KNOWLEDGE OF THE WRITINGS ESSENTIAL TO THE NEW CHURCH 1957

KNOWLEDGE OF THE WRITINGS ESSENTIAL TO THE NEW CHURCH GEORGE DE CHARMS 1957

A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS
REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

The Knowledge of the Writings Essential to the New Church
     George de Charms 1
A Vow to the Lord
     A Sermon on Psalm 76: 11
          Norbert H. Rogers 4
The Spiritual-Natural Uses of Science
     Morley D. Rich 9
The Collection of Swedenborgiana in the Academy of the New Church Library
     W. Cairns Henderson 20
Dramatizing the Word
     George de Charms 24
New Church Education for All
     Erik Sandstrom 26
The Last Judgment in the Writings     30
In Our Contemporaries     33
Miss Serena Katherine Dandridge
     Cornelia H. Hotson 35
Notes on the Calendar Readings     37
Editorial Department
     Two Anniversaries     38
     Swedenborg and the Last Judgment     39
Church News     40

Announcements
     Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriages, Deaths     46
     Annual Council Meetings-January 21-27-Program     48

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BY

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

Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Editor. Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Business Manager
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New Church Life
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS
REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

A Notable Anniversary
     George de Charms 49

The Law of the Pledge
     A Sermon on Deuteronomy 24: 10-13
          Willard D. Pendleton 51
The Last Judgment
     1. Expectations and Prophecies
          Hugo Lj. Odhner 56
The Worship and Love of God: Part III
     Alfred Acton 65
The Functions of the Specific New Church
     G. A. de C. de Moubray 69
Mr. Geoffrey Stafford Childs
     Memorial Address
          Norman H. Reuter 78
     Biographical Sketch
          Karl R. Alden 82
Notes on the Calendar Readings     84

Editorial Department
     The Church: Uses and Needs     85
     A New Concept of Government     86
     A New Beginning     86
     The Past and the Future     88
Church News     89

Announcements
     Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriages, Deaths     95

New Church Life
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS
REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

First Faith
     A Sermon
          Geoffrey S. Childs 97

The Last Judgment
     2. The Scene of the Judgment
          Hugo Lj. Odhner 101

The Design and Significance of the Fourth Carved
     Offertory Bowl for the Bryn Athyn Church
          Thorsten Sigstedt 110
Swedish Words in the Spiritual Diary
     Cyriel Odhner Sigstedt 112
Man's Ruling Love
     Frederick L. Schnarr 121
The Functions of the Specific New Church
     C. A. de C. de Moubray 125
The New Church Man's Service in the World
     Roy H. Griffith 133
Notes on the Calendar Readings     136

Editorial Department
     The Return of Anus     137
Church News     138

Announcements
     Ordination, Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriages, Deaths     143

New Church Life
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS
REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
Dr. Charles Emil Doering
     Frontispiece
The Holy Spirit
     A Sermon on John 14: 16-19
          Louis B. King     145
The Walk to Emmaus
     An Easter Talk to Children
          W. Cairns Henderson     149
The Last Judgment
     3. The Judgment on "Babylonia
          Hugo Lj. Odhner     152
Missionary Work
     Address to the Council of the Clergy
          Karl R. Alden     162
Ordination
     Declaration of Faith and Purpose
          B. David Holm     170
Rev. Charles Emil Doering
     Memorial Address
          William Whitehead     172
Notes on the Calendar Readings          178

ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS
Council of the Clergy Sessions
     W. Cairns Henderson 179
Joint Council Session
     Hugo Lj. Odhner 181
Annual Reports
     Secretary of the General Church
          Hugo Lj. Odhner 191
     Council of the Clergy
          W. Cairns Henderson 194
     Corporations of the General Church
          Leonard B. Gyllenhaal 200
     Treasurer of the General Church
          Leonard E. Gyllenhaal 202
     Editor of "New Church Life"
          W. Cairns Henderson 203
     Religion Lessons Committee
          Frederick B. Gyllenhaal 204
     Sound Recording Committee
          W. Cairns Henderson 205
     Salary Committee
          Philip C. Pendleton 205
     Publication Committee
          Hugo Lj. Odhner 206
     Visual Education Committee
          William R. Cooper 206

Editorial Department
     Neither Cross Nor Tomb     207
Church News     208
Announcements
     Annual Corporation Meetings-June 15, 1957     211
     Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriages, Deaths     211
     Academy of the New Church-School Calendar: 1957-1958     212

New Church Life
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS
REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

The Writings as the Word
     A Study in the History of Doctrine
          Alfred Acton 213

Repentance
     A Sermon on I Samuel 7: 3
          Frederick L. Schnarr 220

The Last Judgment
     4. "Great Babylon is Fallen
          Hugo Lj. Odhner 225

South African Mission
     Annual Ministers' Meetings
          A. Wynne A clan     235
Temptation
     Aaron B. Zungu     238
Repentance the First of the Church
     Paul Sibeko     245
In Our Contemporaries          248
Notes on the Calendar Readings          249

Reviews
     The New Church and Swedenborg's Claim     250
     Divine Providence and Human Freedom     250
     Arcana Coelestia (Third Latin Edition), vol. iv     250
Editorial Department
     Redemption: Doctrine and Implications     251
     The Idea of the Holy Spirit     252
Communication
     Swedenborg and Judaism
          Cyriel O. Sigstedt 252
Church News     256
Announcements
     Annual Corporation Meetings-June 15     259
     Academy Joint Meeting-June 7     259
     Swedenborg Scientific Association-May 15     259
     Baptisms, Confirmations, Deaths     259
     Academy of the New Church: School Calendar, 1957-1958     260

June, 1957

New Church Life
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS
REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

The Last Judgment and the New Church
     A Sermon on Revelation 14: 6
          George de Charms 261
The Nineteenth of June
     A Talk to Children
          Karl R. Alden 265
The Last Judgment
     5. The Judgment on the Reformed
          Hugo Lj. Odhner 268
Physical Education for Women
     Judith Pendleton 227
The Writings as the Word
     A Study in the History of Doctrine
     Alfred Acton 282
Development of the New Church Through Worship
     Geoffrey S. Childs 292
Notes on the Calendar Readings          295
In Our Contemporaries          296
Review
     The Moral Life (Revised Edition)     297
Editorial Department
     All Things New     298
Communications
     Going to the Writings     299
     The New Church and the Old
          Douglas Taylor          300
     The Functions of the Specific New Church
          G. A. de C. de Moubray     300

Church News
Announcements          303
     General Church Corporations-June 15     306
     British Assembly-August 3-5     306
     Peace River District Assembly-August 4     306
     Western District Assembly-July 20-21     306
     Academy Joint Meeting-June 7     306
     Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriages, Deaths, Ordinations     306
     22nd General Assembly     308

New Church Life
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS
REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

Love of Country
      A Sermon on Psalm 33:12
          Morley D. Rich 309

The Last Judgment
     6. The Downfall of the Dragon
          Hugo Lj. Odhner 315
Blake and Swedenborg
     Donald C. Fitzpatrick, Jr. 325
The Girl in the Girls School
     Margaret Wilde 330

Ordinations
     Declarations of Faith and Purpose     337
In Our Contemporaries     339
Notes on the Calendar Readings     341

Review
     An Introduction to Swedenborg's Religious Thought     342
Editorial Department
     Is the General Church New Church     344
     Capital Punishment     345
     Heavenly Government and Democracy     346
Church News     348

Announcements
     Peace River District Assembly-August 4, 1957     354
     Western District Assembly-July 20-21, 1957     354
     Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriages, Deaths     354
     42nd British Assembly-Program     356

Vol. LXXVII     August, 1957     No. 8

New Church Life
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS
REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

The Works of Charity
     A Sermon on Matthew 7:16-18
          Erik Sandstrom 357
The Last Judgment
     7. The Effects of the Last Judgment
          Hugo Lj. Odhner 363
The History of the Coronis
     Alfred A class 372

Ordinations
     Declarations of Faith and Purpose     378
Notes on the Calendar Readings     380

Review
     The Last Judgment and the Second Advent     381

Editorial Department
     Rejoicing over Judgment     382
Church News     383

Announcements
     Ordinations, Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriages, Deaths     390
     District Assemblies-October, 1957     391
     Educational Council-August 19-23-Program     392

New Church Life
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS
REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

Responsibility
     A Sermon on Matthew 25:15
          Hugo Lj. Odhner 393
Human Rights
     Geoffrey P. Dawson 398
Missionary Work as an Extension of the Last Judgment
     Peter J. Lermitte 409
An Interesting Centennial     412
Notes on the Calendar Readings     414
In Our Contemporaries     416
Publishing the Writings
     Two Stimulating Reports     417
Reviews
     The Secret of Human Life on Other Worlds
          Wertha P. Cole 419
     Introduction to the Book of Revelation     423
Editorial Department
     In Defense of an Ultimate Means     424
     Education: A Reappraisal     425
Communication
     Heavenly Government and Democracy
          G. A. de C. de Moubray 426
Church News     428
Announcements
     Charter Day-October 25-26, 1957     431
     Ordination, Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriages, Deaths     431
     District Assemblies-October, 1957     432

October, 1957

New Church Life
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS
REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

Educational Council
     13th General Meeting
          Lyris Hyatt 433
Israel and Amalek
     A Sermon on Exodus 17: 11, 12
          Charles B. Doering 435
The Formation of the Rational
     Colin M. Greenhaugh 441
Dr. William Whitehead
     Remarks at a General Faculty Luncheon
          Raymond Pitcairn 455
Divine Intercession
     Louis B. King 459
Ordination
     Declaration of Faith and Purpose
          Robert S. Junge 463
In Our Contemporaries     464
Notes on the Calendar Readings     465
Editorial Department
     The Idea of the Church     467
     The Idea of Distinctiveness     468
Communication
     A Proposal Regarding the Spiritual Diary
          Hyland R. Johns 469
Local Schools Directory, 1957-1958     470
Church News     471
Announcements
     Charter Day-October 25-26, 1957     478
     Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriages, Deaths     478
     District Assemblies-October, 1957     480

New Church Life
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS
REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

Divine Providence and Human Prudence in the
Establishment of the Church
     Episcopal Address at District Assemblies
          George de Charms 481
Forty-second British Assembly
     Report of Proceedings
          Frank S. Rose 488
Council, Assembly and Communication
     Presidential Address at British Assembly
     Alan Gill 493
The Unpardonable Sin
     A Sermon on Matthew 12: 31, 32
          Frank S. Rose 498
Bread and Wine from the Word
     Holy Supper Address
          Erik Sandstrom 503
Give Thanks Unto the Lord
     A Sermon on Psalm 107: 1
          Norbert H. Rogers 506
Storehouses for the Harvest
     A Talk to Children
          Kenneth O. Stroh 512
Sixth Peace River District Assembly
     Report of Proceedings
     Loraine Lemky Carbury 515
In Our Contemporaries     518
Notes on the Calendar Readings     519
Review
     Kort Framstallning (Brief Exposition)
          Hugo Lj. Odhner 520
Editorial Department
     Swedenborg and Judaism     521
Communication
     The Secret of Human Life on Other Worlds
          Ted Hawley 522
Church News     524
Announcements
     Baptisms, Confirmations, Marriages, Deaths     527

New Church Life
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE TEACHINGS
REVEALED THROUGH EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

The Comings of the Lord
     A Sermon on Psalm 50: 2, 3
          Jan H. Weiss 529

Education and Evangelization
     Address at British Assembly
          Erik Sandstrom 535

Eastern Canada District Assembly
     Report of Proceedings
          Vivian Kuhl 545

Report of the Chicago District Committee on
     Education
          Sydney B. Lee 548

Renewing the Covenant
     Charter Day Address
          Kenneth O. Stroh 556
Notes on the Calendar Readings     561

Western Pennsylvania-Ohio-Michigan District Assembly
     Report of Proceedings
          John W. Frazier 562
Editorial Department
     The Virgin Birth     563
Directory of the General Church     564
Church News     571

Announcements
     Baptisms, Confirmation, Marriage, Deaths     575
     Annual Council Meetings-January 27-February 1, 1958     576

NEW CHURCH LIFE
The Last Judgment, foretold in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew and symbolically described in the book of Revelation, actually took place in the spiritual world during the year 1757. By means of it the imaginary heavens, which had been building up in the world of spirits all through the previous centuries of the Christian era, were violently overthrown. The pall of darkness they had interposed between heaven and earth was suddenly swept away.
     In the Spiritual Diary and in The Last Judgment and Babylon Destroyed Swedenborg gives an eyewitness account of this momentous event. He tells of storms and eruptions and earthquakes that left great cities in ruins. He describes how the good among the inhabitants were protected and brought into another country, where homes were provided for them and where they were organized into a new heaven; while the evil, fleeing in terror, cast themselves into hell. All this took place within the short period of a single year.
     No man living, except Emanuel Swedenborg, was aware at the time of the tremendous changes taking place in the spiritual world. They produced no sudden upheaval of human society on earth. Life here went on as before; and while there have been remarkable changes brought about by scientific discovery and invention, there has been no judgment, no separation of the good from the evil, no widespread establishment of the Lord's kingdom among the nations of the world. Even now, after the lapse of two hundred years, the fact that such a spiritual judgment has taken place is known only to those few who belong to the New Church; and even among these there is wide difference of opinion as to what the effects of that judgment really are.
     It is very important, however, that these effects should be rightly understood. We must have a clear idea of what was accomplished by the Last Judgment in opening the way for the growth and ultimate establishment of the New Church. What may be expected to bring about a similar judgment in the natural world, that the minds of men may be liberated from false religious beliefs and from the evils to which these give rise? How may we hope that mankind may at last be imbued with the spirit of true charity and love to the Lord? What can we do most effectively to promote that end, and hasten the day when all nations will dwell within the gates of the New Jerusalem? It is vital that we should seek the right answers to these questions, and the year 1957, the bicentennial of the Last Judgment, offers an appropriate time to undertake such a search.
     It is proposed, therefore, in the months that follow, to re-examine the teaching of the Writings on this subject and present that teaching in a series of articles in the pages of NEW CHURCH LIFE. In introducing the subject we would call attention to only one point, which, however we believe to be of supreme importance; namely, that the judgment can be performed only by the Lord Himself, and only by the revelation of His Divine Human.
     It is a remarkable fact that the Arcana Coelestia, the first great work of the Writings, was written and published between the years 1749 and 1756, and that the Last Judgment followed immediately in 1757. In this work the Lord revealed for the first time the secret of His incarnation and the glorification of His Human. He explained to man's rational understanding how Jehovah, the Infinite God, had Himself taken on a material body in the womb of Mary; and how, by a lifelong series of temptations and victories, He had removed from that human every imperfection and finite limitation, that after the resurrection the Human glorified might become completely one with the Father above the heavens. To understand this is to see Jesus Christ, not as mortal man, but as the Divinely Human God, the Creator of the world, the Redeemer and Savior of mankind. This vision of Him is what constitutes the second coming of the Lord.
     This truth concerning the Lord was revealed simultaneously in both worlds. In the spiritual world it burst forth as a new and wonderful light that flashed from one end of heaven to the other. To those in the imaginary heavens it opened the internal sense of the Word, refuting the false interpretations by which the conscience of the simple had been held captive. It unmasked the hidden motives of those who had been using these false doctrines to promote their own ambition for wealth and power. It caused those who had innocently followed their leadership to recoil in horror, to renounce their allegiance, and to break the chains by which they had so long been bound.

     Note that all this took place, and could take place, only because the Arcana Coelestia had been written. In the spiritual world it appeared in the universal language of all spirits and angels, the language of ideas. There its real meaning could not be misunderstood, but became at once apparent. Because there were no limitations of time or space, the truth it set forth could spread with great rapidity, and could become known to everyone almost immediately. The simple in heart received it with great joy, for it shed upon their minds a new and wonderful light that removed the doubts and obscurities by which they had long been deeply troubled. But in the evil it excited only anger and hatred because it openly exposed their hypocrisy and deprived them of the influence that had enabled them to exploit the good. The judgment that resulted was brought about by the Lord appearing in His glorified Divine Human.
     Nothing less than this can produce a similar judgment among men in the natural world. But here the truth contained in the Writings can be imparted to men only by slow degrees. It must be transmitted by means of natural language. The original Latin must be translated and published in many tongues. This requires time, and money, and enormous labor. The full burden of the task falls upon the few who, in Providence, have been led to receive the new truth. Furthermore, natural language is an arbitrary medium for the communication of ideas. It can readily be misunderstood. The meaning that words convey is greatly modified by the state of the mind. Even when the Heavenly Doctrine is presented, there is no assurance that its intended message will penetrate the clouds of preconceived ideas by which the minds of men have been darkened. Furthermore, the generality of men in our day are so deeply engrossed in the pursuit of worldly ambitions that they have little or no interest in spiritual truth. This is the primary reason that, in spite of every human effort to make them known, the Writings are almost universally ignored. In this we see the prophecy fulfilled: "The light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not" (John 1: 5).
     Some have believed that because the judgment in the spiritual world has opened a new path of influx from heaven into the minds of men, therefore the whole world is being enlightened from within. It is supposed that the truth of the Heavenly Doctrine is being insinuated subtly by an unseen influence apart from any knowledge of the Writings, and that men in every religion are being permeated with the spirit and life of the New Church.
     But let us not forget that without knowledge vision is impossible. There is no source of knowledge concerning the Divine Human of the Lord except the Writings. Knowledge does not inflow from the spiritual world. It must be acquired from without by way of the senses. It is because of this necessity that the Writings have been given.

If, therefore, we would promote the growth of the New Church, our efforts must be directed not only toward making the Writings available to an ever-widening circle of people but, above all, toward helping men to see the Lord in the Writings, to recognize His Human as Divine, one in person and essence with the Infinite; and thus to know Him as the God of heaven and earth, now present with full power to redeem and save mankind; for this is the second coming of the Lord, and only the Lord, seen and known, loved and worshiped from the heart, can establish His kingdom in the hearts of men.
VOW TO THE LORD 1957

VOW TO THE LORD Rev. NORBERT H. ROGERS 1957

"Vow and make a return unto the Lord your God: let all that be round about Him bring an offering unto Him who is to be feared." (Psalm 76: 11)
The 76th Psalm expresses a recognition of the Divine presence of the Lord, especially in the church, and of His omnipotence. It is a realization that all creation is as naught compared to the infinity of the Lord. It is a humble acknowledgment that man is entirely dependent upon the Lord for all that he has: for all his life, blessings and joys. And it is an exhortation to the man of the church to worship the Lord, not merely in external form, but from the heart and in the life-from a genuine affection of good and truth, from love and a holy fear of the Lord.
Because the presence of the Lord is not perceived by the senses, it appears even to those who are of the church that the Lord is not present with man; and doubts arise as to His very being. Because He does not act forcibly to accomplish His Divine will, compelling man to conform to His law, but permits evil to be done and often to succeed inordinately at the expense of the innocent, it appears that the Divine power is limited, so that it does not affect men. Because natural objects can be sensibly felt, while spiritual ones cannot, it appears that natural things are the only realities that are to be considered in thought and life. Because man can, as if entirely by his own efforts, attain his natural ambitions; because he can obtain the rewards of his work in the form of natural honors, reputation and riches, without observing any spiritual requirements; and because the pleasures of natural relaxation and of sense-gratification can be pursued in the world without undue restraints upon proprial desires, and can be experienced most fully without the inclusion of spiritual considerations; it appears that man's progress, success, welfare and happiness, are entirely dependent upon himself-upon his own imagination, prudence and efforts.

Therefore, also, there appears to be no necessity to worship the Lord. It appears that one may do so if he has the inclination and the time, but that it is not important enough to require the exercise of self-compulsion; indeed, it often appears that the exercise of self-compulsion in regard to worship is not unlike hypocrisy.
     That these various appearances are fallacious cannot be proved by any natural demonstration, logic or argument. Only natural truths can be discovered by the senses and presented to view in such a form as to satisfy the merely natural mind. Truths concerning the Divine and about spiritual things are beyond the scope of man's natural perceptions. And this has been provided by the Lord that man's spiritual freedom may be preserved, and that he may have the opportunity of showing himself to be a man created in the image and likeness of God: that he may have the opportunity of exercising his essentially human faculties of rationality and freedom. Nay, the placing of spiritual truths above the plane of natural sight is more than an opportunity: it is a challenge to man, demanding that he shall so use his faculties as to come to think and live as a human being should, and so attain to the full stature of his manhood. Without this opportunity and challenge to exercise his human faculties, man would remain only potentially a man; he would be a man only in appearance.
     The faculty of rationality, which is given by the Lord to every man born into the world, gives every one the ability to perceive truth to be truth; thus not because of any proof, but simply because it is true. This does not mean that it is an ability to invent truth, or to snatch it, as it were, from the air: but it is an ability to perceive the essential truth and meaning contained in the knowledge of Divine and spiritual things revealed in and through the natural sense of the Word when these have been presented to the natural apperception, and thence to observe illustrations, confirmations and demonstrations in all things of creation. By means of his rational faculty man may not at first see more than that a thing is true; but in time, as the faculty is used and developed, it will enable him to perceive ever more clearly the relations and implications of truths, thus to see more plainly why certain things are true while others are not; in time, it will enable him to think spiritually, that is, to think from truth, and in the light of truth. But even in the beginning the rational perception of truth has a powerful effect upon man, giving him an inner conviction and assurance which can in no way be matched by external proofs.
     Every man has a rational faculty; but its fruits and blessings of perception, light and conviction, can be enjoyed only in the degree that it is used and developed, and this by the man himself.

And herein lies a fundamental temptation encountered by all men of the church, and by all who have any knowledge of the Word. Herein lies a trial of one's manhood, and a test of his faith, which determine just how willing he actually is to acknowledge truth and to believe it. For the natural man is innately disposed to trust in himself and in the evidence of his senses rather than to place his confidence in the Lord and in the Divine guidance. It requires considerable moral courage and resolution for him to discredit his own judgments, amply corroborated as they are by sense impressions, in favor of the testimony of revelation, the truth of which seems so little substantiated. Every one, at some time or other, is faced with this choice. Every seeker of truth becomes acutely conscious of the dilemma: whether to confine his mind to known earthly facts, or whether to allow no obstacle and no hazard to deter him from finding and following the truth itself. And only they who have not confirmed themselves in natural appearances-and thus have not blinded themselves with fallacies, but continue to be affected by the affections of truth implanted in them as remains by the Lord-will have the courage properly to use their rational faculty. Only they will trust the truths they perceive by its means, and, by making use of them, become intelligent and rational men. Only they will acknowledge genuinely the omnipresence and omnipotence of the Lord. His infinite wisdom and mercy, and recognize the vital need to worship Him: to "vow and make a return to the Lord their God"; and to "bring an offering unto Him who is to be feared."

These words of the text concern the three essentials of worship. The first of these is to will that the Lord shall provide, and, in order that this may come about, to approach Him in and through the truths and goods of faith; the second is to acknowledge that all good is from Him; and the third is to be affected by a holy fear of the Lord.
It is revealed that all good and truth are from the Lord, and thus that all things necessary for man's life and happiness are provided by the Lord and not by man himself. It is also revealed that the Divine Providence looks to man's eternal welfare, whereas man himself is more concerned with temporal things; for which reason Providence operates secretly, and very frequently in a manner that man does not expect or desire. Nevertheless, man is to know that every least thing which takes place is governed by the Divine Providence, and that nothing is willed or permitted unless it contributes some vitally needed spiritual benefit to man, both individually and collectively, even though its natural effects may appear extremely injurious. But although the Lord continually wills and provides for the salvation of every man.

He cannot save anyone unless the man wills to receive and to make use of the provisions made by the Lord; thus, unless he wills to be saved in accordance with the Divine will. This requires that man continually check his proprial desires, and continually turn away from his proprial ends, which look to self and to the world; it requires that he continually humiliate himself before the Lord, and, turning himself towards Him, strive to open his mind to the Lord; it requires that man continually rededicate himself to keep the Divine law and to walk in the way of the Lord, to "vow and make a return to the Lord his God." And when man displays such confidence in the Lord, and such a will that He provide, he begins to be in a state of genuine worship.
To acknowledge that all good is from the Lord also requires true humility on the part of man; for it appears that man can acquire good for himself, and do it by his own power. To recognize this as the gross illusion that it is, to perceive that all good with man that is good is from the Lord alone, and, further, to realize that all that the Lord provides is for the sake of use, and so to strive to make good use of what one has received, is to make a worthy offering unto the Lord. Man is then able to receive genuine goods from the Lord, and to avoid profaning them. He is then able to be affected by the activity of good and of its affections. And this is the essence of true internal worship. But although genuine worship consists in the activity of good affections in the will, which qualify the man and go forth into uses, the importance of external worship is not to be minimized. No natural man is disposed to humble himself sufficiently to receive good and to be affected by it. It is necessary that he be brought out of his own state, as it were, and introduced into one which is in harmony with the holy internals of worship, before he can be affected by what is holy, and so be led to receive good from the Lord. This is the important use performed by external worship, which therefore ought not to be neglected.
The third characteristic of worship, which makes one with the others, is the fear of the Lord. Both the good and the evil may be sensible of fear, and are kept in order by it. In the case of the evil, the fear of the Lord is one of punishment, which restrains them from the actual doing of evil but not from willing it, and thus maintains them in a state of external order only. But with the good, the fear of the Lord springs from the love of Him, and thus affects the inmosts of the mind, maintaining them in order as well as the externals. It is a fear of inadvertently-through ignorance, or through an improperly controlled proprial impulse obstructing the Divine will, of misusing the Divine gifts that have been received, and so in some way of harming the neighbor. It is a fear which has respect to what is holy, which impels man to perfect his knowledge of the Word, and to examine himself in its light, that he may the better worship the Lord and serve Him.

     The beginning of a year is of no greater spiritual importance than any other time or season. Yet we are told that natural times and seasons represent spiritual states. As such, the beginning of a new year may be taken to represent entrance into a new state, thus an occasion not unsuitable for the consideration of spiritual matters. And when one enters into a new state, or into a new phase of life, it is particularly fitting that he should look back and examine what has gone before, with the purpose of amending his life and of improving the performance of his various uses and duties. It is then particularly fitting that he resolve anew to shun the evils he has recognized in himself, to avoid repeating past mistakes, and to be more zealous in the application of the principles of genuine charity.
     It is true that in our day and age new year resolutions are generally regarded with humor and cynicism. But the fact that so many of these resolutions are thoughtlessly made, and merely because of custom: the fact that so many concern mere trivialities and are so quickly broken; is no indication that they ought not to be made. Indeed nothing could be accomplished, no evil shunned nor good done, unless it were first resolved to accomplish it. And, further, it most frequently happens that success comes only after many previous attempts had failed; only after the renewing and strengthening of one's resolution each time it has been broken.
     We of the New Church are not to avoid making new resolutions. It is, rather, incumbent upon us to avail ourselves of every opportunity carefully to consider our lives, thoughts and intentions, and to resolve anew to improve them. It is necessary that we continually rededicate ourselves to the furtherance of the sacred cause to which we have been called by the Lord. It is necessary that we continually renew our determination to be faithful in our performance of our uses and duties to the church; doing them, not at our convenience when nothing else interferes, but whenever they are to be done, letting nothing interfere. It is necessary that we continually renew our resolution to observe the Divine law that the Lord may provide for the upbuilding of His church. It is necessary that we continually renew and perfect our acknowledgment that all good is from the Lord, and become increasingly affected by the fear lest we injure the holy things of worship and of the church. It is necessary that we continually "vow and make a return to the Lord our God; and that with a sincere heart we "brine an offering to Him who is to be feared." Amen.

LESSONS:     Psalm 76. Mark 6: 32-44Arcana Coelestia, 7280.
MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 501, 474, 568.
PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 103, 123.

SPIRITUAL-NATURAL USES OF SCIENCE 1957

SPIRITUAL-NATURAL USES OF SCIENCE Rev. MORLEY D. RICH 1957

Before embarking upon a discussion of our subject, it is necessary to set out the definitions of the terms "science" and "scientifics" to which we shall confine ourselves. In so doing we propose to accept the limitations imposed by the ways in which these two words are used by the Writings.
     Speaking approximately, the Writings use the term "scientifics" to include all human knowledge of every kind and degree and in every area. "Scientifics" thus refer to all human knowledge of natural, spiritual and Divine things-the knowledges of the Word, of the natural universe, and of experience. Very often, however, the Latin terms scientifica, scientia, and other derivations of the same root, are used by the Writings in a more limited and specific sense to mean the natural sciences; that is, knowledges of the kingdoms of nature-including the areas of the humanities and the arts- and even the primitive sciences of reading and writing, as well as the more advanced and specific fields of knowledge which are now called the sciences.
     It is in this more restricted sense that we will use the term here; emphasizing, however, that the principles enunciated by the Writings in relation to all knowledge generally apply equally to the natural sciences specifically. This becomes obvious in the many passages which, under the general term "scientifics," enumerate the various fields of human knowledge (HH 353: 1; CL 163; SD mm. 4578, 4657).
     We could not suppose that any New Church man familiar with the Writings would ever dispute seriously the real use of the natural sciences. To do so would be to deny the plain teachings of innumerable and extensive passages. Furthermore, it would require blinding one's self to the very method of the Writings themselves; for, among many other things, the Heavenly Doctrine is an infinite and Divine demonstration of the true use of the natural sciences. So, scattered throughout the pages of the Writings, we find passage after passage in which one or another of the natural sciences is used to illustrate or confirm some primary spiritual truth or law; and it soon becomes plainly, sometimes painfully obvious that without some knowledge or idea of those sciences there can be no full and rational idea of the spiritual truths which they are being used to illustrate (see HH 351).

     Furthermore, not the least among the miracles of the Lord in His second coming is the revelation of the unity, the complete meshing, of the natural and the spiritual worlds. In the Writings-and by the entire preparation of the man through whom they were given-what were formerly regarded vaguely as two disconnected worlds are manifested as the two parts of one pulsating whole.
     Consequently, it may easily be seen that the new revelation is not simply a new system of theology. Nor is it even merely, or solely, a new set of a priori truths revealing further the nature of God and of the spiritual world. For, over and above all this, the Lord in His second coming has, as never before, laid before men the entire, unified picture of His creation; showing its inner composition and outer structure from inmosts to outmosts. For the first time men can, if they will, see the unity of the spiritual and the natural; and thence they can now reconcile and integrate the knowledge of the spiritual with their discoveries about the natural universe; can see the true marriage between spiritual and natural science. And, what is even more important, they can begin to use the natural world fully as a preparation for the spiritual world.
     This is one of the great jewels of the golden city. It is one of the facets of the New Church which, the more we understand it, causes us to rejoice to see the day of the Lord, and to perceive with lighter hearts the happy future of the human race. And it further confirms and strengthens us in the belief that this is indeed the crown of revelations, as the Writings describe themselves, that we have before us.
     Also, it will endow men increasingly with the ability to make true evaluations of natural science. It will save them from the error of underestimating it, on the one hand, and of overrating it on the other; will make it possible for them at once to understand its genuine uses and to beware of its dangers and abuses. Thus, in time, they will neither fear nor worship science, but will be enabled to use it wisely as a basis for spiritual understanding, and as a means whereby they may be set free from the intelligence-killing drudgery of contending with the forces of nature merely in order to keep body and soul together. They will have the ability to distinguish between false theory and true fact in the realms of experimentation, and to subordinate the production of luxuries for the comparatively few to the development of utilities for the common good in the field of applied science.
     To illustrate what we mean, there are in the Christian world many fears of natural science: fears both false and real, both justified and unjustified. Thus there are ecclesiastical fears, national fears, political fears, class and racial fears; and these all stem from the past and present experiences of the human race.

     The old Christian Church fears science, despite the occasional protests of some churchmen that religion and science essentially agree. And this fear shows itself in the efforts of Christian apologists to reconcile Christian theology with new scientific discoveries, on the one hand, and on the other to demonstrate that the new discoveries cannot possibly be true; and this, humorously enough, on the basis of former scientific theories which they have succeeded in adjusting to Christian theology in the past!
     Again, Various nations fear natural science as a means by which they may be conquered by other nations, or superseded on the international scene: and this shows itself in their desperate efforts, made by means of national policy, to retain their lead or to catch up in the race. These fears have their basis in the wickednesses of history; in which, in turn, the wheel, iron, the bow, armor and steel, gunpowder, the sail, steam, the internal combustion engine, and advancing military science were all harnessed by the powers of conquest and tyranny. And there are fears now, both rational and irrational, of the possible applications of atomic or nuclear physics.
     Again, also, there are fears-political, economic and class-of applied natural science which are based on bad experiences in the past. There is still economic fear of the so-called machine age, and some of the political theories of the past hundred years have arisen out of the Industrial Revolution. Men were afraid of the machine because they saw in it only a new and even more powerful means by which their former absolute masters might regain the control they had temporarily lost as a result of the democratic revolutions. Thus it was that Karl Marx was driven by the whips of that fear; for he saw in the machine only a dreadful monster capable of crushing his own class at the command of the masters-of crushing the lower classes with a hand of steel such as had never before been seen. Tragically, those who are sincere followers of Communism were driven by the same whips; and, being misled into the old error that the end justifies the means, have become lost in the means: substituting one set of absolute masters for another, and finding that they have done the very thing they feared-yielded to new masters the power which they dreaded in the old. They suffer again under the utter corruption which flows from absolute power; and in the containment efforts of the free world they see only a capitalistic threat to chain them to the machines to which they are already slaves. They cannot, indeed, understand it otherwise; for nothing in their experience, past or present, enables them to understand it in any other way. To them the so-called free world is nothing else than a new and more subtle imperialism which threatens to devour them, and they are holding the torch which will lead the world out of economic and political slavery.

     We have digressed somewhat into political science here, but only to demonstrate what is an ancient error of the human race; namely, fearing a material thing as a danger in itself-in this case, natural science-instead of fearing and guarding against its abuse. For there are indeed legitimate and proper fears of this, as we may see from the teachings of the Writings.
     On the other hand, the worship of natural science as a new religion is equally erroneous. We no more want a hierarchy of science than we would want the restoration of the old hierarchy of the Christian Church or of the absolute dynasties of old. The respect, and even awe, of the man in the street for anyone who may be called a scientist is almost as frightening a phenomenon as was the veneration in which the ecclesiastical hierarchy was once held.
     Generally speaking, the true uses of the natural sciences are the same as those of all scientifics or knowledges, that is, they are to serve for illustration, confirmation and education. We would now consider these uses in turn.

     Illustration

     The necessity and value of illustrations from the natural sciences are indicated by the many instances of their use in the Writings to illustrate spiritual truths. The sciences of anatomy and physiology are used especially in this way, but so are all the other sciences as well. It will be sufficient here to quote two examples.
     "'Tails' signify sensual knowledges, because the tails that protrude outwardly from the animals of the earth are continuations of the spinal cord, which is called the spinal marrow; and this is a continuation of the brain; and the brain, in like manner as the head, signifies intelligence and wisdom, because intelligence and wisdom in their beginnings have their seat there; and as tails are the ultimates of the brain they signify sensual knowledges, since these are the ultimates of intelligence and wisdom" (AE 559).
     "Those who confirm themselves in favor of the Divine give attention to the wonders which are displayed in the production of animals; to mention here only, in reference to eggs, how the chick in its seed or beginning lies hidden therein, with everything requisite until it is hatched, also with everything pertaining to its subsequent development, until it becomes a bird or winged thing of the same form as its parent. And if one observes the living form, it is such as to fill anyone with astonishment who thinks deeply, seeing that in the most minute as in the largest living creatures, even in the invisible as in the visible, there are the organs of sensation, namely, sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch; and organs of motion, which are muscles, for they fly and walk; also viscera surrounding the heart and lungs, which are set in motion in the brains.

That even the commonest insects enjoy such organisms is shown in their anatomy as described by some writers, especially by Swammerdam in his Biblia Naturae" (DEW 351).
     The uses of illustration or enlightenment are referred to in Spiritual Diary (Minor), no. 4657, Other uses, both more general and more specific, may be found in Potts' Concordance under "enlightenment." But the general principle is that abstract spiritual truths cannot be comprehended by man in themselves, that is, without illustrations from worldly things. Illustrations from scientific things are the means by which man may progress into genuine truths. They are not spiritual truths in themselves, but serve as images in which the spiritual may he seen.

     Confirmation

     Confirmation is the process of making firm strong and definite. It has to do, therefore, with the acquiring and establishing of ultimate and outmost things as bases into which internal things may flow, and in which they may exist and have stability and permanence. Thus, without confirmation, principles have no real existence. Spiritual truths are only ideal things without a resting place in the human mind until they are grounded in experience by application to life.
     Scientifics, therefore, are the means and bases by which ideas or principles may be confirmed and made definite and real. And we find, when we study the teachings of the Writings in this connection, that, as is the case with all scientifics, the knowledges of natural science can be used to confirm any principle whatsoever. They can as easily be used to confirm a man in atheism or agnosticism as in favor of the Divine. And when we see the various particulars given in the Writings, we may learn of the traps and pitfalls to be avoided in the use and abuse of the natural sciences.
     Furthermore, it is interesting to notice how in each passage which deals with the affirmative use of confirmations from scientific things there precedes or follows the revelation of how the same things can be and have been used to confirm men in their denial of the Divine. We may summarize these in this way, beginning with the following key passage.
     "The subject . . . of the doctrine of faith . . . of which the Lord thought in His childhood . . . whether it is allowable to enter into it by rational things, and thereby to form to Himself ideas concerning it. The reason He thought this was from His love of providing for the good of the human race, who are such that they do not believe what they do not apprehend with the rational.

But He perceived from the Divine that this ought not to be; wherefore from the Divine He revealed it to Himself, and at the same time, from the same ground also, all things in the universe which are subject, namely, rational and natural things. [Italics added]
     "How the case is with the doctrinals of faith with men was shown (no. 2568), namely, that there are two principles from which they think, the negative and the affirmative; and that those think from the negative who believe nothing unless they are convinced by rational and scientific things, even by sensual things: and that those think from the affirmative who believe all things to be true because the Lord has declared them in His Word, consequently, those who have faith in the Lord.
     Those who are in the negative in regard to the truth of the Word, and who say in their hearts that they are willing to believe when they are persuaded by rational and scientific things, are in such a state that they never believe, no, not even when convinced by the very senses of the body, as by the sight, the hearing, and the touch; for they always form new reasonings against those convictions, whereby at length they totally extinguish all faith, and at the same time turn the light of the rational into darkness because into falsities.
     "But those who are in the affirmative, that is, who believe that what is written in the Word is true because the Lord has said so, are in such a state that by rational and scientific things, yea, by sensual things, they are continually confirmed, and their ideas are enlightened and strengthened, for man has no light but by means of reason and knowledges; everyone also does this. With these the doctrine thus 'living lives'; and of them it is said that they 'are healed' and 'bring forth; but with the former the doctrine 'dying dies'; and it is said of them that 'the womb closing is closed.' Hence it is evident what it is to enter into rational things from the doctrine of faith, and what to enter into the doctrine of faith from rational things" (AC 2588).
     This general theme of the affirmative and the negative spirit and method in the use and abuse of scientifics is repeated in various ways in all the other passages dealing with the subject of confirmation, and different aspects are brought out in them. Thus it is shown that scientifics are a means of becoming wise, of perfecting the rational, and of being confirmed in the truths of faith; if man begins with the affirmative belief that what the Lord says must be true, and can be confirmed by rational, scientific and sensual things. On the other hand, scientifics are a means of becoming insane, of destroying the rational, and of becoming confirmed against God, with the man who begins with the negative principle that he will believe only if he is first persuaded by rational, scientific and sensual things.

(See AC 128, 4156, 4760, 6690, 6865; DLW 350, 351; SD 250, 2301, 2999, 3460, 3977; SD mm. 4578, 4655, 4657.)
     Also, there is brought forward clearly the evil, and as well the futility, of using the natural sciences in any attempt to penetrate into spiritual things by the analytical method, thus trying to "enter into the sheepfold by some other way" than the Divinely ordained path of revelation. This refers to the folly of trying to deduce spiritual truths and laws from natural facts, unaided by the universal truths of the Word, thus by means of self-intelligence.
     We cannot pursue here all the teachings given with regard to the use and abuse of scientifics as confirmations. But before taking examples from modern science to illustrate these, we would like to quote one more passage which may lead to reflection on one phase of the abuse of scientifics by men in the past.
     "Those who did not live in the good of charity, but in what is opposed to charity, sometimes had open communication by means of scientifics with evil spirits, who perverted all the truths of the church and who thus destroyed its goods; hence came magic. This may be manifest also from the hieroglyphics of the Egyptians, which they employed on sacred subjects, for by them they signified sacred things and perverted Divine order. Magic is nothing but the perversion of order. Especially it is the abuse of correspondences. Order requires that the goods and truths which proceed from the Lord shall be received by man. When this is the case there is order in everything that man intends and thinks. But when man does not receive these principles according to order which is from the Lord, but believes that all things flow in blindly, and if anything shows direction to an end, that it is due to his own prudence, he perverts order; for what belongs to order he turns to himself that he may take care of his own interest alone, but not that of his neighbor except in so far as his neighbor favors him. Hence, what is remarkable, all who have firmly persuaded themselves that everything is of their own prudence, and nothing of the Divine Providence, are in the other life greatly inclined to magic, and as far as they are able also engage in it especially those who, in consequence of trusting to themselves and ascribing all things to their own prudence, have devised various schemes and artifices to raise themselves above others" (AC 6690). [Italics added]
     Connect this with the self-prudence which secretly rules the Christian world, as we are taught, and with the fact that even perverted order still appears as order to the unenlightened; connect it also with the misuse of the Word and of the natural sciences from ulterior motives of power, and you will have a good insight into the meaning of some of the policies and actions of the governments of the so-called Christian nations.

In other words, the Last Judgment has not suddenly cut off or destroyed the practice of white magic!
     The first example from modern science which we choose to illustrate the power of confirmation from such science is one which is actually on the borderline between the worlds of the natural and the spiritual senses. It consists of the findings based on experiments by Dr. J. B. Rhine. To denote the mental ability which seems to be indicated by these experiments he has coined the term "extra-sensory perception." Before showing how these may be used to confirm in two opposite ways, it is necessary for us to present a brief summary of the experiments and their results.
     The experiments included identification of five cards selected from a deck by a person some distance away; clairvoyance, the perception of objects and events without the senses of others being involved: prerecognition, or seeing the future; and psycho-kinesis, the power of mind on matter. In most of these experiments, which were repeated many times, under varying conditions, and with the use of many different subjects, the results obtained were above the mathematical average However, certain problems were encountered for which no physical explanation could be found.
     Now Dr. Rhine makes the mistake of saying that these results "prove' the existence of the soul and of another realm than the physical. The fact is, however, that they do nothing of the kind. For him, they have, perhaps, confirmed the belief he already had, namely, in a soul and in a spiritual world, whatever may be his idea of what these are.
     The chain of operations in these phenomena, as seen by the New Church man, is, in sequence: Divine Providence, the spiritual world, angels and spirits and devils, the human mind, the spirituous fluid and the finest things of nature. But these are all powers and factors which are beyond the reach of physical science and which affect the laws of merely mathematical probability. The scientific recording of the variations in the results of the experiments proves nothing more than that there are other factors operating which may be regarded either as physical forces previously unknown or as spiritual.
     So, to the man who has already learned and acknowledged from Divine revelation that there is a spiritual world with certain laws and forces, these experiments may serve as powerful confirmations of his faith. But to the agnostic they will appear as merely physical phenomena resulting from interior physical forces as yet undiscovered; wherefore he will use them as confirmations in favor of his non-belief. For self-intelligence, working from the world of effects, will never penetrate the spiritual world above it, or discover the soul; as Swedenborg himself concluded after strenuous effort.

     Man is allowed and encouraged to confirm truths by any and all means and knowledges he possesses or may acquire. But he cannot prove either by the senses or by natural logic the existence of that which is above both, namely God and the spiritual world.
     Another example can be taken from De Nouy's Of Human Destiny-the mathematical chances against casual or accidental evolution of life. The results here can be used to confirm the causal and deliberate creation of life; but either by the inmost of natural forces as yet undiscovered or by the Divine. Many other examples are available to us from the sciences of heredity, eugenics, psychology and nutrition; but time does not permit of their being brought forward here. Nor can we speak here of the more interior uses of confirmations from science, such as the restoration of commonsense in the maintaining of a healthy body and brain upon which, as upon its bases, depends the rational and balanced operation of the mind.
     But it may be of interest to observe a distinction which the Writings make between the physical sciences and what may be termed the philosophical sciences. While upholding the good uses of such sciences as those of physics, optics, chemistry, pharmacy, anatomy, mathematics, astronomy, architecture, botany, metallurgy, history, government, and the like, the Writings throughout condemn all those sciences which are composed of reasonings from them-scholasticism, dialectics, natural philosophy and logic (SD 4657, 3460; SD mm. 4578, 4655).

     Education

     The foregoing remarks on the use of the sciences for illustration and confirmation more than hint at their use in education, for the building of the human mind. Further indication is afforded by the following extracts from the Writings.
     "Science is a plane for the truths that belong to the understanding and to faith. Man advances in the things of faith during his regeneration almost as he does in the truths not of faith while he is growing up to maturity. As he grows up, sensual things are the first plane, afterwards sciences; and upon these planes judgment grows, in one person more, in another less" (AC 6751).
     "To rational wisdom also pertain all the sciences into which youths are initiated in schools, by which they are afterwards initiated into intelligence; these are also called by various names, as philosophy, physics, geometry, ethics, history, and many others, by which as by doors they enter into things rational whereby rational wisdom is formed" (CL 163).
     "As regards scientifics the case is this. In childhood they are acquired for no other end than that of knowing; with the Lord they were acquired from the delights and affection of truth.*

The scientifics acquired in childhood are very numerous, but they are disposed by the Lord into order so as to serve for use; first, to give the ability to think; then that they may be of use by means of thought; and lastly that they may take effect, that is to say, that the very life may consist in use and be a life of uses. These are the things performed by the scientifics that are acquired in childhood; and without them the external man can never be conjoined with the internal man, and at the same time become use" (AC 1487). [Italics added]
     * It is hence a principle of New Church education that, with children, scientifics must be acquired from the teacher's delights and affections of truth.
     "Uses for perfecting the rational are all things that give instruction about the subjects mentioned above, and are called sciences and branches of study pertaining to natural, economic, civil and moral affairs, which are learned with the aid of parents and teachers, or from books, or from intercourse with others, or by reflection on these subjects by one's self. These things perfect the rational in so far as they are uses in a higher degree; and they are permanent as far as they are applied to life" (DLW 332).
     The uses of these subjects in education are then underlined in the following passage, which describes the difference between the wise and the simple. "The man who is in that belief and in a life in accordance with his belief has the ability and capacity to understand and be wise; but to become intelligent and wise he must learn many things, both things pertaining to heaven and things pertaining to the world-things pertaining to heaven from the Word and from the church, and things pertaining to the world from the sciences. To the extent that man learns and applies to life he becomes intelligent and wise, for to that extent the interior sight belonging to his understanding and the interior affection belonging to his will are perfected. The simple of this class are those whose interiors have been opened, but not so enriched by spiritual, moral, civil and natural truths. Such perceive truths when they hear them, but do not see them in themselves. But the wise of this class are those whose interiors have been both opened and enriched. Such both see truths inwardly and perceive them" (HH 351: 3).
     Finally, the difference in the influence on children in their education of the agnostic teacher and the believing teacher is indicated in this passage. "False intelligence and wisdom is all intelligence and wisdom that is separated from the acknowledgment of the Divine; for all such as do not acknowledge the Divine, but acknowledge nature in place of the Divine think from the bodily-sensual and are merely sensual, however highly they may be esteemed in the world for their accomplishments and learning.

For their learning does not ascend beyond such things as appear before their eyes in the world: these they hold in the memory and look at in an almost material way, although the same knowledges serve the truly intelligent for forming their understanding" (HH 353).
     This may suggest to us the complete difference in quality and structure which exists between the mind that has been educated from a belief in and knowledge of the coherent and unified creation of the universe by God, down to the ultimates of matter and then to the highest form of life which is man, and the mind which has been taught that the universe is essentially a chaotic, accidental thing without purpose or direction. Indeed it is not difficult to see how the very present and future structure of the child-mind may be determined in an orderly and Divinely-ordained manner by the presentation to it of such a revealed order of creation from firsts to lasts, from inmosts to outmosts. And it is not difficult either to see how the child-mind may be completely disorganized, as far as any future rational orientation and order are concerned, by the philosophy, stated or implied, which pictures the universe as a causeless thing, filled with purposeless bodies developed by pure chance out of nothing and destined to return to nothingness, without significance, progress, freedom or anything popularly associated with the word "human. The chaos thus presented becomes typical of the structure of the mind to which "it is taught; and the sterile thinking of such a mind may be seen in the productions of some present-day scientists.

     Conclusion

     We may summarize the affirmative uses of the natural sciences thus:

1)     To give illustration and thus increased understanding of the
things pertaining to eternal life.
2)     To furnish, by their application, the basis for a full, healthy and
useful life in the world as a preparation for life in the spiritual world.
3)     To give powerful confirmations of the spiritual truths of the Word.
4)     To furnish the materials, the proper ordering and presentation of
which will give to the human mind structurally the ability to understand and believe the truths of the Word, if man so chooses.

     We would close with this proposition: The very existence of the many allusions to and treatments of scientific subjects in the Writings points to the conclusion that the New Church will be established in fulness only in a scientific, knowledgeable world.

COLLECTION OF SWEDENBORGIANA IN THE ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH LIBRARY 1957

COLLECTION OF SWEDENBORGIANA IN THE ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH LIBRARY Rev. W. CAIRNS HENDERSON 1957

     (Delivered at the Charter Day Banquet, Bryn Athyn, Pa., October 13, 1956.)

     It was that pre-radio morning companion, The Poet at the Breakfast Table, who said that every library should try to be complete about something, if it were only the history of pinheads. The Academy of the New Church Library has made that effort in connection with something indefinitely larger, and with notable though not yet complete success. This has not been the result of a desire just to be different. It arose inevitably from the other purposes for which the Academy was chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
     The founders evidently saw that those other uses could not be effectively performed without the establishment of a library; and just as surely they saw that the propagation of the Heavenly Doctrine and the establishment of the New Church would require source material for authoritative editions of the Writings; and that the promotion of education and the preparation of young men for the priesthood would require facilities for undergraduate and graduate study, and for faculty research, in the sacred and collateral literature of the New Church. The persistence of this vision has resulted in a collection of Swedenborgiana that is one of the Library's unique features, any one of which might interestingly and profitably be discussed.
     However, the particular unique feature to which this section of the report is directed is the Library's collection of Swedenborgiana. So it would be well to define this term and then describe the collection briefly. The term itself is here used in the widest possible sense, and in that which is indicated by Swedenborg's own definition of Swedenborgianism. That is, it includes the Writings, in print and in reproduction of the mss.; Swedenborg's own works in the same two forms; books used by him, documents concerning Swedenborg and literary material relating to him; New Church collateral literature, both books and pamphlets; and New Church periodicals.

     In the more restricted sense in which the term is usually employed, the collection of Swedenborgiana is made up of three separate collections which some of you may have seen on Thursday night, and which should not be confused: the Star Collection, the Room 15 Collection, and the Room 17 Collection, comprizing in all about 3600 volumes. Two of these collections are housed on the fourth floor of the Library, and the Star Collection is to be moved there shortly.
     The Star Collection consists of one or more copies of every known edition of the Writings, in Latin and in every language into which they have been translated. Editions known to exist, but so far unobtained, are indicated on the shelves by wooden dummies to which are attached bibliographical details. The collection contains some 2200 volumes, and is of peculiar interest as a physical bibliography of the theological works of Swedenborg.
     The Room 15 Collection contains original editions of Swedenborg's scientific, philosophical and theological works, some 385 Volumes; photolithographed, phototyped and photostated volumes of Swedenborg's mss., 125 volumes; and unbound documents, in typescript and photostated sheets, dealing with Swedenborg.
     The Room 17 Collection is itself made up of two collections-Swedenborg's library and the rare book collection. The fist of these, a collection of 300 volumes, consists of books known to have been owned by Swedenborg; the second consists of books quoted from or referred to by Swedenborg and translations of such works, and contemporary books which mention him or his work and throw light on the knowledge of his time, and it contains 1600 volumes. The Room 15 and Room 17 Collections may be called the heart of the Library as a department of an institution of learning; and it is to them that the translator, collator biographer, research student and scholar go, with a lively sense of gratitude for the vision, patience, skill and devotion of those who have made and preserved these priceless collections.
     In addition to these special collections there are, of course, the many editions of Swedenborg's works and of the Writings which are available for circulation or for use in the reading rooms. We have no figures on these, and indeed it did not seem wise to overload these remarks with statistics; but the supply seems fairly adequate to meet the demands of a growing student body.
     The collection of New Church collateral literature is also of unique interest and an invaluable repository for the student of theology and church history and the dabbler in curiosa. The act of Divine revelation implies for its fulfillment reception, reflection and application. And here, in a collection of between 10,000 and 12,000 books and pamphlets, are preserved the studies and the views of New Church men of every shade of opinion on every doctrine taught in the Writings, every mode of interpretation, every theory of application.

Here is the real history of the New Church, the history of doctrine: and here are the sources to which our scholars may go, to reap the harvests of those who have labored before them, and in their day advance those labors a little more. In research, as in all else, no man is an island. If the thought of the church is to progress we must build on what has already been done; and what has been done must therefore be preserved and made accessible.
The Library's collection of New Church periodicals is also a valuable part of the larger collection of Swedenborgiana. For here, too-in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, even Burinese and Sesuto-are preserved the thought and the history of every organization of the New Church. The Library currently receives about 45 of these periodicals, and on its shelves are to be found some 150 which are now defunct. The short and unhappy life of some New Church periodicals would make an interesting subject for a monograph. Some have had long and honorable careers; others passed quietly away after only a few issues. Some have changed their names several times, like those streets which bewilder the visitor to London: others, to the chagrin of librarians, thoughtlessly changed their size and form, frequently at most inconvenient times. The periodical shelves should not be lightly treated, for many hopes lie buried there, and much persistence and faithful service are represented which should he respected.

It is a truism that libraries are not made; they grow. And, like all other useful growing things, they flourish best when they are planned with vision, and then built with patience, skill and tireless labor, all brought to the service of the one end in view. The collection of Swedenborgiana is a permanent record to the existence of such qualities in the Academy; to the work of men who, if they had done nothing else-and they did much else besides--would forever have placed New Church scholarship in their debt; and to the generosity of those who furnished the means from appreciation and love of the end. The record shows that the collecting of the literature of the New Church was one of the most cherished objects of the Academy from its foundation. In this there was nothing of the motives which sometimes animate the collector, but the sincere desire of dedicated men of vision to provide adequately for a future in which they had full confidence: to search out, track down, bring together, preserve and make accessible, the source materials for accurate editions of the Writings in the original, faithful translations, and definitive biographies of Swedenborg; and the materials for primary research in the various fields of Swedenborgiana and of New Church history and doctrine.

These men were themselves scholars, and they sought to pave the way for a sound New Church scholarship, based on prime materials, which would adorn the great university they had in mind.
     It was in 1890 that particular attention began to be paid to the preservation of original editions of Swedenborg, to the photolithographing of the mss., and to the collecting of New Church collateral literature. The rare books collection had already been started, and many fine additions were made to it between that year and 1893, notably the copy of True Christian Religion owned by Swedenborg, which Bishop Benade obtained in Europe. Around 1911, work on the Room 17 Collection-the Swedenborg library and rare books-was taken in hand more systematically and with it will be forever associated the name of Bishop Acton, who was placed in charge of the selection of titles. This in itself involved arduous and painstaking research; but in 1920 Bishop Acton spent an entire year in Europe searching for needed items, and for many years thereafter he read hundreds of rare book catalogues in his unceasing quest of still wanted titles. Associated with him in this work was Dr. R. W. Brown, whose special interest in Swedenborgiana made him a worthy and well qualified collaborator.
     The Room 15 Collection-original editions of Swedenborg, reproductions of the mss., and documents-is especially the work of Alfred Stroh, who brought to it the wide experience he had gained in that field by his work with the mss. and the documents in Europe. It should be mentioned also that, during his term as Librarian. Mr. Emil F. Stroh enlarged and organized the system of classifying Swedenborg's works, and devised a special system for New Church collateral literature. The importance of these contributions, and of those of others engaged in the same branch of library work, is great, for what happens to books after they reach a library is as important as their getting there. Without preservation, which does not mean interment, and systems that will lead the researcher quickly, accurately and fully to all the sources he seeks, a library cannot use effectively the material it acquires.
     The Star Collection, equally valuable to New Church scholars, was brought up to date about 1920. With the help of Dr. Acton, and under the supervision of Miss Amena Pendleton, the work was done in a most scholarly manner by the Rev. Ernst Pfeiffer, then a theological student, who also did a notable piece of work in compiling a Swedenborg bibliography.

     These men labored with vision and ability-with abilities as varied as those of the bibliographer and biographer, the linguistic scholar, the exegete and the literary detective.

Others who have not been mentioned here worked for and with them, devoting countless hours to the technical processes involved in bringing the work to completion. The result of all these labors is a collection of Swedenborgiana that may fairly be described as unique. And the collection stands as the permanent record of a noble accomplishment and as a monument of the type that the men who made it would have preferred; not one to which men come to gaze and wonder, but one to which they come to work and advance the cause for the sake of which it was made; one, too, which should inspire all who are genuinely concerned for New Church scholarship and faculty research in the Academy to do what yet remains to be done.
DRAMATIZING THE WORD 1957

DRAMATIZING THE WORD GEORGE DE CHARMS 1957

     The Word is so written as to contain unfathomable depths of truth whereby men may be consociated with the angels and conjoined with the Lord. This internal sense does not appear openly in the letter of the Word, yet it is present in every least particular. The secret of its presence lies in the Divinely inspired way in which the Word is written. It lies not only in the very words that are used, each of which has a correspondential meaning, but also in the ordered sequence according to which they have been arranged. If the words are changed, or the order disturbed, the internal sense is broken, and may even be completely destroyed.
     It is especially important that children should learn the stories of the Word just as they are given, with nothing changed and nothing added that would interfere with the Divine message the Lord intends them to convey. Although this message cannot be understood by children, their minds can be prepared to understand it when they have reached rational age; but this will come to pass only if they have learned the stories of the Word accurately, and with a deep sense of their holiness.
     The fact that the Word contains such an internal sense is unknown in the Christian world. It cannot be discovered by men. Only the Lord can reveal it, and this He has done in the Writings of His second advent. While Christians traditionally regard the Bible as holy they do not know wherein its holiness lies. They interpret it in the light of its moral teaching and of its historical and geographic setting, without regard to any deeper content.
     The dramatized versions that are appearing in moving pictures and in modern literary form are designed to make the stories more interesting to children and more emotionally appealing to adults.

Extraneous elements, often purely imaginary, are introduced to enhance the dramatic effect.
The order of events is frequently changed, and the whole pattern of the story altered, in order to bring out some central idea in the mind of the author or playwright. The effect may be impressive, but it does not open the mind to the perception of the internal sense of the Word. In many cases it detracts from the holiness of the Word even while it increases the emotional impact of the story.
Adults may be able to discriminate between human fantasy and the Word, as Divinely revealed; but children's minds are molded by what they see. They absorb uncritically whatever is presented to them. The impression made by a moving picture is more powerful than that made by the printed page. The story, as represented on the screen, is apt to be remembered more Vividly than the original Scripture from which it is taken. If the two are at variance in the portrayal of important incidents and characters the mind is bound to become confused, and the later understanding of the internal sense is made more difficult. We think it wise, therefore, to use caution in the selection of Biblical portrayals for children.
FINAL JUDGMENTS 1957

FINAL JUDGMENTS 1957

"But as to believing that the end of the earth will be the same thing as the last judgment foretold in the Word-where the consummation of the age, the day of visitation, and the last judgment are described-this is a mistake; for there is a last judgment of every church when it has been vastated, or when there is no longer in it any faith. The last judgment of the Most Ancient Church was when it perished, as in its last posterity just before the flood. The last judgment of the Jewish Church was when the Lord came into the world. There will also be a last judgment when the Lord shall come in glory; not that the earth and the world are then to perish, but that the church perishes; and then a new church is always raised up by the Lord; as at the time of the flood was the Ancient Church, and at the time of the coming of the Lord the primitive church of the Gentiles.
"So also will there be a new church when the Lord shall come in glory, which is also meant by the new heaven and earth. . . . Moreover, there is also a last judgment for every man when he dies, for then, according to what he has done in the body, he is adjudged either to death or to life.
Nothing else is meant by the consummation of the age, the end of days, or the last judgment" (Arcana Coelestia, 931: 2, 3).

NEW CHURCH EDUCATION FOR ALL 1957

NEW CHURCH EDUCATION FOR ALL Rev. ERIK SANDSTROM 1957

At birth there is nothing with man that is salvable. He has a human soul; but this, being beyond his conscious reach and control, can neither be perverted nor perfected; and as for his body, it, of course, shall never see eternal life. He has as yet no mind; for his mind is to be built from things inflowing from the soul into the things received by means of the body and its five senses. The formation itself of this mind is the result of man's conscious reaction to the influx of the soul, and his conscious disposition of the mental material received through the body: and in this reaction and this disposition is his exercise of his freedom according to his reason. In this process he is sustained and inspired by means of the flow of angelic affections, which surround him as heavenly spheres on all sides, and from which he takes according to choice what is adequate to his state; and he is warned through the pressure upon him of diabolical affections, which likewise flow in. It is plain from this that the mind cannot come into existence until after birth.
There is, however, the rudiment of a mind at birth, but of an infernal mind. For into the texture of his internal organic is inwoven his parental heredity, the nature of which is the love of self and the love of the world. In its inclinations there is no salvation; nor can they be transformed into something that would be salvable. For the inherent nature of these loves now is to repel whatever is of true life, and love cannot reverse itself and favor something that is opposite to its nature. That heredity, therefore, can only be subdued and removed to the side, so that something quite different may fill the vacancy. That something different" is the only thing that is salvable with man, and it is what is called "remains.
These remains are not, like heredity, inwoven into his native organic. But they are infused from the time of his birth, and secretly stored up in the interiors of his conscious mind. This is the Lord praying on the mountain alone at eventide (Matthew 14: 23) the Lord mercifully operating and disposing in the secret recesses of the mind. His work there is compared to the work of a thief (Matthew 24: 42-44; Revelation 3: 3), because He comes in the evening or night of the man, in his states of obscurity and relative inactivity, and because His operation is hidden from view. He implants the remains, which may be called the heredity of heaven, and gradually steals away the evil impulses which are their opposites; that is, provided that man does not disturb Him in His action.

This implantation, and this stealing away, are not of the will of man, for his entire nature would be opposed if it were in the position to interfere. Viewed from man's innate self, therefore, the Lord would be regarded as a thief; and because of the secrecy of His action the Lord calls Himself a "thief." But this relationship comes to an end when, by means of regeneration, man has been brought to agreement with his "adversary" (Matthew 5: 25); and particularly when, after regeneration, he has become a "friend." And "henceforth I call you not servants: for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you friends" (John 15: 15).
     The remains with a man constitute the innocent child within him. That child is salvable, for it is born, "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1: 13). But that innocent child will die of suffocation if the doors of the secret chambers be not opened, so that the child may be brought forth into the light of day, thereafter to grow before the Lord in the wisdom of life. Isaiah speaks of this when he calls out: "Relieve the oppressed!" (1: 17). And the Lord Himself refers to the same thing when He rebukes the disciples, saying: "Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not." This rebuke refers to that with man which cannot be saved, and which if left to itself would "forbid"; and it is spoken of that with him which can be saved, for it is added: "Of such is the kingdom of heaven."
     The leading forth of these remains is the proper work of education, for the word "education" means just that: a bringing, or leading forth. Indeed, it is the object itself of all that is involved in the phrase `New Church education." Such education must he a prerogative of the New Church, for only genuine truth can bring forth into light the latent qualities which have been Divinely infused; and at this day genuine truth is not known apart from the second advent of the Lord. In this sense. New Church education is not, and is by no means, restricted to New Church institutions of learning. It is, and must be, an immediate concern for all; and not only in the sense of loyal support, but by way of active participation in the capacity of scholar. Without such actual education-bringing forth, or drawing forth-there can be no salvation; and if it is not done on earth, it must be done in the other world by means of angel instructors.
     The child within man, which is to be delivered, consists of states which he has experienced but not penetrated; that is to say, states whose external appearance has passed through his life, but whose internal purport has totally passed by him. Without actual experience and awareness there is, however, no implantation of remains.

For the states which in their way and on their plane partake of innocence, charity, forgiveness, mercy, submission to instruction, and so forth; these states all have their correspondence, and their correspondence is with the angels in heaven. And because of this correspondence the angels can be directed by the Lord to visit the man in the interior chambers of his house, for by correspondence there is as it were an agreement between the interior state of the angel and the exterior state of the man It is this angelic visit which leaves an impress behind: a softening of the inner receptacles of the mind, a preparation for the habitation of love and charity; and as an internal memory of the visit it remains, unless it be wilfully destroyed.
     In this way remains are implanted when the child is peacefully resting in his mother's arms, for the angels then perceive their own peace when they as it were rest in the Lord's arms. In like manner, remains are insinuated when little children play together in harmony, for the angels then perceive the harmony of their own uses. Again remains are stored up when the child, the youth, or the adult person accepts instruction in the spirit of thirst, for the angels at the same time perceive the essence of truth. Whenever anything of good, or anything of truth, brings a state of gladness and harmony to his heart, then something like it in heaven is brought near to the man, and is implanted.
     But the remains are not the man any more than is his heredity. The remains are the new angel in potency, as heredity, if confirmed, will form the new devil. Therefore, the states which have been stored up for man must he delivered. How is this done?
     Instruction alone does not do it, but neither can it be done without instruction. And here again the meaning of the term itself is explanatory. For instruction, being a word of the same derivation as "structure" means to "build in." It is the truth of doctrine that is to be built into man, or that is to build the man. Nothing but truth can receive good; and nothing but a life in obedience to the laws of heaven can form a plane of influx for the love itself and the charity itself of heaven. Therefore, instruction, in-building, must precede; that is, instruction combined with the consequent attention. Hence this state is named from "form" or "forming." It is the state of re-formation.
     In this state remains are still being implanted rather than being drawn forth, acting as yet only in the capacity of conscience. For they cannot he said really to come forth until they are embraced and welcomed by the will itself, entering into that will and constituting its very essence. It is only then that they are "relieved," and it is only then that they cease to be "oppressed." "Suffer little children to come unto Me." This latter state, in which education comes into its fulfilment, is the state in which regeneration itself makes progress.

     Apparently it is the knowledges which are imparted by way of instruction that draw forth the inner remains of innocence and charity; but in actual fact knowledges, indispensable though they may he, are merely passive agents, while the remains are the things that channel the activity of heaven; and in the state of re-formation they manifest their intense activity as conscience. Knowledges without the love of applying them from wisdom to the uses of life are of no avail; nor are they in the least capable of commanding the loving affections of heaven. Rather do the affections which pertain to heaven draw to themselves such knowledges as are agreeable, useful, and suited to their purposes. They are as a queen, and the knowledges of what is good and true are but the men-servants and maid-servants; yet they are needed by the queen in order that she may properly exercise her government.
     This is what is taught in the Writings when it is said that thought, speech, the faculty of judgment, and the like, "would he impossible, unless the celestial and spiritual things, which are within, presented themselves, flowed in, and produced all those effects" (AC 1496). And the same thing is implied in the statement that "instruction is simply an opening of the way" (AC 1495).
     In common language the words instruction and education are more or less equivalent. But in the New Church education must mean, and does mean, more than the mere imparting of knowledges. That instruction, too, is included in the term, education, is, however, quite in order, as there can he no education without a preceding or simultaneous instruction in genuine truths. Nevertheless, the emphasis must he on the purpose of it all, namely, the application-and the art of the application-of knowledges to fit the shifting needs of life. Indeed, education in the wider sense is not a complete idea except when both the preparatory state and that of fulfilment are contained therein. That these things are implied in New Church terminology is also manifest from the familiar declaration that New Church education is an education for heaven as well as for the world.
     Hence it is that no instruction-in a school of learning, in the home, or in the everyday school of life-is in itself sufficient to cause the heavens to descend upon the man. Teacher or pupil, or the lone wanderer in the path of life, can but serve to open the way. But the proper instruction, in a school or in private meditation, constitutes a potency. It is an invitation to stored-away states of innocence and charity to come forth, and to take unto themselves the ready means of a spiritual life on earth. This invitation is acknowledged when there is obedience. In that sense the truths of doctrine do "educate," that is, bring forth the remains of heaven.

     Each man and woman who would enter into the kingdom of God must have such education; and if not here on earth, yet in the preparatory states in the other world. Only by the united play of genuine truths of doctrine and stored up states of heaven is there salvation For what man can enter into the kingdom of God who has not learned the laws of the kingdom, and submitted to them? And again: What man can walk in, with nothing in his inner essence that is fit for the kingdom? Therefore, the understanding must be built from genuine truths; and the will must be infilled with heavenly remains.
     "And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest in the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. . . . And when thy son asketh thee to-morrow, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God hath commanded you? Then shalt thou say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondsmen in Egypt: and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand" (Deuteronomy 6: 6, 7, 20, 21).
     Thus shall we not forbid, but suffer the child of innocence, who was born of God, to be brought before Him.
LAST JUDGMENT IN THE WRITINGS 1957

LAST JUDGMENT IN THE WRITINGS Editor 1957

As stated in the episcopal message which appears in this issue (pp. 1-4), the two hundredth anniversary of the Last Judgment will be marked by the publication of a series of articles examining the teaching of the Writings about that event It is to be hoped, however, that those who read the articles will have the teaching itself fresh in mind; and the following notes are offered to assist those who may wish to undertake this year a systematic course of reading on the subject by pointing out the main sources
There are many references to the Last Judgment in the Arcana, even as early as in the first volume. There the various meanings of the term are carefully defined, and the popular notions held by the Christian churches are shown to be erroneous. But in this work, completed in 1756, the final judgment is still to take place "when the Lord shall come in glory" (AC 900, 931: 2), and is "at hand" (AC 2121); and for seriatim treatments of the judgment itself we turn to three other works and to a portion of a fourth. The three works are: The Last Judgment and Babylon Destroyed, London, 1758, pp. 84; Continuation Concerning the Last Judgment, Amsterdam, 1763, pp. 46; and The Last Judgment (Posthumous) written in 1762, pp. 100.

The first two of these works are to be found in MISCELLANEOUS THEOLOGICAL WORKS, the third is published in the first volume of the POSTHUMOUS THEOLOGICAL WORKS. Then, in volumes 4 and 5 of the Spiritual Diary, we find an eyewitness account of the Last Judgment itself.
     The three works we have mentioned may be considered as historico-doctrinal and descriptive. The Last Judgment and Babylon Destroyed disposes rationally of the Christian idea on the subject by the reasoned argument that the destruction of the world is not meant by the day of judgment, that the procreations of the human race will never cease, that heaven and hell are from the human race-a teaching new to Christian thought, and that all who have ever been born men and are deceased are either in heaven or hell. It then shows that the judgment must take place where all are together, thus in the spiritual world, reveals that it comes when the church is at its end, and announces that the Last Judgment has already been accomplished. It then describes in some detail how the judgment was effected on the Roman Catholic Church and how the imaginary heavens were destroyed, and closes with a short dissertation on the state of the world and the church after the judgment.
     Continuation Concerning the Last Judgment was written principally, we are told, that it might he known what the state of the world and the church was before the judgment and what the state of the world and the church has become since; also, how the Last Judgment was accomplished upon the Reformed Church (no. 2). After demonstrating again that the Last Judgment has been effected it therefore treats of these subjects. In a continuation concerning the spiritual world which is appended there are descriptive articles on that world, on various nations, and on some persons there who had been prominent in this life.
     The posthumous work also entitled Last Judgment is a compilation of notes describing various nations in the spiritual world and the states there of several great religious leaders, whose final state, in certain instances, was evidently not reached until some time later. It then describes the judgment on the Gentiles and on the Protestants. Added to this are notes on various nations and persons in the spiritual world already mentioned, doctrinal extracts, and a formal argument on the Last Judgment. There is some repetition among these three works, but all three should be read for a complete treatment. Together they give in full the rationale and scope of the Last Judgment and an account of its effects; and in few other works do we find a more concrete description of the world of spirits.
     For the reader who appreciates a vivid running account, which might without irreverence be described as of the "you are there" type, volumes 4 and 5 of the Spiritual Diary are also recommended.

Swedenborg was an eyewitness of the shattering events which occurred in the world of spirits of 1757; and in these two volumes-from no. 4925-6020, with other matter interpolated-he describes them in detail, the descriptions being enhanced by the only maps and diagrams to be found in the Writings.
Because the Last Judgment is described prophetically in the book of Revelation, a very full account of the judgment process and its aftermath is to be found in the Apocalypse Revealed. This treatment is largely of an expository nature, however, and is rather lengthy. The average reader might well he content to form a general idea of the series by studying the summary of the internal sense prefixed to the exposition of each chapter. The rational argument, the doctrine, and the general description will be found in the other works mentioned; and for those whose interest desires the fuller historical account there is the extended report in the Spiritual Diary.
THE EDITOR
OF INTEREST TO THE BLIND 1957

OF INTEREST TO THE BLIND 1957

     The following is a list of Braille volumes and Talking Books which may he borrowed by blind readers from several distributing libraries for the blind in the principal cities of the United States.

     BRAILLE VOLUMES

Heaven and Hell, Grade 2, 5 volumes
God the Creator, Grade 1 1/2, 4 volumes
Doctrine of the Holy Scripture, Grade 1 1/2, 2 volumes
Doctrine of Life, Grade 1 1/2, 1 volume
New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, Grade 2, 1 volume
My Religion, by Helen Keller, Grade 1 1/2, 2 volumes
Divine Providence, Grade 2, 5 volumes

     TALKING BOOKS

Why God Created Man-3 records
True Christian Religion (survey)-6 records
Divine Providence (survey)-5 records

     For further information write to Rev. Karl R. Alden, Bryn Athyn, Pa., Chairman of the Committee for the Blind of the Swedenborg Foundation.

IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES 1957

IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES Various 1957

Since the resignation of President Edward F. Memmott, the future of Urbana Junior College has been the subject of discussion in the pages of the NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER. One suggestion, advanced tentatively by the editor, was that Urbana should be changed into a research center for exploring, "with the aid of modern techniques, into the nature of the human spirit; into the hidden powers of the mind and personality, and into the various phenomena that seem to border on the occult"; and mentioned the work being done along this line by Professor J. B. Rhine at Duke University and by Professor P. A. Sorokin at Harvard. Subject to certain conditions being met, this was supported by Dr. John R. Swanton, who believes "that a research center should be opened at Urbana headed by a man skilled in parapsychological research with the understanding that Swedenborg's experiences be made an especial subject of investigation." and that certain of the functions of a junior college could be combined with this research work. The Rev. John W. Spiers agreed that a research center was needed, but pleaded instead for a "New-Church Sunday School and Week-Day Church School Research and Materials Center," arguing that Convention has the personnel for this but not for the other.
In a more recent issue, Dr. Edward B. Hinckley disagrees, both as an educator and a New Church minister, with the editorial suggestion and the letters just mentioned. As an educator he feels that the increasing enrollment of young people in the colleges provides an opportunity for the smaller institutions, and that from the standpoint of educational need alone this is not the time to consider abandoning the idea of a junior college at Urbana. His personal acquaintance with parapsychologists has done nothing to change his feeling that their investigation of Swedenborg's "spiritual experiences is not the best wax' to advance the acceptance or usefulness of the Writings; and he mentions the excellent lesson materials now being prepared and used by 65% of the Sunday schools in Convention. As a minister he urges remembrance of the fact that Urbana was founded as a school for New Church young people, and consideration of "the specific need of giving our own young people systematic and effective instruction about their church doctrines." He adds: "Preparing them for the challenge of perhaps living all their lives as isolated members, and therefore as both representatives of and missionaries for their church, would give them both a vision and the means to attain it."

     Another correspondent, commenting on a recent discussion of the problem of mixed marriages, says among other things: "As far as I know, the General Church does not lose its young people through marriages outside the Church, as does the Convention, because they have a thorough system of co-education from the grades up. in which the pupils are indoctrinated in all their textbooks, e.g., teaching science, as Swedenborg regarded it, as coming from spiritual causes, instead of the godless teachings in non- church schools. The parents from all over the country send their children to New Church schools, as the Catholics do theirs to parochial schools. In this way they meet possible mates from a wide territory `within the Church, and they form lasting marriages based on a common belief."

     The Rev. John L. Boyer, retiring president and general pastor of the California Association, says, in a message read to the forty-eighth session of that body: "As I come now to the end of my three-year term as your president, two especial thoughts keep coming to my mind. First an instructed Church, though few in numbers, will be secure in that the essential truths concerning the Lord and the Word will be clearly seen and firmly held. The acknowledgment of the Lord in His Divine Humanity is the first essential of the New Church, and this is the key truth for all genuine doctrine. . . The New Church is the crown of all the Churches and is to serve mankind for ages to come. That service can be fully rendered only in so far as we keep our attention firmly fixed on the essentials. In every Society our aim should be to maintain, in integrity, the sphere of worship and life that will provide a fitting ultimate for the influx from heaven."

     An interesting article entitled "A Necessary Middle Course" was contributed recently to the NEW-CHURCH HERALD by the Rev. Frank Holmes. Based on the Arcana exposition of the story of Sarai being represented to Pharaoh as Abram's sister, the article centers around the teaching that "if an advance be made from scientifics and rational truths to celestial truths, without the mediation of intellectual truths, the celestial is violated" (AC 1495). The stage at which the understanding is delighted with intellectual truths is the "middle course"; and, recognizing the need for it, the author urges against wishing to "short-circuit the processes of Divine order." He points out that until the new will begins to be formed by the Lord it is required that the understanding shall lead the way; and states that the danger in many evangelistic campaigns is that they "are trying to bypass the middle-intellectual, or understanding process, and without the mind's cooperation get straight at the love itself, with the appeal of a false doctrine of atonement or Divine appeasement."

The NEW AGE, official organ of "The New Church in Australia" continues to come out as a bimonthly magazine of sixteen pages. The most recent issue received contains an adaptation from Francis Thompson, a condensation by the editor of an article contributed to the NEW CHURCH MAGAZINE by the late Rev. Eric A. Sutton, the account of a presidential visit to Brisbane, an excellent review of the second volume of the Letters and Memorials of Emanuel Swedenborg by the Rev. W. Reginald Homer, and news reports from the five societies making up the Australian Conference.
MISS SERENA KATHERINE DANDRIDGE 1957

MISS SERENA KATHERINE DANDRIDGE CORNELIA H. HOTSON 1957

     The New Church on earth has suffered a loss in the death, on November 7, 1956, of Miss Serena K. Dandridge of Shepherdstown, West Virginia, and the Green Pastures sheep farm. Her letters in several Round Robins, and her personal notes to all of us in her beloved Arcana Class, can no longer come to us in her handwriting. But none of us who received them will forget her message: that the Lord is here in His second coming, and that we should go out to meet Him by studying His Word as it is opened to us in the Arcana and applying its truth to our lives.
     Miss Serena was seventy-nine and had therefore lived a long life in this world. Her first contact with the New Church came when she was working in Washington for the Smithsonian Institution, making exact drawings in color of birds and flowers. The Rev. Frank Sewall and his daughters became very dear to her, and in his church she found what she and her father, Stephen Dandridge, had always wanted.
     Miss Dandridge first became interested in the Arcana work through Mrs. Mary Adams, who was then Alliance Round Robin chairman and a prime mover in the formation of the Arcana Class, for which the Rev. John Whitehead wrote the notes for many years. She acted as secretary for that class until her father became sick and needed her entire attention. Then, for several years, the Arcana Class was in the care of the Rev. Arthur Wilde, who led it through the Swedenborg Student published by the Swedenborg Foundation. Since Mr. Wilde's death, the Foundation has taken a page in the NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER for Arcana notes by the Rev. Louis Dole.
     Wishing to see the work continue. Miss Serena wrote to all her friends urging a new Arcana Class-Class III, which started in September after the Cincinnati Convention.

Another new class has started each year; and there are now over 275 people reading in these classes as well as those who are reading in the MESSENGER notes. There are readers in England, Scotland, Switzerland, Germany. Mexico, the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and Puerto Rico, besides those in this country. Miss Serena sent off each set of notes with a personal prayer for the recipient, and often a personal note as well. No better memorial to her could be devized than that the Arcana Class should contintse reading
One of Miss Serena's cherished plans was that Green Pastures should become a hallowed spot to which all New Church people, especially young people, would come to read the Arcana and the Doctrine of Charity together, listen to the birds, help with whatever farming tasks were going on, and enjoy the beauty with which the Lord has enriched that spot of earth. `We who loved Miss Serena will try to carry out this wish of hers.
FREDERICK EMANUEL DOERING TRUST 1957

FREDERICK EMANUEL DOERING TRUST 1957

Applications for assistance from the above fund, to enable Canadian male students to attend "The Academy of the New Church" Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania U. S A., for the school year 1957-1958 should be received by one of the undermentioned pastors (who will be glad to give any further information that may be required) before April 15, 1957.
Before filing their applications, students should first obtain their acceptance as students for the forthcoming year from the Academy. This should be done, the Academy states, before March 1, 1957.

Rev. Martin Pryke,
35 Elm Grove Avenue,
Toronto. Ontario

Rev. Geoffrey S. Childs.
178 Bristol Street,
Waterloo. Ontario

Rev. Roy Franson
Box 478,
Dawson Creek,
British Columbia

NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1957

The major portion of the second inspired address by Moses recorded in Deuteronomy forms the greater part (chaps. 13-26) of our readings in the Old Testament. In the literal sense this is a practical exposition of the entire Law. It began with the Ten Commandments and deals here with the enforcement of regulations in three main groups: laws concerning religion, concerning administration of justice, and concerning private and social rights-the application of the Law to the spiritual, civil and moral planes. The remaining chapters (27-29: 10) take us into the third address and include the solemn renewal of the covenant, with an impressive recital of the blessings attendant upon observance and the curses on neglect of the Law, and an exhortation to obedience.
     This entire assignment emphasizes again the peculiar relation in which the Jews stood to the Lord as the source of law, the fountain of justice, and the owner of the land. The covenants made with the sons of Israel were rituals representative of conjunction with the Lord through love and faith, thus of regeneration. Conjunction was effected then by the precepts, judgments and statutes commanded, and takes place now through the commandments and the spiritual laws within the judgments and statutes. It is in the light of this that Deuteronomy should be read, and the significance seen of the renewing of the covenant on the border of Canaan with the generation born in the wilderness.

     Our assignment in Divine Love and Wisdom includes portions of Parts 2 and 3 of the work. Part 1 deals with the Divine itself, which is the Divine love and wisdom; Part 2 treats of the first proceeding of the Divine, which is the spiritual sun; and Part 3 unfolds the doctrine of degrees-of the discrete degrees by which the Divine successively finited itself to create and through which it proceeds, and of those continuous degrees on every discrete plane which are degrees of reception.
     Attention is drawn to the teaching that the spiritual sun is not the Lord, but is the Divine love and wisdom in its first correspondence, to the distinctions between the two suns, and to the role of each in creation. Discrete degrees are the degrees of the formation of one thing from another; and the characteristics of the first and last degrees in a series should be noted, as should the homogeneity of a series. Successive order is that of formation; simultaneous, that found in ultimates.

TWO ANNIVERSARIES 1957

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of Publication, Lancaster, Pa.

Published Monthly By

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

Editor     Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager      Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

All literary contributions shoed be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address, and business communications, should be sent to the Circulation Secretary. Notifications of address changes should be received by the 15th of the month.

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION

$3.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single copy, 30 cents.
     This year the entire New Church will mark the bicentennial of the Last Judgment; and the General Church, organized in 1897, will celebrate its sixtieth birthday. The proximity of these two anniversaries draws attention to what we believe to be an important principle. Historically the New Church could not be founded on earth until the Last Judgment had been accomplished, and we believe that there can be no distinct and distinctive establishment of the church in the minds of individual men and women except on the basis of a similar judgment.
     In the Christian world there are undoubtedly many of the simple good who are in a few genuine truths, but in whose minds these truths are mingled with many falsities and fallacies drawn from appearances. And we cannot expect that the church will be formed in their minds by our making common cause with their few genuine truths, ignoring the rest in the name of a false charity, suppressing the truth about the church as a new religious dispensation, and presenting it as merely the advanced echelon of a universal new Christianity.
     The truth of the Writings, which alone can do this, was given to form the church; but it will be able to do so only when it is permitted first to judge! Falsities must be exposed so that a judgment can take place, so that the genuine can be separated voluntarily from the spurious in the minds of men; and they can receive the Heavenly Doctrine, not as confirming what they already know and believe, but as a new Divine revelation from the Lord. As a means to this end, we are convinced, judgment is essential to true evangelization.

SWEDENBORG AND THE LAST JUDGMENT 1957

Another birth anniversary which will not go unobserved in the next few weeks is that of Emanuel Swedenborg. In ranging over the many aspects of his unique use, it is appropriate that we should select for brief comment this year his part as an instrument in the Last Judgment. It is known from the Writings that although the judgment itself was effected in the world of spirits, an ultimate basis for it had to be provided on earth. This ultimate was a Divine revelation of the true meaning of the letter of the Word which had been perverted by the Christian Church, and on the perversion of which the imaginary heavens had been constructed. Such a revelation had been made in the pre-judgment work, the Arcana Coelestia, in which the doctrine of the Divine Human is drawn from the letter. But very few men had read the Arcana before 1757; and we may believe that the mind of Swedenborg, filled with the genuine sense of the Word as a result of his work in writing the Arcana, furnished the ultimate basis on earth for the Last Judgment.
Yet this was not Swedenborg's only connection with the judgment. In his conscious association with spirits, his mind formed by and filled with a true understanding of the Word, he was able to instruct some who had been deceived by false interpretations, and on occasion to confound those who had deceived others. In at least one instance, instruction given through Swedenborg prepared directly for the effecting of judgment. For when he had spoken with certain spirits from the fifth earth in the starry heaven, teaching them about the manner of the Lord's appearing to the angels from our earth, the Lord presented Himself before those spirits. The good among them were separated from the evil, who were cast into hell and the good were left to form an angelic society. Other incidents of the same kind may have occurred, though none are recorded. So Swedenborg was not only the Divinely commissioned observer and inspired chronicler of the Last Judgment: as the servant of the Lord he was given a part in both worlds in the effecting of the judgment.
WHERE HEAVEN IS 1957

WHERE HEAVEN IS 1957

"Heaven is not in any certain and determinate place, thus not, according to the common opinion, on high; but heaven is where the Divine is, thus with everyone and in everyone who is in charity and faith; for charity and faith are heaven, because they are from the Divine, and there also the angels dwell" (Arcana Coelestia, 8931: 2).

Church News 1957

Church News Various 1957

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.

     The San Francisco-Bay Area Circle is enjoying this year the more frequent visits of the Rev. Harold Cranch, and the organization of the Circle has been strengthened accordingly. We were all thrilled last June to see the documentary film that had been made by Mr. Cranch with the assistance of church members in southern California. Aimed at introducing people to the New Church, it also clarifies doctrine for older church members.
     At the monthly meetings held between pastoral visits we have been studying the tape-recorded series on heaven and hell by the Rev. K. R. Alden. Jerry and Norma Bundsen, Fred and Billie Bundsen Ray and Ruth Wyland, Lottie Muller and her brother Will Caldwell, Dolly Ashley and her mother Mrs. Mabel Ashley, and Phil (Red) and Christine Pendleton have all been hosts and hostesses at church meetings in their homes.
     Our numbers have been increased since our last report, first by the birth, on October 9, 1955, of Judy Diane Wyland. Franklin Allen arrived last June after his graduation from Colorado A and M. He has recently reported for active service with the U. S. Air Force in Florida. We are looking forward to his return here after his tour of duty. Last summer we welcomed also Don and Ruth (Bostock) Lynch and their three children, who are now living in Lafayette, and Eliot Cranch, who is living in Oakland.

     Obituary. Frank C. Muller passed into the spiritual world on June 11, 1956. Together with his wife Charlotte (Lottie), he had been a faithful member of our group since arriving in San Francisco in 1947. He was always an interested and active member whose warm friendship we enjoyed at meetings in his home. His physical condition prevented him from entering into the activities of our Circle as fully as he would have liked for some time just before his passing. Previous to their coming to San Francisco, Frank and Lottie lived in Washington, D. C., where Frank's increasing interest in the New Church led to his being baptized. We shall remember him for his devotion to the church and his unfailing good spirits during our Circle meetings.
     CHRISTINE H. PENDLETON

     DETROIT, MICHIGAN

     Once again it was a pleasure to return, after a relatively cool summer, to a full and even crowded program of activities. Mr. and Mrs. Reuter are now comfortably settled in their new' home; the Sons and Theta Alpha are back in harness; dinner committees are frantically hunting up new and original recipes; the Women's Guild is busier than ever; and the grounds committee has provided the church with a magnificent new front lawn. The ladies, delighted to be working with their lavish new kitchen equipment, have mercifully been relieved of the added responsibility of keeping the building clean. This and other chores the gentlemen, in true cavalier fashion, "volunteered" to undertake. All Society activities, with the exception of ladies' and men's meetings, are being held in the building classes, suppers and socials included.
     At the end of August the Society gathered at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Bertil Larsson to hid farewell to the Rev. and Mrs. Norbert Rogers, Mr. Rogers having accepted a call to time Philadelphia Society. During his five and a half years in Detroit, Mr. Rogers had guided the Society to many momentous and historic decisions. He saw new families arrive, and established families grow. Altogether he must have baptized more infants and adults into the New Church than any one pastor before him. These were the years of our growth, when everything was enormous fun and life was filled with the sheer enjoyment of living. Then, in 1953, Mr. Rogers saw a struggling Circle grow into the first new Society of the General Church in a generation. Later he helped, in great measure, to build the church which is now our pride and joy.

For all of his contributions to its progress the Society wishes once again to thank Mr. Rogers, and to wish him and his family every success.
     The Rev. Norman H. Reuter, with son Mark, arrived from Kitchener in September to assume the pastorate of the Society. Mrs. Reuter joined them soon after the sale of their previous home had been completed. To welcome its new pastoral family the Society gave a pantry shower after an early doctrinal class. Now two months have elapsed and Mr. and Mrs. Reuter have been as busy as beavers. The pastor's wife is conducting a class for primary children between the ages of 7 and 3, and has been busily engaged in sewing for the fair, dispensing rummage items, attending meetings, dinners and socials, and at the same time set tune the family in its new home. The pastor, apart from his regularly scheduled meetings, services, classes, and visits to North Ohio, has addressed the Women's Guild and Theta Alpha, dedicated a home, baptized two infants, and is presently planning a missionary type of service to which members will he invited to bring interested friends and relatives. Doctrinal classes on discrete degrees, a subject basic to a clear understanding of the Writings, have been received with a great deal of enthusiasm. We are enjoying, too, our cosy schoolroom alcove, and the quiet informality of each class.
     On Sunday. October 25, the Society was pleased to witness its first double baptism in many a rear. At that time Gary, son of Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Elder, and Janet, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Vance Birchman, were marked as being "of the church." This very lovely service was the first of its kind to be performed in the new building.
     The new home of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Synnestvedt in Manistee, Michigan, was dedicated on November 4th. Mr. Reuter traveled 240 miles to conduct the service and was accompanied by the 16 members of the Society who were able to accept the open invitation extended by the Synnestvedts. The weekend, according to a reliable source, was a great success; and members of the party reported after their return that the Synnestvedt home is beautifully designed and furnished, and commands a most inspiring view of Lake Michigan.
     Once again our annual fair was a tremendous success. With an assist from a few travel posters, streamers and balloons, the hall was transformed into a bustling bazaar, with young customers jostling each other for a shot at the game boards. Other customers were seen, at times buying an assortment of toys, needlework or baked goods, at times quietly eating a delicious dinner, and quite regularly scanning the crowd for an errant child. The women of the Guild had worked long and hard at their knitting, sewing and baking, and this highly successful day was in every respect their just reward.
     This year, for the first time, we were able to hold a combined service on Thanksgiving Day. To mark the occasion, the children brought gifts of fruit as offerings to the Lord, and as a part of the service they recited the 100th Psalm. A most inspiring sermon on Psalm 107:1 was the climax of a very beautiful Thanksgiving service.
     Tom Steen and his bride, formerly Rita Smith of Pittsburgh and Bryn Athyn, recently returned from their wedding trip to settle in the Detroit suburb of Ferndale. In wishing them well the Society is delighted to add another enthusiastic and energetic couple to its ranks. Tom has been a tireless usher-gardener, and the ladies gleefully welcome Rita to the brigade of happy dishwashers.
     BARBARA FORFAR

     PITTSBURGH, PA.

     Vacations are long since over. Our members have returned from visiting New Church friends in England, Europe, Denver, Portland, Oregon, Victoria, B. C., and Los Angeles, to mention just a few all of which strengthens our bonds of friendship with those working for the New Church in other places. Talks about the General Assembly and European travels have been given at the Sons' meetings by Mr. Percy Brown and Mr. Daric Acton, and their wives have addressed the Women's Guild. At doctrinal class we heard recordings of two of the addresses given at the Assembly: one, by Bishop De Charms, on "The Charity that Makes the New Church," the other, by the Rev. Elmo C. Acton, on "The Human Soul." The latter subject evidently inspired our pastor, for he continued the topic in succeeding class.
     We were fortunate to have the Rev. Harold C. Cranch, his wife and all their children, some of whom had been visiting here, stop over on his return from the General Assembly with Mrs. Cranch. A basket picnic for the Society was held on the church lawn, after which Mr. Cranch showed a film in color called "Our Faith" which describes the New Church by sight and sound.

It was a new and powerful way of teaching the truths of our church. Later the pastor and his wife invited us all to a reception in their apartment.
     On September 1st and 7th weddings were solemnized in our lovely church which was lit by candles and beautifully decorated each time with flowers. The first was that of Candidate Daniel Heinrichs and Miss Miriam Smith, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert M. Smith. The sphere of the wedding was most powerful as they pledged their vows before the Lord. The Rev. Henry Heinrichs, father of the groom, officiated. Many friends and members of the family from Kitchener and Bryn Athyn were present. The auditorium, in which the reception was held, was decorated, and for the first time the garden adjoining was lit with lanterns. There were songs, toasts and dancing to add to the festivities. The short speeches given at the receptions are like precious gems, selected by the minister; their various facets displayed to show the beauty and wonder of conjugial love. It is no wonder that our weddings are so lovely, and that good friends of other faiths who are present are impressed by our religion The following week our pastor officiated at the marriage of Mr. Richard Bailey and Miss Patricia Frazier, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Frazier. We were particularly delighted to have Patty and her family, old members of the Society, return to Pittsburgh from Louisville for the occasion. It was a beautiful wedding with special organ music, many bridesmaids, and such a happy reception following at which many friend; joined in toasts, songs, and dancing to the music of an orchestra.
     Pittsburgh sent four new students to the Academy last fall. The one girl, Julie Stevens, was given a send-off party, a shower, by Theta Alpha; the three boys-James Cart, Charles Ebert, 3rd, and Larkin Smith-received gifts from the Sons at a picnic held at the A. H. Lindsay farm. Six other students returned again to Bryn Athyn, and two young men have come to Pittsburgh from Bryn Athyn to attend college here.
     It was quite an inspiration to attend school opening and find two new teachers present: Miss Gertrude Hasen, 5th grade, and Mrs. Gareth Acton, kindergarten. The new schoolrooms, the vestry for ninth grade and the room above for kindergarten, were in fine shape, as indeed was the whole building, with all rooms painted or cleaned. Thirty-one students are enrolled, this figure including the ninth grade and the four children in kindergarten.
     On September 14th we were saddened to hear that our friend, Mrs. Eva Kendig, had passed into the spiritual world. A resurrection service was held at the church and was attended by her two sons and their families, and by many friends and neighbors.
     This year our pastor is giving classes in outlying districts to all who request them. These classes give much wanted instruction to those living at a distance, and as a result more people are attending church and classes in town.
     Our annual meeting this year was marked by a wonderful spirit of good will. Every report seemed to show an improvement. The most encouraging report was that of the statistician, Mr. Percy Brown, which showed a marked increase in attendance at Sunday worship and at doctrinal classes. Younger members are being called on to serve. Mr. John Schoenberger remarked that Mr. J. Edmund Blair had been asked to serve again on the executive committee, but that Mr. Blair had declined as he had served for 35 years, twelve years as treasurer, and felt that the use itself would be better served by a younger man.
     The next social committee started off its program for the year with a lively square dance, which was held around Hallowe'en. The following day the children had their party, which included a supper. The committee-Mr. and Mrs. Harry Abele. Mr. Walter Williamson and Mr. Kenneth Blair-has a big dance, with orchestra, planned for the Friday after Christmas.
     For reasons best known to the young and healthy, a camp was held in the snow in the mountains last November. Gilbert Smith, the "old scout," was still doing the honors as bead chef and camp maker. These camps are a fine way foe city folks to get to know one another.
     We had our usual children's service at Thanksgiving, and it was larger than ever. Our pastor gave a timely talk in which he asked us to give thanks for our country and for peace. Many guests were in town over the weekend, and one guest we were especially happy to welcome with his family was our friend and former pastor, the Right Rev. Willard D. Pendleton.

He came to officiate at the Steen-Smith wedding, which was solemnized on the Friday after Thanksgiving; and, to our delight, Mrs. Pendleton came as well, bringing two of her daughters, who were flower girls in the wedding. The church was beautifully decorated with red and white flowers, and it was filled to overflowing, The reception was a gala affair. Many guests were present from Bryn Athyn, and also from Detroit, where the couple will make their home. Rita is the second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert M. Smith, and this was the second reception they had given in three months. Bishop Pendleton and our pastor both responded to toasts, and again we had little jewels of talks that the couple will long remember.
     We would like to report on the Pittsburgh Reporter. This monthly paper is a calendar of events to come and contains also news of past events. It performs a useful function in keeping us all in touch with affairs. Mrs. Daric Acton does a splendid job as editor, and Doris Bellinger and Phyllis Schoenherger undertake the task of production.
     The Rev. Charles E, Doering, one of our oldest ministers, preached for us last summer. We were honored to have him.
     Our pastor and his wife are receiving congratulations on the birth of a new baby girl, their ninth child.
     LUCILE S. BLAIR

     KITCHENER, ONTARIO

     The summer of 1956 was marked by a change in the pastorate of the Kitchener Society. Our last report ended with the Nineteenth of June celebration, at the close of which the Rev. Norman H. Reuter tendered his resignation preparatory to becoming pastor of the Detroit Society. Before June was over, Bishop De Charms met with the Society and the Rev. Geoffrey S. Childs, Jr., was chosen as our new pastor. The change became effective on Sunday, August 26th.
     The summer began with a visit of two weeks duration by Candidate Donald L. Rose. The Society always enjoys these summer visits and the opportunity they afford to become acquainted with future priests. While this one was shorter than some, there was time for Mr. Rose to preach three times, give two lectures on "Psychology and Psychotherapy," and attend several parties and a reception in his honor.
     Other events of the summer included the annual July tat picnic, held on the church grounds. Once again it was a big affair, with two hundred people present, including many Toronto visitors. The annual Sons picnic was held on August 18th at the Carl Kuhl farm. It had been scheduled rain or shine, so it was held in the rain the large garage giving adequate shelter. Because of the cool, wet season there were only one or two Friday evening picnics at the church grounds. On August 4th, another rainy night, the Society held a wedding shower for Peggy Kuhl and Robert Merrell at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Robert G. Schnarr.
     Beginning on August 10th, a series of Friday evening programs to hear tape-recordings of the General Assembly addresses was started. On August 21st, after the third address had been heard, a farewell party for the Reuter family was held. Touching tribute was paid to a pastor and a family we were sorry to lose. Two weeks later, after another Assembly address, we officially welcomed our new pastor and his wife with a pantry shower, and the Society enthusiastically looked forward to the beginning of a new phase.
     A summer wedding took place on August 25th, when Miss Peggy Kuhl and Mr. Robert Merrell were married by the Rev. Norman Reuter in a lovely service attended by the Society and many visitors. An instrumental ensemble, five members of the Stroh family, provided enjoyable music. Miss Judith Kohl was maid of honor for her sister, and Miss Carolyn Kuhl, a cousin of the bride, was bridesmaid. Mr. Brent Pendleton of Bryn Athyn was best man. Mr. Harold Kuhl, father of the bride, was toastmaster at the reception which was held in the festively decorated church hall. Pink and white streamers, and mixed flowers in wail baskets, created a pretty effect. After many good wishes, toasts and speeches, dancing was enjoyed. Mr. and Mrs. Merrell are living in Glendale, Ohio, and Bob is attending the University of Cincinnati.
     In September it was back to school and back to regular Society activities. The Carmel Church school opened with additional teaching assistance this year. Miss Judith Kuhl teaches half days. Miss Rita Kuhl is again fulltime teacher, and Mr. Childs and Mr. Weiss also teach. The enrollment is 16 in six grades. Theta Alpha held a picnic for the children in October, and in November the upper grades spent a day in Toronto with the children of the Olivet Church school, attending the Royal Winter Fair and the Royal Ontario Museum.

     The Rev. Geoffrey Childs gave the first series of doctrinal classes in September and October, the subject being "Temptations and Consolations." In November and December the Rev. Jan Weiss gave a series on "The Doctrine of the Lord." Friday Supper singing practice and class are well attended. Mr. Leon Stroh conducts the singing practices.
     We are fortunate in again having the services of the Rev. Jan Weiss as assistant to the pastor this year. In addition to being also assistant to the pastor of the Toronto Society visiting the isolated in Ontario, assisting in the Kitchener school, and giving some classes in both societies. Mr. Weiss is giving introductory classes to three small groups in Kitchener. These groups are made up of people who desire basic teaching in the doctrines. The consist mostly of couples, one of whom is new to the church, and there are a few newcomers who have become interested in the church through Mr. Weiss' efforts.
     A current project in the Society is the raising of money for a much needed new organ. Under the name of "The Organ Grinders" the young people have been busy combining social life with the raising of money. Weekly parties have been held after class on Friday, with a profit-making charge included. Special parties have included one at which everyone had their picture taken for a dollar, a corn roast, a picture tour of Europe, and a box supper at which the men bid for their meal. These parties all proved quite profitable. The Women's Guild raised $100.00 at a rummage sale held in the Y.M.C.A. last September and gave the money to the organ fund. The Society was canvassed for special subscriptions, and now the $1,600.00 organ we have had our eye on will probably be purchased within the next few months, while there has been a great deal of fun in raising the money.
     Competing with these organ parties, non-profit making monthly socials have been held as well. In October a "hard times" party found the Society assembled in tags and tatters, and enjoying an evening of games and dancing with a depression flavor. The assembly room was strewn with dead leaves and old newspapers, and catastrophic headlines involving various members covered the walls. The soup line formed at eleven o'clock foe coffee and doughnuts.
     The November social took the form of a card party. It was under the charge of Mr. Clarence Schnarr, who is heading the social committee this year.

     Obituaries. Since our last report we have lost two members of the Society through death. On July 4, 1956, Mr. Alfred Kenneth Hasen passed away in his 65th year after a brief illness. He was a staunch and active member of the church from his early youth. A man of strong convictions, he took his responsibilities with an unusual degree of earnestness which influenced the Society to elect him as a trustee for many years. He served also on the Executive Committee and the Pastor's Council for many years and was a member of the Corporation of the Academy of the New Church. Mr. Hasen is survived by his wife, Beata, two sons, four daughters, and seven grandchildren.
     Mrs. Alena Bellinger passed into the spiritual world on October 17, 1956, after a lengthy illness. She was in her 72nd year. A daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Randolph Roschman, she was a lifelong member of the Kitchener Society except for fourteen years of her married life, when she lived in Windsor, Ontario. In 1927 her husband, Mr. Alfred G. Bellinger, and their eldest daughter died. Mrs. Bellinger lived for many years as a widow, and had the task of bringing up her six children, who survive her along with nineteen grandchildren.
     Mrs. Bellinger and Mr. Hasen will be missed by their many friends and relatives in the Society, and particularly by their immediate families. But we rejoice that after a life of use which had been curtailed in recent years by failing health they have been released to attain the goal of life.
     VIVIAN KUHL

     THE CHURCH AT LARGE

     General Convention. In its Journal for 1956, the Convention reports a total membership of 5,690 (4,366 grouped, 464 isolated, 860 not counted with societies). There are 77 societies and 60 ministers reported through Associations, and the total ministerial membership is put at 72 there being 12 other Convention ministers, 11 outside the United States.

Total memberships of the societies are given by Associations; but figures showing average attendance at public worship, etc., such as are supplied by the General Conference and the General Church, are not given.

General Conference. The General Conference Year Book (1956-1957) mentions that membership has again decreased slightly from 4,347 to 4,267, a net loss of 80. Of the 57 societies returning statistics, 23 hold formal doctrinal classes, and a further 12 hold meetings which, although not classified as doctrinal classes, "have for their essential object the deepening of the faith and life of the Church." Thirty-five societies report 430 children attending their morning services; and 30 societies, of which 14 have no morning service, report 124 children attending their evening services. It is noted that the practice of making every morning service a children's service seems to be firmly established. The number of societies which "had done nothing whatever which might attract a stranger to the Church" has decreased from 19 in 1954, and 16 in 1953, to 13. The Rev. George Frederick Colborne Kitching, an ordaining minister and a senior clergyman in the General Conference, died suddenly last September. Mr. Kitching, who was in his 72nd year, held his first pastorate, that of the Liverpool Society, for 15 years. For a number of years he then served the Conference as National Missionary Minister, work which involved lecturing and arranging lectures and study circles all over the country. During this period he had some oversight of the North Manchester Society, and for part of it he was secretary of the Missionary Board. In 1931 he went to the Wretham Road Society, Birmingham, and while there was appointed Principal of the Purley Chase Summer School, in which he had long had interest as a tutor. Mr. Kitching was appointed Conference preacher in 1932, and President of Conference in 1938. He was inaugurated as an ordaining minister in 1951.

Japan. We learn from the NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER that the Rev. Yonezo Doi visited five cities on a mission trip to the north last summer. Holding meetings and delivering sermons to about 70 people, he also visited a dozen families in these places.
SOME GENERAL CHURCH USES 1957

SOME GENERAL CHURCH USES 1957

GENERAL CHURCH RELIGION LESSONS. Graded lessons and other material from preschool through Grade 12. Address inquiries to: Pastor-in-Charge, Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
     GENERAL CHURCH SOUND RECORDING COMMITTEE. Tape-recordings of services, sermons, doctrinal classes, children's services, etc.
Address: General Church Sound Recording Committee, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
     GENERAL CHURCH VISUAL EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE. Biblical and other slides. Address: Mr. William R. Cooper, Director, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
     NEW CHURCH EDUCATION. Published by Religion Lessons Committee monthly, September to June, inclusive. Subscription, $1.50. Editor: Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal.

ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS 1957

JANUARY 21-27, 1957

Monday, January 21
     3:00     p.m.     Meeting of Headmasters
     4:30     p.m.     Meeting of Pastors
     8:00     p.m.     Meeting of Consistory

Tuesday, January 22
     10:00 a.m., and 3:30 p.m. Council of the Clergy

Wednesday, January 23
     10:00 a.m., and 3:30 p.m. Council of the Clergy

Thursday, January 24
     10:00 a.m. Council of the Clergy
     3:30 p.m. Committee Meetings

Friday, January 25
     10:00     a.m.     Council of the Clergy
     3:30     p.m.     Board of Directors of the Corporations of the General Church
     7:00     p.m.     Society Supper
     7:45     p.m.     Open Session of the Council of the Clergy
                Address by the Rev. Elmo C. Acton

Saturday, January 26
     10:00 am. Joint Council of the General Church
     3:30 p.m. Corporation of the Academy of the New Church

NOTABLE ANNIVERSARY 1957

NOTABLE ANNIVERSARY GEORGE DE CHARMS 1957

NEW CHURCH LIFE
     In February, 1897, the Academy, as an ecclesiastical body, was dissolved by the withdrawal of its members from the leadership of Bishop Benade. This action was taken with profound regret and with deep misgiving. Father Benade, as he was affectionately called, had inspired all his followers with personal love and admiration to an almost unprecedented degree. The doctrine of the sole Divine authority of the Writings, for which he had fought so valiantly throughout his life, and to which the Academy was irrevocably committed, was seen to be the cornerstone of that faith on which alone the New Church could be permanently established. Yet, with the fall of the Academy, all those who had embraced that faith wholeheartedly and with profound conviction were left destitute. They knew not where to turn.
     To meet this critical situation Bishop W. F. Pendleton took the lead in searching for a way to preserve the precious heritage which was in imminent danger of being lost. He know that although the body of the Academy had disintegrated its spirit still lived. The imperative need of the moment was to give it a new embodiment adapted to changed conditions which the former organization had proved inadequate to meet. A sense of freedom, and with it, all confidence in the leadership of Bishop Benade, had been lost. Without freedom the church could not survive; it must be restored without delay. This was the task with which Bishop Pendleton was confronted.
     On February 6th he met with five other ministers who had also withdrawn from the Academy, and formed a Council of the Clergy as the nucleus from which a new organization of the church might arise. He was unanimously selected as their leader: and the following evening he announced to the congregation worshiping in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, that a new priesthood had been inaugurated as a first step toward the establishment of a church, which would become a complete body when laymen should apply for membership and should accept its ministrations (NEW CHURCH LIFE, March 1897, page 43).

"The General Church of the New Jerusalem" was provisionally chosen as the name for the new organization, and a General Assembly was called to meet June 25-29 at Huntingdon Valley. At that gathering, Bishop Pendleton presented a plan of organization which, in its broad outlines, was subsequently adopted.
     The essence of the plan was the provision that the church should be governed by the Lord through the teaching of the Heavenly Doctrine received in heart and conscience. In order to secure this government both priests and laymen must be free to think, speak and act in accordance with that conscience. All external bonds were to be removed. There was to be no man-made constitution, no binding doctrine established by council, and no legislation for the future. Decisions were to be made only to meet the present needs and uses, and must be subject to change without prejudice as conditions might require. There was to be a house of the clergy to administer the purely ecclesiastical affairs of the church, and a house of the laity to administer the financial and business affairs. These two distinct bodies were to be brought into mutual understanding and co-operation by council and assembly.
     This proposal did restore the sense of freedom that was needed, and also full confidence in the leadership of the priesthood. Out of it the present government of the General Church has developed, with such changes as were indicated by new needs and conditions that have arisen with the growth of the body. It is a new concept of government, drawn directly from the Writings, and it has stood the test of time through unforeseen trials and conflicts over a period of three generations. It has produced a relationship between the clergy and the laity that is altogether unique, providing for a measure of freedom and unhampered co-operation hitherto unknown. As long as priests and laymen, with mutual confidence in one another, look to the Lord, seek guidance in all things from the revealed truth of the Heavenly Doctrine, and have regard for use in the solution of every problem, the church will continue to grow and prosper under the immediate leading of the Divine Providence. In this there is the promise of untold blessing.
     It is fitting, therefore, on this sixtieth anniversary of the establishment of the General Church, to make grateful acknowledgment of the outstanding service rendered by Bishop W. F. Pendleton in formulating this new plan of organization which has brought, and will continue to bring, benefits beyond all price to our beloved church.
     GEORGE DE CHARMS

LAW OF THE PLEDGE 1957

LAW OF THE PLEDGE Rev. WILLARD D. PENDLETON 1957

     "When thou dost lend thy brother anything, thou shalt not go into his house to fetch his pledge. Thou shalt stand abroad, and the man to whom thou dost lend shall bring out the pledge abroad unto thee. And if a man be poor, thou shalt not sleep with his pledge: In any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge again when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his own raiment, and bless thee: and it shall be righteousness unto thee before the Lord thy God." (Deuteronomy 24: 10-13)

     In ancient Israel the home was a sacred institution. Every man was, as it were, king within his own house. The reason for this was that the land upon which the house stood belonged unto Jehovah, and neither king nor creditor could take it from him who held it as a direct grant from God. Thus it was that when Ahab, King of Israel, sought the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, Naboth said unto him: "The Lord forbid me that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee" (I Kings 21: 3). In so speaking Naboth invoked the ancient law which, although it had been disregarded for many generations, was still the law of the land.
     Intimately associated with this law was the statute of the pledge. Not only was the debtor protected from the creditor in the possession of his house, but the creditor could not enter the house of the debtor to demand collateral for his loan. This was the law of the pledge-the law that required the creditor to stand abroad: "and the man to whom thou dost lend shall bring out the pledge unto thee." This was a matter of good faith with him who had borrowed of his neighbor, but under no circumstances was the creditor to enter the house of the debtor and require satisfaction for the debt.
     In the spiritual sense of the Word a "loan" is a thought or an idea, for thoughts and ideas are the medium of exchange between minds. Hence it is that one who instructs or advises another is the creditor, while he who is instructed or advised is the debtor. As creditors, however, we are not to insist upon a recognition of the debt. According to the law we must await a willing response, which alone is evidence of an agreement between minds (AC 9213).
     This affirmative or willing response is the pledge spoken of in the text. When given, it is the sign of good faith; when it is withheld it is apparent that differences exist.

This is the debtor's right-the right to exercise free will in matters of doctrine and in the application of doctrine to life. Let no man, therefore, seek to persuade another against his will. If, having heard us, he will not come out of his house, then we must go our way and await a change of state.
     The spirit of persuasion is an evil thing. This is the meaning of the text. This is why it is that in our relations with others we must await the pledge. If it be given we may press our claim to the truth: if withheld, it is not to be forced by subtle reasoning or an appeal to self-interest. As the Writings observe: "One should not bind or incite another to confirm one's own truths, but should hear him and take his answers as they are in himself. For he who binds and incites another to confirm his own truths, causes the other not to think and speak from himself, but from him" (AC 9213: 6). So to incite another is to possess his mind-to take by persuasion that which is not freely given.
     This is the sin of the zealot-the sin of him who seeks to excite others to the religious way of life. To preach the Gospel is one thing; to excite states of religious enthusiasm is another. The one is an appeal to the self- evidencing reason of truth: the other is an emotional persuasion. This is the fundamental reason for the slow growth of the church. In the law of the pledge we are warned of the debtor's right, and we are not permitted to enter the house of another to take his pledge. The man of the church is to be a free man-a man who is free from all external compulsion in matters of doctrine and faith. Neither the priesthood, nor any other human authority, has the right to exact recognition of a spiritual debt.
     When doctrinal differences arise, or when through ignorance or seeming indifference others are unmindful of their obligations to the church, we are not to insist. Our only recourse is to the Divine Law. We must "stand abroad, and the man to whom thou dost lend shall bring out the pledge unto thee." We may plead our cause, but we are not to force him against his will. This is the reason that the confessional is not included in the rites of the church, and that penitential practices are not observed among us. No man, be he priest or layman, is to require of another that which is not offered in freedom.
     The appearance is, however, that the end justifies the means-that if our cause be righteous, persuasion is permissible. Yet the purpose of permissions, wherever they apply, is that freedom may be preserved. Hence the teaching that the Lord permits what He does not will, and this for the sake of freedom. If, then, through the exercise of a permission, a man is deprived of his freedom, it is not a permission of Providence, it is a thing of evil. So it is that he who instructs or advises another, he who in one way or another seeks to lead men to the good of life, must speak the truth.

If the truth does not convince we are not to enter his house, for the spirit of persuasion is an evil thing.
     The purpose in all instruction should be to lead men to the good of life by way of truth, yet the man of the church is not to be bound by such instruction as he receives. If in conscience he cannot accept the doctrinal interpretations of priests and leaders of thought, let him go to the Word and plead his cause. He is the debtor, and as such his is the right to question what is taught. Before the Law he is a free man-free to determine for himself what is true. So it is said in the Arcana: "He who believes differently from the priest, and makes no disturbance, must be left in peace; but [it is added] he who makes a disturbance must be separated" (no. 10798). To disturb is to insist upon our own interpretation of doctrine-to require of others that which we are not willing that others require of us. This is the sin of the unmerciful debtor spoken of in Matthew, who, when his lord forgave him his debts, demanded payment of his debtors.
     Let those, therefore, who feel that they are being deprived of their freedom by the pressure of human opinion go to the Word. Here there is no persuasion, no false emphasis which impels belief. Note well the teaching of the Writings that the "Lord never compels any one; for he who is compelled to think what is true and do what is good is not reformed (AC 1947). Wherefore it is a law of Divine Providence that the understanding and will of another is not to be forced, for that which compels takes away freedom (AE 1150: 3). It is added, however, that man should compel himself, for to compel one's self is from freedom" (ibid.).
     If the Writings were other than what they are, that is, were they other than a rational formulation of the Divine truth, man would not be in freedom. The exercise of freedom is a power which is peculiar to the faculty of rationality. Indeed, the rational may be defined as the ability to discriminate between good and evil. This is God's gift to man, and it is that which makes him a man. So he can think in favor of God, or against God, as he wills. In this he is protected by the form in which truth is revealed, for that which is truly rational never compels. It is the way of the Lord who in the supreme sense of the word is the creditor of all. He it is who stands abroad and awaits the pledge-that affirmative response which is the sign of faith in Him. All wisdom, all knowledge, all truth are His. Even the house in which we dwell is of His building. Yet the Lord does not enter the house and force acknowledgment of the debt; for: "Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man will hear My voice and open the door, I will come into him, and will sup with him, and he with Me" (Revelation 3: 20). If, therefore, the Lord does not require satisfaction of us, wherefore should we, who are His debtors, require satisfaction of those who have borrowed of us?

Rather should we pray, saying, "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors."
     A respect for the freedom of others is the highest form of charity. In all human relationships it takes precedence over every other good. This is why we are not to place others under a sense of obligation to us, and where such obligations are incurred we are not to insist upon a recognition of the debt. It is a grievous thing to bind others with a sense of personal indebtedness-to require of them what they would not do were they left in freedom. Thus it is that we are permitted to stand abroad and call upon our neighbor, to remind him of his responsibilities to the church and to society at large, but we are not to enter his house and force his conscience.
     A man's conscience consists of such truths as he possesses, that is, those truths which by way of regeneration he has made his own. In the Word they are likened unto raiment which clothes the body-the body representing the good of life. Hence it was that among the Israelites, particularly the poor of the land who had few possessions, garments were used as pledges. Because of their representation they served as a sign of good faith, even as we accept a man's word as an ultimate expression of moral integrity. Yet a man's word is not to be forced. We are not to exact a promise of another, either implied or expressed, which in conscience he cannot keep. So it is said in the text: "If a man be poor, thou shalt not sleep with his pledge. In any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge again when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his own raiment and bless thee: and it shall be righteousness unto thee before the Lord."
     The reference here is to the hyke, a coarse blanket which the nomad nations of the East used as a cloak by day and as a covering by night. It was an all-purpose garment and an essential of life. According to law it could be used as a pledge, but if the man was poor it was to be returned by the going down of the sun. So it is said in Exodus: "If thou at all take thy neighbor's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down: for that is his covering only it is his raiment for his skin; wherein shall he sleep? And it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that I will hear; for I am gracious" (Exodus 22: 26, 27).
     The outer garment of the spirit is woven of natural truths-those truths which are drawn from the sense of the letter of the Word and form a social and moral conscience. In states of spiritual obscurity, that is, when the sun goes down, it is, as it were, our only possession. It is in such states that we lose the vision of the spiritual ends for which we are laboring, and we perform our uses from a sense of duty rather than from delight. It is a time of spiritual recession in which the mind is not responsive to the appeal of interior truth. Like the debtor we hear the voice of the creditor as He calls upon us from without, but "hearing we hear not."

Yet the Lord does not force our states. At no time does He compel a recognition of our spiritual debts. His mercy is upon us when the sun is up and when it goeth down, "For I [the Lord] am gracious."
     In remembrance of His mercy we, too, must extend to others that spirit of understanding when they will not hear us. In matters of life, as well as in matters of faith, we must not force their hands. When men are apparently unmindful of their obligations to society and the church, the temptation is to force their conscience, to gain by persuasion what we cannot accomplish by a presentation of use. The appearance is that the end justifies the means, yet the truth is that the end is not served where freedom is impaired. If, therefore, a man is beholden to us, if he is under a moral or social obligation to us, we are to return his garment to him before the sun goeth down; "and it shall be righteousness unto thee before the Lord."
     To return the garment is to return to the neighbor the full use of his own conscience in the application of doctrine to life; or, where differences exist, to desist from dispute when it is apparent that the mind of another is being forced. Especially is this true when men come into states of uncertainty regarding doctrines and principles. In such states instruction is needful, and this is the creditor's right. He may stand abroad and call upon the debtor, but he is not to enter his house; and if he hold his neighbor's garment in pledge he is to return it to him before the sun goeth down. As for the debtor, he is not bound by the pledge. In the recognition of his spiritual obligations he is to be left in freedom, for this is the debtor's right. Amen.

     LESSONS:     Deuteronomy 24: 5-22. Matthew 18: 21-35. AC 9213: 4-6.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 497, 416. Psalmody, pages 26, 1.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 16, 22.
MODE OF REGENERATION 1957

MODE OF REGENERATION 1957

"With man the Lord flows in with good through the soul, which is through the internal way, and with truth through the hearing and the sight, which is through the external way; and in so far as man desists from evils, so far the Lord conjoins the good with truth, and the good becomes of charity toward the neighbor and of love to God, and the truth becomes of faith. So does the Lord create man anew, or regenerate him" (Arcana Coelestia, 10047: 3).

LAST JUDGMENT 1957

LAST JUDGMENT Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER 1957

     (The first in a series of articles.)

     1.     Expectations and Prophecies

     Among the many startling claims made in the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg the most extraordinary is this, that the long awaited "last judgment-the day of doom predicted by the prophets of Israel and by the Lord Himself-has already taken place. It occurred, these Writings testify, in the year 1757, thus exactly two hundred years ago. A more world-shaking event could hardly be imagined. Yet even as the Lord was made incarnate by birth from a virgin in the obscure town of Bethlehem, and lived His early life in a backward and despised country far from the centers of civilization, unnoticed by the high and the mighty and even as His redemptive work was performed without leaving any remarkable effects upon the contemporary scene; so also the Last Judgment, which. He foretold, would take place at His second coming, occurred as it were inconspicuously as far as the world was concerned, and unobserved by any mortal save the Lord's servant, Emanuel Swedenborg, who acted as an appointed witness and recorder.
     And the reason neither of these two events-the incarnate life of the Lord and His coming again to judgment-made any immediate stir in the world was that they concerned a kingdom that was not of this world. When the Lord was asked how the kingdom of God would come. He therefore answered: "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation" (Luke 17: 20). At His first advent the Lord's work of redemption was effected beyond the sight of men, in the spiritual world, where He subjugated the hells. And at His second advent, which was not a coming in the flesh but a coming as Divine truth, the Last Judgment also was performed in the spiritual world, thus not among men but among spirits.
     How this judgment proceeded, in fulfillment of prophecy, is now revealed in the Writings. It may be regarded as a spiritual revolution which utterly changed the conditions of the world of spirits, inducing a new order upon that world so that spiritual freedom and the possibility of progress can be assured for the spirits of men.

     Before we can inquire intelligently into the effects which this last judgment has had upon the lives of men during the two full centuries that have since passed, we need to consider what men have thought in past ages about the possibility of such an event, what circumstances and conditions made it necessary, what is the nature of the world of spirits as the only possible scene of a general judgment, how the judgment was finally precipitated, and how it proceeded in order to its climax and aftermath and its intended results. These articles will be devoted to the consideration of this general subject.

     Gentile Beliefs and Legends

     Prophecy, in some form or other, has been a part of every religion since ancient times. The mainspring of human progress has been a hope for an eventual state of safety and bliss. This is inscribed on every human heart. But throughout the ages the hope has been sobered by the realization of human failure; by the recognition that contrary and evil forces are at work, not only abroad but in the human heart, to prevent men from reaching their goal-the goal which their God, or gods, had intended for them.
     Some nations were gripped by a pessimism which caused them to believe, as in India, that the created world with its individual beings is but an illusion, or at best a temporary creation bound for eventual dissolution into nothingness. In the centuries before and after Christ this took the form, as among the Stoics, of the belief that the world was predestined to pass through successive cycles again and again; that at the end of each full cycle it would return by a great conflagration to the original living fire out of which it had sprung; and that it would then be born again, to repeat unendingly the same cycle.
     Even the mythologies of some nations echo the universal fear and hope of mankind. In the Norse myths the end of the world was to come at the "Twilight of the Gods"-at Ragnarok, when Thor had slain the Midgard serpent, only to perish in its poisonous fumes; while the gods and their enemies mutually destroy each other in a final battle, and the sun goes out and the earth is engulfed by the sea and the stars fall from heaven and time is no more. But in the Elder Edda the sybil foretells that then a new earth would arise out of the cosmic waters and the golden tablets of the primeval race would be re-discovered; and Balder, the god of love, would return to rule over the hosts of the virtuous in halls of purest gold.

     Old Testament Prophecy and its Fulfillment

     It might be thought that these legends were independent inventions of sages who voiced the fears and hopes of men somewhat differently in each nation. Yet there is a consistency in their general thought which indicates that they have a common source in a primeval revelation.

And the Writings tell of an ancient Word that is now lost except for parts preserved by Moses, an ancient Word the teachings of which spread widely in the ages before our history dawned. In the portion preserved by Moses, in the first part of Genesis, there is the story of a great flood which came as a judgment, wiping out the first race of men when they had profaned their high estate. Only Noah and his seed were saved in the ark to re-people the new earth which emerged from the waters.
     The Israelites religiously preserved the know-ledge of the great flood. And when the nation became disobedient, the Lord inspired prophets to threaten it with another judgment to come unless it should repent. The people were indeed punished whenever they     departed from their allegiance to Jehovah, and finally their temple was destroyed and they themselves were carried away as captives to Assyria and Babylonia. Yet the later prophets spoke of a more final reckoning. There would come a great and dreadful day of Jehovah, a day of doom which would burn as an oven (Malachi 4: 1), when the Lord Himself would come with all His saints to fight against the wicked nations who had gathered to ravish Jerusalem. Great portents would occur. The Mount of Olives would cleave in twain, and living waters would go forth from Jerusalem (Zechariah 14: 4, 8). There would be wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke; the sun would be darkened, and the moon turned into blood, and the stars would cease their shining (Joel 3). And the "Ancient of Days" would sit on the throne of judgment and the books of judgment would be opened: and the dominion over all nations would be given forever after to one who was like the Son of Man, and who came with the clouds of heaven (Daniel 7: 9-14: Malachi 3: 16). Then God would create new heavens and a new earth, where the wolf and the lamb could feed together on the holy mountain of the Lord (Isaiah 65: 17-25).
     These prophecies were scattered, vague, and difficult to reconcile. And often they were accompanied by hints of the coming of a most holy Messiah, an anointed King who would suddenly come to His temple, and who was seemingly identified with the Son of Man coming in the clouds as well as with one who should come out of Bethlehem of Judah (Malachi 3; Daniel 7, 9). It was suggested also in Daniel that many who slept in the dust of the earth would awake at the time of judgment, some to everlasting life and others to everlasting shame (12: 1, 2).
     Our doctrine makes clear that when the Lord came on earth, by birth from the virgin Mary, He did fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament about the coming of a Messiah. He actually performed a "last judgment" on the Jewish Church, which had then reached its consummation and end.

Indeed, the Lord Himself stated: "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out (John 12: 31) and He said also: "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven" (Luke 10: 18). The Writings teach concerning this judgment that by temptations and victories over the hells the Lord not only glorified His Human, and made it Divine and one with the Father, but also performed a redemption in the spiritual world, elevating into new heavens all those spirits of the spiritual genius who had bean held captive by evil spirits. It was indeed a universal and final judgment, not only on the Jews but on all the spirits of the Ancient Church as well.

New Testament Prophecy of a Further Judgment

     The Jewish prophecies about the day of Jehovah were thus spiritually fulfilled. In a spiritual sense, the sun and moon had been darkened, and the stars extinguished, and new heavens and a new earth had been formed by the finger of God. The apostle Peter, in his famous address at Pentecost, seemingly made this claim, saying, "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel . . ." (Acts 2: 16-21). Yet, despite this, the Lord makes new prophecies about a further judgment, to take place on the occasion of His second advent when He, as the Son of Man, would come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, after the darkening of the sun and moon and the falling of the stars from heaven And then He would send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet to gather the elect from the four quarters of heaven (Matthew 24: 29-31).
     In a parable the Lord also described the second advent as the coming of the Son of Man in His glory, saying that He would sit upon the throne of His glory, and that all nations would be gathered before Him so that He night separate them, the evil to eternal punishment and the righteous to inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25: 31-46).
     The book of Revelation, called the Apocalypse, further describes this judgment and the conditions that would lead up to it. John here writes at the Lord's bidding about the things that should be thereafter, and ends his book with the Lord's assurance: Surely. I come quickly.
     Since this book has deeply influenced Christian thinking, let us briefly review the prophecies which it contains. It opens with the Son of Man appearing to John in glory, giving him messages to the seven churches which were in Asia Minor. John then sees heaven opened and watches while the Lamb opens the seven seals of a book. He sees how the dread of the coming judgment spreads over the world and hears seven angels sound their trumpets of doom and woe, until finally the temple of God is opened in heaven and the ark of the covenant is revealed.

     Then there comes a great wonder in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun gives birth to a man child who was to rule the nations; and a great red dragon, seeking to devour the man child, is cast down from heaven, while the woman is kept hidden in the wilderness. The Lamb is now seen on Mount Sion with a hundred and forty-four thousand who are redeemed; and an angel having the everlasting gospel proclaims the approach of the judgment. Seven angels pour vials of wrath upon the earth, and the evil gather for battle at Armageddon. Then the scarlet woman-symbol of the city of Babylon, mother of abominations-is destroyed, and a great voice proclaims the coming marriage of the Lamb.
     And so the Lamb appears-but now as a rider on a white horse; and His name is given as "the Word of God." "Out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations." And an angel comes down and binds the dragon, or Satan, in the bottomless pit for a thousand years. After that Satan is loosed for a season, and his armies besiege the camp of the saints, until fire comes down from heaven to destroy them and Satan and other beasts are cast into a lake of fire.
     And then John saw the dead, small and great, stand before God's throne of judgment while the books were opened, and all were judged according to their works. The first heaven and the first earth pass away, and John sees a new heaven and a new earth. And the holy city, New Jerusalem, comes down from God out of heaven, foursquare and golden, with translucent walls, foundations of jewels, streets of crystal, and gates of pearl. A river of water of life flows out from the throne of God; and Jesus, speaking through an angel, proclaims Himself the Alpha and the Omega, saying, "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

     Christian Expectations of the Last Judgment

     The New Church reader can easily perceive that all these prophecies of the Old and New Testaments have now indeed been fulfilled in spiritual reality. But the apostles and the early Christians forgot that the Lord spoke only in parables. They came to expect a physical return of Christ in the clouds of the earthly sky, a resurrection of the dead in their physical bodies, a destruction of the physical world, and a renovation of the earth into a physical paradise for the chosen few.
     Thus Paul and Peter were certain that the end of the age would come in their lifetimes, and that the world would then perish and its elements melt with fervent heat. For did not the Lord say, "This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled"? When this did not occur, later Christians saw in every natural disaster an omen of the near approach of the last day, of which the Lord had yet said: "Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven" (Matthew 24: 36). In the year 1000 A.D. multitudes of Christians became frantic in expectation of the dreadful day of the Lord at the end of the predicted millenium.

Even in our own century numberless sects have arisen, persuaded that they had calculated from prophecy the exact year and date of the Lord's return. Indeed, a certain powerful sect now declares that "Millions now living will never die," and that the Lord returned invisibly in 1874 to begin the process of resurrecting the dead saints and organizing His faithful for eternal life on earth.

     Modern Skepticism and Orthodox Beliefs

      There are, of course, increasing numbers among Christians who have come to regard the literal prophecies of the Bible as incredible and impossible of fulfillment. And this skepticism is furthered not only by the apparent delay of the last day which the disciples had regarded as near at hand but also by a greater knowledge of the laws of nature and by a growing preoccupation of men with the things of this world, from the love of comfort and pleasure and pride in human achievements. Yet it should not be forgotten that the Roman Catholic Church holds as a fundamental dogma not only that the spirits of men will at death pass either into heaven or hell, or into purgatory, but that these spirits will re-enter their material but refined bodies at the general judgment at the second advent of Christ. Note also that the main branches of the Protestant Church put forth as part of their faith that Christ will return in visible manner "at the last day," to judge the quick and the dead; and that this belief in a material resurrection is shared also by the Mormons.

     The New Church Doctrine of Judgment

     The New Church doctrine concerning the Last Judgment is so utterly different from all these views that it is hard to find any common ground, except in the universal perception which men must have that if human beings are responsible for their actions, a time must come when they become accountable and are judged or rewarded.
     The essential difference lies in the understanding of what is meant by the second advent of the Lord. The doctrine makes clear that the Lord never promised to return by a personal appearance, but by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth. He was to return "in the Divine truth which is the Word" (TCR 3), thus by revealing the interior truth of the Word. It is unquestionable that judgment is impossible without truth, for it is truth that unveils hidden states of evil and of good. The Lord said of those who rejected Him: "I judge no man" (John 8: 15); "the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day" (John 12: 48). And of the Holy Spirit He said: "When He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment" (John 16: 8). "When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth. . . .

the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in parables, but I shall show you plainly of the Father" (John 16: 13, 25). The Lords second coming would be a spiritual advent as a new unfolding of His Word, a new revelation of Divine truth in the form of plain doctrine. Only so could a last judgment be possible.

     Judgment in the Spiritual World

     And this last judgment could take place only in the spiritual world. There are indeed continual judgments going on in the natural world-taking the form of punishments for crimes, losses due to human error, diseases which come as the results of abuses, and misfortunes and disasters which are sometimes called "acts of God and sometimes accidents, or which are assigned to the forces of nature. In human society evils of various kinds lead to wars and strife which are judgments on men and nations. And it is often seen how the cumulative effects of the evils of a society or a nation reach a crisis which can no longer be avoided. It is obvious that evil is punished and good rewarded even en earth, and that unless the laws of men could provide for such judgments, before the courts of justice or before the tribunal of public opinion, society could not endure.
     But natural disasters and sicknesses may strike the innocent as well as the guilty, even as the rain falls on the just and on the unjust. Such events, like every detail of man's life, are governed by the Divine Providence according to laws of permission which have in view what benefits the spiritual life of man. Sickness and poverty and misfortune may be blessings in disguise. Wealth and power may be curses to some, blessings to others. Thus external failures, frustrations and trials, are not to be classed indiscriminately as judgments or retributions for sins.
     In the dispensing of worldly justice, society seeks to protect itself from evil and harmful acts. The intention of evil, or evil purpose, cannot always be discerned in the natural world, and never with any certainty. Yet a bodily act which is evil in form may be done from an innocent motive or from ignorance. The final justice can be seen only when the spirit is known. For man is a spirit. The clothing which we call the material body is not permanently man's, but is shed as a discarded garment at death. And the natural mind which is formed while man is in the world, and which is indeed part of his spirit that lives to eternity, also contains many things for which man is not wholly responsible. For it takes color, without man's choice, from his environment, and it is strongly affected by his heredity.
     This is the reason that a final judgment cannot be made upon man's spirit immediately after his resurrection into the spiritual world on the third day after death.

The spirit of man cannot be judged until he comes into a state of freedom, and is no longer under the compulsion of thoughtless habits imbued in the world, of mass opinions unconsciously accepted, or of the overpowering lusts that originated from states of the body. Hence it is that man after death does not pass immediately into heaven or hell, but comes into a great intermediate world which the Writings call "the world of spirits." And there the spirit remains until his character is clarified or unified. It is in this world of spirits that judgment takes place; the world of which it may be said: "There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid that shall not he known" (Matthew 10: 26).
     The novitiate spirit undergoes a gradual change, even in his appearance, as he is weaned from natural states and comes to realize his own ruling love and chosen delights. At first he adopts a life similar to his life on earth, seeking a somewhat similar occupation and similar pleasures. His natural affections lead him to associate with spirits who are of his own nation and have external loyalties to the same church. But by degrees and stages his inward, spiritual affections begin to assert themselves. And then he may abandon many of his former habits and associations and seek out societies of spirits kindred to his own concepts of charity and use. This transference into the society of his like is what essentially constitutes his "judgment." If he is so brazenly evil that he cannot restrain himself from crime and deceit and violence, he is constantly thwarted in his persecution of other spirits and finally casts himself into some hell where that type of evil is the delight of life. In either case-although the evil may occasionally be brought before examiners and evicted from good societies-there is no great throne of judgment: no appearance of God Himself to deliver the final verdict upon the good and the evil. The judgment is simply a purification of the societies of spirits which proceeds as normally as the purification of the human body from poisons and waste material. Indeed, the Greek word for "judgment" in the New Testament is krisis, and means separation.

     Why a Last Judgment?

     But if this process of judgment proceeds continually upon the spirits who arrive from earth daily, what is meant by the "last judgment" which the Word predicts so frequently and in such graphic and awe-inspiring terms? What is the last judgment that follows the "consummation of the age"? And why is it necessary?
     It becomes necessary when the normal stages of judgment are disturbed in the world of spirits. For that world, like every human society, is an organic form. It is a part of the Gorand Man, which is the Lord's kingdom of uses. The world of spirits is like an alimentary canal, a digestive system, which receives the newly arrived spirits who are to be absorbed like food into the body of the Gorand Man.

Normally, the stomach and intestines absorb the food and put it to use in the cell tissues. But if there is an accumulation of indigestible food in the stomach, and the digestive organs are overtaxed, there would ensue a disturbance of the whole system-a convulsive pain and a generation of poisons which would threaten the life or welfare of the body.
     The same would be the case when the church on earth breeds evil and hypocritical spirits who accumulate in the world of spirits and upset the orderly course of judgment and the balance of equilibrium between the heavens and the hells. Such doubleminded spirits evade judgment because their interior evils, or their real motives and loves, are hidden by moral externals and by the appearance of piety which simple good spirits accept as genuine. Wicked leaders are then protected by the good who, because of natural loyalties and sentiments of sympathy, are misled by them into false beliefs. The course of judgment is then arrested, so that the evil become predominant in the world of spirits.
     "The world, because it judges from externals, does not know what the state of the church is" (Can. Red'n, iii). Nor can the state in the world of spirits be known except from a Divine revelation. Yet every man's spirits is, unbeknown to him, in the world of spirits, and thus midway between heaven and hell. And when the church on earth approaches its end or consummation, by departing from the good of charity, and comes into spiritual darkness and confusion and thus into monstrous falsities, it is unavoidable that a last judgment, a general judgment, must occur in order to restore the equilibrium in the world of spirits, and thus assure that the good spirits there may resume their progress towards their heavens and that men on earth may retain their freedom in spiritual things.

     Three General Judgments

     The Writings therefore state that "the last judgment is nothing other than the end of the church with one nation and its beginning with another" (AC 3353). The "flood" of Noah was actually not a flood of waters, but a judgment in the spiritual world on the spirits, or genii, of the primeval race. The end of the Jewish Church, signalized by the crucifixion of the Lord, was marked by another spiritual "last judgment"; which had its significant natural consequences in the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jews. And when Christendom, after sixteen centuries, was ripe for a spiritual judgment, the Lord returned in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
     How this came about, and what was the scene of the Last Judgment, will be discussed in the next article.

WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD: PART III 1957

WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD: PART III Rev. ALFRED ACTON 1957

     Swedenborg commenced the work the Worship and Love of God in London in the beginning of October, 1744,* thus after his spiritual sight had been opened.** It was designed to show that the creation of the world and the creation of men had for its end the formation of the kingdom of God. The human race is personified in a single married pair, and the education of this pair is the preparation for the subjugation of the Devil and the coming of the kingdom of God.
     * Journal of Dreams no. 261.
     ** See my Introduction to the Word Explained, p. 101.
     In the commencement of the work, the doctrine of creation as set forth in the Principia is presented in graphic form, and is continued to the creation of the vegetable and animal kingdoms. Then comes the doctrine of the human mind as presented in the Rational Psychology. Indeed, the Worship and Love of God may be considered as a sequel to the Rational Psychology, a sequel wherein the properties of the human mind, as described in the latter work, are personified as the Wisdoms, the Intelligences, and the Devil and his genii.
     The design of Part III is to show the coming of the kingdom of God. Specifically it is an explanation of the representative vision seen by the consorts-a vision which perhaps Swedenborg himself had seen; for the time when he was writing was subsequent to the time when he experienced those dreams and visions so graphically described in the Journal of Dreams, and there is no reason to believe that the visions ceased because there is no written account of them.
     The explanation of the representative vision presents the creation of man in a state of innocence; the rise of evil; the coming of the Lord; His ascension into heaven; and the descent of the Holy Spirit.
     The object of the whole work is presented in a note, written by Swedenborg on a loose sheet of paper preserved in the Royal Library in Stockholm, and which was printed in NEW CHURCH LIFE for 1896, p. 186. Translated, the note reads:

     "Concerning the married life of the
     First-born pair, or of Adam and Eve
     And therein concerning

     The Soul's immortality
     The State after death
     The Celestial Paradise
          represented in the Earthly Paradise.
     The End [that is, the purpose] of the Universe
          in this Pair as in its Egg."

     It was doubtless this "End of the Universe" that was represented in that "Human Form" which, rising from the egg woven around the center of dazzling light, flew away into heaven (WLG 112).
     Part III was never published, but that it was written with the intention of publication is shown by the fact that the printing was actually commenced by Swedenborg himself; for pages 1-16 (nos. 111-125) in printed page proofs are preserved among the Swedenborg MSS. Of these pages, pp. 9-16 are bound in Codex 68, following Parts I and II of the printed work, while pages 1-7 (containing nos. 111-118) are bound in with Codex 51 because that Codex contains the manuscript continuation of no. 118.
     Following the printed proofs (pp. 1-7, nos. 111-118), Codex 51 contains 10 leaves (20 pages, of which the second is blank) marked 7-16. These contain Swedenborg's clean copy of the end of no. 118 to and including the beginning of no. 131. Leaves 7-13, containing nos. 118-125 (unfinished), had been sent to the printer. This is indicated by the fact that while pp. 1-15 of the printed proofs each end in a catchword, page 16, containing the beginning of no. 125, has no catchword, and ends, both in the text and in the footnote, in the middle of a sentence. The MSS. leaves 14-16 contain the conclusion of no. 125 and continue to the first part of no. 131. The last page (16b) ends with a catchword (eadem), and this indicates that Swedenborg wrote the continuation on leaf 17 which is now lost.
     That he wrote in clean copy still one more paragraph, namely, no. 132, is indicated by the fact that, following leaf 16 comes a leaf, numbered by Swedenborg first 15 then 18, and which I shall call leaf 18, containing a crossed-off paragraph (no. 132) which is the continuation of no. 131; for no. 131 takes up section 3 of Scene III, and the paragraph in question takes up section 4. That this paragraph is crossed off shows that Swedenborg had made a clean copy of it for the printer on the missing leaf 17. Although it is the direct continuation of no. 132, it is numbered 128, showing that when Swedenborg made his clean copy, at some point he changed the numbering of his paragraphs, either because he added new paragraphs or because he subdivided the paragraphs of his first draft. Swedenborg numbered this leaf "15," and without crossing this figure off, he wrote beneath it "18."

The "15" refers to the number of the leaves in the first draft, but the figure "18" would seem to indicate that Swedenborg renumbered the page to follow the paging of the clean copy.
     The last leaf of the clean copy as now preserved is numbered 16 and ends with the catchword eadem; the clean copy, therefore, continued on leaf 17 now lost, contains the end of no. 131 commencing with the word eadem, and also the clean copy of what was written on leaf 15/18 of the first draft (our no. 132). The first draft was then crossed off; but the reverse side of leaf 15/18 contained the continuation, our no. 133, which was not crossed off. Swedenborg, therefore, instead of clean copying it, simply changed the pagination from 15 to 18, thus making it continuous with the now missing leaf 17
     After copying no. 128 (leaf 15/18) of the first draft as no. 132 of the clean copy, Swedenborg gave up the idea of printing Part III, for he made no more clean copy.
     Let me here sum up what I have written: Leaf 16 contains the end of no. 129, the whole of no. 130, and the commencement of no. 131, ending with the catchword eadem. Leaf 17 (now lost) contained the conclusion of no. 131 and the whole of no. 132 copied from leaf 15/18. No. 133 is contained on the reverse of leaf 15/18, but in first draft not crossed off.
     After leaf 18 come two more leaves which I will call leaves 19 and 20.
These leaves, however, are misplaced, for leaf 19 is one of the early pages of the first draft, while leaf 20 is one of the last leaves, if not itself the last, of that draft.
     Leaf 15/18 contains the first draft of the comment on section 5 of Scene III, while leaf 20 contains the end of the comment on section 1 and the comment on sections 2, 3 and 4 of Scene IV (our nos. 134-136). Between these two leaves, therefore, are one, or more probably, two leaves, now lost, containing the comment on sections 6 and 7 of Scene III and the commencement of the comment on section 1 of Scene IV (see our nos. 134-136).
     It is clear, therefore, that Swedenborg continued his first draft up to and including his comment on section 4 of Scene IV
     That he did not continue the work beyond this is shown by the contents of the leaf which I call leaf 19. This is a first draft of no. 112, with superior figures to show the separate parts to be commented on (see no. 112 note). It commences with the latter part of Scene I, showing that the preceding pages contained the first draft of the commencement of Part III, namely, no. 111 and the commencement of no. 112.
     As already stated, subdivisions of the Scenes are indicated by superior figures, and the MS. makes it clear that each subdivision was crossed off separately as the clean copy was made.

Thus, each of the subdivisions of Scenes I and II, and subdivisions 1-5 of Scene III, have all been crossed off separately, the comment on these having been clean copied.
     The first draft, however, ends with the comment on section 4 of the fourth Scene. Thus, while the subsections of Scenes I-III that were clean copied are crossed off separately, sections 6 and 7 of Scene III and the whole of Scene IV were crossed off together by two horizontal lines. This perhaps indicates that Swedenborg completed his comment on Scene IV in first draft. Scenes V and VI are not crossed off.
     I gather from the above that Swedenborg made clean copies for the printer before he had finished the whole of the first draft; and that his first draft went no further than the fourth section of Scene IV, ending with the words Ipse Filius Dei hoc scripsit et dictavit, though it is possible that he finished the concluding four sections of that Scene.
     The last paragraph that was printed was no. 125, and the last paragraph which Swedenborg clean copied for the printer was no. 132 (no. 128 in the first draft). After copying this paragraph, he entirely abandoned the work. This was in the middle of April, 1745.
     It was noon. In the morning he had been engaged in clean copying no. 132 from leaf 15/18. At noon he dined at an inn in a private room reserved for his use. There he had a vision, in the course of which he was addressed with the words. "Eat not too much." The abstemious Swedenborg interpreted these words as meaning that in pursuing his work on Part III, he was undertaking what was beyond unaided human power. He returned to his lodging. Possibly in the afternoon he added the number 18 to leaf 15 so as to make his pagination continuous. In the evening, the Lord appeared to him and gave him his commission as revelator.
     Part III had been abandoned, never to be continued; or rather, shall I say, its continuation was in the pages of Divine revelation.
WAY OF HEAVEN 1957

WAY OF HEAVEN Editor 1957

"Reception is not anything unless there is also application, namely, to use. For the influx from the Divine passes first into the perception which is of the understanding with the man, thence it passes into the will, and next into act, that is, into good work, which is use, and there it ceases. When the influx of good and truth from the Lord makes this passage, then the good and truth are appropriated to the man; for then the influx goes down into the ultimate of order, that is, into the ultimate of nature, whither all Divine influx aims to come. The man in whom Divine influx thus advances may be called `a way of heaven'" (Arcana Coelestia, 8439).

FUNCTIONS OF THE SPECIFIC NEW CHURCH 1957

FUNCTIONS OF THE SPECIFIC NEW CHURCH G. A. DE C. DE MOUBRAY 1957

     (The first of two articles.)

     If we sit back and ask ourselves why apart from the Lords command to the apostles, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16: 15)-we should take pains to proclaim the gospel of the Lord's second advent, and if we search the Writings for guidance in this problem, there are likely to be two interesting results: we shall discover uses which the New Church fills in the cosmic scheme of which we had not dreamed; and, as a consequence of this, we shall come upon important and unexpected reasons for cultivating the life of religion in ourselves in greater depth than before, both intellectually and emotionally. That, at least, has been my experience. Let me be your guide.
     We must first be clear what we mean by "church," the "specific New Church," and the "universal church." The church is essentially love and faith (HD 241). As these elements of the church enter into a man in the course of regeneration, the man himself becomes a "church" in a particular form (TCR 510, 767); and a communion of such men (or, as a nice phrase in the Writings puts it, "a harmony of man")-at the lowest, a mere collection of such men-constitutes the church in its general form. The church specifically is where the Lord is acknowledged and where the Word is (AC 10765; HD 244). Though the term "the specific New Church" is never used in the Writings, we can safely base our definition on the following statement: "The church specifically is where the Word is and where the Lord is known by means of it, thus where Divine truths from heaven have been revealed" (HH 308, Note).
     That is to say, the church on earth and the individuals who constitute it are the specific New Church, and are members thereof, in the measure that they acknowledge the revelations of the Second Advent, understand them, and live them. The universal church is sufficiently defined in HH 308and its Notes as including all in every country who live in good in accordance with the principles of their religion and who acknowledge the Divine.
     Part of the territory which I shall explore I believe not to have been previously explored. We shall find that we are not moving in a region of clear and unambiguous truths.

We shall be faced with many ambiguous and obscure, if not apparently contradictory, statements in the Writings. Believing, as we do, that our authority "surpasses all the revelations that have hitherto been made from the creation of the world" (Inv. 44), it is clear that no one of these statements can be set aside as lacking in validity. We must, with the help of such enlightenment as we may be fit to receive, endeavor to grope our way below the superficial appearances of reality in the letter of the Writings to underlying truths of greater validity, from which it will be seen that the apparent obscurities and contradictions fit into a harmonious pattern. It follows that in the measure that our guides are not clear and unambiguous statements, our conclusions must be tentative.
     The lower levels of reality are full of paradox. Our first effort must be to find a guiding principle which will resolve these paradoxes. Where should we look for such a guiding principle? Truth is of many degrees (AC 8443). Though even in the highest degrees it consists of appearances (AC 2554, 3362, 3404, 3405), yet those appearances of truth which are of a higher degree immeasurably surpass those of lower degree. It is true that truth of the third degree, such as it is in the celestial heaven is far above our apprehension (AC 8443); but we can approach towards it in three ways: by raising our thoughts 1) to ends; 2) to love; and 3) to the Lord.
     We therefore turn naturally to AC 1735 and 1799, where these three conditions meet: "The Lord's internal man . . . was love itself, to which no other attributes are fitting than those of pure love, thus of pure mercy toward the whole human race which is such that it wills to save all and make them happy to eternity, and to bestow on them all that it has; thus out of pure mercy to draw all who are willing to follow to heaven, that is, to itself, by the strong force of love" (AC 1739). "The Lord, from the Divine love or mercy, wills to have all near to Himself; so that they do not stand at the doors, that is, in the first heaven; but He wills that they should be in the third; and, if it were possible, not only with Himself, but in Himself" (AC 1799: 2).
     The basic reaction of the New Church, and of New Church men-that which should form the root of all their other impulses-ought therefore to be response to this infinite love. We should respond directly by allowing ourselves to be drawn by the Lord to Him, and indirectly by adapting ourselves to His scheme for drawing all men to Himself.
     This approach to the problem has what to many may be the startling result of revealing the specific New Church as essentially, or dominantly, a celestial church. Its spiritual and natural components show themselves in this light as derivatives of the celestial component. I must explain my use of this adverb "dominantly."

I do not mean "predominantly." I mean that the celestial quality, that of love to the Lord, has a controlling, dominant effect on the constellation of subsidiary loves that makes up the specific New Church. I look upon this as a conception of the utmost importance in the exegesis of the Writings. When Swedenborg says that the Most Ancient Church was celestial and the Ancient a spiritual church, I submit that he does not mean that the former was exclusively celestial and the latter exclusively spiritual, but that they were dominantly such. Shortage of space does not allow me to produce evidence on these points.

     Now for the evidence that the New Church is to be dominantly celestial. This is implied in the statements in True Christian Religion 787, Coronis LII, and Invitation 53 and 54, that the New Church is to be the crown of all the churches. How can it be the crown if it is to be a discrete degree lower than the Most Ancient Church? Furthermore, in TCR 354: 4 we are told that the state of those who come into the New Church will be as described in the words of Jeremiah 21: 33: "I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." Now, this is a celestial characteristic; for, in AR 121 it is said that all who are in the third heaven are of this character. In AR 354 it is given as a characteristic of those represented by the tribe of Nephthalim-who will be in the Lord's New Heaven and New Church; and who, according to AR 356, form part of the celestial church. In AR 920 this saying of Jeremiah's is said to refer to those who are in the good of love from the Lord, which is celestial good; and in AE 826: 2 it enters into the description of those in the inmost heaven, who are in love to the Lord from the Lord.
     The sealing of the twelve tribes described in the seventh chapter of the Apocalypse is of the greatest importance in this connection-that of the supremacy of the celestial element in the New Church: "The representation of heaven and of the church is determined according to the order in which they are named; and . . . the first name, or the first tribe, is the index that determines those things that follow" (AE 431: 11). Here the tribe of Judah is the first named.
     I now quote from the Apocalypse Revealed: "Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand, signifies celestial love, which is love to the Lord, and this with all who will be in the Lord's New Heaven and New Church. In the supreme sense Judah signifies the Lord as to celestial love; and, in a natural sense, the doctrine of the celestial church from the Word. But here Judah signifies celestial love, which is love to the Lord; and because it is mentioned first in the series, it signifies that love with all who will be of the Lord's New Heaven and New Church; for the tribe first named is the all in the rest, it is as their head, and as a universal entering into all things that follow, collecting, qualifying, and affecting them.

This is love to the Lord' (no. 350). [Italics added.]
     There are obvious difficulties in reconciling this with the corresponding sections in the Apocalypse Explained and with what follows in the Apocalypse Revealed. But they do not derogate from the force of what I have quoted. The main difficulty, as I see it, is the apparent conflict between the word "all," which occurs twice with a special significance in the passage, and the evidence of both spiritual and natural elements in the New Church which follows soon after. The reconciliation seems to be effected by the qualification added to the second "all," which shows that what is represented by "Judah" is to qualify and affect-in some way not specified-all the other elements in the New Church. It shows that the New Church as a whole is to have a celestial character, in the same sort of way as the Ancient and first Christian Churches had a dominant, though not exclusive, spiritual character.
     Finally, out of the many evidences of the dominantly celestial character of the New Church, I select the beginning of the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse: "And a great sign was seen in heaven; a woman encompassed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. And she being with child. . ." The commentary in the Apocalypse Explained is, shortly, as follows: "And a great sign was seen in heaven . . . signifies Divine testification concerning the future church" (no. 706). "A woman encompassed with the sun . . . signifies the church with those who are in love to the Lord, and thence in love toward the neighbor . . . the sun . . . meaning the Lord as to Divine love, thus also love to the Lord from the Lord . . . being encompassed . . . denoting to live from it . . ." (no. 707). "And she being with child . . . signifies nascent doctrine from the good of celestial love . . ." (no. 710).
     So the New Church is to be in love to the Lord, and to live from it; and her doctrine is to be engendered by that love; so that in this church love to the neighbor is to be derived from love to the Lord, instead of the other way around, as it is in spiritual churches.
     The consequences of this are far reaching. There has to be a church acting as a heart to the body of men on earth. The mediate influx of the Lord flows through it. And it seems to follow that such as is that heart, such is the influx which reaches the rest of the body. "In this man, the church where the Word is, and whereby the Lord is known, is like the heart and like the lungs. With those who are in celestial love, the church is like the heart; and with those who are in spiritual love, like the lungs; therefore, as all the members, viscera and organs of the body live from the heart and from the lungs, and from their influx . . . thus also all in the whole earth . . . who constitute the universal Church, live from the church where the Word is; for thence the Lord flows in with love and with light, and vivifies and enlightens all who are in any spiritual affection of truth, wherever they are" (AE 351: 2). [Italics added.]

     Now, the church where the Word is, and whereby the Lord is known, is as the heart (AC 637); or, as in AE 351, like the heart and the lungs, in the corporate body of the universal church. But that church may nevertheless be dominantly a spiritual church, as was the first Christian Church. A dominantly spiritual church may comprize souls who go to the third heaven; and indeed we know this to have been the case (e.g., DLW 239; SD 5032, 5622; AC 13; HD 4). But the theorem which I wish to put forward now, consequent on the preceding argument, is that the function, and therefore the responsibilities, of the New Church will be of a different character, and correspondingly greater, because of the fact that it is to be a dominantly celestial church. The sooner we accept this proposition and the ideal which follows from it the better. I suggest that we are too inclined to lay the emphasis on the rational and dogmatic elements of our faith, such as on the doctrine of the Trinity and on exploding the Lutheran doctrine of salvation by faith alone; whereas quite as revolutionary, and more important, is the picture of the one God given us by Swedenborg as infinite love and mercy, yearning to draw us all to Himself, in so far as we will allow ourselves to be drawn. This, indeed, forms part of the doctrine of the Lord; and the doctrine is most imperfect unless it includes this picture.
     Now, in the measure that the specific New Church attains this celestial condition, the nature of its influx into the universal New Church will he profoundly different from that of its influx in earlier days, when it was dominantly spiritual, if not natural (AE 403: 15); if only because its conjunction with the Lord will be closer, and its influx correspondingly stronger.

     Now for the mechanism of this influx. Before an influx can proceed outwards from the specific New Church to the universal New Church, conjunction, that is, a drawing together, must be established between the specific church, generally and individually, and the Lord through heaven.
     Before we go further, I must warn the reader that we are about to enter a field of stupendous complexity, but one which, fortunately, is also altogether fascinating. The phenomena which we shall explore benefit not only the members of the universal church, and those of the specific church, but also the angels who have come from this earth, and even angels from other earths.

     The conjunction between the spiritual world and the natural world-between heaven and mankind on earth-is effected by means of the Word; which, in the sense in which we are using the term now, is a revelation of such a sort that the whole system of causation which unites the spiritual and the natural worlds, known as correspondence, is identical with that which unites the spiritual sense and the natural or literal sense of the Word; and yet again is identical with that which unites thought-processes on the spiritual level, in heaven, with those of men on earth. The effect is that, when a man reads the Word, a two-way relationship is set up between himself and, primarily, the angels in whose society his internal man is; a relationship which can, however, extend much further.
     Consider, for instance, the following: "Be it known that the Word on our earth, given through heaven by the Lord, is the union of heaven and the world . . . to which end there is a correspondence of all things in the letter of the Word with Divine things in heaven, and that in its supreme and inmost sense the Word treats of the Lord, of His kingdom in the heavens and on earth, and of love and faith from Him and to Him, consequently of life from Him and in Him. Such things are presented to the angels in heaven, from whatever earth they come, when the Word of our earth is read and preached" (AC 9357). [Italics added.] In fact, a three-way relationship is set up; for, as a result of the two-way relationship, a radiation goes out from heaven into the universal church.
     It is true that "the Word is in all the heavens, and is read there as in the world, and there is preaching from it, for it is Divine truth from which the angels have intelligence and wisdom; since without the Word no one knows anything concerning the Lord" (Verbo 30). Yet our reading of the Word is of tremendous value to the angels: "When a man of the church who is in the good of faith reads the Word, angels adjoin themselves to him, and are delighted in the man, because of the wisdom which then inflows to them through the Word from the Lord" (AC 9152).
     Indeed, the human race is the basis and foundation, both emotionally and intellectually, on which the heavens subsist. Consider this statement:
"Because the angels of the three heavens receive their wisdom from the Lord by means of the Word with them, and their Words make one Word with ours by correspondences, it follows that the literal sense of our Word is the basis, support and firmament of the wisdom of the angels of heaven. For the heavens subsist upon the human race, as a house upon its foundation; hence the wisdom of the angels of heaven, similarly, subsists upon the knowledge, intelligence and wisdom of men, from the literal sense of the Word" (AE 1085: 2).

     In view of the vast superiority of the angels, both emotionally and intellectually, it is most difficult to grasp this dependence of the angels on mankind as a basis and foundation.

Let me put it this way-considering only celestial angels for the present and with Love xiii and AR 951 in mind. Loving the Lord means to perform uses from Him and for the sake of Him, and so extends, in its ultimate expression, to care of the human race as the seminary of heaven. I suggest that this would form the ultimate background of their thought, even if their immediate occupations were wholly concerned with transcendent matters. Henri Bergson in Les Deux Sources de la Morale et de la Religion, I have little doubt inspired by Swedenborg, said of God that He needs humanity as one object of His love. So also must these angels need humanity as the object of their love. There is a most striking example of humanity, even of physical humanity, as the object of their love in SD 1201 and AC 5052, touched on also in AE 710: 2. "The Lord insinuates conjugial love through the inmost heaven, the angels of which are in peace beyond all others.
     They are present with infants in the womb, and through them the Lord cares for the feeding and full development of the infants therein thus they have charge over those who are with child" (AC 5052).
     This is sufficient refutation of the idea, too often taken over unthinkingly by members of the New Church from members of the old, that only earth-bound spirits would occupy themselves with the affairs of this material world. It is rather the other way round; a confirmation of this being the fact that it is only celestial angels whom the Lord can use in governing the hells (AC 6370).
     And so the angels of heaven need the human race for the purpose of the ultimate expression of their celestial love to the Lord, or spiritual love of the neighbor, as the case may be. As U 9: 4 puts it, at every point angels are with man in his strivings for what is good and true. Later in the same number we are given the simile of the human race having the same relation to the angelic heaven that a man s sensations and actions have to his thought and will. If a man's thought and will could not terminate themselves in sensation and action they would diffuse themselves and vanish. Similarly must the strivings of angels ultimate themselves in the human race.
     The tie being so close, we can begin to understand certain other phenomena: granted that the reading of the Word of God is to be the main channel of communication between them, we can understand how the enlightenment of the angels depends in large measure both on the state of regeneration and on the knowledge and wisdom of the men with whom they are in consociation; how they can then pass on their enlightenment to the internal of these men-a superconscious level of the soul-and not only enlightenment but delight; and how they themselves experience delight at acting as mediums of this enlightenment and delight.
     Their emotional dependence on men carries over into their intellectual life:

"The natural thought of man is a plane in which all things of angelic wisdom close: it is a foundation like that of a house. Into that plane all things which the angels think fall. Thence, afterwards, is a plane which is also of such a quality as their wisdom becomes: in other words as are the ultimates, so are the primaries" (SD 5608). [Italics added.] "If the men who are reading the Word, or thinking or preaching from the Word, are wise, the angels are unaware of it at the time, but, still, the wisdom of their thought falls into it as a plane . . ." (SD 5609).
     It is as well to be clear that the establishment of a channel for influx by reading the Word is no mere mechanical process, in the sense that it is necessary that every second of every twenty-four hours some member of the New Church should be reading the Word. This is not a parallel with the line of thought which led to the establishment of the Contemplative Orders in Roman Catholicism. Spiritual Diary 5617, occurring in a series of passages with the heading "How the Angels have their Wisdom from the Word, and about Influx at the Time, tells us: "The plane and ultimate is with an intelligent man, whether he is thinking about such things, or is thinking about other things, or is asleep; for it is with him constantly. This also I know from much experience-and also because the whole man is of such a quality as the truth and good in him."
     It is an obvious extension of the principle developed in AC 5949: 3, 8067, 8556, 8885; HD 55; AE 325: 12; SD 4820 and DLW 220 that "those things with a man which have been impressed by means of faith and charity, or which the man fully believes and loves, are constantly in his thought and will; for he thinks them and wills them, even when he is thinking and busy about other things" (AC 8067). It is naturally to be understood that if he believes and loves the Word, he will read it frequently.
     Both emotional and intellectual factors contribute to the degree of conjunction achieved, and to its efficacy. Here are some of the emotional factors involved: love of the Lord and living in charity (AC 1767); mutual love and innocence in little children, and a life of charity and a state of innocence in adults (AC 1776)-and, let us note, though innocence of an inferior variety exists in the spiritual church, it is characteristic of the celestial church; the affection of charity (AC 4027: 2): the spiritual affection of truth (Verbo 28) love of truths because they are truths, and application of them to life (SS 57and TCR 231); the good of love and charity (AC 10335)-and let us note that love here means love to the Lord; the love of truths for the sake of truth and, yet more, the love of truth for the sake of good (AC 10290: 2).
     The first of the intellectual factors contributing to conjunction is the acknowledgment of the Divinity of the Word (Verbo 39).

But the understanding of it is also necessary, for without it the Word is dead (SS 76). "According to his understanding of the Word . . . man has truth, and thence faith; and also love, and thence life. The Lord, however, is present with man through the reading of the Word; but he is conjoined with him by means of and according to his understanding of truth from the Word" (SS 78). [Italics added.]
     The right understanding of the Word includes its internal sense:
"Through the angels from the Lord delight and bliss flow in with the man who is in the affection of charity while reading these things, and more so when he believes what is holy to be within them, and still more when he apprehends anything of that which is contained in the internal sense" (AC 4027: 2). [Italics added.] "When a man is in the . . . internal sense, he can make one as to thought with those in heaven, even though he may be in a relatively very general and obscure idea" (AC 2094: 3).
     Finally, the acknowledgment of the Divinity of the Lords Humanity is of supreme importance as a basis for the understanding of the Word, and thus for conjunction through it: "To acknowledge the Divine in the Lord's Human, or the Divine Human, is the primary of the church, by which there is conjunction" (AE 328: 6).
     As Swedenborg was, more than all other men, in "the Divine truths of the Word contained in its spiritual sense" (AE 950: 2), it is not surprising that the angels told him, with regard to the variations in their wisdom, that "when [they are turned] to those things which are in my thought from heavenly doctrine, they are in greater clearness than in any other case" (SD 5610).

     Up to this point we have examined some of the grounds for believing that the New Church is intended by the Lord to be dominantly a celestial church, so that the spiritual and natural elements in it will be profoundly affected by the dominant element of love to the Lord and so that, also, because the conjunction between the Lord and a celestial church is particularly close, the New Church is to exercise its functions in a manner correspondingly more powerful. We have seen that, through the Word, there is a two-way relationship between itself and the angels of heaven. At the same time, as a result of this conjunction with heaven, a radiation goes out from it conveying spiritual life to the universal church. In the continuation we shall consider the mechanism of this radiation, and, later, the functions of the angels who have been members of the specific church towards those who have been of the universal church and, going yet further afield, towards those who come from other earths in the universe.

MR. GEOFFREY STAFFORD CHILDS 1957

MR. GEOFFREY STAFFORD CHILDS Rev. NORMAN H. REUTER 1957

     "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth . . . they rest from their labors; and their works do follow them." (Revelation 14: 13)

     When we read a book we are conscious of the thoughts and moods, the affections and delights, which it stirs within us. Page after page, chapter after chapter, it bears in upon our thinking and engages our feelings. Finally we place it back upon the shelf, and soon thereafter our minds are occupied with other things. If we do not reflect, we are apt to think that the states which the book induced upon us are over-things of the past. However, states once developed are never gone, obliterated, although they may recede from our conscious attention. Subtly, in many ways unrecognized by us, the thoughts and affection thus brought into being flow forth from the unconscious realms of our spirits to influence all the future mental and emotional reactions which we will have in the varying situations of life. Secretly they will enter into our decisions, mold our judgments, modify our opinions. For in the arena of the spirit the past is yet present, and the future already anticipated.
     Similarly, the association we have with a person, and the conscious influence he has upon our lives, are clearly evident to all within a certain framework of time and space. Then that person may move away, or pass into the other world, and we are apt to think that our association with him is over. But is it? If that individual's influence was of any significance in the time-span of physical contact and communication, does it not likewise continue on, both openly and subtly? Through the things he stood for, which impressed us, does he not continue to live on in our lives-influencing our thoughts and decisions, modifying our judgments, warning or encouraging us, as the case may be?
     All reflecting people recognize that this continuing effect of the human spirit upon others is a fundamental reality of human existence. The operation of the spirit is not bound by the limitations of time and space. The wisdom or folly, the accomplishments or failures of all of us, affect others-multitudes of others-in inscrutable ways, long after the physical presence of the person has departed.

Were it not so the present could not reap the rich harvest of the past. Every generation would have to begin all over again, and progress would be impossible.
     Indeed, reflecting on this, many today conclude that the immortality of man rests on this continuing effect of the human spirit, believing that the promised immortality of each individual is to be found only in the continuing memory of him with others upon whom he has made his impress; in his influence upon the affairs of society through his writings and accomplishments.
     This idea incorporates a truth, but not the whole truth. It recognizes that the things of the spirit transcend the limitations of space and time; but it presupposes that the permanence of an individual's spirit as a single entity depends on the memory of others: on earthly memorials of him in book or song; in a work of invention or art; in a building or system of law or thought; in an industry founded or enlarged; in a battle won or a country discovered. It thus consigns most people quickly to the limbo of forgotten things, and all eventually to the diffusion of a far distant past. It denies the independent existence of the human spirit as an eternal entity, as a child of God, with the quality of immortality in itself. It denies a heaven and a hell, and that there is an after life for every individual. It is a subtle overturning of faith in God's Word.
     But those who hold to the divinity and authority of Scripture see it otherwise. They acknowledge that the memory of a man continues on in this world to a varying extent. But this is not immortality, for it depends on mortals, and not on God the Creator, Redeemer and Savior, the source of immortality. Man can live on in the spiritual world because he "is so created that as to his internal he cannot die; for he can believe in God, and can love God, and can thus be conjoined with God by faith and love; and to be conjoined with God is to live to eternity."
     The Lord said: "Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise" (Luke 23:43)-this to the thief on the cross. Herein is no promise of everlasting life contingent on the memory of other men. It is an invitation to the spiritual world-to the Heavenly Father's home; where, He said, there "are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you." At another time the Lord announced: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. . . . The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. . . . Marvel not at this; for . . . all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation" (John 5: 24, 25, 28, 29).

Here is given clearly, unequivocably, from the Lord's own mouth, the assurance of individual resurrection, and of the continuance of the life of the spirit in the spiritual world.
     This basic belief in the immortality of the spirit was confirmed, infilled and enlarged, made rational and convincing, as boy, youth and mature man to Geoffrey Childs, by his unwavering faith in and firm understanding of the new truths revealed to mankind by the Lord in His second coming-truths acknowledged by him, and the New Church to which he belonged, as the voice of God; yet largely unheeded in the wilderness of men's indifference and inattention, but destined eventually to awaken all men to the real purposes of life, both here and hereafter.
     He knew that a man's influence affected others not only through his activities while on earth, and through his works that do follow him, but also through those works of his spirit that follow with each one who goes through the gates of resurrection. For his character, his influence, the composition of thoughts and affections that go to make up the spirit of each person, in short, the use that each one is created to perform in the great Divine economy of things, is not finished by the passing of the spirit to the other world, but is only begun; is given a settled direction by the span of mortal life. For the qualities of the spirit, formed by life in this world, create a personality that remains intact, fully and consciously operative in the spiritual world, and unconsciously affecting the inhabitants of this world in spite of the dissolution of the material body. Indeed, his specialized form of usefulness is freed from the limitations of natural law and circumstances, embodied in a spiritual form which provides widely increased powers and opportunities of usefulness and delight. The teaching is that "after the death of the body, the spirit of man appears in the spiritual world in a human form, altogether as it appeared in the natural world. He enjoys the faculty of sight, of hearing, of speaking, and of feeling . . . is endowed with every faculty of thought, of will, and of action, as before in the world; in a word, he is a man in all things and in every particular, as he was before in the world, except that he is not encompassed with that gross body which he had before; he leaves this when be dies, nor does he ever resume it."
     A positive realization of the abiding truth of these teachings motivated the activities, and determined the decisions and life of service of Geoffrey S. Childs, throughout his sojourn on earth; and the ability to perceive them more clearly and be moved by them more forcefully is now his lot in this his resurrection period.
     All the volatile energy for which he was well known throughout this life is now released and able to engage in further and deeper uses to the neighbor, freed from the confinement of an ailing body, served by a pliant spiritual body.

Those who knew him well can easily imagine the zest with which he is even now entering into the experiences and opportunities of the spirit world. His was not a hesitant nature. He knew what he wanted, and when he saw a work to be done he set about the doing of it. His knowledge of men, his ability to keep to the heart of a matter, plus his driving force, exhibited an executive capacity of large dimensions, which he freely devoted to the service of his business, his community, and his church. Those qualities are still with him in his present activities. For his thoughts and affections, his principles and decisions, his judgments and choices during this life, formed a character that stands forth in clearer light there than here. Much that makes the inner quality of any man is deeply hidden from the discernment of his fellow men in this world; but there, in the world of spiritual light, the inner man comes forth step by step to plain view. The motivating thoughts of all minds and hearts are openly revealed. The deep purposes and ruling aspirations more surely move each along the path of his choice. Like seeks like, and so spirit- men form societies to do the things they love to do. They enter into their eternal sphere of use, each according to the capacities, and in the directions, determined by the formative period of existence we know as earth life. This is the goal of all men, and the immediate prospect of Geoffrey Childs, as he briskly walks the paths of the spiritual world, preparing to take up his uses there.
And those uses will not be confined to the other inhabitants of the spiritual world-men, like himself, who have passed on to their reward. The impact of the activities of the spiritual world upon our thought processes and in stimulating our loves is not the less real because we are not sensually aware of it. The forces of gravitation were not inactive before men analyzed them and formulated their laws. The activity of the atom did not begin with man's discovery of that activity. For this reason the humble searcher for truth realizes that the invisibility of spiritual forces to material eyes by no means rules out the reality of their existence. For the rational eye of man sees that they exist, notes their effects all about him. No sensual or scientific test can discover love, weigh or measure it. Only its effects in sensually observed subjects can be tabulated. Yet no rational person would deny the existence of love as a force or reality.
Revelation and common sense both declare that spirit activities inflow and affect the minds and hearts of mortal men, and this in accordance with established spiritual laws; even as the inner forces of nature constantly affect our physical lives according to discoverable natural laws, even when we are not cognisant of those forces. For the knowledge of man does not produce either natural or spiritual forces; it only discovers them, uncovers them, and brings them to our conscious attention.

     So it is that Geoffrey Childs' adherence to principle, his desire to serve his fellow men, his love of his church, his jovial sociability, and all the other qualities which together compose his spirit, continue now to function and perform their use, only now through channels more deeply hidden. But for that very reason they are more basically effective. Not only the memory of his devotion to truth and justice, honest service and the domestic calls of family, will influence those who love him, and the many business and social friends who know him well but his spirit will actually be with them, especially where there is a bond of love, strengthening each one in the acquisition and maintenance of those qualities. For each one's spirit, even during this life, is not only in association with spirits of the other world, but actually is unconsciously present there, in some society or other consequently when that event takes place which we call death we do not go anywhere. We simply awaken spiritually in that state, or in that place. that society of the spiritual world, where our spirit has already found a home. Hence the resurrection is no shock to the informed, especially not to the believer, but a peaceful and happy awakening into that eternal state, that continuing form of real existence, of which ii is written that "there shall be no more death, neither sorrow or crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And He that sat upon the throne said: Behold. I make all things new And He said unto [John on the Isle of Patmos], Write: for these words are true and faithful. And He said, . . . It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son" (Revelation 21: 47).

     Biographical Sketch

     With his passing into the spiritual world on the evening of December 6th, 1956, Geoffrey S. Childs left a vacancy in the General Church, in the business world, and in our hearts which it will be hard to fill. His vital personality made his influence felt wherever be went. There were three things in his life to which he was devoted with unswerving loyalty-his church, his business, and his family; and these he served faithfully to the very day of his death, for he was not called upon to endure any lingering illness, but passed into the spiritual world at the end of a full day's work. He had sat down at home to rest and look over the mail when the call came, and the unopened letters in his lap slipped quietly to the floor.
     Geof, as he was known to all his friends, was born July 29, 1392, at Media, Pa., the youngest son of Walter C. Childs, one of the founders of the Academy, and his wife, Edith W. Smith. His mother died when he was only two years old, so he had no memory of her; but his father lived until 1934, the year of his settling in Saginaw, and made an indelible impression on his life. When he was five years old the family moved to Yonkers. N. Y., where his boyhood was spent.
     My first contact with him was in September, 1908, when he joined the class of 1910 in the Boys' Academy.

Always active and energetic, he added much to the enthusiasm of that class. His business ability showed itself early as he was the manager of the first undefeated basketball team that the Academy had had. He also won for himself immortality by writing two songs that are still frequently heard on the Academy campus: "The Phi Alpha Marching Song," of which he wrote both the words and the music, and "O Red and White We Honor Thee."
     Goof took one year of college in Bryn Athyn, in a class which had among its students many men who have devoted their lives to the church, and it was during this time that his mind turned actively toward a business career.
     After leaving Bryn Athyn he completed his business education in New York University and soon secured a position in the Alexander Hamilton Institute. Here by devoted service he rapidly worked up to the position of office manager.
     On June 15, 1915, he married Olivia Waelchli, and they made their home in New York, a home which soon became a center for church activities. Every otter men's doctrinal class was held at their home and their support of church uses soon won them a place in the heart of their pastor. At this time Geof organized the Phi Alpha Upsilon and became its first president. To his sister at this period he said, "I intend to be a useful man in the church"
     Scott he poured his energy into the Sons of the Academy, and in 1922 he was elected international president, a position which he held for five consecutive terms. It was during this time that the Sons policy of admitting, first those who had attended other elementary church schools, and then those who believed in New Church education, even if they had not had the advantage of attending a New Church school themselves, was put into effect.
     In 1924 he was elected to the Corporation of the Academy of the New Church, a position which he held until his death, and from 1930-1934 he was a member of the Board of Directors. He was elected to the Executive Committee of the General Church in 1924 and was secretary until 1931. He remained a member of that committee, now called the Board of Directors, until his death.
     Toward the end of 1926 he came to Bryn Athyn to become vice-president of the Pitcairn Aviation Company, Inc. It was this company which had the first mail contract for the Eastern Seaboard, and which eventually sold out to Eastern Airlines at the time of the formation of the Autogiro Company of America, of which Mr. Childs was the executive vice-president.
     While in Bryn Athyn he was appointed a member of Bishop N. D. Pendleton's Pastor's Council, and in 1931 he was asked to assume the responsibility of acting treasurer of the Bryn Athyn Society. Subsequently he was elected treasurer, an office which he held as long as he lived in Bryn Athyn.
     When the Autogiro Company closed its operations in 1934 for a time. Mr. Childs was busy looking for another position. This materialized on April 24, 1934, when he became the vice-president of the Michigan Sugar Company. This meant the tearing up of old roots and the moving of his family to Michigan. In a letter written to me at that time he says, "I am really too busy to worry very much about leaving the life in Bryn Athyn." And again he writes: ". . . but to have time for the real reading of the Writings, real study-that's something different. I begin to see that our sojourn out here can be capitalized in ways I had not dreamed of."
     After a few years he became president of the Michigan Sugar Company and he took an active part in the general field, having been president of the Farmers and Manufacturers Beet Sugar Association, and vice-president of the United States Beet

     (Continued on page 96)

NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1957

In the Old Testament readings this month we pass from Deuteronomy into Joshua. The closing chapters in the former book relate the final scenes in the life of Moses, the appointment of Joshua as his successor, and his death after viewing the promised land he might not enter. In Joshua we read about the crossing of the Jordan, the three military campaigns waged over a period of seven years which laid six nations and thirty-one kings prostrate, and the beginning of the division of the land by lot among the nine and a half tribes. Two ideas ace dominant in this inspired story of invasion and conquest. The Lord would fight for Israel, but Joshua was to wage war as if of himself. Thus victory depended upon Israel's faithfulness, which explains why the Lord's promises to drive out the nations were fulfilled only in part.
The general series of the spiritual sense here is not difficult to see. Israel encamped east of Jordan represents the man who is becoming an individual church, but is still in an introductory state; but Israel in Canaan represents the man in whom the true church is being established. The gradual conquest of Canaan signifies the slow upbuilding of an internal church by the subjection of interior evils and falsities; and the division of the land by lot, and thus under the Lord's auspices, the orderly arrangement of goods and truths in the rational mind. The internal-historical sense relates to the formation of the spiritual heaven in a region which had first to be cleared of evil spirits, after which the redeemed could be organized into a heavenly Canaan.

Our assignment in Divine Love and Wisdom discusses, in the third part, the planes and characteristics of the mind. The origin of evil is then considered and shown to be from the abuse of liberty and rationality, faculties peculiar to man; and the opposition of the merely natural mind to the spiritual is described. The fourth part treats of the creation of the universe from God, thus of the formation of ultimates, and shows how the conatus to uses was inmostly present in it from the beginning, together with an image of the human. This conatus towards organic forms and uses is spiritual, however, so that all creation is by Divine influx through the spiritual world. By "evil uses," that is predatory animals and noxious plants, are meant here those forms of organic life which are opposed to the end of creation.

CHURCH: USES AND NEEDS 1957

CHURCH: USES AND NEEDS Editor 1957

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

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

Editor      Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager      Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

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Two things are needed for the proper ordering of any instrumentality. There must be a true conception of the use it is formed to promote, and a correct understanding of the means to be employed. The use that the Lord has established the church to perform is to teach the interior truth of the Word and lead thereby to the good of life. To the end that it may perform this use, however, the church has been founded for one that is even more interior-the use of keeping open an unconscious communication with heaven. If the church is to teach and lead men in the way of heaven it must also keep that way open; and to do so is its inmost function, from the continued exercise of which comes all its power to perform its other essential uses.
     But communication with heaven implies, and teaching and leading are effected through, influx from the Lord through heaven. So the very life and use of the church require that it be constantly in a state to receive such influx; and the indispensable bases for reception are two in number- order and freedom. Disorder repels influx, and freedom is essential for its diffusion. Upon these two things the church depends; and if true order is to be established, and genuine freedom maintained, the organization of the church must be determined by what the Lord, who is the source of order and freedom, has revealed. These two ideas combine in that of government. And when the Lord alone governs the church, when He governs it immediately through the direct statements of the Writings, the church is in a state of order; and it is also in freedom because the only bonds are those of conscience formed from His teaching.

     A NEW CONCEPT OF GOVERNMENT

     The spiritual idea just mentioned was clearly seen by the founders of the Academy. It did not originate with them; the idea goes back to the beginnings of the New Church-to Robert Hindmarsh's early perception of the Divine authority of the Writings. But it first took definite and practical form in the Academy. There it was seen that the church was to be governed not by a priestly hierarchy, nor yet by the laity through a congregational form of organization, but by the Lord alone; and this that the church might be in a state of order and freedom, and so receive that influx which keeps open communication with heaven, and makes it competent to perform its uses of teaching and leading.
     Furthermore, this was held as a rational concept, not as a mere pious sentiment. For it was seen also that as the Writings are the only source of Divine authority, the right and power of government which belong to the Lord alone were to be exercised immediately through the direct statements of the Writings; and this by men studying and reflecting upon their teachings, and seeking to understand their interior meaning and perceive their application, from the will of determining their thoughts, their decisions, and their actions by those teachings.
     Under this concept there are no human governors, in the ordinary sense of the term. It is true, of course, that while the Lord governs the church with the individual immediately, He governs it as an organized body through men as instruments. But these men are administrators of Divine law, not directors of the church's affairs; and that there may be order and freedom, their administration may not be by command or by any external compulsion. Their function is to mediate influx from the Lord, to present the Lord's will in such a way that there is a free and willing response formed by the love and life of the truth of the Word.

     A NEW BEGINNING

     When Bishop W. F. Pendleton was called upon, in 1897, to re-form the church after its separation from Bishop Benade, his object was to ultimate the new concept of government formulated by the Academy. As to certain essentials that concept had resulted in a new kind of freedom in church government, and Bishop Benade had established a new freedom for the priesthood. But even that had been imperilled; and it was Bishop Pendleton's purpose, while restoring and preserving what had been thus endangered, to provide for the equally important freedom of the laity. Later, Bishop N. D. Pendleton was to devote himself to finding ways by which the priesthood and the laity might come into free cooperation in the practical administration of the affairs of the church.

     However, the immediate task in 1S97 was to set up a form of government and an order and organization which would provide for the Lord's direct government of the church as a body through His immediate government of the individuals comprising it. This is evident from Bishop Pendleton's address to the first General Assembly, in which he said: "The quality of a church is according to the quality of its government, or according to the idea of government which rules within it. If a natural idea of government rules, then the church will be natural: but if government is seen under a spiritual idea, this idea reigning in all its parts, then the church will be a spiritual church." In accord with this principle, Bishop Pendleton proposed a form of government, and an order and organization, the reason for which was to ultimate the spiritual idea of government, to make possible in an organized body the Lord's immediate government through the spiritual truth of the Writings.
     This was what was new in the General Church, for the principles of the Academy were adopted in their entirety by the new organization. And the fundamental idea is that membership in the General Church is essentially individual. It is in this that our organization is unique among New Church bodies. Its Units are not societies or associations, but individual men and women, each of whom is regarded as a church in least form, while all collectively are recognized as constituting the church in its greatest form. The basic reason for this is to be found in the teaching of the Writings that the church is within man, and the church outside of him is the church with a number of men in whom the church is. Considered spiritually, the church is individual; and when we reflect that the church is essentially a state of love, a mode of thought, and a way of life, produced by acceptance of the Lord's teaching and leading in the Word, we may see that it cannot be otherwise.
     Love to the Lord, charity toward the neighbor, a perceptive insight into the inner meaning of revealed truth, and the spiritual affection of the uses to which that truth leads-these are the things that make a living church. And the Lord cannot impart these things to a group as such. They can be implanted and developed only in individual human minds, and they become the common possession of a group only when it consists of individuals who have received them from the Lord. Neither can the Lord directly govern a group as such. His government must first be established in individual minds, for it is only as individuals that men and women can submit their lives to the Lords leading. For these reasons we recognize that the church is essentially individual, and that every member has a responsibility to go to the Lord in the Writings in order that he may come under that direct leading without which the Lord cannot govern the church as a whole.

     THE PAST AND THE FUTURE

     It would be unrealistic to claim that the efforts made during the last sixty years to implement these ideas have been unqualifiedly successful. Yet this is not an admission of failure, but a recognition of fact. It is relatively easy to perceive intellectually that the Lord is to govern the church through the Writings; but it is much more difficult to see the application of this truth in each and every situation, and even more difficult to apply it to the complex states and constantly changing conditions of human life-complicated further, as they are, by the ever present proprium.
     Yet it is our conviction that the General Church's ideal of government is not an unattainable dream, but a vision that can be ultimated successfully; that when there have been periodic failures, the fault has lain with men and women, and not with commitment to a visionary and impracticable theory of government. Such failures, indeed, should not cause surprise, and they will yet be productive of good if their true cause is clearly recognized, repented of, and resisted in the future.
     On this sixtieth anniversary of the formation of the General Church our duty is surely clear. With heartfelt gratitude for the many blessings the Lord has bestowed upon us in the years of our life as a church, and with quiet confidence for the future, we should resolve to keep intact the faith which is our heritage; the faith that the Lord can and will teach, lead and govern His church in the measure that we make it possible for Him to do so. If we cling to that faith in the midst of trials, and seek renewal from the Lord when the vision fades, then the Lord will govern through the Heavenly Doctrine, and in His providence pour out new and increasing blessings upon us. This He will do if we seek His help in our hour of need; if, when charity fails, we look in common to the Writings, and, under the shelter of a rock that is higher than we, seek anew for harmony.
NOTES AND PAPERS ON RITUAL 1957

NOTES AND PAPERS ON RITUAL Editor 1957

By William Frederic Pendleton

A commentary on the various elements in our worship, giving the origin and reason for the different parts of the service. Cloth, pp. 178, $1.50.
The Academy Book Room

Church News 1957

Church News Various 1957

CONNECTICUT

     Since our last report there have been three meetings of the Connecticut Group, in September, November and December, respectively. The first of these meetings, on September 22 and 23, was held at the home of the Elmer Simons family in Milford, Connecticut. A doctrinal class was given on Saturday evening, and the service on Sunday morning was followed by a home dedication. All enjoyed the instruction, the worship, and the social times we had together.
     For the November meeting, on Sunday the 4th, the Donald Cronlunds were hosts for the first time in their home at Simsbury, near Hartford. There was a service in the morning and, after a hearty repast, a doctrinal class. Three new families joined us at this meeting: the Kunkles (Anne Pendleton), the Holtvedts (Charlotte Smith), and the Fitzpatricks (Mary Lou Synnestvedt). Besides conducting the service and the class, the Rev. W. Cairns Henderson administered the Holy Supper.
     Our Christmas meeting, on December 9th, was at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Cadden in Sandy Hook. In addition to the service, the gathering was highlighted by a little Christmas party for the children.
     Six meetings were held in 1956, with an average attendance of 18 adults and 6 children. Through these meetings we are getting to know each other better, and we are enjoying working for the common purpose of firmly establishing a New Church group on Connecticut soil. The first meeting of the new year will be held at the home of the Elmer Simons on February 10th. All who are interested are cordially invited to attend.
     ELMER E. SIMONS

     FORT WORTH, TEXAS

     As new members of the Western District, our fall season last year started with a visit from the Rev. Robert S. Junge in September. We followed our usual practice on the occasion of a pastoral visit, which entails a rather full weekend. Our two classes, one on Friday night and the other on Saturday, were on "The Divinely Human God" and "Correspondences," respectively, and were attended by 13 and 19 people. There was a children's class and a Sunday school teachers' meeting on Saturday. At the children's service on Sunday, attendance 19, the address was on "John the Baptist"; and the sermon at the adult service, at which 22 were present, was on "Baptism." This was all the more appreciated as two baptisms took place immediately after the service; those baptized being Melodie Susan Haworth, infant daughter of Don and Mimi Haworth, and Miss Patricia Naylor, presently of Waco Texas.
     The Haworths are now again in the vicinity of Fort Worth. They arrived here last June after a school session at Purdue, where Don took post-graduate courses in engineering. Miss Patricia Naylor formerly attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. She is now on the music faculty at Baylor College in Waco. An excellent violinist, she graciously played for us at our services.
     Our plans for this season are about the same as before, except that the Sunday school has somewhat decreased in numbers and the attendance at adult services has increased, since four or five or our children" are now eligible to attend adult services. We do, however, have a potential new Sunday school which will mature before too long. The latest of these children is the new son of Loyd and Claire Doering, James Allen, born last summer.
     This season we will hold services and classes twice monthly, on the first and third weekends of the month. Ladies' classes on "The Growth of the Mind" continue and are most stimulating. Mr. Cyrus Doering was elected early last summer to the office of vice president, and he has acted as president since the death of Mr. Schoenberger. Miss Sonia Hyatt was elected secretary to fill the unexpired term of Mrs. Robert Pellock.

     As a small but growing group, our membership and attendances fluctuate. In addition to our regular Fort Worth members, those presently in the Texas area who attend services are: in Dallas, Mr. Charles van Zyverden, and the Misses Gail Down, Raquel Sellner and Jane van Zyverden; in College Station, Mr. Robert Gladish, now in the English Department at Texas A & M; and in Waco, Captain and Mrs. Wayne Doering and family, and Miss Patricia Naylor. Wayne is pursuing further studies in his field for a few months under the auspices of the U.S.A.A.F. We have been pleased to have other visitors at our services from as far as Arkansas.
     SONIA E. HYATT

     THE HAGUE, HOLLAND

     It is time again to give a report on the events of the last year. The most important of these were the visits of the Rev. Frank Rose, the celebration of the Nineteenth of June, and, last but not least, the General Assembly in London.
     On Saturday, March 24th, Mr. Rose began a visit to The Netherlands. At that time Miss Creda Glenn also stayed at our home for several days. On the day of his arrival Mr. Rose visited the Durban Odhner family and then went with my daughter Hetty to the young people's meeting, at which he gave an address. Next morning, Sunday, Miss Creda Glenn, Mr. Rose and I went to Nijmegen to visit the Rijksen family. In the afternoon we went to Arnhem, where a gathering had been arranged at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Bruil. A service was held in the evening and was attended by 14 adults and 4 children. Mr. Rose preached on "The Veil and the Stone." Refreshments were served after the service and were followed by a class on the subject "How to Live without Fear." There was an animated discussion. Then slides were shown by Mr. Rose. That was the end of a successful evening, and it was nearly midnight when we went home.
     The following week Mr. Rose visited isolated members and friends, sometimes accompanied by Miss Glenn. In Amsterdam, Mr. Weimer and his daughter were baptized at their home, as Mrs. Weimer was not able to stand festivities because of her health.
     That day, Friday, Miss Glenn and Mr. Rose returned to The Hague, where we had a visit from the Rev. Durban Odhner and his wife. We had a nice musical evening, Mr. Odhner playing the piano and my daughter singing. On Saturday evening we had a paper on "The Tabernacle" and slides from the "Open Road" were shown. Mr. Rose conducted a service on Sunday, April 1st, his subject being "Fear and Happiness." Twelve adults and one child attended. The Holy Supper was administered, and after lunch a class was given on the subject of "The Trinity." On Tuesday, April 3rd, Miss Glenn and Mr. Rose left for Brussels and Paris.
     Our celebration of Ness' Church Day was held on June 16th, as Mr. and Mrs. Rijksen were staying with us that weekend, and was attended by 7 people. After supper we had the annual meeting. The passing of two of our members, Mr. Hess and Mr. van Pernis, during the year was suitably noted. Minutes were read and were approved by a chosen commission; and an account of the last year was given by the secretary. After this an address by the Rev. Ormond Odhner on the Nineteenth of June was read, and a short discussion was followed by a toast to the growth of the church.
     In July we went to the General Assembly in London, and it far surpassed our expectations. The enthusiastic atmosphere was very impressive. It is an extraordinary experience, especially for us isolated people, to meet people you know only by name or photograph in NEW CHURCH Live; and meeting old friends was also a great pleasure. The services and sessions have been a great stimulus for us. Before the Assembly my wife and I spent the weekend at Colchester in the hospitable home of the Rev. and Mrs. Frank Rose; and on Sunday we met many old and new friends as there was quite an invasion of Colchester from London and elsewhere. We had the opportunity also to visit some friends in their homes. During the Assembly we were the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Eldin Acton, and we still think with gratitude of their kind hospitality.
     September 22nd brought Mr. Rose back again for his second visit to our country in 1956. A service was held in my home the next day. Several members were unfortunately prevented by illness from coming, so the service was attended by only seven people, and the Holy Supper was administered to five communicants. The sermon was on "Finding the Lord." A class on "Transfiguration," given after luncheon, was followed by a fruitful discussion.

On Monday we saw some new slides, some of the Assembly, and on Tuesday we attended a meeting at Haarlem arranged by the Swedenborg Study Circle. Mr. Rose spoke on "Happiness," and an animated discussion followed. Later on Mr. Windig recited some fine poems, and a national picture was shown by one of the visitors. Another meeting, also led by Mr. Rose, had been arranged at Arnhem for Thursday, and Mr. Rose spoke on the same subject.
     The next weekend my wife and I stayed at the hospitable home of the Rijksens at Nijmegen, Mr. Rose having arrived there the day before. On Sunday morning I read my impressions of the General Assembly, and we heard a tape-recording of a lecture on "The Cosmology of Emanuel Swedenborg" by Professor van Os, made by Mr. Rijksen at one of his Study Circle meetings. In the evening we went together to Amhem, where Mr. Rose conducted a service at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Bruil. Twenty-four persons, among them several young people, attended this service, at which the sermon was on "Happiness." After we had been refreshed with coffee, sandwiches and cake there was a class on "Spiritual and Natural Good" which was listened to by a very attentive audience. Later in the evening slides and a picture were shown.
     We left Nijmegen on Monday morning, Mr. Rose for Brussels and my wife and I for home. After the Assembly we had the pleasure of a visit from Dr. and Mrs. Hugo Lj. Odhner, with whom we had supper. Miss Elaine Cooper of Bryn Athyn was our guest for one night before she sailed for the United States.
     HERMAN G. ENGELTJES

     LONDON, ENGLAND

     This review of activities at Michael Church goes back beyond the Assembly to Sunday, June 24, the occasion of our celebration of New Church Day. In his sermon that morning the pastor dwelt on the trilogy of Christmas, Easter, and New Church Day. At a luncheon in the afternoon toasts to the church the pastor on the first anniversary of his taking up the pastorate, and New Church education were followed by a very interesting address by Professor Richard R. Gladish on New Church education in this country. Establishing first as vital to our thinking on this subject the principle that Providence regards eternal things and thence temporal ones, the speaker gave us a comprehensive account of the rise and fall of New Church schools in England. As Mr. Sandstrom said in response, we all look forward eagerly to seeing the results of his research in book form.
     A betrothal service was held on July 1st for Miss Olive Lewin and Mr. Tom Sharp, and their wedding took place on September 22nd. The latter ceremony, in confirmation of the first, was indeed beautiful. After the service the guests sat down to a sumptuous wedding breakfast held in a nearby hall, and the speeches addressed to the bride and groom abounded in wishes for the future happiness of this New Church couple. Miss Creda Glenn was able to be present. She was our last departing guest from the Assembly, and we were very glad to see her there.
     Sunday, July 1st, saw also the vanguard of Assembly visitors arriving at Michael Church. Among these first arrivals we were delighted to welcome Miss Edina Carswell, Miss Venita Roschman, Miss Madeline Hill, the Misses Joan and Laura Kuhl, and Miss Elaine Cooper. From that date on, the numbers of visitors to London rapidly increased, and for a list of them reference must be made to the Assembly records.
     On Sunday, July 15th, the Rev. A. Wynne Acton officiated with our pastor at the morning service. The text of his fine sermon was from Heaven and Hell, no. 530: "It is not so difficult as some believe to live the life that leads to heaven." The Society was indeed happy to see and welcome its former pastor again.
     The Bishop conducted the very beautiful morning service at Michael Church on Sunday, July' 22nd. In the afternoon there was a reception and luncheon in honor of Bishop and Mrs. De Charms. This was attended by so many visitors from America, Sweden, Norway, South Africa and elsewhere that it seemed indeed a prelude to the Assembly. In response to toasts to "The Church." "The Priesthood." and "The Bishop," Bishop De Charms gave us a glimpse into their voyage to England-53 New Church people on board, and on Sunday a New Church service at which the Rev. David Simons preached an excellent sermon.
     The wonderful Assembly week that followed is, of course, excluded from this report; but on Tuesday, July 31st, great was the delight of those who gathered at Swedenborg House for the tour of Swedenborg's London arranged under the auspices of Michael Church, with the Rev. Erik Sandstrom as host and Mr. and Mrs. Percy Dawson as his able assistants.

Thirty men and women from seven countries-Canada. Denmark, England, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, and the U.S.A-made this pilgrimage.
     The inspired conductor was the Rev. Dennis Duckworth, pastor of the North Finebley (Conference) Society, London, who has compiled A New Churchman's Guide to London-a booklet that is a sine qua non for all intending New Church visitors to London. Armed with this, and after a brief talk by Mr. Duck- worth at Swedenborg House, we made our way at 11:00 a.m. to the waiting coach that was to convey us round those parts of London in which Swedenborg lived, or which were associated with the early history of the New Church. We passed the site of the Holborn Restaurant, where the 1910 Congress was held in celebration of the Swedenborg Society's centenary; then alighted at the Law Courts to visit the Inner Temple; then New Court, Middle Temple, where Hindmarsh and his friends used to meet. We passed 32 Fetter Lane, the site of the Moravian Chapel Salisbury Court, where Swedenborg lived for two months; Poppin's Court (now Alley) where was probably the home and printing shop of Mr. John Hart, at which the Arcana was printed and where Swedenborg was often a guest; Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, the famous inn at which Swedenborg himself possibly used to dine. Then we went on, southward and eastward, past the London Coffee House, up Ludgate Hill to St. Paul's Churchyard, past the shop of John Lewis, where the Arcana was first published: and so onward in the direction of London River, until we finally alighted and made our way through narrow roads, to come out suddenly into a peaceful little square set with flowerbeds and a children's playground. This was Swedenborg Square, where once stood the old Swedish Church in which Swedenborg s remains were buried. From there we went to what was once Cold Bath Square, where Swedenborg spent his last days on earth. Now it is a bombed site, with ugly tenements and prefabs, still awaiting postwar reconstruction; but we saw the spot where 26 Cold Bath Street, Swedenborg's last residence, most likely stood, and we glimpsed in imagination the rolling landscape beyond that must have added much beauty to the square at the time of his sojourn in it. So ended our tour. There have been many New Church pilgrims in London before the late Dr. Alfred Acton was indeed one; but this was perhaps the first New Church pilgrimage made by a group, and we hope that it will set a precedent for many more by those who have a love for the history of the early days of the New Church and for the life of Swedenborg.
     The month of August passed with the usual services at Michael Church, and on Sunday the 26th we said farewell to Mr. and Mrs. Norton, our delightful visitors from Australia, and also to Miss Nancy Stroh. All three were fixing to New York and going thence to Bryn Athyn.
     On the first two Sundays in September the services were taken by lay-readers. Mr. Percy Dawson read a sermon by the Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, "The Return to Religion," on September 2nd, and on the following Sunday Mr. Stanley Wainscot read a sermon by the Rev. Karl R. Alden. This was on the occasion of our pastor's summer vacation. In this month, too, we were delighted to hear the engagement of Miss Marion Appleton to Mr. Colin Colebrooke announced.
     Our pastor, returned to duty, preached a very fine sermon on "Perception in the New Church" on September 16th. Toward the end of September doctrinal classes were resumed at Swedenborg House and Chadwell Heath. The study of the Apocalypse is being continued at the Swedenborg House classes, and "The Laws of Permission" are being studied at the monthly meetings of the group at Chadwell Heath.
     At the first meeting of the Women's Guild since the summer we had the pleasure of welcoming Mrs. Alec Craigie as a new member. The October meeting was the occasion of two outstanding features. In the absence of your correspondent, the following is quoted from the report of the secretary, Mrs. Colebrooke: "The president had the great pleasure of presenting Miss Korene Schnarr with a farewell gift from the members, which took the form of a book entitled Landau, as a token of appreciation for all the help and service that she had so willingly given during her stay for the past year with us. Miss Schnarr responded with alacrity, and explained to us that she came here to work with the English people and that the book and its illustrations would recall for her many memories of her visit to this country.

The second feature of this meeting was the pastor's address on 'What is Correspondence?' The secretary expressed the opinion that this profound presentation of the subject had opened up vast channels of thought and ideas which were quite new to some of the members."
     On Sunday, September 30th, our pastor visited Colchester to deliver an address on New Church education, the service here being read by Mr. Stanley Wainscot. Our Harvest Thanksgiving Festival was on October 7th, and there was a Holy Supper service on October 14th.
     Our dearly loved Mrs. Charlotta Briscoe, one of the Society's oldest members and the sister of the late Dr. Alfred Acton, passed peacefully and quietly into the spiritual world on October 19th. The very moving memorial service was held at her home on October 26th.
     On October 28th, the Rex'. Frank Rose officiated with the pastor and preached a fine sermon on "Finding the Lord." In the afternoon the Rev. Erik Sandstrom delivered an address to the Society, the title of which was "Suggestions for British Academy Uses." Mr. Sandstrom unfolded in his paper the aims and purposes of the proposed Correspondence Institute, as arising out of the background of the previous activities of the British Academy. Arguing that we cannot stand still in regard to spiritual things, he brought out the vital importance of New Church education for all. The response of the Society was unanimous.
     November, in addition to the usual activities of the Society, saw the commencement, under the auspices of the British Academy, of the first correspondence course, the Rev. Erik Sandstrom's course in "The Philosophy of New Church Education." Judging by the first two lessons, this is going to have a most stirring effect on adult members of the church here in England and elsewhere. It is a course on the highest level. Appreciation must go also to Miss Muriel Cooper of Warrington for her efficient typing of the lessons, and to others in Colchester for stenciling and mailing them.
     Also commenced in November was a series of classes, held on the last Sunday in the month, on general doctrines. The subject for the first class was "Some Principles of Divine Providence in World Affairs." Mr. Sandstrom explained by means of illustrations how the Lord governs the whole world through the affections of men, for men are not entirely conscious of their own affections but of the thoughts which spring from them. In this way the Lord gathers the affairs of the whole human race into one form, which is the human form (DP 200, 201).
     With the end of this month came also the conclusion of an excellent series of sermons which our pastor had been preaching on "Truth Judging," "Truth Amending," and "Truth Ascending."
     IRIS O. BRISCOE

     THE CHURCH AT LARGE

     General Convention. It has been announced that the 1957 session of the General Convention will be held in Boston, Massachusetts, June 18-23, with June 23rd as Convention Sunday. Preliminary plans have already been made, and a date set for the first meeting of the Convention Committee on Business.
     The Southeastern Association believes that Florida offers a promising missionary field, and points out in a recent communication to the NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER how the work has been growing there. This work is centered in St. Petersburg, with the Rev Leslie Marshall in charge and the group in that city now proposes to expand its facilities by building a chapel. It is reported that the present chapel room, seating between fifty and sixty, is no longer adequate.
     The MESSENGER mentions also that encouraging reports are heard about the work of Claude Harris among Afro- American New Church people in Chicago. Mr. Harris is being helped and advised by the Rev. William E. Fairfax, of the Harlem New-Church Mission.
     The Book Room of the Western New-Church Union in the Stevens Building, Chicago, now under the direction of Mrs. Thornton O. Smallwood, has taken over the work of the literature depot maintained at Paterson, New Jersey, by the Rev. Leslie Marshall until his removal to Florida.
     The Convention Society in Detroit, without a pastor since the retirement of the Rev. William Beales, expected that its new building would be ready for dedication some time in January.

     General Conference. The Northampton Society reported recently the holding of the first Sunday service since 1944. This service was preceded by the opening of the Sunday school by the Rev. John Teed. For the present the Society must be content with two Sunday services every three months, but it is hoped to maintain the school every Sunday.

     The New-Church Orphanage in England recently completed its seventy-fifth year. A review of its activities published in the NEW-CHURCH HERALD notes, among other things, that up to the present time no fewer than 323 children have benefitted as wards at a total cost of L40,000. At present there are thirty wards, including three in Burma, and the funds are supported generously by the membership of Conference.

     Australia. Various items in the NEW AGE indicate that preparations are already being made for the next Conference, which will be held in Perth, Western Australia in 1953. The Australian Conference meets every four years, and distances always pose a serious problem.
IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES 1957

IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES Editor 1957

A recent issue of the NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER contains excerpts from a letter mailed by the secretary of the Council of Ministers to the secretary and pastor of most of the Convention churches requesting the frank opinion of their society on the following question: "Would you seriously consider employing a well qualified, well trained woman minister if you were without a minister?"
The letter continues: "This is not an academic question which we are asking you to answer. There have been women interested in our ministry; there may well be women interested in our ministry today. Furthermore, we face a growing shortage of ministers with no certainty that enough young men will present themselves for training in the next few years. Should Convention continue to discourage young women interested in its ministry?"
This letter was sent out at the request of the Council of Ministers, which is "anxious, at this time of critical ministerial shortage, to ascertain the real feeling of Convention concerning women in our ministry." Societies are asked to give serious thought to this matter. It is to be hoped that the results of this inquiry will be made public in the MESSENGER. We shall await them with great interest.

Mr. Geoffrey Stafford Childs 1957

     Mr. Geoffrey Stafford Childs (Continued from page 33)

Sugar Association. During the war he was chairman of the War Chest Drive in Saginaw and was ever ready to lend his enthusiasm for the forwarding of civic and patriotic projects.
     Although he now lived ninety miles north of Detroit, he transferred his activities for the church to that group which last year became a society with its own church building.
     His marriage was blessed with three sons and three daughters, all of whom attended the Academy schools, and all of whom are members of the General Church and active in its uses. In the knowledge of this his fondest dream was realized. He is survived by his widow, Olivia his sons, Walter C., Alan and Geoffrey S., Jr.; and his daughters, Mrs. Leon Rhodes, Mrs. Hugh H. Gyllenhaal and Miss Elizabeth Childs; two brothers, Randolph W., and Sidney; and a sister, Mrs. N. D. Pendleton.
     In closing I would like to express the warmth for the things of the church which came from Geof's personality to all those who came in contact with him. Wherever he went, and he was a much traveled man, he brought the sphere of the church with him, and he was interested in the things of the church that he found. In many little ways he encouraged those who were struggling to maintain the things that are most vital among us; and for that encouragement, and for that devotion to the things that are of the church, he will always be remembered by us with affection.

FIRST FAITH 1957

FIRST FAITH Rev. GEOFFREY S. CHILDS 1957

     Reuben was the firstborn of Jacob's children; and he was the first to be blessed when Jacob called his sons together, just before his death. In this blessing, Jacob said to Reuben: "Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength; excellent in eminence, and excellent in power" (Genesis 49: 3). In the process of regeneration Reuben represents the first state of spiritual rebirth-the first state of regeneration. The nature of this state is contained in his name, which means in Hebrew "sight." Spiritually, Reuben represents man's first sight of truth. He stands for that state in which man's sight is first opened; when man first discovers, as an adult, that the Writings are the living truth. More simply, Reuben is the first living faith that an adult experiences.
     In childhood and youth, before this first faith is born, the truth the child is taught is not really his own. He listens to what his parents and teachers tell him about spiritual truth, and he believes them. But he believes because he trusts the adults who instruct him. He cannot actually see and believe the truth itself. Concerning this childhood faith we are taught that "the truths that man in his infancy and childhood imbibes from the Word . . . and from preaching, although they appear as truths, still are not truths with him: they are only like shells without kernels, or like the form of the body or of the face without soul and life." Thus the adult's first discovery of truth is a most marvelous experience; for what he had believed on the authority of others, he now discovers to be true for himself. The water of knowledge becomes the wine of living truth, which is the inner meaning of the miracle at Cana.
     There are few more wonderful experiences in life than this first discovery of truth. Man feels as though he had entered a new and wonderful world-a world that stretches out to all eternity. He has discovered for himself the reality of the Lord and of heaven, and of the delightful truths concerning heaven taught in the Writings.

His heart is then filled with heavenly love and with an inmost resolution to serve the Lord. The Word has much to say concerning this first state of faith and its vital use. It is this state that is meant by the words: "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined' (Isaiah 9: 2). In the prophecy of Isaiah it is said: "Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land of far distances" (33: 17). A "king" represents the truth of faith. In this first state of faith, man's eyes behold the king in his beauty; and he sees "the land of far distances"-sees the eternity of heaven stretching before him.
     It is a truth revealed in the Writings that the first thing said in any series contains the key and the promise of all that follows in the series. And so it is with the first state of regeneration. In the light of his newborn faith man sees the promise of and the key to all that is to follow. With real delight he sees that this new faith will lead to his regeneration, and to eternal happiness in heaven itself. He sees this, and feels in his heart a delightful promise of it. For celestial love itself is allowed to flow into his first state, warming the heart and uplifting the intellect. Thus Jacob said to Reuben: "Thou art my might, and the beginning of my strength; excellent in eminence, and excellent in power."
     But this first state of inspiration cannot last forever. There is, inevitably, a spiritual recession; a sinking into lower, proprial states. This is inevitable because, despite the first flowering of living faith, there is still much in man that is unregenerate. There is much evil yet to be conquered. And the only time man truly faces his evils is when he is in states of spiritual recession, of depression, of temptation. It is then, and only then, that the real test of man's new faith comes. For it is easy to believe and to make resolutions when we are uplifted and inspired; but to hold to our faith, and to be loyal to it when we are depressed and uninspired, that is the real test.
     The Writings make it clear that the only progress made in regeneration is through victory in temptations. And this means being loyal to our faith when states of depression and disloyalty attack us. If we hold to our faith through such states, then, and only then, will the church grow within us. This is true of the individual New Church man, and it is true also of societies and organizations of New Church men. The church will grow only through loyalty in times of depression and darkness. And such loyalty, if it is real, must reflect itself and be seen in ultimates and externals-in such things as financial loyalty and attendance at church and classes. The strength or weakness of our belief in the church is disclosed by our loyalty to the church in times of adversity. It is then that we discover whom we want to serve-the Lord or mammon.

It is then that we discover what is to happen to the seed of first faith which so delighted us. For with many, even in the New Church itself, the seed of first faith will fall upon stony ground, or among thorns; and inevitably that faith will perish.
     Therefore, in the blessing of Reuben, Jacob first described the wonderful potential of first faith: "Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength; excellent in eminence, and excellent in power." But then, in an abrupt reversal, Jacob continued: "Light as water, thou shalt not excel, because thou wentest up to thy father's bed" (Genesis 49: 3, 4). Jacob's blessing suddenly turns into a curse. This is because the final verses of Jacob's so-called blessing deal with those who betray their first faith. The curse deals with those who give up their faith when temptations come.
     To give up one's faith when temptations come is to betray it. Thus Jacob's words were contemptuous: "Light as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed." When first faith dawns, man loves spiritual truth with all his heart. But this real love of truth is challenged when evils arise. And if in low states, when evils tempt, man then sacrifices truth and obedience to it for the sake of evil delights, he then commits adultery-spiritual adultery. To love truth, follow it, and then sacrifice it when evils tempt, this is a craven weakness. It is represented by that most foul of human evils, the offense committed by Reuben. This is a most heinous thing. But it is just as heinous to crucify truth through evil delights. This is spiritual adultery, and it leads to the worst of all possible states-the state of profanation. Thus Jacob's final words to Reuben, words that seem brutal, are justified.
     It is true that every man has human weaknesses. And at no time are these so plaguing as in states of temptation and depression. In such low states discouragement and hopelessness surround man. He feels that there is no way out of his dead state; the first truth that he once so loved seems to him then as a thing of straw. And unless he then turns to the Lord for help, turns to Him with complete humility and prayer, he will fail. He will give in to evil delights. His faith will become light as water, and he will adulterate the truths he once loved. The Lord does not reject us when we do this. In His mercy He would not reject us. But we are allowed to suffer the punishment that is attached to every evil; for in the order of creation every evil has inherent in it an accompanying punishment. And the inner horror the heart then goes through words cannot describe. Man discovers, piercingly, the deep value of the truth he has adulterated. It is then that he turns to the Lord and prays with all his soul for forgiveness. And it is for this repentance that the Lord hopes, for it restores man's belief in the Lord and his loyalty to truth.

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This repentance, if it is carried out, will lift man above his spiritual adultery into heavenly states in which loyalty to the truth is pure. Through the hard lessons and experience of failure the man will learn to be true to his first faith.
     Despite all the temptations that come, man does have the freedom to remain loyal to his original high vision of truth. For the strength of the Lord will be with him in those temptations, if he will only pray for it. And nothing can withstand the Lord's Divine strength. If man does find the strength to be loyal to truth despite temptations, then he has found the strength to regenerate; for regeneration may be defined as the willingness to be loyal to the truth despite adversity
     If man attains this loyalty his spirit will grow. Then his heart will find warmth and light. The first words of Jacob's blessing will alone stand true: "Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength; excellent in eminence, and excellent in power." He will see the Divine king, the Lord. "in His beauty"; and he will come into that "land of far distances" which he saw when his faith was born. Amen.

     LESSONS:     Isaiah 55. Matthew 13: 1-23. Arcana Coelestia, 3863.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 482 462, 465.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 72, 106.
MEN AND WOMEN IN THE WORD 1957

MEN AND WOMEN IN THE WORD Editor 1957

     Barak, Deborah, Samson, Eli

     "The king of Canaan who reigned in Hazor, and Sisera the captain of his army who fought against Barak and Deborah, signify the falsity of evil, and Barak and Deborah the truth of good" (AE 447: 4).
     "Samson was not a sanctified Nazirite like those described above, as having put on a state of good instead of truth. The effect of his strength by reason of his hair was principally from his representing the Lord, who from the natural man as to truth fought against the hells and subdued them, and this before He put on the Divine good and truth even as to the natural man" (AC 3301: 4).
     "As a representative church was instituted with the posterity of Jacob, therefore in one person conjointly were represented the Divine good and the Divine truth which proceed from the Lord . . . these two offices [judge and priest] were joined as in Eli and Samuel" (AC 6148: 5).

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LAST JUDGMENT 1957

LAST JUDGMENT Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER 1957

     2. The Scene of the Judgment

     The outstanding fact about the "last judgment" revealed in the Writings is that it occurred in the world of spirits, not upon earth. It took place in the year 1757 A.D., commencing in the last days of 1756. The cause of the judgment was the deplorable condition of the Christian Church as to spiritual life: and the immediate occasion was the accumulation of crowds of evil spirits from Christendom in the intermediate region between heaven and hell, which threatened the spiritual freedom of spirits and men and prevented good spirits from finding the way to heaven.
     That the judgment would occur in the spiritual world is sufficiently obvious, since John, in his vision of the future, "saw the dead, small and great, stand before God." That the judgment would not involve the destruction of the physical universe can also be seen from the facts that the Lord in His Divine providence looks to a continual growth of His heavenly kingdom from the human race, and that the Lord's infinite love could never be conceived as content to stop the procreation of the human race, which is the seminary, or seed plot, of the heavens. It is clear, further, that a general last judgment could take place only in the spiritual world where all can be together, since no problems of space can arise there, as would surely be the case if the scene of the judgment had to be on the earth. And besides, can we not better see the merciful purpose of the judgment if it prepared for a time when the human race of the future could live on in untold generations, and perform its celestial functions in a state of greater freedom and progressively greater enlightenment?
     But the spiritual world is hidden from the eyes of men, and this for the sake of man's freedom; since, if he came face to face with spirits, his rational mind would be shaken. Yet the truth about the Last Judgment is necessary as a phase of that truth which shall make men free. Therefore the Lord prepared a man to bear witness of how it occurred. He was prepared, unknowingly, from his youth. He was trained to observe and to understand what he observed. He was first introduced into the sciences, like a spiritual fisherman, and strove patiently to see the design of God in nature and in the marvels of the human body. At the age of fifty-five he was intromitted into open intercourse with spirits and angels, always under the Lord's special protection and guidance.

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Daily he explored the arcane regions of the spiritual world, and after five years he was inspired to begin to publish a revelation of the spiritual contents of the Word, in the work called the Arcana Coelestia. When the Last Judgment came he was sixty-nine years old, a meek man, loved and respected of men for his learning and personality; a typical student, too astute to be imposed upon in anything having to do with experience, yet remarkably tolerant and incredibly diligent and patient. And despite the fact that he had then been in communion with spiritual beings for fourteen years, and had published volume after volume about the unseen world, he had managed to keep this his unique state entirely secret even from his most intimate friends. He pursued his financial affairs, planned and worked in his garden, took part in political battles and social engagements; and at the same time he wrote down his spiritual experiences with much detail in his diaries or journals.

     Swedenborg's Record of the Last Judgment

     From these journals, as well as from many statements in the Arcana Coelestia, we find that Swedenborg had long seen, in the confused and perturbed state of the world of spirits, the signs of an inevitable judgment. He saw this more than ten years before it came. And when the judgment finally broke in sudden fury, he recorded what he saw from day to day in his journal. Seemingly he was so fully occupied in observing and reporting that he had time for little else. We have no record of any letters or memorials written by Swedenborg during this period.
     His journal of every stage of the judgment enables us also to see its progress through his eyes. He mentions the fate of a number of historically known persons and what happened to many of his deceased friends, and describes how the very face of the world of spirits was changed and reformed amid the sometimes fantastic events which marked the destruction of the old order in that world.
     This day by day recital, told by a trained observer in entirely objective fashion, not only confirms the actuality of Swedenborg's visions but provides us with a visualized basis for our thought about the spiritual world, and with illustrations of the working of spiritual laws. It also throws a new and interior light upon the character of many persons, institutions, nations and churches, and thus permits us to reinterpret history from the viewpoint of the Divine providence. And, finally, the bald, matter of fact description serves to prevent the acceptance of the Writings by any who are not ready for it, and is therefore a protection against the profanation of the doctrine itself.
     The account of the judgment may indeed be classed with other memorable relations which are found interspersed in the Writings.

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One of Swedenborg's friends, Count von Hopken, once asked him why he published such relations of his experiences in the other life, which would prove an obstacle to the reception of the doctrine. But Swedenborg then replied that the Lord had commanded him to publish them, although he realized that there would be those who would ridicule him for them and regard them as incredible (Docu. no. 6: 27). Men have a reluctance to picture the life of the spiritual world for fear of materializing it. Even Swedenborg himself went through a state, during the first few years after his spiritual senses had been opened, when he experienced repeated shocks at finding the spiritual world so substantially complete. so complicated, so confusingly like the natural world and yet so utterly different Spirits had bodies, yet no bodies; they lived upon spaces, yet not in spaces; they were surrounded by nature, yet it was not nature. There were so many perplexing appearances and apparent contradictions!
     Yet this spiritual world, which is more real than ours, more various and complex, and more truly substantial, was the scene of the Last Judgment. And we must therefore seek to understand what it is like if we are to understand Swedenborg's account.

     Permanency and Change in the Spiritual World

     The spiritual world is the realm of the Divine proceeding, the kingdom of Divine truth. All things, that is, all spiritual states and qualities, appear there in their true relations. There is no single phenomenon there that does not testify to a spiritual state; nor is there any appearance which does not have a significance that angels and intelligent spirits can sense. Every appearance corresponds to an actual spiritual reality. In heaven this is obviously so; but also below heaven even every false appearance or fantasy actually represents and manifests the perverted state which it is employed to hide, and it is only those who themselves are not in the light of heaven who cannot discern the real state that is represented.
     What fixes relative positions in the spiritual world is the Divine truth. All spirits and angels appear located according to their reception of the Divine truth. Hence we read: "All places, wherever they are, are appearances of Divine truth in ultimates. Divine truth in ultimates appears in such forms as those of nature, and all places receive Divine truth variously" (SD 5363). Spirits who have no belief, or have no certainty, are therefore seen to wander about, and "cannot be kept in any fixed place where Divine truth is" (SD 5373).
     The source of all permanency is the Lord. The Divine love never alters, and neither do the gifts of His love or the truth which proceeds from Him. There are certain things in the spiritual world which may be called constants; like the spiritual sun, and the atmospheres which proceed from it and act as His ever-living hands.

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Indeed, the spiritual atmospheres are the source of the eternal, basic substance of all the heavens; out of which all human and angelic minds are created as well as all things which appear in the spiritual world. But there are also certain other sources of permanency in the heavens. Angelic societies as such are permanent, and do not alter except by a continuous growth; and the things which angels possess and use remain constant, although "to the eyes of those who wander from society to society such things are changed according to consociations" (TCR 78). Ruling loves are constant with spirits when once confirmed. And both heaven and hell are therefore permanent.
     It is different in the world of spirits. For it contains elements which are in constant flux-mixed states, opposites striving for dominance, even as is the case in the natural minds of men. For the world of spirits is the intermediate realm between the heavens and the hells. That world is therefore constantly changing, according as it is occupied by spirits of different character.
     Yet even here there is an inmost order, an underlying arrangement of states, so that all spirits may appear present with reference to their reception of Divine truths in ultimates. The Writings amply testify that the spiritual world in appearance is almost the same as the natural world. Not only are spirits perfect human forms with nothing lacking, but there are also hills and valleys, rivers and fields, vegetation and animal life, cities and houses, and all the objects that we see on earth. And as far as the world of spirits is concerned, it has the coherent features of an entire world. Many newcomers are impressed with its vastness, as if they had passed from a village into a great city (TCR 475; U 27). But it is seen also as a winding valley between mountains and rocky tablelands (HH 429). It is said to be situated in the lower parts of the spiritual world, immediately below the heavens; and the heavens then appear as mountains rising round about, but subsiding when the evening state approaches (SD 4923). And below in the valley there are sometimes seen caverns or gulfs which are the gates of the hells, and which are opened when evil spirits choose to enter.
     The world of spirits may thus appear wider and more inclusive, or more confined, according to the different states and points of view of different spirits. Heaven, to the novitiate spirit, seems as if in the clouds, because to him it is an unattainable state. But sometimes the heavens seem nearer, within the horizon of thought; and when a spirit is prepared a narrow, well guarded road may open by which he may travel to his home in the mountains of salvation.

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     Here we discern a spiritual law by which spiritual things are visible and tangible only in so far as the spirit is able to appreciate their significance and use. All things in that world are visible to spiritual sight, but only as much appears as the Lord permits. And we may recognize that this same law governs the human mind, for that only becomes present before our thought which is pertinent to our state or belongs to our active affections.

     The Six Expanses of the Spiritual World

     It is, of course, utterly impossible for the intricate relationships of all the spiritual states of all spirits and angels to be comprehended in one geographical concept or represented in any one picture taken from the natural world! For this reason the various relationships of the heavens and the hells to spirits in the intermediate world have to be represented in differing and paradoxical ways. Space-or the appearance of space, for there is no actual space in the other world-is merely the sense perception of spiritual states, spiritual conditions. Newcomers, that is. novitiate spirits, are therefore instructed that heaven is above them, and that the hells are below their feet, under the ground on which they stand (5M 10; CL 461; HH 422). The heavens are not ordinarily apparent, except as mists or bright clouds overhead. But the ground under the heavens and the world of spirits is said to be as it were hollowed out to accommodate the hells; and there is a hell situated beneath each angelic society (HH 583, 588, 541).
     The spiritual world as a whole is represented as six "expanses" or strata. The heavens appear to spirits as three atmospheric expanses, one above the other, and the hells also as three, below the earth of the world of spirits (AE 702: 2, 1133: 6; U 27: AR 260, 876. et al.). Yet these expanses, including the intermediate one of the world of spirits, form one globe containing concentric globes one within the other (AE 1133: 6; cp. AR 260). We find in this description a peculiar resemblance to the ancient idea of the universe, with the earth in the center, while the planetary spheres, in concentric orbits about it, were conceived as the abodes of the blessed dead and of the gods. Hades and Tartarns were then imagined to be in the center or on the nether side of the earth. And indeed this idea conveyed to the ancients a certain truth about the spiritual world.
     The physical truth about each solar system is that its center is the sun, around which all the planets move. And when we think of the Lord as the source of all things of our lives, we must visualize Him as the sun and center of the spiritual world. Yet the earth or globe of the spiritual world does not appear to move or revolve, because the relations of spirits and angels to the Lord are fixed by death, since their ruling loves cannot thereafter be changed.

106

The Lord as a sun is omnipresent, but appears to the angels as constant in the sky before them at an angle of forty-five degrees, and appears bright or dim, or hidden by clouds according to their states of reception.
     But when it comes to representing the relationship of spirits and angels with each other, the laws of the spiritual world cause this to be seen in many different ways. The "expanses" or levels represent the discrete degrees in which the angels or spirits principally live as to ruling affections and conscious life: and these degrees answer to the various degrees of the human mind which, on the basis of life on earth, had become educable and open. For it is a man's mind that is his immortal spirit.
     Each "expanse" or degree separates those who can associate together in the other life from others with whom there can be no mental community or social contact. Yet each expanse is a world as it were by itself, and is marked by great variety. So, for instance, the world of spirits is said to have its zones of climate-relatively frigid or tropic or temperate (TCR 185; SD 5144-5147, 4383). It has also its quarters, to which Swedenborg gives the same names as ours; but they are always oriented, not b the north as on our maps, but by the east "where the Lord is."

     Consociations and Societies

     There are also other physical parallels. There are continents in the world of spirits which distantly correspond to the continents of our earth but are not in the same proportions, since they do not mark geographical relations or distances but human relations or spiritual proximities.
     And in visualizing the world of spirits as the scene of the Last Judgment it is important to remember that when spirits first enter the other life they retain all the natural affections, tastes and temperaments that they had on earth and also the same convictions and beliefs, the same loyalties and habits, the same talents and ambitions. It is natural, therefore, that spirits should congregate in societies of their like-and especially in communities of their own religious faith and practices: Catholics with Catholics, Protestants with Protestants, and so on. It is also natural that national loyalties and common social habits should create separate groups, for common concepts of civic government and interests born of similar education create a unique genius in those of the same nation. And this is true even of citizens of the same town, who have the same kind of social customs. To add to this, common professions, offices or occupations bring many together after death. And. finally, friends, or those who like similar diversions or pleasures, are naturally attracted to each other after death when they meet as spirits.
     All this is according to spiritual laws which operate in both worlds. Even on earth "birds of a feather flock together," as the saving is.

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But in the spiritual world there are no material obstacles as on earth; no distances, no need for money to travel, no lack of time! All that is needed in order to meet with kindred souls is a definite desire and the pertinent knowledge. There are, however, laws that are peculiar to the spiritual world, and that bring about an order there quite different from that of the natural world.

     The Four Quarters

     One of these laws has to do with the four quarters, which in the spiritual world represent general states and have no connection whatever with the quarters of our earth. Our four quarters are determined by the meridian, or by the sun. But the spiritual quarters are not from the Lord as a sun, but from each angel according to reception (DLW 126). There is no space in heaven, and yet there are definite relations. The sun, which is omnipresent and is always thought of as the East, appears before his face wherever an angel turns! In the eastern quarter of heaven dwell those who are in an interior good from love to the Lord and thence in a clear perception. In the west of heaven live angels who are in the good of charity and thence in a more obscure perception. The south is the abode of those who are in intelligence and wisdom from conjunctions of good and truth; and in the north dwell those who are in relative ignorance, in obscure light of truth or doctrine, and who may even be in falsities and yet longing for truth.
     Such is the arrangement of societies in heaven And it would be the same in the world of spirits if the world were in a state of order. But when evil spirits predominate, as they did before the Last Judgment, considerable confusion is bound to arise, since the external affections of spirits may bring them into quarters where they do not internally belong. And thus we find from the Writings that evil and abominable spirits came to occupy sites in all the various quarters. Spirits who were in a direful and selfish love of dominating through religion usurped places in the eastern quarter, and those who sought to maintain power by keeping the multitudes in ignorance established themselves in the north. The learned who wanted to rule through false dogmas had strongholds in the south, and in the western quarter were those who exercised command by means of cunning and malice and a supreme love of possessions.

     The "Middle Space" of the World of Spirits

     But there is another spiritual law which throws light on the general arrangement of spirits in the world of spirits. For it provides that the "middle" or central region of the world of spirits shall he occupied by those spirits who possess and read the Word and worship the Lord, and thence have somewhat of spiritual light: in other words, those who are of the Lord's specific church.

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This means that before the judgment in 1757 the middle of the world of spirits was occupied by those nations which, owing to the Protestant Reformation, had access to the Old and New Testaments; and in the most central portions were those among them who were in the good of faith and charity and could still maintain some of the uses entrusted to the Lord's specific church. They enjoyed, we are told, something of spiritual light. Spiritual light in its essence is the Divine wisdom, which enters the understanding of man as far as man has knowledges, and from these the faculty to perceive it (CLJ 14).
     It is especially mentioned in this connection that spiritual light does not pass through spaces, or natural atmospheres, as is the case with light from the sun of the world; but it passes "through the affections and perceptions of truth" and thus is transmitted instantaneously "to the last limits of the heavens." We take this to mean that spiritual light is transmitted through those spirits who have the knowledge of religious truths to other spirits, and these can receive the enlightenment as far as they have some religious ideas to be awakened. Spirits in the world of spirits can thus serve as media through which enlightenment reaches other spirits, or they can take away or prevent the enlightenment of others and thus arrest their spiritual life. Something like this of course, happens also among men. But in the world of spirits-where there is no space, no distance-it is provided that from those who are in the greatest enlightenment from the Word spiritual light can spread, as from a center, to all nations and gentile peoples, however distant they may appear to be, in proportion as they can receive.
     The Writings show that it is most necessary that there should be on earth a church where the Word is read and the Lord is known. For from such a church there are continually maintained in the world of spirits societies which are in spiritual light. At the time of the Last Judgment there were still such societies there, from the Reformed nations, through which the Word could enlighten all regions of the world of spirits "by a spiritual communication" (SS 110). But the Writings also disclose that the Christian Church at that time had come to its consummation and end; and that it had, as a whole, come into a spiritual darkness because increasingly men had ceased to acknowledge the Lord as the God of heaven and earth, and because they had separated faith from charity, so that the Word was no longer understood and the light of truth was almost extinguished (SS 112).
     For this condition there could be no healing from within the Christian Church itself. Its light had failed, and only a flicker remained among those faithful few who had been gathered in the "center" of the world of spirits.

109

Even among them spirits had insinuated themselves who sowed discord and false ideas. Yet all the Protestants of whom there was still some hope of salvation because they lived at least a moral life were, as the judgment drew near, led into the so-called "middle space." where they were distributed according to countries and nationalities, in cities and societies resembling their own on earth. Thus the Germans, the Dutch, the English, the Swedes, each dwelt in separate regions of the middle space. But surrounding the dwellings or cities of the sincere Christians, and also above them, there were immense multitudes of spirits on all sides who were Christians only in form or by external habit, and who, from their self-love and worldliness, made nothing of evils of life. And at the outer borders of the Protestant middle space were the openings of various hells (LJ 48; LJ post. 2,142).

     The Outer Circuits

     What has just been described as the middle space, or the region of the Reformed or Protestant nations which still enjoyed something of spiritual light, was, the Writings tell us, surrounded on all sides by a vast region or circuit inhabited by those of the Papist religion. These were outside the middle space because the Word, although known, was not read among them, and therefore their spiritual light was feeble. In fact, the Writings do not include the papal church among the "churches in the Christian world" but call it "Christian gentilism" (HD 8; AE 955: 5).
     The Moslems, whose holy book is the Koran, which contains stories borrowed in distorted form from the Old Testament and the Gospels, were assigned a district still farther from the middle space. And around this Mohammedan district, and stretching to a remote distance, was the circuit or region of the gentiles or pagans, who were in deep spiritual ignorance.
     These almost geographical descriptions of the arrangements of the spirits in the world of spirits may make us forget that there is no space in the spiritual world. Yet whenever the relationship of various groups of spirits comes into question space appears! And does not the same occur in the private spiritual world of our own minds? In our thought of persons, liked or disliked, admired or despised, do we not think of them as near or remote, as above or below? Some things are accessible and familiar to our minds, whereas other fields of thought seem to belong to a foreign world, strange and forbidding. And are there not, in our minds, fearful undercurrents of anger and passionate ambition which seek to overwhelm the mind with fantasies, and which make our suffering conscience pray for a judgment and cry out, "How long, O Lord"? Are there not heights of pure ideals which we can vision vaguely in the form of doctrine, with a cherished hope for a loftier and freer and more abundant life; yet fail to visualize in detail, and picture away above us as if in a distant cloudland?

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What happens in the mind of man so continuously occurs on a tremendous scale in the collective mind of the human race in the world of spirits. That world is the true mirror of the internal state of the race on earth.
How that world was precipitated into a convulsive judgment in the last days of December, just over two hundred years ago, we will attempt to relate in the next article.
DESIGN AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FOURTH CARVED OFFERTORY BOWL FOR THE BRYN ATHYN CHURCH 1957

DESIGN AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FOURTH CARVED OFFERTORY BOWL FOR THE BRYN ATHYN CHURCH THORSTEN SIGSTEDT 1957

     This bowl is made to enclose the set of three bowls with relief carvings representative of the Jewish Church, the Christian Church, and the New Church, respectively.
     The carving on this fourth bowl represents, on one side, the Most Ancient Church; and on the other side, the Ancient Church.
     The spirit or feeling of the Most Ancient Church portrayed here is the joy of giving to the Lord.
     In the center is the altar with flaming fire representing love to the Lord.
     In front of this are a man and a woman kneeling and joining hands, representing conjugial love. On either side of them is an olive tree, representing celestial love.
     Over the altar is a symbol of the spiritual sun, representing the Lord. Its rays reach down to the fire on the altar and to the mountain in the background to indicate that the Lord was immediately present with these people of the Most Ancient Church (HH 87).
     On the left are a man and a woman holding hands. The man is bringing a lamb as an offering. To suggest the idea that the most ancient people were in open communication with angels, the woman is depicted as raising one hand as a signal toward the angel, who responds by raising his hands (AC 8118: HH 252).
     On the right side is a woman with one hand uplifted, the other hand touching a sheaf of wheat which the man is bringing as an offering. Beside him is an angel. The spheres or balls are simple decorations.
     On both sides tents are represented because of the teaching that the most ancient people dwelt in tents (AC 1102).
     The other side of the bowl represents the Ancient Church.
     In the center is a circular plaque on which is carved in Hebrew letters "Ancient Word."

111

     The four stars on the rim represent heaven; and the four rays of light represent the conjunction of heaven with the earth by means of the Ancient Word.
     The earth is represented by a pyramid. On the left are men carrying symbols to suggest the teaching that with the people of this church the science of correspondences was their constant study. This was their use and this was their offering to the Lord. The first symbol is a circle, symbolizing the spiritual sun; the second is a triangle symbolizing heaven; the third is a square, symbolizing the earth, with its four quarters. The style is taken from the Mayan symbolic art, one of the earliest forms of picture writing.
     The giving of these gifts with a glad heart is depicted on the right side by three worshipers dancing and playing instruments; the first a trumpet, the second a harp, the third cymbals. Here the style is taken from Hittite carvings, since we know that the Hittites were remnants of the Ancient Church. The different instruments and headdresses convey the idea that although there were many different churches they all were united by mutual charity.
     Flanking the whole scene home life is depicted; on the one side, by a husbandman with a sheep on his shoulders, and on the other side, by a woman nursing her child in the Hittite fashion.
     On the ears of the bowl is carved a serpent, an ancient symbol of the sensuous and its prudence (TCR 205).
     On the upper side is carved a spiral to indicate that man's approach to the Lord by regeneration is by a spiral ascent (DP 211e; CL 13: 2; SD 2318).
     As the Ancient Church encompassed the whole earth, we have let the Mayans represent the Western part, and the Hittites represent the Eastern part of the world.
     THORSTEN SIGSTEDT
ACADEMY PUBLICATION COMMITTEE 1957

ACADEMY PUBLICATION COMMITTEE Editor 1957

The Right Rev. Willard D. Pendleton and the Rev. William Whitehead have resigned from this committee, and Professor Edward F. Allen has been appointed to membership. Inquiries and manuscripts should now be addressed to the new secretary, Mr. F. Bruce Glenn, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

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SWEDISH WORDS IN THE SPIRITUAL DIARY 1957

SWEDISH WORDS IN THE SPIRITUAL DIARY CYRIEL ODHNER SIGSTEDT 1957

     In the act of translating words from one language into another it is, of course, the ideas in the words that are carried over, though always with the addition of a modicum derived from the translator's own mind. In general we are fortunate to have had excellent translations of Swedenborg's Writings made during the previous century, when great pride was attached to the purity of the English language. However, this modicum, picked up on the way, may be colored a little by preconception.
     Thus in Spiritual Diary 5936, on "Women who Preach," after stating that they lose their feminine affectional nature and become material and sensual, but still appear like other women in external form, Swedenborg adds the puzzling phrase "illa domi." The Rev. James F. Buss, who lived during the time of great agitation for and against women's rights, rendered it "Woman belongs to the home," interpolating the word "belongs" without using brackets. The Rev. J. F. Potts, in the Concordance, vol. V, p. 273, translates it: "the former at home and the others where the preachings are"; which permits us to think that such a woman at home appears like other women, but where the preachings are going on she becomes sensuous in the extreme.
     An amusing example of discrepancy in translation occurs in the fourth Memorable Relation in True Christian Religion (no. 137), which describes the convening in the world of spirits of an assembly of clergymen, at which were present Apostolic Fathers and men of later centuries renowned for their learning. In rendering the passage that follows an old edition reads: "Some of them had collars of twisted intestines" (Philadelphia ed. 1876). The gruesome picture evoked must have given readers many a shock before a later editor corrected the translation to read: "Some of them wore ruffled collars with points-the kind of ruff we see in pictures of Shakespeare and Sir Walter Raleigh."
     In the above instances the texts are in Latin, but at various times I have noted in the English version of the Spiritual Diary* instances in which Swedenborg has made use of Swedish words. Usually these are quite correctly translated, but some have been misunderstood and could be rendered differently. The same is true of certain Swedish expressions in the Journal of Dreams, as in the record of the dream on the night of April 21-22, 1744 (p. 60).

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The word winden has mistakenly been taken to mean "wind," whereas it means "attic." Thus "I said that in the wind perhaps there was an opening this way" should read: "I said that perhaps there was an opening in the attic."
     * Translated by Prof. George Bush and the Rev. John H. Smithson (vols. I-IV), and the Rev. James F. Buss (vol. V) London, 1583-1912.
     It may therefore be useful to go over and revise such passages as contain Swedish words, without in any way changing the translation of any of the Latin. Considerable difficulty attends the attempt to decipher and interpret these sometimes very difficult passages, written by Swedenborg in careless and often abbreviated form and reproduced in the photo-lithographed copies of his manuscripts.*
     * Such passages in the Diary are here taken in their numerical order.
     Number 1412 of the Spiritual Diary contains particulars about the punishment in the other world of spirits who trust in themselves and are of an elated mind. To help to rid them of this folly they undergo a punishment by being as it were enveloped in a cloth or veil in which they are wrapped up, hands, feet and body. A woman was seen thus enveloped in a fine woolen veil consisting of but a few folds and yet she struggled in vain to extricate herself. Certain Swedish words are used: "giorda af sadant som Hollenska mattarna pa golfwet darest jag nu ar"-"This veil was changed into a coarser one made of such [material] as the Dutch rugs on the floor where I now am." It is said later of a spirit of this kind that he repented of his folly and was withdrawn from his elation of mind.
     Number 1432 deals with the spirits from another earth, presumably the planet Mercury. They investigated the things in Swedenborg's memory, and when the various places where he had been were excited such as streets, houses and temples, "they were not in the least interested in such material things but only in what had taken place in them." Those from our earth, on the contrary, delighted in things corporeal and worldly. "A certain man from among the inhabitants was shown to me. He was not unlike the men of our earth, clothed with a dark garment, by which their mind was signified, having wide sleeves almost as with us, but with such sleeves as are used in England instead of cuffs (wid om armarna, nestan som hos oss, men med sadana armar, som brukas in England i stelle for hand klaffar)."
     In no. 1441 and the following numbers Swedenborg describes the spirits of Mercury and Venus. "They said that they well knew there were many earths, because there are sorts of spirits with whom they cannot associate. . . . We also conversed with them about birds and lambs, but these spirits were not willing to hear about such earthly things. But it was told them that lambs signify innocence . . . they said that they did not know what innocence is.

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When they were asked whether it were serious things (alfwarsamheter) neither were they willing [to hear this] alleging that they were ignorant what that means; but they knew what gentleness and politeness (artighet) means and they studied to be of such a character" (nos. 1441, 1442).
     Number 1493 treats of the punishment of spirits who delight in revenge. Their most exquisite satisfaction lies in taking vengeance on their enemies. There are very many who have become such, inwardly cherishing hatred to such a degree that it engrosses the whole mind and causes them to wish for the destruction of the souls of men and their condemnation to hell. Their first punishment usually consists in being let down into a very deep, dark aperture, where they remain for centuries. "While they are in the act of being let down through such a dark aperture they are struck with a species of terror or horror (fasa), such as one experiences in the darkest pits."
     It is said in following numbers that the angels moderate and relax this punishment, and that in time the former life of such spirits is changed. This punishment is most direful because no man, "of whatsoever religion he may be, ought to condemn any other one to hell because he himself differs from them in sentiment. . . . The Lord loves all throughout the universe and He delivered mankind from hell, wherefore to exercise such hatred against human beings as to curse them to hell carries with it a great punishment" (no. 1495).
     In no. 1580 it is said of those who are anxious for the morrow, and do not trust in the Lord's providence, that they seem to themselves to inhabit the third story of a wooden house which has no windows, and indeed to "dwell upon the roofs, and also in a dark room under the roof (morcka i winden)
     Then, in no. 1602 and following numbers, Swedenborg discusses the useful and the useless in philosophy. He says: "Certain spirits supposed that everything which bears the name of philosophy was to be utterly rejected. . . . In order that they might make me know how much they abominated philosophy they represented a wild boar (will swin) sprinkled with blood on his back, and would have it that I was such because I had interspersed philosophical terms [in my writings] or had formed ideas after a philosophical fashion. . . . But they were instructed that my philosophical works were nothing else than certain ideas pronounced in simpler terms. . . . Thus an unlearned man has much more extensive ideas and sees truths better than the philosopher, for such a one sticks in the mire like a swine on which account he was represented to make the figure of an animal of that kind, of the wild species; for he became a wild boar in the woods, ranging about like such a beast in truths which he mutilates and slays" (nos. 1602-1604).

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Number 2550 discusses representations that appeared in the world of spirits, and how they inflow from heaven. "While I was asleep there happened [to me] some things which I do not remember; then also came before my view birds which were enclosed in a cage which was old and dark (i en bur som war gammal ock morckar). In such a cage (bur) did a bird appear enclosed which was also an evil one, and it seemed to me I did not wish to have it."
     In no. 2740 and following passages concerning sorceries in the other life, there occurs a Swedish word, trolldom, which signifies witchcraft. In the life of the body, we are told, there are those who are of such a nature that they allure to themselves companions and friends by means of interior craftiness. They are associated together in great numbers in the other life, and so their sphere is a powerful one. "Such spirits, male and female, are reckoned among the sorcerers (seu trulldoms styggelser), or the abominations of magic. I saw afterwards how such spirits . . . appeared as to their fingers. They were very black, without flesh; they were, as it were, the fingers of a scorpion, thus claws (klor), and they hung down hooked at the lower part. There afterwards appeared a long porch where there was straw (halm), and I saw one spirit entering at the right side, where I perceived a cow barn (ladugard). More it is not permitted to relate" (nos. 2741, 2748-49).
     The heading of no. 2844 is: "That When Infants Play with Objects They Suppose Them to be Alive." Several Swedish words, almost unreadable, are employed. "It was shown me to the life of what quality are the thoughts of infants when they play with their objects-pebbles, vessels, dolls-for then infants led me. When I prepared the tiny vessels (de smatte kerlen?) I then supposed, as it were, that they were alive, and thus when I set these before them, [the infants, I perceived] that in no other way do they present these to their minds, for they do not reflect upon the fact that [these things] are inanimate" (1748, August 17).
     Strange is the effect of certain Swedish words in a passage concerning belled cows. It sounds almost as if they formed a kind of nursery rhyme, or mystical chimes. "I heard yesterday, I think, and now again, spirits sounding like cows with bells. . . . They inspire fear wherever they go. I also felt fear from them. . . . The sound of the bells spoke:

     Tager du den sa, tager jag den,
     Tager du mycket, sa tager jag litet."

Translated, this would read:

     "If you take this one, then I will take that one,
     If you take much, then I will take little."

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The passage continues: "Wherever they go they purify the field of the world of spirits from evils by putting them to flight and dispersing them. Thus also they are a kind of east wind for dispelling and dissociating illy consociated societies. . . . I afterwards saw a black cow with a woman, and the cow licked her with her tongue, and also kissed her, which they said was a sign that the belled spirits would not hurt them. From this I learned that belled spirits are signified by black cows.-1748. August 28" (nos. 2972, 2973.)
     "Concerning the Education of Infants" is the heading used for no. 3153, in which a Swedish word is used to describe the afflictions of adolescence. It is said that those who most tenderly love infants constitute a province of the organs of generation. They live the sweetest, most agreeable and happy life. "The opposite thereof is above the head, where nothing exists but what causes a man to be as it were mad as is the case when youths are in a giddy state (yrhet) thence."
     Swedenborg notes, in no. 3210, that a man's quality can sometimes be known from a single word, in this case a Swedish word meaning dear, loving, affectionate. "Someone inquired concerning someone whether he was merciful. It was said that he was kiargul, which signifies mercy. . . . Somewhat nearer I heard that he loved the sex, or women, which also the same word signifies. Farther on, when nearer, he was pitch black, from (kiara) tar, so that he was coal black."
     In no. 3531 Swedenborg describes noting a mass of spirits rising or surging up with a kind of gurgling sound, expressed by the Swedish word klunka. They were rustics of simple faith. When they said the Lord's Prayer with great simplicity, it was shown that their interiors might be opened.
     Number 3753 is a curious and instructive passage describing how the ideas of spirits terminate in material objects. "There were two little vessels, snow white, which were being used in connection with the; and I have perceived sometimes that certain spirits wanted the one little vessel to be used, and some the other." They were evidently tea cups. The translator was baffled by the word "the," as to the meaning of which, he says, "we are ignorant, it being unknown to the Latin tongue," and he leaves a blank. It is, however, the Swedish word for tea (te), pronounced toy, and formerly spelled with an "h" (the). The number goes on to describe how certain spirits suggested that he break the less handsome cup, whereupon the others, grieving, besought him not to do so. Their ideas terminated in this object "as in a kind of foot."
     In no. 3762 the Swedish word read as gissna (?) may also be read hissna. The meaning is obscure.
     Number 3985 contains the Swedish word tjansteandar, meaning "attendant spirits."

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     Swedenborg records in no. 4133 that he dreamed delightfully of being at a great entertainment, but afterwards of being clad in a white haircloth garment, and then in one of a flaxen yellow color (linsguhl). The subject concerns the manner in which his writings were written. An expression occurs which is too obscure to interpret. It seems to be Swedish-ut stella saxar (to set out traps).
     Number 4787 is headed "Sleeve, Bonnet, Fork." These and the words of the first statement are in Swedish, which we reproduce. Most of the number is omitted in Im. Tafel's Latin edition, and the English version needs emendation. The Swedish reads: Armklade betyder perceptionegafwan in utwartes, och hufwan betyder utwartes forstandz gafwan, fruntimber hafwe dem och da de tages ifran dem mista de de utwartes gafwarna som och bewistes med det at de som taga sadant af fruentimbren wijste det. Gaffel significat scientia sensualis. . . . Likaledes strumpor, skor, boxer, lifstycke, klutar, mossa, hatt, signif: tages af det som det beklader."
     In translation this reads: "Sleeve signifies the gift of perception in external things, and cap signifies the gift of external understanding. Women have these things, and if they are taken away from them they lose the outward gifts [i.e., the faculties mentioned] which also was proved by this, that those who took these things from the women knew it. Fork means the science of sensual things because it serves, in externals, for eating. Likewise with stockings, shoes, trousers, undervests, kerchiefs, cap, hat: their signification is taken from the part of the body that they clothe."
     In the next number (4788) occurs the word gyttia, which should he translated "mud' or "mire."
     In no. 5492 and following numbers Swedenborg records meeting in the other world, a former acquaintance who was identified in his mind with vain and worldly things. He had lived a frivolous life but when about to die he had prepared himself more devoutly than anyone else, so that the attending priest and everyone around him believed he would come into heaven on account of his repentance. Swedenborg spoke with him on the third day after his death. Immediately after that he encountered his acquaintances and returned to his former life, so that his deathbed repentance amounted to nothing at all. On the fourth day he was summoned to judgment and his many adulteries were disclosed. He had murdered one woman and ravished others by force and he had stolen great sums of money. Unable to deny any of these things he was the same day cast into hell, where he appeared like a black devil.
     The heading for this relation is: "About the State after Death and about the Hells. Er. Br." It was assumed by several commentators-Potts, Tafel, Kuhl-that this relation referred to Erik Brahe, a prominent statesman whom Swedenborg also met in the other world.

118

But in the original manuscript Index to the Spiritual Diary (see the phototype edition) the name Erland Broman is plainly given. This coincides with the well known life of Broman, the courtier. (See NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1947, pp. 361, 362, and Tafel's Documents Concerning Swedenborg, vol. II, p. 1118, where the correct name is given.)
     Swedenborg's interior sight being opened, he once looked into a street in Stockholm (no. 5711). The angels said that in the houses around that street all were spiritually dead, so that they shuddered and were unwilling to go farther. The English version gives it as "the large new street," but it should be capitalized as "Stora Nygatan," the name of a particular street in the business section of Old Stockholm. The same applies to the adjacent street called "Lilla Nygatan" (Little New Street), to which he was next led, where some were found to be spiritually alive; as well as to the words, "plateas longus e foro lengst apoteket," which may be translated: "Next I was conducted to Langgatan (Long Street), from the market towards the chemist's shop. There also no one was alive." This brings to mind the Arabian tale of a city in which all the inhabitants had been turned into black stones. Spiritually dead?
     Many numbers describe the Last Judgment, which took place in the spiritual world in 1757. Numbers 5758-5763 discuss the judgment on certain spirits from the Christian world who tried to attack those who acknowledged the Heavenly Doctrine. They were cast out, and their place was taken by others who were in charity. Number 5763 is entirely in Swedish and states that, among the latter, were all those who had died as infants and had been educated in the other world. These together form the "new heaven and the new earth" (SD vol. v, p. 35).
     In number 5967 the Swedish word fullmagter has been translated "diplomas." It may also be translated "mandates."
     In Spi'itual Diary no. 5997 Swedenborg states that the simple understand things which the learned do not.
     "I have written in the Explication of the Apocalypse some things which belong to the interior intelligence, as for instance respecting the celestial spiritual and natural man, and respecting goods and truths in their order. A certain married woman who lived in the inn at Bodarne. in the middle of Tihvede [heath] (midt pa Tihvede Bodarne), with whom I conversed, when I had finished was in simple faith from the heart. She understood everything clearly. But a learned man who was present did not understand-indeed he could not understand. So it was with many" (no. 5997). An interesting discussion of this passage by Dr. Alfred Acton and the Rev. Erik Sandstrom is to be found in NEW CHURCH LIFE 1953, pp. 551, 552. In this the inn at Ramundeboda cloister is described as lying on the way from Gothenburg to Stockholm, and as the place where, in former days, travelers stopped for refreshment before entering on the journey through the robber infested Tihvede tract.

119

     The text of Swedenborg's detailed account of the marriage in the spiritual world of the Empress of Russia to Count de la Gardie is almost entirely in Swedish. It is recorded in the Diary, no. 6027, and a translation is given. As a revised version of this translation, by Professor C. Th. Odhner has been published in the Concordance, vol. IV, pp. 547, 548, it is unnecessary to comment on it here, except to recommend this interesting relation to the reader's attention.
     Much of the text of no. 6035, which discusses the quality of the spiritual state relatively to the natural state, is also in Swedish. Both this and the former are reproduced in Swedish in vol. V of the Diary in a footnote, the text being taken from that given by Klemming in Swedenborgs Drummar, pp. 65, 66.
     Number 6046 describes the lot of those who are in faith alone, and refers to a priest who was sent to visit them in the spiritual world, who reported that they dwelt in a place where there was not a shrub or a blade of grass, but only gravel. They were delighted to remain there because plants, shrubberies and the like, correspond to the intelligence of truth. which such spirits hold in aversion. The Swedish word which has been given as "Mona" could well be "Maria," and could refer to a parish in South Stockholm not far from Swedenborg's own house.
     Reference is made in no. 6073 to one who had diligently read the Word in his youth. When the angels said that "moral life apart from theological life does not purify one from evils" he assented, and then he was given a white neck-scarf because by the neck is signified the conjunction between things moral and things spiritual. The Swedish word halsduk, neck-scarf or necktie, is used.
     In describing the spiritual home of Queen Christina of Sweden, in no. 6087, Swedenborg says that it was quite elegant and splendidly furnished. He uses the word mobler which, derived from the French word "to furnish." is the regular Swedish word for furniture.
     In many parts of the Writings we are given the correspondences of the parts of the body to different kinds of spirits. Thus in no. 6109 we read of the correspondence of those who constitute the soles of the feet. It is there said that those who constitute the right sole, near the great toe, "make split sticks, and by their art cause them to shine indoors." The words in the original are spenta stickor; and the reference is to the common mode of illumination on Swedish farms until quite recent times. Slivers of resinous fir wood were fastened in an iron holder over the fireplace. Lighted, they burned slowly. giving sufficient light for indoor work such as spinning. The passage continues: "Those who constitute the middle of the sole make beautiful parchments, which they sell, out of which people make pretty little boxes (sma scattuler wackra).

120

Those who constitute the heel make tallow candles (taig lius)
     Among those acquaintances whom Swedenborg met in the spiritual world was Lars Benzelstjarna, his sister Hedwig's husband who lived in Starbo and superintended the smelting furnace there of which he and Swedenborg were the joint owners. Friction developed frequently. The last page of the Spiritual Diary contains a curious memorandum that obviously refers to Lars B. This was omitted from Im. Tafel's printed text, and also from R. L. Tafel's Documents. The text is given, however, in Klemming's Swedenborgs Drummar, p. 72. On the margin of the original there appears the letter "B," to which Klemming has prefixed, in brackets, the letter "E"-thus [E]B. However, internal evidence makes it obvious that the reference is to Lars Benzelstjarna (see The Swedenborg Epic, pp. 97-99). Klemming also makes a curious transposition, printing the opening paragraph as the last of the text, instead of the first, as it should be.
     Our translation below follows the correct order. Spoke with the smelter [?] (stoken) of Fahlfors to take me to the side of the lake to do away with me, but in vain. 2. With Daniel about such a thing, but in vain. 3. With another in Starbo village to get me into the woods. Sought me there, but it is not tolerated in the sight of the people. 4. Had it in his mind and will to stick a knife into the breast. 5. Dressed himself up in servant's clothes, looked for me himself outside. 6. Spoke with the man who had been sent down to take my life. 7. She put spiders in the meat, whereupon I gave up gall. B [Lars. Benzelstjarna] incited Nordencrantz, proved by letters to Lord-Lieutenant Carl Selin [?]. Incited Brita Behm, admitted by her and acknowledged-it was shown how he wished to talk with guardsman Stierncrona, who did not agree thus to kill me.
     "-something formerly about Reutercrona, whose sphere was known to me, as one who also wanted very badly to kill me-convinced by certain proofs that he dealt unjustly in the settlement of estates (deblt mellan i sterbhus), and did wrong according to friendship and bribes without conscience.
     "[?] - with someone about that maiden (mosa?) whom he ruined, whom he sold, took for his own, thought up [?]-the former time he wanted to have me run down on the ice, arranged it.
     "-harbored deadly thoughts as long as he held to [the thought] that I had half of Starbo.
     "-convinced that he wanted to set up (or incite) Brita Behm to begin a [legal] process about Axmar.
     "-The hatred that he had was shown by a viper soup which was given me during sleep. It was very black.
     "-afterwards he [appeared] with a sharp-edged sword by his side."

121

MAN'S RULING LOVE 1957

MAN'S RULING LOVE Rev. FREDERICK L. SCHNARR 1957

     Every man, from creation or birth, is constituted of three universal loves: love of the neighbor, love of the world, and love of self (CL 269). Each of these loves is given to man by the Lord as an element necessary in the creation of the human quality, and therefore also as an element necessary for the fulfillment of His Divine purpose in creation. Without love of the neighbor, that is, without the desire to associate and communicate with other human beings there could be no love of God, no conjugial love, no love of children, no love of country; indeed no love of anything that involves the relationship of human qualities. Without love of the world, that is, without the desire to use and enjoy the things which the world affords, there would be no sense of beauty or harmony; there would be none of the various pleasures of the senses; there would be no desire to advance in science, industry and art, and no ambition to work. And without the love of self, that is, without the desire to provide and protect that which pertains to life, the human race would perish; for there would be no desire to live, no regard for honor or reputation or dignity, no urge to prosper or to advance one's self in the occupations of life. These are the reasons the Lord gives man these three loves from birth.
     Before the fall of man these loves were in the order in which God had created them. Love of the neighbor, which embraces love to the Lord and love of the things of heaven, was the ruling and directing love. Love of the world and love of self were not only subservient to it but also reflected the very order of heaven, for the love of the neighbor was within them as their internal. Thus ordered, they acted for the purpose which God intended, that man should be perfected in the knowledge and love of what is good and true.
     As man fell, however, this order was inverted. The love of self, which before had been the ultimate subservient love, now became the ruler and master, entering as the internal into the other loves. Not being ruled by the love of the neighbor, and the desire to perform uses which that love bears, the love of self was perverted into a desire to dominate and rule the neighbor apart from use, and solely for the satisfaction of self. It turned from dependence on the Lord to dependence on self, and its purposes became entirely opposed to those of the Lord. To establish itself it necessarily perverted the love of the world, and used the love of the neighbor only in so far as that love aided in the achievement of its own ends.

122

Gradually, generation by generation, the love of self became the source and storehouse of all evil lusts and desires. These disorderly lusts and desires, as tendencies, are the heredity of all men born into the world since the fall of mankind; and therefore Divine revelation teaches that everyone's ruling love at birth is a love of evil (DP 83).
     Now this teaching, when first examined, seems unjust. Why should one man suffer for any other man's evils? Why should the Lord permit man to be born with a ruling love of evil? Why does He not re-establish the order of loves into which He created man in the beginning?
     The answers to these questions lie in the very nature of the human character and its God given qualities or abilities. For man is the only creature created by God to feel the Divine life as his own, and, feeling it as his own, to do with as he chooses. He is the only creature with the capacity to think and will, and by so doing form his own spiritual destiny. He alone has liberty and rationality. He alone is immortal. He alone can step out of the order of life into which he was created by defying the laws of God. This is how God created him, willing that he should live in the eternal peace and happiness of heaven. If God could bring man back into the order of His Divine will, without destroying those qualities and capacities which make the human nature, He would do so; but He cannot miraculously do this and still preserve the human He created. So the Lord allows man to pervert his nature, and to pass the perversion on from one age to another. He permits that man shall be born with a ruling love of evil, and apparently allows one man to suffer for the evils of another.
     Yet although the Lord allows man to carry on this perversion of His Divine order for the sake of the end, which is the preservation of the human, He does everything in His power to provide the means whereby man may come back into the order which is willed for him. Through remains, that is, through the implanting of delights of what is good and true, the Lord provides a counterbalance to the influence of man's evil heredity. This provides a state of equilibrium between the forces of good and evil and makes possible freedom of choice. Besides this, the Lord gives man, by means of Divine revelation, truths concerning His Divine end in creation. He reveals to man the nature of the God who created him, and the purpose that God had in forming His creation. He explains the nature of man himself, and tells him how to live a life in accordance with the Divine will. He shows man the rewards of His heavenly kingdom, the eternal joy and happiness that are His gifts to those who are regenerated. He promises to help, if man so desires, to be with him and protect him, and to replace his ruling love of evil and falsity with a ruling love of good and truth. What greater expression of God's love and care could there be than that which expresses itself in His effort to reveal Himself to us so that we might be saved?

123

To this end did He permit Himself to be scourged and mocked, and finally crucified. And to this end did He come again, to manifest Himself plainly to the rational degree of the mind.
     While man is born with a ruling love of evil from his heredity, he is not held accountable for that ruling love as such, for he receives it in ignorance and not in freedom. The things which determine the nature of the love that is to rule man to eternity are those which he chooses in freedom after he has reached adult age; that is, after the rational mind has been opened and he has begun to think for himself. At that time, and as long as he lives in the world, he either confirms the evil inclinations and desires of his hereditary will or confirms the truth seen in his rational mind, and then compels himself to follow its dictates. And as he chooses, so does his ruling love develop into the image of heaven or of hell.
     We would note that in the formation of man's loves, especially of his ruling love, the conflict is not actually between good and evil but rather between truth and evil. For the will, which is the home of man's loves, is entirely corrupted through heredity; ruled by the love of evil and inclined to evils of all kinds. No conflict can take place in it, for there is no good in it to strive with the evil. The understanding, however, which is the abode of man's thoughts, is nothing at birth; there is no knowledge from which to think. Only as knowledges are gradually acquired and ordered does thought commence. Now, from the very manner in which the Lord created the understanding it has a desire or affection to know the truth, and to acknowledge it as such, regardless of the nature or desires of the will. This is what makes man's salvation possible; for when the understanding sees and acknowledges a truth, that truth immediately comes into conflict with the evil desires of the will. The understanding is opposed to the will, and man's choice lies in deciding which shall rule. If the will rules, he confirms his perverted hereditary loves; if the understanding rules, he fights them compels the will to follow the leadership of the understanding, and thus makes possible the implantation of good loves in his mind by the Lord.
     The love of good from the loves of the Lord and the neighbor, and the love of evil from the loves of self and the world, are the two great ruling loves. All other loves that man has, whatever they may be, fall under one or the other of these two great loves. The heavens are organized under the one, and the hells under the other; the degrees in each, with their many varied societies, depend on the degrees of these loves. Man's ruling love is his very life; it is his purpose in living and the source of all his delight and happiness. It is that which directs and qualifies the nature of all his other loves.

124

If his ruling love is evil, all his other loves are evil, for they are controlled by it. The love of self is the master and the love of the world is its servant, the tool for achieving its ends. Anger, hate, revenge, envy, robbery, cruelty, murder, and the many various perversions of conjugial love, are all forms of that love. But if his ruling love is good, all his other loves are good, for they are controlled by it. Love to the Lord is the master, and love toward the neighbor is the means by which it is expressed. Justice, judgment, mercy, kindness, thoughtfulness, charity, the love of children and conjugial love, are the forms of that love. That which a man comes to love above all else cannot but be present as the end or purpose in all that he does and in all that he thinks and desires; and this is why, once a man has formed his ruling love, he does not wish to change it to all eternity.
     Our responsibility while we are here on earth is to form a ruling love. That, indeed, is why the natural world exists, with its fixed laws of space and time. And let it be clear that every man who is able to think rationally is responsible for the love formed, regardless of the influences of heredity and environment. For, as has been said, the Lord provides every man with a state of equilibrium between the forces of good and evil, giving to every man a freedom of choice.
     The formation of a ruling love is an elaborate and complicated process that requires the confirmation or changing of countless states. The human mind cannot possibly grasp the intricate nature of its structure. But we can see its general states, and we can understand our responsibility for its development. Every decision we make and every action we perform contributes in some way to the growth of our ruling love. We know that the loves of our will are evil at birth; we know that they cannot be changed unless the understanding shuns them as sins against God, and compels the will to follow the life that truth ordains; and we know that the Lord will then implant for us the loves of heaven in their place.
     In the process of reformation our loves will alternate many times. In the temptations which arise in the mind when truth in the understanding meets evil in the will we will waver and fall many times. In examining ourselves we will sometimes despair of the Lord ever being able to build heavenly loves within us. The road will seem too long, too fraught with strife and conflict. Yet the road of struggle and temptation is the only one; and let us remember that we do not walk that narrow road alone. The Lord is ever present with us, working in every possible way to help us and to lead us to His heavenly kingdom. If only we seek His aid by using His truth to fight against one of our evil loves, He then has the means to fight for us and to conquer the hosts of evil loves that we cannot possibly meet alone. This is the Divine promise that He makes to us in His Word.

125

FUNCTIONS OF THE SPECIFIC NEW CHURCH 1957

FUNCTIONS OF THE SPECIFIC NEW CHURCH G. A. DE C. DE MOUBRAY 1957

     (The second of two articles.)

     In our first article we considered the grounds for believing that the functions of the New Church are to be profoundly influenced by its celestial character. We then considered a three-way relationship, set up by those of the specific church reading and studying the Word, whereby they receive love and wisdom from the angels, the angels themselves receive wisdom, and an influx goes out to the church universal.
     We have begun to understand how it is that those outside the specific church "live from the union of the Lord and heaven with the church by means of the Word" (SS 105; TCR 268); but we do not yet know how, "by means of the Word in the church . . . life is given to the rest from the Lord through heaven" (Verbo 40). How is the conjunction of the church with heaven to have the result that those outside the church receive life through heaven? The answer is that the members of the specific church are already in heaven. `Those who are in the good of love and charity are, as to their internal man, in heaven; and they are there, as to their internal man, in an angelic society which is in like good" (HD 9). "The internal spiritual man, regarded in himself, is an angel of heaven; and even while living in the body is in association with angels, although he is not aware of it" (HD 40).
     We must consider this in connection with Apocalypse Explained 351: 2: "All in the whole earth . . . who constitute the universal church, live from the church where the Word is; for thence the Lord flows in with love and with light, and vivifies and enlightens all who are in any spiritual affection of truth, wherever they are." [Italics added.] So it is from or through the internals of the men of the specific church in heaven, where they have been vivified by their consociation with the angelic society in which they are, that the Lord radiates His love and light into the souls of the members of the universal church. We should look upon each joint society of human internals and angels as a center of radiation, within which there is an intense activity of mutual stimulation: for while those human internals have the internal sense of the Word and the interior intellectual ideas in correspondence with the natural ideas of their thought implanted in them, the angels serving as media (AC 5398: 3), the wisdom of the angels is dependent on the interior intellectual ideas of the human internals.

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So there is, as it were, a mutual fertilization, each depending on the other.
     However, the enlightenment which the internals of men can attain is dependent on the extent of the knowledges of spiritual matters which they possess in their natural or external minds. This seems to be the teaching of the following passages. "The internal man is of itself in the internal sense of the Word, because it is a heaven in the least form. Consequently, when it is open, it is with the angels in heaven, and is therefore in like perception with them. This can be seen also from the fact that the interior intellectual ideas of men are not such as his natural ideas, to which nevertheless they correspond. But of the nature of these ideas man is not aware as long as he lives in the body; but he comes into them spontaneously when he comes into the other life, because they are implanted in him, and by means of them he is forthwith in fellowship with the angels. From this it is evident that the man whose internal is open is in the internal sense of the Word, although he is not aware of it. From this he has enlightenment when he reads the Word, but according to the light that he can have by means of the knowledges that he has" (AC 10,400: 3, 4). [Italics added.] "The Lord teaches everyone by means of the Word. Moreover, He teaches from the knowledges which a man already possesses, and does not directly impart new knowledge" (TCR 208).
     The converse teaching, on the dependence of angelic wisdom on human knowledge and wisdom, can be extracted from Spiritual Diary nos. 5607-5617. The thought of angels falls ultimately into the plane of man s natural thought. Peculiar as it may seem, the quality of man's natural thought acts as a limit to the quality which the wisdom of angels can attain. "In other words, as are the ultimates, so are the primaries" (SD 5608).
     This is fully confirmed by Apocalypse Explained 1085: 2, quoted in the first part of this article: "For the heavens subsist upon the human race as a house upon its foundation; hence the wisdom of the angels of heaven similarly subsists upon the knowledge, intelligence and wisdom of men from the literal sense of the Word." [Italics added.]
     Nevertheless, the angels pay no attention to the sense of the letter of the Word, "nor to those things which are in the thought of a man when he reads it, but to the interiors of the Word from the man" (SD 5608). [Italics added.] This is obscure, but I take it to mean that their attention is directed, not to the thoughts in man's external, but to those developed in his internal, which, however, are in correspondence with the former.

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This would seem to be the implication in the phrase already quoted from Spiritual Diary 5610: "When [they turn] to those things which are in my thought from heavenly doctrine [i.e. which are developed in the thought of my internal from thoughts of heavenly doctrine in my external) they are in greater clearness than in any other case." The "other case" must include the reading of the Old and New Testaments. There would seem to be an implication of particular potency in reading and meditating upon the Writings, and, in Swedenborg's case possibly, in the writing of them.
     The angels are, of course, not limited by the limitations of any one man. They turn their thoughts this way and that. "Angels have told me that they are sometimes in great wisdom, sometimes in less, sometimes in clearness sometimes in obscurity; and that their thoughts are variously directed to the quarters, now this, now that, and that they are in greater clearness or obscurity according to the direction" (SD 5610). There is more on this subject in Spiritual Diary 5617. The implication seems to be that the greater the wisdom in the New Church, both in quality and quantity, the greater the wisdom of the angels can be. However strange such a phenomenon may be, the reason undoubtedly is that the Lord has provided that the angelic heaven and the human race should provide mutual services to each other (LJ 9: 3), and that our part in this interdependence is providing a basis for the wisdom of the angels.

     The function which the specific church exercises toward the universal church is not limited to this subtle influx. We have to proclaim the new gospel by the spoken and the written word. However, we know that it will have no effect except on those who are ready to receive it, and in the measure that they are ready to receive it. This readiness to receive is no doubt very largely a result of the subtle influx we have been discussing, and can be expected to increase as our conjunction with the Lord through heaven becomes deeper and ampler. Moreover, we can have little doubt that the readiness to receive, and the effectiveness of what we preach, will depend on our emphasizing, not the doctrine of faith, but the doctrine of life. We have already seen that the doctrine of the New Church is symbolized by the male child brought forth by the woman encompassed by the sun, and of this doctrine the Writings say: "The genuine doctrine of the church is the doctrine of good, that is, the doctrine of life, which is that of love to the Lord and of charity toward the neighbor; still, it is the doctrine of truth, for doctrine teaches life, love and charity, and as far as it teaches these it is truth" (AE 724).
     It is in relation to this, perhaps-the preaching of our doctrine-that we are to understand the opening phrase of the Prologue to the Canons of the New Church, in the Nordenskiold version:

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"At this day nothing but the self-evidencing reason of love will restore the church." On the other hand, it may mean that love shown in our lives will be what will attract others to the church and build the church up internally. In this connection the following passage ought to be continually before our eves: "'Let them who are in Judaea flee to the mountains' signifies that they who are of the church must not look anywhere else than to the Lord, thus to love to Him and to charity toward the neighbor" (AC 3652).
     It would be well at this point to review the reasons for proclaiming the new gospel; in other words, to review the functions to be exercised thereby. The overriding function is derived from Arcana Coelestia nos. 1735 and 1799-to adapt ourselves to the Lord's desire to draw all men as near as possible to Himself. As we have seen, this end is to be attained chiefly by our fitting ourselves to act as media of conjunction by subtle means between heaven and the universal church. But this is far from excluding the more obvious means of preaching and teaching, writing and conversation, and even that of providing an example in our lives. These methods will be particularly useful within the specific church. As far as our propaganda is successful outside the specific church, we add to the number of those who will be able to act as media of conjunction. But all other things being equal, by teaching those of the universal church the way of regeneration we benefit them also by making it easier for them to advance far along the path of regeneration, and by saving them from much suffering in the way of temptation.
     Consider this passage: "The subject treated of here [in contrast to those who are in falsity from the delight of the loves of self and the world] is those with whom the spiritual or internal man is not so closed, because they are in some spiritual affection for truth, and yet they suffer themselves to be seduced by those who are in the doctrine of falsities. . . Because these receive falsities into the memory of their natural man, with which the internal spiritual man cannot agree . . . a combat arises between the spiritual and the natural man. This combat is temptation" (AE 164). Divine Love and Wisdom 253 should also be consulted. This number speaks of those in whom the spiritual degree is not opened, but still is not closed.
     The question arises whether it is the Lord's will that the kingdom of God should descend on earth by means of preaching. We are clearly told that this descent of the kingdom of God is indeed part of the Lord's scheme for the church. Here is what would happen if we would all, in our Christian churches, make love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor the principal things of faith. Doctrinal things would then be only varieties of opinion concerning the mysteries of faith, which truly Christian men would leave to everyone to hold in accordance with his conscience, and would say in their hearts that a man is truly a Christian when he lives as a Christian, that is, as the Lord teaches.

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Thus from all the Christian churches there would be one church; and all the dissentions that come forth from the doctrine alone would vanish; indeed all hatreds of one against another would be dissipated in a moment, and the Lord's kingdom would come upon earth" (AC 1799: 4). [Italics added.]
     But could the teaching of New Church doctrine result in a universal and stable state of peace? It is doubtful, because of the non-receptivity of evil men. In the last resort, the lust for power can be curbed only by the use of force. One gathers that this is what happens in the hells. It is submitted that it is not part of the function of the New Church to bring the Lord's kingdom on earth in the sense of an unruffled peace.

     We have been treating so far of the functions of the New Church as exercised by those still living in the world. But its functions do not cease with life in this world. The members of the church will have functions when they pass into the next world, which will arise from the fact that those who have acquired wisdom in this life have wisdom in the next life of a quality different from that of those who receive their wisdom only in the spiritual world.
     It is a basic fact that our position as to the height of the society we enter in the next life is governed, not by our wisdom or lack of it in this life, but by our love of the Lord and the neighbor. It is another basic fact that all the members of any given angelic society have approximately the same wisdom. But those who have been wise in this life radiate wisdom, and the others are recipients. These facts resolve some apparent contradictions in the Writings.
     In the Arcana Coelestia, in a long series of articles on the subject of influx, we read: "The communications in the other life are of such a nature that in a society containing similar spirits each one believes that to be his own which is another's. And therefore when the good come into a heavenly society they at once enter into all the intelligence and wisdom of the society, insomuch that they know no otherwise than that these are in themselves" (no. 6193). [Italics added.] There is a not yet quite resolved contradiction between this and the following. After discussing the correspondence of "and lifted up his sons and his women upon camels," the Arcana continues: "For such is the correspondence of these things, and such is angelic thought: and, wonderful to say, such is the thought of the internal spiritual man while living in the body, although the external man is entirely unaware of it. For the same reason, when a man who has been regenerated dies, he comes into the like thought, and can think and speak with angels, and this without instruction; which would be quite impossible unless he had had such interior thought" (no. 4104: 2).

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[Italics added.] The reconciliation, or the partial reconciliation, is in Spiritual Diary, no. 5188: "It should be known that he who has been in wisdom in the world is in wisdom in the other life, which is appropriated by him; and they who have not been in wisdom in the world, but yet in the good of life, are able to receive wisdom through the former; but still it is not appropriated by them. When they recede from those by whom wisdom is appropriated they are simple as before." [Italics added.] The same general idea, less that of appropriation and non-appropriation, is repeated in De Verbo 41, Sacred Scripture 107, and True Christian Religion 269.
     The appropriation of interior wisdom is described in a pretty simile in De Verbo 6: "One Divine truth naturally perceived and loved is like a crystal or porcelain vessel which is afterwards filled with wine, and with such a wine as was the quality of the truth, and as it were of such a taste as was their affection for truth."
     Now we come to a startling statement As we have already seen, knowledge by human internals of the internal sense of the Word is dependent on the possession of certain spiritual knowledges (AC 10,400: 4). Whence was that knowledge to come before the revelations of the Second Advent? And, what amounts to the same, Whence was the wisdom of the angels? The answer shall be given in these words: "All the wisdom of the angels is given by means of the Word, since, in its internal and inmost sense, it is the Divine wisdom, which is communicated to angels through the Word when this is read by men, and when thought is exercised from it. But, still, it is necessary to know that wisdom is given to them mediately through angels from the Most Ancient and Ancient Churches, who were in the knowledge and perception of representatives and correspondences. They were of such a description, when in the world, that they knew the internal arcana of the church, and correspondences. . . . For this reason angels from the Most Ancient Churches are scattered throughout the heavens, in order that the others may enjoy wisdom" (SD 5187). [Italics added.]
     The reader will no doubt agree that this is indeed startling. It runs counter to a widespread intuition that once one attains angelhood one is more or less perfect. In the other life the many are dependent for wisdom on the few. But the few are prepared to give all they possess. In order to remove a difficulty which may strike many readers of the Writings we would draw attention to the fact that the word "Churches" in the last sentence of the quotation is in the plural; so that the angels of the Most Ancient Churches scattered throughout the heavens were presumably derived chiefly from offshoots of the original Most Ancient Church in the course of its degeneration.

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However that may be, it seems clear that men of the specific New Church on becoming angels, whatever their specific functions may be, will be used for the general function, throughout the heavens derived from our earth, of radiating the wisdom enshrined in the internal arcana and correspondences disclosed in the Writings.
     But will their functions be limited to the heavens derived from this earth? We argue that it is necessary for the cosmic purposes of the Lord that there should be extensive development of the higher heavens derived from this earth.
     Consider these facts. This earth is unique in three respects: It has a written Word; the Lord came on it in the flesh; and He has made His second advent to the men of this earth. Its use to the Gorand Man must result generally from these facts.
     Firstly, the reading of the Word on this earth affects angels from all other earths. "Such things [the Lord, His kingdom in the heavens and on earth, and love and faith from Him and to Him] are presented to the angels in heaven, from whatsoever earth they come, when the Word of our earth is read and preached" (AC 9357). Spiritual Diary, no. 4663, is relevant either to this or to what follows. Moreover, there is a communication of New Church doctrine by spirits and angels of our earth to the spirits and angels of all the other earths, as we can see from these numbers. "Concerning the New Church. Hence it was evident that the heavenly doctrine should at least be propagated from those nations to spirits who are from various regions of this earth, and then to spirits of other earths" (SD 4780). "Concerning Our Earth-Why the Lord was Born Here. When the heavenly doctrine concerning the Lord is known on one earth, the rest are thus able to know it, when they become spirits and angels" (SD 4781).
     Now, we occasionally get hints of a close parallelism between the two advents; and we argue from this, but with no direct support from the Writings that we are aware of, that the Second Advent must have had a cosmic effect, even as had the First Advent. That must have been the manifestation of the Lord to the whole heaven through our Word, as He became manifested to us through the Word (Revelation 19: 11; AR 820, 821). And we suggest that the twelve disciples-In what is told of them in True Christian Religion, nos. 4, 108, 791-were the specific channel for this manifestation; and, a further guess, based partly on the two numbers from the Diary quoted above, that they were preaching this gospel in terms of the Heavenly Doctrine as set forth in the Writings; which, it would follow, is, like the Old and New Testaments a revelation not only for this earth but for the universe.

132

     There can be no doubt that angels coming from some of the other earths, perhaps even from many other earths, have deeper perceptions than are possible for angels coming from our earth. Nevertheless, angels from our earth must have a cast of thought of unique value in connection with the Old and New Testaments, and even more so in connection with the Writings. We have seen that spiritual and celestial thought-according to the degree in which our internal is opened-are trained during our lifetime on earth by the exercise of our natural thought on spiritual subjects, owing to the fact that spiritual thought then occurs in our internal in correspondence with our natural thought. As we are unique in possessing the art of writing-Swedenborg was still in some doubt about this when he wrote Spiritual Diary 4663-those of us who are intellectual are unique in having undergone the training of our intellectual powers which is attainable by the close and connected study of written documents. And so, quite apart from the substance of our wisdom, we alone can convey it to others in a philosophical and scholarly manner; and this would still apply if the function of individuals among us was to convey internal arcana of the church, not didactically, but intuitively. And indeed it is clear that there is communication of wisdom in the other life in two very different ways. Spiritual Diary 4780 and 4781 clearly imply teaching in some way; whereas Diary 5187 to 5189 and 5194, De Verbo 41, Sacred Scripture 107, and True Christian Religion 269 as clearly imply purely intuitive communication.
     The essential point would seem to be that, if the Writings surpass all other revelations and, although given only on our earth, are intended to have a cosmic reach; if, further, implanted wisdom, as it were radio-active wisdom, is dependent on wisdom acquired in this life; and if, yet further, the depth of wisdom to which one can attain depends on one's state of regeneration; then it is of the utmost importance that we should fit ourselves for the sublime tasks that lie ahead of us.
     While we are still in this world the wisdom of the angels, although transcendent, is dependent on ours. When we shall have none, not to our rest but to our center of eternal activity, and our own wisdom has become transcendent to what it now is, all the heavens will depend on us for much of their wisdom in terms of the Old and New Testaments; and so, it would seem, for all of their wisdom in terms of the Divine revelation of the Second Advent. That is, of course, if we rise to what the Lord seems to ask of us.

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NEW CHURCH MAN'S SERVICE IN THE WORLD 1957

NEW CHURCH MAN'S SERVICE IN THE WORLD ROY H. GRIFFITH 1957

     (Delivered at the Twenty-first General Assembly Banquet, London, England, July 28, 1956.)

     It is fitting that after five days spent on the mountaintops engaged in intellectual exercise and in deriving inspiration we should pause for a few minutes to consider our relation with the outside world, to which most of us will be returning in a few days.
     We read: "A man is in the world to the intent that he may be initiated by exercises there into heavenly things" (AC 5006). There are two aspects to this subject: the impact of the New Church man on the world, and the consequent effects on the man himself. Nowhere else is there to be found such a practical philosophy of life as can be found in the doctrines of the New Church. It explains the purposes of creation, the proper use of material things, the growth of the mind, and the spiritual food on which it lives; it lays down rules for conduct in our business life, and introduces us to orderly relationships between men and women. The New Church itself is a universal church, overriding national aspirations; and its doctrines are applicable to all races and conditions of men.
     As far as human history can show, there has been, since the golden age, much wrong that could be put right; and in this modern age only the doctrines of the New Church could bring about those agreeable material conditions and that contentment of mind which the politicians ascribe so volubly and so hopelessly to the fulfillment of political aims.
     In our common experience, from whichever country we come, we know that in politics expediency takes the place of principle; in business material wealth is sought at the expense of the other man-the neighbor; in education there is a general, though happily not a universal tendency, to give instruction in technical things to the exclusion of the proper development of the mind. In short, squalor, selfishness, ignorance and stupidity are rife in the world.
     Where, then, does the New Church man come in, mentally secure and serene amidst the chaos and uncertainties of the world around him? We know that "man is born merely for the purpose of being of service to the society of which he is a member, and to his neighbor during his life here" (AC 1103); yet I fear that there is a tendency for members of New Church societies to become, shall I say, introverted-to live in the ivory towers of their minds, away from the world.

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     It is essential for the life of the church and the salvation of souls that there should be regular reading of the Word and study of the doctrines of the church. But do these sometimes degenerate into sterile arguments and discussion of the minutiae and relatively unimportant points of doctrine?
     We know from the doctrines that "unless knowledges are learned for the sake of a life of uses they are of no moment, because of no use.
From scientifics and knowledges alone, without a life of use, a rational is formed . . . like a wild ass, morose, contentious, having a parched and dry life" (AC 1964). In the light of this, ought we not sometimes to direct our minds to the consideration of how best to give to the world that practical service which only a New Church man can give?
     The doctrines, in general, give only principles to be observed; though sometimes they do give unequivocal instruction, as, for example, about the punishment to be meted out to murderers (AC 9349). The regenerating man "loves the things of the world like others, but for the sake of the end, that by means of the world, its wealth, possessions and honors, he may be in the way of practicing good, truth, justice and equity" (AC 5159). There is in this and other excerpts from the Writings a clear indication that one ought to lead a vigorous, active and useful life in the world. We read: "The real worship of the Lord consists in performing uses and uses during man's life in the world consist in everyone discharging aright his function in his respective station, thus in serving his country, societies and his neighbor from the heart, and in acting with sincerity with his associates and in performing uses prudently according to the character of each. Frequenting churches, hearing sermons and praying, are also necessary, but without these uses they avail nothing for they are not of the life, but teach what the quality of the life should be" (AC 7037).
     Service to the neighbor clearly involves much more than performing one's job sincerely and justly: the New Church man suitably talented should be prepared to equip himself to take part in public life; should support and go along with others who, perhaps from other motives, are prepared to work for a just, rational and enlightened society.
     There is another aspect on which I would like to touch. We know that "the life of charity consists in performing uses" (AC 8253). Uses are not necessarily agreeable in themselves. As the organized church grows, so must her people be prepared increasingly to shoulder the difficult and the unpleasant burdens of community life. Education must prepare men and women to tackle these sometimes disagreeable services which are essential for the safety and the orderly conduct of the communities in which they live.

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I have in mind engaging in military service, police work, and other tasks which most of us expect others to perform for our protection.
So far I have spoken of the New Church man's duty to the world and the good he should be able to contribute to an unsettled community. Let us consider how the life of use affects the man himself. We read: "Man was created for use because use is the containant of good and truth and from the marriage of these is creation and conjugial love" (CL 249). The life that leads to heaven is a life in the world, acting sincerely and justly in every duty and occupation from a heavenly motive, that is, in accordance with Divine laws (HH 535). We are told, for our comfort, that such a life is not difficult.
If encouragement were needed, it is to be found in two passages from the Writings, clear for everyone to understand. "In the degree that a man is in the love of use, he is in the Lord, and in that degree also he loves Him and loves the neighbor, and in that degree he is a man" (Love, xiii). "Every man must provide proper food for his mind, that is, such things as pertain to intelligence and judgment; again with the end in view that he may thereby be in a position to serve his fellow citizen, the society of which he is a part, his country, the church, and thus the Lord. He who does this provides for his welfare to eternity" (TCR 406).
ILLUSTRATIONS OF INFLUX 1957

ILLUSTRATIONS OF INFLUX 1957

"The man who knows not what the spiritual is, but only the natural, is capable of thinking that such representations and derivative correspondences are impossible, for he might say to himself, How can the spiritual act upon the material? But if he will reflect upon the things taking place in himself every moment, he may be able to gain some idea of these matters; namely, how the will can act upon the muscles of the body, and effect real actions; also how thought can act upon the organs of speech, moving the lungs, trachea, throat, tongue and lips, and thus produce speech: and also how the affections can act upon the face and there present images of themselves, so that another often knows thereby what is being thought and felt. These examples may give some idea of what representations and correspondences are" (AC 4044).

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NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1957

     In the remaining chapters of Joshua (16-24) the division of the land is completed, the tabernacle is erected at Shiloh, the cities of refuge are appointed and the Levitical cities set apart, and God gives rest to Israel. Tragedy is averted when the two and a half tribes, sent home with a blessing, explain that the altar raised by Jordan is for a testimony, not for worship. Joshua calls the tribes together, exhorts them to obedience, recalls their history under the Lord's leading, dies, and is buried. The altar by the Jordan stands spiritually as a reminder that charity must unite the internal and the external of the church.
     The book of Judges, which is taken up this month, describes a crucial stage intermediate between that of Moses, through whom the Law was given, and that of the kings who organized the monarchy. It was not a period of settled government, and the key is the oft-repeated phrase: "In those days there was no king in Israel, every man did that which was right in his own eyes." The judges, thirteen in number, were not administrators of law and justice but religious and military leaders raised Up by the Lord to perform special functions. Some of them later returned to private life, and the office never became hereditary.
     Throughout this period we can trace a well defined recurring cycle. Faithful during the life of the elders who had known Joshua, Israel later became content with partial conquest and tolerated the idolatries of the land. The people would do evil by turning to one of these idolatries, and be punished by oppression by a nation representing that idolatry. When repentance had been done, the Lord raised up a judge to deliver the people and bring them back to the worship of the Lord. There were seven such oppressions, ranging in duration from seven to forty years: each being followed by a period of freedom, at the end of which Israel again lapsed into idolatry. What is described would seem to be an early state of regeneration in which man is delivered from specific evils by particular truths, but as yet has in his mind no settled government of Divine truth to protect him against all his spiritual enemies.

     Most of the Divine Love and Wisdom readings are from the fifth part of the work, which deals with the spiritual creation of the human mind; showing how man is provided from creation with will and understanding, and how these two faculties can be brought into conjunction.

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RETURN OF ARIUS 1957

RETURN OF ARIUS Editor 1957

NEW CHURCH LIFE
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Published Monthly By

THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
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     It would be foolish to deny that there is within the Christian churches a recession from certain falsities which prevailed at the time of the Last Judgment. Before the New Church man draws hasty conclusions, however, he will want to know what is being substituted for these dogmas. The doctrine of the Trinity furnishes a case in point. Some theologians today reject the tripersonal interpretation of the creeds. They explain that by the word "person" the creed-makers did not mean an individual but an aspect, and insist that the creeds do not teach three persons but three aspects of one God. It is conceded that some Christians have supposed them to teach that there are three persons in the Godhead, as we generally understand that concept, but it is said that these were not orthodox in their thinking.
     If this be true we may wonder why, for centuries, the Christian Church has implored the first aspect to send the third for the sake of the second! But the real point is that the one God whose aspects the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are said to be is not the Lord Jesus Christ. In thus asserting that God is one, not three, theology is retreating from the idea of the Lord's Divinity, not approaching nearer to it; for according to it, the Lord is simply the man who discovered God and reveals Him to us. Thus the idea of the Lord as being less than God, which the creeds were formed to repudiate when it was advanced by Anus, is returning as the traditional interpretation of the creeds is being rejected. And in this we may see, perhaps, one fulfillment of the teaching of the Writings that Anus will prevail secretly to the end.

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Church News 1957

Church News Various 1957

     COLCHESTER, ENGLAND

     The Colchester Society has not been mentioned in the news columns of NEW CHURCH LIFE for some time. However, it is still "on the map."
     Sunday services, doctrinal classes and young people's classes have been held regularly, as well as meetings of the Sons and Theta Alpha. There have also been socials and celebrations of Swedenborg's birthday, Easter, the Nineteenth of June, and Christmas, the last including some fine tableaux and a lively children's party.
     The day school is still going strong, in spite of rather sudden and disconcerting changes in the teaching staff. We had a larger number of New Church pupils than ever before-thirteen, plus four children of non-New Church parents. There are now thirty children of school and pre-school age in the Society, but two of them are too old for our school and fifteen are two young.
     Last year, 1956, brought us a record number of New Church visitors from abroad. They came for the General Assembly in London, but nearly all came to Colchester for at least a peep at England's oldest town. We were delighted to welcome two coach loads of these friends, who came to spend the Sunday before the Assembly with us. We hope that they, and many other friends, will visit us again.
     MURIEL GILL

     DENVER, COLORADO

     The Denver Circle has had a pleasant year, made so in part by many visitors from various parts of the country. It is impossible for us to remember each and every name, but we know that we will he forgiven for any omission. The Rev. Robert Junge's parents paid us a visit; Mr. Harold Pitcairn spent a Sunday with us; and we were very happy to renew our acquaintance with Mrs. William Schroeder, who was formerly a Denverite. Mrs. Mildred Scott spent several weeks with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. O. A. Bergstrom, as did Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Synnestvedt and their daughter Lorna. We also had as our guests Mr. and Mrs. Charles Norton of Adelaide, Australia.
     The Rev. Harold Cranch paid us a visit late last summer. While he was here we held a meeting at which he showed a film on the doctrines of the New Church. It proved to be most interesting, and one that we would all love to see again at some future time.
     Our Thanksgiving service was most enjoyable. There was a fine sermon, and the fruit offering from the children was donated to the Denver General Hospital in the name of our church.
     During the Christmas season we were entertained by the Rev. and Mrs. Robert Junge at their lovely home. The Christmas story was narrated by Mr. Junge and was illustrated by colorful slides. The group then sang carols, popped corn, and enjoyed delicious homemade cookies and eggnog. Our group was also entertained at dinner by' Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Synnestvedt at the Edeiweiss Restaurant on the Sunday before Christmas. It was a fine opportunity for all to visit with one another.
     We have had our share of illness, though nothing serious. Our sympathy is extended, however, to Robert Norton on the loss very' suddenly of his father. We have lost also one of our active members, Mr. Albin J. Bergstrom, who has moved to the East.
     We are holding service and Sunday school every Sunday morning at the Y. M. C. A., with tape-recorded services in the absence of Mr. Junge. On the second Friday of each month there is a doctrinal class at Mrs. Robert Norton's home, after which "coffee and" is served. The attendance has been excellent and the discussions are most interesting.
     MARION DICE

     HURSTVILLE, AUSTRALIA

     The Hurstville Society, having no pastor, has many ministers. It seems so because the sermons of many ministers are read to us.

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We are thankful for them, and thankful also that we have a pleasant church building in which to hold services and Sunday school.
     In September, our first spring month "down under," things begin to grow, and the lawn and shrubs in the church grounds would soon disappear under weeds if the members did not get busy with gardening tools. Working Bees are a must in the summer months. We are reminded also of the growing up of our children for in September the Sunday school prizes are given. Last year there was a social to mark the occasion.
     It was in September, too, that we were pleasantly entertained by the ladies of Theta Alpha. A delicious meal was served by them at the church, after which they introduced the subject for discussion, namely, "The Home." Truly there is "no place like home"; and this should apply especially to a New Church home, where the spiritual head of the house is the Lord and husband and wife are partners in the performance of uses.
     Australian representatives to the General Assembly in London, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Norton of Adelaide, returned to Australia last October. Many countries had been their stepping stones on the way to England. After the Assembly Mr. and Mrs. Norton flew to the United States and spent three and a half happy weeks there. On the way home they stopped off at Auckland, New Zealand, to see the New Church folk there. Mr. and Mrs. Norton showed us beautiful stilt pictures in color, scenes of many countries, and at the same time gave us a most interesting commentary.
     A Women's Guild brainwave, a barbecue, proved to be a great success. It was held near the tennis court, in a clearing among a stand of trees-a real country setting. There was fun galore - singing, shouting, playing, and, of course, cooking.
     December started right off on a Christmas note, for Mrs. Laurel Brettell's "Oranas"-a club for children of prehigh school age-gave a Christmas party. "Orana," by the way, is an aboriginal word meaning "welcome." On Thursday, December 13th there was a doctrinal class on "The True Meaning of Christmas," which was followed by a social supper at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Fred W. Fletcher. The children's Christmas tree and party on Saturday the 15th was followed by the tableaux, beautifully presented by Mrs. Morse and Mrs. Salisbury. Sermons the next day and on the following Sunday-"Preparation for the Advent," by the Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal, and "The Star of Bethlehem," by Bishop De Charms-kept our minds on the Advent and its significance. Then, on Christmas Day, there was a service for adults and children. The wonderful story of the Savior who was born a babe stirs us anew each Christmas; we sing the Christmas hymns with delight; and in the address we were given cause to reflect on the Second Advent, the coming of the Lord as the Spirit of truth.
     It was a pleasure to have with us for two weeks in January Mrs. Chris Homer of Lancefield, Victoria, and four of her six children. The Hurstville Society was in recess during January, but a special children's service was held on Sunday the 20th. With constant warm and sunny weather, many trips were made to the beaches, including a Society picnic at Cronulla, an ocean beach not many miles from Hurstville.
     NORMAN HELDON

     GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS

     Last summer was cool-and quieter than usual. As a result of vigorous campaigning by the Citizens' Action Committee, the Navy dutifully restricted flying during church hours. It had one last fling on July 15th which drove the visiting minister, the Rev. Fred Schnarr, back to the peace and quiet of his little church in the heart of Chicago. Some say that twenty-seven jets roared by during his sermon. Ever since, Sunday has again been a day of rest. There is hope that the jets will eventually be based somewhere out in the country. Plans for annexing the Manse have been dropped for the present.
     On Friday evenings during the summer we gathered to hear tape-recordings of the Assembly addresses. While Mr. Acton was away the Rev. Ormond Odhner assumed pastoral care of the Society, assisted by Mr. Schnarr and Candidate Daniel Heinrichs. Mr. Heinrichs also served as a counselor to the Boys Club on its camping trip to Wisconsin. The Society presented him with a check as a token of appreciation of all his work, and in wishing him happiness in his coming marriage.

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     Eleven babies and four adults have been baptized since last June. Three couples were married and departed to live in other societies. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Runion (Millicent Holmes) now live in Washington, D. C.; Mr. and Mrs. Dale Doering (Sonia Synnestvedt) are residents of Bryn Athyn; and Mr. and Mrs. Gene Ring (Ann Barry) rejoined the Glendale group after their marriage.
     Newcomers to the Immanuel Church are the Paul Healy family from New Jersey, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Asplundh from Bryn Athyn, the Hubert Junges from Princeton, Illinois, and the Robert Riefstahls from Chicago. The Robert Cole family moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas, and their daughter Sandy unknowingly took the chickenpox along as a present for her new schoolmates.
     The regular activities of the Society were resumed in September. School began with a record enrollment in the kindergarten of nineteen. The young people's class is being conducted by Mr. Acton this year; there have been no classes for the young married people as Mr. Odhner has been very busy with school work in the last stages of earning his master's degree at Garrett Biblical Institute. We have enjoyed sermons by the Right Rev. Willard D. Pendleton, and the Rev. Messrs. Harold C. Cranch, Victor J. Gladish, Robert S. Junge, and Frederick L. Schnarr. There is a large and active choir this year, under the direction of Mr. Conrad Iungerich. For the first time in years there are enough single men to fill the robes-and they sing, too.
     The Park Social Club had a picnic at Lake Synnestvedt in July; a carnival, which was nearly rained out, in August; a card party in October; and the annual New Year's Dance. Money raised by the carnival was used to improve five acres of church property on Park Lane, where an informal picnic was held during the Labor Day weekend.
     The PARK NEWS appears on schedule despite the fact that three of its four married editors have become mothers at nicely spaced intervals. The staff of organists did not do so well; a serious shortage of musicians resulted when two regular members produced daughters on the same day. These little girls, the daughters of the Neil Caldwells and the Warren Harers, were baptized at a lovely service on September 23rd. Except for our junior member, Miss Annette Burnham, each of the six organists has a minimum of three children. It is obvious who plays for all the children's services!
     As the pattern of our observance of Thanksgiving and Christmas was described in detail last year we shall not dwell on them here. There were no changes in our celebrations last year.
     January brought real winter weather, with an old fashioned snow storm or two and temperatures as low as 17 below. In the midst of all this came a visitor from sunny California, the Rev. Harold Cranch, who showed us the missionary film on which his staff has been working. Although he invited criticism of the project, all felt that this first attempt was a great accomplishment. Mr. Cranch and Mr. Acton then departed for the Annual Council Meetings in Bryn Athyn.
     GLORIA BARRY

     TORONTO, CANADA

     Under the auspices of Theta Alpha, a harvest party was given for the children of school age on Saturday afternoon, October 20th. A variety of games, played by, the gaily costumed children, was followed by a supper served by the hostesses.
     The young people entertained the Society at a Square Dance on Saturday, November 3rd. Mrs. Tucker once again called the squares for us, and all who attended had a good time. We were very pleased to welcome at this party the Kitchener pastor and his wife, the Rev. and Mrs. Geoffrey Childs, who were paying their first visit to our Society. The next morning we had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Childs preach an interesting sermon on "Human Freedom." Our pastor, the Rev. Martin Pryke, conducted the service and gave the talk to the children.
     A joint meeting of the Kitchener and Toronto Chapters of the Sons was held here on November 10th. The evening opened with a supper organized by Mr. Stanley Hill. The Toronto president, Mr. Leigh Bellinger, acted as host, and after welcoming the visitors from Kitchener introduced the speaker of the evening, Mr. John White, who gave a paper on "Society and Government."

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Afterwards most of the Sons moved on to the home of Mr. Bob Anderson, where an Open House was held.
     On November 13th the Carmel Church School children from Kitchener visited our day school. After attending the Royal Winter Fair they returned to the church for lunch and then visited the museum in the afternoon. These pleasant interchanges of visits between the two schools on various occasions have proved very successful and of great benefit to the children.
     The Ladies Circle held a bazaar on November 17th. It was very successful and netted $468.00 for the funds of the Circle.
     A Christmas party was held at the church on December 15th under the leadership of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Longstaff assisted by Mrs. Ray Orr, Miss G. G. Longstaff, and Mr. John Raymond. The party began with a Virginia Reel, the music being played by Mr. Hubert Raymond and Miss Frances Raymond. Mr. Jack McDonald read the story of a Christmas Day many years ago in the life and times of Mr. Pickwick and his friends; Mr. Joseph Pritchett sang a gay Swedish carol for us; Miss Edina Carswell honored us with a violin solo; and Mrs. Jorgen Hansen also gave us a violin solo; after which we enjoyed a duet played by these two ladies. Mrs. Ceri Pritchett was the accompanist. After another Virginia Reel, the showing of movies of other parts of Canada, and the singing of Christmas carols, we relaxed over refreshments and another pleasant social came to a close.
     The Christmas story, told in tableau form, was presented in the chapel on the Saturday evening preceding Christmas. The tableaux were each introduced by an appropriate reading from the Word and a simple explanation for the children. They were as follows: 1) Isaiah prophesying the Lord's birth before Ahaz; 2) Mary and Elisabeth; 3) The shepherds at night with their flocks, the fear of the shepherds, their joy after the heavenly host had given them the glad tidings; 4) The shepherds adoring the infant Lord in the stable; 5) The blessing of the infant Lord by Simeon in the temple. A quartet sang appropriate music during the showing of each scene. After the tableaux all the children assembled in the church hall and were presented with gifts from the Ladies Circle. At the same time Theta Alpha presented a gift to the school.
     During the Christmas Day service, Mr. and Mrs. Ivan Crampton (Stephanie Starkey) brought forward their infant son to be baptized into the Lord's New Church. Mr. Pryke officiated at the baptism, and later preached an inspiring sermon on the text: "This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will be glad and rejoice in it." The beauty of the chancel was enhanced by evergreens, candles, and poinsettias, which added much to the sphere.
     On New Year's Eve the church hall was massed with balloons, stars, and soft lights. There were about eighty people present to join in the dancing and fun which ushered in the year 1957. Most of our young people were home from Bryn Athyn and they brought some of their friends with them, plus some friends from Kitchener and Detroit. Just before midnight our pastor spoke on youth and the years ahead, before we sang together and joined hands for Auld Lang Syne. After this there was the merry noise of good wishes, popping balloons, whistles, and so on, until everyone sat down to the tasty supper the committee had prepared. The orchestra played until 1:30, when the party' was brought to a close with "The Queen." The social committee, headed by Mrs. Ethel Raymond, worked hard, but was rewarded with a successful party.
     KATHERINE BARBER

     THE CHURCH AT LARGE

     General Convention. It is reported in the NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER that the projected new church of the St. Louis Society "has been conceived as a Garden Chapel according to relevant correspondences and New-Church doctrines." St. Louis and its suburbs have been divided into nine sections, and the entire area is being searched carefully for a site that most fully meets the aims of the Society.

     General Conference. The NEW-CHURCH HERALD, reporting on the missionary campaign opened at North Finchley, London, last September, states that no worthwhile assessment of the results of the campaign is yet possible.

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The campaign, widely publicized, attracted a total of 58 visitors to five public meetings, though it is not known how many were present at more than one meeting. This campaign was carefully planned, and the results, which it is too soon to know now, will be of interest.

     Egypt. The NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER, mentioning the church founded at Port Said by the Rev. Jack Hardstedt, states that there are also New Church people in Cairo, Alexandria, Damanhoor, Tantah, and Upper Egypt.

     Sweden. In the same periodical Mr. Hardstedt is quoted as stating that he has a society of fifty active members in Stockholm.

     Switzerland. The Rev. Adolph Ludwig Goerwitz passed into the spiritual world at Zurich on November 25, 1956. Since 1920 he had represented the Board of Missions of the General Convention as General Pastor in continental Europe. Mr. Goerwitz was ordained on May 19, 1907.
NOTES AND PAPERS ON RITUAL 1957

NOTES AND PAPERS ON RITUAL 1957

     By William Frederic Pendleton

     A commentary on the various elements in our worship, giving the origin and reason for the different parts of the service. Cloth, pp. 178, $1.50.

     THE DIVINE ALLEGORY

     By Hugo Lj. Odhner

     The story of the peoples and lands of Scripture and their spiritual significance as revealed in the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. Cloth, 152 pages, $2.50.

     THE SWEDENBORG EPIC

     By Cyriel Odhner Sigstedt

     A complete, definitive, and readable biography; well documented, objectively written, and impressive in its cumulative effect. Bookman Associates. Cloth, 517 pages, $4.50.

     THE ACADEMY BOOK ROOM

     BRYN ATHYN, PA.

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ORDINATION 1957

ORDINATION Editor 1957

Holm-At Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, January 27, 1957, the Rev. Bernhard David Helm into the Second Degree of the Priesthood, the Rt. Rev. George de Charms officiating.
FAITH KNOWN FROM LOVE 1957

FAITH KNOWN FROM LOVE 1957

"From the love from which anyone fights it is known what his faith is. He who fights from any other love than love toward the neighbor and toward the Lord's kingdom does not fight from faith, that is, does not 'believe in Jehovah,' but in that which he loves, for the love itself for which he fights is his faith. For example: he who fights from the love of becoming the greatest in heaven does not believe in Jehovah, but in himself; for to desire to become the greatest is to desire to command others; thus he fights for command. Thus from the love itself from which anyone fights it may be known what his faith is" (Arcana Coelestia 1812).

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HOLY SPIRIT 1957

HOLY SPIRIT Rev. LOUIS B. KING 1957

     "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter . . . the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you . . . and ye shall see Me." (John 14: 16-19)

     It is a mark of the New Church man to be able to consider separately and rationally the three essentials of God-Man. The trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is not a tripersonal Godhead, but the substance, form and operation of the one Divine Man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
     The Writings refer to these essentials as the Divine esse or love, the Divine existere or wisdom, and the Divine proceeding or use. The Divine esse is the Lord as He is in Himself-above and beyond man's comprehension. The Divine existere is the Lord visible to man-the Divine Human standing forth, existing in form, to be seen and approached. The Divine proceeding is the Lord going forth and affecting the lives of men: instructing, encouraging, enlightening, comforting, regenerating.
     Man, the image and likeness of his Creator, mirrors this trine of Divine essentials in his soul, body and operation. The soul or human spirit of man is invisible to his fellows; it is the inmost man himself. The body, however, is the man existing before others-the form that can be seen, approached, and loved objectively. Without the human form man would be invisible, unknowable, beyond all thought. But the life of man, proceeding from his soul through his body, is that which affects other human beings.
     Without these three essentials man would cease to be man no human uses could exist, and the whole end and purpose of creation would fall into nothing. Man must have an inner life, an inmost human essence in which his individual loves and intelligence may reside. This is the first essential of his person, his esse or being.

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Then, he must have also a body or visible form in which his esse may appear to others and be approached by them. This is the second essential of his person, his existere. Finally, he must have a proceeding life which may affect others and thereby accomplish the use for which he was created. This is the third essential of his person, his operative life or proceeding.
     It is comparatively easy to see the trine in man without confusing his essentials with three separate persons, or even splitting his person into three different personalities. Yet when it comes to God, in whose image and likeness man was created, we find ourselves bound by literal statements in the Old and New Testaments which, because of age-long misinterpretation, have a tendency to lead the thought away from the obvious essentials of the one Divine person, and into the illogical persuasion of a trine of personalities in the one God.
     The Divine esse or being of the Lord is personified in the Old Testament as Jehovah. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ, who is really Jehovah come down, is erroneously thought of by the Christian Church as a second person who is also God. Lastly, the Holy Spirit, mistakenly conceived of as a third person in the Godhead, is not even personified but is referred to as a dove. The truth, however, can be known. Jehovah the Father is the Lord Himself above the heavens. Jesus Christ, the Son, is the Lord Himself appearing in His Human to angels and men. The Holy Spirit is the Lord Himself affecting angels and men. All three of these essentials, which cannot be separated except in thought, constitute the unity and the Humanity of the Lord.
     But what do the Writings teach specifically concerning the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is the Divine life going forth to men, and hence is the Lord Himself. For that which proceeds from a man's life draws its essence from that life and is, therefore, one with it. In the Hebrew language there is one word for both "spirit" and "wind." It is used in regard to respiration, which represents man's life proceeding from his person. When the heart beats, the vital heat of man's life is circulated throughout his body. But when man breathes, he alternately receives of the world into himself and sends forth his breath or spirit, which is the very essence of his bodily life.
     It is the same with man's mind. Instead of a heart, the human mind has a will within which the loves of his inmost life generate heat. In fact, the pulsation of the heart takes place in the body only because of a direct correspondence between the will and the heart. The activity of man's love causes the heart to beat. In place of lungs, the human mind has an understanding which alternately receives into itself truths from without and sends forth the essence of its life or wisdom.

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     Note well the analogy. Spirit means breath, or life, going forth. The life of the physical body consists in the heating of the heart and the breathing of the lungs. But that life is particularly expressed or sent forth to others by means of respiration. So with the human mind: its life consists of love and wisdom, but it also is particularly expressed or sent forth to others in the form of wisdom. This is infinitely true of the Lord. His life is His Divine love and wisdom, but it is particularly expressed, or sent forth to affect men, as infinite wisdom or Divine truth.
     Thus we read: "By 'spirit,' when said of the Lord, is specifically meant the life of His wisdom, which is Divine truth" (Lord 51). "When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will lead you into all truth. He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak" (John 16: 13). "When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you, even the Spirit of truth, He shall testify of Me" (John 15: 25). "Jesus breathed on His disciples, and said, Receive ye the Holy Spirit" (John 20: 22).
     The Lord has sent the Comforter, the Spirit of truth; and that Comforter is the Lord Himself in His second coming. He reveals Himself in the Divine wisdom of the Writings. He "testifies" of His Divine person, of the oneness of His Divinity and Humanity. In the Writings He comes to us and instructs, enlightens, comforts and regenerates. And our idea of the Lord as the Holy Spirit must be just as real and human as is our idea of Him as the Father and the Son. When we read of the Father, we think of the Lord as Divine love-as that infinite desire that a heaven of human uses exist eternally for the human race. When we read of the Son, we must think of the Lord as to the Divine humanity of His person- His gentle awareness and merciful consideration of us as individuals. And when we read of the Holy Spirit we must think of the Lord affecting us with the whole power of His love and wisdom-instructing and leading us by the Divine truths of His Word.
     Our central thought concerning the Holy Spirit, then, is to be that of the Lord present with men as the light and power of truth in His Word. But this idea is not all-inclusive; for, in a general sense, the Holy Spirit includes all of the ways in which the Lord comes to man, and works in him for his regeneration.
     Now the Lord can come to man and affect him only by means of influx. So if we are to consider all the modes by which the Lord affects man, we must investigate the different types of influx. Man possesses three organic receptacles-soul, mind and body. Into these three degrees of the human organic three corresponding degrees of influx enter. Into the soul the Lord inflows as life, which man feels to be his own. This immediate influx is above his consciousness; nevertheless it sustains the life of all the organic forms beneath it, even to the life of the minutest cell.

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By virtue of this influx into the soul man has the ability to think and will, although his thoughts and affections do not draw their quality immediately from the Lord. That which causes man to love good or evil things, and that which causes him to think true or false thoughts, the choice being his, is another influx from the Lord, which does not enter immediately into the soul but mediately into the interiors of the conscious mind. It is said mediately into the mind, because this influx from the Lord passes through the heavens and is qualified by angels and spirits.
     When the Lord's love passes through the heavens and is received in the minds of men on earth, it is present there in forms of good affections which inspire men to learn the truth and to live it. Thus the energy of the Lord's love, operating from within man's soul and mind, gradually reforms and regenerates him. The Lord therefore affects man from within and from without. So we read: "The Holy Spirit is [not only] the Divine truth but also the Divine energy and operation proceeding from the one God in whom is the Divine Trinity, that is, from the Lord God the Savior" (TCR 138: 1).
     Although the Lord affects man in these two ways from within-through the soul and the mind-still, the particular operation of the Holy Spirit is by means of the truths of the Word. For this reason the Word of God has in it the answers, strength and comfort for life's problems. In the degree that we are able to understand its teachings, and approach it as the Lord Himself speaking to us; in that degree we shall have instruction, enlightenment and encouragement. For the Word of God not only supplies those truths by which the understanding may be reformed, but the reading of it and reflection upon its teachings open the mind to influx from the heavens; from which the Lord as the Holy Spirit regenerates and purifies the loves of the human heart.
     So often in the New Church we are prone to concentrate upon the hard teachings of the Writings which deal with our responsibilities in regeneration. At times we resent having so complete a knowledge of the obligation to humble, subordinate, and even shun the loves instinctive to our nature. Self-denial, the acceptance of tragedy, disappointment and despair, the ever increasing burden of natural and spiritual temptation, all of these in some form are essential to regeneration. And yet we have been given a Comforter. Though we are troubled, we shall have peace; through the sorrow and despair of today will come the comfort and peace of tomorrow, if we but have the courage to look to the Lord and trust in Him. He is ever near us as the Spirit of truth in the Word; and He remains with us in our troubled states, leading and uplifting our spirits, in so far as we allow Him. "Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto Me in heaven and on earth. . . .

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Observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and, lo, I am with you all the days, even to the consummation of the age." Amen.

     LESSONS:     John 7: 37-44. John 16: 1-16. TCR 142.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 478, 473, 470.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 117, 119.
WALK TO EMMAUS 1957

WALK TO EMMAUS Rev. W. CAIRNS HENDERSON 1957

     When the Lord left this world by the death of His earthly body, all the hopes of His disciples went with Him. They were stunned, terrified, and filled with sadness. But most of all they were men without hope; men so deeply shocked that they did not know what to think or what to do. The Lord had taught them such wonderful things about Himself-that He was a King who would set up a kingdom, and the Son of God who had come to save His people. So even when He was sentenced to death they believed that it just could not happen, that somehow He would still save Himself. And nothing of the kind happened-nothing at all! Seemingly He just gave in to His enemies. He died like any other man, and His body was laid in the tomb. The tomb was sealed, and a guard of soldiers was placed over it. And that sabbath evening the disciples had to try to face the fact that what they had supposed to be impossible had happened.
     Now you might think that their sadness would have turned into joy when they were told on the first Easter morning that the Lord had risen. ut it was not so. Later on, when the Lord had shown Himself to them, when they had seen with their own eyes that He was not dead but alive for evermore, they were glad. But at first the news seemed only to make matters worse. You see, the disciples still thought that the body laid in the tomb was the Lord, that at least they still had that. So when they heard that the tomb was empty they thought that now indeed their Lord had been taken away, and they would never be able to find Him. And as they had forgotten His promise that He would rise on the third day, because they had never understood it, they were filled with despair.
     But no matter how unhappy we are, life must go on. The disciples could not give themselves up to weeping; they had to rouse themselves and go about their business. The Jewish sabbath ended at sunset on Saturday.

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Our Sunday was therefore a working day; and sometime during that first Easter Sunday two disciples, who were not of the twelve, set out on a journey. They left Jerusalem to walk to a village called Emmaus, which lay about seven and a half miles from the city; and on that walk, and at its end, a most wonderful thing happened to them.
     As they walked along the road, the two men naturally began to talk about what was uppermost in their minds-the dreadful things that had happened since the Lord was arrested in Gethsemane. And as they talked, a stranger came up behind them, and began to walk with them. This stranger was the risen Lord, but the two disciples did not know Him. The Lord asked what they were talking about, and why they were so sad; and, thinking that He could not have heard of the terrible things that had happened in Jerusalem, one of the two, whose name was Cleophas, told Him about the Lord's crucifixion, the news of the empty tomb, and the end of all their hopes for the kingdom. Very gently, the Lord rebuked them for their little faith. And then, beginning at Moses, He explained all the things written in the Word about Himself; showing that the very things which made them so sad were not the end but the beginning, that they had to happen so that He might come into His glory. The two disciples listened attentively, but they did not know that their teacher was the Lord Himself. They supposed they were being taught by a man like themselves.
     When they came to Emmaus, the Lord made as if to go farther; but the disciples begged Him to stay as it was now evening, and He did so. Then, as they sat at meat, a wonderful thing happened. The Lord took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them and with this-the very thing He had done before feeding the multitudes, and before giving the Holy Supper to the apostles-the eyes of the two disciples were opened, and they knew Him. They knew Him for the very Lord they had believed dead, and at once He vanished from their sight. The two disciples reminded each other how their hearts had burned within them as He talked with them on the way; and at once they rose up, hurried back to Jerusalem as quickly as they could, and told the apostles that the Lord was risen indeed.
     This story of the walk to Emmaus is a parable. It all happened, just as it is written. But it tells us also about something that happens in the minds of those who love the Lord, follow Him, and are taught by Him as His disciples. In childhood we see the Lord in the stories of the Word and understand His teachings in a certain way; and we suppose that what we then have will stay with us always, that the Lord as we see and understand Him will build His kingdom in our hearts and minds. However that cannot be. If the Lord is to set up His everlasting kingdom in our minds we must, when we become men and women, see Him in a new way.

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We must see Him as He appears in the Word for the New Church, and understand His teachings as they are given in that Word. And for a time we shall be like the disciples between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. You will not yet be ready to see the Lord in this new way; yet you will no longer be able to see Him as you used to, and so it will seem that He has been taken away and that you do not know where to find Him.
     But if you truly love the Lord He will still be with you, even though you cannot see Him. And without your knowing it He will be making you ready to see Him in His new Word. He will set your feet on the road to Emmaus; He will lead you to read and study His Word, and to learn from the church what it teaches. You will not know that it is the Lord who is teaching you. It will seem that you are teaching yourselves, or that you are being taught by other men, by ministers and teachers. But it will really be the Lord who is teaching you, although you do not know it; and when you have learned truth from Him, the Lord will then lead you to do what it teaches.
     You will have come with the Lord to Emmaus; and there He will take of His own good and give it to you. He will take bread, and break it, and give it to you. And in the breaking of bread, in the doing of good from the Lord, you will see Him again and know Him in His Word, and your hearts will be filled with gladness. It is true that He will then vanish from your sight. But you will never forget that wonderful vision. You will have learned the most important of all lessons-that the Lord is seen and known, not in learning truth, but in doing the good that truth teaches; and the application of that lesson to your lives will bring you into heaven, where the angels always have the Lord before them.

     LESSONS:     Luke 24: 13-35.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 548, 552, 554.
     PRAYER:     Liturgy, no. C4.
OF ANGELIC THOUGHT 1957

OF ANGELIC THOUGHT 1957

"It is angelic to think with distinctiveness of various things concerning the Lord's life in the world, and how He put off the human rational, and made the rational Divine from His own power. . . . This shows that very many things which seem unimportant to man, because they transcend his comprehension, are held in the highest estimation by the angels, because they enter into the light of their wisdom" (Arcana Coelestia 2540: 2).

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LAST JUDGMENT 1957

LAST JUDGMENT Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER 1957

     3.     The Judgment on "Babylonia"

     The Ordination of the Heavens

     When a specific church or dispensation outlives its function as the mediate source of spiritual light, and can no longer serve as a means for continual judgment in the spiritual world, it enters a period of spiritual vastation which culminates in its utter consummation, when materialism and atheism rush in together (Coro. Summary). The Writings reveal that when a church so departs from the truths of faith and the goods of charity the world of spirits is filled with evil spirits from the millions who go thither from the world, and that these interpose themselves between heaven and the church like a black cloud which prevents the sunlight from shining. They cut off much of the influx of heaven, so that the truth of faith and the good of charity can no longer penetrate to the men of the church (ibid.). Being deprived of their basis in human minds the angels lament that their state of life becomes as it were drowsy, and that heaven is like a body deprived of feet (LJ 19). A general judgment is thus called for, to be effected by a new advent of the Lord, a new revelation of truth from His mouth, or from His Word, by inspiration. For by this there is redemption from the hells and the formation of new heavens, whence a new church is produced on earth.
     But before this redemption can be effected the heavens must be ordinated by the Lord (AR 225; AE 258). A new state, preparatory for judgment, must be induced upon the angelic heavens; and especially upon those good spirits of the lowest or natural heaven who had been cast into obscurity by the evil, and had been as it were driven away from their inheritance by evil spirits who, by spiritual pretensions, had come to usurp the power there.
     The ordination of the heavens is possible only by the power of Divine truth. And angels can be in the perception of spiritual truth-the truth of the spiritual sense of the Word-when men on earth are piously reading the Word in its literal sense without being misled by false doctrines. If falsities intervene, the literal sense is distorted in meaning and does not yield its spiritual sense for the attending angels.

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     With the design that the heavens may be ordinated or ordered by a new perception of the spiritual meaning of the Word it is therefore necessary that a new Divine revelation be given on earth, through which the falsities of the consummated church may be recognized and removed and the literal Word seen in its genuine sense.
     This was why the Lord raised up His servant Emanuel Swedenborg, and through him, by Divine inspiration, opened the spiritual sense of the Scriptures for men. This was done in the eight years preceding the Last Judgment; and the many volumes of the Arcana Coelestia stand as an everlasting record of this Divine preparation for the judgment. The fact that this work at first found few readers on earth did not prevent its functioning in the heavens. For through its expositions of the spiritual sense the literal Scriptures were again opened so that they could testify before spirits in the other life to the interior laws by which judgment is there performed. The Word was no longer closed to spiritual beings, even if men were as yet unable to receive the new revelation.
     It is thus significant that the ordination of the heavens is described in the Apocalypse in an early chapter which begins: After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven. . . And immediately I was in the spirit." John then describes how he saw the throne of God, and around it the four and twenty elders and the four cherubim and also a sea of glass (Revelation 4). Thereafter John saw the Lamb, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who had seven eyes and who opened, amid the jubilation of the angels, the book that was sealed with seven seals, which none either in heaven or earth had been able to open or even to look upon (ibid. 5).
     The Apocalypse then tells of many preludes to judgment-many preparatory or temporary judgments which were attended with much dread, many woes and persecutions: although the servants of God were first "sealed" or marked lest they be harmed when the seven trumpets of doom were sounding. And then, it is said, the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of the covenant was seen!
     We do not recognize, in the Apocalypse, any prophecy of the historical procedure of the Last Judgment. Yet it discloses the principles of judgment. And it is therefore notable that the next thing spoken of in the book is the appearance in heaven of a woman crowned with twelve stars who was clothed with the sun and had the moon under her feet, and whom we can all recognize as a representative of the New Church-not the New Church on earth, for this was not yet-but the New Church in the heavens. And this heavenly woman was in pain to be delivered of a man child, who was then swiftly caught up to heaven lest he be devoured by a great red dragon. The man child, the Writings reveal, signified the Heavenly doctrine, but the "nascent doctrine" which was later to be formulated and published on earth (AR 533. 535. 543).

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     The celestial woman plainly signifies the heavens after their ordination before the judgment. What, then, was meant by the man child, or the "nascent doctrine, which was born in heaven and yet caught up to Gods throne lest it be profaned? Was the doctrine of the New Church the offspring of angelic minds?
     The answer appears to be that the Heavenly Doctrine here means that spiritual sense of the Word which became seen in its fulness in heaven when the Lord opened the Scriptures by inspiring the writing of the Arcana Coelestia on earth. Before the judgment, this heavenly teaching could not be communicated to spirits in the world of spirits, whose minds were confused with wrong interpretations of the Scriptures. Spirits not imbued with such falsities of faith could indeed be instructed, and children were always taken into angelic care when they died. And if this be so with children, it would also be so with the good among the gentiles who had not known the Word and could therefore not have perverted it.

     Preparation of the Gentiles

     In many places in the Arcana mention is made of the dreadful state of the spirits who were accumulating in the world of spirits from Christendom, as a sure indication that the last times were at hand, and that a judgment would pave the way for a new church. And it is noted that "seldom if ever" is such a new church established within the old church, but among gentiles (AC 2121-2130).
     Swedenborg published the last volume of the Arcana Coelestia in 1756, and during the remainder of the year he was apparently busy preparing a comprehensive subject-index of the whole work. Besides, he was planning to extract the doctrinal parts inserted between the chapters and to publish this material under separate titles. The articles which had been headed "The Doctrine of Charity" were, after the addition of a preface, to be arranged into a book which was to be called The Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem. It seems to have been while he was arranging the chapters of this book that he heard it announced in the world of spirits that "somewhere amongst the gentiles there begins to take place a revelation from heaven: that is, that spirits and angels speak with them and teach the heavenly doctrine, especially about the Lord; and that those there embrace it, and that thus a new church from heaven is rising up (SD 4770-4776). Certain spirits near "the entrance to Africa" were also expecting revelations of the unblemished doctrine of heaven and were promised "a Bible, but a new Bible, from the Lord." And the angels rejoiced that the Lord's advent was now at hand and that "the church now perishing in Europe should be renewed in Africa," and this by the Lord, and not through missionaries from the Christians whom they distrusted.

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The Heavenly Doctrine, it seems, would be received among these and other nations in the spiritual world, and thence be propagated to other spirits and finally to spirits of other earths (SD 4777-4781).

     The Spiritual Babylon

     But meanwhile the heavenly doctrine became an issue among Christians in the spiritual world. In a certain Swedish city below the world of spirits the temporary masters plotted to retain their dominion by adopting the doctrine of charity and the acknowledgment of the Lord as an official creed (SD 4835, 4838, 4842f). Shortly after, Swedenborg was led to see a highly organized network of societies which was maintained and controlled by such as were in the love of exercising dominion by means of the holy things of the church.
     These spirits, who came chiefly from the Roman Catholic nations were entrenched in vast cities on top of, and also inside, the mountains which stretched on all sides around the Middle Space where the Reformed nations dwelt (U 58). The whole district was called "Babylonia"; for in the Word the tower of Babel represents an attempt to rule from a love of honor and power by using the pretenses of piety and the authority of the church. Later, the kings of Babylon conquered Judah and desecrated the temple, taking its sanctified vessels to be put to profane use; and the kings themselves were even worshipped as gods. In Christian times, the popes of Rome arrogated to themselves the power of Christ as His vicars on earth. The worship of saints and relics was introduced, and the priests imposed a spiritual tyranny over the minds of men by pretending to have authority to forgive sins and by demanding blind faith in their dogmas, even forbidding or discouraging the reading of the Word. Thus arose the spiritual Babylonia in the world of spirits.
     On earth there are limits beyond which the love of dominion dare not go. Obvious abuses of authority eventually lead to rebellion. And in the sixteenth century the Protestant Reformation caused many nations in Europe to separate from the Roman Church and purify religion from some more patent evils, such as the selling of indulgences; and, while retaining many falsities, such as the ideas of a vicarious atonement and a tripersonal Godhead, and adding the falsity of salvation by faith alone, Luther and other reformers reestablished the reading of the Scriptures, which were forthwith translated into the vernacular languages.
     The effect of this was of such moment that the Protestant or Reformed churches took their positions at the center of the world of spirits, in the "middle space" where the Catholics had before been. And the spirits of Babylonia were as it were forced into the outskirts of the Christian region in the world of spirits.

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     In the other life the bonds of worldly restraints are loosened. Those who are in the love of dominating others will aspire to be revered or even worshipped in the place of gods, and will resort to persuasion by fear and to various hypnotic and magical methods of controlling the minds of their subjects.
     Thus we find from the Writings that Babylonish spirits, in their insane ambition, often proclaimed some one of their own rank as a god. But when this occurred, the mountain on which they were usually opened up into a cleft, and they were swallowed up by the hells (AC 10,412). Before the Last Judgment commenced, one such mountain of fantasy was situated in the eastern quarter at the height of the sun; and bishops and prelates, aided by Jesuits, established there a great city, ruled by a consistory through many underlings who were distributed like so many "commissars" over the mountainside, and who constantly inspected the multitudes below from watchtowers (SD 4965ff; LJ 58). The faith they inspired was mainly this, that the things they said were from the Lord, who was with them in His own presence (SD 4956f). But Swedenborg tells how presently this mountain sank down to the level of the horizon and was transferred to the left, or to the north, amidst the terror of the spirits upon it.
     And here was a strange thing. For this occurred while Swedenborg was reading in Isaiah concerning Lucifer the king of Babel; which caused the attention of the angels to be centered on that mountain! (Isaiah 14; SD 4970ff). Seen by the angels, the internal sense of the prophecy was a clear denunciation of the profane love of dominion; and a glimpse of this truth communicated itself to the more intelligent of the spirits who had been kept under the spell of their Babylonian oppressors, so that they no longer gave them support. For Isaiah wrote: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning. . . For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit."
     It must be realized that spiritual mountains, while they appear in every way as solid and real as those in the world, may be the results of fantasy. When the Lord said, "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you"; it was such mountains that He meant. Even as mountains are upheavals of the earth's surface, so man's ambitions can raise his love to impossible heights of pretense and self-deception, and can impose its fantasy of greatness upon simple souls.

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By constant assertion lies and prejudices can become the means of enveloping entire nations-as under Hitler-within a cloud of fantasy which prevents truth from entering. And it was a similar hierarchy of bold and sanctified falsehood that ruled in the Babylonish region of the spirit world before the general judgment. But fantasy, however overwhelming it may feel itself to be, however firm its dictatorship, is brittle. An ounce of true faith may make its towering mountains sink to the level of the earth.
     To understand the phenomena which accompanied the Last Judgment we must always keep in mind that the very earth on which the spirit walks is spiritual. He sees himself, and feels himself to be, in the relation in which his mind and personality stand to other spirits. Even on earth we speak of looking up to those we admire, envy, or wish to imitate. We are conscious of class distinctions and social levels, as if some people were above us and others below us. Greater education, greater wealth, more exalted uses or greater powers and abilities, segregate some to heights above us. Such distinctions may be based upon realities of solid worth and on uses performed. If not, a comparatively small occasion can create an upset of these levels of society. A government may topple, a reputation be pricked like a balloon, a system of financial credit may collapse and a whole nation may be plunged into turmoil and chaos. For our lives, even in this world, are founded on our faith, our confidence in others. Where faith is shattered we experience a spiritual earthquake.
     But the severity of such an earthquake is according to the importance of the faith that has been shaken. If a friend proves false, or an enterprise proves chimerical, or even if a nation falls, we can still readjust our lives. But if the very faith on which we have built our lives should be challenged, the whole world seems to tumble into ruins about us. Those who have faith in the Lord and in His Divine providence are on solid ground which no judgment can upset. But those who-like the evil spirits who had usurped lofty positions in the Babylonia of the spirit world-trusted in themselves and their own prudence, and whose power depended on the credulity of the multitudes, these became desperate when new truth began to break through from heaven.

     The Onset of Judgment

     The main judgment on Babylonia commenced "at the end of the year 1756 and in the beginning of the year 1757"; and by the 5th and 6th of January it was, in general, completed (SD 5336). The first preparations had taken place in the eastern quarter, where the "mount of the congregation" was removed and sank down to a lower level. This did not cause its abandonment. For in desperate attempts to hold the confidence of the simple, some of the evil spirits resorted to a magical fantasy by which they produced a "sun."

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But even by their fantasies they could not make it shine. Therefore they placed a man in this artificial sun and hailed him as God the Father. He then became their mouthpiece, authorizing their crimes and their new dogmas which kept their subjects in fear of purgatory. And whenever this profane spirit was judged a successor was appointed (SD 5004ff, 5088 if)
     The judgment had barely begun. In the Spiritual Diary-which had by this time turned into a commonplace book with only a few dates noted-we find hundreds of pages describing how the strongholds of the papal religion were devastated, tract by tract, city after city, and how the multitudes of spirits who had lived in mutual charity were liberated. Swedenborg himself was everywhere, observing, and conversing with spirits about the sole Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ who had all power to save. At the very start he seemed to have been personally involved in the very center of the cyclone of judgment, although he himself was unhurt and remained in a strange calm. For in a wakeful vision he visited a certain senator in the southern quarter, in a great Babylonish city which spiritually was called "Rome." The house showed a resemblance to a palace on the Capitoline Hill. The senator, with some other spirits, had been trying to form a doctrine of life; and they accepted some things which Swedenborg told them, although they still adhered to some of the Catholic extravagances (SD 5210).
     It was noted that Swedenborg, in this period, had been putting together the work to be published later as The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, of which he states that it was revealed to him out of heaven (HD 7). It consisted mostly of articles extracted from the Arcana and of copious references to that work. Some of the Babylonians had already been considering how they might pretend to receive this doctrine and subtly pervert it to their own ends (SD 4988). But now the senator with whom Swedenborg visited seemed to receive certain things which Swedenborg said about the Lord. And when the prelates and cardinals of that place perceived this, they conspired together and formed a mob which broke in by the windows of the house and sought vainly to kill the senator and drag his seemingly dead body away. Swedenborg was then brought into a sleep, for his own protection, since spirits cannot harm a man when he is asleep. And when he awoke, his persecutors and their allies in the vast district had already begun to be overthrown and cast into what appeared as a gloomy gulf which opened in the southern mountains (SD 5211f).
     This direct attack on the Heavenly Doctrine seems to have been the signal for the release of the winds of judgment upon the whole Babylonian tract. A papal consistory, with a changing membership, still exercised dominion from the distant south, although no popes were allowed to show themselves, nor was any denial of the Divine permitted (SD 5215, 5229).

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     But soon the events came too close upon one another for description. The peaks of the mountains of the papal tracts in all the four quarters flowed together as into a continuous chain-suggesting that the leaders of the hierarchy were joining in a defensive action. But whether ignorant or learned, and whether good or evil externally, this action brought upon them a common judgment; for inwardly they had magnified themselves from self-love beyond endurance and were therefore carried down into a deep chasm in the south, together with some of the popes (SD 5230-5234). And then, it is mentioned, there was a great rejoicing among the Catholics who had lived in mutual charity according to their religion.
     The chasm just spoken of widened out below into a vast subterranean hell, in an orderly arrangement as to quarters. Angels were sent to effect this arrangement. For it was a new hell, which is kept closed below but open above, and is for those of such character who had lived since the beginning of Christianity (SD 5336ff). This judgment occurred, it is noted, "in the last days of the year 1756." And at this point, also, the judgment on the Mohammedan tract seems to have begun (SD 5239f), which will be described in a later article.

     The Mountain of Multitudes

     But the judgment on Babylon was far from completed. Investigating an infestation which seemed to come from the north and west of the papal district, Swedenborg was conducted to a strange mountain which consisted of cities, one below another, connected by winding shafts or stairways. It was inhabited by an immense multitude of spirits; far too many, Swedenborg thought, for the size of the mountain! It was found that these were spirits from various ages since the first beginning of the Christian Church, many being monks, some being idolaters. Those of the earliest ages lived in the lowest cities, separated from those of later centuries. The remarkable thing was that while these multitudes lived on and within the same mountain, and were so to speak in the same space and had the same cities as the ultimate of their sensory life, yet those of different centuries were unable to see each other or to interfere with one another's activities; because in the spiritual world different opinions and manners of thinking cause spirits to "turn to different quarters," and then they disappear from each other's view, and sometimes their houses vanish with them (SD 5249ff).
     This apparent crowding of many spirits into an impossibly small space used to puzzle Swedenborg at first, and he thought that perhaps one spirit was at it were within another (SD 2338, 1485).

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He realized, however, that there is no space in the spiritual world and that spirits can be present in a moment by what is called "aspect presence"; which is effected by thought from some affection, and causes them to appear where they really are not. Their real abode is always according to their ruling state. As to this more permanent state they always rest in some idea of place. Generations of corporeal spirits who have been attached to the same city will therefore seem to themselves to live in that city, although the houses may appear somewhat different to each. It is also explained that the ideas of similar buildings, streets and cities-ideas utterly lifelike-are not from their own memories but from the material ideas of the men they as it were "possess" (SD 5092). And this is why it is said that the spirits may disappear when they turn themselves to a different "quarter"; for by this expression is meant that they are turned to such ultimates in the human race as correspond to the falsities or evil loves which they delight in, although the spirits are not aware of the men with whom their thoughts terminate (SD 5251, 5252, 5610, 4683).
     Now, while Swedenborg was in the City of Multitudes a visitation by angels took place. The governors of the innumerable monasteries were cast out and also the monks, who were a lazy crew who had kept people subjugated by means of fantasies and even violence. Their agents of oppression had been controlling the communicating shafts, and were cast into hells along with pagan idolaters; and those in the lowest city who had ruled the rest-even as the papists had always done, by means of evoking the power of tradition-were cast into the southern gulf; and the mountain was dispersed like smoke. And, coincident with these events, the gentiles in the farthest circuit were being prepared for judgment. (SD 5255ff; LJ 58: 6)

     The Papal City

     The next Catholic district to be visited was in the neighboring region of the western quarter. Here there was a vast mountain country, much of it excavated and filled with monasteries which were entered through caverns covered with roofs. On top of one mountain was a small city ruled by a pope who lived in a palace like that on Monte Cavallo in Rome. Catholics coming into the other life always have a pontiff set over them, but seldom is any pope from the world so appointed. Yet this was the case with the pope who had ruled twenty years before, "because he believed in heart that the Word is more holy than is believed, and that the Lord ought to be worshipped." This pope was Clement XII, known as a reformer rigid in discipline and austere in personal life, a patron of language studies. And Swedenborg notes: "It was perceived that in the world he had been blind"-whether physically or spiritually blind is not said. But, Swedenborg adds, "perchance he was saved."

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And when the judgment came, Swedenborg reports that he saw some spirits escaping, taking with them first a golden image of Mary and second the pope, before any harm could befall him (SD 5249ff, 5272; CLJ 59; LJ post. 102).
     But below the papal city there was an immense metropolis inside the mountain and stretching far and wide. It was a monastic city, containing multitudes, some of other religions. The monks lived off the people and were obviously hypocrites. And our scribe notes: "I found some acquaintances in that city."
     The Lord had warned that He would "come quickly," and as "a thief in the night." Despite many warnings and much delay, judgment strikes like lightning. This underground city heaved up and sank down, and the monks were forced out by an irresistible Divine force. The well behaved among the populace were allowed to remain, however, under the supervision of judges and priests.
     Thus the judgment on this part of the Babylonian tract did not leave utter destruction in its wake. For a great part of the Catholic communion were spirits who had lived in good according to their practices, although they had not been in truths (SD 5406). And since every nation (gens) is served by its own spirits-although sometimes by others-therefore a sufficient remnant of Catholics was left in the former papal city, where now the streets remained but neither the Monte Cavallo nor St. Peter's Basilica (SD 5408).
     And there were other concessions granted in the western quarter. Near the northern angle there are a number of societies which are devoted to external delights. And the enterprise that is pursued there is the introduction of credulous newcomers into the kind of heavens that they had imagined would provide them with eternal bliss. In some societies they play, or dance, or converse or feast; in others they discuss religion or politics, or even revel in ribald talk or unchaste pretenses of innocence. By such attractions evil and ignorant spirits with a bent for leading others entice them into remaining under their control. But since these external joys of the imagination soon begin to pall, those false heavens are permitted as useful means by which many are withdrawn from their foolish notions concerning intromission into heaven (LJ 56; cp. CL 7-9). And angelic spirits are then able to instruct them that the real delight of heaven is a love of use.
     Judgment is not for the sake of punishing the evil, but for the sake of saving the good. In the next article we hope to complete the account of Babylon's fall, and the preservation of the innocent who hearkened to the voice from heaven: "Come out of her, O My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and receive not her plagues!"

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MISSIONARY WORK 1957

MISSIONARY WORK Rev. KARL R. ALDEN 1957

     (Delivered to the Council of the Clergy, Bryn Athyn, Pa., January 23, 1957.)

     In the work Intercourse Between Soul and Body we find this statement: "Now because it has been granted me to be in the spiritual world and in the natural world at the same time, and thus to see each world and each sun, I am obliged by my conscience to manifest these things; for what is the use of knowing, unless what is known to one is also known to others? Without this, what is knowing but collecting and storing up riches in a casket, and only looking at them occasionally and counting them over, without any thought of use from them?" (no. 18).
     Here Swedenborg is telling us that because it has been granted him to know about spiritual things and their influx into natural things he feels it his sublime duty to communicate these things to others. This, too, should be our motivating force in all of our missionary endeavors. Because we have seen the truth, therefore we should endeavor to impart it to others; otherwise we are guilty of spiritual avarice.
     In Divine Providence no. 254 we read: "For no man gets his religion from himself, but through another, who has either learned directly from the Word, or by transmission from others who have learned it." A comparatively few learn the truths of religion directly for themselves; but the great majority learn them from others, who themselves have either learned them from others or learned them directly from the Word. But those who have taken upon themselves the vows of the priesthood have a peculiar duty to make known the treasures of their religion to others.
     After recounting his experience with the Africans in the other world, who were delighted when their ears were opened so that they could hear in the spiritual world the singing of a Psalm of David in some place of worship in this world, the Writings have this to say: "From this and many other such experiences it has become evident to me that communication with the universal heaven is effected by means of the Word. And for this reason there exists of the Lord's Divine Providence, a universal commercial intercourse of the kingdoms of Europe-and chiefly of those where the Word is read-with the nations outside the Church" (SS 108). By this we are taught that the very means of communication have been fostered on our earth in order that the Word might be spread.

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Commerce, in the providence of the Lord, has made possible the spread of the Word, but the priesthood is necessary that the Heavenly Doctrine may be taught with clarity.
     Earths in the Universe no. 113 tells us of the reasons the Lord was willing to be born on our earth. "The principal reason was because of the Word, in that it might be written on our earth; and when written be afterwards published throughout the whole earth; and when once published be preserved to all posterity; and that thus it might be made manifest, even to all in the other life, that God became Man." It seems clear from the Writings that, the Word having been given on our earth, it is the duty of all who understand and receive it to consider it a sacred obligation to do their best to spread the knowledge of it. However, there are many ways of spreading the knowledge of the Word, and all of these ways form some part of the grand scheme of the Lord's work of evangelization; for we must ever remember that a "man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven" (John 3: 27).
     In the early days of the New Church the public lecture was immensely successful. Such men as Hindmarsh, Noble, Bayley, Brickman, Giles and others were able to draw large audiences and make many converts. One of the last successful missionary lecturers was our own Gustaf Baeckstrom, of Stockholm, Sweden, who, back in 1926, was able to give his two lectures on the spiritual world thirty times to full houses, and, by charging an admission fee, succeeded in paying the expense of his lectures and also partly paying for the cost of printing them (NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1926, p. 413). But since the advent of radio and television the ability to attract people to a public hall to hear religious lectures has become very weak indeed.
     Some day, without doubt, the General Church will be strong enough to maintain a regular radio broadcast, and eventually a television period, but until that time comes we must work along the lines that suggest themselves to us, and for which we are now prepared.
     Foremostly we are pursuing our work of evangelization with our own children through the work of New Church education in our schools, and by that devoted band of teachers under the leadership of the Reverend Fred Gyllenhaal, who are sending New Church religion lessons into the home of every parent who requests them all over the world. We are all convinced that New Church education is the great work of charity of the General Church, and that nothing must be allowed to interfere with it or to detract from its vitality. Yet this should not blind us to the fact that many opportunities may come to us for spreading the light of our new gospel. These opportunities should be taken advantage of, each in its own way.

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     With your permission, I would like to speak personally of ways that have opened up to me to perform in a very limited way some of the uses of evangelization. I would like to put before this council events which have occurred and which have been an inspiration to me. My interest in evangelization goes back forty years to the summer of 1916, when the Reverend Theodore Pitcairn and I. then theological students, preached some 200 sermons on Street corners, and sold 600 paper bound copies of the Writings. There have been no converts that we could trace directly to this work, although no one should underestimate the value that the work had for the persons who did it.
     During the summers of 1925-1931, because of the many persons who visited the Cathedral, the suggestion was made that special missionary services should be prepared and presented at four o'clock on Sunday afternoons. This work was carried on for seven summers and the record shows that a total of 12,746 strangers attended. A great deal of literature was sold, but there was only one adult baptism which could be traced directly to this effort (NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1951, p. 214)
     In the fall of 1938 a new call came, as far as I was concerned. A lady, who is now in the spiritual world, asked me if I would give a class at my house for persons who had married into the church but who did not as yet understand its doctrines. I agreed to do it and the class commenced with 18 persons and grew to 43. This group received instruction weekly for an hour, with discussion for another hour. No attempt was made to urge baptism, but in the course of three or four years ninety-five percent of those who were not baptized came to understand the doctrines of the church and were baptized. Having a group of people similarly circumstanced, who are interested in being instructed in the doctrines together, has one great advantage. They have a social center from which to approach the activities of the society, and they do not feel the loneliness that an individual convert frequently feels when he comes among those who have known each other for many years. Having met regularly in a group in the class, little by little common interests develop, and friendships are formed. This is exceedingly important, for after we have interested people there is the task of adjusting them to the new environment of the church. Too often they have been left to flounder and to seek for some sort of place by themselves.
     As one group graduated into the uses of the Bryn Athyn Society another group took its place; the classes have continued now for a period of eighteen years, and the results have been far more gratifying than the results of any other type of missionary work in which I have been engaged. Closely connected with this subject is another phase of church work. When young people are married or confirmed the minister should not feel that his work ends there.

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There is a great deal of follow up work to be done until the minister is sure that they are well adjusted to society life and have found a niche for themselves.
     Meanwhile, in 1951, a new missionary effort was entered into. A group of thirteen college men and theological students began meeting regularly with me as pastoral counsellor to see what missionary work they could enter into at the present time. In the meantime, I had become a member of the Board of the Swedenborg Foundation, and thereby had access to the missionary volumes of the Writings, and other missionary literature. This gave me a clue as to the kind of missionary work that these young men could enter into. As a result, the first work that they undertook was to see to it that all of our young folks in the armed services, and all the New Church students in outside colleges, had at least one copy of the Writings, and were further informed that they could get more copies of the doctrines for the purpose of interesting their friends if they so wished. It was found that there were thirty-seven boys in the services, and eighty of our young folks in outside colleges at that time. All of these were sent copies of the Writings, together with letters telling them how they could get more copies of the Writings for distribution. The group adopted the name the "Epsilon Society," from a Greek word meaning good tidings, and they drew up the following scheme of work for themselves:

     "To make the truth known to people so that they will be free to accept it or reject it.
     "To make known the General Church as an organization open to all who accept the Lord in His second coming.
     "To gain education and experience in the missionary field.
     "To inspire those in the circumference of the church and to provide them with materials for missionary work."

     The means by which they proposed to do this work were:

     A. Personal contact
     B. Circulating printed matter centering in the Writings themselves.
     C. Public lectures
          A. Under personal contact the first method they tried was door to door visiting.
               1) The doors knocked on were those of newcomers to this locale, because these people had broken the geographical ties with their church, which, with many, were their only ties to their religion.
               2) The people who did the knocking were ministers, and trained college and theological students.

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               3) What they said was, "You are cordially welcome to attend our services at the Bryn Athyn Cathedral, and in case you are interested, this is what we believe," and if they desired it they would be given one of the copies of the Writings. It was suggested that affirmative means always be used.
               4) Those who succeeded in making contacts would invite them to services, and where possible to special classes.
               5) Experience showed that members of the Epsilon Society might spend an afternoon every two weeks, with routes covering the neighborhood so arranged that no one would be left out and there would be no overlapping.
          B. The use of printed matter:
               1) The distribution of the Writings to New Church students in other colleges and to those in the services, and to give aid and inspiration to those who have made contacts.
               2) To distribute follow up literature to those contacted by door to door work.
          C. Public lectures:
               1) These should be given by ministers or senior theological students. There are frequently requests to speak to groups about the teachings of the New Church. We should always be in a position to answer these requests.

     At the present time the Epsilon Society has entered into a new phase of its work. It has been advertising regularly in the local papers, and has sold as many as 13 copies of the Writings for a single advertisement. Follow up letters have been written, and some interesting personal contacts have been made which give prospect in the end of bearing fruit.
     This has proved a valuable training ground for theological students who have been active in the contact and follow up work. It has brought to light the difficulties and, at the same time, developed initiative and the determination to solve many of the problems connected with this type of church extension.
     And now I would like to sketch a mode of approach to those newcomers who are willing to attend a class regularly for instruction in the doctrines of the New Church.
     At the first class the vision of the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband is pictured. The strength of the doctrine is denoted by its sturdy walls, the beauty of the doctrine by the fact that to John it resembled a bride adorned for her husband.
     The walls that protect the holy city are its distinctive doctrines: The doctrine of distinctive worship, the doctrine of distinctive social life, the doctrine of distinctive New Church education, the doctrine of marriage within the church, the doctrine of New Church baptism and New Church administration of the Holy Supper.

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These are the doctrines that protect the growing church until it shall spread from the few to the many, as we read in Apocalypse Revealed 547, concerning the woman clothed with the sun who fled into the wilderness: "'where she hath a place prepared by God, that they may nourish her there a thousand two hundred and sixty days.' That this signifies the state of the church at that time, that in the meantime it may be provided among the many, even until it increases to its appointed state. . . . It is of the Lord's Divine Providence, that the church should at first be among the few, and that it should successively increase among the many, because the falsities of the former church must first be removed, for before this truths cannot be received, since truths which are received and implanted before falsities are removed do not remain, and they are also dissipated by the dragonists; the like happened with the Christian church, which increased successively from a few to many. Another reason is that the New Heaven is first to be formed, which will act as one with the church that will be on earth."
This glorious city had twelve gates of entrance, three in each wall, which represent the universal means whereby persons are introduced into the New Church. I then spend some time recounting stories of how various persons came into the church through different doctrines, thus through different gates. There is the account of John Bigelow, one of our consuls in France, who had been brought up to love the Bible, but who had had it torn away from him by higher criticism. He was on a trip to visit Hayti, and when he landed yellow fever and other malignant fevers so desolated the sailors that for four or five weeks no vessel could sail. He had to leave for St. Thomas, where he was quarantined in a small hotel. Reading matter was soon exhausted. One man had the first volume of the Arcana, and this Bigelow borrowed, just for something to read. To his great amazement it was just what he had been looking for. It gave him back his precious Bible, and inspired him to write a book called The Bible that was Lost and is Found. He returned home by way of New Orleans and the Mississippi River and by the time that he reached Boston he had a fairly complete set of the Writings. He was obviously brought into the holy city through the gateway of the spiritual sense of the Word.
Another person entered through the gateway of our doctrine of marriage. Long before he could accept other books of the Writings he used to say to me, "Conjugial Love, that is a Divine book." Eventually he accepted all of the Writings. The gate of death has brought many people into the New Church, while those who have been troubled with the idea of three Divine persons in the Trinity have been brought immeasurable comfort by the doctrine that there is one God in one person who is the Lord Jesus Christ.

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I can see the tears filling the eyes of one man who told me the story of what the chapter on the Trinity in the True Christian Religion meant to him the first time that he read it.
     After this preliminary class on the New Jerusalem, I proceed to take up these great doctrines, devoting two or three classes to each one.
     Perhaps I can illustrate the method of presenting the doctrines by using the Trinity as an example. The simple statement of our faith in God is:
"We believe in one God, in one person, who is the Lord Jesus Christ." When we say "one God," we separate ourselves from all atheists and idolaters; when we say "in one person," we separate ourselves from orthodox Christianity which believes in three Divine persons; when we add `who is the Lord Jesus Christ," we separate ourselves from Jews, Mohammedans and the like, who worship one God, but who do not believe that that one God is the Lord Jesus Christ, or that he became incarnate in this world.
     We then picture ourselves as present the night before the crucifixion, when the Lord said to Philip: "Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?" (John 14: 8, 9). An analysis of the Lord's life from this angle shows that with every miracle which Philip beheld he should have seen the Divine soul of the Father shining forth through the deed which Jesus had done. Philip had looked at the Lord many times, but he had never really seen Him! It seems perfectly clear that the Lord meant to convey to Philip the impression that there was absolutely no Father apart from or separate from Him. As He said to the Jews, "I and My Father are one" (John 10: 30).
     Next we take up the Trinity from the standpoint of the Old Testament, showing that from beginning to end the burden of its teaching is that there is one God in one person; as expressed in Deuteronomy 6: 4: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord," and connected with the New Testament by the words, "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8: 58). We then quote Isaiah 9: 6: "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." Here it is easy to point out that the Lord Jesus Christ is called both Son and Father in prophecy.
     There has been no doubt in the Christian mind that the child concerning whom Isaiah prophesied was the Lord Jesus Christ. "And the government shall be upon His shoulder." What government? The government of the universe; all government; the laws and order of all creation.
     "His name shall be called . . . " Whose name? The name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He shall be called "the Mighty God," not a mighty God, or one of three Divine persons who constitute God, but the Mighty God.

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The Lord as He was born on earth was to be called "the Mighty God."
     Also, "His name shall be called: 'the Everlasting Father.'" Here in the Old Testament, we point out, when it foretells that the God of heaven would come upon earth, in the same sentence that God is called both "the Son" and "the Father." A Son shall be given us who shall be called the Everlasting Father. What could be clearer than that there is one person in God, and that the Everlasting Father is the soul of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore we find this great harmony between the Old and the New Testaments, for in each Testament the one person who is God is called both Son and Father.
     It is impossible to maintain the trinity of persons from the Scripture. In the first place, there is no mention of a trinity of persons. The Father is mentioned, the Son is mentioned, the Holy Spirit is mentioned, but they are never called separate persons. They represent real relationships, but not personalities. If we mistook terms that denote relationships for terms denoting persons we might become very confused about ourselves. For example: to my father I was a son, but to my son I am a father. Thus I am both father and son according to the relationship in which I find myself, but I am never two persons! In respect to the Divine from eternity, the Divine born in time as Jesus was certainly its Son, but not a separate person, because the Divine dwelt in Him and was His soul: thus it is easy to see the oneness of God when we think of Christ's soul as the Father, His body as the Son, and His influence among men as the Holy Spirit but how can one who believes in three Divine persons explain such passages as "I and My Father are one" (John 10: 30); "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (John 14: 9); `Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8: 58)? A true religion will be able to understand and explain all of the passages. This is what is contained in the revelation given to the New Church.
     So much for a specific method of approach. The other great doctrines of the New Church are taken up and treated individually, the endeavor always being more and more clearly to depict the New Jerusalem with its protecting walls, with its many gates which are never shut by day, and there shall be no night there.
     It has been my privilege on this occasion to present to you a number of different methods whereby those who are earnest in the desire to see the increase in the church have endeavored to propagate our faith. We are all convinced that there is nothing so important, or so successful in this endeavor as New Church education. But this should not be allowed to stand alone, for our children will say. "Are there no adults who can see the rationality of our religion?

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Is the only way that it can be propagated to shape the mind from infancy to its reception?" Or, as one of my religion pupils put it, "If our religion is so wonderful, why do we not make more serious efforts to teach it to the world?"
In other words, any missionary endeavor which we earnestly undertake performs not only the use of bringing the truth to new minds and hearts, but it also encourages and inspires our own children to want to make known to the world the truths that have led to the formation and preservation of the Academy of the New Church.
In all that we do we can only act from the illustration that we have at the time, and in all that happens we must ever be conscious of the fact that "unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it" (Psalm 127: 1).
DECLARATION OF FAITH AND PURPOSE 1957

DECLARATION OF FAITH AND PURPOSE B. DAVID HOLM 1957

     JANUARY 27, 1957
     ORDINATION
     DECLARATION OF FAITH AND PURPOSE

     I believe that there is but one God, and that He is the Lord Jesus Christ; that in Him is the trine of the Divine itself, the Divine Human, and the Divine proceeding. I believe that by finiting His own infinity He created the heavens and the earths, and in His own image created man that He might establish a kingdom of human uses. I believe that in the fulness of time He assumed a human nature by being born into the world through the miracle of the virgin birth; that He glorified His Human, even to the flesh and bones, making it one with the Divine itself; and that this was accomplished by His constant victories in the temptations brought upon Him by the hells. I further believe that from this Divine Human there proceeds the Divine truth which is the Holy Spirit, given for the enlightenment of men.
     I believe that God has presented His Divine love and wisdom to mankind in His Word, which is made up of the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem. I believe that this Word is for the eternal use of the church, and that it is the sole authority of the church. Also I believe that the Heavenly Doctrine constitutes the promised second coming of the Lord.
     I believe that it is the clear teaching of the Heavenly Doctrine that a new kingdom of the Lord on earth, or a new church, is to be established and founded upon the truths of faith and the goods of life therein revealed.

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I believe that because of the distinctive nature of these truths and goods the New Church must be an utterly new dispensation, removed from the ways of the world and the perversion of former religions. And I believe that the truths of the New Church are for the healing of the nations, and that thus its truths are to be made available to all peoples, nations and races.
     I believe that the strength of the church is dependent upon the way of life which comes forth from it. And I believe that the essence of a New Church life is the shunning of evils as sins against God and the doing of good from Him, for in no other way can the life of regeneration be followed and salvation be achieved.
     I believe that it is the teaching of the Heavenly Doctrine that there is to be a separate and distinct priesthood in the church to serve as an external means of the Lord's work of salvation; that the priesthood is to be divided into a trine according to the main priestly functions, which are those of teaching, leading and government; and I believe that the ruling love of a priest must be that of the salvation of souls, for without this love he cannot properly teach the truths of the church and thereby lead to the good of life.
     In presenting myself for ordination into the second degree of the priesthood I pray that the Lord will strengthen my acknowledgment of this my faith. I pray that my belief in and worship of the Lord will become ever more interior, and that from a growing understanding of His Word I may attain unto wisdom; that I may draw nearer to His holy city, and by a life of regeneration enter more fully into the priestly function. For I would serve the Lord who alone is Priest-serve in His Divine work of salvation and in the establishment of His kingdom upon earth.
     B. DAVID HOLM
VISUAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE 1957

VISUAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE Editor 1957

Tabernacle Slides

Complete sets of 54 Kodachrome slides of the Tabernacle model are now available at $15.00 per set. Orders should be sent to the Director of the Visual Education Committee: Mr. William R. Cooper, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

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MEMORIAL ADDRESS 1957

MEMORIAL ADDRESS Rev. WILLIAM WHITEHEAD 1957

     The Reverend Charles Emil Doering

     (Delivered in the Bryn Athyn Cathedral, February 3, 1957.)

     These passages (DP 61, 62; CL 10) indicate for us the infinite varieties of reception in the truly Christian Church, for though the Lord is one, He is variously received by men.
     No two men or women are, or ever were, identical in state or character; for the law of individuality is stamped on every creature, even from the lowest form of the natural man to the highest form of angelic nature. Nothing that has life may escape this Divine grant of individual endowment in the rich and infinite variety of Divine creation. And of all the churches that ever existed, the men and women of the New Church should be able to grasp the great importance of the freedom that lies in variety and individuality Because of the Last Judgment, it is the only church in which the life of both worlds may truly meet and correspond, giving freedom to societies and individuals as no other institution known to man may do.
     Indeed, this is why freedom for a variety of the uses of spiritual religion cannot be destroyed by the natural man. Every tyrant, whether of church or state, sooner or later is struck down by the providence of God.
     But spiritual freedom, and the spiritual life, cannot be obtained without work, or use. Without work on man's part there is no life for the soul, nor even for the body. We know from the Word-and even occasionally in the inmost experiences of our hearts and minds, as is the case with the angels-that it is the Lord who works through us in all things of truth and good. But in every authentic revelation of religion there is an element of spiritual pragmatism, namely, that every man is given a definite work to do, as against the evil forces of his own times and those of his own nature. This is a necessary conditioning for the reception of the gifts of spiritual life, liberty and happiness, both here and in the world to come.
     We have to work to fulfill the Divine law, to obey the Divine commandments. This active cooperation on man's part was ordained from the beginning; and was so even with primitive man in the golden days of the world's childhood, before simple faith and affection in the Father's leading became unwilling obedience to the stern mandate that if man would not work neither should he eat.

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     Passive faith, passive thinking, academic contemplation, are insufficient for the genuine life of the spirit. We are to take our faith into active work, actual combat, or spiritual life will be downed by its enemies. And this fight must be enduring; it must be kept up until the enemy that opposes is overcome. And this must be done, not from ourselves, whatever the appearance to the contrary, but from the Lord; from a genuine faith given by the Lord, which a man must learn, and learn how to use.
     For, even as in the Garden of Eden, there is always standing before us not only the tree of life, but also the other tree, the tree of death, in eating of which man's soul will surely die. This deadly tree is the persuasion that life is one's own, that it is from self, or from nature. This tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the pride of human intelligence that glories only in the idea that natural good and natural truth are created by man, and not by the Divine Creator of both man and nature. This idea is the curse of education without religion. It enslaves the spirit of man, and chains his uses to the chariot wheels of a godless materialism with its inevitable tyrant drivers.
     But, in the Divine Providence, from time to time men and movements are ordained to fight for man's spiritual freedom, even on divers planes suited to man's states.
     For, as in ancient days, the Lord is still the tree of life, whose leaves shall be for the healing of the nations. And in the midst of a new intelligence and wisdom from the Word the Lord again comes to us. He is the same Lord, our Savior Jesus Christ; only the application and the manner of reception are different.
     We are reminded of these things because of the occasion on which we are met. A strong fighter and worker in our church has gone away from this natural world. Dr. Charles Emil Doering is now an image in our memories. He is in the spiritual world.
     He was born in 1871, on a farm near Milverton, Ontario, Canada. His father, Henry Doering, Sr., came from Alsfeldt, Prussia, as a boy of eleven. Later, as a young man, while working as a carpenter's apprentice, Henry Doering received the doctrines from his employer. This new faith ripened into a deep love for all the things of the church; and his family of eleven children were guided and trained in this atmosphere. To a church building which he and his brother Christopher had erected at Wellesley, twelve miles away, the family went each Sunday, whatever the weather. He was one of the earliest New Church men in Canada to see the importance of a distinctive New Church education, and he worked hard and long to get its benefits for his children in the first Academy schools.

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His home became a New Church social center, especially in summer.
     When Charles Emil Doering graduated from the Academy College, in 1893, he was nearly twenty-two years old. His first published thesis was on geometry. For he had a natural mathematical gift, and his ability herein proved to be of inestimable service in his later work as a teacher and administrator. Indeed, to the end of his days, mathematics was his delight; and he knew how to arouse a similar delight in others. He loved especially to explore the philosophy of form and number. Of the correspondences of numbers, as known to the Ancients, he had in his retentive memory an astonishing fund of detailed knowledge.
     Two years later, he was graduated from the Theological School; and in 1896 he was ordained by both Bishops Benade and Pendleton. For several years he labored, under their direction, in New Church groups in Milverton and Berlin, in Canada, and in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
     He revered Father Benade; and loved Bishop Pendleton. Hence the difficulties which arose, in 1897, as to the just government of the church were to this young minister his first great trial. He often spoke of this struggle in his mind. He was only twenty-six years old, when on February 4, 1897-sixty years ago tomorrow-he met with four other ministers to draw up a declaration as to their own convictions, and requesting Bishop Pendleton to become their leader in forming a new church organization. The other ministers were: the Revs. Homer Synnestvedt, Enoch S. Price, Carl Theophilus Odhner and Nathaniel Dandridge Pendleton. Two days later, Bishop Pendleton met with these five ministers in the small wooden building which served as Bryn Athyn's first church. He accepted their call to leadership, and the "General Church of the New Jerusalem" became a reality. The moral courage and rational judgment of these men has been approved in the history of events under the Divine Providence.
     As Dr. Doering was the last surviving member of that group, it may now be fittingly recalled that something which the Bishop said on that day made a profound impression on our friend's mind and character. He often spoke of it. Bishop Pendleton said: "It is of fundamental importance that we do not recede from any essential principle which thus far we have recognized as true. We are not here to proclaim a new doctrine, but a new spirit and life in the doctrine."
     This counsel was willingly received by Charles Emil Doering. For his natural character was marked by a tenacious loyalty to principle, an ability to put first things first, and a deep sense of moral and intellectual responsibility. The son of a Canadian pioneer, he knew what it meant to be a pioneer. He shirked no pioneer responsibility.

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     In all the years which have since elapsed, years of many recurring crises and difficulties, he stood staunch and true to the principles of this church and its schools, because those principles he saw to be drawn from the Divine revelation of the Word. Responsibilities piled on responsibilities were literally forced upon him by the sequence of events. He carried them as a plain duty laid before him by Providence. Many adjustments that called for continual personal sacrifice left him unmoved. He was not the kind of man to surrender. He was a man, a New Church man, and he played a man's part; and always with a natural dignity and presence that gained for him respect, and-with those who knew him best-affection.
     Many times he found himself in the midst of disagreement, and he was a formidable fighter; but we loved him, and more than often he was right.
     His record lies buried in a large pile of reports, papers, journals, statistics-the kind of historical material filled with unrecognized power and devotion. They are his memorial, a memorial to the only way in which the New Church can he truly built-by looking to the Lord for guidance, by drudgery when drudgery is needed, by charity and understanding, by courage, stamina and patience.
     Dr. Doering's uses are not easily measured. One year after he was ordained into the pastoral degree (1899), at the turn of the century, he was made Professor of Mathematics and of Swedenborg's Science and Philosophy in the schools of the Academy (1900). His labors in connection with Swedenborg's preparatory works were extensive. Notwithstanding his reluctance for literary effort-he disliked the mechanics of writing-his papers on scientific and philosophical topics are astonishingly numerous.
     But outstanding was his zeal for distinctive New Church education. In this he never tired. The schools of the church were his life. To him the Academy was the ordained means for the preservation and building of the Lord's New Church. The Academy was the church; it was the church in its working clothes. His Canadian father's profound belief in religious education he carried on, and into uses and opportunities that were not possible in the early days.
     For many years, he was Superintendent of all the schools. Together with Miss Alice E. Grant, the carrying out of the internal policies of the institution was largely under his direction. His concepts of discipline were strict; but three generations of students went to him for personal counsel and help. And if anyone, other than himself, criticized the teachers-especially the young teachers-he made clear why regeneration is likened to a war. He had small use for diplomacy. Whether he was tramping through his beloved woods and mountains, or looking for the solution to a problem, a straight line was still the shortest distance between two points.

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A natural shrewdness was his substitute for diplomacy; and among friends his austerity was put aside. Indeed, his home, whether here or in the mountains, was a center of social interests, like that of his father before him. To visit "Charley and Lucy" was an object lesson in the power and use of New Church family custom and tradition; for they enjoyed nothing better than to exchange views about the teachings of the church and the problems of the life of the church. Today many, many ex-students all over the world are sharing our memories of Charles Emil Doering. It is as yet too early to appraise fully what he did and meant in the ear]y days of our church. His range of activities as Treasurer of the Academy, as Manager of the Book Room, as Treasurer of the General Church, as one of the founders of the Sons of the Academy, as a civil leader of the community, this range covers many uses to which we can only apply the honorable title "pioneer."
     Our friend has gone from us into the spiritual world. But his use and his spirit remain with us-the use and the spirit of the pioneer. For in matters of the spirit these are still frontier days.
     Mark well that to our friend the ordained work of the New Church ministry meant far more than the cloistered pursuit of abstract truth, insulated against human contacts and human understanding. It meant living among and working for the neighbor, especially for young people and the children.
     The very character of our friend made it inevitable that, to him, the life of regeneration and the use of education were one and the same thing. If there was to be a church, there had to be an Academy.
     To acknowledge and obey the Lord, and to apply the Divine truth of the Word to the use of evangelization with the new generation, these two things ever made one in his mind.
     This was the essential theme of his very first published sermon, written in 1895, while he was a young candidate for the ministry. He chose, as his text, the story of Jacob's dream of the ladder which stood upon the earth and whose head touched heaven. This is its concluding portion:
     There is a continual descent of truth and of good in equal pace with the ascent; for as man learns truths . . . all which come from without, and applies them to his life, he also at the same time receives truths from within from the Lord, in that he has a perception of the particular truths which are applicable to the use which he is performing . . . The perception is more or less full according to the degree which is opened in him, becoming more and more clear as he ascends the ladder, and may be said to be finitely perfect as compared to his former states, when he has reached and entered into the third degree. Yet, even on this plane, there are degrees of perfection, for we are taught that there are those who are more in wisdom and there are those who are more in love, but the inmost of all are those in whom there is an equilibrium between love and wisdom.

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And such a man the New Church man is to be, for he, differently from any who have lived in the preceding churches, can acquire truths from without more copiously and at the same time by application to uses from the love of uses he will also receive perception in those truths.
Whether we say that [the Lord] is present and leads him or that He rules him, it is the same thing, and His ruling is according to the degree in which man is, and always by his love, but according to the truths which ultimate and give form to his love. Thus He rules him according to the plane which is formed in him. In general . . . is plane with the good is conscience. . . Infants, children and boys are ruled by their parents and teachers by it, but with them it is not a real conscience. . . The evil are ruled similarly and also those who are in the first states of regeneration. . . . However, as [men] progress in regeneration, they come into a spiritual idea of what is just and right, and are ruled by this, and when they are regenerated they are in the perception of spiritual truth and good, and are ruled by this, for now they love what is good and true, and are in their delight when they can ultimate those goods by performing uses to others. Thus, then, on every plane they are ruled by conscience, at first external, but becoming more and more internal, until it becomes perception. And when this state is reached, the various planes by which man has ascended now act as one; for the inmost inflows into the lower planes and reduces them into order; for man from his inmost can see all things which are below it, as one who has ascended the side of a mountain to its summit, and there, with a clear vision, views the surrounding landscape. He has in reality ascended the ladder of his mind from the lowest round to the highest, where the Lord appears to him and he sees the Divine truths from Him ascending and descending, as Jacob in his dream saw the angels of God ascend and descend the ladder which touched heaven. Amen." (NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1895: 178-181.)
PREPARATION OF HEAVEN 1957

PREPARATION OF HEAVEN 1957

"To prepare heaven is to prepare those who are to be brought into heaven, because heaven is given according to the preparation, that is, according to the reception of good. For heaven is in the man; and there is a place for him in heaven according to the state of life and of faith in which he is; and therefore also place appears in the other life according to the state of life" (Arcana Coelestia 9305e).

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NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1957

NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS Editor 1957

     The book of Judges, which is concluded this month, relates to a period of idolatry, oppression, treachery and bloodshed, and it closes with deeds of horror and shame. But the Lord's leading did not cease in those dark days, and a better time was to come. Israel is said in the Writings to have been in turn a kingdom of priests, of judges, and of kings. The demand for a monarch was a repudiation of the Lord; but it is noteworthy that the kings of Israel were rather the viceregents of the Lord. They might, as many did, ignore the law, but they neither made nor changed it; and their office represented the Lord's kingship.
     Samuel, who gave his name to two books of the Word, the first of which we take up now, was the last of the judges and the father of the prophets. Like Eli, he was a priest as well as a judge; and he became the counsellor of the first two kings of Israel, whom he was commissioned by the Lord to anoint. Although his particular representation is not given (see AC 6148: 5; AE 750: 21), it seems evident that he stands for obedience to the Word. Throughout his life, his personal feelings were always subordinated to the will of God, and that is the essence of true obedience to the Word of the Lord.

     Divine Love and Wisdom is also concluded in April, and we pass on to Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Providence (Amsterdam, 1764). Swedenborg evidently regarded the latter, published only one year later, as a sequel to the former work, and they are closely connected. Divine Love and Wisdom is a work on creation Divine Providence treats of the conservation of the universe after creation. It therefore deals, not with causes, but with ends.
     This Divine work reveals how the will and the understanding, with their faculties of liberty and rationality, are to be used that the end of the Divine Providence in creation, a heaven from the human race, may be attained. It discloses and expounds the various laws by which the Divine Providence operates to preserve that which is in order and to restore that which is not-the laws of the Lord's government under the manifold conditions of human life. To it we turn, therefore, for understanding of the nature and purpose of the Lord's government, and for light on the problems that arise in theology and human situations. It explains also the process and laws of regeneration, or spiritual creation.

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ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS 1957

ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS W. CAIRNS HENDERSON 1957

     COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY

     The Annual Meetings of the Council of the Clergy of the General Church of the New Jerusalem were held in the Council Chamber of the Bryn Athyn Cathedral Church, January 22-25, 1957, with Bishop De Charms presiding.
     In addition to the Bishop of the General Church there were present one member of the episcopal degree, eighteen members of the pastoral degree, and five members of the ministerial degree, namely: the Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton; the Rev. Messrs. Elmo C. Acton, Karl R. Alden, Geoffrey S. Childs, Harold C. Cranch, Charles E. Doering, Roy Franson, Frederick E. Gyllenhaal, W. Cairns Henderson (secretary). Louis B. King, Hugo Lj. Odhner, Ormond Odhner, Dandridge Pendleton, Martin Pryke, Norman H. Reuter, Norbert H. Rogers, David R. Simons, Kenneth O. Stroh, William Whitehead; Raymond G. Cranch, B. David Holm, Robert S. Junge, Frederick L. Schnarr, and Jan H. Weiss. Candidates Daniel W. Heinrichs and Donald L. Rose were present by invitation.
     A meeting of the Bishop's Consistory was held on Monday evening, January 21st. There were six regular sessions of the Council, four in the morning and two in the afternoon, one open session, and one joint session with the Board of Directors of the General Church. On Monday afternoon, January 21st, meetings were held in the Bishop's office with the pastors and with the headmasters of local schools; and on Thursday, January 24th, there were meetings of the Missionary Committee and of the recently appointed General Church Publication Committee.
     Bishop De Charms, in opening the first session, welcomed all who were in attendance. He reviewed some of the existing needs of the General Church, and said that consideration should be given during the week to the time of the next General Assembly.
     Standing reports made during the week were those of the Liturgy Committee, which presented drafts of revised services for the administration of Baptism and the Holy Supper; the committee on mistranslations in the Word, which reported that it had no report; and the Missionary Committee. A final report was received from the Committee on Ecclesiastical Garments.

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The Secretary of the General Church, the Secretary of the Council, the Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE, the Chairman of the Sound Recording Committee, and the Director of the Religion Lessons Committee, whose reports are made to the Joint Council, commented briefly on matters which they wished to bring to the attention of their colleagues.
Five addresses were given at the regular sessions. The Rev. Geoffrey S. Childs spoke on "Appearances of Truth and the Divine Authority of the Writings," and the Rev. Jan H. Weiss on "New Church Epistemology." The program committee, this year under the chairmanship of the Rev. Harold C. Cranch, made a three-part presentation of the subject "Church Extension Work." Those taking part in the presentation were members of the Missionary Committee, and their offerings were the results of some preliminary studies undertaken by that committee. The Rev. Frederick L. Schnarr presented the report of the sub-committee on statistical files, the Rev. Karl R. Alden gave some reflections on missionary work (see pp. 162-170), and the Rev. Robert S. Junge read a paper in which he offered for consideration certain principles of missionary work. The program was well received and it was the consensus that in its first year of operation the Missionary Committee had made a promising start on three phases of its work-the eliciting of principles from the Writings, the analytical study of past missionary efforts, and the organizational basis of future work. These will be circulated among the members of the Council for further study. In addition to these formal addresses there was a discussion, introduced by Bishop De Charms, of certain matters connected with the time and nature of episcopal visits; and a short paper on the need for "pastoral pamphlets," sent by the Rev. Frank S. Rose, was read at the sixth session by the secretary.
The time of the next General Assembly was considered at some length, and it was evident that there was a difference of opinion as to whether it should be held in 1958 or 1959. Several resolutions were adopted during the regular sessions. It was resolved to hold the Annual Council Meetings in 1958 from Tuesday, January 28, through Saturday, February 1. The Bishop was asked to appoint as usual a program committee to provide for two of the regular sessions, and was asked also to appoint a committee to study and report on possible changes in the time and place of the annual meetings of the Council of the Clergy. The fourth carved offertory bowl for use in the Bryn Athyn Church was on display during the meetings and was described by the Bishop, and it was resolved that a description be published in NEW CHURCH LIFE. The secretary was instructed to send a message of thanks and appreciation to the ladies who provided refreshments during the morning recesses, and was directed also to send a reply to a message of greeting received from the Annual Ministers' Meetings in South Africa.

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A Memorial Resolution for the Rt. Rev. Alfred Acton was adopted by rising vote. (See p. 185.)
     The Open Session of the Council was held on Friday, January 25th, after the usual Friday Supper of the Bryn Athyn Church. Bishop De Charms presided, and an address on "The Character of the Jewish People" was delivered by the Rev. Elmo C. Acton. As Mr. Acton is unable to prepare the manuscript for publication, this address will not appear in NEW CHURCH LIFE.
     This year there was only one organized social function, a dinner party for the clergy at the home of Bishop and Mrs. Willard D. Pendleton. At this delightful gathering an informal report on the South African Mission was given by the Rev. B. David Holm who, after four years overseas, was attending the meetings as a member of the Council for the first time. There were, as usual, many private social functions to which various ministers were invited; and the opportunities for friendly intercourse relaxation and entertainment provided by Bryn Athyn hosts and hostesses were, as always, much appreciated.
     W. CAIRNS HENDERSON,
          Secretary of the Council of the Clergy.
JOINT COUNCIL 1957

JOINT COUNCIL W. CAIRNS HENDERSON 1957

     JANUARY 26, 1957

     1. The sixty-third regular joint meeting of the Council of the Clergy and the Directors of the Corporations of the General Church of the New Jerusalem was held on January 26, 1957 at 10 am., in the Council Chamber of the Bryn Athyn Church. The following members were present:

     OF THE CLERGY: Rt. Rev. George de Charms (presiding), Rt. Rev. W. D. Pendleton, Rev. Messrs. E. C. Acton, G. S. Childs, Jr., H. C. Cranch, C. E. Doering, Roy Franson, F. E. Gyllenhaal, W. C. Henderson, B. D. Holm, L. B. King, H. L. Odhner (secretary), Dandridge Pendleton, Martin Pryke, N. H. Reuter, N. H. Rogers, D. R. Simons, K. O. Stroh, R. G. Cranch, R. S. Junge, F. L. Schnarr, J. H. Weiss; and by invitation, Candidates D. W. Heinrichs and D. L. Rose. (24)
     OF THE LAITY: Messrs. D. E. Acton, K. C. Acton, C. H. Asplundh, Lester Asplundh, G. E. Blackman, E. C. Bostock, R. W. Childs, E. H. Davis, G. C. Doering, T. N. Glenn, R. C. Hilldale, P. C. Pendleton, H. F. Pitcairn, Raymond Pitcairn, G. M. Smith, Arthur Synnestvedt, and Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal (treasurer). (17)

     2. Bishop De Charms opened the meeting with prayer and the reading of Revelation 7: 1-4, 9-12.
     3. The Minutes of the sixty-second regular meeting were approved as printed in NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1956, pages 173 to 180.

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     4. The time for the next General Assembly was considered. The Bishop noted that the question had been ventilated in the Council of the Clergy but that the ministers differed as to whether such an Assembly should be held in 1958 or in 1959, and the question is now referred to the Joint Council for decision.
     Several questions are involved. A General Assembly was held in 1956 in London, involving considerable expense for the General Church and for those who attended, but relatively few could attend from this continent. If we hold an Assembly in 1958 this would mean a two-year interval (1954-1956-1958); which policy was followed before-when Assemblies were held in Kitchener 1926, in London 1928, and in Bryn Athyn 1930. If we delay the next Assembly until 1959, there would be a five-year interval (1954-1959) for those who could not go to London in 1956. Owing to the depression, such an interval occurred between the Assemblies in 1930 and 1935 and owing to the war there was an interval of six years between the Assemblies of 1940 and 1946. Other Assemblies had been held at smaller intervals, as in Bryn Athyn 1935, Pittsburgh 1937 and 1940.
     5. The discussion brought out varying opinions. Bryn Athyn would have facilities in the form of a new all-purpose building large enough to accommodate the Assembly in 1958. The expense to the Church would also be less if held there. Whether a place could be found near Chicago for 1958 was uncertain. No Society had as yet issued any invitation. It was good for the Church to hold Assemblies in various districts, and pleasant for Bryn Athyn people. A five-year interval would be regrettable; but this was not involved even if 1959 were chosen. Rotation was desirable, but in Bryn Athyn the young people in the schools could pay their way. The attendance at London was small; the next Assembly should be held in a place suitable for a maximum attendance.
     Rev. H. C. Cranch believed that we should stress the uses of District Assemblies, and have a five-year interval between the General Assemblies. District Assemblies could be held every two years and given importance by having representatives of various uses of the General Church attend. Smaller numbers encourage active participation in church uses, and District Assemblies had the double function of inspiration and organizational development.
     Mr. Daric Acton felt that District Assemblies were only glorified Friday Suppers unless the officers of the General Church attended them.
     Another speaker believed that we should capitalize the enthusiasm and interest aroused among our people by holding a General Assembly soon.
     6. By a show of hands it was made clear that the Joint Council favored the holding of a General Assembly in 1958, by a vote of 22 to 11; the minority favoring 1959.

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     7. By rising vote and a period of silence, the following Memorial Resolution was adopted:

     "CHARLES GEORGE MERRELL passed into the spiritual world on May 19, 1956.
     "He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on August 2nd, 1867. After his graduation from Boston Institute of Technology (now Massachusetts Institute of Technology) he entered into the employ of The Merrell Chemical Company, which was founded by his grandfather, William S. Merrell. He became president of the organization and held that position for twenty-five years. About 1939 he retired, and he and his family took up their residence in Florida.
     "Mr. Merrell's family was active in the New Church in Cincinnati and there he married Miss Lilley Hussey. In 1910 he joined The General Church of the New Jerusalem. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Merrell in Cincinnati was a center of New Church social life and he was the chief supporter of the uses of the Cincinnati Circle. He was instrumental in bringing a number of persons into the New Church. Mr. Merrell's wide interest in the affairs of the New Church and his business experience and ability led to his election to the governing hoard of The General Church of the New Jerusalem, Incorporated, a position which he held for forty years. His interest in distinctive New Church education resulted in his election as a member of the Corporation of The Academy of the New Church some thirty years ago.
     "Mr. Merrell's lifelong affection for the Writings, his unswerving devotion to the principles of the Academy, his genial disposition, and his cordial and unaffected personality, endeared him to the members of the Joint Council of The General Church of the New Jerusalem, his fellow members of the Corporation of The Academy of the New Church, and his many other New Church friends.
     "The address delivered by the Reverend Hugo U. Odhner in the Bryn Athyn Cathedral at his memorial service on May 21, 1956 and published in the August 1956 issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE is a beautiful and adequate tribute to his character and life.
     "Resolved that we, the members of the Joint Council of The General Church of the New Jerusalem, assembled at Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, on this 26th day of January, 1957, hereby adopt the foregoing minute and extend our deep sympathy to Mr. Merrell's son, Fred Merrell, and his daughter, Mrs. Hobart Smith, and we request the Secretary of the Joint Council to send them copies of this minute and resolution."

     8. By rising vote and a period of silence, the following Memorial Resolution was adopted:

     "GEOFFREY STAFFORD CHILDS passed into the spiritual world on December 6th, 1956. "He was born in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, on July 29th, 1892. He attended public schools at Yonkers, New York, and later entered the Boys' Academy of The Academy of the New Church, from which he was graduated in 1910. He was graduated from the School of Commerce of New York University. He served as office manager of the Alexander Hamilton Institute, New York City, from 1913 to 1926. He was vice president of Pitcairn Aviation, Inc., for three years and executive vice president of the Autogiro Company of America for five years.
     "In 1934 he became associated with Michigan Sugar Company, Saginaw, Michigan, and became president of the organization in 1940, which office he held at the termination of his career.
     "His devotion to the uses of the community in which he spent the last years of his life is recorded in an editorial in the Saginaw News entitled 'A Leader Passes.'

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     "Mr. Childs's life was centered in the New Church. He was the youngest son of Walter C. Childs, one of the founders of The Academy of the New Church. His early affection for the New Church is shown in a song written by him in his school days at Bryn Athyn:

Red and White, we honor thee,
Insignia of the Academy;
Unfurl thy colors pure and bright
And guide us by thy heavenly light.

To thee our love and trust we give,
To thee we look, for thee we live,
The Church, the School, the Class unite
To sing thy praises, Red and White.

     "His youthful interest in the New Church continued throughout his life. In 1915 ha married Olivia Waelchli, a daughter of the Reverend F. E. Waelchli. They have six children, all of whom are members of the General Church. Theirs was a New Church home in the Academy tradition. Family worship was maintained faithfully and the sphere of the Church protected the family even when isolated from other New Church contacts.
     "Mr. Childs was elected president of the Sons of the Academy in 1922 and held that office for five consecutive terms. In 1924 he was elected to the Corporation of the Academy of the New Church and in 1924 he was elected to the governing board of The General Church of the New Jerusalem, Incorporated. He held these positions to the end. He brought to these organizations his outstanding qualities of leadership, enthusiasm and good will, and a deep determination to sustain the uses of the New Church.
     "Mr. Childs's interest in the New Church was not only in its teachings but in the people who compose the organization. He was a likely spirit. He was a hearty man and had a love of people. He had a keen sense of humor. His affection for the New Church created a strong sphere of support for its uses among all New Church men with whom he came in contact.
     "His outstanding love for the truths of the New Church will continue to be an inspiration to his many friends in the Church.
     "Resolved, that we, the members of the Joint Council of The General Church of the New Jerusalem, assembled at Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, on this 26th day of January, 1957, hereby adopt the foregoing minute and extend our deep sympathy to Mrs. Childs and to their children, and we request the secretary of the Joint Council to send them copies of this minute and resolution."

     9. The Rev. W. C. Henderson summarized his report as SECRETARY OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY. (Sec pages 194-199.) He also voiced the appreciation of those clergymen whose traveling expenses to the London Assembly had been so generously defrayed, and noted that a first "all New Church" service on the high seas had been attended by a congregation of fifty, passengers in the Brittanic.
     The Bishop, in reply to a question, explained that no reports, except statistical, had been received from Brazil.

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The Rio de Janeiro Society now reported fifty-four members, and an average attendance of twenty-nine at Sunday services. No other society activities were going on. The society was trying to maintain itself in a solidly Catholic country, and the support came from a few wealthy families. There was need for a leader trained in our theological school. Rev. J. de M. Lima was, however, active in the work of translating the Writings into Portuguese. His assistant, J. L. de Figueiredo, is at present an authorized candidate not yet ordained. Correspondence is difficult because of the language barrier.
     10. The Rev. H. L. Odhner summarized his report as ACTING SECRETARY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH. (See pages 191-194.)
     11. Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal submitted his reports as SECRETARY OF THE CORPORATIONS OF THE GENERAL CHURCH (see page 200) and as TREASURER OF THE GENERAL CHURCH (see page 202), and answered questions on the reports.
     12. After a recess for refreshments, the Council reassembled at 11:20 a.m.
     13. The Rev. K. R. Alden offered the following Memorial Resolution, which was passed unanimously while the members stood in silent tribute:

     "Whereas BISHOP ALFRED ACTON, for almost seventy years an outstanding teacher and scholar in the Academy, and for nearly as many years a priest in the General Church, has in the Divine Providence been called to the spiritual world, therefore,
     "Be it Resolved that this Joint Council record our deep affection for him, and our sense of loss from our midst of one who was in fact the teacher of nearly all of us. If we seek inspiration in a life devoted to the understanding of the Writings we will find it in his life. If we need an example of courage in the defense of what one believes to be right, that, too, we may take from his record. If it is love and sympathy and understanding of the problems that beset us, there, too, we will find in the memory of his companionship a source of comfort and strength. Although deeply wise and thoroughly trained he was more than a scholar, more than an intellectual leader in the church; he was the encouraging friend of old and young. He could take a child upon his lap and open the gates of heaven before its eyes, or he could enter into the struggles of manhood and bring forth the principles of the Writings that applied. For all states he had an answer based upon the Divine truth of the Writings the pursuit of which was the all-consuming passion of his life."

     14. Mr. P. C. Pendleton gave the report of the COMMITTEE ON MINISTERIAL SALARIES. (See page 205.) He also noted that in its ten years existence the effect of the Committee had been to improve the situation for a great many of our ministers, and later for teachers. A compromise was necessary in considering both the ministers and the societies, lest a society is bankrupted. He was reminded of a statement of Winston Churchill: "Those whose minds are attracted or compelled to rigid, symmetrical systems of government should remember that life, like science, must be the servant, not the master of men."

186

     15. The Rev. W. C. Henderson gave his report as EDITOR OF NEW CHURCH LIFE. (See p. 203.) He added that some ingenuity, together with the cooperation of the Lancaster Press, was necessary to keep the journal coming out regularly last summer during his trip to England.
     One speaker noted that copies of the LIFE were sent to certain public libraries, and asked what use this would serve. The Bishop promptly rejoined that it was to put some life in them!
     16. The Rev. H. L. Odhner gave the report of the newly appointed GENERAL CHURCH PUBLICATION COMMITTEE. (See page 206.)

     Rev. B. D. Holm questioned the implications of the Committee's recommendation that our "books should be priced to sell." He felt that people valued what they paid for, and did not appreciate give-aways. In the Mission the natives were willing to pay full price for the translation into Zulu. It was pointed out by the Rev. M. Pryke that the Swedenborg Society and the Foundation did not charge full costs to the purchasers of the Writings, but publication was subsidized from endowments. Rev. H. L. Odhner explained that the cost of printing and binding is such that with our small editions the cost of each copy becomes greater than ordinary. If the purchaser is to pay for this, plus an amount for handling, storage and retailing, the book may not sell. The books may instead stay in the stockrooms, and the capital investment is barren. Rev. H. C. Cranch believed that books for our own use could be priced closer to cost than publications issued with church extension in mind. Students of the Academy cannot pay for their education except in part, and extension work is also a form of educational promotion. But certainly it is better to have our books in the hands of people than having them lie unread in stockrooms.
     17. The Rev. H. C. Cranch gave an oral report for the CHURCH EXTENSION COMMITTEE,* which had had its first full meeting on Thursday. The Committee included those ministers who acted as visiting ministers to groups or circles.
     * The Missionary Committee appointed by Bishop De Charms in 1956 is now called the Church Extension Committee.
     He observed that missionary work as conceived in the General Church was to develop according to principles drawn from the doctrines. It involved work with our own members, from the centers in all our areas, and their friends and others who may become interested. He listed three points of endeavor: 1) The first effort is to discover from the Writings guiding teachings relating to church extension, and to formulate for missionary work a set of principles analogous to those which guide our efforts in New Church education. 2) We should examine the work, methods and literature of former outstanding missionaries in our own body and in the New Church at large.

187

3) We should find potential members by maintaining statistical records in each district of members, children and friends and other interested people, including ex-students, etc., with whom we have a basis of contact and appeal; with a view to introducing them by the process of education into closer association with the church and, if possible, into full membership. Such a study in each center will also be valuable in furnishing the episcopal office with information as to current needs.
     The major problem of the Committee is that of communication and this is to be solved, in part, by the issuing of a quarterly letter to the committee members and others involved in the work.
     18. The Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal read his report as DIRECTOR OF THE GENERAL CHURCH RELIGION LESSONS. (See page 204.)
     Rev. K. R. Alden moved that a vote of appreciation be given to the General Church Religion Lessons Committee under the chairmanship of the Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal, and supported by Theta Alpha and a large group of voluntary workers, for the work which they have accomplished.
     This band of devoted workers is sending New Church religion lessons into every home of every parent who requests them all over the world. It has been Mr. Alden's privilege, as a teacher of religion in the Academy schools, to instruct, when they came to the Academy Schools, many of the children who had received their training from these lessons, and he wished to testify that where the parents have cooperated the results have been most gratifying. He therefore moved that this expression of appreciation be spread upon the minutes of the Council of the Clergy, and that copies be sent to the Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal, and to the President of Theta Alpha.
     The motion was unanimously passed, with applause.
     19. The Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal made the following report on the progress of the work on the new CHILDREN'S HYMNAL which is under preparation:
     "All the material for the new Hymnal in my possession was shown to the Bishop, and then given, one copy to the Rev. Dr. Odhner, as Chairman of the Publication Committee of the General Church, the other copy sent to Mrs. Warren F. David in Detroit. This was done in 1956.
     "Subsequent to such action Mrs. Warren David sent me one Hebrew Anthem written as to the music, from left to right, and asked me to supply to it a transliteration of the Hebrew words and their English translation. This, however, was done by Bishop De Charms, who also did the same for all the other Hebrew Anthems it is proposed to incorporate in the new Hymnal.
     "As this material has all been given to Mrs. David, and as the estimates for cost and publication are under the supervision and approval of others than myself, I have no further report to make on the new Hymnal."

188

     Rev. H. L. Odhner added to this report that the Hymnal is now undergoing its final preparation. It was intended to publish the material in two parts. The first would be a forty-eight page pamphlet or booklet entitled "First Songs for Little Children." It is intended for the use of teachers and parents to instruct children who cannot as yet read. At present, one of the things holding up the work is obtaining permissions for use of copyrighted material. The next section will be a regular "Hymnal for Schools and Families," resembling the one which went out of print a number of years ago. This is also near completion, but neither is as yet in the printing stage.
     Dr. Odhner did not wish to answer the question as to publication date, since it had been hoped that it would be in print several years ago. There was hope and effort to publish it this year.
     Rev. Jan Weiss expressed his concern that no songs for the children should go higher than "C."
     20. The Rev. W. C. Henderson gave his report as head of the SOUND RECORDING COMMITTEE. (See page 205.)
     Mr. Raymond Pitcairn asked whether the notable increase in the use of tape-recordings would mean that written sermons would become less popular. Mr. Henderson answered that our people are apt to be individualistic, but that when tape-recordings were once adopted, even when there had been a prejudice against them, they were generally preferred to printed material, because it was an advantage to hear the voices of the speakers. To estimate how many listeners we had was difficult. Slips were included with the tapes, asking for this information. But most users ignore this questionnaire.
     21. Mr. Lester Asplundh moved a vote of thanks to all those who worked on the Recording Committee. This was passed with unanimous applause. The benefit of the tapes was instanced in Sweden and elsewhere. Mr. K. C. Acton told of their use in the group of our young people at the Pennsylvania State University. One minister said that the most impressive effect of the tape-recording system was that a speaker could be in many places at the same time.
     Mr. Henderson added that the Committee had been reorganized for better efficiency.
     22. The Bishop reported that in connection with the SOUTH AFRICAN MISSION the only new action taken was a plan to purchase a property for the theological school and as a possible center for the mission work.
     Mr. E. C. Bostock referred to an exchange of real estate in a native district sixteen miles from Durban and the effort to acquire a lot for the use of the Durban Native society.

189

The removal of squatters on the Kent Manor estate had proceeded according to government orders, and it was now planned to grow sugar cane on the property.
     Rev. B. D. Holm, called on for further information on the Mission situation, explained that he could only give a personal opinion, being neither a diplomat nor a political analyst. He foresaw a peaceful development for the Mission. The government of South Africa did not lack interest in the natives and appreciated our type of work with them. It was not inimical, but judged each mission by itself. The exclusion of foreign missionaries in some missions was due to abuses.
     The future form of missions in South Africa depends on which of the two opposing political ideologies will win out. The United Party believes in an integrated society, but the Nationalists, now in power, work for a complete geographical segregation or "apartheid." If the latter wins out our missions would have to become wholly rural. By 2000 A.D. only six million natives would be left in the European areas and fourteen millions in areas allocated to the natives. It is strange that the Bantus tend to rush into the cities, for naturally they are a herding and agricultural people. If the United Party prevails, our missions would become urban as a rule.
     Essentially the future is not uncertain, however, for the majority of our listed lay members are genuinely New Church, some very deeply intelligent and readers of the Arcana; and our priesthood Consists of as loyal and solid a group of men as any one could wish to work with. The spiritual prospects are sound, and the General Church will, the speaker trusted, come more and more to recognize the South African Mission as an essential use.
     He explained that the scrawny look of the native cattle shown in pictures taken in the winter indicates that these herds do not measure up to European standards; yet in the summer, when there is grazing, they fatten up and look like prize stock. The natives are better off in the country, even though they live scattered. The government necessarily has to prevent their flooding into the European cities, where they turn to crime if not employed.
     23. On motion, all the reports were received with appreciation and recorded.
     24. The report of Mr. W. R. Cooper as chairman of the VISUAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE was read by the Secretary, accepted and filed. (See page 206.)
     25. On request, the Rev. H. C. Cranch related some details about the 26-minute color and sound film which he has been preparing, to use for illustrating some essential doctrines of the New Church.

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The script is by Mr. Cranch and corrected for visual effects by others. The pictures are made by Mr. Kenneth Hultgren, a leading animator in the motion picture industry. A second version of the film has been shown privately in England and in America and suggestions were received from many of the clergy. As a result, a revised version is now being prepared and will be ready in a few months. He hoped that the finished product will be backed by the church. Plans for other films are in process.
     Up to the present only about $1 700 has been spent on the film which represents technical work to the amount of $22,000. It shows promise to be of use to the church, as an introduction to the doctrine; yet its effectiveness would depend on follow-up work, since the church can be entered only after an educational process.
     26. The meeting adjourned at 12:35 p.m.
               Respectfully submitted,
                    HUGO LJ. ODHNER,
                         Secretary.

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ANNUAL REPORTS 1957

ANNUAL REPORTS W. CAIRNS HENDERSON 1957

     SECRETARY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH

     The net gain in the membership of the General Church this past year is only 48, although 101 new members were added to the roll. There were an unusual number of deaths-49. Of the deceased at least 32 were over 70 years of age, 21 were over 80, and 5 were more than 90 years old. The total membership stood on January 1, 1957 at 2899.

     Membership, Jan. 1, 1956                                   2851
          (U.S.A.-1747, Others-1104)
     New Members (Certif. 4496-4596)                         101
          (U.S.A.-59, Others-42)
     Deaths (U.S.A.-35, Others-14)                         49
     Resignations (U.S.A.-O)                              3
     Dropped from the Roll (U.S.A.-O)                    1
     Losses                                             53
     Net gain in membership                                        48
     Membership, Jan. 1, 1957                                   2899
          (U.S.A.-1771, Others-1128)

     NEW MEMBERS

     January 1, 1956 to December 31, 1956

     THE UNITED STATES

     Alabama:     Montgomery
Miss Mary Evelyn Hendricks

     Arizona:     Tempe
Mr. Vincent Carmond Odhner, Jr.
Mrs. V. Carmond (Nancy Rae Edgar) Odhner

     Colorado:     Denver
Mr. Donald James Drinkwater

     Florida:     New Smyrna Beach
Mr. William Robert Zeitz
Mrs. W. R. (Molley Zinkann Glebe) Zeitz

     Illinois:     Chicago
Miss Signe Thorine

     Illinois:     Glenview
Mrs. Rudolph McLean (Gretel Isabel Brackney Hanna) Barnitz
Miss Naomi Lucy Gladish
Miss Bambi Scalbom
Mr. Daniel Victor Wright

     Illinois:     Wilmington
Mrs. Ralph A. (Nancy Joyce Cracraft) Madding

     Indiana:     Fort Wayne
Mr. Adolph Charles Ferber

     Maryland:     Hyattsville
Mr. Edwin Franklin Alford, Jr.
Mr. Ronald Edwin Daum

     Maryland:     Laurel
Mr. Joel Trimble

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     Massachusetts:     Falmouth
Mr. John Monroe Pafford

     Michigan:     Birmingham
Mr. Duane Clinton Cook
Mrs. Duane C. (Caviliene Janice Umphress) Cook

     Ohio:     Akron
Miss Patricia de Maine

     Texas: Waco
Miss Patricia Hume Naylor

     Wisconsin:     Tomak
Miss Barbara Ann Doering

     Washington, D. C.
Miss Nancy Allen

     CANADA.

     Pennsylvania:     Bryn Athyn and district
Mr. Alfred Acton II
Miss Doris Acton
Miss Gwenda Acton
Miss Charlotte Virginia Austin
Mr. Gerald Bostock
Miss Diana Carpenter
Mr. Alan Dale Doering
Mrs. Dorothy Dodd Eastwood
Miss Rachel Ebert
Mr. Hugo Denis Henderson
Mr. Gerald Allan Klein
Miss Adrienne Mae Linquist
Mr. Philip Laurence Odhner
Mr. Bruce Pitcairn
Mr. Blaine Elbert Rhodes
Mrs. Blame E. (Sally Emma Sebrawder) Rhodes
Mr. Philip Stanley Graham Smith
Mr. Don Alan Synnestvedt
Mrs. Don A. (Dorothy Hekne Garrison) Synnestvedt
Mr. Johan Christian Synnestvedt
Mr. Norman Nelson Synnestvedt
Miss Barbe Lee White

     Pennsylvania:     Holland
Mrs. Robert Frankish (Lauretta Rae Corbett) Klein

     Pennsylvania: Philadelphia
Mr. Oliver Minard Smith

     Pennsylvania:     Pittsburgh
Miss Elizabeth Amity Doering
Miss Louise Goheen Doering
Miss Vaughnlea Good
Mr. Lawrence David Mitzen
Mrs. L. David (Elizabeth Ann Williamson) Mitzen

     South Carolina: Columbia
Miss Marie Wier Davis
Miss Nancy Laurens Davis
Mr. Thomas Wier Davis
Mrs. T. W. (Emily Dudley Cozby) Davis

     South Carolina: Pineville
Miss Henrietta Palmer Gourdin
Mr. William Palmer Gourdin

     Texas:     Fort Worth
Mr. Loyd Alan Doering

     British Columbia: Dawson Creek
Mrs. Albert James (Mabel Eveline Barbery) Barrett
Mr. Berthold Richard Dube
Mrs. B. R. (Esther Nancy Gorman) Dube

     British Columbia: Renata
Mr. William Richard Rempel
Mrs. W. R. (Maria Reimer) Rempel

     Ontario:     Kitchener and Waterloo
Mr. Erwin Deitrich Brueckman
Miss Elizabeth Ann Hasen
Mr. Erdman Enoch Hendricks
Miss Judith Harriet Kuhl
Miss Margaret Anne Reuter
Mr. Charles John Schnarr
Mrs. Charles John (Shirley Patricia Cannon) Schnarr
Miss Eileen Ann Schnarr
Mr. Roger William Schnarr
Mr. John Alan Stroh
Miss Marilyn Jeanette Stroh

     Ontario:     Port Credit
Mrs. William Martin (Ellen Lorelie Jesseman) Dickson

     Ontario:     Preston
Mr. Maximillian Jan Buta

     Ontario:     Toronto
Miss Mary Linda Baker
Mr. Frank Silver Jean-Marie
Mr. Charles Denis McDonald
Mrs. Ivan Richard (Margaret Isobel Hudson) Scott
Mr. Charles Seymour Starkey

     DENMARK

     Copenhagen and Holte
Miss Birthe Marie Boolsen
Mr. George Holger Christian Hansen
Mrs. C. H. H. (Andrea Marie Lind) Hansen
Mrs. Karen Margrethe Zeuthen Hansen Leisted
Miss Anna Johanne Laurentze Lohmann
Miss Edel Valborg Sigony Lohmann
Miss Karen Brock Lohmann
Mr. Svend Aage Pedersen
Mrs. S. A. (Vita Charita Hedegaard) Pedersen

193

Mr. Niels Kristian Sorensen
Mrs. Niels K. (Jonna Vibeke Nielsen) Sorensen

     ENGLAND

     Bristol
Mr. Douglas McLeod Taylor
Mrs. D. McL. (Christine Margaret Brock) Taylor

     Hornchurch
Miss Madeline Grace Waters

     Taunton
Miss Mary Jean Best

     HOLLAND

     Amsterdam
Mr. Wilbelmus Jacobus Weimer

     SWEDEN

     Stockholm
Miss Anita Elisabeth Hoel

     SOUTH AFRICA

     Natal:     Durban
Mr. Charles Henry Pereira

     Transvaal: Johannesburg
Mr. Willard Ridgway Mansfield

     DEATHS

     Reported during 1956

Acton, Rt. Rev. Alfred, Apr. 27, 1956, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Bellinger, Mrs. Alfred George (Alena Rose Roschman), Oct. 17, 1956, Waterloo, Ont.
Bellinger, Mr. Norman G., Jan. 6. 1956, Buffalo, N. V.
Brickman, Rev. Walter Edward, Jan. 17, 1956, Glenview, Ill.
Briscoe, Mrs. Joseph T. (Charlotta Acton), Oct. 19, 1956, London, England.
Caldwell, Mrs. William Beebe (Korene Pendleton), Dec. 27, 1956, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Childs, Mr. Geoffrey Stafford, Dec. 6, 1956, Saginaw, Mich.
Crane, Mr. Frank, late in 1954, Holdenville, Okla.
Davis, Mr. Royal (Roy) Samuel, Aug. 17, 1956, Altadena, Cal.
De Maine, Mrs. Henry Marvin (Julia Louisa Boggess), July 31, 1956, Graterford, Pa.
Dykes, Mr. George, Nov. 25, 1956, Abington, Pa.
Dykes, Mrs. George (Ethel Murray Somerville), Oct. 23, 1956, Ambler, Pa.
Faulkner, Mr. Robert Henry, Aug. 15, 1956, Fort Wayne, Ind.
Finkeldey, Mrs. Fred. A. (Ethne Price), Aug. 15, 1956, Abington, Pa.
Forfar, Mrs. James J. (Laura Louise Cockerell), Mar. 14, 1956, Durban, Natal, So. Africa.
Freeman, Mr. Burton Reed, Sep. 29, 1956, Rockland, Mass.
Hakansson, Mr. Ernst, Apr. 21, 1956, Stockholm, Sweden.
Hasen, Mr. Alfred Kenneth, July 4,1956, Kitchener, Ont.
Kendig, Mr. Julian Henry (Eva Margaret Morrison), Sept. 13, 1956, Level Green, Pa.
Kisch, Mrs. K. (Kathleen Mary Ridgway), Apr. 16, 1956, Pinetown, Natal, So. Africa.
Klein, Miss Ida Marie, May 13, 1956, White Plains, N. Y
Kofod, Mrs Hans Lawritz (Karen Christine Terkelsen), July 3, 1956, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.
Lark, Mrs. Edward (Neva Bradbury), Jan. 13, 1956, Portsmouth, O.
Lindrooth, Mrs. Oscar T. (Antoinette Benson), Mar. 18, 1956, Glenview, Ill.
Longstaff, Mr. Fred Everett, Jan. 3, 1956, Toronto, Ont.
McFall, Mrs. William Alexander (Margaret Allotia Buchan Harper), May 27, 1956, Toronto, Ont.
McGregor, Mr. John, of Londesboro, Ont. (Report incomplete)
McIntyre, Mrs. John (Nellie Estelle Porter), Mar. 181956, Clinton, Ill.
Merrell, Mr. Charles George, May 19, 1956, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Muller, Mr. Frank C. H., June 11, 1956, San Francisco, Cal.

194

Northgraves, Miss Agnes Alice, July 16, 1956, Heidelberg, Ont.
Pearson, Mrs. John M. (Evangeline Victoria Iler), Dec. 27, 1955, Pleasant Hill, Ore.
Reynolds, Mrs. Benjamin (Rena Davis), July 18, 1956, Norristown, Pa.
Sandstrom, Mrs. Johan Edvard (Edla Mariana Elisabeth Molinder), Dec. 7, 1956, Stockholm, Sweden.
Schoenberger, Mr. Herbert Nathaniel, Aug. 5, 1956, Curtiss, La.
Schoenberger, Mrs. Herbert N. (Theda Elizabeth Gray), Aug. 5, 1956, Curtiss, La.
Smith, Mr. Roland Starkey, Apr. 23, 1956, Wyncote, Pa.
Snow, Mrs. Wilbur Henry (Cora C. Cresap), Oct. 2, 1956, Vista, Cal.
Starkey, Mr. George Cleo, Oct. 27, 1956, Glenview, Ill.
Starkey, Mrs. Healdon Roger (Gladys Alethea Brown), July 3, 1956, Toronto, Ont.
Stoler, Mrs. Elmer Giles (Daisy Grace Koons), Oct. 1, 1956, Norristown, Pa.
Stroh, Miss Edna Lenora, Dec. 8, 1956, Kitchener, Ont.
Van Pernis, Mr. Adrianus, June 12, 1956, Zeist, Hoiland.
Vinet, Mr. Camille, Jan. 25, 1956, Philadelphia, Pa.
Wells, Miss Volita, Dec. 14, 1956, Chicago, Ill.
Wiley, Mr. William H., of Columbus, O. Date unknown.
Wiley, Mrs. William H. (Percie Allen), of Columbus, O. Date unknown.
Williamson, Mr. Arthur Bradbury, May 8, 1956, Wichita Falls, Texas.
Wilson, Mrs. David H. (Susan Harriet Porter), June 7, 1956, Odin, Ill.

     RESIGNATIONS

Coulson, Mr. Frank Fairlie, London, England.
Horsfall, Mrs. Sarah Griffith, Auckland, New Zealand.
Keyworth, Mrs. John C. G. (Kathleen H. Batty), Auckland, N. Z.

     DROPPED FROM THE ROLL

Jessop, Mrs. Edward H. (Jessie Berith Bond), Goderich, Ont.

     Respectfully submitted,
          HUGO LJ. ODHNER,
               Secretary.

     COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY

     January 1, 1956 to January 1, 1957 MEMBERSHIP

     Statistically the Council underwent very little change during the year under review. There was one ordination into the second degree of the priesthood, which affects the number of pastors and ministers, respectively; and with two deaths, those of the Right Rev. Alfred Acton and the Rev. Walter E. Brickman, membership decreased to thirty-seven.
     Included in this total are two priests of the episcopal degree, thirty of the pastoral degree, and five of the ministerial degree. The active membership stands, as last year, at thirty; which means that seven members of the Council are retired or engaged in secular work, although most of them still give some assistance to the priestly office.
     There are two Authorized Candidates in the Theological School of the Academy of the New Church, and one in Brazil; one priest of the pastoral degree in the British Guiana Mission; and nine priests of the pastoral degree, one in retirement, and two of the ministerial degree in the South African Mission.

195

Authorized Leaders are still appointed to the Hurstville Society in Australia and The Hague Circle in the Netherlands. A list of the clergy of the General Church and its Missions appears in NEW CHURCH LIFE for December, 1956, pp. 581-584.

     STATISTICS

     Statistics concerning the SACRAMENTS and RITES of the Church administered in 1956, compiled from 31 reports received up to the end of February, 1957, together with the final though still incomplete figures for 1955, are as follows:

                                        1956     1955

     Baptisms (Children, 116; Adults, 32)               148     175     (-27)
     Holy Supper: Administrations                    149     145     (+4)
               Communicants                         4313     3674     (+639)
     Confessions of Faith                         39     24     (+15)
     Betrothals                              18     23     (-5)
     Marriages                              35     29     (+6)
     Funerals or Memorial Services                    38     32     (+6)
     Ordinations                              1     3     (-2)
     Dedications: Homes                         9     13     (-4)

     The above figures do not include administration of Sacraments and Rites in the South African Mission. As well as the homes mentioned, one church building was dedicated. Once again it might be mentioned that too much weight should not be attached to the comparative table, since the figures for both years are incomplete. The proportion of adult to infant baptisms continues to increase; the number of adult baptisms reported this year accounts for nearly 24% of the total, as compared with 19% last year.

     REPORTS OF THE MEMBERS OF THE CLERGY

     The Rt. Rev. George de Charms, Bishop of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church, and President of the Academy of the New Church, reports as follows:

     BISHOP OF THE GENERAL CHURCH

     ORDINATIONS: On January 29, 1956, the Rev. Roy Franson was ordained into the second degree of the priesthood.

     PASTORAL CHANGES: On February 2, 1956, the Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen was appointed Visiting Pastor to the newly formed Circle of the General Church in Copenhagen, Denmark.
     On January 27, 1956, the Rev. Gustaf Baeckstrom asked to be relieved as Visiting Pastor to the Oslo Circle in Norway, and on February 8th the Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen was appointed to succeed him.
     The Rev. Norbert H. Rogers resigned as Pastor of the Detroit Society on May 7, 1956; and on June 19, 1956, the Rev. Norman H. Reuter resigned as Pastor of the Carmel Church in Kitchener, and as Visiting Pastor to the Montreal Circle, in order to accept a call to the pastorate of the Detroit Society, effective September 1, 1956.
     On June 29, 1956, the Rev. Geoffrey S. Childs resigned as Pastor of the Advent Church in Philadelphia, and as Visiting Pastor to the North Jersey and New York Circles, to accept a call to the pastorate of the Carmel Church in Kitchener, effective September 1, 1956.

196

     On July 7, 1956, the Rev. Norbert H. Rogers accepted a call to become Pastor of the Advent Church in Philadelphia; and on July 9th he was appointed Visiting Pastor to the North Jersey and New York Circles, effective September 1, 1956.
     On September 8, 1956, the Rev. Martin Pryke was appointed Visiting Pastor to the Montreal Circle.

     EPISCOPAL VISITS: He visited the North Jersey Circle on April 7th and 8th; the Detroit Society, the weekend of April 21st; the Advent Society on April 28th and 29th; and the New York Circle on May 13th; a second visit being made to the Detroit Society on May 19th and 20th, and a third on June 9th and 10th. Michael Church, London, was visited on July 22nd; the Colchester Society from July 30th to August 4th; the Circle in Copenhagen, Denmark, from August 5th to 7th; the Stockholm Society from August 7th to 14th; and the Societies in Washington, D. C., and in Baltimore, Md., on November 10th and 11th.

     ASSEMBLIES: He presided at the Twenty-first General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, held in London, England, July 24-29, 1956.

     OTHER ACTIVITIES: On January 30, 1956, he authorized Mr. Daniel Winthrop Heinrichs and Mr. Donald Leslie Rose as candidates for the priesthood of the New Church.
     On February 2, 1956, he recognized the group in Copenhagen, Denmark, as a Circle of the General Church of the New Jerusalem.
     On April 21, 1956, he dedicated the new church building of the Detroit Society.
     In accord with the action taken by the Board of Directors of the General Church at its meeting on May 11, 1956, he appointed a General Church Publication Committee consisting of the following members: Dr. Hugo Lj. Odhner (chairman); the Rev. Messrs. Karl R. Alden, Harold C. Cranch and Norman H. Reuter.
     He presided over the Annual Council Meetings of the General Church, January 23-29, 1956; and over the meetings of the Corporation of the General Church, and its Board of Directors, held during the year.
     Due to the prompt and effective action taken by Mr. E. C. Bostock, Mr. Philip C. Pendleton and Mr. K. C. Acton, in this country, and by Mr. Gordon D. Cockerell and others in South Africa, the Rev. A. Wynne Acton was granted an extension of his entrance visa for another two years. This was a matter of great importance to the General Church Mission in South Africa, and great appreciation is expressed to all who were responsible for it.
     He wished to make grateful acknowledgment of the valued assistance given to the episcopal office during the year by the Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton.

     PASTOR OF THE BRYN ATHYN CHURCH

     As Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church he preached seven times, conducted services regularly, and administered the sacraments and rites. He gave ten doctrinal lectures, and presided over the meetings of the Society, of the Board of Trustees, and of the Pastor's Council.
     Regular assistance in the pastoral office was received from the Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton, and the Rev. Messrs. Hugo Lj. Odhner, David R. Simons, Kenneth O. Stroh, and Karl R. Alden, to whom grateful appreciation is expressed. He extends his sincere thanks also to the other ministers who have filled the pulpit from time to time during the year.

197

     PRESIDENT OF THE ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH

     As President of the Academy he presided during the year at the meetings of the Corporation, the Board of Directors, the General Faculty, the President's Council, the Faculty of the Theological School, and the Academy Publication Committee.
     In addition, he taught a course in education in the Senior College and two courses in the Theological School.

     The Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton, Assistant Bishop of the General Church and Executive Vice President of the Academy of the New Church, reports that in addition to discharging his duties in these capacities he has given increased assistance to the pastoral office of the Bryn Athyn Church. In July he addressed the General Assembly in London and held services in Colchester, England. In April he visited the Society in Washington, D. C., and in November the Glenview Society.

     Rev. A. Wynne Acton again served as Pastor of the Durban Society and as Superintendent of the General Church Mission in South Africa.

     Rev. Elmo C. Acton continued to serve as Pastor of the Immanuel Church of the New Jerusalem, Glenview, Illinois.

     Rev. Karl R. Alden, a teacher in the schools of the Academy of the New Church, with occasional duties in the Bryn Athyn Church by invitation, preached once in Bryn Athyn and in Cleveland, Ohio, and twice in Oslo, Norway; conducted biweekly doctrinal classes in his home for those interested in learning the fundamentals of the church; and preached three times at Lake Wallenpaupack during the summer.

     Rev. Gustaf Baeckstrom had charge of the Book Room in Stockholm and of the magazine NOVA ECCELSIA. He conducted two or three services in Stockholm and one in Oslo.

     Rev. Geoffrey S. Childs was Pastor of the Advent Society, Philadelphia, and Visiting Pastor of the New York and North Jersey Circles until September 1st, after which date he was Pastor of the Carmel Church, Kitchener.

     Rev. Charles E. Doering was engaged as a special teacher in the Academy of the New Church College until June, 1956. He preached twice in Washington, D. C., and once in Bryn Athyn, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

     Rev. Roy Franson served as Pastor of the Dawson Creek and Gorande Prairie Groups in the Peace River District of Canada. In addition, he visited isolated members in Alberta and British Columbia once during the year, and some of the isolated in the states of Washington and Oregon.

     Rev. Alan Gill, in addition to his duties as Pastor of the Colchester Society and Headmaster of its school, acted as chairman of the British Finance Committee of the General Church and of the Twenty-first General Assembly Committee.

     Rev. Frederick E. Gyllenhaal was engaged as Director of the General Church Religion Lessons Committee and as Editor of NEW CHURCH EDUCATION.

198

     Rev. Henry Heinrichs, in secular work, preached three times in Kitchener and Toronto and once in Washington, D. C., and in Pittsburgh, and administered various sacraments and rites.

     Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Secretary of the Council of the Clergy, Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE, Chairman of the General Church Sound Recording Committee, Visiting Pastor to New England, and a Professor of Theology in the Academy of the New Church, preached six times in Connecticut, three times in Philadelphia, and once in Detroit and Glenview. He also gave addresses in Bryn Athyn, Detroit and Glenview. In the Academy he taught two courses in the Theological School, two in the College, and, until June, 1956, one course in the Girls Seminary.

     Rev. Louis B. King was engaged as Pastor of the Pittsburgh Society and as Headmaster of the Pittsburgh New Church School.

     Rev. Joao de Mendonca Lima has been engaged as Pastor of the Society of the New Church in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

     Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner, Secretary of the General Church, Assistant Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church, Professor of Theology in the Academy of the New Church and Dean of its Theological School, preached ten times in Bryn Athyn and five times elsewhere. He gave seven doctrinal classes in Bryn Athyn and four elsewhere, and gave seven addresses and some private classes. In the Academy he taught two courses in the Theological School and two in the College in Philosophy and one in Religion.

     Rev. Dandridge Pendleton, in addition to his regular duties as Pastor of the Washington, D. C., and Baltimore Societies, preached once in Bryn Athyn and once in Pittsburgh.

     Rev. Martin Pryke continued to serve as Pastor of the Olivet Church, Toronto, Canada, and as Headmaster of its school. During the year he was appointed Visiting Pastor of the Montreal Circle and Chairman of the Eastern Canada District Uses Committee.

     Rev. Morley D. Rich was engaged as Visiting Pastor to the Southeastern United States and Pastor to the Miami Group.

     Rev. Norbert H. Rogers was engaged as Pastor of the Detroit Society and Visiting Pastor to the North Ohio Circle and Toledo until August 31, 1956. Since then he has served as Pastor of the Advent Church, Philadelphia, and Visiting Pastor to the New York and North Jersey Circles. Since Thanksgiving he has taught a course in Latin in the Boys Academy. He refers appreciatively to the assistance given by other ministers in preaching and giving addresses, and mentions that during the early part of the year much of his time was given to the completion of the Detroit Society's new multi-purpose building.

     Rev. Frank S. Rose continued to serve as Visiting Pastor to the isolated in Great Britain, Holland and Belgium, and to the Circles in Paris and The Hague. His activities were the same as last year, with two visits to the Continent, just under ten visits to Manchester and Bristol-Bath, and at least four visits to most of the Open Road. In addition, he preached nine times in Colchester and four times in London.

     Rev. Erik Sandstrom was engaged throughout the year as Pastor of Michael Church, London, England. In addition to his regular duties in that capacity he served as Chairman of the British Academy of the New Church, as President of the New Church Club, and as a member of the Advisory and Revision Board of the Swedenborg Society.

199

Under the auspices of the British Academy he commenced in the fall a correspondence course in the philosophy of New Church education. He preached three times in Colchester, and in June presided at the West Country Gathering.

     Rev. David R. Simons continued to serve as an Assistant Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church and as Principal of the Bryn Athyn Elementary School. He preached five times and gave two series of classes in Bryn Athyn, and preached once in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and in the Cunard-White Star liner Britannic. He also taught one course in the Academy of the New Church College.

     Rev. Kenneth O. Stroh continued to be engaged as Assistant to the Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church.

     Rev. William Whitehead was engaged as Professor of History in the Academy of the New Church. He preached once in Bryn Athyn and once in Philadelphia, conducted four memorial services, and gave several major addresses during the year.

     Rev. Raymond G. Cranch, in secular work, continued to act as Visiting Minister to the Erie Circle, preaching there three times and giving a doctrinal class and a talk to children on each occasion. He preached once in Philadelphia.

     Rev. B. David Holm was engaged as Assistant to the Superintendent of the South African Mission and Assistant to the Pastor of the Durban Society.

     Rev. Robert S. Junge served as Assistant to the Pastor of the Western District.

     Rev. Frederick L. Schnarr was engaged as Minister of the Sharon Church, Chicago, and Visiting Minister to the South Ohio Circle.

     Rev. Jan H. Weiss served as Assistant to the Pastors of the Toronto and Kitchener Societies and as Assistant to the Principal of the Carmel Church School. In the latter part of the year he served also as Visiting Minister for the Ontario District. In the course of these duties he preached 42 times, gave 91 classes and 10 addresses, and covered some 10,000 miles in Ontario.
     Respectfully submitted,
          W. CAIRNS HENDERSON,
               Secretary.

200

GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM 1957

GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM Various 1957

     (A Pennsylvania Corporation)

     and

     THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
     (An Illinois Corporation)

     REPORT OF THE SECRETARY

     FOR THE

     YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31, 1956

     MEMBERSHIP

     During the year 1956, the number of persons comprising the membership of both Corporations decreased by 3 from 262 to 259 in accordance with the following tabulation:

                              Date of          Net          Date of
Members of                         12/31/1955     Change     12/31/1956

Illinois Corporation only               10          Deduct      2     8
Both Corporations                    252          Deduct 1     251

Total Persons                         262          Deduct 3     259

Total Members of

Illinois Corporation                    262          Deduct 3     259
Pennsylvania Corporation               252          Deduct 1     251

The several Net Changes consisted of:

3 New Members of both Corporations:
     Boatman, Ellison C.
     Stebbing, David H.
     Trimble, Rowland

2 Deaths of members of Illinois Corporation only:
     Smith, Rowland
     Vinet, Camille

4 Deaths of members of both Corporations:
     Acton, Alfred
     Bellinger, Norman G.
     Childs, Geoffrey S.
     Merrell, Charles G.

     DIRECTORS

     The two Corporations each have the same thirty Directors, ten of whom are elected each year for terms of three years. At the 1956 Annual Meetings, ten Directors were therefore elected for terms expiring in 1959.

201

Since the Annual Meetings, the death of Mr. Geoffrey S. Childs has left one vacancy on the Board of Directors. As a result, the present Directors, and the year in which the term of each expires, are as follows:

1958 Acton, Daric E.
1959 Acton, Kesniel C.
1957 Anderson, Reginald S.
1957 Asplundh, Carl Hj.
1958 Asplundh, Edwin T.
1958 Asplundh, Lester
1957 Barnitz, Robert G.
1958 Blackman, Geoffrey E.
1959 Bostock, Edward C.
1957 Brown, Robert M.
1957 Childs, Geoffrey S.
1958 Childs, Randolph W.
1959 Cockerell, Gordon D.
1959 Davis, Edward H.
1959 De Charms, George
1957 Doering, George C.
1958 Glenn, Theodore N.
1959 Hilldale, Robert C.
1958 Kuhl, John E.
1957 Lee, Sydney E.
1958 Loven, Tore E.
1958 Pendleton, Philip C.
1959 Pendleton, Willard D.
1959 Pitcairn, Harold F.
1959 Pitcairn, Raymond
1959 Pryke, F. G. Colby
1957 Reuter, Warren A.
1957 Smith, Gilbert M.
1957 Synnestvedt, Arthur
1958 Synnestvedt, Norman P.

The Honorary Directors are Marlin W. Heilman and Hubert Hyatt.

     OFFICERS

     The two Corporations each also have the same five Officers, each of whom is elected yearly for a term of one year. Those elected at the Board Meetings of June 15, 1956 were:

     President               De Charms, George
     Vice-President               Pendleton, Willard D.
     Acting Secretary          Gyllenhaal, Leonard E.
     Assistant Acting Secretary     Pendleton, Philip C.
     Treasurer               Gyllenhaal, Leonard E.

     CORPORATION MEETINGS

     The 1956 Annual Corporation Meetings were held at Bryn Athyn on June 15, these being the only Corporation Meetings held during the year. The President, Bishop De Charms, presided, and the attendance numbered 41 persons, each a member of both Corporations. Reports were received from the President, the Acting Secretary and the Treasurer, and from the Committees on: Audit of Securities, Nomination of Directors, and Salaries.

     BOARD MEETINGS

     The Board of Directors held six meetings during 1956. The average attendance of Directors was 15, with a maximum of 22 and a minimum of 10. The President presided over all six meetings, which were also attended by the Treasurer.
     A wide variety of matters were taken under consideration by the Board last year, concerned largely with routine financial affairs of the Church. Much of this has been covered in previous reports given to the Annual Meeting and to the General Assembly in London. Several subsequent matters, however, are of interest and worthy of mention.
     During the year a substantial bequest was received by the General Church from the estate of Miss Celia Bellinger. It was Miss Bellinger's wish that part of this gift be used for local church school uses. The Board of Directors authorized distribution accordingly, which has been made with the balance retained for pension and orphanage purposes. Favorable action was taken on the recommendation that the Rev. B. David Holm and his family be returned for a visit to the United States.

202

The Bishop was requested to appoint a committee to study ways and means of increasing NEW CHURCH LIFE circulation both within and without the Church. Finally, a committee was appointed to make recommendations to the Board for the appointment of a permanent Secretary following Mr. Hyatt's resignation last June. This committee has met, but no recommendations have yet been made.
     Respectfully submitted,
          LEONARD E. GYLLENHAAL,
               Acting Secretary.

     TREASURER OF THE GENERAL CHURCH

     REPORT FOR 1956

     The street corner orator was delivering a lengthy discourse on inflation, and expounding the theory that the public was being robbed of its sense of values by unstable currency. Finding that verbal efforts alone were not proving sufficient to arouse interest, the speaker drew a bill from his pocket, and waved it before his audience.
     "There was a time," he declared, "when this dollar was worth one hundred cents. Then its value skidded to 80 cents. Today, it is worth 57 cents. Tomorrow
     "Mister" interrupted a tired listener, "here's 57 cents. Let's have that dollar before it goes any lower."
     For each of a number of years now, General Church expenses have been mounting rapidly as inflation and expanding uses increase their demands. At the same time, however, cheaper dollars are more plentiful, and income has kept pace with the rising tide.
     This phenomenon was repeated last year, and in spite of an additional $12,000 in expenditures, increased income absorbed all but $1,325.41. Thus for the second year in a row, the General Church incurred an operating deficit.
     1956 was another period of unusual progress and, as a result, the most expensive year the Church has undertaken. An analysis of the financial statement, however, reveals that the money was well spent. Most of it went toward the support and travelling expenses of the clergy. A further substantial improvement in the salary plans increased salary expenses by $10,000, and extensive pastoral visits and the moving of four ministers boosted the total in this category to a record $18,000. Included in the latter was the cost of Assembly travel which was partially offset by special contributions for the purpose.
     These two categories together accounted for 70% of the total budget and substantially all of the increase over the previous year.
     Income, on the other hand, made remarkable gains, all the more remarkable because it came almost entirely from contributions. Unlike previous years, investment income accounted for a very small percentage of the increase. The bulk of the $12,300 improvement came from regular contributions and the $4,500 received for Assembly' travel.
     While operating results cannot be considered satisfactory, the overall financial picture is much more encouraging. This was due principally to some unusually generous contributions to capital. From various members of the Pitcairn families, gifts totalling close to $90,000 were received.

203

In addition, a bequest from the Estate of Miss Celia Bellinger added approximately $12,000 to pension and orphanage uses, and a special contribution from Mr. V. A. Boker increased the General Fund by $5000.
     This, then, is how the picture seems to shape up for the year ahead. A larger endowment will yield greater investment income, and, if the present contribution rate continues, will result in record income again for 1957. Salary expenses will undoubtedly be higher, but barring any widespread pastoral moves, the cost of travel will be down. With careful control of the budget, next year should see the General Church back in the black by a very slim margin.
     Respectfully submitted,
          LEONARD E. GYLLENHAAL,
               Treasurer.

     EDITOR OF "NEW CHURCH LIFE"

     Although the editor was going to be overseas for a considerable part of the summer, the monthly issues of NEW CHURCH LIFE had to appear as usual. This posed certain problems and called for early planning, but schedules were set up well ahead, and with excellent cooperation from Lancaster Press the journal came out regularly.
     One hundred and twenty pages were required for publication of the proceedings of the Twenty-first General Assembly. However, the issues for July and August were each reduced to 32 pages; so although the usual 16 pages were added to the April issue, the regular total of 576 pages for the year was exceeded by only 16 pages. The total of 592 pages, in order of space used, was made up as follows:
                                   Pages

     Articles                                                  286
     Reports                         79
     Sermons                         56
     Church News                         55
     Miscellaneous                         33
     Editorial                         25
     Announcements                    24
     Reviews                         13
     Talks to Children                    9
     Directories                         8
     Communications                    4
                                   592

     These figures, as usual, represent little variation from the normal pattern. The larger amount of space taken by reports is due to the fact that in an Assembly year two sets of reports are made by the officers of the General Church-to the Annual Council Meetings and to the General Assembly. Excluding editorials, news notes and reports, the contents of NEW CHURCH LIFE in 1956 came from 34 contributors-26 ministerial including 3 from the South African Mission, and 8 lay, the latter including 3 ladies. Again, appreciation is due to them, and to the faithful correspondents who supply copy for the news columns.
     In addition to the proceedings of the Assembly. NEW CHURCH LIFE attempted during the year to supply articles on a variety of topics. Thus we find in its pages for 1956 articles on such basic subjects as the Divine authority of the Writings, the priesthood and the laity, the sacraments, and various aspects of New Church education and of missionary work; two scholarly articles on the Dead Sea Scrolls, biography, and a modest venture into fiction.

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     CIRCULATION

     Figures as of December 31, 1956, supplied by the Business Manager show that paid subscriptions increased by 46, from 902 to 948. Total circulation is shown in the following tabulation:
                                        1955     1956
     Paid subscriptions                         902     948
     Free to our Ministers, to Public Libraries, New
      Church Book Rooms, Exchanges, etc          128     127
     Free to Men and Women in the Services          45     44
                                        1075     1119

     An analysis made last November, when paid subscriptions totaled 920, showed that 760 paid subscriptions came from members of the General Church.
     Respectfully submitted,
          W. CAIRNS HENDERSON,
               Editor.

     RELIGION LESSONS COMMITTEE

     Lessons for all the years from kindergarten through four years of high school are now in use. The total number is 491, or an average of forty-one a year. Two hundred and ten of the lessons are provided with full page drawings for the children to color. Two hundred and ninety have each two small inset drawings intended to interest the children and help them to understand the story. Four hundred of them have question papers, by which returns are made to the counselors and "teachers" or correspondents. Besides these there are at least one hundred festival lessons, sent out specially at Thanksgiving, Christmas, Swedenborg's birthday, Palm Sunday and Easter, and New Church Day or the Nineteenth of June Also pre-school children are supplied with forty-five drawings, or three booklets of drawings to color: the first of Animals of the Word, the second of The Garden of Eden Story, the third of The Story of Moses.

     During the last year there has also been issued a book of Fifty-six Talks for Use in Family Worship by Fifteen General Church Ministers. This collection of "Talks," all of which had been previously published and most of which had been originally given in the Bryn Athyn Cathedral, has been much appreciated, judging by letters about it received.
     During the last year, also, Theta Alpha has sent out three cut-outs, all mimeographed and distributed from my office, the first on the Easter Story, the second for Thanksgiving, the third for Christmas. All were drawn by Mrs. Walsh and sent to the families receiving the lessons for the children to color, cut out and assemble. They also have been much appreciated according to letters received, and reports.
     Mrs. Richard Bostock continues to do all the speed-o-scoping and to draw a few of the pictures. Mrs. Andrew Klein is the artist of most of the new and revised drawings. Mrs. Byron Gates does all the mimeographing and much other work. And Miss Elizabeth Whitehead does most of the typing and stenciling. The work could not possibly be done without their help. Nor would the work be available to anyone, if it were not distributed by the counselors and teachers, who, in Glenview, Pittsburgh, Detroit and here, number close to one hundred.

205

And all their work is voluntary. The amount of it is measured not only by their meetings and the mailing of the lessons, but also by the letters they write to children and parents.
     In addition there is the mimeographing and circulation of the journal NEW CHURCH EDUCATION. And the extent of the work can be estimated by its circulation of approximately four hundred; the number of families served, which is two hundred and sixty-one; and the number of children in our files, which is six hundred and sixty-one. And these figures of families and children include only those in the United States and Canada.
     Respectfully submitted,
          FREDERICK E. GYLLENHAAL,
               Director.

     SOUND RECORDING COMMITTEE

     Year by year, we have been able to report an increased use of our services. With a total circulation in 1956 of 1000 tapes, last year was no exception. The figures for 1952 through 1956-784, 814, 888, 930, 1000-show a steadily growing demand for the type of tape-recordings we make available. Last year's operations represent on average borrowing of 83 tapes per month. The number of titles listed in the catalog is 966; the number of locations served is 52; and the number of subscribers averages about twelve more than the number of locations. The number of listeners has never been determined; for a single playing it may be anything from one to seventy-five.
     A physical inventory recently completed shows $9600 worth of equipment and $5600 in tape.
     Special mention should be made of the following things. A program of conversion to new equipment, for which special contributions were made, was nearly completed during the year; and, in addition to obtaining equipment for itself, the committee delivered some 17 new machines to listeners. Last spring the office and recording studio of the committee were moved into the Undereroft, pending final removal to the new all-purpose building. The Twenty-first General Assembly in London was recorded professionally for the committee, and recordings were in this country within twenty- four hours of the close of the Assembly. The resignation of Mr. Ralph McClarren, a charter member, was accepted with sincere regret. Mr. Boyd Asplundh has accepted appointment as secretary in his stead.
     Respectfully submitted,
          W. CAIRNS HENDERSON,
               Chairman.

     GENERAL CHURCH SALARY COMMITTEE

     In view of the increased salary scales of our ministers and teachers, which went into effect on September 1, 1956, no general revisions of the plans are contemplated this year.
     There is, however, a feeling that the Canadian differential is not justifiable, at least in part. The Committee will therefore give this problem consideration; and it will be desirable at the same time to look into the individual situations of those of our ministers who are located elsewhere than on this continent.
     Respectfully submitted,
          PHILIP C. PENDLETON,
               Chairman.

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     GENERAL CHURCH PUBLICATION COMMITTEE

     The Committee was appointed in June 1956 (NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1956, page 519), but could not meet until January 25. It was then organized with Rev. K. R. Alden as Secretary. The other members are Rev. H. C. Cranch (Los Angeles), Rev. N. H. Reuter (Detroit), and H. L. Odhner (Bryn Athyn). Owing to distances, effective work will depend on prompt letter-writing.
     Before the Committee at present are certain manuscripts recommended by the Committee on Church Extension. Many in the Council of the Clergy felt that our Committee should take initiative and invite specific ministers to send in manuscripts on stated subjects which seem of timely importance, rather than meekly wait for literary offerings. I had some doubt as to the authority and competence of our Committee to do so; but since we will publish nothing without the support of the Board of the General Church, and can promise no certainty of printing to prospective authors, there seems to be no danger of our going beyond our intended field.
     It may be necessary to ask the Board for some modest funds for expenses that are preliminary to publication. The Committee is also of the opinion that whatever books or pamphlets may be printed through this agency should be priced to sell, not he priced to recover full costs. Publicity is also necessary for publishing, and to print a book without promoting its sale and distribution defeats our ends.
     Respectfully submitted,
          HUGO LJ. ODHNER,
               Chairman.

     VISUAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE

     Herewith is the report of the General Church Visual Education Committee for the year 1956.
     During the year 1433 slides were borrowed from our library. They went to the following places:

Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Chicago, Ill.
Colchester, and the Open Road in England.
Denver, Col.
Detroit, Mich.
Fort Worth, Texas.
Gorand Junction, Col.
Kitchener, Ontario, Can.
Miami Beach, Fla.
Kingsland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Philadelphia, Pa.
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Stockholm, Sweden.
Washington, D. C.

     On January 1st, 1956, we had a balance on hand of $244.84. Receipts during the year amounted to $63.05, $25.00 of which was a donation, the rest being for rental and postage on slides loaned. Expenses amounted to $12.63, leaving a balance on hand on December 31, 1956, of $295.26.
     As in former years our accounts have been audited and approved as correct by Mr. Ariel C. Gunther.
     Respectfully submitted,
          WILLIAM R. COOPER,
               Director.

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NEITHER CROSS NOR TOMB 1957

NEITHER CROSS NOR TOMB Editor 1957

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

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

Editor      Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager      Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address, and business communications, should be sent to the Circulation Secretary. Notifications of address changes should be received by the 15th of the month.

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
$3 00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single copy, 30 cents.
The literal Scriptures ever remind us that the greatest stories have been told in the fewest words. Thus the inner truth which gives purpose and coherence to the Lord's earthly life, death and resurrection, was expressed by Him in one sentence: "Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die it abideth alone; but if it die it beareth much fruit" (John 12: 24). Man is born to die that he may live; and in coming into the world by birth of a virgin the Lord willed to suffer death and to rise again the third day-but to the end that He might put off the maternal human and put on a Human from the Divine itself that was in Him' in which Divine Human He has all power to save those who truly believe in Him. Therefore the angels have no thought of His death and burial, but of the purification of His Human and of glorification.
     This the Lord taught by the comparison quoted from John, and this that He taught determines our approach to Easter. The more we reflect in the light of the Writings, the less may we depreciate the passion on Calvary. But as a church we do not seek the living among the dead on Easter morning. We do not, like the Magdalene, seek conjunction with the human that was crucified. The Heavenly Doctrine raises our thought and would uplift our affections, to the Divine Human, now revealed in the Lord's second coming. For us, therefore, the sign and symbol of the Lord's Saving presence is neither the stark crucifix nor the cross which throws its gaunt shadow darkly over the earth. It is the open Word which is the source of life, and which sheds a flood of light on the mind that in darkness is yet prepared to receive it.

208

Church News 1957

Church News Various 1957

     BALTIMORE, MD.

     A year has passed since we last recorded our activities. This reporter, not the year, is at fault.
     Much excitement was caused last summer by the discovery one Sunday that twenty feet of the chapel property had been literally dug out to a depth of fifty feet by a sand and gravel company operating in the rear of our land. The wheels of the law were set in motion.
     Dale Doering, whose presence here was enjoyed for several months, was released from the army and Fort Meade, but since last Easter Capt. Linda Hamm has been on duty at that post and, happily, adds to our ranks. In May, Bernice Nelson was born to Gerald and Edith, and since last fall she has been a regular and very good attendant at church. Her baptism was the occasion for a joyous get together in the Nelson home after the service in the chapel. Missing from our regular ranks is Mr. John Needer. His new position with Philco took him to Alaska last November, but we are happy that his wife and two daughters remained with us.
     Last April we were glad to welcome the Rev. and Mrs. Louis B. King. Mr. King conducted the Sunday service on an exchange basis with our pastor. On April 21st the Washington-Baltimore Sons opened their meeting to the adults of both societies. After a supper served at a restaurant in Hyattsville, Md., the Right Rev. Willard D. Pendleton addressed us on the general subject of the Academy, going into its organization and its various departments and stressing its aims for the future and the problems connected with them. There was, unfortunately, a time limit on the use of the room; but those who were able to then accepted the gracious hospitality of the Fred Grants, and in their home numerous questions about our educational philosophy kept Bishop Pendleton talking for quite some time. We were fortunate in having him preach here the next day.
     We celebrated New Church Day with a banquet after service on the chapel lawn.
We had no church functions in July, but our pastor was our one representative at the General Assembly in London. Services were resumed in August, and there was also a delightful picnic at the Trimbles' farm with most families from Washington and Baltimore attending. The picnic included a shower for Kay Kintner and Karen Doering, who were to leave soon for school in Bryn Athyn.
     The marriage of Miss Marcia Trimble and Mr. Tom Gladish was solemnized in the chapel on September 1st, with Bishop De Charm's officiating. Your reporter, who was the organist, received two unforgettable impressions. The first, upon arriving early, was in seeing the beautiful bride, dressed in her lovely full-skirted gown, standing alone in front of the small chancel, which was exquisitely decorated with red and white carnations and clematis. The second was in seeing the devotion in the expressions of the bride and groom as they took their marriage vows. The latter privilege, usually reserved for the minister, resulted from the necessity of moving the organ to the side of the chancel to make more seating room. Never have we had more out of town visitors. To accommodate all the friends of Marcia and Tom the reception was held at the Linthicum Heights Women's Club, where a much larger group gathered to give their best wishes to the happy couple. Space forbids mentioning all visitors; but we were especially happy to welcome the groom's mother from Glenview, and many from the faculty of the Academy, whose feelings were no doubt mixed as they lost another New Church teacher to matrimony.
     For five months Mr. Pendleton experimented with having weekly doctrinal classes in both Washington and Baltimore, but with his many other classes this proved too much of a load and we are now back on a biweekly schedule. However, we benefited greatly by having some intensive instruction on influx, which was in many respects as practical as it was fascinating and which certainly brought the other world very near.

209

     Bishop and Mrs. De Charms were again with us on November 11th, this time for a joint episcopal visit to the Washington and Baltimore Societies. A meeting was held at the American Legion Hall in Greenhelt, Md., where we had services, a buffet luncheon, and then an open discussion of the activities and future plans of the two societies. We Baltimoreans are glad to see the prosperous and growing condition of the Washington Society, and regret that we cannot show the same growth in numbers. Nevertheless, we are grateful that Washington is willing not to "go it alone," as we find the present arrangement most satisfactory
     Thanksgiving Day saw a special service in the chapel, with fruit offerings from the children. Our children's Christmas party, on December 16th, was again held in the hospitable home of Dr. Roscoe Coffin. After a talk by Mr. Pendleton the children were presented with candy canes and a leather belt made especially for each child by Mr. Alfred Arrington, gold for the girls and black for the boys. Christmas Day was fittingly commemorated with a lovely service in the chapel.
     On February 6th Mr. Pendleton deviated from his regular classes to give a talk on Swedenborg's introduction into the spiritual world, drawing most of his material from the Journal of Dreams and showing something of the personal struggle our seer underwent. Swedenborg's birthday was celebrated by a luncheon in the chapel after service the following Sunday At that time Mr. Pendleton addressed the children on Swedenborg's character, stressing his love for children and their love of him. The rapt attention of the youngesters proved that the subject was well chosen and well received.
     We found ourselves once again with the Washington Society in the home of the Fred Grants on February 16th. Under the auspices of the Sons we there attended a most interesting lecture by Mr. Ariel Gunther of Bryn Athyn. His subjects, well illustrated by slides, were stained glass windows and mosaics. We left with the impression that the New Church in Bryn Athyn, under the leadership and inspiration of Mr. Raymond Pitcairn, and through such dedicated craftsmen as Mr. Gunther and Mr. Winfred Hyatt, has indeed contributed to the art of the ages.
     JANET H. DOERING

     SWEDENBORG SOCIETY

     Swedenborg's Birthday Meeting

     The Swedenborg Society held its customary celebration of Swedenborg's birthday at Swedenborg Hall on Tuesday evening, January 29th. The meeting began with tea, at which about seventy members gathered, and the number present when the formal program began was in the region of a hundred.
     The President of the Society, the Rev. Clifford Harley, took the chair and read a number of apologies for absence. A message from Mr. H. Goyder Smith, at present in hospital, was read and it was agreed that a message from the meeting be sent to him. The President then introduced Miss Violet Pusey and her accompanist, Miss Phyllis Norbrook, who delighted the audience with their playing.
     The first speaker was Mrs. Clifford Harley, M.A., who gave a witty and informative paper on "Translators at Work." Describing the history of the Advisory and Revision Board, and giving a number of quotations on the art of translation in general, she succeeded in giving a clear picture of what the "A. & R. Board" is aiming at and how it sets to work to attain that end.
     After more delightful music the second speaker, Mr. John Chadwick, MA., gave a paper on "Swedenborg as a Stylist." Mr. Chadwick spoke in general terms of the use of Latin as the language of scholarship in the eighteenth century and proceeded to describe the different styles used by Swedenborg in his various works; contrasting that of the Arcana Coelestia with, say, that of the Worship and Love of God, and comparing passages from his scientific works with passages from Newton's Principle Mathematica.
     The program ended with more violin solos and the President then expressed the warm thanks of the meeting to Miss Pusey and Miss Norbrook for the pleasure they had given. Sir Thomas Chadwick moved a vote of thanks to Mrs. Harley for her address, which, he said, had given the members a much clearer idea of what the Advisory and Revision Board has to do and what are its problems. Dr. Freda Griffith thanked Mr. Chadwick for his interesting study, remarking that the different styles of Swedenborg's writing undoubtedly matched the contents of the works. Both votes of thanks were carried with acclamation, and with a final "thank you" to the ladies who had prepared the tea the President brought to a close another happy and useful social occasion.
     FREDA GRIFFITH

210

     THE CHURCH AT LARGE

     General Convention. The Brockton Society celebrated in January the 100th anniversary of the dedication of its present building. Later in the year the Newtonville Society, Massachusetts, will celebrate the end of its first century.

     Switzerland. Die Neue Kirche, a publication of the German-speaking New Church in Europe, suspended publication with its November-December issue for 1956. Suspension was due to the death last November of the Rev. Adolf L. Goerwitz, its editor for thirty years. Dr. Friedemann Horn, Convention minister in central Europe, will shortly begin a new publication The Swedenborg Verlag in Zurich, Switzerland, will be responsible for the publication.

     New Zealand. The Rev. Richard H. Teed, who retired some years ago from the pastorate of the Melbourne Society in Australia, has accepted a call to the pastorate of the New Zealand Society in Auckland. Mr. Teed was for many years editor of the NEW AGE, official organ of the Australian Conference.
EPISCOPAL VISIT 1957

EPISCOPAL VISIT Editor 1957

Bishop De Charms is planning an episcopal tour of the Groups and Circles of the General Church in the Western United States and Canada during the coming summer. He will be accompanied by Mrs. De Charms, and they will travel by air. The trip will include the dedication of a church building in Tucson, Arizona; a Western District Assembly in Glendale, California, where it is hoped that the church building will be ready for dedication; a Northwestern Assembly in Oakville, Washington; a Peace River District Assembly in Dawson Creek, British Columbia; and an ordination service in Denver, where the Rev. Robert S. Junge is to be introduced into the second degree of the priesthood.
MINISTERIAL CHANGES 1957

MINISTERIAL CHANGES Editor 1957

Rev. Jan H. Weiss has accepted appointment, effective September 1st, as assistant to the pastor of the Glenview Society, and as visiting pastor by appointment to the Madison, St. Paul-Minneapolis Circles, groups, and the Chicago District. Mr. Weiss, at present assistant to the pastors of the Kitchener and Toronto Societies, will replace the Rev. Ormond Odhner, who will enter the faculty of the Academy of the New Church as an instructor.

211

Announcements 1957

Announcements LEONARD E. GYLLENHAAL 1957

ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH Editor 1957

     SCHOOL CALENDAR: 1957-1958

     Eighty-first School Year

     1957

Sept.     6     Fri.     Faculty Meetings. Dormitories open
     7     Sat.     Opening Exercises. President's Reception
     9     Mon.     Registration
     10     Tues.     Classes begin in Secondary Schools
Oct.     25     Fri.     Charter Day
     26     Sat.     Annual Meeting of Corporation
Nov.     27     Wed.     Close for Thanksgiving after classes
Dec.     2     Mon.     Classes resumed
     20     Fri.     Close for Christmas after classes

     1958

Jan.     6     Mon.     Classes resumed
     31     Fri.     End of First Semester
Feb.     3     Mon.     Second Semester begins
     21     Fri.     Washington's Birthday Holiday
Mar.     21     Fri.     Close for Spring Recess after classes
     31     Mon.     Classes resumed
Apr.     6     Sun.     Easter
May     30     Fri.     Memorial Day Holiday
June     6     Fri.     Annual Joint Meeting of Corporation and Faculty
     12     Thur.     President's Reception
     13     Fri.     Commencement Exercises

213

WRITINGS AS THE WORD 1957

WRITINGS AS THE WORD Rev. ALFRED ACTON 1957

     A Study in the History of Doctrine
     (Written between 1936 and 1948.)

     It has been supposed by many persons that the teaching as to the Writings of the New Church being the very Word of God originated with leaders of the Academy, though attention has more than once been called to the early existence of this teaching.* Indeed, from an historical point of view, it would be a more remarkable circumstance and a matter for wonder if this doctrine had not been acknowledged until one hundred years after the founding of the church. For it is difficult to imagine how men could have the courage-not to say the hardihood-to proclaim that a New Church had come upon the earth; to preach abroad that the present Christian Church has come to an end; to institute a new priesthood, a new baptism, new worship; to do all this, if they did not rest their teaching and their action on the authority of Divine revelation, i.e., of immediate revelation from the Lord Himself. And equally difficult would it be to imagine that the revelation could be accepted as from the Lord and not at the same time be accepted as His Divine Word to the New Church.
     * See, for instance, Odhner's Testimony of the Writings, pp. 35-36, and NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1925, pp. 360-61.
     But we are not called on to make any such strain on our imagination for from the very commencement of the church, and many years prior to its external organization-indeed, during Swedenborg's own life-the doctrine that the Writings are the Word of the Lord has been openly proclaimed. History, moreover, shows that the first organization of the New Church was based upon the acknowledgment of this doctrine.
     The first known mention of the doctrine is made by a Swedish Lutheran clergyman, in December 1771, when Swedenborg was still living, a year and a half after the Royal judgment had been given in the Gothenburg Trial of Beyer and Rosen for "Swedenborgianism" for bidding the importation or circulation of Swedenborg's theological writings.

214

     Sven Schmidt was a pastor in the Skara Diocese, where formerly Bishop Jesper Swedberg had been for many years the presiding Bishop. How Pastor Schmidt came to read the Writings is not known. But it is a fact that hardly needs explanation because: 1) When it became known, in 1766, that Swedenborg claimed spiritual vision, the matter was widely noised abroad in Sweden. 2) The trial of Beyer and Rosen in 1769 had made a great stir and had spread far and wide the fame of Swedenborg the theologian. 3) Even before this trial, as von Hopken testifies, "The clergy of Gothenburo and Westgothland [containing Skara] are more infected [with Swedenborgianism] than is generally believed."* And, finally, 4) the name of Swedenborg was highly honored in the Skara Diocese because of the honored memory of the late Bishop Jesper Swedberg. But-however and whenever Schmidt came to accept Swedenborg's Writings-accept them he did, and this with absolute faith in their Divine authority. "He openly believed," says Sundelin in his Swedenborgianismens Historia in Sverige, p. 139, "that through Swedenborg's writings the Lord had raised up a new doctrine and a new church body; and even in the halls of the Consistory, he declared that this doctrine was in every respect a Divine doctrine."
     * NEW CHURCH LIFE 1898 p. 107.
     In December, 1771, Schmidt, who was then thirty-two years old and had been in the priesthood for eight years, was cited before the Skara Consistory to answer the charge of heretical teaching. This was but the beginning of a long persecution, and in the remarkably detailed official accounts of this trial-upon which Sundelin based the opinion cited above-we find clear evidence of Schmidt's recognition of the Writings as the Word of God.
     In the Minutes of the Skara Consistory* for December 11, 1771, Schmidt was subjected to the following examination: "Asked if it was true, as reported by Pastor Luth, that he had burned up all his books; and if he had not used scandalous utterances in the presence of Luth and others; he answered that the first charge was true, and that, with the exception of Swedenborg's writings, none of these was left but the Bible in its original languages and in Swedish translation together with the Swedish Book of Church Law; that, as the Lord had raised up a new church body. so the old must perish and there will be a new doctrine from the Lord through the writings of the Honorable Assessor Swedenborg. In his opinion, these writings are the work of the Lord, and are one and the same as the Holy Scriptures.

215

This opinion Schmidt had derived from the Lord through the Word."
     * A transcript of these Minutes is to be found in the Academy Library. The extract quoted above is taken from pages 577-78 of this transcript. (Jonkoping MSS., pp. 577-78).
     The testimony thus courageously given by Pastor Schmidt constitutes the first recorded public statement that the Writings of Swedenborg are the Word of God equally as are the Old and New Testaments; and being made while Swedenborg was still on earth engaged in publishing his Writings, though Pastor Schmidt had never met him, the utterance gives the stronger testimony that it was founded on an inner conviction of the Divine truth of his Writings.
     Soon after Swedenborg's death, the question of the status of the Writings was actively discussed among his followers, and it was but natural that light should be sought from Dr. Beyer who had been in intimate touch with the Revelator himself. Among the papers preserved in the Nordenskjold family is a long letter written, as shown by internal evidence, to Mr. C. F. Nordenskjold,* a young man of twenty-three years who was then reputed the most intelligent and profound student of the doctrines. The letter is written in response to several inquiries addressed to Dr. Beyer, the most important of which concerned the status of the Writings in their relation to the Old and New Testaments. It is with this question that the greater part of Dr. Beyer's letter is concerned.
     * NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1930, p. 324.
     The new revelation, writes Dr. Beyer, "is not a new Divine Word but a disclosure in the Word we had, which is the Crown of all Heavenly revelation." That the Doctor did not mean this statement as in any sense derogating from the absolute Divinity of the Writings as the Lord's revelation or Word to the New Church is clear from the closing words of the paragraph cited, which characterize the Writings as "the Crown of all Heavenly revelation." His true meaning is that the Writings are not meant to replace the Divine Word; they are not a new Word in place of the former Word; not a new literal sense of the Word. They are the internal sense of the Word, and as such are the Word itself. For, says Dr. Bever, "the spiritual sense is the Word itself and is what is holy in the Word." Therefore, as he truly declares, they are "the crown of all heavenly revelation," and therefore the Doctor himself calls them "holy books."
     That this is the Doctor's meaning is clear from the whole tenor of his letter. He divides the Writings into four general classes: 1. The Expository. 2. The Doctrinal Parts. 3. Spiritual Experiences. 4. Philosophical and Scientific Principles Confirmatory of the Divine Truth. And of all these, Dr. Beyer expressly says that what is written is from the Lord alone and is infallible truth.
     1. Of the expository portions, he observes that they are found in the Arcana Coelestia, Apocalypse Revealed and in portions of the other Writings, and he then continues:

216

"The spiritual sense is the Word itself and is what is holy in the Word. This has been dictated to the Assessor out of heaven (AC 6597), and therefore it brings immediate communication with heaven. It is not a new Divine Word but a disclosure in the Word we had, which is the Crown of all heavenly revelation."
     The passage here referred to reads: "That the internal sense is such as has been stated, is evident from the several passages that have been explained, and especially from the fact that this sense has been disclosed to me out of heaven" (AC 6597).
     2. Of the doctrinal portions of the Writings, Dr. Beyer observes: "The doctrine from the Word is the same as the understanding of the Word as to its inner meaning." And again: "It must be well borne in mind that this Apostle [Swedenborg] did not receive the least part of it from any angel but from the Lord alone (TCR 779; DP 135; AR Pref.). Consequently, the doctrine is Divine as to all its contents and gives immediate communication with the new Christian heaven." In one of the passages here referred to, the statement is: "No spirit has desired nor angel wished to say anything, still less to instruct concerning anything in the Word, or concerning any doctrine from the Word, but the Lord alone has taught me' (DP 135). The word "alone" is used also in the same connection in the other passages cited by Dr. Beyer, and this clearly is the reason the latter puts such emphasis on that word.
     It will be noted that the Doctor states that the doctrine revealed in the Writings of Swedenborg "gives immediate communication with the new Christian Heaven." That he intends this statement to claim the Writings as the Divine Word for the New Church is indicated by what he says as to the doctrinal books of the Apostles. These are not written in the style of the Word, he observes, and he continues: "This style brings immediate communication with heaven; but in the doctrinal books [of the Apostles] is another style which indeed has communication with heaven but only mediately."
     3. Turning to those portions of the Writings which reveal the nature of the spiritual world. Dr. Beyer observes that Swedenborg's "every experience with regard to the spiritual world is infallible truth."
     4. Finally, of the philosophy and science in the Writings, he says that when sciences are one with spiritual truth they become true and infallible. "Such are they; they are all Divine."
     Whatever, then, may be thought of the terms by which Dr. Beyer would express the status of the Writings as compared with the Old and New Testaments, there can be no doubt that he held them to be the Crown of Revelations, given by the Lord alone, containing in their every word infallible truth, and bringing men into immediate communication with the new heaven.

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Is it any wonder that in answer to the second point in his correspondent's letter, he says: "There are no contradictions in the Writings"; or that he says: "Writings revealed by the Lord, or a Divine Word, or Divine Doctrine, have not existed in Europe except the books of the Old and New Testament, the writings of the Apostles, and especially the writings of the Apostle of the New Church."
     It might be thought of this last quotation that Beyer classifies the Epistles as the Divine Word, or else that he classifies the Writings with the Epistles. It seems clear, however, from the whole tenor of his letter, that he makes a clear distinction between the Writings and the Epistles-the one giving immediate communication with heaven, and the other only mediate; the one being the works of Divine guidance, the other the work of a Revelator.
     Mr. C. F. Nordenskjold, to whom the above letter was addressed, was extremely active with his brother Augustus in plans for the spreading of the knowledge of Swedenborg's doctrine, and as he gathered around him other receivers, he undoubtedly imparted to them the many things communicated to him by Dr. Bever. Beyer's position with regard to the Writing he seems wholly to have accepted, and it is perhaps partly due to his influence that some, at any rate, of the early receivers of the church in England openly proclaimed the doctrine that the Writings are the Word. At any rate, Mr. Nordenskjold was one of the editors of the NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE, where this teaching was put forth.*
     * See NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE, 1790, p. v.
     In some "Hints for forming a Plan of a Consistorium Ecciesiasticum' by A. Nordenskjold, printed in this magazine, we read: "On the table of the consistory are to be placed all the theological writings of Swedenborg, and the English Bible; but on the president's chair is to be placed the WORD in Hebrew, Greek and Latin*" (p. 122). In a footnote, presumably by the editors of the magazine, we read: "*Concerning the Superscription on the Cross. It is worthy of observation, that the Doctrine of the New Church is written in the Latin Language, and in so easy and simple a manner, that a person but little versed in the language may without difficulty comprehend it. With respect to the Superscription on our Saviour's Cross in three languages-The reason is easily perceived why it was written in Hebrew and Greek, which represent the Old and New Testament: but no correspondence of its being also wrote in Latin could be ascertained, until the New Doctrine appeared."
     Another plain evidence of the belief that was held in the early Church in England that the Writings are the Word, is given in an advertisement of a lately published work, Swedenborg's New Year's Gift to His Readers for 1791.*

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The editor [B. Chastanier] of this work writes in the advertising pages at the end:
     * See New Church Review, 1907, p. 181-very excellent article on Chastanier by Mr. Hyde, who says (p. 205) An Adv. for "ES's New-Year's Gift" [etc.] is on the back of the very rare circular "Proposals for printing by Subscription ES's S.D. by a Society of Gentlemen. [London] 1791. Svo 8pp.
     "Some persons into whom this little work has fallen have found fault with the Editor for pointing out some erroneous translation in the Arcana Coelestia; to such he would observe that, believing the work of Emanuel Swedenborg to contain nothing but the most important spiritual and celestial truth, and even as a faithful witness to the Sacred Oracle, he considered it essentially necessary that into whatsoever language they may be translated, they should be rendered as genuine and as pure as possible. The conduct of the Romish Church has been deservedly censured for having adulterated the Word of God in all their transactions; can it therefore be wondered at that the Editor of the above sketch, who considers Swedenborg's works as of Divine Authority, should be jealous of preserving them as untainted with errors as it is universally acknowledged the books they expound should ever have been."
     * See New Church Review, 1907, p. 181-very excellent article on Chastanier by Mr. Hyde, who says (p. 205) An Adv. for "ES's New-Year's Gift" [etc.] is on the back of the very rare circular "Proposals for printing by Subscription ES's S.D. by a Society of Gentlemen. [London] 1791. Svo 8pp.
     In the earliest days of the New Church, however, there was a general agreement as to the Writings being a Divine revelation, and beyond this the question of their authority did not come up for discussion. The main theme of discussion in those days was not the status of the Writings but the necessity of complete separation from the Old Church. The first journals of the Church, 1790-1792, are filled with articles on this subject. It may be noted, however, that both sides recognized only one authority, the Writings, which are proclaimed as the crown of revelations and as the internal sense of the Word.
     Significant in this connection is the portrait of the Rev. Francis Leicester which is printed as a frontispiece to volume II of the MAGAZINE OF KNOWLEDGE* of which Mr. Hindmarsh was the editor. Mr. Leicester is shown holding two books, the Word and the Arcana Coelestia, so placed side by side as to form two volumes of a single Word-the Word in the letter and the Word in its internal sense. But we are left in no doubt as to this being the meaning intended. The MAGAZINE OF KNOWLEDGE was continued in 1792 as the NEW JERUSALEM JOURNAL, but after a single volume, this also was discontinued** and no new periodical appeared until May, 1799, when the first number of the AURORA was published.

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Here we find an article by the Rev. Francis Leicester, written under the pseudonym Philanthropos, "A Key to the right understanding of the theological Writings of Baron Swedenborg. 'That he himself was prepared and commissioned by the Lord, to write as he has done, and to open the Word in a threefold sense. . . . That his theological writings are not a revelation independent of the written Word of God; but the Word itself in its interior sense made manifest; as all the essential truths and doctrines he has opened and explained, were dictated to him by the Lord, while he was reading and attending to the written Word. Other things from the Lord, through the medium of angels'" (pp. 78-79).
     * This Magazine was the continuation of the NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE 1790 which is called volume I.
     ** The whole tone of these three journals is of authority. Mr. Mather speaks of the new revelation "from which I perceive the Son of Man speaking to me from His throne" (N. J. Jour., p. 34).
     In the early years of the church, as the policy of separation from the Old Church became established, there had evidently developed a difference of view between New Church men, and much discussion was had as to church government-one party wishing Episcopalian and the other a more democratic form. All agreed in acknowledging the Writings as the second coming of the Lord. Thus, in the Circular Letter calling the first General Conference of the New Church in England, it was stated as an article of belief:
     "XXXIX. That Now is the second Advent of the Lord, which is a coming not in Person but in the Power and Glory of the Sacred Scripture of His Holy Word which is Himself.
     "XL. That this second Coming of the Lord is effected by means of His servant Emanuel Swedenborg, before whom He hath manifested Himself in Person, and whom He hath filled with His spirit to teach the Doctrines of the New Church by the Word from Him."
     And the first resolution of the Conference itself, in 1789, was "That the Theological works of the Honorable Emanuel Swedenborg are perfectly consistent with the Holy Word, being at the same time explicatory of its internal sense in so wonderful a manner that nothing short of Divine Revelation seems adequate thereto. That they also contain the Holy Doctrines of the New Church signified by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation; which Doctrines he was enabled by the Lord alone to draw from the Holy Word while under the inspiration and illumination of His Holy Spirit."
     Yet there was evidently some disquiet even then as to the status of the Writings, for, whereas the proposition stated that the Second Coming of the Lord is effected by means of His servant Emanuel Swedenborg, and that this Coming is now, the Conference itself questions that the second Advent of the Lord which is a coming in the internal sense of His Holy Word has already commenced.

     (To be concluded.)

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REPENTANCE 1957

REPENTANCE Rev. FREDERICK L. SCHNARR 1957

     "And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and pie pare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve Him only, and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines." (I Samuel 7: 3)
     The story of Samuel's calling the house of Israel to repent of its idolatry describes, in the internal sense, the state of repentance which precedes reformation. We would note that this story indicates three successive stages. The first, in which we see the sons of Israel practising open idolatry, is a state of evil to which all men incline from their heredity. The second, in which Samuel calls the people to put away their idolatry, is a state of confession of sin. And the third, in which Israel turns to the Lord with prayer for forgiveness after putting away the strange gods, is a state of true repentance. These three states, that is, evil, confession and repentance, are the universal states which all men born into the world since the fall must pass through if they are to become regenerate men-inhabitant's of the Lord's heavenly kingdom.
     That all men are born with a native will, called the voluntary proprium, that inclines to evils of every kind is the clear teaching of revelation. We need only to examine our intentions and the motives of our actions to confirm this. Lust, murder, hate and idolatry, rise up through the love of self, attempting to find their ultimate expression and power in man's thoughts and deeds.
     Through countless ages the hells have induced on the world their perversions and disorders. And such is the subtle power of their persuasion that man finds himself, at times, unable to decide what actually is of order, and what is of disorder. If he attempts to allow his feelings alone to guide him, he finds that the delights and desires of the natural man soon break forth into open passion and lust, bringing about such a state of disorder that it becomes increasingly impossible for him to approach the Lord. And when he further calls forth the forces of reason to confirm his loves, he so justifies himself in his own eyes, as to see no necessity to present and humble himself before the Divine Being. If he attempts to allow reason alone to guide him, he finds either that his thoughts turn more and more to that material world in which experience and sensation reign supreme, or that he is lost in a host of abstractions and possible theories, all of his own design. He is sure of nothing.

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Man, without having his thought based on the first principles of the Divinely revealed purposes in creation, and without the guidance of the Divinely revealed laws of order, is like a wanderer on a great desert-scorched by the heat of his own proprial loves, and stumbling in the shifting sands of his own intelligence. He builds his idols from the dust of the earth, and worships the gods of worldly loves and selfish desires.
     Because, then, man left to himself would never find the kingdom of heaven, the Lord sends Samuel, or the Divine truths of the Word, to help him. He shows him the path he must follow, the orderly progression of the states leading to angelic life. He shows him the works he must do, and the life he must reject. He gives His love freely to inspire mankind with hope and courage, desiring that all should find the peace and happiness of heaven.
     The Writings teach that the man who is desirous of coming out of the state of disorder and evil must first present himself before the Lord by acknowledging and confessing the loves and desires of his heart. To do this, man must know what is meant by sin, and how it is to be discerned within the delights of his will. And the only way these things can be known is for man to acquire for himself a knowledge of the truths of the Word. For no man can know his sin unless he knows the truths that reveal it.
     The reason confession is difficult, requiring much self-compulsion, is that the natural man rebels and rises up against it. It does not like to condemn itself, nor to acknowledge any other power than its own. In defending itself, it uses every subtle power at hand, even the things of religion. It points out to the conscience that it has kept the commandments of the Decalogue and therefore has no sin to confess. But the Lords words speak from the pages of Scripture in reply: "Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not murder; and whosoever shall murder shall be in danger of the judgment; but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall he in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire" (Matthew 5: 21, 22). Thus does revelation call on man to regard not only the wrongful actions of the body as means of sin, but also wicked thoughts and intentions which delight the will. And on this inner plane it is manifestly evident that all men are sinners.
     In confessing, then, man must see, know and acknowledge the evil in his thoughts and in the motivations of his will.

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He must ask himself what he would do if the bonds of society, of reputation, of honor, and of the fear of punishment were removed, so that his thought and will were in complete freedom to express themselves. And then, after having thus explored himself, he must turn to the Lord, condemning himself as a miserable sinner, and humbly acknowledge that of himself he is nothing but evil. In this way does confession become the first stage of repentance, and the idols of self and the world are recognized as such.
     Confession of sin, however, is not sufficient for the shunning of evil as sin against God. One may acknowledge that he is a sinner like all other men, he may regard himself as being guilty of all evils, and still he may not repent of his sins. Such were the sons of Israel, who praised God with sacrifices and burnt offerings, and then went whoring after other gods. Such were the Pharisees and Sadducees who praised God with their lips, yet with their deeds destroyed Him. Such is the greater portion of the doctrine of the Christian churches, which teaches that man is saved by faith alone. Such are the priests who claim the power of forgiving sin, who claim that the keys of the kingdom of heaven are in human hands. Such are all who confess their sins with their lips and yet continue to practise a life of evil.
     The teaching of the Heavenly Doctrine is that sins are not forgiven through the confession of the mouth, nor are they washed off as one would wash dirt off the hands in water; they are forgiven through repentance, which is of the life, and are then removed by the Lord (see AC 8390-8393; HD 162-166). True repentance is done when man desists from evil because it is evil, and attempts to lead a life in accord with the truths of Divine revelation (see AC 8389, 9448; AE 162).
     The importance of the doctrine of repentance may be seen if we reflect that in every revelation, God has called man to repent. So it is written in Ezekiel: "Thus saith the Lord God; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations" (14: 6). So also does John the Baptist proclaim: "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3: 2). And the Lord while on earth taught: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1: 15). The Writings explain further that unless man begins to repent in this world, he cannot possibly do so in the world to come. For it is in this world that man forms and establishes his ruling love; and once this formation is effected, either with the confirmation of truth and good, or with that of evil and falsity, it remains so fixed forever. For man, once he has found and confirmed the delight of his life, never really desires to leave it or change it to all eternity. Thus, when he leaves this world, he seeks the societies either in heaven or in hell which are in accord with his love.

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     This teaching does not involve that man must be fully repentant and regenerate before death if he is to be saved; indeed, probably few men in this day and age approach that state. What it does involve, however, is that man must begin to turn himself away from evil towards good. For as long as there is a truly humble and sincere effort to turn to the Lord, then there is provided an opening by which the Lord can continue to help and lead him, gradually, further and further away from the merely sensual and corporeal delights of the body to the spiritual delights of heaven. When man provides but a few things, he makes it possible for the Lord to work in many things. This is illustrated in our story by the fact that whenever the sons of Israel turned to the Lord with repentant hearts, and ceased to worship strange gods, they were rewarded with victory over their enemies and with peace.
     Our thoughts concerning repentance cannot but be influenced by the ideas about it which are prevalent in the Christian world around us. Careful deliberation is required in order to keep the mind free from making repentance an emotional and temporary act. Such is the repentance, for example, involved in the concepts of instantaneous salvation and deathbed repentance. Such is the repentance involved in times of misfortune, battle, sickness and fear. During these states, in which the mind is borne down by stress and danger, reason becomes confused and allows itself to be swept along with the frantic urgings of the instinctive love of self-preservation. Having nowhere else to turn, man may then turn to God, passionately pouring forth his sins with the hope that he may yet be forgiven. No repentance takes place, however, in such states of mental compulsion. What good the Divine Providence may bring out of the disorders of disease, war and fear, is only an awakening in man to the need for repentance. After the danger is past, man either returns to his former life of evil, or he makes a new effort to live a life in accord with Divine law. Any true form of repentance must be made when man is in a state of peace and freedom. His reason must be clear to reflect, and then to direct his loves one way or the other. If he attempts to obey the commands of truth because he believes they are the teachings of God, then the Lord is able to open the interiors of his mind to receive the loves of heaven.
     While a true form of repentance involves that a man endeavor to live the life of religion from day to day, acknowledging his sins, guarding against them, and supplicating the Lord with prayers for help, still, we must also heed the warning of the Writings concerning the times of self-examination. For if man continually explores himself, searching for the motives and ends in every action of his mind and body, he will not only become frustrated in failing to find them, but in concentrating on self he will become so completely engrossed that his responsibilities and uses toward his fellow men will suffer.

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His mind will become turbid and morose, and he will lose the spirit of vitality and freshness which characterizes the healthy mind. So, in order that we do not fall into this state, revelation suggests that an examination of our ends and intentions should take place only once or twice a year. And it further indicates that the best time for such examination is before we approach the Holy Supper. For if the Holy Supper is approached with a repentant heart, the bread and wine, signifying love and wisdom, will indeed be given by the Lord to conjoin us more and more fully with the life and loves of heaven.
     If we become discouraged at times with the apparently small amount of progress that seems to have been made with a sincere effort to repent, let us recall that the re-ordering of the natural mind, and the opening of the spiritual mind by the Lord, is a process that requires many subtle changes and many elaborate formations. The love that is to remain forever the crown of man's existence cannot be born in a moment: temptation, struggle and compulsion, must ever be the means of its growth, until, in that time known to God alone, the love blossoms and bears its fruit in peace and happiness, leaving behind forever the burdens of its birth.
     Thus will the Lord fulfill the promise Samuel made to the sons of Israel, that if they would put away the images of their idolatry, the evil desires and loves of the proprium, He would help them conquer their enemies and bring them finally to the peace and happiness which are the rewards of strife.
     Because repentance is the first essential in the life of regeneration. it is fitting that whenever we reflect upon the promises of the future, whenever we set ourselves new standards and prepare to make new efforts in every concern of human life, we remember our responsibilities in the Lord's work of salvation. There is no man who does not have need of repentance. We are all sons of Israel. And Samuel's voice rings out from the pages of Scripture just as clearly today as it did in the days of old. The Divine truth is eternal; its message is the same to all men. It calls us to turn ourselves to the Lord, and with a truly repentant heart say with the Psalmist: "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139: 23, 24). Amen

     LESSONS:     I Samuel 7: 3-15. Revelation 2. DP 154: 1-2.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 467, 490, 487.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 19, 109.

225

LAST JUDGMENT 1957

LAST JUDGMENT Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER 1957

     4.     "Great Babylon is Fallen"

     The Treasure City

     Among the cities of the papists in the world of spirits there existed, before the Last Judgment, an immense underground metropolis which extended straight across the western quarter, and then, at right angles, straight across the southern quarter up to the great southern "chasm." The city was at the border of the "middle space" or inner square, which was occupied by the Protestant nations. The name of the city was called Great Babylon, or Rich Babylon, by Swedenborg. It was, of course, a spiritual city-a city of doctrines elaborated for centuries. Ingenuity and inventions of all sorts were there esteemed, and the inhabitants excelled in "the light of nature," or a "natural lumen," in which falsities can shine as resplendently as truths. (SD 5280ff)
     What this persuasive light is can be judged to some extent from the cleverness with which the Catholic Church builds up faith in its dogmas through carefully constructed reasonings, such as were employed by the schoolmen of the Middle Ages and which resulted in monumental systems of philosophy like that of Thomas Aquinas, which is still used; and then confirms these dogmas by proclaimed miracles. For many centuries no learning was permitted unless it was authorized by the Church. Scientific research and speculation were driven underground, to survive only as alchemy and sorcery. Popes and bishops also exerted power by much material wealth, and a vast part of Europe's land was in their hands. This hoarded wealth-but especially the apparent wealth of learning monopolized by prelates, monks and Jesuits-was represented in the spirit-world by gold and silver and precious stones, which were concealed in the Rich City Babylon in dark vaults lit by candles. (Revelation 18: 23; SD 5282-5293) It was represented also by the fact that the priests performed their masses, "not in the common language of spirits, but in a language composed of high-sounding words which induced an external holiness and awe, but were utterly unintelligible"; although this is against the law of the spiritual world. (lj 56; SD 5289, 4931, 6049)

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     But when they began to commune with certain magical hells, and while the dust they thought to be gold was being carried out of the crypts, the ground under these treasures commenced to bubble up and an earthquake engulfed many in nearby hells. Panic followed, and crowds of Jesuits and monks poured up through the shafts which connected the underground city with the mountaintop. Some tried to rescue their golden images, but in vain. Presently the mountain was borne away, exposing the city with its magnificent monasteries, palaces and temples. And at last the city itself was blown away by an east wind and dispersed as if into smoke; and with all its treasures it was cast into a great sea farther off to the west. A deluge came upon the place where it had been, and a monstrous dragon was at last seen hovering over it. (SD 5294-5303)
     Thus perished the great city Babylon, with the riches it had amassed through the ages; and it should be understood that the loss of these riches signified that the spirits ruling there had been deprived of the truths and goods which they had externally possessed, and by which they had exercised power. For "from him that hath shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have" (Luke 8: 18).
     The districts themselves in the world of spirits are permanent, while their populations shift and their features change in consequence. Swedenborg gives a number of diagrams of the various quarters to show their relative situations and the arrangement of the cities. In the case of the Rich Babylon this was the more necessary, he explains, "on account of turning to a quarter opposite from those who are above me' (SD 5302). Possibly this meant that while Swedenborg was observing these evil states he had to turn the sight of his understanding from the direction in which his angelic guardians faced-or from the direction of his love.

     The Aftermath of Judgment

     Even after the great cities of Babylonia had been destroyed, and their dominion broken, there were immense districts to be judged. One was a monastery region in the west, with twenty times as many monasteries as on earth. There the monks were sinful and gluttonous, and were almost entirely ignorant of doctrine. They went about at night, intimidating simple souls with miracles and threats. Only a few cloisters were above the earth, to observe the state of things there. The rest were beneath, for new monasteries of the same orders had been formed in each age, and the older ones had then let themselves down to lower levels. Those of the Dark Ages dwelt beneath those of the time of the Reformation and were not in so wicked a state.
     There were also many women, who had lived in almshouses, who infested Swedenborg while he was in the western quarter.

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These had lived indolent lives, and had loved gossip, eating and sleeping, and going to church-yet without any desire to be instructed. There were also beggars and hoboes who acted as if they were stuck together. In the west also there were many rich men who had lived in various centuries and continued to cherish fantasies of wealth. When their dwellings were laid open they scurried about like rats to save their treasures. (SD 5309-5321)
     All these regions were judged. But there remained in the farther west about twenty mountains, called the `seven mountains" in the Apocalypse because "seven' signifies what is profane. The spirits there were mostly from various parts of Italy and many were crafty in disposition, claiming that they possessed the power belonging to the Lord's human nature, and attempting in vain to practise the methods of the Inquisition. Some proclaimed themselves as gods; others maintained a devil-cult while at the same time worshipping the Divine, so that they might have a protective communication with certain simple good spirits who lived in a heaven on mountains that rise up near the Middle Space of the Protestants. In the judgment which these malignant spirits invited when their evils broke out, they were dispersed by earthquakes and became insane or stupid. Some were led through deserts and swamps, and had to cross certain bridges and then go through an underground tunnel; and the farther away they went the more stupid they became, until they lay down like corpses. Some were cast into the hells of the Nephilim-the antediluvian hells. (SD 5630-5638, 5648-5658)
     In the eastern quarter, the spirits who had made the fantastic `sun" were also promptly judged, and were dispersed into deserts in the north. But in the same quarter were multitudes who had been held in subjection, yet had been pious and upright and devoted to duty. Some of these were transferred farther east. But others, who were in inner sanctity and yet were infected with something of hypocrisy and a desire to rule, were brought to the west and the north, where those had formerly been who dwelt in almshouses. From the nuns and young women living in convents, the evil and adulterous were cast into deep hells. The rest, those who were not idle, were led to form a society without convents. But only a few stayed, for most of them could not be weaned from their conventual life. Many who had been diligent in domestic service, from affection and religion, were brought outside the region of the church to form a society in which they could learn the truths of faith and yet be protected from the infesting spheres of men. But those who were idle, and cultivated piety alone, were distributed among the adherents of their own religion to act as servants. (SD 5337-5343; LJ post. 109)
     Swedenborg then records: "Thus was Babylon devastated and utterly destroyed on three sides, the south, the west, and the north: this commenced at the end of the year 1756 and in the beginning of the year 1757; yesterday and today these three tracts, today being the 6th of January, 1757" (SD 5336).

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     The whole district was ruined. For the eastern tract also was cleared of false heavens. It is interesting to find that many of the things which happened before Swedenborg's eyes remind us of the prophetic descriptions in the Apocalypse, where it is said that the great city Babylon was mourned by the merchants of the earth, in that in one hour her judgment was come. For to the devastated tract came many merchants, who were accustomed to trade in her precious merchandise of gold and incense and slaves and the souls of men, and who lamented when they could not even drag any of these from the bottom of the western sea where everything had been cast. These "merchants" were monks and others who had been traveling abroad when the destruction came. (SD 5344, 5333) And some of the wealthy of the neighborhood, who lived only for luxury and amusement and worshipped God only from habit, were seen fleeing with millstones over their left shoulders, to signify how they could not get rid of their execrable dogmas by which they had enchained others. It is said in the Apocalypse that the sound of a millstone should not be heard again in Babylon (Revelation 18: 11, 21; SD 5335).

     The Residue of the Catholics

     What happened to those pious and good Catholics who had an affection of truth is also told. Many of them had been living in subjection in the eastern quarter. But now these were transferred to the west by a direct way across the Protestant tract; and they seemed to stop on the way and borrow silver and garments from the Protestants who were in truth but not in good, even as the sons of Israel borrowed from the Egyptians (SD 5405ff). They were then given fertile tracts in the northwest, near the Protestants, where they were instructed by priests from the Reformed in a school or college whence there is an entrance to heaven (LJ 63; SD 5504f; LJ post. 110ff). These new colonists in the west inherited also much treasure left underground by the monks, and this because they had an affection of truth. Other groups of simple good Catholics who had lived among the monks underground, but protected from the contagion of idolatry, were given places in the various quarters formerly occupied by the evil. Those who strongly adhered to Catholic tradition remained hidden near the western sea. (SD 5503)
     Thus a new, orderly arrangement was made around the Babylonish tract, providing a city like Rome in the west, with a good spirit presiding as "pope," schools conducted by converted monks, and enough spirits, both good and evil, to serve the needs of Catholics on earth. (LJ 56; TCR 820; SD 5408, 6022)

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The hells descend obliquely into the earth at the outer borders of the tract (SD 5501f). Since new spirits arrive all the time from Catholicism on earth, and many hundred thousands roam at large in the world of spirits, they are successively vastated. Similar monasteries appear, and there are similar judgments on a smaller scale. Babylonians gather as before on the mountains which represent their loves and seek to establish new "heavens." But before as many as two thousand gather, they are judged and their society is dissolved. They cannot return, and their false heavens collapse of themselves through the nearness of good spirits. (SD 5599f; TCR 818ff)
     Monks still persist in sending out emissaries to seduce the Reformed, but are punished if they do; for Babylonian spirits now have no intercourse with other spirits, but all spirits go to their own places soon after death (TCR 817f; LJ 64; AR 812: 3). Possibly the rise of nationalism may be of significance in this connection. The world of spirits is organized on the basis of natural affections, and the power of Babylonia is weakened by national loyalties.
     Many and great heavenly societies are formed from Catholics (U post. 112). All spirits who can receive truths of faith in the goods of life are instructed and elevated to heaven. It is not their fault that they are born in the Catholic Church. All their infants are in heaven, but these are ignorant of their parents' falsities.

     The Catholic Church on Earth

     It is to be observed that the description of the Babylonia of the spirit- world cannot, without many reservations, be regarded as a picture of the Catholic Church on earth. For one thing, the spirits of many past centuries were subject to the Last Judgment. The Writings say: "As regards Babylon in the natural world or on our earth, those meant by Babylon there are not in the same state as those in the spiritual world; and yet the exhortation (Revelation 18: 4) is also for them, that they may take heed to themselves" (AE 1107): "Come out of her, O My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues: for her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities" (Revelation 18: 4, 5).
     Concerning the end of Babylon the Writings say also: "Not that the idolatrous worship of such in the world will be destroyed and themselves with it, for this will remain, but not as the worship of any church but as the worship of paganism; consequently, such after death will come among pagans, and be no longer among Christians. But from those who have adored the Lord, and not the Pope or saints or graven images, a new church will be gathered up by the Lord" (AE 1029: 8, 10).

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     The Judgment on the Mohammedans

     In the last days of the year 1756, before the Mountain of Multitudes had been destroyed, the judgment came upon the Mohammedan spirits, whose tract was outside and round about the Catholic circuit (SD 5240ff, 5258ff). This judgment took less time. It took the form, mostly, of a migration from the west near the south, where the Moslems had dwelt distinguished according to nations. From this district they were led by a way around the Christian region, and through the deserts and bogs in the north beyond where the City of Multitudes still stood, and past the gulfs of that quarter unto the east, and, even farther, to the south. On the way the good were separated from the wicked, and it appeared as if these latter were cast into marshes and lakes or scattered in a far off desert in the north. The rest went on to the east and there colonized a vast area of mountains and valleys, behind certain Christian societies of instruction in the east towards the north. But the best proceeded farther south, and it was there that those Moslem heavens were established which had communication with Christian heavens because they accepted the belief that the Lord was not only the Son of God but one with the Father. (SD 5258ff; LJ post. 91ff) Some of these arrive at their heavens by an inner circuit, going from the lower earth, first to the east, then to the north and on a higher level over the west, and so to the south (LJ 91)
     The reason the judgment took this form of circuitous travel is that in the other life all states and spiritual contacts are repeated, so that each spirit may thus confirm or reject his previous attitudes. This often takes the form of communication with different quarters or classes of spirits, or by travel through the quarters.
     The Koran, the holy book of the Moslems, written by Mohammed contains something from the Old Testament and something from the New. A few pages in the Koran even contain correspondences by which there is some light in the Mohammedan heavens (SD 5809: 8).* The religion of Islam stresses the unity of God and was permitted in Providence that it might eradicate the prevailing idolatries; but it is accommodated to the genius of the orientals, and therefore allows polygamy and gives sensual ideas of heaven. The Lord is acknowledged as a great Prophet, and in a sense as the Son of God (CL 342; AE 1180: 2) because He was born of a virgin (Koran iii: 40-43).
     * It is stated in the Koran that in it "there are some verses clearly to be understood; they are the foundation of the book; but others are parabolic" (chap. iii).

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     Moslems after death usually seek for Mohammed, because they think he will intercede for them at the day of judgment. For this reason, before the Last Judgment, a spirit impersonating Mohammed was always provided who had acceded to the Christian religion, and who therefore appeared in some place beneath the Protestant Middle Space. (LJ 50; CLJ 69; TCR 829; CL 344; SD 5243) Some of these substitutes refused adoration; but others arrogated power to themselves, and when multitudes of good spirits deserted them they became openly angry and wanted their followers to invade Christendom. To quell such a crew the real Mohammed, a black and terrible spirit, was once raised up from the lower regions to announce, "I am your Mohammed," and sink down again (SD 5660a; TCR 830).
     One distinguished group of Moslems were the Moguls, whose empire-originating with the conquests of Ghengis Khan and Tamerlane-was beginning to totter in the 18th century. As spirits they were proud, and lived in wealth and magnificence on a mountain in the south. They were hostile to Christians, and their mountains were cast down and those of them who from love of self thought of Mohammed instead of God were deported into deserts or into hells (SD 5729).
     There are three grades of Mohammedan heavens. The first is introductory. The second consists of such as have rejected polygamy. The third or highest consists of those who acknowledge the Lord as the only God and one with the Father. Swedenborg conversed with some of these; and they gave reverent attention to the teaching that the Lord glorified His whole body and, differently from any man, took all things of the body with Him, because His soul was infinite. The same was also explained by angels to certain gentiles in the east. (SD 5063, 5244; LJ post. 87, 129) It may he noted as of interest that the Koran claims that Jesus was not crucified, but only His image, but that God took Him up unto Himself (chap. iv: 157)
     Moslems are instructed by teachers of their own religion who have been converted to Christianity (HH 515). They are so docile and obedient that Christian spirits were moved with shame (SD 403ff, 344). But when some "wished to go and join the heavenly Christian Church" they were advised to remain in the doctrine of the Koran about the Lord as the greatest Prophet and the Son of God, for their spiritual good and conscience had been formed from this faith, which could not suddenly be extinguished (LJ post. 97; SD 5669a; HH 516). The general teaching is that the Mohammedan heavens must remain distinct from the Christian heavens (CL 352, 342; LJ 50). Yet there is influx from the Christian heavens, and it is stated that many Mohammedans become Christians (SD 5246).

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     Judgment on the Gentiles

     It was noted that in the Babylonish City of Multitudes there were many idolaters from previous ages who were cast out into lakes and marshes toward the west. When this occurred, there started also a general judgment upon the gentiles who occupied two circuits beyond that of the Mohammedans. In the inner circuit were the Africans, and in the outside fringe were spirits from "the Indies" and other pagans. Still farther toward the circumference certain gulfs appeared, and the great surrounding sea which appears as a boundary for spirits of our earth. Still, these circuits appeared as if laid out, not in a plane, but in a globe. (SD 5240-5248, 5263-5265; AC 9583; LJ 48; LJ post. 126; SS 105e)
     The gentiles, like the Mohammedans, were judged by migrations through various quarters. All such spiritual travel is according to the successive states of thought from affection, for the ways that one walks spiritually are actual determinations of the thought (LJ 48). The Lord had said that at His second coming He would "send His angels . . . and they shall gather together the elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matthew 24: 31). This actually took place with the gentiles. They were led from the west, where most of them lived, and were brought a short way in the west and then directly above the northern level of the Christians without communicating with them, and so to the east; and were eventually allotted places at the east and south, on both sides of the Mohammedan heavens. Some who in the world had worshipped God under a human form were conjoined with Christians in heaven, even as it is written in Luke: "They shall come from the east and west, and from the north and the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God."
     During their migrations, the evil among them were diverted and cast into various gulfs, two of these openings to the pagan hells being on the two sides of the Moslem heavens, and two others stretching obliquely downwards in the west (LJ post. 127; LJ 51f; SD 5263ff, 5279). The judgment on these vast multitudes was completed in a few days. For ``everyone after being yielded up into his own love and into his own faith is immediately assigned and carried to his like" (LJ 51).

     The Africans

     The best, and also the most intelligent and lovable, among the gentiles were the Africans. They had an interior judgment and a genius akin to those of the celestial kingdom (TCR 835, 837; HH 326; SD 5518). Even before the judgment they had received instruction from angels in the Heavenly Doctrine, and had been promised "a Bible, but a new Bible from the Lord" (SD 4770ff).

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They were therefore more receptive of the Heavenly Doctrine than others on their earth, and were told that the Lord would come and establish a new church and that "His appearing is made through angels who teach" (LJ 118; SD 4783).
     Some years after the judgment, Swedenborg was brought, by changes of state, to the spiritual Africa in the southern quarter (SD 5946). He even drew a diagram of the district, which in some respects corresponded to our terrestrial Africa. He found that the wisest and best lived in a central region. These perceptively knew all that was in Swedenborg's mind, and more, and could speak truths; and although they seemed deficient in the knowledge of correspondences they were yet delighted to see their value. They told him that in this great tract they all worshipped the Lord, and were taught by many who communicated with the angels of heaven; and that the communication is not through speech by the angels, but through an interior perception; and that these are their instructors whom they perfectly discriminate from all others. If papists or other Europeans intrude and are unwilling to be their servants they send them away to Asia as slaves.
     These African spirits then received a copy of the Word and read it. At first they could see no holiness in it, but afterwards more and more of the internal sense became apparent. And then they gave it to their teachers, who admitted that they already had it. In fact, these angelic teachers said that they "dictated it to the men in Africa with whom they had communication, just as the Lord guides: hence it is evident that there is a revelation there" (SD 5946).
     In another account of the same visit, Swedenborg notes that some of these instructors "speak with Africans in the world; that this speech falls into their perception interiorly; and that they "perceive the influx and so receive the revelation with enlightenment" (LJ post. 124). In still another passage about the spiritual Africa, Swedenborg states: "It was told me from heaven that the truths now published in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Lord, concerning the Word, and in the Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem, are orally dictated by angelic spirits to the inhabitants of that country" (CLJ 76).
     Whether the Africans "in the world" here meant those in the world of spirits or those on our natural earth seems somewhat problematical. Certainly the Writings do not elsewhere mention any modes by which doctrine can be revealed to men by oral dictation on the part of angels. But in closing his account of his visit to the spiritual Africa, Swedenborg writes:
"Afterwards they were given the work Heaven and Hell, which they received and preserved; similarly also The Last Judgment and Earths in the Universe and also The White Horse, lastly the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, that they might pick out (eligant) those things which they saw useful" (SD 5946). All these books were published in 1758.

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     It is thus obvious that Africans in the spiritual world had knowledge of the Writings as well as of the Sacred Scripture, and that having this, they could the better receive angelic speech as an enlightenment of interior perception.
     That the books of the Heavenly Doctrine, after their publication on earth, existed in similar form in the spiritual world is clear from the above accounts. How far they can be of use in instructing gentiles depends, of course on the states of these spirits. Novitiate African spirits seem to gather still in the far west near the north; and there, we are told, they are visited by some of the instructors who in vast numbers are sent forth from a Christian heaven-which is also identified as a certain "seminary"-to distant nations. Those Africans who were in communication with this missionary school were such as had lived well and acknowledged one God under the human form. They were in the love of truth, desiring to find out how to live rightly, and knowing that the Lord would give them enlightenment according to the kind and amount of their good of life. Afterwards Swedenborg, who spoke with them about the Lord, heard "that a great many spirits and angels who are instructed in Divine truths from the heavenly doctrine were sent thither" (SD 5515ff; LJ post. 119)
     But these things could not have happened before the Last Judgment was completed; for the heavenly "seminary" or college from which these teachers of the Heavenly Doctrine were sent forth was itself purged in the judgment before it could be a means of healing the nations. How the judgment on the Protestant nations took place, and what were its after effects, will be discussed in a later article.
SWEDENBORG SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION 1957

SWEDENBORG SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION 1957

Organized for the preservation, translation, publication, and distribution of Swedenborg's scientific and philosophical works; the promotion of the principles taught in them; and their relation to the science and philosophy of the present day. Annual fee for membership, including the NEW PHILOSOPHY, published quarterly, is: United States, $3.00; Canada, $3.00 Canadian: Great Britain and Australia, 12/-. Address Miss B. G. Briscoe, Treasurer, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

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Annual Ministers' Meetings 1957

Annual Ministers' Meetings Rev. A. WYNNE ACTON 1957

     The Annual Ministers' Meetings of the South African Mission were held in Greylingstad, Transvaal, from January 9th to 13th, 1957. In addition to the Superintendent there were present ten Native Ministers and three Theological Students. The Assistant to the Superintendent was unfortunately absent because of his visit to America.
     Sessions were held in the mornings from 9:30 to 12:30, and in the afternoons from 2:30 until 5:00-six sessions in all. On Saturday afternoon there was also an open session, and the meetings concluded with two services on Sunday. All the regular sessions are conducted entirely in English, but the open session and the sermon on Sunday morning were translated into Zulu and Venda. Some 14 members from our Society at Alexandra drove by truck the 65 miles to Greylingstad for the Saturday afternoon paper and the Sunday services. Other isolated members living nearer to Greylingstad also joined us for the weekend, which gave the concluding part of these meetings the flavor of a small Assembly.
     At the opening session the Superintendent gave his report of the year's work. A full discussion followed, continuing into the second session, considering various aspects of the work of the Mission in general and of the relationship of the parent body to the individual societies in particular. The Superintendent explained the policy of the General Church in giving help, wherever possible, to beginnings which gave good promise for the growth of the church; such help, however, always looked to each group eventually becoming self-supporting. Each one of our societies is faced at one time or another with the problem of purchasing land, putting up a church building, or extensive repairs, which involves far heavier expenses than can be met at the time. In applying the above principle to the Mission, the Superintendent stated that the General Church would finance any deserving project as far as it could, but that the society should undertake to refund the loan by monthly payments according to its ability. In the discussion it was brought out that, in several cases in the past, the Mission had paid outright up to half of the total cost of a new building for a society. The Superintendent gave the assurance that where there was a real need, and a genuine effort toward self-help, no society would be asked to undertake a greater burden than it could bear.

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The question of the advisability of periodic changes of ministers was also discussed.
     The report on the Theological School showed that during the past year there had been one first year student, two second year students, and one minister in the first degree who was taking further training. The three-year course was based on the curriculum of the Theological School at Bryn Athyn, somewhat adapted. The teachers were the Rev. Messrs. Aaron B. Zungu, B. David Holm and A. Wynne Acton. The view was expressed that the continuity of the teaching, the variety of the subjects taught, and the advantages of having three regular teachers, provided the most thorough training which it had as yet been possible to give to our Native students.
     The Rev. A. B. Zungu reported for the Committee on the Translation of the Writings into Zulu, consisting of himself and the Revs. S. E. Butelezi and M. M. Lutuli, with the Rev. A. W. Acton as convenor. He had circulated to the other members of the committee over three hundred words, giving in parallel columns the Latin word, the English translation, and his suggested Zulu translation, with a blank column for other suggestions. In the discussion the importance of this work for both present and future needs was emphasized; it would insure that in the early days of our translation work the most suitable Zulu words would be adopted. There was an interesting discussion on the variety of spoken Zulu in different parts of the country, but it was generally agreed that a recognized Zulu standard was being built up to which we must generally conform. Mr. Zungu explained some of the difficulties he had encountered in rendering the abstract terms of the Writings into Zulu. A general desire was expressed that when the committee had come to its conclusions, all the ministers should have the opportunity to see and comment on the results; as it was thought that this would contribute to the building up of uniform translations of the Writings into Zulu. It was also hoped that there would be consultation with the other two bodies of the New Church among the Zulus.
     Rev. B. I. Nzimande reported on a small booklet on morals which he had been commissioned by a previous meeting to prepare. He had prepared five sections of the booklet, and asked for a volunteer to prepare three further sections-a task undertaken by the Rev. M. M. Lutuli. The ministers all thought that this booklet, written especially for the young people, would be of great benefit in the Mission.
     In the absence of the Rev. B. D. Holm, who is in charge of the general publication program as well as of child education, full reports on these subjects could not be given. However, the Superintendent explained some of the things that have been done. The second number of UMCAZI, under the editorship of the Rev. B. D. Holm assisted by the Rev. A. B. Zungu, had been produced, and was on sale during the meetings.

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The Doctrine of Faith would very soon be printed in Zulu, due to the generosity of the Swedenborg Society, and when this was completed The Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture in Zulu would be handed to the printers. This will be the last of the Four Doctrines to be printed, all translated into Zulu by the Rev. A. B. Zungu. The ministers all showed great interest in the material made available to them by the General Church Religion Lessons Committee for helping them in teaching their children and young people.
     After a full discussion it was resolved to hold a winter school for young people at Hambrook for ten days next July. Young unmarried persons, fifteen years old and upward, from all the societies would be eligible to attend for the purpose of receiving more concentrated instruction in the doctrines of our church. Some doubt was expressed as to how many of them could afford to attend, but it was decided to hold the school as an experiment.
      The Rev. P. Sibeko read an excellent paper, "Repentance is the First Thing of the Church in Man," at one of the sessions (see pp. 244-246). This was appreciatively discussed. At the open session, after the Superintendent had conveyed a message of greeting and encouragement from Bishop De Charms, the Rev. A. B. Zungu presented a very thoughtful paper on Temptation" (see pp. 238-243). The rain and hail pounding on the iron roof of the church just after the conclusion of this paper prevented discussion, however; and the storm also prevented the showing of various slides of the Mission Societies planned for that evening.
     The Sunday morning service was attended by a full congregation. Five of the ministers took part in the service, together with the Superintendent who preached on "The Quality of Newness" (Lamentations 3: 22, 23). The other five ministers assisted the Superintendent in the special Holy Supper service which was held in the afternoon. The powerful sphere of these two services, in which we approached the Lord in prayer, humbly received instruction from His Word, and sang His praises in beautiful harmony, formed an inspiring conclusion to our meetings.
DIVINE JUDGMENT 1957

DIVINE JUDGMENT 1957

"The Lord judges all from justice, and hears all from mercy. He judges from justice because from Divine truth, and He hears from mercy because from Divine good; from justice He judges those who do not receive the Divine good, and from mercy He hears those who do. But still when He judges from justice, it is also at the same time from mercy; for in all Divine justice there is mercy" (Arcana Coelestia, 3921).

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TEMPTATION 1957

TEMPTATION Rev. AARON B. ZUNGU 1957

     (Delivered at the Open Session of the Annual Ministers' Meetings of the South African Mission, Greylingstad, Transvaal, January 12, 1957.)

     The subject of temptation is one which deals with that aspect of man's life which is very much on the side of the spiritual world. That aspect of his life has to do with the action, or rather the influx, of spirits, good and evil, into man, and with his unseen reactions to that influx. And because of its being largely restricted to the spiritual plane, the doctrine hardly admits of our interpretation and expression of individual opinions. We have therefore considered it advisable to confine ourselves to what the Writings actually teach.
     The word "temptation" itself means a state of suffering which tries a man and shows what he is. We could have a better idea of the meaning if we would remember what actually takes place in the process of such a trial; namely, that two opposing forces draw forth opposite things from the man, which things are set against each other with the intent that one of them may gain dominion over the other. The consequent combat, with its attendant pains, tries the man, in that the conquering forces will be according to the man's choice from freedom. Precisely, temptation is "anguish and anxiety occasioned by whatever opposes one's loves" (AC 847).
     Temptation has become absolutely necessary for the salvation of the spiritual man. For "no one is regenerated without temptations, and many temptations follow on, one after the other. The reason is that regeneration has for its end that the life of the old man may die, and the new or heavenly life be insinuated. Thence it is evident that there will certainly be a fight, for the life of the old man resists, not willing to be extinguished, and the life of the new man cannot enter except where the life of the old man has been extinguished" (AC 8403).
     By so using his freedom of choice that he fell, man brought upon himself the catastrophe of spiritual death, from which nothing short of temptation could bring him back to life again. The state into which man then brought himself, and which, in the course of generation after generation, he has brought upon himself, is thus described: "Man is nothing but evil; he is a mass of evils; all his will being merely evil. . . . It has been shown me by living experience that a man and a spirit, even an angel, in himself regarded, that is, as to all that is his own, is but vilest excrement; and that, left to himself, he breathes nothing but hatred, revenge, cruelty, and most foul adultery" (AC 987).

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Such, then, is the state, the life of man, before regeneration; the life-in reality, the death-from which he must be reclaimed by regeneration, if he is willing. The combat itself, the way in which victory is achieved, are purely Divine works; and the victory, as said at the outset, does not admit of man's intervention.
     And temptations are of various kinds. Of this we read in the following:
"There are many kinds of temptations, which are in general the celestial, the spiritual, and the natural, and these ought never to be confounded. Celestial temptation can exist with those only who are in love to the Lord, and spiritual temptation with those only who are in charity toward the neighbor. Natural temptations are altogether distinct from these) and, indeed, are not temptations, but merely anxieties arising from the natural loves being assailed by misfortunes, diseases, or a depraved condition of the blood and other fluids of the body" (AC 762). Thus it appears that spiritual temptations belong to the internal man, but natural ones to the external man. However, spiritual temptations sometimes arise without natural ones, sometimes together with them. Natural temptations regard the body, honors, wealth, in a word, natural life. Unless these lead to, and are conjoined with, spiritual temptations they effect nothing whatever towards man's spiritual life, and so in themselves are but griefs of mind.
     But spiritual temptations assault man's spiritual life, and the concomitant pains and anxieties are not on account of any loss of natural life but on account of the loss of faith and charity, and consequently of salvation. Celestial temptations primarily regard the Lord and His kingdom.
     In regeneration the Lord approaches man by way of the understanding, although He accomplishes His Divine end from within. When man fell, his will was closed, and the understanding was left open. The task to be accomplished by the Lord in man's salvation was to conjoin the truth in man with good. And as temptation results from the effort and labor to effect this conjunction in him, man must needs have truths first--spiritual truths-before he is admitted into spiritual temptations. These truths are the means of combat which the Lord uses by means of heaven. These truths are those of the Lord's Divine Human. For these truths make up the faith of the spiritual man and are the containants of his charity. So we read: "Temptations take place chiefly at the time when a man is becoming spiritual . . . the angels with him see in his natural things the spiritual . . . When therefore a man has come into such a state, then in temptations, when assaulted by evil spirits, he can be defended by angels, who then have a plane into which they can operate; for they inflow into what is spiritual with him, and through that into what is natural" (AC 5036: 3). And it is an important point of doctrine that no one is tempted beyond what he can resist or endure.

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Therefore man is not allowed into temptation before he has spiritual truth.
     There are, shall we say, two stages in temptation, namely, the intellectual and the voluntary stages. In the Word of the evangelists reference is made by the Lord to the eye which must be plucked out and the hand that must be cut off. This refers to the understanding and the will, for the understanding is the spiritual eye and the will is represented in ultimates by the band.
     Intellectual temptation is lighter, and is perceived only by the recalling of such things to the mind and a certain anxiety therefrom. Nevertheless, it is temptation; and the teaching is that the fight, as if of ourselves, must begin here, for from here the evil spirits are ready to carry it into the will, where it becomes much more difficult. This is one of the reasons that the shunning of evils is taught in the Writings with so much stress; for the first impact occurs in the understanding by means of the senses, and shunning includes avoiding such circumstances as make it possible for temptations to arise at all. In the intellectual stage of temptation man is in a better position to see in the light of truths, and there he can exercise his freedom of choice more truly. For at this time heaven is fighting a different set of spirits, namely, those diametrically opposed to truths; whereas if the fight is lost at this stage, and carried down to the will, it is taken up by another kind of spirits, called genii, who are diametrically opposed to good from the Lord.
     Here the fight is much more fierce and deadly. For whereas the evil spirits engaged by heaven in the understanding limit themselves to calling up the evil things of which man has been guilty, and accusing and condemning him these latter inflame him with their cupidities and foul loves, with which he is also imbued, and thus combat by means of the man's cupidities themselves, which they do most maliciously. This they do by infusing themselves into the life of his cupidities, and almost inverting and changing an affection of good and truth into an affection of evil and falsity, so that the man cannot possibly know but that it is done from his own self and comes forth from his own will. Thus the fight, as has been said, is at this stage one for life or death. It is not, like that in the understanding, a fight for the things of the man, but for the life of the man, or of the man himself. Notice, too, that it is carried on in the dark. The understanding is, as it were, extinguished; so much so that the man does not see the enemy's true approach. Thus he is made to look to himself as the source of all this, while the genii are the real source (AC 751).
     The Amalekites spoken of in Exodus 17 were the most dangerous of the Israelites' enemies. They represent such genii. The Arcana shows that such spirits exist in the hells from Christendom, for they are the ones between whom and the celestial angels from the Christian world equilibrium is held. (AC 8622: 4)

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     Temptation takes place in the process of regeneration. The temptations themselves arise from the evil spirits who are about the man. The man is let into the state of evil in which he is, that is, in which is that very life which is his own. When he comes into this state, infernal spirits encompass him; and when they perceive that he is protected by angels, these spirits excite the falsities which he has thought and the evils which he has done; the angels defending him from within. It is this combat which is perceived in the man as temptation (AC 5036: 3). It is noteworthy that the genii excite the evil things of his life "when they perceive that he is protected by angels"; for this is one of the reasons that only those who are becoming spiritual are let into temptations and that the evil are not tempted.
     In this combat of temptation the spirits are permitted to draw forth all the evils and falsities in the man. In the battle the Lord acts in a twofold way. From the man's inmost, that is, from the soul, He protects his freedom of choice, inspires with hope and trust, yet in such a way that the man thinks it is from himself; and by means of heaven, that is, by means of the angels, He defends the truths which are the object of attack by the infernals. In the outer plane there are rules which the man must observe most strictly if the Lord is to succeed: he must have and keep the Word in order that the angels may be strengthened, and he must reject every idea that anything from himself avails. Thus the success of the Lord's action from within is dependent on what man does on this outer plane.
     Man is always in some evil, and the Lord, in order that that particular evil may be removed from the central position in man's life, grants permission to the infernals to come nearer to him. These spirits not only long to come near to the man, they also long to occupy the truths which he has; to infill his truths with evil affections, thus destroying the conjugial of good and truth and placing these truths in an adulterous relation with evil.
     This permission is not temptation by the Lord. The Lord intends man's salvation as the end, while the infernals intend his destruction. In this situation man has free choice, and the faculty of will, which is the same as free choice. The Lord defends him, while the infernals attack. When the infernals have been allowed by the Lord just as much room as to get near the man, the man's thoughts and affections penetrate to the deeper societies of infernals; for the attacking infernals bring nearer with them the other societies of evil spirits with which they are connected. Thus, if the victim succumbs, his heaven is not only dominated by attacking spirits, but he is tied up with these other more interior evil ones and so becomes more confirmed in that particular evil, and the result is a worse state than before. The opposite happens if he overcomes (AC 8159).

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     But there is no danger of succumbing if man does exactly as the Lord commands him. He must look to the Lord and at the same time resist evil as of himself, although acknowledging that the Lord alone is fighting, and can fight and conquer for him. The worst he can do is to try to fight for himself. This shuts out Divine power from the Lord, for the things of man and the Divine from the Lord do not mix or work together.
     One feature in temptation is the fear, anxiety and horror which accompany it. One of the causes of fear, we are taught, is that the infernals themselves come into fear during the man's temptation. Of this we read: "When the angels rule, as is the case with the regenerate man, the attendant evil spirits dare not attempt to do anything contrary to what is good and true because they are in bonds; for on their attempting to do anything evil, or to speak what is false, that is. to excite it, they are instantly seized with a kind of infernal fear and terror. This fear and terror are what are perceived by the man as a fear and terror of what is contrary to conscience and therefore as soon as he does or speaks anything contrary to conscience he comes into temptation and into the pangs of conscience, that is, into a kind of infernal torment" (AC 986). This fear, the pains and the torment, form a bridge by which the man may cross from his former thoughts-place-to a new place of thoughts.
     The Lord uses this fear of the infernals to bend man's thoughts gradually from falsity to truth and thence to good. It might be described thus:
during temptation and combat man is battling for truths against falsities, and as he is then in interior distress and in torment, the delight of the life of cupidities and their derivative pleasures ceases, and then goods flow in from the Lord. At the time of the influx of good from the Lord the thought of evil is accompanied by a perception of its abominableness. The man is bent toward these new thoughts. The good from the Lord thus approaches the truths in the new thoughts, and in the conjunction of the two a heavenly marriage of good and truth is effected. The Lord is most present in this operation-present to defend, and present to take the first opportunity that offers to conjoin Himself with the truths in the man (AC 2273). This is the supreme purpose in temptation; and it was the supreme purpose in the Lord's incarnation, in His temptations and glorification-this conjunction of God with man and of man with his God.
     We have noted how the Lord turns to good use the actions of the infernals in man; how the conjunction of Himself with man is achieved finally; and thus how on the earth a new church, the spiritual church, was able to arise after the consummation of the Most Ancient Church. Temptations are the means by which the externals of man may be subdued, and thus rendered obedient to the internals, and a new faculty of receiving goods and truths be given by the Lord to man (AC 868: 2).

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In this way the evils and falsities of the man's evil states-which are so evil that no evils and falsities can ever be so shaken off as to be abolished-are subdued through temptations to the extent that they appear dead; although they are not dead, but wearied down and reduced to such extent that they cannot fight against goods and truths which are from the Lord (AC 868). And then, in the other life, these evils and falsities are at their lowest possible ebb; for then heaven in the man completely dominates, from internals to the externals of life, although it is possible for even an angel to be let into states below his heaven. This explains why, in the Lord's mercy, evils and falsities do not return in the other life with the good, whereas with the evil they do. For with the good they are as it were put to death while they are in the world; while with the evil the goods and truths are put to death, and the evils and falsities, because they must come to their fullness there and multiply, therefore return.
Temptations must reach their fullness before their purpose is realized. Their fullness is reached in the man when he, in suffering, anguish, torment and anxiety, ultimately reaches a state of despair. This is the last stage that is reached in temptation. The man is tempted to deny the love, the mercy, the providence of the Lord, when he finds that his prayers, supplications and implorings seem to avail nothing, and he seems to be abandoned utterly by the Lord to the infernals. For then the pangs become a burning fire from which he yearns to be delivered. But this appearance of abandonment is permitted by the Lord only for the man s sake, for the end in view cannot be achieved except in utter humility and the realization of the true state of affairs by man.
So we read: "There are many reasons why despair is the last of desolation and temptation. . . . Despair causes those who feel it to acknowledge in an effective and feeling manner that there is nothing of good and truth from themselves, and that from themselves they are condemned; but that they are delivered from condemnation by the Lord, and that salvation flows in by means of truth and good. Despair also causes them to feel the happiness of life which is from the Lord; for when they come out of that state, they are like those who have been condemned to death and are set free from prison" (AC 6144). "Every temptation is attended with some kind of despair, otherwise it is not a temptation, and therefore consolation follows. He who is tempted is brought into anxieties, which induce a state of despair as to what the end is to be" (AC 1787). In this state man supposes that he can no longer endure the attacks and that he can do nothing else but surrender himself to falsities. This is what is meant by despair. But this is the very state which the Lord needs to operate by Himself in man without anything of man's own in that operation.

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The Lord alone then raises him, and inflows into him with joy, happiness and peace.
A word on prayer: in view of the importance of temptations in the regeneration of the spiritual, it follows that, in wisdom, these may not be averted; except those that would only be harmful to man and not useful in his regeneration. Therefore prayers in themselves avail nothing in averting temptations. Before they have progressed to their fullness the Lord would not check their course, for, as has been seen, He looks to the end in temptation. So we read: "They who are in temptations are wont to slack their hands and betake themselves solely to prayers, which they then ardently pour forth, not knowing that prayer will not avail, but that they must fight against the falsities and evils which are being injected by the hells. This fight is performed by means of the truths of faith, which help because they confirm goods and truths against evils and falsities. Moreover, in the combat of temptations man ought to fight as if of himself, but yet acknowledge and believe that it is of the Lord. . . . Moreover, they who are in temptations, and not in some other active life than that of prayers, do not know that if the temptations were intermitted before they had been fully carried through they would not be prepared for heaven, and thus could not be saved. For this reason, moreover, the prayers of those who are in temptation are but little heard; for the Lord wills the end, which is the salvation of the man, which end He knows but not the man; and the Lord does not heed prayers that are contrary to the end, which is salvation" (AC 8179). However, this teaching does not mean that the man should not pray, for in another number it is said that man must implore and supplicate the Lord. And prayer is rather a sign of a state that is requisite if man is to conquer-the state of humiliation and of acknowledgment of man's helplessness without the Lord; and, what is most important, of willingness to receive the Lord.
KNOWLEDGE AND TRUTH 1957

KNOWLEDGE AND TRUTH 1957

"The truths of faith of the church, which are called doctrinal things, when learned in early life, are taken into the mind and committed to memory just like any other scientifics, and remain as such until the man begins to view them with his own eyes, and see whether they are true, and after seeing that they are true, wills to act according to them. This viewing of them, and this will, make them no longer scientifics, but precepts of life, and finally life" (Arcana Coelestia, 5432).

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REPENTANCE THE FIRST OF THE CHURCH 1957

REPENTANCE THE FIRST OF THE CHURCH Rev. PAUL SIBERO 1957

     (Delivered at the South African Mission Ministers' Meetings, Greylingstad, Transvaal, January 10, 1957.)

     The Lord is omnipresent. He is not only present in all nature, but He is present with all men. He is present with every man in the spiritual world, and with every man in the natural world; and although men may turn away from Him, He never withdraws His presence from any man, but is with him at his birth and to all eternity. The Lord is not only all-present, but He is all-knowing and all-powerful; and He is not only all-knowing and all-powerful but also all-loving and all-merciful. He loves all men, and wills and operates to save all men. He provides that all men can be saved. To every man, wherever he may be, in whatever clime, kindred or tongue, salvation is made possible; and it is his own fault if he be not saved, if he become not an angel of heaven after death.
     Since the Lord is everywhere, with every man, and is able to save every man born into the world who is willing to repent and be saved, and since the church is the instrumentality of salvation on earth, it follows that there is a universal church that is with all men everywhere-a church with every man in every religion For since the Lord is with every man in every religion, He is with him in all His saving power, and the power of the Lord for salvation is exercised by means of His church in heaven and on earth. There is, therefore, a universal church, and by it every man may be saved who is willing to avail himself of the means of salvation. In brief, because the Lord is omnipresent the church is everywhere, or wherever there are men.
     In True Christian Religion 510we are told that "there are many means by which man, as he progresses in his early years, is prepared for the church and introduced into it, but the means whereby the church is established in man are acts of repentance. Acts of repentance are all such things as cause man not to will and consequently not to commit evils, which are sins against God. . . . From all this it is clear that the first thing of the church is repentance." And in Arcana Coelestia 248we are told of the two things essential in the preparation of man to resist evil, namely, prayer and the acquisition of truths from the Word. The need of reading the books of Scripture and the Writings should be continually in the forefront of our thought, for this is the purpose for which they are given.

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The neglect of this duty may indicate indifference, or a state of simplicity like that of children. But the man of the New Church will realize the dependence of rational and spiritual growth upon the performance of this duty. Prayer inspires to do, and reading gives intelligence in the doing, and also inspires.
     Since, however, it is necessary-in order that the church may be established-that those who are in the beginning of the church and in true doctrine, should do these two things, it is necessary as well that they should not only detect, expose and condemn evils and falsities as they appear in the activities of the church, but should also do the same in themselves and thus enter upon a life of actual repentance: and by repentance establish in themselves, and in the church, a state of genuine illustration in spiritual things. This is necessary for the permanent establishment of the church and for the regeneration of the individual man of the church.
     Why is so much said about repentance? Why is it the burden of the Word of God? Why does it appear everywhere in the doctrine of the church? It is because in no other way can evils be removed; in no other way can hell be separated from man; in no other way can man be taken out of hell and rescued from the dominion of evil spirits; in no other way can he be brought to the threshold of heaven and prepared for introduction into heaven; and also because repentance is the worship of God in the life.
     No man can be conjoined to God unless he worships Him. Worship is external and internal. He who knows only external worship cannot be conjoined with God, cannot be saved. External worship, necessary as it is, important as it is to the complete development of spiritual life and of the church, is not worship itself. External worship is worship in the same sense that certain external pleasures are the recreations of use. They are important to use, but they are not use itself. External worship bears the same relation to real worship- which is called internal worship, the worship of the life that there is in the daily life of repentance-that the recreation bears to use. He who is not in this worship is not really in the other; he is not really in external worship, although he may appear to be. He may go to church, listen to preaching, kneel down and pray to God, sing praises to His name, and yet not be in the real worship of God because he is not in the real life of repentance from sin-because he is not in the real worship of God in his daily life. His external worship will be as a form without an essence, a body without a soul, a carcase without life.
     But why is it that there is no real worship of God except in a life of daily repentance? Why is it that external worship is not alive unless internal worship is within it? Why is it that it becomes for the first time living when man goes to church with a humble and repentant heart? It is because no man can worship God with evil rampant in his heart or predominant in his thought.

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This is what separates him from God, this is what causes him to hate God, this is what causes him to hate mankind; and with a man who hates God and the neighbor, and the two hatreds always go together, with such a man the worship of God with the lips is a mockery.
     The real worship of God, then, is in the practise of actual repentance daily, which is the confession of sin before God and active resistance to every evil as soon as it appears in the thought, in the will, in the desire.
     Repentance begins with confession of sin before God and it ends in the active resistance to evil, which is continued as long as is necessary; which is as long as evil holds up its head and threatens assault. Confession is not merely words that spend their force upon the air and do not penetrate the heart. Confession involves seeing evils in one's self-evil tendencies, evil thoughts, evil delights; acknowledging them as evil; and confessing them before God.
     Another step is necessary, however, before there can be real resistance. Man cannot resist evil from himself. Evil cannot resist evil, and an evil heart cannot cast out its own evil. The Lord alone can do this. But He cannot do it unless He is present in man, and He cannot enter into him unless man supplicates Him for help and power to resist the evil which he sees in himself as threatening his soul.
     First there is confession of an evil that one sees within one's self and acknowledges to be a sin against God: second, there is supplication to the Lord for help, carrying with it the acknowledgment of our own helplessness; third, there is active resistance to the evil which has been seen and confessed: resistance from the power which has been sought and which flows into the humble and repentant heart-the heart which asks for the power to meet that which no human help can overcome. No man has ever prayed in vain who thus prays to God, and for this end and purpose. This is the prayer that is always answered, without delay or waiting. This is the internal worship of which the Writings speak: this cry to God for help in the presence of active evil in the thought and in the heart this daily cry to God for help to resist the active power of hell that is entering by some evil delight into our hearts. This continual cry to God is the internal worship that conjoins man to God, that makes external worship living, that establishes the church on earth, and that makes a heaven from the human race.

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IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES 1957

IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES Editor 1957

     An interesting contrast is furnished by two recent articles. Writing in the NEW-CHURCH HERALD, the Rev. Dennis Duckworth reports the rejection by the B.B.C. of the suggestion that a broadcast from Manchester might be arranged during the week of the 150th General Conference. Broadcasting time was refused on the ground that the New Church "is not in the main stream of the Christian tradition"-a term defined by the B.B.C. as including the Church of England, the Methodist, Congregational, Presbyterian and Baptist churches, the Church of Scotland, the Roman Church, and such minor groups as the Salvation Army and the Society of Friends. Mr. Duckworth's able defense, and plea for freedom of religious speech, have so far gone unanswered.
     In another article, published in the NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER, the Rev. Ernest O. Martin seeks to prove, by using dictionary and common definitions, that the General Convention is a denomination, and that it is Protestant because it denies the authority of the Pope, endorses the great affirmations of the Reformers about God and man, and acknowledges its indebtedness to the Reformation. Mr. Martin's conviction "that we belong within the Protestant tradition" would presumably be received coldly by the B.B.C. It seems strange that while Christian clergymen perceive that there is a basic cleavage between the New Church and the old, some New Church ministers eagerly persist in presenting the New Church as a denomination within a revitalized Christianity.

     "The Nature and Authority of the Writings," by Ian Johnson, is the title of a remarkable article published in the January-March issue of the NEW-CHURCH MAGAZINE. Believing that "those of us who take the Writings at all seriously should seek a conscious and consistent attitude toward them," the author surveys the historical and current positions of the various New Church bodies as well as examining the passages which treat of Swedenborg's inspiration. The study is thorough, well reasoned, modest and eminently fair, and Mr. Johnson is generous in seeing positive values to the church as a whole in the various positions taken. We believe that if he knew the General Church better he would find that it is far less rigid than he supposes; but although we could not accept his position, with its need to differentiate between what is inspired and what is not, his manifest intention is to be led only by the Writings.

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NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1957

NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS Editor 1957

     The May readings in the Old Testament (I Samuel 13 to II Samuel 2: 17) relate the strange story of Saul and David, culminating in the death of the former at Gilboa; and then describe David's accession to the throne of Judah and the beginning of the civil war. Very little is said in the Writings about these two kings. Saul represents, as a king. Divine truth protecting the church (AE 278: 10), but in his fits of melancholy madness he stands for those falsities which are opposed to truth (ibid. 323: 12). David, we are taught, represents the Lord who was to come (DP 245); that is, the Lord as to the Divine Human in process of being put on; for as the Lord came to subjugate the hells, glorify the Human, and thus effect redemption, there is a sense in which He had not come until these ends had been achieved.
     In his positive character Saul would seem to stand for the representative Human before the advent-the Human Divine which eventually became inadequate to withstand the mounting power of hell because of the decreasing integrity of the heavens. His increasing self-will would signify the gradual perversion of the accommodation which made the Human Divine incompetent to its use. His rejection for disobedience, and for assuming priestly functions, would have the same meaning. And his persecution of David would involve the Lord's combats against the proprium of the heavens. In his negative character Saul would represent the falsities which eventually destroyed the usefulness of the representative Human. This indicates the significance of David's consistent attitude to Saul, namely, that of the Lord who defended Himself against falsity, but never began the combat, and when the hells had been delivered into His power granted them the gift of life.

     Our readings in Divine Providence (nos. 72-134) introduce us to the first three laws of the Divine Providence. The nature and operation of the laws by which the Lord governs the universe will be better understood, perhaps, if we seek analogies in such universal natural laws as the law of gravity rather than in code-laws. Because they are the laws of order impressed upon His spiritual creation, the laws of the Lord's providence can neither be broken nor defied with impunity, although men may injure themselves in the attempt. At the same time, we should not lose sight of the Lord as a Divine-Human God.

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REVIEWS 1957

REVIEWS Editor 1957

     The NEW CHURCH AND SWEDENBORG'S CLAIM. By the Rev. Frank S. Rose. The British Finance Committee of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, London, 1957. Paper, pp. 13.

     This attractively mimeographed pamphlet has been written to help the serious inquirer to "decide whether the 'New Church' is worth considering, based as it is upon the claim of Emanuel Swedenborg." That claim is boldly stated and clearly distinguished from the assertions of self-styled revelators; the self-evidencing nature of truth is discussed; the proofs of consistency, agreement with the Old and New Testaments, originality and effectiveness in life are advanced; and the Second Coming is described. The pamphlet closes with advice on how to read the Writings, quoted from the Rev. John Clowes a list of some distinctive teachings; and a guide to some of the Writings-much in small compass.

DIVINE PROVIDENCE AND HUMAN FREEDOM. Extracts from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. The Swedenborg Society (Inc.), London, 1957. Paper, pp. 48.

     In convenient pocket-size, this little booklet presents a small but well chosen selection of passages concerning the Divine Providence. According to the Foreword, it is an enlargement, with some slight alterations, of one originally compiled and edited by the late Rev. H. Gordon Drummond, who selected extracts with a view to presenting the substance of the teaching in as brief yet as comprehensible a form as possible. The original purpose is well adhered to and material, format and type, should all invite reading, and urge those who are genuinely interested to go to the Writings themselves for further enlightenment.

     RECEIVED FOR REVIEW

ARCANA COELESTIA. By Emanuel Swedenborg. Third Latin Edition, Volume IV (nos. 4056-5190). Edited by Philip H. Johnson, BA., B.Sc. The Swedenborg Society (Inc.). London, 1956. Cloth, pp. 739.

251

REDEMPTION:DOCTRINE AND IMPLICATION 1957

REDEMPTION:DOCTRINE AND IMPLICATION Editor 1957

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of Publication, Lancaster, Pa.

Published Monthly By

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

Editor      Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager      Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address, and business communications, should be sent to the Circulation Secretary. Notifications of address changes should be received by the 15th of the month.

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
$3 00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single copy, 30 cents.
     Doctrine and life are inseparable, and the theological concepts to which men hold have far-reaching religious implications. In the matter of redemption, these, and their consequences, are well known in the New Church, as far as orthodox Christianity is concerned. But orthodoxy is not satisfactory to all Christians, and certain deviations have equally serious results. Thus there are those whose theology is oriented to the idea of evolution, and who speak of a "fall upward." These do not think of the purpose of salvation as restoration; to them it is a completion-a Divine guarantee of the completion of evolutionary progress, a graduation rather than a change from death to life. Others embrace the idea of social salvation; holding the view that the world, or society, is the object of salvation.
     The implications of these views are obvious. The first denies the need for regeneration; the second overlooks the fact that society as such cannot be regenerated, even though the regeneration of individuals will be reflected in society. Very different is the teaching of the Writings. All men, they say, have been redeemed, in the sense that all men can he saved. But in order that he may be saved, man must be redeemed as an individual. The lord must come to him, judge his evils, separate them, and establish His church in the man's mind. Thus redemption, for the man of the church, is not a matter of belief in something effected in the past, but cooperation in something that is to be effected now; and he is redeemed, not by faith in the Lord's passion, but by the acknowledgment of the Lord and obedience to His precepts in life.

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     THE IDEA OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

     Man's idea of the Holy Spirit also has profound religious implications. For the Roman Catholic, that idea is restricted to the doctrine of the Trinity; and although the gifts of the Spirit are important to man, he can do nothing to prepare himself for them. Protestantism does relate the Holy Spirit with salvation, but it lays even more stress upon man's impotence. The doctrine of the "inner light" places ultimate authority in internal revelation; and makes of the Word, in which alone the Lord teaches man, merely a source of confirmation and illustration. And the "holiness" sects place a premium on alleged immediate revelation, and regard possession of various kinds as evidence of the leading of the Holy Spirit-which leads to strong convictions of sanctification.
     In the Heavenly Doctrine we are instructed that the Holy Spirit is the Lord Himself proceeding to teach, enlighten, reform and regenerate those who will receive Him; that the Holy Spirit is never imparted to man in such a way as to become his own; that it does not inhere in man when it has been given; and that it remains only in the measure that men continue to believe in the Lord and in the doctrine of truth from the Word, and continue also in a life according to that doctrine. This doctrine places on the men and women of the church a responsibility to cooperate with the Lord in preparing themselves to receive the Spirit and to retain its leading once that has been given: by acknowledging the Lord, looking to the Word alone for truth and enlightenment, shunning evils as sins, and so receiving the spiritual affection of truth.
SWEDENBORG AND JUDAISM 1957

SWEDENBORG AND JUDAISM CYRIEL O. SIGSTEDT 1957

Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE:

It is regrettable that, according to a statement in your April issue, the Rev. Elmo C. Acton's interesting address to the Open Session of the Council of the Clergy, "The Character of the Jewish People," will not be published. In connection with the subject, however, the following article may still be of interest to your readers, particularly as it is probably the first in which more or less official notice has been taken by modern Judaism of what Swedenborg says concerning the Jews of Scripture. Entitled "A Visit to Heaven," by Abraham G. Duker, this review of my book, Tue Swedenborg Epic, appeared in the February 9th, 1953, issue of the American Jewish Congress, a weekly published in New York. After referring to the biography published by Bookman Associates the review continues:
"Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), a Swedish scientist and philosopher turned mystic, was an amazing personality, whose range of interests included inventing machines, writing Latin poetry, palaeontology, crystallography, and the study of the brain.

253

     "In 1745, Swedenborg claimed that the heavens had been opened to him and that God had given him the mission of teaching the doctrines of the New Church to mankind. Thereafter, according to Swedenborg, he communed with spirits and visited heaven many times. His followers organized themselves in the New Church or the Church of the New Jerusalem based on the belief that Swedenborg had witnessed the last judgment or the second coming of Jesus. The New Church professed high moral and ethical concepts.
     "Sigstedt's book is the most definitive biography of the 'seer' published in English. It is a compact and documented introduction to the life and thoughts of an interesting personality who, as far as Jews are concerned, lived in a period when humane Christian attitudes towards the Jews showed a comparatively rapid development. Moreover, the followers of this church in the U. S. displayed a lively interest in the Hebrew language, teaching it even in kindergarten classes. It is puzzling, therefore, why Mr. Sigstedt has left out completely from his study the subject of Swedenborg's attitude towards the Jews.
     "Regrettably, there is neither a single scholarly study available of this subject on which Swedenborg repeatedly dwelled, nor any mention of Swedenborg in the various Jewish encyclopedias. However, it is possible, from random samplings of Swedenborg's writings, and from their indices, to challenge the statement by an earlier biographer, Signe Toksvig, that 'Swedenborg cannot be classed as an anti-Semite.' To prove this, Miss Toksvig pointed out that Swedenborg associated with Jews and Portuguese She granted, however, that Swedenborg found it `necessary to trample on and discredit the pillars of Judaism, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and more especially Moses, the chief pillar. He is shown as a had character entirely, and so are David and Solomon. The only exception is when these figures can be made to represent or symbolize something in the New Testament.'
     "However, Swedenborg's attitude toward the Jews cannot be determined merely from his view of the characters of the Old Testament. Swedenborg generally had a negative view of the Jews. To cite the Index to the Arcana Coelestia on the significance of the words Jew and Judea: 'By the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is not meant the posterity of these patriarchs, for the Jews are the worst of all nations, but they who are principled in goods and truths from the Lord.'
     "While predicting the demise of the Jewish religion 'at the end of the Christian Church in Europe,' or following the establishment of the New Jerusalem Church. Swedenborg held no hope for the Jews' salvation. He believed that 'the Jews cannot he regenerated like the Gentiles, for they differ inherently by reason of their perverse hereditary nature.

254

The Jews exceed all others in the love of self, and the love of the world's riches, and in the fear of losing either honor or gain.'
     "Further, he denied that, with few exceptions, the Jews could be converted to Christianity, stating that 'it would be easier to convert stones to faith in the Lord than the Jews.' He even argued that the Jews had never believed in monotheism.
     "Basing his visions on the principle of correspondence between the two worlds, Swedenborg saw no hope for the Jews in the next world. In his True Christian Religion he reported that in the other world Jews were forbidden any relation with Christians. Thus, according to Swedenborg, the ghettos of Europe also existed in the next world. However, even in this other world, the better districts for Jews were inhabited by Sephardim.* just as in London and Amsterdam. 'Those called Portuguese Jews,' he writes, 'constitute the greater part of the better class.'
     * Jews who are descended from the former Jews of Spain and Portugal. EDITOR.
     "Swedenborg also reported that he saw an angel in heaven who pretended he was Moses and exhorted the Jews to refrain from believing in the coming of the Messiah; and that while most of the Jews ignored his exhortations, the few who heeded them 'are sent to synagogues composed of converted Jews, and are instructed.' They then receive new clothes instead of the old tattered ones, 'also a copy of the Word, neatly written, and a not unhandsome dwelling in the city.' The others go into the forest where they rob each other.
     "The motivation for Swedenborg's negative view of the Jews has been traced to the fact that he had been robbed by two Jews in London. However, this is an obvious oversimplification. A study of Swedenborg's relationship to Judaism would certainly prove illuminating. That Mr. Sigstedt saw fit to omit this subject from his otherwise well-rounded book is at once disappointing and revealing." (pp. 14. 15)
     Swedenborg's life work was directed against the false doctrines of the Christian sects, so there was no need, in the story of his life, to discuss in detail what he said about the Jews. Some references are nevertheless given to them in the Epic (pp. 190, 308, 339, 415). The Jewish faith was not doctrinal. It consisted chiefly in commandments, and strict obedience was its very essence. The doctrines revealed through Swedenborg constitute not merely the teachings of a leader, as did those of Luther and Calvin, but they claimed the authority of a new dispensation based on the Lord's second advent. The Jewish Church had already come to an end at the time of the Lord's first advent. But the same causes lay at the root of both consummations, namely, that the churches had come to rely solely upon the letter of their scriptures, not understood instead of reading them in the spirit of their inner meaning.

255

By Jews are not meant in the Writings of Swedenborg merely those historical characters whose lives are related in the Bible but also those people everywhere in the world who disobey the Lord and believe themselves to be preferred above others, and who take the Word only literally. This specific state of mind is called the Jewish state. By Catholics are meant not only a sect once governed by a love of dominion but also that love itself, wherever it exists in human hearts. Protestants mean not only an historical sect of Christendom which placed the power of salvation in faith alone but also that false doctrine in the mind of any man.
     This must be kept in mind when reading Swedenborg's descriptions of Abraham, Solomon, David, in the other life. Mr. Duker's statement, quoted from the Toksvig biography, that Moses "is shown as a bad character entirely," is not verified by any statement of which I have knowledge. In his Spiritual Diary, Swedenborg describes being permitted to see Moses "in a quiet place among the ancients. . . . He was a serious man. He said that he seemed to himself to be a man of about fifty years of age, although in the world he had been 120 years old, and that he had with him his five books and also the Ancient Word" (no. 6107).
     The Statement in the review, that "in 1745 Swedenborg claimed that the heavens were opened to him and that God had given him a mission." leaves an erroneous impression. This was not publicly announced until fifteen years later.
     The confusing statement that Swedenborg saw an angel who exhorted the Jews not to believe in the coming of the Messiah is based on a passage in the Last Judgment, which implies that the angel instructed them that Christ was the Messiah who had already come (U 252).
     Swedenborg's apparently harsh statements about the character of the Jews should be compared with what he said about his own countrymen:
"The Swedish nation is the worst in Europe except the Italian and the Russian" (SD 5043). No one is harder on the Jews than their own prophets, who called them a stiffnecked people and a rebellious generation.
     But in the New Church it is taught and believed that the Lord loves all the children of His creating equally, and extends His salvation to all who live a truly good life, whatever their religion.
     CYRIEL O. SIGSTEDT.

256

Church News 1957

Church News Various 1957

     PITTSBURGH, PA.

     The winter season is over. It was truly a busy one, with many events of note. We have had distinguished visitors, including Bishop De Charms who came in February as a surprise and delight to us all. There have been some changes to meet the present needs. One change has been a new arrangement about the monthly Family Service. Provision has been made for a nursery in the schoolroom for young infants, with too women in charge. This enables all the mothers to attend church except when it is their turn to serve. This has been clone under the auspices of Theta Alpha, and it has been most successful.
     Our pastor, the Rev. Louis B. King, prepared us for Christmas with his classes and sermons. At Women's Guild he gave a most impressive class, illustrated with colored slides. Before Christmas we all enjoyed a sing at the lovely house of Mrs. Alexander P. Lindsay. The Christmas tableaux service was the biggest we have ever bad; the auditorium was parked, and the children behaved so well, as they are trained to do at church. There is a most powerful sphere at this time. There were three tableaux in all: the angel appearing to Joseph in a dream; the wise men turning away from the gate of Jerusalem toward the Star of Bethlehem; and the Nativity. Afterwards the pastor distributed the gifts, most of which were made by hand. Mrs. Bert Nemitz was in charge of the tableaux and Mrs. Larry Mitzen was in charge of the presents.
     The Christmas dance was the outstanding social event of the year. The social committee transformed the auditorium into a veritable wonderland, and we had a live orchestra and special entertainment. The young folks and teenagers helped the committee, and old and young were there en masse to dance and play together.
     The children thoroughly enjoyed the Swedenborg's birthday banquet held on January 29th. It is always amazing to discover how much they know about Swedenborg and how the revelation was given to him - Theta Alpha gives a banquet in real style. The older children give speeches, and this year the younger ones gave a little play written by Miss Venita Roschman.
     During the weekend of February 3rd the Society had the pleasure of entertaining the Rev. Cairns Henderson and his wife. Mr. Henderson gave the main address at the Swedenborg's birthday banquet; a scholarly address, sprinkled with humor, which described the scientific, philosophical and theological background of Swedenborg's times. On Sunday morning he preached a fine sermon and baptized the infant daughter of the Rev. and Mrs. Louis King. This was a well attended family service with all the children present. In the evening he addressed the Sons. We hope that the Henderson's enjoyed the weekend as much as we did.
     It was an unexpected treat to have Bishop De Charms pay us an episcopal visit. He came at a time when all was going smoothly, and his coming was just like that of a pastor visiting his flock. Our first meeting with him was at Friday Supper, after which he gave a class on the state of the Christian world today that was a masterpiece. A reception was held in the Kings' apartment after the class.
     On Saturday the Bishop gave a talk to the children about the Tabernacle, illustrated in concrete form by the model which he had brought with him. The children were permitted to ask questions, and the Bishop answered in a friendly manner that commanded their complete attention. The Bishop met with the Pastor's Council and the Executive Committee on Saturday evening and on Sunday he gave the talk at children's service and theta preached the sermon. We are all humbly grateful for his visit.
     On the evening of March 9th, Mr. Quentin Ebert, president of the Pittsburgh Sons, introduced Professor Richard R. Gladish, principal of the Boys Academy, to a meeting of the Society. He gave us a splendid talk on the history of New Church education. The University of Pennsylvania has accepted that subject for his doctoral thesis, and the church is getting the benefit of his research.

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Professor Gladish spoke of the early days in England when a large number of students, as many as 250,000 attended the free New Church schools over a period of seventy years, and then traced the history of the schools conducted by the Convention in this country. The schools in England have all gone, and but few of the Convention schools remain. The Academy schools, however, show real growth. Experience shows that where both schools and parents believe in the Writings the church has grown.
     We have a number of changes to report. Mr. Carl Gunther, our head teacher, has accepted a position in the Bryn Athyn Elementary School; so, to our sorrow, the Gunther family will soon be leaving us. Also, Mr. Grant Doering has accepted a position in the Academy, and we will have to say goodbye to him and to his wife. Last fall, Jack Lindsay and his wife left for business reasons. However, on the brighter side, we look forward to having Mr. Pelle Rosenquist join our teaching staff in the fall. Mr. and Mrs. Carmond Odhner have moved to Pittsburgh, and perhaps others will come to join our happy group.
     Mr. Philip Horigan is now in charge of building maintenance as well as tape-recording. Our janitor work is now being done by one of the college students; and, as has always been the case, our school children do a fine job in helping to clean the schoolrooms and the kitchen, where school lunches are eaten.
     The old scout, Gilbert Smith, has had another camp. He even had the three visiting prospective teachers there. Later he promoted and supervised a social supper which the children helped to cook and serve. This was followed by the showing of colored slides and a lively square dance.
     Last November a memorial service was conducted for Mary Rhodes, the wife of our oldest member, Mr. Telford O. Rhodes. During the year 1956 our pastor officiated at eight infant baptisms, one adult baptism, and three confirmations.
     LUCILE S. BLAIR

     THE CHURCH AT LARGE

     General Convention. The 134th Annual Session of the General Convention will be held with the Massachusetts Association in Boston, Mass., centering at the Church of the New Jerusalem, Bowdoin Street, from Thursday evening, June 20th, to Sunday, June 23rd, with preliminary meetings of associated bodies from June 18th. Early sessions of the Council of Ministers will be held in the Brockton church.

     General Conference. The Rev. E. J. Jarmin has accepted a call to the pastorate of the Wretham Road Society, Birmingham, and will take up his duties in July. The former pastor of this Society was the Rev. G. F. Colborne Kitching, who died suddenly last September.
     The NEW-CHURCH HERALD announces the death, on February 4th, of Mr. William C. Dick. Mr. Dick had a distinguished career in the educational world and held several offices in the New Church in Scotland, including two terms as president of the Scottish Association. He is well known to the church at large for his book The Bible: Its Letter and Spirit, published in 1943, and for his translations of True Christian Religion and The Four Doctrines. From 1942 until 1945 he was a member of the Advisory and Revision Board of the Swedenborg Society. With his passing the New Church in Great Britain has sustained a great loss.
     The same journal reports a Swedenborg's birthday celebration at Bucoley, organized by the North Lancashire Provincial Council, and a similar meeting under the auspices of the Manchester Swedenborg Society held in Failsworth at the invitation of the Society there. The speaker at Burnlsy was the Rev. J. O. Booth and his subject "The Lord's Servant" The meeting at Failsworth heard addresses on "Swedenborg the Man," "Swedenborg the Scientist," and "Swedenborg the Revelator" by the Rev. Messrs. R A. Preston, G. T. Hill, and H. G. Mongredien, respectively.

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MINISTERIAL CHANGES 1957

MINISTERIAL CHANGES Editor 1957

     Rev. B. David Holm, who has resigned from his posts in South Africa, has accepted episcopal appointment as pastor of the North and South Ohio Circles. A portion of his time will be spent in serving as assistant to the pastor of the Pittsburgh Society.
     Candidate Daniel W. Heinrichs has been appointed assistant to the superintendent of the South African Mission and assistant to the pastor of the Durban Society. These appointments will become effective after his ordination and are conditional on an entry visa being granted by the South African government.
     Candidate Donald L. Rose has accepted appointment, effective after his ordination, as minister of the Hurstville Society in Australia.
EPISCOPAL VISIT 1957

EPISCOPAL VISIT 1957

Bishop De Charms is planning an episcopal tour of the Groups and Circles of the General Church in the Western United States and Canada during the coming summer. He will be accompanied by Mrs. De Charms, and they will travel by air. The trip will include the dedication of a church building in Tucson, Arizona; a Western District Assembly in Glendale, California, where it is hoped that the church building will be ready for dedication; a Northwestern Assembly in Oakville, Washington; a Peace River District Assembly in Dawson Creek, British Columbia: and an ordination service in Denver, where the Rev. Robert S. Junge is to be introduced into the second degree of the priesthood.
VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1957

VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1957

A committee exists to secure accommodations for those members of the church who wish to visit Bryn Athyn. Those wishing accommodations are asked to communicate with Mrs. Winfred A. Smith, Bryn Athyn, Penna. In addition to the hospitality offered in Bryn Athyn homes, there are several new motels nearby to accommodate those who prefer such an arrangement.

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Announcements 1957

Announcements Various 1957

     GENERAL CHURCH CORPORATIONS

     The 1957 Annual Corporation Meetings of the General Church of the New Jerusalem wilt be held in the Benade Hall Auditorium, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, on Saturday afternoon, June 15, at 3:30 p.m., D.S.T. Notices will be mailed.
     LEONARD GYLLENHAAL,
          Acting Secretary.

     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 Benade Hall Auditorium on Friday, June 7, 1957, at 8:00 p.m.
     After reports by officers of the Academy Schools and discussion thereof, an address will be delivered by Professor W. Cairns Henderson.
     The public is cordially invited to attend.
     E. BRUCE GLENN,
          Secretary.

     SWEDENBORG SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION

     The Sixtieth Annual Meeting of the Swedenborg Scientific Association will be held at Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, May 15, 1957, in the auditorium of Benade Hall at 8:00 p.m.
     The reports of the Chapters, together with the usual official reports, will be given; and after the election of officers the Annual Address will be delivered by Dr. C. R. Pendleton on the subject of "Swedenborg's Concept of Space."
     WILFRED HOWARD,
          Secretary.
ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH 1957

ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH 1957

     SCHOOL CALENDAR: 1957-1958

     Eighty-first School Year

     1957

Sept. 6     Fri.     Faculty Meetings. Dormitories open
     7     Sat.     Opening Exercises. President's Reception
     9     Mon.     Registration
     10     Tues.     Classes begin in Secondary Schools
Oct.     25     Fri.     Charter Day
     26     Sat.     Annual Meeting of Corporation
Nov.     27     Wed.     Close for Thanksgiving after classes
Dec.     2     Mon.     Classes resumed
     20     Fri.     Close for Christmas after classes

     1958

Jan.     6     Mon.     Classes resumed
     31     Fri.     End of First Semester
Feb.     3     Mon.     Second Semester begins
     21     Fri.     Washington's Birthday Holiday
Mar.     21     Fri.     Close for Spring Recess after classes
     31     Mon.     Classes resumed
Apr.     6     Sun.     Easter
May     30     Fri.     Memorial Day Holiday
June     6      Fri.     Annual Joint Meeting of Corporation and Faculty
     12     Thur.     President's Reception
     13     Fri.     Commencement Exercises

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LAST JUDGMENT AND THE NEW CHURCH 1957

LAST JUDGMENT AND THE NEW CHURCH GEORGE DE CHARMS 1957

     "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth." (Revelation
14: 6)

     The fourteenth chapter of Revelation describes a prophetic vision concerning the second advent of the Lord. John saw an angel flying through the heavens, proclaiming to all that dwell on the earth the glad tidings that the Lord has come. But what is truly meant by the coming of the Lord? Surely God is present, and has always been present, everywhere in the entire universe. He created all things, from the greatest even to the least. He maintains all things in being and existence, from moment to moment. Nothing can possibly exist apart from Him. Yet He gives His life so secretly that all things may appear to move and to live from themselves. Man alone is so created that he may see God. Only to him can the Lord's presence be made known. And even to man the Lord reveals Himself only in such a way that man may be free either to acknowledge His presence and turn to Him in love and adoration, or to confirm the appearance of self-life and deny the very existence of God.
     The Lord is said to "come" when He reveals Himself, or makes Himself visible, to the sight of men and angels. But even then He cannot "come" to any one who fails to recognize Him, nor to any one who wilfully refuses to acknowledge Him. For this reason the Lord's advent always involves two things: a revelation from the Lord, and reception on the part of man. The giving of a revelation is an historic event. It takes place in time, and provides for all men a new mode of approach to the Lord, a new way in which He max' be seen. But man's response to this new Divine presence is necessarily individual. Each one must discover the Lord for himself, and this discovery must be renewed with every generation.

262

     Whenever the Lord comes He reveals something new concerning Himself, something that has never been known before either in heaven or on the earth. It is something that could not be made known before because the minds of men and angels had not yet been prepared to receive it. At His first advent the Lord revealed Himself for the first time as a Man on earth. But clothed as He was in a material body, although His disciples knew that in some way He must be Divine, they could not understand how He could be the infinite Creator and the omnipresent Ruler of the universe. The process whereby His Human was glorified and fully united to the Divine above the heavens was necessarily hidden from their sight because it was beyond their comprehension. Centuries of further preparation were required before the true nature of His glorified Human could be made known. Yet only by means of this revelation could the Lord effect a final redemption of the race, and the establishment of His eternal kingdom both in heaven and on the earth. This is the reason the Lord promised His disciples that He would come again.
     All Divine operation must be from primes to ultimates, and by means of ultimates to intermediates. This is the universal law. And because of this law it is always necessary for the Lord to come on earth before He can come to the heavens. He must speak to men in human language, either by His own mouth, as He did while He lived on earth, or through the instrumentality of inspired prophets and seers. But on the other hand, His teaching must be received in heaven first before it can be received by men in the natural world.
     The giving of the Heavenly Doctrine through Emanuel Swedenborg, the servant of the Lord, was an historic event. By means of it the Lord made His second coming; but the establishment of His kingdom is effected only gradually as the Divine truth of the Writings is received in love and faith by angels and men.
     Reception in the heavens was relatively rapid. The response of the angels was immediate. Swedenborg was in both worlds at the same time; and even while he was writing and publishing the Arcana Coelestia, in which he set forth the continuous internal sense of Genesis and Exodus, and formulated therefrom, under Divine guidance, the fundamental doctrines of the New Church, the angels associated with him acknowledged this new truth with gladness of heart. Progressively, as the work proceeded, there opened before their sight a new and glorious vision of the Lord. In it they beheld a hidden meaning in the ancient Scriptures that they had not seen before. The whole process of the Lord's glorification was unfolded before them. This is what is meant in the Apocalypse when it is said that "the Lamb opened the book, and loosed the seven seals thereof."

263

The light of this new truth flashed from society to society through all the heavens as a glorious illumination of angelic minds, until the spiritual sun shone for them with sevenfold splendor. And as it did so, a profound change of state was brought about. Each heaven, and every society therein, was ordered anew, as all realized that the Lord had indeed come according to His promise, and that He was about to effect a judgment upon all in the world of spirits, liberating the good from the dominating power of the evil there. By this realization the angelic societies were prepared to take part in that judgment, restraining the evil, protecting the good, and leading them by instruction to the true worship of the Lord. This new presence of the Lord in heaven was foretold and symbolically pictured in the Apocalypse by the vision of John, who "saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth"
Only after this preparation had been made could the light of the new revelation penetrate to those in the world of spirits. There were gathered all who had lived on earth from the time of the Lord's first advent, the good and the evil being indistinguishably mingled. They consisted of two distinct classes of spirits: those who were interiorly evil, but who maintained the outward forms and appearances of moral and civil virtue; and those who, although interiorly good, were deluded, mistaking the appearance for the reality and following blindly those by whom they were deceived. Their minds were clouded by false ideas, by man-made doctrines apparently based on literal teachings of the Word wrongly interpreted. Accepting these erroneous teachings on the authority of those whom they supposed to be sincere, learned and enlightened men, they were blinded to the inner truth of the Sacred Scripture. But as the angels drew near and dispersed these clouds, the light of heaven began to break upon them. The evil, seeking to defend their false teachings, violently opposed the new truth, and, so doing, revealed their true nature. Their love of power, their selfish greed, together with the hatred and cruelty to which these gave rise, were unmasked for all to see. At once the good recoiled, withdrew their confidence and repudiated their allegiance to these false teachers, and were gathered by the angels into new societies where they might he freed from external pressure and prepared for further instruction; while the evil, released from all need to conceal their real ambitions, willingly sought association with the hells of those similar to themselves.
This is what is called the Last Judgment. It took place, we are told, in 1757, and was completed within that year. But the instruction of the good, and their gradual preparation for heaven, continued for many years thereafter. Meanwhile, newcomers from the earth were continually entering the spiritual world by death.

264

These, imbued from childhood with false ideas and habits of life contrary to the laws of God, could not at once receive the new truth. Many of them were innocently deceived; but others were confirmed in evil, although they observed the external forms of religion and the life of charity. It was inevitable that the process of judgment should continue. This is why, on the 19th of June in the year 1770, the Lord called together His twelve apostles, now angels, who had followed Him in the world, and sent them forth throughout the whole spiritual world to preach the gospel that "the Lord God Jesus Christ doth reign."
We need not confine our thought of this Divine mission to these chosen twelve. Surely, all who gladly received the truth of the Heavenly Doctrine and were inspired to proclaim it would be given a part in this work of spreading the good tidings that the Lord has come, that all who were willing to follow the Lord might see "another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth."
Because new clouds are constantly gathering in the world of spirits, preventing the light of heaven from flowing through to men on earth; and because the minds of men are distorted by false teachings innocently mistaken for the truth, and deeply implanted in the affections during early childhood, the judgment on earth can progress only by gradual stages over a long period of many centuries. Only as far as men can he led in providence to accept the Heavenly Doctrine in full freedom can the Lords kingdom be established on the earth. The Lord leads men with infinite patience and gentleness, preserving with them a state of innocence in the midst of spiritual darkness and error, and providing that all who are simple in faith and humble in heart may be brought into the light of truth after death, even though they cannot be prepared to see it during their life on earth. Yet, in His mercy, there are some whose minds are seeking spiritual truth, some who find no satisfying answer to their questions concerning God and the life of religion in the sects of modern Christendom, and who can be led to discover in the Writings the truth for which they are searching. From these the first small beginning of the New Church is formed. Few in numbers, confronted by powerful opposing influences, suffering from many weaknesses and human failings, the church in which is kindled this flickering flame of spiritual faith serves to keep open a rift in the clouds, to maintain some connection and communication with heaven whereby the Lord may secretly prepare the minds of men for a wider reception of the truth. The Heavenly Doctrine, acknowledged with affection, reverence and humility of heart, acts as a fulcrum of Divine power to continue the judgment, restrain the forces of evil, and protect the innocent. This is the deeply hidden function of the New Church. in the sight of the Lord.

265

By performing this service those who sincerely strive to learn the truth and to live according to it from love to the Lord and charity receive influx and enlightenment from the new Christian heaven to sustain them in the long struggle of regeneration. They, too, "see another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth." They know that the Lord has come, and that His providence is overruling all things for the eventual establishment of His kingdom and the redemption of all mankind. In the midst of war and strife, and the threat of destruction, they are blessed with an inner sense of peace, of confidence and trust in the mercy of the Lord; a trust that enables them to meet every trial with patient endurance. Back of every seeming catastrophe they see the hand of the lord calmly ordering all things for the eventual fulfillment of His promise to bring true peace and happiness to suffering humanity. For this we may be profoundly grateful. Only let us be true to our trust, faithful to the teaching of the Lord, sincere in performing the tasks that lie immediately before us, and we may rest assured that the Lord will protect His church, and in His own time will cause it to grow and spread to all the nations of the world. For to him, in His Divine and glorified Human, has been given "all power in heaven and on the earth." Amen.

     LESSONS:     Revelation 5. Revelation 14: 1-7. TCR 773, 774.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 470, 474. 604. Psalmody, page 325.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 23, 126.
NINETEENTH OF JUNE 1957

NINETEENTH OF JUNE Rev. KARL R. ALDEN 1957

A New Church Day Talk to Children

You children all know what a birthday is. You all have your own birthdays. Your mothers and fathers have birthdays, your sisters and brothers have birthdays. And when a birthday comes along everybody is joyful, and each one tries to make the birthday boy, or birthday girl, just as happy as they possibly can. It is a time of rejoicing and for the singing of birthday songs.
The reason a birthday is so important is that it marks the time when you were born, the time when you came into this world. Everybody has a birthday, and everything in this world had a birthday. Your home had a birthday. That was the day after it was built, when it was ready to be lived in.

266

Your school had a birthday, when classes began in it. Our country had a birthday-that was the Fourth of July. Our church, the New Church, had a birthday-that was the Nineteenth of June. And even the Lord whom we worship as the God of heaven and earth had a birthday-when He came into the world as the infant Christ-child. You all know when His birthday was. That was Christmas!
     The Lord told us in the Ten Commandments that we should honor our father and our mother, and that if we did, our days should be long upon the land which the Lord our God would give us. That means, first of all, that we should honor our father and mother in this world, our natural father and mother. But each one of us has a spiritual father and a spiritual mother. You all know who our spiritual Father is. He is the Heavenly Father, the Father whose birth into the world we celebrate at Christmas time. He is the one to whom we pray when we say: "Our Father, who art in the heavens, hallowed be Thy name." We also have a spiritual mother, and our spiritual mother is the church, the New Church, the Church of the New Jerusalem.
     This spiritual mother, this Church of the New Jerusalem, had a birthday. And just as Isaiah was given to foresee the birth of the Lord and to tell us about it when he said: "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 9: 6); so John, on the Isle of Patmos, was given to foresee that the New Church, the New Jerusalem, would be born into the world; that the New Church, our church, would have a birthday. John said: "And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (Revelation 21: 2). Now there is nothing more beautiful than a bride adorned for her husband and so John described our church as the most beautiful thing in the world-a bride adorned for her husband. But our spiritual mother, the church, was not born into the world when John saw this vision. Hundreds of years had still to pass before the Lord could prepare everything for the birthday of our church.
     The birthday of our church was a truly wonderful birthday because it took place in the spiritual world. The spiritual world is where angels live, and it is where we all go when we die and in that world is living everyone who has passed out of this world.
     You remember that while the Lord was in this world He called His disciples together, breathed the Holy Spirit upon them, and told them to go and teach all nations about Him, and to baptize all those who wanted to join His church. You remember how those brave disciples went forth and fearlessly preached the Christian religion. Nothing could stop them.

267

They were not afraid of lions or tigers, of soldiers' swords, or of flaming fire. No pain or torture could make them give up their love of the Lord, and many of them died that His kingdom might come on earth. They were brave, brave men; full of courage and strength. Finally, all of these twelve disciples had gone to the spiritual world. Now you know that in that world everyone does what he loves the most, so the twelve disciples continued to work for the Lord in the spiritual world.
     And so it was that, when it came time for the birthday of our church, the Lord could still make use of those very men who had known and loved Him, and had fought for Him while He was in this world. He could still make use of Peter, James and John, and all the rest of them.
     Just as the Lord knows when every tiny little baby is going to be born, so He knew when our church was going to be born. That was on the Nineteenth of June, in the year 1770. After the Lord, through Swedenborg, had finished writing the True Christian Religion, He called together the twelve disciples who had followed Him in the world and He sent them throughout the whole spiritual world to preach the gospel that "the Lord God Jesus Christ reigns, and of His kingdom there shall be no end,"
     That was the glorious birthday of our church. That is why every New
Church boy and girl, man and woman, feels happy on the Nineteenth of
June-because it was then that our church was born. The Nineteenth of
June is the birthday of our church.

     LESSON:     Revelation 21: 1-14.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 425, 478, 479.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. C12, C16.
NO TEMPLE THEREIN 1957

NO TEMPLE THEREIN 1957

"And I saw no temple therein; for the temple of it is the Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb. This signifies that in this church there will be no external separate from the internal, because the Lord Himself in His Divine Human, from whom is the all of the church, is alone approached, worshipped and adored. I saw no temple therein does not mean that in the New Church which is the New Jerusalem there will not be temples, but that in this church there will not be an external separate from the internal; the reason is that by a temple the church as to its worship is signified, and in the highest sense the Lord Himself as to His Divine Human, who is to be worshipped. And because the all of the church is from the Lord, therefore it is said, 'For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb is the temple of it' (Apocalypse Revealed, 918).

268

LAST JUDGMENT 1957

LAST JUDGMENT Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER 1957

     5.     The Judgment on the Reformed

     The Decline of the Christian Heavens

     When we think of someone going to heaven, we think of heaven as a state of eternal and undisturbed bliss. But heaven, after all, is not a place. but is a society of souls which takes its quality from those who compose it.
     In the beginning of the Christian Church, a heaven was formed from those who lived in acknowledgment of the Lord as their Savior and in a good life for the sake of Him and of the Divine precepts. Soon, however, the church on earth, as it grew in numbers and external power, declined in its simple loyalty to the Lord's teachings, and its doctrine began to be confused. Many Christians, after apostolic times, came to worship the one God under three persons without having the idea of three gods. These were admitted into the Christian Heaven; as were also other spirits who had lived a moral life, and many who, from habit in the world, acted piously, even though they were interiorly malicious.
     Thus the heavens gathered after the Lord's advent deteriorated. At first they consisted of spirits who had heaven within them, and who worshipped the Lord and thence had heaven around them also, as is the proper order. But, successively, the spirits who entered became more and more external; and while even these were given happiness and all things in abundance, so that they lacked nothing, they began to place heaven in dignities and in the magnificence and beauty around them And when they craved service from others and reverence for themselves, they could no longer receive such luxuries and pleasures from the Lord; whereupon they gradually began to provide these things for themselves by fantasies and arts unknown in the world. In vain were angels sent to warn them. Their societies grew worse, so that the original good spirits had to be taken out and concealed in various places for ages, inaccessible to the evil. In appearance, many of these societies of refuge seemed to be situated in the "lower earth" below the world of spirits. Those who were of a more interior kind were instructed, however, and preserved in heaven (SD 5745-5749; LJ post. 141, 169; AR Pref.).

269

     All spirits who are flagrantly evil as well as inwardly wicked promptly and naturally gravitate into hell (LJ 69). But those who retain a moral behavior and emulate a spiritual life in externals are permitted to remain among good spirits who trust them; and the evil can indeed guide and instruct the simple good, who look no further than the surface (LJ 59). This is the reason for the long-suffering tolerance of the Lord which permitted the evil to maintain themselves for centuries in these false and transient heavens. Their final judgment was delayed lest the simple good should suffer. For let us note this, that spirits are taught by those of their own church and religion, and the Christian Church had so falsified its original truths that it could no longer supply a true standard of spiritual judgment-could no longer distinguish genuine religion from pretense. It could not lead men except to heavens that were imaginary or false.
     The same, of course was true of the pagan religions. Toward the middle of the eighteenth century the "heavens" formed from those who had died from our earth since the Lord's advent were heavens only in name, for those in them were not angels but spirits of various religions. But the more spiritually minded among them, and all those who had died as infants and been brought up among these in the other life, were, as was said, removed from the corrupted heaven and concealed by themselves, under the protection of the ancient heavens (LJ 2, 69. 59; SD 5747. 5745).
     The Spiritual Diary relates one remarkable instance of how the decline of the original Christian societies in heaven affected simple good spirits. For some time before the Last Judgment, some of the apostles-who had lived in heaven in great happiness, yet not in any particular eminence, but in what seems to have been the ultimate heaven-were remitted into the state in which they had been on earth. It was certain literalistic spirits who thus stirred up the corporeal state of these apostles. The effect was that the apostles-as they did in the world-came into the fantasy that they were to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. They also maintained that none should be admitted into heaven except those who had suffered persecutions and miseries. And while they were in this state the apostles could remember nothing of what they had learned in heaven in their first state, or even that they belonged in heaven. And while they fluctuated. as it were, and were by turns in one state or another before the Last Judgment, it is afterwards told of them that they attended while Swedenborg wrote the True Christian Religion and on June 19, 1770, were sent out with new power from on high to be the heralds of the new age (SD 1321-1332; TCR 791)
     Before the Last Judgment the general state of the simple good spirits of the ultimate heaven was one of confusion.

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It was disorganized because so many evil spirits were consociated with them in externals; and as long as this was the case, enlightenment failed and the interiors of their minds could not be opened (AE 684a; TCR 121, 119). Indeed, even the state of the middle heaven was disturbed. And nothing could restore the even pace of angelic progress except the removal of the evil spirits from their position of prestige and leadership.
     Remember that these evil spirits who had taken over the power were from the Christian Church itself! They represented the means of salvation! They were trusted exponents of the teachings of Christ. And as long as they were so trusted it was to them that Christians turned for guidance in the way to heaven. The simple could not be expected to know that in the last times there would arise false Christs and false prophets who, if it were possible, would deceive the very elect (Matthew 24: 24).

     The Reformed in the World of Spirits

     The first group of evil spirits which became the object of final judgment was, as described in previous articles, the "Babylonians"; mostly Catholics who exercised dominion through the pretense of being vicars of Christ and able to forgive sins, and who held the people spellbound with various mysteries, miracles and superstitions. The judgment which destroyed the fantasies of Babylon in the world of spirits, and dislodged these spirits from their high places, took place quickly, in the space of a few days, and was virtually completed by the sixth day of January, 1757.
     But the judgment on the Protestant strongholds in the world of spirits was more protracted, and had to be effected by successive changes. Swedenborg testifies that it began about the seventh day of January-after the judgment on all the Catholic, Moslem and gentile regions had drawn to a close-and was nearly completed by the seventh of April, although it continued with certain residues throughout the year 1757. One reason the judgment on those from the Reformed churches was delayed was that the reading of the Word had been restored at the Reformation, and that by the Word they had communication with the heavens and thus a certain protection. For the same reason "all the Protestants or Reformed of whom there was still some hope," or "who had led lives of charity and its faith." were, at the time of the judgment, collected in the central region of the world of spirits; while in the surrounding districts were those who made "seeming heavens" for themselves, being in externals without genuine internals. Such false heavens appeared situated mainly on mountains and rocky plateaus on all sides of the "middle space" (LJ post. 142; SD 5347). It was upon these latter, not upon those at the center, that the Last Judgment came.

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     The "Lower Earth"

     But it is easy to oversimplify the appearances by which spiritual relations are expressed in the world of spirits. And before the Last Judgment had, as it were, straightened out these relations, they were especially confusing.
     In general it can be said that at the time of the judgment the entire level which is usually described as the ground level of the world of spirits was entirely occupied by evil spirits (SD 5481-5485). Below this earth-level, and concealed from the evil, was a "lower earth" and it was there that the salvable Protestants lived in central communities, surrounded on all sides, and above also, by evil spirits who had indeed read the Bible and frequented churches, but had made nothing of the Commandments and had loved self and the world (LJ post. 142). And farther off to the sides were many dark caverns stretching far off and leading down obliquely into the hells. In fact, these hells were thus situated underneath the Babylonian district, which extended around that of the Reformed.
     It is also told that the "lower earth" was so arranged that it also had various levels or strata; and good and evil spirits dwelt in such a way that they were in alternate strata, so that the good might restrain the evil and thus maintain order; even as in the world the public opinion of decent people controls open crime, or as the involuntary fibers in the human body rule the voluntary fibers (SD 5485, 5781).
     This "lower earth" is therefore sometimes referred to by Swedenborg as "below the feet." There good spirits lived, "encompassed by the hells," yet well protected from them. There is a certain temporary protection, as we well know, in modesty, ignorance and lack of pretension. These spirits were in falsities about heavenly life and in a state of vastation, sometimes attended by despair and spiritual torment; like the "souls under the altar" whom John heard crying: "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou delay to judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" (Revelation 6: 10; AC 7090, 10,810: 2).
     But there were also many spirits there who were in faith and charity and who lived in peace and tranquillity. On a hill in the "truly Christian" middle of this district there stood a quadrangular place which is identified by Swedenborg as "the New Jerusalem." And it is said: "All things in the other life must be considered in relation to such a site" (SD 5471; cp. 5302, 5347). In fact, Swedenborg made a diagram of the "lower earth" to show the relationship of this "New Jerusalem" to the various kinds of evil spirits who were arranged according to their characters in the angles extending between the four quarters (SD 5471-5491).
     What was meant by the New Jerusalem is not here explained.

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It is clear that it was the abode of those who were in the clearest light from the Word, and through whom that spiritual light was spread to receptive spirits on all sides, even to the gentiles in the farthest circumference (CLJ 14). The New Jerusalem, of course, signifies the New Church as to doctrine and life; and in memorable relations written by Swedenborg after the Last Judgment he mentions certain "Jerusalemite cities," one of which he saw besieged in vain by evil spirits (AR 655). But even before the judgment, the genuine Christian remnant in the "lower earth" received the heavenly doctrine of charity and faith, and thus constituted a nucleus which was to be raised up to form the New Heaven out of which the New Church was to descend.

     The Mountain Level

     It was mentioned that on the ground level of the world of spirits only evil spirits lived before the judgment. But above the world of spirits, and around it, there arose mountains on which the worst sort of Christians had sought to establish themselves in order to exercise command and gloat over their eminence; for indeed the glory of dignity and superiority rivals even the delights of dominion. These were external men without internal spirituality. They established a great many cities there-and each city meant some particular type of religious doctrine. Into these they lured many simple souls who thus became their partisans and supporters, and who had wandered up into these mountains in their search for the true heaven. Both good and evil spirits thus lived on this level (SD 5485). These mountains were indeed the proper place for the ultimate or natural heaven, and Swedenborg at first called them the "heaven of spirits," which he found to have been usurped by evil spirits.
     But high above these mountains there was still another expanse, overhead and as if invisible in the clouds. This was occupied by several types of pietists who were in the conviction that they were sanctified and holier than others, because their thoughts were continually in the clouds, attempting to think of the invisible God without determining their thought to think of the Divine under human form (SD 5377ff; LJ post. 142).

     Preliminary Judgments

     Even before the Last Judgment, societies of evil spirits were in periodic ferment (SD 5838). Not only is peace impossible for the wicked, because of constant jealousies and underhand intrigues; but when evil becomes open and brutal, and begins to injure the well disposed, the Lord sends angels for a visitation; causing rulers to be deposed and conspirators to be sent away to lower levels, or even into their hells. Such visitations are always for the protection of good spirits, who are then taken away and secreted.

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Sometimes a society is overturned and good spirits are established where the evil were, even as the Israelites dispossessed the nations of Canaan (LJ post. 135ff; SD 4925ff, 4944). Certain Swedish cities in the lower earth underwent preliminary purifications (SD 5034-5088); and previous to that it is mentioned that Charles XII in his haughty stubbornness, "declared war on God," thinking himself to be the Devil himself (SD 4884).
     There were also various signs given of the approaching day of doom. There were earthquakes in divers places, and a storm cloud or misty sphere seemed to spread over the mountains and rocks as a sign of the Lord's presence in the angelic heavens above them, and especially in the ultimate heaven. The higher heavens seemed to be brought nearer, causing the interiors of the evil spirits to be disclosed so that they could no longer appear like moral Christians. Their lusts were set free, and they began to reject their pretended piety of the former state with contempt and ridicule. And with this, all the splendid possessions that they had made by artifice vanished away; their palaces turning into vile huts, their gardens into stagnant pools, and their temples into rubbish (CLJ 23f). The most acute reasoners among them rushed into the middle and assumed the dominion, and the rest fawned upon them as if they were tutor-angels. These were "the beginnings of sorrows" (Matthew 24: 8). Here and there the ground opened to belch out fiery smoke. And where disorders affected the lives of the simple good, visitations of angels took place. As at Sodom, the angels were often offered violence while they assured the escape of the good spirits (CLJ 25f).
     The evil spirits on these rocky places were mostly those who professed the doctrine of salvation by faith alone. Some had professed charity, but had in their private lives indulged in shameful vices while still enjoying a measure of official enlightenment in their uses. It is notable that the evil can hide behind a moral external for a long time; but when the heavenly sphere of real love and charity approaches too closely they finally cannot endure it, and feel so suffocated that in desperation they cast off their masks as if in relief. For, of course, there is nothing "harder on the nerves than to live a life of pretense.

     The Beginning of the Judgment on the Reformed

     The Last Judgment on the Reformed nations in the world of spirits broke out on the sixth of January, 1757, "at the same time as the papists of the eastern quarter were brought down beyond the northern tract (SD 5348; cp. 5336, 5337; LJ post. 143). Those first affected were various external spirits living on a mountain immediately above and around the center of the Protestant middle space, thus also above the hill in the lower earth which was called the "New Jerusalem" (SD 5347, 5471).

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These spirits were of various sects-Lutherans. Calvinists and others. Most of them lived outside of the cities, and this would indicate that they were not strongly fortified in doctrine, but had been churchgoers mainly interested in self and the world. Their fate was to be brought obliquely down into hells bordering the Protestant region and below the Babylonish districts. There they were deprived of all doctrinals and were scattered, never to return, in desert places in the various quarters according to their character. Those from the cities who had lived morally from fear or for the sake of reputation were banished into mountain regions (SD 5347ff; LJ post. 142).
     What brought on this first judgment was their inability to refrain from criminal acts, and from seditious plotting against those who held the Word holy and worshipped the Lord as the God of heaven and earth (CLJ 27).

     The Reformed Nations

     The Spiritual Diary records, with meticulous detail, the progress of the judgment from state to state and place to place in the world of spirits, a world which changed its appearance during the process. But in general there is a relative fixity in that world also, for it is organized according to the natural affections which ruled the spirits when they lived on earth.
     Prominent among those ruling natural affections is the bond of nationality. This we sometimes call patriotism or love of country. But it may be only a love of one's kindred, one's familiar customs and confirmed ways of thinking, common knowledge, and a loyalty to what we regard as our own. Such common affections mold each nationality into a genius which is distinct from that of others and which survives death. Spirits at first therefore gravitate to their compatriots and form cities like those in which they lived on earth.
     The geography of the world of spirits is, of course, vastly different from that of earth. For the directions. or cardinal points, in the other life indicate the inlinations of the mind and the ruling characteristics or genius, as well as the state of intelligence and affection. The nations thus appear there in their quarters according to their religion, and "according to each nation's common faculty for receiving Divine truths" (SD 5395; LJ 48). The Protestant nations, at the time of the judgment, were led into the middle space because the Word was read among them, and they were in greater spiritual light than others.
     Before we can describe the course of the judgment we must therefore first picture the situation of the various nations. The English appeared in the central part of the middle space, the Dutch toward the east and the south, the Germans more towards the north, the Swedes in the west and the north, and the Danes toward the west.

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Of the English it is said that they had an interior perceptive sight as to religion, and that many of them would receive the Heavenly Doctrine and come into the New Jerusalem. They also had freedom of speech, which encouraged sincerity (LJ post. 2-6): we hope that these characteristics may now be shared by other English-speaking peoples!
     The Dutch were in the love of trading, not in the love of wealth alone; and while they often held to their religious principles after they had been proved wrong, they excelled in distinguishing fantasy from reality, and kept spiritual light conjoined with natural light more than others. They tended to be secretive from prudence.
     The Swedes were worse than any other nation in Europe except Italy and Russia. They were outwardly sincere-like the Dalecarlians-from a hereditary disposition, but inwardly they could harbor hatred against those who did not favor them, and they had no respect for honesty. Of course, there were good Swedes as well! Not much is said about the Danes, except that some were hypocritical and preferred to rule rather than to work-a trait not confined to them.
     The Germans are spoken of as a `noble nation" which was not of so unified a quality because divided by religious differences and into many principalities. They devoted themselves less to matters of judgment and more to matters of memory and book-learning, the history of letters, and so on. They kept spiritual things inscribed on their memories and seldom elevated their thoughts. The Germans were under despotic government in each dukedom, and did not enjoy freedom of speech and of the press like the "free nations" of Holland and Britain. And influx adapts itself to efflux (TCR 814f).
     Among other spirit groups in this intermediate world Swedenborg found the Jews. Although not Christians, they read the Word of the Old Testament in the original Hebrew and therefore had communication with some of the heavens, and were for this reason preserved and tolerated in the "middle space.' They, however, dwelt underneath the Protestants-a "little to the left, in a parallel with the sole of the foot and below" (SD 5619; LJ post. 251).
     The Moravians, followers of Zinzendorf, also belonged to no special nationality. Their situation was at first in a valley near the Jews. They were characterized by their peculiar "societies of interior friendship," based on doctrinal brotherhood and the conviction that they alone were saved (CLJ 86; SD min. 4763, et al.).
     The Quakers are described as wandering spirits. They could form no societies, for they rejected the sacraments and have no fixed doctrinals of faith, but speak from enthusiastic spirits who obsess them and cause them to commingle profane ideas with what they know from the Word.

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Their state seems to have gone from bad to worse, and finally they fell into nefarious practices and ideas which their founder and William Penn and others disowned. The early Quakers had ecstatic convulsions, but these ceased after the first type of enthusiastic spirits was removed from them (CLJ 83ff).

     Cities in the World of Spirits

     The "nations" just described were societies of spirits, often governed by the same princes or kings as had recently ruled over those nations on earth. Such rulers were tolerated as long as they administered their offices justly. These societies usually took the form of cities-cities which were in great part replicas of those on earth, with corresponding districts, streets and buildings.
     Skeptics would here exclaim: What! Cities in the spiritual world? How could there be houses and streets in that world, except as apparitions floating in the air? And if they then, after death, should be amazed on being shown that there were even libraries there, and pens and ink and writing and mechanical arts, the angels might tell them: "We perceive that in the former world you thought that this world was empty because spiritual, and that you so thought because . . . to you, what is abstracted from the material appeared to you as nothing and thus as a vacuum. Yet in this world there is a fulness of all things. Here all things are substantial, not material: and material things derive their origin from things substantial" (CL 207: 5).
     It may seem that the reality of spiritual cities has little to do with the Last Judgment, even though this often took the form of a destruction or rearrangement of cities in the world of spirits, as we shall show in our next article. And the New Church is consistently described as a spiritual city, a holy Jerusalem. The cities of the Reformed in the world of spirits are also referred to collectively in the Apocalypse as that "great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified," a city where, it is said, His "two witnesses" would prophesy for a thousand, two hundred and sixty days, and would be slain, and their bodies left as dead on the street for three days and a half, after which they would be raised and ascend to heaven (Revelation 11: 3-12). The acknowledgment of the Lord as the one God-Man and the life of spiritual charity are the two witnesses which in our modern world have been left as dead in the churches.
     A city means, in the spiritual sense, a doctrine, and in this case a doctrine which rejects the Lord's Divine Human from a love of dominating from self-love and from a pride in self-intelligence (AR 502). It is called a great city with reference to the false doctrine which teaches that man is justified in the eyes of God by faith alone without charity.

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When such a doctrine dominates the religious thought of a society of spirits, that society becomes a Sodom and an Egypt, whatever appearance it may take from the national origin of the spirits that inhabit it, and whether it resembles a London or an Amsterdam or a Stockholm.
But the remarkable statement is made in the Writings that the correspondence of these spiritual cities to their earthly counterparts was, at the beginning of the judgment, "close and material, according with the ideas of the thoughts of men in the world"; but that after the judgment "another arrangement takes place, and another correspondence: thus through correspondences not so direct and close, but more remote" (SD 5716).
In our next article we shall examine what this involved, and also note how the judgment culminated in a great battle between Michael and the dragon as the Apocalypse had foretold.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION FOR WOMEN 1957

PHYSICAL EDUCATION FOR WOMEN JUDITH PENDLETON 1957

     (Delivered to the General Faculty of the Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa., February 5, 1957.)

     The following is a quotation from a paper written by Miss Alice Grant entitled "Education for Women" (NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1922):
     "Here [in physical education] is where there should be a decided difference between the education of women and men, of girls and boys. As now planned, the aim for both seems to be about the same-health and muscular strength that will make similar feats possible for both. As I vision physical education for woman, I see first her use as the reactive in creation. How are we to educate women physically to meet their use, wherever, and in whatever form it may be? I believe in a system of training that will develop grace, as well as muscular strength, curves instead of angles, rhythmic instead of martial movements-in short, movement that will allow her to express her affection of beauty. There are many exercises that will delight woman because of the fact that they add to her personal attractiveness. A plain face may be overlooked in one who has grace of body and manner. It is necessary that she should have her affections excited for these activities, if they are to have a healthful reaction upon both mind and body. And if we keep her highest use in mind, we will see that health is most important, since it is only in a healthy body that we can have a healthy mind."
     Most certainly this quotation is as important now as it was then.

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What can we do to apply those well written words in our current physical education program for women? Perhaps the best way to give you an understanding of my aims is to show you the program I have set up, from the objectives right down through the actual sports that we are or soon will be, engaging in this year.
     First of all, before beginning any course, we must decide for ourselves what we consider the essentials that need to be stressed; This means for a New Church woman who has had her training at an outside institution: what out of all the gobbledygook that we have imbibed would be of use to us in setting up a distinctive New Church course? What can we utilize, or perhaps modify, to achieve our ends more effectively?
     Let us begin with these ends. First of all. I believe in the objectives of physical education as taught outside-to develop the girls' muscles and improve their health; to give them a variety of activities, so that they may find enjoyment and benefit in recreation and in working with their fellow men; to help each individual develop her own personality, and help each one acquire a sense of achievement.
     But this, for a New Church man, is scarcely sufficient. What I feel the girls need is a program geared to making them more effective New Church wives and mothers, and fostering an ability to work with others in the various uses of the church and their respective societies. How can this be applied in our school to the phase of physical education? I feel that perhaps more can be done for more different types of girls in physical education than in any other subject. For instance, one of my objectives is to help the girls learn how to work as a team-so that they may later be more effectual in the many uses that arise in their societies and in their church work. The girl who learns to subordinate her will or desire for glory in order that her whole team may benefit, is beginning to set up habits of helping and working with others that should carry over into later life. A girl can go all the way through high school scarcely ever helping anyone else, being almost completely selfish, and still graduate cum laude. This she cannot do in sports. If she is unwilling in basketball to share the ball with others, or to do her part, it soon becomes evident to those involved, and usually to the detriment of her whole team. Often she may sulk for being called down for it; but time and time again, as that girl begins to work with the others, she finds a real sense of satisfaction from working as part of a team that she has never had before.
     This brings to mind another thought. Those who are the good students or leaders in the classroom are not necessarily the ones that are good on the sports field; though quite frequently the leaders of a class seem to be sportswise inclined. These leaders, when they are the good players, are often surprised and quite pleased to find someone whom they hardly noticed in the classroom doing a very creditable job.

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In fact, often these leaders find that someone whom they "just cant stand" does her part quite efficiently and effectively, and that they can come to respect her for it. Just so, later in life they are going to find the same type of situation arising in the numberless committees on which they are going to serve; you may not like so-and-so, but give her a task and she does it, and does it well-she even thought of all those small details you took for granted you would have to take care of yourself. We need these leaders or stars who can make the goals in order to win the game. It is not unusual for these stars to find that not everyone can shoot as they can; but they also soon realize that without the other half of their team, the lowly but effective guards, the game would be lost. I try to help them learn to appreciate one another's ability, and to give credit where credit is due.
Another phase I am trying to stress that is a bit hard to do in the classroom is that of posture, poise and grace. As Miss Alice said, "A plain face may be overlooked in one who has grace of body and manner." A girl should be proud of the fact that she is a woman and that she does not have the harsher qualities of boys; she should be so proud of her given qualities that she does not want to emulate the boys. Many girls can be trained through activities to a grace and poise that is almost foreign to them. A woman is to complement a man, not compete with him. This does not mean that I feel they should not develop a wide variety of sports, and reach as high a level of achievement as they can; many girls are going to find that they and their "friends-that-are-boys" will get much enjoyment out of swimming, tennis, skating, riding, dancing, and doing many other activities together; but in all of these they can be young ladies playing with young gentlemen, not two rock-and-roll teenagers in competition. The score may be the same, but the attitude and sphere surrounding it are entirely different.
I believe that we should have as wide a range of activities in our physical education curriculum as possible for several reasons. The most immediate at present, of course, is that through a wide variety almost every girl in school should be able to find one sport in which she can do as well as, if not better than, her schoolmates. It is important that each girl have a sense of accomplishment, if for no other reason than that it will help her develop confidence in herself and give her pleasure. It also helps the other girls; for it shows them that almost everyone is different, that very few are good in all phases, and that nearly everyone has something to contribute in one phase or another. I find it quite usual among human beings to make a judgment of another person based on her actions in one situation, and then take for granted that this judgment will apply in all other phases when it will not. If we learn to keep our minds open and keep looking, we can discover and utilize those attributes which each individual possesses.

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This is what I hope the girls are gradually learning, and will later utilize in their work in the societies.
     The second reason I advocate a variety of activities is that they may be used later on in marriage for the enjoyment and relaxation of husband and wife, and may serve also as a pleasant and enjoyable bond between mother and children. Much can be taught, particularly in the field of charity, through games and excursions in a family; and a wonderful time can be had by all in the process. The family that does not play together misses so much of their potential enjoyment of themselves and each other, and an opportunity to use and practice some of the more practical doctrines of the church.
     The third reason is that many of these sports may be used right now by the boys and girls. I consider this, particularly in the church, a very healthy and often sadly neglected form of enjoyable social life.
     Physical education is not merely the training of the physical, but of the interests, attitudes, knowledges and ideals. Where better can we begin than on the sports field? If any of you have taught activities-or all you actually need to do is observe the younger children during their recess break-you will notice that many of the children are very different on the field from what they are in class. Feelings come out during active sports and competition that are often hidden not only from the classroom teacher but even the parents themselves. Self-control and sportsmanship are two of those attributes most often noted; but as you go on, you find the not quite so noticeable ones, but ones that are just as important, coming out. These vary from a girl's suffering from a well-covered inferiority complex to a just as well-covered very selfish nature. Both of these, in fact all of these, are frequently, I feel, more easily and more naturally handled on the sports field than they can be in the classroom, and more unobtrusively. By forming certain combinations on the hockey field we can help the girl who feels inferior to find that she really has something to offer: sometimes completely unknown to her and the rest of the class. The selfish one can be handled sometimes in just the same way. In the classroom I think it is often more noticeable to the rest of the class, and also to the girl herself, what you are trying to do; and she is more likely to resent your efforts than anything else.
     Lately I have been putting more emphasis on obedience-not just to the teacher but also to the rules. Life is governed by rules provided by the Lord; and I have felt somewhat, in my physical education classes throughout the school, that there is a lack of obedience in their activities which is detrimental not only to the order of the class but also to the child or student herself. There is a certain freedom that can come only with order.

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The girl should learn to realize that it is not charitable to retard a class's progress through the lack of her cooperation. I do not feel that allowing her to be disorderly is setting up good habits for later life. On the practical plane, for safety's sake the students are taught that they must stop immediately whatever they are doing when they hear the whistle. They learn to follow commands in group exercises, and in the skill drills. They learn the rules of the different games, and in certain instances we encourage calling infringements against themselves. This is to help them learn to admit willingly they are in the wrong; not a serious offense usually, but perhaps it is a beginning for them to learn to be honest with themselves and with other people, without which they can hardly hope to play on a heavenly sports team a little later on.
     Concerning the high school age. Bishop De Charms makes a point about the seventeenth year that I feel is an important phase of the high school state in general. At least I intend to keep it in mind while working with the girls. During this time the externals of decorum, etiquette and social behavior begin to be fixed; and ideals of moral life, of honor and politeness, are instilled."
     As for the actual program outline. I have attempted to set up a continuously progressing program so that one activity logically follows upon another within a class, as well as one year building upon another. In it I have tried to meet as many of the above individual needs and uses as possible, and to provide for a program with a wide range of activities including as many as possible of those which they will be able to continue to develop through high school and which will be of use in their adult life. I would like to reiterate here that one of the main areas I am trying to stress with the girls is poise, grace, and an understanding that under all circumstances we are ladies-and glad of it.

     EDITORIAL NOTE: Miss Judith Pendleton, a graduate of Pennsylvania State University with a B.S. degree in Physical Education; is an Instructor in Physical Education and History in the Academy schools.]
ACADEMY BOOK ROOM NOTES 1957

ACADEMY BOOK ROOM NOTES 1957

     The price of the Standard Edition of the Writings, published by the Swedenborg Foundation, has been increased to $2.00 per volume.
     A page of corrections and additions to The Swedenborg Epic has been prepared by the author and may be obtained from the Academy Book Room.
     Fire damaged copies of the Word, New Church canon, are available at $2.00 and $1.50 per copy, about one dozen at each of these prices.

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WRITINGS AS THE WORD 1957

WRITINGS AS THE WORD Rev. ALFRED ACTON 1957

     A Study in the History of Doctrine

     (Continued from the May issue.)

     These differences do not come out in the literature of the church, except as they are manifested in the attitudes to separation from the Old Church and to priestly government. But that they existed is specifically stated, and it would appear that they first became definite about 1788 or 1789. In the AURORA for October 1799 is a letter from a Mr. Robert Bernet of Kingston-upon-Hull, in which he writes: "I have, in my journeyings from place to place, lately met with two very different classes of the readers of the Hon. Baron Swedenborg's works: One class holding it as a fixed principle with them, that the Baron's writings are really the Word of the Lord, as positively as the writings of any of the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, as also of St. John in his Revelation, and thus seem to be exceedingly offended when any one seems to depart from this their idea. The other class readily allow the Baron to be a person highly illuminated by the Lord, and that his writings are highly useful in opening the spiritual sense of the Word, and thereby the true nature of the New Jerusalem church state; but still they cannot allow his writings to be upon an equal footing with the Word itself; for, say they, this would be raising the Baron and his writings rather above their proper place, for none can be the Word, but the Lord alone" (p. 235).
     Mr. Bernet continues that both classes appeal to the editors and writers of the AURORA as favoring them, and therefore he asks the editors to declare "in the most earnest manner" which class they "conceive to be most agreeable to truth."
     In their reply, the editors, Sibley, Proud and Hodson, say that they, "and several of their respectable correspondents, conceive that B. S., as to his theological writings, is no more an author than Matthew, Mark, Luke or John; but that as they were, so is he, a scribe of the Lord; and hath written down that which he received, was ordered, and appointed to write. We do not pretend to say the whole of his theological writings are the Word of the Lord equally with those of Matthew. Mark. Luke, and John. We say, That what he hath written is strictly true-his relations real facts-that there is no error or mistake in them-that he was under the peculiar direction of the Lord throughout the whole-and that his Arcana, in particular, is no other than the Lord's own Word, opened and exhibited in its internal sense, its true spiritual meaning, and therefore is infallible truth. It is the light and glory of the holy Word, shining in superior splendor.

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The more we consider the writings in this light, the less is E. S. exalted, for he is nothing at all but a mere scribe or medium; but if he be considered in a lower light, as an expositor of the Scriptures only, then the man is exalted, his own power and abilities are looked at, and he may be idolized as a great and wonderful man: whereas in the other case E. S. is nothing, the Lord is all, and to Him alone is given the praise" (pp. 236-237).
The editors' answer gave rise "to a discussion we did not expect" (ibid. p. 293). The first public discussion of this question appeared in a letter written to the AURORA by S. M. (Society at Manchester for publishing the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg), dissenting from the editors' expressed a view of the Writings. They agree that the Writings are without mistake or error and were written "under the peculiar direction of the Lord throughout the whole," but could not agree "with you when you insinuate that some parts of his Theological Writings are the WORD OF THE LORD equally with those of Matthew. Mark, Luke and John, and that therefore he is no more an author than any of these four Evangelists." Their own opinion is that the Writings are "mere explications of the hidden Wisdom of the HOLY BOOK, adapted and brought down to the capacity of man, but not containing any thing above that capacity." They therefore "bear witness to the internal sense of the HOLY WORD, and teach in part what that sense is"; but "they themselves are not THE WORD.' The second advent consists in "the opening of the spiritual sense of the HOLY WORD in men `s minds, and its operation in their lives." E. S. served as the instrument by "having his own understanding first opened to the apprehension of the interior contents of the Sacred Volumes, and by next being enabled to write and publish those heavenly doctrines, deduced from the same divine source, which might be necessary to open the understandings of others." The Writings, therefore, are not the Word but "doctrines derived from the Word"; and the Word is internal truth but doctrine is external. The Evangelists, furthermore, did not understand what they wrote, but E. S. was prepared and therefore "apprehended and understood clearly everything which he himself has committed to paper": and in this view of E. S., "we less exalt the man and more exalt the Lord, than in supposing him to write as a mere Scribe" (ibid. pp. 295 seq.).
The editors admit the letter but say: "It does not carry any conviction that the definition we gave of the Barons character was wrong." Since the Lord Himself dictated to Swedenborg, therefore "the Arcana Coelestia is not to be considered as his Exposition or Interpretation of the Holy Word; but it is the WORD ITSELF in its Internal Sense opened by the LORD HIMSELF."

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The editors then cite Swedenborg's letter to the King of Sweden, as follows: "The Lord our Saviour commanded me to write what has already been done, and what I have still to do" (ibid. pp. 293-94: cites also AR preface and AC 64; see 2 Doc. 375). We may note here that this letter was written in 1790. It does not appear, however, whether the editors of the AURORA were led by this to extend their judgment of the Writings as the Word to more than the expositionary portions.
In the same number of the AURORA. John Augustus Tulk writes: "In the opening of his letter, it would appear that the difference of opinion on this subject was a new development in the church: for he says that from Mr. Bernet's letter, it appears that a difference of opinion subsists between two classes of readers, etc." He writes further that the Writings max' speak for themselves. After quoting HH 1, TCR 779, AR Pref., TCR 851, CL 1, TCR 850, Infl. 20, AR 820, ND 7, TCR 230, AR 1. etc.. as to internal and external sense of the Word, he concludes that Swedenborg's own testimony on the subject is that "the Revelation contained in the Writings is an opening of the spiritual or internal sense of the Word, and of the heavenly secrets therein contained, together with the genuine doctrine of the Word which are now revealed from the Lord for the purpose of establishing His New Church; and that by this revelation is to be understood the second coming of the Lord. That Emanuel Swedenborg was especially prepared and appointed by the Lord from his youth to this office; that he disclaims having taken any thing with regard to the spiritual sense, or the doctrine, from himself, or even from any angel, but from the Lord alone whilst he was reading the Word; consequently that he is to be looked upon as a mere instrument, and in no respect to be regarded personally in the revelation, any more than are the Prophets or Apostles, who wrote the Word in its ultimates by inspiration or by dictation. That the spiritual or internal sense of the Holy Word and its genuine doctrine thus revealed by illumination from the Lord alone through His Word, is to be regarded as the soul of the Word, and the literal or external sense as its body; and that to consider this revelation of the Lord's Word for the use of His New Church in any other point of view than what is displayed in the New Revelation itself, or to consider it in any comparative point of view which might tend to elevate or depreciate the external or literal sense at the expense of the internal or spiritual sense, or vice versa, would be inconsistent with a just view and with truth, and would, as it were, be separating the soul from the body in its intimate connection, and thus destroying the man.

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In short, the internal or spiritual sense, and the external or natural sense of the Word, exist in indissoluble union; they may indeed be separated in idea, but cannot in reality, any more than the Lord, who is the life of the Word, can be separated from His Word, which, as to the Divine Truth it contains, is the Lord Himself; or, in other words, the Divine Truth now given and contained in the spiritual sense of the Word is from the Lord alone, and respects and manifests Him alone and the things of His kingdom, and as to its Divine Truth is also the Lord Himself; and this internal sense rests in or dwells in the literal sense of the Word, which for the same reason is also the Lord Himself; consequently both senses are holy and divine as proceeding solely from Him, though through the instrumentality of men, and can in no wise be separated or divided in themselves, without doing injury to and depreciating the Word itself, and thus destroying its integrity. Of the Word in the letter it may be said, Here is the Divine Word or Divine Truth veiled, as it were, with clouds; of its spiritual sense and of its genuine doctrine, it may be said, Here is the same Divine Word or Divine Truth in its power and great glory" (ibid. pp. 300 seq.).
     Following Mr. Tulk's clear exposition of the subject comes a letter signed by fifteen members of the New Church at Kingston-upon-Hull, who describe themselves as being of those who esteem the Writings "really as the Word of the Lord itself, particularly his Arcana Coelestia" (ibid. pp. 305-306).
     The subject evidently attracted much attention, for in the next number of the AURORA it is again discussed by several correspondents.
     An occasional correspondent communicates the results of a private conversation "above a year ago, before any apprehension was entertained that the subject would come in a questionable shape from any society." This writer says: To accomplish the manifestation of the glorified Human, "the human mind in one man was made the vehicle of the internal sense of the Word in a series, or of the Lords second coming, as the human body in one woman had been made the vehicle of the Word made flesh, or of the Lords first coming. By the first coming, our Lord became visible to mortal eyes . . . by the second coming He is rendered visible to the mental sight . . . and for the first time completely unfolds the mystery of the resurrection.
     Those who would separate in point of heartfelt veneration, the Word now opened in the series of its internal sense from the Word previous to this brighter manifestation, separate the Son from the Father, and make two Gods not equally worshipped . . . by making the Arcana Coelestia a stream only from the literal Word as its fountain, they do not allow the celestial and spiritual Word to be the essential spirit of the latter, and thus lessen the divinity of the Father. . .
     "Can any one suppose for a moment that the Word in its glory is less Jehovah, because B. S. was its vehicle? as well might he suppose that Jesus Christ was not Jehovah, because the Virgin Mary gave him birth."

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The only effect of the opposite position on those who hold it would be that the literal Word "lies equally open to their private interpretation in its spiritual and celestial sense as it did to E. S"; thus reducing the divine and infallible Word in its glory, dictated by the Lord to E. S., to a human comment." He continues: "I consider the Arcana to be the very Word in its internal sense, revealed to E. S. by the Lord alone and the doctrines of the Theology to be the doctrines of that very Word dictated by the Lord, and the memorabilia to be faithful narratives of fact that relate to discoveries and correspondences in the spiritual world, written by command from the Lord, agreeable to the repeated declarations of E. S.
     "As the doctrines from the internal sense of the Word will establish a Church that will be the crown of all churches: so the internal sense of the Word itself is the crown of all dispensations.
     ". . . We do not contemplate the scribe . . . but the Lord alone. We do not look up to Moses who received the commandments . . . nor to the prophets who wrote the prophecies as dictated to them viva voce, nor to the evangelists who wrote the Gospels, nor to John who wrote the Apocalypse, nor to F. S. to whom has been revealed, from the Lord alone, the internal sense of his own Word, which is his second coming"; and more to the same effect (pp. 329 seq).
     In this same number of the AURORA. the Manchester Society replies to the editors and their supporters. It agrees that the Writings "contain a real Revelation from the LORD of the internal sense of THE WORD, and of the Doctrines of His New Church,' and that these were both dictated from the LORD to the mind or spirit of E. S. whilst he was reading the HOLY WORD." But the distinction between the Writings and the Word is such that the former "can never with any propriety or truth be called THE WORD." In the Word is an inmost sense, but none in the Writings which have only the internals. In the Word all things are infinite; in the Writings they are finite, since the internal sense was revealed only in a finite way. In the Word are things incomprehensible to men or angels, in the Writings all things are comprehensible even to men; so Swedenborg himself comprehended all he wrote; the distinction between the Word and the Writings is as between the Lord Himself and a celestial angel or a celestial man. The Word is the Divine Human, the Writings are the spiritual-rational natural human.
     Again, the Word was dictated even as to its expression in the letter; the writers merely writing what was spoken to them by Jehovah "in so many words." Not so the Writings: they were not dictated by the Lord to E. S. "as to the expressions or language," but only as to the internal sense of the Word and doctrine; neither did the Lord find illustrations and confirmations, but both the expressions, the illustrations and confirmations were all found by E. S., who had been previously prepared.

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If they were the real WORD, no previous preparation would have been necessary The writers add that if they chose, they could get "many hundreds' of subscribers to their letter; there not being "a single member of the New Church in Manchester, Bolton, Stockport, Whitefield, Worsley, Wringley, etc. but what rejects altogether the idea; that the Writings of E. S. are the WORD' (ibid. pp. 332 seq.).
     "Abdiel" also contributes a short letter to support the Manchester Society by the statement that, while the Word has an internal sense, the Writings "have no other sense than what is expressed in the letter" (ibid. p. 338).
     But a member of the Kingston-upon-Hull Society answers the Manchester Society. He can see no difference between writings in which, as the Manchester Society admits, "there is no error or mistake, and written under the peculiar direction of the Lord throughout the whole," and the Word of the Lord. "We believe," he says, "the Writings of Baron Swedenborg to be the Word of the Lord equally [as the Gospels], because in writing them he was under the peculiar direction of the Lord throughout the whole" (ibid. pp. 338 seq.).
     Another correspondent introduces his letter by the statement that this subject is the most important that has ever been introduced to the members of the church. The Manchester Society, he continues, has reduced the question to this: "Is the internal sense of the Sacred Scriptures, as now opened by E. S., of equal sanctity with, or is it a part of, the HOLY WORD?" The Manchester Society answered, No, because in the Arcana Coelestia, the internal sense is written distinct from the letter, and the Word can be called such only when in its fullness. But, says the writer. Do not the celestial angels have the Word though they know nothing of the letter? And will anyone say that the kernel is not a part of the nut because the shell is taken off? The Writings "are not a New Word [here we recall Beyer's words] nor an addition to the Old Word," but they are that part of the same Word which before was sealed. They are one with the letter by correspondence.
     The writer then addresses himself to a printed letter from a member of the Jerusalem Chapel at Birmingham (Rev. H. B. Peacock) which contains "the most erroneous and dangerous ideas of E. S. and of his Writings" that have ever come from a professed reader of the Writings. It will not be necessary to enter into the able argument of this writer, but we cannot forbear giving the reference to his parallel column (AURORA. pp. 342 seq.).

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     This is the last contribution to the discussion. For the editors of the AURORA, conceiving that it had been fully ventilated to the just limits of discussion, closed it. They added, however, that other letters had been received besides those published.*
     * See Messenger of Wandsbeck, AURORA, vol. 2, p. 219; Letter to a Friend in Latin, ibid. p. 224.
     The reading of these letters reminds one of the discussion that took place many years after on the same subject. The same argument, the same passages.
     For a year the subject is not again mentioned in the AURORA, though one can at times see that the idea of the Writings as the `Word is present in the minds of some of its contributors, as, for instance, when "Semi-Homo" recommends the utmost exactness in translating into English the "sacred works' of Swedenborg [ibid. v. 2, p. 190]. But in October 1800, the subject is again openly spoken of, though not in controversial form. The mention is from the pen of the Rev. Francis Leicester, to whose utterances we have already referred, in a most excellent article, "The Writings of Swedenborg Their own Evidence." His whole argument is based on the implied thesis that the Writings are the Word. Thus he notes that some object that they are hard to understand. Cannot the same thing be said of the written Word itself? observes Mr. Leicester. "It is a proof rather of the divinity of them both." Again, he speaks of those who hold that the canon of Scripture is sealed and settled forever, and that no new revelation can be expected; and he observes that a revelation contrary to the Word cannot be expected; "but if these invaluable writings are agreeable to, illustrative of, and, in the judgment of many, the interior Word itself made manifest, the objection is of no force" (AURORA, vol. 2, pp. 190 seq.).
     In December, also, a writer again refers to the subject by way of expressing regret that [by] the editors "so early a period was put to that important question respecting the internal sense being the very Word-a subject of all others the most essential to be discussed since we are particularly told in the Arcana Coelestia, no. 1834 that however the members of the church may differ in doctrinals, there must be no denial of 'the fundamental principles, that is, the Lord, the Word and eternal life.' And as our enlightened Scribe has positively declared that his Arcana Coelestia 'is the Internal Sense' (AC no. 64), and that 'the Internal Sense is the Word to the angels' (no. 1929), doubtless what is the `Word to angels in the spiritual heavens, must be equally so to the spiritual mind on earth. But as you have dismissed this subject, I must not revive it" (ibid. pp. 273-274).
     The AURORA was discontinued in 1801, and for a time there was no periodical in the New Church But the subject of the Writings, once started, would not be downed.

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In 1802, Mr. Samuel Noble, then a young lay member of Mr. Proud's society in London, published anonymously Two Discourses on the Internal Word of the Lord, to show clearly what is meant by asserting that the Writings of the New Jerusalem messenger are the internal Word.
     Mr. Noble first establishes that, while the Word is in its fullness on earth, yet it is equally the Word in the heavens where the letter is unknown. He then asks, Do we have this Word?-a question which he says is of most serious import; "for if we have the real internal of this blessed Word revealed to us in natural language, and yet consider it as a mere commentary and human exposition . . . how is it possible that we can advance in divine wisdom? `He that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; but he that hath My WORD, let him speak My WORD faithfully, saith the Lord!' [Jer. 23: 28]" (Two Discourses, etc. p. 12).
     He continues that the letter is not made void by the revealing of its interior senses "neither must we conclude that the internal sense now manifested is not the Word, because the correspondence thereof, or its true spiritual import, is made known to us in natural language, distinct from that of the original letter, and because, in viewing the internal, we for a time lose sight of the external"; for the union of the Word is not a "hypo-statical union" but a union of correspondence. The first Discourse concludes that the New Church has "the Lord's Word in a more distinguished manner than any preceding Church was ever favored with" (ibid. pp. 13- 17).
     The second Discourse emphasizes the importance of the question: "This is not a mere speculative enquiry but it is a matter of the most serious concern to every member of the Lord's Church; and so important does the acknowledgment of this Internal Word appear, that next to the essential articles of salvation, it might be considered a proper test of admission into church-fellowship" (ibid. pp. 27-28). The question, namely, "Have we, in the Writings . . . this internal sense of the Word . . . ? or do we believe that this Servant of the Lord was as much illuminated and inspired to understand and open the internal sense of the Word of God, as any of the prophets and evangelists were to speak and write the letter or ultimate thereof?" Do we believe, "that the internal sense thus revealed to us in natural language, is...equally the Word with the revelation of the literal sense? I answer for myself, I do. . . . If these Writings are not the Word opened . . . this is not that dispensation or state of the Church, described in the Scriptures by the New Jerusalem; for in that Church it is promised that 'the seals of this book shall be opened'"; and this, "not by man . . . but by Him 'whose name is The Word of God.'" If the Writings he not the Word, he continues, "but only the exposition or commentary of a man . . . they cannot be considered as an infallible standard for the Church to go by" (ibid. pp. 28-29).

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     He then approaches the oft since discussed question of drawing doctrine from the Word. "If the Arcana Coelestia, or Spiritual Sense . . . be not the Word of God, as well as the letter or literal sense . . . we are guilty of worse than idolatry in our present estimation of them. For as we are taught to consider the letter of Scripture as the standard from whence the doctrines of the Church are to be derived, so are we directed (even by those who deny them to be the Internal Word) to look up to these Writings as the infallible guide from whence our spiritual interpretation of those doctrines, and even of the Word Itself, is to be obtained. And thus we are taught to look to the acknowledged Word of God for the natural and external signification thereof; but to the word of Man for the heavenly, the celestial wisdom contained in the internal of the VERY WORD OF GOD" (Ibid. p. 30).
     Third: "if the Writings are [as admitted by the Manchester Society in the AURORA] strictly true," with no error; if Swedenborg was "under the peculiar direction of the Lord throughout the whole"; if "they contain a real revelation of the internal sense of the Word, and were really dictated while Swedenborg was "reading the Word . . . it follows that they are as much the Word with respect to its spiritual sense as the writings of the evangelists are with respect to its literal sense . . . Whatsoever the LORD dictates, whether to the spiritual or rational mind, is His Word" (ibid. p. 31).
     In the New Church "there wants no new dispensation of a literal Word, for it is to be an internal, a spiritual church . . . Therefore the same Essential Divine Truth proceeding immediately from the Lord is now given to us mediately in its spiritual signification. The New Jerusalem Messenger was the medium of the spiritual sense as the prophets were of the literal. But surely the medium does not render the one more or less divine than the other, and the spiritual sense must be the Word of the Lord at least equally with the letter" (ibid. p. 32). The Word, moreover, is holy, not from its literal but from its spiritual sense, and "as in the Writings we have that internal sense . . . dictated by the Lord Himself, surely that which constitutes its sanctity . . . and which approaches nearest to its essential divinity . . . must be as much the Word of the speaker as that which is the most remote from its essence and is only deemed holy because it contains such divinity" (ibid. p. 33).
     In an Appendix, the author answers some objections that had been raised. First the objection, that the "acknowledged Word of God" was "dictated, . . . even as to the expressions in the letter," but not the Writings, where the expressions, illustrations and confirmations were all found by Swedenborg in his own mind. He answers that Moses, Daniel, etc. were not ignorant men, yet an idea seems to prevail that they were idiots.

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"There is no proof whatever that the Word was always dictated to them even as to the expression, etc." Furthermore, it requires proof that the Writings "were not dictated as to the expressions"-he refers to Swedenborg's nice and exact use of words.
"A second objection is, 'That in the Word all things are . . . INFINITE, but in the Writings all things are finite," because he could not "comprehend its infinities." This objection, if weighty, would apply still more to spiritual and celestial angels. But while the infinite cannot be revealed to a finite creature, yet it is within what is revealed. The letter only was revealed to the prophets, yet it is none the less the Word of God because they could not comprehend it. Doubtless Swedenborg knew "much more of the internal of the Word than what is declared in his writings, as well as the apostle John was acquainted with many more works which Jesus did whilst upon earth." John's words: "If they should be written every one, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that should be written," may in a degree be applied to Swedenborg. "But will any one assert that what John hath written is not the Word, because he did not write what the world could not contain?" (ibid. pp. 39- 43).
After this full and able exposition that the Writings are the Word, the writer concludes with an astonishingly illogical statement. It is not contended, he says, that the Writings are "a new and distinct Word, as that of the New Testament is from the Old," or the Old Testament from the Ancient Word, but only that the Writings "are a part of that Word which hath been given to all preceding churches, inasmuch as they are the opening or manifestation of that spiritual divine truth which the other churches had sealed up in this volume" (ibid. pp. 43-44)-a distinction without a difference.
SEVEN CHURCHES 1957

SEVEN CHURCHES 1957

"This and the following chapter [Revelation 2, 3] treat of the seven churches, which describe all those in the Christian Church who have religion, and out of whom the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, can be formed; and this is formed by those who approach the Lord only, and at the same time repent of evil works. The rest, who from the confirmed negation of the Divinity of His Human, do not approach the Lord alone, and who do not repent of evil works, are indeed in the church, but have nothing of the church in them" (Apocalypse Revealed, 69).

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DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW CHURCH THROUGH WORSHIP 1957

DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW CHURCH THROUGH WORSHIP Rev. GEOFFREY S. CHILDS 1957

     The dedication of the first temple built for New Church worship took place on June 19th, 1791, in the city of Birmingham, England. This dedication may seem, perhaps, entirely unimportant to us now; an event long, long past. It involved only some of those few early receivers of the New Church living in England at the time. In the long and majestic sweep of history such a happening appears as nothing. But to those first New Church men it was a wonderful, vital event. Here was the first temple honoring the Lord in His second coming. Deputations were sent to Birmingham from a number of places in England, including London and Manchester.
     The spirit must have been equivalent to that of the time when the Bryn Athyn Cathedral was dedicated; equivalent, indeed, to that of those special times when a temple of worship is dedicated by any New Church society. There is present then a special sphere of hope and promise-a sense of dedication to the Lord. The Rev. Joseph Proud performed the dedication-the consecrating of this temple to the worship of the Lord in His Divine Human. Robert Hindmarsh, who was present at the dedication, felt keenly its historical import. Here, for the first time in the whole world, a church was being dedicated to the worship of the Lord in His second coming. Here was the beginning, the first seed, the promise of all future flowering.
     That this was not just an ordinary event seems borne out by the happenstance of the date of the dedication-June 19th. This date was not deliberately chosen the event took place on it entirely by accident, that is, in the Divine Providence. Concerning this we read in the MAGAZINE OF KNOWLEDGE, a periodical of the early church: "It is somewhat remarkable that the opening of the (Birmingham) temple should take place on the 19th of June (on the day 21 years ago), the Lord sent His twelve disciples throughout the whole spiritual world to preach the new and everlasting gospel, that the Lord God Jesus Christ reigns. . . . The proprietors of the temple, when they appointed the day of opening it, were not in the least aware of the above circumstance, neither did the reflection occur to the mind of any person till after the day of opening it was publicly announced" (p. 234).

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One can almost trace the hand of Providence marking this first dedication.
     In Divine order, the first thing in a developing series contains the seed of all that is to follow. First things contain the promise, the hope, of the end to be achieved. So at the dedication of the first small "Academy" school, Bishop Benade saw to what this almost trifling beginning could lead. In his burning faith he saw a vision of the future-a vision of a great New Church university with thousands of students. He had the greatness to believe and to hope. The dedication of the New Church temple in Birmingham, England, was similarly a beginning. Within it was the seed of a tremendous future development. It was the first step, small but vital, toward the future achievement of a new golden age: toward that time when there will be New Church temples of worship in every country, in every city and village upon earth; when there will be a return to living charity, to conjugial love, to inward peace in the hearts of men. At such a time the holy city, New Jerusalem, will indeed have descended from God out of heaven. All this was promised in that first dedication, 166 years ago.
     It is all very well to dream. But what of reality and of now? The pioneer days of the church, with their somewhat dramatic challenges, are behind us; and the achievement of a new golden age is in the future, distant beyond our imagining. Sometimes it seems as though we were left in an inspirationless time-vacuum-the past gone, the future too far distant to envisage. Perhaps we feel, at times, regret that we were born into an age without challenges. Yet there is the powerful, direct question in the words of the prophet Haggai: "Who is left among you that saw this house in its first glory? And how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Yet now be strong . . . saith the Lord, and work: for I am with you" (Haggai 2: 3, 4).
     "Be strong . . . and work"! The challenge of the present is to grow; slowly, perhaps, but faithfully; and to meet the less dramatic but more subtle enemies who attack the church when first states are past. In the growth of the church, as in war, the real progress is made when the flag waving is over and the actual battle has started. Great and glorious things do not happen then; rather a hard, difficult, day by day struggle.
     Incidentally, we cannot say that the Birmingham temple did not have its dramatic moments. In July of the year of its dedication a series of politico-religious riots took place in Birmingham, during which two Unitarian churches were demolished by the mob. This was in protest against the sympathy of the Unitarians for the French revolutionaries. During one of these riots the temple of the New Church was in danger of being attacked. It was saved by the quick thinking of the Rev. Joseph Proud, who lived in the parsonage next door to the church.

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Seeing the mob approaching, he picked up the Sunday offertory, ran out, and threw it to the crowd. While the people were stooping to pick up the money, Mr. Proud explained with great zeal that the New Church was not Unitarian and was not hostile to the government. Swayed by his effective talk, and cash, the mob dispersed, shouting, "The New Jerusalem forever!" (Hindmarsh, Rise and Progress of the New Jerusalem Church, p. 159). May the priesthood always show such intelligence!
     Before true growth can be achieved, the evils opposed to spiritual development must be shunned. In the Writings the Lord has mentioned the evils that must be guarded against particularly in the New Church-deceit, adultery, and the love of dominion. In the development of a rational church intelligence is a necessity. The doctrine of the church is to become wider, deeper, more filled with wisdom; and such an expansion of ideas calls for intelligence. But the Achilles heel of intelligence is conceit, and it is intellectual conceit in a church that turns faith into faith alone. There is no harder battle in a rational church, perhaps, than the battle with intellectual conceit. But we would point out that where the truth of religion is concerned, conceit and deceit go hand in hand. What is more deceitful than a true church sinking into intellectualism for its own sake? into the conceit of intellectualism.
     As history shows, the love of dominion is the particular destroyer of a true priesthood. The priesthood knows this; it has at least the advantage of knowing its own enemy! Knowing the doctrine, it has the sometimes difficult duty of applying the doctrine to itself.
     We would mention also that adultery is the insidious potent enemy of a church which stresses rationality. In such a church there is always the danger of stressing intellectual development over character development. If the development of the intellect is over-emphasized, then emotion- good or evil-eventually becomes very alluring as a balance factor. Mere intellectualism and adultery go hand in hand, for the emotional impact offered by adultery seems to offer realism, balance. If intellectualism supersedes the life of religion in the church, then the love of adultery will invade and possess it until conjugial love has been destroyed. For conjugial love can abide only where religion is lived, not where it is merely a matter of thought.
     If the interior evils of deceit, adultery and the love of dominion are shunned, then true worship, worship that is of the life, will abide in the church. This worship will be the main factor in the development of the church itself. So if we are faithful, and if the generations that follow us are faithful, then the time will come when the New Church will be the universal church upon earth; when the seed planted at that first dedication in 1791 will have its tremendous fulfillment.

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NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1957

     Our June readings in the Old Testament (II Samuel 2: 18-18: 23) relate first the successful conclusion of the civil war and David's accession to the throne of the united kingdom. The greatest strength and the most tragic weaknesses of the poet-king are then described in chapters which tell of his decisive victories at home and abroad, his desire to build the temple, his shameful conduct in the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah, and his flight before the rebellious Absalom. David represents the Lord in process of glorifying His Human, and his conquests the subjugation of the hells by the Lord; therefore he was not allowed to build the temple although he provided for the ark a sanctuary in Jerusalem.
     No departure from his representation is involved in David's increasing decadence. An evil man could sustain a good representation in the Word; and David's increasingly enormous sins, the description of which involves the Lord's temptations, signify the more and more interior evils in the maternal human which the Lord perceived successively as He advanced in glorification. As the Lord put off those hereditary evils, they were replaced by the Divine goods of which they were the perversions; and it is these that are meant in the spiritual sense. Thus David's polygamy gives place to the idea of the Lord's love for the universal human race; and even his taking of Bathsheba becomes, in the internal sense, a description of the Lord's love for the gentiles-for those other sheep not of this fold.
     The story of Absalom, remembered for his beauty and the luxuriant growth of his hair, represents, on another plane of the internal sense, the recognition of the beauty of the letter of the `Word and man's rebellion against the idea of there being an internal sense within the letter. By this very revolt, however, the beauty of the letter is destroyed, as Absalom was slain by Joab; who here represents, prophetically, that agnostic criticism, both higher and textual, which has utterly destroyed the beauty of the Word in the Christian churches.

     The laws of the Divine Providence disclosed in the readings from the Heavenly Doctrine (DP 135-200) have application also to the order and government of the church. In connection with the last it should be noted that the Writings condemn only proprial prudence; there is a cooperative prudence without which the Divine Providence does not act.

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IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES 1957

     The Rev. Ernest O. Martin's recent article in the MESSENGER, "Is the New Church a Protestant Denomination?" has drawn replies from two Convention ministers. Exception is taken by the Rev. William H. Beales to the statement that "Swedenborg was born and died a Lutheran." He dismisses the first part of this statement as unimportant, but not so the last part. The fundamental heresy of salvation by faith alone, introduced by Luther, is utterly condemned in the `Writings. `How then," he asks, "can it be said that Swedenborg himself believed in this error, from childhood to the day of his death?" Mr. Beales acquits the writer of that intention, but points out that the statement is likely to give inquirers an erroneous impression, and that it may weaken belief in the distinctiveness of the New Church in the minds of our young people.
     The Rev. Clayton Priestnal objects to describing the New Church as Protestant or as a sect. Noting that the Encyclopedia Britannica defines a Protestant as "an adherent of those churches which base their teaching on the principles of the Reformation," he asks: "Is the New Church willing to profess that her doctrines grew out of the Reformation? Does our theology have anything in common with 'justification by faith alone'?" On the second point, Mr. Priestnal draws attention to the fact that True Christian Religion is declared by Swedenborg to contain "the universal theology of the New Church." If this be true, he continues, how can we be sectarian? If we place ourselves within the Protestant group, how can we consistently maintain our position as the church with the universal faith?
     Writing in the NEW-CHURCH HERALD, the Rev. Richard H. Teed of Australia makes a strange plea for the separation, even physically, of the uses of evangelization and worship. Suggesting that "an established New Church Society on ecclesiastical lines in a town tends to weaken one's approach in preaching the Gospel of the new age," he infers that when we seek to evangelize we should keep the organized New Church as much in the background as possible, and favors neutral ground rather than our churches as missionary bases. Mr. Teed evidently feels that there is a vital distinction between teaching the truth and trying to make converts, and that is certainly true. But it seems to us that he makes a distinction between the truth of the Writings and the church which is founded on that truth which we find difficult to understand.

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REVIEW 1957

REVIEW Editor 1957

THE MORAL LIFE. By Hugo Lj. Odhner. Second edition, revised. The Academy Book Room, Bryn Athyn, Pa., 1957. Cloth, pp. 140. Price, $1.50.

     This little volume was published by the General Church Military Service Committee in 1944, for distribution among the men and women in the services. The dedication of the book to the parents and young people of the New Church showed, however, that the author had in mind, beyond that immediate use, the meeting of a perennial need-that of presenting ethics systematically in the light of the Writings and so helping the youth of the church in each generation to move toward a practical philosophy of life. Since its first appearance the book has proved to be of much value in the homes of the church, in young people's classes, and, in recent years, as a textbook in the Religion Department of the Academy of the New Church College. It is still the only introduction to its field, and a second edition was called for, since the first was exhausted.
     For the most part, the revisions are of a minor nature. The format has not been altered: and there has been no change in the aim of the book, the type of treatment, the approach, or the style. In considering the human virtues, the author has inserted a short section on truthfulness as the foundation of character; to the discussion of friendship is added the teaching that in our association with those of other faiths we may appreciate their goods, but should not imbue ourselves with those goods or conjoin them with our truths (AC 5117); the reasons for the excellence of conjugial love are more fully stated; and it is emphasized more strongly that leisure and diversions are properly the rewards of use. We have no doubt that in its second edition the book will continue to help those who seek a rational view of morality and its virtues.
     THE EDITOR

     RECEIVED FOR REVIEW

AN INTRODUCTION TO SWEDENBORG'S RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. By John Howard Spalding. New and revised edition. Swedenborg Publishing Association, New York, 1956. Pp. 235. Price: paper, $1.00; cloth, $2.00.

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ALL THINGS NEW 1957

ALL THINGS NEW Editor 1957

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of Publication, Lancaster, Pa.

Published Monthly By

THE GENERAL CHURCH OP THE NEW JERUSALEM BRYN ATHYN, PA.
Editor      Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager      Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address, and business communications should be sent to the Circulation Secretary. Notifications of address changes should be received by the 15th of the month.

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
$3.00 a year to any address, parable in advance. Single copy. 30 cents.
It has long been a conviction of the General Church that if the Lord has indeed come to "make all things new," then the Writings in which He makes His second advent must apply to everything of human life. They must contain principles which relate to the government and development of the church, to marriage and the home, to education and social life, to forensic uses, and even to sociology.
     This conviction is not shared, however, by all New Church men and women. Some believe that the Writings apply only to the regeneration of the individual, and doubt or deny that they refer to anything else. With this we disagree. How else can the Lord fulfill His promise to make all things new than by furnishing the church, in the Heavenly Doctrine, with the truths which will do just that when they are sought out, intelligently understood, and rightly applied? And how else can the church become new than by going to the Lord for those truths as its first obligation and privilege in the undertaking of its every use?
     However, this conception of the Writings sets before the church a perennial challenge. For the Writings, as Divine revelation for a rational church, offer neither blueprints nor schedules of specifications for the things that have been mentioned. What they contain is principles; principles that must be patiently and diligently searched out, and then reflected upon that they may be properly related with one another and rightly applied. The doing of this out of heartfelt conviction, as of self while looking to the Lord for guidance. will make a new church; and to it we are urged afresh by the message of New Church Day.

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     GOING TO THE WRITINGS

     A related conviction, voiced whenever problems arise, is embodied in the saying: Go to the Writings for the answer. This expresses our belief that every decision should be made in the light of the Heavenly Doctrine-whether in the affairs of the church, of our uses in society, or our private lives; and our assurance that in the doctrine the Lord has given the truths which should apply in any possible human situation. Yet no matter how earnestly we seek it, the Lord's will is not always at once apparent, for in specific situations the Lord does not tell us openly what to do. What we read often seems to have little or no bearing on our immediate problem; with the result that young people especially are sometimes perplexed if not frustrated. And so it becomes necessary to ask what is meant by going to the Writings for answers.
     The very nature of the Writings themselves, and their teaching about the quality of the New Church, show clearly one thing that is not meant. We do not suppose that we can at random take up and open a volume of the Writings, and find the specific answer to our question in the first passage on which the eye lights! In the course of our reading we may come to a passage which points to the solution of a current problem, but that is another thing. The truth is that the Lord never leads and teaches men in such a way as to make it unnecessary for them to use the faculties of liberty and rationality in which the human consists. What is evidently meant, then, is that we should go to the Writings for principles; and while we may on occasion search for principles to apply to a given situation, a body of principles is best built up slowly over years of unhurried, thoughtful reading, and calm reflection on what is read, from the affection of seeing applications.
     Those who have thus acquired a body of principles, and have cultivated the habit of thinking from them, will go to the Writings for the answer, whether they have occasion to consult the sacred volumes or not, and the answer will he given just as surely. `While principles are still being gathered it would be of the greatest value for the men and women of the church to know the names of all the works of the Writings, and to become generally familiar with the subject-matter of each one, so that they may know where they are most likely to find the truths they are seeking. Most important alone, however, is to seek gradually a genuine love of being led and taught by the Lord. For when, under its inspiration, the Writings are consulted from love of truth as good, then the Lord can lead and teach in wonderful ways; leading us to the truths necessary for our spiritual development, teaching us their real meaning, and opening our eyes to see their application to our states and needs.

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NEW CHURCH AND THE OLD 1957

NEW CHURCH AND THE OLD DOUGLAS TAYLOR 1957

Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE:

     With reference to your comments in the "In Our Contemporaries" column of the May issue [p. 248], on the subject of the New Church as seen by "the main stream of the Christian tradition," may I report yet another case showing that "Christian clergymen perceive that there is a basic cleavage between the New Church and the Old."
     I have been corresponding with a leading Presbyterian minister who writes a weekly syndicated column presenting the orthodox Christian viewpoint. Of our doctrine concerning the Lord, "drawn from the sense of the letter and confirmed thereby," he has this to say:
     "If you mean what I think you mean. I must say you are out of line with the understanding of the church and in my judgment not in line with the Bible. . . The teaching of the Christian Church has always been that God is in three persons, meaning (among other things) that although the deity of Christ is true and essential deity, nevertheless the deity of Christ does not exhaust all the deity there is. . . . The great stream of Christian churches understands the Bible to draw a clear distinction between God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." [Italics added]
     What more basic cleavage can there be than that?
     DOUGLAS TAYLOR
FUNCTIONS OF THE SPECIFIC NEW CHURCH 1957

FUNCTIONS OF THE SPECIFIC NEW CHURCH G. A. DE C. DE MOUBEAY 1957

Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE:

When, in the early part of the discussion of this subject in the March issue [pp. 125-132], I was endeavoring to explain how it comes about that the quality of man s natural thought acts as a limit to the quality which angelic wisdom can attain, I was still largely groping. I can now explain this perplexing phenomenon somewhat more clearly.
I shall base my explanation on the widely accepted theory that all creative thought and activity proceed by leaps, by what are called flashes of intuition. Whatever the problem, intellectual or artistic, the first step must be one of deep thought, during which analytical activity is dominant. Then or later, sometimes much later, a solution to the problem comes as a flash of intuition. This solution still requires to be tested for its truth, to be corrected or elaborated or worked out in practice, as the case may be. The classical example is Clerk Maxwell's Electro-Magnetic Theory of Light. After long cogitation on the facts of the transmission of light as then known, the hypothesis flashed into his mind that their cause was electro-magnetic phenomena in the wave system by which light was transmitted.

301

He then set about testing this hypothesis by working out the mathematics thereof.
     In New Church language the facts and the hypothesis were a discrete degree apart. When it is put in this way, the phenomenon is highly reminiscent of Divine Love and Wisdom 202, which should be read: "The thoughts of the angels of the highest heaven . . . are thoughts of ends; the thoughts of the angels of the middle heaven . . . are thoughts of causes; and the thoughts of the angels of the lowest . . . heaven are thoughts of effects." [Italics added] `We can describe the relationship alternatively as between facts and explanations or as between effects and causes.
     In my own experience of flashes of intuition which have come to me in connection with the Writings, the relationship has seemed to me best expressed as between a memory-knowledge, or a number of memory-knowledges, and its or their significance. The relationship could also be expressed by means of the terms used by Swedenborg, scientia and scientificum on the one hand, and cognitia on the other.
     In the scientific thought of the present day, the intuition is believed to be the product of one's own subconscious working automatically as an electronic calculator solves a problem when it has been provided with the requisite data. This is entirely contrary to the Writings. "All influx comes from what is more interior" (AC 6600: 3). "Not only a man, but a spirit and also an angel, thinks, speaks and does nothing from himself, but from others; nor these others from themselves, but again from others, and so on; and thus all and each from the first of life, that is, from the Lord, however completely this may appear to be from themselves" (AC 4319, cp. AC 6470).
     There is an appearance as though the thought of man directly affected the societies of spirits and angels into which his thought extends. For a man introduces himself . . . into more and more societies of heaven according to the increase in the love of good" (AE 1094: 2). It is as though his thought diffused itself into the societies of spirits and angels round about him (AC 6599), and his thought and affection extended into societies (AC 6600). But Swedenborg corrects this impression. "It is said that the thought and affection of man, spirit and angel pour themselves around into the societies, and that from this come understanding and perception; but be it known that it is so said according to the appearance, for there is no influx of the thoughts and affections into the societies, but from the societies, and this through the angels and spirits with the man" (AC 6600: 3). [Italics added] This influx flows into a man from this or that society according to his capacity at the moment to receive influx from this or that society. The influx terminates in his thought or affection at the time.

302

But the thoughts of angels and men at such moments are not similar. "The influx of angels with a man . . . is not the influx of such thoughts as the man then has, but is according to correspondences; for the angels are thinking spiritually whereas the man perceives naturally" (AC 6319). So when the man is thinking of effects, the angels are thinking of causes, or ends. When the man is thinking of facts, or memory-knowledges, the field in which the angels' thought is exercising itself is that of the significance of these facts; so that when a man is reading the Word, they do not pay attention "to those things which are in the thought of a man at the time he reads it, but to the interiors of the Word from the man" (SD 5607). [Italics added] And in his case, as Swedenborg tells us, to those things which were in his thought from the Heavenly Doctrine (SD 5610).
     The operative factor throughout is the influx from the Lord. The appearance is that the angels draw inspiration from the thoughts of men, which are on a plane below that of their own thought. The reality is that, in the measure that a man opens himself to reception of influx from an angelic society, the Lord evokes in that society thought in correspondence with that of the man; and that this higher level thought is then implanted, through the phenomenon of mutual communication of ideas, in the interior or the internal of the man; for the further reason that when the internal of a man is open it is with the angels in heaven, and therefore in like perception with them (AC 10,400: 3).
     Moreover, if my description of the relationship between thought on the two levels as that between memory-knowledges and their significance is justifiable, we can understand how the thought of man on spiritual matters must limit that of the angels. For significance can only be predicated of facts, or memory-knowledges. There can be no significance in a vacuum. Without facts there can be no significance. One cannot have thoughts of significance without the facts of which they are significant.
     G. A. DE C. DE MOUBEAY
GLENVIEW: AN ANNOUNCEMENT 1957

GLENVIEW: AN ANNOUNCEMENT 1957

The Glenview Society would like to extend a welcome to all visitors, but realizes that with the growth of the church there may be those who would like to visit but do not know the Society well enough to go without an invitation. Mrs. Stuart Nicholson. 2727 Park Lane, Glenview. Illinois, has volunteered to act as Society hostess. If friends wishing to visit will contact her, she will be most happy to help in finding them a place to stay.

303

Church News 1957

Church News Various 1957

LONDON, ENGLAND

     Our Christmas celebration, the main feature of this report for the winter season, commenced on Sunday, December 16th. On the morning of that day a Holy Supper service was held. The afternoon festivities began with a delicious luncheon for which thanks were due to Mrs. Patient and other ladies of the Society. Our pastor then opened the program by reading the Bishop's Christmas message, which is always a joy to hear. We sent back to him and to Mrs. De Charms our thanks and warm greetings. Among our Visitors we were glad to welcome Mrs. Dean, and to greet Mr. and Mrs. Alec Craigie as members of Michael Church for the duration of their stay with us.
     Mrs. Craigie then recited delightfully a charming poem entitled "Just Christmas." This was followed by a novelty for our Society. Mr. Sandstrom described the Lucia Festival which takes place in Sweden on December 13th to celebrate the lengthening of the days and suggested that in the New Church we can go further and look to the light that may spread over the world with the Lord's second coming. After he had described the procession of the elected queen, Miss Elisabeth Sandstrom, our little queen, dressed in white and wearing a crown of lighted candles, gave us the ceremony in miniature by twice walking gracefully round the room, preceded by her small and eager attendant, her little sister "Eva-link," who was dressed in a fetching white robe.
     After this our pastor gave us a "fireside talk" on the Divine Natural and the Divine Human, bringing to our attention that not until the Second Coming had been effected was it possible to realize the deep significance of the First Advent and its tremendous impact on the history of man. Mr. Sandstrom's talk was followed by two tableaux: The Wise Men and the Star, and Joseph and Mary with the Infant Lord, the Lord being represented by a light. We had Mrs. Sandstrom to thank for the most artistic arrangement of these tableaux, and Mr. and Mrs. Robert Bruell for their charming accompaniment of the Christmas carols.
     The Women's Guild had a busy season, the outstanding event being the annual Sale of Work which was held last November. On that occasion we had the honor of a visit from Miss Muriel Gill, who opened the sale. Apart from the buying and selling, both interest and funds were augmented by the very popular puppet sideshow under the management of Mrs. Sandstrom, by games and tea, and finally by a program of entertainment under the direction of Mrs. Foord which included some Negro Spirituals sung by Mr. Sandstrom accompanied by Mrs. Hall, a one-man sketch by Mr. Gordon Clennell, and some items by the young people. Very interesting papers have been read at the monthly meetings of the Guild. These included a discussion-paper by Miss Janet Elphick on "Length, Breadth and Height," based on Heaven and Hell nos. 191-197; a paper by Miss Marith Acton on "What is Delight?"; and a summary introduction to the work Intercourse of the Soul and the Body by Mr. Norman Turner.
     Inquiry as to the young people's classes elicited the following response from one of them. "Once every month a group of young people gather after church. At the moment we are studying the fundamental doctrines of the church. The interest is good and we all enjoy it very much."
     The Thursday evening doctrinal classes at Chadwell Heath and the Wednesday evening doctrinal classes at Swedenborg House have been continued and are much appreciated. On February 21st a meeting organized by the Chadwell Heath group to enable some of their friends to hear about the new revelation was held in the lecture room of the local public library. The theme of our pastor's address was "The Reality of the Spiritual World," and an interesting discussion followed in which one of the newcomers took a very active part. Interest in reading the Writings has been aroused as a result of this meeting.

304

     Mention must be made of the children's Christmas party on the afternoon of January 6th. Ten children were present, and after tea and games they received Christmas gifts from the Society. The adults present were interested also in the giving of prizes to those children who had taken the course of religion lessons and answered the questions. In the evening there was a New Year social for the older members of the community, who joined in games and a treasure hunt and enjoyed the delicious refreshments offered, and even more the program of entertainment in which Mrs. Foord played some piano solos, Miss Edith Elphick recited two poems, and some of the younger members contributed dances and fun.
     On Sunday, January 20th, in addition to the morning service at Michael Church, an evening service for the Chadwell Heath group was held at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Lewin. The intention is to held such services about once a quarter.
     The Sunday doctrinal classes have continued each month. The December class was on "Divine Foresight and Freedom." The January class was devoted to a study of the Hebrew letters of the name Jehovah, in which that name was shown to be perfect since, as it is sounded and written in fullness in Hebrew, it represents all of the Divine and every response to the Divine. Finally, in the March class the subject of the soul was treated by request. Clarification of thought was reached by reflecting on the point that the soul is in three degrees since it is a perfect image of the three degrees in the Divine Man.
     Among the visitors to Michael Church this season we had the pleasure of welcoming Mr. and Mrs. Lou Levine from Durban, Mr. Lars Liden from Stockholm, Mrs. Dean from North Wales, Mr. and Mrs. Jones from Northampton, Mr. and Mrs. Owen Pryke and Miss Muriel Gill from Colchester, and Mr. and Mrs. Eric Briscoe and their daughter, Bend, from Norwich. The baptism of the infant son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Hugill took place at Michael Church on Sunday, January 13th. Jonathan is the fifth son, and it was a pleasure to see this family of bonnie little boys in church.
     On January 19th a special ceremony after church enabled members of the Society to express their affection for and their congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Cooper, who were celebrating their Golden Wedding. The Society made a presentation of an oil stove. On this occasion we were delighted to welcome as visitors Mr. and Mrs. Victor Cooper and their daughter Muriel.
     Swedenborg's birthday is always a landmark in the social festivities of the Society. We celebrated it in the afternoon of February 3rd. After the morning service the luncheon tables were set out and rapidly took on a very Swedish air, being decorated in blue and yellow, with flowers to match, and loaded with rich fare. Overlooking the head table was a bust of the seer, and on either side two Swedish flags to remind us what good things come to us from that happy land. The formal program, under the very able direction of Mr. Alec Craigie, opened with a violin solo by Miss Irene Brisroe, accompanied by Mrs. Josephine Evans. They played Handel's Sonata in A, which was greatly enjoyed; and as Miss Briscoe remarked, since Handel was Swedenborg's contemporary, we might well have been listening to music that he had heard.
     After a toast to the Church, and one to Emanuel Swedenborg, Servant of the Lord, the subject for the afternoon, "The Wend of Swedenborg," was introduced by Mr. Craigie, who called on three speakers to give us pen pictures of the kind of world in which Swedenborg carried out his illustrious use. Mr. Colin Colbrooke first gave us an outline of the main historical events in England at that time, and hinted that London was not the secure place to walk in that presumably it is today. But John Wesley and his brother were traveling all over England. Trying to stir men's minds to thoughts of God. Mr. Leonard Lewin took us across the North Sea to Denmark, Leyden, Paris, and other places Swedenborg visited, and gave us a brief account of the conditions then prevailing there-which certainly did not sound very inviting. Mrs. Sandstrom then led us further afield, into Sweden of 1688, where we saw through her eyes the Stockholm and the Sweden in which the boy Emmanuel grew to manhood and wisdom, unaffected by the surrounding corruption. In summing up, Mr. Sandstrom said that we celebrate the birthday of Swedenborg as a servant of the Lord, and that if we keep that thought in mind we may see in some measure the way of his preparation, and how fully he was prepared for his high office both naturally and spiritually.
     We had the great pleasure of a visit from the Rev. and Mrs. Alan Gill on Sunday, March 3rd.

305

Mr. Gill officiated with our pastor at the morning service and preached a very fine and impressive sermon on the text: "It is not so difficult to live the life that leads to heaven as is believed."
     The annual meeting of the Society, held on March 17th, was well attended; and the reports of the various committees, and the active discussion of each one, revealed that most members take a lively interest in the growth and development of the Society. Great appreciation was expressed for the work that the Rev. Erik Sandstrom has done in leading us in this respect.
     On Sunday, December 30th, our pastor preached the first of a series of sermons on the Lord's Prayer that continued until March 17th. Both at the annual meeting and since the hope has been expressed that these sermons will be published in some form for they are particularly clear and illuminating. We are deeply grateful for them.
     IRIS O. BRISCOE

     STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

     As this report has been somewhat delayed we must give some news that is now quite old. In the past year the Rev. Bjorn Boyesen and his wife had been urging the women of the Society to form a Women's Guild, because they felt it might be advisable for an association of that kind to take on the responsibility for certain uses previously entrusted to temporarily appointed committees. After some preliminary discussions we agreed to form a guild; an inaugural meeting was held, and Mrs. Bengt Carison (Martha Schroeder) was elected president.
     One of the first things planned by the Women's Guild here was a bazaar to raise funds for several important things. After almost hectic efforts on our part the bazaar was held last November. It netted 2,400 Swedish crowns, a result surpassing all our expectations. The largest part of our profit was handed over to Providentia to be used for our young people's summer camp. A contribution was made also to the Red Cross for Hungarian Relief, both a sum of money and objects left over from the sale-well-made children's clothes, toys, and Christmas decorations. These gifts seemed most welcome.
     Mrs. Boyesen has also taken the initiative in issuing a paper for the young. It contains mostly stories from the Scriptures and the Writings adapted to children of various ages. The very young ones have especially appreciated the Golden Heart stories by Amena Pendleton, and others written by Gertrude Nelson. The work of translating, revising stenciling and mailing is done by volunteers in the hope of filling a real need for our children, deprived as they are of New Church schooling.
     On Swedenborg's birthday this year we joined in a banquet held at the pastor's home. On that occasion we had the pleasure of listening to a recorded speech by Cyriel Odhner Sigstedt. She spoke, in Swedish, of Swedenborg's love for his country, and it was done so well that everyone could follow her interesting talk. We almost felt that she was present.
     The rape-recorder is a wonderful invention indeed Mr. Boyesen's sermons and classes are all recorded now, and are sent out to the isolated groups in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, thus enabling most of the members of the General Church in Scandinavia to attend regular services.
     SENTA CENTERVALL

     THE CHURCH AT LARGE

     General Convention. In accordance with its usual custom, the General Convention has selected a theme for the annual session to be held in Boston this month. The theme chosen is: "God's Continuing Judgment-in the World, in the Church, and in our Lives."
     The President of Convention, the Rev. David P. Johnson, and Mrs. Johnson will attend the British Conference on the occasion of its 150th meeting as representatives of the General Convention.

     The Board of Home and Foreign Missions of the General Convention has announced the appointment of the Rev. Alfred G. Regamey, of Lausanne, Switzerland, as "General Pastor of the New Church on the European continent."

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Announcements 1957

Announcements Various 1957

     GENERAL CHURCH CORPORATIONS

     The 1957 Annual Corporation Meetings of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held in the Benade Hall Auditorium, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, on Saturday afternoon, June 15, at 3:30 p.m., D.S.T. Notices have been mailed.
     LEONARD GYLLENHAAL,
     Acting Secretary.

     BRITISH ASSEMBLY

     The Forty-second British Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held in Colchester, England, from August 3rd to 5th, 1957, the Rev. Alan Gill presiding.
     All members and friends of the General Church are cordially invited to attend. Those wishing accommodation should apply as soon as possible to Mr. Denis Pryke, 226 Maldon Road, Colchester, Essex.
     GEORGE DE CHARMS,
          Bishop.

     PEACE RIVER DISTRICT ASSEMBLY

     The Sixth Peace River Block District Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, on Sunday, August 4th, 1957, the Bishop presiding.
     All members and friends of the General Church are cordially invited to attend.
     GEORGE DE CHARMS,
          Bishop.

     WESTERN DISTRICT ASSEMBLY

     An Assembly of members of the Western District of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held in Glendale, California, on Saturday and Sunday, July 20th and 21st, 1957, the Bishop presiding.
     All members and friends of the General Church are cordially invited to attend.
     GEORGE DE CHARMS,
          Bishop.

     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 Benade Hall Auditorium on Friday, June 7, 1957, at 8:00 p.m.
     After reports by officers of the Academy Schools, and discussion thereof, an address will be delivered by Professor W. Cairns Henderson.
     The public is cordially invited to attend,
     E. BRUCE GLENN,
          Secretary.

     SONS OF THE ACADEMY

     The Annual Meetings of the Sons of the Academy will be held on Friday, June 21st, and Saturday, June 22nd, 1957, at Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
     All men interested in New Church education are cordially invited to attend. For reservations write to Mr. Murray Hill, 234 Mary Street, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

Program:     Friday, 8:00 p.m. Address by the Academy Representative (Professor Charles S. Cole).
Saturday, 9:30 am. Reports and business. Election of officers.

Luncheon. Address by the Rev. Elmo C. Acton.
     7:00 p.m.     Banquet. (Toastmaster, Mr. John F. Kuhl).
Sunday, 11:00 am. Worship at Carmel Church.

     HARVEY J. HOLMES,
          Secretary.
ORDINATIONS 1957

ORDINATIONS 1957

Schnarr.-At Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, May 12, 1957, the Rev. Frederick Lauder Schnarr into the Second Degree of the Priesthood, Bishop George de Charms officiating.

Weiss.-At Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 12, 1957, the Rev. Jan Hugo Weiss into the Second Degree of the Priesthood, the Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton officiating.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1957

GENERAL ASSEMBLY GEORGE DE CHARMS 1957

     An invitation has been received, and accepted, to hold the TWENTY-SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the General Church of the New Jerusalem at Lake Forest College, fifteen miles from Glenview, Illinois, in 1959.
     This announcement is made now because of the earlier uncertainty as to the year of that Assembly. The date, program and other information will be given later in NEW CHURCH LIFE,

     GEORGE DE CHARMS,
          Bishop.
VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1957

VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1957

A committee exists to secure accommodations for those members of the church who wish to visit Bryn Athyn. Those wishing accommodations are asked to communicate with Mrs. `Winfred A, Smith. Bryn Athyn, Penna. In addition to the hospitality offered in Bryn Athyn homes there are several new motels nearby to accommodate those preferring such an arrangement.

309

LOVE OF COUNTRY 1957

LOVE OF COUNTRY Rev. MORLEY D. RICH 1957

     "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." (Psalm 33: 12)
     The Writings of the Lord's second coming reveal the possibility of a love of country which is more wonderful and interior than any that has hitherto been known or possible. Here is pictured a love which leaves no room for malice or hatred of the neighbor. It is a love which can dwell in the innermost reaches of the human spirit, the rational mind, and at the same time live in the very flesh and blood and bones of a man. It is a love for the spiritual use and quality of the country, and it may also lawfully include an active desire for the natural wellbeing and wealth of the country. It would shun as sin the evil of taking from the neighbor that which is his own; what he has himself produced from the earth by labor, art and science. It seeks, rather, for the greatest usefulness and productivity of the nation by itself.
     The ruling and inner purpose of the man who is in this spiritual love would be that there may be provided opportunities for the progress of his countrymen in spiritual life, in the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in a life of charity from His commandments. All this is revealed in the Writings, and we are told, finally, of the way by which love of country is changed into a more universal love of the Lord's kingdom.
     The earthly basis for love of country is implanted with the very first conception of an infant, continues through the period of his embryonic life, and begins to develop as a conscious love with the first breath of air which is drawn in at birth. For the soil and air of every country have distinctive characteristics, and it is out of these that the soul chooses and forms the elements into that distinct organization of matter which is the physical body. It is in this sense that it may be said truly that a man country is bred into his very bone, blood and flesh. This, it would seem clear, is the explanation for the sense of outrage and shock that invades even his physical senses when a man's country is attacked physically by another.

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It is almost as if he himself had been physically assaulted, his physical and moral integrity pierced and violated. Indeed, it may be said that this capacity for such shock and outrage is the necessary preliminary basis for the later love and defense of the Lord's kingdom.
For there is ultimate and earthly wisdom in this natural reaction. Its spiritual origins and causes lie in the revealed truth that physical attack is the ultimate, and so the most powerful representation, of the attack of the hells upon the Lord's kingdom, upon His Divine Human; that the nation which is guilty thereof is also in that representation; and that reaction forms a plane for the operation of the hells against the Lord and heaven for the possession of men's souls and minds. Attack is thus typical of the activity of the hells, whose prime and fundamental spirit and function is that of attack. Wherefore, because the position and reaction of defense is typical of angelic life and use, it is the part of charity for the offended nation to resist, to defeat the aggressor as completely as may be permitted by Providence; and this in order that he may have neither the will nor the power to repeat the offense, either against one's own country or against society as a whole. This common perception shines forth from such sayings as: "Thou shouldst never fight, my son; but if thou must, let it be so that thy adversary repent of it."
The spiritual-rational man will never deny his natural heritage in this matter, therefore; nor will he be so foolish as to suppose that there is anything inherently evil in the violence of his reactions to attack. At the same time, he would not permit this to develop into the spirit of hatred, cruelty or revenge. While he will be in the inflexible determination to inflict punishment upon the offender for the sake of society, there will be present no aim of hatred, no desire to destroy him as a potential use to the community, as a member who has the capacity to add to the productions and wealth of the human race. For after the enemy has been sought out, and his power of repeating such attacks destroyed for the time being, it is then the part of just and merciful nations to desist from further destruction and to do what is possible to restore the offender to usefulness as a member of the human community. It is as is the case with the individual criminal. Punishment is the part of genuine charity toward society and toward the offender himself. But it must be followed by forgiveness and mercy, by the expression and active manifestation of the charitable desire that the offending nation may reject physical aggression as a national practice, and may once again return to its proper and God-given use. For this is to obey the literal commandment that a man should forgive his brother's offenses unto seventy times seven."

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     As his consciousness and knowledge widen and deepen, the child and youth begins to be aware, first of his parents and family, then of his immediate community, afterwards of the governors and government of his country, and finally of his country as a unified whole over and above all these. For the love of country is the widest extension of the natural sense of honoring father and mother. A more restricted area is the honoring of rulers and magistrates.
     As this awareness thus grows and widens, so also does the natural love of country deepen and broaden. And, such is the deep-running connection between love of parents and family and love of country, according to the child's and grown man's attitude and actions toward his family, so will be the quality of his love and actions toward his country. Thus as far as there is present the love and desire for the family's material welfare, so will there be present the love and desire for the country's welfare. If there is the shunning of fraudulent means, and the shunning of attempts to obtain wealth from others primarily, then there will be the healthy desire that the country as a whole may shun acts of fraud, aggression and piracy against others. The lawful and charitable love for the wealth of the family through useful work will be translated into an active love for the wealth of the country also through useful work and the resulting production of new wealth.
     All of this is on the natural plane. Yet its connections with the spiritual may be seen in the maturation of the first primitive love of country. For if there is with man the attempt to shun evils as sins, and a looking to the Divine Human of the Lord, his spiritual eyes will be opened to the more interior reaches of love of country. He may, indeed, be led to some conception of his country as a spiritual use, as a quality of spirit among his countrymen which adds its necessary and useful influence to the human race in general.
     This, indeed, is partly the reason for the revelation now made concerning the general characteristics and qualities of specific nations; namely, in order to bring to men the consciousness of nations as forms of use, as composite types of influence in the human race as a whole, as units without any one of which the human race and each individual would be the poorer and more limited.
     Where this consciousness of spiritual use wedded to natural function is present, there is the capacity for a spiritual as well as a natural love of country. The New Church man is therefore gifted by the Writings with the magnificent opportunity to love his country for its Divinely revealed characteristics, as far as these are displayed. He is able, if he wishes, to value these above and beyond its physical and natural wealth, culture, empire or dominion. And so he can have pride without arrogance. He can render honor to his country which will be untainted by contempt for others.

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And he can feel gratitude to the Lord whenever he may be given glimpses of his country's inner influence and good of use toward other countries.
     In addition, he has the opportunity of coming to love his country, its particular combination of freedoms and protections, of qualities and characteristics, as one means by which the kingdom of God may be advanced upon earth; by which the Lord Jesus Christ may come to be worshipped as the only God; by which the New Church may be established among men; and by which the opportunity for individual regeneration and salvation may be preserved. For none of these can be effected without certain external, civil freedoms and protections. Likewise, they cannot be provided in fulness except in the combined virtuous qualities of each and every nation. Wherefore, of the holy city, New Jerusalem, it is said: "They shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it" (Revelation
21: 26).
     It is on this account that the Lord brings into the world at His second coming an entirely new spirit toward, and idea of, nations other than one's own. For while it is taught that every man must and should love his own country more than others, and while it is realistically stated that from proprial love of country alone the nations are naturally hostile to one another; yet the ideal is stated, as a goal which is realizable by men, that other countries may also be loved, though in a lesser degree-loved for their uses, their goods and truths. The doctrine seems to imply that it is even possible for nations to aid each other in their respective duties of becoming more and more excellent and useful members of the human community. As a matter of fact, this is no different from the good and true and useful relationships of mutual aid which we are taught should prevail among individual men and women, for nations are but larger men in human form.
     The Word teaches as right a national love of country. There is no condemnation, either, of isolationist or insular practices in externals. What is exposed and shown to be evil is any undisciplined and dominant love of self and the world which would carry such practices to the extreme of recalcitrant and unmerciful nationalism. Divine revelation cannot be used to justify the blotting out of national distinctions and love of country; for it exposes the essential error of professional or sentimental internationalism, which may also spring from the love of self and which can be manipulated by the unscrupulous for the destruction of nations.
     The Word of the Lord in His second coming, however, raises the mind of man above these levels by breathing into the principle and practice of nationalism two new concepts never before fully present: the possibility of loving countries other than one s own as forms of necessary use or influence; and that seeking the good of one's own country in a rightful way need not involve, and does not justify, attack upon others with a view to taking from them their wealth, but means rather the constructive activity of producing new wealth from the resources of one's own country (DP 215: 6,11).

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     In the individual sense, the natural and spiritual awareness and love of country can awaken a man to an awareness and love of the nations and peoples within himself as the kingdom of the Lord within him. For the nations, in this connection, are the goods of charity which are in man from the Lord; and peoples are the truths of faith which he has received from the Lord. And the marriage of these constitutes that kingdom of heaven within him of which the Lord spoke, and toward which He constantly directs our attention.
     To the degree that a man comprehends that spiritual community which is his nation as to its innermost spirit, so will he understand and love that greatest community which is the kingdom of the Lord. And to the degree that he comprehends simultaneously those spiritual communities which are other nations, so will he understand and love those heavenly communities which are angelic societies.
     Are these things too high for us? Do we feel them to be beyond reach when we view the dark side of the state of the human race; when we see the many foul and greedy loves, as well as the natural ignorance and limitations, which persist with man? Because the clouds of stupid and ignorant practices conceal the mountaintops from well-nigh all men, shall we say that they do not exist, and that if they do they may not be seen or reached by individuals? Are we not called upon, as New Church men and women, to use our inexhaustible heritage to add the quality of the new heaven and earth to the use which our country is? What else, indeed, can be the significance of our providential position in relation to the Lord's second coming?
     There are many times, indeed, when we may healthily feel our insignificance and weakness, as far as any influence we may have for the greater good and usefulness of our national communities is concerned. There will inevitably be times when the weaknesses, the faults and evils of our country, will loom so large in our opened eyes that we may despair of it as a form of use sufficient to justify its continued existence in the family of nations.
     Yet we diminish our worship of the Lord Jesus Christ when we underestimate the power and influence of His truth as given by Him, and as received, loved and lived by each one of us in our daily lives. Indeed, far above our direct and conscious influence upon our country as individuals, our greatest gift to its quality will come unnoticeably out of our sincere looking to the Lord in His Human as the only God of the nations.

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To the extent that we are in that, to that extent are we adding a new quality to our country, a quality which will bring to it a blessing. For this is what is involved in the spiritual-natural sense of the words: "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord."
     It is on account of all these things that on historical and significant occasions in the life of our country we, as New Church men, renew our faith and life in the New Church, with the thought that thereby we may contribute to our country that influence and sphere without which it would be a pagan state of the dead Christian world. And we pray that we may be the means of adding to the natural love of country possessed by our countrymen the spiritual love of the Lord's kingdom and of Him as God and Man, the one and only Lord and Creator. For in such case our country will not only be formed of the dust of the ground; it will also have breathed into it the breath of lives, and will become a living soul. Blessed indeed is that nation whose God is the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

     LESSONS:     Psalm 33. Matthew 6: 19-34. TCR 305.
     MUSIC: Liturgy, pages 430, 431, 434.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 47, 124.
OUR COUNTRY AS THE NEIGHBOR 1957

OUR COUNTRY AS THE NEIGHBOR Editor 1957

"Birth does not make one more the neighbor than another, not even mother and father; neither does education. These are from natural good. Nor does nearness of abode, nor relationship, make one man more the neighbor than another; nor, therefore, one's native country. This is to be loved according to the quality of its good. But it is a duty to benefit one's country, which is done by promoting its use; because one thus promotes the good of all. It is not so much a duty to other kingdoms outside of one's own country, because one kingdom does not will another's good, but wills to destroy it as to its wealth and power. and thus also as to its means of defense. To love another kingdom more, therefore, by doing more to promote its use, makes against the good of the kingdom in which one dwells. For this reason one's own country is to be loved in a higher degree.
"For example: if I had been born in Venice or in Rome, and were a Reformed Christian, am I to love my country because of its spiritual good? I cannot. Nor with respect to its moral or civil good, so far as this depends for existence upon its spiritual good. But so far as it does not depend upon this I can, even if that country hate me. Thus I must not in hatred regard it as an enemy, but must still love it; doing it no injury, but consulting its good" (Char. 85, 86).

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LAST JUDGMENT 1957

LAST JUDGMENT Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER 1957

     6. The Downfall of the Dragon

     The Origin and Nature of Spiritual Cities

     The abodes of angels are exactly like houses on earth in appearance, and where many live together the houses are arranged to form cities. Such angelic mansions seem quite separate from the abodes of men; and yet "they are with man in his affections of good and truth. Their presentation to sight as separate is from an appearance" (LJ 9). This teaching is prefaced to the work The Last Judgment, because it is necessary for the understanding of the manner in which tremendous upheavals visibly occurred in the cities of the world of spirits when the states of the inhabitants changed. The passage goes on to state that a spirit, after death, "no longer subsists on his own basis, but upon a common basis, which is the human race. No angel or spirit subsists without man, and no man without spirits and angels" (ibid.; cf. DLW 92; AE 726: 6).
     The doctrine further teaches that the ideas of spirits are terminated in the material ideas of men's memories, although man is utterly unaware of it (SD 30221, 2751 if; AC 5858). The spirits are also unconscious of the fact that they thus employ man's ideas, and sometimes they assume his whole memory and think themselves to be the man (AC 5853; SD 1938). This is especially so with the spirits Who attend man most intimately. But all spirits feel lost if they cannot terminate their ideas in material things and attach their thoughts to places and external objects (SD 2751f, 3753, 3610).
     Spirits who by natural affections are consociated with the men of some city in the natural world therefore have as their ultimate of thought and sensation the very duplicate of that city; not from their own corporeal memory of it while on earth, for that memory becomes quiescent after death, but from the memories of men (SD 5092). The cities which thus become the environment of these spirits had a very "strict and material" correspondence with the natural cities, "according to the ideas of the thoughts of the men in the world" in whose memories the spirits dwelt so intimately (SD 5716).

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     But when a judgment comes, and many of these spirits are scattered, the spiritual city changes its features. Corporeal spirits, who sought out the most material features, are removed; and more interior spirits, less bound to material ideas, come into possession. The city is perhaps still the same city, but it now represents more plastically the interior affections of these spirits. It may become more beautiful, to answer to the state of spirits who have progressed away from undesirable ultimates. Or, on the other hand, if wicked spirits take over the city and the good spirits flee away, that city may lose most of its nobler landmarks and former attractiveness and change into a mass of slums and ruins, to correspond to the states of the evil crew which is now uprooted from all orderly externals. Such a city cannot for long maintain itself in the world of spirits, but will eventually sink down into hell.
     This is the reason it is stated concerning the cities in the world of spirits that "now, in this last time of the church, another arrangement takes place [in these cities] and another correspondence; thus through correspondences not so immediate and close, but more remote" (SD 5716). The new correspondence is with the internal state. And since the angelic city-societies are perfect images of the celestial and spiritual states of love, wisdom and use, it is even said that "the angels are completely ignorant of what a city is, and of the name of any city, for they are in spiritual ideas" (AC 402). A city to them signifies a doctrine, or a principle of doctrine, and thence a use based on doctrine; and it stands also for the interiors of the mind wherein truths are conjoined with good (AC 5297)
     We are therefore warned that the existence of cities in the spiritual world "does not fall into sensual ideas, but only into rational ideas enlightened by spiritual light." In this light it is recognized that "the spiritual appears before a spirit as the material does before a man; and that all the things which exist in the spiritual world are from a spiritual origin." The houses of the cities there "are not built as in the world, but rise up in a moment created by the Lord; so, too, all other things" (LJ post. 12).
     Such cities therefore have, in a sense, two origins. The elements which compose them come from the ideas of men on earth, which are also spiritual creations produced in the minds of men by the Lord's power. But these elements are unconsciously selected by the spirits in the other world; and indeed it is the Lord who causes them to be brought together into a complete mental environment-a house or a city-in which the spirit dwells as truly as man dwells in his. And because there are many spirits who are in the same general states and in the love of the same externals, in which they can meet and associate, there arise cities which remain as long as there is such a common bond (SD 5252, 5531).

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     Judgment on the City Dwellers

     Cities are, as a rule, formed first of all by good spirits, but are later usurped by the evil (SD 4930). For in the cities the wicked, although in private vices, can live an orderly moral life-an ability which they take with them from the world; so that a certain amount of law always reigns in these cities (SD 5714). The good and the evil do not dwell promiscuously, but in the good cities the best spirits are in the center, where the public buildings usually are; and these are then the governors and magistrates. All are arranged as to quarters according to their character; in the east those who are in a clear good of love, in the south those who are in a clear light of truth, and so on (LJ post. 12). But the evil would then live in the outskirts, where their influence would be less felt, In wicked cities, on the other hand, the evil would occupy the center, and the upright would be crowded into the circumferences.
     Law and discipline rule in every city. But a spirit usually does not dare to go outside his city lest he fall into the hands of robbers; even as a man falls a prey to strange and dangerous influences, and may be robbed of his faith and knowledge, if his thought does not remain within his own religious doctrine. There is a certain protection in that which is familiar and within the range of one's own thinking. But the robber spirits, if they should enter the cities, are not allowed in the houses, but remain in the streets, where they are deprived of power (SD 5714).
     But we are told also in the Spiritual Diary that newcomers who had died within the last ten or twenty years are usually given abodes in the suburbs and environs of the cities. Such spirits, whether good or evil, minister to men as attendant spirits and serve as subjects through whom the heavens or the hells exert their influence on men. These ministering spirits are in the process of vastation; their character is not yet well defined, and they are therefore not ready for the judgment (SD 5361).
     The last judgment upon the Reformed nations began with a general clearing out of the evil spirits who occupied the mountain region above the genuine Christian center, which lay in the "lower earth." These were mostly of those who were outside the cities, But soon the exploration extended to those in the cities who had lived morally, but only from fear of the law and for the sake of honor and profit (SD 5353; LJ post. 147). These had lived within the church without the church, or in religion without religion," and their numbers were immense (SD 5359).
     The cities affected were sometimes double or triple, one city beneath another. In the lower or subterranean city there were often spirits who had dwelt there from ancient times, and were there more secure from change. And the cities were situated either on top of the mountains or within them (LJ post. 12, 19; SD 5249ff).

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     On the ninth of January, 1757, the cities of the Dutch began to be cleansed from the evil, while those who had something of religion were suffered to remain. Spirits of more humble character among the Dutch lived in cities that were covered above, and the bulk of these spirits were preserved (SD 5366f). Such covered or roofed-over cities prevented the inhabitants from being under constant inspection by the evil on the surrounding mountains (CLJ 51).

     London

     There were two English cities named after London. The upper city was situated on a rock in the Christian middle space and had much resemblance to its earthly counterpart, with districts like Cheapside, the Exchange, the Temple, Islington, Moorfield and Wapping. The well-disposed lived in this city, and we are told that they rejoiced that they could still be in their beloved England and in its great city. The best dwelt in the east, where they all worshipped the Lord, and the intelligent lived in the south. Those who periodically inclined to evils gathered around a malicious rabble-rouser near the middle of the city, and were as often conveyed in hordes outside of the city (LJ post. 268; SD 5712; CLJ 42). There was also another way of purifying the place. Those who were of a contrary genius could be seen only on occasions, for they turned their backs to the other citizens and became invisible; and these were allotted quarters under a small hill which seemed to heave up within the city. Although the hill was small, thousands of wicked spirits congregated there, waiting for their final dispatch to their hells; but some returned (SD 5360).
     Yet there was another London of similar layout. This was not situated in the Christian middle space but farther to the north, and below, "in a plane on the level of the sole of the foot, a little to the right." Here the evil dwelt, and this city sometimes sank down in the middle to deliver the worst to hell, and then rose up again (CLJ 43; SD 5016). In this London, Swedenborg was conducted by mean streets in which there was not a living soul, although all the houses were full; for they were all spiritually dead and invisible to the eyes of the angels (SD 5712; cf. SD 5711). Yet on the east side a little city appeared where a remnant of good spirits lived, well protected by guards. Stockholm, Swedenborg confides, did not have any such little city in the east.

     Stockholm

     In fact, the Swedish cities were in a hopeless state. Swedenborg, his interior sight opened, was led through several streets in the ancient quarter of Stockholm, and the angels told him that although he saw many people walking about, not anyone was spiritually alive, so that they shuddered and wanted to turn back. No windows appeared in the houses, but dark holes; for evil spirits see in their own light, which to the angels appears as darkness (SD 5711).

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     Since the spirits in Stockholm cared nothing for doctrinals, but only for sensational news and material things, they allied themselves readily with devils and ridiculed anything of the church and heaven. And so the city was from time to time partly destroyed. The left side of one principal street was laid waste in the central city, and also a part of the southern quarter, very close to Swedenborg's own house (SD 5721).
     Most of the districts in Stockholm were represented in this supernatural replica. There were the same marketplace, the same bridge, the same shopping streets, even the same apothecary's shop (SD 5711). But the upright and honest Swedes were associated together in another city which resembled Gothenburg (SD 5036). And, strangely enough, the rest of the Swedish cities were not scattered as in the world, but arranged closely around Stockholm into a vast metropolis, the worst spirits being in the center. The cities were divided by walls and a "sense of distance"; Boras was to the north, Falun to the east. Even country dwellers had houses in the cities for fear of robbers. These spirits-representing an active state of the country at that time-had no regard for civic good and civic truth or for morality, because not for religion; and "civil good and civil truth are the fundamentals of religion."
     Therefore this compound city began to sink down, the center more deeply, almost as water eddying from a sink. The better sort among the inhabitants were separated and sent out by angel guides, and the houses were overthrown. Those remaining began to rebuild the city in a different order, with the better spirits at the circumference. Falun sank down most deeply in this judgment, for its evil inhabitants were of a more interior kind (SD 5034ff).

     Cities of the Jews

     Similar judgments overtook the cities of other nations-German and Danish. The Jews, from their place below the Christian middle were dispersed and their synagogues destroyed; after which they wandered about without worship in the northern desert. But some are described as living in ghettoes under the earth of the north of London, "where Tower Hill is." "Portuguese Jews" also have an abode in the southern quarter, being of a more intellectual type. They had ceased to expect a Messiah and their attitudes were modernistic (TCR 841ff; CLJ 79ff; LJ post. 284).
     After the judgment the Jews inhabited two great cities which constantly changed in appearance because of newcomers arriving and departing.

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These cities were ankle-deep with filth and reeked with evil odors, and the people went about in rags. Yet some spirit whom they believed to be Moses sometimes appeared to them and sought to dissuade them from expecting a Messiah since Christ was the Messiah. A few take heed to this spirit and are then instructed in synagogues composed of converted Jews. These receive new garments and copies of the Word and abodes in decent cities. Others are eventually judged, being cast into a wilderness or into hells like that of the avaricious, which is called Gehenna. The cities of the Jews used to be known as "Jerusalem," but after the judgment the name was changed because spiritually Jerusalem means the church as to doctrine, where the Lord alone is adored.
     Since they read the Word in its original Hebrew, the Jews, in the other world as in this, often act as bankers or trade in precious stones which they procure for themselves from heaven. Being external men they think little of religion, but much of an expectation of being led back into Canaan. More than other spirits they persuade themselves that they are still in the world, and some of them believe that their dead ancestors will rise from their sepulchres and find their lot in the material paradise, such as has been the aim of the Zionist movement in recent times (ibid., LJ post. 251ff).

     The Dragon Cast Down

     In the Apocalypse, the evil spirits from the Protestant part of Christendom are prophetically represented by several monsters, and by a being called the false prophet. All symbolize some aspect of the pernicious doctrine of salvation by faith alone which is made the excuse for a life of outward sanctity and morality, and a formalistic piety without self-examination and actual shunning of evils as sins against God. But we read particularly of a "great red dragon" with seven crowned heads and a tail which ensnared the stars of heaven; a dragon which is called also "that old serpent called the Devil and Satan which deceiveth all the world," and which, when cast down to the earth, persecuted the celestial woman whose man child was to rule the nations with a rod of iron (Revelation 12). This dragon, overcome by Michael and his angels, was later, it is said, cast into a lake of fire, and then "bound in the bottomless pit for a thousand years," after which he should be loosed for a season until the final judgment (Revelation 20).
     John also saw a blasphemous beast rise out of the sea, whose power and eloquence came from the dragon. This signified justification by faith alone among the laity. Next came a monster out of the earth, which signified the same faith with the clergy and is identified later with the false prophet (Revelation 13: 16, 20).

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Those signified by the dragon justify all people in their evil loves in order to obtain their good will, confirming their position by the letter of the Word apart from true doctrine; and they curry favor especially with the powerful and the wealthy. Being sensual men, they hold the spiritual sense in aversion and thus wander into all manner of heresies, for they are willing to join any religion (SD 5370ff, 5422).
     These constituted as it were the head of the dragon. Their real loves were selfish and worldly and they used the Word only as a stepping stone to honor. The tail of the dragon was made up of other spirits who used the Word for preaching but not for life; and also of an immense number of pietists who-as was before noted-dwelt in an invisible expanse high above the world of spirits. They were literalists who had no use for doctrine by which to understand the Word rightly. Many of them were idle, and their excessive piety made the angels of the surrounding heaven melancholy. They were therefore explored and judged, and let down to the earth level and led around to gloomy plains and distant forests where their thoughts would not disturb anyone (SD 5373ff). Their fall from heaven was hastened when the spirits of the dragon began to conspire to destroy the heavenly doctrine, which was now coming to birth as it were in the world of spirits. And it was represented to the sight as a shower of stars, a Milky Way, falling from heaven (Revelation 12: 4; SD 5426).
     The judgment on the "solifidians," the champions of "faith alone," now increased in intensity. For these spirits-not from a zeal for their doctrine, but from a delight in dominion and prestige-came by scores from all quarters except the east to stir up a rebellion. They had been in the mountain regions, maintaining themselves through an external moral behavior. But now they were discovered and hurled down, and in the process they became black as devils. These were such as are meant by the he-goats whom the Lord condemned in His parable of judgment (Matthew 25: 31; SD 57311/2ff, 5758ff). All sorts of evil were represented among them. Some despised all sciences, others loved to cause mental or physical torture, and the like. Many were "robber priests," like the archbishop Erik Benzelius the elder, who were cast into a lake in the south-eastern angle and thus removed from the world of spirits (SD 5722ff).

     The Combat of Michael

     The Spiritual Diary tells how one evil state after another, one crew of wicked spirits after another, was inflamed to overt actions and then cast down from its false position. It would be impossible here to recount these many judgments, which were always directed to liberate the spirits who were still in a salvable state. The exact order is not always clear, for Swedenborg retraces the story at times to give further details.

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But the value to future generations is more than historical; for here we have an analysis of all the evils and weaknesses to which the human heart is susceptible, even to tragic and dreadful depths of perversity, but also an insight into the lofty wisdom and tender charity of angelic states.
     The judgment went on through January and February. And when the hypocritical spirits established on the mountain level had been unmasked and swallowed up, the evil spirits who on the level of the world of spirits had been plotting open evils under their protection had no more defenses and no power to resist, and so these also were cast into their various hells. This occurred, we read, on the thirtieth day of March, 1757 (SD 5696-5699).
     And now the universal judgment reached its climax. There appeared as it were a hand stretched out by the Lord over the heavens. And then began that battle between Michael and the dragon which is described in the Apocalypse (chap. 12). It lasted for days (LJ 28; LJ post. 168; SD 5742). Myriads of angels not seen before appeared over the middle space of Christians. At the same time there appeared a tremendous number of evil spirits who, together, looked like a vast dragon raising his back on high and lashing with his tail as if to tear down the heavens.
     This was the appearance. The reality was that the angels, in the entrance to heaven, were speaking concerning the Lord and the life of charity. And since the dragonists were attacking these truths they were compelled to listen, and the attention of all was centered on the discussion. The dragonists and all who heard were compelled into the thoughts which they had entertained in the world about the Lord and about faith. It became clear that the dragonists wished to talk only of an invisible God, rejecting the Lord's Divine Human and making salvation a matter of faith alone not of life. This verbal or spiritual battle became-for all the heavens that had gathered together through the ages of Christianity-a most grievous and heart-searching temptation, verging unto despair. The real issue between the good and the evil was at last made clear beyond doubt. It was perceived by the good spirits that the Lord had held them in truth while the devils had persuaded them of falsity. And now this internal conflict was relieved, as the judgment caused a unification throughout all these Christian heavens of those who could acknowledge the doctrine of heaven.
     Although it was seen that it was impossible for those who opposed the heavenly doctrine to remain in these heavens any longer the dragonists resisted, insisting that they had always been there. Then the Lord was seen as it were outside of the sun, descending in a bright cloud with angels attending, and there was heard the sound of trumpets.

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This was a sign of how the Lord protects the angels and draws the good away from communion with the evil. When this occurs, the evil rush openly into the abominations of their lusts. And then these spirits of the draconic crew were seen cast down, by hundreds of thousands, from one heaven after another into the western quarter, where the earth was seen to open and they were covered by dense clouds (SD 5743; LJ post. 168; CLJ 28).
     "Thus perished the old heaven and the old earth." And Swedenborg adds in his Diary. "These things occurred from the thirty-first of March to the eleventh of April, when Easter was celebrated in the year 1757" (SD 5746). He also tells that the spiritual battle which marked the crisis of the Lord's redemptive work was felt in his own mind as a temptation, and from that experience he calls to remembrance the terrible temptations which the Lord suffered from earliest youth to the end of His life, and by which He not only subdued the hells but also reduced the heavens into order and glorified the Human, without which no mortal could have been saved (SD 5743). But it is well to note the difference between these two redemptions. Swedenborg, though he felt the temptations while the heavens were in travail, was only an observer; and the Lord came in His second advent, not to suffer temptations, but in His glorified Human to exert the power that He had taken on seventeen centuries before.
     But what is meant by the Michael who overcame the dragon? Michael signifies all those who defended the Lord's Divinity and the life of charity. These were "chiefly from the ancient heavens who all remained steadfast, and from those who were in them from the gentiles and from infants everywhere" who had grown up in those heavens (SD 5747; cp. AR 548, 564; AE 735).

     Redemption from the Lower Earth

     The real objective of the Last Judgment was not to overthrow the evil but to liberate and redeem the good. And these were not all in the heavenly places from which the wicked had now been cast down, but were also in vast numbers in the "lower earth," which the Scripture refers to also as the pit, the grave, Sheol, or Hades.
     Normally the lower earth represents a transient state of vastation which well disposed spirits must undergo if they have been in principles of falsity. Such spirits may have lived a life quite free of hatreds, revenge or adultery, yet have been imbued with a spurious conscience hard to change. Some therefore suffer hard things before they can put away their false principles. They may seem to themselves unhappy and tortured by evil spirits, and imagine themselves eternally condemned to their fate, although angels occasionally come to comfort them (AC 699, 1106ff). Others are in natural delight but in no spiritual delight, and care only for worldly and corporeal things (AC 4940ff, 6914, 6928).

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Their correspondence relative to the Gorand Man of heaven is to the undigested food in the stomach and intestines (AC 5392). Some are in something of combat because their faith is defiled with worldly ideas. Spirits who placed merit in good works seem to themselves to be cutting wood to keep themselves warm, and feel that they must remain in their place until they have really merited heaven (AC 4943). Spirits of still another type are in great obscurity and in a sleepy state, for they are afraid to think, knowing that they will then ruminate on all the evils they had perpetrated from imprudence even though not from set purpose (SD 1771).
     Yet many in the lower earth are concealed there and guarded for ages lest they should be injured by the spirits of the dragon, while these occupy the heavens for which they are destined. In the lower earth they are in safety and have communication with heaven. They live together cheerfully and worship the Lord, nor are they aware of the hells that surround them. In the west, towards the south, great numbers had been reserved who from childhood had cultivated doctrinal learning for the sake of reputation, but later had led a Christian life and put off some of their pride. These were in the lower earth, removed from evil contagion, in order to be initiated into spiritual life (SD 5480). For the protection afforded in the lower earth comes from an absence of spiritual pretensions.
     Only after the cleansing storms of judgment had restored spiritual equilibrium in the world of spirits could these "souls under the altar" (Revelation 6: 9; AR 325ff) be safely elevated into heaven, their rightful inheritance. They were then by turns raised, as if from a grave, or liberated as if from captivity. As soon as the world of spirits had been delivered from the powerful spheres of the dragon which they could not have resisted successfully, they were brought out as if in an exodus and, after various temptations, were instructed in the internal truths of the Word. Swedenborg saw immense numbers of spirits so released after the judgment, to be organized into heavenly societies (AC 8099; AE 899: 2). Many seemed to find abodes in the "mountains of the east" (SD 5480).
     Spirits who are misled by the evil may serve as powerful tools of the hells. Certain foolish spirits, it is told, who were emotionally pious but had no affection of truth, merely trusting the authority of their leaders, became a "fulcrum to the infernal crew," that is, became subject-spirits for the hells. They were then cast down from the mountains of the hypocrites and concealed in the lower earth, so that those among them who could act from the heart might serve for the "ultimates of heaven"! Piety is indeed an ultimate of heaven. In fact, they were allowed to move into a city of good Christians and practice their devotions to their hearts' content, yet at the same time were told to enjoy social intercourse as far as they desired (SD 5814f).

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What is said of the lower earth and the "false heavens" cannot be understood unless we realize that evil spirits who usurp a position in some mountain or heaven on high are not really there! They are not in heaven except in fantasy and in the view of those whom they can infect with their fantasy. The angels saw these spirits "where they were as to body," thus on "the plane of the ground," or wherever their ruling love was (SD 5789 1/2, 5816). The Last Judgment, in the final analysis was the dispersion of the fantasies of evil by the Divine truth. And the immeasurable and eternal effects of the judgment were expressed prophetically by John in Patmos: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away."
BLAKE AND SWEDENBORG 1957

BLAKE AND SWEDENBORG Jr. DONALD C. FITZPATRICK 1957

     In April, 1789, the first General Conference of the New Jerusalem Church was held at Great East Cheap, London. At this meeting a group of men and women signed a statement which read:

"We whose names are hereunto subscribed, do each of us approve of the theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, believing that the Doctrines contained therein are genuine Truths, revealed from Heaven, and that the New Jerusalem Church ought to be established, distinct and separate from the Old Church,"

Among the signatures on this document were those of "W. Blake" and "C. Blake."
     Since the original Minute Book of the Conference of 1789 is no longer in existence, it will probably never be possible for scholars to say with assurance whether or not these signatures were in any way connected with the poet William Blake. In view of the references to Swedenborg and the Writings in his own poetry and conversation, however, these notes from the early Conference Minutes serve to arouse our curiosity to a consideration of the real nature of Blake's contact with, interest in, and reaction to, the works of Swedenborg.
     William Blake was born in London in November, 1757, the second son of James Blake, a hosier, and his wife Catherine. James was, by all accounts, a Dissenter, and is frequently referred to as a Swedenborgian by Blake's biographers.
     Whatever his religious convictions, however, they certainly did not prevent his being an indulgent father.

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William's childhood reports of seeing angels among harvesters in a field and in a roadside tree were received without severe reaction, and he was permitted to study drawing and engraving instead of the hosier's trade, as was originally intended. Engraving later became both his trade and his method of producing copies of his poems and their accompanying drawings.
     Whether Blake's first contact with the Writings came while he was yet a child, as some biographers assert, is not certain. Perhaps the home and shop of James Blake really were meeting places for early Swedenborgians, as William Butler Yeats suggested. It seems certain that after his introduction in 1780 to the sculptor John Flaxman, a devoted Swedenborgian, William Blake's interest in the Writings became much stronger. Some of the poetic works written soon after this event show evidence of thought which could spring most logically from contact with the Writings.
     Prior to Blake's contact with Flaxman his writing had been the product of a youthful and imaginative mind's affection for nature and interest in the supernatural. In these works he anticipated the lyric beauty and romantic viewpoint which were to appear in more fully developed forms both in some of his own later works and in the poetry of the great Romanticists of the nineteenth century in England.
     These early poems, written by Blake during the period from his eleventh to his twenty-first year, were printed in 1783 at the expense of Flaxman and the Rev. Henry Mathew, a patron of the literary arts into whose circle of friends Blake had been introduced during the previous year. The unbound sheets of the Poetical Sketches, as the work was called, were presented to Blake to do with as he pleased. The rather patronizing and uncomplimentary introduction which Mr. Mathew wrote for this little work when he found the young poet unwilling to accept his suggested revisions must have annoyed Blake, for very few copies of the work ever left his own hands.
     This incident, together with others provoked by Mathew's complete confidence in the validity of his own critical faculty, caused Blake to separate himself from the group with feelings none too pleasant. Evidence of this bad feeling appears in the first work written by Blake after he had been introduced by Flaxman into the Mathews group.
     Entitled An Island in the Moon, this brief satirical sketch begins: "In the Moon is a certain Island, near by a mighty continent, which small island seems to have some affinity to England, and what is more extraordinary the people are so much alike, and their language so much the same, that you would think you was [sic] among your friends." The most interesting feature of the work, however, is not its pointed satire, but the fact that it contains the drafts of several of the Songs of Innocence.

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This work comprises a great portion of that section of Blake's poetry that is best remembered and loved down to our own time.
     It was apparently during this period, between the writing of An Island in the Moon about 1784 and the writing in 1790 of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell-the very title of which seems to indicate a complete revulsion against the teachings of the Writings-that Blake was supposedly affiliated with the organized New Church in London, and most interested in the doctrines presented by Swedenborg.
     The evidences of this interest come down to us in rather fragmentary form. We know that in 1787 or 1788 Blake read and annotated Lavater's then recently published Aphorisms, a work influenced both by Swedenborgian teachings and by the writings of Jacob Boehme.
     About this time Blake also read at least two of the volumes of the Writings, for there are extant copies of Divine Love and Wisdom and Divine Providence containing marginal notes in the poet's own hand. These notes indicate that the poet agreed with the ideas presented by Swedenborg when those ideas were in accord with his own views. He accordingly found much to applaud in Divine Love and Wisdom, but accused Swedenborg of teaching predestination in the work The Divine Providence.
     In 1789 the first Conference of the New Church found a "W. Blake" and a "C. Blake" among the receivers of the Writings, as we have already seen. Beyond this little is definitely known.
     Blake's poetic productions during this period between An Island in the Moon and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell give only a small clue as to the state of his mind during it. On the one hand, we have the beautiful Songs of Innocence which seem, at times at least, to be presenting some of the teachings of the Writings in poetic form. "The Divine Image." conveying the idea of the Divine Humanity of God; "The Lamb," with its identification of the Creator and Redeemer in one Divine Person "A Cradle Song" and "On Another's Sorrow," bearing the same theme; and several other poems from this work; seem to indicate an affirmative attitude toward, and perhaps even a simple acceptance of, New- Church doctrine.
     On the other hand, we have the work Tiriel in which Blake first begins to speak in that peculiar symbolism which was to dominate the later works-called by some the "prophetic works"-and render them difficult if not impossible to decipher. This work together with the Book of Thel, written at approximately the same time, indicates that the poet was striking out on his own, relying for subject-matter on his "vision" and imagination rather than on the writings of earlier philosophers, theologians, or poets.
     Even in his notes to the Divine Love and Wisdom Blake had begun to identify what he termed the "Poetic Genius" with God.

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With this in mind it is interesting to note a comment made by Mark Schorer in his book William Blake: The Politics of Vision. In referring to Blake's use of other men s works as sources for material. Schorer says: "When he plunged into the theological jungles of Swedenborg and Boehme, the most 'mystical' writers he knew, it was to plunder them for figures, not for concepts."
     This period of Blake's life, then, remains almost completely obscure as far as the questions of his real thought and of his affiliation with the organized New Church are concerned. Most of what has been written by his biographers concerning these years has been in the nature of educated speculation made on the basis of scant evidence; and we wish with Havelock Ellis that more copies of the Writings possessed by Blake would appear, so that we might examine the poet's notes there also and perhaps determine from them how far he really was in sympathy with the doctrines of the New Church at the time.
     About the period which began with the writing of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell in 1790, all Blake biographers seem to agree in stating that the poet had now dissociated himself from the New Church and from all organized religious activity. The works of Swedenborg continued to be one of the greatest single influences on his work however, though these influences now appear to be not from Swedenborg's teaching but rather from his accounts of the way in which he received instruction in the other world, and from the doctrine of correspondences he outlined.
     In a sense this profane work of 1790 constitutes Blake's declaration of intellectual independence from all previous systems of thought. He left no room for doubt now concerning his attitude toward the things which Swedenborg had published. He declared that Swedenborg had not written one new truth. but only all the old falsehoods. This be had done, Blake claimed, because he had spoken with angels, but not with devils who hate religion. He had written "a recapitulation of all superficial opinions," and "any man of mechanical talents" might have produced from the works of Paracelsus or Boehme or Dante or Shakespeare an infinite number of volumes of equal value with those of Swedenborg.
     The two things which Blake accepted from Swedenborg's works, and used consistently even after this intellectual divorce from the theologian's teachings, are described by Schorer as being: first, sanctions for the visionary method by which the poet claimed to receive information; and second, ideas for a large part of the "symbolic apparatus" which the poet used to clothe and present that vision. Swedenborg's device, rather than his content, interested Blake, says Schorer, and perhaps we would be inclined to agree with him in this estimation.

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     From the time of the writing of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and with the exception of The Songs of Experience which were written in 1794 to present the contrary ideas to those presented in the Songs of Innocence, all of Blake's works were written in the mystic language of the grand and visionary myth. In this myth the symbolic terms of the poet's own system of "correspondences" were to describe the plight of humanity enslaved by rationalistic dogma, and ultimately to be liberated by the restoration of order through a new revelation received by the "Poetic Genius" of man.
     Occasionally, through the wilderness of symbolism, there is seen a glimpse of the great lyric power of Blake's earlier poetry, and we feel uplifted by the sheer contrast of the light and beautiful simplicity of a few stanzas.
     But Blake was now certain that he was destined to "create a system," a system that would resolve all contraries into one harmonious world. For this reason we find that his great myth attempts to include all human relationships from the spiritual to the social and the political. As Schorer has put it: "To trace the dialectic of innocence and experience, he tried to express (and to correct) the ideas of political thinkers like Paine and Godwin in the vocabulary of religious thinkers like Boehme and Swedenborg."
     As a consequence of this viewpoint. Blake's later references to Swedenborg become fewer and less critical. He considered his own mission greater than that of Swedenborg, and so spoke in more condescending terms. The Swedish seer became the "strongest of men, the Samson shorn by the Churches." His works were recommended to the attention of poets and painters as "foundations for grand things." He was called a "divine teacher" in a conversation recorded in Crabb Robinson's diary. Credited with correcting "many errors of Popery, and also of Luther and Calvin he was found at fault "in endeavoring to explain to the rational faculty what the reason cannot comprehend." It is also recorded that Blake once told C. A. Tulk-whose name will be familiar to students of New Church history-that he had two different states, and that in one of them he liked the Writings, while in the other he disliked them.
     In trying to sum up what must of necessity seem a confusing picture of Blake's contact with the Writings, I think we may well turn to the Introduction written by Dr. John James Garth Wilkinson for the first printed edition of the Songs of Innocence and of Experience which appeared about twelve years after Blake's death in 1827. Wilkinson wrote:

     ". . . he, who professed as a doctrine, that the visionary form of thought was higher than the rational one; for whom the common earth teemed with millions of otherwise invisible creatures; who naturalized the spiritual, instead of spiritualizing the natural; was likely . . . to prefer seeing Truth under the loose garments of Typical, or even Mythological Representation, rather than in the Divine-Human Embodiment of Christianity.

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And accordingly, his Imagination, self- divorced from a Reason which might have elevated and chastened it, and necessarily spurning the Scientific daylight and material Realism of the nineteenth century, found a home in the ruins of Ancient and consummated Churches; and imbued itself with the inward grandeur of primeval Times. For the true Inward is one and identical, and if Blake had been disposed to see it, he would have found it was still (though doubtless under a multitude of wrappings) extant in the present Age. On the contrary, copying the outward form of the Past, he has delivered to us a multitude of new Hieroglyphics, which contain no presumable reconditeness of meaning, and which we are obliged to account for, simply by the Artist's having yielded himself up, more thoroughly than other men will do, to those fantastic impulses which are common to all mankind; and which saner people subjugate, but cannot exterminate."
GIRL IN THE GIRLS SCHOOL 1957

GIRL IN THE GIRLS SCHOOL MARGARET WILDE 1957

     (An address given to the Forward-Sons, Toronto, Canada, April 13, 1957.)

     In my remarks this evening may I present to you a threefold picture of the most fascinating object of our curriculum, the adolescent girl, as we see her actually before us: as we see her potentially in the mind's eye; and as we watch the gradual unfolding of the many gifts which in her maturity she will bring to the Lord's kingdom on earth, and ultimately carry with her into His eternal kingdom in the heavens. For unless we keep these latter two constantly before us, we cannot fulfill the task of New Church education, the primary purpose of which is the training of our young people for life to eternity.
     During her high school years, the girl, passing from childhood through youth to young womanhood, finds her feet on the precarious bridge of adolescence-precarious because she is now moving from a state of dependence upon parents and teachers to one in which she desires and begins to depend upon her own judgment, which, of necessity at times, is inadequate for all her needs.
     Hence in her we meet a charming individual-idealistic, unpredictable, full of enthusiasm, couldn't care less; sparkling with laughter, dissolving in tears; loyal, mature, conscientious, frivolous, immature, self centered; bold and self-confident, shy and self-effacing.

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Who has not rejoiced over her victories, agonized over her tears, and wept over her disappointments. These beautiful bundles of contradictions are the New Church women of the future. In them as in a kaleidescope we see potential humanity, the tragi-comedy of the well developed proprium giving place at last to the true drama of self-control and the endeavor to begin a life of use to the neighbor.
     Forgive me if I have drawn her picture somewhat sharply and made her contrasts too glaring. No one individual exhibits all these characteristics in full array, yet a little of every one of them peers now and again from the majority of the delightful creatures with whom we are working. For the adolescent girl is a delight to work with, not so much for what she is at the time, but for what she will eventually become.
     Potentially she is a woman, and, to us, a woman of the church. Her essential characteristic, that for which she was created, is to be the organ of conjugial love. By this we mean that her function in life is to be the immediate receptacle of that sphere of heavenly love which, descending from the marriage of the Human and the Divine in the Lord, makes the very sphere of heaven itself both here and hereafter.
     To this end it is imperative that we try to preserve her innocence of mind, her willingness to be led by the Lord Himself through the teachings of His Word. This we hope to accomplish not only through instruction in religion, but also by using all subject-matter in the curriculum to illustrate the operation of the Divine in the universe; the sciences and mathematics to reveal His order impressed on the laws of these studies; literature, history and languages to illustrate the operation of Divine Providence on the minds of men.
     In an age predominantly material in its outlook, it is impossible to isolate the human mind from the contagion of preoccupation with externals. And the young minds with which we are working, of necessity and order, are very much immersed in the natural, since they are now associating more and more with angels of the natural heaven (Growth of the Mind, p. 259). This is the plane of the mind nearest to the things of this world-a world which to them is a place of pleasures, good times, and of adventuring into many kinds of relationships. To counterbalance the amoral influences which pour in upon them from press, movies, radio and television we must provide for them some standards by which to judge that which makes such an immediate appeal to their present interest give some centrality to their thought, some point of focus from which to view the fascinating vistas constantly opening before them.

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     One of the most powerful elements toward achieving this end is, I believe, the united atmosphere, which prevails in their faculty, of devotion to the church and an absolute belief in Divine revelation. This unity appears before them as a love of the teaching use that produces a faculty in which there is no striving for power, no political maneuvering, but perfect freedom to develop and teach subject-matter in the light of the illustration of ones use. To live in this atmosphere is an education in itself; not didactic nor formal, but perceptive, and therefore more powerful in the long run. Just as the child of a happy home finds the peace and security in essentials which are vital to her growth, so the student in the Girls School, surrounded by a group of mature women devoted to the preparation of young minds for a life of usefulness to the neighbor and service to the Lord, finds a mental peace and emotional security to which she can turn in the troubled years of her adolescence. Not that one of them could express so intangible an asset in any words like these; rather do they show it in their general response and, in the case of the most rebellious, by frequently being the first to knock at the door for admission the following year. But this perception is as yet not their own, but the unconscious acceptance of an atmosphere provided for them by adults.
     In a passage treating of the formation of the three degrees of the mind we read:

     ". . . it must be understood that there are three degrees of love and wisdom, and consequently three degrees of life, and that the human mind is formed into regions, as it were, in accordance with these degrees; and that in the highest region life is in its highest degree, in the second region in a less degree, and in the outmost region in the lowest degree. These regions are opened in men successively-the outmost region, where there is life in the lowest degree from infancy to childhood; and this is done by means of knowledges: the second region, where there is life in a larger degree, from childhood to youth; and this is done by means of thought from knowledges and the highest region, where there is life in the highest degree, from youth to early manhood and onward: and this is done by means of perceptions of moral and spiritual truths. It must be further understood that it is not in thought that the perfection of life consists, but in the perception of truth from the light of truth" (TCR 42).

     We are dealing primarily with the second degree, opened by means of thought from knowledges, and in the final year with the highest region to be opened by means of perceptions of moral and spiritual truths, both degrees looking toward the perfection of life found in the perception of truth from the light of truth. It is this perception of truth from the light of truth which is to provide the standard of judgment by which they can eventually, we hope, guide their adult lives into paths of genuine use.

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While they are in our care they are preparing themselves to receive this perception, all unknowingly, I think it is safe to say for the majority. Yet they are all consciously looking forward to that young adulthood which lies just ahead, when they will take responsibility for their own decisions; be they in the field of further education, some calling to which they devote themselves, or preparation for establishing a home of their own.
     It is this next step ahead, when they will come forth as young New Church women, to which we are looking in the years they are with us. Potentially, then, we see them as truly feminine, modest in mind and manner, unassuming, firm in essentials but gently yielding in those issues where matters of principles are not at stake ready to give themselves generously but wisely to the manifold calls upon their time, energy and capabilities; trusting in Providence. content with their lot, and laying the foundations for their truly mature years. when at length they will radiate that indefinable warmth, kindliness and genuine interest in others which characterize the womanly woman.
     Superficially it is a far cry from the adolescent girl as we see her to the mature woman as we envision her. Yet beneath the swirling surface of her superabundant vivacity we see her vital energy waiting to be channeled into uses that will delight her; at the heart of her emotional storms lies the strength of her affection, eager for an object on which to bestow itself worthily; and even in her disappointments we see that capacity to trust in the leading of Divine Providence through all the vicissitudes of her life.
     While she is with us, therefore, we provide the means for calling forth her potential gifts to society so that, if she is willing, she has opportunities for exercising them in a sphere commensurate with her powers. ]n the classroom her studies are arranged in a gradually ascending order which will call on her increasing powers of concentration and accomplishment. Through the discipline of formal study and recitation she is trained to weigh values and put her emphasis of time and effort on essentials first, particularly so that she can distinguish through experience the value of application to a use and the need for recreation to keep herself efficient in her use. This for many is a difficult lesson to learn for they are primarily in the love of pleasure and recreation during high school years. Yet, by degrees, a dawning awareness that life is not all fun, and that it would be unsatisfactory even to them if it were, leads them to develop, sporadically to be sure, a sense of duty well done which will stand them in good stead when life itself presents no other choice but to do what must be done whether or not it appeals to them at the moment. One of the greatest delights we as teachers have is to witness their delight as they begin to grasp a difficult subject and feel their own sense of accomplishment in overcoming obstacles.

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This is character emerging from its butterfly chrysalis, beginning to feel its powers and organizing the mind to a devotion to use for its own sake. Through her formal studies she is taught to think, strictly within the framework of her subject matter, analysing, comparing and synthesizing her findings. Furthermore, she is led to produce results to the best of her ability and to a schedule which at times may seem somewhat relentless, but which nevertheless compels her to concentrate her energies in a given direction for a stated end. This type of mental discipline will prove valuable to her in whatever she undertakes in the future, for she will play a part in some endeavor which will involve not only herself but others, and their needs and demands which cannot wait upon her individual whims or situation. At the same time, she is widening her mental experience and gaining a deeper view of the world in which she lives, both physical and mental. Information and impressions are being stored in her mind, making it a well appointed home for herself and one to which she can invite others in social intercourse for their mutual delight and satisfaction. Its furnishings some day will help to provide a necessary background for her own physical home, where her husband and children will find peace, relaxation and renewed stimulus to their endeavors.
But perhaps the most difficult aspect of adolescent life with which to deal is the social plane. During these years we view with a patience born of long experience the almost annual reappearance of the complete gamut ranging from the incipient wallflowers to the budding sirens. All are more or less in the stage of development where their interest in the opposite sex is gradually moving toward the day when they will make a choice of their life's partner. But before that day arrives there are hours of agony, hopes, fears and misunderstandings to be gone through as they learn to form friendships with boys built, not on the easy acceptance of each other of their earlier years, but on the subtler attraction which is a fore-runner of the more interior bond of the later mature choice. By a program of formal dances, informal parties, roller skating, movies and many other mixed social affairs, we try to provide a setting in which the girls can learn to exercise their feminine influence upon the social scene in an orderly and becoming manner, lending graciousness and charm to any occasion in which they take part. But it is thrilling to be the chosen object of the lad's attentions, and the temptation nowadays is to limit oneself to steady dating, that peculiar social security of American youth. And here the faculty ogres are compelled to step in and limit as far as possible this basically anti-social behavior; not; as was recently done in a Catholic school, by expelling students who persist in it, but by careful instruction drawn from Revelation, and by leaving them in a large measure of freedom to conform to our standards as of themselves.

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And while we are not always completely successful in every case, the students know the basis for our standards and can regulate their conduct accordingly. The social picture is not all compounded, however, of the faculty's efforts to separate over-exclusive friendships between boys and girls-far from it. Many a girl has come out of her shell and made splendid contributions to campus life through the knowledge that she was genuinely attractive to the boys, and many a boy has lost much of his awkwardness and gaucherie through the confidence inspired in him by the friendship of one of our girls. Mixed social life is the big attraction for the adolescent years, and rightly so. For a girl is coming not only into the first bloom of her physical beauty, but, more important, she is stirred by those nascent ideals which are leading her toward the holy state of marriage and the development of the capacity ultimately to receive the gift of love truly conjugial. It is for this reason that we consciously use this plane of her interest as a training ground for the development of all those external and internal graces which so enhance a woman and make her such a vital element in genuine New Church social life.
But these adolescent girls are subsequently going to live not only in the protected atmosphere of their own growing family but also in the wider society of the church and their country. Their sense of responsibility for, and ready response to, the government of these groups largely determines their place in the eternal kingdom of the heavens. Before they can begin to exercise government in their own homes, and provide a suitable order in which to rear their children, they must learn to govern themselves and willingly respond to the regulations set up for their protection and freedom within their school and its society. And while at this age rules and regulations almost automatically call forth tacit-and at times quite vocal-resistance, experience gradually teaches that rules are necessary if the utmost freedom for the individual is to be preserved. And if, as sometimes happens in any group of human beings, a major judgment must take place, they know that faculty action is taken only after full consideration of all the factors involved, and every effort has been made, with their cooperation, to sift all the evidence. And when the axe has fallen to the accompaniment of some weeping and wailing, and external order has been restored, there is a deeper restoration of an internal order in which they themselves feel a greater sense of peace and contentment, because they sense the dispersal of the hells which infested and realize the necessity for adult minds around them willing to assume the responsibility for becoming the means through which the Lord alone can remove this influx. When we see, as we almost never fail to do in these genuine tragedies of the campus, the sobering effect and heartfelt relief of the girls that the trouble has been brought to light and to judgment, we know that they have taken another important step along the road to self control and true maturity.

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Through their Factores, or student government, they learn to select leadership from their own group, whose responsibility it is to help to maintain the orderly basis on which their school is built, plan for and execute many events for the benefit of the whole group, and thus learn at first hand some of the pitfalls and responsibilities of leadership. Nor are they isolated from the larger society of the church for they have many opportunities for performing uses to the Bryn Athyn Society in their cooperation with Friday Suppers, caring for children and helping in the homes. They are frequently invited to wedding receptions, where they can both contribute to and enjoy participating in the unique New Church sphere which surrounds these beautiful events.
And now, in conclusion, may I say that we feel we are humble instruments in the Lord's hand for cooperating with the home in His work of establishing the New Church in the minds and hearts of your daughters committed to our care. The many trials and tribulations implicit in a group of adolescents fade into the background as we see gradually emerging something of that steadfastness of purpose and willingness to be led by the Lord alone in all the situations in her life which proclaim the genuine New Church woman of the future. In arousing and feeding her affection for truth, we believe we are providing the stimulus necessary at this stage of her development, so that as she moves into the sphere of her young womanhood, she will be equipped to receive the perception of truth from the light of truth which makes the perfection of life. This perception is the wisdom of life, which wisdom can be hers once she has taken charge of her own spiritual life and begins to live as of herself according to the teachings of the Word. Each generation must assume this spiritual responsibility for the ongoing work of the Lord's kingdom on earth. In this way alone can it he prepared for eternal life. As we view the pageant of adolescence passing continually through our care, see it emerging into the full bloom of young womanhood and taking its place in the ranks of the church, we feel a full measure of the Lord's mercy, pressed down and running over, that we have been called to this work in His vineyard.
LAW OF DIVINE ORDER 1957

LAW OF DIVINE ORDER 1957

"It is a law of Divine order that the will and the understanding should make one mind, thus one man consequently that the whole man should be either in heaven or in hell, and should not hang between the two; looking with the eye to heaven and with the heart to hell" (AC 10122e).

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DECLARATIONS OF FAITH AND PURPOSE 1957

DECLARATIONS OF FAITH AND PURPOSE Various 1957

ORDINATIONS

     MAY 12, 1957

     DECLARATIONS OF FAITH AND PURPOSE

     I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one God of heaven and earth, and that evils are to be shunned as sins against Him.
     I believe that the Lord has made His second coming in the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg: that these writings are therefore a Divine revelation, and are, in fact, the revealing of the spiritual sense of the Word. I believe that through these writings the Lord has established a new church in heaven and on earth, which church is to be the crown of all the churches that have heretofore existed.
     I believe it is the teaching of the Writings that the New Church is to have a properly prepared and ordained priesthood of three degrees. I believe that the two primary uses of the priesthood are to teach the truths of the Word and the doctrines of the church to man, and through these to lead him to the good of life.
     I believe that all salvation belongs to the Lord alone, and that the priesthood merely serves the Lord as a means in leading man to salvation. Because of this, I believe that priests have no power over the souls of men, nor any power in opening and closing the gates of heaven to them.
     I believe that in so far as a priest conscientiously performs the two essential uses of the priestly office, in so far as he shuns the pride of self- intelligence and the love of dominion, in so far as he applies the truths of faith to order the things of his own life and to do good, and in so far as he humbly prays to the Lord for guidance and direction in his work, the Lord will enlighten his mind so that he will not only see truths more clearly but will see how they are to be used in caring for the salvation of his flock.
     I believe that a priest who sincerely, justly and faithfully carries out the uses of his office is a good shepherd of his sheep, performing the highest of human uses in leading men to the Lord and to the blessings of His heavenly kingdom.
     In presenting myself for ordination into the pastoral degree of the priesthood, I pray that the Lord will give me strength and courage to remain a humble and steadfast servant in His Divine work of salvation.
     FREDERICK LAURIER SCHNARR

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     I believe that creation is a Divine work, that it took place for a definite purpose, and that God has spoken to man concerning Himself and that purpose. This Divine speech or truth has been made visible to man, first in the Word of the Old Testament, then in the Word of the New Testament, and finally in the Word of the Second Coming. It is from these revelations that I have drawn, and will more and more draw, true knowledge concerning the Lord and the things of heaven.
     The purpose of creation is a conjunction of love between God and man, which is to be reciprocal and based upon man's freedom to foster or reject it. Wherever there is such a conjunction, there is heaven. It is the Lord who makes heaven, while man constitutes it.
     In order that He might teach man the way to heaven, and sustain him therein, the Lord descended to every degree of life in heaven and on earth. Thus He made His Divinity human to angels and men, so that all can approach and worship Him.
     The trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is therefore not a trinity of persons. For the Divine itself, or the Father, is the soul of the Divine Human, or the Son; and the Divine proceeding from the Divine Human is the Holy Spirit.
     To those who have the Word the first requirement of salvation is the acknowledgment that the Lord Jesus Christ is the God of heaven and earth, and that His Human is Divine; and the second is a life according to the precepts of the Decalogue.
     To bring these truths before men, and keep them in order there, the Lord established a new and separate priesthood which is to be representative of the Lord and His work of salvation. And as there are three infinite and discrete degrees in the Lord, there must be three degrees in the priesthood.
     In presenting myself for ordination into the second degree of the priestly office, I express the priestly desire to enter more fully into the priestly office, so that the usefulness of my priestly endeavors may be further extended.
     May the Lord guide me with the hand of His truth and withhold me from selfish ambition, intolerance and impatience, so that when my earthly ministrations shall have come to an end, His church will have grown and His name been glorified.
     JAN HUGO WEISS

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IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES 1957

     As was mentioned earlier, the theme chosen for Convention this year was "The Continuing Judgment." A preliminary article on this topic by the Rev. William F. Wunsch appeared recently in the NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER under the title "Preface on a Surprising Subject." Even more surprising than the subject is the authors statement, after noting the orthodox Christian view of the Last Judgment: "In our own view, of course, there will be a general judgment of all mankind, such as the Lord described in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats"; and that "it is not of this judgment that the book The Last Judgment tells, despite its title."
     This is surprising, to say the least, for although a few early passages in the Arcana, written before 1757, speak of the general judgment as still to come, the Writings nowhere teach after that date that there will be a general judgment of all mankind; and the idea that there will he is contrary to everything that is said in them about the organization of the spiritual world. More than once the Writings state plainly that the Last Judgment performed in 1757 was the final general judgment; and that thereafter spirits have been, and will be, judged individually, relatively soon after they enter the world of spirits. The article also expresses the well-known view, long held by one school of thought, that the Christian churches are being made new through the working out of the judgment in them, and cites all the familiar evidences. But, as is pointed out by yet another correspondent who takes issue with the designation of the New Church as a Protestant denomination: "It is not the Catholic or Protestant churches that are to be renewed or converted, but the people." When the Writings say that the church was to be restored after the Last Judgment, they are speaking of the true church which is the medium of communication between heaven and earth, not of the Christian churches.

     In an article contributed to the NEW-CHURCH HERALD, the Rev. Frank Holmes deals ably and cogently with the dangerous argument advanced by an earlier correspondent. The argument is, briefly, that since the first
Christian Church perished at the time of the Last Judgment and no longer exists as a church, and since all Christian churches can benefit by the new conditions in the world of spirits, it must be assumed that these churches are all of the New Church. Mr. Holmes insists that the external organization of the Old Church continues, that its theology has a very real existence, and that it goes on as an intensive propaganda.

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He agrees that Christendom is not debarred from the influx of the New Heaven, but points out that as long as ideas favor the old dogmas the influx is impinging on non-receptive vessels. He shows clearly the fallacy in applying to the organized Christian churches the argument that "wherever there is the church on earth, it must be the New Church"; and after examining critically the plea for unity with the Christian churches he asks: "Surely it is not meant that we should cease to have any distinctive, organizational existence as a body for New Church worship and doctrine, and become a 'General Conference of all in the unity of charity, irrespective of any and every kind of belief.'" Yet that, in effect, seems to be what some are asking for today; and it has long been our conviction that there can be no real establishment of the New Church except on the basis of the acknowledgement of those truths so ably presented by Mr. Holmes.

The same issue of the HERALD prints an interesting letter from the Rev. M. O. Ogundipe, Superintendent of the New Church Mission in West Africa. Noting that it is "a natural procedure in Nigeria to back up any religious establishment with the opening of day schools," since the adherents of that religion would like to educate their children, he mentions that his mission has followed suit by establishing a day school wherever it has a society. The government favors this by paying the salaries of teachers in mission schools; but Mr. Ogundipe points out that the program makes it essential for the Mission to establish its own Teacher Training College to staff the schools with New Church teachers. If that cannot be done, the schools will have to be submitted to the local authorities; if it can, then, as the letter states: "There is a chance to impart into the plastic minds the New-Church doctrines, and thereby make young converts into the church."

An editorial comment in the NEW AGE on the purpose of the sermon says, among other things, that "what little doctrine it contains should be given as a means to an end." This perpetuates a curious misunderstanding of the term "doctrine." Doctrine is simply teaching, and a sermon must either contain doctrine or express the preacher's own ideas. We agree with the editor that preaching should be related to life, as a doctrinal class need not be; but we would suggest that the real test of a sermon is not whether it is doctrinal, but whether the doctrine is applied to life. Too often a sermon that is criticized as doctrinal should be criticized because the doctrine was not so applied; the life of the New Church can be lived from no other source than the Heavenly doctrine.

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NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1957

NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS Editor 1957

     In the July readings from the Old Testament (II Samuel 19 to I Kings 7: 22) the story of the united kingdom is brought down to the reign of Solomon, who came to the throne through a successful court intrigue and then secured himself by a rapid campaign against his enemies. Remembered by his prayer for wisdom and the famous "judgment of Solomon," this king was renowned as a maker of proverbs and composer of songs, a natural historian, a patron of the arts, and a developer of commerce. His peaceful reign was marked by the building of the temple; and he was celebrated as much for his magnificence and splendor as for his wisdom and glory.
     By this monarch is represented the Divine Human after glorification. The peace of his reign signifies the Lord's ascension into the sabbath of His rest; his wisdom, the fact that by glorification the Lord made His Human the Divine wisdom itself. And his glory, magnificence and splendor represent the power of eternally saving men into which the Lord put Himself by glorification. It is of doctrine, however, that the Lord also made the Divine Human, that in the Lord's Human the Supreme Divine is manifested and communicated; and this is involved in the building of that temple in which Jehovah placed His name and dwelt with His people. However, the gift of life that flows from the Divine Human is not reserved solely for the Church specific, but is extended to men and women in every kind of religion; and the Lord's love for, and salvation of, the Church Universal is signified by the extension of Solomon's love to many gentile wives and his adoption of their idolatrous religions.

     Our readings in Divine Providence (nos. 201-254), after concluding the subject of prudence, deal with several important topics. That the Divine Providence looks to eternal things, and to temporal ones only as far as they agree with these, is the key to an understanding of its operations; and it emphasizes the difference between Divine Providence and human prudence. The next proposition should be read carefully. It is not said, as some have supposed, that man is admitted into truths of faith and goods of love interiorly only as far as he will be kept in them to the end of his life, but as far as he can be kept in them. If the former were the case, profanation would be impossible. Comment on the laws of permission is reserved for next month.

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INTRODUCTION TO SWEDENBORG'S RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 1957

INTRODUCTION TO SWEDENBORG'S RELIGIOUS THOUGHT Editor 1957

     AN INTRODUCTION TO SWEDENBORG'S RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. By John Howard Spalding. Revised, condensed and prepared for publication by Richard H. Tafel. Swedenborg Publishing Association, New York, 1956. Pp. 235. Paper, $1.00; cloth, $2.00.

     The Kingdom of Heaven as Seen by Swedenborg, of which this is the new and revised edition, was originally published in 1916. The author seems to have been one of those who arrive at conviction as to the truth of the Writings by the road of affirmative doubt; and his book, unique among the apologetics in our collateral literature, is designed to commend to the thoughtful reader the philosophical reasonableness of Swedenborg's teachings. It is specifically directed to those whose minds are interested in philosophy rather than in theology and religion, and the basis of argument is therefore not so much the letter of the Word as philosophical reasoning. The author seemed particularly anxious to resolve all the metaphysical doubts and problems that might arise, and which had probably troubled his own mind; and this may give value to the work in an intellectual age for which the authority of the letter of the Word has been largely discredited.
     A wide field is traversed, for the book undertakes a general elucidation of most of the principal doctrines of the New Church. In the first chapter the author approaches Swedenborg as a problem; and finds in the integrity and intellectual consistency of the seer a solution, or at least grounds for regarding him as an unexplained phenomenon. He then introduces the reader to Swedenborg's teachings concerning the spiritual world, and follows this with an attack on the problems of the existence of evil and of hell. The inadequacy of science to explain the problems of life, and the necessity of a first and self-existing cause, are convincingly demonstrated in a philosophical manner; and there are chapters in the same style on the Divine Human, the Infinite, creation, life, free-will, Providence, regeneration, the permission of evil and the problem of pain, the Word and its letter and spirit, the Incarnation, the Second Coming and the New Church. Throughout his text the author raises the questions which are most likely to be posed by the skeptical reader; and far from brushing aside the obstacles to acceptance which the critical mind may raise he puts them boldly and strongly.

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The explanations which follow may not always satisfy; but those who are in negative doubt will not be satisfied, and others may be persuaded that the effort deserves their thoughtful consideration.
     It does not appear that Mr. Spalding projected his book as a missionary effort, and we find it difficult to believe that it will have any wide success as such, even in this new and condensed version. It is interestingly written and has a clarity seldom achieved by the flood of pseudo-philosophical books which pours from the popular presses today, and within the limits imposed by his task Mr. Tafel has effected a general improvement in what was already a good style. But those very limits have prevented any radical departure from the closely reasoned, almost syllogistic development of the argument in the original; and although we join with Mr. Tafel in the hope that the book "may serve as a gateway into the world of thought one meets in Swedenborg's books," we feel that its appeal will be to that relatively small group which is of a philosophical turn of mind, and which has affirmative doubts that may in part be resolved with its help. But this group, though small, is nonetheless important, and is one not always catered to in our missionary literature.
     Two improvements may be mentioned particularly. The statement that "Swedenborg's doctrine of creation is essentially a spiritual monism and the Appendix defending it, which presented Swedenborg as an idealist and impaired the usefulness of the original work, have been deleted in the revision of the text; and the end papers contain an advertisement by the Swedenborg Foundation which lists several works of the Writings and describes others. In another respect, however, the revised edition has the same weakness as the original work. There is no clear idea of what the New Church really is, or of its distinctiveness, and no unequivocal invitation to the New Church.
     Indeed the presentation leaves something to be desired. The tone is set by the advertisement, which describes True Christian Religion as Swedenborg's crowning contribution to Christian thought. It is Swedenborg's religious thought to which the promotional material seeks to introduce the reader; the man whose "religious philosophy has been permeating and remolding Christian thought for two hundred years." "One is aware," we read, "that here is a new Christianity that is being described and formulated. In its presentation one senses the elements of sustained insight, of inspiration, and of personal experience. . . . His mind is that of the scientist, his soul that of the mystic and seer, his heart that of the saint." It is all familiar, even to the inevitable quotation from Emerson. But the hope is expressed that the reader may be led to the "source material": and some who are so led will certainly learn that the Writings contain infinitely more than Swedenborg's religious thought.

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IS THE GENERAL CHURCH NEW CHURCH 1957

IS THE GENERAL CHURCH NEW CHURCH Editor 1957

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of Publication, Lancaster, Pa.

Published Monthly By

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

Editor      Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager      Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address, and business communications should be sent to the Circulation Secretary. Notifications of address changes should be received by the 15th of the month.

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
$3.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single copy, 30 cents.
     This question, which has occurred to us before, is prompted by a recent item in the NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER which was quoted without comment in our news columns. The item reads: "The Convention's Board of Home and Foreign Missions announces the appointment of the Rev. Alfred G. Regamy of Lausanne, Switzerland, as General Pastor of the New Church on the European continent." The Board of Home and Foreign Missions is not unaware that there are societies, circles and groups of the General Church in continental Europe. Does it, then, claim jurisdiction over them for its General Pastor? Or does it consider that the Convention-affiliated societies under his jurisdiction are all the New Church there is in continental Europe?
     This is not an isolated instance. Within the Convention there is published monthly a pamphlet containing sermons entitled Our Daily Bread, and appended to each sermon is the name of the writer and the information that he is "Pastor of the New Church" in Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit-whatever city it may be. As there is frequently a society of the General Church in that city the same question is raised. Furthermore, we have in the past questioned the right of an organized body to issue officially as "The Faith of the New Church" a statement that reflects its own particular viewpoint and is in conflict with others. Such things may betoken no more than thoughtlessness, but they have implications that are very distasteful. The General Convention is most sensitive to good public relations with the Christian world. Is it too much to ask that this sensitiveness be extended also to the General Church?

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CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 1957

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT Editor 1957

For more than three-quarters of a century there has been a growing demand for the abolition of the death penalty. And although the advance of the fascist powers was followed by a sweeping tide of reaction in favor of more drastic punishment, a number of countries have, in fact, yielded to public opinion in this matter. The usual arguments against capital punishment are that it makes a miscarriage of justice irrevocable; that its failure to prevent or reduce homicides is evidenced by the fact that countries which have abolished the death penalty have a lower rate of capital crime and that it violates the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill." More recently, it has been contended that the sentence imposed on a criminal should not be designed to punish but to reform and rehabilitate, which capital punishment obviously does not do.
Of these objections the last comes from a source that is suspect, and the second may be viewed with the caution called for by many statistical arguments. The presence or absence of the death penalty is only one factor in the incidence of capital crimes-the temperament and temper of a people, social conditions, and even climate, are at least of equal significance; and it may be asked whether the real purpose of a penalty is to punish the convicted offender or to deter others from committing the same offense. The first objection is indeed weighty, for if justice has erred there can be no redress. But the remaining one is not well founded; for the Hebrew verb used in the fifth precept does not forbid all killing, but unauthorized killing; and it does not prohibit capital punishment or the killing of enemies in war.
As far as we are aware, the Writings contain no direct teaching on the subject. The statement of Arcana 9349, that the Mosaic law providing the death penalty for wilful murder is one of those which "are to be altogether observed and done," is perhaps the most definitive. However, it may be inferred from the fact that "loss of life" is mentioned as one of the punishments necessary to restrain the evil (HD 312) that the Writings sanction capital punishment as a permission demanded by the state of the human race. And since all permissions of providence have within them a Divine end of good and of mercy, we may conjecture that when premeditated murder has been committed, the spiritual state of the murderer requires his translation to the spiritual world; that the carrying out of the death penalty, far from ruling out the possibility of reformation or rehabilitation, opens the way to whatever of reformation may be possible, or at least to the resolution of the state in a way not possible on earth. For in the case of those who are executed, as of all other men, death is not the end but a continuation of life.

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HEAVENLY GOVERNMENT AND DEMOCRACY 1957

HEAVENLY GOVERNMENT AND DEMOCRACY Editor 1957

It has sometimes been asked in the church whether heaven is not a democracy rather than a kingdom. The question deserves serious thought, and there are current trends which make examination of it appropriate. If by democracy is meant a type of government the answer seems to be fairly simple. Although the institutions and forms of democracy differ widely in the various countries that have embraced it, democracy is based essentially on self-rule of the people-a form of government in which supreme power is retained by the people and exercised either directly or indirectly through a system of representation. Evidently this does not describe heavenly government, for that is government of the angels by the Lord, and He is the only source of power in all the heavens. And to say that heaven is a democracy because government in it is with the consent of the governed does not, in our opinion, answer the question. For while it is true that the angels have chosen to come under the Lord's government, they have had, and have, no say in determining what that government shall be, since it is the government of infinite love through infinite wisdom.
     When we consider democracy as a way of life, however, we find some striking parallels. In this sense the term usually means a way of life favoring the social equality of all individuals, and therefore overcoming class distinctions, snobbishness and exclusiveness; more deeply, a way of life which moves the members of the community to secure to everyone his rights, and to look upon all fellow citizens as brothers without distinction of race or color. Personal freedom exempt from dictatorship of the intellect, freedom of conscience and of expression, are implied in this concept; and under it, we might say in passing, democracy could exist under any form of government, given men of good will.
     In the Writings we find such teachings as these. All in heaven are like equals, for each one loves the other as a brother. No one there wishes to command another, to be lord and so regard another as a servant; but each one wants to minister to and be of service to others. Yet one angel does set another before himself in proportion as that other excels in wisdom; the love of good and truth itself causes that everyone, as if of himself, subordinates himself to those who are more intelligent and wise. Nevertheless, no angel at heart acknowledges anyone as above himself but the Lord alone. And therefore, although there are governors and subordinations in heaven, there are no archangels under obedience to whom the others stand (AC 5732: 2, 7773; AE 735: 2).
     Evidently, then, there are striking parallels between the reality of heavenly society and the ideals of democratic society on earth. But are we therefore justified in saying that heaven is a democracy, considered as a way of life?

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Or should we rather say that in the ideals of democracy certain principles of heavenly society are struggling to express themselves? There is more involved in this than a mere arrangement of words, as would at once be evident if we were to say that the democratic way of life is the heavenly way. Yet some Christian theologians are propounding just that doctrine today-teaching that political democracy is a substantial step toward the kingdom of God, if not the kingdom itself; and some educators are insisting that preparation for living in a democracy is, or should be, the end of education.
We are not likely to fall into these errors, though even we should be careful that we correctly see the ideals and practices of the church as derived from the Writings and not from political principles that are dear to us. For example, our separation of ecclesiastical and civil uses in the church does not stem from the classical American principle of separation of church and state but from the Writings, and it therefore obtains also in those societies which are established in countries that do not make such a distinction. Perhaps the right idea is suggested by the teaching that there is altogether another kingdom in the other life, another kind of government, other loves (SD 4426).
The angels, we are told, reject from themselves the idea of a king and a prince, and when they perceive it with men they transfer it to the Lord and perceive that which is from the Lord in heaven, which is the Divine truth from the Divine good (AC 5044: 5). This teaching reinforces the other. Because the Lord alone rules in heaven, and there is no other government and life than that of mutual love, the government and life of heaven do not as yet have their exact counterparts in earthly society, and there is no term in the lexicon of the art of government which adequately expresses them. It would seem to be best for us to recognize this. For then we may have a form of ecclesiastical government that is truly general throughout the church because it is drawn entirely from the Writings; and while we may continue to prize our democratic institutions, we shall not make the mistake of limiting our concepts of heavenly government and life by superimposing on them the ideas which are associated with those institutions.

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Church News 1957

Church News Various 1957

DETROIT, MICHIGAN

     After a winter of icy blizzards, mountainous snows and torrential rains, the arrival of spring in this industrial metropolis is a sight too lovely to miss. At the church the grass planted last fall is growing greener with each sunny day; society gardeners and interested observers alike are turning to visions of lavish lawns and lush flowerbeds; and someone quite recently even noticed that the windows could stand a shampooing. Such is spring in Detroit!
     In spite of inclement weather the winter calendar was crowded with events. In January the Society was host to the International Sons' Executive, and the weekend proved to be most enjoyable although driving conditions kept attendance at a minimum. At the end of the month, Mr. and Mrs. Reuter traveled to Bryn Athyn, where Mr. Reuter attended the Annual Council Meetings. They were accompanied by the Rev. and Mrs. David Holm, who had been spending a few months, following their arrival from South Africa, with Mr. and Mrs. Fred Steen. During the early part of their visit Mr. Holm gave a most sensitive account of his experiences in the South African Mission, and the Society was thrilled and delighted to learn of the progress being made by fellow New Church men in South Africa. Mr. Holm also found time to preach to the Society, and to hear the confession of faith of his brother-in-law, Mr. Tom Steen.
     During the year the Society has had the pleasure of hearing four of the church's fine ministers preach when they visited Detroit. In addition to Mr. Holm, the Rev. Messrs. Jan H. Weiss, Hugo Lj. Odhner, and Frederick E. Gyllenhaal have visited us. Mr. Weiss conducted a service while Mr. Reuter was away in Ohio; Mr. Odhner gave both a doctrinal class and a sermon; and Mr. Gyllenhaal had a very full weekend, addressing the local chapter of Theta Alpha on the religion lessons project on Friday, giving a doctrinal class on Saturday, and then delivering a sermon on Sunday. The Society certainly appreciated these visits, and is most thankful that the time and effort involved were expended on its behalf.
     Since our first evening services proved to be so popular, Mr. Reuter has started conducting an evening service-in addition to the morning service for children-on the first Sunday of each month. Society members have been invited to bring their interested friends, and thus far there have been eight repeats as opposed to three who attended only once. Although our members are-to a man, and a woman-ardent admirers of our splendid crop of children, the peace and serenity of the evening service makes it most enjoyable; and it is hoped that the pastor will be able to maintain this addition to his already crowded schedule.
     To celebrate Swedenborg's birthday the adults held a special supper, after which Mr. Reuter gave a report on the points of interest discussed at the Council Meetings. For the children there was a trip to the Planetarium of the Cranbrook Institute of Science, followed by a luncheon at the church.
     Soon after these interesting events our newly elected social directors, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Steen, and their committee arranged a Valentine's Day dance at the church, which for the occasion was transformed into a grand ballroom with big red hearts, middle-size red hearts, and teeny red hearts decorating every inch of wall, windows and curtain. Needless to say, this proved td) be a hilarious affair-which placed the social directors in immediate danger of being elected to a life term!
     Doctrinal classes, except for digressions to cover topical subjects, have continued to be on the subject of discrete degrees; and on one occasion the pastor pulled the Society up sharply with a quiz of fifty questions which all New Church men should be able to answer. Children's classes for various age groups have proceeded successfully; thanks in part to Mrs. Reuter, who conducts the class for the younger group, thus leaving the pastor more time to devote to other uses.

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     Work parties at the church continued all winter. Our own carpenters built an extremely handsome closet in the study, and covered the two ceiling fans with typical ingenuity. Additional plans for the study call for raised bookcases over built-in seats which will double as storage space for the toys used by the tiny children during services.
     Under the direction of Mrs. Warren David, ably assisted by Mrs. Leo Bradin, a regular choir has been formed and is meeting each week before Friday class. So far the choir has sung on two occasions-Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Because it serves as a means of introducing new music into the services, it is hoped that the singers and choirmaster will build a repertoire that will be of real value to the congregation.
     Visitors to the Society during the winter and spring included many old and some new friends. There have been so many visitors, in fact, that to mention them all would take much cataloging and confirming; but let it be said that the Society always enjoys greeting its friends from other areas, and hopes that they will continue to give it the pleasure of their company.
     Not to be classified as visitors are certain loyal Detroit boosters whom the Society claims for its own. One of these is Miss Nancy Cook, who visited us to attend the dedication of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Smith's home. Others are Mr. and Mrs. John Howard and family, who visit quite regularly and, we have recently learned, will be moving back to Detroit in the near future. Our delight in their transfer is tempered only by the knowledge that our other friends in Toledo will miss them dreadfully. Too welcome to be overlooked was the return from winter quarters in Florida of Mr. and Mrs. Reynold Doering, who arrived healthy and in plenty of time to participate in the spring planting. Mr. and Mrs. Norman Synnestvedt were down for Easter, and Peter Synnestvedt visited a few weeks earlier. Another of our dear friends and loyal supporters is Mrs. Geoffrey Childs, who has been, and always is, a welcome addition to the Society. Over the past months many tributes have been paid to her husband, both orally and in print; and we would like it to be noted here that the Detroit Society remembers him with affection and admiration, and does not doubt that it will benefit from his example for many years to come.
     Easter in Detroit was lovely and the Easter service was a colorful and happy occasion. Easter morning, April 21st, marked the first anniversary of the dedication of the building, and April 24th the third anniversary of our growth to society status. To quote the words of the pastor, as printed in the April calendar: "It is a time to reflect, with gratitude, on all the blessings the Society has received in recent years, and to look forward with a sense of dedication to the future spiritual and natural development of its uses. In less than a quarter of a century, Detroit has grown from a few General Church members to the fourth largest society in the United States."
     BARBARA FORFAR

     KITCHENER, ONTARIO

     A busy winter season has come and gone at the Carmel Church, and while we cannot recount all the activities, we will try to give the highlights. The celebration of Christmas was a happy time, with all the traditional activities and one new one for good measure. On the Friday evening before Christmas the Society gathered at the home of Dr. and Mrs. R. W. Schnarr to sing Christmas hymns, and the innovation was greatly enjoyed. The children had a lively party on the last day of school, and on Sunday, December 23rd, the Christmas tableaux were shown in the evening. The Rev. Geoffrey Childs and the Rev. Jan Weiss both took part in the festival services. On Christmas Eve, at the ever popular children's service, Mr. Weiss addressed the little ones and Mr. Childs distributed the gifts after the service. On Christmas morning Mr. Childs preached on the Wise Men.
     During the holiday season a successful dance was held on New Year's eve at the church hall. A turkey dinner was served to ninety-five people after the midnight welcoming of the new year.
     A very special celebration took place on New Year's Day honoring Dr. and Mrs. Robert W. Schnarrs golden wedding anniversary. All the sons and daughters and grandchildren were here for the family party, and in the evening Dr. and Mrs. Schnarr were at home to all their friends in the Society for a memorable celebration. As the Doctor had been unwell for many months it was a real pleasure to see him on that occasion, and he seemed so genuinely delighted to greet all his friends again. Unknown to everyone at the time it was also a farewell, for he died several weeks later on January 31st.

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     There were no regular doctrinal classes in January as special events filled the dates. During the second weekend the Society enjoyed a visit from the Rev. and Mrs. David Holm and heard a very interesting talk on the South African Mission. Mr. Holm described the work being done, and the existing conditions, and paid tribute to the African ministers through his affectionate and fascinating sketches of them. During his visit Mr. Holm talked to the school and gave a young people's class. We did not have the pleasure of hearing him preach as the quarterly Holy Supper service was held on the Sunday he was with us.
     If a custom of four years standing makes a tradition, it has become traditional in Kitchener for the Sons to entertain the ladies at a banquet and provide an out-of-town speaker for the occasion. The happy event took place this year on January 18th, with Mr. and Mrs. Ariel Gunther and Mr. and Mrs. Robert Synnestvedt here from Bryn Athyn. A delicious roast beef dinner was prepared and served by the men. Mr. Ariel Gunther was the guest speaker of the evening, and his subject, illustrated with slides, was the stained glass windows in the Bryn Athyn Cathedral. The talk was a fascinating explanation of how the glass and colors were produced and the windows put together. Mr. Gunther spoke also on the mosaic work in Mr. Raymond Pitcairn's home, describing how it was produced. The evening proved to be educational as well as entertaining.
     On the last Friday in January, as Mr. Childs and Mr. Weiss were at the Annual Council Meetings in Bryn Athyn the Library Board held a court whist party to raise money for the library.
     February began with more parties, as Swedenborg's birthday was celebrated on Friday the 1st. The school children had a party in the morning, with games before the luncheon which was served in true banquet style. Mr. Childs told the children why we celebrate Swedenborg's birthday, after which the older children read speeches and the younger ones entertained with Swedish dances in costume. A quiz on Swedenborg's life, with the whole school taking part, was also held. In the evening the adults attended a banquet at which Mr. Childs gave a paper on Swedenborg's inspiration. A social time was enjoyed later when Mr. Fred Hasen directed the playing of the TV game "What's My Line?"
     On February 23rd the Society had the pleasure of attending the wedding of Miss Nancy Kuhl, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Kuhl, to Mr. Floyd Reid of Banff, Alberta. The Rev. Geoffrey Childs officiated. Attending the bride and groom were Nancy's sisters, Patricia and Edith, and Mr. Denis Kuhl, cousin of the bride. The ushers were Messrs. Erwin Brueckman, Don Glebe, Ted Kuhl and Roger Schnarr. After the very lovely service a short reception was held in the church hall, which was decorated for the occasion with evergreens and white streamers. Responding to the toasts, the Rev. Geoffrey Childs and Dr. Harvey Farrington of Glenview made very appropriate speeches. The party then transferred fifteen miles south of Kitchener, where, ninety guests enjoyed the hospitality of the bride's parents in their home. Nancy and Floyd left for Banff the next day, after a stay of two weeks in Kitchener during which several parties and showers were held.
     Another special event, for the ladies of the Society, was the Theta Alpha banquet held on March 27th with Mrs. Henry Heinrichs, Chapter president, as toastmistress. At tables decorated with flowers and candles forty-four ladies enjoyed party fare. The program began with a short paper by Mrs. Fred Hasen on Theta Alpha's uses, after which we heard two tape-recordings: "Morality in Religion" by the Rev. K. R. Alden, and "How We Teach Religion in Our Schools" by Professor R. R. Gladish. The entertainment committee had arranged a hobby show, and after the speeches we adjourned to the other school room to see the display of handwork shells, plants, books, toys, and so on, which when gathered together made quite an impressive display.
     As many people in the church have been following with interest the proposed plan of moving the Carmel Church to a community it is only fair to report that at the semi-annual meeting in March the Community Committee was disbanded and the idea of forming a community was deferred indefinitely. While the committee felt that the project was feasible it also felt that the Society was not behind the project, which was confirmed by the action taken. All is not lost, however, for a Building Committee has been formed to look into the possibility of a new church and school.
     Projects which were completed during the winter were the purchase of a new organ, installed on February 11th, and of new desks for the school, these including handsome desks for the teachers.

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     During the winter and spring Mr. Childs and Mr. Weiss alternated in giving classes and services. We also had the pleasure of hearing the Rev. Martin Pryke preach in December, the Rev. Henry Heinrichs in January, and Candidate Daniel Heinrichs shortly before Easter. Sixteen people from Kitchener attended a very special service in Toronto on May 12th, when the Rev. Jan Weiss was ordained into the second degree by the Right Rev. Willard D. Pendleton, who preached a wonderful sermon on the priesthood.
     At the time of writing we are very happy to welcome two new families to the Society. Mr. and Mrs. James Swalm and son have moved here from Toronto and will be a most welcome addition to our group. On Sunday, May 19th, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Lermitte were baptized into the New Church by Mr. Weiss, and we are delighted to welcome them.
     Obituaries. During the winter the Society lost two lifelong members through death. On December 8th, Miss Edna Stroh passed away at the age of seventy-four. Hers was a life of devotion to the Church and its uses and she was a regular attendant at all society functions until a few weeks before her death.
     On January 31st, Dr. Robert Werner Schnarr passed into the spiritual world at the age of eighty-three, causing a deep- felt loss to all who knew him. He was an outstanding man; first as a New Church man widely read in the Writings, and also as a physician with a deep knowledge of medicine and of human nature. He took a keen interest in politics and in the world around him, and was also a horticulturist of considerable knowledge and distinction. For many years he served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Carmel Church, giving outstanding service to the Society. His clear mind was always ready to make some contribution to any gathering. For all these reasons he is missed by his family, friends and patients; but in Providence he was called from a life of enfeebled old age to renewed vigor and usefulness in the spiritual world.
     VIVIAN KUHL

     FORT WORTH, TEXAS

     During the past year we have endeavored to meet contingencies and the needs of the Circle as they arise. Our problems are never quite the same each year, and frequently they are unanticipated. As growth, development and change are ever present in any group, no matter how well established, the problems they present are even more acute in newer areas.
     We are not yet in a position to have a central meeting place. Services and classes have been held this year at the homes of all those members who are able to accommodate the group. In addition to the needs of our immediate circle, consideration is being given to those New Church men and women who are in outlying areas and to newcomers. We feel somewhat frustrated at times, perhaps, when the problems of growth confront us, for we do wish to grow. In time we will realize, as other societies have done, the goal of a well established church, if this is in providence; but it will entail some sacrifice and further labor.
     Our procedure this year has been to have class and service the same weekend-the first and third weekends of each month. Since our last report we have had two ministerial visits, one in February and one in May. The Rev. Robert S. Junge made these visits. At the service he conducted in February there were 30 adults and 13 children in attendance, and at the service in May 45 were present, of whom 16 were children. We are able to accommodate such congregations, which probably do not seem large by some standards. By ours, however, they are large, and since we cannot know in advance what the attendance will be we were pleasantly surprised. These ministerial visits mean much to us in that they bring the church much nearer, and at the time of writing we are looking forward to Bishop Dc Charms' visit in July.
     As is customary here, our Easter service this year was for the children and was a tape-recorded one. The children brought flowers to the service and took part in the recitation. Their flowers are afterwards presented to Cook's Memorial Hospital for Children as a gift from the children of the Circle. The altar was beautifully decorated with roses and palms to mark the significance of the day.
     Visitors to the Fort Worth Circle have been: Mrs. Charles van Zyverden from Bryn Athyn; Mr. and Mrs. John Scrimshaw of Wollaston, Mass.; Mr. Thomas Coffin, now attending the University of Pittsburgh; and Mr. Richard Maxwell from Abilene, Terms.

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Other, and more frequent, visitors have been the Wayne Doerings, who are now moving from Waco, Texas, to Louisiana; Miss Pat Naylor of Waco; Mr. Robert Gladish from Bryan, Texas; Mr. Havis Malcom of Dallas; and the Gordon Moreys and five children from Texarkana, Texas. Mr. Michael Cole of Glenview, Illinois, now working in Dallas, is a new arrival.
     In September we will have three students from the Circle in the Academy schools at Bryn Athyn. They are: Brad Williamson, Noel Griffin and Carol Griffin. Brad is Marjorie Williamson's son; Noel and Carol are twins, son and daughter of Louise (Brickman) Griffin.
     Our hostess committee for this year has asked me to mention its presence and whereabouts for the benefit of any wishing to visit Texas. Mrs. Sam White, 748 Hurstview Drive, Hurst, Texas, is chairman. Others on the committee are Mrs. George Fuller, 3713 El Campo, Fort Worth, Texas and Mrs. Cyrus Doering, 1013 Churchill Road, Fort Worth, Texas.
     SONIA E. HYATT

     SWEDENBORG SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION

     The 60th Annual Meeting of the Swedenborg Scientific Association was held on Wednesday, May 15th, 1957, at Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, with an attendance of 54, 37 of whom were members of the Association.
     Officers for the coming year were elected as follows: President: Professor Edward F. Allen; Board of Directors: Miss Morna Hyatt; Messrs. Randolph W. Childs, Charles S. Cole, W. Cairns Henderson, Ralph McClarren, Hugo Lj. Odhner, Joel Pitcairn, Kenneth Rose, and Leonard I. Tafel.
     Mr. Wilfred Howard, retiring as Secretary, was elected an honorary member of the Board.
     The following officers were elected by the Board of Directors: Vice President: Mr. Charles S. Cole; Editorial Board: Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Executive Editor, Miss Morna Hyatt, Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner, Mr. Edward F. Allen; Treasurer: Miss Beryl G. Briscoe; Secretary: Miss Morna Hyatt.
     In his report the President reviewed the activities of the Association during the past year and discussed some of the problems that face us in the future. He stressed in particular the need of encouraging and stimulating the younger minds of the present generation to support more actively the work and uses of the Association.
     The President also presented a Memorial Resolution expressing, on behalf of the Association, a deep sense of loss at the passing into the spiritual world of Dr. Charles E. Doering, the last of the five signers of the charter of the Association, a member of the board almost from its inception, and for many years its Treasurer and Vice President. The Resolution was passed by a rising vote.
     The Treasurer reported a balance in the General Account of $1758.28, and in the Publication Account of $658.91. In discussing the report, Miss Briscoe pointed out that there was a difference of $157.7t between the amounts received in dues, subscriptions to the NEW PHILOSOPHY and contributions, and the cost of printing the NEW PHILOSOPHY plus general expenses, and that to meet this deficit it had been necessary to draw that amount from the Publication Fund. The number of books sold during the year was 192, and our membership, as last year, stood at 272.
     The Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, in his report as Executive Editor of the NEW PHILOSOPHY, discussed the difficulties now faced in filling the journal which, with no translations to be published, now relied entirely on contributed articles. New writers had appeared in the last two years, however, and others were in prospect; but he appealed to faculty members in the departments of science and philosophy, and to professional men in the Association, to contribute the fruits of their studies or the problems they encountered.
     Reports from the Kitchener and Toronto Chapters were received and read, the former by Mr. George Schnarr, a member of the Kitchener Chapter.
     The Annual Address, entitled "Swedenborg's Concept of Space," was given by Dr. Charles R. Pendleton. The address was a digest of three papers on "The History of the Concept of Space," "The Concept of Space in the Philosophical Works" and "The Concept of Space in the Writings," respectively, which had been given previously and which are currently appearing in the NEW PHILOSOPHY.
     The paper was discussed briefly by Messrs. Joel Pitcairn and Hugo Lj. Odhner, Dr. Odhner questioning some of Dr. Pendleton's interpretations in regard to tridimensionality and the monads of Leibnitz. In view of its nature the address will not be published.
     WILFRED HOWARD,
          Secretary.

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     THE CHURCH AT LARGE

     General Convention. During their five weeks' trip overseas, the Rev. and Mrs. David P. Johnson, in addition to attending the General Conference at Manchester, England, visited Paris, Lausanne, Zurich, Vienna, Berlin, Copenhagen, Tralleborg, Malmo and Stockholm. Mr. Johnson, pastor of the Kitchener Society, Ontario, is president of the General Convention.
     General Conference. The NEW-CHURCH HAROLD announced recently the death, on April 7th, of the Rev. Stephen James Cunnington Goldsack in his 89th year. Born in Liverpool, and educated at various private schools, Mr. Goldsack was ordained into the New Church ministry in 1895. During an unusually active ministry of fifty years, he retired in 1945, Mr. Goldsack served eight pastorates. He was Secretary of Conference for ten years, was three times President and twice was selected as Conference preacher, and for thirty-five years was a member of the Conference Council. In addition he served a term as President of the New Church College, as Chairman of the Council of the Swedenborg Society, and as President of the Sunday School Union. He was Secretary and Chairman of the Overseas Committee for ten years, and had been a member of the Missionary Board and of the Translation Committee (New Testament). In 1922 he was inducted into the office of ordaining minister, and when the Ministerial Advisory Committee was formed he was appointed its first Secretary. Mr. Goldsack twice represented the General Conference at Convention and made many official visits to continental Europe as well as a visit to India in 1916 and 1917. In spite of his pastoral and organizational duties, Mr. Goldsack found time to contribute to Conference periodicals, and he was the author of a number of useful booklets.
EDUCATIONAL COUNCIL 1957

EDUCATIONAL COUNCIL WILLARD D. PENDLETON 1957

The 1957 Meetings of the Educational Council of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held in Bryn Athyn, Pa., from Monday, August 19th, to Friday, August 23rd, inclusive.
WILLARD D. PENDLETON,
Assistant Bishop.

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Announcements 1957

Announcements Editor 1957

     BRITISH ASSEMBLY

     The Forty-second British Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem wilt be held in Colchester, England, from August 3rd to 5th, 1957, the Rev. Alan Gill presiding.
     All members and friends of the General Church are cordially invited to attend. Those wishing accommodation should apply as soon as possible to Mr. Denis Pryke, 226 Maldon Road, Colchester, Essex.
     GEORGE DE CHARMS,
          Bishop.

     PEACE RIVER DISTRICT ASSEMBLY

     The Sixth Peace River Block District Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, on Sunday, August 4th, 1957, the Bishop presiding. All members and friends of the General Church are cordially invited to attend.
     GEORGE DE CHARMS,
          Bishop.

     WESTERN DISTRICT ASSEMBLY

     An Assembly of members of the Western District of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held in Glendale, California, on Saturday and Sunday, July 20th and 21st, 1957, the Bishop presiding.
     All members and friends of the General Church are cordially invited to attend.
     GEORGE DE CHARMS,
          Bishop.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1957

GENERAL ASSEMBLY GEORGE DE CHARMS 1957

     An invitation has been received, and accepted to hold the TWENTY-SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the General Church of the New Jerusalem at Lake Forest College, fifteen miles from Glenview, Illinois, in 1959.
     This announcement is made now because of the earlier uncertainty as to the year of that Assembly. The date, program and other information will be given later in NEW CHURCH LIFE.
     GEORGE DE CHARMS
          Bishop.

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FORTY-SECOND BRITISH ASSEMBLY 1957

FORTY-SECOND BRITISH ASSEMBLY Editor 1957

     General Church of the New Jerusalem

     FORTY-SECOND BRITISH ASSEMBLY

     PRESIDENT: REV. ALAN GILL

     Members and friends of the General Church of the New Jerusalem are cordially invited to attend the Forty-second British Assembly, which will be held at Colchester, Saturday, August 3rd, to Monday, August 5th.

     Program

Saturday, August 3rd
     5:30 p.m. Tea
     7:00 p.m. First Session of the Assembly. Presidential Address
Sunday, August 4th
     11:00     a.m.     Divine Worship. Preacher: Rev. Frank S. Rose
     1:15     p.m.     Luncheon
     4:00     p.m.     Holy Supper Service
     5:30     p.m.     Tea
     6:30     p.m.     Second Session. Address

Monday, August 5th
     10:00 am. Third Session. Address
     1:00     p.m.     Luncheon
     3:00     p.m.     Sale of Work and Afternoon Tea (Sponsored by Open Road)
     7:00     p.m.     Assembly Social

     The Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen will address either the Second or Third Session, and the Rev. Erik Sandstrom the other. All sessions and services will be held at the Church of the New Jerusalem, 175-181 Maldon Road, and the Assembly Social will be held at the Red Lion Hotel. Meals will be served on the church grounds, and a buffet supper will be provided at the commencement of the Assembly Social.

     Accommodations

     Those requiring accommodations should communicate with Mr. J. F. Cooper, 33 Lexden Road, Colchester. Inquiries should be sent to Mr. Denis Pryke, 266 Maldon Road, Colchester.
     FRANK S. ROSE,
          Secretary

     New Church Club

     All male members and friends of the New Church are cordially invited to attend a meeting of the New Church Club at Swedenborg House on Friday, July 2nd, at 7:00 p.m. Professor Eldric S. Klein, Dean of Faculties in the Academy of the New Church, will give the address.

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WORKS OF CHARITY 1957

WORKS OF CHARITY Rev. ERIK SANDSTROM 1957

     "Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." (Matthew 7:16-18)
     It is of the nature of love not to rest and find satisfaction except in the ultimate. We know this from common experience; for whatever we love or desire, that we strive to achieve, and only in the achievement itself is there the fulness of delight. It is for this reason that the love of good Cannot contain itself until it produces good; and that if there is no production of good effects, then neither is there any love for them. In like manner, the love of evil comes into its apparent pleasure only in the doing of evil-except that it does not call it evil.
     This striving for effects is derived from the Divine proceeding, whose origin is the Divine love, whose means or law is the Divine wisdom, and whose termination is in the Divine of use. The Divine of use is the salvation of the human race, and therein alone the Divine love comes into its rest.
     With man the termination of love in ultimate effects is also called use. But it is to be known that no use is from man. This is seen when we reflect that the uses to which the evil done by a devil or a wicked man is turned are in no way derived from the devil or the wicked man. An evil love can produce nothing whatever but evil; that is to say, an evil love can never do anything but harm. The turning of that harm to serve for a warning and a balance is quite another matter, and is the doing of Him alone who `has the keys of hell and of death" (Revelation 1: 18). Now, as it is with a devil or a wicked man on earth, so it would be with an angel or a regenerating man in the world if uses were from him.

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For angel or man is not life in himself, but death, and what is dead can in no wise produce what is living, as is the use of eternal salvation. Nevertheless, the angel, or angel-man, is granted a love as his own which is an imperfect and finite image of the Divine love; and it is implanted in that as-if-his-own love to strive to ultimate itself in the uses of its desire. These uses therefore appear to be from man; but as their immediate origin the love of the man is itself a receptacle of life; wherefore the uses themselves are likewise receptacles of life, and as such are caught up in the stream of the Divine Providence and made to serve the purposes of life eternal. It may seem to the builder that the house is his own work, and to the watchman that the protection of the city is the result of his own vigilance; but, truly, if the Lord build not the house, there shall no house be built, and the vigilance of priest or layman will not avail if the Lord keep not the city (Psalm 127: 1).
     However, the fact that the Lord does inflow with life into the love that is born of God is an assurance that whatever flows from that love will be in the stream of providence. For the Lord does not leave what is born of Himself, but in the uses derived from it follows it up to eternity. In other words, if a deed or a word spoken was truly meant well, that is, if it did really spring from the love of good, then there need be no anxiety as to the results; for the Lord will protect and guide those results as if they were His own.
     On the other hand, it is equally certain that the Lord is not within the work or word that springs from an evil love, and that there is nothing but a curse therein. The worm-eaten or poisonous fruit is not fit to be eaten by man. It must fall to the ground, to rot and die there; and only by its death can it serve for nourishment for quite another fruit, which-deriving its health, not from decaying elements in the ground, but from the heat and light of the sun-is fit for food. Hence the works of a good man are of immediate use in the kingdom of God; the works of a bad man are not of immediate use there, but can be turned to use only by contrast when the death and the curse in them are seen.
     These things are what are taught in our text. For it is an actual truth that "a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit," but "a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit." Hence the summary of the teaching stands as a principle of doctrine: "Ye shall know them by their fruits."
     In the Writings of the New Church we are taught not only how the fruits that pertain to the kingdom of use are produced but also what they are. The mode by which such fruits come into existence is what is called "the first of charity," which is "to look to the Lord and shun evils as sins."

359

And the fruits themselves, and their nature, are referred to as the "second of charity," which is "to do goods because they are uses (Char. 1. II, headings).
     When our attention is directed to the first of these aspects we see that the charity itself from which the uses of charity are to spring is born of, and perfected by the truths of God, in the degree that individual evil; are shunned as sins against the truths which specifically forbid them. At the same time, we may perceive also that unless evils are seen to be contrary to particular laws or truths they cannot be recognized as sins against the Lord, still less be shunned as such. And, finally, we see that the spirit of charity which is formed from that painful process, even as a pearl is formed in the oyster because of an irritation that is brought to bear upon it, is the new love of the man. We may now turn to the second aspect.
     In the little book The Doctrine of Charity, from which the emphasis on the "first" and the "second" of charity was just taken, it is shown further that the goods or uses which pertain to the second of charity are distinguished into five classes. These may be designated as follows: 1) the occupation or employment of charity; 2) the signs of charity; 3) the benefactions of charity: 4) the obligations of charity; 5) the diversions of charity (chapters vii-xi).
     On examination it becomes apparent that no sixth class can be added; and these five are seen to embrace everything that can ever be called a fruit of charity. In like manner, reflection will show that man can do without none of these classes or manifestations of charity, but must develop them all if it is to be well with him. The doing of that is the art of life.
     True, the longing for these various expressions of charity is inherent in the spirit of charity itself; and in the degree that that spirit is born with man as his new love, in the same degree he will feel no aversion but only delight in their observance. Yet even then he will be aware of the need to pay intelligent attention to them striving from an ever awakened love to order and arrange his life systematically, constructively and proportionately within their heavenly framework; leaving out none, and not permitting any one of them to develop unduly at the expense of the others.
     We are sometimes reluctant to be systematic in regard to our way of living. But every love, good or evil, is systematic within the borders of its own purposes. A burglar is systematic in his manner, and a wise leader in his. The soul is certainly most systematic in its building and upkeep of the body; and so is the contriving love of self in its formation of a private philosophy of excuses. The only system that is repugnant to us is that which is opposed to our ruling love; and for this reason the love of the natural man is opposed to the ordered life in which the love of the spiritual man would find as it were its own home.

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Nevertheless it is possible to attain to such an ordered life, at least in some measure, even while the natural man is still making resistance; wherefore it behooves man to exercise self-compulsion, not only in the shunning of evil, but also in the doing of good.
     Now, in regard to this doing of good, it is to be noted that all five forms of it, superficially regarded, are quite possible without anything whatever of actual charity being in them. For who cannot attend to the duties of his occupation or employment; observe the proper forms of worship and piety; perform certain benefactions to his neighbors; fulfill his various obligations to state and society; and find diversions with his friends?-and do all this without shunning evils as sins. Who, in other words, cannot make a display of the second of charity without being in the first? But they must, one and all, be forms of charity, these grand classes of uses; and they are precisely in the degree that hatred, contempt, an inordinate desire for gain, self-pride, the lust of pre-eminence, uncurbed appetites of the flesh, mental or physical laziness, and so on, are shunned as sins against the God of use.
     Supposing now, that evils are being shunned as sins, and that therefore the love of the new will has been somewhat kindled by the spirit of charity; then the first and chief manifestation of that charity will be the honest, just and faithful performance of the work of one's occupation or employment. This is the chief form of charity because it is the greatest use; for on it depends the proper functioning of worldly kingdoms, and likewise the welfare of the kingdom of God. Ideally, the occupation or employment provided for each one is the best channel for his inclination or talent. It will be so in heaven. But it is not always so on earth, particularly when the state of the world is marked by disorders of every kind. Nevertheless, if it is seen that one's work does add to, and not detract from, the wellbeing of society, if it is properly done, then the best application of one's mind must be given to it. Indeed, not only is the honest, just and faithful carrying out of one's duties conducive to the general health of society, it is also the chief means of insuring the health of one's own mind. As the Writings say: "All those who in the world have loved uses, and who have performed uses from the love of them, think sanely in their spirits, and their spirits think sanely in their bodies. . . . Affection for use has kept their minds entire [in se]; nor does it suffer them to stray into vanities, into what is lascivious and filthy, into what is insincere and deceitful, into the mockeries of various lusts. . . . It is therefore plain that unless use is the affection or occupation of a man, he is not of sound mind" (Love, xv).
     Second in importance are what are called "signs of charity." These are all things that pertain to worship and piety.

361

They are called signs because the various acts of worship and the worshipful meditation or prayer of the mind are, on their planes, external things; and, as is taught, "whatever the internal man brings about and presents to sight and feeling in the external is termed a sign" (Char. 181). Because this is so, the quality of a man's piety is according to the quality of his charity; that is to say, a man's piety derives its essence from the spirit of charity that is within him, or that is lacking within him. Moreover, there is what might be called the worship of charity, and there is also the worship of piety; and it is the former which is, in the words of the Writings, "the veriest worship of the Lord" (AC 8254). That this is so the Lord teaches also in His remarkable declaration: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me" (Matthew 25: 40)
     But conversely, as the forms of piety are but the signs of internal charity, so that charity cannot sustain itself without its proper sign. It is of the very nature of genuine charity to have an urge for prayer, confession, thanksgiving; for in these it manifests and confirms its acknowledgment that the origin of everything good and true is in the Lord alone. Hence the teaching: "The life of piety without the life of charity is profitable for nothing; but the former together with the latter is profitable for all things" (AC 8252).
     The third general class of uses consists in the "benefactions of charity"; and these are defined as "all the goods which a man who is a charity does, in freedom, outside the scope of his occupation" (Char. 184). Such benefactions ought to be done, and done judiciously and plenteously, yet not for the sake of meriting heaven; for heaven is not granted for small efforts of that nature, which might even give some gratification to the benefactor's own love of self, but for the giving up of that very love. Nevertheless, the life of society, here on earth and also in heaven, requires the rendering of services to the neighbor beyond those which are prescribed by one's occupation or employment. Moreover, a special measure of spontaneity is afforded the mind in this third manifestation of charity- "When thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth" (Matthew 6: 3).
     Less free in their outward form, however, are the "obligations of charity," which are next in order. These also are necessary uses of the kingdom. They consist in payment for common necessaries and for various needs of one's own household; and they take the form also of subordination, obedience and the like, when such things are proper (Char. 187). The main point of emphasis here is that all these things can either be of charity or not of charity. If they are of charity, then they are done willingly and gladly, and without a sense of external compulsion; not evaded, or done grudgingly and with complaint.

362

True, the issue may become clouded in our sight when there is disorder in the country, and when legislators and other persons in the country appear to be unworthy of full trust. Nonetheless, the meeting of obligations by its citizens is necessary to the life of the community or state; and this being so, there should be a ready willingness to "render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's"; and this in a spirit that springs from willingness to give "unto God the things that are God's" (Matthew 22: 21).
     Finally we have the "diversions of charity." These are not, as may be supposed, a matter of delight for all. Certainly men, women and children alike enjoy diversions. But there is a difference, for every love has its own delight and its own diversion, and here we are concerned only with the diversions or recreations of charity. It behooves charity to have these, for a love can be replenished only by relaxation as it were in its own correspondential external form. Without such rest in the evening states of the heavenly mind, the love of that mind would become stale and torpid, and would eventually lose its vigor and zeal. To develop proper and delightful forms of "diversions of charity" is the purpose of what we are accustomed to call New Church social life. And there is much to be learned and achieved here by future generations, and also by our own.
     These, then, are the five forms of charity. They are uses, and they complement one another, so that together they form an ordered whole into which the Divine of use, the Holy Spirit, may flow. They are the delightful fruits, the fruitage of a mind from which the entangling thorns and the thistles of merely worldly and bodily loves have been removed. Genuine charity and the faith of charity are their origins; and in them the Divine love and wisdom, and the love of its likeness and the faith of its image, dwell together and are conjoined. "Ye shall know them by their fruits." Amen.

     LESSONS:     Psalm 15. Matthew 7: 13-29. True Christian Religion, 420.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 461, 510, 499.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 72, 121.
PEACE 1957

PEACE 1957

"As long as man is in truth, and not yet in good, he is in an untranquil state; but when he is in good, then he is in a tranquil state, thus in peace. The reason is that evil spirits cannot attack good, but flee away at the first perception of it; whereas they can attack truth" (Arcana Coelestia, 8722).

363

LAST JUDGMENT 1957

LAST JUDGMENT Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER 1957

     7. The Effects of the Last Judgment

     Redemption by Divine Truth

     The Lord said, "I came not to judge the world but to save the world." In the eyes of the Lord, a judgment is permitted for the sake of the salvation of spirits and men. The purpose and aim of the Last Judgment was the salvation of souls seemingly lost, and the formulation of these into new heavens where their progress into more abundant spiritual life would no longer be arrested. To accomplish this the Lord made His promised second advent, not in person as when He was born on earth, but "in Divine truth which is the Word"-in the Heavenly Doctrine which is seen as the internal sense of the Sacred Scriptures (TCR 3). It was this Divine truth which caused the Last Judgment in the spiritual world at the consummation of the Christian age; even as the Lord had said of anyone who rejects Him: "The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day" (John 12: 48). This "word" of the Lord took new form in "a revelation from His mouth or from the Word," as doctrine for the New Church written through Emanuel Swedenborg as the inspired agent (Coro. 20).
     This Divinely revealed doctrine contains "the universal theology of the New Heaven and the New Church" (TCR, subtitle). In its teachings the Lord could be seen in His Divine Human as the one God of heaven and earth, one in essence and in person. It was this new vision of the Lord as Savior that could lift the good spirits of the "lower earth" out of their state of ignorance, whether Christians or gentiles; free them from their allegiance to false persuasions and from the weight of a spurious conscience; introduce them into a state of instruction by spiritual ideas; and form them into communities to carry on spiritual uses. To them the Lord came, not as a judge, but as a deliverer; or as that Holy Spirit, the Comforter, which would lead them into all truth.
     In the spiritual world this change of state was usually seen as a migration of the redeemed spirits from the lower earth into some mountainous plain or hill country formerly occupied by the evil spirits of the false heavens which had met their judgment.

364

The ordering of these good spirits after the Last Judgment was at first according to nations and heavenly affections. Such societies undergo various fermentations to rid them of alien spirits. This is sometimes effected by the society assuming a human form and appearing as one man; the meaning being that its members assume a common use, and that all who cannot cooperate in that common use are rejected (SD 5760; LJ post. 176). Afterwards these good spirits form societies that are most distinct according to their particular kind and species of affections of good and truth. For all spirits, as soon as their vastation is completed, are led by designated ways to the interior societies which correspond exactly to their lives; and they cannot then, as formerly, turn aside and form artificial groups or societies in other places (LJ post. 177).

     The New Heaven

     This allocation into new heavens happened, after the Last Judgment, to "all who since the Lord's advent and up to this time had lived a life of faith and charity" (HD 2). It involved not only those who had been liberated from the lower earth but also angels of the Christian era who had been reserved in heaven for centuries. The New Heaven was "distinct from the ancient heavens," which constituted "higher expanses," being of different genius. Those higher expanses consisted of celestial angels, mostly from the Most Ancient Church, and spiritual angels, mostly from the Ancient Church; while the lowest expanse, organized in 1757, contained angels who had been in "the good of faith" according to the doctrine of their church (HD 4). Yet this lowest expanse, as appears from other teachings, is also of three degrees, or of three heavens which are represented as expanses one above another. For "each heaven founded by the Lord after the consummation of each church is made triplicate" (Coro. 16, 17; AR 876). And the New Heaven will therefore contain celestial and spiritual as well as natural angels (AR 342, 363).
     In the widest sense, the New Heaven is said to be formed of "both Christians and gentiles; but as to the greatest part from the infants of all [races] in the whole world, who had died as infants] since the time of the Lord. For these latter have all been received by the Lord, educated in heaven and instructed by angels, and thereafter preserved, so that they, together with the rest, might constitute the New Heaven" (HD 3). [Italics added]
     In a more restricted sense, the New Heaven is said to be formed from Christians, and also from "all the infants of Christians" who have been imbued with the two essentials of Christian faith and life (AR 486, 876; SD 5763). The Christian heavens are distinct from those formed from gentiles, although there is an influx and by this means a communication between the Christian heavens and those of other religions (SD 5947).

365

The Christian heavens are said to constitute the provinces of the heart and the lungs in the Gorand Man of heaven, and from them the light of the Word goes forth to other heavens. And it is from this new Christian heaven that the holy Jerusalem, that is, the New Church upon earth, will descend (AR pref., 612, 876). Yet in a general sense the entire New Heaven, containing spirits from many religions, is consociated with the New Christian Heaven, since the New Heaven embraces those only who have lived since the beginning of the Christian era and is based on faith in the Lord's Divine Human and the knowledge of His advent, and thus has a unanimous quality. That there is a distinction is clear. For "infants and children born outside of the Christian Church are introduced by other means than baptism into the heaven designated for their religion, after reception of faith in the Lord, but they are not mixed with those who are in the Christian heaven" (TCR 729; cf. 678).

     Gradual Formation of the New Heaven

     The establishment of the heavens from the Christian era and their final ordering into a complete form was a gradual process. The spirits who were taken up into heaven before the Last Judgment because they were in truths from good were signified in the Apocalypse by the "hundred and forty-four thousand" redeemed, who alone could sing the new song of the Lamb (Revelation 14; AE 430: 17). They had been regenerated while in the world and constituted the beginnings, or the nucleus, of the New Heaven (AR 619, 623). But it was not until a little before the Last Judgment that these angels began to be ordinated into an `internal" of the New Heaven. The external of that heaven came mainly from spirits who were in good but not in truth, and who had been concealed in various places, especially in the "lower earths." These were not incorporated into the New Heaven until after the Last Judgment (AR 878). Swedenborg often records the elevation of these vast multitudes from the lower earths, and notes that this took place from the beginning of the year 1757, and that their elevation to constitute the New Heaven occurred especially "from the end of April and into the month of May" (SD 5763; TCR 115).
     In 1757 Swedenborg observed that the New Heaven is not formed immediately, but when there is a sufficient number of good spirits (AE 397). He explains also that the New Church on earth must grow "according to its increase in the world of spirits." Only those spirits receive the doctrine "who have been in a spiritual affection of truth; these only are conjoined to the heaven where that doctrine is, and they conjoin heaven to man. The number of these in the spiritual world now increases daily, therefore according to their increase does that church which is called the New Jerusalem increase on earth" (AE 732).

366

"The falsities of the former church must first be removed" before truths can be received so as to remain. It is therefore of the Divine Providence that the New Church should at first be among a few "afterwards with more, and finally reach fulness," that is, "be provided among many, even until it grows to its appointed stature" (AR 547; AE 732). The New Church doctrine "cannot be acknowledged and thus received except by those who are interiorly affected by truths," thus by such only as have "cultivated their intellectual faculty and have not destroyed it by the loves of self and the world."
     In a letter to Dr. Beyer, written in 1766, Swedenborg states that "the New Heaven of Christians, out of which the New Jerusalem will descend from the Lord (Revelation 21: 1, 2), is not yet fully completed" (Docu. 230). The next year he relates: "I daily see spirits and angels, from ten to twenty thousand, descending and ascending and being set in order" (Docu. II, 234). Later, in 1770, he comments that "the spheres of spiritual truths are as yet few, being only in the new heavens" (TCR 619: 6). But in April 7 1771, he wrote Dr. Beyer that "the New Heaven from which the New Jerusalem will descend is now almost completed" (Docu. 245BB).
     By the "completion" of the New Heaven was meant, of course, only that it had become a functional whole, complete as to all the uses that are represented in a human form. And this near completion followed within a year of that memorable day, June 19, 1770, when the Lord sent forth His twelve apostles into various provinces of the spiritual world to proclaim the new gospel that the Lord God Jesus Christ alone ruled over the two worlds and over the lives of men and angels (TCR 4, 108, 791).

     The New State of the World of Spirits

     That the Lord had now subjugated the hells and ordered the heavens was indeed clear from the new state of the world of spirits. It is true that multitudes of evil spirits arrive there continually, and seek to form false heavens where they can exercise power. But as often their endeavors are frustrated by swift judgments, and each spirit is compelled to proceed in due course on paths which lead to the society of those who are in the same ruling love (SD 5871ff; LJ post. 176ff). There are also many spirits who are in falsities of faith who find themselves in lower earths and places of vastation until they can amend their lives and come into states inure receptive of instruction by angelic tutors of their own religion. Most religions and denominations are still represented by societies in the world of spirits. Some spirits are led to explore the imaginary heavens where they think to find eternal bliss in various sensual pleasures: but these pleasures pall within a few days and they are glad to go away.

367

As soon as spirits congregate in considerable numbers under false leaders, or with malicious intent, their societies are dissolved. No false or imaginary heaven is permitted to endure for more than a generation-about twenty years (AR 866). Spirits from the earth are now seldom able to remain in their first state, which is not unlike their life in the world, for more than a year, and with some it may last only for a few days or for some months. They then pass into the state of their internals and are separated, the good from the evil, generally within a period of ten to thirty years; although some are taken up into heaven or immersed into hell almost immediately after death (HH 426, 498; AR 866).
     The reason the normal processes of judgment are now restored in the world of spirits, and everyone is borne to his place in heaven or hell according to his life, is that the equilibrium between heaven and hell, which was at the point of perishing, is now restored, and the communication of heaven with men is no longer cut off (AE 754: 3; Can. Rdn. ii, v; HH 589ff; LJ 33f). No man was ever born who could not be in free choice. But before the judgment spirits could not progress or advance according to that choice, but were arrested and detained. Even the happiness of the angels of heaven was diminished when the powers of evil had secured footholds in the lower heavens. And the doctrine states that "unless judgment were then executed, no man on earth would be saved, nor could any angel in the heavens remain in his state of safety" (Can. Rdn. v: 9). For man as to his spirit is in the world of spirits, and his spiritual freedom depends on the equilibrium there between heaven and hell.
     After the Last Judgment the prayers which are addressed to an impersonal God or to a Godhead of three persons, or prayers which are offered from a state of faith without charity, can no longer be heard, but are driven back like smoke before the wind (TCR 108; AE 277: 9). For the response to such prayers comes only from spirits cast down from heaven.

     Revelation after the Judgment

     Many teachings in the Writings declare that before the Last Judgment, when the hells had surged up and passed over the great interstice or "gulf" fixed between hell and heaven, so that they covered the world of spirits as it were like a dark cloud, "not any doctrine of the church could be conveyed by the Lord through heaven to the men of earth . . . or be infused into man, without being falsified" (Coro. 20). "Not until after the Last Judgment was the spiritual sense of the Word revealed" (AR 804). "Interior truths were not revealed on earth until that separation" of the evil spirits from the good had been effected. After the judgment, "the reception of Divine truth and good became more universal, more interior, easier, and more distinct" (AE 1217).

368

The good in both worlds came into a better state for receiving truth and good from the Lord. After the "tangled veil of falsities" has been taken away by the judgment "man is led, in a freer and more spontaneous spirit, to discard falsities and to receive truths" (Coro. 20).
     It is therefore stated: "After the Last Judgment was accomplished there was then joy in heaven, and also a light in the world of spirits such as there was not before . . . A similar light also then arose with men in the world, from which they had new enlightenment" (CLJ 30). It is made very clear that this spiritual light is from the Word. "Immediate revelation is not granted to man except that which is given in the Word" (AE 1177). And "the light in which are the angels of heaven who are from this earth is from the Lord by means of the Word" (AE 351).
     Nothing that men or spirits may do can prevent the Lord from inspiring the writing of a Word on earth: even as the most depraved condition of the Jewish Church did not prevent the Lord's descent as the Word made flesh. The writing and publishing of the Arcana Coelestia took place while the false heavens entirely shrouded the world of spirits and cut off communication between heaven and the church. But it was a Divine revelation which only the future New Church could receive. We have no evidence that any man before the judgment understood its teachings. In fact, it was not addressed as doctrine to the New Church, since there was then no New Church. Swedenborg therefore wrote, in 1763: "If anything had been revealed by the Lord, either it would not have been understood, or, if understood, still it would not have been received; or if received, still, it would have been afterwards suffocated. . . . Hence it is that after the Last Judgment, and not before, revelations were made for the New Church. For since communication has been restored by the Last Judgment, man can be enlightened and reformed, that is, can understand the Divine truth of the Word, receive it when understood, and retain it when received" (CLJ 11, 12).
     The light of truth came from the Word; but its sudden new spread was due to the New Jerusalem societies which now held a central position in the world of spirits. Human mediations were necessary. "For spiritual light," we are instructed, "does not pass through spaces as does the light of the world, but through the affections and perceptions of truth"; and it is from these affections and perceptions that there arise appearances of spaces in the spiritual world" (CLJ 14). Spiritual light is essential if human minds are to recognize truth, and it is given when men are introduced into societies of good spirits and angels. But light does not bring sight unless there are objects to see. And the objects of spiritual sight had to be provided for men by the Writings.

369

     The year after the judgment Swedenborg, by Divine command, began to publish the doctrines for the New Church. Some volumes were so entitled:
The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, in which he states that it is "for the New Church" (no. 7); The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Concerning the Lord, The Sacred Scripture, Life, and Faith; A Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church; and "The Universal Theology of the New Church-subtitle of the True Christian Religion. Thus it is clear that the Writings were given for the establishment of the New Church, which may be considered as having been born in t757. For "the Lord derives and produces a new church on earth through the new heaven by means of a revelation from His mouth or from His Word, and by inspiration" (Coro. 18, 20).

     Descent of the Holy City

     The New Church "descends" from the New Heaven just so far as men in the world are introduced into the spheres of faith of the New Heaven and see the truths of the Writings as a way of life, so that the Heavenly Doctrine is not only known and loved but is made a basis of thought and spiritual enlightenment. It is folly to cry, "Lo here!" or "Lo there!" whenever some contemporary writer or orator expresses a patronizing approval or gives voice to some sentiment which seems to harmonize with New Church truths although interlarded with falsities; or to think that acts of social justice or generosity, or devotion to scientific truth, are signs of the descent of the New Church. The light of the New Heaven cannot permeate the former churches in some unconscious way to make them "new"! For falsities must be examined and renounced before the new faith can be received. The old and the new cannot dwell together, anymore than an owl and a dove in the same nest; the conflict resulting would endanger our spiritual life (BE 102f).
     When and how the New Church would be established on earth Swedenborg was not allowed to know or predict, beyond hinting that there had to be Christian universities to prepare a new clergy free from the old errors, and that the Gentiles would eventually be more receptive than those of the European world (Docu. 234; LJ 74). But that the Writings were to be the means of its establishment is clear from one of his letters to Beyer:

     "I am certain of this: that at the appearance of [the "Universal Theology of the New Heaven and the New Church"] the Lord our Savior will labor both mediately and immediately toward the establishment throughout the whole of Christendom of a new church based upon this theology" (Docu. 245BB, April 30, 1771).

     Indeed, the New Church would become the "truly Christian Church." However its various organized bodies may grow, decrease, or be replaced by others, yet as the final dispensation it "will never undergo consummation," but will "endure to eternity"; being "foreseen from the creation of the world" as "the crown of the four antecedent churches" (Coro. 24, lii).

370

     The State of the World after the Judgment

     The dreaded "day of Jehovah"-the universal judgment in the spiritual world-came swiftly, was not discerned on earth, and was not accompanied by any convulsions of nature or any unusual or startling events of history. And Swedenborg the witness calmly warns us that "the state of the world hereafter will be quite similar to what it was before, for the great change which has taken place in the spiritual world does not induce any change in the natural world as to external form; so that after this there will be as before civil affairs, peace makings, treaties, and wars as before" (LJ 73).
     Yet the crisis in the spiritual world has obviously had many indirect results in the natural realm, and the aftermath of judgment may be seen in every field of human life. The two centuries which have elapsed since 1757 have witnessed more rapid and revolutionary changes in men's thinking and manner of living than had occurred previously since the dawn of civilization. Even the surface of the earth bears the scars of human enterprise and testimonies to a new age for man. In a sense, that progress distantly reflects the changes in the world of spirits in a way which Swedenborg could not have foreseen, for he did not claim to predict natural events. The Last Judgment broke down the barriers which had arrested spiritual progress, and the Christian centers in the world of spirits recovered communication with all the nations and tribes there. On earth this is represented by the manner in which the impediments of space and time have been decreased through improved communications, due to discoveries and applications of new sources of mechanical power-coal, gas, oil, electricity, chemical and nuclear energy. Steamships, trains, motor vehicles and airliners; mass production of printed matter; obligatory education; the use of telegraph and telephone, of radio, the moving picture, television and other media of public information-all these things have contributed to bind the peoples of the earth into a mental community which approximates the conditions of the after-life.
     Even the wars and revolutions of modern times take on new proportions and new meaning. The American, the French and the Russian Revolutions were symptoms of the new age no less than the Industrial Revolution and the scientific advances with their vast social adjustments which often tend to regiment people into more fixed educational and economic patterns. All over the world, suppressed and backward peoples are chafing under their social, economic and religious bonds, and are demanding self-determination under a new international charter.

371

The natural minds of men seem to have been set free to challenge the past, and to dream of a future no longer confined even to conquest of this little globe alone!

     The Restoration of Spiritual Freedom

     But how are men using their new freedom? The Last Judgment produced and ordered new hells as well as new heavens. Both are ready, when invited, to inflow and inspire human lives. Natural progress is only the by-product of the spiritual freedom now restored. It is therefore shown in the Writings that the real difference hereafter is in the state of the church. This will be similar in external form, but dissimilar inwardly. "To outward appearance" there will be divided churches as before, with the same doctrines, and the same religions among the gentiles. "But henceforth the man of the church will be in a freer state of thinking on matters of faith, that is, on spiritual things that relate to heaven; because spiritual liberty has been restored to him. . . . But man does not observe this change of state in himself since he does not reflect on it" (LJ 73).
     The angels with whom Swedenborg conversed on this subject said that they do not know things to come, but do know that the man of the church now "can better perceive interior truths if he wills to perceive them, and thus can be made more internal if he wills it." They added that they had slender hope of the men of the Christian Church, but much of some nation far distant from the Christian world (LJ 74).
     Since Swedenborg's time many nations have indeed granted freedom of speech and of the press and religious liberty, although in many other lands these freedoms are severely restricted. Such tolerance is apparently not the fruit of Christian charity as much as the result of a distrust of organized religion and a realization that one cannot claim liberty for one's self unless one grants it to others. The recent syncretist and "ecumenical" movements among Protestant sects seem to stem from an increasing indifference to any authoritarian revelation and to sectarian creeds, and from a desire to play a part in social improvement while avoiding the expense of local competition. Even in pagan lands there is a widespread tendency to substitute secular ideals for religious goals. And, everywhere, freedom for the good involves liberty for the evil, who may, for instance, abuse the freedom of the press by carrying on a flagrant propaganda for the crude philosophy that might is right and that there is no reckoning after death, no Divine law before which men need bow.
     The obvious world struggle today is not between the New Church and the Old-for the Heavenly Doctrine is known to few-but between the various consummated churches, which still defend their ancient falsities even though they have lost their historic momentum, and the aggressive spirit of secular thinking which rests on faith in man's intellectual and growing scientific achievements.

372

We see humanity in a mental chaos, seething with issues of such vast dimensions that they are beyond any one mind to grasp-issues involving the very destiny and survival of our race and of its precious institutions of marriage, church and state. Man, as never before, holds within his hands the means of his own destruction.
But the New Church sees that it is by balancing and ordering the forces of evil and falsity that the Lord procures, for the vast multitude of His church universal, a freedom and a power that turn all events into an ultimate good. The effect of the Writings on men in the world, so far, has been largely that of a ferment, hastening the judgment on religious falsities, even though their own doctrine in its organic whole has not been received.
Yet the New Church is provided as the appointed city of refuge for all good souls who thirst for the water of life (cp. AE 641-643). Within and beyond the conflicts of history, with their issues of natural justice, there lies a deeper spiritual justice which is not decided by prudence but through a correspondence with spiritual conflicts that are fought out in the world of spirits (DP 251f). It is well to remember, then, that what we witness in these days is the aftermath of the Last Judgment. We are experiencing the convulsive, prolonged birth-pangs of a new world which Providence destines to be, in its turn, the womb in which the New Church will some day be nurtured. And over that world the Lord God Jesus Christ doth reign.
HISTORY OF THE CORONIS 1957

HISTORY OF THE CORONIS Rev. ALFRED ACTON 1957

Prior to writing the True Christian Religion, Swedenborg published, in the spring of 1769, a preliminary work entitled A Brief Exposition of the Doctrines of the New Church. In no. 16 of this work he gives a Table of Contents of the True Christian Religion which is divided into three Parts. As published, the True Christian Religion contained Parts 1 and 2 substantially in the order in which they were outlined; but it did not contain Part 3 which according to the Brief Exposition, was to "demonstrate the discordance between the dogmas of the modern church and those of the new." But while this third Part was not included in the published work, the latter contains many references to an "Appendix" the subject of which identifies it with Part 3, namely, "The Abomination of Desolation which exists in the Christian Church at this day" (TCR 758).

373

This subject had indeed already been treated of in the True Christian Religion but, as stated in the opening number of the Coronis, it was necessary that it be still further considered.
     The Coronis Manuscript

     The True Christian Religion was published in Amsterdam in June 1771. In the following August, Swedenborg was in London, where he died eight months later. During these months he was engaged in writing the promised Appendix, which consisted of "72 large pages" (New Docus., p. 13). Concerning this manuscript, Mr. Hindmarsh states: `The author had nearly if not quite finished it when he was seized with his last illness; during which Dr. Messiter [his Swedish friend and physician], finding him without hopes of recovery, took the manuscripts from the author's apartments. The author, however, soon after recovering himself a little, inquired for his manuscripts. But, as the Doctor had taken them away, E. Swedenborg died without seeing them. Dr. Messiter being thus in possession of the manuscripts, and not taking sufficient care of them, many of the leaves were lost" (Hyde's Bibliography p. 589). As to the number of pages lost, we have the testimony of the editors of the NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE for 1790 (p. 224), who learned from Dr. Messiter himself that "nearly one-half of the pages had been mislaid and finally lost.
     In 1780, eight years later, the manuscript thus made incomplete was published, at the expense of Augustus Nordenskjold, in London under the title "Coronis or Appendix to the True Christian Religion," though whether the word "Coronis' was in the original manuscript is not certain. A notation on Nordenskjold's copy made by Dr. Spence in 1786 indicates that in that year the incomplete manuscript was in Dr. Spence's possession. Since that time, all trace of it has been lost.
     It is undoubted, then, that the Coronis is that Appendix or Part 3 to the True Christian Religion which is so often referred to in that work.
     The contents of this work comprise a brief introduction followed by a chapter on the four churches in general and by chapters on the Most Ancient, the Ancient, and the Israelitish Church. The work ends abruptly with the last chapter incomplete; but its text gives some indications of what was to follow. Thus a section on the judgment on the Jewish Church "made in the spiritual world." and another "on the heaven and hell from that race" was to conclude the chapter on the Israelitish Church (no. 46). Then was to follow a chapter on the Christian Church, showing that at the end of the Jewish Church "the Lord derives and produces a new church on earth through the new heaven by means of a revelation of truths from His mouth or from His Word and by inspiration" (no. 20). The last "lemma" of the work-probably the last section of the chapter on the New Church-was to treat of the "mystery of redemption" under eleven headings which were enumerated (no. 22).

374

We have also other indications of the contents of the missing portion of the Coronis.
     At the time of writing the Brief Exposition, Swedenborg prepared a first sketch of the True Christian Religion. The original manuscript of this sketch has been lost but a copy made by Nordenskjold is in the possession of the Swedenborg Society, London, and was published under the name the Canons. It is incomplete, but as far as it extends it is clearly a sketch or outline of the first few chapters of the True Christian Religion.

     The Summary

     About the same time, Swedenborg likewise prepared an outline of the contents of his proposed Part 3, or Appendix, which manuscript also exists only in a copy make by Nordenskjold. It consists of fifty-five short numbered paragraphs headed "A Summary." and of five additional paragraphs on miracles. The Latin text of this Summary is printed in Diarium Spirituale VII, pp. 163-69. Briefly summarized, the paragraphs are as follows:

     1-3.     The four churches (these paragraphs are the same as the first six headings of the Coronis).
     4-7. The four churches as described in the Word.
     8. That a church "truly Christian" is now to arise.
     9-17. The consummation of the Christian Church.
     18-22. The Advent of the Lord.
     23-30. Redemption (being 6 paragraphs which agree with nos. 3-6 of the eleven propositions on Redemption enumerated in Coronis no. 22).
     31-39. The New Heaven and the New Church.
     40-49. The falsities that have destroyed the Christian Church.
     50-51. The New Church is not established by miracles.
     52-54. The New Church will endure to eternity.
     55. An Invitation to enter this Church.
     1-5. Miracles (being an amplification of nos. 50-51 above).

     Here we have a complete summary of the Appendix to the True Christian Religion-a summary which Swedenborg evidently followed in writing the Coronis.
     From this summary it appears that the Coronis originally consisted of six chapters, namely, of the four chapters included in the work as preserved, of a fifth chapter on the Christian Church, and of a sixth or last chapter on the New Church.

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     Of the contents of the fifth chapter, we have no further evidence than that already adduced; but of the contents of the following or sixth chapter, evidence exists in three manuscripts which we have not hitherto noted.

     1. The "Consummation"

     The first of these is a single sheet found in the Royal Library in Stockholm.* It consists of six paragraphs entitled "The Consummation of the Age, the Second Advent of the Lord, and the New Church," the first three of these paragraphs each being followed by the words "to be treated of in chapters." Briefly summarized, these paragraphs are as follows:
     * The translation of this manuscript may be seen in 3 Docus. conc. Swedenborg, 773.

     1. The Consummation of the Age.
     2. The Second Advent.
     3. The New Church.
     4. An Invitation to the New Church.
     5. A "memorable statement" with regard to the truths of the New Church.
     6. The Doctrines of the New Church and the Old to be contrasted.

     2. The Four Lists; Invitation; Second Summary

     Another and much longer outline of the sixth chapter of the Coronis is found in a manuscript in the handwriting of Nordenskjold and now in the possession of the Swedenborg Society, London.* All trace of the original is lost, but that it was written after the True Christian Religion is clear from the fact that in paragraph 43 Swedenborg refers to that work as "my last work." Its date, therefore, is probably toward the end of 1771, just before the preparation of the Coronis for the press. It opens with a list of thirty-one paragraphs entitled "The Abomination of Desolation, the Consummation of the Age, and the Fullness of Time." Briefly summarized, these paragraphs are:
     * The text of this copy is printed in the Diarium Spirituale, Pt. VII-the Lists on pp. 137-4?, the Invitation on pp. 142-43; the Second Summary on pp. 143-60.

     1-27.     That no knowledge of God, of the Lord, etc., hence "not a single grain of truth" is left in the church.
     28-31. Falses must he eradicated before truths are implanted; and these are to be implanted, not by miracles, but by the Word.

Then follow three other lists of the same character, but with some changes in arrangement. After these come thirteen unnumbered paragraphs headed "Invitation to the New Church," which are followed by fifty-nine numbered paragraphs without any heading, but which are now known as the "Invitation to the New Church."

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This title, however, is wholly unwarranted as it is given by Swedenborg only to the thirteen paragraphs which we have just noted. The following fifty-nine paragraphs are, in fact, a second summary and will be so referred to in what follows. They may be summed up as follows:

     1-9. Regeneration is possible only by the Lord's Advent.
     10-19. The Desolation of the Christian Church.
     20. The Influx of Heaven.
     21-27. "Not one truth remains" in modern Theology.
     28. The Church is the Body of Christ.
     29-59. The Second Advent.

     3. The Ecclesiastical History

     The third manuscript is found in Codex 47 preserved in the Royal Academy of Sciences, Stockholm.* It is a sketch of a "New Ecclesiastical History," and was written in the latter part of 1770 when Swedenborg was in Amsterdam, for in the last paragraph the author states that he wrote "Hic Liber est Adventus Domini" on two copies of the Brief Exposition in Holland.
     * A translation of this manuscript is printed in 3 Docus. conc. Swedenborg, pp. 756-57.

     Reconstruction of the Coronis

     We have now recited all the known material written by Swedenborg in preparation for his promised Appendix. And from this we may gather in some degree just what that Appendix was to contain. This we present as follows:

     Coronis or Appendix to True Christian Religion
Introduction (Coro. 1)
     I. The Four churches in General (ibid. 2-22; Summary 1-3).
     II. The Most Ancient Church (Coro. 23-38).
     III. The Ancient Church (ibid. 39-45).
     IV. The Jewish Church (ibid. 46-60).
          (The Coronis, as now preserved, abruptly ends in the middle of this chapter. What now follows is a reconstruction of the remaining portion of the work as indicated by the material adduced above.)
               5 (of chap. IV). The Judgment on the Jewish Church (Coro. 46).
               6 (of chap. IV). Heaven and Hell from the Race (ibid).

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     V. The Christian Church (Coro. 20; Summary 4-7)
     VI. The Consummation of the Age, the Second Coming of the Lord, and the New Church (2d Summary 33).
          1) A Church truly Christian is now to be Established (Sum. 8; Consum. Title).
          2) The Consummation of the Present Christian Church (Sum. 9-17; 2d Sum.33).
          3) The Second Coming of the Lord (Sum. 18-22). The Sending Forth of the Apostles into the Whole Spiritual World (2d Sum. 33).
          4) Redemption. (This was to be treated of in eleven propositions, which are outlined in Summary 23-30 and given in full in Coronis 21.)
          5) Why the New Church could not be Established before the Consummation of the Age (Sum. 31-39; Invit. III).
          6) The Falsities of the Old Church, and their Discordance with the Doctrines of the New (BE 16; Sum. 40-49; TCR 177, 485; Consum. 6).
          7) The Abomination of Desolation. There is no knowledge of God, of the Lord, etc., etc., and hence no religion (The Four Lists; TCR 758).
          8) The New Church is to be established not by miracles but by the manifestation of the Lord in person, by the opening of the Word and of the spiritual world, "that I might there derive the truths of faith in light immediately from the Lord" (Invit. VII; Sum. 50-51). This has never been granted to any one else since creation (2d Sum. 43, 44, 46). The falsities of the Old Church must be eradicated before the truths of the New can be implanted (First list, 28-31). Concerning miracles (Summary, ad fin.; Invit. XI; 2d Sum. 43).
          9) The New Church is the Crown of the Churches (Sum. 52-54).
          10) An invitation to the whole Christian world to enter this Church (Sum. 55). The truths of this Church appear in light to one in illustration (Consum. 5). They agree with the doctrinals of the former church with those who acknowledge the personal union in Christ, approach Christ, and take the two elements in the Eucharist. The reasons why the Roman Catholic Church was established, and, why the Greek and Reformed Churches separated from it (Invit. II, IV).

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Henceforth, men are to be called not Evangelical, Reformed, etc., but simply Christians (Invit. X).
11) A new Ecclesiastical History, showing the change in the Christian Church after the Council of Nice, and enumerating "the books written from the beginning to the present day by the Lord through me." On the reception of these Writings in the natural and spiritual worlds (Ecc. Hist.).
DECLARATIONS OF FAITH AND PURPOSE 1957

DECLARATIONS OF FAITH AND PURPOSE DONALD L. ROSE 1957

     ORDINATIONS

     JUNE 16, 1957

     DECLARATIONS OF FAITH AND PURPOSE

     I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one only God of heaven and earth; that in Him is the Divine Trinity of love, wisdom and use, which are called the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
     I believe that His purpose in creation is that man may be conjoined with Him in faith and love and that to this end He has revealed Himself to men through the ages, in a form accommodated to their perception.
     I believe that the Heavenly Doctrine, given through Emanuel Swedenborg, constitutes His final revelation to man and that in it He has revealed Himself in His Divine Human.
     I believe that the essentials of the church are the acknowledgment of the Lord's Divine Human and love to Him, that evils are to be shunned as sins against Him, and that this is done through repentance and a life of love and service to the neighbor.
     I believe that the priesthood of the New Church is the Divinely appointed means whereby man can be led by the Lord to eternal life and happiness in heaven.
     In presenting myself for ordination into the priesthood of the New Church my purpose is to be a worthy instrument in the Lord's hands in the establishment and upbuilding of His church. To this purpose I now dedicate my life, and I pray that the Lord will grant me the strength, humility and wisdom to serve Him to this end.

379

     I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one only God of heaven and earth; that He is the Creator and Redeemer of men; and that the Christian religion itself is to shun evils as sins against Him.
     I believe that man is so created that he is able freely to receive the Lord or to turn away from Him; and that therefore man is a spiritual being, who is to live, not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
     I believe that the Lord's love for man is such that He accommodates His infinite truth that it may be received by man in a finite way, to be conducive to his eternal welfare. I believe that the Lord has come to man in this way in the Old and New Testaments and in the truths revealed through Emanuel Swedenborg. I believe that this accommodation of Divine truth, or the Word, is the appointed means whereby the tabernacle of God is with men, that He may dwell with those who will receive Him in heart and in life.
     I believe that the church is the Lord's alone, for it is the Lord's kingdom among men in which spiritual uses are to be performed on earth as they are in heaven. I believe it is of order that there be an ordained priesthood in the church as a means that men may be instructed in the truth and led thereby to the good of life. And as the priesthood is ordained by the Lord, it has a sanctity which is to be guarded; but no priest is to claim the sanctity of this office to himself.
     In this belief I now present myself for ordination into the priestly office. My purpose is to look to Divine revelation for guidance in this office, and to enter into it willingly wherever I am given the opportunity. May my love for this work be increased, and may I ever look to the Lord from whom all love and wisdom flow.
     DONALD L. ROSE
CHARITY IN THE PRIEST 1957

CHARITY IN THE PRIEST 1957

"If he looks to the Lord and shuns evils as sins, and sincerely, justly and faithfully performs the work of the ministry enjoined upon him, be does the good of use continually and becomes charity in form. And he does the good of use or the work of the ministry sincerely, justly and faithfully, when he is affected with a desire for the salvation of souls. And in proportion as he is so affected he is affected by truths, because by means of them he leads souls to heaven; and he leads souls to heaven by means of truths when he leads them to the Lord. It is then his love to teach truths diligently from the Word" (Char. 160).

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NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1957

NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS Editor 1957

     The principal event described in the August readings from the Old Testament (I Kings 7: 23-19: 21) is the division of the kingdom. Solomon's splendid reign had its somber side: and his multiple marriages and later idolatries, oppressive system of forced labor and heavy taxation, disregard for the liberty and welfare of his subjects, despotic treatment of the northern tribes and partiality to his own tribe, paved the way for a separation soon after his death. Ten tribes seceded to form the northern kingdom of Israel; Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to the house of David and became the southern kingdom of Judah. The two kingdoms existed together for 230 years, alternately as enemies and as allies against a common foe, and Judah then survived Israel by 134 years.
     This partition had its natural causes in the ambitions of the powerful tribe of Ephraim and the incredible harshness of Rehoboam in refusing to ease the people's burdens. But the Writings reveal as the inner reason, and therefore the primary cause, that the monarchy represented the government of truth alone; and as the representative of the celestial kingdom thus began to perish, the separation took place that the representation of the celestial and the spiritual kingdoms might be sustained by Judah and Israel, respectively (AC 8770: 3).
     In the Books of the Kings the stories of these two kingdoms are interwoven. The main differences were that while the Lord was worshiped officially in Judah, at least nominally. Israel was idolatrous from the start, having a political religion designed to prevent relations with Jerusalem and making the worship of the Lord an underground movement. Furthermore, Judah's 19 kings were all of Davidic descent, and a few carried out external religious and moral reforms; but Israel's 19 kings, representing nine different lines, were evil without exception.
     Our readings in Divine Providence (nos. 255-307) center largely in the doctrine of permissions. All the power of acting is from the Lord, but what is done by spirits and men is nearer to or more remote from, the Lord in the degree that they intend to conform with His will or to act against it. What is done by the evil from a deliberate purpose of evil is done from permission; and the Lord permits only the evil He can turn to an end of good that could not be achieved in any other way. Yet He neither wills nor concurs in the evil. This is peculiar to the Lord. He alone can permit, and not will or acquiesce in what He permits.

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LAST JUDGMENT AND THE SECOND ADVENT 1957

LAST JUDGMENT AND THE SECOND ADVENT Editor 1957

      THE LAST JUDGMENT AND THE SECOND ADVENT. By Arthur Clapham.

     The General Conference of the New Church, London. 1957. Paper,
     pp. 18.

     This attractive pamphlet was published to mark the 200th anniversary of the Last Judgment, and it makes a contribution to our literature which is far in excess of its modest size and appearance. It was evidently written to appeal to the openminded outside the New Church, and it begins by arguing capably from the New Testament prophecies for the Second Coming and a final judgment. A parallel is then skilfully drawn to show that these prophecies, like those of the First Advent, are not to be understood as they have been by the orthodox mind.
     The author makes no concessions. He asserts that the consummation of the Christian age is what is meant by the Last Judgment-"not a judgment upon Christianity as such, but upon the church, and upon what the church has made of Christian teaching" (p. 8) and surveys the history of Christian doctrine to prove the spiritual desolation of that church. He then notes that the judgment took place in the spiritual world, gives the reasons for this, shows the essential nature of the judgment, traces its progress briefly, touches on the cataclysmic phenomena that accompanied it; and states firmly, on the testimony of Swedenborg as the only source of knowledge, that all this took place in the year 1757.
     Mr. Clapham then states that the effect of the Last Judgment was to initiate a new era of Christian faith. He makes clear, however, that the revelation of the internal sense of the Word through Swedenborg in the Writings, many of which are named and described, is the basis for the new Christian Church or faith, and is what is meant by the second coming of the Lord-a new revelation of Himself in His Word as the one God of heaven and earth.
     If the pamphlet has a fault, from our viewpoint, it is that there is no clear reference to the distinct and distinctive New Church. But we appreciate the author's forthright presentation of what the Writings teach about the Last Judgment and the Second Advent, and congratulate him on his ability to say so much, so clearly and interestingly, in a small booklet. Although written for a special group, it can be read with interest by those in the church as an epitome of the doctrine.
     THE EDITOR

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REJOICING OVER JUDGMENT 1957

REJOICING OVER JUDGMENT Editor 1957

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

THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
BRYN ATHYN, PA.
Editor     Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager     Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal Bryn Athyn, Pa.

All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address, and business communications, should be sent to the Circulation Secretary. Notifications of address changes should he received by the 15th of the month.

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION

$3.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single copy, 30 cents.
     In this issue is published the final article in a series on the Last Judgment. When that judgment had been effected, we are told, the angels rejoiced in heart that those who were in evils and falsities had been removed and rejected. Yet the joy of the angels, it is added, was not for the condemnation of these spirits, but for the New Heaven and the New Church, and the salvation of the faithful, which could not be given before the removal that was brought about by the judgment.
     Surely this indicates the spirit in which we should do all our considering of that judgment in this bicentennial year. Deliverance always calls for rejoicing. Men who have been cruelly oppressed sometimes exult savagely in the retribution that falls on their persecutors when the day of liberation comes. But the man of the church who is in goods and truths from the Word, while rejoicing over the great deliverance the Lord has wrought, can do so only as did the angels; finding pleasure, not in the doom of the wicked, but in the liberation of the good.
     Without the formation and establishment of the New Heaven and the New Church to which it looked, the Last Judgment would have been devoid of aim and purpose. Throughout the entire process of removal and rejection the Lord had them steadfastly in view. And we are moved by true gratitude to the Lord for the great deliverance He effected two hundred years ago when we resolve to dedicate ourselves anew to the further establishment of His church on earth; remembering that the same process of judgment must take place in our lives if that church is to be formed in our minds as a means of blessing to ourselves and to others.

383

Church News 1957

Church News Various 1957

     The ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH

     Joint Meeting

     "A New Response to an Ancient Call" was the title of an address given by the Rev. W. Cairns Henderson to the Annual Joint Meeting of the Corporation and Faculty of the Academy, held on June 7th in the Benade Hall Auditorium with an attendance of 177.
     The speaker began by stating that New Church education finds its prototype in the Divine Human. Although education is not regeneration it should prepare for it; and as the glorification is the pattern of regeneration so is the Lord's preparation the pattern of man's. In the arcana revealed about the Lord's sojourn in Egypt we may see unfolding a picture of New Church education as a response to the call-Out of Egypt have I called My Son."
     Formal education, the speaker continued, is a descent into Egypt. The endeavor in New Church education is to make that descent a sojourn not a migration, and to prevent assimilation; to keep it under the Lord's command and tutelage, and for His purposes; that our young people may he called out of Egypt by the Lord as His beloved-called from Egypt to Canaan, from the scientifics of the external church to the spiritual goods and truths of the internal church.
     It is the function of the New Church educator to teach the scientifics of the church and to order scientifics into a true pattern in which they reflect their Divine creator and His purposes in creation-a function for which he is equipped by the Writings. This is a problem of course content and arrangement, requiring for its solution illustration from the Writings and in the various subject fields. Equally important is the stimulating of the affection of truth. We are aiming at the development of a scientific plane which will he a foundation for the rational and the spiritual: and of a rational having in it things true and congruous in which a spiritual rational may be implanted in later life.
     In the reports of administrative officers which preceded the address the note of growth sounded last year was sustained.
     E. BRUCE GLENN

     Commencement

     The steady growth of the church was manifested in an impressive way on June 14th at the Academy's Commencement Exercises. Seventy-two young men and women received degrees diplomas, and certificates representing the culmination of years of study of and from the Writings.
     The speaker of the day, Mr. John Howard of Toledo, Ohio, offered the graduates a challenge in simple, forceful language-the challenge of tradition. He described the two extreme types between which men vary, the conservative and the progressive, and their responsibilities in connection with the traditions of the Academy and the church. The descriptions, illustrated by two delightful "Odes to Graduation" from opposite viewpoints, showed each type in its relation to society in general. The true conservative carries on what is good from generation to generation, while others practice blind faith in the past under the guise of conservatism. The true progressive is the man who discovers new truths; but false progressives, judging from appearances and rejecting all that is old, can lead men or nations astray.
     Each of these types contributes to the use of tradition. It is the visionary who originates a tradition, the conservative who maintains and strengthens it through the ages. And every man and woman has the responsibility to react correctly to traditions--to resolve to understand, protect and support them, and to establish new ones as needs arise. The meeting of this challenge by each member of the church is what will strengthen the church to meet the great challenge of the future.

384

     The valedictorians of the five schools touched on a variety of thoughts that harmonized with the spirit of graduation day. Leslie Asplundh expressed the gratitude of the Girls School graduates at learning to get along with people, and thus having an opportunity to show their neighbors by their very lives what being a New Church woman means. Fred Fiedler, speaking for the Boys School graduates, pointed up their realization that this milestone was not as important as the miles behind it and the miles ahead. The Academy, he said, had prepared its students for the road to regeneration by teaching them to continue to learn as they performed their uses.
     Geoffrey Howard, who came from England to attend the Academy of the New Church College was the spokesman for graduates receiving the Junior College Diploma. He reflected on the Academy's preparation for complete living through the great variety of activities provided for its students, and expressed the feeling that graduates could enter into truly adult life with freedom of choice in spiritual things.
     Three men and five women received the Bachelor of Science degree, robed in the new "Academy" caps and gowns. The traditional solemn black gives way to a rich admiral blue, setting off the golden-yellow stripe of the hood representing a degree in the sciences, and the red and white of the Academy. The caps are soft squares of blue, with golden-yellow tassels to match the hoods. A few members of the faculty also wore the new gowns, and the Theological School graduates had the same blue robes and caps with scarlet hoods and tassels. This new warmth of color added to the effect of the procession and of the graduation ceremony.
     The valedictorian for the candidates for the B.S. degree was Carl "Fritz" Odhner, who eloquently described the mixed emotions of those who were at the end of many years of formal education in the Academy. He called this education a new, untried, precious gem, and expressed the humility of those receiving it and about to enter on the uses which would show whether they were worthy of it. Their greatest trials, he said, would be subtle temptations to compromise the truth.
     Donald L. Rose and Daniel W. Heinrichs received the degree of Bachelor of Theology. In departing to distant lands they offered a tribute to the Theological School of the Academy, expressed by Donald in his farewell remarks. He praised the professors for their diligence, competence and humility, and thanked them for the inspiration they had been.
     Bishop De Charms expressed the feeling of the Academy toward all its graduates in his response to the Senior College valedictory. The treasure of the revealed truth does not come from the Academy, he said, but from the Lord. You must now leave the school, but you take the source of truth with you; and it can be the means for you to return treasures to the Lord, not buried in a napkin, but traded with faithfully.
     KENNETH ROSE

     ACADEMY SCHOOLS

     Awards, 1957

     At the Commencement Exercises on June 14th, the Graduates received their Diplomas and the Honors were announced as follows:

     Theological School

     BACHELOR OF THEOLOGY: Daniel Winthrop Heinrichs, Donald Leslie Rose.

     Senior College

     BACHELOR OF SCIENCE: Barbara Anne Doering, Paul Sterling Gunther, Grace Augusta Hotson, Carl Frederick Odhner, Sylvia Dorothy Parker, Bruce Pitcairn, Muriel Childs Rhodes, Beatrice Eva Sharp.

     Junior College

     DIPLOMA: With Distinction: Louise Goheen Doering, Josephine Odhner, Gael Pendleton, Fay Synnestvedt.
     DIPLOMA: Gudmund Ullrich Boolsen, Mark Bostock, Vaughnlea Good, Henrietta Palmer Gourdin, Geoffrey Horace Howard, Garry Hyatt, Quentin Daryl Hyatt, Jared Thorsten Odhner, Mary Sandstrom, Jane Elizabeth Scalbom, John Healdon Starkey, Sonja Synnestvedt, Joyce Elizabeth Zorn.

     Boys School

     DIPLOMA: With Honors: John Daniel Heilman, Willard Lewis Davenport Heinrichs.
     DIPLOMA: Arthur Lechner Conn, Eliot Walter Cranch, Malcolm Murray Cronlund, Philip Emil Cronlund, David George Doering, Marlin J. Ebert, Frederick Allen Fiedler, Kent Bradfield Fuller, Theodore Scott Glenn, Gerald Douglas Halterman, Brian Keith Heldon, Ian Keith Henderson, Craig Kendig Kintner, Theodore Edward Kuhl, Richard Salinas, Harald Michael Sandstrom, Justin Synnestvedt, Daniel William Woodard, Edward Hugh Pitcairn.

385

     SPECIAL DIPLOMA: James Spencer Smith.

     Girls School
     DIPLOMA: With Honors: Leslie Grace Asplundh, Carla Jane Cronlund, Erica Mary Lavine, Gretchen Myra Schoenberger.
     DIPLOMA: Barbara Allen, Caryl Elsie Betz, Llyn Katherine Coffin, Deborah Pendleton Croft, Carolyn Doering, Gloria Janice Glenn, Myrna Howard, Margaret Lynne Johnson, Penelope Mack, Helen Grace Meisel, Cora Price, Dorothy Gwendolyn Joan Searle, Annette Marie Schnarr, Gwenn Synnestvedt, Susan Wilde, Marianne Nicholson.
     CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION: Sheila Elizabeth Brown, Barbara Jean Charles.

     [NOTE: A Certificate of Completion is granted to seniors in the Boys School and the Girls School whose academic standing would enable them to graduate but who have not met the two years residence requirement for a Diploma.]

     GENERAL CHURCH CORPORATIONS

     The 1957 Annual Meetings of the General Church Corporations were held in the Auditorium of Benade Hall, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, on June 15th, Bishop Dc Charms presiding. Forty-four members attended from a total membership of two hundred and fifty-six. The Board of Directors consists of thirty members, whose terms expire at the rate of ten per annum. The ten Directors elected for terms expiring in 1960 were: Reginald S. Anderson of Toronto, Canada; Carl Hj. Asplundh of Bryn Athyn; Robert G. Barnitz of Urbana, Ohio; Robert M. Brown of Toronto, Canada; Robert Coulter of St. Paul, Minnesota; George C. Doering of Baltimore; Sydney E. Lee of Glenview; Warren A. Reuter of Glenview; Gilbert M. Smith of Pittsburgh; and Arthur Synnestvedt of Bryn Athyn.
     Bishop De Charms referred to his report, which was published in the April issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE, and announced certain changes that would take place during the summer. Final arrangements had been completed for Candidate Donald L. Rose to go to Australia, and the necessary papers had been secured assuring the entrance of Candidate Daniel W. Heinrichs and his wife into South Africa. The Rev. David Holm had established headquarters in Urbana, Ohio, and the Rev. Dandridge Pendleton would undertake to make pastoral visits to North and South Carolina. After the report of the President had been given, reports were received from the other officers and from various committees.
     At a meeting of the Board of Directors which was held immediately after the Corporation meeting, and which was attended by eighteen members, the following Corporation officers were elected: Bishop George de Charms, President; Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton. Vice President; Leonard E. Gyllenhaal, Treasurer; Stephen Pitcairn, Secretary.
     LEONARD E. GYLLENHAAL,
          Acting Secretary.

     CENTRAL FLORIDA

     During the Rev. Morley Rich's recent pastoral visit to our area-which includes De Land, New Smyrna Beach, Oak Hilt and Orlando-a record attendance was established at our Sunday morning service at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Hilldale in Oak Hill. Adults and children totaled 23. We hope we can keep up the good work.
     Two recent family additions to our group are Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Nelson and their four children, and Mr. and Mrs. Donald Rogers and their son and daughter. They are all living in Orlando and we welcome them to our growing New Church circle.
     With ten children ranging from two to ten years of age in our group now, the pastor and Mrs. William Zeitz are planning a children's program with the twofold purpose of providing instruction for the younger set at a level they can more easily grasp, and alleviating the oft-times disturbing conditions at our Sunday services! We hope to be able to report initial success in the near future.
     MOLLIE G. ZEITZ

     DENVER, COLORADO

     Good news from Denver! We now have our own building at 3629 West 32nd Street, in which we are holding service every Sunday morning at eleven o'clock. Our thanks are due to Mrs. Felix Junge for all her help in making the draperies. That was quite a project, but the result is well worth all the time and effort. Mr. and Mrs. Felix Junge were with us for the first service in the new chapel on May 26th.

386

Our attendance that Sunday was twenty-two.
     Mrs. Mildred Evans was baptized into the New Church on June 2nd. This was a "first" for the Denver Circle since we moved into our chapel.
     In February the Rev. Harold C. Cranch paid us a visit, at which time we received the Holy Supper. A doctrinal class was held, Mr. Cranch giving an interesting talk on the subject of prayer.
     At the time of writing we are looking forward eagerly to the visit in August of Bishop De Charms, when the Rev. Robert S. Junge will be ordained into the second degree of the priesthood. Plans are under discussion for some kind of get-together then.
     We hope we shall have many guests this summer to meet with us in our new chapel.
     MARION DICE

     CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

     During the first part of the year we were becoming dissatisfied with our old building on Wayne Avenue. So it was decided to search for a new home. We did not look north because some years ago a few people from Chicago went off in that direction and started a little New Church society in Glenview; and they have done quite well with it. We did not look east because that is all Lake Michigan and entirely uninhabitable. But committees were formed and safaris sent out to the south and west to scour the land for a new location. We planned no cathedral-just a simple home for Sharon Church. However, all of the real estate people who were interviewed spoke of vast amounts of money such as we, at least for the moment, do not possess.
     As the weary travelers returned to Wayne Avenue and gazed upon our old building, it suddenly began to look "not so bad." Of course, the porch was falling off, and this and that would have to be repaired. Some remodeling would need to be done, too, but the cost of this did not seem so large when compared with the astronomical figures of the real estate men. Then someone got the bright idea of a remodeling job that could he done a little at a time. So the Sharon Church Improvement Fund was established and, without any money in it, was handed over to Robert Riefstahl. Bob went to work. He stressed the idea that contributions to the fund should not detract from contributions to the general funds of Sharon Church or to the support of the pastor. And he has now collected enough for us to go ahead with the first step in the program. We hope that New Church visitors who may be in Chicago will come and inspect our face-lifting, which the Smith brothers of Glenview have promised to start on soon.
     Speaking of visitors, we would like to point out to any New Church graduates in search of jobs that Chicago is a good place to look. It is a large city with diversified industries and job opportunities. Also, Sharon Church, with services on Sundays and classes on both the North and South Sides, puts doctrinal instruction within reach of everyone.
     Every now and then we get an indication of why it is important to have a New Church society in the midst of a busy city. For example, a little girl who had no previous connection with the New Church has been coming to our Sunday school. Now ten years old, she has been attending regularly for the past two years; and she shows a strong love for all that she learns. Her parents have shown no interest in the church, but they certainly do not mind that she attends. Recently she showed up with her brother, who is all of two years old. The children seem to enjoy the eight-block walk from their home to the church, and the little fellow is as strong for Sunday school as his big sister. It is amazing to see these two youngsters as they sit quietly during the service, listening intently with no parents nearby to make them behave. Of course, there is no telling whether these children will join the church when they grow up. But of one thing we can be sure. We have the opportunity of assisting the angels to implant remains that will be a help in the regeneration of these two human beings.
     On December 15th of last year, Miss Volita Wells passed into the other world. Everyone loved Volita, and her going left a hole in the membership of Sharon Church which we are finding hard to fill. She not only performed faithfully many duties for the church, but the children of three pastors-and there were a good many of these children-called her "Aunt Volita" as time and again she came to baby-sit.
     Right now, we have more babies at Sharon Church than we have had in some time. Our newest additions are Melissa Mayo, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Mayo, and Billy Kunkle son of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Kunkle.

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We are waiting, as are Mr. and Mrs. Alan Childs, for the arrival of another addition. Alan says it will be a boy, but by the time this is in print we will know what kind of a prophet he turned out to be.
     Like the babies, our monthly magazine, the SHARON REPORT, continues to grow. The main part of the work on it is done by a few people; but on the Sundays when the final job of assembling, addressing and stuffing envelopes must be done, almost anyone who attends church is in danger of being pressed into service. A recent feature in the magazine is a series of tests, cleverly worked out by our pastor, on "Do you Know the Stories of the Word?" The questions in the tests seem easy until you try to answer them, but then it is a different story.
     Since the Convention Book Room in downtown Chicago has been closed, people may be interested to know that the Sharon Church Book Room contains a good selection of New Church volumes which are for sale. Alexander McQueen is the librarian of the Book Room, and any book he does not have he can get for you. He is extremely adept at this work because, as he often says, "I have bought too many books all my life."
     In February we had a visit from the Rev. David Holm and his wife. Mr. Holm preached on Sunday and then, after a dinner for the Society, spoke to us about his work in South Africa. He brought these many New Church men from the other side of the world into focus for us. With deep affection, and at times with a touch of humor, he gave us a clear picture of these people and their love for and loyalty to the things of the church. He told us many interesting stories, one of which was about a man who, of his own accord, became convinced that there was an internal sense to the Old and New Testaments. This man set about laboriously trying to dig it out for himself. However, the moment he was introduced to the Writings he said, "I'll stop my search. It has been done." After the talk, Mr. Holm showed slides which gave us an excellent idea of the missions, the Durban Society, and the scenery in South Africa.
     Recently, after a banquet at Sharon Church, we had the opportunity to meet John Wesley through the eyes of the Rev. Ormond Odhner. Mr. Odhner has obtained his Master's degree from Garrett Biblical Institute, and theoretically is now qualified to become a Methodist minister. However, he seems to prefer the New
Church. In his talk about Swedenborg and Wesley, based on the thesis he wrote to obtain his degree, he proved with documented evidence the falsity of the many statements made by Wesley about Swedenborg. Wesley, by his slanderous stories, probably did more harm to the New Church than any other man, and it is most useful to have extant such a paper as Mr. Odhner's. It should be in print.
     An event to which we are looking forward is our Nineteenth of June banquet, when we will again have the pleasure of, hearing from Mr. Odhner. He will speak on "The History of the Spiritual World," an intriguing title if ever there was one. Another coming event is a welcome-home party for our four students from Bryn Athyn-Caryl and Sharon Betz, Charlene Glody, and Anne Lindrooth. This will be a society party for all ages, and the younger set from Glenview will be invited.
     On May 12th, the Rev. Frederick L. Schnarr was in Bryn Athyn with his wife, Edna. On that day he was ordained into the second degree of the priesthood. So he returned to us as our pastor, and in an even better position to continue the fine work he is doing for Sharon Church. The pastor at the time often seems to be the only one who can suit a society, and some of us look with slightly jaundiced eye at his successor. But we are just as fond now of Mr. Schnarr as we were of any of his predecessors. Fred, with his fine sermons and classes, and Edna, with her lively humor and warm friendliness, have won our hearts.
     NOEL AND MILDRED MCQUEFN

     GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS

     Swedenborg's birthday was observed at a banquet on February 8th. One hundred fifty yellow cupcakes were held high, with blue candles blaring, as we sang a tribute to Swedenborg. In the pall of smoke that ensued the Rev. Ormond Odhner rose to deliver an excellent speech on Wesley and Swedenborg, who almost met because of common friends in England. Wesley later became Swedenborg's chief enemy and slanderer, alleging that he was insane.
     Several distinguished guests visited us last spring. Bishop De Charms made an episcopal visit in March, attending society functions and meeting with committees to plan for future progress. It was our privilege to hear him preach on the Sunday of his visit.

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The Rev. B. David Holm was here another weekend, to preach and give an account of the work going on in the Durban Society, lovingly described as a "pastors paradise." The Rev. Dandridge Pendleton was in town to baptize the new son of the Harold Kunkles, and remained to conduct a Friday class and a Sunday service. The Rev. Frederick E. Gyllenhaal and the Rev. David R. Simons attended the Sons installation banquet on May 19th. Mr. Gyllenhaal gave a class on Friday evening and Mr. Simons preached on Sunday morning.
     The young married people's classes were resumed in March by Mr. Odhner. He has also given, from first hand knowledge, several papers showing the striking contrast between our beliefs and modern Christianity. It is with regret that we lose him to the Academy, although we know that his particular type of insight will he of value there. The Bishop has appointed the Rev. Jan H. Weiss as assistant to the pastor. He spent a weekend here and we look forward with pleasure to our association with him, knowing of the fine work he has been doing in Kitchener and Toronto.
     Two much respected teachers are leaving the Immanuel Church School at the end of the year. Miss Gloria Stroh is going to Michigan for further education, and Miss Laura Gladish will teach in New York. We welcome Miss Sally Smith and Miss Grace Hotson as their replacements.
     The Rev. Elmo C. Acton presented an especially interesting series of classes on the causes of disease. Although we cannot do justice to the subject here, one of the ideas brought forward from the Writings was that disease is not only inherited; it may be brought about by various forms of intemperance, such as anger, hatred, over-indulgence in foods, and so
on.     Although we may not judge a person's state by the condition of his health, we must realize that diseases of the purest blood, the medullary fiber and the animal spirit are interrelated. Thus there is truth in the saying, "A sound mind in a sound body." Man can obstruct influx from the Lord by evils of life, and diseases may result because the way is then opened for evil spirits who are seeking ultimates in this world. It was concluded that the New Church does not try to heal bodies as this would harm its spiritual uses; its purpose is to heal the mind.
     On March 30th a special meeting was called to discuss the possibility of a General Assembly being held in the Midwest. Lake Forest College will be available in June, 1959, offering plenty of space, reasonable rates, and a beautiful setting only half an hour's drive from Glenview. It was unanimously decided that the following Societies and Circles should invite the General Church to hold a General Assembly there in 1959: Sharon Church, Madison, St. Paul, and Glenview.
     Easter was celebrated with five services. On Palm Sunday there was an early family service, followed by the regular worship. Good Friday evening was the time for another special observance. Over 300 persons attended the family service on Easter morning, when the children brought floral offerings to adorn the church. The Holy Supper followed the second service, during which the choir sang an Easter anthem composed by Mr. Marvin Stevens. Quotations from the Word were set to music which was both lovely and dynamic. We could be accused of partiality to Mr. Stevens' music, except that another local church had requested the privilege of using this work at its Easter service.
     Theta Alpha, Women's Guild, the Sons of the Academy and the Social Club have all elected new officers. Theta Alpha's third annual banquet featured speeches by Mrs. William Hugo, Mrs. Ralph Junge, Mrs. Louis Cole, Jr., and toastmistress Mrs. Fred Schnarr. Five young ladies served fried chicken cooked expertly, and there was also a panel show entitled "To Tell the Truth" which revealed some gifted storytellers.
     This was the year for plays. The Boys and Girls Clubs presented one called "Father Hits the Jackpot" which proved conclusively that money did not bring happiness to one man's family. The Park Players-adults of all ages-gave a wonderful performance of "You Can't Take it with You" before the best stage-settings ever seen in the Park. This was partly due to connections with the National Broadcasting Company, whose program supervisor is Mr. Kirk Logie, long-time friend of the Glenview Society. He directed the play and brought along much professional help in lighting, casting, and scenery on the extended stage. A full house enjoyed this production immensely.
     The Social Club sponsored a most successful smorgasbord supper on March 23rd. It was an "Around the World" party, with costumes from the country of one a choice or suggestive of it.

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Attractive and delicious food was a credit to the committee that prepared it. An entertainment on the stage presented various items from calypso to Zulu.
     Two of the original members of the Society passed away recently, Mr. John Synnestvedt and Miss Adah Nelson. These beloved figures were among the last of their generation and will always be associated with our earliest memories.
     The school presented two concerts under the direction of Mr. Jesse Stevens. One featured the school orchestra, the other the singing classes of the school. These were supplemented by piano debuts, folk dancing, and a junior orchestra trying its wings before joining the larger group. The children display enviable composure, whether singing psalms or playing a clarinet solo for the first time.
     Collections for the building fund, carried on the year around, are now directed toward a specific goal. This summer work may commence on remodeling the club room into additional school rooms. A sad but resigned group of billiards players will not have a roof over their heads. They may well apply the quotation often used by their charter member, Mr. Acton: "He who loves the end also loves the means." Plans are under study also for a new all-purpose building for some time in the future; it looks large enough to occupy most of the school grounds.
     GLORIA BARRY

     THE CHURCH AT LARGE

     General Convention. The NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER mentions that the General Council has called in the services of a research consultant firm, Creelman Associates, "to guide it in a self-study of possible means of strengthening and coordinating our efforts, with due consideration of all points of view." A one-day conference last March was felt to be so helpful that a three-day conference was planned for the end of July.
     It is reported in the same journal that the New Church Theological School was the scene, last spring, of a Christian Vocations Workshop for young people of high school age. The school and the Youth Committee of the Massachusetts Association were joint sponsors.
     The death of the Rev. James Priestnal, pastor of the Yarmouth Society of the New Jerusalem for over 35 years, was reported recently in the MESSENGER.
GENUINE WORSHIP 1957

GENUINE WORSHIP 1957

"That this is genuine Divine worship is unknown to those who make worship consist in adoration and prayers, thus in such things as are of the mouth and thought, and not in such as are of work from the good of love and the good of faith; when yet the Lord regards nothing else in the man who is in adoration and in prayers than his heart, that is, his interiors, such as they are in respect to love and the consequent faith. If, therefore, these interiors of man are not inwardly in adoration and prayers, there is no soul and life in them, but only an external such as is that of flatterers and pretenders, and that these are not pleasing to a wise man in the world is well known. In a word, to do according to the precepts of the Lord is truly to worship Him, nay, it is truly love and truly faith, as also can be seen by anyone who considers the matter" (Arcana Coelestia, 10143: 4, 5).

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ORDINATIONS 1957

Heinrichs.-At Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, June 16, 1957, Candidate Daniel Winthrop Heinrichs into the First Degree of the Priesthood, the Rt. Rev. George de Charms officiating.

Rose.-At Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, June 16, 1957, Candidate Donald Leslie Rose into the First Degree of the Priesthood, the Rt. Rev. George de Charms officiating.
DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES 1957

DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES GEORGE DE CHARMS 1957

     All members and friends of the General Church of the New Jerusalem are cordially invited to attend the District Assemblies, as follows:

     WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA, OHIO AND MICHIGAN, Urbana, Ohio, Friday, October 4th, to Sunday, October 6th, inclusive.
     CHICAGO DISTRICT, Glenview, Illinois, Friday, October 11th, to Sunday, October 13th, inclusive.
     EASTERN CANADA, Kitchener, Ontario, Saturday, October 12th, to Monday, October 14th, inclusive.
     GEORGE DE CHARMS,
          Bishop.

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EDUCATIONAL COUNCIL MEETINGS 1957

     BRYN ATHYN PA., AUGUST 19-23, 1957

Monday, August 19
     8:00 p.m. Worship (Benade Hall Chapel)
     8:15 p.m. Address: Bishop George de Charms
               Subject: "The Junior or Intermediate School"

Tuesday, August 20
     10:00     a.m.     The Religion Curriculum
                    Speaker: The Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton
     2:30     p.m.     Reserved
     8:00     p.m.     A Reading Program for the Elementary School
                    Speaker: Miss Nancy E. Stroh

Wednesday, August 21
     10:00     a.m.     Useful Classroom Techniques Related to Reading
                    Speakers: Miss Anna Hamm
                         The Rev. David R. Simons
     2:30     p.m.     Directed Reading Demonstration
                    Speaker: Mr. Joseph Kaufman (Representative of Reading Laboratories, Inc.)
     8:00     p.m.     Free Evening

Thursday, August 22
     10:00 am. The Religion Curriculum
               Speaker: The Rev. W. Cairns Henderson
     2:30 p.m. The Teaching of Music in Our Elementary Schools
          Speaker: The Rev. Jan H. Weiss
     8:00 p.m. Discipline
          Speaker: The Rev. Martin Pryke

Friday, August 23
     10:00 am. Prepared Business Session
     8:00 p.m. Evening Social at Cairnwood
VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1957

VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1957

A committee exists to secure accommodations for those members of the church who wish to visit Bryn Athyn. Those wishing accommodations are asked to communicate with Mrs. Winfred A. Smith. Bryn Athyn, Penna. In addition to the hospitality offered in Bryn Athyn homes, there are several new motels nearby to accommodate those preferring such an arrangement.

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RESPONSIBILITY 1957

RESPONSIBILITY Rev. HUGO LJ. ODHNER 1957

     "And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability." (Matthew 25: 15)

     Man is but a vessel receptive of life from God. This is the central truth of all religion. On the other hand, all the evils of mankind, whether they lead to domestic misery or to cruel wars, are rooted in the proud illusion that man has life in himself-that the powers which he can wield, the feelings that surge within him, and the ideas which he acquires and cherishes are self-derived and that he is therefore responsible to himself alone for the use he makes of them. This fatal pride of man can be broken only by the confession of the real truth-that man of himself possesses nothing of his own, but that every thing of his life is a gift of God, entrusted to man as a loan for his use and usufruct.
     It is this vital truth that the Lord was impressing upon His disciples in the two parables concerning the pounds and the talents. In each parable the Lord likens Himself to a master who went to a far-off country, and entrusted his goods to his servants until he would return to exact an accounting. It was obviously a parable of the Christian Church. For the Lord, after His resurrection, ascended into heaven as if into a far-off country, leaving His disciples, and the church that was established in His name, to make free use of the teachings He had given them. They were to administer this heritage of truth without any perceptible interference they were to act in freedom according to their reason. The Lord's hand was not visibly felt for seventeen centuries, until He returned, in His second advent, and-two hundred years ago-performed a general judgment in the spiritual world, at which all those souls of the Christian ages who had not yet reached heaven had to give an account of their stewardship!
     But these parables have more than a historical significance.

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For normally each man is judged soon after death. During man's life on earth the Lord seems far away, as if in a distant land, and the operations of His government are secret and invisible. When we die, the Lord as it were returns. His laws of judgment become apparent, and then the eternal verdict is pronounced that "whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have" (Luke 8: 18).
     We should observe that the two parables differ. In the Gospel of Luke we read of ten servants, all of whom were given the same amount-one pound each. And in human life there is something which the Lord bestows equally on all men. For every man, because of an inmost human soul, is endowed with the faculty of spiritual liberty and free choice and the faculty of rationality. These human powers are granted to all alike, even as the sun shines on the just and the unjust. There is little reflection among men on these two interior faculties which make them responsible human beings. It is even the fashion with some to deny that they have spiritual freedom; and such regard men as no more spiritually accountable than the beasts of the forest. And, generally, men take their marvelous human faculties for granted as a possession of little value-a mere pound.
     But the things upon which men set real store are the more external and conspicuous advantages which some have above others. For men are born with diverse hereditary talents, skills and capacities; they receive varied forms of education, and are brought up in widely different cultural and physical surroundings Some are gifted with health and bodily strength; some with imagination, native brilliance, retentive memory, or a genius for leadership. Some are born to wealth and others to poverty. Men misname these inequalities as "accidents" of birth and fortune, and compare them with envious and critical eves; measuring hereditary aptitudes and capacities most carefully, and taking inordinate pride in the extent of their knowledge or in the favorable environment in which the Divine Providence may have placed them.
     These unequal gifts, so highly valued among men, are compared in the parable in Matthew with "talents." For a talent of silver was a sum sixty times greater than a mere "pound." And the master entrusted his servants, one with five talents, another with two, another with only one "to every man according to his several ability." And "onto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required" (Luke 12: 48. Responsibility is proportionate to ability. The man of faith clearly recognizes that only an infinite wisdom can foresee what responsibilities a man can carry. If we were able to choose our own native talents we would be headed for disaster. Therefore we are taught to be content with our lot-content with the talents with which the Divine Providence equips us, content with our own starting point in life.

395

For these talents, be they few or many, even when accompanied by handicaps, are the measure of our responsibility, the indications of our use, the promise of the delights which can be ours eternally.
     But man must not be content merely to rely on his native endowments. As the Lord shows us in His parables, man's human faculties and given talents will not remain his unless he applies them to the uses of life. It is a common failing for men to lean on natural talents and avoid the labor of proper training and the discipline of arduous study. Talents can be retained only by being put to use. Intelligent men therefore do not measure the worth of a man by the inherited gifts that he has, but by the devotion with which such aptitudes are developed and bent to useful purpose; not merely to satisfy his vanity or to secure selfish gain, but to give service to others-to society. to the commonwealth, to the church, and to heaven.
     "Unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance" (Matthew 25: 29). This is a universal law, respecting no person. Without adequate capital and means, trade languishes, the world's work suffers. Without talents to start with, there is no accomplishment. Without knowledge, progress stands still. Without seed to sow, we can obtain no harvest. Yet in unploughed ground the seed is wasted and lost. If we do not use our knowledges or our wealth by sound investment and cultivation, they are ours only in appearance and vanish away.
     As a moral law, this is widely recognized. Yet the Lord is speaking of eternity, is giving a spiritual law. When man dies, his spirit leaves behind him his riches or his poverty, his earthly rank and station. King or pauper, he enters a world where "nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest," and where it is clearly seen what man has and what he only seemed to have; that is, what man had in his interior will and understanding and what he had only in his memory and external thought. Simple men may there become wise-or else more stupid than before. Learned men-if they had used their learning for the good of men and the glory of God-may rise into brilliant wisdom; or, if they had been unprofitable servants, become dull of thought, their knowledge forgotten. For the doctrine is that those in evils of life will lose their knowledge of good and truth, lest they communicate with heaven and disturb its sanctities (AC 4424).
     It is such an after-death vastation that is meant in the parable, when it is said that the wicked and slothful servant who had buried his talent in the earth was deprived of it, and that it was given to the one who had made the best use of what he had received. The good and faithful servants, who acknowledged their responsibilities and doubled their talents by trading, were not so required to return their master's money but for being faithful in a few things they were made rulers over many.

396

     In the spiritual sense, the servant who received five talents means those who had admitted goods and truths without resistance and thus had never repudiated their childhood remains. By the servant who received two talents are meant those who join charity to faith in advanced age. But by the servant who received only one talent, and hid his lord's silver in the earth, are signified those who receive the truths of faith alone without charity (AC 5291: 4). For truths which are not loved or acted on are buried among the useless memories of earth-life which are forgotten after death; while the spirit, having no internal truth, dwells in outer darkness.
     A man who uses his intelligence only for his own advancement loses the right to that intelligence. For man has no intrinsic rights. It is only as a form of use that he has a right to the enjoyment of that use. The angels wish for no other rights than this, and for no other possessions or talents than those which serve as the tools of their uses and as means by which their usefulness may be widened and perfected. They are content if the uses they love are well done; for through them they "enter into the joy" of their Lord.
     Not so the unprofitable servant. He does not view his talents, or his human faculties of free choice and reason, as a trust. He will indeed proudly accept his native abilities, accept the knowledge of his age, and often the doctrine of his church, as his own but without accepting the responsibilities and conditions which go along with them. His faith becomes a faith in self, not in his Master. His faith-devoid of love or humility-is cold, like silver hidden in the earth.
     And when the Master returns, we hear the sullen self-defense of the unprofitable servant. We hear his heart speak-as it must do openly after death. From his understanding comes a grudging admission, extorted by fear and indifference: "Lord, I knew thee as an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed; and I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine!"
     This is the familiar challenge perennially voiced by many against the justice of God-the challenge of the servant who acknowledges no master. And if life is of man, if it be man's, then that servant was within his rights. But if life and all its powers and faculties are the gifts of God, then that servant was a thief at heart. This must be remembered whenever we hear in our own hearts a murmuring-a complaint that the Lord has given us less talents, less means, less opportunities than others: a distrust of the Divine foresight which sees ahead the circumstances in which we can be free and the measure of responsibility which we can bear in freedom.
     What does the Lord ask of men, except that they use their borrowed powers in such a way that they may multiply and increase them and so share in the joy of their Maker?

397

To those of small talent and little courage He provides an alternative which none need find hard. For who cannot at least place his lord's money with the exchangers so that it may be used in the world's work and may increase to good purpose without risk or much labor? However little of spiritual faith a man can contribute, yet he can support the good uses of others. Better this than to bury his talent in the earth, or to hide it in a napkin.
     But of those who benefit by plentiful instruction, and can go themselves to the mainsprings of Divine doctrine, more can be expected. Theirs is the labor and delight of spiritual trading, by which spiritual truths are continually lifted out of the memory and brought into the light of spiritual thought and examined to see how they apply to the common uses of the church in a sphere of common enlightenment. It is the active truths that become fertile and begin to multiply and ripen into a wisdom of life that can defeat the powers of evil. The spiritual commerce of thought and reflection is sensitive to the needs of others, young and old; and it is also receptive of the enlightenment of others whose talents may have been cultivated more than our own. No man can do the Lord's work by hiding his talents or by retiring by himself, neither lending nor borrowing.
     But it sometimes appears that the Lord, who entrusted us with the precious gifts of His revelations, is Himself far off. Sometimes His return is eagerly prayed for, at other times it is dreaded; for who shall stand when He appeareth? But His judgment, when it comes, will be merciful. For to every one that hath-be it ever so little-shall abundance be given. And those who have been faithful in a few things shall be given to rule over many. Amen.

     LESSONS:     Luke 19: 11-28. Matthew 25: 13-30. LJ post. 230, 231.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy. pages 474, 466, 471.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 59. 112.
PERCEPTION AND TRUTH 1957

PERCEPTION AND TRUTH 1957

"No one can perceive what he does not know and believe, consequently he cannot be gifted with the faculty of perceiving the good of love and the truth of faith except by means of knowledges, so as to know what they are and of what quality. It is so with all, even with infants, who are all instructed in the Lord's kingdom. But these are easily instructed, because they are imbued with no principles of falsity; they are, however, instructed in general truths only" (Arcana Coelestia, 1802: 3).

398

HUMAN RIGHTS 1957

HUMAN RIGHTS GEOFFREY P. DAWSON 1957

     (Delivered to the New Church Club, London, England, December 14, 1956.)

     We live at a time when the idea that human beings have rights would scarcely be challenged by people regarding themselves as progressive, civillized, and delighting in the universal welfare of their neighbors. Moral rectitude in government is signalized by that which grants to men personal rights, recognizing the individual as worthy of consideration, to be protected against any infringement of his liberty to seek his own happiness and bow before his own gods. Government is for the governed, not the governed for the sake of government. The world was made for man, not man for the sake of the world. Doubtless, then, heaven was made for man, not man for heaven; for a man can exist without heaven within him, but heaven does not exist for him unless it is within him. It would be less easy to say that a man could exist without an earth to breed upon, though science might argue that earths could gyrate without inhabitants to mutilate their surfaces.
     The difficulty in the distinction between the characteristics of heaven and the structure of the material world lies at the root of the subject to be discussed. It is not difficult to fix man up with a thoroughly up to date heaven, providing the stubborn complexities of time, space, money, sordid avarice, labor and application, and all the other technological and psychological stumblingblocks are omitted from the establishment. In heaven man is free, having his heart's desire. He is happy in blissful contentment, his wants of body and mind satisfied, nothing intruding to interrupt the mellow flow of all the good things he would gladly perform for his neighbors. But in the turbulent material world, where appearances grow, persist and decay independent of his imaginative agency, man has to recognize that the intransigence of material stuff is bent to his will only at the price of some hard work from a controlled application to overcome his own and the subjects' limitation. Ideals have been built on the manifest strength of character obvious in material success, but then less attention is paid to restrictions of quantity or quality. On the other hand, if equity is pointed out as the medium conveying the motions of mutual love, we hear more of that inner strength which supports sweet submission to the trials of life and selfless devotion to the needs of others.

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     Evidently no one would object to other men having their sort of heaven, however material, providing, and it is a most monumental proviso, that other heaven does not transgress his own. Every man is granted unlimited rights until men actually exercise themselves; then strife, murder, revenges and hatreds succeed in an unremitting stream. Men learn to curb their appetites because they are so obliged. By subtle reasonings they find charity ought to begin at home. Generosity is related exactly to means, personal sustenance being obtained before affections are confirmed by benefactions. Men work because they must, rarely because they should; at jobs they do not like, for masters they do not trust; protecting themselves by fantastic agglommerations of laws, customs and precedents which are alleged to set bounds to the extent to which they can be exploited and abused. These standards men are pleased to call their `rights." They employ them as weapons, disputing as from principles, so that all political science may be concentrated to resolve such world-shattering problems as the boring of screw holes, halfpennies for the hour, and who shall push a trolley in the tea break.
     It would be idle to pretend that the dependents of industry and commerce, or the subjects of government, never had anything to fear from those to whom they must look for sustenance and protection. Cruelties have existed, do exist, and will continue to exist; for there had never been a need to enunciate laws except that from an infirm proprium men would injure each other. Yet the law in its origins is not concerned with a specification of man's unalienable rights. It describes instead what he ought to do and what he ought not to do, and then declares that he shall be punished who does not obey its precepts. It says nothing of rights to seek happiness or worship any god at pleasure. Nor are men punished for infringing public or private liberties, but only for breaking the law. "A" is not hanged for the murder of "B", but for committing murder. His execution in no way resuscitates "B". If a man steals, disposing of the goods without trace, the law condemns and punishes for theft, but the criminal's sojourn in jail at public expense will not expunge the loss. Laws were established, not to protect personal rights, but to induce order amid the polyglot of human uses when men ceased to discriminate among these from perception.
     It might be argued that a man had a right to his own. But has a man anything truly his own? His body was formed, without his connivance, in his mother's womb, a product of fertilization from his father. Both his parents were formed likewise. He came into the world naked, was borne along for years by the sweat of someone else's brow. His right to his body is at best that of temporary occupation, and he will quit it quickly when the time comes that he is bidden. What, then, of his mind?

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This from voluntary practice and study he may build into a wonderful palace of proficiencies. But the facts of his knowledges came from outside of him, and their systematizing has always been suggested by independent examples. As for this thing called his volition, its stimulation is also the subject of external agents, for there are twin spirits of heaven and of hell associated with each man by affection, that he may think and they feel. Whatever is assembled to constitute his character, intellectual achievements, physical powers, everything which pertains spiritually or materially, has been drawn from substances created elsewhere, by powers not his, and assembled by a genius other than his own. Man is but a vessel, a very earthen pot, which would not ring unless it were smitten, nor fill unless another agent filled it.
Men, though mere assemblages of substances, are nevertheless organizations from whence they derive their shapes. But organization and shape are not products of clay save as these by character may limit the functional capacities for organization and so restrict shape. Organization points to significance neither invented nor propounded by clay. The clay merely submits and subscribes the ultimate that organization may be manifest in shape, there to fructify in its appropriate operation which is called a "use." It is use which is signified by organization manifest in the shape of clays. Without the operation of use, the clay, its impressed shape and the organization itself, are dead and worthless. The following number headings from Divine Love and Wisdom will serve to illustrate.
The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah. created the universe and all things thereof from Himself and not from nothing (282). [Nor] could He have created the universe . . . unless He were a man (285). . . [He] produced from Himself the sun of the spiritual world and out of it created the universe and all things of it (290). . . . There are three things in the Lord which are the Lord, the Divine of love, the Divine of wisdom, and the Divine of use, and these three are present in appearance outside the sun of the spiritual world, the Divine of love by heat, the Divine of wisdom by light, and the Divine of use by atmosphere which is the containant (296). . . . The atmospheres, which are three in number in both worlds . . . in their ultimates cease into substances and matters of the nature of those in earths (302). . . . In substances and matters of which earths consist there is nothing of the Divine in itself, but still they are from the Divine in itself (305) . . . All uses, as ends of creation, are in forms, and they get forms from substances and matters such as exist in earths (307). . . . All things of the created universe viewed from uses resemble man in an image, and this testifies that God is man (319). . . All things which are created by the Lord are uses, and they are uses in that order, degree and respect in which they are related to man and through man to the Lord, their origin (327). . . . The visible things of the created universe testify that nature has produced nothing, but that the Divine, out of itself and through the spiritual world, has produced all things (349).

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     To describe why there are uses at all DLW 335 is quoted in full.

     "Although it is said that these things are uses because through man they have relation to the Lord, yet it cannot be said that they are uses from man for the sake of the Lord but from the Lord for the sake of man; because all uses are infinitely one in the Lord, and there are no uses in man excepting from the Lord; for man cannot do good from himself, but from the Lord. It is good which is called use. The essence of spiritual love lies in doing good to others; infinitely more is this the essence of Divine love. This is like the love of parents to children, to whom the parents do good out of love not for the sake of self, but for the sake of their children, as is manifest in the lore of a mother towards her offspring. It is believed that the Lord, because He is to be adored, worshipped and glorified, loves adoration, worship and glory for His own sake, but He loves these things for man's sake; because man comes thereby into a state in which the Divine can flow in and be perceived; for in the process man removes the proprium which is the love of self, which love hardens the heart and shuts it up. This is removed by man's acknowledgment that nothing but evil is done from himself, and nothing but good from the Lord; hence comes softening of the heart and humiliation, from which adoration and worship freely flow. Hence it follows that the uses which the Lord performs through man to Himself consist in this, that out of love He is able to bless, and as this is His love, reception is the joy of His love. Let no one therefore believe that the Lord is with those who only adore Him: he is with those who do His commandments, which are uses. With the latter He has His abode, but not with the former."

     It might be thought that uses are the rights of man, but it is doubtful that the implication of a right as a personal liberty of the natural man agrees at all with the idea of a use, his origin for which he is not creatively responsible. The right basic natural liberty is the right to riot against restrictions of personal freedom, and it is a novel interpretation of jurisprudence, for it concentrates prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner into one person, the plaintiff. A man stands upon his "rights" as privileges whereby he props up his personality against an aggressive world to establish a position before which he would make his neighbors bow, to which he supposes he is entitled because he enjoys the faculties and shape of a man. Such is not the idea of use. Use is something he performs, not as a prerogative, but as that from which his faculties and shape are derived; not a thing offered up to him from below for his personal convenience, but induced from above. To have being from use is to stand under obligation to use, and the only privilege attaching thereto is that of performing use willingly by consent in happiness, or under compulsion, unwillingly and in misery. He either seeks means of coming to terms with his use or else is spurred to it by uncongenial necessity. There is no dignity in man apart from uses.
     We conceive of an angel as one who does not so much seek to establish his own rights, but is anxious to worship the Lord by providing for the needs of others.

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It would be easy to derive from this an immediate solution to all the troubles of the world by asserting that all men need only devote themselves to doing some form of use for the betterment of their fellow-men and the millennium will begin. Every sect of the First Christian Church, all political clubs in the free world, the entire Communist organization, everybody, in fact, able to raise an enthusiastic cheer on behalf of a better human life would fall in under such a banner. It is the sort of enabling act beloved of all governments bent on legislation for the establishment of ideal human happiness on earth. The principle sounds undeniably laudable, but the conditions of a physical straight-jacket which result are horrible. It follows with inexorable logic that love of country, friendship, conjugial relationship, offspring, care for personal security, and even the preservation of employment, are successively condemned as gross immorality because they all may partake of that universal human foible, considerations for the sake of self.
The bald, uncompromising edict must squeeze the personality out of human life, reducing the human soul to a non-essential attribute of the physical machine. When men are all reduced to cogs it ceases to matter whether there was any point in there being a machine in the first place, or whether the air is sweet, or the sun warm, or food good, or whether the whole insensitive juggernaut falls over the precipice to extinction. Eliminate the self and the grand experiment becomes hopelessly absurd. Therefore we must admit into our ideal world the notion that man was gifted with life, not only to perform use, but to be able to give pleasure and likewise receive it; and that the delight must be personal, extending right down to the sensual. Thus the sensitive self and its protection must have a place in the moral code because it is necessary, hence a use and therefore an obligation; but as such it must not be confounded with a "right."
It may seem odd to draw the conclusion that man's self is not his "right" to maintain or neglect. But even self-inflicted death does not obliterate the self which survives as a spirit and, unable to die again, is then driven by personal anguish to seek relief in functions representing the preservation of life. We have to understand how the world could be so ill-contrived that men must acquire the art of being just sufficiently selfish to live unselfishly. But your essayist would not attempt to unravel this when other loftier minds have toiled with questionable success. The crux of the problem is defined as "justice," though some have supposed this to be the same as "moderation." Here there will be no attempt to launch a second Republic. Plato, who would have had all kings philosophers and philosophers as kings, was a disappointed man. The cutting edge of political necessity showed that the kings who were, were not philosophers. Philosophy did not control the fluctuations of commerce, moderating the flow of food, raw materials and finished goods. Since it only earned for Plato his own living, when it might upset the tortuous equilibrium which seemed to secure the livings for other men, Plato could be cast out.

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Every effort to define clearly a moral standard regulating the government of human affairs in the mass is soon ejected, ignored or twisted, when rigid adherence to its letter and spirit would jeopardize the balance in which great powers are only just able to bear each other. One is inclined to opine that politics would be more honest if moral rights were discussed less and the obligations of necessity more frequently. But history records some damnable expedients perpetrated in the name of necessity; for it is a criterion most agreeable to those having strength to impose their will, whenever they can avoid the moral obstacle race for justification against violent provocation, or for altruistic loyalty to principle. Necessity might be more factual but not necessarily more just.
On other planets they are unconcerned with the organized polis round which the Greeks developed their political moral standards, and from which the Western World draws its first traditions of civil order. On Jupiter:

"they are distinguished into nations, families and houses and they dwell separately with their own houses or families, and their conversations are mostly confined to relationships; in no case does any one desire the goods of another, and neither does it enter into the mind to claim thence anything to themselves, still less to invade and plunder, which they regard as a criminal act contrary to human nature, and dreadful. . . . It has been told to me [Swedenborg] by the angels, that the most ancient in this earth dwelt in like manner; that is, distinguished into nations, families and houses, and that they were all content with their own goods; and that to grow rich from the goods of others and likewise to have dominion was at that time altogether unknown; on this account the ancient times, and especially the most ancient, were more acceptable to the Lord than succeeding times, and inasmuch as such was the state of the world, innocence also there reigned, and with innocence wisdom; everyone then did what was good from a principle of good, and what was just from a principle of justice; to do what was good and just with a view to self honor, or for the sake of gain, was a thing unknown; at the same time they spake nothing but what was true, and this not so much from a principle of truth as from a principle of good, that is, not from an intellectual principle separate, but from a will principle. Such were the ancient times, wherefore angels could then converse with men and lead their minds almost separate from things corporeal with them into heaven, and conduct them through heavenly societies, and shew them the magnificent things abounding there, and likewise communicate to them their happiness and delights; these times . . . were such, as was said, because they lived distinguished into nations, and nations into families, and families into houses, and each dwelt by itself, and because it never entered the mind of any to invade the inheritance of another, and thence acquire to himself opulence and dominion; self-love and the love of the world were then far away, and everyone from his heart was glad at his own, and not less at another's good. But in succeeding times this scene was changed, and totally reversed, when the lust of dominion and of possessing the goods of others seized the mind; then mankind, for the sake of self-defense, gathered together into kingdoms and empires; and inasmuch as the laws of charity and conscience, which were inscribed on the hearts, cased to operate, it became necessary to enact laws to restrain violences, and to propose honors and gains as rewards, and the privations thereof as punishments.

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When the state of the world was thus changed, heaven itself removed itself from man and this more and more, even to the present ages when it is no longer known whether there be a heaven, consequently whether there he a hell" (AC 8117-8118).

It must be emphasized that in considering civil and political affairs we are not dealing with virtues from creation. Originally men did not need these institutions, which came upon the race as permissions for the sake of order to restrain a depraved will. We are not above the age in which we live, but part of it, and charity obliges us to support and tolerate all the institutions which are for the sake of order, though they must restrict absolute liberty. But these clumsy political mechanisms can be used for evil as well as good. They are often taken up by the unscrupulous as flails to discomfit their enemies: the Machiavellian ideal conceiving the honored prince as he who is able to drive all power into his own hands by subtle manipulations, and then protects himself by placing his rivals outside the law. There are no golden rules of legislation for the maintenance of justice which will save men from a material hell of political and economic strangulation. It merely happens that when enough men are convinced that they have nothing more they need fear to lose, and everything to gain, there comes an explosion whereby wealth and power are redistributed. The energy of the violence is engendered by self-love giving rise to hatreds, revenges and lusts for the possession of privileges and commodities previously denied. Yet it is always exposed to the public gaze clad in the moral accoutrements of righting wrongs, removing injustice and inherited privilege, and it makes a great song of establishing human rights. The reaction decks out itself with similar claims.
The establishment of human rights is the glorification of man, and this ace has seen many men glorified on the inference of their service to the cause of human rights. Nobody but a fool would expect to find favor with the democratic mob by instructing it in the nature of human obligations. When the civil strife is ended, however-whoever wins-the strong man, father of his people, savior of his country, finds it necessary to purge away all rights to protect the rights of all. Civil commotions are never provoked by universal prosperity. Except for the lunatic fringe, always with us, most men can be consoled as to their rights or lack of them provided there is work to do and they can earn enough to keep a full stomach and enjoy a regular circus. Of these three, work is commonly accepted as a necessary evil, to be reduced as far as may be without impairing the other two. The avowed task of every competitive politician is to keep the masses contented when he is in power, or, when seeking power, to persuade them that if he is granted favor they will have greater contentment. We hear much about inflationary spirals in economics, but little thought is given to the inflationary spiral which is the breath of life to the ideal of government of the people, by the people, for the people.

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But should the pangs of hunger gnaw and material comforts grow scarce, or if a terror is instilled that food and wealth may be lost, or a hope that more can be obtained, then the masses can be stirred to take the risks of revolution and war. Then men talk fiercely of the rights they think they ought to have, or must fight to keep or take, and become righteously zealous for their own advantage. The devices which promote greed and envy to become respectable motivating agents cannot be counted. Only when a man is outnumbered and bankrupt of power is he sternly reminded that he has obligations and that noncompliance will be punished. Then, naked humanity has no rights at all in any language.
This survey of political practice must conclude with an explanation of historical origins. The men of the Most Ancient Church did not have political science as such. This began when men sought after proprium from themselves and ceased to be content to dwell alone." This process culminated in their claiming to themselves the ability to discriminate from themselves good from evil, which power they appropriated as a "right" that they might be "as gods." Thus that church fell, perverting the natural of man so that perception was lost and all means of instruction in truth from good by an internal way were destroyed. A new church was instituted, couched in representatives of order drawn from the recollections of correspondences known to the most ancients, which became the doctrinals of the second or Ancient Church. This, depending on external forms for instruction and expression, gathered men into states for religious and defensive purposes, and fostered the grades of specialization which maintain such societies. The earth, always prolific in animal and vegetable life, when manipulated artificially by men, produces a surplus leading directly to an extension of material human uses, the wealth and commodities of civilization, so called. The merchant's function originates in the distribution and acquisition of spiritual goods and truths, to which natural wealth corresponds, and thus inspires a liberty of thought needed in assessing differences of spiritual and natural values. The decline of all churches follows the same course; first relinquishing the essence of charity and faith in favor of their external forms alone, and, later, absolutely rejecting these forms when they cease to be economic assets to material life. Finally, when the whole is completely decayed, it is dispersed. The first stage occurs as power and wealth with the rulers of the church remove the body from its spirit; the second, when the external forms appear as restrictions inhibiting the free expansion of commerce for the sake of wealth. In the first the church is said to die, in the second its body decomposes. The last stage finds the church a bony skeleton, which, destroyed, gives place to a new church.

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     The social order of every church is built first around the idea of the Lord's own government. Therefore its forms acknowledge His leading. The spiritual genius of the Ancient and First Christian Churches constructed social order out of concepts of kingship and priesthood. When faith and charity were separated for external ends, material wealth and power became objects in themselves and the governed groaned under the burden. Conditioned to the material logic of economic values, and recognizing that he who pays the piper really has power to call the tune, commerce has always questioned the traditions of religion and government which check its absolute freedom and tax its revenues to maintain superstitions which cannot prove practical solvency. Ultimately, the traditional offices are either overthrown or channelled anew for the sake of the common good, by which is meant material prosperity. This revolt is the patrician revolution, sometimes holding kingship and priesthood in moral aversion, calling itself republican or democratic, or diverting them into what is called a constitutional monarchy At all events, this revolution seeks personal human rights, making all men theoretically equal within its franchise.
     But, in the last resort, the merchant adventurers do not pay the piper. They rest very heavily on the artisans who make the goods and perform the services. Beneath the vigorous wave of free prosperity there is felt increasing inertia from the plebian masses with strong claims to rights against patrician abuse of power. Forced by the potent threat of violent insurrection manipulated for competitive ends in free enterprise politics, commercial interest is obliged to mortgage freedom to blackmail by extending privileges and larger shares in commodity profits. This is the plebian revolution, distinguished in spirit from the patrician according to ends; for whereas the patrician lust sought extension of its freedom to create wealth and power, and could enter into uses, the plebian ends are satisfied with the sensual expending of wealth and power for their own sake, a brutish and lifeless joy if ever there was one. In this second revolution human rights finish in a strangling, involuted knot, spiritually and materially moribund, a political and economic entropy, desolate until some cataclysm overturns and shatters the monstrous prison house.
     Though it is futile to suppose that any human constitution is proof against the natural decays of all material things, it does not mean that human futility is the last word. The laws of Providence are immutable and inviolate. Nature may always tend to fall to pieces, but entropy, or the increase of the random element in material affairs, is not outside the Divine Providence. Providence regards eternal things, and temporary things according as they relate to eternal things. We

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read in Divine Providence that with man temporary things relate to dignities and riches, thus to honors and gain in the world" (215); and "things eternal relate to spiritual honors and wealth, which are of love and wisdom, in heaven" (216); but "things temporary and things eternal are separated by man" [wherefore entropy], whereas "they are conjoined by the Lord" (218)- therefore restitution and organization.
Divine Providence 220:4 continues: "The Lord by His Divine Providence conjoins Himself with natural things by spiritual things, and temporary things by eternal things, according to uses." Further, no. 220:6 says:

"[thus] by correspondences, and by appearances according to the confirmations of them by men. But these things cannot but seem obscure to those who have not yet gained a clear notion of what correspondence is and what appearance is, therefore they must be illustrated by example. . . . All things of the Word are pure correspondences of spiritual and celestial things; that is all things of the word are Divine goods of the Divine love and Divine truths of the Divine wisdom, which are in themselves naked, but in the sense of the letter of the Word are clothed. They therefore appear like a man in a garment which corresponds to the state of his love and wisdom. From which it is manifest that if a man confirms appearances, it is like proving garments are men; thus appearances become fallacies. It is otherwise if man seeks out truths and sees them in appearances. Now, since all uses, or the truths and goods of charity which a man does to the neighbor, may he done either according to the appearances or according to the very truths in the Word, therefore, it he does them according to appearances confirmed in him, he is in fallacies; but if he does them according to truths, he does them as he ought. From these things it may be evident what is meant by the Lord's conjoining himself with uses by correspondences, and thus by appearances according to the confirmation of them by man. . . . Such conjunction of temporary and eternal things is the Divine Providence. To place this before the understanding in some light, it may he illustrated by two examples; by one which concerns dignities and honors, and by the other which concerns riches and wealth. Both are natural and temporary in external form; but in the internal form they are spiritual and eternal. Dignities with their honors are natural when man regards himself personally in them, and not the commonwealth and uses; for man cannot but interiorly think within himself that the commonwealth is for him, and not he for the commonwealth. He is like a king who thinks that the kingdom and all the people in it exist for him, and not that he lives for the sake of the kingdom and its people. But the same dignities with their honors are spiritual and eternal when man regards himself personally as being for the commonwealth and for uses, and not these as existing for him. If a man does this, then he is in truth and the essence of his dignity and honor; but if he does the former, he is then in the correspondence and the appearance; and if he confirms these in himself, he is in fallacies, and is in conjunction with the Lord only as those are who are in falsities and in evils from them; for fallacies are the falsities with which evils conjoin themselves. They have indeed promoted uses and goods, but from themselves in the Lord's place. It is the same with riches and power, which are also either natural and temporary, or spiritual and eternal. Riches and power are natural and temporary with those who regard them only, and themselves in them, finding in these two all their pleasure and delight; but the same things are spiritual and eternal with those who regard uses in them, and find interior pleasure and delights in them. With these even the outward pleasure and delight become spiritual, and the temporary becomes eternal.

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Therefore after death they are in heaven, and there they live in palaces in which the forms of things for use are resplendent and translucent from the internals which are uses, from which they have real pleasure and delight, which in themselves are the favorable conditions and happiness of heaven. An opposite lot is for those who have regarded riches and power solely for their own sake and for themselves, thus according to appearances and not according to their essences. When they put these off, which they do at death, they put on the internals belonging to them; which, not being spiritual, cannot but be infernal; for either the one or the other is in them; both cannot be together. Therefore for riches they have poverty, and for possessions, misery. By uses are meant not only the necessaries of life, which have relation to food, clothing, and habitation for a man and those dependent on him; but the good of ones country, the good of society, and the good of the fellow citizen is also meant. Such a good is commerce when it is the final love, and money is a mediate subservient love, provided the merchant shuns and holds in aversion frauds and evil arts as sins. It is otherwise when money is the final love, and commerce the mediate subservient love; for this is avarice, which is the root of evils."

It can be observed that new churches are established according to a new genius. The Most Ancients were in the good of love. When they ascribed this to themselves they fell. The Ancient Church had a genius for celebrating religion in natural representatives for the sake of order and instruction. This was perverted until its residue was not capable of defining any true moral issues. The First Christian Church was raised on a vivification of natural moral concepts. Likewise we have seen these representative forms perish until even the simplest human uses are vitiated in the paradoxical inversions of moral obligations into moral rights. Perhaps men must now be saved from their rights lest they destroy themselves in moral chaos; this being the function of the crowning church-to restore to men delight in their unalienable uses and dispose for ever of their unjustifiable rights, that they may learn in spiritual freedom that rights are things which men allot to their neighbors only in accordance with use, whereas obligations of function are things which they claim to themselves for the sake of use. Appreciation of use depends upon the degree in which a man is in the appearances or in the essences of good and truth, thus according to the state of the church with him. Therefore the Writings of the new dispensation do not seem to offer any reference to human rights, but their pages abound almost endlessly with a discussion of uses, human uses.

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MISSIONARY WORK AS AN EXTENSION OF THE LAST JUDGMENT 1957

MISSIONARY WORK AS AN EXTENSION OF THE LAST JUDGMENT PETER J. LERMITTE 1957

     (Delivered at the New Church Day banquet, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.)

     We all know that the ultimate aim of the Divine love is that the human race may be saved. It was with this end in view that Divine revelations were given. The Divine truth is revealed-to set us free! The reason the Lord wishes for the salvation of the human race is that He loves us: and since He loves us. He wishes us to be in complete freedom to choose our own way-be it right or wrong. When the truth is revealed to us we are set free, and we are free to choose which road we want to take- -the road of salvation or the road of damnation. In this way a judgment is effected; for that is exactly what is happening when good is separated from evil, and truth from falsity.
     It is in the spiritual world that a judgment first takes place. It is there that man's ruling love is established: and, once established, it cannot be changed. Evil men, and their evil desires, are separated from good men and their good desires. This process of separation always takes place in the world of spirits; but at the end of a church the truth that had previously been revealed is no longer sufficient; and a new revelation is needed so that the freedom of men on earth may be preserved. This is because the falsities of the old church have become so subtle that the truth already revealed is not able to penetrate and fight them. In such a condition or state man would not be able to separate truth from falsity, or good from evil, and he would no more be in spiritual freedom. The danger of men on earth thus losing their spiritual freedom existed in the 18th century, and it was for this reason that the Lord made His second coming in the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.
     The Last Judgment has taken place in the world of spirits, but it still takes place on earth. However, whereas in the world of spirits there is a clear distinction between the societies of heaven and the societies of hell, on earth there is no such separation; for here judgment takes place in the individual mind. This is accomplished by the truths of the Second Coming, revealing what is false in the Christian doctrine and thus separating truths from falsities.

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It is then clearly shown to man where his evils lie, and he is enabled to shun his evil desires, if he so wishes.
     This can be done only through the truth of the Writings; no man, regardless of his position in life, can do it. But although the Last Judgment can be accomplished on earth only through the truth of the Writings, it is man who is used as the instrument for bringing that truth to others. And bringing the truth to others is what is meant by "teaching all nations," which is a command of the Lord.
     The previous speaker dealt with education within the New Church. He mentioned the necessity of teaching our children about the church in order that they may be in complete freedom to make their own choice in regard to religion. That is one phase of the continuation of the Last Judgment on earth.
     But does it not follow that it is just as important to tell adults about the church so that they also can be in freedom? Because if they do not know of the existence of the New Church, or know of it but do not realize the difference, how can they be free to make their choice? How can the Last Judgment be continued in their minds?
     Men are to be instrumental in the continuation of the Last Judgment in the same way that angels were, and are, instruments in the Lord's performing a judgment on novitiate spirits. It is easy to see the comparison between the two.
     It is said in the Writings: "Angels do not judge, but the truth of the Lord that is with them judges." In the same way, New Church men or women are not to judge or condemn; but the truth they represent-the truth of the Lord, that is-can work wonders.
     The Writings also teach that "only certain types of angels do this work [because of love and ability], but they are supported by and communicate with the societies from which they come." It is exactly the same in the New Church. Only certain types of New Church men do this work, because they have a special love for it, or a special ability that enables them to carry it out. But those who are unable to do this work need not feel disheartened or discouraged, because their support and backing is a very necessary part of the work.
     "If novitiate spirits do not like the company of angels they leave them. The angels do not reject them." Also, if newcomers to the church do not like the New Church environment they will leave it. New Church men and women do not reject them; in fact, they give the newcomers every encouragement that they can.
     The angels rejoice greatly when a newcomer arrives in their society. In just the same way New Church people rejoice when a newcomer to the society enables that society to perform more perfectly its use to the end of creation.

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     There are many people who are ready for the New Church. Some of them do not attend any church, either because they never have, or because when they did attend their questions were not answered; others do go to church, but their going is a mere formality and they do not receive much if any spiritual food from their church. I imagine that this is rather hard for someone who has been brought up in the New Church to understand, but I can assure you that in a great number of cases it is true. Also, I would venture to say that the majority of these people have never even heard of the New Church, and certainly know nothing about its teachings, and therefore are definitely not in freedom. In spite of this, many New Church men may hesitate to talk about their church to outsiders, and there are several quite understandable reasons for this.
     First, they love their church, and they may dislike to broach the subject of religion for fear that they may be rebuffed and the church ridiculed. If this is the case there is really no problem, because very few people will ridicule someone who is really sincere in his beliefs. Even if one does receive a rebuff it is not inconceivable that the conversation may have served a great use, because it is quite possible that the person who at first rejected the church may become a devoted New Church man at some later date, because of some occurrence in his life which might give him a feeling of need for spiritual help and guidance.
     Secondly, some may feel that others might not cling to the ideals of the New Church in the same way that they do, and that the standards of the church as a whole might therefore be lowered. I can certainly understand a person thinking this way before he has thought the matter out thoroughly. Actually, I cannot conceive of anyone becoming a part of the New Church in an insincere or flippant manner, and being accepted and baptized in such a state. But even if such a thing were to happen, the Lord would not permit His church to be spoiled by it in any way.
     The third main reason I can see that New Church people might be hesitant about spreading the news of their church to outsiders is that they fully realize the importance the Writings place upon freedom and the rights of the individual. They are very careful not to evangelize in a compelling or persuasive fashion, but would rather let a person do the asking; and they may think that even talking about their religion in an enthusiastic manner may be a form of pressure! But we must remember that others cannot be in full freedom until the truth has been revealed to them. I have found people quite eager to discuss the church, even if they are already quite happy in their own religion.
     We have many opportunities to discuss the church; some of us in working hours, most of us in friendly gatherings and social groups. Of course, if a person does not go out very much, and rarely mixes with people outside the church, he will have little opportunity to do missionary work!

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However, he may still play a very important part in that work by supporting the endeavors of those who have the opportunities he lacks.
I can tell you how happy my wife and I are in having come into the church, and I hope that many others may be able to experience the joy that we have. Now I can see how a judgment took place in my own mind; and I trust that through those of us who are missionary-minded, others may be introduced into the New Church and thus undergo the Last Judgment.
INTERESTING CENTENNIAL 1957

INTERESTING CENTENNIAL 1957

In October, 1854, the Rev. W. H. Benade resigned as pastor of the Philadelphia Society and formed a new society. Within two years this new society had definitely accepted New Church education as a use of the church, and for the performance of this use a building was erected on Cherry Street. The cornerstone of this building was laid on September 11, 1856, and it was on this occasion that Mr. Benade delivered his often-quoted address predicting the extension of New Church education. On Sunday, September 20, 1857, the Cherry Street Church was dedicated; and the following report of the dedication appeared next day in the PHILADELPHIA EVENING BULLETIN, under the heading Consecration of a New Jerusalem Church," and was reprinted in the NEW JERUSALEM MESSENGER for October 3,1857, p. 63.
"The consecration and dedication of the place of worship of the 'Philadelphia (brotherly love) Society of the New Jerusalem' took place yesterday morning, at 10 1/2 o'clock. The building, which was erected principally for the purposes of a day school, to belong to the Society, is built of rough stone, and situated on the north side of Cherry Street, above Twentieth, is two stories high and 37 feet wide by 57 long, surrounded by a yard with a garden in front. The lower story is occupied by the school, which has an attendance of about thirty scholars. The pastor of the Society, Rev. W. H. Benade, is the principal; he is assisted by Prof. L. J. Tafel, and other teachers. The upper story, occupied as the place of worship, is capable of seating about 180 persons, has a platform erected at the east end to which three steps lead up, on which are, in the middle against the wall, the tabernacle, twelve feet high, four long and two deep, covered with cloth hangings of blue, purple and scarlet, which overhang the ark, the repository of the Bible, which, during service, is to be taken out and laid open on the altar in front of the tabernacle. To the south of the altar is the pulpit, which is covered with blue cloth; to the north, the reading desk covered with red.

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Against the north-east corner of the wall is erected a dressing room, which is surrounded by blue damask. On the floor to the south, outside the platform, is to be placed the baptismal fount. At the west of the room is a place set apart for the choir. On a table, just in front of this, are placed three boxes, which are for the reception of voluntary contributions from the worshippers, from which contributions the minister and school are supported and the current expenses of the place of worship to be paid.
     "This Society was formally constituted, May 11th, 1856, the cornerstone of the building was laid on September 11th of the same year. The school room was used for worship on last Christmas, and the school opened in January of the present year with eighteen scholars.
     "The order of exercises in the morning were:-First, the entrance of the minister dressed in a white linen gown, over which was fastened a purple silk cape. He carried the Bible for the ark, which he laid on the altar, and opened; two assistants carrying another Bible and the other books to be used during the service. Second-After drawing back the hangings of the tabernacle and opening the ark, the minister repeated the words, 'The Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him,' after which he knelt in front of the altar, facing the east, during which there was a profound silence for the secret devotion of the worshippers. After this the dedicatory service took place, preceded by remarks concerning the signification of all the arrangements in the room. After the dedication five children were baptized. On account of the length of the services, the sermon prepared for the occasion was not delivered, but it is expected that it will be next Sunday.
     "The Society spoken of above is one of those which acknowledge Emanuel Swedenborg as the Divinely commissioned teacher of the truths of the Lord's second advent, which advent all of the New Jerusalem Church hold to be a spiritual and not a natural one. As a synopsis of some of their peculiar views might not be uninteresting in this connection, we will enumerate some of the principal as related by one of their number. The fundamental belief concerning God is, that there is one God, in one person, in whom is a trinity-that this person is Jesus Christ, in whom they hold `dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Concerning the atonement they hold that God assumed human nature, not for the purpose of having the wrath of another divine being appeased, but for the purpose of making it possible for man to be saved, by His judging and conquering the powers of hell, which had gained such an ascendancy in the spiritual world, that divine influx could no longer reach man unperverted, and therefore men must have remained in their fallen evil state, had not the Lord come. The whole doctrine is in fact expressed in the words of the Apostle Paul-'God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.'

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They therefore do not hold to the doctrine of the vicarious atonement. Concerning Life, they hold that in order to do good, a man must shun evils as sins against God, and live a life according to the ten commandments, as of himself, yet acknowledging that all the power to do so is of the Lord alone. Concerning the Word of God, they hold that it has a spiritual sense distinct from the natural or literal sense, and contained within it, as the soul is distinct from, yet contained within the natural body of man. They hold, also, that there is a science called the science of Correspondences, which teaches the relation between natural things and spiritual, and that remains of this science still exist in the hieroglyphics of Egypt, the ceremonies of free masonry, of many of the churches in the present day, and in some of the forms in courts of justice, and in many of the mythological fables of the old heathen nations. As the doctrines of this church are peculiar, and, in order to their true understanding, must have a basis in the mind of true natural science, therefore this society has founded the school wherein are taught natural sciences, in connection with the doctrines of the church."

EDITORIAL NOTE: We are indebted for this interesting report to Miss Constance Pendleton, who obtained a copy from the Philadelphia Free Library.)
NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1957

NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS Editor 1957

The dominant figures in our readings from the Old Testament (I Kings 20-II Kings 11) are Elijah and Elisha. There are significant distinctions between these two prophets. Elijah, scourge of Ahab's dynasty and implacable foe of the Tyrian Baal, was a stern ascetic, inspiring awe by appearances so abrupt and mysterious as to give rise to a legend that he was angel rather than man. He emerged from the wilderness to denounce evil, pronounce doom, dispense punishment. His characteristic miracles are associated with fire; and this solitary man who moved in constant danger of death, and was the pattern of John the Baptist, had the function of preparing for a restoration of the worship of the Lord in the northern kingdom of Israel.
Elisha was, by contrast, a man of known and apparently respected antecedents, seemingly wealthy, and having a standing which enabled him to become a counsellor of kings. His name is associated more with healing, and many of his most characteristic miracles have to do with spiritual sight. He was given to see into the council chamber of the Syrian king, to open the spiritual eyes of his servant, and to smite a Syrian army with blindness.

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The insight given him made him an indispensable adviser of Israel and seriously thwarted the designs of Syria, and he was much engaged in defending Israel against foreign aggression.
     Both prophets represented the Lord as to the Word, but as to different series and planes therein. In Elijah we see how the truth of the letter-apparently harsh, unyielding, and relentless-seems to punish the wicked; while to Elisha was given the gentler role of representing the healing power of truth from good as exercised upon the regenerating. The truth is the same in each instance-the mantle of Elijah falls upon Elisha; but in the contrasting stories we may see its different operations with the evil and the good. In another sense, however, the contrast between the two prophets is that which we find in the Gospels between John the Baptist and the Lord Himself (Matthew 11: 7-19). For Elijah, the rough desert hermit, represents the Word in the letter; and Elisha, whose eyes were opened and who dwelt with kings, represents the Word as to its internal sense. The function of the letter is to cause men to repent and to reestablish the worship of the Lord in the midst of spiritual idolatry; that of the internal sense is to enlighten in the way of heaven those who have repented, to heal them, and to protect them.
     Important laws are delivered and explained in the concluding sections of Divine Providence, which is finished this month. Despite many appearances to the contrary, the Divine Providence is equally with the evil and with the good; and it appropriates neither evil nor good to any man, man s own prudence appropriating both. Every man, therefore, may be reformed, and there is no such thing as predestination in the Augustinian or the Calvinistic sense. Yet the Lord acts only according to the laws of the Divine Providence: and for this reason not all men are saved, and man himself is at fault if he is not (DP 308-340).
     Apocalypse Revealed, which is taken up this month, is furnished with a preface and a compendium of the doctrines of the Roman Catholic and the Reformed churches. The Apocalypse, which is expounded in this work, is peculiarly a book for the New Church; and the many speculative commentaries that have been written on it testify to the truth that only the Lord could have opened this sealed book. The summary of Roman Catholic beliefs, taken from the decisions of general councils, still stands; because it is Rome's boast that she does not change.

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IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES 1957

The Convention sermon, published in the NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER, refers to "the high purposes which unite us as the visible body of the New Jerusalem." It is, perhaps, the inference that may justly be drawn from such a statement which has led some correspondents to question or deny the wisdom of identifying the General Convention, an organization, with the Lords New Church-a point which may easily lead to confusion of thought. It has long been the view of the General Church that the church specific, as distinct from the church universal, exists 001y within the organized New Church, although it is obviously not coextensive with it; that there is something of the New Church within each of the organized New Church bodies; and that no one body may therefore think or speak of itself as the visible body of the New Jerusalem, in an inclusive or exclusive sense.

In a Convention address entitled "God's Continuing Judgment," published in the same periodical, the Rev. Ernest O. Martin says: "Christianity in the middle 1700's reached a dangerously low ebb. The flame of Christian love had almost died out. The church was filled with hopelessness and despair. . . . Then the church underwent a purge or judgment. A new spirit was breathed into it . . . With his restatement of Christian theology. Swedenborg helped to give the church a more substantial foundation." We have seldom seen a clearer statement of the view here expressed, or one that makes more evident the differences involved. According to Mr. Martin, the Christian Church was not replaced by the New Church as a result of the Last Judgment; it was purified, renewed, and became a new church. It was not Christianity that was revived-or, as the Writings put it, first began to dawn-but the Christian churches. And the function of the Writings is not to serve as the basis for the New Church, but to give a more substantial foundation to the regenerated Christian Church. It is just here that we differ, radically, and are left wondering what reason there is for the New Church to exist at all.

An interesting contrast is to be found in the Conference sermon, "The Two Witnesses," delivered by the Rev. H. B. Newall and published in the NEW-CHURCH HERALD. The two witnesses are, of course, the acknowledgment that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth and His Human is Divine, and a life according to the commandments.

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"Upon these two vital principles," says Mr. Newall. "the whole edifice of the church rests. Their rejection and liquidation by the first Christian Church resulted in its ultimate inability to receive Divine truth from the Lord. Thus the Last Judgment became necessary before the Lord could raise up a church in which the witnesses would again be living principles." The Lord's coming at the end of a church is said to consist of three Divine operations: a judgment in the spiritual world, the descent of a new revelation of Divine truth from God to men, the establishment of a new church on earth by means of this revelation. And the sermon concludes: "Where these essentials are not accepted, the New Church cannot possibly exist. Where they are accepted, there is the New Church nominally; but where they are accepted and lived, there is the spiritual church of the holy city. New Jerusalem."

The effects of the Last Judgment continue to be discussed in the NEW-CHURCH HERALD, and the Rev. Frank Holmes again questions the position that there is no need for us to exist as a distinct church since "the fundamental aim is that we unite with all." He points out, cogently, that the falsities of the former church must be removed before the truth of the New Church can be received; and insists that the position confuses the diverse doctrinals which needlessly separate churches and the faiths and imputations of the former Christianity and the New Church which the Writings say cannot possibly be together. And, returning to the assumption that wherever there is a church it must be the New Church, he asks: "Can we really call the Pope a New Church man?"
PUBLISHING THE WRITINGS 1957

PUBLISHING THE WRITINGS Editor 1957

Two Stimulating Reports

A continuing program for the publication and distribution of the Writings is essential, both to meet the needs of the organized church and as the most effective method of presenting the Heavenly Doctrine to modern thought. The annual reports of the Swedenborg Society, London, and the Swedenborg Foundation, New York, furnish convincing evidence that such a program is being sustained. Both bodies are engaged in publishing and in meeting the demands of the organized New Church; but the Swedenborg Society is especially concerned with translating, while the Foundation is particularly active in evangelization through the distributing of the Writings, and in carrying on a propaganda for Swedenborg. These special interests are reflected in the reports under review.

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     The Swedenborg Society

     The 147th Report presented by the Council of the Swedenborg Society records steady progress in translation, publication and printing. With the publication of the fourth volume of the third Latin edition of the Arcana Coelestia, half of this new edition is now in printed form; volume V is in proof, and further progress has been made in the preparation of volume VI. The revision of Heaven and Hell has been completed and the work is now in the hands of the printer; progress has been made in the final preparation of Spiritual Diary, volume I, for the printer, and in the revision of Summary Exposition of Prophets and Psalms; the booklet Divine Province and Human Freedom was issued in February; and it has been decided to prepare Latin-English editions of De Justificatione and De Domino, neither of which is at present available in the Society's editions. Another Zulu translation, The Doctrine of Faith, has been printed, and the remaining one of the Four Doctrines translated into this language, The Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture, has been approved for printing.
     In addition to this new work, a reprint, by photolithography, of volume VI of Potts Swedenborg Concordance has been made. A similar reproduction of volume III and a reprint of volume I from existing stereo-plates have been put in hand. It is considered that no further replacement of volumes of the Concordance will be necessary for some years. Reprints of Arcana Coelestia, volumes IV and VI, and of God, Providence, Creation are also in hand, and sheet stock of several works has been bound as required.
     It is mentioned also that a small but steady flow of additions to the library continues. Work on the new edition of Documents Concerning Swedenborg came to a temporary halt last year with the retirement of the Rev. J. G. Dufty from the editorship. Five lectures were Given during the 1956-1957 session, two on the work The Doctrine of Uses and three on the work The Last Judgment. Total distribution of books throughout the year was 2,846, and the membership now stands at 779, a net gain of 47 which reflects in part an increasing interest in the work of the Swedenborg Society on this side of the Atlantic. Concern is expressed about the general decline of sales of the Society's publications: and the Council commends especially the new translations and pocket editions, and urges members to do all they can in their contacts with New Church people to bring to their attention the high quality of the Society's recent publications.

     The Swedenborg Foundation

     The 108th Report of the Swedenborg Foundation also indicates a busy year. With stock in good supply-approximately 92,000 volumes-the Foundation sold during the fiscal year 14,480 books, including 3,352 volumes of the Standard Edition of the Writings.

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Donations amounted to 7,053 books, and included 678 volumes of the Standard Edition, principally to libraries and ministers; 387 volumes, complete sets or parts of sets, going to 33 public and college libraries. There was no need to print books this year, but 19,085 pamphlets and catalogues were printed and 260 books were bought. The Foundation is cooperating with the Swedenborg Society in the production of a new translation of the Spiritual Diary.
In Florida the Foundation is assisting in establishing a New Church book room at Ft. Lauderdale; and it is continuing the effort to introduce the Standard Edition of the Writings-30 volumes-into the homes of New Church couples between the ages of 21 and 40 at half price. The Foundation continues to be interested in colportage, advertising and publicity. The Committee on Work for the Blind proposes to produce for distribution further talking book records of Divine Providence; and there is a Committee on Ways and Means to Spread the Doctrines which seeks to work through the Philosophical Center in Chicago, Wayfarer's Chapel at Palos Verdes, and broadcasting. Since it was incorporated in 1850, the Foundation has donated 1,205.139 volumes of the Writings.
THE EDITOR
SECRET OF HUMAN LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS 1957

SECRET OF HUMAN LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS WERTHA P. COLE 1957

     THE SECRET OF HUMAN LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS. By A. C. Ferber. Pageant Press, Inc., New York, 1957. Paper, pp. 105. Price: $1.25.

     It is always a pleasure to read a book on the habitability of other worlds written by a man who is affirmative and a believer in the Writings. Many books have been published, and many lectures with intriguing titles have been delivered, which are disappointingly negative about the possibility of human life on the planets of our solar system; although it is not unusual to find statements of belief in the purpose of creation as far as other solar systems are concerned. However, it is the idea that it can be proved impossible for the known planets to support human life that is the concern of the writer of this book. He has undertaken to solve a difficult problem indeed if his purpose is to prove scientifically that human life can exist on these planets.
     What he calls the "scientific view" is outlined in the first chapter of his book, where he states that "according to most up-to-date evidence gathered by illustrious scientists, the hypothesis of human races on other planets in our solar system is untenable' (page 3). He follows this with a description of the conditions on Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and the moons of the major planets; giving reasons for the present theories, and explaining his thesis that appearances "have fooled most scientists completely" (page 5).

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     The book consists of nine chapters and ends rather abruptly after a discussion of the atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune. The chapters are subdivided into short sections, the subjects of which do not always follow a pattern of natural sequence but at times are like unconnected notes. There is no general conclusion, and there are no illustrations.
     New Church people should be careful to distinguish between belief and scientific fact. We believe certain things, but to say that therefore they are facts which can be scientifically proved is quite different. We believe that there are people on the planets, but Mr. Ferber has not helped us to understand how they could live under the conditions which scientists agree exist there. The fact remains that there are things we do not comprehend. Swedenborg at times makes statements concerning rotation periods and inclination to the ecliptic which cannot be correlated with natural facts. He thought that Jupiter rotated in about six hours (Motion and Position of the Earths and Planets), and that the axis of Venus points toward the sun (Itinerarium) but what difference does it make, unless we attempt to verify his statements? Swedenborg did not misrepresent anything to prove his point, but illustrated the principle of life with the facts as he understood them. It is difficult to see how this discussion in any way augments what Swedenborg said.
     Preparation for the writing of a book like Mr. Ferber's naturally involves a great deal of reading. One should be familiar with the science of Swedenborg's day and be up-to-date in modern astronomy, which includes a basis in chemistry and physics. A knowledge of biology is also important to the understanding of life under different conditions. Under "acknowledgments" Mr. Ferber lists a number of authors to whom he is indebted." No one interested in this subject should be ignorant of the works of such men as Flammarion, Schiaparelli, Madler, Herschel, and our own Lowell. Barnard, Slipher, Kuiper, and others; but in listing these and others, as well as those mentioned in the text and in the very few footnotes, the period in which they lived, or the date of publication, should always be mentioned. The men who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries did not have the information which is at hand today, and their point of view is affected by this lack. It is not clear whether these are among the author's "new evidences"; but ignoring their dates may be misleading to the reader, and reference to them, unless direct quotation, is no more pertinent than literary reference to Shakespeare.
     Mr. Ferber states in his preface that "the existence of human beings in the other worlds in our solar system must stem from an initial belief in God, for it would be nonsense to imagine that human races could develop by blind chance on numerous worlds."

421

A similar idea was held by writers before Swedenborg's time. For example, a naive writer of the 18th century, John Peter Biester, MD., in An Enquiry into the Probability of the Planets being Inhabited (London, 1736), asks: "Of what use to Jupiter would so much beautiful moonlight be if there were no inhabitants there?"
     Swedenborg himself held this philosophy before his spiritual eves were opened. In the Principia, and the little work Motion and Position of the Earths and Planets (1718), he discusses the diversity of worlds and the necessity in Divine Providence for life to be accommodated to varied conditions.
     We wonder if Mr. Ferber investigated the standing of Prof. Frank W. Very among modern astronomers before dedicating his bock to him. Prof. Very (d. 1927) did accept the Writings, and he did try to verify certain things from the standpoint of science; but although he held positions of responsibility and belonged to scientific associations he is not recognized today as a first-rate astronomer.
     As Dr. Hugo Lj. Odhner has so ably reviewed Mr. Ferber's Where is Heaven? [NEW CHURCH LIFE, August, 1955]. it is not necessary to discuss that part of the present work (pp. 37-51) which consists of a brief informative description of Swedenborg's philosophical and theological works And as the author gives in Chapter 1 what he calls the "scientific view" based on "up-to-date evidence" (page 3), much of which is quite old, it may not be necessary to refer to any of these sources. But since one of these sources is Spencer-Jones (page 105), it might be applicable to mention that we have heard him say in effect that there is no human life at all on other planets. Mr. Ferber's imagination carries him to a far different conclusion from that of the man he quotes about the green color of Uranus and Neptune.
     What is Mr. Ferber's purpose? The subject, as he says, is a theological one. He has collected much material from many sources, both for and against; but for the most part actual citations are not given, and he sometimes gives the false impression that the astronomers he mentions agree with his premise. On the other hand, there are stronger arguments that he does not quote. He demonstrates his belief in the general principle given in the Writings, but his treatment in trying to correlate this with the so-called known facts is not convincing to us. It does not help our faith or belief in the doctrine to attempt such proofs; nor, in our opinion, are they called for.
     Swedenborg states that Saturn is the outermost planet, so imaginative descriptions of Uranus and Neptune are allowable, as far as the Writings are concerned. "Planets are created for life."

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But to go into details about methane and ammonia gases not being poisonous, and oxygen being present in the atmosphere, contrary to the findings of the scientists whom Mr. Ferber quotes, seems to be raising a problem too difficult at this time. The discussion here is not scientific but is more like a piece of science fiction without a plot. The reader is referred to Kuiper's book The Atmospheres of the Earth and Planets; yet Kuiper says cautiously: "The surface of Mars, small as it appears in telescopes. has a fascination of a peculiar quality. The delicate greenish surface markings, set against a background of bright orange 'desert,' hold out a promise found nowhere else: an opportunity to discover life and follow its processes on a world other than our own." It is confusing and startling to read that what is "now definitely known" is not believed by most scientists.
     Mr. Ferber is said by the publishers to have "a thorough knowledge of physical laws" and "perceptive logic." Some may disagree with these statements, except in so far as the perceptive logic is Swedenborg's. Some of the "new evidence" has been rejected, and some has not been thoroughly weighed. After reading the book we agreed that `the present picture is one of confusion," and that we really know very little.
     There are many questions that come to mind as we read. For example, we question the authoritative manner in which the author assigns significance to the following: the great amount of evidence of water on the moon (p. 26); the picture [on the moon] is quite different beneath the surface (p. 32)-how does he know?; the moving lights on the moon (p. 35)-an interesting compilation of observations; the cross (p. 23)-interesting conclusions; nuclear explosions (p. 74)-the observer did not suggest this; cavern homes on the moon (p. 51), and water "piped" on Mars (p. 73)-possible, but pure conjecture. Some of these statements, which are not from the Writings or from the scientists, but from the author's imagination, should always be definitely so labeled.
     However, Mr. Ferber has made a brave attempt. His intense interest in the subject, combined with his faith, has at times carried him away into the realm of wishful thinking in which some of us may wish to join him.
     WERTHA P. COLE
INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF REVELATION AND ITS INTERNAL MEANING 1957

INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF REVELATION AND ITS INTERNAL MEANING Editor 1957

INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF REVELATION AND ITS INTERNAL MEANING. By Everett K. Bray. University Press of Cambridge (Mass.) Inc., 1957. Paper. pp. 31.

The title page of this interesting little pamphlet describes it as an introduction to the book of Revelation and its internal meaning as given in the Apocalypse Revealed by Emanuel Swedenborg.

423

According to the author's preface the study is intended to help the reader to see that the Apocalypse pictures the entire range of human states as manifested in spiritual light; to serve as an outline of the high points of the book and assist the reader to keep the unfolding scenes in series; and to give some measure of the internal meaning as revealed in the Writings. The author recommends that the pamphlet he read in connection with the Apocalypse Revealed, and that the biblical text he consulted before the summary of each chapter is studied.
Swedenborg's preface to the Apocalypse Revealed is quoted, and is followed by a general exposition of the book of Revelation. The author wisely avoids detail and follows the main thread of the internal sense. The beginning of each new series is clearly noted, as is its relation to the preceding one, and the apparently parenthetical series in the book of Revelation are integrated with the main series and their significance shown. The author's brief comments are always suggestive, and they stress the unity of the text. We are inclined to think that the value of the pamphlet would have been increased by a schematic outline of the series and sub-series in the Apocalypse, and that more might have been done to group the chapters into series; but we feel that the study can most certainly assist the reader Mr. Bray has in mind to enter into the broad sweep of the internal sense of this cryptic book.
THE EDITOR
FOR THE LADIES 1957

FOR THE LADIES Editor 1957

The SONS OF THE ACADEMY BULLETIN is already being sent to every male member of the General Church. At a recent meeting of the Sons Executive Committee, it was decided to include in the mailing list any lady who will send her name and address to Mr. Geoffrey Cooper. Mailing and Membership Committee, Sons of the Academy, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

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IN DEFENSE OF AN ULTIMATE MEANS 1957

IN DEFENSE OF AN ULTIMATE MEANS Editor 1957

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

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

Editor      Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager      Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address, and business communications, should be sent to the Circulation Secretary. Notifications of address changes should be received by the 15th of the month.

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
$3.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single copy, 30 cents.
     There must be many in the church who are convinced that, somewhere in the Writings, it is said that when we think about money the angels leave us. If this were true, the prospect for church treasurers and finance boards would indeed be an alarming one! But we have searched in vain for any such statement, and can only conclude that this is one of those unauthenticated but persistent ideas which circulate in the church. In two places in the Spiritual Diary, the only references we can find, Swedenborg relates that when he had detained his lower mind in cares about necessary monies, the spirits could not speak with him (no. 1166); and that when these reflections were long sustained, other spirits injected troublesome and evil things (no. 3624). However, that is a very different thing, and it does not tell the whole story.
     As our societies and circles again take up their program of uses this month it is inevitable that treasurers and finance boards will be thinking, and speaking, about money. But they may do so without qualms! The love of money for the sake of no end is indeed condemned in the Writings as the most sordid of all loves. Yet when money is the mediate end, and is loved for the sake of use, the final love is spiritual; and we are told that those with whom money is thus in the second place are loved in heaven. The angels most assuredly love the end for the sake of which the church on earth exists-the salvation of souls: and as he who loves the end also loves the means, we may be quite certain that consideration of even the most ultimate means, from love of and for the sake of the end, will not cause the angels to depart.

425

     EDUCATION: A REAPPRAISAL

     We have always thought it unfair, whenever the statement has been made, to say that all educational systems except our own are animated solely by the loves of self and the world, and that their only purpose is to prepare for the realization of selfish and worldly ambitions. That is, unfortunately, true of some; but the generalization is doctrinally unsound and far too sweeping, and it betrays ignorance of the facts. The doctrine of the church specific and universal extends into the educational as well as into the ecclesiastical and religious worlds; and there have been, and are, schools which seek to impart high moral standards of responsibility and of unselfish service to others.
     These schools, and the educational philosophies they embody, bear the same relation to ours that the church universal bears to the church specific. To say this not only does them the justice they deserve; it makes amply clear the precise nature of the vital difference that still exists between them and New Church schools. The distinction between us is not as to loves, but as to the truths which qualify loves. Other educators may, as some of them do, feel the need for spiritual values in education. They perceive that there is something wrong with a system of education which benefits only its recipients. What they lack is not the will, but authoritative knowledge-Divinely revealed truth-about the things toward which they are groping in the dark.
     Reflection on this may help us to appreciate New Church education from yet another viewpoint. To us has been entrusted, not merely what many would reject, but what the best minds elsewhere are seeking but have not yet found. For to us the Lord has revealed the true nature of the human mind, the real purpose for which it was created, and the modes by which it may be prepared gradually for the achievement of that purpose. All of this the Lord has made known to us in the Writings: not always openly, but in such a way that it may be drawn from their pages and formulated through the patient and diligent studies of those who love the use of New Church education and have dedicated themselves to it. It is recognized that we are only at the beginning of this work; that there are still indefinite things in the Writings to be searched out, integrated into what has already been discovered, and then applied. But a start by no means negligible has been made. There is now in the philosophy and practice of New Church education a considerable body of knowledge derived from the study of the Writings. And that organized knowledge should be precious in our sight, for it is the gift of the Lord Himself, the right use of which will lead to further bounties. To increase it, to use it, to receive it, is indeed a high privilege.

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HEAVENLY GOVERNMENT AND DEMOCRACY 1957

HEAVENLY GOVERNMENT AND DEMOCRACY G. A. DEC. DE MOUBRAY 1957

     Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE:

     May I be allowed to say a few words on this subject? What is democracy? We must not allow ourselves to be beguiled into the widely diffused and frustrating practice of applying the term to our ideal form of society, whatever it may be. In its origin the term described the agent in the mechanism of government. The Greek word demokratia meant government by the demos (in this sense the whole body of citizens). Every citizen was a member of the boule, the assembly; he was a member of the armed forces when occasion demanded; and he took his turn in administrative duties, the chief of which was the magistracy. Implied in this set-up was the equality of the citizens in political function-in New Church language, identity of use. This was only possible in the minute city states of Greece with their primitive economy; and by ignoring, both in theory and in practice, all the women and the large population of slaves.
     In more recent times the sharing of administrative duties among the whole community ceased to be considered even as an ideal. With such minor exceptions as the so-called "forest" cantons of Switzerland, influence on policy could only be attained indirectly, by the election of representatives. Representative parliamentary institutions are now sweeping over the world.
     J. S. Mill, in the humanist tradition, and after him T. H. Green and John Dewey, have argued that this share in the government of the community, indirect and limited though it be, is necessary to self-realization. F. J. C. Hearnshaw and others, in a more Christian tradition, have argued that the justification for democracy is the fact that all men are equal in the sight of God. In a socialist tradition, Dalton and others, applying the ideal of equality to economic life, argue that the greater the equality of incomes in a community, the greater the "welfare" therein-"welfare" in this sense apparently meaning the sum total of happiness. As a facet of a new ideal of social justice, equality in every possible way has become a major end in itself in much modern thought. The idea once put to me in conversation, that in the after life we must all become perfect, is an end product of this view of justice as demanding absolute equality, even if this should imply identity.
     All these theories run counter to New Church doctrine and to what we know from the Writings to be the structure of society in heaven. It is not true that all men are equal in the sight of God. They are the same in His sight-the same in that they all have an innate potentiality of attaining conjunction with the Lord by response to His love. But they are unequal in their response, and therefore in the conjunction they attain.

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Indeed, some end up in the lowest hell, and others in the highest heaven. The image of the Infinite is to be seen not only in the quasi-infinite number of created things, but in their diversity. "Perfection comes from variety even in heaven" (HH 56). All the societies in the heavens are distinct in accordance with their use (HH 391). Services that pertain to the general good are performed by the wiser angels, those that pertain to particular uses by the less wise. All things in the heavens are subordinated, just as uses are subordinated in the Divine order; and for this reason a dignity is connected with every function according to the dignity of the use (HH 389). There are rich angels in heaven (HH 361) and servants (HH 219). In the Lord's spiritual kingdom there are various forms of government, in one society not the same as in another, the variety being in accord with the functions performed by the societies (HH 217). The governors (praefecti) in heaven are such as are in love and wisdom more than the others. They have honor and glory; they dwell in the midst of the society, in higher position than the rest and in magnificent palaces (HH 218).
     The term praefecti is arresting. It implies that the governors are set over the societies by the Lord, and that they are not therefore elected by the angels. But is this necessarily so? Might not appointment by the Lord work through an electoral system? The problem appears to be solved by the continuation of the above quotation from HH 218. "This glory and honor they accept not for the sake of themselves but for the sake of obedience. For all there know that they have this honor and glory from the Lord and on that account should be obeyed." I must confess to have been sorely puzzled at first by this statement that honor and glory was for the sake of obedience. One would expect honor and glory to elicit obedience among a simple and ignorant people, but surely not to be needed among angels. And yet the answer is there. They elicit obedience because it is recognized that they are given by the Lord in correspondence with the governors' functions, and are therefore a sign that they have been selected as rulers and are therefore to be obeyed.
     It is, moreover, clear that the individual angel finds his delight in performing the uses for which he is particularly gifted, and that he feels no desire to encroach on functions for which he realizes others are better fitted. In all this he is acting from intuitions which come to him from the Lord. This transcendent government by influx from the Lord has the effect of fitting these multitudinous uses into a marvellous and most perfect pattern-of fitting quasi-infinite variety and inequality into one perfect whole, a finite image of the Infinite.
     Is there any democracy in this? Is there not rather aristokratia- literally, government by the best?
     G. A. DEC. DE MOUBRAY

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Church News 1957

Church News Various 1957

     NORTH OHIO

     Our group may be small, and our activities not too varied, but we go on in our quiet way, with regular services once a month in our quarters in the Tudor Arms Hotel, preceded the evening before by a doctrinal class held in a private home. The even tenor of our way is highlighted by events that might pass almost unnoticed in a larger group, but affect us all the more, perhaps, because of their rarity.
     Mr. and Mrs. Riis Burwell had their baby daughter, Tamerlane, baptized in April, the first baptism that scone of the smaller ones in the group remember. Last summer Miss Patricia de Maine was confirmed-the first such ceremony to be performed here for many a year, and all the more impressive to the young people because of its unusualness. In the spring we lost our oldest member, Mr. Ben Fuller, known affectionately to all ages as Uncle Ben. Uncle Ben was indeed the backbone of our Circle, active until nearly the end of his ninety-three years in this world. Eulogies of him will appear elsewhere; so suffice it to say chat without him the North Ohio Circle might not have endured, and that his absence will leave a place which none can fill. Services commemorating his entrance into the other world were conducted by the Rev. Norman H. Reuter, and the faces of many of those attending them reflected great interest in Mr. Reuter's words.
     The greatest change has been that which came about in our leadership with the resignation of Mr. Reuter to carry on fuller uses in Detroit, and the appointment of the Rev. B. David Holm to care for us, as well as Southern Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, and, one week in every month, Pittsburgh! This staggering assignment Mr. Holm seems to face with equanimity, being blessed with the energy of the young and with full enthusiasm for the tasks committed to him. He and his wife, with their young son and daughter, have settled for the time being in Urbana as the most central location in his far-flung pastorate; but North Ohio is scheduled for the first Sunday of each month and hereby extends a cordial welcome to all who may be in the area at such time. Business analysts have stated that Northern Ohio is the fastest growing section of the country at this time, and predict an influx of 35,000 people a year for the next ten years into the area between Cleveland and Akron, which is 30 miles to the south. So we urge all young men to consider this location when they are planning their futures, and to join with us in helping our Circle to grow at the same rate of speed.
     NAN C. DE MAINE

     HURSTVILLE, AUSTRALIA

     A review of the life of the Hurstville Society during the first half of this year shows that its members have been busy in its various uses, and so, we believe, happy.
     The Swedenborg's birthday celebration was the highlight of January. Around tables decorated with the Swedish colors we discussed Swedenborg's preparation for his use as a revelator. His ability to respire inwardly when quite young, and the changes of breathing experienced as he visited different heavenly societies, were among the interesting points brought to light. Mrs. L. Barnes of Dora Creek, near Newcastle, was with us on that occasion.

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     The Robin Hood "Escapade," in March, scored a bullseye for entertainment. Robin Hood and his merry men were there, and other Sherwood Forest characters, and didn't they have fun! Branches of trees and other greenery made a forest setting, and the games were in keeping with the atmosphere. For supper there were frankfurter sausages in a dish above a very real-looking cooking fire. There was a treasure hunt also, and popcorn strung on cotton thread made excellent jewels for the girls. The children can thank the Theta Alpha ladies for that one.
     Easter, for New Church people, is a happy time-a time of joy because knowledge of the risen Lord in His glorified Human is now given. "The True Vision of God," a sermon by Bishop De Charms, was read on Easter Sunday, and the children listened to an Easter talk by the Rev. W. Cairns Henderson. Flowers brought by the children beautifully decorated the church.
     What do you think that group of people standing near the rear of the church are discussing? Why, the new church kitchen, of course. Formerly a dream, now a reality, it emerged from the blueprint stage due to a really commendable effort on the part of Messrs. T. R. Tayor and F. W. Fletcher. In Sydney they boast of "Our Bridge," "Our Harbor," and soon, perhaps, "Our Opera House." But in the Hurstville Society the toast is now "Our Kitchen."
     The Sons have been busy, too. With a welt supported fete and sale of work they raised a creditable sum which will assist students who go to the Academy.
     "June the Nineteenth, Day of Days, we'll forget thee never!" As part of the Nineteenth of June celebration the ladies of Theta Alpha organized a children's party. First the children enjoyed a tasty meal. Then, after singing `June the Nineteenth," they listened to a talk by Mrs. F. W. Fletcher. After explaining what the things on the church chancel meant she drew their attention to the inscription on the pulpit cloth: "The Lord God Jesus Christ Reigns." This was the message of the Nineteenth of June, she explained.
     On the Nineteenth of June a service was held at the church in the evening. A sermon by Bishop Dc Charms, "The Last Judgment and the New Church," was read. Afterwards there was a social supper. No speeches had been prepared but with toasts and songs those present gave happy expression to their thoughts and feelings on this wonderful day for the church that is "first in our hearts."
     NORMAN HELDON

     THE CHURCH AT LARGE

     General Convention. The 134th annual session of the General Convention was held at Boston, Massachusetts, June 20-23, the theme this year being "Gods Continuing Judgment. The following highlights are from the NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER, which does not state the number of ministers and lay delegates in attendance.
     During the meetings of constituent and related bodies, which on June 15th, the Council of Ministers, convening at Brockton and Blairhaven, heard addresses by the Rev. James H. Burns of the Massachusetts Council of Churches on "Some Blunders in Counselling" and by the Rev. John C. King on manifestations in the external world of the Last Judgment The Rev. Ernest O. Martin, pastor of the Wilmington Society, addressed an open meeting on "God's Continuing Judgment." The Rev. Edwin G. Capon was elected president of the Council, and the Rev. Immanuel Tafel was chosen as secretary The Rev. Henry Reddekopp was selected as Convention preacher for next year.
     The 86th annual meeting of the American New-Church Sunday School Association heard that 30 schools, one of them undenominational, are now subscribing for the uniform lessons, which it is proposed to print in the near future. The 50th annual meeting of the National Alliance of New-Church Women voted to continue publication of its bulletin in the MESSENGER, and heard addresses from three of its members on different facets of Convention's theme. The American New-Church League also met. The Rev. William R. Woofenden was re-elected president of the Association, Mrs. Stewart Poole was again chosen as president of the Alliance, and Mr. Richard Hatheway became president of the League.

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     Convention proper opened on Thursday evening, the presidential address being delivered by the Rev. David P. Johnson. Convention was welcomed to Boston by representatives of the Massachusetts Association, the Boston Society, and the Massachusetts Council of Churches. At the subsequent sessions, in addition to business and reports, Convention heard an address by the Rev. Samuel H. Miller, pastor of Old Cambridge Baptist Church, on "The Church Under God." A forum, "Accounting for our Talents." was conducted by the Rev. Richard Tafel, the Rev. David P. Johnson, and Mr. Stewart Poole, under the chairmanship of the Rev. John C. King. And a meeting held under the auspices of the Committee on Social Action was addressed on "Faith in Action" by Mrs. Daniel Farber of the Massachusetts Congregational Conference Social Action Committee. The Lay Fellowship met for dinner on Friday and again on Saturday. The always popular Board of Missions meeting was addressed by the Rev. Alfred Regamey, newly appointed general pastor; and at the Convention banquet on Saturday evening the Rev. David P. Johnson spoke on his recent visit to the British Conference and to continental Europe.
     During the Convention sessions Mr. Stewart E. Poole was elected vice-president in place of Mr. George Pausch, who retires after twelve years of service. The Rev. Bjorn Johannson was re-elected editor of the NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER. At the Sunday morning service with which Convention closed the Rev. Alfred Regamey and the Rev. Othmar Tobisch were invested as general pastors. The Holy Supper was administered, and the sermon, "Leaves from the Book of Life." was preached by the Rev. Clayton Priestnal.
     The Rev. William R. Woofenden, pastor of the New York Society, has accepted a call from the Detroit Society. He will commence his service there this month.
     A poll of Convention societies on the question of ordaining women into the ministry showed strong opposition to the proposal.
     Division of the Chicago Society and its assets was completed last Spring. One group will move to Park Ridge, a suburb of Chicago, there to organize the Good Shepherd Community Church under the leadership of the Rev. Rollo K. Billings. Those who have retained their membership in the Chicago Society will continue to hold services and other activities at the Swedenborg Philosophical Center, with the Rev. Immanuel Tafel as pastor.

     General Conference. The 150th meeting of the General Conference of the New Church was held in South Manchester, May 27-31, 1957. The opening service, conducted by the retiring president, the Rev. Alan Gorange was followed by the first session, at which Mr. Gorange gave his address, entitled "Two Hundred Years After," and a speech of welcome was made by the Lord Mayor of Manchester, Alderman Leslie Weaver, M.P. The Holy Supper was administered to 95 communicants on Tuesday morning; and at the session which followed the Rev. Dennis Duckworth, minister of the North Finchley Society in London, became the president of Conference. The retiring president was elected vice-president, and the Rev. Claude H. Presland was reelected secretary
     This historic 150th meeting over a period of 168 years was attended by 31 ministers, 9 trustees, and 63 representatives, a total of 108, and the Conference was the largest since 1953. The Rev. David P. Johnson, president of the General Convention, and his wife were guests of honor. These notes still be continued.

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CHARTER DAY 1957

Editor 1957

All ex-students of the Academy of the New Church, and their wives or husbands, are cordially invited to attend the Charter Day Exercises, to be held in Bryn Athyn, Pa., on Friday and Saturday, October 25 and 26, 1957. The program:

Friday, 11 a.m.-Cathedral Service, with an address by the Rev. Kenneth O. Stroh.
Friday Afternoon-Football Game.
Friday Evening-Dance.
Saturday, 7 p.m.-Banquet. Toastmaster: Dean Hugo Lj. Odhner.

Arrangements will be made for the entertainment of guests if they will write to Mrs. Winfred A. Smith, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
ORDINATION 1957

ORDINATION 1957

Junge.-At Denver, Colorado, August 11, 1957, the Rev. Robert Schill Junge into the Second Degree of the Priesthood, the Rt. Rev. George de Charms officiating.
DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES 1957

DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES GEORGE DE CHARMS 1957

     All members and friends of the General Church of the New Jerusalem are cordially invited to attend the District Assemblies, as follows:
     WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA, Onto AND MICHIGAN, Urbana, Ohio, Friday, October 4th, to Sunday, October 6th, inclusive, the Bishop presiding.
     CHICAGO DISTRICT, Glenview, Illinois, Friday, October 11th, to Sunday, October 13th, inclusive, the Assistant Bishop presiding.
     EASTERN CANADA, Kitchener, Ontario, Saturday, October 12th, to Monday, October 14th, inclusive, the Bishop presiding.
     GEORGE DE CHARMS,
          Bishop.
VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1957

VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN Editor 1957

433

EDUCATIONAL COUNCIL 1957

EDUCATIONAL COUNCIL LYRIS HYATT 1957

     13th General Meeting

     BRYN ATHYN, AUGUST 19-23, 1957

     Each occasion of the coming together of General Church men and women for a local or General Assembly, or for professional meetings, seems to be characterized by some unique quality. Although never completely definable, this distinguishing sphere is felt, and often remarked on, by the few or the many who are gathered together in the Lord's name. Since the Educational Council held no meetings in 1956 because of the General Assembly in London, there were, perhaps, more new teachers attending this summer s sessions than ever before, and these as well as the most experienced veterans in our schools received an unusual amount of practical help and inspiration.
     In 1955 the topics presented seemed to be concerned primarily with the upper schools. This year the program was centered for the most part on the elementary school grades; and yet a number of teachers in the secondary schools and colleges were heard to remark on their interest in the papers, and on the fact that the ideas and practices were applicable to higher grades and useful in enabling the educational scene to be viewed as a whole. It is generally agreed that one of the greatest uses of these meetings is the bringing about of a feeling of unity among all General Church teachers wherever they work, whatever and whomsoever they teach.
     The program, unusually varied this year, was published in the August issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE but is repeated here because it was somewhat rearranged and the papers were given more specific titles:

     The Junior or Intermediate School-Bishop De Charms
     Discipline (primarily in the elementary and junior schools)-The Rev. Martin Pryke

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     A Reading Program for the Elementary School-Miss Nancy Stroh
     Useful Classroom Techniques Related to Reading
     A General Presentation-The Rev. David R. Simons
     More Specific Techniques-Miss Anna Hamm
     A Directed Reading Demonstration-Mr. Joseph Kaufman (of Reading Laboratories, Inc.)
     The Religion Curriculum of the Elementary School (the first six grades)-The Right Rev. Willard D. Pendleton
     The College Religion Curriculum-The Rev. W. Cairns Henderson
     The Teaching of Singing in our Elementary Schools-The Rev. Jan H. Weiss

     An innovation which charmed everyone was the use of children in demonstration lessons. Miss Hamm did informal testing and remedial reading work with one boy, Mr. Kaufman worked with eleven boys and girls of the intermediate grades, and Mr. Weiss gave a singing lesson to ten children.
     Also noteworthy is the commitment of the Council to definite action. At the suggestion of Bishop Pendleton, who has for many years been the able chairman of the Council, and after discussion, it was voted to request Bishop De Charms to appoint a Program Committee for future meetings. Two days later the appointments were announced as follows:

Dean Eldric S. Klein, Chairman
Miss Morna Hyatt
Mr. Kenneth Rose
Rev. David R. Simons
Miss Nancy Stroh
Miss Gladys Blackman
Miss Joan Kuhl

Dean Klein has not accepted his appointment at this writing because he is in Athens, but the Council knows of his keen interest from experience and from his message, which Miss Wilde read at the Wednesday afternoon meeting. The Program Committee is entrusted with deciding whether the Council will hold regular meetings annually, will adopt the suggestion of some that we return occasionally to the practice of holding a summer school with regular classes offered to the teachers, or will provide a combination of meetings and classes.
     Bishop Pendleton made the gratifying announcement that fifty loose-leaf copies of a booklet of "Curricular Studies' have been prepared from material presented to the Council, and that these will be distributed to pastors and libraries throughout the General Church and will thus be available to all those professionals and laymen who are interested. These studies are to be cumulative, and revised material can be substituted when it is ready.

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     In addition to providing for duplication or publication of some of this year's papers, the Council unanimously passed a motion requesting the appointment of a committee proposed by Mr. Weiss for studying and taking action on the development of a definite curriculum in singing for our elementary schools.
     Space limitations here do not allow the recording of important and interesting ideas in the papers and the ensuing discussions. To single out one topic would he to slight others of equal value. Of the 69 members who attended some or all of the meetings, 41 took part in the more formal discussion of the papers and business; but all 69 took part in informal conversation at the morning break for coffee, orange juice, and coffee cake (provided by Miss Margaret Wilde and Miss Morna Hyatt), at the luncheons at Casa Conti (arranged for by Mr. Otho W. Heilman) at the swimming pool at Cairnwood (to which all members were invited by Bishop Pendleton), at various informal gatherings (provided by people too numerous to identify), and at the social at Cairnwood the final evening (by invitation of Bishop Pendleton and of his wife, who unfortunately was not able to be present since she was making a slow recovery from mumps). The Council is grateful indeed to all our benefactors, expressed and implied. At Cairnwood this gratitude was voiced in impromptu speeches and songs, and we were all encouraged and fortified, as the whole church may be, by Bishop De Charms' remarks about the real growth over the years of the usefulness of the Council's solid, cumulative work in promoting New Church education in all our schools.
     LYRIS HYATT
          Secretary
ISRAEL AND AMALEK 1957

ISRAEL AND AMALEK Rev. CHARLES E. DOERING 1957

"And it came to pass when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed, and when he let down his hand Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy, and they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat thereon, and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side, and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun." (Exodus 17: 11-12)

The sons of Israel, in their journeying from Egypt to the land of Canaan, had passed through the Red Sea; the bitter waters of Marah had been made sweet; they had been fed by the manna in the wilderness; and in the chapter from which the text is taken, we find them journeying according to command and encamping at Rephidim, where there was no water.

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There, because of their thirst, they chided Moses, who presented their complaint before Jehovah and was commanded to take his staff and smite the rock Horeb. He did so, and water came out of the rock. Then Amalek attacked the sons of Israel; and Moses ordered Joshua to fight against Amalek, while he with his staff in his hand, accompanied by Aaron and Hur, stood on the top of the hill. And it was that when his hand was raised, Joshua prevailed and when he let down his hand Amalek prevailed. So Aaron and Hur took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and they supported his hands until the going down of the sun.
     This story, in its spiritual sense, describes one of the trials or temptations the man who is being regenerated undergoes, and how he is sustained in the temptation by the Lord. Each name, each place, each action, depicts something of the nature of the state of the regenerating man, as from natural he is becoming spiritual; for in the language of correspondences it portrays the conflict between good and evil in the mind of the regenerating spiritual man, who is represented by Israel.
     The mind of man is in the spiritual world and is acted upon by the forces of good and evil. The marching and encampment of the host in obedience to the orders of Moses set forth how the Lord arranges into order the various goods and truths in the mind. By this arrangement and disposition an affection of truth corresponding to thirst is stimulated into activity, and there comes with it a realization of the lack of truth which is accompanied by something of despair and discontent. The natural mind as yet is in obscurity as to spiritual verities. Something of an affection of good has been stimulated. This was represented by their hunger being miraculously relieved by the manna mentioned in the previous chapter; but now this affection suffers from an insufficiency of truths. Spiritual thirst has been created which is not satisfied. He longs for the means to ultimate at once the newly awakened affections and is impatient of delay.
     Moreover, as the natural man-which as yet is but slightly ruled by the spiritual-is prone to blame others for his own deficiencies, so we find the sons of Israel chiding Moses, who represents the Lord as to the proceeding Divine truth which inflows into every man in an imperceptible way and endows him with life and the faculties of liberty and rationality, but as yet is unable to gift him with the light of truth in its application to his life, because man so far has not cooperated with the Lord in studying the Word from the affection of the truth of it. In this state he complains against others, and even against Providence. However, if there is the desire, the Lord by His proceeding Divine truth into his inmost incites into activity the general truths in the memory, recalls states of the innocence of childhood with delight which directs the mind to go to the Word of the Lord for light.

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This is represented by Moses, with the elders of Israel, leading them to the rock Horeb; out of which, when struck by the rod of Moses, gushes the water which quenches their thirst.
The omnipotent Divine Proceeding is able to satisfy the longing of man for truth, and to illumine his mind so that he can see truth in its light as applicable to his use; but this only when man goes to the Word to be instructed for the purpose of being led by the instruction. This is the water of life that the Lord gives of which He spoke to the woman of Samaria, which, if a man drink thereof, he shall never thirst.
But the permanent subsistence of this state is not attained without a struggle. The building up of a new will in the understanding is a matter of slow growth. And the regenerating spiritual man is ever vacillating. Sometimes the good of the new will controls, and sometimes the evil lusts in the natural are more active. While Israel is encamped at Rephidim, Amalek attacks. Evil spirits incite his more interior evil loves, and thereby assault his faith; for this is not yet firmly enrooted, since so far he has advanced but little beyond living a civil and moral life from civil and moral reasons. The lusts of evil arising from the love of self have not yet been removed, and the evil spirits represented by Amalek stir these lusts into activity. They turn the mind to thinking about self and its delight in fame, honor or gain, and bring it into obscurity regarding love to the Lord and mutual love. The character of selfishness is to deny both these loves; and it is so circumspect and careful in its operation that it puts on and makes use of the cloak of honesty and brotherly love in order the better to gain its ends. Concerning the quality of interior evil we read: "interior evil is what lies inwardly concealed with man, stored up in his will, and hence in the thought; nor does any trace of it appear in externals, as in actions, in the speech and in the face. They who are in such evil study by every method and art to conceal and hide it under the appearance of what is just and honest and under the appearance of neighborly love" (AC 8593). Evil spirits do not want man to be led by the truth which leads to heaven, but they want to lead him to gratify his natural loves to his destruction, and so they stir up his selfish lusts within him. On the other hand, the Lord with all His Divine omnipotence, by means which are of His order and providing, strives to save man from that destruction. Moses orders Joshua to fight. The truth in the mind is aroused to resist the evil love stirring within. But more is necessary. Moses, accompanied by Aaron and Hur, must stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in his hand, and the staff must be held aloft. Man must bring the principles of genuine charity signified by the hill into his daily living. His understanding must be elevated to see these principles and the love of his will must desire them, so that the two may be conjoined in his interior man.

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But the combat fluctuates, and so we read:
"And it came to pass when Moses help up his hands that Israel prevailed, and when he let down his hands Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy, and they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat thereon. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, the one on the one side and the other on the other, and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun: And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword."
     When man looks to the Lord with acknowledgment that all good and truth are from Him and that of himself he has no power against evil, but nevertheless from faith in the Lord shuns evils as of himself from the power and means given him by the Lord, then he can successfully resist their assaults; for the Lord is then with him, fighting for him interiorly, removing the lusts of evil whilst man with the Lords help shuns the evils as they come to his consciousness. This is represented by Moses' hands being held aloft. But when his faith in the Lord becomes weak, when the love of the world, with its allurements to reputation or gain, draws the mind away from the Lord to self, then he is powerless against evil; he is not receptive of the Divine influx which alone can remove the evil. "Moses' hands were heavy."
     Moses here represents the Divine truth proceeding from the Divine good of the Lord going forth to create and to sustain that which is created. It is the universal Divine sphere throughout creation, and carries with it the attractive sphere of the Divine love to draw all men to heaven to itself. This is the quality of the Divine love, and hence the statement is so frequently made in the Writings "that love is spiritual conjunction." It attracts and conjoins itself with those who reciprocate the love.
     This Divine sphere in its going forth, however, successively clothes itself with lesser spheres until it terminates and rests in the ultimate matters of the earth, and then returns to the Creator by uses through man, who can consciously receive its sphere of love and wisdom. In another view, the Divine Proceeding is the Word, "which was in the beginning with God, and which was God, by which everything was made that was made." This Word also descended through degrees, became more clothed in appearances of truth, until finally it clothed itself in natural expressions of human language; which are such that the truth so clothed can operate on the minds of men, to elevate them above the appearances of the letter to the truth that is clothed by the appearance. Throughout the several degrees the Divine truth of the Divine good is the active sphere of life on every plane, and human thoughts and affections are the reactive. This universal Divine sphere makes the spiritual activity which is the essential of the church and the man of the church.

439

It is the essential that can elevate him, can take him up on the hill of charity together with the doctrine of truth and good, and with the truth of that doctrine, represented by Aaron and Hur. We would note a distinction between the doctrine of truth and the truth of doctrine. The doctrine of truth is the doctrine that is drawn from the Word. It is the body of doctrine that man has collected for himself, or it is his formulation of principles of life. But the truth of doctrine is the truth that is in the doctrine and that enlightens his understanding and gives the ability to see truths. It is the spiritual light of truth that is given him by the Lord, and it illuminates the doctrine of truth. We have the common expressions, the letter of the law and the spirit of the law, corresponding to the doctrine of truth and the truth of doctrine. The spirit of truth contained in the doctrine of truth, together with that doctrine, must ascend into the sphere of charity-represented by their standing on the top of the hill-that the assault of evil may be repulsed.
     But even so, the combat cannot be permanently sustained unless there is something else, for "Moses' hands were heavy." The Divine influx must descend to ultimates. The doctrine of truth must rest on the letter of the Word; represented by the stone on which Moses sat when his hands were heavy. Only when man cooperates with the Lord, by obeying His commandments on the ultimate plane in the things that are before him to do, can the Lord help him. The Divine influx is perpetual in its endeavor to remove the lusts of evil from his interior man; but that influx cannot effect this, unless man fights against the evil as it appears to him in his external man.
     It is in the external of the natural mind that man meets the evil and, meeting it, can fight against it from the Lord. The collection of doctrines from the Word, some perception of the truth of doctrine, a vision of the desirability of eternal life, are but stages in the spiritual advancement. These must be, and they are provided for the man who has some affection of a good life that he may form his rational, and from it see the opposing natures of good and evil, truth and falsity, and desire to remove the evil and the false.
     The internal cannot flow directly into the external mind, in which evils appear to man, but it does so through the rational, which is the medium between the two; and it can see what is going on in the external mind, can see the evil in contrast to the good, and bring it into subjection.
     The natural mind itself is dual. The lusts of evil lie deeply concealed in it, and come to view only as they appear as delights in the desires, intentions and thoughts. These the rational can then examine and judge.
     The acknowledgment of evil to be evil, and recognition that the evil in us is stirred into activity by evil spirits, are vital steps in the shunning of it.

440

When man recognizes that evil is excited into activity in him by evil spirits, then he has the power to put it away and not claim it as his own. The Writings teach it is not only important that man acknowledge that all good and truth is from God, but also that he acknowledge that all evil comes from hell, for only then can he refrain from appropriating it to himself. This recognition is a step in the progress of spiritual life. Nevertheless, Joshua must also fight. There must be the determined and sustained resistance from the truth of his faith to the evil after it is seen and recognized.
     The Divine truth represented by Moses, since it is the Divine proceeding sphere of the Divine good, is a sphere of peace and not of combat. It is the sphere of protection, sustaining, nourishing and building up that which is spiritual and eternal in man. But that it may so do, and confer on man the joys of peace and become operative to draw him into its sphere, it must needs inflow into truths in ultimates-truths on a lower plane-and make use of the truths in the various degrees of the mind; that by ultimate truths, the truths applicable to his function and use, it may put away the evil lusts from the interiors which assault and obstruct the reception of its blessings. The battle is on the plain of Rephidim, not on the hill on which Moses. Aaron and Hur stood. Joshua meets Amalek and his host on the plain. The truth combatting represented by Joshua meets the attacks of evil in man's external mind. It there meets the evil thoughts and intentions which come to his consciousness. There he must wage the combat, and he prevails in the degree that the spiritual is the active and propelling force in the external truths from which he fights. That is, he must resist evil because it is a sin against God, and for no other reason. This is the internal active. And as he overcomes the evils as they appear, the Lord by His proceeding Divine truth removes the lusts of evil, and establishes the church in his heart Amen.

     LESSONS:     Exodus 17. John 3: 1-21. Arcana Coelestia, 8548-8553.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 456, 484, 429.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 48. 102.
AFFIRMATION IN LIFE 1957

AFFIRMATION IN LIFE 1957

"He who affirms mere faith with himself, and not the holy of faith, that is, charity (for this is the holy of faith), and does not affirm this by the good of life, that is, by the works of charity, can no longer have a relish for the essence of faith, because he rejects it" (AC 3923).

441

FORMATION OF THE RATIONAL 1957

FORMATION OF THE RATIONAL COLIN M. GREENHALGH 1957

     (An address delivered to the New Church Club, London, England.)

     When I took up the subject of uses as a topic for this occasion, it was my purpose to proceed at once to the stage of conclusions and applications, discussing various interpretations of use in the form of effects or services. I would-all in one breath, as it were-have referred to the efficiency of uses in their external conformities. In my reading, however, I came across that teaching which speaks of the use of all uses. That which is thus distinguished must be the very instrumental of use, and therefore the prime consideration in what proposes to be a complete revision of uses. This use of all uses is described in the doctrines as the formation of the rational with man. This study, then, will be a contemplation of that which is the very faculty of use with man. Indeed, this particular paper, or general aspect, will confine itself to that part of the study which relates to the essential principle that the Lord Himself is the all of use, and that the formation of the rational with man is inmostly His work alone; also, that this work, in essence, is nothing other than the successive insinuation of what is delightful from the Lord.

     Uses, we are taught, are from the Lord, and they are the Lord Himself with man. If, then, the Lord alone is use, who else can know what use is in its eternal and universal magnitude? Who else can know what use is in its minutest particulars? Since in the proper sense the Lord alone is use, He alone can order the progressions of use, and since man knows relatively nothing of the way in which the Lord effects this, the formation of the finite rational as to use is completely in the Lord's care. Thus even an angel wonders to eternity at that which is new and unexpected in the unfolding of heavenly uses. No man, not even the Gorand Man, can ever be abreast of those progressions of use proceeding from the Lord. The inmost necessities and universal applications of use can be appreciated by man only under their finite appearances. Mercifully, these appearances serve perfectly the finite idea of reality and can be forever amplified and more nearly approximated to the eternally higher realities. Yet unless there is at the same time some perception of the reality behind the appearance, thus of what relates immediately to the Lord as distinct from what relates to the as-of-self rational, the finite view of things from appearances alone, however nearly these conform to truth in fact, is no longer a rational view.

442

     A rational view must first have this perception of what use is relative to the Lord, and to Him supremely. Thus we learn from AC 8719 that the angels have the appearance that they act from themselves, but the perception that they do so from the Lord. Consequently, as far as a thing is from themselves, the angels are not in genuine happiness (AC 2882). Even angels, we see, do not trust in the as-of-self rational! Likewise, in regard to spirits is it said that as long as they suppose they lead themselves, think from themselves, know, understand and are wise from themselves, they cannot have perception (AC 1386). That is to say, they cannot have the perception of how it really is with the genuine rational, namely, that its as-of-self freedom is not self-rule, but is the Lord and heaven ruling through it. It is true the Lord provides that man should feel in himself as his own those things which inflow', and hence should produce them from himself as his own but in regard to this he should heed what is said in TCR 110, namely, that the Lord alone is active in man, man of himself being merely passive and only active by influx of life from the Lord. Owing to this, man seems to be active from himself, and because of this appearance he has free will. This passage states that though man acts from freedom he should by faith ascribe all activity to the Lord.
     Now in the New Church such a faith is not mere intellectual acknowledgment of the Lord's omnipotence: it is a rational perception that no angel. mark you, no angel, or man, can produce from himself anything good and true which in itself is good and true (AR 854). We are also taught in this same passage that `if therefore anyone comes into heaven, and thinks that good and truth are appropriated to him as his own, he is instantly sent down from heaven and instructed." Also, DP 321 teaches:
"Thus the Divine Providence does not appropriate evil to anyone, nor good to anyone, but man's prudence appropriates both.
     It is at this point that the natural man becomes perplexed; for he has found it easy to assimilate the teaching which appears to attribute to the as-of-self a certain prudence amounting, as it were, to a vestige of complete independence or a spark of self-sufficiency such as he thinks necessary to freedom and responsibility. For instance, there are passages like TCR 362, which in part states that what a man brings forth as his own is imputed to him as his own. Yet it should be noted how this passage concludes: "He who carelessly considers these truths, may draw from them irrational conclusions." The idea of near-infallibility arising from the possession of a genuine rational is an irrational conclusion. There is no least activity of man apart from the perpetual activity with him from the Lord.

443

     Still, the natural logic of man would refer us further to the teaching which says it is essential that man feel good and truth as his own, for therefrom is the freedom and delight of his life. Yet the ability to feel something as one's own is by no means the all of freedom and rationality. Such a feeling is given as the general faculty or framework of freedom. True, it is miraculously given, but in itself it is not that thing to which freedom and rationality apply themselves. They apply themselves to that other ability which is of truly rational consequence, namely, the ability to perceive that the as-of-self is indeed for man's sake, but that which is for the sake of truth itself, and which man must regard above as-of-self provisions, is the immediate relation of good and truth to the Lord. This perception of what is relative purely to the Lord effects the elevation of the as- of-self feeling to the state of being the Lord's and not one's own. This state is heavenly freedom itself and not a mere condition or framework of freedom.
     But again the natural rational would say that such things are surely an effort to see things as from the Divine standpoint, and would appeal that the Lord has made to man that most wonderful gift, the rational, for the sake of those goods and truths that are of consequence to the finite in its own, comprehensible conditions; and it would argue that to stress what is relative purely to the Lord in the face of those things which the Lord Himself so miraculously provides as the part of man, is as it were to overlook the significance of the Lord's highest handiwork, the as-of-self rational, And yet what could be more significant than to see in this rational that which is the Lord's alone and not something which may be ascribed to man?
     We need to be very cautious as to the way we believe that man lives as of himself. Even the angel, we remember, who has made use of free-will to enter into that heavenly freedom which is the eternal perfection of the Lord's handiwork, even he has this freedom withdrawn from him if he prefers the significance of the as-of-self, important though it is, to the perception of what is wholly from the Lord. The angelic freedom consists in willing and thinking nothing from self, and angels are grieved if so permitted to will and think. What, in the natural view, could be more opposed to as-of-self rationality than this? This way, it seems, one could not be a man, much less an angel, but either a beast or a statue; when yet, as it says in DP 321, the contrary is the truth. "The senses, not science or philosophy, can conceive such truths as these"; so states AC 233. This same passage illustrates that in a proper sense the Lord alone acts; thus either heaven or, by interception, hell, acts through man.
     Thus man is dually disposed. His part, then, is to choose, and this continually; and this choice it is which constitutes the whole of the as-of-self.

444

If man does not feel satisfied with such a definition of the scope of rationality it is because he does not or will not see what this involves in its particulars, especially when these set out to show him that every least thing is done for him by the Lord, short of deciding which way the choice is to be.
     The natural view would then question how man is to dispense goods and truths as of himself, suggesting that no room has been left for the exercise of the all-important rational. These final objections touch the root of the difficulty; indeed they relate to the root of evil. As we have seen, one type of natural mind would place man's part in the ability to reason as of himself, rather than in the ability to perceive from the Lord. It does not understand how it is with perception from the Lord. Though it would not admit to placing reason before love, it tends to think of reason as an end in itself, when yet reason is only for the sake of perception; and genuine perception is nothing other than to be in the affection that one is led completely and continually by the Lord alone. This is the very human of the rational.
     In this connection we read in AC 2510: "Doctrine is said to look to rational things, when nothing else is acknowledged as truth of doctrine but that which may be comprehended by reason, so that the consideration of all things of doctrine is from the rational." But this same passage concludes that nevertheless the doctrine is not derived from a rational, but from a celestial origin. AC 2557 teaches these same things in detail. This perception of the Lords leading is the inmost end and use of the true rational. It relates to what man cannot do for himself or of himself. It is man's most rational and unquestioning response to that which is the Divine perception and endowment of use, and to which man must utterly surrender himself. It is this of the Lord with man which determines the state of use with him. It is not anything man may do, except in the sense that he may choose to accept or reject what is from the Lord. Affection not reason, determines this choice, and this same affection qualifies the life of use with man. Still, we must stress that this use is never of man's making. Let us inquire, then, what is meant when we say that use is from the Lord.

     Every man is born to enter rationally into a most distinctive use of creation, but one that inmostly is in boundless reciprocation with the whole of heaven. This means that man's use is directed by the Lord's universal ends of creation. For this reason it is futile for man to imagine that he can order uses with himself. As stated in AC 10,409: "What is temporal bears no relation to what is eternal, as what is finite in time bears no relation to the infinite of time."

445

The further teaching is that the Divine provides, but not that which is not, except in so far as it conduces to that which is; and then the passage continues: "From this it is evident what is the quality of that which is given and provided by the Divine for man, and what is the quality of that which a man procures for himself." So it is with uses; they are to be called forth successively by the Lord and in the order of heaven. Man, as taught in AC 4988, may know how to dispense what is good in various ways, but he cannot prompt the disposition of uses in his internal. It is even said that the reciprocal conjunction of man with the Lord through uses is not from man, but from the Lord.
     This now brings us to that conclusion set forth in DP 220, namely that man can indeed promote uses from himself, but that he thereby puts himself in the Lord's place. What a terrible thing it is to put oneself in the Lord's place, and how vitally important it is that we should understand that uses belong to the Lord and derive nothing from man In that the prudence of man separates the temporal things of use from eternal things it is ever inclined to oppose the Lord's providence. Nevertheless, the Lord does conjoin himself with man by means of the conformities of use to which a man applies himself, and these are the more acceptable to the Lord in the degree that they are divested of the fallacies of the senses and refer themselves to those things in use which regard the Lord supremely. This involves the assent of the rational to that perception of use which is of a Divine celestial origin, and which alone can qualify the rational as the use of all uses.

      We dwell on this distinction of what is relative to the Lord because apart from it the particulars relating to the formation of the rational will not fall into their place, thus into their confirmations of the Divine of use. In proceeding to consider how the Lord insinuates use with man, we shall see that the rational is not something which advances as it were reasonably from seed to fruit without suggestion of rot or decay; rather will it be seen as something which has to be continually destroyed and as often renewed from fresh, less tainted beginnings. Its formation is not through successive states of studied emulation, but in states of continual rebellion and submission. To this submission belong much labor and sacrifice in the giving up of that which appeared to be so rational as to be identifiable with use from the Lord, yet which proves to be false and superficial.

     On account of the profound nature of the formation of the rational, and the consequent remoteness of the subject from the common experience of effects, we shall attempt to keep especially close to the words of the Writings when we come to describe actual processes of formation. This will involve the application of that mode of renewed presentation which the doctrines exemplify as a means of illustrating a truth with a natural man.

446

After all, our interest is in the successive formation of the rational, which in itself is a process of renewed operations in the elevation of good and truth; and it is the nature of any spiritual process to determine the form of its own illustration, thus to reproduce therein a likeness of itself. The Writings add to their example the directive that the repetition of a truth under several aspects is necessary to the work of insinuation.
The value of this is illustrated in AC 3214. Though this number refers directly to the representation of spiritual things in the other life, it also concerns itself with the renewed aspect of a subject through a series:
"Representatives of spiritual and celestial things exist sometimes in a long series, continued for the period of an hour or two, in such an order successively as to be wonderful. These representations are such that it would fill several pages to relate and describe only one in its order. They are very delightful, for something new and unexpected is in a continual succession, and this until what is represented is fully perfected, and when all things are perfected it is allowable to contemplate them in one view, and then at the same time to perceive what is signified by the particulars. Good spirits are thus also initiated into spiritual and celestial ideas."
The mention of this matter is by no means irrelevant to our present study. Indeed it reflects in essence that very process whereby the rational is formed. Note especially what is said about the new and unexpected. This alone confirms man's inability to order his own uses. It is said that only when all the things presented are in perfection is it allowed to contemplate them in one view, and then to perceive what is signified by the particulars. In other words, truth cannot be contemplated rationally by man as long as it consists of truths not in a series or bound together in the view that the Lord is all; for then there would be but a conglomeration of dislocated or indeterminate parts, lacking the one thing of perfection. Any semblance of the application of such wandering truth to use is then quite fallacious. Truth is truth only when it is entire, and it is not entire by virtue merely of its quantity and apparent associations. It becomes truth solely from a regard for good in its omnipotent proceeding from the Lord. This regard gives truth its determination to use and imparts to all its particulars their significance, subordination and life. Such is the formative of use and from it the formation of the rational. This requires that man be initiated into an increasing context of truth related to good, and therefore the contemplation of a thing in a series is a principle in which every man should become thoroughly practiced. It is, of course, the way of all truth, and it is the only way in which we ourselves can endeavor to trace something of the series of truths relating to the formation of the rational.

447

     In order to ascertain an important first truth in this series, let us again refer to the passage just quoted, for it reflects yet another thing most essential to our subject, namely, the wonder and delight inspired by the varied representations of good and truth. Wonder and delight, as affections of good and truth, have their origin in the gratefulness of innocence. Now genuine gratefulness may be described as the general response aroused in man by the remains of good and truth which the Lord provides from infancy onwards. It is also the bed of common perception. Likewise it is the state preparatory to humility, and humility in its turn is the common ground in which the seeds of rationality are sown; for only in humility can man be prepared to distinguish between the as-of-self and the Lord; only thus can he be grateful for and delight in that which is new and unexpected. In regard to the innocence proper to gratefulness and rationality we read in AC 5126: "Without the influx of innocence from the Lord in this first age, no foundation would ever come into existence upon which the intellectual or rational which is proper to man could be built. We learn further that innocence is to be led by the Lord, and not to trust in one's own in prudence; that it is the very human principle and a regard for what is relative to the Lord above all other things.

     At this point let us envisage the progression of innocence towards a particular use such as we might venture to discuss in detail at a later stage. It is stated in AC 996: "As love truly conjugial in its first essence is love to the Lord, it is also innocence." And in what other words is conjugial love described? It is said to be the complex of all uses. And how do the doctrines describe the formation of the rational?-as the use of all uses. Therein is implied at least one most wonderful series of truths: the relationship between the use of all uses and the complex of all uses. This thought alone is sufficient to prompt our contemplation of the rational in its progressions from the first things of innocence.
     But there are many other wonderful things involved and my paper can only barely suggest them. There is the relationship of our particular genius of rational to the rest of the universe, thus as to what is instrumental to the universal connection and support of uses. In this the rational is as the free gateway between innermost and outermost things, like the sifting, sustaining skin of the Gorand Man, enveloping all other uses. Finally, it was to this earth that the Lord came to establish this rational, thereby renewing the use of this earth and restoring the universal order of uses. Truth Divine as it is in its angelic as-of-self form could not be used to effect this work. But lest we overreach ourselves, let us return to the consideration of the very first things in the creation of the rational.

448

     It is said that uses are the Lord Himself with man. We need to consider, therefore, how man may consciously and reciprocally enter into these uses which are from the Lord. AC 5293 says: "That which conduces to use is to know what is good and true." Interiorly it is to perceive that good and truth are with the Lord alone. Then, in DLW 336, it is added that uses relate particularly to the formation of the rational. We are further taught that this rational must first be formed because man is not born into the knowledge of good and truth. The reason for this is given in AC 1902. It is there said that animals are born into the faculty of knowing, and this because their nature is in accordance with order, but man has everything to learn. If he were not imbued with hereditary evil, man would be born into the faculty of reason and knowing; but since the fall his perverted faculties cannot be reduced into correspondent forms of good and truth by the immediate influx of what is celestial and spiritual from the Lord. Yet despite this inversion of order with man, the Lord has made miraculous provision for a new rational through a wonderful process of insinuation which preserves man's freedom most perfectly. Through this insinuation man is elevated out of the fallacies of the senses into the realities of order, and according to order he may enter into the knowledge of what is good and true from the Lord, which knowledge is especially conducive to use.
     The first state of insinuation and the initial opening of the way from the Lord to man is effected in an external state of innocence. Man's very life is from the internal, but this cannot yet have communication with the external, except most obscurely, until certain recipient vessels have been formed by means of knowledges. At first the communication is effected without knowledges. Instead the Lord stores up with the infant states of pure delight which initiate general communication between the internal and the external, for delight is the incipient means in respect of all that takes place between the internal and external man. It is this delight of external innocence which serves as the medium of common perception and becomes the basis of association between what is delightful and what is good and true from the Lord. Only when this ground of remains has been established is it safe for knowledges to be insinuated along with delight.
     At first the propagated forms which constitute tendencies to evil are closed vessels, so that at this stage there is the most perfect separation between what is of the Lord and what is of man. In this state the inmost influx is unimpeded yet most marvellously accommodated to the end of freedom. It enables the heavenly internal to establish its potentials of order in such a way as to preclude their being tainted and violated. It is this power and protection of the internal man which eventually enable the intellect to be confronted with truth even though the will be opposed to its application.

449

And so we have the paradox that separation is the only means of communication. Yet, as always with the veiled Word, so now with the infant are provided all things necessary to the communication of internal life. Therein, in potentiality, resides the full measure of an angel; not the mere measure of finite aspirations, for these would be relatively nothing; rather is it the measure of a whole heaven of angels, the measure of an individual subordinated to a universe, or the measure of the finite conjoined with the Infinite. In a more particular sense it may be described as the measure of conjugial love in the choice of that which the Lord foresees as a heavenly use. What, then, is this measure in regard to the successive formation of the rational? It is the measure of that which is apparent with that which is real or of that which is temporal with that which is new and unexpected.
This first state of the Lord's presence with the infant gives rise to an obscure sensation of life. Of this we read in CL 335: "The very senses of their bodies are in the greatest obscurity, and from this they struggle out successively by means of objects, in like manner their power of motion by habitual exercise, and as they learn to prattle words, and to sound them at first without any idea, there arises something obscure by phantasy, and as this becomes clear, there is born what is obscure of the imagination, and thence of thought . . . and thought, from being none, grows by means of sensation and instruction." In a later phase we shall observe how this successive state of lessening obscurity is reflected in the adult formation of the rational, for with the finite rational there is forever some shade of obscurity, though with the genuine rational it manifests itself only as anticipation of the new and unexpected.

It may be seen that the whole infantile state resembles what is to follow in the man. Indeed AC 4378 teaches that at this time all the particulars of the rational state are present potentially. Though the first speech of an infant is only the sound of an affection, in it are already being insinuated myriads of things in potentiality, miraculously arranged and stored for use in the rational state. It is the Lord Himself ministering to the uses of the potential angel. Thus does the infant enter upon its first progressions towards rationality, conjugial love, and conjunction with the omnipotent Father. This series of heavenly uses, present in potentiality from the time of birth, is actually described as being successively stored; but the succession is really a process of calling forth of that which from the Lord is infinitely complete at birth, for in the proper sense the Lord and all that is of use from Him cannot be said to be present only in part. With the Lord's presence and provisions it is such that the whole is present from the beginning, and it remains the whole of whatever man may receive to eternity.

450

This fulness of things in potentiality adapts to itself means to its own fulfilment, applying itself to recipient forms in the natural disposition of the infant. It is these recipient forms that are to be successively reduced to conformity, internal things being called forth according to the ascent of use.
This storing up is also that which is called the implantation of remains, for indeed the rational must finally acknowledge that nothing of good and truth remains with it except what is from the Lord. So it is that remains can be called forth by the lord alone, and in the order of the uses to which they relate. They are not subject to man's prudence. Likewise the appointments of use are with the Lord alone. The rational of man plans its works in the belief and likeness of conformity, though it is but temporal conformity relative to the Lord. Still, it is acceptable to the Lord from its agreement with the Divine of use. The services of the finite rational have, indeed, a very real responsibility in effecting the uses of consociation and environment, for its influence and application in the world of effects will determine the measure of its correspondence to the Divine endowment of use. But let it always be remembered that there is with man in this respect, in every single moment, a concurrence of more particulars of providence than can be comprehended in any number.

We previously referred to the general sensation of life and to the inclinations which result from the activity of remains with infants. This was said to involve the insinuation of delight. It means that the influx of celestial things is accompanied by the delights of the celestial angels, this being the origin of that which is felt as delight with the infant. It is not that the celestials delight in infantile innocence on account of its ignorance and from a general idea of mercy and tenderness. Rather do they find there a plane which is yet open to the most exquisite things of order, for though it pertains to the sensual, this plane is still in agreement with the inmost things of use. Looking, as it were into this plane, the angels distinguish innumerable things relating to the insinuation of heavenly uses. They see there the potential rational in the form of the infancy of wisdom, which infancy, with its innocence, is conjugial love. They perceive there the accomplishments and universal uses of the Lord's first and second advents in their omnipotence of sustaining all mankind through the creation of a new rational with the men of this earth; and at the same time they most humbly recognize the fulfilment of their own distinctive use in what is delightful, new and unexpected from the Lord. Moreover, the all of this series of perception flows from the prostrate acknowledgment that still they perceive relatively nothing of inmost things.

451

It is for such a perception of use as this that the rational is to be prepared; a perception which can only be successively and partially realized until it is increasingly and more perfectly called forth in heaven.
     In establishing the foundation state of delight with the infant, the angels have performed the first thing necessary to all the states of insinuation which are to follow, for apart from an affection of delight nothing can be suggested, much less entered into and appropriated. Remains, therefore, and their consequent awakening of delight, are the true promptings of the rational. Whatever exercise in rational thought man prescribes for himself it must never be confused with rational things called forth in their order by the Lord.

     In view of these things is it not amazing that provision can still be made for man's responsible participation in the uses of the Lord's heavenly kingdom? And should we not most sincerely humble ourselves in our contemplation of the rational when we consider that the Lord Himself used the words "a miraculous process" to convey the nature of it, even in that rational Revelation which is an opening of the secrets of heaven? But this same Revelation, of course, also gives an inexhaustible idea of what this miraculous is. Briefly, it is that man is first given the faculty of sensation; this is furnished successively with the things necessary to freedom and reason. Then there is introduced that which of himself man is opposed to, and yet which he may come to delight in above all things. We may here consider an instance of the initiation of this with children: how the delight of obedience is gradually formed, and how the habit of it effects such an accumulation of delights that the associations and pleasantnesses enable the further insinuation of distinctive affections; and all this leads imperceptibly to that which is first occasionally and at last successively spontaneous. Such is the successive elevation from general to distinctive obedience through the insinuation of delight.
     With the above instance in mind, we may go on to consider how affections are elevated into their various uses. With infants, before the acquisition of knowledge, life is in the form of general motions, certain appetites and blind inclinations. Gradually a more distinct consciousness arises. The internal man, already adult, angelic and therefore rational potentially, submits the infantile ideas to some form of order. First the corporeal memory, that memory of bodily experiences, is formed through the instrumentals of space and time, colors, shapes, weights, sounds, temperatures and speeds. A plane of choice is created and the faculty of selection stimulated, forming a semblance of discrimination. According to the disposition of the infant, the sifting and segregation of sensations leads to some order of preference, with a corresponding arrangement of ideas.

452

Thought begins to take shape according to the particular affection which introduced it; and from the nature of the delight associated with a thing there is a suggestion of contrast, value and classification. There is born the first obscure faculty of relating things in a series, while varying conditions of experience provide the first semblance of a thing viewed under several aspects. Even the infantile delight in repetition serves this particular use. Eventually the imagination is able to relate the delightful to that which is taught to be good and desirable. Still later, the desirable and good becomes elevated in the mind through more definite ideas of use and effort. Through instruction these ideas are further elevated as they are more nearly related to the Lord, and especially in the degree that they are related to the Lord's omnipotence, for thereby they are aligned to that inmost perception of use. All this is the building of forms in the memory into such vessels as can be used by remains to establish still further the basis of common perception with its inclinations to rational affirmation. Through the child's experience of outer order, the potential rational of the internal is forming to itself an idea of functions, similitudes, relationships and correspondences, thus furnishing the meeting-place of the internal and external man with the things necessary to a rational intercourse between them. In this successive manner the child is elevated out of sensuals into scientifics, thence into knowledges, until finally, through the affection of truth, it is possible to effect the most miraculous insinuation of all, namely that of the affection of good. The whole process is one of continually calling forth truths out of the natural man and successively implanting them in the good of the interior rational. It is in regard to this Divine work that we read in AC 3085: "It is not even known that this takes place; how, then, should the whole process be known, and the manner of it, the process being of such great wisdom, because it is from the Divine, that it can in no wise be explored as to a ten thousandth part of it, and what can be seen of it is of a most general nature."
This passage alone surely somewhat excuses the ponderous nature of this general aspect of the formation of the rational. But ponderous or not, let me even now make a final reference to that fundamental of any subject, namely its immediate relation to the Lord, for from this all derivative things are held in their priority and purity of aspect. Let us keep in mind that the endowment of use is with the Lord alone. To this man may rationally and rejoicingly conform, but in regard to the eternal fruition of that which inflows, he can neither add anything nor take anything away. Even though man rejects the Lord, he does not escape the ruling of the Divine endowment of use, for this is one with the universal end and perfection of creation. In the accommodation of things to man it is not the as-of-self in its conscious individuality which dictates the internal arrangements and propensities of good and truth.

453

The idea of the as-of-self should not be extended to mean as-of-self leading, or self-leading from prudence. That would be to make a meritorious giant and secret god of finite rationality; whereas it must become the most humble, yea, the most humiliated servant, before it can be the highest instrument of use. Otherwise, whence shall be its innocence, and how shall it be made ready for the new and unexpected? No, man shall not stress the significance of the as-of-self above the absoluteness, most merciful absoluteness of the Lords omnipotence, for if he does he shall surely be crushed by the weight of it. Whether man's conformity be plain obedience or in the highest degree of "yea, yea; nay, nay," it is the Lord who leads and man follows.
Likewise, when it is said that the Lord accommodates Himself to finite and individual ideas of use, this does not mean that He makes adjustments in the arrangements of good and truth with man. How can a finite deficiency possibly affect, much less determine, an infinite constancy and sufficiency of means? Whatever the language of accommodation and appearance, we must never fall into the unqualified idea that good and truth are somehow adapted to man, changing as his state changes. It is good and truth which adapt man to themselves, and the Divine endowment of use, while respecting man's freedom, lovingly submits the things of man to its merciful ends, even though the man be a devil. When it is said that a lower good is sometimes offered to man, it really means that the same good from the Lord presents itself to the next lower thing with man which can conform to that good; or, in the case of perversion, this good overrules evil and reduces it to some order of use. This, of course, involves the mediate influence of spirits and angels, but inmostly that which is from the Lord remains constant. In other words, the finite can never frustrate, deflect or even influence the infinite. No matter what mankind or man may do, the Divine, in its primes of use, is not one whit affected and its ends are fulfilled to infinity. In a certain sense, man cannot be said to be so co-operative as to further Divine ends; what he can further are finite ends, and these are elevated to act as one with the Divine when they conform to good and truth. Likewise, nothing is more certain than that the hells must unwillingly yet totally submit themselves to the perfection of creation. It is the genuine rational that readily submits to truths such as these. To imagine that good and truth are condescendingly modified or lessened to suit man, is a preposterous idea and favors the fallacy that man has some part in the actual shaping of inmost ends and uses. For good and truth to yield in such a sense would mean their degeneration, or rather their instant destruction. The variable arrangement of things with man refers to modifications of state in the finite forms of reception which, according to their created endowments, tendencies and conformities, variously open or close themselves to the inflow of that which is constant from the Lord.

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Let it be said again that the Lord dwells in what is His own and in nothing less than this. Man may choose to dwell there with Him, surrendering those things which belong to the Lord completely to His care, not as a stock or stone, but with the consent of reason. In this indwelling he is drawn upwards into the light and heat of heaven, rejoicing gratefully in the realization of a most responsible and delightful rational; a rational which is led by the Lord from His Word, no longer as the formal as-of- self, but as the genuine human. This is the true rational which is the gateway to eternal life and thenceforth the use of all uses. It consists in the acknowledgment that the Lord is all and man nothing, except that he may choose to accept what is from the Lord as the Lord's; for this is to cultivate the garden of Eden and to keep it; that is, it is granted to man to enjoy all these things, but not to possess them as his own, because they are the Lord's (AC 122).
Only in this way can man enjoy that precious feature of the rational, namely, its awareness of that which is new from the Lord. Though this be an awareness of the Lord's leading it is not seized upon as evidence of almost infallible self-sufficiency. It is, briefly, the perception of how use is with the Lord, and this, even as it transcends the as-of-self comprehension, also frees it of its own limitations. The perception of the genuine rational is content with and rests in the delight that the as-of-self appearances are for the sake of the Lord's leading. The new and unexpected are then seen to be none other than new aspects of the Lord's omnipotence in His kingdom of uses. Indeed the name "Lord" means this same omnipotence, hence it is in the Lord's name that the formation of the rational with man is called the use of all uses, for this it is from the Lord which has the power to overrule all that is rebellious in the external man and so reduce it to order and fit it for service in a life of use.
PRAYER FROM THE DIVINE 1957

PRAYER FROM THE DIVINE 1957

"In prayer from the Divine it is always thought and believed that the Lord alone knows whether it is profitable or not; and therefore the suppliant submits the hearing to the Lord, and immediately after prays that the will of the Lord, and not his own, may be done, according to the Lord's words in His own most grievous temptation" (AC 8179e).

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DR. WILLIAM WHITEHEAD 1957

DR. WILLIAM WHITEHEAD RAYMOND PITCAIRN 1957

     (Delivered at a General Faculty luncheon, June 4, 1957.)

Mr. Toastmaster. President De Charms, Fellow Academicians:
      It may be difficult for those of you who haven't known Will Whitehead for nearly half a century, as I have, to realize that he was not reared in a New Church home and educated from his youth in the schools of the Academy.
     If you will turn to the volume of NEW CHURCH LIFE for 1908, you will find "Out of the Shadows," the article in which he was introduced to the readers of the LIFE. Therein he tells us:
     "It was whilst fulfilling the pastoral activities of a home mission circuit of the Methodist Church of Canada," being at the time stationed at Dorset, Muskoka, that I chanced to meet and converse with several members of the New Church, who were spending some time in that region."
     They were Robert Caldwell and his wife and Miss Venita Pendleton. At their hands he was shown a copy of the Writings. The title of the book was: The True Christian Religion containing "the Universal Theology of the New Church."
     "Opening the book at random. I immediately learned," he writes "that the English nation had cities in hell! This was certainly a startling and forcible idea; and a dryly cynical thought said that it might not be an altogether unlikely proposition.
     "The book was evidently far from dull. A swift perusal of its opening chapters revealed so many striking and peculiar things-things which struck the mind with all the force of iron rods. .
     "Before long . . . I began to read seriously. That I was delighted, repelled, astonished and attracted in turns will be quite intelligible to those who have accepted its teachings. . .
     "For these new doctrines agitated me very much. And I felt that, having read them, I could never rest until I had taken the modern theologic knowledges, and laid them side by side with Swedenborg's announcements. So, in ignorance of the great treasure that had come into my hands. I began to do this deliberately and in logical fashion.
     "As I did so, the conviction grew on me that this strange work had considered us all in the beginning-had weighed us generations ago, and that, in every important item where it conflicted with our modern theology, we were found wanting."

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     And so it came about that our Methodist clergyman discovered, as he stated, "A true catholic religion . . . free from superstition, predicating spiritual laws as absolute in the realm of the soul as the laws of nature were in the natural realm."
     For the time being, he said: "I preferred to work patiently in that church in which all my life had been spent, and which gave certain restricted scope for the urging of principles of social and industrial betterment.
     "On the whole, it seined best to talk to the people about the foolishness of wrong doing, to be patient and kindly when they were in trouble, to preach about the life of our Lord and His teachings, and to do one's known duty to God and man in a forceful, simple way.
     "Such, then, were a few of the more practical features of my theologic outlook when I providentially stumbled across that book which has since changed the whole course of my life.
     "The Writings given through Swedenborg came to me like real food, compared with which the current theologies-orthodox and heterodox- appeared presently as the merest husks.
     "The Higher Critical movement was disarmed as to its spiritual denials. Agnostic nihilism was utterly confuted. Philosophy was given its rightful place in the realm of religion; and man and his surroundings [were] interpreted in the only rational and satisfactory way.
     "All religion was seen to be related to life, and all life was perceived to have complete relation to religion."
     As a Coda to this Opus I, composed in the dawning of his New Church existence, Will Whitehead made this conclusion:
     "It is not the unwillingness of men to listen to Swedenborg that accounts for the prejudice against his Writings. Men will receive the doctrines of the New Church as human opinion-this has been again and again proven; but they will not receive them as the Word of Divine truth revealed by the Lord out of heaven.
     "'I am come in My Father's name, and ye receive Me not; another shall come in his own name; him will ye receive.'"
     So wrote our young converted Methodist clergyman a half century ago. He had left industrial England for evangelistic work in Canada. Now he had discovered new truth, and, eager to learn more, he came to the Academy schools. Here in the fertile fields of New Church education, the native seeds of human sympathy and religious devotion within him took root and flourished. Soon they were to bear fruit in the uses of the New Church. For half a century Will Whitehead has worked nobly as minister, teacher and historian of the church, and as a citizen of Bryn Athyn and ultimately of the United States.

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     The literature of the New Church is full of his papers, his addresses, his sermons. Four years after coming to Bryn Athyn he was appointed Editor of the JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, and founded and became Editor of the BULLETIN OF THE SONS OF THE ACADEMY. Later he was appointed Editor of NEW CHURCH SERMONS.
     "The JOURNAL has never been more ably edited; and the BULLETIN 15 sparkling with quiet humor." So editorially commented NEW CHURCH LIFE.
     He has served as Secretary of the Council of the Clergy, of the Joint Council of the General Church, and in many other secretarial positions.
     In the field of education, his profound and brilliant teaching has inspired generations of Academy students. In banquets and countless meetings throughout the General Church he has contributed notably to New Church educational and religious thought for nearly 50 years.
     He has also been an inspiring leader in the civic and social life of Bryn Athyn. In his early days among us he organized the Younger Generation Club of Bryn Athyn. He assisted in the incorporation of our Borough. And through the years he has made notable contribution to the political thought and the philosophy of government in the church and in our country.
     My own close association with Will Whitehead came through our working together in the cause of civil government, for the preservation of liberty in our country and for freedom-loving nations everywhere. During this period it was inspiring to feel his abiding affection for England, for British justice and traditions, while with loyalty and patriotic devotion he gave his love and allegiance to the country of his adoption.
     As historian and teacher of history, sociology and economics, Will White- head's abilities in analytical and critical judgment have long been acknowledged in the classroom, as in the lecture hall.
     In his youth, Dr. Whitehead became a skilled debater. Through all the years we've known him, how that man could demolish foolish, ill-reasoned or unsound opinions of unwary speakers in open meetings! And in the art of delivering the perfect squelch to "smart alec" boys in class, "The Duke" was always tops, and will live long in the memory of generations of his students.
     As writer of editorials and essayist, and by dint of prodigious and continual reading of newspaper and periodical literature, he developed his genius for journalism. And what a masterly grasp he has of world events, and of contemporary and past history!
     The man is equally at home at the classroom lectern and in the pulpit, at the public rostrum and on the printed page.

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In his manifold capacities, Will Whitehead is eloquent, equally eloquent with the pen as in the spoken word. We are all familiar with the aptness of his subtle humor and the devastating weapon of his satire. We all know well and have been deeply moved by the power of his logic and the beauty of his poetic imagery.
     The bare listing of abilities and professional capacities which I have added to the autobiographical summary drawn from his coming into the Church-"Out of the Shadows"-conveys nothing of the human quality and inspiration of the man, unless by memories stirred in you who know and love him. It would have been a joy to gather for you today a few of Will Whitehead's wise utterances, some of his pithy epigrams and flashes of witty and delightful humor, to give a few examples of his powerful analysis in the realm of controversy and debate; to draw as it were a few threads from the record of this grand New Church man. But on this day I feel, as I believe you do also, we are looking, not backward, but ahead to Will Whitehead's future work among us.
     For you and I. his friends, have in our hearts the fond hope and deeply felt desire that freedom through retirement from the daily, rostered routine of well-nigh half a century opens a new, crowning phase of his active use among us. Through these many years our friend has risen above deep tragedy, to carry on with the fortitude of a great soul, sustained by trust in the Divine Providence and his abiding love of use.
     And so, Will, knowing full well your record, our hope and prayer on your partial retirement, noted on this occasion, is that you be given strength and courage to serve on, as you have ever served, with word and pen, and with wise counsel and steadfast love, the Academy, the Church, Bryn Athyn and your country. Yes, and to teach many more classes in your beloved schoolrooms.
     And so may you have a span of years allotted not infrequently to men past 75-even to four score years or more; to be wiser, even more useful in the years that lie ahead than in those that have gone before.
HUMILIATION 1957

HUMILIATION 1957

"Humiliation is the essential of Divine worship. When man is in this essential, he is in a state of receiving from the Lord the truth which is of faith and the good which is of charity, consequently in a state of worshiping Him. But if man exalts himself before the Lord, he hence closes the interiors of his mind" (AC 8271).

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DIVINE INTERCESSION 1957

DIVINE INTERCESSION Rev. LOUIS B. KING 1957

     In one of the Epistles we read: "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you" (Ephesians 4: 32). Although this is not part of the Word of God the Christian Church has adopted it as the basis and support of its false doctrine concerning the imputation of Christ's merit. Paul cannot be blamed for this doctrine, however; it was not his own. Proof of this rests on the fact that the words quoted as rendered in the King James Version are a wrong and extremely misleading translation of what Paul actually said and believed. A more accurate rendering appears in the Revised Standard Version, which reads: "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." Note the difference between the phrases "God in Christ," and "God for Christ's sake." The first phrase, which is the correct one, leads the thought to one person; while the second phrase, which is a mistranslation, admits no other thought than that of two persons. This lends support to the teachings of the Writings which declare that Paul taught the truth. It should also be noted here that in the whole of the Sacred Scripture there is no prayer ending with "for Christ's sake." The Lord never taught His disciples to pray with such words.
     However, the Lord did say: "I am in the Father, and the Father in Me"; "I and My Father are one." The Father, or the Divine love, is in Christ lust as man's soul is in his body. The soul of one man communicates with the soul of another man in and through the body, not for the body's sake. And it is the Father within the Son who redeems man-the Divine love within the Divine truth that forgives man, when he approaches the Lord's Human, which is His Word. Referring to the Lord's Human, Paul said: "In Jesus Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."
     God, then, is in Christ; the Divine love is within truth. It has become visible to reconcile man with his Creator. Thus again Paul declares:
"There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (I Timothy 2:5).
     Now one who mediates is called an intercessor. He is one who interposes between parties who are at variance for the purpose of reconciling them.

460

If reconciliation is effected, it is for the sake of the peace and happiness of all, and not merely for the sake of the one who mediates. Another important consideration is this: when we desire to be reconciled with someone whom we cannot approach directly, we must appeal to a middle man who will intercede for us. Why, then, do Christians direct their prayer to God for Christ's sake, when they really believe that Christ is the one who intercedes with God for their sakes? Is not this illogical appeal the product of a confused understanding? If Christ is to mediate between God and men, ought not all prayer to be addressed to Him?
     The truth is that when we approach the Lord in prayer we actually approach the invisible God in visible form. When we say, "Our Father, who art in the heavens," we address the Divine love or soul of God-Man. It is only through the Human, and in His Divine person, that we can approach the infinite love which is God. Jesus Christ is the image of God, just as the body is the image of man's invisible soul. "He that seeth Me seeth the Father"; for the Lord is the "Word made flesh"-the Divine nature brought down to human comprehension and sight. In an attempt to direct the thoughts of men to the Divinity and power of His person the Lord said: "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink" (John 7: 37). "If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it" (John 14: 14).
     There is no need to reconcile the Christian doctrine of three Divine persons with the oneness of God, because nowhere in the Word is it taught that the Trinity consists of persons. Paul teaches that "we are the offspring of God" (Acts 17: 28). This was confirmation of the teaching in Genesis that man was created in the image and likeness of God. Thus in man there is a trinity of soul, body and operation, corresponding to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in God-Man; or, what is the same, to His infinite love, wisdom and use. In recognition of the trinity in man, Paul said: "I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Thessalonians 5: 23).
     The Lord came into the world that men might worship Him in spirit and in truth. And when men worship the Lord Jesus Christ alone, addressing Him immediately, they are actually addressing the Father who is in Him-the Divine love. And although we see Him not with our material eyes, we know that He is present as a Divine Man. Thus the Human of the Lord is the mediator or medium through whom we approach the Divine love within, which is called the Father. "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you." This means that he who humbly approaches the Divine Human opens his life to the influx of Divine love, which fulfills the eternal hopes of regenerating men.
     The Divine Human has both substance and form. Good, or love, is its substance; truth, or wisdom, is its form. Good is merciful; it forgives and saves: while truth intercedes by serving as a means of approach to love.

461

Love can be approached only through its form, truth. As always, then, the Divine truth is the sole intercessor. But since the Lord's advent it serves as a medium of approach to the Divine love; not as truth apart from good, but as one with it. Inasmuch as Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one Divinely human God who is the Lord, it follows that He intercedes with Himself from His own Divine mercy. And since Divine good and Divine truth are the two inseparable essentials of His Divine Human, it follows also that the Divine Human is the one true intercessor.
     Can a man have any determinate idea of God apart from that of the human form? Is not the human form the only possible approach to any meaningful concept of the Lord? How can such emotions as anger, love, forgiveness and mercy be predicated of any form but the human? Just as natural sight requires a definite object, so the human mind, which has spiritual sight, must have a definite, objective idea of God if worship is to be a real thing.
     The Divine Human, then, is the Divine good and the Divine truth permanently united to form an eternal intercession between God and man. The Writings are this Divine Human. They are Divine good and Divine truth united. At first approach man sees only the forms of truth; but once they enter his understanding, they themselves become a medium of approach to the Divine good of which they are the form. And when Divine truth enters the mind, and its immanent good accordingly affects the will, then the Lord is seen as a Divinely-human God-a God of infinite love and mercy.
     From perpetual remembrance, and because of His infinite love, the Lord as Divine truth intercedes with Himself for man's sake; for anyone who desires it has access to His Divine love through His Divine truth. And only when the Lord is approached through His Word can the power of His love and mercy effect salvation in man's life.
     It is essential in the New Church that we adhere to the idea of the Lord as our intercessor. In Him Divine good and Divine truth are one. Only His Divine love can save, and only His Divine truth can serve as an approach to His love.
     There are those who believe that prayers are sufficient for intercession. Consequently, they are apt to refrain from any resistance of evil and give themselves over completely to prayer. But we are warned that prayers do not avail unless they represent the culmination of active opposition to evil.
     Another false idea concerning intercession is held by those who believe that the Lord will forgive them for the sake of another's entreaty. Such would-be intercessors are those who are adored as saints.

462

In the other world, spirits so regarded as saints came to Swedenborg for the express purpose of declaring that they are unable to help even themselves, and much less are they able to aid anyone still living in the world,
     In the Writings we are given the truth concerning intercession. All intercession is the function of Divine truth, for Divine truth is the only means of approach to the Divine love. Up to the time when the Lord came into the world Divine truth was representative in form, and was thus an intercessor apart from Divine love. When He was in the world, however, the Lord became the Divine truth in living form. In certain states He interceded with His infinite soul as with another for the salvation of the human race. But after His glorification, the Lord's good and truth became one; and as Divine truth He intercedes, while as Divine good he forgives and saves.
     In the Writings the Lord's Human is likened to a servant. Before the glorification it was actually a servant, both to the Divine itself and also to man. As a servant of the Divine, the Human afforded a plane on which the hells might approach and be conquered. As for man, the Lord's Human, as always, provided the medium of approach to the Divine love and its salvation. After the resurrection, however, the Lord's Human was no longer a servant, for it was glorified and was thus also Jehovah. Nevertheless, the Divine Human is called a servant because it serves the Divine as a means of access for men through which salvation is effected (AC 3441).
     The Divine Human, then, has become the infinite love for the human race, which love, before the glorification, could be predicated only of Jehovah. And since there is intercession in all love, the Divine Human is the only love capable of saving men. The Lord is the Divine Human; He is the only objective Divine that man is able to comprehend, since He is in the human form. And unless man has some determinate idea of God he is unable to approach Him, and cannot be affected by Him. For this reason all worship in the New Church is to be directed to the Lord, the one Divine Man; for He alone can be approached by man, and He alone has all power to forgive and save.
HEAVEN AND HELL NEAR MAN 1957

HEAVEN AND HELL NEAR MAN 1957

"Hell and heaven are near to man, yea, in man; hell in an evil man, and heaven in a good man. Moreover every one comes after death into that hell or into that heaven in which he was while in the world. But the state is then changed; the hell which was not perceived in the world becomes perceptible, and also the heaven" (AC 8918: 4).

463

DECLARATION OF FAITH AND PURPOSE 1957

DECLARATION OF FAITH AND PURPOSE ROBERT S. JUNGE 1957

     AUGUST 11, 1957

     I believe in one God, the Infinite and Divine Creator of the world and of man. The very purpose of creation, the purpose of the Lord God's Divine love, is a heaven from the human race. Since the Lord God is love itself, it is His will that man should dwell in that eternal kingdom in love to Him and in mutual love with the neighbor.
     Man prepares himself for life in the Lord's eternal kingdom of uses through a life of free choice in this world. No man enters that kingdom unless he truly and freely learns to acknowledge God and to shun evils as sins against Him.
     In order to make man's duties clear, and a true knowledge of God possible, Jehovah became God with us, Jesus Christ-God Himself in Divinely human form. This was His first advent-the Word of Divine truth made flesh and dwelling among us, that we might behold His glory.
     His second advent was a further revelation of God to man. In this advent, the Word of Divine truth is revealed in the Writings for the New Church. These heavenly doctrines, revealed by the Lord alone, are His second coming; they are His guiding voice to man, the very Word of God.
     The Lord tells us in His Word that there should be a priesthood, ordained or set apart to devote itself to the study of and the teaching of the truth of His Word thus devoted to leading men to the acknowledgment of the Lord, the shunning of evils, and the good of life.
     It is further disclosed that there should he degrees in the priestly office. Each new degree carries with it the responsibility of new uses. On entering the pastoral degree, a minister's relation to his flock is enriched. The opportunity is given to him to extend his usefulness in the rites and sacraments of worship, in government, in pastoral instruction, and in many new ways which providence opens before him. Yet these new uses are properly entered only when the priest has deep humility before the Lord his God. Only then can the Lord's Holy Spirit operate through him.
     While this use may be externally performed through evil men, it is fully performed by those only who themselves love the Lord and labor for the salvation of men, and attribute all truth and power to the Lord alone.

464

In presenting myself for ordination into the second or pastoral degree of the priesthood, it is my prayer that the Lord will inspire my heart with true priestly love, and will guide my hand in the performance of this use. He alone is the way, the truth, and the life. By Him alone can any become a worthy servant in His house.
ROBERT S. JUNGE
IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES 1957

IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES Editor 1957

     An outspoken article by the Rev. Clifford Harley, "The Church that is New," published in the NEW-CHURCH HERALD, says, in part: "Furthermore the doctrines of the New Church are not the agreed formulae of men, but the Divinely disclosed doctrines of the inner senses of the Word of God. The revelation of the truths in the spiritual and celestial senses of the Word constitutes a body of new and heavenly doctrine."
     The article continues: "Therefore the Christianity of the New Church is not to be considered as being in any sense a revival of the Christian religion, as that has hitherto been understood. For this assertion we have the warrant of those Writings without which the Holy City would not have descended from God out of heaven."
     Mr. Harley concludes: "The distinctiveness of the New Church is therefore clearly asserted in the Writings that are the essential doctrines that make the Church to be New. It can exist only with those who receive these Writings as a revelation from the Lord, and who receive and love the truths disclosed in them. Certainly there is abroad a new spirit of tolerance and freedom of enquiry in matters of faith, which, while it is one of the direct results of the Last Judgment, is nevertheless not to be identified with the New Church. That Church, seen in vision as the descending City from God out of heaven, has existence on earth only where the Lord Jesus Christ in His Divine Humanity is worshipped and loved as the only God of heaven and earth, and where the Word in its spiritual as well as its literal sense is received and acknowledged to be Divine"
     The Rev. Clifford Harley, a minister of the General Conference, is pastor of the Derby Society and president of the Swedenborg Society.

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NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1957

     Our Old Testament readings this month (II Kings 11: 13-2 Se) relate the gradual decline of Israel and Judah before the advancing power of Assyria and Babylonia and the eventual fall of both kingdoms. Israel, condemned by more and more grievous idolatries, was punished by the incursions of the Syrians, and afterwards by the invasions of the Assyrians, who captured Samaria after a siege of three years, carried the people into a captivity from which they never returned, and colonized the land with a mixed idolatrous race which mingled its native cults with the worship of Israel. The final agony of Judah was even more prolonged. Preserved in turn from Assyria and Egypt, the southern kingdom became a subject state within the Babylonian empire; and after an unsuccessful attempt at rebellion the nation was carried into captivity by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar, 134 years after Samaria fell.
     The reader who wishes to see the biblical books in chronological sequence, and thus have a full view of the period, should know that many of the prophets have their place here. Jonah and Joel, Amos and Hosea, Isaiah and Micah, all prophesied during the decline of the kingdoms Nahum, Zephaniah and Habakkuk delivered their inspired messages as Judah's end drew near; and Jeremiah witnessed the fall of Jerusalem, the exile of his countrymen, and the tragic aftermath of the Babylonian conquest. The people were not left without a witness, and it was in spite of the exhortations, counsel and denunciations of the prophets that Israel and Judah moved obstinately to their own destruction.
     What is described in the internal sense here is the way in which the perverted understanding (Israel) and the corrupted will (Judah), ignoring the teachings of the Word, become enslaved by false reasonings (Assyria) and the infernal love of dominion (Babylon). The natural reasons for the two captivities were political, but the spiritual reason was that Israel and Judah had become so evil they could no longer sustain the representation of Divine and heavenly things. Henceforth the basis of representation would be the places of the land; and although Judah would return, it would be in a negative character. However, there is also a positive series. The Babylonian captivity played an important part in the preparation of the ancient world for the Lord's advent; and in the regeneration series the fall of the two kingdoms signifies that only through submission to vastation can the mind be purified and made ready to receive the Lord. Thus within and beyond the utter destruction in which the book closes the Divine Providence may he seen working toward ends of good and of mercy.

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In the portion of Apocalypse Revealed assigned for October the digests of Christian theology are completed and the first 49 numbers of the text are read. The second compendium should be used with judgment. Catholic doctrine has not changed since the eighteenth century, though it has received such notable additions as the dogmas of papal infallibility and the assumption of Mary; but Protestant teaching has changed somewhat in its emphases if not in its content. This does not mean that it has come closer to the New Church. Modern Protestantism stresses the unity of God, but its one God is not the Lord, whose Divinity is accepted less and less; and in the doctrine of the atonement the emphasis is not now on the just anger of God but on man's separation from Him by sin, yet the mode of atonement is still the same. Thus the digest, correct for its time, should not be regarded as necessarily descriptive of contemporary Protestant theology-a reservation which in this instance does not imply belief in permeation.
We are instructed that the book of Revelation, the internal sense of which is expounded serially in Apocalypse Revealed, does not treat of the successive states of the church, still less of the successive states of earthly kingdoms. The latter are never the real subjects of the Word, and the successive states of the Christian Church were foretold by the Lord in Matthew 24 and 25, expounded in the Arcana. The Apocalypse treats of the last state of the church in heaven and on earth, that is, of the former heaven and church and their abolition, and thus of the Last Judgment; and then of the formation and establishment of the New Heaven and the New Church, in which the Lord will be acknowledged as the one God in whom is the Divine Trinity (AR 2, 523). The New Church is therefore the end of the work; and lest we make the mistake of regarding it as a work of spiritual history only, we are told also that in the Apocalypse are now revealed the evils and falsities of the church which must be shunned and held in aversion, and the goods and truths of the church which must be done, especially those concerning the Lord and eternal life from Him (AR 932).

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IDEA OF THE CHURCH 1957

IDEA OF THE CHURCH Editor 1957

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of Publication, Lancaster, Pa.

Published Monthly By

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

Editor      Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager      Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address, and business communications, should be sent to the Circulation Secretary. Notifications of address changes should be received by the 15th of the month.

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION

$3.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single copy, 30 cents.
Ever since it was conceived the idea of an organized New Church has not lacked opponents. Some of the first receivers in England earnestly resisted separation from the existing churches, fondly hoping that these would so quickly accept the Writings as to make such a step unnecessary. A later attack came from another quarter. The New Church was not meant to be an ecclesiasticism; all that was needed was for men and women to read the Writings and live according to them. And today some New Church men and women seem to be living uneasily with more than a suspicion that our organized bodies are obsolescent, except as denominations, so rapidly are the Christian churches becoming New Church.
     The last conclusion is as vain as the first hope; but the second objection needs to be examined because it involves that dangerous thing-a truth so slanted that it becomes a falsity. It is true that the New Church is not an ecclesiasticism, in the sense that an ecclesiasticism is all that it is; but it does not follow that the church should therefore not have an ultimate body. We would all agree that man is not a body, but would still insist that a body, either natural or spiritual, is essential for man's existence. It is undoubtedly true also that men can be saved by reading the Writings and living according to them. But we wonder how anyone could read the Writings in their own light and not see that organized worship where possible is taught in them, or be convinced that the worship to which they lead cannot be developed within the framework of the existing Christian churches. For that is the plain teaching of the Writings, not a matter of interpretation.

468

IDEA OF DISTINCTIVENESS 1957

IDEA OF DISTINCTIVENESS Editor 1957

This particular ecclesiastical body has long been convinced of the need for a distinct and distinctive New Church, and the term "distinctiveness" is often on our lips. To some less familiar with it than most it has an unpleasant ring, and that is understandable. The effect of words is determined less by their meaning than by their connotation. By definition there is nothing wrong with the term "fellow traveler," but current usage has made it a term of opprobrium. And it is a fact that those who have called and thought of themselves as "separated ones," "a peculiar people," or just plain isolationists, have frequently been convinced of their superiority to that from which they are set apart.
     However, we are dealing here with something deeper than a problem in semantics. Whether a term less likely to be misunderstood could be found is worth investigating; but it is less important than what we ourselves understand by the term and convey to others. It is not our opinion but the teaching of the Writings that the faith of the New Church cannot be together with that of the old (BE 102). That is the doctrinal authority for the concept of distinctiveness. And it is a simple fact that wherever the New Church has been truly founded, there the Lord has established something superior to the Christian churches. To deny this is to deny the doctrine; and since the church is the Lord's, not man's, modesty has no part to play here in softening the claim.
     But this does not mean that every man, woman and child nominally connected with a body organized in the name and faith of the New Church is inherently better than every man, woman and child officially connected with any other faith. Any idea of distinctiveness as exclusiveness justified by personal superiority does not have its origin in the Writings, but in self-pride, conceit, and contempt of others. True distinctiveness has its origin in a desire to protect the church that it may develop its uses for the benefit of all mankind.
     Yet it is just here that misunderstanding may arise: and that is especially the case with our children, who cannot as yet think impersonally. Like some adults, they cannot distinguish between a Divine judgment on a consummated church and a human mass judgment on all the people associated with that church. The one neither implies nor justifies the other. The term "distinctiveness" embodies something we believe to be vital for the true development of the church; but that very fact places upon us a responsibility to understand what it really means, and to convey that accurately to others-by our attitude as well as our words. There are, of course, practical problems of application, especially with our children, but that is another subject.

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PROPOSAL REGARDING THE SPIRITUAL DIARY 1957

     Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE:
     It has been a tradition for a need to be stated and the filling of that need left to volition.
     Several ministers are said to be each lacking a set of the Spiritual Diary that is needed. One theological student has advertised for such a set without success. The Dean of the Theological School wants a set in the English language as the only one he has is in Latin. Some faculty members are said to have been seeking a set for their class preparations in religion. The Academy Library reports its sets to be fast wearing out. Some believe each New Church community should have a set of the Diary in its library. It is not known whether there are enough copies of the Diary in existence for each minister to have one in addition to the set in his community library.
     Perhaps it should be axiomatic that a minister has a greater need for the Diary than has a layman.
     It is expected to be several years before a reprinting of volume 1 of the Spiritual Diary becomes available, and a great many years before subsequent volumes become available after revision. Meanwhile, if the New Church continues to grow, how are the present needs for the Spiritual Diary to be filled?
     For those who appreciate this need, the Dean of the Theological School would agree to accept ownership in himself and his successors in office of any sets or partial sets of the Spiritual Diary that may be offered. It is expected they will be placed out on loan so that upon the death or retirement of a minister possession of them may revert to the Dean for the relending to and use of future ministers. The Dean should be allowed to use his discretion as to the reality of a need.
     Apocalypse Revealed 352 states: "There are three things which cohere and cannot be separated, love, wisdom, and the use of life; if one is separated, the other two fall to the ground."
     Should any of us jeopardize a hope for fidelity of reception of influx by refusing to place a unique and irreplaceable chattel such as the Spiritual Diary to its greatest use?

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LOCAL SCHOOLS DIRECTORY 1957

LOCAL SCHOOLS DIRECTORY Editor 1957

     1957-1958

     Elementary schools report the following teaching staffs for 1957-1958:

BRYN ATHYN.
Rev. David R. Simons                          Principal
Miss Mary Louise Williamson                     Kindergarten
Miss Jennie Gaskill                          Grade 1
Miss Naomi Gladish                          Grade 1
Miss Nancy Stroh                               Grade 2
Miss Anne Timmins                          Grade 2
Miss Erna Sellner                          Grade 3
Miss Phillis Cooper                          Grade 4
Miss Patricia de Maine                          Grade 4
Mrs. Lucy Boggess Waelchli                    Grade 5
Miss Barbara Doering                          Grade 5 (Assistant)
Miss Anna Hamm                               Grade 6
Mr. Carl Gunther                               Grade 7
Mrs. Elizabeth Doering Echols                Grade 8

COLCHESTER.     Rev. Alan Gill                     Principal
Miss Mary Sandstrom                          Grades 1-5

DURBAN. Rev. A. Wynne Acton                     Principal
Miss Sylvia Pemberton                          Grades 1-4

GLENVIEW.     Rev. Elmo C. Acton               Headmaster
Miss Gwenda Acton                          Kindergarten, Grade 3
Miss Grace Hotson                          Grades 1 & 2
Mrs. Gwladys Hicks Gholson                    Grades 4 & 5
Miss Sally Smith                              Grades 6 & 7
Miss Gladys Blackman                          Grades 8 & 9
Miss Helen Maynard                         Librarian

KITCHENER.     Rev. Geoffrey S. Childs           Principal
Miss Rita Kuhl                               Grades 1-4
Miss Judith Kuhl                               Grades 5, 6, 8

PITTSBURGH. Rev. Louis B. King                Principal
Mrs. Elsa Asplundh Acton                    Kindergarten
Miss Venita Roschman                          Grades 1-3
Mrs. Angela Bergstrom Schoenberger                Grades S & 6
Miss Gertrude Hasen                         Grades 4-6
Mr. Pelle Rosenquist                         Grades 7-9

TORONTO.     Rev. Martin Pryke                Principal
Miss Sylvia Parker                          Grades 1, 2, 4
Miss Joan Kuhl                              Grades 5-7

     Special and part-time teachers, whether voluntary or otherwise, are not included here. The teaching staff of the Academy of the New Church is listed in the 1957-1958 Catalogue, pp. 4, 5.

471

Church News 1957

Church News Various 1957

     NEW ENGLAND

     The summer meeting of the New England Group was held in Massachusetts at the invitation of Mr. and Mrs. W. Harry Furry. At their home in Sharon a doctrinal class was held on Saturday evening after an informal supper, and on the beautiful Sunday morning of August 11th. 24 happy people gathered. They had come from Bryn Athyn and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Sandy Hook, Connecticut; Pawtucket, Rhode Island; South Amherst, Wollaston, Abington and Sharon, Massachusetts.
     The service, which was conducted by the Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, was held at 11:30 a.m., and in a special message to the children present he explained how they must rid themselves of the beam in their own eyes or lives before they can help to remove the mote from a playmate's eye or life. The sermon. "Education for Use," dealt with the need for New Church education; and after the service we were privileged to witness a unique ceremony-the dedication, in a brief and simple service, of a wedding ring, given and received in place of one which after many years could no longer be worn.
     A social hour followed, with toasts to our church and to our host and hostess, and we were then served a bountiful roast beef dinner at attractive tables on the lawn. Because of the many miles some of those present had to drive before reaching home, the hour of parting came all too soon. It is hoped that many will be present at the September meeting in Connecticut.
     GRACIE M. TUPPER

     [NOTE: On June 8th and 9th the New England Group received its first Episcopal Visit. Bishop De Charms conducted a doctrinal class on Saturday evening at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Simons in Morningside, Conn., and a service on Sunday at the home of Mr. and Mrs. James Holtvedt in Newington, Conn. Although a few members could not be present the meetings were well attended. The visit was much appreciated, the more so as it came almost on the eve of the Bishop's extended trip to the West, and the instruction and inspiration received were of much help to this recently established group.]

     PHILADELPHIA, PA.

     The Advent Society commenced its 1956-1957 season under the leadership of its new pastor, the Rev. Norbert H. Rogers. As happens in all new beginnings, our enthusiasm was high and our minds were filled with new plans and ideas. Some of these materialized; others, of course, fell by the wayside!
     The most impressive achievement of the Society was the acquisition of a new school bus-station wagon to you. Inspired by a very generous gift, the Society succeeded in raising a substantial sum of money to help make this possible. On the material side, also, we were able to take rare of quite a few major repairs to our building; thus making it a more comfortable dwelling for our pastor and his family and at the same time protecting our investment in the property.
     As we think back over the year, the one thing that stands out is the consistently good attendance at church. While all of our services were very fine, the one at Christmas was especially to be remembered. The sphere of that service was heightened by the singing of carols by the very young children. Another happy occasion was the annual visit of Bishop De Charms. Everyone enjoyed his class, and the service as well.
     In addition to one baptism and one confirmation we had two weddings during the year. These were the first weddings to take place in our Frankford church. Also, two of our oldest members, Mrs. Leander Good and Mr. John Soderberg, passed into the spiritual world.

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     To all of us to whom this little church is so important it was a year of progress, not spectacular, but steady.
     EDNA B. WALTER

     DENVER, COLORADO

     Our Nineteenth of June celebration was an enjoyable potluck picnic at the home of our minister and his wife. The younger folk enjoyed lively games of croquet and dodge ball, while our more sedate members caught up on the latest news. We were all pleasantly surprised when Mr. Edward F. Allen arrived in time for dessert.
     The three-day visit of Bishop and Mrs. De Charms was a huge success from our viewpoint and, we hope, from theirs as well. A meeting was held at the Dan Cole residence, at which time a model of the Tabernacle was shown, followed by colored slides of the model in Bryn Athyn. It was most interesting to learn how long and patiently craftsmen, and the children of the church, had toiled to perfect the model. Another showing was held on Saturday night for the benefit of the children and those who were not able to attend the Friday gathering.
     On Saturday evening a well attended banquet was held at the Albany Hotel. The first speaker of the evening was Mr. O. A. Bergstrom, who spoke on "The Meaning of the General Church to Me" and then proposed a toast to the General Church. A very interesting talk was then given by Fred Fiedler on "What it Means to Attend the Academy," and a toast to the Academy was then proposed. Our Bishop then inspired us with his discourse on "The Growth of the Church." Smaller societies or circles sometimes become a little disheartened when there seems to be no growth in numbers, and perhaps feel that they are not contributing much; but as our Bishop reminded us, we have given teachers to the church, and an increase of membership through those of our families that have scattered throughout the church, so that we are just as useful in our small way.
     Out-of-town guests included Mr. and Mrs. Fiedler and family from Holyoke; Mr. and Mrs. Alan Longstaff and family of Sioux City, Iowa; Mrs. Lois Longstaff, who brought us greetings from Toronto; Mrs. William Alden of Bryn Atbyn Kent Fuller of Glenview; Linda Allen of Washington, D. C.; and Mr. E. Vrooman, who came with his daughter from Colorado Springs. Earlier in the month we had enjoyed meeting Miss Morna Hyatt and Miss Pearl Linaweaver.
     The service on Sunday morning was the culmination of our celebration. The Rev. Robert S. Junge was ordained into the second degree of the priesthood, and the Holy Supper was administered.
     The latest piece of news is that a daughter was born to the Rev. and Mrs. Robert Junge on August 13th. She waited patiently until after the visit of the Bishop and his wife so that her parents could entertain them. We congratulate the new parents.
     MARION DICE

     NORTH JERSEY

     The Northern New' Jersey Circle is an ever changing group, its enrollment swelling and decreasing as New Church men and their families move into or away from the greater New York area. Early in 1956, Mr. and Mrs. Allan C. Soderberg moved into the area. The tide then reached our pastor; it was announced that the Rev. and Mrs. Geoffrey S. Childs were moving to Kitchener, and that the Rev. Norbert H. Rogers would become our new pastor. It was with fond affection that the New York and North Jersey Circles met in August, 1956, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Gyllenhaal for a last class with, and a farewell to, Mr. Childs. Mr. Rogers, having ministered to this Circle a few years before, and having known several new members in other societies, did not come as a stranger, but was welcomed back into the fold, as it were. Also, Mr. Darrel Hicks has been transferred, and we hope that he will like Florida.
     In the fall last year a committee including Mr. Hugh Gyllenhaal, Mrs. James York, Mrs. Murray Cronlund and Mrs. Francis Frost actively sought a place for our Sunday services since the home of Mr. and Mrs. York was inadequate for our increasing numbers. Many problems complicated the search, such as a central location for our widely dispersed group, the cost, sufficient room for our children's Sunday lessons, a proper atmosphere to inspire reverence, and so on. In the meantime services were continued at the York home. Finally, several rooms in the Y.M.C.A. at Madison, New Jersey, were agreed upon as acceptable in all respects, and all our Sunday services this sear have been held there. On behalf of the Circle we wish to thank the Yorks for the use of their home every month.

473

     A baptism is rare in a small circle. One can therefore imagine the pleasure of having three in less than a year. Those baptized were: Freya, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Odhner; James, son of Mr. and Mrs. Allan Soderberg; and Wendy, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Emerson Long.
     Foremost among our social functions were the annual banquets-in April, 1956, and May, 1957-artistically prepared by the women and enjoyed by all. On both occasions Bishop De Charms was our honored guest and provided us with a keen doctrinal message. We regret that Mrs. De Charms could not attend this year's banquet as she has in the past.
     The Circle received an invitation to a luncheon at the Orange, New Jersey, Convention Church. Unfortunately, several months elapsed before we could accept the invitation. However, a pleasant afternoon at the end of May, with addresses by Mr. Harold B. Larsen and Mr. Rogers, was enjoyed by both groups.
     On one occasion when Mr. Rogers was unable to come, the Rev. and Mrs. Karl R. Alden visited our Circle and Mr. Alden kindly gave us a doctrinal class.
     Mr. David Frost was married to Miss Barbara Simons in Bryn Athyn last May. All the members of the Circle wished that they could have attended. At any rate, the young couple have our best wishes, and we hope that they will join us in the fall when we will all meet again for services and doctrinal classes.
     ALLAN C. SODERBERG

     NORTHWESTERN UNITED STATES

     Our last report was submitted in June, 1956. Since then we have had two visits from the Rev. Roy Franson, one from the Rev. Harold Cranch, and one from the Rev. Robert Junge. Besides these four pastoral visits we ban one Christmas lay service at Portland, Oregon, and one Easter lay service at the Sterling Smith home. Although there was no announcement in NEW CHURCH LIFE, we too had a District Assembly.
     In Portland on July 25th, for the benefit of those who would be unable to attend the Assembly, the Bishop held a class, adapted to the children, on the tabernacle; followed by an adult class so which he gave an outline of the correspondences involved.
     Our Assembly was held in Oakville, Washington, July 27-28. This was attended by twenty-four adults and seven children. The children were given a class on the tabernacle, in which the model brought by the Bishop was used. After luncheon a business meeting was conducted by the Bishop. At this meeting it was resolved unanimously to have the Rev. Roy Franson as our pastor. The subject of a New Church summer camp was discussed and a committee of three was selected to give the matter further study. At this meeting also Miss Antonia Pribilski was elected secretary in place of Sylvia Mellman, who has served in that capacity for ten years.
     At our banquet in the evening, Mr. Henry Mellman as toastmaster called on those who represented our various areas to report on the growth of the church in their districts. After hearing these reports we probably all felt a bit discouraged by the lack of members and the slow growth of the church but after a wonderful talk by the Bishop, explaining why the New Church has to grow slowly, we all felt better. Once more we realized what a privilege it is to have found this revelation, and that we can be thankful to the Lord that each of us, in our own small way, can have a part in the development of the church. Philip Cronlund, son of Dr. Philip Cronlund, expressed the wish that more people from the larger centers could have the experience he was now having of visiting a small group and seeing how each person has to take an active part in things. He also urged the children to buy tuition stamps to help themselves to go to the Academy Schools. Messages of greeting from the Glendale Church, Dawson Creek, the Rev. Robert Junge, and the Rev. Karl R. Alden were read.
     The Sunday service was an inspiration to all. The Oakville Legion Hall suddenly became a church with Rosalie (Lorenz) Andrews' flower arrangements, Sterling Smith's altar rail, Miss Iler at the piano, and enough people to fill the room with a sphere of worship. With the snow-capped mountains in the distance, it was a fitting place to listen to a sermon on the 121st Psalm and prepare ourselves for the Communion which followed. At the luncheon with which the Assembly concluded there was a rising vote of applause to Sterling and Florene Smith for all that they had done to make our Assembly a success. It was resolved also to send the Bishop and his wife a token of appreciation in the form of a myrtle wood bowl.

474

We were still reluctant to see those two full days end; so those who were able, ten of us, drove to Lake Spirit, which is a Washington version of Lake Louise. There we could meditate on what the Bishop had just told us-to look to eternity and plan our lives not just for this world. It was a fitting climax to be able to lift up our eyes unto the mountains, from whence cometh our help.
     SYLVIA MELLMAN

     PITTSBURGH, PA.

     Summer is here, the time when many families take their vacations. Surprisingly, much social activity continues; and, what is most gratifying, there is a large attendance at our family service each Sunday. The nursery for the little ones has been continued over the summer, under Theta Alpha sponsorship. Mrs. John Alden is in charge, but all the mothers who use the nursery take their turn in helping. The pastor gives a talk after the first lesson, after which the small children leave. The same topic is used in the sermon, so we have a full and well rounded service.
     The Friday suppers and classes continued through May. The Society appreciates the fine teaching the pastor has given, as is evidenced by the large attendance. These suppers and classes provide occasion for a great deal of social life. There is many an informal gathering in the homes after class; and the young folks-and nearly all are "young" around here-enjoy these opportunities to have fun together.
     A word about singing. Singing practice is held between supper and class, and Mr. Harry Abele and Mr. Carl Gunther have done the conducting. Mrs. Chester Stroemple, Mrs. Lee Smith, Mrs. Frank Stein, and this summer Miss Julie Stevens, have given of their time and talents as organists. We were very pleased when Miss Jennie Gaskill, one of our former school teachers, visited us and was heard to say, "The Pittsburgh Society certainly can sing!" We realize that the accoustics of our church building are good; but Miss Jennie helped to train our children, as many other teachers have done. We may thank also Mrs. Bessie E. Smith who in time past helped to train the congregation. It all counts, but we hope to improve.
     Our social committee put on a gay costume party in March. We all came dressed as our favorite pop record. The auditorium was decorated for the occasion and there was a so-called "orchestra," which consisted, among other things, of violin, whisk brooms and bottles, and bass viol. The "music" produced was amazing. A family camping party was held in May, with sixty folks present. This is always a treat for which the campers thank the "old scout." Mr. Gilbert M. Smith, and his wife.
     School closing was a big affair this year, held on Sunday afternoon, June 9th. The auditorium was filled despite the fact that only one student graduated from the eighth grade. Duncan Smith, the lone graduate gave a thoughtful paper on "Love to the Lord and Love to the Neighbor," and Mr. Gilbert Smith, his father, gave a fine address on loyalty in terms that children could understand. The four ninth grade girls made a gift to the school, and the pastor gave each of them a copy of Conjugial Love as a farewell gift. The school has had a successful year. We were most fortunate to have a staff consisting of the pastor, four trained teachers, and Mrs. Gareth Acton as kindergarten teacher and Mrs. Chester Stroemple in charge of music.
     The Nineteenth, of June was an especially memorable occasion. A family service was held in the church at four-thirty, followed by a beautiful outdoor pageant written by the pastor. Sixty children, from kindergarten to ninth grade, in colorful costumes took part in depicting scenes from the book of Revelation. The sweet voices of the children singing to the accompaniment of the harp created a most powerful sphere of innocence and reverence. Our festival ended with a picnic supper on the church lawn.
     On July 18th the pastor and his wife entertained the entire society in their garden, located behind the school building. The garden was beautifully decorated with candles and with spotlights focussed on the lovely flowers. The guests of honor on that occasion were the Rev. and Mrs. Daniel W. Heinrichs. Dan, recently ordained, and Miraim were visiting her parents before leaving for South Africa. Our love and best wishes go with them in their work for the church.
     The Rev. Donald L. Rose, also recently ordained, visited Pittsburgh last spring when he was a Candidate. He gave us a stimulating talk on evangelization, and preached on Sunday a sermon we still remember.

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Our best wishes go with him in his new work in Australia.
     We are very happy to report the addition of a new family to our group in Pittsburgh-Mr. and Mrs. Riis Burwell and their three children. Miss Marilyn Gunther also has joined the Pittsburgh Society. We give them all a hearty welcome.
     LUCILE S. BLAIR

     LONDON, ENGLAND

     This review of Michael Church activities begins, paradoxically, with the period when many of the regular uses of the Society were coming to a close for the summer months. The bi-monthly doctrinal classes at Swedenborg House, where many of us had listened throughout the season to an enthralling series on "The Six Days of Creation" drawn from the Arcana; the Chadwell Heath classes, which had embraced "The Spiritual World," based on Heaven and Hell; as well as the monthly Sunday class which followed a bring-your-own lunch after the morning service; all these came to an end. It might he opportune to mention here that a doctrinal class for the North London group was commenced last April, the meetings being held in rotation at the homes of the various members. This class took for its subject "The Divine Love," from The Doctrine of Uses.
     The last meeting of the Women's Guild before the Annual General meeting was addressed by Mrs. Alec Craigie on the art of storytelling, especially in its application to children. The speaker was able to draw her conclusions from experience, since she had at one time occupied the position of honorary story-teller at a children's library in Vancouver and she had many amusing anecdotes to tell. By way of an experiment, two of the Guild's meetings this year were held at Swedenborg House. The majority of the members find Bloomsbury easier to get to, and it is fairly evident that future meetings will be divided between Swedenborg House and the schoolroom at Michael Church. A suggestion that the Guild "adopt" by letter any isolated member of the church who desired to keep in closer touch with the Society's activities was unanimously approved. The annual meeting was held in April; and the retiring president, who did not wish to stand for re-election, was succeeded by Miss Isobel Robertson. Mrs. E. Colebrooke was re-elected as secretary-treasurer.
     For his Easter sermon the pastor chose Matthew 28: 16, 17, as the text. At a celebration held after luncheon Mr. and Mrs. Jones from Northampton were officially welcomed, and farewell was said to Mr. and Mrs. Foord because of their impending departure to Colchester, where they have bought a house. Colchester, perhaps to make amends, has supplied us with a new member; for Miss Marion Appleton, now Mrs. Colin Colebrooke, has joined our ranks, and very happy we are to have her. The preliminaries over, we were treated to one of Mendelssohn's "Songs Without Words," played by Mrs. Foord; and this was followed by an address by Mr. Sandstrom on the meaning in the Gospels of the names of the women associated with the Lord in the world. His interesting treatment of the subject evoked many questions.
     An innovation, on May 1st, was a spring concert sponsored by the Women's Guild. This was intended to take the place of the annual Sale of Work which would normally be held next November-a time which in recent years has been found to be inconvenient because of bad weather and the nearness of Christmas. The Guild president, Miss Edith Elphick, arranged the concert around the idea of spring; which idea was carried out also in the decorations, with the willing assistance of the Sandstrom children, and in the musical items by the various performers. The pastor took up the theme in his address on the spiritual meaning of spring, and a particularly charming contribution was made by the playing back of a dialogue between him and his youngest daughter, Eva, in the garden of their home. The sound of the birds twittering in the background, and the prattle of the child, gave emphasis to the beauty of this particular season of the year. During a break in the proceedings the company had the pleasure of seeing Miss Marion Appleton and Mr. Colin Colebrooke open the "shower" gifts presented to them to mark the occasion of their marriage later in the month.
     From June 8th to 10th the young people made the most of their own special weekend, which this year was held at Colchester. Your reporter was nor present, being, alas, well and truly over the age limit; but from all accounts, thirteen youngsters thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

476

There were a supper, a service, an outing, and darts and table tennis tournaments.
     Many of us were able to celebrate New Church Day twice. The first occasion was on June 16th at Michael Church, the congregation numbering over 70, and including several friends from Colchester. We were delighted to welcome after the service Mr. and Mrs. Schuurman from South Africa, with their daughter Renee and her friend, Miss Sandra Reynold, who were touring Europe to take part in the amateur tennis tournaments. It gave us great pleasure to see Renee reach the semi-finals at Wimbledon.
     Some 50 people sat down to a tastefully prepared lunch augmented by a beautiful christening cake made by Mrs. Turner and presented by her and her husband to mark their infant daughters baptism, which had taken place during the service. Before the program began, the Women's Guild took the opportunity to present Mrs. Foord with a little farewell gift. The program was opened by the pastor, who read a message of greeting from Bishop De Charms. Mrs. Stanley Wainscot, playing her own accompaniment, then sang the lovely aria, "O Rest in the Lord," from Mendelssohn's "Elijah." After a toast to "Our Glorious Church" came the main presentation, under the title "Two Hundred Years Ago." Mr. Reginald Law presented a short history of the establishment of the Academy; Mr. Percy Dawson traced the establishment of the General Church and the laying down of those principles which have been faithfully followed to the present day; and Mr. Victor Tilson-whose father, the Rt. Rev. R. J. Tilson, played such a prominent part in the history that was unfolded for us-dealt with the establishment and growth of Michael Church.
     For many of us living south of the Thames, however, the real celebration of New Church Day came on June 19th, when a special evening service was held at the home of the Rev. and Mrs. Erik Sandstrom and an open invitation was extended to all who could make their way there. From 6:30 p.m. a tempting and liberal buffet of sandwiches and other good things, as well as the special Sandstrom gateau, awaited arrivals; and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of cups of tea and coffee was on tap. It was truly heartwarming to see so many people so obviously happy to be there. Many had come long distances after a hard day's work; but the sphere of loving anticipation of the service to come was palpable, and at 8:30 p.m. some thirty souls knelt down together in humble and thankful worship. The pastor's sermon was on "The Tree of Life." During the afternoon a celebration had been held for the children at Michael Church under the auspices of the Women's Guild. Eleven children took part, several mothers bringing the younger ones. The pastor gave a short and suitable address, and to impress the occasion on the minds of the children a little present was given to each one, the older children reading prepared passages tram the Writings. The games and refreshments were thoroughly enjoyed by all, and Master Stewart Law delighted the grownups by making an impromptu speech of thanks which brought this happy little gathering to a close.
     On June 23rd the Rev. Frank Rose took the service at Michael Church, our pastor being in Colchester. In his Sermon he showed how the Lord is near when we do His will, and as it were afar off when we live contrary to His will, because we then remove ourselves from Him. During the service we had the pleasure of seeing Miss Janine Berthou, of Paris, baptized into the New Church. This was followed by a betrothal service for Miss Berthou and Mr. Roger Hussenet of St. Cloud. Mr. Rose conducted both services in the French language because Janine knows only a little English, but the musical flow of the French tongue seemed to add to, rather than detract from, the beauty and solemnity of the services. It is worthy of note that these two young people made the journey from Paris to London and back all in one day-surely a tribute to the strong affection for the New Church which exists among its members. The marriage of Roger and Janine took place at St. Cloud on July 6th, the Rev. Frank S. Rose officiating.
     It is very agreeable to record that there were no fewer than three other baptisms at Michael Church during the period covered by this report.
     On June 30th, the Misses Briscoe-Irene, Iris, and Esylt-took the opportunity to turn a doctrinal class meeting into a farewell for their youngest sister, Volande, who left for Bryn Athyn on July 4th. Open house was held from 5 p.m., and many were the expressions of good wishes showered on Volande, who was presented with a gorgeous bouquet of carnations by Mr. Sandstrom on behalf of the North London reading group, as well as small personal gifts by other wellwishers.

477

Miss Briscoe was one of the regulars at the Swedenborg House doctrinal classes, and we shall miss her pertinent and regular questions on those occasions.
     A very active month of June drew to a close with the commencement of a new and highly instructive series of sermons on ritual by the Rev. Erik Sandstrom. The first of these was on the text: "O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker." To those of us who have come into the New Church in adult life this series cannot fail to be of great interest and
benefit.
     ISOBEL ROBERTSON

     THE CHURCH AT LARGE

     General Conference. At subsequent meetings of the 150th General Conference the Rev. Clifford Harley was named President-Nominate, and it was announced that the preacher at the 1958 Conference service would be the Rev. J. V. Ayre. Conference finances were discussed at length. The Young People's Secretary saw a slight improvement, and reported the emergence of home Sunday schools in various places where there were no organized New Church Sunday schools. These home schools were regarded by various speakers as an important development.
GLENVIEW: AN ANNOUNCEMENT 1957

GLENVIEW: AN ANNOUNCEMENT Editor 1957

The Glenview Society would like to extend a welcome to all visitors, but realizes that with the growth of the church there may be those who would like to visit but do not know the Society well enough to go without an invitation. Mrs. Stuart Nicholson, 2727 Park Lane, Glenview, Illinois, has volunteered to act as Society hostess. If friends wishing to visit will contact her, she will be most happy to help in finding them a place to stay.
SOME GENERAL CHURCH USES 1957

SOME GENERAL CHURCH USES 1957

     GENERAL CHURCH RELIGION LESSONS. Graded lessons and other material from preschool through Grade 12. Address inquiries to: Pastor-in-Charge, Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     GENERAL CHURCH SOUND RECORDING COMMITTEE. Tape-recordings of services, sermons, doctrinal classes, children's services, etc. Address: General Church Sound Recording Committee, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     GENERAL CHURCH VISUAL EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE. Biblical and other slides. Address: Mr. William R. Cooper. Director, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     NEW CHURCH EDUCATION. Published by Religion Lessons Committee monthly, September to June, inclusive. Subscription. $1.50. Editor: Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal.

478

CHARTER DAY 1957

1957

All ex-students of the Academy of the New Church, and their wives or husbands, are cordially invited to attend the Charter Day Exercises, to be held in Bryn Athyn, Pa., on Friday and Saturday, October 25 and 26, 1957. The program:

Friday, 11 a.m.-Cathedral Service, with an address by the Rev. Kenneth O. Stroh.

Friday Afternoon-Football Game. Friday Evening-Dance.
Saturday, 7 p.m.-Banquet. Toastmaster: Dean Hugo Lj. Odhner.

Arrangements will be made for the entertainment of guests if they will write to Mrs. Winfred A. Smith, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES 1957

DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES GEORGE DE CHARMS 1957

     All members and friends of the General Church of the New Jerusalem are cordially invited to attend the District Assemblies, as follows:
     WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA, OHIO AND MICHIGAN, Urbana, Ohio, Friday, October 4th, to Sunday, October 6th, inclusive, the Bishop presiding.
     CHICAGO DISTRICT, Glenview, Illinois, Friday, October 11th, to Sunday, October 13th, inclusive, the Assistant Bishop presiding.
     EASTERN CANADA, Kitchener, Ontario, Saturday, October 12th, to Monday, October 14th, inclusive, the Bishop presiding.
     GEORGE DE CHARMS,
          Bishop.
VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN 1957

VISITORS TO BRYN ATHYN Editor 1957

481

DIVINE PROVIDENCE AND HUMAN PRUDENCE IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHURCH 1957

DIVINE PROVIDENCE AND HUMAN PRUDENCE IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHURCH GEORGE DE CHARMS 1957

     (Delivered at District Assemblies in Urbana, Ohio, and in Kitchener. Canada, in the Fall of 1957.)

     The establishment of the church is a work purely Divine. It is done almost entirely without our knowledge, in secret ways beyond our comprehension. Yet there is a vital part of that work which even the Lord cannot do without the willing co-operation of men. This is clearly implied in the oft-quoted passage from the one hundred and twenty- seventh Psalm: Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it" (verse 1); that is to say, if the Lord does not build the house, men who work on it labor in vain. But if the Lord does build it men still labor in the building, the only difference being that then their work is productive.
     The Lord gives man a conscious part in the building of the church. It is a very small part when compared with the infinite operation of the Divine Providence, but still it is indispensable. Obviously, if one is to perform any conscious service in connection with the building of the church he must know what the church is, and must understand, in some measure, how it is to be established. This knowledge can be acquired only from the Word, and only so far as the teaching of the Word is rightly understood. Where the Word is not known, or where, if it is known, its meaning has been perverted by false doctrines, conscious cooperation with the Lord is impossible.
     In this lies the difference between the universal church" (AE 331) and the "specific church" (AE 252) mentioned in the Writings. The universal church consists of all in the whole world who sincerely live according to their conscience, whatever their religious faith may be; but the specific church is confined to those who have the Word and who by means of it truly know the Lord and worship Him.

482

The Lord is equally present with both of these churches, operating secretly to protect and nurture them; and this in a thousand and a thousand ways of which we can have no knowledge. But only in the specific church can He operate also openly; that is, with man's conscious co-operation.
The supreme purpose of the Lord's advent is that He may establish His everlasting kingdom on the earth. However, the secret operation of His providence is not sufficient to achieve this end. For this, man's conscious co-operation is necessary. In His operation with the universal church, therefore, the Lord's immediate objective is not the establishment of the church, but rather the salvation of the individual. There is here a distinction which it is important for us to realize. With all men the Lord instills celestial remains of innocence. These are the only source from which a religious conscience may arise. The form of this conscience is of course various, being determined by the particular religion with which each one is imbued by instruction and training. But whatever the form, if it is sincerely believed to be the truth, and if it is obeyed from a genuine desire to do the will of God, it contains the element of innocence' that is, a willingness to be taught and led which opens the way for right instruction and amendment of life in the spiritual world after death. The Lord protects this conscience with all the power of His providence because man's salvation depends upon it. He does so with the utmost gentleness and with infinite patience. In order to preserve it He permits false religions to be perpetuated from generation to generation, even for thousands of years, because mistaken ideas, forms of worship, and modes of religious life instilled during infancy and childhood become so intimately bound up with innocent affections that they cannot, without great difficulty, be separated. Only in rare instances can this separation be effected during the life of the body; and for this reason, like the tares and the wheat of the Lord's parable, both must be allowed to "grow together until the harvest"; that is, until the final judgment, which can take place only in the spiritual world (Matthew 13: 30).
We see many evidences of this secret operation of providence. We see, for instance, how, as materialism and irreligion gain the ascendancy among the learned, and their influence threatens to undermine the faith of the simple in heart, the Lord from time to time raises up men who appeal to their religious conscience and restore their confidence in the Bible through some form of religious revival. We see how, when the bastions of religion are openly and violently attacked, the Lord strengthens the hearts of men and steels their will in defense of whatever they regard as a matter of conscience. This is why it has been truly said that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church," and why in all history it has been shown that persecution is powerless to destroy man's religious faith.

483

And again we see how, although the generality of men are unwilling to accept the revelation of His second advent, the Lord provides that as the Writings are spread abroad their teachings may subtly influence the minds even of those who know not whence they come. They help in this way to preserve a simple faith in religion with some who could not otherwise resist the assaults of skepticism and unbelief. They also may serve to create a climate of opinion in which such as can be prepared during their lifetime to accept the Heavenly Doctrine may find it easier to do so. Yet as long as they are regarded merely as human ideas, as the thoughts of a remarkable religious philosopher named Swedenborg, or as the brilliant speculations of some popular speaker of the day, they have no power in them to establish the New Church. They may, and undoubtedly do, contribute to the spiritual welfare of individuals, and thus promote the growth of the Lord's kingdom in the heavens. They may help prepare the way for the future spread of the New Church throughout the world; but the actual establishment of the church begins with the vision of the Lord in the Writings, and the acknowledgment that by means of this Divine revelation He has come again to dwell with men, to teach them, and to lead them Himself.
We would not detract in the least from the great importance of the secret work which the Lord is doing for those who belong to the church universal. The "holy city, New Jerusalem," was seen as coming down from heaven, and resting upon the earth. It must be built first in the heavens. It is foretold, therefore, that the church on earth at first will be among a few, and one reason given for this is that it can grow here only "according to its increase in the world of spirits." As we read in the Apocalypse Explained no. 732: "Spirits from that world are with men, and they are from such as while they had lived on the earth were in the faith of their church. None of these receive the [Heavenly] Doctrine but those who have been in the spiritual affection of truth. These only are conjoined with heaven where that doctrine is, and they conjoin heaven to man. The number of these in the spiritual world now increases daily, and therefore according to their increase does that church which is called the New Jerusalem increase on earth." It should be explained that by those who are here said to be in the "spiritual affection of truth" are meant all who remain faithful throughout life to whatever they had supposed to be the truth. No one but the Lord knows who these are, but we have every reason to believe that there are millions of such people in the world. They may belong to any religion. Although they do not know the Lord, and therefore cannot worship Him, they are nevertheless under His immediate auspices every moment of their lives.

484

Even while they walk blindly in paths of error, the Lord silently guards them from deliberate evil, withholds them from wilfully confirming their mistaken beliefs, and so keeps open to them the way that leads to heaven.
But what of those who, in the mercy of the Lord, have been led even here on earth to see in the Heavenly Doctrine the second coming of the Lord? Theirs is a rare privilege that cannot be granted to others, the privilege of co-operating consciously with the Lord in His Divine work of establishing His eternal kingdom among men. The Writings throughout point to this as the supreme end and purpose of His advent. It must therefore be the end and purpose also of those who are called to be His disciples. To co-operate with Him toward the achievement of this end is their special use, a use that distinguishes them from all others. Indeed, it is only through the performance of this use that the Lord can effect their regeneration. The Gentiles may be saved through the innocence of ignorance; but one who knows, and in some measure understands the spiritual truth of the Word, cannot be held guiltless if he does not strive sincerely to live according to it; and no one can live according to the Heavenly Doctrine without seeking to promote the end for the sake of which that doctrine has been given; namely, to establish the New Church in the hearts and lives of men still living in the natural world.
Because we know something of what the Lord is doing secretly to save those who belong to the church universal, we can, and must, of course, co-operate with Him in that preparatory work also. This we are called upon to do especially by means of the translation, publication and widespread distribution of the Writings. We may do it also by publishing missionary literature designed to introduce people to the Writings, and to encourage them to investigate the truth of the Heavenly Doctrine for themselves. We should indeed welcome every opportunity to share with inquiring friends and acquaintances in other faiths the truths we have derived from the Writings. But realizing the great length to which the Lord goes, in providence, to protect the religious conscience of all men, we, too, must cultivate a spirit of toleration. We must respect the sincere beliefs of others out of regard for the innocent affections associated with them. We are in duty bound, when asked, to present the truth as the Lord gives us to see it in the Writings. But we should do so without exerting any external pressure or persuasion that might interfere with a free and rational acceptance of the doctrine. We should leave entirely in the Lord's hands the question as to whether the truth is received or rejected. He alone can prepare the mind for its reception. Only by the secret operation of His providence can He produce what appears as a spontaneous sense of need, an affection of truth, which gives rise to a desire to learn.

485

By a friendly exchange of ideas, in response to questions, or even quite unconsciously by our efforts to carry out the teachings of the Writings in our own lives, we may be instruments in the hands of the Lord to awaken such a desire. But if this comes to pass it is because secret preparation had already been made, and the conditions necessary to such an awakening were already present although they were unrealized. In all our relations with those of other faiths our deepest concern must be, not to convert them to the New Church, but instead to co-operate with the Lord in His work with the church universal, which, as we have noted, looks primarily to the salvation of the individual rather than to the immediate establishment of the church on earth. This by no means implies that we should be lacking in missionary zeal, if by that is meant a strong desire that others may join the church, and an eagerness to help them do so in any way that lies within our power. It means only that we should acknowledge the truth that no one can really come into the church except freely, under the secret leading of providence; and that "except the Lord build the house" of His indwelling in every human heart, "they labor in vain that build it."
     But let us make it clear that this, our duty toward all who belong to the church universal, is only part of what the Lord requires of us. Important as it is, it is not the most essential part. Our highest responsibility is toward the Lord Himself. It is toward the truth which He has given us in trust. It is to co-operate with the Lord in promoting the supreme end for the sake of which that truth has been revealed. It is to labor for the establishment and growth of a specific New Church, consisting of all those who acknowledge the Divinity of the Writings, who see in them the second coming of the Lord, and who wish, above all things, to be taught and led by Him alone. This, as we have already pointed out, is the special use to which we have been Divinely called, a use that no others can possibly perform.
     Now of course this means, before all else, that we must strive for the establishment of the church in our own minds, and hearts, and lives: but in this endeavor no one is self-sufficient. We all need one another's help, a help that can be given only by those who are striving for the same end. To make such help possible, organization is necessary. In no other way can we hope to create lines of communication and channels of cooperation whereby those who are united in faith may also be united in the performance of uses looking toward the achievement of their common goal. This, indeed, is the function of an ecclesiastical body.
     Now why is such a church organization so important? It is because it gives opportunity for unlimited progress in the understanding of revealed truth and in the application of that truth to life, which would otherwise be impossible; this to the end that the Lord may direct our steps and mould our lives according to His Divine will, and yet do so while we act in full freedom, on our own initiative, through the exercise of individual judgment and human prudence.

486

In this lies the secret of all the happiness of heaven; and to impart that happiness in ever-increasing measure to men still living on earth is the final goal of the Lord's providential leading.
In past ages it was inevitable that men should be led by direct command, through the angel of Jehovah, through visions and dreams, or through prophets and seers inspired by the Lord. They were like children who, because of ignorance and lack of judgment, are necessarily subject to parents and masters. But the Heavenly Doctrine has opened the way to a new spiritual freedom. The Lord established the first beginnings of this freedom when He came into the world. This is why He said to His disciples: "Henceforth I call you not servants: for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends: for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you" (John 15: 15). Yet centuries of preparation were required before this new relationship between the Lord and man could actually be established. Only now is it made possible through the revelation given by the Lord at His second coming. What this new freedom involves is clearly stated in the Apocalypse Explained no. 825: "[Man] is daily taught by the Lord what he must do, and what he must say, also what he must preach or what he must write; for when evils are removed be is continually under the Lord's guidance and enlightenment. Yet he is not led and taught immediately by any dictate, nor by any perceptible inspiration but by an influx into his spiritual delight, from which he has perception according to the truths of which his understanding consists. When he acts from this influx he appears to be acting as if from himself, and yet he acknowledges from the heart that it is from the Lord," This kind of leading is possible only so far as man's "spiritual delight" is found in being led by the Lord; that is, by the truth of His Word. And it becomes effective only so far as he knows that truth, understands it, and sincerely desires to live according to it. This desire is what "removes evil" sufficiently from his will so that he may be "continually under the Lord's guidance and enlightenment."
Even from most ancient times the Lord has given Divine guidance and enlightenment to all who asked for it sincerely; but this He could do only according to such truths as man was capable of understanding. The rational truth, revealed for the first time in the Heavenly Doctrine, provides for a new kind of enlightenment. It provides for a free cooperation with the Lord never before possible, and to seek this co-operation is the very life of the New Church.

487

     What do we mean by "free co-operation"? We mean thinking, judging and acting in all things according to the Divine truth revealed. For doing this the organized body of the church offers many opportunities not otherwise available.
     The Lord does not tell us directly how such a specific church is to be established. We are called upon to undertake its establishment on our own initiative. In doing so we must act according to our best judgment, and must exercise human prudence. But every one who sincerely seeks it will be given Divine guidance. There are in the Writings plainly stated spiritual laws and governing principles that are applicable to every phase of religious life, and thus to every possible use and function of a church organization. If man, in his efforts to build the church and promote its uses, searches perpetually for this Divine instruction; if at every stage he forms his judgments according to his best understanding of the spiritual laws revealed; if in every important decision he is called upon to make he sincerely tries to apply the principles he discovers in the Writings; then in spite of that human error to which all men are prone, the Lord will lead him in secret ways to judge and act in accord with the ends of the Divine Providence. Concerning this we read: "If you wish to be led by the Divine Providence, use prudence as a servant and minister who faithfully dispenses the goods of his master. . . This is the prudence with which Divine Providence acts in unity" (DP 210).
     In the organization of the church there must be freedom, order, government, worship, instruction and education, social intercourse and appropriate customs connected with society and family life. The Lord has given in the Writings principles governing all these things, principles that are new and that could not be made known before. They could not be understood without a knowledge of the Lord's Divine Human, of the spiritual world and its relation to the natural world, and of the laws of the Divine Providence, of influx and reception, such as could be revealed only through one who, like Swedenborg, lived in both worlds at the same time, and therefore could compare them and explain their relation to each other. A church organized according to these principles will be different from any that has been known before. It will open avenues of spiritual use and mutual service never possible before. The church, like heaven, is a kingdom of uses; and it is by means of the performance of uses alone that the Lord can effect man's regeneration. The most powerful means to this end are those uses which the organized church makes available to us.
     That which brought the Academy into existence, and later produced the General Church of the New Jerusalem, was the profound conviction that the most compelling duty confronting those who would follow the Lord in His second coming was to labor for the establishment of the specific New Church.

488

It was seen that this could be accomplished only through a conscious and unceasing endeavor to co-operate with the Lord in the task by looking to the Writings for authoritative instruction and guidance. His truth must form our judgment and direct our steps in every undertaking; and this, not only in the first establishment of the church but in its progress and development from generation to generation. Only as those who are charged with this responsibility faithfully perform that little part which has been assigned to them can the Lord fulfill His promise, in His own time and in His own way, to establish His everlasting kingdom on the earth, that the Holy City New Jerusalem, in very truth, may descend from God out of heaven to impart its incalculable blessings to all the nations and peoples of the world.
FORTY-SECOND BRITISH ASSEMBLY 1957

FORTY-SECOND BRITISH ASSEMBLY FRANK S. ROSE 1957

     COLCHESTER, AUGUST 3-5, 1957

     It almost comes as a surprise to find, in the midst of Assemblies, that they are well worth the exertion that goes into them. We enjoy them immensely, and congratulate ourselves on having made the effort to attend. We feel sorry for those who were unable to come, or who forgot how enjoyable and useful they are. So it was with the 42nd British Assembly.
     We were particularly enthusiastic this year, because we had not had a British Assembly since 1954. Since 1902, British Assemblies have been held almost every year. The only events that have forced us to break this habit are General Assemblies held in England, and world wars.

     First Session. It was fitting that our President, the Rev. Alan Gill, should devote his presidential address to the subject of "Council, Assembly and Communication." He pointed out that the perfection of heaven is a consequence of the sharing or communication of what is from the Lord. It is a delight and a necessity for the angels to share what they have. Similarly, it is essential to the health of the church that we join in worship and instruction, and that we communicate our good affections and thoughts.
     In opening the discussion, the Rev. Erik Sandstrom, who had taken the chair during the address, underlined what Mr. Gill had said about this being a suitable topic this year because of its being the 60th anniversary of the General Church. The address had brought out the doctrinal reasons behind the policy of "Council and Assembly."

489

Mr. Sandstrom then took the liberty of waving to his daughter, Mary, who had just entered the hall. This extraordinary behavior was justifiable in our opinion because we knew that he had not seen her for three years. The discussion that followed was full and interesting. In that it showed no signs of dying down of its own accord, the chairman politely killed it so that we could have a night's sleep before our Sunday activities.

     Worship. One hundred and sixty-seven people gathered in the church on Sunday morning to take part in the worship of the Lord. The Rev. Frank Rose preached on the "word against the Son of Man, and against the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 12: 31, 32); showing that those who reject the Writings for external reasons are sinning against the Son of Man. This can be forgiven. But those who accept the Writings as the Word, and yet live contrary to them, are sinning against the Holy Spirit; and this cannot be forgiven, for it is profanation.
     The marquee was packed to capacity for the Sunday luncheon. Many families, unable to come for the whole weekend, make an effort to attend the service and luncheon.
     In contrast with the busy meals and stimulating sessions, the Holy Supper service was restful and intimate. The Rev. Erik Sandstrom delivered a short address on "Bread and Wine from the Word" in which he explained the nature of the conjunction with the Lord which is embodied in the Communion sacrament. The New Church is invited to enter into the very use and benefit of the Holy Supper because the truth now revealed from heaven enables us to be conjoined with the Lord in the reception of His Divine flesh and blood.

     Second Session. Sunday evening we heard a report from the pastor of the Open Road and the editor of the NEWS LETTER. Mr. Rose, speaking in both capacities, explained that he was now making monthly visits to Bristol and Manchester. Mr. George Stunden has been acting as a lay leader, taking an additional sermon each month at Bristol. This coming year, the Open Road will study the Doctrine of Life as the third year in its study of the Four Leading Doctrines. Small groups in Heywood and Bath are taking a special class on the Arcana Coelestia, and expect to finish the work by 1982. The NEWS LETTER is now sent to almost 250 addresses. We have endeavored to send it to all English-reading General Church people on the Continent, including Scandinavia.
     We then continued with a discussion started at the first session as a result of the report by the Chairman of the BFC. He reported that the agreement under which a third priest came to Great Britain in 1952 was likely to terminate in less than two years.

490

The British Finance Committee (B.F.C.) had agreed to spend up to L3,000 of its capital, plus all of the income from its investments in order to provide ministrations to the isolated. Two-thirds of this money have been used already. When the rest has been used, we shall have to find some new way of financing the Open Road. At this second session it was explained that although there are 116 souls on the Open Road, there are only 45 members of the General Church. Contributions might be increased, but it seems unlikely that such a small group could become self-supporting. Much was said about the Open Road. Nothing was decided.
     The address at this session was given by the Rev. Erik Sandstrom, pastor of the London Society, and chairman of the British Academy. He brought out the important link between education and evangelization. We have been forced to postpone the establishment of a secondary or high school, but it is legitimate to direct our energies to adult education. This could be done through correspondence courses which would be available to members and non-members. With such courses we could educate our own adults, some of whom are parents of children who may yet attend a New Church high school, and we could reach the remnant in the Protestant world which is receptive to the doctrines.
     Mr. Sandstrom was careful to explain that higher New Church education for our children is still the first love of the British Academy. But if we are delayed in entering this use, as we seem to be, we can direct our energy to the formation of a correspondence institute. He made certain specific recommendations. Among them were: that we should commence at least one religious course and one secular course by autumn 1958; that we should solicit the services of members of the church in Great Britain with university degrees; that teachers be paid for their work in the institute; and that a moderate charge be made for the courses. These, and other plans, were set before us so that we could see a possible beginning, and also a potential development.
     Mr. Eldric Klein, in opening the discussion, recommended that a project of this kind be started with due caution. A number of other people rose to stress the importance of having a great vision, however humbly the use be carried out. The Rev. Frank Rose recommended that the people be circularized fairly soon to see what courses they would like to have, and to determine whether enough people are interested to warrant the development of a course. In general the reaction was calm and favorable. In summing up the discussion, Mr. Sandstrom expressed his belief that if a use is inherent in the teachings of revelation, then it must also be possible. We do not expect a full-grown tree at first, but at least we can look for a seed that will grow.

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     Third Session. On Monday morning, over one hundred people managed to arise in time for our ten o'clock session. First we heard from Mr. Norman Turner, the Treasurer of the British Academy. The BFC holds in trust for the Academy the sum of L4,170-9-4, we were told. This money is reserved for the use of a high school. The Academy treasurer has L195-8-10 which can be used at the discretion of the Academy. A few questions were asked and answered.
     Following the discussion of this report, Mr. Gill presented the names of members of the British Finance Committee for ratification by the Assembly. The Bishop makes the appointments, but they must be known and accepted by the Assembly. Normally this is done every year, but in that we have not had a British Assembly since 1954, unratified appointments had accumulated covering every member of the committee. The names were presented, and ratified without dissent. These are: The Rev. Alan Gill, chairman; Mr. F. G. C. Pryke, treasurer; Mr. Harold C. Jones, secretary: the Rev. F. Rose and Messrs. John F. Cooper, John Posthuma, and Kenneth Pryke. Mr. Gill then presented the name of Mr. Herbert F. Ward as a new appointment, adding another member to the committee. This was duly ratified. Finally Messrs. A. Stanley Wainscot and Alwyne J. Appleton were re-elected as auditors for the B.F.C.
     The Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen had been invited specially to the Assembly, and it was now his turn to address us. He took the "Doctrine concerning Rewards" as his subject, and handled it with great skill and clarity. He acknowledged that it is difficult to distinguish between a bribe and a reward, but that we should not, therefore, ignore this important doctrine. Rewards have a very real part to play in regeneration, especially with the young and the simple. He noted that rewards should be used to preserve people in a good state. When they are used to inveigle a person out of an evil state they become bribes.
     The address was direct and powerful. The response was wonderful. Here was a doctrine with practical applications which the laymen could discuss. At this, as at previous sessions, we were not at a loss for words. The discussion could have continued indefinitely. This was especially clear from the fact that one man rose to discuss the paper and began his remarks by admitting that he slept right through it. He could not, therefore, criticize or commend, but he could at least make a few comments on the general subject, and liven our spirits with a few anecdotes and stories from the past!

     Monday Luncheon. It was fortunate that there were so many people at the Monday luncheon to enjoy a program under the toastmastership of Mr. Colin Greenhalgh.

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He introduced the theme of the "new and unexpected" and allowed the speakers to keep this in mind in dealing with their own subjects. Miss May Waters spoke on "The Growth and Preservation of the Church." Mr. Alan Waters treated of "The Reestablishment of Conjugial Love." And the Rev. Frank Rose spoke on "Evangelization."
     There were very few spontaneous toasts, but Mr. Gill could not refrain from expressing thanks to Mr. Denis Pryke who had taken the job of "Manager of Arrangements." Someone else could not refrain from toasting Miss Thelma Pike on her return for further studies in Bryn Athyn. And we all bid a happy "farewell" to Dean and Mrs. Eldric Klein and Mr. Andrew Klein. We enjoyed having them with us to join in our discussions. And the thirty-one men who attended Dean Klein's address to the New Church Club just prior to the Assembly (on "Swedenborg and the Eighteenth Century") were particularly glad that he had come and let us share in his thoughts.
     Following the toasts, the people poured out of the marquee and into the church building where the Open Road had set up stalls for its Sale- of-Work. It was nice that the Open Road could do something as a Society, especially when it brought in almost L40 for the church. Everything was sold, and all the tea and cakes were consumed in short order.

     Social. As is the custom, we rounded off our Assembly with a social at the Red Lion Hotel. It was a gay affair, with dancing, excellent and characteristically British entertainment, and delicious refreshments.

     Statistics. For those who enjoy statistics we note that 17 overseas visitors and 125 from Great Britain signed the roll book, making a total of 142. Attendances were as follows.

     Saturday Tea          91
     Sunday Lunch          161
Sunday Tea               118
     Monday Lunch          140
     Social               (appr. 100)
     First Session          120
     Worship               167
     Holy Supper               101 (95 communicants)
     Second Session          115
     Third Session          108

     FRANK S. ROSE
          Secretary

493

COUNCIL, ASSEMBLY AND COMMUNICATION 1957

COUNCIL, ASSEMBLY AND COMMUNICATION Rev. ALAN GILL 1957

     (Presidential Address at the First Session of the Forty-second British Assembly, Colchester, August 3, 1957.)

     As a result of reading and reflection this year in connection with the sixtieth birthday of our organization, your essayist has become intrigued by, and increasingly impressed with, the importance of the relation of its two special features-of the two essential elements that were responsible for its inception, namely council and assembly-with what the Writings teach about communication. In New Church circles sixty years ago, and for the most part since then, the phrase "council and assembly" referred especially, if not exclusively, to church government. But the teachings concerning communication, from which these policies were derived, have much broader, and spiritual, implications. And it is to these teachings themselves that we propose to direct your attention for the most part, and thereby to the application of the policies of council and assembly in the life of the church; not so much to church government or to the church as an organization, but rather their application to the life of the church as it exists with men individually.
     But in order to do this we must first-without going into particulars- refresh our memories as to the reason for the formation, in 1897, of our body of the New Church, the General Church of the New Jerusalem. The cause of this was the conviction that there was lacking, and a vital need of, council and assembly as essentials in the government of the church. The filling of this need would not and did not involve a change with respect to any of the Academy principles upon which the former organization, the General Church of the Advent of the Lord, had been established; only a change as to policy. But how important that was!
     Bishop W. F. Pendleton, the acknowledged leader of this movement, in outlining the fundamentals of the new body at that time, said: "We reject nothing of the principles of the past-those known as the principles of the Academy. . . . The chief change will be one of policy: without that there would be no reason for this movement. The new policy will include two features essential to the life of a church-council and assembly. There is no telling the uses of a general assembly, in bringing the members of the church together to consider measures, exchange thoughts, and strengthen each other in the life of the church.

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It is worthwhile for every member of the church to attend, and to lay up money for that purpose, for the sake of the great use and benefit. They should meet, not to decide doctrine, but to consider measures for the conduct and development of the church. What is a church without the free, rational co-operation of its members? Without these two things there can hardly be freedom and unitedness, vitality and growth. Without them there can be no church."
     What these two "principles of practice," as they were termed, would mean and involve was further explained in an editorial in the April NEW CHURCH LIFE of that year, as follows:
     "By COUNCIL we understand to mean all that is involved in the free, rational co-operation of men who are working together for the advancement of the things of doctrine and of life, and who compose the church. In whatever is done by a church the voice of those interested has a place in degree and manner according to function. While it is clear that nothing can be accomplished without government and administration of the affairs concerned, it ought to be equally clear that no true government is possible without the free consent of the governed. This necessitates the taking of counsel together. The spiritual objects of church government cannot be attained in any other way . . . ; insofar as a true spirit of council prevails the church will never be rent by discord or schism. Under it, differences of view will result only in uniting the closer on essentials; or, where that proves impossible, it will lead to amicable separations, such as will produce only the greater charity because the greater freedom to ultimate charity according to conscience and judgment.
     "And ASSEMBLY, as applied to the church, means the coming together at stated times of the membership thereof as fully as may be. This principle of practice is believed to be essential to the vitality of a church. The brethren of the church need the strength of the common sphere, the contact of a variety of states of affection and thought, harmonized by a common holy purpose and vivified by personal communication. Without this it is hard to conceive of a real homogeneity and concert of feeling and action; without it the church will be 'general' in name only, and will gradually come to be composed of confederated but practically independent centers, each absorbed in in its own local interests and liable to a consequent contraction of views and of sympathies."
     As regards the constitution and function of an Assembly, Bishop Pendleton envisioned a "body composed of ministers and laymen (such as we are, here, this weekend), to constitute an Assembly of the members of the church, to perform the uses of a public deliberative body, to discuss the principles and measures of the church; and, when a conclusion is reached on any given question, to refer it to one of the other bodies (that is, to a council of ministers and/or of laymen), for final deliberation and action.

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Such a body (or Assembly) brings the clergy and laity together, on a common place in common assembly; it provides for freedom of speech, and will be an instrumentality for bringing before the members at large the principles and uses of the church. . . . The use of the Assembly, or intermediate body, seems to be expressed by the term 'deliberative'; a term indicating clearly the office of intermediation."
     Note how the importance was emphasized of "bringing the members of the church together to consider measures, exchange thoughts, and strengthen each other in the life of the church." For, it was asked, "what is a church without the . . . co-operation of its members?" The need was emphasized of their "working together for the advancement of the things of doctrine and of life. . . . In whatever is done by a church the voice of those interested has a place     For "no true government is possible without the consent [meaning active or expressed and not merely passive consent] of the governed." Especially note how the founders of our body expressed their realization that "the brethren of the church need the strength of the common sphere, the contact of a variety of states of affection and thought, harmonized by a common holy purpose and vivified by personal communication."
     Although no specific reference is made, in the records we have quoted, to any teachings of the Writings, who can fail to see that the then new policy of council and assembly was altogether based upon the doctrine concerning communication? We are reminded at once of such revealed truths as that "in the heavens there is a communion [or sharing] of all goods: the peace, intelligence, wisdom and happiness of all are communicated to everyone there, and those of each are communicated to all" (AC 10723).
     Such, we are told, is the very nature and form of heaven; and as it is in heaven, so also it should and can be in the church on earth. And it was realized by Bishop Pendleton and most other "Academicians" that the form of a church body, if it is to be a living thing, must be patterned after, and, as far as possible, assume such a heavenly form-the most perfect form, which is, of course, the human form, and the form of heaven itself. And this is such a perfect form in consequence of the mutual sharing and receiving of all things there; a point which can hardly he overemphasized. As the Writings state: "Heaven is a communion [or common sharing] for it shares all it has with each one, and each one receives all he has from that communion [or sharing]" (HH 73). And in no. 268 it is explained that "heaven is such a communion [or common sharing] of all goods . . . for the reason that heavenly love is such that it wishes what is its own to be anothers."

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     Now the application of these teachings to council and assembly is seen if we consider what these are and involve: By counselling together on the part of priests as well as by laymen, and by both assembling together "to discuss principles and uses of the church," there is, as was said, exchange of thoughts, and a consequent strengthening of one another in the life of the church. Thus also there is cooperation of its members, a working together for the things of doctrine and life; "for the voices of those interested are heard." There is then government with the active, expressed consent of the governed, and also the strength-otherwise lacking-of a common sphere: "the contact of a variety of states of affection and thought, harmonized by a common holy purpose and vivified by personal communication. -
     The dictionary definition of a council is most interesting. It is: an assembly of persons convened for consultation, deliberation, or advice; that is, for counsel, which is interchange of opinions, mutual advising. In short, by means of council and assembly in the church there is a communication or sharing of thoughts and affairs; and by such communication or sharing there is achieved a communion of members and friends. For communication is "the act of communicating, imparting or bestowing; interchange of sentiments or ideas." It is "to make another, or others, partakers of; to give a share of, transmit, impart, make known." And a communion is the same, viz., "participation, interchange or mutual communication of thoughts, feelings, etc., especially in sympathetic intercourse; helpful association; any participation or community of action or interest; and, derivatively, religious fellowship, community of belief or of obligations and privileges" Hence a community is defined similarly as:- "a society having common interests, privileges. etc., or sharing many or all things in common" (Webster).
     The Latin words from which these are derived also all have the meaning of a making common, a dividing something with another or others, a sharing together, this by giving and by receiving (Andrews).
     Now all this, and no less, is meant or implied by "communication" as that term is used in the Heavenly Doctrine-by the communication that is revealed as existing throughout the heavens, and which must likewise exist in the church if it is to be a living church. There is to be, "as fully as may be," not merely an imparting, a transmitting, conveying or bestowing of goods and truths, affections and thoughts by some to some others, when or insofar as members may feel moved thus to "communicate" them, or when convenient; but rather it is a dividing, a sharing of each with all of what is his own, and of all with each of what is theirs, this no matter how insignificant and relatively worthless that which is to be shared may seem to be.

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For as there are no individuals in the Gorand Man of heaven whose uses are not only important but essential to the whole; no use so humble there that it is not needed by all others there-even as there is no organ or part of the human body which can be dispensed with without impairment of its use: so likewise there are none in the church on earth whose membership and active participation in the work thereof are not needed; and this whether it be at services, classes or socials, on committees, in society meetings, or what have you; if any of these activities performs a use then the active participation of all who are eligible and able is needed, "as fully as may be."
     We are forcibly reminded of a reflection by Bishop N. D. Pendleton concerning the uses of a Pastor's Council and the duties of the members thereof: "In my view," he said, "a Pastor's Council is not a mere group of individuals selected to give as much or as little advice as they choose, and having no further responsibility." Is not this a "principle of practice" which applies to all meetings, gatherings, services or committees in and of the church? Is there not to be at all times, and in every possible direction, not just in certain directions of our own choosing, a sharing of responsibility and participation by active support, or at the very least the responsibility and participation shown by attendance from a will to be of use to others, as well as for the sake of the benefit to or enjoyment of one's self. It is said that the church does not need us, but we need the church. But our doctrine teaches that not only do we all need the help of all others, but all others need our help also. And so, we submit, the church, as an organization, needs the fullest possible help of each and every one of us at all times; and we believe also that this will live and thrive in exact proportion as such help is forthcoming.
     We are reminded of what the two angels said-recounted in the Memorable Relation in the work Conjugial Love-regarding the performance of uses to others: "The uses which we perform are from the love of them within us from the Lord: and this love receives its blessedness from communication with others through uses. We know by experience that so far as we perform uses from the love of them the love increases, and with the love the wisdom, whereby the communication is effected: but that so far as we retain the uses within us, and do not communicate them, the blessedness perishes, and the uses then become as food hidden away in the stomach, which does not nourish the body and its parts by being distributed, but remains undigested and, indeed, produces nausea. . .
What are uses but the love of the neighbor in act? And what but this love holds the heavens together?" (CL 266). [Italics added.]
     We are also reminded of the teaching that as there is a communication of affections and thoughts between all in the heavens, that is, between all in a society there, so is there still more of one married partner there with another, because they mutually love each other; indeed, this communication, and thence conjunction, is the interior delight itself which is called bliss in marriage (HH 369, 380). [Italics added.]

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Communication (or sharing) of all with each and of each with all, we are taught, "flows forth from the two loves of heaven, which . . . are love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor. For these loves are communicative of their delights. [That is, it is the very nature of these loves to share their delights.] Love to the Lord is such because the Lord's love is the love of communicating everything it has td) all, since it wills the happiness of all. And there is a like love in every one of those who love the Lord, because the Lord is in them; and from this comes the mutual communication [or sharing] of the delights of angels with one another. Love towards the neighbor also is of such a nature-all of which shows that these loves are communicative of their delights" (ibid. 399); that is, it is their very nature to share their delights. On the other hand, it is the nature of the loves of self and the world not to share, except so far as the delights of others have some relation to self.
"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt . . . talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up" (Deuteronomy 6: 3-7).
UNPARDONABLE SIN 1957

UNPARDONABLE SIN Rev. FRANK S. ROSE 1957

     (Delivered at the 42nd British Assembly, Colchester, England, August 4, 1957.)

     "Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be for given him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." (Matthew 12: 31, 32)

     These words testify to the Lord's infinite mercy. The teaching that certain sins cannot be forgiven does not deny the Lord's mercy, but explains how that mercy operates. For the Lord does not forgive sins by overlooking them or excusing them. He forgives sins by removing them to the side, and by separating them from what is good.

499

When a man sins against the Holy Spirit he commingles good and evil to such an extent that they cannot be separated. This is profanation. The eternal lot of profaners is wretched indeed, but it is at least better than it would be if their sins were forgiven. Forgiveness of sins means their removal, and with profaners this would of necessity involve a removal of what is good with them. Thus forgiveness would deprive them of everything of life, and it is a matter of mercy that their sins are not taken away.
     The words of the text come as a striking rebuke to the Pharisees for their denial of the Lord. They were spoken after the Pharisees, having witnessed the healing of a man possessed by a blind and dumb demon, impertinently suggested that the Lord could do this only because He received power from Beelzebub, the prince of the demons. This was no ignorant attack against the actions, or even the words of the Lord, but was a calculated and deliberate denial of His inner character or spirit. Even in common speech we observe that it is not so much the deed as the spirit from which it is done that makes the deed good or evil. The Pharisees could not say that this miracle of healing was an evil deed, and so they went deeper and challenged the very spirit from which it was done. This spirit was the Divine proceeding itself, from which are all creation and life. The attack, then, was against the very God of the universe and all His Divine works; and this was blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which could not be forgiven.
     Had they but understood their own law, they might have seen that this was a violation of the second commandment: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." This is alone among the commandments in carrying a solemn warning: "for the Lord will not hold him innocent that taketh His name in vain"; that is, he will not be forgiven. The Lord's "name" means all of the things by which His quality is known. To take this name in vain, then, is to misuse or deny the inner quality or spirit of the Lord. Clearly this is unpardonable.
     The Lord is called the "Son of Man" as to His Human, and also as to the letter of the Word. It was the Son of Man who was mocked, buffeted and delivered to death. The Son of Man suffered temptations, and was glorified. This was to open the way for the influx of His inner soul or spirit-the Divine love and wisdom, called, when operating among angels and men, the Holy Spirit. Essentially these are one and the same. The Lord's Human is Divine. But in the minds of men there may be a difference. For those who have not yet been moved by the Spirit the Lord appears in the literal sense of the Word as the Son of Man; and this they can reject or pervert without doing themselves irreparable harm. When, however, the literal sense dies and the internal truths of the Word are revealed, or when the Lord's glorified Human is revealed to the individual, he becomes fully responsible for his acceptance or denial.

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     As the Lord revealed more and more of His Divine character to the people there was a division among them. The disciples rejoiced, but the Jews attacked. They were now finding the answer to the question: "Who is this Son of Man?" He was no Jew, or mere prophet, but was the light of the world (see John 12: 34, 35; 8: 12). When the Lord's love and wisdom are seen in the letter of the Word, this Son of Man becomes full of light. Indeed the Lord testified: "The words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life" (John 6: 63). The condemnation of the Pharisees was that they refused to believe "in the name." that is, in the spirit or quality, "of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3: 18); and this was not because of ignorance, but because they had seen the light and had rejected it. "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" (John 3: 19). "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin; but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth" (John 9: 41). It was this rejection of the light that was meant by taking the name of the Lord in vain, or blaspheming against the Spirit.
     The prophecies about the Second Coming fall into two general categories: those speaking of the coming of the Son of Man, and those referring to the giving of the Holy Spirit, or the Comforter. There are these two because every coming of the Lord, every revelation, is effected by some external form, which is called the Word or the Son of Man. But this revelation has something living within it, for as to its soul it is nothing but the Lord's love and wisdom. Those who, in ignorance, despise or reject the revelation can be forgiven; but those who understand it have the promise of a new spirit, and once they have come to receive this they must never turn back.
     That is why the Lord promised that His disciples should see "the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Matthew 24: 30). The Lord here calls Himself the Son of Man because even in His second coming He would clothe Himself with a new Word, the letter of which is like a cloud, and the internal sense of which is power and glory. The Writings are, therefore, the coming of the Son of Man. And, like previous revelations, the Writings have been accepted by some, ignored by many, and rejected by others. There may he those who accept them for purely external reasons. To such the essential advent has not taken place. There are certainly those who reject them for external reasons, thinking them to be the cryptic works of an insane man. Such people sin and blaspheme against the Son of Man, and their blasphemy can be forgiven. But what of those who reject the Writings precisely because they perceive the Divine spirit that moves within them? These are they who sin and blaspheme against the Lord Himself; for He is within the Writings as their soul and spirit.

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     We note, then, that the Second Coming is the coming of the Lord as the Son of Man. But what of the New Testament passages which speak of the Spirit of truth? passages such as this one in John: "If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you" (John 14: 15-18). We rightly associate this passage, and others like it, with the New Church, for the reason that the Writings are Divinely ordered in such a way as to bring the Lord as the Comforter to man. But it should be clear that there is a vital distinction between the general advent of the Lord in the Writings as the Son of Man and His personal coming to the individual as the Spirit of truth. In the period of reformation truth takes the leading part, and the Lord is present as the Son of Man, unglorified. During reformation a man will often transgress the teachings of the Word. Until the old will has been conquered such offenses must needs come, and in the Lord's mercy they will he pardoned. But when the man, through repentance, is given a new will and begins to act from good, he is given another Comforter, even the Spirit of truth. This is given because he kept the commandments. He then receives the Holy Spirit, and then for the first time it is possible to blaspheme against it. The Lord said of His spirit: "He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you" (John 14: 17). He dwells with us in the Word, whether we perceive Him there or not; He dwells in us only after He has been received. And so we read that, by the "Spirit" of the Lord is meant "the Divine truth that proceeds from His Divine good. When this Divine truth flows in with man, and is received by him, it is the 'Spirit of truth,' the 'Spirit of God,' and the 'Holy Spirit'" (AC 9818: 3).
     This essential coming of the Lord is reserved for those who seek for Him worthily. These are they who "read the Word and at the same time look to the Lord-acknowledging that all truth and all good are from Him, and nothing from themselves" (AC 9405). Such "are enlightened, and see truth and perceive good from the Word. This enlightenment is from the light of heaven, which light is the Divine truth, itself that proceeds from the Lord" (ibid.).
     Such enlightenment is a Divine gift. It is transmitted to men by various means. It flows through the heavens, and is thereby accommodated to the needs of men. It proceeds from the Lord to the clergy, and through the clergy to the laity, provided that the clergy are enlightened and the laity receptive (see Can. HS iv: 8). The Writings, more than any previous revelation, contain the promise of the Holy Spirit, for they are the Divinely ordained means of bringing it to men.

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     The living things within the church, namely, the desire to do good and the ability to perceive and love the truth, these are the result of the Holy Spirit working among us. We need not be deceived by people who pervert this doctrine, and who "terrify others with the words of the Lord in Matthew (12: 31, 32), claiming that to speak against what the Holy Spirit has inspired into them is the unpardonable sin" (TCR 138); but we must acknowledge that the Divine things that are being formed by the Lord in the minds and hearts of sincere New Church people are the work of the Holy Spirit. Of course, we cannot point with certainty to things outside of us and say that this or that deed or idea is from the Holy Spirit. For "the kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17: 20, 21). But we can say that any genuine desire to do good, or any genuine conviction of truth with us, comes, not from ourselves, but from the Lord, and is inspired or breathed into us. When we deny or act contrary to this, we are blaspheming the Holy Spirit (AC 9818: 27).
     Whenever we gather in the name of the Lord we do so in order to be taught and led by Him. We know that He has fulfilled His promise to come again as the Son of Man. We wish to be led by the spirit that dwells within the Word, and we desire to order our lives in such a way that His spirit will become our own-the `spirit of wisdom and intelligence, the spirit of counsel and might" (Isaiah 11: 2). We do so in holy fear lest we sin, not only against the Son of Man. but also against the Holy Spirit. As long as we can remain steadfast in our belief the Lord will come to dwell more securely among us. This is our prayer and our hope. It is a hope that is strengthened by the promise in the Psalms: "Thou sendest forth Thy spirit, they are created: and Thou renewest the faces of the earth" (Psalm 104: 30). May we not see in the New Church the fulfillment of the Lords words: "The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him" (john 4: 23)? Amen.

     LESSONS:     Matthew 12: 22-37. John 14: 15-31. AE 778: 3, 4.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 464, 448, 572.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 94, 93.

503

BREAD AND WINE FROM THE WORD 1957

BREAD AND WINE FROM THE WORD Rev. ERIK SANDSTROM 1957

     A HOLY SUPPER ADDRESS BY THE REV. ERIK SANDSTROM

     (Delivered at the 42nd British Assembly, Colchester, England, August 4, 1957.)

     At this day the Christian world is invited to enter for the first time into the use and benefit itself of the two sacraments-Baptism and the Holy Supper-because it has now pleased the Lord to reveal the spiritual sense of His Word. This is the teaching: "The spiritual sense, in which alone the use and benefit [the usufruct] of the Holy Supper is clearly seen in its truth, has been hitherto concealed, and has not been disclosed until the present time. This sense is now for the first time disclosed, because there was before no Christianity except in name, and with some a kind of shadow of it; for hitherto men have not approached and worshipped the Saviour Himself immediately, as the only God in whom is the Divine Trinity, but only mediately; and this is not to approach and worship, but only to venerate as the cause on account of which man has salvation, which is not an essential cause but one that is mediate, which is below the essential cause and outside of it. But, because Christianity itself is now first beginning to dawn, and a New Church which is meant by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation is now being established by the Lord, in which God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are acknowledged as one, because in one Person, it has pleased the Lord to reveal the spiritual sense of the Word, in order that this church may come into the use and benefit [the usufruct] itself of the two sacraments, Baptism and the Holy Supper. This is done when men see with the eyes of their spirit, that is, with the understanding, the holiness concealed therein, and apply it to themselves by the means which the Lord has taught in His Word" (TCR 700).
     The force of this teaching is appreciated when we consider that any symbol has its value only from the meaning behind it. The handshake is more than a gesture only if there is real good will or-better still-real friendship in it; and the signature is of moment only if there is a genuine purpose to stand by the agreement. The ultimate has no power of its own. It can carry weight and serve as an incentive only from the living thing it ultimates.
     This is why the meaning and purpose of the Holy Supper must be from the spiritual sense of the Word. In that sense there is nothing temporal or material. It consists of interior Divine truth and interior Divine good, and from it the thoughts and affections of angels live.

504

The Lord calls this truth "spirit," and this good "life," saying: "The words that I speak unto you are spirit, and are life" (John 6: 63). Angels have no other desire, no other prayer, than that they might eat and drink from that living Word; thus that their affections might be awakened by the good of the interior Word, and their thoughts formed and taught by the truth there- which is the Spirit of truth. They are receptacles of life in just that way, for no man and no angel can receive life for his will and understanding except by choice. We must take, and eat; we must all drink of it.
     That is the real Holy Supper; and that is no symbol. It is the living thing itself. The real Holy Supper does not represent conjunction with the Lord: it is itself that conjunction. It does not represent the reception of life from the Lord by the angels as from themselves: it is that reception. That Holy Supper, or that living from the Lord, is constant with the angels. "Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life. . . . For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in him" (John 6: 54-56).
     It is the external sacrament that represents. That sacrament is meaningful and confirmatory-nay, it brings heaven to earth-if the living thing it represents is at the same time present with the communicant.
     In order that this may be possible in the world, in a measure according to reception, it has pleased the Lord to reveal the spiritual sense-the interior Word-to men. In this sense, we are told, "the Lord is constantly present" (TCR 780) "elsewhere than in the Word the Lord does not reveal Himself, nor does He reveal Himself there except through the internal sense" (AE 36: 2). Thus it is that the church may now come into "the use and benefit itself" of the Holy Supper.
     In the first Christian Church this use and benefit itself was not possible. Still, the sacrament was for use then, too; but it was a preparatory use, foreshadowing the real use, in the resurrection of the Christian Church. For in the consummation of the first church, the Lord would raise up the remnant to spiritual life, by making available to them the spiritual sense of His Word. "And I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6: 54). Before this happened there was only the natural sense of the Word, with some rays from the spiritual sense shining through here and there. Therefore it is said that, though Christianity for the most part existed in name only, yet there was "with some a kind of shadow of it." These turned to the Lord for help and guidance, but not knowing clearly that He was God Himself they could not "approach and worship Him immediately," but only thought of Him as "the mediate cause on account of which man has salvation," and thus venerated Him. This made for a kind of following of the Lord, which kept the door of salvation ajar to them; namely, if in simplicity of heart they lived according to His teaching.

505

If there is innocence in falsity, then that falsity does not condemn, but can be rectified in the spiritual world, and then the door of salvation is thrown open to them. The nature and use of the Holy Supper with this remnant in the former church are indicated by the following teaching: "Any one enlightened from heaven may perceive within himself that . . . flesh and blood do not mean flesh and blood; but that in the natural sense they both mean the passion of the cross, which they were to keep in remembrance. Therefore, when the Lord instituted this supper of the last Jewish and first Christian passover, He said, 'This do in remembrance of Me'" (Luke 22: 19; 1 Cor. 11: 24, 25; TCR 704).
It appears, then, that the use of the Holy Supper with the simple good in the first Christian Church was from the natural sense of the Word, and that it derived its essence from the love to the Lord that could be inspired by means of His passion on the cross. But the New Christian Church is invited to enter into "the use and benefit itself" of the Supper, for the reason that the spiritual sense has now been revealed. In that sense the Lord comes forth to view, not as "the mediate cause on account of which man has salvation." but as the God Himself of heaven and earth, in whom is the Divine Trinity as one person. In that sense, therefore, He can be approached and worshipped immediately, as the only source of all good and truth, thus of all life, and as the sole giver of that bread and wine from which is heaven. For even as the natural sense deals with the death of the Mary-human on the hill of Golgotha, so the spiritual sense declares the glorification of the Divine Human-the God-with-us. And even as the Lord thus rose from the dead, even so He will rise in the eyes of the church, from the natural sense to the spiritual sense, revealing Himself in the glorified Divine Human that removed the stone from His tomb. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me" (John 12: 32).
The life of the church must now be from the spirit and life of the words that the Lord spoke formerly. That spirit and life are the true wine and bread of the Word, from which is life eternal. Thus, for the first time, Christianity itself will begin to dawn; and the two holy sacraments of the church, which contain all things of heaven and the church, will come for the first time into their own. In His second advent the Lord indeed "makes all things new." Amen.

506

GIVE THANKS UNTO THE LORD 1957

GIVE THANKS UNTO THE LORD Rev. NORBERT H. ROGERS 1957

     "O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good; for His mercy is for ever." (Psalm 107: 1)

     The words of our text are most familiar to all in the church. They constitute the blessing before meals that is most widely used by New Church men throughout the world and for this reason they have become one of the bonds which conjoin us, and a sign of our spiritual brotherhood. It is well that this be the case; for we are taught that the words concern the celebration and worship of the Lord, being a confession of Him and an acknowledgment that He alone is God and Lord. And it is this worship, this confession and acknowledgment of the Lord, which essentially unite us interiorly, causing us to be members of one church.
     It is also good that we remember to give thanks unto the Lord, and to express our acknowledgment that He is good, and that His mercy is for ever, when we sit down to meals and prepare ourselves to make use of what the Lord has provided for our nourishment. For by so doing our minds and spirits, as well as our bodies, are benefitted by the food we eat.
     No man is conscious of the Lord's presence, nor of his utter dependence upon the Lord for all things of life. For the Lord has so created man that both in the natural world and in the spiritual world he shall be in the appearance that he lives from himself, that he thinks and wills from himself, and thus that he becomes intelligent and wise from himself. This is one of the most sublime gifts to man provided by the Lord. It is a provision of the Lord's Divine mercy, and a wondrous expression and sign of His infinite goodness. For it is because of this appearance that man is a human being, created in the image and likeness of God; because of it that he has freedom, and from that freedom can determine his spiritual destiny; because of it that he can react to the influx of Divine truth proceeding from the Lord, either receiving it to become intelligently rational, or rejecting and perverting it to become foolishly stupid; because of it that he can likewise react to the influx of Divine good to become either wise or insane. Because of this appearance that he lives from himself, man is capable of receiving life from the Lord in a higher degree and in a more perfect form than is possible with all other creations; because of the appearance, man can be eternally affected by the Divine love of the Lord, and, freely reciprocating it, come into conjunction with his Creator; because of the appearance, man can be regenerated and progress into ever more perfect states of spiritual life to eternity; and because of the appearance that he lives from himself, man is able to find supreme delight in the life he receives from the Lord and in all the provisions of the Lord, and to regard them as blessings.

507

     Yet that same appearance, which is provided by the Lord in His mercy to enable man to ascend on high, to enter into states of angelic life, and to be affected with heavenly delights, may also be the means of casting him down into the depths and of shutting him off from the reception of heavenly things. And this is what takes place when man confirms himself in the appearance that he lives from himself.
     Man is a finite being whose limitations are so many, and so extreme, that of himself he is nothing and is capable of nothing. Only from the Lord can he become something. And only from the Lord can he accomplish anything. But this is something man can recognize only as a result of instruction and reflection. He cannot see it from himself. For by nature man looks inward to himself, and not to the Lord: and so from himself man cannot perceive truth, but only appearances, and is misled by them. Since it seems to him that he is what he is from himself; since it seems to him that all that he has has been achieved by his own effort and ingenuity; man by nature is inclined to credit himself for the goods he has and for the successful outcome of his undertakings. He is by nature inclined to attribute to the Divine, and to regard as "acts of God," only what is distressing and disastrous. When the condition of his life is improved, he is naturally inclined to congratulate himself or his fellowmen. When his flocks and herds multiply and grow fat; when his fields, orchards and vineyards yield an abundant harvest; when his business ventures are profitable; man is by nature inclined to attribute these things to his own good husbandry, industry and acumen.
     By allowing his natural inclinations to govern his life and his thoughts until he believes the appearance and is unwilling to accept anything else as true, man confirms himself in the appearance. And by such confirmation the upper reaches of his mind are closed to the influx from the Lord, and he then becomes incapable of receiving anything of heavenly life and happiness.
     Only by deliberately turning his mind to the teachings of the Word, and by reflecting upon them, can man come to perceive the truth concerning himself and his life. Only by reflecting in the light of the Word can man see the truth that he is but a vessel of life, utterly dependent upon his Divine Creator. And only by seeing this truth, and accepting it, can man turn himself to the Lord, and open his mind to receive life and happiness from the Lord in ever greater measure and perfection.

508

It is good, therefore, for man to consider the wonders of the universe-the sun, the moon and the stars; the wind, the rain and the movements of the deeps; the succession of light and darkness, and of the seasons; the herbs, grasses, flowers and trees; the fishes of the sea, the beasts of the earth and the birds of the air; man and all his works: it is good for man to contemplate all these things, and to remember that they are the Lord's doing, that the earth and the fulness thereof were made by Him and are the evidences of His infinite love and wisdom. It is good for man to make it a habit to remind himself daily that all that he has is from the Lord, giving thanks unto Him, and acknowledging that He is good, and that His mercy is for ever.
When, in grateful acknowledgment, we say that the Lord is good, far more is meant than that He is predominantly good as a good man is, or that He performs deeds that are good and kind. The good of the Lord is infinite good. It is good itself. It is the only good. And being such, the Divine good of the Lord is in no way limited in itself, nor impaired by the least trace of what is not good; so much so that not the least of evil can affect the Lord, or be attributed to Him. And being infinitely good, the Lord is the source of all good: all good, and every good that is actually good, in generals and in particulars, in greatests and in leasts, in every plane and degree from highests to lowests, in the heavens and upon the earths, and even in the hells, from the beginning and to eternity, are from the Lord alone, and can be from no other source.
Moreover, the Writings teach us that the Lord's infinite good is His very esse and of His essence. It is the Divine substance itself of the Lord, and thus the only substance that is substance in itself. The Divine good is also the Divine love itself of the Lord, and is thus the only love that is wholly perfect in itself. The Divine good is also the Divine life itself of the Lord, and thus the only life that is life in itself. Because of His infinite love, which is good itself, the Lord willed the creation of the universe and all things in it, and of man; because of His infinite love, the Lord willed that man be created in His own image and likeness, having an immortal soul, and a mind capable of receiving and of responding to the Divine love and life flowing forth from Him; and because of His infinite love, the Lord willed the formation of the spiritual world where men might dwell to eternity in a state of their own choosing, performing uses and perceiving delights to the utmost of their capacity. Out of His infinite substance, which is good itself, the Lord realized the Divine ends of His love; for by successively finiting His infinite substance the Lord created, and perpetually recreates, all things that are in the heavens above, and in the earths beneath, and in the waters under the earth; and man also, the crown of creation, who though finite is nevertheless so created that he may live to eternity in the spiritual world formed for him.

509

And from His infinite life, which is good itself, the Lord causes all things He has created to be, to subsist, and to perform uses. By infilling with His life all things created according to their individual capacity of reception, the Lord endows each and all things with their own separate and distinct existence and use. By receiving of the Divine life according to their particular forms the things of the mineral kingdom are given their particular function in the universe; the things of the vegetable kingdom are caused to grow, to put forth leaves, to flower, and to bear fruit and seeds after their kind: the things of the animal kingdom are enabled to live and to move and to multiply; and man is endowed with spiritual life, intelligence, and wisdom.
     And so, when we acknowledge that the Lord is good, we acknowledge not only that He is infinitely good and the source of all good, but also that

He is the all in all things, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, the
Fount of Love and the Giver of Life, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.

     The acknowledgment of the Lord's mercy also involves innumerable things. For mercy pertains to the activity of the Divine good, to the manifestation of the Divine love, and to the communication of the Divine life. Everything that is produced by the Divine good and from it is of the mercy of the Lord. So is everything that is intended and accomplished by the Divine love, and vivified by the Divine life. Thus all creation, all that is involved in it and intended by it, are acts of the Divine mercy of the Lord. So also are all things that enter into the sustaining of creation and to its government. And everything in creation, from what is least to what is greatest, is an evidence of how great and all-embracing is the mercy of the Lord; for without it nothing could have any being.
     But what is particularly meant by the mercy of the Lord, and what especially testifies to its sublime quality, is the imparting of spiritual life and happiness to man. For everything connected with the giving of spiritual life and happiness, everything involved in it, is of the Lord's Divine mercy, and is meant by it. Not only the love and life which continually flow forth from the Lord, but also all things of the human mind and the means of communication-the various degrees of the mind, the faculties of freedom and rationality, the will and the understanding, and the fact that these can act independently from each other: the proprium, and the remains which man has, the memory, the imagination and the reason; the successive infilling and opening of the various planes of the mind, their being set in order and furnished with vessels receptive of the influx from the Lord; the inflowing of affections of various kinds without which there can be no life nor progress; the ability to acquire, and the actual acquisition and use of knowledges of various kinds: these are all of the Divine mercy.

510

The Word; the preparation, the visions, and the inspiration of those by whom the truths of the Word are revealed; the enlightenment and wisdom enabling men to see and to understand those truths, and to communicate them to others: the maintenance of communication with the heavens; the church with all its uses and activities; the various incidents and contingencies of life, the environment in which each one is, and all the various people with whom he comes in contact and has dealings, and whose spheres affect him: these, and all other means by which man is prepared and enabled to receive spiritual life and happiness from the Lord, are of His Divine mercy. So also are all the means whereby man is withdrawn from evil and led into good, thus all the dispensations of Providence, including the permission of evils; for all these look to man's eternal welfare and contribute to it. The formation of the heavens with their societies where men may dwell to eternity in a blessed state, and even the formation of the hells for those whose freely chosen states of life prevent them from finding happiness in heaven, are of the Lord's Divine mercy. All things by which man is redeemed, reformed and regenerated belong to the Lord's mercy; thus supremely His advents and all that He accomplished by them-His incarnation and glorification, and the manifestation of His glorified Human. Such things, and much more of which we have as yet no knowledge, are meant when we acknowledge the Lords mercy. And the fact that the Lord is infinitely and constantly mindful of man, perpetually and uninterruptedly operating to endow man with spiritual life and happiness, is meant when we say that His mercy is for ever.
When we reflect upon such things, upon what the Word reveals to us concerning the Lord, and so come to perceive that the Lord is indeed good and that His mercy is for ever, we cannot but recognize how entirely dependent we are upon Him, and how grateful we are to be to Him for all that we have. But gratitude is not something that we may give or withhold as we please. It is actually an obligation, for the Lord requires us to give thanks unto Him, as the Word plainly teaches. And the reason for this is made clear in the Arcana Coelestia, number 5957, where we read that "everything that flows in from the Lord through the internal into the external, and into the natural is given gratuitously. The Lord does indeed demand humiliation, adoration, thanksgiving, and many other things from man, which appear like repayings, and thus not gratuitous; but the Lord does not demand these things for His own sake, for the Divine has no glory from man's humiliation, adoration, and thanksgiving.

511

In the Divine, anything of the love of self is utterly inconceivable-that such things should be done for His own sake; but they are for the sake of the man himself; for when a man is in humiliation he can receive good from the Lord, because he has then been separated from the love of self and its evils, which are obstacles; and therefore the Lord wills a state of humiliation in man for his own sake; because when he is in this state the Lord can flow in with heavenly good. The case is similar with adoration, and with thanksgiving."
     The giving of thanks that is required of us is not merely a matter of words, nor yet an emotional feeling of gratitude. True thanksgiving is predicated of the reception of Divine good from the Lord, and cannot be separated from it. Thus man gives thanks unto the Lord only in so far as he receives good from Him, making it his own. The very reception and appropriation of good is thanksgiving itself: while closing the mind to the Lord's influx, and the rejection of good, is ingratitude itself.
     In so far as we make use of the means the Lord has provided for our regeneration; in so far as we zealously seek instruction from the Word that we may amend our lives; in so far as we apply ourselves to the task of shunning our evils as sins that the obstacles to good may be removed; in so far as we perform our uses honestly and justly according to the will of the Lord; in so far as we support the uses of the church, and take part in its worship and in its activities to the end that the kingdom of heaven may be established thereby-so far do we give meaning to the words we utter when we say: "O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good; for His mercy is for ever." Amen.

     LESSONS:     Psalm 107. Arcana Coelestia 9286.
     MUSIC:      Liturgy, pages 568, 570, 561.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 29, 89.
SWEDENBORG FOUNDATION 1957

SWEDENBORG FOUNDATION Editor 1957

     A Special Offer

     The Swedenborg Foundation is again offering the complete Standard Edition of the Writings (30 volumes) at half price, $30.00, to young New Church couples from 2 1-40 years of age.
     Orders should be sent direct to Henry W. Helmke, Manager, the Swedenborg Foundation, 51 East 42nd Street, New York, N. Y.

512

STOREHOUSES FOR THE HARVEST 1957

STOREHOUSES FOR THE HARVEST Rev. KENNETH O. STROH 1957

     A Talk to Children

In ancient times dreams often had special meanings. Sometimes the Lord would tell by means of a dream something that was going to happen. So it was with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who had two dreams in one night. These dreams troubled him; for he could not tell what they meant, and all the magicians and wise men of Egypt could not understand their meaning. But then the king's chief butler remembered how Joseph had told the meaning of his dream when he was in prison. And when the butler told Pharaoh about this, the king at once had Joseph brought to him out of the prison.
     Joseph listened while Pharaoh told him about his two dreams. Pharaoh had dreamt that he stood by a river. And as he watched, seven good, fat, healthy cows came up out of the river and began to feed in a meadow. But seven poor, thin, sickly-looking cows came up after them out of the river, and ate up the seven good cows. Again he dreamed, and saw a stalk of corn: and on the stalk were seven good, fat ears of corn. But seven small, thin, dry ears grew up after them, and they ate up the seven good ears.
     Then, because the Lord was with him, Joseph was able to tell the meaning of these two dreams. "Both dreams mean the same thing," he said "for the Lord has shown Pharaoh what He is going to do. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears of corn are seven years. The seven poor cows are seven years, and the seven empty ears of corn are seven years. Behold, throughout all the land of Egypt there shall be seven years of plenty, in which the harvests shall be great; and after them will come seven years of famine, when food will not grow, and the years of plenty will he forgotten because of the great famine. Now, therefore, let Pharaoh find a wise man, and set him over the land, that he may gather together a fifth part of all the food that grows during the years of plenty and store it in storehouses in the cities. Then, when the famine comes, there will be food for the people to eat."
     When Pharaoh heard this, he saw that Joseph was a wise man and that the Lord was with him. And so, instead of sending Joseph back to prison, he made him ruler over the whole land.

513

He gave Joseph the ring from his own hand; he gave him beautiful clothes of fine linen to wear; he hung a gold chain about his neck; and he gave him a fine chariot in which to ride. So Joseph was ruler over the land of Egypt, and no man was more important except Pharaoh himself.
     Then Joseph went out through all the land. Every year he gathered up grain from the harvest and put it in storehouses. He gathered so much that no man could count up the grain in the storehouses, for it was without number. Then, after seven years, the famine came. And because Joseph had stored up all this grain the people could go to him and buy what they needed, and no one went hungry. So Pharaoh was very glad that Joseph had been able to tell him the meaning of his dreams.
     Now it is a wonderful thing that these dreams about which the Word tells have a meaning now as they did then. They have a meaning for all time and for all people. Every year there is a time of harvest, a time when the fruits, the vegetables and the grains of the field have ripened, and when they are gathered and stored so that there may be food to eat during the months of winter-a time when farmers also fill their barns with food for their horses, cows, pigs and chickens.
     When the harvest has been taken in, it is good to stop and think of all the things that have been given to you. And you have been given very much. Not only do you have enough food to eat, but you also have a large and beautiful country which gives you a place in which to live, and which is strong enough to keep you safe. You have parents who love you, and who look after your every need as best they can. You have the Lord's church, to which you go to worship and to learn about the life of heaven. Truly the Lord has given very much. And all men, women and children, ought to be thankful unto Him, and bless His holy name.
     But the most important, the most precious thing that the Lord has given, is His holy Word. For in the Word is stored everything you will ever need to know if you want to find the way to heaven. In the Word there is everything you need to learn if your minds are to become strong and healthy. So each little thing you learn from the Word is like food for your minds. The things you learn from the Word are called truths. And the truths of the Word are so many they are like the sand of the sea. Every time you learn a new truth your minds are being fed and nourished. And you are fed in this way whenever you learn things about the Word from your parents or teachers, when you memorize parts of the Word, when you come to church and listen to what the minister reads and says, or when you read the Word for yourselves. And the more you learn from the Word, the more of the rich harvest of heavenly food there is in the storehouses in your minds.

514

     It is most important that you should learn as much as you can from the Word. For a time may come when, for a while, it will seem that you are not interested in what the Lord says in His Word. Evil spirits will try to come near you. They will try to lead you away from the Word and from heaven, and will try to make you think that what the Lord says does not really matter. And if you trust these evil spirits, they will be like the seven thin cows in Pharaoh's dream, and the seven empty ears of corn, which ate up and destroyed everything that was good.
     But if you have learned what is in the Word, your minds will be like storehouses in which the Lord has laid up and hidden all sorts of wonderful things so that they might be there when you need them, just as there was food in the storehouses of Egypt. Pharaoh put his trust in Joseph because the Lord was with him, and he gave Joseph charge of all the food. And in whom do you put your trust? Of course, you put your trust in the Lord Himself. For the Lord, your Heavenly Father, gives you this heavenly harvest because He loves you all very much, and because He wants to make each one of you happy.
     And so, every year at harvest time, we all give thanks to the Lord, and sing to Him songs of praise and thanksgiving. For He has given us a harvest so rich and plentiful that it is as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted-a harvest which can fill to overflowing the storehouses of all who gather it. And the Lord has said: "Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." Amen.

     LESSON:     Genesis 41: 1-36.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 564, 560, 569.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. C12, C16.
FOUNDATIONS OF NEW CHURCH EDUCATION 1957

FOUNDATIONS OF NEW CHURCH EDUCATION Editor 1957

Educational Values, Knowledges, Education of the Will, Remains, The Affection of Truth, the Doctrine of Use

By Willard D. Pendleton

515

SIXTH PEACE RIVER DISTRICT ASSEMBLY 1957

SIXTH PEACE RIVER DISTRICT ASSEMBLY LORAINE LEMKY CARBURY 1957

     DAWSON CREEK, AUGUST 4, 1957

     First, we would like to give our heartfelt thanks to Bishop and Mrs. George de Charms for their most welcome visit to the Dawson Creek and Gorande Prairie groups of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. Their long hoped for visit gave us renewed encouragement and hope for our growth in numbers and in the life of true New Church men and women. Our hearts were joyous as we felt the strength of the New Church spirit that the Bishop and his wife lent to us for a short while.
     Our activity up here is relatively unknown to many in the church, so I would like to take this opportunity to try to give you an idea of our land, life, and problems. Gorande Prairie, Alberta is located about 700 miles north of the United States border of Montana, and Dawson Creek, B. C., is approximately 90 miles northwest of this. The country is agricultural; however, oil and lumber have become very important industries. Both towns have oil refineries and each boasts a modest population of about 6500. The country is new, the towns growing, and ready to be developed both financially and spiritually.
     Life here is challenging. To build spiritual minds and lives among the overwhelming worldliness that is constantly forcing itself in, is a real struggle. Since 1953, when the Rev. Roy Franson and family came to the Peace River district, a great change has been wrought. In the short time they have been with us, they have organized a growing group, and one church building has been almost completed in Dawson Creek, B. C., while another is under way in Gorande Prairie, Alta. The Rev. and Mrs. Roy Franson have worked relentlessly against odds that would discourage the strongest member of the church; they have lived in comparatively primitive conditions; nevertheless, it appears they are winning an unforgettable place in the Peace River area. We are thankful Providence sent a courageous couple to lead our groups.
     Each week the Dawson Creek ladies meet to read and discuss the Writings, and the Gorande Prairie ladies do likewise. Doctrinal classes are held every other Friday. Sunday school and services are held every Sunday in Dawson Creek, and in Gorande Prairie there are two evening services a month.

516

     Our pastor and the Dawson Creek men worked exceptionally hard this summer to finish the church in time for the 6th Peace River Block District Assembly on the 4th of August, at which 48 persons attended. Telegrams and greetings were received from: Rev. & Mrs. K. R. Alden; Rev. H. Cranch, Rev. Robert Junge: Mr. & Mrs. Klippenstein, Miss Creda Glenn, Mr. & Mrs. William Rempel, Renata, B. C.; Mr. & Mrs. Goble, Port Alberni, B. C.; The 42nd British Assembly, Colchester, England; and the Church in Scandinavia (signed Bjorn Boyesen).
     The first service in the first New Church building here in western Canada was conducted by the Bishop, assisted by Mr. Franson. Even this year there was a baptism. Donald Fedorak, a nephew of Mr. William Esak, entered the New Church through the gate of baptism. The Bishop dedicated our church, and Mr. Wm. Esak presented the Bishop with the key to the church. Music was supplied by a small organ, played by Mrs. John Carbury. At the close of the memorable service, the Bishop administered the Holy Supper, assisted by Mr. Franson.
     After the service the sphere was so reverent that no one stirred for about five minutes. We all sat in silence meditating about the spiritual food given to us in words and symbols. We were truly transferred into another world as the Bishop spoke to us. The Bishop had chosen the text from Revelation 11: 19 in expounding to us the nature of internal worship. Rituals and formalities cannot be separated from worship, but it is "the mode of life that makes worship vital and saving." This mode of life is essentially a life of obedience to the Divine law, to the Divine will "and this involves a sincere desire, and a constant effort to learn that law, to understand that will as it bears upon the specific conditions of our own life, that we may, at all times, act in conformity to it . . . and these essentials of living worship press unfailingly toward external expressions in forms and rituals. . . . It is because external worship, with its forms, and rituals, and buildings assists in the effort of opening the mind toward heaven; because it provides, in a special sense, for the Lord to bow the heavens and Come down that He may reveal Himself to men-it is because of this that external worship is said to be holy. . . . The Lord is present in this building, to uplift and save those who gather here, just in the degree that He is present in the temple of the mind, in love and confidence and trust, in knowledge, and understanding, and perception of heavenly truth. From this presence does this building derive its holiness."
     Some were impressed by the truth that genuine worship consists of a life according to the Divine law, and not just in kneeling, singing, and praying alone. The various conversations that ensued during the afternoon manifested the impact the service had on all present.
     After this truly unforgettable service, the ladies served a delightful lunch in the church, and at three o'clock the business meeting was held.

517

At the meeting it was decided to continue the work on both buildings, and to investigate the possibilities to acquire a more permanent home for the pastor.
     Mr. Eugene Wilkinson was elected secretary-treasurer for the Peace River District. We all want to thank Mrs. Wm. Esak for the splendid work she has done in the past years as secretary-treasurer. Mr. Ed. Lemky was re-elected assistant treasurer to handle the finances immediately connected with the Gorande Prairie group, and Loraine Carbury will continue to take care of any secretarial work in connection with the Gorande Prairie activities.
     Various ways to do missionary work were discussed, and it was noted that one of the most effective ways to spread the Writings was to live according to their teaching.
     In the evening the Assembly banquet was held at Windsor Hotel, with the Rev. Roy Franson as toastmaster. There were two speeches, after which followed a questioning period. Mr. Bert Friesen spoke on "Scientific Truth," and the Bishop gave us an inspiring extemporaneous talk on "Revealed Truth." The questions presented to the Bishop were varied and many, but all of them were most satisfactorily answered.
     Late in the evening the 6th Peace River Assembly came to a close, leaving everyone with a feeling that much had been accomplished during the past year, but also that much must be done in the year ahead.
     On Monday, August the 5th, there was a special gathering out at John and Herb. Lemky's farm in the vicinity of Gorande Prairie. This gathering consisted of 23 Lemky relatives, who for different reasons were unable to attend the Assembly at Dawson Creek.
     The following day the Bishop showed the model of the Tabernacle at the Hotel. This marvelous model, which was also shown in Dawson Creek, impressed everyone for its detailed workmanship.
     We invite you, readers of this article, to come to the Peace River District to meet with our New Church people; see our scenic country; fish in the many lakes that are teeming with pickerel and pike, or in the rivers that abound with trout and grayling. Come and go hunting bear, deer, or moose within a few hours of town. If you come to visit us, you may like it well enough to stay.
     LORAINE LEMKY CARBURY

518

IN OUR CONTEMPORARIES 1957

     A recent editorial in the NEW-CHURCH MESSENGER on the basis for ecumenicity closes with these sound observations. "The unity most easily attained is secular rather than religious. Its motivation is practical. Expediency rather than principle may be stressed. Theological doctrines are often passed over or actually disparaged. How often does one not hear it said about the different denominations, 'They are all going to the same place, only by various roads'? The implication generally is that doctrinal differences are of minor importance.
     "But the inner vitality of any church organization must spring from the truths it teaches. No church can afford to bargain these away for the advantages resulting from greater unity of church organizations.
     "Unity is secular matters in which the churches have a common interest is relatively easy to attain, but that may not be the case with religious concepts." The Rev. Bjorn Johannson is the editor. The same issue contains an interesting survey of New Church fiction-"New Church Novels," by Clarence Hotson, Ph.D.

     "First Thoughts on Faith Healing," by the Rev. Alan Gorange, an introduction to a discussion at the Ministers' Summer School, and now published in the NEW-CHURCH HERARD, reaches this conclusion: "Can there be such a thing as faith healing? No, because faith organized for material ends ceases to be faith. In so far as there are any permanent cures, it is by psycho-physical healing with a religious flavor. To corrupt people's faith in materialistic ways is to remove the hope that God has given us, the hope of eternal life. It is to remove our hope that ultimately, through faith lived, the evils of the human race, and their corresponding diseases, may gradually be removed." Mr. Gorange is vice-president of Conference and pastor of the Glasgow Society.

     NEW CHURCH EDUCATION, organ of the General Religion Lessons Committee, is republishing serially The Tabernacle of Israel by Bishop George de Charms. The fall number of the THETA ALPHA JOURNAL contains such varied fare as "Education for Feminine Uses" by the Right Rev. Willard D. Pendleton, a report on the religion lessons by Miss Margaret Bostock, and articles on religious experience and children's books by Miss Frances M. Buell and Mrs. Ralph Junge, in addition to reports.

519

NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1957

     The readings assigned for November take us into the Psalms. In the Writings the Hebrew Psalter is always referred to by its usual title, the Psalms of David. The poet-king is regarded as the founder of the Psalter and of the Temple psalmody, and the authorship of 79 of the psalms is attributed to him by biblical scholars. It is supposed that the Psalter received additions for five centuries, and was compiled for liturgical use in the second Temple, after the return from Babylon.
     It is a teaching of the Writings that the Word is presented in the form of a man, and it has been said that the Psalms are the heart of this Divine Man. The historical, doctrinal and prophetical portions of the Word are addressed mainly to the intellect, but the appeal of the Psalter is to the affections. Spiritually, this is because the Psalms are poetic, and in poetry affections are dominant. In the Psalms affection-which is always first in the Word, but not always manifestly so in its prose sections-is active and leading; and affection in the Word is the celestial sense.
     Even though they came from several hands over a long period of time the Psalms are fully inspired. Their inspiration descends into the very letters. And therefore, from the letters and syllables alone, angels told Swedenborg the meaning of the words: "Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile" (Psalm 32: 2); namely, that the Lord is merciful, even to the evil.
     It is revealed also that the musical directions prefixed to certain of the psalms are part of the inspired text, the instruments named, corresponding to the affections of the psalm. In the sense of the letter the Psalms set the history of Israel to music, and many of them are connected with significant events in David's life. In the spiritual sense, however, wherein David represents the Lord as to the Divine Human, that is, the Human in process of being glorified through temptations and victories therein, the subjects are the church to be established by the Lord, the relation of the Divine and the Human during His life on earth, His temptations and glorification, redemption and salvation, heaven from Him, and at the same time the opposites of these. The closing psalms are significant of His complete glorification and union with the Divine. It is suggested that the summaries of the internal sense printed in Prophets and Psalms be read in conjunction with the sacred text.

520

Our readings in the Apocalypse Revealed expound the internal sense of the book of Revelation from chapter 1, verse 16, to chapter 2, verse 27. The series of the internal sense divides the book of Revelation into two parts, chapters 1-12 describing the preparation made in the spiritual world for the Last Judgment and the remaining chapters dealing with the judgment and its sequel. In the prologue (1: 1-9) predictions are made by the Lord concerning Himself and the last states of the church, which predictions will be received by those who acknowledge Him; and in the rest of the chapter the Lord, from whom the New Church is, is described as the Word and as to the Divine truth of revealed doctrine. The messages to the angels of the seven churches contain, in the spiritual sense, the invitation to the New Church extended by the Lord to all in Christendom who have religion.
KORT FRAMSTALLNING AV DEN NYA KYRKANS LARA 1957

KORT FRAMSTALLNING AV DEN NYA KYRKANS LARA HUGO LJ. ODHNER 1957

     KORT FRAMSTALLNING AV DEN NYA KYRKANS LARA (Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church). By Emanuel Swedenborg. Translated by Gustaf Baeckstrom. Bokforlaget Nova Ecclesia, Bromma, Sweden, 1956.
     The first Swedish version of the Brief Exposition was printed in Copenhagen in 1788. It was translated by Lieutenant M. Sturzenbecker and published by the Exegetic and Philanthropic Society of Stockholm, and was smuggled into Sweden by early New Church men. A later version, by Dr. J. A. Seven, was printed in Sweden in 1862, and up to recently this was still being used. But in 1956 an entirely new translation was produced by the Rev. Gustaf Baeckstrom, retired pastor of the Stockholm Society of the General Church, whose literary activities we have so often noted in this journal. The translations by Dr. Baeckstrom are all noted for their fluent modern Swedish and their faithfulness to the Latin text.
     The great need for fresh translations into Swedish is accentuated by the fact that Swedish spelling has changed within the last two generations and now follows more phonetic rules. Such works as the Arcana Coelestia exist only in old-style orthography. Apocalypse Explained has not yet been issued in Swedish dress.
     We congratulate the translator and publisher as well as the future Swedish readers on the latest product of the Nova Ecclesia Book Room.
     HUGO LJ. ODHNER

521

SWEDENBORG AND JUDAISM 1957

SWEDENBORG AND JUDAISM Editor 1957

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of Publication, Lancaster, Pa.

Published Monthly By

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

Editor      Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager      Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address, and business communications, should be sent to the Circulation Secretary. Notifications of address changes should be received by the 15th of the month.

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
$3.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single copy, 30 cents.
     A communication published under this title in our May issue (pp. 252- 255) quoted a review by Abraham G. Duker of The Swedenborg Epic, by Cyriel O. Sigstedt, which developed the idea that Swedenborg held a negative view of the Jews. That review was written in 1953, and the reviewer's interest in the subject of Swedenborg's relationship to Judaism has evidently continued, for he contributed last year an article on "Swedenborg's Attitude Towards the Jews" to Judaism: A Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life and Thought (vol. V no. 3, Summer 1956). In this he quotes extensively from statements in the Writings concerning the Jews to prove his thesis that Swedenborg had an intense dislike for Jews.
     Where the writer goes astray, perhaps quite understandably, is in failing to distinguish between Swedenborg and the Divine revelation given through him. To convict Swedenborg of anti-Semitism it would be necessary to adduce incontrovertible evidence from his reported actions and conversations, his correspondence and his own published works. As far as we are aware there is no such evidence, and the article does not offer any. What is taught in the Writings is not an expression of Swedenborg's own views, but a Divine revelation from the Lord. No matter how harsh some of the disclosures concerning the Jews and other nations may be, the Writings cannot properly be used as a basis for racism; for race-hatred is contrary to the spiritual charity which they teach and seek to inculcate, and like every other form of hatred it has its origin in the hells. The distinctions made here are important, and they go far beyond this interesting but honestly mistaken article.

522

SECRET OF HUMAN LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS 1957

SECRET OF HUMAN LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS TED HAWLEY 1957

     Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE:
     Some time ago you expressed a wish for more contributions to NEW CHURCH LIFE but I doubt that you will use this. Not being as yet a member in good standing this is probably none of my business, except to suggest that it is regrettable incidents such as this which keep folks like me undecided about joining your church.
     To be more specific, I think this is the most unkind, inconsiderate and uncharitable book review-I have ever read. The finicky little points may be accurate, and the acknowledged duty of a reviewer is, of course, to criticize. But must a small grove of prickly thorns hide the entire woods? Is there no room in this critic's understanding for bouquets along with the brickbats? [NEW CHURCH LIFE, September, pp. 419-22]
     I can think of nothing more sorely needed by your organization than books like Mr. Ferber's in general circulation. If its only virtue was to let people know that the New Church is in existence it would be invaluable. The blank look on faces whenever Swedenborg or his Writings are mentioned is like bumping into a stone wall. Here on the West Coast the Church is spending considerable money and effort in missionary endeavor, but there is so little publicity to give anyone an inkling of what it is all about. What could aid this worthy effort more than readable introductory New Church books? Yet when a new member joins you with the initiative and ability to spend several thousands of his own in originating and providing such a necessity your magazine has to come out with a review that would discourage the average person from reading it.
     To outsiders, the most apparent weakness of the New Church is that superiority complex undertone which is so reluctant to credit anyone except its long established members with the ability to render assistance. I would suggest that when these ardent critics show themselves able to write and publish properly "correlated" New Church books which the general public will read, it will be soon enough to so harshly tear apart what might well prove the most valuable single contribution they have ever received.
     "Any writer of ability has to be either a fool or a very devoted follower to attempt a book on such an esoteric subject as Swedenborg's philosophies" is the consensus of established literary opinion. Don't you think it's a little rough to get a review like this by the only source from which such an author could reasonably look for a hint of encouragement?
     The basic impression given by this review is that the book has nothing new to offer; that it "does not help our faith or belief in the doctrine" and that too many statements are from the author's imagination and the realm of wishful thinking.

523

     It seems doubtful that the author's motive was to help the elect. If it contains nothing new for the learned reviewer it certainly does for the public it was designed for. At least it is startlingly new in the fact that there is no other book on the market devoted to championing the belief in human life on other worlds. And is it necessary or customary for a book review to belittle the standing of a deceased authority to whom the author has dedicated his work-especially by one so familiar with the treatment that Swedenborg received from other professional critics? Just what could be more timely in this international geophysical year than a book on the planets?
     Supposing the author hasn't had the time or money to thoroughly check every detail as carefully as he might have liked, what do these technical flaws amount to in the face of the overriding significance of the great use which this review so completely ignores? Thinking back over the glamorous and encouraging reviews given to so many trash books, it is truly shocking to see one of such potential value to the New Church so shabbily treated by their official organ. Would it not seem to indicate a church either badly out of touch with the world or totally uninterested in using the most practical means of acquainting the general public with the doctrines?
     Since God chose to use a scientist as the instrument of His second coming, would it be too imaginative to suggest that another scientist might logically be used to disseminate His new revelation? One would expect the obvious reaction from a sincere New Church man would be to buy half a dozen of these books to give to friends and young folks interested in space flights, science fiction, and so on. Might not a little positive action of this sort get the New Church farther faster than this painfully detailed derogatory review?
     TED HAWLEY
INFINITY AND ETERNITY IN PROVIDENCE 1957

INFINITY AND ETERNITY IN PROVIDENCE 1957

"That the providence of the Lord is infinite, and looks to what is eternal, is evident from the formation of the embryo in the womb. Lineaments of things to come are there continually projected, so that one thing is always a plane for another, and this without any error, until the embryo is formed. And also afterwards, when it is born, one thing is prepared in succession to another and for another, that the perfect man may come forth. If the least particulars are thus provided during man's conception, birth and growth, why not in respect to his spiritual life?' (Arcana Coelestia, 6491).

524

Church News 1957

Church News Various 1957

     MONTREAL, QUEBEC

     The activities of the General Church Circle in Montreal seldom make the news in these columns. Nevertheless our uses have been continuous and sustained over the years. At present our group is centered around five families with three children of school age living in widely separated parts of Montreal. We meet in each other's homes, with bimonthly pastoral visits from the Rev. Martin Pryke of Toronto. Saturday evenings are usually devoted to a doctrinal class and Sunday morning to a service, followed by a luncheon and further instruction in the afternoon.
     We have recently acquired a tape-recorder and have started to use the extensive tape library made available by the General Church Sound Recording Committee. It is our hope that by using this valuable material our worship together will soon be on a regular monthly basis. The regular receipt of New Church literature, including NEW CHURCH LIFE, NEW CHURCH EDUCATION and the religion lessons, is also gratefully acknowledged and is doing much to hold us in the thought and Spirit of the church. Isolated as we are, we do enjoy the rare visits of New Church people from other parts. Our September meeting was enlivened in this way by the pleasure of welcoming Dr. and Mrs. Madill of Ottawa.
     In conclusion, we are proud and happy to announce that Montreal is now represented on the teaching staff of the Bryn Athyn elementary school in the person of Miss Anne Timmins, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Timmins. We all wish her well in the important use she has chosen.
     DESMOND MCMASTER

     STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

     The Nineteenth of June was again celebrated at Pastor Boyesen's home, which seems to have become the traditional way of commemorating that day in the Stockholm Society. About forty of our members gathered at the banquet tables to spend an enjoyable time together in honor of our church. After the repast, Mr. Boyesen read a message from Bishop De Charms, who made us feel that he wished to be near us on that occasion. Then followed a few speeches. Mr. Boyesen discussed the nature of Swedenborg's revelation; Mr. Andreas Sandstrom spoke of the Last Judgment and the mission of the twelve apostles in the spiritual world; and the writer outlined the story of the foundation of the Academy of the New Church, and pointed out that certain important events in the history of the church had taken place on June 19th-a coincidence which we regard as providential.
     Other Nineteenth of June celebrations had occurred the previous week during Mr. Boyesen's pastoral visits to Copenhagen and Jonkoping. Mr. Boyesen used his micro-bus for that trip and was accompanied by Mrs. Boyesen, little Birgitta baby Lars, Mr. Lennart Alfelt, and the writer. It was interesting for us to meet with these isolated groups, and we were pleased to notice the good attendance.

525

At our gatherings to commemorate the birthday of the church Mr. Svend Strobeck in Copenhagen, and Mr. Leonard Foroander in Jonkoping, made welcoming speeches. In both places Mr. Boyesen gave the talk that he repeated later in Stockholm.
     A few visitors from Bryn Athyn came to Stockholm last summer. Miss Margit Boyesen arrived shortly after midsummer for a stay of two months at the pastors home. Although Mrs. Boyesen is now very frail she takes a great interest in her family, and her daughter's visit made her happy. Miss Renee Cronlund and Miss Nancy Gladish spent a week with Dr. and Mrs. Baeckstrom. From Stockholm they went to the British Assembly at Colchester, where they met a group of Swedish people touring with Mr. and Mrs. Boyesen in their car. The party consisted of Miss Edda Weise, Mr. Lennart Alfelt. Mr. Peter Areschoug, the Boyesens, and the writer. The Assembly proved a great success A spirit of devotion prevailed at the crowded services, and the lively discussion following the addresses showed how great was the interest of the audience. Informal social gatherings at various hospitable homes were also much appreciated.
     After a stay of five days in Colchester our little party broke up. Mr. Alfelt had already left us and gone to London before leaving for Bryn Athyn, but Mrs. Berner of Stavanger had joined us. On our way to Nottingham we stopped at Ashby-de-la-Zouch to see Mr. and Mrs. Roy Griffith's newly built home and were cordially invited to supper. The following day we continued northwest. We had glimpses of the famous Lake District, Loch Lomond, and Edinburgh. On arriving at Newcastle on the way south again we regretfully parted from Mrs. Berner, whose ship to Norway left from that port. After spending the next weekend in London with friends, and meeting the society at a picnic lunch at the church, we returned home by way of Dover-Calais, arriving safely in Stockholm a week later. It had been a somewhat fatiguing tour through seven countries, but also a most interesting experience in very good company.
     Mr. Boyesen has lately resumed his pastoral visits to Copenhagen and Jonkoping, and has also been to see the isolated members living at Orebro. During his absence members of the Stockholm Society had the opportunity of attending a tape-recorded service at the pastor's home.
     SENTA CENTERVALL

     THE CHURCH AT LARGE

     General Conference. At further sessions of the 150th General Conference extension of the president's term of office was discussed, and the matter was referred back to the Conference Council. Concern was expressed about the inactivity of the French-speaking Federation. There was a difference of opinion as to whether a public missionary meeting should be held in connection with future Conferences. The Home Worship scheme was discussed at length, and the Conference periodicals were favorably mentioned. The National Missionary Board reported an increase in the number of study circles, but an increasing lack of interest in public lectures. Conference resolved to send greetings and good wishes to the General Convention by the Rev. David P. Johnson, and a presentation was made to Mrs. Johnson. The Rev. Clifford Harley and the Rev.
P. V. Vickers addressed the Conference on the subjects of "The Second Advent" and "The Last Judgment."
     After six years of valuable service, the Rev. Edgar C. Howe has relinquished the editorship of the NEW-CHURCH HERALD, official organ of the General Conference. He is succeeded by the Rev. Wynford G. Whittaker, whose first editorial promises well for the future conduct of the paper.

526

A well merited appreciation of the recent editor and his work is contributed to Mr. Whittaker's first issue by the Rev. Dennis Duckworth, now president of the General Conference.

     THE ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH

     Enrollment for 1957-1958

Theological School     2
College               78
Boys School               71
Girls School          63
                    214

     LOCAL SCHOOLS

     Enrollment for 1957-1958

Bryn Athyn               246
Colchester               12
Glenview               95
Kitchener               25
Pittsburgh               34
Toronto               16
                    428

[Note: In addition to the 34 children enrolled in the Pittsburgh school, there are 5 pre-kindergarten children who attend one day a week.]
APOSTOLIC WRITINGS 1957

APOSTOLIC WRITINGS 1957

"With regard to the writings of St. Paul and the other Apostles, I have not given them a place in my Arcana Coelestia because they are dogmatic writings merely, and not written in the style of the Word, like those of the Prophets, of David, of the Evangelists, and the Revelation of St. John. The style of the Word consists throughout of correspondences, and thence effects an immediate communication with heaven; but the style of these dogmatic writings is quite different, having indeed communication with heaven, but only mediate or indirect. The reason the Apostles wrote in this style was that the Christian Church was then to begin through them; and the style that is used in the Word would not have been suitable for such doctrinal tenets, which required plain and simple language, adapted to the capacities of all readers. Nevertheless, the writings of the Apostles are excellent books for the church, since they insist on the doctrine of charity, and faith thence: as the Lord Himself has done in the Gospels and in the Revelation of St. John, which will clearly appear to everyone who studies these writings with attention" (Letter to Dr. Beyer. Also Apocalypse Explained, 815).

527

CORRECTION 1957

CORRECTION Editor 1957

In announcements of deaths, NEW CHURCH LIFE, September, 1957, page 432, the name of Mrs. Carl Jacob Ctallinguis was misread as Cnallinguis.
SOME GENERAL CHURCH USES 1957

SOME GENERAL CHURCH USES Editor 1957

     GENERAL CHURCH RELIGION LESSONS. Graded lessons and other material from preschool through Grade 12. Address inquiries to: Pastor-in-charge, Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
     GENERAL CHURCH SOUND RECORDING COMMITTEE. Tape-recordings of services, sermons, doctrinal classes, children's services, etc. Address: General Church Sound Recording Committee, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
     GENERAL CHURCH VISUAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE. Biblical and other slides. Address: Mr. William R. Cooper, Director, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
     NEW CHURCH EDUCATION. Published by Religion Lessons Committee monthly, September to June, inclusive. Subscription, $1.50. Editor: Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal.

529

COMINGS OF THE LORD 1957

COMINGS OF THE LORD Rev. JAN H. WEISS 1957

     "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shall shine forth; our God shall come, and shall not keep silent." (Psalm 50: 2, 3)

     This statement of the 50th Psalm is a prophecy concerning the coming of the Lord. It is a promise that mankind will not always be in darkness, but that our Lord will come and speak to us. And as such, it is filled with new hope for the future, and is directed to any man at any time. In fact, it was directed to man from the beginning of creation; it is still applicable to the man of today, and will be directed to the man of tomorrow.
     In our text we find an identification of three different actions of the Lord. "God shining forth" is "God coming," and these two actions are the same as "God speaking." In identifying these three actions, the Lord teaches us that the essential, and purpose, of His coming is Divine speech. Without such speech a coming of the Lord would be unreal and meaningless.
     Those who do not know that a coming of the Lord is essentially the accommodation of His Divine thoughts to the finite comprehension of man are very apt to think that, when the Lord comes, He becomes like man. And instead of concentrating on what the Lord says, they focus their attention on the means through which the Lord makes His coming.
     In the Christian Church this has resulted in an overemphasis on the fact that the Lord assumed a body of flesh and blood, that He was tempted, that He endured physical pain and suffered the death of a martyr. And, consequently, we find in all Christian churches a worship of the crucified Lord rather than the glorified Lord; while in the Roman Catholic Church this overemphasis on the means of the Lord's coming has resulted even in the doctrine of the bodily resurrection of the Virgin Mary, and her being nearly equal to the Lord Himself.

530

     The means of the Lord's second coming are the knowledges that were in the mind of Swedenborg. And did we not clearly see the intrinsic Divinity of those Writings, which sets them apart from all other human writings, we could very easily become personal followers and worshippers of the man Swedenborg.
     But the truth is that the Lord never became like man. Indeed there is an appearance to that effect, and there are also certain similarities. But the differences are most fundamental. The soul of the body of Jesus Christ was Divine and infinite, while the soul of man is finite and limited, for it consists of finite, receptive spiritual substances.
     Mans soul is either a form of the Divine love, which creates a female mind, or a form of Divine wisdom, which creates a male mind. But the Lord's soul was neither a form of Divine wisdom nor a form of Divine love, but was that Divine love and wisdom in perfect union; and this soul created for itself, not a female or male mind, but the Divine mind.
     Consequently, the Lord's birth was very different from the birth of man, for He was conceived of the Father, the Creator of heaven and earth; while man is always born from the conception of the seed of a finite father. Only the Lord was born of a virgin.
     Again, the Lords temptations were very different from the temptations of man. In man, temptations are combats between a good love and the hells, while in the Lord there was a combat between those hells and the Divine love itself. His temptations were infinitely more severe and universal than those of man; in fact, so severe that man cannot ever imagine in any degree how severe they were.
     As to the Lord's death, it was unlike any "man's" death. His departure from this world was accompanied by unusual physical phenomena, and His body did not remain in the sepulchre. The Lord's resurrection was unlike that of any man, the Writings assure us, for He rose with the whole body which He had in the world (AC 10252).
     In the Writings we are shown very clearly and abundantly that the incarnation, the temptations, the death and resurrection of the Lord, were all means for His coming, but that His coming is really an accommodation of Divine truth. Whenever we read about the means for His coming, we are to realize that they were employed only because in no other way could the Lord have revealed Himself at that time, and that the description and history of these means also contain the "words" of the Lord, but in the internal sense. Glorifying the Human was thus a means to humanizing the Divine.
     The Lord's coming is thus the Lord speaking to man, or a written revelation that is adapted to the state and apprehension of mankind. And as this apprehension is different in the various stages of the mental development of both mankind and the individual man, we can see the possibility of many different comings of the Lord.

531

For wherever and whenever mankind or an individual man is given a new understanding of Divine truth, there we may rightly say that the Lord has come again.
     All these different comings of the Lord may be divided into two categories, namely, His objective comings and His subjective comings. Or we may say that there are objective revelations and subjective revelations of Divine truth.
     An objective coming is a revelation of Divine truth to a certain stage of the mental development of mankind. Though all the Divine love and wisdom is behind such a revelation, its literal sense is limited in that it speaks only to a certain degree of human comprehension; it is accommodated only to a certain type of mind.
     An objective revelation is always given in such a way that mankind may see it outside of itself. For were man to receive Divine truth only by an internal way, he would have no freedom to accept or reject it. We also note that the giving of every objective revelation always initiates a new church and a new dispensation. For a coming of Divine truth always brings a judgment upon the previous church.
     And, finally, we should know that all revelations of Divine truth to mankind are the Word of the Lord, but may be differentiated by names, such as the Most Ancient and the Ancient Word, the Old and New Testaments, and the Writings, because of the different ultimates into which the Divine truth has been poured.
     A subjective coming is the Lord speaking to an individual through an objective revelation. It may indeed be a Divine revelation, yet it does not have any objective authority in the church. When expressed by enlightened men, it may serve as doctrine in the church that can lighten up the Word, but it will never take the place of that Word.
     To know how the Lord comes and why He comes is most important. for unless we know that we are not really able to receive Him, nor do we know how to prepare ourselves for receiving Him. And this is true just as much for the reception of an objective coming as for the reception of a subjective coming.
     The first coming of the Lord took place when heaven and earth were created. Divine truth proceeding. that is. finiting and limiting itself, brought forth the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, and the man of the Most Ancient Church, from love to the Lord, perceived in all his observations of nature's wonders heavenly wisdom concerning the Lord's love. To the men of the Most Ancient Church, nature was the objective revelation of Divine truth, and their perception of heavenly wisdom was the subjective revelation or coming of the Lord.

532

     After the fall of this church, nature could no longer function as an objective revelation of the Lord: for the men of the Ancient Church were not able to perceive heavenly wisdom in nature as the people of the Most Ancient Church could. The Lord had to speak again to a different degree of human comprehension. This time the perceptions of the men of the Most Ancient Church were gathered together into doctrinal statements, and their compilation, guided by the Lord, became the Word or objective coming to the Ancient Church. Thus came into existence the Ancient Word.
     The Lord foresaw the fall of the Most Ancient Church, and there are therefore prophecies of His coming even in nature itself. There is the darkness of the night, and the glorious dawn of a new day. There is the cloudy sky that hides the light of the sun, and there is the wind that disperses the clouds and opens the sky.
     The Lord also foresaw the fall of the Ancient Church; and we thus find in the third chapter of Genesis, which is part of the Ancient Word, that the Lord would put enmity between the serpent and the woman, between its seed and her seed; it would bruise the head of the serpent and the serpent would bruise his heel (verse 15).
     And when it seemed to the human observer that the future Israelitish Church was increasing in numbers and blessedness, the Lord prophesied through the dying Jacob: "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be" (Genesis 49: 10).
     To the Israelitish Church the Lord came through prophets and through its own history. Its genesis in Ur of the Chaldees, its conquest of the land of Canaan, its glorious period of the three great kings, and its decline and captivities afterwards, all picture. in the internal sense, the Lord's coming. And here and there shines through the literal sense prophecy of the Lord's incarnation-prophecy becoming more frequent and less obscure as time goes on. And the sincere Jew who gave heed to the ever clearer prophecies, and saw the need of a new adaptation of Divine truth, could recognize the blessed Savior, born in Bethlehem.
     The many prophecies that we find in the Old Testament were given so that the Israelites could come into a state of expectancy. Yet how few really expected Him! Surely they knew about the coming of a Messiah, but their national conceit and selfishness had caused them to interpret the prophecies falsely. Some Jews still expect the coming of the Messiah, but many have interpreted the prophecies in such a way that they see the rise of the Jewish nation in the land of Canaan as the coming of the Lord.
     Conceit and selfishness are very easily combined with a pride of the "glorious" past and an entirely perverted idea of the future. In such a state were the Jews at the Lord's coming.

533

And such a state is absolutely closed to anything new and different. It destroys all possibility of progress and kills very quickly any seed of new truth that is sown. In such a state there can be no reception of an objective revelation, and thus certainly not of a subjective coming.
     Most Christians today are able to see why it was that so few Jews recognized the Lord when He was on earth. However, just as the Jewish Church was not the crown of all churches, so the Christian Church was not going to be the final church. For while the Lord spoke, and laid the foundation for the Christian Church. He foresaw at the same time that this church would fall, and He therefore prophesied also that He would come again.
     Concerning this coming the Lord said: "The Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not"; "therefore be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh" (Luke 12: 40; Matthew 24: 44). Though Christians of today know about these prophecies, there are but few who realize that such a coming involves a giving of a new revelation. There is an attitude in the Christian Church that all problems of theology have been solved long ago, and that there is no need for a new adaptation of Divine truth. And yet the Lord said: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now" (John 16: 12).
     Though the Jews could have known that their misery under the Roman yoke was due to their disobeying the Lord's commandments, they were blind and desired from the Lord only a national deliverance, not a personal deliverance from hell. And while Christians know, or can know, that all the conflicts and wars in the world are due to our disobeying the Lord's commandments, they have not placed their hopes in a personal deliverance from hell or a personal regeneration, but have declared such a personal regeneration impossible, and therefore look only for a deliverance of the church as a whole. Or, as is done in some of the churches, especially on the American continent, they see the second coming of the Lord as an improvement in social circumstances and international relationships.
     And yet the Lord has come again in an objective revelation of Divine truth. As He explained the Old Testament prophecies when He made His first coming, so He explained the New Testament prophecies in the revelation of His second coming.
     To an age and a stage of mental development that is characterized by the word "rational," the Lord has revealed the wisdom that is in the rational degree of His Divine mind; He has thus come and not kept silent.
     He has come to deliver us from false notions concerning Himself and the way to heaven. He has also come to give us Divine truth to fight the hells of personal conceit and arrogance. His light now shines forth to reprove our evils, and light up the path to a brighter future.

534

     To some this new revelation will be "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense," for it crushes preconceived ideas and personal ambitions. But to others it will be a source of light and inspiration, which will cause them to exclaim: "Lo, this is our God, for whom we have waited that He may deliver us; this is Jehovah, for whom we have waited; we will exult and be glad in His salvation" (Isaiah 25: 9, 26: 8, 9).
     New Church men have heard these words before. They have accepted the Lord in His second coming, and they might think that they need not heed the Lord's reproval of the Pharisee and of the Christian of today. But if they think so, they should know that they are sadly mistaken. Every New Church man can be in the state of the Jewish nation at the time of the Lord's birth, or in the state of the Christian Church of today. For though he may accept verbally the threefold objective revelation of the Lord, he may reject His coming into his heart and mind and life.
     There is not only an objective coming of the Lord, but also a subjective one. And though it is true that the Lord will not again make an objective coming into this world, He will have to come subjectively in order to accomplish salvation, and free us from the slavery of hell.
     For this reason New Church men should pay close attention to the prophecies of the Lord's first and second coming. These prophecies will always be true for the coming of the Lord into man's mind. With every individual there should be a constant preparation for the coming of the Lord in his every thought and desire. Then the Lord, who is sought, will suddenly come to His temple in man s mind. He will do judgment and justice in the land. He will feed like a shepherd. He will-as He does, and did-give grace and peace. For only the Lord is, and was, and is to come. Amen.

     LESSONS:     Psalm 50. Matthew 24: 29-47. TCR 774.
     MUSIC:     Liturgy, pages 534. 528, 532.
     PRAYERS:     Liturgy, nos. 50, 107.
LORD AND HIS KINGDOM 1957

LORD AND HIS KINGDOM 1957

"In so far as an angel, spirit or man receives good and truth from the Lord, and believes that it is from the Lord, so far he is in His kingdom; but in so far as he does not receive and does not believe that it is from the Lord, so far he is not in His kingdom. Thus the Divine things that are from the Lord make His kingdom, or heaven: and this is what is meant by the Lord being the all of His kingdom" (AC 2904: 3).

535

EDUCATION AND EVANGELIZATION 1957

EDUCATION AND EVANGELIZATION Rev. ERIK SANDSTROM 1957

     (Delivered at the 42nd British Assembly, Colchester August 4 1957.)

     There can be little doubt that the use of education and that of evangelization are both recognized as vital throughout the General Church. Of these two, education has the longer standing and is the more deeply rooted; so much so that in the minds of New Church men the world over the General Church is virtually identified with that use. Many employ the names, "The Academy" and "The General Church," interchangeably to designate the same body of men; and the members themselves of the General Church pledge their faith and loyalty to the cause of education; not only in that well-loved song itself-"Our Own Academy"-but also in the affection for the use as such that continues to give the song a touch of spontaneity in spite of its already long traditional standing.
     Within this sphere, however, a vein of affection for and interest in the use of external evangelization is welling forth in the General Church. The fountain itself is not of recent date, for past generations, too, have witnessed the flow from it. But there is little doubt that the church as a general body is beginning to ask, more than in the past: What is our responsibility as a church in regard to this use? And how should the work be done? Nevertheless, if this is so. I am sure that it is also entirely justifiable to observe that this growing affection in no way detracts from the affection for the use of education. Rather, it would appear that the former is merely an offshoot of the latter-that there is, as it were, a mother-child relationship between the two. It is, in fact, in the nature of love not to give by measure: love is not required to withdraw from one field in order to fill another. Rather-if governed by the spirit of heaven-it grows universally by giving, for it does not follow the law of material things. Individuals may give preference to one use or the other; but the mother church must he big enough to give a full heart to them both.
     In my view this is the more easily done as the two uses, so far from being unrelated to each other, are essentially the same use. They are two forms of the love of passing on the truths of the church to others. Our own children and young people are our first responsibility, because they are within the borders of the church and in our homes. Charity must begin where the opportunity of use is self-evident, and only as a second step is it permissible to try to extend the use further.

536

The uses of the church might be compared to circles, or belts, going forth from the center. In the first circle are our children and young people; in the second are those in the Christian world who constitute the remnant from the former church, and who await their spiritual liberation. We might regard a third circle as embracing the rest of the world, where there are remote remnants from the pre-Christian churches. This third field of use relates to the future, and should await the indications of Divine Providence before it is explored. (Our South African Mission scarcely belongs to it, seeing that it is established in an area to which the old Christian influence had extended long before us.) But as for the second field of use, certain indications in the providence of the Lord appear to be forthstanding, tending to direct the heart of the church to that use.
Not only are there many men and women in the church whose affections are at present stirred by it, but also the use of education in the church at large is progressing so steadily, and holds such great promise for the future, that there is every reason to hope that the further study and development of this use, and the economic support for it, will not suffer from the addition of another use beyond its field. Further, we note the gradual awakening of the church to the need of going out beyond the nearest and first use. Though the children of isolated families were not outside the borders of the organized church, yet they were near it; and since they had no access to New Church schools they were largely neglected-except, of course, for any initiative on the part of individual parents, and for occasional instruction by visiting pastors. But then certain women undertook to prepare written lessons for these children; and now Theta Alpha sponsors the sending out of well prepared and illustrated lessons, accommodated to at least eight age-groups, to several hundred children in all parts of the world. Then there is the "Epsilon Society," formed in 1951, which undertook to send copies of the Writings to all young men and women in the armed services and in outside colleges, and also to contact strangers by making personal calls, circulating printed matters, and arranging for public lectures. And now we have the "Missionary Committee' appointed by the Bishop for the express purpose of studying the proper means for church extension work. Possibly it is allowable to add that the vicissitudes and conflicts which have been permitted in Providence in the past, may have served to crystallize more deeply and spread more widely than ever before the peculiar faith of the General Church, which is that the Lord Himself speaks openly to the world in the Writings of His second advent. If this is true, then the church is that much more ready to go outside its borders and tell the world that the Lord has come. For at the heart of the whole matter of evangelization is the gospel itself that is to be preached.

537

We know that it can be no other than that the Lord God Jesus Christ doth reign, namely, by means of the Law-books of His kingdom in which the doctrine of faith and life for the heavens becomes the doctrine for the church on earth as well. But the church must attain a certain strength in its faith, and perhaps even a certain numerical strength, before it can go forward with that gospel with authority, steadfastness and unanimity; in short, in the name of the Lord.
There are, perhaps, certain indications in the outside world, too. For one thing, I think it would he true to say that there are now more adult New Church baptisms than in the past. And do we not hear more and more of people who are disillusioned, having lost confidence in the churches of the old Christianity?; and of individuals who are groping for something, looking for something, hoping vaguely-perhaps in suppressed despair-that possibly, somewhere, there might be such a thing as real truth? In any case, this is certain: that the churches of the world pay increasing attention to external matters, such as religious traditions, rituals and symbols, ethical science (including shapeless toleration), and economy, and show an ever decreasing interest in things of doctrine. This cannot but leave a vacuum; and to fill it there will be those who rely on political doctrine, others who thrust themselves into the arms of technical science, and yet others who hatch out fanatical religious doctrine and form sects of their own; for doctrine of one sort or other man must have. And then there are those who find no compensation at all, who feel as if they belonged nowhere, as if they were spiritual outcasts of society. These are the remnant from the old Christian Church, and they are the ones who wait for the Lord.
Let us turn to Divine Revelation for a description of these people. One single passage from the Writings will be adequate for our present purpose of forming a general concept concerning them. They are referred to in the Apocalypse as "the earth that helped the woman, and that opened her mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon cast out of his mouth" (Revelation 12: 16); "the woman" signifying the New Church, or the Church of the New Jerusalem, and "the man child" whom she brought forth being the doctrine of truth for that church. In giving the meaning of the help afforded the woman by the earth, the Apocalypse Explained has the following to say: "[This] signifies those who are of a church that is not in truths affording assistance, and not receiving the crafty reasonings of those who were in faith separated from charity. This is evident from the signification of the 'earth' that helped the woman, as being a church that is not in truths, for here the 'earth' means the earth of the desert, into which the woman fled, and where she had a place prepared of God . . . from the signification of 'helping the woman,' as being to afford assistance to the New Church which is called the Holy Jerusalem; also from the signification of 'opening her mouth and swallowing up the river which the dragon cast out of his mouth,' as being the keen reasonings of those who were in faith separated from charity; for 'the river of waters' that the dragon cast out of his mouth signifies keen reasonings from falsities . . . and 'to open the mouth and swallow,' in reference to the church that is signified by the 'earth,' signifies to take away; and as a thing is taken away when it is not received, it signifies not to receive. These things are to be understood thus: It is said above that 'the woman fled into the desert, where she hath a place prepared by God,' and afterwards that she received 'the wings of the eagle and flew to her place,' by which is signified that the church that is called the New Jerusalem is to tarry among those who are in the doctrine of faith separate while it grows to its fulness, until provision is made for it among many.

538

But in that church there are dragons who separate faith from good works not only in doctrine but also in life; but the others in the same church who live a life of faith, which is charity, are not dragons, although they are among them, for they do not know otherwise than that it is according to doctrine that faith produces fruits, which are good works, and that the faith that justifies and saves is believing what the Word teaches and doing it. The dragons, on the other hand, have wholly different sentiments; but what these are the others do not comprehend, and because they do not comprehend them they do not accept them. From these things it is clear that a church consisting of those who are not dragons is meant by 'the earth that helped the woman and swallowed up the river that the dragon cast out of his mouth.' But the nature of the reasonings, and how crafty and even pernicious are the reasonings of those who are meant by the 'dragon' about the separation of faith from good works, and about their conjunction, will, the Lord willing, be disclosed elsewhere, likewise that such reasonings have place only with the learned leaders, and are not known to the people of the church, because not understood by them, and that hence it is that the New Church which is called the Holy Jerusalem, is helped by the latter and also grows from these" (AE 764). Italics added]
In this very potent teaching we would, for our present study, give special emphasis to the following points: 1) The New Church must expect to tarry mainly in the Protestant world of Christianity, among the "Dragonists" 2) Provision for her growth among many is to be made by means of the leading of the Lord while she so tarries; 3) In that world there are those who are not Dragonists; 4) Those who are not are held in readiness by the Lord (that is how they are "helping" the woman), and the church is to grow from them.
The question therefore arises: How is the use of New Church evangelization to be done among these people?

539

The obvious answer is, to give them the Writings. In fact, that is also the only answer. But we all know from experience that that answer is a bit complex in its implications. The first need, of course, is to make the Writings available; and this need is being filled by the Swedenborg Society, and also by the Swedenborg Foundation and by several smaller publishing centers here and there in the world. Some will discover these Writings as if by chance, that is, by the direct leading of the Divine Providence without the agency of human instrumentality. Nevertheless, the Lord will also make use of such as say, "Come and see." The question is sure to be asked: "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" In fact, there must be thousands of people who know of the existence of the Writings, and who have heard that they contain extraordinary teachings, but who know next to nothing about the nature and implications of those teachings: and among those thousands there are surely many who are like "the earth that swallowed up the river cast out of the mouth of the dragon." These are at this very time now asking that question. They have a notion in regard to the Writings like that of Nathaniel concerning the Lord-that He was "Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph'; and the church must testify that this is the Revelation of truth promised by the Lord while on earth-that this is the fulfilment of His prophecy that He Himself would come in the clouds of former statements of Divine truth, even as Philip said: "We have found Him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write." So the church has got to learn how to say, "Come and see" (John 1: 45, 46).
In the early days of the Academy and of the General Church, the need to say that to the outside world was not as great as it will be in the future, and as it is, perhaps, even in our day. The first need, as we have already observed, was to say it, and say it well, to our own children; and I think we may believe that it was of the Lord's will, thus in keeping with His providence, that the church so acted. For even as it is of Providence to make gradual preparation for the spread of the church among the many, so also it is of Providence that the church should be in isolation in the meantime, in the "desert," among a few.
Let us view our present situation in relation to that which existed in those early days; and in doing so, let us hope that the desire of the General Church to bind itself to no man-made law-either in the past, present or future-but to develop under the immediate guidance of the Lord's Providence, has been fulfilled, is still being fulfilled, and will continue to be fulfilled. As the "Statement of the Order and Organization of the General Church of the New Jerusalem" has it: "It is anticipated that in the future other statements will be called for since the General Church is a living body developing under the leading of Providence, to the end that it may ever more fully serve those spiritual uses for which it was established."

540

     In the beginning of the General Church the immediate task before the church, and the general sentiment among its members, were evidently very aptly expressed by the first Bishop of the Church, W. F. Pendleton, in the following "Principle of the Academy-the last of the 12 Principles: "The most fruitful field of evangelization is with the children of New Church parents. In order to occupy this fruitful field of work New Church schools are needed, that children may be kept in the sphere and environment of the church, until they are able to think and act from themselves." And in commenting further on this principle, Bishop Pendleton went on to say: "From the beginning of the Academy movement it has been seen that an entire change in the policy of evangelization, or church extension, is necessary for the following reasons: a) The teaching of Revelation that few adults of the consummated Christian Church will receive the Lord in His second coming, and enter interiorly into the doctrine and life of the New Church: b) The experience of a hundred years, confirming the teaching of Revelation, making manifest the hopelessness of the expectation that many of the former church will turn to the Lord in His second coming; c) The neglect in the organized New Church of the children born within its borders, with the result that comparatively few of such children have remained in the church after reaching adult life; d) It is the Lord's Providence that children born of New Church parents should enter into the church in adult life; e) This most desirable result can be accomplished, provided that the Lord be acknowledged in His second coming; that the distinctiveness of the New Church, and the death of the old, be seen; that there he marriage in the church, and the laws of order in marriage be observed; that the sphere of the church be in the home; that there be New Church day-schools, and thus that the children be kept in the sphere of the church in the home, in the school, and in their social life, until they reach adult age."
     Can we not say that this principle answers most adequately to the teaching of Revelation, that the church must first be among a few, and must first "tarry among those who are in the doctrine of faith separate while it grows to its fulness, until provision is made for it among many"? I think it is very important that we view this principle in its spiritual-historical setting, looking in the light of Revelation for signs of that leadership of Providence for which the church has prayed from the beginning.
     Seen in this light, it is perhaps apparent why at the time greater emphasis was given to that part of the teaching which deals with the church in its beginning, in its period of isolation, than the part that speaks of provision for the many and of growth from "the earth that helped the woman." Might we not say that basically the principle was formulated by the need itself, as it presented itself at the time?

541

At any rate-whether the time is approaching already, or whether the matter is still essentially one for the future-it is certain, as certain as Divine order and Divine prophecy, that the latter part of the teaching will also one day come into its own.
     In all this, however, we note that the essential principle must always continue to apply. For however much work the church will be called upon to undertake in the field of external evangelization, the use of internal evangelization-that is, the use of education within the borders of the church-will still continue to be the first use of charity in the church. Only, the second use will assume greater and greater proportions; not by comparison with the first use, but by comparison with its own manifestation and its own challenge in the past.
     Returning now to the question as to how we shall attempt to say our "Come and see." I feel it would be a mistake to adopt the attitude that there can he only one or two methods. Must we not rather say that whenever men are sincerely moved to adopt a mode of action from a love of spreading abroad what is from the Lord, then the Divine Providence adapts itself to operate with and through that mode? Surely, there are very' many methods. Some will be more efficient than others, and we may hope that over the years such methods will evolve as derive increasing light from Revelation and are increasingly the fruits of the will of Providence.
     Tonight I am authorized by the British Academy to lay one proposed method before this Assembly, namely, the establishment of a New Church Correspondence Institute for Adult Education. The situation is this. The proposal is not as yet that of the Academy; but before taking action one way or the other in regard to it, the Academy would welcome the response and the views of this Assembly; for while the British Academy is itself empowered to take responsible action in the field of education, it is also highly solicitous that any important action should be undertaken only in the sphere of essential unanimity in the church. Here is a case when action should be delayed unless and until there is such essential unanimity. so that in the meantime further deliberation may ensue. Thus the Assembly is not being asked to take a vote, but it is invited to discuss freely. The plan is for the Academy to convene in the month of October to consider the proposal in the light of that discussion.
     The broad outline of the plan is known already to the church in this country. The only point that has not been stressed before, although it has been mentioned incidentally and has been more or less present in the background of our thought from the beginning, is the aspect of evangelization involved. The first emphasis was, and still is, upon the adult members and friends themselves of the church: but it has been increasingly realized that the proposed Institute might at the same time serve as a powerful instrument in evangelizing the gospel of the Second Advent to the outside world.

542

For the essential aim of the Institute would he to show that truth is one, and that all truth of whatever degree, whether celestial, spiritual, natural, or even sensuous reflects but one power, but one glory; namely, that of the Lord in His Divine Human now revealed. The Institute, commencing on a very modest scale, would add subject upon subject to its library, advertising them all as being presented in the light of the Writings of the New Church. There would be both theological and secular subjects. In each case the principle of the Institute would be to bring in the storehouse of the findings of modern science, and to correlate and order them in the light of revealed truth. Never would modern science be allowed to act the part of light itself; for science, if not seen in the light of heaven, can be swayed hither and yon, without check or control, and can serve as the vehicle of any false conception of creation and human existence. Exterior truth is not truth if viewed apart from its very essence and soul, which is interior truth: for exterior truth is, in fact, nothing but the interior truth presenting itself on a lower plane. The facts of the human body, for instance, have no bearing on truly human existence, which is eternal existence, unless seen as the manifestations of the operation of the soul in the body. So science would be made to serve as a handmaid of eternal truth, illustrating and confirming the omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence of the Lord Jesus Christ in His Divine Human. Only now, in the age of the Second Advent, is it possible to view natural and spiritual truth in the same light, the very light of heaven; for the law of correspondences has been revealed.
     This is not despising the light of the sun of the sky. It is simply affirming that that light is no light for the understanding, but only for the eye of the body. The light of the worldly sun is indispensable, for we must have the objects of knowledge. But only the light of heaven can make us understand these objects, so as to perceive their real place and purpose in the creation of the Lord and in His providence.
     As for the theological or religious subjects, these, of course, would simply present an immediate study of the Writings. Nevertheless, an effort would be made to keep a constant watch on temptations, problems, etc., in the world, and to show how the Writings speak with an ever clear voice in regard to any aspect of life in any period.
     In considering the idea of a Correspondence Institute, however, it should not be thought that this idea represents all the activity which it is hoped the British Academy will undertake. Rather, the suggestion is that the Academy should-in the near future-endeavor to establish two main uses: a secondary school and a correspondence institute.

543

Further, the hope is that the Academy will thus apply itself to internal and external evangelization at the same time: the internal evangelization being directed to our own young people, particularly those who come out of the Colchester elementary school (through the secondary school), and to our own adult members (through the Institute); and the external evangelization being extended (through the same Institute and the same courses) to such as have as yet had little or no knowledge of the New Church.
     But let us place before ourselves the whole suggested plan, in a compressed and yet at the same time somewhat comprehensive form. We mention the secondary school first, because that represents the nearer and greater responsibility, although it is expected that the Correspondence Institute could be established first in time.

     Suggested Plan for the British Academy

I.     To set up a secondary school in Colchester as soon as practicable.
     a) To accumulate funds for the purpose.
     b) To solicit contributions for the purpose, not only from the present members and friends of the church, but also from any and all who might be reached through the Correspondence Institute.
     c) As early as reasonable to contact one or more suitable teachers.
     d) When the time is ripe to provide suitable premises.
     e) To keep awake and informed in regard to all other problems known to the Academy, relating to the setting up of a secondary school.

II.     To set up a Correspondence Institute for adult New Church education.
     a) To commence at least one religious course and one secular course, no later than autumn, 1958.
     b) To solicit the services of any or all members of the church in Great Britain, who have a university degree or the equivalent thereto.
     c) To solicit the services of teachers in the Academy of the New Church in Bryn Athyn, and to adapt courses prepared by them for the purpose of instruction by correspondence.
     d) To employ the services of teachers on a remunerative basis, although presumably on a comparatively modest scale.
     e) To offer the courses at a moderate charge.
     f) To prepare and circulate a Catalogue, listing and describing all courses, and giving in a summary the principles of the instruction offered.
     g) As soon as it may prove necessary, to set up an office and a library.
     h) As soon as it may prove necessary, to employ the services of a part time or full time secretary.

544

     i) To organize a faculty, composed of all teachers residing in Great Britain, and to charge this faculty, under the Bishop (who is President of the British Academy), to administer all the educational uses of the British Academy.
     j) To delegate to the Board of Governors of the British Academy, or to a Board specially set up for the purpose, to manage all the financial and economic affairs of the Institute.

     As for the proposed faculty, it is especially hoped that the members thereof will themselves learn as they teach. It is recognized that few of the members will have had any actual experience in the field of New Church education; but it is believed that they could nevertheless introduce the essential elements of such education from the beginning, provided they know their subject and seek to view and understand it in the light of the Writings.
     In short, the hope is to make use of the resources as they exist at the present, and to commence the use of systematic education within and outside the borders of the organized church without greater delay than is necessary for the purposes of preparation, organization and advertising. As time goes on, experience will be acquired, and with it-it may be hoped-a greater and greater skill in the art of saying, "Come and see."
     Education is at the very marrow of the General Church, and it may be taken for certain that this will continue to be so in all future generations. The question is: Would it not be a natural step for the church to take that use and go with it outside its own borders, too: first to the remnant of the old Christian Church, and eventually to the remnants of the preceding churches as well? Education-the art of seeing all knowledges in one light, and of beholding the Lord omnipresent in heaven and on earth-is inherent in the Writings of the Second Advent. Can evangelization afford to be essentially different? Is it not basically the same whether we say, "Internal and External Evangelization," or "Internal and External Education'?
PROVIDENTIAL LEADING 1957

PROVIDENTIAL LEADING 1957

"The Divine Providence differs from all other leading and guidance in the fact that Providence continually regards what is eternal, and continually leads unto salvation, and this through various states, sometimes glad, sometimes sorrowful, which the man cannot possibly comprehend; but still they are all profitable to eternal life" (AC 8560).

545

EASTERN CANADA ASSEMBLY 1957

EASTERN CANADA ASSEMBLY VIVIAN KUHL 1957

     KITCHENER, ONTARIO, OCTOBER 12-14, 1957

     Ideal fall weather prevailed for the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, when the Eastern Canada District Assembly met in Kitchener, October 12th to 14th. Bishop De Charms presided at the Assembly, which was a most successful and happy occasion.
     Fifty visitors joined with the members and friends of Carmel Church to attend three sessions, four services, a dance, a banquet, and four meals, making a very busy weekend. Despite the full program, time was found for before and after parties in the homes-a continuous social feast of charity at which new friendships were made and old friends enjoyed.
     The visitors' roll included 4 from Bryn Athyn, 36 adults and 4 children from Toronto, 3 from St. Catharines, 1 from Goderich, and 2 from Regina, Sask. Unfortunately the current flu epidemic kept a number of people from Toronto and Kitchener at home, making the attendance slightly smaller than expected. However, this resulted in the ushers having an easy time seating the people in the chapel; no serious crowding was necessary
     All the services and sessions were held in the chapel of Carmel Church and the meals and dance were held at the Berkley Square Restaurant at the eastern end of Kitchener. As we made the three-mile drive to and from the restaurant we could enjoy the beautiful fall colors of the leaves and the bright blue sky. The assembly hall at the church was arranged as a sitting room with comfortable chairs and couches, and a television set for watching the Queen!

     The Assembly opened on Saturday afternoon with the episcopal address on the subject "Divine Providence and Human Prudence in the Establishment of the Church." This paper on evangelization outlined our duty to the Church Universal and the Church Specific. Emphasizing that the Lord builds the church, the Bishop encouraged us to develop a spirit of toleration in our contacts with members of the universal church-a church built on conscience and said that we should lead them to the truth, but leave it to the Lord to determine how the truth is received. Our highest duty to the Lord was described as the establishment and growth of the specific church, and we were told how the happiness of heaven may be received through the performance of uses for the organized church.

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     The second session, held on Sunday afternoon, began with a business meeting at which it was decided to have a permanent district organization to be known as the "Eastern Canada Executive Committee of the General Church of the New Jerusalem." A report had been circulated ahead of the Assembly, outlining the proposed form and uses of the committee, and this report was adopted by the Assembly. The main use of the committee will be "to manage and administer the business affairs connected with providing ministrations to the isolated members of the General Church in Eastern Canada
     The address at the second session was given by the Rev. Martin Pryke on "How We Should Think of God." This paper was a marvelous study of the many, many attributes and aspects of God; how He has appeared to man through the ages, and how He appears to the individual from childhood to old age how we develop our vision of the Lord as we progress, but how we can never comprehend all the concepts of God at one time. Emphasis was placed on the fact that we must always think of God as a Man, as Divine Man, as the Divine Human.
     The Rev. Geoffrey Childs presented the address at the third session on Monday morning, his subject being "Mediate Good." This was a fascinating study of a doctrine which applies to life on earth from beginning to end, and yet is not too familiar a doctrine; perhaps because it occupies only a few pages in the Writings. It is an important key, however, to reconciling conflicting passages. it is impossible to elaborate on the many interesting points brought out in the paper; but in general it was shown how mediate good, or in some cases evil cloaked in innocence, rules throughout childhood and early states of regeneration; and in application how a sense of merit in childhood and ambition in early manhood are necessary states for our progress toward a life of true charity.
     There were questions and discussion following all three papers, adding to the interest of the subjects.

     Sunday was a day of worship beginning with the children's festival service for Thanksgiving. Fifty-five children presented their fruit offering to the Lord, and the Rev. Martin Pryke addressed them on the subject of these gifts and also on how the children of Israel brought gifts for the building of the tabernacle. The children were told they must use the gifts given them by the Lord to build a tabernacle in their minds.
     One hundred and thirty-five adults, the largest single attendance, gathered for Divine Worship following the children's service. An organ, piano, flute and violin ensemble provided lovely music for the service at which the Bishop preached a sermon on Faith. In the evening the Holy Supper Service was held, making a very fitting climax to a long day.

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     With so much food for thought provided at the services and in the three excellent papers, we were happy to relax between times at the meals and social functions. On Saturday evening, the first day of the Assembly, a dance and reception was held. Receiving the guests were Bishop and Mrs. De Charms, the pastors of Kitchener and Toronto and their wives, and Mr. Clarence Schnarr of the Assembly Committee and his wife. Mr. John Kuhl was the capable pinch-hitting MC for his son Denis, who had the flu. The Rev. and Mrs. Henry Heinrichs led the grand march and the dance was on. For entertainment during the evening five Kitchener girls presented an amusing skit in rhyme, and following the home waltz coffee and sandwiches were served.
     The banquet on Monday evening was very festive with colored table cloths and matching chair backs, and candlelit tables decorated with yellow mums. The meal was a delicious turkey dinner for Thanksgiving Day. Keith Niall was toastmaster and after an impromptu duet on "No Sleep" by two Toronto young men, the program was started with a toast to the Church proposed by the Rev. Geoffrey Childs. As the Queen had made history for Canada during the day by opening parliament for the first time, we broke a custom and drank a toast to the Queen, the Rev. Martin Pryke making some very appropriate remarks. The speakers of the evening were Mr. Nathaniel Stroh, who spoke on "Modern Communication and Its Effect on New Churchmen." and Mr. John White, who spoke on the "Establishment of the Church and Society Life." Bishop De Charms made some interesting additions to the papers and expressed his delight in the Assembly, after which all the visitors rose and sang to the host society.

     So ended the Assembly, but to complete the picture of a wonderful weekend we must include one or two other items. On Sunday evening following the service we all gathered in the assembly hall to see the Queen on television and hear her speech to the Canadian people. Following this refreshments were served, making it possible for the whole group to enjoy an informal social hour together.
     On Monday afternoon a special service was held for the baptism of the Rev. and Mrs. Geoffrey Childs' three-month-old twins. The boys, named Justin Tafel and Robin Waelchli, were baptized by the Rev. Henry Heinrichs. It was a very lovely service, and the wide-awake babies smiled and were serious in turns.
     We feel this Assembly fulfilled its use in bringing together New Church men united in faith and willingness to serve the Lord, and in sending them back to their daily uses with new avenues of thought and strengthened determination.
     VIVIAN KUHL

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REPORT OF THE CHICAGO DISTRICT COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION 1957

REPORT OF THE CHICAGO DISTRICT COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION Sydney E. Lee 1957

     (Presented to the Chicago District Assembly Glenview, Illinois, October 12, 1957, by Sydney E. Lee. vice-chairman of the committee.)

     In presenting this report your committee is, in fact, rendering an account. It is therefore presenting in sequence the order of events that led to the final action taken on your behalf.

     District Assembly of 1949: A New Use is Presented

     Eight years have passed since the Rev. Harold Cranch, then pastor of the Sharon Church, presented to the District Assembly of 1949 an address on "Educational Problems in the Chicago District." Problems, he thought, especially problems arising from the growth of the church, are actually opportunities, and opportunities generally involved responsibilities. He proposed to present a problem, stress the opportunity, and indicate the responsibility.
     He was concerned with the problem of secondary education, continuous education without interruption, for all children in the district. It was only a question of time, he thought, before Bishop Benade's vision of high schools, established all over the world, to prepare students for college and university training at Bryn Athyn, would become a fact. Indeed it depended on only one thing, namely, the presence in any one district of sufficient students to make it practical. When that time came, parents would no longer have to decide which was more important, the sphere of the home, or New Church education. They could have both. For even nonresidential students in a district high school would not be out of touch with their homes.
     He then proceeded to show with charts and diagrams, and with unbounded enthusiasm, that for the Chicago District that time has come. There are in the Chicago District, he showed, enough potential high school students so that classes considerably larger than were ever thought of in the early days are available. He made the financial means by which the use might be accomplished seem quite easy; and then admitted that perhaps it was not quite so easy after all. But at least it was a secondary problem. His argument: if you don't accept the statement that continuous New Church education should be our aim, there is no problem. If you don't have the students there is no problem at this time. If you do accept the principle and have the students, you have reached the second phase: the problem has become an opportunity.

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You must seek a solution. What he wanted at this time was that the opportunity be recognized.
     Mr. Cranch's address aroused great interest. After questions and discussion a resolution was moved and adopted, recommending to the Bishop the appointment of a committee to study secondary school possibilities in the Chicago District. The Bishop agreed and a committee was appointed.

     District Assembly of 1951: A Principle is Accepted

     An interim report was presented: its principal emphasis was a recommendation offered on behalf of the committee by the Rev. Elmo Acton, its chairman, to the effect that New Church education be accepted as a district use. The Rev. Harold Cranch felt that with this principle accepted the establishment of a tenth grade should be possible in the near future. He, too, urged that education be made the work of charity in this district. Mr. Robert Coulter of St. Paul stated that he not only endorsed the recommendation but felt that this common purpose would unite the scattered groups within the district. Bishop Pendleton, who was presiding, pointed out that the committee now had a basis for further action.

     District Assembly of 1953: Action is Taken

     The committee made its report to the Assembly in the form of a round table discussion, the Rev. Elmo Acton acting as moderator. The Rev. Ormond Odhner emphasized the duty of all members of the church to support the use of education, for the future of the church is with its children. It is fortunate indeed when this use is, so to speak, close at hand.
     The Rev. Louis King stated that the establishment of a high school in Glenview would be a fulfilment of the aim of the Academy that Bishop Benade had envisioned-high schools in all centers. Mr. Harvey Holmes stated that the Immanuel Church School is actually at this time a district school, carrying a freshman high school grade; that approximately 8% of its enrollment comes from children from Chicago and the suburbs; and that even now there are problems of transportation, lunch time supervision and added expense.
     Mr. T. Kern of Madison presented a chart showing the expected annual growth from now until 1965, when there would be 74 students of high school age in the district.
     Mr. Sydney Lee stressed the need of an endowment fund, saying: "We have accepted secondary education as a district use. It is likely to prove a very expensive one. It cannot be supported by tuition fees and annual contributions. It is a permanent use and needs to be underwritten so that its continuance is assured. We have been talking about a tenth grade.

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This must be our first objective; but we can't stop there. We must look ahead. An endowment fund is essential to the development of secondary education in the district."
     Mr. Pierre Vinet of Rockford addressed his remarks to the question of what buildings would be necessary. He would be satisfied, he said, with a fully equipped high school with ample class rooms, laboratories, gymnasium, library, faculty rooms and offices. He believed all these things would come in time, for the growth of the church is only now beginning. For the moment, he thought, we should be thinking of the need for a junior high school consisting of freshman and sophomore students. We should use to the best advantage such facilities as the Immanuel Church can make available, and should devote all our efforts to the establishment of an endowment fund that would make adequate pay for the teachers possible. He realized that this is not the way it has been done in the past, but it should be our way, for the future of New Church education depends on adequate recognition of the use.
     Mr. Acton then addressed the Assembly. This round table discussion, he said, was a report of what the committee had been thinking. He would therefore sum up the discussion in the form of three recommendations to the Chicago District:

     1. That an endowment fund be established for the development of New Church education in the Chicago District, looking specifically to a future high school in Glenview.
     2. That a second fund be started to provide means for the children now in the district, and near enough to Glenview, to avail themselves of the use of the school now provided for the children of Glenview.
     3. The committee further recommends that the Assembly form a committee at this session to solicit funds and to administer all matters necessary to these uses.

     After a general discussion. Mr. Robert Coulter moved: That this Assembly accepts the report and recommendations of the Committee, and that this Assembly requests the Bishop of the General Church to appoint an Executive Committee on Education to carry out the principles set forth in the reports; this Committee to have authority to establish and administer Chicago District Education Funds and to solicit and receive contributions thereto." This resolution was put to a vote and unanimously carried.

     District Assembly of 1955: A Use is Organized

     Mr. Acton presented a general report on behalf of the Committee, referring to the Endowment Fund that the District Assembly of 1953 had approved, and asked Mr. Sydney Lee, vice-chairman of the committee, to report on this.

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     Mr. Lee stated that while the resolution of 1953 authorized this committee to establish an endowment fund, certain steps must be taken to protect the purpose for which the fund was organized: to make the trustees of the fund legally able to accept donations, gifts and legacies, and to administer the funds, which must be assured of a tax-free status. Also, the donors must be assured of the permanence of the use they were supporting, and they would want to know that income tax deductions were properly authorized.
     The committee has taken legal counsel and some form of incorporation was recommended. Studying the matter further, it became clear that we are not merely taking steps to make the collection of funds legal, we are organizing a use. It is the nature of the use that makes an endowment necessary. It therefore seemed desirable to come before this Assembly to ask and receive assurance that a permanent organization, dedicated to the support of New Church education in the Chicago District, is desired.
     Mr. Lee stated further that in order to set the use, after it is organized, before the New Church public, it seemed desirable and necessary to publish a brochure, setting out in detail everything involved in the project. For it seemed likely that the Endowment Fund and the use it represented would benefit from trust funds and legacies, and people considering such things do like to know what it is all about. The committee felt that it could only spend money for this purpose that was so earmarked.
     Two resolutions were offered and adopted as follows:

     1. That this Assembly accept and approve the reports on education for the Chicago District and encourage the committee to continue its activities along the lines indicated, including incorporation or some other form to give the movement a definite legal status.
     2. That the committee be authorized to obtain funds for preparing and circulating a prospectus or other printed matter, to encourage others to aid in the movement.

     District Assembly of 1957: An Academy is Initiated

     The past two years have been busy ones. While your committee itself was dealing with various problems connected with incorporation, it appointed four sub-committees to consider and report on various requirements. These would be preliminary studies of an exploratory nature. First, it wanted to be assured that the number of students available had not been overestimated.

     Available Students

     Mr. Horace Brewer as chairman of this committee stated that they had examined reports already submitted and had checked the baptism records.

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These showed that from 1963 on, an average of 40 students should be available each year in this area. The area considered covers those sections within the limits that would make it possible for most nonresident students to return home for all vacations. It was further reported that from the graduating classes and in the immediate vicinity there would be average classes of 16 students each year, occasionally as few as 12 and in known cases as many as 22.

     Faculty Requirements

     On the question of a faculty for a full high school a committee of three was appointed to report on, first, class division, and second, the number of teachers required. Mr. Kenneth Holmes, chairman, Miss Gladys Blackman and Mr. Alfred Umberger, all of them educators, were appointed.
     They first made a study of the curriculum of the Boys Academy and the Girls Seminary at Bryn Athyn and based their recommendations on the accepted practices developed in New Church education. They recommended that it is desirable for the boys and girls to be taught separately, but in the early days of the proposed high school, co-education would be essential, both because of the size of the classes and because of the cost of separate faculties. For some subjects the classes could, of course, be taught separately. Second, it is desirable that the high school consist of three grades, sophomore, junior and senior; and because there is a ninth grade in the Immanuel Church School, this plan can be followed.
     This committee advised that a faculty consisting of a minister and four teachers was required, and probably a fifth teacher when the school was large enough. They considered that the financial requirements called for the provision of an average salary of $5000.00.
     They considered the problem of boarding students and thought that younger students could be best provided for in the families of residents, and that older students might be housed in small groups. Dormitories would not he needed in the foreseeable future.
     Regarding the provision for a sophomore year, this, they felt, might be accomplished if the services of one male teacher could be secured. This committee was emphatic in its recommendation that this sophomore year, or tenth grade, should only be started as the first step toward a full high school and not as an expedient.

     Land and Buildings

     This was followed by a report from a committee on land and building requirements. They were asked to consider the needs of a full high school; land, school buildings, equipment, etc. that would be required, and particularly to secure the comparative cost of locating a school in the Park, or, as an alternative, somewhere within a radius accessible to Glenview.

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     The committee to whom this task was assigned was Mr. Raymond Kuhn, chairman, Mr. Hubert Junge and Mr. Ralph Synnestvedt, Jr. This committee presented a very complete report backed up by pages of facts and figures. Their conclusion was that because the cost of land and improvements was prohibitive, and because the whole building project would have to be completed, instead of being done step by step, it was entirely out of the question even to consider locating elsewhere than in Glenview. This was particularly so since, as a result of inquiries made at the University of Illinois, they had been advised that the land considered necessary for a high school of about 150 students was ten acres, and that by consolidating eight acres in the Park belonging to the Immanuel Church and four acres belonging to the Park Extension Trust, adequate land was available.
     The committee made a plat showing the location of this land and how it could be used. They estimated that suitable school buildings, gymnasium, parking space, playfields, dormitories, etc. including all improvements figured at present costs, would total about $356,000.00. They stressed that this is what it is going to cost ultimately, but that the facilities available would make it possible to postpone the gymnasium and dormitory buildings indefinitely. These were figured at $160,000.00.

     Fund Raising

     One other committee was appointed-a finance committee. Their problem was to tell us how to get the money! Mr. Ralph Junge is the chairman of this committee. He has been handicapped, for it is only recently that we could tell him what the financial need might be. He knows now that we are talking about a large sum of money. His committee, he tells us, is neither surprised nor dismayed. We have to show, he thinks, just what the money will buy. It will buy New Church high school education for all the children in this district without the sacrifice of the home sphere, and this through succeeding generations-education that, once our school has an average of as few as seventy-five students, will cost less than half as much per capita as it does when they are sent away.
     His formula for securing donations is-publicize the use. Our problem, he thinks, is not hundreds of thousands of dollars, it's the second hundred thousand. We already have the equivalent of the first! for the land and the proposed auditorium of the Immanuel Church will be available without capital investment. The second hundred thousand will put us in business. We shall have the beginning of a high school. We shall then he working on a live project, the extension of an active use.

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     We have one great advantage, he thinks; our ultimate goal, large as it is, is not so large that the average contributor will feel that his modest efforts are of no account. This is particularly true in the case of individual trust funds and bequests. These will be an important factor in the long range program.
     As for the immediate job ahead-we start the work in the district and shall present the use to every member; and, recognizing that no one likes to make a small donation to such an important use, we shall offer them the chance to make a five hundred or thousand dollar donation, a chance to have a stake in the future. We shall suggest that the donor take as long as is necessary to pay this money: five years, ten years. In the meantime, his very first payment will be earning interest and his thousand dollars will ultimately do the work of any other thousand.
     We must recognize that while the project is beyond the ability of the average subscriber, he is at the moment the key factor. If we can show twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars subscribed, even though only the first payment is made, the success of the Midwestern Academy is assured. We are not going to neglect any source from which the support of the use seems logical, but this committee, if it is reappointed, proposes to concentrate first on the members of the Chicago District. It has been waiting for some time to do so.

     Comment on These Reports

     These four reports were asked for in order that you and your committee might have before them a picture of what is involved. We are indebted to these committees for a splendid job. We must emphasize, however, that these are preliminary reports and the recommendations are those of these committees. Other studies will be needed and other factors assessed.
     The important conclusion arrived at by your committee is that the previous estimates as to student availability having been verified, they are now justified in proceeding with the task assigned to them, namely, of organizing the use of secondary education in this district.
     We feel that we should draw attention to the fact that, if a future high school is to be located in Glenview, even though the final decision be made later, steps should be taken to assure the availability of the four acres of land belonging to the Park Extension Trust.

     A Meeting with the Bishop

     In October of last year your committee, including its out of town members, together with all of its sub-committees, the officers of the Immanuel Church and Sharon Church, met in conference with Bishop De Charms. For since this committee, although it represents the Chicago District, was appointed by the Bishop, it felt that before final action was taken it should report to him.

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All of the reports summarized here were given in full. Details of the incorporation of the Midwestern Academy of the New Church were discussed.
     The Bishop was asked what we might consider the geographic boundaries of the district. He thought that use rather than physical boundaries was indicated. The district might well be split up some time in the future as other high schools became possible. These would ultimately develop in the far west and in Canada.
     This had been, he said, an inspiring meeting. There will be times, he warned, when the goal seems far away. Still it is the destiny of the church to grow. First, principles must be seen; then an affection for them must grow in the hearts of men before it becomes possible to ultimate them. Financial burdens sometimes seem very heavy, but when the objective is the building of the church, the Lords blessing is assured.

     Incorporation

     Having been instructed by the Assembly to incorporate in order to attain legal status, and in order to give permanent form to the cause we have espoused, your committee deliberately delayed final action until, with these various reports before them, they could assess both the need and the requirements and until they could meet with the Bishop and discuss them. They have now taken action and the Midwestern Academy is a legal entity.
     Because this corporation was formed by order of the Chicago District Assembly, it is of the open type Any member of the General Church may become a voting member. They will elect their executive committee. They can amend their by-laws and control general policies, but they cannot change the purposes for which the organization was formed or devote the funds to any other uses. Also the intent of the donors is protected. The use is organized: it awaits fulfilment.

     A Start has Been Made

     It is encouraging, in closing this report, to be able to tell you that although no solicitation for subscriptions has been made, and although no organization existed, the temporary treasurer, Mr. Alan Fuller, has in hand, in cash, two thousand eight hundred dollars ready to turn over to the corporation treasurer, and also that the first Trust Fund has been received, consisting of securities valued at one thousand dollars. It is this type of fund from which no immediate income is available, together with bequests, that will underwrite the future.

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     Committee's Work Completed

     Your committee has completed its work: your instructions have been carried out. In asking that the committee now be dismissed we would express our deep thankfulness for the privilege of serving you in the initiation of the use of education in this Midwestern District. We would also express our profound conviction that the use to the General Church to be served, now and far into the future, will draw the members of this Assembly together in the bonds of mutual love.
     Since this committee was appointed by Bishop De Charms at the request of the Chicago District Assembly, we specifically ask Bishop Pendleton, now presiding, to dismiss it.
RENEWING THE COVENANT 1957

RENEWING THE COVENANT Rev. KENNETH O. STROH 1957

     Charter Day Address

     We are met here today to remember and to renew a covenant. For on November 3rd, in the year 1877, the Academy of the New Church was granted a charter by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the United States of America. This charter constitutes a covenant between the church and the state, a covenant whereby the Academy is recognized as a legally constituted body of the church, organized under the laws of the State of Pennsylvania. And in the charter there is the statement that the Corporation of the Academy shall have perpetual existence-perpetual, that is, as long as the laws of the state are obeyed.
     Yet the scope of the Academy's function is not and cannot be defined by the laws of any one state or country. The membership of its Corporation includes men from countries other than that which has granted its legal charter. The teaching staff of the school comes with a variety of national backgrounds. And the student body is drawn from various lands. For the uses which the Academy was organized to perform transcend any limitations of nationality. Its purposes include "propagating the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem, promoting education in all its various forms, educating young men for the ministry, publishing books, pamphlets, and other printed matter, and establishing a library." These uses are, in essence, ecclesiastical. They are uses of the Lord's church of many lands. In themselves they are not temporal but eternal: and the charter is but an external instrument giving them a firm ultimate basis and making possible their effective performance.

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     So it is that the real charter of the Academy involves that inner vision of its eternal uses, first seen by its founders-a vision that endured and grew brighter during many years of disappointment and frustrated effort to be expressed-a vision that finally began to take concrete form on June 19th, 1876, when the first steps were taken toward external organization. On that date a "Declaration of Principles" was formally adopted. And it is significant that this meeting of organization ended with the celebration of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. For the Academy's real, inner charter involves a covenant with the Lord, a covenant to carry forward all those forms of education, whether of the child or of the adult, which can promote the growth and strengthening of His church: wherefore the Academy sometimes is called the educational arm of the General Church. And it is this internal covenant, this inner charter, which above all we are here to celebrate and renew.
     To this end, we have come in procession and carrying the Academy's banners, to the house of the Lord. And having done so, it is well that we should he reminded of those ancient processions recounted in the Lord's Word. For, in the Word, such movements of the body represent progressions of the mind toward a spiritual goal. And if our traditions are to be meaningful ultimates of a living church, we ought to reflect upon their character and purpose in the light of the teachings of the Word-here, teachings given in relation to processions such as that which took place when David brought up the ark of the Lord to Zion.
     After much strife and some bloodshed, king David had only recently been made ruler over all Israel. Having made the city of Jerusalem his headquarters, he wished to bring up the ark into it, in order to make it the center of religion as well as of the civil power. And so, with the chosen people of Israel. David went to Gibeah, where the ark had been lodged in the house of Abinadab. Putting the ark on a new cart, drawn by oxen, they brought it up out of Gibeah to the accompaniment of music, played on all manner of instruments. But when they came to the threshing-floor of Nachon, the oxen stumbled, whereupon Uzzah put forth his hand to steady the ark. Because of this error, Uzzah was smitten by the Lord, so that he died on the spot. And David, grieving and afraid, would not bring the ark any further; but, turning aside, placed it in the house of Obed-edom. However, three months later, hearing that Obed-edom and all his house had been much blessed because of the ark, David returned to accomplish his original purpose. Bringing the ark out of the house of Obed-edom, he offered a sacrifice to the Lord. And then, renewing the procession, David danced before the ark with all his strength, and wearing a linen ephod. Thus did David and all the house of Israel bring up the ark with joy, with shouting and the sound of a trumpet, into the city of David which is Zion, where it was set up in its place within the tent that David had stretched out for it.

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     Now, as we have noted, these events were representative. They did not signal any heavenly state on the part of the Israelites. For, in Providence, these most external people were led to perform certain acts whereby they could represent the things of heaven and the church And when they became so obstinate that they no longer could be compelled to this representation, the Lord allowed them to be carried into captivity, and the representative things of their worship were abolished. The ark of the covenant was lost forever. And in reference to the new church which was to be formed, Jeremiah was led to prophesy that "in those days . . . they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more. At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem . . . " (Jeremiah 3: 16, 17).
     Thus, for the New Church, the representative rituals of Israel have been abolished. These representatives are no longer the means of instruction of the Lord's church. For the New Church is to be an internal church, ruled, not by external fears, but by love and a rational faith. Yet certain rituals and traditions-such as our celebration of Charter Day-may be useful to the church if they can serve to remind her members of heavenly and Divine things, if they can excite spiritual affections and lend strength and confirmation to exalted purposes. In fact, they have a vital place in the life of the church: for which of her members stands without need of these reminders, this strengthening and this confirmation?
     Indeed the ark of the Israelites has been lost. But the Lord has given to the New Church a new ark, containing a new covenant. This new covenant is the real charter, the internal charter of the New Church and of the Academy. And the articles of this charter are spread out on all the pages of that new and most excellent of revelations, the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem. For these Writings contain the Lord's covenant with His New Church. And it is to be hoped that the Academy, in its progress through time, always will be led by this new covenant, this new ark.
     Yet every organization of the church, in its advancement from its first natural beginnings toward spiritual and celestial objectives, must pass through its viscissitudes. It will progress through various states: there will be great forward surges and there will be backslidings. But the church need not fear as long as her goal remains that heavenly Zion which is defined in the Writings as the good of love, the love of living according to the precepts of the Lord.

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Nor can this goal of New Church progress be reached in the sphere of the former Christian Church: for the teaching of the Writings is clear that this church is consummated and dead, with no hope of a revival. The New Church, to be healthy, must be distinctive and in every sense new. The ark of the covenant could be brought to Zion only on a new cart. And the reception of the Lord into the inner life of His church can be accomplished only by means of the new cart of doctrine-new doctrine, new teaching which dispels the clouds of obscurity and falsity to reveal the glory of the Lord. And the new cart or new doctrine must be drawn by those spiritual oxen which are the goods of love.
     Obviously, every man and woman of the church must play his or her part in this spiritual journey toward the states of heaven. Every man and woman, to be of the church, must receive the truth of the new teachings and apply it to life. Nor does the responsibility end with self. Mothers must introduce their young children into the sphere of affection for the stories of the Old and New Testament Word. Fathers bear the responsibility for the general religious instruction and the promotion of worship for the entire household. And the leading part in this heavenly journey is to be taken by the priesthood of the New Church, which the Lord has ordained with the charge to teach the truth, that thereby men may be led to the good of life. Certainly, education in the truth, and in the affection of truth, must be the interest and the work of the entire church.
     But in the Lord's Providence the Academy of the New Church has arisen as an institution which has the vision and the ability to promote this new education in all its various forms. It prepares those young men who will be ordained into the priesthood of the General Church. It has undertaken the training of New Church teachers. It conducts a high school and college. From time to time it has even touched foot on the broad field of adult education, though to a very limited extent. It has published New Church literature and has established a library. And its leaders have made thorough studies of doctrine and of the New Church philosophy of the various branches of learning, in order that each facet of the Academy's educational system may serve its distinctive purpose in an education which looks to heavenly as well as to worldly goals.
     In a sense this is the work of the church, and needs the support of every man and woman of the church. And education is an ecclesiastical use: wherefore the Academy has voluntarily placed its ecclesiastical affairs, including the religious instruction given in its schools, under the supervision of the Bishop of the General Church. Yet the Academy has undertaken the particular responsibility to promote these various essential uses of education. The Academy ideal is indeed universal: it is not the property of any church organization, for its work is the Lord's work for the growth of His New Church.

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But it is right that we should render grateful thanks unto the Lord because, in His Providence, at least one institution has been raised up which has not only the vision and the ability, but also the means to carry forward these vital uses of the church.
     However, we should be aware of the stumbling blocks that may stand in the way of the Academy's progress. For, while we believe that her work is the Lord's work, still we know that the work is in the hands of men and women who are subject to every human frailty. Many trials may befall the Academy; but none could be worse than the temptation to commit the sin of Uzzah. Uzzah touched the ark and died. And we, too, in this sense, can put forth our hands to steady the ark of the Lord's new covenant. We will do this if we fail to trust in the laws of the Lord's Divine Providence as being sufficient to care for our welfare, while placing our confidence in the whims of human prudence. We will touch the ark if we, with the hand of our own power, embrace and put forth man-made philosophies in the hope that they may save the Lord's church.
     Indeed the sphere of the world, which constantly touches the Academy, exerts a strong pull in the direction of secularization. The need for accreditation by secular educational associations has not lessened this influence. And there must be a constant watch lest the Academy lose sight of her original principles and renounce her first love. Each of us has a tendency to regard worldly success or natural good as more important than the eternal values of the spirit. Wherefore each succeeding generation must be converted anew to the true spirit and ideal of the Academy. Because if we succumb in this temptation, we will have separated the truth of the Heavenly Doctrine from its good or its use in our educational system. We will have separated truth from good. We will have committed the sin of Uzzah, a sin which holds the sure promise of spiritual death. May God grant that this tragedy may never befall our beloved Academy.
     But even when we are discouraged in the knowledge of our inadequacies, our backslidings and failures, even when we fear to go forward, we still may take heart from the promise that if our minds remain open to the affection of the spiritual truth of the Word, if the ark of the new covenant remains with us, our house will be richly blessed as was the house of Obed-edom. There will be new and ever-increasing understanding of the real, inner values of life: there will be new perceptions of the application of the truths of the Writings, and of the manner in which these may be made evident to growing minds. There will be granted an abundance of spiritual treasures, the real blessings of the Academy and of the church.
     And these untold spiritual riches will accrue all along the Academy's pathway of progress toward that spiritual Zion where the Lord is seen, loved and worshipped in His glorified Divine Human.

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Every valid effort of the Academy must be bent toward this end, that in all branches of human learning and endeavor, the Lord Jesus Christ may be seen to shine forth as God Man, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe the Father of the angels of heaven and of the men and women of His church.
     As this vision of the Divine Human is seen and its path followed, the ark of the new covenant will perform wondrous miracles. It will remove the waters of the falsity that is of evil, that the church may advance unharmed. It will discover the weakness and overthrow the walls of argument that supported and encompassed cities of false doctrine and instruction. And man-made idols will fall before it, that the Lord Jesus Christ may be seen as the only power in heaven and on earth, the source of all love and of every good, both with angels and with men.
     The Academy has undertaken to work for the preservation and growth of this vision by all means of education, to which purpose it has made its covenant with the Lord. And to remember and renew this covenant we have come before the Lord as represented in His open Word, to kneel before Him in worship, pray for His forgiveness and His guidance, and to sing songs of praise and gratitude for all His blessings.
     The Lord's covenant is His Word to the New Church, the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem. And the Lord ever keeps His part of the covenant. We keep our part when we follow His leading, when we open our minds to the light of His wisdom and our hearts to the warmth of His love. Thus the gates and everlasting doors of the church will be opened, that the King of glory may come in.
NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1957

NOTES ON THE CALENDAR READINGS 1957

The portion of the Psalter assigned for reading in December (Psalms 37-68) came by various inspired writers. According to the inscriptions which are part of the sacred text, 21 of these 32 psalms were composed by David himself, 10 are anonymous, and one is attributed to Asaph. Twenty-four of these songs bear directions to the chief musicians upon various instruments. Several of the Davidic psalms relate to crucial incidents in the earlier life of the king, when he was an outlaw persecuted by Saul; and one, the 51st, was written after he had been rebuked by the prophet Nathan for taking Bathsheba. These should, of course, be read in the light of the teaching that while David applied all things in the Psalms to himself, the real reference is to the Lord on earth, whom he represented. Many moods and themes are here expressed, and nearly every spiritual subject of the Psalter is to be found in these psalms.

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WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA-OHIO-MICHIGAN ASSEMBLY 1957

WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA-OHIO-MICHIGAN ASSEMBLY JOHN W. FRAZIER 1957

     URBANA, OHIO, OCTOBER 4-6. 1957

     The Western Pennsylvania-Ohio-Michigan District Assembly was held in Urbana, Ohio, October 4-6, 1957, with Bishop George de Charms presiding. The Rev. B. David Holm was in charge of the arrangements, and 71 people attended.
     This was the first such Assembly ever held in Urbana. Because of Urbana Junior College, and the number of Convention people who formerly resided in the town, there has always been a warm place for Urbana in the heart of anyone of the New Church faith. The resulting spirit was felt throughout the Assembly weekend, wherever we went in Urbana.
     The program opened with the Bishop's welcome after supper on Friday evening, after which the Rev. Norman H. Reuter spoke on "Perception and Equilibrium." This was followed by a reception at the Robert Barnitz home, where, in response to a toast to the church, the Bishop spoke informally about the usefulness of District Assemblies.
     On Saturday we heard the episcopal address on "Divine Providence and Human Prudence in the Development of the Church." After a luncheon at the Urbana Country Club we were again addressed by the Bishop, who outlined for us the many uses that must be performed by the organization of the General Church. Later in the afternoon many took the opportunity to tour the campus of Urbana Junior College, the scene of one of the greatest of Convention's educational efforts.
     In the evening we attended the Assembly banquet which was under the toastmastership of the Rev. Louis B. King. The speakers were Gareth Acton, Larry Soneson, and John Frasier. Each spoke on the subject, "District Cooperation and Growth." from the viewpoint of his own area-Pittsburgh, Detroit and Ohio-Kentucky, respectively.
     The Sunday morning services were held in the attractive little Church of the New Jerusalem (Convention) in Urbana. The sermon, by Bishop De Charms, was on the subject "A Genuinely Rational Faith." This was followed by the administration of the Holy Supper. The services were attended by 77 people and were preceded by a half-hour organ recital of music composed prior to or during Swedenborg's lifetime. The services marked the end of a most enjoyable and successful weekend-one that will long be remembered by all of us.
     JOHN W. FRAZIER

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VIRGIN BIRTH 1957

VIRGIN BIRTH Editor 1957

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Office of Publication, Lancaster, Pa.

Published Monthly By

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

Editor      Rev. W. Cairns Henderson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Business Manager      Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

All literary contributions should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions, change of address, and business communications, should be sent to the Circulation Secretary. Notifications of address changes should be received by the 15th of the month.

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION
$3.00 a year to any address, payable in advance. Single copy, 30 cents.
     It is no secret that modern man has difficulty in accepting the Virgin Birth. Nor does difficulty exist merely outside the churches. Only conservative Christianity is concerned to defend the Virgin Birth today; for in that it finds proof that Jesus was the Son of God, and that the supernatural is at work in Him. To the liberal, the Virgin Birth is not only unnecessary; it is an embarrassment, for he finds God at work in the birth of every child. And to many who call themselves Christians the subject is entirely unimportant. They say that the uniqueness of Christ is not in a miraculous origin, but in the fact that He had the sense of "God-consciousness" to a supreme degree; and that belief in Him rests solely on the fact that He is the source of a value-creating movement. Thus has faith in a fundamental doctrine perished.
     The teaching of the Writings, as of the Sacred Scripture, is that the Lord was conceived of God in the womb of a virgin. And it is added that not only was it necessary that the Lord's conception should be virgin; it was necessary also that Mary should be a virgin when she conceived. For by marriage the mind of a woman is changed into the mind of a wife, and receives additions from her husband; and if Mary had already been married to Joseph, instead of only betrothed to him, something would have been added to the Lord from the soul of Joseph-something finite that could not have been put off. If the doctrine of the Divine Human is fundamental in the New Church, that doctrine is founded upon the idea of the Virgin Birth: and although we may not comprehend that birth fully, the Writings contain teachings that resolve the mystery.

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DIRECTORY 1957

DIRECTORY GEORGE DE CHARMS 1957

     GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM

     Officials and Councils

Bishop:     Right Rev. George de Charms
Assistant Bishop: Right Rev. Willard D. Pendleton
Secretary:     Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner

     CONSISTORY

     Bishop George de Charms

Right Rev. Willard D. Pendleton; Revs. A. Wynne Acton; Elmo C. Acton; Karl R. Alden; Gustaf Baeckstrom; Bjorn A. H. Boyesen; Alan Gill; Frederick E. Gyllenhaal, Secretary; W. Cairns Henderson; Hugo Lj. Odhner; Norman H. Reuter; Gilbert H. Smith.

     "The General Church of the New Jerusalem"
     (A corporation of Illinois)

     "General Church of the New Jerusalem"
     (A corporation of Pennsylvania)

     OFFICERS OF BOTH CORPORATIONS

Right Rev. George de Charms, President
Right Rev. Willard D. Pendleton, Vice President
Mr. Stephen Pitcairn, Secretary
Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, Treasurer

     BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE ILLINOIS CORPORATION

     AND

     BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE PENNSYLVANIA CORPORATION

Right Rev. George de Charms; Right Rev. Willard D. Pendleton; Mr. Daric E. Acton; Kesniel C. Acton, Esq.; Mr. Reginald S. Anderson; Mr. Carl Hj. Asplundh; Mr. Edwin T. Asplundh; Mr. Lester Asplundh; Mr. Robert G. Barnitz; Mr. Geoffrey F. Blackman; Mr. Edward C. Bostock; Mr. Robert M. Brown; Randolph W. Childs, Esq.; Mr. Gordon D. Cockerell; Robert I. Coulter, Esq.; Edward H. Davis. Esq.; George C. Doering, Esq.; Mr. Theodore N. Glenn; Robert C. Hilldale, Esq.; Mr. John E. Kuhl; Mr. Sydney E. Lee; Mr. Tore E. Loven; Philip C. Pendleton, Esq. Mr. Harold F. Pitcairn;

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Raymond Pitcairn, Esq.; Mr. F. G. Colley Pryke; Mr. A. Warren Reuter; Mr. Gilbert M. Smith; Arthur Synnestvedt, Esq.; Mr. Norman P. Synnestvedt.
Honorary Members: Dr. Marlin W. Heilman; Mr. Hubert Hyatt.

     The Clergy

     Bishops

     DE CHARMS, GEORGE. Ordained June 28, 1914; 2nd Degree, June 19, 1916; 3rd Degree, March 11, 1928. Bishop of the General Church. Pastor of the Bryn Athvn Church. President, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
     PENDLETON, WILLARD DANDRIDGE. Ordained June 18, 1933; 2nd Degree, September 12, 1934; 3rd Degree, June 19, 1946. Assistant Bishop of the General Church Executive Vice President, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     Pastors

     ACTON, ALFRED WYNNE. Ordained June 19, 1932; 2nd Degree, March 25, 1934. Pastor of the Durban Society, Superintendent of the South African Mission. Address: 129 Musgrave Road, Durban, Natal, South Africa.
     ACTON, ELMO CARMAN. Ordained June 14, 1925; 2nd Degree, August 5, 1928. Pastor of the Immanuel Church, Glenview, Illinois. Address: 12 Park Drive, Glenview, Illinois.
     ALDEN, KARL RICHARDSON. Ordained June 19, 1917; 2nd Degree, October 12, 1919. Professor of Religion, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
     BAECKSTROM, GUSTAF. Ordained June 6, 1915; 2nd Degree, June 27, 1920. Editor of NOVA ECCLESIA and Manager of the Book Room in Stockholm. Address: Svedjevdgen 20, Bromma, Sweden.
     BOYESEN, BJORN ADOEPH HILDEMAR. Ordained June 19, 1939; 2nd Degree, March 30, 1941. Pastor of the Stockholm Society. Visiting Pastor of the Copenhagen, Gothenhurg, Jonkoping and Oslo Circles. Address: Aladdinsvdgen 27, Bromma, Sweden.
     CALDWELL, WILLIAM BEEBE. Ordained October 19, 1902; 2nd Degree, October 23, 1904. Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa.
     CHILDS, GEOFFREY STAFFORD. Ordained June 19, 1952; 2nd Degree, June 19, 1954. Pastor of the Carmel Church, Kitchener, Ontario. Address: 178 Bristol Street, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
     CRANCH, HAROLD COVERT. Ordained June 19, 1941; 2nd Degree, October 25, 1942. Visiting Pastor to the Western States. Address: 346 Riverdale Drive, Glendale 4, Calif.
     FRANSON, ROY. Ordained June 19, 1953; 2nd Degree, January 29, 1956. Pastor of the groups at Dawson Creek, B. C., and Gorande Prairie, Alta., Canada. Visiting Pastor, Portland, Oregon, Spokane, Washington. Address: Box 487, Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada.
     GILL, ALAN. Ordained June 14, 1925; 2nd Degree, June 19, 1926. Pastor of the Colchester Society. Address: 9 Ireton Road, Colchester, England.
     GLADISH, VICTOR JEREMIAH. Ordained June 17 1928 2nd Degree, August 5, 1928. Address: 3508 Linneman Street, Glenview, Illinois.
     GYLLENHAAL, FREDERICK EDMUND. Ordained June 23, 1907; 2nd Degree, June 19, 1910. Pastor-in-Charge, General Church Religion Lessons. Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa.

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     HEINRICHS, HENRY. Ordained June 24, 1923; 2nd Degree, February 8, 1925. Address: R. Rd Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
     HENDERSON, WILLIAM CAIRNS. Ordained June 10, 1934; 2nd Degree April 14, 1935. Secretary of the Council of the Clergy. Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE. Visiting Pastor to Connecticut. Professor of Theology, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
     HOLM, BERNARD DAVID. Ordained June 19, 1952; 2nd Degree January 27, 1957. Visiting Pastor to Ohio, Assistant to the Pastor of the Pittsburgh Society. Address: 138 Henry Street, Urbana, Ohio.
     JUNGE, ROBERT SCHILL. Ordained June 19, 1955; 2nd Degree, August 11, 1957. Assistant to the Visiting Pastor to the Western States. Address: 4141 Everett Street, Wheatridge, Colorado.
     KING, LOUIS BLAIR. Ordained June 19, 1951; 2nd Degree, April 19, 1953. Pastor of the Pittsburgh Society. Address: 299 Le Roi Road Pittsburgh 8, Pa.
     LIMA JOAO DE MENDONCA. Ordained, 1st and 2nd Degrees, August 5, 1928. Pastor of the Rio de Janeiro Society. Address: R. Senador, Vergueiro, 154, Apt. 1100, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
     ODHNER, HUGO LJUNGBERG. Ordained June 28, 1914; 2nd Degree, June 24, 1917. Secretary of the General Church Assistant Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church. Dean of the Theological School, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
     ODHNER, ORMOND DE CHARMS. Ordained June 19, 1940; 2nd Degree, October 11, 1942. Instructor in Religion and History Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
     PENDLETON, DANDRIDGE. Ordained June 19, 1952; 2nd Degree, June 19, 1954. Pastor of the Washington, D. C., and Baltimore, Maryland, Societies. Visiting Pastor in North and South Carolina. Address: 3900 Hamilton Street, Apt. J301, Hyattsville, Maryland.
     PRYKE, MARTIN. Ordained June 19, 1940; 2nd Degree, March 1, 1942. Pastor of the Olivet Church, Toronto Ontario, Canada, Visiting Pastor to the Montreal Circle. Address: 2 Elm Grove Avenue, Toronto 3, Ontario, Canada.
     REUTER, NORMAN HAROLD. Ordained June 17, 1928; 2nd Degree, June 15, 1930. Pastor of the Detroit Society. Address: 1541 Eaton Road, Berkley, Mich.
     RICH, MORLEY DYCEMAN. Ordained June 19, 1938; 2nd Degree, October 13, 1940. Visiting Pastor to the South-Eastern States. Address: 19820 N.E. 12th Court, Miami 62, Fla.
     ROGERS, NORBERT HENRY. Ordained June 19, 1938; 2nd Degree, October 13, 1940. Pastor of the Advent Church, Philadelphia, Pa. Visiting Pastor to the New York and North Jersey Circles. Address: 5007 Penn Street, Philadelphia 24, Pa.
     ROSE, FRANK SHIRLEY. Ordained June 19, 1952; 2nd Degree, August 2, 1953. Visiting Pastor to the isolated in Great Britain and to the Circles at Paris and The Hague. Address: 41 Ambrose Avenue, Colchester, England.
     SANDSTROM, ERIK. Ordained June 10, 1934; 2nd Degree, August 4, 1935. Pastor of Michael Church, London, England. Address: 135 Mantilla Road, Tooting, London, S.W. 17, England.
     SCHNARR, FREDERICK LAURIER. Ordained June 19, 1955; 2nd Degree, May 12, 1957. Pastor of Sharon Church, Chicago, Illinois. Address: 5220 North Wayne Avenue, Chicago 40, Illinois.
     SIMONS, DAVID RESTYN. Ordained June 19, 1948; 2nd Degree, June 19, 1950. Assistant Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church. Principal of the Bryn Athyn Elementary School. Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa.

567

     SMITH, GILBERT HAVEN. Ordained June 25, 1911; 2nd Degree, June 19, 1913. Address: South Shaftesbury, R. F. D. 1, Vermont.
     STROH, KENNETH OLIVER. Ordained June 19, 1948; 2nd Degree, June 19, 1950. Assistant to the Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church. Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa.
     WEISS, JAN HUGO. Ordained June 19, 1955; 2nd Degree, May 12, 1957. Assistant to the Pastor of the Immanuel Church, Glenview, Illinois. Visiting Pastor, Madison, St. Paul-Minneapolis Circles, Groups, and Chicago District. Address: 2700 Park Lane, Glenview, Illinois.
     WHITEHEAD, WILLIAM. Ordained June 19, 1922; 2nd Degree, June 19, 1926. Professor Emeritus of History, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     Ministers

     CRANCH RAYMOND GREENLEAF. Ordained June 19, 1922. Address: Bryn Athyn, Pa.
     HEINRICHS, DANIEL WINTHROP. Ordained June 16, 1957. Assistant to the Pastor of the Durban Society. Assistant to the Superintendent of the South African Mission. Address: 129 Musgrave Road, Durban, Natal, South Africa.
     ROSE, DONALD LESLIE. Ordained June 16, 1957. Minister of the Hurstville Society. Address: 33 Neirbo Avenue, Hurstville, New South Wales, Australia.

     Authorized Candidate

     FIGUEIREDO, JOSE LOPES DE. Authorized, August 15, 1951. Address: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

     Authorized Leader

     ENGELTJES, HERMAN G. Authorized, November 4, 1950. Address: Laan van Eik en Duinen 206, The Hague, Holland.

     British Guiana Mission

     Pastor-in-Charge

     ALGERNON, HENRY. Ordained, 1st and 2nd 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; 2nd Degree, October 3, 1948. Pastor of the Queenstown and Sterkstroom Societies. Address: No. 132, Location, Queenstown, C. P., South Africa.

     Basuto

     MOTSE, JONAS. Ordained September 29, 1929; 2nd Degree, September 30, 1929. Pastor of Quthing District. Address: Phahameng School, P. O. Quthing, Basutoland, South Africa.

568

     Zulu

     BUTELEZI, STEPHEN EPHRAIM. Ordained September 11, 1938; 2nd Degree October 3, 1948. Pastor of the Hambrook Society. Address: Hambrook Government School, P. O. Acton Homes, Ladysmith, Natal, South Africa.
     LUNGA, JOHANNES. Ordained September 11, 1938; 2nd Degree, October 3, 1948. Pastor of the Esididini Society. Address: Esididini School P. o. Durnacol, Dannhauser, Natal, South Africa.
     LUTULI, MAFA. Ordained October 3, 1948. Acting Pastor of the "Kent Manor" Society. Address: "Kent Manor," P. O. Entumeni, Zululand, South Africa.
     MATSHININI, TIMOTHY. Ordained August 28, 1938; 2nd Degree October 3, 1948. Retired. Address: 165, 11th Avenue Alexandra Township, Johannesburg, Transvaal, South Africa.
     MKIZE, SOLOMON. Ordained August 21, 1938; 2nd Degree, October 3, 1948. Pastor of the Greylingatad Society and District. Address: P. O. Box 38, Greylingstad, Transvaal, South Africa.
     NZMANDE, BENJAMIN ISHMAEL. Ordained August 21, 1938; 2nd Degree, October 3, 1948. Pastor of the Deepdale & Bulwer Districts. Address: Polela Health Centre, P/B Buiwer, Natal, South Africa.
     SABELA, PETER HANDRICK. Ordained August 21, 1938; 2nd Degree, October 3, 1948. Pastor at Phoenix, Verulam, Tongaat and District. Address: Ohlange Institute, P/B Durban, Natal, South Africa.
     SIBEKO, PAUL PEFENI. Ordained October 3, 1948. Minister of the Alexandra Township Society. Address: 106, 10th Avenue, Alexandra Township, Johannesburg, Transvaal, South Africa.
     ZUNGU, AARON. Ordained August 21, 1938; 2nd Degree, October 3, 1948. Pastor of the Durban District and Assistant Teacher in the Theological School. Address: 2751 Mtiyane Road. Lamontville. Durban, Natal, South Africa.

     Societies and Circles

     Societies

ADVENT SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA               Rev. Norbert H. Rogers
BALTIMORE SOCIETY, MARYLAND                    Rev. Dandridge Pendleton
BRYN ATHYN CHURCH                              Rt. Rev. George de Charms
CARMEL CHURCH OF KITCHENER, ONTARIO               Rev. Geoffrey S. Childs
COLCHESTER SOCIETY, ENGLAND                    Rev. Alan Gill
DETROIT SOCIETY, MICHIGAN                    Rev. Norman H. Reuter
DURBAN SOCIETY, NATAL, SOUTH AFRICA               Rev. A. Wynne Acton
HURSTVILLE SOCIETY, N. S. W., AUSTRALIA          Rev. Donald L. Rose
IMMANUEL CHURCH OF GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS          Rev. Elmo C. Acton
MICHAEL CHURCH, LONDON, ENGLAND               Rev. Erik Sandstrom
OLIVET CHURCH, TORONTO, ONTARIO               Rev. Martin Pryke
PITTSBURGH SOCIETY                         Rev. Louis B. King
RIO DE JANEIRO SOCIETY, BRAZIL               Rev. Joao de M. Lima
SHARON CHURCH, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS               Rev. Frederick L. Schnarr
STOCKHOLM SOCIETY, SWEDEN                    Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen
WASHINGTON SOCIETY, D. C.                    Rev. Dandridge Pendleton

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     Circles
                                   Visiting Pastor or Minister
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK                    Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen
DENVER, COLORADO                         Rev. Robert S. Junge (Res.)
ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA
FORT WORTH, TEXAS                         Rev. Robert S. Junge
THE HAGUE, HOLLAND                    Rev. Frank S. Rose
JONKOPING, SWEDEN                         Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA                    Rev. Harold C. Cranch (Res.)
MADISON, WISCONSIN                    Rev. Jan H. Weiss
MONTREAL, CANADA                         Rev. Martin Pryke
NEW YORK, N. Y.                         Rev. Norbert H. Rogers
NORTH JERSEY                         Rev. Norbert H. Rogers
NORTH OHIO                              Rev. B. David Holm
OSLO, NORWAY                         Rev. Bjorn A. H. Boyesen
PARIS, FRANCE                         Rev. Frank S. Rose
ST. PAUL-MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA          Rev. Jan H. Weiss
SAN FRANCISCO                         Rev. Harold C. Cranch
SOUTH OHIO                              Rev. B. David Holm
TUCSON, ARIZONA                         Rev. Harold C. Cranch

     In order to avoid confusion, it seems well to observe, in the official records and the official journal of the General Church, the recognized distinctions between a "Society," a "Circle," and a "Group."
     A "Group" consists of all interested receivers of the Heavenly Doctrine in any locality who meet together for worship and mutual instruction under the general supervision of pastors who visit them from time to time.
     A "Circle" consists of members of the General Church in any locality who are under the leadership of a regular visiting Pastor appointed by the Bishop, and who are organized by their Pastor to take responsibility for their local uses in the interim between his visits. A Group may become a Circle when, on the recommendation of the visiting Pastor, it is formally recognized as such by the Bishop.
     A "Society" or local "Church" consists of the members of the General Church in any locality who have been organized under the leadership of a resident Pastor to maintain the uses of regular worship, instruction, and social life A Circle may become a Society by application to the Bishop and formal recognition by him.
     GEORGE DE CHARMS,
          Bishop

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Committees of the General Church 1957

Committees of the General Church Editor 1957

                                        Chairman
British Finance Committee                    Rev. Alan Gill
General Church Publication Committee          Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner
General Church Religion Lessons               Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal
Committee on the Liturgy                    Rt. Rev. Willard D. Pendleton
Military Service Committee                    Mrs. Philip C. Pendleton
Nominating Committee for Board of Directors     Mr. Reginald S. Anderson
Orphanage Committee                         Mr. R. W. Childs
Pension Committee                              Mr. Edward C. Bostock
Salary Committee                              Mr. Philip C. Pendleton
Sound Recording Committee                    Rev. W. Cairns Henderson
South African Mission Committee               Rt. Rev. George de Charms
Visual Education Committee                    Mr. William R. Cooper

Address all Committees, Bryn Athyn, Pa. except the following:

Mr. Reginald S. Anderson: 81 Brentwood Road North, Toronto 18, Canada
Rev. Alan Gill          9 Ireton Road, Colchester England
TWO NEW BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS 1957

TWO NEW BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS 1957

FOUNDATIONS OF NEW CHURCH EDUCATION

     By WILLARD D. PENDLETON

     A new study of basic doctrines in application to the education of children within the church. This broad consideration defines the necessity of New Church education, and offers a challenge to the thought and practice of parents and teachers alike. Chapters include: Educational Values, Knowledges, Education of the Will, Remains, The Affection of Truth, The Doctrine of Use. Clothbound, and set in clear type, this book will be of lasting value to all who accept the vision of New Church education and are concerned with its development. Pp. 116, Price: $2.00.

     FIRST SONGS FOR LITTLE CHILDREN

     A book of songs for very young children and up to the early years of grade school, containing 59 songs and short selections, some illustrated. The preface explains how to introduce children to singing. Paper. pp. 53. Price, $1.00.

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Church News 1957

Church News Various 1957

     COLCHESTER, ENGLAND

     Although there is nothing spectacular to report from this ancient borough for the first eight months of the year, the Colchester Society has been carrying on its usual activities. The first social occasion was the children's fancy dress party, to which a large number of adults also came to admire the wide variety of costumes. Each child received a small gift from Theta Alpha.
     At the Swedenborg's birthday celebration the Rev. Frank Rose gave an interesting paper on Swedenborg's temptations. Our pastor conducted a questionnaire on Swedenborg's life, the winner being Mr. Frank Rose
     The various meetings, such as those of the Sons and Theta Alpha, were held regularly, attendance at the latter being very good indeed. The general doctrinal classes, the parents' doctrinal classes, and the young people's classes were very interesting and useful to those attending them. There were a number of social occasions, including the celebration of New Church Day.
     Before, during, and after the British Assembly we were delighted to welcome quite a number of visitors from church centers in other countries. The Assembly itself has been reported elsewhere in the "Life."
     The one marriage solemnized here, that of Miss Marion Appleton and Mr. Colin Colebrooke, was a very happy occasion. So far this year we have welcomed with delight three new babies, who bring the number of children under fourteen up to thirty-one.
     One more New Church home has been established in the town-that of Mr. and Mrs. Foord, who have moved here from Enfield-and is another sign of growth that we appreciate.
     MURIEL GILL

     WASHINGTON, D. C.

     If we were to dedicate news reports, the honor this time would go to Mrs. Dandridge Pendleton. Miss Anna Woodard became the wife of our pastor, the Rev. Dandridge Pendleton, on October 5th. Some of the Washingtonians who attended the happy event in Bryn Athyn were Mr. and Mrs. Ellison Boatman, Miss Judy Boatman, Mr. James Boatman, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Grant, Miss Linda Allen, and Mr. Bill Kingdon. We are all so pleased and delighted that we will have the pastor's wife with us this coming year.
     We held our annual meeting at the school of the David Stebbings in September. Mr. Pendleton pointed out that although we had lost some of our members and children we hart gained others. There was a general feeling of progress. Those elected to the executive committee were: Messrs. Ellison Boatman, Fred Grant, Robert Hilldale, and Dr. Philip Stebbing. Mr. David Stelshing was reelected treasurer, and Mrs. Fred Grant, secretary.
     Lewis and Isobel Nelson and their four children left us to live in Florida when Lewis firm transferred him to Orlando. Then, later in the summer, Bill and Xandree Kintner and their four children went to France, where Bill is starting a ness tour of duty with the Army. About the same time, Frank and Katharine Mitchell and their daughter left for Hawaii, where Frank has received a new assignment from the Navy. Before the Mitchells left, a going away party was held at the Kintner home. Soon after that, a party for the Kintners was given on the lawn of the David Stebbing home. These three families were very active in the Society and we will certainly miss them.

572

     Some of the new members who joined the congregation last year were Mr. and Mrs. John Caldwell, their two sons, and John's mother, Mrs. Robert Caldwell; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Runian and two children; and Quentin Hyatt and George Cooper from Bryn Athyn, who are going to George Washington University this year. Earlier this year Charles Runion and his two children, Kathleen and Charles, were baptized; then, in September, Millicent and Charles' new little daughter, Kira Lee, was baptized.
     We had two lovely baby showers. First we had one at the home of Betty
Grant for Millicent Runion, and in September we had a pleasant get-together for Nancy Allen Alford.
     We have had so many friends and relatives visiting the various members this year that it is almost impossible to mention them all. The Misses Jean and Madge Horigan visited their sister, Mrs. Fred Grant; Cecilia Kintner Walker visited her brother, Col. William Kintner; and what a pleasant surprise it was when Zoe Iungerich from Hawaii visited her sister, Mrs. Tom Williams. It was certainly good to see her.
     The Women's Guild held a meeting in September at the home of Betty Grant.
Officers for the coming year are: Betty Grant, president; Emily Allen, vice president; Isabel Doering, secretary; Pearl Boatman, treasurer.
     Last May the seniors in the Boys School at Bryn Athyn visited Washington, staying at the homes of the various members here. A highlight of the trip was the dinner given for them by the Society at the Naval Gun Factory. Mr. Karl Doering and Mr. Frank Mitchell, as Sons of the Academy, made arrangements for the dinner, and according to all reports it was much enjoyed by the boys, and by the adults as well.
     To sum up what has happened and what is anticipated: Mr. Pendleton plans to have classes every other week for the adults, as well as young peoples classes and Sunday school classes, both in Baltimore and in Washington. At the Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter services as many as 26 have taken Communion; and we have had as many as 48 at our services, including visitors. The average attendance recently has been closer to 24. We are looking forward to a good year.
     ISABEL DOERING

     CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

     Sunday school at Sharon Church undergoes various changes from year to year. At times we have had as many as four groups in different classes. At other times, ages have been so uniform that it was possible to have only one group. This year, however, we have two groups. As is our custom, the children listen to a special talk by the pastor during the first part of the regular service. During the hymn that follows the children adjourn to the Sunday school rooms. This year one group consists of boys and girls between the ages of nine and eleven. With their teacher, they review the day's lesson, which is illustrated with colored figures on the flannel-board; then they make posters and do other hand projects related to the lesson. The other group is made up of youngsters who have just graduated from napping and bottling in the Schnarr apartment upstairs. These two and three-year-olds are under the care of a separate teacher and spend most of their time learning to color pictures from the stories of the Word. They also play with animals in the sandbox, and are taught to associate them with familiar Bible stories. For instance, they already know that the lambs and the camels are associated with the Christmas story.
     Dr. and Mrs. Samuel Mayo have been attending Sharon Church for some time now, as has their daughter Melissa-age, almost one year. We were delighted when, on July 28th, the whole family was baptized into the church by the Rev. Ormond Odhner. Mr. Odhner introduced the Mayos to the New Church during his visits to St. Paul. Dr. Mayo is capable of the solemn and serious expression appropriate to a Doctor of Philosophy; but frequently his face lights up with a warm smile which causes us to forget all about his Ph.D., and just call him Sam. Melba and Melissa are also charming additions to Sharon Church, and we surely welcome them as members.

573

     Recalling the pleasant and useful association Sharon Church had with the Rev. Jan Weiss a couple of summers ago, we were glad to welcome him again when he preached here on September 22nd. We understand that he has been devoting much time to improving the appearance of the interior of his new home in Glenview. It is interesting to note that even in physical uses he devotes his time to interior rather than exterior things! We hear that he has recently been to Canada to discuss the state of his visa with various government officials. We sincerely hope that the governments involved will see fit to grant Mr. Weiss permanent residence in the United States, and that Glenview will continue to let us share his talents.
     On October 10th our pastor, the Rev. Frederick L. Schnarr, had an interesting experience. He was introduced to the Chicago City Council by Mayor Daley, after which he delivered the opening prayer of the session. He wrote a special prayer for the occasion, and it was received with reverent attention by the aldermen and other members of the Council. Mr. Schnarr talked to an elderly gentleman who has had charge of arrangements for these opening prayers for many years, and he was told that this was the first time a Swedenborgian had been asked.
     We wish to report great progress in the improvement of the Sharon Church building. The porch has been removed, except for its roof on the front and the south side of the building. Because of some architectural oddity, which we do not quite understand, it was impracticable to remove the roof, but it has been put to excellent use. Under the front part of the roof an attractive room has been built. This is the pastor's study, and from it he may enter directly to the chancel. No longer need the stairs from the second floor creak under the steps of the minister in time to the music of the first hymn. On the outside wall of this room, at a height convenient to be read from the street, has been placed a new sign. It reads: SHARON CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM-Swedenborgian; then, in smaller letters, Book Room. The sign is of glass and is lighted from behind at night. Already several people have phoned or come in inquiring about the church and the books that are for sale.
     In addition to the room, there are new concrete steps to the front door, which eliminate the rusting nails and splintering wood over which the members of the congregation used to trip. However, the most amazing part of the improvement is a beautiful cement path, on the south side of the building, which runs from the sidewalk on Wayne Avenue, under the remainder of the old porch roof, and then stops. This path will be tastefully landscaped, but it doesn't go anywhere. The members of the Board of Trustees have furrowed their brows and thought long and earnestly about what to do with this very fine path and have at length come up with a solution. The rear of our building will be remodeled, so that the path will lead to an entrance from the back of the church where there will be room for proper cloakrooms, which we do not have at present. This will probably involve doing away with, and replacing, an old Sharon Church landmark-the stairs to the basement. These stairs have been trodden by generations of Sharon Church pastors and their offspring. Now the Schnarrs step into the deep hollows worn by their predecessors. We feel sure that they have great respect for those who have gone before, as we all have; but we suspect that they will not mind seeing this invitation to broken ankles removed. Anyway, once again, Bob Riefstahl is waving his magic wand over the now depleted Sharon Church Improvement Fund in order to raise monies for the next stage in our program.
     NOEL AND MILDRED MCQUEEN

     SWEDENBORG SOCIETY (INC.)

     Annual Meeting

     The 147th annual meeting of the Society, held at Swedenborg House, July 15, 1957, was attended by some 50 members. In the much regretted absence through illness of the president, the Rev. Clifford Harley, the chair was taken by the vice-president, Mr. Colley Pryke.

574

     After the formal preliminaries of the meeting had been dealt with the report was presented by the joint honorary secretaries, Dr. Freda Griffith and Mr. A. A. Drummond. Dr. Griffith referred to the sense of achievement which the Council had felt on the publication of the fourth volume of the Latin Arcana Coelestia-half of the new edition being now in print; and mentioned that only nine years ago it had still seemed impossible to find a printer to undertake the work. In general, little new printing had been done the Society having now practically made up the shortages due to the restrictions of the war years. Only one standard edition was at present out of print. Mrs. Griffith spoke also of the decline in sales, which was a matter of much concern to the Council. A pleasing number of new members had been enrolled, giving a net increase in membership of 47.
     Mr. Drummond then referred to matters concerned with the maintenance of the property and with advertising. He described some of the difficulties involved in our particular type of advertising, and mentioned that a circular would shortly be distributed within New Church circles in the hope of stimulating the sale of the new publications. Mr. Drummond thought that new media of advertising would have to be considered in the future, such as radio and television.
     Mr. Douglas Toby, the honorary treasurer, presented the accounts and balance sheet. The chief feature was the change made in the treatment of the book stock. Previously, the stock had been valued each vest according to certain rules laid down by the Council; but the Council had felt for some time that this was not entirely satisfactory, the stock being so unlike that of an ordinary trading concern. It had therefore been decided to write down the value to a purely nominal figure of L100. The treasurer spoke of the deficit for the year, L439, and hoped that more subscriptions and a big increase in sales would alter the position in the current year. A welcome legacy of L1,000 had been received from the estate of Mr. W. L. Lang.
     Mr. Kenneth F. Chadwick, chairman of the Council, then moved the adoption of the reports and accounts. He referred to the tremendous amount of work done by the Advisory and Revision Board, describing this as the most important section of the Society's activities; and said that the Society is still giving attention to foreign editions, a Zulu edition of Doctrine of Faith being in preparation. Referring to the Rev. J. G. Dufty's retirement from the editorship of the new edition of the Documents, Mr. Chadwick expressed the Council's appreciation of his many years of devoted labor.
     The motion for the adoption was seconded by Mr. Stebbing-Allen and a short discussion took place. Questions on the report were asked by Mr. Eades, the Rev. Erik Sandstrom, the Rev. Rupert Stanley, and Mr. Stebbing-Allen. The discussion centered mostly in advertising, and the view was expressed that it is not only the financial aspect of the Society's sales that should be stressed but the need for people to read the Writings. The report and accounts were formally adopted.
     On behalf of the Council, Mr. Colley Pryke nominated the Rev. Clifford Harley as president for the coming year. Mr. Pryke again expressed the regret of the meeting that Mr. Harley was not present, and paid tribute to the fine work he had done during the past year. He thought that we had a fine president, and would like to see him in office for another year. Mr. Trimmer seconded the motion, which was carried with acclamation.
     Mr. Kenneth F. Chadwick explained that in the event of a president being elected for a second year of office, the vice-president would also continue in office if he were willing to do so; however, Mr. Colley Pryke had expressed his desire not to do so, in view of his age and state of health. The Council would lose its senior member with much regret, and would miss his wise advice, but we had to respect his wishes in this matter. Mr. Chadwick proposed, on behalf of the Council, that Mr. A. A. Drummond, M.Sc., be vice-president for the coming year. This was seconded by Mr. P. G. Dicks and carried unanimously.

575

The Rev. F. F. Coulson moved that Mr. Douglas W. Toby be elected honorary treasurer, and spoke of Mr. Toby's lucid exposition of the accounts. This was seconded by the Rev. Erik Sandstrom and carried unanimously.
     The president had sent his address, entitled "A New Heaven and a New Earth." It was read by Mr. Toby.
     Mr. Pryke expressed the thanks of the meeting to Mr. Harley for his address and for his services during the year, and added appreciation of Mr. Toby's excellent reading of the paper. The Rev. H. G. Mongredien moved a vote of thanks to the officers. Sir Thomas Chadwick then rose to suggest that the meeting place on record its thanks to Mr. Pryke for his services to the Council over a period of twenty lead, and particularly as chairman of the Advisory and Revision Board since 1946, in which office the Council hopes he will continue for many years. The suggestion was greeted with applause, and Mr. Pryke in reply expressed the great delight he had found in working for the Society. The meeting closed with the benediction.
     FREDA GRIFFITH
ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS 1957

ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS HUGO LJ. ODHNER 1957

     General Church of the New Jerusalem

     ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS

     The Annual Meetings of the Council of the Clergy and of the Board of Directors of the Corporations of the General Church have been scheduled to take place in the week of January 27th to February 1st, 1958, at Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania.
     HUGO LJ. ODHNER,
          Secretary
SPECIAL CHRISTMAS NOTICE 1957

SPECIAL CHRISTMAS NOTICE Editor 1957

     A Gift that Should be in Every Home

     12" RPM non-breakable vinylite record of five Christmas songs: Hark, The Herald Angels Sing; Merry Christmas Bells are Ringing; Children Can You Truly Tell?; Holy Night; Why Do Bells for Christmas Ring? Chosen and recorded to appeal primarily to children, but may also be used in family worship and in Christmas tableaux.
     Mail orders, early, to: New Church Records, c/o Le Roi Road Church, 299 Le Roi Road, Pittsburgh 8, Pa. Price, $1.00, including postage.