ROAD TO FREEDOM        GEORGE DE CHARMS       1941


NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. LXI
JANUARY, 1941
No. 1
     (Delivered at Pittsburgh and Ontario District Assemblies, 1940.)

     The deepest longing of every human heart is to be free. This is of Divine provision, because in freedom alone can true and lasting happiness be given. Yet freedom cannot be imparted as an obvious gift of the Creator. It must, to all appearance, be achieved through patient labor and continual conflict. The life-story of every individual-and indeed the entire history of the race-may be summed up in this ceaseless struggle for ever greater liberation. The hope of attaining a larger measure of freedom is the mainspring of life,-the driving power of all human progress and development. When that hope dies, life loses its significance, and becomes a burden rather than a joy.
     There was perhaps never a time in the history of the world when that hope was at lower ebb than it is today. Men seem to have tried every possible road that might lead to the freedom they are seeking, only to find that it ends in the bogs and quicksands of a new enslavement. The way of conquest led to the partial and temporary liberation of the few at the expense of the many; but in time it always brought revolt that overturned the seats of the mighty, reduced them to subservience, and replaced them with another few to enjoy a brief period of power. For many centuries, religious faith was regarded as the great liberator; but this also entered the lists of conquest, seeking dominion over the souls of men. And this led again to revolt, to doctrinal disputes and sectarian strife that left freedom prostrate in its path.
     At last men turned to scientific knowledge, to an understanding recognition of natural laws, seeking liberation in the rule of reason. Meeting with unprecedented success-making rapid progress in the mastery of the elements, the relief of human suffering, the a massing of material wealth, they imagined that they had discovered the secret of an ever-expanding freedom. With reason to guide, they thought they would be able, by negotiation, to solve every problem of the individual, the community, the nation, and the world itself, thus eliminating the threat of war, and turning all the forces of man's intelligence into the peaceful channels of productive and profitable trade for the highest benefit of all.
     But at the height of their complacent assurance that the longed-for goal was just over the horizon, a rude awakening came when that ancient foe of freedom, the lust for conquest, again reared its head. Treaties were scrapped, negotiations were repudiated, and all the fruits of man's intelligent labor were turned into machines of destruction, directed once more at the subjugation of the many to the dominant will of the few. In the face of this cataclysm-which threatens to reduce civilization to smoking ruins, to extinguish the flame of enlightened reason, and to plunge the world into a new dark age of barbarism, with all its human tragedy-many are tempted to doubt whether, after all, freedom may not be but a chimera, impossible of attainment. Is there such a thing as progress? Or do we but plod in a treadmill, our eyes fixed on the moving walk in front of us, imagining that we are advancing, only to find that we have not gone forward, but remain exactly where we started, still held in the implacable grasp of those forces from which we have been striving to escape?
     Yet, in this dark hour of discouragement and despair, a new light has been kindled by the Lord for those who have eyes to see. It is the light of Divine Revelation, giving a spiritually rational insight into the hidden purposes of God which lie back of this apparently confused and meaningless human drama. It gives us renewed assurance that there is such a thing as freedom-to which man can attain in spite of all the forces that oppose it. It gives us to know that there has been progress, steady and undeviating progress under the leading of the Divine Providence, toward the achievement of that freedom. For this, preparation has been made, and is now being made with infinite care and wisdom, through all the apparent failures and discouragements of human error.

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It points to the one and only road that will lead to that supreme accomplishment, and teaches us how we may walk therein with courage and calm faith in the Lord, who has Himself come to lead us.
     But what is this freedom for which we strive, and to which we at last may attain? It is not absolute freedom, for this is an attribute of life, and life belongs to God alone. Man is but a vessel, devoid of all life save that which perpetually inflows from God. He has no least power to move except under the impulse of the in- flowing stream of life. And because he is animated solely by a force that originates outside of himself, essential freedom cannot be ascribed to him; nor can he ever attain to it. But the Lord, wishing to give His life to man completely, that he may enjoy it altogether as if it were his own, insinuates it so secretly that man is entirely unaware of its influx. It appears to him to originate within himself, and thus to be his very own. From this appearance arises a sense of freedom, or rather a sense of the power to attain to ever greater freedom. In the exercise of this God-given power, and in the hope of our expanding freedom by the use of it, lies the joy of life.
     The appearance to man that be has absolute and unrestricted freedom-that his life is his own, and that he can do with it whatever be desires-this is indeed an illusion. The truth is that he is under the perpetual government of the Lord, apart from whom he can do nothing. But the Lord does give him a limited form of freedom, which nonetheless is real, and with which He never interferes. This is the freedom to choose, in thought and will, between two opposites,-the freedom to reject the one, in order that he may accept the other. If this choice is evil, then its ultimation in speech and action will indeed be circumscribed, lest spiritual injury be done to others. But the thought and will are ever maintained in freedom, even with those who are in hell.
     The fact that, for the protection of the good, the ultimation of such evil thought and will must be restrained, involves that this choice, though freely made, does not lead to freedom, but to bondage. On the other hand, if man freely chooses what is good, and for the sake of this rejects the evil that opposes it, then the expression of that good in word and deed can bring only good to others.

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For it is in accord with those Divine laws by which the Lord provides for the greatest happiness of all; and man can be allowed unlimited freedom in ultimating it. Freedom, then,-that true and lasting freedom which lies within the reach of man's endeavor,-is the free choice of what is good, and the determined resistance to evil for the sake of good. In this freedom is the everlasting happiness of heaven.
     The happiness of heaven can be received only in freedom. Life is love, and the joy or happiness of life is the free activity of love. If love is compelled, it dies. There is no joy in delights that are forced upon us. Even the joys of heaven would be forced upon us if we had no choice save to accept them as they are presented to us. Free acceptance is possible only with the freedom to reject,-to choose the opposite in preference. Wherefore, only so far as we freely choose heavenly delights, resisting what is evil in order that we may attain to them, can these delights impart to us a sense of joy and blessedness. This is the reason why the Lord does not create man already an angel of heaven, possessed of good and truth in all abundance, but places him on earth endowed merely with the ability to choose this good, and with an innate longing for the freedom that such a choice alone can give.
     We are all familiar with the sphere of innocence and peace that surrounds a little infant. In this we see reflected as in a mirror the very happiness of heaven. From natural affection we might wish that the joys of this state could be retained. We might wish that the child could be spared the cares and anxieties, the responsibilities, the hardships and temptations, of adult life. We know that, as he grows, he will recede from innocence. Tendencies to evil will multiply, and he will be called upon to work, to struggle, to face failure, and loss, and suffering. Yet we know that the delights of infancy are not the joys of heaven for which he was created. The happiness of heaven is indefinitely greater than that of infancy. And in order that he may attain this higher blessing, the Lord has ordained that he shall grow up. To him there comes the Divine call that came to Abram: " Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee."
     This call is perceived as a deep longing to be free. The infant is not free. Even the delights that he enjoys are but loaned to him. They have not been chosen by him. They have been accepted without alternative, because he knows no other.

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He is, in fact, utterly helpless. He has neither the strength nor the knowledge to cope with the forces of the world in which he finds himself. He must depend upon parents and guardians for all the necessaries of life. If he is to survive, he must learn to obey without questioning why. He is under the bonds of external command, and must be led and taught by fear of punishment and the promise of reward. Only by successive stages, by growth, by effort and application, can he acquire the knowledge and the judgment to direct his own way in accord with the unalterable laws of life. In attempting to do this, he will make many mistakes, will suffer many disappointments, will undergo many temptations, and in appearance will recede farther and farther from the innocence of infancy.
     Yet it is only in this way that he can be given the possibility of a free choice-a free opportunity to reject what is evil and achieve what is good, as if by his own effort As he grows, acquiring wider knowledge and deeper understanding, this choice can be made at a higher and higher level. And the more exalted the plane of choice, the more complete is the sense of freedom, and the greater the delight that choice imparts. This is the purpose of growth-the end of the Divine Providence in growth-that the plane of choice may be lifted up by successive steps even to what is heavenly and eternal.
     That some-when this opportunity is given-should choose the evil and reject the good is a necessary permission, in order that all may, if they will, choose the good and reject the evil. There is no other way to provide real freedom and real choice. For if it were so ordered that the choice of evil were impossible, then good would have to be accepted, and could not be received in freedom.
     As with the individual, so also with the race. Human life began in a Golden Age of racial infancy. Innocence reigned. Love and charity universally prevailed. Evil, with its suffering, was unknown. Yet the delights of that age were not those that the Lord foresaw as the final goal of His creation. For men, even after they had grown to adult age, were spiritually infants. They did not, and could not, enjoy the blessings of spiritual maturity. They were dependent upon external direction and control. They spoke with the Lord face to face. He appeared to them as the Angel of Jehovah, telling them openly what they should speak and do.

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Their happiness lay in a willing, unquestioning obedience to commands, the import of which they did not deeply understand. It lay in the acknowledgment of their own ignorance and helplessness, and in an innocent desire to be led in all things by the Lord.
     But the Lord did not wish them to remain in that state. He wanted them to grow up, to increase in independence, to enjoy a greater appearance of freedom-to accumulate knowledges, and become intelligent and wise, in order that He might lead them more subtly, meeting them on a higher plane, and giving a greater portion of their life as it were into their own hands. That in this process of growth temptations would come, tendencies to evil would multiply, and conflicts would increase in intensity and bitterness, was necessary, if indeed the end were at last to be attained. But through all the trials that were in store for them. He ordained that every stage of their development should prepare them to receive a greater measure of freedom, until at last they became spiritually adult, capable of entering intellectually into the mysteries of faith, capable of understanding a rational revelation, and thus of assuming a full measure of responsibility for free cooperation with the Lord by a rational observance of the Divine laws of life.
     That this is true, we can see in some measure if we compare the three Revelations that remain to us-the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Writings. They depict the measure of spiritual freedom which could be given in the childhood, the youth, and the adult age of the race, respectively. The Old Testament represents government by direct command, especially by the command " Thou shalt not." The evils to be avoided are minutely specified. They are, for the most part, evils of outward act, prohibited, not because of rational considerations that are known and understood, but because the Lord has said so. They demand no more than willing obedience to the commandments of an all-wise Father, in whose infinite wisdom men were to place unquestioning confidence. If obedience was not given, it was enforced by external punishments. As to the deeper reasons why these statutes and judgments should be observed, teaching could not yet be given, because it could not be understood.
     The New Testament, however, is addressed to a more advanced state,-a state of spiritual youth, when the ability to understand the reasons was being gradually acquired.

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It contains the generals of doctrine, often clothed in parables, but so clearly apparent as to encourage the effort of spiritual thinking. It gave to the world a new and higher kind of spiritual freedom, and required a greater measure of individual responsibility for the formulation and interpretation of doctrine. It prepared the way for the spread of education, and for the increase of natural knowledge, without which a rational understanding of spiritual truth could not be given. It insinuated the ideals of life that laid the foundation for greater civil and political liberty. All this was accomplished in spite of the fall of the Christian Church and the falsities of doctrine that arose from the first youthful effort to solve the riddle of life before the rational faculty was as yet mature.
     And finally, in the Heavenly Doctrine, we find a Revelation that enables man to enter progressively into a spiritually rational understanding of truth. It sets forth the relation of the Infinite to the finite; the laws of creation, and of continual preservation operative in the universe; the laws of redemption, and of regeneration. It discloses the nature of the spiritual world, and of the life after death. It makes known the modes of influx from that world into nature, and the interdependence between spirits and men. It makes possible a true interpretation of the laws of nature, that they may be seen as tools in the Lord's hand for the accomplishment of His eternal ends. All this, in order to introduce man into a higher kind of freedom. For through a knowledge of these laws man is enabled to direct his life freely, as if of himself, in accord with the Divine Order. He can assume the responsibility that belongs to a spiritual adult age, and can enjoy his faculties of liberty and rationality on a plane never before possible to the human race.
     The primary cause of the threatened collapse of modern civilization is to be found in the fact that men, having lost all perception of spiritual truth, have sought to attain to freedom by means of natural reason alone. This, the Writings tell us, will produce the external appearance of freedom. It will cleanse the outside of the cup and the platter by removing evils in their external manifestation. The rational acknowledgment of natural laws as superior to our individual will, and the recognition of the fact that observance of these laws tends to promote the greatest good for the greatest number, leads to a measure of self-discipline that establishes a state of external order.

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It supports honesty, sincerity, justice, and the moral virtues. It encourages a spirit of tolerance, and promotes freedom of speech and of the press. Natural reason points to these things as the only foundation upon which a sound social structure may be erected. But the end in view is purely natural. It is to satisfy the external desires and ambitions of men. By these means, men strive for wealth, position, reputation, fame, and power, which are mistaken for the supreme good for the sake of which society exists. And within them lie the evils of self-love and greed, untouched by such a natural morality,-evils that fester under the surface, causing various forms of corruption that pour out poisons into the body politic, and from time to time burst their external bonds to wreak destruction upon society.
     The real cause of human bondage lies in these deeper evils that flourish in hidden recesses of the mind, withdrawn from the sight of others. Such evils are beyond the reach of natural laws. Natural reasoning alone gives us no power to remove them. Yet, if they are not removed, they will secretly qualify and subtly vitiate our outward appearance of morality, turning that morality to the service of their own ends, and in time of stress repudiating it and casting off its restraints.
     There is only one power adequate to effect this removal, namely, the power of a spiritual religion-the acknowledgment of God, and the shunning of evil as sin against Him. This involves the recognition of a higher law-a law of spiritual and eternal life,-to be found only in the teaching of Divine Revelation. The observance of this law from an inmost love to the Lord, and a desire worthily to serve and honor Him, this alone is adequate to the removal of evils from the internal man, and thus to bring true and lasting liberation from the bondage of evil. As we read in the work on the Divine Providence:

     Spiritual freedom is from the love of eternal life. Into this love and its enjoyment no one comes but he who thinks evils to be sins and therefore does not will them, and who at the same time looks to the Lord. When a man first does this, he is in that freedom; for no one is able not to will evils because they are sins, and therefore not to do them, unless from the more interior or higher freedom, which is from the more interior or higher love.

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At first this freedom does not seem to be freedom, yet still it is: but it afterwards appears so, and then man acts from freedom according to reason in thinking, willing, speaking, and doing what is good and true. This freedom increases as natural freedom decreases and becomes subservient; and it conjoins itself with rational freedom, and purifies it. Anyone can come into this freedom, provided he is willing to reflect that life is eternal, and that the temporary enjoyment and bliss of a life in time are but as a fleeting shadow compared with the never ending enjoyment and bliss of a life in eternity; and a man can think so if he wishes, because he has rationality and liberty, and because the Lord, from whom these two faculties are, continually gives the ability." (D. P. 73.)

     Here, then, lies, the road to freedom-the road than can lead men back from the quagmire into which they have strayed to the attainment of that goal for which they have vainly sought. It is the path of internal self-denial, of internal self-compulsion, motivated by a spiritual vision of the Lord as He appears in His Second Coming, and by a rational understanding of the truth revealed in His opened Word. In this self-compulsion there is a higher freedom, which brings with it a more interior delight. But, to achieve it, man must assume a greater measure of individual responsibility than was required of him in previous ages. He must assume the responsibility of one spiritually adult. And to do so he must cultivate the love of spiritual truth,-the truth of eternal life. He must seek a knowledge of heaven, and a rational understanding of heaven's laws, in order that he may intelligently combat and overcome those deeper evils that infest the internal man. He must make this conflict the main concern, and victory in it the supreme goal of his life. In doing so he must remove from his mind all natural considerations, and act solely for the sake of obedience to the Lord and compliance with His eternal law. None can undertake this task save those who have access to that law-whose minds are open to receive in heart and faith the teaching of the Heavenly Doctrine. But all these are called by the Lord to follow this road that leads to freedom.
     With the knowledge of the Lord's Coming; with the sense of His near presence; with the vision of this road charted plainly before us in the Writings; with full freedom to choose this path and advance along it, even though at first with slow and faltering steps; we have no need to fear the future.

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He whose Providence has been guiding the destiny of the race from the beginning has led it safely through its infancy, childhood and youth to a state in which this Revelation could be given, and has preserved a remnant capable of receiving that new truth with gladness, He will not fail to provide for the eventual establishment of His Kingdom among men.
     The world-events that are the cause of such deep and widespread concern are, under His Divine direction, but part of a necessary preparation for the New Church. They are the inevitable accompaniments of the Last Judgment-that final consummation which has come upon the Christian dispensation. Only through failure and suffering can confirmed falsities be shaken, and strongly intrenched indifference to spiritual things be softened, in the minds of men. And until this is done there is no possibility of a humble approach to Divine Revelation, that the truth of heaven may touch and move the hearts of men. Whatever the natural outcome, this is the Divine purpose that lies back of the present conflict, In the Lord's own time this purpose will be achieved, and the way will be opened for a wider acceptance of the New Church. Then men shall come to know a new freedom-an internal and lasting freedom that will bring untold joy and blessing to mankind.
     This is in the Lord's hands. As to its final accomplishment, we need have no concern. Our duty lies in meeting the responsibility that is placed upon us by virtue of the fact that we have been given, in the Lord's mercy, to see the road that leads to freedom. If we are to prove worthy of this responsibility, we must, as individuals, freely choose that road and steadfastly walk therein. We must search daily in the Heavenly Doctrine for Divine instruction and guidance in our endeavor to remove the evils that are contrary to the laws of heaven-remove them not merely from our speech and action, but primarily from the thought and will of our internal man. By this endeavor the Lord will break the power of those evils over us, and establish His Kingdom in our hearts. If, as individuals, we will be faithful to this, the Lord will grant us illustration to meet the problems of life, and will bind us together in bonds of mutual love and charity, that the small beginnings of His Church among us may steadily increase in unity and strength.

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MOTE AND THE BEAM 1941

MOTE AND THE BEAM       Rev. ALFRED ACTON       1941

     "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." (Matthew 7: 3-5.)

     In the verses immediately preceding our text, the Lord says, "Judge not, that ye be not judged!" Yet here man is called upon to use judgment as to what is in his brother's eye, and what in his own. Clearly, judgment must be used; but the judgment is to be directed, not by man's will, but by the Lord's Word. "Judge ye not, that ye be not judged!" Or, as it is expressed elsewhere, "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment." (John 7: 24.) If man judges from himself, he judges from the appearance; but if he judges from the teachings of the Word, his judgment is a righteous judgment. In the one case he sees a beam in his brother's eye, and a mote in his own; in the other, he discerns that the beam is in his own eye.
     The leading idea in the text is that of judgment as to what is large and what is small. To the man who exercises righteous judgment, the internal or spiritual is large, and the external or worldly small. But to the man who judges from the appearance, the external is large, the internal small. Therefore the Lord compares the kingdom of heaven to a grain of mustard seed "which is the least of all the seeds" (Matt. 13: 31); for to man before reformation, as also to children, the things of heaven are little; but when heaven is received, they are seen to be the greatest. So, when seen in spiritual light, the evil man who judges himself to be great becomes "the least in the kingdom of heaven," while he who esteems himself little is "great in the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 23: 11, 12.)

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     In the text, it is judgment by an evil man that is referred to. To such a man, the external evils of the neighbor, or what he considers as evils, especially if they differ from his own standard of righteousness, appear as an overshadowing beam, and merit condemnation; but as to the internal evils which lie within his own external deeds, these he either does not see, or he sees them as a mote.
     It is said that the beam and the mote are seen in the eye, because the eye signifies the understanding, and it is in the understanding that evil, or, indeed, good can be seen; that is to say, it is in the imagination and thought, which are the external form of the understanding, that man can see the quality of his affections. Let a man merely examine his thoughts and imagination when he is alone, and the nature of the delights which he then feels, awl he will see the quality of the loves that lie concealed within. If he dwells upon evil with delight, he can know, if he will, that it is the loves of hell that show their faces; but if, happily, he is conscious of the desire to put away these delights as poisonous to his spiritual life, he can be in some assurance that the Lord is with him, and that in the other life he will continue the same effort.
     There is, however, a difference between what a man can see in himself and what he can see in others. In himself he can see in his deeds and words the loves which inspire them; in others he can see only the external speech and conduct; and. compared with the beam that he sees in himself, these are but motes or splinters, as it were. It is said " motes " and "beams," because wood signified good, and, in the opposite sense, evil.
     This difference between seeing the external evils of another, and seeing the internal evils within oneself, is expressed in the text by the two verbs used to express the seeing of the mote and of the beam.
     Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" In the Greek, the word translated behold means simply to look at, to see with the external sight; while that translated consider means to discern, perceive. The text might, therefore, be better translated, "Why lookest thou at the mote in thy brother's eye, and perceiveth not the beam in thine own eye?"
     But though a man can see only the external evils of others, yet how harsh is his judgment when inspired by self! How unmerciful his condemnation!

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Especially the condemnation which fear restrains him from expressing in open speech. The external faults of others loom so large that they become, as it were, a beam that obscures the vision from all else. Hence the proneness to cherish uncharitable thoughts concerning others, to be suspicious of their motives, to find delight in speaking ill of them, or in hearing them defamed or harshly condemned-unless, indeed, the man at fault is a friend whose company and support contributes to one s own happiness; for then his faults are excused or considered as trivial.
     Far different is the judgment which the natural man makes upon himself. He may indeed see external faults, but he is blind to the internal evils within. He may see the mote that comes to the view of others, but not the beam from which it issues. To him, his external faults seem light; and if he hears that others condemn him on their account, he is indignant at the harshness of the judgment;
ready excuses come to his mind; he thinks of himself as a man unjustly injured. Moreover, in a greater or lesser degree, he then feels the fire of hatred against his critic, the desire of revenge, and a sense of satisfaction when his critic experiences misfortune.
     This is not to say that there is not a just indignation against unmerciful detractors; but the center and inspiration of such indignation is not the person, but the use; for, as to the person and the weaknesses of the person, the just man is humble, and this because he sees the beam in his own eye.
     But it is not the just man who is treated of in the text, but the unjust,-the man who is blind to the internal evils within himself, but ever ready to dwell upon the external faults of others; the man, the harshness of whose judgment of others is equaled by the mildness of his judgment of himself. Such a man is called a hypocrite.
     Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye!
     The ordinary idea concerning a hypocrite is of a man who speaks and acts uprightly, but who at the same time is fully conscious of the deceit within. Such hypocrisy, however, is the mildest form of hypocrisy; for with such hypocrites the evil intention is openly present in the external mind. Sometimes it can even be detected by men in the other world it is soon exposed. Deeper in its nature is the hypocrisy condemned in the text. It is the hypocrisy of the man who knows not that he is a hypocrite: of the man of the church who, from early training, lives an upright civil and moral life almost spontaneously, who attends the services of the church, and professes its doctrines-and yet knows no evil in himself, because he has not searched into his own heart.

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"One who has not acted repentance," we read, "that is, who has not searched into and examined himself, finally knows not what damnable evil is, or what saving good." (T. C. R. 563.)
     It is for this reason that the Holy Supper was instituted, that at set times the individual man may meet the Lord face to face, as it were, may confess before Him his evils, and may pray for strength to shun them. Without this actual repentance, the man who is in the church knows no other than that he is of the church. It is this man who is the hypocrite referred to in the text; and his hypocrisy is such that, even in the other life, much time must elapse before it is unmasked.
     Such a man, blind to the beam in his own eye, is eager to pull the mote out of his brother's eye, that is to say, to reform others, to remove from them the external evils that he condemns. The desire to reform others is indeed inherent in his character, but not the desire that they shall be reformed by the Lord. Hence such men are inwardly intolerant of all thought and speech and conduct that departs from their own standard.
     Yet, far from reforming their brethren, the effect of their conduct is to arouse and increase the evils of those brethren. For it is well known that harsh criticism of the faults of others arouses an opposing harshness in those others, whence comes hatred and the desire for revenge. "How wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."
     Here we have the teaching that the man who is a hypocrite cannot take the mote from his brother's eye, though be wills to do so; and, on the other hand, that the man who is not a hypocrite is able "to see clearly to cast out the mote out of his brother's eye," although his whole effort is to remove the beam from his own eye.
     Herein lies an arcanum, namely, that while it is the Lord alone who reforms man and regenerates him, yet in this work He uses the agency of man.

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And here lies the responsibility of the man of the church. He is responsible, not only for his own attitude to the Lord, but also for the effect of his speech and deed upon the spiritual welfare of his fellow men. He cannot say with Cain, "Am I my brother's keeper?" For the voice of the blood of every injured brother crieth unto God from the ground. Call it the responsibility of example, if you will, but in so calling it, remember that the evil want to be an example or pattern which they would compel others to follow, while the good do not think of themselves as an example to be followed by others, but are inspired by the desire to shun the injuring of others.
     In the beginning of reformation, a man may indeed shun evils from the fear of hell, or from the hope of heaven; and this has within it something of the love of self; but as he progresses he will come more and more to shun evils from the fear of injuring the spiritual and natural welfare of his neighbor, knowing that every evil deed that he commits, nay, and every evil that he cherishes in his imagination, inflicts both natural and spiritual injury on his neighbor. It matters not that the Lord, in His providence, may turn that evil to good; it matters not that the evil aroused in others by harsh and unmerciful condemnation may be used by the Lord as the means whereby the man in whom it is aroused may be led to see that evil, and to repent of it. Man is judged, that is to say, his quality is determined, not by the good to which his evil intentions may be turned, but by the evil that he intends.
     How, then, can he who has a beam in his own eye, whose judgment is inspired by evil loves, unseen, unconfessed, unshunned-how can such a man see to pull out the mote out of his brother's eye, and thus be a means, in the Lord's hands, by which the work of salvation can be effected? Rather is he a servant of the devil, by whom the flames of hatred are aroused for the destruction of heaven and the church. Therefore the command "First cast out the beam out of thine own eye." For the man who sees the beam of internal evil that is within him, and seeing, shuns it-that man sees clearly to cast out the mote out of his brother's eye; that is, he perceives that the evils to which the loves of self and the world prompt him are destructive of the Lord's work of salvation. Therefore he fears to commit them.

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     Note the contrast. The unmerciful critic arouses evil in others; nor is this a matter of concern with him, for he thinks only of condemnation; and within this is the desire to submit others to his own will. But the merciful critic is willing to excuse. Aware of the beam in his own eye, he judges mildly concerning the mote in his brother's eye, for he fears to injure that brother. The one is a slave of the devil for the destruction of men's souls; the other is a servant of the Lord in His work of salvation. To be such a servant is what is meant by seeing clearly "to pluck out the mote out of thy brother's eye." No man can pluck out or remove the evils of another, but he can be the willing servant of Him who alone does the work of salvation. Amen.

LESSONS:     Psalm 51. Matthew 7: 1-12. D. P. 121, 122,
MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 442, 467, 488.
PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 42, 43.
NEW YEAR 1941

NEW YEAR       SYDNEY B. CHILDS       1941

     Death always connotes sadness, even if the object of mourning be not a person, but a thing inanimate, as the passing of a year into oblivion. Yet a year, as an epoch of time, is not a lifeless conception of the mind, but rather a single volume of a set of books, each containing the same number of pages, and comprising the story of our lives. If we visualize each day as the page of a book,-a record of achievement, happiness or tragedy, all written indelibly, with the pages bound into a volume as of December 31st each year,-we shall prize the New Year more dearly, for that is a clean, new book upon which God permits us, in complete freedom, to inscribe beliefs and deeds.
     Those who die in infancy are in a sense to be envied, for while their record is confined to a few tiny volumes, all that is written therein has been traced by the finger of God. With those who die in childhood or early youth, there may be found some blemish of evil, both hereditary and acquired. They are fortunate notwithstanding, since their interrupted writing in the "book of life" will by an all-merciful Providence, be continued in another life, where earthly mistakes can readily be deleted.

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     Adults, whose inscriptions make a more or less impressive showing, as gauged by the number of volumes they have accumulated, may or may not be fortunate. They have been offered, but may not have accepted, the most precious of all blessings-the right to choose the path that leads to a good life.
     Why cannot we all be happy and joyous in the New Year that now dawns? There are many reasons.
     There is the fact that the year 1940 has not been auspicious for man s material welfare. Man's savagery toward man has resulted in the destruction of many established governments, entailing submersion of national and personal freedom. Hundreds of thousands have suffered tortuous death in wars of aggression. Many times that number of men, women and children have been wounded, their homes annihilated, and themselves reduced to worse than death-the status of human slaves. Freedom of worship for countless millions has been destroyed, so far as the ministrations of their religions are concerned. Those as yet beyond the reach of the attack of the invader have no assurance as to how long it will be before their turn comes. There prevails a suffocating sphere of anxiety, in which the man trusting in proprial strength alone is comparable to a harmless bird under the hypnotic spell of a venomous snake. Not a pretty picture,-the year 1940!
     But what of 1941? Those who are privileged to know of the Second Coming of the Lord can find much for which they can rejoice in the year that has passed. We welcome the year to come. We have been given thoughts and feelings which can soar far above the world of carnage that seeks to intimidate and crush out all spiritual as well as natural life. We know from our religion that the ends of Providence are primarily concerned with the spiritual and eternal welfare of all mankind: and surely now is a time when we must elevate our sight above the threatened blackout of the long, long night which we find engulfing our natural aspirations.
     We must acknowledge the fact that our states in the interval of years prior to the outbreak of war were not wholly ennobled. How many were content with the dispositions of Providence? How readily did we accept the smothering of material ambitions? Were we envious of those whose lives appeared to be crowned with a greater earthly achievement? Did we repudiate a concept of life which the Lord condemned: "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

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     In the New Year, let us be fair with ourselves, and face the record, no matter how unflattering the implications of the context may be. We may shudder at the things we read in the newspapers or hear on the radio; but all these terrifying upheavals are the works of men like ourselves,-men free for the time being to ultimate the same lusts of hatred and other evils that we ourselves have ofttimes cherished in our hearts, and which we shall continue to cherish unless delivered by the Lord from the hells that inspire such poisons.
     Let us face the New Year with hope, with confidence that the lives of men are in the hands of an all-merciful God, with the certain knowledge that the Lord, in His infinite wisdom and love for all His creatures, will provide a way to end, not only the present war, but eventually all wars. Such a way hardly can be provided in our age, but if we remain loyal to the teachings of the Writings, and to our Church, we may serve in the establishment of a new civilization which some day will dawn upon this earth. Lasting civilization must be based upon the tenets of charity toward the neighbor, and evolved through a faith in the eternal verities of the Revelation which has been given to us. What matter if such a dawn rises distant in years? We have Divine assurance that such a brotherhood will emerge when the New Church fulfills its destiny to become the Crown of all churches.
     As individuals, as members of societies of the General Church, as members of the New Church, we can derive strength and happiness, and approximate wisdom, by endeavoring to follow the teachings of the Writings. " For true wisdom is to see what is conducive to any one's life to eternity, and to dispose one's self to that, which is done when man not only knows these things, and perceives them with the understanding, but also wills and does them. But Divine Wisdom is to provide these things with man; thus it is Divine Providence." (A. E. 338.)
     Let us strive to attain true wisdom in the New Year that awaits us. And then, whatever may be the daily allotment of sorrow or joy, we still may further the work of the Lord's kingdom on earth, and prepare for immortal existence-God's ultimate benefaction.

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BOOK OF JONAH 1941

BOOK OF JONAH       Rev. E. E. IUNGERICH       1941

     An Exposition of its Four Senses.

     Jonah is the Hebrew word for a dove. Attention is thereby called to the dove which Noah sent forth from the ark to find out whether the waters had abated from off the earth, and human and animal life could thrive there; also to the apparition of a dove above the Lord at His baptism, to denote that the Holy Spirit rested upon Him. A dove, in the Word, signifies this Spirit of Truth, and therefore the affection of truth which it kindles among men. Its appearing above the Lord represented that this Spirit of Truth proceeds from Him by His Word to affect those who hearken to the truths that are revealed therein.
     Some may think that toilers in the fields of commerce, science, or art, who are obtaining results that win a general admiration, but who have little if any regard for the Word, can still be sincere seekers after truth, and even be inspired with the affection of truth for its own sake. But such are not approaching the Lord by the door He has set at the entrance to His sheepfold. They may at best be likened to gentiles ignorant of the existence of the Word, thus to the Ninevites to whom Jonah was bidden to deliver its message of repentance. For there were more than a hundred and twenty thousand of these who could not distinguish their right hand from their left, a statement implying their ignorance of good and truth, and of the distinction between the two.
     But where men are aware of the royal road to the true source of the affection of truth, and yet suppose they can attain to it merely by the toil in commerce, science, or art, they are passing by the means the Lord has provided, and claiming for themselves powers of which He is not the Giver. For the Lord gave His Word that men might resort to it first of all for that inspiration which would subsequently bestead them in their various fields. "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness," He said, "and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6: 33.)

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Those who do this humbly will become, like Peter, not only defenders of the faith, but also lovers of the truth, to signify which Peter is at times referred to under his real name, "Simon, the son of Jonah."
     Readers of a Word who devoutly acknowledge that it is from the Lord are thereby conjoined by affection to the heaven which rests upon that Word. If they also read it in its original tongue, this conjunction by affection becomes one entering not only into the general affection, but also into the particulars and singulars thereof. For a Word in its original tongue is Divinely written according to the flow of the affection in the heaven that rests upon that Word. It is the celestial heaven that rests upon the Old Testament, and upon the as yet undiscovered Revelations prior to it; the spiritual heaven rests upon the New Testament: and the New or Natural Heaven, whence the New Church descends, rests upon the Writings of Swedenborg. With regard to this last point, Swedenborg declared that, on the publication of his True Christian Religion, the Lord would operate both mediately and immediately throughout the whole of Christendom for the establishment of a New Church based upon its theology. (Docu. II, p. 382.)
     But the New Churchman is to do more than read the several Words, if he is to acquire a conjunction by affection with their respective heavens. For it is also permitted now to enter intellectually into the secrets of faith (T. C. R. 508), and this permission implies that New Churchmen should strive for more than a conjunction by affection, and so enter intellectually as well into the thoughts which are the currents of angelic intelligence. To further this end, it has now been revealed that there are four senses in the Word, each of which is the particular theme of the intelligence in one of the heavens. There is the genuine sense of its letter. There is further an internal historical sense, involving the states of a Specific Church on earth. There is a still higher or spiritual sense, which treats of the spiritual regeneration of the human mind. There is finally a celestial sense, which treats of the Lord's Glorification of the Human He assumed in the world. The fact that New Churchmen may enter deeply into the understanding or appreciation of these four senses should not, however, be taken to mean that one who is especially interested in any one of them may conclude that he has been regenerated to the point of being actually, as to his spirit, one among the angels of the heaven which has that particular sense as the theme of its thinking.

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     Literal Sense.

     The genuine sense of the letter of the four chapters of the Book of Jonah, which focuses attention upon the history of Jonah as an individual, rewards the devout reader with a knowledge of valuable truths of scientific, civil, and moral order. As subjects for special consideration, we may refer to the following: 1) Jonah's disobedience of the Divine command by not going at once to Nineveh, but taking instead a ship to Tarshish, and the punishment he then incurred; 2) His straightforward avowal of his guilt, devoid of any effort to put the blame on others, and coupled with the will to meet death, in order to save his shipmates from disaster; 3) His trust in the Lord's Providence, as evinced by his repentant supplication from the belly of the whale; 4) His subsequent faithful fulfilment of his mission when the Lord again bade him call the Ninevites to repentance; 5) His displeasure at the Lord's not destroying the repentant Ninevites as showing how prone men are to consider themselves superior to those whom they are commissioned to instruct or lead; 6) His childish vexation over the withering of the wonder-tree that had shielded him from the sun's heat, while he betrayed scant compassion for the ignorant Ninevites; this going to show how long-continued the thought of one's own comfort or gain remains as a paramount consideration with men.
     Not a few in our Church have regarded the sense of the letter as something that adult New Churchmen should rise above or even dismiss from the thought. To do this, however, would belittle the devout reading of the Word for its own sake, and so interfere with the resulting conjunction by affection with the celestial-natural and possibly deeper heavens. It would also weaken the regard for ultimate truths of scientific, civil, or moral order, which are as a foundation to all higher truths. Among scientific truths taught in the Book of Jonah is the fact, as Swedenborg avers, that Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale. (A. C. 1188, 1709; S. D. 1391.)

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     Internal Historical Sense.

     The internal historical sense of the Book of Jonah draws attention to the disdain of the Jewish Church and race for everything of a spiritual nature. Jonah's initial disobedience, and his then lying asleep in the side of the ship going to Tarshish, sets forth how their leaders loved "to sit in Moses' seat" (Matt. 23: 2), or to say as Jonah did, "I am a Hebrew, and I fear Jehovah, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land," and yet interpreted all things of the Old Testament to refer to the Jews as God's chosen people, and neglected to apply its spiritual lessons to themselves, and even to convey this salutary instruction to others. The reluctance of Jonah's shipmates to cast him into the sea as he had bidden them do, and their vain endeavor then to bring the boat back to the shore, shows how the gentiles would long be misled by statements in the Old Testament which laud Israel in its representative sense of the Lord's Church, and only much later attend to those which portray them as perpetually backsliding and faithless to their trust.
     Jonah in the belly of the whale, crying for help and giving God thanks for protecting him, portrays the Lord as a man among the Jews on earth, where He fought against the infernal influences that surrounded them, in order to redeem a remnant among them who would receive with joy the spiritual teachings of the Old Testament, and then spread these tidings among the gentiles.
     Jonah on land, and then successfully preaching repentance to the Ninevites, depicts the formation of the first Christian Church among the gentiles, to which the Lord then gave the New Testament as the basis for its instruction and the resting-place of the Spiritual Heaven which was forming at that time.
     Jonah displeased at the Lord's not destroying Nineveh, and because of His mercy towards repentant sinners, refers to the unconverted Jews who stubbornly resist the Word's message as to a spiritual salvation, and see therein only assurances of their own material prosperity and eventual domination over all men, provided they stick to a code of external formalities.
     Jonah in a booth to the east of Nineveh, well-sheltered from the sun's heat by a wonder-tree that had sprung up in a night, and in which he found delight, represents the maintenance of the Jews as a Church during the subsequent first Christian Church, because of their veneration for the Hebrew and Aramaic tongues in which the Old Testament was originally written.

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The destruction of the wonder-tree by a worm, and the Lord's reproof of Jonah for being more concerned with the loss of that tree than moved with sympathy for the ignorant Ninevites, portrays that all valuable accessory uses will not forever keep alive a Church that has ceased to promote a worship of the Lord and a genuine spirit of charity towards the neighbor. Yet such accessory uses are potent to keep dead ecclesiasticisms in a semblance of life until the New or Crown of Churches is in a state to uphold and perpetuate such uses with vigor. The destruction of Jonah's wonder-tree by a worm refers to the lapse of Judaism when the New Church, founded upon the Writings, will eventually take over the uses of Judaism, its veneration of the Hebrew having been rendered corrupt by the avaricious lusts of the Jews and their disdain for others.
     It may be worthy of note that the only systematic exposition of the Book of Jonah in the Writings is that given in the Prophets and Psalms, and that this sets forth its internal historical sense. This sense would seem to affect primarily the spiritual-natural heaven, whose angels look more to matters of the intellect than to those of the will and its life. (See A. C. 4279e.)

     Spiritual Sense.

     In the yet deeper internal or spiritual sense, the four chapters of the Book of Jonah,-depicting him as asleep in the side of a ship on a storm-tossed sea, as in the belly of a whale under the sea, as on land and calling the Ninevites to repentance, and finally as on a hill to the east of Nineveh,-portray four stages in a man's mental life which are respectively under the religious influences of the Old Testament, of his own self-examination in his communing with God, of the New Testament, and of the Writings.
     In this sense the departure of Jonah in a ship bound for Tarshish, instead of obeying the Lord's command to go to Nineveh, denotes no disobedience to God, but the needed preliminary instruction in doctrinals from the Word in the childhood and adolescence of those of the Spiritual Church. For the spiritual, born with a perverted will part that cannot be reclaimed, need to acquire a new will which is to be established in a remodelled intellectual part.

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Jonah's shipmates, reluctant to cast him into the sea, and therefore struggling, though in vain, to row their ship to land, depict the fostering influences about the adolescent,-parents, teachers, and attendant angelic spirits. These cannot bring him to the land of a reformed internal man apart from his individual effort thereto. Jonah's command that they cast him into the sea betokens such a decision to assume responsibility. His supplication from the belly of the whale portrays then the individual's self-examination and those temptations which are conducive to his repentance.
     Nineveh, the "exceeding great city of three days' journey," to which Jonah then betook himself over land, represents a man's intellectual part with its three degrees of elevation, which is now to be reformed. The putting on of sackcloth and ashes at the preaching of Jonah, and the fasting and crying unto God by both men and beasts there, signify respectively the devout acknowledgments that one is in evil and the false, and must, as to the internal and external man, recognize that good and truth inflow solely from the Lord, while he strives actively to acquire them as if of himself.
     The deeper struggle against the love of self now ensues, as the man enters upon the regeneration of the external or natural man, in the effort to bring it into concordance with the reformed internal man. The zeal of the regenerating man to have all traces of the love of self removed is portrayed by Jonah's displeasure and anger at the Lord's having fully accepted the signs of repentance among the Ninevites, and by his request that his life be taken from him, saying, "It is better for me to die than to live." Now this love of self is the inmost vitiation conferred by the paternal heredity, which cannot be diminished with an individual, although it will be transmitted in a softened form to his posterity if he regenerates. The Lord's reply to Jonah's request to have it removed, asking "Doest thou well to be angry?" points out that a man s zeal should go hand in hand with the Lord's mercy, which permits the retention of the love of self, provided it be kept in subjugation to the love of heaven, which inflows into the conscience of the now reformed internal man.
     This sovereignty of the love of heaven over the love of self is represented by Jonah's dwelling on a hill at the east of Nineveh in a booth built by himself. The effort to subjugate thereto the love of the world now begins.

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The wonder-tree, incorrectly called "a gourd," which the Lord raised up to shield Jonah from the sun s heat, is that illustrative perception which is given to a man in the measure that he faithfully performs his use to the neighbor. This perception is delightful to a man, even as we read that Jonah "was exceeding glad over the wonder-tree," for it confirms him in the sense of his own goodness, and in the notion that he is making substantial spiritual progress. Jonah felt that life was not worth living when his wonder-tree was destroyed by a worm. For this the Lord reproved him by intimating that his delight in the wonder-tree, "for the which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow, which came up in a night, and perished in a night," should be subordinated to a sense of compassion for the ignorant Ninevites, who were profiting from Jonah's ministrations. In this way the love of the world, which cloaks itself under the thought that a man, by his use, is achieving material gain, popular applause, or substantial spiritual progress, is being subordinated to the love of heaven, which inflows into the desire to perform his use to the neighbor faithfully.
     The feeling that one enjoys an illustrative perception must be a fleeting thing, just as the wonder-tree was soon destroyed by a worm, or else the love of performing a use to the neighbor will perish. The case is like that of a dancer who becomes self-conscious of the steps he is taking, or of the muscles called into play thereby, and fails to remain oblivious to them.
     "Good with the spiritual man," we read, "is relatively obscure, because, unlike the celestial, he does not know from any perception what truth is, but from instruction by parents and masters, as also from the doctrine into which he was born. And when he superadds anything from himself and from thought, the sensual and its fallacies, and the rational and its appearances, prevail for the most part, and cause that he can scarcely acknowledge any pure truth such as the celestial acknowledge. . . And the spiritual have not a love towards the neighbor such as the celestial have; for the love of self and the world inflows continually from their will part, and obscures the good of that love. When the spiritual man benefits anyone, it is for the sake of an end in the world, or with a thought about recompense, whether from those he benefits or from the Lord in the other life; so that his good is defiled with what is meritorious.

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And when he has done any good, he is in the delight of his life if he can mention it, and so raise himself above others. Moreover, good with the spiritual is obscured by persuasive [notions] from various principles, arising also from the love of self and the world." (A. C. 2715:4.)
     The number of the Ninevites for whom Jonah was bidden to have compassion was "more than one hundred and twenty thousand." This number, as a multiple of twelve, denotes a fullness of good and truths. But when "more" precedes this number it is like the "more" mentioned in connection with the simple utterance of "Yea, yea, or nay, nay" to a given proposition: which "more" is said "to come from evil," (Matt. 5: 37), and calls attention to the sin of "adding aught to the words of prophecy." (Apoc. 22: 18.) This means assigning Divinity to men's utterances as well as to the Word. a sacrilegious commingling that invites the plagues of profanation. This explains why the Lord is said to have prepared a worm to smite Jonah's wonder-tree. For unless the sense of having illustration were withdrawn as often as the spiritual reflect upon having it as the result of their presumed progress in regeneration; unless their obscure good of truth were safeguarded from their pride in " super-adding" notions to the truths they had accepted from their previous instruction they would fall into that profanation from which the Lord by His Word ever endeavors to guard them. That is why He permits that "the sensual and its fallacies, and the rational and its appearances," meant by the worm that smote the wonder-tree, should prevail, and so prevent the spiritual from acknowledging such pure truths as the celestial can acclaim.
     But in the "fallacious truths or appearances of truth" with the spiritual (A. C. 2715), the Lord nevertheless implants a good,-a good, however, that is rendered obscure thereby, but still enables them to be conjoined to Him, that they may be saved. Such being His mercy towards the spiritual, it is therefore incumbent upon us, who are also of that genius, to be similarly merciful to our spiritual brethren, if we would be truly the Lord's disciples. While we must protect ourselves from their continual doctrinal errors, which are based upon deep-seated prejudices from which they can rarely be extricated in this life, we yet must live at all times according to the principle that differences in the understanding of doctrine will not separate where a genuine neighborly charity prevails.

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     Celestial Sense.

     In the inmost or celestial sense, Jonah's taking a ship for Tarshish, and the stilling of the ensuing storm only by his being cast into the sea, refer to the Lord's difficult presence with men of a genius lower than the celestial prior to His actual coming into the world. His Divine Human at that time was a transflux through the heavens when He spoke the Word. (A. C. 6371, 6280.) The vain struggle of Jonah's shipmates to bring to shore the ship containing Jonah shows how the celestial angels, who were then the ministrants in transmitting that transflux, could not cause it to reach down to the spiritual, so that it might lead them out of their evils and falses.
     Jonah in the belly of the whale depicts the temptations admitted by the Lord into His assumed human, in order that He might subjugate the hells and glorify His Human. (Matt. 12: 40.)
     Jonah on land, and bringing the Ninevites to repentance through his preaching, signifies the Lords instauration of a New Heaven and a New Church by means of His ministry among those of the Jews who were salvable.
     Jonah's displeasure at the Lord's pardoning the Ninevites betokens the Lord's foresight that the First Christian Church would only be Christian in name, and eventually perish. Jonah's building a booth to the east of Nineveh, to see what would happen to that city, illustrates this point further.
     Jonah's delight in the wonder-tree, and his grief at its destruction, depict the Lord's alternating consciousness of His Oneness with His indwelling Soul, the Father, and His distress on the cross at the apparent loss of it, when He uttered the words: My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me!
     Jonah's twice-uttered request that his life be taken from him denotes the Lord's prayer that, not His will, but that of His Father, be done. This was finally accomplished when He became absolutely one with the Father; and therefore He said on the cross: It is finished!

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ETERNAL FEMININE 1941

ETERNAL FEMININE       Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1941

     (At a meeting of the Women's Guild, Bryn Athyn, October, 1940.)

     One of the most persuasive fallacies of our generation is the permeating doubt as to whether the differences between the two sexes are really as profound or important as has hitherto been supposed. Without going into the history of woman's position during the few millennia of which records exist, it is quite clear that in no previous civilization was there a period in which the social demarkations between the sexes were as obscured as they have become in our own century.
     Apparently this has come about as an inevitable result of the industrial revolution, by which women have been taken out of the home into economic independence, and many domestic uses have been transferred to factories and shops. Clothes and foods are prepared by specialized mass production, and even the work of child-training has become a function of public institutions. Quite naturally, women have followed the uses that were theirs, even after men have usurped these uses and converted them-through their inventions-into forensic and social undertakings.
     Women, it is true, are still making bread and knitting stockings, still educating children, and still charming us by song and dance; but much of this is done to the monotonous hum of giant machines, with the stereotyped discipline of formal schools, and in the limelight of the public stage. The feminine personal quality of these uses has somehow perished in this transfer. Women have been compelled to step into this artificial world made by men, because it competed unfairly with their own domestic uses. Having done so, they now compete with men, and this with sufficient success to have gained a certain economic independence, a certain social freedom, which their former circumstances did not offer.
     No fair-minded man can deny that the position of woman has often been most unjust.

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At times, indeed, it has not been so. Men have worshipped her as goddess, exalted her as queen, adored her as Madonna or as saint. The power exerted by woman, both for evil and for good, has been out of all proportion to her recognized status or her legal rights. Men have noisily governed from without, women quietly from within; and this in all ages and in all climes. Yet it has often been the vain pretense of men that woman is a chattel, a slave, to be given-unconsenting-into marriage, or bought by dowry, or sold for cattle, or-with primitive tribes-stolen by force. Until recent days the husband had complete rights over the person and property of his wife; and these, her disabilities, were said to be intended for her protection!
     Woman's complaints of unjust treatment are echoed by Euripides and Aristophanes, some 2300 years ago. But the political movement for "Women's Rights" dates from 1869, when John Stuart Mills' book, On the Subjection of Women, was published. The ensuing agitation led finally to militant suffragism, and to the gradual conquest of the ballot during the present generation.
     The argument in favor of equal rights for women was plausible enough. Women had an equal interest in society and the State. Man's sex-prejudice had warped his appreciation of woman's intelligence and forensic abilities. He had been running the world, up to now, and look, what a mess of crime, squalor, and war it was! Women now mingled with men, and elbowed them through the streets;-why should they not have a say-so as to police protection and child welfare, and take public office themselves? Did not the brutal quality of political life need the cleansing, softening influence of the woman's hand at the wheel?
     Now it seems to me a matter of indifference whether these arguments were or are weighty, since the men of voting age got tired of them, and gave the ballot to women on the determined plea of the militant minority, and since it was soon found that women, when voting, generally took the advice of men anyway. if they could find no excuse for absenting themselves from the polls. Yet on certain issues, where sympathies or fears are invoked, the woman-vote has undoubtedly a distinct influence.
     There have been very marked effects upon society, especially in certain countries, as a result of woman's entry into the forensic sphere,-effects upon both men and women.

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Society, in the public aspects, has become more gracious, less rough; more neat, but less strong. Our nation, some have complained, has become effeminate, streamlined to serve, with all the labor-saving contraptions imaginable, the convenience of the largest leisure-class the world has ever known-the American married women, who not only are free to underbid the men in large fields of employment, but also still enjoy the system of wife-support which was initiated in a different economic set-up. "Uncle Sam" is becoming replaced by "Miss America." Such emphasis on comfort and entertainment and intellectual dilettantism is not tolerated in a military nation, as Hitler demonstrates. Men, it is sometimes pointed out, are losing their past characteristics of physical mastery and aggressive independence, partly because of the subtle demands of the women, who are now invading their every domain, even the bars and smoking-cars, athletic fields, colleges and medical associations, the Congress and the Cabinet.
     And women are similarly affected. Most women like to be "womanly," and only the exception, I think, has an aversion to the natural limitations which her sex imposes. Yet, when women daily mingle with strange men, they prudently and often unconsciously assume the protective coloring of their environment. They do not choose to emphasize their sex, do not allow their charm to be so obvious as to provoke aggressive attentions from every man in sight. They dress quietly, act with restraint, grow a crust over their feelings, are hardened, sometimes brutalized, by their enforced contacts. Even as "co-eds" they learn their necessary lesson-learn to fence with words and gestures, desperately assuming a sexless attitude that is usually little more than a dangerous sham, which, once discovered, leads headlong into various private tragedies.
     The result of the increased contact with women in mental fields,- women in men's clothing-may also tend, as some think, to make marriage less important in the eyes of men in modern society. However this may be, it is certainly less important in the eyes of women, because of a change in their educational opportunities and their economic recognition as equal units of the State.
     When the Writings speak of the consummation and spiritual desolation of the Christian Church, they speak not only of its men, but also of its women. Men are responsible for perverting doctrine into false ideals which excuse them from internal self-examination and repentance.

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But women are responsible for "loving the things which wisdom"-or folly!-"teaches." Neither truth nor falsity would survive for long unless encouraged and nourished by womanly love. I suppose it was man s mind that conceived the doctrine that there is no sex in heaven. But it was confirmed by woman's lack of perception of the spiritual functions of her sex; it was in accord with her smouldering dissatisfaction with the uses for which she-biologically and socially-seemed predestined. That she might bear and rear spiritual offspring in the after-life implied present obligations which she was glad to evade.

     II.

     Truly conjugial love was made rare and obscure in the Christian Church, because of the idea that the differences between the sexes were corporeal and transient. Marriage was accepted as a thing of this world only,-"till death do us part." Celibacy was indeed taken as the perfect state. "I would," wrote Paul, "that all men were even as I myself. But if they cannot be continent, let them marry." It was a concession to the morally weak. (I Corinthians vii.) Yet, unconfirmed by the doctrine of the churches, the thoughts of lovers and poets still flew to a marriage of the spirit, to a meeting of partners after death. And philosophers and wits began to speak of "the eternal feminine,"-that deep and persistent quality of woman s nature which is too evasive to define, but too obvious to deny.
     What these perceptive minds saw "as in a glass darkly," like an enigma. the Writings of the New Church define in clear-cut doctrinal terms. Man is man, and woman is woman; they are characteristically different, from inmost soul down to skin and bones and hair. And this is as true of the spiritual body as of the material body. The two sexes "differ also in gestures and manners. In a word, nothing whatever is alike in them; and yet in every least thing there is what is conjunctive. Yea, in the male the masculine is masculine in every part of his body, even the most minute; and also in every idea of his thought, and in every least impulse of his affection. And so likewise the feminine in the female. And because one cannot therefore be changed into the other, it follows that after death the male is a male and the female a female." (C. L. 33.)

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     Man and woman, of course, are the same in this, that they have the same degrees of soul and mind, and are equally endowed with a will and an understanding, and thus with liberty and rationality. But in every detail of their equipment there is a subtle difference, fundamental and inborn, which predestines them to use all these faculties in a totally distinctive manner. The Divine influx into their souls is indeed the same, but the reception, the response, is typically different in each sex.
     Similarly, the heredities both of man and of woman are evil from birth, as far as their natural degree, containing the natural mind and the sensual will, is concerned while a spiritual degree, endowed by a will and an understanding, unperverted, but also undeveloped, is given by birth to both sexes as their promised land, so far as they become regenerated by reforming their natural minds in which they consciously live.
     As I read the Doctrine, which is far too extensive to be quoted here, it is not in the nature of woman to receive the Divine influx directly into the understanding of her spiritual, unconscious mind: for this is not so directly activated. But the Divine acts into the will of her spiritual mind, and is there received as conjugial love. With a man, however, the Divine influx does not so directly activate the will of his spiritual mind, but it is received, instead, in the understanding of that mind, and becomes a latent love of truth. or love of wisdom. It is thus that the " eternal feminine " exists in every woman as an unconscious quality, in her internal mind and similarly "the eternal masculine " in the unconscious spiritual depths of a man.
     By virtue of the presence of those tender loan-states which are called "remains" a man's love of wisdom inflows into his natural, conscious mind, showing itself at first as curiosity, later as love of knowledge, and, in the adult, as a love of rational truths. By these loves he accumulates much wisdom which is for a while saved from perversion into falsity: and in this the hope of his salvation lies.
     Conjugial love from the Lord, received interiorly in the woman s soul, also inflows, by the help of her childhood remains" into her natural mind, without being perverted. It appears there as an instinct which colors everything she thinks and does-an instinct to "mother" and sympathize, to sustain and minister and admire, and especially to love the knowledge, intelligence and wisdom in the person of some man.

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And it is herein-in the faculty to love something outside of herself-that her progressive redemption is finally found. For in the descent of the spiritual into the natural, the spiritual conjugial inflows, not only through "remains," but also directly into the sensual will, and is there perverted into lusts of self and the world, into a sensual love of the sex, and into various types of self-admiration, vanity and self-pity, and also into a love of pleasure or of power, which is very largely directed with reference to the other sex.

     III.

     Mankind was created "male and female" because it is necessary that each sex seek something outside of itself, and supply something which is missing in the other. Only so can an individual be prevented from entirely loving himself, and be enabled to turn away from self, which is essential to regeneration. As to what each sex actually can supply is not so very obvious. In this respect, a man is more transparent, even to other men. For intelligence is more easily defined than love, and can be more readily estimated and described. Woman, with her peculiar and indispensable gifts, is always surrounded with an aura of mystery; her contribution is always indefinable, except by feeling and emotion. She is valued, not only by what she does and says, but also by what she is-by her sphere.
     In states in which a man's enlightenment is obscured by his ebullient evils, external anxieties, and bodily cares, he is apt to be very much irritated by some of the ways of women. He expects them to react like men, to think like men. And the more women assume roles in the forensic world, the more confused men become. The " eternal feminine" is unchanged, whatever may be the conditions to which it must accommodate itself; but men must know from doctrine this baffling difference in woman's nature, and keep it in mind. This is the reason why the Writings seek to make clear the relative functions of the two sexes, as unalterably different in every vital respect.
     The unregenerate male has the besetting sin of conceit. His love of wisdom (which is impressed on his soul, or spiritual mind) acquires knowledge and "wisdom "; and then his love of self makes this knowledge a matter of pride and a source of brutal judgment, or at least a secret treasure to gloat over.

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In time this perverts the truths of his understanding into falsities-into excuses for the excesses of his proprium. His natural mind becomes cunning and harsh, or else he forsakes all faith in truth and justice and reason, and weakly gives way to the phantasies by which he can evade the realities of life and the responsibility which he, as a man, bears to the truth which he has once seen.
     Both doctrine and observation indicate that a male mind can only keep the truth unperverted, and enter interiorly into its implications, that is, into its life and applications and real meaning, when there are those who appreciate what his understanding sees and sets forth. If this truth seems of no use to anyone else, he becomes morose and conceited, satisfied that he alone sees it and can be credited with its discovery. At best he would remain "in a cold and wintry light." On the other hand, if his understanding of the truth is loved by someone else, then the truth is no longer merely his own, but it is shared, and becomes a thing for which he bears a responsibility to others, and becomes of practical import-a means to charity. This is true of any one truth that a man seems to have discovered. But each man is a unit-a distinct form of understanding. Nobody else is quite the same. And no one but the wife can know and love the whole distinct, personal quality of a man's understanding, and sustain his faith in it and its truth as a possible means of charity and use. And she can do this only if she is willing to be affected by the truth that the man represents, and not merely by the physical attraction of the love of the sex which appeals to natural affections alone.
     On this account, the wife-the conjugial mate-can supply the new motivation of a husband's understanding; and her conjugial love (not her proprial will, with its fickle and selfish impulses) becomes, in effect, his will. This is not openly done. The wife is created "while man is asleep." Neither is the wife conscious of all the processes which contribute to the end for which she is deliberately laboring. Her much-spoken-of "prudence" is rather engaged in diverting the man's attention from the process, so that he may feel free, not compelled.
     Before the opportunity arrives for a young man to find a wife, the conjugial sphere of the church and of chaste women does much to turn his love away from his own accumulating "wisdom," and towards the "good of truth," that is, towards using his intelligence for uses.

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Even then, the motivation, in the distance, is the hope for a conjugial happiness to come. But it is indicated that conceit,-the love of self-intelligence,-is to be expected in young men. In young women, too, it is natural that they should place overmuch importance on elegant entertainments, on dress, conversation, and deportment: and this is to be pardoned, unless it persists in adult life. (S. D. 1226, 1227.) "Before marriage," we read, "a woman wishes to be beautiful for men, but after marriage, if she be chaste, for one man only, and not for men." To this masculine sentiment, approved by certain wives from heaven, wives may demur, and say, as in the Memorable Relation, "What woman is so devoid of vanity as not to wish to appear beautiful to men also, at the same time as to her only one?" And the angels conceded this, but warned, "Only let them love their own beauty and its adornments for the sake of their husbands, and for them." (C. L. 330.)
     But female vanity can be more than skin-deep. The vanity which more fatally interferes with the descent of conjugial love from the spiritual mind into the natural is a woman's love of her own knowledge. This converts her from a form of conjugial love into a form of science. In the woman, therefore, this love of knowledge in herself is far more fatal than a man's love of his own knowledge. Man can hold knowledge apart from his affections, unaffected by them, and this by reason of his fundamental nature. His love of wisdom and knowledge enters from the spiritual mind, through remains. But her love of her own knowledge-frequently recognized as "opinionativeness"-is not an affection which comes from her spiritual mind, but from her natural mind; and this mind, in itself, is pervert and self-centered in both sexes, and its affections are lusts and cupidities. When, therefore, a woman loves her own knowledge, or loves herself on account of her knowledge, she is not protected from these cupidities.
     To some this may seem a " hard saying. The Writings declare, however, that "they who are in spiritual perception love women who are affected with truths and goods when they hear them and perceive them in others, but do not love women who are in knowledges." (A. C. 8994.) And a still sterner saying is given in explanation of the ancient law that the wife should be subject to the man's prudence; as it was said to Eve after the fall, "Thine obedience shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." (A. C. 266.)

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"Since at this day." we read, "there is no will of good, but only cupidity, and still something intellectual, or rational, can be given, this is why so many laws were enacted in the Jewish Church concerning the prerogatives of the husband and the obedience of the wife." (A. C. 568.) And it is explained that in the female sex "will or cupidity reigns more than the understanding," whereas in the male sex the intellect or reason rules.

     IV.

     This is the relation of the sexes in our race-with reference to the natural mind, thus apart from the possibility of conjugial love whereby the "eternal feminine" comes into its own. This is the manner in which the natural, unregenerate life of society adjusts itself, as history amply demonstrates.
     It cannot be without purpose that the Writings so strongly declare that certain types of activity are proper to each sex-because the sexes differ, not only in biological, but also in mental and spiritual function. (C. L. 174, 175, 165; D. L. W. 361.) This is the real meaning of the law that "the garment of a man shall not be upon a woman, neither the garment of a woman upon a man, for this is an abomination." (Deuteronomy 22: 5.) So are we told, for instance, that women who preach in meetings, or become doctrinal zealots, lose the feminine nature, and become "material." Rarely are they interiorly devout. They take up with crazes, and become sensual in the last degree. "Woman belongs in the home!" (S. D. 5936, 4940; compare 436.)
     A superficial reading of these and similar teachings might cause us to dismiss them as part of the prejudices of a century gone by, when woman's place was differently conceived, as sheltered and confined. And it is true that New Church people, as a group, cannot effectively try to create directly an utterly new society which excludes the world. The folly of such an attempt is seen in such movements as that of the Mennonites and the Amish, which stubbornly hold Christian life to be irreconcilable with the tempo of the wheels of industry, and with the march of science and invention, and therefore seek seclusion by reverting to the ways of the past.

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     Still, the Writings would not state what they do, if it was possible for a woman, merely by being trained from early years like a man, to perform the duties of men "aright" (C. L. 175), although in outward act they may seem similar. The feminine consists in "perceiving from love," and "love does not go beyond what it feels." But the masculine understanding perceives also the things beyond the body and the world for rational sight sees what is not felt by love. (C. L. 168.)
     The teachings of the Writings thus place upon the Church a responsibility which the world does not universally recognize-to preserve that "eternal feminine" which is the safeguard of conjugial love and of human salvation, to preserve this in times and circumstances which imperil it, under conditions not of our own making or choice. Our young men and young women must be shown the fallacy of those who think that woman's mind can be taught-without harm-to stand the stresses and shocks and emotional experiences of a forensic life. Women can indeed survive these tests, but not without deep effects upon home and heredity, and upon future society.
     Our education of girls, in home and in school, must point the way whereby the mind of woman may be elevated into a highest realization of her eternal nature (C. L. 188), which is not done by formalizing her intelligence from a love of knowledge for its own sake, nor by an entrance into forensic careers.
     Perhaps the time may come when man's genius has sufficiently mastered science, and has exhausted material inventiveness at the expense of romance and religion, and again turns his mind to understand the mystic essence of life. Then, perhaps, in the study of the mind, the function of the "eternal feminine" will become clear, and the uses of woman will be seen as a hitherto unrealized field, wherein the worthwhile final meanings of all the bustle and boast of civilized efforts have been tenderly weighed and preserved for future generations.

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NOTES AND REVIEWS 1941

NOTES AND REVIEWS              1941


NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of 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.
     THE CEREBRUM-VOLUME II.

Three Transactions on The Cerebrum. A Posthumous work by Emanuel Swedenborg. Now first translated and edited by Alfred Acton, M.A., D.Th., from a photostat copy of the original manuscript. Volume Ii: The Dura Mater. Philadelphia, Pa.: Swedenborg Scientific Association, 1940. Cloth, 288 pages, $2.00.

     The contents of this second volume of The Cerebrum conclude the author's earlier analysis of the brain, the original text of which is found in Codex 57 of the Swedenborg Manuscripts which are preserved in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. The first portion of the work was published under the same auspices in 1938 as Volume I (731 pages), accompanied by a 180-page Book of Anatomical Plates. It was reviewed in NEW CHURCH LIFE for April, 1939.
     This second volume of the English translation treats especially of the Dura Mater, the text being illustrated by a number of engravings. To his own treatment of the subject Swedenborg adds many excerpts from the anatomists.

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In addition to the subject matter, the volume contains an Introductory Chapter of two pages, two Appendices, an Index of Persons and Authors, and a Subject Index these Indices having been prepared by the translator for the whole work. At the end of the volume a page of Errata lists some verbal corrections that should be made in Volume I.
     The New Church is indebted to Dr. Acton for making available a work of Swedenborg that otherwise would remain inaccessible. He has devoted long and painstaking labor to the editing of the manuscript, the translation into English, the indexing, and the publication of the book in a worthy form as to paper, type and binding. Such accomplishments will be increasingly appreciated as the contents of the work are studied, and as they contribute to a deeper understanding of the truth revealed in the later Theological Works.
     In Swedenborg's studies of the anatomy and physiology of the human body, he was being led to seek, not for mere structure and operation, but beyond this to the underlying philosophy, the interior rational truth, involved in the specific characteristics of each part, and in the order of the parts and the interplay of their functions in the economy of the whole living body. For this was afterwards to be the basis for his understanding of the life of the soul and mind within the body, of the form and life of the Gorand Man of heaven, and supremely of the Divine Human of the Lord. Bearing upon this, he wrote in the Spiritual Diary: " The states of spirits and angels, with all their variety, can never be grasped without a knowledge of the human body; for the Lord's kingdom is like a man." (S. D. 1145 1/2.)
     That Swedenborg might be afforded such a grasp of the states of spirits and angels, for the sake of a revelation to men, he was prepared by his studies of the human body, in which he enjoyed a Divine leading and light without which he could not have penetrated beyond mere anatomy and physiology to interior organic forms and functions, and even to the portals of the soul. To this end, he avers, "I was accustomed to an internal respiration in my infancy, and afterwards when I explored the concordance of the lungs and the heart, and especially when I wrote from my mind the things which have been published. . . . Thus, from my infancy through the course of many years, I was introduced into such respiration, chiefly by means of intense speculations, which otherwise are not possible. . . .

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In this manner have I been introduced by the Lord into interior respirations." And he concludes: "The design of all this was, that every state, also every sphere, thus every society, especially the interior ones, might have in me a suitable respiration, to which I am applied without reflection; and by this means it has been given me to be among spirits and angels." (S. D. 3464.)
     The records of this preparatory experience, as in works like the volume before us, are preserved for the use of the New Church student, that he also may be assisted to a grasp of the states of spirits and angels as set forth in the later Writings, wherein we so often find those states described in their relation to the organs, viscera and members of the human body by correspondence. So often Swedenborg says that he knew the character and state of approaching spirits by their effect upon a certain part of his body. We may here recall a few examples:
     "I spoke with those to whom the teeth correspond, who have thought much about the ultimate parts of the world, and about the particles of earthly things.
     As they have sought the delight of their life in such ultimates they correspond to the teeth. They also flowed manifestly into my teeth; and as I have held an opinion not in accord with theirs, my teeth were inwardly corroded by the pressure and pain of their influx." (S. D. 5142.)
     The spirits of the planet Mars have relation to what is mediate between the intellectual and the voluntary, thus to thought from affection, and the best of them to the affection of thought. In the Gorand Man they have relation to the middle province between the cerebrum and the cerebellum. In those with whom these two are conjoined as to spiritual operations, the face acts as one with the thought, and from the face shines forth the affection of the thought. . . Wherefore, when they were near me, I sensibly apperceived a drawing back of the front part of my head toward the occiput, thus of the cerebrum toward the cerebellum." (A. C. 7480, 7481.)
     The angelic spirits of the planet Jupiter kept my face continually cheerful and smiling, the region about the lips prominent, and my mouth open. This the angels do very easily by influx, and they said that they induce such a countenance upon the inhabitants of their earth when they are present with them." (A. C. 7807.)
     All spirits are distinguished by their situation in relation to the human body, because the universal heaven corresponds to all things of man. In the case 01 the spirits of the Third Earth, their action was into the left knee, a little above and below it, with a wavy vibration plainly felt. This is a sign that they correspond to the conjunction of natural and celestial things, thus to the knees. (A. C. 10379.)
     There are spirits who are not yet in conjunction with hell, being still in their first state after death.

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They love undigested and malignant substances such as undigested foods, and are present with a man when his stomach is in that condition. Those spirits appear near the stomach, some at the left of it, some at the right, some below, others above. That their presence is what produces the anxiety of mind which is called melancholy, has been made known to me and confirmed by much experience. I have seen such spirits, heard them, felt the anxieties occasioned by them, and conversed with them. They were driven away, and the anxiety ceased; they returned, and the anxiety returned; and I apperceived its increase and decrease according to their approach and removal." (H. H. 299; see A. C. 5178, 5179; 6202.)

     Spirits of the Dura Mater.

     In connection with the subject before us, we may recall that Swedenborg describes the effect upon him when he met the spirits who constitute the province of the Dura Mater in the Gorand Man. Among other things, he says: "When I applied my hand to the left part of my cranium or head, I felt a pulse under the palm, undulating downwards and upwards, from which I knew that they belonged to the brain. When I inquired who they were, they were unwilling to speak; and it was said by others that they do not speak willingly, for then it would be known what they are like. I perceived that they were among those who constitute the province of the Dura Mater, which is the common covering of the cerebrum or cerebellum." Afterwards he conversed with them, and found that, during their lives on earth, they "thought nothing about spiritual and celestial things, nor spoke about them. They then believed that there is nothing besides the natural, because they could not penetrate beyond the natural, although they did not admit it. Like others, however, they worshipped the Divine, gave time to prayer, and were good citizens." Some of them, however, who belong to the outer lamella of the Dura Mater, were such as "thought about spiritual and celestial things, but only from the objects of the external senses." (See A. C. 4046, and more in detail in Spiritual Diary, nos. 1688-1693.)
     A study of what Swedenborg wrote concerning the Dura Mater in The Cerebrum, and in the later work on The Brain, will disclose characteristics of that part of the brain which formed a basis in his mind for his understanding of the states of the spirits and angels of that province in the Gorand Man, as indicated in the Writings. Their indifference to spiritual and celestial things, which have their basis in the interiors of the brain, seems well exemplified in the "passive" character of the Dura Mater, described in Volume II of The Cerebrum, where we find the following passage:

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     "It is an elastic and passive membrane, never acting from itself, but being acted on by the brain: for it consists of arteries, veins, and almost tendinous fibres, and these, after being acted on, fall back into their place. It can be evident from many considerations that the Dura Mater suffers itself to be acted on by the brain, and, when acted on, reacts and restores itself by virtue of its own elasticity. . . . Thus the whole motion of this membrane acts passively; that is to say, it suffers itself to be acted on, and is dependent on the motion of the brain. . . Therefore there is no motion proper to the Dura Mater that has not been received from the brain, save that the Mater wills to restore itself by the aid of its own elasticity." (Page 54.)
     W. B. C.
TEA 1941

TEA              1941

     In two passages of the Spiritual Diary, where it is describing how some spirits terminate their ideas in material things, the text refers to a beverage called "the" in one number, and "thee" in the other. But the translator of the English version of the Diary leaves the word "thee" untranslated, and says of the word "the " in a footnote: "We leave a blank for the original word "the," as to the purport of which we are ignorant, it being unknown to the Latin tongue.-Tr."
     The Rev. J. F. Potts, however, when compiling the Concordance, seems to have had no difficulty in solving what puzzled his clerical contemporary. For Swedenborg undoubtedly introduced here the French word "the," and so we find in the Concordance under "Tea" the following summary of the passages:

     D. 3753. There were two small white cups, which were used for tea; and some spirits wanted me to use the one, and some the other. . .
     D. 3894. So one thing (tea) pleased the spirits more than the other, solely because they derived thence a sphere less spiritual.
     J. (Post.) 269. See LONDON, here. (Thea in the original.)
          E. E. I.

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Church News 1941

Church News       Various       1941

     NEW YORK, N. Y.

     For our second Sunday service of the season and the meeting of the society which followed it, we again enjoyed the presence of Bishop de Charms on November 3d. After a delightful service, the Bishop called the meeting to order with twenty-two members of the society attending.
     The first item to be considered was the secretary's report on bringing our membership records up to date. This had proven necessary, for the reason that so many General Church members who have come to reside in New York find it necessary later on to move to other New Church centers. We regretted the necessity of amputating some names from our list, as we know that these friends have not really left us, but are carrying on the uses of the church elsewhere.
     The next item for consideration was a report from a committee of five whose duty it was to draw up a kind of constitution " or set of by-laws. The report was received, but action was deferred.
     The meeting then received a report from the nominating committee, which proposed the election of new officers and a new executive committee. In the ensuing election, the following officers were chosen: Mr. John Wilde, Chairman of the Executive Committee; Mr. Leon Rhodes, Secretary; Miss Margaret Wilde, reelected as our faithful Treasurer; Mr. Sydney Childs and Mr. Harold Sellner, additional members of the Executive Committee.
     We then entered upon a lively and interesting discussion of some of our plans for the future. Upon these we are not yet prepared to report. In spite of an anxious landlord pacing up and down outside of our meeting place, glancing at his watch and schedule, this discussion lasted until the thoughts of our members turned towards the mundane but necessary nourishment of dinner, and the Bishop's thoughts turned to his irrevocable train schedule. The meeting was reluctantly adjourned, and we fled to station, home or restaurant, looking forward to our next service and meeting in December.
     Following an inspiring service conducted by the Rev. William Whitehead on Sunday, December 1. a very lively and interesting meeting of the society gave consideration to our future pastoral arrangements. The outcome of our deliberations has been communicated to the Bishop, and we eagerly await the result. We are increasing our activity and looking forward to a great deal of progress, not only as to the functions of the society, but also as to an increased service to our members and service to the General Church.
     It now appears that we shall not be able to hold a Christmas service this year, since our December meeting has already been held, but we are looking forward to a social meeting of the society on December 22, at the kind invitation of Mrs. Anton Sellner. We expect a good holiday time, in spite of the fact that a number of our members will be scattering to other points for the holiday season. Miss Frances Schaill has departed for Ohio; Mrs. Leon Rhodes will go to Michigan to celebrate Christmas with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Geoffrey Childs; Miss Berith Schroder will he going for a visit in the South. And so it goes. This is the true New York pattern, and we are used to it.

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We look forward, however, to starting the New Year off with a bang and lots of activity.
     The New York Society wishes to slip into this report its most cordial greeting to all our friends in the Church everywhere.
     LEON RHODES.

     DURBAN, NATAL.

     November 1, 1940.-My last report of the activities of the Durban Society took us as far as the middle of September, which, with October, proved to be a very busy month, the ladies and young people of the society devoting a good deal of their spare time to the entertainment of visiting troops. On September 17 a most enjoyable dance was held in the Hall under the auspices of the social committee. Members of His Majesty's Forces were invited, and all apparently had a good time. A similar function took place on October 22.
     In addition to these social events, two Halloween parties were held this year. For the children, Theta Alpha arranged a party which took place on October 25 at the home of Mrs. Viola Ridgway. It was quite evident that the twenty children present enjoyed themselves immensely, making short work, too, of a generous supply of monkey nuts after supper was over! The grown-ups held their Fancy Dress party on October 31.
     During the past few months two war" weddings have taken place, but unfortunately, owing to various causes, the contracting parties were unable to come to Durban to hold the ceremony in our church. Mr. Colin Owen Ridgway was married to Miss Doris Ellen Robbins at Eshowe, Zululand, and Mr. Brian Ridgway to Miss Joan Hammond at Johannesburg. Congratulations to the happy couples! And we look forward to the return of normal times when they can be reunited and settled once again amongst us.
     These are anxious days, and although National Service is making its demands, we realize that spiritual values should receive in consequence, not less, but more, attention. Since the commencement of the 1940 session on April 3, twenty-six doctrinal classes have been held, the subjects chosen by the Rev. F. W. Elphick having relation to the doctrines which have been before the church for more than seven years. Mr. Elphick has now begun a course of doctrinal classes on "Influx, Correspondences and Degrees." Of this we have thus far had a general view,-" The Spiritual Sun" and " The Spiritual Atmospheres."
     Before he began the new series of classes, Mr. Elphick gave us two most interesting Lectures on the History of the General Church Mission in South Africa from 1913 to 1940, that is, prior to and including the Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal's pioneer work in Basutoland, up to the recent division in the Mission.
     At the Wednesday morning Ladies' Class we are now reading The Last Judgment, having completed the reading, first of The Divine Providence, and then of The Divine Wisdom. We hope soon to commence studying The Doctrine of Charity, which is next on the programme.
     In addition to all this, Mr. Elphick is giving a series of Sunday sermons on the Lord's Prayer-a very suitable subject for these most anxious times.
     P. D. C.

     TORONTO, CANADA.

     A large number of our members were guests of Carmel Church when the Ontario District Assembly was held there, October 12-14, and a very enjoyable week-end was provided by our hosts. In Olivet Church the Sunday service was omitted for the first time in many years.
     On the following Tuesday, October 15, the ladies of our society prepared a banquet in place of the regular Wednesday supper, and those of our members who had been unable to go to Kitchener were thus afforded an opportunity to meet Bishop and Mrs. de Charms, and to see the moving pictures they took on their South American trip.

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     There was an unusually large attendance at the Sons' meeting on October 17, when one of our members read a very interesting paper on Democracy at War," written by a prominent member of the Montreal Kiwanis Club who also belongs to the General Convention.
     Alpha Pi sponsored a Fair on November 23, the program including various forms of entertainment, from bingo, darts and checkers to fortune telling and a marionette show. The receipts were better than expected, and all present seemed to enjoy spending their nickels. The proceeds were turned over to the treasurer of the society as the Alpha Pi's share in the effort to put our finances on a more optimistic basis.
     On this occasion we were glad to welcome the Rev. Bjorn Boyesen, who very opportunely picked that weekend for a brief visit to Canada. He also conducted our service, which made it possible for the pastor to visit the Montreal Circle on a Sunday,-a rare treat indeed for them.
     L. T. I.

     BRITISH GUIANA.

     Tabor Mission.

     In the Summer of 1940 the small but promising mission of the General Church of the New Jerusalem in Georgetown, the capital city, had the benefit of an episcopal visit from our dear Bishop George de Charms.
     After the proposed visit of the Bishop to our Continent had been announced, we in British Guiana felt it a great pity that our country had no communication by rail, road or air with our great neighbor, Brazil. This prevents British Guiana from being the South American gateway which a glance at the map shows it should be. So the Bishop had to fly to Georgetown from the island of Trinidad, whither be had proceeded from Rio de Janeiro.
     Bishop and Mrs. de Charms, accompanied by Mr. Michael Pitcairn, arrived in Georgetown on Friday, August 30, about 9 a.m., by Pan American Airways plane from Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.
     Tabor Mission had secured the Mechanics' Hall. 130 Carmichael Street, for the Welcome Meeting at 8.15 that evening. The proceedings began with the opening of the Word and the singing of a hymn. Then the Pastor, the Rev. Henry Algernon, introduced the Bishop and his party to the gathering, and welcomed them on behalf of the Mission. The Rev. W. F. Fraser, Pastor of the local General Convention Society, was present and expressed the greetings of his society, after which the Bishop suitably replied. The Rev. Mr. Algernon then read a thought-provoking paper on a deep subject, The Relation between the Material and the Spiritual." We expected then to have had the pleasure of listening to a lantern lecture by Mr. Pitcairn on World Centers of General Church Work," but he had found it impracticable to bring the slides with him. This interesting subject, however, was dwelt upon to a large extent by the Bishop, who spoke next on "What the General Church Stands For." The meeting was then brought to a close with singing and the closing of the Word.
     The next evening, August 31, we met at our temporary meeting-place, 30 Third Street, to hear a very wonderful and instructive lecture by the Bishop on The Tabernacle," illustrated by models of the parts. Questions were then asked by persons in the audience, and the Bishop replied. A number of us came away from this lecture feeling an even greater thirst for a thorough knowledge of the sublime Writings given by the Lord through Swedenborg. The great and manifold truths which we realize are in the story of the Tabernacle cause it to have a new significance to us. Just before the close of the meeting, the Bishop, in an instructive and impressive manner, presented the Mission with a beautiful banner of the General Church, to be used at services, festivals or other gatherings, at the discretion of the Pastor.

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     A service of worship was held on Sunday, September 1, at 10.30 a.m., and the Rev. Henry Algernon was ordained by the Bishop into the First and Second Degrees of the New Church Ministry, and recognized as a Pastor in the General Church. The Bishop then instructed us on the importance of the Priesthood in the New Church.
     In the afternoon at 2 o'clock, a Children's Service was held, and the Bishop spoke to them about John's wonderful vision of the Opening of the Seals of the Book, as described in Revelation V-a vision directly pointing to the New Dispensation. At 3.10 p.m., the Most Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was observed, twelve partaking.
     A special Vesper Service was arranged for the evening by the Rev.
W. F. Fraser, at whose kind and urgent request our visitors attended, and the Bishop preached from the text of John 10: 16, the Lessons being read by Mr. Algernon. The members of the Convention Society, together with visiting strangers, filled the auditorium, and afterwards expressed pleasure in the enjoyment of the privilege of having seen and heard our beloved and respected Bishop. On this occasion Mrs. de Charms was honored by the presentation of a beautiful bouquet of flowers.
     Our distinguished visitors left us on Tuesday, September 3, going by ship to Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana, where there is a General Convention group, the work here having been built up and organized many years ago by the Rev. Henry Algernon, now our General Church Pastor in Georgetown.
     The visit of Bishop de Charms, to which we all looked forward with great pleasure and joy, cannot but be a blessing from God to a young, struggling New Church Society like our Tabor Mission. It has already proved an encouragement and an inspiration to us to move forward in spiritual growth, which will undoubtedly involve a heartening growth in numbers also.
     A. 0. S. ALGERNON

     MINISTERIAL CHANGES.

     The Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen has been appointed by the Bishop to be Minister of the New York Society and of the Northern New Jersey Circle of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. Mr. Boyesen will enter upon the duties of these two functions on January 6, 1941.

     PUBLICATIONS.

     Received by the Editor.

     The leaflets now published in a number of the societies of the General Church come to us regularly, and are much appreciated. In mimeograph form, they furnish detailed information of the local church and school activities, personal news, and other material. For the benefit of those of our readers who may wish to receive one or more of these publications, we append a list:
     The Park News.-The Immanuel Church, Glenview, Illinois. Editor:
Mr. Archibald E. Price, Glenview, Ill.
     Chatter-Box.-Olivet Society, Toronto. Canada. Editor: Miss Vera Craigie, 104 Heath Street East.
     The Adviser.-Published by the Durban Society, 125 Musgrave Road, Durban, Natal, South Africa.
     News Letter.-Editor: Rev. A. Wynne Acton. 45a Groveway. Brixton. London, S. W. 9, England.
     Bryn Athyn Post.-Editor: Mr. Andrew R. Klein, Bryn Athyn, Pa. Issued weekly. Subscription Price, 31.00 a year to any address.

     A NEW BOOK.

     Mother Nature Knows Best. By Don Rose. Drawings by Leon Rose. Published lay the Author at 437 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa. $1.50.
     Here we find local Academy boys-father and son-making good in the fields of literature and art. As for science, well, Mother Nature knows some astonishing things, as you will learn by reading this book.

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     THE PARENT-TEACHER JOURNAL.

     Articles dealing with Education in Home and School.

     Published Monthly, October to May, $1.00.

     Address: Miss Joan Davis, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
PASTORAL EXTENSION SERVICE 1941

PASTORAL EXTENSION SERVICE       NORMAN H. REUTER       1941

     "It is the delight of everyone in heaven to share his delights and blessings with others. Such sharing goes forth from the two loves of heaven, which are love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor; and to share their delight is the very nature of these loves." (H. H. 399.)
     As this delight in sharing prevails in heaven, a true church on earth will also evidence the same spirit of sharing. In recognition of this truth, the General Church has established such agencies as religious and doctrinal classes, public worship, education, assemblies, and finally various publications, in order that what is thus received may be extended and shared with as many as possible.
     The object of the recently inaugurated Pastoral Extension Service is to open another avenue for this sharing process. The aim is twofold: (1) To make available to those not in organized centers the various regular types of instruction provided in our societies; (2) to offer to the whole church those specialized studies of our ministers and teachers which in the past frequently have reached only a very limited audience.
     The pamphlets published through this service should answer a long-felt need on the part of many of the members of the church, especially among those remote from organized societies. It is hoped that the response to this undertaking will be such as to make possible a full development of the use.
     NORMAN H. REUTER.

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CEREBRUM 1941

CEREBRUM              1941




     Announcements



     Volume II Now Ready.

     Three Transactions on The Cerebrum, a Posthumous Work by Emanuel Swedenborg. Now first translated and edited from a photostatic copy of the original manuscript preserved in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences by Alfred Acton, M.A., D.Th.
     Volume I (731 pages) was published in 1938, together with a Book of Anatomical Plates (180 pages). The two volumes, $10.00. Reviewed in NEW CHURCH LIFE for April, 1939.
     Volume II, now published, contains a specific treatise on the Dura Mater. Its 288 pages include an Index of Persons and Authors and a Subject Index, these for the whole work. Price, $2.00.

     The Entire Work, Three Volumes, $12.00.

     Swedenborg Scientific Association,
     Bryn Athyn, Pa.
INVITATION AND BENEDICTION 1941

INVITATION AND BENEDICTION       Rev. W. CAIRNS HENDERSON       1941



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NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. LXI
FEBRUARY, 1941
No. 2
     Our Sabbath worship commences with the sacred invitation "0 come let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker." (Psalm 95: 6.) It closes with the solemn benediction, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." (Revelation 22: 21.) The one is an invitation to worship the Lord from humility of heart; the other is an invocation of His Divine blessing. We seek in that worship-as the very climax of the act, and our most urgent need-the "grace of our Lord Jesus Christ."
     "To those who are in the spiritual kingdom." we read, "it is granted by the Lord to be in the affection of truth for the sake of truth; and this Divine gift is what is called 'grace.' So far, therefore, as anyone is in this affection, he is in the Lord s Divine grace. Nor is any other Divine grace possible to man, spirit or angel than to be affected with truth because it is truth, since in that affection there is heaven and blessedness for them. . . . In general, Divine grace is everything that is given from the Lord; and as everything that is so given has relation to faith and love, and faith is the affection of truth from good, that is what is meant in particular by the Divine grace. For to be gifted with faith and love, or with the affection of truth from good, is to be gifted with heaven, thus with eternal blessedness." (A. E. 22.)
     With men of the spiritual genius, therefore, the vital need is a spiritual affection of truth for its own sake, which Divine gift is the Lord's grace, and the blessing which crowns all true worship. And in order that we may be able to receive this grace, we first humble ourselves before Him, worshiping and bowing down, and kneeling before the Lord our Maker.

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     For it is only the humble heart that can eventually receive of the Lord's grace. And as the priest's benediction is the culminating point for which all the other acts of worship have been a successive preparation, as it is finally received by all who have responded to his initial invitation, and then participated in the following worship, so a spiritual affection of truth is the Lord's supreme and final gift to those whose internal worship has commenced in humility of heart, and who have remained steadfast therein during His preparation of their minds to receive His blessing. Only through true, internal worship, is that blessing received. That its outward bestowal at the close of formal worship may be the prophetic sign and token of an eventual inward gift from the Lord, is the hope and prayer within its ultimate reception from His minister.
     It is our custom to believe that with all who belong to the Church there has been somewhat of an opening of the spiritual mind. Indeed, charity admits of no other viewpoint. Because the ideals of the Church are Divine in origin and angelic in realization, to be attained only through long endurance of hard things, it must needs be that for long we should be most unworthy of the Church whose name and faith we profess, failing in many temptation combats because we have been introduced to something infinitely finer than ourselves, because the Church is Divine and spiritual, and we are human and natural. And we believe that all in the Church, despite their many weaknesses, shortcomings, and faults, their periodic self- seeking and self-pride, their occasional displays of proprial angers and jealousies, and their spasmodic preoccupations with self and the world, have seen and been stirred by the vision of the kingdom of God, and are striving against themselves to attain it, realizing that, in the midst of their greatest failures, when an uncertain charity is tensed to the breaking point, they may be battling desperately against difficulties unknown to any but themselves. In them we may see the images of ourselves. For all are in evils, even while striving to win clear of them, and we need to excuse and forgive, as we ourselves would be excused and forgiven.
     Our difficulty is, that we are so constituted as to be able intellectually to see and desire the realization of the vision of the spiritual life before there is any love in the heart to respond to it, and that, when that love is born, the love of remaining in our evils is, at first, and at intervals later, the stronger.

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We would love the kingdom of God, but we love not the way thereto, since it is the way of renunciation and suffering. The doctrine instructs us that the way to heaven is the way of truth. But truth is at first a hard thing, and the spiritual love of truth, which alone can move us to do it, is not in us. It must be sought as the Lord's inward gift to the humble in heart, as the gift of His grace which is His final benediction upon all true worship. And as we are taught that external worship is the most powerful means of exciting internal things, we seek that gift, as our true purpose therein, in our Sabbath worship.
     And because we are taught that, if we are to receive, our minds, and especially the natural degree thereof, must be reduced to correspondence, we begin that worship with an act deeply expressive of humiliation. If we are to receive at its close the grace which the Lord wills to impart to all, then, at the very beginning of worship, our minds must be attuned to, and harmonized with, the holy sphere that proceeds from the Lord as the medium of His grace. We must abase ourselves before Him, putting away our pathetic self-exaltation and self-importance, our pitiful self-seeking and self-pride, stilling our proprial angers, contempts, and hatreds, turning aside from our foul lusts and insane imaginings, closing our minds to the dissonances and distractions that enter from the world through the senses, setting behind us the passion and unrest of human frailty, and acknowledging in self-loathing and self-contempt that all our righteousness is as filthy rags, that the Lord is everything, and that we are nothing, and less than nothing.
     So, in response to the priest's invitation, which he issues as the representative of the Lord before the people, we " come, and worship, and bow down, kneeling before the Lord our Maker." We kneel, and worship the Divine Human as present in the opened Word on the high altar in the sanctuary. We express an elevation of thought to the Lord, invoke His mercy and His lovingkindness, and pray that He will show us the path of life. And then, after confessing our sins, we seek, through His own Prayer, the fulfilment of all our spiritual needs-present, past, and future. And in the measure that this beginning has proceeded from humility and sincerity of heart, our petitions are granted in and by means of the following worship, being sealed and confirmed by the closing benediction.

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     Gestures, when sincere, are deeply expressive of spiritual things. Even when they do not manifest corresponding interiors, they are a powerful means of leading thereto, unless they are hypocritical. As the thoughts of the understanding fall spontaneously into speech, so the affections of the will fall into gestures, which are, as it were, their bodies, or the garments which cause them to appear. All the interior affections therefore have gestures corresponding to them,-gestures which are effects, representatives, and correspondences, and the images and forms of the will. Thus humiliation and holy fear have their appropriate gestures,-the bending of the knees, and kneeling down; and though the humiliation they at first express may be only external, and assumed from use, still it can be sincere, and can serve as a training experience for interior humiliation. In all true humiliation there is a failure of man's self-life, which is expressed correspondentially by the bending and prostration of the body. We respond to the invitation, "O come," when we approach the Lord in humility, and so permit Him to open a communication in our minds. We "worship" when we exalt Him above ourselves; and therefore do we "bow down." For bowing down is a gesture of the body corresponding to the humiliation of the mind, and expressive also of joy, adoration, worship, and gladness, which is of spiritual affection. Hence it is that they who are in the adoration of God from the heart bow themselves down before Him.
     Kneeling signifies, and, if genuine, is produced by humiliation of heart, and involves acknowledgment, thanksgiving, and adoration from spiritual good, and from delight in the natural. Yet our response is limited by our genius. In the original, the invitation reads "O come, let us worship and bow down; let us prostrate ourselves before the Lord our Maker." But this is for the celestial. (A. C. 1999.) The spiritual man only bends himself, and kneels. Humiliation is hard for him, and at best he is capable only of that exterior humiliation which acknowledges all things to be of grace, not of mercy; for those who are in truth are stiff, and stand erect, and when it is their duty to humble themselves before the Divine, they incline only slightly. (A. C. 7068.) And so it is that the call to humiliation at the beginning of worship must come as an invitation in which there is something of a command. (See A. C. 981.)

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     Divine worship consists in the exaltation of the Lord relatively to self, which takes place according to the humiliation of self before the Lord. And in proportion as man can humble himself before the Lord, he receives the Divine, and is in heaven. The adoration of the Lord therefore consists in humiliation, and this is the essential of worship because the Lord cannot flow into a proud heart, since love of self makes it resistant, but He can inflow only into the humble heart, which is soft and receptive. And humiliation consists in the acknowledgment of self, that it is nothing but filth, devoid of life and of good, and at the same time the acknowledgment of the Lord's infinite mercy toward such a thing, and that everything living and good is from Him.
     Without this acknowledgment of self, there can be no humiliation, and therefore no worship. And the more it proceeds, not only from the lips, but also from the heart, the more the worshipper is in humiliation. This essential of worship also involves self-compulsion to do what is good, to keep the Lord's commandments, and to speak truths. And this is the essential, because in proportion as the heart is humbled, the love of self and all the evil thence cease, and good, truth, and wisdom inflow from the Lord. It is into humiliation alone that the Lord can inflow with man because of just that fact, that in it the loves of self and the world are removed. Interior confession comes forth therein. And while it is true that exterior confession which is from the lips, may come forth in feigned humiliation; while it is true that the spiritual have not the deepest humiliation; still the non-receptive, elated heart can be sufficiently humbled to receive of the Lord's grace in proportion as the will and the understanding become united in the acts of worship.
     Hence man's humiliation is not for the sake of satisfying any love of glory in the Lord. Our Lord has no need of glory from men. It is not His will that they should grovel at His feet as before a despot. He wills that they should humble themselves for their own sakes, for the satisfaction of His Divine Love in their salvation. For when a man is in humiliation, he is averse to the evil and falsity in himself, by reason of which aversion they can be removed, and the Divine can flow in with good and truth. The humble heart is the receptive heart, and in this we perceive why humiliation is the essential of true worship.

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     We know that worship is both internal and external. Like all else that is in the human form, its external has seemly vestments. It has a constructing soul, and a body which is in the form and of the substance of the soul, and which gives it existence and manifestation. And it has garments which protect the body and preserve it in health. With the spiritual, the soul of worship is a perpetual activity of love towards the neighbor, which is spiritual charity, and thereby of love to the Lord. The body thence derived consists of all those activities which are defined as the life of charity,-its uses, duties, benefactions, and pastimes. And the garments of the body are rituals-the sacraments and rites of the church, its sabbath and other formal worship, its various ministries of instruction, and its private and family worship. From this we may see that rituals are essential in their place, and that their forms are like garments which are becoming, decorous and appropriate to their use.
     Yet it is not in the temple on the sabbath that we truly worship the Lord, but in the exercise of a spiritual charity in the manifold uses of life, in resistance to evil and the doing of good, and especially in the sincere, diligent, and faithful performance of all the duties of our office. And it is just there that we fail. The body of worship is the life of truth, which is repugnant to our natural mind, and for which we have no genuine affection that is proper to ourselves. Only a spiritual affection of truth,-the Lord's grace,--can inspire true worship; and that affection is not in us. It is from the Lord, and is a creation,-an activity which subsists by perpetual re-creation from the Lord. And it is as the most powerful means through which we can be given that affection, and through which it can be re-created again and again, that we are given our sabbath worship.
     That the holy externals of worship may assist to induce states wherein we can receive of the Lord's grace, and have His grace revived in us; that it may serve as a means of bringing to us the spiritual affections and guidance necessary to the true worship of the Lord in the uses of life;-this is the true and inward purpose of our sabbath worship, and the deep reason why we need that worship, and need it frequently and regularly. It is only with difficulty that we can still the clamor of our proprial life, and withdraw from the perverted spheres in which the world seeks to enmesh us.

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We need the powerful assistance which our Divinely ordained worship alone can give. And if we approach it in humility of heart, then through its successive stages we will be prepared to receive at its climax that spiritual affection of truth of which the benediction is but a token. For if we truly come, and worship, and bow down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ will be with all.
GLORIFICATION OF THE HUMAN 1941

GLORIFICATION OF THE HUMAN        GEORGE DE CHARMS       1941

     "Father, glorify Thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. (John 12: 28.)
     It was but five days before the passover of the crucifixion. The Lord had just made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, followed by multitudes carrying palm branches and singing hosannas according to the ancient custom of coronation. Certain Greeks, attracted by these signs of political power, and wondering what they might portend, came to Philip asking that they might see Jesus. When Philip and Andrew communicated their request to the Lord, He gave what appeared to be a totally irrelevant reply, saying: " The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified. . . . Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again."
     When rightly understood, this answer was by no means irrelevant. It went directly to the very heart of the matter. The Greeks desired to see Jesus, but only because He had been followed by an applauding multitude who acclaimed Him King. So long as they sought in Him an exponent of temporal power,-the ruler of an earthly kingdom,-they would never see Him truly. Before they could see the Lord, or know Him as He really is, their whole idea of Him had to be completely changed. Every thought of Him as a political leader, as a national liberator of the Jewish people, as a man possessed of surpassing abilities, destined to change the course of history by the strength of His will and the wisdom of His judgments-all this must be entirely removed from the minds of men.

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Instead, they must come to recognize in Him the infinite qualities and attributes of God-the very God of heaven and earth, the Creator of the world. Casting aside every finite limitation, they must come to realize His true Divinity. They must see Him as transcending all nationalities, as seeking the eternal salvation of all men, as establishing a heavenly kingdom, looking primarily to man's welfare and happiness in the life after death-in a spiritual and eternal world..
     This was the truth concerning Him. And yet it was altogether foreign to the thought of those who had come to know Him through His teachings and His miracles, even of those disciples who were closest to Him, and who had left all to follow Him. How could so complete a mental revolution be effected? So long as He stood before them in a mortal body of flesh and blood, nothing could induce them to believe that He was God. The Divine attributes of God, and the obvious limitations of the man whom they knew as Jesus Christ, were utterly irreconcilable. In spite of all His teaching concerning His oneness with the Father, and concerning the spiritual nature of His kingdom, they did not understand, but continued to think of Him as a prophet sent from God to secure for them all the worldly blessings on which they had set their hearts. Only by the death of the material body upon the cross, by the discovery of the empty tomb, and by the repeated vision of the risen Lord, could they even begin to see Him truly. When, therefore, the Greeks asked to see Him, the Lord could give no other answer than to say, "The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified."
     Yet a doubt intervened, bringing temptation with it. "Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? " The doubt arose from the Lord's perception of the difficulties that stood in the way of lifting man up to a spiritual faith. Through generations of spiritual decline their minds had become completely immersed in natural affections and in material ideas. While the miracle of the resurrection would profoundly affect their thought of Him, and would temporarily establish a belief in His Divinity, the Lord foresaw that this would not avail to impart a true vision of His glorified Human.

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     The disciples would see Him risen indeed, and would know that He was alive. They would come to acknowledge Him in heart and faith as their God and Lord. But it was inevitable that purely natural ideas should still greatly qualify their thought of Him. They could be convinced of His identity only by seeing the print of the nails in His hands and the hole of the spear in His side. This was symbolic of the fact that they would not heed the warning given by the Lord, "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father."
     And because of this, it was foreseen that the Christian Church would fail. Men would cherish the memory of the Lord as a man on earth. They would interpret His teaching as a political and social philosophy, looking to the betterment of man's worldly welfare. They would fix their attention upon the finite attributes of His material human, and so would tend to think of Him as distinct from God, regarding Him merely as an intermediary, interceding for them at the throne of the Infinite Father. Their approach in prayer would be directed, not to Jesus Christ as God, but to the invisible Father for the sake of the Son. This, because even their first faith, though genuine, was not an understanding faith. It was the faith of a child who believes because he has confidence in the one who teaches.
     With the disciples, it was founded upon the direct testimony of the Lord, in whom they had learned to place unquestioning trust. With those who came after, it was based upon the testimony of eyewitnesses whose integrity could not be doubted. But when men began to seek by reason to understand that which they thus implicitly believed, they lacked the necessary knowledge of spiritual things. Their minds were too weighted down by worldly loves, and by purely natural ideas, for them to reach a just conclusion. They could not remove from their thought of the Lord those finite limitations which were incompatible with the infinity of God. Could God suffer upon the cross? Yet Jesus Christ so suffered. How, then, could these be one? The more they reasoned, the more would their first childlike faith be weakened, the more would they come in their inmost thoughts to regard the Lord merely as a man, and the more they would fall back into the worship of an invisible God.
     Before the Lord could be truly seen in His Divine Human, long centuries of preparation were necessary. And the first step in that preparation was the removal of the earthly body.

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The human assumed in the womb of Mary must be put off, and a Human, not only conceived but also born of Jehovah, must be put on. Only if this were done could the Lord continue to hold the hells in subjection to eternity. Only if this were done could He come again in the fullness of time, revealing His glorified Human, and disclosing in terms that men could understand the process of its glorification. Wherefore, although the end of imparting a lasting spiritual faith could not immediately be attained, the Lord knew that it was only through His death and resurrection that it could be achieved at all. In spite of every doubt insinuated by the hells, the Law of Divine Order was clear; the way before Him was plain. Wherefore the Lord said, "For this cause came I unto this hour. Father glorify Thy name." When this decision was reached, He had overcome in the temptation. All doubts were dispersed, and new light inflowed through the heavens. Looking across the centuries, the Son of Man was seen "coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory." "Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.
     We are told in the Writings that this had reference to the fact that the glorification of the Lord was a gradual process, progressing steadily throughout His entire life in the world. It was already far advanced, but it was not yet complete. May it not also refer to the fact that the actual glorification must be supplemented by the revelation of the Human glorified-by the Lord at His Second Coming,- before He could be seen and known as He really is,-the one Divine and Infinite God of heaven and earth?
     The Doctrine of the Glorification now given in the Writings is the supreme doctrine of the New Church. It is the only means by which faith in the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ can be restored. It is the only means by which the Christian Church can be raised up anew to spiritual life. For it opens to our understanding how the Lord-although for a time He dwelt in a finite body, taken on by birth into the world-yet rose from the grave altogether Divine and Infinite; rose in a Human that was completely united with the Father above the heavens,-a Human from which all finite limitations had been removed, but in which He might still remain eternally visible to man as God in perfect human form. This is the only true vision of Him. It is the only true answer to the inquiring Greeks who asked that they might see Jesus.

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It is the only vision of God on which a spiritual religion can be founded.
     The Mary body in which the Lord was born was not indeed Divine. It was like the body of every man, formed from the dust of the ground, composed of the chemicals of the earth. Both in form and in substance it was finite. On both its form and its substance were impressed, by maternal heredity, the evils of the race, with their attendant falsities. While the Soul living in this body-unlike the soul of other men-was Infinite, the very Essence and Life of God, the mind, slowly forming between the soul and the body according to the order of all human growth, experienced two alternating states.
     In states of glorification, the Lord had full perception and realization of His Divinity. He thought, spoke, and acted immediately from the Divine. He taught, performed miracles, and exercised omnipotent power. But in states of humiliation, sensual appearances, originating in the body and the world, gathered as a cloud that cast a temporary shadow over the mind. Then it was that He appeared, even to Himself, to be separate from the Divine. In this state He prayed to the Father as if to another. Yet this state was necessary. For not otherwise could He enter into conflict with the hells, and overcome them.
     The hells cannot approach the Infinite Divine. They could not even approach the Lord in states of glorification. But when the appearance of separation intervened, they could inflow, even as they inflow with all men, causing doubts and temptations to arise. The only difference was, that with the Lord these temptations were far deeper; they were incomparably more severe than those that men experience. In these temptations the Lord acted as if apart from the Divine. It seemed to Him as if He were left entirely alone, possessed only of the weakness and frailty of mortal man-left alone to do combat against the overwhelming power of evil; and He cried out in anguish as upon the cross: "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"
     Yet in every temptation He freely and willingly laid down the life of the maternal human. Even as He Himself declared, "No man taketh my life from me. I lay it down of myself." This was spoken specifically of the crucifixion; but it was equally true of all the preceding temptations through which He passed. And when the conflict was over, as the life of the maternal human was extinguished, the Divine descended. Light returned, and with it peace and strength of spirit.

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The state of glorification was restored, and with it the realizing sense of oneness with the Father.
     This free approach-this conquest of evil in a state of apparent separation from the Divine-is what is meant by reciprocal union. And as this union advanced, step by step, the maternal human, with all its limitations, was put off, and a Divine and glorified Human was put on. By the final temptation,-the passion of the cross,-this process was completed, and the Lord rose from the empty tomb altogether Infinite, completely one with the Father.
     Here, however, is the greatest miracle of all. In thus glorifying His Human and uniting it with the Divine, the Lord did not merely ascend up where He was before. He did not disappear in the illimitable abyss of infinity. On the contrary, He established a new and visible presence with men. It was not the physical presence of a material body such as that in which He was seen on earth, but a presence far more real, far more intimate, far more powerful than this. By means of His glorification He brought His Divine and Infinite qualities down to the plane of man's comprehension. He made these qualities visible as a Divine Man, as Infinite Love and Infinite Wisdom in human form.
     And through this vision of Him He could reveal His immediate presence throughout the universe,-the presence of His guiding hand in the creation and preservation of the world, the operation of His Providence in the affairs of men. He could make clear to man's understanding-and this in ever-increasing measure-the secrets of His mercy, the laws by which, from love and wisdom, He governs the forces of nature, and turns them to the spiritual service of man-the laws of human life by which He continually protects man from evil, and leads him in the way of everlasting happiness and use. This is the true vision of the Lord-the vision of His glorified Human,-now opened for us in the Heavenly Doctrine. Here we may come to see God as Infinite Man, even as Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, the Savior and Redeemer of the world. Amen.
LESSONS:     Isaiah 53. John 12: 20-43. A. C. 5110.
MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 451, 449, 470. Psalmody, page 82.
PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 51, 117.

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CLEANSING BY THE WORD 1941

CLEANSING BY THE WORD        N. D. PENDLETON       1941

     Divine Influx and Man's Reception.

     "Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you." (John 15: 3.)

     Man cannot by his own power cleanse himself from sin. Yet, by resistance to evil, he can open the way to a superior embodiment and a higher reception of the life which inflows into him from God. This reception is effected by an affirmation of the truth of the Scripture. When truth is seen, evil is exposed, and a disposition to resist the evil arises, and is empowered in the degree that the truth is loved.
     It appears to man, however, as if his resistance to evil is that which cleanses him from sin. And this is a serviceable appearance; it encourages him to do the one thing that is called for on his part. Yet it is not man's resistance that cleanses; neither does it build up a new life. Both of these things are accomplished by the influx of life from the Lord, and its reception by that which is of the Word with man from without. Save by these two,-an influx of life into the forms of the written Word, and its reception,-no man can be made spiritually clean, nor can the higher vessels of spiritual life be upbuilt.
     Man's part in this process becomes effective only in so far as he, within the range of his human freedom, encourages the prompting which arises within him to affirm the truth of Scripture, and, as of himself, resists the evils which this truth gives him to see. This resistance, while imperative in preparing the way, or in opening the door, is in itself, and from its deepest origin, a yielding to God. Yet it is not a passive but an active or a willing surrender.
     The Word of God, in its highest significance, is that creative Word which makes all things, and which ever after remakes them and holds them in a continued existence. This Word is indeed one with the creative life inflowing.

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With the human kind, this creative life not only makes and sustains, but it also builds within men ever higher forms receptive of life. Men, from their first initiament, were made to this end; they were created in and by a threefold order. They have within them three degrees of potential life, which by regeneration are permanently opened and developed.
     At the base of every man's life, however, there lies a proprial conditionment which is adverse to this opening and development. This "proprium" or proper life of man is identical with his self- seeming life. In it lie the seeds of hereditary and acquired evil. These evils are opposed to man's spiritual rebirth, and, if not subdued, they exclude the possibility of a higher upbuilding of spiritual life-forms or vessels. They keep the door closed.
     Yet this self-life of man, from its own desires and for its own ends, seeks knowledge. Through the avenues of its learning, the written Word of God, which is external to man, along with a full measure of worldly impressions, finds entrance into his memory and thought, and it may also be that this Word finds lodgment in some obscure affirmative affection. If so, there arises within man a prompting which looks to the possibility of a higher and better life than that of his first crude self-desires. This prompting, if it endures, if it continues into adult life, leads man not only to recognize, but also to resist, the evils which he sees in himself; and in so doing there is produced an as of self in man which is called "the reciprocal." As this prompting increases, the man's sense of the uncleanness of his evils grows, and with it an ardent desire to be free of them.
     This reciprocal in man presents a twofold aspect. Being a form of life, it is of and from God alone, and as such it is a God-empowering influx. In this it is not unlike all living things, in that their life is derived from God alone. The reciprocal in man, therefore, while it is God-empowered from within, is not God-compelled, for if it were, there would not be even the shadow of human freedom with man. From the human side, this reciprocal is identical with man's freedom of choice, and with his free self-compulsion, which expresses itself by his resistance to evil. It is by this God-given and man-compelled reciprocal that the door is opened to a fuller influx of the Divine life, which enables man to be raised or born to a higher life.

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In this, man's self-compulsion is only an ultimate reaction, and therefore the apparent means whereby man opens the door of his mind to the Lord.
     On the other hand, the entire purification of man, and his up- building, are accomplished by the Divine influx. The spiritual man, therefore, is built from within; and this building, as a purely Divine work, is nonetheless deeply and permanently qualified by varying and variable conditions in man; and these, in their effect, distinguish each man from every other. No man, spirit, or angel, is ever other than a spiritual being so qualified. It is this qualification which conditions man, whether as to his present state of life, or as to his final placement in that Divine Human sphere, called the heavens.
     If, in the process of his regeneration, man were solely constituted by the Divine influx, then, even though finite, he would be Divine; he would be as a Divine finite. There would be no inequality in such forms of the life, and no one could maintain himself in anything contrary to the Divine. In such case, the Divine inflowing would make way for Itself, regardless of any or every condition of the man s proprial life. But this is not the case, either with the regenerate or the non-regenerate. The regenerate are distinguished, one from another, not only in degree, but by every conceivable variety of formation in each degree. A varied conditionment also arises with those who, from desire and choice, remain in evil. Man and spirit, therefore, whether good or evil, is a highly qualified product. The Divine that inflows is, in itself, unqualified; that is, it is unqualified until it is received and appropriated. The state of reception is that which makes the man or the angel to be in kind or quality what he is; and this, his state, is made up more and less remotely of each thing that has touched and affected the man's life from its beginning.
     This making of a man or an angel, by Divine influx from within and the providential operation of God from without, is a marvelous thing. Above and beyond all else it is a result of the Divine in- flowing, but never purely or merely this. The life-influx is, in itself, Divine; but, as indicated, the man or angel is that life qualified a million times and in as many ways. In other words, we see and speak of the life under two very different aspects. On the one hand, we speak of it as the Divine inflowing, and, on the other hand, as man's reactions to and reception of that influx.

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     Which, of these, then, is the man or the angel?-The influx, or the reactive reception of it? The influx is purely Divine; the reaction to or reception of that life is also animated by the life inflowing, but it is thereby marvelously qualified.
     While the reciprocal is inspired, it can be called truly or purely Divine only as to its inspiration. As a reactive, the reciprocal possesses a human aspect, which is modified more nearly or remotely by all things which have entered into and in any way affected the man. Among these things, even with the regenerate, are latent evils, which, from disuse, are quiescent, though they lie at the base of man's life, both here and hereafter. While man is cleansed by the creative Word alone, this cleansing does not eradicate these evils, but only subdues them. And while this subjection is effected by the influx of Divine life from within, the influx is powerless unless it meets and joins with the Scripture Word that has entered man from without. By this junction the reciprocal is developed, which, as to its inner life impulse, is purely God's, but as to its outer compulsion is effected through man's cooperation. Otherwise there could be neither a spiritual cleansing nor a spiritual rebirth.
     Man's part in this reciprocal is said to be as of self with him. The Writings call this as of self an appearance; yet, as such, it is as deep as the continued experience of human life. In this sense, human life, both here and hereafter, may be called an appearance. All that is not an appearance of some kind, grade, or degree, is pure Divinity and pure Infinity. Appearances, therefore, are more and less. They are either a lower or a higher appearing of that which is Divine, but which, as it is in Itself, can never be seen. The appearance of life in man or angel, therefore, is significant of that human qualification which holds them back from an entire resolution, a complete Divine reabsorption.
     If, therefore, it be said that the will and understanding of the regenerate man is a purely Divine product, the meaning is that the Divine alone is the producing cause. It does not mean that the resulting will and understanding with the regenerate is purely Divine, for it is not so. In this respect the will and understanding are a combined product, or a qualified result. However, in this making of a regenerate man, that which inflows from the Lord is neither mixed nor commingled with the evil in man. This would profane.

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Nonetheless, the finite receiving vessel does, on reception, qualify the influx, and the man or angel is that quality. The active influx is the living power from God; but the evil with man lies sleeping in his proprial life; and, if Providence allows, this evil may, at times be more or less roused, and thereby indicate its presence in the natural mind.
     With every man the natural mind is the bed of evil and the ground of his self-life out of which all evil rises. And this natural is the source of those twilight shades which, by periodic turns, bring even the regenerate mind into the veiling of its presence. In the natural mind, which is the plane of man's self-life, lies that self-protective affection which is essentially self-prudential. By no process of regeneration is this fundamental affection ever eradicated, either with men or angels. Yet it is more and more overcome as the spiritual life is upbuilt, and this until man's love of self is as if disregarded, so much so that it becomes the lowest servant in the household of the human mind. In this case the true order of human life, ordained of God from the beginning, is established.
     The Lord intends that men should be human. He loves them best, the more they are so. He loves them even though they be beset by many evils. To them, in their upward struggle, His mercy extends. For them His love bends downward and outward. For He has so created men that they can never return to full or entire union with Himself. If so, He would then have none to love outside of Himself, and the intent of His love in creating man would be defeated. In His creation of man He provided and imparted the sense-seeming or feeling of their personal individuality; and to this end He granted, as a fundamental factor, the protective love of self; but this, not as the high end of life, but as a ground of man's distinction from God, and as a founding of man's freedom and reason. The true end of human life is that man should be raised ever nearer to God. Yet the distance between man and God ever remains impassable. This being so, man may forever be drawn near to God without overcoming the difference that lies between.
     We may well believe that the angels are more intensely human than men are. They enjoy an even fuller sense-life as their own. By comparison, man's humanity is compromised by many things, as by much that is animal; but there is ever the prospect of a higher spiritual life, the intent of which is not to lose but to heighten and deepen all that is truly human with men by a more open influx of love from the Lord, and a fuller return of love to Him.

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The higher the qualification of human states of life, the more is man granted a purer and higher reception of the inflowing life, and a like return of his life's love to God. But man, in his qualified states of life, never becomes pure in the sight of God; nor may he become as God. This is not allowed.
     It is a high spiritual allowance, as well as a low natural endowment, that men and angels should desire to be men and angels, because it is God's will, and because to be so fulfills the happiness of their service to God. Amen.

LESSONS:     Psalm 51. John 15. Apocalypse Explained 616.
MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 442, 487, 510.
PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 93, 94.
EAST WIND 1941

EAST WIND              1941

     When a man is in temptation, evil spirits inflow with their phantasies and excite similar phantasies in the man; but when these spirits are dispersed, it is said in the Word to be done by a wind, and, indeed, by an east wind. For evil spirits in the world of spirits sometimes associate themselves in troops, and so excite disturbances; but they are dispersed by other bands of spirits, generally coming from the right, thus from the eastern quarter, who strike such fear and terror into them that they think of nothing but flight. Then those who had associated themselves are dispersed into all quarters, and their societies formed for an evil purpose are dissolved. The troops of spirits who disperse them in this manner are called the " east wind. When evil spirits are thus dispersed, the turbulent state is succeeded by serenity or silence. While man is in temptation, he is in the midst of a band of such spirits, but when these are driven away or dispersed, there follows as it were a calm, which is the beginning of the disposal of all things into order. (A. C. 842.)

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GOOD SAMARITAN 1941

GOOD SAMARITAN       Rev. F. W. ELPHICK       1941

     The story of the Good Samaritan, as told by Jesus and recorded in the Gospel, is well known to young and old in the Christian world. When anyone performs an act of kindness in times of trouble, or pursues an errand of mercy, we call him a " Good Samaritan." It has therefore come about that mercy-that quality of compassion, of desiring to heal and to perform benefactions of charity-is commonly related to the Good Samaritan. That we may have the particulars of this story before us for consideration, let us quote the Scripture text:

     And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted Jesus, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
     He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.
     And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast answered right; this do, and thou shalt live.
     But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor? And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.
     Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
     Luke 10: 25-37.

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     As to the meaning of this story in the natural sense, we have but to look back through the pages of history to find the qualities of the Samaritan mercy depicted in every age. The prevalence of robberies and the infliction of injuries upon the fellow man-these being the outcome and ultimate action of self-love and hatred-has called forth at times the mitigating influences of mercy and tenderness. Yet, strangely enough, it has often been those who knew best how to help, and who held a professional status, who refused to give assistance. Like the priest and Levite in the story, they did nothing. They "passed by on the other side." But we also have outstanding examples of the spirit of Samaritan mercy.
     In the Middle Ages, chivalry mitigated the horrors of warfare, and provided conditions for the Samaritans of those days. In later times, "the lady of the lamp," with every prejudice and custom and military rule against her, tended those who were wounded. In still later times, though not without opposition, the great minds heralding anesthetics and the advancement of medico-surgical science at last established better methods of healing-of binding up wounds and pouring in oil and wine. Indeed, writers on the history of medical science have noted that the Samaritan of Scripture times was a wise physician. It was with an antiseptic,-wine--alcohol,-that he cleansed the wounds of the man who fell among thieves. The method may have been crude, but the principle was right and sound.
     So today, especially in war time, all duties pertaining to the alleviation and healing of those who suffer physical hardship are of the Good Samaritan type. They are uses that are to be supported, that are to be done, and not in any way belittled or despised by regarding them as merely natural, as merely almsgiving charity. Such duties are right and proper, and they are to be uplifted and made spiritual by right intent, that is, by the love of use, love of the neighbor, and consequently love of the Lord. For no one can love the Lord unless he loves his neighbor. Hence, to be really a good Samaritan, not only in the requirement of outward acts and skill of healing, it is necessary that an unselfish intent be within such acts and skills. For the Lord and the angels look to the end and purpose,-to the affection within every word and work, though these inner origins are unseen by men.
     But we must not consider the application of the Samaritan story in this ordinary and natural way alone.

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Its natural application is indeed a true application. It is Christian work that is to be done, and not despised, not to be left undone. But the story has a higher meaning also, and holds within it other uses,-uses of the spirit, as well as those of the body. As there are natural thieves, so there are spiritual thieves; as there are natural wounds, so there are spiritual wounds; as there are priests and Levites,-the experts of religion and theology in either a good or perverted sense-so there are the spiritual counterparts of these in the spiritual life. Then there is the spiritual Samaritan, the spiritual oil and the spiritual wine, the spiritual horse, the spiritual inn, and likewise the spiritual counterpart of the two pence. In a word, there is a spiritual aspect of the story, as is now revealed by the Lord in the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Church.
     And it is not difficult to follow this spiritual story. If we presume that it is difficult, hard to follow, something of dry theology, of no concern of ours-merely ideas in the clouds; if we have such thoughts, then the New Church understanding of the Lord's Word will not be seen. We remain in the mere sense of the letter. We miss the message to the New Church. And so, in the case before us, we miss the true import of the story of the man who fell among thieves, and of the Samaritan who had compassion on him. Let us, then, follow for a moment the higher idea of this story,-the idea which touches our minds, our spirits, and not only our bodily life.
     In its spiritual sense, it treats of charity towards the neighbor, and of good works, by which charity is in its effect and in its fulness. (A. E. 444:14.) Jerusalem here signifies the church where there is true doctrine, and Jericho the church where there are knowledges of truth and good. The man who made the journey from Jerusalem to Jericho made a journey which every man of the church must make, if he has the desire to live doctrine in life. Do we not all wish to be instructed in the true doctrine, and also in such knowledges as will lead us to the good of life?
     But it is on this journey from Jerusalem to Jericho that we are attacked by the robbers of the perverted church, who, by their false teachings, endeavor to take the truth from us, and so to do us spiritual injury. The loves of our own natural man do likewise,-love of the world and of riches, love of self and the ambition to rule over others, producing apathy toward the teachings of the church, and twistings of the truth to confirm and establish our own opinions.

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These, also, are the robbers that infest our spiritual life, endeavoring to destroy it. They lurk in that rocky, lonely path that leads down from Jerusalem to Jericho. In the story they "stripped the man of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead." So do infesting evils and falsities deprive man of truths, injuring his mind, and leaving him almost destitute of spiritual life.
     And who are the priest and the Levite, who came and looked upon the wounded man, but passed by on the other side? In the time of the Lord the rulers of the Jewish Church were selfish and corrupt, having no love to the Lord and no love of the neighbor, and thus no love of saving souls. In the story, therefore, Jesus referred to the rulers of the perverted church when He said that the priest and the Levite ignored the wounded man. The terms are used in the opposite sense,-the opposite of what the leaders in the church should really teach and encourage,-love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor. They "passed by on the other side," and did nothing to help the injured brother, to lead him in the life of regeneration.
     Is not this a vivid picture of modern Christianity where it has fallen? Christians perform the benefactions of charity, but does the Church lead men to love the Lord Jesus Christ as God, and to find salvation in a genuine love of the neighbor? And is it not a vivid picture of our own little personal world, where our selfishness may "pass by on the other side," taking no notice of the neighbor and his needs? " Who is my neighbor? " asked the one skilled in the Jewish law, but seeking his own welfare, and trying to justify himself.
     To him the Lord pointed out the example of the Good Samaritan. "Go, and do thou likewise!" The Samaritan came and had compassion. He showed mercy, and did something. He alleviated the wounds of the injured man, and took care of him. He was "neighbor unto him who had fallen among thieves." He exhibited love for his neighbor.
     The Samaritan was a gentile who was in the good of charity. The Jews despised the Samaritans, and "had no dealings with them and the disciples were commanded not to teach in their cities. Yet there was a gentile remnant among them, as we know from the Lord's meeting with the woman at the well in Samaria, and from this good Samaritan.

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He, and not the priest or the Levite, with all their knowledge of the law and of rite and ceremony,-not these men of the perverted church, but the simple, single-minded, despised gentile,-supplied the necessary " first aid " to the one wounded and half dead, and thereby represented how the man of true charity gives spiritual aid to one who has been almost destroyed by falsity and evil, even by inspiring him with love and instructing him in the truth.
     The Samaritan "poured in oil and wine,"-the oil of the good of love and charity, the wine of spiritual truth and faith. Then he placed him upon his own horse, or enlightened his understanding so far as he was able to receive, and conveyed him to an inn,-a place where food and drink are bought, where the knowledges of good and truth may be obtained, thus spiritual nourishment by instruction. The keeper of the inn was to care for his needs, for which he was paid two pence, representing the conjunction of charity and faith, and more if necessary; thus all things of charity and faith were to be imparted to this man whose spiritual life had been all but destroyed by the evil and false rulers of the perverted church. These were to be imparted in the measure that they could be received. And it is a spiritual and eternal law that the more we are able to receive, the more we are given.
     In this manner can we read and understand the story of the Good Samaritan. It is a story with a message,-a message of charity on all planes of life, of love towards the neighbor, and of love to the Lord, who is the Neighbor above all. It is a message reminding all men to will well, think well, act well-physically, mentally, ethically, spiritually-and at the same time to shun all evil as sin against God, to perform that repentance which is the essence of all religion.
     Yet, in spite of the cogency of this Gospel message, we find throughout Christian history, and New Church history also, that the quest for truth,-for faith,-has brought with it struggle and dissension, and charity has been forgotten. And if it were not for a survival of a measure of the spirit of the Good Samaritan, all charity would have been destroyed, not only by those who rob and hurt, but also by those who witness it and "pass by on the other side."
     Certainly the cleansing, antiseptic wine of truth is needed to heal the perverted understanding; but oil, charity, the love of good, is also needed.

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And what is this oil, this spiritual requisite for the Christian life, and for the proper performance of uses? Is it not a spiritual love of the neighbor from a love of the Lord and His Truth,- a love of the neighbor's welfare, his rights, his freedom, his good?
     The quality of this charity is described in our Doctrines, as where we read: "When a man feels or perceives in himself that he thinks well concerning the Lord, and that he thinks well concerning the neighbor, and wills to perform good offices to him, not for the sake of any gain, nor with a view to his own honor; and when he feels that he pities one who is in calamity, and still more one who is in error as to the doctrine of faith, then he may know that he 'dwells in the tents of Shem,' that is, that he has in him internal things through which the Lord operates." (A. C. 1102.)
     And we cannot do better than cite here the words of Paul which have inspired good Christians down through the years:
     "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
     "Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. . .
     And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." (I Corinthians, 13.)

     These words were written at the beginning of the Christian era, but they stand today, picturing the qualities which genuine charity can establish in the hearts of men. Taken together with the spiritual truth of our Doctrine, concerning the kinds and degrees of the neighbor, and of the works to be performed to him with rational discrimination (T. C. R. 410), we can realize why our Lord spoke the parable of the Good Samaritan, why both oil and wine were used in aiding the wounded man, and also why the priest and the Levite passed by on the other side.

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IDLENESS 1941

IDLENESS       GILBERT H. SMITH       1941

     There are hereditary tendencies to idleness in human nature. Many are under the vain delusion that idleness is bliss. The Divine truth is, however, that idleness is the devil's pillow and the root of all wickedness. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop."
     This subject is timely for all children, who, if they are really loved, will be introduced into industrious habits. In treating the subject, there is no suggestion of a criticism of idleness among the members of the church; for most of us are under the necessity of working constantly, and perhaps too long at a time. As a matter of fact, we are industrious and busy in our daily occupations. Also, there are periods of idleness or leisure that are not only beneficial, but even necessary and vital to our work and its success. But we all know the unhappiness of enforced idleness from various causes.
     It is well to look upon the spiritual side of all subjects, and to understand and appreciate, in this instance, what blessings there are in the performance of work.
     No man is of sane mind who is not engaged in some useful occupation. Neither in heaven nor in hell is anyone free from work and use. There is no happiness in continual rest. From this the mind grows stupid and dull. This is a fact, and not a fancy. It is also a dictum of the Heavenly Doctrine, and thus of the Word of the Lord. Lack of application to work produces lethargy and death. The mind becomes unlimited and unbounded. It wanders, and is like a floating ship without any port of destination. It admits into itself everything vain and nonsensical which arises from the world and the body, causing the man to love them. All the active forces of the mind are made dull and heavy. Conjugial love is then driven into exile, from which love, we are told, come all the energies and alacrities of life.
     The human race is especially seduced by societies of idle spirits who live luxuriously, dress magnificently, enjoy nothing but leisure, and hate all those who labor and are studious of truth and good.

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They are called in the Writings "destroyers of the human race." They cannot be called citizens, but "destroyers of citizens." (S. D. 2502.)
     "They who love idleness more than use collect evils into their spirits; for they do not determine the mind to use, but only to such things as are in the world, thus to filthy and evil things of every kind, from which they would be well withheld if they were delighted with uses." One then thinks about the world exclusively, and imbibes and talks about both the pure and the impure. There is nothing to repell impurities from them; for the love of use alone repells impure things, and keeps the lower mind in its delight. But in labor the mind is determined and held together. (S. D. 5839, 6072.)
     Work is the only organizer of the mind. For every use or work has its own laws. It is a spiritual form of order. And the mind, when it undertakes any use, comes into that form of order. By work, and application to it, the mind is forced to cast out all things that are not in agreement with the work, and to take to itself all things that are in agreement. The thing that takes place in the mind by the performance of a work or use is compared to the making of a clearing in a wilderness, to clearing away the disordered growth, to building a house and fortifying it against wild beasts of the forest, and cultivating the virgin soil. This is the interior reason why the wicked in hell must be driven to work, and are not fed or clothed unless they obey,-because the work itself determines their minds and brings them to sanity of thought, and thus prevents the dissipation of all their mental powers.
     By a life of idleness is also meant a life of mere social pleasures, of feasting, and of public shows,-the life of mere sociability and entertainment. This also is included where the Writings speak of a life of idleness. It is a life of the love of self and of the world, and is merely natural. It does not hold the thoughts together, but diffuses them into every vain thing, and turns away the man from the delights of wisdom.
     In heaven, we read, "everyone must be energetic, busy, industrious, and diligent, in his duty and business." (D. Love xii.)

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Nay, this is true of hell also. Again we read: "The lower mind, when attached to its duty and work from the love of use, is held together, and is then in spiritual delight, . . . and is withheld from the delight of fraud and malice, and also from the delight of mere talking and feasting, which also is the delight of idleness. . . Everyone can see that the Lord cannot have His abode in the love of these persons." (D. Wis. xi. 4.) "Every workman who looks to the Lord, and shuns evils as sins, shuns idleness, because it is the devil's pillow." (C. 168.)
     On the other hand, we are told in the Writings that men must have rest from their works and labors, thus diversions and recreations, for the sake of mental and bodily health. For too constant application in work, because of too great tension, wears out the faculties of the mind and body. These are renewed by diversions. (Doctrine of Charity, 189-196.)
     Spiritual minded persons engage in recreations with great delight because of the work which they have done. The delight of relaxation is great according to the extent of the application to work and use. Thus it is orderly for people to alternate between work and play. Yet the recreation is still valued and sought solely because it is an antidote to fatigue, and thus fits the mind and spirit for greater effort and application to use. And the lesson from this is, that men should not spend longer periods in recreation and diversion than is conducive to health and to the good of the work which they perform. Or, in the phrase of one passage of the Writings, men should not "spend whole days in idleness." Even during periods of recreation there is no need to do this. One may find benefit from an avocation, from work of a different kind and nature. If there is the love of a central use, the mind can still be occupied with other uses that give delight, and thus find recreation in a change of thoughts and work. He can turn his mind, for example, to the delights of wisdom, elevating the mind to exalting studies, or to those of the beauties and wonders of nature, enlarging the mind and its thought in many directions,-all for the ultimate end of the work and use of his vocation. Doing nothing is what is condemned, or doing nothing that promotes usefulness either directly or indirectly, as the putting of the whole mind and effort into social pleasures and entertainment for their own sake.

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     The performance of uses, and the application of mind and body necessary to perform them, are the chief things of value, and recreations are uses only so far as they are of contributory value to the works of use. What one does in his leisure is characteristic of him; and the quality of his attitude toward recreation will be the same as that toward his work.
     And there is a kind of spiritual idleness also, which is to do no spiritual use, although there may be much natural work done. This is when work is done from the love of recompense to oneself. We are very familiar with this teaching. Spiritual use is work done for the sake of the good of others as the end in view, because then the doer receives a heavenly affection, and all uses are nothing but the embodiment of affections. The things one does for the sake of the common good of the neighbor are the real spiritual uses and works. Men may be very industrious and energetic in their work without doing a single thing of spiritual use. It is spiritual idleness to work for ones own good alone.
     When men work and labor for the sake of leisure, or for the sake of sociability and the enjoyment of this life and its recreations, it is from the lowest spiritual separated from the higher spiritual degree of the mind, which lower spiritual is the origin of all evil forms of animal and plant life. It is from a natural affection of use, and not from a spiritual affection of use, to which all the good and useful animal and plant forms correspond. For these are themselves only forms of use, or forms of affections, projected into the lowest spiritual atmosphere, and there assuming form,-projected from the minds of spirits and men.
     Man should plan to have created in him forms of heavenly use; and he can do this by entering upon uses and labors for the sake of the common good, and as his service in the Lord's kingdom of uses. If he does his daily work for the sake of that good, and not for his own sake; and if he takes his recreation for the sake of that common good, and not merely for his own sake, he is not idle in a spiritual way, but does the works of God. As the actual physical idleness of all would soon bring ruin to society on earth, so spiritual idleness would bring ruin to heavenly society.

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INAUGURATION INTO GYRES 1941

INAUGURATION INTO GYRES       Editor       1941


NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of Publication, Lancaster, Pa.
Editor
Business Manager
Published Monthly By

THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM BRYN ATHYN, PA.

Rev. W. B. Caldwell, Bryn Athyn, Pa., Mr. H. Hyatt, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

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     We are taught in the Writings of the Church that introduction into heaven is effected by inauguration into gyres of heavenly life; that Spirits are prepared for heaven in the world of spirits by being introduced into gyres, in which they will and think and act in harmony with other spirits as in a choir; that they are introduced into swifter and swifter gyres, into slow gyres at first, becoming quicker by degrees as they are elevated into heaven; and finally, that when spirits become angels they are introduced into the gyre of the society of heaven in which they are to remain to eternity. What is meant by this "inauguration into gyres"?
     The word " gyre "is the Greek for circle, and involves also the idea of a globe or sphere. The created universe, in general and particular, is filled with globes, spheres, and gyres great and small, from the suns, auras, and earths in their immensity down to the elementary particles of air and water and the globules of blood. The gyre is universal in creation, and the inmost cause of this is that the first or simple substance of the created universe is in the form of a gyre. The first finiting of the Infinite is in the form of minute gyres or spheres, and from this first form the elementary kingdom derives its spherical or gyratory form in general and particular.

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Hence also it is that the Divine of the Lord proceeds and inflows into creation in the gyratory or spiral form. For we read that certain spirits, being led by the Lord, "performed a kind of circular spire," from which it was evident that "the influx of life from the Lord inflows through a form as it were perpetually spiral, which form no one can know except the Lord." (Diary 3495; see also 5202.)
     Because the Divine Life inflows through such a form, therefore the organic forms in both worlds tend to a spiral or gyratory motion. The earth gyrates upon its axis, and it gyrates about the sun. Solar systems gyrate similarly. The atmospheres themselves, in their general volumes and in their particles, do not inflow in straight lines, but in Circles and gyres,-as the air in cyclones, water spouts, and gusts of wind. Winds in the air, the electric flow in the ether, and the forces of the magnet in the aura,-all these tend to proceed in a gyratory motion, circling or spiral, and to form gyres and vortices. The motion of the air which is perceived as sound flows in gyres, and is received by the folds of the ear as concordant or discordant according to the perfection of the gyratory motions. Sweet music produces most perfect gyres; the striking of a hammer, or an explosion, produces straight lines of motion which shock the ear; but even these sudden or harsh sounds tend to flow in the gyratory motion, extending themselves more and more widely into the air, reverberating and echoing to a distance in every direction.
     And what is true of the outer world of nature, affecting the sense, is true of the inner world of nature, hidden from view, where the chemical substances, the juices of vegetation and animal life, and the bloods or spirits of the human body, all tend to perform circles and gyres in their motions. (S. D. 1036-1038.) Angular forms, from their very nature, tend to arrest motion, but spherical forms readily lend themselves to motion and life.
     As elementary nature is composed of gyres great and small, so the spiritual world must be filled with gyres-still more intricate and wonderful gyres. Speaking of the angels of the celestial kingdom, Swedenborg states that he "saw and apperceived that although they remain above in their places, still they are transferred sensibly and successively from left to right, so that there is a certain inmost gyration that leads them around, although they themselves are wholly ignorant of it, thinking that they are always in one and the same place so long as they are in their mansions." (S. D. 4674.)

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We also read that "all the societies of heaven are arranged according to the heavenly form, and that there is a gyration according to the forms, which gyration the angels and spirits do not feel; this being like the flux of the earth on its axis daily, and around the sun yearly, which the inhabitants do not apperceive." (A. C. 4041.) Again, we read that "the spirits of Mercury go by companies and phalanxes, and when assembled together form as it were a globe; and that they are conjoined in this manner by the Lord in order that they may act as one, and that the knowledges of each may be communicated with all, and the knowledges of all with each." (A. C. 6926.) Again, speaking of the "form of heaven and the situation of the peoples and Gentiles there " at the time of the Last Judgment Swedenborg says, " It is to be observed that, taken together, they are not spread out in a plane, but in a globe, like the earth; and therefore, when I was led to the gentiles, after I had passed through the Mohammedans I descended obliquely." (S. D. 5244; A. E. 1133:5.)

     Atmospheres and the Body.

     We may gain a clearer understanding of the gyres of the spiritual world if we consider that the heavens correspond to the human form, the degrees of which answer to the degrees of the atmospheres. Viewed in their ascent from below, these atmospheres are four in number,-the air and ether around every earth, the aura of every solar system, and the universal aura, the inmost of which is the spiritual sun. And so there is an external natural heaven founded in the air and ether of each planet, a spiritual heaven founded in the aura of each natural sun, and a celestial heaven, which is one throughout the universe, founded in the universal aura. (See T. C. R. 160:1; A. C. 2849, 7801e.) And may we not consider that the heavens founded in these spheres are gyrating about their centers, though the angels be not conscious of these great gyres in which they circle, any more than men are conscious of the daily and yearly gyrations of their planet? We may conceive that the great general societies of heaven are so gyrating, unknown to the angelic inhabitants, whose individual gyration is according to the individual changes of state, which bring about the appearances of time and season in heaven.

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     The order and degrees of the heavens are also like those in the human form. The four degrees of ascent in the atmospheres have four corresponding planes in the body. In general, the lowest plane or region is the digestive tract; the next that of the blood-vessels; the third plane is that of the nerves, and the fourth that of the fibres. The fluids in all these vessels have an ebb and flow in gyratory or circling motion. Indeed, all the natural motions in the body are gyratory, both the motions of the fluids and of the organs and vessels. The brain is marvelous in its convolutions and intricate gyres. The ear receives the sound and conveys it to the brain through a wonderful spiral. The eye is full of spirals. The lungs are constituted of spiral labyrinths. The stomach and intestines have a constant spiral motion by which their contents are rolled about. To say nothing of the gyres in the human body which are not visible to the eye of man. And this universal spiral or gyratory motion is communicated to the body by the atmospheres, acting within and without upon the organic forms. Round about and within every organ, every blood-vessel, nerve, fibre, and cell in the body is the play of the air, the ether, and the auras in a gyratory circulation and flow.
     It is this motion that produces action and reaction in every part of the body, the animation of the brains, and of the heart and lungs, the motions of the stomach, liver and intestines. By it man has the faculty of sensation and motion. Because of it his senses are delighted with sweet sounds and sights, and his limbs with rhythmic dances.
     Moreover, by this motion of the atmospheres in the body foods of every degree are received and digested, and impurities carried off. For man is fed not only by material foods through the mouth, but by more subtle foods through the atmospheres; and these higher foods enter through the pores, through the lungs, and through the cells of the brain, and then, by a gyratory motion similar to that in the stomach, are prepared for their circulation in the body. (S. D. 1022, 1035.) They are prepared by a process of rolling about and castigation, whereby grosser parts are removed and cast out, and whereby the finer essences are introduced into the gyres and circulations of the body, and thence into their final use.
     And this is a correspondence of what takes place with spirits who are introduced into heaven. They are vexed and castigated in the world of spirits until the grosser things with them are removed, and then they can be inaugurated into the heavenly gyres of the Gorand Man.

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Infant spirits are easily introduced, because they are like the purer foods that enter through the pores, and are carried away to the brain at once and led into the circulation of the spirits in the fibres. (S. D. 1022, 1035.) Adult spirits are more apt to have grosser states acquired by evil acts in the world, and hence they require a longer preparation, like foods in the stomach and intestines; but still, with all who are good at heart, the gross impurities can be vastated, and the spirits released therefrom, and introduced into the gyres of the heavenly form.
     We see, then, that spirits are introduced into the gyres of heaven in a manner corresponding to the introduction of foods into the human body. They are introduced into that plane of the Gorand Man which agrees with their inmost quality, even as foods nourish the body according to their inmost essence and quality. And this is not merely a comparison; it is a correspondence. (See A. C. 5173-6; S. D. 1015-1038.)

     The Mental Gyre.

     Now the quality of a spirit, according to which he is allotted his place in the gyres of heaven, is the quality of his mind,-the quality of his affection and thought, or love and faith. When spirits are inaugurated into gyres, they are consociated with others in a general agreement of affection and thought. The gyres of the individual mind must be in agreement with the general gyre. Let us now say a word about this mental gyre.
     The thoughts and affections of the mind or spirit of man operate in a gyratory form,-the form of heaven,-which, because it is interior, and above the consciousness of the angels, is incomprehensible, and can be seen only by analogy in lower forms. Thought flows according to the forms of the mind, which are spiritual substances, and which outwardly appear like the forms in the brain, though inwardly they are invisible and incomprehensible. In the mind there is a gyration or animation of the substances in which are the affections and thoughts. And the gyration, animation, the action and reaction, in the forms of the mind, which are like the pulse and respiration of the heart and lungs, is perceived by man as thought and affection. (See S. D. 3399; H. H. 212.)

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     In rational thought man begins from generals, proceeds to particulars, and returns to generals, thinking as it were in a circle or gyre. Moreover, it is common to say that a man revolves a subject in his mind; and as he revolves it, he gathers the chief ideas into the center of the gyre, where his love is, and removes other ideas to the circumference, casting out worthless ideas altogether. In rational thinking there is always this process of selection and elimination by the gyres of the mind, to which purification in the brain and body corresponds. The affection of truth is like appetite gathering unto itself all that agrees with its desire, rejecting all that disagrees. And so often as this affection is aroused, the celestial forms of the mind are animated, and begin to perform their wonderful gyres, to run their little courses as the heavenly bodies in the firmament, and to fill the expanse of the mind with rays of light.
     It is the inmost of man's mental gyre which instinctively chooses for him an abiding place in heaven. And this inmost of the mind is his ruling love, the center of his individual gyre, which spontaneously seeks consociation with its like. For every gyre has its active center, and the active center with the individual man or spirit is his ruling love. This ruling love may be either natural or spiritual. With the regenerating man, spiritual love is the inmost of his gyre, and the Lord Himself is in that inmost, leading him in the regenerate life, and afterwards to his place in heaven. Similarly is the Lord the inmost of that gyre which is called the church, for in the church as in heaven the Lord is the inmost fire and love, the center of every gyre, of every society of souls. And all who come into spiritual love on earth are brought into the gyre of the church, and are thereby prepared by the Lord and led to heaven.
     But those who remain natural, whose ruling love and center is natural, cannot be prepared for heaven, either in this world or after death. And they seek an eternal abiding place in hell. Thither the gyres of the natural mind lead them. For the gyres of the human mind are of two kinds, one the gyre of spiritual love, and the other the gyre of natural love; and these two gyres, before regeneration, are in an opposite fluxion and turning, acting one against the other. The gyres of the spiritual mind are an image of heaven, and when active in man elevate him to heaven; but the gyres of the natural mind are an image of the world, and when active in man apart from heavenly gyres draw him down to hell.

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Unless the spiritual mind be opened in man by regeneration he cannot be introduced into heaven. Regeneration consists in the opening of the spiritual mind, the release of its gyres that they may be in their freedom and activity, and then the conforming of the gyres of the natural mind to act in agreement. The whole preparation of spirits for introduction into heaven regards the conforming of the gyres of the natural mind to the gyres of the spiritual mind. Until this is accomplished, they cannot be in heaven; for the forms of the spiritual mind are animated and gyrate only in the auras of heaven. (See D. L. W. 254, 263, 270; D. P. 319.)

     Respirations.

     In the Writings of the Church are given us many accounts of spirits who desired admittance to heaven, but who, on being elevated thither, were unable to remain. In some cases they cast themselves down headlong; in others they fell in a swoon, and had to be carried out and revived. The reason in general was that they were not yet prepared to respire or breathe in the atmospheres of heaven. If they were evil, they never could be prepared to remain in heaven; if they were good, they were obliged to undergo further preparation in the world of spirits before they could enter heaven. And that preparation consisted in the removal from their lives of all that was not in agreement with their ruling love of good. When that was effected, it was as if sluggish impurities had been removed from their heart's blood, so that they could bear the respiration of a higher altitude. And then they could be elevated into the heaven of their heart's love. Hence we are told that the first inauguration into gyres is inauguration into respirations. (S. D. 3399; see 3464e.)
     Even in the world a man breathes freely in a sphere that is agreeable to him, and with difficulty in a sphere that is not agreeable to him. An evil man is as it were suffocated in the presence of the good; the heart and respiration of a good man are in their freedom and comfort in the sphere of the good. But during regeneration a man is in a mixed state, a state in which good and evil are alternately active. And when he reaches the spiritual world, he is kept for a time in the general state of his life in the world-a mixed state,-until the evils in his natural are rendered quiescent.

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So long as those evils are active with him, he cannot be elevated into heaven. He must undergo a preparation whereby his evils are reduced to quiescence and inactivity, and good is given complete dominion. His natural mind must be brought into harmony and correspondence with his spiritual mind. (D. P. 270.)
     The evils that must be removed in this manner are all the lusts of self and the world which man by inheritance and actuality has acquired in the world and impressed upon the forms of his natural mind,-the perverse and contrary states of the substances of the natural mind, states that do not admit and respond to the influx of the life of heaven through the spiritual mind. These evils and their falsities are compared to "angular forms that impede the volubility of a gyre in the unanimous speech of many." (S. D. 2042. See 1995.) The evils of self-love and the love of the world prevent man from entering into conjunction with the Lord and heaven. They prevent his entering into consociation with those who are in the interior sphere of charity and mutual love, who will, think, speak and act, in unanimity and concord.

     Preparation for Heaven.

     So when man reaches the world of spirits he is able to be in company with those who are in mixed states, who are not yet vastated of evils, and who cannot yet be introduced into choirs of heavenly concord. But no one there can tarry long in that mixed state. It is of Divine order that the judgment should be quickly accomplished, and that the evils of good spirits should be fully and finally subjugated, to the end that they may come into heaven, and there remain forever. In the course of their vastations they are infested by evil spirits and as it were tempted anew, but from good they resist. That there may be no delay, this is continually repeated, even until the evils in the natural are completely subdued. During vastation they are let down into the Lower Earth, where they are afflicted, castigated, and vexed, like foods in the intestines. But after they have resisted evil, even to despair, they are elevated by the Lord to receive consolation and instruction, and are brought into a state of tranquillity and delight.

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     It is then that they are to be likened to the essences of the food introduced into the vessels of the chyle and their gyres. (A. C. 5173-5175.) They are then able to enter into consociation with others who are preparing for heaven, and their introduction to this companionship is an essential part of their preparation for heaven. The evils of self-love having been reduced to quiescence, love to the Lord and charity operate. They long to enter into the sphere of those loves, and to be conjoined with those who are in a similar longing. From a genuine love they desire heaven. For the sphere of heaven is such that all there are in mutual love, in the love of performing uses to others, and of acting with others in the performance of uses. And hence the form of heaven is such that all are brought together into one society who are in a similar love, who can will, think, and act together in some great general use to the whole of heaven.
     Man comes into this to some extent while he lives in the world by consociating with others in uses; and if he regenerates, he comes into it spiritually as well as naturally. At this day, however, when hereditary evils are so great and regeneration so slow, most who regenerate must undergo further preparation for heaven in the world of spirits. The first of this preparation is, as we have said, vastation; and the second is instruction. By vastation the evils that prevent consociation with the angels of heaven are removed; by instruction the spirit is led gradually into the way and life of heaven. He is taught new truths whereby his internals are opened and stored, and his affection enkindled by delights. But especially is he introduced by experience,-experience in the company of others, whereby he is further purified, and his external brought into harmony with his internal by ultimations in act. Concerning the nature of this experience we shall speak in conclusion.
     Those who, during their final period of instruction in the world of spirits, are to be inaugurated into a choir, pass through four general states. Their first introduction into gyres has for its object that they may all be accommodated together; the second, that the thought and speech of each may agree; the third, that they may mutually accord together as to their thoughts and affections; the fourth is, that they may accord as to truths and goods. (A. C. 5182.)

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     First, they must get along together, which comes about naturally from the general desire of heart for the consociation, from the consent and willingness to remove external differences. Next, the external of each one must be brought into agreement with his internal, and his speech must correspond with his thought. That this may be brought about, he is compelled to speak more quickly, and his thought is forced to follow, which is not accomplished without pain, because he is not accustomed to it. And thus is he brought to act with entire sincerity towards his companions. Then, as the spirits in the choir become better and better acquainted, the internals of their minds manifest themselves, and by various experiences their thoughts and affections are brought into accord. Here also each is moved to put away from his thought and desire anything that is not in harmony with the general sphere; and thus are they all brought into closer internal agreement. And as they are at the same time elevated to higher and more interior planes, they are introduced into swifter gyres. Gentiles, we are told, can be so introduced in a single night, but Christians with difficulty in thirty years. (A. C. 2595.)
     We can understand this mode of introduction, if we but consider that even a company of men on earth are consociated in a gyre or circle of thought and affection if they will and think alike on a given subject, and are acting together for a common object, each according to his nature and disposition in general agreement with the rest. And when this is cultivated by men during their natural life, it will help them to enter into it after death. For in the spiritual world, where all are to be introduced into a final abode, this must of necessity be accomplished in fulness and perfection, first in the preparation for heaven, and afterwards in heaven more and more to eternity.
     This, then, is what is meant by introduction into heaven by inauguration into gyres. In the world of spirits, similar loves, similar minds and dispositions, are brought together by the Lord into one gyre, and thereby elevated into heaven, and through the heavens,-through the blood-stream of the heavens,-.until each individual has found his place in the Gorand Man. Each must be in a society in which he can remain forever and increase in agreement with the others in that society. And the Lord foresees and provides such a place for every man born into the world. He foresees and provides for it from man's infancy, and throughout his regeneration, leading him by ways unknown to him, which ways may be called the gyres of his spiritual life.

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And when he finally reaches his eternal abiding place in heaven, he is in the gyre most conformable to his ruling love and delight, where he will be happiest to eternity. He is surrounded with angelic companions of love and mutual use, and the very auras will accord with his heart-beats. His house will be filled with forms of surpassing beauty, the outward effigies of his inward joys. And his garden will be planted with trees and flowers in wonderful symmetry, in circles and gyres of perpetual spirals, wherein he may see images of that wisdom and intelligence with which he has been gifted by the Lord.
NEW PLAN OF LIFE 1941

NEW PLAN OF LIFE       Rev. ARTHUR CLAPHAM       1941

     From The New-Church Herald, September 28, 1940.

     It is natural in times like the present that men should be seeking a new plan of life. More vividly and realistically than ever we are compelled to recognize the unsubstantiality of the foundations upon which so much of our human life has been built. All confidence in the honor and good faith of civilized nations is being destroyed, if, indeed, it has not already gone. Trust in the decent instincts of a Civilized people is no longer possible, for we know that highly civilized people can be horrible in their barbarity.
     The moral law goes down easily before the urge of self-love and the lust of dominating; knowledge is shut out, and science is used to forge more and more powerful weapons of destruction and intimidation. We must not think that the trouble is peculiar to Germany and the German nation. This fungus growth that has virtually destroyed the mental and moral foundations of Germany spores easily and rapidly. The evidence is not wanting that in every country there are lodged cells of this infamous life, and in every land there are traitors and traitorous organizations, ready to sell their country and their countrymen into the same slavery, the same ignorance, the same shameful and mindless subservience to the a-moral regime of Berlin.

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     It is not Germany alone, but the whole race of mankind, that needs a new order, a new plan, a new conception of the meaning of humanity. The devisors of plans are already busy planning new orders of civilization in Europe,-economic unions, federations, new leagues of nations. These schemes, or some of them, may be useful in due course, for there must be found some means of securing the weak from the outrages of the powerful. But all plans must depend ultimately upon the good faith of men. Without that there can be only chaos. And that means that there must needs be a new religion, and a new sense of religion among men. We must have new conceptions of the meaning of human life, of what freedom means, of what nationality means. We must have new conceptions both of our duty and of our responsibilities, as individuals and as nations. While men plan from their own limited vision, and from their own heart, they may produce multitudes of plans, but they will not agree. Each will plan from his own standpoint and for himself, and to what he conceives is his own ultimate advantage.
     Somehow or other we must go beyond all these plans of human devising, and penetrate to the Divine Plan and Order of life, and get to the Divine Truths on which human life was based and ever will be based.
CHURCH AND THE WAR 1941

CHURCH AND THE WAR              1941

     From an editorial by the Rev. Charles A. Hall, appearing in THE NEW CHURCH HERALD of October 5, 1940, we cite a few paragraphs bearing upon the function of the Church in wartime, and upon the question of taking cognizance of the war in services of worship:
     Generally speaking, special prayers are offered, and in the sermons delivered at least some words have reference to the grave emergency which is afflicting the whole world. We are all so intimately concerned with the present struggle that we cannot ignore it, and there is surely prayer in our heart, even when it is not articulated in words. But the prayer of the heart becomes more effectual when it is ultimated in words, and it is essential that all who attend our services should feel that they are being ministered to and helped.

     We realize that it is upon the eternal things rather than the temporal that we must lay our chief emphasis in all our services, in all our thought and in all our prayer.

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We must never fail to look upon this passing show against its background of eternity. We must not allow the war so to obsess us that we lose our spiritual perspective. Dominant as it may be at the moment, the war will pass; but God, the human soul, the spiritual world, and the Everlasting Word, remain. While there is a regrettable lack in a service of worship at the present time which utterly ignores the circumstances in which we are placed, along with their dangers and perils, yet the fact remains that the Church exists to maintain a sense of the Divine among the people, and to raise their thoughts and feelings into the heavenly places. The greatest help we can give to those to whom we would fain minister is to lead them to an acknowledgment of the Lord and a realization of His wonderful providence. .
     "When we are thinking of the perils of the men in the King's Services, and of all who are in the forefront of the fight, we should not forget that their principal peril is that which always threatens them, war or no war. Now, as always, they, along with us all, are subject to hellish assaults upon their spiritual life, the integrity of which is all-important. We should pray that that integrity may not be impaired by hatred and war-inflamed passions, that they may pass through their varied experiences with love to the Lord and the neighbor held high in their hearts, that in their warfare they may be 'very perfect knights.' That they may be preserved unscathed by shot or shell, we all hope in our natural affection for them: but in earthly war we cannot be oblivious to the fact that not all the men we love and pray for can come through without bodily harm or death. We need not be dismayed, no matter how our natural affections are distressed, if someone very near to us, for whom we have earnestly prayed, falls in the conflict. Whatever happens outwardly, the soul of man still goes marching on, and our prayer should have reference to the worthiness of the soul. It is not for us to be betrayed into thinking of man in terms of mere body. May God give us, one and all, a heart to face life with high courage, and by His grace, the power to shun evils as sins against Him and do what is good in His sight. Nothing else is really of any particular account."

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Church News 1941

Church News       Various       1941

     LONDON, ENGLAND.

     Kensington Society.

     We have received a letter from the Rev. F. F. Coulson, Minister of the Kensington Society of the General Conference, and we are glad to publish his correction of the statement made in our November issue about the damage done to the church building of that society. He writes:
     "In your November issue, page 558, you have quoted from the Messenger that 'Argyle Square Church has been partially unroofed by a direct hit. The windows of Kensington Church have been shattered, and the building is in danger of total demolition from a delayed time-bomb.
     "I do not know how this information about Kensington originated, but it is not true. At the time of writing (November 29), all our church windows are intact, and there has been no damage of any kind, except one or two cracked window panes in the schoolroom and library, due to shell fragments. The church has never been in any danger from a time-bomb, although at one time the nearby bus services were diverted, which may have caused an unfounded rumor to arise. I should be grateful if you will note this in your next issue, as otherwise many will have a false impression.
     "We are all carrying on here under difficulties, but the scattered congregation of Kensington New Church continue to come long distances Sunday by Sunday, and our only regret is that we cannot meet in the evenings or have any social activity.'
     Mr. A. E. Friend, Secretary of the Kensington Society, writes to the same effect, and adds:
     Owing to the black-out, and the difficulties of transport, one service only is being held each Sunday at 11 a.m., but this is well and regularly attended by about 50 people, who travel considerable distances to take part in the public worship of the Lord God Jesus Christ.
     "New Church people in London are indeed 'full of courage,' like all others of this great population, for they have confidence that the cause of freedom, for which they struggle and suffer, will in the end triumph in the Providence of the Lord. Moreover, we are grateful for the valuable support, both spiritual and natural, which American citizens are giving in unstinted measure."

     AUSTRALIA.

     From An Army Camp.

     Corporal Norman Heldon, a member of the Hurstville Society, writes a long and interesting letter from the camp in which he is serving with the Australian Defence Forces. We quote from the letter in part:
     "I am very much pleased to send greetings to you from Australia as a fellow New Churchman, and to express my pleasure at receiving two recent copies of New Church Life. I am a member of the Australian Army, better known as the A. I. F. This fact, seeing that I enlisted for overseas service, makes it the more desirable that I keep in touch with the Church from its publications.
     "Our Church here in Australia is carrying on its activities with increased vigor, in spite of the war. Fortunately, the society has lost only two of its younger members to the Forces, although a couple more will serve for home defence.

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I never thought I would enjoy army life so much, and I am considering remaining in the profession after the war is over. I say profession, because a trained soldier is just as much a specialist as a physician or architect. One can become conversant with only one phase of warfare, and even that presents continually changing methods and problems. I am afraid I have not much interest in anything else at present.
     "Please remember me to Bishop and Mrs. de Charms, from whom we had the pleasure of an unforgettable visit two years ago. On the Bishop's visit to Australia he showed us films of Bryn Athyn which stimulated in myself and everybody else a desire to visit, or even better, to live in such a New Church community. That desire may never be fulfilled, but it can be partly compensated by personal friendships between those in Bryn Athyn and those living at a distance-pen friendships, I mean; and if it were encouraged between the younger members of the Church, it would bring them closer together, and would increase their love for the Church and the spread of its Doctrines in other lands.
     "So thanking you again for the Life, and with the hope that I can send along my subscription shortly, I'll say cheerio, and remain,
Yours sincerely,
     CPL. NORMAN HELDON.

     PASTORAL VISITS.

     Rev. Victor J. Gladish.

     After spending the Summer at Linden Hills, Michigan, where services were held on seven Sundays, I ministered for eight weeks at the home of Mr. and Mrs. C. H. Cracraft, who live on a farm near Symerton, Illinois, about forty miles south of Chicago. Mrs. Cracraft, nee Grace Wright, is my wife's sister. During our stay I held Sunday services for the children of the two families, and on Sunday evenings, for the adults, there was usually the reading of a sermon or paper, followed by discussion. This opportunity to participate in the ministrations of the Church, and to discuss the doctrines, was greatly appreciated by this isolated family. On one Sunday the Holy Supper was administered, and the communicants included Mr. and Mrs. Neville Wright and Mr. and Mrs. Will Hamm, who drove down from Glenview for the day.
     At the end of October I accepted an invitation to visit Mr. and Mrs. Paul Carpenter at their home in North St. Paul, Minnesota, where I conducted a service and administered the Holy Supper. I also met with a class reading Heaven and Hell which Mrs. Carpenter has organized among friends interested in the teachings of the New Church. This class began with some newly interested friends, and later a Mrs. Perry, who has been a reader of the Writings for years, brought her friends. Other additions came from among the parents of young people whose instruction Mrs. Carpenter undertook at the request of the St. Paul Society. These young people had been in the Sunday School of that Society, and when it became necessary to carry their instruction further, Mrs. Carpenter accepted the charge. I had the opportunity to take part in two of their classes, as well as with the adult group before mentioned, and their questions ranged over the entire scope of the New Church Doctrine.
     On the two Sundays during my stay I attended services at the St. Paul Church. On the second Sunday, at the invitation of the Rev. Clyde Broomell, Minister of the Society, I delivered the sermon. Mrs. Gladish and I also attended a class on the Divine Providence, conducted by Mr. Broomell, a society luncheon, and their Annual Meeting, which followed in that order after the service. On all of these occasions we were very cordially welcomed.
     Among the pleasant experiences of this delightful visit, our meeting with a number of persons individually, as well as with the classes, gave evidence of a most zealous and encouraging interest in the things of the Church. I might add that, among Mrs. Carpenter's efforts to promote a knowledge of the Doctrines of the Church, is the instruction of a class of children belonging to the Sunday School groups of the St. Paul Society.

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Here, as in the other fields in which the Society has availed itself of her training and long experience in educational and other church activities, there is ample evidence of a keen appreciation of what she is doing. The great delight in the classes, both for the fruits of instruction and for their social pleasures, was abundantly manifest.
     During our stay we had the pleasure of meeting Mr. and Mrs. Walter Glenn, General Church members who had recently come with their two children to reside in Minneapolis. They were greatly troubled over the fact that the box containing their copies of the Writings had been lost in moving, but they met with helpful efforts toward remedying the loss. They are in consultation with Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter in regard to ways and means of educating their children in the Church.

     TORONTO, CANADA.

     The last report from this society dealt with various activities of the Autumn months. In this we bring the record down to the close of the year.
     The outstanding event in October was the Ontario District Assembly, which was held in Kitchener during the week-end of Thanksgiving, and which was most inspiring. As a closing message, Bishop de Charms left us with some thoughts on the close relationship between that which we are called upon to do as citizens of our country and that which we are called upon to do as followers of the Lord in His Second Coming. Even though the external uses of our church may apparently suffer when there is war, nevertheless internal freedom may then be increased, and our struggle on the internal plane to maintain spiritual values will qualify our efforts to defend our country. In this wax: the war is part of the life of our church, and becomes a spiritual thing with each individual. The Bishop called upon each member to make use of internal freedom, so that, no matter what happens on the external plane, the spirit of the New Church shall be carried forward with increasing power, and be expressed through uses to our country.
     One of the noteworthy events of the season was the Confessions of Faith made by five of our young people. Two of the young men who cook this step have since joined the Army, bringing our society enlistments up to seven-three in the Air Force, one in the Signal Corps one in the Infantry, and two in the Canadian Militia.
     Our Christmas celebrations were in the time-honored manner, and it is difficult to see where they could be improved with the present equipment. The Children's Service was held on the evening of December 22, and a series of tableaux was presented. Six simple but effective scenes were depicted under the direction of Mr. and Mrs. Alec Craigie.
     In former years it has been the custom to select from the Old Testament several scenes prophetic of the Lord's birth on earth, as introductory to those from the New Testament. This year, Mr. Gyllenhaal decided to center the tableaux around the Nativity, in order to unify the appeal to the younger children. Accordingly the scenes chosen were: 1. Zacharias in the Temple. 2. Zacharias and Elizabeth. 3. The Angel appearing to Mary. 4. The Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth. 5. The Angel Appearing to Joseph. 6. The Nativity. Between the tableaux the children sang Hebrew anthems and Christmas hymns, after which those portions of the Word about to be illustrated were read by the pastor just before the lights were dimmed and the curtains parted on each succeeding picture. This service was held in the assembly ball, and was opened by the offertory march, "From the Eastern Mountains." The distribution of gifts followed the presentation of the tableaux, and concluded the evening.

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     The observance of the Advent season included a delightful service on Christmas morning, when Mr. Gyllenhaal preached a beautiful sermon appropriate to the occasion. The chancel decorations of evergreens and candles were pleasing, and added to the enjoyment of the service.
     New Year's Eve was celebrated by a formal dance at the church, followed by breakfast at one o'clock. During an interval of quiet before the New Year was ushered in with "Auld Lang Syne," Mr. Gyllenhaal talked to us on" Preparedness." He emphasized the point that preparedness is necessary on the external plane and on the internal plane, because it is not only the nations of the world we have to fight, but primarily the loves of self and the world within ourselves. For peace can only be attained by war, sometimes on the external plane, always on the spiritual plane.
     C. S.

     GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS.

     As usual, in these parts, November and December brought us a mixture of weathers. Early in November we had snow and zero temperatures for about two weeks, followed by much milder weather up to and including Christmas. Since the first of the year it has turned cold again, and we are resigned to the expected real Winter, which somehow never seems to miss Glenview.
     However, we find much to occupy our time. In fact, the following list of regular and occasional meetings might make you wonder whether we are able to spend any time at home: Pastor's Council-Board of Finance-Manual Training-Card Parties-New Church Life" Classes-Theta Alpha-Sons of the Academy-Women's Guild-Young People's Classes-Dances-Social Committee Meetings-High School Doctrinal Classes.
     The manual training classes have recently been transferred to the church buildings, where a room in the basement has been completely equipped with benches, tools, etc. Two classes are held weekly to accommodate the various grades attending.
     Miss Helen Maynard continues to make our library a most attractive and useful visiting place for book lovers, and many are the volumes borrowed for home reading. Our pastor, Mr. Smith, conducts doctrinal classes for the children of high-school age; and the classes for the young people are also being held regularly, in charge of the Rev. Morley Rich, of Sharon Church, Chicago.
     On Sunday evening, November 17, Mr. Smith addressed the Chicago district chapter of the Sons. His paper treating of "the co-operation and relationship between the Sons of the Academy, both local chapter and general body, with the church, both local and general," was well received; pointing out, as it did, the desirability of close co-operation between the various chapters of the Sons and the societies of the General Church.
     Our Thanksgiving Service on November 21 was especially appreciated this year, in view of world conditions.
     They say that Friday the 13th is an unlucky day Well, figure this out: December 13th, at Friday supper, we had seven (7) ministers present-the Revs. Gilbert H. Smith. George G. Starkey, Willis L. Gladish, Victor J. Gladish, Willard D. Pendleton, Morley D. Rich and Norman H. Reuter! The first three mentioned live here; the others happened to be visiting here at the same time. Mr. Pendleton had come at the invitation of the local chapter of the Sons. He delivered the sermon at the service on Sunday morning, and in the evening read a paper entitled, "The Sociological Implication of Conjugial Love," which was easy to listen to, and was followed by a long and lively discussion.
     On Saturday evening, December 21, Mrs. Alvin E. Nelson welcomed the society to her hospitable home, where we sang Christmas songs and afterwards enjoyed refreshments of coffee and cookies. Came Christmas Eve, and soon after supper a large group of little children could be heard singing carols from house to house. Later on, some fifty young people sang the old familiar Christmas songs on the snowless lawns of our homes.

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     The Christmas service, held in our assembly hall on Christmas morning, was made unique by the use of a public address system recently installed by two of our members. By means of this device the organ music played by Marvin Stevens in the church was brought to the hall. This really delightful innovation made our service more enjoyable than ever. The stage had been transformed into a chancel, and the Representation was built up at one side of the room at the chancel end. A record congregation of 276 was present, and our pastor's arrangement of the service created a real sphere of peace and good will.
     At the children's party, on Saturday, December 28, a series of tableaux was presented, showing the various ways of celebrating Christmas in different lands.
     HAROLD P. MCQUEEN.


     GREETINGS FROM BRAZIL.

     At a gathering of the members of the Rio de Janeiro Society after their service on Christmas Day, messages to the friends in Bryn Athyn were spoken into a recording phonograph, and the disks were sent to Bishop and Mrs. de Charms. A transcript of the recording has been made by Miss Beryl Briscoe, making it possible for us to extend these cordial messages from South America to many among our readers who will not have the opportunity to hear them. The recording was done under the direction of Mr. Hugo Hamann, who, with Mrs. Hamann, recently spent some weeks in the United States and twice visited Bryn Athyn.
     Mr. Hugo Hamann: My friends, here is Hugo Hamann speaking. We have just arrived from church, where we have devotedly commemorated Christmas festivities. Here we are now at the home of the Rev. Henry Leonardos for a huge family luncheon. Let us pray for our Church, and to all our friends at Bryn Athyn, a very prosperous New Year! Now Leila (Mrs. Hamann) is going to make a little speech. I do not know whether she will be able to say something without using her hands and her eyes, but we all know that women are very courageous. [When in Bryn Athyn, Mrs. Hamann charmed us with her singing, accompanying herself on the guitar.]
     Mrs. Hamann: Dear friends of Bryn Athyn! You have been much in my thoughts, and I want you to know how much it would mean to me to be amongst you all, and to attend the very marvelous religious services this morning in our wonderful cathedral at Bryn Athyn. My English is not good enough to express my feelings for your generous hospitality. I am afraid Hugo is right; my hands and my eyes are no good now.
     Hugo Hamann, Jr.: My friends, our very kind Mrs. Pitcairn sent us a Christmas present-a complete set for the American Football. We are all very pleased, and we thank you very much. We would like to play football at Bryn Athyn. Good-bye and Merry Christmas!
     Mr. Hugo Hamann: As Sergei, my youngest boy, thinks that he can say nothing in English, he is going to play you a tune. [Plays.] Well, what do you think of the Hamann show? Don't you think I am a very gifted speaker? My brother-in-law, Silva Lima, wants to show you a bit of his very perfect English! He will now speak.
     Mr. Antonio Silva Limo: Now you are going to hear the voices of all the Silva Lima family. My wife, Alice, whom you may remember from our visit to Bryn Athyn in 1930, is going to say a few words. Please listen carefully, in order that you may understand our imperfect English. Carry on, my lady!
     Mrs. Silva Limo: I want to express to you all how I feel about the wonderful days I spent among you ten years ago. I still keep in my heart memories of the kindness dispensed to us by you all. A very merry Christmas to you!

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     Stella Limo: Well, my dear friends, I think that you must be tired by this time. I am the oldest one of the family, and my name is Stella. I hope that you all had a very happy Christmas, and send my wishes to all for a very bright and happy New Year.
     Ellis (?) Lima: I am the jollymans of the family. Daddy wants to send me to Bryn Athyn to stay for one year, and after that my English will be improved. Merry Christmas to all friends of the New Church!
     Norma, Sonia and Disaya Lima also spoke their Christmas greetings to all New Church friends, after which Mr. Hamann introduced the Rev. and Mrs. Henry Leonardos.
     Rev. Henry Leonardos: The visit of our dear Bishop de Charms, and the consecration of our church building to the Lord, were the two memorable things which happened this year in our Brazilian Church. North America was very well represented in our Christmas by the Merle family from Chicago. I make a wish that I shall have the privilege of representing our church next Christmas in Bryn Athyn and I think that this should be the realization of all my dreams. Marietta will now speak.
     Mrs. Leonardos: I wish with all my heart a very happy Christmas for each one of the New Church families in Bryn Athyn. To Bishop de Charms and his charming wife, my thanks for their kindly words. To Mrs. Doering I send thanks for the care she took of my son Henry while he was in Bryn Athyn. To my dear Fidelia and her sister Guida a great kiss from your mother of South America!
     Oliveiro Leonardos: Please excuse the poor English. It is not my fault; it is the recording machine! Merry Christmas to all!
     Henry Leonardos, Jr.: Hallo, all my friends in Bryn Athyn! This is Henry! It is good to talk with you again. Even if you do not understand me today, my thoughts are with you, because I still remember the Christmas time I spent in Bryn Athyn, and the lovely way you treated me. I will never forget. I wish you all a very merry Christmas. So long!
     Wanda: If you know Henry, you have to know his fiance. I am Wanda, and I wish to everybody in Bryn Athyn a merry Christmas and a most pleasant 1941.
     Mr. George Leonardos: I hope that next time I will be able to stay longer in Bryn Athyn, to meet all the New Church families. A merry Christmas and a happy New Year to everyone. Bess will speak now.
     Airs. George Leonardos: I wish a merry Christmas and a very happy New Year to all our Church friends in Bryn Athyn.
     Mr. Hugo Hamann concluded the remarks with a final greeting.

     ENGLAND.

     From the News Letter of December 1, 1940, we learn that the Rev. and Mrs. A. Wynne Acton visited Mr. and Mrs. Eric Briscoe at Batheaston from November 19th to 23d. On the 20th, Mr. Acton officiated at the baptism of Mrs. Briscoe. The following night a service with the Holy Supper was held, and this was also attended by Mr. and Mrs. Lewin and their daughter. Mr. Acton paid brief visits to Mrs. Lee and Mr. Walter Lewin at Bristol, and on another day Mr. and Mrs. Acton drove with Mr. and Mrs. Briscoe to call upon Mrs. and Miss Summerhayes at Street.
     Bishop and Mrs. Tilson, now residing at 9 Heath Grove, Harregate, are reported to be in poor health, and Mr. Victor Tilson was recovering from a severe attack of scarlet fever.
     Mrs. Patrick, the mother of Mrs. Ward, passed into the spiritual world on Friday, November 22, after a long illness. The funeral service was held on November 26, the Rev. A. Wynne Acton officiating.
     Plans for celebrating Christmas and New Year's are announced, and we trust they wore carried out, both in Colchester and London.

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MINISTERIAL CHANGES 1941

MINISTERIAL CHANGES              1941




     Announcements


     The Rev. Victor J. Gladish has accepted an appointment as Pastor of the Circle in Wyoming, Ohio, and as Visiting Pastor in the Southern States. He has entered upon his duties in Wyoming, and has taken up his residence at 105 Millsdale Avenue, Hartwell, Cincinnati, Ohio.
     The Rev. Ormond de Charms Odhner has accepted an appointment as Assistant to the Pastor of the Pittsburgh Society, and will enter upon his duties there on February 1st.
     The Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen, recently appointed Minister of the New York Society and the Northern New Jersey Circle, has taken up his residence at 15 Morgan Place, Arlington, New Jersey.
BROADCASTING A SERVICE 1941

BROADCASTING A SERVICE       GILBERT H. SMITH       1941



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NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. LXI
MARCH, 1941
No. 3
     Recently the Immanuel Church, Glenview, Illinois, was granted the opportunity to broadcast a service of worship, and this was done on Sunday, January 19, 1941, at 9 am., over the facilities of Station WGN, Chicago. So far as we know, this is the first time that a regular New Church service has been broadcast, and we believe it will be useful to give some account of the undertaking.
     A one-hour service was prepared, and held in our church on the previous Friday evening, when a recording was made under the supervision of the Rev. John Evans, Director of the Chicagoland Church Hour, which is on the air every Sunday morning, 9 to 10 o'clock. From this recording the service was broadcast.
     After a brief introduction by Dr. Evans, the service proceeded in our usual order. The Lessons were from Mark 4: 1-20, the Parable of the Sower; Revelation 21: 1-12, which included the text of the sermon; and Divine Providence, nos. 333 and 334. I preached on the text, "Behold, I make all things new." The musical selections included the 24th and the 48th Psalms from the Psalmody, the 24th being sung by the choir. There were two Anthems from our Liturgy,-"Great and wonderful are Thy works," and "Thou wilt show me the path of life." And two familiar hymns were sung,-"O Word of God Incarnate" and "Jerusalem the Golden."
     To avoid possible difficulties with a corporation of musicians, we were restricted in our choice of music to that of our own Liturgy and Psalmody, and it was necessary to obtain permission from the Academy, which publishes the books. But this restriction was not at all to be regretted, because all the music was what we customarily use in our distinctive worship.
     In making our arrangements for the broadcast, Mr. Archibald Price first obtained the necessary information from a friend, and then wrote to the right persons to inquire whether a time could be assigned our Church.

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Dr. Evans wrote to me, setting the date, which I accepted. As the day drew near, there was need of a good deal of communication between us. We had to submit the order of our service, with all the music we proposed to use. And I was also requested to give an account of our Church and community for the use of Dr. Evans in composing his introductory remarks.
     As before stated, the recording was made in our church on the Friday preceding the Sunday broadcast, Dr. Evans and two assistants who were to make the recording being present. At our Friday Supper, Dr. Evans spoke a few words in explanation of the arrangements, and we all then proceeded to the church, where two microphones were placed to pick up all the sounds to best advantage. The organist had been previously instructed as to the proper stops to use and the management of the organ for best results. Dr. Evans then sat in the front pew before a small microphone, and spoke his brief introduction. He then placed the microphone before me in the chancel. The other microphone had been placed between the choir and the organ. One assistant, who attended to the recording machinery, was in the vestry; the other, who controlled the sound intensity, sat at a small table immediately in front of the chancel. The choir was in place when the service began. No periods of silence were allowed, and one portion of the service gave place to the next without any long break in the continuity. It was all timed in advance to keep within an hour.
     At the time of writing-January 24-responses to this venture on the air have come in the form of about a dozen letters from localities in eight States. All of these were from New Church people, except one, which was from a university professor in Iowa, who wrote: CC The reception was perfect. The beautiful music came through with clarity, and I was able to understand every word of the Liturgy. 1 followed the reading of the lessons with the open Bible, as well as the passage from Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Providence. I was very much interested in your sermon. . . . I have on the shelves of my library the principal works of Emanuel Swedenborg. I visited the cathedral at Bryn Athyn, and was very much impressed by its beautiful symbolism."

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     There was a letter from Mr. Charles Edro Cranch, of Erie, Pa., who gave a very good outline of the sermon, although he had difficulty in hearing it because of interference. Mr. and Mrs. Fred Peterson, of South Haven, Michigan, sent a delightful letter of appreciation. Mrs. Elizabeth Richardson, Wilkinsburg, Pa., wrote that she could not hear the service, but approved the idea of broadcasting, and was under the impression that our services might be heard any Sunday, if she could get the proper station. From South Bend, Indiana, we had an appreciative letter from Miss Phillis Tyrrell, and one from her mother in Bourbon, Indiana. We also heard from Mr. and Mrs. Stewart Nicholson, of St. Louis, who said that they had heard the service clearly, and had very much enjoyed it.

     The following is quoted from a letter of Mrs. Clara Lyons, Chestnut St., Chicago: "As we thoroughly enjoyed the service on WGN this morning, I feel that all of your congregation, and especially those in charge of the production, should know that we found it extremely good. How I wish we could afford to have you give a prolonged series of broadcasts on the New Church Doctrine and the mission of Swedenborg! I know it would benefit many who now know practically nothing about all the works left us through Swedenborg. I do hope the time may come in the not too distant future when you may be asked to put on missionary broadcasts for the New Church."
     From Rockford, Illinois, we had a letter from the Pierre Vinets. Mr. Vinet writes: "At long last a complete New Church Sunday service has been brought into the homes of the isolated, as well as into thousands of other homes where the New Church is not known. We anticipated this event with a great deal of pleasure, and, as it came on, completely forgot that we were in any other place than the Immanuel Church, Glenview. I had the baby on my knee, and hummed the songs and anthems as the service progressed, and she seemed quite entranced by the sphere of the singing part of the service. All the music sounded fine, but the responses from the congregation were not always clear, particularly to one not familiar with the service. Congratulations to you, and to all those who assisted May it be the first of many more!

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     Now that this experiment is over, we can see that broadcasting a service at regular times would afford a splendid opportunity for isolated New Church people to join in worship by gathering at various homes, and it would seem a wonderful way of ministering to them. Some strangers would also be reached. The ideal thing would be for us to operate our own station. And I venture to predict that the New Church will some day use this method extensively.
     It has been suggested by Mr. Alec McQueen that, if we had a recording instrument, any one of our Sunday services could be recorded as it now comes through the amplifiers which we already have. And such recordings could be sent to various groups to be reproduced on their phonographs.
     It would also be easy to record short speeches in this manner, to be sent to people living at a distance. That would be pastoral extension service of a different kind. But the great thing, I think, is to be able to speak over the radio to many people at once. Out of the many listeners we should then hope to gather in a few who thus became interested in the New Church.
     I believe that, with a couple of men devoting their time to it as a specialized use, talks on spiritual subjects could be put on the air successfully; and that by the sale of the books of the Writings, as well as the constant talking about what they contain, considerable support would result to meet the expenses of such a work. I do not think it would cost a great deal, even to buy time on the well-known stations in view of the support that would come in from listeners. In the meantime we shall just wait until another opportunity comes to present the doctrine of the New Church over the air.
     This first endeavor gives me the start I have wanted, leading to the publication at least of a series of talks which would be presented as radio talks. Perhaps I will get them all ready, and then await the chance to deliver them. There are so many things that people need to know. Swedenborg often said that he was commissioned to deliver things which are of supreme importance to all Christians. The subjects in the Writings that are familiar to us would be new to others. Talks could be given on the single chapters of True Christian Religion, or from the chapters of the Word explained in the Arcana Celestia, and each would be a unit in itself.
     Many are the things contained in the Writings in the form of objective representations, and in the Memorable Relations, which are delightful to those who have known and received the general and fundamental facts about the inspiration of Emanuel Swedenborg.

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But in any series of radio lectures the need would seem to be, first of all, to acquaint people with the general teachings, leading up to the acceptance of the idea that Swedenborg was a man inspired, and able to see the things which are in the spiritual world. A great deal of study should be given to the question of what things should be presented to the general public, and how they should be presented, until people became interested enough to get the books and read for themselves. To me it seems that the leading idea should be for us simply to advertise the Writings, and tell about what they contain, and also to present the general doctrines of the New Church in outline.
     GILBERT H. SMITH.
DESCENT OF THE NEW JERUSALEM 1941

DESCENT OF THE NEW JERUSALEM       Rev. GILBERT H. SMITH       1941

     (Delivered at a Service which was broadcast on Sunday, January 19, 1941.)

     "And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold I make all things new." (Revelation 21: 5.)

     We cannot imagine that anyone else is meant by Him that sat upon the throne than our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is He that said, " Behold, I make all things new." And, as we understand it, the things that are to be made new are all the things of religion. The throne that is mentioned here can mean nothing less than heaven itself, which is the throne of the Lord's glory. And from His kingdom of heaven the Lord is continually renovating or making new the life of religion in the individual who believes in Him as the only Divinity. But in the general sense, the making of all things new means the descent of new things of religion out of heaven, so that Christianity may reach its appointed state, and a Church may exist answering to the description of the New Jerusalem, which is called the Bride and Wife of the Lamb. It is a new Christian Church which we believe to be represented by the New Jerusalem descending from God out of heaven.

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     But I would like to tell you first about the books I have in my library, written by Emanuel Swedenborg. For it is from these books that all the material is drawn for the thoughts now to be presented to you.
     There is before me, among the forty-five books of the New Church written by Emanuel Swedenborg, first, the Arcana Celestia, which is the Latin for "Heavenly Mysteries"-twelve volumes, completed in 1756. In this work Swedenborg gives a detailed explanation of Genesis and Exodus, according to what he calls their internal meaning or their spiritual sense.
     Next in my library is the Spiritual Diary, five volumes in English, translated from the Latin, in which is the record of Swedenborg's experiences in the spiritual world for a period of twenty-seven years.
     Beside this there stands a single volume on the subject of Heaven and its Wonders, and Hell, from Things Heard and Seen. There is another describing the Last Judgment, showing that it has already taken place in the spiritual world.
     Then there is a single volume, entitled the New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine. In this the Doctrine of the New Church is briefly stated. There are also six volumes called the Apocalypse Explained, and two more called the Apocalypse Revealed, each containing a detailed explanation of the Apocalypse in the New Testament.
     Then we have a book concerning the Divine Love and Wisdom, and another concerning the Divine Providence. Such other titles as The In finite, and the Intercourse Between the Soul and the Body, present a unique philosophy. And the thick volume, entitled Conjugial Love, deals with the spiritual and heavenly concept of marriage.
     There are four other volumes, under the title of The Word Explained, one of Swedenborg's earlier works but recently translated into English.
     And, last of all that we have time to mention here, there stands a large work called the True Christian Religion, which contains the whole theology of the New Church.
     We mention all these books because the general public scarcely knows anything about them, and because we believe that all Christian people ought to have an opportunity to know something about the works of Emanuel Swedenborg, which would fill a five-foot shelf twice over;-a library dealing with the nature of the spiritual world, the nature of heaven and of hell, the relation of this world to the next, and with the spiritual sense of the Word.

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     For out of the thousands who may have heard nothing of the works of this writer, it is probable there are a number who would be vitally interested to learn something of his unique teachings, of experiences in the spiritual world, and of the nature of the life after death. What could ever be more important for anyone to know, if indeed it is possible to know it? Is it possible to know anything of the spiritual world?
     It is usual to assume that it is not possible, or at least not likely, that anyone could be in a state of free and continuous communication with those who are in the spiritual world, such as Swedenborg declares that he enjoyed. But if one believes the Old Testament and the New, he will find several cases in which men have been enabled to see into the spiritual world, and who have described their visions. Especially is this true of Paul, of Peter, of Ezekiel, and notably of John, who wrote the Apocalypse or Revelation. This last, from beginning to end, describes things which John saw by spiritual sight, and heard with the ears of his spirit, in the spiritual world.
     Swedenborg declares that all people who have ever lived and died in this world have continued to live after death,-men, women, and children,-some in heaven and some in hell, with the exception that there are no children in hell. All who die in infancy or childhood are brought into heaven. For all people living in the body on earth have souls and minds; and after death they not only have these, but they also have bodies. But in the spiritual world their bodies are of spiritual substance, and not of material substance as before. A man remains a man, and a woman a woman, and in heaven married partners live together to eternity, in ever-increasing love, union, and happiness. Physical elements composing our physical bodies in this world are shed at death, never to be resumed; but the spirit of each person lives on in a perfect human form, and does not have to await any final day of resurrection and judgment.
     To those who can believe this, there is great delight in the thought of our inseparability from what we may call the "living dead." Take away from us these living ones in the spiritual world, with whom we are constantly though unconsciously associated, and we should be the ones who were really dead.

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The so-called "dead" are with us still, and so intimately that our very consciousness depends upon it. So we believe. We could not think, or move, or live, or love, were it not for that stream of affections and thoughts flowing into our minds from those who dwell in the spiritual world. By this, also, all things of human intelligence change; all things are made new.
     It should be said that the Swedenborgian belief is not spiritualism. We do not try to communicate with the departed ones, or seek guidance from familiar spirits: but it is our belief that, through a man especially prepared and illuminated by the Lord, the Saviour Himself has given information of the greatest moment to all Christians,-information about His kingdom in heaven,--so that a man may no longer remain in doubt as to the great question whether, if he dies, he shall live again.
     Those who know Swedenborg's Writings see in them ideas of spiritual import, which many others would value and want, if only they knew about them.
     Almost any Christian would agree, we think, that the descent to earth of the Holy City Jerusalem, described in the Revelation of John, means Christianity in its perfect state. To establish this perfect Christianity, it is a certainty also that Jesus promised He would come again, in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory-thus to make all things of religion new.
     This coming of the Lord again in the clouds of heaven, we interpret to mean the making known to men of the internal spiritual meaning which is within the letter of the Old and New Testaments. For the letter of the Scriptures is what is meant by the clouds of heaven; but the spiritual sense of the Scriptures is the glory and the power. This Second Coming of the Lord we believe He has accomplished through the things which He Himself has revealed to men through the instrumentality of the man Swedenborg.
     There is one teaching of the New Church, or of those who follow the Writings of Swedenborg,-a teaching in particular which if it is believed, will make many things of theology new. It is the teaching that Jesus Christ was not, as now commonly thought, one Person in a Trinity, or one of a trio of Divine Persons, all three of whom were Divine equally: but that He alone is God, one Person, the only God of heaven and earth; that He is the Father, He is the Son, and He is the Holy Spirit.

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The whole of the Divine Trinity is in Him Alone. The Father is the Divine Soul of Christ; the Son is the Humanity in which that Soul clothed Itself, and which was born of the Virgin; and the Holy Spirit is the life and operation of the Lord which goes forth from Him. According to this view, He who was born a man and afterwards glorified, is the one only God, who thus took on flesh and became Man. As we humbly believe, the Father was His own Divine Soul, and the Holy Spirit is the Divine truth and love that go forth from Him. And belief in Him as the One in whom dwells all the fulness of the Divinity is the belief that saves and regenerates men, making all things of their life new. "He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new."
     Now, anyone can deny that the New Testament is true but no one can deny the fact that it foretells a second coming of Christ. And anyone who believes in the New Testament must therefore be interested to know what is to be the nature of His second coming. For our part, we have come to believe that it has taken place through these Books of Doctrine. Swedenborg, making himself nothing but a Servant of the Lord, says this about his own writings: "From the first day of my call to the office of Revelator. I have not received anything relating to the Doctrine of the New Church from myself, or from any spirit or angel, but from the Lord alone."
     John said, "I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away." The making of all things new cannot but mean the formation of a new heaven of Christians in the spiritual world, and on earth the formation of a New Church, or the beginning of a new era of the Church on earth. But it is difficult to see how this could be done except by the revealing of new truth from the Lord Himself,-the making known of new Doctrine. It is our belief that this has been done. And this new Doctrine is open to all Christians everywhere. It is not the exclusive property of our little organization, which we call the "New Church." It is the property of all who may be interested in it.
      You may not believe, as we do, that Jesus Christ has revealed new Divine Truth of great import to all Christians, through the pen of Emanuel Swedenborg; but still we wish to spread the knowledge of these books which are so little known. For to us they are as valuable as the Scriptures themselves, adding a new glory to the Word of God by revealing its internal meaning more fully.

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     In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, we pray that He will make all things new with you, in your thoughts and in your affections, and will bless you by opening to you the secrets of His Word and the ways of His merciful Providence. To believe in Him makes all things new in our lives. It enables us to understand many things that are hard to understand, and gives us new courage and confidence in the ways of the Lord.
     Our one greatest desire is that all Christians may know the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg, which he claims to have received by special enlightenment from the Lord our Saviour, whom, in His Divine Humanity, we believe to be the one God of heaven and earth. For in these books we believe you will find, if you have not already found it, the truth that will make all things new,-the interior doctrine that is represented by the Holy City New Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, to the end that the Christian religion may revive and be perpetually renewed. For He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new." Amen.

LESSONS:     Mark 4: 1-20. Revelation 21: 1-12. D. P. 333, 334.
MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 438, 466, 604.
PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 82, 93.
PROPAGATING THE HEAVENLY DOCTRINE 1941

PROPAGATING THE HEAVENLY DOCTRINE              1941

     The Lord was born on this earth, and not on some other, because on this earth the doctrine published from heaven can be propagated throughout the world, and remain for thousands of years. For on this earth, from ancient times, such things have been committed to paper, and eventually printed in type, and can thus be propagated throughout the world, and also be permanent. On this earth, and not elsewhere, there is communication of this kind, and also traveling. Elsewhere the inhabitants are distinguished into nations, families and houses, and they do not know how to write down what they know, nor how to communicate it to all others. Moreover, when the heavenly doctrine concerning the Lord is known on one earth, the rest can thereby know it when they become spirits and angels. (Spiritual Diary 4781.)

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FEEDING THE FIVE THOUSAND 1941

FEEDING THE FIVE THOUSAND        GEORGE DE CHARMS       1941


     A TALK TO CHILDREN.

     As the Lord journeyed from Nazareth to Capernaum, the disciples of John the Baptist came to Him, saying that their beloved teacher had been slain by King Herod. When the Lord heard this, He immediately took ship with His disciples, seeking to escape from the great multitude that pressed upon Him. He crossed the northern end of the Sea of Galilee, and came to a desert place not far from Bethsaida, where He went up into a mountain apart. But the people followed Him, walking around the shore of the Sea, that they might meet Him on the other side. When the Lord saw them coming, He received them kindly, and' spake unto them of the Kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing."
     But as the day wore on, the Lord had compassion on these people, because they were far from home, and they had nothing to eat. He said, therefore, to Philip, "Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" He said this to test Philip's faith; "for He Himself knew what He would do." Philip replied, "Two hundred penny-worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little," meaning that in such a wilderness it was impossible to secure food for so great a multitude. But Andrew, who had been one of the first to follow the Lord, and who believed in His Divine power, went among the people and inquired whether any of them had brought any food. And presently he came back to the Lord, saying, "There is a little boy here, who has five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?" At once the Lord said, "Make the men sit down." And they all sat down on the grass, in companies of about a hundred people each. There were about five thousand men, beside women and children.
After they were all seated, the Lord stood before them, and taking the loaves in His hands, He gave thanks, and brake them, and gave the pieces to the disciples, who distributed them among the people.

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And He did the same with the fishes. And as He brake the bread, it seemed as though it would never be used up. The more He gave to the disciples, the more there was to give, until the whole multitude had eaten as much as they could. And then the Lord told His disciples to gather up the fragments that were left, and they found twelve basketsful of food that could not be eaten. And those who had seen this miracle said to one another, " This of a truth is that prophet which should come into the world."
     It seemed to them a marvellous thing that the Lord could thus create food in an instant. So also it must seem to you. And yet, if we think about it, there was nothing more wonderful in this than there is in what the Lord is doing for us all the time. How does He give us food? We take a little grain of wheat, and place it in the ground. In a few months it grows into a stalk that bears hundreds of grains of wheat, just like the one we planted. We put an apple seed into the ground, and in course of time it becomes a tree, and each year it bears hundreds of apples for us to eat. One fish lays millions of eggs, and from these eggs thousands of little fish are hatched, and grow to be large like their mother. So it is with everything else that grows. It is multiplied a thousandfold.
     Now in order to do these things, the Lord must gather from the ground, the water, and the air, all the materials out of which the wheat, the apples, and the fish are made. He must bring them together, and order them, and form them into these things that we can eat, just as He did with the bread and fish beside the Sea of Galilee. The only difference is, that while ordinarily He takes time, working slowly, that we may see step by step how it is done, on the occasion by the sea He did it so quickly that no one could tell how He did it. In this case, the Lord stood before them, and they saw that it was He who was making food for them to eat; but in the process of growth, we do not see the Lord. Things seem to grow of themselves. Yet it is the Lord who does it in both cases. For no man can make a grain of wheat, or an apple, or a fish. The Lord alone can do this. And it is really just as wonderful when He does it slowly as when He did it quickly. The one thing is that we see plants and animals growing all the time, and we are so accustomed to it that we cease to wonder, and take it for granted, often even forgetting that it is the Lord who does it.

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     This is the reason why the Lord fed the multitude in the wilderness. He wanted men to know that He was the Lord, that He had power over all things, and that it is He who, day by day, and year by year, provides food for all men, so that they may give thanks to Him, and may learn to love and worship Him.
     But more than this. The Lord must not only provide food for our bodies; He must also feed our minds. This is even more important. For we need our bodies for a time while we live on earth, and then we cast them off, in order that we may begin to live in the spiritual world. It is our minds that live in that world; nor do they ever die, but go on giving us blessings of truth and happiness and use in heaven forever.
     When you are very little, perhaps you think that the most important thing in the world, and the most delightful, is to have plenty of good things to eat. But as you grow older you realize that there are other things more important and more delightful than this. You grow to love your play so much that you do not want to stop when mealtime comes, and you beg your mother to let you stay cut a little longer, so you may finish your game. And when you get to be men and women, you will in the same way grow to love your work, and often may forget that it is time to eat. This is because the life for which the Lord is preparing us-the life of our mind, the life that we will enjoy forever in the other world-is much more valuable and more full of happiness than the life of the body.
     By means of your play, and later by means of your work, you learn. The Lord gives you food that satisfies the hunger of your mind. And this is just as great a miracle-nay, it is a greater miracle-than the one by which He provides food for your body. The bread of heaven-the food that nourishes your mind, and causes it to grow, and prepares it to serve the Lord in an eternal use among the angels,-is knowledge concerning the Lord. It is the understanding of His Word. It is this above all else that we mean when we pray the Lord to "give us this day our daily bread." And this food for our souls the Lord must make for us continually, even as He broke the bread to feed the people in the wilderness.
     When we read this story, therefore, let us remember that the Lord did not perform this miracle merely that we might know that He could, while He was on earth, create bread and fish in an instant.

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He did it in order that we might know that He makes every day the food that is necessary to sustain our life, both the life of our body and the life of our mind. He did it in order that, knowing this, we might lift up our hearts in praise and thanksgiving to Him for all His mercies toward us, and might give proof of our gratitude by trying, day by day, to learn the truth of His Word and keep His law. For the Lord knows that in keeping this there is great reward, both here on earth and to eternity in heaven after death.

LESSON:     John 6: 1-14.
MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 424 434, 441, 456.
NEW YEAR REFLECTIONS 1941

NEW YEAR REFLECTIONS       Rev. A. WYNNE ACTON       1941

     The beginning of a new year is a time when we naturally look back and review the events of the past year, and also look forward to the promises and hopes of the year to come. This particular new year, when world-events are moving with such rapidity and so spectacularly, we are in danger of being overwhelmed by them. It is more difficult quietly to meditate on the slower and less obvious changes within the church and within ourselves.
     We have hopes that the ministrations of the church may be continued during the coming year, and perhaps increased, as we become more accustomed to war conditions. But the degree to which this can be done will depend on the support and interest of the members. When all else seems dark and obscure, we may appreciate more fully, and seek more eagerly, that true Light which the Lord brings through the teaching of His Church.
     The very difficulty of the times comes as a challenge to us, and may therefore serve as an external stimulus to carry on and further the uses of the church. We should gladly seize the opportunity of putting our faith to the test on the external plane. And we may know that the events which are happening around us will either make us stronger men and women of the New Church, or else the faith which we held only in externals will gradually be taken away from us.

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     When we think of the problems before the nations of the world during this war, and especially of those which will arise afterwards, our mind tends to become lost in their vastness. And yet we know that no true answer can be found for the establishment of world-order apart from the light of the Divine teaching of the Heavenly Doctrine. The realization of this may give us a fuller grasp of the necessity of the New Church, not only for ourselves, but for the whole world.
     And this view is emphasized when we look at the solutions for world-problems which are from time to time set forth. In ninety- nine cases out of a hundred there is no reference of any kind to religion, or inspiration from religion, as if religion were a worn-out institution, and the world could get along much better without it. This is indeed true of the degenerate form which is now passing under the name of the Christian Religion, and we can see this war as the ultimate effect of the spiritual disintegration of that Church. Only in this way could the speciousness of the imaginary heavens built by that Church be made clear, and men freed from them. As a consequence, the power of the present Christian Church on earth will he more and more broken, and we may the more fully realize the importance of the establishment of the New Church.
     Let our hopes and aspirations for the new year be centered upon the establishment of the church on earth, beginning with ourselves. We cannot wait until the war is over to do that which is right and good, but must prepare now for a better world by receiving the Lord's truth into our understandings, and carrying it out into our daily lives. So far as we do this-our simple duty-we are forwarding the uses of the church, and contributing our small but important part to the establishment of the Lord's Kingdom upon earth.
     [Editorial in "News Letter," London, January 1, 1941.]

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ACADEMY FOUNDERS' DAY 1941

ACADEMY FOUNDERS' DAY              1941

     The observance of the 67th anniversary of Founders' Day this year brought forth some hitherto unpublished material which will be of interest to members of the Church, as throwing light upon the conditions in the New Church that gave rise to the Academy movement.
     The celebration in Bryn Athyn took the form of a buffet supper given by the General Faculty in the choir hall on Sunday evening, January 12, attended by about eighty persons associated with the work of the Academy, past and present. The program featured many toasts and songs; the principal speakers were Dr. Doering and Dr. Whitehead, whose addresses are printed below; the Prologue of Words for the New Church was read by Mr. Randolph W. Childs; and the program closed with a general discussion in which many took part.
     In a brief introduction, the Rev. W. B. Caldwell, toastmaster, recalled that the Academy had had several beginnings. The meeting in Pittsburgh on January 12, 1874, was indeed the first definite move toward the formal organization which came two years later, but the doctrinal beliefs afterwards known as " Academy principles " had been germinating in the Church for some time. Thirty years before (1844), Mr. Benade had met the Rev. Richard de Charms, and thereafter received from him a two year's theological training, during which he was thoroughly indoctrinated in the ideals that were seeking ultimation in the Central Convention. (See NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1937, pp. 110, 111.)
     In the ensuing years (1844-1874), the group of priests and laymen who shared these ideals called themselves the " Harmony," and they cherished the hope of an "Academy" which should be the means of establishing and perpetuating their beliefs, the chief tenet of which was the acknowledgment of the Divine Authority of the Writings, involving a full acceptance and application of their teachings concerning the state of the Christian world and the need of a distinctive New Church, with its own priesthood and education.

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     These ideals or principles were uppermost in the minds of the four Founders,-Rev. W. H. Benade and Messrs. John Pitcairn, Walter C. Childs, and Franklin Ballou,-when they met at luncheon on January 12, 1874, and "organized a New Church Club." (See NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1917, p. 286.) To promote their aims, which they regarded as essential to the welfare and progress of the Church, they looked in two directions: (1) To a reform in the organized New Church; and (2) To the cultivation of their principles among those who were already favorable to them-the development of the scholarship necessary to a thorough understanding of the Writings. It was a "back to the Writings" movement. They decided to propagandize in print, and the first fruit of the plan was the Serial, Words of the New Church, brought out in eleven parts, 1877-1883, and afterwards made available in two bound volumes.
     Meanwhile, the Academy as a School had been started, first with theological classes for prospective ministers; and the development of the movement came chiefly in the General Church of Pennsylvania, an Association within the General Convention until 1890, when it became evident that a reform within existing New Church organizations was impossible, and that freedom to apply the Academy principles could only be attained in a separate body.
     As we look back to the history of those times we realize that we enjoy today many things for which we may well be grateful to the courage and conviction and the tireless efforts of the pioneers.
Prologue of "Words for the New Church." 1941

Prologue of "Words for the New Church."       Rev. J. P. STUART       1941

     The Heavenly Doctrines as unfolded in the Writings of Swedenborg we joyously take as our guide in conducting the Serial. Indeed, as we come into a more searching culture of these Writings, we discover more and more the vastness of their scope. They find us every where. And these Doctrines, being themselves Divine, are the measure of all else. They are the Tabernacle of God with men; the Lord Himself in His Advent making all things new. What more, therefore, can we have? What more than these grand disclosures, which are the final analysis of all that has respect to God, and to Man, and to the relation between the two?
     Well, therefore, may we devote ourselves to the development in ourselves and others of a familiar knowledge of this system of Divine Truth,-to an actual internal propaganda of the faith,-to the bringing of our own lives, and of all that is dearest to us, under the influences of these wonderful disclosures through the Word, made by the Lord in His Second Advent.

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     Divine Revelation throws light upon Science-answering its questions, and solving its mysteries; and to these earnest workers and experimenters, the Scientists, we owe a duty, for we have a blessing in store for them. The New Church has no conflict with true Science for all Truth is harmonious; and the marvelous developments on the scientific plane of life which characterize the present age will in the end stand forth as the orderly basis of the true Church which is coming down from God out of heaven. Finally, therefore, there can be no conflict.
     Literature presents a singular phase in the present day, by opening the long lost Sacred Books of the East. China, India, Persia, and Egypt come with Books claiming Divine Inspiration, and a marvelously high antiquity. The revelations made for the New Church solve the mysteries of these Ancient Books, showing their use under the Divine Providence, and giving them their place in history. Why not then, help those who cannot explain the mystery of these religions, by unfolding the teachings of the Heavenly Doctrines in their bearings upon these unsolved problems?
     A more thorough culture of the disclosures made for the New Church would in many respects relieve the Church from its entanglements. This more thorough culture we seek to promote. The duties of the day ought to be better understood. In the Church, the Minister, the People, and all things that relate to life, worship, and Church extension, which, partially unfolded in our literature are only unfolded in part. We must therefore consider more in detail Education in the New Church, in general and in particular; and most especially the education of young men for the Ministry, and their proper qualification for the sacred office.
     In all that concerns the Church, Divine Revelation is the formulary of faith and the basis of action; and not preconceived opinion, self-will, or the conceits of self-intelligence. In the end we must all come to the Writings of the Church,-the Divine Doctrines that are given by the Lord through the Word, in the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem.
     (REV. J. P. STUART.)

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CHURCH IN 1874 1941

CHURCH IN 1874       Rev. C. E. DOERING       1941

     I have been asked to recall something of the spirit of the times of the Founders, in order to provide a setting for this anniversary celebration.
     We know that, at the meeting on January 12, 1874, they discussed the state of the New Church, and how the Church as a whole, under incompetent leadership and the lack of instruction in revealed truth, seemed to be hopelessly drifting into the permeation persuasion. We also know that they decided to do something about it, and also how and what they were going to do.
     But to get the spirit of the times, perhaps the best way is to take a brief survey of what was going on in the Church for a period of years preceding the date of that meeting. I shall do this principally from letters in our Archives which, for the most part, have not been published hitherto, so far as I know.
     The decade of the sixties was one in which many of the doctrines which were later known as Academy principles were attacked and defended in the General Convention and in Convention publications. Particularly was this true of the doctrine of the Divine Authority of the Writings. I say the decade of the sixties, because the public discussion of this and most controversial matters in the NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE and the NEW CHURCH MESSENGER was very prominent in the sixties, while the Rev. J. P. Stuart was editor of the MESSENGER but it was not carried much beyond the year 1870. The reason given by Mr. Stuart in a letter to Mr. Benade was that all the means of publication were in the control of those opposed to the Authority doctrine, who had adopted a hush-hush policy in the belief that, if differences in view were not discussed and aired in the magazines, they would gradually subside. Yet the controversy was carried on until 1874 by private correspondence between Mr. Benade and Mr. Thomas Worcester. But of this later.
     It may not be out of place to recall that, in the fifties, Benade and Stuart began making plans for a school for New Church education.

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Mr. Benade was conducting his society school on Cherry Street, Philadelphia, and Mr. Stuart was at the New Church University at Urbana, Ohio. Here, however, Mr. Stuart was controlled by a lay board that did not allow him to carry out his ideas, and he left the University in 1861 after ten years of service. He wrote in his diary: "It is now ten years since I came to Urbana and set on foot this movement, and I then determined to give ten years of my life to this cause. The ten years are passed, and the result is before us: 1. A New Church college is demanded; the time has come. 2. Students are ready. 3. Money is ready to give an endowment. 4. We have neither students nor money, because we are unworthy of both."
     Both men had been consulting each other on educational matters for many years, and there is much evidence in their correspondence that they looked forward to the establishment of New Church education, from the theological school downward, and were making plans for it. But the time was not yet.
     Mr. Stuart left Urbana in 1861, and was appointed Editor of the NEW CHURCH MESSENGER. Among his contributing editors were the Revs. W. H. Benade, J. R. Hibbard, and N. C. Burnham. About the same time Mr. Benade also had to give up his school in Philadelphia, and moved to Pittsburgh. But he and Mr. Stuart continued their correspondence.
     It was at this time that Mr. Thomas Worcester publicly proclaimed in Convention the doctrine that the truths of the Writings are the truths of Swedenborg's good,-the perceptions of his regenerated state. This appeared in the MESSENGER, and later, 1863, in a sermon on the first verse of the Apocalypse, in which he held that the office of the Apostle John corresponds to the office of Swedenborg. Since John, who is the servant of the Lord, represents all those who are in the good of charity, therefore Swedenborg, who also is the servant of the Lord, was in that good of charity, and hence in the perception of the truth.
     You can imagine the avalanche from Hibbard, Benade, Burnham and Wilks that poured into the MESSENGER when this sermon appeared, all attacking it from different angles. While all this was going on, Mr. Worcester kept up a lively correspondence with Mr. Stuart, the Editor, in which he expressed himself rather freely about the state of his attackers, while he flattered Mr. Stuart, whom he undoubtedly hoped would declare himself editorially in his favor.

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In a letter of January 12, 1864, Mr. Worcester wrote Mr. Stuart: "Wilks and Benade think they are engaged in the cause of the New Church, but they are mistaken. I long to see them begin to see where they are. But how will they ever get right? Can anyone who knows from experience what it is to be in truth from good imagine that Swedenborg's regeneration had nothing to do with his preparation for his office?
     Mr. Stuart, however, did not commit himself. He consulted Mr. Worcester on matters relating to the Convention's business, but he said not one word on the controversy. Then, on March 13, 1864, Mr. Worcester wrote to him: " Don't you see plainly that the reason why we do not get along better in relation to Swedenborg is because some of us are not in the good of life derived from charity and its faith? But I do hope and believe that this controversy will do something towards giving that principle its proper place in the New Church. Something was needed. I do not feel at all satisfied with such a mode of reviewing as is manifested in Hibbard, Benade, Wilks, and Burnham. They think that Swedenborg entered into heavenly things by a solifidian way, by his understanding alone, by faith alone. This, we know, all heaven and the God of heaven forbids. I hope they are in a better state than their opinions and their conduct in this subject indicate."
     After further solicitation on the part of Mr. Worcester, Mr. Stuart wrote a very cautious editorial, published in the issue of April 23, 1864, in which his thesis was that the law of regeneration was no different with Swedenborg than it was with any other man. I do not suppose that it pleased either Mr. Worcester or his reviewers; for it really did not touch the matter at issue.
     The controversy was earnest, but did not descend to personalities, and was kept on the plane of doctrinal discussion. Yet there is an implication of a judgment upon the states of his critics in the following from a letter which Mr. Worcester sent to the MESSENGER:
     I have asked the question whether there is not a correspondence between the office of John and the office of Swedenborg. To those who wish to see whether there is such a correspondence, I have endeavored to give some aid, and am ready to give more."

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     Mr. Benade certainly saw in this letter a characterization of the states of those who differed from Mr. Worcester; for in writing Mr. Stuart, not as editor, but privately. he said: "Have you ever published anything more stupidly arrogant than this? . . . Worcester knows that others, and among them ministers of the Church, differ from him in regard to this matter. Who or what gives him the right to insinuate that they do not wish to see and know the truth? What has he got to do with our wills and motives? Again, moreover, and lastly, why does he not put himself fairly and squarely on the basis of the declaration that the Apocalypse, in its internal sense, treats of Swedenborg? Why does he only imply this? Why does he not say John represents Swedenborg?
     Another matter now turned the attention of the Church in a different direction. In 1865, Mr. Worcester, in his annual address, spoke of the shortage of ministers, and asks the question, "Do we not need a school for the education of ministers?" Mr. Stuart thought he here saw a chance to have a real New Church school organized, with the support of the whole Church, and at once moved that this matter be referred to the ecclesiastical committee.
     The ecclesiastical committee appointed a sub-committee, consisting of Messrs. Stuart, Hibbard, and Giles, to look into the matter. They at once got busy, and reported that there were sixty-five societies and only thirty-six ministers, and recommended that the Convention proceed to establish such an institution. The report was received with approval, and a new committee of seven, consisting of Messrs. Stuart, Giles, Hayden, Scammon, Sampson Reed, and Williams, with the President of the Convention presiding, was appointed to carry out the recommendation. Notice the personnel of this new committee. Of the seven, Stuart was the only one who believed in the Divine Authority of the Writings, the only one of the Harmony" group. He wanted the school established in New York, with Mr. Benade at the head of it. But Mr. Worcester forestalled him by offering the use of the buildings of the "Institute of New Church Education" at Waltham, Mass.; and so it was decided to open the school there.
     Stuart, however, was allowed a hand in planning the course of studies at the beginning, and he and Benade were to give lectures. This they did in the summer of 1866. But they were not asked to continue. Mr. Worcester, in writing to Mr. Stuart about this, said he was very sorry that his (Stuart's) lectures were discontinued, but he could not help it, as he was overruled by the others on the Committee.

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He said practically the same thing later in a letter to Mr. Benade. Thus the school was not what Mr. Benade or Mr. Stuart looked for; nor was it even a compromise between the two opinions, but was completely under the domination of the New England element. And those two gentlemen were thrown back to their original plan of an academy founded on the acknowledgment of the Authority of the Writings; and they kept on writing to each other about it. But before it could materialize, some other things had to take place.
     Prof. Theophilus Parsons, writing on the subject of "Who and What are Priests?" in the NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE, October, 1870, took exception to any organized priesthood in the New Church. He thought that laymen could preach as well as ministers, and often better, and says, among other things: "What does Swedenborg tell us on this subject? Nothing directly, so far as I know, but much indirectly. To understand the meaning and purpose of what he says, we should remember that his father was a Lutheran Bishop; that he was educated a Lutheran, and never renounced his communion with that Church, but to some extent acknowledged it on his deathbed."
     Mr. Benade at once took up the challenge to New Church ministers thrown out by Prof. Parsons, and replied in an article which appeared in two installments in the NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE. The first installment called forth the following letter from Thomas Worcester to Mr. Benade (February 13, 1871): "I have read the first part of your article, and I presume I shall agree with you about the ministry; but you do not know how sorry I am on account of your argument for the authority of Swedenborg. It will be such a damage to your cause. If you had taken the authority for granted, and then have gone on and shown what he teaches, your article would be 99 per cent better than now. I want that you should get a different view of Swedenborg, for I think your present view is injurious to you and to the Church; and having this idea, it seems that I ought to try to show you that your view is not right, so please let me try." And he then goes on to show what he considers to be errors and discrepancies in the Writings, and so asks: " How can they be God speaking?
     This opened the way for a correspondence that lasted until 1874.

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Mr. Benade replied on February 28, 1871, at very great length. To quote in part:

     The article in the MAGAZINE, to which you refer, was written in reply to that of T. Parsons. Upon him rests the responsibility of having introduced the subject of Swedenborg's authority into the question concerning the Priesthood. The assertion that we are to look to what Swedenborg says in regard to the Priesthood through the medium of his father's Lutheran theology, for this is the import of his language, is a direct blow aimed, not at Swedenborg, but at the revelation of the doctrine of the New Church, which I could not pass over in silence without doing violence to my sense of duty. As I view the matter, Mr. Parson's assertion is neither more nor less than Unitarian infidelity imported into the New Church, and so applied as to undermine the fundamental doctrine of the Second Coming of the Lord. If my remarks on this head have damaged my cause, as you seem to apprehend, I can only express my sorrow for the state of mind which has been thus affected by them. . . When I cite the doctrine of the New Church on any subject, I appeal to them as the Lord's Divine teaching of the truth, revealed by Himself from His Word.
     "You will see from these brief observations that I hold the revelation of the Doctrines of the New Church to be purely a Divine work, and Swedenborg's instrumentality in it to be relatively no more than the instrumentality of Moses and the prophets in the work of revealing the Word. That the Lord made use of the rational and scientific mind of Swedenborg, of his various abilities acquired by study of natural sciences, etc., and not, as in the case of Moses and the prophets, of their external memory and merely natural powers, etc., was owing altogether to the degree of the truth which He revealed by Swedenborg, and to the requirements of that condition of the human mind to which He comes in the dispensation of spiritual truth. How else will you understand Swedenborg's own declaration that his works 'were written by the Lord through him'?
     "It resolves itself into this syllogism. The doctrines of the New Church are the spiritual sense of the Word. . . . The Divinity of the Word resides in the spiritual sense. Therefore the Divinity of the Word resides in the Doctrines of the New Church, and they are the Lord's Divine teaching or Revelation of Himself which now descends from Him out of heaven, and in which He comes Himself to establish His New Church.

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I see only the Lord, and nothing but the Lord, in the Doctrine of the New Church. And if this be a C shocking conclusion' to my brethren, I can only say I am sincerely sorry for them, and feel convinced that they will not be shocked at it any more when they come into the other world and see truth in the light in which the angels see it from the Lord."

     Mr. Benade apologized for the length of his letter, but adds: "This is the vital question which lies at the bottom of much of the disagreement and difficulty which obstruct movement of the Church."
     Mr. Worcester replied: CC As to the use of the word Authority, I do not imagine that we should differ; for, like you, I believe that Swedenborg's statements are true, even when I am not in a state to understand them. As when a person is studying Geometry, if he has seen that fifty propositions are true, he will believe that the fifty-first is true before he has seen that it is true. . . . My idea is this, that Swedenborg came into his office gradually-that he had some spiritual light from the Lord when he wrote the Adversaria and other things which he did not publish; that he had much more when he wrote the first volume of the Arcana Celestia, and still more when he wrote the last; and so on, through the whole of his work."
     Mr. Benade answered that Swedenborg's progressive regeneration does not affect the Divinity of what the Lord gave through Swedenborg: CC This is the point. The things revealed for the use of the New Church are revealed by the Lord to Swedenborg; they are therefore the Lord's revelations, and not Swedenborg's. As such, they are Divine Authority. They are the standard of truth which the Lord sets up for man in this day of His Coming. He presents Himself in them; they are Divinely true, not only in general, but also in all their particulars, even to the least, as these are given in "the Writings for the New Church."
     The correspondence between these two men continued up to 1874 without either changing the mind of the other. Finally, Mr. Worcester stated that he had tried to understand Mr. Benade, had re-read his letters that he might understand; but he supposed they would have to wait until they met in the other world, since there was no prospect of their meeting here, as he never left Boston.

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In one of his letters, he noted what a fine thing it was for two men to carry on a controversy without getting offended.
     While this controversy was in progress, the General Convention readmitted the Rev. B. F. Barrett as one of its ministers. He was the leader of the idea that the Christian world is becoming New Church. He did not originate it, but he took it up and threw all the efforts of his forensic ability behind it, in such a way as very seriously to affect the Church. It worried the men of the "Harmony," because the organized New Church in this country was retrograding very rapidly.
     How to stem this retrogression was the subject discussed by the four men who met sixty-seven years ago today. And their conclusion was, that Mr. Benade should write an article on the state of the Christian world, showing what the Writings teach about it. The article was to be published, and sent to the members throughout the New Church. Mr. Pitcairn agreed to defray the expense of publishing such an article. (My information regarding this is from Bishop W. F. Pendleton, confirmed by Mr. Walter Childs.)
     The plan, however, was later modified, as it was thought that the first article should be on the Advent of the Lord in and by the Writings, to be followed by one on the state of the Christian world. This was done, as you may see from Words for the New Church, the Prologue of which also shows that the means by which the end was to be effected was very much enlarged. But though the plans were changed, nevertheless that meeting may be considered the first concrete fruition of the plans which Messrs. Benade and Stuart had been maturing for so many years.
     Just one word more in closing. For almost twenty years, Mr. Benade and Mr. Stuart had been planning and planning the Academy; yet nothing concrete was done beyond their teaching, each in his own limited sphere. But now, at the meeting we are commemorating, where one of these ministers discussed the question with laymen who had received instruction and accepted the teaching of the Writings, then something was done. The Academy became an actuality, showing that it takes both ministers and laymen, inspired with the same ideals and working together, to form an institution that is effective for the building of the Church.

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PROPAGANDA AND THE EARLY ACADEMY 1941

PROPAGANDA AND THE EARLY ACADEMY       Rev. WILLIAM WHITEHEAD       1941

     IN the vault of Benade Hall lies a collection of small, wooden packing cases. Except for one, they have probably remained unopened since they were sent from the Lippincott publishing house well over half a century ago. They contain the original plates of Words for the New Church,-a work that deserves better attention from the present generation than it seems to obtain. Perhaps its neglect is to be expected. Mark Twain once remarked that, when he was ten years of age, he thought his father was a rather dull old man, but that when he reached twenty, his father had become surprisingly intelligent.
     But, of course, there are reasons for this indifference other than lack of maturity. The literature of the seventies and eighties-especially theological literature-was heavy in style as compared with the streamline liberties taken today with the English language. Moreover, propaganda literature often involves controversy over subordinate issues arising from the states of the times-issues which may he or which seem no longer worth a fight. And again, propaganda frequently raises a duststorm of personalities which tend to blot out the real causes of the conflict.
     But perhaps most of all, nowadays, the word propaganda has come under suspicion as a synonym for distortion, dishonesty, or the subversive activity of self-seeking interests; and this largely because of the current practices in war, in politics, and in commercial publicity. And yet the word is of respectable and ancient lineage. The New English Dictionary on Historical Principles describes it as any association, systematic scheme or connected movement for the propagation of a particular doctrine or practice." Even the new-born American Institute for Propaganda Analysis,-an institute designed to sterilize the American mind against anything except what it calls "facts,"-says that "propaganda is expression of opinion or action by individuals or groups deliberately designed to influence opinions or actions of other individuals or groups with reference to predetermined ends."

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     Nearly twenty years ago the gifted American essayist, Agnes Repplier, said: "When one looks in the dictionary for the word 'propaganda,' its definition suggests nothing reprehensible. Why should not an organization for 'spreading doctrines or a system of principles' be a decent, candid, and upright organization, inviting the attention and challenging the goodwill of mankind?" And she went on to say (referring to the First World War): "One of the ill turns done by the war was the investing of this ancient and honorable word with a sinister significance, making it at once a term of reproach and the plague and torment of our lives."
     In point of fact, the word has a theological origin. Pope Gregory XIII set up a Commission of Cardinals to spread Catholicism and to regulate ecclesiastical affairs in heretical areas and in heathen lands; and historians agree that this resulted, in 1622, in the first propaganda institute. I do not know whether the Academy authors of Words for the New Church were aware of this Catholic origin, but they probably would have agreed that they, too, sought "to regulate ecclesiastic affairs in heretical areas and in heathen lands."
     The truth is, (and I base this on many things in the documented record), that the New Church in America for at least two decades prior to the advent of the Academy had become markedly externalized. A dead uniformity of conventional piety, and obedience to the New England theological leaders of the Church, prevailed. The leaders of the General Convention frowned upon what they evidently considered the fanatical views contained in Benade's famous "Report on the Nature of Swedenborg's Illumination" in which, in 1861, he proclaimed that the Writings are the Word. They tabled his move, in 1870, to disapprove preaching by laymen. (MESSENGER 18: 393, 403, 409.) They tabled his proposal of robes for the priesthood. They gave the feeblest of support to his efforts, in 1872, to give Urbana University a real endowment and a distinctive New Church education. They stifled the Book of Doctrine prepared by him from the Writings; and, in 1876, they made a secession inevitable when they refused to publish the new Liturgy, the preparation of which by the Benade group they themselves had previously requested and sanctioned. (MESSENGER 30: 206, 294.)

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And the Rev. Chauncey Giles climaxed the procedure by throwing reflections on the standing, scholarship and ability of the Academy group.
     The blunt truth is, that the uses of these Academy men, in developing the genuine doctrine of the Church from the Writings, was subjected to a smothering policy of inhibition, which was not any less unjust because of its suavity.
     One's first impression is that there might have been no need for the propaganda of the Words for the New Church if the leaders of the Convention had not insisted on more or less uniformity of thought-a uniformity which is rarely either necessary or desirable. Common sense might have suggested a resort to the policy of Gamaliel. (See Acts 5: 38-39.) Academy men learned much in those days about the distinction between good and bad propaganda. Certainly they preferred to cradle the Academy movement in the principle of freedom; and I think we may claim that-despite some seasons and occasions of strain-we have successfully maintained that tradition.
     Certain it is that the leaders of the Convention committed a grave error when they tacitly used force-the persuasive force of officialdom and the use of majority vote-to ostracize a school of thought. And they were equally unfortunate when they violated the existing constitution of the General Convention itself in order to put down the new movement.
     But there were deeper justifications for the new propaganda than mere freedom for a new interpretation of the Writings.
     When we study the history of the worlds major rebellions on the political plane, we are struck by two facts, namely: (1) That those who rebel usually challenge the basic authority of the State; and (2) that they assail the form of the government. These two are inseparably connected. I do not know of any major heresy, whether in Church or State, that did not begin by challenging the nature of the fundamental authority, and end up by seeking to discredit or destroy the form of government. Herein is an instructive analogue.
      For the real issues in the Academy versus Convention fight were:
     (1) The Divine Authority of the Writings, and (2) the Doctrine of the Priesthood. All other issues were subordinate to these.

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Granting that the perception of both of these doctrines had always been somewhat dim and obscure in the minds of New Churchmen in general, still there had been enough of light about these fundamental principles to make it clear that the organized New Church in the sixties and the seventies was lapsing into a definite betrayal of the distinctive dispensation of the Lord's Second Coming.
     The new propaganda of the Academy group was designed to awaken the Church to its danger of spiritual lethargy. It called upon New Churchmen everywhere to read and follow the Writings. The little group of laymen that met Bishop Benade in Pittsburgh on January 12, 1874, and the twelve men who met on June 19, 1876, had for the end of their propaganda "the building up of the Church in an ever more rational and intelligent reception of its Heavenly Truths."
     This propaganda was not based upon the idea of persuasion for the sake of the interests of an organization, but it was designed to draw attention to the Divine Truth. As a matter of fact, so far as the art of persuasion is concerned, the Academy has ever leaned backwards in its distrust of any high-pressure salesmanship of our faith to possible receivers. We have even resisted-and I think rightly so-the temptation to use a unique Cathedral building as a means of attracting members to our Church. The writers of Words for the New Church were interested only in drawing attention to the Divine Truth; and they would probably have agreed fully with Bertrand Russell when he recently wrote that "to acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy." (Power, p. 300.)
     The authors of Words for the New Church clearly did not conceive that their propaganda was in the nature of an opinion-factory in which they might manufacture the leading opinions of the Church. They only sought to bring the Church back to the Gospel of the Writings-the new Gospel discerned by Dr. Beyer in Sweden, by Robert Hindmarsh in England, and by James Glen and Richard de Charms in America.
     Finally, how was this propaganda in Words for the New Church received in the Church at large? A few sentences from the seven reviews which I have been able to trace may be new to you:
     In the INTELLECTUAL REPOSITORY for October 1, 1877, we find Mr. James Speirs of London extolling No. 1, on "The Advent of the Lord" in these words:

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"The number was referred to in the late Conference as follows: 'The Second Advent has perhaps never before, in the collateral writings of the New Church, been set forth in a manner so masterly and thorough.'" That opening article on "The Advent of the Lord" was written by the Rev. N. C. Burnham.
     On this side of the water, the NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE (October, 1877, pp. 331-2) was not so generous. It prefaced a biased selection of quotations, torn from their context, with the following: "We have no knowledge, nor have we as yet found any one able to inform us, of whom the Academy of the New Church consists. Whether large or small, weak or powerful, it is a body hitherto unknown, and having no recognized connection with any other organization of the Church. The natural presumption is, that it is an association of Philadelphia gentlemen formed for the purpose of publishing the above-named periodical, which is thus far the pole means of making known to the outside world their collective existence."

     However, it was No. 2, on "The State of the Christian World," also written by the Rev. N. C. Burnham, that aroused the greatest attention in the parent body.
     The NEW JERUSALEM MESSENGER (February, 1878, pp. 521-3) said: "An elaborate attempt is made to prove ... that the spiritual condition and prospects of the nations of Christendom are to the last degree sad and gloomy. . . . Whatever may have been the state of the Christian world at the time when Swedenborg wrote, we have no right to assume that it is no better now. On the contrary, we can find abundant cause for believing that it is greatly improved.
      They omit all mention of the distinction between the universal and the specific church. . . . A claim is asserted for the Divine nature of Swedenborg's writings, which is to us simply astounding."
     Kind words, however, though tempered with a little tartness, appear in the MESSENGER s lengthy review of No. VII, on "The Conflict of the Ages." The reviewer allows: "As a presentation of the historical progress of Divine Truth on earth, it is very valuable. . . We shall look forward to seeing the treatment of the Conflict in the New Church." (N. J. MESSENGER, November 17, 1880, p. 303.)
     In 1882, the MESSENGER (August 30, 1882, p. 144) briefly reviews No. X. Referring to the paper on "Infant and Orphan Homes" (the work of Bishop Wm. F. Pendleton), the reviewer says, "It is an interesting and instructive document."

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However, he concludes by saying: "We regret exceedingly to find in the comments on the Convention some reflections on the positions of some of its members that are not only uncharitable and partisan, but are unjust and untruthful."
     It seems, however, that the Academy men promptly challenged this; and the editor, the Rev. Chas. H. Mann, wrote half a column of tepid apology. (Ibid. p. 210.) He said: ". . . The language is more unqualified than we intended. The editor was absent at the time of the publication of that issue, and, contrary to the usual custom of our publisher, a proof of the review was not submitted to him for correction. If it had been, the language would have been modified." He then proceeded to make the same charges in a more careful language of piety.
     Perhaps the prize piece of the collection, however, is the following review of No. VIII, which appeared in the NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE for April, 1882, p. 217. It consists of two sentences: "This is a handsome pamphlet containing a careful historical sketch of primitive and mediaeval Christianity, and a few notes and reviews. The Convention and this Magazine are referred to in a way which leads us to think that the anonymous writer does not regard New Church people as infallible."
     But Words for the New Church was soon to be given a rest. A new theme had developed to trouble the reviewers. Only in the previous year, 1881, a young people's paper called NEW CHURCH LIFE had appeared. Promptly the NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE noticed this one, and, after saying it was " quite a lively journal," proceeded to charge it with dogmatism, personal allusion, assumed superiority, and contempt. (X. 353; MESSENGER V: 142.)
     Well, these amenities of the old days can be passed over now with a smile, even as our descendants are likely to smile over some of our records.
     The thing that really matters about the reception of Words for the New Church was the manner in which it was received by those who built this movement. For several years it formed a center of thought and interest with the men and women, both clerical and lay, who formed the early Academy organization.

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In a setting of distinctive worship, and of intellectual and social life, they made their main purpose that " of propagating the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem, . . promoting Education in all of its various forms, Educating Young Men for the Ministry, publishing Books, Pamphlets and other printed matter, and establishing a Library." (Charter, Article II.)
     The individuals who thus came together coalesced in a strong society, the internal of which was already in the spiritual world. Their association took the form, not of piety merely, but of definite uses of charity. And these uses slowly became institutionalized on a scale and with a power impossible in the early days of the Church.
     Our General Church, with its societies in Pittsburgh, Glenview, Canada, England, and many other places;-the Cathedral on this hill;-the Academy schools and organization;-this growing town, composed almost entirely of people of the same spiritual faith;-these things are not necessarily the signs of externalization, as in our moods of defeatism we are apt to fear. They are also the logical result of growing uses which have taken form, in the course of Providence, because men and women have remained faithful to the Divine principles upon which their association was founded. These uses are our "Words for the New Church." The ultimate power of organization-both spiritual and natural-never would have been ours, had all these individuals remained as isolated receivers.
     One of the reasons for the slow external growth of the specific Church lies in the isolation,-apartness,-and lack of cooperation in specific uses of charity-of its individual members. The New Jerusalem is a city. The Lord alone can build that city. But we must give to His service-even as the fathers of the Academy gave in unstinted measure-courage, patience, loyalty, faith and charity. And the greatest of these is charity.

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GLEANINGS FROM NEW CHURCH HISTORY 1941

GLEANINGS FROM NEW CHURCH HISTORY       STUDENTS IN 1880 ACADEMY       1941

     Among the earliest students in the Academy of the New Church was Charles Park Stuart, a grandson of the Rev. J. P. Stuart. In 1878, at the age of sixteen, he entered the College of the Academy, and graduated with a B.A. degree in 1881. Thereafter he became an instructor in the Academy. He also had a flair for journalistic endeavor, and was very active in promoting the transformation of "The Social Monthly" into the printed magazine, NEW CHURCH LIFE, the first number of which appeared in January, 1881. He was one of the Board of Editors, and contributed thirty-nine articles between 1881 and 1886, the year of his death at the age of twenty-four. (See NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1940, pp. 449-453.)
     The notebooks of Charles Stuart have recently come into the possession of the Academy Library, and in them we find, among other things, a number of letters which he wrote as Secretary of the Gymnasium. These he carefully copied longhand in a book before mailing. As furnishing a glimpse of the spirit and thought of the students of that early period of the Academy Schools, we print below three of his letters.
     In connection with these letters it would be well to recall that the Rev. John Whitehead and the Rev. E. C. Bostock graduated from the Academy Theological School in 1880, the former beginning his ministerial work in Pittsburgh, and the latter in Chicago.

     LETTERS OF CHARLES PARK STUART.

     1. To Edw. Spencer, Vineland, New Jersey.

          Philadelphia October 30 1880.

Dear Friend:
     Your welcome letter of the 10th is before me. You ask why I haven't written before. Well, I will be frank and tell you the chief reason. I felt somewhat dissatisfied with our correspondence.

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It seemed to me strange that two New Church young men, and old friends withal, should have so little to say to each other. We filled our letters with mere commonplaces and nonsense, such as any two Old Churchmen of average intelligence might write. Of course, it was pleasant to hear how you were getting along, and about the friends in Vineland, and to have the good old days of Vineland High School called to mind. But still this did not seem to me all there should be in our letters. We are two New Churchmen, and might be of great use to one another. There is so much that we might profitably talk about. Now you, yourself, have (lone what I did not know how to do. Your last letter is of an entirely different tone from any either of us has before written, and will, I trust, open the way for many more of the same kind.
     When you write, tell me about what you and John [Wells] are doing; I can't find out from George Starkey. Do you keep up those Sunday meetings you used to have, or do you go to the Old Church? What are you reading in the Writings? I, too, wish that you could be with us here in Philadelphia, and have a share in the many advantages which we enjoy. I am very thankful for them--thankful that I am surrounded by New Church people, that I am receiving a New Church education. Three years, and many more, could not he more profitably spent. My attending school here, and being under the sphere of the Academy, has changed the entire course of my life; and so it has been with others. I heard Mr. Bostock say, just before his departure, that he would not exchange the time he spent here "for all the rest of his life"! I never saw him show so much emotion. He evidently felt deeply what he said.
     What am I going to do with myself? Well, I don't know exactly, but of this I am certain: it shall be something in connection with the New Church!
     Not preaching; no, I don't intend becoming a minister, but I do intend being a New Church layman, and shall devote my little ability to some department of New Church work. And how much work there is before us! Every branch of learning is founded, at present, on false principles. Everything must be built up anew,- science, history, education, everything! We are, it sometimes seems to me, like pioneers in a new country-alone, with all the land before us, perplexed only at the immensity of the prospect, at the abundance of opportunities.
     Yes, I am almost through the college course, and next spring I suppose I shall graduate; but I don't feel as if I were nearly through my education. It seems as if I had scarcely begun. I don't intend, however, to stop studying when I graduate, but will do as you are doing-study at home.
     A week ago last Wednesday a good congregation gathered at our little church to witness the consecration of a New Church marriage, and, better still, an Academy marriage! Precisely at the appointed time (not a half an hour late, as is so often the case) the services began. The organist played a voluntary; the ushers, four in number, took their places; and then came the happy pair.
     Who were they? Why, John Whitehead and Mary Aitken, to be sure! But you would scarcely have recognized them,-Mary in her beautiful white silk, elaborately trimmed with flowers, and John Whitehead in his new clothes.

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Mr. Benade was arrayed in a purple and white robe, made especially for the occasion. The ceremony was very impressive. The "Bishop" read as if he meant every word he said. In the evening, at Mr. Aitken's, there was a reception. The parlor was well filled; for young Mrs. Whitehead has many friends. Upstairs the presents were displayed, and in the dining room were some things that pleased me greatly-cake! fruit! two bowls of punch! I think Mr. and Mrs. Whitehead have a happy life in store for them in the "smoky city of western Pennsylvania," to use the words of a rising young poet.
     Our two oldest students, Whitehead and Bostock, have both left us. But our school goes on much as usual. We have one new student.-Dr. Kirk, a widower with two children. He wishes to become a minister. We students work together better this year than ever before. The Gymnasium-a society of the students for literary and other purposes-is getting along nicely. The first Friday in the month we have an original paper. The second Friday, a budget of short articles. The third, civil government and politics. The fourth, the reading and review of short selections from books and periodicals.
     The Young Folks' Club meets, as usual, every two weeks. The "Social Monthly" promises to be more dignified and instructive this year than formerly. You remember the paper, don't you? It covers about twenty-four pages, and is divided into four departments: I. Moral Essays in the Light of the New Church; II. Essays on General Topics in the Light of the New Church; III. Essays on Secular Topics; IX'. Miscellany. The latter comprises light articles, fun, correspondence, news, notices, reports of committees, etc.
     The Social Monthly's "sphere of usefulness" will probably be extended outside of Philadelphia. We want to make it, if possible, a means of communication among all sound New Church young people. Czerny, one of the New York students, (You never saw Czerny did von? He's a good fellow-has side whiskers) intends taking it to New York with him on Sundays. Indeed one copy is already there. John Whitehead also wants it in Pittsburgh. It will perhaps go to St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, and other places. Now wouldn't you and John Wells like to see it? If you would, couldn't some arrangement be made by which it could he sent down to you, and back to us when you are through with it? But whether you see it or not, you must write for it. Tell us about the New Church in Vineland, how you came to read the Writings, or write an article on any subject that interests you. Please remind John that he is a member of our Club, and is in duty' bound to write for the paper.
But I must close. Write as soon as you can.
     C. P. S.

     2. Letter to the Rev. E. C. Bostock.

          Philadelphia, November 2nd, 1880.

Dear Friend:
     Each of the students is individually to answer your very welcome letter to the Gymnasium which was received some time ago. So far as I can learn no topics have been assigned, and you will therefore probably hear the same things reiterated many times.

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But still, even this is not without its advantages. What is heard so often will not soon he forgotten. I have a great deal to say, and have chosen unruled paper.
     The Social Monthly" is alive and flourishing. Two numbers of the first volume have already appeared. The paper is divided into four columns. Now I think you ought to help your old charge along a little now and then. Write letters for it when you get time, giving us all the news and anything else that you may deem suitable. Encourage others to write for it! Stir up Hugh Burnham! Remind him of his promise to correspond. If he will write as interesting letters to our paper as he does to individuals, he will be an invaluable contributor.
     I think there is great need in the New Church of a Young Folks paper,-one that will interest and instruct the young people, that will make them realize that they are New Churchmen and nothing else-one that will at all events have the negative merit of teaching no falsity, and of doing no harm, a merit which no paper within the church or without it can lay claim to. Such a periodical would also serve to bind together the young people of the Academy-unite them in bonds of sympathy, and put them in communication with each other.
     Now I think, in regard to the Social Monthly," that we ought always to keep this idea in view-namely, some time, years hence, it may be-of publishing it [in print] It seems to me that we may open the way for the accomplishment of this by beginning in a small way to send our paper around among the different circles of sound and favorably disposed young people. We would thus get them interested in it, and turn their thoughts to the Academy and its work. In this way we would also get a good deal of correspondence, and some help in the way of articles. We are in earnest about this matter! It is not a mere chimerical project! Czerny has already carried the paper to New York with him. It will probably also go to Vineland, and certainly to Pittsburgh. Chicago, Brooklyn, St. Louis and Wheeling are also in view.
     Now don't bring up any of your practical objections! Everything must begin in a small way, and encounter many difficulties. Don't shrug your bacheloreate shoulders, but rather put them to the wheel and try to help us.
     I suppose I ought to have left the subject of the paper to the editors to write about, but really I take more interest in it now than I did when occupying an editorial chair. I intend doing a great deal more for it than I did last year. I have written one article, have another half finished, and about forty more outlined in my mind, where I fear a large majority of them will spend their days.
     The Young Folks Social Club is prospering. We had quite an exciting election at the first meeting in the Fall. My candidate for President was Andrew A. Czerny. I voted for him because I knew that be was in favor of giving a more decided New Church turn to the Club. I was in hopes that it might be made the means of waking up some of our sleepy members, and might serve as a kind of stepping stone to bring outsiders into the Academy, and possibly Old Church people into the Church.

134


There has been in my opinion, too little of the New Church about our proceedings. Our socials ought to be more like what Academy meetings are said to be. But alas! "The best laid plans o' mice an' men gang aft aglee." Some fellow electioneered against my candidate, and when the election came around. Ed. Anshutz received 12 votes and Czerny only 6. Czerny, however, was elected Vice President by a vote of 15 to 6. I was chosen Secretary by a vote of 16 to 6. and Hibbard Worrell was elected Treasurer by a vote of 15 to 7. . . . Now Ed. Anshatz is not a bad fellow; and his election was not so unfortunate or so great a disappointment as the election of several other young men that I know of would have been.
     The first Amusement Committee was appointed on the night of the election by Vice President Worrell, who was presiding in your absence. During the first two weeks the chairman couldn't be prevailed upon to call a meeting. During the second two weeks the Committee met and had a social game of "Go Bang." Luckily the Constitution had been so amended that the Amusement Committee lasts one month instead of three. Ed. Anshutz being absent in Wheeling. and Czerny not being present the next Committee was chosen by a President pro tem. It was just such a committee as I should myself have chosen, and consisted of Schreck, Miss Glenn. Miss Starkey, Miss Snyder, and Schliffer. It arranged the dances, appointed a floor manager and wall-flower committees, looked after the music, provided games and marches, arranged for singing and piano playing; but, above all, it presented an elaborate report, containing many excellent recommendations for the future management of the Club, which report was published in the last number of the "Social Monthly."
     So much for the Young Folks Club. . . . Ed. Anshutz is, as I said, at Wheeling, taking temporary charge of his uncle's mill there, but will return home soon. He is talking Academy talk to the little knot of receivers in Wheeling, and has corrected some of the false reports which had found their way there. He has written a letter for the Correspondence department of the "Social Monthly," in which he graphically describes the entry of a circus into town.
     I suppose you have heard all about the Gymnasium. But I will venture to say a few words in regard to it. We have revised the Constitution. And in pursuance of a resolution passed last Spring we have rearranged the order of business. In the new order one Friday is devoted to an original paper, another to a budget of short articles to which each member is expected to contribute. The articles vary in length from a few lines to several pages. The most important of these are, upon vote, entered in a book which we have procured for the purpose. This book already contains twenty pages of reading matter. Another Friday is devoted to Civil Government and Politics in the light of the New Church. We have read and demolished the Declaration of Independence and parts of the Constitution of the United States. A fourth Friday has an order similar to the one we had last year-the reading and discussion of selections from books and periodicals. Under this order we have read a very interesting article from Blackwood's Magazine, entitled " A Turkish Effendi's Opinion of Christianity-a striking confirmation of the doctrines of the New Church on the state of the Christian World.

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     So far, we have had but one original paper an exhaustive essay on the Atmospheres by E. J. E. Schreck. Schliffer has promised us one on Symmetry for next Friday. We are looking for some help in this direction to our Alumni members, one of whom, as perhaps you are aware, resides in Chicago!
     The Wedding! Who can describe that happy event? Why, they had sixty presents, and we had coconut cake (which was very good) and black cake and white cake, and apples and bananas, and grapes and two bowls of punch-and I had the stomach-ache! How were they dressed? Why, Miss Mary had a train, and John Whitehead had a stovepipe hat!
     Please give my best respects to Mrs. Bostock and little Olive. (I hope you don't call her Ollie.)
     Yours most truly.
          CHARLES STUART.


     From a Letter to Edw. Spencer.

          Philadelphia, November 30, 1880.

Dear Friend:
     . . . After mature deliberation we have decided to introduce the reading of the Word in the original Hebrew into the opening exercises of our Gymnasium, as also the recitation of the Lord's Prayer in Greek. We have selected five
     Psalms, one for each Friday in the month. Those who know something of the Hebrew are expected to familiarize themselves with these Psalms by private study. For the benefit of those who are not acquainted with the Hebrew, an interlinear translation is to be drawn up. The Writings teach the importance of the Hebrew in many places. We learn that when the Word is read in the Hebrew text by a Jew or a Christian, the celestial angels know what the very letters mean. (De Verbo IV.) It is proposed, also, to collect and study all that the Writings give of the internal sense of these Psalms.
     We have two bugbears in our school-years. If these were abolished, our life would be a tolerably happy one. At the end of the year, Commencement stands like a horrible monster; and at the end of the Fall term, the Junior Exhibition stands as a scarcely' less terrible object. This latter is just coming up in the distance, and the students are beginning to look wan and anxious.
     Their orations trouble them, poor fellows! I can afford to pity them, for I intend to trot out my "Cromwell." I don't believe in it much, but it is one
I have on hand. I prepared it for last Commencement, but it was crowded out.
     C. P. S.

136


Church News 1941

Church News       Various       1941

     DURBAN, NATAL.

     December 15, 1940-November opened with our second and smaller Bazaar of the year on November 2nd. This time we had a most welcome and entertaining innovation in the Children's Percussion Band, whose performance, with Mrs. Doris Mansfield their instructress at the piano, was loudly remarked and applauded by all present. We hope to hear more of this Band in the future. It was a most pleasant surprise.
     On November 15, we bade an affectionate farewell to Miss Beryl Cockerell, third daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Cockerell. Beryl has left us for America to marry Mr. Laurie Odhner in Bryn Athyn. Previously a large and representative gathering of the Society had met at her home in Westville, and Beryl was the recipient of many lovely personal gifts from relatives and friends and a Persian rug from the whole Society.
     December began with a heat wave. But instead of complaining about this uncomfortable weather, we should remember our blessings, and the fact that we live in sunny South Africa, away from the ghastly scenes of war and destruction which some of our New Church friends are so cheerfully enduring. Very soon we shall be spending our Christmas holidays in peace and security, and Christmas will be a very carefree occasion-no bombs or blackouts! Truly we have a lot to be thankful for.
     At the last two doctrinal classes of the 1940 session we listened to the recordings of the Addresses delivered by Bishop de Charms and Bishop Acton at the General Assembly in Pittsburgh last June. To us, who are so far away from Bryn Athyn, this was an intellectual feast and we hope to have another hearing on some future occasion.
     Kainon School closed for a six weeks' vacation with the end-of-term ceremony in the Hall on December 13th. Miss Elsie Champion, in her report as Headmistress, drew attention to the donation of over L2 made by the pupils to the Fund for an Ambulance which the school children of Durban are providing. This donation of L2 from Kainon School was made up by the older children generously sacrificing their prize money and adding the pennies which they had saved from their pocket money during the past few weeks.
     January 14, 1941.-The Christmas Season this year did not seem quite the same, with so many of our menfolk away on Active Service. Nevertheless, the society has bravely and cheerfully carried on, and the usual festivities have taken place as if under normal circumstances. Our celebration opened on Wednesday, December 18, when the children of the society were entertained at two parties, one for the very young children in the afternoon, and the other in the evening. Theta Alpha was in charge, and had arranged for Father Christmas to attend and join in the fun, and each child received a gift at his hands from the brightly decorated Christmas tree in the Hall.
     The Children's Christmas Service was conducted by the Rev. F. W. Elphick in the church on December 24 at 7.30 p.m. The children brought gifts for the school to the chancel, and during a very bright service Mr. Elphick gave a short discourse on the words. "There was no room for them in the inn." On their way out of the church the children paused to view the Representation in the vestibule, and then the procession filed into the adjacent Hall for the beautiful Christmas Tableaux.

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     The adult worship on Christmas morning was very well attended, and all enjoyed the impressive service in the church. Mr. Elphick's address on this joyful occasion dealt with the spiritual application of the text: "And there were shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night." The Christmas Communion Service was held on Sunday, December 29, the sacrament of the Holy Supper being administered to about thirty communicants.
     Our New Year's Service took place at 9.15 am, on New Year's Day. This time, Mr. Elphick spoke on the subject of Progression, the theme being based on Isaiah 40: 29-31 and A. C. 4598, which deals with the different kinds of progression relating to interior things." After this service it was decided to close down for the month of January, owing to the exceptional circumstances of the holiday month and the absence of so many on Active Service or engaged in other war work.
     From now on we look forward to a brighter year, which will lead, we hope, to ultimate victory over the evil forces now threatening to destroy the freedom of the world. The society meets again February 2, when the usual Sunday morning service will be held; and next day Kainon School is due to resume after the long Summer holidays.
     P. D. C.


     ENGLAND.

     An Invitation.

     The members of the General Church in England are very anxious that they have the opportunity to meet any New Churchmen who come to this Country in His Majesty's Forces, or under any other circumstance. They would like to entertain them in their homes, and have tem at their church services and socials.
     We have already had the pleasure of meeting and welcoming Mr. Cecil James and Mr. Healdon Starkey, who are serving with the Canadian Army.
     The addresses of the two Pastors, who extend this invitation are: Rev. A. Wynne Acton, 45a Groveway, Brixton, London, S. W., 9. Telephone RELiance 4125. Rev. Martin Pryke, 167 Maldon Road, Colchester. Telephone Mr. J. F. Cooper, Secretary, Colchester 2631.

     HURSTVILLE, AUSTRALIA.

     We regret to state that a news report mailed to us by the Rev. W. Cairns Henderson in November has not been received. If it has been lost at sea, it is the first casualty of this kind we have suffered. Copies of the December issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE were lost in transit to England.

     COLCHESTER, ENGLAND.

     December 15, 1940-Our many friends throughout the Church will be glad to know that all is well with us at this time, and that we are maintaining the uses to the full. Although we have not been undisturbed, we have been protected so far. As many as can brave the darkness attend the doctrinal class and singing practice, which is still held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Cooper.
     Those of our members who were evacuated for a time have now returned, with the exception of the Waters family' who are in Wales for the duration. We hope it will not be long before they can return home, as they add much to the social sphere of the society.
     We all met at the church on two occasions, Sunday afternoons, to bear the recordings of the Addresses by Bishop de Charms and Bishop Acton at the last General Assembly, which we very much enjoyed and appreciated. These made two nice gatherings, and we look forward to more.
     A whist drive was held in November in aid of our Sale of Work, which took place on December 12th. It was quite a satisfactory occasion. Goods and articles rolled in from somewhere, and we realized an appreciable sum.

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     The festive season is approaching, and Christmas tableaux are in course of preparation. We wish all our friends, wherever they may be, a very Happy New Year, with peace on earth in God's good time.
     E. B.

     TORONTO, CANADA.

     January is a month of new beginnings, stimulating us to renewed effort to carry on our work as a society of the New Church. On the first Sunday of the New Year the Sacrament of the Holy Supper was celebrated.
     Our new social committee, under the direction of Mr. and Mrs. Charles White, made an excellent beginning in their arrangements for the New Year's party. And this precedent was maintained in the celebration of Swedenborg's birthday on the evening of January 29th, when about fifty members of the society sat down to an appetizing dinner. During the meal, letters from England were read, one by Miss Edina Carswell from Miss Holland in Failsworth, and another by Miss Korene Schnarr from her brother Joffre, who is now in England with the R. C. A. F. Both these letters described recent incendiary raids on Manchester, and brought us closer to a realization of the tremendous suffering endured by British people in the cause of Freedom. A novel feature of the evening's entertainment was a Swedenborg quiz programme conducted by Mr. Gyllenhaal.
     On the following Friday evening, nineteen children were entertained by Theta Alpha in celebration of the same event. The supper tables were beautifully decorated with blue and yellow crepe paper, with small Swedish flags for place cards. After a festive meal,-the children read compositions on various phases of Swedenborg's life and mission, followed by a game of questions and answers. The evening was concluded by a Swedish dance performed by the school children.
     Our day school was reopened on January 6th with an enrollment of fourteen pupils in five grades and kindergarten. The society has found it expedient to adopt temporarily the policy of sending the two highest classes to the public school. Nevertheless we are encouraged by the fact that our present attendance represents practically a full complement of the children of school age in the society. Miss Korene Schnarr has again come to our assistance this year in the absence of Miss Doris Raymond, our regular teacher. Miss Schnarr devotes all her time to the elementary grades, and her work is highly appreciated by the society. After organizing the kindergarten last Fall, Miss Peggy John accepted a position at Havergal College, and Miss G. G. Longstaff is now carrying on this work in her stead.
     The doctrinal class following the Wednesday supper has been well attended. The subject under consideration is the work on Heaven and Hell, and instruction by the pastor follows individual reading at home of one chapter a week. This study is designed to interest the more advanced young people who have graduated from the junior Sunday evening class. This younger group meets at the church every Sunday evening to read and discuss the Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture. And as the ages range from fourteen to twenty-two, the problem of sustaining interest is a constant one for our pastor.
     Miss Creda Glenn is a welcome visitor to our society at the time of writing. At a meeting of the Ladies' Circle we were privileged to hear her speak on the various organizations in Bryn Athyn, and particularly on their work for the Red Cross. At a subsequent society meeting. Miss Glenn talked to us on the subject of Church Music, illustrated by records which she had prepared from the new Liturgy.

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     In our Olivet Society, Red Cross work is done under the auspices of the Ladies' Circle, and is part of a group of six churches functioning under the title of the Parkdale Patriotic Association. This combination of churches simplifies the work of obtaining materials and delivering finished articles, and also of raising money for the common cause.
     At the first February meeting of the Ladies' Circle we were happy to felicitate Mrs. Catherine Doering on the attainment of her eightieth birthday, and to present her with a bag in token of our affection. Mrs. Doering has been a member of our society for almost five years, and is a regular attendant at worship, doctrinal class and all social functions. In addition to this, she is an indefatigable worker for the Red Cross.
     On February 7, in our assembly hall, Dr. Bill Cavanagh gave an interesting lecture on his trip to the Arctic, illustrated by moving pictures. He is well known in many of our church circles, and his lecture in aid of our local war fund was very much appreciated by the society.
     C. S.

     NORTHERN OHIO.

     Though our activities have not been reported of late, we are nevertheless a very active group of people. Our members are scattered over a wide area, some having to come as far as fifty miles to join in the activities, which center largely in Akron.
     With the coming of the Rev. Norman H. Reuter to reside in Akron, our real organization began in the Fall with the establishment of regular services, doctrinal classes, children's classes, and social gatherings. Services are held in Akron every first and third Sunday, in Detroit one Sunday each month, and the odd Sunday, as a rule, in either Youngstown, Cleveland or Erie. Doctrinal classes are held in each of the Ohio cities about twice a month, children's classes weekly.
      A service was held on the evening of Thanksgiving Day, at which time the newest member of our group was baptized-the baby daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Brown. Early in December we welcomed two new members-Mr. and Mrs. Elford Smith, who had long been attending services in Cleveland, and more recently in Akron.
     Christmas was celebrated with a beautiful children s service on Christmas afternoon. A Representation was prepared, and this, along with special singing by our boy soprano young Randy Norris, added much to the sphere of the service.
     The first service of each month is followed by a dinner prepared by the ladies of the group, and then by a meeting to consider the arrangements for the whole month. These affairs are always the occasion for much fun, and, with everyone helping, seem hardly any effort at all. The services, dinners and meetings are held in the recreation room of the Philip B. deMaine home. Mr. Chester Stroemple, our "janitor-extraordinary." arranges the furniture each Sunday. One of our members made the hymn board, another the reading desk, while the altar cloths were made by the ladies from material donated by a friend in another center. The dishes and silver used for dinners, and our communion set, were also gifts from friends in other communities. We have purchased chairs, and just now are planning to make kneeling benches from materials donated from three different sources. In a small circle each one feels that he is vitally needed; and with initiative and the spirit to get things done, it is amazing how much can be accomplished.
     Because of our widely scattered locations it is hard to assemble for social affairs, but this side of our church-life has not been neglected. The children had a hilarious party on Halloween, and the adults likewise, in costume, a few nights later. Again, at Christmas time, the youngsters, who range in age from two to twelve, met together. Later the adults gathered for song practice and the decorating of the room.

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     A most successful New Year's Eve party was held at the Norris home, and mention should be made of two housewarmings given in the Fall,-one to welcome the Reuters, and one to celebrate a move from one end of town to the other made by the Norrises.
     The ladies of the group have met several times for luncheon, and are now in the process of formally organizing, in the hope of performing greater uses than possible in an unorganized state.
     Shortly after Christmas our pastor left for a tour of the South, returning only a few weeks ago. February 2d saw the return to schedule with a service followed by a dinner which took the form of a party' in honor of Swedenborg's birthday.
     Akron is a natural halfway point between Chicago and Bryn Athyn, and while we have enjoyed many visitors so far, we urge any who come this way to stop and share our hospitality and join in the events of our society life.
     N. DeM.


     ENGLAND.

     From the News Letter."

     The Rev. A. Wynne Acton visited the group at New Moston (Manchester) over the week-end of December 1st. This is the first visit which it has been possible to arrange since last June, and it came in the way of a happy reunion. A few of the friends were unable to attend, but fourteen attended the Sunday service.
It had been planned to hear the record of Bishop de Charms' Address to the General Assembly on Sunday morning, but owing to a misunderstanding with a neighbor as to when the radiogram was needed, this was postponed until after lunch. After hearing the Bishops Address, there was a brief interval, and then followed a service with the administration of the Holy Supper, at which there were twelve communicants. The sermon treated of the parable of the House Built upon a Rock. (Matthew 7: 24-27.)
     Most of those present then remained for Tea, and afterwards heard the recording of Bishop Acton's Address to the General Assembly. The two records were heard clearly, and were much appreciated.
     There was a very happy sphere throughout the day. The generosity and ingenuity of Mrs. Dawson, who was assisted by Mrs. Whittaker, made it possible for us to meet for the whole day, as a hot lunch was provided for eleven persons, and also the Tea.
     Bishop and Mrs. R. J. Tilson, now residing at Harrogate, send their sincere love to all the members and friends of Michael Church, and congratulate them upon all that is being done for them under great difficulties by' the faithful ministrations of their present Pastor. Also, they desire to thank them most heartily for kind Christmas and New Year's cards, and they wish to express their regret that they were unable to send their greetings to each individually, as in former years."
     The members of the Colchester and London Societies have been delightfully surprised to receive Christmas Hampers containing various tinned provisions, sugar and tea, from the members of the Hurstville. Australia, Society. They are deeply appreciative of the generosity and thoughtfulness of the friends in Australia. Few besides the Rev. and Mrs. W. Cairns Henderson are known to us personally, but this ultimate expression of their good will serves to further our feelings of friendship in the Church and in the Empire. We shall have kind thoughts of them as we partake of this special treat which they have provided."-A. W. A.

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NEW BOOKLET FROM SWEDEN 1941

NEW BOOKLET FROM SWEDEN       H. L. 0       1941

"666--VILDDJURETS TAL I UPPENBARELSEBOKEN." By Gustaf Baeckstrom. Stockholm: Nova Ecclesia, 1940. 48 pages.

     The title of the Rev. Gustaf Baeckstrom's latest missionary booklet means "666-The Number of the Beast in the Apocalypse." The author shows the folly of regarding this prophecy (Apocalypse 13: 18) as referring to any man-whether Martin Luther, the Pope, Nero, Napoleon, or Kaiser Wilhelm, or even another well-known modern figure. For it refers to a state in the Christian world,- the state of all its evil and its falsity, in ends, in causes, and in effects.
     This makes the question of the second chapter pertinent: "Is the Christian World still Christian?" "For what is it, indeed, which has loosed the horrors of war, with all its emotions of bate and revenge, if not the beast in men?" "Only when we cease wishing to dominate over others from a lust of power, and to appropriate their possessions; only when peoples no longer subjugate other nations, and seize their lands without respect for the rights of others; only then can we begin to call ourselves Christian."
     In the rest of the book the beliefs of the Old Church are analyzed,-the ideas concerning God, the Atonement, and the function of faith. The author uses the letter of the Word freely and forcefully; shows up the tendencies of modernism, as well as the weakness of occasional reforms such as that of the "Oxford Group Movement and closes with a call to repentance, directing attention to the Writings and to the promise of the Second Advent.
     One interesting chapter is devoted to "The Trinity in Christian Art"-a scathing expose of the polytheistic element in orthodox Christian doctrinal concepts. The chapter is largely a summary of the article on the subject in NEW CHURCH LIFE for January, 1916, and four of the illustrations there used have been reprinted.
     H. L. 0.

142


CALENDAR READINGS 1941

CALENDAR READINGS              1941




     Announcements



     Beginning April 17th, and continuing until November 6th, the General Church Calendar of Daily Readings from the Word and the Writings provides for readings from the work on Heaven and Hell. As a preparation for this, we recommend the perusal of the paper by the Rev. F. E. Waelchli, entitled "The Use of Heaven and Hell," which has been published by the Pastoral Extension Service. No. 306. Those desiring to follow this suggestion can obtain the pamphlet by remitting 13 cents to Mr. Ralph Klein. Secretary, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

143


EDUCATIONAL COUNCIL 1941

EDUCATIONAL COUNCIL       GEORGE DE CHARMS       1941

     Copy of a Letter of Invitation.

Dear Friend:
     In order to provide for the needs outlined at the Teachers' Meeting held in Fox Chapel last June, we now propose to form an Educational Council of the
General Church, and we invite to membership in that Council all who are actively engaged in the work of New Church Education, whether in Local Schools or in the Academy.
     This Council is designed as a deliberative body, devoted to the study and discussion of educational questions. Its power will be limited to recommendations which the several Schools or Faculties may freely consider, adopt, modify or reject. It is intended to preserve complete local autonomy, while at the same time providing for an interchange of thought, and an ever increasing measure of cooperation among our widely' scattered Schools. In this way it will perform functions with reference to the field of education parallel to those performed by the Council of the Clergy with reference to the purely' ecclesiastical work of the Church.
     Our plan calls for an Annual Meeting of the Council during the week of the Ministers' Meetings. It will thus replace the joint meetings of the Council of the Clergy and the General Faculty which have been held in the past. In addition to a general meeting of the Council, group meetings will be provided for, to give more detailed and practical consideration to specific problems.
The program for this year is as follows:

Tuesday, April 15, 3.30 p.m.-Educational Council. Address by Bishop George de Charms.
Wednesday, April 16, 3.30 p.m.-Conference of History Teachers. (Dr. William Whitehead, Chairman.)
Thursday, April 17, 3.30 p.m.-Conference on Teacher Training. (Under the auspices of the Academy Department of Education.)

     It is our intention at each Annual Meeting to appoint a Program Committee to select subjects for discussion, and to arrange for their presentation the following year.
     We look forward to the first meeting of the Council next April, hoping it may initiate a progressive advance toward closer relations among all New Church teachers, and may strengthen the unity of our efforts to develop our educational work.
     Very sincerely,
          (Sgd.) GEORGE DE CHARMS.

144


ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS 1941

ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS              1941

     General Church of the New Jerusalem.

     ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS.
     BRYN ATHYN, PA., APRIL 14-19, 1941.

     Program.

Monday, April 14
     8.00     p.m. Consistory. Tuesday, April 15.
     10.00     a.m. Council of the Clergy.
     3.30     p.m. Educational Council. (See page 143.)
     Address:     Bishop George de Charms.

Wednesday, April 16.
     10.00     a.m.     Council of the Clergy.
     3.30     p.m.     Conference of History Teachers.
               (Dr. William Whitehead.)

Thursday, April 17.
     10.00     a.m.     Council of the Clergy.
     3.30     p.m.     Conference on Teacher Training.
               (Department of Education.)

Friday, April 18.
     10.00     a.m.     Council of the Clergy.
     3.30     p.m.     Executive Committee.
     7.00     p.m.     Friday Supper in the Assembly Hall, followed by
               Open Session of the Council of the Clergy.
               Address: Rev. Willard D. Pendleton.

Saturday, April 19.
     10.00     a.m.     Joint Council.
     3.30     p.m.     Joint Council (if needed).
     8.00     p.m.     Entertainment.

Sunday, April 20.
     11.00     a.m.     Divine Worship.
     9.30     a.m.     Children's Service.
WANTED 1941

WANTED       Editor       1941

     The Academy Library would like to obtain a set of The Social Monthly."-the Manuscript Paper issued in 1879 and 1880 by the Young Folks' Club of the Advent Society in Philadelphia, and afterwards published in printed form as NEW CHURCH LIFE, beginning in January, 1881.
     We would appreciate hearing from any of our readers who possess single issues or a complete set of the publication. If necessary, typewritten duplications of the original issues can be made if they are loaned for the purpose.- EDITORS.
"TOUCH ME NOT!" 1941

"TOUCH ME NOT!"       Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1941



145




NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. LXI
APRIL, 1941
No. 4
     An Easter Address.

     The teaching of the new Revelation is, that the Lord on the cross underwent the last and gravest temptation,-a combat in which all the hells made a final attempt to avert their doom and break down the government of the Divine. And in this assault the hells were to an extent joined by the proprial instincts of all human beings, even of the angels themselves, in that the natural good of the angels also resisted the idea of the Lord's submitting passively to the sufferings of death. But the Lord, to overcome the hells, did permit men to put Him to death. On the cross He dissipated the life of the maternal human, rejected that human inheritance which was a basis for infernal assault, and gave up the spirit of separate self-life. From the sepulchre, and thus from death, He is said to have risen "thoroughly and clearly glorified" (Ath. Creed 162), having put off all the maternal, and assumed a Divine-substantial body in place of the material body with which natural birth had endowed Him.
     It is also known to the New Church that the angels do not think on the Lord's passion. Their thoughts are not allowed to dwell upon death, but upon life. They do not take the transition-the misleading appearance-for the reality. And in full perception of the truth that the Lord, by temptations, and finally by death, rejected from Himself everything human which He had taken from the mother, the angels in heaven view His death and burial in no mortal sense, but as the final purification of His human and its complete glorification.

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     Nor do the angels, in this resurrection of the Lord, see a startling exception to all known laws, which idea creates a stumbling-block for the worldly minds of our age of unbelief. The angels see in it the only perfect fulfilment of a law which is universal in the whole created realm, the law of influx and return, the law of descent and ascent, of creation and redemption the circle of life. And they see this law, in the Lords life, fulfilled in its every jot and tittle, fulfilled under Divine and unencumbered circumstances.
     The celestial among them knew from very earliest times that, sin having entered the world, the Lord of mercy would in a future age necessarily descend in human form, and by glorification ultimately ascend again into His throne above the heavens, after assuring for all times His government of the world and the presence of His operation in ultimates. And this is the law of which the Lord taught when He said to His disciples. "No one bath ascended into heaven but He that came down from heaven." "Ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before." (John 3: 13; 6: 62.) "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again, I leave the world, and go to the Father." (John 16: 28.)
     In the Lord the purification of His human involved the putting aside of material things; yet not in the manner of men, whose bodies are left behind to join the soil from which they were formed. The Lord's body was glorified, and He rose with His whole Human, until He could say, "No spirit hath flesh and bones as ye see me have." With the Lord the law of descent and ascent was fulfilled perfectly and without reservation. Even as all matter was originally woven inmostly from the substance of Divine Love, so with the Lord the very body, after it had been ordered into perfect acquiescence, was made Divine; no longer material or earthly, but Divinely substantial.
     And the final steps of this process of glorification occurred in connection with His passion, death, and resurrection. He left nothing of the body in the sepulchre. And when He appeared to His disciples after His resurrection, His body was no longer affected by what we know as natural laws, but operated according to spiritual laws and spiritual conditions. Where ardent thought was centered on Him, there and then He appeared-human, real, substantial; yet felt and seen and heard only by spiritual senses. "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

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     Nor has this law ceased to hold valid. The Lord is omnipresent in the Holy Supper on this account, that it is done in His Name, in remembrance of Him.
     An explanation, however, is needed as to why a difference in His presence is observable between the apostolic days and the present time. For a tangible, visual presence of the Lord is not now experienced, even among the faithful. For a period of forty days after the resurrection, the Lord continued to appear, from time to time, to many of the disciples. Then He took leave of them, and ascended into heaven in their sight, and was no more seen except in a few rare instances. And also, even in this first period, these appearances were different. Mary Magdalene, at the sepulchre, was warned, "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father." (John 20: 17.) After but a short while, some of the women, meeting Him on their way, held Him by the feet, worshipping Him. (Matthew 28: 9.) To the eleven, some hours later, He said, "Handle me and see, that it is I myself." (Luke 24: 39.)

     II.

     Mary Magdalene was the first, Mark testifies, to whom our risen Lord appeared. She had been preparing spices and ointments after the Sabbath was over at sunset the evening before, and very early in the morning she went with some other women to complete the burial rites which had been left unfinished when the Sabbath came. She now found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre, and, alarmed, called Peter and John, who found the tomb empty, and yet the linen clothes still lying there, and, somewhat apart, the napkin for the head folded. The body itself had disappeared.
     Mary remained at the grave weeping. As she looked behind, she saw someone whom she thought to be the gardener, who asked, "Woman, why weepest thou?" And she replied, " Sir, if thou hast borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him." Then He called her name, "Mary!" And she turned herself, and recognized her Master. Then Jesus spoke the words which we have already quoted, "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended unto my Father."
     These remarkable words are difficult to understand. They leave the mind to wonder. First the Lord comforts, and reveals His presence in a way of love-reveals it by the tones of profound affection as He uttered her name.

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Then He prohibits, warns against a further approach: "Touch me not!" And He appends a strange reason,-" for I am not yet ascended unto my Father."

     We must here take account of the differences in the state of the disciples and of Mary Magdalene; but also of any changes in the state of the Lord Himself, if such there were.
     "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended unto my Father." To "ascend to the Father" meant the full union of His Human with His Divine. This, in general, occurred in the sepulchre. And the words may be interpreted to mean that the Lord was seen by Mary inside the sepulchre, where indeed the two angels had just been seen. As if the process of glorification had not yet been completed, and she ought not to touch Him until later. (Ath. Creed. 161.) Others may believe with equal warrant that the process, though culminating with the actual resurrection, was yet protracted until the ascension day, for the sake of uses still to be performed. No definite teachings are given that satisfactorily dispose of the question.
     The facts are clear. The Lord appeared to the disciples for a period until the ascension. " He was a Man before their eyes," we read, "and He was also a Man when He became invisible." (De Domino 46.) And during this period He performed a redemptive work in the spiritual world-in the world of spirits, or the Lower Earth, often specifically called "Hades" and the "Pit." For those spirits who had been reserved by the Lord in places under heaven-those who are called "the souls under the altar" (Rev. 6: 9)-were then brought up from their captivity, and made heirs of the kingdom of heaven. Peter also says that the Lord at His death "went and preached unto the spirits in prison." This ordering of the new heavens was part of the special mission of the Lord in His human. After this was accomplished, and the Lord had taught the interior truths of the church to the disciples, He ascended from the world of spirits into heaven-that is, to the Father,-and was seen no more objectively as man among them, but was present in His church by the Spirit of truth which proceeded from Him in His Word.
     And then, it might be inferred, although no more restrained, Mary could not touch her Master. The Lord had ascended to His Father. His abode was within the very sun-the solar disk-which appears in the east of heaven. "In Person," we read in the Doctrine, "the Lord is constantly encompassed by the (spiritual) sun," but He may also be seen elsewhere in heaven by aspect-presence,-the presence of internal thought. (H. H. 121.)

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     Mary was then free to pay homage to her Master, even by worshipful touch. But not by the mortal touch. Mary never had need of that. She was not a Thomas. She had no need to be convinced. "Blessed are they who do not see, yet believe." Mary was not convinced by sight, for tears prevented her sight. She but heard the Lord's voice call her by name, and she fell down to worship.
     Mary-the woman who had not forsaken the Lord even at the cross, and who was now first to sense the Lord's presence after His rising,-represents the celestial among men. These, above all else, love the Lord. Yet it is not a love of the Person, but of His Essence,-a love of His Divine Love and His Divine Truth. To these the Lord reveals Himself through the truths of love, not so much through truths of faith. He "calls them by name." And these have the purest idea of the Divine Human of God, for they are the "pure in heart who shall see God."

     III.

     The Lord, then as now, revealed Himself and was present with men according to their idea of Him. Some were incapable of forming any but a sensual idea of His Human, and they-like Thomas, and after him most of the Christian Church-saw Him with the holes of the nails in the hands and feet, and with the wound in His side- saw Him as they had seen Him on the cross, as He was in the state of His exinanition. And yet these could thus approach Him,-approach and touch the Divine Natural degree of His glorified Human. Others were spiritual, and could touch the Divine Spiritual degree. But those who were celestial-of heavenly disposition-can touch the Divine Celestial. To these the Lord continually says, "Touch me not; I am not yet ascended!" Purify your thoughts before you seek to grasp the mercy and love of God! Let earthly emotions subside, that you may worship only from a pure, exalted heart!
     For touch means conjunction. We touch the Lord's garments, and are healed, when from love we read His Word. We touch His flesh and His life-blood when we, in reverence, partake of His Holy Supper, which is a sacrament of conjunction with the Lord.

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The touch is not material touch. The bread and wine are not the Lord's material body. We must not touch the Lord with material ideas of His flesh and blood, or imagine that the blood is the blood of His passion. We are not to touch the Lord as He hung on the cross, but as He is in His glorified Human.
     He is indeed present with all-in the Holy Supper-according to their ideas of Him. From the sensual, who cannot think spiritually of His flesh and blood, He requires only that they think of the communion holily, and do it obediently in remembrance of Him. But if possible He warns against material thoughts, and urges to be received, not as He hung on the cross, but as He is in His glorified human-in His state of perfect union with the Divine, as the one God whose Body is the Divine Good, and whose Blood is the Divine Truth in its celestial purity.
     "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended!" Far from being a repulsion, these words are an invitation to a closer conjunction, an Invitation to a deeper knowledge, to a fuller recognition, a tenderer touch-offered to all whose hearts are pure.
     We stand here closely before Divine mysteries. "Touch me not!" The word used, aptou, meant more than mere touch: "Do not cling to me!" "Hold me not back!" Surely Mary's love could not "hold back" the process of the Lords ascension to the Father. In Divine actuality, the veil of the temple of His Spirit had already been rent forever, merging the identity of the Son and the Father: But the external appearances which accommodated Him to the sight of His earthly disciples, and to the sight of spirits in the other world, had not yet been withdrawn. Their memories cherished Him as their crucified Master. He dwelt with them in their earthly associations, as their Rabboni. For them, and in their minds, He had not yet ascended into unity with the Divine Father. To their eyes He was still possessed of the wounds of the nails.
     And the first instruction He gives them, through Mary, is therefore a warning. "Do not cling to me as to the Master, but wait till I have ascended!" "Love me not for my Person only," He seemed to say, "but love me for my Essence!" "For I ascend unto my Father and your Father, unto my God and your God." What you now are worshipping, Mary, is your own fond memories of me,-the human, finite coverings of Divinity, which themselves are not Divine.

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Learn to see more deeply and purely, to see in me the paternal love of God, forthstanding, not in any borrowed features of heredity, but in its own Divinely human form."
     Something of this greater love no doubt came to Mary, as it must come to all before they can bow down with Thomas and hail the risen Lord as their Lord and their God. The Lord must be glorified in our minds, and must ascend to the heights of Divinity, before we can really attain to that deeper and fuller conjunction which can bless us with everlasting life.
     According to our idea of Him, it is stated in the Doctrine, are we to be assigned a place-a lasting home-in the spiritual world. For the character of each man colors his idea of God, inevitably and wholly. This appears in our inmost reflection, in our reading, in our prayers. To the angels the Lord is not mere man; He is the only complete Man, sublimely above time and space, inmostly operating within and upon all things, forming heaven into His image-into a Gorand Man form, whose soul and blood He is.
     "Touch me not! " Without such an idea of the Lord, there can be no internal touch or conjunction with Him, no true realization that He is "the resurrection and the life." But to those who have not clung to the outer appearances, but who see Him spiritually,-see His Human as Divine,-He comes as the Comforter, and says, "Abide in me, and I in you." What closer touch and conjunction can be imagined than this?-to abide in the Lord, to live and move and have our being in Him.
     The heavens and the church are spoken of as the "body of Christ," or as the body whose head the Lord is. (Inv. 28.) For the Lord is present throughout the heavens, even as the soul, whose seat is the head, is present throughout the body, and governs it. The human form of heaven is not from the angels, but from the Lord. He is the Divine Man, and His glorified body, which Mary was not forbidden to touch, is the Divine Good and Divine Truth in its own form and order, universally present. In this order lies heaven; and men and spirits may take their places in His Divine Body, and abide in the Lord, even as He abides in them.

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MANNER OF THE SECOND COMING 1941

MANNER OF THE SECOND COMING       Rev. F. E. GYLLENHAAL       1941

     "Behold, He cometh with clouds." (Revelation 1: 7.)

     After the Lord's crucifixion, the disciples and others were blest with visions of Him in His resurrection body. Their spiritual eves were opened, and they saw the Lord in the spiritual world, yet in an environment like that in which they were on earth. Finally, "while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven." (Luke 24: 51.) In the Acts of the Apostles it is said that "a cloud received Him out of their sight," and that while "they looked stedfastly toward heaven," two angels appeared, and said, "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: 9-11.)
     While the Lord was on earth, He Himself had declared that He would come again on earth, after His crucifixion and resurrection, at the end of the age. And the manner of His second coming He had stated in the words: "They shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." (Matthew 24: 30.) Finally, years after His ascension, in His revelation to John in the Isle of Patmos, He again declared of Himself, "Behold, He cometh with clouds."
     These descriptions and prophecies, understood literally, became the basis of a belief in a personal second coming of the Lord in the manner of His ascension; that is, that He would come down to earth on the clouds. Ignorance of the spiritual meanings of the Sacred Scriptures, and of the Lord's sayings while He was on earth, allowed of such erroneous interpretations; but the ignorance was hardly excusable, because the references to clouds throughout the Scriptures were frequent, and of a kind to yield some knowledge of the spiritual meaning of clouds. Divine revelations have always been adequate to their own correct interpretations in general. Erroneous interpretations are due to man's corruption and consequent spiritual blindness.

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A man's ignorance of spiritual and Divine matters, seeing that he has the Word of God, is his own fault; yet the Lord permits it for the man's own good, that he may not profane. Therefore a truly spiritual understanding of the Scriptures could not be given until after the Lord's Second Coming and the Last Judgment then performed.
     "Behold, He cometh with clouds," has the spiritual meaning that the Lord reveals Himself in the Word through its internal sense. The Lord reveals Himself to man only in His Word, and He reveals Himself in the Word only by the internal sense. The "clouds" signify the literal sense of the Word; "power and glory" signify the internal sense. (A. E. 36.) The manner of the Lord's second coming is by revealing the internal sense of the Word, or by opening up the letter of the Word, previously given and signified by the "clouds," and showing plainly the "power and glory" within the letter, and Himself within every word of it.
     We think about the Lord's first and second comings as having taken place in the past. It is true that they can be dated in our calendar, for they were actual comings, real events. But their purpose and power is lost to us, if we think about them only as past events. We must know of them, and acknowledge them, as past events, in order that we may know and acknowledge their actuality and reality; but we must also rationally understand them as having a present, an immediate, application to us individually, even so that it will be true that the Lord makes His first coming and His second coming to every one of us. For we must live in the present; indeed, we do live only in the present time. What is of the past we use only by bringing it into daily life, that is, by thinking about it, by willing it, and by doing it. When we think of the Lord's two comings, of their purposes and accomplishments, and truly want their works to be done in us, we are receiving the Lord. And as we apply the doctrine of the internal sense to our lives, there is the Lord's Second Coming to us.
     Every work of the past affects us now, even though we may be ignorant of it; but we can consciously use such works only when we know about them and want to use them. The art, music, literature, and science of the past are preserved by use, and thus made to serve the purposes we have at heart.

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Ancient sculpture is preserved to this day, because some people love it, and from it gain useful lessons. The same is true of all other ancient material objects collected and exhibited in museums and art galleries. Whatever of the past we love and use is ever present. We can never return to past states, but we can bring much of the past, especially its doctrine, its lessons, into our present life. And whatever we love that was produced in the past we continue to cherish and to use.
     Now this can be equally true, or rather supremely true, of the Word of the Lord, of Divine Truth, of the Lord's First and Second Comings. But it will be true of these only in the degree that we think about them, increasingly love them, and do whatever they teach that leads to good and thus to heaven. The Lord was born on earth that we might know Him, not only as an infinite, invisible God, but also as a visible, Divine Man, as having a Divine Human, and as doing works for us like those we can do for one another, and as of ourselves for ourselves. The Lord's earth-life is an example for us, without which we cannot become truly human and angelic.
     It is possible that example has a more powerful effect on both the child and the adult than we realize. Before His First Coming, the Lord used chosen men, called prophets, as examples of good and evil, of the true and the false. And He provided that such human examples should be written into the stories of the letter of the Word, because they made the doctrine concrete; that is, they showed plainly the outcome and lessons of different kinds of conduct. When these means were no longer adequate, because men refused to use them; or when the people stoned the prophets, because enraged at having their own evil deeds and false opinions exposed; then the Lord Himself came on earth, and, as the supreme example of the perfect life, inspired men to voluntary emulation of Him by application of His teaching, especially of its spirit.
     Yet the Lord was treated as the prophets had been treated, only more cruelly, because men held Him in greater hatred. The killing of the prophets, and of the Christ, represented the total rejection of the Divine Truth, therefore of the Word. Again, in the decaying Christian era, when the Lord's doctrine and example had failed to inspire men to a truly human and angelic life, because they had lost the key to the true understanding of His doctrine and life, then He came in a plain revelation of all the meanings of that doctrine and life.

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The revealed internal sense is the key to the letter of the Word, to all the meanings there, to the Lord's life on earth, and to all His works of creation, redemption, and salvation.
     The Lord's First Coming was a personal coming. A person is a man, and a Divine Person is God who is Man. (A. E. 1109e.) The idea of a person limits the thought; and a man's thought must be limited at first, so that it may later be expanded and infilled without being scattered and lost. Our thought of God must be limited at first: otherwise we have no sound basis for interior and higher thought. The letter of the Word treats of persons and places, to the end that it may provide an enduring foundation for interior thought concerning spiritual and Divine things. But as knowledges of spiritual and Divine things are acquired, the thought is to be from them to the natural things which are limited. Just as the thought from the understanding opens the eye of the body to the sight of things unseen before, so thought from the revealed Divine Truth, understood and loved, opens the mind to perception of what was before hidden in the letter of the Word, in the problems of human life, and even in the kingdoms of nature.
     We should think from the essence of God-that is, from the essential knowledges of His attributes, His purposes, His works,-to His Person, for the sake of perceiving His Person as the medium by which God reveals Himself to us. He is revealed nowhere but in His Word: and His Word became flesh in the Person of Jesus Christ. But it is only by the internal meanings of His Word that He is actually revealed. Therefore, when He was on earth in Person, He was revealed only to those who perceived that what He said of the Father was said of Himself.
     His Second Coming was not in Person. He did, indeed, show Himself in Person to His servant, Swedenborg, but this was in the spiritual world, and was not the Second Coming that He had promised to make on earth. By this servant He taught that His Second Coming is not His coming in Person, but is the revelation of Himself in the Word as Jehovah, the Lord of heaven and earth, and as Him who alone is to be adored by all in His New Church, which is meant by the New Jerusalem; also, that to this end He had opened the internal or spiritual sense of the Word, in which sense He is everywhere treated of. (A. E. 870:2.)

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     The Second Coming of the Lord, therefore, is impersonal. It is spiritual. It was effected by a revelation of Divine Truth, by an opening of the letter of the Word, by a revealing of the inner content of that Word, and a formulation of it into definite, rational, and authoritative doctrine for the instruction of all who are to constitute His New Church. Hence the inscription on A Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church, "This book is the Advent of the Lord; written by command," and the declaration that this inscription applies to all the books of the Writings.
     The Second Coming of the Lord, therefore, is perpetually taking place with us, if only we receive in faith and life the internal or spiritual sense of the Word and its Heavenly Doctrine as contained in the Writings. This is the "Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory."
     How immediate to us is this Second Coming! The Writings are an immediate revelation. And this is granted at this day, because "this is what is meant by the Coming of the Lord." (H. H. 1.) We can approach the Writings directly, every one individually, without human mediation. This means that we can approach the Lord immediately, without human mediums, even though the Lord still uses such mediums as the priests of His priesthood for some of the works of His Providence.
     By this Second Coming the Lord can be constantly present with us. Only so can such presence be given. Only so can a conscious realization of His presence be granted. It cannot be without the "clouds,"-without the letter of the Word; but the glory shining through the "clouds" is the glory of God, is the Divine Human. And all people who are in truths from good, who are in a life of faith and charity from the Word of His First and Second Comings, will acknowledge Him to be Jesus Christ, our Lord and God; for they will see Him by faith and understanding. " Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him." Amen.

LESSONS:     Daniel 7; Revelation 1; A. E. 36, 870:2.
MUSIC:     Revised Liturgy, pages 456, 476, 438, 425.
PRAYERS:     Nos. 90, 128.

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HIS NAME 1941

HIS NAME       Rev. HENRY ALGERNON       1941

     "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18: 20.)

     There are states of worship and there are acts of worship. In a state of true worship our hearts feel and our minds acknowledge the truth of the Apocalypse: "Worthy art Thou, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power!" (4: 11.) We hold as of supreme worth the things of good and of truth which we receive from Him into the life of our wills and into the life of our understandings, to which things we give expression in our general conduct, as well as in our specific acts of worship. When the intellect, in recognition of the worthiness of these things of truth leading to good, is united with a will which embraces and cherishes with desire and delight the good to which these truths lead, the result is a state of worship in the life, in which the presence and omnipotence of the Lord is experienced most certainly. It is the "two" (intellect and will) or "three" (intellect, will, and life-activity) "gathered in His Name."
     Our subject is the "Name of the Lord." With the phrase and its variations we are familiar. So were the Jews when the Lord first spoke the words of our text. Perhaps the phrase meant more to them then than it has to modern people; for they, as a remnant of the ancient times and peoples, had a background of experience and tradition with regard to the power of the Divine Name. This they believed on the authority of tradition, and they were filled with a sense of fear-though not holy fear-for the Name of the Lord. But where there is not a holy and reverential fear for the Name of the Lord, there results an improper use-indeed, an abuse of the Name. And so it was among the people at the time of the Lord's First Advent.
     But the Lord was not merely accommodating His teaching to the beliefs of His hearers when He indicated the power of His Name. He taught that He could offer salvation to no others than those who believed in His Name.

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The Father, He said, would assuredly grant the prayers of such as asked in His Name. And in our text, where two or three gathered in His Name, there He was in their midst. To His disciples, too, He gave power to heal diseases and cast out demons by the use of His Name.
     What, then, is the Name of the Lord in reality? It is necessary and important that we should know this. In an age when men were content with mere superstition and magic, when indeed these alone could serve the purpose of withholding people from a denial of the preternatural or supernatural, the name Jehovah, or rather Jehovih, and the name Jesus, as distinguishing marks, were quite sufficient, without any knowledge of their inner significance and connotation; but even then it was known that names were not arbitrarily or whimsically given. Names in some way meant to them qualities, or represented life-purposes or hopes. Notwithstanding this, the names borne by men on earth have been at best only temporary and cannot be borne by them after they have passed through the world of spirits into either heaven or hell; for there the name and the nature of the individual are absolutely one, and to meet a person is to know his name.
     The Lord's Name stands for His Divine Qualities, for the truths by which He acts,-the laws of the Divine Providence. His Name is stamped upon the universe in the eternal laws by which it is ordered. To gather in His Name, to pray in His Name, to achieve anything in His Name, demand the attuning of one's self to the laws of Divine Order in an understanding and hearty observance of the Two Great Commandments. It means an acknowledgment that His provisions are absolutely good and wise-the best for each and all, for time and for eternity. In this acknowledgment our worship of Him is possible; we thus commune with Him in will and understanding.
     To gather in the Lord's Name is to gather in the spirit of true worship. For the signification of the name of Jehovah, or the Lord, as we are told in the Heavenly Doctrines, is all things of love and faith by which the Lord is worshipped, because these are things Divine that go forth from His Divine Human. And in the highest sense the Lord's Name means the Lord's Divine Human. (A. C. 2628, 2724, 6887.)

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     We cannot gather in the Lord's Name if we do not, in a spiritual way, know the Lord. To know the Lord is to know His Name or quality, and this is revealed in the Divine Human of the Lord. Reception of Divine Good or Love in our wills and Divine Truth in our understandings is reception of the means from Him by which He makes Himself known to us. In this way the Lord must be in us in the things of His Own before we can know Him. And the things of His Own-that is, of love derived from Him and directed in us to Him, and those of faith derived from Him and directed in us to Him,-we can receive only through His Divine Human. For the Divine Itself, for our own sakes, cannot approach us except through the Divine Human, which, since the Lord's glorification at the time of His First Advent, is as much in ultimates as in first things, as much in the natural as in the celestial degree, as well as above these.
     We only know the Lord in so far as the Lord has entered our life in the things of good and truth which we receive from Him in His Word of Revelation. Then it is that His Name is not a mere name to us, but the very Source of Life and Power. Then we know what we worship, and our worship is intelligent and sincere. Then, too, there can be no doubt that He is in our midst. Then we pray and praise in consonance with His will; and in all our worship and our meditation on His Word we are privileged to have angelic fellowship.
     The Heavenly Doctrines tell us that the worship of a mere name is no worship, being practicable with the worst of people, who thereby do but the more profane the name. (A. C. 2724.) We are also instructed that the Lord is in everyone in the goods of love and of faith that are from Him. Those who are not in any love to Him or faith in Him are unable to form any spiritual name of Him. (A. E. 102.)
     It is the duty of every disciple of the Lord to seek to know Him. It is the wish of the Lord that He be known, and He is always in the effort to help us to know Him. All the provisions and permissions of His Providence have this end in view. We shall know Him when, by the aid of the spiritual sense of the Word revealed for His New Church, we see His Divine in His Human, and, as a consequence, have removed from us the pride of self-intelligence which darkens our understandings and perverts our loves.
     The state of a true knowledge and worship of the Lord, in which we experience His enlightening and purifying presence, is one that ought to be maintained. Its maintenance and confirmation involves us in some considerable degree of responsibility and spiritual alertness.

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"Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation!" Like the angels, we need to look always towards the Lord, as they turn their faces ever towards the Sun of Heaven.
     It has always been possible to man while in earthly sojourn to recede from true worship into a state of empty or idolatrous worship, which is indeed no worship of the Lord. This is described in the Word as bringing the Name of God into what is vain. We do this when we give praise to self, in respect to that which we believe and do which appears to be good and true. So soon as we appropriate to ourselves that which is the Lord's, and cease to acknowledge humbly that He is Author and Source and Power of that which we have and are as of ourselves, we cease to look to Him; we cut ourselves off from Him; we despise and defile that which we have derived from Him; we become profaners of that which is Holy; we look away from Light and Life into spiritual darkness and death; the good in us becomes evil, and the true becomes false; His love and faith no longer abide in us.
     This is a continuing possibility to mankind but in the Lord's Second Advent He has so provided for us to know Him as to have life eternal, as He said. Now it is possible for us to worship the Lord truly, in our recognition of the absolute Divinity in His Humanity Glorified, and by learning, from the revelation of the inner or heavenly sense of the Word of God, given in the Writings of the New Jerusalem, the way of the Lord for us to walk in. In that heavenly sense, as daily we read and study it for the governance of our wills and the enlightenment of our minds, He teaches and guides us, and enters into our spiritual combats and overcomes for us, performing in us and completing in us our regeneration and salvation, along lines similar to those on which He glorified His Human and forever put the hells in subjection to Himself. When Divine order is thus established in our lives, we know Him, we meet in His Name, we worship Him, and have His abiding presence. Amen.

LESSONS:     Numbers 6: 22-27; Deuteronomy 28: 1-20; Matthew 18: 1-20. A. C. 5663.
MUSIC:     Revised Liturgy, pages 428, 460, 461.
PRAYERS:     Nos. 84, 91.

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NOTES AND REVIEWS 1941

NOTES AND REVIEWS       Various       1941


NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of 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 literacy 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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     'THE WORD EXPLAINED'-VOLUME V.

     The fifth volume of the English version of The Word of the Old Testament Explained, by Emanuel Swedenborg, translated from the Latin by Alfred Acton, MA., D.Th., is now in the press, and will be published shortly by The Academy of the New Church in a style uniform with that of the previous volumes of this edition.
     As Volume IV contained the explanation of Exodus I to XXII, the new volume will conclude the explanation of the Book of Exodus, as far as given in this work-namely, chapters 23 to 36: 5, as found in Vol. III of the Latin edition, nos. 1056 to 4450. Swedenborg's treatment of the text of Exodus stops here, because the latter part of the book-chapters 36: 6 to 40-are largely occupied with a description of the making of the tabernacle and the priestly garments, repeating the description of the same in chapters 25 to 31, when the command to make them was given to Moses.
     It will be recalled that the Arcana Celestia also, for the same reason, omits the detailed setting forth of the internal sense of Exodus 35: 4 to 40, since this had already been given in the explanation of chapters 25 to 31. (See A. C. 10733, 10832.)

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          PRAYING FOR PEACE.

     In time of war it is customary in the churches to pray for peace. Christians direct these petitions to the Prince of Peace, in the knowledge that He wills only that "brethren dwell together in unity," and that warfare is not of His providing, but of men's perversity and insistence.
     When the emotional longing that engenders such prayer is qualified by reason, men ask for a just settlement of the issues, thus for a removal of the causes of the conflict. The Lord Himself came "not to bring peace, but a sword,"-the sword of judgment by omnipotent Truth, removing the conditions in both worlds that prevented the imparting of His peace,-that peace which He Himself attained only by victory over the forces of evil in deadly combat. "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This He said, signifying what death He should die."
     From His Divine example, therefore, we learn that genuine peace is attained only by victory over evil. It is the law of regenerative life and the way to heaven for men. Strength to wage this spiritual warfare of regeneration is that, above all else, for which men should pray to their God. For victory in this inner warfare is the only way to the regeneration of the race-to a lasting peace among men and nations.
     A consideration of this need of individual prayer should enable us to appraise the value of congregational prayers for peace in time of war.

     Prayer for Salvation.

     In the inmost of the mind of the regenerating man there reigns a state of spiritual peace,-a state of the soul which is imparted inmostly to the will and thought of the mind, thus to conscious perception, and also to the lower mind and outer life in a sense of contentment and security. The purest fibres of the body are in a state of perfect peace from birth, and they remain so throughout life, whatever may be the turmoil of the grosser fabric of the physical form. In early childhood this inmost state of peace is able to induce a like state upon the infantile body, so tender and plastic. And at this time the Lord imparts to the mind of man the beginnings of a celestial innocence and peace, as a gift from Him, to be stored up and to remain for most important uses later on,-to remain until they are either rejected or accepted by the adult man.

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If accepted, they become the reward of victory in temptation, and thus are appropriated by man as his own from the Lord, to be with him in the angelic life forever.
     Thus peace is both the beginning and the end of life in the world, with its trial and labor, its temptation and victory. If it were not for the early gift of peaceful states, granted man by the Lord in childhood, he would have neither inclination nor power to fight against the evils of his natural man. In temptation he fights from that peace and for it. He fights in defence of it, if he wishes to retain it. He fights to remove the restlessness, discontent and anxiety of the natural man which prevent that peace from reigning in his life. And if he gain the victory, he is given to experience, even in this world, that tranquillity of peace which is the result of order and good in the conquered natural man. Whatever betide in the ultimate life of such a man in his inner mind and heart he ever meditates peace and longs for it,-prays for it as the chief essence of all happiness, as that supreme good of life which arises from the attainment of his soul's desire.
     Spiritual peace, therefore, with all that it embodies of heavenly good and felicity, is the supreme gift of the Lords Providence to the human race. And for the imparting of this gift ever more fully to the conscious perception of mankind, the omnipotent wisdom of the Lord is ever moving, whatsoever may be the appearance of the means before the limited comprehension of the finite mind.
     Divine peace from the Lord, which in Him is the perfect union of His Love and Wisdom, reigns supreme in the interior spheres of creation, where there is no friction, no resistance, no opposing of forces, but all things act in harmony for a common end. The powerful action of these interior spheres is ever engaged in the effort to bring order and peace in lower spheres, even as the soul of man, which lives in those interior realms, is ever striving to keep order in the lower kingdoms of the mind and body. (S. D. 1176.) Thus it is that Divine Peace Itself, ever present in the human soul, enters every human mind that is prepared to receive it, prepared by the removal of gross states of opposition-falsities and evils of hell,-which alone are the enemies of Divine Good, Divine Order, and Divine Peace.

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     The angels of heaven are such prepared minds. By tribulation in the world, by resistance to evil in temptations, they have prepared themselves to abide forever in the heavenly sphere of Divine order and peace. The regenerating man of the church is associated in spirit with these angels, and through them from the Lord he has a reigning desire of heart which is a constant prayer to the Lord for peace, for the genuine peace of heaven and the church.
     Such a genuine peace pervades the life of one who has confidence in the Lord, that He rules all things for good; who has a love towards his neighbor that seeks to benefit him continually; who feels full satisfaction of heart in the reception of Divine mercies, not as gratifying to self, but as the means of blessing others. This unselfishness is an attribute of the heavenly state-a perpetual prayer to the Lord that the gifts of His Providence may be enjoyed by others. All heaven is such a prayer and the sphere of heaven is ever operating powerfully to move men to good, and thus to the reception of the Divine gifts. It is a prayer that His will may be done on earth as it is done in heaven; that there may be on earth, as in heaven, a state of "peace and good will toward men."
     And this angelic sphere finds fullest response in the spiritual minds of the men of the church, where it inspires an ardent desire for the peace and growth of the church, and for the extension of the spiritual blessings of the church among many nations and peoples,-for the imparting of that spiritual life from the Lord which alone can heal the miseries of mankind, restoring heavenly order, heavenly justice and charity, and heavenly peace in the kingdoms of men. The Lord enjoins such a prayer in the words of the Psalmist, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. . . . For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee!" (Psalm 122: 6, 8.)
     By Jerusalem here is meant the church; and man is here exhorted to love, desire, and strive for the peace of the church. For this love, this desire, and its earnest striving and effort, are the essence of such a prayer. The man of the church is to pray that the genuine peace of heaven may be established in his own life, and also in the lives of many; that the minds of all men may be purified of the falsities and evils that prevent the establishment of the good and truth of the church upon the earth. It is a petition and supplication to the Lord, asking that His Providence may hasten the time when all men may enjoy the peace of the church, when this spiritual peace may infill, and purify, and tranquillize the natural lives of men and the civil condition of all nations, for their uplifting and salvation, for their temporal and eternal blessing.

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     Such a prayer springs with sincerity from the heart of one who has suffered the Lord to establish the peace of the church in himself, who has been willing to undergo the purifying fires of temptation, who has experienced the reward of victory,-the interior joy of the good of the church, which ever carries with it the wish that others also may possess it. Every man is given to taste the peace of heaven in his early years, when he is protected from harm and inspired with the delights of love by the sphere of heaven. But as he grows up, the restlessness of cupidity and the lusts of evil, arising from selfish and worldly love, threaten and assault that good of infancy. And this is a permission of the Lord's Providence, bringing the adult man to choose whether he will reject or fight for that early gift, whether he will make that peace of infancy his own by victory in temptation.

     Fighting for Peace.

     It may seem like a paradox to speak of fighting for peace. But the truth is that no spiritual peace can be attained by man without a spiritual conflict, without the subjugation of the evil of hell in himself by resistance to it, by combat against it, and victory over it. This is the price of peace in the regenerate life-an actual spiritual conflict between the forces of good from the Lord and the forces of evil from hell, with man himself determining which shall gain the victory, whether the genuine peace of heaven shall be his, or the false peace that attends the triumph of hell in him.
     It is the Lord alone who conquers evil and implants good but this He can only accomplish in the man who endures and resists even to the end in temptation, who, from the ardent desire for the good of the church, for the order and peace of heaven, is unwilling to yield to the forces that would destroy these things for which he longs. Such a man has in him a power for combat which the Lord can sustain in the trials of temptation, and he supplicates the Lord for this help.

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And so he will not pray for deliverance from temptation, but for deliverance from evil. The prayers of men in temptation are seldom heard, because they so often relax the combat, and ask for release from the temptation rather than release from evil, which can only be overcome by resistance even to the bitter end. The good of peace can only be imparted to man as his own after he has resisted evil, even to despair. (A. C. 8179.)
     It cannot but be that the natural in man shrinks from the trials of temptation; it is only the spiritual in man that endures to the end. The physical man shrinks from pain, but the rational may be willing to endure it for the sake of health. The natural is unwilling to sacrifice the comforts of a full enjoyment of its desires; it is the rational that may compel the natural to do so. So it is from the natural man that we pray the Lord not to "lead us into temptation," while it is the spiritual man that says, "but deliver us from evil." Our Lord Himself spake from the infirm human when He prayed in Gethsemane, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." It was from the Divine in Him that He said, "Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt." From which we learn the important truth of the spiritual life, that man is to shun evil, not temptation, if he would obtain the precious boon of spiritual peace, if he would sincerely pray that he may experience the " peace of Jerusalem."

     Prayer for Others.

     Now the result of temptation victory with the man of the church is a humility before the Lord, and also an increased love for his neighbor, carrying with it a spontaneous desire that others may enjoy the blessedness of the spiritual life. After temptation, man is gifted with spiritual good from the Lord, and this good is never self-centered. It is indeed given the man himself to enjoy, but he is in the enjoyment of this good in the measure that it goes out from him in the sphere and work of use to others. In the good of love there is always a desire to benefit others, a desire to intercede for others,- a prayer for "brethren and companions' sakes." In all true love and charity there is a longing to intercede for them, to invoke the Divine blessing upon them. And human love has this quality from the Divine Love, which is a perpetual intercession for the human race, interceding against the power of hell, and delivering all who will to be saved.

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This love the Lord manifested in the world, when He prayed for His disciples; when, on the cross, He prayed even for His enemies; when He exhorted men to "pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven."
     Nor can we doubt that prayers for the neighbor avail, and are beneficial to him, if the prayers spring from a sincere love of good, and carry with them a sphere that strengthens another in good, so far as he is willing to be so affected. The whole of heaven is such a sphere, such a prayer.
     The Scriptures leave us in no doubt of the efficacy of prayer for others. The Lord Himself taught His disciples that whatsoever they asked in prayer, believing, they would receive. And this faith is expressed in the writings of the Apostles, where we read: "Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." (James 5: 16.) "I exhort therefore that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and givings of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." (I Timothy 2: 1-4.)
     Our Doctrines also abundantly confirm this power of prayer, and it is shown that prayers are heard and answered when they are from the Lord in man, that is, when they are offered in a spirit of entire submission to the Divine Providence, and from the one only desire that the Lord's will may be done. "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." (John 15: 7.)
     This is the one thing that is required of us if we would "pray for the peace of Jerusalem for our brethren and companions' sake,"-pray for the growth and establishment of the spiritual peace of the New Jerusalem, and its extension throughout the world. Indeed, the promise is given that this is of the Divine Providence,-that in the New Church there will be "spiritual peace and internal blessedness of life." And if it be too much to expect the speedy fulfilment of this greatly to be desired event, we may still pray for all the means to that end,-for the preservation of that peace which arises from natural charity and good will, external order and justice, wherein men are in freedom to do what is good and right, and to embrace the spiritual truths of the church in faith and life, if they are willing; not that false peace, which permits evils to flourish and grow.

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     It is said in the Doctrines that when a church, a nation, or an individual reaches a state of false peace, having built up imaginary heavens by the gratification of the loves of self and the world, the angels then pray the Lord to execute judgment, to deliver men from the dominion of hell, to reduce and subjugate the evils that have grown, and to restore spiritual freedom for the sake of a new state of order and good. Such a restoration was brought about in the spiritual world by the Last Judgment in the year 1757. But peace cannot be preserved in that world without frequent lesser judgments. Nor can the peace of that world be imparted to the interiors of men on earth without frequent judgments, both in the life of the individual and in the life of the race. After the First Advent of the Lord He said to the disciples, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. In the world we shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
     And so at the Second Advent, while we cannot doubt the ultimate gift of universal peace to the world-natural and civil peace given through the spiritual peace of the church,-it is still true that "the world shall have great tribulation" before this is accomplished. As it will frequently come to pass that evils in men and nations will increase until they have exceeded bounds, the man of the church cannot but pray for judgment upon such conditions. And when the signs of such a judgment are at hand, as in the existence of natural disturbances, wars, and the like, he cannot but desire and pray that the end and purpose be accomplished, which is the removal of the evil that has brought about the judgment, whatever it may be; though he also prays that this be accomplished speedily, and with the least of pain and woe. As this should be man's attitude toward his own spiritual condition, so it should be his attitude in respect to the larger man,-the church, the nation, the whole human race.
     It is the plain teaching of our Doctrine that nations are punished by wars for their evils. Hell and evil are what is punished, that men may be released from their dominion, that the evil may be reduced and subdued, and that a new and better peace may ensue.

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And the evils of the conflict,-the judgment-enormous though they be, are still not as great as the evils which are thus checked and removed.
     For deliverance from evil is what men are to pray, as the only means of receiving that good which it is ever the Divine will to impart to the human race. This the rational man of the church is able to see and acknowledge,-that all signs of a judgment, a world temptation, are also signs of a Divine approach to impart a new and greater good to men, to remove that which stands in the way, that He may deliver from evil, and thereafter bestow that Divine and heavenly peace which is the supreme gift of His Divine Providence.
ACQUIRING AN ESTATE. 1941

ACQUIRING AN ESTATE.              1941

     My Own Four Walls. By Don Rose. Illustrated by Leon Rose. New York: Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc., 1941. Buckram, pp. 277, $2.00.

     This engaging book is by way of being the biography of a house and its owner who came from England over thirty years ago to study for the New Church ministry at Bryn Athyn,-"an ambition finally abandoned for the good of the church." So he joined the local fire company and was made Second Lieutenant in Charge of Hose and Nozzles, did some teaching and writing, and is now a respected member of the Fourth Estate, columnist, author of several books, lecturer, and after-dinner speaker extraordinary. Meanwhile, by methods here explained in detail, he became one of the landed gentry of the Pennypack Valley, the beauties of which he describes in a prose poetry that will awaken nostalgic memories among the many ex-students of the Academy who spent their recreational hours along the banks of the Pennypack Creek.
     By "stretching a shoestring," Mr. Rose acquired an 1832 farmhouse and its acre of land; and this, in the course of twenty years, he has brought up to date as the home of twelve heirs whom he has reared in the Swedenborgian manner-with the duly acknowledged assistance of Mrs. Rose. The happy family-life within these "Four Walls" is pretty much of an open secret.

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There are no skeletons in the closets, for the simple reason that there are no closets-an oversight on the part of the original builder. The villain in the story- since there must be a villain-is a wicked old Earl in the family line who was hanged for his crimes back in the 18th century.
     Now this transformation of an ancient farm property into a landed estate, with tenants and all, was not effected without travail, and plenty of it, nor without mortgages, and lots of those. The result stands as a triumph of mind over matter, of persistence, resourcefulness and a philosophical humor over obstacles that would floor most men. It also serves to refute the mournful lines of Will Carleton: "Worm or beetle, drought or tempest, on a farmer's land may fall, but for first-class ruination, trust a mortgage 'gainst them all."
     Into the story of this property the author has woven the lore of the countryside and many secrets of the arts of building and garden making; also a sketch of the rise and development of the New Church community at Bryn Athyn,-the only one in the United States which has lasted so long and kept strictly to its purpose," the Cathedral and the Academy having profoundly influenced the lives of several rising generations of Swedenborgians. And the reader is introduced to a number of local worthies, from bishops to janitors. Such communities do not just happen. This book lifts the veil, and shows how it is done, and tells it in a way that is pleasingly frank, informative and entertaining.
     Excellent drawings by Leon Rose illustrate the text, having the appearance of old-fashioned woodcuts or steel engravings, thus preserving the atmosphere of a century-old house.
     We hope that someone will now write the story of the New Church community at Glenview, Illinois, which was founded at the same time as the one in Bryn Athyn, and has "kept strictly to its purpose" with a like success.
     Our readers can obtain copies of My Own Four Walls at leading bookstores, or from The Academy Book Room, Bryn Athyn, Pa., by remitting the price, $2.00.

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Communications 1941

Communications       WILLIS L. GLADISH       1941

     THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
     Differences of View Discussed.

     (Submitted by the writer for publication.)

Dear Bishop Acton:
     You have been kind enough to ask me, together with other members of the Church, to state what differences, if any, we have with your views of the Spiritual World, as presented at the last General Assembly and printed in the October, 1940, NEW CHURCH LIFE. I welcome the opportunity to do so; not, let me assure you, as an opponent who enters the lists against you, but as a pupil who would say to an honored and learned teacher, "Wont you please go over this point again? I am not sure that I get your meaning."
     Let me say, first, that I am in hearty sympathy with your purpose to present the nature of the Spiritual World in more rational light, that we may be able to understand the "appearances of that world, their reality, how and why they transcend space and time, and yet are in the extense of the natural world. And yet some of the things you say about that world disturb rather than enlighten me. probably because I do not understand your meaning aright.
     You say: "The opinion that the appearances of the spiritual world are actual created substances involves that these substances are compounded, and that it is by this means that they come to the eves of spirits. But the seeing of compound forms is not the seeing of appearances, but is the visual reproduction of actual figures; just as in the case of the sight of the body. If the mountains, houses, garments, etc., seen by angels are actual compound forms, whether spiritual or natural, then they see actual mountains and houses, etc., occupying space just as really as the mountains and houses of this earth. Yet it is universally acknowledged in the New Church that appearances in the spiritual world are appearances of the states of angels, or 'appearances of their understanding and perceptions of their loves. (D. Wis. VII. 5.)'" (Page 470.)

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     You have assured me that the spiritual world is as real, yes, more real, than the natural world. And now you say, 'If the mountains, etc, . . . seen by angels are actual compound forms, . . . then they see actual mountains occupying space just as really, etc     " How can they be real, and yet not actual? And how be real if not compounded of parts? If everything compounded of parts is left out of the spiritual world, it will be a lonesome place; for everything finite is made up of parts; only the substance of the Infinite, the Divine, is continuous.
     But you continue to perplex me more and more. You say: "If, however, it is contended that the appearances seen by spirits, while constituted of compounded spiritual forms, are not actually in the shape of earthly objects, it may be asked, By what law are such finite forms seen as objects of a wholly different shape? If I see material objects, or if, through the microscope, I see the finer things of nature, what I see is the actual shape of the thing seen. By what law, then, can spirits see created finite forms in a figure other than that which they actually possess? " (Page 470.)
     And then, in addition to the doubt whether there is anything substantial in the objects of the spiritual world, you suggest the further doubt whether we can trust what we do see in that world. The objects seen may have other forms than they appear to have. And, worse yet, the very inhabitants of that world, though seen, may not be there, or may not be in the shape in which they are seen. For the quotation continues: 'And what shall we say of the spiritual body? Spirits see each other as men exactly as in the world. Yet we are taught that a spirit consists of the finest things of nature, within which are active spiritual substances transmitting the Divine Life (T. 470). That spirits, when seeing each other, do not see the finest things of nature, is evident, and moreover, is distinctly stated in the Writings (D. Wis. VIII. 5). Are we then to suppose that the finite spiritual substances within are further compounded to form a body in the actual shape of the natural body? If not, the question again arises, By what law do spirits see finite forms in another shape than that which these forms actually possess? " (Pages 470, 471.)

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     How are we to picture the spiritual world to ourselves? As empty of all forms? As carrying only the abstract light of truth? I have thought of the atmospheres nearer to the Divine as being more complex, as containing more things than the lower ones, because nearer to the Lord. Do you think of them as containing only the abstract light of truth, enabling spirits to see the Lord and His truths, which are the subjects of their contemplation? Why could they not contain both,-both the actual pictures or rather compounded forms, and also the light by which to understand the signification of those forms? I know of no law which deprives a higher atmosphere of any property possessed by a lower one. On the contrary, I have understood the teaching to be that the higher has all the properties of the lower, and many more.
     But I think I have found what it is that makes our conceptions of the spiritual world differ so widely. It is contained in the first sentence of the first paragraph on page 471: "Moreover, the teaching of the Writings is, that the compounding of finite, created forms takes place only as a link in the chain of creation that extends from firsts to lasts." And do you think of this chain of creation described in the Writings as only natural and material, from first to last? On what grounds? Surely the Writings teach on every page that there is a spiritual world, of created, finite, compounded, substance. If not, I have hitherto read them to little purpose.
     What say the Writings? We read in A. E. 1218.

     "In the natural world there are spaces and times, but in the spiritual world these are appearances.-The reason is, that all things that appear in the spiritual world are immediately from the sun of heaven, which is the Lord's Divine Love; and all things that appear in the natural world are from the same, but by means of the sun of the world, which is pure fire. Pure love, from which all things in the spiritual world come forth immediately, is immaterial; but pure fire, through which all things in the material world come forth mediately, is material. This is why all things that come forth in the spiritual world are, by virtue of their origin, spiritual, and all things that come forth in the natural world are, by virtue of their secondary origin, material; and material things in themselves are fixed, permanent, and measurable. They are fixed, because they endure, however the states of men may be changed, like the lands, mountains and seas.

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They are permanent, because they recur regularly in turn, like the seasons, generations, and germinations. And they are measurable, because all things can be defined, as spaces by miles and furlongs, and these by feet and spans, and as times by days, weeks, months, and years. But in the spiritual world all things are as if fixed, as if permanent, and as if measurable, and yet in themselves they are not so. For they come forth and continue according to the states of the angels, so that they make one with those states; and consequently they are varied in whatever way those states are varied." (A. E. 1218.)

     I cannot imagine how it would be possible to teach more clearly than is done in this number that in the process of creation the Lord, from the sun of heaven, which is pure love, first created the forms of the spiritual world, and that, as creation progressed, these same forms were encompassed with material substances, and so became material, thus forms fixed, permanent, and measurable-forms of nature. And this indeed is stated in so many words in this same number, which I continue to quote:

     I have heard many declaring that they were not dead, and that they could not understand how anything of their hotly could have been put away into a grave; and for the reason that all things in that world are like those in this world; and they do not know that the things they there see and feel 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, with this difference only, that something additional like an outer garment has been added from the sun of the world to those things that are in the natural world by virtue of which they have become material, fixed, permanent and measurable. But yet I can assert that those things that are in the spiritual world are more real than those in the natural world, for the dead part that is added in nature to the spiritual does not constitute reality, but diminishes it." (A. E. 1218:2. Italics mine.)

     It is here said that the things they see and feel in the spiritual world,-those things of that world which are called "appearances," have the same origin that all things in the world have, with this difference only, that something additional like an outer garment has been added from the sun of the world, . . . by virtue of which they have become material, fixed, permanent and measurable."

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     There is only one thing that makes these appearances seem "ghostly" instead of real, and that is the statement that these appearances depend upon the state of the angels or spirits who see them. But I have understood this to refer to the ability of angel or spirit to see rather than to cause the "appearance." What I mean is this. I cannot conceive of the Lord's creation as dependent upon the state of angels or men, except to a very limited extent; but I can understand that the ability of an angel to see spiritual objects would depend upon his state. Thought from affection opens the eyes to see; but when the affection is changed, the scenery is changed, because the eyes are opened to see other things.
     Do you not agree that this is the explanation of most of the changes in the appearances of the spiritual world? I know that an angel can at will project his thought into the plastic substance of the air about him, and cause his thought to appear, whereas in this world he would have to use his hand to draw a picture or mold in clay that which he wished to show to others. But this would not explain the usual scenery of that world with which they are surrounded. This must have been created by the Lord in the beginning, just as was the scenery of this world. The spiritual aura contains all the arcana of the whole universe, all love and all wisdom, thus all forms that will appear in the natural world, and many that cannot appear there. Finite beings cannot see them all, but they will be revealed to angels successively according to their state of reception. This must be the key to the ordinary changes of the appearances of that world.
     As is said in Heaven and Hell, Since all things which correspond to the interiors also represent them, they are therefore called REPRESENTATIVES. And because they are varied according to the state of the interiors of those who behold them, they are called APPEARANCES. . . . The appearances of this kind in heaven are called real appearances, because they have real existence." (H. H. 175.) These appearances have real existence because they have been created by the Lord. When the interiors of the angels are opened, these real objects are seen; and because they correspond to the interiors of the angel, they are called Representatives.

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It is thence that a wise angel can know his state, because, if it is good, he is able to see the good things created by the Lord, while if evil things appear, it is because evil is active in him.
     The men of the first Christian Church were allowed to believe in the resurrection of the body because otherwise they could not believe in the life after death. To them, the spirit was but a vapor, a wind, a vital breath. But in the New Church, with the testimony of the Lord's Servant before us, I had thought that it would be possible to believe in that world as real and actual, made up of parts, as all things finite must be, and yet those parts not fixed and measurable, either in times or feet, but only in affection and thought, thus in terms of the mind, not of the body. This, your philosophy would take from me,-if I understand it aright.
     But why, oh why, should you arbitrarily decide that matter begins with the first natural point, against all the testimony of both the Philosophical and the Theological Writings? Both teach in words that could not be plainer that the natural point or the first simple came forth from the sun of heaven, which is pure love, and that the natural began with the sun of the world, which is pure fire.
     Permit me to add a few sentences from T. C. R. 29, and I am done; for I know that you have in mind all the passages that I can adduce.

     "In the natural world there are times and spaces, but in the spiritual world not so actually, but still apparently. The reason why times and spaces were introduced into the worlds, was that one thing might be distinguished from another, great from small, many from few, thus quantity from quantity, and so quality from quality; and that by this means the senses of the body might be able to distinguish their objects, and the senses of the mind theirs, and thus might be affected, think and choose. Times were introduced into the natural world by the earth's rotating about is axis. . . . But spaces were introduced into the natural world by the earth's being compacted into a globe, . . . the parts of which were distinct from one another, and at the same time extended. In the spiritual world, however, there are not material spaces, and times corresponding with them; but still there are appearances of them, . . . which appearances are real, because constant according to their states. . .

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Angels dwell separately and distinctly from each other, yea, more distinctly than men who have a material extense. . . . They also have spaces, because all things in that world are substantial, as in the natural world they are material. . . From what has been said above it may be comprehended that spaces and times make finite all things and every thing in both worlds, and that thence men are finite, not only as to their bodies, but also as to their souls; and in like manner angels and spirits." (T. C. R. 29.)

     I hope that what I have written will make clear why I cannot accept your explanation of the appearances of the spiritual world as I understand that explanation.
     Sincerely and affectionately yours,
          WILLIS L. GLADISH.

Glenview, Illinois February 7, 1941.
AUGUST DREXLER. 1941

AUGUST DREXLER.       F. E. WAELCHLI       1941

     A Reminiscence.

Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE:

     Among my stowed away books, I recently came across a volume which I intend to place in the Archives of the Academy, writing in it a reference to this communication, should you kindly accept it. On the back of the book is inscribed the title, "Tafel's Leben Jesu" (Tafel's Life of Jesus), published by Dr. Fr. Immanuel Tafel, Basel and Ludwigsburg, 1865. The volume contains two other publications: Verteidigung der Lehren der Neuen Kirche gegenuber Angriffen (Defense of the Doctrines of the New Church against Attacks), by (Rev.) Friedrich Wilhelm Tuerk, published at Berlin, Ontario, Canada, 1874; and a pamphlet in English, entitled "Regeneration and its Perversion," by Rev. F. W. Tuerk, translated by John E. Bowers, and published at Berlin, Ontario, Canada, 1862.
     Bound in with the volume-at the beginning, between the separate publications, and at the end-were blank pages, on forty-three of which are written in a beautiful hand many passages in Greek from the New Testament. These are passages to which Dr. Tafel refers in his treatise, which is a defense of the integrity of the Gospels against an attack by a certain Dr. Strauss.

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[Photo of August Drexler]

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The passages in Greek are evidently written by one very familiar with that language; and it is of this person, by whom the volume was presented to me long ago, that this communication would give an account.
     His name was August Drexler, a person well known to the German New Church people in the Ontario counties of Waterloo and Perth, and also to other residents there, fifty years ago, and for some years earlier and later. He was a peculiar, eccentric character, to an extent similar to "Johnny Appleseed." As with "Johnny," there was something of a "loose screw," and yet a remarkable intelligence. Unlike "Johnny," there was, from his early life in Germany, the background of a learned man of brilliant mind, yet with whom at some time or other, due to some circumstances, "something had snapped." The secret may have been known to two persons,-the Rev. F. W. Tuerk, pastor of the Berlin (Kitchener) Society, and Mr. Henry Doering, father, grandfather, etc., of the Doerings well known today in the General Church. If so, they never divulged the confidence.
     At my request, Miss Caroline Doering daughter of Mr. Henry Doering, has written an account of this man, as follows:
     Mr. Drexler lived among the German people in Wilmot township, Waterloo county, including the villages of Philipsburg and Wellesley. In this district I first met him. He was a violinist for dance parties. My Uncle Andrew Doering's children all lived in this locality, and Mr. Drexler always found a warm welcome in their homes. He played for very little recompense, but to the satisfaction of all. He would not intermingle with the company. He was dressed in white, including a long coat. Had long white hair and beard. To the general public he was known only for his peculiar dress. To those of more intimate acquaintance he was known as a musician of high quality, an expert violinist. He also played piano and organ with equal distinction. This was exemplified when some people of the town of Waterloo persuaded him to play at a musical convention in Toronto, where he received great applause.
     During his stay in and around Wellesley and Philipsburg he gave music lessons, and at this period he became acquainted with the New Church doctrines. Whether he was familiar with Latin and Greek before he became acquainted with the New Church teachings, is a question. But we know he studied the Writings, and also the New Testament in Greek.
     Soon after he became interested in the New Church doctrines he came to our home [the farm near Milverton. Perth County]. My parents asked him to give some of us music lessons, with the understanding that he should receive payment and give the lessons at regular times.

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He seemed delighted with the opportunity. But it did not last long. He was so absorbed in his studies that he felt that the lessons interfered with them, and especially with some translating work he was doing.
     He remained at our place, however, going and coming as he chose. He was always reserved and well-mannered. From his room he would come to meals. But would not mingle with the family unless especially invited. This was also true of his playing. If asked by my parents, he played willingly for our pleasure, or, if we had a party, for the dancing. He did not require much money, nor did he seem to have a desire for it. I do not know that he had any remunerative work, aside from playing at parties and giving music lessons.
     His characteristics were an unusually studious nature and a genuine integrity. Travelling about, he was never molested. Nor was he made fun of, which his appearance might have invited. Although reserved, be would have long conversations with my father when alone with him, and these ware confidential. I think he spent his last days in Kitchener, and left his prized violin to a family living there or in Waterloo-a family with whom he was a great deal after we left Canada. Enclosed is the photograph of Mr. Drexler, which I mentioned to you.

     To this account I would add some things I learned by hearsay and by contact with him.
     As Miss Doering relates, Mr. Drexler went and came as he chose. His headquarters were at that home. But he would also stay for short periods at a number of other places in the two counties. At these, or at some of them, he kept some of his belongings, including books, and perhaps some of his manuscripts.
     He travelled on foot, clad in his white clothing, even in winter, and could be seen streaking along the road at a rapid pace, carrying a small parcel and perhaps his violin on his way to play at a dance or on some other mission. Sometimes he would go the thirty miles to Berlin (Kitchener), chiefly, no doubt, for the purpose of seeing the Rev. F. W. Tuerk, to obtain books or to converse on doctrinal subjects. He refused lifts, and sometimes would lie down at the roadside for a rest, even in the snow. Horses would shy at this strange white object.
     His books were principally copies of the Writings and collateral works, in German. Among the latter, his favorites were Dr. Fr. Immanuel Tafel's New Church religious-philosophical works. One of his books, the title of which I have forgotten, he had given away, and I noticed that he had inscribed on the fly-leaf in his own hand, "August Drexler, Musikant und Literat" (Musician and Man of Letters or Literateur).

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I believe it was at the home of Mr. Jacob Stroh, Waterloo, that I saw this book, but I am not certain. It would be interesting to know whether it is still in someone's possession.
     Drexler was fond of conversing on the Doctrines. As already indicated, this was principally with the Rev. F. W. Tuerk and Mr. Henry Doering, but also with Mr. Jacob Stroh, Waterloo, and Mr. Richard Roschman, Berlin, when calling on them. At his visits to the latter I was sometimes present and joined in the conversation. Besides this, he was, to quite an extent, a missionary, like "Johnny Appleseed," presenting the doctrines where there seemed a favorable opportunity, and lending or giving away books.
     In addition to these contacts, there must have been others, especially in Berlin and Waterloo, with people of refined musical taste and appreciation, for whom he no doubt rendered classical selections. Of this Miss Doering says that "to more intimate acquaintances he was known as a musician of high quality." She also speaks of his playing at a musical festival in Toronto, this being arranged by Waterloo people. This took place before the time of my residence at Berlin, and as the story came to me, the musical festival was held at Berlin, largely attended from many parts of Ontario, including Toronto. His playing created a great sensation, and all the more because of his unique appearance,-white clothing and flowing white hair and beard, as he had absolutely refused to accede to the urging that he wear a dress suit.
     My somewhat intimate association with Mr. Drexler was during the years when I was pastor of Carmel Church and headmaster of its day-school. Then, as now, the library was in the front room to the right as one entered the building, and to it Mr. Drexler occasionally came to study and to write. During some forenoon school session there would be a knocking at the front door. I would go from my classroom to open it. There stood Drexler. Entering the hallway, he would slip off his low shoes or, if it was in the Fall or Spring season, he would remove his slippers without heel-caps, in which he then travelled. Then, in his stockings, he would go into the library. Sometimes, when the weather was quite warm, there were no stockings, and he would then go into the library in his slippers, which he would there shed, and sit in his bare feet.

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I was aware that, behind me at the classroom door, the pupils were peering out; and I could hear the whispers, "Old Drexler! Old Drexler!" Perhaps some who were then pupils may remember this.
     The library contained the Writings in Latin, English, and German, and various collateral works. And as this room was also my study, some of my own reference works were there, including two Greek lexicons, one classical, the other for the New Testament. Drexler would open his parcel containing some manuscript, and settle down to work, using the books at hand, copying, and doing other writing.
     Miss Doering says, "Whether he was familiar with Latin and Greek before he became acquainted with the New Church teachings, is a question." However, the book to which I refer at the beginning of this communication makes clearly evident that his knowledge of Greek must have dated back to his youth, probably in some German university; and at that time also he must have acquired Latin. Then, too, he must have studied ancient and modern philosophies, in which his interest continued. His especial interest in New Testament Greek suggests that possibly he was at one time destined for the ministry.
     In our Carmel Church library he continued his work throughout the forenoon school session. He was there again during the afternoon session. Perhaps he had gone out for the noon meal at some home, or had some lunch with him. And after the afternoon session he would remain at his work for quite a while. I would have some conversation with him during the recess periods and after school. He had certain very fixed opinions, for which he would argue vigorously.
     What has become of his books and manuscripts? Perhaps there are some of them in someone's possession. It would be interesting to know.
     It may be that some of the now very few old-timers of Kitchener or Waterloo can tell some additional things about Mr. Drexler. Or it may be that some who are not old-timers, and yet no longer young, can relate traditions they know of this man.
     Sincerely yours,
     F. E. WAELCHLI.
Bryn Athyn. February 12, 1941.

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Reports 1941

Reports       NORMAN H. REUTER       1941

     SOUTHERN STATES.

     A Pastoral Visit.

     During January I made my third annual visit to members of the General Church in the Southern States. An account of the first of these visits appeared in NEW CHURCH LIFE for March, 1939, but no report was made of last year's visit, and so a few words concerning it will be prefaced to this report.
     The second year included stops at all the places visited the first year (1939) except Savannah, Georgia, and added several new ones. A call was made upon Miss Lydia Bancroft in Milledgeville, Ga., who later made the trip to Atlanta to attend the service held there. An overnight visit was made with Mr. and Mrs. Myron Near of De Land, Florida, whom we had missed the year before. An unannounced visit was made in Apopka, Fla., to Mr. Joachim Fritz, who has since passed into the other world. Finally, two days were spent in St. Petersburg and Dunedin, Fla., a doctrinal class being held at the home of Miss Janet Richey, and a dinner and doctrinal class at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Merrell.
     The trip this year, an auto journey covering 4000 miles, was the most extensive of the three, and several families were visited for the first time. On this trip I sold literature to the value of $16.60, including paperbound copies of the Writings, Pastoral Extension Service pamphlets, collateral booklets, and the Sunday School material listed by Miss Lois Nelson in the December, 1940, issue of the Parent-Teacher Journal. In addition, I distributed without charge some old copies of the Writings which had come into my possession, also missionary pamphlets, copies of " The Order and Organization of the General Church," many sample copies of the Parent-Teacher Journal, and over forty Extension Service pamphlets. In many places I found evidence of the reception and appreciation of the Theta Alpha monthly mimeograph service for children, now being provided free by that organization.
     Through the diligent use of all the material I have mentioned, plus NEW CHURCH LIFE and the BULLETIN OF THE SONS OF THE ACADEMY, the isolated families and members can provide for their spiritual needs in the absence of frequent ministrations of some visiting minister. In some cases, the BULLETIN is the only one of our publications that is received, because it is mailed without charge to all male members of the General Church.

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     Leaving Akron on Saturday, December 25. I arrived in Wyoming, Ohio, the same evening. Next morning I conducted a children's service and an adult service, the latter including the administration of the Holy Supper. It was during the interval between the conclusion of the Rev. Ormond Odhner's work there and the arrival of the Rev. Victor J. Gladish.
     Arriving in Birmingham. Alabama, on December 31, the first gathering of the group there was a New Year's Eve social time at the home of Dan and Betty Echols. The little group of New Churchmen in this area center around the home of these two Academy educated young people. During my stay I conducted their regularly established family worship, and instructed their five children each day. Here, also, two of the four doctrinal classes were held, besides the children s service on Sunday morning. At the home of Mrs. A. M. Echols, Sr., where I stayed, two doctrinal classes and an adult service with the Holy Supper were held. Instruction was given to Magill Echols, who hopes to go to Bryn Athyn next year, and there was much conversation with Mrs. Echols and her daughter, Mrs. Wade, who, with her son Hansell, was visiting there. I also visited in the homes of Mr. Louis Kendiv and Mr. and Mrs. Posey, whose son, John Alton, was at the Academy last year. The remaining member of the group is Mr. Ferrel Storey, who was baptized on my first visit, and who sent in his application for membership this year.
     But the most important piece of news from Birmingham is the decision of the group to meet every other Wednesday, taking a collection at each meeting. out of which the Extension pamphlets are to be purchased for their reading the balance to be given to the Visiting Pastor on each visit. To insure the continuance of this program, a simple organization was formed, with Dan Echols as Leader, John Alton Pusey as Secretary, and Betty Doering Echols as Treasurer and Custodian.
     Mrs. Wade and her son accompanied me to Atlanta, Georgia, and there she added to the attendance of the two doctrinal classes on January 6 and 7. Preceding the first class there was a cozy dinner party at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Barnitz. My host and hostess on this brief visit were Mr. and Mrs. T. D. Crockett, whose grown-up family usually make a large part of the Atlanta group; but now only two sons and a daughter remain at home; three married children live elsewhere in the South, and one daughter is in Bryn Athyn.
     With plans arranged for my return to Atlanta later in the month, I left with Mrs. Wade and her son and Mr. J. A. Fraser for Brunswick, Georgia, the home of the Wades. Mr. Fraser, who has been the patriarch of the Atlanta group for many years, was leaving Atlanta to reside in Florida, and so his departure created a sense of loss and sorrow with young and old. In Brunswick, informal doctrinal discussions were the program both evenings, as well as much of the day. Mr. Wade, although not a member, seemed to enjoy our visit and the instruction as much as we enjoyed his family's hospitality; and his wife spoke of her fortune in being able to attend all the classes and services in Birmingham and Atlanta, as well as in her own home.

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     On January 10, Mr. Fraser and I had luncheon in Jacksonville, Fla., with Mr. Kirk, a Convention friend of his. That evening we arrived in Oak Hill, to find not only the Harry Hilldale family, but also Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hill- dale, of New York, and their son Dick. Mrs. John Hilldale was bedridden as the result of a stroke, but in spite of this fact the regular program was carried out during our three-days' sojourn-instruction to the children, family worship (another place where this is a daily institution) followed by doctrinal classes or informal talks about church matters, with a full service on Sunday. Here again it was arranged that the Extension Service should help to fill in the long gaps between ministerial visits; and some of the Sunday School material was provided for the use of the three small children, who so dearly love anything connected with religion.
     On January 14, Mr. Fraser and I proceeded to West Palm Beach, where Mr. Jordan Johnson resides. On my last year's visit he had come to Oak Hill to be baptized, and there he had met his first New Church friends. Last July he married; and so diligently had he and his wife been reading the Doctrines since then, that she now desired to be baptized. The first evening with them was spent in questions and answers upon almost every doctrine of the Church, while the next day the Johnsons, Mr. Fraser and I drove to Boca Raton, where we all met for the first time Mr. and Mrs. Dewey Burnett (nee Alma Johnson, formerly of Erie, Pa., and more recently of Philadelphia). The six of us enjoyed a most delicious dinner prepared by Mrs. Burnett, and this was followed by an impressive threefold service: the baptism of Mrs. Jordan Johnson, the consecration of Mr. and Mrs. Jordan Johnson's civil wedding, and the administration of the Holy Supper to all present. These two couples were so delighted to find each other that they made arrangements to procure the Extension pamphlets, that they may read and worship together frequently in the future, although they live thirty miles apart.
     On January 16, in Miami. Mr. Fraser and I were entertained at the home of Miss Caroline Fritz, a General Church member who seldom sees one of our ministers. Next morning we visited Mrs. James Lister, who attended the Rev. K. R. Alden's missionary classes in Bryn Athyn and joined the Church as a result. These two ladies had not known each other before, and they will undoubtedly get together in the near future.
     On January 15, Mr. Fraser and I arrived at the beautiful home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Merrell in Dunedin, Fla., twenty-five miles north of St. Petersburg. The next morning being Sunday, a most complete service was held, attended by a very cosmopolitan congregation. Although Mr. and Mrs. Merrell are now permanently resident in Dunedin, they have only recently removed from Wyoming, Ohio. With them at the time of our visit were Mr. and Mrs. Fred Merrell of Berkeley, California; from St. Petersburg came Miss Janet Richey, whose home is in Blairsville, Pa.; from Glenview, Ill., Mr. A. W. Reuter, my father; and Miss M. L. Meech and Miss Beatrice Campbell, residents in St. Petersburg. Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hilldale, of New York, had come over from Oak Hill. Thus, with Mr. Fraser, recently from Atlanta, and myself from Akron, the congregation took on the nature of a miniature assembly.

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The next day, besides making several calls. I conducted a very well attended doctrinal class at the home of Miss Janet Richey in St. Petersburg. On leaving Dunedin I regretfully parted with my travelling companion, Mr. Fraser, as he had been invited to spend some time with the C. G. Merrells.
     The next call was on Mr. and Mrs. Donald Howe in Albany, Ga., where the time was occupied in seeing the town, having supper together, followed by a doctrinal class conversation on church subjects, and discussion of the Pastoral Extension Service. Mr. Howe is a member of long standing, who joined the Church in the days when Mr. Keep was ministering to a small group in Atlanta. From Albany I went to Macon, Ga., to spend a day with Mr. and Mrs. George Nottingham and their two children. No regular classes were conducted, but Mrs. Nottingham and I spent considerable time in conversation on church matters, and the whole visit was for me a delightful experience in a typically delightful Southern home.
     From January 23 through January 26 I was again in Atlanta, this time as the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Barnitz. This family, like the Crocketts, is at present depleted in numbers by the absence of their daughter Nell in Bryn Athyn and their son Harry in New Jersey. The cycle of instruction for children, doctrinal classes, and a church service once more was followed, interspersed with a birthday dinner and several most enjoyable social evenings, so that when the time came to say farewell, it was indeed difficult, as it is hard to tell when I will next see these kind friends.
     The home of Mr. and Mrs. Price Coffin and their seven children, in Spartanburg, South Carolina, was the next stop, and here a most enjoyable and useful day and a half passed swiftly. Under the circumstances, our program was quite an ambitious one. The seventh child was only three days old, and the mother was brought home from the hospital the evening that I arrived. The father, Price, was not quite over a spell of influenza, and one child was still recovering from the same illness. On the first evening we had a visit from Mr. Karl Doering and a friend, both from Asheville, N. C., sixty-eight miles away. The next day instruction was given the children on the meaning of baptism; the next baby" was baptized; I conducted family worship, and there was an informal discussion of church matters at the bedside of Mrs. Coffin. I had planned to visit the Coffins last year, but had been snowed out, so this was their first visit from a minister during the years that they have been living in the South. However, they hope that it will be far from the last, as they hunger for aid in the religious instruction of their children and themselves.
     Lunch with Karl Doering in Asheville, preceded by a trip to the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where Karl is in charge of the landscape work on a new scenic highway, was a pleasant interlude on my trip to Norton, Virginia, the home of Dr. and Mrs. Philip Cronlund, their two children, and Mrs. Spangler. Here was another "first visit" for me. Family worship was held on two evenings, followed by informal doctrinal conversation after the children were in bed. During part of the day I accompanied the doctor on his duties as health officer for two counties.

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Once again I was made to feel appreciation of the visit of a minister, this time by three adults who had lived in Bryn Athyn, and hence knew what they were missing by their isolation.
     The last stop on my journey was a slipper engagement with Mr. Richard do Charms, Lieutenant Commander, who is in charge of the huge construction program at the Naval Ordinance Plant located near Charleston, West Virginia. As he had to catch a train for Bryn Athyn, we parted after a most pleasant meal together. I then headed for home with the throttle wide open, arriving in the early morning hours of February 1st, just in time to prepare for a Sunday service in Akron the next day.
     To sum up. On the whole trip, exclusive of the visit in Wyoming, Ohio, I conducted 4 adult services, 2 children's services 17 doctrinal classes, 13 children's and young people's classes; and 14 evenings were spent in a more or less social manner, in most cases discussing doctrine and talking about the church. I led in family worship on 12 occasions, administered the Holy Supper 4 times, and performed 2 baptisms and one consecration of a wedding. Seventy-nine different persons were ministered to, 36 of whom were General Church members; 10 were young people and adults who were baptized, but not members 22 were baptized children; and eleven were relatives or friends of members.
     And now, in closing this report, and, as it were, turning over this field to the Rev. Victor Gladish, I would like to make some observations as the result of my three visits in the South. There is no doubt that the hunger for instruction, worship, and leadership is present with most of the people visited. The three visits have served to increase their appetite, and have developed an appreciation of that which the organized church is endeavoring to do for them. But, more important, in many places, among the scattered groups and families there is a growing realization of their part and responsibility in this work of establishing the church in their midst, of building the church within themselves and their children by daily going to Divine Revelation, by using all the publications available whereby the ministrations of the church can be brought to them through the printed page, by finding a regular time in the routine of their lives for worship and doctrinal study, and finally by devoting a regular portion of their incomes to the securing of church material for their spiritual needs, and for the support of the Visiting Pastor's work among them. As this realization deepens, and is implemented by appropriate action, first from self-compulsion, if necessary, and always in a spirit of self-sacrifice for the sake of the things of the church, the New Church will grow from the present small beginnings in the South. Their opportunity is before them now, as the Rev. Victor Gladish will make three or four visits a year among them; and with this increase in personal ministration and leadership, great things can be expected. In leaving this work, my thoughts and affections will still remain with the many friends which Mrs. Reuter and I found in the friendly South.
     NORMAN H. REUTER.

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Church News 1941

Church News       Various       1941

     DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

     All continues to go well with the group at Detroit-indeed, better than ever. The new schedule of regular monthly meetings, instituted last Fall, has been maintained through the Winter, and we feel that the activities of the group are thereby gaining in interest and enthusiasm.
     Since our last report we have had visits by either the Rev. Norman Reuter or the Rev. Ormond Odhner, in October, November, December (the children's Christmas service), January and February. Each of these visits extended over several days, and included two doctrinal classes in addition to the Sunday services.
     We are continuing the practice of meeting once each month between pastoral visits. These meetings, held at the homes of members, are mainly social. but we do devote an hour to the reading and discussion of collateral New Church works. At present we are reading An Introduction to the Word Explained, by Alfred Acton, MA., D.Th.
     At our service on February 23 we were happy to welcome back Mrs.
W. W. Walker, who is convalescing from a serious illness which kept her at home for five months, during which time she was greatly missed at our gatherings. Also, it is a great pleasure again to have with us at our services Mrs. John Graham and her daughter, Zetta. These ladies were charter members of the local group, in the days when the Rev. F. E. Waelchli added Detroit to his visiting list.
     At last we seem to have solved-permanently, we hope-the problem of providing for Sunday dinner. This is a very essential part of our Sunday program, because of the great distances which some of our members have to come. Many plans have been tried, but none has been fully satisfactory. Now we have what seems to be the ideal arrangement, if only it will last. The Y . W. C. A., where we hold our meetings, finally decided to extend their excellent cafeteria service to include Sundays. We now commence our services at 11:30 am., have dinner all together at about one o clock, and then, after a short interval, reassemble in our regular quarters for a doctrinal class and business session.
     This new and very satisfactory plan is also saving money for the group; for if we have twenty or more for dinner, no charge is made for the use of the room where our meetings are held. Thus far, under this arrangement, we have not had to pay for the room-a substantial saving which is much appreciated, particularly by Brother Norman Synnestvedt, who is responsible for collecting the money for our activities.
     W. W. W.


     GLENVIEW, ILL.

     January 1941 will stand out in the history of the Immanuel Church as the month in which we made our first full service broadcast. It was a notable occasion, and now, as late as March 1st, we are still receiving inquiries from people who heard the broadcast on January 19th. A full description of this broadcast is given in the March issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE.

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     On Wednesday, January 22, Mrs. Trumbull Scalbom, nee Jennie Cole, passed into the spiritual world after an illness of long duration. Of course we miss her-very much! The scores of children she guided through kindergarten still remember her as a motherly teacher, and we older people have fond recollections of her always cheerful disposition and her wholesome hospitality whenever we visited the Scalboms in their home. Jennie husband, Trumbull is an inspiration to us all. His utter trust in Divine Providence has enabled him to accept the temporary parting in the manner of a true, rational, staunch New Churchman.
     The school children held their celebration of Swedenborg's birthday on Wednesday, January 29, a noonday luncheon-banquet with essays by the 8th grade pupils. On Friday evening January 31, the members of Sharon Church joined us in our adult celebration. The Rev. Morley Rich was toastmaster, and the Messrs. Harvey Holmes, Charles Lindrooth, David Gladish, and the Rev. Gilbert Smith responded to the several toasts.
     At the January Son's Meeting, Mr. Charles Cole gave a most interesting talk on the "History of Money," and at the February meeting Mr. David Cole showed us several reels of color motion pictures of a recent trip he and several of his friends took down the Mississippi.
     Three of our boys are now in the aviation section of our army-Jean Rydstrom and Edmund Smith in Oklahoma, and Warren Reuter at the Municipal Airport in Chicago.
     Always the highlights of the week, on the spiritual plane, are our Sunday services, and we continue to reap the benefit of sermons which help us in our daily lives. For example, on February 23d:
     "It is external, outmost truths of the Word and Doctrine that man can comply with or not, just as he chooses; but there is eternal blessing and spiritual health in complying with them. What are some of these outmost or ultimate truths which form the border of the Divine garment? That one should keep the Commandments, in their spirit. That he should try to learn and understand the things of Divine Wisdom revealed from the Lord. That he should confess his evils, and worship the Lord, and should make himself an active and devoted member of the Lord's Church on earth, to promote it with all his effort. That married partners should seek the internal union of mind and heart, in love to the Lord, and keep that marriage inviolate and chaste, shunning every thought of unfaithfulness. That all should devote themselves to some use for the sake of being of use, and not chiefly for the sake of gain."
     And on March 2d:
     "Let us all say: Give me. O Lord, a tongue speaking truth, and open my ears to hear only what is just and right! Let me not miss the great opportunity to understand this Heavenly Doctrine; and, with a good understanding of it, let me not fail in bringing forth Thy truth unto a good life, for the glory of Thy name. Let not evil come out of my heart, but only that innocence which I may have from Thee. For even my life is Thy gift, and I pray Thou wilt keep it undefiled. Let me not depart from the way of truth, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Thy mercy."
     HAROLD P. MCQUEEN

     DURBAN, NATAL.

     As reported in my last news letter, the members of the society were largely away on holiday during January. With the coming of February the Sunday services were resumed, and our New Church School reopened on the 3d at 11.15 am, with a little service in the church.
     This year Kainon School has 15 children on the roll-nine girls and six boys,-divided into four sections ranging from Kindergarten to Grade VI. Kainon, therefore, will now be classed as a Preparatory School; for at the beginning of 1940, owing to financial reasons, we were compelled to dispense with the services of one of the teachers, with the result that the older pupils had to find other High Schools in which to study for Matriculation.

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     This year our school has been reorganized, so that Miss Elsie Champion, the Headmistress, gives instruction to the children in the Standards, while Miss Sylvia Pemberton is in charge of the Kindergarten department. Mr. Elphick is again teaching the Religion; Mrs. Doris (Ridgway) Mansfield will continue to teach singing and music; and Mrs. Enid (Cockerell) Levine has most kindly offered her services in the Domestic Science department,-cookery and needlework. We are exceedingly grateful to Mrs. Levine for stepping into the breach in this way, and I know the girls will receive expert tuition at her hands in this new department.
     I must not omit to mention that several ex-pupils of Kainon School have obtained excellent results in the recent public examinations. We are very proud of these boys and girls; and although they entered from other schools, we must not forget that their success is undoubtedly due in no small measure to their preparatory work under their teachers, past and present, in our New Church School.
     P. D.C.

     OBITUARY.

     Isabella Smith.

     Called to the higher world on February 13th, Mrs. Thomas Smith was in her 73d year, and the 35th year of a happy wedded life. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have been highly respected members of Olivet Church since their arrival in Toronto in 1912. From the beginning they seemed to "fit in." Mrs. Smith has always done her full share in our uses, but her special contribution was in her expert knowledge of drapes and her care of the Pastor's robes, in which service she will be greatly missed.
     Entering the New Church about the time of their marriage, their union was blest with two daughters-Mary, whose husband Flying Officer Sidney Parker, is on active service in England; and Ruby, who, with her husband, Ernest Zorn, is an active member of the Montreal Circle. Each of these couples has two young daughters who in turn will take their places in the church's " ever widening circle."
     To Mr. Smith and the family we extend our affectionate sympathy in this separation from a beloved wife and mother, whose memory we shall all cherish as a loyal friend and faithful member of the church.
     FRANK AND MAY WILSON.

     SOUTH AFRICAN MISSION.

     We very much regret that, in compiling the list of Ministers of the General Church Mission in South Africa, published in the December, 1940, issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE, p. 594, the name of one Minister was accidentally omitted, as follows:
     MOTSI JONAS. Ordained, September 29, 1929; 2d Degree, September 30, 1929. Pastor of the Greylingstad Society. Address: Box 38, Greylingstad, Transvaal, South Africa.
     The Rev. F. W. Elphick informs us that Mr. Motsi is a Mosuto (the singular form of Basuto), and that he also speaks Zulu. Both languages are spoken in the Transvaal. It will be recalled that Mr. Molsi was a student in the Theological School of the Academy of the New Church at Bryn Athyn, 1923-1925.
     W. B. C.

     A CORRECTION.

     Lest it should be misunderstood, the statement appearing on page 279 of NEW CHURCH LIFE for June, 1940, which reads as follows:
     "The Hague Society: Rev. Eldred E. Iungerich, as Pastor, reports that three members resigned on account of opposition to government by the priesthood."
     should be corrected to read:
     "The Hague Society: Rev. Eldred E. Iungerich, as Pastor, reports that three members resigned on account of opposition to his interpretation and application of priestly government."
     ELDRED E. IUNGERICH.

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PHILADELPHIA DISTRICT ASSEMBLY 1941

PHILADELPHIA DISTRICT ASSEMBLY              1941




     Announcements



     Members and friends of the General Church of the New Jerusalem are invited to attend the Philadelphia District Assembly, which will be held at Bryn Athyn, Pa., on Saturday and Sunday, May 17 and 18, 1941.

     Program.

     Saturday, May 17 at 3.00 p.m.-Session of the Assembly. Discussion of the practical means of developing the uses of the Church within the District.
     4.30     p.m.-Episcopal Address.
     7.00     p.m.-Assembly Banquet. Rev. Elmo C. Acton, toastmaster.
     Sunday, May 18, 1100 a.m.-Divine Worship, concluding with the Administration of the Holy Supper.
CALENDAR READINGS 1941

CALENDAR READINGS              1941

     Beginning April 17th, and continuing until November 6th, the General Church Calendar of Daily Readings from the Word and the Writings provides for readings from the work on Heaven and Hell. As a preparation for this, we recommend the perusal of the paper by the Rev. F. E. Waelchli, entitled "The Use of Heaven and Hell," which has been published by the Pastoral Extension Service, No. 306. Those desiring to follow this suggestion can obtain the pamphlet by remitting 15 cents to Mr. Ralph Klein, Secretary, Bryn Athyn. Pa.

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ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS 1941

ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS              1941

     General Church of the New Jerusalem.

     ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS.
     BRYN ATHYN, PA., APRIL 14-19, 1941.

     Program.

Monday, April 14.
     8.00     p.m. Consistory. Tuesday, April 13.
     10.00     a.m. Council of the Clergy.
     3.30     p.m. Educational Council. (See page 143.)
          Address:     Bishop George de Charms.
Wednesday, April 16.
     10.00     a.m.     Council of the Clergy.
     3.30     p.m.     Conference of History Teachers.
          (Dr. William Whitehead.)
Thursday, April 17.
     10.00     a.m.     Council of the Clergy.
     3.30     p.m.     Conference on Teacher Training.
               (Department of Education.)
Friday, April 18.
     10.00     am.     Council of the Clergy.
     3.30     p.m.     Executive Committee.
     7.00      p.m. Friday Supper in the Assembly Hall, followed by
          Open Session of the Council of the Clergy.
          Address:     Rev. Willard D. Pendleton.
          Subject:     "The Temptation of the Human."
Saturday, April 19.
     10.00     a.m.     Joint Council.
     3.30     p.m.     Joint Council (if needed).
     8.00     p.m.     Entertainment.
Sunday, April 20.
     11.00     a.m.     Divine Worship.
     9.30     a.m.     Children's Service.
WANTED 1941

WANTED       Editor       1941

     The Academy Library would like to obtain a set of "The Social Monthly,"- the Manuscript Paper issued in 1879 and 1880 by the Young Folks' Club of the Advent Society in Philadelphia, and afterwards published in printed form as NEW CHURCH LIFE, beginning in January, 1881.
     We would appreciate hearing from any of our readers who possess single issues or a complete set of the publication. If necessary, typewritten duplications of the original issues can be made if they are loaned for the purpose.- EDITOR.
ETERNAL REDEMPTION 1941

ETERNAL REDEMPTION        W. F. PENDLETON       1941



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NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. LXI
MAY, 1941
No. 5
     The teaching of the Heavenly Doctrine concerning the passion of the cross is: First, that the end and purpose of the Lord's coming into the world was twofold,-that He might conquer hell and keep it under subjection to eternity, and that He might glorify or make Divine the human which He put on, with which He clothed Himself in order that He might enter the world and become visibly present with men. Second, that the passion of the cross was the final combat, by which the Lord fully conquered the hells and fully glorified His Human. When He suffered death as to His natural and maternal human, was buried, and rose again on the third day, His work was complete; the purpose for which He came was accomplished; the hells were subdued; His Human was glorified, was made Divine; Man had become God, and God had become Man, in Him; and He, in His glorified Human, as the Lord God the Savior Jesus Christ, was to become the perpetual object of worship in the church.
     When it says that in the passion of the cross His work was accomplished, that the end for which He came into the world was now fulfilled, the words are to be understood in a universal sense. It was His universal redemption, and His universal glorification. The hells then existing, consisting of the evil from all earths, of the evil who had lived up to that time,-these were conquered and reduced into order. For those hells had risen in rebellion, and occupied the whole world of spirits and the lower parts of heaven, and had at the same time taken possession of men in the world, had filled the minds and hearts of men with falsity and evil; and communication of the higher heavens with the human race was cut off. Without such communication, without the life of the Lord, from Himself and through the angels of heaven, the race of men on earth would cease to exist.

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For evil unrestrained is all-destructive and Divine power alone could have stayed the impending extermination of mankind.
     In order that the Divine power might become operative, and restore order in both worlds, it was necessary that the Lord should appear among men, in this world and also in the other. For in no other way could order be restored; in no other way could the evil who had risen up be driven out of heaven and cast into hell. This the Lord accomplished when He was in the world by His work of redemption,-His work of judgment and redemption; for the two are one.
     When this was effected, the good who had been cast into hell,-the good who had been sentenced to hell by the evil,-were taken out of hell and introduced into heaven. For the old and false heavens were now broken up, and with the evil removed from heaven, their place was taken by the good. Thus a new heaven was formed, and the Christian Church on earth, descending from that heaven, was begun.
     The Lord's universal work of redemption was thus accomplished; but this did not complete His work of redemption. It never will be completed, as long as men live in the world and evil continues to exist. The universal redemption was upon those who lived before the coming of the Lord and had gone into the other world; but a particular, an individual judgment and redemption, must follow upon all who should afterward be born, live in the world and die, and go into the spiritual world.
     The Lord, by His coming and the redemption then accomplished, placed Himself in a position and relation with men that He could continue to redeem and save men forever,-continue to redeem and save all who are willing to follow Him in the life of regeneration; for regeneration is the redemption of the individual man.
     Concerning the means by which the Lord "fully conquered the hells, and fully glorified His Human," we read in the Doctrine of the Lord, no. 12, that "it is known in the church that the Lord conquered death, by which is meant hell, and that afterwards He ascended in glory into heaven; but it is not yet known that the Lord conquered death or hell by combats, which are temptations, and at the same time by them glorified His Human: and that the passion of the cross was the last combat or temptation by which He conquered and glorified."

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We thus see that the means by which the Lord conquered the hells and glorified His Human were the same,-the combats of temptation in resisting the assaults of the evil spirits of all the hells.
     We read further that "the Lord made His Human Divine by temptations admitted into His Human, and by continual victories then. . . . Temptations are nothing else than combats against evils and falsities; and because evils and falsities are from hell, they are also combats against hell. . . . The Lord fought from His own power against all the hells, and utterly subdued and subjugated them; and having at the same time glorified His Human, He keeps them forever subdued and subjugated. For before the Lords coming the hells had risen to such a height that they began to infest the very angels of heaven, and likewise every man coming into the world and going out of the world. The reason the hells had risen to such a height was because the church was utterly devastated; and the men of the world, from idolatries, were in mere falsities and evils; and the hells are from men. Thence it was that, unless the Lord had come into the world, no man could have been saved. (Doctrine of the Lord 33.)
     It is thus made clear to us that the Lord must not only come into the world to redeem and save, but that in doing so He must fight and suffer. For combat is fighting, and temptation is the suffering and distress that attend all combat. Wit He fought, not as men fight, with anger and rage in their hearts, but from inmost love,- love for the salvation of men. It was love resisting the assaults of those who had anger and rage in their hearts against Him and against heaven-an anger that would destroy all, if it were permitted to do so.
     In thus fighting or resisting savage assault, it was necessary that the Lord should suffer the trials of temptation, even to the pangs of death upon the cross,-all to the end that men might be saved, and have a place with Him in heaven. It was Love that redeemed, and Love that glorified the Human of the Lord,-the Love of the Father of angels and men.
     Now, in respect to the passion of the cross it was a fatal error that arose in the Christian Church that the passion was the whole of redemption, and that men are saved by belief in this,-by faith in the merit of Jesus Christ as He suffered upon the cross.

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     The passion of the cross was not the whole of redemption, but it was the final act in the Divine drama, which began with the Lord in His early childhood, and which continued through his whole life in the world, finally culminating when, as to the maternal human, He died upon the cross, that men might be saved and live forever in Him.
     We learn also, from the teaching quoted, that the Lord not only conquered the hells and glorified His Human by the same means,-that is, by means of combats against the evil spirits of all the hells,-but that, because He glorified His Human, and thus brought the Divine down into the natural world, to be ever there with men-because He glorified His Human, He is able to continue His work of redemption and salvation forever, is able to continue forever His work of conquering the hells with the individual man in his regeneration. This the Lord accomplished by His coming, and by the work of redemption and glorification then effected.
     As the Lord's work of redemption must continue, so also must His work of glorification continue in the spiritual world and in the natural world. For the Lord must not only glorify His Human as He did this in Himself when He was in the world, but He must continue to glorify Himself in heaven and in the church on earth, and in the individual man of the church; that is, He must appear in His glorified Human, and be seen and received, acknowledged, and worshipped by angels and men. Then will be fulfilled the words of the Psalm:
     "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; yea, lift them, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of Hosts; He is the King of glory." (Psalm 24: 7-10.)

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KEEPING THE SABBATH 1941

KEEPING THE SABBATH        GEORGE DE CHARMS       1941

     The Son of Man is Lord also of the sabbath day." (Matthew 12: 8.)

     Among the Jews at the time of the Lord, the Sabbath had become a day burdened with many prohibitions. The third Commandment made it a sin to do any work on that day, and this required interpretation to determine what should he considered as "work." The Law of Moses was specific only as to one thing, namely, that no one on the Sabbath should kindle a fire in his house. (Exodus 35: 3.) But, especially after the return from captivity, the priests had developed a code of Sabbath observance that was minute and complicated in its provisions. To this code, tradition had ascribed the authority of Divine sanction, and especially the Pharisees insisted upon a strict enforcement of it. Because the Lord at times ignored its regulations, they accused Him of breaking the Mosaic Law.
     Thus it is recorded that, on a certain Sabbath Day, as the Lord, together with His followers, was passing through the wheat fields His disciples, being hungry, began to pluck the ears of grain and to eat.
     When the Pharisees saw it, they said unto Him, Behold, Thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath Day." But the Lord defended them, recalling the story of David, and how, when he fled from Saul, being in desperate need, he had stopped to beg food from the priest of Nob. And because the priest had no common bread, he broke the law by giving David of the shewbread that had been sanctified. And again the Lord pointed to the fact that the priests were held blameless, although they broke the law against kindling a fire when they offered sacrifices on the Sabbath. And then He added, referring to the well-known prophecy of Hosea, "If ye had known what this meaneth, 'I will have mercy and not sacrifice,' ye would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath Day."

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     Clearly the Lord was pleading for the essential rather than the merely formal observance of the day. He was appealing to a higher law than the priestly code-to the law of the Word, which is the law of mercy. He was pointing out that all the external customs established by men to distinguish the Sabbath from other days were intended to serve this Divine Law, and not to violate it. Whenever there is conflict, therefore, the accepted customs must yield, that the law of mercy may prevail.
     In the Christian Church there has been the same tendency to multiply the forms of Sabbath observance, and to hold that any disregard of these forms is a desecration. In part these more modern prohibitions arose from an interpretation of what is meant by "work"; and in part they originated in the idea that certain activities were alien to the spirit of religion, and should therefore he avoided on the Sabbath.
     All men can see, however, from common perception, that such artificial regulations are not in themselves essential. They may be ignored by one who nonetheless holds the Sabbath in deep respect, and keeps it holy in his heart. They may be sedulously obeyed by one who has no love of religion, but who uses it to further his personal and worldly ends. Instinctively men realize that the true spirit of the Sabbath is not promoted by a blind insistence upon a host of meaningless forms. And, ostensibly to liberate the spirit from these binding limitations, they have with ever increasing success pressed for release from all the puritanical rules that tradition has imposed upon the observance of the day.
     But because there is no clear understanding of what the Sabbath is because men have no spiritual idea of what is meant by the third Commandment-" Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy therefore a rejection of the traditional forms has led to a widespread disregard of the Sabbath itself. It has gladly been retained as a day of respite from the cares of gainful occupation. But it has been given over ever more widely to mere relaxation, self-indulgence and social pleasure. These interests have been allowed to take first place to such an extent that attendance at public worship has dwindled. The churches-finding little or no appetite for spiritual things-seek to attract their congregations by an appeal to natural desires and ambitions, almost completely abandoning instruction in matters of doctrine.

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Surely this is not what the Lord meant when He excused His disciples for plucking grain on the Sabbath by saying that "The Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath Day."
     It is of the utmost importance to our spiritual life that we should know what is meant by the "Sabbath" what it is to "remember" it, and what to "keep it holy." For without a true observance of the Sabbath there is no possibility of salvation.
     In the highest sense, the Sabbath represents the Lord Himself, and especially the union of the Divine and the Human in Him. It was established through Moses as a perpetual sign and prophecy of the Lord's promised coming into the world. Its observance was intended to keep the Lord, and the hope of His redemption, in perpetual remembrance. The six days of labor foreshadowed the Lord's temptations-even to the passion of the cross; and the seventh day-the day of rest-predicted His final victory over the hells and the ultimate glorification of His Human, whereby He was empowered to hold them under eternal subjection to His Divine will, that men might be set free from their Overpowering influence. This is the reason why, when the prophecy had at last been fulfilled, all that had been represented by the seventh day of the week was transferred to the first day-the day of resurrection, thereafter to be called the "Lord's Day."
     In man, the very essence of the Sabbath is the acknowledgment of this truth. Its acknowledgment-not with the lips, but in heart and faith. It is the acknowledgment that, unless the Lord had overcome the hells and glorified His Human, no man could have been saved and that unless the Lord effects a corresponding individual redemption in us, we cannot be regenerated or prepared for heaven. It is a deep conviction that we are in perpetual need of the Lord's presence; that we need the protection of His Providence and the guidance of His Word; and that apart from Him we can do nothing that is good, and can think nothing that is true. Only where this conviction exists as a living faith will men yield to the Lord's leading; and the true Sabbath is to be led by the Lord, and not by self. This is what is meant by the words of Isaiah the prophet: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." (Isaiah 58: 13, 14.)

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     Concerning this we read in the Heavenly Doctrine: " Here it is very plain what is represented by not doing any work on the Sabbath Day, namely, that they should not do anything from their proprium, but from the Lord." (A. C. 8495.) Not that we should act from proprium during the week, and from the Lord on the Sabbath, but that we should hold this truth in perpetual remembrance, namely, that to act from self is evil, and that good is possible only to him who acts from the Lord. The man who has this faith is being led by the Lord in all the affairs of his life, even when he is thinking of other things, when he is engaged in his daily occupation, using human judgment and acting apparently from his own prudence. If, in his inmost mind, there is the acknowledgment of the Lord, he will be under the secret but unceasing guidance of the Divine hand.
     And this is the only way that man can "enter into life." For he who leads himself-he who acts from self-intelligence, recognizing no dependence upon the Lord, and no need for Divine instruction-at heart denies the Lord and rejects His Word. He cuts himself off from the only means of regeneration. Like the wicked inhabitants of Sodom, he is stricken with blindness, and wearies himself vainly to find the door,-the way that leads to heaven. When we come into evil loves, and from these into false ideas, there is no escape except by means of instruction in the truth of the Word. And this instruction can be received only on the Sabbath Day-that is, only when we are in the acknowledgment of the Lord, and are willing to be taught by Him. This is the Sabbath state, and apart from this state nothing but spiritual death can be our lot and portion. This is the reason why, in the Law of Moses, it was decreed that the punishment for the desecration of the Sabbath should be death by stoning,-the deprivation of spiritual life by destructive falsities from evil.
     In its essence, therefore, the Sabbath is not a day, but a state of mind. Continually to cultivate this state is what is meant by the Commandment," Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy" Remember that this is the only state in which we can be saved. Cling to this state; guard it; fight for it, every day of your life!

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And if it be lost, return to it, as to that which is valued above all else. This is the true-the spiritual-keeping of the Sabbath.
     But we are not born into this state. By inherited nature we are in the love and the faith of self. Even though we know from doctrine that we are altogether dependent upon the Lord, we are not deeply aware of that dependence. Confronted, as we are, with a complex network of worldly necessities; called upon to discharge a variety of personal responsibilities that make continual demands upon our time and energy; we seem to be alone. Our success or failure appears to depend entirely upon our knowledge and understanding of earthly things-upon our judgment, our prudence, our perseverance. These external requirements press upon us, and prey upon our minds, while the hopes and aspirations of spiritual life seem far distant, far less immediate and urgent. Even though intellectually we acknowledge their importance, and admit that we ought to be learning the truth of the Word and seeking guidance from the Lord, we feel that we are prevented from doing so by the imperative demands of our external life. We are wont to complain that we have no opportunity to acquire an understanding of spiritual things-no time to read, to study, or reflect.
     It is to meet this paramount need that the Lord has commanded that one day in seven is to be reserved and dedicated to that purpose. On that day we are released from the obligations of our daily calling, primarily to the end that we may take counsel with the Lord in reference to the deeper, more vital concerns of our life. If we will indeed use that day for its intended purpose, making this purpose paramount, allowing nothing short of dire necessity beyond our control to interfere with it, we will find no just cause for our complaint. And if our faith is living; if we acknowledge our supreme need for Divine instruction; if we thus have the Sabbath state within us throughout the week, we will look forward with eagerness to this opportunity. We will plan to use it to the best advantage, entering gladly into the Lord's house, with a mind ready to receive Divine help and leading. We will set aside part of the day for reading and reflection, and for the consideration and discussion of spiritual things. This is truly to "remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy." And he who is daily in this remembrance need have no concern for artificial formalities. He need be bound by no man-made prohibitions. He need not fear to do on the Sabbath Day anything required by the Divine Law of mercy and mutual love.

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For "The Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath Day."
     But for the most part we are not in that Sabbath state. Nor can we be introduced into it without the help of external means. This is the use and value of formal Sabbath observance-to go before, to prepare the way, to awaken the desire, and to impart a realization of what the Sabbath truly is. For this reason we must be trained as children in those orderly external modes of observing the day that will help us to feel and appreciate the things of heaven. We must be brought into the sphere of holiness, that the gates of heavenly influx may be opened to us. And as we grow older, we must learn by self-compulsion to establish habits of church attendance, of reading, of reflection, as the outward signs of our sincere desire to acknowledge our dependence upon the Lord.
     Not otherwise can we be initiated into that desire. Not otherwise can it be preserved, strengthened, and confirmed with us. The value attached to specific forms of Sabbath observance must be measured by the degree to which they serve this use. In that degree they are matters of importance, to be treated with respect, with reverence, and obeyed from conscience. It is not from this adherence to external forms that we are to seek liberation, for as servants of the Sabbath itself they are indispensable. It is only when they come to be regarded as an end in themselves; when the outward observance of them is mistaken for a spiritual keeping of the Sabbath; only when the omission of them is called for by the very demands of the Sabbath spirit itself-it is only then that they fall within the intent of the Lord's words to the Pharisees, "If ye had known what this meaneth, 'I will have mercy and not sacrifice,' ye would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath Day."
     The whole life of religion is involved in a true observance of the Sabbath. Without it the Church cannot be established. Spiritual life, and the fruits of the Lord's redemption can be granted only in the measure that men obey the Divine command, "Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy." Amen.

LESSONS:     Isaiah 58. Matthew 12: 1-15. A. C. 8495:1-3.
MUSIC:     Revised Liturgy, pages 460, 444, 570. Psalmody, page 48.
PRAYERS:     Revised Liturgy, nos. 71, 121.

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WISDOM 1941

WISDOM       Rev. W. CAIRNS HENDERSON       1941

     A TALK TO CHILDREN.

     Solomon had been made king after the death of his father David. Although the Ark of the Covenant was in Jerusalem, the Tabernacle was no more, and the Temple had not yet been built. The great high place was at Gibeon. And Solomon, who loved the Lord, went there to Gibeon to give thanks for having been made king, and this he did by sacrificing a thousand burnt-offerings upon the altar.
     While he was at Gibeon, the Lord appeared to him in a dream by night, and told him to ask for whatever he most desired to have from the Lord. There was much that Solomon might have asked for himself. He might have asked for a long life, for great riches and much honor, or for the lives of his enemies. But he did not ask the Lord for any of these things. Indeed, he did not ask for anything that would be just for his own benefit. Instead, he said that, although he had been made king, he was just like a little child, who knew not how to go out or come in. And he asked the Lord to give him a wise and understanding heart, so that he might judge the people with justice, knowing clearly the difference between good and evil, and thus that he might be able to do rightly the great work for which the Lord had chosen him.
     If the Lord had not already given him a wise and understanding heart, Solomon would not have been able to see that the wisdom needed for his work of ruling the kingdom of Israel was the most important thing for which he could ask, nor would he have been able to desire this more than anything else. He would not have felt that he had no wisdom at all, and he would not have been able to see that the Lord alone could make him wise. Rather would he have thought that, as the Lord had already made him king, he must be very wise already, or at least that he had enough wisdom to enable him to rule well.

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And he would have believed that he could get for himself all the wisdom he needed by studying the art of kingship.
     But Solomon knew that what he already knew about being a good king was as nothing compared with what he did not yet know, that he was not nearly wise enough to do his work well, and that the wisdom he needed could not come from himself, but only from the Lord. He was able to know all these things, and to ask the Lord only for wisdom, because the Lord had given him wisdom already. And that was why the Lord said that He had already given him that for which he had asked. Then He added that, because Solomon had asked only for wisdom, all the other things for which he might have asked would also be given to him. When Solomon awoke, it was only a dream. But it was all true. Solomon did become the wisest of all the kings of Israel. His life was long and peaceful. He became richer and more honored than any other king of Israel. And all his enemies melted away before him.
     Now we can learn a very important lesson from the story of Solomon's prayer for wisdom. The Lord creates every one of us to do some work that will be useful to others and to ourselves,-work that we do while we live in this world, and afterwards in His heavenly kingdom when we go out of this world. And there is nothing more important we could wish to have, nothing that will make us more truly happy, both here and in the other world, than the wisdom that is needed to do that work well.
     The Lord wants to give to each one of us exactly the kind of wisdom we need to do our particular work in this world and in His heavenly kingdom. But He will not be able to give it to us unless we ask Him for it. And we will not ask if we are foolish enough to think that we can make ourselves wise, that we are already quite wise enough, or that we know everything we need to know. So if we really want from the Lord the wisdom that will make us useful and happy forever, we must try to believe that, no matter how much we know, it is as nothing compared to what we still have to learn, that we can never be quite wise enough, and that we can never make ourselves wise. If we really believe these things, we will ask the Lord for the wisdom to do well the work He has given to us, and He will give us that wisdom, as He gave it to Solomon. He will give it to us in His Word, when we go to Him there and ask for it by seeking for it there.

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     Only we must remember, also, that to be wise is not just to know many things. Before we can become wise, we must first learn about many things, and that is called knowledge. And we must then learn to think truly about the things we know,-to see their real meaning. To be able to do this is called intelligence. But knowledge and intelligence are not wisdom; for wisdom is not something we know or think, but something we live.
     A man may study the Word and the doctrines of the church, and thus learn a great deal about what is true and good, and about what is false and evil. And he may be able to think clearly and speak well about these things, and may be much admired because he can do this, and yet he may not be wise. For we become wise, not by knowing what the Lord's Word says is good and true, or even by understanding what it says about these things, but by becoming good and true ourselves. This we do if we learn, understand, and love what the Lord teaches in the Word, and live according to it.
     We do not know what work in heaven the Lord has created us to do. But if, from love of the Lord and the teaching of His Word, we shun evils because they are hurtful to us and to our country, and do what is good because it will benefit us and our country, we shall become truly wise from the Lord. He will give us to do rightly our work in this world, and, when we go into His other world, we shall do rightly the work that awaits us there, whatever it may be; and in it we shall be happy.
     Because Solomon asked only for wisdom, he was also given long life, riches, honor, and victory over his enemies. And if we do the same, asking only for wisdom, the Lord will do the same for us. For if we become wise from Him, everything else that is needed for our true happiness will be given to us as well. We will live forever with the Lord in His heavenly kingdom. He will give us the true riches and honors of heaven. And all the evil things that were our enemies will be driven away from us, to hurt us no more.

LESSON:     I Kings 3: 3-15.
MUSIC:     Hymnal, pages 83, 158, 168. Revised Liturgy, pages 421, 432, 547.
PRAYERS:     Revised Liturgy, Nos. C 8, C 17.



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EVIL OF THEFT 1941

EVIL OF THEFT       Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1941

     The idea underlying all community life is that of mutual service. In the simplest of human communities-which is that of husband and wife-each performs uses to the other and to the Lord's kingdom, each one performing the special uses which by Divine Providence are clearly assigned to him or her. And just as each sex is organically and spiritually incapable of performing the uses peculiar to the other sex, so each individual in a community is able-by nature and training-to fill some special position. And the greater the Variety of uses, the greater the perfection of society; or, to use other words, the greater the specialization, the more perfect can the mutual service he.
     Human society is a kingdom of uses. And upon the recognition that each man represents an individual use, and thus must be equipped for this use, rests the broad principle of individual ownership, which is basic to our comprehension of that Divine Precept which says, "Thou shalt not steal." Each service a man performs to others makes him the object of service in return. And the return is meant to increase the man's ability and power to serve, and is thus meant to help him to extend his usefulness or make it more proficient. The community or the society is itself the judge and valuator of anyone's usefulness.
     In ages of violence, when the use of protection was regarded as the most vital, the physically strong usually became the rulers and the greatest property holders. What a people values most will determine what uses will be most richly rewarded, and thus what elements will rule. Seek where the wealth of a people is vested, and you will find what the people love; for where the heart is, there will the treasure be also. Thus the general state of a people will eventually determine the distribution of wealth and property, whether the result be wise or foolish, just or unjust. But nothing can make for a wise distribution except a perception of the degrees of uses, and the proper subordination of uses among themselves-a perception which does not come until the people learn wisdom-learn to value that which is of the greatest and deepest use above what is trivial and accessory.

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     It is therefore generally perceived by all rational men that there are two aspects to the law which protects what is man's own. There is the civil aspect that proposes to protect the stability of society as organized, by stressing the sanctity of property rights. But there is also the broader or internal aspect of justice which recognizes that ownership is justified only by good use-by good accruing therefrom to the commonwealth, for the common weal of all. From this point of view it is clearly seen that abuses tend to abrogate the right of ownership, and that the misuse of any power, or the administration of property to the detriment of society, is in reality a form of theft from the community. As if by the working of some natural law, such abuses are ultimately punished. And when this is done from time to time-whether by some revolutionary movement, or by some empowered government-the readjustment of property-rights or privileges of trade is always defended by the claim that it represents an internal justice.
     This right of government is conceded as a political necessity, whether the actions taken he just or unjust. Yet the laws of men are drawn from human judgment, which is often faulty. The human eye cannot always recognize the internal justice, or see the cultural uses, and still less the spiritual uses, which men perform by virtue of their administration of their vested possessions. The final judgment as to the rewards of men's uses therefore comes only in the light of the spiritual world. Then "to him that bath shall be given . . . , and from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath."
     And on earth, material possession is not-in the view of heaven-an end in itself. For, in the Providence of the Lord, the affections of men will always lead them, unconsciously, into the very situations and conditions that will best serve them for a sphere of life-and into the battles that will best test and cure those very affections. (For the Lord so constructed the universe that nothing can happen which does not contain the remedy for its own ills.) And only those who mark His merciful Providence in all things-who acknowledge that His laws, with eternal ends in view, have "divided to the nations their inheritance"-and who see that "the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof "-only these can shun the evils of theft and dishonesty, actually and sincerely, as sins against God.

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     It is easy to keep the Seventh Commandment in appearance, and break it in spirit. There is the man who complains about the self- seeking of others in the matter of worldly wealth, but makes no effort to curb within himself that love of the world which, prodded by selfishness, constantly produces injustices, whatever laws are made. There is the man who appears to himself honest, because he does not rob or steal, or defraud his creditors or employees, but who at the same time concedes to his neighbors no right to possess the things which they enjoy, but would from envy deprive them of their possessions if he could do so by approved means. There is also the man who, even on moral grounds, may be averse to any dishonest dealings, reasoning that society needs law; and if he and his are to benefit from the advantages of society and its peace and order, which make it easier for trade and industry to grow, and thus for the love of the world to be satisfied, he must encourage the keeping of the law against theft, and surround it with esteem, and even-through religion-help to exalt it as a Divine Law.
     Even that man, keeping the moral and civic sides of the precept, may utterly break the spirit of it. For to be willing to exalt a law into a precept of religion, because it would be of assistance in protecting one's own possessions, is in itself a profane thing-a trading upon the name of religion-a thing worthy of the spirits of the Babylon in the other world, who sought to make religion the stepping-stone for their own ambitions. This attitude-so evident in modern times-of patronizing religion and supporting the churches, not because of any faith in their teachings, but because of the habits of obedience and submission and orderly life which they help to cultivate among the simple, and because of the law-abiding citizens which, it is admitted, they generally produce,-this attitude, which in itself is hypocritical, is yet permitted, in the Divine Providence, as far as it is necessary to rely upon men who are interiorly evil to assist in propagating the law of God. For that law is the means of human salvation-yea, even of social salvation.
     No one is purified from the evils of theft unless he shuns them from religion, and for the sake of eternal life.

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For only so is heaven opened to man; and it is through the presence of the spheres of heaven that evils of lust are removed from him.
     But there is also another reason. As long as it is denied that the Lord alone is Master and rightful Possessor of all things of earth and heaven, it is impossible to see clearly that the "right" of holding property is not any mere invention of mankind, but that it is a right bestowed upon men by the Lord, for the sake of use, and that Providence is still the Administrator. It is true that if any man had invented that right, another man might lawfully challenge it. For man of himself has no right-no inherent dignities. What we speak of as "human rights" really are rights pertaining to the uses and functions which we exercise or are preparing to exercise. When thefts and misappropriations are shunned as sins against God, it is a genuine acknowledgment that it is not for man to say " I may," when the Lord commands " Thou shalt not steal." For unless we confess the Lord's right to command, we steal His Divine powers.

     II.

     It has often been brought up as a matter of grave doubt whether a man at this day, and as society is at present constituted, can conduct his life on the high moral principles implied in the Seventh Precept, and yet succeed in his use and reap the fruit of his worldly labor. The Lord has not indeed given any guarantee of worldly success to those who love Him and do His Commandment. "If ye were of this world," He said, "the world would love his own; but because ye are not of this world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. . . . In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." (John 15: 19; 16: 33.) Still, the tribulation is really spiritual more than natural. Spiritual opposition means temptation; and life in the world necessarily entails a constant watchfulness lest the love of the world ensnare our souls through binding our affections to itself, strand by strand. Yet in externals the opposition is not so discernible. And worldly uses, by whatever men they are to be carried out need for their growth a sphere of outward order and honesty,- just balances, just weights, a just ephah and a just hin." (Leviticus 19: 36.)
     To judge what is required for the keeping of the precept, "Thou shalt not steal," it is necessary to consult the True Christian Religion (no. 317), where we read as follows:

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     In the natural sense, by this commandment is meant, according to the letter, not to steal, rob, or act the pirate in times of peace; and, in general, not to take away from anyone his goods secretly or under any pretext. It also extends itself to all impostures, illegitimate gains, usuries and exactions, and also to fraudulent practices in paying duties and taxes, and in discharging debts." Workmen, it is further explained, offend against this commandment if they do dishonest work or are unfaithful to duty; merchants, if they misrepresent the quality of their goods, or use false measures; officers, if they withhold the wages of their men; judges, if they are influenced by friendship or by bribes to assist in legalizing frauds.
     From this it may be seen how wide is the range of thefts. It is indeed a dangerous thing to burden the conscience with trivialities, if this leads man to forget the main thing of the law, which is the cultivation of charity, a love of others, and a desire to further the welfare of society and of the Lord's kingdom by the faithful performance of the use which is ours,-the function or business for whose right performance we must labor. But it is safe to conclude that there are a myriad ways of stealing which do not so directly have to do with our neighbor's possessions. We can steal by our own idleness, intemperance, or extravagance; steal by wasting the time or resources of others; steal by a selfish attitude which decreases their advantages in life. We can, by constant disapprovals, insinuations, and faultfinding, steal other people's delight in their work, thus their personal happiness; we can steal or destroy a use by defamation or slander or unwarranted accusations. We can steal the dignity from a person s office or function by a distorted sense of humor; or we can ascribe to ourselves the honor which really belongs to our use. We can rob people of their freedom, or divert to ourselves the praise which should justly be theirs. Yea, we can squander the future of our children, or gamble away the salvation of our immortal souls, which yet belong to the Lord alone.

     III.

     The mention of this latter possibility leads us beyond the natural into the spiritual meaning of theft.

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     It is true that spiritual treasures are stored for men "where rust and moth cannot corrupt, and thieves cannot break through and steal." There can be no spiritual theft of state and memories which have been stored in the heart itself, or the riches of regenerate life, imprinted beyond the reach of evil upon the interior memory of the spirit. Yet there are spiritual thefts-of such truths as still remain in the natural minds of men.
     In a spiritual sense, stealing therefore means to deprive others of the truths of their faith, which is done especially when false and heretical things are taught. Those priests who, for the sake of honor or gain, teach what they know, or might know, to be contrary to Revelation, are the principal offenders in the matter of this guilt. The office of the priesthood has been entrusted with the grave responsibility of teaching doctrine from the Word, and of confirming it according to their illustration, always with the view of leading to the good of life. Such doctrine is to be taught by teaching ministers duly ordained and set apart, and this partly in order that responsibility for teaching sound doctrine may be fixed, and partly that illustration, through constant devotion to that work, may, with them, become constant. These provisions are necessary, in order that the truths of faith may be preserved in their integrity, unchanged by the hands of men. To quibble away or to alter the truth is "to take away from the people the means of their salvation." (T. C. R. 318.) This is spiritual theft, and is signified in the Lord's saying, "He that entereth not through the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." (John 10: 1, 10.) The teaching of falsities that lead to evil is not only a theft of the truths of faith from other men; it is also a theft from the Lord Himself. For it means that a man claims the power to determine truth, or puts human conceit above the truths of Revelation; or else it means that they take away the truth from the Lord's mouth, and ascribe falsity to Him instead.
     "Will a man rob God?" asked the prophet Malachi. And, speaking in the name of the Lord, he continued: "Yet ye have robbed me in tithes and offerings; . . . ye have robbed me, this whole nation." (Malachi 3: 8, 9.) Not alone priests, but all, had robbed the Lord, by refusing to acknowledge that all power to save was His, and that all good and truth came from Him. It was a symptom of this lack of trust in the Lord that they had neglected to bring their tithes and offerings, and were unwilling fittingly to support the worship of the Lord.

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This-according to the Law-was really to rob God of His tenth part of their yield. The offering which is tendered in our own worship has the same important significance of a constant, never- ending, never-absent, willingness to acknowledge that all that we have is from the Lord, and nothing from ourselves-that we need His help constantly, at all times. It is the withholding of this spiritual acknowledgment which is to rob God, by claiming to ourselves, or to our prudence or merit, what is really of His mercy alone, and this even if, from habit or for the sake of appearances, the significant act of bringing offerings be continued. If there were no such confessions in the hearts of the worshippers, the house of God would then be turned, as with the Jews, into "a den of thieves." And this is true whenever there is an internal rejection of the Lord's help, whenever He is denied, or His Providence is denied; or when men do not trust Him and His leading, but only trust themselves; and also when they dare to trust that they can inherit, heaven by reason of their own merit or righteousness.

     IV.

     All the evils that have been mentioned, and innumerable others, are involved, and thus are interiorly contained, within the evil of stealing. The very act of theft-be the stolen object ever so trivial-gives a basis in the natural mind for an influx of all the hells which are in the various evils described. The act of stealing thus leads to deceit and to lying, and so to all other evils. While it is true that a man, as long as he lives in the world, retains the capacity to repent, if he wishes to exert this power, still the Writings of the New Church stress the facility with which the habit of stealing may be confirmed. "When a man has of set purpose committed manifest thefts two or three times, he cannot afterwards desist from them; for they continually inhere in his thought." "An evil enters into the will by detention in the thoughts. . ." (A. C. 6203-6204.) There is an itch, a fever, to possess what others have. The thief sees in his accomplishment the glory of his own cunning, and "loves one stolen coin more than ten which have been given to him." (D. P. 296:4.)
     The Writings thus show the great need of mastering the evil of theft in early life, while it is yet controllable.

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And they show that if a man shuns the cupidity of gaining wealth dishonestly, he can, in his heart's thought, tell himself that this is evil, and then, "after some brief combats," he will he withdrawn from that evil, and be led by the Lord into the opposite good, namely, into a love of honesty and an aversion to thefts. (A. E. 1167.) He would then become gifted with charity; and he who has the life of charity would rather give of his own to his neighbor than take anything away from him. (A. C. 1798.)
     The time most vital for forming the habit of honesty is while the foundations of the mind and character are being built, in childhood. The child, from himself, has no perception of the rights of others. This must come to him by teaching and by experience; or else-innocent at first-the habit of snatching the toys of a playmate, or of taking forbidden fruit, is shortly fortified by pretense and deceit. The lust of theft, if it be condoned or left uncontrolled in that age of irresponsibility, gathers about itself defensive barriers of lying and deceit, behind which a secret life is carried on,-barriers within which the imaginations of evil have free play, because that corner of the mind is inaccessible to the judgments which should normally purge the thoughts of the child. If such isolated and hidden crevices be formed in his mind, its growth proceeds in two directions, and a secondary, secret personality develops that will tend to spread its gangrene of insincerity into everything of mental life.
     It is true, of course, that, in the justice of Providence, man's salvation is not actually endangered by such childhood tragedies. But the future rational life of the child is threatened just so far as moral irresponsibility becomes a permanent state, and is not countered-as it normally can be-by the wisdom of parents; for the remains of childhood cannot then descend into the natural mind to work the miracle of regeneration. States of arrested development, and even certain types of insanity, unless they are due to purely physical causes, owe their origins to unjudged states of the mind,-states that have been hidden from the open light of truth and honesty and public opinion. And the most direct use of education must necessarily be to introduce the child into the sphere of society, into a recognition of the rights of others, into a respect for property and life, and into the attitude of cooperation rather than of self-seeking and destructiveness.

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If the evil of theft is not arrested, it will "enter more deeply into man than any other evil, because it is conjoined with cunning and deceit; and cunning and deceit insinuate themselves even into the spiritual mind of man." (Doctrine of Life 81.)
     And when we thus consider what the actual effects of theft are within the mind of the thief, we must conclude that all evils and all falsities are spiritual thieves.
     From childhood onwards the Lord gives to man the means of regeneration,-truths and goods which affect him in infancy and youth while the mind is docile and the proprium with its conceit does not yet resist. The general truths of religion are thus learnt in childhood, and are stored up in the memory. But when he advances to rational age, and begins to think for himself, he either affirms the truth that he had-which indicates that he is in good; or else he denies and rejects-if he is moved by evil.
     If evil states now begin to infringe upon man's early knowledges of good and truth, the Lord removes these from the memory into the interiors of the natural mind, so that they will not be so accessible, nor be profaned, but be reserved for later times of need, when the conceits of youth have somewhat departed. States of evil may then come, and yet man will be able to repent by virtue of those Remains. But if evil states become really aggressive, if evil lusts are given sway, if the mind dwells on evil desires, then these evils will infest and consume the Remains of good and truth; or rather, will pervert them, and invert them, so that evils and falsities come to occupy the interiors which the Lord destined for His own abode. This is done especially where deceit is present. And it is a spiritual theft-an alienation of goods and truths-an invasion of the spirit of man. All evil is therefore a theft, by man's self-will, of that holy place within the natural mind which the Lord had reserved for Himself, as His throne, His abode, His dwelling-place with man. Only if man acknowledges this place as the Lord's, can the Lord dwell with him and make him pure in heart.

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MISSIONARY WORK 1941

MISSIONARY WORK       HAROLD C. CRANCH       1941

     From a practical viewpoint all church-work, including the work of every pastor, is evangelical or missionary in character. It is the work of presenting the truth where the truth is lacking. The reception of truth from the Lord is what makes the church, and a continual reception of that truth will keep the church alive forever. Even the angels never reach a state of having completely received the truth; nor does the church on earth ever reach a state when it can feel that it has received all the truth of the Word.
     Now, since there is no complete reception of truth on the part of angels and men, and that reception is relative, the difference between the Christian state and that of gentiles, with both of which the missionary work of the New Church has to deal, will be indicated by the attitude toward the source of our teachings, either affirmative or negative. Wherever the good of religion exists there is a state receptive of the truth of Revelation.
     The primary source of truth is the Lord Himself, and so the acknowledgment of the Lord is the first essential of the church, both with individuals and societies. The second essential is the acknowledgment of the Word of the Lord as the source of Truth for man as the authority of the church. For us this involves that the Writings must be recognized as the source of the doctrine of the New Church, and its sole authority. The Old and New Testaments are still the Word, but a statement of their literal sense does not overrule a teaching of the Writings. We accept the Writings as the source of authority, and we hold that their explanations of the Word of the Old and New Testaments are revealed by the Lord, and that there can he no real conflict between the different forms of the Word. Any seeming disagreements are in our understanding of their teaching.
     It may be said that the sole use of the priesthood is to make known the Lord. And this is evangelization, which may be divided into two parts-teaching the truth, and leading to the good of life.

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But leading to the good of life can only be effected by preaching and teaching truth in the right way, that it may be applied by the individual, that he may see the presence of the Lord in it, and, from seeing Him, be led by the Lord to the good of life. After the general acceptance of the Lord, making Him known to men involves showing them new aspects of the truth and new states or planes of life which must receive the Lord's guidance.
     The whole process of regeneration means accepting this guidance on more and more planes, until the majority of those planes are completely in harmony with Him. Then, from the will of doing His truth, which rules by virtue of its majority in the congress of the mind, man becomes an angel. His work is not done nor is he all good. But the Lord has so ordered his mind that he wills to be good. From this will he constantly receives new truths as he is able to see them, and he applies them to his life. As an angel he will continue to do this to eternity.
     This does not sound difficult. In fact, almost everyone in the church thinks he is doing just that now. We are affirmative to the Word of the Second Coming. We accept its authority. We are members of the church. And this affirmation, and this willingness to accept the truth as it is taught in the Word, seems to be the state of regeneration. Yet no one of us dares to claim that he is regenerate. There is really no difficulty. We are affirmative in the first state of the church with us; that is, we avow and confess a belief in the Lord and in His Word, and from that we are affirmative in our understanding to the teachings of the church. But we are not completely affirmative in life, which is regeneration.
     In some things we have accepted the statements of the Writings in our lives, but in many others we are not too anxious to see what the Writings have to say, because there is something of a guilty feeling that we already know what they have to say, and that it does not quite agree with what we wish to do. So we do not press the investigation, perhaps with the thought that "what we do not know will not hurt us."
     Evangelization is making known the truth to these states-pointing out their evil in such a way that we will not put off doing something about it, but will bring that part of our lives into the church too. This bringing of the teachings into every plane of our lives is internal evangelization.

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It is increasing the quality of the acceptance of the Lord with the already existing church. It is coming into the second affirmation in life, which is the beginning of regeneration. So, when a priest teaches truths which can be applied to reform lives, he is leading to the good of life.
     Teaching the truth may also be directed to gaining the first affirmation, that is, to external evangelization, or spreading the church among those who have not yet received it. We are taught that the church will not grow externally until the strength of the internal church is sufficient to warrant it. This internal church includes both the church and the heavens, thus the growing internal affirmation of truth in life, before mentioned. To put it in simple language, it could be said, "You must eat what you have before you get more." The members of the church, or the church as a unit, must be increasing in the second kind of affirmation, must be applying those truths which it already has, before it is given to see new truths in the Word, or to attract new members to its group. The one grows with the other.
     Suppose we ask: If we cannot use the truths we possess, can we really teach them to others? Can anyone successfully teach what he has not learned?
     In the field of education, the answer to this question seems by practice to be yes." For many educators have learned theory only, and we cannot tell whether they can do what they say or not; nor do they seem interested in teaching us how to do, but only what to know. This state also prevails in the so-called Christian churches. We call it "faith alone," which is knowledge without application.
     But with respect to the general state of the New Church, the answer to the question must be "no." We cannot teach what we do not intend to apply. Not that the minister or individual must teach from his state of good. But the church must be alive, seeking to apply the truths which it sees,-seeking to be led by the Lord to see their applications ever more deeply. In other words, our endeavor must be to apply the truth, not just to learn it and theorize from it. We do not expect our ministers to be completely regenerate; but neither would we long heed their teachings if we saw them deliberately flaunt those teachings in their own lives.
     The first duty we owe the church is to live her truths. We can do nothing that will help her more.

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By living the truths she teaches, and being actually willing to be led by them, we are receiving the truth; and when all her members are in this internal reception they will constitute a strong, healthy, growing church.
     The statement in the Writings to the effect that the church on earth will grow in numbers according to its increase in the world of spirits has to do with this internal reception. (A. E. 732:3.) The church in the world of spirits is with those who are being prepared for heaven. We ought to be prepared for heaven in this world, and it is only when that is not fully accomplished here that a further preparation is necessary in the world of spirits. In reality, men are living in both worlds. Our mental or spiritual existence while in the state of preparation here is in the world of spirits, where we are capable of becoming genuine internal men. Since this is so, then we are helping to establish the church, and helping it to grow in the world of spirits, every time we apply a truth to our lives, and thus make that truth a tangible inhabitant of our minds, replacing an evil or falsity which had formerly dwelt there. The internal church is healthier and stronger when anyone makes its truth more powerful in life.
     In connection with the statement that the church on earth will grow according to its increase in the world of spirits, we may also cite another pointed statement: "The essentials of the New Church are indeed made manifest, but they are not received until after those who are represented by the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet are cast out of the world of spirits, because it would be perilous if they were received before." (A. R. 473.)
     This statement must now refer chiefly to the spiritual life of men on earth. For the "dragon, the beast, and the false prophet" were cast out of the world of spirits at the time of the Last Judgment, and none of the original crew can be there now, but only similar societies which are frequently judged,-every twenty years. (A. R. 8662.) But in the minds of men on earth we still find the dragon of faith alone, of justification by acknowledging the Lord's sacrifice, and shunning all charities arising from reason as meritorious and therefore condemning,-thus the divorce of all truth from life. These form the "world of spirits " for innumerable Christians with whom these doctrines serve in the place of spiritual life.

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While it is true that all do not confirm those falsities, still they live among them and they cannot receive the new truths until the old dogmas are cast out of their world of spirits."
     With individuals it is the same. Although we belong to the New Church, we also have these falsities in us. By our reception of the true doctrine, they have been cast out, but in so far as there is any portion of our mind which is not directly ruled by the Lord, so far there is a part of our mind where the dragon can still raise his head. When he does so, if we are genuinely in the church, he draws a barrage of truths which quickly destroys him. But even in the presence of a genuine membership in the church, which is the regenerate will, the dragon can walk around warily; for he appeals to the sensual side of our natures, which like to have a hit of freedom to do what they will, as it were unseen by the Lord.
     We may acknowledge to ourselves that some day we will notice that presence of the dragon, and start to get rid of it. There seem to be plenty of excuses for giving that old gentlemanly sinner,-the dragon,-a brief haven, especially when all we have to do is to close our eyes to a few teachings from the Word that speak reasonably, but without the allure of the siren's voice. The fallacy in reasoning that way, of course, is that the more room our visitor takes up, the less room there is for truth to dwell there. And when the home folks get too crowded, the visitor should be hustled away, or else he will take complete possession. In fact, however, if he is recognized in the beginning as a thoroughly unpleasant, grabby individual, the invitation to stay will not be extended.

     II.

     All of the foregoing is a more or less indirect approach to the meaning of evangelization or missionary work. Several questions arose in my mind while I was writing the foregoing, and I have listed them, in the belief that a general view of the applications of these teachings will be given by answering them. The questions are: Why go into all this preliminary in considering missionary work? Why must the internal church grow before the external? If the internal must precede, what can we do about it, since it is all in the Lord's hands? In the light of these teachings what practical suggestions can be made that will increase the church membership?

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In the answers to these questions, the problems of missionary work in general, and what the individual should do in particular, should he opened up a bit. Some light should be shed on the problems, and perhaps a general course of action shown.
     As to the reason for our lengthy approach to the particular subject, the answer is twofold. First, on a subject of this nature, in which the teaching of the church has been directed chiefly toward evangelizing our children by New Church education, it is necessary to set forth the principles and leading truths, to give the authority and reason for the view expressed. Any other way lacks the approach from the Writings which is the primary order of the church's thinking. The terms used are also in this manner defined from the start in the language of the church, so that there can be no great misconception of what the writer sets forth.
     As these principles will color our thought on the subject, it would be well to summarize those from which we shall work:
     1. Since internal growth must precede the external growth of the church, we must know what is here meant by internal growth, which includes growth of the church in the heavens, and in the world of spirits, and so with men in the church specific on earth. (A. E. 732.)
     2. Because the influx of heavenly light is received by man through the world of spirits (H. H. 600), that internal growth of the church which affects men, and which will cause external growth of the church, is primarily there.
     3. That men contribute to that internal church in the world of spirits while they live in this world, and not only by presence there after death. Thus it is said that "man, from infancy even to old age, is as to his spirit present in the world of spirits." (S. D. 5163.)
     4. Therefore, since external growth follows and depends upon internal growth, and since we can increase internal growth by evangelizing those states in our life which are not yet led by the Lord, our primary use in increasing the church is to live according to our truths, and to increase the presence of that truth with us as individuals, as societies, and as a church. Then it will follow, as day follows night, that the church will grow both internally and externally.
     As to the second question, Why must the internal church grow before the external church can increase? the answer follows closely upon the answer to the first question. It involves this,-that the more one knows, the more he can teach.

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But we must remember that knowing involves much more than mere theory; for knowledge apart from use passes away, and never forms part of our character. If such knowledge has any effect upon us, it helps only our bluff, and may make us appear as intelligent people. Therefore, the knowing to which we refer is that which can be, or has been, applied to life. From this knowledge others can be taught with conviction. From living the truth which we have to offer there is influx from heaven through the internal church present with us as in our world of spirits. "That influx makes the truth ring true," and people receive because of the very sincerity of our teaching. By living the truth, we extend our sphere of influence. Others can receive somewhat by example; and in such cases .the time will come when they are sufficiently interested to ask about the principles of our religion, or the source of our inspiration.
     Let us carefully observe, however, that it is not living a perfect life which sets the example, for then we could never have the courage to suggest it. It is in trying to live as our Doctrine teaches, willing to be so led, and doing something about our errors, condemning them and starting over again. These things affect others more intensely than a perfect example would. This is somewhat on the theory that you would probably make others more hungry if they saw you eating a very pleasant and satisfying meal than if you appeared after you had just eaten such a meal, and with a satisfied look. For when you are eating such a meal, there is a gusto and enthusiasm which goes out to others, and if they are hungry, it is that much more effective. There are some in the Christian world who are hungry for spiritual truths. They have been living on plain, moral fare, and they will not realize how they are missing the banquet until some of the gusto and enthusiasm of real partakers is shared with them. Then, although some will turn away, others will seek entrance to the feast, and some will come truly prepared to do their part.
     The banquet we are here talking about, of course, is the feast of living the truths of the Writings, of genuinely eating and appropriating their teachings. We must indeed preserve our internal society. It is the center to which we shall lead the others when the time is ripe. But to lead them there before the dragon of faith alone is cast out of their world of spirits, would pervert our own internal.

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     This brings us to the third question,-What can we do? The answer is partly given above. We can cause the increase in the internal growth of the church. We can become real partakers of the banquet table of the Writings. We can apply their truths to all the problems of our lives, and as we do so, others with unperverted and unsatisfied tastes can see our problems and our answers to them, and can ponder and ask.
     But especially can we help to cast out the dragon and his crew. We can, as a church and as individuals, spread the truth by distributing the Writings and pamphlets, as well as by conversations and lectures. The truth is the only means of casting out the infernal inhabitants of the world of spirits, and it should be made available to all who will trouble to read or listen to it. And it is only by casting them out that there is any hope of conversion to our church.
     This leads to the last and final question: What practical suggestions can be offered?
     When the desire is genuinely to help the church, there is no end of practical applications. Some just happen; others can be planned. But they are different with every group, every individual. If we are living the truths of our religion, practical applications occur all the time. We have no need to bore anyone with a continual harping upon the church doctrine; but if such a course seems indicated, we should not dodge an opportunity to harp a few tones. But we can afford to wait until others ask questions and show an interest in our beliefs, if we are enthusiastic enough about our religion to try to apply it daily in our own lives. By our enthusiasm we will evoke interest in others, and the leading question will come, and then the questioner will be affirmative to the answer because he sought it. It is then that much can be done. People are not bored if enthusiasm is genuine and reasonable, and not forced or fanatical. When there is a genuine enthusiasm in the church, a way will be found to spread it to others. Our job is to get the enthusiasm and inspiration to make ourselves good New Churchmen, and we shall then be so filled with new visions of truth that some is bound to bubble over and reach others. Our job then is to be ready to make it stick.
     The general vision of the truth which is continually breaking down the imaginary heavens of the world of spirits, and which is casting out and destroying the power of the dragon, comes from many sources.

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It is spreading from the literature of the New Church, from its missionaries and from its people, as well as from the rationalistic tendency in the world to doubt the false dogmas of the Old Church. But this general spreading of the truth is rather negative in its results. While it does destroy the power of these false heavens in their world of spirits, it does not establish the genuine church to take their place. That is particularly the job of individuals. Those who are brought by any of the various means to our churches, or to us as individuals, should be instructed. And they are most easily taught the preliminaries by laymen. They take for granted that our ministers know their job, and many Old Churchmen are greatly impressed by the religious knowledge of our laymen. They then think that there is something to the church, if it can interest all its people.
     We cannot, of ourselves, plan too much. The Lord turns to use many things which we cannot plan. That is what is meant by the Lord's reaping where He had not sown (Matthew 25: 26), and by the expression, "One soweth, and another reapeth," and " 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.) Planned missionary work is necessary and good, but if we are genuinely living the truths of our church, every deed and word may, unconsciously to us, be a missionary, and so affect people that they become interested. For that reason, true evangelization or missionary work is the path to regeneration, and regeneration is only complete evangelization.
BROADCASTING NEW CHURCH SERVICES 1941

BROADCASTING NEW CHURCH SERVICES              1941

     In a description of the broadcasting of the Immanuel Church service last January, the Rev. Gilbert H. Smith stated that, so far as he knew, this was the first time a regular New Church service had been broadcast. (NEW CHURCH LIFE, March, 1941, p. 97.)
     THE HELPER for April 2, 1941, quotes in part from Mr. Smith's account, and adds: "THE HELPER registers its appreciation of this effort and the result. As a matter of record, however, the Philadelphia First Church of the New Jerusalem full service (Rev. Charles W. Harvey conducting and preaching the sermon) was broadcast over Station WCAU, Philadelphia, for the Church year, 1923-1924.

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NOTES AND REVIEWS 1941

NOTES AND REVIEWS       Various       1941


NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of 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.
     HIRAM POWERS.

     In the January, 1941, issue of NYA KYRKANS BUDSKAP (New Church Messenger), official monthly organ of The New Church Swedish Society in Stockholm and Gothenburg, we find a brief article on "Sculptor Powers and the New Church" containing a Swedish translation of a letter of Hiram Powers in which he expresses his willingness to make a statue of Emanuel Swedenborg. This letter appeared in the INTELLECTUAL REPOSITORY in 1865, in an article dealing with a London proposal to erect such a statue. We reprint the article below, together with Mr. Powers' letter, in which he not only agrees to make the statue, but also testifies in no uncertain terms as to his being a devoted New Churchman. But let us first briefly recall some of the facts of his life and works:
     HIRAM POWERS (1805-1873), American Sculptor, was born at Woodstock, Vermont. In 1819, his father removed to the vicinity of Cincinnati, Ohio. As a youth, Hiram was employed for seven years to model and repair wax figures in a dime museum in Cincinnati. After studying thoroughly the art of modeling and casting, he went in 1834 to Washington, D. C., where his remarkable gifts soon awakened general attention.

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[Hiram Powers FROM A PHOTOGRAPH IN THE ACADEMY LIBRARY COLLECTION.]

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In 1837, he went to live in Florence, Italy, where he remained until his death in 1873. It was in 1843 that he produced his celebrated " Greek Slave," which at once gave him a place among the leading sculptors of his time. His busts and statues of many American statesmen are to be found in the Capitol at Washington, in State Capitols, and in many art galleries and museums.
     Mr. Powers became a receiver of the Heavenly Doctrines in his youth, probably at Cincinnati. In November, 1850, at Florence, he and his wife and six children were baptized into the New Church by the Rev. Thomas Worcester, of whom he made a fine bust. After his death on June 27, 1873, an obituary in the MESSENGER said: "A husband and father loved almost to adoration has thus been withdrawn from his family; a man of high gifts from art; a great name from American sculpture; and from the small New Church Society of Florence its chief stay and ornament. Mr. Powers had professed the Doctrines of the New Dispensation for nearly fifty years. It was ever his delight to discourse of them to those who were willing to listen; and while his superior understanding enabled him to illustrate them by his speech, he did them credit before the world by the many virtues of his professional, family and social life." (MESSENGER, 1873, pp. 67, 72.)
     In 1874, the year following his death, Messrs. John Pitcairn and Walter C. Childs visited his studio at Florence, and there met his son and daughter. (NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1917, p. 295.) A portrait of Hiram Powers appears in the Annals of the New Church, page 548. The article, including his letter, appearing in the INTELLECTUAL REPOSITORY for 1865, follows:

     PROPOSED STATUE OF SWEDENBORG.

     An opinion has been expressed that an important use would be effected if a statue of Swedenborg, executed by a first-rate sculptor, were placed in some conspicuous situation, where, from its being constantly in view, it might familiarize the public with his name, and lead to inquiry as to his character, while at the same time it showed that he was held in estimation by those who were sensible of the humanizing and elevating influence of the fine arts.

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To many of those who are well acquainted with his writings, and are consequently aware of their inestimable value, it will probably seem that they, from their intrinsic worth, constitute his best and most appropriate monument. Fully admitting the force of this consideration, so far as it refers to a certain order of minds, it still is desirable, within reasonable limits, to consult the taste of others who are more liable to be influenced by sensuous objects.
     This matter having been mentioned to the committee of the Swedenborg Society, they have deemed it right to give the admirers of his writings an opportunity of showing their wishes in reference to it. If, then, a sufficient number of friends to the cause be found willing to contribute to something like the required amount, the committee will feel justified in taking further steps with a view to the accomplishment of the object.
     It is plainly desirable that so valuable a work of art should be carefully preserved; and it is a favorable circumstance that in the trustees of the society we have a body legally qualified to possess the property and look after it. For the successful carrying out of this object, three points have to be considered-the sculptor, the locality, and the pecuniary means.
     As to the first point, the committee have the gratification to state that, on communication with Hiram Powers, the well-known sculptor of the Greek Slave," in the Great Exhibition of 1851-a man who thoroughly appreciates Swedenborg, and most unequivocally avows it-he expresses his perfect willingness to undertake the work, into which he would doubtless throw his whole soul. It would occupy him about two years. It is remarkable that there should already have been two New Churchmen, eminent sculptors-the other being Flax- man and as it is not likely there will soon be another, it appears the more desirable to secure the valuable services of Hiram Powers.
     The locality may well be left to future determination. As to the pecuniary means, it must be stated that a large sum will be required-say L1,200 for the statue, life size, in Carrara marble, besides incidental expenses.
     In the first instance the committee would wish to receive the names and addresses of subscribers of L5 and upwards; and as soon as L500 have thus been promised, the list to be published in the INTELLECTUAL REPOSITORY.

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Communications, saying what sums individuals will engage to subscribe, with any suggestions they may have to offer, may be addressed to the secretary, H. Butter, 249, Camden Road, London, N.
We subjoin the following letter from the sculptor, in answer to a letter on the subject of the proposed statue:-

     LETTER FROM HIRAM POWERS.

               "Florence, August 10th, 1865.

"Dr. Spurgin,
     "My Dear Friend,-I have been much gratified by your kind letter of the 5th inst. Please receive my thanks, and communicate them to all who have taken part in the subject of your communication. It is well to be explicit and brief in business matters, and I will therefore begin with answers to your inquiry.
     1st. I shall be glad to execute a statue in marble or bronze of our great author, Swedenborg; and I have nothing at present engaged to prevent my beginning such a work within two or three months.
     2nd. I am not rich, and therefore should be glad to accept all the pecuniary aid that could be given within reasonable limits-say L1,200; which would make the work remunerative in the degree of my other works. But if so much cannot be raised, then please see how much can be got, and let me know. I will do the work for whatever sum that can be raised; and, if more than L1,200 be raised, then I will make the statue larger than life, or put additional labor upon it. I should want about two years time for it. Do not be discouraged if the sum you can raise should be small, but let me know. Of course, I should require all the aid (portraits, &c.) you could give.
     "I do not know the nature of the clause (in your circular) which refers to my sentiments in regard to the writings of Swedenborg, and which you think it possible I might object to. I am a 'New Churchman,' a 'Swedenborgian'-a 'New Jerusalemite,' without any reservation whatever; and I wish it to be known. I have always wished this to be known. And if the circular expresses any doubt on this point, then indeed I would object to it. Swedenborg is my author; all other writers (in comparison) seem moving in the dark with tapers in hand-groping their way-while he moves in the broad light of the sun-God's own sun. I read no other author than Swedenborg nor have I for many years-unless the sermons of New
Churchmen.

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And I am happy to know that God has allowed me to be instrumental in directing attention to our Heavenly Doctrines. Therefore, if it will do good, publish me as a New Churchman.
     "With kindest regards, I am, dear Sir,
Yours sincerely,
"HIRAM POWERS.
     P.S-If I have been so very explicit, it is because it has come to my knowledge that I have been misrepresented in London."

     [Intellectual Repository, November, 1565. pp. 511, 512.]


     We do not know whether Hiram Powers ever made the statue of Emanuel Swedenborg, but his son Preston, who was also a sculptor, and who "labored in the same spirit as his father," made a bust of Swedenborg, which we believe is still in the possession of the Cincinnati Society of the General Convention. Of this we read:
     "In November, 1880, a bust of Swedenborg, executed by the sculptor Preston Powers at the cost of five hundred dollars, and especially subscribed for by vote of the subscribers, was donated to the Society in Cincinnati. This bust, on arrival, was placed in the Art Museum for a number of years, and was loaned to the Chicago Society during the World's Fair (1893), to be placed in the New Church exhibit there. After its return it was not unboxed until recently (1903), when it was placed in the Church Library." (Outline History of the New Jerusalem Church of Cincinnati-1811-1903; p. 27.)
     In this connection we may recall the bronze bust of Swedenborg made by Adolf Jonsson, of Stockholm, in 1922, described and illustrated in NEW CHURCH LIFE, January, 1923. It was placed in Lincoln Park, Chicago, and unveiled with elaborate ceremonies on June 28, 1924, as recorded in our pages in September of that year, pages 545-551.

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SEYMOUR GABRIEL NELSON 1941

SEYMOUR GABRIEL NELSON       GILBERT H. SMITH       1941

     An Obituary.

     A good and faithful servant of the Lord to the end of his eighty-three years, our dear friend, Seymour Nelson, has at last been released from his recent bondage of infirmity, passing into the other life on March 10, 1941. His was a career of great usefulness in the business of landscaping, and also as an encourager and organizer of the uses of the Church. The General Church and the Immanuel Church in Glenview have greatly benefited through many years by his generosity and his devotion to their spiritual uses.
     The son of Swain and Sophie Hoppman Nelson, Seymour was born in Chicago in 1858, and was baptized into the New Church by the Rev. J. R. Hibbard. On Christmas Day in 1881, he was married to Annie Emelia Magnuson,-that sweet and precious "Auntie Annie" who passed into the spiritual world six years ago, after a long and happy life with the husband who now follows her. Together they assumed and shared the responsibility of bringing up several children not their own, to whom they were in the place of parents for longer or shorter periods. And the children of their relatives who knew them in this capacity, having been taken into their home, would themselves compose a large-sized family. A strong sphere of love for the New Church pervaded this home, which was one of warm hospitality to young and old.
     The landscaping and nursery business founded by Swain Nelson, whose memory is also dear to us, was incorporated as the Swain Nelson Sons Company in 1909, with Seymour Nelson as President. This position he held to the time of his death, although he had retired from active work in his later years. He held membership in the Hamilton Club of Chicago, and in the Chicago Nurserymens' Association, for many years. And in the General Church he was a member of the Corporation and the Executive Committee, as well as a member of the Corporation and Board of Directors of the Academy of the New Church.

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[Photograph of SEYMOUR GABRIEL NELSON.]

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     He was always a lover of music, well educated and accomplished in it. He played the violoncello in the original Immanuel Church Orchestra under the celebrated Orlando Blackman. His career as organist began under the pastorate of the Rev. W. F. Pendleton, and continued for sixty years.
     Yet he traveled about considerably in the Middle West, and was ever pioneering for the New Church by calling upon any isolated people of whom he heard. He also visited Europe several times, and made an extended tour in Egypt and Palestine, on which countries he could give interesting illustrated talks.
     The members of the Immanuel Church know well that it was the two brothers, Seymour and Alvin Nelson, who did so much to establish and guide our little community here, and to make possible and build and foster the church and school here, which both of them loved with complete devotion. Always the Church and its Heavenly Doctrine were foremost in their minds. For these they came to Glenview in the first place, and for their sake, it seemed, their business flourished. Providence was kind to this group of New Churchmen, and very largely through the generous efforts of these two brothers.
     In Florida also, for some twenty winters. Seymour gathered together a considerable number of people to worship at his winter home, reading sermons by New Church ministers, and thus forming another circle of readers of the Writings who will remember him and his house with affection and appreciation. For years he and his wife and sisters Emelia and Adah made this a center of attraction in St. Petersburg where many New Church people visited them.
     We record here the passing of one of the important men in the history of the General Church from its earliest days-one who was not only learned in the Doctrine and understood the greater issues of theology, but who also manifested a great interest in the young people of the Church and was in sympathy with them.
     His condition during the last two or three years, due to failing strength and partial paralysis, was such that, while he retained his faculties of thought and his interest in what was going on, his death was a blessed release for him.
     GILBERT H. SMITH.

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Church News 1941

Church News       Various       1941

     HURSTVILLE, AUSTRALIA.

     We go back to the beginning of December to bring up to date the record of another three months in the life of the Hurstville Society. On the first Sunday evening in December the pastor completed a series of six evangelical sermons on the subject of "The Permissions of Providence." The last three doctrinal classes of the year were devoted to a short series on "Special Providence." A two-year course on the correspondences of the human body, taught to the young people, but open also to the older members, was also completed by the middle of the month, and we then began to prepare for the Advent season.

     Christmas.

     The services on December 15 and 22 were of a preparatory nature, the sermons being on "Elizabeth and Mary," and "The Benedictus," many of the Christmas hymns being sung. The children's Christmas Service, which now precedes a short recess of the Sunday School, was held on the 22d. A short service of praise was held on Christmas morning, the pastor giving a ten-minute address on the meaning of the Star in the East.
     December was also a month of festivities of a lighter nature. The Ladies' Guild held its usual Christmas Party on the 12th, before going into recess until February, and the Society had its own party on the 19th. The Sunday School Christmas Party was held on the 23d, the children receiving presents from the tree, and being entertained with games and refreshments after witnessing a series of tableaux. The tableaux were produced in the same way as last year, but instead of using recorded music we had the services of a quartet of vocalists trained by Mrs. Fletcher.
     During the greater part of January the Society was virtually in recess. A service was held on the first Sunday evening of the month, but the church was closed for the next two Sundays while the pastor was on vacation, although the Sunday School reopened on the 12th under the leadership of Mr. Ossian Heldon. Open school was held on Sunday the 26th, when the pastor spoke to the children about Swedenborg's mission.

     Swedenborg's Birthday.

     The banquet which is held each year to celebrate the anniversary of Swedenborg's birth was held on the 29th. On this occasion, Mr. Alfred Kirsten was our toastmaster, and he arranged a very fine program of speeches, toasts, and songs. The subjects of Swedenborg, the Man, the Mission, and the Message, were dealt with very capably by Messrs. Ossian Heldon, Sydney Heldon, and Alfred Kirsten, and some interesting discussion resulted from their efforts. Toasts to "The Church," "Swedenborg." and "Pioneers of the Church," were proposed by the pastor. Mr. Fred Fletcher, and Mr. Lindthman Heldon, respectively, and were honored in wine and song in the customary manner. In their own and very important department the ladies of the social committee who did the catering and decorating were equally efficient, preparing for the twenty-five guests who were present at one of the best banquets we have ever enjoyed.

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     In February our regular activities were limited to the Sunday School sessions and the Sunday evening services, at the latter of which a series of sermons on the Parable of the Sower was delivered. The Sunday School picnic was held on the first Saturday in the month, and although we had chosen what turned out to be one of the hottest days of this summer, the children thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
     Local Sons of the Academy held a picnic of their own on the following Saturday afternoon, spending their time in a launch on the river; and although only one member was equipped with a fishing line, the outing was enjoyed by those who attended.
     The Ladies' Guild resumed its activities on the second Thursday in the month. On Sunday, the 23d. a picnic tea was held before the evening service, the Society meeting for this purpose, by courtesy of the Rev. Richard and Mrs. Morse, on the lawn at "Baringa," their home. Previous to this gathering, the Pastor's Council and the various committees of the Society had met at intervals throughout the month to discuss different aspects of the work for the ensuing year, and at the close of the meal the pastor gave an informal address on the program that had been arranged and that will commence in March.

     Plans for the Year.

     For the most part, the program is the same as that with which we were engaged last year, except for one or two changes; and as an outline might be of interest to readers, we close with a few words on this subject. As in the past, public worship will be provided for through the regular Sunday morning service, culminating in the monthly administration of the Holy Supper, and reaching its three great climaxes in the Festivals of the Church, each with its special weekday service. The evangelical service will be replaced this year by a monthly evening service of praise, in which the Office designed for evening services in the Revised Liturgy will be used, copies having been made for this purpose.
     The following classes and study groups will also meet throughout the year: 1. The general doctrinal class every Wednesday evening. 2. A young people's class every second Sunday morning at ten o'clock. 3. A class for the study of Swedenborg's philosophy every second Sunday evening. 4. A study circle meeting fort-nightly for the study of general doctrine. 5. A short class held monthly in connection with the meetings of the Ladies' Guild. 6. A monthly study circle for Sunday School teachers, in which the principles of New Church education will be considered further.
     The Sunday School will still be our only instrument for child education. And the particular needs of the women and the men of the Society will be catered for, as in the past, by the Ladies' Guild and the Local Chapter of the Sons of the Academy, the former meeting twice a month, the latter once. It is planned to hold one social function monthly, parties to alternate with banquets and social suppers as far as possible.
     W. C. H.

     REV. W. T. LARDGE.

     From an obituary in THE NEW-CHURCH HERALD of March 8, 1941, we learn of the passing of the Rev. William Thomas Lardge on February 18th at the age of 79 years. Our readers will recall that his doctrinal views were at one time frequently presented in the pages of NEW CHURCH LIFE.
     Mr. Lardge was active in the ministry of the General Conference for over forty years, and he filled the pastorate of several societies during the period from 1893 to 1935, when ill health compelled his retirement, though he continued his writing and preached occasionally.
     As the HERALD notes, "the Writings of the Church were bread and wine to him. He regarded them as the Lord's greatest gift to mankind, and his ministry was based upon his conception of their authority."

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     This conception, and his firm belief in the distinctiveness of the New Church, were vigorously set forth in THE REMINDER,-a periodical which he edited and published for a series of years, and from which a number of articles were reprinted in NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1907-1929. From the last published excerpt we may quote a typical paragraph:
     The Christianity of the New Church is a splendid legacy, a heritage of the ages-a legacy which we must pass on inviolate to those who shall succeed us. Our responsibility in this regard is truly great. For we are taught that in the New Church there will be no falsities of doctrine. To guard against their entrance, every New Churchman should humble himself before the truth, as it has been revealed today. We should discourage in ourselves that pride of intellect and proprium which causes us to think that it is a sign of originality to differ in part from such revelation. Our all-controlling purpose should be to accept the truth as it has been revealed by the Lord." (NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1929, p. 162.)


     TORONTO, CANADA.

     In March, one hundred and sixty- nine years ago, Swedenborg passed into the spiritual world. It is a consoling thought that, in the midst of a chaotic world, small groups of people are working at widely scattered points to practise and disseminate the truths which he was instrumental in bringing to mankind. We celebrate his birthday because he was a great man; we remember his passing because of the Divine mission which had been accomplished.
     In Toronto we are fortunate in having a pastor of unusual energy and vision. This is manifested by his active interest in isolated families, and also by his periodic visits to Montreal. The Montreal Circle consists of approximately sixteen adults and seven children of school age, to whom doctrinal instruction is given, in addition to a service of worship held during the two days' stay.
     Our day school has been interrupted by the illness of Miss Korene Schnarr who has scarlet fever. Meanwhile, Mr. Gyllenhaal has carried on the work of the school in the morning, and Mrs. Mary Parker has given her services in the afternoon, notwithstanding the ties of a small family. This is supplemented by a kindergarten course in piano by Miss Peggy John. Mary's husband, Flying Officer Sydney Parker, left Toronto in January to serve in the radio section of the R. C. A. F. in England. Soon after his arrival, he and his brother officers were entertained at Windsor Castle by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and her two charming daughters. Tea was served in the Royal dining room, while the Queen and the Princesses, assisted by the Ladies-in-Waiting, chatted informally with their Canadian guests.
     On the evening of March 7, Theta Alpha sponsored an entertainment to raise money for our local Bryn Athyn scholarship fund. A silent auction of articles made by chapter members, together with a cafeteria supper, realized a substantial sum for this important work. The support of this use by the Society as a whole is evidence of a general recognition of the importance of higher education within the church.
     During the same evening we heard of the sudden death of our friend and former member, Mrs. Minnie Ellen Fountain. She was for many years resident in this city, and was a faithful and beloved member of our society. The sympathy of the Olivet Society is extended to her family and relatives.
     The Sons of the Academy, under the leadership of Mr. C. R. Brown, have continued to meet regularly on the third Thursday of each month. After a dinner prepared by one of the members, the evening is devoted to a session of business followed by the presentation and discussion of a topic of current interest.

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At the March meeting, Mr. Frank Longstaff read a paper on "Law and Order," in which he reviewed the progress of constitutional law among English-speaking peoples, and considered the inadequacy of the present economic system. The possibilities of law and order after the war were discussed, and the necessity of preparing ourselves to meet the exigencies of social and economic change. Mr. Alfred Steen, who is in Toronto for a few weeks, was a guest, and gave an account of his experiences in government inspection of war materials.
     On the afternoon of March 21st the ladies of the society entertained the Parkdale Patriotic Association at a tea in aid of the Red Cross. In addition to a program of music, Mr. Gyllenhaal briefly outlined the fundamental doctrines of our Church, and pointed out wherein we differed from other denominations. A sale of home-cooking helped to realize a substantial sum toward a Spitfire.
     CLARA SARGEANT.


     PITTSBURGH, PA.

     Some time has elapsed since the last report from this society, but meanwhile our activities have not lessened; rather is the opposite true-there seem to be so many things going on continually that we forget to pause and jot them down for publication.
     Christmas Celebrations.-Here, as in all the societies, Christmas is one of the high spots of the year. Once more our Children's Service and Festival were held on the same afternoon. Following the service in the church, to which the children marched in procession, carrying candles, the whole congregation followed into the auditorium, where tableaux were shown and the children received their gifts. The tableaux were beautifully arranged under the direction of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Jansen, the three scenes representing "The Shepherds," "John the Baptist," and "The Nativity." Before each scene, the children recited passages of Scripture, which the tableaux illustrated. On Christmas morning there was a service for adults.
     Changes in the Teaching Staff.-At the beginning of the year, the Rev. Bjorn Boyesen was called to his new charges in New York and New Jersey, and the Rev. Ormond Odhner came to take his place as our official Assistant to the Pastor. In addition to his assistance in the pastoral work, Mr. Odhner teaches several classes in the day school. Since we have a predominance of boys-the two upper classes being composed entirely of boys of adolescent age-it is a great help to have a male teacher to take over some of the work with those older boys. Mr. Pendleton also gives some time to teaching Religion and Biology. So we feel that, with such a large teaching staff, our little school should make noticeable progress.
     Swedenborg's Birthday.-On January 29th, Theta Alpha sponsored a banquet for the children at which each child rose and made a "speech." This has become a regular institution here, and the children look forward to it each year with great pleasure. On the following Friday evening, there was a banquet for the adult members, at which Mr. Odhner delivered a splendid address in which he showed that, although the Writings were dictated, at the same time Swedenborg was in complete freedom. The development of this idea gave evidence of a great deal of study and deep thought, and it was extremely interesting to those who were privileged to hear it. Indeed it was rather disappointing that more were not able to do so, but the bad weather and driving conditions kept many away who would otherwise have attended.
     Doctrinal Classes.-Mr. Pendleton has just given a series of classes on the subject of "Doctrine as Applied to Life." Each of the fundamental doctrines was discussed in such a plain and straightforward way that no one could fail to see and understand how it should be applied to the life of every New Churchman.

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Following this series of classes, Mr. Odhner, who generally teaches the high-school group while the adult class is being conducted, gave two adult classes at which he spoke on "Conscience." Unfortunately, the weather seems to have been against us this Winter, and heavy storms on several Friday evenings in succession kept many of our regular attendants away. Colds, too, have flourished since Christmas, and so the doctrinal classes have not had as large an attendance as we generally expect them to have.
     Easter.-We are anticipating our Easter services with great pleasure. To help us celebrate, we expect to have several friends from the Ohio district. Some will come on Saturday evening, and will be entertained in various homes. After the service on Sunday morning, light refreshments will be served in the auditorium.
     Social Events.-The society has enjoyed two dances this season, one at Thanksgiving time, and the other during the Christmas holidays. The first was sponsored by the college and high-school group. Several guests from Bryn Athyn were welcomed and helped to swell the number who attended. Three of the younger married couples were the hosts for the dance at Christmas time, and several of the young people who are attending school at Bryn Athyn were home to enjoy this party.
     Recently Miss Jean Horigan entertained forty women at a "benefit Bridge Party," the proceeds of which will help to pay for the school furniture that we hope to be able to buy very soon. Although few socials have been held at the church this year, smaller groups are being entertained in the homes and the social life of the society seems to be in a flourishing condition.


     Esther Boggess Lechner.

     With the passing of Mrs. Arthur Lechner to the spiritual world on March 25th, the Pittsburgh Society has lost a real friend. Although Mrs. Lechner was forced to be physically inactive for many years, we have never known anyone more mentally alert to all that was going on, both in the society and in the world at large. She was untiring in her devotion to church uses, as President of the Women's Guild, and an active member of Theta Alpha. Even when confined to her bed, she carried on her useful work by means of the telephone. Her interests were so varied that her conversation was always stimulating and instructive. Once she jokingly said that, when she married, a good teacher was spoiled to make a poor housewife." For the work of the school was one of her chief interests. Perhaps, as Mr. Pendleton suggested in his memorial address, she will be permitted in the other world to carry on this use which she so much loved.
     Mrs. Lechner was born in Middleport, Ohio, in 1884, the daughter of James S. Boggess and Julia Grant Boggess. She is survived by her husband, Mr. Arthur O. Lechner, longtime member of this society and organist for many years; also by three children-Fred, Fanny, and Elizabeth (now Mrs. Daniel L. Conn).
     J. M. G.

     We add the following excerpts from the Funeral Address delivered by the pastor:
     In itself, death is a Divine blessing, for it is the gateway to the kingdom of life. True, there are few in this materialistic age who view it as such; but the fact that men, because of their wilful ignorance, do not understand its significance, in no wise alters the case. In this day, and to all eternity, death is the means by which the Divine purpose in creation is fulfilled-the means by which the spirit of man is released from the limitations of the natural body, and introduced into its proper sphere. In youth we may not appreciate this fact. While we are young, the natural body is responsive to every impulse of life, but as the years take their inevitable toll of our physical strength, we realize ever more fully the inadequacy of the body in which we dwell.

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This is especially true with those who have suffered from some incapacity, who will to live the active life of their minds, but are unable to do so.
     To such, death comes as a release from all that inhibited their normal life. Upon awakening in the other world, their strength is renewed. Once more they are free to live as they will, and this in ever increasing measure. All the delights and uses which they enjoyed on earth are restored. More wonderful still, there is neither fear for the future nor sorrow from the past. Of the Lord's Divine mercy, all that they suffered on earth is forgotten; it is lost in the joy of a new-found life. As for the future, it is a matter of no import; for with those who trust in the Lord's Divine Providence there is no sense of time. In the kingdom of heaven, life is within the present. Perhaps we cannot conceive of such a state, except in a vague sort of a way, for it does not fall within the realm of our earthly experience. We who are bound by time and space cannot rid our thoughts of their weight, Even our most exalted states are not entirely free from their limiting sphere. Nevertheless, we know that what the Heavenly Doctrines teach concerning the life after death is true-as true as the One who made us in the beginning, for it is His Word.
     What then can we say at this time? If we were to speak what is in our hearts, we would dwell upon our sense of loss; for in the passing of Esther Lechner one of the truest friends of the Church on earth has left us. Each one of us. in our own way, will miss her. How could it be otherwise? For years she served this Church through the medium of this society. Neither physical incapacity nor any other circumstance came between her and the uses she sustained. To the very end she was intent upon the duties she had assumed. In the performance of those duties her presence was felt among us, and in her passing she leaves us with a deep sense of loss. Truly, this is as it should be; for a sense of loss, in so far as it is inspired by uses, and not from selfishness, is a fitting acknowledgment of our affection for one with whom we have labored in the interests of the Lords New Church.
     We do not dwell, however, upon this aspect of her passing. We simply accept our loss as a silent tribute to the spiritual quality of her life, as that quality affected each one of us. Rather would we speak of our joy in the knowledge that she has now been released from the bonds which so severely bound her spirit. It is true that she went her way despite them, that with high courage she endeavored to live as completely as others. Moreover, she did so, but at a cost which few could understand. Each effort made a heavy claim upon her strength, yet she never refused that effort, if in any way it would serve some purpose. We knew it then; we know it even more fully now. Thus we are glad that she is released, that the strength upon which she now relies is that spiritual determination which she forged on earth. There is no longer anything which can inhibit her life; she is forever free from the dead weight of nature.
     It is with this thought in mind that we perform this rite. We think of her, not as she was, but as she is,-a woman of spiritual stature who has now entered into the fulness of her use. The specific nature of that use we know not, but of one thing we may be sure, that it is intimately associated with the work of the Lord's Church in the spiritual world. This was her first love, and for her there could be no heaven apart from it. It is more than probable that it is in connection with the educational work of the Church, for this was one of her greatest interests. It began when she taught in our school, and increased with the years. Indeed, she frequently said that some day she would like to teach again. Truly, she is well qualified, for in the Lord's kingdom in the heavens there are only two qualifications for this exalted use-the love of the use itself, and an affection for spiritual truth. If it be her desire, it will be fulfilled."-W. D. P.

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     THE ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH.

     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, Bryn Athyn, Pa., on Friday, June 13, 1941, at 3.30 p.m. The public is cordially invited to attend.
     After opportunity has been given for the presentation and discussion of a summary of the Annual Reports of the Officers of the Academy, an Address will be delivered by Mr. Daric E. Acton, representing the Sons of the Academy.
     EDWARD F. ALLEN,
          Secretary.

     ACADEMY COMMENCEMENT.

     The Closing Exercises of the Bryn Athyn Elementary School will be held on Thursday, June 12, at 10.30 a.m.
     The Commencement Exercises of the Higher Schools of the Academy will be held on Friday, June 13, at 10.30 a.m.
     The Presidents Reception will be held on Friday evening, June 13, at 8.00 o'clock.

     SONS OF THE ACADEMY.

     The Annual Meetings of the Sons of the Academy will be held at Bryn Athyn, Pa. Business Sessions in De Charms Hall on Saturday. June 14, morning and afternoon. Banquet in the evening in the Assembly Hall-Mr. Richard Gladish toastmaster.

     PHILADELPHIA DISTRICT ASSEMBLY.

     Members and friends of the General Church of the New Jerusalem are invited to attend the Philadelphia District Assembly, which will be held at Bryn Athyn. Pa., on Saturday and Sunday, May 17 and 18, 1941.

     Program.

     Saturday, May 17 at 3.00 p.m.-Session of the Assembly. Discussion of the practical means of developing the uses of the Church within the District.
     4.30     p.m.-Episcopal Address.
     7.00     p.m.-Assembly Banquet. Rev. Elmo C. Acton, toastmaster.
     Sunday, May 18, 11.00 a.m.-Divine Worship, concluding with the Administration of the Holy Supper.



     To Members
     IN MILITARY SERVICE.

     In order that we may keep in touch with the members of the Church who are in military service, we would ask that the Bishop's Office be notified of the unit in which any member is serving and the post office address. We shall then be able to furnish information of any church activities in the vicinity, and of any opportunity to come into contact with ministers or other members of the Church.
     GEORGE DE CHARMS,
          Bishop.

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ORDINATIONS 1941

ORDINATIONS              1941




     Announcements



     Boyesen.-At Bryn Athyn, Pa., March 30, 1941. Rev. Bjorn Adolf Hildemar Boyesen, into the Second Degree of the Priesthood, Bishop George de Charms officiating.
TEMPTATION OF THE HUMAN 1941

TEMPTATION OF THE HUMAN       Rev. WILLARD D. PENDLETON       1941



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NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. LXI
JUNE, 1941
No. 6
     (Delivered at the Open Session of the Council of the Clergy, April 18, 1941.)

     We are told in the Writings that the glorification of the Human was effected by means of temptations. (N. 302; L. 12.) This is one of those general truths which we accept as an obvious implication of our faith in the Lord's Divinity. Indeed, there was no other way by which the glorification could have been accomplished, for the infirm human from the mother was evil, and only by means of temptations could the evil be expelled. (A. 1444.) Therefore we accept the fact that the Lord endured temptations. In itself, such acceptance is sufficient to our faith, but it is not sufficient to an interior understanding of the doctrine of the Divine Human. If we would enter into the arcana of the glorification, we cannot rest content with a simple faith; we must first appreciate what these temptations involved. True, the human mind can never grasp the full implication of the Lord's struggle with the hells, for it is beyond all human experience. Nevertheless, by reflection we can enter ever more interiorly into an understanding of the nature and intensity of that combat. To this high purpose the following considerations are addressed.
     The Writings define temptation as "an assault upon the love in which a man is," the quality and the degree of the temptation depending upon the quality and the degree of the love. (A. 1690; N. 196.) If a man's loves are natural, his temptations are natural. In the strict sense of the word they are not temptations at all, but merely anxiety and distress which arise from the fear that the life of self will he inhibited. (A. 762, 847; T. 597.)

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Such is the nature of the temptations sustained by most Christians since the fall of the first Christian Church; for spiritual temptations are not possible except with those who subscribe to an unqualified faith in the Lord's Divinity. Thus we read in the work on the True Christian Religion: "No one is in truths but he who approaches the Lord immediately. . . Hence no one has been admitted into any spiritual temptations since the Council of Nicea introduced the faith in three Gods; for if anyone had been admitted, he would have at once succumbed. . . . The contrition which is held to precede the present faith (that is, the faith of the first Christian Church) is not temptation." (T. 597.) However, if the loves of a man's life are spiritual in quality, as may be the case with those who receive the Lord in His Second Coming, his temptations likewise are spiritual. The distinction being, that they do not arise from fear for self, but from the fear that through self he might impair uses, or do injury to the neighbor.
     The distinction is of interest. It provides a means whereby the man of the Church may analyze his states. If and when temptation arises, we are well advised to explore its quality,-to determine, in so far as it is humanly possible whether or not the temptation is induced by a fear of the loss of honor, gain, or self respect. If, to all appearances, this is not its source, then it is possible that the temptation is spiritual in origin. It may be that we are actually concerned, not with self, but with the harm that self can inflict upon our faith in the Lord, our love of use, or the uses of others. If this be the case, although we know it not, we are in the way of regeneration. What is the same, we are men who are capable of deep concern for others, quite apart from the effect that the deprivation of others would have upon self. In other words, a spiritual temptation arises from a spiritual love,-a love which is impersonal, in that it looks to use alone. Here is food for reflection when we enter into states of self-examination.
     Be all this as it may, that which is important to our thesis is the teaching that the quality and degree of temptation is determined by the quality and degree of the love which is assaulted. This being so, what may we say of the temptations which the Lord sustained on the plane of the infirm human? Words fail; human thoughts are utterly inadequate; even the Writings do not attempt a descriptive explanation. His was a love for the entire human race-infinite-all-embracing. This was the love which was attacked by the hells.

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By what figures of speech, or by what gift of expression, could the Writings portray His agony? We understand, therefore, why it is that they simply state that the Lord's temptations were " more grievous than can ever be comprehended or believed by any human mind." (A. 1690.) What else could they say? There is no ratio by which any comparison could he drawn. Let it suffice that He endured, and this to a degree which is not possible with any man.
     Nothing can he added to the statement of the Writings. In itself it precludes any such attempt. The least we can do is to reiterate the truth which it establishes, namely, that the severity of the Lord's temptations exceeds all human comprehension. A basis of thought, however, is given in another series of passages, where it is taught that "He fought alone, and by His own power overcame the hells." (A. 1444.) The implication of this teaching affords us an approach by which we may in some small measure enter into an appreciation of that which the Lord suffered. Not that it grants a means of comparison, but that it provides a groundwork for reflection. In all human states, we know that it is the Lord who is fighting for us, that it is He who overcomes the hells which seek our destruction. True, there is the illusion to the contrary-the bitter sensation that we are alone. The illusion, however, will not withstand spiritual contemplation. It is dispelled by `the conviction of our faith-by the knowledge that the Lord is present, despite all appearances to the contrary. It was not so with Him who was born of God. He alone of all men was called upon to overcome the hells by His own power. There was none who could aid. Not even the angels of the highest heaven could lend support in His hour of trial. Indeed, in so far as the angels were in their proprium, to that degree they, too, constituted a source of temptation. So we read: " That the Lord in temptation at last fought with the angels themselves, nay, with the whole angelic heaven, is a secret which has not yet been disclosed." (A. 4295.) This, because the heavens are not perfect in the sight of God, and the evil of their propriums provided ground for temptation.
     Thus it was that He fought alone. He resisted the hells from the power of the Divine within Himself. Yet, when in temptation, the Divine seemed far removed-so far that, in the sense of the letter of the Word, the effect on the human could only be portrayed by the appearance that the Father was distinct as to Person. It was as if He were speaking to another.

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Yet there was no other. In Himself, He was God. The glorification of the Human and the salvation of the human race depended upon Him alone. It is no wonder that He suffered the extreme of abandonment. We know why it was that He cried out upon the cross, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me!" It is not so with men. Although we, too, at times suffer states of utter desolation, we know that in our extremity we can take refuge in God. In very fact, this is all that is required of us, the source of our temptation being our unwillingness to trust in Him. In turning to Him the state passes from us; for it is He who disperses the hells. In this thought we gain some appreciation of the severity of the Lord's struggle. His strength was drawn from within Himself, whereas ours comes from Him. We are not alone. He was supremely so. (A. 3927.)
     From these things it is evident why man cannot comprehend the degree of the Lord's temptations. This does not mean, however, that we cannot understand their nature. Both the source and the purpose are clearly set forth in the Writings: and these being given, we are capable of reflection upon the subject. If this were not so, the doctrine of the glorification would remain a mystery. We know that the source of the Lord's temptations was the hells, which were vested in the infirm human from the mother. Moreover, we know that these temptations were permitted, in order that the Lord might glorify the Human, that is to say, make it Divine. Accepting these two fundamental truths, we need only reflect upon their implications, and the nature of the Lord's temptations may be understood.
     We say that the hells were the source of the Lord's temptations, but we ask: By what means were they effected? Wherein lay the power which they exerted over the infirm human? The answer we know. It was the power of all that is evil-the ability to influence man against good. In that man's very humanity lies in freedom-in the inalienable right to choose between good and evil-he is subject to the sphere of both. Of necessity he is held in equilibrium between the two, until his final choice is made. Needless to say, the hells are intent upon his destruction. Every love of his life is attacked, and this to the last measure of his resistance. Yet the hells are subtle-so subtle that, for the most part, we are not aware of their presence. As a rule they do not come upon us as an over-powering desire to sin-as an intensive urge to commit some obvious evil.

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First, they seek to destroy man's conscience. In this manner they endeavor to break down his resistance, and, if successful, to render him incapable of acknowledging an evil as a sin against God. This they do by means of that persuasive sphere which induces doubt; for it is doubt which leads to denial, and denial to spiritual death.
     All temptation comes from doubt-yea, in its essence is doubt. This is the consistent teaching of the Writings, and as such it is the doctrine which not only grants meaning to that which man suffers in regeneration, but also throws light upon the nature of those temptations by which the Lord glorified His Humanity. So we read: "He who is in temptation is in doubt concerning the end in view. The end in view is the love against which the evil genii fight, and thereby put the end in doubt. The greater the love is, the more do they put it in doubt. If the end which is loved were not put in doubt, and, indeed, in despair, there would be no temptation." (A. 1820. See also A. 2334, 2338.) No statement could be more direct than this. It leaves us no illusions in regard to the nature of temptations. Wherever there is a doubt, there is a temptation--an evil which is to be shunned as a sin. After all, why do we doubt? Is it not because we find that truth inhibits our proprial life? It stands between us and the realization of our unregenerate desires. Hence the urge to repudiate it-an urge which begins with doubt, and, unless we succeed in temptation, ends in denial.
     Bearing in mind, therefore, that all temptation arises from doubt, and that the degree of temptation is commensurate to the love which is attacked, what must have been the doubts which the Lord suffered? His was a love which was infinite in its capacity. In this connection the same passage continues: " From these few statements it may be seen what temptations are, and that they are in general such as the loves are. From this we may see what was the nature of the Lord's temptations, that they were the most terrible of all; for such as is the greatness of the love, such is the fearful character of the temptation. The Lord's love was the salvation of the whole human race, and was most ardent; consequently, it was the whole sum of the affection of good and the affection of truth, in the highest degree." (A. 1820. See also A. 1787.) This being the love which was attacked on the plane of the infirm human, what indeed must have been the doubts which He suffered?

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Were they the doubts which are sustained by the regenerating man of the Church? In one sense, yes. In another, no.
     In order to understand this apparent contradiction, keep in mind the important fact that all doubt arises from a lack of faith in the Lord's Divinity. This is true whether we speak of man, or whether we speak of Him who was born of God. In this sense, therefore, He bore our cross; for He, too, doubted. Yet, in doubting, He bore a cross which He alone could bear; for, unlike man, He was called upon to sustain a faith in His own Divinity. In other words, He alone of all men was required to accept the realization that in Himself He was Divine. Of the temptations involved herein we can know nothing. As stated, they surpass all human comprehension. So it is that, if we would understand the nature of the Lord's temptations, we must think of them in terms of those fearful doubts which called into question His faith in His own Divinity. Indeed, this doubt came as the direct result of the attacks upon the Love which was His Life. It could not have been otherwise. There was no other way in which that Love could have been assaulted. There was no other access for the hells. Had He not doubted, wherein could He have been tempted? By what other means could He have overcome the hells?
     It may be that, with some, the thought that the Lord doubted His own Divinity is disconcerting. It is possible that we do not like to think of it in this way. Yet it is true; for if it were not, He would never have entered into temptation. If, while on earth, He had enjoyed from the beginning the sure knowledge of His true identity, the end would not have been in doubt, the human would have been impregnable against the approach of the hells. The fact is, there would have been no human; for the human is the freedom of choice-a choice which the Divine could not have made, in that the Divine cannot choose evil. (A. 2795.) This is why He came into the world. This is why He assumed the infirm human from the mother. This is why He suffered even to the passion of the cross. All this, in order that He might make that choice in the very face of the hells, and thus establish a new highway for our God. This highway is a faith in the Lord's Divine Human-a faith which He, too, doubted-doubted in the extreme-yet which He sustained by His own power. Think of these things, reflect upon them, and you will see that they are true.

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     II.

     The Lord was born as all other men, in a state of utter ignorance. Even as it is said in Scripture, " Darkness was upon the face of the deep. And God said, Let there be light; and there was light." The ancient miracle was renewed-the miracle of conscious life. By imperceptible degrees this child, as any other child, entered into an increasing awareness of His own existence. Each new impulse from the world without assumed greater meaning, until at length His identity was established in a supreme consciousness of self. In the infirm human He was man, and, as an infant, He had no premonition of His Divinity. How could it have been otherwise? He was born in ignorance, and, according to order, developed by means of knowledges. It was not until sufficient knowledges were acquired that an adequate basis was formed for a conscious reception of the Divine descending from the Soul. So He developed as any other man, each degree of the mind being established in its turn-the sensual, the scientific, and the rational. There is only one distinction which must be noted, namely, that with the Lord this process was advanced as to time.
     This we know, because at the age of twelve He rebuked His mother, saying, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" (Luke 2: 49.) Here is the first indication in Scripture of the Lord having entered into conscious communication with the Soul. To what extent this communication had been perfected, we know not. Two things, however, are evident; first, that in the thirteenth year the human was enlightened by perception from the Divine; secondly, that the Lord was introduced into the knowledge of His Divinity by degrees. We cannot assume that at any given time, or in any appointed state, the full implication of the Lord's Divinity was borne in upon Him. The human could not have withstood the total realization of such knowledge. Only as the hells were expelled from the infirm human, only to the degree that the Lord endured in temptation, was the union effected. Hence each successive temptation marked an advance-an advance characterized by the increased enlightenment which succeeded each struggle with the hells. Can we say, therefore, that at the age of twelve, when the Lord astonished the doctors in the temple with His "understanding and answers," that He was already aware of the true nature of His Being? We cannot say yes, or no.

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     It is certain that at this time He knew He was not as other men. Yet, as to whether He was aware that the distinction was inherent within Him, we know not. It is probable that He was introduced into the knowledge of His own Divinity by the prior realization that He was a man set apart-one who, like the prophets, was gifted with the Divine power. This may have been His state at the time; for the thirteenth year signifies an intermediate state between an absence of temptation and temptation itself. (A. 1688.) In that the actual knowledge of His own Divinity involved temptation, it is most likely that He was conscious of His power, but not of its source within Himself. Be this as it may, that which is important to our thesis is, that we appreciate the fact that the Lord was gradually admitted into the knowledge of His Divinity, and that in the beginning this knowledge was most obscure.
     In the obscurity of the realization lay His protection from the hells while He was yet a child; for they could not attack except to the degree that He sustained in the Human the Infinite Love which was His Life. In the measure that this Love descended into His consciousness, in that measure they assailed Him. While yet a child, this Love was remote. Just the same in the first dim perception of its quality lay the basis for the hells' approach. So we are told in the Writings, in the explanation of the words in Genesis 14: 4:

     "'And in the thirteenth year they rebelled,' that this signifies the beginning of (the Lord's) temptations in childhood, is evident from the signification of the 'thirteenth year,' and from the signification of 'rebelling.' The thirteenth year is intermediate between the twelfth and fourteenth, (that is). intermediate between no temptation and temptation. What 'rebelling' signifies, may be seen when it is predicated of the evil in man, or of evil spirits, when they have been in subjection, and begin to rise up and infest. Evils or evil spirits rebel in proportion as the man who desires to be in good and truth confirms in himself any evils or falsities; that is, in proportion as cupidities and falsities insinuate themselves into his goods and truths. In cupidities and falsities is the life of evil spirits, and in goods and truths the life of the angels; hence come infestation and combat. This is so with all who have a conscience; and much more was it the case with the Lord as a child, who had perception. With those who have a conscience there arises therefrom a dull pain; but with those who have perception a sharp one; and the more interior the perception is, the sharper the pain. From this we may see what was the nature of the Lord's temptation in comparison with that of man, for He had interior and inmost perception." (A. 1668.)

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     It was by means of this perception that the Lord entered into consciousness of His Divinity. The Divine Wisdom Itself descended from His Infinite Soul into the plane of His humanity. There, in the rational, it was received, at first obscurely, then with ever-increasing awareness. In this He differed from all other men; for with Him alone was the veil withdrawn which divides the soul from the human mind. With others it is not permitted, lest man pervert God's dwelling place within Him-that human internal which is as perfect with the spirits of the lowest hells as with the angels of the highest heaven. Only the High Priest of Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ, was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies. While yet a child, He communed with the Soul; and this Soul, unlike that born of any earthly father, was Divine. The implication is clear-He alone of all men enjoyed Divine perception. (A. 1919, 1791, 1941, 2171.) It is well if we bear this in mind.
     We say that the Lord enjoyed Divine perception. This would seem to imply an infinite knowledge of all things. Do not forget, however, that, as to His infirm human, He was not God; He was mortal man. It was this human which intervened between the Light descending from the Soul and His union therewith. Herein was the seat of the hells; and, by means of the fallacious appearances which they induced, they obscured the Light. In truth, they would have extinguished it altogether, had the Lord yielded in temptation. Not that the hells could have destroyed the Divine in Itself, but the human by which the glorification was effected lay within their grasp. So they assailed Him, seeking by every artifice to destroy His faith in His own Divinity. By means of illusions of self and the world, they threw the Divine issue into doubt. Even in Scripture, where so little is said concerning the interior aspect of the Lord's life in the world, one thing is evident, namely, that each temptation recounted involved the doubt of His own Divinity.
     When the devil came upon Him in the wilderness, twice he addressed the Lord, saying, "If Thou be the Son of God." In the third temptation, the devil offered Him all the kingdoms of the world, if He would fall down and worship at his feet. Here was doubt-grievous doubt-else He would not have been tempted. The fact remains that He was sorely tried. The appearance induced by the hells, namely, that in Himself He was not God, but mortal man, was persuasive in the extreme.

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Finally, when He hung upon the cross, in the grip of the last and most fierce temptation, He cried out, saying, "My God, my God, why has Thou forsaken me!" It was this bitter doubt which was His cross, from that first dim vision of His Divinity which He sustained in childhood, even to the full realization thereof.
     Had the Lord entered into full communion with the Father while yet a child, He could not have been tempted. Indeed, when that union was effected, He passed beyond the reach of the hells. The human having been glorified, there was no longer any basis for their approach. The Divine cannot be tempted. (A. 2795.) Yet, as long as something of the infirm human from the mother remained, there was groundwork for doubt. The infirm human, in itself, cannot rise above appearances. No man, save He who was born of God, can look upon God and live. The light of the spiritual sun, even as the light of the natural sun, is invisible. It cannot be seen, except as reflected by finite forms. In these forms are imperfections, and imperfections permit perversion. So we read in the Writings the following passages:

     "Be it known that neither with man, nor indeed with any angel, are any truths ever pure, that is, devoid of appearances; for all, both in general and in particular, are appearances of truth; nevertheless, they are accepted by the Lord as truths, provided good is in them. To the Lord alone belong pure truths, because Divine." (A. 3207.) Further, "The subject here treated is the conjunction, through truths, of the Lord with those who are in His kingdom in the heavens and on the earth; with the angels through the appearances of truth of a higher degree; and with men through the appearances of truth of a lower degree. . . . For Truths Divine themselves are such that they can never be comprehended by any angel, still less by any man, because they surpass every faculty of understanding. Yet, in order that there may be conjunction of the Lord with men and angels, Truths Divine flow in with them in appearances; and when Truths Divine are with them in such appearances, they can be both received and acknowledged. This is effected by adaptation to the comprehension of each person; and therefore appearances, that is, truths angelic and human, are of three degrees." (A. 3362.) Finally, "With man there is no pure intellectual truth, that is, Truth Divine; for the truths of faith with man are appearances of truth, to which fallacies of the senses adjoin themselves, and to these falsities." (A. 2053.)

     The doctrine involved in these passages is important-extremely important-not only because it provides a basis for a rational comprehension of the glorification process, but also because it forever stands as a direct refutation of any claim to Divine authority on the part of the regenerating man of the Church.

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No mortal man, be he saint or angel, can ever pass beyond the veil of rational appearances. The Lord alone did this.
     Note well that, in the last passage quoted, it speaks of fallacies and falsities which adjoin themselves to truths. Also bear in mind that the Lord, like any other man, acquired knowledges of truth from without. These knowledges, although derived from the Word, involved appearances, and by means of these appearances He was tempted. The hells seized upon them, twisting and perverting, creating illusions; even the illusion that in Himself He was not Divine. They gave rise to doubt-doubt beyond all mortal apprehension. All this by means of appearances which enshrouded the Divine Truth as presented from without. In this connection, reflect upon this telling passage, in explanation of the words in Genesis 22: 9:

     "'And bound Isaac his son.' . . . The Lord's Divine Rational as to Good could not suffer, or undergo temptations; for no genius or spirit inducing temptations can come near to Good Divine, as it is above all temptation. But Truth Divine bound was what could be tempted; for there are fallacies, and stilt more falsities, which break in, and thus tempt it; for concerning Truth Divine some idea can be formed, but not concerning Good Divine, except by those who have perception, and are celestial angels. It was Truth Divine which was no longer acknowledged when the Lord came into the world, and therefore it was that from which the Lord underwent and endured temptations. Truth Divine in the Lord is what is called the 'Son of Man,' but Good Divine is what is called the 'Son of God.' Of the 'Son of Man' the Lord said many times that He was to suffer, but never of the 'Son of God.'" (A. 2813.)

     It was, then, Truth Divine bound which was tempted. Yet, we ask, bound by what? Bound by appearances-by sensual, natural and rational appearances.
     Prior to the Advent, the Divine descent was effected by means of the angelic heavens. God forthstood in the human of an angel. In course of time, this mode of approach proved inadequate to human needs. If mankind was to be saved from the encroaching hells, it was imperative that the Human be made Divine. Thus it was that the Lord came into the world, assuming the human and the appearances which it involved. Even as it is said in the Psalms, He was laid in iron. (Ps. 105: 18.) But the Lord broke the bonds by which Truth Divine was bound, from the sensual even to the rational; one by one the appearances were dissipated.

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In this manner, that is, by the process of the glorification, He liberated the Divine from the imperfections of an infirm medium. Thus He established His Divinity in ultimates-in a Human which to all eternity defies the approach of the hells.
     We know that appearances arising from nature are fallacious. Further, we know that moral appearances give rise to persuasions. These two degrees, therefore, served as the means by which the hells afflicted Him. Yet the source of the Lord's most grievous temptations were those rational appearances in which the conscious life of the angels is said to consist. That these temptations were the most grievous, is evident from the teaching concerning the twenty-second chapter of Genesis in the Arcana Celestia, where the subject of the rational is considered. That the conscious life of the angels of heaven consists in such appearances, is evident from the passages already quoted, and also from the following: "The Truth Divine in the Lord's Divine Human, which underwent temptations, is not the Divine Truth Itself, for this is above all temptation, but is rational truth such as the angels have, consisting in the appearances of truth." (A. 2814.)
     Now the Writings say a great deal about rational appearances. They speak of them as "the clouds of heaven "-as those radiant atmospheres which reflect the Light of the Divine Proceeding with splendor. Unlike the lower degrees, namely, the sensual and the natural, they are not earth-bound, and therefore cast no shadow. Nevertheless, they are not perfect. God alone is perfect. Thus He who was to be conjoined with God had to rise above their limitations. Of necessity, He had to pass beyond the scope of all appearances, regardless of their degree. Hence with Him these rational appearances, vested in the infirm human constituted a source of temptation. His Life's Being was bound thereby. This is why He is said to have fought with the whole angelic heaven. (A. 4295.) Indeed, it could not have been otherwise.
     So it was that the Lord broke the bonds which inhibited His Life. He "broke in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron." (Isaiah 45: 2.) By means of temptations He expelled the hells which were rooted in the Mary human, and penetrated the appearances in which it was enshrouded. It is this process of disillusionment (and we use the word in its proper sense) that is described in the Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob series in the Arcana.

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Chapter by chapter, step by step, the process is recorded. In this series it is evident that, with each successive temptation, the Lord dispelled the illusion induced by the hells-the illusion which in its essence was the doubt of His own Divinity.
     It is true that, when "the devil departed from Him for a season," He was for the moment free from the fearful implications of the doubt, and in such states entered into open communion with the Father. Nevertheless, as long as something of the infirm human remained, the way was open for a further approach by the hells. Again and again they returned, each recurrence of the attack more fearful than the former. Hence we are taught in the Writings that the Lord's life in the world was characterized by two states: The one, a state of exinanition in which He was in progress toward union with the Divine; the other, a state of union, as when He was transfigured, or when He performed miracles. (T. 104.) In the end, the latter state prevailed, for by degrees the appearances which gave rise to the illusion were dissipated-utterly consumed by the ardor of His Love. When the last bond was broken, He entered into a perfect union with the Father, and in so doing He became God-Man forthstanding in the Human made Divine.
     It is, then, as God-Man that we know Him. In Himself, Infinite, yet visible in His Human made Divine. To this end He came into the world; and with this end accomplished, He arose triumphant over the powers of death. Here was a miracle indeed-the miracle of the ages. No longer need man dwell in darkness. A light has come into the world-"a light to lighten the gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel." (Luke 2: 32.) It came in direct response to the most urgent of human needs; for man could no longer be sustained by the worship of an invisible God. Only by means of God-Man forthstanding in ultimates could the human race be saved from their sins. So He came among us, taking our infirmities upon Himself, and suffering the agony of disillusionment-even to despair. Like all that are born of woman, He doubted. In this He bore our cross. Nor could it have been done in any other way. The human alone offered the right of choice-that inalienable right of which doubt is the sign. In the exercise of this right the Human was glorified. It was made One with His Infinite Soul.

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ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS 1941

ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS       HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1941

     BRYN ATHYN, PA., APRIL 14 TO 19, 1941.

     COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY.

     The Council of the Clergy of the General Church met in its forty- fourth regular meeting at Bryn Athyn, Pa., in the week of April 14, 1941. Bishop de Charms presided. There attended two bishops, eighteen pastors, one minister, and one authorized candidate.
     The Bishop's Consistory met on Monday evening. The Council itself held four morning sessions and a public session. It was announced that the Rev. Walter E. Brickman had again been recognized as a pastor of the General Church and a member of the Council. The usual reports were given. The Report of the Secretary of the General Church brought a discussion on the Growth of the Church, which was later followed up at a dinner given to the Council members by the Rev. and Mrs. C. E. Doering. The speakers analyzed the actual results of our efforts to "grow from within," and questioned whether enough was done to call the attention of our young people to the value of the rite of Confirmation and the subsequent step of becoming a member of the General Church. The increased rate of deaths was noted, and the fact that the Academy ideal of having large families needs to be implemented by continual teaching concerning the love of offspring, without which our efforts in New Church education would not result in any appreciable growth in numbers.
     The work of the Committee on Adult Education was discussed. It was suggested that material published in NEW CHURCH LIFE in the past, and no longer available, should be re-issued. Greater publicity would make the use of the Pastoral Extension Service pamphlets more widely known. Libraries of our Societies should have sample sets. The object was to provide for the needs of every state. The pastors were encouraged to keep well informed as to the published material, so that they might be able to recommend the right selections.

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The present need is that pastors submit to the committee material which is directed to fill the instructional needs of the isolated, of newcomers, and of parents and children. Each minister might undertake to adapt some one phase of doctrine to this end. Missionary work is not the purpose of the service, but the education of those who are without the opportunities offered in New Church societies. Special writers might be approached to write for the states which they most fully understand. The lists sent out should be descriptive of the particular usefulness of each title. "Academy" extension work might well be distinguished from the "pastoral" extension service.
     The "isolated" within our own societies might also be ministered to through this service. Articles on the doctrine of Use were needed. The central doctrines presented in the Words for the New Church need to be restated, adapted to modern life, but in simple language,- subjects like "Government in the New Church," "The State of the Christian World," "Marriage," etc. We should accumulate a library through which our young people, born and raised in the Church, might also become conscious of the contrasts of Old Church doctrines, and of the state of the consummated world. The responsibility of the clergy was shown to be wider than the immediate group to which each one ministers.
The Conduct of our Services was discussed at length and with profit, the subject being introduced by Bishop Acton with a number of suggestions in the matter of ritual.
     A paper was read by the Rev. Dr. E. E. Iungerich, entitled "Ultimate Loans to the Divine Natural." The treatment sought to explain an incident in the Lord's appearance to His disciples after the resurrection, in which He invites them, "Come and dine!" (John 21.) The speaker posited that the Divine Human appeared to the disciples by a rapid alternation of spiritual and natural light, and that the complete glorification had occurred, not by any transmutation of the matter of His body into Divine substance, nor by the putting off of the " accessory" or "additamentum " (A. 1461; E. 1112:3), but by a loan of a natural sphere from the men of the church, by which the currents of His Divine Natural could be accommodated to all planes of creation, and enable a special "omnipresence" of the Lord in the Holy Supper.

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     In one of the various counter-proposals to this thesis, Dr. Acton suggested that the Lord's resurrection-body must be conceived of as the Divine Truth, made visible in His Word. Seeing the Lord was not a seeing of parts that had been glorified.
     The discussion then drifted to the issue as to the reality of the spiritual world, the substances of which, Dr. Acton inferred, did not "consist of parts." This view, it was felt, eliminated the idea of any spiritual creation, and tended to identify the spiritual world with the Divine Proceeding itself, leaving only a natural world and the Infinite. Some analogy to parts must exist in the spiritual world, if this is to be conceived as finite.
     In reply, Dr. Acton elaborated his view that there is only one creation, by saying that there are many finite things which are "uncreate," yet not infinite. When we see the finite ideas of a man s mind, we do not see "parts." When men see the Divine Human, they do not see anything finite, but the infinite visibly revealed by means of created natural things.
     With reference to the Lord's glorification, one speaker stated that the Lord, after His resurrection, could employ any substance of any plane of the universe as a medium for His presence and revelation, and that He did not need a particular loan-sphere such as the paper described. This speaker also stressed that we should not minimize the statements that the Lord's body was glorified even as to flesh and bones, or as to that which man leaves behind him in the grave; even though we at present, being ignorant of the exact nature of finite substance, could not conceive the modes which the Lord employed.
     Another speaker held that the term "glorify" did not mean to transmute or resolve back into the original Divine, but rather that the Divine, in descending into the world, became immediately present in the Natural by the dissipation of the finite borrowed from nature. It was essential, however, to see that finite spheres can never be identified with the Divine Human, which is infinite, and that it is not any material sphere which is given in the Holy Supper. Legitimate disturbance might be caused by such an identification. We must stress that the Divine Human is wholly infinite, and immediately present in the Natural.

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     Still other speakers questioned whether the disciples at the house in Emmaus merely saw into the spiritual world. The Lord was indeed seen with the spiritual eyes of the disciples, but the inn, the table, and other objects, were in this world, while even fragments of the bread were no doubt left.
     A paper was read by the Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner, entitled "What is the Soul?" A series of charts, interpreting the stages by which the mind of Swedenborg had arrived at the concept of the soul and its position in the degrees of spiritual and natural creation, were offered in confirmation of his thesis. The speaker noted the classical and Christian connotation of the term " spirit," as distinguished from "soul"; "spirit" meaning something superior, abstract, and mental, whereas "soul" meant the activating element of the body. He sought to show that, in the Writings, Swedenborg retains his early idea of the "soul" as the inmost organic of the body, by describing a "limbus" from the inmost things of nature as necessary for the survival of the spirit; but that the spiritual substance (or spirit) is there called the "soul." This purely spiritual soul is of many degrees, the inmost of all being the unpervertible abode of the Lord. This "inmost" is the "soul" of the angelic mind and body, which, although immaterial and devoid of any space-time attributes, is yet organic and finite, woven out of such created things as are in the spiritual world; having not parts, but " analogies of parts." (Rat. Psych. 498.) Unless we admit that the spirit of man is a spiritual creation, Dr. Odhner saw no recourse other than to turn to the materialistic concept that there is no soul, but that the "mind" is a set of predestined and impersonal processes which vanish at death.
     One objector to Dr. Odhner's view urged that there is a mechanical and geometrical relationship between the spiritual and the natural atmospheres (T. 76), and that Swedenborg casts no disparagement upon his early works. Another stated that Swedenborg meant the same thing in the Principia as in the Writings, that the natural auras contain all the laws of the universe, that the Divine substance is infinite motion, and that life evidenced itself only in terms of motion.
     The discussions of the Council were stimulating, and fairly evenly divided between practical and doctrinal subjects. At a banquet given by Mr. and Mrs. Harold F. Pitcairn for all the ministers, executive members, and their wives, the topic of "Spiritual Substance" was discussed at some length by Dr. Acton and a number of other speakers.

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     At the open session of the Council, which followed the usual "Friday Supper," the Rev. Willard D. Pendleton gave an address on "The Temptation of the Human," in which the nature of the temptations sustained by the Lord in the world was discussed. (See page 241.) Following the Address, several speakers added comments. One spoke of the three temptations in the wilderness as denoting three degrees, and relating to good, truth, and uses. Another speaker remarked on the inevitability of doubt as an element in all human temptation-not doubt of our own powers, but of the Lord's power to save us. He suggested that the temptations of the Lord touched even the appearances of truth to which no man could reach, and which are signified by "Joseph," who represents the essential doctrine about the Lord's Divine origin. The late Bishop N. D. Pendleton's perceptive studies in this field were referred to. A third speaker pointed out that the Lord came, not to be tempted, but to conquer and so to glorify the Human. The Divine, in descending, purified this Human, and caused redemption by the same mode whereby a man who shuns some evil as a sin becomes the occasion for a judgment on spirits in the other world.
     Mr. Pendleton, having answered certain questions, stated that the subject must be considered, not as a philosophical matter for debate, but as a matter for meditative reflection, and that the internal growth of the Church may be measured by our appreciation of the doctrine concerning the Lord.
     Several resolutions were passed in the course of the meetings. It was unanimously resolved, by a rising vote, that the Council express heartfelt admiration for the courage and faithfulness of their brethren in the priesthood now sustaining the cause of the New Church in their countries so heavily afflicted by warlike conditions. Greetings were also sent to the Rev. Homer Synnestvedt and the Rev. L. W. T. David, who were absent by reason of illness. The acting secretary's digest of the ministers' reports was approved for publication.
     HUGO LJ. ODHNER,
          Acting Secretary, Council of the Clergy.

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JOINT COUNCIL 1941

JOINT COUNCIL       HUGO Lj. ODHNER       1941

     The forty-seventh regular joint meeting of the Council of the Clergy and the Executive Committee of the General Church of the New Jerusalem was held in Bryn Athyn, Pa., on April 19, 1941, at 10 am.
     1.     Bishop de Charms opened the meeting with prayer and the reading of the 36th Psalm.
     2.     The following members were present:
     Of the Clergy: The Rt. Rev. George de Charms (presiding), and the Rt. Rev. Alfred Acton; the Rev. Messrs. E. C. Acton, K. R. Alden, B. Boyesen, W. B. Caldwell, C. E. Doering, V. J. Gladish, W. L. Gladish, F. E. Gyllenhaal, E. E. Iungerich, H. L. Odhner, W. D. Pendleton, N. H. Reuter, N. H. Rogers, M. D. Rich, G. H. Smith, F. E. Waelchli, W. Whitehead; and the Rev. Messrs. R. G. Cranch and O. de C. Odhner.
     Of the Executive Committee: Messrs. K. C. Acton, E. C. Bostock, E. H. Davis, R. W. Childs, W. L. Horigan, H. Hyatt, P. C. Pendleton, H. F. Pitcairn, R. Pitcairn, and P. Synnestvedt.
     3.     The Minutes of the 46th Regular Meeting of the Joint Council, held on April 13, 1940, were adopted as printed in NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1940, pp. 263-268.
     4.     The acting secretary of the COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY gave a summary of the prepared report of that body. The report was accepted and filed. See page 271.
     5.     The Bishop announced that the Rev. Walter E. Brickman has been recognized again as a pastor in the General Church and as a member of this Council.
     6.     The Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner read portions of his report as SECRETARY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH. See page 266.
     7.     Mr. Hubert Hyatt, as TREASURER OF THE GENERAL CHURCH, submitted the yearly report of the Treasurer as already distributed in printed form.
     8.     The Secretary of the GENERAL CHURCH, INCORPORATED, read the Report of the EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. See page 278.
     9.     On motion, these three reports (items 6, 7, 8) were accepted and filed.

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     10.     The Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE submitted the year's issues of that magazine in place of a written report, and invited comment and discussion. He also asked cooperation in obtaining adequate lists of the addresses of those of our people who are serving in the armed forces, so that these may be supplied with New Church literature.
     11.     It was moved by Mr. Philip C. Pendleton, and, as amended by Mr. Hubert Hyatt, unanimously resolved, That it is the sense of this meeting that NEW CHURCH LIFE be supplied free of charge to those members of the armed forces of the United States and the belligerent countries who are associated with our Church; and that action be referred to the Executive Committee.
     Rev. Alan Gill suggested the publication of the names and addresses of those enrolled in these armies, to facilitate their mutual contact. The Bishop stated that plans were being considered for forming a Committee like the War Service Committee of the last war period. Mr. Paul Synnestvedt disclosed that the Swedenborg Society had sent out copies of the anniversary editions of the Heavenly Doctrine in different languages to soldiers of various countries.
     12.     On motion, the report of the Editor was accepted.
     13.     The Bishop explained that the ORPHANAGE FUND COMMITTEE organized to care for orphanage needs, and to supplement the efforts of the orphanage committees of local societies, had no report at present other than that which is contained in the Treasurer's Report. Rev. V. J. Gladish stated that the British Finance Committee has taken over charge of the orphanage work in England, in accord with the "local control" policy of the General Church.
     14.     In regard to the COMMITTEE ON ADULT EDUCATION, the Bishop stated that its work had gone forward, its sole activity at present being the publication of mimeographed material as a "Pastoral Extension Service." The principal aim was, by the circulation of articles, sermons, and addresses, to extend the sphere of the work of the pastors of the church by instrumentalities within the present financial means of the General Church. The pastoral material was gathered and edited by the Rev. N. H. Reuter, the "academic" material by the Rev. Dr. W. Whitehead. Three sets of pamphlets had been issued so far. The first set had received a wider publicity, especially at the General Assembly, with encouraging results in sales.

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The other two sets had not been sufficiently advertised as yet. Bishop Acton suggested that they be reviewed in the LIFE. Bishop de Charms said that time was needed to bring the service actively before the people, and to establish means by which the desired material may be more readily obtained.
     15.     On motion by Messrs. R. W. Childs and H. Hyatt the Council, by a unanimous rising vote, adopted the following MINUTE in memory of the late SEYMOUR GABRIEL NELSON, late honorary member of the Executive Committee:

     "Seymour G. Nelson was nineteen years of age when the Academy of the New Church commenced the publication of the Words for the NEW CHURCH. The prologue of that serial commences with the following significant words: 'The Heavenly Doctrines as unfolded in the Writings of Swedenborg we joyously take as our guide. . . .' These few words are adequate to show the mark which young Seymour Nelson set for his course of life, and he kept to this course unswervingly until he was brought safely to the haven of his desire.
     "He not only submitted himself to the direction of the Heavenly Doctrines, but he did so joyously. His delight in the Doctrines was increased by his wide friendships in the Academy's growing circle. We recall how his face lighted up as he joined in discussion of spiritual truths. In the same happy spirit he devoted his energies to the upbuilding of his society, and of the general body of the Church.
     "From his early manhood he took an active part in the councils of the Church, and he brought to these councils a keen intelligence, executive ability, a disciplined mind, wise judgment, a discerning knowledge of men, a kindly tolerance, a congenial and affectionate personality, an increasing understanding of the aims and purposes of the organized New Church, and a zeal for the spread of the Academy principles. At all times his sustained loyalty to the Church led him to give gladly and generously of his means for the support of the uses of the Church.
     "We rejoice in the thought that, released from pain and renewed in strength, Seymour Gabriel Nelson-now among the Academy saints in the New Heaven-has resumed his life of joyous service in the Lord's New Church."

     It was resolved that this Minute proposed by Mr. Childs, be adopted and spread upon the minutes of this session of the Joint Council, and that copies thereof be sent to Miss Emilia Nelson, Miss Adah Nelson, and Mrs. Selma Gyllenhaal.
     16.     After a brief recess, the Bishop introduced the subject of the SOUTH AFRICAN MISSIONS. The situation, he explained, calls for the consideration of the policy of the General Church at this time. He gave a brief resume of the development of the Missions:

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     In 1915, the Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal, then at Durban, received a delegation from Certain natives of Basutoland who had independently received the New Church and desired him to Visit them. (N. C. LIFE, 1915, pp. 751-771.) After he had done so, twelve Basutos petitioned Bishop W. F. Pendleton, in a letter dated June 12, 1915, that the men who were acting as their leaders might receive instruction and guidance, and be ordained into the priesthood of the New Church in an orderly way, stating that they believed the New Church to be the crown of the churches, and that the Lord had made His Second Advent in the Writings of Swedenborg, which they acknowledged as the Word to the New Church. They believed that all the Basutos would gladly receive the New Church. They asked him to take them under his government, to recognize their work, and to form them into a particular organization of the General Church.
     Action was left to Bishop N. D. Pendleton, who, after consulting with the Consistory, finally decided to recognize the movement and assume general episcopal supervision over it. He asked Mr. Gyllenhaal to represent him in this matter and to visit them when he could. There was no request for financial aid, and no promise of it. The movement included ten societies.
     In 1919, Bishop Pendleton visited South Africa, and ordained some of the leaders at an assembly there. The organization became known as the General Church Mission of South Africa, and was distinct from the General Church, in that application for membership was not made to the Bishop, but to the Superintendent. At the same time, the Rev. Theodore Pitcairn-the first Superintendent-began to give financial aid to the mission. In 1920-1921, the Rev. R. W. Brown took charge. The movement spread to Zululand. Buildings were acquired or built; schools were supported. Theological classes were given to new leaders. In 1921, Mr. F. W. Elphick (who was ordained in 1926) became Superintendent. The work became centered at Alpha, 0. F. S. New societies were formed, new ministers ordained, and were supported almost entirely by stipends. Mr. Pitcairn's annual donations rose to about $30,000, and the movement became entirely dependent on him.
     Difficulties arose when Mr. Pitcairn, having adopted the "Dutch position," resigned from the General Church in 1937.

263


To avoid causing distress, he continued his annual contribution to the Mission, recognizing that it was under the ecclesiastical government and supervision of the General Church. In the fall of 1939 he advised us that he was withdrawing his support, and gave nine months' notice, later allowing a year during which the support would continue in decreasing amounts.
     The Executive Committee determined that we should conserve our resources by cutting expenses to a minimum in order that we might have time to reorganize the Mission on some plan commensurate with what the General Church might be willing and able to do towards its support. The split among the native ministers has now resulted in the resignation of six Basutos and four Zulus, with their societies, which include all in Basutoland. Nine Zulus, one Xosa, and one Mosuto, so far remain with us. The Mission Council in South Africa was dissolved, and Mr. Elphick was placed in complete charge of the reconstruction. At the same time the salary of the Superintendent had to be reduced; the stipends of other native leaders were cut by one-third, and all expenses for schools were eliminated. By these means the total cost of the missions was reduced to $5,000 a year.
     On this budget the work can be carried on another year or two with the funds in hand. How this plan may be received by the natives, we do not yet know. Mr. Elphick was to have held a meeting with the ministers some time in March, and we are waiting to receive his report.
     The question now before us is, What policy should the Council recommend? From the standpoint of these native ministers, justice would seem to require that they should not be abandoned after having clung, against opposition and with sincere affection, to the doctrinal beliefs of the General Church. They cannot understand this division within the Holy City. They remain with us from conscience and spiritual innocence, despite financial sacrifices. Surely, under these circumstances, they come within the circle of our sympathy, and we should do everything we can for them.
     Nonetheless, the General Church is faced with great needs in other fields, and we cannot cripple the uses now being supported. Even the modest plan that is proposed for the missions would necessitate a large increase in the contributions now given to the funds of the General Church.

264



     The Bishop concluded by saying that, if real, this movement would grow in a natural way, once it is back on its original basis. Having briefly presented the situation, he now asked for counsel as to the policy which should be adopted.

     DISCUSSION.

     17.     Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal gave further details as to the commencement of the movement. All the members were farmers, and they and their chiefs had contributed towards his travelling expenses. Mr. John Pitcairn gave $500 for this purpose, but until 1919 no other contributions were received. Mr. Gyllenhaal felt that the Conference Missions were organized on better lines than ours. What the natives essentially need is guidance and instruction. A committee should be formed to study mission organizations.
     Rev. E. C. Act on pointed out that those who have stayed with us despite reduced circumstances show that they have a spiritual association with us which cannot be ignored. He felt that the Zulu leaders were stronger than the Basutos. Moffat Mcanyana especially had a strong grasp of the Doctrine beyond the rest. The resignations had in a sense unified the missions, and in this he saw an indication of Providence.
     Rev. H. L. Odhner corroborated these remarks about the Zulus. We cannot expect any future for the missions if we withdraw all aid and supervision. He also had regarded the simpler and more autonomous organization of the Conference Mission as better suited to the native state. If we were ever faced with such an alternative, he would rather have our missions under the supervision of the Conference, which is not bound to any special interpretation of the Writings, than under the Dutch position, which limits all progress under special theses.
     But the urgent fact is, that we-like every other church-need to undertake just such a work of charity as this,-a work devoid of any thought of profit for our own uses or of increase for the church within our own race; a work which constitutes not so directly a duty of charity as a spiritual " benefaction done out of free will (T. C. R. 425). The orphanage fund has in the past evoked such affectionate giving with our people. The speaker therefore believed that a special mission fund should be established, from the free will offerings of those who are moved to support this use for its own sake. The aid that we give these missions should be indicated by the free response of the church after it has been made fully aware of the needs.
     Mr. Philip C. Pendleton had no question in his own mind but that we should continue the stipends. It was our duty to acknowledge our responsibility, even if the full amount could not be raised.
     Rev. E. E. Iungerich called attention to the efforts of early New Churchmen to evangelize among the Africans. Augustus Nordenskjold died in one abortive attempt in 1792. Ethiopia may soon be opened up, and become receptive of the Doctrine, in fulfilment of indications in the Writings (D. 4777; J. post. 124).

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British protection would provide a state of freedom. The unusual religious interest among natives of South Africa was instanced.
     Rev. Norbert H. Rogers felt that we had a definite obligation, and that while the Executive Committee needs to deliberate before action is taken, yet a decision must be reached without waste of time. A state of uncertainty would be hard for the missions to bear.
     Rev. N. H. Reuter urged that the love of heaven is to think not of any profit to ourselves or our own. We must not turn inwards only. The Church should be presented with these facts. The support of the mission is not a debt of charity-like taxes-but is a benefaction; and such giving is an ultimate of the kingdom of heaven. A mission fund would become a test of how far we can help. He was confident that the use will be supported freely.
     Mr. Edw. C. Bostock had been associated with the work, both as Mr. Pit- cairn s agent and as a member of the General Church Committee for the South African Mission. We could now recognize that the support had run ahead of the state; and a judgment had therefore been inevitable. The situation now has its bright aspects: We have been granted the use of the Zululand property for one year, and the funds have been nursed to take care of the immediate future.
     To pass over the missions to another church-body was out of the question. We have a definite obligation. The extent of our aid must depend upon the willingness of the General Church to provide the means. We should act quickly on our intentions, and make an appeal to the Church. The task of collecting a sufficient amount did not appear to him as monumental. Let us formulate our appeal, and see what happens. The Rev. K. R. Alden reiterated this suggestion.
     Bishop Acton inquired as to the methods of Conference in caring for its missions, especially in reference to a self-supporting movement on the West Coast of Africa. Other speakers felt the need of a committee to study the organization of these missions.
     Bishop de Charms declared that he had been anxious as to what steps should be taken. On the one hand, there is a need for further study with a view to a permanent solution. On the other hand, the Church should be informed as to the situation, and be asked what it can and will do.

     18. On motion, it was unanimously resolved, That it is the sense of this meeting that the General Church should be fully informed regarding the situation of the Mission, in order to determine what support the Church would be willing to give for this use.
     19.     The Secretary gave some information as to a correspondence which he had carried on with a minister of a colored church in the South. This minister had been reading Swedenborg for nearly twenty years, and believed that he might do useful work if associated with the General Church.

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     20.     On motion, it was unanimously resolved that the Secretary send a message of sympathy and encouragement to the General Church societies in England.
     21.     At 12.45 p.m., the meeting adjourned.
          Respectfully submitted,
               HUGO LJ ODHNER,
                    Secretary.
EDUCATIONAL COUNCIL 1941

EDUCATIONAL COUNCIL              1941

     Three afternoon meetings of this Council were held according to program. A report of the proceedings, and the text of Bishop de Charms' Address at the opening session, will be published in the July issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE.-EDITOR.
ANNUAL REPORTS 1941

ANNUAL REPORTS       Various       1941

     SECRETARY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH.

     During the calendar year of 1940, fifty-one names were entered on the roll of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and the net membership at the close of the year stood at 2240 persons.
     Membership, Jan. 1, 1940     2239
     U. S. A     1279
     Abroad          960
     New Members (certificates 3198-3248)     51
      U.S.A     30
      Abroad     21
     Deaths reported in 1940          38
      U.S.A     24
      Abroad     14
     Resignations in 1940          12
      U.S.A     3
      Abroad     9
Losses                                        50
Net gain                                                       1
Total membership, Jan. 1, 1941                          2240
Of these members, 1282 live in the United States, and 958 abroad.

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     NEW MEMBERS.

     January 1 to December 31, 1940.

A. THE UNITED STATES.

West Palm Beach, Florida.

Mr. Jordan Johnson.

Atlanta, Georgia.

Miss Sara Mae Crockett.

Glenview, Ill.

Mr. Edmund Gilbert Smith.
Miss Helena Marie Junge
Miss Renhe Smith.

Detroit, Mich.

Mr. Leo Robert Bradin.

Barberton, Ohio.

Mrs. Chester J. (Jeanette Elforda Smith) Stroemple.

Cleveland, Ohio.

Mr. Elford Shaw Smith.
Mrs. Elford S. (nee May Bradstock) Smith.

Philadelphia, Pa.

Mr. Michael von Moschzisker.

Pittsburgh, Pa.

Miss Virginia Blair.
Mr. Quentin Faulkner Ebert.
Miss Meta Christine Grote.
Mr. Daniel Lee Horigan.
Mrs. Elmer (Hazel Rosalie Willke) Horigan.
Miss Jean Elizabeth Horigan.


B. CANADA.

Dawson Creek, B. C.

Miss Leona Jean Miller.

Craigie Lee, Ont.

Mr. John Everett Raymond.

Kitchener, Ont.

Miss Joan Nanette Kuhl.

Urbana, Ohio.

Mrs. Robert G. (Harryet Boal Barnitz) Smith.

Bryn Athyn, Pa.

Miss Yvonne Bostock.
Mr. Charles de Charms.
Miss Beatrix Cooper.
Mr. Donald Dandridge Cronlund.
Miss Irene Victoria Evens.
Miss Bethel Pitcairn.
Mr. Michael Pitcairn.
Miss Sarah Jane Rott.
Miss Carolyn Simons.

Bustleton, Pa.

Mrs. Warren H. (Florence May Henshall) Spooner.

Hatboro, Pa.

Mrs. Elinor Matilda (Johnson) Numbers

Kirklyn, Pa.

Mr. Herman Farland Gloster.
Mrs. H. F. (Ruth Penney) Gloster.

New Toronto, Ont.

Mr. Arthur Alan Fountain.
Miss Grace Gertrude Longstaff.

Toronto, Ont.

Miss Norma Audrey Carter.
Mr. David Kendall Richardson.
Mr. Bruce Herbert Scott.

Timnins, Ont.

Miss Frances Beatrice Raymond.
Mr. Hubert Frank Raymond.

Laird, Sask.

Mrs. Wilfred B. (Linda Epp) Kllppenstein.

C.     BRAZIL.

Rio de Janeiro.

Sra. Joao (Rosa Penaforte) de Mendonca Lima.

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D.     ENGLAND.

Colchester, Essex.

Mr. Eric David Appleton.
Miss Freda Margery Appleton.

Hertford.

Miss Martha Mardell.

E. SWEDEN.

Stockholm.

Miss Gertie Anna-Greta Lunden.
Miss Anna Alida Mansson-Magnusson.

Appelviken.

Mr. Gunnar Baeckstrom.
Mrs. Tore E. (Anna-Lisa Ottilia Wessblad) Loven.

Alsten.

Mr. Per Gustaf Valentin Hultgren.

F. AUSTRALIA.

Hurstville, N. S. W.
Mr. Thomas Douglas Taylor.


     DEATHS.

     Reported in 1940.

Barbosa, Sr. Trajano de C., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Bastos, Sr. Francisco J. T., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Bellinger, Mrs. Theodore (Lizzie Doering), Bustleton, Pa., April 28, 1940.
Boatman, Mr. Arthur E., Kyger, Ill.
Carswell, Mr. Harold Thorpe, Philadelphia, Pa., Jan. 1, 1940.
Cooper, Mrs. Fred R. (Laura Procter), Colchester, England, Aug. 11, 1940.
Cowley, Dr. William, Gaylordsville, Conn., Dec. 20, 1939.
Cranch, Mrs. Walter A. (Vernalou Cleare), Norristown, Pa., May 8, 1940.
David, Mrs. J. S. (Luella M. Thompson), Bryn Athyn, Pa., April 5,1940.
De Deus, Sr. Carlos D., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
De Geer, Miss Henriette, Stockholm, Sweden, March 20, 1940.
Fritz, Mr. Joachim, Apopka, Fla., Oct. 7, 1940.
Fritz, Mr. Samuel W., Huntingdon Valley, Pa., June 6, 1940.
Hachborn, Miss Ann, Philadelphia, Pa., Oct. 29, 1940.
Harris, Rev. Thomas Stark, Westfield, N. J., Feb. 19, 1940.
Howard, Mr. Conrad Arthur, St. Albans, England, Jan. 7, 1940.
Hutchinson, Mr. Richard Sprigg Canby, Knoxville (?), May 10, 1940.
Jasmer, Mrs. Henry J. (Lillian V. Lind), Chicago, Ill., Jan. 9, 1940.
Lindsay, Mrs. Samuel S. (Helen Rush Pitcairn), Pittsburgh, Pa., Jan. 24, 1940.
Machado, Sr. Cello, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Marelius, Mrs. John W. (Emma J. Blid), Chicago, Ill., Jan. 12, 1940.
Martz, Mrs. George O. (Madeline Cumming Schwindt), Fox Chase, Pa., Sept. 21, 1940.
Nunes, Sr. Francisco, Jr., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Peterson, Mr. William T., South Haven, Mich., Dec. 25, 1935.
Peterson, Mrs. W. T. (Ida Gustafva Peterson), South Haven, Mich., Nov. 18, 1939.
Ratisbona, Snra. Olympia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Reedy, Mrs. Ida E., San Diego, Cal., March 2, 1940.
Renkenberger, Mr. Harry Elmer, Chicago, Ill., Oct. 21, 1940.

269



Ross, Mr. Edmund A., Georgetown, British Guiana, Oct. 26, 1940.
Sarmanho, Sr. Renato, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Schill, Miss Minna, Jamison, Pa., March 26, 1940.
Schmidt, Mrs. Emil (Almira Hunter), Homestead, Pa., Oct. 5, 1940.
Scott, Mr. George, Kitchener, Ont., Nov. 3, 1940.
Sherzinger, Mrs. Frances Genevieve (Geiger), Philadelphia, Pa., Aug. 2, 1940.
Stenhouse, Mr. James Matthew, Durban, Natal, May 24, 1940.
Strowger, Mr. Arthur R., Toronto, Ont., Apr. 5, 1940.
Taylor, Mr. William H., Washington, D. C., Nov. 4, 1940.
Velloso, Sr. Oscar G., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

     RESIGNATIONS.

Findlay, Miss Betty Mary Lavender, Durban, Natal.
Odhner, Rev. Philip N., Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Odhner, Mrs. Philip N., Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Pendleton, Mr. Shawn R., New York, N. Y.
Royston, Mr. Cecil W., Durban, Natal.
Royston, Mrs. Cecil W., Durban, Natal.
Ridgway, Mr. Rex D., Durban, Natal.
Ridgway, Mr. M. W. Ivan, Durban, Natal.
Ridgway, Mr. Percy D., Durban, Natal.
Ridgway, Mrs. Percy D., Durban, Natal.
Waters, Mr. Edward James, Ladybrand, Orange Free State.
Waters, Mrs. E. J., Ladybrand, Orange Free State.
Title Unspecified 1941

Title Unspecified              1941

     The accompanying tabulation indicates the membership and activities of Societies and Circles. (Page 270.)
     Social suppers or luncheons were held weekly during the season in Bryn Athyn, Glenview, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and Stockholm, fortnightly in Kitchener and Chicago, monthly in Jonkoping, quarterly in Washington, D. C., and in Hurstville, and occasionally in various circles.
     Day Schools are conducted in Bryn Athyn (11 teachers, 165 pupils) Glenview (5 teachers, 72 pupils) Pittsburgh (2 teachers, 21 pupils) Kitchener (2 teachers, 32 pupils) Toronto (2 teachers, 14 pupils) Colchester (1 regular teacher, 11 pupils) and Durban (4 teachers, 14 pupils). These schools cover the work of all or part of the elementary grades, Glenview including also the ninth grade.
Title Unspecified 1941

Title Unspecified              1941

     The SOUTH AFRICAN Mission of the General Church reports that the following societies have severed their connection with the General Church:-In Natal: Lusitania, Chaka's Kraal, and Tongaat; in Basutoland: Mafika, Lukas, Khopane, Qopo, and Sequnyane; and in Orange Free State, Alpha.
     The native Ministers from the twelve remaining societies-one in Cape Province, six in Natal, two in the Transvaal, and three in Zululand-report a total of 419 baptized adult members and 92 unbaptized adherents, 70 young people, and 202 children under 14 years of age.

270




     SOCIETIES and Circles


United States          MEMBERS     Young     Children     Social Suppers
                    Soc. Cong.     People
Bryn Athyn Church     397 154     124     264          W
Immanuel Church          148 40     25     50          W
Pittsburgh Church     103 2     14     44          W
Sharon Church          50 9          1     7          2W
Washington Soc.          13 11     -     13          Q
New York Circle          24 13     2     4          -
Wyoming Circle          9 -          2     11          Q
Detroit Circle          29 4          5     11          -
N. Ohio Circle          31 10     2     15          -
Erie Circle                11 11     3     8          -

Canada

Carmel Church          100 33     29     72          2W
Olivet Church          121 11     13     47          W

South America

Rio de Janeiro          No Report
Tabor Mission          4 25          2     10          -

Europe

Michael Church          (64)* (53)*     (9)*     (19)*          2W**
Colchester Soc.          45 4          10     19          -
Nya Kyrkans For.          97 -          6     11          W
Jonkoping Soc.          19 4          1     8          M
Paris Society          15 2          -     8          -
The Hague Soc.           11 5          3     -          -

Africa

Durban Society          80 (est.)     12     30          -

Australia

Hurstville Soc.          26 2          5     3          2M

                    AVERAGE ATTENDANCES
United States          Morning     Eve.     Chil.     Holy     Doct.     Y. P
                    Service     Ser.     Ser.     Sup.     Class     Class     
Bryn Athyn Church     W293          M98     W182     Q170a W208     W30
Immanuel Church          W136          Y102     W65     Q106     W96     W7
Pittsburgh Church     W59          -     W19     Q53     W48     -
Sharon Church          W27          -     -     Q26     2W20     W25b
Washington Soc.          M19          Y11     -     Q12     M10     -
New York Circle          M18          -     -     Q13     -     -
Wyoming Circle          (14) 9     -     (14)9     Q10     (11)7     spec.
Detroit Circle          (7) 32     -     -     (3)20     (18)10     spec.     
N. Ohio Circle          (15)26e     -     -     (2)18e W8     spec.
Erie Circle               -          W4     -     Y3     (8)5     -

Canada

Carmel Church           W75          -     W36     Q50     W29     W25
Olivet Church          W70          Y92     -     Q63     W38     W9

South America

Rio de Janeiro           No Report
Tabor Mission          W9          -     W5     Q7     2W12     -

Europe

Michael Church          W          -     -     -     2W     -
Colchester Soc.          W42          2Q          Q28     W14e     2W6
Nya Kyrkans For.          W47          -     -     Q46     W17     spec.
Jonkoping Soc.          W12          W15          (2)12     W7
Paris Society          -          -     -     -     -     -
The Hague Soc.           -          -     -     -     -     -

Africa

Durban Society          W30          M25     W16     Q35     W21 -

Australia

Hurstville Soc.          W22          M16     (3)17     M17     W9     2W7

     Note:     Averages are sometimes estimated from data given. W, weekly; M, monthly; Q, quarterly; Y, yearly; 2W, every two weeks, etc. Otherwise number of occasions are noted in parentheses. London and Rio de Janeiro have not reported. Young People includes boys of 15-21 and young ladies of 15-18. Also monthly, 60 communicants. b Jointly with Glenview. C Does not include figures from Pittsburgh District Assembly held at Akron. ** Discontinued in September owing to bombings. Figures for last part of year. * Figures for London are from 1939 report.


271




     In one place in the Transvaal, and at "Kent Manor," Zululand, day-schools have been maintained at the wish of the natives, although the Mission is helping only slightly. In Durban, a night-school is maintained by Government grant. Sunday School activities were reported from four centers.
Respectfully submitted,
     HUGO LJ. ODHNER,
          Secretary.
COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY. 1941

COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY.              1941

     January 1, 1940, to January 1, 1941.

     The Council of the Clergy at present includes three priests of the episcopal degree, thirty-one of the pastoral degree, and five of the ministerial degree. There is also one licensed candidate for the ministry.
     During the calendar year, the Rev. T. S. Harris died (February 19) and the Rev. Philip N. Odhner resigned (May 28). Mr. Ormond de Charms Odhner and Mr. Martin Pryke were ordained into the first degree; the Rev. Morley D. Rich and the Rev. Norbert H. Rogers were ordained into the second degree; and the Rev. Henry Algernon into the first and second degrees.
     The following ten native ministers resigned from the South African Mission: The Revs. Twentyman Mofokeng, Aaron Mphatse, Jonas Mphatse, Nathaniel Mphatse, Sofonia Mosoang, George Nteso, John Jiyana, Julius Jiyana, Wilfred Mkize, and Benjamin Ngiba; leaving eleven native ministers still with the General Church-three pastors, eight ministers, and also one authorized leader. For the list of the Clergy of the General Church and of its Missions, see NEW CHURCH LIFE for December, 1940, pp. 591-595. The name of Jonas Motsi, a pastor, was inadvertently omitted in publishing the Mission list in
December, but was recorded in the April, 1941, issue, p. 190.
     The RITES AND SACRAMENTS of the Church have been administered as follows:
                                             South African
                         General Church          Mission
Baptisms                    96                    56
Confessions of Faith          30                    4
Betrothals                    8                    -
Marriages                    19                    6
Funeral Services               33                    4
Holy Supper                    153                    28
Ordinations                    5                    -
Dedications of Homes          2                    -
Dedications of Churches     2                    -

     These figures do not include the official acts of the two pastors in Brazil.

272


REPORTS OF THE MEMBERS OF THE CLERGY. 1941

REPORTS OF THE MEMBERS OF THE CLERGY.              1941

     The Rt. Rev. George de Charms, Bishop of the General Church, reports as follows:
     "I presided at the Annual Meetings of the Council of the Clergy, held in Bryn Athyn, April 9-13; also at the Philadelphia District Assembly on May 4-5. On June 6th I made an episcopal visit to Philadelphia, attending a joint banquet of the two groups there; and on June 8-9 I visited the North Jersey group, preaching and administering the Holy Supper in Newark.
     "At the 19th of June service in Bryn Athyn, Mr. Ormond de Charms Odhner and Mr. Martin Pryke were ordained into the first degree of the priesthood.
     "I presided at the Seventeenth General Assembly, held at Fox Chapel, Penna., on June 26-30, where, on June 30th, I administered the Sacrament of the Holy Supper.
     On July 26th I sailed from New York for South America, to visit the Society in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the Tahor Mission in Georgetown, British Guiana. In Rio de Janeiro I spent two weeks, meeting the members of the Society, especially those belonging to the families of the Rev. Henry Leonardos and the Rev. Joao de Mendonca Lima. I took part in the last service to be held at their former place of worship on August 11th, and on August 18th I officiated at the Dedication of the first church building in South America to be erected for the worship of the Lord in His Second Coming. Although the building was not completed, services have been conducted in it regularly ever since that date. At the Dedication Service, the Rev. Joao de Mendonca Lima read a Portuguese translation of one of my sermons; the Rev. Henry Leonardos conducted the service; and I administered the Holy Supper, the two Pastors assisting. On August 15th I gave an address on "The Tabernacle of Israel" at the home of General Lima.
     "In Georgetown, I addressed the Mission on Aug. 30th, at a meeting over which the Rev. Henry Algernon presided. The following evening I gave a lecture on "The Tabernacle," and on Sunday, September 1st, I conducted three services, with Mr. Algernon assisting. At the morning service I preached, and ordained Mr. Algernon into the first and second degrees of the priesthood. In the afternoon I addressed the Sunday School at a Children's Service, and later administered the Sacrament, assisted by Mr. Algernon, at an adult service. In the evening I preached to the Convention New Church Mission at a service conducted by the Rev. Walter E. Fraser.
     "Passing through Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana, on my return journey, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. A. C. Cerpentier, the leader of the Convention Mission there. I also met the members of his family, and the Secretary of the Mission, but was able to converse with them only through an interpreter, though Mr. Cerpentier himself spoke English.
     On October 5-6 I presided at the Pittsburgh District Assembly, held in Akron, Ohio; and on October 12-14 at the Ontario District Assembly, held in Kitchener, Canada. At both Assemblies I preached and administered the Sacrament; and on October 14th I ordained the Rev. Norbert H. Rogers into the second degree of the Priesthood. Following the Ontario Assembly I visited the Toronto Society on October 15th.

273



     I made episcopal visits to New York on September 29th and November 3rd, conducting a service, preaching, and on each occasion presiding at a meeting held for the purpose of effecting a reorganization of the Society.
     In response to a request by the Northern New Jersey group, I formally recognized that group as a Circle of the General Church on November 18th.
     "As a result of extended negotiations, my suggestion that the Rev. Bjorn Boyesen be appointed to minister jointly to the New York Society and the North Jersey Circle was accepted by both bodies, and he entered upon his new duties shortly after the first of the year.
     "In December, the Rev. Victor J. Gladish was appointed Pastor of the Wyoming (Ohio) Circle, and Visiting Pastor to the Southern States.
     "The Rev. Philip N. Odhner, on May 28th, resigned his membership in the General Church. His resignation caused a vacancy in the pastorate of the Society in Durban, Natal. At my request, and with the consent of the Society, the Rev. F. W. Elphick agreed to serve as Acting Pastor until a successor could be chosen. War conditions have made such a choice impossible for the present, and this Society has voted to take no action for a year.
     During the year the following South African Mission Leaders have resigned from the General Church, together with their Mission Societies: Revs. Twentyman Mofokeng, Aaron Mphatse, Jonas Mphatse, Nathaniel Mphatse, Sofonia Mosoang, George Nteso, John Jiyana, Julius Jiyana, Wilfred Mkize, and Benjamin Ngiha. In consultation with the South African Mission Committee, and with the General Superintendent, Rev. F. W. Elphick, efforts are being made to reorganize the Mission on a basis within the financial means of the General Church.
     "As President of the Academy, I presided during the year at the meetings of the Board of Directors and of the Faculties of the Academy. I taught two periods a week in the Theological School during the Spring term, and two periods a week in the College throughout the school-year.
     "As Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church, I preached in Bryn Athyn 5 times, and addressed the Children's Services 11 times during the year. I conducted 4 doctrinal classes during March and April. To the ministers who have given valued pastoral assistance from time to time, both in preaching and conducting classes, I would express grateful appreciation."

     The Rt. Rev. Alfred Acton, as the representative of the Bishop, presided over the Chicago District Assembly at Glenview, Ill., in October. In connection with this work, he also addressed one meeting of Sharon Church, two meetings of the Rockford Circle, and four or five meetings in Cincinnati. On the Sunday of the District Assembly, he ordained the Rev. Morley D. Rich into the second degree of the priesthood, and, on behalf of Bishop de Charms, recognized him as a priest of the pastoral degree within the General Church.
     As Visiting Pastor of the Washington (D. C.) Society, he reports having dedicated a home in Hyattsville, Md. Bishop Acton also preached twice and administered the Communion once, in Bryn Athyn, and was engaged in his work as Dean of the Theological School of the Academy.

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Title Unspecified 1941

Title Unspecified              1941

     Rev. A. Wynne Acton, Pastor of the Michael Church, London, England, reports that the activities of the Society were much curtailed as a result of the war and the bombing of London. In the early part of the year, luncheons were held at the church every two weeks, followed by a class or paper. Since last September, it has not been possible to hold any meetings at the church beyond Sunday morning worship. In some cases, additional services and classes are held at private homes. Despite the heavy raids, and the fact that one-third of the congregation has moved out of London, a good spirit has prevailed among the members. To meet the needs of evacuated people, it was decided that the "News Letter," which he edits, be published twice a month, and include a sermon in each issue. It became possible for him to take several trips to the isolated in various parts of the country. He administered the Communion at Colchester twice.
     Since June he has acted as chairman of the British Finance Committee of the General Church. He has continued as a member of the Council of the Swedenborg Society, and has served as Secretary of its advisory and revision board, and as a member of its Library Committee.

     Rev. Elmo C. Acton, as an Assistant Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church, preached 13 times and assisted in 10 adult services. He conducted 6 general doctrinal classes, gave a weekly Young People's Class, and has been in charge of the Children's Services, which he addressed 13 times. He presided at the meetings of the Ushers and of the Boys' Club Committee. He taught Religion to three and Hebrew to two grades in the Elementary School, and conducted two private classes which met fortnightly.
     In Northern New Jersey, he preached at 11 services, and held 10 classes. In Philadelphia, he held a weekly doctrinal class for an average attendance of ten.

     Rev. Karl R. Alden served as Principal of the Boys' Academy at Bryn Athyn. Besides teaching work, he gave two children's addresses, and conducted 23 classes on the True Christian Religion and Heaven and Hell for a group which started as a "missionary group" two and a half years ago. Of this group, which averages about 35 persons weekly, only six are not baptized, and three of these are newcomers.
     For seven weeks during the summer vacation, he travelled with Mr. O. W. Heilman through the Canadian North West, ministering to isolated receivers there. (See N. C. LIFE, October, 1940.) Mr. Alden, among other official acts, reports 13 baptisms and 15 administrations of the Communion.

     Rev. Gustaf Baeckstrom, Pastor of the Nya Kyrkans Forsamling, Stockholm, Sweden, reports a young people's reading class in the infinite and the Divine Love and Wisdom in English, and a discussion class, also with the young people. He took a trip to Oslo in March, 1940, where he preached, conducted a doctrinal class and the Communion, and a public lecture attended by 130 persons.

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He preached and performed a wedding ceremony in Copenhagen, administering the Communion there and in several places in Sweden.

     Rev. W. B. Caldwell, Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE and Professor of Theology in the Academy, assisted five times with the Holy Supper and preached once in Bryn Athyn.

     Rev. E. R. Cronlund, although in secular work, preached three times in Bryn Athyn, performed one baptism at Norton, Va., and conducted a funeral in Philadelphia.

     Rev. L. W. T. David, engaged as a Secretary in the Academy, also taught classes in Hebrew and Greek in the College and Theological School, and during the Fall a College class in general doctrine. He also preached 4 times at New York, and conducted a service and doctrinal class in North Jersey.

     Rev. C. E. Doering, Dean of Faculties and Professor of Mathematics in the Academy, conducted opening worship for the Academy Schools, taught courses in Religion, Education and Mathematics in the several departments. Dr. Doering also preached once in Pittsburgh, and assisted 4 times in the administration of the Holy Supper at Bryn Athyn.

     Rev. F. W. Elphick is serving as Acting Pastor of the Durban Society since March 13, and assisted Miss Champion as head of the Kainon School, teaching Religion, History, and Literature. Due to war conditions and a disturbed state, attendances at services and classes have been low.
     As Superintendent of the General Church Mission, he visited Basutoland, Alpha, O. F. S., Kent Manor, Zululand, and local societies in Natal. Rev. Moffat Mcanyana visited Greylingstad and Alexandra Township in the Transvaal. The work has been altered as a result of the resignation of eleven native ministers, as noted in N. C. LIFE, 1940, pp. 595-600. He is in close contact by means of correspondence.

     Rev. Alan Gill, Pastor of the Carmel Church, Kitchener, Ont., in addition to his former duties, now holds weekly religion classes for 11 young people who graduated from the school last June.

     Rev. Victor J. Gladish, Pastor of the Colchester Society until July, 1940, reports that until the end of May, when, owing to government restrictions, he was obliged to leave Colchester, the meetings and activities of the church were almost up to the pre-war level. After returning to America, he had by invitation preached or conducted services on 20 occasions, and had given doctrinal classes and two addresses.

     Rev. W. L. Gladish, retired, met once or twice with the Rockford (Ill.) Circle, and during the summer arranged a number of public services at Linden Hills, Michigan.

     Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal, Pastor of the Olivet Church, Toronto, Ont., and headmaster of the local day-school, preached 48 times in Toronto, 5 times in Montreal, and once at Port Sidney, Ont. He gave 12 children's addresses during the usual services at Toronto, taught in the school from 9 to 12 am. on weekdays, and at Sunday School, 9.30-10.30 am., and Young People's Classes from 8 to 9 p.m. on 32 Sundays.

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During July and August, he held 7 evening classes for the reading of selections from past issues of N. C. LIFE. He made 233 pastoral calls during the year. He paid 5 visits to Montreal, to hold services and give instruction. He reports a healthier condition in the Olivet Society's finances, and a better attendance, despite the fact that five of the young men serve with the armed forces; also a more brotherly spirit, perhaps owing to the anxieties of the war.

     Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Pastor of the Hurstville Society, N. S. W., Australia, reports no details of his work.

     Rev. E. E. Iungerich, until July 6, 1940, was Pastor of the Societies in The Hague, Holland, and Paris, France, and, after his return to America, Instructor in the schools of the Academy. Owing to the war, his monthly visits to Paris from The Hague were impossible. His outstanding effort at The Hague was the giving of four public lectures. The fifth had to be abandoned, being set for May lath-the day of the invasion. Thereafter only one service was held, but doctrinal classes and pastoral visits were frequent. After his resignation, the leadership devolved upon the vice-president of the Society, Mr. Emanuel Francis. It was planned that the members would meet in various homes once a month. The last issue of DE NIEUWE BEDEELING was the May number. After an adventurous journey of 49 days, Dr. Iungerich and his family reached New York on September 6th, via Berlin, Switzerland and Portugal.

     Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner, as an Assistant Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church, preached 15 times and took part in 18 other regular services. He gave 3 children's addresses and two funeral discourses, conducted 9 doctrinal classes (one in Philadelphia), and gave four other addresses.
     In the Academy Schools, he carried five courses, in Theology, Philosophy, and Religion. He also acts as the Secretary of the General Church.

     Rev. Willard D. Pendleton, besides his work as Pastor of the Pittsburgh Society, served as the chairman of the Committee in charge of the 17th General Assembly, and has visited and preached in other centers of the Church.

     Rev. Norman H. Reuter was engaged as Pastor of the Wyoming Circle until July 1st, then as Pastor of the North Ohio group. During the entire year he served as Visiting Pastor to parts of the Middle West and the South. He conducted 47 Sunday Services, and gave 97 doctrinal classes, 17 children's addresses, 31 Young People's classes, and 105 children's classes. The attendances varied from 1 to 42, and he travelled about 10,000 miles to minister to the various Circles and families.

     Rev. Morley D. Rich, Minister and later Pastor of Sharon Church in Chicago and the Rockford (Ill.) Circle, reports that the custom of holding occasional society dinners had been instituted with considerable success and enjoyment.

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     Rev. Norbert H. Rogers served as Assistant to the Pastor of Carmel Church, Kitchener, Ont. He preached 24 times, gave 22 doctrinal classes, and conducted 19 children's services. He had general charge of the young people's activities, and gave weekly instruction to the senior group. The two groups are united in their social life. His connection with the school was limited to teaching physical training to the boys.

     Rev. Eric Sandstrom reports that the Jonkoping Society, of which he is the Pastor, moved in the Fall to a church-hall in the Pastor's residence in Kortebo, and that a slight increase in attendance has followed. Kortebo is two miles out of Jonkoping. The place of worship was dedicated by the Pastor on behalf of the Bishop.
     During 1940, Mr. Sandstrom had been almost completely spared any military service. He completed the translation of De Charitate into Swedish, following a manuscript version by the late Mr. Teodor Holm; and this work now appears in bookform in Swedish for the first time. He paid two pastoral visits to an isolated family in Siiderkiiping, and 11 strangers were present for an infant baptism; there, also, a doctrinal class was held. He also visited Stockholm, where he gave a doctrinal class and addressed the young people.
     
     Rev. Gilbert H. Smith, Pastor of the Immanuel Church, Glenview, Ill., and headmaster of its day-school, reports 11 baptisms among other official acts.

     Rev. Homer Synnestvedt was engaged as Professor in the Academy of the New Church, and as Acting Pastor in Philadelphia and Baltimore.

     Rev. F. E. Waelchli preached four times in Bryn Athyn, three times in Saginaw, Mich., and once at Wyoming, Ohio.
     
     Rev. William Whitehead conducted services in New York three times. In Bryn Athyn he preached once, gave addresses before the Women's Guild, the Civic and Social Club, and the Ushers' Organization, and conducted 4 classes for young ladies. In June he gave addresses before the General Church Teachers' Meeting and Theta Alpha. He served as an active member of the Adult Education Committee.
     Besides his work as Professor of History and Political Science, and Head of the History Department in the Academy, Dr. Whitehead's " extra-curricular activities included the delivery of the Charter Day Address and the giving of two addresses before the Faculty and two before the student body.
Title Unspecified 1941

Title Unspecified              1941

     Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen, besides conducting several doctrinal classes in the Ohio district, and one each in Pittsburgh and Toronto, and also a number of children's services in Wyoming, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, preached 21 times in Pittsburgh, 4 times in Wyoming, and once each in Akron. Toronto, and Newark. He also assisted in some teaching in the Pittsburgh School.

     Rev. Raymond G. Cranch, who is in secular work, gave an address before the Ontario District Assembly.

     Rev. Ormond de C. Odhner, while completing his course in the Theological School, taught Religion in the Boys' Academy, and served as Assistant to the House Master of Stuart Hall.

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After being granted his degree of B.Th., he was, on June 19th, ordained into the first degree of the priesthood. He was appointed assistant to the Visiting Pastor, the Rev. Norman Reuter; and in September he took up the work of minister to the Wyoming Circle in Ohio. He preached 24 times during the year, held 17 classes, conducted 20 children's services, and gave religious instruction to the children of New Church families in Wyoming, Detroit, and Windsor. Apart from Wyoming, he preached at least once in Bryn Athyn, Newark, Washington, Detroit, Saginaw, Youngstown, and Urbana.

     Rev. Martin Pryke, having received the degree of B.Th. from the Academy, was ordained on June 19th into the first degree of the priesthood. Since July 13th, he has been Minister to the Colchester Society, England, by episcopal appointment. As an authorized candidate, he conducted services at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and at Washington, D. C., preached at Bryn Athyn and in Philadelphia, conducted a children's service at Bryn Athyn, and held classes at Brunswick, Ga., and Washington, D. C.
     He reports that, considering the war, the work in Colchester has progressed remarkably well, and the support of the Society in all undertakings has been most encouraging. The greatest concern is for the small day-school, which suffers from a scarcity of New Church children, owing to the evacuations.

     Candidate Harold Cranch, a senior student in the Theological School, preached 7 times in Glenview, twice in Bryn Athyn, and once in Newark. He gave one doctrinal class in Glenview, and one address. In the Academy, he taught a course of Religion in the Boys' Academy, and a special class in Commercial Art.
Title Unspecified 1941

Title Unspecified       HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1941

     Statistical reports have also been received from the Rev. Henry Algernon, Pastor of the Tabor Mission, Georgetown, British Guiana; and from a number of ministers and pastors of the South African Mission.
     Respectfully submitted,
          HUGO LJ. ODHNER,
               Acting Secretary.
CORPORATION OF THE GENERAL CHURCH. 1941

CORPORATION OF THE GENERAL CHURCH.       EDWARD H. DAVIS       1941

     REPORT TO THE JOINT COUNCIL.

     Since June 19, 1940-the date of my report to the Seventeenth General Assembly-seven new members have joined the Corporation. One member has died. The total membership is now 140.
     At the meeting of the Corporation held June 29, 1940, the present Executive Committee was re-elected, and at the organization meeting of the Executive Committee held June 29, 1940, the present officers were re-elected.
     EDWARD H. DAVIS,
          Secretary of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, Incorporated.

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Communication 1941

Communication       HAROLD F. PITCAIRN       1941

     IS THERE SPIRITUAL SUBSTANCE?

To the Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE:
     In a re-statement of his philosophy of the spiritual world at the last General Assembly, Bishop Acton devoted a considerable portion of his paper to a discussion of appearances in the spiritual world. I have the impression that his purpose, among other things, was to demonstrate that the spiritual world according to his philosophy is just as real as it is in the views that are held by other students of the Writings. Whether or not this was his purpose, it seems to me that reality depends upon the nature of which substance is composed, whether of the natural world or of the spiritual world, and not upon sense-impressions in either world. Therefore, the questions I am about to ask do not refer to appearances in the spiritual world, but to spiritual substance and its reality.
     It is with some temerity that I raise questions in regard to the philosophy of the spiritual world presented by Bishop Acton, as he is acknowledged by all of us to be an outstanding theologian who has a profound understanding of the Writings. However, I am sure that he will not object to my presenting problems which I believe his philosophy creates.
     If I understand correctly, Bishop Acton's position is that spirits and angels are nothing but the reception of the activity of the Divine by the limbus, and that there is no spiritual organic. Should we not conclude from this that spiritual substance is nothing but the activity of natural substance? But natural substance is the activity of spatial particles, and this is dead activity in the sense in which the Writings say that the natural sun is dead. If spiritual substance is also the activity of natural particles, although of finer natural particles, how can there be a really discrete degree between natural and spiritual substance? Indeed, if there is no spiritual organic, how can one escape the conclusion that there is no spiritual substance?

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If the fact that there is no spiritual apart from the natural leads to the conclusion that there is no spiritual organic, why can we not just as well conclude that, because there is no natural apart from the spiritual, there is no natural substance? Do not the Writings teach that reception of Divine activity is according to the nature of the receiving vessel? We can see that a spatial vessel receives the Divine on the natural plane, as the eye receives the Divine activity as natural light, but how can a spatial vessel receive the activity of the Divine on the non-spatial or spiritual plane? If the spiritual is the activity of the limbus which is natural, why is not the spiritual the result of the natural instead of being its cause?
     Is it not correct to say that the brain does not receive love and wisdom from the Lord, but that these are received by the mind, that is, by the will and understanding? While will and understanding and their resulting thoughts and affections are non-spatial, we frequently say that thoughts and affections are organized in a well-ordered mind. It may be held that thoughts and affections are organized by virtue of their resting upon the brain (or limbus) which is spatial and therefore material. But if this be so, would not the material determine the quality of the spiritual? But a stream cannot rise above its source, and is it not the understanding through the process of regeneration that modifies the structure of the brain, and not the reverse?
     Unless will and understanding are non-spatial spiritual organics, what is it in man that receives the Lord's activity on the spiritual plane? Unless man after death has a spiritual organic, how can he receive love and wisdom from the Lord? Unless will and understanding are spiritual organics, how can there be rationality and liberty? For these faculties cannot be attributes of a spatial receptacle, nor can they be identified with Divine Proceeding.
     Since the soul of man may be described as a conatus to a specific use, how can it be either Infinite or material? Unless the soul is a non-spatial, spiritual organic, how could it be capable of forming its body in the first place and, after birth, controlling the operations of the body?
     It would seem that Bishop Acton's philosophy is based, in part at least, upon the supposition that there are no ultimates in the spiritual world.

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I think all would agree that there are no material ultimates in that world; but unless certain spiritual substances are more ultimate than others, how are we to understand the following quotations from A. E. 420? "Upon the earth, nor upon the sea, nor upon any tree, signifies everywhere in the spiritual world, even to its ultimates, in those who have any perception. . . . It is evident also from the signification of the 'sea' as being the ultimates of the earth in the spiritual world." Would not an interpretation of the word "ultimate" here to mean the limbus be a straining of the normal usage of the term, since the limbus is defined as consisting of the finest things of nature? Since the spiritual is not a refinement of the natural, i.e., a continuous degree, but their relation is that of correspondences, i.e., a discrete degree, must we not conclude that the limbus is natural, and not spiritual?
     I have been confused by Bishop Acton's usage of "created finites" to refer only to that which is spatial. The Writings not only teach that the spiritual is not spatial, but they also make a distinction between spiritual substance and Divine Substance. Therefore, spiritual substance is not Infinite. This being so, how can there be spiritual substance unless the term "finite" may also refer to non-spatial substance?
     No matter how a philosophy may solve certain difficulties, it can hardly be accepted by those to whom it presents other and more difficult problems than the ones it solves. I have addressed this communication to NEW CHURCH LIFE because I think it may be useful to have a written statement of what some of these problems are.
     In closing, I wish to express what I believe is a feeling of gratification, at least on the part of all of us whose memory goes back far enough, that this subject is no longer a matter of controversy, but rather of discussion.
     HAROLD F. PITCAIRN.

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Church News 1941

Church News       Various       1941

     LONDON, ENGLAND.

     March 15, 1941.-Several months of Blitz have intervened since our last report, during which time anything in the nature of a social event was scarcely possible. A sort of concentrated pill of our usual British Assembly, held at Michael Church in August (a report of which was reprinted in the LIFE from the "News Letter"), proved our last event of the year. The Sunday services continued, however, and, in spite of the blackened and shattered buildings around, have been maintained without a break.
     A much pitted and scarred roof is all the damage so far sustained by our little building. Many Sunday mornings we have threaded our way through the remains of the previous night's "incidents," wondering whether we should find our building still standing-but, deeply thankful for that blessing, we still are able to gather there. Unhappily, the attendance has been very small-merely a handful of persons at times. Travelling conditions and war duties have prohibited some from attending, whilst a further evacuation of offices caused the much regretted loss of other members. In spite of these drawbacks, and the lack of music owing to the absence of our organists, the little congregation has met in the school-room downstairs. This lower room seemed more practicable for many reasons, the chief being the frequent siren. It was agreed universally that the continuity of the service was much broken when liturgies and books must be gathered up at its untimely wail and the service re-commenced downstairs.
     Our Pastor conducted beautiful and appropriate services for Christmas and New Year's, though in their new surroundings they perforce lacked much of their usual ritual.

     Swedenborg's Birthday.

     February, however, found us reviving one of last year's customs. Swedenborg's Birthday, held on Sunday, February 2, took the form of one of our now well-established luncheon meetings. The service was held upstairs, during which the Sacrament was administered to 25 persons. It was a joyful occasion to worship in the fulness of the sphere that music and added numbers gave. We felt we had indeed struggled through a Winter of sparsity to worship once again in a more hopeful Spring. Music especially added much to the enjoyment of the service. It must be confessed that our efforts in singing hymns and psalms without accompaniment have not been too successful.
     This time, our members did not bring their rations, but owing to the truly magnificent generosity of the Hurstville Society, they sat down to what really amounted to an Australian Lunch Party. Most of us managed to leave our bomb stories with our hats and coats in the cloakroom, though, as was inevitable, the war did creep in once or twice whilst we disposed of the very good things our friends abroad had provided. Truly we all felt particularly touched at the kindness and fellow-feeling manifested in this very practical way. Some of us, indeed, were rather tempted to add something more than our names to the note of thanks signed by the table in general.

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     After lunch, Mr. Acton read a paper on "Swedenborg in the House of Nobles,"-an interesting address which presented some rather less recognized aspects of Swedenborg's life in the political and social uses of his country. Time unfortunately permitted of no discussion, as the paper was followed by Bishop de Charms' Assembly Address "played" on the gramaphone. It was a remarkable and rather stirring event to hear a familiar voice of so many miles away;-but here again the lateness of the hour precluded any questions that might have been asked. Perhaps this was as well, since with the immediate breaking up of the meeting we left with the Address still fresh in our minds, undimmed by too much talk.
     Three weeks later, encouraged by the success of this venture, a second luncheon meeting was held. We were very glad to welcome back our organist, Mr. Victor Tilson. Scarlet fever and influenza, not to mention extra war-duties, had effectively kept him from our midst. Once more, undisturbed by sirens, the service, attended by 29, was held upstairs, a very beautiful sermon on Humility being given by the Pastor. Following the luncheon-again from the contents of the Australian Hamper-Dr. Acton's paper on "The Spiritual World and the Natural" was put on the gramaphone. Again the meeting had to break up without any discussion, though one or two briefly expressed the thanks and delight shared by all in listening to this profound study.
     Lighter days are with us; for the time being easier conditions prevail; and it is much hoped that these luncheon meetings can be continued throughout the Summer with at least a modicum of regularity. Owing to the loss of so many members for the duration of the war, we cannot anticipate any great increase in attendance during the coming period, nor do we know what difficulties lie ahead- many, no doubt! Yet it is felt that at least an attempt can be made to maintain something of the more social side.
     As an offset to those whom we have lost through war duties, we have had the very pleasant company of several young men in the Forces-some from abroad, one from England. Mr. Greenhalgh from Manchester was stationed in London so long that he became quite a familiar figure at our church. Mr. James from Kitchener, Mr. Starkey from the Peace River District in Canada, and F/O Sydney Parker from Toronto, have all been welcome visitors.
     During Mr. Acton's pastoral visits to the provinces, the Rev. W. H. Acton has very kindly and ably officiated in his absence. We have also had the pleasure of hearing the Rev. Martin Pryke preach on one occasion. The continued absence of Bishop and Mrs. Tilson is much regretted, though we are glad they have found a quiet haven in Harrogate. Since their old address, like that of Mr. Acton, has had nearby visits from the Luftwaffe, much as we would like to see the Bishop and his wife, we are glad they have not returned. And since this is a wartime report we may as well finish on a topical note. Mr. Acton has the dousing of two incendiary bombs to his credit! Though this can scarcely be listed as a social event!
     E. E.

     COLCHESTER, ENGLAND.

     March 31, 1941-Our Christmas celebrations proceeded without any war disturbances. The Tableaux which were presented on the Sunday before Christmas were all very beautiful. The six subjects were: "The Annunciation"; "The Shepherds and the Angel"; "The Shepherds and Mary"; "The Wise Men and the Star" "The Presentation to Simeon"; and "The Wise Men and Mary." Organ music and readings from the Word came between the scenes. Hymns and Anthems were sung by the congregation at the beginning and the end. This was all very impressive, and prepared us for Christmas Day, when an excellent service prepared by our minister brought a real heavenly sphere.

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We all appreciate the Rev. Martin Pryke and his services and other uses here; and we thank the Lord for His provision for the society. We are indeed blest.
     At our New Year Social we were able to welcome the Rev. and Mrs. Wynne Acton. The supper was followed by toasts to the Church, the Old Year, and the New Year, and a few impromptu ones, with responses to all. Mr. Owen Pryke was toastmaster. Games and dancing followed until near midnight, when a service was held, after which New Year greetings were exchanged and a year of new hope was commenced. For we know that the Lord governs everywhere, and will lead us all to real peace, if we will follow His teachings.
     The children had a party, too, and though the numbers were small they had a good time and each received a present.
     For our Swedenborg's Birthday celebration an excellent supper was served, followed by toasts and papers. Mr. John Cooper was toastmaster. A paper on Swedenborg by Mr. James Pryke was read by Mr. Owen Pryke. Another on "Why I am a New Churchman," by Mr. Donald Rose, was read by Mr. Colley Pryke. Our minister's address on Service, in response to the toast to "The Church," was very inspiring.
     A special toast to the Hurstville Society was honored, with thanks to all our Australian friends for their kind thoughts in sending us Christmas hampers, the contents of which are much appreciated.
     The annual meeting of the Colchester Society took place in February. Business was transacted quickly, and it was very gratifying to us to know that we are now a self-supporting society.
     Three more of our young men have registered for Military Service, but have not yet been called. One has also gone to a trade training center. We hope the time is not far distant when all will he back, and we can have another Assembly.
     E. B.

     CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

     In the several months which have passed since the last news report from Sharon Church, several things of interest have happened in its life. Most important of these has been the establishment of Sunday dinners, followed by talks from the Pastor. These occasions, held once a month on the first Sunday, have been useful and welcome to those members who, because of their work, are not able to attend classes during the week. In order to provide a continuity of thought, both the sermon in the morning and the talk after the dinner have pursued the same subject. In this manner, the subjects of "The World of Spirits," "Marriage," "The Holy Spirit," and The Establishment of the New Church," among others, have been discussed. In addition to the benefit which may thus be derived from the continuous consideration of one subject, these occasions have provided social contacts and conversation which seem superior to the Friday suppers and classes.
     One of the finest events occurred on the Sunday immediately following Thanksgiving. Following the regular morning service, everyone enjoyed a turkey dinner with all the fixings. Afterwards, the room was cleared, and a short service of praise and thanksgiving was held. The offering given was to be applied to the uses of the society.
     Last October, the removal from this life of Mr. Harry Renkenherger brought to us a sense of our earthly loss. One of the most loyal and useful members of this society, he has left behind him, not only many products of his carpentry work in the physical appurtenances of the church building, but also an affectionate memory of his courtesy and modesty, his charitable spirit in declaring that he "wasn't worried as much over whether the other fellow was doing right as he was over his own actions."
     Our membership has been somewhat depleted by deaths and removals. But, as a consequence, there has been on the part of all a more general awareness of the need of each one to the society.

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It may be said that the realization has grown that, in these times, all men are more in danger of yielding to a despair over the human race and of the establishment of the church. Hence the greater need of all for each one in the uses of society life.
     M. D. R.

     TORONTO, CANADA.

     The doctrine of the Lord's Divinity is the supreme doctrine of the New Church, and the celebration of His last act of Glorification was observed on Easter morning by a service of worship and the Holy Supper. A background of palms and lilies, with seven high candles on the inner chancel, symbolized our hopes for a happier and more peaceful world. We came away with the certainty in our hearts that the Lord's First and Second Comings were not in vain, and that evil cannot prevail in the world since the Lord fought and conquered the hells.
     On the afternoon of Easter Sunday, Mr. Gyllenhaal left for Bryn Athyn to attend the Annual Council Meetings, and on Wednesday evening after his return gave an interesting account of the proceedings. He described the highlights of intellectual and social activities during his visit, and in large measure conveyed to us the trends of thought occupying the minds of our ministers at the present time. We were particularly inspired by the appeal of Bishop de Charms in a closing message to cultivate a love for the neighbor, and particularly a love for New Church people as the neighbor.
     Our weekly suppers have been discontinued for this season, but the doctrinal classes will be maintained until the end of June. As a result of varying views presented at one of the meetings in Bryn Athyn, we are now taking up the subject of Spiritual Substance at Wednesday class. It is proposed by Mr. Gyllenhaal to consider this subject independently of the papers read there, by making a thorough study of passages in the Writings relative to the general theme, before reading and inquiring into individual interpretations of this doctrine. We hope that this program will not be seriously interrupted by the illness of our pastor resulting from a fall on the school stairway. A leg bruise has become infected, and will keep him in bed for a week or so.
     On Saturday evening, April 26, the ladies of the Olivet Society were invited by the Forward-Sons of the Academy to a dinner and an evening of unique entertainment. A delicious meal was followed by a moving picture film made at Hollywood, telling the story of the development of the preservation of food, from the time when Napoleon Bonaparte offered a reward for a safe method of preserving fresh foods for his armies, through the vicissitudes of veers of endeavor, to the present canning kitchens of the H. J. Heinz Company. A free soup coupon, together with various games of skill and information, sent us home in a happy spirit of mutual understanding and goodwill.
     The Ladies' Circle meets regularly on the first Monday of every month. A topic of doctrinal interest is usually presented by the pastor, followed by a business meeting. The officers for the coming year are: Mrs. Lenore Bellinger, president; Mrs. Mary Parker, vice-president; Mrs. Ethel Raymond, secretary; Mrs. Kay Fountain treasurer. One of the major activities originated by the ladies of the Circle since the war started is the work of the Red Cross Group, with Mrs. Lillian Rothermel as convener. From twelve to fifteen ladies meet in the church workroom every Thursday morning, afternoon and evening. Since the beginning of the year more than 450 articles of clothing have been made and sent out.
     In reflecting upon the sad events of the past few weeks, it is interesting to note that Greece was instrumental in preparing the world for the Doctrines of the New Church. Now she lies prostrate under the ruthless domination of an alien philosophy which is the antithesis of all that the Greeks have represented in their glorious cultural history.

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We believe that the darkness which has fallen upon them will again be lifted, perhaps soon, and that her ancient oracles will be revived, not in the realm of natural prophecy, but in the spirit of the revealed truths of the Second Coming of the Lord.
     C. S.     


     GLENVIEW, ILL.

     Until the first week in May we are usually struggling with the tag end of Winter. But not so this year. Already we have had two solid weeks of Summer weather! Brown lawns are a rich green; cherry trees and apple trees look like huge balls of popcorn, their myriad blossoms giving promise of much fruit to come; and many of the birds have come back to us. Everything convinces us that Glenview is a fine place in which to live!
     The Glenview "Sons" made their annual "trek" to Sharon Church on Sunday evening, March 16-the (paying) guests of the Chicago Sons." The Rev. Willis L. Gladish presented a paper which led to an interesting discussion on the subject of "The Relation of the Priesthood and the Laity."
     Special services on Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday followed in short succession. The pomp of the entrance into Jerusalem; the sad, solemn sphere of the crucifixion; and finally the heartening realization that "He is risen!"-these historic happenings were presented to us once more in a manner to increase our thankfulness and regard for the priesthood of our Church.
     On Sunday, April 20, we had the rare experience of holding no Sunday service, our pastor having gone to Bryn Athyn to attend the Council Meetings. At the Sons' meeting in the evening the election of officers brought the following results: Edwin Burnham, President; Alan Fuller, Vice President; Leslie Holmes, Secretary; Neville Wright, Treasurer; Warren Reuter (retiring President), member at large on the Executive Committee. During the informal part of the meeting, Lieut. Raymond Kuhns gave us an interesting description of the branches of the U. S. Army.
     Society parties have helped to while away several Saturday evenings, and, among the surest signs of Spring, on May 4, a "work" party was announced by that intrepid band of men we call our " Park Commissioners." Result: much cleaning up around the Park and buildings!
     On Saturday, May 3, the ladies of Sharon Church invited our ladies to a luncheon in Chicago. Besides sitting down to a sumptuous repast, I understand there was enjoyed-shall we say?-a prolonged "exchange of ideas."
     Recent visitors have been: Mrs. N. D. Pendleton; Mrs. Richard Gladish; Mr. and Mrs. Robert Barnitz; Miss Eo Pendleton; Messrs. Ernest Burnham, Guy Alden, John Scalbom.
     HAROLD P. MCQUEEN.


     NEW YORK, N. Y.

     In February, the New York Society welcomed the arrival of the Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen as resident pastor, his time to be divided between the New York and New Jersey groups. Under his leadership we are now holding services in the Pine Room at the Hotel Capitol on the first and third Sunday of each month. Doctrinal classes are held at members' homes on the Tuesday evening of the intervening week. Thus we are meeting regularly at least three times a month, which is a considerable advance over our activities for the past few years.
     The children are also receiving regular instruction by the Pastor, so that for the first time in a long period we are benefiting by the continuous help and leadership which enables us to increase the activities of the Society.
     In March, the ordination of our Pastor into the second degree, witnessed in Bryn Athyn by several members of the Society, further promoted the uses of the Church with us.

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The Holy Supper was administered at our Easter Service.
     The response to this larger program has been encouraging. Services and classes have been consistently well attended, and there is a feeling of increased stability and continuity in our work together. We are now looking forward to participating in the coming Philadelphia District Assembly, and, as a Society, hope to make a contribution to those meetings.
     J. W.


     DEATH OF MR. KIP.

     The MESSENGER of April 23, 1941, records the passing of Abraham Lincoln Kip on April 5th at the age of seventy-six.
     During the past forty years Mr. Kip has been a contributor to New Church periodicals and the author of several books. Copies of these are available in the Academy Library, and among them may he mentioned his Animal and Plant Correspondences (1902) and Psychology of the Nations (1902). In the latter work he attempted to supply the spiritual representation or correspondence of the modern nations, and of the geographical divisions and physical features of the earth. In this undertaking he seems to have given free rein to his imagination, and though he set forth his conclusions with assurance and authority, they were often more ingenious than convincing. A student of New Church history should become acquainted with these books, as representing a tempting speculative field which more than one hold adventurer has entered.
     The MESSENGER states that Mr. Kip attended Theological School 1883-1886, but soon gave up the ministry on account of his health. During the past three years he has conducted a Sunday morning Bible class at the Sheridan Road Church, Chicago.


     THE ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH.

     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, Bryn Athyn, Pa., on Friday, June 13, 1941, at 3.30 p.m. The public is cordially invited to attend. After opportunity has been given for the presentation and discussion of a summary of the Annual Reports of the Officers of the Academy, an Address will he delivered by Mr. Daric E. Acton, representing the Sons of the Academy.
     EDWARD F. ALLEN,
          Secretary.

     Commencement.

     The Academy Commencement Exercises will he held on Friday, June 13, at 10.30 a.m., and the President's Reception in the evening at 8.00 o'clock.

     Sons of the Academy.

     The Annual Meetings of the Sons of the Academy will be held at Bryn Athyn, Pa., on Saturday, June 14, 1941, with morning and afternoon sessions. Banquet in the evening-Mr. Richard R. Gladish toastmaster.

     To Members and Friends
     IN MILITARY SERVICE.

     In order that we may keep in touch with the members of the Church who are in military service, we would ask that the Bishop's Office be notified of the unit in which any member is serving and the post office address. We shall then be able to furnish information of any church activities in the vicinity, and of any opportunity to come into contact with ministers or other members of the Church.
     GEORGE DE CHARMS,
          Bishop.

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AIMS OF THE EDUCATIONAL COUNCIL 1941

AIMS OF THE EDUCATIONAL COUNCIL        GEORGE DE CHARMS       1941




     Announcements





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NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. LXI
JULY, 1941
No. 7
     (Delivered at the First Meeting of the Educational Council, held at Bryn Athyn, Pa., April 15, 1941.)

     The need for some instrumentality whereby to coordinate the various units of our educational system has been recognized from the first establishment of the General Church. The schools of the Academy, situated on the same campus, sharing the same facilities, and organized under the same general management, possess within themselves all the requisites for such coordination. But the Local Schools, scattered in various parts of the world, are not so happily circumstanced. Individually small, employing only a few teachers, for whom there are but rare opportunities for contact or collaboration with their fellow workers elsewhere, these schools are required to meet and solve their educational problems almost entirely alone.
     The courage with which young teachers have faced this difficult task, and the devotion and ability they have shown in successfully carrying the heavy load of responsibility placed upon them, deserve our admiration. Everything possible should be done to give them, not only encouragement, and the strength of spirit that comes from a sense of unity with all who are engaged in the same profession, but also counsel and practical assistance. Unless adequate provision be made for this, we can hardly hope to maintain the necessary integration between these schools and those of the Academy. To do this, there must be media for an exchange of ideas, and a sharing of the lessons of experience, so that currents of thought may go out from the center to the farthest circumferences, and return again to the center, in perpetual circulation. Not otherwise can our education be developed as a harmonious whole. For the growth of the mind is a continuous process.

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Whatever we may seek to accomplish in the later stages of that process will depend upon a full understanding of the foundation for it that has already been laid. And yet it is our deepest desire that as many as possible who graduate from our elementary schools everywhere may continue their New Church education in the Academy.
     In order to provide for this need, Bishop W. F. Pendleton, in 1897, established the Teachers' Institute. Prior to that time all schools had been under the central administration of the Academy. But when the General Church was formed, it took upon itself the responsibility of elementary education, and each local school was placed under the immediate jurisdiction of a society, with the Pastor ex-officio as Headmaster. The Academy thence forward confined its work to the higher departments. The Teachers' Institute, however, included the teachers of both bodies, and served as the necessary coordinating medium between them. In the early stages of the reorganization, the Institute held monthly meetings, and discharged executive functions, formulating curricula and determining the basic pattern of the educational work to be undertaken. But when this initial task had been accomplished, it became a purely deliberative body, meeting annually. In this form it continued until 1923, performing important uses which are affectionately and appreciatively remembered by those who participated in its meetings.
     When, however, in 1917, Bishop N. D. Pendleton organized the General Faculty, with regular monthly sessions, the need on the part of Academy teachers for the additional meetings of the Institute became less obvious. The work of the Institute became more and more confined to the special interests of the Local Schools. But as a result of this the teachers of the Academy and those of the elementary schools lost contact with one another to a considerable extent, and the need for some medium of intercommunication became greater than ever.
     In 1923, therefore, Bishop N. D. Pendleton inaugurated the Annual Joint Meetings of the Council of the Clergy and the General Faculty, in which the elementary school teachers were invited to take an active part. This opened a new avenue of integration. It carried forward the essential use previously performed by the Institute, which, in consequence, was allowed to lapse.

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This new form of organization, looking toward unity of purpose, seemed well adapted to the needs of the time, and with but slight modifications it has met regularly without a break, except in General Assembly years. It provided, however, for the presentation and discussion of general topics only. Of late there has been a growing desire, especially on the part of the elementary school teachers, for an opportunity to consider more practical questions of particular interest to them. We have endeavored to meet this demand by limiting the number of general meetings, in order to afford time for conferences devoted to the special interests of the Local Schools. But it has become clear that this device is not entirely satisfactory. There is need, not merely for conferences of elementary school teachers, but also for more effective collaboration between these and the teachers of various departments in the Academy by the discussion of interlacing problems.

     Theory and Practice.

     In addition, we have become fully convinced that, if New Church education is to undergo a progressive development, it will be necessary to bridge the gap that now seems to exist between theoretical discussion and practical application. The general principles of education revealed in the Writings are well known among us. Every teacher trained in the Academy is imbued with the knowledge of them. But the development of a distinctive mode of education will be measured by the extent to which these principles are actually applied to the organization and presentation of every subject in the curriculum. The principles themselves are indeed revealed. A general knowledge, and an intellectual understanding of them, may be attained with relative ease. But the wise application of them must be discovered by the slow and laborious process of observation, reflection, and experimentation. It requires exact knowledge, and an intimate acquaintance with scientific facts. For it is these that are to be ordered and arranged in accord with the Truth of Revelation. They must be so presented as to reflect that Truth, and thus to open the growing mind successively to a perceptive understanding of it.
     The principles of New Church education are nothing but the Divinely revealed laws according to which alone this can be done. But it is one thing to know those laws as an abstract philosophy, and quite another to understand how, in a practical way, to utilize them in the art of teaching.

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The theoretical knowledge must come first. To impart this is the task of formal teacher-training. The more thoroughly this task is performed, the better equipped will the teacher be to make the application. But insight into the application is largely the product of experience. For only by experience do we acquire a sufficiently exact knowledge of the conditions to be met to enable us to perceive the application. And by this we do not mean casual experience. We mean rather purposeful experience, the result of reflection, of careful analysis, of painstaking experiment. By this we must build steadily upon our preliminary teacher-training. And in this we need one another's help. We need to supplement our individual experience with a knowledge of the observation, the thought, and the experience of others. And to implement such an exchange of thought, to provide in addition for definite experiments in which several may cooperate, organized facilities must be provided.
     Something of this, of course, has been done by our teachers from the beginning. Whatever advance has been made in the interior development of our education has been due to it. But it is this, above all else, that needs to be more perfectly integrated. Means must be found to share more effectively the results of individual studies. Conclusions must be modified by discussion. Group studies and experiments must be encouraged. Our efforts must be systematized and directed into the most fruitful channels. And to this end we must be organized as a harmonious unit, every part of which may contribute its quota to the advancement of the whole. It is primarily to facilitate, promote and encourage these vital uses that we have proposed a radical re-organization of our Annual Meetings.
     Our proposal is, that all who are actively engaged in the work of New Church education, both in the Academy and in the Local Schools, shall constitute an Educational Council under the chairmanship of the Bishop. In such a body, all our teachers may meet on common ground, as a professional organization of men and women who are devoted to a common task and striving towards a single goal. In order to protect the complete autonomy of all the schools whose faculties are represented in its membership, the Council is designed as a purely deliberative body. Yet its discussions are not for that reason to be confined to mere generalities, or to abstract and theoretical considerations alone.

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The presentation of general topics which are of equal interest to all will be provided for by meetings of the Council as a whole. But, in addition to these, opportunity will be afforded for the collaboration of special groups, departments, and committees, formed for the purposes of a more detailed examination of specific questions. They may be charged with the responsibility of seeking practical solutions for existing problems. Their findings may either be reported back to the Council-in case they involve matters of general policy that should be known and considered by all-or they may be referred directly to the faculties immediately concerned for consideration, modification, adoption, or rejection. Such groups may be variously comprised, according to the nature of the question under examination. And when their chosen task is completed, or when it has been carried as far as seems advisable at the time, the groups will be automatically dissolved.
     Our present plan calls for one general meeting of the Council, and for two group meetings, during the week in which the Council of the Clergy holds its annual sessions. But this program may be varied from year to year in accord with the indications of interest and need. It is our suggestion, therefore, that at each annual meeting of the Council a committee shall be appointed to arrange the program for the following year.
     It is our hope that the results of such studies as may be undertaken, both by the Council and by the groups, may be preserved and made available for future reference. For we regard it as of primary importance that our work should be cumulative, and that we should avoid unnecessary duplication due to a lack of knowledge of what has already been accomplished. We look forward also to a gradual development of facilities for the intercommunication of thought and of useful information during the interim between the annual meetings. Possibly, in time, we may be able to establish an official journal, even if it be in mimeographed form, whereby our teachers may be kept in touch with one another, and with the regular activities of our various schools and faculties. This, of course, lies in the future, but it would greatly help to strengthen the unity of our endeavors.
     The primary purpose of the Council is to bring all the various elements of our educational system into harmonious cooperation.

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It is for this reason that it is organized under the immediate auspices of the General Church as the one universal body capable of embracing all these elements. The Academy is indeed legally and financially independent of the General Church. Under its Charter, the Academy is organized with specific regard to the uses of an institution of learning. It is right that this should be so; and we look forward to the day when there may be many such Academies in the various countries of the world, extending and perfecting the facilities for higher New Church education. But the Church alone can establish and preserve unity between all these specialized agencies of education. The soul that actuates them all, the spirit that inmostly forms, governs and directs their work, is and must be the spirit of the Church. However various the external conditions they may have to meet, due to geographic and national characteristics, the one unifying purpose that must dominate them all is to prepare their students for a life of regeneration. This, of necessity, is an ecclesiastical use. It cannot be done apart from the Church.

     A Living Faith.

     The first essential in preparing for regeneration is to instil an acknowledgment of the Lord as God, and of Revealed Truth as the Divine Law of life. To acknowledge the Lord as God is to see Him present and operative, to see the government of His love and wisdom, in all things of creation. It is in order that man may acknowledge this, not blindly, but from an understanding faith, that the spiritually rational truth of the Writings has been given. That truth is now, and will be in the future, the appointed means of man's regeneration. Nothing less will suffice to preserve the vision of the Lord through the modern smokescreen of materialism, put forth with confident assurance in the name of scientific fact.
     The great distinguishing difference between New Church education and the education of the modern world is this: New Church education begins with the acknowledgment of Divine Revelation, and makes it its highest objective to open the minds of children and youth by successive stages to the perception and understanding of spiritual truth. Modern education begins by insinuating doubt as to the very existence of Divine Revelation, and systematically builds up the conviction that the only reliable source of man's knowledge is sensual experience, thus closing the mind against the reception of spiritual truth.

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In this way, strange as it may seem, although "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork," the very facts and laws of nature, through which the Divine Providence is operating perpetually, have been made to testify against their Creator. This result is achieved, not by the facts themselves, but by the way the facts are ordered, the suggestive arrangement of them, and the conclusions, the mental pictures, that are drawn from that arrangement. This is true of every subject in the curriculum. It is true even where there is no apparent reference to religion, and no obvious connection with religious faith. It cannot be otherwise. For the ordering is the inevitable and the spontaneous result of the false philosophy, the materialistic thought, that is dominant in the scientific and educational world.
     The task of the New Church educator is to remove this distortion, that the facts of human knowledge and experience may again bear testimony to the eternal Truth, proclaiming the presence of the Lord, revealing His wisdom and His love, in all creation. The new ordering, the rearrangement of the materials of instruction in our schools, will also come spontaneously, but only so far as we actually see that Divine presence ourselves. This is by no means as easy as we at first are prone to suppose. We are too ready to accept a blind acknowledgment in lieu of a seeing faith. Of course, we acknowledge the Truth of Revelation. Of course, we know that the Lord is present everywhere, that all things were made by Him, and that He alone preserves them in being and existence continually. Can we not teach this to our children? And having done so, will we not insure them against the naturalistic persuasions of modern thought? Is this not what is meant by distinctive New Church education? By no means.
     We can acknowledge this from an intellectual faith, and we can teach it, without in the least understanding how it is so. We can express this acknowledgment even while we are filling the minds of our children with factual knowledge so ordered as to refute it,-with ideas, mental pictures, a concept of the world, diametrically opposed to it. To a large extent we are compelled to do this, because our own understanding of how the Lord is present, of how His Providence operates, of how the laws and the forces of nature are used to serve His eternal purposes, is so elementary and so imperfect.

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And although we are but taking our first uncertain steps, like children just learning to walk, yet, even while we are learning, we are called upon to teach. We must teach many things that we do not yet spiritually understand. To do so, we must borrow largely from the world,- borrow its textbooks and its purely natural explanations of the facts. Only by slow degrees, as we ourselves come more particularly to realize the practical implications of the Heavenly Doctrine, and thus to gain an insight into how the Divine operates in nature, will we be able to re-order the facts, and place upon them a spiritual interpretation. But it is to this extent alone that our education will become progressively more New Church.
     We are continually in danger of accepting our blind acknowledgment as the end, and of resting satisfied with a reiteration of that acknowledgment to our children. We are in danger of mistaking this for the New Church phase of education, and of looking to the world for everything else. We are in danger of adopting permanently as satisfactory what we at first borrowed as a matter of temporary expedience. We are in danger of confirming the mistaken idea that the material of secular instruction, being purely factual, will necessarily be the same, wherever it is taught. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The materials of instruction are never purely factual. If they were, they would surely be dry and uninteresting. They are always taught for a purpose. They are always taught in order to produce some understanding, and thus to impart some new vision to the mind. This purpose, this understanding, will be either true or false. It will either be purely natural and temporal, or it will look to what is spiritual and eternal. Wherever we have not yet come to see what is spiritual and eternal in this material of instruction we are satisfied to accept it as it comes to us from the world, and to teach it as something purely natural which has nothing whatever to do with religion. And so far as we do this, our New Church education is defective. Our unceasing desire should be to remove these defects, and gradually to bring more and more of our teaching actually into accord with the spiritual truth now revealed from heaven. Unless we make progress in this direction, we cannot avoid falling into the fatal quagmire of faith alone.

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     We, in our generation, especially need to do this work of interior building. The external work has been accomplished. Our schools have been established; the basic principles of our education have been formulated; the machinery has been provided for the regular administration of our teaching function. If we rest content with what has already been done, feeling that we know our educational principles, and that further progress must be in the direction of greater efficiency in the modes and methods of our teaching, for which we must look to the world about us, then surely our perception of the true significance and the real application of those principles will not grow with us. It will become more general, more vague, less vital, to us, year by year. Only if we turn our faces resolutely toward the achievement of the spiritual goal of education, seeking ever more efficiently to accomplish that goal, by studying the relation between the spiritual truth of the Writings and the external facts of scientific discovery, and by devising more effective ways of imparting to our students an insight into that relation, can we hope to advance in developing distinctive New Church education.
     It is primarily to encourage this endeavor, and to provide means whereby these uses may better be carried out, that this Educational Council has been designed. We hope, at least, that it may stimulate interest in this direction. We look for no startling results. We know that the way is long. At best the time at our disposal is short. Throughout the year most of us carry a heavy load of routine work that must be done. Our strength is limited. We are widely scattered, and many external obstacles bar the path of progress. We know also that the attainment of our objective is a matter of spiritual growth, which is in the hands of the Lord alone. It cannot be hurried or forced by any human will. The advance of our education and the advance of the Church itself must go hand in hand. Yet we believe that only a persistent devotion to the uses above outlined will preserve the vital spark of New Church education. And if we will hold to this,-the first love of the Academy-keeping it alive by actual ultimation as far as our limited opportunities may permit, then we believe that the Lord will prosper our way, and will mercifully grant us light and strength sufficient to our need.

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          Discussion of the Bishop's Address.

     Rev. Gilbert H. Smith: In the teaching of certain subjects such as mathematics, music and geography, little harm can be done to our faith when we use the facts collected by men in the world. We should concentrate our attention upon the more dangerous subjects-history, for example, in which we rearrange the facts to agree with what is now revealed to us.
     Rev. W. B. Caldwell: The Bishop has spoken of the need of instilling with the young an acknowledgment of the Lord as present and operative in all things of creation. At this time of year, especially we point out to them the wonderful things that take place in the vegetable and animal kingdoms. If we speak of these as the " wonders of creation," rather than as the " wonders of nature," we implant the idea of God the Creator, which in later life will offset the doctrine of evolution. We can speak of the part which the atmospheres play in the life of plant and animal, as in migration. We can tell them confidently about the inhabitants of other earths, impressing the truth that the Lord created all earths for the sake of the human race. Thus we may implant remains that will protect them against doubt and skepticism later on.
     Rev. Willard D. Pendleton: We come together to renew our faith in New Church education, but that is not enough. The future of the New Church depends upon the education of teachers as well as of children. I would suggest that the Academy provide some kind of " Summer School," so that teachers may be able to improve their education, renewing its edge, as it were. A few weeks in the Academy from time to time would be of greater value than anything the universities of the world can offer.
     Rev. E. E. Iungerich: When we have completed our education in the Academy, we should go forward, making use of what we have been given, and specializing in particular subjects. There is no need to go back to school, except to give lectures on our "subjects."
     Rev. Alan Gill: If we conscientiously make our education more New Church every year, we shall soon find it so different from that of the public schools that we cannot prepare our children for it. This would be a big problem in Kitchener. It would involve re-educating the parents as to the use and need of really distinctive New Church education.
     Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner mentioned some of the difficulties encountered when the New Church school was started in Durban. One of the arguments against it was that New Church educated children would not want to marry outside of the Church, and as there were not enough children in the Church to marry when they grew up, the Church would be forced into decline
     Prof. O. W. Heilman endorsed the idea of having Summer courses. Exchanging ideas and experiences is an important way to perfect our education as teachers, and the best way to accomplish this is by having Summer courses. We must not lose sight of the influence made upon children by teachers who thoroughly believe what they teach.
     Mr. Paul Synnestvedt: I look forward to the time when there will be a New Church university, including schools of law, etc., and particularly of medicine.

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A university is needed, and the need must be recognized before Providence furnishes the means.
     Mr. Wilfred Howard: It is not safe to teach any scientific subject apart from the light of the New Church. There is a difference between facts and truths. We believe in presenting truths; yet, for the most part, we present facts just as the world does. And facts can always lead astray, if they are not looked upon in the light of Revelation.
     Rev. F. E. Waelchli: In the Bishop's Address, which dealt with educational work that is to be done in a New Church way, I see a return to the spirit of the old Academy. Teachers are both born and made, and born means the zeal to teach along New Church lines.
     Bishop Alfred Acton: Our existence depends upon the continual creation of new things. New Church education is the training of the mind for heaven. Even in most elementary things there are principles that contribute to the education of the mind, entering into the whole of its future education. We are apt to meet from year to year and repeat generalities, deriving from our meetings little more than inspiration. A month or so of post-graduate work for teachers is ideal, but it is not yet attainable. For one thing, it is hard for the Academy teachers to give up their holidays.
     Rev. K. R. Alden: There are principles of education which are not directly mentioned in the Writings. The Address of the Bishop today calls for a deeper advancement of philosophy from which we can make applications for progress.
     Rev. Willard D. Pendleton: I see no reason why a Summer School should be left to the future. There is need to develop men to take the place of the older teachers.
     Rev. Gilbert H. Smith: In my previous remarks I did not mean to say that there is no need to teach every subject from a New Church point of view, but only that we can use certain scientific facts, as provided by the world, without endangering the minds of our children.
     Rev. W. B. Caldwell: The subject of post-graduate work for our teachers has been discussed with approval at the Academy faculty meetings during the past year. This might be feasible, if local school teachers could obtain leave of absence to return to the Academy during the regular school-year. But the Academy teachers have heavy tasks and need their Summer vacations.
     Dr. C. R. Pendleton: If we want to avoid the state of faith alone in our education, we must make the promise of our forefathers real.
     Bishop Acton: Those who want a Summer School should apply to the Academy for it. The question will then receive formal consideration.
     Miss Lois Nelson: The Bishop's Address is a stimulating challenge to local school teachers to do distinctively New Church work. I may mention the fact that the teachers from the various societies who are attending these meetings have given up their vacations in order to do so.
     Bishop de Charms: Education does not consist merely of particular skills, or of knowledges poured into the memory, but it is the drawing out of certain potentialities in the mind for use.

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The mind is not built by storing in it a reservoir of subject matter. The more we make our education New Church the less we shall have to worry about such problems as Mr. Gill has mentioned. Like religion, our education has to do with life-preparing children to meet the life they will have to live. We must know what that life is, and provide an education for it-an education that has in it what is eternal. Government requirements can be met without sacrificing our philosophy. New Church education is not an extra burden-the teaching of all subjects plus religion. Other schools are teaching a religion and philosophy that are wrong; we are teaching a religion and philosophy that are right.
     The principles formulated by the Founders of the Academy were living to them. When they were passed on to the next generation, they became mere words. They must again be made living with us. The purpose of our education is to transmit a living perception of truth to the next generation. This cannot be accomplished by a set method. We should get together to discover things that must be done.
     A Summer School would involve definite commitments, and would place too heavy a burden upon certain teachers who need rest to recuperate during the Summer vacation. I do not wish to endanger the health of our teachers. Still, Summer courses might be conducted from time to time; and if a specific request came, we would try to meet it.
     Too great expectations in our educational work would lead to disappointment. The need is for slow, steady work. Strength is not in dazzling the world, but in growth from within-growth that comes from doing faithfully and well the little things that lie before us.
     NORBERT H. ROGERS,
          Secretary.
Conference of History Teachers 1941

Conference of History Teachers       WILLIAM WHITEHEAD       1941

     Wednesday, April 16, 1941.

     All teachers of history in the General Church had been approached beforehand as to the most useful practical themes for discussion this year, with the result that this Conference centered around the two following themes:-
     1. "What distinctive New Church 'projects' may be devised to vitalize the teaching of history?
     2. "What preparation in Elementary School history is desirable for entry into the High Schools at Bryn Athyn?
     After opening remarks by the Chairman, Dr. William Whitehead, pointing out the unprecedented opportunities now afforded to teachers of history, because of the current interest in world events, and also the need for drastic reconstruction of courses of instruction, a "Symposium" of views on the first topic was ably presented by Miss Venita Roschman (Glenview), Miss Erna Sellner and Miss Florence Potts (Bryn Athyn), Professor Eldric S. Klein, and Miss Jennie Gaskill (Pittsburgh). The wealth of suggestions covered the teaching of history in the various grades, as well as the teaching of ancient history in the high schools.

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Discussion followed, and considerable interest was manifest.
     The second subject was introduced by Miss Gladys Blackman (Glenview) who demonstrated the need for clearer cooperation between the elementary and Academy schools in the teaching of history and allied subjects. The discussion was sustained by the Revs. Gilbert H. Smith, Karl R. Alden, Miss Dorothy Davis, Mrs. R. M. Cole, Professor Otho W. Heilman, and the Misses Marion Cranch (Pittsburgh) and Phillis Cooper (Kitchener), besides most of the members of the faculty of the Bryn Athyn Elementary School.
     It was generally agreed that this first meeting of history teachers under the new Educational Council plan was an eminent success in the direction of concentrating upon the practical subject problems of our profession. A Committee has been appointed to draw up, within the coming year, a mimeographed handbook of recommended "distinctive New Church projects" for use in our schools. It is already being urged that we meet again next year for the treatment of other imperative questions.
     The secretary of the meeting was Miss Vera J. Bergstrom (Bryn Athyn), to whom all communications should be addressed.
     WILLIAM WHITEHEAD,
          Chairman.
Conference on Teacher Training 1941

Conference on Teacher Training       MORNA HYATT       1941

     Thursday, April 17, 3.30 p.m.

     Plans were discussed for the giving of more practical courses and experience to students taking the Normal Course at the Academy. The teachers in the elementary schools of other centers of the General Church had been asked in advance to discuss this question, and to make recommendations for changes in the curriculum of the Normal Course.

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Miss Lois Nelson spoke for Glenview, Miss Jennie Gaskill for Pittsburgh, and Miss Phillis Cooper for Kitchener. Many others took part in the discussion that followed. It was generally agreed that there is great need for training and experience in conducting ungraded schools. The necessity for both theory and practice was recognized by all, but opinions differed as to the time and stress that should be given to each.
     There was some consideration of a plan for giving students a period of internship in one of the local schools, under the supervision of an experienced teacher, before they undertake the full responsibility of a grade or school. Some favored a year of practical experience before the last year of college work. It was felt, however, that such a plan is not feasible at the present time.
     In order to give more practical courses and experience, it will be necessary to cut some academic subjects from the four-year college course. For this reason it was suggested that a degree of Bachelor of Science in Education be given at the end of four years. Students will be encouraged to complete the work for their Bachelor of Arts degree, either immediately or within a few years. One more year of part-time study will be required for the B.A. degree. When it can be arranged, this may be taken along with part-time teaching in the Bryn Athyn Elementary School. The Normal Course will be arranged to include more of the practical courses, and possibly some visiting in ungraded local schools for a period of one to four weeks. This plan will prevent a lowering of our academic standards, and will also allow for emergencies that may arise in the Church, by making it possible for a student to leave college with a B.S.E. degree to fill a vacant teaching position, but with a definite aim to return to the Academy in the near future to complete her studies for the B.A. degree.
     The discussion between members of the Education Department of the Academy and teachers of our Elementary Schools was stimulating and inspiring, as well as leading to practical results in the application of our New Church philosophy of Education.
     MORNA HYATT
     Secretary.

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GOD OUR REFUGE 1941

GOD OUR REFUGE       Rev. MARTIN PRYKE       1941

     (Delivered at Colchester, England, March 23, 1941.)

     The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; and He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them! (Deuteronomy 33: 27.)

     Today has been appointed by His Majesty the King to be a day of national prayer, to the end that the citizens of our country, and all those who fight in her cause, in this her time of need, shall enter the house of God and offer up prayer to Him who rules both the universe and the kingdom of heaven.
     As a people we turn to God for help and consolation amidst the physical and mental hardships that are inflicted upon us by such a war as that through which we are now passing. The prayers offered today in the many churches throughout the land will vary with every faith, indeed with every individual; but there will be a core of true unity amongst all those who truly look to God as the only source of lasting strength-those who look to Him, not for natural aid, but for spiritual strength and guidance.
     A common love, a common end in view, is the only true bond which can exist between men. If this common end is an acknowledgment of God as the only source of love and wisdom, then the bond is that eternal one which unites the inhabitants of the heavenly kingdom.
     Times of natural turmoil, strife and trouble bring to all of us temporary states which uplift the spirit to thoughts of God, and which turn us to Him as the means of finding peace and consolation. These states are provided that we may turn from that which is temporary to that which is permanent, that we may prolong the momentary opening of the mind to an influx from heaven, and that it may become continual with us. Such an opportunity is given us when, in times of trial, we come before God as a united people to offer prayer to Him.

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     And what shall be the form of that prayer? It will not ask for material gains, for natural victories. To do this is to doubt the everlasting wisdom of the Providence of the Lord. No man can judge the means whereby he or his country can best be led to the way of the Lord. In prayer we can only think of our part in the struggle, asking that we may be given strength to answer every call to serve and sacrifice, and that we may rest content within the sheltering walls of the omniscient Providence of the Lord, whatever may be the outcome.
     We pray that, whatever may be the natural result, the spiritual victory shall be ours; that all evil may be turned to good within us, and that we may learn the true rest and peace that come only from a life of obedience to the Divine will, and from an implicit faith and trust in the mercy of God. By thus turning our thoughts to spiritual ends, instead of to merely material objectives, even amidst the surging influx of natural events upon our minds, we shall turn ourselves to God Himself, and thus to peace and security everlasting. For He is the only source of love and wisdom, and without Him we are as driftwood tossed upon the stormy seas of materialism, crashing against the rocks of falsity, ever restless, ever moved by forces beyond our control. He is the haven that we seek-the only port wherein we shall find still waters and constant shelter. " The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; and He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them!
     The Lord God is our refuge because there is no trouble we cannot take to Him, no ill that He cannot heal. He waits above, as it were, to enter at our opening, to succour at our call. "Ask, and it shall he given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." (Matthew 7: 7, 8.)
     The means whereby we are brought close to the Lord, and to His saving power, is His Divine Truth. As it is in heaven, and as it is on earth, the Divine Truth of the Word brings us the knowledge of Him, and of His eternal love for mankind. In our text, the "refuge" signifies His Truth as it is in heaven, and "the everlasting arms," or "the arms of the world," as it may be rendered, signify that Truth as it is with men on earth in the sense of the letter of the Word. (A. E. 594:5.)

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These two will be our shield; for by our application of them we are opened to receive heavenly help and protection.
     "Arms" signify strength, and the truth as it is given to mankind in the Word is strength and power indeed. It is the key by which the door to eternal happiness is opened. By means of the truth of the Word, when it becomes active within us, when we resist evils in temptation, the Lord will "thrust out the enemy, and shall say, Destroy them!
     Thus God is our refuge because in Him we find the true freedom of the spirit by deliverance from evil. In the way in which He would lead us we then find ourselves without restraint or hindrance. With His aid we may seek for ourselves the heavenly life, even here on earth. He is our everlasting refuge because this freedom and peace may be found with Him, irrespective of the bondage of this world, the slavery of tyrannies, and our physical suffering.
     And yet, to recognize that God is our only refuge, and that in our spirits is to be found the gate to true freedom, does not lessen our material responsibilities. A day devoted to national prayer is a fitting opportunity for us to recall the duty of every New Churchman to his country.
     Let us remember that this spiritual freedom and this heavenly peace are found only in a life of good in this world. We find good only by seeking to lead a natural existence in complete accord with the order of heaven. We are not to separate the conduct of the life of the body from the life of the spirit. In this world we may not achieve that for which we strive; but if our striving has been for the good of mankind, and for the growth of the Lord's church on earth, then we have achieved the spiritual end that we sought to attain. Here is the refuge offered us by God. Our only consolation and reward is not to be found in the life of this world alone. The world of effects may distort our actions and discourage our spirits, but the world of causes can never be thus betrayed. The true cause will bring only the comfort of God's refuge and the support of His everlasting arms, whatever may be the perverted effect.
     By this recognition that our eternal welfare is entirely dependent upon the conduct of our lives here, we may appreciate the high importance of a right relation between ourselves and our country at such a time as this.

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     We are familiar with the teaching that our country is our neighbor in a high degree, being exceeded only by the Lord's church and His heavenly kingdom. We may well see the vital necessity of a right relationship between ourselves and our compatriots. Provided we see no means whereby the welfare of the Lords heavenly kingdom and of His church is endangered, our first and greatest duty is to our country when she is seen to be in dire need. Indeed, if we support in our country that which we from conscience see to be just and true, we are at the same time offering every help and performing every act of charity to the church and the heavens, and thus to the Lord Himself.
     The higher the use that we strive to perform, the greater is the struggle necessary for achievement. It is not so hard to exercise charity to those who are closely about us. The need is then more easily recognized; the fruits can be more quickly discerned; and, indeed, if the truth be known, we are not unaffected by the fact that our effort is more easily seen by others, and that we may thus gain their respect and admiration. To serve those of a greater number, such as our fellow countrymen, is a more remote matter. We need a deeper conviction of its necessity to bring us to the point where we are actually willing to make sacrifices and perform acts of charity. Our part seems to be but a small cog in a gigantic machine; and, above all, the recognition of our act is infinitesimal, if not totally lacking. Yet, the use is greater; the natural and spiritual achievement is of far greater consequence.
     After the church, our country demands the greatest effort and sacrifice that is in our power to make. The man of the New Church, above all others, is in a position to see the truth of this statement. We may see that our duty to the country is a fundamentally true concept, quite apart from all external and superficial sentimentality. The New Churchman, if he lives according to the truths before him, should be the greatest patriot of them all. For his is to be a genuine patriotism, based upon a rational conviction, which realizes the supreme place of the church and of the Lord Himself, though he likewise realizes the essential place of the country in our lives of charity.
     Our country is now seeking to preserve freedom of thought, speech and action in the world. Having seen the forces at work to destroy such freedom, we have made a stand, upon the success of which depends the continuance of our established way of living.

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     This freedom, which we defend so vigorously, is not the true freedom of heaven. It is not the pinnacle of our ambitions for our land, or for the world. But we earnestly believe it to be such an ultimate form of the heavenly government as is best adapted to the world of today. We may see many faults and errors in its principle and in its application. But the fundamental issue now is, that we, as members of our country, see it to be the surest mode of leading to a happy, peaceful, and charitable way of living, and that, as members of our church, we see it to be the surest mode of preparing the way for the establishment of the Lord's kingdom upon earth, through the means given at the time of the Second Advent in the Heavenly Doctrines.
     We fight, then, from an earnest conviction that we are fighting for that which is just and that which is true, for that which upholds and dignifies the character of man, instead of degrading it to a level common with the beasts of the field.
     What is it, therefore, that we fight? It is against a vicious and insidious evil. We do not fight men, women and children; we seek not the destruction of the body of a single man, far less the damaging of his spirit or soul. We fight against the evil of self love and the love of the world, as evidenced in an intense desire for domination supreme control, and the subjugation of all remaining men.
     This evil has manifested itself in a vile form, wittingly or unwittingly, by those against whom we now fight on the battlefield. Wherever evil is manifested, there it must be struck down, else it will spread from this first weak spot throughout the world, even as a cancer will spread to destroy the whole body. If the evil cannot be eradicated by persuasion, then force must be used. We are taught in the Writings that it is good that a man should fight to defend his country. The greatest invasion that a country may undergo is the invasion of evil. Our duty then is to defend it with all our might.
     Let us not forget that it is evil that we fight in this war. Let us remember this when bitter and hard thoughts enter our minds. Let us remember it when the strife is over. Let us likewise remember that the evil is to be lastingly removed, and not merely temporarily suppressed. And let us further remember that we see that evil, not only with those people whom we now meet on the field of war, but we find that same evil within the borders of our own country; and it must be removed from thence as well.

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Above all, we shall find it within our own hearts, if we search; and if it is not cast out from our inmosts, the battle is lost, and no victory shall be ours. But if we pray to the eternal God, who is our refuge, and conquer the evils of hell with His aid, "He shall thrust out the enemy from before us, and shall say, Destroy them!"
     To struggle, as we now do, for a physical victory, thus seeking a natural advantage, does not imply, as might be thought, a lack of faith in Divine Providence. It is true that we do not pray to the Lord for particular natural events, for we do not understand the way in which He will work to upbuild His church. Yet, for ourselves, we must fight against evil wherever we see it. The Lord uses men as instruments for the working of His wisdom. We can become more and more perfect instruments in so far as we follow the guidance of His commandments, and strive to fall into the ways of His Providence. We must act continually from conscience, and if natural events do not take place as we would have had them, or as we had hoped for and planned, we are to acknowledge God's omniscience, and seek to see His hand within the ways of this world.
     We do not pray for victory in this war because we do not see the form which the Lord's will assumes. Yet to accept defeat in this spirit does not mean that we must admit our cause to have been false. In so far as we have fought the fight which we have seen to be the battle of justice and of truth, so far have we fought the Lord's fight, and so far have we been victorious.
     Defeat would not mean that we were wrong to suppose, as we do, that it would be impossible for the church to grow under a rule of tyranny wherein freedom of speech and religion is forbidden. This must ever be true. Defeat would only mean that we were mistaken in supposing that we could see the way in which the Lord would cause His church to increase upon earth.
     We speak thus of defeat to make clear the principle that under every circumstance we are to fight, without let or hindrance, with every strength and talent given to us, and that, having done so, we are to be resigned and content in the fruits of the Divine Providence, however they may appear to the crude judgments of our natural man.

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     With such a principle in our minds we may come into the Lord's house on this day of national prayer, confident of our cause and convinced of our duty, but with such humility that we kneel before the Lord in earnest prayer, asking that we may be given strength and wisdom in this battle, that thus we may be victorious in our spiritual conflict.
     These are times of great trial, fraught with moments of despair, but we may dispel this with the help of the Lord's Word. Remember the saying of our Doctrine, " The only refuge from any destruction is the Lord." (T. C. R. 120.) And the assurance of the Psalmist,
     God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge." (Psalm 46: 1, 2, 11.) Amen.

LESSONS:     Psalm 46. John 6: 30-58. N. J. H. D. 311-313; 321-325.
MUSIC: Revised Liturgy, pages 428, 458, 484.
PRAYERS: Revised Liturgy, nos. 110, 124.
OUR PART IN THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH 1941

OUR PART IN THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH       RALPH S. KLEIN       1941

     (Address at Philadelphia District Assembly Banquet, May 17, 1941.)

     The Lord builds the church, but He builds it through the minds of men. This work is both in the hands of Providence and in our hands. When we speak of the slowness of the growth, we stress the fact it is in the hands of Providence. When we speak of the progress that has been made, we are inclined to take a lot of credit to ourselves. This isn't only human nature; it also demonstrates the twofold nature of the work of building the church.
     These remarks are limited to the part we have to play in this work, the means available for it, the facilities, and attitude that will be required, if we are to increase the church among ourselves, and thus also with others, and so satisfy our external desire to spread the church.

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     When this subject was suggested to me. it was also suggested that, since I am in a business concerned with sales-promotion, advertising and publicity, I might see ways in which these functions could be applied to the work of building the church. A number of such ways come to mind very quickly. It is interesting to speculate on what might happen if we should displace Edgar Bergen on the radio each Sunday night at eight o'clock, as the Rev. Gilbert Smith suggested we should do in a recent talk to the Sons of the Academy. Or what sort of reaction we would get if we ran a one-page advertisement in the SATURDAY EVENING POST, as was also suggested at that meeting. This experiment would cost us one-third of the annual budget of the General Church, but it would be fun while it lasted. And if we used the space to set forth the teaching about the state of the Christian world, think of the fan mail we'd get!
     But, as is generally the case, the spectacular aspects of this subject are of less importance than the practical fundamentals. So it is my purpose tonight to show, by means of an analogy, that there are certain basic points of similarity in building a business and the external aspects of building the church, and that if our efforts are to be fruitful, we will put an understanding of these points of similarity to work in our own behalf.
     Surely it is nothing new to look to the world of commerce to find ways in which the church is built, for we know that for centuries Providence has opened up the channels of commerce, and allowed the establishment of trade between nations, in order that the Word might be spread among men.
     To see if there is a fair analogy, we must first set up our contrast. This I will do in three sections; for there are three steps in promoting any commercial product. First, tell what it is. Second, answer any questions about it completely and convincingly. Third, demonstrate conclusively what it will do in use; that is, answer the question:
     What will it do for me?
     Isn't this what must be done in building the church?
     First, we must explain what it is. This is what is usually covered by the words " missionary work."
     Second, after presenting the case, we must be equipped to follow up this work with literature, more information, plans for self-help and home-study, calls by our visiting pastors-all of this looking to the eventual establishment of a New Church center with distinctive worship and distinctive social life.

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     Third, and this seems to me to be where we are weakest, we should be able to demonstrate to any interested person that our way of life means something to us in all parts of our own life, and demonstrate this by example so convincingly and with such lack of self-righteousness that the prospect will not even ask himself the question, "What will it do for me?"-because he will see the living answer to this question before his very eyes.
     Let us take these three points of similarity in more detail. First, the need to inform, to explain. If that's all that's done, it's little more than proselyting. Not that this step is a simple or superficial part of our series, for both sides of our analogy prove that it is not. For example, if we would publish an announcement about a commercial product in the newspapers or magazines, we must first learn what it is made of, and how it is manufactured. We must be able to describe it completely and accurately. Do we not do the same when we try to tell others about the church? We describe, in order to inform. And to do this we must study and prepare ourselves, in order that our descriptions may be complete and accurate.
     The second step is somewhat more involved. To continue our analogy, assume that you have made your announcement of your new commercial product. People want to know more about it. They write in for information. Where can they buy it? Where can they go to inspect it? How does it work?
     Ways must be provided to answer their questions, to give them the needed information, whether from your own headquarters or through the agencies across the country that have the article on display. Booklets must be written, price information made available. And this is by no means all. There are all the problems of distribution to be cared for,-problems in shipping, traffic, transportation, accounting, salesmanship, store management, service, and even local delivery.
     Do we not find similar problems in building the church? Just as the bulk of such work goes on behind the scenes in the world of commerce, so the supply lines supporting the building of the church must be provided for, if the initial missionary efforts of the church are to bear fruit. We must equip ourselves to answer questions, no matter when or how asked,-to give information wherever it is needed. If there is need for special instruction, special ministrations, somehow the church must arrange to provide it.

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     And this is by no means all. In order to do these things, the extension work of the General Church must be adequate to meet the problems of distribution which this work also involves. Ministers must be supported in the isolated spots where these needs occur. Funds must be found to enable them to visit those who in some cases have not had the ministrations of the church for as long as six years at a time. The relationship of the Academy and the General Church must be taught, so that the well-springs that feed students to our schools will not run dry, and also that the graduates leaving our schools for centers where there is no established church-life may have their inspiration preserved and renewed.
     Just as the world of commerce has come to develop the use of the printed word, in order to accomplish many of its ends effectively and yet with economy, so we must perfect ourselves in the ability to carry on more and still more Church Extension work by similar means.
     From the days of the Words for the New Church there has been a remarkable supply of literature poured out from the Academy center, though at times, for financial reasons, it has appeared intermittent and sparse. The most consistent, of course, has been the NEW CHURCH LIFE, which, as the official organ of the General Church, has continued publication without interruption since the days of Mr. Anshutz, the first editor. Also active has been the BULLETIN OF THE SONS OF THE ACADEMY, which now goes every three months to about 1000 different addresses in all corners of the world. It is to be hoped that its monthly issuance, which it enjoyed for 17 years under the editorship of Dr. William Whitehead, can be provided for sometime soon. In greater or lesser degree, from time to time, we have had the JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, and other publications.
     At the meeting this afternoon we heard about three new efforts,-one, the PARENT-TEACHER JOURNAL, issued eight times a year, covering the field its name implies. Another, the special work of Theta Alpha in providing papers and instruction on child-education and similar subjects to mothers at isolated points. And last year, the establishment of the Committee on Adult Education, which has so far produced 6000 pamphlets on Church and Academy subjects under the name of the Pastoral Extension Service, and has already distributed over 2500 of them, largely to isolated members of the church.

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Long after an individual has left a circle of the church, or long after his visiting pastor has departed, perhaps not to return for another month, perhaps not for another year, these publication efforts preserve the contact between the isolated and the mother Church. Through them the latest and best efforts of the clergy and our educators are available to all.
     This brings us to the third point of our analogy,-convincing by demonstration; showing what your product will do in use in life. And, by such example, answering the basic question that must be met head on, sooner or later "What will it do for me?"
     Many business enterprises have failed, and more have floundered, because they could not or would not understand the need to anticipate and answer this question. Sometimes they have been old, reliable businesses, firms of integrity and character, producing articles of undeniable quality,-needed articles. Their failure was due to their inability to interpret their product to the public in terms of the public's own self-interest, and in terms of what it can do for them. "We have something so fine," they say, "that it will sell on sight."
     "Don't forget," they say; "no matter if a man lives in the deepest jungle, if he makes a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to his door." You can confirm from your own observation in the world around you that this slogan is today a fallacy. For you must not only have something of admitted worth, tell about it, promote it; you must also explain what it will do, and demonstrate in use how it will do it.
     What does this suggest to us on the other side of our analogy? We must think of what the people whom we are trying to interest and hold in the church will answer when they ask themselves, "What will this religion do for me?" Will they be convinced by the demonstration of its application to life that they see in us? They'll want to know, Does this religion work? Does it provide, in life, a better code of conduct? Does it, in life, make us more honest, more chaste, more reverent? Does it, in life, make us less envious, less malicious, less profane? And if it doesn't do these things for us, how can we expect others to believe it can do these things for them?
     We are enjoined that it is "by their fruits ye shall know them." We can promulgate the truth, and broadcast it to all lands, but if it is not seen to stand forth in works, will we not be asked, "Do men gather grapes of thorns?"

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For although thorns, in their good sense, are sharp penetrating truths, they become falsities if they are not applied to life.
     Yes, we must not spare ourselves in our efforts to "let our light shine forth." But this is not enough. Indeed the teaching is: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." And in doing this, we not only build the church with others, through convincing them by example-we also build the church among ourselves. For we are taught, over and over again, that "good works are what save a man, and evil works condemn him."
     Do you object, perhaps, that I suggest something that can be done only by regenerate men? On the contrary, this means of demonstrating the worth of our religion by application to life is ours throughout adult life. For we are taught that "the Lord's kingdom commences in man from the life which is of works, for he is then in the beginning of regeneration; and when the Lord's kingdom is established in man it terminates in works, and the man is regenerated."
     Thus we move through our analogy,-through the beginnings that are missionary work, through the middle stages that include all the field of extension work,-only to find in pressing on to our conclusion that the work of building the church is not just the work of an incorporated organization, to be carried out by certain especially selected advocates; it is a work for all of us, separately and individually, and it stands before each of us every moment of our lives.
ACTUALITY OF THE MIRACLES 1941

ACTUALITY OF THE MIRACLES              1941

     "That Jonah was swallowed by a whale actually took place in the world; as also the miracles of Egypt, and many other things which are called miracles." (S. D. 1391; see A. C. 1709.)
     "It is said in Joshua 10: 12, 13, that the sun stood still in Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Ajalon. If this miracle had been done in lust this way, it would have inverted the universal nature of the world, which is not the case with the rest of the miracles in the Word. That it might be known, therefore, that this was said prophetically, it is added, 'Is not this written in the Book of the Upright?' which was a prophetic book from which this was taken. Still, it is not to be doubted that a light was given them out of heaven, a light like that of the sun in Gibeon, and a light like that of the moon in Ajalon." (A. E. 401:18.)

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COMFORT FROM THE WRITINGS 1941

COMFORT FROM THE WRITINGS       ALEC O. SARGEANT       1941

     (An Address delivered at the Forward-Sons meeting in Toronto, May 15. 1941. Mr. Sargeant departed this life a few moments after concluding the Address.)

     This is just a talk,-the expression of a few thoughts that have come to my mind in relation to world-events in the light of the Doctrines.
     It is sometimes useful to consider the Doctrines from a new angle, instead of the usual approach. Throughout the years, we have studied them from one fundamental viewpoint-to acquire an increasing perception of our proper relationship with God and man, in order to live a true, useful, and regenerating life. This is the most important aspect of the Writings, and must continue to be our main concern.
     However, this approach does not always bring that which our hearts sorely need at the present time,-Comfort!
     In these fateful days we do not turn primarily either to the Writings or the Word for comfort, but to the newspaper and the radio. We avidly study the military situation, and speculate anxiously in possibilities. We listen with absorbed attention to the words of our leaders, striving to fill from phrase and inflection this crying need of our hearts. And we do not find it.
     Can the Writings supply this special need for comfort, strength and assurance? They teach us a way of life, but what special rock do they give us to cling to, in a world flooded with devastating evil, and threatened with permanent inundation? We look with horror upon the possibility of a Nazi-dominated world; and we ask, among other questions: What is to become of our Church or our spiritual values under such circumstances?
     In answer to this, there comes to mind at once a mighty truth- immense and all comprehensive in its significance;-a truth which is sensed but not entirely understood in the world, and which has been touched upon in the more intuitive moments of some of the best writers and speakers; a truth which is so familiar in the New Church that its very familiarity has obscured the marvel of it, and we have failed to gather the comfort and strength contained within it,-"Everything in the Universe has relation to Good and Truth-which is The Lord Himself."

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     If this is true-and it is true-then the philosophy of Nazism cannot possibly prevail permanently. Try as they will by organization, men, machines, destruction, suppression, deception, and all the expediencies of hell from whence they spring, they cannot possibly win, because the world-appearances notwithstanding-is under the leadership and care of Divine Providence, ceaselessly operating for the one undeviating Divine purpose,-the salvation of the human race.
     We know positively and unmistakably that the Nazi doctrine throughout is the very negation of Good and Truth, and if allowed permanently to dominate the minds and souls of men would result inevitably in man's spiritual destruction and damnation. Such a thing, in the Lord's Providence, is impossible.
     But it may be said, and quite pertinently: "This is all very well; but if true, why are the Nazis winning all along the line? Why is country after country robbed of its freedom and material means of livelihood? Why is England-the symbol of freedom,-tortured with a holocaust of devastation and destruction unprecedented in extent and violence? Why are evil men, more perverted than the worst creatures that ever blackened the pages of history, permitted to exercise this enormous power, and impose themselves upon a shuddering and protesting world, with such menacing success?" The answer to this is to be found in the teachings of the Divine Providence.
     We in the New Church know well, and other people know it too, that this is not just a war between Germany and England, between the Axis powers and the Democracies. It is a war of ideas, of principles, of spiritual concepts,-a fight to the death between good and evil forces-a judgment-and, to use a forceful colloquial expression, a `show down" between good and evil. The line of demarkation between the belligerents is not fixed and clear. There are good and well-disposed people in Germany, Italy and Japan, as well as evil. There are evil people in all the democracies, as well as good. And the Lord, in His Providence, is fighting the evil in all lands by means of the good in all lands.

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     The Writings tell us that the Lord, in the exercise of His Divine Providence, regards the Infinite and Eternal, and temporal things only so far as they harmonize with the Eternal. Temporal things, we are also taught, relate to dignities and riches, honors and possessions in the world-and in this war it is these values which are being ruthlessly destroyed. The Lord has no concern for the tons of ships, buildings, and homes, and natural lives, except in so far as they have spiritual and eternal significance. And who but the Lord alone can estimate the spiritual values involved in the unfolding events of this terrific struggle?
     We may perhaps be permitted to think from analogy. I believe it is a fact that the last war tremendously stimulated the development of the aeroplane, and advanced the world forward many years in this field. May it not he that, as a consequence of this war, the peoples of the world will be advanced many years in spiritual perceptions and stature?
     We are told that evils must appear in order to be known; otherwise they eat into the spirit like a cancer or a gangrene. Surely, for all well-disposed people who think, this war has terrific spiritual lessons. We are shown the evils of selfish expediency in international relations, and the consequence of the policy of ourselves alone and the wisdom gained should ultimately be of immense value to the world in its international affairs. We are shown with terrible clearness the horrible nature of the love of dominion, of lies, of brutality, of hatred, of self-glorification,-of all the evils set out in the Decalogue. And if those evils are perceived by people generally to have an inseparable connection with the material horrors that are now devastating Europe, surely priceless spiritual values will ultimately emerge.
     The Lord has this war in hand, and is fighting it in His own way. Knowing this, let us live calmly in the assurance that Good and Truth will most certainly prevail in the end; knowing, also, that the Lord works through the instrumentality of men, let us fight wholeheartedly for the cause according to the best light given us, never losing sight of the fact that the fight is fundamentally a spiritual one.
     One last word. Hatred, we are told in the Writings, is hell. Under no circumstances whatever is it justified. If we find this passion in our hearts-and there is no question that at times we do find it there in almost overwhelming intensity-let us at all events recognize it for what it is,-an influx from hell, and a demonstration of the proprium.

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In these devastating days we New Churchmen have the Writings. Let us believe them and live them, and we shall then be worthy of them in the days to come.
DIVINE PROVIDENCE AND HUMAN FREEDOM 1941

DIVINE PROVIDENCE AND HUMAN FREEDOM       ROWLAND TRIMBLE       1941

     (Address at the Philadelphia District Assembly Banquet, May 17, 1941.)

     Inasmuch as the subject of freedom is in the thoughts of everyone at this day, it seemed appropriate that I choose that as the subject of my remarks this evening, since freedom is an essential of the growth of the Church.
     Some years ago I enjoyed the friendship of a fine New Churchman, and it was our mutual delight to attempt to solve difficult problems of life from rational principles derived from the Heavenly Doctrines. At that time we tried to understand the freedom of men, particularly the freedom of evil men, with respect to the Lord's Providence. We reasoned that, since the Lord wills that all men be free, therefore, if a man wills to do evil, the Lord must permit him to act forth his evil intentions, and that after that He sets to work that marvelous government of His wisdom whereby the effect of that evil is bent to some degree of good.
     After this thought had been in our minds for a while, we realized that, if the Lord were to give unrestricted freedom to all men, and that His Providence were to begin its operations only after the evil has been committed, then confusion, chaos and the destruction of all life must be the inevitable result. And so we reasoned that the Lord sets certain bounds, beyond which evil may not go, lest the human race perish.
     I have another friend, a self-styled "Witness of Jehovah," a member of the most vehement and aggressive of all Arian sects at this day,-a sect that probably outnumbers the New Church 10 to 1.

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On Sunday mornings he gets into his car and goes forth to all the countryside to proclaim the doctrine that Jehovah God, residing on some remote earth beyond the hounds of our solar system, has, in His absence, appointed Jesus Christ as His chief executive officer on this earth, who will in due time establish His kingdom here.
     I asked this friend: "If God rules the affairs of men, why does He permit such an evil as war?" He replied: "God has nothing to do with it. For the time being He has given over the rule of the earth to Satan, and war and other evils are the result of his rule." "But," I protested, "if such a malevolent being as Satan were to have unlimited power, he would soon make short work of us all, and wipe the whole human race off the earth!" Then he also admitted that God sets bounds, beyond which evil may not go. I mention this, because "Jehovah's Witnesses " are the one sect that I know of that denies the Divine Providence, and that even one of them acknowledged that God must say to the devil: " Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther!
     But this conclusion did not solve the problem of human freedom. And since freedom cannot be understood apart from Providence, and since the Heavenly Doctrines state that the Lord's Providence is a particular one, the question came to mind: "How particular?" And going again to that Divine Oracle, I received the answer that His Providence is most particular, even to our affections and thoughts, as it is written in the 139th Psalm: "O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether."
     This conception of the Lord's Omniscience and Providence, as governing even man's affections and thoughts, led to a new conception of freedom. It was evident that freedom is not the result of the Lord's leaving us to the devices of our own prudence, however strong that appearance may be, but freedom is the perpetual gift of the Lord, each moment of our lives, even as life is such a gift. The Divine Love, burning in its infinite ardor to create, and to bless that which it has created, wills that every creature may feel life as its very own, and that, with that sensation of self-contained life, may be in freedom.

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Even animals have this sense of freedom; for witness that horses and cows, when confined to their stables for long periods, go wild with joy at their liberation to an open field. This, their love of freedom, is from the God who made them.
     Although man, in common with animals, has a merely natural freedom, yet he has what they can never have, and that is spiritual freedom. And by spiritual freedom, we mean man s free will in matters that pertain to God. A horse, grazing in the field, can choose what grass he will, or he may accept or reject what feed we offer him; but man can accept the living bread which comes down from heaven, or he may reject it, and take in its stead that bread which brings death unto his soul.
     If you ask me what is the most awe-inspiring thing in all of God's creation, I will not tell you that it is a majestic mountain towering above the clouds, nor the mighty waves of the ocean crashing on a rockbound shore nor even the crash of lightning and the peal of thunder in a great storm; but I will say that the most awe-inspiring thing in all of God's creation is man's free will in spiritual things. For in it is written the history of mankind, with all its blood and tears; around it, as a pivot, revolves the fate of all peoples and the destiny of all nations; and within its compass lie both heaven and hell.
     O Adam and Eve in your blessed garden, yours was the freedom to obey the voice of the living God! O military conquerors in all ages, who have gone forth to dominate and to destroy, yours was the freedom to liberate and to bless! 0 false prophets and theologians, from Eden's serpent even until now, yours was the freedom to eat of the tree of life, and to drink at the fountain of living water!
     All of us wish the New Church to grow. We wish it to grow numerically and bring its blessings to all men. And we wish it to grow within us, that its goods and truths may multiply in our hearts and minds. To this end, the first application of the doctrine of freedom is that we go to the Writings and learn from them the living truth of God, of which the Lord has said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
     But readers of the Writings, either singly or together, are not sufficient unto themselves. There must be that Divinely ordained use performed by the priesthood,-ministers of God set apart and consecrated to teach and to lead. These, above all others, must be free men.

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They, beyond others, must have a love of truth for its own sake, and with it a courage to stand steadfast in that truth. Without such a free and courageous priesthood, the New Church can grow neither numerically nor spiritually.
     The natural freedom into which man is born, and which he has in common with animals, disposes him to believe that freedom consists in doing whatever he pleases. But the doing of evil and the teaching of falsity from freedom results in a man's becoming a slave to evil lust and in bondage to false doctrine. And in so doing he sells the birthright which God has given him, and is in reality no longer the free man that he thinks he is.
     But the man of the church, by reformation and regeneration, comes into heavenly freedom. First, by the understanding of truth from the Word, he comes into the freedom of thinking and willing in conformity with the Divine Truth; and afterwards, by obedience to the Divine Law and the shunning of evils, he comes into the highest of all freedom, which is the freedom of love. Only those who dwell near to the Lord are in the freedom of love. The angels are in this exalted freedom because they will to be led by the Lord, and not by their own propriums.
     All freedom is of love. This may be illustrated by this common observation: Two men may be working at the same task; one, because he has no love for his work, bemoans his fate, and regards himself as a slave; whereas the other takes delight in his work, and feels free and happy. From this we can easily understand that the greater the love, the greater is the freedom, and that men and angels who are in the greatest love to the Lord and the neighbor are in the greatest freedom.
     The freedom of love finds its fullest realization in conjugial love; for it is an essential of that state that husband and wife should each love to will and think as the other. Men as brethren, and man and woman as conjugial partners, should love each other's freedom not merely tolerate it. As the Lord takes delight in our freedom, so should we take delight in the freedom of others.
     With freedom comes opportunity. We speak of this, our country, as the "land of opportunity," and it is truly so. This building, this school, this cathedral, stand as a testimony to the spiritual freedom of our church, and to the civil freedom of our country; and they bespeak America as the land of opportunity.

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But the New Church is also a land of opportunity. Here, in its God-given revelation of Divine Truth, lies the greatest opportunity that has ever come to any men in any age. For the opportunity to apprehend the genuine truth of the Word, and to rule our lives according to it, is unparalleled in the history of the human race.
     I believe there have been ancient philosophers, who groped in the shadows trying to solve the multitude of life's problems, who would have torn out their eves and gone through life blind, if they could have seen the truths that we are privileged to see. I believe there have been in the Christian Church in past centuries sincere seekers for truth who would have cut off their right hands, if they could have understood the Lord and the workings of His Providence as we are privileged to understand.
     Men at this day cry out against their environment, and clamor for equality of opportunity; but, here in the New Church, we have equality of opportunity in its highest excellence; for the humblest housemaid and the lowliest ditch-digger can become readers of the Writings, and thereby perform their highest use and fulfill their highest destiny.
     In the spiritual world, Swedenborg saw great purses of money standing open, as if anyone might take the money from them; yet with angel guards standing by. These open purses, signifying the knowledges of truth from the Word, are symbolic of the opportunity that lies before all New Churchmen.
     Let us now, on this happy occasion, pledge our faith and our love to our country-a great democracy under which the New Church has prospered as nowhere else in the world, a country that gives us the freedom to worship God and love according to our conscience and our faith, a freedom that is worth fighting and dying for.
     And let us pledge our love and our faith to our Church,-a republic of heavenly pattern, which gives us the freedom of heaven. In that freedom, let us go to the Heavenly Doctrines, and there "take the water of life freely," and thereby enter into those states of love and wisdom and use which are the blessing of the New Church, her rightful heritage, and her Divine destiny.

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NOTES AND REVIEWS 1941

NOTES AND REVIEWS       Various       1941


NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of Publication, Lancaster, Pd.

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.
     A SWEDENBORG SOCIETY CELEBRATION.

     A striking example of the way in which British New Churchmen are maintaining church uses under present handicaps is furnished by an account in THE NEW-CHURCH HERALD of February 15, 1941, where we read: "In spite of the war and all its inconveniences and in the face of bad weather, Swedenborg's Birthday was celebrated at Swedenborg Hall, London, on Saturday afternoon, January 25th, this being the most convenient date nearest to January 29th. It proved to be one of the happiest and most successful ever held. The party opened at 2.30 p.m., and friends were welcomed as they arrived by the Chairman, Mr. Sydney J. Goldsack, and several members of the Council of the Swedenborg Society. They were also cheered by the strains of music from a small orchestra, and by the friendly atmosphere of the hall, which had been attractively arranged under the guidance of the acting secretary, Miss Olive Millman, with small tables set for tea. For half an hour all had full opportunity for free conversation, which was taken good advantage of."
     At three o'clock Mr. Goldsack took the chair, and noted the fact that this was the twelfth celebration of the kind in succession. He then introduced, as the first speaker, the Rev. Charles A. Hall, who gave an extemporaneous address on "The Language of the Ancient Word," the substance of which was published in the HERALD of February 22d.

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Citing the teaching of the Writings concerning the Ancient Word and its first writer, " Enoch," (A. C. 2896; S. S. 21, 102; H. H. 306), Mr. Hall then offered the following interesting suggestions concerning the probable form of the Ancient Word as to its earliest language characters:

     The Language of the Ancient Word.

     "The result of the labors of the Enochians was the production, under Divine auspices, of the Ancient Word for the Ancient Church which succeeded the Most Ancient Church, and was given the generic name 'Noah.' That 'Word' was the first written Word. We are told that portions of it are found in our Bible, notably the early stories of Genesis. But these stories must have been given in a form or 'language' vastly different from the form in which they now appear.
     "It is at least a matter of academic interest to ascertain the original form of this Ancient Word. It must have been produced at a time when writing, as we know and appreciate it, was unknown. Writing is, indeed, a human invention, and it was long ere an alphabet was evolved. The original written symbols must have been pictures of natural objects. The earliest signs were pictographic, just simple representations of such things as are in the human environment. But it became essential to represent abstract ideas, and so ideographs were invented. These were ingenious combinations of pictographs. Some of the earliest picture-writing of the Chinese is still extant. One of its ideographs is a rough drawing of an ear beside a tent door: this represents an eavesdropper. Another is a picture of a man associated with a mountain ridge: this represents a hermit. Even now the Chinese writing is ideographic-an accumulation of conventionalized picture-writing: the Chinese have no alphabet. . .
     "Thus it is suggested that the original Ancient Word was produced in a system of symbols or correspondences-in picture-writing. Later it was reproduced in alphabetic terms. The early stories of Genesis, as we have them, must be linguistic descriptions of a wonderful series of pictures correspondential in nature, and which were never intended to portray anything other than celestial and spiritual things, the activity of the Divine Life in man, and his reactions to it."

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     At the conclusion of Mr. Hall's address, the Chairman thanked him, and said that "his words created an urge in the hearers further to investigate the subject." He then introduced Mr. Colley Pryke as the second speaker, and his address is also published in the HERALD of February 22d. Recalling the objects of the Swedenborg Society, as set forth in the memorandum of association, Mr. Pryke went on to say:

     The Work of the Swedenborg Society.

     But the world has changed since the Society was formed, and no harm, but much good, may come from once more reviewing our objects.
     Before going further it will be useful to consider the world in which we have to perform these important uses. We can start on the common ground of accepting the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg as a revelation from the Lord. In these works we are given a real insight into the interior state of the world. Without judging the state of any individual, we do know that the state of the Christian world is that of a dead Church passing through successive states of vastation. We know that only spiritual healing can restore spiritual health.
     To-day the world is full, not only of the clamor of war, but also of the clamor of those who would rebuild when destruction is past. Unless this rebuilding is to be upon sand, it must be founded on the rock of Divine Truth. Thousands, tens of thousands, look to draw happiness and contentment from better material conditions; amongst a few there may be some glimmerings of understanding that man's ethical standards must be improved, and, what is more important, must be acted upon. How many are there who acknowledge that the fundamental things of life are the knowledge and acknowledgment of God and a life according to His Commandments?
     Many there are who will give lip service to the need for a return to God (we are all firemen when our home is blazing), but how many are there willing to sacrifice preconceived ideas and ready to leave all and follow the truth? Let us beware of loose and hopeful talk. A better world can come, not from an improvement in the standard of living or the material benefits arising from modern scientific inventions-wonderful as they are-but only when the truth is received in the hearts and minds of men.

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     Judgment is the function of Divine Truth, and in the consummation of the age there must be vastation and judgment, in order that the ground may be cleared for the establishment of the Kingdom of God.
     Here, then, we come to the need for the uses of our Society-to print; to publish; to distribute; and yet again to print; to publish; and to distribute-and there are so few of us who have grasped the importance of these uses, and are willing to help to carry them out.
     I do not hesitate to say that there is no greater use at the hands of laymen in this world to-day than to print, to publish, to distribute, the works of Emanuel Swedenborg. Don't let us be misled by the whispering of the hells which would weaken our efforts. Let us turn a deaf ear to those who would say: "Let us first win the war, and then we will take up our work again." Our task is vital to the welfare of mankind-no task more so-and there are few to perform it.     In all this there is not the slightest thought or desire of slackening the many essential activities of the times-these must be maintained-but there is an earnest appeal that these activities should be in addition to, and not at the expense of, our use to print, to publish and distribute. Let some hobby, some other occupation, give way, but hold on to this vital work. The hope of the world lies in the knowledge and acknowledgment of God and a willing obedience to His commands. Without this the victory for which we are laboring, praying, fighting, will turn to ashes. Let us, then, strive all that we can to defeat the natural foe, but at the same time increase our spiritual armory for the age-long struggle against falsity and evil.
     Never since the works of Swedenborg were written has the need been so great. The further the race has turned from the Lord, the Redeemer and Saviour, the greater the need for His Redemption and Salvation, and first in time must come the knowledge of the truth which "shall make you free."
     We must go on with all this; there must be no slackening. Ever more correct translations into all languages, ever wider distribution! Our field is the whole world of to-day and to-morrow. The empty spaces in the shelves of our library must be filled, so that the scholars of Swedenborg may instinctively turn to it for research.

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There may be among my audience to-day some who have within their care volumes of the greatest value to the student; others may know of friends holding such literary treasures. Think well if those volumes are to-day performing the greatest use possible, or if wider usefulness (perhaps also greater safety) would be found in a central library.
     Let us also not forget the children committed to our care. How necessary that they should have all the works of Swedenborg readily available-well translated, well printed and bound, available at low prices! How necessary that to stimulate their interest we should continue our lectures and examinations!
     The Lord in His infinite wisdom has decided on the method of revelation best suited to the men of this world and this age. We have the opportunity to participate in the spread of the Divine Truth. We have not to sit with folded hands. We have not to lead the monastic life, to withdraw from the world. The uses are there; let our share in them be not the fulfilment of an obligation, not the performance of a stern duty, but the joyful sharing in a deep-seated, constructive, far-reaching use.
     Your Council have visions of the day when the apparently feeble foundations we are laying will support a mighty structure. We ask that you, our fellow members, will share this enthusiasm with us; that by your support and interest and encouragement you will strengthen our hands, and, moreover, that you will find amongst your friends new supporters. We need your subscriptions, but we need far more your active interest in our work, your friendly criticism, your helpful suggestions. We do not know who of us will be left when this time of trial is over. None of us knows what the future holds, but we are conscious that in all the turmoil and strife the Lord is guarding His Church. Indeed, He is permitting this very struggle, that the conditions may be established to allow of the Church's more rapid growth.
     The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them." Isaiah xl, 6. " 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, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Isaiah lx, 6.

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HIRAM POWERS 1941

HIRAM POWERS       B. A. WHITTEMORE       1941

     Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE:

     I have just been reading what is said about Hiram Powers in the May issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE. In it mention is made of the bust of Thomas Worcester that was made by that sculptor, and of the bust of Swedenborg that was made by his son, Preston, and that is now in the possession of the Cincinnati Society.
     The price paid for the latter ($500) leads me to suspect that it is a copy of the one that is the property of the Boston Society. The latter has engraved upon the pedestal, "P. Powers, Sculp. 1879, Copyright." The bust of Thomas Worcester is the property of the Massachusetts New-Church Union.
     As the bust of Swedenborg seems more appropriate to the rooms of the Union, and that of Thomas Worcester to the church of the Boston Society of which he was the first pastor, the two busts now occupy positions accordingly, although the ownership still remains as just stated, the exchange involving reciprocal loans.
     Very cordially yours,
          B. A. WHITTEMORE.

134 Bowdoin St., Boston, Mass.,
May 1,1941.
NEW BOOKS 1941

NEW BOOKS              1941

DET NYA JERUSALEMS LARA OM MANNISROKARLEKEN. (Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning Charity.) Posthumous Work by Emanuel Swedenborg. Swedish version, translated from the Latin by T. Holm and E. Sandstrom. Bokf6rlaget Nova Ecclesia, Appelviken, Stockholm, 1940. Paper, l6mo, 112 pages.

A NEW SYSTEM OF RECKONING which turns at 8 instead of the usual turning at the number 10. By Emanuel Swedberg. Translated by Alfred Acton, MA., D.Th., from a Photostat Copy of the Original Swedish Manuscript. Philadelphia, Pa.: Swedenborg Scientific Association, 1941. Paper, stiff cover, 8vo, 36 pages. Price 60 cents.

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Church News 1941

Church News       Various       1941

     STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN.

     April 26, 1941.-In spite of the difficulties of the prevailing conditions, our church uses have been maintained. She members of our society are happy to meet on Sundays at services. Once a fortnight Mr. Baeckstrom holds classes at the homes of different members. The Young People's Club, Vigor, under the leadership of Mr. Gosta Baeckstrom, has its regular meetings. A few ex-members of the Club gather together once a month for the study of Divine Love and Wisdom,-a work well-known to most of us, but always new.
     Several new members have joined us during recent years: Mrs. Lizzie Wennerholm with her two half-grown boys; Mr. and Mrs. Hultgren and their three youths; and Mrs. Areschoug, whose son-a gifted musician-often plays the organ at our services.
     Swedenborg's Birthday was celebrated at the hospitable home of Mr. and Mrs. Hjerpe. Mr. Hjerpe, who is Librarian of the New Church Book Room, made a speech showing how great an error it is to believe that Swedenborg, and not the Lord, has established the New Church on this earth. Mr. Baeckstrom spoke at length on the development of the Church, and I told the story of how I joined the Church, giving my hearty thanks to our pastor. This, it seems, induced other members to give-at a later date in one of the classes-their interesting accounts of the spiritual experiences which finally led them to join the Church. Their deeply felt gratitude to Providence, and their joy at being able to grasp the fundamental truth of God as one, indivisible and eternal, was unmistakable.
     We were happy to receive by cable the Christmas Greetings of the Raymond Pitcairn family, and we send affectionate greetings to all the friends in America.
     SENTA CENTERVALL.


     WYOMING, OHIO.

     If blest by no greater distinction. the Wyoming Circle may justly claim the title of Pastors Proving Ground." Within the past three years we have, with bewildering rapidity, tried the patience of five members of the clergy: The Revs. F. F. Waelchli, Norman H. Reuter, Bjorn Boyesen (as guest pastor), Ormond Odhner, and our present pastor, the Rev. Victor J. Gladish. We speak with some authority when we say that the future of our clergy looks bright!
     Aside from these frequent "Ave atque vale's," our calendar highlights include visits from the Rev. F. E. Waelchli last Summer, and Bishop and Mrs. Acton last Fall, the latter event featured by a series of illuminating classes and discussions.
     Last December we bade a reluctant farewell to Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Merrell upon their departure to take up residence in their new Florida home, where our best wishes follow them.
     We have, of course, observed in traditional style all events of New Church significance-Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Swedenborg's Birthday and the 19th of June. Each of these occasions warrants more elaborate description, but unfortunately this report covers a period too lengthy to permit a detailed account.
     We have been fortunate in welcoming to the majority of our celebrations Mr. and Mrs. Robert Barnitz of Urbana, Ohio, some eighty miles distant.

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Reciprocally, on one occasion this circle in full force drove to Urbana for a service and group dinner in the Barnitz home.
     At this writing we are keenly anticipating a visit from Mr. Charles Merrell, and somewhat later from the Rev. F. E. Waelchli.
     Our circle is comprised of twelve adult members (two of whom are now attending the Academy in Bryn Athyn) and seventeen children, sixteen of whom are within Sunday School age.
     Our pastor is at present absent on his Southern trip of ministration to isolated General Church members. During his absence lay services and classes are being conducted by Mr. Donald Merrell.
     A recent innovation. The Restoration Fund," collected weekly, supplies refreshment for an informal social gathering following class each week. At such gatherings the matter of greatest moment is "What ails the Cincinnati Reds "-A problem which, with the aid of the ball club we confidently expect to solve in the near future l
     As a matter of interest I am listing here the adult membership of this group: Mr. and Mrs. Donald Merrell; Mr. and Mrs. W. Allen Smith; Mrs. William Smith; Mrs. George Cowing; Mr. and Mrs. Richard Waelchli; Miss Virginia Merrell, Miss Gwynneth Merrell; and the Rev. and Mrs. Victor J. Gladish.
     RICHARD WAELCHLI.


     HURSTVILLE, AUSTRALIA.

     We have learned with regret that a report of our activities between July and November last year failed to reach the Editor. A copy of the account in full would obviously have lost its news value by the time it could be printed, but for the sake of making the record complete we herewith list the main occurrences mentioned in the lost report.
     The report noted the continuance of all the uses of the Society, and referred to the enlistment of Messrs. Norman Heldon and Thomas Douglas Taylor in the Australian Imperial Force, and to the transfer of the latter to the Royal Australian Air Force. The young people's club had ceased to function for the time being. The time of the Annual Meeting was changed from August to September, in order that members might read and study reports beforehand, and time be saved by reading only a digest of reports at the meeting. At the Annual Meeting it was decided to bold the doctrinal class on Wednesday evening, thus reducing the number of Sunday meetings and leaving time for social gatherings. The re-election of all officers was noted. Reference was made also to the quarterly Feast of Charity in August, at which Bishop de Charms' address on "The Uses of the Church" was read; and to the second and very successful banquet held by the local Sons in November.
     It is hoped that this outline will help to bridge the gap caused, apparently, by the hazards of war.
     W. C. H.

     NORTHERN OHIO.

     Our group of about half a hundred members is progressing in a very satisfactory manner under the able guidance of the Rev. Norman Reuter, who devotes all his time to the welfare and interests of this little bunch which has recently been brought together into a bond of unity, good will and understanding that is very essential to the upbuilding of our spiritual well-being. Sunday services are held in Akron about every two weeks, alternating two or three times a year in Cleveland and Youngstown. Doctrinal classes are held weekly in Akron, with occasional visits to Niles, Youngstown, Cleveland and Erie. The Detroit group is also carefully watched under the eagle eye of our genial pastor, and he slips away from us about every two months for a visit to the Michigan friends.
     On Easter Sunday Mr. Reuter officiated at the service in Pittsburgh. A number of us, of course, had to go, and the Pittsburgh Society had the "extreme pleasure" of entertaining eight from Ohio and two from Michigan.

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The service and sermon were thoroughly enjoyed by all. Afterwards we assembled in the auditorium for an informal reception with wine and crackers and a delightful social reunion. Now we are looking forward to entertaining the Pittsburgh friends at our annual park picnic, to be held at Youngstown in June.
     The service at Akron on Sunday, May 4, was followed by the customary miniature banquet at 30 cents a head. A surprise on this occasion was the presence of Miss Creda Glenn and her recording phonograph. After an elaborate talk on the art of music in general and our poor singing in particular, Miss Glenn played various records to demonstrate the expression of the emotions in singing, and showed us how music must come from the soul if it is to be truly expressive. It got us to thinking that there is possibly a little room for improvement in our musical development. We feel very much indebted to Miss Glenn for this very enjoyable and useful entertainment. Thirty-three persons were present.
     We are still taking advantage of the generous hospitality of Dr. and Mrs. Philip DeMaine in throwing open their large basement room for our services and other meetings. This is an act of unusual kindness, and is thoroughly appreciated by us all. The fact is that the whole house is made available to us. It seems like an imposition, but the consensus is that the least noise made about it the better, for fear this dream of reality might become a myth. Seems too good to be true. The large basement auditorium appears to be especially adapted to our uses, with our own chairs, dishes and other properties. All we need now is a church building, which no doubt we shall have one of these days.
     On June 29 will come the big event in Youngstown-our annual picnic in Mill Creek Park. A large pavilion, known as Birch Cabin, has been chartered for the day, which cabin has seen the presence of the Revs. Waelchli, Boyesen, Iungerich and Ormond Odhner in times past. It is an ideal spot for our purpose. The Sunday service will he held in the morning, followed by the banquet and picnic. It promises to be a great meeting, and we hope that not less than thirty of our friends will come from Pittsburgh. Nice weather has been ordered, and the park will be all dusted up and ready for us in every detail.
     W. C. NORRIS.

     SWEDENBORG SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION.

     With an attendance of 91 members and visitors, the Forty-fourth Annual Meeting of the Swedenborg Scientific Association was held at Bryn Athyn, Pa., on Wednesday evening, May 21, the President, Dr. Leonard I. Tafel, being in the chair.
     The Treasurer, Dr. C. E. Doering, stated that it would be necessary to raise additional funds to meet the cost of publishing THE NEW PHILOSOPHY during the coming year. The membership of the Association has declined in numbers from 231 to 211 in the course of the past year.
     The Report of the Literary Editor, Dr. Alfred Acton, discussed, among other things, a work of Swedenborg's recently published by the Association, entitled A New System of Reckoning which Turns at Eight, and also mentioned the prospect of publishing at some future date a new translation of the work on The Brain, with the collaboration of the Swedenborg Society.
     The President and Board of Directors were re-elected for the ensuing year, but at a subsequent meeting of the Board, Mr. Edward F. Allen was chosen Treasurer, to succeed the Rev. C. F. Doering, who retires after serving faithfully in that office for many years.
     The Annual Address was delivered by Mr. Gustav Genzlinger, his subject being "Swedenborg's Mechanical Inventions." His remarks were illustrated with lantern slides of drawings of the inventions, and with working models of the hoisting and flying machine; these adding very greatly to the interesting nature of the Address.

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     In the course of the discussion which followed, Mr. Genzlinger answered a number of questions. Among the points dealt with by those who spoke were: The value of Swedenborg's scientific preparation, and its relation to the rational philosophy and theology of his later works; it was noted that the principles involved in Swedenborg's inventions were well known in his day, but that the ingenious application of those principles can be attributed to Swedenborg; he was constantly trying to improve or simplify the application of the principles to new models.
     A unanimous vote of thanks was extended to Mr. Genzlinger for his very interesting and successful treatment of the subject.
     A number of copies of the work on The New System of Reckoning, and of the work entitled Swedenborg's Mechanical Inventions, were sold during the evening.
     WILFRED HOWARD.
          Secretary.

     ALEC OPENSHAW SARGEANT.

     An Obituary.

     With the passing into the spiritual world of Mr. Alec Sargeant on the evening of May 15 in his 57th year, the Olivet Society lost one of its outstanding members in the field of forensic use. The end came at the monthly meeting of the Forward-Sons Chapter. He had just taken his seat after concluding what he described as a "talk on world-events in the light of the Doctrines." This "talk," expressed in his characteristically earnest manner, was perhaps as fine a presentation of thought as he had ever given, and it had profoundly impressed all his hearers.
     Coming to Canada from Birmingham, England, about thirty years ago, Mr. Sargeant became interested in the Doctrine; and accepted them wholeheartedly and understandingly, being baptized and becoming a member of the Church twenty-five years ago. He has served the Society for many years as Secretary, and also as a member of the Pastor's Council and Finance Board. Possessed of a facile pen, a ready wit, and the gift of intelligent expression, he contributed largely to the life and thought of the Society by his papers and discussions on doctrinal subjects. He was also gifted in the art of conversation. He will be greatly missed by us all.
     Mr. Sargeant is survived by his wife. Clara Scott Sargeant, and by their daughter, Penelope Ann, to whom our sympathies go out in full measure.
     FRANK WILSON.

     PHILADELPHIA DISTRICT ASSEMBLY.

     A session of the Assembly was held in the Choir Hall of the Bryn Athyn Cathedral on Friday, May 17, at 3 p.m., with an attendance of 174 persons. Bishop de Charms opened the meeting with prayer and a reading from the Word, after which he announced the subject for discussion,-"Practical consideration of the development of the uses of the church in the district." He had asked three persons who are engaged in this work to present a brief outline of what is being done.
     Mr. Ralph Klein, as publicity manager of the Pastoral Extension Service, then gave a brief history of the Service and a digest of the material now available. The pamphlets so far published contain both educational and doctrinal matter, and should be of use, not only to those who are well-versed in the teachings of the church, but also to those who wish a more Ample exposition.
     Miss Celia Bellinger reported for the Parent-Teacher Journal, giving a history of the publication. The aim is to furnish material that will be of use to both parents and teachers. She gave examples of what is now available in the Journal, and expressed the hope that the members of the church would find it of value.

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She believed that the Journal fills a need that has long been felt in the church, and the publishers would welcome suggestions as to what further material might be of use.
     Mrs. Richard de Charms reported for the project recently undertaken by Theta Alpha. The aim is to help parents in isolated places to bring before their children the teachings of the church adapted to the states of the various school ages. The material in their publication is so arranged that the children themselves will have to respond with work of their own-a very important feature, as the truths taught should thus be more firmly impressed upon the children. Theta Alpha has just begun this work, but looks forward to a wide development in the future, which will come when the parents themselves realize its great use.
     The Bishop, after expressing thanks for the work that is being done, as described by the three speakers, invited discussion, and great appreciation of these uses was voiced, especially of the latest contribution by Theta Alpha. It was suggested that complete sets of all the publications might well be on display at a suitable place in each group of the Philadelphia District.
     The meeting recorded its delight in welcoming "The Northern New Jersey Circle," which has been formed during the past year through the efforts of Mr. Francis L. Frost.
     After a half-hour's recess, the members reassembled to hear the Bishop's Address on "The Growth of the Church," which was much enjoyed by all present. As there was no time for discussion, the meeting adjourned at 5 o'clock, and it was felt that we had enjoyed a most useful session encouraging all to go forward, each doing his part in his own sphere for the growth of the church.
     For the Assembly Banquet in the evening, held in the Assembly Hall, a large and enthusiastic gathering joined in toast and song and in a happy social reunion. The undersigned as toastmaster introduced the speakers, who dealt with different phases of the subject of the "Building of the New Church," as follows: "Divine Providence and Human Freedom," Mr. Rowland Trimble; "Knowledges as a Means of Building the Church," Rev. Bjorn Boyesen; "Our Part in the Building of the Church." Mr. Ralph Klein. These splendid addresses were warmly received. The evening closed with the singing of the National Anthem.
     Divine Worship in the cathedral on Sunday morning, with a sermon by Bishop Acton on the text of Matthew 7: 6, and concluding with the Administration of the Holy Supper, completed the program on a very delightful District Assembly.
     ELMO C. ACTON,
          Secretary.

     DURBAN, NATAL.

     May 1, 1941.-During the month of February nothing of importance took place in the Society, but at the beginning of March the members began to meet again at classes and at various social functions. In order to raise funds, a card game evening was held on March 1st at Mrs. Viola Ridgway's home, and a bridge drive at the same time at the home of Mrs. James J. Forfar. Then, on the evening of March 5, in the grounds of Viola's home, we held a Sale of Work, mostly of left-overs from the last bazaar, and the sale proved to be a most successful affair, far surpassing all expectations, a total amount of L15 being raised as a result of the evening's transactions.
     During March the members of Theta Alpha met ladies of the Women's Guild in the Hall by appointment, for the purpose of arranging the organization of a "Comforts and Gifts Fund for our boys" on Active Service. As a result of the cooperation of most of the women of the Society (and of that of the remaining men) a very fine selection of gifts was collected and made up into parcels for those men who had already gone "up North." The first batch of eight was sent away quite early in March, so as to reach those in Kenya and Abyssinia in good time for Easter.

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To the sixteen men who remained in Camp in South Africa, parcels were sent at the beginning of April, and replies have already been received from some of them. The Durban Society hopes to be able to continue sending gift parcels to our men from time to time, and I am sure it is the very least we can do for those who are risking their lives for our comfort and protection.
     Then came Easter. Our Good Friday Service was held at 9.30 am, which hour has been found to be the most convenient to the majority of the congregation here. On Easter morning two services were held. The children's was at 9.30 am., and at the adults' service at 11 a.m. the Holy Supper was administered to about twenty-eight communicants. Attendances at Easter services were excellent, and we rejoiced to see so many of our soldier members who had been allowed by the military authorities to come to Durban from camp up-country, and spend the Easter vacation with their relatives and friends. The children were given their usual fun at two afternoon parties,-the younger ones this year being entertained at the home of Mrs. Levine, while the older children were again invited to the home of Mrs. Walter G. Lowe.
     Before concluding, I must not omit to record a cheery afternoon tea which was held at the home of Mrs. Viola Ridgway on the 22d of April. At this tea a most affectionate welcome was extended by ladies of the Society to Madame Piat, who is a sister of Mrs. Mildred Rogers. Madame Piat has come all the way from Mauritius to spend a short recuperative holiday in South Africa. We regret that we were able to see her again on only two other occasions, once at Sunday Worship and again at Ladies Class, after which she left Durban to spend the remainder of her holiday with her children who are in Cape Town.
     P. D. C.

     Articles by the Rev. F. W. Elphick have been appearing in a Durban newspaper from time to time. Invited by the editor of The Natal Mercury to contribute to the "Saturday Sermon " department of that paper, he has responded with articles which, while avoiding "propaganda," have not hidden the light of the New Church "under a bushel." The titles have been: "Thoughts on War and Providence," including a long quotation from the work on the Divine Providence; "Thoughts on War and Prayer," quoting from Heaven and Hell; and "Faith and Fanaticism," treated in connection with the history of the Christian Church.-EDITOR.

     MINISTERIAL CHANGES.

     The Rev. Erik Sandstrom has accepted a call to assist the Rev. Gustaf Baeckstrom in the Stockholm Society, and arrangements will be made for periodical visits to Jonkoping and other places.
     The Rev. Morley D. Rich has resigned as Pastor of the Sharon Church, Chicago, in order to accept an appointment by the Bishop as joint Pastor of the Philadelphia and Arbutus Societies. He will enter upon his new duties in the Fall.

     ACADEMY SCHOOLS.

     The series of meetings connected with the end of the school-year brought to Bryn Athyn an unusual number of the parents of graduating students and other visitors from centers of the General Church in the United States and Canada.
     The Assembly Hall was filled to capacity for the closing exercises of the Bryn Athyn Elementary School on Thursday, June 12. The Rev. Dr. William Whitehead gave a very interesting talk to the school, and Certificates of Graduation were presented to 8 boys and 11 girls.
     On Friday morning another capacity audience attended the Academy Commencement Exercises. As always on this occasion, those present were moved by the signs of accomplishment and the promise for the future of the Church. Bishop de Charms conducted the service, presented the diplomas, and announced the awards.

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Dean Doering read the Lessons - Psalm II and T. C. R. 423. The students gave evidence of their fine training by their singing of a Hebrew Anthem, the Forty-third Psalm from the Psalmody, and a song with Latin words by Dr. E. E. Iungerich-Est amor anima omnium felicitatum-Love is the soul of all felicities.
     The Commencement Address was delivered by Mr. Donald Merrell, of Wyoming, Ohio, who spoke on the subject of "Freedom and Responsibility," giving a searching description of the kind of world that confronts the graduate today, offering various kinds of freedom that may be used or abused as the effort is made to meet the challenge to the principles instilled by a New Church education.
     A very well attended Joint Meeting of the Corporation and Faculty of the Academy on Friday afternoon in the chapel of Benade Hall heard a comprehensive review of the year's activities in the Schools, presented in the form of a digest of the Annual Reports prepared by the Secretary, Mr. Edward F. Allen. The complete Reports will be published in THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATION. Following this review, the meeting had the pleasure of listening to a stirring Address on Distinctive New Church Education delivered by Mr. Daric E. Acton. Due appreciation was expressed in the discussion that followed.
     Saturday was devoted to the Annual Meeting of the Sons of the Academy, with morning and afternoon sessions conducted in the zealous spirit that is characteristic of this live organization. The banquet in the evening brought together a large assemblage of men, who greatly enjoyed the flow of wit and humor and the excellent program prepared by the toastmaster, Mr. Richard Gladish. The evening was made notable by the eloquent and timely speeches of Dr. Whitehead. Mr. Walter Horigan and Mr. Sydney Lee. An account of the day's events will appear in an early issue of Tue BULLETIN OF THE SONS OF THE ACADEMY.

     ACADEMY AWARDS.

     Degrees.

     BACHELOR OF THEOLOGY: Harold Covert Cranch.
     BACHELOR OF ARTS: Nancy Corinne Horigan (cum laude), Theodore Starkey Alden, Zoe Olive Gyllenhaal, Michael Pitcairn, David Restyn Simons.

     Diplomas.

     JUNIOR COLLEGE: Robert George Scott, Kenneth Oliver Stroh.
     BOYS ACADEMY: William George Bellinger, James Edmund Blair, Jr., Wilson Bennett Conner, Jr., Paul Herman Deigendesch, Jr., Edward Wayne Doering, Ian Adam Glebe, Gunnar Nathanael Nilson, Lachlan Pitcairn, Stanley Alan Rose, Willard Arthur Schnarr, Oliver Minard Smith, Robert Price Smith, Grant Umberger, Gerhardt King Wille.
     GIRLS SEMINARY: Priscilla Korene Alden, Helen Frances Barnitz, Jean Bellinger, Barbara Blackman, Phillis Cooper, Phyllis Muriel Headsten, Phyllis Patricia Holm, Margaret Solange Howard, Shareen Hyatt, Adrienne Louise Larsen, Cora Virginia Merrell, Ruth Gunnhild Nilson, Beatrice Hildegarde Odhner, Charis Pitcairn, Anna-Marie Rosenquist, Nancy Synnestvedt, Mary Elizabeth Waelchli, Elizabeth Whitehead. Certificate: Patricia Joan Price.

     Honors.

     Alpha Kappa Mu Merit Bar: Nancy Elizabeth Stroh.
     Deka Gold Medal: Shareen Hyatt.
     Theta Alpha Scholarship: Nancy Elizabeth Stroh.
     Theta Alpha Ten Dollar Prize: Nancy Corinne Horigan.
     Sons of the Academy Gold Medal: Gerhardt King Wille.
     Sons of the Academy Silver Medal: Wilson Bennett Conner, Jr., Grant Umberger.
     Oratorical Prize Silver Cup: Garthowen Pitcairn.

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To Members and Friends IN MILITARY SERVICE 1941

To Members and Friends IN MILITARY SERVICE       GEORGE DE CHARMS       1941




     Announcements



     We desire to keep in touch with all in military service who are connected with the General Church. In order that we may inform them of Church activities, or of opportunities to come in contact with ministers and others of the Church in their vicinity, we would ask that the Bishop's Office, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, be advised of their current mailing addresses.
     GEORGE DE CHARMS,
     Bishop.
LAST DAYS OF JAMES GLEN 1941

LAST DAYS OF JAMES GLEN       Rev. WILLIAM WHITEHEAD       1941



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NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. LXI
AUGUST, 1941
No. 8
     The two documents which follow were furnished to NEW CHURCH LIFE through the kind offices of the Rev. Henry Algernon, pastor in charge of the General Church Mission at Georgetown, British Guiana.
     The "Last Will and Testament of James Glen was evidently examined by a British colonial officer on the day following his death. A note appended to its reprint (signed "J. G. C.") says: "It is unlikely that there was anything more than a few old books." In reference to the testator's tart and uncomplimentary remark 'totally excluding the Honourable Weis-Kamer from interference in my Boedel' (probably Boodle), Mr. Algernon writes: "The Honourable Weis-Kamer was the authority entrusted with the care of and the supervision over all poor persons, widows, orphans, etc." Seemingly something had occurred to ruffle the independent and sensitive spirit of the gallant old Scotsman, still conscious perhaps of his former days of wealth, and proud of the friendship of influential members of the colony. Over three years elapsed between the making of this pathetic " Will " and his death on September 9, 1814.
     A touching contemporary " Obituary," written probably by the Rev. Samuel Noble, Secretary of the Swedenborg Society, appears in the INTELLECTUAL REPOSITORY, 1814-15, pp. 445-6.
     The article on "Our 'Saint': The Mibiri Hermit" is obviously the first draft of a lecture on James Glen, delivered in 1925 by the late James Rodway, a well-known naturalist and curator of the Natural History Museum at Georgetown, British Guiana. Mr. Rodway took a great interest in the pioneer celebrities of that country, and had access to a wealth of local records and traditions. The Academy is in possession of the original manuscript of yet another article or lecture on James Glen, entitled: "Pictures of the Past. A Demerara Hermit or Saint."

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The lecture which we publish hereunder is of value especially because it throws new light on the obscure twenty-three years of poverty which followed the sad turn of James Glen's earthly fortunes about the year 1791.
     Space forbids comment upon a number of the things related by Mr. Rodway about this extraordinary man. The time has surely arrived to pay the honor of greater attention to the life and character of one of the leading spirits in the organization of the New Church in London, England, in 1784, as well as the first apostle of the Heavenly Doctrines on the continent of America.
     It is a fact that James Glen had already been an individual receiver of the Writings for three years before his eye caught Robert Hindmarsh's public advertisement calling on all friends and readers of the Writings in London to gather in the first public meeting. It was this meeting with brothers in a similar faith that turned the entire course of Glen's life, and transformed a wealthy plantation owner into an apostle of the New Church.
     If we are tempted to believe that he chose an imprudent and tragic way of life, let us meditate over the message contained in the following words, taken from the last letter written by him of which we have knowledge. Dated 29th May, 1808, and written to Mr. Alexander Leslie, a reader of the Writings, James Glen said:
     ". . . I am bold to say, if the Revelations of Swedenborg are not Divine and eternal truths, not from heaven, but the Divine-human himself, then was Swedenborg the most dangerous, the most cruel, and the most criminal man that ever lived on this earth. . ."
     "I'm an old recipient, past thro' many states of cold, of dark, and of desolate and dismal wilderness you must therefore accept my advice, and be not discouraged, if for weeks together you should be not able even to read Divine truths. These states are wonders of the spiritual worlds, of the laws of influx and reception; they are in time dreadful, but in eternity they will be seen to have been from infinite wisdom and infinite love.
     "Your co-recipient, JAMES GLEN.

     "Please not to destroy this scrip, but show it to Mr. Robert Nicol when you see him, for as I am old, sickly, and weak, it may be the last, and I would fain speak even after death."

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          LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT.
               From "Timebri": June, 1917.

     LAST WILL OF "OLD GLEN,"

     THE SWEDENBORGIAN.

     [On the 10th September, 1814, Charles Wilday, sworn-clerk, acting for the deputy Secretary of the Colony of Demerary and Essequebo, having been informed that James Glen, late of this Colony, had departed this Life did in presence of certain Witnesses open a sealed paper containing the last Will and Testament of the said James Glen, agreeable to the authority in the superscription of the said Testament; and did deposit the said Will]


     Mibiri, Demerary, 7 March, 1811
     and 54 MD.H.

In the name of the Blessed God the Saviour,
Amen.
     I James Glen, sensible of the extreme uncertainty of my mortal life; if God is pleased that I should die possessed of any earthly property, in this manner I Will and dispose of the same after my death:-
One thousand guilders to the poor-box
of Demerary, thankfully acknowledging the
assistance I have received from the
same for ten years. But totally
excluding the Honourable Weis-Kamer
from interference in my Boedel.
The Remainder I will, and desire,
to be divided into four equall parts,
and received in this manner, equally:-
One part to His Excellency W. H. Bentinck, Governor.
One part to Charles Edmonstone, Esq. of Demerary.
One part to Jacobus Meertens, Esq. of Demerary.
One part to the Society in London for publishing the Divine Writings of Swedenborg, established last year 1810.

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The four equall parts having thus willed
and disposed I desire and appoint the
said three gentlemen, namely, His
Excellency H. W. Bentinck, Mr. Charles
Edmonstone and Mr. J. Meertens to be
executors and fulfillers of the same.
Most humble adoring the Divine
Mercy for all his Blessings, heartily
wishing peace and prosperity to this
Colony, and to every human creature
on this earth, I solemnly do declare
in peace, in ease, and in liberty of
free-will that this is my last Will
and testament, written with my own hand.
     JAMES GLEN.


     OUR "SAINT": THE MIBIRI HERMIT.

     BY JAMES RODWAY. F.L.S.

     Author of "In the Guiana Forest."

     Demerara is mainly a wilderness, but we should not expect to find hermits and saints in the bush. And yet James Glen, the Swedenborgian, may be favorably compared to some of those known in history. . .When we know that Charles Edmonstone, Charles Waterton, Governor Bentinck, and Colonel Nicholson were his friends, we can be sure that he would be liked by many of us, were he alive today. But be died more than a century ago, and we don't know where his body was deposited. We can be sure, however, that his soul is free to wander over the forest, knowing, as a poet said, that

     "Earth is part of heaven,
     And every bush afire with God."

     Like Moses, like Waterton, he took off his shoes as he walked on that "holy ground" called the Mouri at the back of the Sand Hills. We can go up the Camouni Creek today, but we cannot find Warrow's Place or the benab that once sheltered the hermit; yet the trees, buds, snakes, and insects are much the same.

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We can hear the howling monkey, and, when lying in our hammocks, he interested in the "voices of the night" which were good company for the hermit. They are always harmonious to the lover of nature, and never fearful or alarming.
     James Glen was a Scotsman who appears to have come to Demerara, as master of a vessel, in 1771. He is said to have been born in 1750, to have matriculated at Glasgow University in 1766, to have learnt Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and several modern languages, as well as navigation, in five years. If this were true, he would have been a real genius, but I must say plainly that a youth of 20 could not have done all that and be fit to become the master of a vessel. We must say also that he was much older, probably ten years at least, for he was spoken of in 1807 as an old man of eighty. . . .
     However, there appears to be little doubt about the date of his arrival, 1771, in the last year of Governor Gravesande's administration. He came into the Demerara River before Stabroek (Georgetown) had been imagined. Vessels were supposed to stop at the lookout station, or Brandwagt, and we can see Glen gazing over the river banks in search of a town or village. Sailing with the tide, the vessel came to anchor off Borsselen Island, where there were signs of life, but little energy. However, the pioneers were hard at work to give us Demerara as we know it.
     Those who knew the second island of the Demerara will remember that there are two important creeks on either side, the Madawini with Pin. Soesdyke, the Governor's estate, and the Camouni with its branches, including the Mibiri where at that time lived William Reid, who had married the daughter of an * Arawak Chief, called "Princess Minda." We can be sure that this girl was worthy of the name, or she would not have been called a" Princess." I do not know whether Glen went up to Reid's place, but as it was usual for people to visit newly arrived vessels and give invitations, we may assume that he did go there. At any rate, he got fuller acquaintance with it later, and with Charles Edmonstone who probably had not yet arrived. There must have been an attraction to Glen in Demerara, and possibly it may have been the beauty of the creeks and the sand-hills.

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Then we may safely presume that a clannish Scot likes to meet a brother such as Reid. The Scots had not yet come in force, but they were coming; and possibly Reid, Glen, and Edmonstone were among the earliest. Barbadians came first, but these were mostly English, with a few Irish; the Scots followed closely.
     * Caribbean Red Indian-H. A.
     Whether Glen had saved money or not, we do not know, but we can presume that he was not penniless. He got a land grant free, with ten years' freedom from taxes, bought a few negroes, and started the arduous labor of making a home in the jungle. He was fairly successful, but, like other pioneers, wanted money or credit, and in 1783 he went to England, probably to arrange with some merchant to give him advances on his coffee crops.
     This voyage to England brought a real change. We may presume that he was religious, like most Scots, and that he was interested in new ideas. He must have been proficient in Latin, and when the ship captain lent him Swedenborg's book on Heaven and Hell, he was not only interested but enamored with the ideas. He devoured it, and was converted, wanted more, and when in London got all he could find. He met a few people who had also adopted the views, and with this feeble lot Glen helped to form the Society which developed the New Jerusalem Church. . . .
     Very little had been done in the way of preaching in London, but Glen started in America by giving a lecture at Philadelphia on the 5th June, 1784. This was apparently the only public lecture he gave, for what he did in Demerara was simple teaching. Here, then, we have a real starting-point for the New Jerusalem Church in America, and Glen did it alone. We must say that he was a brave man, for it does not appear as if there were any sympathizers at Philadelphia. He "cast his bread on the waters," and it was picked up by others. We can, however, suppose that Glen looked on the lecture as a failure; yet its effects can be found today. He did more in Demerara, and yet the outcome was hardly visible.
     The real effects of Glen's change of front were disastrous. The pioneer planter became a visionary-he lived in the clouds, and thought nothing of coffee or negroes. It did not take long for debts to accumulate when no produce was raised to pay current expenses. There were suits, a seizure, and a sale; the visionary was no longer a man of business.

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Did he care? Perhaps not, for enthusiasts bear much when riding their hobbies to death.

     Did he become a beggar? Hardly, for everyone at that time gave the poor man a shelter and a meal. Possibly he was ashamed to ask for help. It did not matter what privations he endured, for they did not affect his soul. We can be sure that he saw visions and dreamt dreams, and would not take an overseer's or book-keeper's situation. The usual course then, and even now for a failure, was to enlist as a soldier, but Glen would not do so in Demerara. He went to Berbice, and joined a rough lot of fellows from all parts of Europe, mostly failures, but by no means saints. Here, at Fort Canje, he tried his best to convert these rollicking fellows, who were as rowdy as fear of the lash would admit. The history of Guiana is full of mutinies and desertions. Gravesande told the Company to send out a better class of people, without much result. They were incorrigible, often refugees who were banished from Germany; hardly a Dutchman could be found among them.
     Glen no doubt had a strong sense of duty, and was looked upon by his officers as a harmless crank. When, however, there was one of those periodical risings of the negroes which demanded special alertness on the part of the garrison, and Glen was found dozing when on duty as a sentry, the case could not be overlooked. No matter that he was communing with angels; he must "Run the Gauntlett" and be drummed out.
     Here we can see our saint, with bare shoulders, tramping slowly behind the drummer through two lines of his late comrades, each of whom was armed with a switch that must be used. There was sympathy, and one or two struck lightly. But Glen stopped, and told them to strike harder, for he deserved it. What did it matter to a man who lived in the clouds? Stripes on the body did not hurt the soul, and even the degradation was of no importance. All earthly matters could be ignored.
     Glen drifted back to Stabroek,* and we next find him on the Brickdam, trying to get an audience for his novel ideas. But the young white men laughed at the ragged fellow who posed as a teacher, and the negroes followed their pattern. He got a shelter and a meal every night, but his appearance was too disreputable for respectable people to take him in.

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He was despised and rejected, but never in sorrow, because the "angels" were always about him. It would be interesting, were we able to get a peep into his mind. From what I can gather, he bore everything without a murmur, and never reported on his persecutors.
     * The original name for Georgetown-H. A.
     Charles Edmonstone saw him when on a visit to town, and rescued him from a little mob. "Come up to Mibiri, and I will give you a shelter! " Glen hesitated; he did not want to be hampered in any way. However, he at last agreed to go, if his movements could be quite free. In 1797, Dr. Pinchard found him in the garret, reading Swedenborg and the Hebrew and Greek Bible. Outside he taught little children to read, and we presume that these were negroes and Indians. Someone has said Glen could not hurt a mouse, and we can be sure that he had no use for the rod.
     Edmonstone received visitors, including the Governor and Colonel Nicholson, commander of the British troops. Whether Glen took account of the changes due to the arrival of the British is doubtful. Probably they made no difference, but as a Scotsman he must have been gratified. Colonel Nicholson spoke favorably of him, and Glen evidently liked to talk with educated people, especially when they were good listeners.
     Glen got his Indian friends to build him a benab two or three miles from the wood-cutting establishment, and here he was quite alone with the angels. But he was not an idler or a dirty hermit. He bathed in the creek every morning and evening, and said his prayers after putting on his shirt. All round his hut were the well- known sand-hills or Mouri, which anyone can see today if he goes up the creek. We can even walk back from the Sand Hills proper, and go over the ground trod by Glen as well as Waterton. We can even see Glen and Waterton as two lovers of nature. Possibly Glen did not agree with the naturalist, because he never killed anything; the hermit collected only plants for use as medicines. But though snakes and bats lived in the roof of his benab, he never drove them out. They did him no harm, and why should he hurt them?
     Some of the ancient religious people favored systems of medical treatment and nursing; it was the right thing for a priest to be a physician also. Glen was an herbalist. In a way he tried to be a physician to the body when he could not touch the soul.

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This was undoubtedly a good idea, and it brought some results. Indians from the interior heard of the new doctor, and came from long distances. Sometimes they brought presents, including curios, which Glen gave to his friends. In search of his medicines, he rambled all over the sand bills, but it does not appear as if he had any of the appliances of an apothecary. . . We may suppose that the medicines he used were much the same as we can find among the river people to-day; some of them are of great use as "first aids" in the absence of a doctor.
     Glen also took up drawing in connection with the furnishings of an Indian benab. Though not an ethnologist, his drawings might be useful today, if we could find them. I wonder whether Colonel Nicholson's descendants have them, and if so, where they are. So far as I know, he wrote no account of his life; only a few of his letters to the Swedenborg Society remain.
     Such a loving and benevolent character must have made some impression on his friends, and upon the families of Reid and Edmonstone. Reid had two daughters, afterwards married to John Barker and Charles Edmonstone. We may presume that they got some teaching from Glen, and that they were gentlewomen. Then Mrs. Edmonstone had six children, three of whom lived at Walton Hall, one as the dear wife of Waterton. We can be sure that they were not entirely illiterate when their father took them to Cardross Park, and may presume that Glen taught them something. As far as I can gather, Miss Helen Reid, who married Charles Edmonstone, was very kind to her dependents, and her Will is notable for its good feeling. What her daughters were like can be gathered from Water- ton's letters; we may say they were a credit to their mother and father. We can safely state that they did not despise Old Glen because he went about in a shirt only; their maternal ancestor was not fashionably dressed. Indians and negroes were round them, living natural lives, and we may say healthier and happier lives, because of their few wants.
     Let us try to picture Warrow's Place. We have a drawing in St. Clair's book that shows us a frame house with the high gable that formed the garret in which Glen lived before he got his own benab. Edmonstone and his people cut the timbers, and made the shingles with which it was covered.

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There was peace and plenty in the home, and people came to visit it, including Governors, Commanders, and Counsellors. Good fare was provided by Indian hunts-men, who were real friends to the descendants of "Princess Minda," who was their Chief's daughter. We can be sure that there was good-feeling, and that there were happy families. .
     We can picture Michael Daly of Bellevue, Mrs. Christopher Water- ton, with the genial traveller coming to the house and getting a hearty welcome. Sometimes they visited Glen at his benab, and wondered how he could live quite alone, without even a woman to do his cooking. Probably the Indians wondered more, because no benab is complete without a real housewife. But Glen was in tune with the angels, and, like some students, wanted to be free from discords of all kinds. The harmony of nature conduced to the harmony of mind and brain. Snakes, bats and labbas did not disturb; nor did the screeching of macaws which woke him up to his morning baths. The voices of the night, morning, and evening were quite harmonious.
     We find Glen in a cottage at the back of an East Coast (Dem.) plantation near Le Ressouvenir in the latter years of his life. What was the reason for this remove we cannot find; but one of the Edmonstone family was in that neighborhood, and I presume he liked Glen.
     Here he was visited by the Rev. John Wray, then a missionary in Berbice. Wray had been told that Glen did not like the clergy, and we may presume that some of them treated his Bible interpretations and the works of Swedenborg with contempt. Yet those who were good listeners pleased him, and Wray willingly let him talk.
     At first they sat under a silk-cotton tree, and it was not until Wray admitted that he knew something of Hebrew and Greek that he was invited into the cottage. A long conversation followed, and Wray was much impressed with Glen's attainments as a linguist, though he did not accept Swedenborg. We may presume that Glen was shrewd enough to know how far he could go with his visitor; in no case reported was he said to have forced his opinions on people. He was undoubtedly convinced of the truth of his own views, but had enough sense to know that he could not make others see them in his light.

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FEEDING THE MASTER FIRST 1941

FEEDING THE MASTER FIRST       Rev. W. B. CALDWELL       1941

     "But which of you, hazing a servant ploughing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, 'Go and sit down to meat'? And will not rather say unto him, 'Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I haze eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink'?" (Luke 17: 7, 8.)

     We are taught in the Heavenly Doctrine that "every man, on his part, ought to draw near to God, and that so far as man draws near, so far God on His part enters" and abides with man. (T. C. R. 126.) It is this general truth-that man is first of all to approach God-that is embodied in the words of our text, where the Master who is first to be fed is the Lord, and the servant is man. The servant is first to prepare his Master's table, that He may eat, after which the servant will be given to eat and drink.
     When, in the Word, the Lord is said to eat, or to be fed, it represents His reception of men into the church and heaven. From Divine Love He longs to save men, and to receive them unto Himself. "I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink." (Matthew 25: 35.) Again He said, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work,"-the Divine work of redemption and salvation, for the sake of which He came into the world, and whereby He forms the heavenly kingdom of those who have received Him in the life of regeneration.
     That man may he received by the Lord, he must first receive the Lord-must draw near to the Lord, and open his mind and heart to receive Him in the spiritual life. This, on man's part, is to feed the Master first,-to look to the Lord and serve Him, to look to Him and go to Him in His Word, preparing the mind and heart for the Divine presence by receiving His truth in faith and life. This is spiritual approach to the Lord. Until a man does this, the truth that he knows and speaks, and the good that he does, are not from the Lord in him, but from self.

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Until a man has thus served the Lord, the Lord cannot serve him. For it is an unchangeable law of Divine Providence that the blessings of the spiritual life can be imparted to man only in a state of freedom in which he voluntarily approaches and seeks the Lord.
     The Lord, indeed, is ever present, and urgent to be received. He alone can give man the power to approach Him. "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him." (John 6: 44.) And yet there is the full appearance that man does this of himself, and it is for man's freedom and happiness that this should be the full appearance. For it is only in a free and voluntary response that the Lord can bless man. "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." (Rev. 3: 20.) And in the text, the master said to the servant, "Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink." The same is involved in the Lord's command to Peter and John, "Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat." (Luke 22: 8.)
     Man prepares the Lord's table when he opens his spiritual mind to receive the truths of the Word. Only this is necessary on man's part; for then the Lord immediately enters to serve man with spiritual food; and in this the Lord is conjoined to man, and man to the Lord. It is such a conjunction that is effected by the Holy Supper with those who are spiritually receptive of the Divine Truth. But this reception of truth by man must be from the genuine affection of truth, not from self-love and the expectation of reward, nor from a mere sense of duty, or because it has been commanded that men must receive the Word if they would be saved. When a man learns the truth, and does good from mere duty, he does it from self, and for the sake of self-for the sake of reward, or with a feeling of merit. This lurks within any perfunctory approach to the Lord in the Word and in worship. But when man learns and lives the truth from the affection of truth for its own sake, then he does so from the Lord, and not from self. And he perceives full reward in the delight of the truth itself, and in the presence of the Lord in the good of life.

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     The angels of heaven are in this state, and so they refuse even thanks for the good they do, ascribing it all to the Lord. (H. H. 9.) Least of all do they expect thanks from the Lord, or any reward beyond the delight itself in doing good. So will it be with the man of the church who serves the Lord with a humble heart, ascribing to Him all the light of intelligence and the joy of goodness.
     This truth,-that man is to put away self in approaching the Lord,-qualifies the former truth, that man on his part must first approach the Lord, before the Lord on His part can enter to bestow spiritual life, which is the truth contained in the text,-that the servant must first prepare the master's meat. And so this qualifying truth, that man is not only to look to the Lord, but also to shun evils as sins,-that he is not only to serve the Lord, but to do so without thought of reward,- is taught in the words following the text, "Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which was our duty to do." (Vs. 9,10.)
     In the Gospel the Lord frequently referred to the relationship of master and servant, and in the internal sense this involves the relation of the Lord and man, or of the spiritual and the natural in man. "The servant is not greater than his lord," He said. A new spiritual freedom after His Advent is meant by His saying, "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends (free ones); for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command You." Thus the natural in man is set free when it is in a state of enlightened obedience to the spiritual.
     But in the parable of the text, treating of the feeding of the master and the servant, the specific subject is that of the sustenance or nourishment of the spiritual and the natural, and their relative importance in the life of the men of the church. This parable occurs but once in the Gospels. The servant "ploughing and feeding cattle" is the natural man cultivating the field of the memory with knowledges gratifying to the natural affections,-ploughing the soil and feeding cattle. But this development of the natural is to be of service to the spiritual man in the life of regeneration. The spiritual man is the master who is to be served and fed first; that is, the sustenance of the spiritual life is to be first in end and desire, as essential to the soul's salvation.

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For when the servant returns from the field, he is to prepare the table for the master, and afterwards he is to eat. The truths acquired in the natural are to minister to the spiritual life, and then, from the spiritual, the natural will also be enriched and blest with a new life.
     We view this proper order in the nourishment of the body. At the first taste of food by the tongue, the finest essences are extracted and carried to the brain. Thus the brain is first fed, and afterwards the body. Mental foods are knowledges, and the finest of these are truths from the Word, which open and feed the spiritual mind, preparing it to receive life-the bread of heaven-from the Lord. For the spiritual mind is the proper habitation of the Lord in man. It is here that He enters to feed man, to "sup with him." But He cannot enter to sup with man, to conjoin Himself to man, in the natural mind apart from the spiritual, even though the natural mind be stored with truths from the Word. For before the spiritual mind is opened by humble approach to the Lord, by putting away self-love, this evil love reigns in the natural, and the Lord cannot be present in self-love, because hell is present there.
     But when the spiritual mind is opened, and the Lord is present there, then by influx He is also present in the natural mind. Then all that a man thinks and does in the natural is qualified by that influx from the Lord. The spiritual or internal man is then the master, and the natural or external is the servant, which is true order,-a free and willing servant, no longer a slave to evil. Before this can be the case, the master is first to be fed; the spiritual is to be opened and stored with spiritual truths loved and willed; and then, from that source, the natural,-the servant-will also be fed, will have life from a spiritual and Divine origin. "Serve me, till I have eaten and drunken, and afterward thou shalt eat and drink."
     That a man may be truly a man, and more than a beast, the spiritual is to rule in him, and the natural is to serve. First of all, reason is to govern the natural affections and appetites. Then the love of rational and spiritual things revealed by the Lord is to become the ruling love, and to have mastery over the natural ruling love, which is to be the servant. And it is a truth that every love must be fed, if it is to live, if it is to grow and increase. It must be fed, both from without and from within,-from the world and from heaven.

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Spiritual love is fed by spiritual truth from the revealed Word, enlightening the understanding, and by spiritual good flowing into the will from the Lord out of heaven. Natural love, in itself, is fed h natural truth,-by the knowledges of natural things, and by the good of natural life, or by the evil and falsity of perverted natural life. The truths of the Word may also be among these outward foods of the natural. But its inner food is from the spiritual world, and before regeneration is from hell. The influx from hell is what feeds and sustains the natural love before a way is opened for heavenly influx through the spiritual mind, before it can be said that the master is fed first, and afterwards the servant.
     With all men at this day the natural mind is the first in time to be opened, and its love is the first to be fed, except so far as the remains of infancy and childhood have stored up some food that is later to be of use to the spiritual mind. The love of knowing and the love of understanding, which are active in childhood and youth, precede in time any actual awakening of the spiritual love. During minority, the love of knowing and the love of understanding, as well as the love of natural good,-at first merely natural loves-are then the source of all the desire and avidity in learning truth, the source of hunger for mental food. And from this hunger and longing the knowledges of natural science and truth, as well as the knowledges of the church, are acquired, and thereby is the natural love fed, that the memory and the natural mind may be developed.
     In our text, this cultivation of the natural,-first in time with man,-is meant by the "servant ploughing and feeding cattle,"-cultivating the memory and feeding the natural affections. But when man reaches adult age, he then comes before the Lord, bringing with him all that he has acquired earlier in life, and it rests with him whether he will approach the Lord in selfishness or in service, in humility or in pride. "But which of you, having a servant ploughing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he comes from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me."
     If, on reaching adult age, man is willing to begin the life of regeneration, is willing to enter the service of the Lord, he brings all that he has previously acquired and lays it on his Master's table, on the altar of the Lord.

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He is willing that all things of the natural should now serve the spiritual; that the spiritual should now be fed, even by the stores of truth in the natural; that the spiritual should rule over the natural. After this submission, in the Divine mercy, the natural itself will have new life, and be fed from a new source with the bread of heaven -a source of satisfaction and increase which the natural can have only from a spiritual and Divine origin, bringing with it a light and delight before unknown. "Serve me, till I have eaten and drunk; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink."
     When a man has thus drawn near to the Lord, and put away the pride of self, he has awakened to spiritual life. He has offered himself in service to the Lord, who in turn will serve him in manifold measure. "Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, that He shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them." (Luke 12: 37.) Amen.

LESSONS:     Isaiah 55. Luke 17: 1-49. A. C. 5293.
MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 504, 517, 603. Revised Liturgy, pages 456, 463, 496.
PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 88, 125.
OUR IDEA OF GOD 1941

OUR IDEA OF GOD              1941

     "How important it is to have a right idea of God may be evident from this, that the idea of God makes the inmost of thought with all who have religion; for all things of religion and all things of worship have respect to God. And as God is universally and singularly in all things of religion and of worship, therefore, unless there he a right idea of God, there cannot he any communication with the heavens. Hence it is that every nation in the spiritual world has its place allotted in accordance with its idea of God as Man; for in this idea, and in no other, is the idea of the Lord. That the state of a man's life after death is according to the idea of God affirmed with him, is manifest from the opposite of this, namely, that the denial of God makes hell, and, in the Christian world, the denial of the Divinity of the Lord." (Divine Love and Wisdom, 13.)

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FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY 1941

FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY       DONALD MERRELL       1941

     Academy Commencement Address, 1941.

     Schools and universities throughout the country are holding commencement exercises during this month of June, and sage counsel and advice are being offered to the patient members of graduating classes. The advice will probably not be taken-which may be just as well.
     Times and conditions change, and the world which my class of 1918 faced upon graduation was a very different place from the world of today. There was a war in Europe, and the United States was one of the Allied Nations fighting against the "Hated Huns." Democracy was threatened, and everyone was exhorted to 'do his bit' to make the world "safe for Democracy." I am sure it is apparent to all of you how well that purpose was accomplished!
     On leaving the sheltering halls of the Academy, the boys of my class either joined the army and became heroes, or entered a university where a little education was mixed in with a lot of propaganda and military training. Some of us got married, and found out that two can live more cheaply than one-if both work hard and live with their parents.
     The war in Europe ended, and this country began the noble experiment of National Prohibition, which was palmed off on a war-dizzy nation as a measure to conserve the supply of grain. The following years brought the bootlegger, hijacker, and other assorted varieties of gangster into prominence in our national life. Business ethics became slightly curdled, and advertizing blossomed into a profession, with the result that ordinary third-rate articles of commerce became "supercolossal deluxe" in a competition of liars. The country went on a magnificent business "binge." Every bootblack became a utility magnate or industrial tycoon.
     Then came the dull, dismal realization that we had been living in a dope eater's paradise, and that the only verities in life-the only enduring realities-were work and a trust in God.

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     "Of course," you will say, "men learned their lesson, buckled down to work, and struggled back to a solid substantial way of life. After what had happened, men avoided those fantastic excesses which had tumbled their dream-world to ruins at their feet." Of course they did not! Instead, men thought, "Next time we'll be smarter, and get away with it." And so we find ourselves back on the merry-go-round ready for another spin, and quite sure that this time we'll get the brass ring for a free ride. We are now preparing to gird on our armor, and to rush headlong into another war, knowing full well that no one ever wins a war, and that many generations to come suffer privation and the loss of personal freedom as the result of war.
     At the same time it must be remembered that wars are permitted by an all-wise Providence for the ultimate good of mankind, and that while we may not achieve the goal for which we may go to war-to "make the world safe for Democracy "-yet we can rest assured that the apparently hopeless chaos into which the world has been plunged is, in fact, a preparatory state out of which will come a condition more favorable to the ultimate establishment of justice in the world.
     Upon leaving this school, some of you will probably enter college to broaden your educational horizon, or to acquire technical training in some such field as engineering, medicine, law, or in some branch of the sciences. Some of you young ladies of the Seminary may train for a secretarial career; or possibly nursing may be your choice; although many of you, I hope, will prepare yourselves for the greatest career of all,-that of wife and mother. Some of you may have to find work at once in office, factory or home, in order to help restore the family budget that has been overtaxed by the efforts of your parents to send you here. Whatever you do after you leave this school, wherever you go, you carry with you a great responsibility.
     You all hope that you will eventually be successful men and women,-successful in your business and professional life, and successful in your private lives, making good homes that will be the centers of a New Church life, without which the church cannot grow or even survive.
     But how can you be sure of success? Does the training which has just been completed in the Academy Schools insure a successful career and a happy home life? It most certainly does not! Does the teaching received here prepare you to cope with the technical and economical problems of industrial or business life?

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Does it necessarily make you a more proficient doctor or more competent lawyer? By no means! Special skills and highly specialized knowledge are yet to be obtained, in order that you may compete successfully with others in the world of business and in the professions.
     But your training in the Academy Schools can and should give you an advantage over all others with whom you will have to compete,- an advantage in achieving genuine success. Your courses in Mathematics, English, Latin, History, and the other subjects of the curriculum, are given to you here at the Academy Schools with much the same degree of thoroughness as they are given elsewhere. In some cases the teaching here will be better than that of other schools, and possibly in some instances it is inferior. On the whole, however, the Academy Schools rank scholastically with the best of our public or private schools.
     Distinctive New Church schools were established because it was early recognized by our church leaders that it was well-nigh impossible to instill into their children an affection for the truths of the church, while their minds were being developed in an environment of indifference or open antagonism to spiritual ideas.
     The philosophy of modern educators is expressed in the following statement from the prospectus of a better-than-average high school:
"The purpose of education is to provide a way of life in which each individual may achieve self-realization through participation with the social group, according to his capacities and in the light of the common good; thus promoting the ideals of democracy. Education should so enrich personality that the individual, through cooperation and service, may have opportunity for happy living."
     On the other hand, an excellent statement of the philosophy of New Church education may be found in the introductory paragraphs of The Growth of the Mind, by Bishop de Charms. I quote: `Education, in its broadest sense, is nothing but the ordered development of the human mind. . . . The laws that govern it are . . . the same laws of Divine Providence which lie revealed in the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, and therefore it is now possible to derive at least a partial understanding of the Lord's end in His education of man-of the goal toward which He is leading him, and of the successive stages by which alone that goal may be attained. Education, as a human work, is nothing but the means by which man seeks intelligently to cooperate with the Lord. . ."

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     The essential feature of the Academy Schools is not merely their compliance with accepted scholastic standards, but rather it is the endeavor to impart an understanding of natural truth in an environment of thought which is in harmony with spiritual truth.
     It is not how much algebra you know, or whether or not you can rattle off the highly irregular French verbs, that will determine your later success. It is not what you have learned here, but what you have become while here, that will count in your after life. All the facts you'll ever need to know can be found in books, but the loves and affections formed during your school years, the hopes and ambitions inculcated upon your minds by the precept and example of your teachers and associates-these things, which make you what you really are, will determine the extent of your future success, and the part you will play in the growth and extension of the church, and in making this world a happier place for all to live in.
     I doubt if there are many, even outside the sphere of the New Church, who will not readily admit that the world is in a rather deplorable state. Nation after nation has succumbed to the will of the aggressor. Within nations there is political corruption, moral depravity, and spiritual indifference. And yet it is becoming more and more widely recognized that, unless there be a return to sanity-a return to religion-there is no hope for the future.
     The cry is for freedom. We must preserve freedom, if there is to be any hope for civilization or for the church. Freedom of speech, freedom to worship according to the dictates of one's conscience, freedom to express the public will through free election, and freedom to work and enjoy the benefits of ones labor:-these are basic freedoms, for the preservation of which all free men are prepared to fight.
     Freedom of speech involves the right to express an honest opinion without restraint. It gives a man the right to oppose the public utterances or acts of any government official without being subjected to reprisal or vilification, provided the opposition consists of statements of fact or of honest opinion, and does not involve slander or libel. Free speech is threatened when any man may not express his honest opinion,-even though it be contrary to popular sentiment,-without his loyalty and patriotism being questioned. Freedom of speech does not include the right of foreign agents-whether Communist or Nazi, English or Eskimo-to use the freedom of speech to attack the very foundations of that freedom.

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Raymond Clapper, in his syndicated column, states: "Democracy assumes that its citizens are able to impose upon themselves voluntarily those restraints of speech which are necessary to enable the government to function effectively. . . . To use free speech -to undermine the government, as it stands in the face of danger, is to pervert the usefulness of free speech, and turn it from a weapon of strength into a shackle." Free speech is in danger in this country from the abuse of the freedom we now enjoy.
     Freedom to worship is the untrammelled right of any person or group to approach and serve God, in so far as that worship does not encroach upon the rights of another people likewise to worship according to conscience. The threat against religious freedom is subtle. In the universal acceptance of an essentially atheistic philosophy lies the real danger to religious freedom. Today there is such a complete indifference to all things of religion that a man max' practice his religion in most respects without hindrance or comment. But when a man raises a religious objection to the unethical practices that are commonly condoned in business and professional life, he is apt to be regarded as a fanatic and treated with contempt.
     Freedom to express the public will through free elections involves the right of a free people to choose the administrators of their government, and to decide by majority vote the course of action which shall be taken by their duly elected representatives. This is the corner stone of democracy. The use men make of their franchise determines the quality of their government; and it can truly be said that any nation in time finds itself subject to the kind of government it deserves. When a small group of men, through the ramifications of a political party, can control the vote of the rabble by means of paid wardheelers, then democracy is in greater danger than it will ever be from any foreign foe.
     Freedom to work, and to enjoy the product of one's labor, involves the most fundamental right of man-the right to obtain for himself and his family the necessaries of life-food, clothing and shelter. God created the earth and all that is upon the earth, and gave them freely to man for his use. To no man was given any special right to withhold any portion of the earth from the use of other men, and there is no moral justification for any economic or political system which denies to any man the right to work and to enjoy in full measure the fruit of his labor.

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     The popular conception of freedom is the right to do as one pleases. Such freedom, enjoyed by an evil man, would immediately deprive all others of their freedom. Genuine freedom is the unlimited right to seek the truth, and to compel oneself to live according to the truth. True freedom consists in the right to do good voluntarily, to restrain oneself rather than to be restrained. In the degree to which an individual assumes the responsibility for preserving order in his own life, that individual can enjoy true freedom; but to the extent that he refuses to accept the responsibility of governing himself, to that extent government must be imposed upon him for the sake of order.
     You and I are not responsible for the evils in the world, but we are responsible for the manner in which we meet those evils and react to them. And this is an individual responsibility, not a group responsibility.
     You will leave this hall today In enter upon a new phase of your life. Now, more than ever before, you will become a part of the world; you will live in the world, and the world will live in you. That is to say, as you grow older, all the natural loves and hereditary inclinations with which you are endowed will become more active. You will seek your use, and you must find a way to exercise that use, as fully as possible under the conditions that exist in the world. There is but little that you as individuals can do to alter greatly the environment in which you will find yourselves placed; but no one is so insignificant that he may not have some effect upon his environment. The real use which you, as New Churchmen, will perform in this world, will be, not the job by which you earn your daily bread, nor the services to your family and church which you will gladly perform; your real use will be the sum-total of all of the human relationships that will be formed during your life in the world.
     There are distinct advantages in a New Church education. You have the great advantage of knowing the true state of the civilization of which you are a part. You have the means of examining your inmost thoughts and desires. You can truly "know thyself." You have, in the teachings of the church, the basic underlying principles that give significance and meaning to factual knowledge. . .

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From principles you can train yourself to see causes, and to think through a problem to its logical solution. Beware of the argument that rests solely on facts! Facts are meaningless unless we can see all the facts that bear upon any subject, and know the principles which govern the order and arrangement of facts. Beware of hasty conclusions! All too often a conclusion marks the place at which a man stops thinking.
     Your education in a New Church school gives you an advantage-and a responsibility,-a great responsibility. For the knowledge of Truth incurs upon you the obligation to act in accordance with that Truth. You know that your parents, your teachers, and their fellow New Churchmen have received that Truth, and have banded together into an organized body of the New Church, in order that they may make the Truth of the New Revelation more effective in their lives. They have upheld the torch which they will in time entrust to your hands. They have made sacrifices to the end that the most cherished thing in their lives-the Church-may be passed on to you, and that you, in turn, may pass it on to your children, intact and flourishing. It is your responsibility so to live and to work and to worship that the Church will grow and flourish in you, and through you in others.
     The influence which you will exert in this world may not be great. It may even be so slight as to pass unobserved. Yet there will be no act of your life that does not have some bearing upon the lives of those around you, and that will not have some influence upon the destiny of the New Church of the future and the ultimate betterment of the world. The establishment of true human freedom can be brought about in no other way than through the individual application of the truths of the New Church in the daily lives of New Churchmen.
     You are the New Church of the future. Into your hands will pass the responsibility for the nourishment, growth, and protection of that Church. We know that the New Church will eventually become the universal Church, spreading throughout the world. We cannot reform the world, but the Lord can; and He will do so as rapidly as we provide the human agencies through which that reformation can take place. The first step is to reform the world in ourselves. The Lord will bring men to the Church just as rapidly as the Church is able to receive them and nourish them. And that depends upon the spiritual development of each one now in the Church.

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     But as long as we are willing to accept the standards and ideologies of the decadent Christian civilization as our own standards of living-as long as we refuse to face our responsibilities-we perpetuate that evil state of the Christian world which we deplore. But when New Churchmen place the Church and the things of Religion above all else in their lives, and are willing to sacrifice everything of material advantage, everything of physical comfort and gratification, and even their lives, if necessary, to the advancement of the Lord's New Church, then will the Church truly become the Crown of the Churches.
     The future of the Church and of this School is in your hands. That is your great responsibility. Your parents and teachers have done all they could to prepare you to assume that responsibility. "May God be with you!"
RECLAMATION OF HUMAN SOCIETY 1941

RECLAMATION OF HUMAN SOCIETY       Rev. MORLEY D. RICH       1941

     It is written that the quality of a church, nation or individual is determined by their idea of God, and by the extent of their acknowledgment of the Supreme Being. We are further told that in the New Church the Lord Jesus Christ alone is to be acknowledged as God, and that the teaching or doctrine concerning Him is the supreme and central doctrine of that Church, as the quality of the life and of the other doctrines of the Church is determined by the supreme doctrine.
     The importance of this doctrine, and of its acknowledgment by men, can hardly be exaggerated. Yet its importance does not always impress us powerfully. Even though we know of its super-eminence, our acknowledgment will be theoretical and vague unless we reflect further upon it, and come to see some of its practical implications and its ultimate applications in life.
     We can see, indeed, that all the other doctrines of the New Church depend upon the doctrine concerning the Lord. We can see that, unless we acknowledge that Jesus Christ is both God and Man, Divine and Human, the Word comes to have no absolute authority. For if we acknowledge Him only as a wonderful man,-a human exemplar of virtue-then His words, although instructional and valuable, are only the words of a good man, some of which are true, while we are free to reject others as mistaken.

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The truth of His teaching is then determined by our own intelligence, thus by our own unaided opinions and prejudices. The Word then has no authority with us, apart from our own unregenerate understanding. So likewise will it be with all the teachings of the Lord,-in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Writings.
     But what are some of the implications and applications of this doctrine in life, even in the life of the body? It is obvious that they have relation to the Ten Commandments and other like teachings. But we would like to examine here some of the other applications, especially in relation to the teachings concerning the neighbor.
     When we accept the fact of the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, we come into a stream of truth,-those words of His which lead us to a perception of the personal dignity and inviolate rights of others, of their talents and abilities. It leads us to see the over-ruling, saving power of His Providence working with our neighbors. And from this we are led to realize the necessity of trusting others, respecting their abilities and talents, thinking affirmatively concerning their states, realizing that the Lord leads them as well as ourselves.
     By acknowledging the Divinity of the Lord we can be led to a strong conception of the fact that He has redeemed the human race, and that with most men who are saved it is done secretly and out of our sight. From these facts we come into an affirmative trust in the state of our fellows. And when we reflect that all human society depends for its continued and free existence upon mutual trust, we see the necessity for an acknowledgment of God. We see that, without that acknowledgment, there is no basis for mutual trust. Hence it is that the very existence of all human society in a free state,-ecclesiastical organizations, nations, clubs, or business associations,-depends, in the last analysis, upon an acknowledgment of God.
     Without mutual trust, indeed, human society becomes a form of hell, in which all men prey upon one another, promises mean nothing, and there is no honor. In the end, the few who are strongest hold all others in subjection. There must be some form of order in the world; and if that order cannot be based upon mutual trust, then it must he based upon brute strength.
     We can see this in another way also. Without an acknowledgment of the Lord, there is no authority in the Word, and thus no framework of mutual ethics from which men can work together.

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Without this common framework, or field of reference, or common authority, each man s ethics are his own concoction. Consequently there is no common ethic, no mutual basis of trust. No one is sure that the other man is operating from the same code of behavior as he is. This eventually means the breakdown of society. It means anarchy. And, finally, so that some kind of order may be maintained, it involves the enslavement of the many by the few, the forcible imposing of a man-made code upon the many by the few, and this in order that men may not destroy each other to the point where the whole human race would be extinguished.
     These considerations throw light upon the teachings of the Writings concerning war. We are told that wars are permitted by the Lord, firstly, in order that the human race may not fall into worse evils, and secondly, in order that evils may be manifested so unmistakably that men may be led to reject them in disgust and loathing. But we are also told that every war is the manifestation of an attack of the hells upon the Divine Human of the Lord. How this is so, it is a little difficult to understand. But if we apply the teachings we can see something of it.
     It is necessary to remember, first, that this attack may be occasioned by one nation or another, or by both. It is, however, on the plane of spiritual justice, and this justice no man can determine. That is, it is not possible to ascertain which nation, on the plane of spiritual justice, is guilty. For in each nation there may be an equal number of men in whom the hells find a ready field for their attack upon the Divinity of the Lord. It is true that the nation which attacks represents, by that attack, the forces which are attacking the Lord and His kingdom and church. But this is only a representation. It may or may not be in accordance with the spiritual state of the nation involved. And while we may say that natural justice is on the side of the nation attacked, still we cannot say that the attacking nation as a whole is also guilty of an internal attack upon the Divinity of the Lord, even though appearances may lead us to a strong suspicion of it. It is similar to the individual case in which one man kills another. We say that this is an evil. We say that it represents the forces of hell. We condemn it. And, for the sake of society, we confine the murderer, so that he may not kill again. But we do not know or judge of the internal or spiritual state of that man, as to whether he is to be saved or condemned in the other life.

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     Essentially, war is a general breakdown of human society. It signalizes the breakdown of trust and regard between nations. It is brought about because, for one reason or another, the people of one nation no longer trust the people of another. Its original cause, however, is a love of dominion or a love of the world which leads to the breaking of promises and treaties, or the code of honor between nations. When that code is once broken, then there is a general breaking down of trust. When a man commits a theft, or breaks a promise, then society perforce begins to feel that he is no longer acting from the framework of its religious ethic or the laws of the country; and so other men do not trust him. And when this state becomes general, then there can be only distrust and suspicion on the part of all toward each.
     In this we view the operation of the hells. During wars especially they endeavor to insinuate the idea that the Lord was only a man, not the God of heaven and earth. Therefore the thought comes that there is no necessity of acting within the bounds of His commandments and teachings. From this it is but a step to the dissolution of all honor between men, to the breaking of promises, and ultimately to the raising of every man's hand against his brother, to brutality, torture and murder. And, of course, the further this process goes, the further are men removed from any acknowledgment of God; for the process works both ways at once. Thus do the hells attack the Divinity of the Lord in men's minds.
     Out of this state of anarchy, men, by their own intelligence, can see only one solution, one possibility of order, and of protection against each other. The thought is that every neighbor is but a beast, ready to do anything for the sake of his own welfare and that of his family, that there is no such thing as good, no such thing as unselfish sacrifice, no such thing as love toward the neighbor, no action that is not couched primarily in self-interest. For this there is only one solution,-a government based, not upon mutual trust, but upon physical strength, a government so strong physically that it can restrain any and all members of the state, which it does by a set of laws and punishments so specific and so rigid that one can scarcely move a finger without taking these laws into account, every least activity being rigidly governed by the state.

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Thus the whole pattern of life, even in its least details, is carefully planned and also precisely delineated for each individual by the government, which exists only so long as it has the physical strength upon which it is based. Nothing, therefore, can be left to chance. No loopholes by which individuals might injure their fellows can be permitted. No field of self-sacrifice apart from the uses of the state can be allowed, lest others take advantage of that self-sacrifice.
     The result is a glorification of man's own intelligence, by which such a perfect system is devised. Less and less do men think of the Lord and His provisions. The whole pattern of their lives is planned and controlled by the state. There is no room for the inspirational power of the Lord. For this would be dangerous; it would tend to upset the planned pattern of the state by going outside of it. It would lead men to think above and beyond the state: and this cannot be permitted, lest forces be let loose which would upset the ingeniously devised economy. There is no room for spontaneous generosity or charity, or respect for the individual dignity of others. If a man should give to another, "not only his coat, but his cloak also," that would upset the economy of the state. The giver might thus catch cold, and not be able to contribute to the state the work-hours of energy which have been planned for him! Or the receiver might become the envy of his companions, and thus stir up emotions dangerous to the government! It would be similar if a man, out of his respect for the physical dignity of his fellow men, should protest or interfere with the flogging or torture of a companion by the state.
     What we have pictured is a government like that prevailing in hell, based upon mutual mistrust and physical force. It is the tendency to which all organizations are prone,-nations, churches, clubs and political parties. In all wars, quarrels or controversies, it is this to which the hells endeavor to lead men, thus to a distrust in the Divine Providence itself, a denial of the Word, and ultimately to a denial of God and of the Divine Human of the Lord.
     There is still another way in which we can view this subject. When the Lord was in the world, we are told, one of His greatest temptations was a despair over the human race. He was afflicted by doubt as to the possibility of redeeming mankind. He was peculiarly and deeply susceptible to this doubt, because, from a Divine perception, He knew His infirm heredity and His environment, and from it saw all the manifold evils of the human race.

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At times these seemed so great and so manifold that the hells could easily insinuate a doubt and despair as to the possibility of redeeming men. This was an appearance, of course,-an appearance induced upon Him by the hells through the body and brain which He assumed from Mar. Nevertheless, the temptation thus induced was one of grave depth and scope. For it attacked His very life's love, and threatened His inmost purpose in being born among men. For the Lord's love is an infinite love for the human race, and His purpose in being born of men was the redemption of that race. If the hells had succeeded in establishing that despair with Him,-an unthinkable thing to us-then there would have been no hope for the human race. The Lord could not have redeemed men, and the race would have perished. But the Lord, from His omnipotence, fought and conquered in this temptation as in all others. Thus men were redeemed. They were given, once more, the opportunity to be saved, and this by the Divinely Human means of the re-established Word and the operation of the Holy Spirit.
     With men also, one of the temptations induced by the hells, by means of wars, quarrels, controversies and strife of any kind, is a despair over the human race-a cynicism as to the neighbor's motives, a universal doubt as to the internal goodness of other men. In- mostly, this involves a denial of the Divine Human of the Lord. When we fall into doubt and despair concerning our neighbors, it means that, consciously or unconsciously, we are denying the fact that the Lord has redeemed the human race, and that He is working with all men, by His Divinely appointed means, to brine them to salvation. That doubt involves a denial that He has established with men the ability to be regenerated, and this by the Divinely Human means of the written Word and of worship, of use and of mutual charity. It means that we are not sure that, by His life in the world, He assumed the Divine power of saving men by human means. For certainly, if we distrust all men it means that the Lord is working in none of them. This, indeed, is what is meant when it is said that all wars are manifestations of internal attacks by the hells upon the Divine Human of the Lord.
     We see, then, that the acknowledgment of God and trust in the neighbor are mutually dependent, just as man's love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor are mutually dependent.

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If there is a general denial of God, then there is a general denial of His Word and if there is a general denial of His Word, then no man can trust another to act according to the same rules that he observes. Men can trust each other only when all base their lives upon an acknowledgment of God and His teachings.
     To phrase this in another way, the internal with men which alone can restrain the power of the hells, and prevent social anarchy and slavery, is the belief in the Lord and His saving power, in His work of establishing His kingdom on earth; this, together with an affirmative trust in the neighbor's life of religion. To the extent that men mutually hold to this belief, and to its hope and trust, to that extent can human society be based, not upon physical power and suspicion, but upon mutual trust.
     This can only be established if New Churchmen and sincere Christians in general "speak the truth, each man to his brother," reaffirming by word of mouth their mutual faith in the universals of the true Christian religion, and establishing that mutual faith by honorable deeds, by sacrifices for the sake of integrity, by external obedience to law and principle, not from fear of punishment, but from a recognition of law and principle as being of Divine order, Divinely ordained. And these efforts must extend down even into the particulars of the external life,-into the honorable paying of taxes and debts, into respect for the property and personal dignity of other men, into sacrifice for the good of one's country,-all the way down, even to the payment of full rates for children who are over the age-limit! For it is upon these things that a free human society is based. Without them it is but a step to slavery, and even to that denial of the Lord's Divine Human power of redemption which is spiritual death.
     It might be asked: "How can we trust our neighbor, if our neighbors generally betray that trust? How can we trust a criminal? How can we trust another nation, if the government of that nation continually betrays that trust?"
     Trust, we must remark here, does not involve non-resistance to evil when evil attacks. But it does involve trusting to the eventual honor of individuals and of nations-accepting their words on their face value as far as possible, and as long as possible. In other words, it is better to trust, and be betrayed, than never to trust at all.

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For if that trust becomes widespread enough, then, not by laws or force, but by the sheer weight of public opinion and of educational environment, evil men will be restrained from going outside of the general pattern or code of behavior. This works to some extent even with men who are most evil in the externals of life. And this general pattern, this freely adopted code of behavior, in a truly Christian society, will be a Divinely ordered one, delineated by the Word of the Lord, as distinguished from a man-made code of behavior rigidly enforced by the sheer strength of a few.
     We see this principle working out very concretely in our own General Church. The whole organization of the General Church is based upon a mutual belief in the Lord and His Word on the part of its members. We entrust its ecclesiastical government to the priesthood, and especially to the Bishop, who has very broad and largely undefined powers of administration. And we are willing that it should be so, largely because we trust his judgment. It is not so much a case of trusting his personal judgment, but we trust and believe that he is guided by the same acknowledgment of the Lord and of His Word that we share in common. We are confident that he submits himself to the same frame of reference, the same code of behavior, the same guiding principles, as we do,-namely, the Word and the Writings.
     Similarly, all our work and cooperation in the organizational uses of the Church are based upon that trust in the faith and life of one another. And so we see that our whole religious association and ecclesiastical life is possible only because of that common faith and life, even in externals. Where that common faith and life are lacking, where it is betrayed, when it is not adhered to, there and then the organization suffers a decrease in trust, hence in cooperation, and finally a consequent curtailment of uses.
     So we come back to the teaching that the acknowledgment of the Lord's Divine Human is that upon which everything of human life depends. And we see a little more clearly why it is that the doctrine of the Lord is and must be the supreme doctrine of the New Church. The New Church will be established in the world, human society will be improved, individual dignity and freedom will be assured, only so far as the knowledge, the understanding, and the acknowledgment of the Divine Human of the Lord, and of His redemption, are established and increase with men.

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NOTES AND REVIEWS 1941

NOTES AND REVIEWS       Various       1941


NEW CHURCH LIFE

Office of 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 rear to any address, payable in advance. Single copy, 30 cents.
     JOHNNY APPLESEED SWEDENBORGIANS.

     The method of distributing the Writings employed by Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman) has been an oft told tale, but testimony on the part of those who received a knowledge of the Heavenly Doctrines from him has not been so common. An example of such testimony is furnished in THE NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER of June 25, 1941, by the Rev. John W. Stockwell, who quotes from several letters he had received from the late Daniel Carter Beard, artist, author, and founder of the Boy Scout movement in America, who departed this life on June 11, 1941, from his home, "The Brooklands," Suffern, New York. In these letters Mr. Beard wrote:

     "My parents and grandparents were all Johnny Appleseed Swedenborgians, and it is from Swedenborg's teachings that I learned to try to lead a useful life. I read Swedenborg's works and enjoy them, but I belong to the Religious Society of Friends.
     "My grandmother personally knew Johnny Appleseed, and used to tell me many anecdotes regarding him. Of course, you know that he planted the New Church in the Ohio Valley along with the orchards, and that he did this by taking apart Swedenborg's works and leaving leaflets at different log houses for the settlers to read.

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Mind you, he had to keep in mind all the different ones, so that each one in the end would read the whole volume. . .
     "Johnny was a very powerful man physically, and he once picked up a belligerent and offending brother and threw him in the creek. All the little children loved him, and be brought them pretty ribbons and knickknacks, dear to childish hearts, which he probably procured in Pittsburgh. He took promissory notes for the young apple trees he sold the settlers, because he did not believe in pauperizing them with charity, but be never collected the money for the notes.
     "Johnny Appleseed had a slender, but athletic, figure and a winning personality. He was a slightly built young man of medium height, about five feet seven or eight inches tall, not heavy, but sinewy and strong, athletic, vigorous, and upright in carriage. He was tanned by the weather, had black hair and scraggly black whiskers. He had a winning, benign face, was usually barefooted because he gave his shoes to the emigrants, wore a gunny sack for a coat because he gave his coat away, and was generally hatless for the same reason. At times be wore a pasteboard cap to keep the sun out of his eyes, and sometimes carried his stew pot on his head for convenience."
DISTRIBUTING THE WRITINGS. 1941

DISTRIBUTING THE WRITINGS.              1941

SWEDENBORG FOUNDATION, INCORPORATED, 41 East 42d Street, New York. Ninety-Second Annual Report, April, 1941.

     From the pages of this always engaging Report, we gather the following information concerning the activities of the Foundation, which we believe will be of special interest to our readers:

     "The printing and distribution of the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, which is the principal work of the Swedenborg Foundation, Inc., was carried on practically unabated during the past year, in spite of some curtailment of income. An edition of 25,000 copies of "The World of Spirits," the middle section of Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell, was printed and bound in paper covers. Some two thousand copies have been distributed, principally to New Church Societies for missionary purposes."
     In cooperation with the Iungerich Publication Fund, 6750 copies of the Gift Books, chiefly volumes of the Writings, were donated to ministers of various denominations. The Foundation also furnishes sets of the Writings to New Church theological students.

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     In April, 1940, the Rev. Adolf L. Goerwitz, of Zurich, Switzerland, advised the Foundation that Miss Ida Zillessen, a granddaughter of the late Dr. Immanuel Tafel, had arranged for the printing of one thousand copies of Divine Love and Wisdom in German, for which she intended to pay out of her savings. But Miss Zillessen died in December, 1940. The Foundation advanced $2,050.00 to pay for an edition of six thousand copies, with an additional five hundred copies on Bible paper, the binding of the latter to be postponed until after the war. It is expected that the books will be purchased from time to time at cost by the German-speaking New Church Societies, and the amount advanced by the Foundation gradually repaid.
     During the year, fifty copies of The Cerebrum, Volume III, were purchased from the Swedenborg Scientific Association. Fifty copies of Volume I and the Book of Plates (Volume II) having been purchased two years ago, a distribution of the sets of three volumes was undertaken in continuation of a similar distribution by the General Convention to medical schools and hospitals having medical libraries. The Foundation has donated nine sets to medical schools in the United States and Canada.
     Fifty copies of Heaven and Hell in Finnish were received from Dr. P. A. Koskenhovi of Salo, Finland. About two years ago the Foundation contributed $1250 towards the cost of printing 2000 copies of this book, and after delays due to the war the work has been completed, and is now available to the Finnish public. A Chinese version of the same work is in course of preparation.
     Of the Missionary Edition of the Writings, 17,273 copies were distributed, as follows: Heaven and Hell, 7,938: Divine Love and Wisdom, 3,657; Divine Providence, 2,474: The Four Doctrines, 2,142; Arcana Coelestia, Genesis 1-VII, 1,062. By regular sales, 2.887; orders received at 5 cents a copy from advertisements, 5,003; supplied free to colporteurs, 7,702; miscellaneous, 1,681.
     "Over three thousand follow-up letters were sent to book buyers who had answered advertisements, and of these slightly more than 200 responded, with many more responses likely, as the last group of letters was mailed just before this report was written. The percentage of favorable replies was far higher than in previous years, only five persons writing unfavorably. It also continues to be notable from the letters received that nearly all the deeper interest and understanding is manifested by people in the humbler walks of life."

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Reports 1941

Reports       VICTOR J. GLADISH       1941

     SOUTHERN STATES.

     A Pastoral Visit.

     For about five weeks, beginning April 23, I traveled through the Southern States, visiting members and friends of the General Church as the Rev. Norman H. Reuter has done during the past three years. The travel was chiefly by train, but sometimes by bus, which offered some disadvantages in comparison with the former trips by car, but had the advantage of being definitely cheaper.
     The first stop-off was at Birmingham, Alabama, where I stayed from Wednesday, April 23, to Monday the 28th with Mr. and Mrs. A. M. Echols, Sr., at whose home I conducted four doctrinal classes, as well as a service on Sunday afternoon. A children's service was held at the home of Dan and Betty Echols on Sunday morning, and there most of the instruction for children and young people was given. There, also, I was entertained at lunch and dinner nearly every day; but on Saturday I had lunch at the home of Mr. Lewis Kendig with him and his cousin, Mrs. Freer, and that afternoon we had a long and useful discussion of church matters.
     At the Sunday afternoon service I officiated at the baptism of the infant son of Mrs. Hansell R. Wade, of Brunswick, Ga., who was staying with her mother, Mrs. Echols. There was an attendance of 8 adults and 9 children and young people. In addition to the seven adults already named, Mrs. Posey was present at this service, and she also attended the four classes. Her son, John Alton, and Magill Echols were the young people present. On each day, except Sunday, there were classes for the children, and individual instruction for Magill Echols, who is reading Bishop de Charms' "Life of the Lord' and Dr. Hugo Lj. Odhner's First Elements of the True Christian Religion. On some of the afternoons I met Mr. Ferrel Storey and discussed with him his reading in Heaven and Hell and other New Church literature. The biweekly meetings of the Birmingham group, mentioned by Mr. Reuter in his last report (April NEW CHURCH LIFE), are continuing successfully, and they talk of meeting oftener than this.
     On Sunday night a telegram informed Mrs. Echols of the death of her mother, Mrs. Merrill A. Frost, which had occurred that evening in Atlanta. I therefore went to Atlanta, to the home of Mr. and Mrs. T. D. Crockett, where Mrs. Frost had been living, and they asked me to officiate at the funeral. Accordingly I conducted the services on April 29 at the undertakers' chapel and the cemetery.

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Besides the relatives and friends of Mrs. Frost in Atlanta, others had come from Charlotte, N. C., Birmingham, Ala., and New Orleans, La.-about a score in all. In addition to these, and the New Church friends in Atlanta, over a hundred friends and acquaintances of the family attended the chapel service. Mrs. Frosts New Churchmanship was paramount. Her religious convictions and her zeal were so manifest that they definitely impressed all who knew her. She influenced many towards the Heavenly Doctrine, and it is my hope that someone better qualified than I will write for the LIFE a description of what the lifetime efforts of Mrs. Frost have meant for the cause of the New Church in the South.
     Mr. Charles G. Merrell met my train at Dunedin, Florida, on Wednesday, April 30, and after breakfast he and Mrs. Merrell drove me to Clearwater, where I met Mr. and Mrs. Fred Merrell at the lunch room which they have recently opened there. Preparations were then made for the service to be held at the Merrell home in the afternoon. At this Holy Supper Service there were present, besides the C. G. and Fred Merrells, a group of friends who had driven over from nearby St. Petersburg-Miss Meech, Miss Janet Richey, Mr. and Mrs. W. Clark Richey, and Mrs. Francis Richey. The next afternoon a class was held at Miss Richey's home at which I read a paper on "Love of Country in Relationship to Love of Mankind." In connection with the service and class, and throughout my stay with the Merrells, there was much delightful conversation on church matters.
     On Friday, May 2, I went by bus across the state to West Palm Beach, where I was met by Mr. Jordan Johnson. Later we were joined at his law office by Mr. and Mrs. Dewey Burnett and Miss Ruby Evans, and drove to the Johnson home, where Mrs. Johnson had undertaken to have us all to dinner. Seven of us sat down to a delicious meal that evening, Mr. Johnson's stenographer having come to help and to attend the service which followed the dinner. The Holy Supper was administered, and both before and after the service we discussed many matters of doctrine and ritual. After eleven o'clock, Mr. and Mrs. Burnett drove me to their home near Boca Raton, over thirty miles south, accompanied by Miss Evans who was visiting them.
     The next morning, after further conversation on doctrinal topics. Mr. Burnett took me for a swim in the nearby ocean, and even during the swim our talk turned upon some problems which had arisen in his mind in the course of his reading of the Writings. After lunch I left a pamphlet and a paper on subjects upon which Mrs. Burnett had asked questions, and returned to West Palm Beach. Meeting Mr. Johnson at his office, we had a long talk, but I will not attempt to give a picture of the wide ground we covered. Mr. Johnson has been an omnivorous reader, in the Heavenly Doctrines and a variety of literature, including East Indian philosophy, and he possesses a remarkable memory.
     That evening, Saturday, May 3, Mr. Harry Hilldale met me at Thusyille and drove me to his home at Oak Hill, where he and Mrs. Hilldale and I talked until late. At the time of Mr. Reuter's last visit, Mr. Hillsdale's mother had been staying with them, and Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hilldale were visiting them, but now the aged Mrs. Hilldale was being cared for in a hospital at New Smyrna, and the Robert Hilldales had returned north.

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The next day being Sunday, we had a full service, with a brief talk to the three children, a brief address for the adults, and the administration of the Holy Supper. Although we had no accompaniment, we sang several selections from the pamphlet, "Selections from the Liturgy." Before supper the children were ready for more religion, and I told them a story from the Word. On the next three afternoons there were classes for the children after they returned from school, and I conducted family worship each day. In the evenings we had long talks on matters of doctrine and education, including a discussion of Mr. Harold Crunch's paper on "Missionary Work" in the May issue of the LIFE, which was fresh in our minds. I also enjoyed several drives in the country nearby, to say nothing of my efforts to keep their roving cow behind her fence.
     From Oak Hill I went to Jacksonville, and spent the evening of Thursday, May 8, seeking contact with two gentlemen listed as members of the General Church in this locality, but about whom very little has been heard in recent years. I found Mr. Louis Rothermel, and had a pleasant talk with him, but I did not succeed in finding Mr. Benjamin Kauffman.
     On my way from Jacksonville to Atlanta I was very hospitably received by Mr. and Mrs. Howe at their home in Albany, Georgia. With Mr. Howe I followed up the introduction to the "Pastoral Extension Service" which Mr. Reuter had given him, and discussed with him various matters of doctrine and of church history. And there were interesting conversations with Mrs. Howe and him in regard to mutual friends and interests in the church. After a brief but delightful stay, Mr. Howe saw me off next morning, and expressed himself as grateful for my visit and desirous of seeing me on my next trip.
     Mr. and Mrs. Henry Barnitz had invited me to be their guest on my return visit to Atlanta. The Barnitz family and I were invited to the Crockett's for dinner that night, and after dinner we had a doctrinal class. We had hoped that three others would be able to come for the class, but Mrs. Crockett and her daughter Sara Mae and Mrs. Virginia Norris were the only ones besides Mr. and Mrs. Barnitz who were able to attend. On the next day, Sunday, May 11, a service with the Holy Supper was held at the Crockett home in the afternoon. Miss Lydia Bancroft came from Milledgeville, Ga., to attend. Appreciation of the service and its benefits was expressed by all who took part.
     The next afternoon I gave some instruction to Lloyd Crockett, who is attending a technical high school, but hopes to go to Bryn Athyn in the near future. That evening there was a dinner party at the Barnitz home for Mrs. Crockett, Sara Mae, Lloyd and myself, and after dinner I conducted a class on the subject of "Attendant Angels and Spirits." This class was attended by Lloyd and Mrs. Norris's son Ray, who is about the same age as Lloyd, and also by Downing Barnitz, who is still younger, but it seemed that the boys were able to get something out of the subject. There were six adults present. The following afternoon I gave further instruction to Lloyd, and, after dinner at the Crockett home, we held the final doctrinal class.
     On Wednesday, May 14, I left for Spartanburg, South Carolina, and was welcomed to the hospitable home of Price and Naomi Coffin at Saxon Mill.

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In the course of a long talk that evening, Price offered to take me to other New Church friends while driving about the country on his business calls. The word "evening" here is an elastic term, since we talked until one a.m. The next morning Mr. Coffin took me to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Mayo in Charlotte. Mr. Mayo was at work, but I had an interesting talk with Mrs. Mayo, and told her children a story from the Word and showed them some pictures. The youngest child, two years old, was content for her part with a peek at the pictures now and then while she ran around the room. I returned to the Coffins in time to have a class with five of their children, aged 3 to 9, which did not include Bruce, age 1 1/2 or Wayne, 3 months old.
     On Friday, Mr. Coffin drove me with him to Columbia, 96 miles away, which Mr. Leighton W. Cozby had invited me to visit, and with whom I had a long talk on the interpretations of the Scripture passages which he had listed during his years of reading in the Writings. We tried unsuccessfully to make contact with a friend whom he had interested in the Doctrines. I should have liked to visit Captain J. D. Cozby at Pineville, S. C., 400 miles away, and Price offered to drive me there, but I felt that it was more than he should undertake. We returned to Spartenburg on Saturday, and that night Mr. Karl Doering arrived from Asheville, N. C. The next morning we had a service which included a talk to the children, a sermon, and the administration of the Holy Supper for the three adults. There was another class for the children on Monday, and in the evening we discussed a doctrinal paper until a late hour.
     Setting out for Virginia on Monday, May 19. Mr. Coffin drove me to a connection at Greensboro, and late that evening I arrived at the home of Mrs. John K. Johnson in the country near Chester, Va. Her son Charles and her daughters Eunice and Annette were in residence there. Two other daughters are living at Hopewell, a few miles away, but I was unable to meet them during my stay. At a nearby house on the estate live Mrs. Johnson's son Richard, his wife (nee Frances Weirbach) and their nine children. Mr. and Mrs. Richard Johnson, the Misses Eunice and Annette, and Mr. Charles Johnson have all attended the Academy at Bryn Athyn, and we enjoyed reminiscing about those days. At a service on Saturday afternoon I baptized Grace and Robert, the three-year old twins of the Richard Johnson's, and at another service on Sunday morning the Holy Supper was administered. This was the first time the twins had been within range of a New Church minister since they were born. During my stay from Wednesday to Sunday I gave instruction to the children. The oldest, Dick, was away at work while I was telling the Scripture stories to the others, but I had some talks with him, especially when he took me for a swim in the James River. I need not enlarge upon the most hospitable way in which I was entertained, the appreciation of my visit which was expressed, and the warm invitation to come again as often as possible. After the service on Sunday, Charles and Richard drove me to Petersburg to catch the train for Cincinnati.
     This, my first Southern trip, was a delightful experience in which I met with a warm welcome, an earnest appreciation, and a zeal for the cause of the New Church on every hand.

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The total number of persons met was 83. Of these, 30 are members of the General Church, 33 children and young people baptized into the New Church, and 15 adults who take a definite interest in the work of the General Church. It may not be out of place to mention that the expense of this trip was more nearly met by contributions than has been the case with an extended trip in the Southern States for some years. Our friends in this part of the country have had greater difficulties in maintaining contact with the Church than has been the case in most regions. I look forward to visiting them soon again, and I shall be grateful for the opportunity of responding to their efforts in any way in which I can be of service.
     VICTOR J. GLADISH.
SOUTH AFRICAN-MISSION 1941

SOUTH AFRICAN-MISSION       F. W. ELPHICK       1941

     May 15, 1941.

     Our last contribution relating to the Mission was written in July, 1940, and appeared in the issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE for December, 1940. During the last twelve months the greater part of the work of the Mission has continued in a quiet and normal way. Sunday services have been held with fair regularity at the following centers: Alexandra Township, Johannesburg; Deepdale, Natal; Mayville and Turner's Avenue, Durban, Natal; Greylingstad, Transvaal; Hambrook, Natal; Kalabasi, Natal; "Kent Manor," Zululand; Mablabatini, Zululand; Sterkstroom, Cape Province; and at Katazo, Zululand, until March, 1941, when Leader Kalishwayo and his Society resigned from the General Church Mission and joined the "New" Mission.
     Although, officially, the Day Schools had to be closed down at the end of 1939, on account of the curtailment of funds, small schools have been maintained by Native initiative at "Kent Manor," Zululand, and Greylingstad, Transvaal. Such efforts have undoubtedly been due to the strong Native vision of THE NEW CHURCH as distinct from the old theology of the First Christian Church, and the desire that young minds he kept in the sphere of the True Christian Religion for as many school-years as possible. But it remains to be seen how long these schools can abide, since a number of conditions make the undertaking exceedingly difficult. In this connection it should be mentioned that long-laid plans had been made far the gradual building up of a distinctive school for the training of school teachers of our faith, in addition to the theological school that was established in 1921. And some of these plans were in actual effect, as the result of many years of preparation, but had to be abandoned when the recent division in the Mission occurred.
     The most important event of recent date was the Special Meeting of the Native Ministers of the Mission, held at Durban, March 11-16. 1941. Twelve attended-the then full complement of Ministers and Leaders after the drastic changes reported in my historical review in NEW CHURCH LIFE for December, 1940, pages 595-600.

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     At this meeting it was necessary to consider the hard facts as to the ways and means of earning a living, in view of the greatly reduced stipends. The Bishop's message to the Superintendent of October 9, 1939, was again read and considered. That message stated in part: "The Native Ministers must realize that the General Church cannot possibly support the Mission in future as it has been in the past. We recognize, however, our obligation to give spiritual help and guidance to those who ask for it, and to supplement this with financial help so far as we have the means to do so. Everything possible will be done to give some little material support to those who sincerely believe in the central doctrine that the plain teaching of the Writings alone has Divine Authority in the Church, and who, in loyalty to this principle, wish to remain with our body. We offer no external inducements, however. A serious financial sacrifice will be involved, and only those who are willing to face this sacrifice for the sake of their convictions can be encouraged to stay."
     The details were then thoroughly discussed, and it was noted by the Meeting that it was not a matter of "external inducements," but of necessitous living, the stipends already being below the requirements for husband, wife and growing family. This subject occupied the deliberations of the Meeting for the greater part of the week. The Superintendent absented himself from two sessions, so that the Ministers might thrash out the problems in their own way and in fuller freedom. The final result of all the sessions was then minuted, and a cablegram was sent to the Rev. Theodore Pitcairn, asking him to allow the use of certain properties in Natal and Zululand for the continued use of our Mission. Accordingly, a mutual arrangement has been made whereby, with a loan agreement for a year, the two Missions will divide the properties for mutual use, those in Natal and Zululand for the General Church Mission, and those in Basutoland and at Alpha, including the Press, for the "New" Mission. This plan will afford time for further consideration, since both sides need, very seriously, to note what is just and what is the moral responsibility involved in this Mission undertaking, which has been divided by the force of a difference in doctrinal opinion.
     With regard to the stipends given the Ministers, these have been reduced as far as possible; but it should be remembered that the support and maintenance of Native Missions involve problems and policies of a nature quite different from those familiar to our own Societies.
     Finally, we note that the two concluding sessions of the March Meeting heard with much interest the recordings of the General Assembly Addresses of Bishop George de Charms and Bishop Alfred Acton. And a resolution was passed, and conveyed to the Rev. Twentyman Mofokeng at Alpha, Ladybrand, sending a message of greeting from the Zulu Ministers of the General Church to the Basutoland section of the "New" Mission. On Sunday, March 16, a full service of worship was held at Mayville, and the Holy Supper administered.

     F. W. ELPHICK,
          Superintendent.

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Church News 1941

Church News       Various       1941

     HURSTVILLE, AUSTRALIA.

     With two exceptions the program outlined in our last report was fully entered upon in March. These exceptions were two notable open meetings, held on the first and second Wednesday evenings in the month, at which the recordings of Bishop de Charms' and Bishop Acton's Addresses to the last General Assembly were heard. These meetings were held in the hospitable home of Mr. and Mrs. T. R. Taylor, which enhanced the social atmosphere and added to the enjoyment of the occasion. Appropriate social songs were sung at each meeting, and the discussion aroused by the addresses lasted well over the allotted time and was continued over refreshments. It was a great joy to the Society to hear Bishop de Charms again, and to hear for the first time Bishop Acton who has been known for so long through his writings. Deep gratitude was expressed to these gentlemen for their addresses, and for the generosity which had made it possible for us to hear them.
     Doctrinal class was resumed on the third Wednesday in March, when the Pastor commenced a series of lectures on the Ten Commandments. The new form of monthly evening service which was introduced in this month has proved very beautiful in use, and appears to have won general approval and good support. A feature of special interest and high quality has been the interlude of vocal music, and the Society is indebted to the group of young people who are giving their services in this use, and to Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher who are training them so well.
     The young people's class is being well supported in every way by the group for which it was formed; and although the philosophy class, which is studying the Rational Psychology, seems to be limited in its appeal, those who attend appear to be keenly interested.
     At the annual meeting of the local Chapter of the Sons of the Academy, held on the 23d, the Presidency passed into the capable hands of Mr. Lindthman Heldon, who marked his accession to office by giving a most useful and interesting address on "Human Freedom." By way of contrast, the April meeting heard an informative address on "The History of the Film Industry" from Mr. Sydney Heldon, who has been engaged in that industry for a number of years.

     Easter.

     The main events in April were those which centered in the celebration of Easter. The usual service was held on Good Friday evening, the sermon being on the Lord's last words from the cross, "It is Finished!" (John 19: 30.) The service on Easter Sunday morning was exceptionally well attended. After the sermon. which was based on the question, "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" (Luke 24: 5, 6), the Holy Supper was administered to 21 communicants. A children's service was held in the afternoon at which a talk was given on the Lord's glorification; and at the quarterly Feast of Charity in the evening the Pastor gave an address on the origin, significance, history, and uses of feasts of charity and social suppers.
     By general consent a tennis tournament was substituted for the Easter Monday picnic.

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There were no prizes, and perhaps some physical regrets the next day, but the tournament was so much enjoyed by those who played that another was scheduled for April 25, the next public holiday.
     It is always pleasant to be able to report an increase, and we are happy to conclude these notes by announcing the birth of a son to Mr. and Mrs. Ossian Heldon on April 27; the more so as Mrs. Heldon and the baby are progressing most favorably.
     W. C. H.

     BRYN ATHYN.

     New Church Day.

     "One of the most successful celebrations of June 19th in many years" was the verdict of a great number of people who expressed their views regarding the observance this year. In times past it has often been said that a satisfactory celebration for the children has been neglected in favor of a more extensive one for adults, and vice versa. But this time a well- balanced program for the Day seemed to meet the needs of all sections of our congregation. The weather was perfect, if a trifle warm, and this contributed much to the day's enjoyment.
     The activities began with a morning service in the Cathedral for the Quarterly Administration of the Holy Supper, the delightful sphere of which service was considerably enhanced by the Ordination of Mr. Harold C. Cranch into the First Degree of the Priesthood. The musical features included an especially beautiful rendering of "Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem" by wind and stringed instruments.
     In the afternoon at four o'clock a children's service in the cathedral was conducted by the Rev. Elmo Acton, who spoke to them about the meaning of the Day. Gathering in the choir hall, the children marched in procession along the north side of the church to the west door, and up the center aisle to make their offerings at the chancel. At the close of the service, the procession retired by the west door and the south side of the church to the east lawn, where refreshments were served in the form of ice cream and cakes.
     The festivities of the day ended with a banquet in the Assembly Hall at 7.00 p.m. The Rev. Dr. Eldred E. Iungerich, as toastmaster, provided an interesting program of toasts, speeches and songs, the latter including a new setting of the Song of the Seraphim (Isaiah 6: 3) arranged by Mrs. Besse E. Smith to music from Gaul's "Holy City," and sung in Hebrew by a vocal group under the direction of Mrs. Reginald Smith.
     As an introduction to the speaking program, the toastmaster read a paper by the Rev. Erik Sandstrom on "The State of Judas Iscariot," explaining in a satisfying manner how it was that Judas was among the Twelve Apostles when they were sent forth by the Lord to proclaim His Second Advent.
     The next speaker was Mrs. Albert J. De Horsey, whose theme was the Lord's operating, "both mediately and immediately," for the establishment of the New Church, and she emphasized that this is effected by the growth of the good of the New Church in the individual, and by an internal resistance to the evils and falsities of the former Church.
     The Rev. Harold Cranch spoke on "The Vision of the Holy City," and set forth the representation of the Twelve Apostles, as compared with the Twelve Tribes of Israel, whose names were inscribed upon the gates of the New Jerusalem.
     Following this prepared program, several other speakers made brief remarks, and the evening came to a close with a fine speech by Bishop de Charms and a toast to "The Bishops of the General Church, Past, Present and Future."
     W. R. C.


     DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

     On Sunday, May 25, our group membership converged upon Saginaw, Mich., for our annual double-feature event-a service at the Geoffrey Childs' residence, plus a very substantial and appetizing dinner generously provided by Mr. and Mrs. Childs.

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     At the service we had the pleasure of again hearing the Rev. F. E. Waelchli, who was a visitor at the Childs' home, and who very kindly consented to preach the sermon. It was an unfolding of the spiritual sense involved in the benediction which commences with the words: "The Lord bless thee and keep thee!" As always, Mr. Waelchli's words were full of wisdom, beauty and inspiration. Our pastor, the Rev. Norman Reuter, assisted in the worship.
     After the service we were summoned by the dinner gong to tables which had been placed in three of the large rooms, in order to accommodate the crowd of 44 persons who attended this bang-up affair. So much food had been provided, and such constant service was given by the waitresses, that it was indeed difficult to avoid over-indulging in the tempting viands. After the wine had been served there were toasts one especially to the happiness of Miss Beatrice Cook and Mr. Walter Childs, whose engagement was recently announced. To this Walter quite feelingly responded. Mr. Geoffrey Childs then gave a talk on the sin of "elation of mind," which had been referred to in the sermon. There were responses by Mr. Waelchli and Mr. Reuter and some other brief talks.
     Visitors on this occasion were Mr. and Mrs. Graham Gurney of Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Graham will he well remembered by Bryn Athyn students of a former generation. We had not seen him for several years, and were glad to welcome him.
     Our last meeting prior to the Summer vacation was held on Sunday, June 22, at the home of the French family at Walled Lake, Mich. This was a sort of Summer outing for the group, and served as a fitting climax to our year's activities. The weather was very hot, and soon after the service was over most of the group were in bathing togs and headed for the nearby lake. Then we spread our baskets under the trees and enjoyed a picnic lunch. Mr. and Mrs. French provided coffee and ice cream, which were much appreciated. A few of us had to leave for home early, but most remained and spent the rest of the afternoon in playing ball and enjoying dips in the lake.
     It should be recorded that on both of these occasions Mr. Reuter spent several days at Detroit, conducting his usual doctrinal and children's classes. It was at the close of his June visit, while at the Synnestvedt home, that he received word of his father s serious illness, and had to make a hurried journey to Chicago through the night. Shortly after his arrival his father passed away. We all deeply sympathize with our pastor in his bereavement.
     It is planned to hold the first of our 1941-1942 schedule of meetings during the last week of August. At this meeting final arrangements will be made for the Middle West Assembly, which is to be held at Detroit the latter part of September, when we hope and expect to have Bishop de Charms as our guest.
     W. W. W.

     COLCHESTER, ENGLAND.

     A special Palm Sunday service was held in our church on April 6, with an excellent address to the children on the subject of the Lord's "Entry into Jerusalem." Offerings of flowering plants were made by all the children, and this act with soft organ music was very impressive.
     The society was able to hold a celebration over the Easter week-end, when we were fortunate in having with us the Rev. and Mrs. A. Wynne Acton from London, and the Misses Beatrice and Sylvia Waters from Llanfairfechan. We were also glad to welcome Mr. Donald Boozer, back from hospital looking remarkably fit, and Mr. John Boozer on leave from training in war work. A social was held on Saturday evening, April 12, and this was evidently enjoyed by all present.

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     At the Easter Service on Sunday morning the sermon by Mr. Pryke was on the subject of The Divine Human and the Holy Supper," and the Sacrament was administered by Mr. Acton. In the afternoon we gathered again to hear an extremely interesting paper by Mr. Acton on "A New Church View of Government," which was followed by a useful discussion. Tea was served at five o'clock, and the proceedings closed with singing from the Revised Liturgy and the Psalmody. A resounding rendering of the 45th Psalm was a fitting conclusion of a very enjoyable week-end.
     In the afternoon of Sunday, May 25, the Rev. Martin Pryke gave us a very interesting paper on the subject of "The Church." A discussion followed, and our thanks go to our young minister for making things so clear for us. Tea and singing concluded some happy hours together.
     A Dig for Victory" campaign has been conducted on the church grounds, and here seeds from our Bryn Athyn friends have been sown, as well as in our home gardens. All in the society are in good health and spirits, and carrying on the uses as usual.
     E. B.


     AN OBITUARY.

     Adolph William Reuter.

     By the death of Mr. Reuter on June 23 at the age of 72 years, the Immanuel Church lost one of its older members, and one who was held in the highest esteem and affection.
     In Erfurt, Germany, where he was born in 1869, and where be lived as a small boy, he had sat at the desk which was once assigned to Martin Luther. Brought up in the Lutheran faith, he received the Heavenly Doctrines in middle life and was baptized by the Rev. E. J. E. Schreck in 1912, later becoming a member of the General Church, and of the society in Glenview. He was married to Gertrude Draeger in 1898, the Rev. Thomas King officiating at the wedding.
     Mr. and Mrs. Reuter have had considerable to do with the development of The Park at Glenview, having purchased the land extension now known as Park Lane, and subdivided it to provide more building lots for a number of New Church families at low cost. They not only brought up their own three children,-Maude (Mrs. Harold P. McQueen), Norman and Warren-but also the two children of Mrs. Reuter's sister,-George and Dorothy Fisk. Mr. Reuter was devoted to this family, and rejoiced that all of them became useful members of the New Church, one of them a minister,-the Rev. Norman H. Reuter, Visiting Pastor of the General Church.
     From time to time, when something from the pulpit especially aroused his interest, Mr. Reuter would set it up in type by hand, and print a number of copies to be distributed by the pastor. The last meeting he was able to attend, and which he much enjoyed, was the annual banquet of the local chapter of the Sons of the Academy, at which Prof. Eldric Klein was the speaker.
     His life was devoted to the work of printing, and he had been associated with several important newspapers in Chicago, of late with the CHICAGO TIMES. He was an expert compositor, and his co-workers testified that his work was always a delight, because of its exactness and general excellence. He loved usefulness, and his time was constantly devoted to work. His recreation also was work-at home with tools in the house and garden. Mr. Reuter was one of those people who seem to be well-disposed and good by nature, always dependable and honest, always friendly and helpful. Several of those who knew him, both within and without the society of the Church, have said, in the very familiar form: "He was a good man and if there were more people in the world like him, it would be a better place to live in."

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This seems to express him, and our appreciation of him, very well.
     GILBERT H. SMITH.


     GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS.

     With May and June came the usual influx of visitors and home-coming students. Among the special events that brought many visitors were two marriages, three baptisms, and three deaths. We feel sorry at the passing to the spiritual world of Jimmy Scalbom, aged 13, Mr. Adolph Reuter, aged 72 and Mr. Chester Heimgartner, aged 29, but we realize that they will now find eternal happiness. The weddings were very beautiful, that of Mr. Cyril Day and Virginia Cole taking place on May 10, and that of Robert Brown and Helen Pollock on May 31. We wish all these young people joy in their married lives.
     Our musical ears were kept in tune by a Musicale, a Recital, and a Cantata, all under the able leadership of Professor Jesse Stevens, whose untiring efforts with our youngsters is much appreciated.
     Theta Alpha gave a tea and entertainment on May 18th, and on the 24th the Glenview Sons held their annual installation banquet, with Mr. Harold McQueen as toastmaster. The guest of honor was Professor Eldric Klein, who gave a most interesting talk. His paper had no specific title, but with reasonable accuracy we can say that it was "an historical sketch of early New Church families, with statistics which illustrated the desirability of New Church education and community life." The discussion that followed showed the extreme interest felt in the subject.
     At the closing exercises of the Immanuel Church School on June 14 the seven "Ninth Graders" completed their courses and graduated. They were: Philip Gladish, Nadia Smith, Kenneth McQueen, Jacqueline Synnestvedt, Louis King, Marcia Henderson, and Winton Brewer. The two latter received special honor as "Outstanding students," and were presented with gold medals by the local post of the American Legion.
     The June 19th celebration lasted all day. The morning service in the church was followed by a basket lunch at noon, games in the afternoon, and a banquet in the evening at which Mr. Russell Stevens, toastmaster, helped make a great success of the evening. On this occasion. Mr. Albert D. Henderson announced the engagement of his daughter, Alice, to Mr. Bruce Glenn of Bryn Athyn. During the festivities a beautiful New Church flag was presented to the society by the graduating class.
     The Home Coming Dance on June 21st took the form of a typical Southern Ball, with Roger Barnitz and his band supplying the music for an evening that was enjoyed by young and old.
     July Fourth was an eventful day. The parade and flag-raising were followed by a short patriotic program indoors, which consisted of a series of historical events acted out by the children in appropriate costumes. Races came next, then a delicious picnic, and finally a baseball game.
     HAROLD P. MCQUEEN.
          (Muriel assisting)

     INDIA.

     Reports of Mr. D. Gopaul Chetty's New Church work in India, from April, 1940, to March 1. 1941, are summarized by Mr. H. N. Morris in The New-CHURCH Hessen of June 21, 1941, from which we quote in part:
     "The war, he reports, has not affected India in any way, and things have been going on as peacefully and happily as before, and his New Church work has not been disturbed. During the eleven months he sold 171 copies of his Tamil translation of The Heavenly Doctrine, 48 of Divine Providence, seven of Divine Love and Wisdom, and 110 of Heaven and Hell-in all 336 volumes. In addition, he has sent free copies to newspapers, public libraries, and leading Tamil scholars: 144 copies of Heaven and Hell, and 45 copies of The Heavenly Doctrine.

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At public missionary meetings he has distributed 170 books and booklets, and has sent out 2,000 copies of catalogues, leaflets, and advertisements of Heaven and Hell.
     "A meeting was held in Madras on January 29, 1941, to celebrate the 253rd anniversary of the birth of Swedenborg. An address was given, entitled 'A Brief History of a Wonderful Man,' followed by speeches.
     "He tells of twelve different missionary tours made by him during the eleven months, covering a wide area in Southern India. During all these tours he delivered lectures on Swedenborg's teachings, sold books and distributed booklets and leaflets, and talked with many people.
     "Mr. Chetty expresses his sorrow that his book, Jesus is God, has not yet been published, as he believes it would be of immense use in India, dispelling the ignorance among the Hindus, and leading them to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as the true Incarnate God."


     LONDON, ENGLAND.

     Argyle Square Church.

     In THE NEW-CHURCH HERALD of June 28, 1941, the Report of the Rev. Harry Hilton, Minister of the Argyle Square Church, describes the destruction of the church building of that Conference Society, as follows:
     "The Argyle Square Church is no more. The first heavy bomb fell in the immediate neighborhood on September 10th, doing severe damage to adjacent properties and causing many fatal casualties, and doing some slight damage to the church building. A few days later an unexploded antiaircraft shell crashed through the church roof, doing considerable damage to the slates. Another bomb, in Argyle Square, some fifty yards in front of the church doors, caused further slight damage, and some heavy debris from a bomb in Cromer Street inflicted large-scale damage upon the church roof, a few yards from where the first repairs had been effected. For some time it has not been practicable to meet for services in the church, and the schoolroom had been adapted to meet our requirements. Our last service was held there on October 13th, the occasion being the Harvest Festival, and those of us who were present will carry the memory of that service with us all our days.
     "On October 16th a land-mine fell about thirty yards to the rear of the building, and the church was wrecked. That also presented a sight to our eyes that will never be effaced from memory. We were fortunately able to salvage much of the movable property-the Communion plate, the altar, the lectern and the Bible stand, which had been in use in the schoolroom, and most of the books, chairs and crockery. The church has since been completely demolished, and nothing is now left but the site."


     ORDINATIONS.

     Cranch.-At Bryn Athyn. Pa., June 19, 1941, Mr. Harold Covert Cranch, into the First Degree of the Priesthood, Bishop George de Charms officiating.


     MIDDLE WEST ASSEMBLY.

     Members and friends of the General Church of the New Jerusalem are invited to attend the Middle West District Assembly which will be held at Detroit, Michigan, on Saturday and Sunday, September 27 and 28, 1941. For full particulars and reservations, please communicate with Mr. J. E. Lindrooth, V. M. C. A., 220 North Michigan Avenue, Saginaw, Michigan.


     A CORRECTION.

     On page 267 of the June issue of New CHURCH LIFE, under the heading of Urbana, Ohio, an inexplicable error has been recorded. Please alter the entry to read: "Mrs. Robert G. (Harryet Boal) Barnitz."
     HUGO LJ. ODHNER,
     Secretary.

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MILITARY SERVICE COMMITTEE 1941

MILITARY SERVICE COMMITTEE       Mrs. PHILIP C. PENDLETON       1941




     Announcements




     General Church of the New Jerusalem.

     Bishop George de Charms has initiated a General Church Military Service Committee to minister to the needs and interests of New Churchmen in military service throughout the world.
     It will be remembered that, in 1917-1918, The Academy War Service Committee, under the able chairmanship of Miss Freda Pendleton, operated to the mutual benefit of the soldiers and sailors and those who worked for and with the committee.
     At the present time, many young men of the General Church are engaged in the service of countries actively at war, and a number of others are serving in countries which are on a war basis. It is a hope of this committee to further a sense of unity in the church by keeping in close contact with these young men, our friends who have interrupted their normal ways of life to serve a higher use,-their country.
     In addition to sending them NEW CHURCH LIFE, THE BULLETIN OF THE SONS OF THE ACADEMY, and other church material, we want to keep in personal contact with them through letters, because the General Church has a human interest in all of these soldiers and sailors.
     The new committee is only in its infancy. We have written to the pastors of our societies for information, but the list of names and addresses is still small. Please help us by sending the names and addresses of men in military service who have not yet been listed.
     MRS. PHILIP C. PENDLETON,
          Chairman.
Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa.
DIVINE AND HUMAN SPHERES 1941

DIVINE AND HUMAN SPHERES       Rev. GILBERT H. SMITH       1941



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NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. LXI
SEPTEMBER, 1941
No. 9
     Your attention is invited to the subject of spheres, both human and Divine. As an introduction to this subject we shall speak of a passage in the Arcana Celestia which explains what is meant by covering the ark of the covenant with pure gold. It reads: "Good proceeding from the Lord as a Sun, the heat of which is the good of love, encompasses heaven in general, the heavenly societies in particular, and every angel in singular, and thus protects from the irruption of evil out of hell." (A. C. 9490.) And further we read: "The Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord's Divine Good is not to be conceived of as speech and its influx into the ear, but as a sphere from the Sun which by degrees, as it is extended to a distance from the Sun, decreases in ardor and splendor, and at length is so tempered as to be accommodated to the reception of the angels. Within this sphere is the angelic heaven, but far from the Sun on account of its ardor and splendor. That sphere also extends itself outside of heaven, even into hell, but they who are there do not receive it adequately, but turn it into what is contrary. Hence it may be evident what is meant by the Divine sphere which encloses and contains heaven." (A. C. 9498.)
     Thus there is a Divine sphere of good encompassing the Lord by which all things in the universe are conjoined, and by which they are preserved. There are indeed many Divine spheres, and there are many human spheres, both in the spiritual world and in the natural world. Let us consider what these spheres are like, and what is their importance to us.

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     The sphere of Divine Good fills the universal heaven, and it even extends itself into hell. This may be compared to the heat of the sun in the world, which is a natural sphere, and which extends itself even into dark places, where the light of the sun does not penetrate. The light and the heat of the natural sun are two distinct spheres. There may be light where there is little heat, and heat where there is no light. So the sphere of the Lord's Divine Good or of His Divine Love extends throughout the heavens and the hells independently of His sphere of Divine Wisdom. And by this Divine sphere of good those who are in the hells are ruled and governed, even by its inmost presence sustaining their life, while outwardly their perverted minds must be held in restraint by the laws of Divine Wisdom. And all men in the world who suffer themselves to be led by the Lord are kept in the sphere of Divine Good.
     The sun of the spiritual world is the Lord's own Divine Love appearing. The light of that sun is truth itself, and the heat of it is good itself or love. For wisdom and love are not merely words or ideas; they are spiritual substances.
     From every angel also there is a sphere which proceeds from his love. And from every spirit in the other world there is a sphere of good or of evil, according to his love. The same is true of every person in the world. He is encompassed with a sphere, which is the product of his love, and which emanates from his will. These spheres in the world are intangible, and are limited in their extent and in their power, although they are most real. The Divine sphere of good, however, extends throughout the universe.
     Personal human spheres make themselves very manifest in the other world. For there every spirit and every society of spirits is surrounded with a sphere which is the product of their faith and their life. And this is a spiritual sphere. By it they are recognized and known.
     This spiritual sphere may be compared to the material sphere that encompasses the body of every person in the world-the perceptible exhalations and effluvia from living organisms. Spiritual spheres may be compared to these, but the spiritual sphere is from the activities of the mind, and not of the body. It is an actual exhalation from the spiritual substances of the mind. In the spiritual world nothing is ever lost or hidden, but everything a person has spoken, thought, and done is perceived by others, because these things are what enter into one's sphere and make it.

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     The sphere of everyone is made up of all the activities of his thought and will. It is entirely his own; and there is nothing about it that is not perceived in the spiritual world, even while one is living in this world. The sphere of thought and affection that encompasses every person in the world is clearly perceived in the other world. His quality is fully known there, even though his name is not.
     The Writings therefore tell us that no one should ever deceive himself by thinking that what he thinks in secret and what he does in secret is hidden. "Whatsoever ye have said in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops." A man's sphere is clearly perceived in the heavens. "There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; nor hidden that shall not be known," saith the Lord.
     The spiritual sphere of anyone is the product of that love which he cherishes above all other things,-his ruling love, the end in life which he has constantly before his sight. The things that anyone entirely believes and loves are perpetually in his thought and will; and this is what makes his sphere. And the sphere is always active, even when one is busy about other matters.

     Good and Evil Spheres.

     Thus there is a sphere of heaven and a sphere of hell. And these spheres are very powerful. Every man and every spirit is in the confluence or meeting place of these two general spheres. The sphere of heaven affects him, and also the sphere of hell. He can be touched and moved by the things he sees in others which are of innocence, of love and charity, of gentleness and beauty; he can be held in the sphere of the chastity of conjugial love, and in the holy sphere of genuine worship of the Divine. Everyone, also, may be influenced, and incited, and swept away by the sphere of hell; not indeed at the same time as he is influenced by good, but by turns, because there are evils clinging to him which receive and respond to the sphere of hell. The two distinct natures which we recognize in ourselves, which seem to fight against each other, are not in reality our own natures, but the influence of the two general spheres from the other world, the one from heaven and the other from hell.

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     Everyone may appropriate to himself the one sphere or the other. It is a fundamental truth that all evil flows in from hell like an enveloping cloud or an atmosphere, or a pestilential smoke, and that all good flows in through heaven from the Lord, like the clean delightful air of spring, laden with the odor of many blossoms. If one really believes in these two spheres,-that they flow into him, and are the real cause of all his thought and all his affections, for it is really so,-then evil would never be appropriated to him, but good from the Lord would be appropriated to him. (D. P. 320.) But the reason why evil is appropriated to men, and they become responsible for it, is that they believe that they think and will from themselves,- that their thoughts and affections, their endeavors and intentions, are entirely their own. The truth is, that nothing of evil belongs to any man, and likewise nothing of good. In himself he is neither good nor evil, and should not think of himself so. But the moment the thought of any evil thing comes into his mind, he should reflect that it is from the evil spirits who are with him; and if he believes this, the angels who are also present can avert it and reject it. For the influx of angels, we are told, is into the things that one knows and believes.
     It should be known that the evil which enters into the thought does no harm to any man, because evil is continually flowing into the thought from the sphere of hell; and it is continually opposed and can be dispelled by the angels. But when evil enters into the will, then it does harm; for it then also goes forth into action whenever there is nothing to stop it. Evils enter into the will; they pass over from the thought into the will by being kept in the thought, and by consent to them, and especially by act, and by the delight that is felt in the act. This is how one appropriates evil to himself, which would not become his own if he knew that it came from hell, and would not acknowledge it as belonging to him, and consent to it.
     Therefore it is said that one may acquire to himself a sphere of evil. And when anyone appropriates to himself any evil, such as the envy, hatred, or contempt of others, or greed, or laziness, or forbidden pleasures of any kind, it is said that he acquires a sphere of that evil. And to this sphere the evil spirits from hell, who have a similar sphere of their own, adjoin themselves.
     All in the other life are joined together according to their spheres; and in like manner one society is joined with another.

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But opposing spheres come into collision, and mutually repel each other. Do an evil thing once or twice from deliberate thought, and with the consent of the will, and the sphere of that evil will begin to cling to you. Cast it out from the thought, and give not consent to it, knowing that it comes from hell; and then the Lord, by means of the sphere of angels, will deliver you from it.
     The sphere that exhales from hell, we are told, is like a perpetual endeavor to dissolve and violate marriages. All those things that tend to do this in the world are from the sphere of hell. In this sphere from hell there is also at the same time the endeavor to destroy the Divine of the Lord, to make the Lord merely human, and thus to rob the Word of all truth, so that men may not come into the heavenly sphere. But to all this the Lord opposes His Divine sphere.

     Universal Spheres.

     In the work on Conjugial Love we read that there are two universal spheres that proceed from the Lord for preserving the universe in the state into which He created it. One is the sphere of procreating, and the other is the sphere of protecting the things that are procreated. The Divine from the Lord is called a sphere, because it goes forth from Him, surrounds Him, and fills both the natural and spiritual world. And it brings to fulfilment all those Divine purposes which the Lord predestined in the creation, and for which He ever thereafter provides. All that which flows out from anything, and surrounds it, is called a sphere. Such is the light and heat from the sun. Such is the sphere of life from every man surrounding him. Such is the fragrance of a flower round about it, and such is the sphere of the attraction around a magnet. There are many spheres from the Lord Himself, called by various names, but the most universal of them all is the conjugial sphere. (C. L. 386.)
     This conjugial sphere pervades the universe, and fills it from first to last. It is said to make one with the Divine sphere of creating and of protecting the things created. And it also makes one with the love of infants. It is evident that the love of infants makes one with the sphere of protecting the things created. It is from this universal conjugial sphere, pervading the universe, that those who have wisdom see the source and origin of the love of the sex.

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This love is also Divine in its origin, and by its association with the worship of the Lord may be elevated into the sphere of genuine conjugial love.
     The heavenly sphere of conjugial love is little known in the world at the present day. But we may know that the sphere of heavenly love with married partners is that which causes them to be interiorly united. The inclination of married partners toward each other is from no other origin than from concordant spheres of thought and affection. Unanimous and concordant spheres unite them. Opposing spheres disunite them. For concordant spheres are delightful and grateful, and discordant spheres are not. Moreover, the angels have said that the sphere of love going forth from a wife who is tenderly loved is perceived in heaven as delightfully fragrant. But the degree into which a man and his wife may enter-the degree of elevation into that most universal Divine sphere-depends upon their mutual spiritual love. If they both love those things which are spiritual, they can be inwardly and blessedly united, receiving into their own spheres something of the Divine sphere.
     "It must be kept in mind," says a passage in the True Christian Religion, "that a Divine celestial sphere of love continually goes forth from the Lord toward all who embrace the doctrine of His church, and who are obedient to Him, as children are to their father and mother in the world; who devote themselves to Him, and who wish to be fed by Him, that is, instructed by Him. From this heavenly sphere arises a natural sphere, which is one of love toward infants and children. This is also a most universal sphere, affecting not only men, but also birds and beasts, and even things which are said to be inanimate. It is from the influx of that heavenly sphere from the Lord into the natural world that there is the marvelous development of vegetation and germination." (T. C. R. 308.) So should we think of nature itself as filled with the operation of the Divine spheres of the Lord.
     Again we read: "There is actually a sphere which proceeds continually from the Lord, and fills the entire spiritual and natural worlds, which raises all toward heaven. It is like a strong current in the ocean which unobservedly draws a vessel. All who believe in the Lord, and live according to His precepts, enter that sphere or current, and are raised up; while those who do not believe are unwilling to enter, but withdraw themselves to the sides, and are there carried away by a current that sets toward hell." (T. C. R. 652.)

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     This is the sphere of the Divine Love, or of the Divine Will, of which we spoke in the beginning. And from the actual existence of this sphere, which would raise all men to heaven, it may be seen what the Lord meant when He said, "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me:
     All these things, and many more, are said in our Doctrine about Divine spheres and human spheres. In the life of this world the spiritual sphere of anyone is not as readily felt, seen and known as it is in the other life. This is because in this life the spiritual sphere of a person is absorbed into the bodily sphere. For it is ever the case that spiritual things are clothed with material things, and therefore cannot be so readily discerned. Because material things are so evident to the natural sight, it is difficult to believe that spiritual things are within them, or even that spiritual things exist at all. Yet, as we are told, "spiritual things are so near the sight of man that they almost brush the eyes with their wings; but by the eye is meant the eye of the intellectual mind."
     In the New Church it must be realized that spiritual things are more real than natural things, and even more powerful; and that the things that concern the life of the body are as nothing in comparison with the sphere of thought and affection which anyone forms and molds for himself. The sphere of those who are faithfully established in any use is felt by almost everyone, even though the reason for it may not be understood. The sphere of those who are in the love of infants and children, and who live in genuine conjugial love, is manifestly felt; and the more so as they love to foster spiritual qualities in their consorts and in their children.
     Men and women are neither good nor evil in themselves; but they can make themselves the centers for the communication of the spheres of heaven or of hell. The spheres of hell are very strong, if we but recognize them. There is a widespread sphere of disbelief in anything Divine and holy. But now, by the truth of heaven, the Lord enables men to overcome the spheres of the world, and to enter the sphere of heaven.

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PEACE 1941

PEACE       Rev. K. R. ALDEN       1941

     "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14: 27.)

     All the delight of heaven flows from the peace which the angels receive from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Appearing to His disciples after the resurrection, coming to them through closed doors, His salutation was, "Peace be unto you!"
     He came to them "through closed doors." In this simple statement there is a world of thought and inspiration for us. Man lives within so many closed doors,-doors that shut out God from his heart; doors that blind him to the realities of the spiritual world; doors that would keep him forever in ignorance of the sweet peace of conjugial love; doors that limit his spiritual vision, that bar his progress along the road of regeneration; doors which he has locked upon himself, even as the disciples locked themselves in for fear of the Jews. Yet through these doors there is One who can pass. Our hope and our salvation lie in the truth of this,-that through the doors which shut us up in states of doubt, and denial, and fear, the Lord can come. The Lord can bring to us the Divine salutation, "Peace be unto you!"
     Peace, the delight of salvation, is the Lord's gift to man. Peace is the sabbath of regeneration, the reward of victory over sin, the result of temptations that have been bravely sustained. When one's spirit walks in peace, one no longer fears;-fear has been cast out, for the true peace of the spirit is above all worldly accidents. This peace comes from the Divine Human of the Lord to men and women who have suffered Him to regenerate them. It is the delight of innocence, most perfect in the celestial heaven, less perfect in each succeeding degree, yet powerful even in the flashes of it which spread themselves over the souls of men who still live in this world.
     "Not as the world giveth, give I unto you." The peace that the world giveth refers to peace among nations or peace among neighbors; but the peace which the Lord giveth is peace of the soul and tranquillity of mind and body.

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It is an inner confidence that rises triumphant over the external misfortunes of this world.
     The inmost of this peace exists in the Lord Himself, by virtue of the fact that He has united His Human to His Divine. Everywhere in the Writings where the origin of peace is disclosed it is said to be the result of the union of the Lord's Human with His Divine. What is meant by this?
     In order to grasp its significance we must understand the fundamental problem which was involved when in the Divine Providence, man, at his creation, was gifted with freedom. This problem was, that the Lord should be able to sustain man's life so subtly, so secretly, that man would never have the consciousness of the fact that the Lord is the Giver of all life, never have the feeling that all that he had was from the Divine beneficence. This is expressed by the fifth law of the Divine Providence: "It is a law of the Divine Providence that man should not perceive and feel anything of the operation of the Divine Providence, but that still he should know and acknowledge it." (D. P. 175; A. E. 1153.) The Lord so created the human race that men could neither feel nor perceive anything of the operations of the Divine Providence. This being the case, man has ever been free to love or deny God, to believe in or reject the life after death, to live the life of charity or the life of sin to pray or to blaspheme-thus free to use God's gifts or abuse them, to become an angel of light or a devil of darkness.
     In the employment of this freedom man fell; as an abuse of this liberty men have fallen through many ages; and gradually the hells have come into being,-the hells as the final abode of evil men whose very nature is the desire to corrupt the good; not only to corrupt them, but also to rule over them. For the love of dominion is the very deepest of evils; and as it advances to its limits, it first desires to rule over all things of earth, then over all things of heaven, and finally over all things of the Lord, yea, over the Lord Himself!
     In the spiritual world the Lord still rules through the laws of freedom. He could indeed have annihilated the hells; He could have reduced them to order by destroying their freedom; but to have done this would have frustrated all that He had done in creating man free and unconscious of the Divine Giver.

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Thus, through the process of ages, imaginary heavens grew up in the world of spirits; human freedom was being challenged, because the flow of light from heaven through the world of spirits was being stifled. Even the lower heavens were infested, and their freedom impaired. To meet this disordered state on a plane of life that would correct but not destroy, it was necessary that the Lord should come into the world and assume a human. Only by means of taking to Himself our nature could He approach the hells, fight with them, conquer them, and reduce them into order.
     No man can fight without means. He must have a sword, if he is to vanquish the enemy. In the case of the Lord, no contact with the hells was possible unless He took on a human nature similar to that of all men,-a nature that could be tempted in all points like as we are. By assuming such a nature, the Lord made it possible for the hells to inflow and attack Him, as they inflow and attack men. He provided in the assumed human a plane of contact. When the hells flowed into an evil of the infirm human, He resisted that evil; and by so resisting He overcame the hell that inspired it. In this way were the hells conquered and reduced to order.
     From the Word we learn something of these temptation-combats which the Lord endured. There we learn how, after He had fasted for forty days and forty nights in the wilderness, the devil came and tempted Him. Into His natural hunger flowed all the devils of sensuality.
     "Command that these stones be made bread," said the tempter. But our Lord answered: `Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
     Then the devil setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and besought Him to cast Himself down, and saith unto Him "It is written that He shall give His angels charge over thee, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." The Lord answered: "It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."
     "Then the tempter taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world. All these things I will give thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then said Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve."

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     After the feeding of the five thousand, the Lord went into a mountain alone to pray. The words of His prayer are not given. But we know that the multitude had just sought to make Him a king, and that on the following day, when He told them that He was the bread that came down from heaven, He was deserted by all of His followers save only the twelve. What His temptation was we can only imagine, yet in it He must have met infestation from deep hells, and by conquering ordered them. In Gethsemane He was sorrowful and very heavy, and "being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground."
     Such are the accounts of His conflict with the hells, as revealed in the letter of the Word, but in the Writings many particulars are given in the inmost sense of the Word, from Genesis to Revelation.
     Peace is the product of conflict; it is the state that comes after temptation; it is the reward of victory after struggle with evil. Since the Lord engaged in the greatest conflicts that have ever been waged, and since He was victorious, and by His temptations came to grips with the hells and all their power to infest, therefore the peace that was generated as a result of these conflicts became Peace Itself. By His life in the world the Lord took upon Himself the power to hold the hells in order and under obedience to Himself to eternity, and consequently His victories were followed by infinite peace. Therefore it is that wherever in the Writings the origin of peace is proclaimed, it is said that it comes from the Divine Human of the Lord.
     And so we must not think of peace as a mere state. Peace in its origin is a Divine Substance,-a substance which it is possible for the Lord to communicate to men, just as He communicates His life to them. Concerning this we are told that peace is communicated to the inmost substances in man,-the substance out of which the human internal or the human soul is made. Just as in this world we pour oil on troubled waters, so in the spiritual world, and into our spiritual man here, the Lord pours peace, when we have won victory in temptation. As the Lord won infinite peace out of the combats by which He conquered the hells and glorified His Human, so man wins through to peace by the conflict which he wages against his own evils. "A man's foes are they of his own household."
     This truth is brought out when the Lord said: "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I am not come to send peace, but a sword."

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The sword which the Lord came on earth to bring was the sword of truth,-that is, the Word. It is by means of the truths of the Word that man is able to combat the falsities that infest him, and it is by means of the conjunction of the truth of the Word with the good of life that he is able to shun his evils as sins against God. Thus the first idea of peace that we must get is that it can only come as the product of conflict, temptation, and victory. When man determines to use in his life the sword of truth given him by the Lord, then the Lord will surely bring him spiritual peace.
     Peace as the fruit of struggle was graphically represented by the history of the Children of Israel. After they were redeemed from their bondage in Egypt, and the Law was brought to them from Sinai, they became free men, but men who had weary years of conflict ahead of them-forty years in the wilderness, and then the conquest of Canaan. Not for five hundred years, not until the reign of Solomon, do we find Israel dwelling securely, with peace on all sides,-a peace that was the reward of long-continued conflict, secured by many victories. Man's life is the same. A measure of peace comes here and there after the smaller victories that man gains; but the great peace, the peace that passeth understanding, comes only in the heaven which man has won for himself by his victories over the evils that beset him during his earthly life. For those victories make him the receptacle of the peace of the angels, which is derived from the Divine of the Lord flowing forth and making the heavens.
     The drama of peace is illustrated by an episode on the Sea of Galilee. The Lord lay asleep in the stern of the vessel. A great storm arose; the disciples were bewildered, and ultimately stricken with terror. Finally they awakened the Lord, and He, standing in the tempest-tossed bark, said: "Peace, be still!" The Lord asleep in the boat represents the state in our own lives when, although we know about the Lord, He as it were sleeps within us. We try to sail our craft; the storms of life arise; peril draws nigh; we are threatened with ruin. Then we remember to call upon the Lord. His voice speaks amid the turmoil of life, "Peace, be still!" This teaches another lesson. Man does not attain to peace until he comes to know and believe that all the good that he does is from the Lord.

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It is not possible for man of himself to do good that is really good. If he does so, it becomes the good of merit, which in the end will prove his undoing.
     The Writings say that all good is from innocence, but all delight is from peace. Unless peace makes its abode with us, we cannot experience the inmost delights, and so the continual blessing is that there may be grace and peace in the hearts of men.
     Before the Lord came on earth, His advent was heralded in prophecy by Isaiah: "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, Counsellor, God the Mighty, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." In this prophecy the accommodation of the Lord to the succeeding states of man's life is clearly portrayed. To the infant and child He is the Wonder God; to youth the Counsellor; to manhood a Mighty God; to old age the Everlasting Father; but to those who have entered life eternal He has become the Prince of Peace-peace with a depth and tranquillity perceptible only to those who have become angels, who have been permitted to rest from their labors, from strife, temptations and combats, but whose works have followed them. They have been fully prepared to enter into the uses for which they were created, and their peace follows as the product of use. We get glimpses of this peace even in this world when we have put forth an earnest effort. At times, when we have performed a use to the best of our ability, we experience a state of tranquillity and peace. This is a foretaste of heaven.
     When the disciples asked the Lord when He would make His Second Coming, He said that it would be after "wars and rumors of war." This was profoundly prophetical of the way in which the Lord makes His Second Coming to each one of us-after wars and rumors of war. After the wars we make against selfishness, He comes to us; after the wars we wage against indifference to spiritual things, He comes to us; after our struggles against sensual evils, He makes His Second Coming, and brings to us the peace that flows from His glorified Human.
     When man comes into these states of peace, then the Lord is able to enlighten his mind with the truth of peace. This truth of peace is represented in the Word by "dew." For peace, we are told, can be compared to the dawn of a spring day, when the drops of dew lie sparkling in the sun.

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The bonds of brotherly love within the church are compared in the Psalms to the dew: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion." (Psalm 133.)
     Peace is represented by the dawn and the spring because they follow times of night and cold, and peace is the first of that new state which follows a deliverance from black despair and cold indifference. In this state new truths are seen, beautiful and inspiring. Like the dew, which is the purest form of water, they are sublime and holy; like the dew, also, they are subtle and evanescent. These truths come to us in states of religious exaltation; for the moment the heavens are opened unto us, the truth of peace is ours. But when the heat and burden of the day return, this truth seems to vanish, as the dew is dispelled by the heat of noonday. In reality it has not been lost; it has become part of the imperishable "remains" from which all battles of tomorrow will be fought.
     That peace was the purpose of the Divine incarnation is evident from two incidents in the Gospels. When the angels announced to the shepherds that the Lord had been born in Bethlehem, they said:
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men." Although peace is the supreme delight of heaven, it is the Lord's will that it should descend upon the earth. "On earth peace."
     Again, after the Lord had risen from the dead, He appeared to His disciples, and said, "Peace be unto you! As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit!" The Lord knew that theirs was not to be a life of external peace. He knew that Peter went forth to be crucified, and that the others departed, some to be stoned, and some to meet other violent deaths. "As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you." How had the Father sent Him? The Father had sent Him to combat evil, to order the hells, to establish a New Church, to pass through combats and victories, and so, and only so, to enter into peace. His disciples were commanded to do the same. Likewise His disciples now. They must fight for the truth in which they believe; fight for it and work for it; yea, die for
it. And having done that, they will come into the joy of a peace that will conjoin them with their Savior forever.

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     "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you." The world giveth from without, but the Lord Jesus Christ giveth from within. He giveth peace that toucheth the inmost substance of a man's soul; touches it, refreshes it, restores it; fills man with an inner resolution and a determination which the external events of life cannot cast down.
     To help man, and to renew his strength from time to time, the inmost states of conjugial love are given. These states are said to be of the essence of soul-satisfying peace-peace born of the marriage of good and truth, born from the mutual inspiration of husband and wife, emerging into consciousness as foretastes of heaven itself. Common burdens have been borne, common responsibilities shared, mutual victories have been won, and states of peace have been entered upon together.
     Although we cannot hope to enter into a permanent state of peace while we live in the world, we can be continually refreshed by quiet moments in which it reigns. "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." The six days of labor represent man's struggles against sin, his combats in temptation. But after victory crowns those trials there comes the day of rest,-the Sabbath that stands for the peace of regeneration. And because the Lord became Peace Itself by His combats and victories, it is written that He is "Lord also of the Sabbath Day."
     Because peace represents the inmost delight of heaven, which can come to us through the fulfillment of our vision of religion, therefore the blessing of the church upon the head of the infant at baptism, the blessing which is received when, as young men and young women, we confess our faith, the blessing which is given at our betrothal and marriage, the blessing which is repeated again and again as we are strengthened by the Holy Communion-this blessing of the church concludes with the words, "And give thee peace." "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee; the Lord make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." Amen.

LESSONS:     Psalm 72. John 14: 15-34. Heaven and Hell 289, 290.
MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 501, 523, 564. Revised liturgy, pages 483, 484, 500.
PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 65, 67.

400


ACADEMY AIMS 1941

ACADEMY AIMS       Rev. WILLIAM WHITEHEAD       1941

     (Address at the Sons of the Academy Banquet, June 14, 1941.)

     You have given me a somewhat difficult assignment. For one thing, the task of a first speaker is that of an ice-breaker. Mr. Donald Merrell, in his otherwise excellent Commencement Address, linked together the English and the Eskimos. That puts me definitely in the race of ice-breakers.
     For another thing, to describe in fifteen minutes what the Academy is trying to do reminds me of the visitors to the Cathedral who naively ask, "Please tell us in a few words what Swedenborg teaches!"
     However, I shall elect to say three things about the work of the Academy, somewhat obvious things, but perhaps things not as fully understood as they deserve to be.
     Firstly, the Academy is an institution of learning.
     That we are now an institution in fact, is obvious. You have just attended the Sixty-fourth Commencement. The Assembly Hall is already almost inadequate for the audience of the closing exercises of the Bryn Athyn parish school. The surrounding community grows. The integration with the schools in the other societies of the church becomes evident, as to teaching methods and aims in a common cause. And, unless I quite misunderstand the policy of Bishop de Charms, the present generation is going to witness a determined building up of existing parish schools, and an extension wherever it can be made. High schools must be established elsewhere, beginning perhaps in Glenview.
     All the material aids and helps in New Church teaching must be stepped up in volume and in quality-in homes and in small circles as well as in schools. The scattered pieces of a "Larger Academy" idea already are coming together, and falling into something of a pattern. There is a real institutionalizing going on,-at least a revivification, and, I think, something more. It is something more than enthusiasm.

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Enthusiasm comes and goes like the breezes of the ocean. But navigation calls for more than wind. It calls for charts, and skilled pilots, and a sturdy ship with a definite harbor. Perhaps we are so accustomed to living in a sphere of ends that we are apt to imagine that we have a thing because we have made a good speech about the end in view.
     Whatever is happening is also something more than gifts of individual educators. A great man without a great institution leaves only a name. History is strewn with such names.
     There is nothing so void of lasting use as that history which is made up of a succession of acts through which there runs no developing and progressive idea. All that is truly great or truly enduring is a development-a growth-sometimes slow, even for a time seeming dead, but growing all the same, and soon demonstrably great. Impulsiveness without institutions, enthusiasm without an organism, may produce a brilliant effect, but it is generally like the light of a meteor.
     In my judgment, the Academy movement is growing in stability, in connected experience, in efficiency of service, and is a far more impersonal organization of use than it necessarily could be in the simpler paternalistic days. These growing pains bring losses, it is true. We miss certain spheres that were dear to our affections. New problems arise to perplex our already strained resources. But this is nothing new. These are pains, but we grow as an institution, with greater freedom, and greater restrictions, and new temptations.
     For even good institutions may become injurious to a new generation when they are not adapted to the changes and needs of growing uses. They may become hollow, and rest for their support upon external traditions. But when an institution grows within as well as without, it becomes far less amenable to the individual caprice that may wreck it, or to the lowering of its aims by the self-interests of a group.
     All of which is an analytical way of saying that the Academy is greater than any individual, in fact as well as in theory. And I believe we can say that we are Sons of an institution of learning that has entered into the warp and woof of our Church from top to bottom, so that if the General Church should ever sever itself from the Academy, it will have to build another Academy. And if the Academy should ever sever itself from the General Church, the same result would follow.

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     This work is one. A distinctive New Church education is inherent in the very doctrinal position of Robert Hindmarsh from the beginning. And the works of the Academy are manifest in the long line of priests, teachers and laymen, rather than in buildings, equipment or endowment. These uses of our institution manifest a pattern,-a standard of learning of which we need not be ashamed, but which is still in its beginnings.
     Secondly, the Academy is an apostle of reality.
     New Church education presents the only realistic educational system, in that it seeks only the power to lead and teach our own people the spiritual and natural facts of life, that they may faithfully perform uses to their country and to the church of their choice. We seek to draw from the things of this natural world-its organized knowledges and its necessary works-and also to relate them to the spiritual and moral needs of man. The old realism, which concentrates only on the external factors in the environing life of nature and man the animal, is now outmoded.
     For work,-work of all degrees, from the lowest manual work to the highest degree of aesthetic labor,-is a moral and spiritual necessity, without which the human being cannot maintain a proper dignity and self-respect. Work is not merely for the sake of shelter, food and clothing for the body; it is also for the sake of shelter, food and clothing for the human spirit. The failure of the old type of education in this respect is being seen by contemporary educators, though they vainly hope to reconstruct the social sciences through the extension of science alone, without a Divine Ethic and a spiritual Gospel. They will strive in vain; for only the Lord can build the society of their dreams.
     Thirdly, the Academy is a way of life.
     It is a false concept of our educational system that we simply aim to pack our students' minds with a certain quantity of scientifics- even of theology. That is the old central European type of education, in which man's organized knowledge-or science has been confused with his way to salvation; and even finally made his God. This concept has seriously undermined the spiritual potentialities of our young people in the English-speaking world.

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     This week's SATURDAY EVENING POST, in a despairing editorial, asks: "What has happened to America? Why does the young man say, 'Give us a dream'? We can think of several reasons. So can Doctor Hutchins, and Doctor Conant of Harvard, who has spoken of the creeping paralysis of intellectual disaffection in youth. But the principle reason, we believe, is that the youth of our generation had the misfortune to be born at a bad time, with not enough of anything that could be taken for granted, and yet too little of anything really to fight for. It has been taught to be skeptical, dialectic and critical of what it found."
     Dorothy Thompson, in a recent periodical, wrote an open letter to the President of her Alma Mater voicing similar views.
     But you Sons of the Academy know what the new generations' difficulty is. The people perish because there is no vision, no dream descending from another world, no way of life, no ladder up which to climb.
     Throughout history young men have been governed by two kinds of men,-the man with a dream or the man with a sword. Today the world is more than half slave, under the rule of the man with a sword. The remaining dubious half is still calling for the man with a dream,-to save their liberty and rationality, and to prevent the fall into a deadly, scientific paganism-sans morality, sans religion, sans every vestige of a spiritual hope.
     But I deny that our young people have had the misfortune to be "born at a bad time." They have the good fortune to be born at a great moment in history, when the need for a man with a dream was never so great; and when the man with a dream is here! The Academy-our priests, our teachers, our parents-have that dream. And we must give it to our children, straight from the heart and the mind, because we believe in it and try to live it. It is not a body of theological dogma devised by men, but a Divinely revealed new world of spiritual truth.
     And in our courses in religion, in literature, in history, in philosophy, in science, in music, and in other ways, we are trying to build up a new conscience in our young people-a conscience that is not based upon the fundamental error of modern science that there is no provable God, and that there is not even anything that is eternally right and wrong, but only "the visible products of historic forces,"- whatever that may mean!

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     We are trying to lay the foundations of a new system of constructive citizenship that will do two things: 1. Arouse the creative power of each young mind in use,-for a world of use, natural and spiritual; and 2. Give emotional security and well-being of mind and heart to young people who ask for a dream, and a holy city, and a crusade; and who receive only stones, and a spade, and orders to work as slaves for the new Super-State of science whose Will shall replace the Ten Commandments of God.
     This is our supreme duty to our young people,-to lead them to see and feel, each generation in its own way, that the mere knowledge of the facts of nature will not save man and his society from defeat by evil, but only the understanding of the Lord's way of life and how to apply it.
     A good camper in a wilderness never burdens himself with a great pack. He carries sound general principles in his head, and a minimum of essential equipment and specific recipes. From the standpoint of purely vocational education, you may criticize the present lacks in our Academy education. But when we insist that the less a man carries in his pack, the more he must carry in his head, I believe we are producing the type of men and women who will go farther and last longer, even in the battle of this natural life. At least they will have a true conscience and not a spurious or a false conscience. They will face life with realism, not being befuddled by the emotional sophistry of natural good, not shirking their duty to their country, not too greatly impressed by the contemporary fear of hard work, or the fear of limited means, or the fear of death.
     I have much faith in the young men and young women who are going out of our schools to be the pioneers of a newer and a better order. There is much that remains to be done on our part, and sometimes something on theirs. For, after all, education is one of the most human of all professions, and it calls for patience, drudgery, forbearance, a sense of humor, a keen sense of justice, and perception of how young people think and feel; and, most of all, a burning belief that this is one of the greatest uses in the world.
     The Sons of the Academy has worked hard for many years to uphold this use, and you have builded up a tradition of goodwill and comradeship in the work of the Academy.

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We have confidence in you, and nothing of any serious consequence has ever occurred throughout your history to make it otherwise. We do not need to ask you to have confidence in the leadership or the uses of the Academy. Like you, they are human and imperfect, always unfinished, always unsatisfied. But, with you, they are the fellow creatures of a common dream,-that our children and their children shall "do justly, and love mercy, and walk humbly with their God."
     Within the last two days something has been said about members of this body who appear to have deserted our cause. I do not like deserters. In a time of war deserters are not highly regarded. But the defections may not be as serious as they seem. In years past I have known of several who have "taken a walk." After a while they have been glad to hitch-hike back. And sometimes it is better for a walker to go on walking. I would rather know a man who "walks out" because he has the courage of his convictions than a man who stays inside the camp in order to open the gates to the enemy.
     So my last note is that of loyalty. The Academy is an organized loyalty.
     We are living in historic times. Great events are stirring among nations. Freedom and reason themselves are swinging in the balance. And men must choose whether they wish to be slaves or wish to be free. They must serve one master or they must slave for the other.
     In our Church-in the things of the spirit-we are also making history,-greater perhaps than we know.
     But there must be no compulsion about our loyalty. Men must be free to go, even as they are free to come. Our only bond is the bond of a common love,-a love for that Divine Philosophy from whence all our blessings flow.
     And, as one of our former Bishops once said, "If the love of the truth for its own sake continues to exist in our Academy movement, as its spirit and life, it will then have a spiritual internal from heaven, by which it will be enlightened and guided in the performance of its uses, and by which it will be protected from the spheres in which the spirit of the world rules; for no man will then come to it, or remain in it, who is not willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of the truth, who is not willing to die that the truth may live and prosper."

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FAMILY AND THE HOME 1941

FAMILY AND THE HOME       SYDNEY E. LEE       1941

     (Address at the Sons of the Academy Banquet, June 14, 1941.)

     The subject assigned to me by our toastmaster is: The place of the family and the home in preparing our young people to take their places in the life of the world and of the church.
     First we must ask: What is the place in the life of the world and of the church for which we would prepare our young people? What do we mean by "getting started right"? For any effort we would make to coordinate the work of the home, the schools and the society, calls for a well-defined objective.
     Certainly we know that the prime purpose of creation is a heaven from the human race, and that this is to be accomplished by the establishment of the church. We know this, and yet it seems so remote from everyday life that it is difficult to keep its full import before our minds; for it revolutionizes all human ideas, and provides a basis of thought completely foreign to that of the world around us.
     For this "prime purpose of creation" has been a secret since the world began, and now you and I, and just a few others, have been permitted to share it. The working of the Divine Mind has been revealed, and His plans for the future declared, but the men of the church at this day can hardly know its full implication. It is our privilege, however, to prepare future generations that they may enter more fully and actively into the preparation of the world for the development of the church among men.
     We do keep this prime purpose fairly well in mind when our children are small. We hold on to this truth as they pass through the primary and grammar grades. Perhaps we feel something of the spheres of the celestial and spiritual heavens that surround little children. But as they grow older, heaven moves farther away from them, and the immediate future looms large before their eyes. They are entering into a natural state, which is quite in order, but we often share that state with them-which is not in order.

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And we begin to wonder whether some sort of vocational training might be incorporated in the secondary schools; or, if not that, surely after high school it is time to prepare for a vocation.
     Circumstances must guide the individual, and we must maintain freedom of thought and action. Yet, when our minds are not under the influence of the world, we recognize that preparation for life in the natural and spiritual worlds is one and the same thing-that development of the spiritual side of life means a fuller use on the natural plane, and that "to get started right" in the life of both worlds our young people must be thoroughly imbued with the philosophy of the New Church-not just to know about the truths of the church, but to be trained to think from them. This is the wax' to greater use.
     If we endeavor to think from doctrine, we shall see, in the tiny babe entrusted to our care, a potential angelic use, born as an individual, provided with distinctive genius, temperament, aptitudes and quality of mind, so that the use may flourish, yet placed in a certain family, nation and religious group, because that is the soil in which he can grow,-his natural environment. And we are made responsible in part for this environment; for we can, in a measure, control it, and adapt it to the development of the individual.
     It seems to me a matter of grave importance that we estimate use at its true value, and exercise every precaution to guard our children in their early years from the debased idea of use current in the world. And to this end we must hold them in the sphere of their appropriate states. This sphere is of the Lord's providing, and if we push infants, children, and youth ahead of their normal states, the angels and angelic spirits belonging to these states retire from them, and they are robbed of something irreplaceable. To send a child to school too early, to inject the problems of the work-a-day world too soon, is to allow the light of self-intelligence to rule, and to sacrifice spiritual things for some imaginary gain. But to plan ahead, to prepare for states and conditions, to look to the future as far as we may, to prepare the mind of youth for responsibility to come, is the course of sound judgment.
     The place of the family and the home in bringing this about is easily perceived. The very sphere of home is one of affection, and affection is the prerequisite of an affirmative attitude toward truth.

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The groundwork of affection, laid in the mind of the pre-school child at its mother's knee, and maintained through primary and grammar school, has received attention, and has produced results. That affection has developed into a love and appreciation of the externals of the church-all those things that are grounded in custom and tradition. This is good; it is desirable; it is an achievement; but it will result in a very mild form of New Churchmanship unless we continue, stage by stage, and build affection for use itself-not at first for a particular use, but use in general-use as an ideal, and as a principle of life.
     We can begin to do this, I believe, by implanting in the minds of our children the ideal of responsibility. Why are they going to New Church schools? Why are they, above others, privileged to know about the Lord, heaven and the church? At a time when all the world is so sorely puzzled on so many matters, why have they been permitted access to knowledge that exceeds the wisdom of all philosophy? What have they done to be singled out from millions born at about the same time? Bid them consider how empty, or at least how different, their lives would be without the distinctive truths of the New Church which they have learned at home, in school, and from the church. Others lack these privileges-why?
     The idea that they are being prepared for service,-some individual service which they alone can render to the church, to their country, to the world,-should be implanted in their minds; also that they themselves are of no particular importance, though they may become so through the service they render,-a service which must begin in the little things of everyday life. We must show them that each minor use they perform will be a stepping stone to the major service for which they are being prepared. This is easy to do in the grammar and high school years, when they are in a state in which ideals can be envisioned and received with affection. The plane of the mind thus opened will later receive the philosophy of use, because there is a place prepared for them.
     Particularly must they be brought to see, in high school and college education, a rare opportunity to equip their minds with knowledges that are indispensable to the fulfilment of their destiny. They must be made to feel that their future is in some way connected with the development of the Lord's New Church, that there is something they are meant to do toward that end.

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This attitude of mind must be fostered in the home through the development of an affection for use. They must be made to feel that, when scholarships are granted them, a trust and confidence is being placed in them personally, that they must make good, and that no effort is too great in the work which they are called upon to do. They must be made to feel that in their working scholarships the development of a greater opportunity and broader scope is in their hands, that faithful performance of their tasks will make this possible, and that failure to measure up will definitely postpone any broadening of scholarship work-that they would therefore be responsible for keeping other students from attending school.
     Just a word about the importance of custom and tradition. These can be useful tools in our hands; for that to which we are accustomed has a place in our affections. One of the philosophers said that we often talk, urge and advise new procedures, and then do what we are accustomed to do.
     The establishment of customs, founded upon doctrine, may be a valuable aid in home-life. The power of custom is a means at our disposal to bring the sphere of the church into the affairs of the home, to crystallize states and record them in our minds. Fond memories gather around family customs. To build those customs around the things of the church provides an ultimate that will have great value in after life. The memory of family worship and its simple ritual brings back the sphere of the faith of childhood at a time when that faith is sadly needed. There were customs in the early days of the Academy that should now be in much more general use among us. One of them was the dedication of homes, when the Lords blessing on the home was invoked, and copies of the Word and the Writings were placed in the room of each member of the family.
     I have wondered why our ministers have allowed such customs to become almost obsolete. I wish that someone who could do so diplomatically would draw their attention to it.
     When we consider world-conditions, the task of preparing the next generation to take their places may well fill our minds with anxiety and trepidation. If the responsibility were ours alone, it would be overwhelming. We must, however, take cognizance of the fact that those born into the world at a given time are prepared in a wonderful way, and circumstances both spiritual and natural have conspired at their birth to prepare a place for them.

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We must not, therefore, he too greatly concerned that the economic structure under which they are to live may be different from our own, or that the pattern of their daily lives may be entirely new. What we are to be concerned about is that our obligation to them has been fulfilled, and that, when the time comes for them to take over as their own the minds which we have helped to form, they will be equipped and ready to do their part.
     We must recognize, of course, that the external occupation-the work they must perform in order to live-cannot always be a matter of choice, and is not, of necessity, akin to their eternal use or even representative of it. We must accept the indications of Providence, and do our part. Yet we must consider the possibility that such conditions may come about because we have not done our part, have not provided a suitable vessel to receive the influx of use in the orderly way. For if a man is in the stream of Providence, his work in this world corresponds to his eternal use, and he will find happiness and contentment in his work.
     This is perhaps what is involved in the question before us, and in our desire to help our young people get started right.
     Let us remember that men are born uses. The Divine sphere of use descending through the heavens can be thought of as the internal of all created things, but man stands forth as use personalized. A tree in the order of its growth, and in response to its internal urge, puts forth its branches and leaves, blossoms and bears fruit. The same universal sphere of use, flowing into the mind of man, manifests itself as the initiament of use, and he is able in a finite way to create new forms of use, and so to fulfill the use which he actually is.
     The aptitudes with which a man is born, his genius established before birth, his endowment with a desire to develop them,-all these are gifts to him for the development of use; but he must recognize them, and assign them to their proper place. If this job is left to youth as it has been in the past, it will often be middle life before he can know himself; for he has no means of comparison, no means of estimating his potential abilities. I believe we should take full advantage of every form of analysis available, and at as early an age as seems advisable, so that we may lead the growing mind along the lines of its genius.

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If this is done, the approach in an orderly series toward his eternal use, through corresponding external use, is likely to occur.
     With the foregoing thoughts in mind, we attempt to summarize the place of the home in preparing our young people for life.
     Obviously the home is a place of preparation. The little child receives its first impressions there; and the development of affection, which is to be the basis of all that follows is centered there. Home training is all important. A mind merely filled with knowledges is little more than a filing cabinet, unless affection for a given end draws them out and puts them to work.
     If we can maintain at all times the idea that we are preparing uses, that the gratification of the moment is secondary, and must not be at the expense of the future, we shall persevere in the course we set, we shall have greater patience. We shall know, for instance, that if we can instill a love of order, of diligence, of perseverance, we shall have contributed to character what will be of life-long value.
     If we can discover aptitudes of mind, and lead to their development, we will be charting the way to potential happiness in the development of individual use. The responsibility of making New Church men and women of our children rests upon us, their parents, to whom they are entrusted. And while we may seek the cooperation of the Academy, of the society, of our friends, the responsibility is ours. If we were removed from all contact with church and school, it would still be our job. Keeping this thought in mind, cooperation with church and school will become our greatest privilege, and the contact with our friends who are seeking the same goal will be an invaluable fellowship.

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Review 1941

Review       EDWARD F. ALLEN       1941

     COUNTING BY EIGHTS OR BY TENS.

A NEW SYSTEM OF RECKONING which turns at 8 instead of the usual turning at the number 10. By Emanuel Swedberg. Translated by Alfred Acton, M.A., D.Th., from a Photostat Copy of the Original Swedish Manuscript, now Preserved in the Royal Library, Stockholm. Philadelphia, Pa.: Swedenborg Scientific Association, 1941. Paper, stiff cover, 8vo, 36 pages. Price 60 cents.
     The complete title of this little work is quite imposing, being in full: "A New System of Reckoning which turns at 8 instead of the usual turning at the number 10, whereby everything respecting Coinage, Weights, Dimensions, and Measures, can be reckoned many times more easily than in the ordinary way." Swedberg wrote the work at Brunsho in January, 1718. When the Swedberg family was ennobled in 1719, the name was changed to Swedenborg.
     From the Translator's Preface we learn that, on January 7, 1718, the author "sent the Manuscript to his brother-in-law, Eric Benzelius, with the request that it be printed at Upsala. Benzelius, however, objected to the publication of the work, on the ground that it was too revolutionary, was not practical, and, moreover, might result in a suspicion among the people that it was the precursor of a projected change in the coinage-and of this they had already had bitter experience."
     The Preface also quotes at length the author's own account of the origin of the work, explaining how he came to write it through the personal inspiration of King Charles XII, who had himself devised a system using 64 as a radix, and whose criterion for a radix was the number of factors and roots it contained-the more the better.
     It does not appear that the writing of the New System meant that Swedberg was carried away with this idea, because in 1719 he published, anonymously, a little tract, entitled "A Suggestion for so dividing our Coinage and Measures that Calculations can be facilitated, and all Fractions avoided," in which, as Dr. Acton points out, "he advocated the adoption of the decimal system in the Swedish coinage, weights and measures."

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It would seem, therefore, that the New System represented merely a friendly intellectual bout with King Charles, to whom the work is dedicated.
     Briefly, the new system can be understood by comparison with the system that uses 10 as the base. In this system, all numbers from 0 to 9 are represented by a single figure, those from 10 to 99 by two figures, those from 100 to 999 by three figures, and so on. In the "new system," only the numbers from 0 to 7 are represented by a single figure, those from 8 to 63 by two figures, those from 64 to 511 by three figures, and so on. Having defined this system, chosen symbols, and set up tables, Swedberg then proceeds to give a number of examples according to the new system. Anyone who still remembers his school arithmetic, and is willing to master the symbols and tables, can read the entire work with little difficulty.
     To New Churchmen, the New System is another confirmation, not only of the versatility of the man Swedenborg, but also of the extensive preparation which was necessary that he might become the Servant to set forth in ultimates a rational Revelation.
     Critics have made much of Swedenborg's arithmetical errors. It is true that he had difficulty with the technique of arithmetical manipulation, but this does not take away from the underlying principles of which he was treating. Readers of the work before us will find that, while certain arithmetical errors occur therein, they do not imperil his fundamental idea. It must be remembered that Swedenborg, even at a very early period, was a philosopher first and a technician second. He saw the use of mathematics without becoming expert himself in the manipulation of symbols, just as during a later period he became a philosopher of the anatomical system, through application of the doctrine of use to the most minute parts of the human body, although he himself had given up the scalpel.
     Much is revealed in the Writings about the correspondence of various numbers, and it will be interesting to consider briefly what bearing this may have upon the changing of the radix of our number system.

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     We learn that the eighth day, being the first day of the week following, signifies "every beginning" (A. C. 2044), "something else, distinct from what was before" (A. C. 2866), thus the "beginning of the following state" (A. C. 9228e). It is evident from these passages that eight might very well be taken as a "turning point" for a number system.
     The number ten means "what is full" (A. C. 8468), "much, all, and what is full" (A. C. 10262). "That ten signifies all things, derives its cause from heaven itself; for heaven, in the whole and every part, has relation to a man, from which it is called the Greatest Man. All the forces of life of that Greatest Man or heaven terminate in the two hands and the two feet: and the hands terminate in ten fingers, and the feet in ten toes. Wherefore, as all things of man as to power and support are finally collated into ten fingers and toes, these signify all things." (A. E. 675:20.) In this connection we note Dr. Acton's remark in the Preface (p. 10): "The practice of counting by tens is indeed based upon the custom of an unlearned people counting on their fingers, but the fingers themselves are the ultimate work of Divine Wisdom, and we may surely conceive that this number furnishes a true foundation for the whole science of numbers."
     The use of the number 12 as a base is being advocated today by a certain group in the United States. We learn from the Writings that twelve signifies "all things" (A. C. 1988), and "all things in one complex" (A. C. 3858).
     Thus there is something to be said in favor of 8, 10, and 12, so far as correspondence is concerned. And so it would appear that many "turning points" are permissible in the light of the Writings. As a matter of fact, mathematicians make use of many different numbers as radices, depending upon the circumstances. However, by noting the chief numbers occurring in the Scriptures, together with the frequency with which they are discussed in the Writings, we may conclude that the larger portion are most easily represented by the system using the radix 10. This is a good reason why the number system based upon 10 has been preserved.
     We owe our thanks to Dr. Acton for placing in a form available to us all, not only the lesser things of Swedenborg's early life, but also the more important works of his philosophical period.
     EDWARD F. ALLEN.

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DOMINION IN MARRIAGE 1941

DOMINION IN MARRIAGE       Editor       1941


NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of 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.
     In presenting some thoughts on this subject we would first recall what is revealed concerning the ideal state of marriage that prevailed in the Most Ancient Church. We read:
     "I have heard from the most ancients that conjugial love is such that it wills altogether to be the other's, and this reciprocally, and that when this is mutual and reciprocal the partners are in heavenly felicity. They said also that the conjunction of minds is such that this mutual and reciprocal is in each and everything of life, that is, in each and everything of the affection, and in each and everything of the thought. On which account it was instituted by the Lord that wives are affections of the good which is of the will, and that men are thoughts of the truth which is of the understanding, and that the marriage thence is like that between the will and the understanding, and between each and everything of these two with the man who is in the good of truth and the truth of good." (A. C. 2731.)
     This describes in brief the state of mutual love and freedom that reigned in the marriages of the Most Ancient Church, which state was lost after that time, but is now to be restored in the Church of the New Jerusalem.

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Among the great gifts vouchsafed to men at the Lord's Second Coming,-to those who will be of His New Church,- is love truly conjugial, which is a celestial and spiritual love, a love "so rare at this day that it is not known what its quality is, and scarcely that it exists." (C. L. 58.) There is indeed a remnant of that love in Christian monogamical marriage, which persists in traditional form even though its spiritual essence be absent where the church has separated faith from charity. The conjugial cannot be known where the spiritual mind has been closed by evils of life, where the church itself has become merely natural, and with it the state of marriage. For the state of marriage is altogether according to the state of the church, and the state of the church itself is altogether according to the state of marriage with men. (C. L. 130.)
     Evils of life entered, closing the spiritual mind and the way of heavenly influx, when the individual of most ancient times suffered himself to be seduced by the "serpent" of self love and the love of dominion, banishing that mutual love which had preserved the church in the form of a heavenly society on earth, and inaugurating the long, sad history of our race. For in that history we observe, over and over again, the growth and increase of those evil loves, the ascendancy of tyranny, enslavement, and aggrandizement, accompanied always with a hatred of God and His church, and with a contempt for the marriage tie and the sanctity of the home.
     In ancient times, when the churches were celestial and spiritual, marriages were celestial and spiritual. This was the case in the Most Ancient Church, and it was revived for a time in the Ancient Church. Love to the Lord and mutual love reigned in the best times of those churches, and these loves reigned interiorly in their marriages. All things were mutual and equal between the consorts, as they are in the heavens, as the conjugial of good and truth is mutual and reciprocal with the angels, which state they have from the Lord Himself, from the perfect union of Divine Good and Divine Truth in the Divine Human of the Lord.
     But when men became natural, marriages became natural: and then the spiritual conjugial, with its perfect mutuality, gave way to a state in which one partner was subject to the other. In the decline of the Ancient Church we see this manifested in the reduction of woman to a place of servitude, and the domination of the husband over the wife or wives. And this state of the church and of marriage was foretold in the words of the pronouncement after the Fall, "And the Lord God said to the woman, Thine obedience shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." (Genesis 3: 16.)

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     When the state of the church became natural, the individual man of the church could no longer be led by good, but was to be under the dominion of truth. When the will became evil, it was necessary that it should be subjected to reason and the intellect as a means of its regeneration. This was the state after the Fall, and it is the natural state of everyone born into the world at this day. Before and during regeneration it is necessary that the natural will and its cupidity be under the government of reason and truth, if a man is to be rescued from barbarism and a merely animal state. The individual man must subject his natural desires or cupidities to the government of moral and civil laws; and if he would be regenerated and saved he must subject them to a conscience formed from the love of the truth of Divine Revelation.
     It is similar in the beginning of marriage. The natural of each partner must be under the government of the truth from the Lord, if the marriage is to be spiritually blest. And because the woman from her nature is affectional, and as to the unregenerate natural is said to be a form of cupidity, or natural love, so she is to be under the guidance of her husband's reason, even as he is to be under the guidance of truth from the Lord. This was the means of the restoration and regeneration of the race after the Fall, and is involved in the obedience enjoined upon the woman and the rule of the husband over her, which applies equally at this day as to the beginning of marriage. Blessed is that union which has its beginning in a loving submission of the wife to her husband, and in the husband's submission to the Lord's truth. For it is in this way that both according to order suffer themselves to be led by the Lord, and thus lay the foundation of that higher mutual love that is to come later.
     An advancing state of regeneration brings with it a genuine spiritual freedom and its mutuality, when both are led by the Lord through good. It brings with it a spiritual state in which alone the conjugial can exist, in which good and truth mutually love each other, and in which they conjoin themselves in every affection, thought and work, banishing all dominion of one over the other. And we may add that this state of spiritual freedom can be realized even in the beginning of marriage with two who have already progressed in regeneration, removing every idea of dominion, removing any idea that one is to rule or reform the other-a condition which renders the marriage tie a state of master and servant, and destroys the possibility of the genuine conjugial.

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     The Masculine and the Feminine.

     In the terms of the Heavenly Doctrine, as we have noted, the unregenerate feminine is said to be a form of cupidity, and the unregenerate masculine a form of fantasy and falsity: the masculine, however, possessing the faculty of elevating the understanding into the light of truth. According to the terms of the Writings, cupidity and imagination in the animus or natural mind correspond to will and understanding in the mens or spiritual mind. In a perverted state, the cupidity of evil and its companion fantasy reign in the natural mind; and this is the state in a merely natural marriage. Hence we read in the Arcana that "the feminine sex is such and so formed that the will or cupidity reigns over the intellect; such is all the disposition of their fibres, such is their nature. But the masculine sex is so formed that the intellect or reason reigns, such being the disposition of their fibres, such their nature. And because at this day there is no will of good, but only cupidity, and yet a kind of intellectual or rational can be given, hence it is that so many laws were promulgated in the Jewish Church concerning the prerogative of the man and the obedience of the wife." (A. C. 568.) This state, we have seen, came about when the church had declined and become merely natural, when the genuine conjugial had departed, together with the closing of the spiritual mind and its will of good, its love to the Lord and mutual love.
     This mind was opened again to some extent in the Christian Church, and with it came the beginning of a restoration of conjugial love,-a return in part to that mutual and equal relation in marriage wherein alone the genuine conjugial can be founded. And we may see also that this measure of restoration in the Christian world has gone step by step with the emancipation of woman from the servitude of the pre-Christian times,-a movement which, when regarded from its uses, has been a means of promoting that mutual enlightenment and freedom of man and woman upon which the conjugial depends, though when regarded from its abuses, it must be considered a means of destroying the possibility of the conjugial, as it does when the distinction of the masculine and the feminine is not preserved.

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Equality of man and woman does not mean identity of function in society, but rather distinctness of function,-complete distinction, allowing for the development of each in its own sphere, and promoting the perfection of a union of the two in marriage. (See C. L. 174-176.)
     In the New Church the heavenly conjugial is to be restored. For a spiritual church is to be raised up, and the spiritual mind fully opened with those who receive the Heavenly Doctrine in heart and life. With these, natural marriage will be internally exalted with the blessedness and felicity of love truly conjugial. It is highly important that we should know how this gift may be received.

     Marriage and Regeneration.

     The blessedness of conjugial love will be imparted to men according to the state of the church with them. The conjugial state grows with men and women as they advance in regeneration. as they progress in the life of the church. For regeneration is effected by the opening of the spiritual mind and the conjunction of good and truth in that mind-in the spiritual will and understanding. This conjunction is the conjugial in each individual, and is essential to that conjugial which is the union of two souls and the conjunction of two minds in the marriage of one man and one wife.
     No one at this day has this conjugial naturally, because no one is born regenerate. The love that does not progress step by step with regeneration is not spiritual, but natural. The conjugial is acquired only by the life of regeneration; and in proportion as it is so acquired, it enters from above and within into the natural love and the natural state, and exalts them. Then the marriage on earth is vivified from within by the spiritual, which alone is lasting, eternal. Salvation itself, and the felicity of heaven, depend upon the beginning of regeneration during this life,-the beginning of the marriage of good and truth in the individual, as a preparation for a state of marriage in heaven. This is the meaning of the Lord's words: "The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage; but they who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage; neither can they die any more.

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For they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." (Luke 20: 34-36.) Every angel is in the marriage of good and truth, having begun regeneration in this life, and is in a happy marriage in heaven, whether he was married in this world or not.
     Now, as the state of the conjugial with married partners is according to the state of the church with them, because the church and the conjugial reside in the spiritual minds of each, so the means whereby the regenerate life is promoted and sustained are also the means whereby the conjugial is acquired, promoted and sustained. The goal of the one is the goal of the other-namely, a life of mutual love and use in the Lord's eternal kingdom. This is the end in regeneration, and it is the end in marriage. All other things are instrumental. The individual happiness, the happiness of both consorts, is according to their mutual love of the Lord and the uses of His kingdom. Otherwise their love is not conjugial, but selfish.
     And what are the means to this end and goal but the means to the spiritual life of regeneration? A man is regenerated by learning truths of doctrine, shunning evils as sins, and doing the goods of charity. By learning truths from the Word, his thoughts are elevated above self and the world to heaven and the Lord; and when he is thereby affected in heart and life with the desire of the heavenly life, he shuns the evils of a selfish and worldly life. By this means the truths of doctrine are conjoined to the good of charity in his internal man; he is introduced into the conjugial of good and truth, and gifted with the blessedness of the spiritual life, which then inwardly animates all his natural life.
     This, in brief, is the process whereby the man of the church is regenerated, and led toward the heavenly goal. And when he is continually in the end and endeavor toward this goal, he progresses continually in the way to it. He grows in the understanding of truth, in the affection of good, in the diligent putting away of evils, and in the faithful exercise of the uses of charity.
     But regeneration is not the work of a moment. Nor is the conjugial acquired in a moment. It is a matter of life-long effort and growth. The remains from which a man begins regeneration are a gift from the Lord, which must be appropriated by a life of effort in repentance. So, too, the first state of love in marriage is a gift from the Lord, which the partners must make their own by life-long effort.

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And through it all the Lord leads the man and the woman continually forward according to their cooperation; for the Lord does not and can not compel it. In man's progression through all the means of regeneration he thinks, wills, and acts as of himself in freedom, though acknowledging that the Lord alone leads him in the spiritual life, that He alone enlightens, gives the delight of good, supports in temptation and gains the victory, and that the Lord alone inflows to render his natural life and uses spiritual and saving.
     Through all the path of regeneration the Lord leads man in freedom, to the end that man's love and action may be reciprocal and spontaneous. In no case does the Lord compel man to progress in the spiritual life-to learn truths, to shun evils, or to do goods; for compulsion to these things Would destroy that alone which makes the heavenly life blessed for man,-the sense of living, loving, thinking, and acting in freedom.

     Marriage and Freedom.

     If, therefore, the Lord regenerates man only in a state of spiritual freedom, so He blesses man with the conjugial only when he is in freedom, only when he seeks and strives for it of himself,-strives for the conjugial of good and truth in his own regeneration, and also for the conjugial of a lovely union with a consort. The Lord can lead the individual man and woman to this conjugial only when they seek and strive for it as of themselves. And so He can lead a married pair forward in the spiritual conjugial only when they preserve the spiritual freedom of one another in all their relations, and when each seeks and strives for the conjugial in himself and herself. Each is to do this for its own sake, whether the other does it or not. But the ability to do it is injured unless each guards against infringing the freedom of the other, even as the Lord Himself guards the freedom of every regenerating man.
     This, as we have said, the Lord does for man's sake, that man may love freely and reciprocally, and under no compulsion. It is for a similar reason that freedom is essential to the cultivation of the conjugial by partners. For we have seen that conjugial love is a love most perfectly mutual, and that anything of dominion or compulsion destroys it. Any compulsion by one or the other, especially in the things of the church and the regenerate life, takes away mutual love, takes away the possibility of growth in the conjugial.

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For compulsion closes up the fountain of internal love and its spontaneity, and destroys the possibility of a spiritual union.
     This, then, is an essential means to the reception of the gift of conjugial love and its blessedness, namely, that partners zealously guard the spiritual freedom of one another, seeing that this freedom is essential to the regenerate life, to the life of charity, and to the promotion and sustenance of love truly conjugial-essential to that elevation of man and woman above the natural state to the spiritual state of the New Church. How necessary that guard is will be evident from this teaching of our Doctrine:
     "The love of exercising dominion, one over the other, completely takes away conjugial love and its heavenly delight, which consists in this, that the will of one be that of the other, and this mutually and reciprocally. The love of dominion in marriage destroys this; for he who domineers wishes that his will alone should be in the other, and none of the other's reciprocally in himself; hence there is nothing mutual, consequently no reciprocal communication of one's love and its delight with the other; when yet this communication, and thence conjunction, is the interior delight itself in marriage, which is called blessedness. The love of dominion completely extinguishes this blessedness, and with it all celestial and spiritual love. . . . When one wills and loves what the other wills and loves, then both enjoy freedom; for all freedom is of love; but where there is dominion, neither is free; one is a slave, and so is the other that exercises dominion because he is led as a slave by the desire to dominate. But this is incomprehensible to one who does not know what the freedom of heavenly love is." (H. H. 380.)

     True Freedom.

     Now while spiritual freedom is a first essential in marriage, there is a second essential,-that the freedom be rightly employed. And it is true freedom to be led by the Lord. Spiritual freedom is given and preserved by the Lord to the end that man may act zealously as of himself, with initiative and spontaneity, in the spiritual life, to the end that this life and its delight may be appropriated to him as his own. It is similar with that freedom which is to be preserved in marriage.

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Its end and purpose is that each partner may zealously, and with initiative and spontaneity, seek and strive for the regenerate life, by which alone the conjugial union is promoted and preserved.
     And we have seen what the means to the regenerate life are: the learning of truths, the shunning of evils, and the doing of goods. These are the means which both are to employ, to the end that each may grow in the life of the church, that the love and faith of the church may be interiorly in each, and thus that their hearts and minds may be in a similar good and truth, and be conjoined in spiritual union. Spiritual freedom involves that each is free to fulfill this requirement or not. When neither fulfills it, the conjugial languishes with both. When it is fulfilled by one, and not by the other, one grows in the conjugial, the other does not. When both together fulfill it, when both are zealous in the regenerate life, both are preparing for that blessedness of marriage that makes heaven with them.
     From this we see that individual freedom in marriage fulfills its purpose when it leads to a mutual and reciprocal conjunction of the partners, when both are in the light of truths, the affection of good, the doing of uses. The purpose in that freedom is not that they may grow apart, but that they may grow together. And they will the more perfectly grow together, the more distinctly the individual freedom is preserved, and the more fully each is making good use of that freedom by growing in the life of the church.
     In the individual mind the will and the understanding are most distinct, and yet formed for conjunction and reciprocal union. They are as distinct as the heart and lungs, which are conjoined in every pulse and breath, so conjoined that each acts as of itself. In spiritual freedom the understanding is kept free to receive and believe apart from the will, and the will is free to conjoin itself to the understanding or not. If the understanding receive and believe the truth, and the will conjoins itself to the understanding in acts of use, then is there mutual consent, and they are conjoined in the heavenly marriage.
     But the will cannot compel the understanding to believe; nor can the understanding compel the will to act. The Lord preserves such a spiritual freedom with the individual that he may receive or reject the truth, and also that he may will to do it or not. But the will is good, and the understanding is wise, when the truth is received and loved, when evils are shunned and when goods are done.

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Then is the individual blest with the conjugial of good and truth; and he is free indeed.
     It is entirely so with a husband and wife in their spiritual marriage. For the husband in every respect acts the part of the understanding, and the wife in every respect acts the part of the will. Each is free and distinct, yet formed for conjunction with the other. And the more fully each fulfills his own part or function, the more perfectly can they be conjoined.
     It is especially the function of the husband to grow in the knowledge and understanding of the truth, and in the wisdom of life it is thus that he adapts himself to receive the genuine love of the wife, because it is her spiritual function to love and will the truths of his wisdom. This she will do if her love be a regenerate love, a love of good which can only conjoin itself with an understanding adapted to receive,-an understanding from which the fantasies of self- intelligence are removed by repentance.
     The wife, from her love, cannot compel the husband so to adapt himself; neither can the husband, from his understanding, compel the will of the wife to compliance with itself. To attempt this is to take away the spirituality of marriage,-the mutuality of the genuine conjugial. With all who are unregenerate, this is what is attempted after the first stages of married life,-this effort to compel and dominate. The result is that the stronger rules, the weaker compromises and obeys, but there is no spiritual union.
     Marriages in the church,-marriages between two who are progressing in the regenerate life-are blest with the mutuality of the genuine conjugial, the conjunction of the love of truth and the love of good as in one mind. (H. H. 375.) In such a marriage the light of truth with the man continually elevates the wife's affection, and the affection of her love continually inspires the perception of good with the husband. Or rather it is better to say that the loves of both are continually elevated and exalted by the Lord through the light of truth from His Word, through the desire of good, the abhorrence of evil, and the doing of uses. And in the degree in which they are so blest by the Lord, in the same degree are they blest with the precious gift to the New Church,-love truly conjugial.

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Church News 1941

Church News       Various       1941

     DURBAN, NATAL.

     June 30, 1941-The evening of Saturday, June 7, was selected for our June Bazaar this year. Our Acting Pastor, the Rev. F. W. Elphick, opened the proceedings with an appropriate speech, and this proved the beginning of a successful and jolly evening in spite of war conditions.
     But, needless to say, the main events of the month (and of the year) have been those connected with our observance of New Church Day. As a prelude to our celebrations, a Service of Praise was held on June 19th at 7.30 p.m. Despite the absence of so many of our members with the fighting forces, the church was well filled, and the beautiful and happy sphere was further enhanced by the singing of the choir and a solo from "The Holy City" by Mr. Garth Pemberton. At 8.15 p.m., the congregation repaired to the adjoining Hall, which had been tastefully and appropriately decorated in red and white by Miss Sylvia Pemberton and helpers. A most enjoyable social evening followed, with toasts, speeches and songs, Mr. Elphick acting as toastmaster and director of ceremonies.
     After the toasts to "The New Church," "The King," and "The Nineteenth of June." and the reading of a Message of Greeting from Bishop de Charms, the subject of "Freedom" was dealt with in six different aspects, as follows: "Natural Freedom," by Mr. Neville Edley; "Freedom and Writing." by Mr. Alfred Cooke; "Freedom and Government," by Mr. Wilfred M. Buss; "Freedom and Democracy." by the Rev. Martin Pryke, of Colchester, England (a paper read by Mr. Garth Pemberton); "Freedom and Persuasive Truth," by Mr. R. Melville Ridgway; and "Thoughts on Freedom," by Mr. Sydney E. Lee, of Glenview, Illinois (read by Mr. Scott Forfar). We would especially like to thank our friends overseas for sending their contributions to this program. We regret that responses from Australia and Canada have not yet reached us, and that a response on the subject of "Freedom" by the Rev. A. Wynne Acton, of London, did not arrive in time for our celebration. An opportunity will be given for the reading of this paper in the near future.
     During an interval, tea was served by members of the Women's Guild, and messages of affectionate greeting were read from Major Walter G. Lowe on behalf of all those serving with His Majesty's Forces, from Mr. and Mrs. William N. Ridgway of Kent Manor, Zululand, and from Mr. and Mrs. J. Martin Buss and Mr. and Mrs. Colin Owen Ridgway from Zululand. Mrs. Viola Ridgway entertained the gathering with the rendering of amusing impromptu songs. And, after we had toasted "Friends Across the Sea" and all `Our Boys up North," a happy evening terminated at eleven o'clock.

     Children's Banquet.

     On Friday. June 20, at 6 p.m., a festive gathering consisting of twenty two children (6 to 14 years), members of Theta Alpha and our Acting Pastor, sat down to an attractive and liberal supper in the Hall, where the tables had been cheerfully decorated with red Poinsettias. After the toasts to "The New Church" and "The King" had been honored, a series of Recitations and Readings, interspersed with songs, provided the younger generation with useful information concerning the New Church.

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Following the recital of T. C. R. 791 by all in unison, Grade III repeated Revelation 21: 22-27. The two elder scholars of Kainon School read essays: "Garments in Heaven," by Ethne Ridgway; and Writing in Heaven," by Maureen Ridgway. The Kindergarten Class and Class I recited Revelation 21: 1-5. Then four boys read suitable extracts from the Writings selected by the toastmaster, as follows: "Thoughts for the Nineteenth of June," Michael Ridgway; "The 19th of June in History," Clive Parker; "How the Writings of the New Church Seem to be Received by Men in the World," John Lowe; and "The Lord Compels No One to Receive His Truth," Lyall Ridgway. After the toast to "Our Academy," and to "The Members of Theta Alpha as Hostesses," the celebration closed by all singing the hymn, "0 God the Rock of Ages."
     Our observance of New Church Day was brought to a fitting climax on Sunday, June 22, by the administration of the Holy Supper at the close of the morning service.
     The local newspaper, THE NATAL MERCURY, in its "Saturday Sermon" department of June 14, published another admirable paper by the Rev. F. W. Elphick, entitled "Freedom and Bondage," presenting this subject from a New Church point of view, quoting several passages from the Writings, and bringing the revealed light to hear upon the conflicts of the ages.
     P. D. C.

     TORONTO, CANADA.

     Three outstanding festivals mark the year for a New Churchman,- Christmas, Easter and the 19th of June. This latter occasion we celebrated in the usual manner by a banquet in the assembly hall. There is always a danger that the materialism of the world will weave its web around our observance of these special days, and that we may fail to realize the trust placed in us of preserving the spiritual heritage of our fathers. In an earnest appeal to the large number gathered around the beautifully decorated tables, Mr. Gyllenhaal spoke of the necessity for accepting responsibility in the spiritual growth and development of the church, and of the preparation for such responsibilities in ourselves and in the education and training of young members. An interesting feature of the evening's program was the presentation of copies of Conjugial Love and the True Christian Religion to eleven young people who within the year became eligible to join the church.
     The ceremony in which young people make their confessions of faith, and are received into full membership in the New Church, is one of the great moments in the life of a congregation. It is the climax of one stage of our task of instruction and education, and the recognition of new members who undertake to assume their share of responsibility in the fellowship of the church. It was, therefore, for the people in the society, as well as for the individuals concerned, a ceremony which received most interested attention when three of our young girls, on the Sunday following the 19th, made public confession of their faith before taking part in the service of the Holy Supper. They were Lorna Barber, Jean Bellinger, and Penelope Anne Sargeant. The beauty and dignity of the service held a spiritual message for all present.
     The event of interest in July was the baptism of Miss Rose Norwood and the confession of faith at the same time of her fiance, Mr. Hubert Raymond, and his brother Jack. The betrothal of the engaged couple took place immediately after the church service, and the wedding on the following Tuesday afternoon was lovely in its simplicity, and we all felt very happy to have had the opportunity of making the acquaintance of Hubert's charming bride. Mention must also be made of the miscellaneous shower for Rose on the evening before the wedding.

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     On August 5, The Olivet Estates, Limited, held their second meeting this Summer to discuss business arising from the community property. While building will have to be postponed until after the war many members are working with enthusiasm toward the further development of the project.
     The school closing at the end of June was a notable event, in that it showed remarkable progress in many lines of endeavor among the children, and exemplified the excellent work done during the year by Miss Korene Schnarr. This brought our year's activities to a close for the Summer months, and we are now looking forward to September, when we can resume the regular routine of society life.
     C. S.

     HURSTVILLE, AUSTRALIA.

     Between April and June, each with its sacred festival, we had one of those months of normal activity which are so necessary for confirming and consolidating in ordinary life the gains that come to a society through celebrating the feasts of the Church. Of May, therefore, we have little to report. Our many and varied uses were all carried on as usual. The series of doctrinal classes on the Ten Commandments was brought to an end; and at the monthly meeting of the Sons of the Academy the pastor read a paper entitled, "Bishop Swedberg: A Biographical Sketch."

     New Church Day.

     At the beginning of June a new series of classes was commenced, treating the doctrine of temptation. But the outstanding events in this month have been those connected with the observance of New Church Day On the Sunday before the 19th the pastor preached on "The Church Militant." showing that the church is most truly militant, not in crusading against the evils of society, but in seeking out and fighting against its own evils in temptation combats, and thus co-operating with the Lord in the further establishment of His Crowning Church, and seeking true blessing for all peoples. As has been our custom for some years now, a service of praise was held in the evening of the 19th of June. The Fifth Office in the Revised Liturgy was used, a quartet singing the anthem, "Great and Wonderful are Thy Works." The pastor delivered a sermon on the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, in which it was shown why the Last Judgment had to be delayed until the time when it was effected, and that the principles governing that delay are still operative in the individual mind and in the world. The children's banquet was held on Saturday, the 21st, in the late afternoon. Miss Murray, one of the Sunday School staff, was mainly responsible for the substantial repast prepared for the young guests, though she had many willing helpers in the older children; and Mr. Fred Kirsten, a former pupil, explained the meaning of New Church Day to the children in a short and simple talk.
     Our main celebrations were held, however, on Sunday, June 22, and they began with a' Holy Supper service in the morning at which the subject of the sermon was A Chosen People." The sermon contrasted the true reasons why the Jewish nation was selected by the Lord with the false interpretation of His choice that originated in the minds of the Jews, and then went on to show in what sense the members of the New Church are a chosen people, and what ideas must he excluded from the concept. In a simpler form, the same subject was the topic of the address given at the children's service, which was held in the afternoon and was well attended. Mrs. Henderson had prepared the usual Representation, and this year the singing practices held in preparation for this service were conducted by Miss Murray, who also played at the service.
     With several members away from home, or unable to be present for other reasons, the attendance at the banquet was the lowest for some years. there being twenty-two persons seated around the tables.

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But this unavoidable decrease in our numbers was more than balanced by a fine and happy spirit, which made the banquet one of the most successful in our history. The lady members of the social committee,-Mrs. Henderson, Mrs. Stephenson, and Mrs. Taylor,- had prepared a most delightful and satisfying meal, and the mental fare offered was of the same high quality. Greetings from absent friends were received with delighted applause, and, as always, the keenest appreciation was reserved for the Bishop's message, which was of the stimulating and encouraging kind to which we have come to look forward. Mr. Ossian Heldon, the speaker of the evening, gave a splendid paper on "Order," in which he dealt with order itself, the orders of creation and regeneration, order in heaven and in hell, and order in the church and the world. The discussion that followed paid deserved tribute to this fine piece of work. Toasts to "The Church," "The Bishop and the General Church," "The Nineteenth of June," "Our Society," and "The Ladies who Furnished the Feast," were proposed by Messrs. Sydney Heldon, Lindthman Heldon, Fred Kirsten, Alfred Kirsten, and the pastor. Many songs of the church were linked with these toasts, and several other toasts not on the program were proposed and honored with great enthusiasm. A brief quiz session of the "Information Please' variety tested the company's general knowledge concerning the Writings, though no doctrinal questions were asked. The banquet closed with a short address and the pronouncing of the Benediction by the pastor, who acted as toastmaster.

     We close with a few general items. The infant son of Mr. and Mrs. Ossian Heldon, Kenneth John, was baptized by the pastor on Sunday, June 15. Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher have been away for some weeks on a visit to Mrs. Fletcher's parents in South Australia, and their places in the Sunday School and at the organ are being filled by Mrs. Taylor and Mrs. Kitsten, respectively. Sergeant Norman Heldon is home on leave for a few days; and Tom Taylor, our member in the Air Force, hopes to pay us a short visit soon. Sydney Heldon has now enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force, which means that we shall be losing the valuable services and immediate support of another of our most loyal young men; but in the circumstances we can scarcely object to chat, much as we regret the necessity for it.
     Apart from banquets and tennis, there has been very little organized social life this year, but some of the young people had an enjoyable hike through the bush on a recent holiday.
     At the Sons' meeting on the 29th no paper was read, but every member present spoke for a few minutes on a passage from the Writings which had interested him in his recent reading. Naturally there was a wide diversity of subject-matter for discussion, and the innovation was so successful that another evening of this kind will undoubtedly be held.
     W. C. H.

     COLCHESTER, ENGLAND.
     
     July 13, 1941.-A very memorable week-end was spent in Colchester, June 28-29, when we held our New Church Day celebration, and were glad to welcome a number of visitors, among them our new friends, Mr. and Mrs. Harold Jones of Northampton, also Mr. James Pryke, Mr. and Mrs. Stebbing, Mr. and Mrs. Wainscot, and Miss B. Dale. Mr. A. Boozer was also home on leave.
     For the Banquet on Saturday evening the tables were prettily decorated with various shades of blue flowers and bowls of roses. Our friends in Australia very kindly sent us for this occasion a beautiful cake with June 19th Greetings inscribed upon it. We served it with strawberries.
     Our minister, as toastmaster, read a Message of Greeting from Bishop de Charms, and also one from Mr. Alan Waters.

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He then introduced the toast to "The Church" with fitting remarks, and three very interesting papers were read dealing with the general subject of the effects of the Second Advent, as follows: "Our Life of Use in the World," Mr. Brian Appleton; "Our Outlook on Marriage," Mr. Colley Pryke; and "Our Outlook on the War," Mr. Wainscot.
     Miss Olive Cooper and Mr. Sanfrid Appleton then sang the anthem, "The Lord is my Shepherd," from the Liturgy, which was beautiful and seemed to bring the Lord's presence very near to us. Other toasts were honored:
"June 19th," "Conjugial Love," and "To Victory," including those in the Forces; also to Mrs. James Pryke, whom we had hoped to have with us, and to the Rev. Martin Pryke, whom we are all glad to have among us. A hearty welcome was given to Mr. and Mrs. Jones on their first visit to Colchester, and we sang to them the Welcome Song from the Social Song Book. Tribute was also paid to our Australian friends, whose kindness has brought them very near to us in spirit.
     At the Sunday morning service the Sacrament of Baptism was administered for Mr. and Mrs. Harold Jones and their two children, the whole service being very impressive. At a gathering in the afternoon, Mr. James Pryke read a paper entitled "Some Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow" which was very interesting and created some discussion. Tea was served out-of-doors afterwards.
     The Holy Supper was administered to 30 communicants at the evening service, the Rev. A. Wynne Acton having come from London to officiate. The peaceful sphere of this service was a fitting close to a very happy week-end.
     Our uses in the forms of services, classes, socials and teas, have been maintained of late without disturbance.
     E. M. B.

     We quote in part from the Bishop's Message of Greeting:
     "As the 19th of June draws near, we are impelled by a stronger desire than ever to send greetings of encouragement and sympathy to those who, in the face of the hardships and continual alarms of this cruel war on civilians, have been struggling to maintain the uses of the General Church in Great Britain. Your calm fortitude and your indomitable spirit have been a source of inspiration to us all. We have followed the course of events with profound concern, and we now have the satisfaction of knowing that our country is producing and making available the materials of defense so sorely needed.
     "Our heart is, as always, on the side of human freedom; and the love of freedom is bringing unity of thought and purpose wherever the real issues at stake are seen.
     "The Last Judgment of 1757 can only be accomplished on earth by a slow and gradual process; it must advance even to the final consummation of the First Christian Church. In no other way can the minds of men be prepared to receive the Lord in His Second Coming. Nor can such a judgment be effected without cataclysmic changes-war, violence, and widespread human suffering.
     "The knowledge that the Lord has come, and that His Providence is silently but surely, and with infinite power, guiding the destiny of mankind, gives us strength to meet whatever temptations may be required of us. The proclamation of this Truth, made on the 19th of June. 1770. is being spread throughout the world with increasing power, year by year. This fact is the inner cause of the judgment upon the falsities of the former Christian Church on earth. That day therefore stands with us for a Divine Promise of spiritual protection. It stands as a sure prophecy of eventual deliverance from the power of evil and the final triumph of the Lord's Kingdom among men.
     "May New Churchmen everywhere unite on that day to renew their faith, and to pray for strength to keep it inviolate in heart and life through every trial that may be demanded of them l To do this is the supreme responsibility imposed upon us."

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MILITARY SERVICE COMMITTEE 1941

MILITARY SERVICE COMMITTEE       Mrs. PHILIP C. PENDLETON       1941

     General Church of the New Jerusalem.

     Below we present a list of the names and addresses of the men in military service which have so far been received by the Committee. Next month we shall list any additional names and addresses received, and any changes of address of which we are notified. It is hoped that members of the Church who are in the vicinity of any of the addresses will take the opportunity to come in contact with the men.
     MRS. PHILIP C. PENDLETON
          Chairman.
Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa.


Alden, Corp. Gideon T.-33031837-Battery B, 53rd Coast Artillery, A. P. 0. 802, Bermuda.
Alden, Pvt. Guy 5., 63rd Signal Battalion, Fort Clairborne, La.
Appleton, L. A. C. Eric D., No. 750449, Workshops, R. A. F. Station, Dishforth, Nr. Thirsk, Vorks, England.
Bamford, Mr. Frank D., 4, Parkhaven, Berea Park Road, Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Boozer, Driver A. E., T/151805, D Section, 19th M. C. Coy., R. A. S. C., Haywards Heath, Sussex, England.
Brickman, Pvt. Elmer G., H. Q. Squadron, 6th Pursuit Wing, Selfridge Field, Michigan.
Buss, Mr. J. Martin, c/o Mr. W. N. Ridgway, Kent Manor, P. O. Entumeni, Zululand, South Africa.
Cooper, Lieut. Philip G., Signal Corps, Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.
Cooper, Pvt. Rey W., 53rd Material Sqdn., 40th Air Base Group, Meridian, Mississippi.


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Daly, Pvt. Jean, 93 School Squadron, Scott Field, Belleville, Illinois.
Davies, Pvt. John G., H. Q., H. Q. Sqdn., 7th Bomb G., Fort Douglas, Utah.
Davis, S/Sgt. Charles F., 64th Mat. Sqdn., 49th Air Base, Fresno, California.
De Charms, Lieut. Comndr. Richard, Officer in Charge of Housing, U. S. Naval Ordinance Plant, South Charleston, West Virginia.
De Maine, Corp. R. E. Lee, Company C, 6th Engineers, Plattsburg, N. Y.
Field, Pvt. George A., Bolling Field, D.C.
Fine, P. F. C. Raymond, Military Police Company, Schofield Barracks, Hawaiian Division, T. H.
Fountain, Cpl. A. A., B 76894, T. S. R. A. A. T. C., Point Petre, via Picton, Ontario, Canada.
Fountain, Trooper Thomas J., "A" Squadron, 3rd Armored Regt. (G. G. H. G.), Camp Borden, Ontario, Canada.
Heinrichs, Lance Corp. Henry-38189, Bn. Hq., Highland Light Infantry of Canada, Debert, N. S., Canada.
Hill, A. C. 2 L. E., R 89398, T. T. S., R. C. A. F., St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada.
Iungerich, Ph. M. 1 C Alexander, Naval Hospital, Philadelphia, Pa.
Iungerich, Sgt. Stevan, M. C. B., Quantico, Virginia.
Izzard, Pilot L. T., L. A. C. R85608, S. F. T. S., No. 1 R. C. A. F., Camp Borden, Ontario, Canada.
James, Sgt. Cecil J., A 17008, No. 2 Base Depot, Medical Stores, R. C. A. M. C., Canadian Army Overseas, c/n Base P. 0., Canada.
Jeunechamp, Le Commandant Eugene, Djelba, Algeria, North Africa.
John, L. A. C. Haydn-R-72169, R. C. A. F. Station, Sydney, N. S., Canada.
Kintner, Lieut. William R., Fort Constitution, New Castle, N. H.
Lee, Pvt. Harold, Company D, 130th Infantry, Camp Forrest, Tenn.
Lindsay, Pvt. Alexander H., 28th Division, 28th Signal Corps, Indian-town Gap, Pa.
Morris, No. 2184480 Sapper David, 115th Road Construction Coy. R. E., Bury St. Edmonds, Suffolk, England.
Odhner, Pvt. Sanfrid E., Recruiting Detachment, Boiling Field, D. C.
Parker, F. O. Sydney R., C 3147, R. C. A. F., Canadian Army Overseas.
Potts, Pvt. John D. W., Q. M. C. Service Unit No. 1201, Fort Jay, Governors Island, New York, N. Y.
Reuter, Warren, P. F. C., 108th Observation Squadron, Old Sky Harbor Air Port, Murfreesboro, Teno.
Rydstrom, F. C. Jean, Co. A, Randolph Field, Texas.
Schnarr, L. A. C. Joffre G., Can. R. 70212, 206th Sqd., R. A. F., St. Eval, Cornwall, England.
Smith, Cadet Edmund G., Class 41-F, Brooks Field, Texas.
Soneson, Pvt. Carl, C. 0. B., 5th E. T. B. N., E. R. C., Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Starkey, M16691, Signalman H. R., No. 1 Co., 1st Div. Signals, Royal Canadian Corps Signals, Canadian Army Overseas.
Walker, Marvin J., E. Division, U. S. S. Lexington, Long Beach, Calif.
Walter, Pvt. Richard, Proy. Panama Recruit Detachment Office, Tent City No. 3. Maxwell Field, Montgomery, Alabama.
CHANGE OF ADDRESS 1941

CHANGE OF ADDRESS              1941

     The Committee will appreciate receiving a prompt notification of any Change of address, to the end that the List may be kept up to date.

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MIDDLE WEST ASSEMBLY 1941

MIDDLE WEST ASSEMBLY              1941




     Announcements


     Members and friends of the General Church of the New Jerusalem are invited to attend the Middle West District Assembly which will be held at Detroit, Michigan, on Saturday and Sunday, September 27 and 28, 1941. For full particulars and reservations, please communicate with Mr. J. E. Lindrooth, Y. M. C. A., 220 North Michigan Avenue, Saginaw, Michigan.
DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES 1941

DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES              1941

     Preliminary Notices.

     The 28th Ontario District Assembly will be held at Toronto, Ont., on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, October 11, 12, and 13, 1941.
     The 36th Chicago District Assembly will be held at Glenview, Illinois, on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. October 17, 18, and 19. 1941.
CHARTER DAY 1941

              1941

     All ex-students of the Academy of the New Church are cordially invited to attend the Charter Day Exercises, to be held at Bryn Athyn, Pa., on Friday and Saturday, October 24th and 25th, 1941.
NEW BOOK 1941

NEW BOOK              1941

     A New System of Reckoning.
By Emanuel Swedberg. Published by the Swedenborg Scientific Association, and reviewed in this issue. Copies may be obtained at 60 cents each by writing to Mr. Edward F. Allen, Treasurer, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Tour of WESTERN CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES 1941

Tour of WESTERN CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES        GEORGE DE CHARMS       1941



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NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. LXI
OCTOBER, 1941
No. 10
     In fulfilment of a desire long felt, I had the pleasure during the past Summer of visiting the isolated members and friends of the New Church in Western Canada. I was accompanied by Mr. O. W. Heilman, who, in his 1935 Ford car, was making the trip for the third consecutive year. Between the 20th of June and the 19th of August we travelled 10,400 miles, bringing the services of the Church to about 375 persons. We met groups in 29 different places for services, doctrinal lectures, and religious instruction to children. Eleven persons were baptized, and the Holy Supper was administered nine times.
     Everywhere we went Mr. Heilman distributed copies of the Writings and collateral literature. He took motion pictures in color of the people we visited. We had with us several reels of pictures taken on previous trips, but unfortunately we were unable to secure a projector that would work from the battery of the car, and without this it was impossible to show them. We had, however, the model of the Tabernacle of Israel, which afforded an interesting means of illustrating the doctrines of the New Church, both to adults and to the children. The entire trip was a delightful experience, and I wish to record our grateful appreciation to all the kind friends who welcomed us with such cordial hospitality, and who responded with such evident interest to the teaching of the Writings.
     Our first stop after leaving Bryn Athyn was at Glenview, where we arrived on Sunday morning. June 22. Here I had the pleasure of attending a service conducted by the Rev. Gilbert H. Smith, who preached and administered the Holy Supper. After church we were entertained at dinner in the genial home of the Pastor, who later drove me into Chicago for a meeting with the Sharon Church Society. Returning to Glenview. we paid a brief visit to the home of Mr. and Mrs. O. E. Asplundh before proceeding on our journey.
     In the afternoon of the 23d we arrived at Silver Lake, near St. Paul. Minn., where we were most cordially received by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Carpenter.

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We were delighted to find Mrs. Philip DeMaine and her daughter visiting them. The same evening I conducted a service for about 20 people, preaching and administering the Holy Supper. At this service, also, 4 persons were baptized,-Mr. and Mrs. Robert I. Coulter, Mrs. Walter Zick, and her 4-year old son, Walter William Zick. The social gathering that followed was a happy occasion. In addition to welcoming these new members, who had only recently become acquainted with the Doctrines, receiving them with keen delight, we had the pleasure of meeting a number of young people with whom Mrs. Carpenter has formed a reading class in Heaven and Hell. The next morning several returned for an informal discussion of the Doctrines, after which I gave a talk on the construction and spiritual significance of the Tabernacle, illustrated by the model. When we left, early in the afternoon, Mrs. Carpenter not only gave us a delicious lunch to take with us, but thoughtfully provided a supply of communion wine and bread for use throughout our trip.

     Manitoba.

     Crossing the Canadian border at Emerson, we arrived on the evening of June 25th at Winnipeg, where we enjoyed a brief visit with Martha and Helen Hiebert, the daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Hiebert. We had hoped also to meet John Hamm, who had joined the Canadian forces, but we learned that he had recently been transferred to an encampment some 150 miles away.
     Arriving in Roblin on the afternoon of the 26th, we set up our tent on the farm of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Funk. Here we had a delightful stay of four days, giving religious instruction to the children, conducting services and classes for the adults, and enjoying social gatherings with informal discussion of the Doctrines. The time passed all too rapidly. We visited the families of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Hiebert and Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Funk, of Roblin, and that of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Hiebert in Calder. Saskatchewan, about 20 miles away. At one of the services I baptized Thomas Henry and Mary Kathleen, the two little children of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Funk.
     On Sunday, June 29, we went to Boggy Creek, some 35 miles to the north, where I conducted a service and preached to a congregation of 90 people in the little church that was completed and dedicated last Summer. After the service I was entertained at dinner in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Julius Hiebert, while Mr. Heilman enjoyed the hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. David Friesen. Mr. Hiebert lives next to the church, and Mr. Friesen about a mile away. At two o'clock all returned to the church for a lecture on the Tabernacle. So keen was the interest in this, and in various points of doctrine, that Mr. Heilman and I were kept busy answering questions until far into the afternoon. Even when the formal part of the meeting was over, we were both surrounded by groups of eager questioners, loth to bring the gathering to an end. Meanwhile a heavy rain-storm had made the roads almost impassable. Yet one by one the families, many of whom had come long distances in automobiles or in bennet wagons, had to set out through the slippery mud for their homes. Mr. Hiebert kindly helped Mr. Heilman to put chains on our car, but when at last we were ready to leave we found a little boy who had unwittingly been left behind.

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There was nothing to do but to take him with us back to the home of Mr. Funk, where he would have to wait until some member of his family could come for him.

     Saskatchewan.

     Next morning we regretfully packed our tent and bade good-bye to the kind friends whose association we had so greatly enjoyed, and set out toward York- ton and Broadview. Turning off the main road at Dunleath, a few miles east of Yorkton, we stopped at the home of Mr. and Mrs. David Braun, to baptize their baby, Wayne Victor. They were eating lunch when we arrived, but as soon as they were through I arranged an altar in the living room and conducted the baptismal service.
     Continuing on our way to Yorkton, we spent a brief time with Lillian Hiebert (long enough at least for Mr. Heilman to take a picture of her), before going on to Broadview. Here live four married daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Loeppky and their son Ed Loeppky. With some difficulty we found our way to Ed's farm, where we also met Alice Remple and her brother. In the evening, three of the Loeppky sisters, with their husbands, drove out to join us, and I showed them the model of the Tabernacle. Later we had a pleasant social time with informal discussion. When it was time to go, one of the couples kindly showed us the way across the fields to the town, so that we might not get lost again. The next morning, Alice's brother brought her to the hotel, in order that we might take her with us to Secretan, to visit with her family while we were there.
     At Secretan we stayed four days, camping on the farm of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Remple. Here, on the evening of our arrival, the families living on surrounding farms all gathered for a service. The next day, July 1, we went to the Peter Remple's for a class with the children, and were entertained there at lunch. On Wednesday, July 2, the class and luncheon were at the Jacob Loeppky's, and that evening, at Henry Remple's, I spoke on the Tabernacle.
     On Thursday, Henry and Peter Remple and Jacob Loeppky went with us to Herbert, about 35 miles further west, where we had the pleasure of meeting the Rev. John Zacharias and his family. Mr. Zacharias had not known just when we were coming, but on very short notice he gathered a congregation of some 30 people in their church to hear a lecture on the Tabernacle. Then we returned to his home for a brief visit before going back to Secretan, where we were invited to dinner at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Loeppky. Later a service was held at which their infant son, Lyle Edward, was baptized.
     In every way our visit in Secretan was a delight. We were accorded the warmest hospitality by all the friends, and carried away with us the memory of most delightful social gatherings. Here as elsewhere it seemed as though we were obliged to leave just when we had become well acquainted with these kindly New Church people who had so generously opened their homes to us. But with so many places on our schedule, and such distances to traverse in order to reach them, only a limited time could be allotted to each place.

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On the morning of the 4th of July, therefore, we made the rounds of the farms at Secretan, bidding a most reluctant good-bye and left, taking Alice Remple with us as far as Moose Jaw, where we had agreed to put her on a bus that would take her back to Broadview.
     In Moose Jaw we were most kindly received by Mr. Thomas Miller, editor of the TIMES-HERALD, who invited us to a luncheon of the Canadian Broadcaster's Association. This was attended by about 100 members, and was addressed by their newly-elected President. During the afternoon, Mr. Miller arranged that Alice Remple, who had never been in a city before, might be shown the various points of interest, while I set up the Tabernacle model in his office and gave a talk which was written up by reporters and published next day in the TIMES-HERALD. Through his kindness, also, copies of the paper containing this article were mailed to a list of addresses furnished by Mr. Heilman, so that many of the families we were to visit might read it before we arrived.
     Continuing northward from Moose Jaw that same afternoon, we stopped at the home of Mrs. George Pagon (Laura Schnarr) in Davidson, spending a pleasant hour with her and her daughter before going on to Saskatoon for the night.
     The following day we arrived at the farm of Mr. and Mrs. Wilfred Klippenstein, near Laird, after stopping for a short time at Waldheim to call on the family of Wilfred's sister, Mrs. Nichols. That evening the Nichols joined us for a service at the Klippenstein's, and on Sunday morning, July 6, we all went to Rosthern, about 30 miles away, where we met Mr. and Mrs. John Hamin and their daughter Adelaide. The Rev. Zacharias had kindly invited us to use the church, where I delivered a lecture on the Tabernacle to a congregation of about 30 people. Again our departure was delayed by a rain-storm which made it impossible to travel over the gumbo roads. As it turned out, this was a great stroke of good fortune, for we were invited to dinner at the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Bech, where we had the unexpected opportunity of a longer visit. Mr. and Mrs. Hamm and Adelaide were with us, and we had a most enjoyable time until the sun had sufficiently dried the roads. On the way back, we passed a Mennonite Church, where a girl friend of Mrs. Klippenstein was about to be married, and we stopped long enough for her to offer her congratulations to the happy couple. Mrs. Klippenstein, who was raised a Mennonite, displayed a keen interest in the teaching of the Writings. She was baptized into the New Church last year by the Rev. K. R. Alden. On our return to the farm we were treated to a delightful supper before setting out once more for Saskatoon, whence we travelled west into Alberta.

     Alberta.

     On the afternoon of July 7th we arrived at Oyen, a few miles beyond the border of Saskatchewan. Here live two brothers, Mr. William Evens and Mr. Nelson Evens, with their families, on farms about two miles apart. We were invited to stay at the Nelson Evens, who have recently enlarged their house, and who had a more commodious room in which to hold services and meetings.

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Here we were most cordially received, and that evening the two families, together with the Stoners (neighbors who had taken some interest in the New Church) gathered for a talk on the Tabernacle. The following morning the same group attended a service with the administration of the Holy Supper. For this service we had music, a married daughter of the Stoners playing the piano while Mr. Heilman played the violin. A family dinner followed, with social songs and conversation concerning the Church and the Schools in Bryn Athyn.
     Leaving about 4 o'clock, we journeyed as far as the little town of Hanna, about 80 miles distant, where we stopped for the night. The next day we continued through Calgary to High River, 40 miles to the south. Here we met Mr. and Mrs. Fred Gilbert, their son, their daughter, and Mr. John Peppler. After dinner that evening, Mr. Joseph Hill and his sister joined us. I gave a talk on the Tabernacle, after which we discussed various matters connected with the Doctrines. We set up our tent that night near the house, and the next morning we held a brief service before returning to Calgary.
     Passing through Calgary, we went on to Edmonton, where we called on Dr. and Mrs. C. J. Madill. To our surprise and delight we found Miss Celia Bellinger and Mrs. Harvey Farrington visiting with them. They had stopped on their way through by train to Jasper, Lake Louise, and Banff. As they were in the midst of supper, we left them to finish while we got settled at the hotel nearby. Returning in the evening, we were joined, among others, by the Rev. and Mrs. Peters and their daughter, and Major and Mrs. Norbury. Again I set up the model of the Tabernacle and explained its construction and the signification of its parts. The audience was most appreciative, responding with a lively discussion.

     Peace River Block.

     The next morning we set out for the Peace River country, travelling 350 miles north and west over the gumbo roads, which were in unusually good condition, Beyond Athabaska, about 100 miles north of Edmonton, the country is wild, sparsely settled, and in parts covered with dense forests. About lunch time we came to a log cabin on the shore of a lake, and stopped in response to an inviting sign advertising meals. But finding the accommodations limited, and so many already waiting to be served that we would be delayed a couple of hours, we decided to go on, in spite of the fact that we were assured a real treat if we remained.
     About 9 o'clock in the evening we reached Crooked Creek, a little wayside store and post office. Here we inquired the way to the homestead farm of Ed Lemky. We had to strike off the road across the fields, following indistinct trails. Every little way we had to open gates in the barbed-wire fences. The directions had been somewhat vague and complicated, and after travelling 6 or 8 miles we lost our way. Fortunately we met a group of Mennonites with their families in several bennet wagons. Each one gave us different advice as to the best road to follow, warning us that any other road would prove impassable.

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When Mr. Heilman asked one of them how to go, the man looked at him several, and said, "Weren't you here last year?" When Otho admitted that he was, the man replied, "I told you last year!" and refused further information.
     About 10:30 p.m., we reached a farmhouse where the road parted, and, asking our way once more, we were told that Ed Lemky had gone to Gorande Prairie. However, we decided to go on, following a trail through mudholes, over steep grades, and through fences, until at last we came to a large mudhole in which the car became definitely bogged down. After trying vainly to get it out, we abandoned it and proceeded on foot. Through woods and fields we tramped, not knowing whether we were going in the right direction or not, until, just as I was ready to give up and suggest that we spend the rest of the night in the car, we saw a light! Mr. Heilman soon recognized the house as the object of our quest, and rapped loudly on the door. It was now about 11:30, an hour at which an isolated homesteader scarcely expects visitors. But after partially recovering from his astonishment, Ed Lemky welcomed us most hospitably. He was, however, in a quandary. His wife was at Gorande Prairie in the hospital with a new-born baby. The other children were with their grandparents, and he was all alone with nothing to eat in the house. This was a serious matter, since we had skipped our lunch and supper. So Mr. Heilman suggested that we rouse the neighbors who lived about a mile and a half away. Fortunately, Mrs. Dixon had been baking bread, and was still up, just taking the last loaf out of the oxen when we arrived. With characteristic western cordiality she invited us into the one-room cabin, where two little boys were abed in one corner. Mr. Dixon lit a lamp while his wife set the table and cooked eggs, which, together with bacon, fresh bread and butter, and coffee, provided one of the best meals I ever tasted. Taking with us a loaf of bread for the morning, we went back to Eel's, and turned in about 1:30 am.
     Next morning, Ed was up early, making the fire and cooking a breakfast of wheat-cakes and cereal. After breakfast he went out into the fields to hunt the horses, and after a time brought them in, hitched them to a wagon, and pulled our car out of the mud. Later the Dixons came over, and we had a little service before setting out for Gorande Prairie.
     About 9 miles from Gorande Prairie live Mr. Johan Lemky, his wife, and two unmarried sons, John and Arthur. Two sons and three daughters, all married, live on farms within a radius of 12 or 15 miles. We called upon one of the daughters, Mrs. Oscar Mackay, and she and her two children went with us to visit several of her brothers and sisters. Finally we came to her father's farm, where we were entertained until we left for Gorande Prairie, arranging that we would return on Saturday the 26th to have dinner and spend the night with the Mackays. On the 27th we were to have a service at Johan Lemky's, with all the members of the family present, when the new baby of Ed Lemky was to be baptized.
     After spending the night at a hotel in Gorande Prairie, we set out next morning for Pouce Coupe. Here we called on the Erdman Heinrichs, took dinner with them, and set up our tent on their farm.

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But the same day we went on through Dawson Creek to call on the family of Marshall Miller, a few miles beyond, and thence up to Progress, about 20 miles farther, to see Mr. and Mrs. Ted Hawley. After a brief visit with them, we went over into the next valley to the home of Mrs. Healdon Starkey, who lives at the end of the road, the most northerly point of our journey. Mr. Starkey is with His Majesty's forces in England, and his wife lives here alone with her five children. She had made arrangements to leave her two youngest boys in charge of a young girl from a neighboring farm, while she and the three older children went back with us to Pouce Coupe, to spend several days while we were there on a farm about 2- miles from the Heinrichs.
     Promising to return the next morning and pick them up, we went back to the Hawley's for the night. According to plan we returned to Pouce Coupe the next day with the Starkeys. Here we remained for five days. Each day I had a class with the children of the Heinrichs, the Starkeys, and the Millers. At night, after the chores were done, we held services out-of-doors at about 10 o'clock. Mr. Heilman would bring Mrs. Miller, her two daughters, and John Heinrichs over from Dawson Creek. Mrs. Starkey would bring her children over in the morning, and they would walk back at night through the fields and woods, fording a stream, to get back to their temporary home. The weather was warm, and the children spent most of the day swimming in the river. They had a glorious time together.
     We were so far north that, as late as 11 o'clock, we could easily read out-of-doors without artificial light. And after the services Betty Heinrichs would play the violin, Mr. Heilman would play his guitar, and we would sing Academy songs until the wee hours. At one of the services the Holy Supper was administered, and at the last one Juste Peter, the Heinrich's baby, was baptized. On one evening Mrs. Heinrichs prepared a picnic supper for the entire group, and on another occasion Mr. Heilman and I provided a picnic luncheon for the children, with lemonade, wienerwursts and toasted marshmallows. All in all we had a most delightful time, of which several spoke as the "Peace River Assembly."
     On Friday, July 18, we left, taking the Starkey's with us to Progress, where we were invited to stay with Mr. and Mrs. Hawley. Here we spent another most enjoyable week. The Hawleys have a large and well-appointed farm. They raise pigs, turkeys, chickens, horses, and cattle. At the time we were there they were milking 14 cows, and Mr. Heilman elected himself to turn the cream-separator each morning and evening. After the chores each morning we lingered over the breakfast table for an hour's discussion of the Doctrines, probing numerous questions of interest. Mr. Maguire, a neighboring farmer, hearing of our arrival, sent over a quarter of moose meat that was greatly enjoyed. Mrs. Hawley is a first-class cook, and we feasted on turkey, fresh peas, butter, cream, buttermilk, and all the delicacies of the farm.
     On Sunday, the 20th, several of the neighbors came in to hear a lecture on the Tabernacle. On Tuesday we had a service at the Starkey's, also attended by families from the surrounding farms. Clara, the daughter of the Maguires, was staying with the Hawleys while we were there, and Mr. Heilman taught her to play the guitar, so that the evenings were enlivened with music and song.

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On Wednesday, Mr. and Mrs. Hawley and Clara went with us to Dawson Creek and Pouce Coupe, where we called on the Heinrichs and brought back our tent and equipment. It was the first time in four years that Mr. Hawley had been away from the farm for a day's relaxation.
     Thursday I spent the day with the Starkeys, holding a service for the children in the morning, and being entertained by them in the afternoon. Meanwhile, Mr. Heilman had taken Mrs. Hawley and Clara to a birthday celebration on a farm far back in the woods, where he was entertained by an old-fashioned revival meeting, and shocked the evangelist by giving a talk on the New Church teaching concerning the life after death.
     On Friday we had a family banquet at Mrs. Starkey's in commemoration of her wedding anniversary. Several of the children made speeches, as also did Mr. Heilman and I. We had songs and toasts, and a remarkably strong sphere prevailed. The entire week is rich in memories that will linger long, and above all the memory of these sincere and earnest people, struggling so successfully to maintain the life of the New Church in this remote corner of the world.
     It was with genuine regret that we left on Saturday morning, July 26, to keep our appointment with Mr. and Mrs. Mackay at Sexsmith, near Gorande Prairie. Storms had been gathering for several days, and we had had some rain, but the roads had been so dry they were not seriously affected. We stopped at the Miller's to make a final call, and also at the Heinrich's, as we were taking Anna Heinrichs home from a week's stay with the Starkey's. Shortly before we reached Gorande Prairie we were overtaken by a heavy rainstorm that made it impossible for us to reach the Mackay's. We stayed over night in Gorande Prairie, and although it was still raining next morning, we set out for the home of Johan Lensky, where a service was to be held. The roads were in terrible condition, and after we had struggled through the mud for a couple of hours, the car refused to go farther. A farmer boy came past, and we arranged with him to get a team of horses to haul us the 9 miles that still lay between us and the Lensky's. But just as he was leaving, the car miraculously started; and getting directions from the boy, we proceeded under our own power. At last we arrived by the back way through a wheat-field, and found the Lemky family all awaiting us.
     I spoke on the Tabernacle in the afternoon, and in the evening I conducted a service, administered the Holy Supper, and baptized Lavinia Vivian, the infant daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ed. Lemky. After the service we had a jolly evening, with songs, discussion, and a display of the fireworks which Mr. Hell- man had brought with him. We had hoped to leave the next morning and return to Edmonton, but the roads were still impassable, and we waited over until Tuesday to give them a chance to dry.
     On Tuesday morning we left fairly early, hoping to make the 350 miles that would take us beyond the gumbo to gravel and hard-surface roads. But before we reached High Prairie, more rain came, and we found ourselves creeping along at five and ten miles an hour in zigzag ruts, and in continual danger of slipping into the ditch.

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It was 5 o'clock when we reached Slave Lake and stopped to have chains put on. We were warned not to go farther, but Mr. Heilman thought that with chains we could make the rest of the trip. We had visions of being held up, perhaps for days, in this wilderness. It took us 4 1/2 hours to go the next 31 miles. We found a number of cars in the ditch, with the prospect of remaining there all night. We met four large trucks struggling along, taking turns pulling each other back on the road; and just as we came up to them, our own car slid off into a ditch well filled with water. After we had helped the truck drivers for a time, ten of them came over and pulled us out, or we too would have been there all night.
     About 9:30 we reached the little town of Smith, where we managed to get a night's lodging and something to eat. It was clear the next day, and after waiting several hours for the roads to dry, we went on, reaching Edmonton late in the afternoon. Stopping only for a brief call on Mrs. Madill, we pushed on 200 miles farther to a little town near Jasper. For nearly three days we travelled over good roads, through the most beautiful and impressive mountain scenery, spending a night at Lake Louise and more than half a day in Banff. The night of July 31 we spent in the little town of Cranbrook, not far from the American border, and this brought our Canadian adventure to a close.

     Return through the United States.

     On August 2d we reached Spokane, Washington, and called at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Emil Hansen. Here we were most kindly entertained, and in the evening other members of the group came to hear a lecture on the Tabernacle. On Sunday morning, August 3d, a service was held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Emanuel Hansen, and I administered the Sacrament to 10 communicants. After the service the entire group remained I or a delightful dinner, enlivened by interesting discussion of the Doctrines. Among those present were Mr. and Mrs. H. P. Kobberne and their daughter, and Mr. Everet Sorensen. Unfortunately we missed seeing Mr. and Mrs. Carith Hansen, who were at the Coulee Dam, and Mr. and Mrs. Carl Sorensen, who were away on vacation. After a pleasant supper at the Spokane Hotel with Mr. Sorensen and Miss Kobberue, we returned to the Emanuel Hansen's, hoping to show some moving pictures. But the borrowed projector refused to work, and we spent the evening in social conversation.
     Next day we left for Walla Walla, where we called upon Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Littlejoho; and the next morning we spent several pleasant hours with Miss Antonia Pribllski, visiting in her home with her two nieces. Here we were at last successful in showing the motion pictures of the Bryn Athyn Cathedral and the Academy Schools.
     Our next stop was La Gorande. Oregon, where we called on Miss Lydia Hug, taking her quite by surprise, as she had not the least intimation that we were coming. Miss Hug has been a life-long reader of the Writings, and to say that we enjoyed our brief visit with her does not begin to express our real feelings.
     After two days of travel across the desert, through Salt Lake City and Gorand Junction, we came at last to Divide, Colorado, where we had hoped to meet Mr. Arthur Ebert, only to find that he had moved to Gunnison.

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We spent the night of August 8th camping in the mountains about 60 miles from Denver, and the next day went into the city, where we were most cordially invited to stay at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Wm. Schroder. Here we spent three days, meeting old friends, and enjoying the most generous hospitality.
     On the evening of our arrival, there was a gathering at the Schroder's for a talk on the Tabernacle, and on Sunday morning their living and dining rooms were converted into a well-appointed place of worship for a service and the administration of the Holy Supper. Twenty-three persons attended the service. Among them were: Mrs. E. M. Johnson and her daughter Gladys, Miss Hilda Hager, Miss McConnell, Mrs. Evans. the family of Mr. and Mrs. Albin Bergstrom, Mr. and Mrs. Alan Longstaff. Mrs. J. A. Waddell, her daughter Sue, and her married son and daughter-in-law. Mrs. Waddell is a member of the General Convention, living in Tucson, Arizona, and she had come to Denver especially to be present for the service.
     After the service, Mr. Heilman and I were kindly invited to take dinner at the Bergstrom home, where their two daughters. Vera and Mildred (Mrs. Stuart Synnestvedt) with her son, were visiting. In the afternoon I administered the Sacrament to Mrs. Win. S. Howland, who is confined to her room by illness. However, she arranged that we should enjoy two meals at the famous Baur's Restaurant, accompanied by Mrs. Johnson and her daughter Gladys; and in addition she provided a delicious lunch for us to take with us when we left. Throughout our stay, Dr. and Mrs. Schroder and their two daughters showered us with hospitality, and we brought back with us many happy memories of our visit with these cordial friends.
     Our next stop was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where we met the Rev. Harrison Lane, a colored minister who has become an enthusiastic receiver of the Doctrines. He is the National Evangelist of the independent colored Church of the Living God, with its center in the state of Texas. This Church was organized by a man named L. B. Pendleton, who incorporated features remarkably similar to those of the General Church. Mr. Pendleton died some years ago, but Bishop Davis, who now presides over the Church, is also interested in the Writings of Swedenborg, and Mr. Lane hopes to interest others.
     In St. Louis we spent several hours with Mr. and Mrs. Sprewell Owen, enjoying the hospitality of their home. Mrs. Owen was the former Edith Lind, of Denver, with whom we had become well acquainted when she was attending the Academy Schools. She now has a daughter of fifteen whom she hopes to send to Bryn Athyn in another year. We were disappointed that we could not stay longer, but we were obliged to go on, in order to keep an appointment the next evening in Cincinnati.
     Here we were entertained by Mr. and Mrs. Donald Merrell, and by Mr. Alan Smith and his mother. Mrs. Alan Smith and her children were visiting so Bryn Athyn. On the evening of August 16th I met with the men of the Circle to discuss church matters, and later we had a delightful social gathering at the Smith home. We were fortunate in meeting Mr. and Mrs. Charles Merrell, who were spending a few days there on a vacation trip from their home in Florida.

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On Sunday morning, the 17th, I gave a lecture on the Tabernacle to the assembled group in the Donald Merrell home.
     Pushing on that afternoon, we reached Charleston, West Virginia, early in the evening, for an over-night visit with Lieutenant-Commander Richard de Charms and his family. Commander de Charms has just completed a large housing project for the Government, and is employed as consulting engineer in an Armament Factory. Mrs. Richard de Charms has taken the lead in organizing assistance to isolated New Church families in their efforts to give religious instruction to their children, and I had the welcome opportunity to discuss with her the needs of the people I had met throughout our trip.
     Our last stop was at the home of Mrs. H. L. Grote in Pittsburgh, where we were most graciously entertained by her and her two daughters, Esther and Christine. Mr. and Mrs. A. P. Lindsay, with the Rev. Ormond Odhner, came over in the evening for a pleasant social time; and the next morning, before leaving, we were invited to give a brief account of our travels of which a record was taken. The final stretch of the journey was made on August 19th over the new Pennsylvania Turnpike without incident. We were delighted to be home again, and we both felt that our trip had been a great success, leaving us enriched by the acquisition of many new and valued New Church friends.
FOURTH YEAR OF THE FIG TREE 1941

FOURTH YEAR OF THE FIG TREE       Rev. MORLEY D. RICH       1941

     "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, 'Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none. Cut it down! Why doth it make the land also unfruitful?' But he answering said, 'Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and find whether indeed it will bear fruit. But if not, after that thou shalt cut it down.'" (Luke 13: 6-9.)

     In this parable the Lord lays bare the law of life-that he who does not reform his life in this world, and `bring forth fruits worthy of repentance," can by no means change his life and love in the world of spirits, but will inevitably ascend to heaven or gravitate to hell. After death he will be irresistibly drawn to one or the other by the powerful currents of his ruling love. "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire." "As a tree falls, so shall it lie."

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     In our text the owner of the vineyard, who represents the Lord, does not answer the vine-dresser's request, but seems to give a tacit consent. The Lord knew perfectly that this fig tree would not produce fruit in the fourth year. He knows that there is no possibility of a man's changing his ruling love in the world of spirits. But such 15 His patience and His mercy that He allows man, after death, a long period of adjustment in the world of spirits,-a thorough test during which the man himself may recognize and become adjusted to the fact that he has already chosen his lot, and that it could not be changed even if he should so desire, which he would not.
     Many evil men, indeed, when faced with judgment in the world of spirits, have for a time assumed an orderly and good external, and have struggled to avoid their fate, and this with success for a time. There have also been some who, in ages previous to the giving of the final and crowning Revelation, have postponed the day of judgment for many centuries. So cleverly could they assume the mask of sincerity, and so general and vague were the knowledges of salvation with men, that the Lord suffered them to remain in the world of spirits until the time came when they could be brought to a self- imposed judgment, when their internal hatred of the truth would so burst forth against the menace of a new revelation that they themselves would perforce "call upon the mountains to hide them from the wrath to come,"-from the terrible and renewed resplendence of Divine Truth.
     Yet inevitably, inexorably, and self-chosen, have come the times when there was "wailing and the gnashing of teeth, and the casting into outer darkness," on the part of the wicked, and songs of resurrection on the part of the good.
     This parable of the fig tree brings to mind another incident in the life of the Lord. He and the disciples, on one of their journeys, came to a fig tree. This tree was luxuriantly leaved, and so the Lord being hungry, put out His hand to pick some of the fruit. But when He found that the tree bore no fruit, He cursed it, saying, "Let no fruit grow on thee henceforth forever!" And "presently the fig tree withered away." (Matthew 21: 18, 19.)
     We can see that this incident likewise involves something deeper than the literal sense when we reflect that the Lord, who endured even the temptation of the cross with fortitude, would not lightly have used His Divine power to destroy a mere tree just out of annoyance.

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And, indeed, we find that this tree is a particular type of the Jewish Church, and a universal symbol of the man who has many knowledges, signified by the leaves, but who does not bring forth fruits or deeds of charity. In this incident, however, differently from the parable, the Lord cursed the tree immediately, and within a day it had withered and died. The quickness of this, however, does not refer to time in reference to man, but rather to certainty-the certainty of judgment in the world of spirits, when, no matter how fair a countenance or how good the actions a man may assume, his true internal state, bad or good, will slowly and surely be expressed.
     But let us examine more closely the parable itself.
     "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, 'Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none. Cut it down! Why doth it make the land also unfruitful?' But he answering said, 'Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and find whether indeed it will bear fruit. But if not, after that thou shalt cut it down.'
     The fig tree was planted in a vineyard, and so there are two kinds of fruit-bearing plants involved here,-the vine and the fig tree. The vine, we are told, represents the spiritual of man and the church, and the fig tree the natural. In these two are represented the two principal parts of man and the church, and for this reason the two are so often found coupled together in the Word. In the First Book of Kings (4: 25) it is said: "Judah and Israel dwelt in security, every man under his vine and under his fig tree," by which is depicted the peace and rest into which man and the church come at various times. Again, it is prophesied, "In the end of days it shall be that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the head of the mountains. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make afraid." (Micah 4: 1, 3, 4.) This passage refers to the time of regeneration, and to man's life in the kingdom of heaven, when all men shall dwell peacefully under the influence of their spiritual goods and truths, represented by the "vine," and their natural goods and truths, represented by the "fig tree."

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     Thus the fig tree represents man's natural-all the thoughts and affections which he consciously experiences in the life of the natural world. Its leaves correspond to the natural truths in his mind, that is, to the knowledges of all kinds which pertain to his life on earth. The fruit, the figs, correspond to his natural goods,-all the hereditary and acquired good affections, intentions and aspirations, which are directed toward and include acts of charity toward the neighbor and obedience to the law.
     The Writings make us thoroughly aware of the dependence of the natural upon the spiritual. From them we know that the spiritual is the world of causes, and the natural the world of effects, and that an effect cannot exist without its cause. We know, also, that the quality of a man's deeds, whether they be good or bad, is determined by his internal attitude, his motives and intentions, his reasons for his deeds and words. If a man perform works of charity merely for the sake of building up a reputation and profiting thereby, the quality of those good deeds is evil in the sight of the Lord. To use the simile of the parable, the fruit of the fig tree depends for its welfare upon the health of the vine. If the vine is unsound, then the figs of the tree will be bad.
     But in this parable the dependence of the spiritual upon the natural is emphasized, as indicated by the words of the master of the vineyard concerning the unfruitful fig tree: "Why doth it make the land also unfruitful?" In other words, "Why should this unfruitful fig tree make the vine and the whole farm unfruitful also?" So are we shown that the spiritual also depends upon the natural, that good intentions soon pass away if unfulfilled that good affections, without a form of ultimate action and speech, in which they may be concreted, flow away and are dissipated; that thought becomes barren and valueless unless knowledge is brought to use, unless the leaves of the fig tree contribute to a greater use, which is the production of fruit.
     "By their fruits ye shall know them." If the fig tree is barren, so likewise will be the vine. If the natural is barren,-if man brings forth no works of faith and charity in his speech and actions-then likewise will he have no genuine charity internally, no spiritual affection for the neighbor. If his natural bears no fruit of usefulness in the "three years" of his earthly life,-in his youth, middle age, and old age,-then likewise will he bear no fruit whatsoever, spiritual or natural, in the "fourth year," in the day of judgment, in his life in the world of spirits after death.

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"Such a tree is fit for nothing but to be hewn down and cast into the fire."
     The dependence of the spiritual upon the natural is evidenced in many things of human life. When men see the good works of other men,-the deeds and speech which may betoken internal goodness of intention,-then they are gladdened, and they are encouraged to "bring forth fruits worthy of repentance" themselves, to shun evil intentions and desires, and to emulate their fellows in the works of charity. For they know that, although such is not always the case, it may indeed be that their fellow men are also striving to act according to the Lord's commandments. And although the forms of action and speech adopted may be different, although the actions and speech of charity on the part of one may vary from those of another, still there will be evidence of one kind or another. This evidence it is by which men are mutually aided, encouraged and inspired to "go and do likewise." Therefore the Lord counsels us, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven-not that we "may have glory of men, as do the scribes and Pharisees," but "that men may glorify the Father who is in heaven," by whose Word we are inspired to bring forth the works of repentance. In this way, men may see in each other the flowering and fruition of the fig tree. So will they be heartened by the implied promise that "the summer is nigh," that something of that "good-will toward men" exists which means the redemption of the human race.
     But when we see no evidences of such good-will, then we are saddened and disheartened; and we may even be discouraged as to our own hope of salvation. We are then more easily confused by the cunning of evil spirits, who endeavor to insinuate the idea that nothing is of value, that the truth can never be known certainly, that good and evil are only relative terms which really describe nothing, that we can do no good as of ourselves. When, in the world about us, we see no apparent interest in spiritual things, when the manifestations of "man's inhumanity to man" are so abundant, when even external goodness is lacking, then we despair of our own regeneration, despair of its use, despair of its effectiveness in combating the forces of evil in the world. We may begin to despair of ourselves, to see the pitifully few ways in which we are bearing fruit, the few ways in which we do good to the neighbor-to the Lord, to the church, to our country, and to our more immediate associates.

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We see how few are the heartening and encouraging examples which we set before each other; we see how little we contribute to that "glorification of our Father in the heavens" which is the source of inspiration and help to all men.
     Then, also, we may be impressed with the urgency of our need, with the truth that we have only the "three years," the three periods of our life, in which to avoid the fate of the unfruitful fig tree. The "fourth year" comes quickly. Judgment hovers ever near. It may come like a `thief in the night," and like the "Lord of the house who came at a time when his servant was not aware." The question ever returns to us, "Shall I be able to sit in peace and security under my own vine and fig tree in the kingdom of heaven? Or will I, by my own mistaken and wilful choice, be blasted and withered and cast into the fire?"
     There is, however, the further question which men must ask themselves. Each must ask himself: "What kind of fruit am I cultivating? Am I obeying the law and doing these good deeds purely because I fear the law and hope for material reward? Or am I doing these things because I see that they are in accord with the principles, the truths, the commandments, of the Lord in His Word? If the latter is the case, to what extent is it so? Am I cultivating both my vine of life and my tree of action, so that both together may produce good fruit?" Only by such thought and examination can a true internal or spiritual become the inner quality of the goods and the knowledges of the conscious mind of man.
     Each man's day passes quickly. Noon follows morning; evening follows noon. But, "watchman, what of the night?" What of the "fourth year-the year of judgment? `When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" Will He find us bearing fruit? Will He find us in that state in which our "leaf shall be green, and we shall not cease from bearing fruit"? Let us work and pray that we "may sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make us afraid." Amen.

LESSONS:     Micah 4. Luke 13: 1-30. A. C. 4330.
MUSIC:     Revised Liturgy, pages 440,456, 482.

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PRAYERS:     Nos. 46, 125.
JUDAS ISCARIOT 1941

JUDAS ISCARIOT       Rev. ERIK SANDSTROM       1941

     (From DE NIEUWE BEDEELING of June, 1939, now translated from the Dutch by the Rev. E. E. Iungerich.)

     Judas Iscariot was one of the twelve apostles sent forth by the Lord while He was still in the world. "These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, to preach that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils." (Matthew 10: 5-8.) Thus Judas was a servant of the Lord, and as a leader and priest worked under Him for the establishment of the kingdom of heaven upon earth. Properly, therefore, we may conclude that the Lord, who knew the inmost thoughts and the character of all men, would not have chosen among His twelve intimate associates in this spiritual enterprise one whom He foresaw would be forever lost.
     In the Gospel record, however, there are words of the severest condemnation of Judas. He is called "a thief," "a devil," and "the son of perdition." And the Lord said of him, "It had been good for that man if he had not been born." (Matthew 26: 24, 25; Mark 14: 21.) And so there have always been problems with regard to Judas. What was his real character? What did he represent? Did the Lord foresee His betrayal by Judas when He called him as one of His twelve disciples? Was Judas really predestined to commit this deed?
     Let us first answer these questions in a general way by stating that there is reason to believe that the internal quality of Judas was such that he could be saved, and that the deed of betrayal was indeed foreseen, and, if you will, predestined, to the end "that the Scripture might be fulfilled." (John 13: 18.) For we are told that Judas represented the Jewish Church and it was necessary that the state of this Church, as described in the denunciations of the Prophets and constituting their ultimate burden, should be openly manifested and actually ultimated, in order that a judgment upon that Church might be accomplished.

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But the state of Judas himself, when he fulfilled what the Prophets had foretold, was not predestined.
     As to his representation in the Word we read: "That the Lord was betrayed by Judas signified that He was betrayed by the Jewish nation, with whom the Word then was; for Judas represented that nation." (Doctrine of the Lord, no. 16.) "The Lord's twelve disciples represented the Lord's church in general; and each of them represented some essential of it; and Judas Iscariot represented it such as it was with the Jews." (A. E. 4337.) "Judas Iscariot is called by the Lord 'a devil'; and it says that 'satan had entered into him'; the reason is, that by Judas Iscariot were represented the Jews, who, being in falsities from evil, were called 'a devil' from evil, and 'satan' from falsities." (A. E. 740:8.)
     But our general observations call for a more profound analysis. And let us first center our attention upon the statements in the True Christian Religion concerning the twelve apostles:

     "After this work was finished, the Lord called together His twelve disciples who had followed Him in the world, and the next day sent them all forth into the whole spiritual world to preach the Gospel that the Lord God Jesus Christ reigns. . . . This took place in the month of June, on the 19th day, in the year 1770." (T. C. R. 791.)
     After the completion of the True Christian Religion, Swedenborg wrote a second copy of the work, in which the following passages were inserted:
     "It is a memorable fact that, a few months ago the Lord called together His twelve disciples, now angels, and sent them forth into the whole spiritual world, with the command that they should there preach the Gospel anew." (T. C. R. 4.)
     "A few months ago the twelve apostles were called together by the Lord, and sent forth into the whole spiritual world, as before into the natural world, with the command that they should preach this Gospel; and to each apostle was assigned his own region; and this command they are also executing with all zeal and industry." (T. C. R. 108.)

     Here it is plainly stated that "the twelve who had followed the Lord in the world" had become angels, which seems conclusive as to the nature of Judas in the other life.

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Yet some readers of the Writings have demurred at this conclusion, and have suggested that the "twelve who had followed Him in the world" refers to His charge to them after His Resurrection, when Judas was dead, in which case Matthias, or possibly Paul, should be reckoned among the twelve. But against this reasoning a number of objections may be brought:
     1. The expression "the twelve," wherever used in the Writings, points clearly to those who were chosen by the Lord at the outset of His public ministry; and in several places Judas is mentioned by name as among them when reference is made to 'the twelve" in the New Testament.
     2. After His Resurrection the Lord sent out eleven, not twelve. (Matthew 28: 16-20.)
     3. The words "who had followed Him in the world' could not properly apply to the eleven plus Matthias, for in that case the word "followed" would have a merely spiritual import, and could apply to any person in the state of regeneration.
     4. Neither Matthias nor Paul is mentioned in the inspired part of the Bible. Neither of the two therefore represented something Divine. And so there would be no deeper reason why either of them should be sent forth in the spiritual world at the time of the Lord's Second Advent.
     Let us also recall the fact that Judas repented, as declared in the Gospel record: "Then Judas who had betrayed Him, when he saw that He was condemned, repented himself, . . . saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself." (Matthew 27: 3-5.)
     In addition, there is the notable statement in the Word Explained:
"Some are indeed reformed more quickly, and even at the moment of death; but then they are of such a nature that they had been prepared previously in a marvelous manner of which they themselves are ignorant; otherwise, if saved by the mere mercy of God Messiah, they would undergo infernal torments, as was told me concerning Judas the betrayer, of whom, however, there is said to be hope, because he was one of the elect who were given to God Messiah by Jehovah the Father, as declared by God Messiah Himself [John 17: 6]." (W. E., English, Vol. III, no. 3158; Latin, Vol. II, no. 1479.)

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     We should also note in this connection that the disciples, according to the Gospel account, exhibited weaknesses of the natural man, desiring preference over one another. They expected, after death, to sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel, and cherished the idea of merit or of receiving heaven as a reward for their deeds on earth. This state was shown to Swedenborg when they were let down from their heavenly abodes into the former states of their natural man, and the contrast shown them, which was a means of preparing them to function anew at the Second Coming. "That the Apostles might know that they are in heaven," Swedenborg states, "an angel in me spoke with them when they had been restored to their heavenly life, so that they might at the same time apperceive it as spirits, and thence might know, not only that they are in heaven, but also how much happier that angelic life is in comparison with the life of the spirit and the body. And while the angel was speaking with them, and they were affected with heavenly joy, they also said that they were so happy that there was no comparison with their former life in the world, as I also now perceive from them." (S. D. 1331; March 13, 1748. See nos. 1321-1332, and NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1927, pp. 371-378.)
     Like the other Jews of their time, who regarded everything in their Word in a purely literal way, the apostles also wanted a Messiah who would establish a world-empire for them. Judas, who had witnessed the Lord's might in the performance of many miracles, presumably had conceived a plan whereby the Lord would be obliged to give a great exhibition of His power in resisting those whom Judas would bring to apprehend Him, and would thus convince all of His Messiahship. Although such conduct on the part of Judas was not honorable, and not considerate of his Master's freedom of action, it was no betrayal or premeditated treachery, even though it provided an ultimate basis for the attack of the hells upon the Lord.
     In the light of these considerations it seems plain that the abusive epithets which the Gospel applies to Judas were not ascribed to his personal character, but to what he represented-the Jewish Church. Indeed, the Word rarely confines itself to the description of an individual's character, but rather sets forth what he serves to portray representatively in respect to the Lord and the church and their opposites. This, however, does not alter the fact that there was always a link between the Biblical character and what he represented, even though a discrepancy between the person and the representation may later be manifested.

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Otherwise the historical facts relating to such persons could not have been fashioned as a setting of what they represented in the spiritual sense.
     And we are told that twelve disciples were chosen, in order that "each might represent that which a tribe of Israel had represented; wherefore such were chosen as were like the things which they represented." (S. D. 1217.) In the case of Judas, it would seem that the particular evil of his proprium was an overweening love of the world proceeding from an intense love of self. This natural characteristic of his was exhibited when he deplored Mary's anointing the Lord's feet with costly ointment, and when he sold his Master to the high priests for thirty pieces of silver. This evil undoubtedly subjected him to temptations, especially as the Lord had entrusted him with the moneybag from which their expenses were defrayed. But in these temptations his Master strove in his behalf, both openly and in secret.
     We cannot here forego mentioning the subject of the patience of the Lord's Divine Providence and its power to save, which are manifested in a most beautiful and striking way in the dramatic story of Judas Iscariot. For this story, in its unfolding, shows how one who went through a dreadful temptation was nevertheless redeemed, and led to achieve a spiritual victory in the end. For Judas finally repented, acknowledged his sin, returned the thirty pieces of silver, and then, in utter despair, inflicted upon himself a punishment which no one else would have imposed upon him. The Lord is very present in such a state of despair, for it has in itself a beginning of innocence.
     We may also conceive that the role of Judas was carried on for a while after his death by the malefactor crucified at the Lord's side, who, not unlike Judas, acknowledged that he was receiving the "due reward of his deeds," and then prayed, "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom!" To him then came the Divine answer in words of mercy and forgiveness, "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise," which in reality mean, "Thy ruling state leads thee to belong to the kingdom of heaven." And may we not also conclude that a similar mercy and forgiveness were extended, though unspoken, to Judas when he made his deep confession, "I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood"?

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     It may be evident, therefore, that what Judas represented had its basis in his inherited inclination, which was likewise portrayed outwardly in deed, but not his real internal character, which developed slowly toward a spiritual rebirth under the Lord's leading, and finally gained the victory over the natural man. Yet his deeds typified the state of the Jewish Church. As a matter of fact, the profane sinfulness of this Church could not have been represented otherwise than by the Lord's being betrayed by one of His chosen disciples; for its profanation consisted in the fact that this Church possessed the Word, and actually came to know the Lord of whom that Word had prophesied, yet rejected Him. Such an attitude of a Church is in all points a betrayal of Him, as to which the apostle John testified when he wrote: "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." Moreover, we may note that, in the Jewish Church, hanging was the punishment for profanation, and for evil of the will. (A. C. 5044, 5156.) We may note, also, that while Judas represented the state of the Jewish Church, the other eleven disciples represented other states of the Church Universal, which existed elsewhere than among the Jews. There was a salvable remnant among both Jews and gentiles. Thus the twelve represented the whole church universally. (A. E. 433.)
     Returning to one of our first questions, we may say that the Lord indeed foresaw that Judas would betray Him, and also predicted it, as in the words of the Psalm, "Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, bath lifted up his heel against me." (Psalm 41: 9; John 13: 18.) But this was because the Lord knew the inherited evil state of Judas, just as He knew the state of the Jewish Church, and foresaw how this Church would treat Him. This was one of the reasons for His calling of Judas as one of the disciples.
     From the events that then ensued, as recorded in the Gospel accounts, the Christian Church might have learned about the infernal state of a dead Church which has become false to its mission, and might have taken thence a warning not to do likewise.
     The Lord also foresaw that Judas could not have been saved except by his being kept continually in His presence, that he might learn to receive from his Master in the words that fell from His lips day by day; which furnishes another reason why Judas was called to be a disciple.

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And here we are all given to see that, where there is genuine repentance, the eternal mercy of the Lord is more powerful than human sin, yea, even stronger than the sin against the Son of Man.
REFERENCE TO SWEDENBORG'S COSMOLOGY 1941

REFERENCE TO SWEDENBORG'S COSMOLOGY       EDWARD F. ALLEN       1941

     H. Spencer Jones, Astronomer Royal, in his recent book entitled Life on Other Worlds (Macmillan, 1940), speaking of cosmological theories as to the process of creation, makes the following remark on page 249:
     "The oldest hypothesis that we need mention seems first to have been suggested by the versatile Swedish scientist and theologian, Emanuel Swedenborg, and, somewhat later, but probably independently, by an Englishman, Thomas Wright, of Durham. It was adopted by the German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, in his essay on the general history and theory of the heavens, published in 1755."
     The title of Jones' work would lead us to expect other references to Swedenborg therein, but we have found none. It would seem that he ascribes the origin of the Nebular Hypothesis to Swedenborg, when yet this Hypothesis is diametrically opposed to Swedenborg's Principia doctrine of creation, as was clearly shown by Dr. Acton in THE NEW PHILOSOPHY for 1938, pp. 9-15, where, as far as Kant is concerned, he has this to say: "The Nebular Hypothesis is commonly ascribed to Laplace in his Systeme du Monde, published in 1796, more than twenty years after Swedenborg's death; but, as a fact, the Hypothesis is much older than this, as it was first put forth by Immanuel Kant in his Theorie des Himmels, published in 1755, thus more than twenty-five years prior to Swedenborg's death. . . We have clear evidence that Swedenborg knew of the Hypothesis, and that he condemned it on fundamental grounds, as opposed both to reason and Revelation. See T. C. R. 35."
     EDWARD F. ALLEN.

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CHURCH 1941

CHURCH       Rev. MARTIN PRYKE       1941

     (Delivered at Colchester, England, May 25, 1941.)

     We so often hear the term "church" that it may easily become somewhat meaningless to us; and it is desirable that we should occasionally remind ourselves of its exact significance and scope. The word is frequently on our lips, expressing a multitude of meanings,- to denote doctrine, applications of principles, organizations, various groups of individuals, and many other ideas. It may be used in so many ways, and convey so many impressions, that we need to return to essential definitions at regular intervals, lest we wander from the way of truth into the tangled undergrowth of imagination and self-derived ideals.
     The word "church" has been with many of us from childhood, which means that it is closely associated with early remains; and to these have been added the natural affections which inevitably grow around that which has played a prominent part in our lives. These remains and affections incline us to treat the term with a sentimental attachment which may have little of real understanding within it. We would not detract from the value of the remains and natural affections of childhood, which have their place and serve a use; but they are not of lasting value, which is to say spiritual value, unless there be more within than is at first manifested by a display of natural loyalty and love. These orderly externals can only be infilled by a study of that which is a fitting internal, and by a continued endeavor to add that spiritual quality to the sum total of our lives.
     Nowhere is this principle more easily seen than in our outlook towards that which we, rather vaguely, call "The Church." It is manifestly foolish for a man to gabble vainly in a foreign tongue, the meaning of which he has no conception; but it is equally foolish for a man to speak words of his own language, if he is not clear as to their exact implication. We cannot convey our thoughts rightly to others, nor can we interpret correctly the ideas of others as presented to us, unless our terms are carefully defined.

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"Define your terms" may rightly be asked, not only of the philosopher, but also of any man who seeks to think clearly. Above all is this true when we are searching out the truths of God as presented to us in an accommodated Revelation.
     Pedantic definition, it is true, may destroy all sane thought and discussion; but a total lack of definition is equally destructive of ideas. Those terms which we have reason to use most freely are commonly accepted as a basis for an interchange of thought; and yet some of these may easily become misapplied unless we at times remind ourselves of their original meaning and full implication. It is particularly important to check ourselves with reference to such terms as we derive from Divine Revelation itself, for these are not to be changed by custom, local habits, or by some whim of man. They must continue to convey the same spiritual idea, as long as that Revelation serves as a means of enlightenment to the human race.

     A Definition.

     Amongst such terms may be counted that of "The Church." It is well that we occasionally reconsider exactly what it is that the Writings convey by this much-used expression. Within the Revelation itself the term is used in many ways. Because of this necessity of using one word for many ideas, it seems at times that the English language is strangely lacking for the fair presentation of spiritual truths, and yet it cannot but be of Divine Providence that this language is spreading throughout the world, and is gradually becoming a means of bringing together many scattered peoples.
     Without difficulty we can think of many ways in which the term "church" may be used. It may be a building; it may be a society, a body of doctrine, or a group of men who have a common love and end in view. How are we, in this day and age, to think of this word, which has come to mean so much to us? What do we visualize as we raise our glasses and offer a toast to "The Church"? It is our intention in this paper to try to give, in outline, an answer to these questions.
     In the work on Heaven and Hell, no. 57, we read that "The church is the Lord's heaven upon earth." This seems to us to be the most comprehensive definition of the church that we have, and therefore the concept from which we should start our study of the subject.

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     Having said that the church is the Lords heaven upon earth, it follows that we may gain some general idea of what makes the church with man, by seeing what it is that makes heaven with him. Man becomes a member of a heavenly society after death because his spiritual state accords with those who are there. That is to say, he is in the good of love and of faith he has so trained himself that he loves to do that which is good from a knowledge of what is good. This quality is within the man; it is his spiritual state; and it is this internal quality which makes heaven with him.
     We may say then, that a man on earth who is in the good of love and faith, or, to put it in a more familiar way, who is in genuine love to the Lord and to the neighbor, is a member of the Lord's church.
That which makes him to be such a member is his spiritual state, and nothing else which may be connected with the natural circumstances of his life in the world. Therefore we read further that "the church is within man, and not outside of him." (H. H. 57.)
     It seems insufficient, however, to leave our definition of a man of the church at that. We must take into consideration the teaching that the natural world is a place of preparation, and that the man who is fully prepared for heaven is removed from his sphere of natural activity. Are we to suppose, then, that as soon as a man is worthy to be called a member of the Lord's church, he is to be taken from us? If this were the case, the numbers in the church would indeed be small. No; the definition must be seen to be a little wider than we have just visualized it to be. It includes not only those who are fully in the heavenly state, but also those who are earnestly seeking and preparing for it. The church comprises the regenerating as well as the regenerated. The former are not yet prepared for heaven, but they are closely associated therewith by reason of their earnest life, in which they seek to do that which is good and true. All those who are leading such a life as will fit them for an eternal place in the heavenly kingdom are to be numbered amongst the members of the Lord's church on earth. Such seems to be the broadest sense in which the expression "The Church" is to be used.
     The importance of this body of regenerating and regenerated men and women is clearly defined in the Writings in a number of places.

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If such a group ceased to be, the earth could no longer exist, and the heavens could no longer be associated with this planet. The subsistence of the heavens depends upon their resting upon the natural plane; and the earth could not exist if it did not receive influx from the Lord through the heavens. The church on earth is the essential intermediary for these connections; and if that should fail, there could no longer be any association between the two worlds. (A. E. 726:5-7.)
     Only those who belong to this true church, which we have described, are in a genuine association with heaven. Those of us who have not yet begun a life of regeneration may for fleeting moments benefit from the "presence" of heaven, which may be caused by childhood remains or by similar external means, but this is not the true association which comes to those who have so trained their inmost loves that they are more and more one with heaven, and therefore more and more at home there. Only with such men and women does there exist the genuine conjunction between heaven and earth,-a conjunction based upon loves. From this conjunction heavenly loves and affections flow into the world. Such a conjunction, existing with the few who are of the church, serves as a source of spiritual heat and light to all in the world, and thus preserves them, even as the heart and lungs feed and keep alive the surrounding viscera of the physical body. (H. H. 308; S. S. 105.)
     If this vital conjunction were severed, which would take place if there should cease to be any church on earth, then heavenly loves and affections would disappear from among men, and all mankind would become as wild animals pouncing upon one another, and thus bringing about the destruction of the world. The very existence of the earth may therefore be seen to depend upon the presence of a true church of the Lord among men. This is clearly stated: "Of necessity there must be a communication of heaven with men in order that the human race may subsist, and this by means of the church; for otherwise men would become like beasts, devoid of internal and external bonds; and thus everyone would rush without restraint to accomplish the destruction of others, and they would extinguish one another." (A. C. 4545:7.)
     Even as the existence of the natural world depends upon the influx from the spiritual world, so the existence of the spiritual world depends upon its resting upon the natural.

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The two worlds are inseparably bound together, just as man's spiritual and natural are bound together. It is not only before death that man dwells in both worlds; after the material body is removed, his spirit continues to rest in the finest things of nature in which it still dwells, and to derive its fixity therefrom.
     Moreover, the goods and truths of heaven only subsist when terminated in the things of this world, which takes place when they are received by the men of the church and ultimated in their natural life. Unless the heavens were held together, as it were, by terminating in the natural things of this world, they would be dissipated. The following quotations from the Writings will make the point clearer:
     "The church on earth is the foundation of heaven, because the influx of good and truth from the Lord through the heavens finally terminates in the goods and truths which are with the man of the church. When, therefore, the man of the church is in such a perverted state as no longer to admit the influx of good and truth, the powers of the heavens are said to be 'shaken.' For this reason it is always provided by the Lord that something of the church shall remain, and that when an old church perishes, a new one shall be established." (A. C. 4060:4.) "The church on earth is to the angelic heaven like the foundation upon which a house rests, or like the feet upon which a man stands, and by which he walks. Wherefore, when a church on earth is destroyed, the angels lament, and make supplication to the Lord. They supplicate that He make an end of the church, and raise up a new one." (A. R. 645.)
     The importance of our subject is evident. The church is vital to the continuance of the human race upon earth. The New Church is to be the crown of all the Churches it is never to be consummated and replaced by yet another dispensation, although it will doubtless pass through many varying states of exaltation and depression. It is most necessary that we have a clear picture of this New Church, which is to lead the world through its period of highest moral and spiritual development.
     The Church is divided into two main groups, called in the Writings the Church Universal and the Church Specific. In brief we may say that the Church Universal comprises all those men and women throughout the inhabited globe who are leading such a life that they may be introduced into heaven after death, in spite of their ignorance concerning the Godhead and the true way of life.

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The Church Specific is confined to those men and women who are in possession of the Divine Revelation, and who live according to its teaching, thus preparing themselves for heaven. The former are spread throughout the world, in countries both Christian and pagan, but the latter are to be found only where the Lord's Word is in its entirety. Let it be noted that ignorance is not the essential quality in the one case, and knowledge of Divine Truth in the other; it is the life of the man which makes him to be of the church-universal or specific.

     The Church Universal.

     Let us consider the Church Universal, or the "spiritual church," as it is sometimes called in contradistinction to the "celestial church." To believe that the church exists only amongst those who possess the Word is to believe that some, on account of external circumstances and geographical positions, are quite unable to find salvation and the life of heaven; for the church is the Lord's heaven upon earth. Such an idea is to deny the mercy of the Lord, for in that case some men have been born for an eternal life of hell. Such preposterous thoughts of predestination are impossible to the rational man, who must acknowledge that the church exists with some who are ignorant of the Lord and His teaching. The subject is most clearly explained in the Arcana Celestia, where we read:
     "As regards the Lord's spiritual church (here represented by Ishmael), be it known that it exists through the whole world; for it is not limited to those who have the Word and thence know the Lord and some truths of faith; but it exists also with those who have not the Word and therefore are altogether ignorant of the Lord, and consequently know no truths of faith (for all the truths of faith regard the Lord); that is to say, this church exists among the gentiles who are remote from the church i.e., the church where the Word is]. For there are many among them who know from rational light that there is one God, that He created all things, and preserves all things; also that from Him is all good, consequently all truth; and that likeness to Him makes man blessed; and, moreover, they live according to their religion, in love to that God and in love toward the neighbor; and from the affection of good they do works of charity, and from the affection of truth they worship the Supreme Being.

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The gentiles who are of this character are they who belong to the Lord's spiritual church; and although they do not know the Lord while they are in this world, yet within themselves they have the worship and tacit acknowledgment of Him when they are in good, for in all good the Lord is present; and therefore in the other life they easily acknowledge Him, and receive the truths of faith in Him more readily than Christians do who are not in good in this way (nos. 2589-2604). The natural light which these possess has in it what is spiritual, for without that which is spiritual from the Lord such things cannot possibly be acknowledged." (A. C. 3263.)
     Let us note carefully just what it is that makes these men and women to be members of the Church Universal. It is the spiritual state of their minds which has been acquired by a life of self-abnegation and of love for the neighbor from an acknowledgment of the Divine. They have seen that there must be an infinite source of love and wisdom, and that it is man's part to co-operate therewith. Their understanding of this may be faulty and extremely primitive, but it contains within it the real essence of heavenly life. They have trained themselves to do that which they believe they see to be the right course. In doing this they have opened their minds so that good may flow in. Good is a state of love, nothing more, nothing less; and it may be acquired, perfect in essence if not in form, by any human being. Those who have thus cleared their minds for the influx of good have unknowingly associated themselves with heaven. Heaven is present with them, although not conjoined with them; the conjunction will follow when the necessary instruction is given them after death. They have led such a life that they will be receptive of this instruction, and thus become members of a heavenly society.
     It is important that we recognize these qualities which make an ignorant and mistaken man or woman to be one of the Lord's Universal Church, for in essence they are the same qualities for which we are to strive that we may become members of His Specific Church. An acknowledgment of a higher authority which is to be obeyed; a recognition that the neighbor is to be loved and served; and a development of a spiritual outlook which is one with heavenly charity, even though strange and uncouth in its ultimate manifestation;-these are the states which make a man to be receptive of the Divine Truth, to be salvable, and thus to be numbered amongst the saints on earth.

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     The Church Specific.

     The Church Specific is made up of people possessing characteristics as to spiritual quality similar to those of the Church Universal, but who are more fortunate in their knowledge of truth, and more privileged in their place within the order of mankind. In other words, the Church Specific comprises those men and women who are in possession of the Lord's Word, and who, from a right understanding thereof, live according to it.
     It has been of the Divine Providence of the Lord that such a Church should always exist, for without this central Church Specific, the Church Universal could not remain alive. The Church Specific may sometimes be small in its numbers, but it has never been totally absent. (S. S. 104; L. J. 10.)
     The men of the Most Ancient Church possessed the Word in the form of a perception of correspondences in nature, and from this they led a life of true charity. But when they turned away from this Word, and ceased to regard it as the center of their life, it was replaced by a written Word, and by means of this the Ancient Church was established. The men of the Most Ancient Church had rejected and defiled their Word, and if the Lord had not provided otherwise, the world would soon have been without any Revelation from God. The Ancient Church was succeeded by the Jewish, and this by the Christian. Each in its turn fell, because it departed from a life according to the commandments of God as given in its particular Revelation. The Christian Church is no longer the Church Specific, because Christians no longer possess the Word: that is to say, their understanding of the Word is false, and the true Word has been rejected as a means of salvation. And, just as the Jewish Church perished, and was succeeded by the Christian Church, so the Christian Church has perished, and is succeeded by the New Church.
     It need hardly be added that there must be many within both the Jewish and the Christian Church today who are good men and women, preparing themselves for a life in heaven, but these are members of the Church Universal, and not of the Church Specific; for they do not possess the Word in its entirety, now completed by the New Revelation given for the man of this age, the previous Word having been rejected.

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In this connection we should remember that only those who have acknowledged the Lord in His Second Advent can be conjoined with the "New Heaven " which is the heaven associated with this earth since the time of that Advent.
     The mere possession of the Word, however, does not make a man to be of the Church Specific; for he is not of the Lord's kingdom upon earth unless he live a life of love to one God and of love to the neighbor. We are reminded of this in the Apocalypse Explained, where we read: "The church is in man; for the church is a church from charity and faith, and these are in man; and if these are not in him, the church is not with him. It is believed that the church is where the Word is, and where the Lord is known; but still the church consists of those only who from the heart acknowledge the Divine of the Lord, and who learn truths from the Lord by the Word, and do them; no others constitute the church." (A. E. 388.)
     At this day, therefore, the Church Specific comprises that body of men and women who possess the Word in its entirety, acknowledge the Lord in His Second Coming, and who live a life of love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor, as taught in this completed Revelation. Numerically these must be a small body indeed, although we shall never know who those are that form it. (See S. S. 104.)
     We need to understand clearly the distinction between these two groups of regenerating men and women-one possessing the Word, the other in ignorance of the Lord and the Word. It is well known that the Word is a means of association with the heavens, because it contains spiritual (or heavenly) truths within it. Whenever we read the Word in a state of reverence and receptivity, we are associated with certain angelic societies. But there is more than this in the way in which the Word distinguishes the Specific Church from the Church Universal. We have said that the man of the Church Universal is associated with heaven because, by a life of charity and obedience to his understanding of the truth, he has opened his mind to heavenly influx. Heavenly societies are with him, and after death they will teach him and draw him into their midst. The man of the Church Specific, however, may receive that education in this world, and so may become completely an angel during his earthly life.

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That is to say, by obeying the teaching of the Word he can lead a life of true order; he may become completely regenerated. Such a man is not merely associated with the heavens; he is a part of them, truly conjoined with them. Of him it may justly be said, "He is an angel on earth; here is the Lord's kingdom amongst men
     The Word, and the Word alone, has made it possible for the man to find this complete conjunction. Without it he cannot reach this climax until after death, and therefore those who have not the Word cannot form a part of the Church Specific.

     The Human Form.

     The importance of this Church, built upon the Word of God, becomes evident in the light of the teaching that the true conjunction between heaven and earth can only exist by means of the Word. We have already discussed the vital necessity of this link between the heavens and men on earth. The Church Specific plays the most important part in this link. We can best explain what we mean by referring to the human form as seen in the heavens and in the church. Just as the heavens, when viewed as a whole by the Lord, are seen to be in the human form, because they derive their arrangement and order from the Divine Form Itself, so the whole church upon earth, including the Church Universal and the Church Specific, is seen by the Lord as one man. (A. C. 9276:5.) Thus does the Lord stamp His form upon all that receives His life without perversion or falsification.
     Within this human form, which is the Lord's heaven upon earth, the function of the heart and lungs is performed by those who have the Word (the Church Specific), whilst those who have not the Word, but are in the good of life (the Church Universal), comprise the surrounding and derivative viscera of the body. Life from the Lord in man s spirit inflows into the body by means of the heart and lungs. If contact with those vital organs is broken, then the part cannot function; and if the heart and lungs cease to function, death comes to the whole body.
     So it is with the church on earth. If there were no Church Specific, there could be no church at all; for then there would be a body without heart and lungs. Those in the Church Specific who are in love to the Lord correspond to the heart, and those in love to the neighbor correspond to the lungs.

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We have seen that these men and women have the true and vital conjunction with heaven. By means of this conjunction those others in the world who do not possess the Word are brought into association with heaven. All from this world are together as to their spirits, and between their spirits there is a communication of which they know nothing whilst they dwell in their natural bodies. By this spiritual communication life is given to the "viscera" of the church through its "heart and lungs." Herein may be seen the essential use of the Church Specific, and the reason why the whole church on earth would perish if there were no Church Specific.
     The case is similar with the relation between the whole Church, Universal and Specific, and the rest of the human race. On this plane the whole human race is seen by the Lord as one man, and the whole church is seen as the heart and lungs by which life is brought to that man. Concerning this we read: "By means of the Word there is light to those who are outside of the church, and do not possess the Word. Conjunction with heaven cannot be given unless there be somewhere on earth a church where the Word is and by it the Lord is known; because the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, and without the Lord there is no salvation. That by the Word there is conjunction with the Lord and consociation with the angels, see nos. 234-240 above. It is enough that there be a church where the Word is, even though it consist of comparatively few persons; still, by means of it, the Lord is present in the whole world, for by it heaven is conjoined to the human race." (T. C. R. 267.)
     What, then, is to be our place in this Gorand Man on earth,-the Lord's heaven come down among men?
     It is evident that we should seek the upbuilding of the Lord's Church Universal; for we have seen that by this the heavens will be strengthened and enlarged. We should look for greater numbers amongst those who lead a life of obedience to their conscience apart from their state of knowledge or ignorance, for "of such is the kingdom of heaven." From what we have presented in this paper we may conclude that this end will best be served by the spreading of the Church Specific-now the Lord's New Church. By this will all the world be strengthened, and for this purpose was the New Church instituted by means of the Final Revelation.

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Our immediate end in view must be the upbuilding of the New Church. Thereby are we laying the foundations of the Lord's Universal Church throughout the whole world. As we do this, we look forward to the day when all may know of the Lord as He is revealed to us in His Word.
     The Church Specific will be enlarged and sustained as more and more lead the life of heaven upon earth. Every man who seeks the Truth in the three Testaments of the Word is doing his part in this work. To aid us, as individuals, to take our part, those who have acknowledged the Lord in His Second Coming have banded themselves together into various organizations. These external organizations are not to be confused with the church itself. Those who comprise this are known to the Lord alone; they are members of heaven whilst still here on earth.
     The external, man-made, organization is devised to aid men in achieving certain most desirable ends, such as the spreading of the Heavenly Doctrines, the education of children and adults in the truths of the church, the provision of regular worship, and many similar functions. Those who wish to follow the teaching of the Writings have, for the most part, attached themselves to one or other of these various organizations. They have chosen the one which they believe best suited to the task in hand. One organization cannot claim to be the organization of the church. Some organized bodies may die; new ones may spring up; but these are unimportant features against the giant background of the welfare of the human race and its salvation by the power of the Lord's Divine will.
     Each of us must take his part, and do that which seems to him to be the most useful sphere of endeavor for his particular gifts. First in time, in all this work, must come an earnest endeavor on the part of each one of us to live such a life that we may become worthy members of the Lord's New Church, which is the Church Specific of our day.
     To return, then, to one of our early questions: "What do we visualize as we raise our glasses and offer a toast to 'The Church'?" We have seen that we may visualize many things. We look to the future salvation of the human race. We look to the wider knowledge of the Lord in His Second Coming, that more may be numbered amongst His New Church.

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We may even have in our minds thoughts of our own limited organization: for we believe this to be a valuable aid to the upbuilding of the Lord's true Church, although we are to be mindful that we think not that this is the Lord's Church, nor yet the final end in view. And may we not also think of our own personal part in the spreading of the New Church, with the wish that the church be established in us and that we may thus, in the fullest sense, do our part in the giant task which lies before mankind?
     Whatever our particular thought may be, let us not forget that the upbuilding of the church is a Divine work, and that we are but instruments in the hands of the Lord. It is for us to decide whether or not we are to serve as willing or unwilling instruments, as perfect or imperfect forms in His hands. Whatever be the circumstances, "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.'
NEW CHURCH WITH A FEW 1941

NEW CHURCH WITH A FEW              1941

     "There are several reasons why this New Church, which is called the 'Holy Jerusalem,' will first be with a few, afterwards he with more, and finally reach fulness. The first is, that its doctrine, which is the doctrine of love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbor, can be acknowledged, and thus received, only by those who are interiorly affected by truths, who are no others than those who can see them; and they alone see them who have cultivated their intellectual faculty, and have not destroyed it with themselves by the loves of self and the world. A second reason is, that the doctrine of this Church cannot be acknowledged, and hence cannot he received, except by those who have not confirmed themselves in faith alone, both in doctrine and life; if only in doctrine it does not prevent; but if at the same time in life, it does prevent, for such do not know what love to the Lord is, nor what charity toward the neighbor is, nor do they wish to know. The third reason is, that the New Church on earth grows according to its increase in the world of spirits; for spirits from thence are with men; and they are from those who had been in the faith of their own church while they lived on earth; and of such those only receive the doctrine who have been in a spiritual affection of truth. These alone are conjoined with heaven, where the doctrine is, and they conjoin heaven to man. The number of these in the world of spirits is now increasing daily; wherefore, according to their increase, that Church which is called the 'New Jerusalem' increases on earth. These also were the reasons why the Christian Church, after the Lord had left the world, increased so slowly in the European world, and did not come to its fulness until an age had elapsed." (A. E. 732.)

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Church News 1941

Church News       Various       1941

[Photo of the CHURCH OF THE RIO DE JANEIRO SOCIETY.]

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     JONKOPING, SWEDEN.

     The news report from Jonkoping this time centers upon the change in the society life circumstanced by the expected more of the pastor to Stockholm. This has been approved by the Bishop, and we hope will take place in September. Involved in this change is the fact that, although the Jonkoping Society has gained eight new members since its establishment in 1937, there are now fewer resident members than in the beginning; and we began with only thirteen members. The loss of the presence of those who have had to move from the town has of course been felt a good deal, and the outer appearance has been that our small society was losing members. Besides this, the general impression is that the prospects for growth in this town are perhaps a little less promising than normally would be the case, and in this the unfortunate and far-reaching conflicts in the Jonkoping group prior to the formation of the society undoubtedly play their part.
     On the other hand, it appears that there is need for someone to devote his entire time to the young people in the Stockholm Society, who are in number twice as many as the resident members in Jonkoping. Accordingly, the thought arose that I might perhaps be of greater use to the church in the Stockholm field than here. And so it has now been decided. Regular visits, however, will be paid to the Jonkoping Society, and it is also hoped that some organized activity will be carried on between visits.
     In the course of our active year, which came to an end with the celebration of the 19th of June, the regular work had to be interrupted during the months of January. February and March, owing to my military service at that time.
     On the 19th of June, an evening Service of Praise was held, at the beginning of which the Baptismal Sacrament was administered for Mr. Lennart O. Altfelt, and at the close of which the Holy Supper was administered. Miss Margit Boyesen, from Stockholm, added to the moving sphere of the baptism by a lovely solo following that sacrament. The sermon expounded the familiar words, "Behold, I make all things new
     After the service the congregation, numbering 18, gathered upstairs in the pastor's home. Besides Miss Boyesen, who was spending some of her vacation days with us, we also had the pleasure of welcoming two other guests-a married couple of Jonkoping who have attended our services quite frequently during the past two years. After choir singing by our young people, toasts to "The New Church," "The General Church," and Our Society" were honored in wine, and followed by the singing of "Our Glorious Church." I briefly addressed the gathering in connection with these toasts. Mr. Sidney Dahl then wished to express an idea which had just occurred to him, namely, that we ought to give each other gifts on the 19th of June as we do at Christmas, but spiritual gifts, and he mentioned particularly the gift of forgiveness. He believed that it would be useful if we allowed the 19th of June to become a particular reminder of such a spiritual gift, which, he pointed out, we would probably all need both to receive and to give. After this worthy suggestion had been made.

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Mr. Altfelt presented a paper he had prepared on the subject of "What is meant by the New Church?" In this stirring paper he stressed the difference between outward membership in the Church and actual New Churchmanship, dwelling particularly upon the necessity of the Doctrines of the Church being allowed to revolutionize our whole attitude toward the things of life, that they may actually "make all things new" with us, and, above all, our own spiritual life itself.
     In a short speech I then warmly welcomed Mr. Altfelt to the Church, with which he has long been associated, and in the things of which he has always manifested the most active interest. Our celebration then came to a close with the singing of a hymn and the pronouncing of the benediction.

     Gothenburg.

     In the beginning of July I visited Gothenburg, taking a side trip to that city on my way to Stockholm, where I hoped to find a suitable apartment for my family and myself. There has not been much activity in the Gothenburg Circle since the Lennart Fornanders moved away about two years ago. One difficulty has been that of finding a suitable place to meet. The prospects, however, again appear more promising, as Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Mattsson, who recently made their home in Gothenburg, are desirous of taking upon themselves the responsibilities formerly assumed by Mr. and Mrs. Fornander.
     A doctrinal class was held in the home of Mrs. Kjellqvist on Friday, July 4. dealing with the three Israelitish Feasts, and dwelling particularly-according to request-upon the words, "And my faces shall not be seen empty." (Exodus 23: 15.) Several questions were asked and answered, and then refreshments were served and a pleasant social time followed.
     On Sunday, July 6, we gathered for worship in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Mattsson. The sermon dealt with the subject of "The Sabbath" (Exodus
31: 13), and the Holy Supper was administered. After the service, Mr. Mattsson treated us to a surprise by serving lunch, at which the conversation became both very lively and very interesting. It was late in the afternoon when the delightful time we had spent together came to an end. Four members of the Conference Society in Gothenburg were our welcome guests at both the class and the service. The total attendance was about ten on each occasion.
     P. S.-I would here ask of the editor the privilege of sending our personal greetings to the Rev. and Mrs. W. Cairns Henderson, to whom the above recorded news, and more, would have been communicated, if it were not for the fact that the postal connections between Sweden and Australia have been severed by the new war in Eastern Europe.
     ERIK SANDSTROM.


     GENERAL CONVENTION.

     A Report of the 120th Annual Meeting of the General Convention, held at Cincinnati, Ohio, June 17-24, 1941, is published in five issues of THE
NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER, July 9 to August 6, from which we gather the following items of special interest to our readers:
     "Convention observed the 19th of June by the holding of a special service of praise which was in charge of the Rev. Harold Gustafson, who delivered a fitting address on the subject of 'The New Evangel.'
     Forty-one ministers and eighty-six delegates were present at the formal opening of the Convention on June 21, when the President, the Rev. Fred Sidney Mayer, delivered his address, "which carried a suggestion that the time had come for a careful examination of the present set-up of Convention, for the purpose of bringing about such changes as would make it more effective in meeting the use for which it was originally organized. On all sides we see changes in thought and life, and if the Church is to serve the world as it should, it must be prepared to modify and rearrange the structure of Convention to meet the changing needs more effectively."

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The Council of Ministers also passed a resolution calling for "the establishment of a committee of Convention, whose duty it would be to provide the members of Convention with current literature dealing with the attempts to solve social, industrial and economic problems in the world."
     Mr. Mayer was re-elected President, but he announced that he would not be a candidate next year. He received 70 votes, as against 49 cast for the Rev. Clyde W. Broomell.
     The Board of Missions reported that "new interest of an encouraging nature has developed during the past year in some of the larger cities of Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru and Argentina."
     During Convention a special radio program was broadcast from a local station under the direction of the Rev. John W. Stockwell, of Philadelphia, in the course of which the Mayor of Cincinnati, Mr. James Garfield Stewart, delivered an address of welcome to the Convention, in which he gave a biographical sketch of Colonel Gustav Tafel, a New Churchman who had been elected Mayor in 1897. Two nephews of his, the Revs. Leonard and Immanuel Tafel, were introduced to Mayor Stewart. Mr. Stockwell then explained the origin and meaning of the name, "Church of the New Jerusalem," and outlined the life and work of Emanuel Swedenborg.

     The Clergy.

     At the meeting of the Council of Ministers which preceded the opening of the Convention, we note that a resolution was unanimously adopted which "requested Convention to reopen negotiations with the Federal Churches of Christ in America, with the object of securing membership in that body, and also to apply for membership in the World Council of Churches." The Rev. Everett K. Bray, who submitted the resolution, explained that "Convention had made application for membership in the former body on several occasions. There was apparently, however, a strong prejudice against the New Church at that time, and the application was denied. Mr. Bray expressed the belief that this prejudice practically had disappeared, and be felt that the New Church should be represented on, and take its place in the work of, the Federal Council." The resolution for application read as follows:
     "That since as New Churchmen we have always found inspiration and direction in the Church's constant teaching that in the sight of the Lord the whole of Christian discipleship is as one man; and that if charity, or love from the Lord, could become the ruling activator within the Christian denominations, then denominational distinctions would not divide, but might even strengthen the composite Church of the Lord:
     "That inasmuch, therefore, that we believe that it has been this uniting charity from the Lord which has given soul to the organization and working of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, and more recently to the initiament of the World Council of Churches, which issued out of the Oxford and Edinburgh Conferences of 1939-the basis of membership in which is acknowledgment of our Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour-and which is nurturing a world-spanning Ecumenical Movement throughout Christendom: we herein assert our desire to find and take our place in service within the larger Christian Humanity.
     "That to this end the Council of Ministers petitions the Convention to take steps, through its proper officers, (a) To reopen negotiations with the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, and to present again Convention's application for membership therein, and (b) To open negotiations with the World's Council of Churches, to make applications for membership therein, to the end that in these momentous times now almost universally being recognized as a challenge to the whole Church's searching re-examination of its foundations and its soul and life, we may seek out a fulfillment of our own deep obligation to the world."

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     The MESSENGER report does not state what action Convention took upon this resolution, but we should like to think that many of its members would be opposed to its adoption. No organized body of the Church of the New Jerusalem belongs in any organized body of the former Christian Church-a fact which has hitherto been recognized by the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America in its refusal to accept the applications for membership by the General Convention.
     Speaking in the Council of Ministers on the subject of an enlarged Church Calendar of Readings in the Book of Worship, the Rev. Paul Sperry said in part: "In preparing the work, it has been the purpose of the committee to make, it conform to the sequence of events found recorded in the Scriptures, more especially to the perfect sequence in the stages of advancement in the Glorification of the Human of the Lord, and those Divinely ordained steps in our own spiritual advancement: a sequence not governed by temporal things. but by the proper and Divinely ordained sequences to which the Lord adhered, and to which we should adhere." He also stressed the importance of the members of the Church following the Calendar in their homes, introducing it into daily use, that it might become a medium of the Church on earth with the Church in heaven. "What power there would be," he urged, "if all the members of the Church, in all parts of the land, together would focus their thoughts on those events which marked the steps taken by the Lord in His Glorification

     Message from Britain.

     We quote a few lines from the Address to Convention from the President of the General Conference in Great Britain. the Rev. Charles A. Hall:
     "There is one thing upon which all percipient New-Church folk agree: We are witnessing upon the plane of history tangible effects of an assault of the hells upon the New Heaven and the New Social Order, involved in the term 'New Church,' which the Lord is establishing. To whom the laurels of victory in the earthly conflict will fall we cannot say with certainty, although most of us are convinced that the forces of freedom and democracy will gain the upper hand. We shun the thought that there could be any other issue. . . With you, we are trying to see the event's of time against the background of eternity, to maintain our spiritual perspective. And never were we more grateful for the knowledge of the Heavenly Doctrines than amidst the present tragic circumstances. To us, those Doctrines are bread and wine, so precious, indeed, that we are determined to apply them more earnestly to our living, and to do our best to share them with those who are yet unaware of their significance."


     GENERAL CONFERENCE.

     Meeting under wartime conditions, the 134th General Conference was held at the church of the Dalton Society, Huddersfleld, Yorkshire, June 16th and 17th-two days instead of the usual five. In spite of rationing restrictions, the visitors were well cared for by their Dalton hosts. "One said that he had had marmalade for the first time in six weeks, and most of them had eggs and bacon for breakfast!" In attendance were 35 ministers, 7 trustees, and 48 representatives,-90 in all.
     A report of the proceedings of the Conference is published in four issues of THE NEW-CHURCH HERALD, June 28 to July 19, where we also find the text of interesting Addresses by the Rev. Charles A. Hall, retiring President, and of the Rev. E. J. Pulsford, incoming President.

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The Rev. E. A. Sutton was made President-Nominate, to take office at the meeting of Conference next year, according to the prevailing custom. A serious note characterizes the Addresses, as befits the times, but the sessions were also marked by humor and lively argument over practical matters.
     The Secretary's Report revealed a decline in society membership and attendance. "This," he said, "might be partly accounted for by the blackout, and by the fact that over 700 New Church men and women were serving their country in the Forces or defense units, while many others had to work on Sundays. Considering the abnormal conditions, he did not think there need be any feeling of discouragement." Other speakers supported him in this view, but Mr. H. N. Morris voiced a more pessimistic note. Things, he said, are very serious indeed. Compared with fifty years ago, the attendances of the five largest churches have dropped 76 per cent. Something drastic must be done to stop the rot. We cannot blame everything on the war. A local Anglican church has an increased attendance, attributed to the war!" And the Rev. C. Harley agreed with Mr. Morris that the position is disturbing. "Each year," he said, "we have had an accelerated decrease, and we just sir back and do nothing, comforting ourselves with the assurance that we are doing very well considering the circumstances
     Unfortunately such reports of decline have become an annual feature of the Conference meetings, but we hear little of the real cure which must lie in a more diligent conservation of the church with its members and especially with children and the young, and less of a looking outward to convert the world. Yet we find a healthy note in the Conference Sermon by the Rev. F. F. Coulson, as where he says:
     "The heavenly marriage of good and truth, or of charity and faith, existing in the mind of every man of the Lord's New Church, is only attained through repentance, reformation and regeneration. . . . It must be entered into by each individual as if of himself by painstaking effort, successively throughout his life, in freedom according to reason; and it is the gift of the Lord alone.
     "The failure of our own organization, and of other organizations of the New Church also, to make a deeper or a wider impression on the world hitherto is surely in some measure attributable to our failure fully to realize this. Some of us tend to think that we can convert the world because we are aware of the historical fulfilment of certain prophecies about the Lords Second Coming, and have an extensive superficial knowledge of the new revelation made through Swedenborg which we are anxious to impart to others; but we have not ourselves been converted into the new way of life to which the Good Shepherd would lead us.
     "This is not the time or the place to consider our faults in detail. In any case, it is not so much a matter for preaching about and discussion as for individual heart-searching and vigorous self-examination in the light of revealed Divine Truth. But let us be prepared to face the facts, and admit frankly and honestly, without fear or shame on account of the admission but only because of our faults, that we are miserable sinners, falling far short of the quality intended for those baptized in the Lord's Name. That, surely, is a first and necessary step towards better things. Then let us busy ourselves with casting out each the beam in his own eye."

     New Church College.

     From the Report of the College, which is the Conference theological school, we learn that "all young men of a likely age are being drafted into the Army, and there will probably be no new students until after the war. In view of the impossible conditions arising from enemy action, and the damage sustained by the premises at Woodford Green (London), the College has been evacuated to Glasgow, where it has generously been given the use of the New Church premises at Woodlands Road.

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It has thus gained the valuable services of the Rev. E. J. Pulsford as Assistant Tutor in Theology and Sermon Preparation."
     The Rev. E. A. Sutton, Principal of the College, expressed regret that this move to Glasgow made it necessary to relinquish the services of the Rev. H. G. Drummond and the Rev. Arthur Clapham. He stated, however, that Mr. Musgrave Homer, their former Elocution Tutor, has suddenly turned up at Glasgow. "This had been useful to help counteract the strong Scottish accent the students were developing!" Mr. Sutton himself was teaching the Hebrew classes, in lieu of Mr. Clapham. "So one generation of students would learn to speak Hebrew with an accent smacking of Birmingham, his own native town!"


     South Africa.

     The Conference South African Mission reports that the Mooki Memorial premises in course of erection at Orlando, Johannesburg, include college, church, school, tower, inner quadrangle and swimming bath. There are now 141 New Church centers in South Africa, under 28 Ordained Ministers, 7 Probationary Ministers and 82 Recognized Leaders.
     In Nigeria there are 11 societies, with 964 adult Members, 609 Associates and 835 children. "The West African movement is an ever-unfolding romance, presenting a remarkable set of new problems arising from polygamy, a babel of languages, and the clash of extremes of culture and primitiveness. The Rev. Africanus Mensah's capacity to deal with all these problems is truly remarkable. Unfortunately he is suffering from age and ill-health, and the Conference will soon have to face the responsibility of sending out a white Superintendent."


     GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS.

     Did you ever take a fling at writing news notes for the LIFE? Try it some time, and I think you will be impressed with the sameness of the Sequence of events, year after year, at least in a society such as that of the Immanuel Church, where nevertheless each period is marked by something
NEW!
     During July and August we have seen the beginning of a new house in Park Lane. It is to be the home of Dr. and Mrs. Harvey Farrington, who will move from Chicago to Glenview some time within the next month or so. Another family has also come to join the ranks of our society-Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Nicholson (nee Mary Scalbom) and their little daughter Marianne, who have moved from St. Louis, Mo.
     Two visiting ministers have been in our midst, each of them preaching on two or more Sundays during the Summer,-the Rev. Norman H. Reuter, who, with his wife and children, spent his vacation here, and the Rev. Harold C. Cranch, who is now permanently located at 5220 Wayne Avenue, Chicago, where he is taking up his duties as Minister of Sharon Church.
     At the meeting of the Sons' Chapter in July, Mr. Richard Gladish, an instructor in the Academy Schools at Bryn Athyn, presented a paper in which he gave an outline of the work in those Schools. At the August meeting a paper by President Fred J. Cooper was read. We were keenly disappointed that he could not be with us. He and Mrs. Cooper had intended paying us a visit, but were prevented at the last minute when he became indisposed during his visit to Kitchener. Fred's paper, and also the report from Mr. Harry Walter, Treasurer of the Sons, were well received, and the sentiment was expressed that the Sons are indeed fortunate in having these two men as President and Treasurer respectively.
     Our social events have been well attended-especially the Water Carnival on August 2d, when $126.25 was raised to help defray the expense of keeping our lake and beach in good condition for the great number of children and adults who like to swim therein.

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On September 6, the Farewell Dance in honor of the young people returning to the Academy Schools in Bryn Athyn served as a definite reminder that Summer is drawing to a close and that school days are once more in the offing.
     Mr. and Mrs. Felix Junge and their family have moved to Wausan, Wisconsin, as his work keeps him in that territory. While we are sorry that they will he away from us, it is pleasant to reflect that this strong New Church family will probably be the means of interesting their neighbors in the New Church.
     Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus Doering and their three children came from their home in Burlington, Iowa, to visit us on September 6th. It was Mrs. Doering's first visit to Glenview. They hope to be able to attend the forthcoming Chicago District Assembly. to be held here in October.
     HAROLD P. MCQUEEN.

     OBITUARY.

     Colonel John A. Wells.

     In the notebooks of Charles P. Stuart, prime mover in starting NEW CHURCH LIFE in the year 1881, is the copy of a letter to a friend in Vineland, New Jersey, whom he asks "to remind John Wells that he is a member of our Club, and is in duty bound to write for the paper." (See our March, 1941, issue, p. 132.)
     John Wells thus appears on the horizon of Academy history as one of the group of young people who in 1881 maintained the Young Folks' Club of the Advent Church in Philadelphia, and whose interest in the New Church was serious and lasting. It is not of record that he responded to the Stuart summons to "write for the paper," but he was gifted with the pen, and was the author of "The Church Militant" song in our Social Song Book. And for sixty years he has been a zealous and faithful adherent of the Academy movement and the General Church, clearly understanding the Doctrines, regular in his attendance at meetings, generous in his support of the uses. His departure for the higher life on August 25th, in his eighty-second year, removes from among us one who will be missed from his accustomed place in all the activities of the Bryn Athyn Church.
     In 1885, John Augustus Wells married Pauline Starkey in a double wedding with Charles Smith and Dora Starkey. The previous year witnessed a similar occasion in the double marriage of John Pitcairn to Gertrude Starkey and Robert Glenn to Cara Starkey. Mr. and Mrs. Wells were among the first to build a residence in Bryn Athyn, where they "did their bit" by housing a number of theological students who now remember with gratitude the fostering care they enjoyed in this hospitable home. Mrs. Wells preceded her husband to the spiritual world in 1927. Of the ten children born to them, five survive: Arthur, Marjorie (Mrs. Donald F. Rose), Volita, Caryl (Mrs. Louis Kostos), and Gwynneth (Mrs. Donald Merrell). Another son, Leroy, it will be recalled, lost his life in the last World War while serving with the American Army in France. There are twenty-two grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
     In the course of a varied career, John Wells was associated with a number of business enterprises, but of recent years has been a certified public accountant. In 1922 he was commissioned a colonel on the staff of Colonel Edward P. Morrow of Kentucky. Since then he has been a familiar figure in the local countryside, mounted on his thoroughbred and in full uniform, and always at the head of the Fourth of July parade. For he was an expert horseman and highly skilled in sports and games-a champion bicyclist and excellent at chess, bridge and billiards.

477


MILITARY SERVICE COMMITTEE. 1941

MILITARY SERVICE COMMITTEE.              1941

List of Names and Addresses.

Alden, Corp. Gideon T.-33031837-Battery B, 53rd Coast Artillery, A. P. 0. 802, Bermuda. Alden, Cpl. Guy S., 63rd Signal Battalion, Fort Clairborne, La.
Alden, Pvt. Theodore S., Company B, 3rd Sig. Battalion, Fort Monmouth, N. J.
Appleton, L. A. C. Eric D., No. 750449, Workshops, R. A. F. Station, Disbforth, Nr. Think, Yorks, England.
Bamford, Pvt. F. D., No. 2515, "A" Company, 2nd R. D. L. I., Army P. O., Durban, Natal, So. Africa. Bellinger, L. A. C., R 75882, R. C.
A. F., No. 3, 5. F. T. S., Currie Field, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Boozer, Driver A. E., T/151805, D Section, 19th M. C. Coy., R. A. S. C., Haywards Heath, Sussex, England.
Brickman, Pvt. Elmer G., H. Q. Squadron, 6th Pursuit Wing, Self- ridge Field, Michigan.
Buss, No. 94002 Pvt. J. M. "B" Company, 1st N. M. R., Army P. O., Durban, Natal, So. Africa.
Carter, A. C. 2, Orville A., R 111624, R. C. A. F., A. 0. 5., No. 8, Ancienne Lorette, Quebec, Canada.
Cockerell, John, c/o Miss Joy Lowe, c/n Hunt. Leuchars & Hepburn, Ltd., P. 0. Box 943, Durban, Natal, So. Africa.
Cockerell, A/Corpl. P., No. 4893, A
Flight, Sqdn. No. 41, So. African Air Force, Army P. O., Durban, Natal, So. Africa.
Cole, Pvt. William P., 13028818, Air Corps. Biloxi Air Base, Miss.
Cooper, Lieut. Philip G., Signal Corps, Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.
Cooper, Pvt. Rey W., 53rd Material Sqdn., 40th Air Base Group, Meridian, Mississippi.
Cowley, Pvt. W. S., No. 6303. 1st N. M. R. H. Q. No. 1, Army P. 0., Durban, Natal, So. Africa.
Daly, Pvt. Jean, 93 School Squadron, Scott Field, Belleville, Illinois.
Davies, P. F. C. John, 5th Transport Sqdn., Hill Field, Ogden, Utah, D. 5. 1st Weather Sqdn.
Davis, S/Sgt. Charles F., 64th Mat. Sqdn., 49th Air Base, Fresno, California.
De Charms, Lieut. Comndr. Richard, Officer in Charge of Housing,
U. S. Naval Ordinance Plant, South Charleston, West Virginia.
De Maine, Sgt. Bob, Co. F, 36th Combat Engineers, Plattsburg Barracks, N. V.
Field, Pvt. George A., Bolling Field, D.C.
Fine, P. F. C. Raymond, Military Police Company, Schofield Barracks, Hawaiian Division, T. H.
Finley, A/Corpl. H. M., No. 538331, Royal Air Force, Middle East Pool, Middle East.
Fountain, Cpl. A. A., B 76894, T. S. R., A. A. T. C., Point Petre, via Picton, Ontario, Canada.
Fountain, Trooper Thomas J., "A" Squadron, 3rd Armored Regt. (G. G. H. G.), Camp Borden, Ontario, Canada.
Fraser, Corpl. R. S., No. 3726, Cable Platoon, No. 2 Div. Signal Coy, Army P. O., Durban. Natal, South Africa.
Heinrichs, Lance Corp. Henry- 38189, Bn. Hq., Highland Light Infantry of Canada, Debert, N. S., Canada.
Heldon, NX 51755 Sgt. Norman, 7th Infantry Training Centre, Foster, Victoria, Australia.
Heldon, 37798 A. C. 1, Sydney, No. 3, R. A. A. F. Hospital, Richmond, N. S. W., Australia.
Hill, A. C. 2 L. E., R 89398, T. T. S., R. C. A. F., St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada.
Iungerich, Ph. M. 1 C Alexander, Naval Hospital, Philadelphia. Pa.
Iungerich, Sgt. Stevan, M. C. B., Quantico, Virginia.
Izzard, Pilot L. T., L. A. C. R85608, S. F. T. S.. No. 1 R. C. A. F., Camp Borden, Ontario, Canada.

478



James, Sgt. Cecil J., A 17008, No. 2 Base Depot, Medical Stores, R. C. A. M. C., Canadian Army Overseas.
c/o Base P. O., Canada. Jeunechamp, Le Commandant Eugene, 1st Spahis Algeriens, Laghanat, Dept. deAlger, North Africa.
John, L. A. C. Haydn-R-72169, R. C. A. F. Station, Sydney, N. S., Canada.
Kintner, Lieut. William R., Fort Constitution, New Castle, N. H.
Lee, Pvt. Harold, Company D. 130th Infantry. Camp Forrest, Tenn.
Lindsay, Pvt. Alexander H., 28th Division, 28th Signal Corps, Indian-town Gap, Pa.
Lumsden, No. 6929 Pvt. J. M., "B" Company, let R. D. L. I., 3rd Infantry Brigade. Army P. 0., Durban, Natal, So. Africa.
Lumsden, No. 45259 Sergt. F. H. D., "C" Company. 1st R. D. L. I., Army P. 0., Durban, Natal, So. Africa.
Morris, No. 2184480 Sapper David, 115th Road Construction Coy. R. E., Bury St. Edmonds, Suffolk, England.
Odhner, Pvt. Sanfrid E., Recruiting Detachment, Bolling Field, D. C.
Parker, F. O. Sydney R., C 3147, R. C. A. F., Canadian Army Overseas.
Pitcairn, Pvt. Michael, Co. D. 3Rd Sig. Training Battalion, Sig. Corps
Replacement Training Center, Fort Monmouth. Red Bank, N. J.
Potts, Pvt. John D. W., Q. M. C. Service Unit No. 1201, Fort Jay, Governors Island, New York, N. Y.
Reuter, P. F. C. Warren, 108th Observation Squadron, 5400 W. 63Rd Street, Chicago, Illinois.
Richards, No. 65330 Pvt. W., 1st Spec. Service Reserve Battn., Show Grounds. Bloemfontein, 0. F. S., So. Africa.
Rydstrom, F. C. Jean, A/C 41-H, Kelly Field. Texas.
Schnarr, L. A. C. Joifre G., Can. R. 70212, 206th Sqd., R. A. F., St. Eval, Cornwall, England.
Smith, Lt. Edmund G., Dr. Daniel's Bldg., Moore Co., East Penn Ave., Southern Pines, N. C.
Soneson, Pvt. Carl, C. 0. B., 5th E. T. B. N., E. R. C., Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Starkey, M16691, Signalman H. R., No. 1 Co., 1st Div. Signals, Royal Canadian Corps Signals, Canadian Army Overseas.
Steen, Sgt. George K., A 99912, B. Battery, R. C. A. T. C., Petawawa Military Camp. Petawawa, Ontario, Canada.
Steen, A. C. 2, A. Howard, R 103234, Sqdn. 1, Flight F, No. 1 Initial Training School, R. C. A. F., 1107 Avenue Road, Toronto, Ont., Canada.
Taylor, 33984 A. C. 1, T. D., R. A. A. F. Station, Cootamundra, N. S. W.. Australia.
Walker, Marvin J., E. Division, U. S. S. Lexington, Long Beach, Calif.
Walter, Pvt. Richard, Prov. Panama Recruit Detachment Office, Tent City No. 3, Maxwell Field, Montgomery, Alabama.

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EPISCOPAL VISIT 1941

EPISCOPAL VISIT              1941




     Announcements



     In place of the usual Ontario District Assembly, Bishop de Charms will visit the Societies in Toronto and Kitchener over the week-end of October 11-13, 1941.
DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES 1941

DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES              1941

     The 36th Chicago District Assembly will be held at Glenview, Illinois, on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, October 17, 18, and 19, 1941.
     Members and friends of the General Church of the New Jerusalem are cordially invited to attend.
CHARTER DAY 1941

              1941

     All ex-students of the Academy of the New Church are cordially invited to attend the Charter Day Exercises, to be held at Bryn Athyn, Pa., on Friday and Saturday, October 24 and 25, 1941. The Program:
Friday, 11 a.m.-Cathedral Service, with an Address by the Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal.
Friday Afternoon-Football Game.
Friday Evening-Dance.
Saturday, 7 p.m.-Banquet in the Assembly Hall. Mr. Raymond Pitcairn, Toastmaster.
     Arrangements will gladly be made for the entertainment of guests, if they will write to Miss Celia Bellinger, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
PITTSBURGH SOCIETY 1941

PITTSBURGH SOCIETY              1941

     Anniversary.

     The Pittsburgh Society of the General Church of the New Jerusalem invites the ex-members of the Society and the ex-students of its local school to attend the celebration of its one hundredth anniversary, to be held on Friday and Saturday. November 7 and 8, 1941. In this connection we offer a copy of the Certificate of Organization:
     This is to certify that A. J. Cline, John H. Mellor, Geo. Smitt, Elizabeth Young, Annie Aitken, Mary Jane Foster and D. W. Coats, were regularly instituted a Society of the New Jerusalem Church in the United States, at a meeting called for that purpose at the home of John H. Mellor in the city of Pittsburgh, Saturday evening, Nov. 6th, 1841.
     (Signed) "RICHARD DE CHARMS.
"Ord. Min., N. J. C."
CONJUNCTION WITH THE LORD 1941

CONJUNCTION WITH THE LORD       Rev. W. CAIRNS HENDERSON       1941



481




NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. LXI
NOVEMBER, 1941
No. 11
     "Abide in me, and I in you!" (John 15: 4.)

     In these sacred words we are invited to enter with the Lord into a reciprocal conjunction of love which makes heaven with man. The Lord loves all men. He wills that He should dwell in them, and they in Him. And indeed His will cannot he wholly denied; for He is in every man, both evil and good. But men are not in Him unless they are living according to order. Conjunction is solely on the part of the Lord unless He is received and loved reciprocally, for there is no other source of conjunction. Consequently, the Lord has given man freedom and reason wherewith to receive and reciprocate-freedom to will as of himself, and reason according to which he may think and will. In the true exercise of these two faculties conjunction is effected. The Lord dwells in man in the good and truth that are from Him, thus in what is His own, and man dwells in the Lord in the things that are from Him. This is the meaning of the words, Abide in me, and I in you!"
     Glorification was far advanced in the Lord at that time: wherefore He spoke this invitation. His supreme end in assuming the Human had been to provide a permanent medium of conjunction. For as conjunction takes place through the affection and thought of that which man can conceive, conjunction with the supreme Divine, which is inconceivable, could not he given. The doctrine is, that accommodation and application must precede conjunction. In assuming the human, the Lord made His accommodation; in glorifying it, He provided for His eternal application, and furnished man with a visible object for his.

482


All conjunction is with the Divine Human, and it was in the knowledge that this accommodated objective was near achievement that the Lord extended the invitation given in the words of our text.
     It was with reference to this Human that He prefaced His invitation with the saying, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that bareth not fruit He taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." His Human was the Divine Truth Spiritual, and was indeed the "true vine." Its seed was the planting of the Divine Love, and its nurture and growth were tended by the guardian Love of the Divine Itself. That Love it was which cast off from the Human as extrinsic to itself everything derived from the mother, and purified that which remained, and the fruit borne was the Divine of Use in the Human, as manifested in the power it put on to save men by conjoining them with Itself.
     Yet the glorification of the Human was not all that is necessary for the Lord's conjunction with man. On the part of man there must be a preparatory purification, a purging of truths from the falsity of evil, before good can be conjoined with truth: otherwise there is not conjunction, but damnation. This purification is effected through the cleansing power of the Word, which power was also given to the Scripture through the glorification. Therefore the Lord added, "Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you." And it is to those who believe in Him as the true vine, and who have invoked the cleansing power of the Word, that He says, "Abide in me, and I in you!"
     Conjunction with the Lord, to which men are thus invited, is no abstraction, but veriest reality, comparable with the union of the Divine and the Human, but with a sharp distinction. "Union" is a term descriptive of glorification, but "conjunction" of regeneration, and this through the faith of charity. When life flows into a recipient of life, there is conjunction. Man does not live from himself, as does the Divine Human, but the Lord from mercy adjoins Himself to man, and man to Himself, and thus causes man to live to eternity. Yet, because conjunction is by contiguity, never by continuity, the Lord and man remain most distinct. Thus while the Human, by union, became Divine and Life itself, man, by conjunction, does not become Divine, but is made a vessel capable of receiving the Divine Life to eternity.

483


That is the difference. (A. C. 2021; A. R. 222.)
     It is said in the Writings that there are two modes of conjunction,- alternate and mutual-and that man's conjunction with the Lord is by the latter process; that is, it is reciprocal and co-operative. (T. C. R. 371.) This enables us to form some idea of what conjunction is; for co-operation implies a common application to the same uses flowing from the same good. The teaching is, that good is conjunction, because all good is of love to the Lord and toward the neighbor. The good of love to the Lord conjoins man with the Lord; the good of love toward the neighbor conjoins man with heaven, and through it with the Lord. And as good lives in use, it is use that conjoins with the Lord. When man lives according to order, his acts are use in form, are actual correspondences which bring him into conjunction with the Lord and consociation with angels. So conjunction with the Lord is nothing else than a state in which man, from the Lords love received as good in the will and the Lord's wisdom received as truth in the understanding, is engaged finitely in the same uses as the Lord. And it is in the performance of those uses that the Lord abides in man, and man in Him.
     But there can he no conjunction without a medium. Charity alone is what conjoins man with the Lord; and there must be love and faith thence to initiate conjunction. The good of love to the Lord is the "holy of holies," because the Lord thereby conjoins Himself immediately; but the good of charity toward the neighbor is the "holy," because the Lord by its means conjoins Himself mediately, so far as it has in it the good of love from Him. All conjunction of the Lord with men through heaven is by means of those who are in the good of charity. Through this good He conjoins Himself with those who are in the affection of truth, and through these again He is with those who are in the delight of external truth.
     The Lord's effort so to conjoin Himself with men is continual, and the conjunction initiated is progressive. We are told that it begins with man in the womb at first conception, and that the spiritual of every man is in conjunction with the Divine, for it can think of the Divine and love it, and he conjoined with it in thought and will. But this does not occur until, by regeneration, the activity of the spiritual is received in the natural: and the order then is that the rational must be conjoined with the Lord, and then the natural with the rational; in which latter conjunction, which is effected through charity, is all human happiness and blessedness.

484


This conjunction is both immediate and mediate, and is such that it cannot be dissolved. And as the Lord, in conjoining Himself, flows into the life's love with the man, and through its affection into perception and thought, He is eternally able to conjoin Himself more closely as that love is purified on earth and perfected in heaven.
     Yet there can be no conjunction of minds that is not reciprocal; for the very essence of love is not only to love others, but to be conjoined with them through love, but also to be loved by them in return. And yet man of himself cannot approach the Lord, and be conjoined with Him, but the Lord approaches man: and as He does so, it appears as if man approached. So while conjunction is called "reciprocal," it is not to be understood that man conjoins himself with the Lord, but that the Lord conjoins Himself with man, insofar as man desists from evils. Yet there must be an appearance that man is in love and wisdom from himself; otherwise the reciprocal would be lacking. The Lord flows into the life's love, and is received in wisdom, through which man in turn conjoins himself with the Lord. But that wisdom is also from the Lord: so conjunction is not from man, but as from him; and this is illustrated by the teaching that all conjunction in heaven is according to spheres. In proportion as these spheres are derived from the Lord, they conjoin, but insofar as they are qualified by the propria of the angels, they disjoin.
     Man, however, is by no means passive in the conjunctive process. Although he cannot approach the Lord, he must prepare his mind for the Lord's approach. That is his important part. And there are two essentials of such preparation-acknowledgment of the Lord as the God of heaven and earth, and repentance of life. Resistance to evil, which is left to man's free determination, purges the life's love of the lusts of evil, makes possible the thought from some love of the will, because it is the truth, that all good and truth are from the Lord, in which thought man looks to the Lord and the Lord at man, and in which conjunction is therefore effected. And that man may play his part, he is gifted with freedom, is given the amazing power of loving and thinking about God, whom he cannot see.

485



     Insofar as man exercises these gifts, he is brought into a reciprocal conjunction with the Lord according to the state of his thought and affection thence derived. Those who are in the most holy idea concerning the Lord, and at the same time in the knowledges and affections of good and truth, are conjoined with the Lord as to His Divine Rational. Those who are not in such great holiness, nor in such an interior idea and affection, and who yet are in the good of charity, are conjoined with the Lord as to His Divine Natural. And those who have a still grosser holiness are conjoined with the Lord as to His Divine Sensual. (A. C. 4211.) In any case, the sole medium of conjunction is the Word. It is the understanding and affection of truth seen in the Word in its own light that gives man conjunction with the Lord, and not mere presence. And where conjunction through the Word has been effected, there is a sacramental confirmation thereof in the Holy Supper.
     The results of conjunction are far-reaching, even to the extent of imparting new life. For when man is in conjunction with the Lord, goods are first fructified and truths multiplied there is freedom from the assaults of evil spirits; there is peace and tranquillity, deepening wisdom, and increasing happiness. Then for the first time does man come into true freedom; for he knows at last that he is the Lord's; and the more clearly he perceives this first of all truths, the more does he seem to be his own.
     This is the blessed state to which the Lord would have all men come, to which He invites us in the Sacrament of the Holy Supper, and also in His gracious words, "Abide in me, and I in you!" And the way to that state is made plain in the inspired words of the revelator: "But, my friend, shun evil, and do good, and believe in the Lord from your whole heart and in your whole soul, and the Lord will love you, and give you the love to act, and the faith to believe: and then you will do good from love, and will believe from faith, which is trust; and if you persevere in this way, a reciprocal and perpetual conjunction will take place between you and the Lord, which is salvation itself and eternal life." (T. C. R. 484.) Amen.

LESSONS:     Isaiah 55. John 15: 1-17. Divine Providence 28.
MUSIC:     Revised Liturgy, pages 442, 457, 639.
PRAYERS:     Nos. 50, 114.

486


THANKSGIVING 1941

THANKSGIVING        GEORGE DE CHARMS       1941

     A TALK TO CHILDREN.

     You know, of course, why it is that we have a feast every year on Thanksgiving Day. You know how the Lord brings the seasons,- Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Spring is called "seedtime" in the Word, because then seeds must be planted, in order that they may have warmth and rain all through the summer to make them grow. And autumn is called "harvest," because then the plants have become full-grown and bear fruit, corn, and wheat, grapes and apples, and many different kinds of food for the service of man.
     That these things may grow, the warmth of summer is necessary. For in the wintertime, when the cold winds blow, when the ground is frozen hard and the snow piles high, nothing can grow. If seeds are planted then, unless we give them warmth as in a greenhouse, they will either die, or they will sleep until spring comes with its heat to open the ground and bring the water and food to the little plant. In the far north, where the winter is very, very long, and the summer very, very short, scarcely anything can grow. The ground is snow-covered and barren nearly all the time, and many plants that bear for us a luscious harvest are unknown, and their fruits are never tasted there.
     It is the heat and light of the sun that make things grow. Not the light alone, nor the heat alone, but heat and light together. When these two are received, as is the case in spring and summer, then will seeds sprout, send forth roots and leaves, and bear flowers and fruits. If it were not for the sun, and for the heat and light which the Lord sends us from the sun every year, there would be no growth, there would be no harvest, there would be no food to sustain us over the winter, and we would die of starvation. And so at harvest time we have a feast, at which we enjoy all the fruits of the ground, and at which we give thanks to the Lord because He has sent us seedtime and harvest.

487



     Now we know that there is a sun in the other world. It is not the sun that we see in this world; it is not the sun that brings the spring, the summer, and the autumn, by which the Lord provides food for our bodies. It is another sun, in which the Lord dwells, a sun that gives light and heat to the angels. Its heat is the Lord's Love, and its light is the Lord's Wisdom. And this heat and light cause things to grow in the other world, just as heat and light from our own sun cause things to grow in this world.
     You have heard that the Lord's sun shines brightly on everyone, but that some receive its light and some do not. Some turn their backs upon the Lord, and close all the windows of their mind against Him, so that while His sun goes on shining brightly outside, for them it is dark, and they see none of the beautiful things which are in heaven. And they not only shut out the light of that sun: they also shut out its heat. For them it is cold. Their life is like that in the far north, where for months at a time the sun is not seen, and there is perpetual night and perpetual winter.
     That is what it is like in hell. There nothing can grow, and there is no spring, no summer, and no harvest. Evil spirits live there in barren wastes and deserts, among caves and rocks. They never see the beautiful gardens of heaven. They never taste the delicious fruits on which the angels live. They have to work hard for the coarse food that finds some soil between the rocks and stones. And all this because they have rejected the light and heat of the Lord's sun, have tried to get as far away from Him as possible, and so have journeyed to a land where it is dark and cold.
     Now in your life also there is a seedtime and a harvest. The springtime of your life is now, while you are children. When you grow up to be men and women, then it will be summer for you; and as you grow older, it will pass from summer to autumn, and then is the time of harvest. The harvest is when you die, and come into the other world. There, in heaven, all men are gathered after their life on earth, just as grain is gathered in from the fields and stored up for use. There is gathered all that has grown during spring, summer, and autumn,-that is, during childhood, adult age, and old age, on earth. Nothing can be gathered there that has not grown here.

488


If seeds are not planted in the spring, if you have put nothing into your garden, you will reap no harvest. And if, after they are planted, you do not take care of them, watering them and weeding them through the summer, they will bear no fruit.
     And so it is with your life. Seeds of heavenly fruit must he planted while you are on earth, while you are children, in the spring of your life's year, when they can take root and grow. And these little plants must be taken care of during the summer of adult age. Otherwise, when you come into the other world, you will reap no harvest; you will find yourselves in that barren country where nothing will grow, and where you will never see beautiful plants and flowers.
     The seed that grows in the light and warmth of heaven's sun is the Lord's Word. From the Lords Word all the wonderful and beautiful things of heaven grow. This seed must be planted in your minds when you are children, when it is springtime. And you must receive it then as a gift most precious, as something that you must love, and cherish, and care for, and tend all through your life. If this is done, then will the light and heat of the Lord's sun fill your lives with gladness. They will cause the seed to take root and grow, and to produce, around you in the other world, beautiful gardens with lawns and trees and flowers, with vines and orchards bearing luscious fruits, far more delicious than any to be found on earth.
     This garden you will not see while you live in this world. And you may not realize that it is there, because the eyes of your spirit are not opened. But when you pass into the other world you will find this garden. The angels will lead you to it, and they will say to you, "This is your garden. This is what has been growing in your mind all through your life on earth. Enter in, and enjoy the fruits thereof!"
     This is the harvest that is most precious of all. This is the Thanksgiving to which you should look forward above everything else, and for the sake of which you should be willing to give up many things that you might like to have, but which are evil and wrong.
     When you celebrate Thanksgiving, and enjoy the fruits of the ground by a great feast of joy, you should think also of this other harvest. Remember that, as you receive the Lord's Word, and love it, so will the seeds be planted from which that harvest comes. Give thanks to the Lord for those seeds! Give thanks to Him for the Love and Wisdom which, shining down from the sun of heaven, cause those seeds to grow!

489


And pray the Lord that He may help you to take care of the little plants, all through your life, so that when the summer is ended and the autumn comes, when you grow old and are ready to die, that you may awake in the other life to a glad Thanksgiving, an eternal harvest, an ingathering of the fruits that bring everlasting happiness in heaven.

LESSON:     Psalm 148.
MUSIC:     Revised Liturgy, pages 560-570. Hymnal, pages 91, 104, 182.
PRAYERS:     Revised Liturgy, C 10, C 18.
MEANS OF REDEMPTION 1941

MEANS OF REDEMPTION       Rev. GILBERT H. SMITH       1941

     The Doctrine and Worship of the New Church.

     The New Church has been established by the Lord to be the final means of the redemption of mankind in the present and future ages. The Lord at His Second Coming began His redeeming work by subjugating the hells and removing them from man, which He accomplished by the Last Judgment in the year 1757. Then, as the second act of redemption, He brought about order in the spiritual world, to the end that there might be an influx from the New Heaven into the minds of men, making it possible for men to believe in Him as now revealed anew, if they are willing to do so. But the third act of redemption, as we are informed, was the establishment of the New Church in the world. These three things are what constitute redemption,-removal of the hells, setting the heavens in order, and the establishment of the New Church. (T. C. R. 115.)
     In the New Church, therefore, and by means of it, the work of redemption is to go on indefinitely. This is why we say that the New Church is the final means by which men are to be redeemed, now and in the future.
     It is by the Doctrine of the New Church that the minds of men are to be redeemed, that is, set free from the bonds of a false theology, on the one hand, and from mere naturalism on the other.

490


And men must be redeemed from false ideas of religion, or from a state of no religion, before it is possible for them to be regenerated and therefore saved. For to be redeemed is not the same as being saved. Redemption comes first, salvation afterward. Redemption makes it possible for men, through the truth, to know and believe in the Lord. And the New Church is established to perform this use.
     As we look out upon the world today, we see that there are not many who know the truth concerning the Lord and eternal life, and that many do not care to know it. In general, among Christian people, there are two kinds. The first have some form of belief in the Lord, and are connected with some one of the denominations of the Christian Church. The other kind, who are fast becoming more numerous, are not affiliated with any church, and have become mere naturalists; they are people without a church, and seem to get along without any kind of professed religion. The first kind are more or less devoted to some form of religion, and have some belief in the Lord. But the teachings of their religion are full of falsities, from which they need to be redeemed by the genuine truths of the Word. The second kind, who have fallen away from any church, and into a state of naturalism, are just as much in need of being redeemed from false ideas, but they are in falsities of another kind-not the falsities of religion, but the falsities of reasoning from the senses.
     The New Church is intended to make known the teachings of a true religion, and so to redeem the minds of men from false conceptions of all kinds. As members of the New Church, therefore, we can wish nothing better than that all people in the world about us might know and might accept its Heavenly Doctrine. And it is the business of the New Church to propagate its doctrine, and to disseminate it as widely as possible through preaching, teaching, and publication.
     We wish from our hearts that people in the so-called Christian world might know the manner and the meaning of the Lord's Second Coming; in other words, that they might understand the internal truths of the Word which are revealed to the New Church. Yet we know that there are few who can receive this inestimable blessing. And this is for the reason that the old ideas of religion have too strong a hold upon the one group-upon those who are avowed Christians belonging to some church,-and in the case of the other group, for the reason that they have no belief in anything of religion, but have become naturalists.

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     Still, we know that there are many people in the world about us who are well-disposed and intelligent, well-educated, moral, and public-spirited, honest, useful, and full of human kindness. We know it because we have daily contact with such people, and regard them as our friends. But if our friendship for them has anything of a spiritual quality in it, we cannot but wish that they, too, might know and receive the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Church. It was to reach these, and redeem them from their naturalism, on the one hand, and from their erroneous ideas of religion on the other, that the New Church was established as the final act of redemption. That is what the New Church is for-that men may be redeemed by knowing the truths of heavenly wisdom, and, knowing them, might be saved by living as these truths teach what life ought to be.

     Evangelistic Zeal.

     Therefore we cannot but wish that our church might attract to it all those who live within reach of it who are intelligent and well-disposed. We cannot but wish that our church might be extended and increased, not only through the instruction of our own children, but also through the effort to bring into it all those who might possibly be interested in it. For we must settle it in our own minds that men cannot be redeemed from the influence of the hells upon their lives except by the doctrine of the New' Church. Only the reception of this doctrine can close the gates of hell, and open the doors of heaven. Unless people accept this doctrine as such, or else get from the Word for themselves something that agrees with this doctrine of the New' Church, they cannot be redeemed or set free from falsities. And therefore we should have the greatest zeal to bring into the New Church all people of honest and useful life, and to introduce them into the true worship of the Lord.
     If the members of the New Church lack something of this zeal, it can be from one cause only. It will be because they do not themselves fully believe that the doctrine of the New Church is of such great importance. They are not fully convinced that there is nothing but the Heavenly Doctrine that can bring men out of a merely natural state into a spiritual one.

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But if we do fully believe this, it cannot be otherwise than that we should be inspired to labor with all possible zeal to extend the truth of our doctrine, and to bring others into the blessings of a genuine and sincere worship of the Lord.
     People who know us, and whom we know, and regard as our friends outside the New Church, as we say, in addition to our own children, are the ones we might hope to interest in the New Church with the greatest reasonableness. And while it is not reasonable for us to be continually thrusting upon them things they do not care to know about, still we should endeavor to let them know, and not conceal from them, the fact that our church really means something to us, and that it is the thing for which we care the most. If we believe in the church ourselves, we should never be ashamed to try to draw into our worship those whom we regard as friends. And we should be zealous to create among ourselves such an exalted sphere of worship that it would influence and move a greater number of those whom the Lord would redeem to enter into it and know the saving power of its Heavenly Doctrine. If a man knows that you are vitally interested in your religion, you have no need to explain all the points of theology to him, but he will soon learn to respect your interest in it. And possibly, if he has some curiosity to learn what it is that you find so valuable in the doctrine of the New Church, the way may open for you to invite him to attend our worship or our doctrinal class.
     It is not necessary for a member of the New Church to keep entirely out of sight the fact that he is interested in our Heavenly Doctrine, thus hiding his light completely from others. And if one of us should invite non-New Church people to our services, there should be nothing in our worship for which he should need to apologize, nothing to be ashamed of. But rather, how happy we should feel if others who attend from time to time should be made to feel a peculiar delight from our form of worship, and from the teaching given! How desirable it would be if we could say to our outside friends, "Come to our services when you have an opportunity; we have a genuine interest in the teachings of the New Church; and we think you might find in them something that will be of benefit to you." If we do not hesitate to display a real enthusiasm for our church, it may be reasonably supposed that that enthusiasm would have a certain amount of influence upon others.

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     I was asked by one of my friends outside the church, whether I did not get very tired of seeing the same faces always at our services. And I replied: No, I do not get tired of seeing the same people before me so many times; but it would be nice, just the same, to see a few new ones." It certainly is a delight to a minister to have the opportunity of preaching to a widening circle of people. And I believe all the members of a society might share in that delight. To the extent of wishing that our friends outside might be interested enough to come to our services or classes, and that we might make them welcome, we may well enter into the spirit of evangelism. And we may well prepare the ground and the surroundings for this by magnifying and exalting in our own minds the use of worship and instruction.
     For it is true, as we have said, that the minds of men in the modern world cannot be liberated, and in this way redeemed, from the false ideas under which they labor, except by the acceptance of thought which is in agreement with the doctrine of the New Church. And the more that doctrine is seen and known, the greater is the redemption, and the possibility of regeneration.

     Collective Evangelism.

     And certainly we are ideally situated for the carrying on of such a form of collective evangelism. We have every opportunity for the development of worship to its highest point of excellence. And if w-e can fully succeed in doing this, the fact that we are some little distance removed from the city will not stand in the way of having people come to our worship. For people will readily come from a distance for something they regard as worth-while. In my opinion, a church that has something to attract the interest of others needs only to be composed of a group of people who are willing to give the very best of their abilities to the object of promoting the genuine worship of the Lord, and who care for nothing so much as that the church might succeed in its work of redemption for which the Lord established it.
     We have been taught that it is the nature of the Lords Divine Love to wish to communicate to all others, as far as they can receive it, the blessing of eternal life and happiness. And so the love that reigns in the true church of the Lord must partake of this same nature,-the love of communicating to others the things of eternal life which they who are of the church realise and enjoy.

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It is the love of redeeming and saving men. This is sometimes called the "priestly love," which exists not only with the clergy, but with all who are truly of the church.
     But because we have our own difficulties, and often seem to be far away from the happiness and blessing of eternal life, we sometimes find it hard to realise just what the blessings are which we derive from our worship and instruction in the things of the church. We are inclined to think that we have enough to do, through worship and reading, to look after ourselves: and we are inclined to center the life of the church in ourselves alone, and to overlook the fact that the church is established by the Lord for the sake of the redemption of others too. We have been redeemed from many false ideas of religion, and from the false attitude of mere naturalism. But the redemption of the Lord is extended to all in the whole Christian world. The worship of the Lord is intended, not for ourselves alone, and for our children, but for as many as may be drawn into it who have anything of the remains of spiritual life in them.
     And while we are thinking and speaking of worship, let us bear in mind that the central thing in all worship is the observance of the Sacrament of the Holy Supper. Every service of worship should be thought of as leading up to the performance of that holiest of all acts of worship. Little by little we learn from the Word what things are good, and what are evil and false: and then we are to apply this teaching to our own states of life and thought, and, by the examination of self, prepare to draw nearer to the Lord at the time of the Holy Supper, with the object of repenting of some evil which has become clearly defined in our minds.
     Some have had the idea, and have expressed it, that the church will spread chiefly by the reading of the Doctrine and the expression of thought derived from it, and thus by instruction alone. Some have thought that the New Church needs no special and separate organization, but that its light should by informal means influence the thought and actions of people in general, entering into the teachings of other churches. But even if this might to some extent take place, yet with this thought alone there is not taken into account the benefit of the Sacrament, and of the association of people together for the sake of mutual support and encouragement.

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If this element of the Sacrament were to be left out of consideration, the New Church could never grow and succeed. The Sacrament lies at the center of all true worship.
     And what we really want in the New Church, when we speak of interesting others in it, is to interest them in the Holy Sacrament, and to draw them to it, that they also, by means of it, may he introduced into the true life of religion, which is repentance in regard to definite evils. All worship looks to this Sacrament of the Holy Supper: and the Holy Supper is the Divine means by which there may be definite progress in the life of religion. Indeed, I sometimes doubt that people ever do make any progress in spiritual life until they come to have a holy regard for the Sacrament of the Supper, and make use of it as a means of overcoming specific evils in their lives, and also in their minds or intention. The truth of the doctrine does indeed redeem them from many falsities; but their regeneration and salvation is another thing. That progresses as they see and confess their evils before the Lord, and make use of the Sacrament in applying truth to their own life.
     I have tried to make clear the distinction between redemption and salvation. By the truth of our doctrine we are redeemed from the power of the hells, if only we care to take advantage of that redemption. We are set free from many false ideas. We know how to think of the Lord truly, and can think with clearness about our duties to Him and to the neighbor. Our eyes are opened to many things that concern the spiritual world. And even if we but read and meditate upon some simple parable of the Word, we have enough to occupy our thoughts with delight for days at a time.
     But if salvation is to take place, or, what is the same thing, if we are to progress in regeneration, we must make use of those things of truth from the Word, and apply them as best we can to our own life and thought. And this should be done in connection with and through the worthy observance of the Holy Supper-the great sacrament of repentance-which opens the way to the reception of good.
     It is our delight in both the truth of our doctrine and the benefits of the worship that centers in the Holy Supper that we wish to communicate to others. And we can best do this by magnifying and exalting the worship of the church, and initiating our children into it, and inviting others into it.

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As we do this, there is created a certain outgo of spiritual life, and our own spiritual progress is made more sure. For we have the teaching that influx is in proportion to efflux, or that the influence of the Lord and heaven upon us is in proportion to the outgo of our efforts for the spiritual life of others.
     We want to keep this ideal and this effort always before us-to put into our life and worship the power to attract others by its very distinctiveness. It is not at all likely that a New Church society will gather into it any considerable part of the people who live in our immediate vicinity. Yet it is possible that, from here and there, will come to us those who can be assimilated through a genuine interest in the life and worship of the New Church. And this will come about by our keeping our life and worship distinctive, and by our own enthusiasm and zeal for the Heavenly Doctrine. By our own love of spiritual things, and our zeal for the worship and life of the New Church, the center which has already been established will grow and extend itself to others. For, as we said at the beginning, the Lord established the New Church to the end that it may increase and may remain in the world as the final means of redemption for all those who can receive that which the New Church has to offer. If we fight for it, and labor for it, our work will be of the Lord; and if it is of the Lord, it is certain to succeed.
WORSHIP AND EVANGELIZATION 1941

WORSHIP AND EVANGELIZATION              1941

     The ministry of Aaron who represented the Lord, signified worship and evangelization. By worship is meant every representative of worship from the good of love and the truths of faith; for worship from these is truly worship, and worship without them is like a shell without a kernel, and like a body without a soul. By evangelization are meant all things in the Word which treat of the Lord, and all things which in worship represented Him. For evangelization is an announcement concerning the Lord. His Advent, and concerning the things which are from Him, which belong to salvation and eternal life. And because all things of the Word in its inmost sense treat of the Lord alone, and also all things of worship represented Him, therefore the whole Word is the Evangel, and in like manner all the worship that was performed according to the things commanded in the Word And because the priests presided over the worship, and also taught, therefore their ministry signified worship and evangelization. (A. C. 9925.)

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NOTABLE SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE 1941

NOTABLE SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE       Rev. E. E. IUNGERICH       1941

     Swedenborg in the City called Sodom and Egypt.

     It is well known to us that the revelator of the Second Coming underwent many remarkable experiences in the spiritual world while he was writing the exposition of the internal sense of the Scriptures. As the instance to which we here refer occurred in connection with the exposition of the 11th chapter of the Apocalypse, it would be well, first of all, to recall the text of verses 7 and 8, which reads as follows:

     "And when they [the two witnesses] shall have finished their testimony, the beast ascending out of the abyss shall make war with them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their bodies shall lie upon the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified." (Apoc. 11:7, 8.)
     The "two witnesses" signify "those who confess and acknowledge from the heart that the Lord is God of heaven and earth, and that His Human is Divine, and who are conjoined to Him by a life according to the precepts of the Decalogue." By the "beast" are signified those "who are in the internals of the doctrine of faith alone, who will oppose and fight against those two essentials of the New Church, and will cause others to reject them." The bodies of the two witnesses lying in the street of the city signified that "the two essentials of the New Church will be altogether rejected by those who are interiorly in the falsities of the doctrine of justification by faith alone, and who do not acknowledge the Divine Human of the Lord." (A. R. 490, 500-504.)

     Now the Memorable Relation which comes at the close of the exposition of this chapter in the Apocalypse Revealed (no. 531) also occurs in the Brie] Exposition, no. 114, and in the True Christian Religion, no. 567. The Relation begins as follows:

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     "I was suddenly seized with a disease almost deadly. My whole head was heavily weighed down; a pestilential smoke was let in from the Jerusalem which is called 'Sodom and Egypt.' I was half dead with severe pain; I expected the end. I lay thus in my bed for three days and a half: my spirit was affected in this manner, and from it my body. And then I heard around me the voices of those who said, 'Lo, he who preached repentance for the remission of sins, and the Man Christ alone, lies dead in the street of our city!' And they asked some of the clergy whether he was worthy of burial, and they answered, 'No; let him lie; let him be looked at!' They passed to and fro, and mocked. In truth this happened to me, when this chapter of the Apocalypse was being explained." (A. R. 531.)

     What we have here quoted is about one-twelfth of this Relation, which occurs in three works of the Writings, where the accounts are practically identical, only differing from one another in a few very minor details. The only significant point of difference is that these deriders of the two witnesses of Apocalypse XI, and also of Swedenborg in this experience, are, further on in the narrative, called "devils" in the Apocalypse Revealed and the Brief Exposition, but "satans" in the True Christian Religion. We may assume that the term "devils" was meant in a general sense to denote that they were from hell, whereas "satans" meant that they were specifically from the Satanic Hell, inasmuch as the episode occurred under the sixth trumpet blast when the middle hell was opened, and not under the seventh trumpet blast when the Diabolical Hell was opened.
     An interesting question arises, in view of the fact that Swedenborg, on two separate occasions, eight years apart, was engaged in the exposition of Apocalypse XI, namely, during the year of the Last Judgment, 1757, when he was writing the Apocalypse Explained, and again in 1765, when he was writing the shorter work, the Apocalypse Revealed. The question is: On which of these occasions did he suffer the almost fatal malady described in the Relation quoted above? Did he suffer it only once, or actually on both occasions?
     The question seems to be answered with regard to the Apocalypse Explained by the statement in the Relation: `In truth this happened to me when this chapter of the Apocalypse was being explained." The conditions in the world of spirits were certainly more troubled during the year of the Last Judgment than subsequently when the disorders had been stilled by the complete separation between the good and the evil.

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It is more likely, therefore, that Swedenborg's malady occurred during the year of the Judgment,-1737
     But did he not suffer also when the internal sense of Apocalypse XI was being revealed to him in 1765, in which year he was writing the Apocalypse Revealed? This seems to be indicated in the Spiritual Diary, near the end of that work. For we there read:

     "Concerning the Two Prophets in Apoc. XI. A notable change took place in the spiritual world. There was a gathering together of those who for the most part were in faith alone, both above, at the side, and beneath me; and they were given leave to inflow into my brain from which I was so affected that I could not lift up my head, and this for 3- days; and it seemed to those who were in the city which they called Jerusalem as if I were dead in the street. They looked upon me, and were gladdened. But afterwards that city and those who were of faith alone were divided, and were sent to their places." (S. D. 6108.)

     As no. 6107 of the Diary is dated December 3,1764, and no. 6110 contains the date of April 29, 1765, it seems likely that no. 6108 was written during that period, at which time he was writing the Apocalypse Revealed, and specifically the part about the Two Witnesses or Prophets.
     But does S. D. 6108 describe the same experience as that recorded in A. R. 531, B. E. 114, and T. C. R. 567? If so, then it did not occur in 1757, but in 1765. For it is unlikely that Swedenborg would be recording in his Diary something which had happened eight years before, thus long before many other experiences which he describes in the latter part of the Diary.
     And if this experience of Swedenborg occurred only once, and in the year 1765, it would seem as if the conditions in the spiritual world at this latter date were far less likely to affect him than those which prevailed during the cataclysms of the Last Judgment in 1757.
     Now is there anything else to indicate that Swedenborg actually suffered the same malady twice? I believe that the evidence indicates this to be the case, and that the experience in 1765 was far less severe than that in 1757,-the year of the Last Judgment, when he was explaining the Apocalypse in the Apocalypse Explained.

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     For in 1765 he says: "They were given leave to inflow into my brain, from which I was so affected that I could not lift up my head, and this for 3 1/2 days." But as to what occurred in 1757 he says: 'I was suddenly seized with a disease almost deadly. My whole head was heavily weighed down; a pestilential smoke was sent in from the Jerusalem which is called `Sodom and Egypt.' I was half dead with severe pain; I expected the end. I lay thus in my bed for three days and a half; my spirit was thus affected, and from it my body."
     Note, too, that in 1757 this malady came upon him "suddenly," thus without warning, so that he must have supposed that his career as a revelator was at an end. This was not the case in 1765, nor is it said that any pestilential smoke from hell was sent upon him. For he relates that a group, mostly composed of those who were in faith alone, was gathered about him, and then that they were granted leave to inflow into his brain. He evidently had a warning of what was to occur.
     Attention may also be called to the fact that in 1757 Swedenborg was witnessing the Last Judgment as it was being performed. But in what he says in 1765 no mention is made of the Last Judgment, but only of a "notable change" taking place in the spiritual world.
     Both experiences involved the appearing of similar things in the Jerusalem called "Sodom and Egypt," which evidently persisted for some time in the world of spirits after the Last Judgment. But this was to be expected, since on both occasions Swedenborg was expounding the internal sense of Apocalypse XI, where that city is mentioned.

     ANOTHER SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE.

     An example of the infestations suffered by the revelator while he was engaged in writing the Heavenly Doctrines is given us in the Apocalypse Revealed, in the course of the exposition of the 12th chapter, where it is giving the internal sense of the words in vs. 4 and 5: "And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to bring forth, that when she brought forth, he might devour her child. And she brought forth a male child."
     "Now, because the New Church is signified by the 'woman' who brought forth, it is evident that the Doctrine of that Church is signified by the 'male child.'

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The Doctrine which is here meant is The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, published in London, 1758; as also The Doctrine concerning the Lord, concerning the Sacred Scripture, and concerning a Life according to the Precepts of the Decalogue, published at Amsterdam. For by 'Doctrine' all the truths of Doctrine are meant, because the Doctrine is the complex of them all. When those Doctrines were being written, the dragonists stood round about me, collaborating with all their fury to devour, that is, to extinguish them. This new thing it is allowed me to relate, because in truth it so happened. The dragonists who stood about me were from all parts of the Reformed Christian world." (A. R. 543.)
AGGRESSION AND DEFENSE 1941

AGGRESSION AND DEFENSE              1941

     In spiritual warfare, evil spirits are they who begin the attack. The Lord never commenced the combat with any hell, but the hells attacked Him. It is the same with every man who is in temptation, or in combat with evil spirits. The angels with him are never the aggressors, but always and continually it is the evil or infernal spirits; the angels only avert and defend. This comes from the Lord, who never wills to bring evil upon anyone, or to thrust him into hell, even if he were the worst and most deadly enemy; but it is the evil spirit who brings evil upon himself, and casts himself headlong into hell. This also follows from the nature of evil, and from the nature of good. It is the nature of evil to want to assail everyone; it is the nature of good to want to assail no one. The evil are in their verimost life when they are attacking, for they continually desire to destroy; the good are in their verimost life when they are attacking nobody, and when they are able to perform a use by defending others against the evil. (A. C. 1683.)
     "At this day, the Lord, with His Divine Power, fights against hell in every man who is being regenerated. For hell attacks all such men with diabolical fury, and unless the Lord resisted and tamed this fury, the man could not but succumb. For hell is like one monstrous man, or like a huge lion, to which also it is compared in the Word. Wherefore, if the Lord did not keep that lion, or that monster, bound with manacles and fetters, it could not he otherwise than that man, when rescued from one evil, would of himself fall into another, and thereafter into many more." (T. C. R. 123e.)

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BROUGHT TO THE LIGHT 1941

BROUGHT TO THE LIGHT              1941

     While visiting Bryn Athyn recently, Mr. J. A. Fraser, formerly of Atlanta, Georgia, called our attention to the following article which appeared in THE NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER for November 27, 1940, as presenting an instance of the wonderful ways of Divine Providence in bringing men to the light of the New Church:

     BREAD ON THE WATERS.

     By WALTER BROWN MURRAY.

     In 1927, soon after my arrival in Los Angeles from the east, I had the pleasure of a visit from a man from Alaska who had become a New Churchman under very unusual conditions. This man was a Swede by birth, but for many years had been a citizen of the United States. He had been in the mining business for many years, and in 1900 had gone to Alaska to try to find gold. That was forty years ago. In Alaska he had discovered there were surer methods of making money than by digging for gold, and had gone into the business of cutting timber for lumber and fuel, and by long years of hard work had accumulated a nest egg and had decided to return to California, where he had previously lived, and to pass the rest of his life in comfort. He had relatives near Los Angeles and wanted to be near them.
     Now the way of his finding out about Swedenborg is the object of this writing. It shows that bread cast upon the waters may return after many days, and that it is worth-while to sow beside all waters. This may be a great comfort to many earnest lovers of the Heavenly Writings who have sown and thought their labors were in vain.
     About three miles from his lumber camp on the Stewart River, a tributary of the mighty Yukon, lived an Australian by the name of Gilroy. Gilroy preferred hunting to digging for gold or cutting timber. Gilroy visited the cabin of our friend, Charles A. Roden, about whom we have been writing, and Roden visited Gilroy's cabin.

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In Gilroy's cabin there was a copy of Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell which attracted Roden's attention. He was so interested that Gilroy told him he might take it home and keep it. Roden noticed that there were other books by Swedenborg, and wrote to the American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Co., New York City, now the Swedenborg Foundation. Roden's letter was referred to the Rev. Paul Sperry, of Washington, who met Roden's hunger for further knowledge of the New Church by sending him many books. In the end Roden formally became a member of the Washington Society.
     When Roden came back to California to live he naturally wanted to meet New-Church people, and Mr. Sperry gave him my name and address, and soon we were the best of friends. Later Roden wished to become a member of the Riverside Society of which I was pastor. I wish I could make known to all who may read these lines the earnestness, the deep sincerity, of the man, and his kindness of heart, his innocence, his deep trust in all men. It was unfortunate in one way to be so lacking in guile, for later he went north to Seattle in order to get back into the lumber business, and, against the advice of the Rev. Lloyd Edmiston, with whom he lived, and myself, he went into business with a man who robbed him of everything he had. Notwithstanding the man's confidence in the goodness and truthfulness of all men, he would not have been the lovely soul he was if he had been less of a child. Actually he has lost nothing, for in the years that have since passed he has been taken care of by the Lord and retains his sweet generous spirit. Today he is blind at eighty- three, bedridden, the inmate of a sanitarium in Los Angeles. I visit him often, for I am still his pastor. He has lost nothing of his ardent interest in the New Church and its growth. He has been a good missionary, dedicating his time to acquainting people with the New-Church teachings. As a colporteur for a time he visited homes and placed thousands of copies of the four gift books of the Church. Both as a missionary, and as a soul who sought eagerly for the truth, it was for him a wonderful thing to have found so long ago the copy of Heaven and Hell. It has transformed his life, and helped many to find a way out of the spiritual confusion of the age and plant their feet on the Rock of Ages.
     And now comes the real point of this story. I have just had a letter from the Rev. Lloyd Edmiston, of Seattle, enclosing one that had recently come to him from Mr. J. A. Fraser of Atlanta, Georgia.

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Mr. Fraser says that he has just come across a letter published in the NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER some years ago in which was given the remarkable account of Roden's finding the book of Swedenborg so many years ago in Alaska and later entering the Church. I took the letter to Roden to-day and asked him about the circumstances. I understood formerly that the cabin had been deserted and the book had been thrown away. Fraser writes:
     "It is the hope of solving the mystery of the book in the abandoned cabin in Alaska, to which I think I hold the key, that is the object of this letter. On my way to the Klondike in the fall of 1899, I stayed for a short time at a hotel on Lake Bennett, and while there I formed the acquaintance of a mine owner who manifested considerable interest, as I thought, in the Heavenly Doctrines. So on parting I presented him with an extra copy of Heaven and Hell which I had taken along for missionary usage. No relations having been had with him since, I do not know what his reaction was. Having planted the seed in what I considered fertile soil, the matter was dismissed from my mind and remained quiescent until recently when I was informed of the letter in the MESSENGER.
     "It is my opinion that the books were identical. My reason for thinking so are, first, that the book which was found in the cabin was taken to the Yukon by a New Churchman, as no other person would take literature in which he had no interest on a trip of that kind and be burdened unnecessarily when the principal means of transportation was on one s own shoulders. Second, I doubt very much if there were any number of New Churchmen that joined in the rush to the gold- fields during that period, and that few', if any, took along copies of Heaven and Hell. Third, my information is that the book was found in the area where my friend had copper holdings. It may be that you can tell me if the man is still living. I would like to write to him. . . . I would like to know if my feeble efforts at missionary work in the then remote North proved fruitful, and that the person who found the book was capable of assaying its contents at their true value. I do not know how much material wealth the finder of the book may have found, but even if he had found all the gold that was ever mined in the North, it would not have been comparable to the treasure discovered in that lonely cabin."

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     In this view of the value of the book our dear friend Roden cordially joins, for it has been to him more than all the treasure of the world. In a world of confused thought about the religion of Jesus it has enabled him to understand truly the message of the Lord in His Word. As he lies on his bed awaiting the last great summons, it is with supreme joy in his heart that he at last found the Lord in His Second Coming. and knows just what is waiting for him on the other side.
ELECT 1941

ELECT              1941

     Once I looked toward the right in the spiritual world, and observed some of the elect conversing together; and I went up to them, and said, "I saw you at a distance, and around you a sphere of heavenly light, from which I knew that you belong to those who in the Word are called 'the elect'; therefore I drew near that I might hear what heavenly subject you are discussing among yourselves." They replied, "Why do you call us the elect?" I answered. "Because in the world, where I am with the body, they know no otherwise than that by `the elect' in the Word are meant those who, either before they were born or after they were born, are elected by God and predestined to heaven, and that to them alone faith is given as the badge of their election, and that the rest are reprobated, and left to themselves to go whichever way they please to hell. And yet I know that no election is made before birth, nor after it, but that all are elected and predestined, because all are called, to heaven, and that the Lord, after death, elects those who have lived well and believed aright, and these after they have been examined. That this is so, has been given me to know by much experience. And because I saw that your heads were encircled with a sphere of heavenly light, I perceived that you are of the elect who are being prepared for heaven." To this they replied, "You relate things unheard of before. Who does not know that there is not any man born who is not called to heaven, and that from them after death those are elected who had believed in the Lord and had lived according to His commandments; and that to acknowledge any other election is to accuse the Lord Himself, not only of being powerless to save, but also of injustice?" (T. C. R. 664.)

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"ARE THERE FEW THAT BE SAVED?" 1941

"ARE THERE FEW THAT BE SAVED?"              1941


NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of 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.
     The Lord's Advent to perform a general Judgment takes place when there are few in the world who can receive Him. He comes when the church is at an end because evil of life prevails interiorly with most of the men of the church, even though they are outwardly in worship of the Lord and the good of life. From this interior evil the man of the church then loves himself and the world in preference to the Lord and heaven. From this interior evil he is in the conceit of his own goodness, and despises others in comparison with himself. From the same conceit he looks down upon those who are not as fortunate as he in possessing the knowledges of the Word and spiritual things. At heart he rejoices in the belief that those who lack these knowledges cannot be saved.
     The Lord, when in the world, frequently rebuked the men of the church of that time for their contempt of others in comparison with themselves. He rebuked the disciples when they objected to the bringing of young children unto Him. On another occasion He rebuked the one who asked Him, "Lord, are there few that be saved?" The question savored of pride and self-assurance on the part of the one who asked it, and he was warned of this when the Lord said to him "Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able."

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Further He taught this man that the good of the former churches had been gathered into heaven: "Ye shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrust out." Thus the Jewish Church would be rejected, and the despised gentiles, with whom was a remnant of saving good from former times, would be brought from the four corners of the earth, and formed into the Christian Church: "They shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God." (Luke 13: 23-29.)
     These sayings of the Lord apply equally to the present day, when again it is the consummation of the age and the time of Judgment, when the church is taken from Christians and given to gentiles-to the simple good both within and beyond Christendom, who are now to form the New Church of the Second Coming of the Lord. In His answer to the question, "Are there few that be saved?" the Lord gave utterance to the truth that His mercy is universal, that from His Divine love He wills the salvation of all men; for He created all for heaven, and makes it possible for all to go there who are willing to do so. Because such a desire was lacking in the one who asked the question, the Lord by His answer indicated that a measure of His love and mercy, and its desire for the salvation of souls, should fill the hearts of the men of the church, even as it is the ruling affection with the highest angels of heaven, whose love is such that they would gladly give up their places in heaven, if by so doing they could save a soul from hell. (A. C. 2077.)
     It is a truth, however, that the Divine love, which is mercy itself toward every man born, in its going forth to men is ever conjoined with the Divine wisdom, according to which there must be judgment, separating the evil from the good. Yet the Divine love and mercy are never absent from any Divine operation. They are present in the judgment of the evil to hell, which is a mercy to them, as it is also a mercy to the good who are elevated into heaven. For the evil and the good cannot live permanently together in the spiritual world. In like manner the Divine love and mercy are present in the separation of evil from good in the individual man of the church, without which he cannot be saved.

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     With the man of the church, therefore, who comes by regeneration into a measure or image of the Lord's love and wisdom, there must be the exercise of judgment-a just and merciful judgment-in all his attitude of thought and feeling when forming an opinion concerning the general state of mankind. He who is truly of the Lord's church has in his heart the merciful desire for the good of others,-for the salvation and eternal happiness of all men. If he ask himself the question, "Are there few that be saved?" it is prompted in him by a longing for the increase of the church and heaven,-for the spiritual blessing of many, not of a few only; and he feels grief at heart that in an evil age the question must be answered in the affirmative,-that few are saved, because few are willing to believe in the Lord and follow' Him in the life of regeneration.

     A Rational View.

     If, now, we regard this question as opening a legitimate field of inquiry for the rational mind, we shall seek an answer, first of all, from the Lord Himself, who alone knows the universal state of mankind upon the earth. And we shall find an answer from Him in Revelation-in the general statements of the Scriptures and the Writings, where alone the Lord has revealed all that is necessary for the man of the church to know in regard to it. If we approach the question from preconceived opinions, natural feelings, or from our limited knowledge, experience and observation, we cannot attain a true view and judgment. As the Lord alone know-s the general spiritual state, by Him alone is it revealed.
     To accept the simple and plain statements of Revelation, and then to seek confirmations, this is rational and wise; it is also of charity and mercy, because it is of the love of truth. If we attempt to think of the subject in its personal and numerical aspect, we close the mind to rational light, and fall into obscurity and fallacy. Exact numbers we cannot tell, and the internal states of individuals are known to the Lord alone, and no final judgment is to be passed upon them by men. The general idea of few and many is sufficient. For if we suppose that some millions of men from present-day Christendom are saved in every generation, though they be relatively few, and that many more are saved from among gentiles, which is the teaching of our Doctrine, we still retain the rational idea of few and many, and are as near the truth as is feasible or necessary in our seeking for an answer to the question, "Are there few that be saved?"

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     The essential thing for the man of the church is to know and love the genuine good of heaven as it is now revealed, to strive for it in himself and in his children, and to desire that many may receive it;- to maintain this internal attitude, even while acknowledging the truth of Revelation that in the end of an age few are saved and many condemned, and that "except the Lord had left unto us a very small remnant, we should be as Sodom and Gomorrah; that except we repent, we shall all likewise perish."
     A faithful student of the Writings will find very much there in condemnation of the internal spiritual state of Christendom at this day. He will read, over and over again, that there is no faith because there is no charity; that very few care to be instructed in spiritual things, or in the knowledge of the spiritual world that few look to the Lord, acknowledging His Divinity, and follow Him by sincere repentance; that few at this day know what genuine conjugial love is, because few are in it; that few know what spiritual temptation is, because at this day few undergo any temptation; in short, that few are suffering themselves to be regenerated, and thus saved from the evil of hell.
     We accept such teachings as the truth revealed by the Lord,-the general truth concerning the spiritual state of Christendom. But we also read in the Writings that a few in the Christian world are salvable, and are regenerated by the Lord, though these few are internally separated from the corrupt spirit and life of the age. It is clear from many specific instances given us in the Writings that the simple good are to be found in every nation and sect of Christendom, although they are few in number when compared with the total numbers in the nation or sect.
     Let us recall two of these statements in the Writings. Among the simple good there are the learned and the unlearned. Of the former we read: "That I might know in what light the learned are at the present day, two ways were seen by me (in the spiritual world), one called the way of wisdom, and the other the way of folly. The learned were collected to the number of three hundred, and they were given the option of going the way they wished. And it was seen that 260 entered the way of folly, and only 40 the way of wisdom.

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It was told me afterwards that such and so many are the learned foolish at this day relatively to the learned wise." (Div. Wis. I: 5.) We here have a proportion of forty in three hundred who were saved,-13 1/3 per cent.
     Of the other kind of simple good, the unlearned, Swedenborg says, "I have seen in the heavens many of both sexes who had been known to me in the world, and who had believed in simplicity what is from the Lord in the Word, and lived faithfully according to it; and they were heard in heaven speaking ineffable things, as is said of the angels." (Div. Wis. VIII: 2.)
     Many statements like these are to be found in the Writings, and are to be taken in connection with the general statements concerning the state of the consummated church. From such revealed teachings we may comprehend within the rational view' that there are salvable remnants in all parts of the Christian world, "who can now be instructed, and with whom a New Church is to be instituted. But where these are the Lord alone knows. There will be few within the Church." (A. C. 3898.)

     Children and Gentiles.

     It will be noted, however, that such declarations have reference to the proportion of adults in Christendom who belong to the salvable remnant. And we may feel despair at times as to how the heavens can be maintained in their growth and increase from so few. But "the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save!" There is evidence in the Writings to the effect that not all of the remnant enter the New Church in this world, but that numbers of them do so after death. And another fact must here be taken into account, that "all infants, whether they are born within or without the church, are adopted by the Lord, and become angels, the number of whom amounts to a fourth or fifth part of the whole human race on earth." (H. H. 416.) The decline of the race from its pristine excellence in the Ancient Churches, when many were prepared for heaven in the world, and few were lost, brought with it an increase of infant mortality, so that a "third part of heaven" consists of those who died in infancy. (H. H. 4.) It is in this manner that the Divine Providence has offset the failure of adults. "Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings, Thou hast ordained strength, because of Thine enemies." (Psalm 8.)

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     We may also approach the answer to our question from the teaching of the Writings concerning the universal church, which includes the gentiles-the "many who will come from the east, and the west, and the north and the south, to sit down in the kingdom of God,"- to form the New Church and the New Heaven. For the New Christian Heaven of the Second Coming is made up of both Christians and gentiles (N. J. H. D. 3), and the latter are much more numerous than the former, and depend for their instruction and light upon those who have received faith and life in the world. In the presence of the wise they are wise; by themselves they remain simple. "He who has been in wisdom in the world is in wisdom in the other life, and this wisdom is appropriated to him. They who have not been in wisdom in the world, but in the good of life, can receive wisdom through the former, but it is not appropriated to them for when they depart from those to whom wisdom has been appropriated, they are simple, as before." (S. D. 5188.)
     "The church of the Lord is universal," we read, "and with all who acknowledge a Divine and live in charity; for such are instructed after death, and receive Divine Truths." (H. H. 308.) Again, "They who are outside of the church, and who yet acknowledge one God, and live according to their religion in a kind of charity toward the neighbor, are in communion with those of the church." (A. C. 10765.) Indeed, we are told about certain distant islanders who, while they lived in the world, knew nothing about God, but who could be saved because they lived an orderly life in obedience and industry. In the other life they were placed under a Christian teacher, and began to learn something of religion. (S. D. 5822, 5880.)
     We cannot but rejoice that such is the truth-that in an evil age the Lord still preserves interiorly with some men the capacity to know God and to be saved for His heaven, where "there is a communion of all goods; where the peace, intelligence, wisdom, and happiness of all are communicated to everyone, and those of each are communicated to all." (A. C. 10723.)
     The common bond of this universal church is the bond of love to God and charity from obedience to His laws. With the special church, which has the revealed Word and thence a knowledge of the Lord, this bond of love is conjoined with a bond of light,-light more immediately from the Lord-a bond highly important for that church to preserve, and highly perilous to ignore.

512


Those who are privileged to enjoy the light of Revelation have increased illustration and guidance by preserving the tie that binds them to the church, for by this they have power against evil. The gentiles, though united with all who belong to the universal church by their acknowledgment of God, lack that bond of light which is afforded only by the knowledges of Revelation. They do receive light, but it is a reflected light from the Word with those in the special church. They receive it by a "spiritual communication" from the center in the spiritual world where the Word is (S. S. 110); but, lacking a basis for thought in the knowledges of the written Word in the world, they are affected with only the most general light from the church. It is as moonlight compared with the sunlight.
     While those who are of the church can be satisfied only with a clear and distinctive teaching of the particulars of doctrine, the gentile, from a good heart, acquires only the most general truths, and is apt to cherish many fallacies. With the gentiles, all truth concerning God and the future life is but general and obscure; with the man of the church it is clear and definite, being enriched by innumerable particulars of doctrine. Because of this enlightenment, the man of the church is able to be in a higher good, a more interior state of spiritual life; he is also able to fall into more interior evil.
     These are some of the distinctions between the man of the special church of the Lord and those of the universal church beyond its borders, who yet are all spiritually united by a universal bond of love to God and charity, and are as one man before the Lord. (A. C. 1032, 2590.) And to such an extent as the man of the New Church is truly moved by these loves, to that extent he will long to see all men enlightened by the regenerating truths of the Second Coming, and delivered from evil by the saving power of the Lord in His Divine Human, that they may be blest with the eternal joys of the New Heaven. He will be the more in this genuine longing for the blessing of others as he is the more sincerely in the love of the truth for its own sake,- for the sake of his own regeneration and salvation, confessing in heart that he is more unworthy than others, and in greater need of the Lord's infinite mercy.

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NOTES AND REVIEWS 1941

NOTES AND REVIEWS       Various       1941

     A NEW PERIODICAL.

DOCTRINE AND LIFE. A Quarterly Magazine Devoted to the Doctrine and Life out of the Word. Official Organ of Nova Domini Ecclsia quae est Nova Hierosolyma-The Lord's New Church which is Nova Hierosolyma in America. Editor: Rev. Hendrik W. Boef, 729 North Ogden Drive, Los Angeles, California. Sent free to All Members of the Church. Subscription Price to Non-Members, $1.00 per year. Single Copies, 25 cents.
     Our attention has been called to this mimeographed publication, three 36-page issues of which have appeared,-for January, April and July, 1941. The contents comprise about thirteen long and short articles, four by clergymen and nine by laymen, dealing mainly with doctrinal subjects; as, for example: "To Look to the Lord," Rev. Philip N. Odhner; "The Redemption of the First-born Son," Rev. Hendrik W. Boef; "Good Works and Apparent Good Works" Rev. Theodore Pitcairn; "The Obligations of the Laymen in Reference to the Doctrine of the Church," Edward J. Waters; "The Holy Spirit," Loyal D. Odhner: "Publishing the Doctrines by Types," Clarence Hotson, Ph.D.; and "Are the Scientific and Philosophical Works of Emanuel Swedenborg a Divine Revelation?" Thorsten Sigstedt.
     In connection with this last-named subject, the editor furnishes an excerpt from an article by Anton Zelling, in which the statement occurs: "How could it be understood otherwise that the Word of the New Church consists of three parts: I. The Scientific Works, comprising the three kingdoms of nature; II. The Worship and Love of God, description of the birth of the man from God the Creator; III. The Theological Works." (Page 51.)
     In the course of our reading of the articles we noted such statements as: "Man will be divine. For herein alone he is one with the Lord. It is possible to be divine because it has been written, 'Be holy, for I am Holy.' But before this can be reached, the thoughts must be purified." (Page 28.) There is reference, also, to the conscious sense of the Divine influx by regenerating men: also to the expounding of the internal sense of the "Latin Word," and to "the genuine Doctrine of the Church, which is that understanding of the Word which is given to man in accordance with his state of regeneration.

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As the Church must be in man and not outside of him, so also the Doctrine of the Church must be in man and not outside of him, and this Doctrine is the Lord with and in him." (Page 97.)
     Such statements as these, and the general tenor of the articles published in these numbers, make evident that the new magazine is a vehicle for the expression of the so-called "Hague Views,"-an interpretation of the Writings which has not been found acceptable in the General Church.
'DOCTRINE OF CHARITY' IN SWEDISH. 1941

'DOCTRINE OF CHARITY' IN SWEDISH.              1941

DET NYA JERUSALEMS LARA OM MANNISKOKARLEKEN. (Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning Charity.) A work by Emanuel Swedenborg, published after his death. Swedish version by T. Holm and E. Sandstrom. Bokforlaget Nova Ecclesia, Stockholm, 1940. Paper, 16mo, 112 pages.

     The volume under review represents the first appearance in book form of a Swedish version of this work. The Annals of the New Church (page 122) do indeed refer to a translation of the Doctrine of Charity' as having run serially in AFTONBLADET, a Stockholm weekly which precariously evaded the censor for eight months during 1784. This paper, edited by Nordenskjold and Halldin, is credited with being the first "Swedenborgian" periodical. But Hyde's Bibliography makes it clear that this 'Doctrine of Charity' was merely a translation of the extracts on that subject from the Arcana. In the journal DEN NYA KYRKAN, 1897-1901, we find a serial rendering of De Charitate by the Rev. J. E. Boyesen. a minister ordained by Bishop Benade. The present translation, however, is made by the Rev. Erik Sandstrom on the basis of a manuscript translation by the late Mr. Teodor Holm, who also produced a Swedish version of the Divine Providence and, more recently, of the Divine Wisdom, of the Divine Love, and of the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine.
     As is well known, the manuscript of Dc Charitate was found, after Swedenborg's death, in an unfinished state, with certain alternate treatments appended.

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Mr. Sandstrom's analysis of the original (in Codex 11) led him to rearrange the material of the Appendix, and to alter the numbering of the paragraphs by inserting those now marked "212" and "213" after no. 198. While he seems to have had good reasons for doing this, the innovation will no doubt cause occasional confusion, since the old numbering is employed in the modern English version, as well as in Potts' Concordance which is used internationally.
     The translation itself is clear and faithful. We regret that the words which had to be supplied by the translator in order to make good diction were placed in parentheses instead of brackets: for parentheses are used also for Swedenborg's own words (no. 79. page 31). We would also suggest it as better usage to retain the case- form of Latin words when they are adjoined in parentheses to confirm or qualify a difficult rendering, as in no. 45. Occasionally, however, an improvement is made upon our usual English version, as when-in no. 87-bonum religionis et morum is translated to bring out the distinction between customs (mores) and 'morals' (moralia). For moral good can mean more than the possession of good habits, or good behavior; the latter is merely civil good.
     A number of editorial notes are appended, some to give Swedenborg's marginal annotations (or added signs, such as NB.). or to furnish references to Scripture, and others to explain the exact value of a translated phrase. In one case (no. 195), the translator suggests that Swedenborg made a slip of the pen, in saving about carnal men, "Ex officio aniant lucruni, et lucrum ex officio"; and he renders this as if it read, "Ex officio amant lucrum, et ex lucro officium:-"They love gain for the sake of their official position, and their position for the sake of gain."
     The Swedish public is to be congratulated upon its having access at last to this important work. While the list of Swedish translations is already imposing, yet few of the posthumous works have so far been offered to the Swedish reader. The Spiritual Diary, Apocalypse Explained, Athanasian Creed, De Domino, De Verbo, and Last Judgment (posthumous), are inaccessible in Swedenborg's mother-tongue. English-speaking New Churchmen seldom reflect what it must mean to their foreign brethren to be confined in their reading to only a portion of the wealth of the Writings.
     HUGO LJ. ODHNER.

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Church News 1941

Church News       Various       1941

     SOUTH AFRICAN MISSION.

     Since our last report, which left these shores soon after May 15 (see August issue, p. 373). the Mission work has been steadily maintained in ten centres-one in the Cape Province, two in Durban, three in Natal, two in the Transvaal, and two in Zululand. The 19th of June was celebrated at the majority of these centres. But the outstanding event was the Dedication of the new building at Hambrook, Acton Homes-between Ladysmith and Bergyille, Natal, and 200 miles from Durban.

     A Dedication.

     Sunday, July 13, was selected as the date, and five Native Ministers of the New Church assisted in the ceremony which was conducted by the Superintendent, representing the Bishop. The service took two hours and a half, and consisted of Procession, Opening Service. Dedication Ceremony. Three Lessons, five infant Baptisms, a Discourse on "What the New Church Teaches," and the Communion. Normally the group has about thirty members, but on this special occasion over 250 Native people attended.
     The Rev. S. E. Butelezi-the minister in charge is to be congratulated upon his initiative. Both the plan and the erection of the building have been entirely under his supervision, and the result testifies to the fact that native ideas in architecture can,-as far as is practicable, ultimate some objective of "significatives" as disclosed in the Doctrines of the New Church. Certain it is that in this instance no one can mistake the desire to represent the abstract doctrine of "Three Degrees." There are three steps to the chancel, extending the whole width of the church, in three colors. These are white, greenish-blue, dark red. The windows behind the altar are in the same three colors-not, indeed, of expensive stained glass, but of simple material devised by simple people. But the idea, the wish, the end in view, is the same- and it is to this "end" that the eye of heaven looks!
     Each minister had a share in the service. Rev. B. Nzimande, from Bulwer, read the first two lessons. Rev. S. E. Butelezi read from the Writings-in his own translation-for the third lesson. Rev. A. B. Zungu, from Kent Manor," conducted the baptism service for five infants. Rev. John Jiyana, from Lusitania, Natal, and present by "Native" invitation, interpreted the Dedication Service for the Superintendent; while the Rev. P. J. Stole interpreted the discourse, based on the text. "Except the Lord build the house," and also assisted in the administration of the Holy Supper. It was a full and happy day for Hambrouk, and will be one of lasting memory.
     It may be of interest to know that the General Church Mission has contributed very little toward the building expenses of this church at Hambrook, the largest of its kind in our Mission in North Natal. A number of Europeans and Natives in the district, not in any way connected with our faith, gave money contributions. When visiting Durban in March, Rev. Butelezi was energetic enough to obtain small subscriptions from our Durban New Church members. The building, however, cannot be owned by the Mission, as it is built on private ground in a native" reserve," and legally belongs to the minister himself.

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Rev. Butelezi, however, has been advised to make a legal declaration in the form of a "will." in which he is to express how he wishes the building to be used after his decease.
     There are two other churches in the Hambrook district, and the appearance of a third, with its formal dedication, has shown the people that it is associated with an established and recognized Mission, while its teaching is that of the New Church foretold in the Apocalypse.

     Pastoral Visits.

     In recent months there have been a number of interchanging visits. The Superintendent has visited "Kent Manor," Zululand, on two occasions, and Bulwer once. Rev. P. J. Stole has made two visits to Bulwer to encourage a small group there who are applying for a site for a church building. Rev. M. B. Mcanyana has visited "Kent Manor," Zululand, and Verulam, Natal. Rev. Jonas Motsi, in the Transvaal, has visited a number of local districts and also the Society under Rev. T. Matshinini at Alexandra Township. Johannesburg. Rev. J. Kandisa, in the distant Cape Province, is still doing his best with a small group at Sterkstroom, but it is a desperate struggle. Rev. S. Mkize-at Mahlabatini, Zululand-is endeavoring to form a new centre, while Rev. P. Sabela is still in charge of the "Kent Manor" group. Revs. Zungu and Motsi, at "Kent Manor" and Greylingstad respectively, are fighting great odds in the maintenance of day schools, and we very much fear that the work will be hindered, and may have to be given up altogether, through lack of funds.
     In concluding we would like to note that, although we have mentioned the encouraging work at Hambrook, it does not mean that all is well with the Mission. The effort in the right direction, here recorded, should not eclipse the need for the continued financial support of the Native Ministers. We are doing our best to encourage native initiative; but each native minister has a small congregation-not hundreds as in other Missions. Moreover, the ministers in our Mission have to preach unpopular but distinctive doctrine,-the unpleasant things concerning self-love, so much taught in the New Church. And so, to expect each native society to support its native minister entirely is to expect an absolute impossibility. The stipend system must continue, or the work will cease, because the ministers will be obliged to take up secular work in places far distant from their homes and groups. The General Church has not only the distinctive doctrinal responsibility, but also a moral and economic responsibility. The Mission has been "let down." Reader, will you-in 1942, 1943-let down these ministers who are true to their convictions? There is war in the church as well as in the world, and, as is the case in all war, the innocent suffer.
     F. W. ELPHICK.
Durban, Natal.
August 19, 1941.

     LONDON, ENGLAND.

     Michael Church.

     From the "News Letter" of September 1st we learn that, on Sunday, August 3, a very delightful celebration was held at Michael Church in lieu of the customary meeting of the British Assembly. About forty persons gathered for the morning service, at which the sermon dealt with the importance of reading the Word and the Writings from true doctrine and principles, and with a humble desire to be enlightened by the Lord.
     "A bountiful luncheon and later tea were provided out of the food which had so generously been sent by the Women's Guild of Bryn Athyn. This gift, testifying as it did to the kind thoughtfulness of our fellow members of the Church, added considerably to the spirit of the day.

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     "At 2.30 p.m. we held a meeting in the church, having been joined by the Rev. Martin Pryke, who had conducted the morning service at Colchester. A telegram of greeting from Bishop and Mrs. Tilson was read, and also good wishes from other friends. Introducing the subject of 'The Growth of the Church.' the pastor spoke of the need for a strong centre, both spiritual and natural, from which light could go forth to the periphery. Mr. Victor Tilson spoke of many aspects of the external life of the society which he felt could be improved to further the growth of the church among us. Finally, the Rev. Martin Pryke addressed the meeting on the subject of 'New Church Education.' showing that this education applied both to children and adults, and is the only hope for the growth of the church. Most of those present took part in the lively discussion that followed."
     After tea, the day concluded with an evening service, at which the Rev. Martin Pryke preached on "The Mammon of Unrighteousness," showing the need to acquire knowledges in every sphere of human life and apply them to the uses of the church.
     Among the guests were Mr. and Mrs. Colley Pryke, Miss Ruth Pryke, Miss Muriel Gill, and Sergeant Cecil James.

     A Diamond Wedding.

     Members of the General Church everywhere will unite in offering their congratulations to Bishop and Mrs. R. J. Tilson, who celebrated their Sixtieth Wedding Anniversary on September 7th, as we learn from the "News Letter" of September 15. Among the many congratulatory messages they received was a telegram from the King and Queen: and an engraved, solid silver bowl was presented to them by the members and friends of Michael Church. Mr. Acton writes that he visited them at Harrogate in August, and found them in remarkably good health, considering their advanced years.
     During the month of August he also visited many of the members in the North of England, including the group at New Moston. He and Mrs. Acton spent the last week of the journey with Mrs. Jubb at High Kilburn, Yorkshire, which constituted their holiday for the year, and they enjoyed some delightful country walks in the vicinity of this quaint old-world place." The quiet nights they have experienced all Summer have been a great relief to our friends in England, though they are prepared for the possibility that they will not continue.
     We take this opportunity to congratulate Mr. Acton upon his recent appointment as Librarian of the Swedenborg Society, of which we learn from a report of the Annual Meeting of that Society printed in THE NEW-CHURCH HERALD of August 30. 1941. Speaking on the subject, the Rev. Arthur Clapham said: "A Library may be regarded as a mausoleum, a museum, or a laboratory. The Society's Library should be regarded as a laboratory, wherein a student will find apparatus to his hand, and the apparatus should he as complete and up to date as it can be made. He looped that the Rev. A. Wynne Acton would be given every encouragement to make the Library what it should be."     W. B. C.

     BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

     A Local Assembly.

     On Saturday and Sunday. September 27 and 28, the Baltimore Society assembled on the occasion of the first episcopal visit of Bishop George de Charms, and to celebrate the inauguration of the Rev. Morley D. Rich as its visiting pastor.
     On Saturday evening we met in Baltimore at the home of Capt. R. L. Coffin, partaking of a supper and renewing old friendships. The Bishop delivered an address entitled "The Harvest of the Earth," treating of the Last Judgment. and showing that the event which took place in 1757 must be continued into the life of each one of us; for only by such a judgment from Divine Truth can the Lord's Second Coming become a reality in us.

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This clear and instructive paper was followed by a brief discussion, which brought a happy and profitable evening to a close.
     At this point in our report it would be well to review briefly the history of the Society, in order to give a comprehensive view of the present situation. When it was established in 1902, there were 16 members and about 6 children. By 1912, when the Arbutus colony was prospering, there were 20 members and 40 children. Thereafter, by removals and deaths, the congregation declined to 5 adults. Then we thought of liquidating all the property of the Society, selling our chapel, and meeting for worship in the homes of members, there to await our seemingly inevitable extinction. But the Rev. Homer Synnestvedt, who had presided at the organization of the Society in 1902, came to us again as our visiting pastor, and it was his buoyant leadership that kept us from taking such a backward step At this time, several young men who had been born within our Society, but had drifted away, began to bring their wives to church. Last year, Mr. Oswald Soderberg brought his family to Baltimore. And this year. Mr. George Doering made a permanent business connection in Baltimore, and now he and his wife have made their home only two miles from Arbutus. The coming of this stalwart Academy couple has had the effect of strengthening the sphere of the church, the result of which is that hereafter we shall have monthly pastoral visits instead of quarterly.
     When we assembled in the Arbutus chapel on Sunday. September 28, the congregation numbered 24 members and associates, 8 visitors from Bryn Athyn, 5 from the Baltimore Convention Society, and 8 young folk,-45 in all. The Bishop and our new pastor took part in the service, which included the Holy Supper, the Bishop preaching on the subject of "The Patience of the Saints." There was a new and strong sphere that made a deep impression upon all present.
     At 1.30 p.m. we assembled at Five Oaks Lodge (in Catonsviile), where an excellent banquet was arranged. In Mr. Ariel Gunther we had an able toastmaster. The first speaker was Mr. Rowland Trimble, who reviewed briefly the history of the New Church in Baltimore,-its beginning about 1793, the ordination of John Hargrove (America's first New Church minister) in 1798, the erection of the first house of worship in 1800, the labors of Richard de Charms as visiting pastor from 1827 to 1850, the coming of Fred E. Waelchli a pastor of the German New Church Society in 1897, the establishment of our General Church Society in 1902, and of the Arbutus colony in 1910.
     The second speaker was Mr. George Doering, who spoke on the present prospects of the Baltimore Society, pointing out in well chosen words the need of systematic instruction in the Heavenly Doctrines, and of an ordering of our work that our high hopes may become realities.
     The toastmaster read letters of congratulation from the Rev. Homer Synnestvedt and the Rev. Fred E. Waelchli, the latter giving an account of his Baltimore pastorate from 1897 to 1900.
     The Rev. Morley Rich, speaking of the future of the Society, reminded us of our inability to foresee the problems that lie before us, but said that he would be happy to work with us for the attainment of our ends.
     Bishop de Charms concluded the meeting by pointing out the relation of our Society to the General Church, and holding up to us those inspiring truths that must be our guide in its re-establishment.
     One of our Arbutus boys, whom we had not seen for nearly twenty years, brought his wife and daughter to the Sunday service and banquet. Said he: "Nothing could have kept me from this meeting. I would have waded through mud and snow to get here!" He wants his daughter baptized, and to become an Academy student.

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[Photo: BALTIMORE READING AND SOCIAL CIRCLE IN 1900.
     Left to Right. Standing: Roscoe L. Coffin, Henry Fogel, Karl Lutz, Henry Grebe, Rudolph Behlert. Seated in Chairs: William Hammer, Rev. Fred E. Waelchli, Benjamin Reynolds. Seated on the Ground: Henry Diener, Peter Knapp, Adolph Gunther.]

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One of our girls, who had not been to Arbutus for twenty-five years, came to both the Saturday meeting and the Sunday service, and asked for religious instruction for her two boys.
     R. T.

     Photograph.-The group shown in the picture on page 520 met at the home of Mr. Roscoe L. Coffin in Paradise, Baltimore County. Maryland, in the Summer of the year 1900. The meeting was held as a farewell to the Rev. F. E. Waelchli, who was departing for Berlin. Ontario, where he was installed as pastor in September of that year.
     Among members of the Reading and Social Circle not present on that occasion were the Messrs. Herman and Emil Gunther, who were then residing in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. but who later returned to Baltimore and took an active part in the uses of the Society of the General Church that was formed in the year 1902.-EDITOR.

     PITTSBURGH, PA.

     Since our last report, the Summer months have come and gone. Vacations are over for another season, and once more the Pittsburgh Society has settled down to its Winter routine of Society activities.
     Celebrations.-We are anticipating with great pleasure the One Hundredth Anniversary of the establishment of the Church in Pittsburgh. Preparations are now in order, and we wish to make it an event to be remembered, both for the members of the Society and for those out-of-town visitors whom we hope to entertain.
     This year, also, for the first time, we are to give our school children a holiday on Charter Day. We feel that, although the Charter belongs essentially to the Academy in Bryn Athyn, the Academy in its broadest sense includes all the local schools which belong to that system of education known as the "Academy Movement. We know of no better way of impressing upon our children the fact that they are a part of this great international organization than by giving them a holiday in celebration of the granting of the Charter.
     School Activities.-Our school opened with the same number of children enrolled as we had last year. We have one new pupil enrolled in the first grade who takes the place of our one graduate to high school; and two new members of the fourth grade fill the vacancies left by the departure of two whose family moved to Florida. We are very pleased with our new equipment, and feel that with our present comfort-able surroundings we should be inspired to even greater scholastic achievements than we have attained in the past.
     Mr. Roy Jansen has offered to bring a moving picture projector to the school on one afternoon every month during the school year, and we are having various educational pictures sent to us from several Government departments to show on that afternoon. We hope that this will be one of the most interesting projects of the year.
     We enjoyed having Miss Katharine Howard with us for the first three weeks of school, and hope that her visit will be as profitable to her in her future work as it was helpful to us.
     Doctrinal Classes.-The regular Friday evening suppers and doctrinal classes are being continued as usual, and also the pastor's special class on the Arcana. This sear, instead of having a class in True Christian Religion, Mr. Pendleton will conduct a class for some of the young mothers of the Society, and discuss with them the subject of The Religious Education of the Pre-School Child." Once a month he will also meet with the members of the Woman's Guild, at which times he will give a series of lectures on various subjects.
     Although several of our high school group have gone to Bryn Athyn this year, the Rev. Ormond Odhner will continue his class with the remaining boys and girls of high-school age, and he is also planning to give instruction to the young men and women of college age.

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This he will call his "Young Peoples' Class."
     Theta Alpha.-At the initial meeting of our Theta Alpha Chapter it was voted that groups of ladies would meet and make dolls for use in the Representations that are to be sent to the isolated members of the church. This work was completed, and the dolls have been sent off to the committee in charge. Another project which these ladies hope to complete in the near future is the mounting and cataloging of pictures to be used in the school. The first social event which this organization will sponsor for the school is to be a Halloween Party.
     It is too early in the season to be able to report other social activities, but plans are in progress to make this season one of great profit, both spiritually and naturally. J. M. G.


     MIDDLE WEST ASSEMBLY.

     Detroit, Sept. 27-28, 1941.

     The second meeting of this Assembly proved that the first, held in May, 1939, was not the result of a temporary enthusiasm, but the beginning of a new chain of assemblies-and this because these gatherings meet a definite need in the Michigan and Ohio areas. Small groups and isolated families then tome together to taste the fruits of a larger sphere, which expands our mental and spiritual horizons, and strengthens, coordinates, and unifies us all. Although the attendance was somewhat less than last time, largely because war conditions prevented our Kitchener friends from coming, the determination of each one to do his part in the great work of establishing the New Church on earth showed no diminution, but rather there was evidenced a growing realization of practical ways to lead in this direction within each one's family and group-sphere.
     On Saturday and Sunday, September 27 and 28, at the Fort Shelby Hotel in Detroit, 87 members, friends and children of the General Church gathered from Michigan (37), Ohio (23), Pennsylvania (12), Illinois (8), Ontario (5), New York (1), and Indiana (1).
     On the evening preceding the formal program, at the home of the Norman Synnestvedts, early arrivals, together with the Detroit group, enjoyed a happy social occasion. Besides the hospitality of our hosts, the highlight of the evening was Bishop Acton's stirring account of his visit to North St. Paul, Minnesota, where eleven baptisms recently took place and a new circle of thirteen members was formed. In new beginnings there is cause for joy, and the Middle West District, itself consisting of small groups, feels a welcoming thrill in the news of the birth of a sister circle in the Church.
     Business Session.-Bishop Acton presiding, the business session, with approximately 50 in attendance, opened at 2 p.m. on Saturday. The report of the previous assembly, appearing in NEW CHURCH LIFE, August, 1939, pp. 366-370, was submitted and accepted. In his opening remarks. Bishop Acton, among other things, spoke of the wisdom of the assembly making an offering to the General Church. He suggested, however, that, since this assembly was a function of the general body of the Church, it might be well to make some ultimate recognition of its existence by using the offering to establish a permanent Middle West District Assembly Fund. The question of whether the offertory at the four o'clock session should be given direct to the General Church, or used for an assembly fund, was discussed at considerable length, and it was finally decided to send the offering to the General Church, as a token of our appreciation of all that the general body has done toward the building up of the church in the Middle West.
     The subject of the various published aids provided by the Church for the spiritual needs of small groups and the isolated was then brought to the attention of those present by the Rev. Norman H. Reuter.

523


It was shown that if the Pastoral Extension Service, the PARENT-TEACHER JOURNAL, and the Theta Alpha Extension Service were all used as intended, they would go a long way toward filling the needs of those who are without constant pastoral ministration. In the discussion that followed, Mr. Donald Merrell expressed keen appreciation of the use and quality of the Pastoral Extension Service; Mr. Harold P. McQueen suggested that its great weakness was ineffective publicity and distribution; Mr. Geoffrey S. Childs said that the people need to be educated to the use of this material, and made a plea to the clergy to outline a definite plan to be followed by those desiring to do so. Mr. Norman P. Synnestvedt pointed out that all this material was exhibited on a table at the end of the room, so that it could he investigated and purchased, and put to use. The meeting adjourned at 3:30 p.m.
     Episcopal Address.-At four o'clock the Rev. Victor Gladish opened the second session by leading in the prayer and reading from the Word. Bishop Acton then gave an extemporaneous address on "Spiritual and Natural Food." To epitomize such an address would be presumptuous, and would fail to convey an accurate idea of its content. It is safer to give a few impressions: The creation process was reviewed, picturing the whole of the natural as an organic receptacle, designed to receive the Divine Proceeding and manifest the same to man for his blessing and enjoyment. This manifestation is the Divine Human-the Lord made visible-and-nourishes our spirits with good and truth-the bread of heaven-as the body is sustained with natural foods. We can feed ourselves naturally, but unless the spiritual is present, that natural is not food. It is literally true that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Natural food contributes nothing to life; it only prepares for life by building the organic. Divine Love and Wisdom is the real food of life. In closing the speaker made a vivid application of this teaching to the Holy Supper, to feasts of charity, and to the food of the inhabitants of the spiritual world.
     That the 62 people present were most attentive was evidenced by the questions and comments which followed the address. Adjournment came at 5.45 p.m.
     Banquet.-At many an assembly an unplanned continuity of thought has been observed throughout the various addresses delivered. Perhaps this is an ultimate consequence of a common endeavor to look to the Writings for enlightenment. Whatever the explanation may be, the same phenomenon was most noticeable to all the 72 people at the banquet. Mr. Geoffrey Childs, as toastmaster, had selected his speakers, but allowed them complete freedom in the choice of their subjects. The resulting three speeches dovetailed together, and complemented each other in such a way as to suggest collusion.
     The Rev. Norman Reuter spoke on "Vision and Hope," Mr. Jack Lindrooth on "New Church Patriotism," and Mr. Richard Waelchli on "The Marriage of Freedom and Order." All three speakers viewed the present disordered state of the world, drew principles from the Doctrines to help us see this condition in the light of truth, and suggested the need of a greater cultivation of a distinctively New Church attitude toward each of the subjects. A number of impromptu speeches from the Messrs. Donald Merrell, Norman Synnestvedt. Robert Barnitz, Harold McQueen, and the Revs. Willard Pendleton and Victor Gladish, filled out the evening. Bishop Acton closed the program with a few thoughts concerning brotherly love within the church, and his words were in themselves a benediction.
     Divine Worship.-At ten o'clock on Sunday morning 50 people joined in worship and heard Bishop Acton preach on the subject of "Profanation," the text being Matthew 7: 6. With the teaching given the previous afternoon on spiritual and natural food still clearly in mind, 65 communicants came forward to the Lord's Table, and thus brought the Assembly to a close.

524



     NORMAN H. REUTER,
          Secretary.

     HURSTVILLE, AUSTRALIA.

     Since the end of April the pastor has been preaching, on alternate Sunday mornings, a series of sermons on the Laws of the Divine Providence.
This series was continued through July and August, with which these notes deal; and in these two months all the usual services, classes and meetings were held. At the beginning of July, however, we undertook a new project,-a Society Arcana class. The members of this new class, who comprize about three-fourths of the membership of the society, have undertaken to read one chapter of the Arcana every month; and the last Wednesday evening doctrinal class in each month will be devoted to the assignment covered. The two classes so far held have been well attended, and great interest has been shown. It is hoped that great benefits will accrue to this united regular reading and study of the major expository work of the Writings.
     At the end of July the officers and committees of the society finalized their work and prepared their reports, which were circulated for individual reading and study before the Annual Meeting.
     Sunday, August 10, was prize-giving day in the Sunday School. The children were addressed by Mr. Lindthman Heldon. President of the local Chapter of the Sons of the Academy, who also presented the prizes. The various awards showed that good and regular work had been done.
     A most enjoyable party was held on Saturday, August 23, for the purpose of raising funds to send Christmas hampers to the Societies of the General Church in England; and there was a Feast of Charity the following evening. In accordance with our custom, this took the form of a question evening, and the questions submitted covered a varied and interesting range of subject-matter.
     During August the pastor began a new series of doctrinal classes on the doctrine of charity. The Ladies' Guild, which is still meeting twice a month, has added the study of first-aid to its activities. Local Sons of the Academy have heard an informal address from the pastor on the technique of preparing and writing doctrinal papers, as well as a paper from Fred Kirsten on "Imagination,"-a concise and clear presentation of the teaching of the Writings and the Rational Psychology.
     The three members of the society who are in the military services are still in Australia, and we see them at intervals. Mr. Edward H. Stokes, a recent member of the General Church in Australia, has also enlisted in the army; and Theodore Kirsten, one of our youngest men, is in the Air Force Reserve, preparing for active duty early next year.
     Birth and death both visited our little center during August. On the 12th a daughter, the fourth child, was born to Mr. and Mrs. Roy W. Stephenson. On Sunday, the 24th. Mrs. Elida Hubbard sustained the sudden and unexpected loss of her husband, who collapsed and died on his way to work. He was not a member of the Church, but those among us who had known him best held him in high esteem and affectionate regard. The sympathy of the whole society is with Mrs. Hubbard, who is manifestly bearing this earthly separation in the spirit of the Church.
     W. C. H.

     ACADEMY SCHOOLS.

     Enrollment for 1941-1942.

College                         26
Boys Academy               61
Girls Seminary               71
Elementary School               172

     Total                    330

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MILITARY SERVICE COMMITTEE. 1941

MILITARY SERVICE COMMITTEE.              1941


     General Church of the New Jerusalem.

     Below we present a list of the names and addresses of the men in military service which have so far been received by the Committee. Next month we shall list any additional names and addresses we receive, and any changes of address of which we are notified.
     It is our hope that members of the Church who are in the vicinity of any of the addresses will take the opportunity to come in contact with the men.
     MRS. PHILIP C. PENDLETON,
          Chairman.
Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa.


Ahren, Vrpl. Olof, Hackspettsvagen 14, Alsten, Stockholm, Sweden.
Alden, Cpl. Gideon T., 33031837, Battery B, 53rd Coast Artillery, A. P. 0. 802. Bermuda.
Alden, Cpl. Guy S., 63rd Signal Battalion, Fort Clairborne, La.
Alden, Pvt. Theodore S., Co. B. 3rd Sig. Battalion, Fort Monmouth, N.J.
Appleton, L. A. C. Eric D. No 750449, Workshops, R. A. F. Station. Dishforth, Ne. Thirsk, Yorks, England.
Baeckstrom, Korpral Gunnar. Svedjevlgen 20, Appelviken, Stockholm, Sweden.
Bamford, Pvt. F. D., No. 2515. "A" Company, 2nd R. D. L. I. Army P. 0.. Durban, Natal, South Africa. Bellinger, P. 0. Alfred G., R 75882, No. 13 0. T. S.. Patricia Bay, Vancouver, B. C., Canada.
Bellinger, Cpl. John H., R 88575, No. 3 B. & G. School. R. C. A. F., Macdonald, Manitoba, Canada.
Boozer, Driver A. E., T/151805, D Section, 19th M. C. Coy., R. A. S. C.. Haywards Heath, Sussex, England.
Bostock, Pvt. Edward C., Jr., Air Corps, 84th Material Squadron, Las Vegas, Nevada.
Brickman, Pvt. Elmer G., H. Q. Sqdn., 6th Pursuit Wing, Selfridge Field. Michican.
Buss, Pvt. J. M., No. 94002. "B" Company. 1st N. M. R.. Army P. 0., Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Carter, A. C. 2 Orville A., R 111624, R. C. A. F., A. 0. 5. No. 8. Ancienne Lorette. Quebec, Canada.
Cockerell, John, c/o Miss Joy Lowe, c/o Hunt, Leuchars & Hepburn, Ltd., P. 0. Box 943. Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Cockerell, A,'Corpl. P., No. 4893, A Flight, Sqdn. No. 41. South African Air Force. Army P. 0.. Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Cole, Pvt. William P., 13028818, Flight C, 301st Sqdn. School, Keesler Field. Mississippi.
Cooper, Lt. Philip G., Signal Corps, Fort Monmouth, N. J.
Cooper, P. F. C. Rey W., 53rd Material Squad, 40th Air Base Group, Meridian, Mississippi.

526



Cowley, Pvt. W. S., No. 6303, 1st N. M. R., H. Q. No. 1, Army P. 0., Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Daly, Avn/C. Jean, Air Corps Training Detachment, Parks Air College, East St. Louis, Illinois.
Davies, P. F. C. John, 8th Transport Sqdn., Hill Field, Ogden, Utah, D. 5. 1st Weather Sqdn.
Davis, S/Sgt. Charles F., 64th Mat. Sqdn., 49th Air Base, Fresno, California.
De Charms, Lt. Comdr. Richard, Officer in Charge of Housing. U. S. Naval Ordnance Plant, So. Charleston, W. Virginia.
De Maine, Sgt. Robert E. L., Co. F, 36th Combat Engineers, Plattsburg Barracks, N. Y.
Field, Pvt. George A., Boiling Field, D.C.
Fine, P. F. C. Raymond, Military Police Co., Schofield Barracks, Hawaiian Division, T. H.
Finley, A/Corpl. H. M., No. 538331, Royal Air Force, Middle East Pool, Middle East.
Fountain, Cpl. A. A., B 76894. T. S. R., Coteau Barracks, Three Rivers, P. Q., Canada.
Fountain, Trooper, T. J., B 69980. "A" Sqdn., 3rd Armored Reg't, (G. G. H. G.) Camp Borden, Ontario, Canada.
Fraser, Corpl. R. S., No. 3726, Cable Platoon, No. 2 Div. Sig. Coy., Army P. 0., Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Gardiner, J. 0., No. 82616, "B" Company Rand Lt. Infantry. 3rd Infantry Brigade, 2nd South African Div., Middle East Forces. C/o Army P. 0., Durban. Natal, South Africa.
Heilman, Pvt. Grant, 1st Photographic Sqdn., Bolling Field, D. C.
Heinrichs, Lance Corpl. H., 38189, Bo. Hq. Highland Lt. Infantry of Canada, 3rd Canadian Division. Canadian Army Overseas.
Heldon, Sgt. Norman, NX 51755, 7th Infantry Training Centre, Foster, Victoria, Australia.
Heldon, A. C. 1 Sydney, 37798, No. 3 R. A. A. F. Hospital, Richmond. N. S. W., Australia.
Hill, A. C. 1 Leonard E., R 89398. R. C. A. F., 'V' Depot, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Iungerich, Ph. M. Alexander 1-C, Naval Hospital, Philadelphia, Pa.
Iungerich, Sgt. Stevan, M. C. B. Quantico, Virginia.
Izzard, Pilot Officer L. T., R 85608, R. C. A. F., Base P. 0., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
James, Sgt. C. J., A 17008, No. 2 Base Depot, Medical Stores, R. C. A. M. C., Canadian Army Overseas. c/o Base P. 0., Canada.
Jeunechamp, Le Commandant Eugene, 1st Spahis Algeriens, Laghanat. Dept. dAlger, North Africa.
John, L. A. C. Haydn, R 72169. R. C. A. F. Station, Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Kintner, Lt. William R., Fort Constitution. New Castle, N. H.
Kuhl, Lance Corpl. Wm. A., No. 10 Basic Training Center, Kitchener, Ont., Canada.
Lee, Pvt. Harold, Co. "C," 108th Combat Engineers, Camp Forrest, Tenn.
Lindsay, P. F. C. Alexander H., 28th Signal Co.. Spec. Troops, A. P. 0. No. 28. Indiantown Gap, Pa.
Loven, Lieutenant Tore, Faltpost 231 24 Liii. F., Sweden.
Lumsden, Sgt. F. H. D., No. 45259, "C" Company. 1st R. D. L. I.. Army P. 0., Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Lumsden, Pvt. J. M., No. 6929 "B" Company. 1st R. D. L. I., 3rd Infantry Brigade, Army P. 0., Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Lunden, Vrpl. K. Gunnar, Drottningholmsvagen 116 A, Stockholm, Sweden.
Morris, Sapper David, No. 2184480. 115th Road Construction Coy., R. E., Bdiry St. Edmonds, Suffolk, England.
Odhner, Pvt. Sanfrid E., H. Q. & H. Q. Sqdn., 1st Air Base (R), Langley Field, Virginia.

527



Parker, F. O. Sydney R., C 3147, R. C. A. F., Canadian Army Overseas.
Pitcairn, Pvt. Michael, Co. D, 3rd Sig. Training B attn., Fort Moo- mouth. Red Bank, N. J.
Potts, Pvt. John W., Q. M. C., Service Unit 1201, Fort Jay, Governor's Island, New York. N. Y.
Reuter, P. F. C. Warren, 108th Observation Sqdn., 5400 W. 63rd St., Chicago, Illinois.
Richards, Pvt. W., No. 65330. C. A. T. D.. No. 1 Camp. Premier Mine, Pretoria, South Africa.
Rydstrom, F. C. Jean, A/C 41-H. Kelly Field, Texas.
Sandstrom, 392 46-34 A., Sjomanskaren, Karlskeona, Sweden.
Schnarr, L. A. C. Joffre G., Can. No. 70212, 206th Sqdn., R. A. F., North Ireland, c/n Base P. 0., Ottawa, Ont., Canada.
Smith, Lt. Edmund G., 112th Observation Sqdn. Pope Field, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Soneson, Pvt. Carl, Motor Co., E. R. C., Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Starkey, Signalman H. R., M 16691. No. 1 Co., 1st Div. Signals, Royal Canadian Corps Signals, Canadian Army Overseas.
Steen, A. C. 2 A. Howard, R 103234, D Flight. No. 20 E. F. T. S., Oshawa, Ont., Canada.
Steen, Sgt. George K., A 99912, F Battery, R. C. A. T. C. Petawawa Military Camp. Petawawa, Ont., Canada.
Taylor, A. C. 1, T. D., 33984, R. A. A. F. Station, Cootamundra. N. S. W., Australia.
Tilson, Cpl. B. V., c/o Mr. V. R. Tilson, 136 Preston Road. Wembley, England.
Tilson, Gnr. R. J., 980022. 42nd Battery. Light A. A., R A., Middle East Forces.
Walker, Marvin J., E Division. U. S. S. Lexington. Long Beach. California.
Walter, A/C Richard A., Recruit Squadron. Air Corps Replacement Center. Maxwell Field, Montgomery, Alabama.
Waters, Gnr. M. T.. 874881, 327th H. A. A. Battery. R. A., Lynwood Drive, Mackworth, Derby, England.
CHANGE OF ADDRESS 1941

CHANGE OF ADDRESS              1941

     To the end that the List may be kept up to date, the Committee will appreciate receiving a prompt notification of any change of address, any corrections, and any new names and addresses.

528


PITTSBURGH SOCIETY 1941

PITTSBURGH SOCIETY       RICHARD DE CHARMS       1941




     Announcements



     Anniversary.

     The Pittsburgh Society of the General Church of the New Jerusalem invites the ex-members of the Society and the ex-students of its local school to attend the celebration of its one hundredth anniversary, to be held on Friday and Saturday, November 7 and 8, 1941. In this connection we offer a copy of the Certificate of Organization:
     "This is to certify that A. J. Cline, John H. Mellor, Geo. Smitt, Elizabeth Young, Annie Aitken. Mary Jane Foster and D. W. Coats, were regularly instituted a Society of the New Jerusalem Church in the United States, at a meeting called for that purpose at the home of John H. Mellor in the city of Pittsburgh, Saturday evening, Nov. 6th. 1841.
     (Signed) "RICHARD DE CHARMS,
          "Ord. Mm., N. J. C."
LAST WORDS OF DAVID 1941

LAST WORDS OF DAVID       Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER       1941



529




NEW CHURCH LIFE
DECEMBER, 1941
No. 12
     Prophetic of the Lord's Advent.

     "Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said:
     "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His word was in my tongue.
     "The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.
     "And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun ariseth, a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth with sparkling brilliance after rain.
     "Although my house be not so with God, yet hath He made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure; for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although He make it not to grow.
     "But they of Belial shall all be as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be touched with hands; but the man that shall touch there must be furnished with iron and the staff of a spear; and they shall be utterly burned with fire in their place." (II Samuel 23: 1-7.)

     David had risen to the throne of a mighty empire. Yet he was ever the son of Jesse, ever mindful of having been taken from the sheepcote to rule the Lord's people. His foremost and most lasting role was not that of a king, but that of the sweet psalmist of Israel, through whom the Spirit of the Lord spake.
     And the last words of David were therefore phrased in the manner of the venerated prophets-phrased like the parting words of Jacob and of Moses, and the prophecy of Balaam, in the "most ancient style" of deliberate allegory and of realized inspiration.

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     A special significance is attached to the last words. Near death, life can be seen in its whole drift, in the perspective of a special illustration in which essentials stand out in important relief, and other things of life fall back into insignificance. At the end of a man's span of life, the ruling love is settled, and its wisdom-such as it may be-has been harvested; and man can discern his past errors without passionately flying to their defence; he can in clarity see the principles that would have made his uses real. His last words, when fully attested, have a certain binding effect upon his posterity-as a last will, a testament which directs to its conclusion the work that the dying has commenced, and shifts the charge of responsibility to younger hands.
     In David's last words, the character of the man and the nature of what he spiritually represents come to clear view. He visions the ideal ruler the just king. He confesses the mercy of the Lord to him in establishing his house, in accepting him despite his shortcomings. And he declares his enmity-his intolerance-of evil, which must be utterly judged, without compromise.
     Actually, the concluding words are a curse-words of judgment. The sons of Belial are like thorns, to be handled with iron tools and cast into the fire. And in his dying commission to Solomon (I Kings 2:1-9) he amplifies his meaning. Evil servants like the highhanded Joab, who proved a traitor at the last, and like Shimei, who had cursed David, could expect no mercy from Solomon, even though David had from prudence spared them. The slate of judgment must be cleaned.
     The fact that David died with this command on his lips-to bring down the hoar heads of these two men to their graves with blood-may in the letter testify to the state of David the man, as well as to his anxiety for the future welfare and peace of his kingdom. But in the spiritual sense we here discern a law of spiritual necessity,- that evil must be exposed and put away, and finally judged, before good can be established and rule in peace. Internal peace must be achieved, and a unanimity of purpose exist, before external peace may reign.
     And internal peace, with its blessings, comes after judgment, even as Solomon succeeded David. When David said, "He that ruleth over men must be just, must be as a morning without clouds, and as tender grass sparkling with dew," he gave the picture of a reign of peace and justice such as his own was not, but Solomon's would be.

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David's reign, like his own life, was one of judgment, of continual battle and temptation, of that fermentation by which what is noble and worthy and lasting can be gradually separated and distilled out.
     This is the reason why David was the chosen type of the Messiah to come-of the Lord incarnate-in the process of glorifying His Human. For by means of the interior battles of temptation the Lord not only purified and glorified His Human, but at the same time judged and subdued the hells, and redeemed mankind from spiritual slavery. As a result of the judgment which was thus performed in the spiritual world by the Lord when incarnate in His Human, a new heaven was organized from those of a spiritual genius,-a heaven henceforth to be known as the Spiritual Kingdom of the Lord, in distinction to the heavens of the celestial church, or the Celestial Kingdom.
     For before the Advent of the Lord, those who were of the spiritual genius, or who were of so pervert heredity that their reformation and salvation hung upon their understanding of truth, could not be formed into permanently ordered heavens. Even as Israel, in the days before David, had been governed only by "judges." who took up the government only in times of crisis, so the heavens of the Ancient and Hebrew Churches were, before the Advent, governed, not by any intrinsic law, but only by an influx through the celestial kingdom; and thus the spiritual were, so to speak, attached as an external to the celestial kingdom, and dependent upon its power. This was indeed signified in the prophetic blessing of Jacob, when he said: "The sceptre shall not be removed from Judah ... until Shiloh come." (Genesis 49: 10; A. C. 6371-6373.)
     "Shiloh' means peace, and represents the Lord as the Giver of peace,-peace after judgment. The same is meant by "Solomon," who represents the Lord as to the Celestial Kingdom and as to the Spiritual Kingdom (A. E. 654:29, 33), while David represents the Lord before His full glorification. It was by the glorification of the Lord's Human that the spiritual kingdom was formed as a distinct kingdom, and this in order that it might be reciprocally and thus more fully conjoined with the celestial kingdom into one heaven. (A. C. 3969:9.)

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     It was the place of Solomon to enter into the labors of David. Solomon stands for the fruition of David's hopes and David's prayers. It was therefore upon this, his son, that David's thoughts lingered at the last. He pictured him as the ideal king-just, fearing God; wise and illuminating as the cloudless sunrise; peace loving, like the still morning dew. And this prophetic feeling of the father about his son is shown more fully in the last Davidic Psalm, the seventy-second, which is marked as a psalm "for Solomon." It opens with the words, "Give to the king Thy judgments, 0 God, and Thy justice to the king's son!" It describes the glory, the dominion, the peace and plenty of the Solomonic reign: tells how "in his days the just shall flourish, and abundance of peace, so long as the moon endureth"; tells how the kings of Tarshish, of Sheba and Seba, shall offer gifts of gold. And it concludes with the words, "The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended."
     It is the Divine Human, the glorified and revealed Lord, that is here prophetically meant by Solomon; and His eternal dominion is the new spiritual kingdom, founded in the Divine Natural. For by the Advent and the glorification the Lord assumed and entered into the Divine Natural, and thus into the power to rule the minds of men by Divine Natural Truth, and be present with men not only through representation of truth, but "immediately," enlightening not only the internal spiritual man, but also the external natural." (T. C. R. 109.)
     For this reason we read of Solomon that his wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country and all the wisdom of Egypt." His wisdom was not like that of the magi of old, who delved into the correspondences and representatives of the church, from a knowledge of the spiritual world. But Solomon `solved difficult problems' of equity, and "taught the causes of natural things" in a manner beyond his age. "He spake three thousand proverbs, and songs a thousand and five. He spake of trees, from the cedar to the hyssop, and of beasts and of fowl, and of creeping things and fishes. (I Kings 4: 29-34; A. C. 5223.) It was in natural truth that he surpassed, in order that he might represent the Lord's Divine Natural, which by the Advent was revealed at last to the spiritual sight of man's mind,-God made visible as Divine Love in ultimate Human Form.

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     And for a similar reason it was not David, but Solomon, who reared on Mount Zion a temple to the Lord. For that temple of stone represented the new Spiritual Kingdom of the Lord, or-supremely-the Lord as Divine Truth, as revealed to the spiritual church-the spiritual kingdom which, in the Christian era, was to be established on earth as spiritual-natural and, in its development, celestial-natural;-a temple, therefore, with two courts. For, always, it is in the court of the Lord's house that man remains while on earth.
     The last words of David were words of judgment. When the Lord comes, although He is the Prince of Peace, He brings, at first, not peace, but a sword. Salvation comes through judgment.
     We have spoken of David as a type or representative of the Lord in His Human, or of the Lord while on earth He was being glorified in Person. It is not conceivable, because it is not consistent with Divine order, that the Lord could come again in like manner to be born and again glorified. But it was of need that the first vision of the glorified or Divine Human, which in imperfect fashion was vouchsafed the disciples, be withdrawn, so far as the states of the Christian Church became corrupt. The Lord is known and seen in the Word, and this became veiled with Christians by misunderstandings, by falsities and perversions, until the Letter alone was seen, and even this was misused. The clouds of new imaginary heavens eclipsed the spiritual sun-intercepted the way to heaven. And, as had been foreseen, a second Advent of the Lord and a new redemption were called for, but now a coming, not in Person, but in the Word: a redemption, not by the means of a new glorification of the Lord's Human, for this was already glorified, Divine; nor by temptations to be suffered by the Lord, for He had already assumed all power over the hells.
     Yet, in His Second Coming, the Lord performed redemption-and now in final manner-by revealing His Divine Human in the Word, that the inner and essential aspects of His life on earth might be made rationally comprehensible, and the laws of salvation, to which men had never fully awakened, be made again operative. And this was done by the unfolding of the internal sense of the Word, and by the restoral of this, the spiritual and essential Word, within the holy ultimates of the literal Scriptures.
     This, indeed, is ever the mode of Divine Judgment.

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It was by "opening" the Scriptures, and by refilling their ultimate, natural text with Divine meaning, that the Lord at His First Advent fought and conquered the hells. And although His Second Coming was a coming, not in the flesh, but in the clouds of heaven " it was the same Divine glory which broke through; and in the Second Advent it was to be revealed in fulness of comprehension, now not alone to the sensual and natural mind, but to the rational mind itself, thus up to the innermost capacity of the natural mind to receive.
     We may discern, then, in the manner of the Second Advent of the Lord, the unfolding of the same Divine laws which were displayed in the Lord's First Advent, and which were represented in the lives of David and Solomon.
     When we read how David fled, an exile, from a king, Saul, who was infested by an evil spirit, we see reflected the state within the Christian Church when the Letter of the Scriptures, perverted and falsified, was the nominal ruler of the Church, and the spiritual sense of the Word was outlawed. Saul's death at the hands of the Philistines shows how, in the Christian Church, the faith even in the Letter of the Word perished; and David's elevation as king marks what occurred at the end of the Christian Church, when preparation for the Last Judgment was being made through the revelation by the Lord of the internal sense of the Word, and its publication by Emanuel Swedenborg, in the work, the Arcana Celestia.
     David, in his various adventures and undertakings, represents the work of judgment; and this is effected by the disclosing of the internal states of men's spirits, which is possible only so far as the Word as to its spiritual sense is disclosed. Indeed, David is a representative of the spiritual Divine Truth such as is revealed in the Writings of the Second Advent, in the form of an exposition of the spiritual sense. We find, therefore, that the first published work of Emanuel Swedenborg, as the inspired apostle of the Second Advent, was the Arcana Celestia,-a disclosure of the spiritual sense of the Word. For seven years this work was in process of publication, and at its conclusion the Last Judgment took place in the spiritual world, the heavens having been ordered anew, the world of spirits reorganized, and the influx of heaven into the realm of human minds restored.
     In the Arcana Celestia there are given many anticipations of the coming judgment, and many predictions of the New Church that was to come.

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In it the spiritual sense, the Ark of the Covenant is returned into its holy Tabernacle. Within its expositions, or appended thereto, are contained the Doctrines of heaven,-truths in full spiritual unity with the Heavenly Doctrines later to be published. But the time had not yet come to give in categorical, organized form the Doctrinal formulations that were directly addressed to the New Church. Indeed, there are statements in the Writings which show that before the Last Judgment the revelation of the Heavenly Doctrine for the New Church, in such a manner that it could be received by men on earth, was not possible. By the Last Judgment a new order was established in the heavens and in the world of spirits, and a new light was made possible for spirits and men (Cont. L. J. 11, 12, 30, etc.); and truth could thereafter be presented and seen in a new contrast and in a new orientation,-seen as to its Divine unity of structure and purpose; which before had been impossible.
     Let us recall that it was the regret of David's last years that he was not allowed by the Lord to raise a Temple to his God. (II Samuel 7; I Chronicles 22.) It was enough that he had restored the ark of the covenant to the Tabernacle. It was enough that he had gathered great treasures of gold and brass, of silver and iron, of timber and of stone, all prepared and hewn. (I Chronicles 22: 14; I Kings 5: 17.) It was for Solomon to rear from this the actual structure of the Temple, and to dedicate it for the worship of the Church.
     Even so it was not until after the Last Judgment that Swedenborg was allowed to draw from the rich materials of the Arcana Celestia, and to "extract" therefrom the first of the series of works which, avowedly, constituted the "Heavenly Doctrine," or the Doctrine for the New Church.
     This Heavenly Doctrine is called the New Jerusalem, the Holy City, and is said to descend from heaven, or be drawn by Divine dictation and inspiration out of the spiritual sense of the Word. And note, that the spiritual sense was revealed to Swedenborg by Divine inspiration as ascending out of the letter of the Word, while the Heavenly Doctrine, as an organized system of teachings, on the other hand, seemed to descend fully formed out of the inmost of the New Heaven, and took a rational-natural form, confirmed and established by the literal sense of the Word.

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     In a spiritual aspect, all that is said of the New Jerusalem applies also to Solomon's temple, and to Solomon's wisdom, power, and wealth. For both refer prophetically to the Lord's presence with men in the Heavenly Doctrine. And the glory of the temple blends with the glory of Solomon himself, the temple builder, king and teacher, who, when described as to his royal power and wisdom, represents the Lord as to the Divine Celestial and the Divine Spiritual Truth revealed at His Second Advent in Divine Natural form.
     The temple-for which David provided material in his latter years-was furnished in like manner as the tabernacle of David. For both were the abode of the same ark, and were meant to comply with the same laws of sacrifice and worship. The Writings note, however, that "the Tent of Meeting was a more holy representative of the Lord, of heaven, and of the church, than the Temple. (A. E. 700:33.) Even as the Word in its natural sense is more holy than "the Divine Truths in the heavens, which are called celestial and spiritual." (A. E. 1088:2.)
     To the regenerating man the Lord comes in His Word, and makes him new or spiritual; and this regeneration is a remote image of the Lords own glorification. Always, however, the distinction holds, that man is a mere vessel of life. In this relative sense, David becomes king of the human mind, when a conscience of spiritual truth is formed within it. And by degrees and steps this conscience of charity is informed from the spiritual sense of the Word is confirmed from the literal sense, and established amidst temptations and mental struggles. And at last, if heaven allows, its work of judgment is done, and it has reached the limit of its strength, and it speaks from the height of its illustration-even in the vein in which David spoke his last words."
     For such a conscience-from spiritual light-sees that a better ruler than itself must be established in the mind, in order that final peace may be gained and wisdom come. It feels its limitations. It knows that there are evils so interiorly rooted that they are masked in the terms of faith, unrecognizable as yet except in their effects-evils and deceptive falsities which are so inwoven and accustomed in the fabric of the mind that they are often used as allies, as kindreds, as friends.
     For the judgment of such states, no conscience from charity and truth is quite sufficient, quite effective. It is not possible for man to measure his inward spiritual states.

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Yet the temptation to do this arises. Even as David-after adding to Israel province after province, and putting under tribute districts as remote as the Euphrates-was seized by the desire to number his people and to glory in the size of his armed resources, so also is the regenerating man tempted to reflect upon the spiritual acquisitions of good and of truth which he has made his own, and thus seek to determine his spiritual quality, and this by comparison with others. From this reflection there comes a spiritual pestilence which only stops short of the total destruction of the church with man, when man, from the clear directions in the Divine Word, repents of his presumption. (A. E. 386:10, 453; A. C. 10217.)
     The conscience of truth cannot lead man to root out all evil, or to probe the depths of his mind which are known to the Lord alone. But it can, and does, lead man to renounce any thought of his own adequacy, yea, to renounce the idea that even his conscience is anything more than a faulty and imperfect reflection of the rays of the Divine glory in the clouds, although it is yet the token of the everlasting covenant of the Lord. In this acknowledgment lies the salvation and the hope of the spiritual conscience. In the meek words of David: "Although my house be not so with God, yet hath He made me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure; for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although He make it not to grow."
     In such acknowledgment the spiritual conscience surrenders its life. And in its place as ruler comes the wisdom of life-the perception of good and its truth, which is an inmost conscience, celestial and interiorly rational; by which evils are judged and removed from aversion, or at the first approach. Such were the judgments of Solomon. Such are the visions of internal truth that delineate the wise applications of truth in the uses of mutual love-visions of peace and progress that can be seen only when there is an unreserved love of the Lord as He is revealed in Heavenly Doctrine, and present in glory in the Temple City-New Jerusalem. Amen.

LESSONS:     II Samuel 23: 1-17. Matthew 6: 24-34. A. C. 6371, 6373 (portions).
MUSIC:     Revised Liturgy, pages 430, 444, 507, 470. Psalmody, p. 23.
PRAYERS:     Nos. 20; 33 and 38.

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CONFLICTS OF THE ACADEMY 1941

CONFLICTS OF THE ACADEMY       Rev. F. E. GYLLENHAAL       1941

     Charter Day Address.

     (Delivered at a Service in the Cathedral, October 24, 1941.)

     The Writings, which we believe to be the Word of the Lord's Second Coming, imparted to the Founders of the Academy a vision of the Divine order and beauty of the New Church. The Founders were inspired by the vision to establish the Academy, and to formulate for their own guidance, and for the guidance of those who should follow them, principles taken from the Writings. This is our heritage, and we value it highly, because we believe that the Founders had a true vision. But the Divine gift-the Heavenly Doctrine,-is infinitely more valuable, and by it alone can we also see the same vision, and be inspired to carry forward the work of the Academy. And we must ever guard against displacing, or incrusting, the Divine gift with our human heritage. Deeply though we revere the wisdom of the Founders, highly though we respect the accomplishments of the Academy workers, keenly though we delight in the expanding learning produced by the Academy teachers, we must go to the Writings themselves for vision and inspiration. Unless we do this constantly, with an increasing faith and a growing love of truth for its own sake, we will forsake the Divine gift for the glamor of the human heritage, and the Academy will become what its Founders tried to avoid, namely, a merely worldly institution of learning, fostering human opinion and authority.
     The purposes set forth in the Charter of the Academy include not only the promoting of education in all its various forms, and especially the educating of young men for the ministry, but also the establishment of the New Church according to the pattern which the Charter members perceived to be taught in the Writings. The Charter members were baptized New Churchmen. They were actively engaged, as priests and laymen, in the work of the Church. They were men well-read in the Writings, and completely affirmative to their Divine doctrines.

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But they were convinced that the existing organizations of the Church were not in the true order taught in the Writings; and the experience of many years had also convinced them that it was only by a new beginning within the Church, by an educational institution dedicated to the work of establishing the Church in agreement with the doctrine of the Writings, that there could come upon earth the true Church of the Lord's Second Coming.
     The chief purpose of the Charter, therefore, was the establishment of the Church. Schools were to be among several means for the accomplishment of this purpose. Because the establishment of the Church was the chief purpose, and because insurmountable difficulties in reforming the existing New Church organizations were encountered, the first period of the Academy development, under Divine Providence, worked toward, and resulted in, the formation of an Academy Church-a Church within the Church. It was not until after the separation of the Academy people, as they were commonly called, from the General Convention and General Conference that the General Church was organized, and that the Academy withdrew from the Church functions it had assumed, and devoted itself to the work of education in its several schools. It could do this, because the Church which the Founders intended had been established by its instrumentality. For it had produced a membership of men and women acknowledging the Divine Authority of the Writings and willing to be taught and led by the Writings alone, as well as a priesthood thoroughly educated in the doctrines of the Writings, and willingly submitting to the order and subordination which the Writings taught to be essential to a true priesthood.
     But the separation between the General Church and the Academy was not complete, and it never will be complete, as long as the purposes of the Charter are recognized and their spirit carried out. The Academy still serves the Church by preparing men and women for the Church, and by leading the Church in the formulation and application of the doctrine of the Writings. As a university, it provides the intellectual development and expansion of learning essential to the preservation and progress of the Church. This is done, not only by the Academy teachers, but also by all who go out from the Academy Schools and pursue the ways of thought and life entered upon and explored within her walls.

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     The Academy was founded when the Church was losing its knowledge of the doctrines of the Writings and its belief in its own distinctiveness. The Charter members and their associates fought hard for the recognition of the Divine Authority of the Writings, and for that distinctiveness and order which they perceived the Writings to teach, and which a few of the earliest New Churchmen had perceived. They were militant, but their attack was against ignorance of the Writings,-against fallacy, falsity, disorder, and disloyalty to the Writings. The conflict was within the Church. It was over the doctrines of the Writings. It was sharply controversial, and produced an extensive and intensive study of the Writings, especially in respect to the particular doctrines that were challenged or were being disregarded. It was a propaganda of the faith among New Church men and women,-a development of a familiar knowledge of the, system of Divine Truth given in the Writings, not for the sake of producing a merely intellectual faith and a Church of theologically learned members, but in order to bring down into everything of their daily life and thought the new, truly Christian religion, by which there would be formed a human heaven in the natural world.
     How widespread the application of the doctrine of the Writings was in the very beginning of the Academy will be evident to all who read its first publication, Words for the New Church. There it will be seen that the Charter members firmly believed that the Writings are completely adequate to explain every problem of the arts, history, science, and philosophy. Have we the same faith to-day?
     Naturally the students of those early years, especially the older and theological students, were strongly influenced by that conflict and propaganda within the Church, and were stimulated in their own reading and study of the Writings. They were imbued with zeal for the purposes of the Academy, with love of truth for its own sake, and with reliance upon the Writings as the sole source of their inspiration and vision. They acquired an education and training that fitted many of them for leadership in the thought and work of the Church, and of the Academy Schools in the second period of the Academy's existence, after the formation of the General Church.
     To-day there is not the same conflict within the Church. The Academy members failed to reform the existing Church, but established the Church anew. We are independent of all other bodies of the Church, and have few contacts with them.

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The doctrines for which the early Academicians fought are now freely acknowledged by us. Yet we individually should accept them only after our own examination of them in the light of the Writings, and not upon the authority of our forefathers and present leaders. There will always have to be a similar conflict over the same doctrines in the individual, because they are the principal doctrines of the Church, and they establish the Church's distinctiveness and order, and also because our own proprial loves are opposed to them.
     But we have now another battlefield. Our conflict is with the forces of the world which, by the development of education and of the sciences in particular, also by the wide extension of prosperity, producing higher standards of living, challenge our own Academy's distinctive education and ability to attract to her schools the children of the Church, especially its young men and women of high school and college age, to train them in thought close to the Writings. The independence and continued existence of the Academy Schools are not yet threatened, but the distinctiveness of her educational system-the progressive development of the purposes of her Charter is threatened by the demands for a curriculum competitive with the schools of the world, such as will enable students from the Academy to go, without deficiencies of credits, to other schools.
     The teachers of the Academy who go to colleges of the world to acquire learning that will enable them to meet the needs of competitive education, though inspired by proper motives and zeal for the attainment of the purposes of the Academy, cannot escape a conflict with the world's system of education, even though that conflict be only in their own minds.
     Because many of the students come to the Academy from different States and Countries, to which they must return to earn their living, and because they have little knowledge and less realization of the high purposes in the distinctiveness of New Church education, and want to be prepared for their work in the world, the Academy has problems that test its powers of wise accommodation to the needs of the whole Church and its loyalty to the purposes of the Academy.
     The parents throughout the Church, especially those in other Countries, have their conflicts in deciding whether to send their boys and girls here.

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Though they may believe in New Church education, yet prudence, the probable advantages and opportunities resulting from education in the schools and colleges where they live, the higher cost here, and other arguments, produce a conflict which is in fact often, though perhaps not always, actually an attack by the loves of the world and of self. Continual propaganda of the purposes of the Academy, of the inestimable value of New Church education, of the distinctiveness and uniqueness of the Academy's system of education, of the dependence of the Church upon such an education for its growth, even for its preservation, is needed in this present-day conflict,-a conflict that will undoubtedly continue for many years.
     The conflict in the early days of the Academy was within the Church, and against a more or less united enemy that was known. It was fought on the platform, in the New Church journals, and in the homes. The Academy's present conflict is of a different nature. It is not easily recognized as a conflict. But the same militant spirit is needed now as formerly: for without that spirit the pressure of the world, through whatsoever channels it may come, cannot be fought and overcome. And it can be overcome only by the whole Church uniting against the pressure of the world in defence of New Church education, and not by the Academy teachers fighting alone. For the Academy and the General Church are united by "the bond of a common vision, a common faith, and a single purpose.
     The student body every year has an important part in the realization of the purposes of the Academy. There would be no schools without students. Their part in the work is largely receptive, but not only receptive. Their affirmative attitude; their interest, industry, loyalty; their growing realization and appreciation of the value of the New Church education they are receiving; their entering into the thought of the Writings with increasing intelligence and affection; their gradual recognition of the truth of the Divinely revealed reasons for the distinctiveness of the New Church;-all these stimulate and inspire their teachers, and often go forth to the outposts of the Church, to the distant homes of students, and quicken the growth of the Church.
     And so the students also should be engaged in the conflict against the pressure of the world. They feel that pressure in many ways, among which is the organizing of their activities after the patterns of other schools.

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Distinctiveness in externals is difficult of attainment; and, of course, the internal principles that motivate the externals are of greater importance. To the students of the Academy, the General Church looks for its membership of men and women who see for themselves, by their own reading of the Writings, by their love of truth for its own sake, the vision of the New Church which the Founders saw and who dedicate their lives to the realization of that vision. To them the General Church looks for its leaders, for its ministers and teachers, for its parents who will want their children to be educated in the Academy Schools.
     The true spirit of the purposes of the Academy, both in respect to education and the establishment of the Church, was put into verse and song by one of the most zealous and dynamic teachers the Academy has had. He clearly expressed in the song, "Alma Mater," what has always been recognized by all the members of the Faculties, and by the whole student body, namely, that the life and light from the Lord, coming to us through the Writings known, loved, and lived, are the precious Divine gifts received through the Academy: also that the Academy will have many altars in every land, through every age, because its purposes and ideals will spread throughout the world, generation after generation, everywhere and at all times working zealously for the establishment of the New Church.
     Though the Academy Charter limits its powers in certain directions because granted by civil authority, yet its purposes, because essentially spiritual, will have world-wide influence. This prophecy is being fulfilled. For schools inspired by the same purposes and working towards the same goal, in most cases taught by men and women educated and trained here, ardently devoted to the same great cause, have been established wherever the General Church has spread, even with our South African Mission. They are all essentially or spiritually Academy schools, and are proud to be so called. They serve to bind the members of the Church together in thought and affection; they help to make the Church a truly spiritual communion.
     The recognition of this fact has been ultimated in the Sons of the Academy,-an organization constituted not only of those men who have attended the Academy Schools here, but of all the men throughout the General Church who believe so ardently in the purposes and ideals of the Academy that they wish to help every child within the Church to receive the benefits of New Church education, and to enjoy at least one year within the halls and walls of this unique institution.

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The women of Theta Alpha also work devotedly to the same end. In so doing, the Sons "guard the Academy's name," and the Daughters "watch the Academy's sacred flame!'
     The Academy schools are growing. But it will be many years before they attain to the size and importance of a great university in the eyes of the world. When that time comes the General Church will be much larger than it is now. But even then the Academy will continue to serve the Church. Its learning will powerfully influence the thought of the Church, but will be, let us hope, even closer to the Writings than it is to-day. Its learning will be closer to the Writings, if the workers of the Academy, and if the members of the Church everywhere, continue to see in the Writings the vision beheld by the men who drafted the essential purposes contained in the Charter, and if they `are guided by the spirit that guided those men.
     The future relation of the Church and the Academy was simply, yet forcefully, expressed in an impromptu speech at the close of the Twelfth General Assembly. In the cold, damp tent pitched on the church grounds of the hospitable Carmel Church, the following words by the late Bishop N. D. Pendleton warmed the hearts of all who were present, and should be an inspiration for generations to come:
     "The development of learning, of a university, will not be for the sake of mere learning. The university is for the sake of the Church, and not the Church for the sake of the university; even as the teaching that the priesthood is for the sake of the Church, not the Church for the sake of the priesthood. A coldly intellectual learning will not take us to our goal, but only a learning that is based upon the law of love,-the law of love to God and love to one another. All our learning, and all our doctrinal attainments, are gathered up and contained in the two great, simple principles of our religion,-love to God and love to the neighbor. And the measure of our success will depend upon how far we can put aside the passions and conceits of the natural man.
     "It seems easier to love the Lord than to love one another. But you must love the neighbor if you would love the Lord. You cannot really love the Lord without love of the neighbor. Everyone has times when he is raised above the lower self, and comes into the warmth and light of heavenly things.

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What we need is to increase the power of retaining the things received in states of elevation when we are let down into the lower sphere of worldly activities-to cherish good will and forbearance, and steadfastness in co-operation with one another. You have done this, and you can do it again. What we do once, we can do again, and many times. That is the law of life. We must learn to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of the great purpose of our religion." (NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1926, pp. 496, 497.)
LESSONS:     Matthew 7: 13-29. A. E. 1096:2-4, 1097:2-4.
ANGELIC MINISTRATIONS 1941

ANGELIC MINISTRATIONS              1941

     "The angels, by whom the Lord leads and also protects man, are near the head. Their office is to inspire charity and faith, and to observe the man delights, in what direction they turn themselves, and to moderate them and bend them to good, so far as the man's freedom enables them to do so. It is forbidden them to act violently, and thus to break man's cupidities and principles, but they are enjoined to act gently.
     "It is also their office to rule the evil spirits who are from hell, which is done by innumerable methods, of which it is allowed to mention only the following: When the evil spirits infuse evils and falsities, the angels insinuate truths and goods, which, if they are not received, are yet the means of tempering. The infernal spirits are continually attacking, and the angels protecting; such is the order. The angels especially moderate the affections, for these make the man life, and also his freedom. The angels also observe whether any hells be open which were not open before, and from which there is an influx with a man, which takes place when the man brings himself into any new evil; those hells the angels close, so far as man suffers them to do so; and if any spirits attempt to emerge thence, the angels remove them. The angels also dissipate foreign and new influxes, from which evil effects might arise. Especially do the angels call forth the goods and truths which are with man, and oppose them to the evils and falsities which evil spirits excite. Hence man is in the midst, and apperceives neither the evil nor the good; and because he is in the midst, he is in freedom to turn himself to the one or the other.
     "By such things the angels from the Lord lead and protect man, and this every moment, and every moment of a moment; for if the angels were to intermit their offices for a single moment, the man would be precipitated into evil from which he could never afterwards be delivered. These things the angels do from the love which they have from the Lord; for they perceive nothing more delightful and more happy than to remove evils from man, and to lead him to heaven. That this is a joy to them is said in Luke 15: 7. 'I say unto you, that joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.'
     "That the Lord has such care for man, and this continually, from the first thread of his life to the last, and afterwards to eternity, scarcely any man believes." (A. C. 5992.)

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FRED J. COOPER 1941

FRED J. COOPER        ALFRED ACTON       1941

     HE STILL LIVES.

     (Delivered at the Memorial Service, October 23, 1941, and reported by Miss Beryl Briscoe.)

     We have met together this afternoon to commemorate the passing into the spiritual world of one who has long been known to us. We have known the body; yet it was not the body that we knew, but the spirit, which is the man himself. We knew that spirit or that man as a faithful and trustworthy man; a man skilled and eager in his calling; a man who was a sympathetic friend, a loving husband, and a faithful father; a man, above all, who manifested the truths of religion in his outward speech and deeds. That man we knew clothed in a body, and that body is now separated; it is now buried in the grave, and will never be resumed.
     That the spirit of the man still lives after the death of the body, is evident; for the spirit is immune from every disease and sickness of the body, or even its utter mutilation. The thought and the will go on the same; the man is the same, whatsoever the state of the body. He has the same desire and the same will, even though the state of the body prevents the bringing forth of that desire and will into effect. He has the same thoughts, though the state of the body may make it difficult to express those thoughts in speech.
     It is clear to all that it is the spirit, and not the body, that is the man. And because the spirit cannot die, therefore it is impossible for any human being to think of himself as dead. We can conceive of the death of the body, especially of the body of others, but to conceive of our own death is beyond the power of the human spirit, and this because the spirit cannot die.
     Yet, despite this, doubt is rife in the Christian world concerning the life after death. Many doubt it; many deny it.

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Many, again, seek vainly for truth by the speech of spirits with men; and although such speech has been recorded, yet the doubt remains. Nay, the doubt grows ever stronger, even to denial. Is it any wonder, then, that the Lord should reveal the truth concerning that world for which all men are destined? Is it any wonder, then, that the Lord, for the sake of the preservation of His church, should enlighten men, so that they shall no longer walk in darkness, but shall know something concerning the spiritual world, and especially concerning the life of that world, which is the life of the spirit of man, even while he dwells in the body?
     This revelation has now been made, and made in the only way that such a revelation could be made, so as to enlighten the reason of man. It has been made, not by the conversations of a spirit with men, but by means of a man whose spiritual eyes were opened, so that he could be in both worlds at the same time, and could observe the spiritual world from the natural, and the natural from the spiritual; and so could bring to the human race a rational knowledge concerning the nature and reality of the spiritual world, and its relation to the natural. And the chief gift in this revelation is the conviction that man lives a man after death; that the spirit of man which expresses its love and thought in the body can never die; that it rises in the other world, and appears in that world as a man, just as before.
     Nay, death does not separate the one who has departed from those with whom he was one in love and in faith. The mere disappearance of the body cannot affect the conjunction of love and of thought. Just as temporary absence in this world does not affect the conjunction of those who are one in love and faith, so neither does that absence which is meant by the death of the body. Of this we are assured; and the assurance is most specific in the case of husband and wife,-an assurance that confirms the dictate of the hearts of husbands and wives who have loved each other. The death of one of the consorts does not make separation. The one departed still dwells with the one who remains in the earthly life, and dwells with that one in the same union as before. And when that one also passes into the spiritual world, they again meet in fullness of appearance, and are conjoined together in a love greater than that on earth, because unalloyed by the cares and ills of the world.

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     The spirit is what lives; and when spirits have left the earthly life by the death of the body, they are still associated with men. We feel their association, not as a bodily presence, but as those thoughts and affections that spring into the mind and are inspired by the spirits in the other world in whose company we are.
     Man is born into this world that he may perform uses. For the Lords Love is such that He wills to give every good to man; and it is of His Wisdom, and of His Providence, that He shall give that good by means of men; and this in order that men, in the performance of use, may find the delight and happiness of life. In a natural way this is quite apparent, for man has his delight in the performances of uses, and he is esteemed by his fellow men according to his uses. The civilization that we see around us is nothing but the product of uses performed by men: and, looked at more interiorly, it is the manifestation of the Divine gifts given to men by means of men. But of what use would all this civilization be; of what use all the fruits of natural uses that have come to us, and which we enjoy by virtue of the labors of other men, if this world were all? We know from experience that all these fruits of human labor, with all the benefits which they bring, would be of no avail whatever if the love of self and the love of the world and of worldly riches were the only loves that made use of them.
     The Lord wills to give men, not only the fruits of natural uses, but also the fruits of spiritual uses, and these fruits also He gives by means of men. For, just as it is by means of men that new thoughts and new inventions come into the world, so it is by means of men that new affections and new spiritual perceptions are born into the world for the spiritual enrichment of man. The church enjoys the riches, the spiritual riches, that have been produced by the labors of men that have gone before. But these spiritual riches, though given by the agency of man, are yet the gift of Divine Love, that man may be not only in earthly happiness, but also in peace and happiness of spirit.
     The life of our Friend has borne fruit in both of these respects. In the natural world he has contributed in full measure to the perfecting of that trade to which he devoted himself. He has inspired confidence and trust, and he has brought new ideas and new thoughts by which others will benefit. But, above all, he has brought spiritual affections and spiritual perceptions for the enrichment of the church.

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By means of him the Lord has brought into the world, and made manifest to us, many spiritual blessings,-jewels of spiritual life by which the church is enriched, by which the spiritual life of each one of us may be promoted, and our spiritual treasures increased.
     Our Friend is now no longer with us in bodily presence, but he still lives, and the use which he loved still continues. For the spirit of man is love and affection, and love and affection can never cease nor can they express themselves save in use. In the spiritual world, as in this, he deals in jewels, and to all appearance jewels like those of earth, but they are spiritual jewels-those jewels which we call "precious pearls of life." Moreover, though he has passed from our bodily gaze, the uses which he loved will continue to enrich us, though not by an earthly body. The love of spiritual uses which made itself manifest during his life on earth is still one of those inspiring forces by which the Lord fosters the love of spiritual uses among men. For all inspirations to good come to us by means of angelic societies, even as opposite inspirations come from evil spirits.
     He who has departed is still loving the spiritual uses he had loved on earth; he is still active in those uses, still wishes to bring them to ultimate fruition. And by this love, and this will for fulfillment, the church is nourished and enriched. For, as the church grows in the spiritual world, so it will grow on earth; as spiritual riches are increased in the other world, so will they appear in this world as an increase in the love of cultivating the things of the spiritual life.
     It was an ancient custom to mourn the dead for three days: and then, with the entrance of the spirit into full consciousness in the spiritual world, the mourning was put aside. So we, when we view our Brother's departure in the light now revealed; when we see in clear light that he is not dead, but living; that he is the same man in the same love and faith, in the same active performance of use, but now untrammeled by the limitations of the body-so we can put away mourning, and can say, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"
     It is given to the New Church to receive this Revelation concerning the life in the other world, that we may live the spiritual life even on earth. May the Lord lead us so to number our own days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom! Amen.

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[Photo: FRED J. COOPER.]

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     BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

     FREDERICK JAMES COOPER was born at Colchester, England, December 8, 1884, the son of New Church parents, Frederick Ryle and Laura Procter Cooper. He received his education entirely under New Church auspices, by private instruction and by attending the day school of the Colchester Society. As a youth he played the violin and later the organ in the Sunday services, his interest in music having been aroused by hearing the military hands in his native town.
     In 1907, at the age of twenty-two, he and Wilfred Howard came to America to attend the General Assembly held that year in Bryn Athyn. Fred then entered the employ of C. R. Smith & Sons, Philadelphia, as watchmaker, having learned this art in his father's jewelry shop at Colchester. He went to England for a brief stay in 1908, but returned in the Fall of that year as salesman in the Smith store, where he remained for seventeen years. In 1924 he embarked in the jewelry business for himself, and was progressively successful, his store becoming one of the best known in Philadelphia. Of recent years he has lectured widely on precious stones and kindred subjects, having delivered about 500 separate lectures to approximately 50,000 persons. He served for a time as President of the Pennsylvania Retail Jewelers Association, and on a committee of the American Gem Society.
     On June 29, 1915, he married Aurora Synnestvedt, daughter of the Rev. and Mrs. Homer Synnestvedt, who survives him, together with six children-Elaine, Pearl, Theodore, Phillis, Chara, and Douglas. The first child, John, died in 1925.
     During the years of his residence in Philadelphia, Fred was affiliated with the Advent Church and active in its uses, being organist for twelve years without missing a Sunday. In 1920, he moved with his family to Bryn Athyn, where he has taken part in the society uses with marked enthusiasm and loyalty, serving on its Boards and Councils, the Ushers' Organization, and in the work of the Cathedral Book Room. In the General Church he has served of late as Publication Manager of the Pastoral Extension Committee. Years of devoted effort were given by him to the work of the Sons of the Academy, of which body he was President at the time of his death.

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IDEAL OF NEW CHURCH EDUCATION 1941

IDEAL OF NEW CHURCH EDUCATION       I. A. ROBINSON       1941

     (A Paper read at the Rodhorough Easter Camp, and published in THE NEW AGE (Australia), August, 1941. Reprinted here with due acknowledgments. We believe this treatment of the subject will be appreciated by our readers. The writer is unknown to us.-EDITOR.)

     Between the Old Church and the New, one of the most outstanding differences is the realization of the eternal world, meaning by the word "realization" the reality of that world in the mind of the individual. To every acceptor of the New Church doctrine the spiritual world must become a fact of even more significance than the natural world. As to how far this ideal is realized amongst actual members of New Church organizations at the present time, I do not know. It is true, however, that the spiritual world is actually the real world, and that this world is relatively unreal.
     Further, the New Church has a very realistic conception of eternal life, and one that makes life in the spiritual world a very practical thing, including useful work and continual development of the individual, involving effort.
     Our life here is but the prelude to life in the eternal world, it is the chrysalis state from which we shall burst forth into the sunshine of the spiritual world on the wings of freedom. Swedenborg impresses upon us that the whole purpose of creation is the population of the heavens-the end of creation is a heaven from the human race." This present life is not an end in itself, it is but a means to an end. In a general and obscure way this truth has been recognized in Christendom and even beyond, but so little has it been really acknowledged in the hearts of men that the New Church revelation still strikes the world as a refreshing breeze from the gates of heaven. It is our first and urgent duty as New Churchmen to make this, in common with our other doctrines, a vital and forceful thing in our minds and lives.

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The happy land is not "far, far away"; it is close at hand; it is a more real and living land than this; and immediately we pass out of this world through the death of the body, we shall awaken to find ourselves alive and substantial, thinking, willing, doing, with real bodies in a real world. This world is a place provided as a preparation ground for that, and we pass through life here in order that we may in freedom choose the course our lives shall take to eternity.
     The New Churchman then shall feel more keenly the force of the Lord's words:-"What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" To us this must mean vastly more, because we know what there is to lose. It behooves us to direct our energies throughout life in this world to the purpose for which we are placed here-spiritual development.
     We are primarily spiritual beings;-we are living, even now, spiritual lives. We do not think and will and reason with the body, but with the spirit. Therefore let us cultivate the life of the spirit. Is it not more important that the spirit of man should be elevating itself into a state of preparation for the eternal joy and usefulness of heaven than that his natural body should be pampered and his senses dulled with soft and spicy foods and drinks, with elaborate artificial ornaments, with luxurious means of transport, and with the shallow forms of entertainment often found in the picture theatres and the wireless programmes, all of which partake of the nature of spiritual anaesthetics? We are tempted to surround ourselves with things, and to use them as a means of the exclusion of things which are of more "value, but which at the same time require a greater effort of us."
     Secular education throughout the world at the present time is devoted largely to making people capable of producing worldly wealth. If any individual has to provide his own livelihood, then, generally speaking, his education is held to have succeeded or to have failed according as he is able to acquire for himself more or less of this world's goods. I believe that this conception is based on an attitude of mind which is false from the New Church point of view, in that it lays the emphasis of life in the world upon the things of this world, and not upon the things which we, as spiritual beings, ought to hold dearest.
     There is, of course, a more or less purely cultural side to present day education, but this is available chiefly to those who are not under the necessity of earning their own livings, and it tends more and more to be forced into the background, in order to give place to things which, according to the worldly view, are of a more practical nature.

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It is, of course, essential that the uses of this world he provided for, and that men be trained to provide food and clothing, shelter, transportation, the printed book, and, in general, all the necessities and ameliorations necessary to the life, work and happiness of mankind in the natural world.
     Training of the nature which is undertaken in order to provide for the requirements and the comfort of the physical body, and which also ministers through the body to the spirit, I shall term Technical Education. Training of a purely cultural nature I shall call Spiritual Education, because definitely it ministers directly to the spirit. This cultural or spiritual education is in reality the more important of the two, but at the present day it is under a cloud, because the reason for its importance has been lost. Culture is still vaguely held to be a good thing, and he who has a sound knowledge of history and literature, of music, art and philosophy, commands respect on account of his education. But it is not known that all these things ought to be part of the spiritual development of the man.
     Ought not we in the New Church to devise a system of education for our children in which these knowledges should not be merely encumbrances in the mind, or at best playthings to keep the mind amused and occupied, but in which they should consciously and deliberately be made to help the spiritual development of each human soul which has been created through our agency? It is not enough that we, who are the instruments of the Lord in the creation of human beings, shall consider our responsibility to have ceased when we have, for our own satisfaction, surrounded ourselves with children. It is not enough that we should send them to Sunday Schools, or even that we should teach them doctrines in the home. A great part of the life of the child and youth is spent in school, and we ought, when practicable, to see that schools are provided which will place the emphasis on the right place, and educate our children for the development of the spirit and for the life of heaven.
     An essential for complete New Churchmanship is the development of the rational faculty, and this should be accomplished in the teaching of the cultural subjects. They should also give breadth of mind, and the spiritual evolution of the human race should be traced through its natural history, according to the revelation through Swedenborg.

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The study of music is an exemplification of Love tempered by Wisdom, and literature should be read with a knowledge of Swedenborg's psychology.
     I hope thus to point out the fallacy of separating so-called secular education, in its philosophical, cultured, or what I have called spiritual, branches, from religious education. These branches of education contribute directly and immediately to the life of the spirit, and New Church school teachers should make it clear to their students that these subjects are studied with a view to spiritual development.
     So much for education in the cultural subjects. Passing now to the technical side of education, it may be argued with logic that education in the natural sciences can be made ancillary to education for the spiritual life, and that this can be done through the science of correspondences.
     The science of Chemistry seems to me to be par excellence the science which lends itself to such treatment. Swedenborg has given us numerous examples of the correspondence of natural objects with spiritual qualities-for instance, the correspondence of bread with good and of water with truth. In these cases, surely the constituent elements of water and of bread must have correspondences in harmony with those of the things they constitute. In this field there must be an indestructible store of spiritual information to be gleaned from the immense amount of knowledge of the chemistry of this world, but it is evident that it may be in the very, very far-distant future that men on this earth will be able to make use of this source. With the science of Geometry the case is much the same; but with such a science as that of Geography there is a great deal that could be done at the present time. For instance, the correspondence of geographical features, of hills and valleys, lakes, seas and rivers, etc., are even now well known, and even young children could be taught that these things have their real origin in the spiritual state and qualities which they represent.
     Swedenborg says that the very early inhabitants of the earth,-the men of the Most Ancient Church,-when they saw the natural objects around them, thought of them not only naturally, but also spiritually, that is to say, through their intimate knowledge of the science of correspondences, they thought of the spiritual things in correspondence with the natural objects.

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     Now the title of this paper is "The Ideal of New Church Education," but it is not my intention to devote my time to arguments in favor of the establishment of New Church Schools. I want, however, to re-state briefly an outline of what has been proposed in this direction, in order that you may have the proposals in mind with a view to consideration and discussion.
     It has been claimed, then, that we who accept the doctrines given to the world through Swedenborg should, when it has become practicable from the point of view of numbers, establish schools, both primary and secondary, and including even universities, which should be staffed by New Church men and women as teachers, and in which all subjects should be taught from a New Church point of view. The aim and purpose of establishing such schools would be to ensure that the education of our children did not follow purely materialistic lines, or look only to worldly ends, but rather that, while fitting them for their life and work in this world, it should also be directed to training them as spiritual beings,-for the complete development of their spiritual selves. The conception is seen to be logical when we consider that our "life and work in this world." which I have just mentioned, should really be directed wholly and solely towards spiritual ends. In fact, it is undeniable to the New Churchman that there is nothing we can do in this world, not even the smallest thing, that ought not to be directed, consciously or subconsciously, towards our spiritual development. We are spiritual beings, and actually to say "worldly ends" is a contradiction in terms, since there can be no "end" or purpose in anything pertaining to human life other than that which is spiritual. If the "end" or purpose of our life in this world is worldly, then we degrade ourselves below the level of the beasts of the field, for which there is truly no spiritual "end."
     The organization of such schools ought to be a work well worthy of our energies, and of immense value to the human race, in that they would fit men and women intellectually for acceptance and deeper understanding of the New Church doctrines, and inculcate in them a real faith inspired by a deep-rooted love for the truths now revealed by the Lord.
     As to the actual nature of the instruction in such New Church schools, I am not very competent to say more than I have already said. Let me point out again that the cultural subjects are really purely spiritual in nature, and that the natural sciences lend themselves readily to the application of the science of correspondences, which ought to facilitate the elucidation of spiritual truths ad infinitum.

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All the natural sciences-for instance, botany, biology and geology,-would be included in the curriculum of the New Church school, and their study should be undertaken in conjunction with doctrinal reading and investigation into correspondences.
     In order to realize the ideal of New Church education, it will be seen at once that the first essential is that suitable men and women within the Church shall undertake the intensive study of the possibilities involved, and shall make themselves specialists in the spiritual applications of the various branches of learning. Thus we urgently require history books which will take into account the spiritual history of the race as revealed through Swedenborg: geology and geography books which will trace the correspondences of the natural objects involved; and so on. History, psychology and philosophy should be taught from the standpoint of the revelations of the spiritual constitution of the human mind. There is an immense task to be begun by men fully trained in natural chemistry in the extension of our knowledge of correspondences. I strongly commend, therefore, to young New Church men or women, who have or can acquire the necessary educational background, the commencement of investigations in one or other of these fields.
     Now in order to bring my subject-matter into the orbit of things immediately practicable, let us consider what possibility there is of doing anything here and now towards the distinctive New Church education of our children. There is no possibility in this country of commencing any school such as I have outlined. Then the only thing left is that New Church parents shall, to the best of their ability, undertake the training of their children in the home, in order to supplement the training now given in the schools. First and foremost in this respect must come purely doctrinal teaching, and this most definitely must not be left to the Sunday School or any classes of religious instruction. The first endeavor of the parent should be to retain the full confidence of the child, and the second to make preparation to introduce ideas to the child's mind, and to meet his queries on religious matters with intelligent discussion and helpful suggestions and information.

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Religion must be made real by matter-of-fact acceptance and reverence in the home, and after these things have been done parents might turn to directing the child's thought, as far as their own knowledge and insight will permit, towards correspondences of natural objects, the spiritual values involved in the cultural subjects, and the understanding of the nature of the Word and elementary principles of its interpretation.
     Whether there is any possibility of organizing any kind of doctrinal classes for adults, other than those which now exist, I do not know, but in concluding this review of the need for and possible nature of a distinctive New Church type of education, I should like to urge that we New Church people, especially the younger ones, should take as intelligent an interest as possible in the doctrines of the New Church. It is more than worth-while to study, however modestly, Swedenborg's Writings. There are simple books that we can start reading; and although an effort is certainly necessary, especially at the beginning of any, such study, nothing worth-while is ever gained without effort. There are the examinations conducted by the Swedenborg Society which will direct our study, and keep us "up to the mark," and there are, of course, doctrinal or Bible study classes in our own societies, in which the instruction given can be adjusted to suit the needs of those who attend them. There is already appearing a distinctive type of New Church mind, the basis of which is the development of the rational faculty, and it is for New Church members of the younger generation to promote and carry on such a tradition.
     The Rev. Frank Sew-ell has said: "The stress which Swedenborg lays upon the free development of the reason as a condition to the real appropriation of spiritual truth is so well known to the student of his philosophy as to make unnecessary any argument on the point." I appeal to you, therefore, especially you who are young, to pay attention to the development of your mental faculties and your rationality, and not to be afraid of religion, because the religion of the New Church is the most sensible thing in the world; and to you who are older not to forget Nunc Licet-Now it is permissible to enter with the understanding into the things of faith." You are given the permission-Enter Happiness and satisfaction are in the increase of spiritual knowledge.

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Reports 1941

Reports       GILBERT H. SMITH       1941

     CHICAGO DISTRICT ASSEMBLY.

     GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 17-19, 1941.


     With Bishop George de Charms presiding, the Thirty-sixth Chicago District Assembly met at the Immanuel Church, Glenview, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, October 17-19, 1941. Besides the large number of members from Chicago and suburbs, a considerable number came from distant points to attend the meetings. With Mrs. Paul Carpenter came a number of friends and new members from North St. Paul, Minnesota, where a Circle has recently been formed. This delegation included Mr. and Mrs. Robert Coulter, Madam Kowaleka (Mrs. John McGinn), Mrs. Agnes Rich, Mrs. Marie Amundson, and Miss Barbara Ingraham. These traveled in a station wagon, and Mr. Vitus Boker arrived by train the next day. From Bourbon, Indiana, came Mrs. John Fogle, Mrs. Clarence Tyrrell, Miss Phyllis Tyrrell, and Mr. Robert James Hartford. From other points: Mr. and Mrs. Robert Barnitz and their children, Urbana, Ohio; Miss Orida Olds and Miss Jocelyn Olds, Dubuque, Iowa; Miss Jane Scalbom, Madison, Wisconsin; Rev. Victor J. Gladish, Wyoming, Ohio; Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Gladish, Mr. and Mrs. Pierre Vinet and their children, Rockford, Illinois.

     Banquet.

     The Assembly opened with a Banquet on Friday evening, the Rev. Gilbert H. Smith being toastmaster. At the beginning of the program, Bishop de Charms was introduced, and responded with a few words of greeting to the Assembly. The toastmaster then introduced the above-mentioned Visitors individually, concluding the list with our "First Lady," whose presence with the Bishop was much appreciated.
     Mr. Archibald E. Price opened the speaking program by reading a paper on "The Park News," of which he is editor, dwelling upon the origin, progress and value of this weekly periodical, and describing the mode of publication in which many participate, all to the end that those living in the district may be informed and unified.
     As the general theme of the remaining speeches, the toastmaster then proposed "Evangelizing the Doctrine," and by way of introducing this topic spoke of the great power for church extension that lies in the development and support of public worship.

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The true center of this is the Holy Supper, the Divinely appointed means of practising confession and entering the beginning states of actual repentance. Without confession of sins and actual repentance, he said, there is no way of being delivered from evils; and if evils are not removed there is no regeneration. If we develop public worship to the highest point of excellence, giving to it our personal presence and moral support, the church will grow. For services of worship should be made the most delightful of all the meetings of men; and all must have need of repentance throughout their lives, and of making progress through new beginnings. Especially should the Holy Supper be of value to young people when fighting their greatest battles; and they can do more than any others to make worship succeed, by making it their special use to promote the services of the church.

     The Rev. Harold C. Cranch, Minister of Sharon Church. then spoke on the necessity of disclosing thoroughly to our people the true state of the world, as now revealed to the New Church At the conclusion of this paper, the toastmaster introduced a novelty when he announced that he would be glad to recognize just one person to comment on it, and that for not more than two or three minutes. The floor would be granted to one only. The first claimant was Mr. George A. McQueen, who said that Mr. Cranch's paper might be supplemented by reading the exhaustive works of the Rev. Richard de Charms, grandfather of our Bishop, in which he treated of the state of the world and the necessity of teaching about it.
     "Our Glorious Church" was sung, and also "Vive l'Academie," the latter with two new stanzas added, one in honor of the Bishop, and the other congratulating the new Circle at North St. Paul.
     Mr. Alec Mc Queen, known to the radio audience as the author of "Nothing But The Truth," then spoke interestingly on the subject of "Individual as Missionary." He opened his remarks by addressing all present as "Angels," but explained immediately that by this he meant "Messengers." Briefly, it was his idea that each is a bearer of a message of highest import, in his home and daily contacts, and that we ought to be ready with a right answer to questions about the New Church, even the most casual. Of the use of radio, he said: "As New Churchmen, we know that the real purpose of the radio is to aid in spreading a knowledge of the Heavenly Doctrine. You might not think so, as you listen to what comes over the air at times. But Providence can afford to wait." It this is true of the art of printing, why should it not be so of the radio? The speaker reminded us that the Lord chose this earth to be the place of His birth as a Man, because in a unique and special sense this old earth, since it is the very ultimate world, is a Missionary World."
     The one person allowed by the toastmaster to respond to this address was Mr. Hubert Nelson, who gave us some interesting accounts of business contacts in which the individual as a missionary, and the reputation of New Church people for honesty, had reflected favorably upon our religion.
     Mr. Warren Reuter then gave a most interesting paper on "The Church and the Times." It dealt with the confused state of the world, socially and politically, by way of contrast with our hope that the New Church will some day cover the earth.

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Former ideals are shattered, and the result is a cynicism with regard to all former principles of morality and religion, especially with the younger generation. Yet the I. Q. of all classes of people is higher today than ever before, and they know that something vital is lacking in the lives of the people. Science has become their god, and they demand that things be proven to be true. Attention is focused upon all social relations. Because of this very attitude of questioning, the time may be nearer than we think when we shall find a fertile field for the growth of the New Church. The Heavenly Doctrine, applied by New Church people to solve problems in human relations, and a new form of ethics that can be shown to work, based upon use, and not upon profit, will do more than can be done by a purely intellectual approach.
     At the close of this address, Mr. Sydney Lee was recognized as the single speaker. With some very appropriate remarks, he offered a toast to The General Church and the New Church in General." The song "First in Our Hearts" was sung in response.
     Bishop de Charms then made the concluding speech, describing in an interesting manner how the General Church, from the beginning, had looked to the development of centers in the Church, and a working outward to the circumferences. He spoke of the value of the centers of the Church to those living far from them, and of the great love for the Church which he had found among the most isolated. He wished that all in the Church might he bound together in the greatest sympathy and comradeship. For, he said, "It is not much of a wheel that consists only of a hub! The rim is also important!"

     Saturday Afternoon Session.

     After the Bishop had opened the session with prayer and a reading from the Word, the Rev. Gilbert H. Smith delivered an Address entitled, "We Love the New Church." It consisted of a series of questions and answers, leading to the conclusion that the New Church ought to be loved above all other organizations, because this Church alone has the truth by which people who have a genuine veneration for the Word and faith in the Savior may be delivered from their interior evils, and thus regenerated. The paper also asked and answered a number of common questions relating to the order of the Church and its proper organization, and was followed by a brief but pertinent discussion.

     Saturday Evening Session.

     The meeting was called to order by the Rev. Gilbert Smith, who read from the Word and led in prayer.
     Bishop de Charms then delivered his Assembly Address on the subject of "The Harvest of the Earth," treating of the Last Judgment as presented in the Book of Revelation, and the errors of the traditional ideas concerning it, which he contrasted with the true idea set forth in the Writings. He then spoke of the continuation of that judgment in individual minds. This judgment must take place entirely in the spiritual world, as our Doctrine states; but since the minds of all men are in that world even while they live on earth, so the judgment must have its definite effects, separating the evil from the good in human minds, and so in the natural world also, progressively, forever.

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     There was little discussion of this Address, the members feeling, as so often happens, that the few things they might say after a talk which was so satisfying and forceful would not add to the pleasure of the meeting. After refreshments, the Bishop exhibited some color films of New Church meetings in South Africa and Canada, and told about amusing incidents in his recent travels.

     Sunday Worship.

     A congregation of 213 gathered in the church for the service on Sunday morning. The Rev. Gilbert Smith conducted the worship, and the Rev. Harold Cranch read the Lessons. The Bishop delivered the sermon on the subject of The Patience of the Saints." It was a delightful occasion, and the music was inspiringly rendered under the leadership of the choir.
     In the afternoon a special service was held for the Administration of the Sacrament of the Holy Supper to a large number of communicants. The Bishop as Celebrant was assisted by the Revs. Gilbert Smith and Victor Gladish. The Assembly thus came to a fitting close.

     Other Meetings.

     On Sunday evening the Bishop was guest of honor at the regular meeting of the local chapter of the Sons of the Academy. President Edwin Burnham presiding. Before a large gathering of the men the Academy's Scholarship Policy was thoroughly discussed, and Bishop de Charms replied to a number of questions.
     At the same time, Mrs. de Charms was meeting with the ladies at the home of Mr. and Mrs. William H. Junge, where she talked most interestingly of their travels in South America.
     On Monday morning the Bishop addressed the pupils of the Immanuel Church School, and also held a conference of teachers. In the evening he met with the members of Sharon Church in Chicago.
     On Tuesday evening, October 21, the Bishop and Mrs. de Charms, accompanied by several auto loads of Chicago and Glenview folk, paid a visit to the Circle in Rockford, Illinois, where they were entertained by Mr. and Mrs. Axel Eklund. There was much speaking and singing, not to mention a most orthodox and genuine Smorgasbord. and the meeting was very much enjoyed by all present.
     GILBERT H. SMITH,
          Secretary.

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DIRECTORY 1941

DIRECTORY               1941

     GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.

     Officials and Councils.

     Bishop:     Right Rev. George de Charms.

     Secretary:     Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner.

     Treasurer:     Mr. Hubert Hyatt.

     CONSISTORY.

Bishop George de Charms.
Right Rev. Alfred Acton,
Rev. Karl R. Alden,
Rev. Gustaf Baeckstrom,
Rev. W. B. Caldwell,
Rev. C. E. Doering Secretary,
Rev. F. W. Elphick,
Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal,
Rev. E. E. Iungerich,
Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner.
Rev. Gilbert H. Smith,
Rev. Homer Synnestvedt,
Right Rev. R. J. Tilson.


EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

Bishop George de Charms, President.

Mr. Edward H. Davis, Secretary.

Mr. Hubert Hyatt. Treasurer.

Mr. Kesniel C. Acton,
Mr. Edward C. Bostock,
Mr. C. Raynor Brown,
Mr. Geoffrey S. Childs,
Mr. Randolph W. Childs.
Mr. David F. Gladish,
Dr. Marlin W. Heilman,
Mr. Walter L. Horigan,
Mr. Alexander P. Lindsay,
Mr. Nils E. Lovin,
Mr. Charles G. Merrell,
Mr. Hubert Nelson.
Mr. Philip C. Pendleton,
Mr. Harold F. Pitcairn,
Mr. Raymond Pitcairn.
Mr. Colley Pryke,
Mr. Rudolph Roschman.
Mr. Paul Synnestvedt,
Mr. Victor Tilson,
Mr. Frank Wilson.


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     The Clergy.

     Bishops.

DE CHARMS, GEORGE. Ordained June 28. 1914; 2d Degree, June 19, 1916; 3d Degree, March 11, 1928. Bishop of the General Church. Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church. President, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
TILSON, ROBERT JAMES. Ordained August 23, 1882; 2d Degree, June 19, 1892; 3d Degree, August 5, 1928. Address: Care of Mrs. Haseltine, 35 St. Mary's Walk, Harrogate, Yorks, England.
ACTON, ALFRED. Ordained June 4, 1893; 2d Degree, January 10, 1897; 3d Degree, April 5, 1936. Pastor of the Society in Washington, D. C. Dean of the Theological School, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

Pastors.

ACTON, A. WYNNE. Ordained June 19, 1932; 2d Degree, March 25, 1934, Pastor of Michael Church, London. Address: Altora Lodge, 45a Groveway, Brixton, S. W. 9, London, England.
ACTON, ELMO CARMAN. Ordained June 14, 1925; 2d Degree, August 5, 1928. Assistant Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa.
ALDEN, KARL RICHARDSON. Ordained June 19, 1917; 3d Degree, October 12, 1919. Principal of the Boys' Academy, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
BAECKSTROM, GUSTAF. Ordained June 6, 1915; 2d Degree, June 27, 1920. Pastor of the Society in Stockholm, Sweden. Address: Svedjevagen 20, Appelviken, Stockholm, Sweden.
BOYESEN, BJORN ADOLPH HILDEMAR. Ordained June 19, 1939; 2d Degree, March 30, 1941. Pastor of the New York Society and of the North Jersey Circle. Address: 15 Morgan Place. Arlington, New Jersey.
CALDWELL, WILLIAM BEEBE. Ordained October 19, 1902; 2d Degree, October 23, 1904. Editor of New Church Life. Professor of Theology. Academy of the New Church. Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa.
CRONLUND, EMIL ROBERT. Ordained December 31, 1899; 2d Degree, May 15, 1902. Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa.
DAVID, LLEWELLYN WARREN TOWNE. Ordained June 28, 1914; 2d Degree, June 19, 1916. Secretary, Council of the Clergy. Instructor, Academy of the New Church. Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa.
DOERING, CHARLES EMIL. Ordained June 7, 1896; 3d Degree, January 29, 1899. Dean of Faculties, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
ELPHICK, FREDERICK WILLIAM. Ordained February 7, 1926; 2d Degree, June 19, 1926. Acting Pastor of the Durban Society. Superintendent of the South African Mission. Address: 44 Toledo Avenue. Durban, Natal, South Africa.
GILL, ALAN. Ordained June 14, 1925; 3d Degree, June 19, 1926. Pastor of Carmel Church, Kitchener, Ontario. Address: 37 John Street East, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

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GLADISH, VICTOR JEREMIAH. Ordained June 17. 1925; 2d Degree, August 5, 1928. Pastor of the Wyoming, Ohio, Circle; Visiting Pastor of the Southern States. Address: 105 Millsdale St., Cincinnati, Ohio.
GLADISH, WILLIS LENDSAY. Ordained 1st and 2d Degrees, June 3, 1894. Address: Glenview, Ill.
GYLLENHAAL, FREDERICK EDMUND. Ordained June 23, 1907; 3d Degree. June 19, 1910. Pastor of Olivet Church, Toronto, Ontario. Visiting Pastor of the Montreal Circle. Address: 2 Elm Grove Ave., Toronto, Canada.
HEINRICHS, HENRY. Ordained June 24, 1923; 2d Degree, February 8, 1925. Address: R. R. 3, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
HENDERSON, WILLIAM CAIRNS. Ordained June 19, 1934; 2d Degree, April 14, 1935. Pastor of the Hurstville Society. Address: 107 Lavcock Road, Penshurst, N. S. W., Australia.
IUNGERICH, ELDRED EDWARD. Ordained June 13, 1909; 3d Degree, May 26, 1912. Pastor of the Society in Paris, France. Professor of Languages, Academy of the New Church. Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa.
LEONARDOS, HENRY. Ordained, 1st and 3d Degrees, August 5, 1928 Pastor of the Rio de Janeiro Society. Address: 42 Prc Eugenlo Jardim. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
LIMA, JOAO DE MENDONCA. Ordained, 1st and 2d Degrees, August 5. 1928. Pastor of the Rio de Janeiro Society. Address: 123 Rua Dezembargador Tsidro. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
MORSE, RICHARD. Ordained, 1st and 3d Degrees, October 12, 1919. Address: Dudley Street, Hurstville, Australia.
ODHNER, HUGO LJUNGBERG. Ordained June 28, 1914; 2d Degree, June 24, 1917. Secretary of the General Church. Assistant Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church. Professor, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
PENDLETON, WILLARD DANDRIDGE. Ordained June 18. 1933; 3d Degree, September 12, 1934. Pastor of the Pittsburgh Society. Address: 299 Le Roi Road, Pittsburgh, Pa.
REUTER, NORMAN HAROLD. Ordained June 17, 1928; 3d Degree. June 15, 1930. Pastor of the Akron Circle. Visiting Pastor of the General Church. Address: 920 Peerless Ave., Akron, Ohio.
RICH, MORLEY DYCKMAN. Ordained June 19, 1938; 3d Degree, October 13, 1940. Pastor of the Advent Church, Philadelphia, Pa., and Visiting Pastor of the Arbutus, Maryland, Circle. Address: 2225 Gratz Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
ROGERS, NORBERT HENRY. Ordained June 19, 1938; 2d Degree, October 13, 1940. Assistant to the Pastor of Carmel Church, Kitchener, Ontario. Address: 163 York Street, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
SANDSTROM, ERIK. Ordained June 10, 1934; 3d Degree, August 4, 1935. Assistant to the Pastor of the Stockholm Society, and Visiting Pastor of the Jonkoping Circle. Address: Levertinsgatan 5, Stockholm, Sweden.
SMITH, GILBERT HAVEN. Ordained June 25, 1911; 3d Degree, June 19, 1913. Pastor of the Immanuel Church, Glenview, Illinois, and Visiting Pastor of the North St. Paul Circle.

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STARKEY, GEORGE GODDARD. Ordained June 3, 1894; 2d Degree, October 19, 1902. Address: Glenview, Illinois.
SYNNESTVEDT, HOMER. Ordained June 19, 1891; 2d Degree, January 13, 1895. Professor. Academy of the New Church. Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa.
WAELCHLI, FRED EDWIN. Ordained June 10, 1888; 2d Degree, June 19, 1891. Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa.
WHITEHEAD, WILLIAM. Ordained June 19, 1922; 2d Degree, June 19, 1926. Professor, Academy of the New Church. Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     Ministers.

CRANCH, HAROLD COVERT. Ordained June 19. 1941. Minister of Sharon Church, Chicago, Illinois and assistant to the Pastor of the Immanuel Church. Glenview, Illinois. Address: 5220 Wayne Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.
CRANCH, RAYMOND GREENLEAF. Ordained June 19. 1922. Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa.
ODHNER, ORMOND DE CHARMS. Ordained June 19. 1940. Assistant to the Pastor of the Pittsburgh Society. Address: 299 Le Roi Road, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

ODHNER, VINCENT CARMOND. Ordained June 17. 1928. Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa.
PRYKE, MARTIN. Ordained June 19. 1940. Minister of the Colchester Society. Address: 167 Maldon Road. Colchester, Essex, England.

     British Guiana Mission.

     Pastor.

ALGERNON, HENRY. Ordained, 1st and 2d Degrees, September 1, 1940. Pastor of the General Church Mission in Georgetown, British Guiana. Address: 273 Lamaha Street. Georgetown 4, Demerara, British Guiana, South America.

     South African Mission.

     Xosa.

KANDISA, JOHNSON. Ordained September 11, 1938. Minister of the Sterkstroom Society, Cape Province. Address: P. O. Sterkstroom, C. P., South Africa.

     Mosuto.

MOTSI, JONAS. Ordained September 29. 1929; 2d Degree, September 30, 1929. Pastor of the Greylingstad Society. Address: Box 38, Greylingstad, Transvaal, South Africa.

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     Zulu.

BUTHELEZI, STEPHEN EPHRAIM. Ordained September 11, 1938. Minister of Hambrook District. Address: Hambrook P. O. Acton Homes, Ladysmith. Natal, South Africa.
LUNGA, JOHANNES. Ordained September 11, 1938. Minister of the Esididini Society. Address: Esididini, P. O. Kalabasi, Dannhauser. Natal, South Africa.
MATSHININI, TIMOTHY. Ordained August 28, 1938. Minister of the Society at Alexandra Township, Johannesburg. Address: 165 11 Avenue. Alexandra Township, Johannesburg, South Africa.
MCANYANA, MOFFAT. Ordained August 12, 1928; 2d Degree, September 30, 1929. Pastor of the Mayville Society, Durban. Address: 104 Oakleigh Drive, Durban, Natal, South Africa.
MKIZE, SOLOMON. Ordained. August 21, 1938. Address: P. O. Mahlabatini, Zululand.
NZIMANDE, BENJAMIN ISHMAEL. Ordained August 21, 1938. Minister in the Deepdale and Bulwer Districts, Natal. Address: c/o Inkumba Government School. P. 0. Deepdale, Maritzburg, Natal, South Africa.
SABELA, PETER. Ordained August 21, 1938. Missionary. Minister to "Kent Manor." Address: "Kent Manor," P. O. Entumeni, Zululand, South Africa.
STOLE, PHILIP JOHANNES. Ordained September 29, 1929; 3d Degree, August 7, 1938. Pastor of the Turner's Avenue Society. Address: 19, Turner Avenue, off Berca Road, Durban, Natal, South Africa.
ZUNGU, AARON. Ordained August 21, 1938. Assistant Minister to Kent Manor Society, Headmaster of the School. Address: "Kent Manor." P. O. Entumeni, Zululand, South Africa.

     SOCIETIES AND CIRCLES.

     In order to avoid confusion it seems well to observe, in the Official Records and the Official Journal of the General Church, the recognized distinction between a "Society" and a "Circle."
     In general, a "Society" may be defined as a congregation under the leadership of a resident Minister or Pastor; while a "Circle" is an organized group receiving regular visits from a non-resident Minister or Pastor.
     GEORGE DE CHARMS,
          Bishop.

568


Church News 1941

Church News       Various       1941

     ACADEMY SCHOOLS.

     Charter Day.

     Although Bryn Athyn has experienced a two months' drought, and Summer has lingered longer than usual, we were favored with clear and cool Autumn weather for the celebration of Charter Day on October 24th and 25th.
     Visiting ex-students came from far and near, with an especially large delegation from Pittsburgh, and many carried their class banners in the procession of Academy officials and students to the cathedral for the opening service.
     The Address by the Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal was a thoughtful and searching treatment of the subject of "The Conflicts of the Academy," in the course of which he contrasted our present problems with those of the early days. The text of the address appears on another page of this issue.
     After the service there was the customary return procession to Benade Hall, where all joined heartily in the singing of church, school and patriotic songs. A football victory in the afternoon added zest to the dance in the evening.
     The Banquet in the Assembly Hall on Saturday evening, with an attendance of 300, was an extraordinary event. The toastmaster, Mr. Raymond Pitcairn, had assembled an array of twenty speakers-believe it or not! He had asked the men of the Academy Faculty to prepare four-minute speeches, and these dealt with a variety of topics which the toastmaster skilfully wove into a pattern by his own brief and interesting comment.
     A great deal can be said in four minutes, and was. So were we told how mathematics, science, literature, languages, and other subjects, are taught from a New Church standpoint: and how the world looks today in the matter of morals, religion, philosophy, liberty and patriotism-with a summing up by the Bishop.
     It was a long program, but we adjourned at 10.30, feeling that we had enjoyed a highly instructive and inspiring evening.

     DURBAN, NATAL.

     September 30, 1941-July is the Winter holiday month in South Africa, and Kainon School was on vacation until the first week in August.
     Mrs. Viola Ridgway and her family left us on July 30 to make a temporary home in Ladybrand, O. F. S., until such time as they could sail for the United States. But we are glad to hear that she has decided to return to Durban. We have missed Viola, who is a delightful personality, capable and hardworking in the Society.
     During July Mr. Elphick received news that his nephew, Michael Finley, of the Royal Air Force, had arrived safely in the Middle East. Michael had the misfortune to be confined to hospital in Durban owing to a poisoned arm. He had a long spell of hospital and convalescent camp here, but was unable to obtain leave and meet the New Church friends in Durban, being prevented by military regulations. We wish him good luck "up North."
     On Saturday, July 26, a congregation of over 200 people crowded into our church to witness the marriage of Miss Sheila Braby, younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Braby, to Lieutenant Maurice Howson, South African Air Force, third son of Mr. and Mrs. J. Howson of Durban.

569


The Rev. F. W. Elphick officiated at the ceremony. The bride wore a beautiful gown of ivory embossed crepe de Chloe, and was attended by Miss Biddy Sangmeister, while the bridegroom was accompanied by Captain D. R. Clyde Morley, S. A. A. F. With a tastefully decorated church, very bright music, the most impressive New Church marriage ceremony, and a full and happy reception, we feel that every good wish for their future happiness was given to our latest married couple.
     About the middle of August, Mr. Septimus Braby, youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Braby, returned safely to Durban, and received a hearty welcome after nearly four years' residence in the United States. He has been studying at the Chiropractic College in Indianapolis, and has graduated as Doctor of Chiropractic.
     In addition to these happenings in our Society, various pleasant and enjoyable social functions have been held for the purpose of raising church funds during the past month or two. On August 29, Theta Alpha held a Beetle Drive. and on September 26 a Games Evening, both of which took place in the Hall; while on September 5th the Women's Guild held a Sale of Work and Teas, for which function Mrs. James J. Forfar graciously allowed us the use of her lovely garden.

     National Day of Prayer.

     Sunday, September 7, having been set aside and proclaimed a National Day of Prayer by His Majesty the King, this day was observed as such by the Durban Society. This is the third time that the peoples of Britain and the British Empire have united in prayer during this greatest of all wars. In an inspiring Address at the morning service, Mr. Elphick warned against anxiety, taking as his text Matthew 6: 34, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Although we are not yet able to tell what is to be the outcome of this terrible struggle against the evil things that assail us, we must remember that no more evil befalls than man or men can withstand. If we acknowledge in heart that good, truth and justice are in their origin Divine, so far will we have the strength to meet the evil of every day. We do not pray for material victory, and that our enemies may be blasted and killed, or that we may be great and rule the waves, but that each individual may have the strength to endure the conflict, to the end that evils may be purged away. Especially when assailed by anxious thought in anxious times, and our trust and prudence and skill are put to a severe test, we must remember the Lord's words: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."
     P. D.C.

     GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS.

     In this transition period from Summer to Winter our visitors leave us in ones and twos and threes. Our own boys and girls-eleven of them this year-have boarded the train for Bryn Athyn to attend the Academy. And the children of the Immanuel Church are going their willing way to the local school-as has happened now for over forty-three years. It is a thrilling thing, this Sixty-four boys and girls starting another year of New Church education, as the children of this society have done under the leadership of four generations of teachers! Here are our grades, the number in each, and the teachers:
     Kindergarten 5, Miss Susan Scalbom; 1st grade 6. 2d grade 5, 3d grade 7, Miss Venita Roschman; 4th grade 7, 5th grade 4, Miss Lois Nelson; 6th grade 7, 7th grade 3, Miss Natalie Henderson; 8th grade 11, 9th grade 9, Miss Gladys Blackman. Mr. Smith teaches Religion to the 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 9th grades; Mr. Harold Cranch teaches Religion to the 7th and 8th grades and Hebrew to the 4th to 9th grades, inclusive.

570


Miss Helen Maynard teaches Science to the 7th and 8th grades, and Mathematics to the 8th and 9th grades.
     Mr. Smith has started a new evening class for the boys and girls who graduated from our 9th grade last year. They meet at The Manse, and are studying the work on Heaven and Hell. Weekly Manual Training classes for the 6th, 7th and 8th grades have been resumed.
     Our good friend, Mr. Oscar Lindrooth, who passed to the spiritual world on October 2d at the age of 72 years, was one of the first members of the Immanuel Church.
     On Thursday evening, September 18, Bishop and Mrs. Alfred Acton paid us one of those delightful, unexpected visits, stopping for a few hours on their way from North St. Paul to Cincinnati. The Bishop told us about his meetings with the New Church people in North St. Paul, which were held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Carpenter. At the first Sunday service 36 adults and 14 children were present, and 26 adults at the Friday lecture. During his visit 4 adults and 1 child were baptized, and at the Holy Supper service there were 22 communicants. He told us of the dedicating of two beautiful silver goblets to the use of the Holy Supper, and of the formation of this group into a Circle of the General Church. Bishop Acton brought to us the good wishes of our friends of this newest Circle.
     Our first Friday supper was held September 26, and on October 10 the semi-annual meeting of the society,- always particularly interesting. as we have the pleasure of hearing seven or eight reports from the various officers. These reports, short and to the point, tell us what has been happening and what's going to happen, and we always come away with the feeling that everything is well under control.
     You know, folks, this report looks fairly well complete, and yet it is not! For what of our Sunday services? It is so easy to "go to church" every Sunday and listen to a good sermon, and sort of take it for granted, as something we have a right to expect. But the fact is that these services and our Friday lectures are the spiritual life of our society. They are high grade, and for them we are very grateful.
     HAROLD P. McQUEEN.

     TORONTO, CANADA.

     November 11th.-In the quieter days following the war of 1914-18 we tried to keep faith with the Unknown Soldier. What can we say to him in this year of war, this 1941 Our minds go back to the time when we buried the Unknown Soldier with great sorrow, for he represented the countless hosts of loved ones who had not returned from the far-flung battlefields of the world; and with great hope, for we thought we had also buried the hatreds, the envies, and the bitterness that had so marred our progress on this earth. In a score of years the old evils of greed and domination have again raised their heads, and we approach this November 11th with a regret that the pledges of freedom have again been violated. It will not he easy to explain this to the Unknown Soldier when we commune with him in our period of silence. Nor can it he satisfactorily explained to the sons of his generation, who are going forth to defend once more the sacred principles of justice and freedom.
     The Olivet Society Roll of Honor has increased, and now includes ten men on active service-four sons and six husbands, whose names we here record in alphabetical order:

Jack H. Bellinger.
Orville A. Carter.
Arthur A. Fountain.
Thomas J. Fountain.
Laurence T. Izzard.
Leonard Jesseman.
Haydn D. John.
Sydney R. Parker.
Bruce H. Scott.
Healdon R. Starkey.

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     A memorable week-end was provided by the visit of Bishop and Mrs. de Charms on October 11-12. After a supper attended by over eighty people, the Bishop gave us a paper on the subject of Judgments and Divine Providence which was deeply appreciated by all who beard it.
     Four new babies have arrived in Toronto homes as potential pupils of our school, which, by the way, got off to a very good start in September, with Miss Zoe Gyllenhaal as teacher. From all indications we can look forward to a happy and progressive year, with pupils enrolled in the six lower grades.
     We were glad to share in the pleasures and benefits of Mr. Gyllenhaal's visit to Bryn Athyn during the week of October 24, when he had the honor of delivering the Charter Day Address. This is an occasion when the hearts of all our members turn to the Academy as the centre and source of the enlightenment of the Church; for we look to it for leadership that is both adequate and relevant to the confused issues of the day. It is of vital importance to all peoples that our Doctrines be given true meaning in terms of the world in which we live and that fundamental issues be our concern in the study and teaching of the Writings. The present struggle intensifies all other stresses, and should reveal a new educational process to deepen the awareness of men to the real values and relationships in the world in which we have to live.
     C. S.

     DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

     Following the service and luncheon on Sunday, October 26, a business meeting of our group was held, at the conclusion of which the following officers for the ensuing year were elected: Norman P. Synnestvedt, Recording Secretary; Miss Muriel Cook, Corresponding Secretary; William F. Cook, Treasurer; Fred Steen, William F. Cook, William W. Walker, Norman P. Synnestvedt, Chairman, and the Rev. Norman H. Reuter, ex-offcio, Executive Committee. For the first time in our history an Executive Committee was elected to handle our affairs between business meetings of the entire group. This, we feel, is a further indication of progress, and a real step toward our goal of achieving the status of an organized society of the General Church.
     Our regular schedule of monthly meetings is being maintained, with very satisfactory attendance records. Whenever possible our service is held on the last Sunday of the month, with doctrinal and children's classes on the preceding Thursday and Saturday. The intervening Friday is usually devoted by Mr. Reuter to a trip abroad, namely, to Windsor, Ontario, where he visits our good friends and fellow members, the Bellingers, and conducts a doctrinal class.
     The Bellinger's eldest son, Bill, who recently graduated at Bryn Athyn, has entered the service of his Country, and is now in training as an R. C. A. F. pilot. On the eve of his departure for camp, a number of us went across the river to bid him good-bye.
     The Middle West District Assembly took the place of our September meeting, as already recorded in your pages. Suffice it here to say that once again it was the source of great pleasure to us all to meet and worship with General Church people from distant points. Their coming added greatly to the sphere, and was most inspiring and helpful.
     Worthy of special mention is the fact that our group now has four young representatives in the Academy Schools at Bryn Athyn:-Virginia Childs, Frances Cook, Joyce Robinson, and Owen Birchman. The first two are the children of families well known to your readers, but we shall introduce the other two. Joyce Robinson, daughter of Mr. Eric Robinson, is a niece of Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Walker, and a cousin of Miss June Macauley. Owen Birchman, son of Mr. and Mrs. Otto Birchman, is related to the Cook family, his mother being a sister of Mr. Win. F. Cook.

572


These young people, and others who may go to the Academy from families of our group, hold real promise for the future growth and success of the Church in Michigan, and we shall watch their progress with much interest.
     Just to show that our members have their lighter moments, we must mention the gay Halloween revel given by the Synnestvedts in their new home on Saturday evening, November 1st. Twenty-two of us attended, and did we have fun Some of our most dignified members quite surprised us by donning outlandish costumes and joining heartily in the stunts and games. It is on such carefree occasions that we really get to know each other; and we discovered unsuspected traits and talents in a number of our members at this gay party.
     W. W. W.

     FRED J. COOPER.

     A Tribute.

     Self-styled "Jeweler by Birth," Fred Cooper's great ambition was to follow in his father's footsteps. He did so. From early manhood until the present year he worked steadily, doggedly, at his profession. To him his work was his delight; it was his life. Into it he put his heart and soul. Sincerity and honesty, and the love of performing a useful work, were the foundation stones upon which he built the business of his choosing. And today, in Philadelphia, there stands a monument to his success-Fred's new store, his crowning achievement, tangible evidence of the reward of good work faithfully done. To use the parlance of the day, Fred "made good."
     We gaze in loving memory at the sign on the door,-FRED J. COOPER. Jeweler by Birth. Let us pause before we enter; for this man's life is an inspiration to all New Churchmen. Read his advertisements. Examine everything he wrote and said about his business, and we shall see the reasonings of a man who applied the doctrines of the New Church to his daily work-his conviction that all religion has relation to life, and that the life of religion is to do good.
     Fred was a useful New Churchman. He could not have been otherwise, because he lived his religion.
     We enter. We look around. On every side we see his handiwork-the expert displaying of gold and silver and precious stones. We feel his sphere. There is a pulling at our heartstrings. We shall miss him-miss his genial smile, his keen sense of humor, the logic of his remarks at our meetings, the grasp of his friendly hand!
     But with that missing comes a cheerfulness of spirit; for we believe that greater uses await him. Already our Jeweler by Birth has entered into those uses.
     HAROLD P. MCQUEEN.

     A CORRECTION.

     On page 84 of the February, 1941, issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE, there is a reference to D. P. 270 which should read D. L. W. 270.
     In the work on the Divine Providence the numbering passes from 265 to 274, omitting 266 to 273.
     In this connection we may recall that similar omissions occur in other works of the Writings, notably in the True Christian Religion, where the numbering passes from 539 to 560, omitting 540 to 559.

573


MILITARY SERVICE COMMITTEE. 1941

MILITARY SERVICE COMMITTEE.              1941

Ahren, Vrpl. Olof, Hackspettsvbgen 14, Alsten, Stockholm, Sweden.
Alden, Sgt. Gideon T., 33031837, Battery B. 53re1 Coast Artillery, A. P. 0. 802, Bermuda.
Alden, Cpl. Guy S., Co. B, 63rd Signal Bu., A. P. 0. 304, Fort Tackson, S. C.
Alden Pvt. Theodore S., Co. B, .3rdl Sig. Battalion, Fort Monmouth, N. J.
Appleton, L. A. C. Eric D., No. 750449, Workshops, RAP. Station. Dishforth, Nr. Thirsk, Yorks., England.
Appleton, Roy, 52 Drury Road, Colchester, England.
Baeckstrom, Korpral Gunnar, Svedjevagen 20, Appelviken, Stockholm, Sweden.
Bamford, Pvt. F. D., 2515. "A" Coy., 2nd R.D.L.I., U.D.F.-M. E. Forces, Army P. 0., Durlsan, Natal, South Africa.
Bellinger, P. 0. Alfred G., R 75882, No. 13 OTS., Patricia Bay, Nancouver, B. C., Canada.
Bellinger, Cpl. John H., R 88575, No. 3 B. & G. School, R.C.A.F., Macdonald, Manitoba, Canada.
Bellinger, A. C. 2 William G., R 137131, R.C.A.F., No. 1 M Depot, Toronto, Ont., Canada.
Boozer, Driver A. E., T/151805, D. Section, 19th M. C. Coy. (327 Coy.), R.A.S.C., c/o Army P. 0., England.
Bostock, Pvt. Edward, C., Jr., Air Corps, 84th Material Squadron, Las Vegas, Nevada.
Brahy, Lieut. Horace, c/o A. C.
Braby, Esq., P. 0. Box 731, Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Brickman, Pvt. Elmer G., H. Q. Sqdn., 6th Pursuit Wing, Selfridge Field, Michigan.
Buss, Pvt. J. M., No. 94002, B Coy., 1st N.M.R., U.D.F.-M. E. Forces, Army P. 0., Durhan, Natal, South Africa.
Carter, A. C. 2 Orville A., R 111624, R.C.A.F., No. 1, Wireless School, Queen Mary Road, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Cockerell, Graham, c/o Mrs. J. D.
Cockerell, 52 Vatise Road, Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Cockerell, John, c/o Miss Joy Lowe, c/o Hunt, Leuchars, & Hepburn, Ltd., P. 0. Box 943, Durhan, Natal, South Africa.
Cockerell, Neville, c/o Mr. S. D. Cockerell, P. 0. Box 28, Westville, Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Cockerell, A/Corpl. P., No. 4893, A Flight, Sqdn. No. 41, South African Air Force, Army P. 0., Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Cole, Pvt. William P., 13028818, Flight C. 301st Sqdn. School, Keesler Field, Mississippi.
Cooper, Lt. Philip G., Signal Corps, Fort Monmouth, N. J.
Cooper, P.F.C. Rey W., 53rd Material Seinad., 40th Air Base Group, Meridian. Mississippi.
Cowley, Pvt. W. S., No. 6343, 1st N.M.R.. H.Q. No. 1, U.D.F.- M. F. Forces, Army P. 0, Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Daly, Avn/C. Jean, Air Corps Training Detachment, Parks Air College, East St. Lotus, Illinois.
Davies, P.F.C. John, 8th Transport Sqdn., Hill Field, Ogden, Utah, D.S. 1st Weather Sqdn.
Davis, S/Sgt. Charles F., 64th Mat. Sqdn., 49th Air Base, Fresno, California.
Davis, Pvt. Richard L., Battery A, 13th Bn., 4th Tr. F.A.R.C., Fort Bragg, N. C.

574



De Charms, Lt. Comdr. Richard, Officer in Charge of Housing, U. S. Naval Ordnance Plant, So. Charleston, W. Virginia.
De Chazal, P/N S., No. 254594, 17th Field Ambulance, Army P. 0., Durban, Natal, South Africa.
De Maine, Sgt. Rohert E. L., Co. F, 36th Combat Engineers, Plattsburg Barracks, N. Y.
De Villiers, Pvt. D. B., No. 195604, "B" Coy., 1st SAP.. 6th Infantry Brigade, 2ntl SA. Divo., U.D.F.-M. F. Forces, Arms P. 0., Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Field, Pvt. George A., Boiling Field, D. C.
Fine, P.F.C. Raymond, Military Police Co., Schofield Barracks. Hawaiian Division, T. H.
Finley, A/Corpl. H. M., No. 538331. RAF., Midrib East Pool. Midelle East, via Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Fountain, Corpl. A. A., B 76894. TSR., M.C.T.C., Coteati Barracks, Three Rivers, P. Q. Canada.
Fountain, Trooper T. J., B 69980. G.C.H.G., .\ Sqdn. 3rd Armed Regt, Canadian Army Overseas.
Fraser, Corpl. R. S., No. 3726. Cable Platoon, No. 2 Div. Sig. Coy., U.D.F.-M. E. Forces, Army P. 0. Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Gardiner, Pvt. J. 0., No. 82616. B' Coy., Rand Lt. Infantry. 3rdl Infantry Brigade, 2nd 5. A. Div., U.D.F.-M. F. Forces, Army P. 0., Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Greenhalgh, Sgn. Colin M., 2347948, 24th Arind Brigade Signals, Home Forces, England.
Hammond, A/P A. N., No. 104034, No. 22 Air School, Vereeniging, Transvaal, South Africa.
Hammond, Pvt. H. V., 1st N.M.R., "A" Coy., 2nd Infantry Brigade, U.D.F.-M. E. Forces, Army P. 0., Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Hammond, L/C Harry B., No. 178055, 2nd Echelon, U.D.F.- M. E. Forces, Army P. 0. Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Heilman, Pvt. Grant, 1st Photographic Sqtln., Bolling Field, D. C.
Heinrichs, Lance Corpl. H., 38189, Bn. Hq. Highland Lt. Infantry of Canada, 3rd Canadian Division, Canadian Army Overseas.
Heldon, Sgt. Norman, NN 51755, 7th Infantry Training Centre, Foster, Victoria, Australia.
Heldon, A. C. 1 Sydney, 37798, No. 3 R.A.A.F. Hospital, Richmond, N.SAV., Australia.
Hill, A. C. 1 L. E., R 89398, R.C.A.F. Overseas, c/o RAE. Recordls, England.
Hill, A. C. 2 Ralph R., R 137173, No. 1 Maiming Depot, Toronto, Out., Canada.
Howson, Lieut. Maurice, c/o A. C. Braby, Ewdt., P. 0. Box 731, Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Iungerich, Ph. M. Alexander 1-C, Naval Hospital, Philadelphia, Pa.
Iungerich, Sgt. Stevan, M.C.B., Quantico, Virginia.
Izzard, P. 0. L. T., R 85608, Royal Canadian Air Force Overseas.
James, Sgt. C. J., A 17008, No. 2 Base Depot, Medical Stores, R.C.A.M.C., Canadian Army Overseas, c/o Base P. 0., Canada.
Jeunechamp, Le Commandant Eugene, 1st Spahis Algeriens, Laghanat, Dept. dAlger, North Africa.
John, LAC. Haydn, R 72169, R.C.A.F. Station, Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Kintner, Lt. William R., Fort Constitution, New Castle, N. H.
Kuhl, Lance Corpl. Win. A., No. 10 Basic Training Center, Kitchener, Ont., Canada.
Kuhn, Lieut. Raymond T., Co. K, Stud. Training Units, I.S.S.C., Fort Benning, Ga.
Lee, Pvt. Harold, Co. "C," 108th Combat Engineers, Camp Forrest, Tenn.

575



Lindsay, P.F.C. Alexander H., 28th Signal Co., Spec. Troops. A. P. 0. No. 28. Indiantown Gap, Pa.
Loven, Lojtnant Tore, Faltpost 231, 24 Litt. F., Sweden.
Lowe, Major Walter G., c/o Messrs. Lowthers, Led., P. 0. Box 492, Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Lumsden, Sgt. F. H. D., No. 45259 "C" Coy., 1st R.D.L.J., 3rd Infantry Brigade, U.D.F.-M. F. Forces, Army P. 0., Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Lumsden, Pvt. J. M., No. 6929, "B" Coy., 1st R.D.L.I., 3rdl Infantry Brigade, U.D.F.-M. E. Forces, Army P. 0. Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Lunden, Vrpl. K. Gunnar, Drottningholiusvogeil 116 A, Stockholm, Sweden.
McClean, Corpl. A. P. D., No. 299290, 39 St. Thomas Road, Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Morris, Sapper David, No. 2184480, 115th Road Construction Coy., R.E., Bury St. Edmonds, Suffolk, England.
Odhner, Pvt. Sanfrid E., I-I.Q. & H.Q. Sqdn., 1st Air Base (R), Langley Field, Virginia.
Parker, Pvt. S. F., No. 86601, Service Corps Dept.. T. S. Depot Cullinan, Premier Mine, Traitsvaal, South Africa.
Parker, F. 0. Sydney R., C 3147, R.C.A.F., Canadian Army Overseas.
Peterson, Pvt. William F., Battery "D," 32111 Bn., 8th F.A. Reg., F.A.R.T.C., Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
Pitcairn, Pvt. Michael, Co. B, 1st Battn., Sig. Corps Replacement Training Center, Fort Monmouth, N. J.
Potts, Pvt. John W., Q.M.C., Service Unit 1201, Fort Jay, Governor's Island, New York. N. Y.
Reuter, P. F. C. Warren, 108th Observation Sqdn., 5400 W. 63rd St., Chicago, Illinois.
Richards, Pvt. W., No. 65330, C.A.T.D., No. 1 Camp, Prenlier Mine, Pretoria, South Africa.
Ridgway, L/Corpl. A. E., No. 5925, Sig. Platoon 1st 5. A. Irish. U.D. V.-M. F. Forces, Army P. 0., Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Ridgway, Lieut. B. M., No. 251535, 6th Brigade. Sign. Coy Attached, 2nel Tratssvaal Scottish, 6th Infantry Brigade, U.D.F.-M. E. Forces, Army P. 0., Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Ridgway, Lieut. C. 0., No. 1479, "C" Coy., Utlivoti Mounted Rifles, U.D.F.-M. F. Forces, Army P. 0., Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Ridgwuy, Air Mech. C. R., No. 95994, Station Staff. Zwartkof Air Station, Roberts Heights, Transvaal, South Africa.
Ridgway, Signaller G No 289488, Signals H.Q. Coy., 2nd 5. A. Police, 2nd SA. Divn., U.D.F. St. F. Forces, Army P. 0., Durban, Natal, South Africa.
Ridgway, Pvt. H. A .,N o. X9074, c/o Southern Rhodesia Medical Coriss, Heany Air Station, Heany, Rhodesia, South Africa.
Ridgway, Air Mech. L. A., No. 210985, S.A.A.F. Rantl Airport, Geruliston, Transvaal, South Africa.
Rydstrom, F. C. Jean, A/C 41-H, Kelly Field, Texas.
Sandstrom, 392 46-34 A., Sjomatsskarcts, Karlskrona, Sweden.
Schnarr, LAC. Joffre G., Can. No. 70212. 206th Sdldln., R.A.F., North Ireland, c/o Base P. 0., Ottawa, Ont., Canada.
Scott, Gnr. Bruce H., B 18594. 30 Battery RCA (A). Hut C-i, No. 20 Basic Training Centre, Brautford. Ont., Canada.
Smith, Lt. Edmund G., 112th Observation Sqdn., Poise Field, Fort Bragg, N. C.
Soneson, Pvt. Carl, Motor Co., E.R.C., Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Starkey, Signalman H. R., M 16691, No. I Co., 1st Div. Signals, Royal Canadian Corps Signals, Canadian Army Overseas.
Steen, A.C. 2 A. Howard, R 103234, D Flight, No. 20 E.F.T.S., Oshawa, Ont., Canada.

576



Steen, Sgt. George K., A 99912, F Batters, R.C.A.T.C., Petawawa Military Camp, Pecawawa, Ont., Canada.
Strowger, Mrs. Ruby, Y.M.C.A. Hut, Brantford, Ont., Canada.
Taylor, AC. 1, T. D., 33984, R.A A.F. Station, Cootamundra. N.S.W., Australia,
Tilson, Cpl. B. V., c/o Mr. V. R. Tilson, 136 Preston Road, Wembley, England.
Tilson, Gnr. R. J., 980022, 42nd Battery, Light A.A., R.A., Middle East Forces.
Tinker, Harry (Anti-Aircraft), Bryn Athyn, Miclelletots Road, Heywood, Laucs., England.
Walker, Marvin J., E Division, USS. Lexington, Long Beach, California.
Walter, A/C Richard A., Recruit Squadron, Air Corps Replacement Center, Maxwell Field, Montgomery, Alabama.
Waters, Gnr. M. T., 874881, 327th H.A.A. Battery, RA.. Lynwood Drive, Mackworth, Derby, FogIan dl.
MINISTERIAL CHANGES 1941

MINISTERIAL CHANGES              1941




     Announcements



     The Rev. Harold Covert Cranch has been appointed by the Bishop to be Minister of Sharon Church, Chicago, Illinois, and Assistant to the Pastor of the Immanuel Church, Glenview, Illinois, and he has entered upon the duties of these offices.