop to perform the ceremony, but the Assistant Bishop to see that he does it correctly.

     Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal: I take great pleasure in having the opportunity to second this motion. One of the privileges of my work in the Academy is my close association with two bishops. This is what gives me the strength to do what I have to do in my office. From my association and daily contact I have perceived that the assistance is needed,-that the time is here when the office of Assistant Bishop should be sponsored by the church. I have only one fear: I am wondering whether it would be "infra dig" for the Bishop and the Assistant Bishop to come with me to the next Assembly and camp on the way.

     Rev. William Whitehead: I would like to register my profound joy at the clear recognition in the Bishop's speech of the principle of freedom. The consent of the governed is at least as necessary to the Church as it is to the State; and therefore it is peculiarly an ideal of the General Church that this thing should be done in freedom, that there should be opportunity for discussion. In this way many misunderstandings or causes for friction are removed. I believe in open covenants openly arrived at. Personally I do not care who is Bishop, if he is a good man, a strong man, a wise man and a shepherd of his flock. I hope that our Bishop will live many years. Perhaps we talk a little too much at times about the externals of government; at least, this is the reflection left in my mind after living here a quarter of a century. The reason is, perhaps, that we have been feeling our way as to adequate forms. As to the development of these forms, I now feel we have arrived, owing to the genius of our present Bishop. Having now rubbed in these habits, it is time to forget them. I have known Bishop de Charms for many years, having worked alongside of him, and nothing gives me greater pleasure than to be able to support the nomination, because it is, I think, in Divine Providence. That is all we want.

     Rev. W. L. Gladish: "I count it a privilege to second this nomination, and to speak of the pleasure we in Chicago have in this resolution...." The speaker had been asked the significance of the present step, and had answered that, while Bishop de Charms had already been introduced into the episcopal degree, and had acted as an assistant to the Bishop, he had not yet acted as Assistant Bishop of the General Church, which chooses its own Bishop, and also must choose an Assistant Bishop, and thus give him an official connection with the organized church. "We all rejoice that it should be so."

     Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal: I should like to speak in support of the nomination, expressing on behalf of the Olivet Church in Toronto in particular, but also for all Canada, the great affection and admiration for Bishop de charms held there. Also, speaking personally, it is extremely satisfactory and delightful to me that this step is being taken. Bishop de Charms' qualifications have been spoken of, and many more could be added. . . .

475




     Mr. Alvin Lindrooth, of Denver, declared himself very proud to be one of the "seconders" of the resolution; those in Colorado having known the nominee as a boy, and therefore having a great affection for him.

     Rev. Alan Gill spoke for the members of the Carmel Church in Kitchener, "I can assure you I have not hesitation whatever in saying that the whole of the Kitchener Society, and indeed the whole church, will welcome this appointment."

     Rev. Gustaf Baeckstrom, of Stockholm, Sweden: Well, I suppose it would be hard for me to become a bishop, or to be a bishop, and I am glad that they have not appointed me. I think it is a good thing to have a bishop when there are differences of opinion, and we all are of different minds. If, for instance, there should arise some heresy (which might happen), it is very good to have a bishop who is wise enough to deal with us in a way that will cause no disturbance. I remember when I was coming into the church, there were very different opinions expressed in Colchester, and I admired the way in which Bishop Pendleton made an end of it, bringing a conclusion which seemed to satisfy everyone. We know Bishop de Charms in Stockholm, where he paid a visit some few years ago. Although a great many of us did not understand English, we were all much satisfied with all he said. On behalf of all of us in Sweden, I wish to express satisfaction at the proposal that Bishop de Charms become Assistant Bishop.

     Mr. Frank Wilson: There is no doubt as to the welcome accorded to this resolution from the laymen. Our Pastor has already spoken, but I want it to be put across without any doubt whatever that Toronto will be more than delighted at the proposed election of Bishop de Charms as Assistant Bishop. He has visited Canada on several occasions; and has then evidenced all the qualities attributed to him by the speakers who have preceded me. He has also won his way into our affections by his qualities of leadership. We always look forward with a great deal of pleasure to visits from our Bishops. We have had wise leadership in the past....

     Mr. C. G. Merrell: It goes without saying that our Cincinnati Circle, who are all here, welcome the new Assistant Bishop. And I just want to express the hope that, whereas the Bishop has disappointed us in his last trips to Chicago and Glenview, by not stopping over in Cincinnati, if we fail to get the Bishop there, that the Assistant Bishop will visit us. I want to remind him that Ohio was the old stamping-ground of his grandfather, and he might want to come out and see it.

     Rev. Victor Gladish: As I am the only one from England, I can therefore speak to a certain extent on behalf of the Michael Church (London), as well as of the Colchester Society and the Circle at Woodgreen (where Pastor Bjorck resides). I know that Mr. Bjorck and Bishop Tilson, and all the societies mentioned, are heartily in favor of this motion, and will rejoice to see Bishop de Charms elected by the Assembly, on the Bishop's nomination, as Assistant Bishop of the General Church.

     Rev. Elmo Acton: On behalf of South Africa, and especially of the Durban Society, I wish to second this motion.

476


In South Africa, most of the people have not had the pleasure of meeting Bishop de Charms; they only know him by representation, by his articles; but I am sure that, when they meet him, he will live up to the impressions that they have formed. In his work in the educational field he has done our school a tremendous amount of good, and we are all grateful to him for it. Therefore, on behalf of the baby-ministers of the church (when Mr. Alden said he belonged to the younger ministers, I began to wonder where I came in, and decided that I belonged to the baby-ministers). I wish also to second the motion, and to assure Bishop de Charms of our deep respect and confidence and love. I therefore do so on behalf of the people of South Africa, the Durban Society, and the baby-ministers of the church.

     Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner: We have heard from nearly the whole world already, and I do not suppose that there is much left for me to say. I have felt almost too close to Bishop de Charms to wish to speak. Those who cooperate continually with him have no doubts whatsoever about the wisdom of this nomination, nor of the movement to provide someone to relieve Bishop Pendleton in the growing and arduous duties of his office. I do not wish to suggest that we see any signs of old age in our present leader: there is perhaps no apparent need for relief in the duties that he has at present, but there is need that the new and growing demands of his office of Bishop shall be provided for without entailing an added burden upon Bishop Pendleton. From what has been said today, the General Church has been well represented in its expression of confidence and affection for Bishop de Charms, and I feel that the time has come to call for the question.

     Rev. Homer Synnestvedt: I do not wish to anticipate anybody except possibly to vote. I feel, however, that in taking part in this movement, we must give thought to one thing; and it is a matter which involves all of the women of the church as well as the men. Everybody has a full voice in this matter, and we must think of the great import of our action, and promise before the Lord to uphold and raise that office now to be filled. I hope that the Lord in His Providence will not take away from us the appreciable and blessed administration that we have had under Bishop Pendleton, who has put this office on a higher plane than ever before. I believe the important thing now is, that when we, men and women, vote, we do it before the Lord, with the full expectation of upholding that office so far as the Bishop calls upon its incumbent to act.

     12. The question was called for and put, and the Assembly, rising, passed the Resolution by a unanimous vote.

     13. Bishop de Charms then made the following response:

     Friends, I cannot express with any degree of adequacy what I feel at this time. It is harder for us in some respects to know ourselves than to know one another.

477


By reason of the fact that I have been closely associated with the work which the Bishop has been doing for a number of years, I am keenly aware of the difficulties that attend the able administration of that office, and I am at the same time deeply conscious of my own inadequacy. I ma glad that Mr. Lindrooth, who said he knew me as a boy, did not tell all he knew. I am glad that Dr. Acton mentioned the question of succession. I believe it is extremely important that, when the time comes, as it must, that there is need for a change in the Bishop's office, (although we hope it may be postponed to the distant future), the church shall be free, and that no step shall be taken that will interfere with action at that time, according to the judgment and the enlightenment that the Lord may give to His Church under the circumstances that then exist. This is highly important, and is in accord with the principles that have actuated the Academy from the beginning.

     It is my belief that this new office of Assistant Bishop, which has never existed before in our church, has been called for by a need that has arisen with us beyond the control of any man or body of men, and for that reason it is of Divine Providence. Just what it should be, must develop with us according to the needs that present themselves at the time. At present, as I see it, the central purpose that lies behind the need for an Assistant Bishop of the General Church is that, in the Divine Providence of the Lord, the time may be extended in which we enjoy the able service and distinguished leadership of our beloved Bishop Pendleton. I know that this is in your hearts, and is back of your feeling with reference to the creation of this office; and I wish to say that it is my purpose, my hope, that I may be able to further this use in some degree, preserving for us the usefulness and service of the Bishop, whom I have had the opportunity and the privilege to know so intimately and so deeply in our association in the work of the church that I cannot say how much I love him. I can only pray that the Lord will give me strength and enlightenment to do this work, and that those failings and human inadequacies which I know I possess may not be permitted to interfere with the real progress of our church. That is all that matters, and I thank you kindly from my heart for all the expressions of affection and confidence that you have made today. They will uphold my office and give me courage to go forward.

478




     14. The Assembly adjourned for a five-minute recess.

     15. The Rt. Rev. George de Charms then delivered an address on "Human Aspiration and Heavenly Peace," after which comments were offered by the Rev. G. H. Smith and the Rev. E. E. Iungerich.

     16. The Assembly adjourned at 12.30 p.m.

     Third Session-Monday, June 16th, 4.00 p.m.

     17. The Assembly was called into session shortly after 4 p.m., the Rev. Alfred Acton occupying the chair.

     18. The Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner delivered an address on "Mind and Body, and the Problem of their Intercourse."

     19. The meeting adjourned at 5.20 p.m.

     Fourth Session-Tuesday, June 17th, 10.00 a.m.

     20. After religious exercises conducted by the Rev. W. L. Gladish of Chicago, Bishop Pendleton, presiding, opened the session.

     21. Mr. Hubert Hyatt, treasurer of the General Church, gave an address on "Church Finances," enlarging upon the recommendations made in his report.

     22. A recess of five minutes was taken.

     23. The Rev. Alfred Acton delivered and address on "The Uses of Heaven and the Tasks of Hell." This was followed by discussion.

     24. The Assembly adjourned at 12.35 p.m.

     Fifth Session-Tuesday, June 17th, 8.30 p.m.

     25. The Assistant Bishop presiding, the Rev. C. E. Doering delivered an address on "A Phase of New Church Education." The paper was followed by discussion.

     26. The Assembly adjourned at 10.00 p.m.

     Sixth Session-Wednesday, June 18th, 10.00 a.m.

     27. Religious exercises were conducted by the Rev. Homer Synnestvedt, after which Bishop Pendleton opened the session.

479




     28. The subject of "NEW CHURCH LIFE" was introduced by the Editor, the Rev. W. B. Caldwell. A discussion followed, in which the Rev. G. G. Starkey, the Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal and the Rev. F. E. Waelchli took part.

     29. It was moved that the Reports to the Fourteenth General Assembly, as printed, be accepted and be published in NEW CHURCH LIFE. The motion was seconded and passed.

     30. On motion, a recess was taken.

     31. The Rev. C. E. Doering presiding, the Rev. Eldred E. Iungerich delivered an address bearing the title "Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister (Gen. 12:13)." A discussion followed.

     32. The meeting adjourned at 12.30 p.m.

     Seventh Session-Wednesday, June 18th, 8.30 p.m.

     33. The Assistant Bishop, presiding, opened the meeting at 8.45 p.m., for the consideration of the "State and Progress of the Church," and called in turn upon the following speakers: The Rev. F. E. Waelchli, who spoke of his work as Visiting Pastor of the General Church; the Rev. W. L. Gladish, who reported on the progress of the Sharon Church, Chicago, and spoke on the topic, "What can I do for my church?"; the Rev. Theodore Pitcairn, who outlined the progress of the South African Native Mission; and the Rev. H. L. Odhner, who spoke on the Calendar Readings.

     34. The Rev. Gilbert Smith spoke of the work done in the Immanuel Church, Glenview, Ill.; the Rev. G. G. Starkey referred to the group of New Church settlers in the Peace River District of North Western Canada; the Rev. Alan Gill told of the hopes of the Carmel Church in respect to the growth of its school and the possible construction of a chapel to replace that which as damaged by fire last winter.

     35. On motion of Mr. Seymour Nelson, seconded by the Rev. G. H. Smith, it was

     Resolved, That this Assembly does hereby express its most grateful appreciation of the bounteous and graceful hospitality which it has enjoyed through the efforts of the Bryn Athyn Church. Much of the pleasure of the meetings has been due to the efficient work of the various committees in charge of the various activities.

480




     36. Bishop de Charms having responded on behalf of the Bryn Athyn Society, the Assembly adjourned at 10.25 p.m.
     Respectfully submitted,
          HUGO LJ. ODHNER, Secretary

     [Picture of THE ASSEMBLY HALL. Meeting Place of the Fourteenth General Assembly.]

481




     REPORTS

     to the

     Fourteenth General Assembly

     of the

     General Church of the New Jerusalem

     Held at Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     June 13th to 19th, 1930.

1. The Bishop of the General Church                         482
2. Secretary of the General Church                         484
3. Comparative Statistics. 1919-1929                    486
4. Geographical Distribution                              487
5. Council of the Clergy                              488
6. Editor of "New Church Life"                         490
7. Committee on "New Church Sermons"                    494
8. Visiting Pastor                                   495
9. Executive Committee                                   496
10. Treasurer of the General Church                         497
11. Orphanage Fund                                   500
12. The Academy of the New Church                         502
13. Treasurer of the Academy                              503
14. Academy Book Room                                   507
15. Theta Alpha                                        512
16. Sons of the Academy                                   512

482


REPORT OF THE BISHOP OF THE GENERAL CHURCH 1930

REPORT OF THE BISHOP OF THE GENERAL CHURCH       N. D. PENDLETON       1930

     Since the last General Assembly, held in London, England, August 4-12th, 1928, I have presided over the regular meetings of the Council of the Clergy, the Consistory, the Executive Committee, and several joint meetings of these bodies. In addition, I have performed the following official acts:

     Ordinations

     Moffat Mcanyana. Ordained into the First Degree, August 12, 1928, London, England.
     (Rev. Hendrik W. Boef. Ordained into the Second Degree, September 8, 1929, Bryn Athyn, Pa., Bishop de Charms officiating.)
     Berry Maqelepo. Ordained into the First Degree, September 29, 1929, Alpha, Ladybrand, South Africa.
     Jonas Motsi. Ordained into the First Degree, September 29, 1929, Alpha, Ladybrand, South Africa.
     Twentyman Mofokeng. Ordained into the First Degree, September 29, 1929, Alpha, Ladybrand, South Africa.
     Jonas Mphatse. Ordained into the First Degree, September 29, 1929, Alpha, Ladybrand, South Africa.
     Nathaniel Mphatse. Ordained into the First Degree, September 29, 1929, Alpha, Ladybrand, South Africa.
     John Moses Jiyana. Ordained into the First Degree, September 29, 1929, Alpha, Ladybrand, South Africa.
     Julius Jiyana. Ordained into the First Degree, September 29, 1929, Alpha, Ladybrand, South Africa.
     Philip Stole. Ordained into the First Degree, September 29, 1929, Alpha, Ladybrand, South Africa.
     Rev. Berry Maqelpo. Ordained into the First Degree, September 30, 1929, Alpha, Ladybrand, South Africa.
     Rev. Jonas Motsi. Ordained into the Second Degree, September 30, 1929, Alpha, Ladybrand, South Africa.
     Rev. John Moses Jiyana. Ordained into the Second Degree, September 30, 1929, Alpha, Ladybrand, South Africa.
     Rev. Moffat Mcanyana. Ordained into the Second Degree, September 30, 1929, Alpha, Ladybrand, South Africa.
     Rev. Twentyman Mofokeng. Ordained into the Second Degree, October 6, 1929, Alpha, Ladybrand, South Africa.
     Benjamin Thomas Ngiba. Ordained into the First Degree, October 6, 1929, Alpha, Ladybrand, South Africa.
     Sofonia Mosoang. Ordained into the First Degree, October 6, 1929, Alpha, Ladybrand, South Africa.

483




     Pastoral Changes.

     Rev. Victor J. Gladish chosen Pastor of the Colchester Society, England.
     Rev. Hendrik W. Boef chosen Pastor of the Gabriel Church, Los Angeles, California.
     Rev. L. W. T. David appointed to minister to the members of the General Church residing in the City of Philadelphia, for the season 1929-30.
     Rev. Albert Bjorck appointed Pastor of the Woodgreen Circle, England, February 26, 1930.

     Assemblies

     New York, N. Y. May 6, 1928.
     Ontario, Canada. May 24-27th, 1928. Held at Kitchener. (Bishop de charms presiding.)
     Chicago, Ill. October 12-14th, 1928. Held at Glenview.
     Pittsburgh, Pa. October 19-21st, 1928.
     Philadelphia, Pa. February 8, 1929. Held at Bryn Athyn.
     Washington-Arbutus, Md. May 5-6th, 1929. Held at Washington, D. C. (Rev. Homer Synnestvedt presiding.)
     New York, N. Y. May 19, 1929. (Bishop de Charms presiding.)
     Durban, Natal, South Africa. (First South African Assembly.) September 13-15th, 1929.
     Alpha, Ladybrand, O. F. S., South Africa. First Native South African Assembly. September 28-October 1st, 1929.
     Philadelphia, Pa., February 7, 1938. Held in Bryn Athyn.

     Dedications

     Choir Hall, Bryn Athyn, Pa., December 23, 1928. (Bishop de Charms officiating.)
Alpha Chapel, Alpha, Ladybrand, O. F. S., South Africa, September 29, 1929.
Assembly Hall, Bryn Athyn, Pa., May 9, 1930

     N. D. PENDLETON,
          Bishop of the General Church.

484


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH 1930

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH       HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1930

     During the four and a half months that have elapsed since my last report, December 31, 1929, we have received 32 new members. Deducting 12 deaths, the net increase during that period was 20, which increased our total membership from 1992 to 2012 members, this being the number on record at this date-May 15, 1930.

     During the period that has elapsed since the report to the last General Assembly, 131 new members have been received, and there have been 51 deaths and 1 resignation. Deducting these 52 from the 131 new members received, there is left a net increase of 79 from May 31, 1928 (date of report to Last Assembly) to May 15, 1930.

Total Membership, May 31, 1928               1933
New Members (May 31, 1928-May 15, 1930)     131
                                   2064
Deducting deaths (and 1 resignation)               52
Total Membership, may 15, 1930               2012

     These figures do not include the membership of the South African Native Missions. According to the report of the Mission to December 31, 1929, there is a total of approximately 771 native members in various parts of South Africa.

     NEW MEMBERS.

     A. IN THE UNITED STATES.

     Birmingham, Alabama
Mrs. Tochie Frost Echols

     St. Petersburg, Florida
Miss Marietta Louise Meech

     Chicago, Illinois
Mr. Edward Charles Anderson
Miss Esther Marie Cronwall
Miss Cora Lousie Malmstrom
Miss Gerda Cecelia Malmstrom
Mr. Oscar Ake Mattson

     Evanston, Illinois
Miss Natalie June Curtis
Miss Ruth Marie Curtis

     Glenview, Illinois
Mr. Donal Clement Hicks
Mr. Warren Adolph Reuter

     Abington, Massachusetts
Miss Dorothy Waitstill Freeman

     Cheshire, Ohio
Miss Sarah Emily Boatman

     Allentown, Pennsylvania
Mr. Edwin Arthur Bregenzer
Mrs. Hattie Hoele Bregenzer

     Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania
Miss Emilie Mae Kessel

     Renovo, Pennsylvania
Miss Dorothy Corinne Kendig

     West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Mrs. Emily Price Mainwaring Soderberg

485




     B. IN CANADA

     Toronto, Ontario
Mr. Robert Morgan Brown
Mr. Beverley Barnes Carter
Mr. Johan Axel Nordberg Hergeir
Miss Mary Smith
Miss Ruby Annie Smith
Mr. Arthur Raywood Strowger

     Windsor, Ontario
Mr. George Reuben Bellinger

     C. IN ENGLAND

     Chelmsford, Essex
Mr. Owen Pryke

     D. IN BELGIUM

     Brussels
Miss Marie Emmanuelle Deltenre

     E. IN FRANCE

     Paris
Mrs. Yvonne Darmitte
Mr. Paul Lesieur

     F. IN HOLLAND

     Haarlem
Mr. Johannes Josephus de Bruin

     The Hague
Mrs. Hendrika Krijntje Wijntj-Happee

     G. IN SOUTH AFRICA

     Durban, Natal
Miss Carol Cockerell

     DEATHS

     December 31, 1929, to May 15, 1930

Mrs. James M. Cooper (Mary Amity Grant), Bryn Athyn, Pa., January 4, 1930.
Miss Annie E. Moir, Ocean City, N. J., January 4, 1930.
Mr. George Wilson Tyler, Fox Chase, Pa., January 15, 1930.
Mrs. Roderic W. Anderson (Florence Louise Stebbing), London, England, February 6, 1930.
Mr. Richard Roschman, Kitchener, Ont., Canada, February 17, 1930.
Miss Agnes Pitcairn, St. Petersburg, Fla., March 4, 1930.
Mr. Dalles Ellsworth Van Sickle, North Bend, Pa., March 16, 1930.
Dr. Uriah O. Heilman, Leechburg, Pa., March 17, 1930.
Miss Lawvina Marie Walker, Kitchener, Ont., Canada, March 31, 1930.
Mrs. William J. Northgraves (Sarah Hachborn), Windsor, Ont., Canada, April 4, 1930.
Mr. Benjamin Benade McQueen, Glenview, Ill., April 8, 1930.
Mrs. John Stebbing (Anna Mathilda Anderson), Philadelphia, Pa., April 11, 1930.

     Respectfully submitted,
          HUGO LJ. ODHNER, Secretary

486


COMPARATIVE STATISTICS OF SOCIETIES OF THE GENERAL CHURCH 1930

COMPARATIVE STATISTICS OF SOCIETIES OF THE GENERAL CHURCH              1930

     Societies & Circles*          Membership     Av. Attend.     Av. Attend.     Av. Attend.
                    Of local     Public          Holy          Doctrinal
                    Churches     Worship     Supper     Class

                         1919     1929     1919     1929     1919     1929     1919     1929
Baltimore, Md.          21     15     20     10     8     8     6     -
Bryn Athyn, Pa.          175     315     162     297     112     168     56     145
Chicago, Ill.               75     74     39     45     33     36     10     45
Cincinnati, O.               9     14     14     13     8     11     10     9
Denver, Col.               26     18     17     15     17     10     7     5
Los Angeles, Cal.               17          22          12          9
New York, N. Y.          28     33     27     27     16     23     8     11
Glenview, Ill.               80     126     77     113     57     67     41     86
Philadelphia, Pa.          55     30**     34          22          10     12**
Pittsburgh, Pa.          86     64     45     45     38     36     14     33
Washington, D. C.               11          12          11          11

Kitchener, Ont.          103     89     68     72     62     55     44     29
Toronto, Ont.               64     100     52     68     43     46     26     30

Colchester, England          22     44     24     38     17     29          12
London, England          31     102          38          43          12

Paris, France               10     52          42          20
The Hague, Holland          19***     62     13***     35     14***     27     11***     31
Stockholm, Sweden          33     73     36     56     22     37     80     20
Sydney, N. S. W.          11     14     9     18     6     7     5     12
Durban, Natal               33****     59****     25****
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil               72*****     25*****     26*****
Alpha, Ladybrand, O.F.S.                    8          8          6

     South Africa, Native Miss.     226     771                              

* Only societies with Pastors of their own are listed.
** Figures from 1928 report.                                             
*** Figures from 1920 report.
**** Figures from 1926 report.                                        
***** Figures from 1921 Report.

                                        1900     1910     1920     1930
Membership of the General Church
(exclusive of South African Mission)          560     941     1435     2012

487


MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL CHURCH IN ITS GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 1930

MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL CHURCH IN ITS GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION              1930

I. United States
Alabama               2
California               37     
Colorado               27
Connecticut               4
Dist. Of Columbia          9
Florida               12
Georgia               12 Idaho                    1
Illinois               218
Indiana               3
Kansas               2
Kentucky               5
Louisiana               1
Maryland               22
Massachusetts          15
Michigan               16
Minnesota               2
Mississippi               1
Missouri               6
Montana               1
New Hampshire          1
New Jersey               22
New Mexico               1
New York               62
North Carolina          3
Ohio                    68
Oregon               9
Pennsylvania          517
Rhode Island          2
South Carolina          1
Tennessee               1     
Texas                    4
Vermont               1
Virginia               3
Washington               14
West Virginia          2
Wisconsin               5     1112

II. Cuba               1
Porto Rico               2
Dutch West Indies          1     4

     
III. Canada
Alberta               11
Manitoba               9
Ontario               247
Quebec               5
Saskatchewan               14
British Columbia          5
Nova Scotia               1
New Brunswick          1     293

IV. South America
Argentine Repub.          1
Brazil                    76
Uruguay               2     79

V. Europe.
Great Britain
England               161
Scotland               4
Wales                    1     166

VI. Belgium               13
Czechoslovakia          2
Denmark               2
France                    34
Holland               58
Italy                    3
Sweden               76
Switzerland               9     197

VI. Africa
South Africa
Basutoland               1
Cape Province          3
Natal                    44
Orange Free St.          6
North Rand               1
Madagascar               1
Mauritius               1     60

VI. Australia                    20
VIII. Unknown resident          81
Total Membership               2012

488


REPORT OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY 1930

REPORT OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY       WILLIAM WHITEHEAD       1930

     June 1, 1930

     During the two-year period since the Thirteenth General Assembly, held in London, England, August, 1928, the following facts and events of general interest may be noted:

     1. The total MEMBERSHIP of the Clergy of the General Church at present numbers fifty-six. This comprises three members of the episcopal degree (including the Bishop of the General Church); forty-four pastors; and nine ministers. Of these, five pastors and six ministers are native leaders connected with the South African Mission.

     2. VARIOUS CHANGES have taken place during the past two years as to the members of the Clergy, as follows:

     The Rt. Rev. George de Charms, in addition to this duties as Assistant Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church, as appointed Professor of Theology in the Academy, September, 1928. Also, he was appointed Dean of the College, September, 1928, from which position he has resigned, this to take effect in September, 1930.

     The Rev. H. W. Boef was ordained into the pastoral degree by Bishop George de Charms in September, 1929. He is now the pastor of the society in Los Angeles, California.

     The Rev. Vincent C. Odhner is at present engaged in secular work.

     3. The First South African Native Assembly was held on September 28th to October 1st, 1929, at Alpha, Ladybrand, Orange Free State. On that occasion the Bishop of the General Church ordained ten native ministers into the first degree of the priesthood, and four of these into the pastoral degree also.

     A new Circle has been formed since July, 1929, at Woodgreen, Salisbury, England, under the leadership of Rev. Albert Bjorck, late of Spain.

     A new church building and community house at Pittsburgh, Pa., though checked by a serious fire, promise much for the future of the Society there.

     A disastrous fire in the church building at Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, was met with courage and zeal.

     4. RITES AND SACRAMENTS of the Church, as reported for the two-year period ending January 1st, 1930, show the following totals:

Ordinations (including those conducted with the South African Mission)     27
Baptisms                                             271
Confessions of Faith                                        75
Betrothals                                             15
Marriages                                             31
Funerals                                             89
Holy Supper                                             291

     (Public administrations, 240; Private administrations, 51)

489




     As compared with the figures presented at the last General Assembly, there is an increase of 50 Baptisms; an increase of 23 Confessions of Faith; a decrease of 13 Betrothals; a decrease of 16 Marriages; an increase of 29 Funerals; and a decrease of 53 administrations of the Holy Supper. The last named decrease appears to be almost entirely as to the public observance of this sacrament.

     5. The DAY SCHOOLS of the General Church at present comprise 8 as follows:

Bryn Athyn, Pa.: 7 regular and 6 special teachers, and 168 pupils.
Colchester, England: 1 teacher and 13 pupils.
Durban, South Africa: No statistics available.
Glenview, Illinois: 6 teachers and 47 pupils.
Kitchener, Ont., Canada: 2 teachers and 13 pupils.
Toronto, Ont., Canada: 2 teachers and 9 pupils.
Alpha, Orange Free State: 1 teacher and 3 pupils.

     In addition, there are reported to be 177 pupils in Day Schools connected with the South African Mission. Excluding the latter (because of the lack of completely verified figures), there are at present 28 teachers and 277 pupils engaged in New Church Day School work in the General Church. These figures refer, of course, only to the Elementary School stage of education. They also do not include Durban, South Africa, owing to the non-receipt of a report. This qualification applies to all statistics in this report.

     6. SUNDAY SCHOOLS OR CHILDREN'S SERVICES at present total 9, and comprise 43 teachers and 399 attendants.

     7. The AVERAGE ATTENDANCE at public worship in the 27 societies and circles, including children, is 974. The actual membership of these societies and circles is 1231. The average attendance at the public administration of the Holy Supper is 725. The average attendance at Doctrinal Class is 519.

     8. The NON-MEMBERS who are yet regular attendants at worship or doctrinal classes (including children, young people, and adults), number 507. This is an increase of 33 over the last Assembly report.

     9. The Council of Clergy has contained its profitable and indispensable Annual Meetings, in February of each year, in the Council Hall at Bryn Athyn, Pa. (See reports in New Church Life, May, 1929, pp. 308-312; also May, 1930, p. 301-307.)
     Respectfully submitted,
          WILLIAM WHITEHEAD,
     Secretary, Council of the Clergy.

490


REPORT OF THE EDITOR OF "NEW CHURCH LIFE" 1930

REPORT OF THE EDITOR OF "NEW CHURCH LIFE"       W. B. CALDWELL       1930

     In the two years that have elapsed since the last General Assembly, our monthly magazine has been published regularly, and the effort has been made to maintain the various departments in such a way as to fulfill their intended use to our readers. The issues of Life really constitute their own report, and are before the members at all times for appraisal and comment. In and are before the members at all times for appraisal and comment. In matters of general policy, and in dealing with special problems arising from time to time, the editor has had the benefits of the Bishop's counsel, direction and support. He has also enjoyed a large measure of freedom in editing the journal, and for this he has felt grateful. Under such an arrangement, however, one feels the greater responsibility for the proper fulfillment of the trust imposed, and not only welcomes but seeks counsel and guidance, suggestion and advice, to the end that he may escape the limitations of fallible judgment and personal predilection, and gain enlarged understanding of the use in which he is privileged to serve the common cause.

     The primary purpose of our magazine, it would see, is to provide information and instruction for the members of the General Church. By the publication of reports and news accounts the members are informed of the activities of the general body and its societies, and of outstanding events in the New Church at large. The Life should also be the medium through which the results of thought and study in the Church are made available to all, chiefly in the form of sermons, reviews, and articles on doctrinal and practical subjects, furnishing instruction in spiritual things. As the Church grows in its understanding of the Heavenly Doctrine, this will find expression in new ideas,-the fruits of spiritual affection and thought. It is thus that the Lord blesses the Church with a spiritual fruitage, which is shared by all when communicated by word of mouth, in writing, or in print.

     Our pages have also furnished a kind of forum for the exchange of views on questions that are active in the minds of our members; this has been done in the published records of discussions at public meetings, and in the communications printed from time to time.

     In its effort to be informative and instructive, the Life should also be a faithful expression of the spirit of our body. If we were to attempt to define that spirit, we might say that the spirit of the New Church is that of the affection of truth,-an affection proceeding from the good of charity and looking to the uses of life. A publication bearing the name of "New Church Life" should embody and express such a spirit. This should be the sphere and tone that characterizes its style, being as it were breathed forth from the printed page and affecting the reader.

     We believe that such a sphere characterizes our public meetings and the discussions of matters of doctrine and practice. In keeping with the teaching that differences of opinion in respect to the truths of faith do not separate minds when love of the neighbor prevails, our public discussions give evidence of a mutual respect for the opinions of others and a tolerance toward opposing views; not a suppression of differences from a sentimental brotherly love, so-called, which may be in the highest degree natural, but a rational recognition of the neighbor's right to his freedom of belief, and a trust that he is as sincere as we in the desire to arrive at the genuine truth.

491




     In the freedom and light of the Second Coming of the Lord there must be full and free ventilation of subjects of doctrine, both in public meetings and in print, to the end that the truth itself may emerge into greater light and wider acknowledgment. It would seem, also, that among those who are sincerely and dispassionately seeking only for the truth, there is little need for a harsh clashing of opinion, or for those vehement disputations which are heard in the other world as the gnashings of teeth. While this may not always be avoided without the danger of an undue suppression of freedom, still we think it may be set down as a general fact that the cause of truth is little promoted by acrimonious debate and controversy, which tends rather to confirm each party in its own view, and contributes little to the solution of difficulties or the reconciling of divergent views. On the other hand, a lively discussion and argument, carried on in a friendly spirit, is highly stimulating and useful.

     I would express it as my own view that the best writing today in any field, and really the most powerful in its influence for good, is of a moderate type. For myself, when I want to get at the real truth on a subject, I do not go to the sensational press, nor to any violently partisan publication, but to those writers who are somewhat detached from the actual scene of conflicting elements, and who have therefore been able to take a calm and dispassionate view of all sides of a subject, and to embody the results of their study in clear but moderate terms. And the New Church is in a position to obtain such a view of every subject. The New Churchman knows that the rational truth lies in the midst between two extremes, and he wants the rational view. While nothing both extremes, from opposite to opposite, he is careful not to confirm either extreme as final. He holds the rational in suspension, and waits until he is fully convinced that he has arrived at the genuine truth. He is broad-minded in the best sense. And so it is my belief that well-balanced moderate utterance, whether in speech or writing, carries more weight with rational, sensible minds than any sensational and violent form of expression. Though direct, emphatic, zealous in its espousal of truth, and in its denunciation of falsity, it avoids that exaggeration and overemphasis which is weak in itself.

     In our modern world the power of the press in molding public opinion is great. Large numbers are reached by newspapers, magazines and books, which carry this advantage,-that the individual may choose his own time to read, and may reflect upon what he reads in a way that he is not able to do when listening to a speaker. And as the individual is influenced, is led and governed, by the ideas which are hospitably received in his mind, so the whole Church may be led forward spiritually by the ideas of truth that are derived from Divine Revelation by those who study and write, and who communicate these results of their labors to others with the living voice or through the medium of the printed page.

492




     To promote this important use, our magazine ought to be the repository of the best thought of the Church; in this, all may cooperate by submitted material for publication. The effort has been to provide interesting and useful matter, with as well-balanced a variety of topics as could be assembled for each number. But no magazine can prosper by merely waiting for contributions. Most of what we print is submitted voluntarily, but considerable has been prepared on request. An editor has in mind a long list of subjects which he considers would be useful to have presented. He always has a certain number of fishing lines out, while he waits and hopes for a bite. Most of our writers are very busy men, and cannot find time for special studies, and use them in doctrinal classes before sending them to the Life.

     During the past year, two new features have appeared every month, and have been very favorably received. I refer to the "Notes on the Calendar Readings" and the "Addresses for Children." There is also room for a class of reading mater appealing to the age between that of the children and the elders, although we believe there is material in every number that will interest the young men and women if they are encouraged to read it.

     By changing the paper this year we have made it possible to print more pictures, and we hope that means will be available to allow for even more illustrations in the future. It would be a good thing if the members would bear this use in mind, and send us photographs suited to our purpose, whether of persons, groups, places, or objects of interest.

     It will not be long before we shall need more space for a well-balanced representation of the writing done in the Church; at first, an increase from sixty-four to eighty pages monthly. That would provide for greater variety, thus meeting the needs of a larger number of readers. AS a still later development, I believe that we shall some day have both a weekly and a quarterly in the General Church.

     While the Business Manager is doubtless more directly interested in securing more subscribers to the Life, he shares the editor's wish for an ever wider circle of readers, and has found a way to send it to a number of persons who are not subscribers but who read it. The habit of reading the Life is said to prevail inversely as the square of the distance from Bryn Athyn. At least, a resident of Bryn Athyn once remarked to the editor: "Of course, I do not read the Life; I live in Bryn Athyn." It is only fair to say that this is hardly typical of the residents of Bryn Athyn, among whom there are many regular readers. It is true that considerable matter appearing in our pages has already been heard at some meeting in Bryn Athyn; it is also true that the greater proportion has not; moreover, there are those who like to read what they have already heard.

     The reading of this or that magazine is a habit. Many of our members have this habit, and we believe that more would acquire it if they once got started. In 1928, the five numbers of New Church Life that were devoted to the report of the General Assembly in London were sent as sample copies to a large number of addresses.

493


As a result, sixty new subscriptions were received. A number of these, no doubt, became regular readers. It would be interesting to know just what the custom is among our members with respect to reading the Life. A good many, we presume, reserve Sundays for the purpose, which is eminently fitting. We know of one business man who reads the Life through on its arrival, even if that happens to be during business hours. He does this, not from any sense of duty, but because he finds delight in so doing. And we are not here advocating any mere habit, but rather that habit which grows out of affectionate interest.

     A FIFTY-YEAR INDEX

     The end of the present year will mark the completion of fifty years of continuous publication of New Church Life,-1881-1930. On the shelves of our libraries, and in many homes, there will then be fifty volumes of this periodical,-a storehouse of valuable material, embodied in sermons, doctrinal articles, historical records and general information. Each of these volumes is furnished with an Index of Contents, but it is often quite an undertaking to find what is desired. We need an Index covering the contents of the fifty volumes, and it would seem to be an appropriate time to prepare and publish such a comprehensive Index, in the form of a single volume the size of one of the annual volumes of the Life.

     Such an Index would be of great use to ministers, teachers and students, as well as to our members generally, making readily available a great store of historical and statistical information about the New church in general, and concerning the Academy and the General Church in particular. Of greater, importance than this, it would open the door to a treasury of knowledge concerning the development of doctrine and practice in the New Church,-a knowledge which every new generation of the Church should possess. For I believe that the existence of such an Index would lead many to read and study what has been written in the past, and thus to gain information of great value to the present and future growth of the Church.

     History, we know, is one means of opening and developing the rational. A large part of Divine Revelation is in historical form. The art of writing and printing was provided upon this earth for the sake of the Word, that it might remain in permanent, fixed form; that it might be sent throughout the earth; and that the new generations might not be dependent upon oral traditions alone, whereby the knowledges of Revelation become perverted and in time perish. (A. C. 9351-9358) Not only is the Word itself thus preserved from age to age, but also the doctrines and practices derived from the Word, to the end that what has been thought, said and done in one age may be known to all posterity. And by this means, we are told, the "truths of faith may be multiplied." (S. D. 4663:11.)

     This teaching indicates the need of preserving our records in the Church, and also the need of consulting and studying them. Especially should the doctrinals formulated and the practices established by one generation be known to the succeeding generations, to the end that nothing of value may be lost, and that each new generation may make a rational selection from the acts of the forefathers, and may thus promote intelligent and wise action in its own age.

494


In this way will men seek to know the reasons and causes for things which have become established customs in the Church, and so enter into the living spirit which first brought them into being. "And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor; other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors." (John 4:37, 38)

     The Rev. C. Th. Odhner often remarked that "one generation of New Churchmen knew little of what the former generation did." Now this ought not to be the case, for there is much in past accomplishment that would be of great use to the present, if known and rationally applied. While each new generation in the New Church must live its own life, enjoy its own affections and thoughts, its own creative activity, and thus find the spiritual things of the Church really new, still it cannot afford to ignore and discard what has gone before, seeing that Providence has, in a signal manner, provided the means of preserving the fruits of one age for the use of the next. In all our work of education, therefore, we strive to interest the young in the history of the New Church, as an important means of enlisting their affections in the New Church of the present and the future. Tot his end, also, our literature should be readily accessible to both teacher and student. This applies to all publications of the New Church, and to all of our own publications. And I think it is a valid argument-if argument be needed-in favor of an Index to all the contents of New Church Life from the beginning to the present year.
     Respectfully submitted,
          W. B. CALDWELL.
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON NEW CHURCH SERMONS 1930

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON NEW CHURCH SERMONS       Various       1930

     During the past two years this General Church periodical has served its chosen use to an increasing number of persons. Although the Business Manager conscientiously prunes down the list to those who actually write to request its receipt or continuance, yet he informs us that it now goes to 630 persons. The large proportion of isolated receivers who demand it seems to be a plain indication of its growing usefulness.

     Since the last General Assembly, each number has contained various types of stories written for New Church children by Miss Gertrude Nelson, of Glenview, Ill., who has given freely of her talents to meet this need in our family life. Many indications have reached us of the appreciation of this use. As a practical matter, the experiment has been made possible by the generosity of Mr. Alvin Nelson, of the Glenview society.

     The question has arisen as to whether this use should now be recognized by the General Church in an orderly manner as a part of its expenditures; and your Committee has recommended to the Bishop and the Executive Committee that this should be done.

495


In the meantime, we wish to thank Miss Nelson for the charming work that she has done during the past two years, involving 27 stories.

     We are pleased to report a generous response by the ministers of our Church for sermon material, as a result of our plea last February.

     The work of the last two years has involved over 725 pages of sermons, addresses and stories; and the routine work involved is more than compensated for if we can feel that this periodical is constantly used for the purpose for which it was designed.
     Respectfully submitted,
          GEORGE DE CHARMS, Chairman;
          WM. WHITEHEAD,
          L. W. T. DAVID, Editors
REPORT OF THE VISITING PASTOR 1930

REPORT OF THE VISITING PASTOR       F. E. WAELCHLI       1930

     Since the last General Assembly, my work has been in three fields: the Middle West, the South, and the Pacific Coast. In the Middle West, the circles ministers to are Cincinnati, Detroit, Windsor, Cleveland, Erie, Niles, Middleport, and Columbus; in the South, Knoxville, Birmingham, Atlanta, Macon, St. Petersburg, and Apopka; on the Pacific Coast, San Francisco, Portland, Spokane, Walla Walla, La Gorande, and Baker; in all, twenty places. On the western tour, Los Angeles and Denver, which have resident pastors, are also visited. About fifteen thousand miles are traveled per year.

     The total number of persons receiving ministrations, not including those at Los Angeles and Denver, is approximately two hundred and fifty, of whom two hundred and ten are adults, and forty are under adult age. Of the adults, about one hundred and fifty are of the New Church, and sixty are not of it. While about sixty strangers attend our meetings per year, they are not always the same persons.

     My work is sometimes spoken of as that of a missionary. This is an error. The work is primarily that of a visiting pastor for members of the church in small circles or isolated. A little something is brought to them of the privileges which those enjoy who belong to societies having resident pastors. However, this is not all that the General Church does for them. New Church Life, containing the best thought of the Church, goes to them, and by its news notes keeps their affection active in the life of the Church; also new Church Sermons, bringing the ablest discourses of our ministers, together with a prepared service for Sunday worship. And by reason of the instruction for children that is contained in these publications they are better able to do that work which is near to the hearts of all New Church parents.

     In other ways the General Church is helpful to them. In fact, the very existence of our body as an organized church, in which they have membership, provides for them that ultimate on which what is interiorly of the church needs to rest.

496


But besides these provisions, ministerial visits are exceedingly necessary. Considering the great field to be covered, these visits are but few,-in most cases but once a year; in some, two, three, or four times; and in one case, six times. The length of a visit is from two to ten days. About twenty weeks of the year, not continuous, are given to Cincinnati, my place of residence. There are some of our isolated members who receive no visits.

     Missionary work is done to some extent, especially at doctrinal classes, when members invite their friends, as is frequently the case. On such occasions the subject chosen may be presented in a manner accommodated to the visitors, or a purely missionary talk may be given instead. Yet our principal missionary work-if we may so call it-is with the children, to whom instruction is given whenever possible.

     There are other ministers of our body who do visiting pastoral work, so far as their regular duties permit. Of these, I would mention the Rev. Henry Heinrichs, who visits a number of circles in Western Canada every summer.
     F. E. WAELCHLI.
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 1930

REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE       GEOFFREY S. CHILDS       1930

     To the 1930 Annual Meeting of the General Church of the New Jerusalem (a corporation) and to the Fourteenth General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem (an ecclesiastical body): The Executive Committee has to report:

     That, at the Annual Meeting of the Corporation on August 8th, 1928, at Victoria Hall, London, the following gentlemen were elected members of the Board of Directors or Executive Committee, to serve for the term of one year and until their successors are elected:

Rt. Rev. N. D. Pendleton
Raymond Pitcairn
Geoffrey S. Childs
Hubert Hyatt
Felix A. Boericke
Edward C. Bostock
C. Ray Brown
Paul Carpenter
Randolph W. Childs
Alex P. Lindsay
Samuel S. Lindsay
Nils E. Loven
Charles G. Merrell
Alvin E. Nelson
Seymour G. Nelson
Harold F. Pitcairn
Colley Pryke
J. Henry Ridgway
Rudolph Roschman
Paul Synnestvedt
Victor Tilson

     In addition, the following were elected Honorary Members of the Executive Committee:

Walter C. Childs
Richard Roschman
Jacob Schoenberger

497




     That on August 10th the Board of Directors or Executive Committee met with eleven members present, and elected the following officers:

Rt. Rev. N. D. Pendleton, President
Raymond Pitcairn, Vice President
Geoffrey S. Childs, Secretary
Hubert Hyatt, Treasurer

     That since this Annual Meeting two beloved Members-Felix Boericke and Richard Roschman-have passed into the Spiritual World.

     That in the year 1928, subsequent to the General Assembly, one meeting was held by the Executive Committee; in the year 1929, three meetings were held; and in the year 1930 to date, one meeting has been held. These meetings have been largely concerned with the consideration of matters involving routine or special appropriations.
     Respectfully submitted,
          GEOFFREY S. CHILDS, Secretary of Executive Committee.
REPORT OF THE TREASURER OF THE GENERAL CHURCH 1930

REPORT OF THE TREASURER OF THE GENERAL CHURCH       HUBERT HYATT       1930

     Since the Thirteenth General Assembly, held at London in 1928, two General Church Treasury Reports have been issued: One, as of and for the seven months ending December 31st, 1928; and the other, as of and for the year ending December 31st, 1929.

     Copies of both Reports were mailed, when issued, to all members of the General Church; that for 1929 being mailed February 8th, 1930.

     The 1929 Report, in greater detail than previously, gave a complete accounting of the year's receipts and expenditures, and of the Treasury condition at the close of the year. The 1930 General Assembly is referred thereto for the most recent information available.

     It would be useful if the General Assembly should give consideration to a question of first importance with regard to General Church financing.

     Any organization such as the General Church necessitates certain expenses. As the organization grows these expenses are bound to increase. Continued growth results in greater undertakings. As time goes along the activities and responsibilities of the organization become more numerous and varied, and thus more expensive. But the undertaking of new activities, the efforts to extend growth and influence, are always optional, and, even when commenced, can be discontinued. It is always possible to cut the garment according to the cloth. It is never impossible to reduce expenses so that they do not exceed income.

     For the moment, then, let us disregard the various activities and responsibilities which have been undertaken by the General Church in excess of bare necessities.

498


Let us disregard the publication of periodicals, the holding of General Assemblies, the visits to the isolated by our Ministers, the aiding of Societies which are not self-supporting, and all other work which is being done by the General Church, but, which, no matter how useful, could, if quite necessary, be discontinued.

     This brings us back to essentials, and even these necessitate expense. Now, let us suppose, merely for the sake of illustration, that this necessary expense amounts to Two Thousand Dollars per year, and that we have two thousand members. Any other similar figures will serve the purpose. Under such circumstances, would it be healthy for the organization if two, or ten, or a hundred, or even a thousand members undertook to pay this total necessary expense? It would not. The expense should be shared by practically all. The shares need not be equal, but each and every member who could do so should become responsible for at least some share.

     Let us quit supposing and consider the facts. Are they not exactly equivalent? Compare the figures in the Reports submitted during the past even years, and you will find that, while our membership is increasing, the number of those paying the necessary expense is decreasing. This is a condition of affairs which calls for a remedy, and which can be remedied only by an individual realization of the duty which is being, but should not be, neglected.

     With the thought in mind of only necessary expense, and considering the number of members we have, it is obvious how even very small contributions can be of real help, both as actual and equitable shares and also as giving evidence of unity in forwarding the primary purposes for which the General Church is organized.

     This is a question to which the Assembly could usefully give consideration. How can it be brought home to individual members that here is an obligation which deserves to be met? That, no matter how small the shares may necessarily have to be, nevertheless each individual member should undertake some share in supporting the necessary work of the General Church? This should receive general recognition. There should be public expression of convinced opinion on the matter. Our young people should be so instructed that when they become members of the Church they realize they have an obligation to fulfil. This is a phase of our educational work which appears to have been forgotten for a long time, but which should receive a proper emphasis.

     Our Church will not progress as it should until we have a very much broader basis of support than now exists. It is all very well to depend upon a relative few, so far as extraordinary undertakings are concerned. But the responsibility for necessary undertakings should be accepted by all.

     It is hoped that the Assembly will give attention to this phase of General Church financing. There exist numerous contrary points of view on the matter. There are those who act on assumptions that are not correct. There are those who are not informed regarding their obligations. There are those who consider that their help could only be so slight as to inconsequential. These need to learn the correct viewpoint, to receive education on this matter, to have reassurance that their help is of consequence.

499


We should have a unanimity about this, to represent our unanimity as to that for which our General Church stands.

     There is another question of General Church financing which differs from the foregoing to a considerable degree. Contributions have been steadily increasing in amount for a number of years. In 1929 they were about forty per cent greater than in 1922. For 1930 to date, they are about 8 per cent in excess of 1929 to the same date. At present there are subscriptions in hand for $11,477.92 per annum from 362 subscribers. These subscriptions are being paid regularly. Thirteen are for $100.00 or more per year; 144 are for less than $100.00, but for more than $10.00; 205 are for less than $10.00. Contributions for 1929 totaled $13,134.19.

     But, as stated in the 1929 Report, the expenditures for 1930 will exceed those for 1929 by about Three Thousand Dollars. Hence if, in 1930, income is to equal expense, it will be necessary that 1930 contributions exceed those for 1929 by about twenty-five Hundred Dollars, which amounts to an increase of about 19 per cent.

     It is therefore urged that every General Church contributor bear this in mind. Increases in regular contributions will be especially useful in helping the General Church to continue its efforts for growth. These efforts should be continued, and in ever greater measure. They depend entirely upon the availability of suitable men and sufficient means.

     In conclusion, your Treasurer desires, on behalf of both the General Church and himself, to pay public tribute to those members who have freely given their time and energy in acting as General Church Treasury Representatives in their several localities. These members are:

Mrs. Chara Schott Trimble at Washington, D. C.
Mr. J. Henry Ridgway and Miss Audrey Fraser at Durban, South Africa.
Miss Nellie Synnestvedt at Glenview.
Miss Mary Barger at The Hague, Holland.
Mr. Colley Pryke at Chelmsford, and Mr. Horace Howard at Colchester, England.
Miss Evangeline Iler at Los Angeles.
Mr. Neville T. Wright at Chicago.
Mr. Alfred Kirschstein at Sydney, Australia.
Mr. Raymond Synnestvedt and an assisting Committee at Bryn Athyn.
Mr. Nils Loven at Stockholm, Sweden.
Mr. S. S. Lindsay at Pittsburgh.
Mr. Fred E. Stroh at Kitchener.
Mr. Frank Wilson at Toronto.

     The efforts made for the Church by these Representatives deserve praise. Without their help the Treasury could operate with but a fraction of its present effectiveness.

     The results achieved over a period of years by Miss Mary Barger in Holland, by Miss Nellie Synnestvedt in Glenview, and by Mr. J. Henry Ridgway in South Africa have been particularly noteworthy.

500


Their work has been among three of our large groups of members, and with these groups the idea of supporting the General Church by all is evidently gaining a real foothold.

     Wherever the General Church is established with a local organization it is advisable that there be a General Church Treasury Representative. This Representative should be selected under the auspices of the local congregation; but, for any locality and at all times, your Treasurer will be glad indeed to cooperate with the end in view of promoting the cause of the General Church.
      HUBERT HYATT,
          Treasurer, Bryn Athyn, Pa., May 15th, 1930.
REPORT OF THE ORPHANAGE 1930

REPORT OF THE ORPHANAGE       WALTER C. CHILDS       1930

     To conserve the growth of the Church, and to meet the desire of New Church parents that, in case of their death, their children should be reared in the Church, the Academy instituted an Orphanage Fund in 1883. This beginning was made in order to assist a mother of five children whose father had died.

     During the forty-seven years which have since elapsed, the use has developed slowly but continuously. So far as possible, the effort has been to assist widowed mothers, members of the General Church, to enable them to maintain their homes and their children, while located where the children could have the advantage of an Academy School.

     At the present time two widows, with seven children who are attending Academy Schools, are receiving monthly assistance amounting to a total of $2,700.00 annually.

     Contributions for the support of the use are made to the Treasurer of the Orphanage Fund Committee, which Committee is appointed and controlled by the Executive Committee of the General Church.

     Upon request, the Treasure will supply Orphanage Fund Boxes for use of family worship, where the contributions are participated in by the children, who take delight in the giving, and who are thus initiated into the support of the uses of charity.

     A growing Church and the emergencies of life make almost certain, perhaps imminent, the need for largely increased expenditures in the support of the Church's fatherless children. As matters stand, we must rely upon increasing the number of regular contributors to the Orphanage Fund.

     Contributions in any amount will be received with appreciation.

     The Treasurer of the General Church holds in trust for the Orphanage Fund bequests and gifts amounting to $4,500.00, invested in securities which yield an annual income of about $260.00. It is manifest that the support of a use of this nature should have as its basis a substantial secured income.

     In conclusion, therefore, it is respectfully urged that the members of the General Church give consideration in any prospective wills to the use of the Orphanage Fund. Also, it is suggested that, in any existing will, much and continuing good may be accomplished simply by the addition of a codicil naming the Orphanage Fund.
     The Orphanage Fund Committee,
          WALTER C. CHILDS,
               Treasurer, Bryn Athyn, Pa., May 1, 1930.

501




     FORM OF BEQUEST.

     I hereby give and bequeath unto the General Church of the New Jerusalem, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Illinois, the sum of $....................., for the uses of the Orphanage Fund.

     FORM OF CODICIL.
I, ........................................, the within named testator (or testatrix) do hereby make and publish this codicil, to be added to my last will and testament, bearing date the .................... day of A. D. 192...... in manner following, to wit:

     1. I hereby give and bequeath unto the General Church of the New Jerusalem, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Illinois, the sum of $...................... for the uses of the Orphanage Fund.

     2. I do hereby ratify and confirm my said will in all other respects.

     IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and seal this ....... day of .................... in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and ..................................

     .................................. (SEAL)

     Signed, sealed, published and declared by the said ............................ as and for a codicil to his (or her) last will and testament, in the presence of us, who, in his (or her) presence, and in the presence of each other, have, at his (or her) request, subscribed our names as witnesses thereto.

     ............................................................... Residing at ................................................................

     ............................................................... Residing at ................................................................

     Note. A will or codicil containing a bequest to a charitable corporation should be attested by two disinterested witnesses. Such witnesses should not be officers or directors of the General Church.

502


REPORT OF THE ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH 1930

REPORT OF THE ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH       C. E. DOERING       1930

     Since the last General Assembly, the Academy has continued its uses of education, publication, and research for the Church. Its articles, reports, and catalogues have been published in the Journal of Education, and distributed free to the families of the General Church, so that there has been an opportunity of knowing what has been done.

     From the articles and reports, you will have seen the development of the Academy in the educational field, particularly in the advancement of the application of the principles given in the Writings to the growth of the mind and to the formation of character.

     From the statistics published, it will be seen that the ratio of children attending, to the membership of the Church, is not now as large throughout the Church as it was formerly; that is, the schools have not grown in the same ratio as the Church. Economic conditions may have had something to do with this decrease; or perhaps there have not been children to send; or, again, it may mean a lack of realization of what the Academy has to offer to the youth of the Church, and what it means to the future upbuilding of the Church to have its young people brought up within its sphere, in an institution of the Church where the whole life and spirit is to instruct in Religion, Philosophy, and Science, and inspire an attitude that will view the problems of life from principles derived from the Writings.

     The cost of five hundred dollars for tuition and board annually for an education in the Academy is very low when compared to what other Academies and Colleges charge, and this cost has been further reduced to many by the opportunity to have the help of some form of scholarship. Eighty-eight per cent of the students now living in the Dormitories either receive aid in some way in the form of cash scholarships, or they are given opportunity to each part of it, or a combination of both. A number of Bryn Athyn pupils also earn part of their tuition; and, by solicitation of the Academy, a number of Bryn Athyn homes are boarding girls in return for work in the home. So the Academy is doing its utmost to make it financially possible for all to attend.

     We sometimes hear it stated that one reason why parents do not send their young people to us is because our schools are not recognized in the world; and that, in order to earn a livelihood, their children must graduate from their own high schools. May I say that the Boys' Academy and the Girls' Seminary are recognized by the educational department of the State of Pennsylvania as accredited first-class high schools; and that the Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges, of which the Academy is a member, has done likewise. This recognition is accepted by our American Colleges and by the United States Government; for we are on its list of schools accredited to receive immigrant students.

     The College, however, has not yet been accredited by the Board of Education of Pennsylvania, nor have we applied for such recognition, for the reason that the number of students and the number of teachers devoting all their time to College work is so small that, on that score, we do not compare with other Colleges; nor are we now in a position to fulfill all their requirements.

503


To do this, we need more students, and more teachers devoting all their time to college work. Yet, while not accredited, our work is recognized by universities who know us, and they have accepted the College credits of our students who have been transferred to them. Our degrees also have been recognized for post-graduate work by universities; but, because we are not accredited by the State Board of Education, our graduates cannot be registered by it, either for positions of teaching or for credit for professional courses. This, of course, works somewhat of a hardship on these young men and women who wish to enter such professions, but it is one that cannot be remedied until our numbers become sufficiently large to warrant our applying for Registration; and it will be remedied when the members of the Church send us their young people in sufficient numbers. While it is desirable that we have State recognition, yet it is not the main aim and purpose of our College, which is the development of a rational concept of the truths of Revelation, in their application to religion, philosophy, and science, that thereby the new Church may be more and more interiorly established on the earth. This is our main work, and in doing this we are best preparing our young people to cope with the conditions they will meet when they leave us.
     C. E. DOERING,
          Dean of Faculties.
ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH 1930

ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH       L. E. Gyllenhaal       1930

     TREASURER'S REPORT

     TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY:

     The financial condition of the Academy, since the report given at the Assembly in London, England, may best be shown by a digest of reports submitted for the years 1928 and 1929, which follows.

     It will be noted that in this report of our Assets and Liabilities we have a number of special funds, listed as Trust Funds. These have resulted from bequests and donations given for specific uses. The following funds are for scholarships, the income only being available for such purposes:

C. F. Browne Memorial
Vera Pitcairn Memorial
Fred Synnestvedt Memorial
Roy Wells Memorial

     The income of the Glanville Legacy is devoted to the use of education in England. The income from the Andrew Czerny and Dill Memorial Funds is for the use of the Theological School. The De Charms Hall Maintenance

504




     ASSETS
                         Dec. 31, 1929          Changes     Dec. 31, 1929
INVESTMENTS:
     Bonds                    $1,760,787.67          $71,539.46     $1,689,248.21
     Stocks               88,758.01          88,542.21     171,300.22
     Mortgages               63,000.00          2,500.00     65,500.00
     Secured Loans          20,892.00          0          20,892.00
     Real Estate               75,065.18          4,694.03     70,370.25
     B. A. Inn-Furn. & Equip.     1,367.99          68.40          1,299.59
                         $2,009,870.85          $14,739.42     $2,024,610.27

     Sinking Fund          $5,045.70          $1,264.30     $6,310.00
do. B. A. Inn                    0               3,109.00     3,109.00

     EQUIPMENT:
Buildings                    $238,972.18          $19,839.07     $268,811.25
Furniture & Equip.          46,757.95          1,184.32     45,573.63
Grounds                    22,921.85          0          22,921.85
Accessions                    69,536.18          2,638.23     72,174.41
Power Plant                    38,838.61          1,821.01     37,017.60
                         $417,026.77          $29,471.97     $446,498.74

     FLOATING ASSETS:
Accounts Receivable          $20,026.22          $4,501.05     $15,525.17
Cash                         28,437.53          10,106.10     18,331.43
Unused Insurance               2,042.25          3,505.92     5,548.17
                         $50,506.00          $11,101.23     $39,404.77
                                                            
TRUSTS INVESTED:
Boericke, F. A.               $6,706.00          $942.00     $5,764.00
Browne, C. F. Mem.               22,581.25          498.75     22,082.50
Building Fund               76,025.47          2,152.00     78,177.47
Czerny, Andrew Mem.          995.00               0          995.00
De Charms Hall Maint.          20,000.00          872.50          20,872.50
Dill Memorial                    987.50               0          987.50          
Glanville Legacy               19,879.00          20.00          19,899.00
Nelson, S. G. Trust               15,750.00          15,750.00     0
Pension Fund                    164,709.25          416.00          165,125.25
Pitcairn, Vera Mem.               24,728.50          1,745.00     26,473.50
Synnestvedt, Fred Mem.          23,50.00          0          2,350.00
Wells, Roy Mem.               6,477.50          972.00          7,449.50
                         $361,189.47          $11,013.25     $350,176.22
Totals                    $2,843,638.79     $26,470.21     $2,870,109.00

505





     LIABILITIES
                         Dec. 31, 1929          Changes     Dec. 31, 1929
FLOATING LIABILITIES:
Accounts Payable               $13,875.07          $9,766.75     $23,641.82
Interest on Securities               16,952.00          242.77          16,709.23
                         $30,827.07          $9,523.98     $40,351.05

     TRUSTS:
Boericke, Fa. A.               $7,395.00          $1,346.00     $6,049.00
     do. Int.               8.33               301.33          309.66
Browne, C. F. Mem.               22,717.25          6.25          22,723.50
     do. Int.               1,232.88          17.28          1,215.60
Building Fund               76,877.52          2,152.00     79,029.52
     do. Int.               1,992.41          4,234.28     758.13
Czerny, Andrew Mem.          1,151.00          0          1,151.00
     do. Int.               159.34               45.30          204.64
De Charms Hall Maint.          20,000.00          1,000.00     21,000.00
Dill Memorial                    1,000.00          0          1,000.00
     do. Int.               64.00               60.00          124.55
Glanville Legacy               19,879.00          76.00          19,955.00
     do. Int.               413.76               251.34          665.10
Nelson, S. G. Trust               15,750.00          15,750.00     0
     do. Int.               201.50               201.50          0
Pension Fund                    165,209.25          0          165,209.25
     do. Aux. Savings          431.05               965.30          1,396.35
     do. Int.               2,819.94          1,503.90     4,323.84
Pitcairn, Vera Mem.               24,824.50          1,801.00     26,625.50
     do. Int.               230.07               197.66          32.41
Synnestvedt, Fred Mem.          2,350.00          0          2,350.00
     do. Int.               560.01               125.00          685.01
Wells, Roy Mem.               6,589.12          972.00          7,561.12
     do. Int.               840.50               826.34          14.16
                         $372,696.98          $10,313.64     $362,383.4
A. N. C.-Net Worth               $2,440,114.74          $27,259.87     $2,467,374.61
Totals                         $2,843,639.79          $26,470.21     $2,870,109.00

Fund is available for the maintenance of De Charms Hall, which is used by the Bryn Athyn Elementary School. The Building Fund was originally given for certain building in the future, but, by consent of the donors, the income from this fund has been diverted to teachers' salaries. The Seymour G. Nelson Trust Fund held during 1928 was, by consent of the Academy, transferred to a bank as trustee, the Academy eventually to benefit in the manner indicated in the original trust. The F. A. Boericke Fund was given with the understanding that it take care of certain contributions, for a period of two years, of the late Dr. F. A. Boericke; and, at the end of that period, the balance to be added to the Academy's general investment funds.

506


It will terminate during 1930.

     Fortunately, we can report that there has been no serious impairment in our assets for the past two years, in spite of changed conditions. During the present year we are adding to our equipment a new Assembly Hall, owned jointly by the Academy and the Bryn Athyn Church.

     The following digest of our report of income and expenditures for the years 1928 and 1929 will serve to show the condition of our current finances:

     INCOME
Receipts for the years 1928 and 1929               1928               1929
Interest on Savings                              $117,025.78          $119,464.01
Board                                        23,139.87          21,615.65
Tuition                                   10,825.00          10,537.50
Contributions                                   9,566.76          14,090.23
Income from trust fund for De Charms Hall               1,000.00          901.83
Bank Interest                                   346.58               368.81
                                        $161,903.99          $166,996.03

     EXPENSE
Expenditures for the years 1928 and 1929               1928               1929
Salaries for teachers and office force                    $82,966.50          $93,274.18
Salaries for Expense-Library                         7,931.58          8,234.41
Operation of Dormitories                         24,410.99          21,804.14
Scholarship and Stipends                         7,487.50          8,050.50
Investment Expense                              5,604.28          4,624.99
School and Publication expense                    6,261.48          4,853.98
General maintenance (includes all repairs to
     buildings, janitor service, heat, light, taxes,
     insurance, fire protection, etc.)               27,841.28          26,557.90
                                        $162,503.61          $167,400.10
Income overexpended                         599.62               404.07
                                        $161,903.99          $166,996.03

     The following was expended for items increasing our Capital Accounts:
                                        1928               1929
Accessions for the Library                         $1,899.24          $2,260.62
Furniture and Equipment                         $1,041.47          995.60
Sinking Funds                              900.00               900.00
                                        $3,840.71          $4,156.22
Income overexpended                         599.62               404.07
Total overexpended                         $4,440.33          $4,560.29

507




     It will be noted that, after all our expenditures, including those for equipment and Sinking Funds, which accrue to our Capital Accounts, have been met, we have over expended our income for both years, the total over expenditure for the two years amounting to $9,000.62. Fortunately, most of this is for additions which increase our Assets, as they accrue to our Capital Accounts, but we cannot afford to transfer our capital in this way, as our income is thereby reduced. It is to be hoped that the Church will continue its support of the Academy so that our uses may not have to be curtailed. It is gratifying to report, however, that contributions for the past two years show a considerable increase over previous years. The Academy Finance Association has succeeded in raising $3,000.00 a year, to enable the Academy to add an additional teacher; and Messrs. Raymond, Harold and Theodore Pitcairn have made generous contributions, in order to increase teachers' salaries.

     The amounts which make up the addition to our Bequests and Donations are: a balance from the estate of Miss Laura Vickroy of $5,332.71; a bequest from the estate of Mrs. J. A. Wells of $900.00; and the balance, donations from the Rev. Theodore Pitcairn and Mr. H. F. Pitcairn, to enable the Academy to share in the Assembly Hall, amounting to $22,500.00.
     Respectfully submitted,
          L. E. Gyllenhaal, Treasurer.
REPORT OF THE ACADEMY BOOK ROOM 1930

REPORT OF THE ACADEMY BOOK ROOM       WILLIAM H. ALDEN       1930

     The financial statement of the Book Room shows a deficit in capital account of $89.32. The report for the previous year showed a gain in capital of something over $300.00. Both these amounts need explanation. The increase last year was due to a considerable contribution by the Rev. Theodore Pitcairn, who bore the expense of the publication of Volumes I and II of The Word Explained. The loss in the past year more nearly represents the state of the Book Room business. The business of selling the books of the New Church is not a profit-making matter, and the work of the Academy Book Room has been maintained for several years through the fact that considerable donations have been made for the purpose of meeting publication costs of various books.

     The use of the Academy Book Room, as of all the publication agencies of the New Church, is that of providing for the public the books of the New Church. These are foremostly the works of Swedenborg, which are the Word of the Lord for the establishment of the New Church. With these should be mentioned the Word of the Old and the New Testaments, which we offer in the Oxford Edition, including only the Books named as of the New Church Canon. This is offered in one form only, full red morocco, limp or stiff binding at the price of $7.50.

     Swedenborg's theological works come in several editions. The one most called for is that issued by the Swedenborg Foundation of New York, known as the Standard Edition, issued in thirty-two volumes at the uniform price of $1.00 per volume.

508


The Library Edition, with the best paper and binding, has been discontinued. The sale of the London Edition, notably for its publication of each work separately bound, is handicapped by a recent increase in price. The Arcana, or instance, has been increased to $2.00 per volume. In many respects, the London Edition is to be preferred, providing lighter volumes and excellent print. The Rotch Edition comprises only the volumes published by Swedenborg himself, omitting The Apocalypse Explained and the other posthumous works. The volumes in this edition are well bound and of convenient size.

     The Academy publishes only Conjugial Love, the Journal of Dreams and De Verbo, as well as The Schmidius Marginalia, which is a handsome volume compiled from the marginal references inserted by Swedenborg in his Schmidius Bible. The time has not yet come for a complete publication of all the theological works by the Academy. The translations by other publication institutions leave much to be desired, being very uneven, and in some cases quite unsatisfactory. The London Edition are uneven. The best work in this set is to be found in the translation of Conjugial Love is marred by intrusive notes, designed to explain certain supposedly misunderstood passages. The time must come when the Academy scholarship will produce an edition of the Writings of Swedenborg uniform with Conjugial Love already issued.

     The Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, as said before, are regarded by the Academy of the New Church as the Word of the Lord to His New Church. They are in effect a Third Testament, supplementing and fulfilling the Testaments given to the previous churches. They are not easy reading; they comprehend in bulk some thirty volumes; they deal with subjects of a spiritual nature, not agreeable to the natural man. But a knowledge of their contents is of first consequence to regeneration. The man or woman, therefore, who would be regenerated should read the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg, but read them not as the opinions of a man, however enlightened, but as the veritable Word of God. Read in this light, one will be surprised to find the illumination afforded.

     The work on the Divine Providence becomes a veritable interpretation of the ways of God with man. The work on Conjugial Love offers clear solution of all the problems of marriage; how preparation for it should be made and how lived; and the blessings which follow obedience to its Divine instruction. Not only Heaven and Hell, but other volumes as well, reveal on every page, not guesses as to what the future life may be, but Divine instruction as to the actual nature of that other life and the quality of its experience. The work on the Last Judgment throws the light of the Divine Wisdom upon a supreme crisis in the spiritual life of men. So with the other books. L et them be read, not as the philosophizing of the man Emanuel Swedenborg, but as the Word of the Lord, and it will be found that they become new, and that they throw essential light of an authoritative sort upon the puzzles and paradoxes of human life.

509




     Reflecting this light, the Academy has published books which bring this Divine light down upon practical problems. Such a book is Topics from the Writings, by the late Bishop W. F. Pendleton, which gives the result of a life's meditation upon vital spiritual questions.

     The Science of Correspondences, declared by Swedenborg to be the "Science of Sciences," has been employed by the Rev. C. Th. Odhner to afford an understanding of the spiritual geography and history of the Land of Canaan, and of the Greek and Roman Mythologies. A vivid picture of early experiences in the spiritual world is given in Louis Pendleton's Wedding Garment. This work is still very much in demand, pleasing the present generation as it has delighted two generations gone by.

     The most important publication of the Academy during the past few years has been the beginning of the work of Swedenborg known in its Latin form as the Adversaria. It now appears for the first time in English dress, under the title given by Swedenborg himself, "An Explanation of the Word of the Old Testament." This was written by Swedenborg as a preparatory work, apparently a first attempt of setting forth the exposition of the spiritual sense of the books of the Old Testament. It was written prior to the Arcana Celestia, and is of a character distinct from that first-published exposition of the spiritual sense of Genesis and Exodus. Its scholarly translator, Dr. Alfred Acton, has prepared an introduction, which luminously traces the experience of Swedenborg in preparation for his appointed mission. Dr. Acton points out that Swedenborg was not aware of his Divine Commission until the work was actually begun. The work itself is evidently preparatory in character and lacking the sure touch of the Arcana, which was the first published in the series of theological works. The English version is projected to be completed in seven volumes, and will include commentaries upon the books of Genesis, Exodus, Joshua and Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, as well as the Prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah. Two volumes have been completed, covering the Book of Genesis through Chapter XXVIII. The third volume is in preparation.

     A notable work which should be mentioned here is The Science of Exposition by the late Bishop W. F. Pendleton. This is a full treatise upon the Exposition of the Word, Sermon Writing, and Sunday School work. It is a book which has met with a hearty reception by the Church.

     Two books have recently been received from the pen of Rev. William F. Wunsch, Professor of Theology at the Convention Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The World Within the Bible is an introduction to the Arcana Celestia, giving a general account of its scope and purpose. The second book is Marriage; Ideals and Realization, which gives in somewhat condensed form a summary view of Swedenborg's teaching respecting marriage. It is apparently designed to be read instead of the fuller treatment to be found in Swedenborg's own Conjugial Love. Its content is taken almost entirely from the first portion of Swedenborg's Work, almost ignoring the opposite of Marriage, which Swedenborg's own work so adequately treats.

     Other books making use of the knowledge of Correspondences are: The Language of Parable, by the Rev. Wm. L. Worcester, a simply put introduction to the correspondence of various things, animal, vegetable, and mineral.

510


A fuller treatment of the correspondences found in the Bible is the series by the Rev. John Worcester, Animals of the Bible, Plants, Minerals, and Atmospheres, and Physiological Correspondences.

     The list of books for children on our shelves is smaller than we could wish. Children of Gospel Days is a little book by the Rev. W. L. Worcester, dealing with Gospel scenes in vivid fashion. Two books by Louis Pendleton, having a background in the Old Testament histories are The Lost Prince Almon and In Assyrian Tents. The Golden Heart, by Amena Pendleton, comprising short stories having their inspiration in scenes for the most part described in Swedenborg's Spiritual Diary, has had a wide sale. It is to be hoped that Miss Pendleton may ye add to these stories, which were originally prepared for the children's services, and have found an appreciative audience. Stories of the Rev. Chauncey Giles, prepared for Sunday School presentation have received favor through generations of readers, and are still loved by the little folks. The titles are: The Wonderful Pocket, Magic Shoes, magic Spectacles, and The Valley of Diamonds.

     Reference has been made in previous reports to the preparation of a Lexicon of Swedenborg's Latin Theological Writings. Work on this has been progressing for many years, and it is hoped that another year may see its completion. It is expected by the compiler that it may encourage the reading of Swedenborg in the language in which he wrote. For no translation can convey quite the significance of the actual words in which the author expressed his thought. And this becomes of much more consequence when we consider that these books are the Lord's own Books, and transcend the mind of Swedenborg, becoming the very Word of the Lord to His New Church.

     The Book Room, as during the previous year, has had the capable assistance of College students of the Academy, the two this year being Miss Luelle Starkey and Miss Margaret Klippenstein.
     Respectfully submitted,
          WILLIAM H. ALDEN,
               Manager.

511




     ACADEMY BOOK ROOM.

     December 31, 1929

     ASSETS
Cash in Bank                              $1,339.60
Petty Cash                              250.00
Accounts Receivable                         1,169.61
Fixtures                              276.44
Merchandise (Inventory)                    1,878.75
Special Publication Account                    6,199.21
Publication Account                         2,974.41
Stationery (Inventory)                    1,022.17
Postage     do.                              127.65
Royal Swedish Academy Pub.               104.00               $15,341.84

     LIABILITIES AND CAPITAL
Accounts Payable                         $264.71
     do.                              38.43
Capital, 1/1/29               $15,128.02
     Loss, 1929               89.32          $15,038.70          $15,341.84

     STATEMENT OF PROFIT AND LOSS          
                                   DR.               CR.
Accounts Receivable Adjustments               $17.75
Bank Interest and Exchange                                   $35.28
Office Expense                         192.17
Box Rents                                             19.60
Merchandise                                             463.76
Postage                              386.55
Special publication Fund                                   784.74
Publication Account                         608.76
Salaries                               853.87
Stationery                                             667.40
                                   $2,059.10          $1,969.78
Loss, 1929                                             89.32
                                   $2,059.10          $2,059.10

     WILLIAM H. ALDEN,
          Manager

512


REPORT OF THE THETA ALPHA 1930

REPORT OF THE THETA ALPHA       CLARA D. PITCAIRN       1930

     Theta Alpha is an organization composed of women ex-students of the Academy who are members of the General Church. The purposes of Theta Alpha are: To protect and cherish the spiritual gifts given by the Academy, and to further the cause of New Church education by worldly means and moral support. One of our worldly uses is the giving of scholarships to students of the Seminary and College. This use we have carried on for many years.

     This year, Theta Alpha has arranged for the reporting of the addresses given at the Sunday children's services in Bryn Athyn. They are published in New Church Life, and we hope to have them in book form by next year. There are eleven Theta Alpha chapters, one in each of the larger centers. Each chapter assists its own society in the educational and social uses, under the leadership of the pastors and teachers.

     The membership of Theta Alpha is steadily increasing. We have now 360 members.
     For the Executive Committee,
          CLARA D. PITCAIRN.
REPORT OF THE SONS OF THE ACADEMY 1930

REPORT OF THE SONS OF THE ACADEMY       RANDOLPH W. CHILDS       1930

     The most important step taken by the Sons of the Academy since the time of the last General Assembly in London, 1928, is the formation of a British Chapter, headed by Mr. James S. Pryke. This extension of our organization is, to us, of historic significance.

     In addition to the routine work of the Sons, such as the publication of the Bulletin twice a year, the support of scholarships, the providing of honor medals, and the various activities of the chapters, the body has taken under consideration the financial support of extension courses, if such courses are undertaken by the Academy. This matter ha snot yet proceeded form deliberation to action.

     At a recent meeting of the Glenview Chapter, which the president and the editor of the Bulletin attended, an interesting discussion took place as to the essential relations between the Chapter and the Society in which it functions.
     Respectfully submitted,
          RANDOLPH W. CHILDS,
               President.

513


NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1930

NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS       Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1930

     The Arcana readings for August treat of the end of the great Flood,-the spiritual crisis by means of which the new spiritual church, called "Noah," was established.

     The ark represents the salvation of the man of spiritual genius. It was a ship, and a ship signifies, doctrine, instruction. Moses, by whom is represented the law Divine, was placed in an ark of bulrushes (Exodus 2). And the God-given Law of Moses was similarly cherished in an ark or chest, but one covered lavishly with gold. The sacred boats often carried in procession by the Egyptians no doubt originated from the same correspondence of a ship to doctrine.

     The eighth chapter of Genesis stresses the idea of rest. Rest comes to the spiritual man after such temptations as are signified in the Word by storms and floods and wars. The rain of forty days and forty nights must remind us of the forty years of Israel's wanderings in the desert, and of the forty days of the Lord's fast in the wilderness (Matt. 4); and the same idea is suggested by the forty weeks of gestation which precede the birth of a child. Temptations are said to be the beginning of regeneration.

     When spiritual temptations are over, and the ark of man's mind "rests," the troubles of life would seem to be over. But this is not actually so. Adjustments are needed in every new state, even after victory is won. So we are told (A. C. 847, 851) that "fluctuations, which are doubts and obscurities concerning what is true and good, . . . persist for a long time." The "waters" of fallacy go and return. The "raven" of falsity hovers hither and thither while the Lord subdues rebellious states, and insinuates charity and innocence into the forming conscience. The "dove" of charity at first finds no rest, but at length returns with the "olive-leaf," the first sign of truths of faith that proceed from genuine charity.

     The Divine and purely correspondential account of the Flood comes to us through Moses from the Ancient Word; although it may swell be that this Word, as certain critics presume, was compiled from several sources.

514


But variant stories of the Flood were common among the symbol-loving ancient peoples, and are found, in more or less contorted and polytheistic forms, in well-nigh every mythology. The most remarkable of these paganized stories is the hoary Babylonian legend found on tablets written at Nineveh in the seventh century B. C., and supported by tablets dating from B. C. 2000.

     This story relates the building of the vessel by divine command, the "pitching it within and without with pitch," the lading of the ship with treasures and living cattle, the embarkation, the coming of the flood which frightened even the gods, the calming of the sea, the opening of the window, the sending out of a dove, a swallow and a raven, the final sacrifice, and the implication that no flood should again be used as an instrument of divine vengeance; ending with the deification of the hero of the story, Uta-Napishtim. Many other details proved the common origin of the pervert Babylonian legend and the authentic and dignified Biblical tale.

     The Hells.

     The hells of the lascivious are displayed in all their lurid horrors in the Writings of the New Church, as is seen from the account in the Arcana, nos. 824-831. This is done in utmost and impersonal frankness, to the end that the men of the new dispensation may cultivate that intelligent aversion for all things unclean which is needed for the reestablishment of love truly conjugial. Without such contrasts, a race with propensities such as ours cannot come to a real knowledge of itself, nor be confirmed in the perception of the total and irreconcilable opposition existing between scortatory love and the love of heaven,-the "jewel of human life, and the repository of Christian religion."

515


NOTES AND REVIEWS. 1930

NOTES AND REVIEWS.              1930


NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office a Publication, Lancaster, Pa.
Published Monthly By
THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
BRYN ATHYN, PA.
Editor                    Rev. W. B. Caldwell, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager          Mr. H. Hyatt, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address and business communications should be sent to the Business Manager.

     TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
$3.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single Copy, 30 cents.
     CATHEDRAL HANDBOOK.

     THE CATHEDRAL-CHURCH OF BRYN ATHYN. A Handbook of Information. Fifth Edition, 1930. Bryn Athyn: The Cathedral Book Room. Paper, 40 pages; 25 cents.

     The large numbers of strangers visiting the Cathedral every year have made this Handbook a necessity, and its authoritative information will be appreciated by the New Churchman as well. In its fifth edition it is published in an enlarged form, and furnished with a number of recent photographs. The contents now include a history and description of the three buildings constituting the Cathedral group,-the Church proper, the Council Hall, and the Choir Hall,-with an explanation of many details of the symbolic figures in stone and window glass.
SPREADING A KNOWLEDGE OF THE WRITINGS. 1930

SPREADING A KNOWLEDGE OF THE WRITINGS.              1930

     SWEDENBORG FOUNDATION, INCORPORATED. Eighty-first Annual Report, 1929-1930. Published at 18 E. 41st Street, New York; 24 pages.

     The contents of this pamphlet bring evidence of a sustained and expanding activity in the many undertakings of the Swedenborg Foundation, notably in the inspiring work of extending a knowledge of the Heavenly Doctrines to many not previously acquainted with them.

516


The purposes and powers of the Foundation are of wide scope, and during the past year it has given aid in the field of New Church radio broadcasting, sponsoring one broadcast on its own account, when a talk by the Rev. John W. Stockwell brought requests for copies of Heaven and Hell from 400 listeners. The Foundation also furnished large quantities of books of the Writings to meet similar demands in California and New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. During the year ending April 1, 1930, there were distributed through advertising, radio broadcasting, donations and sales, 39,454 books, as follows:

Heaven and Hell               20,0004
Divine Love and Wisdom          4,649
Divine Providence               10,106
The Four Doctrines          4,695

     The donations included 241 copies of the Writings presented to Libraries; and seven complete sets of the Writings were given to theological students at Cambridge and Bryn Athyn. 288 volumes of the Gift Books were sent to ministers.

     Under a system of Follow-up work, 6,000 letters were sent to persons who had ordered copies of the Writings, and 1,206 replies were received, classified as follows:

Greatly interested                         282
Merely interested                              330
Interest philosophical                         12
Doubtful                                   14
Asked questions                              21
Unfavorable                                   17
Already New Church                              11
Spiritists, Theosophists, or Christian Scientists          16
Hadn't read the books                         68
Not interested                              327
Otherwise unclassified                         108
                                        1,206

517




     The Foundation has continued the publication of THE SWEDENBORG STUDENT, edited by the Rev. John Whitehead; has provided means for translations into foreign languages; has supported Colporteur Work at Seattle, Wash., Portland, Ore., and Winnipeg, Canada; and has brought out several volumes of the Writings in Braille, three of which were donated to the New York Public Library, Department for the Blind.

     These projects in many fields are made possible by an annual income of over $30,000 from sales and investments, the Foundation possessing assets in excess of $500,000.00 From the time of its incorporation in the year 1850, up to April 1, 1930, the total number of its donations to libraries and other public institutions, to ministers, theological students and individuals, has been:
Volumes of the Writings               758,095
Copies of Brief Readings               114,337
                              872,432
SWEDENBORG SOCIETY 1930

SWEDENBORG SOCIETY              1930

     SWEDENBORG SOCIETY (Incorporated), London, England. Report of the Council, and Statement of Income and Expenditure, May 1, 1929 to April 30, 1930; 20 pages.

     Operating in a field similar to that of the Swedenborg Foundation, this long-established British organization here reports many activities during the past year, chiefly in the work of publishing editions of the Writings, both revised versions in English and translations into foreign languages. Among the latter we note a French translation of the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, with the Rev. Gustav E. Regamey as Reviser, and the translation of The Divine Love and Wisdom into Tamil by Mr. D. Gopaul Chetty. The Society also issued an edition of 1,000 copies of Trobridge's Life of Swedenborg in Polish, advertising the same in nine of the principal Polish papers, and sending copies to each of 380 public libraries in Poland. 480 copies of the Polish edition of The Divine Providence and Heaven and Hell were sent to the Rev. I. Janecek for similar distribution. The Council, being interested in keeping Latin editions of the Writings in print, has authorized the publication of De Equo Albo and De Telluribus in Mundo Nostro Solari, and is considering the possibility of again publishing the Arcana Celestia.

518




     Offers of various books were made to the Indian students in the universities throughout Great Britain and Ireland, and requests for about 120 books were received. Certain of Swedenborg's Scientific Works were presented to various learned societies and libraries.

     "The Council was in doubt if an oil painting of Swedenborg in its possession was the work of Johan Zoffany, to whom it was attributed. It was taken from its frame, and was found to bear the inscription on the back: the Swedish Philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the number 2628. The painting appears to have been the gift of Mr. William Pickstone, and the Council is making further efforts to trace its history."

     The financial statement of the Swedenborg Society records assets of over $300,000.00, and an income from sales, investments and donations of about $35,000.
NEW CHURCH EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA. 1930

NEW CHURCH EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA.              1930

     For some years the Rev. Richard Morse and the Society at Hurstville, Sydney, Australia, of which he is Pastor, have been looking forward to the time when it would be feasible to establish a New Church Day School, and thus to provide the benefits of distinctive New Church education for the children of the Society. In furtherance of this aim, it was arranged two years ago that Miss Mora White, a member of the Society, should attend the Academy Schools at Bryn Athyn, as a preparation to become teacher in the projected school at Hurstville. The spirit and purpose animating this undertaking in far-off Australia were voiced by Miss White at the Academy Commencement on June 13th, when she received a Certificate as Teacher in the Elementary Schools of the General Church, and made her acknowledgments in the following words:

     "It is with a heart full of gratitude that I wish to express my thanks for all that I have received during my two years' sojourn as a student in the Academy. I go away feeling that nothing has been spared to give me that for which I came,-the preparation necessary to enable me to undertake the important use of teaching children in such a way that their minds may become vessels receptive of the Divine Love and Wisdom of God.

519




     "The founders of the Academy saw the vital need of the Church to be minds capable of rationally accepting her teachings, and realized that the education of the young was the only possible means of assuring this. Many men and women have already devoted their lives to this use, and other shave given it inspiration and support. That the vision of these pioneers in the Church was correct, time has proven. For although beset by enemies and many vicissitudes, the Academy has risen triumphant. All but one of her founders have passed onward to higher uses, but their work remains with us, grown to a size that perhaps was not anticipated in so short a time by them.

     "We are taught in the Writings that 'nothing grows and multiplies with man unless there is some affection; the delight of affection causes it not only to take root but also to grow; for what a man loves he freely seizes upon, retains, and guards.' (A. C. 1016) If I read history correctly, the affection that caused the birth of the Academy was the love of saving souls. It was revealed that a New Church was necessary for the salvation of the human race, and it was seen that the education of children was the means of its establishment.

     "Education in the sphere of a false theology, or in a sphere of negative towards religion, was found to be fatal to a New Church end. With this knowledge, and with a deep love of the salvation of souls, the Academy as an educational institution was brought into being. And it is the same love and knowledge that are perpetuation and multiplying its uses today, and that are causing others, in far away corners of the earth, to attempt to ultimate the same ideals as have been brought to fruition here.

     "Let any who doubt the efficacy of New Church education watch with affectionate interest, and with a mind unblinded by prejudice, the growth of the average student in our schools. It has been my privilege to witness this delightful process through two years of happy kinship in their midst. And what I have seen, added to the affectionate inspiration of my teachers, has strengthened my purpose humbly to enter the great field of New Church education."

520


SACRAMENTAL ELEMENTS. 1930

SACRAMENTAL ELEMENTS.              1930

     THE HOLY SUPPER, and Its Administering Mediums. By Francis Black. R. B. A., London: New-Church Press, Ltd., 1930. Paper, 50 pages; one shilling.

     Over thirty years ago, when a controversy raged in the New Church over the question of the proper sacramental elements, this little work in defense of the plain teachings of the Writings came from the pen of "Brother Deacon.' Long out of print, it is now republished, and the author has discarded anonymity. The nature of the conclusions reached by his interesting study of the whole subject is manifest from the summary given at the end of the book as follows:

     THE TRUTH BRIEFLY SUMMED UP.

     The Holy Supper Instructions are Doctrinal in Nature (A. C. 10519-22).

     The Lord alone instructed Emanuel Swedenborg in matters of Doctrine (T. C. R. 779).

     Swedenborg teaches that Bread and Wine were commanded in the Holy Supper (A. C. 5117).

     The Bread must be unleavened, because the Christian Passover (T. C. R. 704) is the Feast of unleavened Bread (Luke xxii 1).

     The Wine must be the product of fermentation, because with Swedenborg the Juice of the Grape is not Wine until after fermentation (Documents, n. 245, Vol. II, p. 316).

     The instructions are not vaguely given, leaving the choice of the external mediums to Church option; for it has been seen that Bread unleavened, and Wine prepared and purified by fermentation, were commanded in the Holy Supper. Notwithstanding this, the elements too frequently used in our Churches-viz., Leavened Bread and New Wine (Mustum)-are those which were commanded in the comparatively external act of worship, the Jewish Harvest Thanksgiving,-never in the Holy Supper.

     As New Churchmen, we cannot set aside the Lord's commands through his servant Emanuel Swedenborg, concerning the Bread and Wine; and it is evident that Swedenborg's definition of Wine is inseparable from the command concerning the Wine, which he received "from the Lord alone," to "publish by the press" (T. C. R. 779) "FOR THE NEW CHURCH" (H. D. 7).

521


Church News 1930

Church News       Various       1930

     REPORT OF THE VISITING PASTOR.

     On the return journey from the General Assembly a stop was made at JOHNSTOWN, PA., and a service held in the home of Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Kintner on Sunday, June 22d. There was an attendance of nine persons, including, besides the family, Mrs. Elizabeth Fein, of Pittsburgh, and my automobile traveling companions, the Messrs. Richard Kintner and Donald Gladish. The sermon given was simple in form, adapted to the children, and it was a pleasure to note their close attention.
     F. E. WAELCHLI.

     THE ACADEMY SCHOOLS.

     It was arranged this year that the Academy Commencement should mark both the end of the school-year and the beginning of the General Assembly. Many of the visitors had already arrived on the morning of June 13th, and every seat in the new Assembly Hall was occupied when the exercises began with the entrance of the students marching and singing in procession, followed by the members of the Faculty and Board, who took their places upon the stage. A lover of the Church is deeply thrilled in watching this long line, representing, as it does, the aspiration of the youth of the Church and the labor of the Church in the great and fundamental work of education.

     The service was conducted by Dean Doering, who read lessons from the Word and the Writings. The schools sang selections in both Hebrew and English. The Commencement Address was delivered by Mr. Sidney E. Lee, of Glenview, Ill., who was heard with close attention as he dwelt upon the significance of life to the young New Churchman after he was left school and is engaging in the uses of the Church and of the world-an intimate and companionable talk which approached the subject from any angels.

     At the conclusion of the Address, diplomas were presented by Bishop Pendleton to the graduates of the several departments of the school. Miss Buell, as Principal of the Girls' Seminary, then presented eight graduating girls; Misses Roasmond Pendleton Brown, Jeannette Pendleton Caldwell, Nancy Edmonds, Alice Fritz, Fanny Boggess Lechner, Lois Helen Nelson, Joanne Schoenberger, and Berith Hildegarde Schroder. Miss Joanne Schoenberger spoke for the class in bidding farewell, and in appreciation of the good things received from the School. The graduates of the Boys' Academy were presented by Principal Alden. The seven boys were: Messrs. Charles Schoenberger Brown, Roger Williams, Doering, Edmund Pollock Glenn, Alexander Iungerich, Wilfred Bernard Klippenstein, Alexander Heilman Lindsay, and Ormond de Charms Odhner.. Mr. Odhner spoke for his class in response to the giving of the diplomas. The Junior College class of five was presented by Dean de Charms, namely: Misses Emily Boatman, Beryl Gertrude Caldwell, Nadezhda Iungerich, Lois Elieen Stebbing, and Mr. Richard Raphael Gladish. To these Junior College Certificates were given, and Mr. Gladish gave their valedictory message. Then also by the Dean of the College, Miss Martha Mornington White was named as prepared for teaching, and she was given a Special Certificate for teaching in the Elementary Schools of the General church. In response, she spoke with deep affection of the Academy and of those under whom she had studied, and of her purpose to carry the ideals and standards of the Academy to her future field of work in Australia.

     After this the special honors were announced: the Oratorical Prize (a silver cup) to Mr. Andrew Alan Doering; the Deka Gold medal to Miss Jeannette Pendleton Caldwell; the Alpha Kappa Mu Merit Bar to Miss Lois Helen Nelson; the Sons of the Academy Gold Medal to Mr. Edmund Pollock Glenn; the Sons of the Academy Silver Medal to Mr. Alexander Heilman Lindsay; and the two Theta Alpha Scholarships to Misses Eunice Bond and Joanne Schoenberger.

522




     The closing exercises of the Elementary School were postponed until September, owing to an epidemic of sickness affecting a large number of the pupils.
     L. W. T. D.

     LONDON, ENGLAND.

     Michael Church.

     As it was not found practicable for any of our number to be at the General Assembly (where, but for considerations of time, space, and money, some of us assuredly would have been!) And our Pastor, Bishop Tilson, being forbidden by his medical adviser to attend, we determined to have as good a celebration as possible of New Church Day, which fell within the same period. On the previous Sunday, June 15th, we had a very full service, the keynote being struck by the reading of the Memorandum from T. C. R. 791, immediately after the opening of the Word. As is Bishop Tilson's custom, the prayers, the lessons, and the music were all selected with the idea of making from many parts a perfect whole-a unit-and such the service was. Isaiah 65:17 was the text for a most impressive and appropriate discourse, and this was followed by the administration of the Holy Supper to twenty-nine communicants.

     On the following Thursday, the Day itself, a Feast of Charity was held at 7.30 p.m., at which the Pastor presided. There was a good attendance. Flowers of the Academy colors decorated the tables, and the Academy spirit prevailed. Mr. R. W. Anderson was toastmaster, and after some time had been allowed for social converse and the satisfying of our preliminary hunger and thirst, he initiated the more formal part of the proceedings by reading the "memorandum," and then called for the first toast, which was, of course, "The Church," and was responded to by the singing of "Our Glorious Church." The second toast was "June Nineteenth," followed by the very hearty rendering of the 19th Psalm by the assembled company, Mr. A. v. Cooper was now called upon for his paper on "The Sending Forth of the Apostles." A thought provoking appear this was, carefully prepared and attentively listened to. Our young Vestry Deacon is to be congratulated upon its production.

     So far our thoughts had been directed to the preparations for the Church in the spiritual world. The next toast-"The Priesthood"-had reference to the preparation and constitution of the Church on earth. It was followed by the singing of "Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest," and responded to be Bishop Tilson in a soul-stirring speech, which made some of his hearers express the wish that he would have gone on three times as long!

     "The Academy," followed by "Alma Mater," and responded to by Mr. Godfrey; and "The Church in the Home," followed by "then together let us stand," and responded to by Mr. Priest; completed the formal list of toasts.

     The President then invited Mr. Colley Pryke, who, with Mrs. Pryke, we were delighted to have with us, to address the meeting, and Mr. Pryke responded to the invitation in this usual happy manner.

     After expressions of thanks to the toastmaster, and to those who had prepared the Feast, "Vivat Nova Ecclesia" was most heartily sung, "good-byes" were said, and another "new Church Day" celebration had taken its place in the annals of the past, though surely it will be present with us for some time to come.

     Owing to the nature and length of the program, the Pastors' Report, with its record of his "parish" activities, and to which we always look forward with interest, had perforce to be omitted-but one cannot have everything, and we would not have missed his speech!

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The report will be given at the Annual Meeting, to be held on an early date.

     At the recent Annual Meeting of The Swedenborg Society, Bishop Tilson was elected a member of the Council-whereof we are glad.
     K. M. D.

     NEW YORK.

     It has been our pleasant duty for some years past, at the close of what we term our "church year," to give a brief summary or report of our activities during that period. Always in the knowledge of the fact that the societies of the General Church are interested in each other's welfare, and are cheerfully and legitimately curious to know what is happening to the "other members of the family," we hasten to say at the outset that we have nothing grandiose or spectacular to mention of ourselves, saying this, which perhaps cannot be called either the one or the other, but is far more important-namely, the existence in our society of a calm, clear spirit or unanimous endeavor, together with a harmony that is very precious to us, and which we venture to add is shared by the society as a whole.

     And so, if our little chronicle seems dull or without sparkle, because of no glittering events or dashing happenings to relate, we know that we can rely upon the good fellowship of the rest of the church to enjoy our peace and tranquillity with us.

     Our Sunday services were resumed in September, 1929, with an attendance of members and visitors which used every chair in the room at 149 East 61st Street. From then until June, 1930, services have been held regularly on the first and third Sundays of each month, the Rev. William Whitehead officiating on the first Sunday, and the Rev. W. B. Caldwell on the third. The Sacrament of the Holy Supper was administered quarterly.

     On the Saturday evening preceding each service, a doctrinal class has been conducted by the visiting minister, meeting at the homes of the members in New York and New Jersey. Besides being a meeting for the study of doctrine, where the healthful spirit of inquiry finds air in which to live and breathe, the class is the occasion for a social reunion each time. The joy and delight of providing for the class and entertaining the pastor is shared alike by every member who has a home and the necessary room. No one likes to miss a class if it can be helped. We know the subject will always be more than interesting; for our two visiting pastors prepare with much careful thought and earnestness. The genus "New York" is inquiring and critical (in all modesty, let it be said), but we seldom, if ever, go away without being fed with some further spiritual sustenance. Briefly, then, the doctrinal class means a great deal to us.

     A men's meeting is held regularly once a month at the home of Mr. Anton Sellner in West 21st Street. Perennially Mr. Sellner is the host, and always most gracious; and the men of the society enjoy and profit by these gatherings.

     First among social events may well be classed our lunching together on Sundays after the service. Though tacitly anticipated by most of us, there is a spontaneity about the proceedings which contributes largely to its enjoyment. Besides being a meal, it is, generally speaking, a "feast of reason and flow of soul." Our members live so far apart, and see one another so seldom between Sundays, that there is a zest about these social gatherings after service, when the members, the pastor and visitors sit down together at a "feast of charity."

     After the service on February 16th, the whole congregation met at the home of Mr. Anton Sellner, West 21st Street, where, under the auspices of the local chapter of Theta Alpha, a "shower" was given for Mr. and Mrs. Harald Klein, whose marriage had been solemnized a week before. The Rev. W. B. Caldwell, who was officiating that day, made a suitable speech formally welcoming the bride and groom to the New York Society. A delicious buffet luncheon was served, and the happy pair were the recipients of a number of useful and beautiful gifts. There was a great deal of fun and good humor.

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It was a great party, and everybody enjoyed it.

     During February there was also a theater party, and fourteen members and friends spent a very delightful evening together. The play was "Berkeley Square," by John L. Balderston, produced at the Lyceum Theater. It is a study in the fourth dimension, and was played with rate kill and delicacy. One is not sure whether it is quite comme il faut to talk about a play in these columns, but besides being considered by the critics as one of the notably few good plays of the season, and still running, it has an added interest for us as playgoers. It concerns itself chiefly with those realities which are outside and beyond the realms of time and space, carrying analogies in its lines and movements that have a special interest from New Church folks in addition to its roseleaf texture, which appeals to all lovers of art. And because of its great beauty of material and treatment, a few of us met at Bayside to discuss it, and to look further into its merits and meaning. This made a very pleasant Saturday evening, on what we call the "off" night-that is, when there is no class.

     As we could have only one Christmas Service, this time it was devoted to the children, the address being for them, though it was listened to with interest by the adult members. After the children had made their offerings, the pastor distributed suitable gifts to them, with a fitting word to each. At this time the society took great pleasure in presenting each of our visiting pastors with a Christmas gift, as a token of esteem and appreciation. Acknowledgments came in the form of letters graciously expressing their thanks, and these were read to the society. Mr. Anton Sellner very kindly presented twelve copies of the Liturgy to the society as a Christmas gift, and we were very grateful to him for this useful present.

     The Theta Alpha chapter held several meetings during the year, on one occasion having the pleasure and benefit of a visit from the President of the organization, Mrs. Besse E. Smith. The chapter provided for the children's Christmas celebration, as well as arranging for the "shower" before mentioned.

     The usual Local Assembly in May was omitted this year, as most of our members expected to attend the General Assembly. This they did, nearly the whole society being present most of the week, and thoroughly enjoying every bit of the time.

     We have to report the removal of two members of long standing,-Miss Sullivan to Bryn Athyn, and Mr. Warren Potts to Toronto. There have been many visitors during the year, one or more from other societies of the General Church attending service nearly every Sunday.

     This brings our little chronicle to a close. We are looking forward to our opening service in September, with high hope for the society's good, but humbly with the assurance of the Lord's leading, so long as we heed His Word.
     FLORENCE A. WILDE.

     GLENVIEW, ILL.

     New Church Day, June 19th, was celebrated here by entertainment and a luncheon for the young during the day, and a banquet for the adults in the evening attended by seventy-one persons. The formal banquet commemorating the day was held on June 27th, after the return of those who had attended the General Assembly in Bryn Athyn, and was devoted to giving those who did not attend some sidelights on the various interesting things which took place there.

     Independence Day was celebrated in our usual friendly and neighborhood way, with flag raising, patriotic address, parade around the Park with flags, bunting and music, cafeteria lunch at noon, games and races in the afternoon, many supper parties, and then dancing in the evening. The great airports of Curtis Field and Sky Harbor are within sight of the Park, and we could see the many airships doing their stunts, including the famous plane circling aloft to a record of 554 hours of continuous flight.

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     Recent visitors in the park were: Miss Annie Taylor and Miss Moral White, of Sydney, Australia; Rev. Adolph Goerwitz, of Zurich, Switzerland; Mr. William Cowley, of Pittsburgh, Pa.; Mrs. G. Percy Brown (Elise Junge), of Pittsburgh; Messrs. Harry White, Carl Synnestvedt, and William Homiller, of Bryn Athyn.

     As one from Glenview who attended the General Assembly I made the following notes.

     Those privileged to attend had the time of their lives. The new Assembly Hall, with its large stage and other accommodations proved adequate to its purpose, and the whole Bryn Athyn Society extended a boundless hospitality. The arrangements for the care of the visitors were complete, and the meals were all that could be desired.

     The program opened with the commencement exercises of the schools, which were as formal and impressive as they would be with ten times the number of students. The reception the same evening was just one crowd of happy people renewing acquaintanceships and having a good time. Dancing and festivity carried the meeting to a late hour.

     The formal address of Bishop Pendleton featured the Saturday program. In the evening the Pageant was a glitter of color and action, employing about one hundred people, old and young, in pantomime, but with the singing of both Hebrew and English selections, many being from the Psalmody, and all illustrative of the action of Joseph and his brethren in Canaan and Egypt. The effects were well produced and the singing was excellent.

     The Sunday service in the Cathedral, including the ordination of the Rev. Norman Reuter into the Second Degree, was the high point of the worship of the Assembly. The rendition of the Forty-fifth Psalm by choir, orchestra and organ was the most thrilling I have ever heard. The sermon by the Rev. Homer Synnestvedt seemed particularly appropriate, and was greatly appreciated by the congregation, as I gathered from many expressions afterwards.

     On Monday the Assembly unanimously elected Bishop de Charms as Assistant Bishop of the General Church. The speeches of the members seconding the nomination were so full of confidence and affection that they must have been very pleasant to Bishop de Charms, as was evident from his manly and affecting remarks of acceptance. His formal address followed.

     On Tuesday morning we heard the Treasurer of the General Church. His complaint about the lack of support by its members is, of course, warranted. What organization of any kind can you join without the obligation to pay dues? The Church could have one hundred per cent of paying members if the payment of dues were a prerequisite of membership, but it is the generous policy of the General Church to leave all in freedom. Why is not every member on the list, at least for a nominal subscription?

     We then heard a stirring address by the Rev. Alfred Acton on the subject of "Occupations in the Spiritual World." The speaker was in fine form, and I never got so much out of an address by him as from this one.

     On Wednesday an hour was devoted to New Church Life. The Sons of the Academy have been agitating further study and education for our people after school age, and it seems to me that we now have at hand one of the finest means to this end in the Life; and a reading of the same from cover to cover would afford us continuing monthly instruction. Many do now so read.

     Harold McQueen acted as toastmaster at the luncheon of the Sons of the Academy, keeping us all laughing with his humor. In the annual meeting which followed it was voted to meet next in Pittsburgh.

     The program of the informal correct given in the Choir Hall was classical, and showed skill and musicianship of a high order. It closed with the singing of a song by all present, to music by Rubenstein.

     The Assembly Banquet brought the meetings to a close, when 715 persons filled the new auditorium and its deep stage. The Rev. Karl R. Alden as toastmaster carried it off with spirit and tact.

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Many brief speeches, serious and witty, filled the time to a late hour, when the Bishop spoke briefly and pronounced the Benediction.

     The length of the Assembly-one week-is ideal. Shorter time and fewer sessions and diversions would make it seem incomplete. To most and those attending, the week is the annual vacation and just about fills it.
     J. B. S.

     PITTSBURGH, PA.

     Those of our members who attended the General Assembly returned with enthusiastic reports of its success. A meeting was held on Friday evening, June 27, to give those who had not attended a word-picture of the event. Since then we have also had the pleasure of entertaining a number of the Assembly visitors homeward bound to other societies of the General Church.

     Miss Annie Taylor and Miss Mora White, of Sydney, Australia, spent a few days at the home of Mrs. Walter Horigan, and on Tuesday, July 1st, Mrs. Horigan gave an informal reception which afforded us an opportunity to meet her guests and wish them bon voyage. They left the following morning for Chicago and Glenview, where they will visit for a while before continuing their westward journey, to sail from a Pacific port.

     Returning to Denver by auto, Mrs. Schroder and her daughters, Berith and Thyra, and Mrs. Chapman, of New York, stopped over in Pittsburgh. Mrs. Williamson, Arthur and Marie Lou Williamson, and Mrs. Stevens, of Niles, Ohio, spent Sunday, July 6th here.

     Rev. and Mrs. Charles E. Doering came from Bryn Athyn by car to spend the Fourth of July weekend, accompanied by Mr. Karl W. Doering and Miss Natalie Carpenter. Dr. Doering conducted the service on Sunday, July 6th, and officiated at the baptisms of his granddaughter, Mary Anne Doering. Miss Elizabeth Doering and Mr. Andrew Doering spent several weeks visiting the members of their family here.

     The marriage of Mr. Camille D. Vinet and Miss Sally M. Griffith was solemnized on July 5th in the Pastor's residence at our new building, the Rev. E. E. Iungerich officiating. There were about twenty guests, and Mr. R. E. Dake was best man.

     The Pastor and his family moved to their apartments in the Community Building on June 28th, the men of the society assisting. On the same date, Mr. and Mrs. S. S. Lindsay, Jr., moved to their house in Ben Hur St.

     The weather vane has been put in place on the new building, and the eagle now spreads its wings to the four winds. The bell has also been installed, and the scaffolding removed from the tower. Grading is being done, and altogether the new buildings are assuming an inhabited appearance. We are looking forward to the dedication in September, and making preparations for it.
     E. R. D.

     KITCHENER, ONT.

     On New Church Day all who were not attending the General Assembly gathered at the church grounds for an informal picnic, but an all-day rain altered our plans. A party was held for the children in the afternoon, and at supper time the grown-ups arrived, and we all ate together in the school room. When we took our seats we found at each place a badge of red and white ribbon.

     Mr. Fred Stroh, as chairman, proposed a toast to the Church, and then introduced Mr. Rudolph Roschman, who spoke on the meaning of the Day, comparing the sending forth of the Twelve apostles at the First and Second Advents. His address was especially suited to the comprehension of the children, and was enjoyed by young and old alike. We closed by singing "June Nineteenth Forever."

     The Friday following the return of our members from the Assembly, and echo meeting was held. After a delicious supper, the Rev. Alan Gill introduced the subject by giving an account of the addresses delivered at the Assembly. Dr. Robert Schnarr then gave his impressions of Bryn Athyn, including the Cathedral and the Academy Buildings.

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Mr. Nathaniel Stroh followed, and his account brought to us much of the spirit of the Assembly. The meeting gave us a taste of what all had missed who were unable to attend.

     On Dominion Day, July 1st, a picnic was held on the school grounds. As the weather was ideal, there was large attendance, and sports of all kinds were indulged in.

     Our Building Project.

     Judging from the number of inquiries made by friends throughout the Church, we believe that there are many who will be interested to know what we are doing in regard to the restoration of our church and school building which was badly damaged by fire last October. The Pastor has therefore furnished the following statement of the situation:

     At the time of writing there is no visible evidence of our having done anything beyond patching up the damaged building to make it usable. Nevertheless we have not been idle in considering various plans. The society has long cherished the wish for a separate building for worship. The present building is not adequate, nor is it so arranged that the uses of the society can be carried on to best advantage. The fire brought us face to face with the problem of whether we should not now undertake the erection of the long-hoped-for church building.

     With the idea of determining the feasibility of such an undertaking, a committee was appointed to present plans of sufficient detail to enable us to see what could be done, and what the cost would be. Alternative plans were submitted which showed that for approximately $14,000.00 a separate building for worship could be erected, and the present building repaired and changed in such a way as to make it adequate for the Day School, social gatherings and other meetings of the society. As the sum of $7,600.00 was received from fire insurance, we will require about $7,000.00 to finance the project.

     Letters have now been sent to all the members of the society, and to those who were at one time associated with the society, placing the situation before them. The response to these letters will, perforce, very largely determine whether we shall be able to proceed with the plan as outlined above. It would be quite an undertaking for the members of the society, in view of the uses we are at present maintaining, including the Day School, with 24 pupils and prospects, of an increase each year. The latter, especially, needs improved facilities, and would be benefitted by the inspirational value of a church.

     This is how the matter stands, and we are sincerely hoping that in our next news report to the Life you will read that our building project is under way.
     C. R.

     PITTSBURGH DEDICATION.

     The new House of Worship of the Pittsburgh Society will be dedicated on Sunday, September 28, 1930. A banquet will be held on the preceding Saturday evening.

     The members of the Pittsburgh Society are desirous of entertaining all friends in the district, as well as members throughout the General Church, to the extent that facilities permit.

     Those wishing to attend are requested to communicate promptly with Mr. Charles H. Ebert, 7031 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh 8, Pa.
     E. E. IUNGERICH, Pastor

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ORDINATIONS 1930

ORDINATIONS              1930




     Announcements.


     Reuter.-At Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 15, 1930, Rev. Norman Harold Reuter, into the Second Degree of the Priesthood, Bishop N. D. Pendleton officiating.
REPORT OF THE FOURTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1930

REPORT OF THE FOURTEENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY              1930

     The Record of the General Assembly held at Bryn Athyn, June 13-19, 1930, begins in the present issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE. The September number will contain accounts of the remaining events on the program, including the Assembly Banquet, the Pageant, the Play, and Social Gatherings. Publication of the Addresses will be continued in that and following numbers.

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HUMAN ASPIRATION AND HEAVENLY PEACE 1930

HUMAN ASPIRATION AND HEAVENLY PEACE       Rev. GEORGE DE CHARMS       1930


VOL. L                               SEPTEMBER, 1930                                    No. 9
     (At the Fourteenth General Assembly, June 16, 1930.)

     In God infinite things are distinctly one. Out of this infinitude have come all the indefinite varieties of creation. The ultimate appearance to the human mind, based on sense-experience, is that the world is made up of innumerable objects extremely diverse in form and quality, and the broader the knowledge the more overpowering is this sense of variety. Yet inmostly these things are distinctly one. To perceive this oneness is to perceive truth, and inmostly it is to perceive God, Who is Truth Itself. Thus intelligence, or the understanding of truth, results when diverse sensations are brought together, so that by comparison and contrast their relations to one another may be established, and thus their hidden unity may be seen. The ideas resulting from this process, being gathered from a great variety of experiences, will themselves appear diverse. For the discovery of a higher truth, these again must be brought together, compared, contrasted, and their relations made manifest, their still deeper unity disclosed. Thus, step by step, the mind can climb up from the outmost bounds of material sensations, and come nearer and nearer to the Divine, nearer and nearer to the Truth which is the perfect harmony of all things in the One God.

     It is to be noted that the sense of unity is of two kinds, internal and external. The external appearance of unity is characteristic of first general impressions, before particulars are known. We look upon any complex object from afar, and it appears as a simple thing, uniform throughout, and this because the diverse elements which compose it are not discriminated.

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They are blended and confused in an undifferentiated mass. Such a conception of unity is, however, an unreal appearance. It is the product of ignorance. It is inevitably shattered when, upon closer examination, divergent particulars come into view. The true conception of unity can be attained only after investigation, and when the differences of parts thus disclosed are resolved by an interior understanding of their mutual relations. Then do we achieve a sense of unity which is not characterized by uniformity, but rather by a marvelous harmony, the beauty of which is increased in proportion to the number of particulars seen distinctly to enter into it. This internal idea of unity, born of particular knowledge, keenly discriminating, sensitive to innumerable varieties harmoniously combined,-this is the product only of intelligent understanding. It is by entering more perfectly into this idea of unity that we may attain to the true vision of God, and indeed to the true vision of all things in the universe of His creation. The road to genuine intelligence leads inevitably from an external appearance of unity which is fallacious, by way of distinct and apparently diverse knowledges, gathered, multiplied, ordered, brought into mutual relation, at last to an internal perception of unity that is real. The more complex this perception of unity, the more perfectly will it reflect and transmit the light of truth.

     This mode of acquiring intelligence of truth by comparison and contrast is essential to all intellectual development. It appears in the first beginnings of consciousness. Distinct ideas emerge out of a chaotic background of undifferentiated sensations. Understanding comes gradually as these ideas are multiplied, compared and contrasted. This fact is well illustrated in the matter of color-perception. The infant at first does not see colors. He first notes the difference between two or more sharply contrasting colors seen at the same time and in close proximity. The color-sense is built up by perfecting this relation of contrast. We learn later to recognize one color alone, but this is because of the contrasts already established in the imagination. We are never free from the necessity of bringing slightly different shades together in order to distinguish them. The same law applies to the distinct perception of all things, namely, that by bringing together varieties and opposites, we are the better enabled to see truth.

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The law is stated in the Arcana Coelestia where we read that "the sphere of perception and the extension of its limits arise from the realization of contrasts." (A. C. 2694.) The passage refers specifically to the perception of what is good, of what is blessed and happy. This, it says, "no one can perceive with an exquisite sense, unless he has been in a state of what is not good, not blessed, and not happy. From these he acquires a sphere of perception, and this in the degree that he has been in the opposite state." The same might as aptly be said with reference to the perception of truth.

     This need for resolving apparent differences is obvious in the process of acquiring natural truth; it is altogether indispensable when we attempt to understand the truth of heaven. If we regard spiritual truth as simple, and become impatient with any development of particulars, deeming it sufficient to know and acknowledge only the broadest generals, we cannot know the delight of heavenly wisdom, nor can we enter into its uses. The things of eternal life are ineffable and inexpressible in natural language. Individual ideas formed from material things are inadequate to impart an intelligible conception of them. In moments of deep reflection, when the mind is withdrawn from the things of earth, we may indeed catch a fleeting glimpse of some spiritual truth, which then becomes indelibly impressed upon our inner consciousness. We may express it to ourselves in some symbol which recalls the fullness of our own feeling at the time. Yet that symbol will not transmit that same feeling to another. It will not do so to us in more external states. It is as if we looked for a moment into the depths of a pool, clear as crystal, and saw distinctly some beautifully living, moving object at the bottom: but so soon as the surface of the water is disturbed, and broken into waves and ripples, the vision disappears, and we search for it in vain. Yet we retain the memory of it, and add to it with other flashes of insight, presenting other visions. Each appears as a. thing apart, unrelated to the others because of its constant change and motion. Often they may seem quite inconsistent with one another. It is only by bringing them together, comparing, contrasting, establishing relations, that we can begin to understand. When we pass into the other world, these experiences, rare, and widely separated here, will multiply exceedingly, and the opportunity for sensing them together, in close proximity, in unbroken succession, will be the means of giving incomparably more perfect understanding.

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This is the reason why, as regards the perception of spiritual truth, our life on earth is like the night-time, as compared to the splendor of eternal day in heaven. Here we see spiritual truths as stars, as little points of light breaking through the sky. But there these isolated rays of light are brought together, and enormously increased to form the sun of heaven.

     It is not possible on earth to attain such a glorious perception of spiritual truth as can be granted to angels in the other world. Yet it is the end of the Divine Providence to increase the measure of this light, with its attendant warmth and spiritual vitality by an ever greater development of man's ability to understand the truth of heaven even here. This was the purpose of the Lord's Coming, and this is the reason why He called Himself the "Light of the world." It is the purpose of the Word, and of all Divine Revelation. It is the reason why the apparently simple truths of religion are stated and restated in the Sacred Scripture in a thousand different forms of human language, to the end that by comparison and contrast the deeper, incomparably more complex truth might be perceived within them. It is the reason why, at this day of the Second Advent, these same truths have been set forth anew before the rational mind, in many volumes, relating the experiences of the Revelator over a period of many years, providing an enormously expanded field of knowledge to be investigated, studied, and reflected upon. To our human sight, these knowledges are like individual sensations standing out against a vague background of chaos.

     They appear to present wide differences, many repetitions, and seeming contradictions. Yet the way is now opened to a higher understanding, by bringing them together in varied combinations, comparing, contrasting, establishing relations between them, out of which an ever deeper truth may continually emerge. It is our present purpose to illustrate this law by its application to a single instance,-what appears as a striking paradox in the teaching given, and in our own ideas concerning heaven,-believing that thereby a truer, more deeply human conception of the state of angelic happiness may be attained.

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     Heaven is described, on the one hand, as a state of perpetual peace; on the other hand, it is depicted as a state of intense activity, of never-ending progression and development, of human life with all its hopes and aspirations, lifted to a higher plane, raised, as it were, to a higher power. According to our human conception of the terms employed, these two definitions of heaven would appear to be in direct irreconcilable opposition.

     II.

     The characteristic of life is ceaseless motion. Like a wind that blows through the silent depths of a forest, rustling the leaves, agitating the branches, awakening a symphony of sound, so life inflows into the mind, moving its least substances, causing things unfelt, unseen before, to leap distinctly into consciousness. And ever as it blows, it fans the flame of desire. It causes sensations to be felt, with immediate reactions of pleasure or of pain. It stirs the will, either to increase and continue the sensation, or to recoil in an effort to avoid it. It holds pleasant experiences pictured in the memory, and from time to time recalls them in the imagination, presenting thus before the mind a goal of desire, and urging the whole being to strive for its attainment. Thus it produces longing, anxiety, hope. It creates dissatisfaction with the present, and rouses ambition for the future. It impels to action, to strife and conflict, for the attainment of its end. Nor does the delight of life consist in the possession of the end proposed, but rather in the sense of power, the feeling of accomplishment, the joy of conquest incident to the process of attaining it. The mind, under the influence of life's love, refuses for long to rest content with a goal that has been reached. The invisible wind blows again, kindling new longings, new desires. The cravings of love are never satisfied. They are ceaselessly renewed, driving us on from the calm enjoyment of a hard-earned prize, in search of further conquests. This quality of unending motion, of restless pursuit, is inherent in the very nature of life. In this we find enjoyment and happiness. Deprived of it we sink into an aimless existence, which can scarcely be called living, -an existence in which there is only sadness, in which the mind seeks relief from an intolerable ennui by dreaming of delights that are no more.

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     We think of peace, on the other hand, as a state of quiet contentment. We picture it as a calm repose, in which there is no impulse to strife, no disturbing urge to change or progress. We conceive it as a state of complaisant acquiescence with the present, which holds the mind in the languorous enjoyment of that which has already been attained. According to this view, the essence of peace is stillness, the very opposite of life and motion. It would indeed appear to be the negative of that restless activity which we call life, so that they could not possibly exist together, because they must mutually destroy each other. If, then, the final goal of human life is eternal peace in heaven, it would appear to seek and to achieve the ultimate destruction of itself. How is it possible for us to reconcile a contradiction so complete? The difficulty lies in no inherent opposition, but in our faulty understanding of both life and peace,-an understanding which can be perfected only by bringing them together to form a higher idea of heaven, the continent of both harmoniously conjoined.

     If we examine the common idea of heavenly peace, we find in it a state which could not for long be a heaven of happiness to human beings as we know them. This idea postulates that in the state of peace every yearning of the heart is stilled. Every end for which the man was vainly laboring through years of persistent endeavor has been achieved. The battle is over; the enemy is vanquished; the victory is won. Nothing remains save an endless enjoyment of what has already been accomplished. The mind forever after is but to bask in the sunshine of pure delight, resting ever in the present, desiring nothing for the future, feeling no urge to activity, no need for progress, having no emotion save that of absolute content.

     This is indeed an imaginary heaven, with which we are all familiar in states of depression or discouragement. When we are tired, both body and mind cry out for rest. If, in weakness, we struggle unsuccessfully against forces which overpower us, we long for peace. In states of temptation, anxiety and fear, we picture happiness as a condition in which these causes of our mental suffering will be completely absent, in which every wish of the heart may be granted immediately and without effort. But the desire for this kind of peace is transitory.

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It is born amid the shadows of doubt, when the light of life burns low and flickering. It is characteristic of physical illness, and of old age. It disappears at once with a return of strength, which restores the normal aspirations to our life. It is never the imagined heaven of youth and vigor, when the arm is strong, the mind is clear, and the future beckons with the smile of promise. How then can it be the eternally enduring heaven of those who have forever laid aside the body with its limitations, to receive life in far greater fullness than can be known on earth? How can it satisfy human beings in a vibrantly living world, a world of surpassing beauty, in which are Divine creations innumerable, ever changing, ever new,-a world where life, no longer dulled by the imperfection of material organs of sensation, surges in upon the mind, with tide upon tide of keen delights that stir the soul to depths unknown before?

     That heaven is a state of peace, the Writings teach repeatedly. This heavenly peace is compared to that rest which followed the labor of the six days of creation, as described in Genesis: "The heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He rested from all His work, which God created and made." (2:1-3) Of this we read, in the Arcana Coelestia, that " the Lord's kingdom in the heavens and on the earth is called, from Him, a Sabbath, or eternal peace and rest." (No. 85.) And elsewhere: "In regard to peace, in the supreme sense it signifies the Lord Himself, and hence, in the internal sense, His kingdom; and it is the Lord's Divine inmostly affecting the good in which are those who are therein." (A. C. 3780.) And again: "Peace is a state of blessedness in the heavens, affecting with good and truth from the inmosts. Hence the Lord is called the 'Prince of Peace,' and it is said that 'of the multiplying of His principality and peace there shall be no end.'" (A. C. 5044.) And, speaking of the commandment to do no work on the Sabbath day, it is said that "this signifies that in this case heaven and blessedness are in each and all things in the internal and in the external of man." For "'not doing any work' signifies rest and peace, thus heaven; for when man is in heaven he is free from all solicitude, unrest and anxiety; and when he is free from these he has blessedness." (A. C. 8890.)

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And finally, we read that "in the other life the exteriors are successively unfolded even to the inmosts, and peace is the inmost in all delight. . . . So far, therefore, as man puts off what is external, so far a state of peace is revealed, and so far he is affected with satisfaction, blessedness, and happiness, the origin of which is from the Lord Himself. . . . Peace affects the inmost things of all,-the first substances and the beginnings of substances in man,-and therefrom distributes itself into the substantiates and derivatives, and affects them with pleasantness; and it affects the origins of ideas, consequently man's ends of life, with satisfaction and happiness, and thus makes the mind of man a heaven." (A. C. 8455.)

     III.

     These and many other like teachings of the Heavenly Doctrine leave no room for doubt that peace is the Divinely appointed destiny of human life, and that a state of peace is essential to eternal happiness. Yet it cannot be that kind of peace for which man imagines that he longs in time of weakness. It must be a state which answers in some mysterious way the demands of strong, vitally active human minds, eager for high emprise. That heaven of which this peace is an essential quality cannot be a state of absolute perfection, in which there is no possibility of further achievement, and therefore no call to action. The angels must find in heaven things needing to be done, things worthy of accomplishment, calling for the best use of all their faculties, testing their skill, yielding success with its guerdon of happiness as the reward of persistent effort. For it is described as a state of eternal youth, of glorious strength both in mind and body, of intensely active love, with its irresistible impulse to do and to attain a cherished end.

     "The angels," we are told, "are constantly advancing to a life of young manhood and youth." (A.C. 1854.) "All who have lived well, when they come into heaven, come into that age which in the world is their youthful age, and remain in it to eternity." (D. P. 324.) "They who are in heaven have more exquisite senses,-that is, a keener sight and hearing,-and also think more wisely, than when they were in the world; for they see in the light of heaven, which surpasses by many degrees the light of the world: and they hear by means of a spiritual atmosphere, which likewise surpasses by many degrees the earthly atmosphere.

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This difference in respect to the outward senses is like the difference between clear sunshine and dark cloudiness in the world, or between noonday light and evening shade; for the light of heaven, since it is Divine Truth, enables the eyes of the angels to perceive and distinguish most minute things. . . From what has already been said and shown concerning the wisdom of the angels of heaven, it can be seen that the inner senses also, . . . which pertain to their thought and affection, are more exquisite and perfect than the senses they had in the world." (H. H. 462.) There is also scope for the exercise of these faculties; for, as we well know, "heaven is a kingdom of uses. There is no one there who does not discharge a use. . . . In a word, there are innumerable duties, and everyone in his own place receives certain duties according to his affection of use for the sake of use." (S. D. 5158.) "The delight from good and the pleasantness from truth, which cause blessedness in heaven, do not consist in idleness, but in activity; for in idleness, delight and pleasantness become undelightful; but in activity, delight and pleasantness are permanent, and constantly uplift and cause blessedness. With those who are in heaven, activity consists in the performance of uses." (A. C. 6410.)

     The uses which the angels perform are said to correspond to the uses which men perform on earth. Uses on earth are actual services performed "to the church, to one's country, to human society, and to fellow citizens." They are ministries of an ecclesiastical nature, functions of a civil nature, the work of artificers and skilled craftsmen, duties of business administration, or employments of labor. All those things which arise out of ultimate human needs or desires, and provide things worthy of accomplishment, whereby one by his labor can give of his strength, his skill, his intellectual or physical powers, for the well-being of others, and can receive in return from them that which is needful for the support of his own life, and the life of others dependent upon him-these are what we understand as uses in the world. That the uses which the angels perform correspond to these, means that they bear a relation to the life of heavenly societies similar to that which natural uses bear to the maintenance of human society in the world.

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They are called spiritual uses because they belong to a spiritual world. But that world has its requirements, as vital and as pressing as any which exist on earth; and these requirements are to be met by the individual and the organized effort of the angels, who concentrate upon them all those faculties of intelligence and wisdom, of knowledge and skill, with which they are said to be endowed in a degree far more excellent than is any man on earth.

     Here again we meet with an apparent contradiction, a resolution of which is necessary to a true understanding of heavenly life. For we are taught that the angels receive all things needful to their life from the Lord gratis. The objects of their world are not produced by the labor of the angels; they are immediate and instantaneous creations by the Lord. Everything which the angels need is miraculously provided. If this is the case, what uses then remain for the angels to perform? What need is there for ministries, functions, offices and employments, such as we know on earth? These are all concerned with the production and distribution of necessities, or at least of things grateful and desirable, which cannot be obtained without constant labor and organized effort on the part of men. If there were no such necessity, there would be no use in effort. It is the need that makes the labor worth while. It is this that gives it human significance, creating a bond of affection, of interdependence, of mutual service, which alone is satisfying to human love. It is impossible to imagine the angels living in a heavenly society, and finding happiness in doing a work for one another which at the same time they know to be unnecessary. The delight in any work is measured by the sense of its value, its importance.

     We may indeed explain, in part, the uses of the angels by supposing that they are called forth by needs outside of heaven. The angels do indeed perform uses outside of heaven, directed to the regeneration of men, the resurrection of the dead, the protection of both men and spirits from infestation and the influence of hell, the implanting of remains, the instruction of those newly arrived in the world of spirits, and many other offices of which we can have no knowledge. But this is not sufficient to explain the life of heavenly societies, as that life is pictured in the Writings. There are evident needs to be met in the society itself,-uses to be performed by angels toward one another.

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These needs are imperative. Of their importance the angels are keenly aware. They are extremely various, and of differing degree and kind, just as is the case with men. And we are told that the Lord provides for each according to the degree of his use-wealth, magnificence, luxury, and honor to those performing services of surpassing excellence, but more moderate possessions for those whose uses are less exalted, and to each according to his station. If angelic life is not altogether different from human life on earth; if angelic love is but human love continued, exalted, and made more active; then the need for this work must be felt by the angels. In receiving it from the Lord, they must be aware of a trust, a responsibility, arising from the knowledge that failure to fulfill it will bring loss, suffering, hardship to those they love, and who are felt to be, in some sense, dependent upon them. Without this, there could be no joy in the work. It would not constitute a bond of union between them.

     That this sense of need exists, is certainly implied in the Writings, and it is definitely said that they do perform uses to one another arising out of such needs distinctly felt. This is true even in the celestial heaven, where we find all the general categories of human uses carried on by the angels in their own society. Thus we read:

     "These things may be illustrated by the celestial love in which the angels of the third heaven are. These angels are in love to the Lord more than are the angels in the other heavens, and they have no idea that loving the Lord is anything else than doing goods which are uses, and they say that uses are the Lord with them. By uses they understand the uses and good works of ministry, administration and employment, as well with priests and magistrates as with merchants and workmen. The good works that are not connected with their occupations they do not call uses; they call them alms, benefactions and gratuities." (Div. Love xiii.)

     Furthermore, it is taught that "in heaven every man comes into his own occupation in accordance with correspondence, and the correspondence is not with the occupation, but with the use in each occupation; for there is a correspondence in all things. He who in heaven comes into the employment or occupation corresponding to his use is in much the same condition of life as when he was in the world, since what is spiritual and what is natural make one by correspondences; yet there is this difference, that he then comes into an interior delight, because into spiritual life, which is an interior life, and therefore more receptive of heavenly blessedness." (H. H. 394.)

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     IV.

     That the need for such uses may exist in heaven, and that the angels may actually perform them, in spite of the fact that the Lord Himself provides all things, creating in a moment all that is necessary or desirable to increase the beauty and the perfection of heavenly society, may appear if we reflect more deeply upon the matter. This fact, that the Lord provides all things needful in heaven gratis, is not cited as a difference between life in heaven and life in the world. The Lord actually provides all things necessary to the life of men on earth, and this gratis, although there is a strong appearance that this is not the case. Interiorly, from religion, we also acknowledge that it is the case.

     The Lord's work is infinite. Even the angels can be given but a small, an insignificant, part in it, when compared to the uses which the Lord must constantly perform secretly, by His own immediate operation. The things that men do are as nothing in comparison. Consider the secret operations of the human body, the vital organs of which are kept by the Lord in life and in continual function, unknown to man. Think of the inconceivably complex workings of the human brain, by means of which man is enabled to understand, to will, and to act. Think of the innumerable hidden forces of nature, the powers of which are essential to the accomplishment of any work to which man may set his hand. We are, for the most part, unconscious of these things, because our attention is fixed in that narrow realm of awareness wherein there is the perfect appearance that we act from ourselves and by our own determination. Yet without them we could do nothing.

     So it is in heaven. Even those things which the Lord gives as it were into the hands of the angels, He still does Himself, through them, imparting to them power, ability, and guidance continually, to do even the very least thing. This the angels know. The wiser they are, the more fully do they acknowledge it. But they do not perceive it by any external sense. They realize it only upon reflection.

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When they are in the activity of their use, they have every sense of doing it themselves, of exercising power and responsibility from themselves. The truth is, that the Lord does all things, and has no need of finite creatures to give Him aid. But the ever-present appearance, both with men and angels, is that they are called upon to do things from themselves, and are made responsible for them. And, strange to say, the acknowledgment of the truth does not take away the appearance, but strengthens it. For this appearance is the Lord's own gift to men and angels, by which He seeks to impart His life, His joy, His blessedness to them, that they may live as of themselves, in the image and the likeness of God. The more fully they acknowledge Him, the more fully can He give them this life, and the more perfectly can He make it appear to them to be their own. Thus we read that "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 their 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.)

     The Lord does all things needful for the perfection of the heavens, but a portion of that which He does, He operates through angels, in such a way that it appears to them altogether as if they did it themselves. The higher the angel, the more interior his perception, and the more exalted his wisdom, the greater can be this portion of use which appears as his own. The things which the angels do are then part of the Lord's work. They are in the highest sense needful, and this need is keenly perceived by the angels. By it they are stirred to action, roused to ambition, and gifted with the joy of accomplishment. There are daily uses to be performed in every society to the individuals of whom it is composed. There are things to be done, upon which its life, its unity, its progress and development depend. By performing these uses the angels feel a part in that progression, and make an individual gift toward the ever-increasing perfection of heavenly blessedness. In the doing, each angel is enabled to receive new gifts and new powers from the Lord, and so to progress himself in the reception of Divine Love and Wisdom, And thus the perfection of the whole results from the perfection of every least part.

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     In this task of individual progression, angels can therefore help one another. As each receives new insight from the Lord, he seeks at once to impart it, to communicate it, to all who are around him. Especially does this influx of Divine Truth and Good pass from the wise angels at the center of the society, entrusted with its more important uses, to those less wise, and so down even to the simplest; and ever the angels themselves feel a part, and the delight of service, in its transmission. On the other hand, an answering current of mutual service passes back from the circumferences toward the center. For the less wise provide a willing basis of reception and of representation,-a mirror for the reflection of the light as it descends to them; and this affords a means of increasing the perception of the more interior angels. For it creates a representative environment, which, being seen, opens the mind to the perception of deeper truths, just as in this world, beautiful surroundings, impressed upon the senses, provide a basis for heavenly influx, and uplift the mind to the contemplation of sublime realities. There must be innumerable arts, by which each angel thus presents his own individual reaction to the influx of the Lord's life, as his special gift, his special use, to those who dwell about him. At times, at least, this service must take the form which had been impressed upon his use in the world,-the production of external things, the provision for bodily needs or natural desires.

     This would appear from the direct teaching of the Writings. As an illustration of the fact that the life of heaven is not one of idleness, the three strangers who had been taken to a heavenly society were shown "museums, high schools, colleges, and places where they had literary sports.... Afterwards they were led about the city to see the governors, executive officers and their subordinates, by whom they were taken to see the wonderful works that were done in a spiritual manner by the artificers. When they had been convinced (by these experiences and by the instruction given them) that eternal rest is not idleness, but the delight of some work that is of use, there came some maidens with pieces of embroidery and knitting, the works of their own hands, which they gave to them." (C. L. 207.) If the buildings here implied were provided miraculously by the Lord, without angelic cooperation, what shall we say of the teaching done in them? What was the work of the governors, executive officers, and their subordinates!

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What can be meant by literary sports, unless the angels did actual writing and reading? What were the works done by the artificers? Are not all of these as necessarily the result of ultimate application to a use as were the embroidery and knitting made by the maidens with their own hands?

     In another place Swedenborg describes the handwork of angelic spirits. "I saw," he says, "that with the utmost diligence some angelic spirits were fashioning a lampstand, with its lamps and flowers of the richest ornamentation, in honor of the Lord. For an hour or two I was permitted to witness with what great pains they labored to make everything about it beautiful and representative, they supposing that they were doing it themselves. But to me it was given to perceive that of themselves they could devise nothing at all. At last, after some hours, they said that they had formed a very beautiful representative candelabrum in honor of the Lord, whereat they rejoiced from their very hearts. But I told them that of themselves they had devised and formed nothing at all, but the Lord alone for them. At first they would scarcely believe this, but, being angelic spirits, they were enlightened, and confessed that it was so. So it is with all other representative things, and with every affection and thought in both general and particular, and also with heavenly joys and felicities. The very smallest bit of them is from the Lord alone." (A. C. 552.)

     This teaching makes clear what we have put forward as the true explanation of the apparent paradox, namely, that although the angels know and acknowledge that all things are given them gratis by the Lord, and although many things in heaven appear in a moment, without even apparent mediation of any finite being, yet it is also true that the angels do external works connected with ultimate needs. The law involved would seem to be universal, and to mean that every man continues in heaven to do "in a spiritual manner" that which he had learned to love as the work of his life on earth, feeling that there is a necessity for it there, and that by means of it he can make a positive contribution to the well-being of his society, resting at the time in the complete appearance that he does this work from himself, even while he interiorly, subconsciously, acknowledges that this is not the case,-an acknowledgment that immediately becomes conscious upon reflection.

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     Of course, the things thus done are not really external uses to the body, as they would be on earth. They are uses to the mind, to the spirit. This is involved in its being said of the remarkable works of artificers there, that they were "done in a spiritual manner," and in the fact that the purpose in the construction of the candelabrum was that it might be a "representative." Every object in the spiritual world is representative, and in its representation lies its prime use. Wherefore, all the uses performed by the angels, even the most ultimate, are spiritual in quality. The needs which they seek to meet by their labor are needs of the spirit. They are fully aware that the external objects are not in themselves the uses to be performed, but merely represent them. It must also be true that these representations vary in kind and degree according to the kind and degree of the use which the angel is performing. Those which appear to the highest celestial angels are not seen at all by those of the lower heavens, being indescribable, and above their comprehension. But the law applies to all alike, that the angels perform what are to them ultimate uses; that they do this by conscious application to some work; that this work is perceived by them as important and necessary, as a duty and a responsibility with which they are entrusted, and that unless this were the case, there would be no delight or happiness in the use. Thus they lead a busy, active life, full of interests ever new, with opportunities for service continually opening before them, rousing their love, stirring their imagination, calling forth their latent abilities, inspiring them to high endeavor, and yielding unceasingly that joy of accomplishment which alone can satisfy the demands of human aspiration and human love.

     V.

     What, then, shall we say of the peace which exists in heaven? There is no room here for a sabbath state of rest from labor, of calm enjoyment, of quiet contentment, of complete satisfaction, which lulls the mind to inactivity. It must be a peace that is one with life. If the Lord is the Prince of Peace, He is also Life Itself. This harmony between the genuine idea of peace and that of life is indicated in many teachings of the Writings. For peace is there compared, not to the death of winter, when there is apparent cessation of life, but to the spring, when Nature wakes from sleep and, under the impulse of new warmth, stirs all things with hope and promise.

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It is compared to the dawn, when the night of rest is over, and when, with renewed powers, the plant and animal creation respond to the insistent urge of life to action. "So it is with the state of peace in the Lord's kingdom. In the state of peace all celestial and spiritual things are as it were in their morning or springtide flower and smile, that is, in their happiness itself." (A. C. 1726.)

     "In regard to peace," we read, "in the supreme sense it signifies the Lord Himself, and hence in the internal sense His kingdom; and it is the Lord's Divine inmostly affecting the good in which are those who are therein." (A. C. 3780.) Peace is not inactivity; it is harmony with the Divine Life. Where this exists, however great the activity may be, there is no sense of strain, no sense of doubt, uneasiness or anxiety, which are the real enemies of peace. There is inmost calmness, assurance, trust, and thus happiness. When the Lord is worshiped from the heart, His love is received without resistance, without disturbance, without a disruption of its harmony. This is the cause of peace in heaven. It is the inmost source of peace with men. It orders all things that are in the mind, and brings them into easy and gentle cooperation. It prevents them from clashing, and from destroying one another. It reduces indefinite loves and indefinite uses to a unity, so that each, in the exercise of its own life, will not deprive others of their activity, but will enrich all the rest, and in turn receive enrichment from them.

     Wherefore, we read that "peace signifies all things in their aggregate which are from the Lord, and thence all things of heaven and the church, and in them the beatitudes of life. These are the constituents of peace in the supreme or inmost sense. It follows from this that peace is charity, spiritual security, and internal tranquillity; for when man is in the Lord, he is at peace with his neighbor, which is charity, and in protection against the hells, which is spiritual security; and when he is at peace with his neighbor, and protected against the hells, he is in internal tranquillity from evils and falsities." (A. R. 306.) And again: "Divine peace is in the Lord; it springs from the union of the Divine Itself and the Divine Human in Him. The Divine of peace in heaven is from the Lord, springing from His conjunction with the angels of heaven, and in particular from the conjunction of good and truth in each angel.

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These are the origins of peace. From this it can be seen that peace in the heavens is the Divine inmostly affecting with blessedness everything good therefrom, and from this is every joy of heaven; also that it is, in its essence, the Divine joy of the Lord's love, resulting from His conjunction with heaven and with everyone there. This joy, felt by the Lord in the angels, and by the angels from the Lord, is peace. By derivation from this the angels have everything that is blessed, delightful and happy, or that which is called heavenly joy." (H. H. 286.)

     Peace may therefore be defined as the delight of all the activity of love which is in harmony with the Divine, which disposes the inmosts of the mind into accord and sympathy with the Lord's will, and brings man to feel happiness in the perception that he is being carried along on the stream of the Divine Providence, under the infinite care of an all-wise and an all-loving Father of Mercy. And because all such activity tends to promote the supreme end of creation, therefore it is one with use, and the delight of peace is none other than the delight of use. That which is opposed to peace is the delight of evil, which, because it runs counter to the Divine Life, causes internal friction, strife, and rebellion.

     Thus the only true peace is that of victory over evil,-the conquest of the loves of self and the world which oppose and reject the inflowing life of the Lord. It can be achieved only as the result of regeneration. The purpose of life on earth is that we may be regenerated, that we may meet and overcome the evils which are present with us by heredity and by environment, and so root them out that our love, and our life thence, may be brought into harmony with the Divine. When this purpose is accomplished, the days of labor are over and the sabbath state begins,-the state of inmost peace which is known only in heaven.

     After regeneration is fully accomplished, there is no further need to remain on earth. For this reason, peace, as to its full enjoyment and realization, belongs not to this world, but to heaven. Yet, with all who are regenerating, even in the midst of temptation, in the midst of suffering and anguish of mind, heaven is inmostly present, and with it peace. From this we have courage to fight. From this we have hope of victory.

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And from time to time, in rare moments, we may be given to feel its presence, and to know in some slight degree its joy. This is especially true of those who have the Heavenly Doctrine, who see in it the Glorified Human of the Lord, who know that He has come,-a Divine Savior. The interior truth of the Word, unfolded as it is in the Writings, because it reveals the face of the Lord and gives to men the perception of His protecting Providence, is called the Truth of Peace. It gives knowledge of evil, and power to resist it. It reveals the laws of life, that we may knowingly strive to bring ourselves into accord with them. It imparts sure knowledge of the world to come, and makes known the true quality of heavenly life. It affords the means whereby we may increasingly bring together the perplexing contradictions of the outer world, and resolve them into a harmonious pattern, full of Divine meaning, reflecting the Lord's infinite mercy.

     The truth of Divine Revelation, the truth spoken by the Lord in His Second Coming,-this is the way of life, and the way of peace. To learn that truth for the sake of application to life is to "seek peace and pursue it." It will restore Divine Order to the world, will build anew the kingdom of God on earth, and will lead to a spiritual blessing greater than any which has ever been known to men. This truth of peace, received in heart and life, in trust and faith, is that of which the Lord spake when He said to His disciples before His crucifixion: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you." (John 14:27.) "In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33.)

     DISCUSSION OF BISHOP DE CHARMS' ADDRESS.

     Rev. Gilbert Smith: "I had not the opportunity to support the nomination of Bishop de Charms as Assistant Bishop, but now that the action has been taken by the Assembly I wish to express what has been so unanimously felt,-that the Divine Providence has led us to choose this man for the work of the General Church." Mr. Smith had listened to Bishop de Charms' address with delight, and regarded the paper as an expression of his service and use to the Church. We should now go back to our societies realizing the point made in the paper, that there is a power from the Divine sphere which can inspire the activities of men when, upon reflection, they outline the uses that are to be performed in the Lord's Name, and perform them by His power.

     Dr. E. E. Iungerich: While listening with great pleasure to this profound and beautifully uttered and expressed speech, at the same time I felt a little sorry for the speaker of tomorrow, because so much was said about the occupations of the angels that there can be very little left to say. . . .

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The address cited a Memorable Relation which refers to the modern world's assumption that heaven consists in external rest from labor. It reminded me how beautifully, but mistakenly, the late Alfred Tennyson expressed the sentiment in his sad poem, "The May Queen," when he said that the other world was the place where " the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." If he had changed it around, and said "where the wicked are at rest, and the weary cease from troubling,"-the weary giving up in their temptations and their solicitude for the morrow, and the wicked resting from their concupiscences by being put to work,-he would have come nearer to the truth.

     Now, in regard to the subject of human aspiration and heavenly peace, we really have in those terms what we call man's reactive, and his trust in the Lord's guidance. Human aspirations involve the full exercise of a man's best powers; but something more is needed than pure individualism. You must have that peace which comes from your activities, your entering into the system of the great uses that spring from the other world. I was interested in considering the subject in a somewhat different light recently,-as to the benefits that the human mind gets when its twin receptacles come into a marriage union, which originates in the marriage of good and truth, and must also, says the Doctrine, correspond to the marriage of the Lord and the Church. It is not enough that it originates from the former, unless it also corresponds to the latter; nor that it corresponds to the latter, unless it originates from the first. The marriage of the Lord and the Church bespeaks those great uses in the Gorand Man wherein there are cooperations on the part of all men. Conjugial love, the warming bond between the twin receptacles of the mind, does not originate or descend from this; yet it must correspond to it. For a man directly depends upon the Lord, and not upon a corporate relationship of all men to the Lord. Conjugial love in his mind is therefore an individual matter, descending and originating from the direct emanations from the Sun of Heaven. It is the goal of human aspirations. But an individual must then come into that heavenly peace which consists in his activities being rightly ordered with relation to the activities of others. That is why conjugial love, which has originated in the marriage of good and truth, must also correspond to the marriage of the Lord and the Church.

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CHURCH FINANCES 1930

CHURCH FINANCES       HUBERT HYATT       1930

     (At The Fourteenth General Assembly, June 17, 1930.)

     The Report of the Treasurer of the General Church to this Assembly has been placed before you in the pamphlet which has been distributed. (See NEW CHURCH LIFE, August, 1930, pages 497-500.) This Report, for the most part, advocates the sharing of the financial support of the General Church in some degree by every member. Such support has never been given by more than about half our members, notwithstanding the long-continued efforts of General Church Treasurers and others. These efforts should be aided both by public opinion and by education regarding the need for supporting the General Church by all. There is neither sufficient education being given, nor has sufficient public opinion been developed. For such public opinion and for such education an appeal is made.

     The failure to arouse general support for the cause of the General Church is often ascribed either to lack of means or to lack of interest among individual members, but it is not reasonable to suppose that any substantial portion of half our members lack sufficient interest or means to give any support whatsoever to the General Church.

     The difficulty must be due to other causes. Possibly it is largely due to misapprehension of one kind or another.

     One such misapprehension consists of the idea that contributions to the General Church are not effective in small amounts. This is discussed in the Report under consideration, and it is shown therein that even the smallest contributions are effective and, when seriously given, are also equitable, appreciated, and useful in the fullest sense of the words.

     Another such misapprehension is regarding the relation between our members,-the General Church, the Academy, Bryn Athyn Church, and all our other Societies. There exists a great deal of confusion regarding these relationships, and it needs to be swept away. But if we consider only the essentials, and forget the somewhat regretful multiplicity of our organizations, there is nothing intricate about them.

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They are actually quite simple.

     No matter to which of our societies or many other organizations we belong, each of us, first and foremost, is a member of the General Church. It is the General Church which binds us all together into a single unit with a single purpose. It is the General Church which gives the strength of numbers and the strength of unity to our societies. If we move from one society to another, it is the General Church we seek. If we move from a society to a place where no society exists, we carry the General Church with us, and it is our hope that others of the General Church will join us in sufficient numbers to form a General Church society.

     Our first allegiance is to the General Church, which, if we brush aside technicalities and regard only realities, contains within it all of our societies, all of our schools, all of our many other organizations. It contains within it the Academy, which, if we again brush aside technicalities, bears practically the same relation to the General Church as does the local school to the local church society.

     There are many who make no distinction between the General Church and the Academy, who confuse them both with the Bryn Athyn Society, and who regard all three of them vaguely and in the same category as Bryn Athyn institutions. But the General Church is no more a Bryn Athyn institution than the British Empire is a London institution, or than the U. S. A. is a Washington institution. Obligations to the British Empire are paid at London, and obligations to the United States are paid at Washington. Similarly, obligations to the General Church are paid at Bryn Athyn. But in paying these obligations you are not supporting a local institution for a local advantage.

     There is no confusion of General Church funds with Bryn Athyn Church or Academy funds. The three are kept entirely separate, and no General Church funds are ever employed for Bryn Athyn or Academy purposes. This has always been the case, and there is no intention of changing the practice. Nor should there be any misunderstanding regarding the exact purposes for which General Church funds are employed. In the annual Treasury Reports the amounts and disposition of all expenditures are listed. There are no expenditures which are not listed.

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     Such misapprehensions as these show the need for the public expression of convinced opinion, and for the education which is asked. Many of us can be of useful service to the Church by helping to clear away such confusion. It cannot be expected that anyone voluntarily will give hard-earned and needed funds to a cause about which he is confused, or to an institution whose real functions are unknown to him. He cannot be expected to support uses about which he has no clear idea.

     There is the idea, held by many, that the support of their pastor and the work of their local society is inadequate, and therefore that they cannot afford to support the work of the General Church. Is such an idea sound? It is sound neither theoretically nor practically. It is not sound theoretically, because each and every member of that society is primarily a member of the General Church. Before he is a member of that society, he is a member of the General Church; and therefore his primary allegiance and responsibility is to the General Church. And it is not sound practically, because the strength of any society is so largely dependent upon the strength of the General Church. Exercise your imagination, and attempt to visualize where your society would be now, if there had never been, and if there were no hope of there being, a General Church. If you do this, and take the facts into account, the situation will be perfectly evident.

     From the church-financing point of view we may say there are three kinds of societies in the General Church:

     1. There are those where the society work may be regarded as carried on with a reasonable amount of comfort, where the pastoral and school work is not poorly supported, where the buildings and equipment are not inadequate.

     2. There are those where this is not the case, where salaries and equipment are not adequate, where more is needed in the way of support for the local church and school work, but where, nevertheless, the local work is carried on in its entirety by local support.

     3. There are those societies which are not self-supporting, where aid is extended by the General Church, where there could be no society functioning if such aid were not extended.

     It is reasonable to take for granted that the support given the General Church by the members of these three kinds of societies will not be on the same basis.

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Charity does begin at home, if not in end, at least in time. Where societies are not self-supporting, where the needs are definitely greater than the support, it is important that the members of such societies give their best efforts towards meeting those needs, and towards making their society an independent, self-supporting entity.

     Nevertheless, in every society, regardless of its financial condition, the members thereof should make at least some regular contribution to the General Church. There are circumstances where those contributions should be merely nominal. But they should be something. Unless it is actually a practical impossibility, every member should periodically make at least some definite contribution to the General Church, as a personal, tangible recognition of his undertaking when he became a member. Membership in the General Church is individual, and the support should be individual: Some token should go to the General Church in recognition of the use which the General Church plays in his life. This may be no more than a token, but this, at least, should be given regularly.

     Such procedure will not work to the disadvantage of any society in any way. Rather the reverse. It is not so much the actual money involved; it is the spirit involved in an attitude. It cannot be explained on any merely money basis. But it is a matter of experience in a number of cases, wherever it has developed, that a substantial increase in the numbers of those giving support to the General Church has been coincident with increased support for local work. The result depends upon the spirit involved. If there is a spirit of mere persuasion, the results will not be happy. But if there is a spirit of conviction; if there is knowledge of the circumstances; if it is realized that there are uses to be performed, that there are obligations to be fulfilled; if the action is genuinely voluntary; then the results will be happy. And it will be found that increased support for the General Church will result in increased support for local work, and that there will be a spirit of helpfulness and cooperation which cannot otherwise be obtained. It will demonstrate the benefits derived from the lack of a near-sighted selfishness, from the recognition that the parts are not greater than the whole, from realizing that we have a common aim and an undivided leadership, and that, as in the human form, every least part must give support to the whole, in order that the whole may properly serve the parts.

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     Much more could be said, and needs to be said, but for this occasion I conclude with this: The General Church is an adult organization. It is the one and only body to which we all belong. It is the General Church for which we are bringing up our children. We expect them to belong when they become adults. We want them to marry, and bring up their children, and have them belong when they become adults. We want this for ourselves, for our children, and for our children's children. We want this for ourselves, and for them, whether we or they be in Bryn Athyn or Durban, in Stockholm or Pittsburgh, in Toronto or Australia, in one country or another. Wherever they are, we want them to belong to the General Church, not necessarily to this society or to that society, but to the General Church.

     For this, and all that it implies, we want, a strong General Church. And there is but one way we can have that, on the plane of which I am speaking. That way is in the acceptance of responsibility, in the sharing of responsibility, not by a few of you, not by half of you, but by all of us.
CORPORATION OF THE GENERAL CHURCH 1930

CORPORATION OF THE GENERAL CHURCH       GEOFFREY S. CHILDS       1930

     A REPORT OF THE PUBLIC: MEETING OF THE MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM, A CORPORATION.

     Held at Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 17, 1930, at 3.00 p.m.

     Mr. Raymond Pitcairn presided at the Corporation meeting, at which thirty-seven members were present.

     The following named gentlemen signed the Corporation Register, and were thereupon admitted to membership, and participated in the deliberations of the meeting: Messrs. Payson W. Lyman, Gilbert M. Smith, T. P. Bellinger, G. A. Hallowell, Frank Wilson, Robert W. Schnarr.

     A Nominating Committee was appointed by the Chair, to Present the names of candidates for the new Executive Committee.

     The Minutes of the Annual Meeting held in London on August 8th, 1928, were approved. The Report of the Executive Committee as printed in the Reports to the Fourteenth General Assembly was approved.

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The printed Report of the Treasurer was approved, subject to audit.

     The following were elected members of the Executive Committee:

Rt. Rev. N. D. Pendleton           Charles G. Merrell
Rt. Rev. George de Charms           Alvin E. Nelson
Edward C. Bostock                    Seymour G. Nelson
C. Raynor Brown                    Harold F. Pitcairn
Geoffrey S. Childs                    Raymond Pitcairn
Randolph W. Childs                    Colley Pryke
Hubert Hyatt                     J. Henry Ridgway
Alexander P. Lindsay                    Rudolph Roschman
Samuel S. Lindsay                    Paul Synnestvedt
Nils E. Loven                     Victor Tilson

     Messrs. Walter C. Childs and Jacob Schoenberger were elected Honorary Members of the Executive Committee.

     A Resolution was passed in affectionate memory of Mr. Richard Roschman. The Secretary reported that a Resolution in memory of Dr. Felix Boericke had previously been passed by the Executive Committee.

     EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING.

     At a meeting of the Executive Committee, held the same day, at which twelve members of the Committee were present, the following Officers were chosen: President, Bishop N. D. Pendleton; Vice President, Rt. Rev. George de Charms; Treasurer, Mr. Hubert Hyatt; Secretary, Mr. Geoffrey S. Childs. Finance Committee: Messrs. Raymond Pitcairn, Edward C. Bostock and Hubert Hyatt.

     GEOFFREY S. CHILDS,
          Secretary.

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EDUCATION THE HOPE OF THE NEW CHURCH 1930

EDUCATION THE HOPE OF THE NEW CHURCH       Rev. C. E. DOERING       1930

     (At the Fourteenth General Assembly, June 17, 1930.)

     The title of my address as printed in the program,-"A Phase of New Church Education,"-is vague and indefinite. When the program was made up, the matter had not yet been fully formulated in my mind. I am much better off now that I have written the paper. Yet it is difficult to state in a word what I am going to talk about. What I have had in mind is trying to solve a problem for myself. In mathematics, the first requisite in solving a problem is to formulate clearly in one's mind what the problem is. So I will state the problem: "What heritage do we, as New Church parents, desire to leave and give to our children when they reach maturity, that the Church may be more securely founded on the earth, and may progress more and more into the truths of her Revelation, which is the heritage the Lord has promised her?"

     Or I might state the question a little differently: "What preparation should we, as parents, give our children, so that they will have the mental equipment necessary to become members of the Church and develop her uses?" Or perhaps I might state it more briefly: "What is our immediate end is education, and how are we going to accomplish it?"

     There can be no question about the ultimate end, which is heaven, and with which education must be consonant; but the life of the child and youth is not directly a preparation for heaven, but such a preparation that when they come to maturity they may, by a life of uses, regenerate and thus be prepared for heaven. Our problem, therefore, is not regeneration immediately, which comes after adult age is reached, but rather of preparing for regeneration.

     And, specifically, just what mental characteristics are we to strive for, and what may we expect by our education? By education, let me say at the outset, I do not mean schooling alone, but the effect of all the influences, spiritual and natural, which in any way have to do with developing mind and character.

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The question is a live one with us all the time, and upon the right solution of it will depend to a great extent what our action in the matter will be; for we should not only have a clear idea as to the mental development which is desired for our children and youth, but also how that development is to be effected. This will depend upon the first question; for if we have not clearly in mind what we want to do, but simply drift with our young, hoping they will be of the Church, without forming any policy or plan looking thereto, we will not be in a position to be the spiritual leaders which Providence has ordained that we should be.
     Many of us are at considerable pains to plan for the natural careers of our children, and sometimes make sacrifices to the end that they may enter into some profession or calling. I do not in any way wish to discourage parents doing so. It may be a great blessing to the parents to do the planning and make the sacrifice, but what I ask for is that there be the same thought and care given to planning and providing for those eternal things of life which will give the bias toward religious things, which, after all, are more vital and more important than the other, and need to be in those other things that they may be living.
     Assuming that parents have the spiritual welfare of their children at heart, nevertheless the lack of seeing what is necessary to be done has prevented many well-meaning people from planning the best spiritually for their children. The spheres of the world, of which we are all a part, and the necessities of natural life, have sometimes so engrossed us that we have thought more of preparing our children for earning a livelihood than of their real, spiritual growth. And yet the one need not be inimical to the other, and both can and should be developed together.
     The matter has been discussed from the beginning of the New Church; and the literature of the Church, particularly the early literature, contains a number of references to the question which are worthy of notice. For from the beginning of the New Church, the question of keeping the children in the Church, and of the Church growing from the children, was cause for grave concern, because it was seen that most of the children did not remain in the faith of their fathers. The Church was not increasing from internal growth, and one voice after another was raised, calling upon the Church to take up the question and solve it.

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     The first proposal to meet this need was for the establishment of a New Church School. Thus we read in an article in the AURORA as early as 1800: "When we consider the difficulty we meet in removing prejudice, when we consider the labor lost by endeavoring to root out opinions that have once gained a form in the mind, I am surprised that no school has been established upon New Church principles." Again we read in the AURORA, referring to the education of children from the Doctrines: "The will and understanding are the distinguishing principles of the human mind. From a right or wrong direction of formation of these the whole man is perfected or degraded, and this bias toward perfection or degradation begins in infancy." (Vol. II, p. 209.) We see here a recognition of the implantation of good remains, and an application of the old adage,
     As the twig is bent, so the tree will grow." Later, in the INTELLECTUAL REPOSITORY, "the purpose of New Church Education" is said to be "the development of good dispositions in the will and right conceptions in the understanding."
     Other articles of a similar import were written, and then, in 1822, we note the establishment of what were called New Church day schools, following closely upon a series of articles published in the INTELLECTUAL REPOSITORY describing the work of Pestalozzi at the Yverdon Institute. These schools, however, were not primarily for the education of the children of the Church, but were mission schools whose main purpose was to proselyte; and as such they served their purpose, as long as the teaching of the New Church religion was made an important part of their instruction.
     But these schools did not answer the question of keeping New Church children in the Church, or of building the Church from them; for they were not attended by them. This lack so aroused Mr. Malins, a lay New Churchman of London, that he wrote a number of articles on the subject of education, bringing out the difference between an education that is based throughout on the Doctrines of the Church and an education in which the falsities of the Old Church and of a godless science are inculcated. He worked persistently for the establishing of a school for the children of New Church parents alone; and, in August, 1827, he addressed a group of about one hundred people attending the General Conference in London, with a definite proposition to establish such a school.

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Part of his address takes up the question as to why children do not remain in the Church, and how they might be kept in the Church, so I take the liberty of quoting an extract from it:

     "It must be a matter of deepest regret to consider that, out of the number of these children (born of New Church parents), many have not remained steadfast in our faith. In some of these cases it is to be feared the fault has lain with the parents, but in part, without such an institution as I wish to see formed, the evil is unavoidable, few having the opportunity of entirely conducting the education of their offspring themselves. All must wish to see their children grow up to be ornaments of the Church which they themselves are convinced is the true Church of the Lord; but where the plant of her heavenly life and doctrines is left to spring up spontaneously, there is little room for surprise if it never makes it appearance." (I. R., 1828, p. 47.)

     Again he says: "The Lord calls our little ones to come to Him, but we deliver them over to the stranger and enemies of our faith. This is a crying and grievous evil which appears to weaken us in the most vital part. I say the most vital part, for we have reason to expect that children of those members who have been some years readers of the Writings of our heaven-taught author, who have taken his precepts as the rule of their lives, and thereby made some progress in the regenerate life,-we have reason, I say, to expect that children of such parents should become pillars of the Church; and even the children of all who come to an acknowledgment of these truths, we hope to see grow up in the love and practice of them. But experience has brought us bitter disappointment. To know that such evil exists, and to have it in our power to remedy it, and not to do so, may surely be considered an omission of an important duty."

     The remedy he proposed was the establishment of a New Church school, and the meeting endorsed his proposition with enthusiasm, so that in February, 1528, he opened a school for New Church and girls at Woodford, near London. But for various causes it was a failure from the beginning, primarily because there was not sufficient interest among New Church people to support it by their children to it.

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The need was not as yet generally seen, although the editor of the INTELLECTUAL REPOSITORY supported it with editorials and notices. The New Church public was not awake to the necessity. Apparently there was no realization of the need of educating the young people ill the sphere of the Church. As Mr. Malins says, "the plant of heavenly life with the young was left to spring up spontaneously," and so he could not get hold of the children, because the parents were indifferent to the advantages he had to offer. The editor of the INTELLECTUAL REPOSITORY wrote an editorial dealing with this in no uncertain terms. In the January, 1828, number of that magazine he said:

     "It is but too true; but painful as the truth is, the best interests of the New Church and of its members require that it be not concealed that the religious education of the young has been too little attended to among us. Persons have embraced with joy the views of the New Church, and have exulted in being delivered by them from the obscure notions with which they formerly had been perplexed; but they too often have thought or acted as if they thought that the principles which they found so clear and delightful were the dictates of nature itself, and that the human mind, left to the teaching of nature alone, would spontaneously conceive or adopt the same. They seem to have supposed nothing to be necessary but to avoid instilling into the youthful mind the doctrines of error, and that then the doctrines of Divine Truth would enter of themselves. Alas! Alas! If man were now born in the order for which he was created, this expectation would be well founded; whereas the loves of self and the world are now the only motives that reign in the will by birth; and these seek, give birth to, and spontaneously adopt as their allies in the understanding, not the dictates of truth, but the persuasion of error.

     "The reason that persons educated in erroneous doctrines often embrace the heavenly doctrines of the New Jerusalem is because false as their former- persuasions were they have imbibed by means of them a concern about Divine things; and this concern being awakened, and the sentiments they had been taught being incapable of satisfying it, they were led to accept with eagerness the views which supplied what they felt to be wanting.

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     "But let a child glow up to man's estate without any concern being awakened in his mind respecting the things of eternity, and it will require some unusually strong excitement to awaken it afterward; and if, as it is feared, evil habits have also been formed, should religion at last be thought of, it is but too probable that the false doctrine of the day may be preferred to the genuine truth."

     We note here the suggestion of the need of the active cooperation of parents with the Lord in implanting a concern for Divine things, if they are to expect their children to become interested in those Divine things. And the writer points his argument as to why people come into the New Church from the Old, by the statement that, no matter what falses they may have imbibed, nevertheless those who have come into the New Church have had aroused in them a concern for Divine things. The idea he gives is, that they have had aroused in them a love of truth which was not satisfied until they found the doctrines of the New Church; and the conclusion is that parents owe it to their children to arouse this love of truth in them. And, he adds, this could be done by establishing a New Church school founded on the Doctrines of the Church, that children may thereby be educated in the sphere of the Church. But the argument was unavailing. The time was not yet ripe.

     Not only in England, but also in America, we find that the subject was active. In the second quarter of the last century, in the PRECURSOR, a magazine published by the Western Convention, we find three articles signed by "Alpha," entitled, "Why do children of New Church parents so often grow up out of the Church?" While the writer recognizes the use of education, he holds that the difficulty is more radical,-"that education does not go to the root of the matter." He says: "Children cannot be expected to become true, shining, and abiding members of the New Church until care is taken to have the true conjugial principle formed in their parents before they are begotten." "The radical defect lies not in neglecting to correct bad propensities in our children, though we are all perhaps lamentably deficient in this, but in not thinking or failing to correct these propensities in ourselves before we beget them." He produces arguments for this view, and decides "that offspring must necessarily partake of the forms and qualities of their parents." He recognizes, however, that there must be a mode of counteracting this hereditary transflux, or otherwise mankind, once having become evil, would always remain so, without hope of reformation.

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This, he says, "is effected, in the Divine mercy, by an influx of the Divine Being immediately into the child without passing through parents. In consequence of this, the child is kept from any necessity of acting out hereditary propensities, in order that the perverse inclinations of those propensities may be rectified. These are rectified by education, and by the exercise of the child's own faculties when he comes to years of maturity and sound rationality. Hence the corrective powers of education are not less important and necessary because they are not so radical." But, he adds, the Divine Law still is:

     "These words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart" as the first law; and the second law is, "Thou shalt diligently teach them to thy children."

     The correction of children by education, where reformation has not begun with the parents, this the same writer (Alpha) compares to the washing of the outside of the cup and platter, while the inside is full of all uncleanness. "Education does not make, it only develops the man," is his thesis throughout. Although he admits that the Lord can and does save all who are willing, yet he holds that this is an act of immediate influx, without passing through the parents. One might ask whether the Lord does not so act with all children, in that He holds their hereditary inclinations in check by the sphere of the surrounding angels, until He can gift them with the remains of good and true affections, and thereby begin the initiament of a new will in the understanding. Yet He does not do this without means, and these are largely at the disposal of the parents to whom He has given the child; not entirely, however, for His operation is also through the angels; indeed, His work is performed by means of all the influences, both spiritual and natural, which in any way affect the child.

     However, these articles advocating New Church education, as well as others in the NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE, had their effect toward the establishment of New Church schools for New Church children. A school was established in Cincinnati, where the Western Convention met, and others were established in New England. But I need not enter into their history, as none of them lasted many years; for the leader of the Convention took the position that New Church schools are not a church use, but a secular one.

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     Bishop Benade took the opposite view, and, as early as 1856, laid it down as a principle that the use of education was a use of charity of the Church. Yet the founders of the Academy, in their first instrument of organization, did not stress schools, but they did stress faithfulness and loyalty to the Doctrines. They mentioned the training of theological students as a first use of charity, but their first effort was expended on a campaign to bring the Church to a study of the Doctrines and obedience to their teachings; and the organizing of a theological school was necessary to the accomplishment of this end,-a school where men could be trained who would not only know the Doctrines in their purity, but also preach them. This led to the establishing of a college, where youths could be trained for the theological school, and finally to the establishment of schools of all grades, from the youngest to that of the theological school.

     When these were established, apparently something new in society-work came about. Bishop Benade, recognizing that the education of children began at birth, at the hands of their parents, gave a series of lectures on the education of children, and these were attended, not only by the students of the theological school and college, but also by members of the Advent Church of Philadelphia. By these lectures he brought home to the parents and others the wonders that are revealed in the Writings on the subject of education; of the spiritual and natural influences operating on the mind of every child. By means of these lectures there was created with parents what may be termed a state of enthusiasm and active interest, and they were stimulated to make the effort to study how they might best train their children for more than worldly success. There
was also created a most affirmative attitude, and a sympathy with the efforts of the school. There was given them something of a vision of what might be done in the education of children, that the Lord and angels might do their work with them, unobstructed by misdirection and bad training, that they might be spiritually fed with proper delights, since it is by these delights that remains are implanted. Unfortunately, these lectures, except those on Accommodation, Application, and Conjunction, were never written out by Bishop Benade. Notes were taken by one of his students, however and published under the title of Conversations on Education, and these have been of great value to those who have wished for some guiding principles in the bringing up of their children.

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     The General Church, from its beginning, has adopted the policy that the most hopeful field for the increase of the New Church, and for its progress, is with the children of the Church, and so has encouraged and adopted education as a use of charity. But parents are still confronted with the problem of educating their children, and all do not know how to meet it. All parents, whether New Church or Old, wish their children so educated that they will be successful in their life's work; and New Church parents have, or should have, a broader outlook. They wish for their spiritual success, as well as their material one.

     Something of how to accomplish this end is brought to us in the Conversations on Education. In this work it is shown that the organism of man is both spiritual and natural; that the spiritual and natural worlds make a one; and, therefore, that the spiritual and natural should not be separated in education. The laws given in the Writings concerning the reformation and regeneration of the adult as an adult are applicable by accommodation to the instruction and education of the child as a child; and so a study of those laws will be of aid to us in the work before us. That man is born with faculties which are to become understanding and will, and how they may become so: and the reasons as to why they are given man, and not to animals, is set forth in conformity with the teaching: "The understanding is given man, in order that he may contemplate ends and choose the best, but will is given him in order that he may produce into act, and thus obtain that which he has for an end." (Word Exp. 916.)

     Thus the forming of the understanding and the will are the object of instruction and education. Both are to be formed, that the understanding may contemplate ends and choose the best from all the things that are before it in its imagination, and that the will may produce and bring these ends into act. Neither will alone nor understanding alone makes the mind, but both together make it, and are the real man. And this mind is formed by all the influences affecting it, including those which proceed immediately from the Lord and flow in by an internal way, though these are qualified and determined by the media or forms through which they pass to the mind, which media or forms may be true, orderly and good, or false, disorderly and evil.

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If the media are true, orderly and good, the rational in the understanding will be born and developed, so that the youth, on arriving at maturity, will be qualified to see and choose aright, and his will inspired to determine into act what is chosen by the rational. Angels, spirits, parents, teachers, and all objects, animate and inanimate, are the instruments used by the Lord to bring this about. It is true that there is an immediate influx, apart from the mediate, but this is rather into the internal and unconscious mind, with a disposition to receive affirmatively whatever comes to it from without that is in harmony with the soul, with the conatus to bring it forth into use. (A. C. 5486, 5732.)

     That these faculties may grow properly, each state of the development of the mind of the child until adult age must be properly provided for in its place. Mothers are now taking great care that their children have just the kind of natural food that is suitable and nourishing for each particular period of the child's life. But how much more important it is to bring to its senses that which will truly nourish its soul! How to give this nourishment we can find out only from the Writings.

     Next year, the Calendar Readings from the Writings will be from the second volume of the Arcana Celestia, where the internal sense of the story of Abram, Ishmael and Isaac is treated of, in which sense there is described the growth of the mind of the Lord while on earth, from His first apperception to the birth of the genuine rational. And so it also treats of the growth of the states of the mind with each human being born on earth. These readings, therefore, should be particularly profitable to all parents who are in the love of the spiritual welfare of their children. In that portion of the Arcana they will find what is necessary to be done in each age of the child, that one age may follow another in orderly succession, that each state may prepare for the following one, and the succeeding one be both a protection and a means by which the vital principle in the preceding one may have a corresponding ultimate, until the mind is formed and prepared for a life in use, so that what was implanted in early infancy may become the active force of the child's life.

     But in reaching this state the child passes through many states.

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Remains of innocence and charity must be implanted, and care taken that obstacles be not put in the way of the child's being gifted by the Lord with a fulness of these remains. Obedience needs to become a habit, that there may be obedience to the Lord. The imagination needs to be cultivated by the stories of the Word, in order that there may be the formation of those moral and spiritual qualities of the mind and spirit which gift the child with moral discriminations, and so begin the formation of a conscience. Then, with the accumulation of knowledges and the affection corresponding to them, the natural rational is conceived and born from that affection by means of the knowledges and sciences. To most of us this age is a very trying period. For although, within the affection, there is something of heaven, which has not yet its proper ultimate to serve as a matrix, yet it stirs the imagination to form ideals and dreams of the future; thus, while this affection has something of heaven in it, it has also much of the natural in it; and it is not until the affection changes through contemplating uses, and becomes the affection of truth in place of the affection of knowledge and science, that the real or genuine rational can be conceived.

     We cannot gift the youth with this affection by simply teaching the truth, but we can do much in inspiring it by the way in which we teach it, and the sphere we bring about in the teaching. A suggestion that may be of help to us may be gathered from what we are told concerning the speech of angels: "Since the speech of angels corresponds to their affections, which belong to their love, and their love is love to the Lord and towards the neighbor, it is evident that it affects not only the ears, but also the interiors of the mind of those who hear it. There was a certain spirit, remarkable for his hardness of heart, with whom an angel was speaking, and who at length was so affected by his discourse that he burst into tears. He said that he could not help it, for what he heard was love itself speaking." (H. H. 238.)

     Do we not see an illustration of this in the case of those who are known as inspirational teachers? Froebel, from his great love of children, seemed to be able to impart more than knowledges. Apparently he was able to stir something in the interiors of his hearers. And is it not this, in addition to imparting knowledges of good and true forms, that will be most vital in forming that quality of the mind which will be the essential life of the rational, and best prepare the child to begin the life of reformation and regeneration on reaching adult age?

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For will it not stir that affection of truth which is the sustaining power and main element in the establishment of the Church, and of its continued existence and increase! If we can inspire this affection, and at the same time impart knowledges of genuine truths, we need have no fear for the future of the Church. For those who are so inspired will have that by which the imagination of their thought can be formed into the order and form of heaven,-a receptacle in which the angels of heaven can be present, and help to prepare them for their final abode in their midst. The minds of youth will then be furnished with the understanding of truth, in science, philosophy, and religion; and, what is more vital, they will have aroused the affection of truth and a faith in religion, which, together with the understanding of truths, will be able to withstand the attacks of modern skepticism.

     A comprehensive knowledge of all the facts and theories of modern science is not alone capable of coping with the ingenuity of the atheistical science of the day; but truth, and the affection of it, is capable of so doing. For every truth seen is a mirror of the Lord; and this truth, with its affection, has in it all the power of the Divine omnipotence; it is this that will build the mind, and enable it to resist the infestation of that atheistical sphere. And by so doing, it will prepare and qualify the youth to discharge his duties from an understanding so instructed as to be able to see one thing in contrast with another, and to choose the best, and a will so inspired by the love of truth that he will determine what is chosen into act. So will he be properly equipped to enter into his inheritance, to drive out the inhabitants of the land, and build the city of the New Jerusalem.

     DISCUSSION OF DR. DOERING'S ADDRESS.

     Chairman: The address has dealt with the subject of education. Education is adopted by our Church as its first use of charity,-a use which is very close to all the members of our Church. This leads us to consider deeply the implications of the Writings with reference to the training of our children. The address is now before you for discussion.

     Dr. Alfred Acton: I was struck with the quotation in the address which stated that New Church education begins with the conjugial love of the parents before the child is begotten. Of course, we cannot say to parents: "Are you in conjugial love?"

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But that statement suggests a very important phase of education, and one that is not always borne in mind, that New Church education must begin in the home. I am not referring to what you no doubt often hear, that parents must support the school; after all, the school is merely the agent of the parents in the carrying on of their own work; but I refer to the necessity of surrounding the child with the sphere of New Church education.

     When reading the chapter on Baptism in the True Christian Religion, it has often occurred to me that our whole warrant for the establishment of New Church schools is contained in that chapter. We have our children baptized into the New Church; but that baptism is only the "first gate," which signifies that a road is to be traversed. That road does not commence with the New Church school, but it commences in the home. When the parents bring their child to be baptized into the New Church, they take upon themselves certain responsibilities, which involve that the child shall be brought up in the sphere of heaven present in the home. There are many ways in which this can be done, and those ways will differ according to the nature, disposition, education and situation of the parents. But in all there ought to be this universal, namely, that somehow or other a child, in early years, will have instilled in him those remains which are implanted when he feels that his parents love the New Church. It may be done merely by his saying the Lord's Prayer with his parents every day; it may be done by reading the Bible in daily worship; it may be done by the child's early realizing that the matter of going to church is a serious matter with the parents; it may be done by reading the Writings. But, howsoever it is done, it must be done in some way. And by "it" I mean the storing in the memory, and so in the interiors of the mind of the child, the idea that the Church is the first thing with the parents. It is in one sense the most important part, because it is the true preparation for New Church education, and without that preparation it is very difficult to make New Church education truly effective.

     Dr. Doering spoke of inspirational teachers, but inspirational teachers in religion must have those who can be inspired; and all who have had experience in New Church education know the very great difference between children who have come from homes where they have received the impression that the church is the first and foremost thing, and children who have come from homes where they have not received that impression. And so, in this sense, the education received in the home is the most important part of New Church education. If that is supplied, and it is found impossible to have New Church schooling in later years, it will be sufficient to bring the children up in the church. If that is supplied, moreover, any possibility of having New Church education in later years will be eagerly seized upon as the natural expression of the desire of the parents, and the fulfilment of their vows. So it is a truth,-if not exactly as stated in Dr. Doering's quotation,-it is a truth that the beginning of New Church education lies in the attitude of the parents, and whether they show in their home that they regard New Churchmanship as the ideal of home life, and believe that their children have been entrusted to their care for the sake of heaven.

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     Mr. Fred Cooper: What is taught in the New Church about spheres has its application to the work of New Church schools; and that work is successful in so far as the parents can see the ends of the teachers from the Writings and the Word of the Lord, and see their endeavor to impart all knowledge with that end,-that the children may become members of the New Church. And as our ministers and teachers are making a deeper study of New Church education, we find that they are unearthing stores of truths which we never before imagined. We are very far from understanding what our duty is towards our children. Bishop de Charms has been giving a wonderful series of classes to the college, and to some special students, and I am sure that we all need such instruction. We have had sufficient reflex from those classes to know that they are wonderful, because they can be applied to our everyday problems with our children. But one reason why New Church education is not yet what it may one day become, is that we parents are falling down on the job. The church has a great fount of real facts and wonderful truths to explain to our children, and we are not doing it. I make the plea that our ministers give us a class once a month on these lines. We are too much inclined to think that the raising of little children is the mother's work. But the men of the church have their part in it. It is father and mother, kneeling before the Lord as one, that will make the strength of the New Church. We men and women of the church need instruction, that we may fit ourselves to do our part in the work; and it is our plea that our ministers provide that instruction, so that we may apply this great doctrine of New Church education.

     Rev. W. L. Gladish: I cannot go away from the assembly without acknowledging the debt of gratitude we owe to Dr. Doering for his address this evening, and especially for one point that he made,-that affection in the home is the central thing in teaching. Now I have seen a good many people come into the New Church because of the rationality of the New Church doctrine; and they expect their children to accept the Doctrines for the same reason. They expect them to grow up rational without guidance in the home. But when the children come to rational age, it is found that they do not accept the Doctrines with the same enthusiasm. Their upbringing has been very different from that of their parents, who had loved the letter of the Word under the forms in which it is given in the Old Church, while the children were left to grow up without that affection for the things of religion, for truths adapted to their state. Without such affection you get nowhere. Teaching also must be inspirational, must come from love, from zeal; but it must be a zeal and affection, not only for the external things of the Church, but also for internal things, if it is to accomplish anything for the New Church.

     Rev. William Whitehead: Dr. Doering's clear, forceful statement with regard to the background of our New Church education, so called, has stirred in me several thoughts of perhaps a rather discouraging nature, because in the course of my own reading as a teacher it has become impressed upon me how little one man can do, even if he faithfully and dutifully perform his use in the age in which he lives. That is also true of a single generation, in the matter of New Church education. The ideal of New Church education is still in its infancy.

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I am impressed, however, by the fact that that infancy has been attained; its adolescence has also, perhaps, been attained; but it is indubitably true historically that New Church education still has to "come of age," that we have not yet that system of rational preparation for the young man and young woman who are about to enter the Church. But every generation should fight its own problems; that is the principle of the Academy; not to waste our strength and our zeal in fanciful visions, in speeches that sound prodigious, but are soon over, but to look at the duty that lies immediately before this generation, to determine whether we can add or do anything toward performing some specific uses. We should immediately provide the means, and work out a scheme by which that duty can be done.

     I am inclined to look at New Church education in a direct, practical way, and for that reason I would like to express my conviction that the development of the college phase of New Church education is the most pressing need that faces us at the present time. We believe in educating our children in the home and in the sphere of the church. I venture to say that there is not a man or woman here in whom that is not a real vision for us or our children. I believe that is a wonderful thing that has been established with zeal for the children of the Lord's New Church. And if we could look into the recesses of every mind, I believe we would find that many of us are more thoughtful about our children's place in the Lord's kingdom than we are about our own. But the time comes after infancy when it is necessary for children to go out into the world, where they must find themselves through adventure. It is my understanding that we are to train them to perform heavenly uses upon the earth, in the happy manner described to us this morning by Dr. Acton. That is why I believe we shall be able to establish a system of college education that is formed to educate young men and women in rationality and judgment, so that they may be prepared, not only for their earthly business, but also for their heavenly business while they are in this world.

     In the elementary and secondary schools we are limited by the very immaturity of our children. . . . In the mind of youth, abstract principles must be related to realities. The method of giving philosophical and even theological universals in a technical manner is a misguided policy. If we do not concentrate on the facts of the relation of spiritual and natural truths, the great universals of a genuine philosophy cannot descend into the ultimate scientifics, and be made real and tangible to the youthful mind. It is foolish to swamp a student's mind with abstractions which only a trained philosopher can grasp. It is equally foolish to bury a student's aspirations under a mass of unrelated scientific "facts," all of which may be true in themselves, but many of which are quite unnecessary to the immediate pedagogic end in view. Today the pedagogical temptation to show off a great store of knowledges seems peculiar to those by whom scientific riches have been recently or easily acquired. These are the nouveaux riches of the educational world.

     The Academy's great educational problem is twofold: (1) How to bring home to a student's mind the genuine spiritual concepts of Nature, Man and God; and (2) to relate to these the corresponding series of natural truths by illustration and confirmation from experience, especially by comparisons.

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And if we tenaciously try to follow that program, some day we shall have real New Church education from the top to the bottom, and from the bottom to the top. God, Nature, and Man will then be clearly seen by those of the Lord's New Church. For that day I pray. It is a long way off. But in this generation we can take a few more steps, as those in the earliest days took their few steps towards its accomplishment.

     Mr. Frank Wilde said that he had listened with a great deal of interest to Dr. Doering's paper, which had presented a fairly comprehensive survey of the history of education in the New Church. He then referred to certain schools in Great Britain, such as the Manchester schools, which were opened for the express purpose of giving New Church education, but which failed by turning secular. "I believe that we ourselves are to some extent to blame for what we have not done. I prefer to look also at what we have done; and it is always a mistake to try to anticipate too far ahead. Dr. Doering spoke of inspirational teachers. I have often thought that perhaps we do not recognize the profound distinction between obedience and the love of obedience. In childhood, the love of obedience should be firmly implanted in the mind; for when the child grows to a rational age the obedience he has been directing to a parental authority must be transferred to the tribe. . . . I am not an educationalist, but I have noticed that those parents who have been most successful in obtaining obedience in an external way have often been the most pitiable failures with their children."

     Mr. J. J. Kintner pointed out that this audience would not be here tonight were it not for the schools in Bryn Athyn. He spoke of their growth from small beginnings, and expressed a doubt whether the people who live at Bryn Athyn appreciate the wonderful work that the Academy has been doing for a number of years. As a parent he bore testimony to the results of the schools in interesting the pupils in the Church, and prophesied twice as large an audience twenty years hence. "A number of years ago, when I was in Pittsburgh, a complaint was made by some that the education given here was not practical, because it taught them only the Doctrine of the New Church. Now that is not true today, and never was. I believe the boy or girl trained here has a better foundation than the boy or girl who goes to some other school. I think they have not only the practical knowledges, but also the knowledges essential to life, which only New Church education can give. And they become better men and women, and more useful in their future life wherever they go." He concluded by speaking of the benefits imparted by the New Church Sermons, which "meet one of the greatest needs, and ought to be distributed to every place possible."

     Rev. Enoch S. Price, after expressing his deep interest in the paper, declared that it was wine from heaven for a teacher to hear appreciation of the work of the school. "I think that the acknowledgment made by the last speaker is fairly general in the General Church, but we still hear a good many criticisms as to what we do not do here, and I just wanted to say a word or two about the criticism that we do not prepare the pupils to meet the attacks of the scientific world.

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     "If our pupils are unable to enter into an argument with the scientific world, they had better not undertake it. But if they are inspired with that affection of truth which was referred to in the paper, they will be ready to meet even the attacks of science. It comes to few to be able to argue; that is a distinctly forensic gift; and, for the most part, an argument had better be avoided. I do not mean to say that they shall lie down and submit; but if the pupil is in the affection of some spiritual truth, such as the truth that God is, and that He is one, that the Lord Jesus Christ is that God, and that He is the responsible Origin of all creation, and the Order within all things of creation;-if the pupil obtains such an affection in his mind, you can let the sciences, with their theories and arguments, go hang."

     Rev. E. E. Iungerich voiced appreciation of the fact that the length of Dr. Doering's address afforded opportunity for the assembled visitors to give an intelligent consideration of the paper. "When only a few minutes are left for a discussion, the brief speeches made can only 'thank the speaker,' and this is not an adequate response.

     "I rose to speak about the benefit it is to a New Church society to have the use of education as one of its concerns. A society in heaven has manifold uses to bring its members into their choral form, and prominent among them is the use of introducing neophytes, and of educating the infants that are within its confines. A society of that Church which has descended from heaven should welcome the opportunity to engage in analogous uses, for thereby its unity of form is enhanced. It is surprising to find that there are sometimes members in a society who restrict their participation in its work to an occasional attendance as spectators at its functions. Though their detachment may give them a perspective not enjoyed by those who are in the turmoil of the work, they are not as yet contributing much to the perfection of its form. It is useful to the esprit de corps of a society to have many occasions on which its members meet together under some common interest, but it is especially beneficial if this interest be one of positive spiritual value in the use it performs. Every society in heaven provides for the presence of angels who have one, two or even three degrees of their minds opened. And to make a similar provision on earth, a truly New Church education from the cradle to adolescence is imperative. . . . "

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MESSAGES TO THE ASSEMBLY 1930

MESSAGES TO THE ASSEMBLY              1930

     The following messages of greeting came by mail and wire, and were received with enthusiasm when read at the Banquet on June 19th:

     FROM AUSTRALIA.

Dear Bishop Pendleton and Friends:
     The Hurstville Society of the General Church sends affectionate greeting on the occasion of the Fourteenth General Assembly. We are confident that a fuller measure of spiritual use shall result from your deliberations, and we are thankful that two of our members are able to be present.

     Although Mr. Seymour G. Nelson's optimistic prophecy of twenty-six years ago, of an audience of three thousand "listening intently to the Class Valedictorian's Address to the two hundred and twelve members of the Class of 1929, gathered together from all parts of the world, even from distant Tartary and Japan," (NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1904, p. 440) may not be realized, still we know with thankfulness that the spiritual policy of the Academy, in the care and instruction of the young, must bear fruit ever more and more, and thereby shorten the stay of the "woman in the wilderness." On behalf of our Society,
     Sincerely and affectionately,
          RICHARD MORSE.

     FROM BRAZIL.

     To the Right Rev. N. D. Pendleton, and all our Brethren assembled at the Fourteenth General Assembly at Bryn Athyn:

     God bless and preserve you all! Notwithstanding all my efforts and wishes, it was quite impossible for me to go to Bryn Athyn this year. I shall be there, however, in thoughts during the days of our fourteenth meeting, heartily following your work, hoping that the faithful workmen of the Lord's Vine, by His gracious mercy, shall strive willingly to spread the seeds of the only true Religion in the thoughts and hearts of all men.

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     I am very glad to tell you that the few members of our Church in Brazil shall be represented at the meeting by my son-in-law, Captain Silva Lima, and his wife, my daughter Alice, who are bound for New York on the "Western World," due on June 18th, and shall immediately proceed to Bryn Athyn, arriving there in time to participate in the Holy Supper on the memorable day of June 19th. This Day, reminding us of the Second Coming of the Lord, is cherished in every part of the world where a New Jerusalem is found.

     Dear Bishop Pendleton, and my Brethren! All my wishes and hopes go in my prayers to you. On this 19th of June, 1930, the thoughts and the hearts of the members of the Church in Rio de Janeiro, full of jubilation, will vibrate in unison with our Brethren in Bryn Athyn, because in spirit we will be reunited there with you. This is the expectation of your brethren of Brazil.
     Your very faithful brother,
          HENRY LEONARDOS.
Rio de Janeiro, May 29, 1930.

     FROM LONDON, ENGLAND.

My dear Bishop:
     Although I have written to several expressing my great regret at not being able to be with you for the Fourteenth General Assembly, and have sent an express message by the Rev. Victor J. Gladish, I would like to make the same expression of regret through you to the friends assembled.

     I sincerely hope and pray that the Divine Blessing may rest upon all your proceedings, and that great good to the Church may be the result of your deliberations. This cannot fail to be the case if all put the Church, as embodied in the Divine Revelation made by the Lord at His Second Coming, as the first and supreme object of their regard and action. With most affectionate greetings to all,
     Yours ever sincerely,
          ROBERT J. TILSON.
London, June 5, 1930.

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     FROM FRANCE.

My very dear Bishop:
     I have the great honor to direct to you, my very dear Bishop, all our wishes for happiness and prosperity, for you, your family, and all our brothers and sisters in America of the General Church Universal. We pray the Lord our God, on the occasion of the 19th of June, to bless you and give increase to our Divine Church.

     I am, my very dear Bishop, always your entirely devoted and grateful
          F. HUSSENET.
St. Cloud, Paris, June 7, 1930.

     CABLEGRAMS.

     Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner, Secretary: "Hearty Assembly Greetings.
          ALPHA CIRCLE."
Ladybrand, June 14, 1930.

     Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner, Secretary: "All Mission Members send hearty Assembly greetings.
     FRED W. ELPHICK."
Ladybrand, June 14, 1930.

     Bishop Pendleton: "Church in Holland sends cordial and grateful greetings to the Assembly, and sincere wishes for ever renewed progress in the doctrines of genuine truth.
     ERNST PFEIFFER."
The Hague, June 14, 1930.

     Bishop Pendleton: "In spirit we join with you on this Nineteenth of June in the worship of the Lord.
     MEMBERS IN SWEDEN."
Stockholm, June 13, 1930.

     TELEGRAMS.

     Right Rev. N. D. Pendleton: "The Olivet Society sends greetings to the Fourteenth General Assembly, and the sincere wish that the light of heaven will inspire your meetings and enkindle and renew among all present the desire to establish more firmly the Lord's New Church among men.
     R. S. ANDERSON, Acting Secretary." Toronto, June 17, 1930.

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     Rev. Karl R. Alden: "The Carmel Church Society sends greetings to Bishop Pendleton, members and guests of the Fourteenth General Assembly. We look forward to receiving some of the spiritual food that has been so abundantly served.
     CARMEL CHURCH SOCIETY."
Kitchener, Ont., June 19, 1930.
PASTORAL SYMPOSIUM ON THE STATE OF THE CHURCH 1930

PASTORAL SYMPOSIUM ON THE STATE OF THE CHURCH              1930

     Seventh Session, Wednesday, June 18th.

     The last regular session of the General Assembly was devoted to the hearing of extemporaneous addresses by some of the Pastors on the subject of the state and progress of the Church. Bishop de Charms presided

     The Rev. F. E. Waelchli spoke as Visiting Pastor of the General Church, enlarging upon his Report. (August issue, p. 495.) The total membership of his extensive parish is about two hundred and fifty persons, in groups of from two to twenty, in about twenty different places. He drew the picture of a congregation of two, a young couple, receiving his administrations; later he added another picture, that of a family of eight, gathered for a full service, with Baptism and the Holy Supper. He showed powerfully that such work was worth while, that the ministrations of the church are thus brought to those living in isolation, who, equally with others, love the Church and its Heavenly Doctrine. One of his larger groups, Cincinnati, was represented at the Assembly with one hundred per cent of its membership.

     He recited instances of devotion to the Writings among the isolated, one person now reading the Arcana for the seventh time, and following the Calendar readings from the Old Testament in the Hebrew, having acquired a knowledge of this language through self-study by means of Dr. Acton's Introduction to the Hebrew Word. Another person is reading the Arcana for the fourth time. Others also are faithful readers of the Writings, some according to the Calendar Lessons. Many take the Life, some reading it more faithfully than others; but all who take it consider it worth while.

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They also read the New Church Sermons, which is a great blessing to many homes, and profit by the Lessons for Children in these publications. Mr. Waelchli had recently been called to officiate at the funeral of an isolated New Churchman, and found the last issue of the Sermons just as it had been laid down by the departed when his last illness came upon him. "Can we not believe that herein the Church performs the use of providing the specific truth needed for one who is thus called to travel the road of death into the clear beyond?"

     Speaking of the loyalty of the isolated, and of the fact that their loyalty calls for greater strength and courage, Mr. Waelchli concluded: "It might be well, for those who enjoy the privilege of living in a New Church society, to consider to what extent their loyalty is upheld and sustained by the common sphere of the society, and what its strength would be if circumstances placed them in a life of isolation. Still, the isolated are not without a sustaining sphere. They belong to the communion to which we all belong,-to the brotherhood of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, which is world-wide, the members of which are indeed separated in space, but in spirit are in most intimate consociation, and, together with the angels of the New Heaven, are devoted, heart and soul and mind and strength, to the promotion of the Lord's New Church."

     The Rev. W. L. Gladish spoke of the work of Sharon Church, Chicago, which had begun to outgrow its present church parlor, and was hoping to procure a suitable building, with a basement for suppers and social events, a first floor for worship, and a second door for the pastor's residence. Owing to its proximity to Glenview, Sharon Church will not attempt to establish a New Church school, but will make the use of evangelization in the city of Chicago its chief use of charity. This work had prospered during the year; four new friends were baptized at Easter. The society happens to be located in a Swedish district, and many members are of Swedish extraction. Mr. Gladish concluded by giving a resume of a doctrinal class which he had given on the topic, "What can I do for my Church?"

     The Rev. Theodore Pitcairn described the history and present status of the South African Mission, in which he had been actively interested from the beginning. He cited some of the discouragements experienced in the work, but felt that the church was now being established there on a firm foundation, and believed that the prophecy given in the Writings concerning the Africans would be fulfilled, though it would take many generations for them to get rid of their external evils of heredity and environment. He thought the Church in Africa had already shown signs of a great and wonderful future, when the celestial of love would be communicated from them to us, even as we are now trying to communicate our gifts to them.

     The Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner reported on the arrangements for Calendar Readings delegated to the Consistory by the last General Assembly. It was hoped that families in the church are making a continuous effort to follow the ideal of establishing home worship. The purpose of the Calendar was not primarily to encourage family worship, but more generally to encourage the individual habit of going to the source of our spiritual life,-to the ark of our covenant,-by daily reading of the Writings.

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The speaker pointed to the growth of the Church in the last decennial, among Europeans and Africans, and stressed that it is in the Writings that the Lord is continually present among men, and that the church as an organization has just such stamina and character as is dependent upon the reading of the Doctrine by the members; enlarging on the point that man is judged by his individual endeavors, and by his actions when he is alone, and thus as to the internal of his thought and life. He appealed for the establishment of a sphere of affirmation and support for the Calendar Readings, even from those who are not in position themselves to use that same method.

     The Rev. Gilbert H. Smith felt that the Lord had conferred a great Divine blessing upon all those who are engaged in the work of our various societies. The principal thing against which a pastor is on guard is the "coming of the wolf,"-the entrance of the evils opposite to innocence. He said that the most apparent danger confronting the church today is the entrance of that state of restlessness, of internal rebellion and seeking for something that is not new but different, which rules in the world today. The two ideas of counsel and assembly are inseparable. Counsel involves instruction; assembly the work of our societies. A man might be reading the Writings for himself, and gain much counsel and instruction from the Lord, but if he did this to the exclusion of the development of the idea of assembly, half of the work of the church would be omitted.

     In Glenview, the effort of late had been to have all the members and young people belonging to some reading group; and the results of this effort had been very gratifying, the young people's group starting with an attendance of thirty-five. Mr. Smith spoke appreciatively of the work of his assistant, the Rev. Norman H. Reuter, and concluded by saying that there need be no fear of the coming of the wolf to our societies as long as our young people make a practice of going to the Word of the Writings and cultivating a sphere of Divine worship.

     The Rev. George G. Starkey called attention to the group of New Church people who have lately started pioneer life in the Peace River District, British Columbia, where they have taken out homesteads. They are thoroughly earnest in their desire for a growth that will enable them to enjoy the ministrations of the New Church. Rev. Henry Heinrichs has already visited them.

     The Rev. Alan Gill, of Carmel Church, Kitchener, reported that while little had been done to repair the damage caused to a part of the church building by fire last fall, the hope was cherished of erecting a chapel, and of using the present building for school and social purposes. The school was growing, there being between 75 and 80 children under fifteen years of age connected with the society. This year's enrollment was 24 pupils. In September, 33 are expected to enroll, 12 in the second grade, 9 in the first grade. The following year a school of 40 is expected. Two teachers, in addition to the pastor, are regularly employed, and the society is enthusiastic. He warned the Academy to enlarge its dormitories and school in preparation for the Kitchener contingent!

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ASSEMBLY NOTES 1930

ASSEMBLY NOTES       L. W. T. DAVID       1930

     The Assembly Reception.

     The Academy Commencement on the morning of June 13th was followed in the evening by the Assembly Reception, which also took on the character of the final dance of the school-year, the decorations of the Assembly Hall consisting of class banners and flags of the nations where the General Church has membership.

     Bishop and Mrs. Pendleton and the others who formed the receiving group took their places upon the stage, and the long line of those who came to greet them seemed endless, and kept on forming long after the dancing had begun. Although the new Hall is much larger than the old Auditorium, the floor was crowded with the dancers and onlookers,-a throng that brought startling evidence of our growth in numbers during the ten years and more that have elapsed since the last General Assembly was held in Bryn Athyn. It was truly a joyous evening, not only for the many who danced, but also for the many others who met friends they had not seen for years and had a great deal to talk about. The buzz of conversation and happy greetings made it difficult to carry out the program, but finally, with the help of the amplifier, the company was quieted so that the Senior Class might present its banner to the President of the Academy, which the students did while singing their class song.

     We then had the pleasure of listening to a baritone solo sung by Mr. Foster Krake. Following this, Mr. Krake directed a double male quartet in the singing of a splendid piece of music of his own composition which he had set to the words of "Academia, Thy Name Shall Stand," by Miss Elsa Synnestvedt. We trust we may hear it often in the future.

     The Pageant.

     On Saturday evening, June 14th, the Pageant of Joseph was given in the Assembly Hall by the students of the Academy Schools, including the older pupils of the Elementary School. With great beauty and dramatic power, and enriched with the sweet singing of many songs from the Word, it presented the outstanding incidents in the ancient story of Joseph,-his separation from his father and his brethren, and their reunion with him under his care and provision in Egypt.

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     The action was representative of the doctrine that the Lord reveals Himself in His Word as the God of heaven and earth; that when the Divine Truth is revealed, it is received gladly by the spiritual, but is rejected by those who are in faith alone; that the evil seek to destroy the Divine Truth, which, however, is preserved by the Lord; and finally, that the Divine Truth is given dominion over the natural for the preservation of remains.

     A Prelude represented the revealing of Divine Truth and the blessing it brings to men, in the chorus, "Grace be unto you, and peace" (Rev. 1:4-8), sung to the music of the Psalmody, as was most of the singing in the Pageant. From beginning to end there was no spoken word.

     The first scene showed the tent of Jacob, to which Joseph comes from tending the sheep. His father gives him the coat of many colors, and blesses him. Joseph then tells his dreams, and by this the jealousy of his brethren is inflamed to hatred. During these scenes a chorus sang the 23d Psalm, the Blessing of Joseph in Hebrew (Genesis 49:22-26), and the 37th Psalm.

     Then was shown the brethren in Dothan, conspiring to slay Joseph. When he comes upon them, after his search through the country, they bind him and cast him into a pit. Soon the Midianite merchantmen, with slaves carrying burdens, appear. The brethren bargain with them for Joseph, sell him, and see him depart in the train of slaves. The singing of Psalms 117, 22, and 39 gave expression to the moods of this episode.

     An Interlude now covers the space of some years, and incidents not depicted in the Pageant. It was a kind of dance, representing the seven years of plenty in the land of Egypt. Reapers, threshers, winnowers, recording scribes, and carriers to the storehouse,-all in a seeming maze of motion, yet keeping time to the harvest song,-made a scene exceedingly effective.

     The court of Pharaoh was next shown, with a stately procession of bodyguards and other attendants, and a company of dancing-girls, ushering in the king. Then Joseph was brought before Pharaoh and invested with Power over all Egypt.

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This act was celebrated by the singing of the 47th Psalm, and also with a dance. But a group of famine-stricken people break in upon the scene, demanding food, and to them, when they had been quieted by the guards, Joseph dispensed grain, while the scribes made record of the amounts given out. In gratitude the people chant "O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good " (Psalm 118).

     The sons of Jacob then appear, having come from Canaan to Egypt to buy corn. Though Joseph recognizes them, he does not disclose his identity, but calls his brethren "spies," in the words of Genesis 42:9. At last Simeon is taken as a hostage for their good faith and future conduct, and they are given sacks of corn and released, to which they respond in the singing of the 31st Psalm. Pharaoh and his court withdraw, and the scene closes with the brethren alone, opening their sacks, and finding the money with the grain.

     The scene now changes to Canaan, at Jacob's tent, when the brethren are preparing to make a second journey to Egypt for food. Reuben and Levi plead with their father to send the boy Benjamin with them, according to the requirement of Joseph. The refusal of Jacob is chanted (Genesis 42:38), and then Judah's promise to be surety for Benjamin (Genesis 43:9), after which Jacob consents, and prays for their welfare (Genesis 43:13-14). The brethren then depart with Benjamin, while those remaining sing of their trust in Divine Providence (Psalm 46).

     Again the court of Pharaoh. The brethren receive grain the second time, Simeon is restored to them, and they depart. But Joseph instructs his steward to pursue them with a guard, for they have taken the silver cup with which he divines. Soon they are brought back, their sacks are opened, and the cup is found in Benjamin's sack, whereupon he is taken by Joseph to be his servant. The brethren plead for mercy, saying that their father will die if Benjamin is not returned to him. And now Joseph, being greatly moved, reveals himself to his brethren, treats them in a kindly manner, and arranges with them to bring Jacob and all his household to Egypt, to dwell there and be sustained through the remaining years of famine. These various actions are accompanied by the singing of Psalm 103 (Hebrew) and Psalms 44 and 48.

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     After a time the aged Jacob, borne on a litter by his sons, is brought before Pharaoh. He blesses Pharaoh and Joseph, and again the Blessing of Joseph is sung in Hebrew (Genesis 49:22-26). The family of Jacob is now reconciled and reunited, and the Pageant closes with the chorus: "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." (Psalm 24.)

     We cannot measure the benefits derived from such a sacred representation by those who took part and those who beheld. The whole effect was beautiful, reverential and inspiring. The onlookers saw a splendid spectacle, but felt that they were witnessing and sharing in a form of devotion such as might be experienced in the spiritual world. Either to see or take part in a representation of Divine Doctrine concerning the Humiliation and Glorification of the Lord is to receive an uplifting sphere of faith and worship.

     This Pageant, given out of doors two years ago, was repeated on the earnest solicitation of the students themselves, who entered into the preparation throughout the school-year as into a labor of love; and the resulting perfection was due not less to the painstaking effort in practice and rehearsal than to the devotional spirit that animated the undertaking.

     The Pageant of Joseph was prepared from the Scriptures by Bishop George de Charms. It was directed and staged under the consummate skill of Professor Finkeldey, with Miss Florence Roehner in charge of the dancing. The beautiful singing was the result of instruction and training under the capable leadership of Mrs. Besse F. Smith. The work of preparing the costumes and stage settings was done by committees of the students themselves.

     Garden Party.

     A delightful interlude in the serious activities of the Assembly was the garden party at Cairncrest on Sunday afternoon. Mr. and Mrs. Harold F. Pitcairn had invited all those attending the Assembly to their beautiful new home, where the walks and lawns and the large rooms of the house gave opportunity for general social mingling and needed relaxation.

     A brief program of songs was given by Mr. Foster Krake, accompanied at the piano by Mrs. Krake.

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The audience greatly enjoyed the numbers, which were: A 17th century Italian song; "Song of the Evening Star," from Tannhauser; The Sixty-first Psalm, with a musical setting by Mr. Krake; and then, after an interval, "Melisande," a Western cowboy song; and finally, "Ole Man River."

     [PHOTOS OF AT THE GARDEN PARTY AND CAIRNCREST RESIDENCE OF MR. AND MRS. HAROLD PITCAIRN.]

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     The afternoon was perfect for such a gathering, and when we bade adieu to our gracious host and hostess we brought away a very pleasant memory to cherish always.

     The Play.

     "Outward Bound," Sutton Vane's play depicting entrance into the life after death, was given on Monday evening by Bryn Athyn players under the auspices of the Civic and Social Club. It may be regarded as a modernization of the ancient fable of Charon and his boat, in which all the spirits of the departed were ferried across the waters of the Styx. The action all takes place in the smoking room of a passenger ship, into which several people come who presumably have died at about the same time. They are of widely diverse character, and are not at first aware that they have passed the gate of death, except, vaguely, the two lovers who have "attempted" suicide. There is a revelation of character as they all learn, one after the other, that they have left the earth, and are told by the Steward that presently they will meet the Examiner. In this self revelation there is a mixture of comedy and tragedy, as usual in human life.

     The parts had been very well allotted among the performers, and all did so well that it would be difficult to choose among them.

     CHARACTERS, IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE:

Scrubby, the Steward                Donald Rose
Ann                               Jacqueline Fountain
Henry                          Bryndon Heath
Mr. Prior                          Richard Price
Mrs. Cliveden Banks                Marjorie Rose
Rev. William Duke                Willard Pendleton
Mrs. Midget                     Maude Heath
Mr. Lingley                     Karl Alden
Rev. Frank Thomson               Reginald Brown

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     The play was directed by Mrs. Leonard Behlert, and the stage settings were prepared by Mr. Behlert. Mrs. Reginald Brown was Prompter, and the Lighting was in charge of Mr. Walter Bancroft.

     Sutton Vane's treatment of his theme has an interest for New Church people, although examination in the light of the Doctrines would disclose many flaws and fallacies. He is close to the truth in having his newly arrived spirits living for a time the same kind of life as before, until their internal characters are revealed and the judgment comes.

     Informal Concert.

     An audience of goodly size gathered in the Choir Hall on the afternoon of June 19th, and enjoyed a musical treat in the form of classical numbers performed in a most capable manner.

     PROGRAM.
1.      (a)      Little Prelude                     Bach
     (b)      Choral Prelude                     Bach
Bryn Athyn Orchestra.
Under the direction of Mr. Frank Bostock.

     2. Adagio                                    Donjon
Flute Solo by Mr. Nathaniel Stroh.

     3. Allegro and Menuetto, Opus 25                     Beethoven
Trio for Violin, Flute and Viola.
Messrs. Raymond Pitcairn, Nathaniel Stroh and Frank Bostock.

     4. Emperor Quartet                               Haydn
Bryn Athyn String Quartet.

     5. Piano Quintet, Opus 44                          Schumann
Mrs. Winfrey Glenn Synnestvedt and Bryn Athyn String Quartet.

     6. Nineteenth of June Song
The Audience.

     Ex-Student Organizations.

     As announced in the Assembly Program, the Theta Alpha Service was held in the Academy Chapel on Tuesday, June 17th, at 2.30 p.m., when the Rev. Theodore Pitcairn gave a brief address on the subject of "Remains." The regular business session followed, and the next day a Luncheon for all the Ladies present at the Assembly.

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This was held in the gymnasium of the new Assembly Hall, with about four hundred in attendance. A complete account of these meetings will appear in the THETA ALPHA JOURNAL.

     The Annual Meeting of the Sons of the Academy was held at the Dining Hall, beginning with a Luncheon attended by all the men present at the Assembly, who were treated to an informal series of witty speeches under the inspiring direction of Mr. Harold McQueen, of Glenview. At the conclusion of the luncheon, the gathering listened to a very interesting address by Dr. C. R. Pendleton on "Philosophic Influences of the Second Coming." This paper, and a report of the Sons' meeting, will appear in THE BULLETIN OF THE SONS OF THE ACADEMY.

     The Assembly Picture.

     Copies of the Assembly Photograph, taken on the campus at noon on June 18th, can be supplied at $1.00 each. Address: Mr. Otho W. Heilman, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     Cathedral Grounds.

     Among the preparations for the Assembly we must mention the beautifying of the approaches to the Cathedral. Through the generosity and close personal attention of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Pitcairn this was accomplished in time for the meetings. The fine stone walks, the greensward, the box trees and other planting,-all conform in their artistry to the beauty of the Cathedral itself.
     L. W. T. DAVID.

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ASSEMBLY BANQUET 1930

ASSEMBLY BANQUET       Various       1930

     THURSDAY, JUNE 19TH, 7 P.M.

     The concluding event of the Fourteenth General Assembly was a Banquet held in the new Assembly Hall, where seven hundred and twenty-five guests gathered. The Rev. Karl R. Alden proved jovial toastmaster, and the program was enlivened with flashes of wit which would suffer by repetition, and was interspersed with many songs and the reading of cordial messages from societies of the General Church, many of which will be found recorded elsewhere in this issue.

     Messages were delivered in person by Captain Silva Lima, from the Rev. Henry Leonardos, of Rio de Janeiro; by the Rev. Hendrik W. Boef, from the Los Angeles Society; by the Rev. Elmo C. Acton, from Durban, Natal; by the Rev. Victor J. Gladish, from England; and by the Rev. Henry Heinrichs, from Denver.

     During the evening, amid applause, bouquets were presented to Mrs. Cara S. Glenn, who had attended every General Assembly, and to the Rev. F. E. Waelchli, whose Cincinnati Circle was represented one hundred percent at the meetings.

     After the Assembly had received the cabled and written messages of greeting from our living friends in the various sister societies, the toastmaster referred to the fact that the growth of the church on earth is dependent upon its increase in the other world, and then introduced the well-remembered voice of the late Bishop Emeritus, the Right Rev. W. F. Pendleton, as Preserved in a life-like way by phonographic record,-a message he sent to the Immanuel Church. Glenview, on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary in 1926. The memory of Miss Alice E. Grant was honored by the singing of "Our Own Academy," for which she had labored so long. And after Mr. Walter C. Childs had been called upon for one of his memorable songs, dating from the infancy of the Academy, the Assembly honored him by a similar vocal tribute. In the course of the evening, too, the toastmaster sang verses by Mr. William H. Junge, featuring the societies of the General Church, all present joining in the chorus.

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     As the new Assembly Hall is too large for the ordinary voice to carry, a complete amplifying device, with microphones and loud-speakers, formed part of the equipment throughout the Assembly.

     The first speaker of the evening's program was Mr. Raymond Pitcairn, who addressed the Assembly as follows:

     CIVIL FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY.

     The State of Pennsylvania, during the last few months, has been engaged in a political fight involving the civil liberties of the American people in an issue which is both state and national, and in the recent primary elections a greater number of New Church men and women and young people were active in an election campaign than in any previous political fight in which New Church people have taken part.

     In an issue of liberty so broad that it should be fundamental to all great political parties, it is natural that Mr. William Cooper, in reply to gentile visitors at the Bryn Athyn Cathedral who asked if most of our leading members were opposed to prohibition: said that, so far as he knew, all New Churchmen were opposed to prohibition on the principle of freedom. Nevertheless, Mr. Cooper is doubtless quick to inform his church-visiting audience that, for the sake of that very freedom, the New Churchman, on principle, cannot inject church rule into civil government.

     And why? Because each use of human society, be it spiritual, moral, civil or scientific, is organized in the human form, and as such must be endowed with the human faculties of liberty and rationality, and must order its own life and perform its own use by the exercise of its proper liberty and rationality, free from coercive dictates, even from above. So essential is human freedom that nothing, we are taught in the Arcana, can ever be grateful to the Lord which is not from freedom,-that is, from what is spontaneous or voluntary. And so even the service of the Lord, who is Supreme Ruler of the universe, must be free; for when anyone worships the Lord from non-freedom, he worships Him from nothing of his own, but is moved from what is external, i.e., by what is of compulsion, while what is internal or of love is absent altogether or is repugnant.

     Again, freedom is so vital to man that "there is never any compulsion from the Lord," and liberty is so essential to human life that the Lord Himself permits evil, and allows man even to make his abode in hell, and this of Divine permission. The reason is, that if the freedom to will evil and to confirm it by reason were taken away from the natural man, his will and understanding would perish, together with his freedom and rationality. (D. P. 9.) "For without freedom no one can be reformed, and all the freedom of man is from the equilibrium between heaven and hell." And so man is allowed to think evil, and, so far as fear and the law do not restrain, to do it. Let me assure you that I do not regard the use of alcoholic beverages as evil.

     We are considering broadly a few thoughts on human freedom which bear on civil liberty and its origin.

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     As an instance of civil liberty which may appeal to the sporting instincts of those athletically inclined, let me suggest the case of the Bishop of the General Church. A few years ago he played tennis; and a good tennis player he was. Did the Bishop say: "Now, as a bishop, I propose that we play this New Church tennis according to laws which I have had prepared by the Consistory of the General Church"? Not he! He played tennis according to the rules of the Lawn Tennis Association. In tennis his activity was athletic, and not ecclesiastical. And so our Academy boys play football. On the other hand, let me ask any Academy girl or boy whether there is a difference between Academy football and Roman Catholic High football, even if both teams play the game fairly, and the answer will be that there is a different spirit in the Academy game. The character of men qualifies their works; for religion is of life, and enters into all works and uses, even the most ultimate. The character of a people qualifies its civilization; and to take an individual, specific illustration, brought to a material extreme: If Napoleon and Washington had possessed two chairs just alike, the two chairs, as historic relies, would be different, because of the difference in human use, which would give them diverse spheres through their human associations.

     So eventually, when New Churchmen actively participate in all the uses of the world and the nation, the qualities of the Church will affect the qualities of national life; although, as New Churchmen, we are neither British nor American, Democrats nor Republicans; for the Church is on a distinctly higher plane.

     Now we may ask why freedom is of such vital importance, and compulsion so detrimental to man. It is because the very life of man consists in what he wills and does of himself; and in order to have a free choice, he must be able to choose what is good or what is evil. This freedom is pleasing to every man. But here is the rub,-the point where the joy of life seems (to the unregenerate) to depart. The freedom to do evil is infernal freedom, and, properly speaking, is bondage and hell; and as a grain of wheat must fall into the ground and die before it can live and bear fruit, so a man must lose this freedom before he can receive heavenly freedom from the Lord; for true freedom is essential to human life, and both are from the Lord alone.

     We are taught that man cannot possibly be saved-since he is born in evil-unless he is allowed to do evil or to desist from evil. And when he desists from evil from himself, then in true freedom there is insinuated the affection of truth and good from the Lord, which is the new life which is given as his own, and by which he can live in heaven. Without this freedom he could not possibly be disposed to receive eternal life; for if he should be forced to good, the good would not be his, because it would not be of his love, which constitutes his life. For freedom and love are one, and the delight of love comes from the exercise of freedom. And God-given freedom is acquired through self-compulsion.

     But you may ask: What has all this to do with civil freedom and responsibility? In the light of present interest in civil liberty, consider what the Writings say of the English nation and their interior intellectual light, which causes them to be in the centre of all Christians.

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They acquire this from their freedom to speak and to write and thus to think. Contrasting this freedom with the despotic government then of the Germans, Swedenborg says that the understanding from above adapts itself to the measure of freedom on the lower plane; that influx from above is according to the freedom of life to flow forth on the lower plane; and that free nations, in relation to spiritual things of the Church, are like eagles which rise to whatever height they please, while nations not free are like swans in a river. And again, free nations are like tall stags with lengthy horns that range fields and forests in full freedom, while nations not free are like stags kept in the menageries of princes. Again, free peoples are like winged horses that fly over the seas and the Parnassian hills, while peoples who have not been freed are like noble horses kept in the stables of kings.

     The necessity of civil liberty as a basis for liberty in spiritual things is made very dear. It may be compared with the necessity of a sound body in order that there may be a sound mind.

     We also have the truth that the Church is the neighbor in the highest sense, and that, second to the Church, the neighbor is one's country; moreover, a civil and moral man is not necessarily a spiritual man, but a spiritual man must be a patriotic citizen.

     In the field of civil government, New Churchmen have a responsibility and an opportunity for exalted service in a noble use. In speaking of the progressive decline of the Old Church, Swedenborg says:

     "Afterwards the Church will exercise influence, not from spiritual, but from natural good, so that finally, through adulterations, all good and truth will be changed into evil and falsity, the Church exercising influence only through a diabolical civil power." We have seen evidences of the exercise by the Old Church of that diabolical civil power. But Swedenborg follows the statement quoted with this: "And then the Lord will come, and will destroy that religiosity, and institute a Church which will be in Divine Truth from Him." (P. P., Dan. ii.)

     "Behold, I make all things new" applies also to the kingdoms of this world; and men and women of the Church will become servants of the Lord in the upbuilding of a new civilization upon which the Church of the Lord will rest.

     The Rev. Frederick E. Gyllenhaal was next called upon by the toastmaster, and offered the following address:

     THE RESPONSIBILITY OF PRIESTS.

     A spiritual idea of responsibility is the reception of influx, and the reaction to influx; or, properly, a mediating of the influx so that its end may be accomplished.

     We are told in the Arcana that the sole end in the institution of the Church on earth is a communication of the human race through heaven with the Lord, and that this is effected by spiritual and celestial things within the opened interior degrees of the minds of people.

     We are also told in the Writings that the priesthood is the Lord's office, and that as such it is the "first of the Church."

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Its end is, that the Divine may come down among men, and may lead them to the Lord in heaven. And this is powerfully confirmed in the Psalms of David, in the words: "Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; Thou that sittest upon the cherubim, shine forth! Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up Thy strength, and come and save us!" (Ps. 80:1, 2.)

     But let us hear from the Word of the Lord to the New Church, that the affection of truth may lift up our thoughts to the Lord, and may open our minds to receive from Him the enlightenment essential to perceive the responsibilities of priests.

     Speaking specifically about preachers in heaven, we read: "Although angels in the celestial kingdom perceive and see truths, still there are preachings there, since by preaching they are enlightened in the truths which they know, and are perfected by many truths which they did not know before. (H. H. 225.)

     Again: "In heaven, those are occupied in ecclesiastical affairs who in the world loved the Word and eagerly sought the truths in it, not for the sake of honor or gain, but for the sake of the use of life, both for themselves and for others. These, according to their love and desire of use, are there in enlightenment and the light of wisdom, into which also they come from the Word in heaven. These discharge the function of preachers; and in this, according to Divine Order, those are in higher positions who from enlightenment excel others in wisdom." (H. H. 393.)

     And further, treating specifically about priests on earth, we read: "Priests ought to teach men the way to heaven, and likewise lead them. They must teach them according to the doctrine of their church, and they must lead them to live according to it. Priests who teach truths, and by them lead to good of life, and thus to the Lord, are the good shepherds of the sheep; but those who teach and do not lead to good of life, and thus to the Lord, are evil shepherds. These latter are called thieves and robbers by the Lord." (A. C. 10794.)

     And again, in the True Christian Religion we are taught that "there are four successive operations of the Holy Spirit amongst the clergy,-illustration, perception, disposition, instruction. Illustration is from the Lord alone. Perception has place in man according to the state of his mind as formed by doctrines. . . . Disposition arises from the affection of love in the will, and it is the delight springing from that love which effects it. Instruction follows as an effect produced by the former. Thus illustration, which is from the Lord, is changed into various lights and colors in every individual, according to the state of his mind." (T. C. R. 155.)

     And in the Doctrine of Life (no. 39), we are taught that in the degree that a priest is in the good of the priesthood from love and its desire, he procures to himself the truths which he teaches, and by which he leads.

     From these passages we may see the tremendous responsibilities of the priest of the Lord's New Church. And these responsibilities may be considered either twofold or fourfold; either (1) as those pertaining to the life of the individual man, or (2) as those pertaining to his office in the priesthood. The fourfold view is obtained by dividing the second of the two into three parts: worship, instruction and government.

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And so, under these two or four heads is presented in a general way the responsibilities of priests.

     The life of regeneration is the prime essential constant in all. If it is sustained, it will produce some eminent qualifications, in spite of the lack of certain other qualifications; and we may say of efficiency in external duties of office that this will not fail if sustained by the constant effort to regenerate. There are, of course, innumerable derivative responsibilities. It is unnecessary to enumerate them at this time. We know that they vary according to men and different circumstances; and we may also know that there will be a growing consciousness of them, and an increasing spiritual efficiency in discharging them the more the Church is a Church, And it will be a living Church as soon as the people of the Church, including the priests, are regenerate men and women.

     Now the responsibility of priests is to the Lord; and the people of the Church will truly know the quality of their work according to the enlightenment and perception given them by the Lord; for then they will see that the work which the priests of the Church do is a work of the Divine through them, and not through human failings.

     Let me, however, ask: Has the Lord's Church a responsible government, as this term is commonly used and applied in commonwealths and democracies? We would answer, No! The government of the Lord's Church is intended to be truly a government by conscience and enlightenment, and thus by the Lord, by means of men set apart for the use and responsible to the Lord, although acting with the expressed consent of the people. And we read in the first Book of Samuel about the Lord's sending Samuel to Jesse to anoint David as King: "The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." (I Sam. 16:7.)

     This Assembly, and the work of the Church everywhere, I humbly submit, bear witness to the priests' of the Church realizing their responsibilities to the Lord, and their endeavor to discharge them faithfully, efficiently and zealously. May we not hope, then, that there is a fulfilment of the prophecy in Ezekiel about the shepherds of Israel, understanding this prophecy spiritually: "And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, neither hear the shame of the heathen any more. Thus shall they know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord God. And yet my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God." (34:29-31.)

     The Rev. Gilbert H. Smith was the next speaker. After some jocular remarks he explained that, instead of speaking about "Responsibility," he had selected the more popular topic of "Static." He deplored that the time had come for him to omit every trace of humor, since people could no longer distinguish when he was being funny and when serious. He therefore placed his laurels in that respect upon the broader shoulders of Mr. Harold McQueen.

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He had, however, suffered great agony during the evening, because he could not find his notes, and did not know what to do until he finally remembered his system of remembering things: "You see," he confided, "I put my spiritual riches in the same place where I carry my natural riches. So I discovered them in my wallet. I would also like to remark right here that there is plenty of room there for my spiritual riches."

     Mr. Smith: Now I want to be serious. The thing that has marked the Assembly for me more than anything else is a discussion that I had with Dr. Acton. We had an interior discussion on the proper length of Assembly addresses, and he claimed, from his superior enlightenment and longer experience, that a man who spoke for less than an hour and a quarter could not express anything but affection. And so I shall say something in the nature of affection.

     I would like to say, as expressing my first reaction to the Assembly, that the Pageant displayed work of great value, caused a great deal of delight, and called forth a very tangible and lively affection. It had the effect of creating a sphere of joy from the letter of the Word, and had the effect of creating a great confidence in the living quality of the General Church. I can think of no other place on earth where such a production could have been obtained, or such a lesson produced as was conveyed through that Pageant. And it suggested to me that in the New Church we may look with confidence to a great progress in ultimate things. We may look for a development of new ultimates in all departments of our work,-in the department of worship, in the department of education, and in the wide field of social relationships.

     We are told in the Heavenly Doctrine that all preparation takes place in ultimates; that the Lord works together with men in ultimates, when we look to Him and endeavor to further His kingdom in the external and definite things of our thought. . . . It is stated in the Writings that man's field of cooperation, his part in regeneration, is in the external of his thought. And we learned further, from the wonderful address of the Assistant Bishop, that spiritual uses are seen only through heavenly enlightenment upon reflection, but that if these uses are seen, then, in man's own freedom and according to the nature of his natural thought, they are determined to ultimate uses.

     Therefore, I regard this Pageant as something in the nature of a new ultimate of worship. Such representations affect the spirit of man; and may the day come when more of such things can be used in connection with Divine worship! May we proceed in our enlightenment from the Lord to the creation of new ultimates for His worship! According to the nature of the things we do in actual deed, such is the nature of our life in internals. . . . The creation of new ultimates,-new and beautiful things in the life of the church and its worship,-is one of the most important ideals that we can set before us.... We should consider how exceedingly blessed we are by the Lord in belonging to the New Church, in the possibilities of the life of worship and the creation of new ultimates, which are unlimited, as has been suggested by what was accomplished in the Pageant.

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     A double male quartet now sang the following hymn to the Academy, the words of which were written by Miss Elsa Synnestvedt. The stirring and powerful music was composed by Mr. Foster Krake, who led the quartet in person.

     ACADEMIA, THY NAME SHALL STAND.

1. When those who first foundations wrought,
     That we the truth may proclaim,
Strong hearts and earnest minds they brought
     To serve thy name.

     Chorus.

Founded on a rock,
     Thy power shall not fail,
Though myriad foes may mock thy name and hosts assail.
     And fortified by love,
What chains shalt thou not loose!
     May Academia be the dwelling-place of use!

2. Thy founders, in their work of love,
     With patient courage planned,
And trusted every age to prove
     Thy name shall stand. Chorus.

3. Then pledging thee in toast and song
     To growth in every land,
We pledge our aid that firm and strong
     Thy name shall stand.

     The last speaker on the formal program was the Rev. Gustaf Baeckstrom, whose tireless preaching of the Gospel of the New Church in Sweden and Norway had led the toastmaster to invite him to speak on this subject:

     THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHURCH IN EVANGELIZATION.

     Once upon a time there was a priest in the Old Church who was appointed chaplain to a prison. He thought that he might as well use a sermon that he had preached before, so when Sunday came, without having looked the sermon over before entering the pulpit, he began to read: "My dear friends, I am very glad to see so many of you present here!"

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     It is a fact, however, that mankind, spiritually, is like a great crowd in a prison house. And the Lord has come again "to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." (Isaiah 42:7.) We, who have heard His voice calling us "out of obscurity and out of darkness,"-we have a responsibility to let this voice be further heard. There is such a responsibility laid on every one of us to whom this call has come, to let it go even to others, so far as we can. It is our duty, because it is a law of heaven that everyone to whom it has been given shall be willing to give to others. If it were not so, heaven could not exist. We live in that day described by the prophet as "the morning spread upon the mountains." It is not an old sermon we have to preach, but a new one, a distinctly new one in every respect. Few we are in numbers, in comparison with the immense crowds all around us, but heaven is great and the angels are many. Still greater is the Lord; and it is He, and all heaven with Him, that comes when the cry is heard: "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!"

     Therefore it was said of old, when a vision of this was seen: "Lift up your heads, rejoice, redemption draweth nigh!" We have something to tell the world, something wonderful, something unknown, something never heard before, something distinctly new. "Sing unto the Lord a new song!" When the heart is full, the mouth easily opens for singing. Should not our hearts be so full of gladness, of thankfulness, of love, that we could not but sing that new song? If there is love, the way will also be seen, and the means will be found.

     And there is need, a great need. It may be felt, even if not always seen. Is there not a longing, often mixed with despair, in the hearts of men, even when they seem to laugh? Is not much of that laughing, and the frenzied search for pleasure, just an endeavor to hide the emptiness that is felt, to silence the voice of the child that is weeping in human breasts,-an endeavor that is in vain, and that so often ends with the taking of one's own life in utter despair? Is not there a longing for something, a looking for something, something of a lost paradise I

     The heavenly seed is being sown, and it falls also into the good ground. Thus, for instance, an elderly business man wrote me recently a very pathetic letter, after having received two of our books. Then he ordered Heaven and Hell, and I gave him two more books as a present, and then he wrote again: "So far as my wife and I have been able to find, the books are all excellent and profitable for the searching spirit. Already the first evening we lost ourselves in the study of these highly interesting and, on the spiritual plane, so deeply informing books. With continually increasing interest and joy we now read every evening these splendid and profitable books. And receive my assurance that we cannot highly enough appreciate the beautiful spiritual things which are given in them for the searching soul,-glorious hymns of spirit and faith. I do not hesitate to say that when reading them we have the sensation of listening to a sublime sermon, a service flowing with light and harmony, combined with a presentiment of heavenly music. . . . You understand what a pleasure these books give to me; and from this day I will never any evening omit to spend a considerable time in taking this nourishing and health-giving spiritual food."

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     This man then continues his letter with an eloquent appeal to spread our books all over the country on a larger scale, especially, as he says, "to those who, through the loss of a dear friend, a wife or husband, a mother or child, have a pain in their heart which seems impossible to endure, a sorrow so great to sensitive persons that few other people can understand it." "I have myself been in such an overwhelming situation at the loss of a talented and lovely daughter," he says. "At her sudden death I was almost completely broken down. Day and night I thought only of my dear daughter."

     He further tells how he searched the Bible, but without finding consolation, and how he tried to find help from a clergyman, but with small success. "Now," he writes, "I think of what a priceless guidance I should have had in the search after the enigma of life and the state after death, if I should then have possessed your excellent books, so well informed on innumerable questions of inestimable value for time and eternity."

     This seems to be a receptive mind. How did I reach him? Simply through advertising our books. He lives in a very small country place in Sweden, to which I would not likely have gone to deliver any lecture. He would still be without that knowledge which he now values so highly, if we had not advertised.

     Now the object of this speech is not to say to you simply this: Advertise! But to show that there are receptive minds, and that there is a longing for the spiritual truths which have been given to us, and for the further spread of which we are responsible, not only by implanting them in the minds of our own children, but also by giving them to the searching spirits around us who are like that business man. He is not the only one. Many there are who, with tears in their eyes, have thanked us for what has been given to them. Many there are who seek for light upon the problems of life which confound them. Almost the whole of our society in Sweden is composed of those who were such.

     Thus there is a great need, and we may ask ourselves if we could not do more to help our fellow men in that respect than what has been done in the past. Whatever method we employ to reach the end, we come, nevertheless, to practical questions, for the solution of which we need money to pay the necessary expenses. We cannot advertise without money; we cannot travel and rent halls for lectures without funds. Even if we try to make it all economical, and use business methods, we need to have some capital in order to be able to prevent eventual failure. Thus we need more means for such a work; but the question is, how means can be obtained.

     In Sweden, the missionary work is done from private contributions; and so, no doubt, it could be done everywhere to some extent. Perhaps more sacrifices could be asked, more contributions made. If, however, not much more can be done now, I think much can be done in the future, and some of the necessary means provided for this now.

     A young man, a Swede, an isolated receiver, has written to me that he wanted to contribute to the missionary work along the line of providing a fund for that purpose.

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His own means are small, but he has taken out life insurance to the benefit of the Church. His idea is that there may be other young men in the Church who would be willing to do the same thing;-to give their life insurance, or part of it, to the Church. And so, in the future, one amount after another would be paid to the Church, either to the respective societies or to a common fund for the spread of the light that is given to us in the Lord's Second Coming.

     Whatever may be best to do, yet one thing is certain, that a man's unselfish love for the Church will never be in vain, and never has been in vain. Love will kindle love, and love wants to do something. When love calls, something is done. When love calls, man and woman become one. Love calls, and children come into existence. Love calls, and they are educated; sacrifices are made, and the dear little ones are brought up in the Church,-prepared for heaven, because love calleth.

     So love called, and the Academy of the New Church came into existence. Love called,-love for the truth,-and the General Church of the New Jerusalem was founded. Love called, and the schools were built, teachers were made ready. Love called, and now the beautiful cathedral, this masterpiece of men's art, stands there upon the hill. Love called, and this Assembly met. Provisions were made, means were found, work was done, because love called. And those of us who have not labored, nor given, but only received, we thank you from our hearts for what has been done for us, and we will try to give to others of that which has been given to us. From love it has been given; in love it will be received and bear fruit, we hope.

     There are many who in the spirit have been with us these memorable days; some who still live in the flesh; and of these many who speak another language than we do here now; many who deeply in their hearts feel the bonds of spiritual brotherhood that unite us all; many who are deeply thankful for the light that through you has been given to them, and through you is kept burning and illuminating in their midst for the salvation of their souls.

     As once, on the Nineteenth of June, the Lord called together His Twelve Apostles, and the following day sent them out on their great missionary work throughout the whole spiritual world, so the Lord has called all of us together here this Nineteenth of June; and after having given us instruction and inspiration during this Assembly, He will tomorrow send us away from each other, every one to his duties in the world for the establishment of the Lord's kingdom on earth. May the Lord's blessing be with us, then, and let us pray: Thy kingdom come!

     Extemporaneous remarks being called for, the following gentlemen responded to the invitation:

     Mr. S. H. Ridgway, of Durban, South Africa, recounted his sensation of being in the spiritual world, when, during the Assembly, he had seen about him, in social meetings and at sessions, so many faces of friends whom he most wished to see,-faces from the circle that he hoped to associate with, not only on earth, but to eternity.

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He voiced the deep sense of gratitude felt by the visitors to the hosts and workers of the Assembly, which had proved successful, not only naturally, but also spiritually. He hoped that the sphere and some of the benefit of these meetings would be carried over to those who had not been able to attend.

     Mr. Frank Wilson, of Toronto, confirmed the opening remarks of the Bishop, who had intimated that the life of the church would decline without assemblies. He felt that the Assembly had been one of the greatest inspirations that a man could wish for in the course of a lifetime, and marveled at the results of the church-work started fifty short years ago by twelve men who practically went out into the wilderness. He commented gratefully on the efficient organization of the meetings, and concluded:

     "Someone said during these meetings that it is a long time since we had an Assembly in Bryn Athyn. I would like to say that there are at least two places where there has never been a General Assembly. One of these places is Pittsburgh, and the other is Toronto. In 1926, an invitation was given to hold the next General Assembly in Toronto. For reasons that seemed sufficient and indisputable, it was decided to hold the Assembly in England, and we gracefully bowed to the inevitable. This time it seemed desirable to hold the Assembly in Bryn Athyn; and again we bowed to the inevitable. Again Toronto cordially goes on record that she is willing to entertain the Fifteenth General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. If the next few years are as prosperous as the past years have been, it is just possible that you may turn up in as large numbers as have been present at this Assembly, but Toronto faces it unafraid."

     Rev. Henry Heinrichs forwarded greetings from our people in Denver and in the Canadian North West, and commented on their loyalty to the General Church. Noting the significance of the Nineteenth Day of June, he showed that, even as there was both immediate and mediate revelation, so there is a work purely Divine-the work of Judgment and Redemption-and a work given to angels and men. The church cannot be instituted apart from angelic and human instrumentalities. The essential need of human instrumentality and cooperation is embodied in the "principles" of the Academy.

     Mr. Harold McQueen gave a humorous disquisition in elucidation of the obfuscating usage of the term "reliquary" in one of the addresses.

     Mr. Theodore Bellinger, in happy phrases, paid tribute to the excellent arrangements of the Assembly. What had been said at the meetings about the implantation of remains in our children had brought us to realize the importance of educating our children in New Church schools. He referred to certain criticisms, both constructive and uncharitable, sometimes offered regarding our elementary schools, but concluded that the greater advantages are gained by education in the church. He urged all, on leaving the Assembly, to make a resolution to uphold the hands of our educators as far as it is possible for us to do so, and not only sing "Our Own Academy," but to give her our love and loyalty.

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     Mr. Donald F. Rose spoke appreciatively on behalf of the Bryn Athyn visitors to the Assembly,-by which he meant those of the local men who had not yet secured sufficiently the confidence of their employers to get the week off, or who had not been told that they could be spared. He suggested that, with such an excellent committee functioning, it might be well to continue the Assembly permanently, on the come-and-go plan. He misrepresented himself as one of those Bryn Athynites who had done no work for the Assembly, and as such paid great tribute to Mr. Leonard E. Gyllenhaal as the real power behind the smooth running of the meetings, and the factotum of the committee. (Mr. Gyllenhaal had been active on the building committee of the Assembly Hall, as well as on the Assembly Committee.)

     The Toastmaster, on behalf of the meeting, presented Mr. Gyllenhaal with a silver sugar bowl and cream pitcher, as a spontaneously given token of our affection, and mentioned that the recipient, in his various capacities, has devoted all his time and living affection to the great cause of the Lord's New Church.

     Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, on receiving this gift, assured the gathering that none had had a better time at the Assembly than he had. He felt that the Assembly Hall had now been re-dedicated in preparing for this Assembly. It was a cooperative work. The Bryn Athyn Church had helped, with its committees of entertainment and other activities, the Civic and Social Club with the presentation of the Play, the Borough of Bryn Athyn by putting in a road, the Academy with its Commencement Exercises and with the impressive Pageant. He recounted the difficulties of such a cooperative enterprise, and of his strong impression that, not only the living, but also those who had passed on into the other world, were with us in spirit, and had rededicated the building from above. . . .

     The toastmaster felt that the last speaker's remarks had shown us what a benediction this Assembly Hall and the working for it had been. Some of the speakers had referred to the orderly and smooth-working of the Assembly, and this led him to look now to the source of our organization,-the hand by means of which the ship of the Church has been guided through many troubled waters, the hand we hope will lead us for years to come, the hand of our beloved
Bishop. He then, with appreciative remarks, introduced the Right Rev. N. D. Pendleton.

     Bishop Pendleton: The toastmaster has spoken of me in a way which I do not deserve.

     I must give you this message from the Hague, which is one of the most recent societies of the Church, and one which evidences remarkable growth.

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Mr. Pfeiffer has succeeded in surrounding himself with a group of very intelligent men. The message is this:
     's-Gravenhage, June 14.

     Bishop Pendleton, Bryn Athyn:
     The Church in Holland sends cordial and grateful greetings to the Assembly, and sincere wishes for ever renewed progress in the doctrines of genuine truth.
     ERNST PFEIFFER.

     As to this Assembly, I am perplexed to know just what to say in regard to it. I would like to note the leading feature of it. But I cannot well do so at this time. If I should tell you tonight what I now think, it might create some discussion in your minds. You may not agree with me. I will tell you anyway how it seemed to me. The papers which were read reached a greater height than at most of the assemblies of the past. I also did not understand all that was in them. That would be impossible. I must read them over again. None the less, I had a feeling of pride,-and I use the word "pride" in a good sense,-in being a member of a Church having men in it who are capable of advancing the understanding of the interior doctrines of the Church. This seemed to me to indicate a definite progress in the development of the Church, that is to say, in its intellectual development; and I trust also that it represented something of spiritual advancement, and also a growth in the tolerance of varieties of ideas among our leaders and teachers. This is very necessary to future growth. You cannot expect us all to see with one mind and prophesy always with the same formulas.

     Thus I want to express my delight with the work done by the men who were asked to prepare papers. I am more than satisfied with the result....I want also to congratulate the members of this Assembly. I hear there have been many joking remarks with reference to the length, breadth and depth of those papers. None the less I observed that the great body of this Assembly came the next day, and the next, knowing just what they would get. There is great encouragement in the way this Assembly stood up to its duty in this respect. I received something from each one of those papers which I shall treasure; and I believe that this is true of you all.

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     And now, as we close, I give you the wish that each one of you may leave this Assembly with the feeling that the Lord has given you a gift which you will hold pure and undefiled. If this is the case, you will realize that this Assembly has been something more than a mere natural success. May the Lord be with us, even as He has chosen to be with His New Church!

     The Assembly closed with the Benediction.
          HUGO LJ. ODHNER.

     [Photo of GROUP AT CAIRNCREST]

     LEFT TO RIGHT: MISS ANNIE TAYLOR, MISS MORA WHITE, AUSTRALIA: MRS. J. H. RIDGWAY, SOUTH AFRICA: MISS CREDA GLENN, BRYN ATHYN; MISS MARIETTA L. MEECH, ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA; MRS. CARA S. GLENN. BRYN ATHYN; MRS. GUSTAF BAECKSTROM. STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN.

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     ROLL OF ATTENDANCE.

     The Committee on the Roll reports that 741 persons were enrolled as attending the Fourteenth General Assembly. Of these, 365 were visitors to Bryn Athyn. The remaining 376 does not include all of the residents of Bryn Athyn who attended.

     TABULATION.

United States      675
Canada           50
Abroad      16
               741

     Attendance by localities was catalogued as follows:

     Glenview 57; Pittsburgh 46; Philadelphia 34; Toronto 25; Kitchener 23; Chicago 17; Los Angeles 7; Durban 6.

     Australia 2; Brazil 2; England 3; Sweden 3; Canada (isolated) 2.
United States: Alabama 2; Colorado 9; Connecticut 3; District of Columbia 3; Florida 5; Georgia 4; Kentucky 2; Maryland 4; Massachusetts 1; Michigan 7; New Jersey 18; New York 36; Ohio 16; Pennsylvania (isolated) 23; Tennessee 3; State of Washington 1; West Virginia 1.

     The Committee asks pardon for any omissions.

     There was a large attendance at all of the sessions of the Assembly. When the hour arrived for the Address of the day, the seating capacity of the Assembly Hall was taxed.

     The Secretary of the General Church takes this opportunity to record his appreciation of the assistance of Miss Beryl Briscoe, who was engaged for the difficult task of reporting the discussions at the sessions and the banquet. In a new hall as large as that in which the meetings were held, the acoustics are at times treacherous, and few of our speakers are adepts at using the microphone. Inevitably, therefore, some of the speeches are not fully reported. In preparing the reports for publication, the Secretary has been obliged to condense the remarks of many speakers, to keep within the space available.
     HUGO LJ. ODHNER,
          Secretary.

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Church News 1930

Church News       Various       1930

     COLCHESTER, ENGLAND.

     An early celebration of New Church Day was held here on Saturday and Sunday, June 7h and 8th, these dates being selected because it was convenient for Bishop Tilson to be with us at that time, and because June 9th is a Bank Holiday,-Whit Monday. We were favored with splendid weather, and it was possible for a number of the friends to come from London, in addition to Bishop and Mrs. Tilson.

     On Saturday evening there was an open meeting of the local group of the Sons of the Academy at the home of Mrs. Rey Gill, thirty-six men and women being present, and Mr. J. S. Pryke presiding. An excellent paper on "The Brotherhood," by Mr. Norman Williams, called forth a lively discussion, with many speeches, both serious and witty. Miss May Waters expressed the pleasure felt by the ladies in attending this meeting; and our hostess, Mrs. Gill, was the recipient of a bouquet of beautiful flowers.

     On Sunday morning, a congregation of sixty-four attended Divine Worship conducted by Bishop Tilson, who delivered a notable sermon on the subject of "The Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Truth," and administered the Holy Supper to forty communicants.

     In the evening, a Social and Banquet in celebration of New Church Day was held at the church, about fifty persons sitting down to tables well provided with good things to eat, and tastefully decorated with mauve and pink sweet peas. At the conclusion of the repast, under the able toastmastership of Mr. Colley Pryke, we listened to the following list of speeches, which were interspersed with appropriate songs:

     "The Message of June 19th," by Mr. Alan N. Waters; "To Whom the Message was Entrusted," by Mr. H. Wyncoll; "To Whom the Message was to be Promulgated," by Mr. A. J. Appleton; "States and Conditions in the Natural World at the Time the Message was Given," by Mr. J. S. Pryke; "By Whom the Message will be Received," by Bishop R. J. Tilson.

     In the course of these thoughtful and effective addresses, a series of toasts was honored: "To All New Church Folk in Europe, in America, in Africa, in Australia, and in Asia." Informal remarks followed, including a gracious speech by Miss Gertrude Nelson, of Glenview, who said: "If I had to be away from Bryn Athyn just now, I would rather be in Colchester than anywhere else!"

     A pleasant feature of the program was the presentation of a Testimonial to Mr. F. R. Cooper, who has been Secretary of the Colchester Society for twenty-eight years, and who richly merited the affectionate expressions of appreciation for his efficient and faithful services.

     A wireless message, signed by Mr. and Mrs. Victor J. Gladish and Mr. and Mrs. Elmo C. Acton, and dated somewhere on the Atlantic, was received with enthusiasm when read at the Banquet.

     This report has been compiled from sundry letters.-W. B. C.

     SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA.

     New Church Day was commemorated on two successive Sundays: the 15th and 22d of June. On the 14th, the children's celebration consisted of an early supper, followed by two tableaux. The first represented John the Baptist, who, by preaching repentance and proclaiming the Lord's personal advent, prepared the way for Him; and the second tableau represented Swedenborg, whom the Lord chose to reveal His second and spiritual advent. Both characters were well presented by Master Ossian Heldon. The dressing and general preparation were done by Mrs. T. R. Taylor.

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In the intervals, the Pastor spoke to the children and parents about the meaning of the representations, and about the Church in general. Just prior to the presentation of John, all sang the hymn,

"A herald voice the lonely desert cheers;
Prepare the way! Jehovah God appears!"

     And prior to the second tableau, "Jerusalem, the golden!" was sung.

     The main celebration was on the 22d, the day following the shortest of the year; and Sydney, being about 34 degrees south of the Equator, when the sun is 12 degrees north, it may be realized that, although we have no snow, we nevertheless feel the sun's departure as much as our "friends across the sea," whose blood is tuned to the accompaniment of ice and snow. And it was wet, too. Mr. Burl, the leader of the Thomas St. Society, was unable to come, owing to the cold and wet. But the Secretary, Mr. Langford, and Mr. Russell, a member, were present, and were delighted, especially with the banquet, which commenced with hot roast lamb and green peas, etc., for which we are indebted to Mr. and Mrs. T. R. Taylor. The preparation of a hot meal in such circumstances is no light task. Then there were varieties of confectionery; and, to crown all, the cake-the gift of Mrs. Heldon, on the top of which artistic hands had wrought a representation of Bryn Athyn cathedral; and around its ample circumference, lettering that left no doubt as to the day. Over the bright scene hung our silk banner, having on one face, in embroidered letters, the words "June 19"; and, on the opposite face, "The Second Advent."

     After bodily appetite had been generally satisfied, little Miss Nellie Taylor carried round a basket containing slips upon which were written short extracts from the Writings. Commencing with the Pastor she proceeded by the left until each had taken one. Then, in the same order, each recipient read aloud his or her message. The effect was very pleasing; and who knows what Providence has in store for each!

     Then, in a brief speech, the Pastor proposed the toast to "The Church," after which all sang "Our Glorious Church." When seconding the toast, Mr. Kirchstein read an extract from Bishop Tilson's address on "The Church," given at the 22d British Assembly last year. The reading by the Pastor of the replies which he gave to the representative of Stead's Review (given below) caused some discussion, when Mr. Langford read his replies. Mr. Guthrie stressed the importance of united action in the matter. Complete ignorance of the New Church is evident in the questions, and the answers that are given ought to be clear and accurate.

     The only other toast that was honored was to "Absent Friends," proposed by Mr. G. W. Guthrie in his usual felicitous manner, and seconded by Mr. T. R. Taylor, whose definition of such a friend was "anyone, anywhere, who is of the Church, but not here tonight." The dampness of the outside had failed to dampen the spirits of those within, who sang heartily the final song, "Friends Across the Sea." And after the Pastor had pronounced the benediction, a happy gathering melted slowly away, leaving a remnant-the young people-to do the washing-up, which duty they per formed willingly and with unabated energy.

     A Questionnaire.

     Mr. L. L. Woolacott, the N. S. W. representative of Stead's Review, in his letter of June the 9th, stated that he had been asked "to secure as much information as possible about religious organizations in this State, to form the basis of an important article to be published as soon as possible." He therefore submitted the following questions to which also are appended the replies:

     1. What are the basic tenets or dogmas of your religious organization) Ans.-That Jesus Christ in His Divine Human is God, and not a second person in a trinity of persons; also that salvation is possible only by obedience to the Commandments, while shunning evils as sins against Him.

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     2. Would you class your organization as orthodox or unorthodox? Ans.-Orthodox, in the true meaning of that word, as being right and true as to Christian doctrine.

     3. Is your organization antagonistic to or cooperative with Churches such as the Roman Catholic, Church of England, Presbyterian, Wesleyan, Baptist, etc.? Ans.-Neither; for the reason that the New Church, which is truly Christian (see question 1), stands in the same relation to them, as dissimilar sections of the first Christian Church, that that Church stands to the Jewish which it succeeded. The first Christian Church is dead, spiritually; notwithstanding, like the Jewish, it still continues externally.

     4. Are there any salaried members employed by your organization? Ans.-Regarded as a world organization, yes; for the Church is a unit, and is related to the Divine as a wife to her husband. (See Apocalypse 21: 2, 9); but there are Societies of the one Church all over the world. Ours is one of the smaller.

     5. Is your organization financially maintained by public or/and private contributions! Ans.-Entirely by its members and sympathisers.

     6. What, in your opinion, is the immediate future of religion in Australia! Are there any definite signs of a desire for spirituality, according to your own definition of that word? among any considerable numbers of the population? Ans.-In the New Church, "religion" and "spirituality" are terms practically interchangeable. Spirituality is allied with regeneration, or the new birth (John 3: 3, 5, 7). A Church is merely nominal unless its composite parts are regenerating men and women. When a Church comes to its end by the denial of Jesus Christ as God, and by consequent evils of life, there is always a remnant left which forms the nucleus of a new Church that will receive Him, and to which He can be conjoined, and to which He gives a new Revelation, or Word. For unless there be a Church somewhere on the earth, by which the Creator can have conjunction with each human unit of His creation, the race would perish. Therefore, I see no "definite signs of a desire for spirituality among any considerable numbers of the population"; rather do our newspapers afford daily evidence of the opposite. The desire for spirituality is born, and increases, in the proportion that the evils condemned by the Commandments are shunned because they are sins against God.

     7. About what number of people attend your services regularly? Ans.-About twenty.

     8. How often are your services held, and where? Ans.-Every Sunday morning at Dudley Street, South Hurstville. Sunday School in the afternoon, and Doctrinal Class in the evening.

     9. Are women or men adherents of your organization in the majority) Ans.-About equal.

     10. Is any effort made to imbue children with your tenets? Ans.-Yes; for this we regard as of prime importance.

     11. What other information concerning your objects do you care to lay before the readers of Stead's Review? Ans.-The revelation of the Word's internal or spiritual sense, upon which the New Church is founded, states that this Church, which is the fifth in order, "is the crown of all the churches which have so far been on the earth, and that it will endure for ever." It was given through the mind and by the hand of Emanuel Swedenborg, during a period of about twenty-six years. In these precious volumes the science of the correspondences between things natural and spiritual has again been given to the world; and to all who are able to receive this revelation, the Bible, or Word, is an open Book. In it, the Lord in His second advent, and His spiritual universe, are most luminously revealed. The Divine constituents of God are Love and Wisdom, or Good and Truth, represented in the literal sense of the Word by Father and Son. Truth is the executive of good. When, prior to the Advent, earth's inhabitants became so enslaved by the hells as to be unable to free themselves, God sent His Son-His Divine Truth-into the world to save the world.

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At that first advent, salvation was possible for man only by the clothing of the Divine Truth with a human nature, by means of a Jewish virgin, charged with the evil heredity of the race, and with which all the hells were in contact. In this way the Divine Love, by means of the Divine Truth within that human nature, was able to conquer all the hells during the period of the Lord's life on earth. Thus did He not only redeem His human children from hell's bondage, and restore to them, eternally, their spiritual freedom to choose right or wrong, but He made that human nature Divine in the process and one with the essential Divine in Him, and became the Omega as He eternally had been the Alpha.

     But the Christian Church, thus started by its Divine Founder, very soon forsook Him. Early in the fourth century a trinity of persons was concocted, and Jesus Christ was reduced to second place. From then its spiritual disintegration continued, until Luther, early in the sixteenth century, accentuated it by making salvation attainable by faith alone, notwithstanding the Lord's clear statements in Matt. 19:17, and John 3:3, 5. Thus did the first Christian Church, which was Christian in name only, sink to its death, when not a single truth remained that was not falsified.

     I will quote Swedenborg's "Memorandum," which he wrote at the end of The True Christian Religion, the last work of what the New Church calls "the Writings." It will read strangely at a time when the spiritual and causal are almost forgotten in the maze of abnormal developments of the natural and material; in the splendor of the effects of an intellectual light more brilliant than at any former period within the memory of man. But it needs to be stated that since all light, intellectual or physical, is from God, through the Spiritual World, to man in the natural worlds, the cause of its brilliance today is due to the Last Judgment upon the Christian Church in the year 1757, by which the avenues leading from the "Light of the World" to man on our earth were cleared of all obstructions.

     This is the "Memorandum":

     "After this work was finished, the Lord called together His twelve disciples (now angels), who followed Him in the world; and the next day He sent them forth into the whole spiritual world to preach the gospel that the Lord God Jesus Christ reigns, whose kingdom shall be for ever and ever, according to the prediction in Daniel (7:13, 14) and in the Revelation (11, 15); and that blessed are they who come unto the marriage-supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9). This took place on the 19th day of June, in the year 1770. This is meant by these words of the Lord: "He shall send His angels, and they shall gather together His elect from one end of the heavens to the other " (Matt. 24:31.)
     RICHARD MORSE.

     GENERAL CONFERENCE.

     The proceedings of the 123d Annual Meeting of the General Conference of the New Church, held at Manchester, May 21-28, 1930, are reported in five numbers of The New-Church Herald, June 7th to July 7th, inclusive. From the account we gather the following items of special interest:

     The Rev. W. T. Stonestreet was chosen President for the ensuing year, succeeding the Rev. Albert E. Edge, who stated that he had visited fifty Conference Societies during his term of office. Mr. Edge subsequently attended the General Convention in Boston as representative of Conference.

     In his Inaugural Address, Mr. Stonestreet sounded a pessimistic note: "I fear that an honest survey of our position would compel us to confess that we have not only not made any remarkable progress, but that we have lost hold in many places where once we had some influence; in short, that Society after Society has disappeared from our Roll." In part he blames this upon "the widespread secular spirit predominant in the world today which is probably responsible for much that discourages us in our religious enterprises.

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Analyzed, it is, on its intellectual side, an implicit faith and trust in science. . . . It is that materialism which exalts physical well-being to the place where spiritual interests and God should reign. On the moral side it leads to the substitution of the most sensuous standards for what should make for purity of soul and righteousness of life. . . . To this widespread secular spirit the New Church has surely a heaven-given antidote. . . . What, then, should be the supreme purpose of the New Apostolic Church, the Church of the New Jerusalem? Surely it stands unique in Christendom today for its knowledge of the existence, the nearness, and the reality of the Spiritual. No other Church has such a clear and definite evidence of the nature and relationship of the Supernatural, nor can bring so full and complete an Evangel of Eternal Life to the world of doubt and darkness today." There is more in the same vein of a frank recognition of the state of Christendom, though without any suggestion of the true remedy for the decline in the New Church itself,-namely, evangelization among children and young people within the New Church.

     The Conference Sermon, by the Rev. Arthur Clapham, directed the thought of the Church to the doctrine of the Lord as "the great doctrine which the New Church has to teach the world." "It is our evangel as the New Church, committed to us by the Lord Himself, to lead men to see the purpose of their life and all that pertains to it as part of the one great purpose of God, and to direct them to that God in His Divine Humanity as the one Source whence they can find light, understanding and love. It is easier, no doubt, to interest them in other things,-in the doctrine concerning Heaven and the Spiritual World, for example, or in the Scriptures and their inner sense. But true understanding of these and all other doctrines depends upon an understanding of the Lord. And we have not really achieved anything until we have taught men to see in the Lord the first principles of love and wisdom, to acknowledge Him as their Only God, the One Author and the One continual Sustainer of all that is enduring and right."

     The Report of the New Church College was discussed at length, with some difference of opinion as to the wisdom of the recent removal from Islington to Woodford Green, a suburb of London about nine miles from the City, where the purchase of a new property had been made possible by the sale of the old premises, and a gift of ?5000 from Mr. George Marchant, of Australia. For several years the College has maintained six students for the Ministry.

     The Mooki Memorial College for the training of native ministers in South Africa has not yet been established, although the appeal for L5000 made a year ago has resulted in donations and promises of L1000, and Conference authorized the purchase of a suitable property where agricultural instruction can also be given, this being necessary if a Government grant and recognition are to be obtained.

     At one point in the Conference proceedings, the Rev. A. E. Beilby moved that only one wine be used at the Conference celebration of the Holy Supper. This was seconded by Mr. A. E. Friend, but Mr. Hiram Russell moved as an amendment that there should be two administrations, at one of which unfermented wine should be used. After some discussion, a "motion to pass on to the next business was carried by a great majority."

     Among the visitors from abroad were Miss Nordenskiold, of Stockholm, and the Rev. Maurice de Chazal, the latter giving an interesting account of conditions in Mauritius, where he is Minister of the New Church. "In Mauritius there is a complete lack of freedom. It is an intensely Roman Catholic population. He had tried to lecture in public places outside New Church premises, but was not permitted. On his arrival in the island, a liberal-spirited Mohammedan gave him an opportunity to speak in cinemas owned by him and the results were excellent. Indeed, the success was so great that he was not permitted to renew it. The Mohammedan friend was sorry not to be able to allow him the further use of his cinemas.

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A priest had been to see him, and told him that if he permitted any more New Church lectures he would be boycotted. Since then he [M. De Chazal] had concentered on internal work in his church. He was fortunate enough to have a band of about thirty young people. To begin with they had known little about the New Church, but classes were organized and their knowledge increased. In that sphere there was progress, and he was confident that in Mauritius there was a future for the Church.
     W. B. C.

     TORONTO, CANADA.

     Silver Wedding Anniversary.

     On Sunday evening, June 1st, a delightful Silver Wedding Anniversary Reception was given by Mr. and Mrs. Frank Wilson in the Hall of the Church. After receiving their many guests (about eighty were present) in an attractively arranged drawing room filled with flowers of many varieties, and the community singing of the 19th Psalm and the 66th Hymn, our host and hostess provided us with a fine program of musical items, to which contributions were made by Miss Nancy Wilson, Dr. and Mrs. Richardson, Miss Edina Carswell, Miss Johnston and Miss Lochsdale.

     Then, during the refreshments, three toasts were honored: (1) "The Church," responded to by the Rev. Alan Gill, of Kitchener; (2) "Conjugial Love," with a response by the Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal; and (3) "Mr. and Mrs. Wilson," proposed by Mr. A. E. Sargeant and supported by Mr. F. R. Longstaff. Mr. Sargeant, on behalf of the Society, presented to Mr. and Mrs. Wilson a handsome set of sterling silver flatware and a silver encased pyrex dish, as a token of the great affection in which they are held, and as an expression of our appreciation for Mr. Wilson's long service as Treasurer and in other offices.

     Messrs. T. P. Bellinger and Theodore Rothermel then read extracts from two speeches delivered on the occasion of a Silver Wedding Anniversary in 1903, the first being on "The Husband," by the Rev. Alfred Acton, and the second on "The Wife," by the late Rev. C. Th. Odhner (New Church Life, 1903, pp. 173, 177), and supplemented their readings with testifications of their affection for Mr. and Mrs. Wilson. Finally, Mr. Wilson was allowed to respond, which he did feelingly and felicitously on behalf of Mrs. Wilson and himself.
     F. E. G.

     DR. HENRY BECKER.

     An Obituary.

     Dr. Becker was born at Hamilton, Ontario, in 1858, educated at Rockwood Academy, graduated from Trinity College, Toronto, in 1879, and spent two years in the London, England, hospitals afar his medical course. After practicing Allopathy for a number of years, he took a course in Homeopathy under Dr. Kent at Philadelphia. In class one day, Dr. Kent made a remark which led Dr. Becker to ask for its origin, but Dr. Kent postponed his reply. Shortly after this, in the office of Dr. George M. Cooper, Dr. Becker, while waiting for Dr. Cooper, picked up one of Swedenborg's theological works, and, on glancing through it, recognized the source of Dr. Kent's philosophy. He talked with Dr. Cooper on the subject and at once bought some of the Writings.

     When Dr. Becker had become convinced of the truth of the Heavenly Doctrines, he was baptized by the Rev. E. s. Hyatt, on July 15, 1900, and became a member of the General Church and of the Toronto Society. H e had married Miss Mary Sutherland, of glen Allan, and their three daughters were sent in turn to the Academy Schools at Bryn Athyn. They are now married, each have two children. The eldest daughter is also a Homeopathic physician.

     Dr. Becker built up a large practice in Toronto, and became one of Canada's most prominent medical men. At the time of his death he was President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He passed to the spiritual world suddenly and unexpectedly on July 23d at this summer home in Katrine, Ontario.
     F. E. G.

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ONTARIO DISTRICT ASSEMBLY 1930

ONTARIO DISTRICT ASSEMBLY              1930




     Announcements.



     The Eighteenth Ontario District Assembly will be held at the Olivet Church, 35 Elm Grove Avenue, Toronto, Canada, November 7th-10th, 1930. All members and friends of the General Church are cordially invited to attend.
NOTICE TO OUR READERS 1930

NOTICE TO OUR READERS       Editor       1930

     The Report of the Fourteenth General Assembly, held at Bryn Athyn, June 13-19, 1930, has been published in the August and September issues, together with several of the Addresses delivered on that occasion. The text of the three remaining Addresses delivered at sessions of the Assembly will appear in subsequent issues. These are: "Mind and Body," by the Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner; "The Uses of Heaven and the Tasks of Hell," by the Rev. Alfred Acton; and "Protective Veils," by the Rev. E. E. Iungerich.

     "Notes on the Calendar Readings" will be resumed in the October number, and continued monthly throughout the year.
     W. B. CALDWELL,
          Editor.

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NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1930

NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS       Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1930


NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. L          OCTOBER, 1930          No. 10
     Many topics of striking interest stand out prominently in the September-October readings from the Arcana. We select only the two following:

     Will the Earth Endure to Eternity?

     After the flood, Noah was given Divine assurance that no universal deluge would again visit our race, and that, "as long as the earth endureth," the rotation bf the seasons would not cease. The Arcana (n. 931), in our English version, has it that "from this it is also evident that the earth will not endure to eternity, but that it, too, will have its end." Some New Church scholars have felt that a scrutiny of the Latin passage in its context yields a translation which quite reverses the meaning: "From this it is possible also to establish (inde constare quogue potest) that the earth will . . . have its end"; i.e., it can be so argued by those who have only the literal sense to guide them, and from this falsely believe that the Last Judgment promised in the Word means the destruction of the habitable globe.

     One reason why the Letter of the Word must present this idea of an earth that "has an end," is that by the "earth" is meant the Ancient Church, and the Lord's words to Noah implied that as long as that Church remained in its integrity, so long no cataclysmic or final judgment would be necessary; but the states of reformation and regeneration would follow each other with seasonal regularity, advance to their maturity, be judged and purified, and so be succeeded by new alternate states.

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The conception of an eventual end of the physical world was thus inevitable in all the preparatory Churches, while in the New Church, which is meant by the "dominion of an age which shall not pass away," there is renewed a hope, bordering on conviction, that our globe will endure forever, since this is prophesied of the New, truly Christian Church itself, "which is being at this day established by the Lord" and "will endure to eternity, as is proved from the Word of both Testaments. (Coronis lii; compare T. C. R. 788.)

     To speak thus of the New Church, in contrast with the other churches, would be meaningless, unless our globe is to be preserved. On this earth, differently from all other planets, the Divine Truth "remains in its integrity perpetually (in perpetuum)" as a written Word (A. 9358), and only here are the sense-ultimates which testify of the Lord's incarnation before all in the universe. The cause of this promised eternity, however, does not reside in any special physical characteristic of our earth or of our sun. The law is, that all eternity comes from spiritual causes. Nor is it due to the fact that our earth is inhabited. It is conceivable that the meteoric matter showering in space might be from defunct and shattered planets of unknown history, since "it is indeed possible that the human race on one earth may perish, which comes to pass when they separate themselves entirely from the Divine." (L. J. 10.) Still, the Lord provides against this happening; which is shown by His coming in the flesh here on earth, when that danger was at hand. (A. E. 726:7.)

     The works of the Lord look to eternity. And while the fulfilment of all prophecy is to some extent conditional upon individual human freedom, and it might not be spiritually wholesome to have scientific certainty as to the eternity of the globe, yet the peculiar uses of this planet and its inhabitants, and the existence of the prophecy as to the eternal destiny of the crowning Church on earth, make the theoretical possibility of its destruction seem inconsiderable. The Lord's hand is mighty to overrule our follies, and to assure the greater destinies of the race.

     Vegetarianism in the Golden Age.

     In the Arcana, n. 1002, it is said that "eating the flesh of animals, regarded in itself, is something profane," and that in the most ancient time they never ate the flesh of any beast or bird, but only vegetables and various milks and butters.

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To kill animals and eat their flesh was to them a wickedness. From time to time, many in the New Church have stressed this teaching, and sought to bring the people of the Church into the general practice of vegetarianism from a religious conscience. This raises the question as to the doctrinal merits of such an effort.

     Under ideal conditions, seeking our food from the vegetable kingdom would no doubt be preferable; and the time may come when it is possible in this detail to approximate the state of the golden springtime of the earth. Some day, also, we may be able to dispense with garments, and live the simple life under a patriarchal government, and never mention the word "faith," lest we revert into a merely spiritual state. Still, the path back to the celestial life is not found by following the lure of external perfection, or by an artificial return to the habits and outward modes of the ancients, but rather in purging our hearts of the evils which oppose the spiritual loves to the neighbor and to the Lord, and which mar our relations with our fellow immortals.

     The Ancient Church and the Jewish were permitted the use of meat; but to them the blood was sacred, and had to be poured out as a testimony that it signified the holy celestial from the Lord. The reason for this partial abstinence was mainly representative. After the coming of the Lord, representatives were abolished, and since then "man is not regarded in heaven from external things, but from internal things." (A. 1003.)

     The Lord endeavored to transfer our conscience from external things to internal things, when He taught that "not that which entereth into the mouth defileth a man." And in the Arcana it is therefore said that, after the fall, when men had become evil as to their hereditary nature, meat-eating, so far as it is not against a religious conscience, is lawful, and is not a thing which condemns a man. (A. 1002.)

     The question remains, as to whether it should be made a matter of conscience to abstain from flesh as food. The doctrine leaves this for the individual to answer. A good man is averse to all unnecessary cruelty to animals, and to all destructiveness. Use should dictate our actions, and the primary use on the ultimate plane is that the body be nourished for health and strength as the foundation for a healthy mind, that man may carry on his uses to the society of men.

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But the warning is given us, that there are deceitful spirits who "lack the breadth of thought" to see the really useful or necessary, and therefore endeavor to obsess the simple, and burden their consciences with many trivialities, and raise scruples about matters of small moment. (A. 5386; S. D. 1240, 3847.) Such spirits suggested to Swedenborg that he should eat or buy in a certain place because the people there were upright, and to spend no money abroad where it would not benefit his country, and so on. Unreasonable consideration for the transient animal life which abounds in the ground or the air, or for the beautiful vegetation about us, would seriously interfere with our uses of charity, and thus with the object of creation. Our conscience should be formed from spiritual, rather than merely natural good, and should be applied according to our changing needs. Such a conscience, being free and plastic, commands the respect of all rational men.

     The conclusion is therefore given, that "all things will go well, and will be fruitful and multiply, if men shun what is signified by eating blood and shedding blood; that is, if they do not extinguish charity by hatreds and profanations." (A. 1018.)

     Those who follow the Calendar are reminded that the first volume of the Arcana Celestia is nearly concluded, and that orders for the second volume should be sent in early enough to allow time for delivery.

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PROTECTIVE VEILS 1930

PROTECTIVE VEILS       Rev. E. E. IUNGERICH       1930

     (At The Fourteenth General Assembly, June 18, 1930.)

     "Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister." (Genesis 12:3.)

     The years from infancy to adolescence fail into two periods, which are marked by the forming of the highest and middle degrees of the mind into reliquaries* of the heavenly virtues of innocence and mutual love. At adolescence the lowest degree of the mind is ready to be made into the third and ultimate reliquary. In order that this may occur, the individual must cooperate as of himself. The tutelage of masters which had led his reactive in the two prior formations is now merely a background of softened recollections that canopy the epic struggle he must make under his own responsibility in the center. If he conquer here, a third reliquary is dedicated to the virtue called the good of faith, obedience to God's commands, and a living according to spiritual principles.
     * A small box in which relies are kept (Webster), here used to denote a vessel or receptacle in which remains (reliquiae) are stored in the mind.

     Regeneration has now begun, and faithfulness till death will find such an one possessed of the conscience of what is just and fair, and with a mind attuned to the rhythms of the natural heaven. The totality of the cortical glands of his brain have become aligned under the power of the Word, much as the molecules of an iron bar when made the center of a magnetic field that is its own. The form thus induced now resists the alien influence in the hereditary bases condensed in the crypts about these glands, and will not allow it to carry off the cortical glands as a mad, lawless, bolshevistic mob into what are called the tumultuous passions of the animus.

     The regeneration thus begun may become a rhythm opening to one or even two discretely deeper series of overtones, according as the melody of mutual love and the resonance of innocence that have superconsciously vibrated the higher reliquaries become in turn the major orchestration in the mind.

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     When the middle degree of the mind opens, the super-brain within each cortical gland, which Swedenborg calls a simple cortex and a pure intellectory, acts as a distinctly sentient individual together with all the other super-brains. The finer law which they all recognize is called the conscience of spiritual good and truth,-the love of the neighbor when regarded from the standpoint of his being an organ of God's gifts. The mind has risen above a dependence upon formal, rational, argumentation to convince it of its beliefs, and into an intuition of intellectual verities. It now feels the futility of demonstrating that which it so clearly sees.

     On the opening of the celestial degree of the mind in its supreme triumph, these super-brains are enlisted in God's kingdom as to their inward and upward surface, by which they imbibe the pure essences of the soul itself. The mind, thus avid for the bread of heaven, spontaneously acquiesces in such a direct guidance from the Lord. Its law is then the perceptions of truth and the affections of good. Its unerring decisions,-"Yea, yea, or nay, nay"-mark its abiding constancy under the Lord, whithersoever He may lead.

     The relation of any one of these reliquaries, when thus regenerated, to the gift from the Lord which inflows, is called (in a notable passage in the Arcana) the conjunction of the good of one degree with the truth of the degree next higher. Within the individual this is the mystic marriage of the church as a bride with the Lord. Two components in each reliquary, called affection and perception, must be in the conjugial relations of husband to wife, before that reliquary can receive the Lord's gift, and, when received, embody it in an essence of use throughout the range of its activities.

     But prior to the opening of a reliquary by regeneration, or when, like unripe fruit, it is still percolated by the sour juices that are building its structure, this conjugial relation is disguised. So long as its perceptions have a seemingly outward dependence upon that structure-building material which comes from below, there is a bridal veil interposed between these perceptions and the patriarchal quiverings that await the regenerative moment when that reliquary is to become a church fully responsive to the influent marriage of good and truth. The patriarch's wife is then to be called his sister, or otherwise these quivering affections will be silenced forever, and no church will be developed in the plane of that reliquary. The mind could never then be opened to that degree.

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     Such a situation occurs when each of the three reliquaries is being formed. It occurs twice with regard to the two reliquaries builded out of the simple cortexes, pure intellectories, or super-brains; in token of which the Word records that Abraham, first as Abram, and later as Abraham, declared that Sarai was not his wife but his sister. On the first occasion, remains of innocence were being implanted in the upward surface of these super-brains; on the second occasion, remains of mutual love were being implanted on the lower surface, by which they are turned toward the cortical glands. It finally occurs a third time with regard to the third reliquary,-the cortical glands; in token of which the Word records that Abraham's son, Isaac, declared that Rebecca was not his wife but his sister. (Gen. 26:7.)

     Let us consider what the Arcana Celestia unfolds with regard to the necessity of such a bridal veil on each of these occasions, and wherein we, first as educators, while the first two groups of remains are being implanted in those under our care, and finally as responsible agents in the implantation of the third group in our own minds, may draw needed lessons from this heavenly doctrine.

     II.

     The descent of Abram with Sarai into Egypt at the time of a grievous famine depicts that state of the Lord's mind during the flight into Egypt, when there was a lack of information in His external man, and He was to be instructed, according to the normal order with all human beings, in cognitions from the Word to make celestial vessels for the innocence that was being imbued. In that early stage He observed in Himself a natural avidity for truth which is common to all children and is meant by the Egyptian's coveting Sarai. If not controlled, this craving would debauch for low purposes and so devitalize those inmost celestial truths which are the vessels of innocence. Abram, therefore, or the affections of innocence linked to these celestial truths, became fearful lest he be slain because of Sarai.

     The end in acquiring cognitions, we read, is "that a man may become successively rational, spiritual, and celestial; and that, by their application to a use such as this, his external man may be adjoined to the internal. The internal man regards nothing else than use.

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For this end the Lord insinuates that delight in knowledges which is perceived in childhood and adolescence. This is manifested in children when first they begin to learn, namely, that the deeper the subjects are, the more eager they are; and when they hear that there are heavenly and Divine things, their eagerness increases." (A. C. 1472.) For in this stage a bridge is being flung between sensual impressions, lowest in the scale of knowledges, and innocence, highest in the range of heavenly virtues; and so between the ultimate sensories and the uppermost surfaces of the simple cortexes or pure intellectories. Cognitions about God are the most vital; and should these be dwarfed by some cramping church dogma, the effect on this plane of the mind would be well nigh irremediable. For instance, as the True Christian Religion solemnly warns, "to implant in an infant or child 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 subsequently all spiritual food, and lastly all spiritual reasoning, and (so) to induce spiritual death with those who confirm themselves in this." (T. C. R. 23.)

     Now so far as these cognitions are learned for the sake of a use, as in the interest of human society, the Lord's church on earth, and His kingdom in the heavens, and still more so if for the sake of the Lord Himself, they are then being opened up (as vessels receptive of the virtue that is being imbued). That is why the angels who are in the science of cognitions, one ten thousandth part of which could hardly be set forth to man's comprehension, regard cognitions as almost nothing in comparison with the use they should serve." (A. C. 1472.)

     But with children the insinuated delight by which they imbibe cognitions has in it "something inherently natural, arising from a cupidity of the external man, which will prompt them to place delight in merely knowing these cognitions apart from any other end in view. . . . One carried away by this corporeal cupidity is to that extent estranged from what is heavenly, and his scientifics to that extent shut themselves against the Lord and become material. . . . The Lord as a child noticed that if He were carried away by the mere cupidity of knowing, He would then care no more for heavenly things, but only for the cognitions which this lust of knowing had laid hold of." (A. C. 1472.)

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     The guards that prevent such a violation of heavenly things are two. One is at the top of the Scale, on the plane of the upper surfaces of the simple cortexes, and which we have termed the "bridal veil"; the other is at the bottom of the scale in the plane of the external sensory. In the Biblical narrative the upper guard is represented by Sarai's disguising that she was a wife, and calling herself a sister; the lower guard, by Pharaoh's being smitten with plagues to prevent his taking her to wife.

     Her not being acknowledged as Abram's wife involves that the cognitions absorbed under childish curiosity cannot consciously humble themselves to make one with affections that invite influent good to dispose that highest reliquary into the performing of use. Only in a later stage, when temptations can be endured, does such humility come. Nor is the growing stock of information in the memory submissive to the implanted innocence in the simple cortexes' upper surface.

     Sarai as a wife to Abram means celestial or inmost truths that art the envelope of innocence. They are transparent and unashamed of that which they reveal, and are referred to in what is said of that most ancient pair who were naked and not ashamed. Swedenborg, in the Rational Psychology, places them on the plane of the pure soul, which laps the uppermost surfaces of the simple cortexes. In the prologue to the Canons, they are called suisona ratio amoris, which is commonly rendered "the self-evidencing reason of love," though a more literal translation would be "reason, having love's own resonance." Such truths are those with the angels of the celestial kingdom, which are said to be impressed on their hearts, for from good of love to the Lord they know all truth, so that they never reason about it, as is done in the spiritual kingdom; and, therefore, when truths are treated of they say only, "Yea, yea, or nay, nay." (A. C. 9942.) Their "worship . . . is not by means of confessions, adorations, and prayer, as with those in the spiritual kingdom, . . . thus not by truths from the memory, but by truths from the heart, which act one with the love itself in which they are For truths with them are inscribed on their heart; and so, when they do the commandments from love, they also do them from truths, without any thought about them from what is doctrinal, thus without evoking them from the memory." (A. C. 10295.)

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     Now a child, under the urge of that natural curiosity which impels him to acquire knowledges, could not be sustained by motives envisaging their complete subjection to the affections. He has not for them the protective temperings which enable reliquaries woven out of compliant affections and perceptions to receive the fiery current of the descending Divine Love and Wisdom, nor can he shoulder the adult responsibility of one who is regenerating.

     Practically, this means the following: If given as a reason for learning one type of scientifics rather than another, the explanation that these will further a spiritual receptiveness which he will learn to appreciate only later; or, if urged to enter into uses with the spirit of a regenerating adult; in neither case will the affections which need vessels to fixate them in the mind find any. Instead of those affections an aversion to performing uses for their own sake and without a reward may be instilled. Abram would be slain if it were known that Sarai was more to him than a sister.

     But a middle course can be followed. A premature divulging of the real purpose for which cognitions are learned need not occur. Nor is it necessary to adopt the other alternative of acquiring them by such low motives as merely material thrills and the greed for a reward. Celestial truths of the self-evidencing reason of love, or reason having love's own resonance, may be covered with a bridal veil and thus appear in the guise of truths a discrete degree lower in the scale. The proper name for these is intellectual or spiritual truths. In the Rational Psychology they are said to be on the plane of the pure intellectory, that is, on the lower surface of the same simple cortexes. These are profound intuitions of wide-sweeping principles, which, to the child in his Egyptian bondage, gleam as the very peak to which his studies should mount,-a science of science such as intrigued the scholars of Egypt, a universal mathesis of all that is to be learned. A wise Providence guides his fancy to be captivated by such a vision. Prior to regeneration "he cannot be affected by truth in order to become wise, that is, for the sake of life," declares the Arcana, "but only in order to be made intelligent, or for the sake of doctrine." (A. C. 6247.) For at that time it is only his understanding that is capable of elevation to heavenly heights. His will, notwithstanding the imbued remains that tie to the virtue of innocence, still hungers for the fleshpots of Egypt.

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The ambition to win to intellectual preeminence is thus the safe lure for the child. Higher truths than the intellectual ones of the great philosophers are beyond his appreciation. For celestial truths of that reason which is love's own resonance are self-effacing, and would interpose no bridal veil to dim the luster of the heavenly affections to which they are conjoined.

     The necessary guard imposed on the sensory at the lower end of the scale in this period of the child's life was represented by the plagues which smote the Pharaoh who had sequestered Sarai in his seraglio, and four hundred years later by quite similar ones upon a subsequent Pharaoh who would not let Abraham's seed depart from his land. They are the means by which the exalted truths that have been learned may be severed from their association with many low and impure affections that occupied the sensory at the time they were imbibed by it.

     By these plagues, the Arcana reveals, is meant the wise provision of forgetting the things that have been learned. Scientifics which once scintillated before the childish fancy disappear from view when they have become subtle motivators of his thinking processes, that is, habitual. To teachers and parents whose pride or storge insists on showy exhibitions of the child's intellectual accomplishments, it certainly appears as a plague that these knowledges should have disappeared. But it is a wise provision that this should occur, and especially so with regard to scientifics from the letter of the Word. But they have not been lost. They have merely been raised from a lower to a more internal and vital part of the mind. The case is like that of a dancer who with much painstaking labor has learned many intricate steps, after these have been made habitual and can be reproduced automatically as if with spontaneity. For then Pharaoh, as the Word records, restores Sarai to her husband.

     We are not to think that any child is ever as the Lord was, consciously realizing whither his studies tend. What occurs with him is that, in the habit-forming process in which what he has learned is being dissociated from conceit or lust for reward, he is being representatively inaugurated into an order which ties super conscious truths within him to the innocence that is being imbued. The supreme reliquaries have been stored in his internal man.

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     III.

     A crisis not unlike this is presented some years later, but prior to the age of puberty. The characteristic urge of the child is net longer an overweening curiosity to acquire information, but an eagerness to reason cogently to conclusions. Abraham and Sarah are now in Gerar, the ancient name of Philistia. The "h" in their names means that, though operating on a lower range of the intellectory or simple cortexes, they are yet operating with the Divine fervor of what is derived from the sacred reliquaries that have been built in the uppermost surface of these simple cortexes. The warlike accouterments, or cognitions, have been acquired, but the point at issue now is not the goal they have in view, but a training to use them properly. We are not concerned here with linking celestial truths to affections of innocence, but with weaving together the proximately inferior intellectual or genuinely rational truths as a reliquary in which the affections of mutual love may be inlaid.

     Remains of mutual love are implanted by encouraging affections for parents and teachers and for companions of their own age, and by resisting cruel exhibitions such as the following citation illustrates: "The education of infants in heaven is such that by the intelligence of truth and the wisdom of good they are introduced into angelic life which is love to the Lord and mutual love, within both of which is innocence." How contrary to this is the education of infants on earth with most persons could appear from this example: "I was in the street of a great city, and saw little boys fighting with each other. A crowd gathered, looking on at this with great pleasure, and I was told that the parents themselves spur on their little boys to such combats. The good spirits and the angels who saw these things through my eyes so loathed them that I perceived a horror, and especially because the parents egged them on. They said that thus in the first age they extinguish all the mutual love and all the innocence which infants have from the Lord, and initiate them into hatreds and revenges. They accordingly by their own effort exclude their children from heaven, where there is nothing but mutual love. Let parents therefore who wish good for their infants abstain from such things." (A. C. 2309.)

     Abraham in Gerar, or the mutual love implanted in the second set of mental reliquaries, is also in danger of death if the intellectual or genuinely rational truths of that plane are not protected again by two guards, one of which is on the plane of the lower surface of the simple cortexes, and the other in inductions from sense-phenomena at the lower end of the scale.

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     A truly rational mind is one which the Lord has molded. It is guided by illustration from above, waiting for admonitions thence in order to decide what is to be done about the impressions that have dome from without. If such illustration, or the intellectual truths it gives men to see, ceases to be available, Sarah, in Gerar, who represents them, no longer serves Abraham as a reliquary to protect the affections of mutual love. Intellectual truths are endangered by the slashes of the child's merely natural reasoning which is based on unreliable appearances, whenever it impugns superior truths that are above the low place where it abides.

     In themselves, intellectual truths are axioms about spiritual realities. Four of these are listed by the Arcana as follows: "All life is from the Lord; . . . all good and truth are from Him; nothing proceeds from the Lord that is not good; . . . and a man, when in the order of heaven, has an intuitive perception of good and truth." (A. C. 1911) But "they are not acknowledged until fallacies and appearances have been dispelled. Nor can the latter ever be dispelled so long as man reasons from things sensuous and scientific about truths themselves. The (intellectual truths) first appear when the man in simplicity of heart believes they are true because the Lord has said so." (Ibid.)

     With respect to the guard at the upper end of the scale, preventing a violation of intellectual truths by the natural reasoning, with a consequent extinction of the affections of mutual love to which they are linked, it is again provided by assuming a bridal veil which makes them seem to be the truths of a discrete degree still lower; in this case, rational truths. "And Abraham said to Sarah his wife, means thought concerning the spiritual truth conjoined to the celestial; . . . for Sarah as a wife is intellectual truth conjoined to Divine good, or, what is the same, spiritual truth conjoined to the celestial." (A. C. 2507.) "'She is my sister,' signifies rational truth." (A. C. 2508.)

     The child in this stage is in the affection of consulting his reason before he ratifies any proposition as true.

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He would submit to it even the doctrine of faith, consisting of intellectual truths above the range of human rationality. Providence, however, shields him from doing violence to them by their being made to appear as merely rational speculations which are to be accepted because their appeal to reason seems stronger than the arguments raised against them. There is thus no "sin against the Holy Spirit," for their Divinity is not impugned. His questionings about them are then no more than what is called in the Gospels "a word against the Son of Man," and this may be repented of later when he has fuller illustration. As an example of this guard we may instance the protection given to the Divinity of the Heavenly Doctrines against human reason, when they are allowed to appear as merely the product of Swedenborg's mind. For to be seen clearly as the Word of God, and then rejected, would be a sin cutting off the offender from the joys of heaven. "No word which I put forth," avers Swedenborg, "is my own, a matter to which I can sacredly swear. Wherefore, if anyone ascribe to me one jot of the things written, which are truths, be he on earth or in heaven, he so wrongs God Messiah Himself that he can be pardoned by none except God Messiah Himself." (W. E. II; 1654.)

     The protective guard on the lower end of the scale is more elevated than it was in the first crisis. Then it was something of which the child was unconscious, a forgetfulness of the scientifics he had learned, after they had formed habits with him. But now there has been an advance toward responsibility which permits him to have some obscure inkling of God's will. The opponent, Abimelech, is not therefore smitten with Plagues as Pharaoh was, but receives an obscure admonition: "And God came to Abimelech by night in a dream, and said to him, Lo, thou shalt die on account of the woman thou hast taken, for she is married to a husband." (Gen. 20:3.) To the child insisting that his own reasoning powers are adequate to determine whether a thing is true or not, something in the nature of an obscure warning is made to keep him from violating intellectual truths. He is led to question whether his finite and human reasoning is beyond the need of further improvement, and is already so perfect an organism that reliance can be placed upon it. This opens his mind to the thought that further tutelage under a competent instructor is desirable. "God said to him, Return the man his wife, because he is a prophet, and he will pray
for thee, and thou shalt live." (Gen. 20:7.)

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     He thus comes to see that intellectual truth,-the spiritual truth of doctrine,-should be made immune from the rational. He affirms it to be true because the Lord has said so. His mind then opens to receive that type of revelation which is called illustration, accompanied by hope, solace, and a sort of internal joy. (A. C. 2533-5.) "If (intellectual or) spiritual truth were not made immune from the rational, the doctrine of truth and good as to all and everything thereof would be made of no account. To the extent that belief in the verity of the doctrine is bound up with what is human, there is so far no doctrine. But to the extent that it is believed without this, so far does the doctrine live, for so far the Divine inflows." (A. C. 2538.)

     IV.

     The third crisis, necessitating again an upper and a nether guard, comes with the development in adolescence of the rational degree of the mind, whose good and truth are represented by Isaac and Rebecca. Its reliquaries are in the cortical glands proper when there is resistance to the mob turbulence which the animus instils among them. Abimelech of Gerar here represents that against which immunity is sought. It is now a traditional viewpoint devoid of light. Rebecca, here, is the truth in need of being disguised by a bridal veil. This is rational truth, a degree lower in the scale than the intellectual truths previously considered. But what threatens to disparage it is higher in the scale than the reliance upon sense-impressions which menaced celestial truth, and the trust in one's own reason which impugned intellectual truth. The danger is now from too much trust in conforming to a venerated tradition or in following respected leaders.

     This third order of reliquaries, as noted above, can only be formed when the mind is freeing itself from dependence upon others, and is struggling, in allegiance to the Lord alone, to establish the affection of obeying His commandments, called the good of faith. Having freed itself in the previous crises from reliance on its own sensations and reasonings as an arbiter, it is now confronted with the more difficult task of freeing itself from the group-thought of councils of men and the decrees of confident hierarchies.

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The nature of those who seek to sear the conscience into conforming with such traditional dogmas is well illustrated in the following citations: "To comb the hair signifies to accommodate natural things so that they appear decorous." (A. C. 5570.) "There were then seen children who were combed so cruelly by their mothers that the blood flowed round about, by which was represented that such is the education of infants today." (A. C. 2125; S. D. 3992.) In this infancy of his new birth what he specially needs is emancipation from such a tyranny.

     Still, a bridal veil must be drawn over the fact that there has been such a break with tradition in this implantation of rational truth linked to the good of faith. In this infancy of his new life, in which he must learn afresh and with independent effort what is evil and false and what is good and true, "nevertheless such cognitions are being insinuated. . . as derive something from his former life, . . . . even though they conduce to forming a new will and a new understanding." (A. C. 3701.) Isaac's calling Rebecca his sister in this crisis means that rational truth in its presentation to him must seem to excite all these favorable associations of the past. It must be shown to conform to a previous notion of what the Divine is like. By means of a reverent presentation, a general state of affirmation must be created. Suitable confirmatory arguments readily understood by him must also be added. (A. C. 3388.) Pursuant to these principles of a needed accommodation, every Divine Revelation has come to men couched in a literary style they venerated, and using figures or retailing episodes that appealed to their affections.

     Since an adult state of mind is now being addressed in this third and final crisis, the second protective guard at the lower end of the scale is not presented under the guise of threatening plagues or obscure admonitions, which were suitable to children. Nor is this check applied just at the time when he is on the verge of committing the violation, which with children is always the most impressive and memorial occasion that could be selected. So on this occasion Rebecca, though called Isaac's sister, had not been taken to Abimeiech's house. Instead of being deterred by plagues or a dream-voice, Abimelech is said to have looked through a window and seen with his own eyes that Rebecca was not Isaac's sister but his wife.

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     For with an adult no further guard is needed to ensure a respectful reception of rational truths garbed in suitably adapted language than that he shall lift his mind above the hair-splitting details of its external literal form and gaze squarely at its spirit.

     CONCLUSION.

     In the order of the three crises there come in turn, as Divine aids to the human mind, each of the three Divine Revelations that are available. First, the Old Testament, to sustain those in the first crisis; then, the New Testament for those in the second; and finally the Writings for the adults in the third. The letter of each Word of God provides that this, our spiritual mother, appear first as a sister, and not as the true bride of the Lamb.

     In infancy and childhood, when there is need of opaque covering veils to shroud the Divine Truth, the Old Testament comes with the menace of its plagues to instill a habit-forming obedience; and then the New Testament, with its admonitory parables, helpful in enlisting the assent of a pre-rational state. But from adolescence onward, the Heavenly Doctrines, delivered to men by means of Emanuel Swedenborg, are the main vehicle for the Divine to approach the mind. That their message may carry over to man, it is necessary that his gaze be lifted up, and that he look into them as through a window. Otherwise no vision of them as the Lamb's bride will be vouchsafed. But such lack of vision will serve the useful end of protecting him from a violation of their sanctity.

     "That which impedes influx and reception is," we are told, "the proprial things of what is human." (A. C. 2538.) Three phases of the reaction of these proprial things may be aligned with the three crises and the three Divine Revelations respectively adapted to these. For, as this passage continues, "there are differences between: (1) believing from rational, scientific, and sensual grounds; (2) consulting these, in order that they may be believed; and finally (3) confirming what has been believed by means of things rational, scientific, and sensual." (Ibid.)

     In early childhood, when the Old Testament is paramount, the guard is placed lest belief be from human proprial things; later, when the New Testament is paramount, lest these be consulted before there is assent.

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But in adolescence and onward, when the Writings are paramount, no guard is needed for those who will lift up their gaze to see the beauties they disclose, since all reason, science, and sense will bear testimony to their luminous verities.

     DISCUSSION OF DR. IUNGERICH'S ADDRESS.

     Rev. W. L. Gladish: It seems important to me that such an inspiring subject should be discussed. It has afforded us a very delightful clearing up of real difficulties, which I have myself felt in studying the Arcana in connection with the statements of the Word that the patriarchs called their wives 'sister.' I have never seen the reason clearly until now, but it has been explained simply this morning, if we are excused from locating the place of remains in some precise part of the cortical glands; and I rather suspect that it was the feeling of a good many others that it would appear more clearly if we could get along without that. (The speaker then enlarged upon the reasons why truth must first come to us as a 'sister,' before it is unveiled as a `wife,' and how it comes to us three times, in the three revelations, and in the development of each acceptance of a truth.)

     Mr. Frank Wilde, after paying a tribute of indebtedness to Dr. Iungerich and to Dr. Acton, continued in part as follows: This is a subject in which I have been interested for quite a number of years, but I have never heard it put so plainly, nor in such fine sequence, as Professor Iungerich has done this morning. What he has said with regard to these safeguards which are placed around the mind in its course of development may also be applied to the world in general. . . . It is a noteworthy fact that whenever a Divine Revelation is made it is surrounded with several pseudo-revelations, which might almost be regarded as its perversions. For instance, we have in this country Mormonism, with its revelation given out of the ground in a most mysterious way; we have our Christian Science; and we have other similar pseudo-claims to inspiration. I see nothing more tragic or pitiable than the acknowledgment of these pseudo-revelations; and, speaking for myself, I am grateful that there is such a skepticism in the world as there is, to act as a safeguard against these. Taking into consideration the spiritual condition of the time, these are for the world's good. And I suggest to you, as New Churchmen, all anxious to see the recognition of the Writings as Divine Revelation, that some of the skepticism which exists is probably a very fine safeguard against such pseudo-revelations.

     Mr. Winfred Junge here made some remarks upon the subject of the address, but unfortunately they were not adequately reported.

     Mr. Wilfred Howard: I am sure that we have all enjoyed those portions of Dr. Iungerich's paper that we were fortunate enough to understand.

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Mr. Gladish expressed his appreciation of the sequence of the ideas which the paper contained. I believe that many of us appreciated the sequence, but were not clear as to the ideas. One of the greatest traditions of the Academy, particularly with regard to the laymen of the church, has always been a keen rational appreciation of the truths of doctrine as presented by the priests of the church. This state is characteristic of the New Church, certainly of the Academy. But it is easy for us as laymen to get into the state described in the Writings wherein certain spirits readily voiced their approval of discourses by exclaiming, "O how learned! O how wise!" This may express an affirmative attitude in regard to the person delivering the address, but does not lead to a rational understanding or a deeper and more interior perception of the truth drawn from the Writings, which, after all, is the object of all the very excellent papers that have been presented.

     It is customary in the presentation of certain scientific papers to give a digest of the material to be covered. If one can understand the digest, then there is hope that the paper itself will be appreciated. I wonder if such a method could not be employed in regard to the papers we have listened to during the Assembly. If the editor of the Life or the writers of the papers themselves would make a digest of the leading ideas presented in them, and such a digest were printed with the papers, the object of their presentation would be enhanced, the papers would be more widely read, and the ideas contained therein more intelligently grasped.

     Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal felt that the presentation of the subject entailed such close reasoning as to cause hesitation in discussing it, but he wanted to ask one question. He referred to certain passages in the Arcana where the text of the paper was explained: "It is stated in the Arcana (1904, 1914) that the Lord alone thought from intellectual truth. (Compare A. C. 1911, D. Wis. xi. 5 and A. E. 832.) If you take spiritual truth to be the same as intellectual truth, as Dr. Iungerich seemed to do when he identified intellectual truths with spiritual truths, you get the idea that man can think from such truths, and not only about them. In various places in the Writings we have spiritual truths enumerated: that there is a God, that He is one, that the Lord Jesus Christ is that God, etc." His question therefore was: "Does man think from such truths, which we see as cognitions in the Word and the Writings?" He suggested that we cannot think from them from self-intelligence, but only from the Lord, Who is the Word.

     Miss Annie Taylor, of Sidney, Australia, made the following statement of appreciation: "I wish to say how much I have enjoyed the Addresses; and while this is my first attendance at an Assembly, and it is not usual for women to take the floor, nevertheless I feel it somewhat of a duty to our little society in Australia to say something of my impressions.

     "To me the Addresses have been the most advanced in enlightenment and instruction yet given. I have always read the papers that have been published in the past, but the progression made in this Assembly seems very marked. It seems to me that the priesthood have become more alive to the spiritual needs of the people, and it seems to show an advance in our state also to be able to enjoy them.

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I feel very grateful to have been present with you all, and to have enjoyed such a bountiful feast of good things."
WAYSIDE NOTES 1930

WAYSIDE NOTES       G. A. MCQUEEN       1930

     XIII.

     The French Revolution.

     What an insight into the causes underlying the upheavals of the French Revolution is shown in the works of Carlyle! In reading his books, one does not dwell upon the awful things recorded as taking place during the protracted period of that Revolution, but is led on by the powerful description of the interior states lying at the root of the trouble. Carlyle's insistence upon the depraved state of society, and its inability to save itself, was surely proven to be correct during that prolonged and destructive national conflict.

     The Writings have much to say about man's being wholly evil in and of himself, and events like the French Revolution abundantly confirm the teaching. In connection with this subject, and considering the depths to which men would sink if not withheld by the Lord, we may note the following teaching in the Arcana Celestia. Declaring that man is born into evils more vile than those of any wild beast, the passage goes on to say: "Such is every man, although it is not perceived by those who are in a state of inability and powerlessness, because under external bonds. But if the possibility and power were given, they would rush on as far as they could go." (A. C. 987.)

     So we may conclude that the horrors of the French Revolution were controlled by the Only Power, and kept within certain limits, until the nation was saved from destruction in spite of itself.

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     Controversy.

     The excellent article by Mr. Philip N. Odhner which appears in the Academy Year Book for 1930 deals with a subject that is of interest to the whole Church, and it might well be studied by all its members. In it the writer brings out that a distinction is to be made between the different ways of conducting a controversy, and holds that, when the aim is to arrive at the truth, no harm can come from a free expression of various opinions or points of view.

     I would suggest here that when a controversy is carried on by New Churchmen, it should be understood that, whatever the subject under discussion may be, there should be a common standard by which all opinions expressed should be measured. That standard, of course, would be the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Church. There are objections to debating for debating's sake, as shown by Dr. Acton several years ago. (NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1927, p. 269.) Granting that argumentative discussions may be of use in training young people for public speaking, there seems to be no need in the New Church for discussing merely personal opinions on matters of the Church. After years of participating in debates which seldom resulted in anything of a satisfactory nature, it was a great relief to me when I found in the New Church a place where men in search of truth might look to a common source for guidance. That, I believe, is a feeling which many experience on entering the New Church.

     Dr. C. O. C. Becker.

     When writing my "Recollections of the Early Days of the Colchester Society," which appeared in the LIFE last year, I experienced some difficulty in recalling the Christian names of some of the persons mentioned therein. Under the spur of our editor's estimable quality of scrupulous exactness in such matters, I undertook a good deal of research, but without success in the case of the Dr. Pecker mentioned on page 582. Although I possess a number of volumes of the Writings which he presented to me, all bearing his name, it was always written "Dr. Pecker" without the initials of his Christian names. Not long ago, however, an editorial in THE NEW-CHURCH HERALD referred to the death of Mr. Harry Becker, the celebrated English artist, and stated that he was the son of Dr. C. O. G. Becker. These were the initials for which I had been searching.

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     The Treasurer's Report.

     The last Annual Report of the Treasurer of the General Church contains many wise suggestions as to the duty of the members in regard to the financial support of the Church. It has been my thought for a long time that such information and instruction should be given to every individual at the time of his joining the organization. This could be in the form of a printed statement. No new member should be left in ignorance of what is expected of him in this matter. I take this opportunity to suggest, also, that there might be a brief ceremony whenever a new member is received. It should be sufficient to impress upon each person the importance of the step then taken.
MISS HARRIET S. ASHLEY 1930

MISS HARRIET S. ASHLEY              1930

     The passing of Miss Ashley on July 24th, in her ninetieth year, has taken to the spiritual world one long known among us for her sterling qualities as a New Church woman, and one who will be remembered with respect and affection by her associates in the work of the Academy, and by the girls who attended the Seminary during the years of her service as teacher and Principal. It was in January, 1890, that she entered the Girls' School in Philadelphia as teacher of English. In 1896 she was appointed Principal, and continued in that capacity after the move to the country in 1897, when it was known as the Girls' Seminary. In 1902, ill health compelled her to resign as Principal, but she remained as teacher of English until 1906. Thus, during that formative period of the high-school department for girls, the Academy enjoyed the benefits of her combined qualities of firmness and gentleness in dealing with the problems of administration and school life.

     Some years ago, at the request of her friends, Miss Ashley wrote a brief biographical sketch which is revealing as to her character and purpose, and furnishes a typical instance of the workings of Providence in bringing to the Academy those equipped with zeal and ability to promote the cause of New Church education. The following particulars are gathered from that sketch.

     Harriet Sturtevant Ashley was born on September 13, 1840, at Milan, Erie Co., Ohio, and spent the first thirty years of her life there, except for a few short intervals of absence.

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In 1863-1864 she attended the Western Female Seminary at Oxford, Ohio, where her room-mate was Miss Mary Macy, of Cincinnati, and the two young ladies became life-long friends. Some years later, Miss Macy accepted the Doctrines of the New Church, and married a staunch Academician, Mr. S. S. Carpenter, of Cincinnati.

     [Photo of MISS HARRIET S. ASHLEY]

     After returning home from the Seminary, Miss Ashley taught school in her native town, and the summer of 1870 found her teaching a Freedmen's School in Georgia. In the autumn of 1871 she went as a missionary to India, under the auspices of the Congregational Church, and for five years lived in the vicinity of Bombay, teaching heathen women in their homes and the daughters of native converts in school.

     Her missionary experiences "opened her eyes to her own deplorable ignorance in spiritual things. There were doctrinal points upon which she had never been satisfied. The doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Atonement had always troubled her, and she felt that there must be, somewhere, a presentation of the truth that would be more satisfying than anything she had yet found. It became a fixed purpose with her to seek for spiritual light, and if it could not be found in the teachings of the church to which she belonged, she determined to seek it elsewhere.

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But her search for light in the teachings of the Old Church was utterly fruitless. In 1877, failing health, together with a growing feeling that she could not honestly continue her attempts at missionary work, obliged her to return to her native land."

     Shortly after reaching home, Miss Ashley paid a visit to her sister, Mrs. Hathaway, in Cincinnati, and while there became a frequent guest in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter, through whom she became interested in the Doctrines of the New Church. She was baptized in 1884, and "as soon as she had gained an intelligent idea of the Academy views, she promptly accepted them as the only sure and rational foundation upon which the faith of the New Church can rest."

     Some years of isolation from New Church associations now followed, but were of use in furnishing a quiet opportunity for diligent reading of the Writings. In 1889, through the influence of Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter, she went to Philadelphia, hoping to find employment among the Academy people there. Bishop Benade encouraged this hope, and in January, 1890, she began teaching in the Girls' School.

     "Now, for the first time in her life," she writes, "Miss Ashley felt at rest. After many years of groping in darkness, the light had dawned upon her, and with the coming of the light a use presented itself to which she felt she could devote her life. This use of teaching in a New Church school she regarded as an inestimable privilege, and the work was an ever increasing delight to her during the sixteen years of her connection with the Girls' Seminary."
     W. B. C.

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MIND AND BODY AND THE PROBLEM OF THEIR INTERCOURSE 1930

MIND AND BODY AND THE PROBLEM OF THEIR INTERCOURSE       Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1930

     (At the Fourteenth General assembly, June 16, 1930.)

     Basic to all religious thinking lies the acknowledgment of a spiritual realm. Part of this realm is known only from the testimony of seers or prophets, yet surmised by the reason of man and demanded by the nature of his longings.

     Another part of the spiritual realm is far more familiar. We see it in all forms of organic life, in the plant breaking through the sod, in the bud opening into flower. For in these changes or movements there breathes a purpose, a will, a living endeavor, a striving towards survival and perpetuation, which our common sense sets far apart from mechanical actions.

     In the animal kingdom we begin to see the inflowing life caught on a new level, see it manifested as Mind, as instinctive intelligence and prudence. And in Man, the organization of the Mind is seen at the peak of its natural development. Man masters other forms of life. He is rational, reflective, analytical; he ponders his environment; seeks to find his own relations to the universe around him. He contemplates his own thoughts, and draws deliberate conclusions about the values of life, and about the origin and destinies of man and of the universe.

     No rational man can be blind to the presence of this sphere of organizing life. Yet it is invisible to us, except as it operates through dead nature, as a hand through a glove. And therefore it is at times difficult to distinguish between the operations that are proper to life and those proper to nature,-motions that we note as occurring in the unfailing routine of natural law.

     Life and growth defy analysis. Intelligence, mercy, purpose-these touch the domain of Miracle. Life uses natural laws, achieves its purpose, molds the forms of plants and animals and men; yet nature works as heretofore in the material shells of living things; and the laws of nature's chemistry keep their hold upon these bodies even while the life within uses them for its own ends.

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Eventually the economy of nature claims back the body that life had borrowed, and it falls into dust. Nothing of it has been lost; nothing has been converted into spirit.

     Philosophers have failed to explain the mating of mind and matter. In our own mind and body lies the solution-could we but see it-of the great conundrum of the universe.

     One of the liveliest topics that occupied the thoughts of philosophers in the century preceding the Divine call of Emanuel Swedenborg was the intercourse of soul and body. And therefore we need not be surprised to find that Swedenborg's notebooks and early manuscripts cite extensively from various systems of philosophy on this subject, and that ten treatments of some length are found among his early writings, about the mechanism or mode of the intercourse of soul and body.* For the whole tenor of his research was directed to this particular problem, central as it is to all philosophy. And in 1769, Swedenborg, his mind now serving as a channel for Divine doctrine, wrote and published the work on Influx, the title of which is properly, "The Intercourse of Soul and Body, which is believed to take place either by Physical Influx, or by Spiritual Influx, or by a Preestablished Harmony."

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This book, according to Dr. Tafel, if not published for the purpose, yet was offered by the author as a reply to the questions of the German philosopher Kant. (Documents, 2:272.)
     * The titles to which we refer are the following: "On Tremulation," an article in Daedalus Hyperboreus, 1718; On Tremulation, MS treatise, 1719, submitted to the Royal College of Medicine, Stockholm; Mechanism of Soul and Body (1734); "Introduction to a philosophical Argument on the Mechanism of the Intercourse of Soul and Body," constituting the latter half of the work On the Infinite (1734); Psychologica (1734), being notes and criticisms on Wolff's "Psychologia Empirica"; "Introduction to a Rational Psychology" and "The Human Soul," being sections of the work, The Economy of the Animal Kingdom (1740-1741). In the latter work (i. 155), a small work "on Coestablished and Reestablished Harmony of the Soul and the Body " is promised, the reference being to a treatise perhaps already in writing, called The Soul and the Harmony between Soul and Body, in which the author brings all the forces of reason, wit and sarcasm to bear down upon the theory of Leibnitz and Wolff about a Preestablished Harmony. The Rational Psychology itself, which contains many chapters on the intercourse of soul, body and mind, never came into print until 1849; but it is possibly referred to in the Prologue to the Animal Kingdom (1744), wherein it is said that he would publish an Introduction to a Rational Psychology, consisting of new doctrines by which the mind could be conducted "from the material organism of the body to a knowledge of the Soul which is immaterial," proposing later to give to the world the Rational Psychology itself, which was to conclude by giving a "concordance of systems about the Soul." (See R. P. 167.)
     Other works, such as The Fibre, The Senses, and The Brain, contain treatments of phases of the same subject.

     In this last work, we may safely suppose, is given both the revealed solution of this problem and that link of philosophy by which the Church of the Lord may be saved from the pitfalls of materialistic thought.

     Physical Influx, and its Alternatives.

     The hypothesis of Physical Influx, which had been especially championed by Scholastics who based it upon Aristotelian principles, is brought out, not only in the above mentioned work, but throughout the Writings, as a special danger to our thought in this connection.

     There is no escaping the appearance of Physical Influx,-the influx of the world about us into our minds within us. A report rends the air; sound waves knock upon our eardrums, set the tiny bones and tubes of our internal ears aringing; our nerves, somehow, take up the echo, much refined, and carry it to the brain; there-mystery of mysteries-the motions are changed into consciousness, into sensation, perception, memory, recognition, feeling; perhaps stirring up endless emotions. The world, apparently, has inflowed into the mind. Matter has made an impress upon spirit.

     Seemingly, the very objects that we see inflow into our minds and there become objects of thought. Seemingly, the whole of that which we call mind or spirit, love, wisdom, thought, affection, are nothing but the echoes of the motions of the outer world,-motions, ever so delicate, gathered up as potential energy in the structures of the brain and body; seemingly, the body and its world give origin and cause to the mind and all that is therein!

     But no! This view is totally false. It involves inevitably the fatal idea that spiritual things are nothing but pure natural things, and that from the activity of these natural things, excited by light and heat from the sun of nature, there arise wisdom and love. (Influx 9.)

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     Nor would it guide us out of the dilemma to say that the soul also is natural, and acts by physical motion upon the body, and that the body acts physically upon the soul; for the insuperable difficulty remains, of seeing how consciousness, life, perception, can ever arise from the activities of nature. Hobbes, the English thinker (1588-1679), as precursor of modern materialists, thus claimed that consciousness was only motion,-a physical process in the brain. But there is a prompting in the human mind, as soon as it becomes rational, to affirm that life is a thing discretely above and apart from material things; and it rebels against conceiving of feeling and understanding as motions in matter.

     But this propensity of the mind to conceive itself and its thought to be so different from matter and its motions has tended to extreme negations about spiritual things. Men have been so afraid of attributing anything natural to the spiritual that they have stripped the spiritual of every real attribute. Just as Theology, intent upon preserving the idea of God's infinity, made Him into a Spirit devoid of body, parts and passions, so Philosophy made the mind into an inconceivable entity, formless, and conceivable only by negations.

     When Descartes, the French philosopher whose system of thought had a profound influence in the century before Swedenborg, declared that there were two finite substances, Mind and Matter, he could assign no other attribute to the spiritual substance than "thought"; while to Matter, of which the mechanical world and the body were constructed, he gave no other essential characteristic than "extension." Descartes held that the soul inflowed into the body, by a spiritual influx; but it was soon realized that these two substances, having nothing in common except a name, were so totally unlike that they could not act, one upon the other. They were antithetical, mutually unapproachable. Bishop Berkeley denied the problem by suggesting that the body was only ideal, or merely an aspect of the mind's consciousness. Malebranche (1638-1715) offered the solution that God acted on the two substances whenever there was any need to give an appearance of interaction. Leibnitz (1646-1715) found it easier to believe that God had so made soul and body that they always acted in Pre-established Harmony, each in its own realm. And so it came about that Swedenborg fell heir to this prize-puzzle of philosophy.

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     He had to fight his way through these many problems, before he could be fully prepared as a Revelator of the rational truths of the New Jerusalem. We cannot follow him, here, on his arduous journey. But we must recognize some of the stages through which he passed.

     Swedenborg before the Problem.

     First, he was anxious to establish the substantial reality of the soul, and prove that it could live by itself after death, and was not a mere coloring or ornamental feature of the body. To do this, he assumed it to be a subtle part of the body, and he consequently appeared to hold a theory of physical influx, or of the alternate transfer of motions between the two.

     Secondly, however, he stresses more and more clearly the distinction between the series of mechanical finites and dead elementaries, on the one hand, and the kingdom of life,-the animal kingdom or realm of souls,-on the other; and shows that this latter realm could not be included in the categories of natural form and natural motion. Vital forms, he explained, flow from the moral sun, from God. All things of that realm are spiritual forms, or are "derived" spiritual forms accommodated to varying planes of the dead world. In keeping with this thought, Swedenborg states, in his Rational Psychology, that the soul itself, which resides or operates in the pure intellectories of the brain, is, as a spiritual form, immaterial, devoid of extension, motion or parts. As he himself remarks, this idea of the soul is tantamount to no idea at all, or to the idea of a nothing, were it not for the saving acknowledgment which he makes, that in the soul there are still analogies of matter, space, motion and parts. What is finite in lower forms is infinite in the soul, which is a way of saying that there is no finite ratio between the natural and the spiritual.

     How, then, could there be any interaction between things so different? Swedenborg answers that in the soul, which consists of these immaterial spiritual forms, a correspondence is effected when sensations come to the senses. There is no physical influx, but a voluntary disposition of the soul in correspondence with the changes which the body experiences. This constitutes a perception in the soul of the harmony of things in the body.

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As to actions, it is explained that the will of the soul actually produces a force which acts by means of a fluid flowing from the cortical glands to the body. The will is a conatus or endeavor to motion. When rational obstacles are removed, the will thus breaks into action. And while this may appear as the pouring in of life-force, or of a fluid from the brain or the soul into the vessels of the body, yet there is no such pouring, simply because the soul is the inmost substance of every part of the body, all being woven from the fibres of its superior substance. (R. P. 174.) The soul alone senses and understands and acts, because it alone is of intellectual substance made, and is everywhere in the body.

     Death is the purification of this form of the soul from the earthly things which have been its tools for acting into the world of matter. The lower forms assumed by the soul perish, and the simple fibers by which the soul formed its body alone remain. No longer is the soul furnished with bodily organs and members, for these have dissolved away from below, only their higher components remaining (489). All that which came from earth or air or ether is given back (492). The common life of the body dies; the general nexus of all its parts is dissolved; that alone remains which is purely "animal," or the animal property or soul (anima), which alone lived in the body according to its organic forms. What, he exclaims, would be the use, after death, of bodies and arms and stomach! What would be the use, to souls, of the rational mind, and even of the pure intellectories? "Our rational mind, with its affections and desires, and our intellect, with its principles and opinions and reasonings, die, and do not survive their body " (494), thus leaving the soul freed from the undesired knowledge of the world, free for its own spiritual contemplation of universals!

     But these are the unpublished and tentative reflections of a philosopher whose thoughts hover near the borderland of the unknown. He refuses to dogmatize about the state of the soul after death. One thing which impeded the development of his philosophy was the doctrine, held in Christendom almost universally, of a possible resurrection at the great judgment, when soul and body, in some refined form, would again be joined. "We are," he states, "grossly ignorant about the nature of that purest aura which is called celestial, and in which souls are to live . . . " (522). "When we become souls perhaps we shall ourselves laugh over what we have guessed at in so childish a manner " (524).

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     Our philosopher had actually progressed marvelously far. From the tentative theory of physical influx he had arrived at the doctrines of influx and correspondence, bridging the gap between the discrete degrees of spirit and flesh. Led by a God-given perception of the reality of the soul, he had not been afraid to say that this soul was of Spiritual Form and Spiritual Substance; and, denuding this from merely material attributes, he seemingly went to an extreme of depriving the after-death spirit of all that would suggest a merely natural existence, yet allowing analogies of these things. In doing this, Swedenborg had done all that a Christian philosopher could, without the aid of direct spiritual vision and inspiration.

     The Philosopher in the Spiritual World.

     The Rational Psychology outlines fairly clearly the opinions which Swedenborg held when the Lord, some years later, opened his spiritual senses and introduced him into the spiritual world,-the world of souls. What a marvelous crowning this was to the days of a natural philosopher! Here he could actually see the realities for which he had contended in obscurity.

     But dared he believe his spiritual eyes? Were these realities, these other-world experiences? Or were they merely appearances-accommodations in themselves natural-taken from his own mind?

     For Swedenborg was bound for a great surprise, and was faced by many confusing problems, when he first came into contact with spirits by open vision. He saw them in human form, clothed, endowed with the powers and members and speech and senses of men. He found that many spirits deluded themselves that they were still men. He heard them claim that their bodies, and the apparently natural environment in which they were, were not merely phantasies but realities. And while he reasoned severely with those corporeal spirits who believed that they still lived in the material world, he himself, by gradual experience, and by the guidance of a perception from the Lord, came to see that all the apparently natural forms of the other life were the true correspondential or representative forms of objectively existing spiritual things. Here he saw illustrated on a universal scale the Doctrine of Correspondences to which, as a rational aid, he had already been led by Divine Providence,-the doctrine that in the soul were eminent analogies and correspondences to all the qualities, such as extension, motion, parts, found in lower nature.

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Whatever the body of a spirit was, it became to him more and more evident that its spiritual essence actually still possessed sensory powers.

     But what surprised him was that these analogies and correspondent powers in the spirits should actually appear as did the corresponding earthly things! That was a new thing to him. And it took some time before he could formulate the underlying law of spiritual existence, that spiritual beings see spiritual things exactly as natural beings see natural things; or, as we might put it in other words, that the categories of sense-perception in the two worlds were identical, although the substances which thus appeared were essentially different.

     Thus, having claimed in the Rational Psychology that the soul was not extended, he now finds that it is so indeed, that the world of the soul is not a mere subjective empire of contemplation, but is as interesting and diverse a world as can ever be waiting to be explored. But-thought is not extended! If mind or spirit were mere thought, there could be no spiritual world and no spiritual body. Thought is impossible except in a subject who is doing the thinking; or rather, a substance in which the process or activity of thought goes on. An activity or a quality implies a substance; you cannot think of Divine Love, or Divine Wisdom or Divine Omnipresence, without applying these predicates to a Divine Substance. You cannot think of a sound apart from the ear that hears it. Nor, the Writings tell us, is it rational to think of thought except as existing in a subject, or substance, or organ,-the brain.

     The Brain and the Mind.

     The common appearance is that the brain is the mind! We are accustomed to say that we think in our heads, that our brain is tired with thinking, etc., but "every wise man knows that this is an error and a fallacy." (T. 156.) The brain is the seat of the conscious mind, and in it and through it the mind operates, feels and thinks, resolves and acts. It is quite proper to speak according to this appearance, and to call the brain the organ of thought or the seat of the will; to say, as is often stated in the Writings themselves, that "affections and thoughts are given in the brains," which are full of substances and forms "purely organic"; and to call attention to the fact that "thought is no more possible separate from substantial form than sight is apart from the eye." (P. 279.)

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     Is the brain, then, identical with the mind? Obviously not, since the brain is mortal, a part of the body that dies. Nor is the brain the only seat of the mind, or the only organ by which it acts. "How greatly are they mistaken," Swedenborg exclaims at times, "who assign a particular place to the soul, whether in the heart or the brain." For it is not merely in the head, but everywhere in the body. In "primes" the mind is indeed in the brain and nervous system, but it is also present by derivation thence in every organ and fibre of the body. Where the soul does not operate, there only dead matter exists.

     Unless we have a true idea of the soul, or the mind, or the spirit,-the after-death man,-we cannot, Swedenborg warns us in all his works, gain any knowledge of its influx into the body. It was toward this knowledge that he had prayerfully and sedulously striven all his life against terrible odds, and which he had gained at last through the opening of his spiritual eyes. Thus he writes in the Divine Love and Wisdom: "Many in the learned world have wearied themselves with inquiries about the soul; but as they knew nothing of the spiritual world, or of man's state after death, they could not do anything except lay down theories, not about what the soul is, but about its operation in the body. Of the quality of the soul they could have no idea except as something most pure in the ether, and of its environment (continente) nothing except as about the ether. Concerning this, none the less, they dared publish only a few things, lest they ascribe anything natural to the soul, knowing it to be spiritual. With this conception of the soul . . . they have labored hard. . . with inquiries respecting the operation of the soul in the body, which certain ones said took place by influx, and others by harmony. But because nothing has thus been disclosed in which a mind that wishes to see whether it is so can acquiesce, it has been granted me to speak with angels, and to be illustrated in this matter through their wisdom." (D. L. W. 394.)

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     The Substantial Body within Man.

     The soul! What is the soul?

     The Writings state that the soul-or that which is immortal and living in man-is "the inmost form of all the forms of the entire body"; that it is the "spiritual substance" in the material body. It is the form of all things of love and wisdom, or of all the affections and perceptions, which, although innumerable, yet make a one, a unity, so that nothing can be taken away from them or added to them, to make it such. (C. L. 315.)

     Now note the further Divine teaching: While man lives on earth, the soul,-this spiritual substance which is the form of all things of love and wisdom (whether potential or actual),-is present in the body. It is present in every organ and tissue. Or, to quote the actual teaching: " Man's spiritual is adjoined to his natural, or the substantial of the spirit to the material of the body, with such adaptations and so unitedly that there is not a fibril, thread or minutest part or them where the human of the spirit is not in union with the corporeal human." (Div. Wisdom vii. 4.)

     "Man's spirit is not a substance separated from the viscera, organs and members of man, but adheres conjointly with them." . . .

     ("What," we exclaim, "What, then, is the spirit? For the body dies, and why not so the spirit?" But the teaching continues:)

     ". . . . For the spiritual accompanies every stamen of them (the visceral from outmosts to inmosts, and therefore also every stamen and every fibre of the heart and the lungs. When, therefore, the connection (laexus) between man's body and spirit is dissolved, the spirit is in a form similar to that in which the man had been before; there is only a separation of spiritual substance from material." . . .

     In other words, man's organs and viscera and members are still his! No fibril is lost, no organ, no sense, nothing of that human form which is such that from it nothing can be taken away, and to it nothing can be added, to make it human. (C. L. 315e, W. 389.) But let us continue:

     "Thence it is that the spirit has a heart and lungs equally as did man in the world. Wherefore, he has also similar senses and similar motions and similar speech; and sense, motion and speech are not possible without heart and lungs. They have also atmospheres, but spiritual ones.

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How great, then, is their hallucination who assign a particular place to the soul, whether in the brain or in the heart; for it is the soul of man that is to live on after death, his spirit." (Div. Wisdom vii. 2.)

     In fact, this soul,-this spiritual substance thus liberated from the bonds of material things,-is a spiritual, substantial body, complete. It is the first web of the human form, with each and every thing thereof, which is the form into which man comes after death. (W. 388.) It is not a new body, created at death to harmonize with the needs of the spirit in a new world. It is the same body in which man lived on earth as an incarnate spirit. "Previously," the Doctrine states, "he had not only been in the same, but also in a material body which he had put on around the substantial one"; but the material body is rejected by death, while the substantial one, from which man is man, still remains. (T. 798.)

     The question now arises with us, as with Swedenborg when he first came into the spiritual world: What use can the angels have for such a body, and for the various members and viscera in the spiritual world? If we think from space about this question, and about the body now spoken of, grotesque pictures will arise of spirits that stalk about in a world that is but a subtler, ghostly replica of our own world. But if we think from such extension as is actually seen in the spiritual world,-extension which visualizes the relationships of uses (because only by means of extension can uses ever be finitely seen and distinguished),-then it must be readily acknowledged that the inhabitants of this substantial world have no less need of brain and viscera than do we. They, too, have a mind and have a body. Unless their bodies were furnished with all the viscera and organs, they would not be men but "only images of man." (W. 135.) Their body is a lower faculty than their mind, and is organized for spiritual sensation, as their mind is for spiritual thinking and willing. Angels think with their brains, and act with their bodies. Our substantial brain and body are here clothed with material substance, and thus exist in the fixed relationships of space and time. That is the sole difference.

     Harmony and Disharmony of Body and Spirit.

     The next point of our inquiry is: How can this substantial man, so intimately present in the material body, act therein?

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     The German philosopher Leibnitz had suggested that soul and body were miraculously so adjusted that what the one experiences the other also parallels by a predestined arrangement called Harmony. But Swedenborg denied the truth of such Pre-established Harmony. He points out that it does not always hold true that the body does what the soul wills; for there is what is called "interior thought, from which many people do not speak or act, and which with many fights against the exterior"; and there is also "spiritual thought, into which man does not come until after death," when his spiritual senses are no longer earthbound. (L. J. post., 264.)

     The spiritual is therefore not merely a parallel phenomenon which accompanies the changes of the natural body; nor is the reverse true. The spirit can act with the body, and normally does so; but there are also activities of the spirit which do not exactly correspond to the action of the body. The normal case is illustrated in the Writings by the fact that the beat of the spirit's heart and the respiration of his lungs inflow into the motions of the heart and lungs of the physical body. If the heart and the lungs cease to function, the body dies, and the spirit is loosed from its connection with the body, which no longer corresponds to its soul, and no more obeys it. If man, however, falls into a swoon, his lungs cease to respire, but the respiration of his spirit goes on without any respiration of the body corresponding to it. Man then lives on, but without any sensitive or motor life, or any consciousness.

     This double respiration enables men to think rationally and spiritually, different from the animals. His internal breathing is independent of the flesh to some extent. He can be raised into heaven and respire with the angels. And in Swedenborg's case, he was lifted out of his bodily respiration, which was suspended at certain times, when he had intercourse with spirits. (Div. Wis. vii. 3.)

     The inmost communication of spirit with body,-the very point of vital connection,-is therefore said to be with the two vital motions of heart and lungs. (H. 446.) The thought makes a one with the respiration, so that as a man thinks, so he breathes. (E. 1012, Div. Wis. vi. 5.) The affections inflow into the heart by correspondence. In the spiritual world, certain spirits have such power of persuasion that they cause a spiritual suffocation with spirits, because without free spiritual thinking the lungs of spirits cannot breathe.

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"The body of the spirit makes a one with their mind." (W. 369.) But man in the natural world is able to have a double respiration even in the body, because he can be in insincere externals, as are merely natural men and hypocrites, but seldom sincere and spiritual men. (W. 412, 415.) The reason for this twofold breathing is the fact that the lungs are controlled partly from the blood of the heart and partly from the fibers of the brain, which latter mode is the path of influx from the thought of the understanding.

     Of itself, the body is only obedience, and acts from influx from the mind according to correspondence. And this, of course, is not possible unless the mind is in its derivatives in the entire body. (W. 387, 385.) The primary texture or web of the body is built from first principles in the brain through the fibers and nerves going forth therefrom, and is gradually clothed by material and natural substances; and, in itself, thus becomes a complete human form with no part lacking. (W. 388, 389.) The soul, by virtue of this fact, is a spiritual body, substantially coextensive with its body, and must be conceived as its inmost substance, acting immediately into every organ of it.

     In fact, two "contacts" may thus be observed between the spirit and the material body. First, there is the universal contact implied in the relation (just described) of the spirit as the real web within every organ and fibre,-the only organic living thing in them. This is a constant contact or constant influx, and therefore not so apparent. It depends upon the correspondence of all members and functions of the material body with the organs of the spiritual body within. Without it, not the tiniest part of the body could be moved or have life. Unless this correspondence can be maintained-and it is maintained by the accord of the natural heart and lungs with the spiritual heart and the spiritual lungs which are their finer, prior, interior substance-the body would die, for the essential determinations of the soul into the body would be broken down.

     The second contact, or influx, is specific, and occurs only through the subtle substances of the brain which are at the head of the fibers. For in these cortical glands, both in the head and the nervous centers of the body, the spirit resides as to its thought and willing, or as to its conscious functions.

     Through these fibers from the cortical glands, thought and deliberate will proceed into speech and act.

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Through them it reacts to every occasional demand of changing states, gives sensation, and produces the reflex life which we call the natural mind,-the only conscious mind which we can use in this earthly existence. These spiritual operations, releasing their currents of energy along the nerve-paths, would be able to effect nothing at all, unless the soul were also present immediately in the entire body (W. 387),-present as a permanent cause that enables the dead substances of the body to react to external impulses and conditions. (A. C. 3628:3, 3629.) For the spirit perceives only the things of its own plane and sphere. The spirit perceives only the degree and quality of reception which exists in the body; or, what is the same, perceives the state of its own body in the material environment in which it is.

     How Mind can Sensate Matter.

     "But how?" someone may legitimately question, "How can the spirit be in a material environment!"

     This has been the question of the ages. Yet no philosopher before Swedenborg had been aided by the doctrine of discrete degrees, which shows how the material is but an effect of the spiritual, because material things are composed from spiritual primitives. The reply suggested by this fact is, that matter, having been made of primitives which are of spiritual origin and nature, still contains these primitives, and these are still spiritual. It is these primitives which give contact between matter, such as the body of man is infilled with, and the giving substance of the spirit present therein.

     And the spirit, from its very quality and native force, longs to descend toward ultimates, to act upon and energize whatever on its own plane is passive or receptive to its action. In the interiors of the body it is in an environment which is really spiritual, yet outwardly physical; and there it keeps the physical substance in the power of reacting to its physical experiences.

     Into the brain "ascend" the physical stimuli of experience. There they are perceived by the thought, by the thinking mind; not because the mind is affected by the sensories, but because the mind adapts itself to the internal state of the material organism. (A. C. 6322, 4622; D. 4604, 3635.)

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     And because the mind is a spiritual substance, wrought from the essence of life itself, it can interpret nothing except in terms of life, or as to its spiritual meaning. This is what the mind loves to do. This is what it actually sees, and nothing else.

     Consider whether the mind can see matter, which is dead. How does it perceive it as dead? How does it see the natural world? Does not our spirit look for life, for something responsive to our yearnings, to give and take? Did not primitive man see every object as alive? Is it not told of the Most Ancient Church that its men were unable to distinguish the natural world from the spiritual?

     When the spirit "sees" matter, it can only see it negatively, by realizing that this or that object is not alive, does not respond. Yet there is something in matter that does respond. This is form, use. We "sense" matter, but we see use. We see uses to the soul, to the mind, even in material things. We sense water, and our spirit, by its instincts, guides us to use it to keep us alive. For these natural uses subserve and correspond to the spirit's own purposes. Matter has a relation to life, to spiritual life, indirectly, by having a use for the body.

     Thus it is by the law of correspondence that the spirit senses in the body. The spirit can never be touched by material things, but it can sense harmonies in the body which correspond to harmonies in itself.

     How the Soul can Act upon the Body.

     We now approach the next question: How can the spirit or mind-being spiritual-act in the body and upon it?

     There are those who are particularly anxious about this problem, since they believe it to be a law that the amount of energy in this created physical world of ours is constant, and can never be either lost or added to. It can change form, they admit. Chemicals, even atoms, may be resolved into other forms. Many now grant that matter can change into radiation. Yet the energy is accounted for still, in its former quantity. The human body, they say, stores up energy from heat, from contact, from the chemicals of the food it digests and gives off in the form of work or evaporation, etc., quantity of energy exactly proportionate to its intake, less its growth.

     Supposing this to be true, what part, then, has the soul in the body?

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Unless we conceived of the soul as simply a part of the physical world, obedient under mechanical laws; and life to be merely material energy released by chemical changes in brain or brawn; it would seem that we have to suppose that the spiritual world is a storehouse of unlimited energy, and that the soul, in its every action upon the body, would draw from the spiritual world and add to the store of energy in the universe, and thus upset this beautiful tight little law of the Conservation of Energy,-to the horror of most present-day physicists.

     But the action of the soul upon the body, as the Writings describe it-and they speak in no uncertain terms, but say that the soul impels the body and acts into it and through it-is really the exertion or influx of a different kind of thing than that which we nowadays mean by "energy." It is really not an influx of physical energy or force; it is the influx of a conatus or endeavor, which is the spiritual cause of energy. The influx of life means the inpouring of such an endeavor, and this influx does not add any energy to the body or the visible world, so far as human observation has been able to find out.

     Sir Oliver Lodge, one of the ranking physicists of our day, tells us that it is possible, so far as the laws of Physics are concerned, for life to exert guidance, will or control upon the physical processes of the body, without the expenditure of any energy whatsoever; and he opines that this kind of control is continually being exerted by the mind, by its selecting its own times for releasing the energies tied up in the chemicals of the bodily structures. (Lodge, Life and Matter, p. 143.)

     In the New Church, we are furnished with a rational idea as to why such a guidance can be exerted by the soul over the matter which it has appropriated into its body For, as has already been indicated, there is nothing in the natural world which is not constructed out of spiritual "primitives," which are the inner constituents of matter (T. C. R. 79:7, 280:8); and these can be disposed by the spiritual forces of the soul. For "all natural things, even earthy matters, are effects produced by the spiritual as a cause, and the cause is the living force in the effect." (E 1207:3.)

     The soul can thus initiate motion in the body, without itself being a part of the energy contents of nature. The will of the mind produces the motion of the body. And the Divine teaching is that will is living endeavor, and that as conatus stands to motion, so stands the will to action.

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     Non-living Conatus.

     If we consider the parallel relationships that exist between the soul and the body, and between the spiritual world and the natural, it is readily conceded that the only real thing in the constitution of material particles is the creative motions to which they owe their origin. In fact, the interior examination of natural substance leaves us with the feeling that it is impossible to attain to any conception of matter other than as a form of motion. If motion stopped, the universe would not only stop, but would disappear. And the only real thing within motion, the Writings assure us, is the conatus or endeavor to move.

     The spiritual, which is the cause of the natural world, is therefore manifested in the natural as a conatus to motion. This conatus to motion-we are told-is the spiritual acting into the natural. (A. C. 5173.) In the inanimate natural world this conatus is the influx from the spiritual world which sustains the very material forms themselves, and makes them reactive and obedient to spiritual forces and ends, but which can be manifested only as dead, crude, elemental energy. Yet we are warned against regarding this influx of conatus from the spiritual world, which is really the presence of the spiritual in the natural, as "a force implanted from first creation." It is not an implanted force; nor is it really an attribute of the material substance. It is an influx, or a transflux, which is constantly renewed. Yet, in each least unit of matter which it forms, it is held in constant and measurable quantities, according to capacity and natural law, and according to the universal law that influx, both mediate and immediate, is proportioned according to efflux. (A. 5828.) The world (and each particle of it) is placed in the ocean of life that proceeds from God, in the infinite sphere of life and power which we call the spiritual world; and this sphere of living forms flows in, through and around the cobweb-structure that we call nature, and gives, not by measure, but to overflowing; and nature receives according to its finite capacities.

     Without this influx from the spiritual world, "nature could not subsist for a moment." (A. 4939.) All things in sky or earth "have come forth and do actually . . . subsist from the influx of the Lord through heaven," and thus become representative of the kingdom of heaven, even as the body is representative of the soul. (A. 1807.)

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For "all things, both celestial and spiritual, which are from the Lord are living and essential, or, as they are called, substantial, and therefore they come forth into actual existence in ultimate nature." (A. 1808.)

     It is the ultimate forces of life in the spiritual world that give origin to this physical conatus which the Writings call conatus "not living." (W. 311) This endeavor, although in itself dead when received in nature, enables dead matter to be such as to clothe uses, or be utilized in embodying spiritual forms. Unless ultimate matter retained such a conatus within it, as the primitive internal from which it comes, there could be no action of the spiritual upon it, and it could not feed or clothe the "soul" of anything of the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom, or the human form.

     It may seem strange that the Writings call the "conatus to form," which is thus constantly present by influx in the very structure of the natural atmospheres and in the matters of the earth, a non-living conatus. But it is dead, because from it matter has no power actually to determine itself into form, but has power to be acted upon, or to react to the souls of plants or of animals, or to the minds of men, when incorporated into their bodies. This conatus is the only living thing in. matter and motion, yet it does not belong to matter. It effects no life, constitutes no soul (unless we regard all matter, in some qualified sense, to be living). We are thus told of the natural atmospheres, which are dead, that inwardly they contain spiritual atmospheres as the shell contains the kernel, or as the bark contains the wood. (T. 76.) These spiritual internals of natural substances-which remain in the form of conatus even in the compressed ultimates of the soil-are derivative or "lower" spiritual degrees or atmospheres. (E. 1210; J. post., 313.) Yet, such is the structure of material substance, that it must also be said that in natural atmospheres there is nothing interiorly from the sun of the spiritual world, although they are environed by spiritual atmospheres from that sun (W. 175); and that substances of the natural world are in themselves dead, and are acted upon from without by substances of the spiritual world. (W. 260.)

     The conatus tied up in matter is therefore not what constitutes the souls of organic forms. Matter, in itself, has only a conatus to passivity; and souls manifest themselves as "living" conatus, producing living or vital energy, characterized by a show of intelligence and an apparently free purpose, and a sense of future need.

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     The World of Souls.

     The kingdom of life is apart from the realm of nature. And this kingdom of life is a world, having its discreted substances of varying degrees acting in mutual contact, apart from what we call nature. It is a world of form, while nature can contribute nothing to the image and scheme of creation, but can only clothe form. (W. 315.) Thus we are taught that there are superior and inferior spiritual substances, all originating from the sun which is pure Love, all receiving its influx, and all free from any intermediations of nature. The forces of each spiritual degree continually proceed to their spiritual ultimates (E. 1210-1212), and these ultimate forces of life are what appear in nature as non-living conatus. (W. 311) But, besides, there go forth from each spiritual degree forms of life, or souls, which convey the powers, which the spiritual holds from the Lord, into uses,-uses in both worlds, if possible. These forms receive a substantial clothing in the ultimates of the spiritual world (Div. Wis. ii. 3); but a form becomes a permanent use only in conjunction with the dead forces of the natural world,-forces upon which it can act from without, which it can command and weave to its purpose and image.

     The human soul is the form of all spiritual degrees; its inmost, properly called the soul, being a superior spiritual substance which receives influx directly from God; the human mind being an inferior spiritual substance which receives the Divine influx mediately through the spiritual world. The animus or natural mind, and the souls of the animal kingdom, are from the lowest spiritual degree. But the bodies of men and animals are from the substances of material nature, and therefore receive a sustaining influx from God mediately through the natural world. (Influx 8.)

     The image of eternity is latent within all souls; for eternity belongs to God, from whom they proceed. But the souls of plants and animals can reflect this image only by propagations by means of seed. Animals are not immortal as individuals. The soul or spiritual of an animal "cannot be separated from its natural after death, and live by itself, like the spiritual of man," but is dissipated with its natural life. (J. 25.)

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Beasts cannot be elevated above their own natural to think about spiritual things. There is with them no reception of or reciprocation to the influx of life; their vital force is confused with the non-living conatus of nature; their primary is within nature, inseparably. And therefore the influx of life which inflows through their brains flows immediately into the senses of their bodies, and determines their acts (T. 3356); yea, "the influx passes through their organic forms even into the world, and there terminates and vanishes, and never returns"! (A. 5114e.)

     Never returns! But with man there is a return. For the human soul is purely spiritual, receiving its life from God directly. Human life is lived in terms of that love and wisdom which proceed from God, and man is thus able to perceive the source of his life, and perceiving, can receive it as something spiritual, and appropriate it as if it were his own, yet know and acknowledge that it belongs to the Lord. It is the soul alone that senses and lives in the body of man; and its sensing in the body is actually a sensing of spiritual things, and of what corresponds to spiritual needs and subserves spiritual ends.

     But the return effected in the human mind,-in and by which the whole of creation, as to all its spiritual ends and uses, ascends again toward its source,-is not any physical influx. The physical energy tied up in matter does not return, is not converted into vital energy or into life, except in merest appearance. Motion does not become life; the natural does not become spiritual.

     It is the spiritual, or the quality-giving conatus which inflowed into nature, that returns. And this return is effected in and by the human mind, which is so constituted that the life of the highest spiritual substance of the soul itself,-the life of conscious reception of love and wisdom,-can be terminated therein.

     The "Finests" of Nature.

     Now we must again revert to the doctrine about the primitives of nature, which we identified with the inward endeavor towards use, which is present in all the degrees of natural substances and matters, and makes matter obedient to souls. In the lower substances and matters of nature, these primitives are involved or bound up in lower finites or composites, so as to become more and more sluggish and unresponsive to the spiritual organizing forces that may be acting upon them and calling them into their office of clothing forms of use, or conveying the influxes of the spiritual world.

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But the first and finest and purest substances of nature, where they exist in free form, where they are liberated from their grosser material combinations, can, we may conceive, be immediately adapted to respond to spiritual influx, and to become an intermediate under the direct control of the soul or mind. The human body, and in particular the human brain, has been created and furnished as a laboratory for liberating such inmost things of nature by a digestive process which begins in the vegetable kingdom and in the animal, and is then taken up by the human body. In the cortex of the brain, which contains innumerable organs for distilling this elixir of nature, that process is completed, and the finests and inmosts of nature thence flash into the entire body as a life-blood of exquisite power, a "spirituous fluid," an inmost natural organic, the messenger and tool of the spirit itself.

     The Writings assign to these inmost substances of nature no spiritual functions. But they are intermediates, and are therefore of service as a connective between the mind and the body. They are sometimes spoken of as a part of the mental organism itself, a part of the natural mind, that degree of the spiritual which is consciously active in the life of the body. When this is said, the warning is given that the real substance of the mind-the substance which thinks or which is the "subject" of thought-is spiritual, and that this natural substance is merely fixative, merely an ultimate which receded at death from the spiritual substance, and is no more a part of the spiritual body than the cutaneous scarfskin is a part of our living body. None the less, so fine are these purest things of nature that they cannot be described in natural language, except by what would appear as abstractions. (W. 275; D. Wis. viii, 5.)

     This border substance, which Is described in the Economy as a spirituous fluid, is natural. And, being natural, "it cannot possibly be said to live, much less to feel, perceive or understand"; for nature is dead, and serves life as an instrumental cause. (2 E. A. K. 245.) As to its material or natural principle and motion it is derived from the first and perfect aura of the world, which is stated to be "inanimate." (2 E. A. K. 314.) But "if this fluid be regarded as the purest organ of its body, and the most exquisitely adapted for the reception of life, then [it can be said that] it lives, yet not from itself." (2 E. A. K. 245.)

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Nor is anything else in the entire earthly body truly organic or living in this sense, except this purest of organisms, derived from the finests of nature, which furnishes the soul with its foothold in the body. (Cp. 2 E. A. K. 351.) All the volumes of this natural soul or animal fluid "survives" the death of the material body, retaining the form of the body to which it aspired in the world, but being no longer the body, but "the soul under the form of the body." And although the earth and sky and the very ethers of the planets perish, yet this organic form, pure beyond words, would be unharmed.

     It is because these finest things of nature are intermediates that they become the nexus of conjunction between the mind and the body, being passive to modifications by the senses, and transferring the vital influx of living conatus (which is the presence of the soul) into action on the plane of material things.

     We can imagine this the better, if we note that the human body, as to its interiors, is in a state of equilibrium or delicate balance. The nervous system gives instances of this. For every sensation which travels upwards to the brain or to some subsidiary nervous system, there is an answering adjustment in the system, and the completion of it is a motor impulse. These reflexes in the body make the body seem to be automatic and elastic in its actions, and to describe endless arches of energy distribution. But these are grouped, controlled and guided by a central intelligence, and by that intelligence the distribution of energy is directed.

     The Mind gives Quality to the Body.

     There is a world-wide difference between the action of the dead conatus which is seen in nature, and the living conatus or vitality which is present in the organic body. Conatus gives quality, direction. In one case the conatus is determined to the maintenance of a closed circuit of motion. But in the case of living fibres, the vital conatus gives them a new quality, makes them free as to inward state or purpose. Organic substances are not free in action, being circumscribed by the order of the natural body and the natural world. The arm can be chained by iron fetters; the resolves of the mind have to bide their time,-the time when there will be a perfect equilibrium in its domain of reflexes; then, not before, can it act. But, as to inward state, the organic substance seems to be free.

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     The Writings teach that all that in the body which is called vital heat,-the heat of the blood, as an instance,-"proceeds solely from the love which constitutes the life" of the animal in question. (Influx 6.) A fascinating study would open here, if all the teachings were to be cited concerning the relation of natural heat and light to spiritual heat and light. But here we are directly concerned only with this, that the "forces which are from the sun of the world . . . are dead forces, . . . as forces of heat in man and in animal, which keep the body in such a state that the will . . . and the understanding ... can inflow ... He is greatly mistaken who believes that the heat and light of the sun of the world can operate anything else than to open and dispose the things proper to nature to receive influx from the spiritual world." (A. E. 12094.)

     Thus when natural heat-and all activities are described in terms of light and heat in the Writings-has acted upon the things of the body, and made active the latent conatus in them, then spiritual heat inflows from the conatus of the soul and vitalizes this natural heat, so that the energy manifest in the body may be called "vital heat," which is still physical, but utterly different in quality, since the conatus upon which it now depends, and which it represents in every changing state, is love, human, free, and living. It "proceeds solely from love." For its quality, every state of the body thus depends upon the loves that animate the mind, as well as, inmostly, upon the love of the soul itself, which unconsciously operates its universal government in every cell and fibre of the human frame. Evils are therefore said to close and obstruct the finest web of the first tissues of the body with impurities which cause diseases and at length death. (A. 5726.) And the same takes place in the lower tissues and bloods. "What a man's spirit craves, his blood, according to correspondence, craves and draws in by respiration." (W. 420.) "If the love remains impure," the blood will become defiled, though this cannot be distinguished by observation, for it is especially a purer blood, called by some the animal spirit, of which this is said. (W. 421, 423.) Human blood is thus spiritual in its inmost things and corporeal in its ultimates, and is nourished from such things in nature as correspond to the internal state; wherefore "the unlikeness of the blood in men is as great as that of their loves." (D. Wis. x, 2.)

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And if this is true of the blood, it is increasingly true of the inmost things of nature, which are the immediate ultimates of the mind, and which will be retained everlastingly as a quiescent basis for the individuality of the spirit. And this substance, which has served as a nexus or bond between the soul and the body, now becomes a nexus by which the immortal spirit may be adjoined and conjoined to the human race; for he is no longer to subsist upon his own basis, but upon the common basis which is mankind. (J. 9.)

     Through entrance of the spirit into the other world, the soul has returned to its source. But this return of the spiritual in creation-of the uses of creation-to its source could not possibly occur except in a material body, and by that strange, familiar reaction of the living with the dead, of the spiritual with the natural, in the structures of the aroused human brain. There only can be opened an eternal communion of the soul with certain natural substances which are at once adapted to the beginning of motion in the universe and to the beginning of life in the natural body. Animals lack the laboratories to distill these substances; and although they, too, have souls of spiritual substance made, which act upon the matter of their brains and bodies by vital conatus, yet they cannot act upon nature into its inmosts, or from above; and therefore the nexus of their souls with nature is wrought upon by other natural forces, and perishes.

     But within man an eternal mind is born. For at birth, when the gates of the senses are flung open by the commencing functions of the lungs, and a stream of sense impressions invades the inmosts of the brain through the refining pathways of the fibres, and modifies the state of the finest things of nature which the soul has selected as its first embodiment, then the soul, present therein, recognizes the correspondence of their harmonies, and the measure of reception and response. It experiences for the first time a sensation,-a sense of environment, of limitation, of individuality. Thus it is that the immortal spirit is born. The influx of life returns upon itself, the circle of life is closed, and the soul knows itself to be a finite vessel of life. The soul becomes also a mind.

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     Man's Soul and his Body after Death.

     Viewed from nature, or examined from natural thought, the surviving spirit of man is nothing but certain inmost substances of nature. But viewed from the spiritual world, these natural ultimates are as nothing, having no part in the spiritual world, belonging still to nature,-the world of the dead sun.

     We are warned against thinking of the spiritual world and of man's spirit from natural thought. The completeness of the human form of the after-death man must therefore not be thought of from its action into the finest things of nature, which we are accustomed to call the fringe or "limbus"; nor from its presence in the fixed and spatial body which it had on earth. The immortal spirit receives its complete human form-a form containing a soul and a mind and a body, with all its viscera and organs-not from any association with the material body, but from the Lord's own formative life, which at all times organizes it and embodies it to suit the needs of its environment and use. In the seed, its body was primitive; in the womb it developed in orderly succession of states. In the world its form was adapted to its environment,-toe nature and its auras. In the spiritual world its form will be adapted to new and vital conditions,-to spiritual atmospheres and spiritual uses; and in this new form it is perceptible as completely human. Always, the soul is embodied; always it rules its body and understands its environment, because it lives from the Lord, who is infinite wisdom and infinite power.

     The conjunction of the soul with man's earthly tabernacle is but a faulty and imperfect picture of the conjunction of the angel's soul and mind with the spiritual body which clothes him. The spiritual body is separate in degree and substance from his mind; it is his instrument of sensation; indeed, its spiritual senses saw and heard and felt on earth, but then through the natural body. The difference in purely spiritual sensation is described. It is not sensation of any natural heat or light by the mediumship of nature, but of spiritual heat and light conveyed through a spiritual medium, viz., the spiritual atmospheres. These, although finite and in structure corresponding, are totally unlike the natural ethers, as may be surmised from the revealed fact that "spiritual light does not pass through spaces, like the light of the world, but through the affections and perceptions of truth, therefore in an instant to the last limits of the heavens.

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From these affections and perceptions arise the appearances of spaces in the spiritual world." (C. J. 14.)

     The mind of the angel thus continues to sense, to gather up the riches of heaven into the interior memories, which are then awakened to conscious use. "The things an angel sees and feels are not material, but are substantial from a spiritual origin, and yet are real things, since they have the same origin that all things in this world have." (E. 1218.) It is now a sensation of spiritual objects unclothed by material fixatives; a sensation of the love and wisdom received by other angelic minds, and of the uses of angelic communities in the great man-form of heaven; but it bears the closest resemblance (or correspondence) to the sensation of the spirit while living in the earthly body; for both are essentially spiritual. (E. 1218.)

     Indeed, spirits are concerned even with the process of man's sensation. It is revealed that objects seen by the natural sense-organs merely "dispose the interior vessels which are of the lower thought," the imagination; and, according to the quality of these vessels of the corporeal memory, there is a reception of the inflowing ideas of spirits who are with man! It is their interior ideas which find their corresponding and pleasing forms in the modified vessels of the memory, and are there perceived, not as the spiritual ideas of the spirit, but as our own natural thought. (D. 3635.)

     We, as incarnate spirits, thus live in a spiritual world, yet sense only the natural world, or rather, that of the spiritual world which is present and operant in the natural world. And we do this by the aid of the presence and influx, first, of the soul into its ultimates in the body, where it maintains and adjusts and acts as a cause of all modifications and actions therein, and, secondly, of spirits and angels into the mind, to give cause and essence to our sensory life, and to all our speech and action.

     But whatever finite agencies are concerned in the processes of mental life, the mind, from its first awakening to individual existence, is kept in utter freedom to determine its spiritual growth according to its reason,-a freedom which is exercised in the interiors of the natural mind, beyond the compulsions of natural substance and natural law.

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     And whatever finite things are the means of offering to the spirit selections of specific harmonies and beauties and uses for his spiritual upbuilding, yet in the indefinite things of spiritual life, what he really chooses for his spiritual nourishment is the Divine gift of life, as received and seen in perfect or in perverted use in all the varieties which meet his senses.

     Unless we understand that the end of creation is the reception of the Lord's life, the marvels of the action of the soul in the body will forever be meaningless mysteries.
REV. J. E. BOWERS 1930

REV. J. E. BOWERS              1930

     "They do not die of disease, but tranquilly as in sleep. So do they migrate out of the world into heaven." (A. C. 8850.) In this manner was it the blessing and privilege of our venerable friend, the Rev. J. E. Bowers, to "cross the river" early in the morning of August 12th at the advanced age of ninety-one years. After his retirement from active work six years ago, he lived quietly at his home in Toronto, and was in good physical health until the last, though his memory had failed in recent years, and he did not recognize friends who called upon him. Of late he had spoken constantly of a river which he wanted to cross, and which would be easy to cross.

     A familiar figure at the council meetings and assemblies of the General Church for over thirty years, Mr. Bowers was officially known as our "General Missionary," but he was in reality a Visiting Pastor among the isolated members of the General Church residing in Ontario and the Northern States. Twice a year he went faithfully and persistently around his "circuit," impelled, like the early Christian apostles, by a zealous desire and singleness of purpose to care for the needs of the isolated,-to provide the priestly ministrations of worship, the sacraments, and doctrinal instruction for individuals and families remote from society centers, thus bringing to them the light and sphere and encouragement of the Church.

     This kind of work, entailing long and difficult journeys and many hardships, was a labor of love with Mr. Bowers, who found his reward in the welcome given him on the farms and in the villages of his widespread parish, and in the consciousness that he was doing his "little bit" in disseminating the seeds of truth and promoting the establishment of the New Church.

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     [Photo of John Eby Bowers]

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"He is one minister who gets out and hustles for trade," was the tribute once paid him by an enthusiastic layman. There are many who will now voice their gratitude for his visits,-many who otherwise would never have seen a New Church minister. Of tangible testimony we may point to his record of 666 baptisms performed, including numbers of children who are now adult members of the Church, and not a few who have, at his behest, enjoyed the benefits of education in the Academy Schools.

     John Eby Bowers was born two miles west of Waterloo, Ontario, on October 18, 1839. There his father was a school teacher who later settled on a farm two miles south of the village of Berlin, now the city of Kitchener. His grandfather, Samuel Bowers, went to Canada from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1825, when his father was nine years of age.

     Among the early receivers of the Heavenly Doctrines in Berlin were a Mr. John Hoffman, a great uncle by marriage, and two great aunts, sisters of Mr. Bowers' grandmother. These relatives, and other New Church friends, would meet at the Bowers' farm on Sundays and converse about the things of the New Church, and this made a lasting impression upon John's mind as a child. He attended the Methodist Church until he came of age, but the preaching was more and more unsatisfactory to him, and one day the thought came to him that he would "go to the Swedenborgian Church next Sunday." Obeying the suggestion, he heard the Rev. F. W. Tuerk preach in German. "The service and the sermon," he said, "were to me perfectly delightful. Verily I had found my Church!"

     Following this acceptance of the Doctrines in the year 1860, when he was twenty-one years of age, Mr. Bowers was baptized by Mr. Tuerk and joined the Berlin Society. Among the New Church people of the vicinity was a Miss Mary Seller of Waterloo County, to whom he was married in the year 1865, and who now survives him at the age of eighty-eight. Of their four children,-Abiel Silver, Almina E., Alberta L., and Eaten J.,-three are still living, the eldest son, Abiel, having died several years ago. In 1867, Mr. Bowers and the family moved to the Middle West, and resided in the States of Missouri and Kansas for six years. Here he met the Rev. J. P. Stuart, who was to be his friend and counsellor for many years, and who encouraged his desire to enter the priesthood of the New Church,-a desire he had cherished while engaged in various secular occupations from the time he left the farm at the age of eighteen.

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     Mr. Bowers was ordained a minister of the New Church by the Rev. J. P. Stuart, General Pastor of the Missouri Association, at a meeting of the Association held at Jefferson City, Mo., on May 11th, 1873. Three years before he had been licensed to preach, and had done some evangelistic work in Minnesota, where he met the Rev. J. R. Hibbard. His first pastorate was with the Frankford, Philadelphia, Society, from September, 1873, to September, 1877. The Revs. W. F. Pendleton and Louis H. Tafel were then ministering to other societies in Philadelphia, and the three met regularly on Mondays to discuss doctrinal subjects and other matters of mutual interest. On leaving Philadelphia, Mr. Bowers became pastor of the Toronto Society, filling that office until November, 1879. He then entered the open field as a general New Church missionary.

     "At that time," he writes, "people would go to hear lectures on the doctrines of the New Church, especially in the country districts and in small villages. Both in Canada and in the United States I often had the pleasure of addressing crowded halls of people who would listen attentively. Once, in a village of southern Ohio, a gentleman got so much interested in my subject that when a point was made he shouted, 'That's so! No one can deny that!'" Reports of Mr. Bowers' work in the missionary field appeared in the periodicals of the Church from time to time. In NEW CHURCH LIFE for 1894, we read: "The Rev. J. E. Bowers has made evangelistic visits to a number of places in Indiana, and has given instruction in the Heavenly Doctrines by conversations, sermons and lectures. At a country meeting-house ten miles south of Logansport, where he spent Sunday, September 16th, the audiences numbered 60, 100 and 150. Several of the hearers seemed to receive the teachings affirmatively, and he was invited to repeat his visit."

     This missionary work had been carried on in part independently, and from 1884 to 1891 as Missionary of the Canada Association. During the same period he was Missionary for the Pennsylvania Association. For he had been in sympathy with Academy views from the first, and in 1892-1893 attended the Theological School of the Academy.

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In 1897, he became officially identified with the General Church of the New Jerusalem.

     Meanwhile he had discovered that people would not attend lectures on religious subjects as before, and that efforts of this kind were largely fruitless. "Then," he writes, "our methods were changed to doing New Church missionary work more in accordance with the spirit and teaching of the Writings. In the Divine Providence of the Lord, a distinctively New Church educational body had its inception,-The Academy of the New Church." Under the auspices of the General Church, therefore, he henceforth confined his activities to visiting isolated members and families of the Church, supporting and encouraging them in the worship of the Lord in His Second Coming and in the faith of sound doctrine, and urging the education of the young as the most effective means of providing for the future growth of the New Church.

     Serving in this capacity for twenty-seven years (1897-1924), he made the rounds of his circuit every Spring and Fall, spending the Summer and Winter at his home in Toronto. Reports of his work appeared regularly in NEW CHURCH LIFE. The localities visited were chiefly in the Province of Ontario and in the States of Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York. The last of these journeys was undertaken in October, 1924, extending only as far west as Mull, Kent Co., Ontario, where services were held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Francis E. Woofenden and family, and where he baptized the grandchild of Mr. and Mrs. Woofenden,-the fifty-third baptism in that family relationship.

     He thus brought to a close an active ministerial career of fifty-one years, forty-five of which (1879-1924) were devoted to missionary work and pastoral visiting in a wide field. Anticipating this conclusion of his labors, he wrote as follows in his Report of August, 1920:

     "As an external matter of information it may here be stated that, in the course of my labors as a missionary, the aggregate distance of my travels is not less than 250,000 miles. This is equivalent to ten trips around our terrestrial globe. And railroad travel is not now enjoyable to me, for obvious reasons, although I love my work as much as ever.

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     "Many of my New Church friends whom I visited thirty or forty years ago have passed on into the brighter and more beautiful spiritual world. As time rolls on, others follow them, one by one. I cherish the remembrance of them, and hope to meet them again, and at least have some visits with them, but this entirely in accordance with what the Lord, in His good pleasure, will provide for.

     "In conclusion, permit me to say that, as my age advances, and the mental and physical strength decreases, in thinking of my life's work, my mind is at times profoundly impressed with the idea of how very little it has been possible for me to do in the momentous use of New Church evangelization. But on the other hand is the encouraging and cheering conviction that others are being, and in the future will continue to be, prepared to perform all the uses of the Lord's crowning Church, the glorious Church of the New Jerusalem; thus that the uses of genuine New Church evangelization, according to the spirit of the Writings, will be done evermore, in the ages of the future, till the whole earth as to the Church will be filled with the glory of the Lord." (NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1920, p. 519.)

     In the course of fifty years, Mr. Bowers contributed many sermons and articles to the periodicals of the New Church. He wrote in a clear and direct style, often characterized by fervent denunciations of the old falsities, and as often by eloquent descriptions of the wonders of the New Church. He was the author of two books: Missionary Talks on Subjects of New Church Doctrine (James Speirs, London, 1889), treated in question and answer form, and based upon actual conversations; and Suns and Worlds of the Universe (James Speirs, 1899), which aims to introduce Emanuel Swedenborg as a Natural Philosopher to more general notice, and cites both the Philosophical Works and the Writings. He was the author of the Hymn, "Our Father, we adore Thee," in our Liturgy.
     W. B. C.

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NOTES AND REVIEWS. 1930

NOTES AND REVIEWS.              1930


NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office a Publication, Lancaster, Pa.
Published Monthly By
THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
BRYN ATHYN, PA.
Editor                    Rev. W. B. Caldwell, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
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     All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address and business communications should be sent to the Business Manager.

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$3.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single Copy, 30 cents.
     "PECULIAR" BUT "BEAUTIFUL."

     In the antique library of a wayside inn, Mr. Francis Frost recently came across a bound volume of GODEY'S LADY'S BOOK AND MAGAZINE, and in the Literary Review section of the issue for January, 1864; found this:

     From William Carter & Brother, Boston, through Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia.

     Ten Chapters on Marriage. Its Nature, Uses, Duties and Final Issues. By William B. Hayden, Minister of the New Jerusalem Church. Though the author is a disciple of Swedenborg, and his work is tinged with his peculiar ideas, there is yet sufficient exalted sentiment of a general nature to make this book acceptable among Christians of all beliefs. His ideas concerning marriage are beautiful, and his teachings not to be disregarded.

     NEW CHURCH CONCEPTS.

     "In several recent years of post-graduate work in the University of Chicago Divinity School, I gained a large respect for the out-and-out New Church Concepts, and became convinced that our best progress would be through developing our own Concepts, rather than by adopting the pitifully weak and variable ideas of the scholastic world as to theology and the Word of God." (Rev. John W. Stockwell in THE HELPER, June 25, 1930.)

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     LEAVING BEFORE THE SERMON.

     During the recent meetings of the General Conference at Manchester, England, a Children's Service was held, and was also largely attended by adults. "In order to elicit some information as to the effect of the service on the children themselves, one of the teachers present on the following Sunday asked the children in her class to give her their impressions. In response, one of the children asked why, seeing that it was a children's service, the adult friends did not leave before the sermon!" (NEW-CHURCH HERALD, July 19, P. 447.)

     EMERSON AND SWEDENBORG.

     Professor Clarence Hotson, Ph.D., has continued his studies in the field of Swedenborg's influence upon Emerson. An article of his, entitled "Emerson and the Swedenborgians," appears in STUDIES IN PHILOLOGY (University of North Carolina) for July, 1930, from which we quote the closing words:

     "Emerson evinced his interest in the disciples of Swedenborg, especially as an organized body, by at least sixty allusions in his Journals, correspondence, and published works. Of these comments some are favorable, some neutral, and some unfavorable; and some combine praise and blame in varying proportions. Emerson's interest in the New Church people was out of all proportion to their numerical strength, and indicated some elements of keen mental sympathy. Though he seemed able at times to discriminate between the teachings of Swedenborg and his followers' imperfect comprehension of them, he had a continual tendency to confuse the two.

     Further treatments of the subject by Dr. Hotson are shortly to be published in THE NEW-CHURCH MAGAZINE (London) and THE NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER.

     FORTHCOMING BOOKS.

     A series of addresses on subjects from the Apocalypse, delivered by Bishop George de Charms at children's services in Bryn Athyn, is shortly to be published in book form by Theta Alpha. The volume is to be printed in a style suited to children's reading, with illustrations by Miss Eudora Sellner.

     The Academy Book Room has in preparation a revised and enlarged edition of the Social Song Book, and hopes to have it on sale about December 1st.

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INFESTATION FROM THE WORLD. 1930

INFESTATION FROM THE WORLD.              1930

     The question of how the New Church is to make use of the riches of the modern learned world, and at the same time resist the infestations arising from the same source, is ever a matter of keen interest, and also of concern, to those who love the New Church and wish to maintain its integrity and distinctiveness. To find confirmations of revealed truth in the realm of science and philosophy is according to order, and is a source of benefit to the Church; but to invalidate that truth by interpretations of Revelation in the light of the scholars is to yield to the enemy, to succumb in temptation, and to destroy the Church with those who do it. The vessels of gold and silver which we are to take from the Egyptians are not to be melted into a golden calf, but to be employed in the service of the Lord's tabernacle.

     This vital matter is ever before us, and has recently come into special prominence in the General Convention, as is known to those of our readers who have access to the Convention periodicals. Because of its historical interest, and because of the principles involved, we believe that a brief recital of recent events in Convention will be useful.

     DEVELOPMENTS IN THE GENERAL CONVENTION.

     The issue between the so-called "conservative" and "liberal" groups in the General Convention, which we have noted from time to time in these pages, reached an acute stage during the past year, and produced a state of tension at the recent annual meeting of that body in Boston, a brief account of which is given in our Church News department this month.

     The conservatives emphasize the need of loyalty to the Writings as a Divine Revelation, and to the organized New Church as a distinctive religious body in the world, rightly bearing the name "New Jerusalem." In recent years they have become a party of protest against a form of liberalism which they believe to be destructive of the distinctive New Church and its revealed Doctrine. This liberalism has been typified by much of the material appearing in THE NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER under the editorship of the Rev. E. M. Lawrence Gould, pastor of the Church of the Neighbor, Brooklyn, N. Y., whose "community church" ideas have also made him the "storm center" at meetings of Convention for some time.

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Each year, however, he has been re-elected to the editorship of the MESSENGER, this year by a vote of 92 to 66 over Mr. Benjamin A. Whittemore, of Boston. The majority of the delegates at Convention thus manifest "liberal" tendencies and convictions.

     It seems, however, that the members of the conservative group have become more and more aggressive; and their growing apprehension was shown a year ago in their stand against the influence of modernistic Biblical scholarship among Convention ministers, and especially at the Theological School in Cambridge under the teaching of the Rev. William F. Wunsch, Professor of Theology, whose leaning toward the interpretations of the scholars, as over against Swedenborg, is exhibited in his book, The World Within the Bible, reviewed in our pages last February. Accordingly, at the Council of Ministers in 1929, a Committee on Problems of Biblical Criticism was appointed, with the Rev. Everett K. Bray, of St. Paul, Minn., as Chairman, whose Report this year is published in THE NEW-CHURCH REVIEW for July, 1930, and emphasizes a normal New Church view of the subject. In this connection we would note also an article by Mr. Benjamin A. Whittemore, published in the REVIEW for April, 1930, and entitled "The Old Testament in the Critics' Den." His view of the matter is shown in this paragraph:

     "Certain it is, that if we trust overmuch to our own judgments with regard to 'modern thought,' without constant reference to the foundations from which we should judge, we shall soon find ourselves going astray. We may think and call ourselves 'liberal' and 'progressive,'-terms that are the rallying cries of Unitarians, 'free-thinkers,' and infidels generally, but certainly, from the standpoint of the New-Church foundations, those terms are hardly applicable to loyal New Churchmen. He who professes as his religious foundations the Word of the Lord and the Writings of the Lord's Servant, Emanuel Swedenborg, and believes that the New-Church organization has a great future before it, and that it will become increasingly prominent through the progress of the centuries, is truly progressive only when he is strictly loyal to the New-Church foundations. To the extent that he is 'liberal' and 'progressive' (as those terms are frequently used), to that extent he is disloyal to the best interests of the New Church, and to that extent he is reactionary to the underlying current of the Lord's rule on earth, and is a distinct hindrance to the real advancement of the New Church." (P. 168.)

     Meanwhile, steps were being taken to correct the situation at the Theological School in Cambridge, as was set forth in a pamphlet widely circulated before the meeting of Convention in June this year, as four members of the Board of Managers were to be elected.

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And although the delegates at the Convention showed their "liberal" inclinations in a proportion of about five to three, the Board of Managers of the Theological School, immediately after Convention, reorganized the Faculty, appointing the Rev. Everett K. Bray as Professor of Theology and Vice President assisting the Rev. William L. Worcester, President, while Professor Wunsch was removed as Professor of Theology, but is to remain as Professor of Literal Bible Study and of the Sacred Languages.

     A number of letters protesting against this action of the Board then appeared in the MESSENGER, and were answered in a statement by the Chairman, the Rev. Arthur Wilde, who explained that the action was unanimously taken, and that the policy adopted had these ends in view: 1. To secure unity in the Church; 2. To effect better discipline in the School; and 3. To raise the standard of scholarship in the ministry. (MESSENGER, July 30, p. 103.)

     We have briefly recorded these occurrences as matters of interest to all New Churchmen, and because of the vital issue involved. While efforts were made to bring the question into the open at Convention, and to reconcile the divergent groups, we gather that it was only settled on the basis of an agreement to disagree. That the "conservatives" are not prepared to compromise their stand for loyalty and distinctiveness, in spite of the majority vote against them, seems evident from two speeches made toward the close of Convention, from which we quote:

     "Rev. E. M. Lawrence Gould: For some months past-and indeed, in lesser degree, for some years past-we have been hearing with an increasing intensity of an issue, a difference, a division in the Church; and this year it has seemed necessary that this division should be clearly stated, in order that it might be decisively acted upon. It has, I judge, been so treated; and as a more or less self-constituted spokesman for one of the groups involved, I have asked the privilege of saying a word to you.

     "The question that we have been disputing for some time is one of a difference in methods of preaching and teaching; and I take it that the Convention has decided that if there arises a definite necessity of adopting one method or another, it knows which method it will choose to adopt.

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I am sure, however, that the Convention realizes, as we do, that such a necessity need not arise, and that there is a place in the work of the Church for all methods of preaching; that there is a place in the Church for all points of view.

     "We have had our theoretical division and its settlement, and the time has now come for practical harmonization and cooperation, in which we shall all agree to work together for our common cause, and shall try no longer to set forth our points of view as distinct from those of our neighbors; in which we shall no longer look, as we have been looking, for those points on which we differ, but shall look-as the Council of Ministers looked, in some of its discussions-for those points on which we are agreed; finding (as I believe we shall always find) that those points are not only more important, but also more numerous, than those points on which we differ."

     "The Rev. George Henry Dole expressed his conviction that the 'differences' were not matters of method, but of principle, and that there could be no unity in the Church except on the basis of unswerving loyalty to revealed truth." (MESSENGER, August 6, p. 118.)
EDITORSHIP OF "NEW CHURCH SERMONS." 1930

EDITORSHIP OF "NEW CHURCH SERMONS."              1930

     Owing to the pressure of other duties, the Rev. William Whitehead has resigned the editorship of NEW CHURCH SERMONS, an office he has so capably filled for the last three years, and the Bishop has appointed the Rev. Fred E. Gyllenhaal, of Toronto, to succeed him as editor, and the Rev. Alan Gill, of Kitchener, as assistant. Mr. Gyllenhaal has accepted the appointment, and the new arrangement goes into effect with the October issue of the pamphlets.

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Church News 1930

Church News       Various       1930

     SOUTH AFRICAN MISSION.

     With due modesty it may be said that the Mission Headquarters at "Alpha" is slowly developing into a decisive institutional concern. This would probably be the impression given to any visitor making a call during a school term. Indeed, a working week now includes such departments as Kindergarten, Primary and Elementary School, Industrial Work, Printing, Gardening, Theology and periodic meetings of teachers and doctrinal classes; also, on the recreative side, tennis, football, basket ball, singing contests, and school literary activities on Friday evenings. Each item here mentioned should suggest a picture of industry and recreation proper to a Mission Station on the South African veldt. Such activities, too, have been the routine from February 1st to June 13th, on which date the schools closed for the winter holidays.

     The Theological School for last term-meeting in the building newly erected for that purpose-consisted of six students,-one from Basutoland, one from the Transvaal, one from the Cape Province, one from Natal, and two from Zululand. The New Church Doctrines are therefore studied and discussed in four languages. The students, being in various stages of progress, it has been found necessary to divide the classes into two grades; but with a curriculum fashioned on the Theological Course given in Bryn Athyn, the following subjects have received attention: The True Christian Religion, The Apocalypse Revealed, The Divine Providence, The Divine Love and Wisdom, Exposition, Ritual, and the Letter of the Word. Written exercises, tests, and sermons have been accomplished, which show that the Doctrines of the New Church can be intellectually grasped by the sons of Africa.

     One student from Durban, however, will be with us no more. This is Luke M. Nyokana. For some time he had been a teacher at a Durban Night School which is under the direction of this Mission. He was called to the Theological School last February, in order to take a short course in Theology. For this purpose he left wife and family and joined the student group at Alpha. On the day of his departure for home, in company with his two fellow students en route for Zululand, he fainted at a store near the railway station, just before the arrival of the Durban train. Every possible medical aid was given him, but failed to bring him round from the stroke, which proved fatal twelve hours later. The funeral took place at Alpha on the following Sunday, June 15th, his wife being called from Durban to attend it. Nyokana had shown decided interest in his study of the Doctrines, and the feeling among his fellow leaders is that he will be the means of introducing New Church truths to those of his race entering the spiritual world. Naturally, such sudden event was a shock to all the members of the Mission.

     New Church Day was duly celebrated at the several Mission Stations in Basutoland, Transvaal, Natal, Zululand and at Alpha.

     Visiting Durban for the 19th of June, the writer had the pleasure of meeting the Rev. and Mrs. P. H. Johnson, of Krugersdorp. Mr. Johnson is the successor to the Rev. E. J. Pulsford, as Chief Superintendent of the New Church Native Mission under the direction of the British Conference.

     Our conversations, therefore, centered upon the mission work and its problems; such conversations taking place, for the most part, at the hospitable home of Mr. and Mrs. R. Melville Ridgway. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson also met many of the Durban friends, and joined them in their celebration of New Church Day.

     To some of our readers-especially at Bryn Athyn-it may be of interest to note that the Rev. Jonas Motsi, since his return from America, has been stationed at his home at Quthing, South Basutoland.

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[Photograph of the Mission Group at Cundycleugh, Natal, Leader: Rev. J. M. Jiyana.]

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[Photograph of the Alpha Day School - Teachers and Scholars.]

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Unfortunately his work in that district has met with considerable opposition, with the result that, after repeated efforts, this Mission has not been able to receive a grant of land suitable for mission buildings. For the time being, therefore, Rev. Motsi will be called to Alpha to help in the work at this center.

     The Rev. John Jiyana-also known in Bryn Athyn-is persevering in Natal, not far from Ladysmith. The members there are building a church edifice, which should be ready for dedication during the early summer. News comes from Zululand that Mr. and Mrs. Fred C. Frazee are making good headway with the new Mission Station at Impapala, near Eshowe. Building operations are in progress for mission purposes. The Rev. Moffat Mcanyana, who is also stationed at Impapala, reports increase of membership, and states that they had a good
gathering of people for the celebration of New Church Day.

     Alpha Circle.

     As often as possible, Sunday morning services are held in the Chapel. On Thursday evenings, each of the four homes takes a turn in accommodating the doctrinal class, which is in the form of a reading circle. This year the work on the Earths in the Universe has been read, and a commencement made on the True Christian Religion. New Church Day was honored by the Circle on June 26th. Mr. and Mrs. Norman Ridgway were the host and hostess, the place of meeting being "The Homestead." After dinner, papers were read on the following subjects: "The 19th of June and the New Church," by Mr. Ed. J. Waters; "The 19th of June and the Earths in the Universe," by Mr. Norman Ridgway; and "The 19th of June as a Church Festival," by Mr. S. F. Parker.     

     Recent visitors to Alpha have been Mr. P. D. Ridgway from Durban, and Miss Violet McDowall of the Flodden Road, Camberwell, New Church Society, London. She has been visiting her brother at Newcastle, Natal.

     We shall await with pleasure the arrival of the Rev. and Mrs. E. C. Acton and Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Ridgway, who will be able to give us their impressions of the General Assembly.
     F. W. E.
          July 22, 1930.

     LOS ANGELES, CALIF.

     The Gabriel Society has had a very busy summer. As our Pastor was absent, we celebrated the 19th of June very simply by holding a picnic in one of our city parks. This also served as a farewell party for Mrs. Royal Davis and her family who have gone back to Trona to live. Miss Mary Evelyn is now in Bryn Athyn attending the Seminary, where we know she will be loved as she is here. We miss this family very much, as they have been faithful members of our little group.

     The Rev. F. E. Waelchli made us very happy by visiting us on his trip to the Coast. He conducted services three Sundays, and spent the intervening time visiting the different families in the vicinity. We always find his visits most inspiring and delightful. After the service on the last Sunday of his stay, we were invited to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Davis, where our "family" of twenty-five sat down to lunch, after which Mr. Waelchli gave us a short talk of encouragement, reminding us that it is not the greatness of numbers that makes the church, but the quality and strength of our love. We were happy to have with us on this occasion Miss Margaret Hansen and her brother, Mr. Carith Hansen, formerly of Spokane and now living at San Diego. We hope the distance will shorten with time and that they will find their way up here frequently.

     Although some of our members have found it necessary to leave Los Angeles, Providence has seen fit to send others. It gives us great pleasure to announce that Miss Laura Mathias and her brothers, Edward and Louis, of Glenview, are now living in Hollywood.

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We are looking forward to a lively and interesting winter, with this addition to our young folks. Mrs. Staddon, also of Glenview, visited us during her stay in Los Angeles, and we were very happy to make her acquaintance.

     The latest arrival is our Pastor's bride, Mrs. H. W. Beef, nee Virginia Glebe. She has walked right into our hearts, and we know she is going to bring new life and enthusiasm, not only into Mr. Beef's work, but also into ours. We held a reception for them on the first Sunday after their arrival. Mr. and Mrs. Fred Davis again did the honors as host and hostess at the luncheon given after church services. During the afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Beef were requested to investigate various parts of the house and grounds, where mysterious packages proved to be beautiful as well as useful things for use in their kitchen. About a week later there was a housewarming for their charming little Spanish home,-with a "shower" of groceries.

     The "biggest and best" of the smaller parties in their honor was a delightful dinner given by Mrs. Howland to fifteen of the regular church attendants. This was also in celebration of the fifty-third anniversary of Mrs. Howland's wedding. We all drove down to the Beach after church, and had a luscious chicken dinner, served in the beautiful Miramar Hotel Overlooking the sea. Later in the afternoon we visited the Bernheimer Japanese garden, which is one of the most interesting sights of California. We were satisfied we had had a big day.

     SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA.

     Sunday, July the 13th, was a glorious day. It had to be experienced to be appreciated, especially after the wettest June of any of this century, and of several of the last. But what caused it to be especially appreciated was its association with our celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Founder's Day, which was the 11th of July, 1905. Of the ten persons who met on that date, and founded a Society on the basis of the Writings as the Word of the Lord for His New Church, five only now remain in this world.

     The subject of the sermon was "The Growth of the Church." In the afternoon, the thirty-three children assembled enjoyed a respite from classes. Instead, they were addressed by Messrs. G. W. Guthrie, T. R. Taylor, Master Ossian Heldon and the Pastor, upon the general subject of the growth of the Church, treated in a manner suited to their state. The Pastor remarked that if, twenty-five years ago, he had had a vision of the young people now before him as the result from Founder's Day, he would have been amazed. During the year ending this July, we have had seventy-one children attending the Sunday School, with an average attendance of a little over thirty.

     Our celebration concluded with a social tea at six o'clock, when twenty-seven were present,-twelve adults and fifteen young people, nine of these being of ages ranging from fifteen to nineteen. Near the conclusion of the repast, the Pastor rose and gave a brief history of the movements of the Society from its commencement; also a brief explanation of the Church's theology, for the benefit of the parents of the children who do not belong to the Church, though not as many came as were expected. The Pastor then stated that he had an extraordinary
document, purporting to be a brief report of the 50th annual celebration of the Society, held on the 11th of July, 1955! Everyone then present was supposed to believe himself or herself to have suddenly become twenty-five years older. The effect produced by the reading of this report was remarkable, especially as none had had any inkling of its existence. Youths and maidens of seventeen or eighteen found themselves mature persons, having large family responsibilities. It was not surprising that, at the conclusion of the social, the report was eagerly seized by several youths and maidens who wanted to see what was actually said regarding their future prospects!

     But the reading of the report imparted quite a happy and hopeful tone to the social.

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Mr. Guthrie, in a happy speech, told the young people not to regard too lightly what had been said. "We do not know how far Providence is in such a forecast." He told of his own tortuous leadings before he came to Hurstville, where, he said, he had found the truth, and was at rest at last. And Mr. Taylor, who rarely speaks in public, quite astonished us. He told us his experience when, through the Sunday School effect upon his children, he came into the New Church. Mr. Kirschstein, who followed Mr. Guthrie, read a short and useful paper upon the development of the Church up to its stage when the Writings became truly understood as a Divine Revelation from God.

     A happy and useful celebration was then concluded with the benediction.
     RICHARD MORSE.

     STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN.

     During the past winter the social life within the congregation of the Stockholm Society has been somewhat more active than in recent years. On the last Thursday of each month the members have gathered together in the church hall to spend a pleasant evening in conversation, and to hear a lecture upon some subject of interest. As bur members seldom meet one another on week-days, these gatherings provide an opportunity to exchange thoughts and opinions in a pleasant, homelike atmosphere, and in this way we should grow more and more united, even though unconsciously.

     On December 28th, Vigor-our young people's club-arranged a Christmas Festival for the children, with the customary dances around the Christmas tree, and, of course, a Santa Claus who distributed presents among the children from his large bag. The great hall was filled with happy cries and laughter, nor were the grown-ups mere echoes, but they entered in with good cheer, and thus completed the harmony of perfect joy. The most beautiful part of the evening was the ring-dance around the Christmas tree, both old and young taking part with all their hearts-surely a sight to remember forever.

     After the serving of refreshments, and before the time of parting, some impressive tableaux were given with subjects from the Word.

     Swedenborg's Birthday was celebrated with a cozy party in the church hall. When all were seated around a great table upon which candles spread their soft and mellow light, "Our Glorious Church " was sung in unison, and then Pastor Baeckstrom and Dr. Boyesen spoke about what the Writings of the New Church are to us, both being listened to with close and interested attention. The Vigor Club then sang a few songs: "The Prayer of the Flowers," "What Right Your Thought," and "The Blessed Land." Miss Senta Centervall then spoke about the importance of our having a knowledge of a higher state of mind, as given to us through Swedenborg. The last speaker was Mr. Erik Sandstrom, who gave a brief sketch of Swedenborg's preparation for his great task. As this was the first time Mr. Sandstrom had addressed the congregation, we congratulate him upon his success.

     On May 2d the annual Spring Festival was given by Vigor, the evening being filled with signs of happy Spring feelings. The newly organized Vigor choir sang a number of carefully selected Spring songs, and the applause following each song expressed the general pleasure at the progress made by the choir under its leader, Miss T. Hakansson. The climax of the evening came with the play, entitled "Equals Sing the Same Songs," written by Miss Hedvig Swedenborg. It is a love story, and a very sweet one, but the "embarrassing moments" were carried off quite naturally by the actors, and the audience was more than generous with its applause-and smiles.

     Our Sunday services were discontinued in the middle of May, as Pastor and Mrs. Baeckstrom were leaving for America to attend the General Assembly. Now we are looking forward with eagerness to their return, and to the accounts of the Assembly and good old B. A. they will give us.
     T. E. L.

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     TORONTO, CANADA.

     How time does slip along! Here we are in mid-August, the Summer almost gone, and we find our usual place in the pages of the Life unoccupied since June, when our report covered society activities to the middle of May, and brought us near to what is known as "the close of the season's work," as far as holding meetings and social events in the church are concerned.

     Our Pastor has already given an account of the Silver Wedding Anniversary held on June 1st. (September issue, p. 607.) Shortly after this, on June 4th, the quarterly business meeting of the society was held. Ordinarily this would be our annual meeting, but the election of officers was postponed until the September meeting, as we are considering a suggestion to change the time of our annual meeting to September, to make it coincide with the beginning of seasonal activities, instead of their close. Owing to a full agenda, the usual prefatory address of the Pastor was dispensed with. Reports were received from the Pastor (covering society activities generally, including the Sunday School), the Day School teacher, Treasurer, Ladies Circle, Forward Club, et al., and these showed that our society uses had been well maintained, and progress made along customary and well-established lines. The Pastor appointed a committee of three to act with him as a general committee to arrange for the Eighteenth Ontario District Assembly to be held in Toronto from November 7th to 10th, inclusive.

     Day School Closing Exercises, on the evening of June 10th, were the next event of importance. After the opening worship, the children went through a program of songs, recitations, readings, duets, essays, etc., with something for each pupil, within the scope of his talents,-all of a nature calculated to leave good impressions on the mind, and rendered with that spirit of innocent vivacity which is a distinctive and characteristic feature of all such programs in our church. Then followed two little plays: (1) "In Arcady," (2) selected scenes from "The Little Princess"; both of which were splendidly acted by the children, reflecting good work on their part and admirable training by their teachers. In fact, the entire program was most excellent, both as to the choice and the execution of its numbers. And the Pastor, Miss Dora Brown and Mrs. Frank R. Longstaff are to be congratulated upon the results achieved.

     As a large part of our membership attended the General Assembly in Bryn Athyn, the celebration of New Church Day was held here on the evening of June 24th, when a report of the General Assembly was given in the meeting-hall of the church, prettily decorated with flowers and plants for the occasion. The method followed was that of recounting the Assembly proceedings day by day, which was done by "reporters," each of whom had been assigned the responsibility of reviewing one day of the Assembly program. Thus a very full account was given, with variety of viewpoint and expression. Refreshments were served, appropriate toads were honored, and a useful and happy time enjoyed by all who were present.

     For the more particular benefit of the children, a Nineteenth of June Picnic was held in High Park on Friday, June 27th, when games and races were indulged in, and our Pastor gave a talk to the children on the significance and importance of New Church Day.

     Two of the oldest members of the Olivet Church have recently passed from among us into the spiritual world.

     Dr. Henry Becker, very busy with a large practice, was, until the last few years of his life, very regular in his attendance at church functions, particularly at Sunday worship. On the rare occasions when we could get him to contribute to a social program, or more frequently to a discussion, he always commanded close attention, and often would convulse his hearers with his dry, humorous sallies, whim he could put across without the quiver of an eyelash.

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He was ever desirous that the uses pertaining to worship be adequately sustained; indeed, it was axiomatic with him that the priestly office should not lack for support. He served for many years on the Pastor's Council and the Finance Board, and as one of the three Trustees of the Society. We shall greatly miss his presence among us.

     The Rev. J. E. Bowers was one of those rare personalities who are universally known in the organizations to which they belong. So was he known throughout the General Church, and indeed, wherever New Churchmen gather. We, in Toronto, knew him when he was home from his missionary travels, and it was always a pleasure to have a visit from him in our homes, and to hear him recount his experiences in spreading the evangel of the New Church on his many journeys. Our Pastor, in his funeral address, spoke with simple directness about our meeting with friends in the other life, and it made a profound impression upon all who were privileged to hear it, as also did his touching reference to the "crossing" which Mr. Bowers had just made. Mr. Bowers will be long and affectionately remembered by his widely scattered parishioners, and by all who knew him; for to know him was to esteem and respect his zeal and devotion to his high calling.

     There was a large attendance of the members of the Society at the funerals of both of these friends.
     F. W.

     GENERAL CONVENTION.

     The 109th Annual Session of the General Convention was held at Boston, Mass., June 21-24, 1930, the Council of Ministers meeting June 17-19 at Cambridge. From the report of the proceedings published in The New-Church Messenger, July 9-August 13, we gather the following items of special interest to our readers:

     The Council of Ministers welcomed as visitors from abroad the Rev. Albert E. Edge, representative of the General Conference in Great Britain, and the Rev. Adolph L. Goerwitz of Zurich, Switzerland; the former delivering "A Message from Great Britain," and the latter an address on "Ancient Myths and the Incarnation."

     For the Committee on the Translation of Conjugial Love, the Rev. William F. Wunsch reported that the translation had been completed and was ready to be typed. The Rev. Louis G. Hoeck would pass on the translation.

     The Rev. H. Clinton Hay, for the Committee on an Annotated Edition of Conjugial Love, reported that the matter was being kept before the publishers, but that until a new edition was to be printed nothing further could be done.

     The Rev. William L. Worcester, reporting for the Committee on the Photographic Reproduction of the Arcana, spoke of the proposal of the Swedenborg Society of London to issue a new Latin edition of the Arcana. The committee suggested that it be done by photographing the first Latin edition, with necessary emendations as footnotes. The Rev. Louis Rich thought it would be better to make a completely new reprint, on account of the archaic type forms used in the original edition, but the proposal of the committee was adopted.

     A paper on "How the Lord Revealed Himself to Swedenborg" was read to the Council by the Rev. William H. Beales, in which he took firm ground upon the Writings as a Divine Revelation. "A knowledge of the Writings of Swedenborg is absolutely essential for anyone who would understand the spiritual sense of the Word and the Doctrines of the New Church. This may seem narrow and bigoted, but I do not think it is. To me it is just a statement of fact.... For the Church, weak and human though it may be, does acknowledge these Writings, and it does worship the Lord Jesus Christ in the light of that revelation. Let us love it, serve it, and be loyal to it, to the utmost of our strength, for it is from God and of God."

     There were also papers on "Morals for New Churchmen," by the Rev. Paul Dresser, and "A Great Flood of Modern Biographies," by the Rev. John W. Stockwell, the latter indulging in a striking prophecy of the year 2930, when "The True Christian Religion had long since prevailed over all the earth," and the digging up of Harvard University Library," buried for centuries," brought astonishing things of the present age to light, and especially the false views of the many present-day "Biographies of Christ."

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     The Council considered the question of the desirability of finding a place for a reading from the Writings in the order of service of the Book of Worship. With one exception, the members of the committee on the Book of Worship believed that this was not advisable, lest the doctrinal exposition of the Word be confused with the Word itself. The discussion of the subject revealed the fact that some ministers of the Convention follow the practice of reading a lesson from the Writings in the Sunday service, others read a brief extract from the Writings just before the sermon, while others do not favor the practice. The Rev. Adolf Goerwitz said that "up to ten years ago he had felt as the members of the committee did. He recognized the danger of confusion, but thought it could be avoided. The basis for the use of such readings he found in the fourth law of Divine Providence, which states that man is led by the Lord by means of the Word, doctrine, and preaching. In the form of service which he has used, the reading is marked off from the lessons from the Word by the statement, 'Here endeth the reading from the Word,' by music, and by the use of the introductory phrase, 'From doctrine-' His experience had been that such reading served to bring the members of the Church into first-hand contact with the Doctrines, and that by making plain to strangers the basis for the teaching which they heard, it heightened their interest. He felt that the adoption of the practice would lead to the strengthening of the Church."

     According to the Report of the Committee on the Study and Translation of the Word, the historical books are nearly finished, and the Rev. John Whitehead has made the preliminary translation to the end of Malachi. This, we believe, refers to the New Church Version sponsored by Mr. Marchant.

     At the closing session of the Council on the 19th of June, the Rev. John Whitehead gave a brief address on the significance of the day, and urged an annual observance to celebrate the beginning of the New Church. Later on, at luncheon, attention was called to the fact that this day was the fiftieth anniversary of Mr. Whitehead's ordination into the ministry of the New Church, and he was greeted with much applause and congratulation.

     The Convention proper began its sessions on June 21st, and the addresses delivered at intervals in the proceedings dealt with various phases of the subject of "Pentecost,"-the anniversary of which is being observed this year in the Christian Churches. Thus the Rev. Paul Sperry, in his Address as President of the Convention, treated of "A New Dynamic Power," and noted that "the newly given revelation of the purposes and ways of the Risen Lord bids us expect a new descent of the Holy Spirit from the Divine Person of the Lord Jesus Christ for the beginning of a New Church in the world, but again with full power only after a tarrying in Jerusalem. The doctrinal things for the New Age are grasped with comparative ease and readiness, but the Holy Spirit must possess the hearts of men before its power is in full operation."

     Among the other addresses was one on "Education for Receiving Power" by the Rev. Franklin H. Blackmer, President of Urbana University, and one on " Ideals in New-Church Thinking and Teaching," by the Rev. William F. Wunsch, who spoke also in self-defense, answering criticisms of his teaching in the Theological School,-a matter which reached an acute stage during the past year, involving an issue upon which we comment editorially in the present number.

     Under the same general theme, the Rev. Albert E. Edge spoke on "Unsuspected Nourishment," treating of the Lord's words, "I have meat to eat that ye know not of," and the Rev. Everett K. Bray spoke on "A Human Need-Power From Above.

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"Missionary Power" was the burden of several papers at the usual session under the auspices of the Board of Home and Foreign Missions. Lastly, the Rev. Andre Diaconoff gave an address on "Power Through Humility, Prayer, and Worship." In the Messenger account, the above Addresses are interspersed with a very full report of the business of Convention, and we note that the Officers elected for the ensuing year were: President, Rev. Paul Sperry, Vice President, Ezra Hyde Alden; Recording Secretary, B. A. Whittemore; Assistant Secretary; J. Woodruff Saul; Treasurer, Albert P. Carter; Editor of The New-Church Messenger, Rev. E. M. L. Gould. The experiment of issuing one enlarged number of the Messenger each month, containing some articles by non-New Church writers, is to be continued for another six months.
     W. B. C.

     COLCHESTER ENGLAND.

     The wedding of two of our members, Mr. Harold S. Wyncoll and Miss Eunice Motum, was celebrated at Michael Church, Burton Road, London, on March 29, 1930. The ceremony was performed by our Pastor, the Rev. Victor J. Gladish. Bishop Tilson, Pastor of Michael Church, also took part in the service. The chancel was tastefully decorated with flowers. The bride wore a gown of ivory velvet, medieval style, and carried a sheaf of lilies. She was attended by her sister, Miss Lois Motum, who was dressed in scarlet velvet. Mr. Wilfred Pike was best man. The service opened with the singing of "Great and Wonderful," and closed with Hymn 134. Later in the afternoon, members of the family and friends gathered in nearby Longfield Hall for the reception, after which the happy couple left for Torquay on their honeymoon.

     The uses and functions of the Colchester Society have been full and varied during recent months. Our Pastor is taking the True Christian Religion as textbook for the Wednesday evening doctrinal classes. He has also held weekly classes for the religious instruction of the younger boys. The Young People's Class, held fortnightly at various homes, has completed its study of the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, and when its sessions are resumed in September will take up Bishop de Charms' lectures on the "Growth of the Mind." The Reading Circle, which meets at the home of Mrs. Rey Gill every Tuesday evening under the chairmanship of Mr. Horace Howard, is reading The Word Explained.

     One new function which has been inaugurated, and which promises to flourish, is the meeting of the Colchester group of the British Chapter of the Sons of the Academy. Those interested in the Sons banded themselves together last October, and since then have held meetings regularly once a month. Papers of varying character are read, usually bearing upon the uses and applications of New Church Education, and are then discussed under the soothing influence of refreshments. These gatherings have been most stimulating and instructive to all who have been fortunate enough to attend.

     During the last week of July a social was arranged as a welcome to our Pastor and Mrs. Gladish on their return from the General Assembly. During the evening they both gave us a very good description of the Assembly and their reaction to being once more in their own country.
     J. F. C.

     PITTSBURGH, PA.

     During the Summer there have been few society activities besides those of the building committee. The interior and exterior of the buildings are now receiving their finishing touches, while the grounds are being graded and planted, and the roads and sidewalks put in. These things take time, but the prospect is that all will be in readiness for the dedication on September 28th.

     The Rev. F. E. Iungerich and family visited the Ohio group over the auto, they first stopped at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Harrold in Leetonia, then called upon Miss Pearl Renkenberger in Columbiana, and went from there to the Williamson's Niles, where a doctrinal class was held on the subject of "Heredity."

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They then drove to Youngstown, and were entertained overnight at the home of Mrs. McElroy, where a service was held on Sunday morning, thirteen being present. Mr. and Mrs. Williamson and Mrs. Stevens came from Niles, and Mrs. Harrold from Leetonia.

     From August 16th to 25th the pastor and his family went on another auto trip. The first stop was at Shadeland, near Conneaut Lake, where they visited the De Maine family and a doctrinal class was held. At Erie, Pa., their next stop, a doctrinal class and Sunday service were held, the Holy Supper being administered to eight communicants. From Erie they went to Toronto, and there spent two days with the Rev. and Mrs. F. E. Gyllenhaal. One evening Mr. Junge rich addressed the local chapter of the Sons of the Academy on the subject of "Government."

     Two days were spent in Kitchener, and Mr. Iungerich gave three addresses on the subject of "Conjugial Love," one to the men, one to the women, and one to the congregation. An additional talk was given on problems arising from the construction of the church in Pittsburgh, in order to illustrate similar problems now engaging the attention of the members of Carmel Church.

     On the return journey they stopped at Niagara Falls, N. Y., and were entertained at luncheon by Mrs. Walter D. Uptergraff and her daughter, Mrs. J. Sheers. A night was spent at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Lyman S. Loomis in East Aurora, N. Y., and Mr. Francis Meisel, of Buffalo, was also present. Three days were spent in Renovo, Pa., at the home of Mr. and Mrs. J. K. Kendig. A Sunday service was held, and the Holy Supper administered to seven communicants.

     Over the Labor Day weekend, the pastor and his family, with Mr. and Mrs. S. E. Walker and son John, Miss Mary Ritchey, motored to Johnstown, Pa., where they were entertained by Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Kintner. A doctrinal class and Sunday service were held. Mr. and Mrs. J. Richard Kintner, of Cincinnati, were also present on this occasion.

     Sunday services of the Pittsburgh Society were resumed on September 7th in the Auditorium of the Community Building, and the Day School opened on the 8th in the new school rooms. During the Summer, Mr. Iungerich compiled a Latin grammar in ten lessons for seventh grade pupils. It is based upon the first four chapters of Matthew, and four copies have been typed by Miss Nadezhda Iungerich.

     During the Summer we have been favored with a number of guests: Mr. Oscar Mattson, of Sharon Church, Chicago, en route to Sweden; Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph Potts, of Toronto; Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. Smith, of Bryn Athyn; Mrs. Foster Krake, nee Helen Colley; Mr. and Mrs. Otho W. Heilman and family; the Misses Phebe and Margaret Bostock, with Francis Schaill and Yvonne Bostock; Messrs. Theodore H. Doering, Philip G. Cooper, and Kenneth Simons, of Bryn Athyn. Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Blair and family have moved into their new home on Graymore Road. Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert M. Smith are being congratulated upon the birth of their second daughter, on September 1st.

     Death of Dr. Grubb.

     Our deep sympathy is with Mrs. Grubb since the passing to the spiritual world of her husband, Dr. William L. Grubb, on August 16th. The Rev. Homer Synnestvedt conducted the funeral service at their home on Ross Ave., Wilkinsburg, on Monday, August 18th, and delivered an address which made all present, whether of the New Church or the Old, realize the nearness and beauty of the higher world to which our friend had been called. Mr. Synnestvedt speaks of Dr. and Mrs. Grubb as notable examples of the zeal and appreciation of those who come to the New Church after a long search for Truth, following a discarding of the outgrown dogmas of the Old Church.

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Dr Grubb was born in Tennessee, and brought up in a strict Baptist environment. Some years ago, while investigating Rosicrucian Masonry, he met a minister of the General Convention who told him about correspondences, and attended his church a few times. On hearing of our society nearer his home, he began to attend, and when introduced to our philosophy became our leading student. But it was as a Religion, as the veritable Second Coming of the Lord Himself, that Dr. and Mrs. Grubb finally accepted the Faith of the New Church; and from that time they were never missing from their places at worship or their share in the uses of the society.
     E. R. D.

     A VISIT TO MONTREAL.

     Recently I had occasion to visit the city of Montreal, and while there, from August 28th to September 2d, I called upon the New Church people known to me. Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Timmins (Gretchen Bedrer, of Toronto) were my host and hostess throughout the visit, and we had several long talks about the doctrines and history of the New Church. They have two boys, aged 4 1/2 and one year. On the Sunday morning of my stay a simple service was held in their home, which was attended by Dr. and Mrs. C. R. Pendleton and their daughter Sally, of Bryn Athyn.

     I had several visits with Mr. and Mrs. Felil du Quesne, members of Olivet Church, Toronto, who have now removed to Montreal, where Mr. du Quesne is manager of the Brunswick Radio Company's local office. I also visited Mr. E. W. R. Izzard, brother of Mr. Percy Izzard, of Olivet Church, and spent a pleasant evening in his home with his family of four children, three girls and a boy, from two to twelve years of age. Mr. Robert Dykes was the only other New Churchman whom I met. He is from Scotland, and a member of one of the Glasgow Societies. He is also connected by marriage with members of Olivet Church, his brother George having married Miss Ethel Somerville.

     Mr. Dykes told me about the New Church Society which formerly existed in Montreal, under the Rev. Edwin Gould, and I saw the building that was occupied by it, now used for industrial purposes. The Montreal Star, one day in August, noted that the Rev. Edwin Could preached in that church in the year 1880. The same newspaper, in other issues during August, contained two letters on Swedenborg and the New Church, signed by "L. Eric Wethey." So perhaps there are New Churchmen in the city besides those I met. But seven adults and six children are a nucleus around which a strong circle might be built, and I am hopeful of a third General Church society in Canada, in beautiful and cosmopolitan Montreal.
     F. E. GYLLENHAAL

     MRS. ANNIE M. C. JORDAN.

     An Obituary.

     In the passing of Mrs. Jordan, beloved wife of the Rev. L. G. Jordan, at Oakland, Calif., on August 8th, one well remembered by friends in the Academy circle at Philadelphia forty years ago has gone to the higher world. An address prepared by her husband was read by the Rev. Othmar Tobisch, of the Lyon Street Society, San Francisco, who conducted the Memorial Service on August 11th.

     Annie Maria Chapman Jordan was born in Portland, Maine, January 24, 1845. Her father was the Hen. Benjamin Kingsbury, Jr., in early years a Methodist minister, afterwards editor of the Detroit Free Press and of the Portland Argus, Municipal Judge for several years and thrice elected Mayor of Portland. Her mother was Susan H. (Burnham) Kingsbury of Boston, Mass. Both parents embraced the teachings of the New Church while Mrs. Jordan was a very young child, and they brought her up in the New Church.

     On November 3, 1868, she married the Rev. Leonard G. Jordan, with whom she had been brought up in Sunday School, and they have lived happily together for nearly sixty-two years.

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Mr. Jordan was at one time actively engaged in the work of the ministry, in connection with the Academy and the Advent Church at Philadelphia, but has resided in California for many years. Of their six children, Mrs. Emily K. Good, of Philadelphia, is the only one now residing in the East. Mrs. Jordan was of a remarkably sweet and gentle disposition, and of a most unselfish character. She was ardently devoted to the New Church, and never allowed a day to pass without reading from the Word and the Writings.

     GLENVIEW, ILL.

     These September notes find a hint of Fall around us, and plans going forward for renewed activities in church and school, the latter opening with a slightly increased attendance in all grades from kindergarten to ninth, with the exception of fourth and seventh grades.

     Sunday services were continued throughout the Summer, except for two Sundays When all our ministers were attending the General Assembly. The way the attendance has kept up, even on the hottest days, again showed the desire of our people for the opportunity to attend public worship at this season of the year.

     We have had two weddings, with the attendant "showers" and festivities,-those of Mr. Theodore G. Coffin to Miss Claire M. Barnitz, and Mr. Arthur Wiedinger to Miss Sarah Galbraith. Both couples will reside in The Park.

     The Sons of the Academy members have held three interesting meetings, at the first of which Mr. Sydney E. Lee read a paper on ways of improving methods of procuring funds for the Sons' uses, pointing out that some worthy students might be denied the opportunity to attend the Academy Schools for lack of funds. He suggested a quota system as a possible way of meeting this situation. At the second meeting a paper on "Academy Finances," by Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, was read, and a very fruitful discussion on the general subject of church finances ensued. The third meeting was a special one called for the purpose of hearing a talk by Dr. C. R. Pendleton, who, with Mrs. Pendleton and their daughter, stopped in Glenview on a summer tour. He spoke on problems connected with sending boys and girls to the Academy, dealing with the subject from the school's side of the fence, and hoping that the other side would be brought out in the discussion. As a result of the open and frank presentation and discussion, much light was thrown upon some of these problems, and an intense desire to give dose co-operation was expressed.

     Our little lake has been the source of continual enjoyment during this unusually hot Summer, particularly to the little ones. The new beach is renewed by a constant flow of fresh water from the Glenview mains. A water carnival was engaged in by children of all ages, from the smallest toddlers just able to splash to the Young brownies up to fifteen years of age-veritable seals in skill and color. Prizes of balloons and candy were striven for, and the afternoon was made happy for both participants and spectators. Next day, the grownups had their chance, and a splashing afternoon was topped off by a cafeteria supper, after which there was the singing of Church and Academy songs around a bonfire.

     The National Air Races, held for ten days at the Air Port adjoining The Park, held the interested attention of us all. The event brought us several visitors from the East, notably Mr. and Mrs. Harold F. Pitcairn, Mr. and Mrs. Geoffrey S. Childs, and Mr. Raymond Synnestvedt. Other recent visitors were: Mr. Kendig, of Pittsburgh; Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Synnestvedt, Mrs. Price Coffin, Mrs. Spangler Miss Elizabeth Meisel, the Misses Phebe and Margaret Bostock, Francis Schaill and Yvonne Bostock,-all of Bryn Athyn.
     J. B. S.

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     BRYN ATHYN.

     As in previous years, Missionary Services were held in the Cathedral on five Sunday afternoons during August, the attendance being 58, 112, 110, 154, and 104, a total of 538 or an average of 107, including a good proportion of strangers. The services were conducted by the Rev. Karl R. Alden, who delivered a series of addresses on the following subjects: "Swedenborg," "God the Creator," "The Lord the Redeemer," "The Holy Spirit the Regenerator," "The New Jerusalem."

     Elementary School.

     In our last report we mentioned that an epidemic of sickness necessitated the abandonment of the closing exercises of the elementary school in June. In consequence of this, the graduation of the eighth grade pupils into the secondary schools was made a leading feature of the opening service on Tuesday, September 9th. This service was held in the new Assembly Hall, and was attended by a large number of parents and friends of the children. Bishop Pendleton conducted the service; the Lesson from the Word, Psalm 33, was read by the Right Rev. George de Charms; and the address was given by Mr. Leonard E. Gyllenhaal, who spoke particularly to the eighth grade, as it was their graduation day, telling them of the new experience and life they were about to enter, of the purpose of the school to prepare them for a life of happiness, and heartily wishing them success during the four years of high-school study now beginning.

     After the address, the graduating class, consisting of eleven girls and two boys, came forward, and Bishop Pendleton presented to each a certificate showing the completion of the work of the elementary school. As a farewell token, the class then gave the school a volume of the Potts Concordance, with the idea that the school may eventually own a complete set of the work. Guy Alden made an appropriate little speech on behalf of the class.

     Besides several hymns, the Hebrew anthem, "Sha'aloo Shalom," was sung in the service. The class-work of the school began on Thursday morning with an enrollment of 170.

     The Academy Schools.

     The opening service for the upper schools was held on Wednesday, September 10th, at 10.30 a.m., in the Chapel of Benade Hall. At this service also a number of visitors were present, so that, with the student body and the Faculty, every seat was taken and some had to stand.

     The President of the Academy, Bishop Pendleton, conducted the service; Vice President de Charms read a selection from the Doctrine of Charity; and Dean Doering read the Scripture Lessons,-a part of Psalm 119, and a part of Matthew 23. The Ten Commandments were recited, and among the songs were the Hebrew anthem, "Se'oo She'arim," and Psalm 48 from the Psalmody.

     The speaker of the day was Professor Camille Vinet, whose solid thought, quaint humor and attractive manner struck home to his hearers, and won an outburst of enthusiastic applause. He spoke of happiness and work,-that we all try to be happy, and therefore pursue pleasures; that we come to school to learn how to be happy, and that we learn eventually that the greatest happiness is experienced in our work. The address is published in the September number of the Sons of the Academy Bulletin.

     This year there are three students in the Theological School, two in their second year and one in his first. The College enrolls twenty women and twelve men, making a total of thirty-two in this department. The Boys' Academy numbers thirty-three students, and the Girls' Seminary forty-five. Total enrollment in all the Schools: 283.

     The President's Reception was held on Friday evening, September 12th, in the Assembly Hall. It was a gay and colorful event, and besides affording an opportunity to welcome the newcomers among the students, it was a happy reunion of the many who had not seen one another all summer.
     L. W. T. D.

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     SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA.

     It is early morning, August the 21st. The sun has not yet risen, but the sky presents a scene of indescribable grandeur. Orion and the Pleiades are in the middle distance, with the Moon, a slender crescent, lying low in the East. It is a continuation of the glorious weather that greeted Miss Annie Taylor and Miss Mora White on their return from America on Friday morning, August the 15th. Anyone who has entered Sydney Heads in the early morning of a perfect day, and, as the ship slowly winds its course toward the city, has looked upon the ever varying beauty of what is perhaps the most beautiful harbor in the world, will realize to some degree the sensations experienced by the two travelers at their home-coming.

     It was late last night when a memorable assembly which had given them welcome dispersed after joining heartily in the chorus, "I'll do this thing in a New Church way," following the solo reading by Miss White, at whose suggestion it was introduced. It is remarkable that this stimulating song, together with other welcome music, had come to hand only that morning. We herewith record our gratitude.

     The gathering took the form of a "dress-up" or costume party, and many identities were hidden in queer and also beautiful characters. Between eighty and ninety were present, including the parents of the Sunday School children, whose attendance averages over thirty each Sunday. The occasion was a suitable opportunity to mention the day school that will be started at Hurstville when Miss White returns from a visit to her people in South Australia. During the evening, Miss Taylor spoke of the happy and profitable time she had spent in Bryn Athyn and other centers of the General Church in America; and Miss White gave a brief and interesting account of her two years' residence in Bryn Athyn, and also of her travels to and from that center of sound learning. Mr. Guthrie spoke on behalf of the proposed school, commending it to the earnest consideration of the parents. Such a school, he said, would be a preparation, not merely for this short earth-life, but especially for eternal life in another world,-a world for which this life is but preparatory. The Doctrines of the New Church, he said, teach a life according to the Ten Commandments.

     Our lady travelers were able to report that, during their voyage from Vancouver, the sea was as smooth as a millpond. The ports at which the steamer Aorangi stopped were Victoria, B. C., Honolulu, Suva and Auckland, New Zealand. They arrived at Auckland at eight o'clock on Sunday evening, August 10th, and were met by the Rev. R. J. Strong, who motored them to a gathering of friends waiting at the church, who gave them a most cordial welcome. They remained as the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Strong until the Aorangi sailed for Sydney at 10 p.m. the following day. In the meantime they were taken to various places of interest, and feel very grateful for the kindness shown them.

     This brief report will go by the Aorangi on its return voyage to Vancouver; and as the mail closes early this morning, many items of news must be postponed for another occasion. But sufficient has been written to assure all the kind friends in Bryn Athyn, Glenview and other places that their visitors have reached home safely and were warmly welcomed.
     R. M.

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     [Photos of HOME AND MR. AND RMS. F. C. FRAZEE, NEAR ESHOWE, ZULULAND AND CHURCH AT LUKAS' VILLAGE, BASUTOLAND.]

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ORPHANAGE APPEAL 1930

ORPHANAGE APPEAL       WALTER C. CHILDS       1930




     Announcements.




     TO THE MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL CHURCH:

Dear Friends:
     This is to advise you that two applications for assistance from the Orphanage Fund have been received. Both of these cases are most worthy, being widows, members of the General Church, each of whom has a family of young children. The Orphanage Fund cannot give help without increased contributions.

     Will you not assist by sending a check, and by becoming a regular contributor to the Orphanage Fund?
     Fraternally yours,
          WALTER C. CHILDS,
               Treasurer.
Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa.
ONTARIO DISTRICT ASSEMBLY 1930

ONTARIO DISTRICT ASSEMBLY       ALAN GILL       1930

     The Eighteenth Ontario District Assembly will be held at the Olivet Church, 35 Elm Grove Avenue, Toronto, Canada, November 7th to 10th, 1930. All members and friends of the General Church are cordially invited to attend.
     ALAN GILL,
          Secretary.

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WHY WE SHOULD BE JOYFUL AND HAPPY 1930

WHY WE SHOULD BE JOYFUL AND HAPPY       Rev. F. E. GYLLENHAAL       1930


NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. L          NOVEMBER, 1930          No. 11
     "For the Lord shall comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." (Isaiah 51:3.)

     The internal sense of the chapter from which our text is taken treats of the Lord's work of redemption and salvation, by which, when a church or dispensation has declined to the state of being no longer the Lord's kingdom on earth, He establishes a new church or dispensation. To do this, it is always necessary that the hells should first be overcome and subjugated; and the internal sense of the 51st chapter of Isaiah describes the Lord's victory over the hells. After such a victory, the Lord forms in the spiritual world a new heaven, from which there may descend upon earth a new church. This also is a subject of the internal sense of the chapter. And as the practices and experiences of the former church contain many lessons and warnings invaluable to all who are to be of the new church, they are explained particularly as to their destructive agencies.

     At the same time, but in more detail, the internal sense of the chapter reveals that the worshippers of God look to the Lord from whom, and to the church through which, come reformation and regeneration; that the Lord will fill them with intelligence, and will make them happy; that from Him is all good and truth, and that nothing is eternal except that which is from Him; that those who love good look to Him, and do not fear the oppositions of men; that the Lord has power to remove the hells, and therefore His followers do not fear the evils arising from the hells, nor infestations by them; and, finally, that the Lord will lead His followers safely out of the midst of evils, however much the hells may resist.

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     Thus the internal sense of the chapter, both as to its general and particular doctrine assures us of the Lord's omnipotence to redeem and save, and of His mercy in bestowing blessings upon all who follow Him. It sounds a triumphant note throughout. It establishes confidence in the Lord and the church. It should encourage us in our work, and give assurance as to the growth of the church among men. It should make us rejoice in the promise of its message.

     This hopeful spirit of the internal sense is happily expressed in the corresponding literal sense. What good cheer comes by such sentences as: "The Lord shall comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden; and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." "Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but my righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation from generation to generation." "The redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head; they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away."

     The Old Testament tells much about the hardships and woes of the Israelites and Jews, but also tells much about their pleasures and joys. Life was not always difficult and miserable with them, even though they were not a spiritual-minded people. And what is written as history and prophecy about them applies spiritually to us, and is full of promised blessings for men, now and forever.

     We are apt to allow ourselves easily to be depressed, and thus made miserable, not only when we examine ourselves, and fearlessly and honestly note our own states, but also when we think about the states of others, and note the tendency of affairs in the world and the state of the world.

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Often the result is, that the true Christian religion, derived from the Heavenly Doctrine which the Lord has revealed, seems to offer us no comfort, still less any joy and gladness, and life seems worthless and futile. While we are in such states, no arguments opposed to our melancholy thoughts make any appeal to us. We cry for sympathy, yet often refuse what is offered as sympathy or in sympathy.

     It is a problem difficult of solution to know what sympathy should be offered to such sufferers. They cannot always be treated as parents rightly treat children in like circumstances or states. It is a problem for the sufferers to solve in their cheerful states, as well as for their friends to solve. The same charity that requires us to help them requires them not to nurse their states of depression, nor to inflict them upon others.

     Yet there should not be any difficulty in knowing and perceiving that every Divine Revelation has been a message of joy and gladness, not only because it has been an omnipotent means of raising every man out of hell and into heaven, but also because it has brought heavenly goods and truths down to earth, and with them the joyful and glad spheres of the angels. The New Testament is called the "Gospel," which means the good or glad tidings, and its message surely is one to make every man rejoice, and to show every man the way to eternal happiness. Why has it not driven depression, melancholy, sorrow and mourning off the earth? Because men have not received it and believed it.

     The Word of the Lord's Second Advent comes with a message more full and plain than that of any previous revelation. It is filled with Divine consolation and assurance, and is overflowing with rational explanations such as are best adapted to satisfy and delight the human mind, carrying down to men in their lowest states the Lord's love for them and His ceaseless yearning for their salvation, omnipotent to save them, and to bear them in its stream to heaven. Why, then, has it not banished all evil and sorrow from our midst? Because we have not fully received it, and do not unequivocally believe it.

     It is true, however, that the most unconditional belief in the Word of the Lord will not take away all temptations from us; and at least some of our states of depression are infestations and temptations.

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Other states of depression are the results of worldly circumstances, or of physical ill-condition and of the lack of fresh air and exercise. Spiritual temptations reduce us to despair. But it is probable that many of our states of depression are at the most only infestations owing to the presence of spirits whom we do not, and even will not, drive away. We are miserable in our depression, and seemingly our will is paralyzed, so that we cannot drive away the infesting spirits; that Is, we cannot make the effort to do what is necessary to remove them. We cannot read the Word, which is as distasteful to us in that state as was the manna at times to the Israelites. It is then that a friend can help, by lending the strength of his will and leading the sufferer into other and especially into cheerful states. And sometimes an efficacious way of changing the state is to bring about a storm, that is, to excite the sufferer to the limit of his self-control, after which the evil spirits can be removed.

     The point is, however, that all states of depression, melancholy, unrest, discontent, self-pity and anxiety come from evil spirits, and through them from hell. This is true even of those states which seem to be caused entirely by our physical condition. Ill health, especially fever, is an ultimate into which evil spirits easily flow. One who is in any of those states may be sure that evil spirits are ruling him. But the evil spirits are able to be present with a man only when his ruling love is in agreement with their loves. Therefore it is possible for us to know, by an examination of the quality of our loves, what class of spirits are with us. If we are discontented with our lot, and accordingly are miserable and depressed, we have discontented spirits with us. If we are anxious for the future, we have anxious and solicitous spirits with us. If we are covetous, jealous, envious or vengeful, we have covetous, jealous, envious or vengeful spirits with us.

     Now the mere thought about such states and their corresponding spirits is not sufficient to remove them. It is always love that acts by truth; therefore the affection of shunning evils as sins against the neighbor and the Lord, and the truth from the Word relative to the Lord's mercy and omnipotence, or some other correspondent good affection and principal truth, are necessary to remove the evil spirits. They will not go away of themselves. We or our friends have to make the first move to drive them away, and we ourselves have to remove them finally as of ourselves, although it is actually the angels who drive them away.

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     We who are in the New Church should be joyful and happy above all people in the world, because of the spiritual treasures in our keeping. The knowledge that all joy and gladness, and accordingly all eternal happiness, comes from the Lord through the heavens should so encourage and assure us that we, above all other men and women, should experience states of joy and gladness. The knowledge of spiritual temptations, their quality and purpose and outcome, should be a source of strength to us in every state of infestation and temptation. The knowledge of the consolations that follow infestations and temptations should encourage us to resist all evil fearlessly and unyieldingly. The knowledge of the spiritual world and the life after death should take away from us many of the fears which make at least some people miserable, and so should enable us to enjoy contentment with our lot here, as well as peace of mind and assurance of heavenly happiness after death, if only we have renounced all evil and falsity, all the evil progeny of the loves of self and the world. The knowledge of conjugial love and the eternity of marriage should be a means of attaining a state of joy and happiness unspeakable, even during this life. The knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as the one God of heaven and earth, visible, knowable, personal Heavenly Father,-should give us a confidence in Him, in His omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence, like that of little children in their parents. In short, all the knowledges which have now been revealed by the Lord, and which are adequate to give an understanding of all things within the range of the human mind, are means by which we can so live as to receive the ineffable joy and happiness of the angels.

     We shall be disappointed, however, if we imagine heavenly joy and happiness to be the same as that pleasure of the world and of self which delights the unregenerate. That pleasure is indeed for our enjoyment; but it is to be regarded as external and temporary, for the relaxation and recreation of a material body and a natural mind; it is to be controlled, temperate, and a means to higher ends; and it is to be gradually laid aside, in order that something of heavenly joy and happiness may be experienced.

     But how many are willing to give up worldly pleasures?

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How many, even among elderly people in the New Church, experience heavenly joy and happiness? If not, why not? No one can make himself spiritually joyful and happy. Joy and happiness are gifts from the Lord. They are real states, made by an influx of something from the Lord out of heaven. And the Lord has revealed the secret way in which one is to dispose himself to receive that influx. The secret is to shun evils as sins against the neighbor and the Lord, and to do uses for the sake of the neighbor and from the Lord.

     Let us think of these facts. Let us remember how full of good cheer the Word of the Lord is. Let us note the infinite blessings He has bestowed upon mankind, as evidenced in the kingdoms of nature alone, and how inexhaustible they are. Could we ask any greater assurance of His spiritual mercies and blessings, which shall make us joyful and glad, not only in this world, but also forever in the life to come? Yet we have even greater assurance, in the infinite blessings which the Lord has bestowed upon mankind by means of men and women and children, who, because they are created in His own image and likeness, are immeasurably more perfect instruments or means for the communication of His blessings than any of the inanimate things of creation. What more potent medium of joy and happiness than the mutual love of friends and the truly conjugial love of consorts! Let us with heartfelt conviction and gratitude sing the song of David: "Thou wilt show me the path of life. In Thy presence is fulness of joy. At Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." (Psalm 16:11.) Amen.

LESSONS: Isaiah 51; John 14; A. C. 5478.
MUSIC: Liturgy, pages 565, 620, 728.
PRAYERS: Liturgy, numbers 44, 46, 200.

695


USES OF HEAVEN AND THE TASKS OF HELL 1930

USES OF HEAVEN AND THE TASKS OF HELL       Rev. ALFRED ACTON       1930

     (At the Fourteenth General Assembly, June 17, 1930.)

     The Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of uses. This follows from the nature of Divine Love, which is to give to others outside itself. Every thing of creation owes its existence and continuation to the fact that it constitutes some part in this Divine giving. This is true, not only of nature, but also, and more eminently, of man. Man is not a mere vessel into which the Lord pours His gifts. The gifts are laid before him, but he must labor to receive and appropriate them. What is more, he must labor, not for himself alone, but also for others. The needs of human society are so great, the gifts of Divine Love so infinite in number, that the individual can serve for procuring but an infinitesimal part of them. Yet, from these infinitesimal parts comes the wealth and luxury of the world, as so many evidences of the gifts of Divine Love. According to the eminence of the services of the individual in the procuring of these gifts, so he comes into their use and enjoyment; and, what is more, so he comes into the use and enjoyment of life itself,-the consciousness of living and the realization of the delights of life. Thus human society as a kingdom of uses is the supreme manifestation of the Divine Love in its will to give to others outside itself.

     In the Old Testament this is expressed by the delegation of a part of Moses' work to the elders of the people, by which is signified that the Lord does all and single things, not only immediately, but also mediately through heaven; and this, as we read in the Arcana, "not that He has need of the aid of the angels there, but in order that those angels may have functions and offices, and hence life and happiness, according to offices and uses. Hence it is that they have the appearance that they act from themselves, but a perception that they act from the Lord" (n. 8719). To the same effect is the teaching in Divine Wisdom, that "the Lord does every use which is good, by means of man"; and that He wills that man do this good as of himself (XI, 4a).

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The Lord gives us work to do, not that He has need of the work, but that we may have the delight and blessing of life. It is only thus that Divine Love can give to others outside itself. All other giving would be merely the animation of an impassive instrument.

     This Divine Love is imaged in the love of parents for their children, from which they are prompted to allow those children tasks which they themselves could do better and with less trouble, but which they refrain from doing, that the children may have the delight of the work, and so may enter more fully into the enjoyment of life. There is also an image of the Divine Love in all wise education and training, whether in learning or in business or in manual work.

     But the supreme illustration is set forth in the human body, which is an image and type of that Gorand Body or Gorand Man of creation, of which the Lord is the Soul.

     The soul creates the body from the love of giving life to that body; and this love expresses itself in the law that the body must receive. Therefore, the body is so created that it possesses, as though from itself, the power to receive; that it has delight, and thus life, in the degree that it exercises this power; and that this delight and life are the more exalted in proportion as the gifts which it labors to receive are more noble.

     Thus the soul has given to the body the desire for sustenance whereby alone it can receive life. And so we have the delight of taste. The appearance is that this delight belongs to the taste, as its own; the truth is that the delight flows in from the soul in proportion as the taste contributes to the preparation of the body to receive the soul. It is so with the other senses; each may be regarded as an independent man, as it were, who receives his life and the joy of life as he contributes to the fuller reception of the soul by the whole body. Thus we have the delights of the corporeal senses, which are noble because they contribute to the health of the body; the delights of sight and hearing, which are more noble because by them man is prepared to receive from the soul the nobler gifts of intelligence and wisdom,-the delights of reason and of love, which are yet more noble because by them the man is prepared to receive the supreme gift of love, the image of God Himself.

     The human body is indeed a kingdom of uses where each citizen performs his use, and where each receives his life and delight according to the eminence of that use.

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Each is a centre, as it were, from which go forth services of use to the whole kingdom, and to which likewise all the uses of the kingdom converge. This is the form of heaven itself,-a form wherein the centre is in every part, a form which cannot be expressed geometrically and which yet is comprehensible to the rational mind, and is even expressible to the natural mind, as in the saying: Each for all and all for each.

     The whole universe is a kingdom of uses, of which the Lord is the soul, and to every part of which, and part of part, is given its own use with the delights thereof, that so the Divine Use, the gift of life, may be bestowed on all.

     The Divine of Use.

     What is use? The question may seem surprising; for one naturally thinks of use merely as the doing of something useful, or as the result of so doing. Yet reflection will show that use itself is something apart from a deed. A deed may be inspired by use; but the same deed may be done by one who intends, not use, but harm. We contrast the love of use with the love of self, and both use and self are very real things. What self is, is clear; namely, the delight which is perceived in the mind at influx from the world and body. We know also that to act for the sake of use carries with it the shunning of action for the sake of self; for then use flows in, and its presence is felt as the love of use. This use is the Lord with man, the substantial and real thing of life (Divine Love, IV); and it is in order that this substantial or real might come into finite manifestation that the universe was created as a theatre of uses. (T. 67.)

     We are told in the Writings that "in the Lord are three things, which are the Lord, namely, the Divine of Love, the Divine of Wisdom, and the Divine of Use; and these three are presented in appearance outside the sun of the spiritual world, the Divine of Love by heat, the Divine of Wisdom by light, and the Divine of Use by atmosphere, which is the containant." (W. 296.) The Divine of Love and the Divine of Wisdom are inseparable from the Divine of Use,-the use, namely, of giving to others. Hence, when they find an ultimate, the Divine of Love and the Divine of Wisdom become the Divine of Use. It is this Divine of Use that clothes itself in the matters and substances into which atmospheres finally cease. And there, in the mineral kingdom, it manifests itself as a conatus to the clothing of forms of use,-a conatus, the inmost of which, as we are told, is "the conatus of performing uses to the human race; for (the teaching continues) all uses are produced by the Lord from ultimates." (W. 210.)

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In the vegetable kingdom, the Divine of Use manifests itself as actual uses to the animal kingdom; and in the latter, as the affections of uses, which are the souls of animals. Considered in themselves, the matters by which uses are clothed are merely the means whereby the Divine of Use becomes revealed. Hence the created universe, regarded as to uses, is the manifestation of the Lord Himself as Man.

     The Divine of Use thus given to man is that which alone nourishes and recreates his life. It is therefore true in a very literal sense that man does not live by bread alone, that is to say, by mere material or chemical elements, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, that is to say, by the Divine of Use as the gift of life in ultimates. (See A. C. 681.)

     In an angelic definition of the "third Divine essential, which is called Use," we read: "Without use, love and wisdom are merely ideas of abstract thought which pass away; but these two are gathered up in use, and there become a One which is called the Real. Love cannot rest unless it acts, for love is the very active of life; nor can wisdom exist and subsist, except from and with love, when the latter acts, and action is use." (C. L. 183.) This is amplified by a statement in the Diary, where we read: "Uses and ends can never exist except from things organic; and because they are the lives of these organics, therefore the universe regarded from inmosts to outmosts is an organic of which the Lord is the only Life. Thus the universe is full of the Lord." (S. D. 3576.) Indeed, the universe is nothing but a finite clothing of that Divine sphere of ends and uses which continually flows from the Lord,-a sphere which Swedenborg has been permitted manifestly to perceive. (A. C. 3645.)

     It is this same Divine of Use that is present in every man, forming all things of his body an image of itself, that is to say, a form of all natural uses. In explaining the correspondence of the organs of the body with the functions or uses of the Gorand Man, the Writings declare: "There was use before the organic forms of the body existed. It was uses that produced those organic forms and adapted them to itself, and not the reverse.

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But when the forms are produced, or the organs shaped, their uses proceed from them, and it then appears as though the forms or organs were prior to the uses; yet this is not the case. For use flows in from the Lord, and thus through heaven, according to the order and form in which heaven is ordinated by the Lord, thus according to correspondences. In this way man exists, and in this way he subsists." (A. C. 4223.) Thus the human body, like the great universe, is also a form of uses; and therefore man is called a microcosm or little universe.

     God's Gifts to Men.          
                         
When this little universe is born, and enters into the great universe, then the fulfilment of the end of creation,-the bestowal of the gifts of God to man,-is inaugurated. The man is born an image of the Divine Man, and the universe around him is filled with every possible gift for the sustenance and recreation of his life. He lives as if of himself, and his members and the parts thereof are all forms of use ready and eager to receive the gifts of the world, and to offer them for the service of the soul.

     Let me here remark that the gifts of God thus offered to man are not merely those for the nourishment of the body; they include also the laws of mechanism and economics and government. All these laws are latent in the ultimates of nature, and as men discover them and use them, so human society is more perfectly organized to receive the gifts of God. Thus we have the kingdom of uses in the world,-a kingdom ever growing in wealth as new discoveries are made of the riches bestowed by God. This kingdom is known to the world, and it is also known that the kingdom prospers according as each member thereof performs his individual use. It is for this reason that charity to the neighbor consists in doing the duty of one's calling faithfully, justly and sincerely; indeed, we are told that in doing this man is more an agent of the Divine beneficence than by any other means.

     The end of Divine Love, however, is not the bestowal of natural gifts. In themselves, these are merely temporal, and pass away with the life of the body; but they are the means whereby the Lord may endow men with eternal gifts whereby, not the body, but the spirit,-the immortal part of man,-may be sustained and recreated. We see this in the microcosm or individual man.

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The delights of the senses are not given merely to lead man to sustain the body, but that by their means a sound body may be formed as the dwelling place of a sound mind. And as the mind becomes formed and opened to the Lord, so it receives spiritual gifts from Him,-spiritual nourishment, spiritual clothing, spiritual habitation; in a word, spiritual wealth, with all its attendant blessings and delights.

     That there is such a thing as spiritual wealth is manifest to common perception, as embodied in the phrases of all civilized tongues. Thus we speak of the palace of the mind, of a richly furnished mind, a well equipped mind, a starved mind, a stunted mind, and so forth. But men are ignorant as to the nature of this spiritual wealth, and as to the means whereby it is provided. That it is not material is evident, for it exists independently of the light and heat and matter of the natural world. That it is substantial and real is also manifest, for by it the mind enjoys many blessings, and is recreated and enlivened, despite the condition of the body; nay, it is able to despise the body, and even to submit it to pain and torment.

     These gifts to the mind,-this spiritual food, clothing, habitation, etc.,-are also the gifts of the Divine Love, the communication of the Divine of Use which the Lord wills to bestow upon all. But they are gifts on a more interior plane. Their reception nourishes, recreates and delights, not the corporeal man, but the spiritual.

     Now the same law applies to the giving of spiritual riches by the Lord as to the giving of natural riches, namely, the law that nothing can be communicated by the Lord to man save as it takes form from ultimates. This is the law of creation; and spiritual riches, like natural, are nothing but creations. Creation proceeds from firsts, through lasts, to intermediates. The Divine Love and Wisdom, flowing through atmospheres, do not take form until clothed with the substances and matters of the earth. The soul, flowing by its fluids, is not given to man until it has revealed itself in a body drawn from the things of the world. So with the gift of spiritual riches; they cannot take forms, so as to be received, save from the ultimates of nature.

     From this law comes the truth that everywhere in ultimates there is a conatus, a perpetual striving, to furnish the clothing for the more interior reception of the Divine of Use. We have already spoken of this conatus in the world. The same conatus exists also in the human body.

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As soon as it is born, it displays the conatus or appetite for the receiving of nourishment, and at the same time for the receiving, enjoying, and repeating of the delights of the senses. Then, as by these receptions the mind begins to be formed, this conatus displays itself as the desire of knowing and thus of understanding; in other words, as curiosity, first natural, and then rational. All of which is a sign that in ultimates the Divine of the Lord strives to furnish man with ever more perfect receptacles of Itself.

     In the preparing of these receptacles, man's part lies in ultimates. He must delve into the earth for its treasures; he must till the ground for its fruit; he must devise means for the more perfect performance of these works, and must provide ways for the distribution of nature's gifts, in order that they may be received in greater abundance and perfection. Thus we have on earth the kingdom of uses, and to the perfection of this is due the wealth of the world,-the gift of Divine Love, which, for the sake of man's happiness, is bestowed by the agency of human labor and industry.

     This wealth, however, is but a mere representation of the spiritual wealth which the Lord wills to give. Indeed, worldly wealth, whether in the form of material riches or of the riches of the arts and sciences, exists solely to the end that more subtle clothings may be provided for the manifestation of the Divine of Use in the form of spiritual wealth,-of rich stores of spiritual knowledges and perceptions and affections, for the nourishment, recreation and delectation of the mind.

     These spiritual riches are as much the products of actual creation as are the forms of that natural wealth and luxury which exists in the world around us; and for their creation and abundance they are as much dependent upon the labor and mutual cooperation of men; for this is the law of Divine Love. Divine Love never pours its gifts into man as into an empty vessel. It presents them before him, but he himself must receive them and appropriate them. In order that gifts may thus be presented, they must appear in forms outside the man, that he may see them, may labor to appropriate them, and to communicate them to others, and so may receive the delight of his labor and its fruits. Thus we have a kingdom of spiritual or heavenly uses; a kingdom in which each must do his part; a kingdom whose riches and luxuries cannot be traced to the agency of any single man or angel, but are the gifts of the Lord alone, freely and abundantly bestowed according as each member of the kingdom performs his own work faithfully, justly and sincerely.

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     Spiritual uses, like natural uses, must ultimately receive their clothing or form from the ultimates of nature. But this is not done immediately. It is the same with the uses of nourishment for the animal kingdom. These receive their forms from the ultimates of the mineral kingdom, but not immediately. Those forms must first be prepared by a long process of composition and decomposition, until we have that humus or ground from which the fruits of the vegetable kingdom can alone be formed.

     So with the creation of spiritual forms of uses. Essentially they receive their forms from the ultimates of nature, but not directly. Those ultimates, together with the laws derived therefrom, must first pass over from the material world, which lies before our senses, to the immaterial world of the memory and imagination, which is seen only by the eyes of the spirit. It is only then that they can furnish the soil for the creation of those spiritual forms of use, those spiritual riches with which the heavens are so abundantly provided by the Lord, and which bring the angels such an infinitude of delights.

     The Creation of Spiritual Riches.

     Let us give closer attention to this spiritual creation, and to the soil from which it receives form; for we are convinced that an understanding of this is essential to any rational comprehension of the uses performed in the spiritual world.

     On this subject we read in the True Christian Religion: "Since the truth of faith is spiritual light, and the good of charity is spiritual heat, it follows that it is the same with these two as it is with the two of like name which exist in the natural world. To wit, that as from the conjunction of the latter [that is, of natural heat and light] all things flourish on earth, so likewise from the conjunction of the former [that is, of spiritual heat and light] all things flourish in the human mind; but with this differentiation, that natural heat and light make efflorescence upon the earth, while spiritual heat and light make efflorescence in the human mind; and this efflorescence, being spiritual, is wisdom and intelligence. There is also a correspondence between the two effects; and therefore the human mind, wherein charity is conjoined to faith, and faith to charity, is likened in the Word to a garden, and is also meant by the Garden of Eden." (T. C. R. 392.)

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     We read to the same effect in Divine Providence. There, after a description of the operation of heat and light into the lands of the world, the passage continues: "It is similar in the spiritual world. There also is heat and light from their own sun, which is the Lord. This heat and light how into their subjects and objects, and the subjects and objects there are angels and spirits, and, more particularly, are the voluntary and intellectual things of these angels and spirits." (D. P. 292.)

     That the human mind, and in particular the immaterial world that has been transplanted thither, is the ground for the creation of spiritual forms of use, wherein the Divine of Use shall present itself for the giving of spiritual riches, is clearly implied in the Lord's own teaching concerning the sower who went forth to sow. The Lord explained that the field, in which the seed or Word of God was sown, is the world; and by the world is clearly meant, not the external world before the senses, but the inner world of the human mind.

     It is in this ground that the Lord, acting by means of all agencies whereby the truths of religion are communicated, sows the seed of Divine Truth, that it may grow and bring forth fruit, some a hundred fold, some sixty, and some thirty. The inmost of that Divine seed is the Divine of Use, which thus strives to clothe itself with forms drawn from the immaterial world, that so it may present itself as the Divine gift of spiritual wealth,-the perceptions of truth and the affections of good,-whereby the souls of men are sustained and recreated.

     It is said that man corresponds to a garden. Strictly speaking, man is not a garden, but a tree or plant in the garden or paradise. It is the church that constitutes the heavenly paradise; for this paradise is the manifestation of an infinitude of spiritual uses formed and created by the Lord; and no one man can furnish the ground for the creation of these, nor can any one man garner them. Hence we are told that in the spiritual world, where angels are who are in intelligence and wisdom, are seen paradises. "The very intelligence and wisdom which they have from the Lord presents such appearances around them, and this from correspondence." (T. 467.)

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     Very specific is the teaching in the Coronis, where we read: "Man is like a tree, which first grows from seed into a shoot; and when this is raised on high, it sends forth branches, and from these twigs, and continually clothes itself with leaves; and when it is ripe, which takes place in its middle years, it puts forth flowers, and produces fruits; and in each of these it sets seeds, which, when let into the earth as into a womb, grow up into like trees, and so into a garden. And (the passage continues) if you will believe it, after death this same garden remains with the man; he lives in it, and is daily delighted at sight of it, and from the use of its fruits. This is the man who is described by David in the words: 'And he shall be as a tree planted by streams of waters, which giveth its fruit in its season, and his leaf shall not fall.'" (Coronis 8.)

     That the immaterial world in the human mind is the scene for the creation of the spiritual gifts bestowed on man by the Lord, should be manifest on slight reflection. The preparation of this ground commences with the first opening of consciousness. In it, during early years, remains of good affections are implanted by the Lord, that they may serve as a perpetual conatus to the clothing of spiritual things. The ground must be enriched and tilled, first by parents and teachers, and then by the man himself, by means of the knowledges of the natural sciences and of the truths of religion. So far as possible, it must be kept free from destructive weeds, and this by means of discipline and training.

     It is not long in the course of our life before we ourselves can observe that this ground begins to yield its fruit,-fruit, the outer clothing of which is from the ground, but the soul and life of which is from heaven or from hell. We see the growth of tares, weeds, and poisonous plants, appearing sometimes under forms of beauty. Sometimes also we see fierce animals held in leash, or various artificial devices and contrivances framed for the securing of evil ends. All these are actual spiritual creations by the loves of self and the world, which thus take form in and from the immaterial world of the human mind. While we live on earth, these forms present themselves as affections and desires, together with the thoughts and imaginations arising therefrom; but in the other world they are seen as to what they really are, namely, as actual creations, evil animals, noxious plants, and devices for the infliction of injury upon others.

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This truth may also be confirmed by the rational consideration that these created forms in the human mind give off spheres which, when received into the minds of others, are capable of inflicting pain and torment, and of arousing evil passions; and which, when clothed with suitable materia from the earth, are the origins of evil plants and evil animals.

     It is in the world, where these evil things are created, that man's labor lies. He cannot there create good plants or good animals, any more than he can create such plants or animals from the material ground of the earth; but he can till the ground, can pluck out the weeds, and drive away the evil beasts. And if, at the same time, he enriches the impoverished ground by knowledges drawn from the Word, then from that ground the Divine of Use can clothe itself, to become manifest as the wealth of heaven, the rich fruits and rewards of labor in the spiritual kingdom of uses,-a wealth which will increase in abundance as the members of the kingdom increase in number, and as each does his own part faithfully, justly and sincerely. In its extension, we are taught, this wealth, these heavenly uses, "may be described by like things which describe the uses of the body; thus by nourishment, clothing: habitation, recreation, delectation, protection [and conservation] of slate; provided only that these be applied to the soul,-nourishment to the goods of love, clothing to the truths of wisdom, habitation to heaven, recreation and delectation to felicity of life and to heavenly joy, protection to the evils that infest, and conservation of state to eternal life." (D. L. W. 333.)

     Thus we have the two kingdoms of uses,-one, the kingdom where man labors as to his body and natural mind; the other, where he labors as to his spirit; one whereby the Lord gives earthly blessings, the other whereby He gives heavenly blessings.

     The Fruits of Spiritual Uses.

     The reality of the spiritual uses that are performed by man as to his spirit can be seen even here on the earth. A good man is a means by whom heavenly truths and heavenly affections are brought forth for the use of mankind. We cannot see what these are in themselves as long as we are in this world; but we can see the evidence of their existence and actuality in the speech and deeds of the upright, whereby thoughts and affections which are the products of the mind's labor are communicated to others for the increase of their life and happiness.

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The evil man, on the other hand, though he may seem to be a worthy member of the kingdom of natural uses, is yet a means by which the devil seeks the destruction of souls. This also must at times appear in his speech and actions, whereby spiritual injury is inflicted upon the minds of men.

     We are told that by the deeds according to which a man will be judged are not meant the external acts, but the uses of charity, or the opposite thereof, which are within them. And herein we can see the difference between men and beasts, in that the latter enact only representations of uses, while the former perform, not only the deeds of use, but also uses themselves. (A. C. 3646.)

     A man is a worthy member of the kingdom of God only so far as he does his duty, not only in the kingdom of natural uses, but also in that of spiritual uses. Most men do their outer duties more or less faithfully, and are thereby held in happiness and peace of life. But how shall we know whether we are performing spiritual uses for the production of spiritual wealth? The Writings many times answer this question by the statement that, if man shuns evils as sins against God, he may be assured that he is a worthy member of the kingdom of spiritual uses. But they also give us a more specific sign for our guidance,-the sign, namely, of whether in our work we have regard to self or to use. A man may easily discern this. If, when he performs a use, and receives reward and praise therefor he is in delight, but when another performs a similar or nobler use, and is likewise rewarded, he feels jealousy and envy; if, in his secret thought, he hopes that another shall fail, or shall not do so well as himself; if his ears are open to catch every word of adulation of self, but closed and even opposed to the praise of others; then he may know that he loves, not use, but self; that though on earth his uses may be noble, yet, in the spiritual world and in fact, he is the means by which that is brought forth which is destructive of all spiritual use.

     Man, even while on earth, can and does perform spiritual uses; he can and does produce and communicate to others, and receive from others, those spiritual uses which are the riches of the mind. And so, with scarcely a reference to the phenomena of the spiritual world, we are led to see the nature of the work performed by the angels.

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For angels are but human spirits, and they perform the same uses that men perform as to their spirits. While on earth, these uses may seem to be trammelled or even inhibited by natural circumstances; but this seeming is merely for the purpose of strengthening man in the performance of his spiritual use. It is a common thought among New Churchmen that many, when they die, will change their occupations, and frequently that they will become teachers or preachers. The truth is, that no man changes his spiritual occupation or use by death. If on earth he has performed spiritual uses, he continues in those same uses after death. Death merely reveals them and lays them bare. (D. L. xii.)

     Every man is born that he may perform a certain use in the kingdom of heaven. And, such is the leading of the Divine Providence, that there is not the least occurrence of his life which does not look to his preparation and training for this use. Many men feel that they are in occupations unsuited to their genius and love; many, that they are in occupations which they dislike. Sometimes this feeling is the manifestation of secret laziness, or of the looking to self-glory, or of a desire for ease and wealth. But, be the cause what it may, we can be assured of this,-that whatever man's earthly occupation, it is the means whereby, if he will, he may be trained and introduced into the spiritual uses for which he was created; and that, if he will not, then it is the means whereby he is being restrained from rushing into evils, and from inflicting untold injury upon the spirits of men.

     It is right and proper that a man seek the use for which he is fitted. Indeed, the Divine Providence is such that, wherever possible, men are actually led to such uses. Still, the prevalence of evil in the world has necessitated many accommodations, in order that spiritual and eternal ends may yet be preserved. And therefore it is quite possible that men, whether from their own fault, from the will of others, or from economic necessity, may find themselves in natural uses which they dislike. Let such men do their work justly, faithfully, and sincerely; and if they dislike the work, let them dwell upon the fact that it constitutes a use in the world of men. While not giving up the ambition or desire to change their lot, let them also be faithful servants of society. It may be, and often is, that they thus attain to high uses, or uses more in accord with their love.

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Indeed, economic society is so organized that there is a prevailing desire, and a secret current, as it were, which tends to the filling of offices by those best fitted to perform them. Aside from this, however, we can have the fullest assurance that a man's occupation is the means, if he so wills, whereby he is actually being perfected in his spiritual uses. One may be a leader in the church, and yet spiritually be the producer of works destructive of heavenly life; or he may be among the lowly, and yet spiritually be the means of producing the wealth of heaven.

     Certainly, when man dies he will experience no change of use, save only at first and in appearance. His spirit is the same; it is only the body that has been left behind; and his spirit continues the spiritual uses which he has performed on earth; nor will he have any other realization than that he is continuing the use of his love.

     Uses in the Heavens.

     The uses of the angels of heaven are not hidden mysteries; we can perceive them in operation even while we are on earth. In general, we can say that they consist in bringing into being, and communicating to others, knowledges and perceptions of truths, and affections of good; for these are the wealth of the kingdom of heaven whereby the inhabitants of the kingdom are nourished, clothed, housed and recreated. Yet, naturally speaking, this gives us but a general idea of the nature of heavenly uses. Every good man perceives that they exist, for he is in the actual performance of them; but it is not so easy to define and picture them. True, we may see that knowledges of truths are innumerable, and that each individual has his share in the production of them; that the joys of life are also innumerable, and that these are given by the Lord by the agency of men. Yet we think of these things as being merely abstract operations of the mind; and while in this world, where the actuality of matter continually presses itself upon our attention, we are prone to think that such operations are not actual uses. Rational reflection, however, will show us that they are the real uses, and that the deeds of the body are merely their clothing; that without them those deeds, nay, all the uses of the natural world, would be of no avail to save the human race from spiritual destruction. And so, even on earth, we can come to some realization of the reality of the uses of heaven, and of our part in their production.

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But even so, it is impossible to express them in the language of natural thought. We read: "The thoughts of spiritual things, and likewise the affections, are wholly different from the thoughts of natural things; so different, indeed, that they are transcendent, and cannot fall into natural ideas except (and this should be noted)-except to some slight extent into the interior rational sight, and this only by the abstraction or removal of quantities from qualities." (Div. Wis. 78.)

     This is the reason why it is so often stated in the Writings that the uses of heaven are ineffable, inexpressible. "The functions, offices, and works in heaven can indeed be described, but not well for comprehension." (Charity 142.) And again: "Functions in heaven cannot be enumerated or described in particular; it is possible only to say something in general concerning them; for they are innumerable." (H. 387.) More specifically we read: "Only a few of the works of angels can be described; those which cannot be described are innumerable; for, being from a spiritual origin, they do not fall into the ideas of the natural man, and so neither into the words of his speech, except only into these, namely, that wisdom builds for itself a habitation, and adapts it to itself; and that then all that lies inmostly contained in any science and art flows together and makes that habitation." (A. E. 1191) Further on in the same work we read: "The uses which they perform in the heavens, and the works which they do in the hells, are in part similar to those carried on in the world; but still there are many spiritual uses which cannot be described in natural language, and, what I have often marveled at, which do not fall into ideas of natural thought." (A. E. 1226.)

     We should perforce be obliged to rest here, and content ourselves with a rational perception of spiritual uses, were it not for the teaching already quoted,-that the uses of heaven may; be described by like things as describe the uses of the body, thus by nourishment, clothing, habitation, recreation, delectation, protection and conservation. (W. 333.) Here we are on familiar ground, and we need but apply these uses to the soul to enable our natural thought to come into some enlightenment from the rational.

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     We can now see that the uses of heaven consist in providing for the angels food, clothing, habitation, recreation, delectation, protection and conservation; that without the labor of the countless members of the heavenly kingdom, these would not exist; that all the marvels seen in heaven are the product of the industry of angels; that each angel enjoys food, clothing, habitation, and the countless blessings of his life, because he is a member elf an angelic society; where each contributes his use to all, and all to each.

     But the thought will arise that in heaven all things are given freely, that food appears on the table in a moment, that clothes and houses, and even the entire scenery, are created in a moment. But reflect more deeply, and you will see that the spiritual things themselves which are thus represented are not created in a moment. Nay, this were impossible, because contrary to the Divine Love, which wills that man receive as if of himself, and communicate of his own to others. Spiritual riches cannot be given to a man save so far as he labors to prepare himself for their reception, and then they are given freely and perpetually. What is created in a moment is merely the correspondential appearance of these spiritual riches in forms comprehensible to the natural mind. It is these correspondential forms that may appear and disappear, but not the angelic affections and thoughts. The latter are the real wealth of heaven, and the fruits of angelic labor; nay, sometimes the angels see these; that is to say, they see an image of themselves in the correspondential forms by which they are surrounded. (W. 322; T. 66; E. 1212.) The kingdom of God can be given only as man seeks and labors; but then all else,-the correspondential surroundings which so greatly delight the spiritual senses,-is added unto them.

     Essentially there is no difference between the gifts of the Lord in heaven and on earth. Men must till the ground, must search into its depths, must learn the laws of mechanics, the better to do this, and the laws of government that society may be held in order. When they do this, everything is given freely by the Lord,-food, clothing and habitation, and all the wealth of modern civilization.

     A man who was absolutely alone in the world, and who, moreover, had not received from other men the benefits of ideas and training, could produce no wealth; he could merely exist as an animal. For the creation of wealth we need countless numbers of men, nay, and countless generations. How little of the world's wealth is due to any one individual! How much is contributed by men of other lands, far and near, in return for the little that the individual does!

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So is it in the spiritual world. The mountains, the hills, the vegetation, the food and clothing, the habitations, and all the many marvels by which the angels are surrounded, are but the correspondential appearances of the real spiritual wealth of thoughts and affections which has been produced, and is being continually produced, by the work of the members of many angelic societies, and which is freely given to each society and each individual according to his use. And so, if we may be permitted to speak naturally, as being the only adequate means of expressing spiritual thought, we may say that the angels are engaged in producing the wealth of heaven, that by their labor food is gathered and prepared, clothes woven and adorned, houses and palaces built, instruction given, order and government maintained, and public worship instituted. In other words, the angelic and human mind is the means by which all the wealth of heaven is produced, in appearance by angels, in reality by the Lord. With this in mind, we can understand the statement in the Writings, that in heaven are many traders who grow rich by merchandise. (D. 3523; D. P. 217.)

     Sometimes this correspondential aspect of the uses of heaven is seen in objective form by spirits in the world of spirits. There, when angels are communicating spiritual thoughts, horses are seen, and carts laden with merchandise of various kinds. (A. C. 8215.) So food is seen descending from heaven (5 M); money and precious stones are seen as mediums of trade and adornment (T. 78); men are seen building houses and cities (n. 2601), etc. But in heaven itself, we are told, there is no merchandising, no gold, no silver, nor other such things, but only the spiritual things which correspond thereto. (A. C. 4453.)

     Let me repeat a teaching already quoted, as to man's being like a tree which, bearing fruit, sets seed therein, and thus gives rise to a garden. The teaching then continues: "And if you will believe it, after death this same garden remains with the man; he lives in it, and is daily delighted at sight of it, and from the use of its fruit." (Coronis 8.) But this garden, which exists with the man even while he is on earth, and which, in the other world, is plainly seen to be the reality of life,-this garden is not the product of the man alone, but of countless numbers of men with whom he has come in contact, whether in person or by repute or in books, to say nothing of his associates in the spiritual world.

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And how grand must be the scenery, how rich the palaces, how magnificent the works of art, in that great paradise which is the fruit of the labor of countless heavenly societies!

     Many of the treasures with which the heavens abound are described in correspondential language; for only thus can they be described, unless in purely abstract terms comprehensible only to the rational mind, and even then but dimly. Thus we have descriptions of magnificent paradises, of beautiful palaces, of museums, of great libraries, with books, pens, ink, and paper; of works of art of the utmost skill and beauty, produced by the hands of angels; of embroidery and needlework, and so forth. (C. L. 207; D. 5999.)

     In some of the passages we have quoted it is said that a few of the uses of heaven can be described because they have some similarity to uses on earth. It is these that are usually enumerated when the Writings describe the uses of angels. They are as follows: The raising of the dead and their instruction; the guardianship of men on earth; the education and instruction of children, of gentiles, and of novitiate spirits, and their protection from evil spirits; the protection of those in the lower earth; the instruction of newcomers to heaven; the moderation and government of the hells. Also preaching in heaven, instruction by the wise, and various offices of government and judgment. (H. 391-93; D. M. 4805; D. 5158; A. C. 454; C. L. 17.) These are all actual uses performed by angels and angelic spirits, but it will readily be seen that for the most part they are uses done in the world of spirits, and by a very limited number of spirits. Thus the raising of men from the dead and their instruction, the care of children, the instruction of novitiates, the attendance of men living on earth, etc., cannot be the eternal uses of angels; for the number of those to whom these uses are performed must always be limited, whereas the angelic host is ever increasing. Such uses must in fact be performed in the world of spirits; and, moreover, must be performed by good spirits and angels who themselves have not long departed from life in the world.

     In one sense, however, these ultimate uses are performed by angels, nay, by immense societies; in the sense, namely, that those who actually perform them are the subjects of angelic societies, who flow into them and inspire them.

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     Here we are led to see a universal principle in respect to the uses of heaven. Spiritual uses are created by the Lord, and bestowed upon man only by means of ultimates, as we have already explained. And now let us add that they can endure only so long as they continue to rest on ultimates. Just as, when a man from an upright heart does his duty faithfully, sincerely and justly, then within his mind are many heavenly thoughts and affections, all unknown to himself, which yet are gathered together in his work; just as, when a teacher expresses his thoughts, there are collated within those thoughts an infinitude of perceptions and affections; just as the human body reveals but a few organs, within which are innumerable smaller organics, and in these fibres and fibrils, all converging to the formation of the one body; so in like manner is it in the Gorand Man of heaven and earth. In every ultimate use performed on earth are collated innumerable uses of the angels in heaven. When an upright man teaches on earth, behind and within his teaching, which appears as if single and simple, are the activities of many societies of angels who are in the particulars of what he teaches, and who indeed inspire him as their subject. (See W. 252.) Of the particulars themselves we can have but a general and abstract idea, but we can see them in a complex as they are collated in the ultimate deed. Indeed, it could not be otherwise; for every good deed springs from the Lord, and contains within it an infinitude of goods. And so the angelic heaven is in its activity and delight when resting upon the human race, and upon the works of use performed by that race into which its heavenly uses are collated. Without the human race, and without the works of charity performed by that race, the heavens themselves would fail. (See T. 118, 579; Coronis 19; L. J. 9.) The converse of this is also true, namely, that the uses of men on earth are extended and increased in proportion as there is an increase in the angelic heaven. Hence we have the familiar teaching, that the New Church will grow on earth as it grows in the spiritual world.

     The Tasks of Hell.

     But what shall be said of the uses of hell? Evil men do not will to perform uses; they will rather to snatch all things for themselves, to destroy all spiritual life with men, all spiritual thought, all spiritual happiness; they breathe destruction to all that is heavenly, nay, and even to the Lord Himself. And yet we are told in the Writings that they perform uses in hell.

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And uses are of heaven!

     Here we must clarify our ideas concerning hell. So widespread is the doctrine that hell is a place of eternal torment, that it is only by a conscious effort that we can escape its influence. The truth is, that hell is not outside the Divine government, and that in this sense it is a part of the Lord's universal kingdom. The inhabitants of hell do indeed deny that kingdom; and refuse its laws; yet without it they cannot live, nor have the delights of life,-even evil delights. This we can see on earth; for every evil man, unless restrained by the laws of order, would destroy his ability to enjoy his own evils. The drunkard, the voluptuary, the covetous, the gourmand, are all illustrations of this truth. They are able to enjoy their delights only so far as they are restrained by the laws of order; and to bind them to these laws is the manifestation of the Lord's mercy, even to the wicked. It is the devil only who wills to inflict pain and torment.

     It is with the hells as it is with the kingdom of uses on earth. Every member of that kingdom must perform some use. If he refuse, then he is compelled by the pressure of economic laws,-and this until he learns to compel himself, if not from love, still from the instinct of self-preservation; and with this he comes into an external state of harmony with society, and receives his reward. All rational men perceive that he is happier in this state, and ultimately he himself is compelled to see it.

     The same law obtains in the spiritual world; but there, where man is no longer in the state of free choice, order is maintained with greater perfection; and by no subterfuge or subtlety can the evil escape its rule.

     When the evil enter the world of spirits they are set free, as it were, and then the interior work of their spirit in the destruction of all heavenly uses is made manifest by various crimes against the good. For these they are punished until they learn to desist. But it is not sufficient that they shall be restrained from destroying uses; they must actually perform them; otherwise they cannot live. They soon find that none will give them food unless they work, and so finally they are compelled to perform some use. (A. R. 153.)

     Here two questions arise: 1. By what food do the evil live? 2. What is the nature of the uses which they perform?

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     As to their food, we are told repeatedly that it is "bread from heaven." (R. 153; D. 6088; E. 1194; Charity 196; T. 281; C. L. 6.) Indeed, reflection will show that no other food is possible for the sustenance of life. All spiritual food is a gift of the Divine of Use, but it can be given only so far as man will receive; and, as we have seen in the kingdom of earthly uses, he cannot receive unless he performs uses to others. Hence the evil in hell are compelled to perform uses; but their uses are vile, and so their food from heaven is poor and coarse. They indeed have another food which sustains their evil lusts (A. C. 1695), but this food induces spiritual diseases, and would kill them unless they were sustained by food from heaven. This can be illustrated by the life of the evil on earth. So long as they live a life of uses, they can feed to some extent on their evil lusts; but without a life of use and order, this food would destroy them.

     As to the uses which they perform, we read: "The evil are servants in the Lord's kingdom. The services which they there perform are vile, and because of their number they cannot well be set forth. In the other life everyone, whosoever he is, must perform a use, for man is born for no other end than to perform use,-while on earth, a use to the society in which he is, and to the neighbor, and, in the other life, a use according to the Lord's good pleasure." (A. 1103.) The fact that the works done in hell are called uses-even though vile-indicates that they are uses for the preservation of the Gorand Man, that is to say, "for the world, the human race, the world of spirits and heaven." (D. 3147.)

     To understand what these uses are, we must bear in mind that every progression into good is rendered possible by the presence of the opposite. We are told that this is represented in the human body "by many humors which in themselves are excrementitious, as also are many salivary fluids and biles and the like, which must be of service, not only to the food, but also in separating excrementitious matters, and in purging the intestines"; it is also represented "by filth and manure in fields and vineyards." (n. 1103.) And here it must be remembered that excrementitious humors are present in every part of the body, even in the cortex of the brain. Thus they serve a use on every plane of bodily life, though the use is a lowly one.

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     In man, as a spiritual being, the opposition to his ascent from the natural to the spiritual is made by the loves of self and the world, with all the subordinate loves which constitute their crew. These loves were indeed given by the Lord, but they were given as servants, with the lowly uses of servants. They are to serve, not only for the sustenance of the body, but also, like the fluids just mentioned, for the purification of the spirit by means of a species of temptation or fermentation. Before the Fall, these loves were obedient servants; but after the Fall they became disobedient and rebellious. Lucifer, no longer willing to serve the Prince of heaven, strove for the dominion, but strove in vain; for Divine omnipotence cannot be resisted. The loves of self and the world, though now in possession of the bodies and souls of many men, must yet perform their service, nay, must be of use for the healing of those very diseases with which they have infected the human race. With the accumulation of evil, generation after generation, the corrupt state of the human race has so much the greater need of those temptations whereby alone spiritual purification can be effected; and so the loves of self, now embodied in hell, are held to their service. But the service is no longer the free service of willing servants, but the vile and enforced service of slaves.

     Thus it is, even on earth. Loose the bonds of society, and all spiritual life would be impossible; all order would disappear, and the human race would perish in an orgy of anarchism and crime. It is the laws of Divine Order that now hold society together, and render it possible, not only for men to be regenerated, but even for the evil to be permitted, within certain limits, to indulge in their evil loves. Nevertheless, by a life of order, that is to say, of uses, those loves are restrained within limits, and are thus held in leash. And then, instead of destroying society, they can be of use for its purification, even as poisons, when held under the control of true art, can be used as healing medicines. An illustration of this is given in the Spiritual Diary, where Swedenborg tells of a conversation he had with a spirit who hated all the faithful, and called them his enemies. "I said to him," says Swedenborg, "that while I knew he intended evil, and would inflict injury, yet he was obliged to perform use, and that the law of order was such that the evil also must perform use to their enemies; namely, that it was perceived by a spiritual idea that by persecutions and punishments good things result, and his enemies become better, at which he was very indignant, namely, at hearing that he would be of such a use to his enemies." (S. D. 2922b.)

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     This is the use performed by the spirits of evil men on earth; and after death they continue to perform this vile service to the human race, each being used for the promotion of the good of that part of the Gorand Man for which he was created. But since this would not be possible unless they were compelled to perform actual uses to each other, therefore the whole of hell is a great prison or workhouse wherein all are compelled to do some work of use for their fellows, and for the whole society, each according to his gifts.

     Like the work of the angels, this work is indescribable, except in the language of correspondences. In itself, it is similar to the work of heaven, for it is ordered and enforced by the laws of Divine Truth. We read: "The works of hell have correspondences with the heavens, but not so the infernal spirits themselves." (S. D. 6088.) Again we read: "In hell, everyone is compelled to do good and useful work, but not from affection therefor." (Charity 157, 196.) Speaking in the language of appearances, their work then consists in providing food, clothing, and habitation for their fellows in the society, and in the institution and maintenance of orderly government. But their food and garments are poor, their dwellings unsightly, and their government but thinly disguised tyranny.

     Here we have an understanding of a double picture of the hells which is given in the Writings. On the one hand, they are presented as cities which, though ugly and dirty, yet have their officers to preserve order, their streets and squares, their public meetings, their private houses where each is secure in the enjoyment of his loves. This is the picture of hell as a society, every member of which compels himself, though merely from economic necessity. (A. E. 1164.) The other picture is of hells with poisonous plants, foul swamps, evil and dangerous wild beasts. This is hell seen as to the inner loves of its inhabitants. We can have the same contrasting scenes when considering a prison-house on earth.

     By their tasks, the evil are held in order, and thus restrained in the indulgence of their lusts. We read: "When they are in uses, they are not so much in torment; but when they cease to do uses, they are remitted into hell." (A. C. 696.)

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And further on: "Evil spirits are pardoned when they do evil, so long as they are in some use; but it is not permitted them to speak falsity. The reason is, that they may learn what truth is, and thus, as far as possible, may be emended, So as to serve some vile use." (A. C. 986.) Elsewhere we are told that by works the evil in hell are led away from the delights of their will (J. Post. 230); for "as long as they are in works they are not insane, since their works he-id their animus in prison and in bonds, so that it does not expatiate into the delirium of their lusts." (D. L. XV.) After their labors, they are indeed allowed their evils (T. 281), "private evils," if I may so call them (C. L. 264), but those evils are held in bonds, and so are used by the Lord for the reformation of men on earth, and for the continual purification of the heavens. These are the vile uses which the hells serve for the human race.

     This view of uses in the spiritual world gives us a wide and comprehensive view of the created universe as a kingdom ruled by the Lord. It enables us to realize that each man on earth is the subject and centre of innumerable spiritual societies, which concentrate into his deeds and thoughts an infinitude of spiritual uses; that if men are evil, they are the subjects of hell, and yet must be of service in the establishment of heaven; but that if they live in the order of heaven, and cultivate the love of uses, both spiritual and natural, they are means by which heaven is enriched, and by which the church is formed on earth, as a kingdom wherein the Lord freely bestows His heavenly gifts for the blessing of men.

     DISCUSSION OF DR. ACTON'S ADDRESS.

     Rev. K. R. Alden: The Assembly is to be congratulated upon the vision into the spiritual world which the papers from the beginning have given us. I cannot help reflecting that while the world teaches that man, when he dies, is dead, dust and ashes; while the Old Church idea of the spiritual world is altogether too vague to mean anything; we of the New Church have set ourselves the task of opening up the wonders of that world. We started our Assembly by viewing the spiritual world at the time of the Last Judgment, the preparation for the New Church. Then we were taken into heaven, as it were, by Bishop de Charms. Yesterday Mr. Odhner tackled the most difficult of all philosophical problems,-the means by which Mind operates upon Matter, the means by which the great spiritual world operates upon the natural world. And today Dr. Acton has just opened our eyes to the uses performed in the spiritual world. Seventeen years ago, when Dr. Acton presented a paper on the spiritual world at the Glenview Assembly, the church was not ready for the vision that he gave.

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He seemed to us to remove the reality of the spiritual world. Today he has given the vision in a new form, and I venture to say that you will all agree with me that today he has pictured the other world as a living world of uses which we all can understand; we can see how it flows into the uses and activities of the natural universe.

     I am very anxious to pay a tribute to Dr. Acton, before sitting down. It has come to my attention that a young man, during this Assembly, has made his decision to give his life to New Church education, to the priesthood. I could not help thinking, as I saw Dr. Acton standing before us today, of the story of his coming from England years ago, determined to give his life to the Lord's New Church. With singleness of purpose and absolute fidelity, Dr. Acton has pursued his course, laboring with the youth and the young ministers of the church. He has given to the young men of the church an ideal of labor and consistent work which will always be an inspiration to them. Today he turned aside the veil, and laid before us the uses of the heavens, which are the soul of the uses of this world.

     Mr. Frank Wilson also paid tribute to the speaker for the excellent paper on the doctrine of uses. "It is one of the subjects that Crops up for discussion more frequently, perhaps, than any other when the men of the church get together. For it teaches us intimately the economic structure of the world, of our own affairs in this world of ultimates. Not only has Dr. Acton given us a delightful picture of uses in the other world, but he has pointed out how the doctrine of uses, applied to conditions in this world, would in time tend to provide a remedy for the ills and evils of the present day. We are in the world of ultimate work, and yet it is a fact that, because of irregular conditions, many are unable to obtain sufficient for their livelihood. The doctrine of uses, applied to industrial affairs, would eventually solve that vital and pressing problem."

     Mr. Randolph W. Childs: I also rise to pay a tribute to Dr. Acton for the profound study represented in this paper, and I feel impelled to do so because I am one of those relies of the days of 1916 who has never been entirely reconstructed, and therefore have not been converted to Dr. Acton's view of the nature of the spiritual world. It is, however, a pleasure to realize that in the past fifteen years there has been a growth of freedom in the church which has given our ministers an opportunity to pursue deeply their studies of these subjects, and to express the results of their studies to a tolerant and appreciative public. Today we have confidence that these ministers are filled with humility, and bow down before the authority of the Writings. On the other hand, I think that there is today a little less conceit on the part of those who have not the opportunity to make profound studies. It is a source of great benefit to the church that this state of freedom exists. On the other hand, it is useful that we should not merely express appreciation of such papers as these, but that we should give a reaction.

     There is such a thing as being too gullible in accepting conclusions which are the result of long study.

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These papers,-the one the Bishop gave us, Bishop de Charms', Mr. Odhner's, and now Dr. Acton's,-cannot be digested by us until we ourselves study them. None of the men who gave these papers seems to have the same point of view, and it is wise not to neglect to consider the various shades of opinion which they obviously present. I find it difficult, for instance, to agree with Dr. Acton's apparent depreciation of the ultimates of spiritual uses. We must study the subject further, and try to come to some balanced conclusions.

     Rev. Gustaf Baeckstrom: Dr. Acton is able to give us profound thoughts on spiritual subjects in a way that everyone of us is able to understand. During the year he spent in Sweden he taught a doctrinal class which I think most of our people could understand, even when he spoke to us in Swedish. At this Assembly I have had the sensation of enjoying a very wonderful wine, and today we have had a strong draught. Yet we stand on our feet-at least, I do! But I would particularly like to say that the papers of Bishop de Charms and Dr. Acton, on kindred subjects, could be used as missionary works, almost without change. And if there is permission, I would be glad to translate them into Swedish and use them for that purpose.
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS AND THE NEW CHURCH 1930

WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS AND THE NEW CHURCH       ARTHUR CARTER       1930

     LIFE IN LETTERS OF WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS. Edited by Mildred Howells. 2 Vols. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc., 1928.

     William Dean Howells, the American novelist, was born of New Church parents. Receivers of a past generation were familiar with the name of his father, William Cooper Howells, as the author of several doctrinal pamphlets. One, for example, was entitled "Science of Correspondences; or, the relation of spirit to matter, considered as a means of Scriptural interpretation," a lecture delivered at the New Jerusalem Temple of Toronto, November 25th, 1878. (Toronto: R. Carswell, 1878, 16 pp.) From 1878 to 1883 the elder Howells held the post of United States Consul at Toronto, and regularly attended services at the old Elm Street Church in the Canadian city. Occasionally the old gentleman occupied the pulpit. And this writer distinctly remembers having seen the novelist himself, with the other members of the family, in the accustomed pew.

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     Howells first saw the light of day at Martin's Ferry, Ohio, in 1837. The father, a printer by trade, made a precarious living as newspaper proprietor, at one time and another, in several of the smaller towns of the Buckeye State: in Hamilton, in Dayton, in Ashtabula, and finally in Jefferson. Before attaining the age of ten, the novelist was initiated into the printers' craft, "because," he says, "it was part of his father's Swedenborgian philosophy that everyone should fulfill a use."

     The isolation of the family from all of a similar faith deprived the novelist in his boyhood of any church associations, and his religious instruction was little more than what his father was able or willing to impart. He says: "I have been received, with three or four brothers and sisters, into the Swedenborgian communion by a passing New Church minister, but there were no services of our recondite faith in Hamilton, and we shared no public worship after my mother followed my father from the Methodist society."

     Later, when describing his life in a log cabin near Xenia on the Little Miami, whither his father had moved to engage in an abortive milling enterprise, he writes: "Now and then a New Church minister, of those who used to visit us in town, passed a Sunday with us in the cabin, and that was a rare time of mental and spiritual refreshment for her (his mother). Otherwise my father read us a service out of the Book of Worship or a chapter from the Heavenly Arcana. (Years of My Youth.)

     Circumstances compelled Howells to leave school when a mere lad, that he might work as a printer on his father's publications. But he read widely, practiced writing assiduously, and in other ways endeavored to repair the lack of systematic education which, in after life, he was wont to deplore. At the age of twenty-one he had graduated from printer to editorial writer on the OHIO STATE JOURNAL of Columbus, and the story of his subsequent career is that of a gradual and uninterrupted rise to an eminent place in the annals of American letters.

     In 1861, Howells was fortunate in securing the post of United States Consul at Venice, happily escaping the tribulations of the Civil War. While abroad he married Elinor Gertrude Meade, of Brattleboro, Vermont, a lady whom he had met in Columbus when she was spending a vacation with friends.

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Returning to his native land in 1865, he definitely entered upon a literary career. For a decade he edited the ATLANTIC MONTHLY; for an even greater length of time he contributed critical studies to HARPERS; and for a generation his fiction was a familiar feature of the better class of periodicals.

     In his autobiographical sketch, entitled Years of My Youth, Howells informs us that while residing in Columbus (1857-60) he considered and professed himself a New Churchman. This profession established a lasting friendship between himself and a Mrs. Carter, "a devout Swedenborgian," and an influential lady of the town. "She was," he says, "of a social genius which would have made her in any great-worldlier capital the leader she was in ours. Her house expressed her, so that when her home finally changed to another the new house obeyed the magic of her taste and put on the semblance of the first, with a conservatory breathing through it the odor of her flowers and the murmur of the dove that lived among them: herself a flower-like and bird-like presence, delicate, elegant, such as might have been fancied of some fine, old-world
condition in a new-world reading of it."

     Visiting Columbus after an extended absence, Howells called upon Mrs. Carter and found that she had virtually abandoned her former beliefs, that she had become skeptical, declaring that Swedenborgianism might be a "pleasing fancy, if you will, but not a philosophy." Long years elapsed ere he heard of her again, and then it was that his old friend had returned to the fold and had died in her original faith at the mature age of eighty.

     From the time he left Columbus until twelve years later, Howell's letters contained no reference to the New Church or his religious opinions. In the interval he had fallen away from the Doctrines and definitely assumed the Arian position. Writing to his father from Boston on January 28th, 1872, he says:

     "All goes on with us here much in the old way; but for the past week we've suspended our theological readings. The fact is the subject has grown a little too exciting, and I should willingly never resume it if I did not think it a duty to do so. In Swedenborg I'm disappointed because I find that he makes a certain belief the condition of entering the kingdom of heaven. I have always thought that it was a good life he insisted upon, and I inferred from such religious training as you gave me that it made no difference what I believed about the Trinity, or the divinity of Christ, if only I did right from a love of doing right.

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Now it appears to me from the Testament that Christ was a man directly, instead of indirectly, begotten by a divine father; and for this persuasion, which I owe to the reason given me of God, Swedenborg tells me I shall pass my eternal life in an insane asylum. This is hard, and I can't help revolting from it. I am not such a fool as to think I can do the highest good from myself, or that I am anything in myself; but I don't see why I cannot be humble and true and charitable, without believing that Christ was God. I am greatly disappointed, and somewhat distressed in this matter. At times I am half-minded never to read another word of theology, but to cling blindly to the moral teachings of the Gospels. I should like extremely to talk with you."

     Writing again to his father about a month later, February 25th, 1872, Howells says:

     "By the way, what did you think of Jame's notice of Owen's book in the ATLANTIC? I believe that he pressed too far the idea of an impersonal immortality-which practically is no immortality at all. I suppose that I understand Swedenborg very dimly, but if I do understand him, it seems to me that man's state hereafter, whether in bale or bliss, is one of less dignity than on earth-that there is less play for his powers, and that the very union of his will and intellect deprives him of individual consciousness, and cripples him.-There are a thousand points upon which I'd like to talk with you."

     It might here be pertinent to deal with the obvious half-truths and fallacies set down in the first of the two extracts above, but space forbids in a review of this description. The second extract is merely peevish, and provokes the query as to how much Howells had read of Swedenborg's treatment of the future life, or how much he had forgotten.

     Like Howells, the James brothers, William and Henry, were not in sympathy with the religious views of their very eccentric father, Henry James, Sr.,* who has been not incorrectly termed "a Swedenborgian Ishmaelite."

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The home life of the James's has been humorously pictured by Howells (April 23, 1871), who discloses a family conspiracy for the suppression of the head of the house; suggesting, very forcibly, as old-time version of "Bringing Up Father." To quote:
     * "The little, fat, rosy Swedenborgian amateur, with the looks of a broker and the heart and brains of a Pascal,"-Ellery Channing. Howells once complained that James, Sr., had written a book about "The Secret of Swedenborg," and had kept it.

     "Last night we went to dine at the James's and had a very pleasant evening. The most amusing thing was the visible constraint put upon old Mr. James by his family. Now and then he'd break out and say something that each of the others had to modify and explain away, and then he'd be clapped back into durance again."

     In the early nineties Howells exchanged a number of letters with Howard Pyle, author, illustrator, and New Churchman, in some of which he reveals his state of mind with unusual frankness. Amidst his denials, doubts, and uncertainties, a lingering trace of Swedenborg's influence is faintly visible. The contradictory mood in which he wrote to his father many years before is no longer evident, and the New Church conception of the future life is declared to be even reasonable. After complimenting Pyle upon the merits of his remarkable story, In Tenebras (December 22, 1890), he calls it true " because it is consonant with the most reasonable conjecture of the life hereafter." He continues:

     "You have written a romance which I think will visibly impress every reader. It is most real to me from beginning to end, and it interests me all the more because I have had it in mind myself to write a story of the future life, on an extended scale, using Swedenborg for my entourage. I venture to suggest that you leave out the explicit references to Swedenborg and the New Church, because I'm afraid they will circumscribe your audience. I wish we could meet, and talk again. Letters are not my natural expression, though literature is; I feel that I don't get myself out in them; my phrases hide me. You are a man I would like to be sincere with, that is, appear no better than I am; and I tell you honestly that for the greater part of the time I believe in nothing, though I am afraid of everything. I do not always feel sure that I shall live again, but when I wake at night the room seems dense with spirits. Since this dream which I wrote out for my father I have had others about my daughter, fantastic and hideous, as if to punish me for my unbelief."

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     Writing to Pyle a year later (January 30, 1891) he says:

     "Are you reading James's Psychology? I am, with the interest of knowing his Swedenborgian origin. The book is an important one. James is one of the few scientific me who do not seem to snub one's poor, humble hopes of a hereafter.-What you said of Swedenborg and of Heaven and Nell in your last was curiously comfortable to me. I have long supposed that he sometimes mistook phases for states. Your story (In Tenebras) lingers with me in all its details. What have you done with it? I could not help mentioning it to Alden. It is a true and fine piece of imaginative literature; and better, I believe it is true of what we shall know more of in another world-if there is one."

     One more quotation from Howell's letters to Pyle, because of its reference to a name familiar in New Church circles:

     "What have you been doing of late? Any more Swedenborgian fiction? I should like to read another story of yours in that kind. At Chicago, Burnham, the Director of Works at the Fair, who is of Swedenborgian training, told me that when he told his mother of the magnificent consensus of wills and aims in the capitalists and artists who created its beauty, she saw in it a vision of the New Jerusalem, and a direct leading of the Lord toward the 'wonder that would be,' when all men work in harmony, and not in rivalry."

     That the most beloved actor of the American stage was a New Churchman is a fact perhaps not generally known by receivers of the Doctrines. Yet such is Howell's statement in a note to his father:

     "Last night I went with Pilla to see Jefferson in 'Rip Van Winkle,' and renewed my early manhood in the joy of his beautiful acting; I had not seen the piece in twenty years. He made a speech at the end, full of tender feeling; these are his last performances of it (October, 1892). He is a very sweet old man, and, did you know, a Swedenborgian."

     William Cooper Howells died in August, 1894. Twelve years later, writing to Mark Twain, the novelist dwells upon the serenity of his father's passing, and alludes to a situation in his home which might explain something of his own skepticism.

     "Now and then in these latter days I realize that I shall die, hitherto having regarded it as problematical, and the sense of it is awful.

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That is nonsense, but the notion does not present itself conceivably. My wife does not let me discuss these ideas with her, and so I keep them for my own edification. When my father was eighty-seven he once said to me that he had thought it all out the night before, and now he was satisfied. Perhaps each has to come to some such settlement with himself."

     When his wife died in August, 1910, the novelist was plunged into the blackest despair and unbelief. Writing to William James, he said: "I wish I could believe in a meeting with her, but she believed in none, and how can I!" He repeats the same hopeless thoughts at greater length when writing to his brother, Joseph A. Howells:

     "I do not know whether I believe that we shall meet again. What I am sure of is that it will all be arranged without consulting me, as my birth was, and her death. I feel that we are in the power of an awful force, but whether of fatherly love, I could not honestly say anything. I submit, and we must all submit. When I consider how I long to sleep and forget myself, I cannot truly say that an eternal sleep would be an evil; only it seems to me that it would not be fair from the Creator to His creature. But again I submit."

     Four years after the death of his wife, Howells again discusses Swedenborg. He cannot accept him; yet he cannot ignore him. He seems almost to wish that the descriptions of the spirit's awakening in the other life were true. Nor does he quite approve of his sister's deviation from the path of loyalty to indulge in vapory imaginings. This letter is addressed to Mrs. J. G. Mitchell, and is dated February 9, 1914.

     "I was thinking after I read your letter about Joanna, with its touching appeal for knowledge that no one really has, or ever can have, that I would send you Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell, which would interest you at least as a stupendous piece of imagination, if not as revelation. I do not quite accept it as that any more, but I cannot help wondering at the realistic circumstantiality of his account of the spirit after its arrival in the other world, when the celestial angels come to rouse it to consciousness, and leave it to choose its companionship among the souls that it likes best. Then I opened a letter from my sister Aurelia (at Lausanne), which had come with yours, and I read this in it: 'Do you know I do not feel or believe all-of Swedenborg's doctrines of the life after death,' she having been the most strenuous in her faith.

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'I sometimes feel as if they were almost as obsolete as the old orthodox wings, and palms, etc. I have a belief growing up in my heart that the future life will be just what we most want it to be: that is, at least, at first it will be a glorified earthly life; that the world of spirits will be a glorified earth, and our friends will be waiting within, and we shall live very much as we do here, only perfectly instead of imperfectly, and the characters will be sweeter and more charitable, and absolutely truthful.' I think there is something in this, though of course it has the vagueness of all endeavor to imagine the future. What is so prodigious in Swedenborg is that he imagines everything in detail, and portrays it in line and not in color. There is something to grip. I wonder if you have read the book."

     William Dean Howells died on May 10th, 1920, in his eighty-fourth year. The published letters of the novelist for the last six years of his life are bare of anything relating to his religious opinions or state of mind when the end came.
APPEARING OF THE LORD IN HEAVEN 1930

APPEARING OF THE LORD IN HEAVEN              1930

     "Because all receive the heaven which is without them according to the quality of the heaven which is within them, therefore they receive the Lord in like manner, since the Divine of the Lord makes heaven. Hence it is that when the Lord presents Himself as present in any society, He appears there according to the quality of the good in which the society is, thus not in the same manner in one society as in another; not that this dissimilitude is in the Lord, but in those who see Him from their own good, thus according to that good. Moreover, the angels are affected at the sight of the Lord according to the quality of their love. Those who love Him inmostly are inmostly affected; those who love Him less are less affected; and the evil, who are outside of heaven, are tortured at His presence. When the Lord appears in any society, He appears there as an Angel; but He is distinguished from others by the Divine which shines through." (Heaven and Hell 55.)

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THANKSGIVING BECAUSE OF THE LORD'S COMING 1930

THANKSGIVING BECAUSE OF THE LORD'S COMING       Rev. GEORGE DE CHARMS       1930

     AN ADDRESS TO CHILDREN

     The Lord is good. His mercies are more than we can number. Every day He pours out blessings upon us. He created the world that we might dwell therein. He gives us food to eat that we may grow, clothes to wear that we may be warm, homes where we may be protected from all harm. He gives us fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters, companions. He has filled the world with animals, and birds, trees and flowers, mountains and streams, and thousands of other beautiful things, that we may have all that is needful for our life and happiness. He has given us a body and a mind by which we may see, and feel, taste, hear, and touch with keen delight the wonders of His creation. We cannot begin to mention all the things for which we should "give thanks unto Him and bless His name."

     This is always true. But there is one time in the year when men have ever turned to the Lord to express their gratitude for all His mercies. It is the time of harvest, when the grain and the fruit which have grown from the spring planting have been garnered and stored up for the cold winter months. All life is from the Lord. All growth is the result of His bountiful giving. Men may till the soil and plant the seeds; they may remove the weeds, and tend the growing plants; but the Lord alone can make the sun to shine and the rain to fall. He alone can cause life to inflow, that the seed may sprout, may send forth roots, and stalk and leaves, and at last may produce the grain and the fruit for us to eat. All this is a miracle. It is a living proof of the Lord's presence, a testimony of His loving-kindness, a witness that He wishes to take care of us, and to make us strong, and well, and happy. For this reason, men have, from the beginning of the world, chosen the time of harvest as a season in which to give thanks to the Lord, as to a merciful Heavenly Father.

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     We think of these things which the Lord gives us as blessings, because they minister to the needs of our bodies. But within them there is an even greater blessing. The Lord performs these wonders before our eyes, in order that we may see and know that He is near. He wishes us to perceive His wisdom and His love when we look upon them, that we may love Him in return. This will do more than feed our bodies. It will bring us among the angels, and open before us the way to heaven, that we may receive joy and blessedness forever.

     If we should accept all that the Lord does for us, reaping the harvest of His providing every year, and yet should forget Him, should think only of ourselves, neglecting to offer thanks for all His mercies, then, although we might receive everything necessary to our life on earth, we would never be able to come into heaven after death. We might think that we were happy for a little time here, but in the other world we would be poor, and miserable, among the evil who are forever shut out of the kingdom of the Lord. We would then be like the man of whom we read in the Word, whose ground brought forth plentifully, until all his barns were filled to overflowing, and he said within himself, " What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do; I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. And God said unto Him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." (Luke 12:16-21.)

     The real purpose of all growth, the real purpose of the harvest which the Lord provides in such abundance every year, is not that we should merely eat, drink, and be merry, but that we should become rich toward God-that we should learn to love the Lord, to worship Him from the heart, and give thanks to Him for all His blessings. This enables the Lord to bestow upon us a greater blessing,-fruits that will give food to the soul, a harvest that will bring us into everlasting happiness in heaven.

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     If you truly love the Lord, you will love to think about Him. You will love to learn from His Word, to hear about His kingdom. You will love to keep His commandments, to do the things He asks of you. The things that the Lord teaches in His Word are like seeds, which, when they are learned, are planted in your minds. There the Lord shines upon them with the sun of heaven, that they may spring up and bring forth fruit-the kind of fruit that the angels eat, the beautiful trees and plants that grow in the other world. Such a spiritual harvest can be produced only for those who love the Lord, and who learn the truths of His Word while they live here on earth. For these, when they go to the other world, the Lord creates gardens, paradises, parks, broad meadows filled with flowers, groves and forests, where birds build their nests, and under whose shade deer and other gentle animals roam free. All this He creates, and gives to them, with a beautiful house to be their home, wherein they may enjoy every blessing forever.

     The more we love the Lord, the more we learn from Him the way of life, the more we try to do His will while we are here on earth, the more He can give us of heavenly delights in the other world. Wherefore, the greatest blessing of all is to see and know the Lord.

     This being the case, think how blessed were the little children who knew the Lord while He was on earth, who heard Him speak, and learned to love Him. You remember how they gathered around Him. They felt happy just to be near Him, to feel the gentle touch of His hand and hear His voice. The Disciples were afraid that they might annoy Him, and they wanted to drive them away. But the Lord loved the little children. He wanted to make them happy. And so He rebuked the Disciples, saying: "Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." And then "He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them."

     Only a few children could thus come near to the Lord to receive His blessing while He was in the world. For this great privilege they learned to be very, very thankful. But the Lord, by His Coming, has now made it possible for all little children in the world to draw near to Him. Do you realize that the Lord has come again, that you also may know the blessing of His mercy? You do not see Him as those other little children did.

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He does not seem to be here with you. And yet your parents and your teachers know that He has come again, in a wonderful way which as yet you cannot understand. He is now able to speak to them, to teach them, and to lead them, even as He taught and led His Disciples so many years ago.

     The New Church to which you belong is made up of those who see the Lord in His Second Coming, who hear His voice from heaven, who learn wonderful things from Him. As yet there are only a few in the world who know that He has come, but these rejoice with exceeding great joy, even as did the angels who proclaimed His birth in Bethlehem. As yet there are few children in the world who are able to learn the wonderful truths which the Lord now teaches,-truths which, if they are learned, and loved, will grow to form a great harvest in the other world. You are among those who can know from your parents that the Lord has come, even before you can see Him.

     And if you love Him, and keep His Word, He will draw near to bless you; He will care for you, and guard you, and lead you in the way to heaven. Especially can He do this when you open your hearts in thanks to Him for all His natural blessings,-for the fruits of the ground, and the grain of the harvest,-at the same time learning the things of His Word, loving them, cherishing them as things most precious. For then the Lord is with you, even though you do not see Him. He is with you, and the angels are with you, even as they were with the little children who lived so long ago. For this Coming of the Lord you should be thankful above all else, singing in your hearts for very joy the song which the angels sang in heaven when the Lord came to conquer the hells, and deliver the good from the power of evil spirits: "We give Thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, who art, and who wast, and who art to come, because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned."

LESSON: Luke 12: 16-32.
HYMNAL: 131-p. 200, 28-p. 104, 123-p. 196.

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NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1930

NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS       Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1930

     The Rainbow, Covenant. A. C. 1042, 1043.-The new conjunction of heaven and the church which was initiated by the doctrines of the Ancient Church is remarkably suggested by the rainbow, which, after a dark storm is over, gives its glorious assurance of renewed peace and light. It binds heaven and earth together. The ancient Norsemen believed it to be a bridge by which the celestial Valkyries carried the souls of the fallen heroes up to Valhalla. The bow, as a weapon, signifies doctrine, arrows meaning the truths of doctrine defending the church. When celestial perception had been destroyed, doctrine had to be given to mankind as the means of regeneration,-the means for building a spiritual conscience as a basis of salvation, and a plane for the presence of heaven with man. It is this, particularly, which is here pictured as a "rainbow,"-a token of the covenant with God.

     The rainbow-the spectrum of the sunlight-represents how the heavenly light of truth, which is intensely one to the celestials, is divided and modified by application to the many states of the natural man; how it is received piecemeal in natural experience, when reflected in the clouds and appearances of the lower mind. The spiritual, whose intellectual minds are filled with fallacies and worse, see the light only in its refractions, and must laboriously add its many elements together before they can perceive universal connections. Yet that refraction reveals to them the beauty of the light, and imparts innocence, mercy and charity, and thus helps to open the spiritual mind.

     On this account there are rainbows even in heaven, and the rainbow then signifies the Divine Truth in its order and beauty as seen in the heavens. (A. E. 269.) It also signifies the interior truth of the internal sense of the Word, reflected in the letter of the Scriptures, as the glory in the clouds of heaven in which the Lord promised to make His Second Advent. (Matt. 24: 30; A. E. 595:3.)

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The Lord's advent to the Noahtic Church and His advent to the New Jerusalem (with its foundation of iridescent jewels) were both effected by revelations of Doctrine rather than by personal manifestation. Such Doctrine the Ancient Church received as the Word of God to them (A. C. 1068e, 1071); and similarly, the Heavenly Doctrine is to us the Word of God for His New Church;-the rainbow of a new day, the terms of a new covenant of salvation.

     Shem, Ham and Japheth.-Among pious people in the world it is generally thought that all the races of man descended from Noah, and thus from one of his three sons. In the Writings it is shown that by these three sons are not meant racial divisions but the governing spiritual states within the Ancient Church. It is true, however, that the original stock of the Ancient Church was a remnant of the celestial race, called Noah (1073); and similarly, that each of Noah's spiritual progeny is represented by a group of nations and peoples (Gen. 10) whose religious characteristics, handed on by the contacts due to immigrations, conquests or civilizing trade influences, caused them to be represented in a genealogical relationship to each other. (See Correspondences of Canaan, by C. T. Odhner, chaps. vii to x, and especially the chart on p. 103.)

     Noah's Drunkenness.-One of the temptations of a new church is to drink too unwisely of the spiritual wine of new truth. Not that spiritual truth, in itself, is ever a danger. But in the beginning a new church "desires to investigate the things of faith by reasonings," and this leads into errors of application, as well as into heresies which the church, in its later and more mature states, regrets.

     Spiritual drunkenness is caused especially by the attitude of not wanting to believe anything without apprehending it by some sensual proof, by experiment, science or philosophy. This desire to procure faith and to "search into the mysteries of faith" by reasonings "from earthly, corporeal and material things," results in an unbalanced and irresponsible state, where errors abound (1071, 1072). In the history of our own church, there are instances of such states; as where whole societies gave themselves up to spiritualistic movements, in order to search for sensual confirmation of the doctrines concerning the spiritual world, or where church-bodies have gradually lost strength because of sophisticated or dilettante intellectualism, which made human reason, rather than the authority of Divine Revelation freely accepted, the criterion and measuring-stick of truth.

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     To some this may seem to be a "hard saying"; yet it is only common sense. No condition favorable to progress in the perception of religious truths is established, unless there be, first of all, the desire to believe,-the love of truth, the affirmative attitude which is willing to see. Sensual proofs, however abundant, bring no faith except in things seen and felt by the experience of the senses, or in the direct deductions which reason makes from this. "Those who start with a negative state never believe, because the negative principle reigns universally with them, and . . . (then) those scientifics which deny inflow and are collected together, but not such as confirm." (A. C. 6383.)

     Whatever steps a man must take to arrive at the recognition of the Word and the Writings as authoritative truth, it is a fact that all real progress is held up until this becomes clear in his mind. Until then, he is the prey of doubt and vacillation and confusion of thought. It is different when he has seen the glory in the clouds, when he has become convinced of the wholeness and Divine consistency of these Revelations. Then he achieves the affirmative principle, which is "to affirm the things appertaining to doctrine derived from the Word, as when a man says and believes with himself that 'these things are true because the Lord has said so.' This principle is what leads to all intelligence and wisdom." (A. C. 2568.)

     True New Churchmen, when anything obscure, which they cannot understand, comes before them, will follow the directions of the Arcana, and "defer the matter, and never suffer such a thing to bring them into doubt, saying that there are but very few things they can apprehend; and therefore the thought that anything is not true, just because they do not apprehend it, would be madness." (A. C. 1072.)

     The Lord spoke of the worldly-wise learned when He said that a rich man had no more chance for heaven than a camel had to so through the eye of a needle. But Science and Philosophy, in themselves considered, are not invalidated by this warning against spiritual inebriety.

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The sciences useful for the forming of a rational mind are enumerated in the Writings (D. M. 4518, 4657; S. D. 3460; C. L. 163, etc.), even while warnings are given against their improper use. Philosophical things are also extolled as proper means to confirm religious truths. But our temptation is to think of spiritual things from our own particular science or our own limited field of experience, rather than to think of our own natural and rational experience from the light inherent in purely rational, moral and spiritual truths. For in spiritual, moral and rational things, truths appear from their own light, "provided the man, from a just education, has become a little rational, moral and spiritual." (D. P. 317.) New Church education is directed to ensure the laying of this basis in the minds of youth, which will enable them to see "what is just and right in judicial affairs, what is honorable in moral life, and what is good in spiritual life."

     Ham's Offense,-Charity is what makes conscience. The attitude of "Ham,"-that of loving to put an evil construction upon the errors of others, of deriding and publishing their faults, and of acting the part, not of a friendly mentor, but of an accusing spirit, is contrasted in the Arcana with that of "Shem" and "Japheth," who covered their father's nakedness. " Noah"-the parent church-had erred from simplicity rather than from malice. "Those in charity think nothing but good of their neighbor, and speak only well of him...." (A. C. 1088.)

     By "Shem" and "Japheth," the Internal Church and the External Church are represented. As long as these act in concert, all is well with the Church. Few, relatively, belong to the internal church, their consciences being furnished with many things from the internal sense of the Word. (A. C. 6587, 1098.) But many may, like Japheth, "dwell in the tents of Shem"; and this is the sign of one's doing so: "When a man feels or perceives in himself that he thinks well concerning the Lord and that he has good thoughts concerning the neighbor, and desires to perform offices for him, not for the sake of any gain or honor for himself; and when he feels that he has pity for anyone who is in trouble, and still more for one who is in error in respect to the doctrine of faith, then he may know that he 'dwells in the tents of Shem,' that is, that he has internal things in him through which the Lord is working." (A. C. 1102.)

736


NOTES AND REVIEWS 1930

NOTES AND REVIEWS              1930


NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office a Publication, Lancaster, Pa.
Published Monthly By
THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
BRYN ATHYN, PA.
Editor                    Rev. W. B. Caldwell, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager          Mr. H. Hyatt, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address and business communications should be sent to the Business Manager.

     TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
$3.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single Copy, 30 cents.
     REPORT OF THE BRITISH ASSEMBLY.

     A very full account of the Twenty-third British Assembly, held at Michael Church, Burton Road, London, August 24, 1930, has been sent to us by the Secretary, the Rev. Victor J. Gladish, and is now in type. Publication, however, must be deferred, in order that the valuable papers read on that occasion, and the long and interesting discussions which ensued, may appear in print together. Our readers will find this Report a very stimulating and instructive feature of our December number. It will be accompanied with an excellent group-photograph of the meeting.

     EMERSON FROM ANOTHER ANGLE.

     It has been the vogue in the New Church to cite Emerson's superlative praise of Swedenborg as a testimonial, omitting or suppressing the equally disparaging things that came from the same pen. Our own view that his contact with the theology and philosophy of the New Church was but superficial has been confirmed by the studies of Professor Hotson, noted from time to time in these pages. And it is not surprising to find that there are those in the literary world who are discovering this superficiality, but who at the same time are disparaging Emerson because of his leaning toward Swedenborg.

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     To test Emerson by his own appraisals of others, James Truslow Adams recently re-read the essays on Representative Men, where he treats of Plate, Swedenborg, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Napoleon, and Goethe, and professes amazement at the shallowness of these essays. With ill-disguised contempt, Mr. Adams says: "It is illuminating that the one he dwells on with greatest admiration is Swedenborg. This fact is significant. For him, the Swedish mystic is a 'colossal soul,' the 'last Father in the Church,' 'not likely to have a successor,' compared with whom Plate is a 'gownsman,' whereas Lycurgas and Caesar would have to bow before the Swede. Emerson quotes from him as 'golden sayings' such sentences as 'in heaven the angels are advancing continually to the spring-time of their youth, so that the oldest angel appears the youngest,' or 'it is never permitted to any one in heaven to stand behind another and look at the back of his head; for then the influx which is from the Lord is disturbed."' Again, Mr. Adams avers: "If Emerson's mysticism led him too easily toward Swedenborg, rather than toward Plato, and if the beauty of his spiritual interpretation of the universe does not carry that conviction or mold his readers as it should, may we not wonder whether there were not some fundamental flaws in the mind of the man that may explain his decreasing influence." (Atlantic Monthly, October, 1930, pp. 485, 487.)

     THE SEPTEMBER "BULLETIN."

     We were glad to be able to read in print the talk given by Professor Camille Vinet at the opening of the Academy Schools on September 10th, which appears as the first article in the September issue of the Sons of the Academy BULLETIN. His words of wisdom on the true source of happiness, as to be found only in a life of use and work, went home to all his hearers, and provided both students and teachers with a watchword for the year's activities. "'I have too much work to do' is a, common complaint. But the very fact that people complain proves that they have moments of leisure, because when you are really busy you have no time for complaining." This and other articles, editorial comments, and news of the Sons' activities, make a spicy and informative issue that should be in the hands of all our readers.

     The BULLETIN, edited by the Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner, is now published half-yearly, and will be sent for $1.00, upon application to the Business Manager, Mr. Morel Leonard, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

738


DISTINCTIVENESS VERSUS EXCLUSIVENESS. 1930

DISTINCTIVENESS VERSUS EXCLUSIVENESS.              1930

     Every true lover of the New Church and its Heavenly Doctrines cherishes a desire and a longing that others may be blest with a knowledge of those Doctrines. The genuine love of truth is one with charity and love of the neighbor, and wills that others may have the knowledge of revealed truth, and of the new life which it brings to men.

     One who has been brought to a knowledge of the New Church, and who has come into the true charity of that Church, also regards it as a signal privilege to belong to the visible and organized Church of the New Jerusalem in the world, where he may associate with those who see and know the Lord in His Second Coming, and who worship Him in the light and love of the New Revelation. He wishes to promote the growth and establishment of the visible, external church, to the end that it may be the means of establishing the invisible church in the interiors of men. In his heart there is a ruling acknowledgment that he has been blest of Providence, and he offers a humble thanksgiving to the Lord for the privilege, the opportunity, and the responsibility that have been vouchsafed him. He believes in his heart that the knowledge of the truth has been granted him for his great need, for his salvation, and not because he is more worthy than the many who have not been so blest.

     Such is the spirit of a New Churchman who has been interiorly humbled by his effort to live the life of the New Church. He has overcome the inclination to reflect with pride upon his membership in the Church of the Second Coming, and has striven against any prompting to look with contempt upon the less fortunate in the Christian and gentile worlds. Rather, as we have said, he longs to see others-all others-similarly blest. In other words, his love for the distinctive truth and life of the New Church is not selfish and exclusive; for while he knows that the Lord has come to all men, he also knows that men can come to the light and joy of the New Church only through a knowledge of the truths revealed in the Writings,-a, knowledge, and a reception of the Lord in a faith of understanding and a reformation of life,-which leads inevitably to an association with others in that visible church where the Lord is known and worshipped, where the sacraments are administered as the ultimate bond of conjunction with the Lord, and where there is a sharing of spiritual blessings from mutual love.

739




     In this spirit there is a love and respect for the distinctive Church,-the specific Church of the Lord,-but that spirit is far from one of exclusiveness, of that pride of the elect which is typified in the Word by Jonah's refusal to evangelize the Ninevites, and by the Pharisees, who were told that the kingdom of God would be taken from them, and "given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof."

     We are moved to record these thoughts by the fact that not a few avowed New Churchmen today are proclaiming their disbelief in an organized New Church, even holding that Swedenborg contemplated no such thing. They regard it as a presumption to call the organized body "The New Church," and style those "exclusive" who believe in a specific, visible Church, to which the Christian remnant and gentiles are invited to come. Moreover, they hold that many in the world who know nothing about the Writings may know the Lord in His Second Coming and belong to the New Church, in support of which they quote the teachings of the Writings to the effect that all in the world who have religion are of the Lord's Church. Thus they not only confuse the clear teaching concerning the distinction between the church universal and the church specific, but they seem to be affected with a false sensitiveness about calling the organized body the "Church of the New Jerusalem" and the "New Church," as though the members of such a body were indulging the arrogance of superiority by so doing, and manifesting a wish to exclude others from the kingdom of the Lord on earth,-something that is wholly foreign to the true spirit of the New Church.

     It is hardly necessary for us to cite the teachings concerning the Church Specific and the Church Universal, but let us note this one statement:

     "There can be no conjunction with heaven unless somewhere on earth there is a church where the Word is, and where the Lord is thereby known; for the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, and without Him there is no salvation. It is sufficient that there be a church where the Word is, even if it consist of comparatively few; by it, nevertheless, the Lord is present everywhere in the whole world, for by it heaven is conjoined to the human race." (S. S. 104.)

     In the light of this teaching, together with many other passages of a like import, it is perfectly legitimate for New Churchmen to desire to preserve and protect the distinctive New Church, for the sake of its use, not only to its members, but also to the whole world, and to the heavens; nor is this desire to be confused with a pride of exclusiveness which no genuine New Churchman feels.

740


One form of exclusiveness, however, is perfectly legitimate,-that the New Church is to be preserved in its integrity and distinctiveness as to doctrine and life, that it may be worthy of the Lord's presence, that it may fulfill its function as a pathway to heaven and a haven of spiritual peace for the souls who are brought to its portals, and that its light may shine as a beacon to the whole world. "And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they who are written in the Lamb's book of life."

     As an example of the view we have been discussing, we may cite a recent expression of it in THE NEW AGE (Australia). The Editor has held "that the New Church in visible form consists of all those who accept the Lord in His Divine Human, and who strive to apply to their lives the internal sense of the Word." And he asks: "Can anyone seriously suggest that such conditions can apply anywhere other than where Swedenborg is acknowledged as the Divinely-appointed instrument of the Second Advent?" A correspondent replies as follows:

     "I would unreservedly agree that all who accept the Lord in His Divine Human, and who strive to apply to their lives the internal sense of the Word, are members of the New Church; but I, for one, would most certainly suggest that such conditions can apply elsewhere than where Swedenborg is known and acknowledged. By the Divine Human I understand the Lord as He accommodates Himself to man's capacity-the Lord acting as a medium whereby He must reach down to our level-thus the Divine Truth. And to accept Him in His Divine Human, I understand, is to receive such truth as we know into the heart. It is not the amount of truth that is essential; it is the use we make of what we have. It is spiritual acceptance that distinguishes.

     "I hope I appreciate the value of the sublime truths Swedenborg has given us, but to have a knowledge of them makes only an external difference between them.

741


Would you seriously suggest that a knowledge of his writings makes any difference in the sight of the Lord! You would have it that such a circumstance distinguishes the New Church 'invisible form,' but where, I ask, do you find from Swedenborg's description of the New Church that it can ever exist in visible form? He certainly often speaks of it as a specific Church, but this surely is quite a different thing. It is with him ever and always a spiritual, never a natural or visible organization."

     Further, this writer, as though he had never seen the plain teachings in the Writings concerning the institution of the Priesthood in the New Church, for the administration of the sacraments and rites, and for the sake of instruction and government, has this to say:

     "The grand mistake seems to me to be in endeavoring to localize the Lord's Church, which is the kingdom of heaven. To imagine that it can have a visible form, in which it dwells and through which it specifically functions. The New Church is not, and never can be, an external organization. It is ever and always a spiritual organization. Innumerable and divergent societies may and do form vehicles through which it may function-some but slightly, some more fully-but none with such fulness as to give them a warrant to monopolize the title, `The New Church.' . . . The appropriation of this name by our tiny organization is a very great hindrance to the spread of the truths of the Second Advent. When people, in a spirit of inquiry, say, 'The New Church! Why the New Church?' We reply, 'Because it is the Church of the Second Advent; we believe that the first Christian Church came to an end in the middle of the eighteenth century, and we now live in the time of the second or new Christian Church.' 'But,' they say, 'there are many Christian Churches still existing,-Roman Catholic, Church of England, etc. 'Yes,' we reply, 'but in the sense we mean there is only one Church existing at any one time.' 'Oh! and you are it!' is the scornful retort." (THE NEW AGE, August, 1930, pp. 311-313.)

     No one will deny that the church, in its essence, is spiritual,-a spiritual state of faith and charity in the minds of men. This is the internal church, known to the Lord alone. But this internal is like a palace in the air, or like a house without a foundation, if it be not ultimated in the body,-in the worship and works of the visible, external church,-a form fully contemplated in the Heavenly Doctrines.

742


Church News 1930

Church News       Various       1930

     CANADIAN NORTHWEST.

     After attending the General Assembly, I set out on my annual visit to the isolated members of the General Church in the Canadian Northwest, the first point on my itinerary being MODERN MANITOBA. The number of our people there has diminished since last year by the removal of Mr. Erdman Heinrichs and family to the Peace River District, and it is likely that the remaining family, that of Mr. John Heinrichs, will follow in the course of the next year. I remained with my Mother and two sisters three days, during which I conducted three doctrinal classes and one service.

     At WINNIPEG I spent two enjoyable days with the Jacob Peppler family, which I visited for the first time. They formerly lived near Justice, Manitoba, where the Rev. F. E. Waelchli called upon them; but for the last few years they have resided in Winnipeg. Unfortunately, their address was unknown to me until last year, and then they were absent on a trip to Kitchener at the time of my call. They have three children who will, we hope, be students in the Academy Schools in the not distant future.

     Two days were spent with Mr. Fred Roschman at REGINA, SASKATCHEWAN, during which time I accompanied him on his business rounds and we conversed about the Church, and the General Assembly, and friends in the Church. On one of our trips we went to the neighboring city of Moose Jaw, where I had hoped to meet Mr. Morden Carter, formerly of Toronto and Bryn Athyn, but now with the Western Canada Airways. Unfortunately he was out of town.

     During the four days of my stay at DAVIDSON, SASKATCHEWAN, instruction was given every morning to the five children of Mr. and Mrs. Pagon. In adaptation to their ages they were divided into two classes; the younger ones told about the New Church on the basis of selected portions of the Book of Revelation, and the older ones about the laws and life in the spiritual world, in explanation of certain questions and answers in the Rev. H. L. Odhner's First Elements of the True Christian Religion. On three evenings there were doctrinal classes, and on Sunday a service with the administration of the Holy Supper.

     At ROSTHERN, the New Church has had a considerable history, including the separation between the General Convention and the General Church. Only two of our families-the Hamms and the Bechs-remain there, but the impress of the past makes itself felt, as though the church there has a more defined form. While the interest is perhaps no more intense than at other points, it is concentrated, and the sympathy a direct one. This was the impression I gained in the five days of my ministrations there, and was perceived even in the four classes with the young people. The subject considered in these classes was that of Chapter W in the First Elements. The last class was devoted to the hearing and answering of questions, and led to an interested discussion of the nature and purpose of Revelation. There were also four doctrinal classes in the evenings, and at two of these we had the pleasure of welcoming friends who are members of the General Convention. Including these, the number of persons I met there was seventeen. A service, including the administration of the Holy Supper, was held on Sunday.

     At Rosthern, in company with Mr. Hamm, I had the honor of listening to an address by the Rt. Hen. W. L. McKenzie King, then Premier of Canada, and of dining with his party.

     The following five days I sojourned with the William and Nelson Evens families at OYEN, ALBERTA. Mr. Fred Bech, of Rosthern, who is in the employ of Mr. Wm. Evens, added one more to our numbers there. Instruction was given daily to the children.

743


At three of the four doctrinal classes persons not members of the New Church were present, and this added to the interest of the discussions. It was a pleasure to be able to bring to Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Evens the greetings of their daughter, Rita, who is attending the Seminary in Bryn Athyn, and to give them a favorable report of her progress in her studies. Owing to the difficulties in making good railway connections on the journey to the Peace River District, a service was held at Oyen on Saturday evening. The total number of persons who received the ministrations, including non-members, was nineteen.

     After three days and nights of travel I arrived at GORANDE PRAIRIE, the first of three points visited in the Peace River District, Last year, at the time of my visit, there was only one General Church home there,-that of Mr. and Mrs. John Lemky, but this year there were three. Two of the young people of the Lemky family have married and established homes of their own. The first doctrinal class was held at the newly founded home of Mr. Edward Lemky; two evenings later there was another class at the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Lemky. The service on Sunday was a full one, including the two sacraments and the rite of confirmation. The sacrament of Baptism was administered for Mr. O. L. Mackey, who was recently married to Miss Anna Lemky, and with whom, last year, I had very delightful conversations about the Doctrines. The attendance at the service was fifteen. In the afternoon, with Messrs. John Lemky, Jr., and Walter Lemky, I left by automobile for Pouce Coupe, B. C.,-a ninety-mile drive.

     At POUCE COUPE I spent one week. As forecast in my last year's report, the circle there has grown, by the following additions: Mr. George Starkey, Jr., has homesteaded on land adjoining that of his brother, Healdon; Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Hamm, although not definitely located, have been there since last fall; Mr. Erdman Heinrichs and family, and Mr. John Heinrichs, whose family will join him later; and Mr. Ted Hawley, of Kitchener, Ontario, who has located some thirty or forty miles west at Sunset Prairie.

     To this group I gave five doctrinal classes and conducted one service on a Sunday, with an attendance of twelve. In the afternoon of this day, Mr. and Mrs. E. Marshall Miller and family, of Dawson Creek, joined us, swelling our numbers to twenty-one.

     In the evening I accompanied the Millers to their home at DAWSON CREEK, where, on the following day, I baptized their infant daughter and gave instruction to the other children. On the last day of my stay in this new and interesting district, Mr. and Mrs. Miller took me sixty miles north to see the great Peace River, from which this territory takes its name. It was a delightful day and a pleasant drive, made notable by the sight of two glossy black young moose sporting on the road. So intent were they that they did not see us until we were within 150 yards of them, thus giving us ample time to obtain a good view.

     To conclude my report, I will append a general summary, giving statistics. The number of our members visited, including their children, totaled seventy-seven. Counting the non-members who attended one or more of our gatherings at the various points, about ninety persons received our ministrations. The members are distributed in groups of from one to fifteen persons, at ten points in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. The extreme distance separating the groups is between 1100 and 1200 miles, the shortest being twenty miles. Seven services of worship were held, and twenty-one doctrinal classes. The subjects presented at the doctrinal classes were as follows: Two papers on "Marriage" one on "Infants in the Other World"; one on the "Literal Sense of the Word as the Containant of its Spiritual and Celestial Senses"; finally, one on the "Sense of Touch." I held fifteen classes for children and young people. I officiated at two Baptisms, two Confirmations, and six administrations of the Holy Supper, to thirty-four communicants.

     As looking to future developments, there is good reason to hope that a society will be established in the Peace River District.

744


We now have thirty-four persons there, nearly all of whom are young people. With Pouce Coupe as the center, they are settled within a diameter of 120 miles. At Pouce Coupe there is a very active desire to promote the growth of the church in the district, and they are having worship regularly each Sunday, the service being read by one or other of three young men.
     HENRY HEINRICHS.

     THE PACIFIC COAST.

     On July 4th I arrived at Los ANGELES for a three weeks' visit, and on three Sundays conducted services, substituting for the pastor, the Rev. Henry Boef, while he and Mrs. Boef were on their wedding trip. It was a great pleasure to be again with the Los Angeles friends, whom I had visited for so many years. After the service on the last Sunday of my visit, a delightful social dinner was held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Davis, at which twenty-four persons were present. During the time of the Los Angeles stay, General Church members were visited at Ontario, Norco, and San Diego. At each of these places an account of the General Assembly was given, the endeavor being not so much to relate the events of that wonderful occasion, but rather to convey some idea of its spirit.

     Traveling from Los Angeles to PALO ALTO (thirty miles south of San Francisco) on July 24th, my train passed the one taking Mr. and Mrs. Boef to Los Angeles. For two weeks they had been visiting Mr. Beef's parents at San Francisco. At Pale Alto, Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Bundsen and their son Jerry reside. During a stay of one week, there were four evening doctrinal classes in the family circle. Some of these were occupied with answering questions which had been saved up from the reading of Divine Love and Wisdom. A service was held on Sunday, the 27th, this being the third successive Sunday on which a service had been conducted there by a minister, as Mr. Boef had officiated on the two preceding ones. There were present, besides the family, Mr. And Mrs. Frederide Bundsen, of Oakland, and the Messrs. Frederick Boef, Theodore Gladish, and Warren Reuter, from San Francisco. The two last named were on their world tour, and came to our gathering with the Rev Henry Boef's brother. At the Holy Supper there were six communicants.

     After the service, all remained for a most enjoyable social time, including dinner, in the beautiful Bundsen garden, and when evening came the good time was continued indoors to a late hour. Mr. and Mrs. Pierre Vinet and son, of Santa Cruz, were not able to be with us at the services, but later in the week they came to a doctrinal class.

     A call was made on the Rev. and Mrs. L. G. Jordan and their daughter, Miss Susan, at Oakland. I was not able to see Mrs. Jordan, who was very ill; but Mr. Jordan and I conversed for an hour on the state and life of the Church, both in the General Church and in the Church at large. About ten days later Mrs. Jordan passed to the other world. She will be affectionately remembered by her friends of earlier days in the East, where for a number of years Mr. Jordan was engaged in our church work.

     A call was also made on Mr. E. H. Nutter, in San Francisco, a prominent member of the General Convention, and a friend of the General Church. To some extent our conversation was on the state of the church, but principally on the doctrine of the Lord's Glorification, in which subject Mr. Nutter is deeply interested.

     On the long ride from San Francisco to PORTLAND, OREGON, I had the pleasure of the company of Mr. Bundsen, who was starting out on a business trip. We have two members of the General Church at Portland, Mr. Harry Putnam and Mrs. Bessie Sweet. A service was held on Sunday, August 3d, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Teucher, members of the Portland Society, and old-time friends of mine. Nine persons were present, including Mr. Bundsen and the Rev. Bjorn Johannsen, until recently pastor of the Portland Society.

745


On Thursday there was a doctrinal class, with an attendance of five. There were several pleasant social times in the small circle.

     On Saturday, August 9th, I arrived at SPOKANE, to remain for nine days. Two Sunday services were held. At the first there was an attendance of ten persons; and at the second of fifteen, all of whom partook of the Holy Supper. Also, at the second Sunday service, the baptism of the infant, the first child, of Mr. and Mrs. William E. Hansen was performed. There were four evening doctrinal classes, at each of which ten persons were present. In the Spokane Circle there is, as ever, an earnest interest in the Doctrines, not only with those who are older, but also with the young people. This interest was manifested both at the classes and in the conversations with members in their homes. Since my previous visit, two of the young people, Mr. Carith Hansen and Miss Margaret Hansen, left to make their home at San Diego, where I saw them when visiting there, as also afterwards when they came to Los Angeles to attend the services. Miss Margaret was then planning to make her home at Los Angeles, and is likely there now. This is another instance of what I frequently find in my work,-a loss in one locality becoming a gain in another.

     The next place visited was WALLA WALLA, in the State of Washington. An indication of how earnest is the desire of the circle here to receive instruction in spiritual things was evidenced by the fact that during my stay of one week there were six evening doctrinal classes, with an average attendance of six. At the service on Sunday, August 24th, there were twelve persons present, including four children. The Walla Walla Circle meets regularly for a service on the first Sunday of each month, using New Church Sermons. Soon after my visit there, the eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lee Fine, members of the Circle, left for Bryn Athyn to attend school.

     Three days were spent at LA GORANDE, OREGON, Where two afternoon and three evening doctrinal classes were held. Three persons attended in the afternoons, and from seven to eleven in the evenings. Among these are several who are full receivers of the Doctrines, while others are interested. The many questions that were asked and answered made the meetings the more interesting. There is a small group that meets regularly for reading the Writings; and a larger group, also meeting regularly for the study of general doctrine.

     Another three days' stay was made at BARER, OREGON. Here, as at La Gorande, there are a few who are of the Church, and some others who are interested. At the three classes, largely missionary in character, there was an attendance of from eleven to fourteen. Here also there were questions and discussions. A service was held on Sunday, August 31st, attended by eight persons, one of these being from La Gorande; and five partook of the Holy Supper.

     The last place visited was DENVER, where I arrived on Tuesday, September 2d. At a social gathering on Wednesday evening, I had the pleasure of hearing the pastor, the Rev. Henry Heinrichs, give an interesting account of his summer's work in Western Canada. Following him, I told of my summer's work. Thursday afternoon I gave instruction at the class of the Ladies' Meeting, and on Friday evening conducted the doctrinal class. On Sunday, the 7th, it was my privilege to preach to an audience of twenty-three persons, including eight children. The same afternoon I left for home, quite a number of the members of the Society being at the depot to see me off.

     On the entire trip I conducted services ten times, held twenty-nine doctrinal classes, and visited in twenty-one homes. The total number of persons to whom the ministrations of the Church were brought, not including Los Angeles and Denver, was eighty, here a few and there a few, receiving that which they so earnestly desire.
     F. E. WAELCHLI.

746




     KITCHENER, ONT.

     During the Summer there were several occasions of special interest to the whole society. The first of these was the largest and most successful picnic we have ever held. One hundred and eighteen members and children gathered on the banks of the Conestoga River one beautiful, warm day. A committee arranged for transportation by auto, and supplied lemonade and coffee. At meal-times we sat around long tables. The Rev. William Whitehead, and Dr. and Mrs. C R. Pendleton and their daughter Sally, were with us for the day. On the following evening, Dr. Pendleton addressed the Men's Club.

     The Rev. William Whitehead was with us for two weeks, and preached on the second and third Sundays in August, while the Rev. and Mrs. Alan Gill were enjoying a holiday in the vicinity. They were not so far away that they could not return for several special occasions. Mr. Whitehead delivered a very interesting address to the ladies of the society one evening at the home of Mrs. Alena Bellinger, his subject dealing with a phase of education. On one afternoon he was entertained by the Young People's Class at a picnic. We also had the pleasure of entertaining the Rev. E. E. Iungerich, with his son and daughter, for a few days. He addressed the Men's Club, and also the ladies of the society at the home of Mrs. A. K. Hasen, when he treated of the differences between the male and female minds. He also gave a lecture to the society one evening, Deuteronomy 22:5 being the basis of a very interesting discourse.

     Other visitors during the Summer were: Miss Emma Roschman and Mrs. Emily Rothermel, of Toronto; Mrs. Elizabeth Bellinger and Miss Celia Bellinger, of Bryn Athyn; Mrs. Frank Day and Miss Freda Cook, of Detroit.

     On August 13th, Mrs. Samuel Roschman passed into the spiritual world. She had been ill for some time, and we had missed her presence at the society affairs, as she was a staunch and loyal member, and devoted to the Lord's New Church.

     Owing to generous donations to our Building Fund by members and friends of the society, we now have subscriptions amounting to $7,000, which, with a like amount of insurance, provides a fund of $14,000, thus making it possible for us to build a separate chapel. The Building Committee meets frequently, and is preparing plans to submit to the society.

     With the opening of the day school on September 2d, we have returned to our winter routine. Thirty-two pupils are enrolled in the school, and we begin to feel crowded in our present quarters. We hope the new building plans will provide better accommodations before long. The regular weekly suppers, followed by doctrinal class, have been resumed, and also the children's Sunday morning service. The Ladies Guild and the Men's Club meet regularly once a month. In the hour preceding the meeting of the Men's Club, the Pastor addresses them on a doctrinal subject.
     C. R.

     GLENVIEW, ILL.

     On the first Friday in October the weekly suppers were resumed, the meal being followed this time by the semi-annual meeting of the society, devoted to the hearing of reports from the various officers and boards. The reports of the Board of Finance and the Treasurer showed a fairly healthy condition, with 97% per cent of the subscriptions paid up, and nearly 910,000 contributed during the fiscal year, this amount being greater than any heretofore raised for church purposes.

     We now have a very active body of Park Commissioners, which is looking after the building and grounds, and which reported much accomplished in the form of maintenance and new work.

     The report of the day school informed us of an enrollment of fifty-two pupils for the new school-year, this being the largest number ever entered in our school.

     The Recording Secretary reported a membership of 130 persons in the Immanuel Church, an increase over all former years.

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He complained, however, that there are about twenty-five members of the congregation eligible for membership in the society, but who have not joined. This is the largest membership in the history of the society, and shows a steady increase from the time the present Secretary began keeping the records, twenty-five years ago.

     The Sons of the Academy are very active, as usual, and their latest regular meeting was marked by the largest attendance yet recorded, and also by the admission to membership of three new applicants,-Messrs. Arthur Wiedinger, Frank Day, and Doron Synnestvedt. These were duly initiated by a brief but formal ceremony performed by the officers of our local chapter, and were enthusiastically welcomed into membership.

     Among our visitors are: Mrs. Mary Bostock, of Bryn Athyn; Miss Johanna Boericke, of Philadelphia; and Mr. Cyril Day, of Detroit.
     J. B. S.

     PITTSBURGH, PA

     It was a great pleasure to welcome so many guests to the formalities and festivities of the dedication of our new buildings. Their awe-struck amazement and enthusiasm over the buildings and grounds fulfilled our most sanguine expectations. They came from all points of the compass: three from Blairsville, Pa.; forty-one from Bryn Athyn; two from Chicago; four from Columbiana, Ohio; four from Detroit, Mich.; four from Glenview, Ill.; two from Johnstown, Pa.; three from Niles, Ohio; one from Salem, Ohio; four from Tarentum, Pa.; ten from Toronto, Canada; three from Washington, D. C.; and seven from Youngstown, Ohio.

     Dedication.

     In advance of a more complete report of the Dedication, we may say here that the program opened with a dance and informal social in the auditorium on Friday evening, September 26th, and if chatter and geniality are any indication it was a pleasant occasion. On Saturday afternoon, Miss Jean Horigan entertained the ladies at tea in her home. The formal proceedings began with a banquet on Saturday evening, and the committee provided a delicious dinner. Splendid addresses were delivered by Bishop N. D. Pendleton, Bishop George de Charms, and our Pastor, the Rev. E. E. Iungerich. These were interspersed with songs and followed with extemporaneous speeches which held our interested attention until nearly midnight. A new toastmaster, Mr. Elmer G. Horigan, measured up to the requirements and charmed us with his versatility. At the service in the new church building on Sunday morning, Bishop de Charms preached an excellent sermon, and the dedication ceremony came at the conclusion of the service. It is a fine and comfortable feeling to know that we are once more in a home of our own.

     Our day school opened on September 15th, the Pastor giving an address on "Mediate and Immediate Influx." Thirteen pupils are enrolled in six grades. The annual meeting of the society was held on September 12th, with the usual reports and a discussion of the forthcoming dedication plans. The Sunday School was resumed on October 5th, with four teachers and twenty-four pupils. At the service on that Sunday, Edward Pitcairn Lindsay, third son of Mr. and Mrs. David P. Lindsay, was baptized, and the Holy Supper was administered to forty-two communicants.

     On Saturday, September 27th, Miss Freda Schoenberger gave a luncheon for her sister Ruth, announcing her engagement to Mr. Eugene Glebe, of Bryn Athyn. We heartily congratulate them, and wish them all happiness.

     On Sunday afternoon, September 28th, the Rev. Homer Synnestvedt officiated at the dedication of the home of Mr. and Mrs. J. Edmund Blair on Graymore Road, the service being attended by the members of the society and visitors present for the dedication of the church.
     E. R. D.

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     THE ACADEMY SCHOOLS.

     Charter Day (November 3) was observed this year on October 17th, with the hope of more favorable weather. The day was clear and warm, the grass still green, and the trees and shrubbery brilliant in their autumn colors, justifying the change of date. On this beautiful Friday the exercises opened with the procession to the Cathedral, the long line including the children of the elementary school, followed by the students of the higher schools, the ex-students with their class banners, and lastly the members of the Corporation and Faculty of the Academy.

     The service at the church was conducted by Vice President de Charms; the Lessons-Revelation XI and Spiritual Diary 6065:5-were read by Dean Doering, and the Address was given by President N. D. Pendleton. He spoke of the fact that the need of education under the auspices of the Church had been perceived by some New Churchmen from the beginning, but that the many attempts to provide such an education had proved abortive. The founding of the Academy was the result of a more earnest conviction and a clearer understanding of this need. In saying this, we do not speak boastfully, but acknowledge our debt to the past. Through experiment and failure a store of experience, and of remains, is gained, and the Academy was able to define a policy which seems now to have a sure basis, and to give promise of the future. The difficulty has always been to maintain the school in a vital relation to the Church; and while we feel that we have been successful in this, it is our duty to see that it continues in the future. The allure of worldly education, and its seemingly liberal spirit, leads men to regard the loss of distinctiveness as a blessing, but it can only be so in schools of a merely sectarian spirit. We may be regarded as the narrowest of sects, and such may be the outward appearance; but the fact is that we hold the promise for the future of civilization. Our policy is defensive, so as to encourage the growth of a New Church Society and of a New Church Philosophy. Complete isolation from the world is not of Providence, but a separation by a gathering together for the sake of essential uses is like that of an angelic society. In doing so we aspire to that of which the world knows nothing. Our spiritual ideal is not held as a formula, but as a living perception, close to the impulse which gave origin to our body. Charter Day is to be for the school, for the teachers, and for the students of the past. Its opening feature represents a re-dedication of the school to its original purpose, and a pledge on our part to make it a unique institution, faithful to that purpose, to maintain the relation of the school to the Church, to resist secularization, which tendency is always with us. We look hopefully to the future; yet we must ever look to the Writings for a new dedication to our spiritual purpose; for if the soul is lost, all is a failure.

     We trust that the complete text of this fine Address will be published at an early date. After the close of the service, all returned in procession to the school, and at Benade Hall the students and ex-students passed in review before the President and Faculty, and sang the school songs with spirit.

     In the afternoon a close and exciting game of football went to Radnor, 20-13, the winning points being scored in the last minutes of play.

     At the banquet in the evening, the Rev. William Whitehead was toastmaster, and showed his usual ability and originality in this function. The toasts were to The Church, The Academy, the Ex-students, and The Students, and at the close Mr. Donald Rose, after some delightful humor, offered a toast to The Teachers.

     Dr. Acton, responding to the toast to The Academy, showed that the real purpose of the Academy from its beginning was to establish the Kingdom of God, and to this end it was primarily a movement to establish in the New Church the Authority of the Writings.

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Mr. A. P. Lindsay, with characteristic independence of thought, pointed out the duty of New Churchmen to ultimate the spiritual concept of charity in the uses of the civil and moral life. Mr. Curtis K. Hicks showed how Charter Day is an opportunity to manifest our loyalty to the Academy. Mr. Raymond Synnestvedt, in a talk spiced with wit, spoke of Responsibility and Courage, especially in respect to parents in doing their share of our common work. Mr. Philip N. Odhner demonstrated the orderly succession or gyre in which the school-work is organized. The Rev. K. R. Alden boldly set off a bomb by showing the extent of our failure to bring to our schools the youths of the Church who should be there. About 230 persons sat down to the excellent chicken dinner which had been prepared, and enlivened the occasion with many songs between the speeches.
     L. W. T. D.

     SOUTH AFRICAN MISSION.

     On August 25th we had the pleasure of a brief visit from the Rev. Elmo C. Acton, whose presence was required at Alpha in connection with mission matters. During his stay, however, there was also time for him to give the Alpha Circle a first-hand and lucid account of the General Assembly, his description of that event being much enjoyed by us all. He also administered the sacrament of Baptism for the youngest member of the Circle,-the youngest Elphick.

     We have also received a pleasant visit from the Rev. P. H. and Mrs. Johnson, members of the General Conference in England. Mr. Johnson is Chief Superintendent of the New Church Native Mission under the auspices of the Conference, with headquarters near Johannesburg in the Transvaal. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson visited the classes at the Alpha Mission, as also the points of interest on the Alpha Estate. By invitation, Mr. Johnson addressed the Circle at the usual weekly doctrinal class, and took for his subject "Science in the New Church." This resulted in conversational evening, with a useful exchange of views. On Sunday, September 14th, he conducted service in our chapel, and delivered a very interesting discourse on the text: "I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love." (Hosea 11: 4.) In the afternoon he used the same text in the service at Alpha Church, adapting it to the needs of the native members of the mission.

     During the stay of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson a trip was made to our Mission Station at Luka's Village, near Maseru, Basutoland. En route we had a picnic at the Little Caledon River.
     F. W. E.
          September 16, 1930.

     TORONTO, CANADA.

     Twenty-five years ago, Cupid must have been quite busy in Toronto amongst the young people of the Olivet Church, as no less than five couples were then joined together in matrimony within a period of twelve months. As a consequence, we are now reaping a harvest of silver-wedding anniversaries. On August 16th, Mr. and Mrs. C. Raynor Brown were the celebrants, and they marked the occasion by inviting number of friends to dinner at the King Edward Hotel, where a sumptuous repast was served in a sphere of goodwill and gaiety. After dinner, toasts to our host and hostess were given, and they were honored in song and in stories reminiscent of the "good old days," the Pastor leading off with a felicitous little speech worthy of the occasion, being followed by all the men present and some of the ladies, all testifying to the respect and esteem in which Mr. and Mrs. Brown are held amongst us. Then came entertainment of a varied nature until close on midnight, when all joined hands and sang "Auld Lang Syne, thus bringing to a close a most delightful and happy occasion.

     The Rev. E. E. Iungerich visited Toronto on August 18th and 19th, when the local chapter of the Sons of the Academy arranged for a meeting, which, by the kind invitation of Mr. and Mrs. Gyllenhaal, was held at their home.

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Mr. Iungerich gave us two papers, which were very much enjoyed, and which evoked a prolonged discussion, with many questions asked and answered in Pastor Iungerich's inimitable style. We appreciated his visit, and hope he will come again some time.

     The Sons held another meeting at the same place on Friday evening, October 10th, under the presidency of Mr. F. R. Longstaff, who presented a report from the Committee, formulating a program looking to the advancement of our knowledge of the principles and practice of New Church Education, outlining the plans for this, also for fostering interest in and support for our local school. Mr. Alec Craigie read the Address by the Rev. C. E. Doering on "Education the Hope of the New Church," delivered at the recent General Assembly, and published in the September issue of New Church. Life.

     The various activities of the Olivet Church are now in following. The Day School opened on September 3d with exercises at 4 p.m. Owing to graduations into High School, there are fewer pupils this year. Miss Dora Brown is our teacher again this year, and her work with the pupils is highly appreciated. Sunday School, which is held from 10 to 10.30 a.m., started on September 7th, also with a somewhat reduced enrollment, owing to the graduating of four pupils into the Young People's Class, which held its first meeting at the church on October 5th. Subsequent meetings of the Class will be held at the homes of various members, and the work studied this year is the Divine Love and Wisdom.

     The Wednesday suppers were resumed on September 24th, on which date the regular quarterly business meeting of the society was held, and the deferred election of officers took place, with the following result: Mr. Alec Sargeant, Secretary; F. Wilson, Treasurer; Members of Finance Board,-Messrs. R. S. Anderson, T. P. Bellinger, H. P. Izzard, F. R. Longstaff, and A. van Paassen. Members of the Social Committee: Miss M. Smith, and Messrs. Alec Craigie and A. Thompson.

     The Wednesday evening doctrinal classes began the following week, on October 1st, with the "Doctrine of the Spiritual World" as the subject for instruction and study during the season.

     In closing we desire to make a passing reference to the dedication of the new church buildings of the Pittsburgh Society on September 28th, to congratulate our Pittsburgh friends upon their splendid achievement, the beauty of their edifice, the completeness of the equipment, and to reiterate the hope so frequently expressed that it may be the beginning of a definite step forward in the life and activities of their society. It was a privilege and pleasure to be present at the ceremony and festivities of their dedication, and once again to experience the warm hospitality of our Pittsburgh friends.
     F. W.

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ORPHANAGE APPEAL 1930

ORPHANAGE APPEAL              1930




     Announcements.




     TO THE MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL CHURCH:

Dear Friends:
     This is to advise you that two applications for assistance from the Orphanage Fund have been received. Both of these cases are most worthy, being widows, members of the General Church, each of whom has a family of young children. The Orphanage Fund cannot give help without increased contributions.

     Will you not assist by sending a check, and by becoming a regular contributor to the Orphanage Fund:
     Fraternally yours,
          WALTER C. CHILDS,
               Treasurer.
Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa.
ONTARIO DISTRICT ASSEMBLY 1930

ONTARIO DISTRICT ASSEMBLY       ALAN GILL       1930

     The Eighteenth Ontario District Assembly will be held at the Olivet Church, 35 Elm Grove: Avenue, Toronto, Canada, November 7th to 10th, 1930. All members and friends of the General Church are cordially invited to attend. Those who expect to attend are requested to notify Mr. F. R. Longstaff, 119 Close Ave., Toronto, in order that provision may be made for their entertainment.
     ALAN GILL,
          Secretary.

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CONCENTRATION AND RADIATION 1930

CONCENTRATION AND RADIATION        R. J. TILSON       1930


NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. L,          DECEMBER, 1930          No. 12
     (Presidential Address at the 23d British Assembly, Aug. 2, 1930.)

     In giving the opening address at this Assembly, I am moved to repeat a part of the remarkable message from the Bishop of the General Church which you have already been privileged to hear. That message is so much the outcome of interior thought, and contains such wise counsel, that a single hearing or reading is scarcely sufficient to enable one to grasp its full import. Therefore, hear again these words:

     "The mind of the General Church should ever be directed upward and inward to be revealed truth. This attitude of mind is the only way to receive the blessing for which the Church was designed, namely, the blessing of an ever growing spiritual vision, apart from which there can only result an inevitable recession, or at best a period of quiescence and waiting for a new spiritual impulse. I have in mind the fact that while the only source of increased light is the Revelation itself, yet the Revelation can become effective only when our minds are opened to it by instruction. With this in view, the General Church has encouraged by every means a constant reading of the Writings, in order that each individual may meet the Lord in His direct revealing of Himself. According to the measure and degree of this individual approach will the whole Church be prepared to receive the Lord in that higher light, which, while it may be advanced by the studies of a few who are gifted with learning and a degree of enlightenment, yet it is in a sense fundamentally dependent upon the spiritual intelligence of the reactive group which forms the body of the Church. My meaning is, that the leading thought of the Church, humanly speaking, is bound by the capability of the times, or by the state of reception in the Church as a whole; for we think in society. This is a spiritual law, and according to this law the thought of one is communicated to all, and that of all to one, the result being a great increase for each individual."

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     As I read these lines my thoughts seemed to find expression in two words,-Concentration and Radiation. What less could come from the statement,-"The mind of the General Church should ever be directed upward and inward to revealed truth,"-than the realization of a forceful call to one and all to study and reflect upon the teachings of the latest Revelation from heaven, according to both successive and simultaneous order? (A. C. 6541.)

     And, from the fact stated in the message concerning the light of Divine Revelation, that "this light is, in a sense, fundamentally dependent upon the spiritual intelligence of the reactive group which forms the body of the Church.... This is a spiritual law, and according to this law the thought of one is communicated to all, and that of all to one, the result being a great increase for each individual,"-from this line of thought what else can be deduced than the great necessity of seeking real unity, by a genuine exercise and encouragement of variety of thought, meanwhile respecting to the utmost the freedom of all?

     Thus doing, a peaceful and helpful sphere of concentrated desire and thought, together with a radiation of real charity, based upon a spiritual affection of truth, will tend towards a "great increase," here and now, " for each individual."

     I therefore offer, as a theme worthy of careful thought, that which is involved in the terms, Concentration and Radiation. Not for one moment is it desired that your attention should be concentrated upon mere terms, for the warning arising from what the Writings say concerning Aristotle and his followers comes immediately to mind. It was necessary that Aristotle should invent some terms with which to express his thoughts, but it is distinctly said that he "proceeded from thoughts to terms," whereas his followers "proceeded, not from thought to terms, but from terms scientifically made, thus from mere dust, to thought, which is an inverted way." (S. D. 3949, 3950.) And to this is added: "To seek for ideas concerning the interiors of the mind from terms is to plunge into utter darkness." (S. D. 4446.)

     There is undoubtedly great need, even for those of the New Church, to bear these things in mind, and to give great heed to the warning which arises from the difference of state revealed concerning the great philosopher and those who desire to be considered as his disciples.

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Terms are indeed necessary, but the effort of the student of the Heavenly Doctrines should ever be to search diligently for the thought and meaning within the terms used; and that is certainly the present desire.

     To return to our theme, Concentration implies the recognition of the paramount need for sustained and determined effort, at all times, to find a centre; for the order of all creation is, that every beginning is and must be from a center.

     The spiritual sense of the Word teaches that "in the spiritual world, or in heaven, the Lord is the centre of all things, for He is the Sun therein." (A. C. 4482:3.) As it is in the spiritual world, so must it be on earth. The Lord must be recognized as the Great Center. And as the Lord is the Word, and the Word is the Lord, all really pure desire, and all truly intellectual thought, must begin with Him and from Him, and therefore with and from the Word.

     How fully this was realized by Emanuel Swedenborg, as the human instrument through and by whom the Lord effected His Second Advent, is seen in the interesting and significant fact that, when he commenced to write, in 1745, that first distinctly theological treatise, entitled The History of Creation, as Given by Moses, after a very brief Preface, if so it may be called, and even before he wrote the title of the work, he placed, as a heading or superscription, the words: "In the Name of the Lord." Indeed, the very purpose for which he wrote that interesting precursor of the fully inspired Writings of the Church, as shown in paragraph 9 of the little work itself, makes manifest how thoroughly he realized the need of beginning and continuing his great and unique labor with the Lord, and the Lord alone, as the center of his life, and of his life's great purpose, and as the great goal and end of all his endeavors.

     Referring to the prior treatise on The Worship and Love of God, which was written in the second of the various stages of his elevation "interiorly, by degrees," into the "light of heaven " (H. H. 130) he says: "Since, however, no trust is to be placed in human intelligence, unless it be inspired by God, it is to the interest of truth that we compare what has been set forth in the above mentioned little work with what is revealed in the sacred page, and that we examine how far they agree; for whatever does not altogether agree with things revealed must be pronounced as wholly false, or as the raving of our rational mind." (History of Creation 9.)

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     And, still further, Swedenborg's reliance upon the Lord and His Word as the very centre of his being and use, is shown in the Preface to the History of Creation, for the first thing written is the text from Matthew 6:33, which was also written at the very commencement of the Arcana Celestia: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and its justice, and all these things shall be added unto you." The very brief preface concludes with the statement that "men are only men so far as they walk in the way of truth. But so far as they turn aside therefrom, so far they approach to the nature of a beast."

     "In the Name of the Lord!" What an all-embracing declaration! For it is written in the Apocalypse Explained: "The Name of the Lord signifies all the quality of faith and love by means of which He is to be worshiped, and by means of which man is saved by Him; for this quality is the essence which proceeds from Him; and, therefore, when this quality is thought of, the Lord is present with man, and when this quality is loved, the Lord is conjoined with him. Hence it is that those who believe in His Name have eternal life." (A. E. 815. See also A. C. 2009; D. P. 230.) Thus did Swedenborg understand the "Name of the Lord," and so must all who desire to live the life which leads to heaven find their center in the Lord, by realizing, as far as can be, all that which is revealed as to the quality of the Lord, as embracing all that by which He is to be known, loved and obeyed in the life of regeneration.

     But as the Lord is the great Center of all, it follows that all things created by Him will be successive centers from Him, for the effecting of the Divine purpose, which is a heaven of angels from the human race. Thus we read in A. C. 2057: "The heavenly form is of such a nature that everyone is a kind of center of communications, and therefore of happiness from all." (A. C. 2057.) Again: "Everyone in heaven is as it were a center to all the rest." (A. C. 549.) Again: "All spirits and angels are, in particular, the centers of influxes. . . . Man, in like manner, is a center of influxes corresponding." (S. D. 305.)

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And again, in A. E. 159:3, showing how the quality of the Lord reaches down into all things of nature, it is written: "All the least things of the body turn themselves to the common center of our world, which is called the center of gravity. . . . But this center of gravity is only the center of gravity in nature; but in the spiritual world the center of gravity is different, this being determined with a man by the love in which he is, downwards if he has infernal love, and upwards if he has heavenly love."

     The teaching of the opened Word is, that "the heavenly form is from continuous centers," and further, that "every man is in his own reigning love, and is thus, as it were, in the center." (S. D. 6058.) What an incentive such teaching as this should be for man to concentrate his interior thought upon the "continuous centers of the heavenly form"!

     And here comes in the idea of Radiation. Not downwards, as in the stupid thought of "permeation," but upwards, towards the intimate relation of the other world to this. Let us not forget the wise saying: "The mind of the General Church should ever be directed upward and inward to the revealed truth." And man's mind is directed upwards when, by interior thought, it concerns itself with the spiritual world, as to how the will of the Lord is done in heaven, that it may be so done upon earth.

     The following great truths from the Heavenly Doctrine will give man a true perspective concerning his real life and the true object of his living: "Every man during his life in the body is always, as to his soul, in some society of spirits in another life." (A. C. 3255.) "Everyone, as to his spirit, is consociated with his like in the spiritual world, and is as one with them; and it has often been granted to me to see the spirits of persons still living (on earth), some in angelic societies, and some in infernal societies; and I have been permitted to converse with them for several days, and have wondered that man himself, while he lives in the body, should know nothing of this." (T. C. R. 14; see also A. C. 4624.) Yea, so intimate is this association of man with spirits that "persons who think abstractedly from the body, being then in the spirit, sometimes appear in their own society (to the sight of spirits), but as soon as any spirit accosts them they vanish." (H. H. 438; D. P. 296.)

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     And, demonstrating the teaching that "thought brings presence," we are told that " every man, as to his spirit, is in some society, either angelic or diabolic; his thought is there." (A. C. 4674.) So little has earthly space to do with this consociation that "men thousand of miles apart may be in the same society." (A. C. 1272.) And for welcome encouragement in the trials of life, it is a joy to read that " those regenerating are continually being borne into more interior heavenly societies, and the extension of the sphere into these societies is given them chiefly through temptations." (A. C. 6611.)

     As to the governing factor in all this wonderful consociation, we learn, first that "it is the love alone which determines spirits and angels into societies." (S. D. 3687.) Secondly, we learn that "societies are conjoined together by spheres." (A. C. 6206.) Thirdly, we are instructed as to what it is that distinguishes societies: "Societies are distinct according to the differences of life. Everyone has societies corresponding to his own life, the genus of which exists among many societies, each of which has its own peculiar life. According to his changes of state a man or spirit is in these societies; but in some one society he has his general or regnant life." (S. D. 4188.)

     Since there is this close association of man with spirits and angels, the question may arise: "Do not the ever changing states of those still in this world disturb the lives of the spirits or angels in the societies in the other life in which man's spirit is? The following Divine teaching will be of interest and use:

     "But it should be known that the thoughts and affections which reach into societies do not specifically move the societies to think and will like the man, spirit, or angel from whom the thoughts and affections come forth, but they enter into the universal sphere of the affection and consequent thought of those societies, and hence the societies know nothing about it. For the spiritual sphere in which all societies are is various with each, and when the thoughts and affections enter into this sphere, the societies are not affected. All thoughts and affections enter into the spheres of the societies with which they agree. Hence there are extensions in every direction in freedom, like the extensions of rays from objects in the world, which spread freely around, with variety according to the clearness or dullness of the sight and the serenity or obscurity of the atmosphere. In the spiritual world the affection of knowing truth and good corresponds to the serenity of the atmosphere." (A. C. 6603.)

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     Brethren, how wondrously alike are the two worlds, the spiritual and the natural! And yet, how marvelously unlike! Here, space and time dominate the outward forms of earthly life, whilst there state prevails, leading into the immensity of real liberty, and being governed, in heaven, by the ever-protecting arm of rationality.

     Concentration, in its highest, is in the Lord alone, for He alone is. All things true and good concentrate around Him, flow down from Him, and return to Him, unless perverted by man. They arise from His Love, and are made manifest by His Truths,-the teachings of His Word. Only as man concentrates his thoughts upon the Lord and His Word, so that all his actions may be in harmony with the Lord's will, can he really be in the stream of Divine Providence, and safe from the harmful influences of the hells.

     Radiation, in its highest, is all that comes down from the Lord. It is formed by all the various forms in which the Divine Love clothes itself, and makes itself known to man. In the Lord it is Divine Truth, and in its descent it is all the senses of the Word, as revealed by the Lord, reaching down to the lowest,-the sense of the letter of the Word, as in the Old Testament. But, in the minds of men, Radiation takes the form of knowledge, on the plane of the external memory; on the plane of interior thought, it takes the form of cognitions, the understanding-knowledge, including a rational conviction of the truths of Revelation. "Cognitions are celestial and spiritual verities which, in heaven, are so many radiations of light, and are also rendered visible by light." (A. C. 1458.)

     A little piece of personal history, as a member of the Revision Board of the Swedenborg Society. In The Consummation of the Age and the Abomination of Desolation these words occur: "No knowledge of God," etc. Dr. Tafel's translation gives "knowledge." It is the same in the Posthumous Theological Works, Vol. 1, edited by Rev. John Whitehead. The word used in the original is cognitio, which is more interior than "knowledge." (See Spiritual Diary in Latin, by Dr. J. F. Im. Tafel, 1845. "Non cognitio Dei nisi erronea." Vol. IV, p. 138.) In a new translation by the Rev. J. F. Buss, now in the press, the true rendering is given as "cognition," and the reason for the change is explained in a suitable footnote.

     As an ultimate in the consideration of Radiation, and for the purpose of emphasizing another point in the message from the Bishop, let us hear the following from the Arcana Celestial:

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     "Twice or thrice, by the Lord's Divine mercy, heaven was so far opened to me that I heard a general glorification of the Lord, the nature of which is this: Several societies together and unanimously, but still each society by itself, with distinct affections and the ideas therefrom, glorified the Lord. The heavenly sound was heard far and wide, throughout such an immense space that the hearing was lost in the distance, as the sight is when it looks out upon the universe; and this was attended with inmost joy and felicity. There was also perceived a glorification of the Lord, at times resembling an irradiation flowing downwards and affecting the interiors of the mind. This glorification is celebrated when the angels are in a state of tranquillity and peace; for it then flows forth from their inmost joys, and from their felicities themselves." (A. C. 2133.)

     The "glorification of the Lord" was perceived, "at times resembling an irradiation flowing downwards and affecting the interiors of the mind." And note the fact that "several societies together and unanimously, but still each society by itself, with distinct affections, and the ideas therefrom, glorified the Lord." Here was unity in variety in heaven, and it is added that "this was attended with inmost joy and felicity." We can hardly realize how this was done; but it was done, and it was done in heaven. If our minds "be directed upward and inward to the revealed truth," we shall endeavor to follow the example thus set before us by the angels. The peace and prosperity of the Church really depends upon this,-unity in the interior spiritual affection of truth, and freedom of thought in our conception and appreciation of the truths revealed.

     In the Lord's New Church there should be no need to plead for freedom of thought and liberty to draw one's own deduction from the Writings. For this is the teaching of the Writings:

     "The Lord's spiritual kingdom itself in the heavens is also various as to those things which are of faith, insomuch that there is not one society, nor even one in a society, who, in those things which are of the truth of faith, is entirely in accord with others as to his ideas. . . . He who is in charity loves the neighbor, and with regard to his dissenting from him in matters of belief, this he excuses, provided only that he lives in good and truth." (A. C. 3267; see also 3241.)

     In the Lord's New Church, the Lord in His Divine Human is the all-glorious Center. Upon Him we concentrate all our thoughts, as also to Him we endeavor to concentrate our lives. All the truths which He has revealed through His chosen instruments we receive as radiations from Him as the Sun of heaven.

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     As parts of a distinctive ecclesiastical body, acknowledging unequivocally that He has revealed Himself in those Divine Writings in which, through His servant, Emanuel Swedenborg, He has made His Second Advent, we realize that there are others, claiming the same general name, working under a more external appreciation of the Second Advent. In that more general association there are undoubtedly signs of a more interior comprehension of the Writings by some, though great obscurity still prevails among the comparative many.

     The General Church, however, works on a more interior plane, under a more complete acknowledgment. To it temptations will come, and will have to be met. Trials will have to be endured, and difficulties will have to be overcome. Ever will it be necessary to remember that the Doctrine revealed is not ours. It is the Lord's. It's revealing is His doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes-ever more marvellous, as, from the spiritual affection of truth, we study it, and formulate for ourselves principles by which we seek to live. And, living them, we receive from the Lord, by perception, ever increasing glimpses of the treasures of His revealing. But this can only come to pass in proportion as we seek to concentrate more and more interiorly upon the Lord as the Almighty Center of our existence, as we feel more and more rationally the radiancy of His words, and at all times love, think, and act "in the Name of the Lord."
EFFICACY OF DIFFERENT STYLES OF WRITING 1930

EFFICACY OF DIFFERENT STYLES OF WRITING              1930

     "It was shown me to the life how certain ones study only brilliancy of style, and continually keep their mind fixed on brilliancy of style, thus on qualities that gain applause, and not on the subject treated of, and this solely in order that the writer may be celebrated, because he treats of sublime things, so that he continually reflects upon the praise he may receive and preeminence on account of his style. But such a style is of no effect with those who are interior. Such writers have contempt for others, and for a style in which the thing treated of is fully set forth to the apprehension, this style being such that the words or expressions follow from the goodness of heart, having regard to the amendment and instruction of the neighbor. In this case the subject itself forms the style of the writer, according to his gift, whereas with those in whom the style forms the subject matter, so that reference is made from the style to the subject, the writing has no efficacy, because the subject matter does not govern the style." (Spiritual Diary 2993.)

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GENUINE TRUTHS AND TRUTHS NOT GENUINE 1930

GENUINE TRUTHS AND TRUTHS NOT GENUINE       Rev. ALBERT BJORCK       1930

     The Writings of Swedenborg, which we acknowledge to be the Word of the Lord to those who will be of His New Church, bring to our knowledge and understanding truths that are necessary means for our regeneration. Among other things, they explain to us the inner meaning of the Old Testament story of the Fall and the Flood. Through the knowledge and understanding we get from that explanation, we see that we are born in an inverted order, that is, in an order opposite to the order of true life in which the first man was created by God, so that our natural life, unless changed, is contrary to spiritual and heavenly life.

     Our spiritual life is such as are the affections of our will and the thoughts of our understanding. Everyone inherits from his ancestors a love of self and the world so great that the whole of man's own life is nothing but evil. To the love a man inherits he continually inclines, and into it he lapses. Thus he confirms that evil in himself, and adds more to it from himself. These evils are altogether contrary to spiritual life, and destroy it. Therefore, unless man receives new life from the Lord, he wills nothing else than what is of self and the world, and this is the life of those who are in hell. To receive new life from the Lord is, therefore, to be conceived and born and brought up anew, that is, recreated or regenerated.

     In order that regeneration may become possible, man's understanding must first be separated from his will, or he would never be able to learn anything about the new life. The Lord provided for that separation of the understanding from the will in the descendants of the Most Ancient Church-the greatest of all miracles-and the possibility of such separation is permanently given to all men born since then. But to bring it about,-to educate the understanding and unite it with a new will,-is a slow and difficult process, in which man must co-operate as if of himself.

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     In order that we may enter into the new life where the natural serves the spiritual, we must first learn to know things about that life. It is in the Word that the Lord reveals these things to us,-truths that are to be believed and goods that are to be done. The new life-regenerate life-is to love the Lord and the neighbor instead of self and the world. No one can learn to love the Lord without first acquiring some knowledge of Him, or without believing in the truth of that knowledge; and no one can learn to love the neighbor without a knowledge of how to do good to him, or without inclination to do according to that knowledge. And all this the Lord reveals in His Word.

     The knowledge and understanding of the truths revealed by the Lord, telling us about Himself, and telling us how to do good to the neighbor from Him, are the necessary means for men's regeneration; "for he who knows them can think them and will them, and at length do them, and thus have a new life." But knowing and understanding the truths of the new life does not in itself regenerate men; for evil men may know and understand them; but such knowledge and understanding is a necessary preparation, without which the new life cannot be born in us; for the new life consists in thinking and willing and doing according to the truths about that life which we know and understand. The chief mission of the church is to instruct men in the truths of spiritual life from the Word of the Lord, and to train their will as far as possible in conformity with those truths; but regeneration itself is accomplished by the Lord alone, man co-operating with Him as if by himself. For no instruction can make a man think the truth in which he has been instructed, even if he understands it; nor can it make him will and do what the truth teaches. Nor can anyone, as if of himself, think from the truth in which he has been instructed from the Word, or will and do it, unless, in obedience to that truth, he subjugates the love of self and the world which he inherited at birth, and shuns the thoughts and affections from those loves as sins against God.

     This means that a child, by proper instruction, can gradually learn to understand the truths of spiritual life, and from that understanding can perceive that he ought to obey them, in order to live spiritually. Moreover, through that understanding, some love or desire for that life can be awakened in him. This is the beginning of the reforming process,-the conception of spiritual life in the child,-but the rebirth or regeneration itself is of the will.

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Thus we can rationally see the truth in the teaching that man is not admitted into spiritual temptation combats until he is in the knowledges of truth and good, and thence has obtained some spiritual life. Wherefore, such temptation combats do not take place until adult age is reached; for until that age has been reached, man is not able to think rationally and in freedom, nor has he a true conscience.

     II.

     "The origin of evil is from the abuse of the faculties of rationality and freedom."

     "By rationality is meant the faculty of understanding truths and thence falsities, and goods and thence evils; and by freedom is meant the faculty of thinking, willing and doing these things freely. These two faculties are proper to man, and distinguish him from the beasts." (D. L. W. 264.)

     "An evil man enjoys these two faculties equally with a good man. An evil man abuses them to confirm evils and falsities, and a good man uses them to confirm goods and truths." (D. L. W. 265.)

     In the Divine order of creation these two faculties were given to man; for without them he would not have been man, and with them the possibility of the Fall always existed; and his abuse of them did bring it about, and was the origin of evil. If the origin of evil is from man's abuse of rationality and freedom, it is evident that the restoration of good can be accomplished only as man is taught to use these two faculties in the orderly way.

     The proper function of all education, therefore, is to instruct the understanding and train the will in such a way that life inflowing from the Lord, who is Life itself, may produce in man the truths of wisdom and the goods of love. The Lord educates His Church on earth in this way, by means of His Word; and the Church educates its members in so far as it understands the Word given it, and succeeds in teaching its truths in such away that an affection for them is born in men. For the good in the rational that makes it a means for regeneration is love of truth for the sake of truth and for the good it teaches.

     "The primary thing of the rational with man is truth; consequently it is the affection of truth, to the end that man may be reformed, and so regenerated." (A. C. 2189.)

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"In man's rational there is truth, which is its special characteristic, and there is also the affection of good, but this is in the affection of truth as its soul." (A. C. 2072.) From these two clear definitions of rationality it is evident that rationality comprises both the understanding and the will. Rationality, therefore, is the means by which man may be regenerated; and also as regeneration progresses, rationality is developed and perfected in the regenerating man.

     The aim of religious education; therefore, is to develop the understanding by instruction in truths from the Lord, and to train the will in shunning false thinking and evil affections, which the understanding, by the truths implanted in it, sees to be false and evil, to the end that, in man's intellectual mind, a desire or affection for the good that the truth teaches, and thus a new will, may be born. This is the only way in which love of self and the world can be suppressed and removed, and love of the Lord and the neighbor be born in men.

     It is plain, therefore, that the knowledge of, the belief in, and the understanding of, truths revealed by the Lord concerning spiritual life, or, what is the same, the upbuilding of the intellectual rationality, must come first, preparing the way for the regeneration of the will, which, however, is the most essential. This is so, because the affection of the will is man's very life. The organization or ordering of his affections, which are spiritual substances, makes man's spiritual body; and the form of the spiritual body is heavenly or hellish, depending upon whether the affections have been ordered and decided by love of the Lord and the neighbor or by the love of self and the world.

     Therefore, we read in A. C. 2556, "With the man who is truly rational, that is, regenerated, all things are arranged into an order such as exists in heaven, and this from influx. From this is given man a faculty of thinking, concluding, judging and reflecting so wonderful as to exceed all mere human knowledge and wisdom, and immeasurably surpassing the analysis which human industry has drawn from these sources."

     A real love of truth has as its soul the love of the good of life which the truth teaches. When that love directs the working of the understanding, and when we read the Word and reflect upon what is said there, the rationality of the understanding is developed and perfected.

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Before that, our understanding is merely natural. Then we may accept instruction telling us that the Writings are the Word of the Lord, and acknowledge their Divine authority. We may understand what we read or hear read, but the conception formed in our mind of a truth taught in the verbal statements of the Word may, for all that, not be a genuine truth.

     III.

     We are taught that man has three discrete degrees of mind, or three degrees of understanding and will,-the celestial, spiritual and natural. The natural degree, in which we are as long as we live as men on earth, can be closed to the higher degrees, or through regeneration it can open to influx from them. If open, the light and heat from the Lord through the heavens and the Word come down successively into our natural understanding, and illuminate and elevate it, so that we may think with the angels. When the natural degree of our will is closed to the higher degrees, we may still see civil and moral truth from the light of natural rationality, and even understand the meaning of the natural language in which spiritual truth is clothed in order to come to men's knowledge, but the genuine truths are hidden to us until our natural mind opens to the influx from the Lord through the Word. Elevated as to his understanding into the light of heaven, man can see, not only civil and moral truths, but also spiritual; and from many truths seen he can conclude other truths in order, and thus perfect his understanding to eternity. (D. L. W. 255.)

     Thus man's rationality and his regeneration go forward hand in hand, as it were; and, as there are no limits to the Lord's Love and Wisdom, and He Himself is in the Word, so man's rationality and regeneration go forward to eternity, as he receives the truths of wisdom and the good of love from the Lord in the Word.

     The Word of the Lord shows us that the growth, development and perfecting of the rational in the individual man corresponds to the growth, development and perfecting of the rational in the Church viewed as one whole, from the Most Ancient Church to the Church of the New Jerusalem. For the Lord's Church on earth is like an individual man, and grows from infancy to childhood, youth and manhood like the individual.

     The Most Ancient Church, or the Adamic, represents the infancy of the Church seen as a whole.

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Before the Fall, the men of that Church were in the Divine order of creation. The influx from infinite Life and Love into their will produced the good of love in them. The light from the infinite wisdom of the Creator inflowed into their infantile minds, and in it they perceived everything in nature as different expressions of the Lord's love and care for them, and of the affections and thoughts He had given them with their very life. God spoke to them through natural things, and they loved God, who had created them and all things; and from the love of God they had love for one another.

     The infant born after the Fall has no perception of God, no perception of anything but physical wants Those who supply them stand in the place of God to its awakening consciousness. It has, indeed, no will of its own, no understanding, and therefore no rationality except potentially in its subconscious life. But, as it is as ignorant of evil as of good, it is in a state of innocence,-the innocence of ignorance,-and over that "the Spirit of God broods," and the influx of life from His love comes to its first consciousness mediately through the parents' love and care. As its conscious life awakens, it responds to their loving care, and so gradually learns to love those who love it. And this is the first rudiment of the church in the individual.

     As the infant grows, and becomes more and more conscious of its own life, the inherited tendencies to evil in its will commence to show themselves more and more. Then the care of loving parents who have some wisdom from the Lord is directed to the preservation, as far as possible, of the affections for others that are innocent of self, and to the strengthening of them as the infant enters childhood. Thus, remains from infancy,-remains of innocent love for parents, brothers, sisters and playmates,-constitute the soil or earth in which truths of life from the Lord can be planted, and in which further remains can be stored up in the child's understanding by adapting or accommodating these truths to it.

     But the child's understanding is purely sensual. The conceptions of God which it forms from what it is told are merely natural, and so is its understanding of the prayers it learns. The devotional exercises to which it is taken, and in which it is instructed, even by the wisest of parents or teachers, are to it something in the nature of a game in which it takes more or less delight.

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Nevertheless, they preserve remains of innocence and unselfish love of others, and prepare the ground of the natural understanding for further instruction about the Lord and heaven and a true life, and also for the suppression of evil in the will, when in later childhood the independence of the will and the desire to know the things of the surrounding world are uppermost in the mind.

     The Ancient Church represents that early stage of childhood, when the infantile remains of love for others, strengthened by loving guidance and teaching, establish traditional habits or rites,-in the beginning with an internal from that love, and in its later stages without it.

     As long as the priests and leaders of that church had charity in their hearts, and retained knowledge of the correspondence of natural things to things of the will and understanding, the inflowing life from the Lord could reveal to them further truths accommodated to their state. The truths so revealed they preserved, or gave an outward form in rites and ceremonies of a symbolical nature. The explanation of the correspondence of these must have been the chief teaching, and a description of their symbolical meaning must have constituted the larger part of their Word. But when the leaders themselves were no longer actuated by love of the neighbor, the correspondential teaching of the rites was forgotten. The worship then became idolatrous, the rites merely external, and the Church of early childhood came to its end, and its Word was lost.

     But remains of good in the form of external obedience had been preserved in some, and through this remnant the Lord could raise up the semblance of a Church as a guidance during later childhood. The Jewish Church represents that stage in the growth of the individual, and of the Church viewed as one man.

     Then, in the individual, all the interest of the mind is directed outward. Our existence in the natural world makes it imperative that we learn about it, and about all that we need for our existence when left to our own resources. It is the stage when the natural rationality is slowly being formed and developed, with difficulty in some cases; and during it the preservation of religious beliefs must be accomplished by other means.

     The Lord then reveals truths adapted to the comprehension of the understanding successively, as the understanding grows by learning one truth after another, precept upon precept, these being engraved upon the memory and meticulously adhered to, thereby giving the mind material to reflect upon at a later stage, and to compare what it learned about one thing with what it learned about another, to grasp the inter-dependence of all truths, and to think logically, to conclude and form judgments from what it had learned.

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     Later childhood may be said to coincide with the school-age of children when the remains of innocence show themselves mainly in an implicit belief in the teacher's knowledge, wisdom and authority; a stage comparable to a school where discipline is severely upheld, where the rebellious will is chastened by punishments, and evil affections are restrained from coming out in actions hurtful to others; a stage where the rules are, "Thou shalt do this or that," and "Thou shalt not do this or that,"-rules by which the mind is trained to the necessity of dealing justly and showing mercy, and which also hold out promises of reward to the obedient; a stage in the development of the mind in which the history of the individual's behavior of obedience or rebelliousness, of willingness to learn and understand, is in itself prophetic of future states as he grows into manhood.

     In that stage, answering to the later childhood of the church most of the teachers, as well as the scholars themselves, are the mouthpieces of the Lord, and see nothing more in the instruction and commandments given than knowledges of truths and rules of behavior necessary to an orderly and prosperous life in the world,-civil and moral truths to be observed in dealing with the fellow man,-but which in a later state of the development of rationality, can be looked back upon and seen as symbols corresponding to and prophetic of spiritual truths, values and order.

     It is a stage in the growth of the church when the love of God and man is only represented in externals, and when, therefore, it is not a real church. This Stage, however, is absolutely necessary to the development of the first form of rationality capable of receiving some real spiritual truth. That development is generally entered upon during the years of adolescence, represented by the first Christian Church. To this first state of true rationality the Lord comes with a new revelation accommodated to it.

     Through the instruction in childhood, remains of innocent affection for others have been preserved and strengthened in a few. These are the remnants in which a new period of the growth of the church can begin.

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The experience of the blessedness following obedience to the rules of life from God has awakened a vague idea of Him as a benevolent, if severe, Father; and their aspirations and feelings seek for truths of a higher kind, and are ready to receive them.

     But as yet there is no knowledge of the Lord or of spiritual life. And so the Lord, adapting Himself and His teaching to their needs and state, came to their outward senses as the son of Mary, and through the human which they saw and heard, he taught them by means of parables. By things taken from nature and human life of which they had knowledge, He now taught them things hitherto unknown to them, because not visible to the senses. In parables He gave them to see nature as the mirror of the creative Spirit of love which would make their minds part of His kingdom,-the kingdom of Him who loves them as spiritual beings, and provides means for their spiritual life and happiness to eternity, as He does in nature for their natural life and happiness. All outward things served Him for that purpose. The sun and the rain, the fruitful earth, the lilies of the field, the stony and the good ground. "Without a parable spake He not unto them."

     All His miracles and actions were parables, in which things seen served to teach men the unseen things of the spirit. The whole life, and the death as well, of the human being men beheld with their eyes and heard speak with their ears,-the being who is with men in the world today in the natural sense of the Gospels' story,-may be said to be a parable of the Divine Human, conceived and born by infinite Love and Wisdom, who speaks to us now in the Word of His Second Coming to His New Church.

     To those who were satisfied with the perverted teaching of the leaders of the Church, and had confirmed it in their own minds, He could reveal nothing. To those who, because their awakening rationality made them doubt, were not satisfied with the doctrines of the Pharisees and Sadducees, but who had some desire for truth, He could give something of a new understanding to which a little truth could be revealed. To those who desired to know the truths of heaven for the sake of truth, and for the sake of the good it teaches, His words and life could give more understanding, receptive of more truth. But He could tell none of them the truth plainly. Their rational mind was not developed sufficiently to see spiritual truth, except partially and dimly through symbols of things outside themselves.

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He told them that He had many things to say to them which they could not then bear, but promised that He would come again as the Spirit of truth, and guide them to see all truth plainly.

     This is the Divine way of teaching the truth of the kingdom of heaven to men on earth, accommodating it to their capacity to see and receive truth. And that capacity is determined by their state of rationality, and this, in its turn, by the state of their regeneration.

     The Lord's New Church, or the Church of the New Jerusalem, represents the manhood of the Church seen as a whole, when the mind of man has grown, and truths of spiritual life can be seen rationally by the understanding when revealed by the Lord. That rationality of manhood which characterizes the grown man of the church is gradually formed, when the creative spirit from infinite Love and Wisdom in the teaching given to childhood and youth is responded to by the growing youth through his obedience to it. That rationality makes it possible for him to see the truth, as it were, in the rational light of his own mind.

     IV.

     Here it would be desirable to set forth more fully how the leaders of the Church raised up by the Lord at His first coming, being deceived by their natural conception of the Lord as Mary's son, and by evil affections in their natural will, soon misunderstood and falsified the teaching of the Lord and His redeeming and saving work; how the Church, when the Word was no longer understood, lost all spiritual life; how there were still within it men who, from love of truth for its own sake and love of good as its soul, believed in the Lord's Divinity and in the Word as Divine Revelation, and looked to that Word for the truth they desired to see, rather than to the doctrine of the Church; how such men, obedient to the truth they did see, preserved love to God and the fellow man in their natural mind, and so were the remnants of the living Church, to whom, when their rationality had sufficiently developed, spiritual truth could be revealed by the Lord; how, among these men, there was one possessing great natural gifts, which he developed in scientific and philosophical pursuits, being guided by the Divine Providence, never losing his faith in the Word as a revelation of truth from the Lord, and never tiring of seeking for the truth there, but developing a rational insight and understanding of truths natural and spiritual far surpassing that of any other man of his time; how the Lord opened to this man the portals of the spiritual world as a reality apart from nature, where he could talk with angels and spirits and observe the laws ruling their lives; and how, with the knowledge thus obtained in his natural mind, the Lord could be revealed to him as infinite Love and Wisdom Itself, Life Itself, the Divine Human.

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     The time at our disposal will not permit more than these few words as a reminder of things with which you are all familiar, through your own reading of the Writings and the teaching you have received in the Church. This paper has been prepared from s desire to show, as clearly as it is possible for me to do, that the Writings are Divine from first to last, in origin and ultimate form; that the doctrines there revealed are Divine Truths, because proceeding from the Lord Himself, who is infinite Truth. They reveal to us the Divine Human of the Lord, and the life from Him that gives spiritual life to men on earth, and creates the heavens. The revealed Doctrine is the Word of the Lord accommodated to man's understanding, when it is acknowledged to consist of the truths of His infinite Wisdom, in which the Good of His infinite Love dwells as in its own forms.

     In the Word to the New Church the Divine Rational speaks to the rational that is from the Lord in the regenerating man; and Divine Rational Truth, inflowing into the rational of man, is constantly active in upbuilding, developing, and perfecting that rational in him, thereby making it possible for him to see and receive the Divine Human more and more to eternity.

     But the Divine Spiritual or Divine Rational cannot come to the apprehension of man living in nature, unless it clothes itself in an external body of natural language. This natural body, which can be apprehended by the natural mind, is, as it were, a translation from the spiritual language of the Lord and heaven into the natural language of men, by which heavenly love and wisdom from the Lord can come to the rational in man, and be received there. That natural language contains within it as its soul the love and wisdom from the Lord that build heaven in men on earth, and so create the heavens of the spiritual world, and are the life of them.

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     The truths set forth in the natural language provided by Swedenborg contain the truths of all the heavens from the Lord, because they correspond to them. In that external form the truths of the Lord and heaven are brought to a plane where they can be viewed by the rational that is from the Lord in man. The truths seen there he can store in his natural memory, and there they form as it were a field in which his rational can view, reflect upon, and see how the things there are connected one with another.

     The natural language in which the Divine Human of the Lord reveals Himself is like a body conceived by the Lord and given an external natural form by Swedenborg. In and through that body the Divine speaks and teaches us, as He did at His first coming in and through the body born by Mary. As long as we live on earth, that external must necessarily be the source from which our understanding is lighted by the Divinely spiritual and rational truths of the Lord, who, as the Soul of that body, speaks through it directly to the rational in man, and can be received by it.

     The natural clothing or the literal sense of the Word of the Writings, which brings spiritual truths proceeding from the Lord to our natural apprehension, and thus to the view of the rational from the Lord in us, may indeed be called representations or symbols on a plane lower than the plane of those truths themselves as they exist in the Lord and heaven, but only in the sense that words are representations or symbols of the thoughts to which they correspond and which they express.

     Their interior rational or spiritual meaning is, therefore, not open to exposition by correspondences in the same manner as that by which the interior meaning of the revelations given to the Church in its childhood and youth have been expounded by the Lord through Swedenborg; but the interior or soul of the Writings will be seen successively in rational light, as men's rationality is developed, and in spiritual light when they have entered the spiritual world after the death of the body.

     V.

     The thoughts thus far expressed have been largely guided by the very implicit teaching from the Lord that true rationality is inseparably connected with regeneration,-so intimately, indeed, that the two words may be said to be two definitions of the same thing.

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But it is also true that an unregenerate, that is, a merely natural man, may understand the truths revealed in the Word; and he may even see truths more clearly than many who have entered and progressed in the regenerate state. A clear understanding of the truths revealed in the Writings is, therefore, no evidence of a state of regeneration or of true rationality. This is so because the human language, which is the natural or literal sense through which Divine and spiritual truth can be communicated to men who live in the natural world, is subject to the knowledge, examination and scrutiny of natural rationality, that is, the rationality of merely natural men.

     Natural rationality is from, and is built up by, the faculty of the natural mind to observe natural things, to study them, to think from the knowledge so acquired, to see the connection between them and the laws that govern them. The greater the field of nature thus studied, and the greater the knowledge of their interdependence thus acquired, the clearer becomes the intelligent understanding of them in men, and also their power of logical thinking, which together form the principal part of natural rationality. This rationality can also be applied to the study of the works of other men, and to the minds of those who produce them. Relatively few men develop a pronounced intelligent, rational conception of such things. It seems to be an inherited natural gift, developed and directed to different fields by an inborn delight in knowing about them. Thus are our great scientists produced; and their rational conclusions guide and teach the great mass of less intelligent men.

     The love of knowing and understanding may turn some men of natural intelligence to the study of the working and methods of the minds of other men, or to books written by others, for the purpose of understanding the thought expressed in them, and of analyzing these thoughts and their validity. This, in some cases, as in philosophical works, is not an easy thing to do.

     The natural language of the Writings, presumably expressing the thoughts of Swedenborg, is like such literature, and may become the subject of the natural man's study and analysis; and though he may not be prompted by any love for the truths they reveal, but only by his natural love of knowing and understanding, he may, by his study, get a better and clearer conception of the coherence of the different statements, and a more rational comprehension of their meaning, than many a New Churchman who is in an advanced state of regeneration, but who has less intelligence.

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     Again, no man, even if he is regenerating, is always in that state. Often his proprium is on top, and pride in his own intelligence or other qualities in his proprium stand in the way, so that, when he reads the Writings, he does not read from a love of the truth which the Lord teaches in them, for the sake of receiving and doing the good of it, but from a desire to have his own understanding supported. Or he may be in the love of truth for the good it teaches, but lack that intelligence and power of logical thinking which is necessary if he is to see the verbal statements of the Writings as so many links in continuous truths from the Lord, which, although in the natural language they seem to be speaking of disconnected subjects, yet all together make a one, as the different parts of the body make the whole. In either case, the conception he forms of the truth, though it may seem to be the truth to him, is not the genuine truth taught in the Writings.

     None of us, not even the most intelligent and at the same time most fully regenerated man, thinks from the Lord, that is, wholly apart from his own proprium; or, what is the same, no one at this time, when the Church as a whole has just entered upon the stage of the development of the rationality of manhood, is a fully regenerated man.

     The genuine truth from the Lord, though revealed plainly and directly in the natural language which contains it, can only be drawn successively from the verbal statements of the Lord's Word to the New Church, as men grow both in natural intelligence and in regeneration.

     The rational understanding of genuine truths from the Word which the Church has thus drawn, and must continue to draw, is the doctrine of the church from the literal sense of the Word, and, drawn successively from the verbal statements of the Lord's Word when it is pure, the Holy Spirit from the Divine Human is in that doctrine, and guides the Church forward progressively to the promised celestial stale.

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NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1930

NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS       Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1930

     The Messianic Prophecies. The internal sense of the December, assignments from the Prophet Isaiah treats of the successive vastation and ultimate rejection of an old church, and of the advent of the Lord. Christians have always recognized that the First Advent of the Lord is foretold in such passages as:

     "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." (Isa. 7:14; compare Matt. 1:23.)

     "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, God the Mighty, Father of Eternity, The Prince of Peace." (Isa. 9:2, 6.)

     "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots . . . " (Isa. 11, where the kingdom of the Christ is described.)

     The Jews, in their effort to nullify the powerful series of Messianic prophecies which confirm Jesus Christ as the Messiah that was to come, have thrown doubt upon Isaiah 7:14 as a prediction of the Lord's birth from a virgin mother; and they claim that the Hebrew prophet had no other intent than to forepicture the birth of a Hebrew monarch, or of a son of the prophet Isaiah. In substantiation of this, they point out that the Hebrew word 'almah, there rendered "virgin," really means a young woman. Allowing for this broader meaning of the word, and conceding that Isaiah was speaking of current events, and was unconscious of the spiritual applications of his prophetic promulgations, yet the spiritual import of the verse as a foreshadowing of the Lord's coming is not weakened. For the kings and prophets of Israel were all representatives of the Lord who was to come as the Eternal King.

     The prophecies of the Lord's First Advent were cumulative. They became more distinct and detailed as time went on.

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About the time of the Babylonish captivity, the Jews began to see in them the real hope of the Jewish national religion; and this realization grew steadily as the restored nation sought to maintain itself against the incursions of Syria and Rome. At the time of John the Baptist, the imminent coming of the Messiah was popularly expected but even then there was no agreement as to the form or mode of His coming, by what earthly descent, if any, He would claim. As is always the case with prophecies, those of the Old Testament were only seen after their detailed fulfilment.

     Only in the New Church is it seen how the "Son" who was to be born could have been called by the prophet by such titles as the "Mighty God" and the "Father of Eternity " (Isa. 9:6). And in the internal sense, now revealed, it is also plain that Isaiah, in treating of the end of the Jewish Church, is also foretelling the end of the Christian dispensation, and Picturing the Second Advent of the Lord.

     A classic treatment of the Messianic Prophecies may be found in an article by Bishop N. D Pendleton, in NEW CHURCH LIFE for October, 1904.

     Vile Uses in the Other Life. Noah's prediction that Canaan, the Son of Ham, would become "a servant of servants unto his brethren" is based upon the signification of "Canaan" as idolatrous external worship. (A. C. 1094, 1097, 1103.) In the story of the Gibeonites (Joshua 9) we find one historical fulfilment of this prophecy. By clever trickery they induced Israel to spare their lives and make a league with them, but when the ruse was discovered they were made " hewers of wood and drawers of water "for the sanctuary. But the spiritual fulfilment of the prophecy is more universal. In the other life, all who are merely natural, and thus incapable of interior uses, must perform various vile services. If they are well-disposed, this occurs only during a period of vastation in the Lower Earth, where they are kept for a time as "prisoners of hope." (See A. C. 1106-1113.) But with those who are interiorly wicked, there is only a superficial removal of evils, and this by a routine of vile tasks in hell, under taskmaster and judges.

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Title Unspecified 1930

Title Unspecified              1930

     [PHOTO OF BRITISH ASSEMBLY GROUP.]

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TWENTY-THIRD BRITISH ASSEMBLY 1930

TWENTY-THIRD BRITISH ASSEMBLY       VICTOR J. GLADISH       1930

     HELD AT MICHAEL CHURCH, BURTON ROAD, LONDON, AUGUST 2-4, 1930.

     First Session-Saturday, 11:00 a.m.

     After conducting the opening worship, Bishop R. J. Tilson took the chair, and said: "It is with a heart lull of thankfulness to the Lord that I see before me so great a number to constitute this Assembly. As the years pass, and we receive news from over the water, Iron our centre there, our hearts do well up increasingly with gratitude for such an institution." He then read two letters received from the Bishop of the General Church, one appointing him President of the 23rd British Assembly, and the other a Greeting to the Assembly, as follows:

"Dear Bishop Tilson:
     "Please convey my greetings to the British Assembly. May the Lord be present and grant a realizing sense of His guidance and His protection!

     "The Fourteenth General Assembly, held here in Bryn Athyn now belongs to the past. It has fulfilled our expectations, and I believe carried us a step forward. There were several features of that Assembly which challenged attention, the report of which you will, I trust, find interesting reading. My own thought centers upon the papers which were read. They reached a high mark and while the criticism was made that they were too long and too abstract for such an occasion, yet I feel that larger uses were involved than the benefit to be derived from an immediate and full comprehension of the teaching given. These papers should be carefully studied by the members of our Church. They present a variety of views, as you will find yet there is distinctly an underlying bond of unity. The outlook in almost all of them was to the other world; this, without any conspiring on the part of the writers.

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We may therefore regard this as providential. The mind of the General Church should ever be directed upward and inward to the revealed truth. This attitude of mind is the only way to receive the blessing for which the Church was designed, namely, the blessing of an ever growing spiritual vision, apart from which there can only result an inevitable recession, or at best a period of quiescence and waiting for a new spiritual impulse.

     "I have in mind the fact that, while the only source of increased light is the Revelation itself, yet the Revelation can become effective only when our minds are opened to it by instruction. With this in view the General Church has encouraged by every means a constant reading of the Writings, in order that each individual may meet the Lord in His direct revealing of Himself. According to the measure and degree of this individual approach will the whole Church be prepared to receive the Lord in that higher light, which, while it may be advanced by the studies of a few who are gifted with learning and a degree of enlightenment, yet it is in a sense fundamentally dependent upon the spiritual intelligence of the reactive group which forms the body of the Church. My meaning is, that the leading thought of the Church, humanly speaking, is bound by the capability of the times, or by the state of reception in the Church as a whole, for we think in society. This is a spiritual law, and according to this law the thought of one is communicated to all, and that of all to one, the result being a great increase for each individual. It is so in the heavenly societies, but less obviously so in societies on earth.

     "Please, therefore, realize that we are with you, even as you are with us, one and indivisible as a body of the Church which acknowledges and receives the Lord in His Second Coming, as He has supremely and solely revealed Himself in the Divine Writings which He has ill mercy given for the redemption of mankind, and for our salvation. We cannot too highly exalt those Writings, nor too lowly estimate ourselves and our own proprial intelligence. This attitude of mind the Academy has ever encouraged. It is one of entire confidence in the Revelation, and of deep self-humility, in which state there is in truth not a mere literal binding of the mind, but a liberation of the spirit, opening to interior, and more interior, perceptions of truth.
     (Signed) N. D. PENDLETON."

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     Bishop Tilson: Such, then, is the magnificent address which our Bishop has sent to us for this gathering. It is now my privilege to pass on to you the greetings received from the Circle at Kilburn, Yorks; from Mr. Samuel Lewin, of Bath, whose eldest son and daughter are present with us; and from Mr. Percy Dawson of Failsworth, who has sent fondest greetings and wishes. It is also my privilege as President to welcome the Pastor and members of the Circle at Woodgreen, Salisbury, and it is not often that a Pastor brings with him his entire flock; also to welcome the Rev. Theodore Pitcairn, who comes to us bearing a time-honored name, and ale, is one of the staff of the Academy at Bryn Athyn. We also welcome Miss Sumner, of Manchester, Mr. and Mrs. Ridgway, of South Africa, and our friends of the General Conference, the Rev. W. H. Claxton and Mr. F. A. Gardiner. And, finally, we welcome three students of the New Church College in Chingford, Essex. We are delighted to have them here, and receive them as brothers in the Lord's New Church. After fifty years of work in the priesthood of that Church, I can say to them that they will never regret starting out in their work with the encouragement they will receive here to appreciate that the Writings of the New Church are the Lord's Word to that Church. Upon that foundation alone can the Church be built up. We may have varied conceptions of the heavenly truths revealed; that will not matter, if there be charity in our hearts. But there is no hope for the Church, save upon that rock represented by Peter of old,-an unequivocal acknowledgment that the Lord, and the Lord alone, has come in that Revelation. May the Lord warm the hearts of these young men with such a realization when they start out on their labors, never forgetting the foundation from which they start.

     The Presidential Address was then delivered by Bishop Tilson, the subject being: "Concentration and Radiation." (See p. 753.)

     DISCUSSION.

     Rev. Theodore Pitcairn: I have listened to this Address with a great deal of interest and delight, and also with an earnest desire to reflect and meditate upon many of the things presented. I hesitate to offer any ideas upon the subject of the paper; it was very extensible, and when the mind is in a state of reception, it is difficult to comment until one has had an opportunity for considerable meditation. I received many ideas which it will be a delight to reflect upon, and I shall look forward to reading it in print.

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     Rev. Albert Bjorck: The Address, and Bishop Pendleton's letter quoted therein, seem to be absolutely self-evident, and I am sure that no one in this gathering who accepts the central teaching of the General Church that the Writings are the Word of the Lord will fail to appreciate the forceful reasoning of the President's Address, and how it is in harmony with that central teaching. That is really the first doctrine upon which the General Church was based and formed, and all our members realize that without that acknowledgment the Church cannot grow, internally or externally. For many years I was a minister in the General Convention, and during that time I thought that I had a very comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the Writings. For many years I have read them from the standpoint of the General Church, and in a short time after the change my comprehension and insight into the Writings grew so that there was no comparison with what I saw before. I mention this personal experience in evidence and support of the remarks just made by our President. I think nearly everybody present will agree with the President's remarks concerning the true translation of cognitio, which means not only knowledge, but apprehended knowledge. It is correct, as stated in the Writings, that there is no such apprehended knowledge in the Old Church.

     Rev. Victor J. Gladish: In rising to express my appreciation of the Address, I wish chiefly to say something about this matter of the acceptance of the Writings as the Word of the Lord. The last speaker has supported the remarks of our President in emphasizing that as a fact which must be accepted. I should just like to call your attention to this,-that the Bishop of the General Church, to my knowledge at least, has made it a practice not to lay down any man-made phrase as that on which our Church is founded, but has preferred to leave the matter in this position, that the Divine Authority of the Writings must be accepted, because something equivalent to that is stated in the Writings; and the Bishop has put it that the Writings should be recognized as the Lord's Second Coming, because in the Writings themselves the statement is made that the Lord has made His Second Coming by means of that Revelation; and we also have the declaration: "Hic Liber est Adventus Domini."

     We believe that the Writings are the Word; yet it is a question whether it is wise to seize upon any statement not taken directly from the Writings themselves, and insist upon that being used. I am not, as you know, weak in my own acceptance of the Writings as the Word. But there may be some who feel that it is a big step to take, having been brought up to regard only the Old and New Testaments as the Word. And while I think there is a distinct use in calling the Revelation "The Word," I feel that the expression "The Divine Authority of the Writings " conveys much the same idea. Certainly a subscription to the statement that the Writings are the Word is not required to gain membership in the General Church, but only an application to the governing Bishop; provided, of course, that the applicant be not a member of any organization that is definitely opposed to the spirit of the General Church. Therefore, while we accede to the position that the Writings are the Word, there are other ways of putting it; and I suggest that it is a mistake to give the impression that any group of the Church is founded upon a man-made phrase.

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     Rev. Theodore Pitcairn: In the little work, The Testimony of the Writings Concerning Themselves, by the Rev. C. Th. Odhner, it is clearly shown that the Writings are a Divine Revelation, and that "all Revelation is the Word," and this from expressions to be found in the Writings themselves. For example, these words occur in the True Christian Religion: "Now the nature of Divine Truth is revealed, and this is the Word."

     Rev. Albert Bjorck: When I said that the church would not grow, either internally or externally, without an acknowledgment of the fact that the Writings are the Word, I, of course, did not mean to suggest that the acknowledgment should be based upon a decision arrived at by any human authority. It should be an internal perception of the fact. Without that interior perception we certainly would only be in that acknowledgment in an external way. I, there fore, had not in my thought any idea from a man-made phrase, but referred to the necessity for a perception of the fact that the Writings are Divine in their origin, even to their ultimate form, and that, being Divine, they carry in their bosom the infinite Love of the Lord; consequently, they cannot be anything less than His Word.

     Bishop Tilson: May I remind you of the statement: "Unless the Lord comes again into the world in the Divine Truth, which is the Word, no one can be saved." (T. C. R. 3.) That in itself would be sufficient authority for me to call the Writings the Word.

     Mr. James S. Pryke: As to calling the Writings the Word, I rather incline to agree with Mr. Gladish. We all have that doctrine in mind, but I think it can be rather over-reiterated, with detrimental effect. However, there are definite statements in which the Writings refer to themselves as "the Word."

     As to the President's Address, which we ought to "concentrate" upon and "radiate" from, I would refer to one quotation he made from the Writings: "Men are only men so far as they walk in the way of truth. But so far as they turn aside therefrom, they approach the nature of a beast." When I heard that, I could not help thinking what a piece of work man is, as he was intended to be by his Maker. The gist of the subject before us is the old teaching of coming back to the Lord and reacting from Him. Bearing in mind the doctrine of degrees, we might consider the series: Concentration, Accommodation, Reception, and then Radiation, because we are often in obscurity as to the difference between Revelation and internal enlightenment. Revelation has been made to the whole world, and is therefore universal. But something is demanded from us as men, namely, the exercise of that human faculty which brings us to inquire of the Lord, to get to understand His teaching and His will, and then to radiate it throughout our lives, affecting by our sphere all with whom we come in contact. If I mistake not, that is the gist of what our President meant in bringing forward the necessity for the state of concentration and consequent understanding and finally radiation of the truths revealed to us. The doctrine of Radiation, as I see it, is a doctrine of spheres; and the glorious privilege of a New Churchman is, not only an acceptance of the historic fact that the Lord lives, but a philosophic knowledge and understanding of that truth, not from himself, but from Divine Revelation.

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It is also his great privilege to be able to turn to his Maker, and increasingly to know, understand, and radiate with and from Him.

     Rev. W. H. Claxton: I do not wish to refer to the subject of the Word. The position that I hold, I hold intelligently and by conviction, and of course I have a right to my own point of view.

     A word now as to what you told us, Sir, concerning the decision of the Revision Board. I am no longer a member of that Board, but am still interested in its work. I think I understood Mr. Bjorck to say that "nearly" all in this room would agree to the change from "knowledge" to "cognition," but surely all would realize that some difference must be made in English when the Latin word used is cognitio instead of scientia. I am of the opinion that the word "cognition" has never been fully defined by the students in the Church, but at present the English word "cognition" seems the nearest we can get to express the meaning. I am not sure, however, that the word "cognition," as introduced into English Philosophy, bears quite the same meaning that Emanuel Swedenborg wished to convey. Some word will have to be found, I think, that will better express the true meaning. Meanwhile, I am very glad to hear what has been done.

     Mr. Stanley Parker: The subject to which Bishop Tilson has directed our attention is strikingly illustrated in the Old and the New Church in respect to their respective views. There is so much uncertainty in the Old Church with regard to the critical state of the world and its problems. They, of course, have only the Letter of the Word, and base everything upon literal and historic fact. But the New Church concentrates upon the Lord as the great Center, and is in the light which proceeds from Him. New Churchmen are, therefore, in a better position to radiate; and the more we know of the Writings and their Divine Author, and realize what an exalted Revelation has been given to us, the more we shall be able to radiate the light in harmony with that perception.

     Mr. J. H. Ridgway: The subject of "Concentration and Radiation" has been well presented, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. The concentration which I feel we have to adopt in the General Church, which is at the present day in its infancy, and is comparatively an extremely weak body, is that expressed by the text, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you." To do that we must put the Church first in our lives. If we concentrate upon that, and realize that we are in the infancy of the Crowning Church for the ages to come, I think our concentration will get a force which it would not otherwise get. And if we realize that the Revelation which has come to this Church has come from the Lord alone to us, whether we call it "the Word" or a "Revelation from the Lord" does not matter, so long as we recognize its Divine Authority. If we thus concentrate, we shall also radiate in our own lives, and in the lives of those around us in the general body, the force for which the Lord is trying to use us as instruments in the development of His Crowning Church, to which it is our tremendous privilege to belong.

     Mr. Coulson (speaking for the Conference students): I am a little over whelmed by the kind reception which you have given to us. I did not intend to say anything, but since you have asked one of us to speak I should just like to say that I have there thoroughly enjoyed being here and listening to your address this evening.

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I do not know that I can contribute very much to the discussion, but I have appreciated greatly all that has been said, and have learned a great deal which I shall meditate upon and take to my heart.

     Rev. Appleton: I would not like this meeting to pass without expressing my thanks to the Bishop for his Address, and making a few remarks upon the subject. It is a most essential thing that we should concentrate our affections upon the reading of the Word in its Letter, and also upon the Writings in which the Lord has made His Second Coming. It is in our affection for the Divine Truths therein revealed that we can become receptive of the many things which the Lord has to teach us. If our affections are not in the desire to live that which we receive, we shall fail in our reading. But I trust that the Address will encourage us to read and endeavor to understand the Writings, that we may get more and more interiorly the things that are written therein. So far as our affections and desires are to learn and appreciate what is revealed, we shall become more closely associated with the angels of heaven in their delight, which is that of loving the Lord and obeying His behests. In the prayer which the Lord has given us, He has said that He desires us to do His will on earth as it is done in heaven. We cannot know His will unless we desire, and apply ourselves to know and understand, what His will is. The Address to which we have listened will help us in that direction.

     Bishop Tilson: According to custom, I believe, the writer of a paper is called upon to reply; but, without any discourtesy to the speakers, I do not know of anything to which I need reply particularly. I am very glad that the paper was received as well as it was, and hope it may be useful. That is the great purpose to which we in the priesthood desire to speak at any time. It was a pleasure to me to try to follow up somewhat the line of thought in the Bishop's letter, not with the idea of adding anything thereto, but rather to emphasize that which was said. I felt that, in so doing, I was, as it were, working under him as head of the Church, which it is my desire to do. My purpose was to draw your attention to the salient points of his message.

     I should like to add just a word to what I said on the subject of calling the Writings the Word. The teaching in T. C. R. 3 is quite sufficient for me. I am not, however, an admirer of mere terms, especially since learning the fate of the followers of Aristotle; but words are useful, and you cannot get along without them. I do think there is a tendency to forget that we are not yet in heaven! We ought to be reminded enough of that when we look within ourselves! But, to my mind, there is no term which so fully expresses the idea of the character of the Writings of the Church as "The Word of the Lord."

     Divine Worship-Sunday, August 3rd.

     The morning service in Michael Church, attended by a congregation of 124 persons, was conducted by Bishop Tilson, the Lessons were read by the Rev. Albert Bjorck, and the Rev. Victor J. Gladish delivered a sermon on the subject of "Vision," from the text of Joel 2: 28, 29.

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In the afternoon the Holy Supper was administered to 100 communicants, Bishop Tilson as celebrant being assisted by the Revs. Theodore Pitcairn and Victor J. Gladish.

     Second Session-Sunday, 7 p.m.

     The Rev. Albert Bjorck read a paper on the subject of "Genuine Truths and Truths Not Genuine." (See p. 762.)

     DISCUSSION.

     Bishop Tilson: This careful study from the Doctrines of the Church concerning genuine truths contrasted with truths not genuine brings before us the great necessity of the times,-the cultivation of true rationality. Towards the close of the paper, these words suggested themselves to my mind: "Let us make man!" And we are taught in the Doctrine that "the truly human begins in the rational of man." The work of the New Church, therefore, in all its educational methods, is to lay the foundation for a true character, which must be built up from a rational appreciation of the truths which the Lord has revealed. Beginning in the home and the nursery, every effort should be made by parents to understand the teaching of the Doctrines concerning education. We are grateful to Mr. Bjorck for calling our attention to this gradual development of rationality, by which is meant something higher than the mere ability to ratiocinate-to argue from appearances. If we think spiritually we shall be able to distinguish between mere ratiocination and true rationality. The subject of the paper is now before the Assembly for discussion.

     Rev. Victor J. Gladish: Mr. Bjorck's approach to his subject was similar to that in his paper on "Progress" (New Church Life Sept., 1928), in which he treated of the progress of the church in the individual in comparison with the advancement of the church in its various dispensations. In this series, the New Church is comparable with the adult mind, when rationality is developed; yet there is a certain reversion to the state immediately preceding,-the state of youth, the "Wild ass" state, in which there is a breaking away from restraints, a feeling that one knows everything. Then follows a state of humility, with a realization that one knows nothing, and must begin to learn. This points a moral,-that in the New Church we should not have the buoyancy of the early Christians, who had the idea of spreading the new truths over the world immediately, but we must have the idea of slow and patient growth.

     It was stated in the paper that the letter of the Writings could be compared to the body of the Lord born of Mary, and, if I heard correctly, that the Writings were conceived of God, but received a body in the mind of Emanuel Swedenborg. My view is, that the Writings were not only conceived of God, but were also born of God, in the same way that the Glorified Human was conceived and born of the Father, the human born of Mary being put off. It seems to me that the ultimate form of the Writings was also born of God.

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Of course, the words themselves are natural, and those natural words and the things taken from Swedenborg's memory must, I think, correspond to the body born of Mary. But the essential Divine Human was a Glorified Human, with which, to my mind, the form of the Writings should be compared. For the body of the Writings was conceived of God and born of God; and their soul and body-the internal and external of the Divine Doctrine-cannot there be separated.

     Rev. Theodore Pitcairn: I very much enjoyed listening to this fine paper. Like the previous speaker, I am aware that what we know, compared to what we do not know, is like the ocean to a drop of water. If we become too conscious of that, however, we would be too hesitant to speak on these occasions; but fortunately we do not fully realize it, and so have the courage to get up and speak, even though we are in a certain amount of obscurity. With most of the paper I found myself in agreement, and will only comment upon a few points, which perhaps will bring out phases of contrast.

     My conception of the period of man's life which best represents the New Church is that from sixty years of age, continuing into the spiritual world. The New Church in its prime is to be a celestial church. The celestial is characteristic of old age and the life after death, rather than of the period from twenty to sixty years of man's life.

     The First Christian Church seems to be characterized by a development of the natural rational, which, to be sure, it represents; the Church of the future, namely, the New Church, is to be characterized by perception. The New Church will come into celestial remains, corresponding to those which you have in the first state of infancy, or which they had in the Most Ancient Church. But most of our thought is still on the plane of the natural rational, because we have only come out of the First Christian Church in comparatively recent times. Gradually a spiritual rational-or a rational in the spiritual degree of the mind-will have to be developed in the New Church, and later on, a celestial rational. The latter state, however, will not come for many years, because the Church progresses slowly. The celestial angels are on the plane of the celestial rational, which is a discrete degree higher than the spiritual rational, which again is a discrete degree higher than the natural rational. Although our thought, for the most part, is on the latter plane, I believe the Lord gives perception from the light of heaven, which descends into the spiritual and natural planes, and gives enlightenment. And when this takes place to an exceptional extent, as, for instance, when the Academy was founded, it marks a time of progress for the Church. We believe this movement was of the Holy Spirit's leading, and that the Church then took on a body correspondential with its new state.

     I do not want you to think that all spiritual truth is contained in the Writings, even in their letter, because all doctrine is to be drawn from the letter of the Writings as well, being the foundation upon which the heavens will rest to all eternity. They, as the Word, with the former Testaments, form the basis, and any idea which is not founded thereon is not genuine, and does not belong to the temple which is the Lord's body.

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     Mr. Gladish spoke of the Writings as being born of God. Now, while he pointed out some difficulties which we have in common about the ultimate Word of the Writings, I believe certainly that they were born of God; yet they were said to be born of the Church as a mother, and that the Church is represented in the spiritual world by the woman in the 12th Chapter of Revelation, and Mary in one sense has a similar representation. I do not believe that the Revelation to the New Church has anything of the proprium of man in it. We are told that the Lord cannot be in anything of the proprium of man, but can dwell only in that which is His own, in the church or in the individual. That is why I believe that the Writings were born of God, as well as conceived of God.

     Now the New Church is represented in the Apocalypse by the "woman," and we have these Divine Writings that were born of her. We then hear of her as being in the wilderness, and later that she is the bride and wife of the Lord. The Church-represented by the woman as the bride and wife of the Lord-has nothing of the proprium of man in it. The New Jerusalem is purely Divine, and nothing of the proprium can enter it. The Church, as the woman, was said to be conjoined with the Lord as His bride, and from that there would naturally follow offspring-if the Church be not barren, which could not be imagined of the New Jerusalem-and everything born of that conjunction must be Divine, both internal and external. In one sense, they will be born from the Writings because the Writings are the complete Word; they have everything in them, for they are the Lord Himself. Therefore, everything must be from the Writings in the Church-by saying which I do not, of course, exclude the other Testaments. However, this presents a somewhat different point of view to that generally seen in the New Church, which is what Mr. Gladish referred to, but I think there are many things in the Writings which point in this direction. I have not presented the matter very well, I am afraid, as there is still some little obscurity in my mind with regard to it; but, as I said at the beginning, the amount we know compared with what we do not know is inconceivably great.

     Mr. Conrad Howard: I am in sympathy with Mr. Bjorck's position regarding the ultimate Word of the Writings; I feel that my rationality leads me in that direction, or that he has guided my thought in that direction. One cannot help feeling conscious that there are different schools of thought represented here concerning the subject, and it is difficult to speak freely with that knowledge. But, as our Bishop reminded us yesterday in his very excellent address, there is need for charity with regard to all our conceptions, and therefore also towards this one. It seems to me that the Church is young, and in its infancy; that no one has said the last word about this or any other subject of Church doctrine; and that therefore, in humility, we can say anything-even a layman. It seems to me, also, that the variety of views held in the Church are like so many colors which the Church has not yet harmonized. We must be patient, and careful not to allow the intellect to become tyrannical. After all, the subject we are considering is a development of the doctrine of faith, but the Writings tell us that charity is of still greater importance.

     Mr. Chas. Ashley: I should like to express my appreciation of Mr. Bjorck's paper. He started off with the truth that when a child is quite young it must depend upon its parents for instruction.

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That calls attention to the necessity for parents to be well read, so as to be fitting instruments for that sacred work. He then dealt with the school age, and showed the need for New Church education,-the right training of Young minds and hearts, and the implanting of remains to serve them in after years. Later, as the mind develops, there is the state of reception of natural and rational truths, and at adult age the personal Study of the Writings for the acquisition of spiritual truths. That brings us to the point of the paper last evening,-that when we arrive at the position of being able to understand natural and rational truths, and finally spiritual truths, we can concentrate more and more upon the Heavenly Doctrines, and become instruments in the hands of the Lord for the radiation, by sphere, of His love and truth. The paper tonight has brought out the same truths, and made feel that I should like to be born again, and start at that very early age to receive such an education.

     Mr. Godfrey: Unfortunately I was not able to hear much of Mr. Bjorck's paper. I did hear what Mr. Pitcairn said, and he has introduced something to my mind to which I shall give thought. After all, there is nothing either here, on the planets, or in the spiritual world, worthy of our highest aspiration, but good and truth, and we are taught that truth condemns, but good saves. The principal thing is to get the will right. I once heard a lecturer say: "Educate the people, and they will go right," but that is not really so. The truth is that if the will is right, the understanding can be trained with good effect. We read that the Disciples forgot to take bread; they had plenty of truth, but they forgot to take that which represented good. I think it was Abraham who dug a lot of wells, and the Philistines filled them up. Socrates said that the greatest thing on this earth was to know what you do not know; and that, to my mind, is a guide to the whole subject.

     Mr. James Pryke: Bishop Pendleton, in his letter to us, called attention to the fact that there was a certain unity Of thought underlying all the papers given at the recent General Assembly, although there had not been any conspiring to that end. It struck me, similarly, that the paper we have heard this evening was very much in line with the address we heard last evening, and it has brought back to mind many old truths. That to me is a very great delight, because it shows the essential unity of truth on all planes. One of the striking things said in Mr. Bjorck's paper was that the understanding, of itself, is nothing, but that to the understanding must be added a reformed will. That linked up with the important teaching of the President, in which he called attention to the difference between ratiocination and rationality. Now we are told that a man is really intelligent when he can see truths in their own light, whereas the man who ratiocinates can make anything appear to be true, even the most absurd falsities; and that seemed to be a very useful thing to bring out at the present time.

     A further point was the merciful providence and wonderful care of the Lord, because underlying all that we have heard tonight was this truth,-that falsity, in itself, does not exist. That which emanates from the Lord is Divine Truth, within which is Divine Good; and all the way down from the Lord to the lowest devils of hell there is the Truth underlying.

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Falsity cannot exist by itself. This is a wonderful thought, because it means that if man will search down deep enough, under every falsity he will find the eternal truth, which will lead him back again to the Lord. There is no time in a man's career when he can say, "I have an absolute truth"; underlying it there is perfect truth, but he can never see anything more than his finite mind can perceive. There is never any getting away from the fact that the Lord is the Center of all truth, and that man, if he will, can so use the powers which have been given to him as to gain higher and still more interior perceptions of truth.

     I was extremely interested in what Mr. Bjorck said about the comparison between the natural body of truth and the natural maternal covering by Mary. It is a subject upon which I have thought much. I do not wish to draw the correspondence too closely, but it seems to me to follow from sheer rationality that, as the Lord had to have a fit body the first time, so a body was needed for the Second Coming, because you can never get away from the truth that everything we learn is first presented on the plane of the five senses, and from that has to be refined and elevated. It comes back to this, that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." It is true that the birth of genuine rationality begins when man is prepared to acknowledge Divine Revelation; that is when a man's rational mind first begins to open. It is expressed by these words: "I, the Lord, am Alpha and Omega," and "beside me there is no God."

     Mr. Appleton: Much has been said by various speakers this evening concerning rationality. My understanding of the matter is this: We are told that there is a plane of natural rationality which, I take it, is particularly for our use in this world. By it our understanding can be developed in harmony with our natural state, so that we comprehend intelligently all things necessary for our life here. But in every man there is the possibility of developing a spiritual rationality. All can do this who are in the spiritual affection of truth for its own sake, and who shun evils as sins against God. The Lord works from within every man, from the internal to the external, helping him to love and will that which is good, and in harmony with the truth which is in his understanding. We have to receive from the Word our understanding concerning that which is spiritual. It appears as a natural rational understanding of the truths of faith, but really it is the Lord working within us to establish a spiritual rational, by which we can accept Him as our Father and Savior, and understand the spiritual truths revealed in the Letter of the Word and in the Writings of the Church. That is my understanding of the whole matter, and I think that to try to look at it in any other way is rather to obscure the mind than to clear it.

     Mr. Coulson: I should like to record my appreciation of the very delightful way in which the subject of Mr. Bjorck's paper was carried forward to the point at which the title seemed to be dealt with. The question at issue seems to come to this How far can the letter of the Writings be said to be truth not genuine, or to be Divine Truth? In the light of the paper, and of what has been said since, it seems to me that it depends very much upon the way in which the affection of the human will is directed towards the letter of the Writings.

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The Writings are a translation of the Word in the spiritual world into natural language, and that "natural" has been compared to the Divine Human of the Lord brought to our apprehension. Then the point was raised as to how far that Human could be compared in any way to the human which the Lord had from His mother in the world. As I see it, the Writings in their letter-when the Son of Man is lifted up as He should be in our minds when we contemplate the Lord as the Word-are to be regarded as the Divine Human of the Lord. But there are two methods of approach to the Writings by the human mind. One may regard them either from the natural rational standpoint or from the spiritual rational, which is from the Lord; and it seems to me that the Writings in their letter may appear to be merely like the infirm human which the Lord had in the world, but that really they are not so. The Writings, even as to their literal form, are not in any sense apart from the Lord Himself; they are the Lord's own revealing of Himself in His own medium, Divinely given. That was the Dart of the paper which interested me most, and I have endeavored to give expression as to how the matter seems to me.

     Rev. W. H. Claxton: There is one thing I would like Mr. Bjorck to deal with in his reply. It seemed to me that he left himself too little time to make clear his meaning as to what he regards as "truths genuine and truths not genuine," the main thesis that he had to deal with. Although some of the speakers this evening think we are not quite so advanced as they may be, they have tried to express the following teaching, of which I have no doubt whatever, that the Truth will never be understood simply by the intellect. If you could get the intellect and the will to be in harmony, then the intellect would perceive truth, and I brought that teaching to bear upon the subject in my own mind. In our religious life, it is possible for the understanding to become possessed of many truths, but if we do not will them they are only apparent truths, so far as we are concerned.

     With regard to the other question which has been raised, to my mind the body of the Lord has to vanish before He can be seen in His Revelation; and the body of the Lord is the Word of the Old and the New Testaments The Lord was not fully recognized as having come until the New Testament was revealed to throw light upon the Prophecies of the Old Testament; and so I think in the New Church, as we come to see the Lord in the nearer Truth, and get away from the appearances, we shall see the Lord as having come a second time.

     Bishop Tilson: I do not think I have ever heard a better comparison than that made by Mr. Bjorck concerning the two advents of the Lord. I do not believe that any further Revelation will be made, but that there will be given an ever deeper understanding of the Writings, and an increasingly greater perception of their hidden treasures, in proportion to the advancement in the regenerate life. This is surely involved in the Lord's words, "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." (John 7:17.) I will now ask Mr. Bjorck to make his reply to the various speakers of the evening.

     Rev. Albert Bjork: In reply to one criticism, I must confess that I left out a portion of the paper, because it was rather too long to be read on this occasion.

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The paragraphs missed out might have made the things I tried to say a little clearer.

     The Writings use that expression, "Genuine truths and truths not genuine," always in connection with the understanding of the Word as revealed to men. As men see, read, and study it, as revealed in outward form, they get genuine truths and truths not genuine. I could have given several examples of that, but I was simply concerned to make the underlying reasons for this fact clear to you.

     Another reason for the way I built up my paper, and the illustration I used of the Church as a whole growing like an individual, was my desire to show that the natural plane of the mind is continuous, and I thought I could illustrate that best by showing how the different Churches have progressed, all as separate Churches, making a one, and that the four main divisions of the Church correspond to, or answer to, the four periods of human life. Because there is a continuous development going on in the individual, so it is in the Lord's Church, since there is that continuity. And as there are the remains in the individual from infancy, which continue with the same person through childhood and youth up to manhood, so there are remnants from the former Church, thus making one continuous whole. My idea was, that by making such a comparison it would be easier for the mind to grasp how in the beginning love is first,-a merely natural love for others,-but that this is the remnant from which the possibility of a true rationality is developed.

     In the beginning of my paper I quoted from the Writings a definition, to the effect that an unregenerate man is said not to be rational; not that he is irrational in natural light, but in a higher sense. The rationality that is spoken of in the Writings as being one with regeneration is slowly developed in a man through influx from the Lord into his mind. I desired also to show how the
Lord, in making His Revelation, adapted Himself to the different stages of the natural mind of man, trying always to lead it from the love of good, that is, from the remains, and then from the truths in his understanding, gradually building up his natural mind, so that it can become open to the influx from the spiritual and the celestial. The commencement of rationality is at the school are, where men the experience of rewards and punishments helps to build up the character, and the instruction received helps to develop a rationality to which a new revelation can be accommodated during the years of adolescence. When the spirit reaches higher than the natural things that have been learned in school, the Lord can adapt the revelation of the Word to the rationality in that period of life. There is no power in the rational mind at that time to conceive of spiritual things directly, but parabolic means are used to bring down the spiritual truths,-in themselves incomprehensible to him,-mediately, by the natural things used in the parable. Later on, when there has been obedience to that, and a desire for more truth has been born, which desire is the love of good within it, the soul advances to higher states, in which more interior truths can be seen. Good, which is the outcome of lower truth lived, always points the way to the reception of higher truths.

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True rationality is attained when man, as from himself, as the fruit of former understanding and living, can commence to understand truths. He can then be instructed in spiritual things directly; and if he has lived for the good which the truth teaches, his mind opens more and more.

     The New Church, to my mind, corresponds to the whole period of earthly life after manhood has been reached. And no matter how old a man gets, so long as his mind retains the capability of thinking, and his will is in the regenerating state, the truth then comes directly from the Lord, through the means of the external sense of His Revelation, to those who will be of His New Church. Just because it comes down to the rationality that has been built up, and that is one with regeneration, that rationality which has been born of the Lord can receive it, and the truths of the Writings can be seen in their own light.

     The letter of the Divine Revelation in the Writings corresponds to the truths in all the heavens from the Lord, and the letter is a translation of spiritual language into natural. That translation must be made by man, for we cannot see spiritual or Divine things. In order that that translation may come down to our apprehension, it must be clothed, and therefore the Divine took on a Body. This question was brought up by several of the speakers this evening, and I would like to say a few words upon it. There has been a little difference of opinion concerning it.

     There would certainly seem to be a correspondence between the human essence born from Mary and the human essence born from Emanuel Swedenborg, because in both cases the external was a means by which the Lord Himself could come down and speak to men and teach them. The Lord Himself worked through the human born of Mary to teach the men of the First Christian Church; and similarly, it is the Lord Himself who comes down in the letter of the Writings and teaches us, through them as means, what is good and evil,-on a higher plane than we could see before, and leads us in the way to heaven.

     Mr. Pitcairn made the distinction that it is the church that gives birth to the Lord always. Well, I certainly think that is so, for Mary represents the church, and the church is represented by the "woman. The external form of Divine Revelation must always necessarily be given through men, and I think that Emanuel Swedenborg represents the church. The Lord could not have revealed the spiritual sense to Swedenborg unless his mind had been so regenerated that he could see spiritual things as they were on their own plane. And seeing them so, the Lord could reveal Himself to him as the infinite Love and Wisdom which gives life to everything. And He revealed to Swedenborg's rational mind the form and equivalent of the same things in the heavens, for comprehension by the men of the New Church on earth.

     The New Church is represented, as you know, by the woman in the wilderness, and it is equally true that we are in the wilderness, not only of different human ideas about the truths of the church, but also a wilderness of different verbal statements in the Writings which seem hard to harmonize. Our knowledge of those truths is really very small indeed; we are just in the beginning of the New Dispensation.

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And the Lord gave to Emanuel Swedenborg a direct Revelation, coming down to the natural mind of a man that was open to the influx of spiritual and celestial things in the truly rational plane, through his love of good as well as his love of truth, which joins to itself the truth it sees in the Word. The church is to do that in reading the Word, by drawing general truths from the Revelation. The church can bring out the "man-child," which is that spiritual conception of genuine truth revealed in the Word, and which can conjoin the Lord as the Holy Spirit with the church on earth. The church must give that genuine truth an external form, as it has begun to do in the Church of the Academy, and that form may have to be revised many times as perception grows, because perception follows regeneration; and as genuine rationality is developed, we shall see more and more apart from our proprium. Through the external form of the Writings, the Lord can come down to what is of Himself in us; and nothing of our proprium is from Him. It is that which He wants to help us put away.

     I think it was Mr. Claxton who said something about the fact that the body of the Lord must vanish. That is so. And in the New Church, as well as in the First Christian Church, the external must disappear, and an apprehension and perception of the internal take its place. But as long as we are in this world, we cannot see the internal except through the external. When we leave this world, we shall see spiritual truths in their own spiritual light, depending upon our state of regeneration. The more this progresses, the more truth will be seen in the light of heaven, because, as it progresses, we are building up states of love to the neighbor instead of the love of self, and of love to God instead of the love of the world and its allurements.

     Bishop Tilson: I think our friend tonight has been inspired of heaven, and I therefore feel impelled to take a somewhat unusual course by asking you to show your appreciation of and gratitude for such an address by rising from your seats.

     There was an immediate and enthusiastic response to the invitation thus given.

     Third Session-Monday, 10:00 a.m.

     An account of the Fourteenth General Assembly was given by the Rev. Victor J. Gladish, and impressions of the same event were given by Mr. J. H. Ridgway. Both were heard with close attention and interest by the meeting.

     At 12 o'clock there was a discussion of business arrangements for the British Assemblies, at the conclusion of which the President nominated Messrs. K. W. Anderson, Colley Pryke, and the Treasurers of the London and Colchester Societies, as a committee to meet with him and make recommendations to the next Assembly. On motion of Mr. John Cooper, duly seconded, the nominations were endorsed by the Assembly.

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     Mr. Philip Oyler, of Woodgreen, Salisbury, then addressed the Assembly extemporaneously on the subject of "The Formation of a New Church Community in Rural Conditions," as follows:

     Mr. Oyler: Inquiry has been made of me as to where the suggested community would be. That is at present in the air, because we do not yet know whether anybody wants it. An article on the subject has been submitted to New Church Life, but has not yet been published. I will tell you briefly what the idea is, as held by some of us.

     The basic idea is this-that when the Church was young, it was like other Churches as to its form of worship. The early members came from the Old Church; but as they grew in the knowledge of the Heavenly Doctrines, they began to feel that the Old Church forms of worship were inadequate, as the internal was different. They, therefore, separated from the Old Church, and instituted New Church forms of worship. Following this, it was realized that, though people attended the New Church, their children, by attending Old Church day schools, came too much into contact with the world, and so they concluded that schools for secular as well as religious education were necessary for the children of New Church parents. That has been the principle behind New Church education.

     What is now regretted by some is that, when school life is over, we go into the world around us, and the internal of that is no more in harmony with us than the internal of the Old Church is in harmony with our theology. Although we realized quite early that our worship would have to be distinctive, because we could not hope to permeate the Old Church with our Doctrines, yet it seems to have been thought that we could permeate the social life around us by uplifting it. Some of us, however, do not see that, and we think the only thing to do is to get out of it, and build up our own community apart from the world. That idea has been successfully carried out in part at Bryn Athyn, Glenview, and in Canada.

     At present the Church in England is confined to towns, with a few isolated members living in the country. I wonder if any of those living in the towns would like to get away and dwell in the country? One member of the Academy has expressed his very keen interest in it, and I think we could count upon at least one family. France would be the most central part for the whole of Europe. We thought that if a few were interested enough to make the adventure, we would make a start. Mr. Theodore Pitcairn and I have had this matter in mind for a long time. Of course, people coming from the towns and those coming from the country would be interested in different things. Some townsfolk think that few brains are needed for agriculture and other forms of work in the country, but this is quite a mistake. There would be room for all kinds of uses in such a community.

     Mr. Godfrey: This question of a New Church community-life is very interesting, and one that I should like to see ultimated. But it is the practical side I cannot understand. If we all possessed a regular income, all those who wanted to get together could do so-"Birds of a feather flock together"-but there are so many ways and means by which we get our living.

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In such a community, half of us, I fear, would not get enough to eat. That's the difficulty which I see.

     Mr. Conrad Howard: I was pleased to hear Mr. Godfrey speak in favor of a New Church community over here. He could not see the practical application, and that, of course, is the difficulty, and it needs vision. I am sure that Mr. Oyler, if he were asked, and especially if interest were shown, would write a paper for us which would be very definite as to his ideas on the practical side of the question, and perhaps present it at the next Assembly. We might not all agree with him, but probably a good many would, if they had a more complete view put before them. The business world in which I live is very uncongenial. This is because the commercial and business life of the world is, for the most part, governed by principles which, to say the least, are not New Church. A New Churchman's endeavor is to ultimate the teachings of the Heavenly Doctrines,-the doctrine of charity, the doctrine of use, and so on. I imagine that if we could get together in the way suggested, we might have a sort of New Church socialism,-a very practical, concrete, and interesting life. If Mr. Oyler would give us the benefit of his ideas more fully, I am sure it would be a great help.

     Mr. Colley Pryke: Mr. Oyler has brought before us a subject of great interest. Some time ago I had the good fortune to hear Mr. Bjorck address us on the same subject. Some very clear thinking would, of course, be needed before any action was taken. We must not contemplate a New Church community because we do not like the Old Church sphere that we live in; we must go for something that we want. I think that England would be quite as suitable for the purpose as France. There are two ways in which the idea could be carried out,-either a community of commercial life, or simply a residential community. The conditions in Colchester are better than in London for a residential community, but if the members in London could come closer together for residential purposes, it would help the church attendance and have many other beneficial effects. I think Mr. Oyler has done us a, good turn in bringing this subject before us.

     Rev. Victor J. Gladish: There is a fundamental need for the Church to grow into a complete community, but only the residential community seems possible at present. But if any feel called to live a rural life, it would be splendid if they could take part in something of the kind proposed. There may be some who would like their sons brought up in rural conditions, and taught to do things with their hands and brain together in a community which would produce everything for its own needs. I hope we shall hear Mr. Oyler's views more fully.

     Rev. Theodore Pitcairn: We do not propose to move the London Society into France. We hope to start with one or two families in a very small way,-those who have certain aptitudes and are willing to make sacrifices to make a beginning. If none are desirous of doing so, then the idea must be considered as premature. The idea is to accommodate ourselves to conditions and, as I said, to start in a small way. It is a very nice idea to think about, and see whether there is a possibility of a practical carrying out of it.

     Mr. Oyler: Well, coming down to brass tacks! Everything grows from small beginnings.

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In the colonies the hardships for pioneers were greater than they would be here. Various occupations are always wanted in starting such a community, and any who thought of coming would be prepared to serve the community in the best way they could. Most people require boots; those you see in the shops are hardly worth buying! The basis of all natural life is the product of food, clothes, and shelter. If there was more time I could go into further details. It is principally a call to young men and women. I know what is practical in the matter, and what is not, being essentially a practical man.

     Bishop Tilson: We will hope to hear further from Mr. Oyler on this subject. In the meantime we must continue our uses in the place where, by the Divine Providence, our lot is cast, and so live in the light of the New Church that our light may have its power of attraction. Then the time may come when we shall have these communities gathering around such centers.

     Fourth Session-Monday, 3 p.m.

     A meeting of the British Chapter of the Sons of the Academy was held at this time, Mr. J. S. Pryke presiding. A short paper on "Remains" was read by the Rev. Theodore Pitcairn, after which various matters were taken up by the meeting. For a summary of the proceedings, see the BULLETIN for September, 1930, p. 15.

     Bishop Tilson read the following additional Greetings:

     Marconigram from South Africa.

     "Hearty Assembly Greetings to All"-Elphicks, Ridgways, Parkers, Waters.

     Telegram from Jersey.

     "Greetings from New Church friends in Jersey, and best wishes for a useful Assembly"-G. A. Sexton.

     This final Session of the Assembly closed with the singing of the 45th Psalm, after which the Benediction was pronounced.

     Assembly Social.

     On Monday evening at 7:30 o'clock, the Assembly Social was held in Longfield Hall, the first part of the evening taking the form of a delightful programme of entertainment to which both local and visiting members contributed. There were vocal and instrumental numbers by the Misses Margaret Lewin and Joan Stebbing, Mr. and Mrs. Newall and little daughter, and Messrs. Wainscot, Sanfrid Appleton and Ivor Dawson.

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All was very well managed by Mr. Pike. We then adjourned to the well-spread tables for refreshments and the toasts that were to conclude the program.

     Mr. Newall, Toastmaster: In preparing the series of subjects for the speeches, I wanted to bring out the actual size of the church. We become immersed in our own business, and in the local affairs of the church, and are inclined to think that these represent all the activities; equally, we become disheartened when these local efforts seem to be going to pieces; and I believe it will be useful on such an occasion as this to consider how the Gorand Man of heaven must be dependent upon a wider variety, how the planets themselves have been so arranged that the proportions of the Gorand Man may be maintained in balance. This idea of the wide variety essential to the Gorand Man can be brought down into our own church-life, leading us to make greater allowance for the vagaries of the people around us, according to the old saying that "it takes all sorts of people to make a world." So it must be remembered that it takes all sorts to make the church.

     Mr. R. W. Anderson, on "The Church in Heaven": It is the Divine of the Lord that makes heaven, and that makes the church. That which makes the one makes the other; in fact, we may say that heaven is the church, and the church is heaven. We are inhabitants of the spiritual world and of this world, and it is our spiritual part that is indicated when we speak of the church being "in us" or of heaven being "in us." The Lord Himself is the All in all, but the uses the heavens-not because of His need, but for their own sakes-to assist the church on earth. As the church is formed in us, so are we associated with societies in the world of spirits, where we all really are at this moment, just as much as we are here; and by those societies in the world of spirits we are connected with the New Church Heaven, which makes one with the New Church on earth. This is a familiar thought to us all, and is, I think, in the mind of the toastmaster. When we consider, as he has suggested, that thousands upon thousands are pouring into the world of spirits every moment, including not only those who have come from societies of the New Church, but also those of any religion who acknowledge one God and do good from a principle of religion, then we realize that all these are in a state to receive the Doctrine of the New Church in the other world, and in due course will help to swell the New Heaven. I must not take more time, but hope I have sufficiently indicated to you how heaven and the church are joined in one, and how the whole of the heavens are as it were beside the church on earth, and are being used by the Lord in its support.

     Mr. Godfrey, on "The Church in the Planets": We will commence by making the statement that all the planets are inhabited, including the moons of Jupiter. Most of the stars we see are suns, and have planets around them. All the planets which surround our natural sun are inhabited. The spiritual reason why they are inhabited is because the Lord is Love, and love must go forth outside itself. The Lord created the human race for no other reason than to form a seminary for heaven, not only a heaven from this earth, but from all planets. The Earth we live upon is the most ultimate.

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In the Gorand Man we will form the skin or covering; but we must not think that we will be on the outside only, because the heart has a skin! The Lord was born on this Earth, and not on any other, because it was the ultimate; and that is how the Lord works, from the lowest to the highest. "The Lord loved our earth more than others; for to the end that order may be perfect, celestial and spiritual truths ought to be enrooted in natural truths." (S. D. 1531.) The art of printing was discovered here for no other reason than that the Word might be printed and sent throughout the world; and this is being done pretty thoroughly.

     At the present day the very existence of heaven is unknown. Ask men where heaven is, and they cannot tell you, unless they have learned it from the Writings of the New Church. All the members and organs of the physical body partake of the common life of the whole body, each part receiving from the whole, and the whole receiving from each part. So in the spiritual body-the spiritual world-our knowledge partakes of the common perception of the whole heaven. Man, in his essence, is a spiritual being, and is with spirits as to his interiors. On other planets they are instructed by angels, and the Lord appears to them in a Human Form as He did to Abraham and others. On other planets they think little of natural life, and much of the spiritual life. They live in families as in the Most Ancient Church, instructing their children about the Lord, the church and heaven. Revelation is made from heaven to the head of the family. I am informed by an old Jewish friend of mine that something similar is done among the Jews. Although they have the Torah, they give the children special instruction, and most of the learning descends through the families in that way. That, no doubt, is why the Jewish families keep together so well in their home-life.

     On the planet Saturn they are exceedingly humble, and worship the Lord as God. The spirits of Jupiter express the utmost astonishment at the variance between the interiors and exteriors with those of our earth. The spirits of Mars are said to be the best of all; their type of worship is so superior to ours that it could not be described. After all, when we think of those millions of spirits-millions and millions of human beings-we cannot help the thought: Can the Almighty Creator, the Lord Himself, watch over us as individuals? Yes, it must be so; for we are told that "even the very hairs of your head are all numbered."

     Toastmaster: The next subject is that of "The Church on this Earth." I would ask you to have in mind that even here the church is far wider than the numbers in our so-called New Church organizations. It is among those who are now, as we see them, outside the church that a large part of the hopes of the church on earth are centered. We must at all times give of our best to our own organization, but it is of Providence that there are many outside of the church to whom the truths should appeal. Whether we can actually force this appeal is doubtful, and missionary work in general is very disappointing, but I think that people will gradually be allowed to see the truth in the Writings.

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     Mr. Appleton, responding: I would bring to your mind a beautiful passage in the 24th Psalm: "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." From the spiritual sense of these words we know that the Lord is establishing His church by means of Divine Truths; and we must prepare ourselves to receive them. What is man's own is evil in His sight, and must be made subservient to the truths of Revelation. Since the Lord made His Second Coming, a great many have accepted the truths of the New Dispensation by which the Lord is building His church. Among these the Lord is establishing His church, and building in their minds that by which the angels can be present, and by which He Himself can be present; for the Word promises that He will come and dwell with us, that we may dwell with Him.

     Rev. Victor J. Gladish, on "The Church in the Individual": In arranging this program, I believe the toastmaster had in mind something of the idea which the prophet Elisha had when his servant was greatly alarmed at the host of the Syrians, and he prayed to the Lord to open the young man's eyes to see the horse and chariots of fire round about Elisha. Our toastmaster has evidently desired that we should look about us and see that we are not alone, and that the forces of the Lord are round about us. It is well that we should do so. It is useful for us to recall that we are not as much alone as we seem to be, but also that we be on our guard not to worry about the state or number of those who are in the church universal, remembering that the "chariots of fire" the angelic forces of the Lord-are more powerful than the host of the Syrians upon which we are inclined to cast our eyes, thinking that there are more against us than for us. We need not fear for the church universal, but our chief duty is to look before us to the work awaiting the organized church. "The church cannot exist unless its internal be spiritual, and its external natural." (Coronis 19.) So there must be the internal church in the heavens and the external church on earth as a basis and foundation. The task of those who have had the good fortune to know the New Church is to build the organized church,-the church which can be a spiritual church of the Lord, wherein He is worshiped in His complete Word opened to man,-the glorified Word of the Lord.

     And so, while we take comfort from the fact that every man who has faith in God, and who lives a life of religion, is our brother, yet we must remember that such are invisible to us, and that we have a great duty to know ourselves, and to try to know our fellow workers in the organized church, and to build up an affection for them as New Churchmen, not merely as individuals, but in loving what is of the church in them. We may meet an unusual type of person, and wonder why he is in the New Church, but there must be something in a man who has a love for the Divine Doctrine,-something whereby we can approach him, and he us, that we may be of mutual help to one another. Thus may we build up a true brotherhood, not based upon sentiment, but upon the love of truth and the quality of faith in God. At this day faith is lacking,-faith in the Lord. There is a great deal of natural good, but also doubt and denial in regard to the Divinely Human God, and that is fatal to the life of religion. In traveling about, one holds conversations with many people, and finds a great deal of agnosticism, because faith has not been implanted in childhood, so that men demand natural proof of spiritual things.

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Still we must not forget that the chariots of fire are round about us, and that the Lord Himself is leading the men of the church universal, even as He leads us all. It is not necessary for us to take too much thought about them, because it is not directly in our path of use. But we can all help in the building up of the Lord's New Church upon earth.

     Bishop Tilson: Responding to the toastmaster's request for a closing speech, I would say that I think we have had a most successful Assembly, for which we should be truly thankful. I would not like this meeting to close without referring once more to the character of the list of subjects this evening. The Lord was asked by His impetuous disciples whether there were few that would be saved. Apparently He ignored the question, but brought the truth home to them by the beneficial suggestion that the way to heaven is straight and narrow, and that they should walk therein,-that they should first look at home, and not expect too much from the outside, but leave the increase in the hands of the Lord. That should be our attitude al- all times. The distinct teaching is, that both in the church and in man there is an internal and an external. The Lord alone knows the state of the church at any time, but we know that the church must be measured by the standard of Divine Truth. That measure will not be the mere knowledge of truth possessed by us, but of the whole life and conduct. That is what the Lord regards in each individual.

     Looking abroad upon the institutions of the Church, we see very many examples of the internal and external acknowledgment of truth; but there is one principle of faith common to all New Church people,-the acknowledgment of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as the only God of heaven and earth. That acknowledgment, indeed, may be very external; on the other hand, it may be very internal, by the recognition of the fact that such a profession of faith calls us to the further acknowledgment of the need of regeneration. If you have come within the ambit of the Church of the New Jerusalem, you have received a call to a deeper study and reflection upon the truths of the Word, and a more faithful living of them, than you will find in the other so-called Churches in the world.

     I am glad that we have been in this universal sphere of the New Church, and I congratulate our toastmaster and the speakers upon the ability they have shown in providing such a program. But let us not dwell too much upon the universal church. One may become so thoroughly universal that he loses the desire to preserve the distinctiveness of the Church to which we belong, and deal in shadows rather than in substance. It is for us, one and all, to be pressing forward towards what is internal, at the same time preserving the freedom of all, and holding no one in contempt for his faith, if it be contrary to ours.

     Thus came to a close a very successful Assembly. The attendance at the four sessions was 94, 90, 89 and 80 respectively; 80 were present at the social. The members of Michael Church were excellent hosts, and the weather was more kind than had been expected.

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     I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the efficient and self-sacrificing work of Miss Mabel Greenwood, of Michael Church, who took stenographic notes of all the meetings.
     VICTOR J. GLADISH,
          Secretary

     New Church Club

     Preceding the Assembly, a meeting of the London New Church Club was held at the Old Bell Restaurant, Holborn, at which the Rev. Theodore Pitcairn read a paper entitled, "The Internal Sense of the Chapter on Ecclesiastical and Civil Government in the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine." The paper inspired a vigorous discussion, thirteen of the thirty-two men present taking part. No one wholly agreed with the essayist, though some were willing to accept practically everything but the title of the paper. Nevertheless, there was an unalloyed spirit of appreciation and mutual charity throughout the meeting, and Mr. Pitcairn was many times congratulated upon the stimulating thought and clear expression in his paper.
FLAXMAN RELICS 1930

FLAXMAN RELICS              1930

     The New Church is fortunate in possessing specimens of the works of John Flaxman, R. A. (1755-1826), world-famous as a sculptor and designer, and one of the earliest receivers of the Heavenly Doctrines in England. There are on the premises of the Kensington Society high-relief marble tablets designed and cut by him. These are placed on the walls of the church chancel and in the lecture hall. The font of the Camden Road Society is also his work. . . . It was recently ascertained that the Swedenborg Society has a rare print, published in 1835, which contains eight illustrations of the Lord's Prayer from Flaxman's designs. The Society also treasures a silver tray with fittings-said to be a Communion Set-which bears the inscription: "The Gift of Rabert lienry RundeEl to his esteemed friend, John Flaxman. May 4th, 1797." A representative collection of this artist's statuary and drawings is to be seen in the main hall of the London University, Cower Street, (The New-Church Herald, Oct. 11, 1930, p. 615.)

     Our readers will recall Mr. Arthur Carter's illustrated article on Flaxman which appeared in New Church Life, May-July, 1928.

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DEDICATION AT PITTSBURGH 1930

DEDICATION AT PITTSBURGH       ELIZABETH R. DOERING       1930

     SEPTEMBER 26-28, 1930.

     The recently completed Church and Community Building of the Pittsburgh Society was formally dedicated by the Bishop of the General Church at a service of Divine Worship held on Sunday, September 28th, attended by a congregation numbering about 240 persons, including nearly one hundred visiting members of the General Church and forty strangers from the neighborhood, these having come in response to an invitation sent out in the form of a missionary pamphlet. A three-day celebration, beginning with a social gathering and dance on Friday evening, September 26th, proved to be an enjoyable, enthusiastic and inspiring inauguration of the new home of the Society, and the members feel grateful to the many guests whose presence and affectionate interest added so much to their own delight in the occasion.

     BANQUET.

     Between 180 and 200 persons sat down to the Banquet in the auditorium on Saturday evening, the program of speeches being under the able toastmastership of Mr. Elmer G. Horigan.

     Bishop Pendleton spoke on the subject of the religious activities of New Church societies, and defined these activities as uses which looked, on the one hand, to the reception of spiritual things, and, on the other, to the intercommunication of such spiritual values between members. He emphasized the fact that this intercommunication was fundamental to spiritual growth, and that outside evangelistic endeavors were a secondary result; but that this external outlook was needful, and that a society might, with entire propriety, make it its chief occupation.

     Bishop de Charms, speaking on the subject of Education, stressed the point that the New Church has a definite responsibility to provide for the religious education of her children. This responsibility is greater than any that was placed upon churches in the past. Men of every religion had been saved; but the Lord, by His Second Coming, has opened a higher truth, and with it a higher use to men.

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This truth concerning spiritual life, its laws and its wonders, cannot be received except by learning, by education. The truth is given in the Writings, and we are called upon to pass it on to succeeding generations in increasing measure. This is an obvious responsibility, implied in the Lord's entrusting that truth to us. It is a call to develop an adequate system of education,-a call that we cannot ignore.

     Rev. E. E. Iungerich spoke on the External Activities of the Church. As Moses' hands were upheld by both Aaron and Hur, so the Lord's work in the church must be sustained by priests and lay-en. External activities are as necessary as a sound body to a sound mind. Among such external activities there is a difference between the essential and the social. The former may be compared to Pharaoh's butler, who was retained, and the latter to his baker, who was not retained, showing that these had better be spontaneous efforts of the society rather than permanent features.

     Mr. S. S. Lindsay, Sr., then gave an account of the building project undertaken by the society, and of its progress to completion in spite of serious setbacks such as the fire.

     Mr. A. O. Lechner then claimed the floor as a representative of the building committee, and paid a tribute to the architect, Mr. Harold Thorp Carswell, and to the lawyer and supervisor of operations, Mr. Alexander F. Lindsay. On behalf of the committee, he presented to Mr. Lindsay a token of appreciation in the form of a silver loving cup, suitably inscribed, while the young men sang a song composed for the occasion, all present joining in the chorus. Mr. Lindsay responded with an expression of thanks for the beautiful gift; and said that irreconcilable differences usually arise in the course of such an undertaking, but that in this case the group, through working together, had come into closer harmony.

     The toastmaster then invited others to speak, and many expressed their pleasure at joining the Pittsburgh Society in the celebration. Several who had formerly been members of the Society voiced their gratification at the progress that had been made, and congratulated us upon the successful accomplishment of our enterprise. The addresses and speeches were interspersed with the songs we all know and love, and some new ones had been written for the event by Mr. D. P. Lindsay, and were rendered by a group of young men with chorus by all present.

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     DEDICATION SERVICE.

     Sunday morning was bright with sunshine and pleasantly cool. The church bell rang out its call to worship, and at eleven o'clock the service opened with the Introit, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness." Entering from the vestry, the Pastor, bearing in his hands a copy of the Word in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, preceded the Assistant Bishop and the Bishop. At the altar rail the Pastor gave the copy of the Word into the hands of the Bishop, who entered the sanctuary and placed it open upon the altar. The service then proceeded in the usual manner. The Lessons were read by the Pastor, and the sermon was delivered by Bishop de Charms, his text being, "And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His covenant; and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail." (Revelation 11:19.)

     During the singing of the offertory, the Treasurer of the Society brought the offering forward, and then made an address and presented the key to the Pastor. The Pastor responded, and gave the key to the Bishop, who accepted it for the General Church. Advancing to the sanctuary, the Bishop then placed the key upon the altar, and pronounced the Dedication. The benediction, the closing of the Word, and the recessional concluded the service.

     It was with a feeling of profound gratitude and satisfaction that we retired from the church, realizing that we once more have our own place of worship, and that it is more beautiful than any we have had.

     DESCRIPTION OF BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS.

     Situated on Le Roi Road, a kind of court off Reynolds Street in the East End of Pittsburgh, the structures are in the old English Gothic style, as will be seen from the accompanying photograph.

     Above the front door of the church is the Latin inscription, "Nunc licet intrare in arcana fidei," carved in stone, with a bell on the south and a pomegranate on the north, which carry out more ultimately the symbolism of the sanctuary window, representing evangelization of good and truth, as did the tokens which were hung upon the hem of Aaron's garment.

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The hand in the sanctuary window represents the proceeding from the spiritual sun and influx from the Lord. The two panels in the window, with their symbols of a red wafer upon which is the Hebrew letter He and a white chalice upon which is a cross, typify that all good and truth are from Him. The corner stone bears the Greek inscription, "For it was founded upon a rock," while upon the bell is inscribed in Hebrew: "Holiness to Jehovah." A flying eagle holding a key surmounts the bell cote, and can be seen from a considerable distance.

     [PHOTO OF CHURCH AND COMMUNITY BUILDING OF THE PITTSBURGH SOCIETY.]

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     Within the front door is the narthex, which is separated from the nave by a glass screen. The balcony stairs are at the left of the narthex. In addition to the main aisle in the nave there are two side-aisles under stone arches. The aisles are paved with stone, and the pews are of stained oak. The seating capacity is 250, including the balcony. The chandeliers and lighting fixtures are of wrought iron and antique glass.

     The chancel rises in seven steps from the nave to the altar. The first two steps lead to the outer chancel, and upon this are placed the baptismal font, the choir stalls and the organ. The middle chancel affords a passageway for the entrance of the priests from the vestry, and here also the communicants at the Holy Supper kneel at the rail which marks the boundary of the inmost chancel. Two bishops' chairs are in the inmost chancel, and there are three steps up to the high altar, which has two levels, upon the lower of which the elements for the Holy Supper are placed, under the appropriate panels in the window, as also is the offering basket. Upon the higher level of the altar is a book-rest for the Word. A handsome Fortuney print tapestry hang back of the high altar, and a similar one behind the bishops' chairs. The ribs of the chancel ceiling are decorated in red and white, the intervening spaces being in cobalt blue, with some black and gold also. The vestry and choir rooms are in the cloister, which connects the church with the community building.

     On the ground floor of the community building are the kitchen, well equipped for its purpose, the furnace room, and the auditorium, which has a stage and lighting facilities for almost any production, including a motion picture projection room.

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Rooms for the Sunday School and Day School are provided on the second floor, which contains three class rooms and the Pastor's study. The parsonage is a seven-room apartment on the top floor,-a fine, roomy home, hardwood finished, with attractive lighting fixtures and plenty of cupboard space. Everything in the buildings is as modern, complete, convenient, and comfortable as we could make it.

     The grounds are quite spacious, providing a playground for the children, a sunken garden beside the auditorium, and ample parking space for automobiles.

     The society is indebted to the Pastor for his study of the symbolism and chancel arrangements of the church, and for his devotion to the work as chairman of the building committee.

     HISTORICAL SKETCH.

     In the year 1841, a New Church society was organized in Allegheny (now the North Side) under the name of "The New Jerusalem Society of Pittsburgh," with eight members and the assistance of the Rev. Richard de Charms. In 1847, the Rev. David Powell took charge as the first resident pastor, and the society grew rapidly. During an interval of twelve years, from 1850 to 1862, there was no ordained minister regularly in charge, but from 1862 to 1876 the Rev. W. H. Benade was pastor. He was succeeded by the Rev. H. C. Vetterling, who remained until 1880, when the Rev. John Whitehead became pastor.

     In February, 1892, the Pittsburgh Society of the General Church of the Advent of the Lord was organized, and in October of that year the corner stone of the church on Wallingford Street was laid. In the following year the building was dedicated by Bishop Benade, who was in pastoral charge, the Rev. Homer Synnestvedt serving as minister under his direction until 1894, when he was succeeded by the Rev. John Stephenson. In 1899, the Rev. E. C. Bostock was chosen pastor, and was followed in 1901 by the Rev. Reginald W. Brown, who had been his assistant. In 1903, the Rev. N. D. Pendleton became pastor, and served the society until 1914, when he was called to Bryn Athyn. The Rev. Homer Synnestvedt was then recalled to his first charge, and held the pastorate until 1928, when he was succeeded by our present pastor, the Rev. E. E. Iungerich.
     ELIZABETH R. DOERING.

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Church News 1930

Church News       Various       1930

     SWEDEN.

     Missionary Journeys.

     Soon after my return from the General Assembly, I made preparations for a missionary trip to Dalekarlia, and went there at the beginning of August in the hope of reaching some of the many tourists who usually spend the summer there. But I made a mistake. The tourists did not care to come, and the Dalekarlians themselves were busy with the harvest. I gave a lecture in each of three places,-Leksand, Rattvik and Mora,-with an attendance of only 15, 12 and 39 persons respectively, sold books to the value of Kr. 10:-($2.50), and then came home. It is much better to do this kind of work in the winter, even though it is a strenuous undertaking for me, and less convenient, owing to my duties in connection with the society at Stockholm.

     In October I made a journey to the southern part of Sweden, having especially in view a visit to a man residing in Nybro, near Kalmar, who has become interested through buying books which we have advertized. He had written very appreciative letters, and he and his wife seem to be very much in favor of the New Church. Nybro is a small place, not yet a town. Just before the time for the lecture a fearful storm broke, with a heavy rain, but 64 persons attended and were seemingly interested, buying books to the value of Kr. 41:-($11.00), one man alone buying Kr. 19:-($5.00) worth.

     In Kalmar, an old town with a population of about 16,000, I gave two lectures, attended by 93 and 50 persons respectively, and sold books for Kr. 35:-($9.40). Then I went t to a small place, a borough called Monsteras. Quite a number of books have recently been sold there by a lady who became interested in the Church through the purchase of our advertized books. A heavy storm
raged here also, and when I arrived the electric lighting had been put out of commission, and the town was in darkness. Happily the moon was shining by the time of my lecture, and people could find their way to the hall, so that, in spite of the weather, there was an attendance of 106. It was a large hall with gallery, lighted only with a few candles, and the people looked like shadows in the mysterious gloom. Yet I sold books for Kr. 3:25 ($1.00).

     Finally, I visited Vestervik, 3 somewhat smaller town than Kalmar. Here the weather was fine, although it had rained for some days before. I had a suitable hall, and the lecture was attended by a capacity audience of 230 persons, books being sold for Kr. 16:-($4.30).

     At every place on this journey the newspapers spoke very favorably of the lectures. The two papers in Vestervik gave quite a resume of the lecture, devoting two or three columns to it. One of the newspapermen had asked me in advance for such a resume, but as the lecture had recently been printed as part of the contents of a book, I gave him a copy of the book. But I forgot to tell him that there were some things in the printed form which I did not mention in delivering the lecture at the hall. As it happened, he selected just those parts, and published them in his paper!

     Stockholm.

     I would add a few words in continuation of the news report which appeared in your October number, p. 676, by saying that for years we have held doctrinal classes every other week in the different homes, everyone being invited to attend.

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But as the attendance was not more than twenty on an average, we first tried holding one of the classes every month in the church hall, with the result that there was a better attendance there. We have now decided to attempt holding all the doctrinal classes at the church, and so far the attendance has doubled.

     On October 27th we shall celebrate the anniversary of the day in the year 1912 when we first held worship that included the administration of Baptism and the Holy Supper, the Rev. S. Chr. Bronniche officiating. We were only a very small group then, and of those who were present on that occasion Mr. Bertram Liden and I are the only ones left-having to consider ourselves as the "early fathers of the Academy" in Sweden. Miss Nordenskiold was then in Bryn Athyn. Very soon afterwards others joined us. Others have passed to the spiritual world.

     After completing his military service, Mr. Eric Sandstrom has now left us for Bryn Athyn, where he will study for the ministry in the Theological School of the Academy.
     GUSTAF BAECKSTROM

     REPORT OF THE VISITING PASTOR.

     A service was held at DETROIT on Sunday afternoon, October 5th, with an attendance of twenty-six, including children, and representing three localities,-Detroit Windsor and Ann Arbor. Eighteen persons partook of the Holy Supper. It was again our pleasure to have the Rev. and Mrs. W. H. Beales with us. Mr. Beales is doing noble work in the General Convention in championing the cause of loyalty to the Heavenly Doctrines. In the evening there was a doctrinal class at the home of Mr. and Mrs. William Walker, with thirteen present. Great interest was shown in the presentation of the teaching that "the Lord came into the world in order that He might fulfill all things of the Word, and thereby become Divine Truth, or the Word, in ultimates also." (S. S. 98.)

     On Monday afternoon, at WINDSOR, ONT., in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Gould, instruction was given to five children of two families. In the evening, at the same place, we had a doctrinal class, with six attending, at which the chapter in Heaven and Hell concerning the Garments of the Angels was read and considered. On Tuesday evening another class was held in Detroit, in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Steen. Ten persons were present, and our subject was Self-compulsion.

     At CLEVELAND, OHIO, a class was held on Wednesday evening, October 8th, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. William Parker, with an attendance of seven persons. Our subject was the chapter in the Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture (nos. 27-36) entitled, "The Sense of the Letter of the Word is the Basis, the Containant, and the Support of its Spiritual and Celestial Senses. These words, as also the title of the chapter that follows, are frequently quoted by those who oppose the principle that the Writings are the Word, in order to prove that the Sense of the Letter only can be called the Word. This idea was discussed. Attention was called to the force of the word "its in the above statement. It was also brought out that the Lord's Second Coming is the revelation of the spiritual and celestial senses of the Word, and not merely something of those senses.-The next morning I called upon Mrs. Rouette Cranch, who is unable to attend meetings, and we spent an enjoyable hour together.

     On Thursday afternoon I arrived at ERIE, PA., and was greeted with the good news that a new family Sonesen by name, has become interested in the Church. A class was held in their home that evening, at which a missionary presentation of the doctrine of the Divine Trinity was given. There was an attendance of twelve. Classes were also held on the three following evenings, all but one of them being of a missionary character, giving general doctrine concerning the Word and concerning the spiritual world.

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At a service on Sunday afternoon, October 12th, we had the largest attendance there has been for a long time at Erie,-seventeen persons. Among these were Mr. and Mrs. Marvin DeMaine, of Springboro, Pa., and their guest, Mrs. Lucy Boggess, of Middleport, Ohio. At the Holy Supper there were eleven communicants. At the close of the Sunday evening class it was decided to revive the regular Sunday services, using New Church Sermons; also that the service is to be preceded by a class for the young people, led by Mr. C. E. Cranch. I need hardly add that my visit to Erie was exceedingly delightful.

     Monday and Tuesday were spent at NILES, OHIO, With my old-time Middleport friends, the Williamsons and Mrs. Stevens. On Tuesday evening we had a doctrinal class with an attendance of six, and the subject considered, on request, was that of the Divine Providence in Worldly Happenings. The many friends of Arthur Williamson will be glad to learn that he is making a good recovery from the effects of his accident.

     On this trip the total number of friends to receive church ministrations was sixty-two. I am pleased to add that eleven of these,-from Detroit, Cleveland, Springboro and Niles,-attended the recent dedication at Pittsburgh, and were enthusiastic in their appreciation of that event.
     F. E. WAELCHLI.

     LOS ANGELES, CALIF.

     The Winter Season of Gabriel Church opened this year with the semi-annual meeting and supper on Friday, September 5th, in the church rooms. Twenty-three persons attended and enjoyed the supper and the renewal of the social gatherings which are so essential to a group living widely scattered. The names of four new members were added to the roll of the society on this occasion, and following the meeting a song was sung in their honor. Mr. Carith Hansen, formerly of Spokane, Wash, was with us on this day, and we regretted very much that his visit was so brief. It is the hope of the Los Angeles New Church people that some of our many visitors will prove how well they like it here by settling among us.

     Mrs. William S. Howland, of Denver, Colo., has been with us for more than a year now, in addition to visits in former years, and it was with the affection and esteem of every member of the society that she was made an honorary member. Mrs. Howland has endeared herself to us all by her staunch support of the Church and its uses, and by her wise and amiable advice. As Mrs. Howland was not able to be present at the meeting at which this resolution was unanimously passed, a large basket of flowers was sent to her, together with a copy of the resolution.

     On Friday evening, September 26th, a card party was held at the church rooms under the management of Mrs. Boef for the purpose of raising money for very much needed silver for the monthly suppers. Everyone enjoyed the party, and we are happy to say that we now have enough flatware for ourselves and a "few" visitors. Mr. Fred Merrell, of Cincinnati, surprised us with a visit on Sunday, September 28th, while on a business trip to the West Coast. Mr. Merrell, who is a brother-in-law of Mrs. Boef, spent Sunday at our Pastor's home, and the following evening was entertained by Mr. and Mrs. Fred Davis, the Rev. and Mrs. Beef also being guests.

     The second anniversary of the beginning of Gabriel Church fell on Tuesday, October 14th, but was celebrated on Sunday, September 12th, by a dinner after the regular morning service. We are indebted to Mrs. Fred Davis for her very capable preparation of a delicious dinner, which was thoroughly enjoyed by all. During the dinner our Pastor spoke a few words on the past accomplishments of the society, and encouraged us in our future uses, calling attention to the fact that we must be strengthened in our New Churchmanship from within before we can hope to receive increased numbers from without.

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The gathering closed with singing and social visiting.

     Mr. and Mrs. Royal Davis and their son, Charles, members of our society now living in Trona, Calif., spent the weekend including the celebration of Gabriel Church Day at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Davis. It was a great pleasure to have them with us, and their presence added no little bit to the success of the occasion. Mrs. Davis had spent a week in Los Angeles earlier in the season, and we hope that there will be more of these very pleasant visits.

     The weekly doctrinal class is continuing this year with a study of the True Christian, Religion, and those attending are finding the classes very interesting and instructive. The Pastor has found it best to divide the Sunday School this year into two groups, instructing the younger children on Sunday morning before the regular service, and having a class with the older boys during the week. The work on Heaven and Hell is being used as a text in this class, and the boys are being prepared to grasp more fully the doctrines of the Church when they attend the Academy schools in Bryn Athyn.

     On Hallowe'en, the members of the society forgot their worries and their dignity, and all appeared at a masquerade party, dressed as ghosts, Chinamen and witches, Dutchmen, fat men and rajahs. Two ghosts greeted the party-goers at the door, and not a word was said until we had heard dead-men's bones rattle and felt their icy hearts and clasped their bony hands. Even among the twenty of us there were some so well disguised that we did not know them, and after all were unmasked a good laugh was enjoyed all around. The party was under the management of a committee consisting of the Misses Evangeline Iler, Margaret Hansen, Mildred Stoll and Laura Matthias, and they kept us busy doing stunts and playing games, with the result that all present enjoyed themselves as one should at a Hallowe'en party. Appropriate refreshments closed a very happy evening for all who were there.

     Miss Alice Sheppherd has again returned to us after her visit to England, and we were very happy to welcome her home once more. She has been very much missed, and we are glad that she is safely back again. Miss Sheppherd visited the societies in Colchester and London, and also stopped in Bryn Athyn, Chicago and Glenview on her way to the West. While in Bryn Athyn she attended the Charter Day celebration of the Academy Schools, and her account of the activities on that occasion made us wish that we had been there.
     V. G. B.

     GLENVIEW, ILL.

     The principal happening in our society during the past month was the Chicago District Assembly, which opened on Friday evening, October 16th, with an attendance that included many of the members of Sharon Church, Chicago, and two visitors from Cincinnati,-Mr. Charles G. Merrell and Mr. Donald Merrell. Bishop de Charms presided, and delivered an address on the subject of "The End of Divine Providence in Man's Regeneration." At the close of the discussion, he made a stirring plea for the realization of our stewardship as conservators of the Writings. During the evening the Assembly sent a telegram of greetings to Bishop Pendleton.

     Saturday evening was devoted to a grand banquet, and a large gathering had a splendid and instructive time listening to stirring speeches, the particulars of which will doubtless be given in the official report of the District Assembly.

     At the Sunday service there was a large congregation, numbering 233 persons, all of whom were comfortably seated. Bishop de Charms delivered the sermon, and administered the sacrament of the Holy Supper at the close of the service. The ushering on this occasion deserves special commendation, Mr. Winfred Junge and Mr. Warren Reuter rendering efficient service in this function.

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     On Sunday evening, seventy men gathered at a supper held under the auspices of the Glenview Chapter of the Sons of the Academy. Bishop de Charms' address had been eagerly awaited, and time passed unnoticed as we listened while the Darwinian theory and that of Weissman were contrasted, and we were introduced to the Mendel Law, realizing, as the speaker progressed to the philosophy of Swedenborg and quotations from the Writings, how little the New Church has to fear a worldly science that ignores spiritual forces and denies a Creator. Referring to the last number in Divine Love and Wisdom, where the primitive of man is so wonderfully described, the speaker went on to contrast the revelation and the wonders unfolded with the puny efforts of the science of the day, and warned us not to be misled by seeming logic and alleged proofs, but to go to the Writings, confident that the truth there revealed will be infinitely satisfying, infilling what is true in science with new meaning, and exposing falsity in the light of truth.

     All present were deeply impressed, conscious of the advance being made by the scholars and leaders of the Church, keenly desirous to keep pace, but completely at a loss how this call be done; thankful, however, that assemblies come once a year!

     Our Friday suppers and classes come along regularly; with every evidence of enthusiastic support. They are followed by congregational singing practice under the careful instruction of Professor Stevens and Mr. Seymour G. Nelson. A long, uninterrupted winter of practice is anticipated, resulting in great benefit to the singing in Sunday service. The choir is also meeting regularly, now being made up exclusively of young people, who are enthusiastic in their work under Mr. Stevens' excellent training.

     The Rev. Norman Reuter, our pastor's assistant, has been suffering from an attack of scarlet fever. He has been confined to his bed for five or six weeks, but is making a favorable recovery. There have been other cases of scarlet fever in The Park, but fortunately it has been confined to one household at present. Mr. Leonard E. Gyllenhaal, of Bryn Athyn, has just arrived in The Park for a visit with his mother, Mrs. Selma N. Gyllenhaal, and his brothers and sisters, and for the purpose of gaining a complete rest from his arduous duties in the Academy. Mrs. Walter Uptegraff, of Pittsburgh, is also visiting among our people.
     J. B. S.

     CHICAGO, ILL.

     After a month's summer vacation, our Sunday services were resumed on September 7th, with forty present, which increased to fifty the following Sunday. On the 21st, the Lord's Supper was celebrated, and there were forty-three communicants out of a total attendance of fifty-one.

     At the Friday Suppers the Pastor has been reading Bishop Pendleton's General Assembly Address, with comments and discussion. In the meetings of the Ladies' Auxiliary we have been reading the General Assembly Address of Bishop de Charms.

     The Pastor is engaged upon a Life of the Lord, designed to present the great doctrine of the Church, for lack of which the first Christian Church failed, becoming a Church in name only,-the doctrine of the Glorification of the Lord's Human. His sermons recently have been chapters which he has written for that book, and the congregation has been greatly interested in his presentation of this subject.

     Practically every member of Sharon Church attended the Chicago District Assembly, held at Glenview, October 10th to 12th, with Bishop George de Charms presiding. On Monday evening, October 13th, Bishop de Charms visited Sharon Church, and our assembly room was well filled by an expectant and appreciative audience which listened with interest to his address on a phase of New Church Education.

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The subject called forth many questions pertaining to the Divine leading and protection of both children and adults. Following the address and discussion, we all had the opportunity to meet our beloved young Bishop socially, and to know how delightful he can be in friendly converse. In parting we felt that we had spent a notable and profitable evening.

     Four of the members of our society attended the dedication at Pittsburgh, and accounts of the event were given us at our Friday supper on October 3d by Mrs. W. L. Gladish and Mrs. David F. Gladish.

     A recent meeting of the Ladies' Auxiliary at the hospitable home of Mrs. John Pollock was largely devoted to the planning of the bazaar that is to be held on November 28th, when we hope to add a substantial sum to our building fund. We are searching for a suitable location for the projected new building.
     E. V. W.

     TORONTO, CANADA.

     Ontario District Assembly.

     In advance of the official report of the Eighteenth Ontario District Assembly, held at the Olivet Church, November 8-10, we shall give a brief account and impression of the meetings. These Assemblies have been held alternately in Kitchener and Toronto, sometimes at New Year's and sometimes about May 24th, Victoria Day; but this year, as an experiment, the meeting was held just before Thanksgiving Day, November 11th, which is also observed as Armistice Day. This time seems to have been admirably suitable this year, as evidenced by our having over fifty guests, including, besides Bishop and Mrs. Pendleton, Dr. and Mrs. Alfred Acton, Mr. and Mrs. Daric Acton, and Mr. Hubert Hyatt, from Bryn Athyn, as well as a large contingent from Kitchener. The weather was fine, the holiday sphere contributed its quota to the setting, and the meetings inaugurated the greatly improved assembly hall, which has been undergoing alterations at the hands of our own men since last July. The room now has seating accommodations of about 200, and from 150 to 175 at banquets.

     The first event on the Assembly program was a Men's Supper at 4.30 p.m. on Saturday, with Mr. Joe Knight, President of the Forward Club, as chairman. "Freedom; its Responsibilities and Duties," was the subject considered. "The Doctrine" was presented by the Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal; its application "To the Church" by Mr. A. Sargeant; "To the State" by Mr. R. S. Anderson; "To the Home" by Mr. Ed Hill, of Kitchener. These gentlemen acquitted themselves with their usual ?clat, and the discussion of this "hardy perennial" was briskly maintained.

     We may report by proxy that, while the men were meeting, there was a delightful reception for the ladies at the home of Miss Blanche Somerville, in honor of Mrs. N. D. Pendleton, who was paying her first visit to Toronto and to an Ontario District Assembly,-an honor and pleasure which we all hope may frequently be repeated during the coming years. The reception was invaded for moment by a delegation from the men, bearing an "intangible" message of our undying affection, and a "tangible" expression in the form of chocolate candies, which seems to be the invariable form of such expressions on such occasions.

     The first session of the Assembly was held on Saturday evening, when the Bishop delivered an Address dealing in an inspiring manner with the efforts to maintain the uses of education under distinctive New Church auspices. At Divine Worship on Sunday morning, the Bishop delivered the sermon, and was assisted in the administration of the Holy Supper by the Revs. F. E. Gyllenhaal and Alan Gill. At the second session, in the evening, the Rev. Alan Gill gave an address on "The Potency of Habit." The third session was held on Monday morning, when reports were received and necessary business transacted. The Bishop appointed the Rev. Alan Gill as Secretary of the Ontario District Assembly, in which capacity he had been acting since the Assembly in 1928.

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We then had the pleasure of listening to a talk by Mr. Hubert Hyatt on the uses of the General Church.

     The finale of the program was the Banquet and Dance on Monday evening, the Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal, as toastmaster, introducing the subject of "The Growth of the Church," which was dealt with under three headings: "Co-operation," by Mr. F. Wilson; "The Future of the General Church," by Mr. Rudolf Roschman; "The Internal Growth of the Church," by the Rev. Alfred Acton, MA., B.Th.

     One thing that contributed much to the sphere of the Assembly was that, in addition to the numerous visitors from Kitchener and the Ontario District, our friends had come from Bryn Athyn. The Bishop and Dr. Acton are a never-failing source of inspiration and instruction. Particularly were we impressed with the episcopal and affectional qualities of the Bishop's utterances. We were deeply moved and greatly encouraged by his words of wisdom and advice.

     Dr. Acton, too, with his always pertinent and apposite contributions to the discussions, his ability to elucidate abstruse points of doctrine, and his vigorous characterization of things essential, added greatly to the enjoyment of the meetings. But perhaps the unique feature of the Assembly was the "Talk" by Mr. Hubert Hyatt on "The Uses of the General Church." We had rather expected a disquisition on church finances, but were given instead a most illuminating picture of the work the General Church is doing, and seeking to do, in the far-flung territories it now embraces. It was a distinctly useful contribution to the Assembly, and if other societies have not heard Mr. Hyatt on this theme, we strongly recommend their doing so.

     Another feature of this Assembly was the evidence of a new factor coming actively into the uses of the church on the forensic side, bringing into the discussions a freshness, and a presentation of the points of view and problems exercising the minds of a new generation, upon whom is falling in increasing measure the mantle of our forbears and the responsibility that was theirs.

     The attendance at the sessions was about 120, with 110 to 115 at the banquet. Mr. Gyllenhaal made an excellent toastmaster, the singing was "bright and enjoyable, the speeches brief and to the point; the messages from former pastors and members of the two societies were very much enjoyed, particularly, we may mention, the message from our old friends, Mr. and Mrs. R. B. Caldwell, who in former days contributed so largely to the uses of our District Assemblies. Marked was the friendliness, the sphere of spontaneity and freedom at this Assembly, the spirit of receptivity and responsiveness throughout. It was a good Assembly.
     FRANK WILSON.

     HIGH KILBURN, YORK, ENGLAND.

     Our Pastor, Bishop Tilson, paid his annual visit, accompanied by Mrs. Tilson, August 12th to 28th, conducting two services on each Sunday, 17th and 24th, with deeply interesting and instructive sermons. He also administered the Sacrament of the Rely Supper on the 17th to seven communicants, and to a like number on the 24th (ten communicants in all). Acceptable doctrinal instruction and information on church matters was also given on intervening days.
     W. COPLEY JUBB.

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ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS 1930

ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS       WILLIAM WHITEHEAD       1930




     Announcements.



     The Annual Council Meetings of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held at Bryn Athyn, Pa., from February 2d to 8th, 1931. The Philadelphia District Assembly (Banquet) will be held in the Assembly Hall, on Friday evening, February 6th, 1931.

     All who expect to attend the above meetings are requested to notify Miss Florence Roehner, Bryn Athyn, Pa., in order that provision may be made for their entertainment.
     WILLIAM WHITEHEAD,
          Secretary, Council of the Clergy
ORPHANAGE APPEAL 1930

ORPHANAGE APPEAL       WALTER C. CHILDS       1930

     To THE MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL CHURCH:

Dear Friends:
     This is to advise you that two applications for assistance from the Orphanage Fund have been received. Both of these cases are most worthy, being widows, members of the General Church, each of whom has a family of young children. The Orphanage Fund cannot give help without increased contributions.

     Will you not assist by sending a check, and by becoming a regular contributor to the Orphanage Fund!
     Fraternally yours,
          WALTER C. CHILDS,
               Treasurer.
Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa.