CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 GIFT OF 
 Rev. E. C. Mitchell 
 
Cornell University Library 
 BS1199.P3 M68 
 
 Parables of the Old Testament, explained 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 029 283 433 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029283433 
 
THE 
 
 Parables of the Old Testament 
 
 EXPLAINED 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Rev. EDWARD CRAIG MITCHELL 
 
 Pastor o/ the Ne7ij-J^rusale»t (or Sivedenborgiaii) Churchf St. Paul, Minn. 
 
 author of 
 
 "The Parables of the New Testament Spiritually Unfolded" 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 WILLIAM H. ALDEN 
 
 2129 CHESTNUT STREET 
 1903 
 
B. \ s-oio 
 
 Copyright, 1903 
 By Edward Craig Mitchell 
 
 PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADEIPMIA 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The Sacred Scriptures are the Word of God, written 
 in a Divine way, and for a Divine purpose. 
 
 The Divine Word contains messages from God, as 
 a Spiritual Being, to men as spiritual beings. But, in 
 order to bring down the truth to the apprehension of 
 natural-minded men, spiritual truths must be presented 
 in corresponding natural ideas, in natural imagery. 
 
 " I, Jehovah, thy God, . . . have also spoken by the 
 prophets, and have multiplied visions, and used simili- 
 tudes, by the ministry of the prophets." (Hosea xii. 
 9, lo.) 
 
 Hence the Bible has a spirit and a body, between 
 which there is the relation of correspondence, as inward 
 and outward counterparts. 
 
 The word "parable" is used in three senses, — i, as 
 an enigma, or obscure saying ; 2, as any figurative dis- 
 course; and 3, as a fictitious, but possible, narrative, 
 invented to convey and illustrate a truth. The parables 
 of the New Testament are strictly within the third class. 
 But, on the same exact basis, there are very few parables 
 in the Old Testament. And so, for the treatment of 
 the parables of the Old Testament, the second definition 
 is adopted, which includes, also, fables and visions. 
 
 Every parable has at least three senses, — i, its narra- 
 tive sense ; 2, its figurative meaning, as applied to other 
 natural persons and things ; and 3, its spiritual mean- 
 ing, illustrating principles operating in the mind. 
 
 The system of interpretation here employed is that 
 known as " The Science of Correspondences," made 
 known to the Church through Emanuel Swedenborg. 
 
 As it seemed best to have each explanation of a par- 
 able complete in itself, some repetition was unavoidable. 
 
 E. C. M. 
 
 St. Paul, Minnesota, February 21, 1903. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 J_ PAOE. 
 
 Judges ix. : 8-15. — Trees Choosing a King 9 
 
 II. 
 Judges xiv. : 4, 5, 12, 14. — Samson's Riddle 20 
 
 III. 
 II. Samuel xii. : 1-4.— Nathan's Parable of the Ewe-Lamb. . 29 
 
 IV. 
 II. Samuel xiv. ; 5-7, 11.— The Revengers of Blood 40 
 
 V. 
 
 I. Kings XX. : 39, 40. — The Escaped Prisoner 51 
 
 VI. 
 
 II. Kings xiv. : 9. — The Ambitious Thistle 61 
 
 VII. 
 Isaiah v. : 1-7. — The Wasted Vineyard 71 
 
 VIII. 
 Jeremiah i. : 11-4. — The Almond Rod and Seething Pot. ... 82 
 
 IX. 
 Jeremiah xiii. : 1-7. — The Marred Girdle 90 
 
 X. 
 Jeremiah xviii. : 2-6. — The Potter's Vessel Marred 98 
 
 XI. 
 Jeremiah xix. : 1,2, 10, 11. — The Potter's Vessel Broken... 103 
 
 S 
 
6 Contents. 
 
 XII. PAGE. 
 
 Jeremiah xxiv. : i, 2. — The Two Baskets of Figs 106 
 
 XIII. 
 Jeremiah xxvii. : 2, 3, 6 ; xxviii. : i, 2, 10, 12, 13. — Jeremiah's 
 Bonds and Yokes 113 
 
 XIV. 
 Jeremiah xliii. : 8-10. — Hiding the Stones in the Mortar .. 121 
 
 XV. 
 Ezekiel i. : 4-16. — Infolding Fire, Living Creatures and 
 Wheels 129 
 
 XVI. 
 Ezekiel i. : 8-10 ; iii. : 1-4, 14. — Eating the Roll of a Book. . 138 
 
 XVII. 
 
 Ezekiel iv. : 1-13. — THE SlEGE OF JERUSALEM I48 
 
 XVIII. 
 Ezekiei V. : 1-5. — Ezekiel Cutting off His Hair, etc 157 
 
 XIX. 
 Ezekiel viii. 1-16. — Jerusalem's Idolatry 166 
 
 XX. 
 
 Ezekiel ix. : 1-6, 11 ; x. : i, 2, 7, — The Slaughter in Jeru- 
 salem 176 
 
 XXI. 
 
 Ezekiel xii. : 1-7, — Ezekiel Removing His Goods 184 
 
 XXII. 
 Ezekiel xii. : 18-20. — Eating with Quaking and Drinking 
 with Trembling 192 
 
 XXIII. 
 Ezekiel xiii. : 17-23. —The False Prophetesses ig6 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 Ezekiel xv. — The Vine of Jerusalem . . 205 
 
Contents. 7 
 
 XXV. PAGE. 
 
 Ezekiel xvii. : 2-10. — The Eagles and the Vine 214 
 
 XXVI. 
 Ezekiel xviii. : i, 2. — Eating Sour Grapes 224 
 
 XXVII. 
 Ezekiel xix. ; 1-9. — The Lioness and Her Whelps 233 
 
 XXVIII. 
 Ezekiel xix. : 10-14. — Israel's Mother as a Vine 243 
 
 XXIX. 
 Ezekiel xxiv. 3-12. — -Jerusalem as a Boiling Flesh-Pot 251 
 
 XXX. 
 Ezekiel xxxi. : 3-12. — The Assyrian a Cedar in Lebanon , . . 261 
 
 XXXI. 
 Ezekiel xxxiv. 1-6, 9-1 1. — The Evil Shepherds 272 
 
 XXXII. 
 Ezekiel xxxvii. : 1-14. — The Dry Bones Revived 282 
 
 XXXIIL 
 Ezekiel xxxvii. : 16-23. — The Two Sticks Joined 293 
 
 XXXIV. 
 Ezekiel xxxix. : 17-21. — Invitation to the Great Sacrifice 303 
 
 XXXV. 
 Ezekiel xlvii. : 1-9. — Water Flowing fro.m the Lord's House 312 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 Daniel ii. : 31-45. — Nebuchadnezzar's Dream of the Great 
 
 I.MAGE 322 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 Daniel iv, : 10-28. — Nebuchadnezzar's Dream of the Great 
 Tree 332 
 
8 Contents. 
 
 XXXVIII. PAGE. 
 
 Daniel v. — The Feast. The Handwriting on the Wall. . . 342 
 
 XXXIX. 
 Daniel vii. : 2-18, 23-27. — Vision of the Four Beasts 352 
 
 XL. 
 
 Daniel viii. : 2-26. — The Ram and the He-Goat 362 
 
 XLI. 
 Zechariah i. ; S-ii. — The Man among the Mvrtle Trees. ... 371 
 
 XLII. 
 Zechariah i. : 18-21. — The Horses and Four Carpenters 378 
 
 XLIII. 
 
 Zechariah ii. : 1-5. — The Man with a Measuring-Line 386 
 
 XLIV. 
 Zechariah iii. — Vision of Joshua, the High Priest 393 
 
 XLV. 
 Zechariah iy. : 1-7, 11-14. — GoLDEN CANDLF.STICK and Ohve- 
 
 Trees 403 
 
 XLVI. 
 Zechariah v. : 1-4. — The Flying Roll 411 
 
 XLVII. 
 Zechariah v. : 5-11. — The Women and the Ephah 419 
 
 XLVIII. 
 Zechariah vi. : 1-8. — Four Chariots and Horses 428 
 
The 
 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE TREES CHOOSING A KING. 
 
 The trees went forth to anoint a king over them : and they 
 said unto the olive-tree. Reign thou over us. But the olive- 
 tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith, 
 by me, they honor God and man, and go to be promoted over 
 the trees? 
 
 And the trees said to the fig-tree,' Come thou, reign over 
 us. But the fig-tree said unto them, Should I forsake my 
 sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the 
 trees ? 
 
 Then said the trees unto the vine. Come thou, reign over 
 us. And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, 
 which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over 
 the trees? 
 
 Then said all the trees unto the bramble. Come thou, reign 
 over us. And the bramble said unto the trees. If, in truth, 
 ye anoint me king over you, come, put your trust in my 
 shadow ; and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and 
 devour the cedars of Lebanon. — Judges i.x. 8-15. 
 
 THE LOVE OF DOMINION. 
 
 The love of dominion seeks to rule or to ruin. The 
 higher principles of the human mind are satisfied to per- 
 form their own uses, in their proper way ; but the lower, 
 meaner propensities desire to rule over the others. 
 
 9 
 
lo Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 THE HISTORY. 
 
 Gideon had been a successful military leader of the 
 Israelites. And the people said to him, " Rule thou over 
 us, both thou and thy son, and thy son's son : for thou 
 hast delivered us from the hand of Midian." (Judges 
 viii. 22.) But Gideon replied, " I will not rule over you, 
 neither shall my son rule over you : Jehovah shall rule 
 over you." And, during Gideon's life, and under his 
 wise counsel, as a judge, the Israelites had peace and 
 prosperity. But, after his death, they soon relapsed into 
 idolatry and other evils. And Abimelech, Gideon's son 
 by a slave and concubine, cunningly plotted to gain the 
 throne : and, to secure himself in the position, he slew 
 all the seventy legitimate sons of his father, except 
 Jotham, who escaped. And the Lord employed Jotham, 
 to rebuke Abimelech and the Israelites, as he did in the 
 parable of our text, which is supposed to be the oldest 
 formal parable of which we have any knowledge. 
 
 Jotham showed the men of Shechem that they had 
 taken, as king, a man who, on one side, was of low 
 descent, and who was bloody and cruel, using cunning 
 and wholesale murder to secure the throne, which prop- 
 erly belonged to some legitimate son of Gideon. Jotham 
 also showed the men of Shechem that Abimelech, like 
 the bramble, had displayed an evil spirit, ready to rule 
 or to ruin ; and that his reign would be disastrous to 
 Israel. 
 
 THE REPRESENT.VTIVE MEANING. 
 
 Historically, the trees represented the Israelites. The 
 olive was Gideon ; the fig-tree was Gideon's son ; and 
 the vine was his son's son ; for all of whom Gideon had 
 declined the throne. The bramble was Abimelech ; and 
 the cedars of Lebanon were the men of Shechem. 
 
The Trees Choosing a King. ii 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL MEANING. 
 
 But the parable has its spiritual application. As the 
 Israelites, in their evils and idolatry, always brought 
 upon themselves a defeat by some powerful enemy, so 
 every man, as he departs from the ways of the Lord's 
 commandments, sinks into evils, and worships himself 
 and the world ; and always he brings upon himself a 
 serious defeat, at the hands of some great spiritual 
 enemy, some foe of his own mental household. 
 
 In every condition of eyil, the Israelites were attacked 
 by some nation, or people, who represented the particular 
 evil or falsity into which the Israelites then had fallen. 
 
 Sometimes they were carried away, as captives ; and 
 always by nations representing the evil principles which 
 had inwardly carried them away, as spiritual captives 
 to the lusts of the flesh, and had kept them away from 
 the joy and home of regenerate life. 
 
 And when men see and acknowledge their bondage in 
 sin, and when they turn to the Lord for deliverance, 
 they can be saved from evil, by repenting, and by shun- 
 ning evils as sins. But, often, when the trouble is past, 
 men forget their Divine Helper, and relapse into selfish 
 idolatry. Instead of keeping some grand Divine Truth 
 as their mental king, they adopt some perversion of 
 truth, some outbirth of a slavish principle ; and they set 
 it up as their mental king. 
 
 ABIMELECH. 
 
 Abimelech represents the low-born, selfish, cruel love 
 of dominion over others, born from the love of self; a 
 mere bramble, ready to rule or to ruin; to send forth 
 its fires of lust, to consume all the better principles, 
 which will not submit themselves to its rule. 
 
12 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 TREES. 
 
 The olive, the vine, and the fig-tree are frequently 
 mentioned together, in the Scriptures. They represent 
 the three discrete degrees of human life, the celestial, 
 the spiritual, and the natural ; the love of the Lord, the 
 love of the neighbor, and the love of obedience to the 
 law. Trees represent mental states, in men, the inward 
 principles of men's minds and lives. Good principles, in 
 good men, are called " trees of the Lord." Evil men 
 are called trees that bear no fruit, barren trees, and 
 cumberers of the ground. " I am like a green olive- 
 tree in the house of God ; I trust in the mercy of God 
 forever." (Psalm lii. 8.) " The righteous shall flourish 
 like the palm-tree : he shall grow like a cedar in Leb- 
 anon." (Psalm xcii. 12.) 
 
 THE OLIVE. 
 
 The olive represents the celestial principle of love to 
 the Lord, which, like the oil, is warm and smooth. 
 " Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness ; 
 therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil 
 of gladness." (Psalm xlv. 7.) This oil of love is the 
 " fatness" of the olive, mentioned in the text. When 
 such love rules in tlie mind, governing all the affections, 
 thoughts and conduct, the man is in a celestial regen- 
 erate state. 
 
 That the olive-tree declined to rule over the trees, 
 does not mean that celestial love cannot, or will not, rule 
 the regenerate mind ; but it means that such heavenly 
 love cannot rule in such a condition of mind as then 
 existed in the men of Shechem. 
 
 They did not desire to be ruled in a heavenly way, 
 but in their own way, and for selfish purposes, as is 
 shown by their making the cunning and murderous 
 Abimelech their king. Celestial love of the Lord cannot 
 
The Trees Choosing a King. 13 
 
 rule in a selfish and worldly mind. If it should unite 
 itself with selfish principles, it would lose its good char- 
 acteristic quality, and would become adulterated by 
 evils. And so the olive, in declining to rule, replied, 
 " Should I leave my fatness, wherewith, by me, they 
 honor God and man, and go to be promoted over the 
 trees?" The mental ground of its refusal was that a 
 heavenly love of goodness could not mingle with selfish 
 and worldly principles, without losing its own virtues. 
 
 Literally, the olive honors God and man, because the 
 olive oil was used in the temple service, in the worship 
 of God, and because the priests and kings were anointed 
 with olive oil. Spiritually, it honors God and man, 
 because the principle of love to the Lord, looks to the 
 Lord, acknowledges Him, and gives all honor to Him, 
 and brings man into a state of union with the Lord, in 
 which man is honored. 
 
 THE FIG. 
 
 The fig-treCj also, declined to be king. The fig repre- 
 sents natural goodness, the love of obedience to the 
 revealed law. It is right to cultivate a natural love of 
 obedience to the Divine commandments ; but, to make 
 this virtue a means of feeding a spirit of ambition to 
 rule over others, would be to destroy its good quality, 
 and to corrupt it into a vice. The fig-tree would thus 
 forsake its " sweetness" and its " good fruit." When 
 a man intelligently knows the truth, and obediently fol- 
 lows it, then, spiritually, " the fig-tree and the vine do 
 yield their strength." (Joel ii. 22.) The " sweetness" 
 of the fig-tree is its inward good principle, and its " good 
 fruits" are its practical good works. 
 
 THE VINE. 
 
 The vine, also, refused to be king. It said, " Should 
 I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man?" The 
 
14 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 vine represents spiritual truth ; and the fruit of the vine 
 represents the good which springs from a love of truth ; 
 that is, the love of the neighbor, as distinguished from 
 the love of the Lord. Literally, the wine cheered, or 
 gladdened, " God and man," because the offerings of 
 wine formed a part of the sacrifices, or offerings to the 
 Lord ; and because the effect of the right use of pure 
 wine is to gladden and encourage the exhausted and 
 saddened man. 
 
 Spiritually, wine represents Divine Truth, the spiritual 
 " blood of the Lord," which the Lord loves to give to 
 men, and which good men love to receive from Him. 
 Such spiritual " blood of the grape," the Divine Truth, 
 opens men's spiritual eyes, warms their hearts, and en- 
 riches their lives. The Lord, as the Divine Truth, calls 
 Himself the Vine; "I am the vine; ye are the 
 branches." (John xv. 5.) At the "Last Supper," the 
 Lord mentioned to His disciples, concerning the wine, 
 " that rlay when I drink it new with you, in My Father's 
 kingdom." This new wine is the new spiritual truth 
 which comes to us from the inward, spiritual sense of 
 the Scriptures, and which we drink spiritually, with the 
 Lord, when it unites us with Him, in love, faith and 
 obedience. This spiritual wine " cheereth God and 
 man," because, more and more, it carries the Divine 
 blessings to men, and thus expands the operation of the 
 Divine Love. 
 
 THE TREES IN GENERAL. 
 
 The other trees appeared to desire the good trees to 
 rule over them. But, to do so, the good trees would 
 have had to leave their own high and holy character, 
 and to go down to the general condition of the trees. 
 The trees did not offer to go to the olive, the fig-tree, 
 and the vine, to be governed by them, in their own 
 
The Trees Choosing a King. 15 
 
 places. But they said, " Come thou, and rule over us." 
 They did not propose to abandon their selfish conditions, 
 that they might be lifted up to a better condition and 
 character. They sought to bring down the higher 
 things, to agreement with their own lower condition. 
 And the mental good trees could not do this, without 
 losing their own distinctive qualities and character. 
 
 DISTINCTIONS. 
 
 The olive and the fig represent states of the will, or 
 heart, as to inward and outward good, or love ; and the 
 vine represents a state of the understanding, and its life 
 of truth. And these cannot afford to leave their good- 
 ness and their truth, to join themselves with any selfish 
 form of the love of ruling over others. 
 
 THE BRAMBLE. 
 
 But, as the good trees declined to be made king, the 
 trees applied to the bramble. Personally, this bramble 
 represents those dangerous members of society, who love 
 to rule, or to ruin. 
 
 Abstractly, the bramble represents the selfish form of 
 the love of ruling over others, which is worldly, haughty 
 and dangerous. All natural things, when perverted to 
 evil uses, become mere brambles, and dangerous and 
 inflammable, quick to burn in the infernal fires of selfish 
 lusts. Even the letter of the Lord's Word, when sepa- 
 rated from its inward spirit, and corrupted to evil uses, 
 becomes a bramble, in the mind so abusing it, for pre- 
 tended and spurious goodness. It is said of Zion, in her 
 sinful condition, " thorns shall come up in her palaces, 
 nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it 
 shall be a habitation of dragons, and a court for owls." 
 (Isaiah xxxiv. 13.) 
 
 The bramble was ready to rule over the trees. Self- 
 
i6 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 love will feed a man's love of rule, until he will be will- 
 ing to rule over anything and everything. And the 
 more an evil man knows, the more evil he can do. 
 Though he knows truths as doctrines, yet the fires of 
 his own sensuous lusts will burn out all truth from his 
 mind, even the tall cedars of Lebanon, the far-reaching 
 truths of the Lord's Word, rationally seen. 
 
 The love of rule is ever ready to use its knowledge 
 for selfish purposes. It will be patronizing towards the 
 church, and towards all good influences, if they can be 
 made to serve its desire to rule ; if they will leave their 
 goodness, and come down to it. But, if they attempt to 
 oppose it, it will send out its infernal fires, and bum 
 them out of the mind. The history of society is full of 
 such brambles, in the priest-craft of the churches, in the 
 party-craft of politicians, and in the abuses of social life, 
 uniting in the common endeavor to rule, or to ruin. The 
 unregenerate natural man regards self-love as his real 
 God ; but, while he expects it to give him life, it is de- 
 stroying him in infernal fires. 
 
 Abimelech, like the bramble, was the least entitled to 
 rule, because he was the most unworthy. But the people 
 wanted such a king; and he was ready to rule them, 
 for his own benefit. 
 
 The trees inclined to the bramble, and it was ready to 
 be king, on its own terms, which were, to rule or to ruin. 
 
 ARROGANCE. 
 
 The insolence of Abimelech, in seeking to rule over 
 Israel, and the boldness of the natural man, in seeking 
 to rule over the spiritual man, are shown in the arro- 
 gance of the low, mean bramble demanding that all the 
 trees, even the grand, old towering cedars of Lebanon, 
 should come under the shadow of the miserable bramble. 
 
 And, spiritually, the same monstrous insolence is 
 
The Trees Choosing a King. 17 
 
 shown by the lust of rule m our natural mind', when it 
 attempts to bring down the higher principles of the 
 mind, and to make them subservient to its evil purposes ; 
 utterly to overshadow them, or to destroy them in the 
 unholy fires of evil lusts. 
 
 THE CEDARS. 
 
 The cedars of Lebanon represent the grand rational 
 truths of regenerate life ; noble trees, reaching far above 
 the earth, evergreen in their foliage, teaching man of 
 his spiritual and immortal character. " Praise ye Jeho- 
 vah, . . . fruitful trees and all cedars." ( Psalm clxviii. 7, 
 9.) How can these lofty, glorious truths stoop low 
 enough to put themselves under the shadow of the low, 
 earthy bramble? How can we be willing to prostitute 
 the knowledge of spiritual and Divine things to the low 
 lusts of a selfish love of ruling over others ? But, if we 
 do this folly, the fires of the hells in our own hearts will 
 surely arise, and destroy our mental cedars of Lebanon. 
 
 INDIVIDUAL USES. 
 
 There is an order in creation, ordained by the Creator, 
 and fixed in the organism of every creature. According 
 to this order, each man has his place and his use; and 
 each finds happiness in the loving performance of the 
 use for which he is adapted. And each part of man has 
 its place and its use. The eye is organized for seeing, 
 and it is adapted to that use; and the ear is organized 
 for hearing, and is adapted to that use. The eye takes 
 no cognizance of sounds, nor the ear of light. 
 
 The eye does not wish to leave its seeing, nor the ear 
 to leave its hearing, to go away to do other things. Each 
 is happy in the performance of its own use, according 
 to its organism. It has no selfish ambition to rule over 
 other things. So, in the regenerate mind, each principle 
 
 ^ 
 
i8 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 of life has its place and its work; and it is happy in 
 performing its own use. And if it should have a selfish 
 lust for going out of its way, to rule over other things, 
 it would lose its own good quality. 
 
 THE LUST OF RULING. 
 
 But our bramble, our selfish ambition to rule, will seek 
 to rule over all other things, or to ruin their quality, by 
 subjecting them to the infernal fires of evil lusts. 
 Heaven is full of the spirit of humility ; but hell is full 
 of self-assertion. 
 
 If any heavenly principle has begun to grow in our 
 minds, it must not be brought under the control of any 
 worldly or selfish purpose. If we abuse a good prin- 
 ciple, it will lose its oil of love, and its wine of spir- 
 ituality, and the sweetness of its good fruit. " Every 
 tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, 
 and cast into the fire." (Matthew iii. lo.) 
 
 The love of rule shows itself in many ways ; in the 
 lust of having one's own way ; in hard pride of opinion ; 
 in conceit of one's own mental abilities, which is impa- 
 tient, even under proper criticism ; and, especially in 
 the vile vice of contempt of others. All these are but 
 forms of the love of ruling over others, mentally or 
 physically. 
 
 Without humility, the oil of love loses its heavenly 
 warmth ; the wine of truth loses its spiritualitv ; and 
 the fig of obedience loses its practical sweetness. 
 
 In our minds, the bramble is ruling over the trees, 
 whenever we exalt ourselves above others, in our own 
 estimation ; and whenever we harbor contempt of 
 others ; and whenever and wherever the holy truths of 
 Divine Revelation are dragged down, to cater to the 
 selfish pleasures of our senses. 
 
The Trees Choosing a King. 19 
 
 SPIRITUAL TRUTH. 
 
 The Bible is of little use to men, spiritually, while they 
 quarrel over it, as a mere record of literal facts, or a 
 treatise on the history, science and geography of a small 
 portion of the earth. When the prophecies of the Lord's 
 Word are supposed to relate to nothing more than the 
 things of the natural senses, then spiritually, the celestial 
 olive yields but little of its oil ; the fig-tree bears little 
 of its sweet good fruit ; and the vine gives but little of 
 its spiritual wine. Only as the Divine Word is regarded 
 as a mirror to the human soul, in the spiritual light of 
 revealed truth, and as its truths are seen in their spir- 
 itual aspect, can these truths be seen as heavenly truths, 
 opening our minds to a new world, and displaying the 
 history of the spirit of man, from his birth to eternity. 
 
 In His spiritual coming, the Lord comes to give men 
 life " more abundantly," and of higher quality ; to enable 
 every man, if he will, to- be " a green olive-tree in the 
 house of God." " In that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, 
 shall ye' call every man his neighbor, under the vine and 
 under the fig-tree." (Zechariah iii. 10.) 
 
20 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 II. 
 SAMSON'S RIDDLE. 
 
 Then went Samson down ... to Timnath, . . . and behold, 
 a young lion roared against him. And the Spirit of Jehovah 
 came mightily upon him, and he rent him [the lion] as he 
 would have rent a kid. . . . And after a time he returned . . . 
 and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion : and, be- 
 hold, a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the 
 lion. . . . 
 
 And Samson said, ... I will now put forth a riddle unto 
 you : . . . Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the 
 strong came forth sweetness. — Judges xiv. s, 6, 8, 12, 14. 
 
 RESISTING TEMPT.\TION. 
 
 Resisting temptation, with the Divine help, we over- 
 come the power of evil, and' attain the strength and 
 sweetness of regeneration. 
 
 SAMSON. 
 
 As a Nazarite, Samson represented the natural hu- 
 manity of the Lord, Jesus Christ, which, armed with 
 the Divine Truth, battled with the hells, and overcaine 
 them. Samson's power is said to have been in his long 
 hair. The hair, growing from the skin, and on the 
 outside of the body, represents the ultimates, the exter- 
 nals, the things of the natural mind, and of the natural 
 life. And, in a special sense, the hair represents the 
 letter of the Divine Word, which is its outward sense. 
 
 Truth is strong and effective when it is brought out, 
 and applied directly to the doings of our outward life, 
 as is done by the commandments of the Decalogue. For 
 instance, when we think on the subject of honesty, we 
 may have many theories as to what may be allowable : 
 
Samson's Riddle. 21 
 
 but, when we consult the Ten Commandments, the truth 
 confronts us in the plain practical form of self-denial : 
 " Thou shalt not steal," " Thou shalt not bear false 
 witness," etc., etc. And no ingenious argument can 
 break the practical force of these laws of conduct, which 
 embody our intentions. 
 
 The power of literal truth is represented by the hair. 
 And hence some of the prophets and representative men 
 were particularly mentioned as " hairy men," as Esau, 
 and Elijah, and John the Baptist, and Samson. 
 
 The natural humanity of Jesus, represented by Sam- 
 son, inherited from his mother all the natural tendencies 
 to evil which then existed in the Jewish race. And 
 that natural humanity needed to be purified, glorified, 
 and united with the indwelling Divinity, so that the 
 Father could dwell in the Son ; by which is meant that 
 the Divine Love could enter into the Divine Truth, in 
 the mind of Jesus, and could fill that truth with all the 
 life and power of the Divine Love; and thus could fill 
 the humanity of Jesus with all the Divine qualities, and 
 all the Divine Power ; and thus that the Divinity could 
 dwell in the Divine Humanity, in fulness. This was the 
 process of glorifying the humanity, and of making it to 
 be the Divine Humanity, the external of God, in whom 
 God dwelt in fulness, so that Father and the Son were 
 one, in a trinity of attributes of the Divine Character, the 
 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, meaning the Divine Love, 
 the Divine Wisdom, and the Divine Power, all present 
 in the Divine Humanity of the one God, in one person, 
 the Lord, Jesus Christ. 
 
 THE LION. 
 
 Part of the work of glorification, by which the human- 
 ity became one with the Divinity, was represented by 
 Samson tearing the lion. 
 
22 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 Representatives are used sometimes in a good sense, 
 and sometimes in a perverted sense, wlien things are in 
 disorder. In a good sense, a lion, as tlie " king of 
 beasts," and as a beast of great power, represents power, 
 especially the power of truth, fighting against falsity 
 and evil ; and most especially the power of the letter of 
 the Divine Word, because the lion is especially a hairy 
 animal. In this good sense, our Lord was called " the 
 Lion .of the tribe of Judah." But, when the lion is used 
 in a bad sense, it represents the power of truth per- 
 verted, and thus turned into the power of falsity, which, 
 in the unregenerate mind, wages war against the spirit 
 of the Divine Truth, and against goodness in the prac- 
 tical life. 
 
 As a natural man, Jesus was born into a natural ten- 
 dency to falsify the Divine Truth which he had learned. 
 And when the interior and Divine part of his nature 
 sought to bring his whole manhood into good order, 
 this merely natural tendency to falsify truth opposed 
 such a change in his natural mind, and resisted the proc- 
 ess of glorification. This natural tendency to falsify 
 truth is the lion in our text. This lion, roaring at Sam- 
 son, thus represented a mental lion, in the natural mind 
 of Jesus. 
 
 5uch lions are often mentioned in the Scriptures, as, 
 for instance, in Psalm xxii. 13, " They gaped upon me 
 with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion ;" 
 and in Psalm Ivii. 4, " My soul is among lions." But 
 when, in Jesus, the Divine nature overcame the heredi- 
 tary tendency to falsify truth, because the humanity 
 exerted itself to resist such a tendency, and to do the 
 Divine will, then this action was represented by Samson 
 tearing the lion. And the Divine promise to the as- 
 sumed humanity, and also to each of us, in our human- 
 ity, is represented in the words in Psalm xci. 13, " Thou 
 
Samson's Riddle. 23 
 
 shalt tread upon the lion and adder ; the young Hon and 
 the dragon shalt thou trample under feet." 
 
 THE lion's attack. 
 
 The great power of evil and of falsity was not merely 
 in the natural tendencies of the Jewish race, in the as- 
 sumed humanity of Jesus, but also because these ten- 
 dencies to evils and falsities formed a standing-ground, 
 in his natural mind, on which all the hells could stand, 
 to wage war against the Divine nature in Jesus, which 
 was seeking to possess his whole manhood, and to 
 glorify his humanity. And, as the glorification would 
 be for goodness, and against all evils, therefore the evil 
 spirits in all the hells sought to prevent this glorification. 
 And hence they combined all their power to induce the 
 humanity of Jesus to fall into sin. And their attack is 
 represented by the attack of the lion. And, on the 
 other hand, the great power of Samson against the lion 
 was not merely because of his unusual muscular 
 strength, but because of the help of the Lord, by the 
 ministrations of angels. As our text declares, " And the 
 Spirit of Jehovah came mightily upon him." 
 
 A large part of the work of Jesus Christ, as a Re- 
 deemer, was in conquering the hells, which had been 
 holding men down, in evil, falsity and sin. But, in 
 order to do this work for men in general, Jesus had to 
 do the same kind of work, in his own natural mind. He 
 met the devils on the ground of his own natural ten- 
 dencies to evil ; and, by defeating them there. He res- 
 cued men from their infernal power. And Samson's 
 doings often represented this work of Jesus Christ. As 
 the Divine Father dwelt within the assumed humanity 
 of Jesus Christ, and directed and strengthened the nat- 
 ural manhood of Jesus, in his contest against the hells, 
 so Jesus Christ, now as the one God of heaven and earth, 
 
24 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 dwells within us; and, if we are willing, He teaches, 
 directs, and sustains us, in our fight with the hells. 
 
 You remember that, when Jesus sent out the seventy 
 disciples, to preach the gospel, " the seventy returned 
 again, with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject 
 unto us, through Thy name. And He said unto them, 
 I beheld Satan, as lightning, fall from heaven. Behold, 
 I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scor- 
 ])ions, and over all the power of the enemy : and nothing 
 shall by any means hurt you." (Luke x. 17-19.) 
 
 THE RIDDLE. 
 
 " Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the 
 strong came forth sweetness." 
 
 The eater, or devourer, or destroyer, was the lion ; and 
 the lion here represented the power of false principles, 
 working in man's natural mind, and seel<ing to destroy 
 all goodness, and all spirituality, in the man. Personally, 
 such lions represent evil and false spirits, in the spir- 
 itual world, who are always mentally associated with 
 men's evil tendencies, and always working upon these 
 tendencies, to arouse and increase them, and thus to 
 destroy men, spiritually. But Samson had killed the 
 lion, thus representing the Lord, in His humanity, oper- 
 ating against evil and false spirits, and opposing their 
 influence, not only in His assumed natural humanity, 
 but also in the minds of all men who are willing to be 
 regenerated, and who are ready to resist their own evil 
 inclinations, and to do good, in the name of the Lord ; 
 i.e., in accordance with His principles. 
 
 Men's natural tendencies to evil and falsity are full 
 of terrible power for evil, because men fell into evil, ages 
 ago, and they have gone on in evil, constantly increasing 
 their tendencies to evil. And so, man's external nature 
 is now born into sympathy with the evil influences of the 
 
Samson's Riddle. 25 
 
 hells. But the work of Jesus Christ, as a Redeemer, 
 broke the force of such evil power, as is represented in 
 our text by Samson killing the lion. The dead lion had 
 lost his terrible power ; i.e., in each regenerate man, the 
 evil and false nature had been overcome by the Divine 
 influence, made efficient, in each case, by the man's co- 
 operation. When a man remains unregenerate, all his 
 natural mental powers are working on the side of evil. 
 And then they possess a terrible power for evil. 
 
 But, in the regeneration, those powers are changed in 
 their quality, their spiritual character; and then they 
 are no longer working for evil, but the ravenous lion in 
 them is dead. Regeneration separates men's hearts from 
 the hells, and unites them with the Lord, in spiritual 
 sweetness of character. Thus, " out of the eater came 
 fortii meat," because the quality of man's mental 
 strength was changed, and the new quality is not de- 
 structive, spiritually ; but, on the contrary, it affords 
 spiritual meat, which is food for man's soul. And " out 
 of the strong came forth sweetness," because the power 
 of the mind was regenerated, and its strength turned to 
 spiritual sweetness, which is goodness, from the heart 
 and in the life. This mental sweetness, meaning good 
 natural affections, operating in good outward conduct, 
 is represented by the honey, which is characterized by 
 great sweetness. 
 
 THE PERSONAL APPLICATION. 
 
 This riddle of Samson holds before each of us a 
 mirror of symbols, in which we can read our own condi- 
 tions and possibilities. We are all born with tendencies 
 to evil, falsity and sin. And these things in our external 
 nature, are as a roaring hon, ready to devour everything 
 in us that is good or true. And if this process of spir- 
 itual devouring continues, without resistance, we shall 
 
26 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 be formed into evil characters, devils at heart and in 
 life. But no one is left in this condition, helpless to 
 contend against evil influences. But our Lord, in His 
 infinite providence, provides that each man shall hear 
 the truth taught, and that the truth shall be kept before 
 him, from the time he is old enough to begin to compre- 
 hend its meaning. And even before that time, the Lord 
 provides that the truth, as a rule of action, shall be 
 brought to the attention of every man, so that he may 
 know what things should be done, and what other things 
 should not be done, and why it should be so, in each 
 case. And thus, light is given to every one, so that he 
 may not be left helpless. And then power comes to 
 every one, from the Lord, in and by the truth. And 
 every one may use the truth, and may gain power in a 
 practical way, so that he can live by the truth. And 
 when we exert our power, as if it were our own strength, 
 and yet with the acknowledgment that it is the Lord's 
 power, working in us, and through us, to conquer our 
 evil tendencies, we kill the lions of our disorderly nature. 
 And then their terrible power for evil is destroyed ; i.e., 
 the evil is then destroyed. 
 
 AFFECTION NOT LOST, BUT CHANGED. 
 
 For regeneration does not kill a man's natural mind, 
 nor does it take away from him anything that belongs 
 to his life. But it takes away the evil, by changing the 
 quality of the man's affections, from evil to good. The 
 affections remain, but their quality, or character, 
 changes. Observe that, when the Lord calls upon men 
 to become regenerate, He does not ask them to give up 
 their affections, but to place their atTections upon good 
 and true objects. " Wash you, make you clean ; put 
 away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes ; 
 cease to do evil ; learn to do well." (Isaiah i. i6, 17.) 
 
Samson's Riddle. 27 
 
 During temptation, while the prospect seems dark, we 
 often feel that, if we give up our natural desires, we 
 shall lose all things which make life worth living. And 
 yet, after we have put down our evil tendencies, we 
 find that we have not lost anything, and that our affec- 
 tions remain, but that they have been purified, regen- 
 erated, sweetened, by the reception into them of the 
 spirit of heavenly love. Here, then, " out of the eater 
 came forth meat," food for our spiritual life ; and those 
 natviral afl^ections, which seemed to be strong against our 
 salvation, now, when cleansed and purified, afiEord us the 
 sweetness of regenerate life, when we are allowed full 
 freedom, because we have no desire for evil. And thus, 
 " out of the strong came forth sweetness," spiritually. 
 
 A GREAT TRUTH. 
 
 This is a great truth, which it is very hard to teach 
 to the natural-minded man ; i.e.j that the real sweetness, 
 and the sustaining spiritual food of human life, prac- 
 tically begin only when we have conquered our natural 
 tendencies to evil; only when, in us, Samson has slain 
 the lion. We are placed in this world to learn how to 
 live, by learning what true life is, and whence and how it 
 comes to us, and how it is to be sustained in its power, 
 and in its sweetness. Our life must continue to be a 
 struggle, until we have learned to slay our ravenous 
 lion, with the great strength with which our Lord will 
 fill all our sincere and earnest efforts for regeneration. 
 
 Every known truth is a mental way, or path, on which 
 we are called upon to walk, in daily life. And, in the 
 beginning, on every such pathway a roaring lion will 
 confront us. But, in every case, our Lord is ready, 
 beside us, and within us, like Samson, to rend our lion. 
 And in due progress, the spiritual bees of our mind will 
 make their honey. And then we shall hear the Word of 
 
28 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 our Lord, speaking of the path of our daily life: " No 
 lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast go up thereon ; 
 it shall not be found there ; but the redeemed shall walk 
 there. And the ransomed of Jehovah shall return and 
 come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their 
 heads : they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow 
 and sighing shall flee away." (Isaiah xxxv. 9, 10.) 
 
Nathan's Parable of the Ewe-Lamb. 29 
 
 III. 
 
 NATHAN'S PARABLE OF THE EWE-LAMB. 
 
 And Jehovah sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto 
 him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city, the 
 one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding 
 many flocks and lierds ; but the poor man had nothing save 
 one little ewe-lamb, which he had bought and nourished up : 
 and it grew up together with him, and with his children ; it 
 did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup; and lay in 
 his bosom ; and was unto him as a daughter. 
 
 And there came a traveller unto the rich man ; and he 
 spared to take of his own flock, and of his own herd, to dress 
 for the wayfaring man that was come unto him ; but he took 
 the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come 
 unto him. — II. Samuel xii. 1-4. 
 
 UNRECOGNIZED EVILS. 
 
 Our first efforts to do good are largely adulterated 
 with selfish motives. We indulge many evils, and com- 
 mit sins, without recognizing such evils and sins as our 
 own. We see evils in the abstract, and doctrinally, but 
 they do not appear to us as our own, until we make 
 further progress in the practical understanding of truth 
 and good. Our minds are in mixed conditions, holding 
 in our memory some true doctrines, and many false 
 ideas. Our evils are not subdued, even though we have 
 some idea of the ugliness of evils in other persons. 
 Theoretically, we adopt a certain system of religious 
 doctrine; and yet, in the practical application of that 
 doctrine to our daily life, we often falsify its spirit, by 
 mixing it with the false notions that spring from our 
 evil desires. 
 
30 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 THE MENTAL CITY. 
 
 Thus there are " two men in one city ;" i.e., in our 
 minds both truth and falsity exist in connection with 
 the same doctrine. 
 
 A city, built up of houses, for the uses of human Hfe, 
 represents a system of doctrine, built up in the human 
 mind, erected in our intellect, and planned for the use 
 of our affections and thoughts. 
 
 And, in our unregenerate conditions, and in our mixed 
 conditions, when we have received some truth, and yet 
 have many false ideas, we are, as to our intellectual 
 doctrine, like a large city, in which there dwell men of 
 different characters, some good, some evil ; some rich in 
 the knowledge of truth, and some poor in their ignorance 
 of spiritual things. 
 
 But it does not follow that the rich are the good, nor 
 that the poor are the evil. It is often the opposite. 
 
 SPIRITUAL RICHES AND POVERTY. 
 
 " There were two men in one city ; the one rich, and 
 the other poor." Literally, the application was to David 
 and Uriah. But the inward, spiritual sense of the para- 
 ble applies to all. When a man learns the truths of 
 the Lord's Word and of the church, he is intellectually 
 rich ; he has great possessions, truths which may change 
 his whole character, if he will allow them to do so, by 
 obeying them. In a general sense, the rich are those 
 who are in the church, where the Lord is known, and 
 His Word is read. 
 
 THE GENTILES. 
 
 And the poor arc the Gentiles, and all who are in a 
 Gentile state, not well instructed in spiritual truths, and 
 yet, perhaps, well disposed, in their natural affections. 
 
 Thus, David and Uriah, in one sense, represented. 
 
Nathan's Parable of the Ewe-Lamb. 31 
 
 respectively, the Church and the Gentiles. Uriah was 
 a Hittite. The Hittites were among the best of the 
 Canaanites. Bathsheba, as a Hittite, represented the be- 
 ginning of the church among the Gentiles ; for a church 
 was raised up among the well-disposed Gentiles, who 
 were in better conditions of spirit than were the Israel- 
 ites. Bathsheba's first and disorderly relations with 
 David represented the quality of life in the first condi- 
 tions of the church, among the Gentiles. 
 
 The Gentiles were well disposed towards the truth, 
 but they had no just idea of the distinctions between 
 good and evil, in practical life. With such a state of 
 men, the Lord could not form, at once, a true and 
 heavenly church, but only some approach towards a 
 church, in which many evils would adulterate the good 
 principles. 
 
 bathsheba's children. 
 
 And so the first child of David and Bathsheba died, 
 representing the fact that when the truth begins to oper- 
 ate upon us, our first states of life are not pure and 
 good, but so adulterated with our natural evils that they 
 do not spiritually and permanently live in a regenerate 
 character. 
 
 But Bathsheba as the wife of David, and the mother 
 of Solomon, represents the Gentile Church advanced to 
 higher and spiritual conditions, after trials and tempta- 
 tions. When the good that is in the Gentiles becomes 
 united with Christian truth, through the purifications of 
 temptation, it becomes Christian good. Solomon, noted 
 for his great wisdom, represented the child of the new 
 birth, born of spiritual marriage. 
 
 THE SCRIPTURE NARRATIVE IS REPRESENTATIVE. 
 
 In considering the narratives of the Scriptures, we 
 should always keep in mind the fact that the Bible is 
 
32 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 not merely a record of literal facts, but that it is, more 
 especiall}', a representative record of the development 
 and regeneration of the human soul, in all its conditions, 
 from ignorance and evil, up to wisdom and goodness. 
 
 The fact of the symbolic and representative character 
 of the Bible, is the great, central point, by which all 
 things of the Scriptures are to be interpreted. Jesus 
 said, " My words are spirit, and are life." And, in both 
 the Old and the New Testaments, all the words of the 
 Lord apply primarily to the spiritual life of man. 
 
 SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE. 
 
 The degree of regeneration, in every man, is according 
 to the degree in which the spiritual marriage of goodness 
 and truth, or love and wisdom, has been effected in 
 him. And, to illustrate this spiritual marriage by repre- 
 sentatives, the parable in our text pictures the conditions 
 of a natural marriage, and of its perversions. 
 
 URIAH AND DAVID. 
 
 Uriah, the Hittite, as a Gentile, represented a well- 
 disposed state of the natural mind. David, as a rich 
 Israelite, represented the interior natural mind, in- 
 structed in truth, rich in possession of spiritual flocks 
 and herds of good and true principles. 
 
 But the poor Gentile ha.d one possession, only, a little 
 ewe-lamb, a state of innocence in the natural mind, the 
 innocence of ignorance, such as there is in children ; 
 innocence which may be developed by instruction and 
 discipline, until it becomes the innocence of wisdom. 
 
 MORAL GOOD. 
 
 Such innocence may, for instance, be in moral good- 
 ness, an orderly life in externals, accompanied by a good 
 moral disposition. 
 
Nathan's Parable of the Ewe-Lamb. 33 
 
 The Gentile state of mind regards this moral good as 
 the one great good ; for it is not instructed as to spir- 
 itual good. A man in such a state mentally buys, or 
 procures, this moral good, by giving up disorderly states 
 of affection, for the sake of being moral. He nourishes 
 such moral good ; and it grows up in his mind, as one 
 of his mental family. It lies in his bosom ; i.e., in his 
 heart, in his affection. Such moral good eats and 
 drinks with him ; that is, it partakes of the same quality 
 as his general affections and thoughts. 
 
 THE TWO MEN IN ONE MIND. 
 
 Thus, the parable pictures the states of life of one 
 man, for David and Uriah here represent the different 
 principles in the same mind. They live in the same city ; 
 there is a common doctrine in the memory and thought. 
 
 But, after the beginning of regeneration, there are 
 two men, and very different men, in every man's mind. 
 One man is especially intellectual, and full of knowledge 
 of the truths of the Word and the church. And yet, 
 in the same mind, there may be a Gentile state of well- 
 disposed moral life. But the intellectual side may be 
 joined with the hereditary tendencies to evil. And these 
 tendencies may employ the intellect to advance their 
 desires. Intellectually, the mind may be full of knowl- 
 edge of good and true principles, and yet the mind does 
 not use such knowledge in the daily life. 
 
 THE TRAVELLER. 
 
 A traveller, in a good sense, is one who is progressing 
 in living, mentally journeying in the truth. The truth 
 journeys through our minds, from our outward mem- 
 ory, through our thought, into our affections ; and then 
 into our daily life. But, in the opposite sense, a trav- 
 eller is a false principle, drawn out of the memory, and 
 
 3 
 
34 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 journc)ing through our thought, seeking to enter into 
 our affection, and to come out in our conduct. 
 
 The spirit of the parable shows that, in our text, the 
 traveller is used in a bad sense, as a false principle, 
 wandering through the mind of David, and of every 
 man actuated by similar principles. 
 
 COMPLETE THE PICTURE. 
 
 The intellectual man is rich in abundance of knowl- 
 edge. The moral goodness in the mind is not instructed, 
 but possesses simple innocence, a little ewe-lamb. In 
 this condition, a false principle comes travelling through 
 the mind, seeking entertainment. It is set in motion by 
 some evil lust. What should the mind do, in such a 
 case? The intellectual side of the mind should draw 
 upon its riches of knowledge, and should apply to that 
 travelling falsity, the true and good principles known in 
 the memory. But, being urged by an evil lust, it does 
 not do this ; it does not instruct, or rebuke, the false 
 principle ; but it goes out and kills the little ewe-lamb 
 of Uriah, the simple principle of moral good. It seizes 
 upon this and kills it. It mixes up the idea of moral 
 good with the false principle, till the former has ceased 
 to retain its vitality. 
 
 1LLUSTK.\T10N. 
 
 As an illustration, see the moral good of marriage, 
 seized upon, and destroyed, by the spirit of Mormonism, 
 urged on b)- (he lusts of the sensuous mind, to entertain 
 the travelling falsity of polygamy. 
 
 A man's interior idea of marriage is the test of his 
 spirituality. 
 
 David, unlawfully looking upon llathshcba, and plan- 
 ning to kill her husband, to obtain her, is a representa- 
 tive picture of the natural mind, urged on bv some evil 
 
Nathan's Parable of the Ewe-Lamb. 35 
 
 passion, and seeking to make selfish use of some natural 
 state of innocence, but divorcing it from its proper 
 truth, on its own plane, in its own degree. 
 
 So, as men descend into sin, against their knowledge 
 of good and evil, they begin to covet the state of moral 
 good ; to justify their evils and sins, and to separate the 
 idea of moral good from its lawful husband, its accom- 
 panying literal truth. They admit that moral good, like 
 Bathsheba, is a beautiful woman. And they desire her 
 for themselves. But they would profess moral good, for 
 some selfish purpose. They would violate the purity of 
 innocent good, by perverting it to evil ends. What the 
 libertine does, literally, in perverting innocent good, so 
 does every evil principle, in the mind, perverting and 
 adulterating every good and innocent tendency, by em- 
 ploying it for evil purposes. 
 
 MURDER. 
 
 And this sin includes murder, the killing of every 
 true principle that stands in the way of the natural 
 man's purpose. 
 
 For instance ; a man has been in the habit of attend- 
 ing church. He feels that it is good and right for him 
 to worship the Lord, and to receive instruction from 
 His Holy Word. This external state of worship, well 
 disposed towards God and man, is a form of moral good, 
 a state of outward innocence. It may be ignorant, not 
 knowing that genuine worship is in the heart, and in 
 the daily life. Now, suppose this man's unholy personal 
 ambition should come travelling through his mind, to 
 satisfy its desires. He should feed it with rebuke and 
 instruction. But suppose, instead of doing so, he lets it 
 seize upon his outward affection for worship. Suppose 
 he adulterates his innocent moral good of worship with 
 his false principle of self-exaltation. Then, figuratively, 
 
36 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 he seizes upon Bathsheba ; and he kills Uriah, her hus- 
 band, who stands in his way ; i.e., he rejects every literal 
 truth which arises to rebuke his false principle. 
 
 Spiritually, we kill a man, when we destroy his faith 
 and love towards the Lord, in which is his spiritual life. 
 Murder is the spirit of hell, destroying everything that 
 looks towards heaven. You kill a truth, in your own 
 mind, or in another's, when )'ou pervert and falsify it, 
 to make it justify evils and sins. And, as all malice, 
 anger and ill-will are but forms of the spirit of murder, 
 so all falsity tends to destroy the life of truth. As adul- 
 tery and murder are the most serious crimes against 
 civil society, so spiritual adultery and murder are the 
 most destructive crimes against spiritual life. 
 
 MAURI. \G1-; AS IN THE LORD. 
 
 The principle of marriage is in the Lord, Himself, in 
 the union of His Love and Wisdom. The principle of 
 marriage pervades all creation, being most perfect in 
 the highest forms of created life. And in the heavens, 
 the highest angels are in the most perfect marriage. 
 And, on earth, sincere marriage is a protection against 
 evil influences, as all persons know, by experience, who 
 have been in that state of life. But confirmed adultery 
 is a surrender to the hells, followed by the perversion 
 and murder of all good and truth in the mind. 
 
 HOW DAVID REPRESENTS THE I.OKD. 
 
 It has often been asked how it can be that David rep- 
 resented the Lord, Jesus Christ, and yet committed such 
 crimes as those narrated in the context. Here we must 
 recognize a principle of representation. The actions of' 
 a representative man (representing the assumed human- 
 ity of the Lord) do not represent the acts of the Lord, 
 but the inherited tendencies of the assumed humanitv 
 
Nathan's Parable of the Ewe-Lamb. 37 
 
 of Jesus, born from the natural mother, but never in- 
 dulged in conduct. By means of these inherited ten- 
 dencies to evil, in the assumed humanity, " He was 
 tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin," 
 because He always resisted these tendencies, and over- 
 came them. David's crimes of adultery and murder 
 represented the profoundest mental temptations of the 
 assumed humanity; but the Lord never committed any 
 sin. 
 
 David's crimes. 
 
 In considering David's crimes, we must remember 
 that, in David's time, and among polygamists, though 
 his sins were forbidden by the Decalogue, men had not 
 then any spiritual discernment of the real quality of such 
 evils. Men were often killed, on very small provoca- 
 tion, or even without any excuse. Of course, David 
 understood something of the foulness of his sins. We 
 can learn something of his feeling from the 51st Psalm, 
 written just after these crimes. David was both king 
 and judge; and so his decision against the supposed 
 criminal was a legal judgment. His anger was strong, 
 against the evil-doer. 
 
 THE MORAL. 
 
 The moral of this parable is a warning against theo- 
 retical virtue, expressed in indignation against the evils 
 of other persons. When men will not see their own 
 evils, being too conceited, or too over-sensitive to criti- 
 cism, to receive direct warning, they are often taught 
 indirectly, until they see themselves as others see them. 
 When we are in a calm, judicial state of mind, sitting 
 in judgment upon others, it is easy to see right and 
 wrong in the abstract. And, as the apostle says, " He 
 that judgeth another, judgeth himself, when he doeth 
 
38 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 these things." It is one thing to see a sin to be a sin, 
 abstractly ; and it is another thing to see it to be our 
 sin. In our own case, we are apt to lay the censure upon 
 circumstances, or upon the conduct and influence of 
 others, or upon inherited tendencies, or upon mere im- 
 pulse, without serious intention. 
 
 But we are not generally so anxious to find excuses for 
 the doings of others, especially if their evils annoy us. 
 
 THEORETICAL GOODNESS. 
 
 You notice that David was very indignant against the 
 sinner in the parable. But it did not occur to him that 
 he was the sinner. And only when the practical appli- 
 cation was made to his own case, did he open his eyes 
 to the real state of the case. And here we may see the 
 important fact, that truth is of no practical importance 
 to us, as long as it is only an abstract case. It becomes 
 of use to us, in the degree in which it plainly says to 
 us, " Thou art the man." 
 
 David's repentance. 
 
 As soon as David saw the application of the parable 
 to himself, he admitted his evil, and acknowledged the 
 sin as his own. And, bad as he was, he would have 
 been worse, if he had resisted the truth when applied to 
 himself. When a man is fond of discussing truth theo- 
 retically, and is in the haliit of criticising others with it, 
 but is impatient when he is criticised, he is not sincere 
 in his regard for the truth. A sincerely good man hates 
 evils, especially in himself ; and he is glad to have his 
 evil tendencies pointed out. 
 
 CRITICISM. 
 
 Many a noble lover of his fellow-men feels called 
 upon to criticise, and to condemn, the evils of others, 
 
Nathan's Parable of the Ewe-Lamb. 39 
 
 as well as his own evils; but he does not enjoy such 
 criticism of others ; and he does not do it with any 
 malignant motive. 
 
 Suppose a minister, in preaching, had to be very 
 careful not to say anything which any one in the audi- 
 ence could apply to himself; of what use would such 
 preaching be? A minister preaches best, when he rec- 
 ognizes his own evil tendencies, and applies the Divine 
 Truth to them. Men are much alike in their natural 
 tendencies. 
 
 Sin is evil ; it is not merely chance, or circumstances, 
 or fate, or misfortune ; it is our own evil tendency, al- ■ 
 lowed to come out into our conduct. Therefore let us 
 be able to say, " I have kept myself from mine iniquity." 
 (Psalm xviii. 23.) 
 
40 Parables of the Old Testament Exl'laincd. 
 
 IV. 
 THE REVENGERS OF BLOOD. 
 
 I am, indeed, a widow woman, and my husband is dead. 
 And thy handmaid had two sons ; and they strove together in 
 the field ; and there was none to part them ; but the one smote 
 the other, and slew him. 
 
 And behold, the whole family is risen against thy hand- 
 maid : and they said. Deliver him that smote his brother, that 
 we may kill him, for the life of his brother, whom he slew : 
 and we will destroy the heir, also : and so they shall quench 
 my coal which is left, and shall not leave to my husband 
 name or remainder upon the earth. ... I pray thee, let the 
 king remember Jehovah, thy God, that thou wouldest not 
 suffer the revengers of blood to destroy any more, lest they 
 destroy my son. — II. Samuel xiv. 5-7, 11. 
 
 RETALIATION. 
 
 The spirit of retaliation is natural to the tinregen- 
 erate mind. It belongs to the animal part of our nature. 
 It creeps into our earliest feelings as little children. 
 And it is one of the most difficult of evils to overcome. 
 
 Retaliation is the natural response of self-love to the 
 attack of a supposed enemy. And, as long as a man is 
 governed by self-love, he is swayed by the spirit of re- 
 taliation, expressing itself in some form of revenge. In 
 fact, the natural man, when he speaks candidly, justifies 
 the spirit of revenge. He feels no obligation to be good 
 to those who have been unkind to him. He acknowl- 
 edges, of course, as men have always acknowledged, in 
 all ages, and in all countries, that it is evil to be unkind 
 to those who have been kind to us ; that ingratitude *o 
 a benefactor is among the meanest of sins ; and vet he 
 
The Revengers of Blood. 41 
 
 claims a right to hate those who have done evil to him. 
 " Blood for blood" is the cry of the unregenerate nat- 
 ural mind, at all times, and in all places. And the rec- 
 ognition of this feeling has been expressed in the com- 
 mon saying, " Revenge is sweet." A malignant man 
 will follow another for years, and at great expense, to 
 retaliate upon him, for some real or imagined injury; 
 to " get even with him." 
 
 HATRED. 
 
 Thus, we find the unregenerate man candidly saying, 
 " I love those who love me, and I hate those who injure 
 me, or who stand in the way of my desires, and inter- 
 fere with my plans." And, if we trace this feeling 
 further, we shall see that it leads to hatred of all persons 
 whom we envy, or whom we have injured. Singular as 
 it may seem, and unreasonable as it is, it is, nevertheless, 
 true, that, although we may hate those who have injured 
 us, yet the strongest hatred is that which we bear 
 towards those whom we have injured, and who have not 
 injured us; and especially if we have secretly injured 
 them; and most especially if we have, at the same time, 
 pretended to be friendly. 
 
 REVENGE NATURAL TO FALLEN MEN. 
 
 These things show their infernal origin ; and they 
 seem to be very unlovely, when we see them in others. 
 But, it must be candidly acknowledged that the ten- 
 dency to revenge exists in the natural mind of every 
 person, until it is driven out, through repentance and 
 reformation on the part of the person, and his regenera- 
 tion by the Lord. We all have such evil tendencies, in 
 some degree ; but we differ very much as to our indul- 
 gence, or resistance, to such tendencies. Every merely 
 natural-minded man feels that it is enough for him to 
 
4-2 Parables of tlie Old Testament Explained. 
 
 do, to love his friends, and that he cannot avoid hating 
 his enemies. 
 
 THE REVENGER OF BLOOD. 
 
 So Strong was the spirit of revenge, in olden time, 
 that there arose a custom of permitting the relatives of 
 a murdered man to revenge his death by killing his 
 murderer ; and, if the murderer, himself, could not be 
 reached, then his nearest relative might be killed, by the 
 nearest relative of the murdered man. 
 
 It was regarded as the duty of the nearest male rela- 
 tion, or " next of kin," to avenge the death of his 
 relative. And the next of kin was called " the revenger 
 of blood" or the " avenger of blood." And, in time, the 
 custom became worse and worse, until any relative of 
 the murderer, however distant, and however innocent, 
 might be slain b}' the revenger of blood, to retaliate for 
 the first murder. A little innocent babe might be 
 dragged from his mother's arms, and murdered before 
 her eyes, to revenge the murder of some person unknown 
 to him, committed by his most distant relative. And, to 
 the extent to which we, to-day, harbor any ill-will, mal- 
 ice, or revenge towards any other person, we are in- 
 dulging the very same spirit which drove the ancient 
 Israelite to thirst for the blood of innocent persons, who 
 happened to be relatives of murderers. 
 
 SPIRITU.M, MUUDER. 
 
 And if we do not resolutely resist the spirit of malig- 
 nant anger, in all its forms, we shall often aim de- 
 structive blows at the life of the spiritual children, the 
 growing afifections and thoughts of a new and regenerate 
 life, in ourselves, and in others. Malignant anger, in 
 all its forms, whether open or secret, arises from the 
 hells. 
 
The Revengers of Blood. 43 
 
 The spirit of Christianity is totally opposed to every 
 form of malice and revenge. Jesus said to the multi- 
 tudes, " Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou 
 shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy ; but I say 
 unto you, Love your enemies ; bless them that curse 
 you ; do good to them that hate you ; and pray for them 
 which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye 
 may be the children of your Father who is in heaven ; 
 for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the 
 good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 
 For, if ye love them that love you, what reward have 
 ye? Do not even the publicans the same?" (Matthew 
 V. 43-46.) 
 
 THE LITERAL IDEA. 
 
 In the literal sense, the text seems to have been a 
 shrewd and successful parable, to secure David's pardon 
 of Absalom for the murder of his half-brother, Amnon, 
 who, himself, had committed an atrocious and unmanly 
 crime against his half-sister, who was Absalom's full 
 sister. 
 
 THE REPRESENTATIVE IDEA. 
 
 But the Israelitish dispensation was representative ; 
 and all the particulars of the Israelitish life and customs, 
 as recorded in the Sacred Scriptures, are representative 
 of the conditions and activities of the human mind, in 
 its unregenerate states, and in its spiritual journey out 
 of evil into good. 
 
 Many things were permitted to the Israelites, because 
 they could not be led except by means of representatives 
 and symbols. 
 
 RETALIATION. 
 
 For instance, to a cruel and blood-thirsty people, the 
 law of retaliation seemed very just; and no higher form 
 of law could have held them in any better order of life. 
 
44 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 They were in such states of mind and life that fear 
 could govern them, when love could not. And the law 
 of retaliation, blood for blood, was the most external 
 form of a certain spiritual law; that is, that our evils 
 always bring upon ourselves the same evil that we intend 
 and do to others. And the outward law, as it reaches 
 the outward body of the man, is a representative of the 
 inward law which exists in the mind's life. 
 
 EVIL REACTS. 
 
 Evil, of any kind, mentally indulged towards others, 
 injures ourselves, because we make it a part of our own 
 character. For instance, while we are hating another 
 person, and secretly plotting against him, and doing all 
 we can to injure him, in any way, we are even more 
 surely plotting against our own spiritual life, and plan- 
 ning our own spiritual destruction ; especially if we are 
 seeking to injure one who has done good to us. And 
 the same truths apply to the struggles of one principle 
 against another, in our own minds. If our minds are 
 divided, our natural tendencies to evil warring against 
 the higher life of regeneration, which is beginning in 
 our spiritual minds, every natural disposition to resist 
 regeneration brings down upon its own head the penalty 
 of its efforts to undo the Lord's work in our spirit. 
 
 THE MENTAL STRUGGLE. 
 
 The parable of our text presents a representative pic- 
 ture of the struggle between our natural mind and our 
 spiritual mind. 
 
 For no man is regenerated without a struggle. The 
 spirit of revenge, as a natural tendency, is born in every 
 one of us. " Howbeit, this kind goeth not out, but by 
 prayer and fasting." And it is our dut)- to learn the 
 teachings of the Lord's Word, and the doctrines of the 
 
The Revengers of Blood. 45 
 
 church, from the Word, concerning these things ; and 
 then resolutely to bring these truths to bear upon our 
 own evil tendencies, until the voice of the truth shall 
 come before every evil tendency, as Nathan before 
 David, not only preaching true theories, but also prac- 
 tically applying the truth to our actual feelings, thoughts, 
 deeds, and words, and thus confronting each of them 
 with the convincing argument, "Thou art the man!" 
 
 THE WIDOW. 
 
 In the parable, the widow, deprived of her husband, 
 represents the mind in a state of natural affection, de- 
 prived of its protecting and guiding truth. There is, in 
 this state of the natural mind, a disposition towards 
 truth, but now separated from the truth. This is the 
 state of the mind, in many persons, at the beginning of 
 regeneration. But there are other states in the mind. 
 When the husband, the truth, was alive in the mind, 
 there were certain conditions developed, as outbirths of 
 natural affection and thought. 
 
 THE TWO SONS. 
 
 There were two sons. The first son was the natural 
 thought, which was the result of early states of life, 
 when genuine truth was not known. But, as the mind 
 opened to better things, a new birth was reached ; i.e., 
 truth was born in the spiritual mind. 
 
 Thus, in one sense, the two sons represent the nat- 
 ural thought and the spiritual thought, or the natural 
 mind and the spiritual mind, or the truth as seen in 
 these two minds, or two parts of the mind. Our first 
 states of thought are natural, and somewhat selfish, 
 even if we know something of the truth. We may have 
 the form of truth, without the spirit and life of truth. 
 And then, states of mind arise, in which we seem to 
 
46 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 lose sight of the truth ; that is, the truth seems to leave 
 us in a widowed condition of mind. But, at the same 
 time, there are crude and false ideas in our natural 
 thought, and some truth stored up in our spiritual 
 thought. And when these come into contact, in the 
 field of practical life, strife will follow, because they are 
 opposed to each other. And, if we are seeking regejiera- 
 tion, the truth in our spiritual mind will smite and slay 
 the false ideas in our natural thought ; i.e., will condemn 
 and destroy them. 
 
 THE FAMILY. 
 
 But, when the new truth thus opposes the old false 
 ideas, the " whole family," all the natural lusts and 
 falsities of the natural mind, arise, and seek to destroy 
 the new truth ; to retaliate upon it, for its destruction 
 of some false idea in the natural thought. But the 
 mother, all that is good in the natural affection, appeals 
 to the king, the ruling principle of the mind, to save 
 her son. 
 
 For instance, in our unregenerate states, we look to 
 the world and to self, and do not care for spiritual life. 
 But, when regeneration has begun, by a marriage in 
 our mind, of such truth and good as we have, our nat- 
 ural thought will still have many crude ideas, largely 
 selfish and worldly ; but our inward, spiritual mind will 
 have some glimpses of genuine truth. And, when we 
 come to act, in daily life, there will be a strife between 
 the self-interest and worldly policy of our natural 
 thought, and the clear principles of our spiritual thought. 
 
 If both our natural and spiritual thought were in good 
 order, there would be no occasion for any strife between 
 them, nor for the death of either of them. Each could 
 do its own work, on its own plane of life. But, when 
 there" are false ideas in our natural thought, these must 
 
The Revengers of Blood. 47 
 
 be cast out by the spiritual truth. But, as soon as we 
 determine that our selfish natural thoughts should be 
 cast out, as false, the whole family of our natural ten- 
 dencies to evil cry out for blood, and demand the de- 
 struction of the truth, which comes to destroy false 
 ideas. Thus, the false ideas and the evil tendencies are 
 banded together, as one family, for mutual offence and 
 defence, and to prevent the regeneration of the mind. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION. 
 
 As an illustration, take the feeling and thought of re- 
 venge. The natural thought believes in revenge. And 
 the natural will desires revenge. But the spiritual 
 thought sees that revenge is infernal in its character. 
 Then there will be a strife in the mind, as soon as any 
 practical action is needed in the case. This practical 
 action is the field, in which the two sons strive against 
 each other. Suppose some one has done us an injury, 
 and returned evil for the good we have done him. What 
 shall we do? Shall we hate him, and seek to retaliate 
 upon him ? Our natural mind argues that we shall 
 revenge ourselves. But our spiritual mind, seeing in 
 the light of spiritual truth, exposes the infernal char- 
 acter of all revenge, and, in fact, of all malignant an- 
 ger, Jn every form, including envy, which is a form of 
 malice. 
 
 In the light of this spiritual truth, we see that all our 
 angry, envious, and r-evengeful feelings and thoughts 
 are evil, and are infernal in their character. The grand 
 truth of Christian love, love even to those who hate us 
 and persecute us, arises, in its might, and strikes down 
 the natural falsity of retaliation. And now, perhaps, we 
 think we have secured ourselves in goodness, and have 
 expelled all our envious and angry feelings and 
 thoughts. 
 
48 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 THE STRIFE. 
 
 But no! there is more work to do, before we shall be 
 secure. In our thought, the truth has stricken down the 
 falsity ; and we see what is good and what is evil. But, 
 behind that apparently dead falsity, there is a " whole 
 family" of evil affections and false thoughts, which are 
 at once aroused to activity. For, all our evils and falsi- 
 ties have a common origin and character, and they are 
 all banded together as one family ; and, if we smite one 
 of them, we strike a blow at them all. And they all 
 arise, and take the part of the falsity that we have put 
 down. They come trooping up, out of our unregenerate 
 nature, and cry for the death of the spiritual truth, 
 which dares to molest one of their family. For they 
 know that tlie moment the spiritual truth gains a foot- 
 hold in the practical conduct of life, it will increase in 
 power, until all evils and falsities are cast out. And so 
 these evils and falsities fight for their own life, when 
 they take the part of any member of their family. 
 
 FALSE ARGUMENT. 
 
 And, of course, they argue their right to destroy that 
 truth, because it has destroyed one of their relatives, 
 one of the great family of falsities. 
 
 For instance; though we have reasoned ourselves. out 
 of the idea of direct revenge for injuries done to us, or 
 supposed to have been done, yet all our natural cunning, 
 our worldly policy, our self-conceit, our over-sensitive- 
 ness, our pride, our envy, and every other tendency to 
 evil, will join with every false thought in our natural 
 mind, to attempt to kill the practical influence of the 
 spiritual truth, and to prevent it from controlling our 
 actual conduct. Many pretended reasons will arise in 
 the natural thought, to show that, at least in our present 
 instance, it is our duty to punish the one who has injured 
 
The Revengers of Blood. 49 
 
 us, or who is trying to injure us; tliat the public good 
 demands it ; or that we must put the person in such a 
 position that he cannot do any more evil. By means of 
 such arguments, the family of our natural evils and 
 falsities, as revengers of blood, attempt to destroy the 
 actual use of the spiritual truth which we have theo- 
 retically adopted. And the cunning of these evils and 
 falsities is shown in the fact that, in a proper sense, 
 some of their arguments are true. But our evils are 
 using them for a bad purpose. 
 
 INDIFFERENCE IN INJURY. 
 
 And it is necessary to remember, also, that, to be 
 indifferent as to whether our words or doings injure 
 others, is as bad, in spirit, as to intend to injure them ; 
 for indifference shows an entire absence of Christian 
 love. We always carefully guard the interests of those 
 whom we love ; and the spirit of Christianity requires 
 us to love, and carefully to guard, the spiritual interests 
 of all men. 
 
 CHRISTIAN LOVE. 
 
 Christian love requires us to act for the spiritual good 
 of those who do evil to us, and to work in such manner 
 as will be most likely to reach them. It is necessary to 
 remember that it is just as evil, in us, to be revengeful 
 in return for an injury, as it was for the evil-doer to do 
 the injury to us. 
 
 Putting down all revengeful feelings and thoughts, 
 and entering into the glorious experience of Christian 
 love, we can ascejid the mountain of human character, 
 far above the dust and smoke and clouds that hover 
 about the lower planes of sensuous life ; we can rise to 
 grander heights of spiritual life, into whose sacred pre- 
 cincts the infernal spirit of anger never can intrude. 
 
50 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 RE-UNITING THE TWO SONS. 
 
 Enlig-htened rational thought can finally unite the two 
 sons, the natural thought and the spiritual thought, and 
 make them co-operate in harmony, until, both in our 
 inward and our outward thoughts, we are guided by 
 " the self-evidencing reason of love." And, in this high 
 state, we look upon those who injure us as persons in 
 misery, needing our help. 
 
 THE EVIL-DOER THE REAL SUFFERER. 
 
 For the real sufferer is not the one to whom the injury 
 is done, but the one who intends and does the injury; 
 for, upon the doer the injury recoils with double power. 
 He injures his own spiritual life. He joins with the 
 infernal spirits, in making himself very miserable at 
 heart. And, if he succeeds in making us angry and 
 revengeful, in return, he drags us down with him. But, 
 as we rise above the spirit of retaliation, and return love 
 for hatred, and good for evil, we rise far beyond any 
 real injury; and then, the intended injury becomes a 
 means of our higher development; a temptation, per- 
 mitted for our spiritual good. " Blessed are they who 
 are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the 
 kingdom of heaven." (Matthew v. lo.) 
 
The Escaped Prisoner. 51 
 
 V. 
 
 THE ESCAPED PRISONER. 
 
 Thy servant went out into the midst of the battle; and be- 
 hold, a man turned aside, and brought a man unto me, and said, 
 Keep this man : if by any means he be missing, then shall thy 
 life be for his life, or else thou shalt pay a talent of silver. 
 And, as thy servant was busy, here and there, he was gone. — 
 I. Kings xx. 39, 40. 
 
 INDULGING FALSITY. 
 
 No falsity should ever be allowed its freedom in our 
 mind. For no false principle can ever produce genuine 
 good. When the truth is admitted into our mind, its 
 coming should involve the expulsion of every idea seen 
 to be false. Every falsity should be taken prisoner by 
 our rational faculty, and held in bondage, until disposed 
 of, and rendered incapable of doing further injury. 
 And, knowing a principle to be false, our further indul- 
 gence of it is at the peril of our spiritual life. 
 
 THE REPRESENTATIVE SENSE. 
 
 Israel represented the Lord's church. And the 
 enemies of Israel represented the evil and false princi- 
 ples, which are the enemies of the church, and of every 
 man of the church. In a representative age, Israel was 
 commanded to subdue and exterminate certain enemies, 
 to represent the necessary subjugation and extermina- 
 tion of evils and falsities, in the mind of every man of 
 the church. The Divine command to Israel, to destroy 
 
52 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 their enemies, seems very hard. But, in all these things, 
 we need to remember the representative character of 
 Israel, and of the Scripture record. 
 
 Truly, these things were hard; but they were the 
 Lord's dealings with very hard men, who could not 
 otherwise have been prevented from becoming even 
 worse than they were. To-day, even in the most ad- 
 vanced Christian countries, we recognize the necessity 
 of dealing differently with different kinds of men. Good 
 men have their freedom, but criminals are imprisoned, 
 and even put to death. And proper prison-discipline is 
 good for the bad men, themselves, as well as for the 
 community. 
 
 The laws given to Israel were in a form best adapted 
 to such a people. We cannot read the whole case, as the 
 Lord saw it. But we have abundant evidence that " The 
 Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all 
 His works." Whatever could have been done, to save 
 such men from worse evils, the Lord did. " Shall not 
 the Judge of all the earth do right?" 
 
 ADAPTATION. 
 
 The Lord's mercy, in reaching each man, must take 
 form according to the man's conditions of character. 
 Let us illustrate. 
 
 What is the Lord's mercy to a sound and healthy eye? 
 Surely, it is a full supply of light. But what is the 
 Lord's mercy to an injured, or diseased, eye? Surely, 
 it is a tempering of the light to the conditions of the 
 eye that is to use the light. What is mercy to the man- 
 gled arm? If it cannot be saved, mercy would cut it 
 off, that the rest of the body may not die, also. The 
 science and art of surgery are not butchery, but mercy. 
 And what is mercy to a bad child ? Not indulgence, but 
 discipline. So is it, in regard to all the adaptations of 
 
The Escaped Prisoner. S3 
 
 the Lord's mercies to the character and conditions of 
 men. What cannot be restored to order, must be cut 
 off, to preserve the general Hfe. This was the Lord's 
 direction, when He said, " If thy right eye offend thee, 
 pluck it out, and cast it from thee. . . . And if thy right 
 hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee ; for it 
 is profitable for thee that one of thy members should 
 perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into 
 hell." 
 
 THE INTERPRETATION. 
 
 The parable of our text relates to our conflicts against 
 our evil and false principles, during temptations. In its 
 supreme inward meaning, it refers to these struggles in 
 the assumed humanity of our Lord, during the process of 
 glorification, which united the Humanity with the Divin- 
 ity. In the text, the battle is the temptation. The " man" 
 who brought the prisoner, and said " Keep this man," 
 etc., is the Lord. During the temptation, the Lord opens 
 our rational faculty, our ability to see truth as truth ; 
 and He shows us the real character of some false prin- 
 ciple that has been fighting against our spiritual life. 
 He says, to our rational faculty, " Keep this man," as a 
 prisoner; i.e., hold this false principle in subjection, and 
 do not allow it to influence your thoughts and feelings, 
 or it will destroy your spiritual life. If you give it free- 
 dom to do its work against your mind, it will undermine 
 your spiritual life. It is false and infernal. And you 
 must either destroy it, or be destroyed by it. It is a 
 question of its life or your life. If you grow careless 
 about it, and forget to keep strict watch over it, it will 
 escape from your rational control ; and it will go on, 
 within your mind, doing its infernal work fighting 
 against your spiritual life. Thus our Lord ever cautions 
 us to beware of both the secret and open influence of a 
 false principle, which is in our natural thought. 
 
54 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 THE TALENT OF SILVER. 
 
 " Keep this man ; if by any means he be missing {i.e., 
 gains his freedom), then shall thy life be for his life, or 
 else thou shalt pay a talent of silver." The talent was 
 the largest weight in use in Israel. A talent of silver 
 was a large amount, worth, probably, more than two 
 thousand dollars of our money. By the payment of a 
 talent of silver, the man condemned to death for allow- 
 ing the prisoner to escape, could redeem his life. In a 
 good sense, silver represents spiritual truth ; but, in a 
 bad sense, silver would be truth falsified, or falsity. For 
 all good things, when abused, or employed for evil pur- 
 poses, change their representative signification to the 
 opposite. Thus, in the text, as the man is condemned, 
 and must pay, or give up, the silver, the silver must 
 represent falsity. And a weight represents something 
 of the affections as distinguished from a measure, which 
 represents the thoughts, or the intellectual part of the 
 mind. The literal Hebrew of the text is, " thou shalt 
 weigh a talent of silver." To weigh, or pay, a talent 
 of silver, to redeem the man's life, is, then, to give up 
 his love of the false principle which threatens his spir- 
 itual life. 
 
 SEEING A FALSITY. 
 
 Thus, if the Lord, by means of His revealed truth, 
 opens our eyes to see the infernal character of a false 
 principle, our spiritual life depends upon our holding 
 this false principle in subjection, and destroying its prac- 
 tical influence in our life. And, to save our spiritual 
 life, we must either know the character of a false prin- 
 ciple, and hold it under subjection to enlightened ration- 
 ality, or we must give up any afTection for such a false 
 principle. For an external false thought will do no 
 permanent injury to our spirit, if it is not allowed to 
 influence our will, or our actual conduct. 
 
The Escaped Prisoner. 55 
 
 Almost all the modern systems of religious doctrine 
 contain many false ideas, about the character of God, 
 and the spiritual life of man; and yet the Lord leads 
 men to heaven by means of these systems of doctrine, 
 because men can hold the false ideas in their memory 
 only, and not in their hearts, or in their lives. There are 
 many false ideas in men's minds, held practically harm- 
 less, because not used to justify evils. The literal sense 
 of the Scriptures is full of ideas which are not true, 
 spiritually, but true only symbolically and representa- 
 tively. But no man vifill lose his spiritual life by be- 
 lieving, literally, all symbolic statements of the Scrip- 
 tures, provided he does not use such ideas to justify 
 his evils. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION. 
 
 For instance, it is not really true that God is angry, 
 or partial, or vindictive, as He is sometimes represented 
 to be. These statements are appearances of truth, to the 
 natural-minded, unenlightened man. But the spiritually 
 enlightened man knows that God is love, and that He 
 has no unlovely qualities. But the man who cannot be 
 led by love, must be held by fear. And he must believe 
 in the kind of a God who can hold him under control. 
 Thus, even if a false notion remains in our memory, we 
 can redeem our life by paying a talent of silver; that 
 is, by giving up any love of false principles. 
 
 For, then, though we may have false ideas as to facts, 
 yet we shall not feel and act from any false principle of 
 life. He who obeys the Lord's law as intelligently as he 
 knows how to do so; and who obeys the law because it 
 is the Lord's law, is doing all he can now do, to live 
 according to the Lord's will. And, though he may hold 
 in his memory, and in his outward thought, many false 
 notions as to facts, yet he will act from a true principle 
 of love and obedience to the Lord. 
 
56 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 THE RULING LOVE. 
 
 His ruling love will be good; and finally it will be 
 fully enlightened. For the ruling love is an absolute 
 monarch in the mind, keeping all things of its mental 
 empire under its control. 
 
 The more a man obeys the Lord's will, as he under- 
 stands it, the more clearly he will come to understand 
 it. " If any man will do His will, he shall know of the 
 doctrine." " The law of the Lord is perfect, converting 
 the soul." But the law converts those who obey it. 
 
 THE lord's prisoner. 
 
 The Lord commanded Israel to destroy certain 
 enemies. And when the king of Israel had captured 
 one of these enemies, he should have held that enemy 
 as the Lord's prisoner, subject to the Lord's command- 
 ment. So, in the work of regeneration, we are to do 
 our Lord's will. Whenever we see the falsit\' of an)- 
 principle, we are to hold it under subjection, as the 
 Lord's prisoner, to be dealt with according to the Lord's 
 commandments. We are to show no apparent mercy to 
 any false principle. For either our life or its life must 
 be destroyed. Once captured, as a prisoner, no falsity 
 is to be allowed to escape, and regain its freedom, to 
 fight against our spiritual life. 
 
 Consider the inmiense importance of this practical 
 point. In our more open states, we are given some per- 
 ception of the quality, or character, of the false princi- 
 ples which exist in our natural thought. Like Moses, 
 we are led up into the mountain, that we may see the 
 pattern of what our life should be; and then we are to 
 go down, again, to the plain of practical daily life, there 
 to build our temple according to the pattern that was 
 shown us in the mount. 
 
 It was the folly of Ahab to allow his haughty, insult- 
 
The Escaped Prisoner. 57 
 
 ing, and blaspheming enemy to escape, to do more harm 
 to Israel. 
 
 SPIRITUAL FOLLY. 
 
 And how much more foohsh it is, in us, to allow any 
 "false principle to remain free to attack us, after we have 
 once seen its infernal character. For instance, our nat- 
 ural pride has taken us into very much trouble. Perhaps 
 a temptation arises, during which we see that an utterly 
 false principle underlies our natural pride. Why, then, 
 should we ever allow that pride to influence us, any 
 more? If the Lord has revealed to us its real character. 
 He has, in the midst of the battle of temptation, deliv- 
 ered this pride, as a prisoner, into the keeping of our 
 rationality. And He will require it, at our hand. 
 
 THE POINT OF DANGER. 
 
 The real danger does not exist so much in our inward 
 thought, as in the practical doings of our outward daily 
 life. While our attention is fixed upon the character of 
 the falsity, we hold it fast, as a prisoner. But the real 
 danger comes when we are " busy, here and there," in 
 the details of daily life. In such times, even a known 
 falsity is apt to slip away, beyond our rational control, 
 to use its evil influence, again, in the battle of life. Our 
 mental Benhadad acknowledges that the God of Israel 
 is a God of the hills, the high-places of the mind ; but 
 the king still expects to conquer us, by fighting against 
 us in the level plain of common life. 
 
 We have need, then, to guard our prisoner, while we 
 are " busy, here and there," lest the actual influence of 
 an acknowledged falsity be allowed to creep into our 
 feelings, thoughts, and conduct ; lest we theoretically 
 denounce a falsity, and yet allow it practically to in- 
 fluence us. There is a vast difference between theo- 
 retical and practical virtue. " And let not him who 
 
58 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 girdeth on his amior," in the beginning of the war, 
 " boast himself as he that putteth it oiif," after an actual 
 destruction of his enemy. 
 
 FALSE PRINCIPLES. 
 
 It is a false principle that the good things of this life 
 are more to be desired than spiritual blessings. It is a 
 falsity that money is the one thing needed for happiness. 
 It is a false idea that reputation is more important than 
 character. Now, if we once clearly see that these notions 
 are false, the Lord has handed them over to us, as pris- 
 oners, to be kept subject to His commands. If, to-day, 
 we see that they are foes, why should we, to-morrow, 
 allow them their freedom in our minds? 
 
 STRENGTH OF CHARACTER. 
 
 Spiritual strength of character is in willingness to do 
 what is good and to resist what is evil. Sometimes, 
 weakness of purpose, and lack of strength of character, 
 are mistaken for mercy and generosity. Strength is not 
 in the soft-heartedness which cannot do what seems 
 hard, even when necessary ; which cannot cut off an 
 arm to save a life ; which cannot rebuke sin, to save the 
 soul of the sinner. Why are social and business life so 
 full of frauds? Simply Ijccause there are so many weak 
 men and women, who have not the determined purpose 
 to resist temptations ; who accustom themselves to in- 
 dulgence, until they are not willing to put away a prin- 
 ciple which they know to be false and evil. 
 
 GENUINE NEW-CHURCH MEN. 
 
 If the New- Jerusalem Church is ever to show the 
 practical fruits of new truths, it must be by devclopino- 
 a race of men with more spiritual courage ; men who 
 
The Escaped Prisoner. 59 
 
 will be faithful in all the walks of life; men who 
 will live in a high and pure atmosphere of integrity, 
 personal and official ; men who can promptly say no to 
 every false and seductive influence that cunningly besets 
 them; high, broad, full men, who, seeing the falsity of 
 any principle, will hold it a prisoner with a grasp that 
 it cannot escape. Give us such men, who scorn all fraud 
 and meanness ; men who stand ready to meet any crisis ; 
 men who can stand as beacon-lights in the dangerous 
 ocean of weaklings ; give us such men, or the meanness, 
 the sensuousness, and the thousand forms of modern 
 fraud, will sap the foundation of our country, and of our 
 race. And where should we expect to find such noble 
 men, but in the Church of the New Jerusalem, where 
 the truths of spiritual life are known. We are living in 
 dangerous times, in the breaking up of old ideas, and 
 the seed-time of new principles. But crises are the 
 means of developing strong character. A crisis brings 
 not only a warning, but also an opportunity. These are 
 times which try men's principles. Weak men follow the 
 current of popular customs ; but men of spiritual 
 strength test every influence which seeks to control their 
 feelings, thoughts, and actions. And when they clearly 
 see the false character of any popular principle, they 
 hold it down, as the Lord's prisoner, subject to His 
 commandments. 
 
 They know that every false principle leads to spiritual 
 death. And they are not willing to lose an advantage, 
 once gained, over a false principle. Once seen, and 
 driven from their deliberate plans, it must also be driven 
 from their outward thought, and from their actual con- 
 duct. 
 
 OPENNESS TO TRUTH. 
 
 Truth is abundant; but every man must earnestly 
 endeavor to keep his heart, and his intellect, and his 
 
6o Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 conduct, in a state receptive of truth, and ready to adopt 
 it, when it comes to him. 
 
 Many a truth shines upon a mind that is not open to 
 receive it. We all recognize the fact that, at some times, 
 we are much more open to receive spiritual truth than 
 at others. It is so in a congregation. The Lord's Word 
 is read, for spiritual instruction ; the singing appeals to 
 our affections ; and the sermon addresses our rational 
 thought. But, on any Sunday, there will be some per- 
 sons who are especially interested in the services, and 
 some who are comparatively indifferent. And those who 
 were indifferent, last Sunday, may be especially open, 
 to-day. And the one who is open-minded, to-day, is the 
 one who will receive something, to-day. " Blessed- are 
 they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for 
 they shall be filled." (Matthew v. 6.) 
 
 Woe to the man whose spiritual earnestness has been 
 exhausted. He is as a mass of ashes, after the fire has 
 burned out. Especially in these days, do we need ear- 
 nestness of purpose, to keep down the cunning false 
 principles, which meet us at every turn, in social, politi- 
 cal, and commercial life. 
 
 " I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto Thy 
 testimonies. . . . The proud have forged a lie against 
 me, but I will keep Thy precepts with my whole heart." 
 (Psalm cxix. 59, 69.) 
 
The Ambitious Thistle. 6i 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE AMBITIOUS THISTLE. 
 
 The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was 
 in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son, to wife. 
 And there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and 
 trod down the thistle. — IL Kings xiv. 9. 
 
 THE SELF-ASSURANCE OF THE NATURAL MIND. 
 
 The thought of the natural senses cannot comprehend 
 spiritual truth. And yet, throughout the history of man, 
 the natural mind, seeing in the light of the natural 
 senses, has attempted to penetrate the mysteries of man's 
 spiritual life. But no such effort has been successful ; 
 and it never can be ; for spiritual things are visible in 
 their own light, only. 
 
 THE LITERAL STORY. 
 
 In the days when Judah and Israel were separated, 
 Amaziah, king of Judah, having conquered the Edom- 
 ites, and thirsting for greater military glory, sent a 
 message to Jehoash, king of Israel, challenging Israel 
 to combat. But Jehoash declined the challenge, and 
 advised Amaziah to tarry at home, and not to meddle 
 with others, to his own injury. And, to express his 
 contempt for the army of Judah, Jehoash introduced into 
 his reply the parable of our text, contrasting the mean 
 and worthless thistle, which any large beast could tread 
 down, with the grand, towering cedar of Lebanon, 
 deeply and firmly rooted in the earth, and withstanding 
 the storms of centuries. 
 
62 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 Amaziah, not heeding the advice of Jehoash, insisted 
 on making war; but, in the battle that followed, he and 
 his army were utterly routed. 
 
 The lessons of the literal sense of the context are 
 plain and useful. In the first place, it is never safe to 
 provoke a quarrel. In principle, it is not right to quarrel. 
 But, even if ambitious and quarrelsome persons seek 
 quarrels from policy, they often meet unexpected results. 
 Therefore, both good principle and prudent policy 
 would induce men to be peaceable. Secondly, it is never 
 safe to under-estimate the power of an enemy; for our 
 mistake gives the enemy a great advantage over us, and 
 leaves us unprepared for what we have to meet. One 
 of the best proofs of ability, in a leader, or in a man's 
 management of his own affairs, is his habit of carefully 
 and accurately estimating his own resources, and also 
 the difficulties of the work before him. The most suc- 
 cessful managers are those who always make an allow- 
 ance for contingencies, and who never permit anything 
 to take them by surprise, or to catch them unprepared. 
 
 In all the practical affairs of life, weak men and care- 
 less men are taken by surprise, and found unprepared. 
 They take things for granted ; they suppose that, some- 
 how, things will come out all right ; they guess that 
 their ways will do. But they do not carefully see that 
 things shall be brought out all right. 
 
 Thirdly, another lesson of the text is the danger of 
 over-estimating our own abilities. Many a young man, 
 unduly exalted by a little local fame as an athlete, sets 
 out upon a journey through the continent, expecting to 
 excel in the wide world, as he excelled in his own vil- 
 lage. And generally such a man soon returns to his 
 home, humbled by defeat. " Let not him who girdeth 
 on his harness, boast himself as he that putteth it off." 
 (I. Kings XX. II.) Many a man who can do something 
 fairly well, ruins himself by attempting too much. 
 
The Ambitious Thistle. 63 
 
 " Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit 
 before a fall." (Proverbs xvi. 18.) Those who have 
 been prosperous, should be grateful and modest. If 
 they become proud by success, they turn a blessing into 
 a curse. 
 
 Of course, a man must make an effort, or he will 
 never succeed. But every man should seek to know 
 what his own capacities are, and not fail by attempting 
 too much, or by under-estimating the difficulties of the 
 work. Over-confidence in himself has induced many a 
 man to be careless, when by proper care and work he 
 could have succeeded; as, in the old fable of the race 
 between the hare and the tortoise, the plodding industry 
 of the slowly-moving tortoise outstripped the careless 
 ability of the speedy hare. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL MEANING. 
 
 All these things are suggestive ; for the spiritual sense 
 of the text treats of similar principles, applied to our 
 spiritual life. 
 
 "The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar 
 that was in Lebanon, saying. Give thy daughter to my 
 son, to wife. And there passed by a wild beast that 
 was in Lebanon, and trod down the thistle." Mount 
 Lebanon, with its grand forest of gigantic cedar-trees, 
 represented the spiritual man, or the spiritual mind of 
 man, with its far-reaching rational knowledges of spir- 
 itual truth. Cedars, which are evergreen trees, denote 
 rational thoughts. The cedars of Lebanon represented 
 the knowledges of spiritual truth, rationally seen and 
 understood. Thistles, from their noxious character, and 
 their dangerous prickly points, represent the false prin- 
 ciples which spring from evils. As the thistle, once 
 allowed a foot-hold in a field, is very difficult to exter- 
 minate, so the false principles which spring from evil 
 
64 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 affections, cling to our minds, with great tenacity. The 
 son of a thistle is a false thought, springing from a 
 false principle. The daughter of a cedar of Lebanon is 
 the affection for spiritual truth. 
 
 THE MARRIAGE. 
 
 To give the daughter of the cedar to be the wife of 
 the son of the thistle, is to join our affection for truth 
 to some false thought of the natural mind. And the 
 attempt to effect such a union is constantly made by the 
 natural mind. Affection needs the light of truth. It 
 longs for the truth. Our Lord is cultivating, in us, an 
 affection for spiritual truth ; and He seeks to unite this 
 affection with our knowledge of truth, in our under- 
 standing, and thus to lead us into the heavenly marriage 
 of goodness and truth. But the evil spirits, who asso- 
 ciate with our unregenerate tendencies, seek to prevent 
 this heavenly marriage. They try to induce our growing 
 affection to fix itself uix)n the falsities of the senses, 
 and to love them as truths. They seek to make us 
 expect to be wise in spiritual things from our natural 
 senses. 
 
 The idea of marriage is introduced into the literal 
 parable, in order to illustrate the subject of equality; 
 for, by Oriental custom, he who asked another for his 
 daughter, must be at least his equal in social rank. And, 
 in the spiritual sense, we see the arrogance of the nat- 
 ural mind, filled with false notions of the senses, imag- 
 ining itself fully equal, in spiritual degree, to the inward 
 affection for spiritual truth. There is a continued effort 
 of the sensuous mind to drag down the spiritual part of 
 the mind, to the low level of the senses, as represented 
 by the low and miserable thistle, seeking to wed the 
 lofty cedar of Lebanon. 
 
 Our senses suggest that we should live for this world. 
 
The Ambitious Thistle. 65 
 
 and that we should be free to feel, to think, and to do 
 as we are naturally inclined. Such anarchistic thoughts 
 are the sons of the prolific thistle. But our Lord guards 
 and protects our affection for spiritual truth, our daugh- 
 ter of the cedar of Lebanon, from any wretched mar- 
 riage-union with the thistle-falsities of our senses. But, 
 in such protection, He needs our co-operation, in learn- 
 ing His truth, and in keeping His commandments. 
 
 The history of the church is full of painful examples 
 of the falsities of the senses forming mis-union with 
 men's love of truth. Witness the number of persecu- 
 tions of conscientious heretics. How many loving men 
 have done most unlovely deeds, because convinced of 
 their virtue and necessity, under the cunning arguments 
 of false- notions as to the character and plans of God. 
 And similar misalliances occur in our individual mental 
 life, in which our sensuous falsities, springing up from 
 our evil tendencies, drag down to their low level, what- 
 ever we have of love for spiritual truth. That young 
 maiden-lave, which should be given to a noble husband, 
 her spiritual equal, a grand truth of spiritual life, is 
 drawn into misery in an unholy union with some false 
 notion of our natural senses. We lose sight of the real 
 truth, and wed our affection to some cunning falsity. 
 
 EXAMPLES. 
 
 Perhaps, for instance, we have some love for truth, 
 but we join it with the dreadful falsity of self-intelli- 
 gence, under whose direction we imagine that we are 
 fully capable of understanding the truths of human life, 
 without any revelation from the Lord. Perhaps we 
 imagine that natural science has all necessary truth, and 
 that there is no spiritual life, or spiritual world. Or, 
 perhaps, with still moTe subtle power, a false principle 
 has led us to acknowledge a God, and a spiritual world, 
 
 5 
 
66 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 and to have some love of the truths which we know, and 
 yet to glory in our own intelligence ; and to forget that 
 there is not, in ourselves, and of ourselves, any ability 
 to distinguish between truth and falsity, and goodness 
 and evil, except when led and taught by our Lord, in 
 the revelation of His laws. 
 
 Many times, although we have some love of truth, 
 yet some miserable falsity of the senses holds our aflfec- 
 tion for truth in an unholy union, and renders it prac- 
 tically unfruitful of good. Perhaps in actual life, we 
 continually under-estimate the power of evil, acting upon 
 our wrong inclinations and tendencies. Perhaps we 
 over-estimate our strength, and forget our entire de- 
 pendence upon our Lord. Our Lord teaches us that all 
 good is in Him and from Him. And if we keep this 
 truth always in mind, we shall accept the good, and use 
 it as the Lord's gift, without imagining that- we are 
 good, apart from the Lord. And, on the other hand, if 
 we remember that all evil is from the hells, we can see 
 and acknowledge our own tendencies to evil, and then 
 ascribe these to the hells, and reject them from our 
 feelings, thoughts, and conduct. In this way, we shall 
 not appropriate evils as our own. But, if we love evils, 
 as our own, we make ourselves responsible for them. 
 And if we claim good as our own, we separate it from 
 its source in the Lord, and thus deprive it of its heavenly 
 quality. 
 
 You notice many young men who have acquired bad 
 habits. If you warn one of them of these habits, he 
 may reply, " I am not a slave to my habits. I can 
 stop these things, whenever I please. Do you suppose 
 I have no strength of mind ?" And what is the usual re- 
 sult? The young man over-estimates his own spiritual 
 strength, and he under-estimates the subtle power of 
 evil. 
 
 And some of us have lived long enough to see a great 
 
The Ambitions Thistle. 67 
 
 many such men go down into premature graves, wrecked 
 physically, mentally, and morally, and probably spirit- 
 ually, also, and leaving behind them bad names, bad 
 examples, and bad influence. While such men flatter 
 themselves that they can cease their bad habits, at any 
 time, they forget that they are daily growing weaker, 
 morally, by indulgence, while their evils are growing 
 stronger by the same indulgence. 
 
 PROMPT RESISTANCE. 
 
 The only safe time to throw off an evil, is as soon as 
 we see it to be an evil. Every indulgence of a known 
 evil is but a new rivet in the chain that binds our man- 
 hood in slavery to the hells. Forewarned, we are fore- 
 armed. A great point is gained, when we know the 
 practical differences between good and evil. Our evil 
 tendencies are like fires : before they gather headway, a 
 little of the water of truth may quench them, but, later, 
 they grow beyond control, and destroy our mental house. 
 Evil influences are always urging us to quarrel with 
 the higher life that the Lord is developing within us. 
 But, if we could lift the veil which hides the objective 
 spiritual world ; and if we could see the origin of our 
 bad impulses ; we would acknowledge our folly, in heed- 
 ing the malicious and insane suggestions of evil spirits. 
 
 Picture to yourselves a man under the influence of 
 evil passions. He is acted upon by evil spirits. He 
 stands near the open door of some hell ; and the foul 
 influences rush out, and push him on, to do their bid- 
 ding. Above him there is an open door to heaven ; and 
 the angels are beckoning him to the celestial beatitudes. 
 But he has turned his back to the heavens, and his face 
 to the hells. Why can he not recognize his own 
 wretched condition? Because some false principle has 
 possession of his understanding, and has encouraged 
 
68 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 his tendencies to evil. If he has any love of truth, that 
 daughter of the cedar of Lebanon has been wedded by 
 the son of the miserable thistle, and she is wofully mis- 
 directed. 
 
 The universe is full of good; but a man must be in 
 condition to appreciate, and to adopt it, before he can 
 be fully blessed by it. The earth is full of food for the 
 body, but the body must be in condition to digest and 
 assimilate its food. 
 
 DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 
 
 The Lord always supplies, to every man, all the good 
 and the truth which the man is ready to use, without 
 abusing. " No good will He withhold from them that 
 walk uprightly." Men live on different planes of life. 
 Each man is open to a certain degree of life, on a certain 
 plane. And each is satisfied when his open faculties are 
 filled. He does not feel the lack of those things to 
 which he is not open. It never occurs to a worm to 
 cry out " Oh that I had wings like a dove." The mole 
 loves to travel under ground ; this is his life. But it 
 would be death to almost any other beast. Thus, the 
 Lord, in His infinite love, " opens His hand and satisfies 
 the desire of every living thing," each according to its 
 form of life. 
 
 And it is so with the principles of our mental life : 
 the Lord develops every spiritual faculty that we are 
 willing to have opened in us, with our co-operation. 
 And in many ways, seen and unseen, He protects us 
 from false principles and false notions, as far as we 
 are willing to be thus protected. He guards and guides 
 our affections, so that they may not be imposed upon 
 by the falsities of our natural and sensuous thought. 
 
 And, among all the safeguards that protect us, the 
 most important is our daily life of obedience to His 
 
The Ambitious Thistle. 69 
 
 commandments. " If any man will do His will, he shall 
 know of the doctrine." (John vii. 17.) " He shall give 
 His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy 
 
 ways." 
 
 TREADING DOWN THE THISTLE. 
 
 In the text, although the thistle proposed marriage 
 with the cedar, yet it is said, " And there passed by a 
 wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trod down the 
 thistle." Beasts, as forms of life, represent affections. 
 For every consciously living thing is a form of some 
 affection. These affections may be either good or bad. 
 A wild beast is mentioned, as wild, in the sense of free, 
 and not in the sense of bad. A wild deer, for instance, 
 is the representative of good natural affection. The 
 merely natural man is like the beast, in his passions, 
 etc. A man is distinguished by his spirituality, his in- 
 ward ability to see and know truth and good. 
 
 A good wild beast trod down the thistle; i.e., a good 
 natural affection prevented the falsity from uniting with 
 the affection for spiritual truth. When the love of spir- 
 itual truth is developing within us, and the falsities of 
 the natural senses seek to attract us, and to deceive us, 
 as a bad man to wed an innocent virgin, then the Lord 
 protects us through our love of good, in our natural 
 mind, our practical desire to keep the commandments 
 of the Lord. 
 
 The beast was in Lebanon ; i.e., the natural love of 
 good was united with the knowledge of spiritual truth. 
 The natural mind is willing to keep the commandments, 
 for the sake of a higher life. And this love of good, on 
 the natural plane, determined to keep the Lord's com- 
 mandments, is our great protection against the subtle 
 influences of falsities. It leads us to test every sugges- 
 tion by its agreement with our Lord's practical com- 
 mandments. The natural man tries to understand spir- 
 
yo Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 itiial truth, from the standpoint of the senses. This is 
 the camel trying to pass through the needle's eye ; nat- 
 ural science, expecting to penetrate the fine mysteries 
 of spiritual life. As the Jews contemptuously asked con- 
 cerning Jesus, " Is not this the carpenter's son?" so the 
 merely natural-minded man is always doubting the ex- 
 istence of anything beyond the natural senses, and re- 
 fusing to believe that there is anything that he does 
 not comprehend by his senses. 
 
 Now, practically, who is always prepared for tlie 
 emergencies of life? Surely, he who understands the 
 two worlds in which men live ; who lives upon known 
 spiritual principles ; who co-operates with the Divine 
 Providence ; who " prays as if everything depended 
 upon the Lord, and works as if everything depended 
 on himself;" who, in all things, marries his love of 
 truth to a competent knowledge and rational understand- 
 ing of truth ; and who, in a useful life of keeping the 
 Lord's commandments, finds not only protection from 
 the subtle falsities of the senses, but also a fulness of 
 spiritual life, in " the measure of a man, that is, of an 
 angel." " Great peace have they who love Thy law, 
 and nothing shall cause them to ofifend." (Psalm cxix. 
 165.) 
 
The Wasted Vineyard. yi 
 
 VII. 
 THE WASTED VINEYARD. 
 
 My well-beloved hath a vineyard, in a horn, the son of oil. 
 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof; and 
 planted it with the choicest vine ; and built a tower in the 
 midst of it; and also made a wine-press therein: and he 
 looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth 
 wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men 
 of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt Me and My vineyard. 
 What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I have 
 not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should 
 bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now, 
 go to : I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard : I will 
 take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up ; and 
 break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: 
 and I will lay it waste : it shall not be pruned nor digged ; 
 but there shall come up briars and thorns : I will also com- 
 mand the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vine- 
 yard of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men 
 of Judah His pleasant plant: and He looked for judgment, 
 but behold oppression ; for righteousness, but behold a cry.— 
 Isaiah v. 1-7. 
 
 the corrupted church. 
 
 The church, planted by the Lord, is corrupted by 
 men. The Divine Love created men with capacity to 
 receive, and to enjoy, spiritual life. The Divine Wis- 
 dom supplied to men all necessary truth, that they might 
 know and understand their own origin, organization, 
 and destiny. And the Divine Power communicated to 
 men all necessary ability to walk in the way of spiritual 
 life. All that Divine Love, Wisdom, and Power could 
 
J2. Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 do. for men, they have done, and are still doing. And 
 yet men have perverted and corrupted the life which the 
 Lord gave them. And such perversion and corruption 
 have resulted in human misery. 
 
 The parable of the text is a representative picture of 
 the Lord's dealings with His church, and of the cor- 
 ruption of the church, in the lives of its people. In the 
 literal sense of the text, the reference is to the perverse- 
 ness of the Israelitish dispensation. But, in the inward 
 spiritual meaning, the reference is to the fallen state of 
 the human mind, itself. And the particular reference 
 is to the declining states of the First Christian Church. 
 
 THE VINEYARD. 
 
 The " Beloved," or the " Well-beloved," who had the 
 vineyard, is the Lord, Jesus Christ, in His Divine Hu- 
 manity. As relating to the Lord, the text represents 
 the conjunction of the celestial and the spiritual heavens, 
 by the Lord ; and the conjunction, in the Divine Human- 
 ity, of the good of faith, which is spiritual, with the 
 good of love, which is celestial. For whatever stages of 
 progress are passed through, in the mind of a man, or 
 in the human race as a whole, were also experienced in 
 the Humanity of the Lord, between the birth and the 
 glorification of Jesus Christ. He passed through all 
 forms and phases of human good ; and by means of 
 the hereditary tendencies to evil in the natural, assumed 
 humanity, He met and overcame all forms of human 
 evil. 
 
 The vineyard of the Lord is the Spiritual Church, in 
 which love to the neighbor is the ruling principle. 
 Grapes represent the goods of charity, that is. the prac- 
 tical good works which are done in the spirit of charity, 
 or love to the neighbor ; for our works are the out- 
 working of our actual principles of life. 
 
The Wasted Vineyard. 73 
 
 " My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful 
 hill," or, literally, " in a horn, the son of oil." A horn 
 was a common Oriental term to express a high, pointed 
 piece of land, a knoll projecting upward, like a horn. 
 Such a piece of land, catching a large amount of sun- 
 light and heat, was very productive. Oil, from its 
 warmth and smoothness, represents the principle of love. 
 A son of love is something derived from love, as an 
 outbirth of love. In the Spiritual Church, represented 
 by Israel, a son represented the intellectual side of the 
 mind, devoted to truth, as distinguished from daughters, 
 or affections. A " son of oil" is a truth derived from 
 love, such truth as we comprehend and adopt because 
 we love what is good and true. That the Lord had " a 
 vineyard in a horn, the son of oil," representatively 
 means that the Lord planted His Spiritual Church in the 
 human mind, in the understanding, or intellect, where 
 it can be comprehended by every man who will love 
 what is good and true, and who will live by the truth. 
 
 The Lord established a church, full of good and true 
 principles, communicated to men by means of the holy 
 Word. 
 
 WHAT THE LORD DID. 
 
 And, in establishing such a church, the Lord, in His 
 Divine Providence, did all that could be done, to bring 
 the church, as a vineyard, into a prosperous and fruitful 
 condition. " He fenced" it, with the plain truths of the 
 Decalogue, commandments for daily life, which, as a 
 fence, or wall, can protect the church from evil in- 
 fluences. The letter of the Divine Word, speaking to 
 man's natural senses, is a fence, or wall, of protection to 
 the spiritual truths of the inward sense. As the shell 
 of the nut protects the kernel ; as the walls of the human 
 chest protect the heart and lungs ; as the walls of the 
 skull protect the brain ; so the letter of the Scriptures 
 
74 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 is a wall of protection to the higher and spiritual truths 
 of the internal sense. 
 
 And, in the same way, the teachings of the literal 
 sense of the Bible, and especially the Ten Command- 
 ments, stand as a fence, or wall, to protect man's spirit 
 from the assaults of evil. No matter how simple-minded 
 a man may be, or how uneducated as to books, if he 
 keeps the Lord's commandments, as he understands 
 them, he will find practical protection against the harm- 
 ful fallacies of the senses, and against the subtle sophis- 
 tries of infidels and of evil spirits. 
 
 In establishing His church, the Lord has fenced it 
 about with the Ten Commandments. (Or, if the word 
 here used is rendered " digged," instead of " fenced," 
 as in the Revised Version of the Bible, the digging into 
 the earth means opening up the natural mind, and exam- 
 ining and investigating its conditions.) 
 
 STONES. 
 
 And He has gathered out the stones that would inter- 
 fere with the grape-vines ; i.e., the false principles of the 
 senses, which would stand in the way of spiritual 
 growth. In a good sense, a stone represents a natural 
 truth. But, when a natural truth lies in the mind, like 
 a stone in the vineyard, in such way as to interfere 
 with the growth of the vine of spiritual truth, that 
 truth must be in a perverted form, and practically turned 
 into a falsity. 
 
 THE VINE. 
 
 The Lord planted in His vineyard " a noble vine," a 
 principle of pure spiritual truth, the principle of love to 
 the neighbor, as a ruling motive. Such a principle, 
 growing in the thought, is represented by a grape-vine, 
 growing in the vineyard. And its practical fruits, when 
 carried into the affections, and into the daily life, are 
 
The Wasted Vineyard. 75 
 
 the good grapes, the good works of practical love to the 
 neighbor, which is spiritual charity. 
 
 THE TOWER. 
 
 In the midst of the church, as a vineyard, the Lord 
 built a tower. A tower, reaching above the surface of 
 the earth, and affording a higher standpoint, and a more 
 extended view, represents interior truth, seen from a 
 higher or more inward standpoint. This tower was in 
 the midst, or centre, that is, in the inward thought. 
 Thus the Lord gives to men an inward capacity to see 
 truth in its higher and more interior forms and aspects. 
 He gives men rationality, the capacity to see truth in its 
 own spiritual light, and to comprehend it. 
 
 THE WINE-PRESS. 
 
 And the Lord made, or dug, a " wine-press," or wine- 
 vat, in the vineyard. A wine-press, by which the grapes 
 are pressed, and the juice is extracted for making wine, 
 represents the rational faculty, by and in which, during 
 temptation, the spiritual wine of truth is drawn from 
 the good works of practical life. The vine, itself, repre- 
 sents the truth, operating in man's mind, and producing 
 good fruits. But those good fruits, or good works, may 
 be made to yield a still higher form of truth, represented 
 by wine. For instance; the Lord plants a vine in your 
 mind, when, through His Word, He teaches you that 
 you should act towards others from the principle of love 
 to your neighbor. You hold that truth as a doctrine, at 
 first. If you hold it as a living vine, a growing prin- 
 ciple, you will act from it. Then, the good works which 
 you do, from that principle, are spiritual grapes. But 
 you may go further. You may get the very spirit and 
 life of that true principle, in a more confirmed form. 
 Temptations arise, and try your faith in the principle. 
 
76 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 The pressure of rational thought reveals the spirit of 
 the truth, the natural juice of the grape. But that juice 
 must go through trials, before it can become pure wine. 
 There are some things in it which cannot endure forever. 
 These impurities must be cast down, and put away, in 
 the fermentation. So, in your mind, though you have 
 acted from love to the neighbor, yet in that action, there 
 will be some impurities, something of self, to put away. 
 Temptations will come ; and your fidelity to the principle 
 will be tried. If you endure the trial, and stand stead- 
 fast, the natural juice of the mental grape will be puri- 
 fied ; and the impurities, like dregs, being cast- down, 
 the truth, in you, will be the pure wine of spiritual truth, 
 confirmed in the life, through mental fermentations. 
 
 In establishing His church, the Lord gave to men the 
 faculty of rationality, the capacity to see truth as truth. 
 By means of this faculty, a man may progress from 
 natural truth to spiritual truth. In the mind of such a 
 man the Lord turns water into wine. 
 
 Now, when the Lord had done all these things for 
 men ; when He had endowed men with all the necessary 
 mental capacities, and had supplied them with all neces- 
 sary spiritual food and help ; He looked for them to 
 bring forth the proper fruits of what He had done for 
 them : He looked for grapes, the good works of charity. 
 
 WILD GRAPES. 
 
 But, alas, men brought forth wild grapes, sour, un- 
 palatable grapes, the mere forms of good works, with- 
 out their sweet and heavenly spirit. There might be 
 the forms of charity, in outward civility and pretended 
 kindness, yet resulting from policy and self-love. But 
 why should such miserable wild grapes grow in the 
 Lord's church? " And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, 
 and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt Me and 
 
The Wasted Vineyard. TJ 
 
 My vineyard. What could have been done more to My 
 vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when 
 I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it 
 forth wild grapes ?" The " inhabitants of Jerusalem" 
 are the good principles that are in truths ; and the " men 
 of Judah" are the truths that are in every good. These 
 are what should be in the minds of the men of the 
 church. But the Lord declares that the men of the 
 church have not been good and true men, but perverters 
 and corrupters of good and true principles. And yet 
 the Lord had done all that even the Divine Love could 
 do, to lead and teach men in the way to spirituality, and 
 to goodness. The evils of men are not due to any fail- 
 ure in the Lord's provision for men. 
 
 PROVIDENCE. 
 
 From the creation, down through the ages, in the 
 different churches succeeding each other on the earth, 
 the Lord has always done all that could have been done 
 for men. And His coming upon the earth, in the Divine 
 Humanity, was the grand climax of His beneficent work 
 for men. What could have been done for men, that 
 the Lord did not do? And now, in these later days, we 
 have the Second Coming of the Lord, a spiritual coming, 
 in a fuller outpouring of life and light to the sons of 
 men. Surely, we have all the necessary means of be- 
 coming regenerated. " No good will He withhold from 
 them that walk uprightly." Very often, our Lord does 
 not do, for us, that which, in our folly, we would like to 
 have Him do ; but He has put us in the way of receiving 
 all that is spiritually best for us now to have. He has 
 always been ready to give us all that we ought to desire. 
 But men have not been willing to receive the spiritual 
 blessings which the Lord has sought to give to them. 
 
78 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 RESULTS. 
 
 The text declares that the Lord will let His vineyard 
 go to destruction, and that He will not save it. This 
 literal sense is not intended to state facts of practical 
 life, but figures of speech, as a prophecy of what the 
 First Christian Church would become by its false teach- 
 ings, and the evil lives of its members. 
 
 To the thought of the senses, it seems that the Lord 
 brings about these changes in the churches, as punish- 
 ments to the people. But the Lord, as life itself, is 
 always seeking to give life to men. " Evil shall slay the 
 wicked" : the Lord does not destroy men ; " He is kind 
 unto the unthankful and to the evil." 
 
 But the hedge of the Lord's vineyard is removed, and 
 its walls broken down, and it is devoured and trodden 
 down by enemies, when men no longer keep the truths 
 of the Divine Word as a protection to their daily lives; 
 and when, as a consequence, all sorts of evils and falsi- 
 ties rush in, and destroy the goodness and truth that 
 are in the mind. The Lord's vineyard is not pruned or 
 digged, when men do not rationally examine their 
 thoughts and feelings, to put away what is evil and 
 false. And then the thorns and briars of evil and falsity 
 are left in freedom to spring up in abundance. No rain 
 comes from the clouds, upon the vineyard, when no 
 refreshing truth comes to the mind, out of the letter of 
 the Scriptures. Then there is no longer any reception 
 of truth from heaven, through the Word of the Lord. 
 Men then shut their interior minds, which should be 
 open to spiritual truths. 
 
 The Lord "looked for judgment, but behold oppres- 
 sion ; for righteousness, but behold a cry ;" i.e., the Lord 
 provided for men, intelligence and goodness, but they 
 rejected these, and preferred the darkness of falsity and 
 the coldness of evil, crying out against the Lord. 
 
The Wasted Vineyard. 79 
 
 THE lord's ways. 
 
 Yet the Lord's ways are equal and just, and full of 
 love and mercy. Do you say that a man does not make 
 himself? And that he comes into the world with the 
 disadvantage of hereditary inclinations to evil? Yes; 
 but a man is not responsible for his hereditary inclina- 
 tions, but for his life, only. And he can change his 
 inclinations, if he wills to do so. Goodness is a matter 
 of willing to do good, and to resist evil. And even our 
 beliefs are within our control, because every man 
 believes according to his character ; meaning, of course, 
 his actual principles, and not inerely his doctrinal no- 
 tions. 
 
 Every man can finally become that which he really 
 desires to be, as to spiritual character. " Blessed are 
 they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they 
 shall be filled." They can change the quality of their 
 character, with the Lord's help. All the heavens are 
 open to us, because all heavenly states of character are 
 open to us. We may become as good as we are willing 
 to be. Nothing keeps us out of heaven, but our own 
 evils. And the measure of our goodness is the measure 
 in which we shun evils. A man is judged by the stand- 
 ard of his opportunities, i.e., of what he might have 
 been, if he would. The servant who knew his master's 
 will, and disobeyed it, was beaten with many stripes, 
 while the ignorant servant was given much lighter pun- 
 ishment. In the judgment, every man receives that into 
 which he has lived himself. " Great and marvelous are 
 Thy works, Lord God Almighty: just and true are 
 Thy ways. Thou King of saints. (Revelation xv. 3.) 
 
 CARE OF THE VINEYARD. 
 
 A grape-vine, after planting, needs constant care. 
 The earth is to be kept dug up ; stones are to be taken 
 
8o Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 away ; weeds are to be removed ; branches are to be 
 lifted up, to be aired and sunned; good branches are 
 to be pruned, and dead ones cut ofif. So the human 
 mind needs constant care, in its spiritual culture. It 
 needs to be trained, pruned, and kept free from stones, 
 weeds, etc. Hereditary tendencies, like the seeds of vile 
 weeds in the ground, are always seeking to come up 
 among the vines. " Every branch in Me that beareth 
 not fruit. He taketh away : and every branch that bear- 
 eth fruit. He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more 
 fruit." (Matthew xv. 2.) 
 
 POSSIBILITIES. 
 
 Imagine what any vineyard would become, if every 
 weed that sprouts were allowed to grow, and to bear 
 seed. And then think of all your inherited tendencies 
 to evil, and imagine what you would become, if every 
 one of your wrong feelings and thoughts were allowed 
 to come out into actual deeds of life ; and then you will 
 see what the Lord does for you, in teaching you, and in . 
 leading you, in the way of taking care of your mental 
 vineyard. ^Vhat more could He do? And if you bring 
 forth wild grapes, why is it so? The same God of love 
 does as much for you as He does for the highest angel. 
 You have the same human nature, the same Divine 
 Word, and the same loving Savior. You admire the 
 character of an angel. Well, that character is open to 
 you. You can go forward, and take it, and keep it as 
 your own. At all times, the Lord gives " His angels 
 charge over thee, to keep thee in all tli)- ways," as far as 
 thou art willing to be led. 
 
 We have the precious revelations concerning the New 
 Jerusalem. The Lord has done all that can be done, 
 for us. P)Ut, have we done all that we could have done, 
 for the growth of our mental vineyard? And are we 
 
The Wasted Vineyard. 8i 
 
 now doing all that we can do? " Herein is My Father 
 glorified, that ye bear much fruit." And we must begin, 
 as the owner of the vineyard begins, by clearing the 
 ground of all useless and injurious things. The Lord's 
 vines cannot flourish amid the weeds and stones of our 
 sensuous life. Therefore, it is for us to see that we 
 do not allow our minds to be occupied by things that 
 do not belong in the Lord's vineyard. " Wherefore do 
 ye spend money for that which is not bread, and your 
 labor for that which satisfieth not ?" " Wash you ; 
 make you clean : put away the evil of your doings from 
 before Mine eyes : cease to do evil ; learn to do well. 
 ... If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good 
 of the land." (Isaiah i. i6, 17, 19.) 
 
82 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 VIII. 
 THE ALMOND ROD AND THE SEETHING POT. 
 
 The Word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, 
 what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an ahiiond-tree. 
 Then said Jehovah unto me. Thou hast well seen : for I will 
 hasten My Word to perform it. 
 
 And the Word of Jehovah came unto me the second time, 
 saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot: 
 and the face thereof is toward the North. Then Jehovah said 
 unto me. Out of the North an evil shall break forth upon 
 all the inhabitants of the land. — Jeremiah i. 11-14. 
 
 VASTATION. 
 
 The subject is vastation, or the laying waste of the 
 land, by powerful enemies. And the spiritual topic is 
 the laying waste of the mind by indulgence of evil. 
 
 VISIONS. 
 
 There are two visions, forming an enacted parable. 
 Jeremiah was a prophet and a seer, one whose inward 
 spiritual eyes were opened, so that he saw things that 
 were going on in the inward world of the spirit. These 
 visions were formed of the spiritual substances of the ' 
 spiritual world, to represent conditions of the human 
 mind. Many such cases are recorded in the Scriptures. 
 
 THE ROD. 
 
 A rod represents power, authority, ability, as in the 
 sceptre of the ruler. And, as the ruler's work is to 
 keep things in order, and, for that purpose, to correct 
 and discipline those who are in disorder, so the rod 
 
The Almond Rod and the Seething Pot. 83 
 
 represents correction and discipline, including the pun- 
 ishment which it can inflict. 
 
 THE ALMOND-TREE. 
 
 In this case, the rod was from an almond-tree. Trees, 
 growing and bearing fruit, represent the principles 
 which are growing in men's minds, and bearing fruit in 
 the practical life. The different kinds of trees represent 
 different principles, different states of mind, in men, in- 
 dividually, and in the church collectively. Hence much 
 is said of trees, in the Scriptures. 
 
 The almond was the first tree to awake, in the new 
 season. It bloomed in January, and it bore fruit in 
 March. And so it was the herald of spring. In the 
 Hebrew, the name for the almond means hasty ; and 
 the almond was called " the hasty tree," and " the 
 awakener." And you will observe the application of 
 this name, in the Lord's reply to Jeremiah, " Thou hast 
 well seen, for I will hasten My Word, to perform it ;" 
 as if Jeremiah, had said, " I have seen a rod of a hasty- 
 tree." And so the almond-tree became a representative 
 of things which come quickly, and which are near at 
 hand, or of the quick fulfilment of a promise or a 
 prophecy. 
 
 Spiritually, the almond-tree, catching the first coming 
 of the new season, represents the perception of interior 
 truth, as it applies to our inward life ; and which is 
 derived from such goodness of heart as exists in the 
 natural mind, when regenerating. And the fruit of the 
 almond represents the practical goodness, in the work 
 and uses of daily life. And when a branch of the 
 almond-tree is used for a rod, it represents that our 
 perceptions of interior truth should be used to correct 
 and discipline the desires and notions of our natural 
 senses. And, for this purpose, the letter of the Scrip- 
 
84 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 tures, and especially the Ten Commandments, constitute 
 the most external form of that rod. For the letter of 
 the Divine Word is the means by which truth comes 
 to our perception. And so, in all our practical life, in 
 feeling, in thought, and in act, the letter of the Divine 
 Word should be our rod of correction and discipline. 
 As, in a school, the teacher uses the rod to call at- 
 tention, and to warn, and to discipline, so the Divine 
 Teacher holds before us, at all times, the rod of His 
 Word, afifectionately calling our attention to good and 
 true principles, and to good actions ; gently warning us 
 of any deviation from the laws of life ; and, for our 
 permanent good, disciplining us in our wrong-doing. 
 
 And he who is thus led to resist his own evil inclina- 
 tions, and to do good, exclaims, O Lord, " Thy rod and 
 Thy staff, they comfort me." It is necessary for our 
 Lord, in His loving providence, to " Rule all nations 
 with a rod of iron ;" i.e., to discipline all things which 
 dwell in our minds, by the exacting laws of natural 
 truth, truth applied to our natural life of conduct. 
 Thus, the first vision, that of an " almond-tree," indi- 
 cated that something was impending, which would come 
 speedily. And the fact that a rod of almond was seen, 
 foretold correction and discipline. And the second 
 vision, that of the " seething pot," indicated in what 
 form the discipline would come, and whence it would 
 come. 
 
 THE SEETHING POT. 
 
 In the second vision, Jeremiah saw a " seething pot," 
 or a boiling caldron, a flesh-pot, on the fire, the contents 
 boiling up, puffing up above the edges, running over, 
 wasting and spoiling, and damaging the things they 
 were falling upon. 
 
 In the literal representation, this boiling flesh-pot rep- 
 resented the City of Jerusalem, in great commotion. 
 
The Almond Rod and the Seething Pot. 85 
 
 because of the army of Nebuchadnezzar, which was soon 
 to come down upon it from the North. The boihng 
 over of the contents of the pot, fitly represented the con- 
 ditions of confusion, distress, and destruction of the 
 Jews, surrounded by their fiery enemies. 
 
 Spiritually, a pot, as a hollow vessel, represents a 
 doctrine, a statement of truth, which is a hollow vessel 
 in the mind, holding such things as our will and our 
 understanding place in it. Many different men may 
 hold similar doctrines, as doctrines, and yet very differ- 
 ent things are in those mental vessels. In any case, the 
 vessel in use takes its character from its contents. The 
 contents may be good, wholesome food, or very bad 
 food, deadly in its character. In a bad sense, the flesh- 
 pots represent the pleasures of the senses, because their 
 contents are the lusts of the flesh. We remember that, 
 during the journey from Egypt to Canaan, Israel 
 " lusted after the flesh-pots of Egypt," and spoke con- 
 temptuously of the manna, which the Lord provided, as 
 " light food," not heavy enough to satisfy their gross 
 tastes and appetites. 
 
 A man may hold a true doctrine, as a doctrine, and 
 yet he may fill it with the lusts of the flesh, and the 
 sensuous thoughts of his natural mind. For instance, a 
 man may believe in a God; and he may believe that he 
 should thank God for the blessings of human life; and, 
 in sitting down to his dinner, he may ask a blessing upon . 
 the food before him ; and yet he may eat like a glutton ; 
 and he may even live to eat, rather than eat to live. 
 And, in this case, although, figuratively, he uses a good 
 pot, or doctrine, he fills it with the lusts of the flesh, for 
 his food ; and he uses the fallacies of the senses, for 
 water, and self-love for fire. And his mental pot boils 
 over, and spoils everything. In the general history of 
 a church, these conditions exist at the end of that church, 
 or dispensation, when evil passions rule men, even with 
 
86 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 those who have the doctrines of the church. And this 
 evil spirit of self-love keeps everything in a condition 
 of boiling over, going beyond bounds, until it produces 
 its own spiritual destruction. 
 
 THE NORTH. 
 
 And, in this condition of disorder and weakness, an 
 enemy from the North comes down upon the mind, and 
 destroys the remainder of its life. 
 
 It is said that the pot had its face to the North ; i.e., 
 its opening was towards the North. 
 
 In ancient Israel, in a rocky land, thickly inhabited, 
 dry wood for fire purposes was scarce. And, for econ- 
 omy, the ordinary Israelite dug a pit, .in the centre of his 
 earthen floor, in his dwelling; and in this hole he made 
 a fire of dry sticks, or other fuel, and set on the pot, to 
 boil his food. To save heat, he piled stones around 
 the pot, leaving an opening, through which he could 
 supply fuel. 
 
 In the vision seen by Jeremiah, probably this boiling- 
 place was present, as well as the pot. And probably 
 the opening for fuel was facing the North, as would be 
 meant by the face of the pot being toward the North ; 
 for, through this opening for fuel, the face, or open 
 mouth, of the pot, could be seen. 
 
 THE POINTS OF THE COMPASS. 
 
 The points of the compass represent different mental 
 standpoints. The East, where the sun appears to rise, 
 represents the higher and more interior states of mind, 
 which first recognize the Lord ; i.e., the love-principle, 
 which looks to the Lord. The South, where the sun 
 is at noon, and when there is the greatest light, repre- 
 sents the intelligence of truth. The West, which the 
 sun appears to reach last, in its daily progress, and 
 
The Almond Rod and the Seething Pot. 87 
 
 which is opposite to the East, represents a more obscure 
 state of mind, as to love and goodness; i.e., a more 
 external state, more natural than spiritual. And the 
 North, which is opposite to the South, represents a more 
 obscure state of mind as to the truth, or intelligence, a 
 natural state, rather than a spiritual intelligence. 
 
 Thus, the North indicates a natural-minded state. 
 And, in the unregenerate man, this natural state is a 
 state of false ideas rather than truths. In this obscure 
 condition, there are no spiritual truths known to the 
 mind ; and hence there is no protection by truths against 
 the evils of self-love. And then the lusts of the flesh 
 rush into action, and fill even the pots of doctrine with 
 ideas which are false and feelings which are evil. And 
 then the mental pots boil over, while their faces are 
 towards the North, receiving whatever may come to 
 the mind from the xold-hearted and obscure things of 
 the tmregenerate man. 
 
 And there is also a more profound meaning in the 
 facing of the pot, when we consider the nature of the 
 face. In the human body, the face is the index of 
 the mind ; for whatever is active in the mind expresses 
 itself in the face. And when the man stands upright, 
 his head, including the face, stands above the other 
 parts. Hence the face represents the inward life, the 
 interiors of the man. Hence, to see a man's actual state 
 of feeling and thought, you look into his face. And 
 when you wish to come into contact with anything, you 
 turn your face towards it. But, if you wish to show your 
 aversion, you avert your face, or turn your back towards 
 the person or thing which you dislike: In this sense, the 
 face of the pot being turned towards the North, means 
 that the mind thus represented, was turned towards the 
 spiritual North, and open to the influences flowing thence. 
 This representative meaning is the same as the other, in 
 general principles, but from a different standpoint. 
 
88 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 BOILING OVER. 
 
 The representative picture is strong. The boihng, 
 seething caldron, with its contents puffing up, boiling 
 over, running to waste, and being burned and destroyed, 
 and injuring whatever they fell upon, well represents a 
 man's state of mind, when the obscure and deadly in- 
 fluences of his own sensuous lusts of self-love are firing 
 his whole mind, and drawing upon himself all the evil 
 influences of the hells, which come rushing upon him 
 like the army of Nebuchadnezzar, to push him to de- 
 struction. Necessarily, evil and falsity must work the 
 destruction of every mind which is open to their in- 
 fluence, and closed towards the heavens. 
 
 JEREMIAH. 
 
 These visions were the first which came to the youth- 
 ful prophet, Jeremiah, in the beginning of his career. 
 And they enabled him to understand something of the 
 nature of his mission and work. The first vision, of the 
 almond-rod, taught him that his errand was to tise the 
 rod upon the Israelites, to correct, admonish and disci- 
 pline them, in a very degenerate age, when even the 
 leaders in the church were given up to selfish and sen- 
 suous life. And, in the midst of such conditions, in a 
 declining state of the church, the prophet was to lift 
 up his voice, in outspoken correction. 
 
 And he had a sad story to tell, the story of the de- 
 struction of the church and of the nation. And so Jere- 
 miah is called " the weeping prophet," the author of the 
 " Lamentations." -AH about him, the conditions of the 
 people were degenerating, ripening in evil, and hasten-' 
 ing to destruction. And, in the circumstances, the Lord 
 put upon Jeremiah his great mission ; " See, I have this 
 day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to 
 root out, and to pull down, and to destro\' and to throw 
 
The Almond Rod and the Seething Pot. 89 
 
 down, to build and to plant." For, even in such times, 
 and amid such conditions, some men would heed the 
 prophet's warning, and would turn to him for help : 
 and to them he was to carry the Word of God, and thus 
 to build a new life, by planting in their hearts new 
 affections, and in their understanding new thoughts, 
 and thus training them into a new practical life. 
 
 PRACTICAL APPLICATION. 
 
 We wonder at the dreadful conditions existing in 
 Israel, in the days of Jeremiah, even amid a people who 
 then had the learning of the earth, and who boasted of 
 themselves as the chosen people of God. 
 
 But, to-day, similar conditions may be developed in 
 our minds, if we allow evil influences to operate within 
 us. Our Lord's plain truth, as an impersonal prophet, 
 walks through our minds, to-day, with serious warning 
 and correction. The almond-rod is as necessary for us 
 as for ancient Israel. It is not spiritually safe for any 
 one of us to live through one day without passing 
 under the rod of the Divine Word all things that we 
 feel, think, and do. In our mental furnishing, we have 
 the most approved pots of doctrine. But what are we 
 boiling in these pots? And whence are the fires which 
 supply the heat? And what is the kind of spiritual 
 water, in which we are boiling the daily food of our 
 inward life? It is time for us to do the work of Jere- 
 miah, in our own minds, " to root out, and to pull down, 
 and to destroy, and to throw down, to build and to 
 plant." " Therefore, gird up thy loins, and arise, and 
 speak unto them all that I command thee." 
 
90 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE MARRED GIRDLE. 
 
 Thus said Jehovah unto me, Go, and buy thee a linen girdle, 
 and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water. So I bought 
 a girdle, according to the Word of Jehovah, and put it upon 
 my loins. And the Word of Jehovah came unto me the second 
 time, saying. Take the girdle that thou hast bought, which is 
 upon thy loins, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it 
 there, in a cleft of the rock. 
 
 So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as Jehovah com 
 manded me. And it came to pass, after many days, that Jeho- 
 vah said unto me. Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the 
 girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there. 
 Then I went to the Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle 
 from the place where I had hid it : and behold, the girdle was 
 marred ; it was profitable for nothing, — Jeremiah xiii. 1-7. 
 
 TRUTH PERVERTED. 
 
 E\EN the Lord's truth, when buried in our sensuous 
 nature, loses all its heavenly quahty, and serves no par- 
 ticular use. 
 
 THE GIRDLE. 
 
 The girdle was a conspicuous article of Oriental 
 dress. The common girdle was made of leather, or of 
 dyed muslin. Finer girdles were made of linen, and 
 were often embroidered with silk, or with silver or gold 
 thread. Sometimes, girdles were studded with pre- 
 cious stones, or pearls. In this way, the girdle was a 
 good indication of the wealth and social position of its 
 wearer. A fine and rich girdle gave evidence of the 
 
The Marred Girdle. 91 
 
 importance of its owner. Its use was to gather together 
 the loose garments, at the wearer's waist, or loins, espe- 
 cially when moving about : otherwise, the long gar- 
 ments would be in the way of the feet. And so the girdle 
 became a symbol of a bond, by which things are held to- 
 gether, and in good order. Spiritually, that which holds 
 together the good and true principles of the church, and 
 joins them in a man's mind, is the truth taught in the 
 Word of God. 
 
 The binding efifect of the girdle is indicated in the con- 
 text : " As the girdle cleaveth to the loins of man, so have 
 I caused to cleave unto Me the whole house of Israel, 
 and the whole house of Judah, saith Jehovah." And the 
 means by which the Lord sought to hold the Jews, was 
 the letter of the Divine Word, which was given to them 
 for a guide, and for a binding force, to keep them in con- 
 nection with the Lord. The girdle acted also as a brace 
 to the body. 
 
 LINEN. 
 
 In our text, the girdle was of linen. Linen is the rep- 
 resentative of righteousness, i.e., of a clean, pure, orderly 
 life, according to the Lord's commandments. We remem- 
 ber that, in John's vision, in the Apocalypse, it is said 
 " the fine linen is the righteousness of saints ;" meaning 
 that linen represented righteousness. And a girdle made 
 of linen represents the truth which is drawn from the 
 Lord's Word, in the doctrine of the church, especially 
 the practical application of the Ten Commandments to 
 the daily life. 
 
 When a man arises, to walk, in the uses of life, and 
 binds a girdle about his loins, his action represents the 
 proper action of our minds, when we set out to do some- 
 thing; and when we use the truth of the Divine Word 
 to regulate, and to keep in place, the good which is in 
 our hearts, and for which we are acting. And this bind- 
 
(j2 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 ing and uniting work of the girdle represents the conjoin- 
 ing effect of our Lord's truth, which, when used to brace 
 us for our duty, binds us to our Lord, in love and in 
 intelligence. 
 
 The prophet, through whom the Word of God was 
 given, represented that Word. And the prophet binding 
 up his clothing upon his loins, with the linen girdle, rep- 
 resented the Lord's coming to us, in His Word, and 
 drawing us together with Him, that He might conjoin us 
 with Him, and give us life more abundantly. 
 
 The seven angels who came out of the temple of God, 
 as seen by John, in the Apocalyptic vision, were " clothed 
 in linen, clean and shining, and having their breasts 
 girded with golden girdles." In the angelic state, which 
 is the regenerate condition, men's minds are kept in order 
 by the truths of the Divine Word, loved in a heavenly 
 way. As we read in Isaiah xi. 5, " Justice shall be the 
 girdle of thy loins, and truth the girdle of thy thighs." 
 
 BUYING. 
 
 The prophet was to buy the girdle, for that is the 
 meaning of the word used in the text, although the com- 
 mon version of the Bible uses the word " get." To " buy" 
 implies more eflfort than merely to " get." Spiritually, 
 we buy certain conditions and qualities of character, by 
 effort, and by giving something else for what we want. 
 We buy a linen girdle, representatively, when we learn 
 the truth of the Divine Word, by making a strong effort 
 to acquire the truth, and by exchanging for it such no- 
 tions as we had in our own natural thoughts. 
 
 In the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, they 
 had to buy oil, to keep their lamps in use ; i.e., we have 
 to procure love for goodness and truth, in order that we 
 may maintain intelligence in the light of truth. 
 
The Marred Girdle. 93 
 
 HIDING THE GIRDLE. 
 
 Having bought the girdle, and using it a while, the 
 prophet hid it in the cleft of a rock. The Orientals had 
 a representative custom, by which, when they felt ag- 
 grieved at the action of a certain person, they buried 
 some perishable article, on a river bank, or other damp 
 place, until it was marred and spoiled by the dampness ; 
 thus expressing their opinion, and probably their wish, 
 as to the final destiny of the man represented. Probably 
 some malignant persons believed that such action would 
 operate as a " spell" of sorcery, upon the intended victim, 
 to drag him into bad luck. And so the peculiar action of 
 the prophet Jeremiah, was easily understood by the men 
 of his day and nation. 
 
 But spiritually, a man hiding his girdle in a cleft of a 
 rock, represents hiding the Divine Truth, in his own 
 mind, by dropping it down into the obscure notions of his 
 own natural senses, instead of keeping it in the higher 
 places of his mind, to bind up and to keep in order, all 
 things of his mind, in the walk of life. And when Di- 
 vine truths are thus hidden in the fallacies of the senses, 
 they soon lose their vitality, and amount to nothing, in 
 our practical life ; for they are abused and turned into 
 falsities, by our sensuous reasonings. Remember that 
 those who feared the judgment of the Lord, hid them- 
 selves in the holes of the rocks. And those who dwell 
 in such places represent a condition of mind which dwells 
 in false ideas, hidden from the light of spiritual truth. 
 
 EUPHRATES. 
 
 Jeremiah was to hide the girdle on the banks of the 
 Euphrates river. The Euphrates was the border, or boun- 
 dary, between Canaan and Assyria. Assyria is the rep- 
 resentative of the reasoning ability, the rational faculty. 
 
94 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 In a good sense, it is the regenerate rational faculty, see- 
 ing spiritual truth in its own kind of light. But, in the 
 unregenerate man, the rational faculty is merely a rea- 
 soning ability, by which the man reasons in the light of 
 his natural senses, and in the falsities of the natural 
 mind. And the fact that the girdle was to be hidden in a 
 cleft of the rock, in a damp place, without sunlight, indi- 
 cates that, in this case, the Euphrates is mentioned in a 
 bad sense, i.e., in its external, unregenerate, and disor- 
 derly form. For, when a man trusts to his unenlight- 
 ened reason, he sees everything in a wrong way ; be- 
 cause he sees everything from the standpoint of self, 
 rather than from its relation to the Lord. And " if the 
 light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that dark- 
 ness." 
 
 The natural man does not perceive spiritual or rational 
 truths, until the Lord flows into the man's mind, and 
 gives him illumination. And this the Lord does through 
 the spiritual mind of the man, in the degree in which 
 the man exerts himself to open his mind, to see spiritual 
 truth. But when the man's spiritual mind is closed, 
 he lives in his sensuous mind, in which truth becomes 
 obscure. 
 
 It was quite a long distance for Jeremiah to travel 
 from Jerusalem to the Euphrates. And this long journey 
 represents the long-continued retrogression of the mind, 
 in which the clear truth of the Lord's Word is gradually 
 darkened and obscured, until it is entirely hidden in the 
 fallacies and falsities of the natural senses. And the long 
 journey of the prophet would naturally have made a 
 strong impression upon the Jews, who would see how 
 important must be the message which would require so 
 much work to carry it out. And this journey had to 
 be repeated when the prophet was sent again to get the 
 girdle. 
 
The Marred Girdle. 95 
 
 THE toARRED GIRDLE. 
 
 And when found, the girdle was marred, and so com- 
 pletely spoiled that it was " profitable for nothing;" i.e., 
 it was not now of any use. • 
 
 And the Jews could get something of the representa- 
 tive meaning of this enacted parable ; for they could see 
 that Jehovah had given them the church, with its clean 
 and clear truths, and that the people had perverted all 
 things of the church. At least, they could see that they 
 had not continued to follow the Lord's wa\s. but had 
 backslidden into disorderly ways of their own. And the 
 marred girdle, once clean and beautiful, but now mouldy 
 and utterly useless, stood before the Jews as a repre- 
 sentative of their own degenerate conditon, and a proph- 
 ecy of the miserable destiny awaiting them. As the clean 
 girdle represented the property of a respected and worthy 
 person, so the filthy and marred girdle stood for all that 
 belongs to a degraded and degenerate man. And, look- 
 ing at the expressive symbol, the thoughtful Jew might 
 well consider that the girdle, hidden in the damp cleft 
 of the rock, pre-figured the dispersion of the Jews, in 
 captivity, in a foreign land, where, out of place, and in 
 misery, their national pride would be humbled, their 
 power lost, and their happiness destroyed. 
 
 Churches and individuals have sometimes begun a 
 religious career, with some knowledge and love of the 
 Lord's truth, as given in His holy Word, especially in 
 the practical commandments of life. And what this con- 
 dition is, is represented by the clean linen girdle, on the 
 man's loins, holding his clothing in place, and giving him 
 freedom of motion. But the marred girdle represents 
 the condition of a man, or of a church, when the heart 
 has lost interest in the Divine Truth, and when clear ra- 
 tional insight and intelligence have been closed, because 
 the truths of the Lord have been immersed in the selfish 
 
96 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 reasoning of the senses, which favor the love of self and 
 the love of the world, until even the Divine law has be- 
 come marred and useless, in the degenerate mind, and 
 there is no longer any spiritual binding and union of the 
 man's heart and life with the Lord. And then of such 
 a man it is written, " God is not in all his thoughts." 
 And to such a man the Lord says, " Without Me, ye can 
 do nothing." " If thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt 
 not hear, but shalt be drawn away and worship other 
 gods, and serve them, I denounce unto you, this day, that 
 ye shall surely perish ; and that ye shall not prolong your 
 days upon the land whither thou passest over Jordan to 
 go to possess it." (Deuteronomy xxx. 17-18.) 
 
 PRACTICAL APPLICATION. 
 
 After showing the Jews the marred girdle, the prophet 
 forcibly applied the lesson : " Thus saith Jehovah, After 
 this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great 
 pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, which refuse to 
 hear My words, which walk in the imagination of their 
 heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them and to 
 worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good 
 for nothing." 
 
 But the message and the parable speak to each of us, 
 to-day, and with equal force. But, with us, the spiritual 
 application is more easily seen, and more far-reaching 
 in its results. Every man needs to secure the truth of the 
 Lord's Word, and to keep that truth, as a spiritual girdle 
 upon his mental loins ; and to keep it clean and useful, 
 for every-day service. No man, at any stage of his men- 
 tal and spiritual progress, can afford to hide his spiritual 
 girdle in the cleft of a rock, amid the sensuous reason- 
 ings of his natural mind. But, keeping always in mind 
 the distinction between natural things and spiritual 
 things, and maintaining, always, an orderly natural life 
 
The Marred Girdle. 97 
 
 of conduct, according to the Lord's commandments, we 
 can meet ever}' occasion with the truths of the Lord's 
 Word, which will carry us into higher and higher con- 
 ditions, in clear spiritual light, to " the measure of a 
 man, that is, of an angel." " And righteousness shall be 
 the girdle of his loins." 
 
98 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 X. 
 
 THE POTTER'S VESSEL MARRED. 
 
 Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will 
 cause thee to hear My words. Then I went down to the potter's 
 house; and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And 
 the vessel which he made of clay was marred in the hands of 
 the potter : so he made it again, another vessel, as seemed good 
 to the potter to make it. Then the Word of Jehovah came to 
 me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this pot- 
 ter? saith Jehovah. Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so 
 are ye in My hand, O house of Israel. — Jeremi.\h xviii. 2-6. 
 
 PROVIDENCE. 
 
 Human evil, falsity and sin mar God's work with men. 
 But, after every human failure, as long as is possible, 
 God begins, again, with the man, or the nation, and seeks 
 to bring out good results in some other form. 
 
 THE POTTER. 
 
 When the potter takes up the clay, he has, in his mind, 
 an ideal form, towards which he works with the clay. 
 But, if his work fails, he tries again. And if he fails 
 again, he tries some other form of vessel, such as the 
 qualit)- of the clay will bear. And so our Lord, as the 
 Divine Potter, has an ideal form, towards which He 
 seeks to shape every nation, and every individual, each 
 as the quality of his mental clay will bear. 
 
 The fall of man was a general marring of the human 
 vessel. But the Divine Providence has ever since been 
 
The Potter's Vessel Marred. 99 
 
 exerted to uplift fallen men. And when one dispensa- 
 tion has become corrupted, another has been provided, 
 with changed circumstances, and with new adjustments 
 to the necessities of human conditions. And, even when 
 men seemed determined to destroy themselves in evil, 
 their loving God came down to them, as a Savior, in 
 Jesus Christ. " In His love, and in His pity, He re- 
 deemed them." 
 
 THE DIVINE THOUGHT. 
 
 It is a grand idea that every good human life is a 
 thought of God, a plan formed in the Divine mind, an 
 ideal form in which God shows His Divine glory, by 
 showing His glorious qualities of goodness and truth, 
 reflected in the activities of His human creature. 
 
 All the men and women of the great company of the 
 redeemed, that is, of regenerated persons, set forth the 
 goodness of their Maker. When we read that " the 
 heavens declare the glory of God," let us understand, in 
 the highest sense, the inward and spiritual heavens, exist- 
 ing in the re-formed minds of regenerated men, in which 
 the glory of God is declared, when it is reproduced in the 
 good works of His human children. 
 
 Every man is a vessel of God, formed for the Lord's 
 purposes, and to carry out the Lord's plans for the hap- 
 piness of His creatures, in the various uses of life. And, 
 as our Lord has an ideal form for every human life, to- 
 wards which He is forming the man, spiritually, we can 
 see clearly that the greatest wisdom on the part of any 
 man, is to co-operate with the Lord, in forming the char- 
 acter to the Divine ideal ; and how fatally foolish it is for 
 any man to oppose the formative work which God is 
 doing in the man ; and thus to mar the ideal form which 
 God intended, the image of God, in which man was 
 created. 
 
loo Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 SPIRITUAL ECONOMY. 
 
 As the potter does not waste the clay, even when the 
 vessel is marred, but remolds it into another vessel, so 
 our Lord lovingly works with every man, in spite of the 
 man's own bad work, in marring God's work. After 
 every human failure, the Lord seeks to re-form the man, 
 to such form of spiritual vessel as he is capable of be- 
 coming. And our constant efifort should be in the same 
 spirit, to make the best of our own manhood and life, 
 in spite of our failures and mistakes. Keeping our atten- 
 tion upon the Divine ideal of a human mind and life, we 
 can always use our efforts to shape ourselves towards 
 that ideal. As a careful housekeeper does not waste, or 
 destroy anything, even if marred, if it can be put to 
 some other good use; so we can daily find some good 
 use for all the leadings of our Lord, and all the circum- 
 stances of our experience, compelling everything to yield 
 to us some good. At every point, we can re-model even 
 the marred forms of our life, as long as we are in a for- 
 mative condition, and not fixed and hardened in evil and 
 sin. But, for right results, it is of no use for any man 
 to work towards any other pattern than that which the 
 Lord provides for us. 
 
 THE IDEAL FORM. 
 
 But some may ask, How can we know what the Divine 
 ideal for man was, and is? We have this ideal form re- 
 vealed to us, in the Divine Word, given in many ways, 
 and throughout human history. It came to men in every 
 dispensation of the church, in each according to the in- 
 telligence of the people. Even in low human conditions, 
 it came in the Ten Commandments, which every man 
 could practically follow, at least in form. And, in later 
 days, it came to us, especiallw in the daily life of Christ 
 upon the earth, and in all His teachings in the Gospel. 
 
The Potter's Vessel Marred. loi 
 
 Everywhere, God reveals Himself, His own character 
 and works ; and He commands men to do their part, in 
 forming their character by the Divine standard. For 
 there is one great standard, only, that is, love, with its 
 wisdom and its power ; love, which, in God, is Divine 
 and infinite, and, in man, is finite, and made in the image 
 of God. This is the original ideal form of man ; for God 
 is the Divine Man. This is the ideal man revealed in 
 Eden, and reiterated through all the ages ; but, in each 
 age, adapted to that age, and to that genius and quality 
 of men. Natural-minded men have recognized nothing 
 more than a natural ideal of human life. But, in Chris- 
 tianity, God restored to men a higher ideal, in the sim- 
 plicity of a loving faith in the Lord. But, in His " Sec- 
 ond Coming," God reveals Himself in His spiritual 
 aspect, and thus enables men to understand their own 
 manhood in its spiritual aspects. 
 
 RESISTING EVIL. 
 
 And, after every fall of men into lower conditions, 
 God has remolded the conditions to re-form men. And 
 we may always observe the practical method of the Lord, 
 in leading men back to better conditions, in that men are 
 never required to have a clear spiritual understanding 
 of truth, prior to their reformation, but that the begin- 
 ning of every return to the Lord, is in men resisting 
 their own evil desires, whose evil is shown to them by 
 the Word of God. At every step, the man was to cease 
 doing evil, and to keep the Lord's commandments. And 
 every man could do these things, each in the degree of his 
 knowledge and his intelligence. 
 
 And thus, the Divine ideal form towards which every 
 man was and is to work, has always been within reach 
 of every man, each in his degree, and on his mental level. 
 And his following the Lord, on that level, was always the 
 way to all progress in re-forming his spiritual manhood. 
 
I02 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 No matter what you may be, now, in the level of your life, 
 if you will cease to do evil, as you see and know evil, 
 and obey the Lord's commandments, the Divine Potter 
 will form of you, some kind of useful vessel, able to hold 
 the things of heaven, in some degree. 
 
 CHARACTER. 
 
 The practical bearing of all these things is that a man's 
 life and his destiny are matters of character, and not of 
 circumstances. Our Lord is not a hard taskmaster, 
 seeking to punish men for their shortcomings and their 
 failures, but He is a loving Father, helping us through 
 our failures, and encouraging us to try again, under His 
 guidance. Every effort of God is to save men, not to 
 condemn them ; to give them life, and not to let them 
 fair into spiritual death. 
 
The Potter's Vessel Broken. 103 
 
 XI. 
 
 THE POTTER'S VESSEL BROKEN. 
 
 Thus saith Jehovah, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and 
 take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the 
 priests ; and go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, 
 which is by the entry of the East gate, and proclaim there the 
 words that I shall tell thee. . . . Then shalt thou break the bot- 
 tle in the sight of the men that go with thee ; and shalt say unto 
 them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts : Even so will I break this 
 people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that 
 cannot be made whole again. — Jeremiah xix. i, 2, 10, 11. 
 
 THE VESSEL BROKEN. 
 
 If men are determined to love evil and falsity, and 
 to live in sin, and to neglect the Divine warnings, and to 
 resist the Divine leadings and teachings, and to prefer 
 evil, rather than goodness ; then such men fix and con- 
 firm their hearts in evil character ; and they reach a con- 
 dition in which they are no longer plastic to the hand of 
 the Divine Potter ; but they have baked themselves hard 
 and set, in the fires of self-love ; and their elasticity has 
 gone. And when they break, they cannot be made whole 
 again. 
 
 And then it will be no longer possible for the Divine 
 Potter to form any useful vessel from such men, becausfe 
 they have permanently rejected and resisted any Divine 
 leadings. Henceforth, such men, spiritually speaking, 
 are good for nothing; for not even the Divine skill can 
 induce them to be remodeled into anything good. They 
 have formed a hell in their own hearts and lives, and in 
 which they prefer to live. 
 
104 Parables of the Old Testajnent Explained. 
 
 ISRAEL. 
 
 In the text and context, the literal reference is to 
 Israel, living in confirmed evil. As long as any capacity 
 for goodness remained uncorrupted in the Israelites, they 
 were, to the Lord, as clay in the hands of the potter ; and 
 it was still possible for them to be re-formed, remodeled, 
 into better conditions of character. By various means, 
 as great trials, droughts, wars, pestilences, and even 
 severe captivity abroad, the Lord sought to re-form this 
 stiff-necked people. But the inward and spiritual sense 
 of our text applies to all men, at all times, who are in 
 similar conditions of character. For Israel represented 
 the church in men ; not merely the external organizations 
 of the church, but more especially the inward church, in 
 the minds of men, the principles which form human char- 
 acter and life. 
 
 THE CURSES. 
 
 You will observe that, in the context, certain punish- 
 ments were pronounced upon the rebellious Israelites, 
 somewhat resembling the curses pronounced by Moses, 
 ages before. These curses are representative ; and they 
 apply to the evil and false principles which dwell in the 
 minds of unregenerate men, and which curse the men 
 who cherish such things. God does not curse any man, 
 however evil, but He seeks to save the man, by reforma- 
 tion and regeneration. " Evil shall slay the wicked," be- 
 cause it is the nature of evil to destroy spiritual life. We 
 have need to fix our minds upon the fact that it is abso- 
 lutely necessary for ever}' man to be re-formed and re- 
 generated, before he can be saved from the hell which 
 evil makes in those who love it. 
 
 VESSELS OF THE LORD. 
 
 " Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of Jehovah." " The 
 vessels of Jehovah," spiritually, are the human heart and 
 
The Potter's Vessel Broken. 105 
 
 intellect, which were formed to be useful vessels, hold- 
 ing the heavenly love and the spiritual intelligence which 
 belong to angelic men. And to this purpose we should 
 devote our abilities. Spiritually, our hearts and intellects 
 are not our own, but they are our Lord's ; and we have 
 no spiritual right to fill them with the things of evil and 
 falsity, which mar the vessels of the Lord, and destroy 
 His image in our manhood. " The steps of a good man 
 are ordered by Jehovah, and he delighteth in his way. 
 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for 
 Jehovah upholdeth his hand." 
 
io6 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 XII. 
 THE TWO BASKETS OF FIGS. 
 
 Jehovah showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs were 
 set before the temple of Jehovah. . . . One basket had very 
 good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket 
 had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad. — 
 Jeremiah xxiv. i, 2. 
 
 DESTINY. 
 
 Thosf. who are inwardly good, meet and bear the trials 
 of natural life, and the temptations of the spirit, and are 
 thereby reformed, regenerated, and developed in heav- 
 enly character, and in happiness ; while those who avoid 
 and resist the Lord's training, die in their evils, and fix 
 themselves in conditions of sorrow, whicli they supposed 
 they had escaped. 
 
 THE LITERAL STORY. 
 
 About six hundred years before the Christian era, the 
 great king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, besieged Jeru- 
 salem. 
 
 Zedekiah, the king of Judah, sent messages to the 
 prophet Jeremiah, to inquire whether Jehovah would 
 save the holy city from the enemy. But Jeremiah 
 prophesied, " Unto this people thou shalt say, thus saith 
 Jehovah : Behold, I set before you the way of life, and 
 the way of death. He that abideth in this city shall die 
 by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence ; 
 but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Clialdeans that 
 besiege you, he shall live." 
 
The Two Baskets of Figs. 107 
 
 Thus the people of Jerusalem were divided into two 
 classes, those who accepted the Lord's Word, and sur- 
 rendered to the Chaldeans, and those who rejected the 
 prophecy, and remained in Jerusalem. And Jeremiah, 
 the prophet, saw that the better class of the people would 
 be carried away, as captives, while the worst class would 
 remain, for a worse destiny. Those who escaped cap- 
 tivity naturally supposed that they were more fortunate 
 than those who were made captives. But Jeremiah 
 showed them, by the Divine Word of prophecy, that, on 
 the contrary, the captives should finally return to Jerusa- 
 lem, and to prosperity ; while those who persisted in 
 remaining at the present time, would be scattered abroad, 
 and lose their homes permanently, besides having to 
 meet further and greater trials, by war, famine, and 
 pestilence. 
 
 THE PARABLE. 
 
 And these things were represented in the parable of 
 our text and its context : " Jehovah showed me, and be- 
 hold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of 
 Jehovah. . . . One basket had very good figs, like the 
 figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very 
 bad figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad. 
 . . . Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel : Like these 
 good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried 
 away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this 
 place, into the land of the Chaldeans, for their good. 
 For I will set Mine eyes upon them for good, and I will 
 bring them again to this land: and I will build them, 
 and not pull them down ; and I will plant them, and not 
 pull them up. And I will give them a heart to know Me, 
 that I am Jehovah : and they shall be My people, and 
 I will be their God : for they shall return unto Me, with 
 their whole heart. And as .the evil figs, which cannot be 
 eaten, they are so evil, surely thus saith Jehovah, So will 
 
io8 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 I give Zedekiah, the king of Juclah, and his princes, and 
 the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and 
 them that dwell in the land of Egypt ; and I will deliver 
 them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth, 
 for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt 
 and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them. And 
 I ^ill send the sword, the famine and the pestilence 
 among them, till they be consumed from off the land that 
 I gave unto them and to their fathers." 
 
 THE FIGS. 
 
 In the literal sense, there does not seem to be any 
 special connection between the figs in the parable, and 
 the conditions of the two classes of the Jews. But the 
 connection appears in the spiritual meaning. Figs repre- 
 sent natural goodness, goodness in the conduct, in obe- 
 dience to the Divine law. A good man will live a good 
 practical life, from inward love of good principles. 
 
 The fig is often mentioned in the Scriptures, and 
 always as representing the quality of the conduct, which 
 is good with a good man, and bad with a bad man. The 
 more spiritual intelligence in truth is represented by the 
 grape ; and the more celestial love of God is represented 
 by the olive. Figs, thus relating to conduct, that is, to 
 natural goodness in the life, refer to the state of the 
 man's will, or the heart. " A good man, out of the good 
 treasure of the heart, bringeth forth good things ; and 
 an evil man, out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth evil 
 things." Therefore it is with men as with trees, " By 
 their fruits ye shall know them." 
 
 In the parable, the two- baskets of figs represented the 
 two opposite kinds of men, the good and the evil, when 
 developed in character. It is said that the good figs were 
 very good, like the figs tliat are first ripe. The figs of 
 the first cro|3, or early figs, were regarded as great dain- 
 ties, because of their very fine flavor. 
 
The Two Baskets of Figs. 109 
 
 THE TEMPLE. 
 
 On account of their excellence, as well as their early 
 ripening, these first-ripe figs were used in making offer- 
 ings to the Lord, upon the altar, in the temple. And 
 thus we can understand why these figs were set before 
 the door of the temple. By Divine direction, in Israel, 
 the first-fruits of the corn, the oil, the wine, and of the 
 fruits, were offered to the Lord, in worship, in the tem- 
 ple-service. And hence these things were regarded as 
 holy. And when the first-fruits were gathered, there was 
 also a great feast, to enjoy, and to acknowledge, these 
 blessings from the Lord. Hence, the first-fruits of the 
 figs, being especially devoted to the Lord, represented a 
 state of goodness in the daily life, in which the man acts 
 from love to the Lord, and in devotion of his life to the 
 Lord's principles. And, in the parable in our text, the 
 good figs were like such first-ripe figs, that is, of the same 
 good quality. Representatively, we all set the practical 
 doings of our daily life before the temple of the Lord ; 
 because the real character, or quality, of our life, is 
 within our actions ; and so by our actions we show the 
 quality of our love, and of our worship. 
 
 In one sense, the temple of our Lord is His Divine 
 Humanity, in which He dwells with us, and in which we 
 understand Him and worship Him. 
 
 The good figs represent those who love the Lord, and 
 who approach Him in the temple of His Humanity. And 
 of such, heaven is formed. Like the Jews in captivity, 
 they may have much to go through, in discipline; but, 
 finally, they are led into heaven, that is, into full regen- 
 eration. Their hearts and lives have the spiritual flavor 
 of the first-ripe figs. But the bad figs are those who are 
 evil, and who fix themselves in the love and practice of 
 evil, and who will not follow the teachings and leadings 
 of the Lord. Spiritually and representatively, they can- 
 
no Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 not be eaten ; that is, they are without any goodness, 
 being corrupt, and having nothing in their character 
 which can be appropriated, or assimilated, by a regen- 
 erate mind. 
 
 THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 The separation of the two classes of the Jews, repre- 
 sents the separation of the evil and the good, in the judg- 
 ment. Such a separation occurs among men, collectively ; 
 and also in each human mind, individually, wh^n its good 
 is separated from its natural evil tendencies, and pro- 
 tected and developed. 
 
 In this mental separation, the good principles, which, 
 to the natural thought, seem to be persecuted, are finally 
 brought to excellence in the heavenly condition, which is 
 the spiritual birthplace and home of the regenerate 
 man. But the natural tendencies to evil, which would 
 not follow the Lord's teachings, and which sought to 
 remain in the mind, in spite of the Lord's prophecies, are 
 finally scattered from the regenerating mind, perma- 
 nently and fully. And when the mind grows strong in 
 its regenerate character, these tendencies to evil become, 
 to such a mind, " a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and 
 a curse." And, spiritually, they meet with the sword, 
 and the famine, and the pestilence, until they are con- 
 sumed from off the land ; i.e., they are utterly destroyed 
 by their own false doctrine and their evil, in which there 
 is no life ; and by the infesting of evil influences, in their 
 practical ways of life. " Blessed are they that hunger 
 and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled" 
 with heavenly life. But " Evil shall slay the wicked," in 
 spiritual death. 
 
 PRACTICAL APPLICATION. 
 
 As Jehovah sent the Jews into the land of the Chal- 
 deans, for their good, so our Lord, in His wise and loving 
 
The Two Baskets of Figs. iii 
 
 providence over us, allows us to fall into many experi- 
 ences which seem very hard for us to bear, but which 
 are for our good, in the end. Therefore, it is always 
 wise for us to accept the leadings and permissions of the 
 Divine Providence, and to secure from them the good 
 which they are intended to afiford us. 
 
 Those who are most experienced in obedient trust in 
 the Lord, most clearly recognize that " It is not in man 
 that walketh, to direct his steps," but that " The steps 
 of a good man are ordered by Jehovah," and that 
 " though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down, for 
 Jehovah upholdeth his hand." Knowing this, the good 
 man, looking back upon his experience, exclaims " Before 
 I was afflicted, I went astray ; but now have I kept Thy 
 Word. ... It is good for me that I have been afflicted, 
 that I might learn Thy statutes." 
 
 In each of us there are two men, or two women, one 
 good and one bad, represented by the two baskets of 
 figs in our text. And, between these two men in us, 
 there is an irrepressible conflict, until we decide, per- 
 manently, which shall rule. They cannot remain to- 
 gether permanently, and they cannot co-operate : one 
 must gain the mastery. And each of us must decide 
 this question, for himself. And when we make the 
 choice, we decide our character and our destiny. Our 
 regeneration makes a great commotion in our mental 
 Israel, a great crisis in our life. It frees the things of 
 the spirit which had been in captivity to our sensuous 
 life; and, at the same time, it scatters and drives out 
 our evil tendencies. Regeneration is the greatest ques- 
 tion of our life. 
 
 • Naturally, we ask ourselves. What shall we eat? and 
 what shall we drink? and wherewith shall we be 
 clothed? What shall we do, to make a worldly living? 
 Where shall we live ? And what can we afford to have ? 
 But, high above all these, rise the greater questions, 
 
112 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 What am I? Why am I here? What are the possi- 
 bilities of my manhood ? Hold before your mental eyes 
 the vision in the parable, of the two baskets of figs. And 
 ask yourself, which of these practically represents your 
 real life, the Cjuality of your manhood, and the trend 
 of your destiny. " One basket had very good figs ; . . . 
 and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not 
 be eaten, thev were so bad." 
 
Jeremiah's Bonds and Yokes. 113 
 
 XIII. 
 JEREMIAH'S BONDS AND YOKES. 
 
 Thus saith Jehovah unto me, Make thee bonds and yokes, 
 and put them upon thy neck : and send them to the kings. . . . 
 Now have I given all these into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, 
 the king of Babylon. . . . And all nations shall serve him. . . , 
 And Hananiah, . . . the prophet, . . . spake unto me, . . . say- 
 ing. Thus speaketh Jehovah, ... I have broken the yoke of the 
 king of Babylon. . . . Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke 
 from oH the prophet Jeremiah's neck, and brake it. . . . Then 
 the Word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah, . . . saying, Go and 
 tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, Thou hast broken 
 the yokes of wood ; but thou shalt make for them yokes of 
 iron, — ^Jeremiah xxvii. 2, 3, 6; xxviii. i, 2, 10, 12, 13. 
 
 PROTECTIVE PROVIDENCE. 
 
 It is better for degenerating men to fall into igno- 
 rance, tlian to plunge further into evil, while in the 
 perception and acknowledgment of truth, and thus to 
 sin against light. 
 
 THE LITERAL STORY. 
 
 Our text and the context refer to very troubled times 
 in the history of Israel. They were days of degeneracy, 
 when the people, including priests and rulers, had sunk 
 into very sensuous conditions ; and when Divine things, 
 although professed, were only superficially regarded. 
 The spirit of selfish worldliness swayed almost all, in 
 all classes. A portion of the people had previously been 
 carried away to Babylon, as captives. And, now, again, 
 the hordes of the Chaldeans were besieging the holy 
 
114 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 city, Jerusalem. Fear, doubt, distrust, and even despair, 
 were on every side. Food was scarce. And there was 
 no confidence in the army, because of its former inabihty 
 to oppose the same enemy. The city was full of excite- 
 ment. And, worse than all, the people were divided into 
 two parties, one counselling surrender to the Chaldeans, 
 and the other party advocating continued resistance, and 
 an effort to induce Egypt to join in opposing the Chal- 
 deans. In these troubled conditions, Jeremiah, as the 
 prophet of Jehovah, raised his voice in the name of 
 Jehovah, informing the people that it would be far better 
 for them to surrender to the Chaldeans, and to go 
 peaceably to Babylon, to join their fellow country-men, 
 already there, than to suffer a terrible war, and finally 
 be defeated and treated far more harshly, besides in- 
 volving the destruction of the holy city, and of the 
 temple of Jehovah. 
 
 HANANIAH. 
 
 Hananiah, one of the sons of the prophets, was active 
 in the party opposing surrender, and favoring war. 
 Jeremiah, at the command of Jehovah, repeated his 
 prophecies, and emphasized the Divine counsel with the 
 enacted parable narrated in our text. He made bonds 
 and yokes, and put them on his own neck; and after- 
 ward he sent them to the surrounding Gentile kings, 
 counselling submission to Nebuchadnezzar, the Chal- 
 dean king of Babylon. 
 
 And thus Jeremiah exerted considerable influence 
 upon many of the Jews, especially upon the weak and 
 vacillating king of Judah, Zedekiah. 
 
 But Hananiah set himself to overcome the influence of 
 Jeremiah, especially with Zedekiah. Hananiah boldly 
 asserted that he had been called to prophesy in the 
 Lord's temple, that the Jews should resist, and overcome 
 the Chaldeans ; and that even the Jews now in captivit\' 
 
Jeremiah's Bonds and Yokes. 115 
 
 in Babylon should soon return to Jerusalem; bringing 
 with them the precious and holy vessels of the temple 
 of Jehovah, which had been taken away by the Chal- 
 deans. And, to corroborate his lying prophecy, Hana- 
 niah boldly took from the neck of Jeremiah, and forcibly 
 broke, the yoke which Jeremiah had worn in prophecy, 
 at the command of Jehovah. 
 
 Hananiah's action was sacrilegious, because it was 
 done in defiance of the acknowledged prophet of Je- 
 hovah, and thus against the Word of Jehovah. But the 
 Word of Jehovah came again to Jeremiah, the true 
 prophet, repudiating Hananiah's claim to prophecy, and 
 rebuking his attempt to deceive and injure the people ; 
 and prophesying his speedy death. 
 
 The literal story brings into sharp contrast the two 
 prophecies and their meaning. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL MEANING. 
 
 In these days, we are especially interested in the spir- 
 itual meaning of these things, as they apply to our own 
 personal life. And, now, remembering that the spir- 
 itual meaning of our Lord's words always applies to the 
 things of our inward life, let us transfer all these scenes 
 to the inward world of our mind, that we may see what 
 they mean to us, and within us. 
 
 CAPTIVITY. 
 
 The central point in the case is captivity. The bonds 
 and yokes were the familiar evidence and representa- 
 tives of captivity. The normal condition of a good man, 
 is freedom, in which he can carry out his own purposes 
 and plans. Hence, captivity is a restriction of liberty, 
 which limits the action, and cramps the affections and 
 thoughts. 
 
 Natural bonds are of two kinds, voluntary bonds, 
 
ii6 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 which the man willingly takes upon himself, in carrying 
 out his purposes, in social, business, and political asso- 
 ciations ; and involuntary bonds, which are forced upon 
 him, when he breaks the laws of the community. And 
 there is a similar distinction in spiritual bonds. The 
 regenerate man is bound to the Lord and to the neigh- 
 bor, in the ties of mutual love, which are voluntary and 
 delightful, and which afford the greatest fulness and 
 freedom to the affections, thoughts, and conduct. 
 
 But unregenerate men are bound by laws which are 
 obnoxious to them, and which restrain their desires, 
 plans, and action ; and which govern them by fears of 
 future loss and restraint. And this bondage of the 
 unregenerate man is spiritual captivity, under restraint. 
 
 When men are not willing to be bound by love of 
 goodness, they must be bound by fear of penalties. 
 Every mind which rejects Divine truths, thereby falls 
 into captivity to false principles, which shut up the mind, 
 in spiritual darkness. 
 
 And there are human conditions in which it is better 
 for the mind to be held in ignorance, than to be in the 
 clear perception of spiritual truth, while, at heart, hating 
 such truth, and profaning it in the daily life. In the 
 administration of a prison, it is far better, not only for 
 the general outside community, but also for the crimi- 
 nals, themselves, that the prisoners should be kept in 
 restraint, and in order, under strict laws, with penalties 
 for disobedience. For, in such case, the criminal is 
 protected, to some extent, from his own evil tendencies, 
 which, if allowed freedom, would sink him more and 
 more deeply into evil, and into crime. And the case is 
 parallel in spiritual things. It is for the good of the 
 criminal, to be kept under the bond of fear. And this 
 bondage is the central point in the representative parable 
 of our text. 
 
 For a free man, or nation, to go into captivity, would 
 
Jeremiah's Bonds and Yokes. 117 
 
 represent a mind falling into lower states of affection 
 and of thought, and adopting a lower standard of life. 
 But, at the time of our text, the Jews were in very bad 
 conditions. And it was better for them to fall into cap- 
 tivity, where they would be under some restraint, and 
 where their infernal pride would be broken, than to go 
 on, as they were then going on, further into all kinds of 
 evils and sins, while yet filled with selfish natural pride, 
 as the supposed chosen people of God. 
 
 BABYLON. 
 
 Babylon was a great centre of power, pride and learn- 
 ing. But the life and learning were those of the natural 
 senses, and of the natural mind. There was no knowl- 
 edge of spiritual things. The power, pomp and glory 
 were of the flesh, and of this world. And, hence, Baby- 
 lon represents the external and sensuous side of man's 
 nature, especially in the will, or heart, in which even 
 the worship is external and formal, and not of the spirit. 
 
 Thus, the Jews who went out and surrendered to the 
 army of Babylon, represent the man of the church who 
 has had knowledge of spiritual truths, but who has 
 begun a degenerate course; and who is now permitted 
 to fall into ignorance, and into natural-minded feelings 
 and ideas, so that he will not go on sinning against 
 spiritual light. But those who remained in Jerusalem, 
 represented the man who remains in the knowledge and 
 acknowledgment of spiritual things, and yet sinks deeper 
 into a life of evil. 
 
 OPPORTUNITIES. 
 
 Of course, if a man will arouse himself, and break off 
 his evil habits, and restrain his evil inclinations, it will 
 be better for him to remain in spiritual freedom, in the 
 light of spiritual truth, and in the warmth of spiritual 
 
ii8 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 worship. But, if he will not do so, the Lord allows 
 him to fall into ignorance, for his protection. The 
 loving and protective providence of the Lord always 
 regards the best condition at present attainable by the 
 man. And thus the Lord preserves whatever there may 
 be, in the man, of spiritual life, even if it be very little; 
 even if it be to save the man in the lowest heaven, rather 
 than to let him fall into any form of hell. But, if the 
 man will not be saved in any form of heaven, but per- 
 sistently makes a hell of his own heart, then the Lord 
 allows the man to go into the mildest form of hell which 
 he can be led to accept. And, from the Divine methods, 
 modern human professed reformers might learn far 
 greater wisdom than many of them practise. Too often, 
 they fix their minds upon the highest possible condition 
 of men, according to their views ; and then they demand 
 that every man needing reform shall come up to their 
 measure, and by their plan, or else they leave him, to 
 sink into the worst evil. In this way, they often hinder 
 the partial reformation of many whom the Lord is 
 seeking to help to climb part way up the ladder, at least. 
 Our Lord, in His grander and broader providence, does 
 not compel every man to attain the same highest stand- 
 ard, or nothing; but He leads each individual as far, 
 and in such a way, as that individual is then willing and 
 able to go. And our Lord's infinite love finally saves 
 many men whom many modern reformers would aban- 
 don to destruction. 
 
 DISCIPLINE. 
 
 But our Lord always gives, to every man, such spir- 
 itual discipline as will then be useful to him. And all 
 discipline which our Lord permits, whether spiritual or 
 natural, is always for our good, in the final outcome. 
 " All the paths of Jehovah are mercy and truth, unto 
 such as keep Ilis covenant and His testimonies." And 
 
Jeremiah's Bonds and Yokes. 119 
 
 the more fully and freely we accept such discipline, and 
 receive the good intended by it, the more good we can 
 receive, and the more our Lord can do for us, in char- 
 acter and in happiness. But, when we refuse to accept 
 the discipline which comes to us, but resist it, we make 
 it necessary for our Lord to permit still harder disci- 
 pline to reach us. 
 
 This was the case with the Jews who remained in 
 Jerusalem, as narrated in our text and the context. And 
 Jehovah, through the prophet Jeremiah, informed them 
 that, in refusing to submit to yokes of wood, they would 
 bring upon themselves yokes of iron, which would be 
 colder, heavier and harder. 
 
 WOOD AND IRON. 
 
 Wood represents natural good ; or, in the perverted 
 sense, natural evil ; and iron denotes natural and literal 
 truth ; or, if falsified, natural falsity. To wear a yoke 
 of wood, mentally, as in our text, means to be under the 
 influence of natural evils, which our unregenerate affec- 
 tions love. But to wear a yoke of iron, is to be con- 
 fronted with literal truths, which oppose our evils ; as, 
 for instance, the Ten Commandments, which restrain 
 evils. And this iron bondage is harder to bear, because, 
 in it, our understanding sees the literal truth, while our 
 heart does not consent to it. 
 
 THE TWO PROPHETS. 
 
 The competition between the true prophet, Jeremiah, 
 and the false prophet, Hananiah, to influence the Jews, 
 represents the competition in our minds, between the 
 Lord's truth and our self-derived notions, which we try 
 to establish as truths. And it is interesting to know that 
 this name, Hananiah, in the Hebrew of the Old Testa- 
 ment, is the same as Ananias, in the Greek of the New 
 
120 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 Testament. And there was a parallel between them : 
 Hananiah was a false prophet, lying in the name of Je- 
 hovah, and in the holy temple. And he brought himself 
 to a speedy death, at the prophetic word of Jeremiah. 
 And Ananias was the typical liar of his day, also lying 
 against the Lord, and in the Lord's temple, and falling 
 dead at the word of the Apostle, Peter. Both men were 
 guilty of profanation, in tempting the Spirit of God. 
 And they both represent the lying spirit of self-love, 
 which constantly obstructs regeneration. Our only safe 
 way is to follow the Divine leadings, wherever they are 
 indicated, knowing that He who leads us will develop 
 the best results, by the means which He provides and 
 permits. " The eternal God is thy refuge, and under- 
 neath are the everlasting arms." 
 
Jeremiah Hiding the Stones in the Mortar. 121 
 
 XIV. 
 
 JEREMIAH HIDING THE STONES IN THE 
 MORTAR. 
 
 Then came the Word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah, in Tah- 
 panhes, saying, Take great stones in thy hand, and hide them 
 in the mortar in the brickworlt, which is at the entry of Pha- 
 raoh's house, in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah ; 
 and say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of 
 Israel : Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar, the king 
 of Babylon, My servant, and will set his throne upon these 
 stones that I have hid ; and he shall spread his royal pavilion 
 over them. — Jeremiah xliii. 8-10. 
 
 The fallacies and falsities of the natural senses can- 
 not protect the unregenerate mind against the evils of 
 the selfish heart. 
 
 THE LITERAL STORY. 
 
 When the king of Babylon took Jerusalem, and car- 
 ried away most of the people, he left some of the poor 
 to till the land, and to gather the fruits, etc. And he 
 set Gedaliah over these, as a deputy-governor, under 
 the king of Babylon. But, after a time, Ishmael, a Jew, 
 and his followers, killed Gedaliah ; and then, for safety, 
 took away a number of the Jews, to the country of the 
 Ammonites, lest the king of Babylon should seek re- 
 venge for the killing of Gedaliah. But Johanan pursued 
 Ishmael's party, and re-took the Jews, and scattered 
 Ishmael's forces. But Johanan and his men feared to 
 return to Jerusalem. And they planned to go to Eg}'pt, 
 for safety. But, from policy, they consulted Jeremiah, 
 
122 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 the prophet of Jehovah, as to what they should do. 
 And Jeremiah warned them not to go to Egypt, but to 
 return to Jerusalem ; and that, in case they should go 
 to Egypt, the same enemy whom they feared to meet at 
 Jerusalem, would reach them in Egypt ; and that they 
 would cHe in Egypt. But these men, having set their 
 hearts upon going to Egypt, turned against Jeremiah, 
 and accused him of being a false prophet. And they 
 went to Egypt, and compelled Jeremiah to go with them. 
 In these circumstances our text was spoken, at Tah- 
 panhes. Tahpanhes was a great city in Egypt, on the 
 southern boundary of Palestine, on the southern limit 
 of Goshen. It was the city called at dififerent times, 
 Beth-Shemesh, or On, or Heliopolis ; and it was a centre 
 of Egyptian learning and worship. It contained S great 
 temple, or house of the sun. 
 
 THE TEXT. 
 
 The text, as quoted above, is from the American Re- 
 vised Version of the Bible, because the translation of this 
 text is generally asknowledged to be much better than 
 that given in the common version of the King James 
 Bible, which reads thus, " Take great stones in thy hand, 
 and hide them in the clay, in the brickkiln." Besides 
 being symbolic and also prophetic, our text records 
 actual historical facts. It is supposed that, in front of 
 the palace, or residence of the local Pharaoh, or Gov- 
 ernor, men were laying a pavement of bricks, and that 
 Jeremiah hid the great stones in the mortar, beneath the 
 brick pavement. And, in that warm climate, a governor 
 would be very likely to spread his pavilion out of doors, 
 on the brick pavement, over the stones hidden by Jere- 
 miah. And, if the king of Babylon should come and 
 conc(ucr the cit\ of Tahpanhes, he would be equally 
 likely to occupy the same pavement. 
 
Jeremiah Hiding the Stones in the Mortar. 123 
 
 SUGGESTIONS. 
 
 These doings of Jeremiah might well have suggested 
 to the Jews, many thoughts as to their past and their 
 future. This scene of the text was in Egypt, where, 
 long before, for centuries, their nation had been held 
 in bondage. The bricks might have suggested the chief 
 labor of their long Egyptian bondage, where they had 
 to make, every day, a large number of bricks, and, at 
 times, without the straw necessary to good work. And 
 the great fact of their former deliverance might have 
 made them hope for another deliverance, by Jehovah, in 
 the future. 
 
 But the same past history might well have made them 
 hesitate to take up their abode in Egypt ; for, in the 
 days of Jacob and Joseph, they went to Egypt volun- 
 tarily, but they had to remain there, in cruel bondage, 
 for centuries, before they finally escaped, at the Exodus, 
 under Moses, led by Jehovah. And now, by this 
 prophecy of Jeremiah, their dreaded enemy, the king of 
 Babylon, was to erect his throne even on the boundary 
 between Egypt and Palestine. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL MEANING. 
 
 Palestine, or the land of Canaan, where the church 
 was planted for Israel, represents the spiritual man, or 
 the spiritual mind in man. And Egypt represents the 
 natural man, or the natural mind in man. The unre- 
 generate natural mind is in the darkness of the natural 
 senses, and without the light of spiritual truth. And to 
 go down into Egypt, spiritually, is to think on the plane 
 of the natural senses, separated from spiritual truth. 
 And this condition is not a home for the regenerating 
 man, but only a sojourning-place, in the earlier stages 
 of his mental progress in the journey of life. But, 
 when a man regards the laws of the Lord as too exact- 
 
124 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 ing, and too hard to follow, he begins to think according 
 to the appearances of things before his natural senses; 
 and he increases his inclination to disregard the Divine 
 teachings. This was the condition in the fall of man, 
 figuratively represented by heeding the voice of the ser- 
 pent, which represents the life of man's natural senses, 
 the low, crawling life, which will not heed the voice of 
 God. And so, naturally, in Egypt, the serpent was 
 highly esteemed, and even worshipped. 
 
 We have all been placed in the spiritual position of 
 the ancient Jew, when we have weighed and compared 
 the evidence of our natural senses, against the revealed 
 Word of our Lord. 
 
 Those who would not accept Jeremiah's prophecy are 
 called " proud men," that is, men who trusted in them- 
 selves, and not in the Lord. And the same pride of self- 
 derived intelligence would work similar spiritual results, 
 to-day, in any of us. For, if the laws of God seem too 
 hard for us, and if we retreat to the evidence of our 
 senses, to avoid the Lord's rules, we shall find that we 
 shall not escape such evils as we feared, but that those 
 evils will reach us, and take possession of us, wherever 
 we may go; because we carry within us the inclination 
 to those evils. And, in fact, spiritually, they are never 
 far from us. 
 
 BABYLON. 
 
 These things are meant by the king of Babylon taking 
 the Jews, even in Egypt. Babylon represents the nat- 
 ural mind, as to the will, or heart. In this case, Babylon 
 represents the evil natural heart, which destroys the 
 church. The king of Babylon is the ruling false prin- 
 ciple, which dominates the unregenerate natural will. 
 And Egypt represents the natural mind, especially as 
 to the understanding, or intellect, which thinks in the 
 fallacies of the natural senses. Thus, llabNlon taking 
 
Jeremiah Hiding the Stones in the Mortar. 125 
 
 possession of Egypt, represents a condition of man's 
 mind, when his natural love of evil takes possession 
 of the mind, by means of the fallacies and falsities of 
 the senses, because these agree with evil desires ; and 
 they oppose the good and true principles of the Lord. 
 And if, in these conditions, the spiritual mind is held 
 closed by the falsities of the senses, then, representa- 
 tively, Israel is in captivity in Egypt; and then Baby- 
 lon, in conc|uering Egypt, will conquer, also, Israel in 
 Egypt. 
 
 For there cannot be any growth of the spiritual mind, 
 or any freedom fpr it, as long as the unregenerate nat- 
 ural will is dominating the whole mind. 
 
 At times, there seems to be war between Egypt and 
 Babylon, although they represent mental conditions 
 which inwardly co-operate in the human character. 
 
 THEORY AND PRACTICE. 
 
 But there is often an apparent warfare between the 
 things which practically work towards the same final 
 outcome; but such opposition is merely superficial and 
 ignorant, at least on one side. For instance, a man sees 
 the things of life from the standpoint of his natural 
 senses, and in ignorance of spiritual truth ; and, theo- 
 retically, he opposes the evil feelings which come up in 
 his heart, because, from common opinion, such things 
 are regarded as wrong. And we are all quite prompt 
 to condemn these things in the conduct of other per- 
 sons, especially if exercised towards ourselves. And 
 yet, when we think we have provocation, we are inclined 
 to feel, and to act, as the other person acted, when we 
 condemned his action as wrong, and as against right 
 principles, which we theoretically adopted. And, if we 
 have not, in our hearts, any fixed spiritual principles 
 of life, which are heartily opposed to evil, our su- 
 
126 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 perficial theories will soon be scattered by our own evil 
 desires. 
 
 Again, suppose a man to have been brought up to 
 attend church, as a duty, and to have accjuired a super- 
 ficial piety, which he regards as proper and genuine. 
 Now, he may be very pious, externally, and very zealous 
 in the church, and yet, secretly, he may be relying upon 
 " Salvation by faith alone," and without regard to good- 
 ness or evil in the practical life. And it may be that 
 he does not carry his Sunday religion into his week-day 
 work. And when a wrong feeling comes up in his mind, 
 he may oppose it, at first, and superficially. But, if he 
 has not, in his heart, a fixed purpose to give up all things 
 which the Lord calls evil, his natural and selfish desire 
 will finally conquer all his superficial ideas, and will 
 control his practical conduct. And even if, mentally, 
 he goes down into Egypt, and thinks over the matter in 
 the light of his natural senses, his evil inclinations will 
 reach him even there, and will dominate his mind. 
 
 And so you find some pious men, prominent in 
 the churches, and apparently good men, who cannot 
 bear the strain of a sudden or great temptation, because 
 they have no inward basis of fixed love for the Lord, 
 and for His Divine principles, and for integrity and 
 honor in men. As long as good policy seemed to deter 
 them from doing wrong, they hid their real character. 
 But when the strain reached their breaking-point, there 
 was nothing within them which could protect them. 
 They were like the Jews in Egypt, finally reached by the 
 king of Babylon. 
 
 And we are all in similar danger, as long as we trust 
 to anything else than the goodness and truth of our 
 Lord, built into our own daily life. The fallacies of the 
 natural senses, and the falsities of natural thought, and 
 of self-derived intelligence, all fail, at the critical point, 
 when the strain of our self-will bends us. 
 
Jeremiah Hiding the Stones in the Mortar. 127 
 
 THE STONES AND THE BRICK. 
 
 " Take great stones in thy hand, and hide them in the 
 mortar in the brickwork, which is at the entry of Pha- 
 raoh's house." 
 
 In a general way, the three kingdoms of nature, the 
 animal, the vegetable, and the mineral, which are three 
 different degrees of life, different in kind, or quality, 
 represent the three discrete, or different, degrees of life, 
 in man ; the celestial degree, which is characterized by in- 
 most love to the Lord, which is the love of goodness ; and 
 the spiritual degree, dominated by a love of the neigh- 
 bor, which is the love of truth ; and the natural degree, 
 known by the love of law, and of obedience to the law. 
 
 Common stones, belonging to the mineral kingdom, 
 represent natural truths, not merely truths about natural 
 things, but all truths, about all things, as seen by a mind 
 open to the natural degree, only. And so the ancient 
 men often set up stones, or stone pillars, or piles of 
 stones, to commemorate important events ; or to witness 
 agreements between parties ; or as landmarks to land- 
 property. But, when a stone is used for a bad purpose, 
 or to represent a bad thing, it changes its representative 
 meaning, and represents a falsity, a truth when per- 
 verted into falsity, by wrong application. The form of 
 the statement may remain the same, but a changed pur- 
 pose and a changed application, change the practical 
 effect of the statement, and pervert a truth into a falsity, 
 in the mind and life of the person so abusing it. A great 
 truth, buried in man's natural senses, loses its spiritual 
 quality. 
 
 Jeremiah took great stones, which, in their natural 
 place, would have represented natural truths. But, 
 when he hid them in the mortar, under the pavement, 
 for the use of a heathen king, they represented natural 
 truths, such as the literal truths of the Scriptures, hidden 
 
128 Parables of the Old Tesfaiiient Explained. 
 
 and buried in the hot lusts of the natural mind ; and 
 perverted to the bad use of our self-love and our self- 
 derived intelligence. The mortar, not a natural material, 
 but a man-made product, is hot from the lime in it, and 
 damp from the water in it. And so it represents, here, 
 the fare of self-love, joined with the water of falsity. 
 
 Brick, as an artificial stone, here represents false ideas, 
 built into the mind, as substitutes for the Lord's truths. 
 And the king of Babylon, setting his throne on the 
 brick pavement, and over the hidden stones, represents 
 the dominant false principle which is joined with evil 
 loves, ruling in the mind, by means of all the false 
 notions which may be made to appear to be founded on 
 the letter of the Scriptures, interpreted by the thoughts 
 of the senses. It is a common saying that a man can 
 prove anything from the Bible ; /. e., he can so pervert 
 the literal sense of the Bible, as to make it seem to uphold 
 almost any false notion. 
 
 EGYPT. 
 
 All the things which it is said that Nebuchadnezzar 
 would do to the Egyptians, represent the bad mental 
 conditions into which the natural mind is brought, when, 
 in its Egyptian darkness, the sensuous love of evil takes 
 possession of the mind, and destroys all that exists in the 
 mind, even of natural goodness and truth, which might 
 have been used in the work of regeneration. " Woe to 
 them that go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, 
 and trust in chariots, because they are many, and in 
 horsemen because they are very strong; but they look 
 not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek Jehovah. 
 . . . The Egyptians arc men, and not God : and their 
 horses are flesh, and not spirit: and when Jehovah shall 
 stretch out His hand, both he that helpeth shall stumble, 
 and he that is helped shall fall, and they shall all be 
 consumed together." (Isaiah xxxi. i, 3.) 
 
The Infolding Fire, etc. 129 
 
 XV. 
 
 THE LNFOLDING FIRE, THE LIVING CREA- 
 TURES, AND THEIR WHEELS, ETC. 
 
 And I looked, and behold, a whirlwind came out of the North, 
 a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness about 
 it ; and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber, out of 
 the midst of the fire. 
 
 And out of the midst thereof, the likeness of four living crea- 
 tures. And this was their appearance ; they had the likeness 
 of a man. And every one had four faces, and every one had 
 four wings. And their feet were straight feet ; and the sole of 
 their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot : and they sparkled 
 like the color of burnished brass. 
 
 And they had the hands of a man imder their wings on their 
 four sides : and they four had their faces and their wings. 
 Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when 
 they went ;, they went every one straight forward. As for the 
 likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and 
 the face of a lion, on the right side : and they four had the face 
 of an ox on the left side : they four also had the face of an 
 eagle. Thus were their faces ; and their wings were stretched 
 upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, 
 and two covered their bodies. 
 
 And they went every one straight forward : whither the spirit 
 was to go, they went : and they turned not when they went. 
 
 As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance 
 was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of lamps : 
 it went up and down among the living creatures ; and the fire 
 was bright ; and out of the fire went forth lightning. 
 
 Now, as I beheld the living creatures, behold, one wheel upon 
 the earth, by the living creatures, with their four faces. 
 
 The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto 
 the color of a beryl : and they four had one likeness ; and their 
 appearance and their work was, as it were, a wheel in the midst 
 of a wheel. — Ezekiel i. 4-16. 
 
 9 
 
130 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD. 
 
 The general theme is the presence of the Lord, which 
 is constant with all men, and with each man ; and always 
 accommodated to each man's individual needs. 
 
 The Lord is present in His Divine Word, in which 
 He reveals Himself in many different aspects, so that 
 each man, at each stage of his spiritual progress, may 
 have such mental light as he is then able to use, in his 
 practical life. 
 
 THE STORM. 
 
 A storm is a disturbance of the usual conditions of the 
 atmosphere. And a spiritual storm is a disturbance of 
 mental conditions. Such a storm may occur, for in- 
 stance, when the Lord manifests His presence in His 
 Divine truth, among those who do not love Him, and 
 who live in evil and in falsity. To such men, the Lord 
 seems to come as a disturbing and destroying power, to 
 interfere with their conditions. 
 
 THE NORTH. 
 
 The whirlwind is said to come out of the North. The 
 points of the compass represent the different conditions 
 of men"s minds. The North is the darkest quarter, 
 opposite to the South, where the light is greatest at 
 noon-time. And, as the light in the South represents 
 the spiritual light of intelligence, so the North, as oppo- 
 site, represents the least degree of spiritual intelligence, 
 the natural-minded state, ignorant of spiritual truths. 
 
 And the approach of the Lord, in His Divine Truth, 
 makes a great disturbance in man's natural mind, and 
 tends to break up the usual conditions. 
 
 THE CLOUD. 
 
 With the storm there is a great cloud. TIk spiritual 
 meaning of the Divine Word is a bright light, warm and 
 
The Infolding Fire, etc. 131 
 
 brilliant before the spiritual mind. But, in accommo- 
 dating itself to natural-minded men, the Divine Word 
 must come in the cloud of the literal meaning, which 
 obscures spiritual truth to those who are not prepared 
 to see it. 
 
 THE INFOLDING FIRE. 
 
 And yet, to those who are prepared to see, there is, 
 within the cloud, a glowing fire of the Divine Love, 
 giving life to all things. In our text this fire is said to 
 be " infolding itself," or receiving itself. The idea is 
 that the fire streamed forth, in brilliant flashes of flame, 
 which then folded themselves back into the central fire, 
 or doubled in upon themselves ; and again streamed 
 forth, and returned. The effect would be an alternation 
 of very brilliant light, and of light less brilliant, some- 
 what like the twinkling of a star. Thus, this fire con- 
 stantly rekindled and sustained itself, as a source, as 
 well as affording a perpetual supply. And, in these 
 facts, is represented the Lord's love, as the source of 
 all things, whence there flows a perpetual supply of love 
 and wisdom for men, that they may return to the Lord, 
 in a loving acknowledgment. 
 
 And, around this great fire, there was a general bright- 
 ness, a luminous halo of light, representing the Divine 
 Truth manifested in the presence of the Lord, and flow- 
 ing from His Love. And out of the midst of the bright- 
 ness came the color of amber. Amber has been said to 
 be of the color of gold and silver combined, having the 
 warmth of the gold, and the brightness of the silver. 
 This color of Jtmber represents the presence and in- 
 fluence of the Divine Truth, in the letter of the Divine 
 Word, shining warmly from the inward, spiritual 
 meaning. 
 
 And the three appearances, the fire, and the bright- 
 ness, and the color of amber, represent the three aspects 
 
132 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 in which the Lord appears, in His Word, to men in the 
 three discrete degrees, the celestial, the spiritual, and the 
 natural ; i.e., as seen from the dififercnt mental stand- 
 points, the inmost love of goodness, the intelligence in 
 spiritual truth, and the obedience to the rules of life. 
 
 THE LIVING CREATURES. 
 
 And out of the fire, etc., came the likeness of four 
 living creatures. These diflferent creatures represent the 
 different aspects in which the Lord, in His Divine Word, 
 impresses men in different degrees of intelligence, and 
 on different planes, or levels, of human life. To one 
 man, the Divine Word is full of the goodness of God's 
 love^ for all the uses of human life. To another man, 
 the Word is the repository of clear truths. To another, 
 the Word is full of obscure truths, for men to study, and 
 to apply to life. To another, the Word is a guide-book 
 for rules of conduct. 
 
 These living creatures, or cherubim, externally repre- 
 sent the Word in its letter, which is a spiritual guard, 
 surrounding the inward, spiritual Word of God, to pro- 
 tect it from profanation, in the mind of the natural man. 
 For thus the ]3rovidfnce of the Lord supplies every 
 man with all that he can use ; and also protects him 
 from abusing that which he does not know how to use. 
 Thus, in the profoundest sense, these living creatures 
 represent the Lord, as Life, itself, flowing out to men, 
 as receptacles of life. 
 
 The Lord is often represented, in tlie Scriptures, bv 
 living creatures, which, in each case, represent some 
 particular phase of the Divine character, some aspect in 
 which God is seen and known to men. To represent His 
 power. He is called the Lion of the tribe of Juxlah. To 
 express Flis gentleness, TTc is called a Lamb. And .so, 
 in the Scriptures, men are often represented by animals 
 
The Infolding Fire, etc. 133 
 
 both good and evil, according to the characters of the 
 men represented. The composite animals, such as men- 
 tioned in our text, and such as could not exist in the 
 natural world, seem, to our minds, very grotesque. But 
 they were familiar to Oriental minds, whose literature 
 abounded in such symbolic representatives. 
 
 FOUR. 
 
 There were four of these living creatures. Two rep- 
 resents union, or conjunction, as with the co-operating 
 of the heart and the lungs, or the spirit and the body, 
 or the will and the understanding. And four represents 
 a double union, as between both the natural will and 
 understanding and the spiritual' will and understanding. 
 For there is this double and perfect union in all things 
 which are from the Lord. And this union is reciprocal, 
 as in the regenerate man, who understands what he 
 loves, and also loves what he understands.. 
 
 FACES. 
 
 In general, these living creatures had the likeness of 
 a man, because they represented the Lord, as the Divine 
 Man, in His manifesting Himself to finite men. The 
 face expresses the feelings and thoughts which are active 
 in the mind. And so you look into a man's face, to 
 understand his real meaning. Each of these living 
 creatures had four faces, of different kinds. These dif- 
 ferent faces represented the different aspects of spiritual 
 truth in the Lord's Word, as it affects the minds of 
 men, in the internal will, and in the external will, and 
 in the internal understanding, and in the external under- 
 standing. Thus, with its four faces, one turned in each 
 direction, the Word of the Lord, like the four sides of 
 the holy city, looks in every way, to all classes of men, 
 spiritual and natural. 
 
134 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 WINGS. 
 
 And each of these Hving creatures had four wings. 
 Wings, like arms, are the means of exerting power; 
 and so they represent power. The characteristic action 
 of wings is to lift up the body, and to make rapid pro- 
 gress. So, mentally, the understanding, or intellect, has 
 the power to elevate the thought, and to progress to dif- 
 ferent conditions of feeling. Wings operate in pairs, 
 thus representing the co-operation of the heart and the 
 intellect. The four wings, being two pairs, represent 
 the power of thought, when both natural and spiritual. 
 Natural thought and spiritual thought, when united in 
 man, protect him from abusing the Word of the Lord. 
 And, as these living creatures represent the Lord, as the 
 Divine Man, they display the co-operation of the Divine 
 Power, in the truth of the Divine Word, in both its 
 letter and its spirit ; for the truth is one, and united, 
 although it has different aspects, in its letter and in its 
 spirit. 
 
 FEET. 
 
 The feet, as the lowest part of the body, represent 
 the natural mind, as the lowest part of the mind. The 
 sole of the foot represents the life of the senses, the 
 corporeal plane of life, which is the lowest part of the 
 natural mind. In these living creatures, the soles of the 
 feet were like the sole of a calf's foot. 
 
 Domestic cattle represent our natural affections. A 
 calf, being young and harmless, represents the innocent 
 state of the natural mind, in its affection for knowing 
 the truths which sustain mental life. The passage in 
 Malachi (iv. 2), "Ye shall go forth and grow up, as 
 calves of the stall," means that the regenerating natural 
 man shall develop in knowledge of the Lord's Word, 
 and thus in the love of goodness. The fact that each 
 of the living creatures had straight feet, like the feet of 
 
The Infolding Fire, etc. 135 
 
 a calf, indicates that the Word of the Lord arouses and 
 develops, in the natural man, a love of a good life, in 
 simple obedience to the Divine laws of life. 
 
 These feet " sparkled like the color of burnished 
 brass." Brass, as a base metal, represents the natural 
 man, or the natural affections of man, as distinguished 
 from gold, which represents celestial love, with the in- 
 most affections of the spirit. When the natural affec- 
 tions are good and orderly, they sparkle, or shine, like 
 polished brass ; i.e., they reflect the images of the higher 
 things of the mind, as a good natural affection repre- 
 sents a good interior and heavenly affection. 
 
 It is characteristic of the Lord's Word, even in its 
 outward letter, its feet, that it teaches a good and pure 
 natural life. 
 
 The hands of a man, under the wings of these living 
 creatures, represent the higher power of spiritual truth, 
 often concealed under, or within, the power of the letter 
 of the Divine Word. 
 
 THE FACES. 
 
 The four faces of these living creatures were those 
 of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle. The face of a 
 man represents the Divine Truth, in its interior wisdom, 
 as it is seen by the angelic man, to whom it gives power 
 to become wise. The Lion represents strength. And the 
 creature with the face of a lion represents the strength 
 of the letter of the Divine Word, and thus, the strength 
 of the Lord's Love, as displayed in forming the letter 
 of His Word, for the salvation of men. 
 
 The ox represents the natural affection, to which 
 truth is comparatively obscure. The eagle, as a bird, 
 represents the intellectual side of man's mind, as dis- 
 tinguished from the beasts, which represent the affec- 
 tional side. The eagle is a bird of very great powers of 
 
136 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 flight, and of sight; representing the soaring intelli- 
 gence, and the extended thought, of the rational mind. 
 
 The living creatures, having faces of man, lion, ox, 
 and eagle, thus represent the different aspects of the 
 Divine Word, as the Lord's methods of reaching men 
 of different genius. 
 
 That the movements of these creatures was like light- 
 ning, in its flashes of light, represents that they revealed 
 the Lord, in and by His truth, in His Word. 
 
 WHEELS. 
 
 Each of the living creatures had a wheel, which went 
 with the creature. Wheels are means of going, or pro- 
 gressing. They represent an intelligent knowledge of 
 doctrine, by which a man's mind can travel and pro- 
 gress. Intelligent knowledge of natural things (as, for 
 instance, a good knowledge of the letter of the Divine 
 Word), is an excellent means of carrying the mind to 
 further progress. 
 
 But, in our text, it is said that there was, in each case, 
 a wheel in the midst of a wheel. This represents a spir- 
 itual intelligence within the natural intelligence ; as, in 
 the knowledge of the Word of God, there may be an 
 interior knowledge of spiritual principles, within the 
 outward knowledge of the letter of the Word. Such 
 intelligence makes a man a double scholar, learned in 
 the facts and rules of the Divine Word, for natural life, 
 and spiritually intelligent in the truths which relate to 
 spiritual life. 
 
 All these living creatures are much like those seen by 
 John, and mentioned in the Apocalypse. 
 
 All such scenes and visions are representative and cor- 
 respondential of all the many forms in which our Lord 
 of infinite Love reaches H^is human children, in all 
 grades of their intelligence. And such representatives 
 
The Infolding Fire, etc. 137 
 
 should teach us to look to our Lord, for light and life, 
 and to cultivate, in ourselves, and to help others to de- 
 velop and cultivate, the mental capacity to see, and to 
 understand, all the various manifestations of His love, 
 wisdom, and power, which our Lord displays before us, 
 especially in His Word. 
 
 Only by drawing near to Him, in love, can we develop 
 the highest human intelligence, the intuitive insight of 
 the open spirit, " the self-evidencing reason of love." 
 
 O Lord, " with Thee is the fountain of life : in Thy 
 light shall we see light." (Psalm xxxvi. 10.) 
 
138 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 XVI. 
 EZEKIEL EATING THE ROLL OF A BOOK. 
 
 Son of man, hear what I say unto thee : Be not thou rehel- 
 lious, like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that 
 I give thee. 
 
 And when I looked, behold, a hand was sent unto me ; and 
 lo, a roll of a book therein. And he spread it before me ; and 
 it was written within and without ; and there were written 
 therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe. 
 
 Moreover, he said unto me. Son of man, eat that thou findest ; 
 eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel. So I opened 
 my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll. .■\nd he said unto 
 me, Son of man, cause thy stomach to eat, and fill thy bowels 
 with this roll that I give thee. Then I did eat : and it was in 
 my mouth as honey, for sweetness. And he said unto me, Son 
 of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with 
 My words unto them. ... So the spirit lifted me up, and took 
 me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit : but 
 the hand of lehovah was strong upon me. — Ezekiel ii. 8-10 ; 
 iii. 1-4, 14. 
 
 The unregenerate natural man may delight in the 
 letter of the Divine Word, because he can interpret it 
 to favor his own evils ; but, at the same time, he de- 
 spises the inward and spiritual meaning of the same 
 Divine Word, because it is clear truth, which exposes 
 his evil character. 
 
 THE LITERAr, F.\CTS. 
 
 Our text narrates the experiences of the prophet, just 
 after he had seen the wonderful symbolic vision of the 
 
Ezekiel Eating the Roll of a Book. 139 
 
 whirlwind, the infolding fire, and the wheels within 
 wheels. 
 
 The Lord was sending Ezekiel to warn and to teach 
 the Israelites, who, as stated in the context, were then 
 a rebellious, hard-hearted and stiff-necked people. 
 
 The special message to Ezekiel instructed him to eat 
 that which the Lord would send to him. And then a 
 hand appeared to him, holding the roll of a book, writ- 
 ten upon, within and without, and containing lamenta- 
 tions and mourning and woe. And he was commanded 
 to eat the book, and then to go to the people of Israel, 
 and to speak to them the words of Jehovah. 
 
 IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 
 
 This scene was in the spiritual world ; and the prophet 
 engaged in its experiences with his spiritual senses ; i.e., 
 the senses of his spiritual body. These facts are clear, 
 not only from the nature of the case, but also from the 
 language of the context. At the beginning, it is said 
 that, while Ezekiel was by the river, " the hand of Jeho- 
 vah was upon him," which means that he was in un- 
 usual conditions, brought about by the Lord. As Eze- 
 kiel expresses it, " The heavens were opened, and I saw 
 visions of God." And again he says, " The spirit lifted 
 me up, and took me away, . . . and I went in bitter- 
 ness, in the heat of my spirit: but the hand of Jehovah 
 was strong upon me;" i.e., he was moved and guided 
 by the Lord. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL MEANING. 
 
 The spiritual meaning of the vision is not only gen- 
 eral, referring to the nation, but also particular, and 
 regarding each man's individual mind. 
 
 Spiritually, the rebellious house of Israel is the un- 
 regenerate natural mind of man, with all its selfish and 
 
140 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 sensuous feelings and thoughts, and all the man's bad 
 habits. And these conditions were general in Israel, 
 at the time of our text. 
 
 Every man is born in a spiritual body, which is within 
 his material body, but whose spiritual senses may be 
 opened, at any time, by the Lord, so that the man can 
 then see, and act, etc., in the spiritual world. This was 
 the case with all the seers, and others named in the 
 Scriptures who were, at times, intromitted into the 
 spiritual world. 
 
 THE HAND. 
 
 The hand, by which, especially, we express our power, 
 represents power. We speak in agreement with this 
 symbolism, when, for instance, we say that we have 
 a matter " in hand," or that " we have our hands on 
 it," when we mean that it is within our power. 
 
 In this case, as the hand was in the spiritual world, 
 it represented, especially, the power of the spirit, and 
 particularly the power of the Spirit of God, operating 
 in and from His Divine Word. 
 
 THE ROLL. 
 
 For " the roll of a book" which the hand held, repre- 
 sented the Divine Book, the Word of the Lord. It is 
 called the " roll" of a book, because, in ancient days, 
 books were manuscripts, written on long pieces of 
 parchment, or of papyrus, or paper, which were rolled 
 on two rollers ; and, as they were read, they were un- 
 rolled at one end, to read, and rolled again, at the other 
 end, as used. The book, held in the hand, represented 
 the Word of the Lord, which the prophet was to carry 
 to Israel. For the salvation of Israel, as of other 
 nations, was to come by means of the Divine Word, 
 revealing to the people the love and wisdom of the 
 Lord, and His laws for human life, which men must 
 
Egekiel Eating the Roll of a Book. 141 
 
 follow, in order to be saved from the inward hell which 
 their own evils would naturally form in their hearts and 
 lives. 
 
 The hand " spread" the book before the prophet; i.e., 
 the Lord revealed His truth to His prophet. 
 
 The book was written, within and without ; i.e., it had 
 an inward and spiritual meaning, and an external and 
 literal sense. And there were written therein, " lamen- 
 tations and mourning and woe;" i.e., the spiritual truth 
 reveals the evils and falsities and sins in the inward 
 motives and thoughts of evil men, as well as in their 
 outward conduct. Men lament over the good which 
 they lose. And so, lamentation represents the sorrow 
 which is inseparable from all evil, and in which good is 
 lost. Evil vastates, or lays waste, all the good in the 
 man's heart, especially when he abuses the letter of the 
 Divine Word, to favor his own evil loves. Then, spir- 
 itually, " evil shall slay the wicked." 
 
 Thus lamentation is the loss of goodness, in the heart. 
 But mourning represents the loss of truth, in the intel- 
 lect, when falsities control the thought. And woe repre- 
 sents the loss of joy in the practical life and conduct of 
 the evil man. 
 
 EATING THE BOOK. 
 
 The prophet, at the Divine command, ate the book. 
 In bodily eating, there are several processes. The mouth 
 receives the food, and masticates it. It then passes into 
 the stomach, as the common receptacle, whence the food 
 is to be distributed. Spiritually, taking food into the 
 mouth, represents receiving any good or truth, any new 
 feeling or thought. But food must go through the 
 process of digestion, in the stomach, which process rep- 
 resents the examination by rational thought, which we 
 give to the new conditions of feeling and of thought. 
 And, further, the passing of the digested food to its 
 
142 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 next receptacle, represents the more interior and spir- 
 itual thought given to our new experiences, to test them 
 by our interior will. For, comparatively, the work of 
 the stomach represents the work of the understanding ; 
 while the work of the bowels represents the action of the 
 will, or heart, when new conditions are received and 
 accepted, appropriated and assimilated b)- our mind. 
 
 SWEET AND BITTER. 
 
 As the prophet was eating the book, its taste was 
 very sweet in his mouth. But we observe that, later, 
 he felt a state of bitterness, in the spirit. 
 
 These conditions of sweet and bitter are the key-notes 
 of this parable. Similar things are narrated by John, 
 in the Revelation : " And the voice which I heard from 
 heaven spoke unto me again, and said, Go, take the 
 little book which is open in the hand of the angel who 
 standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. 
 
 And I went to the angel, and said unto him, Give me 
 the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat 
 it up ; and it shall make thy bowels bitter ; but it shall 
 be, in thy mouth, sweet as honey. 
 
 And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, 
 and ate it up : and it was, in my mouth, sweet as honey : 
 and as soon as I had eaten it, my bowels were bitter. 
 And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again, before 
 many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings." 
 (Revelation x. 8-11.) 
 
 And John declared that these things happened while 
 he was "in the spirit;" i.e., in the spiritual world, and 
 in his spiritual senses. 
 
 Now, between these two narratives 30U will notice 
 several points of close resemblance. In both, the prophet 
 was in the spiritual world ; and he saw a book, which 
 was open, and in the hand of an angel; and he ate the 
 
Esekiel Eating the Roll of a Book. 143 
 
 book, and it was as sweet as honey, in his mouth ; but 
 when he came to digest it, it was bitter; and, in each 
 case, the circumstances immediately preceded a call to 
 prophesy to the people. Thus, in each case, the vision 
 was to prepare the prophet for his work. 
 
 Sweetness represents the delight which comes to the 
 mind in receiving pleasant things, which agree with 
 our desires and thoughts. Honey represents this delight 
 of the mind, especially of the natural mind, dealing with 
 the external side of things. 
 
 EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL.. 
 
 In an orderly state of mind and of life, the things 
 which delight our natural mind are in correspondence 
 with the things which delight our enlightened spiritual 
 mind. But, in an unregenerate state of mind, many 
 things delight the natural feeling and thought, which 
 do not correspond with the things of spiritual good. 
 And also, in this state, many things, in their external 
 forms, delight the natural mind, while, in. their internal 
 aspects, they are very distasteful to the same mind. 
 For instance, the literal sense of the Divine Word, the 
 Scriptures, may delight a man's natural mind, because 
 he can interpret the literal sense in many ways, and 
 according to his own ways of thinking and feeling. 
 And he can make the literal sense of the Bible appear 
 to justify his evil affections, and his false notions, and 
 even his sinful acts. 
 
 For instance, the ancient Jew interpreted the letter of 
 the Old Testament to prove that the Jews were more 
 holy than other nations, and were especially chosen to 
 be the Lord's people. And this view was delightful to 
 the ancient Jew's personal and national pride. But the 
 Jews did not understand the inward and spiritual mean- 
 ing of the Divine Word, or they would have seen that 
 
144 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 they were not chosen to be a spiritual church, but 
 merely to represent a spiritual church, in an external 
 way, by symbolic actions. 
 
 Again, the ancient Jews were delighted with the lit- 
 eral sense of the Scriptures, which foretold the coming 
 of a Messiah. And their delight was in their supposi- 
 tion that the Messiah was to exalt them, as a nation, and 
 to give them wealth, glory, and power, in this world, 
 and in worldly things. But, when Jesus came, as the 
 promised Messiah, His personality, His ways of life, 
 and His teachings, were very distasteful to the Jews, 
 Ijecause He proclaimed that His kingdom was not of 
 this world, but that He came to lead men into a spiritual 
 kingdom, by regeneration. And thus, representatively, 
 while the Divine Word was sweet in the mouth of these 
 Jews, it was bitter in their bowels. 
 
 MODERN INSTANCES. 
 
 And similar conditions exist among men, to-day. For 
 instance, take the prevailing theory of " Salvation by 
 Faith, alone," as taught in manv of the churches, from 
 the letter of the Scriptures misunderstood. P.y this 
 doctrine, men are taught to expect salvation by a " Vi- 
 carious Atonement," without any regard to the actual 
 character of a man, in the quality of his heart and of his 
 life. And manv men enter the churches, and become 
 very pious, because they expect to gain heaven thereby, 
 without the long and hard labors of practical regen- 
 eration, by the change of character, from evil to good, 
 in the leadings of the Lord. They delight in their belief 
 that, in spite of their evil life, God will impute to them 
 Christ's righteousness. 
 
 But, when such men are taught the spiritual truth, 
 from the inward and spiritual sense of the Scriptures, 
 confirmed by the literal sense when properly under- 
 
Esekiel Eating the Roll of a Book. 145 
 
 stood; and when they find that salvation is not by faith 
 alone, but by love in the heart, and faith in the intel- 
 lect, and righteousness in the life, they find such truth 
 to be very bitter to them, because it takes away their 
 theory of easy salvation; and it demands of them the 
 continued and severe labor of living themselves out of 
 evil, and into goodness, in obedience to the Divine com- 
 mandments. They do not relish the clear truths that 
 God does not impute to them the righteousness of Christ, 
 but that our Lord, Jesus Christ, Who is. Himself, the 
 one God of Heaven and earth, imparts to them His 
 righteousness, in the measure in which they cease to be 
 unrighteous in their practical daily life, and in which 
 they live according to the Divine laws. 
 
 These things are inwardly bitter to the man who hopes 
 to secure an entrance into heaven, without the trouble 
 of actual regeneration. But the literal sense of the Bible 
 was sweet to him, because he understood it to promise 
 him an easy way to heaven. 
 
 These conditions were portrayed in Jesus's explana- 
 tion of His parable of the sower : " He that received 
 the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth 
 the Word, and anon with joy receiveth it ; yet hath he 
 not root in himself, but dureth for a while : for when 
 tribulation or persecution ariseth, because of the Word, 
 by and by he is offended." 
 
 The Word was, to him, externally sweet, but inter- 
 nally bitter. 
 
 THE STATE OF THE WORLD. 
 
 Look over the world, to-day, in politics, in business, 
 in the professions, and in the workings of labor, and 
 even in the churches, and in the so-called reforms and 
 charities, and you can easily see how often the spirit of 
 selfishness and of worldliness seeks to intrench itself be- 
 hind the literal sense of the Bible, and thus to live a 
 
 10 
 
146 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 practical daily life which is utterly opposed to the spirit 
 of the Divine Word. 
 
 The spirit of selfish worldliness is so clearly demon- 
 strated in the dealings of the nations with each other, 
 that, in the light of the spirit, we must exclaim with the 
 Psalmist of Israel, " The gods of the nations are idols." 
 (Psalm xcvi. 5.) 
 
 Nations and individuals are gambling and juggling 
 with the letter of the Scriptures, in their efiforts to avoid 
 the clear teachings of the spiritual sense, which cannot 
 be twisted into agreement with human selfishness. 
 Christianity has been taught to the world nearly two 
 thousand years. And, to-day, Christianity is the pro- 
 fessed religion of the leading nations of the world ; and 
 yet, nowhere in this world, is a certificate of church- 
 membership a guarantee of actual good character, or a 
 passport to the confidence of our fellow-men. And it 
 is so, because the churches have been satisfied and de- 
 lighted with a theory of salvation which bears no prac- 
 tical relation to the spirit and life of Christ. In this 
 world, to-day, comparatively few understand and be- 
 lieve in, the Lord, Jesus Christ, as the one and only God, 
 the Giver of life, the Leader and Savior of men, whose 
 teachings, understood in our rational and . spiritual 
 minds, are to be to us the breath of life, the bread of life, 
 and the way to heaven, here, in order that we may abide 
 in heaven, hereafter. 
 
 HEAVEN. 
 
 He is in heaven in whose heart the principles of 
 heaven are his motives and purposes, and in whose dailv 
 life the Divine commandments are his rules of conduct ; 
 in whose mouth, spiritually, the letter of the Word is 
 sweet, and in whose inward parts the spirit of the Word 
 is equally sweet. Of such the Lord said, " I will put My 
 
Ezekiel Eating the Roll of a Book. 147 
 
 law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts," 
 the 'great law of love, the mover of the universe. 
 
 It is necessary that the letter of the Word should be 
 sweet to the natural-minded man, in order to attract 
 his notice, and to engage his attention, before he has 
 any vital interest in the truth. And then, little by little, 
 he can be led towards, and finally into, the spiritual 
 meaning. But this spiritual meaning will not be sweet 
 to his mental taste, until he has allowed the letter of 
 the Word to work a reform in his conduct and in his 
 motives. 
 
 Speaking to the tempter, Jesus exclaimed, " Man shall 
 not live by bread, alone, but by every word that pro- 
 ceedeth out of the mouth of God." (Matthew iv. 4.) 
 
 The Divine Word will be life to us, inwardly and out- 
 wardly, in spirit and in letter, if our whole life shall 
 daily say, O Lord, " Thy words were found, and I did 
 eat them; and Thy Word was, unto me, the joy and 
 rejoicing of mine heart." (Jeremiah xv. 16.) 
 
148 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 SYMBOLIC PROPHECY OF THE SIEGE OF 
 JERUSALEM. 
 
 Son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee ; and por- 
 tray upon it a city, even Jerusalem : and lay siege against it. 
 and build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it ; set 
 camps also against it, and set battering-rams against it, round 
 about. 
 
 And take thou unto thee an iron pan, and set it for a wall of 
 iron between thee and the city : and set thy face against it, and 
 it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This 
 shall be a sign to the house of Israel. 
 
 And lie thou upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the 
 house of Israel upon it : according to the number of days that 
 thou shalt lie upon it, thou shalt bear their iniquity. For I have 
 laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the num- 
 ber of their days, three hundred and ninety days : so shalt thou 
 bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast 
 accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt 
 bear the iniquity of the house of Judah, forty days ; I have 
 appointed thee each day for a year. Therefore thou shalt set 
 thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be 
 uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it. And behold, I 
 will lay my hands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from 
 one side to another, til! thou hast ended the days of thy siege. 
 
 Take thou, also, unto thee, wheat, and barley, and beans, and 
 lentils, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and 
 make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days 
 that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days 
 shalt thou eat thereof. And thy food which thou shalt eat shall 
 be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt 
 thou eat thereof. Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the 
 sixth part of a bin : from time to time shalt thou drink. And 
 thou shalt eat it as barley cakes; and thou shalt bake it, in 
 
Symbolic Prophecy of the Siege of Jerusalem. 149 
 
 their sight, with manure. . . . And Jehovah said, Even thus 
 shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the 
 Gentiles, whither I will drive them. — Ezekiel iv. 1-13. 
 
 THE LITERAL STORY. 
 
 In the literal sense of this enacted parable, the prophet 
 carried on a mimic siege, doing, in miniature, some of 
 the things which an attacking army would do, in be- 
 sieging a city. And this mimic siege is declared to be 
 a sign unto the house of Israel. And the other actions 
 of the prophet, such as lying on his side, and the man- 
 ner of his eating and drinking, literally represented the 
 distress of the inhabitants of the city, during the siege, 
 when food would be of ordinary kinds, without luxury, 
 and both food and water would be so scarce as to be 
 used by measure, doled out in small rations, day by day. 
 The long duration of the siege prophesied was repre- 
 sented, in general, by the long-continued lying on one 
 side, and then on the other. 
 
 But we observe that the prophet was to lie on his left 
 side, three hundred and ninety days, and on his right 
 side forty days. And those two numbers, added, make 
 four hundred and thirty, which was the number of years 
 during which Israel was held in bondage, in Egypt, be- 
 fore the Exodus. And the days for lying on the right 
 side, for Judah, were forty, which was the number of 
 years during which Israel wandered in the wilderness, 
 immediately following the Exodus from Egypt. And 
 thus these were representative numbers, familiar to 
 Israel. 
 
 The degenerate condition of the Israelites, after the 
 siege and surrender of Jerusalem, was represented by 
 the use of dried manure for fuel, in baking the bread 
 for the prophet. This was a common practice, among 
 the common people of Israel, who were poor, and with 
 whom wood for fuel was expensive. But bread baked 
 
150 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 thus was regarded as " unclean," in a religious and cere- 
 monial sense; and its use was typical of poverty and 
 distress. A prophet was always a representative man, 
 through whom the Lord communicated with the people. 
 And, hence, the prophet was always closely observed 
 by the people. And everything done by him was more 
 or less representative. His personal life was merged in 
 his re]iresentative character. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL SENSE. 
 
 The historical spiritual sense of our text displays the 
 degeneration of the Jewish nation and Church, with 
 whom there was not left remaining any good which was 
 not adulterated with the evil lusts of self-love, or any 
 , truth which was not falsified by the sensuous notions 
 of self -derived intelligence. 
 
 In the personal spiritual sense, the general theme is 
 the degeneration of the human mind, which adulterates 
 the good of life with selfish evils, and falsifies the truths 
 of the Lord's Word, until it comes under the dominion 
 of the hells, which subjugate the mind, and subject it 
 to all the sufferings which are inseparable from evil 
 conditions. 
 
 All the things which the prophet did, as narrated in 
 the text, in mimicking the doings of an attacking army, 
 represent the particulars in the assaults of evil influences 
 upon the mind of a man, both within his own natural 
 mind, and from the outside evil spirits. 
 
 THE TILE. 
 
 Tiic tile, on which the prophet portrayed the city of 
 Jerusalem, was, probably, a large fresh clay brick, not 
 yet dried hard in the sun, and on which he could scratch 
 a picture of the city : or, if it was a dried brick, he could 
 draw the city upon it, with a reed pen. In either case, 
 
Symbolic Prophecy of the Siege of Jerusalem. 151 
 
 the portrait represented the mental conditions of the 
 people of Jerusalem ; and the siege to which the tile 
 was subjected, represented the conditions into which 
 the people were precipitating themselves by their course 
 of Hfe. 
 
 LYING ON ONE SIDE, ETC. 
 
 The restricted method of lying on one side, only, for 
 a long time, represents the mental condition in which 
 a man remains, when "under the influence of one form 
 of mental activity, which narrows and constrains the 
 mind, and restricts the practical life. There is no full 
 spiritual freedom, except in the goodness and truth of 
 regeneration. The unregenerate life is, necessarily, one 
 of restraint and limitation. 
 
 Of the unregenerate life it is said, representatively, 
 " The bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself 
 on it, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap 
 himself in it." (Isaiah xxviii. 20.) 
 
 The two sides of the body represent the two sides of 
 the mind. The right side represents the will-principle, 
 the heart, the affectional nature, with its loves and 
 its feelings. And the left side represents the intellec- 
 tual nature, the understanding, with its knowledge, its 
 wisdom, its truth, and its thoughts. Ezekiel was to lie 
 on his left side for Israel, and on his right side for 
 Judah, because, in man, Israel represents the intellectual 
 side, and Judah the affectional side. 
 
 As the prophet represented the Divine Truth which 
 he taught to men, from the Lord, so the constrained 
 action of the prophet, in lying on one side, for a very 
 long time, also represented, in another sense, the con- 
 strained action of the Divine Truth, in the mind of the 
 man who had been taught the truth, but who regarded 
 that truth merely in an external and formal way, as 
 relating to merely ceremonial worship. 
 
15-2 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 DAYS. 
 
 Times represent states of mind, conditions of affec- 
 tion and of thought, by which the progress of the mind 
 is computed. In distinction, days represent more espe- 
 cially the minor conditions, and frequent changes of 
 mental states, in the practical daily life ; and years rep- 
 resent the greater, more extended conditions, which in- 
 clude the minor states. In our text, literally, days were 
 given, instead of the years represented, probably be- 
 cause of convenience of application. The representa- 
 tive lesson was more pointed, and more direct, than if it 
 had been spread over several centuries, so that no one 
 generation of men could have seen its whole course and 
 plan. And, mentally, the quality of the larger periods 
 of mental growth, is seen and represented in the quality 
 of the smaller periods and conditions, of which the 
 larger states are made up. 
 
 Three signifies fulness, completeness, especially as 
 regards truth, in the mind and life ; as where a man 
 loves, understands, and practises the Lord's truth. In 
 this case, he receives truth in fulness, because it is in all 
 his life, in his heart, his understanding, and his conduct. 
 Hundreds, thousands, etc., add emphasis to the mean- 
 ing, and make it more general and more extended. The 
 period of three hundred days represents a general ful- 
 ness, as to the truth. Ninety, another multiple of three, 
 represents fulness, especially in relation to " remains," 
 /.('., to the earl)' states of our life, remaining in 
 our minds ; because ninety is nine times ten, and ten 
 especially represents such " remains." As relating to 
 the state of mind represented by the prophet lying three 
 hundred and ninety days on his left side, the extent of 
 time represents a full " vastation" of truth, in the mind ; 
 i.e., a full laying waste, or destroying of truth, by means 
 of the false ideas of self-love. 
 
Symbolic Prophecy of the Siege of Jerusalem. 153 
 
 FORTY. 
 
 And forty represents temptation, especially in regard 
 to the will, or heart. The flood lasted forty days ; the 
 children of Israel wandered in the wilderness forty 
 years; the spies of Israel searched the land of Canaan 
 forty days; and Jesus fasted, in the wilderness, forty 
 days. In all these cases, and many others, forty repre- 
 sents temptation. In our text, the forty days for Judah 
 represented a full temptation to the heart of the unregen- 
 erate man, and his degeneration by yielding to evil. The 
 fact that the prophet was said to bear the iniquity of 
 Israel and of Judah, does not express any vicarious 
 bearing, but merely a representative bearing, for the 
 purpose of prophetic teaching. The three hundred and 
 ninety days, and the forty days, together, represented 
 a full vastation of goodness and truth among the people 
 of Israel and Judah, a full rejection of good from the 
 heart, and of truth from the understanding, so that 
 their minds were about to sink into captivity to the hells. 
 
 In a more profound sense, the same things represent 
 the temptations to the assumed humanity in Jesus Christ, 
 considered as separate from the Divine inward life. 
 
 The words of our text do not seem to require us to 
 understand that the prophet had to lie on one side three 
 hundred and ninety days, and forty days, consecutively 
 and continuously, without arising. The meaning seems 
 to be that, during a long period, when the prophet did lie 
 down, he had to lie on one side, only. He was instructed 
 to make his own bread, and to get water for himself, 
 during all the time. And it would be impossible to do 
 these things while lying down. And it is not probable 
 that either water or bread would remain fit for use, for 
 over fourteen months, if he had provided enough to last, 
 before lying down. And if he was to remain inactive 
 so long, it seems probable that some one would have 
 
154 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 been instructed to wait upon him : but nothing of this 
 kind is mentioned. 
 
 The amount of food and water allowed the prophet 
 was very limited, ten ounces of bread, and one and one- 
 half pints of water, daily, only enough for the necessities 
 of life. These things represent the straightened condi- 
 tion of the unregenerate man, in whose mind there is a 
 shortness of spiritual sustenance. 
 
 UNCLEAN BREAD. 
 
 Literally, the unclean method of baking the bread, 
 represented that, during the siege, the people would be 
 reduced to severe straits for fuel, and compelled to use 
 what they could secure ; and also that, after the siege, 
 and in the succeeding captivity, they would be com- 
 pelled to eat the polluted bread of the Gentiles. But, 
 spiritually, the baking of the cakes, or bread, with the 
 dried manure for fuel, represented that, in the mind 
 of the unregenerate man, who has fallen into evil, falsity, 
 and sin, there is no goodness, and no truth, that is not 
 heated by the unclean lusts of self-love, the things which 
 are rejected from every regenerating mind. In such a 
 mind, even the ceremonies of worship are polluted with 
 the impurities of self-love. 
 
 IMPURITIES. 
 
 Natural-minded men, who have more fastidious taste 
 of the senses than intelligent knowledge of spiritual 
 things, sometimes complain that there are, in the Bible, 
 many things which are repulsive to an)- one of re- 
 fined tastes. Undoubtedly, this is so, as to the letter 
 of the Scriptures. But how could it well be otherwise? 
 The Bible was made to reach fallen men, just as they 
 were, and are, in low conditions of character. .\.nd the 
 Word must come down to the plane of life on which 
 
Symbolic Prophecy of the Siege of Jerusalem. 155 
 
 such men live, or it cannot reach them, and influence 
 them. It must deal with such phases of life as low- 
 minded men can comprehend. And it must talk of 
 things in which such men are interested. 
 
 If the Bible had been made for angels, only, it would 
 have come in a very different literal sense. But it was 
 made for both angels and sinners. And if sinners will 
 use the Bible, for practical regeneration, their objec- 
 tion to its language will pass away, for they will see 
 the necessity for such language, because the things 
 named in the literal sense are the symbols, representa- 
 tives, and correspondences of the things meant in the 
 spiritual sense. And earnest men will not be chief!}" 
 interested in criticising the external elegance of the 
 language, but in rejoicing in the plain truths which 
 warn them of their own natural tendencies to evil, often 
 hidden under an elegant sensuous taste. Remember 
 that the language of the Bible, in its originals, and 
 measurably so in its translations, is the reaching-down 
 of infinite love and wisdom and purity, to the condi- 
 tions and necessities of human impurities, in order to 
 save every man who is willing to be saved. 
 
 THE DIVINE PHYSICIAN. 
 
 As the true physician does not desert his patient, 
 even when in the repulsive filth of small-pox, but works 
 for the life of his patient, and his restoration to health, 
 so the infinite Divine Love never hesitates to follow a 
 fallen man even into the depths of evil, to save the man, 
 if possible; and, if not possible to elevate him into 
 heaven, then to save him from sinking into still lower 
 hells. O Lord, " If I ascend up to heaven. Thou art 
 there; if I make my bed in hell, behold Thou art there." 
 (Psalm cxxxix. 8.) 
 
 The Bible is not intended to be merely an elegant 
 
156 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 literan- production, to cater to the refined natural tastes 
 of cultured persons. It is the Book of God, who, from 
 His heaven of love, uses the language of the Scriptures 
 to reach down into the reeking horrors of the hells, to 
 seek and to save that which is lost. The Bible is the 
 Great Physician's medical hand-book for all His human 
 patients, describing and explaining all human diseases, 
 some of which are very filthy. But you do not need to 
 dwell upon the most disagreeable parts of the Book, if 
 you are not in danger of such diseases. But a close 
 study of the language will help you to diagnose your 
 own spiritual diseases, and to apply the proper remedy. 
 Not one of us can recognize how far down he would 
 sink, in character, if the Lord's infinitely tender love 
 did not withhold us, by various seen and unseen meth- 
 ods of His constant Providence. 
 
 And, as we grow more earnest, in seeking higher spir- 
 itual conditions, and in resisting our own natural ten- 
 dencies to evil, we shall cease to criticise the Divine 
 methods of doing the great works of infinite love and 
 merc\'. As we learn more of the spirit of the Divine 
 Word, by inward experience, we shall have less dispo- 
 sition to criticise its external form. When we say from 
 our hearts, O Lord, " Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, 
 and a light unto my path," we shall recognize the fact 
 that, when human paths are in the mud and filth of sen- 
 suous life, it is necessary for the Divine Word to shine 
 upon these filthy things, to reveal their nature, and to 
 warn us of the danger; " to give light to them that sit 
 in darkness, and in the shadow of death ; to guide our 
 feet into the way of peace." 
 
Ezekiel Cutting oif His Hair, etc. 157 
 
 XVIII. 
 EZEKIEL CUTTING OFF HIS HAIR, ETC. 
 
 And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp sword : as a bar- 
 ber's razor shalt thou take it unto thee, and, shalt cause it to 
 pass upon thy head and upon thy beard : then take thee balances 
 to weigh, and divide tlie hair. A third part shalt thou burn in 
 the fire, in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege 
 are fulfilled ; and thou shalt take a third part, and smite with 
 the sword round about it; and a third part shalt thou scatter 
 to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them. And 
 thou shalt take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy 
 skirts. And of these again shalt thou take, and cast them into 
 the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire ; therefrom 
 shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel. Thus saith 
 the Lord Jehovah, This is Jerusalem. — Ezekiel v. 1-5. 
 
 When lusts and falsities have gained control of a 
 human mind, they destroy all goodness and truth in 
 that mind, until there is not even any natural truth left 
 in it, either in the interior of the natural mind, or in its 
 exterior. 
 
 THE PROPHET. 
 
 The prophet was called " son of man." The prophets 
 of the Old Testament, through whom the letter of the 
 Divine Word was given to men, represented the Lord, 
 as to His Word, and as to the doctrine of the church 
 drawn from the Word. The prophet was merely a 
 human means, " a son of man," in the hands of the 
 Lord. But, being called to act for the Lord, the prophet 
 represented the Word of the Lord. . In the highest 
 sense, the Son of Man is the Lord, Himself, as the 
 Divine Truth, which He exemplified and fulfilled in His 
 
158 Parables of flic Old Testament Explained. 
 
 external manhood, which came through man. As the 
 prophet represented the Divine Word, whicli he was a 
 means of revealing to men, so the things which the 
 prophet suffered, at the hands of the Jews, represented 
 the violence offered by the Jews to the letter of the 
 Divine Word ; and thus to the Divine Truth ; and to 
 the Lord, in His truth ; and to His Humanity, which 
 was the Word made flesh, for the salvation of men. And 
 the same things were represented by the acts which 
 the prophet did, in a representative way, at the com- 
 mand of the Lord. 
 
 SWORD AND CUTTING. 
 
 In such representative action, the prophet was com- 
 manded to take a sharp sword, and to use it as a razor, 
 to cut off his hair and his beard. AH cutting instru- 
 ments, including knives, swords, etc., when spoken of in 
 a good sense, represent the truth, as a weapon, to cut 
 against all things which are false, evil, and sinful ; or, 
 in another sense, to cut into, to examine, to divide and 
 separate, or to destroy, various thoughts which enter 
 the mind. Or, in a bad sense, these cutting implements 
 and weapons represent truths falsified, perverted into 
 falsities, by being used for bad purposes, and employed 
 to cut against the things which are good, true and use- 
 ful. A sharp sword is one which cuts keenly and with 
 exactness. And so, sharpness represents accuracy, as 
 when sharp truth cuts into, and penetrates, false notions, 
 and exposes the nature of evil feelings and of sinful 
 acts ; separating facts from false inferences, and de- 
 stroying the influence of false ideas. 
 
 HAIR. 
 
 Tlie hair, growing on the surface of the body, repre- 
 sents the ultimates, the outside things, which relate to 
 
Ezckicl Cutting off His Hair, etc. 159 
 
 the natural plane of life. In regard to the Divine Word, 
 the hair on the human body represents the letter of the 
 Word, as distinguished from the vital organs, which 
 represent the internal and spiritual sense of the Divine 
 Word. 
 
 To cut off all the hair, here means, representatively, 
 to take away the ultimates, or externals, of goodness 
 and truth ; i.e., to deprive the mind of the practical use 
 of its principles, in the daily life, by depriving it of the 
 means of doing good, and of knowing truth. 
 
 BALDNESS. 
 
 Thus, baldness represents a condition of mind in 
 which the man is deprived of knowledge of truth, and 
 thus of the means of doing good ; as is the case when a 
 man is deprived of the letter of the Divine ^^'ord, by 
 which he learns to distinguish between good and evil, 
 and truth and falsity. For, when a man on earth is 
 deprived of the letter of the Divine Word, he is de- 
 prived of all spiritual truth, because he is without the 
 means of learning and understanding both natural and 
 spiritual truth. And a man is deprived of the right use 
 of the letter of the Lord's Word, when that literal sense 
 is corrupted, or falsified, or perverted to evil purposes. 
 
 Hair, cut off, falls, and finally dies. And so the ex- 
 ternals of truth, the rules, and the forms of worship, 
 etc., when separated from the inward spirit and life of 
 love to God, fall into nothing but empty forms, in which 
 there is contained no inward, spiritual life, to the man 
 who observes them in a merely formal way. 
 
 REPRESENTATION. 
 
 In making himself bald, the prophet represented the 
 mental state of the people of Jerusalem, in their degen- 
 erate conditions of life. And he also represented the 
 
i6o Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 mental state of ever\- man who is in an unregenerate 
 condition, while )et professing to worship the Lord. 
 
 In one aspect, the Divine Word in its letter, is a sharp 
 sword, which, when turned against the evils of unregen- 
 erate men, will penetrate, examine, and expose, the evils 
 and falsities of their minds. And, at the same time, 
 the prophet shaving oflf his hair also represented what 
 the Jews were doing, spiritually, to the Divine Word, 
 in their own minds, by allowing their false notions to 
 destroy all the force of the letter of the Word, and to 
 change its precepts and commandments of life into mere 
 fonnalities of ceremony. 
 
 All celestial and spiritual truths rest upon the letter 
 of the Word, as the spirit of a man on earth rests upon, 
 and acts through, his natural body. And so, to corrupt, 
 falsify and throw away, the letter of the Divine Word, 
 is, practically, to corrupt and throw away all of the 
 Divine Word. 
 
 The letter of the Word is not always literally true 
 about natural things, but it is always true representa- 
 tively, figuratively, by correspondence between natural 
 and spiritual things. And, therefore, the representa- 
 tive and correspondential letter of the Word is always 
 a resting-place, and a containing-vessel, for the spiritual 
 truth in the inward sense of the Word ; as the expres- 
 sion of your face, and the tone of your voice, are 
 resting-places and containing-vessels, in which }ou hold 
 and express the inward feelings of your heart, and the 
 thoughts of your understanding. 
 
 B.Vr.nNESS, IN THE ORIENT. 
 
 Because of the representative meaning of baldness, 
 it was, in Oriental lands, looked upon as a great mis- 
 fortune, and, in some cases, as a great disgrace, espe- 
 cially when inflicted upon a man as a punishment for 
 
Ezekiel Cutting off His Hair, etc. i6r 
 
 crime. Sometimes, persons made themselves bald, to 
 express their great sorrow and extreme mourning, on 
 the death of near relatives. 
 
 And so, in the case of our text, it may be said that 
 the prophet made himself bald in mourning over the 
 spiritual baldness of his people. Baldness was also an 
 Oriental term of reproach, and a scurrilous epithet, 
 applied to others, even when they showed no signs of 
 physical baldness. This was the case, when the young 
 men of Bethel jeered the prophet, Elisha, and called to 
 him, "Go up, thou bald-head," in contemptuous refer- 
 ence to Elisha's assertion that his predecessor, Elijah, 
 had gone up to heaven with a whirlwind, in a chariot 
 of fire. And forty-two of those young men were killed 
 by two bears, which are animals especially characterized 
 by abundant long hair. The jeering of the prophet, 
 by the lads, represents the contemptuous denial of the 
 Divine character of the letter of the Word. And the 
 destruction of the lads by bears represents the self- 
 destruction of deniers of the Bible, by the force of the 
 very letter which they reject and hate. 
 
 And Samson's great strength was said to be in his 
 long hair ; and he lost that unusual strength when his 
 long hair was cut off. And here, again is represented 
 the failure of the power of the Divine Word, in the 
 mind of a man who makes the Word bald, by denying 
 and rejecting its literal sense, as the proper representa- 
 tive body of its inward spirit. In its literal sense, the 
 Divine Word is in its fulness, and in its power, because 
 the literal sense is directly applicable to the conduct of 
 life, as in the Ten Commandments, and in " The Golden 
 Rule," and in other precepts. And so, notwithstanding 
 the- merely representative character of some parts of the 
 letter of the Bible, we can always find many things in the 
 letter which express, and make practical, every spiritual 
 principle that is in the inward meaning of the Bible. 
 
i62 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 WEIGHING. 
 
 Weighing determines the quantity of goods : but spir- 
 itual weighing is to determine the quahty, or spiritual 
 character, of a feeling or a thought. In distinction, 
 weighing means estimating the good which is in the mat- 
 ter, and measuring means determining the truth which is 
 in it. And when a thing is weighed, spiritual!}-, and its 
 character is known, for good or for evil, its future career 
 is foreseen. The mental balance to weigh mental things, 
 is the rational faculty, the thinking capacity of the mind, 
 enlightened by spiritual truth, on one side, and by natural 
 truth, properly understood, on the other side. And when 
 the enlightened rational faculty clearh- sees the spiritual 
 character of certain affections and thoughts, it assigns 
 to each its career and place in the mind's life. This is 
 represented by the prophet dividing the hair which he 
 had cut off, and devoting each portion to its destiny. 
 
 THREE PARTS. 
 
 Three, as a number, represents fulness, completeness, 
 especially as to truths; as, for instance, when truth is 
 known, loved and practised ; for then its power is com- 
 plete, over all parts of the man's life, his will, which 
 loves, his intellect, or understanding, which thinks, and 
 his conduct, which practises. 
 
 To divide the hair into three parts, spiritually, is to 
 apply the truth to such conditions to a full extent, com- 
 pletely, so as to reach all things. 
 
 To burn one part in the fire, is to represent that one 
 cause of the destruction of the letter of the Divine 
 Word, in the degenerate mind, is in the hot fires of self- 
 love, and of all its lusts of evil. And to burn the hair in 
 the midst of the city, is to represent tliat such evil condi- 
 tions are produced by the corruption of the central doc- 
 trines of the church ; i.e., the doctrines concerning God. 
 
Esekiel Cutting off His Hair, etc. 163 
 
 To smite around another part, with the sword, or to 
 cut up the hair into small pieces, is to represent the 
 entire destruction of the power of the letter of the Word, 
 in the unregenerate mind, by false reasonings from 
 self-love, and from the fallacies of the senses. To scat- 
 ter one part to all the winds, is to represent that all the 
 active falsities of the natural mind sweep away, and 
 scatter, even the letter of the Word, in the unregenerate 
 mind, as the wind carries off the chaff, in the winnow- 
 ing of grain. 
 
 And the text declares that those hairs, which were 
 scattered by the wind, were not left to lodge and lie at 
 rest, but that the Lord said, " And I will draw out a 
 sword after them," or send a sword against them ; which 
 means that the literal truth is not merely carried out of 
 the present thought, by some wind of doctrine, but that 
 the more serious falsities of the mind will follow up, 
 and destroy, such truth. 
 
 BINDING IN THE SKIRTS. 
 
 Of the last one-third, the prophet was to take a very 
 few of the hairs, and to bind them in his skirts, i.e., 
 in the lower edges of his robe. Clothing represents 
 the truth, which clothes the affections, by giving form 
 and expression to the love, and planning for its exercise. 
 The outer edges of the clothing represent the truth as 
 applied to the external things of conduct. And when 
 the prophet bound a few hairs in his skirts, he repre- 
 sented the mind seeking to apply some few of the pre- 
 cepts of the Word to practical conduct. But, in the 
 unregenerate mind, even these practical precepts of con- 
 duct finally go into the great consuming fire of self- 
 love. And when this occurs, the last hold which the 
 truth has upon the man will be lost, and the fires of his 
 evils will consume all things of the church, in his mind 
 
164 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 and life. These things are represented by the direction 
 to the prophet, to throw into the fire even the few hairs 
 from his skirts ; and that, from these, a fire should 
 " come forth into all the house of Israel." And then, 
 to confirm the whole representation, the text declares, 
 " This is Jerusalem ;" i.e., this is a representative de- 
 scription of the spiritual conditions of the people of 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 But the same things represent our conditions, to-day, 
 to the extent in which- we are living in similar unre- 
 generate states, rejecting the life and power of the Di- 
 vine Word, by stripping it of all its practical application 
 to our actual daily life. 
 
 JERUSALEM. 
 
 After our text, there follows a statement of what our 
 Lord had done for Jerusalem ; and what Jerusalem 
 liad done, in ungrateful return for the Divine favors ; 
 and what must be the final result of Jerusalem's evil 
 doings. Jerusalem had been set conspicuously, in the 
 midst of other nations, and yet her people, in spite of 
 Divine favors, had rebelled against the Lord, to a 
 greater extent than the other nations ; and, therefore, 
 they were worse criminals. They abandoned the Divine 
 laws and principles, and disregarded the Divine rules, 
 even while proudly claiming to be the chosen people of 
 God. Thcv even defiled the Lord's sanctuary with their 
 detestable and abominable things. They made the Lord's 
 house " a den of thieves," as Jesus declared in later 
 times. This was Jerusalem, with her shorn head, de- 
 graded, degenerated, self-destroyed. 
 
 And may not these graphic representative pictures be 
 full of timely warning to us, who call our Church by 
 the name of the New Jerusalem? Our Lord, Jesus 
 Christ, has done, for the New Jerusalem, more than for 
 
Ezekiel Cutting off His Hair, etc. 165 
 
 the old Jerusalem. Our Church, also, which is our spir- 
 itual holy city, is set down amidst other religious com- 
 munities, who, with less spiritual light, do not clearly 
 understand the nature and quality of the Divine charac- 
 ter, nor the relation of God to His people, nor the prac- 
 tical methods of regeneration. With the far greater 
 spiritual light of the inward and spiritual meaning of the 
 Divine Word ; and with a clear knowledge of the cor- 
 respondential relation between the outward letter of the 
 Bible and its inward spirit ; and thus with a full view 
 of the Divine Word, as Jacob's ladder, set up on the 
 earth, in its literal sense, and reaching up to heaven 
 in its spiritual meaning; and with a clear perception of 
 the relation of spiritual principles to the practical con- 
 duct of daily life; we have very great favors for which 
 to be thankful. 
 
 OUR POSSIBILITIES. 
 
 And, having the light and the opportunity, we should 
 rise to greater heights of actual good character, than 
 average men and women can do, with less spiritual light. 
 To us much has been given, and of us much will be 
 required. Every opportunity involves not only a possi- 
 bility, but also a duty. The New Jerusalem, which our 
 Lord of love is daily seeking to build up in our hearts, 
 may be, to each of us, a glorious spiritual home, if we 
 will do our part to make it so, by putting away from 
 our hearts and lives all those evil, false, and sinful things 
 which corrupt, in men, both the spirit and the letter of 
 God's holy Word, and which shut out the kingdom of 
 heaven from all unregenerate hearts. " I was glad when 
 they said unto me, let us go into the house of Jehovah. 
 Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem." 
 " Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of 
 Jerusalem ! for Jehovah hath comforted His people. He 
 hath redeemed Jerusalem." 
 
i66 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 EZEKIEL'S VISION OF JERUSALEM'S 
 IDOLATRY. 
 
 As I sat in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, 
 the hand of the Lord Jehovih fell there upon me. 
 
 Then I beheld, and lo, a likeness as the appearance of fire; 
 from the appearance of his loins and downward, fire ; and from 
 his loins and upward, as the appearance of brightness, as it 
 were glowing metal. 
 
 And he put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock 
 of my head; and the spirit lifted me up between earth and 
 heaven, and brought me, in the visions of God, to Jerusalem, 
 to the door of the gate of the inner court, that looketh toward 
 the North; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which 
 proYoketh to jealousy. And behold, the glory of the God of 
 Israel was there, according to the appearance that I saw in the 
 plain. 
 
 Then said He unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes, now, 
 the way toward the North. So I lifted up mine eyes the way 
 toward the North, and behold, northward of the gate of the 
 altar, this image of jealousy in the entry. And He said unto 
 me. Son of man, seest thou what they do? even the great 
 abominations that the house of Israel do commit here, that I 
 should go far off from My sanctuary? But thou shalt again 
 see yet other great abominations. 
 
 And He brought me to the door of the court ; and when I 
 looked, behold, a hole in the wall. Then said He unto me. Son 
 of man, dig, now, in the wall : and when I had digged in the 
 wall, behold, a door. And He said unto me. Go in, and see the 
 wicked abominations that they do here. So I went in, and saw ; 
 and behold, every form of creeping things, and abominable 
 beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon 
 the wall, round about. 
 
 And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of 
 the house of Israel : and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah, 
 
Ezekiel's Vision of Jerusalem's Idolatry. 167 
 
 the son of Shaphan, every man with his censer in his hand : 
 and the odor of the cloud of incense went up. Then said He 
 unto me. Son of man, hast thou seen what the elders of the 
 house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his chambers of 
 imagery? for they say, Jehovah seeth us not; Jehovah hath 
 forsaken the land. He said also unto me, Thou shalt again see 
 yet other great abominations which they do. Then He brought 
 me to the door of the gate of Jehovah's house, which was to- 
 ward the North ; and behold, there sat the women, weeping 
 for Tammuz. 
 
 Then said He unto me. Hast thou seen, O son of man? thou 
 shalt again see yet greater abominations than these. 
 
 And He brought me into the inner court of Jehovah's house ; 
 and behold at the door of the temple of Jehovah, between the 
 porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with 
 their backs toward the temple of Jehovah, and their faces 
 toward the East. — Ezekiel viii. 1-16. 
 
 Evil men profane the holiness of the Divine Word. 
 Even in their worship, their evil lusts pervert the literal 
 sense of the Lord's Word. And, interiorly, they adul- 
 terate every good principle; and they worship self-love, 
 instead of the Lord. And, in doing so, they close, in 
 themselves, every avenue by which the Divine Love and 
 Mercy are seeking to enter into them. 
 
 THE LITERAL STORY. 
 
 At the time of our text, Ezekiel, the prophet, was 
 among the captive Jews in Babylon. And, although he 
 had made great efforts to arouse these Jews, they were 
 fast sinking into evil ways ; and they were generally 
 indifferent to his pleadings. They would not listen to 
 him in public; and so he remained in his house, and 
 there received such persons as would visit him. And to 
 them he spoke the Word of Jehovah, at various times, 
 as in the case of our text. 
 
 In this case, his spiritual senses were opened- into the 
 spiritual world, and he uttered a representative prophecy. 
 
i68 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 The fire, in which was a man, was a representation of 
 the Lord, as the Divine Man, who lifted up the prophet, 
 and revealed to him, in syrnbolic imagery, the degen- 
 erate mental conditions of the Jews. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL SENSE. 
 
 The hair, by which the prophet was lifted up, being on 
 the surface of the body, represents the external, or out- 
 ward things. And, as the prophet, through whom the 
 Divine Word was given, represents that Word, so the 
 hair here represents the letter of the Word, the literal 
 Scriptures, by means of which our minds are spiritually 
 elevated, to see the things which are revealed in the 
 spiritual sense of the Word, and to the open spiritual 
 mind. 
 
 The hand which took hold of the prophet represents 
 the power of the Lord, as exerted by means of the letter 
 of the Word. We remember that Swedenborg declares 
 that he was taught the spiritual truths of the Divine 
 Word, by the elevation and enlightening of his mind, 
 while he was reading the letter of the Word. 
 
 THE IMAGE OF JEALOUSY. 
 
 The prophet was mentally carried to the place of " the 
 image of jealousy." Manasseh, the thirteenth king of 
 Judah, who reigned about seven hundred years before 
 Christ, was an evil and idolatrous king, who adopted 
 some of the abominations of the heathen. He reared 
 altars to Baal, the principal god of the Phanicians and 
 Canaanites. 
 
 And he made, and set up, a hewn statue of Ashterah, 
 or Ashtoreth, the principal goddess of the same nations, 
 and probably identical with Astarte of the Greeks and 
 Romans." This hewn image of Ashterah was " the image 
 of jealousy," referred to in our text. It was placed in 
 
Esekiel's Vision of Jerusalem's Idolatry. 169 
 
 the outer court of the temple of Jehovah, in Jerusalem, 
 and beside the great altar, directly in front of the " holy 
 place," where it stood in direct defiance of Jehovah, 
 who was known as the jealous God, who would not 
 suffer the Jews to worship any rival god. And this 
 accounts for the expression that this image " provoketh 
 to jealousy." 
 
 But, in Jehovah, " jealous" means " zealous." In 
 fact, the words are from the same Hebrew word. Divine 
 jealousy, or zeal, is ardent love for the spiritual welfare 
 of men. It is significant that the Hebrew name of Ma- 
 nasseh, who erected these idols, means " forgetting." 
 
 And, certainly, especially in his position as king, he 
 forgot the most important of all things of human re- 
 membrance, when he abandoned the living God, and 
 turned to dead idols. 
 
 But, even amid abominations of degenerate men, the 
 open eyes of the prophet could see, tliere, the glory of 
 the God of Israel, an outward brilliance, representing 
 love and wisdom, which are spiritual glory. 
 
 The prophet looked toward the North, the coldest 
 quarter, representing the natural-minded condition of 
 men, furtliest removed from the Lord, as the spiritual 
 sun, and receiving most obscurely the warmth of His 
 love. 
 
 ABOMINATIONS. 
 
 The " abominations" represented the profanations of 
 goodness ; and the unclean things represented the profa- 
 nations of the Divine Truth, by the corruption of the 
 Divine Word, in the church, even in worship. Thus, the 
 evil lusts of unregenerate men connect them with the 
 hells, even when outwardly engaged in formal ceremo- 
 nial worship. 
 
 In the text, it is said that these abominations were 
 done, in order that Jehovah should " go far ofif" from 
 
170 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 His sanctuary. For the Jews were worshipping the 
 heathen goddess, Ashterah, even in the court of Jeho- 
 vah's temple. And, spirituahy, when a man has de- 
 scended into a hfe of self-love, and love of the world, 
 he makes gods of these evil loves. And then he does 
 not longer look to Jehovah, although he may pretend 
 to worship in the temple of Jehovah. But, even then, 
 Jehovah does not leave His sanctuary, nor does He 
 desert the man ; but the evil man drives Jehovah out 
 of the inward temple of the man's mind. 
 
 THE WALL, ETC. 
 
 The prophet came to a hole in the wall. A wall is a 
 protection for the things which are behind it, or within 
 its enclosure. But, if there is a serious hole in a wall, 
 the protection is diminished, or destroyed. The wall 
 here represents the letter of the Word, which protects 
 the inward spirit of the Word. But, when a man's 
 knowledge of the letter, or his reverence for it, or his 
 obedience to it, fails, he is without proper protection 
 against his own natural tendencies to evil, which are 
 always ready to corrupt the truth. 
 
 When there is a hole in the wall, the things within 
 are revealed to view, as well as exposed to attack. And 
 so, as to our minds, the light which can penetrate our 
 natural minds and motives, will thus expose and reveal 
 what is going on in the secret chambers of our minds. 
 
 To dig through the wall, is to investigate the external 
 conditions of the natural mind, and to look through 
 them, and thus to discover the inward conditions. No 
 matter how much unregenerate men may seek to shield 
 themselves behind the wall of external piety, the search- 
 ing light of the Lord's truth will penetrate that wall, 
 and will reveal and expose the worldly policy, and the 
 self-love, which are worshipping their unclean idols, 
 i)ehind the outward walls. 
 
Ezekiel's Vision of Jerusalem's Idolatry. 171 
 
 THE SECRET CHAMBER. 
 
 The prophet discovered a hidden chamber, with 
 " every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, 
 and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon 
 the wall, round about." Probably this place, seen in 
 the vision, was like the subterranean caverns, in the sides 
 of mountains and other places in Chaldea, Egypt, and 
 Persia, where the sun-worshippers congregated ; and 
 where the inside-walls were covered with symbolic pic- 
 tographs and hieroglyphs, representing all kinds of 
 beasts, including the vile creeping things, repulsive and 
 even venomous ; as was also the case in the temples of 
 Isis and Osiris. The idols were probably represented as 
 composite beings, part human and part beast, such as 
 were worshipped in Egypt, Assyria, and elsewhere. 
 
 - BEASTS. 
 
 Beasts represent men, as to their affections. For 
 every beast is a form of life representing some principle 
 in man's mind. In nature, all things below man are 
 representative, pointing to man, as the highest being in 
 the order of creation, in whom are combined all the 
 qualities individually represented by the different ani- 
 mals.. And so, in the Scriptures, beasts are named as 
 the representatives, symbols and correspondences of 
 human qualities. For instance, Jesus called Herod a 
 fox, because Herod displayed the sensuous cunning 
 which characterizes the fox. 
 
 Men are forms of both natural and spiritual affections, 
 but beasts are forms of natural affection, only, which 
 they have in common with men. We recognize this fact, 
 when we call a man a beast, because he displays selfish 
 and natural feelings, only, and lacks the better feelings 
 which should belong to human life. Good animals were 
 used in religious sacrifices, to represent that men devote 
 
172 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 to God their best qualities, which came from God. Good 
 and useful beasts represent good affections, but fero- 
 cious and bad beasts represent evil qualities. Creeping 
 things represent the lowest qualities, which relate to 
 the natural senses. 
 
 All the beasts pictured on the wall of the secret cham- 
 ber, mentioned in our text, represented all the sensuous 
 lusts and falsities which were dominant in the minds of 
 the people of Jerusalem, who, outwardly, engaged in 
 ceremonial worship of God, but who, inwardly, in their 
 secret hearts, reveled in the love of all kinds of selfish- 
 ness and unclcanness. 
 
 ENTERING. 
 
 The prophet going into this hidden chamber, repre- 
 sents the truth penetrating the outward forms which 
 seek to hide evil purposes. The house represents the 
 man's mind. And when the man thinks falsity and 
 loves evil, in the secret, inner chambers of his mind, he 
 supposes that his real conditions are not seen and known 
 by the Lord ; and that he will receive credit for his 
 external worship. The unclean things of evil and fal- 
 sity reside in the interior of the natural mind of the 
 unregenerate man. And these things give evil character 
 to the man, in spite of all his outward pietv and pro- 
 fessions. And when the genuine truth of the Divine 
 Word is turned upon an unregenerate man, and let into 
 his mind, it will expose and reveal all the beastly things, 
 all the low, cold-blooded, creeping things, and all the 
 idols of self-love, which dwell in his interior natural 
 mind, and which there, in spiritual darkness, hold their 
 brutal revels. 
 
 But all these horrid pictures on the walls, not only 
 represent the low passions of the ancient Jews, but also, 
 even in these days, they find their similitudes in the 
 
Ezekiel's Vision of Jerusalem's Idolatry. 173 
 
 lower and grovelling passions of anger, malice, revenge, 
 hatred, etc., which still swarm and creep in the low and 
 secret chambers of every unregenerate human mind, 
 every heart and intellect in which the love and wisdom 
 of our Lord have not yet been able to clear the dark 
 places, and to let in the light of heaven, to begin the 
 practical work of regeneration. 
 
 THE ELDERS. 
 
 -The elders of Judah and Israel were the wise men of 
 the nation. And they represented wisdom in the human 
 mind. But, when even the wise men degenerated into 
 idolatry, their condition represented the corruption of 
 wisdom, when the rational mind, which should receive 
 its light from spiritual things, has closed itself against 
 spiritual light, and has taken its views from the low 
 things of the natural senses. In this state of things, the 
 mind must sink into conditions represented in the words 
 of Jesus, " Woe unto you. Scribes and Pharisees, hypo- 
 crites ! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which, 
 indeed, appear beautiful, outwardly, but are, within, full 
 of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so, 
 ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but 
 within, ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." (Matthew 
 xxiii. 27, 28.) 
 
 The fact that there were seventy elders represents the 
 profanation of holy things ; for seven and seventy rep- 
 resent that which is holy ; and the abuse of what is holy 
 constitutes profanation. 
 
 TAMMUZ. 
 
 One of the abominations exposed was that of " the 
 women weeping for Tammuz." Tammuz was the Syr- 
 ian god of the sun, supposed to be identical with the 
 Greek Adonis. According to the ancient myth, Tammuz 
 
174 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 represented external nature, in its glory, fresh in the 
 spring, but destroyed by the storms of autumn and 
 winter. Tammuz was pictured as a beautiful youth, 
 who was killed in the autumn, by a wild boar, on the 
 mountain. And, every autumn, the women assembled, 
 and wept over his death. The same things were repre- 
 sented b}' the apparent removal of the sun further from 
 the earth, in autumn and winter; and, hence, this season 
 was taken for the weeping over Tammuz. And thus 
 was represented the evanescent character of earthly 
 things. 
 
 Spiritually, these women represented the natural af- 
 fections of unregenerate persons, lamenting over the 
 loss of the pleasures of the senses, and failing to see the 
 delights of spiritual and regenerate life. And to do 
 this, in the presence of the Lord's temple, is to neglect 
 Divine things, and to fix the heart upon the lusts of self- 
 love and the love of the world. 
 
 And, naturally, the next step further into evil, was the 
 rejection and denial of Divine things, and setting the 
 idols of self-love in the place of the Lord ; which are 
 represented by the twenty-five men turning their backs 
 upon the Lord's temple, while worshipping the sun, in 
 the East. Presumably, these twenty-five men were made 
 up of one man to represent the high priests, in the wor- 
 ship, and twenty-four men to represent the twcnty-foiu" 
 priestly courses, or bands of priests, who officiated in 
 turn, in the temple-worship. 
 
 These men were worshipping the sun of nature, in 
 the holy place of the Lord's sanctuary, and with their 
 backs turned to the Lord's temple, and their faces to the 
 sun, thus indicating their entire rejection of the Divine 
 things of Jehovah, and their complete apostasv. as well 
 as their allegiance to the sun, as an idol. And thus, 
 those who should have been nearest to the Lord, 
 and who should have led in worship of Jehovah, had 
 
Ezckiel's Vision of Jerusalem's Idolatry. 175 
 
 turned against Him. For the sun which the evil man 
 worships is merely of dead nature, thus representing 
 the dead things of self-love, put in the place of the living 
 God, in the unregenerate human heart. And when the 
 fire of the Lord's love seeks to enter such hearts, they 
 regard it as intending to destroy their cherished life of 
 self-love. 
 
 And yet, to every degenerating man, the voice of our 
 Lord comes, in warning love, saying, " Turn ye from 
 your evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel ?" 
 
176 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 XX. 
 
 EZEKIEL'S VISION OF SLAUGHTER IN JERU- 
 SALEM. 
 
 He cried also in mine ears, with a loud voice, saying, Cause 
 them that have charge over the city, to draw near, even every 
 man with his destroying-weapon in his hand. 
 
 And behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, 
 which lieth toward the North, and every man a slaughter- 
 weapon in his hand; and one man among them was tflothed 
 with linen, with a writer's ink-horn by his side: and they went 
 in, and stood beside the brazen altar. 
 
 And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the 
 cherub, whereupon He was, to the threshold of the house. 
 And He called to the man clothed with linen, which had the 
 writer's ink-horn by his side. 
 
 And Jehovah said unto him. Go through the midst of the 
 city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the 
 foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry, for all the abomi- 
 nations that be done in the midst thereof. 
 
 And to the others He said, in mine hearing. Go ye after him, 
 through the city, and smite : let not your eye spare, neither have 
 ye pity : slay utterly, old and young, both maids and little chil- 
 dren, and women : but conio not near any man upon whom is 
 the mark ; and begin at My sanctuary. Then they began at the 
 ancient men which were before the house. . . . And behold, the 
 man clothed with linen, which had the ink-horn by his side, 
 reported the matter, saying, I have done as Thou hast com- 
 manded me. 
 
 Then I looked, and behold, in the firmament that was above 
 the head of the cherubim, there appeared over them, as it were 
 a sapphire-stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne. 
 And He spake unto the man clothed with linen, and said. Go 
 in between the wheels, under the cherub, and fill thine hand 
 
Ezekiel's Vision of Slaughter in Jerusalem. 177 
 
 with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them 
 over the city. . . . 
 
 And he went in, in my sight. . . . And one cherub stretched 
 forth his hand from between the cherubim, unto the fire that 
 was between the cherubim, and took thereof, and put into the 
 hands of him that was clothed with linen ; who took it, and 
 went out. — EzEKiEL ix. 1-6; x. i, 2, 7. 
 
 The truths of the Divine Word examine into the spir- 
 itual character of those who are in the church, and who 
 possess the holy Word in its letter. And this searching 
 reveals- the quality of a man's reception of the Divine 
 Word; and it brings a spiritual judgment, in which the 
 evil man is seen to destroy himself, spiritually, by and 
 in his own fixed quality of -character ; because there is 
 nothing of goodness, or of truth, left in him, which is 
 not profaned and destroyed by his own evils. But a 
 church is formed in the hearts of those who sincerely 
 receive the Divine Truth, in and through the holy Word 
 of God, in its letter and in its spirit. 
 
 JUDGMENT. 
 
 We must remember that our text does not report 
 literal history, but that it is a symbolic and representa- 
 tive vision of a spiritual judgment, a judgment such as 
 is continually going on, in the minds of men. 
 
 THE CITY. 
 
 The instructions were given to those who had charge 
 over the city. A city, as a systematic collection of 
 houses, etc., for men, represents a system of doctrine, 
 for the use of the mind. 
 
 And, as Jerusalem represented the church, so, as a 
 city, it represented the doctrine of the church. And, in 
 this case, it represented the doctrine of the church as it 
 had become in the minds of unregenerate men, sinking 
 further into evils. 
 
 13 
 
178 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 THE MEN. 
 
 spiritually, those who had charge of the city, were 
 the Divine truths of the Word, which dwell in the 
 doctrine of the church, and by which the states of men's 
 minds, as to truth, were to be examined and judged, by 
 means of keen applications of truth to the heart's life, as 
 well as to the outward conduct. 
 
 There were six men, because, in this sense, six repre- 
 sents a state of combat, in which the truth strikes against 
 falsity and evil. There were six days of creation, to 
 represent the successive states of combat, in the mind, 
 between good and evil, on one side, and truth and falsity, 
 on the other side, which combat must be passed through, 
 in the regenerating mind, before the holy seventh day, 
 or regenerate condition, can be reached. And so a 
 Hebrew servant served six years, and was set free in 
 the seventh year. And so the Israelites sowed their land 
 for six successive years, but allowed it to lie fallow, 
 unused, in the seventh year. 
 
 These six men came from the North gate of the city, 
 to represent that the combatting phase of the Divine 
 Truth is in the letter of the holy Word. For the North, 
 as the coldest quarter, represents the external, or nat- 
 ural side of things. 
 
 THE LEADER. 
 
 One of these men, who was the leader in the slaugh- 
 ter, is especially described as being " clothed with linen," 
 and having " a writer's ink-horn by his side." Linen, 
 white and clean, represents a pure and clean life, a 
 state of righteousness, which means being right in our 
 life, according to the Lord's rules of life. And so, in 
 the Apocalypse, it is said of the church, " And to her 
 was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, 
 clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness 
 
Ezekiel's Vision of Slaughter in Jerusalem. 179 
 
 of saints." (Revelation xix. 8.) And here, the man 
 clothed with linen was the leader in the judgment, 
 because, in the judgment upon the man of the church, 
 the leading test of character is the quality of his prac- 
 tical life, as to righteousness. 
 
 THE RECORDER. 
 
 That he had a writer's ink-horn by his side, as a scribe, 
 or recorder, represents that practical righteousness is 
 what forms the actual record of a man's life, and writes 
 and records his character, in the doings of his daily 
 life. " By their fruits ye shall know them." " Behold, 
 I come quickly : and My reward is with Me ; to give 
 to every man according as his work shall be." " If thou 
 wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." 
 
 That " the glory of God," which was a halo repre- 
 senting the Divine presence, went up from the cherubim, 
 and went to the threshold of the house, represents that, 
 in the judgment, the Lord, in His bright truth, is espe- 
 cially present in the externals of the church; i.e., in the 
 practical conduct of the members of the church, to dem- 
 onstrate the quality of men's characters by the good or 
 evil of their daily life. 
 
 THE MARK. 
 
 In the judgment, the distinction is made between good 
 men and evil men. For, spiritually, a judgment is not 
 a vindictive punishment of evil men, and a reward of 
 good men ; but it is a separation of the good from the 
 evil, by the full development of the character of each 
 man, in which each person comes into the results of his 
 own quality of character. 
 
 It is said that a mark was set upon those who sighed 
 and cried over the abominations that were going on in 
 Jerusalem. These were such as did not agree with such 
 
i8o Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 abominations, but grieved over them, as evil things, 
 contrary to spiritual life. We sigh over the things which 
 are contrary to our thoughts ; and we cry over, or cry 
 out against, the things which offend our affections. 
 
 The forehead signifies our interior love, which is the 
 highest part of our character, as the forehead is the high- 
 est part of the face. To mark anything is to distinguish 
 it from others. And the mark set on the forehead of 
 these better men, represented the fact that the Divine 
 Truth, in judging men, i.e., in separating the good and 
 the evil, judges by the inward character, the real qual- 
 ity of the man; thus, by his motives, and not merely 
 by his acts. The Hebrew word (tav) used in the text, 
 to mean a mark, means, especially, a 'mark of a cross. 
 And, as a cross represents the trials of temptation, so 
 the men who were marked with a cross, were those who 
 had passed through the struggles of temptation, and 
 who had been regenerated. 
 
 We remember that, preceding the judgment in Egypt, 
 at the time of the Exodus of Israel, when Jehovah was 
 about to destroy the first-born children of the Egyptians, 
 He commanded the Israelites to set blood-marks on their 
 doors, to distinguish them from the Egyptians, so that 
 Jehovah would " pass over" such houses, and not slay 
 any one therein. 
 
 This was the great event which was afterward cele- 
 brated in the " pass-over" festival. 
 
 SMITING. 
 
 That those who smote the people of Jerusalem should 
 smite all, including men, women, and children, means 
 that, in the judgment, evil men bring themselves to a 
 self-destruction of all parts of their mind and character, 
 their intelligence, their affection, and their innocence; 
 because their ruling loves, which are evil, give character 
 
Ezekiel's Vision of Slaughter in Jerusalem. i8i 
 
 to all things of their mind and Hfe. An evil man, out 
 of the evil treasure of his heart, brings forth that which 
 is evil. 
 
 The destroyers were told to have no pity, to represent 
 that nothing remained in the evil man which could be 
 saved and regenerated, but that a general vastation, or 
 laying waste of character, must come to the evil man. 
 
 And the destroyers were told to begin at the Lord's 
 sanctuary, the holy place ; i.e., with the elders, who were 
 busy in the sanctuary, worshipping idols in the holy 
 place of Jehovah. These leading men represented the 
 ruling loves in the minds of men, which, being the cause 
 of the evil, were the first to feel its penalty. Leaders in 
 evil, and leading principles of evil, in men, inevitably 
 deceive themselves, while seeking to deceive others. 
 And their evils return upon themselves, in the destruc- 
 tion of their own character. These things are repre- 
 sented by the leader in the judgment reporting to the 
 Lord that he had done as commanded. 
 
 THE SAPPHIRE THRONE. 
 
 After this, a throne, like a sapphire-stone, appeared 
 over the cherubim. The sapphire-stone, being blue, rep- 
 resents the truth ; in this case the Divine Truth, bring- 
 ing the presence of the Lord, in His Truth, in His holy 
 Word, which also reveals Him in His Divine Love. As 
 the beautiful sapphire-stone, seen in the light of the sun, 
 is lucid and luminous, so the letter of the Lord's Word, 
 when seen in the spiritual light which comes to the 
 mind that loves the Lord, displays the Divine Love, in 
 all its tender mercy, in the interior of man's life, and also 
 in all the externals of man's life on earth. The throne 
 of the Lord represents heaven, where the Lord is. And, 
 in an interior sense, heaven is in the regenerate mind of 
 a good man, where the Lord dwells. 
 
i8j Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 THE FIRE. 
 
 The man clothed with linen was thus commanded, 
 " Go in between the wheels, under the cherub, and fill 
 thine hand with coals of fire from between the cheru- 
 bim ; and scatter them over the city." 
 
 Fire signifies love, either good or bad love, according 
 to the circumstances. The cherubim represented the 
 providence of the Lord, guarding the spiritual things of 
 faith from profanation by the natural-minded man ; as, 
 for instance, the letter of the Divine Word protects the 
 spiritual meaning, which otherwise would be violated by 
 the falsities of evil, and by the fallacies of the senses. 
 
 In its origin, all love comes to men from heaven ; and 
 it is good in quality ; but evil men, in receiving love, 
 immerse it in their own evil affections and false 
 thoughts ; and thus they pervert its quality ; and, in 
 their own hearts, they change the Divine good into 
 human evil. 
 
 In the providence of the Lord, when men are in evil, 
 it is better that they should not have a clear and spiritual 
 understanding of the mysteries of faith ; i.e., of the inte- 
 rior things of regenerate life. For, with such knowl- 
 edge, they would sink further into evil, by hating and 
 profaning spiritual truths, and living in opposition to 
 such truths. It is not the desire of the Lord to condemn 
 evil men to the greatest possible extent, and thus to 
 execute vengeance against sinners ; but, on the contrary, 
 it is the effort of the Divine Love to give to every man 
 all the good which he is willing to receive, and all the 
 truth which he will use for good. And when an evil 
 man cannot be saved from his chosen evil, the Lord 
 seeks to save him from further and worse evils. For 
 this purpose, an evil man is permitted to remain in ex- 
 ternal conditions of mind, with little knowledge of spir- 
 itual things, because thus he will remain in milder con- 
 ditions of infernal life. 
 
Ezekiel's Vision of Slaughter in Jerusalem. 183 
 
 COALS. 
 
 In our text, the coals between the cherubim represent 
 the love which is in spiritual minds. But, when those 
 coals are taken away from their place, and scattered 
 upon a city of evil men, such action represents the de- 
 scent of love to its lower forms, in the natural mind. 
 And, as the city represents a system of doctrine, and, in 
 this case, a perverted and false doctrine, held by evil 
 men, so the scattering of the coals over the city signified 
 the Lord's permission to such evil men to contaminate 
 and pervert their natural affections, and to live in their 
 wild lusts of the senses, rather than to allow them to 
 see, and to profane, the higher things of spiritual love ; 
 because, being in the love of perverting the truth, and 
 in the belief of false doctrines, they would surely make 
 their own conditions more deplorable, if they could per- 
 vert the higher life. 
 
 Thus, in the judgment, after men are judged by the 
 truth, and each is allowed to be that which he is deter- 
 mined to be, in character, the completion of the judg- 
 ment comes in allowing such evil men to live in their 
 chosen lusts of evil. 
 
 And then the glory of the Lord returned to the cheru- 
 bim; i.e., the goodness and truth of the Lord were seen 
 in the high and spiritual light, by those who were in 
 condition of character to understand such truth. For 
 the Divine Love and Wisdom are clear to him who 
 " has eyes to see." O Lord, " Thou wilt keep him in 
 perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee." 
 
184 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 XXI. 
 EZEKIEL REMOVING HIS GOODS. 
 
 The Word of Jehovah also came unto me, saying, Son of 
 man, thou dwellest in the midst of the rebellious house, who 
 have eyes to see and see not, who have ears to hear and hear 
 not; for they are a rebellious house. Therefore, thou son of 
 man, prepare thee stuff for removing, and remove by day, in 
 their sight ; and thou shalt remove from thy place to another 
 place, in their sight : it may be they will consider, though they 
 are a rebellious house. 
 
 And thou shalt bring forth thy stuff by day, in their sight, as 
 stuff for removing; and thou shalt go forth thyself, at e\ening, 
 in their sight, as when men go forth into exile. 
 
 Dig thou through the wall, in their sight, and carry out 
 thereby. In their sight shalt thou bear it upon thy shoulder, 
 and carry it forth in the dark ; thou shalt cover thy face, that 
 thou see not the land : for I have set thee for a sign unto the 
 house of Israel. And I did so as I was commanded. — Ezekiel 
 xii. 1-7. 
 
 The degenerate mind opposes the Lord, and falsifies 
 His Divine Word, even in its literal sense ; and thus 
 the church of the Lord departs from the degenerate man, 
 because he is no longer an individual church, in which 
 the Lord can dwell, as the acknowledged Father and 
 Ruler. 
 
 THE LITERAL MEANING. 
 
 The prophets had repeatedly warned the people of 
 Jerusalem of their impending captivity. But the people 
 became more and more careless and lieedless, saying 
 that the prophecies referred to a time very far in the 
 
Esekiel Removing His Goods. 185 
 
 future, and not alarming to persons then living. And 
 so they went on in their evils, forgetting that these evils 
 must necessarily produce evil results. 
 
 The captive exiles among whom Ezekiel lived, ex- 
 pected soon to return to their beloved Jerusalem. But 
 Ezekiel constantly prophesied to them that their hopes 
 of return were vain, because the people of Jerusalem, 
 themselves, would soon be carried into exile. And Eze- 
 kiel illustrated his prophecy by the enacted parable of 
 our text, in which he removed his household goods, after 
 the manner of those who go into captivity and exile. 
 
 When about to make a long journey, the ancient Jews, 
 who travelled by caravan, were in the habit of getting 
 ready most" of their goods, in the early daytime, and 
 carrying them to the general place of rendezvous for the 
 caravan, so that the beasts of burden could be laden, in 
 good time, and all could be ready to start together, in 
 the twilight. For, in that hot climate, such travel was 
 done in the cool night. But, after each traveller had 
 sent his goods to the general rendezvous, he remained 
 in his house until about time for the caravan to start ; 
 and then he took upon his shoulders his few personal 
 belongings, and joined the caravan. These facts ac- 
 count, literally, for the two occasions of Ezekiel putting 
 out his goods. 
 
 And the prophet's manner of leaving his house lit- 
 erally represented the stealthy way in which a captive 
 would seek to evade his captors, and to carry away his 
 immediate belongings, in haste, for his escape, after 
 having set out his bulkiest goods, in daylight, as if 
 preparing for the journey. And Ezekiel prophesied that 
 the princes and people of Jerusalem would thus seek to 
 escape. And Jeremiah recorded a somewhat similar 
 attempt of the king, Zedekiah, to escape the Chaldeans : 
 " Then they fled, and went forth out of the city, by night, 
 b\' the way of the king's garden, by the gate between 
 
1 86 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 the two walls. And he went out the way of the plain. 
 But the Chaldeans' army pursued after them, and over- 
 took Zedekiah, in the plains of Jericho." (Jeremiah 
 xxxix. 4, 5.) 
 
 One who silently digs through the wall, seeks to 
 escape the observation of the enemy. Covering the face 
 was a sign o'f grief, sorrow, and humiliation. 
 
 EYES TO SEE, ETC. 
 
 The -people of Israel are called a rebellious house, 
 because they would not obey the commandments of the 
 Lord. It is said that they had eyes to see, but saw not, 
 and ears to hear, but heard not. For evil men have the 
 mental capacity to see the truth, and to know it to be true, 
 if tliey are willing to do so. But they are not willing to 
 see the truth, because they hate the truth, and they love 
 evil and falsity ; and so they turn their minds against 
 all spiritual light, in which truth is seen and known. 
 
 The trouble with evil men is not mere ignorance, but 
 wilful ignorance, which is intentional. If such men see 
 a true principle, they regard it as their personal enemy. 
 They have no desire for it, and no use for it. And so 
 they first persuade themselves that it is not important: 
 and, from this view, they soon persuade themselves that 
 it is not true. And thus, as an old saying runs : 
 
 " He that complies against his will, 
 Is of his own opinion still." 
 
 And, as another old adage says, " None so blind as 
 those who will not see." " This is a rebellious people, 
 lying children, children who will not hear the law of 
 Jehovah : who say to the seers. See not ; and to the 
 prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things ; speak 
 unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits. Get you out 
 of the way ; turn aside out of the path ; cause the holy 
 
Ezekiel Removing His Goods. 187 
 
 One of Israel to cease from before us." (Isaiah xxx. 
 9-1 1.) Such men separate faith from daily life. They 
 build their mental houses on the shifting sand of worldly 
 policy, and not on the firm rock of truth. 
 
 HEARING. 
 
 Jesus often said, after His parables, " He that hath 
 ears to hear, let him hear." For, spiritually, no one is 
 willing and ready to hear the spiritual truth, until he 
 opens his spiritual ears, intentionally. Genuine spiritual 
 intelligence is from truth inwardly seen, acknowledged, 
 and loved. And it is the same with spiritual hearing. 
 Spiritually, we hear the truth, when we receive into our 
 hearts, and love, the truth which we see and understand. 
 And then the truth is joined with good, and it becomes 
 wisdom. Thus, to see the truth, is to have faith in our 
 intellect; but to hear the truth, is to have faith in our 
 will, our heart. 
 
 " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see 
 God ;" not as an object of external sight, but as the 
 indwelling life of all things, whose good and true prin- 
 ciples permeate and vivify everything. 
 
 But evil men will not open their spiritual eyes and 
 ears ; i.e., they will not use their inherent capacity to 
 see and understand good and true principles. When 
 men are mentally blind, they must be taught that they 
 are blind, or they cannot have any opportunity to repent, 
 and to reform. Spiritual blindness is a state of mental 
 itisensibility, which must first be overcome, before the 
 mind can be restored to a right condition. 
 
 THE STUFF. 
 
 The stuff, the household goods, are such things as are 
 necessary for house-keeping. And, as the house repre- 
 sents the mind, so the goods in the house represent the 
 
1 88 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 necessary things which furnish a man's mind, the good 
 and true principles of life, on which he lives, spiritually. 
 To remove one's residence represents the passing of the 
 mind into different conditions. But, in such a change, 
 the mind would carry with it everything essential to its 
 furnishing, for the work of life. 
 
 But, in the case of our text, the prophet was repre- 
 sentatively portraying the conditions of the Jews, in 
 their rebellious evils. As the prophet officially repre- 
 sented the Divine Word, so the things in his house 
 represented the good and true principles in the Divine 
 Word. And to carry these out of the house, repre- 
 sented that such was the state of mind with the Jews, 
 that they rejected, and drove out of their minds, all the 
 goodness and the truth from the Lord's Word, and kept 
 nothing more than the mere formalities and ceremonials 
 of the letter of the Scriptures. When the letter of the 
 Word was falsified in men's minds, by corrupting its 
 meaning, the Lord's goodness and truth took up their 
 belongings and departed from such evil minds. 
 
 And that this was done " in the sight" of these men, 
 means that such men could, if they would, see their evil 
 ways, from the laws of life revealed in the letter of the 
 Word. 
 
 And that this removal was made in the evening, 
 means that such men were in states of falsity, and with- 
 out the spiritual light which the reception of truth would 
 have given to them. But their attention was called to 
 their own mental conditions, l\v the constant warning of 
 the letter of the Word, which they possessed, but de- 
 spised, as far as any practical good principles were con- 
 cerned. 
 
 CAPTIVITY, ETC. 
 
 The prophet removed his goods as one going into 
 captivity and exile, to show that the removal was not 
 
Ezekiel Removing His Goods. 189 
 
 merely temporary, or unimportant, but for a long time, 
 and in hard circumstances. Spiritually, a man is free, 
 when he is in the love of goodness, and in the under- 
 standing of truth, and in obedience to the Divine laws for 
 human life. But, to the extent in which he is in the love 
 of evil, and in the belief of falsity, and in the life of 
 sin, he is in spiritual captivity, held in bondage by evil ; 
 and he is in all the spiritual suffering which must ac- 
 company such spiritual captivity : for, always, " the 
 sinner is a slave to his sin." 
 
 And thus, every man who departs from the good and 
 true principles which the Lord teaches him, leaves his 
 home and his freedom, and falls into spiritual captivity, 
 and into miserable exile, in a foreign land ; a condition 
 of evil, of falsity, of sin, of sorrow, and of slavery, 
 which can never produce a spiritual home for a human 
 soul. 
 
 DIGGING. 
 
 The digging out of the house represents examining, 
 investigating, to see what is in the things. And when 
 the Divine principles of goodness and truth can no 
 longer dwell in the perverted doctrine of a church, 
 (either in the church as an aggregate of men, or the 
 individual church of each man's mind,) then such prin- 
 ciples dig their way out of such uncongenial surround- 
 ings ; i.e., the intelligent mind which observes these 
 things, can clearly see, by examination, that the Lord's 
 principles cannot dwell in human impurities and evils. 
 And any man who will candidly compare men's per- 
 verted ideas and corrupt ways with the law of the Lord, 
 can easily see, from the letter of the Word, that such 
 things are opposites, and that, spiritually, they cannot 
 dwell together. 
 
 Covering the face of the prophet, as he passed out of 
 his house, so that he might " not see the ground," rep- 
 
I go Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 resents that, in the Jewish Church, there was not left 
 any perception of goodness, even in the laws of life, in 
 the letter of the Divine Word. 
 
 That the prophet should carry out his goods in the 
 dark, represents the general condition of mental dark- 
 ness, or falsity, in the people. 
 
 A SIGN. 
 
 It is declared that the prophet was thus a sign to the 
 people, because he represented their mental doings. And 
 so the removal of all his goods from the house, was a 
 prophetic declaration that there was nothing left remain- 
 ing in the Jewish Church which was capable of retaining 
 any truth or goodness, because, spiritually, everything 
 was destroyed by falsities and evils. 
 
 And it is to be feared that the conditions in some 
 minds, even in the Christian churches, in these days, are 
 drawing perilously near to similar states, when the char- 
 acter and life of our Lord are entirely misrepresented ; 
 and men depend, for spiritual salvation, not upon a 
 radical change in their own actual character, from evil 
 to good, but merely upon the physical blood of Christ, 
 and a "justification by faith, alone;" and this, in spite 
 of our Lord's own positive statements, " Because I live, 
 ye shall live, also," and " If thou wilt enter into life, 
 keep the commandments." 
 
 REGENERATION. 
 
 Salvation does not come to men by having Christ's 
 righteousness imputed to evil men, but by having the 
 righteousness of our Lord imparted to men, so that they 
 are regenerated, born again, into a new character ; and 
 sustained in that new character, by our Lord, Jesus 
 Christ, who is. Himself, the one only God of heaven and 
 of earth. 
 
Ezekiel Removing His Goods. 191 
 
 A prophetj said to " bear the iniquities of the people," 
 did not, thereby, take away such iniquities; nor did he 
 render such iniquities harmless ; but he merely repre- 
 sented the spiritual conditions of the people. 
 
 And, to regard him in any sacrificial relation to the 
 people, is to misunderstand the nature and use of his 
 representative office. 
 
 And so, when it is said of Jesus, that God laid on 
 Him the iniquity of men, it does not mean that the physi- 
 cal suffering of Christ took away the iniquities of evil 
 men, or that it rendered them harmless, by appeasing 
 the wrath of an angry God ; but it means that the human 
 nature of Christ bore the evils of men representatively, 
 as one incident in the preparation of the assumed hu- 
 manity to become the Divine Humanity, in which God, 
 the God of love, was in Christ, reconciling an angry 
 world unto a good God. 
 
 In His assumed humanity Jesus bore the combined 
 assaults of all the hells ; and thus He met the hells, and 
 conquered them, and redeemed men from their infernal 
 power. This redemption was made for all men ; but it 
 did not render harmless the evils of men, individually ; 
 but every man needed to be regenerated^, by means of 
 instruction, repentance, and reformation, in order to be 
 saved from his own evil conditions of character. 
 
 When we see that God is one, in essence and in person, 
 and that the one and only God is the Lord, Jesus Christ, 
 we can comprehend the nature and mission of Jesus 
 Christ, as " God manifest" to men, to save them by actual 
 regeneration, a birth into new character, in which you 
 are brought into heaven, when " the kingdom of God is 
 within you." Jesus, Himself, declared, " He who hath 
 seen Me, hath seen the Father." 
 
192 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 EZEKIEL EATING BREAD WITH QUAKING, 
 AND DRINKING WATER WITH TREMBLING. 
 
 Son of man, eat thy bread with quaking, and drink thy water 
 with trembling and with carefulness ; and say unto the people 
 of the land, Thus saith the Lord Jehovih, of the inhabitants of 
 Jerusalem, and of the land of Israel, They shall eat their bread 
 with carefulness, and drink their water with astonishment, that 
 her land may be desolate from all that is therein, because of the 
 violence of all them that dwell therein. And the cities that are 
 inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate; 
 and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. — Ezekiel xii. 18-20. 
 
 By indulgence of falsity and evil, degenerate men lose 
 the ability to distinguish between goodness and evil, and 
 between truth and falsity; and thus they destroy, in 
 themselves, the capacity for happiness. 
 
 BREAD AND WATER. 
 
 As a sign to the people, the prophet ^vas to eat his 
 bread with quaking, and to drink water with trembling 
 and with carefulness. Bread, meaning food in general, 
 represents the goodness which we receive from our Lord, 
 into our will, our heart. And water represents the truth, 
 which we receive into our understanding, our intellect. 
 As distinguished from wine, water represents natural 
 truth, i.e., truth as applied to our natural life; and 
 truth as seen from the standpoint of the natural mind, 
 which is the natural degree of human life ; but wine 
 represents spiritual truth. To eat bread, and to drink 
 water, spiritually, arc to receive goodness and truth into 
 our minds. 
 
Ezekiel Eating Bread and Drinking Water. 193 
 
 QUAKING AND TREMBLING. 
 
 Quaking, or shaking, comes from fear of danger, and 
 from uncertainty, causing mental commotion. Spirit- 
 ually, a man eats bread with quaking, when, although 
 he secures that which he regards as good, he is not 
 happy, or at peace, but he is alarmed, uncertain as to 
 things, and in great fear of danger, because, in his own 
 mind, he has adulterated all goodness by mixing it with 
 his own evils. 
 
 To drink water with trembling and with carefulness, 
 is to receive that which the man regards as truth, while 
 in a state of doubt and of fear, and of anxiety and of 
 trouble, because the man has falsified all truths, by con- 
 fusing them with his own false notions. 
 
 CARE. 
 
 In the Scriptures, care means anxiety, which involves 
 trouble. For instance, in the parable of the sower, it 
 is said that, in the mind of the worldly man, " the care 
 of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the 
 Word, and he becometh unfruitful." But, in this case, 
 ■ " the care of this world" does not mean the proper and 
 necessary care, or attention and work, which must be 
 given to all worldly affairs, but it means the strain 
 of worldliness, the wearing anxiety of selfish care, 
 which trusts in its own prudence, and not in the Divine 
 Providence. 
 
 And thus, the expression used in our text, " they shall 
 eat their bread with carefulness," means that they shall 
 be full of anxious cares and troubles, arising from their 
 fears and uncertainties. And they shall " drink water 
 with astonishment," means that degenerate men never 
 understand the Divine Providence, but their minds are 
 confused, and full of apprehension of possible conse- 
 quences, even from supposed Divine anger. 
 
 13 
 
194 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 To indicate that the anxiety pervades the whole mind 
 of the evil man, both Jerusalem and Israel are addressed, 
 in our text ; for Judah and Jerusalem represent the life 
 of the will, or heart, with its affections, and Israel rep- 
 resents the life of the understanding, or intellect, with 
 its thoughts. 
 
 DESOLATION. 
 
 That the land shall be " desolate," as to all things 
 therein, means that all the goodness in the church, in 
 the hearts of men, should become dead, " because of the 
 violence of all them that dwell therein ;" i.e., because of 
 the total rejection of all goodness, and the violent oppo- 
 sition to all Divine principles. 
 
 " And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste," 
 means that all the doctrines of the church, in which 
 living truths reside, shall be utterly destroyed, in the 
 degenerate man's mind, because he corrupts and falsifies 
 all such doctrines, by interpreting them according to his 
 own evil motives and false notions. 
 
 " And ye shall know that I am Jehovah." For, when 
 the evil are separated from the good, in judgment, it 
 can be seen that this action is from the Lord. For this 
 fact can be seen in clear spiritual light, by spiritual men, 
 who understand spiritual truth ; and it can be seen nat- 
 urally, by natural-minded men, also, because it is taught 
 in the letter of the Scriptures. But, spiritually, the evil 
 man, in corrupting the life which the Lord sends to him, 
 thereby judges himself, and spiritually kills himself. 
 Spiritually he drives himself out of Eden, i.e., out of 
 everything that is good and plentiful ; and he goes out 
 into a hard mental world, where he has to labor hard, 
 mentally, to procure a spiritual living. 
 
 Similar conditions are represented in the Book of 
 Lamentations (v. 4), "We have drunk our water for 
 
Ezekiel Eating Bread and Drinking Water. 195 
 
 money, and our bread is sold unto us. Our necks are 
 under persecution: we labor, and have no rest." 
 
 REGENERATION NECESSARY. 
 
 All evidence points to the great fact that human life 
 is satisfactory only in a state of regeneration. All unre- 
 generate states involve severe penalties, because, in them, 
 the conditions are necessajily unhappy ; not merely from 
 outward circumstances, but also because the man is not 
 in the reception of those qualities of character which 
 make human happiness. 
 
 For the whole matter of human happiness is one of 
 character, i.e., of regeneration, which is a new and 
 spiritual birth, in loving all good and true principles, 
 and living by such principles, in all the daily life. 
 
 And, therefore, our Lord of love extends to all men 
 His most gracious invitation to life and to happiness ; 
 " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, 
 and he that hath no money ; come ye, buy and eat ; yea, 
 come, buy wine and milk, without money and without 
 price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which 
 is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth 
 not ? Hearken diligently unto Me, and eat ye that which 
 is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. In- 
 cline your ear, and come unto Me; hear, and your soul 
 shall live." (Isaiah Iv. 1-3.) 
 
196 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 XXIII. 
 THE FALSE PROPHETESSES. 
 
 Son of man, set thy face against the daughters of thy people, 
 who prophesy out of their own heart ; and prophesy thou 
 against them. 
 
 And say. Thus saith the Lord Jehovih ; Woe to the women 
 who sew pillows to all arm-holes, and make kerchiefs upon the 
 head of persons of every stature, to hunt souls. 
 
 Will ye hunt the souls of My people ; and will ye save alive 
 the souls that come unto you? 
 
 And will ye pollute Me, among My people, for handfuls of 
 barley, and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls which should 
 not die, and to save alive the souls which should not live, by 
 your lying to My people who hear your lies? 
 
 Wherefore thus saith the Lord Jehovih ; Behold, I am against 
 your pillows, wherewith ye there hunt the souls, to make them 
 fly, and I will tear them from your arms, and will let the souls 
 go, the souls that ye hunt, to make them fly. Your kerchiefs 
 also will I tear, and deliver My people out of your hand, and 
 they shall be no more in your hand, to be hunted ; and ye shall 
 know that I am Jehovah. 
 
 Because, with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous 
 sad, whom I have not made sad ; and [ye have] strengthened 
 the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his 
 wicked ways, by promising him life : therefore ye shall see no 
 more vanity nor divine divinations : for I will deliver My 
 people out of your hand. — Ezekiel xiii. 17-23. 
 
 The love of falsifying the Divine Truth induces false 
 persuasions, which mislead the mind, until, spiritually, 
 it perishes in evils. And those who are in this mental 
 condition seek to mislead others, to their spiritual de- 
 struction. But every mind which resists such mislead- 
 ing, is protected by the Divine Providence. 
 
The False Prophetesses. 197 
 
 THE LITERAL FACTS. 
 
 " The daughters of thy people, who prophesy out of 
 their own heart," were the false prophetesses of ancient 
 Israel, who, at the time of our text, were a class of 
 corrupt women, who pretended to prophesy from the 
 Lord, but who actually spoke from their own hearts, i.e., 
 from their own purposes, hypocritically, cunningly, and 
 to deceive and victimize those who came to inquire of 
 the Lord. They were women of loose character, but 
 keen and cunning in their ways, who hid their corrupt 
 occupation behind the cloak of the church. Such hypo- 
 crites could flourish in such times, because those were 
 times in which the rulers, and almost all others, were 
 equally corrupt, and yet were professing very rigid ad- 
 herence to the rules of the church. And such general 
 conditions well exemplified the statement in the twelfth 
 Psalm, " The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest 
 men are exalted." 
 
 SEW PILLOWS, ET-C. 
 
 The Orientals were naturally a very sensuous people, 
 loving physical ease, and delighting in all the pleasures 
 of the senses. The rich persons especially lived at ease, 
 and in great luxury, and studied the science of physical 
 comfort. Especially at the time of our text, they exerted 
 themselves as little as possible; and, as far as possible, 
 they left all labor to their slaves. The women had no 
 intellectual education ; and their chief duty was to please 
 their husbands, or their fathers. The rich women spent 
 most of their time reclining on couches, supported by 
 pillows. 
 
 When an inquirer came to the prophetess, to inquire 
 of the Lord, concerning his luck, or his fate, she first 
 gained influence over him, by placing him in sensuous 
 ease, among soft pillows, or cushions ; and she sewed 
 
198 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 small pillows under his arms, from the arm-holes of his 
 tunic down to his wrists, that even his arms might lie 
 in luxurious ease. And these tilings served, also, 
 another purpose ; for after she pretended to inquire for 
 him, as to his future, she pointed out these things of 
 ease and luxury, as symbols of the good fortune awaiting 
 him. 
 
 KERCHIEFS. 
 
 And she placed upon his head a kerchief, or head 
 covering, which was regarded as a fine adornment, and 
 as a symbol of freedom, and of plenty, such as are 
 enjoyed by rich persons. 
 
 In the case of the Jews when under captivity to Baby- 
 lon, this liberty-cap would symbolize their approaching 
 delivery from such captivity. 
 
 As the text reads, in the common version of the Bible, 
 it is somewhat obscure at this point, when it says that 
 these women " make kerchiefs upon the head of every 
 stature, to hunt souls." But the sense is made clear by 
 adding two words, " persons of," and reading it thus, 
 " upon the head of persons of every stature ;" i.e., all 
 ages of men, down to lads scarcely full-grown, who are 
 thus drawn into the evil influence of these bad women. 
 
 HUNTING SOULS. 
 
 In the figurative literal sense, to hunt souls is to seek 
 men, in order to gain something by deceiving them and 
 corrupting them. And it is easy to see how these 
 women, by subtle flattery, and by favorable prophecies, 
 could gain great influence in the community ; for it was 
 a community in which there was no spiritual perception 
 of truth, and no rational judgment. Old men, middle- 
 aged men, and youths were thus beguiled into an easy 
 security, and the indulgence of every natural wish. And 
 
The False Prophetesses. 199 
 
 the false prophetess then reaped a large reward in gifts, 
 and in personal influence, and in every indulgence. 
 
 And, in such circumstances, it is not wonderful that 
 the true prophet of the Lord went unheeded, because he 
 prophesied disasters, of which the people did not wish 
 to hear. And thus the name of the Lord was polluted, 
 in the minds of the people, because the words of the 
 Lord were drowned in the fallacies of men's senses. 
 Even those who pretended to be prophetesses of the 
 Lord, covered the people with lies, to make them evil, 
 also. And this was often done for merely trifling re- 
 wards, from such men as inquired. These trifling 
 rewards are indicated by the words, " And will ye pollute 
 Me, among My people, for handfuls of barley and pieces 
 of bread?" 
 
 " To slay the souls which should not die," is to cor- 
 rupt those who were trying to do well. And " to save 
 alive the souls which should not live," is to encourage 
 the evil in their iniquity, by promising them continued 
 life and prosperity, and thus " strengthening the hands 
 of the wicked," and preventing them from repenting and 
 amending their life. 
 
 As the serpent in Eden persuaded Eve that it would 
 not be dangerous for her, Ijut profitable, to eat the for- 
 bidden fruit, so these evil prophetesses lured men to 
 destruction by false persuasions ; and thus saddened the 
 hearts and lives of many men, whom the Lord was 
 seeking to make glad; because such women were hold- 
 ing out promises of greater life, even while dragging 
 their victims into a sure death. 
 
 DIVINE OPPOSITION TO EVIL. 
 
 But it is said that the Lord is opposed to all such 
 doings, and that He would overcome them and destroy 
 their influence, by a general judgment upon that evil 
 
200 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 church ; and that He would deHver from such evils all 
 who would remain His people, following His laws of 
 life. And, in pursuance of this work of the Lord, the 
 prophet is commanded to expose all such evils, and to 
 proclaim the Lord's truth. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL MEANING. 
 
 But all these things belong to the literal sense of the 
 text. Turning, now, to the spiritual meaning, we shall 
 find the scene laid not merely in ancient Israel, but also 
 in our own hearts and lives. And the warnings of the 
 Lord's prophet, four thousand years ago, are equally 
 needed warnings to us, in these, our days. For th.e 
 prophet of the Lord, spiritually speaking, is the Divine 
 Truth, itself, walking through the streets of our minds, 
 and calling us to repentance, reformation and regenera- 
 tion. The voice of our Lord, Himself, speaks in His 
 truths, as they meet us, in the letter of His holy Word, 
 and speak to our natural minds, with warnings against 
 sinful conduct ; while, at the same time, they speak to 
 our open spiritual minds, of the holy principles of 
 heaven, which will form in us " the measure of a man, 
 that is, of an angel." 
 
 THE WOMEN. 
 
 And, in our text, the Divine Truth, as the Lord's 
 prophet, warns us against the deadly wiles of our own 
 unregenerate natural affections. In Israel, which fig- 
 uratively represented the Spiritual Church, in which 
 Truth is the dominant element, women represented af- 
 fection for truth, and men represented rational under- 
 standing of truth ; and their true union represented the 
 spiritual marriage of regeneration. But, in the case of 
 our text, the women were evil ; and hence, they repre- 
 sented natural affection, when corrupted into self-love. 
 Thus, the corrupt false prophetess represents our natural 
 
The False Prophetesses. 201 
 
 affection, when thoroughly evil and selfish, and setting 
 up itself instead of the Lord; and speaking from its 
 own evil lusts, and in opposition to the revealed will of 
 the Lord. 
 
 And when a man's natural affections thus pretend to 
 be good, when they are intentionally evil, they exert 
 themselves to beguile, and to mislead, the man's rational 
 judgment; and to drag the whole mind down into their 
 own low condition. And their cunning practices are 
 exposed in the spiritual meaning of our text. 
 
 HUNTING SOULS. 
 
 Here, hunting souls, as men hunt game, for its de- 
 struction, spiritually means influencing men, in order 
 to destroy their spiritual character. And this may be 
 done by us, towards other persons, or in our own hearts 
 and lives. In the Scriptures, the term " soul" has many 
 different meanings, as the equivalent of several different 
 Hebrew and Greek words. Soul may mean any living 
 creature, or a human being, or the life of the natural 
 body, or the life of the spirit of man, or the character- 
 istic life of man's understanding, or the Divine Truth. 
 
 In our text, spiritually, the soul means the spiritual 
 life of a man. And the spiritual life is in the soul, the 
 spirit. A false prophetess in a man's mind hunts his 
 soul, when his evil natural affections mislead his rational 
 judgment, by perverting his knowledges of truth, and 
 explaining them in favor of his natural lusts ; and by 
 persuading him that the truth is not true, but false ; and 
 that sin is not evil, but allowable. In this way, the man 
 is flattered into the indulgence of his evil inclinations, 
 while imagining himself to be seeking real life. 
 
 Many persons do not know what spiritual goodness 
 and truth are; but they are in natural-minded states 
 immersed in the life of their natural senses. Being 
 
202 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 without spiritual perception, they do not clearly recog- 
 nize the character of the doctrines and arguments set 
 before them. And sometimes they are misled by plausi- 
 ble arguments, which are urged by an external and per- 
 suasive faith, which is without charity, or regenerate 
 love. But, " Woe unto them that call evil good, and 
 good evil ; that put darkness for light, and light for 
 darkness ; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for 
 bitter." (Isaiah v. 20.) 
 
 To kill a man, spiritually, is to destroy his spiritual 
 life; i.e., to destroy the spirituality of his life. In this 
 way, the church in man is destroyed. Spiritually, to 
 bear false witness against the neighbor, is intentionally 
 to try to deceive him, and to prevent his regeneration, 
 by persuading him to confuse good and evil, and truth 
 and falsity, and righteousness and sin. In this way, 
 " Evil shall hunt the violent man, to overthrow him." 
 (Psalm cxl. II.) For the spiritual violence which we 
 do to others inevitably returns upon ourselves. 
 
 And this false witnessing may occur in our own 
 minds, when our natural affections intentionally deceive 
 our judgment. Our natural affections, when unregen- 
 erate, are false prophetesses, who supply us with the 
 pillows of ease, and the indulgence of our natural de- 
 sires, and lull us into a false sense of security, in a selfish 
 and sensuous life. And they cover our heads, our 
 rational thought, with their own kerchiefs, their plausi- 
 ble arguments in favor of self-indulgence, with promises 
 of prosperity. 
 
 That they put such kerchiefs upon the heads of per- 
 sons of all statures, means that they persuade persons in 
 all stages of mental growth, deceiving them as to their 
 own conditions, and their spiritual needs. And, in our 
 individual minds, our unregenerate natural affections 
 cunningly seek to cover our heads, i.e., to obscure our 
 highest principles, at every step in our spiritual growth, 
 by subtle appeals to our self-love. 
 
The False Prophetesses. 203 
 
 POLLUTING THE LORD. 
 
 And thus the Lord is polluted, in our minds, when 
 His Divine principles, which should be the head of all 
 our thoughts, are covered over with sensuous notions. 
 
 To slay souls which should not die, is to deprive the 
 mind of the life of truth, which should never die in any 
 human mind. And to save alive the souls which should 
 not live, is to maintain the power and influence of false 
 principles, which should not be allowed to live in any 
 human mind. 
 
 And these wrong things are done by accepting evil 
 and falsity for goodness and truth, and rejecting these 
 Divine principles. In this way, evil is encouraged, and 
 its hands, its power, strengthened, while goodness and 
 truth are discouraged, and rendered powerless in the 
 unregenerate mind. For, while the corrupt natural af- 
 fections promise life and prosperity in indulgence, yet 
 they cannot give any life to the spirit, because they are 
 spiritually dead. 
 
 And yet these evils are brought about by the unre- 
 generate natural affections, for a merely trifling reward, 
 " handfuls of barley, and for pieces of bread;" i.e., for 
 a small amount of indulgence in the things which feed 
 the sensuous life. But the Lord is against all these evil 
 things ; and He will overcome their influence, in every 
 mind which remains steadfast to the Divine principles. 
 
 SETTING THE FACE. 
 
 No one may expect to be regenerated without meeting 
 severe temptation ; but that temptation will be used for 
 our good, and for the destruction of evil in us, if we 
 bravely stand by the Lord's commandments, in spite of 
 the wiles of the false prophetesses in our own natural 
 affections, or in the efforts of other persons to mis- 
 lead us. 
 
204 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 In our minds, the prophet, which is the Lord's truth, 
 will set its face against these evil prophetesses ; i.e., 
 the Divine Truth will reveal to us its inward and spir- 
 itual form, and will thus protect us against the sensuous 
 allurements of our own disorderly natural affections. 
 And thus our interior minds, our spiritual minds, will 
 be opened to spiritual life, which is clearly opposed to 
 disorderly natural life. And the clear spiritual truth, as 
 a prophet of the Lord, will proclaim the things of spir- 
 itual life, in all the streets of our minds. 
 
 OUR INFLUENCE. 
 
 It should be one of the most effective warnings against 
 evil, that, in sinking into evil, we tend to drag down 
 others with us, by our influence, and by our example. 
 When there is so much of sorrow and suffering in this 
 world, it is amazing how any one can be willing deliber- 
 ately to add to the enormous sum of human trouble. 
 As we walk along the path of life, we may, if we will, 
 often lend a helping-hand to our fellow-travellers. We 
 may distribute love and kindness along our path, instead 
 of sorrow and distress. The way of life is a common 
 road, for the use of all. And we have no right to de- 
 mand the whole road, and all its privileges, for our- 
 selves ; or to jostle others, whom we may imagine to 
 stand in our way. There is room enough for all, if all 
 will be reasonable and fair. 
 
 It is in the nature of regenerate love, and of all other 
 good and true things, that they increase for us, in the 
 measure in which we share them with others. But all 
 selfishness narrows and dwarfs the man whom it con- 
 trols ; and it shuts out from his evil heart all the king- 
 dom of heaven. " See, I have set before thee, this day, 
 life and good, and death and evil. . . . Therefore, 
 choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live." 
 (Deuteronomy xxx. 15, 19.) 
 
The Vine of Jerusalem. 205 
 
 XXIV. 
 THE VINE OF JERUSALEM. 
 
 What is the vine-tree, more than any tree, the vine-branch 
 which is among the trees of the forest? 
 
 Shall wood be taken thereof to make any work? Or will men 
 take a pin of it, to hang any vessel thereon? Behold, it is cast 
 into the fire for fuel ; the fire hath devoured both ends of it. 
 and the middle of it is burned : is it profitable for any work ? 
 Behold, when it was whole, it was meet for no work : how 
 much less, when the fire hath devoured it, and it is burned, shall 
 it yet be meet for any work ! 
 
 Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovih ; As the vine-tree 
 among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire 
 for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I 
 will set My face against them ; they shall go forth from the 
 fire, but the fire shall devour them ; and ye shall know that I 
 am Jehovah, when I set My face against them. And I will 
 make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, 
 saith the Lord Jehovih. — Ezekiel xv. 2-8. 
 
 In the mind which is fixed in evils, there is no longer 
 any good whatever, nor any spiritual church, because 
 these have been destroyed by evil loves. 
 
 THE LITERAL SENSE. 
 
 Among the trees, the grape-vine is not of much use for 
 its timber, because it is too small, and too crooked. And 
 it is not of use for ordinary lumber, for the various 
 purposes to which wood is put. And it is not even used 
 to make wooden pegs, on which to hang different vessels, 
 because it bends too easily; and it is too brittle when 
 dry. In the Oriental lands, in ancient times, the common 
 
2o6 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 people lived in extreme simplicity. For instance, when 
 building a stone house, many stout, hard-wood pegs, or 
 pins, or nails, were set in between the courses of stones, 
 and so as to stand out into the room. These pegs, or 
 nails, were used for hanging up different household 
 vessels, kitchen utensils, etc. And, as these pegs were 
 built into the walls, they were firmly set, and secure, and 
 could be relied upon. And they were made of reliable 
 wood, and not of the unreliable grape-vine wood. 
 
 And the grape-vine was riot even good for general 
 use as common fire wood ; for it burned up rapidly, 
 and was very soon consumed. And thus, it was good 
 for kindlings, only. And, often, when a grape-vine was 
 dead, it was thrown upon the fire, merely to dispose of 
 it. When the fire burned the ends of the pieces, these 
 pieces curled up, and caught fire all over, and soon 
 burned out. And if this vine-wood was not useful, as 
 wood, when in its strength, certainly it was not good, 
 after the fire had burned it to ashes. 
 
 THE PARABLE. 
 
 These things were set forth in the text, as a parable, 
 for the people of Jerusalem. What were the Jews, more 
 than other nations ? They were not especially good, or 
 great. Other nations were more numerous, and more 
 powerful, and more advanced in military and naval mat- 
 ters. And the Egyptians, Assyrians and others, were 
 more advanced in the arts and sciences. 
 
 The Jews, even when good, were no more than the 
 other nations ; and, surely, they were not more than 
 others, after they had greatly degenerated in character. 
 
 THE CHOSEN PEOPLE. 
 
 They boasted greatly that they were " the chosen 
 people of Jehovah," a holy people, favored of God, more 
 
The Vine of Jerusalem. 207 
 
 than any other people. And yet they turned their hearts, 
 and their thoughts, and their conduct, against the Lord. 
 And this is what is meant, when it is said that the Lord 
 set His face against them. For, when they refused all 
 the good and true things which the Lord gave to them, 
 and preferred evil and falsity and sin, it seemed, to 
 them, that God had turned against them; because He did 
 not prosper them, in their chosen evils. 
 
 But, as a fact, the Lord did not choose the Jews to be 
 a holy church, but He chose them to represent the 
 church, symbolically and figuratively. And, in order to 
 have them carry out this representation, the Lord led 
 them through many experiences ; and gave them many 
 wonderful proofs of His providential care over them, as 
 a people. And the Lord did everything possible, to help 
 the Jews to become a good and true and noble people. 
 They were as a vine, which He planted in good soil, and 
 of which He took great care. But the vine was a bad 
 one, in itself. It was an unprofitable vine, good for 
 nothing. 
 
 Jesus said, " I am the Vine ; ye are the branches : He 
 that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth 
 forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing." 
 But Israel and Judah departed from the Lord, and sank 
 into evil, and into spiritual death. And their land 
 became desolate, because they did not maintain it, in 
 good order. And they thought the Lord had set His 
 face against them, as a people, because He had set His 
 face against their evils and their sins. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL SENSE. 
 
 But now turn to the spiritual meaning of these cir- 
 cumstances and conditions. " The face is the index of 
 the mind." And so the expression of the face repre- 
 sents the feelings and thoughts of the mind, which ex- 
 
2o8 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 press themselves in the face. The face of the Lord is 
 the expression of His Divine character, His love and 
 His wisdom. And these, by their nature and quaHty, 
 must be always set against all forms of evil, falsity and 
 sin ; because all these things have set their faces against 
 the Lord, i.e., against the qualities of the Lord's char- 
 acter. 
 
 JERUSALEM. 
 
 Jerusalem represented the church, because that city 
 was the headquarters of the church ; and there were the 
 temple, the altar, etc. ; and there worship was celebrated 
 by all the people. And there were the annual religious 
 feasts, which every able-bodied adult male in the whole 
 country had to attend. And the conditions of the Jews, 
 in Jerusalem, represented the conditions of the church, 
 in the minds of men. But the people of Jerusalem 
 greatly degenerated in character, until they became com- 
 pletely corrupt. 
 
 The Hebrews, in their quiet life as farmers and shep- 
 herds, could have set an excellent example to the other 
 nations. But the Jews were not living in this world for 
 the good they could do, for others, but rather for what 
 they could get from others. And so, finally, the Divine 
 Providence appeared to leave them, like a dead vine, in 
 the fires of their own evil lusts, which they could not be 
 induced to give up. 
 
 DIVINE INFLUX. 
 
 The inflow of the Lord's goodness and truth into the 
 mind of a regenerate man, is into his spiritual interiors, 
 which are thus filled with heavenly love, intelligence and 
 peace. But the same Divine love, flowing into the mind 
 of the evil man, whose spiritual interiors are closed, 
 must meet him in the interiors of his natural mind ; and, 
 as these are full of evil and falsity, which are opposed 
 
The Vine of Jerusalem 209 
 
 to goodness and truth, the inflow of such good princi- 
 ples would carry a Hfe which would be directly opposed 
 to the whole form and quality of the evil man's own 
 life. And such an inflow would produce terrible torture, 
 if brought directly in contact with the man's own quali- 
 ties of character. 
 
 And thus, the influx of the Divine life, which the good 
 man would describe as full of life and joy, the evil man 
 would describe as a consuming fire. It would be like 
 compelling the owl and the bat to stand in the glare of 
 the sunshine. And, therefore, evil men are permitted to 
 reject the Divine principles, and to live in their chosen 
 evils, when they will not listen to the Divine teaching ; 
 as the owls and bats are permitted to avoid the sunlight, 
 and to dwell in the shade. And, in the Scriptures, when 
 the Lord's influence is mentioned as a consuming fire, 
 that expression is given in accordance with the appear- 
 ance before the mind of the evil man, and to the natural- 
 minded man, to whom the letter of the Scriptures is 
 especially addressed. 
 
 BEARING FRUIT. 
 
 Every human mind, like the grape-vine, has a capacity 
 to bear good fruit. And the Lord gives to every man 
 every opportunity to bear good fruit. But this bearing 
 involves turning to the Lord as the Divine Sun, in whose 
 spiritual warmth and light the human vine can prosper. 
 But the evil man will not turn to the Lord, for spiritual 
 life. " Israel is an empty vine ; he bringeth forth fruit 
 to himself." (Hosea x. i.) And as, without the Lord, 
 a man can do nothing of good, so the unregenerate nat- 
 ural man remains unfruitful as to goodness. 
 
 Those who bear good fruit, spiritually, prosper, not 
 because the Lord rewards them arbitrarily for their 
 faithfulness, but because they are rewarded in their 
 
 H 
 
2IO Parables uf the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 faithfulness, in their use of good principles. As the 
 purpose for which a grape-vine is kept, is to bear good 
 fruit, if a vine does not bear good fruit, it is of no value; 
 and it cumbers the ground, and occupies the place which 
 might support something useful. " Therefore, every 
 tree which beareth not good fruit, is hewn down, and 
 cast into the fire." And this fire is the fire of evil lusts, 
 in the evil man's own mind. 
 
 And this is the fate of every truth planted in our 
 minds by our Lord, when we allow it to become unfruit- 
 ful in us, and to be consumed b)- the fires of our own 
 evils. And when this is our mental condition, it may 
 be said of us, in representative language, that our vines 
 are destroyed, and our land is desolate; i.e., in us, the 
 truth is turned to falsity, and good is turned to evil. 
 
 THE NAILS AND VESSELS. 
 
 \\'hen we are in unregenerate states of mind, there is 
 nothing in our mind that is reliable. If we have knowl- 
 edge of a doctrine, we have no place to put it, in our 
 mind, where it can be secure, and ready for use. 
 
 The vessels used in the Oriental house, being hollow 
 forms, for holding things, represent doctrines, forms of 
 statement, in which truths could be held in the memory, 
 for practical use by the affection and the thought, when 
 needed in preparing the mental food of daily life. 
 
 The stout hard-wood nail, or peg, or pin. built into 
 the wall of the house, and standing out into the room, 
 was used for holding the vessels, where they could be 
 secure, and ready for use. This nail, or peg of wood, 
 represented practical goodness in the daily conduct, 
 which will always serve as a reliable peg, on which to 
 hang such mental vessels, all the doctrines of truth, 
 which we need for our every-day use. 
 
 As the wooden nail, or pin, was the means by which 
 
The Vine of Jerusalem. 211 
 
 the vessels were kept in contact with the house, so the 
 peg represents the conjunction, or mental union, be- 
 tween the doctrines of truth, and the profounder prin- 
 ciples of our minds ; which conjunction is to be found 
 in practical goodness of conduct, which will always 
 securely hold every doctrine of truth in contact with 
 our inward character, and always ready for active use. 
 And there is nothing else than such goodness, which is 
 reliable. 
 
 This representative meaning of a wooden nail was 
 generally recognized among the Jews, as is seen by some 
 of their common sayings. When one of the Jews had 
 secured a position which seemed to be permanent, his 
 friends declared that he was " fastened, like a nail." 
 And so we find similar expressions in the letter of the 
 Scriptures, as in Isaiah (xxii. 23, 24), where the Lord 
 said of Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, " I will fasten him 
 as a nail in a sure place ; . . . and they shall hang upon 
 him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and 
 the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels 
 of cups, even vmto the vessels of flagons." 
 
 GOODNESS AND TRUTH. 
 
 There is, here, a very interesting and important point, 
 in explaining why, representatively and corresponden- 
 tially, the wood of the grape-vine does not make good 
 wooden nails. The explanation involves the distinctive 
 difference between the two principles, goodness and 
 truth. A man receives the doctrines of the church, and 
 sees them to be true ; and he wills to form his character 
 by the truth taught in the doctrines. But his character 
 has not been formed by such truth. And he will need 
 to pass through many struggles, before he can put down 
 his natural tendencies to evil, whose bad character he 
 now sees in the light of truth. During the process of 
 
212 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 bringing the truth against his own evil tendencies, the 
 truth is operating within his mind. He sees the truth, 
 and he recognizes its revelation of his own evils. And 
 he fights for the truth, because it is the truth, and 
 because he knows that he should do what the truth 
 teaches him. And so he works in the love of truth, as 
 his guiding principle. And he has a constant contest, 
 to keep himself up to the requirements of the truth, 
 because he has not yet reached the higher position, of 
 doing good because it is good, and in the love of good. 
 And when he reaches this higher condition, he will be 
 regenerate. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 For instance, we know what the truth requires of us, 
 in certain things; and we..do what is right, bravely and 
 resolutely. And we conquer a selfish desire to do what 
 is not good. And we think that we have followed the 
 truth. But, secretly we desire to be recognized, to be 
 praised for the good we have done. We would not do 
 the good merely for the praise. And we would not 
 neglect to do it. even if wc were misunderstood, and 
 unfairly censured. But, after we have done the good, 
 we are actually not satisfied until we receive the praise. 
 In this, we are not yet actuated by the love of good, but 
 by the love of truth. We are in the process of regenera- 
 tion, but in its early stages. 
 
 Now, we can see how the kind of good which is the 
 outcome of a love of truth, must vary, in quality, accord- 
 ing to the quality of the truth which influences us. Dif- 
 ferent men differ very greatly, as to what they think the 
 truth teaches them to do. When the truth is not clear, 
 in the man's mind, his mind will be obscure, also, as to 
 what is good. 
 
 Now, this kind of goodness, the good of truth, the 
 good which is the outworking of a love of truth, is rep- 
 
The Vine of Jerusalem. 213 
 
 resented by Israel. And it is also represented by the 
 grape-vine. 
 
 GOOD NAILS. 
 
 And we can see why this kind of good, this wood of 
 the grape-vine, does not make a good nail, on which to 
 hang the vessels of doctrine. It bends too easily, in ac- 
 commodating itself to various changes of thought. It 
 is not firm enough to give stability and security, on which 
 to hang all the vessels of doctrine, in our mind. The 
 household pegs, in our minds, should be made of good 
 hard wood, the love of goodness because it is good ; and 
 built into the wall, so that we can have confidence that 
 our practical doctrines will be ready for use, at any 
 moment. 
 
 In the clear doctrines of the New Jerusalem, we have 
 most excellent vessels for spiritual use. And, in the 
 practical doings of a daily life by the Ten Command- 
 ments, we have strong and reliable nails on which to 
 hang the doctrines for daily use. 
 
 " Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities : thine 
 eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle 
 which shall not be taken down : not one of the pins 
 thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the 
 cords thereof be broken. But there the glorious Lord 
 will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams." 
 
214 Parables of the Old Tcstaineiit Explained. 
 
 XXV. 
 TFIE EAGLES AND THE VINE. 
 
 Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto 
 the house of Israel ; and say, Thus' saith the Lord Jehovih : 
 A great eagle, with great wings, long-winged, full of feathers, 
 which had divers colors, came unto Lebanon, and took the 
 highest branch of the cedar. He cropped ofif the top of his 
 young twigs, and carried it into a land of traffic : he set it in 
 a city of merchants. He took also of the seed of the land, and 
 planted it in a fruitful field : he placed it by great waters, and 
 set it as a willow-tree. 
 
 And it grew, and became a spreading vine, of low stature, 
 whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were 
 under him : so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, 
 and shot forth sprigs. 
 
 There was also another great eagle, with great wings, and 
 many feathers : and behold, this vine did bend her roots toward 
 him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might 
 water it by the furrows of her plantation. It was planted in 
 a good soil, by great waters, that it might bring forth branches, 
 and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine. . . . 
 Thus saith the Lord Jehovih, Shall it prosper? Shall He not 
 pull up the roots thereof, and cut off the fruit thereof, that it 
 wither? It shall wither in all the leaves of her spring, even 
 without great power, or many people, to pluck it up by the 
 roots thereof. Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? 
 Shall it not utterly wither when the East wind toucheth it? It 
 shall wither in the furrows where it grew. — Ezekief. xvii. 2-10. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL CHURCH. 
 
 The text describes, representatively, the establishment 
 and growth of the Spiritual Church, and its subsequent 
 perversion and decline. The Spiritual Church was estab- 
 
The Eagles and the Vine. 215 
 
 lished by the Lord, by means of the truths of His holy 
 Word. Through these truths, men were regenerated, 
 externally and internally; i.e., as to the natural mind, 
 and as to the spiritual mind. " Now ye are clean, 
 through the Word which I have spoken unto you." The 
 church became spiritual by means of truths rationally 
 seen and practised. But, by the neglect and abuse of 
 truths, men falsified them, and relapsed into evils of 
 life : and thus the church was corrupted in quality, and 
 finally destroyed. 
 
 THE LITERAL SENSE. 
 
 The parable of our text is generally supposed to have 
 been spoken in order to prophesy the Lord's judgment 
 upon Zedekiah, for breaking his oath with Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, which oath he had made in the name of Jehovah, 
 
 The first eagle is supposed to have been Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, king of Babylon, and the second eagle, Pharaoh- 
 hophrah, king of Egypt. 
 
 But the Lord always seeks to give spiritual life to 
 men. In the judgment, men suffer by their own evils, 
 not by any Divine wrath. An oath, which binds a man 
 to a certain course of conduct, and in which God is called 
 upon to witness the man's sincerity and faithfulness, 
 represents the inward principle which binds a good man 
 to his duty, and which forms the real obligation. For a 
 spiritual man obeys principles, as principles, and not 
 merely as outward rules of conduct. The text thus 
 prophesies what men will become by the neglect of spir- 
 itual principles. 
 
 THE REPRESENTATIVE MEANING. 
 
 All created forms of life represent the things of man's 
 mental life. Beasts represent human affections ; and 
 birds represent our thoughts. The wings, or arms, of 
 
2i6 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 birds, represent power, as power is mainly exerted by 
 means of arms, or wings. The use of the wings, in 
 flying, represents the use of the power of thought, or 
 thinking. Thus, flying represents using our thought, to 
 think, to perceive, or to instruct. The feathers are the 
 clothing of the bird, representing literal truths, which 
 clothe our minds in suitable condition. 
 
 THE EAGLE. 
 
 The eagle, as a bird, represents thought. The eagle 
 is called the " king of birds," from its power, courage, 
 keen sight, and great swiftness and endurance in flight. 
 In this sense, the eagle represents intelligence in thought, 
 rational thought, which soars high, and has keen and 
 far-sighted vision. Sometimes, the eagle is used to rep- 
 resent spiritual thought, which soars above natural 
 things, and sees things that are beyond the vision of the 
 merely natural mind. The spiritual thought, like the 
 eagle, makes its home in hio^h places. " They that wait 
 upon Jehovah shall renew their strength ; they shall 
 mount up with wings, as eagles ; they shall run, and 
 not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint." (Isaiah 
 XL31.) 
 
 In the text, the first eagle represents the thought, or 
 intelligence, of the external spiritual church ; i.e., of the 
 spiritual church as it is in the natural mind of man ; 
 and the second 'eagle represents the thought, or intelli- 
 gence, of the internal spiritual church; i.e., such as it is 
 in the spiritual mind. 
 
 The wings of the eagles are the external thoughts, 
 from the letter of the Lord's Word. Great wings, with 
 many feathers, etc., represent the abundance of knowl- 
 edges of truth, scientifics, or things known as informa- 
 tion and doctrine. From these things the natural mind 
 derives its intelligence. The first great eagle, with its 
 
The Eagles and the Vine. 217 
 
 wide-spreading wings, and many feathers, flying swiftly 
 through the air, represents tlie thought of the natural 
 mind, when well instructed in the truths of the Lord's 
 Word, and thinking rationally, upon these things. 
 
 The contrast between this rnajestic eagle and an ordi- 
 nary domestic fowl, is very marked ; and, to the ob- 
 serving mind, the contrast is equally great between the 
 far-reaching rational thought about spiritual principles, 
 and the cornmon-place thought about the ordinary out- 
 ward things of daily life. 
 
 LEBANON. 
 
 The eagle went to Lebanon, and took the highest 
 branch of the tall cedar. Trees, growing in the earth, 
 represent perceptions of truth, growing in the mind, 
 first as sentiments implanted in the thought, and then 
 as growing shoots, and trees, bearing leaves and fruit. 
 Mount Lebanon, as a high place, represents a high or 
 exalted state of mind. Lebanon represents the spiritual 
 man, or the spiritual good that is in man ; i.e., the love 
 of the neighbor, which is the ruling, characteristic qual- 
 ity of the spiritual man. '' The righteous shall flourish 
 like the palm-tree : he shall grow like a cedar in Leb- 
 anon." (Psalm xcii. 12.) 
 
 A cedar represents spiritual perception of truth. And 
 so a cedar of Lebanon represents the spiritual perception 
 of truth, based on the love of good ; i.e., such perception 
 of our duty to our neighbor as we have when wc love 
 our neighbor, and when we desire to know all the prin- 
 ciples which apply to our relations with our neighbors. 
 " The highest branch of the cedar" is the perception of 
 the most elevated principle of the rational thought ; as, 
 for instance, our perception of our duty to our neighbor 
 because he is a child of our Lord. Representatively, 
 things are called high, when they are worthy, and of an 
 
2i8 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 exalted character. The Lord is called " the high and 
 lofty One who inhabiteth eternity." Representatively, 
 the eagle takes the highest branch of the cedar of Leb- 
 anon, when we rationally take the knowledges of truth 
 from the Lord's Word, and apply them in thinking upon 
 our relations to our neighbors, as children of our Lord. 
 
 The eagle carried the twig to a land of traffic, and set 
 it in a city of merchants; i.e., the mind, in thinking of 
 spiritual truths, carries them down to the plane of nat- 
 ural science, to confirm them in outward things. The 
 " land of traffic" is the natural mind, with its trading, 
 its buying and selling, or its exchange of knowledges, 
 from the memory. The natural mind, taking things 
 from the natural memory, and reasoning about them, is 
 a land of traffic, where there is a cit}- of merchants ; i.e., 
 doctrine that is full of knowledges, things known. A 
 city, built for the uses of men, represents a system of 
 doctrine, constructed as a receptacle for living truths, 
 and a means by which truths may be put to use. For 
 without doctrine we cannot understand truths. Ta 
 plant trees means to plant truths, to instruct the mind 
 in the knowledge of truth. 
 
 The eagle " took also of the seed of the land, and 
 planted it in a fruitful field;" that is, the thought took 
 the doctrine of the church, and set it in the affections, 
 where it would have good ground for growth, i.e., in 
 the love of the neighbor, where the truth should take 
 root and grow. 
 
 GREAT WATERS. 
 
 The eagle placed the cedar-twig " by great waters," 
 i.e., in the abundance of literal truths, from the Lord's 
 Word. Waters, which cleanse, represent natural truths, 
 literal truths, which cleanse the conduct. And the letter 
 of the Word is the great reservoir, the great waters, 
 whence all truths flow. And the eagle set the cedar-twig 
 
The Eagles and the Vine. 219 
 
 as a willow-tree, a water-willow, which grows on the 
 banks of streams, and which represents natural percep- 
 tions of truth, from the letter of the Word of God. 
 
 The cedar, so planted, is said to have grown, and to 
 have become " a spreading vine, of low stature." Of 
 course, this cannot be literal history : a cedar-tree cannot 
 turn into a vine. But that which the cedar represents 
 can turn into that which the vine, or grape-vine, repre- 
 sents; i.e., in the life, the spiritual perceptions of truth 
 can become actual spiritual principles, or grape-vines. 
 At first, these are but the beginnings of spiritual princi- 
 pels ; i.e., the vine is of low stature, not reaching very 
 high, and yet spreading widely, or applying to all things 
 of the common daily life. Gradually, as the mind is 
 able to see the principles of spiritual life, these principles 
 take their proper places, in the mind ; and they are 
 arranged in the order of heavenly life, and in their appli- 
 cation to the uses of daily life. 
 
 THE EAGLES. 
 
 Thus far, and as to the first eagle, the text refers to 
 the regeneration of the natural mind of the spiritual 
 man. If the mind is rational, and has knowledges of 
 truth, from the Lord's Word, and if the mind delights 
 in the teachings of the Word, as rationally seen, the 
 understanding will grow. The cedar will change into a 
 grape-vine: the perception of a principle will become 
 an actual living principle, bearing its fruit in the daily 
 life. From rational, the man will become spiritual, ac- 
 cording to his life. " Blessed is the man that walketh 
 not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the 
 way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 
 But his delight is in the law of Jehovah ; and in His law 
 doth he meditate, day and night. And he shall be like a 
 tree, planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth 
 
220 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 his fruit in his season : his leaf also shall not wither, and 
 whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." (Psalm i. 1-3.) 
 
 The second eagle represents the thought of the spir- 
 itual mind, the interior mind of the spiritual man. Both 
 eagles represent the thought of the spiritual man, that 
 is, the man of the spiritual church, or spiritual degree of 
 life, during his regeneration. But the first eagle repre- 
 sents the thought during the regeneration of the natural 
 mind of the spiritual man, the external mind, which is 
 first taught and trained. And the second eagle repre- 
 sents the thought during the regeneration of the inward, 
 or spiritual part of the mind, which is afterwards opened 
 and trained. Both eagles had great wings and many 
 feathers ; i.e., in both the outward and inward parts of 
 the spiritual inan's mind, he has abundance of knowl- 
 edges, facts known, and principles known, by which he 
 exercises his thought, with power and swiftness. 
 
 " And behold, this vine did bend her roots towards 
 him, and shot forth her branches towards him, that he 
 might water it," etc. Thus, as the inward, or spiritual 
 mind, opens, and a new degree of thought is developed, 
 all the roots and branches, the beginnings and growths 
 of our knowledges and perceptions, turn themselves 
 towards this new degree of thought, to come into con- 
 nection with it ; or, in other words, when the new and 
 spiritual degree of thought is opened in us, we find that 
 all the things that we have previously known and under- 
 stood, bend themselves towards our new way of think- 
 ing, that they may be filled with the new and higher 
 kind of life. The same knowledges of facts and prin- 
 ciples, which, in our natural way of thinking, contrib- 
 uted the means of thinking naturally, now, in our spir- 
 itual way of thinking, become helps and means for 
 spiritual thought. ( )ur spiritual thought takes up all 
 these things, and applies them to the new view of life. 
 
 Thus, the same outward knowledges, which, to the 
 
The Eagles and the Fine. 221 
 
 natural thought, afford wisdom in natural things, enable 
 the open spiritual mind to procure wisdom in spiritual 
 things. Thus, the central-principle of the mind will 
 give tone and quality to all things else in the thought. 
 This vine, under the care of the second eagle, could 
 grow, and bear fruit ; i.e., the perception of truth could 
 expand, and could be applied to actual uses of life. It 
 could, indeed, be " a goodly vine," by keeping its obli- 
 gations to the Lord and the neighbor. 
 
 PROSPERITY. 
 
 But the text asks, " Shall it prosper?" This is a 
 prophecy of the fall and destruction of the spiritual 
 church, or Ancient Church, and of the perversion of 
 the spiritual degree of life, in individuals, who will not 
 keep their obligations to the Lord and the neighbor; 
 i.e., who like Zedekiah, break their oath, made before 
 the Lord. Some persons, when they attain to some 
 small degree of spiritual thought, do not bring the truth 
 to bear against their own tendencies to evil ; but, 
 instead, they fall in love with their own intelligence, and 
 become confirmed in self-intelligence. Thus, practi- 
 cally, they forget the Lord, and worship themselves. 
 They pervert their intelligence ; and they cannot pros- 
 per. Spiritually, they wither and die. They bring 
 forth, not good grapes, but wild grapes. 
 
 The East represents the Lord, because the sun rises in 
 the East, bringing life and light. In a good sense, the 
 East-wind is an influx of life from the Lord. But, 
 when the Lord's life flows into those who are opposed 
 to it, it seems to destroy them, as the bright sunlight 
 seems to distress the diseased eye. The Lord's truth 
 comes to men, executing a judgment. Those who love 
 the truth, welcome it; but those who do not love it nor 
 live by it, flee from its presence. It withers them, as 
 the sun withers the lifeless plant. 
 
222 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 GOOD AND BAD EAGLES. 
 
 In considering the signification of the eagle, we must 
 remember the character of representatives, which may 
 be viewed from different standpoints, and in different 
 aspects. For instance, the eagle, as to its good qualities 
 and capacities, represents good things. As to its keen 
 sight, its lofty and swift and sustained flight, its cour- 
 age, and its power, it represents rational and spiritual 
 thought, which are far-seeing, clear-seeing, and capable 
 of mounting into the highest realms of truth, and of 
 sustaining themselves there, with power and courage. 
 
 But the eagle is a proud, solitary, warlike bird, and a 
 bird of prey. In these unlovely qualities, the eagle 
 represents self-intelligence in men, which is proud and 
 warlike, ready to attack all who stand in the way of its 
 ambition. Such intelligence, while professedly thinking 
 of the living truth, is, as to the actual motives of its 
 life, fixed upon the dead things of falsities and evils. 
 " Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be 
 gathered together." (Matthew xxiv. 28.) Such self- 
 intelligence will be busied about the things of self-love, 
 which are dead to all that is heavenly and happy. 
 
 A man may be highly intellectual, capable of soaring 
 high into the realms of thought, and able to sustain a 
 prolonged flight of intelligence as to doctrine ; and yet 
 he may be intellectual, only. He may be evil at heart, 
 proud, selfish, arrogant and mean, presuming upon his 
 intelligence, and holding himself aloof from practical 
 spiritual sympathy with human beings. Such a man 
 cannot spiritually prosper. He will wither, in the fur- 
 row where he dwells in his self-intelligence, in the pride 
 of his own intellect, perverted to selfish ends. 
 
 A GOOD TREE PROMISED. 
 
 But the Lord pniniisc.s to plant a cedar-tree which 
 shall grow and flourish through eternity. " In the 
 
The Eagles and the Vine. 223 
 
 mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it : and 
 it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a 
 goodly cedar ; and under it shall dwell all fowl of every 
 wing." 
 
 The Lord will establish a spiritual church, through 
 the spiritual truths of the New Jerusalem, now made 
 known, in His Second Coming ; a spiritual coming, in a 
 new out-pouring of life and light, by means of the 
 opening of the spiritual sense of His holy Word. And 
 these spiritual truths shall come out into all the par- 
 ticulars of daily life, illuminating the life on earth with 
 the rays of the sun of heaven ; enabling men to bring 
 forth the fruits of righeousness, in all the common truths 
 of social and business life. 
 
 The Lord is now establishing this spiritual church, 
 among those who are prepared to enter into it. Knowl- 
 edge of doctrine, and intelligence in the understanding 
 of truth, will both be necessary to the genuine New- 
 Churchman. But, beyond these, the most essential 
 requisite will be a meek and lowly spirit, which regards 
 the Lord, in all things, and which shuns self-intelligence 
 as it shuns the hells. 
 
 The humble New-Churchman will be ever under the 
 care of the Divine Providence, learning, growing and 
 rejoicing. " As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth 
 over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh 
 them, beareth them on her wings ; so Jehovah alone 
 did lead him, and there was no strange God with him. 
 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that 
 he might eat the increase of the fields." (Deuteronomy 
 xxxii. 11-13.) 
 
224 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 EATING SOUR GRAPES, ETC. 
 
 The word of Jehovah came unto nic again, saying. What 
 mean ye. that ye use this proverb concerning the land of 
 Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the 
 children's teeth are set on edge? — Ezekiel xviii. i, 2. 
 
 Salvation does not depend upon hereditary condi- 
 tions, but upon present personal character, fixed in the 
 actual life. 
 
 THE LITERAL SENSE. 
 
 The ancient Hebrews had been excusing themselves 
 for their evil character, and dieir consequent misfor- 
 tunes, on the ground that they were not responsible, 
 because they had inherited their natural character from 
 their degenerate ancestors, who had given to the minds 
 of the Jewish race, a set predisposition, a fixed condi- 
 tion of character, which amounted to a fatality, because 
 it could not be overcome. 
 
 This idea was expressed in the proverb, or parable, 
 of our text, " The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and 
 the children's teeth are set on edge." 
 
 This idea falls naturally into the thought of the senses. 
 Even in these days, we find natural-minded men ex- 
 cusing their wrong feelings by saying " I cannot help 
 it; I was bom so; it is my nature; and I did not make 
 it so." 
 
 EXODUS XX. 5. 
 
 This tradition among the Jews was founded upon a 
 misunderstanding of the words of the Decalogue, as to 
 
Eating Sour Grapes, etc. 225 
 
 the sins of the parents being visited upon their chil- 
 dren : " I, Jehovah, thy God, am a jealous God, visiting 
 the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the 
 third and fourth generation of them that hate Me." 
 (Exodus XX. 5.) 
 
 The ancient Jew was natural minded and sensuous, 
 and without any idea of the distinctive difference Tae- 
 tween natural and spiritual things. And, in regarding 
 the supposed wrath of God against evil-doers, he looked 
 for the punishment of evil men in this natural world. 
 And, to the natural thought, it often does seem that the 
 children suffer for the sins of their parents. If the 
 parents are wise, prudent and industrious, they generally 
 procure a fair living, and means of giving their children 
 a good education, and a proper training for some useful 
 occupation. But, if the parents are vicious, indolent 
 and careless, their children often have to go without 
 such advantages, and, sometimes, without the necessities 
 of life. And the parents who do not restrain their own 
 evil tendencies, transmit to their descendents increased 
 tendencies in the same direction. And parents who 
 abuse their physical bodies, transmit to their children 
 impaired physical conditions ; and this, often, to several 
 generations. In all phases of human life, temperaments, 
 tendencies and inclinations are hereditary. 
 
 HEREDITARIES. 
 
 But it does not follow that hereditary influences are 
 penalties imposed by the Lord, against the sins of an- 
 cestors. On the contrary, these hereditary conditions 
 are inherent in the form of life which is transmitted 
 to descendents. In the nature of things, everything 
 must " bring forth after its kind," because the parent 
 can beget in the organism of the oflf-spring, such condi- 
 tions, only, as he has in himself. And the life of the 
 
 15 
 
226 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 Lord, which flows into the parent, and which seeks to 
 give the best to every child, must, however, give through 
 the parent. And thus the Divine gifts are modified by 
 the present conditions of the parent's organism. 
 
 These facts are plainly seen in the natural minds, and 
 in the physical conditions, of all nations, families and 
 individuals. As to his physical life, no man has his 
 choice as to the original endowment of mind and body 
 with which he comes into this world. In each case, he 
 must accept such conditions as were transmitted to him. 
 He can onl}' start where he has been placed, and do his 
 best to work into better conditions. And here the power 
 of the hereditary bias ends, because every sane man is 
 given power and freedom to work himself into better 
 conditions. 
 
 THE DIXINE LAW. 
 
 And, in order to correct the mistakes of natural- 
 minded men, as to the fatalit}- of hereditary influences, 
 the Lord has plainly and positivel)' stated the law of 
 human life, even for this world. In Deuteronomy xxiv. 
 6, it is said, " The fathers shall not be put to death for 
 the children, neither shall the children be put to death 
 for the fathers : every man shall be put to death for his 
 own sin." And, in II. Kings xiv. 6, speaking of Ama- 
 ziah, king of Judali, it is said, " And it came to pass, 
 as soon as the kingdom was confirmed in his hand, that 
 he slew his servants, who had slain the king, his father. 
 But the children of the murderers he slew not, accord- 
 ing to that which is written in the Book of the Law of 
 Moses, wherein Jehovah commanded, The fathers shall 
 not be put to death for the children, nor the children be 
 put to death for the fathers ; but every man shall be put 
 to death for his own sin." And in Jeremiah xxxi. 29, 
 30, speaking of the restoration of Israel, it is said, " In 
 those days they shall say no more. The fathers have 
 
Eating Sour Grapes^ etc. 227 
 
 eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on 
 edge. But every one shall die for his own iniquity : 
 every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be 
 set on edge." 
 
 Thus, there is no doubt as to what the Lord teaches, 
 in the matter of hereditary influences. And, to make 
 this still clearer, the Lord says, in the context, " All 
 souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the 
 soul of the son, is Mine : the soul that sinneth, it shall 
 die. . . . The son shall not bear the iniquity of the 
 father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the 
 son : the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon 
 him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon 
 him. But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that 
 he hath committed, and keep all My statutes, and do 
 that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live ; he 
 shall not die. . . . Have I any pleasure at all, that the 
 wicked should die, and not that he should turn from his 
 ways, and live?" (Ezekiel xviii. 4, 20, 21, 23.) 
 
 Every human soul is a vessel, an organism, formed 
 for the reception of life from the Lord. And nothing 
 can thwart his destiny, except the man's own individual 
 resistance to the life which seeks to flow into him, from 
 the Lord. 
 
 SPIRITUAL DEATH. 
 
 The evil man loses his spiritual life, because he per- 
 sists in loving and doing the things which close him 
 against spiritual life, and which induce in him a condi- 
 tion which is spiritual death. Hell is a condition, which 
 was not made by the Lord, but by men who rebelled 
 against the Lord, and who formed a hell, first in their 
 own hearts, and thence in their surroundings. It is 
 not the Lord who destroys evil men, but " Evil shall 
 slay the wicked," by closing their souls against the 
 Lord's life. 
 
228 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 Thus, the spiritual death of the evil man is not by a 
 vindictive penalty ; and it is not by an arbitrary Divine 
 rule ; but it is by the necessary principle of cause and 
 efifect. A man is not punished for his sin, but he de- 
 stroys himself in and by his evils. 
 
 TENDENCIES. 
 
 In this whole matter, the fundamental point is that 
 we do not inherit fixed character, but only tendencies, 
 inclinations, which we can discover, and resist, and re- 
 ject, so that they shall not become the fixed principles 
 of our character. And, even if a man has done wrong, 
 he can see it to be wrong; and he can acknowledge his 
 evil, and repent, and reform ; and then he will be regen- 
 erated by the Lord, who will give him the new character 
 for which he works. Thus, spiritual life is not a ques- 
 tion of hereditaries, nor of our own past actions ; but it 
 is a matter of our present character. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL MEANING. 
 
 We can better illustrate this general subject, by look- 
 ing into the spiritual meaning of our text and the con- 
 text. " Sour grapes" were wild grapes, having a very 
 sharp acid taste, which excited the nerves, and disturbed 
 the feeling. 
 
 In a good sense, grapes represent the practical good 
 doings of our life, our good fruits, when we are actuated 
 by charity; i.e., by love to our neighbor. These things 
 of regenerate life are sweet with love, and finely flavored 
 with truth; and their taste is delightful. But soUr 
 grapes are the bad fruits, the evil doings of unregenerate 
 life, full of the sharp acids of selfishness, which rasp 
 the nerves of the spirit, and which give no satisfaction. 
 
Eating Sour Grapes, etc. 229 
 
 SPIRITUAL EATING. 
 
 To eat, spiritually, is to receive into the mind, to make 
 our own, to appropriate for our use. The teeth, which 
 take hold of the food, and prepare it for the reception 
 and use of our bodies, represent our natural senses, by 
 which we take hold of things, mentally, and investigate 
 them, to prepare them for reception into our minds. 
 
 But, when we take hold of some principle, some affec- 
 tion, or some thought, which is intensely disagreeable 
 to us, it draws up our mind, and excites us to opposition, 
 as the sharp acid of the sour grape draws up our nerves, 
 and sets our teeth on edge. A regenerate man will be 
 brought into this condition, by coming in contact with 
 the sharp and rasping falsities which accompany all 
 evils. 
 
 Physically, if any one should be kept long in this dis- 
 agreeable condition, with his teeth on edge, lie would 
 acquire a habit of nervousness. And a tendency to this 
 habit, might be inherited by his children. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL FATHER AND SON. 
 
 But, for the spiritual meaning of our text, we must 
 transfer the whole scene to our own minds. Spiritually, 
 the father is the principle which is active in our mind, 
 and which begets other states of mind. Of course, if we 
 follow our natural tendencies, without thoughtful super- 
 vision of our feelings and thoughts, we shall fix upon 
 ourselves such habits of feeling and of thought. But, 
 by proper attention to the Divine laws, and measuring 
 our life by the Lord's standard, we learn to control, and 
 to change, our ways of thinking and of feeling. 
 
 In the mind, the father is the old feeling, from which 
 the new feeling was derived. And the new feeling is a 
 son, another mental generation. But, if we improve 
 our principles, each new mental generation will be better 
 
230 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 than the preceding one. And then, if there was selfish- 
 ness in the old feeling, but a freedom from selfishness 
 in the new feeling, then that new affection, that mental 
 son, will not die, spiritually, for the evils of his father, 
 because he will be of a different character : i.e., we shall 
 have taken warning from our former conditions, and 
 we shall have resisted the wrong hereditary tendency, 
 and built up a better fixed character. 
 
 In our mental experience, it happens, sometimes, that 
 we start with a selfish feeling, but gradually change to 
 a better feeling, and finally come out in a right feeling. 
 Now, the good feeling does not have to be condemned, 
 because its father-feeling, or its grandfather-feeling, 
 was selfish and wrong. " The son shall not die for the 
 father." 
 
 SPIRITl'.\L GENERATIONS. 
 
 A green, unripe grape is very sour and pungent. But a 
 sour green grape is the beginning of every good grape ; 
 for the ripe and luscious grape could not be formed 
 otherwise, at its beginning. But the sun and the air, 
 and the rain and the earth, gradually change the quality 
 of the juices of the grape, until it outgrows its sourness 
 and becomes ripe and sweet. But, in the grape, each 
 condition is the father of the next succeeding condition. 
 
 And so, in our minds, there is a spiritual evolution 
 going on, from one state to another. And each new 
 state of affection and thought is a new mental genfra- 
 tion, begotten by our preceding states; and, by the 
 mercy of our Lord, led into improved conditions. 
 
 Often, if wc trace up the mental ancestr\- of our feel- 
 ings and thoughts, we shall find that they began in some- 
 thing of selfishness, but that, in the tender leadings of 
 the Divine Providence, a sweeter spirit was gradually 
 introduced into our subsequent feelings, in their new 
 generations, in the measure in which we ackn<iwledge(l 
 our selfishness, and sought to rise above it. 
 
Eating Sour Grapes j etc. 231 
 
 ILLUSTRATION. 
 
 Take, for instance, the progress of marriage, in the 
 mind. We think and speak of the sweet young maidens, 
 who are very lovely and attractive in their maidenhood. 
 But their spiritual sweetness is not nearly as great as it 
 will be, from twenty to forty years hence, when, as 
 wives, mothers and grandmothers, or as neighbors and 
 friends, they will have lived for the good they could do 
 for others ; and when they shall have brought down 
 from heaven to earth the blessings of devoted love. 
 
 The affection of the honeymoon, entrancing as it is, 
 is a mere beginning, towards that which love shall 
 become, when regeneration shall have progressed to 
 higher stages of spiritual growth ; and when the first 
 young love shall be seen to be merely the casket, in 
 which, later, was placed the jewel of spiritual marriage, 
 which shall be eternal in the heavens. 
 
 We recognize the principle of spiritual parentage, in 
 the old saying, " The wish is father to the thought ;" 
 i.e., our desires dominate our minds, and propagate our 
 thoughts. 
 
 " THE THIRD AND FOURTH GENERATION." 
 
 And now, reading the words of the Decalogue, that 
 the iniquity of the fathers shall be visited upon the 
 children, to the third and fourth generation of those who 
 hate the Lord, while the ancient Jew and the modern 
 literalist would live in fear of the Divine wrath, on 
 account of the sins of Adam, and of our nearer ances- 
 tors, we are protected from such fear by our knowledge 
 of the character of God, who is the Lord, Jesus Christ, 
 the one God of heaven and of earth, the God of love. 
 
 And we recognize that, in the spiritual meaning of the 
 Decalogue, both the fathers and the children therein 
 named, are in our own minds : they represent our own 
 
232 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 earlier and later mental conditions. And hence we are 
 not dealing with a question of external parental heredi- 
 taries, beyond our control, but with the present growth 
 and conditions of our own individual mental family, our 
 ruling principles of heart and of thought. And these 
 we can control, with the Divine help. 
 
 It is true that, in those who hate the Lord, i.e., in 
 those aflections, in us, which hate goodness and love 
 evil, and live in evil, the iniquities descend to the third 
 and fourth mental generations, because their quality 
 remains similar. And, as long as any affection is like 
 its evil ancestot", in quality, its own character will bring 
 it under the same condemnation. 
 
 Representatively, three is a number relating to truth, 
 and to those things which are founded on truth ; or, in 
 a bad sense, which are based on falsity, or truth falsified. 
 And four represents goodness ; or, in the opposite sense, 
 evil, which is good corrupted. Thus, spiritually, that 
 iniquities descend to the third and four generation, 
 means that evils remain in all evil things which are 
 born from false principles, and in all false things, which 
 are derived from evil. Both of these classes of unre- 
 generate things must die with their evil and false an- 
 cestors, because, like their fathers, they are without 
 spiritual life. God does not destroy them, but they 
 destroy, in themselves, all that is spiritually living. 
 Therefore, " Cast away from you all your transgres- 
 sions, whereby ye have transgressed ; and make you a 
 new heart, and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O 
 house of Israel ?" 
 
The Lioness and Her Whelps. 233 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 THE LIONESS AND HER WHELPS. 
 
 Moreover, take thou up a lamentation for the princes of 
 Israel, and say. What was thy mother ? A lioness : she lay 
 down among lions; she nourished her whelps among young 
 lions. And she brought up one of her whelps : it became a 
 young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men. 
 The nations' heard of him ; he was taken in their pit, and they 
 brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt. 
 
 Now, when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was 
 lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a 
 young lion. 
 
 And he went up and down among the lions : he became a 
 young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men. 
 And he knew their desolate palaces; and he laid waste their 
 cities ; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, by 
 the noise of his roaring. 
 
 Then the nations set against him on every side from the 
 provinces, and spread their net over him : he was taken in 
 their pit. And they put him in ward, in chains, and brought 
 him to the king of Babylon : they brought him into strong- 
 holds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the moun- 
 tains of Israel. — Ezekiel xix. 1-9. 
 
 In the text are described the successive profanations 
 of truth, by the enticements of false principles, derived 
 from evil affections. 
 
 THE LITERAL MEANING. 
 
 Literally, the princes of Israel were the kings and 
 princes of the Israelitish nation. The mother of the 
 Israelitish Church was the Ancient Church, which, in 
 
234 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 her better states, was powerful. And so, in Oriental 
 imagery, that Church in her vigor, was here represented 
 as a lioness. 
 
 Beasts, often displaying the characteristic qualities of 
 men, very naturally represent men. And, knowing the 
 character of the beast, we can readil)' see the kind of 
 man it represents, according as it is used in a good 
 sense, or in a perverted sense. 
 
 The Jews often called the Romans " beasts." And 
 when Paul escaped from the representatives of Nero, 
 he expressed- himself as having been delivered from the 
 mouth of a lion. And when Paul refers to his contest 
 with the mob, at Ephesus, he speaks of " fighting with 
 the beasts, at Ephesus." And when Marsyas informed 
 King Agrippa of the death of the Emperor, Tiberias, 
 he expressed himself thus, " The lion is dead." Nero 
 was often called a " beast." And Xerxes was called 
 " the lion." And wc remember how often beasts are 
 named in the Scriptures, to represent human qualities, 
 especially in the books of Ezckiel and Daniel, and the 
 Apocalypse. 
 
 THE LION. 
 
 There are many scriptural references to the lion, the 
 lioness, etc., in representing powerful persons; and spir- 
 itually, in denoting powerful principles. " Behold, the 
 people riseth up as a lioness, and as a lion doth he lift 
 himself up : he shall not lie down until he eat of the 
 prey, and drink the blood of the slain." (Numbers 
 xxiii. 24.) '' He couched, he lay down as a lion, and 
 as a lioness; who shall rouse him up?" (Numbers 
 xxiv. 9.) 
 
 The two whelps mentioned in the text, are supposed 
 to refer, historically and figuratively, to the two kings 
 of Judah, Jeh6ahaz and Jehoiakim, both of whom were 
 evil men, ambitious, covetous, revcns;eful and idola- 
 
The Lioness and Her Whelps. 235 
 
 trous. Jehoahaz was captured by Pharaoh, and carried 
 to Egypt, and his career ended. Jehoiakim, another son 
 of Josiah, was afterwards made king. But he was cap- 
 tured by Nebuchadnezzar, and carried away to Babylon. 
 And these facts are referred to in the hteral sense 
 of our text, which is called a lamentation for the princes, 
 and for the nation m general. For the nation had 
 become very corrupt, and thus enfeebled, and brought 
 to great sorrow and humiliation. 
 
 THE REPRESENTATIVE PICTURE. 
 
 In better days, Judah, as the royal tribe, was repre- 
 sented by the lion, as the king of beasts. But the glory 
 of Judah had departed forever; and her kings were 
 captives in exile. Thus passes before us, to-day, the 
 moving panorama of a noted ancient nation, planted by 
 Jehovah, and nursed by His loving providence ; but 
 completely destroyed by the dreadful corruption of its 
 people. Its literal history sets before modern men, indi- 
 vidually and collectively, a long series of vivid warn- 
 ings against evil, falsity and sin. And the Scripture 
 references to such history, often couched in figurative 
 language, vigorously enforce the intended lessons of 
 that history. 
 
 But, to him " who hath ears to hear," there lies within 
 all this figurative reference, a still more profound and 
 spiritual history of human life, in the dealings of the 
 Divine Love and Wisdom with human hearts and lives, 
 not only in the distant ages of the past, but also in the 
 practical doings of our lives, to-day. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL MEANING. 
 
 In our inward minds, the church is our system of prin- 
 ciples, which we love and believe, and which we carry 
 out in our practical life. Among these principles, the 
 
236 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 mother is the primary, or leading truth, from which 
 other truths and good principles are derived. In the 
 days of our innocence, the mother-principle, the leading 
 truth in our mind, is from our Lord. But, if we de- 
 generate in character, the spiritual children of that 
 mother, and their children, will become perverted, 
 gradually, until they shall have lost the quality of 
 their ancestress. 
 
 The life of the leaders, in Israel, became more and 
 more corrupt, and opposed to the principles of the Lord's 
 church, until that church was destroyed, in the minds 
 of men, and as an institution. Even the leaders of 
 the nominal church became merely natural-minded men, 
 perverted in character, especially by means of sensuous 
 reasonings. 
 
 And these things and conditions are reproduced, 
 to-day, in the minds of all who pervert the principles of 
 the church, and destroy its life, by preferring the corrupt 
 life of the senses to the pure life of the spirit. 
 
 The powerful truth of the Lord's Word, which, in 
 its vigor in men's minds, has been represented by a 
 lioness in freedom, became weakened, stripped of its 
 power, like a chained and caged lion, in tlie minds of 
 degenerate men. 
 
 THE LION. 
 
 In general, the lion, the most powerful beast with 
 which the Israelites had to contend, represented power, 
 especially the power of truth, in ultimates, that is, in 
 its outward forms, as, for instance, in the letter of the 
 Divine Word. In the supreme sense, the lion repre- 
 sented the Lord, as the Divine Truth, as to the power 
 of His truth. In this sense, the Lord was called " the 
 Lion of the tribe of Judah." 
 
 The lioness, or female lion, represented especially the 
 power of the truth united with goodness. But, in the 
 
The Lioness and Her Whelps. 237 
 
 text, as the degenerated church is represented, the 
 lioness is used in the opposite sense, of falsity springing 
 from evil. For the degenerating mind changes its good 
 into evil, and its truth into falsity. Hence in our text, 
 the lioness is the power of falsity linked with evil. And, 
 in the mind of the unregenerate man, this power is 
 exerted against the principles of the Lord's church ; and 
 it seeks to destroy those principles, in the man's mind, 
 and, by his influence, in the minds of others. 
 
 A young lion is one in the vigor of his youth. And 
 he represents the evils and falsities of the unregenerate 
 mind, in their full power. He catches the prey; i.e., 
 he destroys truths. He devours men ; i.e., he destroys 
 goodness, by destroying the intelligent understanding of 
 truth. 
 
 THE PIT AND SNARES. 
 
 The text declares concerning the young lion, " The 
 nations heard of him ; he was taken in their pit, and 
 they brought him with chains, into the land of Egypt." 
 In representatives, the antagonism between this lion and 
 the nations does not indicate antagonism of character, 
 or any goodness in the nations ; for they were heathen 
 nations, representing unregenerate conditions of life. 
 But the dealings of the nations with the two young lions, 
 in the text, represent the action of one class of evils 
 and falsities upon another class of corrupt principles. 
 
 Pits, snares, nets, traps, gins, etc., which take ani- 
 mals by deceit, and by enticing, represent the entice- 
 ment and deception practised by the lusts of the external 
 natural mind, and the corporeal senses, to drag down 
 all the feelings and thoughts, and thus to fix them in 
 the lusts of the senses. In the life of the senses, a man's 
 natural tendencies to evil draw him along, towards his 
 desires, as the current of a river draws every floating 
 object towards the ocean, and to destruction. Hence, to 
 
238 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 snare, or to trap, means to deceive, to entice, to lure to 
 destruction, b}- enticing the delights of self-love and 
 the love of the world, especially by reasonings from the 
 fallacies of the natural senses, which always favor the 
 delights of self-love. 
 
 Evil spirits, who see a man's natural and selfish loves, 
 seek to arouse these evil loves, and to delight them, by 
 cunning suggestions, until the mind is so ensnared that 
 it reasons from falses, instead of truths, and from evils, 
 instead of good. But, while such snares and entice- 
 ments catch those who love themselves and the world 
 above all things else, they do not entrap the sincere 
 mind, which is seeking regeneration. " Will a lion roar 
 in the forest, when he hath no pre\? Will a young 
 lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing? Can 
 a bird fall in a snare, upon the earth, where no gin is 
 for him?" (Amos iii. 4, 5.) 
 
 The secret is, that things which are snares to some 
 men, are not snares to others, who are protected by their 
 knowledge of truth, and by their good life. 
 
 CM .\ INS. 
 
 The young lion was taken to Egypt, by means of 
 chains, or hooks. A wild beast was often managed, in 
 captivity, by means of a ring, or hook, set in the beast's 
 lip, or nose, and a chain attached to the ring, as is done 
 in these days, with a dangerous bull. And, in ancient 
 times, when cruelty was common, human prisoners of 
 war were thus treated by their captors, especially when 
 it was intended to humiliate a famous captive. 
 
 The lip and nose are so sensitive to pain, that an 
 animal, or a man, so chained, readily yields to the draw- 
 ing of the chain. And, in this, he represents the mind 
 which readilv \iclds to the drawing of its sensuous 
 delights ; for, in such case, although the mind knows 
 
The Lioness and Her Whelps. 239 
 
 that such indulgences are forbidden, it feels that it 
 cannot bear the pain of opposing its natural inclinations. 
 The land of Egypt, to which the lion was taken in 
 chains, represents the learning of the natural senses, the 
 vast accumulation, in the memory, of thoughts and per- 
 suasions, which the natural senses regard as established 
 truths, and which are the feeding-ground for false ideas. 
 But the mind which is ensnared and chained by the 
 fallacies of the natural senses, is like the young lion of 
 the forest, captured and chained ; or like the captured 
 king of Judah, dragged painfully to the dungeon. 
 
 THE SECOND WHELP. 
 
 The lioness was disappointed when her first whelp 
 did not return to her. And, in the unregenerate mind, 
 the mental lions, the powerful falsities which range 
 through the natural mind, do not bring the expected 
 happiness ; for the first one is ensnared by the fallacies 
 of the senses on the corporeal plane of thought, the 
 external natural mind. And the natural sciences, even 
 when corrupted, set bounds to the liberty of the false 
 principle. 
 
 But the lioness sends out another young" lioii ; i.e., the 
 ruling falsity from evil, lifts itself to a higher plane of 
 thought, and exerts itself against the life of the church, 
 as to the principles of the interior natural mind. Here, 
 again, an attempt is made to catch the prey, and to 
 devour men ; i.e., to destroy truths and good principles, 
 but on a higher plane of thought and feeling. Here, 
 too, the young lion knew men's desolate palaces, or 
 "desolate widows," as it is sometimes translated: i.e., 
 the leading false principle recognizes the desolation of 
 the natural mind, deprived of its men, its spiritual prin- 
 ciples. It also lays waste the cities ; i.e., it destroys the 
 doctrines of the church, in the mind ; doctrines which 
 
240 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 are, to the mind, what cities are to men, dwellings for 
 good and true principles. And the land is desolated, 
 spiritually, when the good principles of the mind are 
 destroyed by falsity. 
 
 It is said that " the land was desolate, and the fulness 
 thereof, by the noise of his (the lion's) roaring." The 
 fulness of the land, in the mind, is the fulness of life 
 afforded to the mind by an abundance of truths, from 
 the Divine Word. But the evil deligTits of self-love 
 attack and destroy all the truths of the Lord, in the 
 unregenerate mind, so that love to the Lord, and love 
 to the neighbor, and the love of usefulness, are first 
 confused, and then destroyed. 
 
 RCI.VRING. 
 
 The roaring of a lion is one of the most dreadful of 
 all the sounds in nature. It is great in volume, and 
 very prolonged, seeming to shake the earth, rolling over 
 the ground, and reverberating among the hills ; carrying 
 with it a sphere of deadly influence, which often momen- 
 tarily paralyzes the nerves of the hearer, and renders 
 him helpless ; carrying terror and dismay to men and 
 beasts. 
 
 We can easily imagine the terror in which the in- 
 habitants of a village are kept, when they know that a 
 vigorous lion is prowling around their vicinity, ready 
 to spring upon any one who may be going in or out of 
 the village. And the roaring of the lion, when it has 
 taken some man or beast, keeps the villagers always 
 reminded of the dreadful terror under which they live. 
 One of the sorrows prophesied of degenerate Israel, is 
 this; "A leopard shall watch over their cities." (Jere- 
 miah v. 6.) 
 
 And there is a parallel between these distressing 
 things and the corresponding conditions in the human 
 
The Lioness and Her Whelps. 241 
 
 mind, when a powerful mental lion, a deadly falsity, is 
 ranging through the mind, imperilling the spiritual life 
 of everything good and true; seizing upon every truth 
 of the Lord's Word, and tearing out its life, by falsify- 
 ing it ; by perverting it to evil purposes ; and using it 
 to confirm evil principles. In this condition, the whole 
 mind is kept in the terror of peril and uncertainty. 
 Take, for instance, the false thought that man's natural 
 reason is sufficient for the understanding of all truth, 
 without any aid from Divine revelation. This terrible 
 falsity, will do, in our minds, spiritually, the things 
 which correspond to the destruction among men caused 
 by prowling lions. Spiritually, the roaring of the lion 
 is the falsity constantly proclaimed, with great vehe- 
 mence, and lusting to destroy all truth and goodness. 
 
 THE SECOND WHELP CAPTURED. 
 
 But the second lion of the unregenerate mind is also 
 enticed into the net, and taken to Babylon. Babylon, 
 the great cultured heathen community, represents those 
 who acknowledge a church, and those who have the 
 Word of the Lord in its literal sense, but who use the 
 church, and the Divine Word, as a means of ruling over 
 men ; who seek to exercise dominion over the souls of 
 men ; and who claim that the Lord has given them such 
 power. But, in doing these things, they pervert the 
 good, and falsify the truth, in the church. 
 
 Impersonally, Babylon represents the evil principle 
 of love of dominion over others, from self-love. And 
 to be led away to Babylon, in chains, is to allow this 
 mfernal spirit of love of dominion, for selfish purposes, 
 to profane the Divine Truth, in our minds, and to cor- 
 rupt our life, so that we are held in bondage to that 
 spirit of self-love, in the strongholds of our own selfish 
 lusts. 
 
 16 
 
242 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 To spread the net over the hon, is to allow our self- 
 love to entice us by the delights of worldly ambition, 
 and by reasonings from our lusts, wrought, like a net, 
 into a system, which will keep us in helplessness. And 
 then our " voice" shall " no more be heard upon the 
 mountains of Israel ;" i. c, dragged down into the lower 
 things of self and the world ; we shall think no more of 
 the higher planes of human life, because all that we 
 know of good, will then have been corrupted, and truth 
 falsified. And, in our degenerate minds, the church will 
 have been destroyed. It is for us to exterminate the 
 heathen of our own minds, because they would be a 
 snare to us. O Lord, " The wicked have laid a snare 
 for me ; yet I erred not from Thy precepts. Thy testi- 
 monies have I taken as an heritage forever ; for they are 
 the rejoicing of my heart." (Psalm cxix. no, in.) 
 
Israel's Mother as a Vine. 243 
 
 XXVIII. 
 ISRAEL'S MOTHER AS A VINE. 
 
 Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters : 
 she was fruitful and full of branches, by reason of many 
 waters. 
 
 And she had strong rods for the sceptres of them that bear 
 rule; and she exalted her stature among the thick branches; and 
 she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches. 
 
 But she was plucked up in fury; she was cut down to the 
 ground ; and the East wind dried up her fruit : her strong rods 
 were broken and withered ; the fire consumed them. And now 
 she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground. 
 And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath de- 
 voured her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod for a sceptre to 
 rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation. — 
 EzEKiEL xix. 10-14. 
 
 The spiritual man is in the life of Divine truths ; but, 
 in the sensuous man, all Divine truths are perverted and 
 rejected. 
 
 THE MOTHER. 
 
 Literally and historically, the mother of the Israel- 
 itish and Jewish Church was the Ancient Church, which 
 was a spiritual church, principled in a good life, in the 
 light of rational and spiritual truths. 
 
 The Ancient Church was represented by a good and 
 flourishing grape-vine ; for the grape-vine represents 
 the spiritual degree of human life, in which truth is 
 the fundamental element. In the Scriptures the church 
 is often represented by a vine, or a vineyard, and some- 
 times by other trees, or by a garden. In Isaiah v. 7, it 
 
244 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 is said, " The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house 
 of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant." 
 
 " Thy mother is (or was) like a vine in thy blood," 
 refers, literally, to the time of birth, as in Chapter xvi., 
 verses 4 and 6 ; " And as for thy nativity, in the day 
 thou wast born, . . . when I passed by thee, ... I said 
 unto thee, in thy blood, Live." But, spiritually, blood 
 represents the Divine Truth, which is the circulating life 
 of the soul, as blood is the circulating life of the body. 
 The love of the Divine Truth was in the Spiritual 
 Church ; and it should have been inherited by Israel, as 
 an inclination and predisposition, developed in the Israel- 
 itish Church. 
 
 THE WATERS. 
 
 The mother, the Spiritual Church, was planted by 
 many waters ; i.e., established in the abundance of 
 truths. For water represents the truths in which we are 
 instructed, and as they are received by our natural mind. 
 Having an abundance of truths, the Spiritual Church 
 could have lived according to these truths, in a good and 
 righteous life. Then the church would have been " fruit- 
 ful," in practical goodness, " and full of branches," in 
 the growth and extension of thought, " by reason of 
 many waters ;" i.e.. because the abundance of knowledges 
 of truth would afford great opportunities for excellent 
 growth. For truth is the means by which good knows 
 what to do, and how to do it ; and thus how to grow, and 
 to bear fruit. 
 
 THE RODS. 
 
 " And she had many rods, for the sceptres of them 
 that bear rule;" i.e., literally, the vine was strong and 
 large, and it furnished many strong pieces, suitable to 
 make rods, or staves, or sceptres. Originallx-, the king's 
 sceptre, or symbol of office, was simply his staff, or 
 walking stick, on which he leaned for support. 
 
Israel's Mother as a Vine. 245 
 
 In ancient Greece, the judge carried such a staff, or 
 rod, as a sceptre, which was known as a representative 
 of his office. Gradually, the rulers changed the form 
 of the sceptre, to a mere symbol of office; and they 
 ornamented their sceptres, with precious metals and 
 precious stones, as a display of splendor. And, even in 
 these days, among prominent men, in savage nations, 
 and even among civilized peoples, there is a habit of 
 carving and otherwise ornamenting, their walking 
 sticks ; and of using symbolic and representative forms, 
 in such carving. 
 
 All these facts display the great attention which is 
 often paid to the staff, and especially to the sceptre of 
 the ruler. The staff, because it supports the man, in 
 his journey, represents power, on which men must de- 
 pend for support and strength. And because it is a part 
 of a tree, which represents the truth, growing in the 
 mind, so the wooden staff, or sceptre, represents the 
 power of truth, on which the mind leans for support. 
 And, in the case of the sceptre of the ruler, it is the 
 symbol of his power and authority. And when, as in a 
 theocracy, the ruler is chosen b)- the Lord, his sceptre 
 represents the Divine power, in whose name and 
 strength the human ruler holds his position. 
 
 And thus, the fact that the vine had many such rods, 
 represents that the spiritual church was endowed with 
 abundant power, in her knowledge of the Divine Truth, 
 applicable to both the inward principles of the church, 
 and the outward rules for conduct. In this sense, the 
 letter of the Scripture is man's great staff for daily 
 support, in the practical walk of life. 
 
 THE THICK BRANCHES. 
 
 But this vine exalted her stature; i.e., the Spiritual 
 Church grew, intellectually; but she exalted herself; 
 
24O Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 i.e., her members grew into the love of their own intelH- 
 gence, until they forgot that the Lord's truth is the 
 source of all human intelligence. And then they re- 
 garded intelligence as their own, and as originating in 
 themselves, and from themselves. They lifted up them- 
 selves in the pride of their self-intelligence. 
 
 " The thick branches" mentioned in the text, are the 
 twisted and interlaced branches, in which things become 
 entangled. And this was the case with this vine, that 
 " she appeared in her height, with the multitude of her 
 branches." 
 
 These thick, interlacing branches, forming a net- 
 work, represent the multitude of extended ideas, in the 
 natural mind, which form such a twisted mass of 
 notions, that the mind becomes entangled in them, and 
 thus confused, until it loses its clear intelligence; as 
 is the case, for instance, with the self-exalting infidel, 
 who regards his own intelligence as supreme, and as 
 fully competent to settle any spiritual question, without 
 the help of any Divine Word ; and who finally becomes 
 entangled, and spiritually strangled, in the multitude of 
 his own false notions. 
 
 The spiritual man has a conscience, formed in his 
 mind, gradually, from infancy, by the teachings of his 
 parents and others, and by the doctrines of the church. 
 But, being without a clear perception of the principles 
 of truth, he needs to confirm the doctrines he knows, 
 by knowledge of things obtained through his senses. 
 But, if he has received natural ideas which are not true, 
 and which are falsities, or fallacies of the senses, these 
 branching and intertwining notions will form such a 
 thick net-work, that they will entangle his mind, and 
 destroy the truth within it. When he imagines that 
 he is greatly exalting his mind, in intelligence, he will 
 be entangled in the things which will destroy his 
 intelligence. 
 
Israel's Mother as a Vine. 247 
 
 This is the case with the degenerated Spiritual Church, 
 and with the degenerate mind of any man, to-day, who 
 is in similar mental conditions. Men whose minds are 
 in good spiritual conditions, receive the Divine Truth, 
 and apply it to their daily life. But the self-exalting 
 man perverts and rejects the Divine Truth, because his 
 self-derived notions do not agree with the Lord's teach- 
 ings. And then his further conditions are represented 
 by the things which happened to the vine, in the text. 
 
 PLUCKED UP, ETC. 
 
 " But she was plucked up in fury; she was cast down 
 to the ground ; and the East wind dried up her fruit." 
 In the degenerated mind, the truth which has been 
 planted there, is uprooted and cast down, in fury, i.e., 
 in anger, by the opposition of the man's self-love. 
 
 " And the East wind dried up her fruit." In a good 
 sense, the blowing of the wind represents the active in- 
 fluence, or operation, of the truth. But, in a bad sense, 
 the wind is the activity of false principles in the mind. 
 In a good sense, the East, where the sun appears to 
 rise, represents the Lord : but in the opposite sense, the 
 East is the self-love, which takes the place of the Lord, 
 in the unregenerate mind. 
 
 Thus, in a bad sense, the East wind is the falsity 
 from evil, which scatters and destroys all that is good 
 and true in the mind, and encourages all the lusts of 
 evil. And, in this condition, all the strong rods of the 
 mental vine are broken, and left to wither, because they 
 are without life; i.e., the truths of the church are de- 
 stroyed, so that the mind is deprived of the power to 
 resist the hells. And then the infernal " fire" consumes 
 them, in the evils of self-love. Thus the Israelitish 
 Church was destroyed, by and in its perversion and 
 rejection of Divine truths. 
 
248 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 THE HISTORICAL SENSE. 
 
 Literally, the destruction of Israel and Judah came 
 through their conquest by Nebuchadnezzar, and the 
 removal of the people to Babylon. Historically, the 
 .\ncient Church was like a goodly vine, flourishing and 
 fruitfvd, and filled with knowledge. The strong rods 
 for sceptres were her many wise men, learned in the 
 Divine law, who could rule w^isely, in the Church and in 
 the State. But, in the degenerate days of Israel and 
 Judah, Nebuchadnezzar came upon them, like a whirl- 
 wind, and carried them away. Their career of glory 
 was ended ; and it has remained closed, even up to the 
 present day, when the Jews are no longer a nation, but 
 are scattered among the peoples of the earth; and their 
 glorious Jerusalem is known chiefly for its ruins. 
 
 THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 " And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry 
 and thirst)- ground." A wilderness is where there is no 
 life. And this condition represents the mind in which 
 there are no living principles, no goodness and truth 
 from the Lord. And the church, or the mind, which 
 degenerates into evil and falsity, thereby plants itself 
 in a spiritual wilderness, where there is nothing to 
 give it life. 
 
 And the fire of evil self-love will spread from its 
 branches, its tangled mass of falsities, and will devour 
 all the good fruit, all the regenerate love, wisdom, and 
 usefulness which were in the mind, as beginnings of a 
 new life, as matters of knowledge; and which mighl 
 have been developed into heavenly life. 
 
 And then this mental vine, in her degeneration, will 
 have no more strong rods, to be sceptres for those who 
 rule ; i.e., there will be no more knowledge of the prac- 
 tical power of the Divine truths, on which men can lean, 
 spiritually and naturally, in principle and in conduct. 
 
Israel's Mother as a Vine. 249 
 
 in the walk of life, and in the power of self-control, in 
 the intelligence of the enlightened spirit, exercising a 
 regenerate control over all the lower degrees of the 
 human life. 
 
 And thus there will be nothing left in the mind, by 
 which the Lord could rule the man, in " the self-evi- 
 dencing reason of love," which is clear to the man who 
 is open to perceive its quality, and who loves to adopt 
 it ; but which loses its power, in the unregenerate mind, 
 which has no recognition of the quality of love and of 
 wisdom. The same Divine Truth, which, in its spirit 
 and in its literal form, is a trusted stafif to the good 
 man, seems, to the evil man, to be of no practical use. 
 
 DESOL.VTION. 
 
 The text representatively pictures a mind which has 
 ceased to cherish the Divine Truth ; which has driven 
 out of its domains all the spiritual good and the truth 
 which flow from the Lord ; and which mind thereby 
 becomes utterly powerless, either to receive the things 
 of the spiritual life, or to resist the things of spiritual 
 death; a wretched nihilist, and irrational anarchist, a 
 spiritually-insane destructionist, in the realm of mind ; 
 using what little it has of external influence, to undo all 
 that the loving God of infinite goodness is seeking to 
 pour into the hearts and lives of His human children. 
 
 " The fool hath said in his heart. There is no God." 
 And he is exerting his puny eiTorts to live in a universe 
 in which there is no God ; to drive God out of his 
 universe ; and to make human life, henceforth, a deso- 
 late sorrow, in the dead wilderness of an inward hell 
 and an outward desert. 
 
 LAMENTATION. 
 
 And it is not singular that the picture of such a wil- 
 derness is called a " lamentation," a funeral-wail over 
 
250 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 tlie lost heaven which is possible to men, but which evil 
 men deliberately and determinedly reject. 
 
 " The princes of Israel" have passed into obscurity. 
 The royal line of David, established by Jehovah, with 
 wonderful happenings, long ago came to an untimely 
 end, through personal corruption, idolatry, and persist- 
 ent sin. The downfall of the Kingdom of Judah was 
 the downfall of the entire dynasty, never to be restored, 
 literally ; but to be finally restored representatively and 
 spiritually, in the coming of Jesus Christ, the true 
 King of Israel, of the lineage of David. 
 
 Thus does the inexhaustible and infinite love of our 
 Lord come to men again and again, seeking always to 
 give to them, collectively and individually, the blessings 
 of spiritual and heavenly life. 
 
 And as we reflect upon the history of the ages of the 
 past, let us carefully remember that all these things are 
 narrated in the Sacred Scriptures, in order that, in 
 them, we may have a mirror held before us, in which 
 we can see the possible conditions of our own life clearly 
 reflected. The spirit of ancient Israel, sensuous and 
 proud, still walks the earth, in the hereditary tendencies 
 of our own natural minds. Our troubles, our sorrows, 
 our struggles, our sufferings, in all phases of our nat- 
 ural life on this earth, are but the inevitable results of our 
 own natural tendencies, as the inducing causes. To-day, 
 our Lord says to us, with as much force, and with as 
 nuich love, as He said to Israel, ages ago, " The Lord's 
 hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither is His 
 car heavy, that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have 
 separated between you and your God, and your sins 
 have hid His face from you. (Isaiah lix. 1,2.) 
 
 But, O Lord, " Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace 
 whose mind is stayed on Thee." 
 
Jerusalem as a Boiling Flesh-Pot. 25 T 
 
 XXIX. 
 JERUSALEM, AS A BOILING FLESH-POT. 
 
 Utter a parable unto the rebellious house, and say unto them, 
 Thus saith the Lord Jehovih : Set on a pot, set it on, and also 
 pour water into it : gather the pieces thereof into it, every good 
 piece, the thigh and the shoulder ; fill it with the choice bones. 
 Take the choice of the flock, and burn also the bones under 
 it ; and make it boil well, and let them seethe the bones of it 
 therein. 
 
 Wherefore thus saith the Lord Jehovih : Woe to the bloody 
 city, to the pot whose scum is therein, and whose scum is not 
 gone out of it! Bring it out, piece by piece; let no lot fall 
 upon it. 
 
 For her blood is in the midst of her ; she set it upon the top 
 of a rock ; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with 
 dust. That it may cause fury to come up to take vengeance, I 
 have set her blood upon the top of a rock, that it should not 
 be covered. 
 
 Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovih : Woe to the bloody 
 city I I will even make the pile for the fire great. Heap on 
 wood, kindle the fire, consume the flesh, and spice it well, and 
 let the bones be burned. Then set it, empty, upon the coals 
 thereof, that the brass of it may be hot, and may burn, and 
 that the filthiness of it may be molten in it, that the scum of 
 it may be consumed. 
 
 She hath wearied herself with lies, and her great scum went 
 not forth out of her : her scum shall be in the fire. — Ezekiel 
 xxiv. 3-12. 
 
 The Lord makes every effort to regenerate all men ; 
 but those who confirm themselves in evil and falsity, 
 cannot be regenerated, because they are not willing to 
 give up evil. 
 
252 Parables of the Old Testaiiicnt Explained. 
 
 THE LITERAL SENSE. 
 
 In the text, the city of Jerusalem and its people are 
 compared to a brazen pot, or caldron, or kettle, in which 
 meat was boiling. And we may remember that the Jews, 
 themselves, invited this comparison, by their own say- 
 ing, as given in Ezekiel xi. 3. When the prophet fore- 
 told trouble, some of the leading men remarked, " It is 
 not near : let us build houses. This city is the caldron, 
 and we be the flesh." And, in our text, our Lord, 
 through the prophet, carried out the comparison. 
 
 At this time, the king of Babylon was besieging Jeru- 
 salem. The pieces of flesh in a caldron, are apparently 
 safe from the fire under the pot, and yet they are con- 
 fined in the pot, and they cannot escape. And so the 
 Jews imagined themselves to be safe from the enemy, 
 who were outside of the walls of Jerusalem. And yet 
 these walls were barriers to the Jews, which they could 
 not escape, and which made it easier for an enemy to 
 invest the city. 
 
 Generally, the scum rises to the top of the contents of 
 a boiling pot; and then it can be skimmed off, or 
 allowed to boil over. But, when the contents are not 
 thus cared for, the whole mass will boil down ; and, 
 finally, it will burn out. And then, even the empty 
 kettle will melt, and be destroyed. 
 
 THE FIGLiRATIX'IC SENSE. 
 
 Figuratively, the text pictured the entire destruction 
 of Jerusalem : nothing was to escape. The prophet 
 was directed to boil the flesh, and also the bones; and 
 finally, to allow the contents to boil down, until nothing 
 was left in the caldron but the dried scvim. And then 
 the brass pot, itself, was to be burned, and thus de- 
 stroyed. And this condition became true, for Nebu- 
 chadnezzar soon took Jerusalem, and " burned the 
 
Jerusalem as a Boiling Flesh-Pot. 253 
 
 house of Jehovah, and the king's house, and all the 
 houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt 
 he with fire. And all the army of the Chaldees that 
 were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls 
 of Jerusalem, round about." (II. Kings xxv. 9, 10.) 
 
 REVELATION. 
 
 We may notice that the presence of the king of Baby- 
 lon, at Jerusalem, was revealed to Ezekiel, by the Lord. 
 In the first two verses of the chapter it is said, " Again, 
 in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day 
 of the month, the Word of Jehovah came unto me, 
 saying, Son of man, write the name of the day, even of 
 this same day : the king of Babylon set himself against 
 Jerusalem, this same day." 
 
 Now, at this time, Ezekiel was in captivity in Baby- 
 lon, more than five hundred miles from Jerusalem, 
 across the Great Arabian Desert. And there were not, 
 then, any telegraphs or telephones, or any other physical 
 means of carrying news instantly. And the date re- 
 vealed is fully confirmed, as to year, month, and day, 
 in the records, as in II. Kings xxv. i, where it is 
 said, " And it came to pass in the ninth year of his 
 reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, 
 that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came, he and 
 all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it." 
 
 PROPHECY. 
 
 Jehovah, through Ezekiel, prophesied that the rebel- 
 lious house of Israel should soon become a ruined house. 
 And this prophecy was thus given, in a representative 
 form, in the familiar image of a boiling flesh-pot, for 
 two purposes ; first, to make a strong impression upon 
 the minds of the Jews ; and second, to reveal spiritual 
 
254 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 truths and warnings to those who can read the inward 
 and spiritual meaning of the prophecy. 
 
 We remember that a somewhat similar representative 
 prophecy came through Jeremiah, in the early days of 
 his mission as a prophet. It is recorded in Jeremiah i. 
 13, 14; "And the Word of Jehovah came unto me the 
 second time, saying, What seest thou ? And I said, I 
 see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the 
 North. Then Jehovah said unto me, Out of the North 
 an evil shall break forth, upon all the inhabitants of 
 the land." 
 
 The Jews boasted that they were the chosen people 
 of Jehovah ; and that His holy temple was with them ; 
 and that they possessed His holy Word, and all His 
 laws and statutes. But all these things did not protect 
 and preserve a people whose character degenerated, and 
 who refused to live according to the laws of God, either 
 in principle, or in form. The mere presence of the 
 Lord's truth does not save an evil man, as the mere 
 presence of the sun does not give sight to blind eyes. 
 
 THE SCUM. 
 
 The lowest of the people in a city are often called 
 " the scum," because they are debased, vicious, and of 
 criminal tendencies and habits ; and they are a constant 
 menace and injury to the community, coming to the 
 surface, and to evil conspicuousness, whenever there is 
 a general disturbance in the city. But, when a city has 
 fallen so low that all of its people are scum, destruction 
 soon follows, morally, spiritually, and even physically. 
 
 The great cities of ancient history, once centres of 
 great military power, but, later, conquered and de- 
 stroyed, were generally conquered after their people had 
 degenerated, and had fallen into weakening vices, bor- 
 rowed from conquered nations, and which broke their 
 
Jerusalem as a Boiling Flesh-Pot. 255 
 
 former power. And, even now, archaeology is revealing 
 the remains of many ancient cities, some of which have 
 never been known within historic times, and their in- 
 habitants are unrecognized among the peoples of the 
 earth. 
 
 Thus, in every age, history is repeating itself, in the 
 lives of men on earth. Regenerate character is the one 
 and only permanent element for human progress and 
 happiness. Times come and go; nations rise and fall; 
 races progress and retrograde. But, within all these 
 changes, we mark the rise and fall of character, on 
 which all changes depend. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL MEANING. 
 
 The ancient Jew could possibly be reached by the 
 imagery of representative prophecy. And, we, to-day, 
 are in need of similar warnings, and similar instruction. 
 But, if we " have ears to hear what the Spirit saith 
 unto the churches," we may see, within the literal 
 imagery of the Scriptures, a profounder and spiritual 
 truth, teaching us not merely facts, but also Divine 
 principles, which are spiritually applicable to all men. 
 
 Each of us has his Jerusalem, his holy city, in his own 
 mind ; i.e., the system of truths built up in his mind, 
 and in which he dwells, as to his affection, thought, and 
 life. In that spiritual Jerusalem, the Lord of love is 
 seeking to build up every Divine Truth, and to establish 
 every good principle in our hearts, and in our conduct. 
 And if we live in the mental Jerusalem which our Lord 
 builds within us, then " Thine eye shall see Jerusalem 
 a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken 
 down ; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be re- 
 moved, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. 
 But there the glorious Jehovah will be unto us a place 
 of broad rivers and streams." (Isaiah xxxiii. 20, 21.) 
 
256 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 " Pray for the peace of Jerusalem : they sliall prosper 
 that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, prosperity 
 within thy palaces." (Psalm cxxii. 6, 7.) 
 
 But, if we are unregenerate, our mental Jerusalem 
 will be a rebellious house, living in opposition to the 
 Divine principles, in heart and in practice. And then 
 our condition will be represented by the circumstances 
 of our text and the context. 
 
 THE FLESH-POT. 
 
 Every hollow vessel, ' made to contain food, and 
 liquids for drinking, or in which such things are pre- 
 pared for food, represents a doctrine, which performs a 
 similar service to the human mind. Every true doctrine 
 is a mental vessel, containing goodness and truth. 
 Water has no form of its own, but it assumes the form 
 of the vessel which holds it. And it must be held in a 
 vessel for practical use. And so truth must take form 
 in a doctrine, which states the truth, in form, and which 
 sets bounds, and gives shape to the truth. 
 
 Thus, the pot, or kettle, or caldron, in which food is 
 cooked, represents a doctrine. The water represents 
 natural truth, truth such as is seen and applied by the 
 natural mind. And the solid food represents practical 
 goodness, which is to be prepared for mental use, when 
 the water of truth is set in motion by the fire of love. 
 
 The flesh-pot mentioned in the text was made of 
 brass. Brass represents natural good, good as seen by 
 the natural mind, good in outward form. But, in the 
 tmregenerate mind, this natural idea of goodness will 
 be very different from the heavenly form of goodness, 
 which is represented by gold. Brass may be made to 
 look very much like gold, but their qualities are very 
 different. And it is equally so with natural goodness 
 and heavenly goodness. 
 
Jerusalem as a Boiling Flesh-Pot. 257 
 
 To " set on" the pot, is to set it upon the fire, in order 
 to boil its contents. And we do this, mentally, when 
 we apply our affections to the matter in hand, and 
 operate from love, so as to bring the goodness and the 
 truth into practical form for actual use, in our daily life. 
 All the " good pieces" which are to be put into the 
 pot, represent all the different kinds of good, goodness 
 of different degrees, for our mental use. " The thigh, 
 the shoulder, and the choice bones," are these different 
 kinds of goodness, applicable to the different depart- 
 ments of our mental life, celestial, spiritual, and nat- 
 ural. The thigh represents the good of celestial love, 
 especially as exemplified in pure conjugial love. 
 
 The shoulder, with which a man pushes, represents 
 power. And, as mental power is mainly exerted by 
 means of known truths, applied to life, so, here, the 
 shoulder represents the spiritual degree, in which truth 
 is the fundamental element, and whose goodness is the 
 goodness of truth ; i.e., goodness which comes in the 
 love and practice of truth. But the bones, being less 
 alive than the soft parts of the body, represent the nat- 
 ural degree, the external good of conduct, which forms 
 a framework, by which the man can stand and move. 
 And all of these, the good of love, and the good of 
 truth, and the good of action, should be placed in the 
 mental caldron, for our daily food. 
 
 PERVERSION AND CORRUPTION. 
 
 But the flesh-pot mentioned in the text, was used by 
 the wicked Israelites. And, in their abuse of all good 
 and true things, they perverted and corrupted truth and 
 goodness and righteousness into evil and falsity and 
 sin. And hence they were addressed as " the bloody 
 citv," meaning literally, those who were evil, cruel, and 
 murderous. 
 
 17 
 
2S8 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 In a good sense, blood represents the Divine Truth, 
 which is the inward circulating spiritual life of the re- 
 generate mind, as the physical blood is the circulating 
 life of the healthy physical body. But, when a man 
 perverts the Divine Truth, and rejects its spirit, his 
 inward life is not sustained by the Divine Truth, but 
 by the selfish falsities of evil. And, then, spiritually, 
 his mental caldron is covered with scum. Mental scum 
 is formed of the filthy loves of selfishness and evil. 
 And, as a scum on the kettle, if not skimmed off or boiled 
 over, remains to corrupt the contents of the kettle, so 
 the mental scum of filthy selfish loves, unless recognized 
 and removed, will pollute and defile all the goodness 
 and the truth, in the human mind. 
 
 It is intended that we shall recognize the character 
 of the mental scum which rises to the surface of our 
 minds, during the boiling process, when our hearts are 
 busy in preparing our affections and thoughts for actual 
 use, in our daily life. And it is intended that we shall 
 see and know that the scum is unclean, and that it 
 should be removed. 
 
 Our experiences in practical life afford us the neces- 
 sary opportunities to observe our natural hereditary ten- 
 dencies, and to see that all impure tendencies must be 
 worked out of our minds, or they will fix themselves 
 in our character. And when they do this, they make 
 our whole character impure and evil. Mentally, as well 
 as physically, rejecting and removing the impure scum, 
 is a very important part of the boiling operation. 
 
 The trials and hardships of our earthly life serve to 
 help us to separate the evil from the good, in our mental 
 life. And so, if these occasions are used in the right 
 way, they are serviceable to us, in carrying off the scum 
 of our mental life, which is constantly working out 
 upon the surface, where, if we will, we can constantly 
 skim it off, and throw it away. But, in the evil mind. 
 
Jerusalem as a Boiling Flesh-Pot. 259 
 
 the scum remains, because the man loves his own im- 
 purities, and he feels that they are an essential part of 
 his life: and he will not give them up. And then his 
 mental scum boils into the substance of his character, 
 and he remains evil. 
 
 Where the text makes a distinction between filthiness 
 and scum, the filthiness represents evil, and the scum 
 represents falsity. 
 
 THE BLOOD. 
 
 Among the Israelites, the laws regarding blood were 
 very exacting. For, physically, the blood is the life of 
 the body ; and so it represents the life of the mind. In 
 Israel, men were not permitted to be careless in hand- 
 ling blood. They were commanded to pour blood on 
 the earth, and to cover it with earth, or dust, to absorb 
 it ; and not to allow it to lie exposed, where the atmos- 
 phere would soon cause it to corrupt. 
 
 In our text, it is said of Jerusalem that she did not 
 carefully cover blood with dust, but even poured it on 
 the top of a rock, to make it doubly conspicuous, while 
 the sun and air corrupted it. And to do this, was an 
 abomination before the Lord. For it represented the 
 bold and insolent action of the evil man, in displaying 
 his own evils in the face of heaven, boasting and glory- 
 ing in his evils and falsities, by seeking to base them 
 upon the Divine Truth, in the letter of the Lord's Word, 
 which is represented by the rock. And evil is shame- 
 less, when it makes itself conspicuous, even in holy 
 places ; and when it pretends to justify itself by the 
 Divine laws. 
 
 BURNING THE CALDRON. 
 
 And we can see how such desecration is followed by 
 the total spiritual destruction of all true doctrine, in the 
 mind which perverts that doctrine to an evil purpose. 
 
26o Parables of the Old Tcstauicitt Explained. 
 
 This condition is represented by the fact that the 
 prophet, speaking in the parable, spoke not only of 
 burning out the contents of the flesh-pot, and also of 
 burning the scum into the substance of the food, but 
 also that he spoke of setting the empty brass caldron 
 upon a raging fire, until the substance of the caldron, 
 itself, should be melted, and destroyed, mixed with the 
 remains of its contents, adhering to its sides, and the 
 filthy scum, which had worked its way into the mixed 
 mass. Evil and falsity bring their own total spiritual 
 destruction, the destruction of all things in them which 
 could have any spiritual life. " She wearied herself 
 with lies, and her great scum went not forth out of her : 
 her scum shall be in the fire." This is the sad destiny of 
 every human heart which will not give up its falsities 
 and its evils, and which sinks into spiritual death, in 
 which the infernal fire of its terrible self-love, is always 
 mixed with the filthy scum of its falsities. Therefore, 
 " turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways, for why will ye 
 die, O house of Israel?" 
 
The Assyrian a Cedar in Lebanon. 261 
 
 XXX. 
 
 THE ASSYRIAN A CEDAR IN LEBANON. 
 
 Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon, with fair 
 branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of a high stature; 
 and his top was among the thick boughs. The waters made 
 him great ; the deep set him up on high, with her rivers run- 
 ning round about his plants ; and sent out her little rivers unto 
 all the trees of the field. Therefore his height was exalted above 
 all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and 
 his branches became long, because of the multitude of waters, 
 when he shot forth. 
 
 All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs ; and 
 under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth 
 their young: and under his shadow dwelt all great nations. 
 Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches : 
 for his root was by great waters. The cedars in the garden 
 of God could not hide him. The fir-trees were not like his 
 boughs, and the chestnut-trees were not like his branches : not 
 any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty. 
 I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches ; so 
 that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, 
 envied him. 
 
 Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovih : because thou hast 
 lifted up thyself in height, and he hath shot up his top among 
 the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height : I 
 have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one 
 of the heathen : he shall surely deal with him : I have driven 
 him out, for his wickedness. And strangers, the terrible of 
 the nations, have cut him off, and have left him : upon the 
 mountains, and in all the valleys, his branches are fallen; and 
 his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land ; and all the 
 people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have 
 left him. — Ezekiel xxxi. 3-12. 
 
262 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 INTELLECTUAL PRIDE. 
 
 Intelligence, without spirituality, induces pride of 
 intellect, and ends in evil. A man who knows much, 
 and who learns easily, is not necessarily made better by 
 his learning. Goodness results from the humble prac- 
 tice of known truths, in the daily life. Truth known, 
 but not loved and lived, is truth alone, without good, 
 and, therefore, without spiritual life. 
 
 THE LITERAL SENSE. 
 
 Literally, the text refers to the downfall of Assyria, 
 which is cited as a warning to Egypt, enforcing a 
 prophecy of her downfall. 
 
 The Assyrians were a fierce, warlike people, intelli- 
 gent, but treacherous, proud, and lawless, and regarding 
 other nations as inferior. 
 
 THE REPRESENTATI\'E MEANING. 
 
 As a representative, Ashur, or Assyria, denotes the 
 rational faculty, the reasoning power, the thinking prin- 
 ciple, by which men become intelligent. And the repre- 
 sentative holds good in regard to churches, as well as 
 individuals. For, in regarding spiritual things, we look 
 to principles, rather than to persons. And principles are 
 the same, whether in an individual or in a mass of 
 men. Every individual member of the church, is a 
 church in the least form ; and the general church is 
 but the aggregate of the individual persons, as churches. 
 
 The text is not merely historical and prophetical, as 
 to past churches, but it applies to all men, in all times, 
 and in all places, who are in the states of mind and life 
 described in the text. The same evils of heart and of 
 life, which induced the spiritual downfall of the ancient 
 Assyrians, threaten our destruction, to-day, both nation- 
 
The Assyrian a Cedar in Lebanon. 263 
 
 ally and individually. The same kind of intelligence is 
 open to us; and the same peril of pride of intelligence 
 confronts us. And especially is this the case in the 
 nominal New Church, in which there is abundance of 
 true doctrine, and great opportunity for knowledge. 
 But, with that knowledge, comes increased responsi- 
 bility, lest we forget the one Source of all truth. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL SENSE TREES. 
 
 " The Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon." Mount 
 Lebanon, with its forests of noble cedar-trees, repre- 
 sents the spiritual man, or the spiritual mind of man, 
 with its grand knowledges of spiritual truth. Trees 
 represent man's perceptions of truth, growing in his 
 mind, and bearing fruit in his life. Cedar-trees repre- 
 sent rational perceptions. Cedars of Lebanon represent 
 the perceptions of spiritual truth, and the knowledges 
 of truth, branching out, and growing with the growth 
 of the mind. 
 
 The text declares that the Assyrian, as a cedar of 
 Lebanon, was made great by growing beside the water ; 
 i.e., by being well supplied with natural truths, truths 
 from the letter of the Lord's Word, which contribute 
 to intelligence. Knowledges from the letter of the 
 Word develop our spiritual intelligence. And thus, spir- 
 itual intelligence is high and far-reaching, " above all 
 the trees of the field ;" i. e., beyond the knowledges of 
 natural truth. " The fowls of heaven made their nests 
 in his boughs;" i.e., thoughts of all kinds grow in the 
 intelligent mind, and multiply there, bringing forth new 
 thoughts. For the rational faculty of the mind is the 
 medium between the rtatural and the spiritual parts of 
 the mind. And, by means of the rational faculty, or 
 thinking ability, natural thoughts bring forth after their 
 kind, in abundance, and furnish the material for spir- 
 
264 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 itual thoughts. For spiritual thought is not merely 
 thought about spiritual things, but it is thinking about 
 all things in a spiritual way, from a spiritual stand- 
 point, and in spiritual light. The natural man thinks 
 about spiritual things, but he regards them from a nat- 
 ural standpoint; and, hence, he does not think spir- 
 itually, but naturally. 
 
 Under the cedar the beasts, also, brought forth their 
 young; i.e., the affections increased and multiplied, by 
 means of the perceptions of spiritual truth. Thus the 
 cedar was fair, or beautiful in his greatness ; i.e., the 
 mind becomes beautiful by rational intelligence. The 
 other trees could not hide the tall Assyrian cedar ; i.e., 
 spiritual intelligence reaches far beyond natural intelli- 
 gence. The other trees envied, or, rather, emulated 
 him ; tried to follow his far-reaching example. So, in 
 our minds, if we are spiritually intelligent, that intelli- 
 gence elevates and dignifies our intelligence of other 
 kinds. AH kinds of intelligence aspire to be like spir- 
 itual intelligence, to know good and evil. 
 
 SPIRITUAL INTELLIGENCE. 
 
 Thus the text di-splays the beauty and spirituality of 
 the intelligence of the spiritual man, the man whose 
 mind is open in the spiritual degree of thought. His 
 mind is like a noble cedar of Lebanon, lofty, ever green 
 with life, reaching high up into the sunlight of heaven. 
 The truths of th* Lord's Word, even in its literal sense, 
 supply him spiritual nourishment, as the waters nourish 
 the roots of the noble cedar. For, in the letter of the 
 Word, he sees the indwelling spiritual meaning, and 
 applies its teachings to spiritual things. " He shall be 
 like a tree, planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth 
 forth his fruit in his season : his leaf, also, shall not 
 wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The 
 
The Assyrian a Cedar in Lebanon. 265 
 
 ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff, which the 
 wind driveth away." (Psalm i. 3, 4.) 
 
 But the Assyrian changed his character, and thus fell 
 from his high condition. Spiritually, conditions always 
 depend upon character. Progress in goodness of char- 
 acter makes spiritual growth, and degeneration in char- 
 acter produces decay. However intelligent a man may 
 become, his intelligence, being given for the purpose of 
 growth in character, can remain with him only while 
 he uses it for spiritual growth. " The righteous shall 
 flourish like the palm-tree : he shall grow like a cedar 
 in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of 
 Jehovah shall flourish in the courts of our God. They 
 shall still bring forth fruit in old age." 
 
 But this condition can remain so long, only, as the 
 man acknowledges his intelligence to be the continued 
 gift of the Lord. The moment the man begins to regard 
 his intelligence as his own, he separates it from its 
 source, and destroys its spiritual quality. For intelli- 
 gence, like life, continuously and momentarily flows into 
 a man, from the Lord, as heat and light flow in continu- 
 ously into a plant, from the sun. As the sun gives and 
 the plant receives, so the Lord gives and man receives. 
 
 The Lord does not create men in such a manner that 
 they can take intelligence, and use it, and retain it, 
 apart from the Lord. A man has only the capacity to 
 receive intelligence, as it flows into him, from the Lord. 
 Intelligence is a condition ; and that condition is main- 
 tained, not by the man, but by the Lord, according to 
 the man's willingness to open himself to the Lord. 
 Therefore, by degeneration in character, a man degen- 
 erates in spiritual intelligence, because he diminishes 
 his capacity to receive intelligence from the Lord. 
 He closes himself against the Lord. And there is 
 nothing in the man, of himself, to sustain intelligence. 
 Although a man understands a truth as a fact, or as 
 
266 Parables of the Old Tcslainent Explained. 
 
 a doctrine, it may have no immediate connection with 
 his actual hfe. It may not make him an)- better as 
 a man. If he regards the truth as the Lord's truth, 
 revealed to men, he sees it in connection with the Lord, 
 and he obeys it as the Lord's truth ; and he is then 
 made better by it. lie keeps himself open to the 
 stream of the Divine life, which flows into his mind. 
 
 INTELLECTUAL PRIDE. 
 
 But, if the man, intellectually receiving a truth, re- 
 gards it as his own truth, discovered by his own intelli- 
 gence, he falls into the pride of his own intelligence. 
 He claims intelligence as his own, and forgets that both 
 the truth and the intelligence are gifts from the Lord, 
 momentarily given to men. By the pride of his own 
 intellect, the man exalts himself, and despises others, 
 whom he regards as less intelligent. And, in doing this, 
 he closes his interior mind against the Lord, and de- 
 stroys the spirituality of his intelligence. He keeps the 
 outward form of knowledge, but loses its inward spirit. 
 And then, instead of being made better by his knowl- 
 edge and intelligence, he is made worse by them, because 
 he refers them to himself, and cultivates the infernal 
 pride of intellect ; a form of evil into which many very 
 intellectual men have fallen. But, all through the Scrip- 
 tures, the Lord warns men against intellectual pride. 
 
 Moses, in reciting the goodness of God, warned men 
 against taking to themselves the credit of their prosper- 
 ity. " Thou shalt remember Jehovah thy God ; for 
 it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth." (Deu- 
 teronomy viii. i8.) And, in the New Testament, Jesus 
 has recorded His warnings against self-exaltation and 
 intellectual pride. And, in our text and the context, the 
 self-exaltation and intellectual pride of Assyria are de- 
 scribed, and their evil results demonstrated. 
 
The Assyrian a Cedar in Lebanon. 267 
 
 The constant tendency of the natural mind is to feel 
 its own importance, and to exaggerate that importance. 
 And, as a man develops the pride of his own intelli- 
 gence, he diminishes his regard for the Divine intelli- 
 gence. As he imagines himself greater, he feels less 
 and less need of any intelligence beyond his own. He 
 glories in his own supposed intelligence : and such 
 glorying develops the spirit of self-love. And it brings 
 the man into closer association with the evil spirits and 
 devils in the hells; for they all exalt themselves, and 
 proclaim their own importance. They have the greatest 
 confidence in their own intelligence, even when, in the 
 light of heaven, they are seen to be utterly insane in 
 spiritual things. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL FALL. 
 
 - Thus, as a man falls into the pride of his own intelli- 
 gence, he departs from the spiritual company of angels ; 
 and, in character, in motives, and in plans, he associates 
 with evil spirits. He turns away from the Lord of life, 
 and loves himself above all others. He gives himself up 
 to evil feelings and false thoughts, which soon confirm 
 themselves in evils of life. Although, in his former 
 intelligence, he was like a noble cedar of Lebanon, now 
 he resembles that tree, broken down and destroyed, 
 lying in ruins, and serving as a resting-place for the 
 birds of night, and the ravenous beasts of prey, the 
 falses and evils of his own unregenerate nature. " 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 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." 
 (Isaiah, xiv. 12-15.) 
 
268 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 Such is the fate of him who falls into the pride of his 
 own intellect, and who glories in self-intelligence. In- 
 tellectually, he may mount to the stars, while his heart 
 is still in evil, and his life in sin. In his mind, all the 
 truths that he knows are defiled by the lust of pride. 
 However spiritual he may have been, if he has suiifered 
 the pride of his own intelligence to govern his mind, he 
 has been reduced to a low and sensuous state, as to his 
 actual life. 
 
 As the context says, " This is Pharaoh and all his 
 multitude :" this is the natural man, given up to the 
 sensuous life of selfishness, even amid all his learning, 
 his science, and his supposed intelligence. This is 
 Egypt, trusting in its horses and chariots, instead of 
 trusting in the providence of the Lord ; it is the natural 
 man, trusting in his own understanding, and his knowl- 
 edge of doctrine, instead of looking to the Lord for 
 guidance, and to the Lord's Word for true doctrine. 
 Truly, " The pride of Assyria shall be brought down, 
 and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away." (Zecha- 
 riah x. ii.) 
 
 Those who are in self-derived intelligence, mix the 
 truths that they know with their own pride of intelli- 
 gence and their lust of ambition ; and, in these, all 
 truths are defiled. Jesus warned His disciples, " Take 
 heed how ye hear." It makes a great difference how a 
 man understands and regards a truth, and from what 
 principle he acknowledges it to be true. The humble 
 man, however intelligent, regards his intelligence as a 
 gift from the Lord, and a means of being useful, in 
 serving the Lord and his fellow-men. He is in an af- 
 firmative principle: he loves the truth, and loves to 
 believe it, as the Lord's truth. And the truth makes 
 him wise, useful, and happy. 
 
 But the man who is in the pride of his own intelli- 
 gence, regards his intelligence as his own, and as a 
 
The Assyrian a Cedar in Lcbaitoii. 269 
 
 means of exalting himself, and of cultivating his self- 
 love. He separates faith from charity, and does not use 
 his knowledge for doing good to others. Inwardly, he 
 reasons from his natural mind, and confirms himself in 
 actual false principles of daily life. Even while medi- 
 tating and talking about the truth, he falsifies and per- 
 verts the spirit of truth, and destroys its life, in his 
 own mind. Figuratively, in his heart, Cain kills Abel; 
 a false faith murders charity. 
 
 INTELLECTUAL DANGER — PROVIDENCE. 
 
 It would naturally seem that men of strongly marked 
 intellectuality would be peculiarly liable to the evil of 
 intellectual pride. Men who are unusually intelligent 
 are generally aware of that fact, and their natural hered- 
 itary inclinations to evil would incline them to feel a 
 sense of superiority above others. They can scarcely 
 avoid seeing their intellectual superiority. But the same 
 grasp of intellect which enables a man to see his appar- 
 ent superiority, enables him, at the same time, to see 
 that every man is, of himself, only evil and false ; and 
 that all good, truth, and life are of and from the Lord, 
 alone ; and that all men are intelligent from the Lord, 
 and in the degree, and of the quality, of their character. 
 
 Thus, the more intelligent the man is, the more clearly 
 he ought to see that no man has anything to boast about, 
 from himself. Thus, the more intelligent a man is, the 
 more humble-minded he should be. If we imagine that 
 the intellectual man is in more danger than ordinary 
 men, we forget the operations of the Divine Provi- 
 dence. The Lord, in His merciful providence, so nicely 
 adjusts every man's spiritual and natural surroundings 
 to his spiritual needs, that, at all times, he is left in 
 spiritual freedom. Evil inclinations tend in one direc- 
 tion, and evil spirits arouse these inclinations to activity. 
 
270 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 But, on the other side, the angels act with equal power, 
 to protect and to warn men, so that no man shall be 
 forced into evil. The greater the man's natural heredi- 
 tary tendency to any evil, the greater will be the angelic 
 protection afforded him, against that evil. " He shall 
 give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all 
 thy ways." 
 
 In fact, it is often said that a strong character has a 
 great advantage over weak men, in the fact that he is 
 strong, and can resist influences which would over- 
 whelm a weak man ; and that weak characters, like 
 weathercocks, are carried about by every shifting wind. 
 But here, again, men forget to estimate the operation 
 of the Divine Providence. The weaker the man's 
 hereditary disposition, the less will evil influences be 
 permitted to assault him. The weaker man has weaker 
 resolution, and weaker will ; but, on the other hand, his 
 temptations are weaker. The Lord's ways are equal 
 with all men. He keeps every man in spiritual balance 
 between good and evil influences, with the liberty, and 
 the ability, to choose for himself between good and evil. 
 And on his liberty and ability depend his responsibility. 
 
 If it were not so, a weak man could not be censured 
 for yielding in temptation ; and a strong man would 
 show no virtue in resisting evil. But, the stronger the 
 man, the stronger his temptations, and, at the same time, 
 the stronger his protection. There is evil enough in 
 any and every man, to destroy him, if, for one moment, 
 the Lord should withhold angelic protection. And, on 
 the other hand, there is protection enough to save every 
 man, if he wills to be saved from evils. True, a strong 
 man has to bear temptations which would tear asunder 
 a weak man. But the weak man is never called upon to 
 bear so much pressure. No man is called upon to bear 
 any more than is good for him. if he will do his duty in 
 the case, as he is able to do it, with the Lord's help. 
 
The Assyrian a Cedar in Lebanon. 271 
 
 " Every back is fitted to its burden," because, provi- 
 dentially, the burden is fitted to the back that bears it. 
 When the crisis comes, the Lord suppHes to the man 
 strength to bear it. " As thy days, so shah thy strengtli 
 be." (Deuteronomy xxxiii. 25.) "Jehovah is my 
 light and my salvation ; whom shall I fear ? Jehovah 
 is the strength of my life ; of whom shall I be afraid ? 
 . . . Though an host should encamp against me, my 
 heart shall not fear : though war should rise against 
 me, in this will I be confident. . . . Wait on Jehovah, 
 and be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine 
 heart." (Psalm xxvii. i, 3, 14.) 
 
272 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 THE EVIL SHEPHERDS. 
 
 The Word of Jehovah came unto nie, saying, Son of man, 
 prophesy against the shepherds of Israel ; prophesy, and say 
 unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovih unto the shepherds : 
 Woe to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves ! Should 
 not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe 
 you with the wool ; ye kill them that are fed : but ye feed not 
 the flock. 
 
 The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye 
 healed that which was sick ; neither have ye bound up that 
 which was broken ; neither have ye brought again that which 
 was driven away ; neither have ye sought that which was 
 lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. 
 And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd ; and 
 they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were 
 scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and 
 upon every high hill : yea. My flock was scattered upon all the 
 face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. . . 
 Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the Word of Jehovah ; Thus 
 saith the Lord Jehovih : Behold, I am against the shepherds ; 
 and I will require My flock at their hand ; and cause them to 
 cease from feeding the flock ; neither shall the shepherds feed 
 themselves any more ; for I will deliver My flock from their 
 mouth, that they may not be meat for them. For thus saith 
 the Lord Jehovih : Behold, L even I, will both search My 
 sheep, and seek them out. — Ezekiel xxxiv. 1-6, 9-1 1. 
 
 Self-love, which works for self-interest, neglects 
 duties, and injures the neighbor. And, finally, it must 
 be deposed from its leadership, that others may be saved. 
 
The Evil Shepherds. 273 
 
 THE CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 The Lord, through the prophet, Ezekiel, had pointedly 
 exposed and rebuked the evils of the Israelites, and had 
 warned them against the inevitable results of such evils. 
 And now, in this chapter, the Divine exposures and 
 warnings are especially directed against the rulers of 
 Israel, who had become very corrupt, personally and 
 officially, using the people for selfish gain. 
 
 THE SHEPHERDS. 
 
 In this sense, the shepherds were all the leaders, the 
 kings, princes, and magistrates of the civil State, as 
 well as the priests of the Church. All these had been 
 using their power and influence to oppress and plunder 
 the people. Long before this time, the Lord had plainly 
 taught that " He that ruleth over men must be just, 
 ruling in the fear of God ;" i.e., in the love of God, and 
 in the fear of failure to carry out the Divine laws for 
 the good of the people. And the exposure of such evil 
 ways came in the form of a parable concerning the evil 
 shepherds, who abused, rather than protected, the sheep 
 entrusted to their care ; and who, by their evils, finally 
 destroyed themselves. 
 
 It is the business of a shepherd to take good care of 
 the sheep ; and to be watchful of the conditions sur- 
 rounding them ; leading them to good pasture, and to 
 fresh water ; and protecting them from enemies, from 
 sickness, from accident, from straying from the fold, 
 etc. And a shepherd who does not do his duty in these 
 things, is not a good shepherd ; and he should be re- 
 moved from his position. 
 
 And, to a great extent, a somewhat similar relation 
 exists between any leader, or ruler, of men, and those 
 who are under his influence. The king, the prince, the 
 crovernor, the judge, the magistrate, the priestj the 
 
274 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 teacher, and, in fact, any one who holds an office for the 
 good of the people, should work for their good, honestly, 
 sincerely, wisely, and generously, and in the name of 
 the Lord, who is the source of all good. The shepherd 
 who accepts the position, merely for selfish gain, and 
 who is indifferent to the welfare of the flock, will soon 
 allow the flock to suffer, in many ways; and the sheep 
 will be scattered. 
 
 THE JEWS. 
 
 In its application to the people of Israel, the text 
 shows that these evil consequences were very apparent. 
 Evil and selfish rulers looked on with indifference, while 
 the people fell into bad ways. The great and powerful 
 nation of Israel became broken and scattered. Ten of 
 the twelve tribes were wandering in Assyria, etc. ; the 
 tribe of Judah were mostly in captivity, some in Baby- 
 lon, and some in Egypt ; and the few of Israel remain- 
 ing in Jerusalem were under the dominion of foreign 
 conquerors. And these evil conditions had been induced 
 by the evils of the people, left to the mercy of their 
 own lusts, by the indifference and selfishness of their 
 leaders, in both Church and State. 
 
 THE DIVINE SHEPHERD. 
 
 Because of the unworthiness of the Jews, their dis- 
 pensation was brought to an end, and the Christian 
 Church established, instead. And this great change in 
 spiritual conditions is foretold in the text, in the lan- 
 guage of parable, in which the Lord states, " I will 
 deliver My flock," " I will both search My sheep, and 
 seek them out." Jehovah came among men, as Jesus 
 Christ, " to seek and to save that which was lost." And 
 Jesus proclaimed His relation to fallen men, when He 
 said, " I am the good Shepherd." And Jesus' whole 
 
The Evil Shepherds. 275 
 
 career on the earth was a hving illustration and example 
 of the good work of a good shepherd, loving his sheep, 
 and doing good to them, in every way; while also 
 making every effort to protect them from every kind of 
 evil. And all are protected and led, who trust in the 
 Divine Shepherd, and follow His leading. 
 
 THE PASTOR, AS A SHEPHERD. 
 
 There is a figurative literal sense, in which a shepherd 
 especially refers to a pastor of a church, because he 
 holds towards the people the relation of a leader and 
 teacher. And, in this sense, the unfaithfulness of a 
 pastor will re-act upon the people ; for, to some extent, 
 they will trust him to teach them genuine truth, plainly 
 and lovingly, but courageously, and for their own good, 
 spiritually and naturally, for the spiritual world and for 
 this natural world. And they will look to him to warn 
 them against false principles and evil ways. And if he 
 is indifferent as to their good, and careless in his teach- 
 ings, he will leave undone the good work which it is 
 his especial business to do. 
 
 If there are any who are wandering into wrong feel- 
 ings and thoughts, he will allow them to go on, without 
 the light of plain and practical truth. If there are any 
 whose circumstances are tending to make them doubt 
 the universal and constant providence of our Lord, the 
 careless shepherd will allow them to grow sick and 
 weak, in spirit, and in life. If any are broken by severe 
 discipline, he will fail to do his part in binding up their 
 wounds. If any are wandering away into fallacies of 
 the senses, he will fail to seek them, and to do his part 
 to restore them to the fold of the church. And in such 
 circumstances, in order to help the people, it will be 
 well to remove the careless or selfish shepherd from the 
 position which he abuses. 
 
276 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 PREPARATION. 
 
 The work of a shepherd requires preparation for its 
 duties. The good shepherd must understand the nature 
 of sheep, and their needs, and how and where to supply 
 these needs ; and what are the dangers to which sheep 
 are subjected ; and how to meet, or avoid, such dangers. 
 And so, the pastor needs a certain preparation for his 
 work. He must prepare his understanding, by a proper 
 knowledge of the Divine Truth, and of the Sacred Scrip- 
 tures, as the Word of God, the repository of truth. And 
 he must prepare his heart by a vigorous love of his 
 people, and a love of being useful to them. He must 
 know their spiritual needs, and their practical dangers, 
 and the ways in which to meet such perils, and to escape 
 injury. 
 
 And he can understand these things for his people, 
 only as he understands them for himself, in the possi- 
 bilities and the perils which come to his own heart and 
 life. For men are similar in their spiritual organism, 
 and in their spiritual needs. Our Lord has said of 
 men, " He fashioneth their hearts alike." But the only 
 real shepherd, is the Lord, Himself. And those who 
 work for the spiritual good of men, must seek to have 
 them clearly understand their relation to the Lord, as 
 their Divine Shepherd. And the spiritual sheep know 
 His voice, and follow Him, in loving trust. 
 
 THE BAD SHEPHERD. 
 
 But the bad shepherd in the church, is one who is 
 more interested in himself than in the people ; who 
 takes a position as pastor, merely as a means of worldly 
 support, or to afford himself an opportunity for a lit- 
 erary career, or for public notoriety. Such an attitude 
 of mind would make the pastor spiritually careless, even 
 if naturally alert in all things necessary to make the 
 
The Evil Shepherds. 277 
 
 external church a flourishing and paying institution, 
 financially. There would be spiritual indifference 
 towards the flock, as long as the shepherd thought first 
 of himself. 
 
 And, in this relation, indifference is evil. A man 
 must act from some motive; and if the motive is not 
 distinctively good, it must be evil ; for there is no 
 middle-ground in human motives. At the foundation 
 of every motive, or moving power, there is some form 
 of love, either a good love, i.e., love to the Lord, or to 
 the neighbor, or love of being useful, or a bad love, 
 i.e., a love of self, or love of the world. 
 
 Thus, if a man is indifferent to the spiritual good of 
 others, he does not love them, spiritually. And he who 
 loves himself first, does not love his neighbor, at all; 
 nor does he love the Lord. For the love which comes 
 first, in our hearts, controls all other loves, and gives 
 quality to the character. If you do not love your neigh- 
 bor as yourself, i.e., equally with yourself, you do 
 not love him at all, unselfishly. Thus, the shepherd 
 who loves himself first, uses his flock merely as a means 
 of serving himself. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL MEANING. 
 
 And this leads us to the spiritual meaning of our 
 text, in which the reference is to principles, and not 
 to merely human persons. In the highest sense, the 
 Lord is the Shepherd of the church, and of every indi- 
 vidual of the church. The Divine Pastor is the Divine 
 Love, in our Lord, Jesus Christ, the one only God of 
 heaven and earth. And the Divine Teacher is the 
 Divine Truth, in our Lord. And these two qualities, 
 Love and Truth, are the qualities of the Divine Shep- 
 herd. And their flock is composed of our human minds, 
 our hearts and understandings, into which the Divine 
 
278 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 Love and Truth can enter, and in which they can oper- 
 ate, in producing and sustaining a new and regenerate 
 equality of hfe. 
 
 And when we recognize the fact that such is our 
 relation to our Lord, we exclaim, " Jehovah is my 
 Shepherd; I shall not want," 
 
 And we recognize our Shepherd in Jesus Christ, who 
 plainly says to us, " I am the good Shepherd, and know 
 My sheep, and am known of Mine." Our Lord's infinite 
 love flows into our_ hearts, when we are willing to make 
 room for that love ; which practically means, when we 
 are willing to resist and reject from our hearts the love 
 of self, and its evil affections. And when that regen- 
 erate love enters our hearts, it becomes our Divine Pas- 
 tor. It leads us in the right way, and it inclines our 
 hearts to learn the truth, to love it, and to heed it. And 
 thus it teaches us, by opening our understanding, in- 
 wardly, and thus giving us the inward light of the 
 Spirit, in wdiich truth is seen clearly. 
 
 And, to the degree in which this Divine Love is 
 accepted as our Shepherd, and followed in practical life, 
 every person becomes a shepherd, within the sphere of 
 his individual influence : acting in the name of the 
 Lord, and carrying the Lord's love and wisdom to the 
 fellow-men. And such a love watches over the spiritual 
 and natural interests and welfare of all the Lord's chil- 
 dren, loving to be useful to all. Such a love leads us to 
 be fair and upright and generous, in all relations and 
 dealings, with all men. 
 
 Such a love will be a true and efficient Shepherd 
 in our mind, and in our practical life ; going through 
 all our mind, feeding our mental sheep and lambs ; 
 strengthening any affection or thouglit in us, which may 
 be relapsing into weakness ; healing our spiritual dis- 
 eases ; binding up an\thing in us which may have been 
 broken, in the struggles of life; restoring any good 
 
The Evil Shepherds. 279 
 
 quality which was in danger of being driven away; 
 seeking out and finding such good things as had become 
 temporarily lost to our consciousness ; and keeping all 
 the spiritual sheep and lambs of our mental flock held 
 together in the bonds of active love, daily feeding upon 
 the sunny mountains of the spiritual Zion, free from 
 dissensions, and protected from all dangers, from within 
 and from without. This is the regenevate state of him 
 who is a sheep of the Good Shepherd. 
 
 THE EVIL SHEPHERD. 
 
 But, if we have allowed the spirit of self-love to set 
 up itself as the shepherd of our heart and life, it will 
 be an evil shepherd. A bad shepherd is one who teaches 
 falsity instead of truth, and who leads to evil, in the 
 life, instead of goodness. And, in such case, all the evil 
 results named in our text follow in our minds. The 
 spirit of self-love as a shepherd, dominates everything 
 for selfish purposes. And then, all the spiritual sheep- 
 fold, which our Lord is seeking to build up in our hearts 
 and lives, will be scattered and lost, driven away by 
 dissension, diseased by spiritual uncleanness, sick with 
 false notions, broken with trouble, and ruled with harsh 
 cruelty, which makes life a burden. 
 
 THE PROMISE. 
 
 But, even if we recognize that this dreadful condition 
 has something, of a parallel in our own life, the last 
 part of our text gives us great encouragement, when it 
 states that our Lord will depose the evil shepherd, and 
 will. Himself, become our Shepherd, if we will heed 
 His teachings, and follow His laws of life. No natural 
 tendency of our mind is too strong for our Lord's 
 power; but He can, and will, work miracles in our 
 hearts and lives, if we will give Him the opportunity ; 
 
28o Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 i.e., if we will cease doing evil, and continue to do good, 
 according to His laws. There is nothing that can resist 
 His power in our heart and life, if we work with Him. 
 Our hereditary inclinations to evil may be strong and 
 clamorous ; and yet they will yield, and come under 
 our control, if, in the name of the Lord, we exert our- 
 selves to resist their desires. 
 
 Consider the picture of David, the shepherd boy, 
 without armor, and with no weapon but a little sling, 
 and a stone from a brook, going up to meet the great 
 giant, Goliatft, who was clad in a full suit of armor, 
 and armed with a huge spear, and an enormous sword, 
 and protected by a great iron shield. Outwardly, it 
 seemed to be a very unequal combat. But the shepherd- 
 boy went forward with confidence that Jehovah would 
 give him the victory over a quarrelsome heathen giant, 
 who was blasphemously defying the God of Israel and 
 His army. And the single stone from the brook, 
 striking the giant in the forehead, struck him dead, in 
 the name of the Lord. 
 
 The stone from the brook is the truth from the letter 
 of the Lord's Word, such, for instance, as the truth of 
 the Ten Commandments. Armed with these, and with 
 confidence in the Lord's providence, we, too, can strike 
 down the great giant, Goliath, in our own natural mind, 
 the towering spirit of self-exaltation. Our Divine 
 Shepherd can help us, in the measure and degree in 
 which we act as good shepherds of the flock of His 
 spiritual sheep, in our own minds. 
 
 OUR PART. 
 
 And this is our practical part of the work, to keep 
 our mental sheepfold in good order, with every good 
 and true afifection and thought sustained ; every evil 
 feeling and false thought, like a wild beast, destroyed 
 
The Evil Shepherds. 281 
 
 and cast out ; every weak love strengthened ; every 
 timid thought encouraged; every wandering and lost 
 affection and thought restored ; every living principle 
 drawn into the fold, under the guidance of the Good 
 Shepherd, who gives us the gracious promise, " I will 
 feed them in a good pasture ; and upon the high moun- 
 tains of Israel shall their fold be. . . . They shall dwell 
 safely, and none shall make them afraid." 
 
282 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 EZEKIEL'S PROPHETIC VISION OF THE DRY 
 BONES REVIVED. 
 
 The hand of Jehovah was upon me, and carried me out, in 
 the spirit of Jehovah, and set me down in the midst of the 
 valley which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them, 
 round about : and behold, there were very many in the open 
 valley; and lo, they were very dry. And He said unto me, Son 
 of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord Jehovih, 
 Thou knowest. 
 
 Again He said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say 
 unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the Word of Jehovah. Thus 
 saith the Lord Jehovih unto these bones : Behold, I will cause 
 breath to enter into you, and ye shall live : and I will lay sinews 
 upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with 
 skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live ; and ye shall 
 know that I am Jehovah. 
 
 So I prophesied, as I was commanded : and as I prophe- 
 sied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones 
 came together, bone to his bone. And when I looked, lo, the 
 sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered 
 them above : but there was no breath in them. Then said He 
 unto me. Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and 
 say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord Jehovih : Come from the 
 four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they 
 may live. So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the 
 breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their 
 feet, an exceeding great army. 
 
 Then He said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole 
 house of Israel. Behold, they say. Our bones are dried, and 
 our hope is lost : we are cut off for our parts. Therefore 
 prophesy and say unto them. Thus saith the Lord Jehovih : Be- 
 hold, O My people, I will open your graves, and cause you to 
 
Ezekiel's Vision of the Dry Bones Revived. 283 
 
 come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of 
 Israel. And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have 
 opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up out of 
 your graves, and I shall put My spirit in you, and ye shall live, 
 and I shall place you in your own land : then shall ye know 
 that I, Jehovah, have spoken, and performed, saith Jehovah. — 
 EzEKiEL xxxvii. 1-14. 
 
 In its degenerate condition, the church among men 
 on earth is dead, in evils, falsities, and sins, because it 
 is no longer receptive of life from the Lord. 'But the 
 Lord, in His merciful love, provides a new church, in 
 which there is life, because men are instructed in spir- 
 itual truths, and are thus enabled to re-open their minds, 
 and to receive spiritual life from the Lord. 
 
 THE LITERAL MEANING. 
 
 The text has long been supposed to refer to a gen- 
 eral resurrection, at some distant time, when men should 
 awake from death, and re-enter their old physical 
 bodie's. But the text carries its own evidence that it 
 does not refer to any such physical resurrection, but 
 that it is a prophetic vision, intended, literally, to en- 
 courage the Jews in their existing condition of distress, 
 on earth. 
 
 Ezekiel, the prophet, was among the captive Jews, 
 exiles in a foreign land, whose hopes of returning to 
 their former home were fast dying out. And the text 
 expressly declares that the Lord would cause them to 
 return to their own land. Held in bondage, and their 
 dead buried in a foreign land, they despaired of reach- 
 ing their old home in Judea. And they were thinking 
 of themselves, in this world, and not of any general 
 resurrection at some future time. In fact, many of 
 them, with the Sadducees, did not believe in any life 
 after physical death. And none of them had any con- 
 
284 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 ception of a distinctively spiritual life, or of a spiritual 
 world, apart from the life of the natural world. And 
 even those of them who believed in a resurrection ex- 
 pected to return to life in the natural world. 
 
 THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 And, in the second place, no such general physical 
 resurrection, or return to the material body, ever took 
 place, or ever will occur. The physical body is formed 
 of the material substances of the physical world ; and 
 it is adapted to use on the physical plane of life. And 
 it cannot enter into any other world. " Flesh and blood 
 cannot inherit the kingdom of God," i.e., the spiritual 
 kingdom. The death of the physical body is the end of 
 the man's physical existence. And the material body 
 then decays, and loses its organized form and identity. 
 
 The resurrection is not the rising of the dead body, 
 but the rising of the living man, the spirit, from the dead 
 body, and into the more advanced life of the spiritual 
 world. The resurrection-body is not the old dead body 
 revived, but it is the spiritual body, the body of the spirit 
 of man, an inward body, in which the man was born, and 
 which existed within his material body, while he lived 
 on earth. But natural death takes away the outward 
 and physical body, and allows the man to live in his 
 inward and spiritual body, which is formed of spiritual 
 substance, and adapted to his life and uses in the spir- 
 itual world. 
 
 But natural-minded men, who do not think spir- 
 itually, but only in the light of their natural senses, 
 insist upon interpreting everything according to nat- 
 ural appearances, and from a natural-minded stand- 
 point. And yet, even those who believe in a physical 
 resurrection, often have a general understanding that 
 our text refers, also, to the inward and mental rosurrec- 
 
Ezekiel's Vision of the Dry Bones Revived. 285 
 
 tion from the spiritual death of evil and sin, to the new 
 life of regeneration and righteousness. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL MEANING. 
 
 But, in its spiritual meaning, our text illustrates the 
 subject of regeneration. Natural death is the rejection 
 of the lower nature of man, the external part, including 
 the impurities of the body. And, in the resurrection of 
 regeneration, there is a death and rejection of the im- 
 pure and lower things of the natural mind. 
 
 THE VALLEY. 
 
 The prophet was given a vision of a valley full of 
 dry bones. The earth, in its form, and in its condi- 
 tions, is a symbol of the mind of man. On the earth's 
 surface, mountains are the high places, representing the 
 higher states of mind, higher levels of affection and of 
 thought; while valleys are the low places, representing 
 the lower states of mind, lower levels of mental life. 
 Comparatively, the natural mind is like a low place, a 
 valley, and the spiritual mind is elevated, as a moun- 
 tain. Human life begins on its lowest level, its valley ; 
 and it needs to be opened upward and inward, into the 
 higher things of more advanced manhood. 
 
 In the mental valley, our natural thought sees things 
 as they appear before the natural senses ; but, on the 
 higher levels, things are seen as they are, in the light 
 of spiritual truth. And so, in the progress of regenera- 
 tion, our Lord is constantly calling to us, " Come, let 
 us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, and to the house 
 of the God of Jacob. And He will teach us of His 
 ways, and we will walk in His paths. For the law 
 shall go forth from Zion, and the Word of Jehovah 
 from Jerusalem." (Micah iv. 2.) 
 
 It requires constant and considerable work to climb 
 
286 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 from the valley up to the mountain-top. And the steady 
 climbing represents the constant efifort of the regen- 
 erating man to reach higher mental levels. And this 
 climbing is done by rejecting, and leaving behind us, 
 the lower ways of the senses, and adopting a clean and 
 orderly life, in feeling, thought, and action. " Who 
 shall ascend into the mountain of Jehovah? Or who 
 shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands 
 and a pure heart." (Psalm xxiv. 3, 4.) 
 
 BONES. 
 
 In the physical body, the bones have the least life, as 
 compared with the other parts, especially the vital 
 organs, the heart, the brain, the lungs, etc. And so the 
 bones represent those things in the mind which are 
 least receptive of life, and furthest removed from the 
 centres of life. The bones represent the external nat- 
 ural mind, as compared with the internal and spiritual 
 mind. In a particular sense, the life of the intellect, 
 as compared with the life of the will, is like the bones, 
 necessary and useful, but not full of life, until made 
 alive by the inflowing loves of the will, which act upon, 
 and within, the intellect, to use it for the work and 
 purposes of the heart. 
 
 A bone cannot do anything, in the way of action, but 
 it is acted upon by the muscles and nerves. And yet 
 the bony framework affords a means by which the 
 muscles can do their work. So our intellectual life, 
 of itself, is cold and dead, until it is warmed by our 
 heart's love, and put to work for our heart. 
 
 At first, we hold the truths of the church intellec- 
 tually, as doctrines, which may be put to use, when our 
 heart feels the need of them, in our practical life. But, 
 before they are put to use, the life in them, as our 
 mind holds them, is such life as is in the bones, very 
 
Ezekiel's Vision of the Dry Bones Revived. 287 
 
 remote from the centres of life. But, as our heart puts 
 these doctrines to use, in learning how to love goodness 
 and truth, and to practise them in our conduct, then 
 representatively, these bones begin to live ; they begin 
 to be clothed with flesh and nerves, and covered with 
 skin, and thus built into a complete mental body, ready 
 for the uses of life. The building up of the body, on 
 its bony framework, represents the building up of the 
 mind, in the process of regeneration, beginning with the 
 knowledge of doctrine, and gradually covering that 
 mental framework with the living things which make 
 up a full man. 
 
 DRY BONES. 
 
 In the prophet's vision, the bones were seen to be 
 very dry, i.e., very dead, very far removed from life. 
 And so, in the unregenerate mind, even the mere knowl- 
 edge of truth is very dead, because it is not intimately 
 connected with any living principle. 
 
 In the vision, the bones were separated, and scattered 
 about, and not even associated as a skeleton ; repre- 
 senting the condition in the unregenerate mind, in 
 which truths are not associated and arranged as a com- 
 plete system, but are merely detached and separate 
 notions, not brought into actual use. And, in this case, 
 the question properly arises, "Can these bones live?" 
 Can there be any genuine spiritual life brought into 
 these detached notions, lying dead in the natural mem- 
 ory? Can there be any spiritual life in the mere knowl- 
 edge of doctrines, scattered about in the memory, but 
 not brought into use in the hearts life? 
 
 We have seen young men and women who were 
 brought up in the Sunday Schools, and instructed in 
 the doctrines of their churches, and in the words of the 
 Scriptures ; and we have seen these young persons bury 
 their knowledge in the dust of sensuous life, or scatter 
 
288 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 it, like dead bones, in the valley of a low and selfish 
 life, without any spiritual thought or noble aspiration. 
 "Can these bones live?" No, not in their present 
 condition. 
 
 LIVING. 
 
 But our Lord, who is life, itself, can fill them with 
 life, if they will turn to Him, seeking life. And the 
 way in which the Lord gives life to the bones of dead 
 doctrine, is represented in our text. He builds them 
 up into a full body. The application is both general 
 and individual. At the end of every general church. 
 or dispensation, men sink into very external conditions 
 of mind ; and even their knowledge of truth lies in 
 scattered and dead pieces. But the Lord then estab- 
 lishes a new church, a different condition of the church, 
 with such persons as can be induced to be regenerated. 
 The Divine Truth is brought to such persons, in a dif- 
 ferent form, so that it will reach their minds, and arouse 
 their attention. And then the old knowledges of doc- 
 trine will serve, like bones, for a framework, on which 
 the Lord can build u]'> the full man, with spiritual flesh 
 and nerves ; and to whom He can give spiritual life. 
 
 The prophet, prophesying to the dead bones, repre- 
 sents the Word of the Lord, coming to the dead mind, 
 i.e.; the unregenerate mind, with new light and life. 
 The Lord causes breath to enter into our dead minds, 
 when He gives us a consciousness of the spiritual 
 quality of regenerate life, in which we can spiritually 
 breathe the atmosphere of Divine Truth. 
 
 In the Hebrew, the words for wind, breath, and spirit 
 are all derived from the same root-word. Breathing- 
 is a sign of life. When a man dies, we say that he 
 expires, or breathes out. And thus, the coming of the 
 breath represents the coming of spiritual life into the 
 dead mind. 
 
Ezekiel's Vision of the Dry Bones Revived. 289 
 
 Sinews (or nerves) are then given to the skeleton; 
 for the same Hebrew word {gid) covers both sinews 
 and nerves. The nervous system is the means of ex- 
 tending the brain throughout the whole body, repre- 
 senting the means by which the truth is carried 
 throughout the whole mind, from the interiors of the 
 spiritual mind, through all degrees, and to the outward 
 natural mind. In the natural body, when there is no 
 nerve-force, there is paralysis and deadness. And so, 
 in the mind, the living force of living truth must circu- 
 late through all parts, or they cannot have spiritual life. 
 
 THE FLESH, ETC. 
 
 And the flesh is given. The flesh here represents 
 the good, which comes into the will, or heart. Thus, 
 while the nerves represent the intellectual part, the flesh 
 represents the affectional part of the mind. And these 
 two are necessary to any spiritual life. Putting flesh 
 upon the bones thus represents rebuilding the spir- 
 itually dead man, by revivifying his heart, so that it 
 may receive the regenerate life. 
 
 This is the meaning of the bread used in the holy 
 supper, which there represents the flesh of the Lord, 
 which means the Divine Goodness, which is the Divine 
 Love, adapted to our reception. 
 
 When the nerves and flesh are provided for the body, 
 it still needs to be covered by the skin, which has very 
 important uses, in protecting all the body. The skin is 
 exceedingly sensitive to all kinds of impressions, of 
 heat or of cold, of danger or of delight; while, at the 
 same time, it acts as a cleanser of the body, in carrying 
 away the accumulating impurities. 
 
 The skin, as the external covering of the whole body, 
 represents the outward life of conduct, the practical 
 doings of our daily life, in which all our inward prin- 
 
 19 
 
290 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 ciples are carried into action ; and by means of which 
 all our mental impurities may be recognized, and ren- 
 dered harmless, by being cast out, and not allowed to 
 become a part of our actual conduct. And, as the 
 healthy skin completes the usefulness and the symmetry 
 of the body, so a good and useful practical life com- 
 pletes the manhood, whose interior life is in a good 
 heart and a clear understanding. 
 
 And, as the skin needs constant care and cleansing, 
 in order to protect the whole body from disease, so the 
 cleanliness and health of our outward life are abso- 
 lutely necessary in order to protect our spiritual life. 
 
 And our text declares that the resuscitated men shall 
 know the Lord, when they are revived ; representing 
 that the man who is spiritually made alive by the Lord, 
 then first truly knows the Lord. 
 
 THE RESTORATION. 
 
 The text describes the bringing together of the differ- 
 ent parts of the body. " There was a noise" and " a 
 shaking." The noise is the mental sound of the dis- 
 turbance of the old conditions of the mind, and the 
 clashing of the old dead states against the influence of 
 the new life now beginning to operate. The shaking, or 
 trembling, is the agitation of the mind, when made to 
 loosen its hold upon old things, and to receive the new 
 life. 
 
 "And the bones came together, bone to his bone;" 
 i.e., the scattered ideas of doctrine, which were lying in 
 the memory, without cohesion or system, began to come 
 together, into a general system of truth, covering all 
 parts of the mind and life, and applicable to all our 
 action. The mind perceived that all things are related 
 and associated. This was a necessary preliminary con- 
 dition, before the nerves and flesh could be added to 
 
Esekiel's Vision of the Dry Bones Revived. 291 
 
 the skeleton; i.e., before spiritual wisdom and love 
 could be given. 
 
 And yet, there was no breath in the body, until the 
 Lord gave it; i.e., even with good and true principles, 
 we have no spiritual life in these things, until we recog- 
 nize that they are from our Lord, and that they are the 
 Lord's presence in us ; artd that they are not inherent 
 in ourselves, nor procured by any power of our own. 
 
 THE FOUR WINDS. 
 
 The breath, or spirit, was called to " come from the 
 four winds," to give life to the dead bones. The four 
 winds, literally, are winds from the four points of the 
 compass. North, South, East, and West. But, spir- 
 itually, they represent the four general states of human 
 life, the natural understanding and the natural will, and 
 the spiritual understanding and the spiritual will. 
 These different phases of life are the aspects of life 
 from four different mental standpoints, differing in 
 quality and in degree. And, to meet the wants of men 
 on these four different standpoints, or mental condi- 
 tions, there are four different gospels in the New Testa- 
 ment, each peculiarly adapted to men in one of the four 
 mental conditions; A similar idea is conveyed by the 
 fact that the holy city, the New Jerusalem, is to be built 
 square; i.e., with four sides. 
 
 That the breath, or spirit, is to come from the four 
 winds, means that it is to come from all the quarters of 
 the spiritual world, from external truth and from exter- 
 nal good, arid from internal truth and from internal 
 good ; to bring spiritual life in all its aspects, to reach 
 and supply all forms of mind; i.e., to bring all the good 
 and true principles of heaven, for the use of the church. 
 
 And when they received life, the bodies " stood up 
 upon their feet, an exceeding great army ;" i.e., the re- 
 
292 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 generate mind begins at once to stand upcm its new 
 principles, in practical life : and, doing so, it finds such 
 principles applicable to all the multitude of human 
 actions. And then the regenerated mind is seen to be 
 " the whole house of Israel," a spiritual church, looking 
 to the Lord. Thus our Lord restores Israel to his own 
 land, spiritually, by restoring' men to a regenerate state. 
 
 APPLICATION. 
 
 Set before }'ou a human skeleton of dry bones. And 
 set beside it a living human body, in full health and 
 vigorous operation. And then consider the great con- 
 trast between the two objects. And recognize the fact 
 that there is as great a parallel contrast between your- 
 self if unregenerate, or regenerate ; if, spiritually, a 
 mere skeleton of a man, or a full and living man, in 
 vigorous spiritual health, and in loving, intelligent, and 
 orderly activity. And then we shall understand what 
 the Lord means, when He says to us, individually, 
 " He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet 
 shall he live." For He will open the old graves of our 
 dead hearts, and raise our souls into spiritual life. And, 
 in this, our Lord will fulfil, spiritually, the promise of 
 our text, " O Mv people, I will open your graves, and 
 cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you 
 into the land of Israel." 
 
The Two Sticks Joined. 293 
 
 XXXIII. 
 THE TWO STICKS JOINED. 
 
 Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write 
 upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel, his com- 
 panions : then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, 
 the stick of Ephraim, and all the house of Israel his com- 
 panions: and join them one to another, into one stick; and 
 they shall become one in thine hand. And when the children 
 of Israel, thy people, shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou 
 not show us what thou meanest by these? say unto them. 
 Thus saith the Lord Jehovih ; Behold, I will take the stick of 
 Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of 
 Israel, his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the 
 stick of Judah, and make them one stick ; and .they shall be 
 one in Mine hand. And the sticks whereon thou writest shall 
 be in thine hand before their eyes. 
 
 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovih : Behold, 
 I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, 
 whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and 
 bring them into their own land : and I will make them one 
 nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel ; and one king 
 shall be king to them all : and they shall be no more two 
 nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms, any 
 more, at all : neither shall they defile themselves any more 
 with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any 
 of their transgressions : but I will save them out of all their 
 dwelling-places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse 
 them : so shall they be My people, and I will be their God. — 
 EzEKiEL xxxvii. 16-23. 
 
 In the regenerate mind, celestial and spiritual prin- 
 ciples are conjoined, in their interior life, and in their 
 
294 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 exterior action; and thus they form one church of the 
 Lord, Hving in the protection of His universal provi- 
 dence. 
 
 THE LITERAL SENSE. 
 
 In the hteral sense of our text, the prophet Ezekiel 
 is commanded to perform a certain representative cere- 
 mony, as a prophecy of what the Lord would do for 
 the Israelites, in the future. And a Divine promise 
 seems to be given, that the scattered tribes of Israel 
 shall be gathered together, and restored to their for- 
 mer home, under one king, and under the Divine pro- 
 tection. 
 
 But, as a matter of fact, in literal history, no such 
 general restoration has taken place : and it is not at all 
 probable that it ever will occur. But it is certain that 
 the ancient Jews, themselves, expected such a literal 
 restoration. And, in fact, the same hope for the future 
 still comforts many of the modern Jews. But the Chris- 
 tian Church knows that the history of Israel, as nar- 
 rated in the literal sense of the Bible, is representative 
 and symbolic, typifying our regeneration. The prophe- 
 cies of the Scriptures are fulfilled primarily in human 
 minds. And they were given for the purpose of help- 
 ing men in spiritual progress. Many of these prophecies 
 have been fulfilled literally, also, because the literal 
 conditions were the direct outcome of the corresponding 
 spiritual conditions. But the literal part has generally 
 been of very secondary importance. 
 
 But, in very many of the Scripture prophecies, the 
 conditions were not possible to fulfil, literally. And 
 they were clearly intended to be understood figura- 
 tively, representatively, symbolically, and corresponden- 
 tially. The application of the Scripture prophecies to 
 the ancient Israelites, and to the other ancient nations, 
 is a matter of past history; but their spiritual applica- 
 
The Two Sticks Joined. 295 
 
 I 
 
 tion is for all time, and for all men ; and it is of the 
 greatest importance, to us, to-day. 
 
 THE STICKS. 
 
 In his representative action, the prophet Ezekiel was 
 commanded to write upon one stick the name of Judah, 
 and on another stick, the names of Joseph and Ephraim. 
 The custom of writing names upon sticks, or staves, to 
 represent persons, is very ancient. Examples of such 
 writing are mentioned, nine hundred years before the 
 time of our text, in the book of Numbers, xvii. 1-4: 
 " And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 
 the children of Israel, and take of every one of them 
 a rod, according to the house of their fathers, of all 
 their princes, according to the house of their fathers, 
 twelve rods : write thou every man's name upon his 
 rod. And thou shalt write Aaron's name upon the rod 
 of Levi : for one rod shall be for the head of the house 
 of their fathers. And thou shalt lay them up in the 
 tabernacle of the congregation, before the testimony, 
 where I will meet with you." 
 
 In our text the prophet was to join the two sticks, 
 either by fastening them together, or by holding them 
 in such way that they should extend from the two sides 
 of his hands, as if he held one long stick, only. The 
 language of the text does not require us to suppose that 
 these sticks were actually made one, by a miracle ; but 
 only that they should be brought together as one, to 
 represent the prophecy that the tribes named on the 
 sticks should be brought together under one king, as one 
 people. But, even in such case, the tribes would still 
 retain their distinct tribal organization and characteris- 
 tics, as the States of our American Union still retain 
 their individual statehood, while also bound together as 
 one country. The sticks named in our text interest us, 
 because of what they represent, in our own life. 
 
296 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL MEANING. 
 
 These two sticks were named for Judah and Joseph, 
 two of the tribes of Israel, descendants of two of the 
 sons of Jacob. The twelve sons of Jacob, and the 
 twelve tribes of Israel, represent all the good and true 
 principles of the church, in the aggregate. Judah rep- 
 resents the celestial principle, the love-principle, which 
 is especially seen in love to the Lord, and in the love of 
 goodness, in principle and in the life, in which good is 
 done, because it is good. And Joseph represents the 
 spiritual principle, the truth-principle, seen in the love 
 of truth, and in doing good because the truth so teaches. 
 And Ephraim, the son of Joseph, represents the under- 
 standing of spiritual truths. Thus, in one sense, Judah 
 represents celestial good. And the companions of 
 Judah represent celestial truths, which are always the 
 companions of their kind of good. And, in the same 
 aspect, Joseph represents spiritual good ; and his com- 
 panions represent spiritual truths. 
 
 The names of Judah, Joseph, and Ephraim were 
 written on two sticks of wood. Wood represents nat- 
 ural goodness, in the practical daily life. And writing 
 the name on the stick represents making known the 
 quality, or character, belonging to the person, and for 
 which he is named. For, originally, names were given 
 to persons to indicate their personal characteristics. 
 And thus names represent the quality, or character, of 
 the person, or thing, named. 
 
 And this is the basis of naming persons and things, 
 in the Scriptures. For instance, before the birth of 
 Jesus Christ, it was revealed to Joseph, " Thou shalt 
 call His name Jesus, because He shall save His people 
 from their sins." (Matthew i. 21.) And the word 
 Jesus means a Savior. And when we read that, in 
 asking for blessings, we must ask " in the name of the 
 
The Two Sticks Joined. 297 
 
 Lord," the meaning is that we must ask in the love of 
 those qualities for which the name of God stands. 
 
 JOINING THE TWO STICKS. 
 
 These two sticks, on which the names of Judah and 
 Joseph and his son were written, thus represent, lit- 
 erally, these two tribes of Israel ; or, in a more general 
 way, Judah and Israel. But, spiritually, they represent 
 the celestial and spiritual principles, the love-principle 
 and the truth-principle, or love and wisdom, or good- 
 ness and truth. Love flows into a man's will, or heart, 
 and fills him with a perception of goodness. But truth 
 flows into a man's understanding, or intellect, and gives 
 him a recognition of truth. 
 
 But a man may know many truths, while he does not 
 love goodness, and does not apply the truth to his own 
 practical conduct of- life. But when he loves goodness 
 and knows truth, and lives according to these prin- 
 ciples, the Lord unites goodness and truth, in the man's 
 mind, and in his life. And this uniting of goodness and 
 truth is represented by joining the two sticks, in the 
 hand of the prophet, and at the command of the Lord. 
 And thus the two sticks became as one stick, for the 
 purpose of the representation. 
 
 This agreement, or union, of good in the heart with 
 truth in the understanding, is the heavenly marriage in 
 the regenerate mind, which is effected by the vital union 
 of goodness and truth, in which love flows into wisdom, 
 and gives it motive-power, while wisdom enlightens 
 love. And this spiritual marriage can occur onlv when 
 goodness of heart and wisdom of intellect are joined in 
 practical goodness of conduct. The actual good life of 
 daily conduct is the ground on which our good and true 
 principles meet, and in which they unite, in regenerate 
 goodness. And these things are represented by the 
 
298 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 names being written on sticks of wood, because such 
 wood represents practical goodness. 
 
 THE HAND OF THE PROPHET. 
 
 And these two sticks were joined in the hand of the 
 prophet. The prophet represented the Word of the 
 Lord, the Divine Truth revealed to men, by the Lord, 
 through the prophets and others. The hand, with 
 which we take hold of anything, and apply it to our 
 use, represents power, the power which our mind exerts, 
 in taking practical hold of any good or true principle, 
 and applying it to the conduct of actual life. As the 
 two sticks became as one, in the hand of the prophet, 
 so, in the power of the Divine Truth drawn from the 
 Lord's Word, the good loves in our hearts are inwardly 
 united with the truths in our intellect, in the measure 
 and degree in which we apply these principles to all 
 things of our daily life, the formation of our affections, 
 the arrangement of our thoughts, and the government 
 of our action. 
 
 This spiritual agreement and union are meant in the 
 words of our Lord, " If thou bring thy gift to the altar, 
 and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught 
 against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and 
 go thy way : first be reconciled to thy brother, and then 
 come and offer thy gift." (Matthew v. 23, 24.) The 
 altar represents our worship of our Lord : and there 
 cannot be any genuine worship except in the degree in 
 which our love and our wisdom are in agreement. If 
 our knowledge of truth rebukes our heart, for not loving 
 the truth that we understand, then, spiritually, one 
 brother, the understanding, has something against the 
 other brother, the heart. And it is vain for us to offer 
 any gift of worship to our Lord, until we determine to 
 reconcile our knowledge of truth and our love of good- 
 
The Two Sticks Joined. 299 
 
 ness ; because the actual quality of our worship depends 
 upon the actual condition of agreement between the 
 different parts of our mind. Theoretical worship of 
 God is not genuine, nor sincere. 
 
 THE LORD S WORK. 
 
 You will observe that the Lord declared that He 
 would make the two sticks as one in the hand of the 
 prophet. In this statement it is emphasized that this 
 uniting of goodness and truth in our regenerate life is 
 the work of our Lord. We learn the truth from our 
 Lord's Word, and we make an effort to open our hearts 
 to our Lord, and to love the things which He calls 
 good ; and we compel ourselves to obey our Lord's 
 commandments, as our laws of life and rules of action. 
 But all the interior and spiritual work of uniting our 
 hearts and our intellects, comes from our Lord, alone, 
 who is the Source of all goodness and truth and life. 
 And so, while we exert ourselves to do our own part of 
 the work of regeneration, we must look to our Lord to 
 do His part, within us. 
 
 Historically, there were two Churches, the Celestial 
 Church, in which love to the~ Lord was the dominant 
 principle ; and, later, the Spiritual Church, characterized 
 by love to the neighbor. From the Celestial Church the 
 celestial heaven was formed ; and, from the Spiritual 
 Church, came the spiritual heaven. In a certain sense, 
 these two heavens are separate and distinct, as our will 
 and our understanding are distinct, and as our heart 
 and our lungs are separate. And yet our Lord, Jesus 
 Christ, at His coming on the earth, brought these two 
 heavens into closer union, by means of the redemption 
 and regeneration of men wrought by Him, through His 
 Humanity. In this larger sense, these two Churches are 
 one, and these two heavens are one, as our will and our 
 
300 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 understanding form one mind, and as our heart and 
 our lungs form one body. And these general condi- 
 tions represent the particular changes which go on m 
 the mind and life of each regenerating man, on earth 
 and in heaven. 
 
 GATHERING ISRAEL. 
 
 In our text and context, Jehovah promised to gather 
 the Israelites into one nation, and one kingdom, with 
 one king, and one shepherd ; and to cleanse them of 
 their evils ; and to protect thein from the self-defile- 
 ments of idolatry and other transgressions against the 
 Divine laws. These promises are spiritual in their 
 nature ; and they are made to all persons who are work- 
 ing for regeneration. The tribes of Israel, taken cap- 
 tives by the heathen, and dragged away from their 
 homes and country, and falling into all kinds of defile-- 
 ments Ijy detestable things, represent our natural minds, 
 fallen into false notions, and into natural tendencies to 
 evil, and into acts of sin ; and thus dragged away from 
 the only true home of the human mind, which is in 
 righteousness and in regeneration. In this disorderly 
 condition, our natural min<ls are divided in their alle- 
 giance to many conflicting notions. There is no one 
 great Divine Truth, accepted as King over our whole 
 mind ; and there is no one great Divine Love, adopted 
 as Shepherd over our united mind. 
 
 But, in the work of regeneration, our Lord changes 
 these conditions. In the degree and measure in which 
 His Truth is accepted as the one King of our mind, and 
 His Love as our one Shepherd, He draws together all 
 the scattered elements of our life, and brings them into 
 one mental kingdom, and one mental sheepfold. In the 
 measure in which we recognize Him to be our spiritual 
 King and our Shepherd, we see that He is k'ing over 
 all things in our intellect, and Shepherd of all things in 
 
The Two Sticks Joined. 301 
 
 our hearts. Gradually, as we open our hearts to Him, 
 more and more, He builds up His church in us, and 
 extends His influence over all things of our life. How- 
 ever disjoined the different elements of our mind and 
 life may have been, He will gradually draw them into 
 one harmonious manhood, one kingdom of truth, and 
 one nation of goodness. Gradually, He will elevate all 
 things of our natural life into close connection with our 
 spiritual life. 
 
 And then David .shall be the king forever, not his- 
 torically and literally, but representatively and spir- 
 itually, when the Divine Truth which David, as the 
 king, officially represented, .shall control our whole and 
 undivided mind and life. For, in our spiritual-minded 
 condition, we shall look to the Divine Truth, not merely 
 as an external authority controlling our actions, but as 
 a Divine principle, clearly seen and understood, and 
 known to be the spiritual law of all our being. 
 
 OUR GOD. 
 
 Our Christian God, our Lord, Jesus Christ, is a God 
 of principles, of Love and of Wisdom, in which we can 
 see and feel that we live, and move, and have our being. 
 He is not a God of arbitrary power, who compels fear 
 and obedience, but a God who fills our hearts with love 
 for His goodness ; who enlightens our intellect with 
 clear understanding of His principles of truth ; and 
 who, by His power, sustains our activities, " in the 
 beauty of holiness," and in the joy of communion with 
 Him. And then our life will not be a continued struggle 
 against God's laws and power, but a constant co-opera- 
 tion on our part with God's laws, to separate ourselves 
 from all our natural tendencies towards evil, falsity, 
 and sin. Knowing our natural tendencies, we shall 
 understand the dangers before us. And, in this Divine 
 
302 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 instruction and leading, we shall be protected from the 
 " defilements," and " the detestable things," and the 
 transgressions, which seek to hold our natural mind. 
 And, in our all-pervading love for our Lord, while we 
 live in " the beauty of holiness," we shall hear and 
 understand His gracious promise, " They shall be My 
 people, and I will be their God." 
 
Invitation to the Great Sacrifice. 303 
 
 XXXIV. 
 INVITATION TO THE GREAT SACRIFICE. 
 
 And thou son of man, thus saith the Lord Jehovih : Speak 
 unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, 
 Assemble yourselves and come; gather yourselves on every 
 side, to My sacrifice, that I do sacrifice for you, a great sacri- 
 fice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh and 
 drink blood. 
 
 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of 
 the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bul- 
 locks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. All ye shall eat fat till 
 ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of My sacrifice, 
 which I have sacrificed for you. Thus ye shall be filled at My 
 table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all 
 men of war, saith the Lord Jehovih. And I will set My glory 
 among the nations. — Ezekiel xxxix. 17-21. 
 
 All who have ears to hear spiritual things, are invited 
 to a spiritual feast, in the inward sense of the Divine 
 Word, by which they shall be instructed in truths of all 
 degrees, and imbued with spiritual good of all kinds ; 
 so that they may be formed into a new church, which 
 shall be in interior worship, and thence in external wor- 
 ship, also. 
 
 CONDITIONS. 
 
 Even the casual reader can easily see that the state- 
 ments of the text are not intended to be understood liter- 
 ally, but that they form a figurative prophecy. Histori- 
 cally, this calling was especially addressed to the 
 Gentiles, at the coming of our Lord in the flesh. But, 
 personally, the call is extended to all men who are in 
 mental condition to heed its invitation. 
 
304 Parables of the Old restamcnt Explained. 
 
 Similar conditions are mentioned in Revelation xix. 17, 
 18: " And I saw an angel standing in the sun ; and he 
 cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly 
 in the midst of heaven, Come, and gather yourselves to- 
 gether unto the supper of the great God ; that ye may 
 eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the 
 flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them 
 that sit on them, and the flesh of all, free and bond, both 
 small and great." It is not at all probable that God 
 would invite an)' one to a cannibal feast, to eat captains 
 and princes and mighty men. And, certainly, no one 
 could feast upon chariots, which were wagons, made of 
 hard wood and iron, etc. And it is evident that God 
 would not call the men of Israel to such a feast, and 
 invite them especially, to eat fat, and to drink blood,, as 
 in our text ; when, from the establishment of the 
 Israelitish Church, He had always positively forbidden 
 the Israelites to eat fat, or to drink blood, even of the 
 beasts used for food. Certainly, the intended meaning 
 of the text is to be found in its representative sense, 
 only. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL MEANING. 
 
 The prophet represents the Word of God, which was 
 often given through the prophets. And the prophet 
 speaking to the fowls, etc., represents the Word of God 
 teaching human minds. Fowls, literally, mean birds of 
 all kinds. Man is the head of all created life ; and all 
 the powers and capacities of all the creatures below man, 
 represent the diflferent abilities of man's mind. In gen- 
 eral, beasts represent human affections, in the life of our 
 heart ; while birds represent human thoughts, in our 
 intellectual life. Because of their representative mean- 
 ing, beasts and birds were used in the Israelitish sacri- 
 fices. 
 
 The call to all these birds and beasts, to assemble at 
 
Invitation to the Great Sacrifice. 305 
 
 the Lord's sacrifice, is a spiritual call to human thoughts 
 and affections to come together, to associate themselves, 
 for a common purpose ; to come together from all dif- 
 ferent degrees and aspects of life, to feast in the good 
 and true things with which the Lord will feed them, 
 from the inward life of His Divine Word. 
 
 To sacrifice is to make holy, to devote to holy and 
 spiritual purposes. Hence sacrifice represents worship 
 of the Lord, and an acknowledgment that all the good- 
 ness and truth which we have, are from Him. It is 
 called a " great" sacrifice, because it represents a general 
 state of worship of the Lord, from genuine faith and 
 love ; and because it requires the worshipper to perceive 
 the Divine character of the Lord, Jesus Christ, as the one 
 God of heaven and of earth, from whom are all life, and 
 goodness and truth. And the mountains of Israel, on 
 which the feast was to be given, represent the exalted 
 states of will and of understanding, in the man who 
 comes to that spiritual feast. 
 
 EATING AND DRINKING. 
 
 To eat, spiritually, is to receive a principle into our 
 affections, and to appropriate it; that is, to make it our 
 own, so that we adopt it into our character. Flesh, as a 
 solid part of the body, represents goodness ; and blood, 
 as a fluid, represents truth. And, as blood is the living 
 fluid, in which life circulates, it represents the Divine 
 Truth, circulating in man's mind. This Divine Truth is 
 from the Word of the Lord ; i.e., from the Lord, through 
 the Word. As the regenerating man receives a good 
 principle into his will, his heart, this goodness makes a 
 new condition in the man's will, a new quality of life. 
 
 And when the man receives into his understanding, or 
 spiritually drinks, a new truth, that truth works a new 
 state of the man's understanding, his intellect, and of his 
 
3o6 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 practical life, also. Thus, to eat flesh and to drink blood, 
 mean, spiritually, to receive goodness and truth. And 
 such reception of living food from the Lord, constitutes 
 a feast, in the regenerating mind, which is able to appre- 
 ciate and to use such living food of the spirit. And this 
 is a feast with the Lord, because, in it, the man is con- 
 scious of the Lord's presence, spiritually, and of com- 
 munion with Him. 
 
 SPIRITUAL COMMUNION. 
 
 And this is the spiritual meaning of the eating and 
 drinking in the holy supper, in which bread and wine are 
 used representatively, with a meaning similar to that of 
 the flesh and blood : for flesh and blood are the repre- 
 sentatives of goodness and truth, among the things of 
 the animal kingdom, while bread and wine have the 
 same signification in the vegetable kingdom. 
 
 Literally, men take the bread and the wine, in the holy 
 supper, in remembrance of the last supper of the dis- 
 ciples with the Lord, in which all used bread and wine. 
 But, when a worshipper understands the spiritual signifi- 
 cance, he takes the bread and the wine to represent his 
 spiritual association with the Lord, whenever he receives 
 the Lord's good and true principles into his heart and 
 understanding, and thus mentally feasts with the Lord. 
 
 And, in such case, the spiritual feast is a great sacri- 
 fice, because, in it, ordinary things of human food are 
 exalted, and made holy, by using them for a holy pur- 
 pose, representatively, for communion with the Lord. 
 
 As a practical example of this sacrifice, observe the 
 fact that there are persons who fear the use of wine, in 
 the holy supper, lest it may arouse a disorderly taste for 
 abusing wine. But, while this danger might exist for a 
 man of very external states of mind, who regarded the 
 matter as one of form, alone, experience has shown that 
 
Invitation to the Great Sacrifice. 307 
 
 a habit of intemperance has been cured, in men who have 
 been led to regard wine in the holy supper as holy, and 
 as a sacrifice, used with a spiritual purpose, and with a 
 determination to live by spiritual principles ; and, if 
 necessary, to avoid the use of wine in any other way than 
 in the holy supper. 
 
 SPIRITUAL FOOD. 
 
 In our text, the fowls and beasts are called to a feast 
 in which they shall " eat the flesh of the mighty, and 
 drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of 
 lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of 
 Bashan." Spiritually, the mighty, or powerful, are those 
 who have in their minds the knowledges of truth, from 
 the Divine Word, by which they know how to shun evil 
 and falsity, and to do good, in heart and in conduct. 
 And, apart from persons, the mighty are these truths of 
 the Lord's Word, by which a man has spiritual power. 
 In all practical things, it is recognized that " Knowledge 
 is power," because it gives a man the means of carrying 
 out his intentions and purposes. And so, spiritually, to 
 eat the flesh of the mighty is to receive the actual good 
 which comes to the sincere mind by means of the knowl- 
 edge of truth. 
 
 Kings and princes, who are leading men, in ruling a 
 country, represent the leading or primary truths, which 
 rule in the mind, the great fundamental principles of 
 our minds, in all degrees, and of all kinds. The earth 
 represents the church on earth ; for, with men on earth, 
 the church is built upon the natural mind, as a lower 
 foundation. And so, to drink the blood of the princes 
 of the earth, representatively and spiritually, is to receive 
 the Divine Truth, in its fundamental forms, its great 
 principles, even as applied in the life on earth. 
 
3o8 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 DIFFERENT ANIMALS. 
 
 Rams represent the g;ood of charity, or love to the 
 neighbor, which is spiritual good. Lambs represent inno- 
 cence, in heart and in life, in principle and in practice. 
 External and natural innocence is a negative state, in 
 which the person has not done any sinful acts. But 
 spiritual innocence is a positive state, in which the per- 
 son is in such a good condition of heart and of thought, 
 that he would not be willing to indulge any wrong feel- 
 ings or thoughts. Goats represent faith, which is more 
 external than love, but which holds the mind in the light 
 of truth. Bullocks, and other cattle, represent our 
 natural affections. 
 
 BASHAN. 
 
 " Fatlings of Bashan" represent the good that is in 
 the natural mind, and in the natural life, but from a 
 spiritual origin. Fat, which is built up from the oil of 
 the body, the warm, smooth element, represents good- 
 ness from the Lord, a warm, gentle affection, with the 
 delight in goodness, which belongs to such affection. In 
 its highest sense, fat represents celestial good, in which 
 the Divine Love is intimately present. And, in its gen- 
 eral sense, fat represents such good carried down into 
 the lower degrees of man's mind, even in the natural life. 
 Fatlings are cattle well fed, and fattened, and thus in 
 good condition. And they represent the good which 
 makes a man's mind to be in good condition, spiritually. 
 The land of Bashan, on the East of the Jordan, and next 
 to Gilead, was a great cattle-country, occupied by the 
 half-tribe of Manasseh. And, being on the East of the 
 Jordan, and not in the principal part of Palestine, it 
 represented the natural mind, in the regenerating man. 
 And thus " fatlings of Bashan," represented heavenly 
 goodness, as it exists in the natural mind and life. 
 
 And thus, the call to feast upon the flesh " of rams, 
 
Invitation to the Great Sacrifice. 309 
 
 of Iambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings 
 of Bashan," is a spiritual call, to go to our Lord's feast, 
 to which He calls us, in His Divine Word ; and in which 
 He will fill us with charity, innocence and faith, and 
 regenerate natural affections, which will produce good 
 conduct in practical life. 
 
 TO BE. FILLED. 
 
 " All ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood 
 till ye be drunken," means that there shall be every good 
 and truth in abundance, all that can be used. To us, 
 with our modern customs and ideas, the literal sense 
 seems repulsive. But we must remember that it is repre- 
 sentative, only. It does not mean that men should be- 
 come drunken, but only that tliere is enough blood pro- 
 vided to make one drunken, if he drank too much. It 
 is not meant that blood will intoxicate, but the meaning 
 is figurative. For, as a fact, truth will mentally intoxi- 
 cate a man who takes more truth intellectually than he 
 uses in his heart. 
 
 INTOXICATtON. 
 
 Physical drunkenness does not come from the use of 
 vinegar, or soured wine, but from the abuse of good 
 wine. So, spiritually, mental intoxication does not come 
 from merely false ideas, but from the falsification and 
 abuse of spiritual truths, by an insincere mind, which 
 knows the truth, intellectually, but perverts its meaning, 
 in favor of selfish lusts. 
 
 Thus, to be filled with good things is to be spiritually 
 filled with every good love, and every truth of faith, 
 to fulness of heart and of understanding. To be thus 
 filled at the Lord's table, is to be receptive of these spir- 
 itual things in the worship of the Lord, and by means 
 of His holy Word, by which we know of these things. 
 
3IO Parables of the Old Testament Explain 
 
 ed. 
 
 and h>- which \vc are enahled to receive them. At all 
 times, the Word of the Lord supplies to the regenerating 
 mind a feast in all things necessary to a heavenly and 
 happy life. 
 
 HORSES .\ND CH.\RI()TS, ETC. 
 
 Our text also calls us to feast on " horses and chariots, 
 with mighty men, and with all men of war." A horse, 
 the intimate friend and intelligent servant of man, repre- 
 sents the intellectual life, in man's understanding, and 
 especially the understanding of the Divine Word. For 
 this reason the horse is frequently mentioned in the rep- 
 resentative language of the Scriptures. A chariot, as a 
 vehicle, for carrying men, represents a doctrine, a state- 
 ment of truth, which carries the truth within it. To 
 eat horses and chariots, spiritually, is to receive, and to 
 make our own. an intelligent understanding of the Lord's 
 truth, and of the doctrines of the cliurch. 
 
 And " men of war," whose flesli was also to be eaten, 
 representatively, are the truths in our minds, combat- 
 ting against all that is evil, false, and sinful, in our own 
 natural tendencies. And to eat these men of war, is to 
 receive and use the mighty truths of the Divine Word, 
 in resisting evil, and in doing good. 
 
 THE lord's glory. 
 
 After the invitation to the great feast, our Lord says, 
 " And I will set My glory among the nations." The 
 glory of the Lord is the bright light of His Divine Truth, 
 as a halo surrounding everything of His love and wis- 
 dom, in regenerate minds. To set the Lord's glory 
 among the nations, representative!)-, is to give the light 
 of His Divine Truth to those who are prepared to receive 
 it; i.e., to those who are in interior good; and who, 
 therefore, arc in interior uorsliip, from which they are 
 in external worship, also. Such minds shall understand 
 
Invitation to the Great Sacrifice. 311 
 
 the Lord, because they receive new and spiritual truth 
 in the good of love, i.e., in love to the Lord and to the 
 neighbor, which is the good of life. And they shall be 
 intelligent in spiritual things. All such minds are ready 
 to receive instruction in spiritual truths, that they may 
 know the Lord more and more, and in higher aspects of 
 His Divine life and character; and that they may form 
 a new and spiritual church. 
 
 Our text is a Divine call to all such minds, to assemble 
 upon the spiritual mountains of Israel, the high condi- 
 tions of regenerate character ; there to be gathered into 
 closer bonds of love, and into greater spiritual intelli- 
 gence. It is our heavenly Father's call to us, to climb 
 up to greater heights of spiritual and natural character, 
 and to live in the daily use and enjoyment of the 
 grandest principles of love and wisdom which the God 
 of love can give to His loving and obedient children. 
 Our text is our Lord's call to us, to enter into that gen- 
 uine religion which occupies and nourishes every part of 
 our many-sided human life ; a religion which will go 
 with us through every day of every week and year, " to 
 guide our feet into the way of peace ;" that we may live 
 " in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days 
 of our life." . 
 
312 Parables of the Old Testament Ex/^laiiicd. 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 THE WATERS FLOWING FROM THE 
 LORD'S HOUSE. 
 
 He brought me again unto the door of the house ; and, be- 
 hold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house, 
 eastward; for the forefront of the house was toward the East: 
 and waters came down from under the right side of the house, 
 at the South of the altar. 
 
 Then brought he me out of the way of the gate, northward, 
 and led me about the way, without, unto the outer gate, by the 
 way that looketh eastward ; and behold, there ran out waters, 
 on the right side. 
 
 And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth 
 eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me 
 through the waters ; the waters were to the ankles. Again he 
 measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters ; the 
 waters were to the knees. 
 
 Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through ; 
 the waters were to the loins. Afterward, he measured a thou- 
 sand ; and it was a river that I could not pass over; for the 
 vi'aters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be 
 passed over. And he said unto me, Son of Man, hast thou 
 seen this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to 
 the brink of the river. 
 
 Now, when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river 
 were very many trees, on the one side and on the other. Then 
 said he unto nie, These waters issue out toward the East- 
 country, and go into the desert, and go into the sea ; being 
 brought fiirth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. And it 
 shall come ti:) pass, that everything that livetli, which nioveth, 
 whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall 
 be a very great multitude of fisli, because these waters shall 
 come thither : for they shall be healed ; and everything shall 
 live whither the river conieth. — Ezekiel xlvii. 1-9. 
 
The Waters Flowing from the Lord's House. 313 
 
 The Divine Truth flows out from the Lord, with the 
 Divine Love, to angels of the different heavens, and to 
 men on the earths, to each according to the quality and 
 degree of his mind and life. 
 
 THE DIVINE TRUTH. 
 
 This prophetic vision representatively pictures some 
 phases of the progress of regeneration, in the human 
 mind and life. The Divine Truth seems to increase in 
 volume, and to rise to greater heights, the more the 
 man attains greater perception and understanding of 
 the truth. 
 
 The man with a measuring line may be viewed in 
 several aspects. Naturally, he would appear to be an 
 angel, sent upon this special mission. But, in the 
 supreme aspect. He is the Lord, in His Divine Provi- 
 dence, leading and enlightening the regenerating man. 
 And, impersonally, he represents the regenerating man's 
 perception of the truth, developed by the Lord, and 
 being the Lord's presence in the man. 
 
 The house of the Lord, or temple, in one sense, repre- 
 sents the church, which is the Lord's dwelling-place 
 with men. In a more general sense, the house, or tem- 
 ple, represents heaven, which is also the Lord's dwelling- 
 place with men. But these two meanings make one, in 
 their application to human life, because, in the higher 
 sense, both the church and heaven are, spiritually, in 
 the human mind; i.e., in the hearts and intellects of 
 regenerate men, in this world, and in the next world. 
 There is no mere locality which would be heaven in any 
 spiritual sense, without the presence of regenerate men, 
 who are angels, and in whom the Lord spiritually dwells. 
 
 In the highest sense, the house, or temple, is the 
 Divine Humanity of the Lord, in which the Divine life 
 comes to men, and dwells with them, and they with 
 
314 Parables of the Old Tcstanicii/ Exj^lained. 
 
 Him, in His " house not made with hands, eternal in 
 the heavens," 
 
 THE DOOR, OR GATE. 
 
 The door, or gate, of the Lord's house, represents 
 the introductory truth, which informs a man's mind 
 about the Lord and His church, and which thus serves 
 to introduce him into the churcli ; not merel}' the church 
 as an external institution, but rather the principles of the 
 church, which form an interior church in the mind, by 
 introducing the mind into practical goodness in the daily 
 life. 
 
 We recognize this practical use of introductory truths, 
 in the passage in the Revelation (xxii. 14) referring to 
 the holy city of the New Jerusalem : " Blessed are they 
 that do His commandments, that they may have right to 
 the tree of life, and may enter in, through the gates, into 
 the city." 
 
 " The waters issued out from under the threshold of 
 the house." This water represents the practical truth 
 from the Lord, for use in man's life. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL QU.\RTERS. 
 
 The waters flowed eastward. In the spiritual world, 
 the cjuarters are not matters of locality, but of mental 
 states. The Lord is " the Sun of Righteousness." And 
 the spiritual quarter in which any angel dwells, depends 
 upon his mental attitude towards the Lord, as the spir- 
 itual Sun. The East, where the sun appears to rise, 
 represents the Lord's love; or, in us, our love for our 
 Lord. The West, opposite the East, represents the least 
 degree of love to the Lord. The South, in which is the 
 greatest light, represents the greatest light of intelli- 
 gence in Divine Truth. And the North, opposite the 
 South, represents the least degree of spiritual intelli- 
 gence. This least degree is in the natural mind of man, 
 
The Waters Flowing from the Lord's House. 315 
 
 the external mind, which sees things in the light of the 
 natural senses. In ancient times, temples for worship 
 were built with an eastern aspect, i.e., " the fore-front 
 of the house was toward the East," so that the wor- 
 shippers should face the East, to represent that their 
 minds were turned to the Lord. 
 
 " The waters came down from under the right side of 
 the house, at the South of the altar." The right side 
 represents the afifectional side, the side of the will, or 
 heart ; and the left side represents the intellectual side, 
 the side of the understanding. The waters coming from 
 the right side represents that the truth comes from the 
 Lord's love, and appeals to man's love of the Lord. For 
 a man's reception of the truth depends on how much his 
 heart is interested in it. 
 
 When some of the disciples of Jesus had labored all 
 night, in fishing, and had caught nothing, Jesus in- 
 structed them to cast their net on the right side of the 
 boat, and they would find plenty of fish. To cast the 
 net of argument on the right side of the ship of doctrine, 
 is to teach men from love, from a desire to do them 
 good. And this state of mind is always successful in 
 finding the living facts of knowledge, which are repre- 
 sented by fishes, which live in the waters of truth. That 
 the waters came forth " at the South of the altar," repre- 
 sents that truths come from the Divine intelligence, and 
 that they come to a man's highest intelligence, in his 
 worship of the Lord. 
 
 NORTH AND E.-^ST. 
 
 The prophet was taken by way of the gate northward, 
 and led to " the outer gate, by the way that looketh 
 eastward." It is necessary for a man to begin his regen- 
 eration in the spiritual North, the coldest and darkest 
 quarter, because this quarter represents the natural mind. 
 
3i6 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 which is ignorant of spiritual things. A man must begin 
 where he is, naturally. But the text declares that, 
 although the prophet was at the North gate, and passed 
 out of that gate, even to the outer gate, or most external 
 state of mind, yet he then looked eastward ; i.e., towards 
 the Lord. And there he saw the waters running out, at 
 the right side. And everyone who looks to the Lord will 
 be able to see the spiritual waters of truth coming from 
 the Lord, in the truths of His Word, and in the church. 
 C)ur loves are the heat from which our light comes. 
 If we love the Lord, we look to the Lord, and we see in 
 spiritual light. If wc are intellectual in a worldly way, 
 only, and for self, we are not spiritual-minded, but spir- 
 itual things seem to be unreal and obscure. But, if our 
 love is a regenerate love, even although we may not be 
 intellectual in the things of this world, we are in spiritual 
 light, according to our level and degree of life; and the 
 things which concern our spiritual life, we see in suf- 
 ficient light to make them sure to us. And, in such a 
 case, a regenerate man, of simple mind, and perhaps 
 imperfect education, who may not be able to formulate 
 an application of the truth to every detail of life, can rec- 
 ognize the truth when it is taught, because his love places 
 him in an affinnative attitude of mind, in which he sees 
 the truth in its own light. But the intellectual natural 
 man, who does not love the Lord, is not in the light of 
 love; and he does not see spiritual truth, because he is 
 in a negative state of mind towards the truth ; and he 
 is in the supposed light of the natural senses. 
 
 THE JME.SSURING. 
 
 Going eastward, the guide measured the length of the 
 stream of water, from one point to another, four times, 
 and \vith marked results. To measure anything, spirit- 
 ually, is to discover its quality, or character. Naturally, 
 
The Waters Flowing from the Lord's House. 317 
 
 we measure anything to discover its length, width or 
 height. But, spiritually, we measure anything to dis- 
 cover its goodness, its truth, or its elevation in the scale 
 of mind, and of spiritual principles. The cubit was the 
 customary unit of measure, representing our mental 
 measure, or rational judgment, by which we determine 
 the character of a thing. 
 
 Hundreds, thousands, etc., as " round numbers," 
 which complete a certain quantity, represent a complete 
 and full state of mind and of life. When you are asked 
 whether you have ever seen a familiar object, you reply, 
 " Yes, I have seen it a thousand times;" i.e., to a full 
 extent, so often as to be familiar with it. 
 
 The prophet, going eastward, and following the 
 stream of water from the door of the house, represents 
 the mind looking to the Lord, and following the stream 
 of truth, as it flows onward, increasing and deepening. 
 And the fact that the journey is measured several times, 
 and the depth of the water tested at each measurement, 
 represents that the mental journey beside the flowing 
 stream of truth, is made by successive stages, or steps of 
 progress, each of which forms a complete general state 
 in the mental experience of the regenerating man. And 
 the fact that the waters became deeper, at each successive 
 step, represents that the mind enters more and more 
 deeply into the truth. 
 
 TO THE ANKLES. 
 
 At the end of the first stage of progress, the first one 
 thousand cubits, the first completed state of mind, the 
 waters were up to the ankles. The feet represent the 
 natural man, or the natural mind of a man, which is 
 the lowest part of his mental organism. Waters up to 
 the ankles were waters that covered the feet. And these 
 represented the Lord's truth as seen by the mind, at the 
 
3i8 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 end of its first stage of progress, when it is natural- 
 minded, seeing merely the external side of the truth, as 
 it applies to the things of man's natural life. Such, for 
 instance, would be the state of a man's mind, when he 
 has learned that the Scripture is the Word of the Lord, 
 and that its rules must he obeyed in the practical con- 
 duct. The man then knows much of the truth, and has 
 intelligence in the truth, in the natural degree; i.e., as 
 it applies to his conduct, as a natural man. This is good, 
 as far as it goes : but it is only the first completed state 
 of mind, in the progress of regeneration. And then the 
 Lord leads the man to measure another thousand cubits, 
 along the stream of Divine Truth; i.e., to take the next 
 general and complete step in spiritual progress. 
 
 THE KNEES. 
 
 And then the water reaches to the knees. The knees 
 are at the top of the lower part of the limbs, but below 
 the thighs. And so the\- represent that state of mind 
 which is called spiritual-natural; i.e., while it is natural- 
 minded, it is influenced by spiritual light and spiritual 
 conditions, which are forming, within, but which have 
 not yet come to the man's manifest consciousness. In 
 this state, the man stands in the waters of truth much 
 deeper than his ankles, for the lower limbs are covered. 
 The man has reached a mental condition beyond mere 
 obedience to the Lord's law of conduct. .Vnd he feels, 
 although obscurely, the drawing of his affections towards 
 principles, as well as rules. His natural mind is in- 
 wardly filled with a greater power, which he feels, with- 
 out understanding it. His mind is growing spiritually 
 rational. 
 
 THE LOINS. 
 
 The leader then measures another thousand cubits ; 
 and the waters are up to the loins. The man has now 
 
The Waters Flowing from the Lord's House. 319 
 
 completed another stage of progress, and he has become 
 distinctively spiritual-minded. The loins represent the 
 affection of love to the neighbor. " Let your loins be 
 girded about, and your lights burning;" i.e., have your 
 affections girded with truth, and your spiritual intelli- 
 gence active. 
 
 THE RIVER. 
 
 Measuring another thousand cubits, the stream be- 
 comes a great river, too deep to be forded, but necessi- 
 tating swimming. This represents the completion of the 
 last stage of progress in regeneration, when the man 
 becomes distinctively celestial. In this mental state, he 
 has progressed even beyond the love of the neighbor, as 
 a neighbor ; and he has reached the highest state, that of 
 supreme, complete love to the Lord, an all-absorbing 
 love of the Divine Love, in which truth becomes a great 
 river, covering the whole man, and buoying him up, as he 
 swims, mentally, feeling that he is immersed in infinite 
 truths, which cover all possible cases of his experience. 
 
 Such is the great increase of truths in the progress 
 of regeneration, as the mind grasps, more and more, 
 the spirit and life of the Lord's truth. The more com- 
 pletely we follow the course of truth, the greater the 
 truth will become, to us, because the more we shall be 
 able to perceive, and to understand, the Lord and His 
 truth. And then the mind " takes the water of life 
 freely," in the freedom of love, and not by compulsion. 
 
 This river is the same as the river seen by John, in 
 apocalyptic vision, of which he says, " And he showed 
 me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceed- 
 ing out of the throne of God." (Revelation xxii. i.) 
 It is the same river of which the Psalmist says, " There 
 is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city 
 of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most 
 High." (Psalm xlvi. 4.) 
 
3-'o Parables of flic Old Testament Ex[<kiined. 
 
 On the banks of that river there were very many trees, 
 which represent living and growing principles, things 
 known to the regenerating mind ; and which, as we learn 
 from the context, hear many fruits, representing the 
 practical good works, or outworking, of our accepted 
 principles. 
 
 HEALING THE \VATERS. 
 
 Tt is said that these waters " go into the desert, and go 
 into the sea," where " the waters shall be healed." The 
 desert is the natural mind, which is naturally dead to 
 spiritual things. And the sea is the natural memory, the 
 general repository of all things seen and heard. And 
 the natural man, \\ith all his memory, is spiritually dead, 
 until the waters of Divine Truth come into his mind and 
 memory, and take their place there, as Divine things. 
 The natural memory may be full of the knowledges of 
 doctrine, etc., but there will not be any spiritual life in 
 these things, in the man, until they are acknowledged to 
 be the Lord's. 
 
 And, on the other hand, all these Divine things will 
 not be able to take a firm hold in the man's mind, until 
 they flow into his natural mind and memory, and set 
 these in order. And both these processes are in\'olved in 
 the healing of the waters, when they go down to the 
 desert, and into the sea. And then " The knowledge of 
 Tehovah shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the 
 sea." 
 
 Geographically, \vc might suppose that these waters, 
 flo\\ing East from the temple in Jerusalem, would flow 
 into the Dead Sea. And even this would be symbolic 
 of giving life to the dead things of man's natural mind, 
 by the waters of truth from the Lord. 
 
 Wherever these living waters flowed they caused 
 everything to live. And it is so, spiritually ; for the 
 Lord's life is carried to men's souls by means of the 
 
The Waters Floiving from the Lord's House. 321 
 
 Divine truths, taught to men, from the Divine Word. 
 And, wherever those truths are admitted into the heart 
 and the understanding, and allowed to form the con- 
 duct, they carry the Hght of heaven, and they regenerate 
 the man. 
 
 FISH. 
 
 In the healed waters swam a great multitude of fish, 
 of all kinds. Fish, as a low form of life, cool-blooded, 
 living in water, represent the practical facts known to 
 us, things which are certainties, applicable to our daily 
 experience. These facts are scientifics, knowledges of 
 doctrine, etc., which will make good mental food, when 
 made alive by acknowledging their source in the Lord. 
 
 APPLICATION. 
 
 Reviewing the history of the Churches, we can see 
 that, in the Jewish Church, the water of truth was up 
 to the ankles, only, because the truth was seen in its 
 natural phases, only. In the First Christian Church, the 
 water was up to the knees, with some glimpses of spir- 
 itual things, yet with doctrine which interpreted the 
 Scriptures literally. But, in the New Church, the stream 
 of water from the sanctuary is as deep as the loins, to 
 many, who see truth as spiritual truth. And, to a few, 
 the great truth has become a broad river to swim in, a 
 stream of celestial life. We see our Lord, Jesus Christ, 
 not merely as a natural man, but as a Divine Man, in 
 whom is all the Divine Life. We see Him as Power, 
 as Truth, as Love, and as Life. And the truths which 
 flow from these living principles, may cover all things of 
 our life, spiritual and natural. And, then, in our minds. 
 " everything shall live whither the river cometh." 
 
 21 
 
Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S DREAM OF THE GREAT 
 IMAGE. 
 
 Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great 
 image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and 
 the form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine 
 gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his bowels and his 
 thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part 
 of clay. 
 
 Thou sawest, till that a stone was cut out without hands, 
 which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and 
 clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, 
 the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, 
 and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors ; and 
 the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them ; 
 and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, 
 and filled the whole earth. 
 
 This is the dream. And we will tell the interpretation thereof 
 before the king. Thou, O king, art a king of kings : for the 
 God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power and strength, 
 and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the 
 beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given 
 into thy hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou 
 art this head of gold. 
 
 And after thee shall arise another kingdom, inferior to thee ; 
 and another third kingdom, of brass, which shall bear rule over 
 all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron; 
 forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things : 
 and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and 
 bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of pot- 
 ter's clay and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided : but 
 there shall be, in it, of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as 
 thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes 
 of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom 
 shall be partly strong and partly broken. 
 
Nebuchadnezzar's Dream of the Great Image. 323 
 
 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they 
 shall mingle themselves with the seed of men : but they shall 
 not cleave one to another, even as iron is not joined with clay. 
 
 And, in the days of these kings, shall the God of heaven set 
 up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed : and the king- 
 dom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in 
 pieces and consume all these kingdoms ; and it shall stand 
 forever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out 
 of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the 
 iron, the brass, the clay, the silver and the gold ; the great 
 God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass 
 hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation 
 thereof sure.- — Daniel ii. 31-45. 
 
 The love of ruling over others, will, at first, induce 
 some of the leaders in the church to learn, and to teach, 
 the good and true principles of the church, from the 
 Divine Word, in order to build up a church. But such 
 leaders will gradually decline in intelligence and knowl- 
 edge, until they teach literal rules instead of spiritual 
 truths; and until, finally, all the good and truth of the 
 church shall be adulterated with evil and falsity, and the 
 church shall be brought to an end ; and then the 
 Lord shall come, to establish a new church. These 
 things refer to the general church,, on the earth, and 
 also to the particular churches in the individual minds 
 of men on earth. 
 
 BABYLON. 
 
 Bab-el, or Babylon, represents the love of ruling over 
 others, from self-love, which would subject everything 
 to its dominion, using even the holy things of the church 
 to rule the souls of men, and thus to dominate the whole 
 world. The king of Babylon represents this lust of 
 dominion. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had con- 
 quered many nations ; and he was ambitions to rule the 
 whole world. And while in this state of mind, he had 
 the significant dream which is narrated in our text. The 
 
324 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 dream was a revelation from the Lord, as to the future 
 conditions of the church. 
 
 But, to place the subject upon a level of thought which 
 the king, or any other natural-minded man, could under- 
 stand, the prophet Daniel was led to interpret the dream 
 as if relating to a series of earthly kingdoms. But the 
 important meaning of everything in the Word of the 
 Lord relates to man's spiritual life ; and to earthly things 
 only as they embody and illustrate spiritual principles. 
 And so, in reaching the spiritual meaning of the dream, 
 Daniel's interpretation of it needs as much explanation 
 as does the dream, itself. Thus, the dream may be inter- 
 preted in several aspects. 
 
 THE CHURCHES. 
 
 There have existed on the earth four general churches, 
 or four general conditions of the Lord's church among 
 men, the celestial church, of Adam; the spiritual church, 
 of Noah; the natural church, of the Israelites; and the 
 spiritual-natural church, the First Christian Church. 
 Among the ancients, who understood something of the 
 correspondence between natural and spiritual things, 
 the wise men referred to these different ages, or 
 churches, of human progress, by the names of different 
 metals, of greater and less value, as " The Golden Age," 
 " The Silver Age," " The Brazen Age," " The Iron 
 Age," etc., because, in these different ages, different 
 principles dominated men on earth. 
 
 THE METAI.S. 
 
 Gold, as the most valuable among common metals, and 
 the least subject to corrosion, has always represented 
 the most excellent principle in human life, the love- 
 principle, especially as directed to man's unselfish love 
 of the Lord. This is called the celestial principle, which 
 
Nebuchadnezzar's Dream of the Great Image. 325 
 
 actuates those who dwell in the celestial heaven, the 
 third heaven, which is the highest condition of heaven. 
 This is the " gold, tried in the fire," which makes men 
 spiritually rich in character. Silver represents a lower 
 grade of principle, but still a heavenly element of human 
 life, the love of the neighbor, the spiritual principle, 
 called charity. This is lower than love to the Lord, be- 
 cause love to the Lord is the love of goodness, itself, 
 while the love of the neighbor is, fundamentally, the love 
 of truth, and the love of the good which comes by means 
 of doing the truth. This is the characteristic love of the 
 angels who dwell in the second heaven, the middle 
 heaven, called the spiritual heaven. Brass, or copper, 
 represents natural good, good as it comes to a man who 
 obeys the laws of the Lord, in his natural life, in order 
 that he may do good. Iron represents natural truth, the 
 truth of law, or rule, which controls the conduct. These 
 are the qualities of good and of truth which exist with 
 those who are in the natural heaven, the lowest general 
 form of heavenly life. 
 
 Thus, there is a correspondence between the compara- 
 tive values, and the qualities, of these metals, and those 
 of the different Churches, or different aspects of the 
 general Church, among men on earth. 
 
 THE HUMAN BODY. 
 
 And there is also a correspondence between these dif- 
 ferent degrees of human life, and the different parts of 
 the human body. When the man stands erect, his head 
 towers above the rest of his body. And his head is of 
 the greatest importance and value. And it corresponds, 
 comparatively, to the golden principle of love to the 
 Lord, the highest element of human life, which is the 
 head of all things in man. Next below the head come 
 the breast and arms, which are of great value, and which 
 
326 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 correspond to the silver principle of love to the neighbor, 
 the spiritual principle of regenerate life. Next below, 
 come the abdomen and thighs, which here represent nat- 
 ural good, to which brass, or copper, corresponds. And 
 below this, come the lower legs and the feet, which repre- 
 sent the life of natural truth, the iron of the mind. All 
 these different elements are necessary to a good and 
 fully developed manhood. 
 
 And there is a similar relation between the different 
 elements of life, in the heavens, the higher and the lower. 
 Thus, these comparisons and correspondences relate to 
 human life in all its different aspects, whether in the dif- 
 ferent churches which have existed on the earth, or the 
 different conditions of the church in the heavens, or the 
 relative conditions of principles in men's individual 
 minds. 
 
 THE IMAGE. 
 
 And these are the things represented by the great 
 image, seen by Nebuchadnezzar. And we can easily see 
 that this image was a reflex of the image erected in 
 the king's own mind, by his ambitious thoughts, while 
 he reflected upon his own greatness, the splendor of his 
 kingdom, the extent of his power, and his desire to 
 govern the whole world. 
 
 But the dream reveals to men (to each as he is able 
 to see and to understand the case) the inevitable final 
 result of the love of dominion, working in a human 
 mind, and in general human history ; because the love 
 of rule is based on the love of self; and, finally, it will 
 look to self, alone, and will depart from the Lord ; and 
 it will thus necessarily perish, spiritually, by self- 
 destruction, in the love of evil and in the life of sin. 
 
 The head of the image was of gold, representing 
 celestial love, love to the Lord. The upper body was of 
 silver, representing spiritual love, love to the neighbor. 
 The lower body was of brass, representing natural good- 
 
Nebuchadnezzar's Dream of the Great Image. 327 
 
 ness. The legs were of iron, representing natural truth. 
 All these were good and necessary to a right manhood. 
 And if the feet, also, had been of good iron, only, the 
 image would have represented a noble manhood, in 
 which the different principles bear similar relations to 
 each other. But the weakness of the image was in its 
 feet, because they " were part of iron, and part of clay." 
 And the iron and clay would not make a firm and strong 
 joining; and so the image could not stand firmly. The 
 clay, which would not join with iron, represents a state 
 of natural evil, which would not unite with natural truth, 
 and which would not furnish a firm basis in a good 
 natural life. 
 
 HUMAN HISTORY. 
 
 And now we have the full history of the principle of 
 the love of ruling over others, and its inevitable final 
 self-destruction. This great image had its head of gold ; 
 i.e., in its beginning, and in the highest states of the 
 mind, there was some love to the Lord ; and the ruler 
 supposed that he loved to rule for the sake of doing 
 celestial good to those whom he ruled, because they were 
 the Lord's children, brought under the king's care. 
 
 But the operation of the dominant love of ruling, 
 gradually dragged down the mind, below this celestial 
 love, and brought a new mental condition ; i.e., a forget- 
 ting of the Lord's claims, and a love of ruling the neigh- 
 bor because the ruler wished well, spiritually, to those 
 whom he ruled. This was a descent to the breast and 
 arms of silver, and a departure from the head of gold. 
 
 But, as the fundamental self-love, hidden in the love 
 of ruling, gradually increased its force, even the spiritual 
 element of love was forgotten ; and the ruler persuaded 
 himself that he ruled others for their external and nat- 
 ural good. This was descending to the bowels and 
 thighs of brass. And again, the gradual descent brought 
 about another new state of mind, a forgetfulness of 
 
328 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 goodness, even on the natural plane, and a descent to the 
 legs of iron, the hard laws of natural truth, by which the 
 ruler persuaded himself that it was right for him to rule 
 others, and that they ought to see it to be right. 
 
 But the descent did not stop, even at this stage; but 
 the mind of the ruler set aside all ideas of either spir- 
 itual or natural goodness or truth ; and he tried to stand 
 upon feet partly of iron and partly of clay ; i.e., he oper- 
 ated from selfish motives, but tried to put on an appear- 
 ance of following the law. But the iron of natural truth 
 and law, would not cohere with his miry clay of evil ; 
 and so the whole image lost its secure standing. 
 
 THE DESTRUCTION. 
 
 When the great image stood upon the low plane, a 
 stone from an adjacent mountain rolled out upon the 
 image, and broke it to pieces. The stone struck the weak 
 feet, and threw down the image, and ground its whole 
 form to dust, like mere " chaff of the summer threshing- 
 floors." The clay, the iron, the brass, the silver and the 
 gold, were all destroyed. 
 
 The " stone," v^^hich crushed the image, was the Truth 
 of the Lord, revealed to men, and coming out from the 
 great mountain of the Lord's love. The Lord, Himself, 
 was in His truth. And, as the truth passed along, in 
 human minds, it grew, and " became a great mountain, 
 and filled the whole earth;" i.e., it filled the church, and 
 the minds of men, with the love of the Lord. This stone 
 was not taken from the mountain by human hands, but 
 it came out, as of itself ; representing that the truth 
 which disperses false and evil things, is not any man- 
 made creed, but the spirit of the Divine Truth, itself. 
 
 These things explain both the dream and Daniel's 
 interpretation of it. But, when Daniel said to the king, 
 " Thou art this head of gold," it is not meant that either 
 the king, or Babylon, was in a celestial state of mind. 
 
N ebuchadneszar' s Dream of the Great Image. 329 
 
 But Babylon was the degenerate remnant of what was 
 once a celestial church, in which the rulers once ruled 
 in the name of the Lord, and for the good of the people. 
 In every church, we can trace the gradual decline in its 
 characteristic quality, until its end. In every stage of 
 progress, as long as something of a church could be 
 maintained, existing institutions have been permitted to 
 continue. When men became sensuous, and lost all 
 spirituality of character, they could still be kept in some 
 kind of order, externally, by means of external churches. 
 But when a church could no longer serve for any good, 
 it has come to its end. 
 
 THE CHURCHES. 
 
 The Most Ancient Church possessed great spiritual 
 intelligence. But its members began to degenerate, by 
 wrongly eating of the tree of knowledge ; i.e., by appro- 
 priating to themselves, as their own, the truths revealed 
 to them by the Lord. And thus they fell into the pride 
 of self-intelligence, in which they were destroyed, as 
 represented by the allegory of the deluge. The destruc- 
 tion of the Ancient Church is represented by the casting 
 out of the people of Canaan, by the Israelites. The end 
 of the Jewish Church is represented by the destruction 
 of the temple in Jerusalem, and by the carrying away of 
 the Jews, into captivity ; and by the coming of Christ. 
 The end of the First Christian Church is minutely and 
 graphically pictured in the Scriptures, especially in the 
 Book of The Revelation, And, at the end of the First 
 Christian Church, the Lord came again, not physically, 
 but spiritually, in a fuller outpouring of light and of life, 
 to those " who have ears to hear what the Spirit saith 
 unto the churches." 
 
 Every church which finally has been brought to an 
 end, has degenerated by its inversion of the image of 
 God, in man ; and its attempt to stand the heavenly gold 
 and silver upon feet of iron, mixed with clay ; an attempt 
 
330 Parables of the Old Testament Exphtincd. 
 
 to uphold the principles of heaven upon a life of selfish 
 evil. 
 
 PRACTICAL LESSONS. 
 
 The image seen by the king stands before us, as a 
 striking picture of the final end of every unregenerate 
 mind. We may seek to cover our selfishness with pre- 
 tended virtues ; and we may even deceive ourselves as 
 to the evil of our real motives ; but we cannot thus stop 
 the downward trend of our character, nor its final self- 
 destruction. Nothing but actual regeneration can break 
 the course of degeneration. 
 
 And, to meet this case, the last part of our text was 
 given : " And in the days of these kings shall the God 
 of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be de- 
 stroyed." This is the spiritual kingdom of the Lord, 
 Himself, especially in His Second Coming, in the Spirit, 
 to build His kingdom in the hearts of those who love 
 Him. This kingdom shall be built up by means of the 
 Divine Word, especially in its inward and spiritual 
 meaning. And this kingdom " shall stand forever." 
 " The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the Word 
 of our God shall stand forever." (Isaiah xl. 8.) 
 
 The First Christian Church, as a dispensation, passed 
 through all the states represented in our text, from the 
 gold of its early state, down to silver, brass, iron, and 
 even clay, until it was brought to an end, at the Second 
 Coming of the Lord. And now, in the rising progress 
 of the church, the case is inverted ; for the individual 
 man and the general church, must now work up, again, 
 from lower to higher things. And the promise comes 
 to the New Jerusalem, at this day, that our Lord will 
 lead us back over the lost ground, that we may regain 
 our spiritual inheritance. " For brass, I will bring gold, 
 and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood, brass, and 
 for stones, iron." (Isaiah Ix. 17.) 
 
Nebuchadnezzar's Dream of the Great Image. 33: 
 
 To the man of the New Jerusalem, every good prin- 
 ciple, loved, understood, and built into the daily life, will 
 open itself in its higher phases, and will elevate the mind 
 to higher things, that the man may return nearer and 
 nearer to his Lord. 
 
 PRESENT CONDITIONS. 
 
 Often, we wonder why the New Jerusalem does not 
 descend from heaven more rapidly. The great stone 
 of the doctrine of the Lord, the great truth of the 
 Divinity of the Lord, Jesus Christ, as the one God of 
 heaven and of earth, has struck upon the weak feet of. 
 the great image. But we are living in the age when the 
 great crushing of the image is still going on. The good 
 that is now in the sects of Christendom, is largely natural 
 good, rather than spiritual good. And much that is called 
 good, is mixed with the clay of man's natural evils. 
 
 Look about you, in all phases of human life, and ask 
 yourself what foundation is ready for the New Jerusa- 
 lem to stand upon. These are times of wide-spread dis- 
 order, of colossal schemes for selfish purposes, of impa- 
 tience against all legal restraint, even by right and truth. 
 These are times of bold self-assertion and insolent self- 
 seeking. Crime abounds ; a great many men are not 
 faithful to their trusts, nor loyal to their obligations. 
 Immorality stalks through the land, with brazen face. 
 All kinds of irrational isms seek to supplant genuine 
 Christianity. Coarse, rude and vulgar evils laugh at 
 refinement. These are not conditions which prepare 
 foundations for the holy city to descend upon. But, in 
 spite of the times, those individuals who are willing 
 to climb to higher spiritual conditions, will find the way 
 open to them, and the right path revealed. There- 
 fore, " Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live." 
 (Amos V. 14.) 
 
33-2 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S DREAM OF THE GREAT 
 TREE. 
 
 Thus were the visions of mine head, in my bed. I saw, and 
 behold a tree in the midst of the earth ; and the height thereof 
 was great; The tree grew, and was strong, and the height 
 thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end 
 of all the earth. The leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit 
 thereof much ; and in it was meat for all. The beasts of -the 
 field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt 
 in the boughs thereof; and all flesh was fed of it. . . . 
 
 And behold, a watcher and an holy one came down from 
 heaven. He cried aloud, and said thus, Hew down the tree, 
 and cut off his branches, shake ofif his leaves, and scatter his 
 fruit : let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from 
 his branches. 
 
 Nevertheless, leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even 
 with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field ; 
 and let it be wet with the dew of heaven ; and let his portion be 
 with the beasts, in the grass of the earth. Let his heart be 
 changed from man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto him : 
 and let seven times pass over him. 
 
 This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand 
 by the word of the holy ones : to the intent that the living may 
 know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and 
 giveth it to whomsoever He will ; and setteth up over it the 
 basest of men. 
 
 This dream, I, king Nebuchadnezzar, have seen. Now, then, 
 O Belteshazzar, declare the interpretation thereof. . . . Then 
 Daniel . . . answered and said. My lord, . . . the tree that thou 
 sawest, ... it is thou, O king : thou art grown and become 
 strong; for thy greatness is grown, and rcacheth unto heaven, 
 and thy dominion to the end of the earth. . . . This is the inter- 
 pretation, O king, and this is the decree of the Most High, 
 
Nebuchadnezzar's Dream of the Great Tree. 333 
 
 which is come upon my lord, the king: that they shall drive 
 thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of 
 the field ; and they shall make thee to eat grass, as oxen ; and 
 they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times 
 shall pass over thee, till thou know that the Most High ruleth 
 in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will. 
 And whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree 
 roots, thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee, after that thou shall 
 have known that the heavens do rule. Wherefore, O king, let 
 my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by 
 righteousness, and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the 
 poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity. All this 
 came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. — Daniel iv. 10-28. 
 
 The Celestial Church began in a living and flourish- 
 ing condition ; but, as its members gradually fell into the 
 love of their own wisdom, as their own ; and as they 
 forgot the Lord as the Source of all truth and life ; they 
 finally caused the destruction of the church. But some 
 remains of goodness were preserved and nourished by 
 the Lord, in the interiors of men's hearts ; until a new 
 church could be formed and established. These state- 
 ments apply historically, to the aggregate church ; and 
 also personally to the conditions of mind in men, indi- 
 vidually. 
 
 THE LOVE OF RULING. 
 
 Our text deals with the love orruling over the minds 
 of others ; and it illustrates the inevitable effect of such 
 a love, upon the minds of men, individually and collec- 
 tively. There are two kinds of the love of rule, a good 
 love and an evil love. The good love of rule is a love 
 of administering the things of the Lord's providence 
 among men. This love may exist in a regenerate mind., 
 because its purpose is to do good to others, from the 
 Lord, and for their happiness. Such a desire to rule is 
 merely the desire to carry out the Lord's rule among 
 men, in the name of the Lord, and according to His 
 
334 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 revealed laws for human life. But the evil love of ruling 
 over others is a form of self-love, which seeks to subject 
 others to its purposes, and for its gain. This evil love 
 originates in the hells ; and it enters into unregenerate 
 men. 
 
 Literally, our text deals with Babylon and her great 
 king. And Babylon represents the evil love of ruling 
 over others. And her king represents the leading false 
 principle which directs this evil lOve. The Babylon of the 
 time of our text, was the degenerate remnant of a once 
 celestial church. The city of Babylon was a very great 
 city ; and the worship in its temples was very elaborate ; 
 while its external institutions were ver)- flourishing, and 
 apparently prosperous. And, in this sense, its external 
 condition was represented b}' the great and flourishing 
 tree, in our text. 
 
 THE GREAT TREE. 
 
 And the history of this tree represents the spiritual 
 history of the mental conditions represented by Babylon. 
 A tree, growing in the earth, from a seed, represents a 
 principle planted in the mind, and growing there, through 
 various stages of progress. In this sense, our Lord, in 
 His parable of the mustard seed, compared the growth 
 of tliis small seed to the growth of His truth in men's 
 minds. The great height of the tree, in our text, and its 
 growth and strength, represent the far-reaching intelli- 
 gence of the mind, in which the Lord's truth is growing 
 and strengthening. That the tree reached up to heaven, 
 means that the mind attained the understanding of heav- 
 enly things. That its sight reached to the end of the 
 earth, means literally, that it could be seen from a very 
 great distance, because of its great height. 
 
 But, spiritually, it means that the mind's intelligence 
 in truth extends to the ultimates of the church ; i.e., to 
 
N ebuchadnezBar s Dreain of the Great Tree. 335 
 
 all things of nature, as well as to all things of the spirit. 
 The leaves of the tree were fair; i.e., the rational 
 thoughts were true and abundant. The fruit was much ; 
 i.e., the good works were abundant, as the results of 
 good principles. In the tree there was food for all ; i.e., 
 the growing truth affords life and satisfaction for all 
 parts of the man's mind. The beasts found shelter there ; 
 i.e., the affections of the mind found a resting-place in 
 the truths known. The birds dwelt there ; i.e., the 
 thoughts dwelt among the truths known. 
 
 Thus far, the tree represents a mind in a good condi- 
 tion, growing and flourishing, on all planes of life. It 
 represents what the mind should be, in its regenerate 
 states. 
 
 THE DESTRUCTION. 
 
 But, in our text, this tree represents a mind which 
 degenerates, which falls from these high and flourishing 
 conditions, and meets almost total destruction. And the 
 cause of this great destruction, is that the man indulges 
 and cultivates a love of self, and a love of ruling over 
 others, for his own purposes. And this evil principle 
 induces the destruction of the great and flourishing tree 
 of truth, in the mind. 
 
 It is said that the tree was hewn down, at the com- 
 mand of a watcher and a holy one, who came down from 
 heaven ; thus representing the Divine Providence, and 
 the Divine Power, operating in the mind of man, to 
 bring to an end such conditions as are dangerous to the 
 man's spiritual life ; and leading him through various 
 experiences, until he can be restored to good conditions, 
 on a permanent basis. For, in certain conditions, when 
 the mind has run its full course, and completed one 
 stage of its retrogression, the Lord brings about, or 
 permits, a judgment to come upon the existing condi- 
 tions, to bring them to an end, in order that a new 
 
336 Parables of the Old Tcstaiiicnt Explained. 
 
 beginning may be made, on a different level of mental 
 life. 
 
 But all the knowledge and intelligence which the 
 Lord's truth formerly built up in the growing mind, 
 will fall down, and come to nothing, when they are per- 
 verted and abused by the man's growing love of self, 
 and his love of ruling over the minds of other men. For 
 a good or true principle can retain its vitality and growth,' 
 and its fruitfulness, so long, only, and in so far, only, 
 as it is received and used as the Lord's good, or truth, 
 and for the Lord's revealed purposes in the life of men. 
 Goodness and truth, perverted to evil purposes, become 
 evil and falsity in the mind which corrupts them. In 
 such a mind, all the good beasts and birds are warned 
 to " get away" from the tree, because it is soon to fall. 
 Good affections and true thoughts depart from the mind 
 in which the selfish love of rule grows into control of 
 the Hfe. 
 
 THE STUMP. 
 
 But the Lord, in His infinite mercy, leaves the stump 
 and roots remaining, to provide for future restoration 
 and growth. For, if there is sufficient vitality in the 
 roots, they may produce a new tree, under suitable con- 
 ditions. The deep roots of the mind are the affections 
 of the will. From these fundamental principles, new life 
 may grow and bear fruit, in new conditions. 
 
 When a man allows his mind to destroy itself, in cor- 
 rupting the principles which he knows, he is reduced 
 to a state which is almost dead, spiritually. But, if there 
 are any remains of goodness still left in his heart, from 
 the Lord, the Lord will preserve these remnants ; and, 
 from them, by means of providential leadings and in- 
 struction, the Lord will draw out the latent spiritual life 
 of the man, and lead it to a new growth. He will pro- 
 tect the man from falling into permanent spiritual death. 
 
Ncbiichadnc.'ycar's Dream of the Great Tree. 337 
 
 And He will do this by surrounding the man with such 
 circumstances and conditions as will hold him in the 
 knowledge of natural goodness and natural truth. He 
 will keep the man's mind in the light of the letter of the 
 Divine Word, so that he can form his conduct according 
 to the Lord's commandments. These Divine command- 
 ments will protect a man from falling into actual evils of 
 life, and from fixing himself in such evils, and thus fall- 
 ing into spiritual death. 
 
 These things are represented by the band of iron and 
 brass, which was put around the stump of the tree, as 
 stated in our text. Literally, men preserve a stump of a 
 tree, by placing around it a strong band, or hoop, to pre- 
 vent the rain and the wind and frost from splitting the 
 stump, and inducing decay. This band, or ring, repre- 
 sents the protection given to the mind of a man, in times 
 of trial. A band of iron, represents natural truth, literal 
 truth ; and a band of brass represents natural good. 
 And if a man, who has fallen into evils, can be kept 
 under the binding influence of the letter of the Divine 
 Word, so that he will keep the Lord's commandments 
 in his daily life, then whatever latent good is in his heart 
 can be preserved, as the basis of a new spiritual growth. 
 
 And these things will be left " in the tender grass of 
 the field;" ;'.('.. amid the practical knowledges of natural 
 things, in daily life, where a man's character is formed 
 These things are meant, also, by his eating grass like the 
 ox. And the stump will be ^\■et with the dew ; i.e., the 
 truths of the Divine Word will come to the mind, as the}' 
 apply to the little details of daily life. 
 
 WITH THE BE.\STS. 
 
 But, in degenerating, the man has fallen below " the 
 measure of a man," and has become as a beast, following 
 his natural impulses. The quality of his affection is no 
 
 22 
 
338 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 longer spiritual, but only sensuous. To some extent, 
 he has profaned known truths. His mind no longer 
 enjoys the human characteristic of spiritual rationality, 
 which is the capacity to see spiritual truth in its own 
 light. The man thus falls back into what he is, of him- 
 self, without the recognized help of the Lord. And this 
 condition brings him into mental association with evil 
 spirits, who are here meant by beasts, among whom he 
 will live. 
 
 SEVEN TIMES. 
 
 " And let seven times pass over him," or, literally, 
 " seven times shall change upon him." Literally, it is 
 supposed that Nebuchadnezzar was insane for seven 
 years. But, spiritually, the reference is not to times, but 
 to mental conditions. As a symbolic number, seven has 
 two meanings, completeness and holiness. And these 
 two meanings harmonize in the fact that holiness is a 
 state of completeness in the observance of the Divine 
 laws. These " seven times" represent the complete suc- 
 cession of mental changes of state, which the fallen man 
 must undergo, before the latent good that remains in 
 him, from the Lord, can be developed, for his restoration 
 to true human life. The old states of mind, which he 
 corrupted, must be allowed to work themselves out, to a 
 fulness, or completion, before the inward life of holiness 
 can be developed. And then the man can be taught 
 that " the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men ;" 
 i.e., that the Divine principles must govern men's minds 
 and lives. 
 
 It is said in our text, that the Lord " giveth the king- 
 dom to whomsoever He will, and setteth up over it 
 the basest of men." The Hebrew word here rendered 
 " basest," does not refer to character, but to social posi- 
 tion : it means humble, in a humble position, in a low sta- 
 tion, socially. And the literal idea is that the Lord 
 
Nebuchadiiec::ar's Dream of the Great Tree. 339 
 
 sometimes raises up very obscure men, and makes them 
 to be kings. " He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, 
 . . . that He may set him with princes." (Psalm cxiii. 
 7.) " He hath put down the mighty from their seats, 
 and exalted them of low degree." (Luke i. 52.) 
 
 And our Lord does these things in our minds, and 
 in our character, when He disciplines us, until we put 
 down our own self-exaltation, and exalt the interior and 
 higher qualities of regenerate love, which, at first, we 
 despised. 
 
 NEBUCHADNEZZAR, AS THE TREE. 
 
 Some of the persons named in the Scriptures are 
 merely representative, and not intended to indicate actual 
 individuals. But Nebuchadnezzar was an actual indi- 
 vidual, and a very famous king of Babylon, who lived 
 about six hundred years before Christ ; and who reared 
 many stupendous engineering and architectural works. 
 But his excessive personal ambition finally drove him 
 insane, probably into that peculiar form of insanity 
 known as lycanthropy (wolf -manhood), in which the 
 man imagines himself to be a beast, and falls into the 
 habits of beasts. These notions are easily forced upon 
 an unsettled mind, by the evil spirits who are mentally 
 associated with the insane man. 
 
 But, spiritually, these things represent the low fallacies 
 and falsities into which men fall, when they exalt them- 
 selves, and forget the Lord. The human element in the 
 mind is then dethroned, and the animal part of the man 
 asserts its influence ; and the man then lives " with the 
 beasts ;" i.e., he lives an animal life, rather than a 
 rational human life. 
 
 THE KINGDOM SURE. 
 
 But, if the infinite love and mercy of the Lord can 
 develop any new good in the man, he will be restored to 
 
340 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 rational manhood, and his spiritual kingdom will be sure, 
 for him. As a means of preparing the mind for its resto- 
 ration to true humanity, Daniel, when he interpreted the 
 dream, advised the king, " break off thy sins by right- 
 eousness, and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the 
 poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity." 
 And this is always the means of improvement, to cease 
 evil and falsity, and to obey the Lord, by giving life to 
 our spiritual nature, which we have kept in poverty and 
 distress, while we were exalting our self-love and our 
 self-derived intelligence. 
 
 THE APPLICATION. 
 
 The text declares, '' all this came upon the king Nebu- 
 chadnezzar." But, while there was, in this case, a literal 
 fulfilment of prophecy, yet this was merely the external 
 side of the case, which symbolizes the spiritual side. The 
 case of Nebuchadnezzar presents a good example of 
 Solomon's saying, " Pride goeth before destruction, artd 
 a haughty spirit before a fall." Nebuchadnezzar repre- 
 sents human nature under the deadening influence of the 
 selfish love of ruling over others, and especially the lust 
 of dominating the souls of men. This infernal spirit 
 exists in individuals, and in churches, both in this world, 
 and in the spiritual world. 
 
 Human history on our earth affords man^' examples 
 of excessive ambition, sometimes seeking to control the 
 world mentally, and sometimes physically. Xerxes, Cse- 
 sar. Napoleon, and many others, have streamed bril- 
 liantly across the horizon of human history, but have 
 sunk into miserable ends. 
 
 But to each of us, in our own little way, the same spirit 
 of self-exaltation comes along, in the course of our 
 experience, and seeks to control us. But happy are we, 
 if, early in our career, we discover the infernal nature of 
 
Nebuchadnezzar's Dream of the Great Tree. 341 
 
 this malignant evil; and when we resist and reject it, 
 and look to our Lord for light and guidance. 
 
 Sometimes, it occurs to us to ask why our Lord does 
 not prosper us in just such ways as we would wish. 
 But, if we are not now prospering spiritually, as we 
 should do, it must be because, in our minds and lives, 
 there is not yet a sufficient foundation on which to build 
 the best life of which we are capable. And our Lord is 
 permitting our tree to be cut down, and the seven 
 changes to come over us, until we see, and seek. His laws 
 of life, to govern all our personal experience ; until we 
 have no self-will opposed to His will, which is full of love 
 and goodness for us, when we are ready to receive His 
 gifts. And then, " the Spirit of the Lord shall come 
 upon thee, and thou . . . shalt be turned into another 
 man." (L Samuel x. 6.) 
 
34- Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 THE FEAST, AND THE HAND-WRITING ON 
 THE WALL. 
 
 Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his 
 lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, while 
 he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver 
 vessels which his father, Nebuchadnezzar, had taken out of the 
 temple which was in Jerusalem ; that the king, and his princes, 
 his wives and his concubines, might drink therein. . . . They 
 drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of 
 brass, of iron, of wood and of stone. In the same hour, came 
 forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote, over against the 
 candlestick, upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace : 
 and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the 
 king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, 
 so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote 
 one against another. The king cried aloud, to bring in the 
 astrologers, the Chaldeans and the sooth-sayers. . . . Then came 
 in all the king's wise men : but they could not read the writing, 
 nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof. . . . 
 Now the queen, by reason of the words of the king and his 
 lords, came into the banquet-house : and the queen spoke and 
 said, . . . Let Daniel be called, and he will show the inter- 
 pretation. Then was Daniel brought before the king. . . . Then 
 Daniel answered and said before the king. Let thy gifts be to 
 thyself, and give thy rewards to another: yet I will read the 
 writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpreta- 
 tion. 
 
 O thou king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar, thy 
 father, a kingdom, and majesty, and glory and honor. . . . But, 
 when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, 
 he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory 
 from him. . . . And thou, his son, O Belshazzar, hast not hum- 
 bled thine heart, though thou knewest all this ; but hast lifted 
 
The Feast, and the Hand-Writing on the Wall. 343 
 
 up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought 
 the vessels of His house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, 
 and thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them : 
 and thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, 
 iron, wood and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know : and 
 the God in whose hand is thy breath, and whose are all thy 
 ways, hast thou not glorified : then was the part of the hand 
 sent from Him ; and this writing was written. And this is the 
 writing that was written, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. 
 
 This is the interpretation of the thing: Mene, God hath 
 numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. Tekel, thou art 
 weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. Peres, thy 
 kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. . . . 
 In that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain. 
 And Darius, the Median, took the kingdom. — Daniel v. 
 
 When genuine love and faith cease, and the love of 
 self prevails in the church, there grows up the spirit 
 of Babylon, which is the love of ruling over others, espe- 
 cially of ruling over the souls of men ; making dominion 
 over others the secret end, and religion merely the means. 
 And this spirit finally will profane the holy things of 
 the Divine Word, and will exalt itself above the holy 
 Word, and even above the Lord. And such a spirit 
 will destroy the church in which it prevails. 
 
 THE LITERAL STORY. 
 
 Belshazzar, a grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, is here 
 called a son, in the general sense of a lineal descendant. 
 The Chaldean name, Belshazzar, means a prince of God. 
 It was nearly the same name as that given to Daniel, by 
 the Chaldeans, when he and his companions were taken 
 to Babylon. But we are to avoid confusing the two men, 
 Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, and Belteshazzar, the 
 Hebrew prophet, Daniel. Belshazzar, the king, was a 
 man of sensuous tastes and habits, and a heathen idol- 
 ater. He was living among the heathen ways of the 
 
344 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 ancient Orientals, including polygamy, and gross im- 
 morality, without an)' Christian standard of virtue. 
 
 While at one of his great feasts, and while under the 
 influence of heavy drinking of wine, it occurred to him 
 to give style to his carousal, by the use of the beautiful 
 and valuable golden and silver vessels, which Nebuchad- 
 nezzar had stolen as plunder, from the altar of Jehovah, 
 in the temple at Jerusalem. These sacred vessels, dedi- 
 cated to worship of the true God, only, the king inso- 
 lently used for the animal pleasures of a debauch, in a 
 low-minded company. And such an act was sacrilege 
 and profanation, which were intensified by the fact, that 
 while drinking from the sacred vessels of the only true 
 God, these Babylonians praised their own heathen idols, 
 dead images, of gold, silver, etc., which had no life nor 
 power. 
 
 As the text states that these Babylonians drank wine 
 from the gold and silver vessels of Jehovah's temple ; 
 and then that they praised the gods of gold and of silver, 
 etc., we might, at first, naturally infer that they were 
 praising the God to whom these gold and silver vessels 
 belonged. But this was not the case. And the fact that 
 these two passages about gold and silver happen to come 
 into the text, nearly together, does not involve any such 
 association. These heathen carousers were, practically, 
 denying the true God, and expressing their contempt for 
 Him. 
 
 THE VISION. 
 
 And, while they were doing so, a vision of impending 
 judgment was revealed to them. Their spiritual eyes 
 were opened, and they, or some of them, including the 
 king, saw a hand, writing some obscure words upon the 
 wall of the room. Of course, this scene was in the spir- 
 itual world, and was revealed to the spiritual eyes of 
 those who saw it. In the spiritual world, the plastic 
 
The Feast, and the Hand-Writing on the Wall. 345 
 
 substances can be readily formed to represent anything 
 which the Lord desires, and even the things which the 
 angels think and feel, and desire to represent. 
 
 This scene greatly impressed the sensuous king. And, 
 naturally, he called upon his wise men, to read and to 
 interpret the mysterious writing. But they were not 
 able to do so. But the queen, who had not been present 
 at the carousal, but who had been attracted to the ban- 
 quet-hall by the excitement of the occasion, suggested to 
 the king that he should call Daniel, to interpret the 
 writing. This queen was probably the queen-mother, 
 and not one of the wives of the reigning king. And she 
 was probably of a better personal character than the 
 women who had been carousing, as is suggested by the 
 facts that she was not invited to the feast, and that she 
 cherished the memory of Daniel. 
 
 Daniel read and interpreted the writing on the wall ; 
 and he proclaimed a severe judgment against the king 
 and his kingdom. And this judgment was literally ful- 
 filled that very night, in the death of the king, and the 
 taking of the kingdom, by Darius, the Mede, who had 
 been besieging the city. This is the literal story, which 
 is merely the outside of the more important spiritual 
 story. 
 
 BABYLON AND THE FEAST. 
 
 Babylon represents the selfish love of ruling over 
 others. And the king of Babylon represents the leading 
 false principle, which directs this evil love of rule. When 
 we transfer the scene to the minds of men, a good feast 
 is a reception of goodness and truth, of love and of 
 wisdom, from the Lord. But evil men do not come 
 together to receive goodness and truth from the Lord, 
 but to feast on their own evils and falsities, which are 
 opposed to the Lord's principles. 
 
 When an evil man's selfish love of ruling over others 
 
34^ Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 becomes active, the king, the leading false principle, 
 makes .a mental feast, and calls in all the lords of the 
 land, which are the prominent principles of the natural 
 mind ; and all the princes, or all the leading truths ; and 
 his wives, or his natural affections ; and his concubines, 
 or his disorderly sensuous affections. When all these 
 evils and falsities join in a mental feast, it is a debauch, 
 a carousal, in which the laws of goodness and of decency 
 are disregarded. 
 
 But, while an evil man's mind may be in this condi- 
 tion, yet, he may know many true doctrines, drawn from 
 the Word of the Lord, and taught in the church. And 
 while he is under the influence of the wine, i.e., of truth 
 such as he has, he seeks to make the true doctrines of the 
 church agree with his own false notions. These doc- 
 trines of the church are the golden and silver vessels 
 from the altar of the Lord, in His holy temple; i.e., from 
 the Lord's presence in the church. And the evil man's 
 own notions are the wine which he puts into the holy 
 vessels of the Lord's temple. The literal scene, of the 
 king and his companions drinking their wine from the 
 holy vessels stolen from the altar in the temple, is the 
 graphic counterpart of the mental scene in the evil mind, 
 which calls all its capacities to feast in evil and in sin, 
 and yet seeks to force the teachings of the Lord to agree 
 with its evil life. 
 
 PROFANATION. 
 
 When the heathen used the vessels of the Lord's tem- 
 ple in their sensuous carousals, they committed an act 
 of sacrilege, by abusing holy things. And so the human 
 mind, which uses the Divine Truths to uphold and jus- 
 tify its own selfish evils, commits profanation, by the in- 
 tentional abuse of known truths. These are the men 
 who, in their own minds, " make the Word of God of 
 none effect, by their traditions." 
 
The Feast, and the Hand-Writing on the Wall. 347 
 
 And this sin of profanation is a most serious evil, be- 
 cause it is not done in the simplicity of ignorance, but in 
 the duplicity of wilful evil. And the profound character 
 of this evil is seen in the fact that the heathen, while 
 drinking wine from the vessels of Jehovah, praised their 
 own idols, mere images made of various metals, as well 
 as of wood and of stone; dead things, which could do 
 nothing. This is a picture of the man who, while he 
 knows the truths of the Divine Word, and the doctrines 
 of the church, yet uses these things of the Lord to deny 
 the Lord's supremacy; and, in heart, to exalt himself 
 above the Lord. 
 
 IDOLS. 
 
 An idol of gold is the evil of self-love, in which the 
 goodness of the Lord is profaned. An idol of silver is 
 the falsity, which, in the mind worshipping this evil, 
 destroys both the Divine Truth and the love of the neigh- 
 bor. An idol of brass is the natural evil, evil on the nat- 
 ural plane, which is a corruption of that natural good- 
 ness which comes to men in keeping the Lord's com- 
 mandments. An idol of iron is a hard literal rule of 
 conduct, which is opposed to the Divine rules for human 
 life. An idol of stone is a literal statement accepted as a 
 truth, and yet used in such a way as to make it false, in 
 effect. An idol of wood is that which the man desires as 
 good to his sensuous life, but which is not good accord- 
 ing to the Divine standard. 
 
 And, for a man to praise all these idols, while drinking 
 from the Lord's vessels, is, for instance, to use the letter 
 of the Divine Word to justify his own selfish evils of 
 affection, and falsities of thought, and sins of conduct. 
 And this, practically, is making a hell out of those things 
 which the Lord gives us as a means of making a heaven 
 within us. And this is abuse, sacrilege, profanation. It 
 is putting self in the place of God, in our hearts, and in 
 
,^4''^ Porablcs of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 our thoughts. It is making a hell in our own hearts ; i.e., 
 in our own actual character, or quality of mind. It is 
 living in coldness so dense that the Lord's love can not 
 warm it, and in a darkness so thick that His wisdom can 
 not enlighten it; because these sources of life are shut 
 out from the man's mind. Thus the man fills up the 
 measure of his evil character. He brings upon himself 
 the judgment, which, necessarily, must come to things 
 which have run their course. 
 
 THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 The hand-writing on the wall of the palace proclaimed 
 this judgment against the king and his kingdom. And 
 the king saw the part of the hand which wrote on the 
 wall ; and he was greatly troubled. Even to the evil 
 man, sunk into the lusts of sensuous life, there sometimes 
 come warnings and premonitions of his self-imposed, 
 impending fate, which the Lord, in His loving provi- 
 dence, has sought to prevent, but which the man deter- 
 minedly prefers, in character and in life. 
 
 When a disturbing premonition of trouble comes to 
 the evil man, naturally, he consults his own thoughts, and 
 his self-interest, to think what may happen to him. For, 
 naturall>', in his mind, a sense of trouble means loss or 
 trouble to his own evil and selfish qualities. It does not 
 occur to him that the loss means his loss of spiritual life. 
 And his self-dependence is represented by the king, Bel- 
 shazzar, calling in his heathen astrologers, etc., to read 
 and interpret the writing on the wall. And the fact that 
 these heathen wise men could neither read nor interpret 
 the writing, represents the spiritual fact that our own 
 selfish notions and worldly ideas cannot point out to us 
 the dangers of our selfish life, and our impending judg- 
 ment. 
 
 Rut the queen-mother, who was not one of the 
 
The Feast, and the Hand-lVriting on the Wall. 349 
 
 carousers at the feast, remembered Daniel, the prophet 
 of Jehovah ; and sought him, to read and interpret the 
 writing on the wall. This queen represents what there 
 was remaining of the better nature, in the mind, the 
 " remains" stored up by the Lord, especially in child- 
 hood ; and by which the man could be led to look to the 
 Lord, and to His holy Word, for light, in distress. And 
 Daniel, the prophet, represents the Divine Word. And 
 Daniel interpreted the writing on the wall, and plainly 
 informed the king of his condition, and its results. 
 
 THE INTERPRETATION. 
 
 " Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin." " Mene, God hath 
 numbered thy kingdom, and finished it," i.e., brought it 
 to an end. We say, of anything which has come to its 
 completion, or end, " Its days are numbered." " Tekel, 
 thou art weighed in the balances, and art found want- 
 ing," i.e., lacking in character. " Peres, thy kingdom 
 is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians." 
 
 As to the literal sense, naturally we wonder why 
 Daniel reads the writing as '' Mene, Mene, Tekel, Uphar- 
 sin," but in explaining it, uses the word " Peres" instead 
 of " Upharsin." There is no difficulty in this, but merely 
 an idiom of language. The Book of Daniel is written in 
 the ancient Chaldee, or Syrian language. The word 
 " Upharsin" is a compound of two words, " U," which 
 means "and," and " pharsin" which means "dividing." 
 In our language, we would have written it in two words, 
 " and dividing." But, in the Chaldee, the word for 
 " and" is joined to the following noun, and they are 
 written in one word. Grammatically, the words " Mene" 
 and " Tekel" are past participles, expressing things 
 which have been done, i.e., numbered and weighed. But 
 the word " pharsin" is an active present participle, mean- 
 ing, " dividing," that is they are now dividing your king- 
 
350 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 dom. But, when Daniel explained the meaning, instead 
 of using the active present participle, " pharsin," he used 
 the past participle, " Peres," meaning " have divided," 
 as if the INIedes and Persians had already divided the 
 kingdom. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL MEANING. 
 
 Spiritually, to number is to estimate the character of a 
 thing, as to whether it is true. And to weigh anything 
 is to test its goodness. Thus the word " Mene" is ex- 
 plained by Daniel as meaning " God hath numbered thy 
 kingdom, and finished it." Personally, a man's own 
 mind, his mental kingdom, is meant. And this is num- 
 bered ; i.e., estimated as to the truth that is in it. And 
 when it has filled up the measure of its career, and has 
 falsified all truths which have come to its knowledge, its 
 days will be spiritually numbered, and its career finished, 
 brought to an end, in the judgment. 
 
 "Tekel, thou art weighed in the balances, and art 
 found wanting;" i.e., thou art weighed as to character, 
 as to goodness, and art found lacking in goodness, and 
 without sincerity. " Jehovah is a God of knowledge, 
 and by Him actions are weighed." (I. Samuel ii. 3.) 
 
 And Job sa3's, " Let me be weighed in an even balance, 
 that God may know mine integrity." (Job xxxi. 6.) 
 
 " Peres, thy kingdom is divided and given to the 
 Medes and Persians." And, spiritually, to divide the 
 kingdom of the mind, is to destroy it, because a human 
 mind truly and spiritually lives only when the Lord 
 dwells in it, as His kingdom. And this kingdom must be 
 in goodness and truth, united in life. But if the man 
 separates the truth which he knows, from his heart, and 
 from his life, he destroys his spiritual kingdom ; be- 
 cause then the Lord can not dwell therein, as its King. 
 And then the man's mental kingdom is captured by his 
 spiritual enemies, his own evil loves and false thoughts. 
 
The Feast, and the Hand-Writing on the Wall. 351 
 
 The heathen Medes and Persians represent the evil states 
 of a man's mind, in which he separates charity and faith, 
 or goodness and truth, and thus allows his mental king- 
 dom to fall under the power of evil and falsity. And, in 
 that dark night, the king is slain, by the loss of spiritual 
 life. 
 
 These representative pictures teach every rational man 
 that his spiritual manhood, and his future happiness, 
 depend upon his daily resistance to the suggestions of 
 self-love and its accompanying falsities. The spiritual 
 world is all around us, as well as within us. And, every 
 day of our life, each thing and circumstance presents, 
 before us, a handwriting on the wall. And, if we were 
 as wide-awake to our spiritual interests, as we are to 
 our natural life, we could see the writing, and read the 
 interpretation. And we should always find, on the walls 
 of our life, a judgment written against everything in our 
 character that is not good and true. To every such evil 
 and falsity in our mind and life, comes the proclamation, 
 " Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found want- 
 ing" in every element of heavenly life. " Thy sorrow is 
 incurable, for the greatness of thine iniquity." (Jere- 
 miah XXX. 15.) 
 
352 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 DANIEL'S VISION OF THE FOUR BEASTS, 
 
 ETC. 
 
 Daniel spake and said, I saw, in my vision by night, and 
 behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. 
 And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from 
 another. 
 
 The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings. I beheld 
 till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from 
 the earth, and made stand upon the feet, as a man ; and a man's 
 heart was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second, like 
 to a bear; and it raised up itself, on one side; and it had three 
 ribs in the mouth of it, between the teeth of it. And they said 
 thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. 
 
 After this, I beheld, and lo, another, like a leopard, which 
 had upon the back of it, four wings of a fowl. The beast had 
 also four heads ; and dominion was given to it. 
 
 After this, I saw, in the night, visions, and behold, a fourth 
 beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it 
 had great iron teeth : it devoured, and brake in pieces, and 
 stamped the residue with the feet of it : and it was diverse 
 from all the beasts that were before it : and it had ten horns. 
 I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them 
 another little horn, before whom there were three of the first 
 horns plucked up by the roots : and behold, in this horn, were 
 eyes, like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. 
 And I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient 
 of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair 
 of His bead like the pure wool : His throne was like the fiery 
 flame, and His wheels as burning fire. 
 
 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him ; 
 thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand 
 times ten thousand stood before Him : the judgment was set. 
 and the books were opened. 
 
 I beheld then, because of the voice of the great words which 
 
Daniel's J^ision of the Four Beasts. 353 
 
 the horn spake : I beheld till the beast was slain, and his body 
 destroyed, and given to the burning flame. 
 
 As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion 
 taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and 
 time. 
 
 I saw, in the night, visions, and behold, one like a Son of 
 man, came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient 
 of days ; and they brought Him near before Him. And there 
 was given Him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all 
 people, nations and languages should serve Him : His dominion 
 is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His 
 kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. 
 
 I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit, in the midst of my body, 
 and the visions of ray head troubled me. I came near unto one 
 of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So 
 he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things. 
 These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall 
 arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall 
 take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever 
 and ever. . . . The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom 
 upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and 
 shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break 
 it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom, are ten 
 kings that shall arise : and another shall rise after them ; and he 
 shall be diverse from the first: and he shall subdue three kings. 
 And he shall speak great words against the Most High ; and 
 shall wear out the saints of the Most High ; and think to 
 change times and laws : and they shall be given into his hand, 
 until a time and times and the dividing of time. 
 
 But the judgment shall sit; and they shall take away his 
 dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the 
 kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under 
 the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints 
 of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom ; 
 and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. — Daniel vii. 2-18, 
 23-27. 
 
 This chapter contains a revelation concerning the suc- 
 cessive changes in the spiritual conditions of the church 
 among men on earth. This church, finall}' represented by 
 Babylon, had, in its first state, some understanding of 
 
 23 
 
354 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 truth ; but, in its second state, it studied the letter, only, 
 of the Scriptures ; and, in its third state, it falsified the 
 truths of the Divine Word, and made falsities appear as 
 truths ; and, in its fourth state, it formed and taught the 
 doctrine of " Salvation by Faith, alone," which was 
 apparently confirmed in the letter of the Scriptures, but 
 which deadly heresy gradually destroyed the spiritual 
 life of the church ; so that the First Christian Church 
 was brought to an end, as a dispensation, and a New 
 Christian Church was raised up, to understand, love and 
 practise spiritual Christianity. 
 
 THE BEASTS. 
 
 In vision, Daniel saw four beasts, which came up out 
 of the sea, and which were very peculiar, and very dif- 
 ferent. These four beasts representatively picture the 
 conditions and activities of the four general churches, 
 or general states of the church, among men, on earth. 
 Literalists always seek to apply these representative reve- 
 lations to material things, and to historical personages 
 and countries on this earth. But, in its profoundest and 
 most important meaning, the Word of the Lord always 
 relates to men as spiritual beings, and to the principles 
 and the activities of their spiritual nature ; and hence, 
 the application must be to the operations of the spiritual 
 world, in which all of man's spiritual activities occur. 
 
 When Daniel asked the meaning of these things, the 
 angel whom he asked, interpreted them as referring to 
 four kings, which should arise out of the earth. But we 
 must remember that this conversation was in the spir- 
 itual world, into which Daniel then saw, and in which 
 he acted, because his spiritual senses were then opened, 
 as a seer. And the angel was not speaking in a literal 
 way, but representatively, so that his language was as 
 much representative and symbolic as were the things of 
 
Daniel's Vision of the Four Beasts. 355 
 
 the vision, of which he was spealcing. To the angel, 
 the earth did not mean the physical earth, but that which, 
 spiritually, is called the earth, that is, the earthly side 
 of man's mind, his natural mind, as distinguished from 
 the heavenly side of his mind, his spiritual mind. And, 
 to him, a king did not mean merely a ruler on the phys- 
 ical earth, but a ruling principle, on the earth of the 
 mind, that is, in man's natural mind. Always, in the 
 important sense of all prophecy, and of all revelation, 
 the whole scene is laid in the lumian mind. 
 
 The four beasts represent four successive general con- 
 ditions of the human mind, during which different men- 
 tal kings, ruling principles, swayed men's minds. And, 
 in the representative account of these beasts, we may see 
 the spiritual history of every man who degenerates, 
 gradually, into fixed conditions of evil, falsity and sin ; 
 and in whose mind and life, the church of the Lord is 
 finally destroyed. 
 
 THE FOUR WINDS. 
 
 Daniel's vision was at night, thus representing a dark 
 state of the church, and also the external and represent- 
 ative phases of truth, dealing with symbols, and not 
 clearly proclaiming interior spiritual truth. " The four 
 winds of heaven strove upon the great sea." The blow- 
 ing of the wind represents the operation of Divine in- 
 fluences upon the human mind. " The wind bloweth 
 where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but 
 canst not tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth : so 
 is every one that is born of the Spirit." (John iii. 8.) 
 
 But when the Divine influences operate upon men, 
 each man meets them, and uses or abuses them, accord- 
 ing to the quality of his own character. Good men 
 receive the Divine influx, and open their hearts to its 
 love, and their intellects to its wisdom. But evil men, in 
 receiving, pervert the quality of the Lord's goodness and 
 
356 Parables of the Old Testament Exf'lalueJ. 
 
 truth, and turn them into evil and falsity. The great 
 sea, spiritually, is the natural mind of man, in the waters 
 of whose memory all things are collected. The four 
 winds of heaven, operating upon the great sea, thus pre- 
 sent a representative picture of the Divine influence 
 bearing upon the natural mind of man. 
 
 There were four winds, to indicate the four quarters, 
 or points of the compass, from which the wind may blow. 
 The North represents the darkest spiritual quarter, 
 whence come the Divine principles in their most exter- 
 nal, and least spiritual form, as natural truths, practical 
 rules. The South represents the lightest quarter, whence 
 come the spiritual truths which most enlighten the 
 human mind. The East, the quarter in which the sun 
 appears to rise, represents the Lord, especially as to His 
 Divine Love, rising upon a cold and dark world. Thus 
 the East is the quarter of spiritual good. And the West 
 is the quarter of natural good. As a result of the opera- 
 tion of the winds upon the sea, four great beasts came 
 up, out of the sea, in succession. 
 
 THE FIRST BEAST. 
 
 The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings. A 
 lion, known as the king of beasts, and a beast of very 
 great strength, represents power, and the Truth in its 
 power. In this good sense, the Lord was called " The 
 Lion of the tribe of Judah," the spiritual King, the Di- 
 vine Truth, einbodying the Divine Power. And the 
 lion, or Truth in its power, had eagle's wings. The 
 eagle, being very powerful in flight, and flying very 
 high, and being very far-sighted, represents man's 
 rational thought, by means of which he thinks, elevates 
 his mind, and perceives truth in its high aspects. Wings, 
 being the arms of birds, represent the power of thought. 
 A lion, with eagle's wings, represents, in a good sense. 
 
Daniel's Vision of the Four Beasts. 357 
 
 the Divine Truth, in the minds of the men of the church, 
 accompanied by rational thought, which enables the man 
 to perceive spiritual truths. 
 
 This was the state of mind, in the early conditions of 
 the church. But these wings were plucked, to represent 
 the fact that the rationality of the mind was diminished, 
 by the failure of men to live according to the light of 
 spiritual truth. But still, the lion stood up, like a man, 
 to represent that men strove to elevate their minds, on 
 the standard of a right life, as they then understood the 
 laws of life. And, in this way, they became real men, to 
 a certain degree, as is represented by the heart of a man 
 being given to the lion. 
 
 THE SECOND BEAST. 
 
 But a new state came upon men, represented by a bear, 
 a long-haired beast. The hair is the most external part 
 of the body ; and thus a long-haired beast, in which the 
 hair is a prominent feature, represents literal truth, 
 external truth, as in the letter of the Scriptures. Per- 
 sonally, bears here represent those human minds in which 
 there is a knowledge of the literal sense of the Scrip- 
 tures, but only an external understanding of the Bible ; 
 i.e., who see the truth in its literal aspects, but do not 
 understand it in its spiritual phases. The three ribs in 
 the bear's mouth represent the fulness of knowledge of 
 the letter of the Word, held by such minds, but held in 
 the teeth, only, and not digested; i.e., held in the out- 
 ward thought of the senses, and not taken into the inward 
 thought. 
 
 This represents an age of literalism in the church, 
 when there was a large amount of external learning 
 about the literal sense of the Scriptures, but no openness 
 of mind to the inward and spiritual meaning. And the 
 natural result of this mental condition was to eat up 
 
358 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 the spiritual life of the church; or, representatively, to 
 " devour much flesh." For, in the sensuous, unspiritual 
 mind, a knowledge of the merely literal sense of the 
 Scriptures gradually sinks into mere fallacies of the 
 senses. 
 
 THE THIRD BEAST. 
 
 And so the state of the church changed again, and 
 fell into a worse condition, represented by a leopard, 
 a cunning, treacherous, fierce, blood-thirsty beast, the 
 symbol of the love of falsity, a passion which loves to 
 pervert and falsify good and true principles. And, in 
 doing this, it uses four wings ; i.e., the power of thought 
 in double portion, which means both in the will and in 
 the understanding. In this way, the false ideas seen in 
 the intellect, are confirmed in the heart, and embodied 
 in the conduct. And this leopard had four heads, to 
 represent that, in that state of the church, the interior 
 principles of men's minds were conjoined with the literal 
 fallacies and falsities of their natural minds. And, in 
 this state, dominion was given to the leopard, in men's 
 minds. 
 
 THE FOURTH BEAST. 
 
 And this condition led to a further spiritual decline, in 
 which men's mental states were represented by the fourth 
 beast, described as dreadful and terrible, and very strong, 
 and very destructive. This was the condition of mind in 
 which men, misled by a sensuous misunderstanding of 
 the literal sense of the Scriptures, reasoned away the 
 necessity of a good life, a life according to the Divine 
 commandments ; and imagined that human salvation 
 comes by " faith, alone," and by a " Vicarious Atone- 
 ment," in the shedding of the physical blood of Christ. 
 This idea, of " Salvation by Faith, alone," without regard 
 to spiritual character, being confirmed in the minds of 
 men, from a mistaken view of the literal sense of the 
 
Daniel's Vision of the Four Beasts. 359 
 
 Bible, destroyed the spirituality of mind, in the men of 
 the church. The great iron teeth of this terrible fourth 
 beast, represent the hard, sensuous . literal thought by 
 which the letter of the Scripture was mentally masti- 
 cated, and prepared for the mind's use. 
 
 The fourth beast delighted in devouring and destroy- 
 ing everything else; thus representing the spirit of 
 ruling over others, as that evil spirit, represented by 
 Babylon, took possession of the church ; and made even 
 the holy things of the church, and of the Divine Word, 
 mere means of exalting the dominion of the leaders in 
 the church. These were the last states of a declining and 
 dying church, when, in human hearts, the will of men 
 was usurping the place of the will of God. At this time, 
 this terrible beast had ten horns, representing much 
 power, in pushing the falsities and fallacies into notice, 
 and in defending these things. 
 
 THE LITTLE HORN. 
 
 And then there came up another horn, a little one, 
 which had eyes resembling human eyes, and a mouth 
 speaking great things. And this little horn plucked up 
 three of the other horns, to represent the abuse of the 
 power of literal knowledge, in opposing many things 
 even in the Hteral Scriptures. And this was done with 
 the help of the horn's eyes, which were like men's eyes, 
 representing the abuse of knowledge, in applying the let- 
 ter of the Scriptures to excuse evils in men, and this with 
 an appearance of spiritual intelligence. And the mouth 
 of the little horn represents the doctrine spoken and 
 taught by the perverted church, and apparently founded 
 on the letter of the Bible. 
 
 THE ANCIENT OF DAYS. 
 
 All these things, having corrupted the church, were 
 followed by the judgment upon the First Christian 
 
360 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 Church, nearly one hundred and fifty years ago, when 
 the " last judgment" occurred, in the spiritual world, 
 and upon the spiritual conditions of men. The " Ancient 
 of days" is the Divine Father, the Divine Love, or Divine 
 Goodness, as distinguished from the Son of Man, which 
 is the Divine Truth, the Divine Humanity, in and by 
 whom the Divine Love established the New Christian 
 Church, as a spiritual church, having the Divine Word, 
 and understanding it in both its letter and its spirit. The 
 fire and brightness about the Ancient of days, and the 
 whiteness of His raiment and His hair, represent the 
 love, wisdom and purity which characterize the Divine 
 Father. The hosts who minister to Him represent the 
 universal acknowledgment of Him, in the heavens, and 
 in the spiritual church. 
 
 At the coming of the Lord, a judgment was executed, 
 and all the power of the terrible beast, and of such of 
 the other beasts as then remained, was then destroyed, 
 and men were redeemed from such evil power. The 
 books opened for the judgment, were the mental books 
 of men, the states of mind which they had written in their 
 own character. 
 
 The Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, that 
 is, in the letter of the Scriptures, which were the means 
 of judgment against those who perverted and abused the 
 letter of the Scriptures, to excuse their own evil life. 
 And, in the measure and degree in which men received 
 the Lord, in His second and spiritual coming, an inward 
 coming to the minds of men ; dominion, and glory, and 
 a kingdom, came to the Lord, again, in a restored church, 
 an everlasting kingdom, with all the good afifections and 
 the true thoughts which are the inward nations and 
 peoples of the mind. 
 
 THE BEASTS AND KINGS. 
 
 The apparent interpretation of the text, by supposing 
 the beast to represent certain kings in the literal history 
 
Daniel's Vision of the Four Beasts. 361 
 
 of the earth, was given for the uses of natural-minded 
 men, who could thus find apparent confirmation of the 
 Scriptures, in such things as they could understand, 
 during the ages of the church before men could perceive 
 truth in its interior and spiritual phases. For the Divine 
 Providence often operates by indirect methods, to lead 
 men, finally, to such things as they would not receive at 
 first. And so, in the First Christian Church, it was the 
 general belief that, in our text, the first beast, the lion, 
 represented the king of Chaldea ; and the second beast, 
 the bear, represented the king of Media ; and the third 
 beast, the leopard, represented the king of Persia ; and 
 the fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, represented the 
 king of Macedonia, or Greece ; and the little horn repre- 
 sented the great king of Syria, Antiochus Epiphanes. 
 And, while it is true that those kings and nations may 
 have well represented such conditions, still, these earthly 
 kings were merely representative ; and the things repre- 
 sented were the ruling principles of men's minds, in the 
 changing conditions of the inward and spiritual church. 
 
 These representative beasts very closely resemble 
 other beasts, named in the Apocalypse, which are also 
 symbolic and representative of human conditions of 
 character. 
 
 A WARNING. 
 
 The declining states of the general church afiford each 
 of us a constant warning. When the gentle winds of 
 heaven blow upon the restless sea of our natural mind ; 
 when we feel a Divine influence, and perceive a Divine 
 truth ; if we hold fast to the truth, and keep it clear 
 and elevated, and never allow it to be obscured, or per- 
 verted, by the fallacies of our senses, then we shall live 
 in spiritual love and wisdom, and in natural righteous- 
 ness, also. And then, in us, our Lord shall build His 
 " everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and 
 obey Him." 
 
362 Parables of lite Old Testament Explained. 
 
 XL. 
 
 THE VISION OF THE RAM AND THE HE- 
 GOAT. 
 
 I was in Shushaii, in the palace, which is in the province of 
 Elam ; and I saw in the vision, and I was by the river Ulai. 
 Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, there stood 
 before the river, a ram, which had two horns : and the two 
 horns were high ; but one was higher than the other ; and the 
 higher came up last. 
 
 I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward and south- 
 ward; and no beasts could stand before him, neither was there 
 any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to 
 his will, and magnified himself. And, as I was considering, 
 behold, a he-goat came from the West, over the face of the 
 whole earth, and touched not the ground : and the goat had 
 a notable horn between his eyes. And he came to the ram 
 that had the two horns, which I saw standing before the river, 
 and ran upon him in the fury of his power. 
 
 And I saw him come close unto the ram ; and he was moved 
 with anger against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two 
 horns ; and there was no power in the ram to stand before 
 him ; but he cast him down to the ground and trampled upon 
 him ; and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his 
 hand. 
 
 And the he-goat magnified himself exceedingly: and, when 
 he was strong, the great horn was broken ; and, instead of it. 
 there came up four notable horns, toward the four winds of 
 heaven. And out of one of them came forth a little horn, 
 which waxed exceedingly great, toward the South, and toward 
 the East, and toward the glorious land. And it waxed great, 
 even to the host of heaven ; and some of the host, and of the 
 stars, it cast down to the ground, and trampled upon them. 
 Yea, it magnified itself, even to the Prince of the host; and it 
 took away from Him the continual burnt-offering, and the 
 place of His sanctuary was cast down. And the host was given 
 
The Vision of the Ram and the He-Goat. 363 
 
 over to it, together with the continiTal burnt-offering through 
 transgression ; and it cast down truth to the ground ; and it did 
 its pleasure, and prospered. 
 
 Then I heard a holy one speaking ; and another holy one 
 said unto that certain one who spake, How long shall be the 
 vision concerning the continual burnt-offering, and the trans- 
 gression that maketh desolate, to give both the sanctuary and 
 the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me. Unto 
 two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings; then 
 shall the sanctuary be cleansed. And it came to pass, when I, 
 even I, Daniel, had seen the vision, that I sought to under- 
 stand it; and behold, there stood before me as the appearance 
 of a man. 
 
 And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Ulai, 
 which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand 
 the vision. 
 
 So he came near where I stood ; and when he came, I was 
 affrighted, and fell upon my face : but he said unto me, Under- 
 stand, O son of man ; for the vision belongeth to the time 
 of the end. 
 
 Now, as he was speaking with me, I fell into a deep sleep, 
 with my face toward the ground ; but he touched me, and set 
 me upright. 
 
 And he said. Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in 
 the latter time of the indignation ; for it belongeth to the 
 appointed time of the end. 
 
 The ram which thou sawest, that had the two horns, they 
 are the kings of Media and Persia. And the rough he-goat is 
 the king of Greece : and the great horn that is between his eyes, 
 is the first king. And as for that which was broken, in the 
 place whereof four stood up, four kingdoms shall stand up 
 out of the nation, but not with his power. And in the latter 
 time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the 
 full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sen- 
 tences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not 
 by his own power ; and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall 
 prosper, and do his pleasure ; and he shall destroy the mighty 
 ones and the holy people. And through his policy, he shall cause 
 craft to prosper in his hand ; and he shall magnify himself in his 
 heart ; and in their security shall he destroy many : he shall 
 also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be 
 broken without hand. And the vision of the evenings and 
 
364 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 mornings which hath been told is true : but shut thou up the 
 vision ; for it belongeth to many days to come. — Daniel viii. 
 2-26. 
 
 Charity, which is the love of the neighbor, brings 
 hfe and prosperity to the church among men. But faith, 
 when separated from charity, becomes perverted and 
 false ; and, by false reasonings, it obscures and corrupts 
 the truth in men's minds, and destroys the spirit of wor- 
 ship, in the church, until a spiritual church can no longer 
 exist in such minds. 
 
 THE RAM. 
 
 The principal features of the text are a ram and a 
 he-goat, and the contention between thein. The rain, as 
 a sheep, corresponds to charity, or love of the neighbor, 
 which is the spiritual principle of the church, and the 
 distinguishing characteristic of the spiritual degree of 
 human life. 
 
 In the Scriptures, those persons who are principled 
 in charity, are often called sheep, and the Lord's flock ; 
 and the Lord is called their Shepherd. This ram had 
 two horns. A horn, as a weapon, represents power, by 
 which the animal acts. And here, as the horns of a ram, 
 or sheep, the horns represent the power of both charity 
 and faith, because, in the regenerate man, charity and 
 faith are united, and they co-operate, as do the will and 
 the understanding. And thus the horns represent, in 
 another aspect, the power of truth, in the church, when 
 loved in the will, and known in the understanding; and 
 thus when both internal and external. The horns were 
 " high," to represent their elevation to the high places 
 of the mind. One was higher than the other, because 
 charity is more exalted than faith. And the higher one 
 came up last, or later, because interior charity is formed 
 later, by means of a clear faith in known truths. 
 
The Vision of the Ram and the He-Goat. 365 
 
 Remembering that, spiritually, the text treats of condi- 
 tions in the minds of men, the ram pushing in different 
 directions, represents the true and loving principle of 
 charity, opposing all evil and false influences, which 
 come from the different quarters of the natural mind. 
 
 THE GOAT. 
 
 But a he-goat came out of the West, and opposed 
 the ram. A goat corresponds to faith. In a good sense, 
 the goat is true faith, in union with charity ; but, in 
 the opposite sense, as when opposed to the sheep, the 
 goat corresponds to faith separated from charity, " faith 
 alone," which is a merely external faith, an intellectual 
 belief, but not joined with a regenerate love, nor with a 
 righteous life. The sheep and the goats are used in the 
 sense of those who are in charity, and those who are in 
 faith, alone, without charity, in the Lord's parable, in 
 the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew ; as well as in the 
 Old Testament, as in Ezekiel xxxiv. 17, 18, 22. 
 
 This goat came from the West. The West, opposite 
 the sun-rising, represents the condition of mind in which 
 a man sees goodness and truth in the most remote degree, 
 the most external plane, the natural-minded state. And, 
 in a bad sense, this external state of mind is in natural 
 evil. And the spirit of false faith, faith alone, without 
 charity, comes from evils in men's hearts. That this goat 
 came over the whole earth, means that this mental con- 
 dition of a false faith pervaded the whole church. And 
 that the ^oat came over the earth without touching the 
 ground, means that this faith was theoretical, and not 
 connected with a good, practical daily life. 
 
 THE goat's notable HORN. 
 
 The goat's notable horn represents the power of a false 
 faith, in destroying goodness and truth, in the minds of 
 
366 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 men who adopt it. That the horn was located between 
 the goat's eyes, means that the power of a false faith 
 was due to its appearance of intelligence, which attracted 
 attention to its arguments. But this apparent intelli- 
 gence was self-derived intelligence, which does not see 
 truths, but sees such arguments as favor the self-love, 
 because it looks out upon the universe from the stand- 
 point of self-love, and, therefore, of self-derived intelli- 
 gence. And thus the notable horn of the goat means 
 self-derived intelligence, which felt great anger against 
 the principle of charity, and which attacked charity, with 
 great fury, to expel it from the minds of the men of the 
 church, by means of cunning false reasonings. 
 
 The goat broke the two horns of the ram, to represent 
 that, in the minds yielding to the spirit of " faith alone" 
 this false principle broke the power of charity and true 
 faith, and destroyed their character, and perverted them 
 into their opposites, by reducing the mind to a sensuous 
 condition, in which it could no longer see truth in its 
 higher phases. And then this spirit of " faith alone" 
 dominated the church, and corrupted the life of the 
 church. 
 
 THE goat's horn BROKEN. 
 
 And even when the goat's single horn was broken, 
 there came up four new horns, in its place ; which means 
 that, even when the principal argument of " faith alone" 
 was apparently refuted, the same spirit of self-intelli- 
 gence would come up again, in falsifying the letter of 
 the Scriptures, in all ways, and thus inducing the con- 
 junction of falsity with evil, in the heart and in the 
 conduct. 
 
 THE LITTLE HORN. 
 
 From one of the four horns came forth a little horn, 
 representing tlie insinuating fallacy of " faith aloxe." 
 For instance, it was argued that, as a man cannot do 
 
The Vision of the Ram and the He-Goat. 367 
 
 good from himself, he must not exert his will to restrain 
 his evil tendencies, because, then, he would be depending 
 on his own power ; but that he must let his evils alone, 
 and the Lord will take them away. And thus, by a subtle 
 fallacy, a man would be left to the mercy of the hells, 
 and failing to exert his own power to control his own 
 conduct, as well as his feelings and thoughts, according 
 to the Lord's commandments ; in which work the man 
 should act as of himself, but trusting in the Lord to sus- 
 tain his strength and his intelligence : and this is trusting 
 in the Lord, and not in self. 
 
 This horn is called " little," because it does not appear 
 to have the great power which it exerts. But it became 
 " exceedingly great, toward the South, and toward the 
 East, and toward the pleasant land," or glorious land ; 
 i.e., it exerted great power against goodness, and against 
 spiritual intelligence, and against the life of the church, 
 and against the brightness of truth, which reveals the 
 Lord. 
 
 And this little horn dragged down, and trampled upon, 
 some of the host (or army) of heaven, and of the stars ; 
 i.e., this spirit of " faith alone" opposed the good and 
 true principles of the church, and somewhat destroyed 
 their influence, by falsifying the knowledges of truth in 
 the church. 
 
 And the horn magnified itself against " the Prince 
 of the host ;" i.e., against the Lord, as the Divine Truth ; 
 and it took away the continued burnt-offering, which was 
 the daily sacrifice ; and it cast down the Lord's sanc- 
 tuary, and the truth, itself; i.e.. the spirit of "faith 
 alone" destroyed the life and spirit of worship, in the 
 minds of men, by falsifying the whole truth as to the 
 Divine Humanity ; because men were led to look to the 
 Divine Humanity merely as a scheme of salvation, by 
 " faith alone ;" whereas men should look to the Lord, 
 in His Divine Humanity, as the God of Love, reaching 
 
^68 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 down to fallen men, in order to give them power to resist 
 their own evil tendencies, and to do good, as of them- 
 selves, but looking to the Lord for direction and power. 
 
 THE TIME OF THE GOAT's POWER. 
 
 Holy ones, or angels, spoke as to the duration of the 
 power of the goat ; and they declared that such power 
 would extend two thousand and three hundred days, and 
 that, then, the sanctuary would be cleansed. The num- 
 ber, two, relates to goodness ; and three relates to truth. 
 The addition or multiplication by hundreds, or thou- 
 sands, merely extends and intensifies the meaning of the 
 first number. That the goat's power should continue 
 two thousand and three hundred days, means that the 
 spirit of " faith alone" would continue, in many minds, 
 until it destroyed all the goodness and all the truth ; and 
 until the end of that dispensation in the church ; and that 
 then, the Lord's sanctuary would be cleansed ; i.e., a 
 new church would be raised up, to worship the Lord in 
 love, in wisdom, and in righteousness. 
 
 GABRIEL, AND HIS INSTRUCTIONS. 
 
 Gabriel was sent to Daniel, to explain the vision. The 
 same angelic messenger was sent to Mary, the mother 
 of Jesus, and to Zacharias, to instruct them. The word 
 Gabriel means, " God is mighty." In the literal sense 
 of the Scriptures, the name seems to be applied to an 
 individual angel ; but. in fact, it is the name of a society 
 of angels, in heaven, whose special use is to enlighten- 
 men's minds as to the Divine character of the Lord, 
 Jesus Christ. Gabriel instructing Daniel, represents spir- 
 itual truth revealing itself in the letter of the Old Testa- 
 ment, which letter seems obscure, as if asleep, until it is 
 touched and awakcnc<l, by the inward, spiritual sense, as 
 Gabriel awoke Daniel. 
 
The Vision of the Ram and the He-Goat. 369 
 
 In our text, Gabriel's interpretation of the vision is but 
 a further use of representative and symbolic language, 
 corresponding with the same spiritual principles. But 
 Gabriel's words need explanation, to bring out their spir- 
 itual meaning. It is said that the two horns of the ram 
 represent the kings of Media and Persia, and that the 
 goat represents the king of Greece; and that the goat's 
 horns are different kings. But a king, as a ruler, repre- 
 sents a ruling principle in the human mind. The kings 
 of Media and Persia here represent the principle of char- 
 ity, or love to the neighbor ; and the king of Greece here 
 represents " faith alone," without charity. 
 
 " When the transgressors are come to the full ;" i.e., 
 when evil has filled up its measure of power, and has 
 brought that dispensation of the church to its end, there 
 will arise " a king of fierce countenance, and under- 
 standing dark sentences ;" i.e., the false principle which 
 springs from evil, and not merely from ignorance. This 
 evil falsity is fierce, because it has no gentle love for the 
 neighbor. Those who love evil, and who are not willing 
 to resist their own evil inclinations, convince themselves 
 that " faith alone" is sufficient for salvation, without a 
 good life. And they soon come to regard righteousness 
 as unnecessary. And then they exalt themselves, and 
 their self-will, above goodness and the will of God. And 
 finally, they exalt themselves above the Lord, in their 
 own estimation. These are spiritually insane. And it is 
 observed that many who are intellectually insane pro- 
 claim themselves to be the Lord. 
 
 THE REPEATED STORY. 
 
 Thus, we see that the vision of our text graphically 
 and symbolically describes the combat between faith and 
 charity, when separated. It is the same old story, often 
 repeated in the Bible, from Genesis to the Revelation. It 
 
 24 
 
370 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 comes to us, first, in the apparent history of the first 
 human family, when Cain kills his brother Abel. And it 
 repeats itself, in every age of man's history, and in every 
 dispensation of the general church, which comes to an 
 end, and is succeeded by another church. 
 
 But the same coming of the Lord, which brings a new 
 church, also brings to an end the old church, in a general 
 spiritual judgment, in the spiritual world. In this judg- 
 ment, the power of the goat shall be broken ; and a new 
 dispensation shall begin its career, in the new light of 
 spiritual truth, and in the warmth of spiritual love. 
 
 Salvation is not by " faith alone," nor by works alone ; 
 nor by any thing else, alone. It is in the union of love, 
 faith and righteousness. God saves men from them- 
 selves, from their own evils of heart and of life, in the 
 measure and degree in which they are willing to give up 
 their evils, and to keep the Lord's commandments. A 
 man's place in the spiritual world is a direct result of his 
 actual character, the quality of his love and his thought, 
 as practically embodied in his conduct. When a young 
 man asked our Lord the direct question, how to attain 
 everlasting life, Jesus replied, " If thou wilt enter into 
 life, keep the commandments." 
 
The Man Among the Myrtle Trees. 371 
 
 XLI. 
 
 THE MAN AMONG THE MYRTLE TREES, AND 
 THE HORSES. 
 
 I saw, by night, and behold, a man riding upon a red horse ; 
 and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom ; 
 and behind him were horses, red, speckled and white. Then 
 said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel that talked 
 with me said unto me, I will show thee what these are. And 
 the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered, and said. 
 These are they whom Jehovah hath sent to walk to and fro 
 through the earth. And they answered the angel of Jehovah 
 that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked 
 to and fro through the earth, and behold, all the earth sitteth 
 still, and is at rest. — Zechariah i. 8-1 1. 
 
 THE INWARD SENSE. 
 
 In its inward sense, the text displays the dechne of 
 the church ; and it indicates the quahty of the under- 
 standing of the Divine Word, in different stages of the 
 faihng church. And the appHcation of the text is 
 brought pointedly in contact with each of us, in our 
 self-examination. 
 
 THE LITERAL MEANING. 
 
 Literal!)', the time of our text was about five hundred 
 and twenty years before Christ. A few months previous 
 to this time, the prophet Haggai had declared to the 
 Jews that Jehovah very soon would " shake the nations," 
 and redeem Israel. And the Jews became impatient in 
 awaiting such an event, and somewhat doubtful as to 
 
372 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 the future. And then there came, to the prophet Zecha- 
 riah, a series of eight visions, relating to the present 
 and future conditions of the heathen, and of Israel. 
 
 Zechariah reassured the Jews of the Lord's favorable 
 intentions towards them ; and he prophesied the im- 
 pending restoration of Jerusalem, and the final triumph 
 of Israel. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL MEANING. 
 
 A revelation by visions at night, indicates an obscure 
 revelation, not made in clear insight into truth, but 
 made in a general way, to minds not yet prepared to 
 see truth in its own clear light. 
 
 Those who are mentally in the night are in natural- 
 minded states, which are states of darkness, and of igno- 
 rance as to the principles of goodness and of truth. And 
 if such persons are evil in character, they are in the 
 thick darkness of falsity. At the time of our text, the 
 Jewish Church was in a condition of deep and thick 
 darkness, because of very great degeneration in the 
 character of its people. 
 
 Zechariah, as a prophet, represented the truth of doc- 
 trine, and those who are in the knowledge and truth of 
 doctrine ; i.e., " who have ears to hear" " what the Spirit 
 saith unto the churches." 
 
 THE MAN. 
 
 Zechariah saw a man, who, according to the eleventh 
 verse, was an angel of the Lord. Angels are persons 
 in the spiritual world, in whom the Lord's truth is 
 known, loved, and practised. And they are often em- 
 ployed by the Lord, to proclaim, or to communicate. 
 His truth to men on earth. But impersonally, angels 
 represent the Divine Truth, in which the Lord comes to 
 men, spiritually. 
 
The Man Among the Myrtle Trees. 373 
 
 HORSES. 
 
 The man seen by the prophet was riding on a horse. 
 SymboHcally, the horse represents the human intellect, 
 the understanding; and especially the understanding as 
 to the Divine Word. A red horse is mentioned. Red 
 is the color of love, or goodness, the most vigorous and 
 fundamental color. And the red .horse here represents 
 man's understanding of the Divine Word, as to the 
 goodness, or regenerate love, which is taught in the 
 Lord's Word. And this man on the red horse was an 
 angel, sent to examine into the existing conditions of 
 the Gentiles and heathen, as to their understanding of 
 the quality of love, and of goodness, which is the em- 
 bodiment of love. 
 
 MYRTLE TREES. 
 
 This man on the red horse stood " among the myrtle 
 trees, in the bottom." Standing is a position in waiting 
 for something to occur, or to be ready. And so it rep- 
 resents a mental state of awaiting results, in order to 
 take further action. 
 
 The myrtle is a small evergreen tree, of aromatic 
 odor, and with thick foliage. The myrtle represents 
 rational truths of simple and inferior order, rather than 
 those grand, far-reaching rational truths which are rep- 
 resented by very large and lofty trees. Truths repre- 
 sented by myrtles may be spiritual truths, but not on 
 high spiritual levels. In the prophecy of the restoration 
 of the church, meaning the regeneration of the indi- 
 viduals of the church, in Isaiah Iv. we find that, in verse 
 13, the results of the change from evil to good are thus 
 symbolized : " Instead of the thorn shall come up 
 the fir-tree; and instead of the briar shall come up the 
 myrtle tree ; and it shall be to Jehovah for a name, for 
 an everlasting sign, that shall not be cut off." 
 
374 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 And the work of this angel among the myrtle trees 
 was to comfort tlie Jews with the thought that, in spite 
 of their hard conditions, internal and external, the Lord 
 still kept His angels among them, for their good, and 
 to induce them to look to the Lord, in all things, and 
 to obey His commandments ; and thus to return to a 
 state of mind, and of life, in which the Lord could be 
 with them, and could save them from their evils. 
 
 IN THE BOTTOM. 
 
 This angel-man was among the myrtle trees " in the 
 bottom," that is, in a low place, something of a valley, 
 like a former river-bottom, now dry. Being in a grove, 
 it was also a shady place. These circumstances repre- 
 sent that the angel, in seeking to know the conditions of 
 the church among men, came down to such mental levels 
 as men were occupying ; that is, external and lower 
 planes of thought, in the natural mind. 
 
 And here, behind the angel, were horses, red, speckled 
 and white. That which is behind another, is in an 
 inferior position, representing an inferior state, a more 
 external condition. 
 
 COLORS. 
 
 These horses of different colors represent different 
 conditions, in different men, or at different periods in 
 the career of the church. In a bad sense, red, or the 
 color of love, represents evil love. The church was in 
 a verv unregenerate state ; and so the horses would 
 reflect the colors of the church. In this sense, a red 
 horse would represent the understanding of man cor- 
 rupted as to the comprehension of genuine love, or 
 goodness, as taught in the Divine Word. 
 
 In a good sense, a white horse represents a clear 
 knowledge of the Divine Word ; as in Revelation xix. 
 11-14: " And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white 
 
The Man Among the Myrtle Trees. 375 
 
 horse: and He that sat upon him was called Faithful 
 and True; . . . and His name is called The Word of 
 God. And the armies which were in heaven followed 
 Him, upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white 
 and clean." In this case, in the Revelation, the rider on 
 the white horse was distinctly named " The Word of 
 God." And He was the Lord, Jesus Christ, " the Word 
 made flesh," who thus, sitting on the white horse, rep- 
 resents His spiritual association with the regenerate 
 mind of man, which, in a symbolic sense, as a horse, 
 bears up and carries, the Lord, in all its thoughts. But, 
 of the evil man it is said, in the Psalms, " God is not in 
 all his thoughts." 
 
 But when used in a bad sense, the white horse is white 
 from paleness and lack of vigor. And then he repre- 
 sents a dying mind, spiritually losing its vitality. And 
 this was the state of the church, as represented in our 
 text. 
 
 And other horses were speckled ; that is, mixed in 
 color, partly light, partly dark. This condition repre- 
 sents a mixed state of mind, having some knowledge of 
 truth, yet mixed with falsities and evils. 
 
 WALKING TO AND FRO, ETC. 
 
 These horses were said to be those " whom Jehovah 
 had sent to walk to and fro through the earth ;" that 
 is, inquiries were made, as to the states of men in the 
 existing church, as to their understanding and love of 
 the Divine Word. And the searchers reported to the 
 angel that they had fulfilled their orders, and had 
 " walked to and fro through the earth ;" that is, the 
 . revelation of existing conditions was now to be made ; 
 which was that they had found all the earth sitting 
 " still, and at rest." The earth represented the church 
 among men on earth ; and the conditions observed were 
 
376 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 those of the people of the earth; that is, the existing 
 states of the church, in men. That everything was 
 found to be " still, and at rest," means that there was 
 no activity, no motion, because there was no life. It 
 was the stillness of indolence, inertness, and death, and 
 not the quietness of peace. 
 
 Literally, this report was in view of the recent proph- 
 ecy of Haggai, that Jdiovah soon would " shake the 
 nations," and break them. And the report of the search- 
 ers indicated that there were no present signs of any 
 such shaking up of the spiritually cold, indifferent, self- 
 ish, and dead states of the heathen world. Externally 
 the nations seemed to be quiet, and even secure in their 
 selfish ways. But this apparent external quiet did not 
 prove an internal peace ; but the heathen nations were 
 fast filling up the full measure of their iniquities, when 
 they would come to judgment, and to self-destruction, 
 according to their interior states of character. 
 
 THE APPLICATION. 
 
 The heathen in our minds are our selfish passions and 
 notions, which often feel at rest, and quiet, when we 
 are ignorant of our real quality of character ; and when 
 we do not see the inevitable results of such interior life 
 as we are living, in evil. In such circumstances, our 
 case would be more hopeful, if we did not feel so self- 
 satisfied and secure, in our evils. Our natural mind 
 may seem to be still and to rest, in its sensuousness, 
 while our spiritual mind is engaged in a severe struggle 
 for its life. 
 
 It seemed hard to the Jews, to live in distress while 
 the heathen nations were living at ease. And this is 
 more or less the case, always, in the life-struggles of 
 human beings, in the search for spiritual life. While 
 the church remains in tlie material world, it must meet 
 
The Man Among the Myrtle Trees. 277 
 
 the sensuous conditions of this world ; and it must come 
 into conflict with such states. Our natural minds are 
 seeking natural peace and ease, even while our interior 
 minds are seeking the spiritual peace and rest which 
 come with regeneration, in goodness, truth, and right- 
 eousness. 
 
 And while we are longing for success in our mental 
 conflict, our Lord will sometimes open our minds, by 
 means of His holy Word, and will give us a glimpse of 
 existing conditions in the world of our own sensuous 
 natural mind. He will show us the angel of Truth, 
 occupying the representative horse of our intellect, and 
 standing in the myrtle grove, the rational thoughts of 
 our minds. And we shall recognize our own different 
 conditions of understanding, some red, some speckled, 
 and some white; mental conditions in which we some- 
 times attempt to understand the Lord's Word from self- 
 ish and evil loves, or from mixed truths and self-derived 
 notions, or in the deadly whiteness, or paleness, of a 
 lack of spiritual life. 
 
 And when such conditions are revealed to us, in and 
 through the Divine Word, it is for us to exert ourselves, 
 to enter into pure loves and true thoughts and righteous 
 conduct, so that our Lord may restore us to spiritual 
 vigor ; and may expel the heathen from our minds. 
 And then, in us, spiritually, " Jehovah shall yet comfort 
 Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem." 
 
378 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 XLII. 
 
 THE FOUR HORNS AND THE FOUR CARPEN- 
 TERS. 
 
 I saw, and behold, four horns. And I said unto the angel 
 that talked with me. What are these? And he answered me, 
 These are the horns which have scattered Judah and Israel and 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 And Jehovah showed me four carpenters. Then said I, What 
 come these to do? And he spake, saying. These are the horns 
 which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head : 
 but these are come to terrify them, to cast out the horns of the 
 Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah, to 
 scatter it. — Zech.\riah i. 18-21. 
 
 The text describes the vastation, or laying waste, of 
 the church, by false principles, originating in evil loves ; 
 and, afterwards, the restoration of the church, by the 
 Lord, by driving out the false principles and establishing 
 a new church, in which were spiritual truths. 
 
 HORNS. 
 
 In the symbolic language of the Scriptures, a horn 
 represents power, because it is a weapon, by means of 
 which power is used. Swords, clubs, guns, etc., in the 
 hands of men, and the horns, claws, etc., of animals, 
 add greatly to the power which the individual can exert. 
 And so in symbolism these tilings represent the power 
 which they help to exercise. 
 
 In our mental life, in an orderly state of mind, the 
 power of our love is exerted by means of the truth 
 which we know and love and use. And so, in this good 
 
The Four Horns and the Four Carpenters. 379 
 
 sense, a horn represents the power of truth against evil, 
 falsity, and sin. 
 
 But, if our life is disorderly and unregenerate, we do 
 not depend upon the Lord's truth, but upon false prin- 
 ciples, notions of our self-derived intelligence, which 
 are mental darkness. And then, that which we regard 
 as our power, is the power of falsity against goodness 
 and truth. Hence, in this bad sense, a horn represents 
 this power of falsity, exerted in the mind, against the 
 Lord's truths, which are the laws of human Hfe. And 
 such power of falsity destroys the life and principles of 
 the church, in the mind which cherishes falsities ; and 
 also in the church in the aggregate, when such falsities 
 prevail among men. 
 
 Horns are frequently mentioned in the Scriptures, in 
 several aspects, and in both good and bad senses. The 
 central life of our Lord is the Divine Love ; and His 
 Divine Power is exerted by means of His Divine Truth. 
 And so, whenever horns are mentioned in the Scriptures 
 as belonging to the Lord, they represent His Divine 
 Truth. And horns are often mentioned as belonging to 
 men, to represent the power given to men, by the Lord, 
 by and in the Divine Truth, revealed to men. 
 
 Among the Israelites, the suggestive force of these 
 symbols was increased by prevalent customs. Horns 
 were often worn as articles of ornament, and as repre- 
 sentative of existing conditions. For men, a metallic 
 band or fillet, was worn around the head ; and from the 
 front of this band there extended forward and upward, 
 diagonally, a slender horn of metal, from a few inches 
 long to a foot long, and often highly ornamented. And 
 for women the horn was often much longer ; and it 
 extended almost perpendicularly, from a setting in a 
 cap, 'or other head-dress. When the person held his 
 head high, his horn was held up, or exalted ; but when 
 the man was depressed in spirits, and his head drooped. 
 
380 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 his horn was held low. And thus the position of the 
 horn represented the state of the wearer's mind. And 
 thus the horn, as a representative, became very familiar 
 to the Israelites. 
 
 CEREMONIAL HORNS, ETC. 
 
 Horns were also used in ceremonials. The olive oil, 
 used for anointing priests and kings, was kept in flasks 
 made of the horns of cattle, somewhat resembling the 
 old-time powder-horn. At each of the four corners of 
 the altar of incense, and also of the altar of burnt- 
 oflferings, there was a representation of a horn, sym- 
 bolizing the power of truth, in worship. 
 
 But when the church degenerated, and her worship 
 became hypocritical, it is said in the prophecy through 
 Amos iii. 14, " I will visit the transgressions of Israel; 
 I will also visit the altars of Bethel, and the horns of 
 the altar shall be cut oflf, and fall to the ground;" by 
 which is meant that the power of the church shall 
 perish, because of evil in the men of the church. 
 
 IN VISIONS. 
 
 And in the symbolic visions of the prophets, many 
 horned beasts were seen, which are especially men- 
 tioned. Daniel, in vision, saw a certain goat with a 
 notable horn. At another time, he saw dreadful beasts 
 with prominent horns : one beast had ten horns. And 
 John saw a great dragon with ten horns. All these bad 
 beasts represented falsity, warring against die Lord's 
 truth, for the destruction of the church. 
 
 SCATTERED. 
 
 In such cases, the truth became obscured, in the minds 
 of men who depended upon self-derived intelligence. 
 
The Four Horns and the Four Carpenters. 381 
 
 The falsities which sprang from evil, thus scattered the 
 truths of the church, breaking up the life of the church. 
 For the church can live from the Lord, only, and in 
 the knowledge of the Lord, and in the love and practice 
 of the Lord's revealed principles. And sometimes, when 
 such a state of mind became somewhat general among 
 the people of the church, the people were dispersed, 
 scattered among the nations, in captivity to the Gentiles. 
 And this condition is represented, in the symbolic 
 imagery of the text, by the horns which " scattered 
 Judah and Israel and Jerusalem." Judah represents the 
 church as to its goodness, or love; Israel represents 
 the church as to its truth, or wisdom; and the city of 
 Jerusalem represents the church as to the doctrines 
 taught in the church. And goodness, truth, and right 
 doctrine, are all scattered from the mind of the man 
 who indulges in falsities, and who depends upon his 
 own self-derived notions, instead of the Divine Truth. 
 
 FOUR. 
 
 There were four of these horns shown to the prophet. 
 In symbolism, in general, even numbers refer to the life 
 of the will, or heart, and thus represent man's condition 
 as to love, or goodness ; while odd numbers refer to 
 the life of the understanding, or intellect, and thus rep- 
 resent the man's condition as to truth, intelligence, and 
 knowledge. 
 
 Two, as a number, represents goodness, because of 
 the union of love and wisdom, the two uniting in a 
 righteous life. Four is twice two : and it includes two 
 in a double form ; thus, in one sense, representing good- 
 ness both inwardly in the mind, and outwardly in the 
 conduct. 
 
 In nature there are four quarters, or points of the 
 compass, North, South, East, and West, to represent 
 
382 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 all the general conditions of the human mind, natural 
 intelligence, spiritual intelligence, spiritual love, and 
 natural love. 
 
 But when a man has degenerated in character, these 
 representatives, in their reference to him, change their 
 representation to the opposite quality. Thus, in the evil 
 man, the North, South, East, and West denote condi- 
 tions of falsity and of evil. And these are the mental 
 conditions which are induced by the four horns men- 
 tioned in the text, the power of falsity, which had scat- 
 tered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. 
 
 CARPENTERS, OR SMITHS. 
 
 But it was the Lord's intention and plan to restore 
 the church, b}- coimteracting the evil effects of falsities 
 in the church. And we must remember that such falsi- 
 ties, being derived from evil, are not merely false doc- 
 trines, taught in the church, but false principles, loved 
 in the heart, and cherished in the thought, and prac- 
 tised in the life, and encouraging selfish lusts instead 
 of righteous loves, and vicious thoughts instead of true 
 ideas. And, in order to break the force of these vicious 
 falsities in human minds, the Lord brought against them 
 the literal sense of His Divine Word, truth in ultimates, 
 as applied to man's every-day practical conduct, so that 
 the man could see what he should do in his daily life. 
 
 And we can clearly see the great power exercised by 
 plain literal truths, laws of conduct, which hold the man 
 strictly to a certain course of action, whatever may be 
 his own notions, or theories. And thus, by keeping a 
 man's attention upon his action, the practical work he is 
 doing, his mind can be released from the deadening 
 influence of falsities, at least gradually, if he can be 
 led to be willing to be so released. 
 
 These practical truths are the carpenters whom Zech- 
 
The Four Horns and the Four Carpenters. 383 
 
 ariah saw in the vision. The Hebrew word here trans- 
 lated " carpenter," in the common version of the Bible, 
 is, in the American Revised Version, rendered " smiths." 
 Evidently, the word refers to men of skill, mechanics, 
 artificers, craftsmen, who are skilful in the use of iron 
 tools. And iron tools represent truths in their literal 
 aspects, for practical application. 
 
 1 
 
 TO TERRIFY. 
 
 And these skilful mechanics were sent out to " fray" 
 {i.e., to frighten, or terrify) the four horns, or falsities, 
 and thus to drive these falsities from the minds of the 
 men of the church. If a man can be kept in good work, 
 doing good according to the revealed truth of the Lord, 
 even in outward form, his mind will become more and 
 more open to new truths, which agree with the prac- 
 tical good that he is doing ; and, gradually, he can be 
 led out of former false notions. 
 
 But, in the man's mind, the new practical truths, as 
 working rules of daily conduct, must enable the reform 
 to reach the same levels of thought and of feeling which 
 the falsities occupied. And so there are '^' four car- 
 penters" to " fray" the four horns ; i.e., the new truth 
 can reach and overcome every form and phase of the 
 old falsity, if the man will allow the good influence to 
 operate within his mind. And so, in the first vision of 
 Zechariah, there were four horsemen, who were search- 
 ing into the spiritual conditions of the church. 
 
 And this balance of four against four may well sug- 
 gest to us the balance of power, the equilibrimn, main- 
 tained in our minds by our Lord, in the operations of 
 His Divine Providence, so that we may be always in 
 spiritual freedom to turn to goodness and truth, and to 
 resist evil and falsity. Whatever may be our actual 
 temptations, there is always present with us, adequate 
 
384 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. >• 
 
 spiritual help and protection, which we may use if we 
 are willing to do so. In Isaiah liv. 16, 17, we read, 
 " Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the 
 coals, in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument 
 for his work. . . . No weapon that is formed against 
 thee shall prosper ; and every tongue that shall rise 
 against thee, in judgment, thou shalt condemn. This is 
 the heritage of the servants of Jehovah." 
 
 LIFTING THE HEAD. 
 
 It is said that these horns " scattered Judah, so that 
 no man did lift up his head;" i.e., conquered men, 
 crushed and humiliated them, so as to break their cour- 
 age and independence. The head, as the highest part 
 of man's body, represents his ruling-love, with its 
 intelligence. 
 
 The effect of the oppression of a man's mind by false 
 ideas, drawn from evil, is to crush all that is noble, spir- 
 itual, and manly in him. But the new truths, taught in 
 the letter of the Divine Word, and there put in a form 
 to be brought into practical use, will scatter the " horns 
 of the Gentiles," and will enable the man to lift up his 
 head, again; i.e., to elevate his interior manhood, and 
 to regain spiritual intelligence. 
 
 Literally, " the horns of the Gentiles" were the dread- 
 ful falsities learned by the Israelites from the surround- 
 ing heathen nations. But spiritually, those heathen are 
 within our own natural minds. 
 
 The general literal intent of the vision in our text, 
 was to encourage the Jews, and to assure them that 
 their present national afflictions would come to an end, 
 and that better days were in store for them. The Jew 
 expected better days to come to him in better external 
 conditions ; but the intelligent Christian looks for his 
 " better days" in inward changes, in the improvement 
 
The Four Horns and the Four Carpenters. 385 
 
 of his own character, under the Divine leading and 
 teaching. 
 
 Zechariah says, " Jehovah answered the angel who 
 talked with me, with good words and comfortable 
 words." And our Lord always answers our every sin- 
 cere inquiry for spiritual life " with good words and 
 comfortable words." 
 
 The text representatively illustrates our Lord's de- 
 liverance of Israel, in the distant past, and His promise 
 to overthrow her enemies in the future. And the history 
 of Israel, as narrated in' the Scriptures, presents, to our 
 enlightened intelligence, a representative and symbolic 
 picture of our own individual careers. And while the 
 record may well make us serious, yet it gives us also 
 ample reason to rejoice in the possibilities before us, in 
 the measure in which each of us is willing to become, 
 like Nathaniel of old, spiritually, " an Israelite, indeed, 
 without guile." 
 
 25 
 
386 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 XLIII. 
 
 THE MAN WITH A MEASURING-LINE, ETC. 
 
 I lifted up mine eyes, again, and looked, and behold, a man 
 with a measuring-line in his hand. Then said I, Whither goest 
 thou ? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see 
 what is the breadth thereof^ and what is the length thereof. 
 And behold, the angel that talked with me went forth ; and 
 another angel went out to meet him ; and said unto him, Run, 
 speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited 
 as towns without walls, for the multitude of men and cattle 
 therein : for I, saith Jehovah, will be unto her a wall of fire 
 round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her. — Zecha- 
 RiAH ii. 1-5. 
 
 The text representatively reveals the spiritual quality 
 of the New Church ; showing that the Church will be 
 greatly multiplied ; and that the Lord will be present 
 in it, in both its internal and its external. 
 
 MEASURING. 
 
 A man appeared, having a measuring-line. This man, 
 seen in spiritual vision, was an angel, a regenerated 
 man, in the spiritual world. And, as an angel is a 
 messenger of the Lord, so the work which he was sent 
 to do, was the Lord's work through the man. And, as 
 the action of the angel was representative, it represented 
 the spiritual action of the Lord, among men. 
 
 In natural things, we measure anything to ascertain 
 its size, which is represented by length, breadth, and 
 thickness, or height. But spiritual things relate to quali- 
 
The Man with a Meas%mng-Line, etc. 3^7 
 
 ties rather than to quantities; they regard character 
 rather than dimensions. And so a spiritual measure- 
 ment is to ascertain qualities of character. Where, in 
 natural measurements, we find length, breadth, and 
 height, these dimensions represent, respectively, the 
 goodness, the truth, and the elevation or level, in men's 
 minds, which are ascertained by spiritual measurement. 
 We use these ideas as figures of speech, when we say 
 of a mean man, that he is a narrow man, or a small- 
 minded man ; and of a generous and good man, that he 
 is broad-minded and large-hearted. The standard by 
 which things are measured, spiritually, is the truth of 
 the Lord, as revealed in His Divine Word. And, in 
 man, the ability which uses the standard, or measuring- 
 line, is our rational faculty, our capacity to perceive the 
 revealed truth, and to recognize it as the truth, in prin- 
 ciple. And when our Lord sends an angel to us, to 
 show us the spiritual measurements of different human 
 states of mind and of life, our rational minds must be 
 open and active, in order that we may comprehend what 
 the angel is showing us. 
 
 MEASURING JERUSALEM. 
 
 In the case before us, in our text, the angel was to 
 measure Jerusalem. Literally, he was to measure the 
 city of Jerusalem, as to its natural dimensions ; perhaps 
 to repair and rebuild it. But this action was symbolic 
 and representative of a spiritual measurement of the 
 conditions of the church, among men ; for Jerusalem, 
 which was the head-quarters of the church, in Israel, 
 represented the church ; and the relative dimensions 
 and conditions of Jerusalem represented the spiritual 
 qualities and conditions of the church. And the meas- 
 urement was to determine the quality, or spiritual char- 
 acter, of the life of the church. Changed conditions in 
 
388 Parables of the Old Testament E.vt>laiiied. 
 
 the character of the men of the church would be re- 
 vealed by new spiritual measurements. 
 
 The measurements of Jerusalem as it stands, would 
 refer to the revealing of the spiritual character of the 
 existing church. But the measurement of the Jerusalem 
 seen in vision, often applies to the future spiritual con- 
 ditions of the church, especially after the coming of 
 the Lord. 
 
 THE TWO ANGELS. 
 
 " And behold, the angel that talked with me went 
 forth ; and another angel went out to meet him ; and 
 said unto him, Run, speak to this young man," etc. 
 Both of these angels represent the Lord's truth, sent to 
 the mind of the regenerating man. We see the Divine 
 Truth in diflferent aspects : in our will, or heart, we 
 receive an idea of the goodness which must be carried 
 out ; and in our intellect we enter into an understanding 
 of the ideas involved in the case. 
 
 TOWNS WITHOUT WALLS. 
 
 The angel revealed the promise of the Lord that 
 " Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, 
 for the multitude of men and cattle therein." Literally, 
 in ancient days, in Oriental lands, large towns and 
 important places were protected by high walls. But 
 many of the small towns and villages, especially in a 
 farming country, were built on the plains, or on the 
 hill-sides, or in the valleys, and without walls. And, in 
 such times, when robbers and enemies were abundant, 
 the ability of a town to live unmolested, without walls, 
 indicated a state of peace, tranquillity, and freedom. 
 
 Sometimes it happened that a walled city became 
 overcrowded, so that the surplus population had to 
 encamp outside the walls. And, generally, in connec- 
 tion with all large cities, or towns of importance, there 
 
The Man with a Measuring-Line, etc. 389 
 
 was a foreign element, which resided outside the walls, 
 often temporarily, and lived by trading with the citi- 
 zens, as well as with travellers coming and going. 
 
 In our text, the literal idea is that Jerusalem shall 
 enjoy a season of peace and prosperity, during which 
 the population shall so greatly increase that many per- 
 sons will have to be accommodated outside the walls, 
 where the foreign element will: also be gathered. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL SIDE. 
 
 But the spiritual picture portrays the conditions of 
 the Lord's Church, in the future, the New Church, in 
 its regenerate states, interiorly receiving the Lord and 
 His truths. And then the citizens within the walls will 
 represent the intelligent persons of the New Church, 
 who attain the higher conditions of heaven ; and the 
 dwellers in the suburbs will represent the Gentiles, 
 drawn towards the New Church, from all around, and 
 coming under the influence of the New Church, at least 
 externally, in the natural degree, as good natural men, 
 in the natural heaven. For the New Church, like all 
 other churches, and, in fact, all other things, must have 
 its internal and its external. In the natural heaven there 
 is knowledge of truth, from the Word, and a good 
 life, according to the truth ; but there are no interior 
 and spiritual perception and intelligence, which give 
 insight into the principles of truth. 
 
 And it is so with men of the church on earth : some 
 are distinctively spiritual-minded, while others see truths 
 on the natural plane of thought, only, but live a regen- 
 erate life. But all such are in the church, each on his 
 own plane, and in his own degree. 
 
 These external men are meant by the cattle named 
 in our text, as distinguished from the men, in the phrase, 
 " for the multitude of men and cattle therein." For, in 
 
390 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 comparison, and spiritually, the interior difference 
 between spiritual men and good natural men, is repre- 
 sented by the difference between good men and good 
 cattle. One class is open to natural life, and the other 
 to life distinctively spiritual in quality. 
 
 A similar idea is shown in the arrangement of the 
 inhabitants of each heaven, where the wisest and best 
 of the angels dwell in the centre, and others outwardly 
 from the centre, decreasing in intelligence towards the 
 circumference. 
 
 WALL OF FIRE. 
 
 The Lord declares that, although Jerusalem may 
 become overcrowded, and may overrun into the suburbs, 
 outside the walls, yet her people shall be safe, for He 
 " will be unto her a wall of fire, round about." 
 
 A wall is for the protection of the things within the 
 enclosure. And an adequate wall of fire would be a 
 very great protection, for it could not be scaled, nor 
 broken through. Such an impenetrable wall of fire is 
 the Lord's love of His people, which always surrounds 
 them, and, by His Divine Providence, always protects 
 them from all outward enemies, in the measure and 
 degree in which they love the Lord, and, in their deal- 
 ings with each other, live according to the laws of 
 spiritual love. 
 
 This wall of fire is one which no evil spirit can scale, 
 or break through. And it is a perpetual fire, which 
 can never die out. " The angel of Jehovah encampeth 
 round about them that fear Him, and delivereth tliem." 
 (Psalm xxxiv. 7.) 
 
 A wall, protecting men, represents a doctrine, or the 
 system of doctrine, in the church, protectirig a regen- 
 erating mind from the prowling enemies of the natural 
 suggestions of his own senses, as well as the infestation 
 
The Man with a Measuring-Line, etc. 391 
 
 of other evil influences. And the doctrine of love is the 
 most perfect wall, because " the self-evidencing reason 
 of love" makes all things clear to the mind which lives 
 in the sphere and action of such love. 
 
 PERPETUAL FIRE. 
 
 Fire represents love, especially, and in the highest 
 sense, the Divine Love. And this never-failing Divine 
 Love was represented by the perpetual fire which was 
 kept burning on the altars, in the tabernacle of Israel, 
 and in the temple, and never allowed to go out. And 
 this perpetual fire was also intended to represent the 
 constant love which men should have towards the Lord. 
 When Jehovah appeared to Moses, He appeared " in 
 a flame of fire, in the midst of a bush." (Exodus iii. 2.) 
 The fire represented the Divine Love, the Father, as 
 seen in the letter of His Word, which was represented 
 by the bush, which also, in another sense, represented 
 the external humanity of the Lord. 
 
 GLORY. 
 
 Our text ends with the Divine promise to Jerusalem, 
 " I will be the glory in the midst of her." As Jerusalem 
 represents the church, especially as to its general system 
 of doctrine, built up in the mind, as a city is built upon 
 the earth, the " glory" in the midst of Jerusalem is the 
 Divine Truth, interiorly within the doctrine of the 
 church, and shining brightly from the Divine Love, 
 which is the inmost of the church, as light shines from 
 fire. 
 
 In another aspect, this " glory in the midst" is the 
 inward and spiritual meaning of the Divine Word, 
 which shines through the outward letter of the Sacred 
 Scriptures. And, in the profoundest sense, the " glory" 
 
392 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 is the inmost Divine life shining in the Divine Humanity 
 in Jesus Christ, the one God of heaven and of earth. 
 
 This Divine character, shining through the Humanity 
 of Jesus Christ, is represented in many paintings by the 
 halo, or surrounding brightness, about the head of Jesus. 
 
 When we see and understand the Divine character 
 of Jesus, and comprehend the presence of God in man, 
 this great revelation of spiritual truth calls us to elevate 
 our minds even to greater degrees, that we may see the 
 truth in even higher aspects. Thus the voice of our 
 Lord says to us, " Arise, shine, for thy light is come, 
 and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee." (Isaiah 
 Ix. I.) " And then shall appear the sign of the Son of 
 Man, in heaven ; . . . and they shall see the Son of 
 Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and 
 great glory" (Matthew xxiv. 30) ; i.e., the Lord's Divine 
 Truth shall shine forth through the letter of the Word. 
 
 The interior church could not be established with the 
 Israelites, because they were in low and natural-minded 
 conditions, in which they could not perceive interior 
 things. And so a new church, the First Christian 
 Church, was established, to provide conditions in which 
 men could begin to elevate tlieir minds into spiritual 
 states, at least in simplicity, as spiritual-natural men. 
 But the First Christian Church could not understand 
 interior spiritual things; and so, in the Second Coming 
 of the Lord, a new church, the New Jerusalem, was 
 established, to receive the Lord in His Divine Human- 
 ity, in clear spiritual light, and without mystery ; and 
 to receive the Divine Word in its inward and spiritual 
 meaning, as the glory of the Lord shining widiin the 
 literal Scriptures, upon those who have ears to hear 
 " what the Spirit saith unto the churches." 
 
Joshua, the High Priest, etc. 393 
 
 XLIV. 
 JOSHUA, THE HIGH PRIEST, ETC. 
 
 And he showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before 
 the angel of Jehovah, and Satan standing at his right hand, to 
 resist him. 
 
 And Jehovah said unto Satan, Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan ; 
 even Jehovah, who hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee : is not 
 this a brand plucked out of the fire? 
 
 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood 
 before the angel. And he answered and spake unto those who 
 stood before Him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from 
 him. And unto him He said, Behold, I have caused thine 
 iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change 
 of raiment. 
 
 And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they 
 set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. 
 And the angel of Jehovah stood by. And the angel of Jehovah 
 protested unto Joshua, saying. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts : 
 If thou wilt walk in My ways, and if thou wilt keep My charge, 
 then thou shalt also judge My house, and shalt also keep My 
 courts, and I will give thee places to walk among those that 
 stand by. Hear now, O Joshua, the high priest, thou and thy 
 fellows that sit before thee : for they are men wondered at : 
 for behold I will bring forth My servant, the Branch. For 
 behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua ; upon one 
 stone shall be seven eyes : behold, I will engrave the graving 
 thereof, saith Jehovah of hosts ; and I will remove the iniquity 
 of that land in one day. 
 
 In that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, shall ye call every man 
 his neighbor under the vine and under the fig-tree. — Zechariah 
 iii. 
 
 The text is a prophecy that the infernal false princi- 
 ples of the IsraeHtish Church would infest the First 
 
394 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 Christian Church, which would be established by the 
 Lord, but which would fall into many falsities of igno- 
 rance; but that the Lord would remove such falsities, 
 and would give the church truths, instead; and that 
 the men of the church would have the understanding 
 of truth, from the Lord, in the measure in which they 
 would reject falsities from their minds and lives. 
 
 And, as all Divine prophecies are universal in dieir 
 scope, covering all human conditions to which they are 
 applicable, so the text also prophetically reveals condi- 
 tions of the First Christian Church, at the Second 
 Coming of the Lord, and the formation and establish- 
 ment of the New Church, symbolized by the descent of 
 the New Jerusalem, as narrated in the Apocalypse. 
 
 THE LITERAL PICTURE. 
 
 The Jews who had been in captivity in Chaldea, had 
 returned to Palestine, to find their country and its people 
 in a degenerated condition. The temple of Jehovah, in 
 Jerusalem, had fallen into decay, and the service and 
 ceremonies of the church were neglected. Some of the 
 Jews recognized and deplored the evil of these condi- 
 tions; but they feared that their national and personal 
 evils had been so great Ihat they could not expect the 
 forgiveness of Jehovah, nor His help in the restoration 
 of the people and of their former institutions. 
 
 But the prophets, especially Haggai and Zechariah, 
 encouraged the leaders to make great efforts towards 
 the restoration of Israel, and especially for the rebuild- 
 ing of the temple of Jehovah. And, for their encour- 
 agement, the vision narrated in our text was given to 
 Zechariah ; in which Joshua, the high priest, was repre- 
 sented as a man accused of a serious crime, and brought 
 before the judge, and confronted by his accuser; and, 
 according to custom, clad in neglected and filthy gar- 
 
Joshua, the High Priest, etc. 395 
 
 merits. But the Lord is represented as pardoning the 
 criminal, and ordering his release, and his restoration 
 to his former conditions ; thus representing that the 
 Lord would pardon and forgive Israel, and restore 
 former conditions of prosperity, if the people of Israel 
 would walk according to the Lord's commandments, and 
 reform their lives. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL MEANING. 
 
 But, in the spiritual meaning, this dramatic picture of 
 Joshua and Satan brought to judgment, represents the 
 dominant condition of mind in the Jewish Church, in 
 which the Divine Word was falsified by the spirit of 
 self-derived intelligence. 
 
 Joshua, as the high priest of Jehovah, here repre- 
 sented the Lord as to the Divine Word, and also in 
 another sense, as to the natural humanity of the Lord ; 
 for those who profaned and perverted the Divine Word, 
 even in its letter, would reject and despise the Lord, as 
 " the Word made flesh." 
 
 Man's Selfish mind is always ready to accuse the 
 Divine Word and the church of falsity and inconsist- 
 ency. But the purpose of the Lord is not to condemn 
 men, but to save them from their own evils and falsities ; 
 and so the Lord always rebukes Satan, the adversary, 
 and the accuser of men. And this rebuke involves not 
 only condemnation of Satan, but also the earnest Divine 
 effort in opposition to Satan's work. The more Satan 
 can prove that men are burning in the fires of evil, the 
 more the Lord seeks to rescue each individual person, 
 as we would pluck a burning stick from the fire. 
 
 SATAN. 
 
 Satan is not a personal proper name, but an official 
 title, meaning " an adversary," as, for instance, an adver- 
 
396 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 sary, or opponent, in a suit at law. But the First Chris- 
 tian Church, taking everything in the Bible as literally 
 as possible, supposed Satan to be an individual person, 
 a fallen angel. But, in fact, there is no such great 
 personal devil, an adversary and antagonist to the Lord. 
 The devil is the principle of evil, in the heart of an 
 unregenerate man, either on earth or in one of the 
 hells ; and any man in whom evil forms his fixed char- 
 acter is a devil. Speaking of Judas, Jesus said, " Have I 
 not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil ?" 
 
 A distinction is made between the devil and Satan, 
 the devil meaning the principle of evil, in the aggregate, 
 and Satan meaning falsity in the aggregate. Satan re- 
 sisting Joshua, the high priest, represents the spirit of 
 sensuous falsity, operating in the individual mind of a 
 man, or in the aggregate mind of the church, and antag- 
 onizing the Divine Word, especially in its life and spirit, 
 and this, often, even while those who are in falsities 
 profess to be governed by the literal sense of the Divine 
 Word. 
 
 In every line of human life on earth, personal, official, 
 or commercial, when we seek to do right, Satan stands 
 at our right hand, to resist us ; to alarm, depress, and 
 discourage our efforts. 
 
 The hand represents power, which we exert espe- 
 cially by means of our hands. The right hand repre- 
 sents the power of the will, or heart, in its love of 
 goodness. And the left hand represents the power of 
 the understanding, or intellect, in its knowledge of 
 truth. Satan standing at the right hand represents the 
 false principles of our unregenerate nature exerting 
 themselves to destroy the good which is in our hearts, 
 froiT) the Lord. 
 
 Thus Satan is the adversary, the accuser of the breth- 
 ren, representatively personified. And when, by regen- 
 eration, this false spirit is cast out of our mind, our 
 
Joshua, the High Priest, etc. 397 
 
 condition is represented in another picture, given in 
 the Revelation xii. 9, 10: "And the great dragon was 
 cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, 
 which deceiveth the whole world. . . . Now is come 
 salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, 
 and the power of His Christ; for the accuser of our 
 brethren is cast down." 
 
 THE FIRE-BRAND. 
 
 Among the Orientals, when any one escaped a great 
 danger, he was called " a fire-brand," or " a brand 
 plucked from the fire," where, otherwise, he would have 
 been destroyed. And the same figure of speech is 
 applied to spiritual dangers, and to a repenting sinner, 
 who is saved from the fires of hell. 
 
 FILTHY GARMENTS. 
 
 By Oriental custom, a prisoner charged with a capital 
 crime, was allowed to go without attention to his per- 
 sonal appearance ; and he was clothed in filthy and 
 ragged garments, as appropriate representatives of his 
 supposed character. A similar custom existed among 
 the Romans ; and such accused persons were called 
 " sordidati," or filthy ones. And, in English, the pri- 
 mary meaning of the word " sordid" is filthy, vile. 
 
 Garments, which clothe the body, represent the truths 
 which clothe our affections, i.e., which enable our affec- 
 tions to present themselves properly. Good and honor- 
 able persons, especially in their appearance in public, 
 are properly clad in decent clothing. But a low, mean, 
 degraded, and filthy person seems appropriately clad in 
 filthy clothes, or in rags. The mind has a natural per- 
 ception of the fitness of things, in these representatives. 
 
 And so, in the Scriptures, clothing is often mentioned 
 in the way of representing spiritual conditions. In 
 
398 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 Isaiah Ixi. lo, it is said, " I will greatly rejoice in Jeho- 
 vah ; my soul shall be joyful in my God : for He hath 
 clothed me with the garments of salvation : He hath 
 covered me with the robe of righteousness;" referring 
 to the glorious truths which are given to the regenerate 
 mind, by the Lord. 
 
 CHANGE OF GARMENTS. 
 
 When Jesus was transfigured before His three disci- 
 ples, it is said that " His face did shine as the sun, and 
 His raiment was white as the light." In this case, even 
 the appearance of the garments was changed. 
 
 And a change in the appearance of garments, or a 
 change of garments, represents a change in the state of 
 mind of the man who beholds these things, or who is 
 thus represented. 
 
 Filthy garments represent the false principles which 
 spring from evil. And to have the high priest clad in 
 filthy garments is, representatively, to have the church 
 taught falsities instead of truths ; and to ascribe falsi- 
 ties to the Lord's Word, and thus to the Lord, i.e., to 
 pervert and falsify the teachings of the Divine Word ; 
 and to hold in contempt the Divine Humanity of the 
 Lord. But to take away the filthy garments of Joshua, 
 and to clothe him with good clothing, is to restore to 
 the church the understanding of the Divine Word, and 
 thus to lead the church to reject the falsities of self- 
 derived intelligence. And, in this way, the Lord regen- 
 erates the church, and causes the iniquity of men to 
 pass away; i.e., to be rejected by men, and remitted to 
 the hells, whence it came. 
 
 THE MITRE. 
 
 After clean garments were given to Joshua, " they set 
 a fair mitre upon his head." A mitre, or bishop's official 
 
Joshua, the High Priest, etc. 399 
 
 hat, represents the intelHgence and wisdom of the 
 church, from knowledge and love of the spiritual truth 
 taught by the Lord, in His holy Word. 
 
 WALKING IN THE LORd's WAYS. 
 
 The angel then said to Joshua, " Thus saith Jehovah 
 of hosts : If thou wilt walk in My ways, and if thou 
 wilt keep My charge, then thou shalt also judge My 
 house, and shalt also keep My courts." That Joshua 
 should walk in the ways of Jehovah, represented that the 
 church should live according to the teachings of the 
 Lord's Word. The proof that any one sincerely believes 
 a truth is that he obeys that truth in all his life, in- 
 wardly in his affections and thoughts, and outwardly 
 in his conduct. 
 
 Joshua, as the high priest, had charge of the church, 
 as the servant of the Lord. It was the Lord's charge, 
 but, in a certain way, delegated to the priest. And so 
 the church must have charge over the Divine things 
 of goodness and truth, entrusted to the church, either 
 the church in the aggregate body, or the church in 
 each man's mind. 
 
 To judge the Lord's house was to lead the house of 
 Israel. But, spiritually, it is to apply the good prin- 
 ciples of the Divine Word to the conduct of life, when 
 the rational mind is opened to see spiritual truths, in 
 their principles and in their practical application. To 
 keep the Lord's courts is to keep the externals of the 
 church in good order. 
 
 SIGNS. 
 
 The prophets and the priests of Israel were official 
 representatives of the Lord ; they were signs before the 
 people ; and, as such, their doings were closely observed 
 by the people. Ezekiel, at the command of the Lord, 
 
400 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 enacted a parable before the eyes of the Israehtes, re- 
 moving his household goods, as if to go into captivity. 
 And then the Lord instructed Ezekiel to say to the 
 people, " I am your sign ; like as I have done, so shall 
 it be done unto them: they shall remove and go into 
 captivity." (Ezekiel xii. ii.) These are the things 
 meant by the men that sat before Joshua being " men 
 wondered at;" i.e., men who were signs to the people. 
 
 THE BRANCH. 
 
 But the greatest of all signs to men would be the 
 Messiah, the Lord, Jesus Christ, meant by the Branch, 
 the Humanity which should grow out of the Divine 
 Jehovah. " And there shall come forth a rod out of 
 the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his 
 roots." (Isaiah xi. i.) "Thus speaketh Jehovah of 
 hosts, saying. Behold the Man whose name is the 
 Branch : and He shall grow up out of His place, and 
 He shall build the temple of Jehovah ; . . . and He 
 shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His 
 throne : and He shall be a priest upon His throne." 
 (Zechariah vi. 12, 13.) 
 
 THE STONE. 
 
 " The stone that I have laid before Joshua," repre- 
 sented the Divine Word, even in its literal sense, set 
 before the church, that the people may ascribe the truth 
 to the Lord. And this Word would serve as a corner- 
 stone of the new temple to be built in the minds of the 
 people of the church. In its highest sense, this stone 
 is the Humanity of the Lord, as the foundation of the 
 church on earth, and of the inward temple in every 
 regenerate mind. " Behold, I lay, in Zion, for a foun- 
 dation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a 
 sure foundation." (Isaiah xxviii. 16.) 
 
Joshua, the High Priest, etc. 401 
 
 This stone is said to have seven eyes. Eyes, by which 
 we see, represent the understanding, or intellect, by 
 which the mind sees. Seven represents that which is 
 perfect and holy. To have seven eyes, representatively, 
 is to have full and perfect understanding of the truth. 
 But, as it is a stone which the Lord lays, or sets, it repre- 
 sents the perfect watchfulness and providence of the 
 Divine Wisdom. When the prophet Zechariah had seen 
 a golden candlestick, with its seven lamps, the Lord 
 said " These are the eyes of Jehovah, which run to and 
 fro through the whole earth" (Zechariah iv. 10) ; i.e., 
 the perfect Divine Providence. 
 
 To engrave upon this stone is to impress the Divine 
 Wisdom upon the Divine Word, even in its letter. And 
 when the Divine Word is received by the church, as 
 the truth of the Lord, loved, understood, and practised, 
 then the iniquity of the land shall be removed. 
 
 VINE AND FIG-TREE. 
 
 And then " every man shall call his neighbor, under 
 the vine, and under the fig-tree." In the hot countries 
 of the Orient, in times of prosperity, families would 
 often take their meals in the open air, under the shade 
 of trees and vines, especially the grape-vine and the 
 fig-tree, because these were the common possessions of 
 the country, yielding the fruit for the table. In such 
 times, a passing neighbor, or traveller, would be invited 
 to join the family in their repast. And these things 
 became the representatives of peace and prosperity. The 
 grape-vine represented spiritual truth, bearing the grapes 
 of spiritual goodness. And the fig-tree represented nat- 
 ural truth, bearing the figs of natural goodness. And 
 thus when a man could rest and eat in peace, under his 
 own vine and fig-tree, he represented a condition of 
 mind in which the man of the church, well instructed 
 
 26 
 
402 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 in truth, can rest in the spiritual peace of regeneration, 
 in the love and understanding of both spiritual and nat- 
 ural goodness. " And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, 
 every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, . . . 
 all the days of Solomon." (I. Kings iv. 25.) 
 
 These representative promises were given to ancient 
 Israel ; and they are given to us, also, and to every 
 other age of the church ; for the Divine Love and Wis- 
 dom are earnestly seeking to bless men, at all times, and 
 in all places. All these glorious pictures of noble spir- 
 itual conditions may be portraits of our lives, to-day, if 
 we are willing to search out our evil tendencies, and to 
 repent of our evils, and to reform our lives. Our Lord 
 has promised that " No good thing will He withhold 
 from them that walk uprightly." O Lord, " Thou wilt 
 keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on 
 Thee." 
 
The Golden Candlestick and the Olive-Trees. 403 
 
 XLV. 
 
 THE GOLDEN CANDLESTICK AND THE 
 OLIVE-TREES. 
 
 And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked 
 me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, and said unto 
 me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold 
 a candlestick, all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and 
 his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, 
 which are upon the top thereof : and two olive-trees by it, one 
 upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left 
 side thereof. So I answered and spake to the angel that talked 
 with me, saying, What are these, my lord? . . . What are 
 these two olive-trees upon the right side of the candlestick, and 
 upon the left side thereof? . . . What are these two olive- 
 branches, which, through the two golden pipes, empty the 
 golden oil out of themselves? And he answered me and said, 
 Knowest thou not what these be? And I said. No, my lord. 
 Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by 
 the Lord of the whole earth. — Zechariah iv. 1-4, 11-14. 
 
 The text treats of the spiritual light which shall be 
 in the New Church, from the Lord, from the goodness 
 of love, by means of heavenly truths. 
 
 AWAKING. 
 
 Natural life anc4- spiritual life are distinctly different 
 experiences. While a man is engaged in the works and 
 thoughts and phenomena of his corporeal life, he is as 
 if asleep towards the distinctive experiences and phe- 
 nomena of his spiritual life. The spiritual world is the 
 inward world, the world of life and of causes, while 
 
404 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 the natural world is the outward world of effects and 
 embodiments of spiritual principles. But, in our ordi- 
 nary natural experiences we are not conscious of the 
 activities even of our own spirit, within our own body. 
 And so when the Lord suddenly opens the eyes of a 
 man's spirit, and allows him to see into the spiritual 
 world, it is comparatively as if a man were suddenly 
 awakened from sleep, to renew his consciousness amid 
 the phenomena of his natural life. 
 
 And a similar awakening occurs in the mind, when 
 we pass from merely sensuous forms of thought to 
 spiritual phases of thought, and to rational perception 
 of principles, whose comprehension is obscure to us in 
 our natural-minded states. These things are meant by 
 the prophet's statement that the angel awoke him, as if 
 from a sleep, when he was called, again, to see the sym- 
 bolic representatives displayed in the spiritual world. 
 And so in the Scriptures natural-mindedness is often 
 referred to as a state of sleep ; and when men are called 
 to elevate their minds to spiritual truths, they are 
 called to "awake." "Awake, and sing, ye that dwell 
 in dust." (Isaiah xxvi. 19.) "Awake, awake; put on 
 thy strength, O Zion ; put on thy beautiful garments, 
 O Jerusalem." (Isaiah Hi. i.) 
 
 THE GOLDEN CANDLESTICK. 
 
 The prophet saw a golden candlestick and two olive- 
 trees, etc. The candlestick was a lamp-stand. The He- 
 brew word used in the text, is a general term for a 
 light, covering and including lamp, candle, torch, etc. ; 
 as, in our language, we speak of a " light," whether it 
 be by gas, or candle, or oil lamp, or electrical lamp, etc. 
 For instance, in IJ. Samuel xxii. 29, it is said, " Thou 
 art my lamp, O Jehovah : and Jehovah will lighten my 
 darkness." And, in Psalm xviii. 22, we read " Thou wilt 
 
The Golden Candlestick and the Olive-Trees. 405 
 
 light my candle: Jehovah, my God, will enlighten my 
 darkness." And the same Hebrew word is translated 
 " lamp," in one case, and " candle" in the other case. 
 
 In a natural figurative sense, the vision of the text 
 refers to the work of Zerubbabel, in repairing and re- 
 furnishing the temple. But, spiritually, it relates to the 
 coming of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and to His work in 
 repairing the spiritual church, in the minds of men, 
 by bringing down the life and the truths of heaven. In 
 a specific sense the vision symbolizes the New-Jerusalem 
 Church, in the heavens and on earth. This Church is 
 in spiritual light from the Lord. And in a special sense 
 this Church is the temple of the Lord, in which the Lord 
 is known and worshipped in His Divine Humanity, 
 which is the temple of Jehovah, in the highest sense. 
 In Revelation i. 20, it is said, " The seven candlesticks 
 which thou sawest are the seven churches." 
 
 The candlestick was of gold. Gold corresponds to 
 love to the Lord. And where love to the Lord exists 
 in the church, those who constitute the church are in 
 the perception and use of the highest light of truth, the 
 truth of love, from the Lord, by means of His Word. 
 
 THE BOWL, PIPES, ETC. 
 
 The lamp-stand had one bowl, on the top, to contain 
 oil, which was thence fed to the seven lamps, by means 
 of seven pipes, one pipe from the bowl to each lamp. 
 The bowl and the distributing-pipes represent the doc- 
 trines of the church, from the Divine Word; which 
 doctrines, as vessels, hold the truth and the goodness 
 of love, and serve as means for the practical use of 
 these spiritual things. This bowl was on the top of the 
 candlestick, or lamp-stand, to represent the source of 
 the oil, or heavenly love, in the highest things of life, 
 which come down from the Lord. 
 
4o6 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 There were seven lamps, because seven represents 
 tliat which is holy. And the seven lamps were the holy 
 truths of the church, from the Lord, through His 
 Word ; for, in the supreme sense, the Lord is the holy 
 One. It was revealed to Moses, " Thou shalt make a 
 candlestick of pure gold ; of beaten work shall the can- 
 dlestick be made ; . . . and thou shalt make seven lamps 
 therein ; and thou shalt light the lamps thereof, that 
 they may give light over against it." (Exodus xxv. 
 31. 37-) 
 
 LAMPS. 
 
 In general, a lamp signifies a doctrine, from which 
 shines the truth, as light. So it is said, in Psalm cxix. 
 105, " Thy Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light unto 
 my path." The seven lamps on the candlestick were 
 figuratively called " the seven eyes of the Lord," repre- 
 senting the Lord's full and holy watchful providence 
 over all things of human life. The church on earth, in 
 the degree in which it has the Divine Truth, unper- 
 verted, is " the light of the world," in a lower degree, 
 because it proclaims the Lord, Himself, as " the Light of 
 the World," in the highest degree. And, in this sense, 
 Jesus said to His disciples, " Ye are the light of the 
 world." 
 
 THE OLIVE-TREES. 
 
 The olive-trees in the vision represented the Celestial 
 Church, tlie Church principled in supreme love to the 
 Lord, which includes a heavenly love for the fellow- 
 men. The fruit of the olive-tree, the ripe golden olive, 
 full of warm smooth oil, represents the practical love 
 of the Lord, as seen in the love of men, as the Lord's 
 children. 
 
 There were two olive-trees, to represent, in one sense, 
 celestial love, on the right side, and celestial intelligence, 
 on the left side. For the right side refers to the things 
 
The Golden Candlestick and the Olive-Trees. 407 
 
 of the will, or heart, with its loves and affections ; and 
 the left side represents the things of the understanding, 
 or intellect, with its thoughts. And thus, in one aspect, 
 the two olive-trees represented love and charity, or the 
 celestial man's love to the Lord, and his love to men. 
 Representatively, these two qualities of love, and, per- 
 sonally, those persons in whom such qualities especially 
 predominate, are represented by the picture of the re- 
 deemed, in I. Kings xxii. 19, " I saw Jehovah, sitting 
 on His throne, and all the hosts of heaven standing by 
 Him, on His right hand and on His left." 
 
 KNOWEST THOU NOT? 
 
 When the prophet asked the angel for information 
 about the things seen in his vision, the angel at first 
 replied by asking the prophet, " Knowest thou not what 
 these be?" And this counter-questioning occurs twice, 
 during the same vision. Naturally, it would seem that 
 the angel would know that the prophet would not under- 
 stand these things without instruction. But the angel's 
 questions were intended to define the prophet's state 
 of mind, and to draw out his thovtght, and to fix the 
 matter more firmly in his mind. The prophet then 
 represented the church among men. And the question 
 of the angel, " Knowest thou not what these be ?" car- 
 ried an inference that the prophet should have known 
 such things ; i.e., that the church should be in a state 
 of mind to imderstand the relations of spiritual and 
 natural things, because these things are set forth in the 
 Divine Word, which is with the church, and which 
 would be understood if men were in regenerate and 
 enlightened states. 
 
 A somewhat similar case is mentioned in Revelation 
 vii. 13, when John was witnessing the representative 
 phenomena of the spiritual world : one of the elders 
 
4o8 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 asked him, " Who are these, that are arrayed in white 
 robes? And whence came they?" John then did not 
 understand what he saw, but he wished to inquire ; and 
 so he repHed, " Sir, thou knowest." And then the 
 angel instructed John. This questioning of the angel 
 may well represent the great spiritual fact that our 
 mental questioning, our asking for light and for good- 
 ness, although it seems to be our own action, is insti- 
 gated by the Lord ; and we act only as if of ourselves. 
 The Lord's love and wisdom flowing into us, in the 
 degree of our openness, arouse in us the desire to inquire 
 further, and the effort to understand the things of 
 spiritual life. And yet our Lord permits to us the 
 appearance that we feel and think from our own minds, 
 in order that, as of ourselves, we may make the neces- 
 sary efforts to acquire the higher character. 
 
 ANOINTED. 
 
 The angel instructed the prophet that the two olive- 
 branches were " the two anointed ones, that stand by 
 the Lord of the whole earth." " Anointed ones" were 
 such as were anointed with olive-oil. Because of the 
 correspondence of olive-oil to the goodness of love to 
 the Lord, such oil was used, in the representative church 
 in Israel, according to Divine command, revealed to the 
 church through the prophets. Many things were so 
 anointed, including the tabernacle and many things in 
 it ; the altar and its vessels, in the temple ; the priests 
 and their garments ; the prophets ; the kings ; the stones 
 which were set up as witnesses ; the arms of soldiers, 
 as their shields, etc. ; and, finally, individuals anointed 
 themselves to express gladness and love. And, in all 
 these cases, the anointing oil was used to represent the 
 love, as given to men, by the Lord, to fit them for His 
 service. And men who were anointed for the service 
 
The Golden Candlestick and the Olive-Trees. 409 
 
 of the Lord were said to have been " born of oil ;" i.e., 
 filled with the spirit of love. 
 
 STANDING BY THE LORD. 
 
 These two anointed ones are said to " stand by the 
 Lord." The objective picture thus drawn is of a king, 
 sitting on his throne, with two trusted servants beside 
 him, one on each side, ready to do his immediate com- 
 mands. But the spiritual picture is of the Lord, as the 
 Divine King, enthroned in the mind of the regenerate 
 man. And the two " anointed ones," standing beside 
 Him, are the principles of love to the Lord, on the right 
 hand, and love to the neighbor, on the left hand. These 
 are the servants of our Lord, in men's minds, acknowl- 
 edging the Lord as the Ruler, and doing His bidding, in 
 all the particulars of daily life, as they arise, in practical 
 experience. And happy is the mind in which the 
 anointed ones thus stand ready to carry out all things 
 of the Lord's will. 
 
 And in our text-God is called " the God of the whole 
 earth." The earth here represents the church, in the 
 minds of men. And the Lord is God of the universal 
 church, in all its branches. And so Jesus said " Ail 
 power is given unto Me, in heaven and in earth." 
 (Matthew xxviii. 18.) And, in the highest sense, 
 heaven and earth are the Divine and the Human, in the 
 Lord, Jesus Christ. And, in the lower sense, heaven 
 and earth are the spiritual mind and the natural mind, 
 in men. And when both of these minds receive the 
 Lord's love and wisdom, they become regenerate, and 
 of a heavenly quality. And the Lord is then enthroned 
 within them. And beside Him stand the two olive-trees 
 of heavenly love and wisdom. And then, in such a 
 mind, the will of God is done on the earth of the natural 
 life, as it is known and done in the heaven of the en- 
 
4IO Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 lightened spiritual life. Every day of our life our Lord 
 is seeking to teach us His holy truths ; and to lead us 
 into the goodness of heavenly love. Every day, in all 
 His words, and in all His works, He is setting before 
 us the embodiments of His infinite love and wisdom. 
 And the facts of life, as they pass before our vision, 
 are constantly asking us, " Knowest thou not what 
 these be?" 
 
The Flying Roll. 411 
 
 XLVI. 
 
 THE FLYING ROLL. 
 
 Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and 
 behold, a flying roll. And he said unto me. What seest thou? 
 And I answered, I see a flying roll ; the length thereof twenty 
 cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits. Then said he unto 
 me. This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the 
 whole earth : for everyone that stealeth shall be cut oflr, on 
 this side, according to it ; and everyone that sweareth shall be 
 cut off, on that side, according to it. I will bring it forth, 
 saith Jehovah of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the 
 thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by My 
 name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall 
 consume it, with the timber thereof and the stones thereof. — 
 Zechariah v. 1-4. 
 
 The text is a representative prophecy of the impend- 
 ing destruction of the Jewish Church, which had become 
 entirely perverted in doctrine and in Hfe. 
 
 THE ROLL. 
 
 The roll seen by the prophet was a roll of manuscript, 
 a book, or scroll, as books were then made, before the 
 arts of printing and binding had been invented. Eze- 
 kiel, describing one of his visions, says, " And when I 
 looked, behold, a hand was sent unto me ; and lo, a roll 
 of a book therein." (Ezekiel ii. 9.) 
 
 A book takes its character from the things that are 
 written in it, or from the character of its writer. If 
 the contents of a book are true, the book represents the 
 truth, in some phase and degree, according to the nature 
 
412 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 of its contents. But if its contents are false, the book 
 represents falsity. The Word of the Lord is called 
 " the Book," because it is filled with Divine truths. 
 But this book mentioned in our text contained the things 
 which were written in the minds of the men of the cor- 
 rupted church, in Israel; false, perverted principles, 
 springing from self-love. And so this roll, or book, rep- 
 resented the malignant falsities which were destroying 
 all spiritual life in the Jewish Church. And the fact 
 that it was a " flying roll," passing through the air, 
 represented that it was passing through the corrupted 
 Church, destroying all goodness and truth in the minds 
 of men. 
 
 THE SIZE OF THE ROLL. 
 
 This roll was of immense size for a book; i.e., it was 
 about thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide. This great 
 size represented the immense power for destruction ex- 
 ercised by these false principles, pushing their way 
 through everything in a man's mind. The common 
 cubit was the standard of linear measure ; and it was 
 about eighteen inches of our modern measure. 
 
 The length of anytliing represents its measure, or 
 quality, as to goodness ; and its breadth represents its 
 measure, or quality, as to truth. In this case, the length 
 was twenty cubits. Twenty, as a number, represents 
 the interior principles of goodness stored up in the mind 
 of a man, by the Lord, especially in the man's childhood ; 
 and called " remains," principles remaining with him 
 when he comes to the temptations of adult life. And the 
 breadth of the roll was ten cubits. And ten, as a num- 
 ber, represents all, or a complete series, as the Ten 
 Commandments, including laws for all human life. 
 Here, as the width refers to the truth, the " ten" meas- 
 ures the whole character of the roll, as to the truth of 
 its principles. And, as this roll represents the mental 
 
The Flying Roll. 413 
 
 conditions of the corrupted and dying Jewish Church, 
 its goodness was all perverted into evil, and its truth 
 into falsity. And thus, those Divine principles which 
 had been revealed to men as the means of spiritual life, 
 had been corrupted by men, and turned into spiritual 
 death. That which the Lord had given to men for a 
 blessing, they had turned into a curse. 
 
 THE CURSE. 
 
 And so, when the angel explained to the prophet the 
 meaning of the roll, he said, " This is the curse that 
 goeth forth over the face of the whole earth." In this 
 case, the curse is used in the sense of the condemnation, 
 or penalty, which returns upon the man who swears 
 falsely, calling God to witness the truth of that which 
 the man knows to be false. Such a penalty is always 
 attached to an oath, even by the civil law, as well as 
 by the Divine law. For the value of an oath ;s in its 
 absolute sincerity and truthfulness. And any other 
 standard would imperil the Hves and liberties of all 
 persons in a community. And, as every responsible 
 man understands the nature and importance of an oath, 
 he brings upon himself the civil and spiritual penalties 
 of perjury, when he swears falsely, intentionally and 
 deliberately. " Evil shall slay the wicked." But, to 
 the evil man, it seems that the Lord sends troubles which 
 come upon evil men. In Jeremiah v. 25 it is said, " Your 
 iniquities have turned away these [good things], and 
 your sins have withholden good from you." And in 
 Isaiah lix. i, 2, it is written, " Jehovah's hand is not 
 shortened, that He cannot save, neither is His ear heavy, 
 that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have separated 
 between you and your God, and your sins have hid His 
 face from you." 
 
414 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 THE FACE OF THE EARTH. 
 
 The curse named in our text is said to " go forth 
 over the face of the whole earth." The whole earth 
 represents the whole church of that dispensation ; and 
 also the whole natural mind of man, as distinguished 
 from his spiritual mind, which is the heaven of his mind. 
 " The face is the index of the mind ;" and so the face 
 represents the interiors of the mind, which express 
 themselves in the face. In the evil man, the conscious 
 interiors are the interiors of his natural mind, because 
 his spiritual mind is closed. 
 
 And thus the curse is said to " cut of?" those who do 
 evil; i.e., inwardly, in their own minds, men's con- 
 firmed false principles cut them off from the supply of 
 spiritual life, which is from the Lord, and which can 
 enter into such minds, only, as are open to the Lord. 
 
 STEALING. 
 
 The two classes of evil-doers specifically mentioned 
 in the text, are those who steal, and those who swear 
 falsely. Literally, to steal is wrongfully to deprive 
 another person of his property, either his worldly goods 
 or his mental property. But, spiritually, to steal from 
 another person is to take away his spiritual property, 
 his good and true principles, or his rationality, or his 
 spiritual freedom. If any of these is stealthily taken 
 away from a man, he is robbed of his right sense of 
 good and evil, of truth and falsity, and of righteousness 
 and sin. And thus he is robbed of the means of spir- 
 itual life. And, in a more profound sense, the evil man 
 steals from the Lord, when he refuses to love and obey 
 the Lord, and to acknowledge his life to be the Lord's 
 gift. 
 
 When the monstrous curse of falsity goes through 
 the mind of a man, " everyone that stealeth shall be cut 
 
The Flying Roll. 415 
 
 off ;" i.e., such falsity cannot carry life to the mind, but 
 it carries death, because it cuts off the mind from the 
 source of spiritual life, in the Lord ; because the evil 
 man refuses to go to the Lord for life. He prefers the 
 things which are spiritual death, although he hears the 
 loving invitation of the Lord, saying " Ye would not 
 come unto Me, that ye might have life." Spiritual 
 stealing takes away all good from the heart, and destroys 
 the " remains" of goodness stored up there, by the 
 Lord, in the man's early years. 
 
 SWEARING. 
 
 The swearing here referred to is forswearing, swear- 
 ing falsely, lying under oath, committing perjury, as 
 we can see by the fact that, in the fourth verse of our 
 text, it is mentioned as the act of " him that sweareth 
 falsely by My name." The mere act of swearing, or 
 taking an oath to tell the truth, was not objected to, 
 among the Isfaelites, but on the contrary, oaths were 
 ordained by the Lord, and regulated, and specified, 
 under the charge of the priests. Swearing by the name 
 of the Lord is affirming by the highest authority, and 
 in the most solemn manner. And when we call God to 
 witness our sincerity and truthfulness, if we deliberately 
 lie, we commit one of the gravest of crimes. And, spir- 
 itually, in perjury we confuse goodness and evil, and 
 truth and falsity ; and finally we destroy our own spir- 
 itual rationality, and our spiritual freedom. For " the 
 sinner is a slave to his sin." False swearing destroys 
 the interior " remains" of truth, stored up in a man's 
 mind, by the Lord. " Ye shall not swear by My name 
 falsely, neither shalt thou. profane the name of thy God." 
 (Leviticus xix. 12.) 
 
 It is said in our text, that the thief and the false 
 swearer shall be cut off " according to" the curse, or 
 
4i6 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 flying roll ; i.e., by the operation of that overwhelming 
 falsity, working in the unregenerate mind. By the 
 statement that these evil-doers shall be cut off " on this 
 side and on that side," is meant on the right side and 
 on the left ; i.e., as to tlie good in the heart, and as to 
 the truth in the understanding. For the right side 
 represents the things of the will, or heart, the affectional 
 nature ; and the left side represents the things of the 
 imderstanding, the intellectual nature. 
 
 THE HOUSE, ETC. 
 
 It is said of the curse, oi" flying roll, " it shall enter 
 into the house of the thief, and into the house of him 
 that sweareth falsely by My name : and it shall remain 
 in the midst of his house, and shall consume it, with the 
 timber thereof and the stones thereof." Spiritually, a 
 man's house is his mind, especially his will, or heart, in 
 which reside his ruling loves, the fundamental motives 
 of his character. The great destructive false principles, 
 represented by the flying roll, enter into the interiors of 
 the man's will, and consume the spiritual vitality of all 
 his affections. And, in the mental house of the per- 
 jurer, the great falsities falsify all forms of truth. 
 
 The text states that the curse shall consume tlie house, 
 including the timbers and the stones. The timber, which 
 is of wood, represents the natural goodness which should 
 be built into every man's life. And the stones represent 
 the natural truths which form the foundation, or wall, 
 of the good man's mental house. And such natural 
 goodness and truths are destroyed by the curse of fixed 
 falsity. 
 
 GENERAL REPRESENTATION. 
 
 In one phase of our text, the two sins enumerated, 
 stealing and false swearing in the name of the Lord, 
 stand as the general representatives of all prevailing 
 
The Flying Roll. 417 
 
 sins ; because they represent sins against the command- 
 ments on the two tables of the Decalogue, one for man's 
 relations with God alone, and one for his relations with 
 men : taking the Lord's name in vain bemg a sin against 
 the first table of the law ; and stealing from men being 
 a breach of the law on the second table. 
 
 Evils, falsities, and sins never dwell singly and alone 
 in the mind and life of any man. Evils are gregarious : 
 and wherever you find any one evil in a definite and 
 fixed form, holding possession of a man's mind, there 
 you will find an unregenerate heart ; and there you will 
 find every other evil, at least in its potency, and in its 
 beginnings, even although circumstances and policy may 
 have suppressed the outward expression of such evils. 
 Every man has a general level of character, either for 
 good or for evil ; and neither his virtues nor his vices 
 extend above or below his general level. No man can 
 be regenerated as to a part of his character, and unre- 
 generate as to the rest. For regeneration does not pro- 
 gress by quantity, but by quality: and every man's 
 general quality of character gives tone to each depart- 
 ment of his mind and of his life. 
 
 The picture of the enormous flying roll, destroying 
 everything in its path, is graphic and forcible. Men of 
 the world, in any community, would look with abject 
 terror upon the coming into their houses of such a 
 literal instrument of Divine vengeance. But, although 
 unrecognized, there is such a terrible curse flying 
 through the mind of every man who has fixed his mind 
 in evil and falsity, and his life in sin. It is a deadly 
 curse, which he has formed in his own heart and intel- 
 lect, and whose power he cannot escape, because he 
 loves the corrupt things which form and constitute that 
 deadly curse. The only escape from these conditions 
 is in repentance and regeneration, before the evil has 
 fixed itself in our completed character. It is for us ever 
 
 27 
 
4i8 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 to heed the Word of our loving Lord, seeking to save 
 us from the self-made hell which confirmed evil sets up 
 in every unrepentant heart. " Turn ye from all your 
 evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" 
 (Ezekiel xxxiii. ii.) "Seek good, and not evil, that 
 ye may live; and so Jehovah, the God of hosts, shall be 
 with you." (Amos v. 14.) 
 
The Women and the Ephah. 419 
 
 XLVII. 
 
 THE WOMEN AND THE EPHAH. 
 
 Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto 
 me, Lift up, now, thine eyes, and see what is tliis that goeth 
 forth. And I said, What is it? And he said. This is an ephah 
 that goeth forth. He said, moreover. This is their resemblance 
 through all the earth. And behold, there was lifted up a talent 
 of lead. And this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the 
 ephah. And he said. This is Wickedness. And he cast her 
 into the midst of the ephah ; and he cast the weight of lead 
 upon the mouth thereof. Then lifted I up mine eyes, and 
 looked, and behold, there came forth two women ; and the 
 wind was in their wings ; for they had wings like the wings of 
 a stork : and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and 
 the heaven. Then said I to the angel that talked with me. 
 Whither do these bear the ephah? And he said unto me, To 
 build it a house in the land of Shinar : and it shall be estab- 
 lished, and set there upon her own base. — Zechariah v. 5-1 i. 
 
 The text is a revelation that, in the perverted Jewish 
 Church, even its external good was inwardly filled with 
 the love of evil, which had perverted its goodness, and 
 would still further profane the Divine Truth. 
 
 THE EPHAH. 
 
 The ephah was the largest of the dry measures in 
 common use among the Israelites. It was about equal 
 to our modern bushel measure. As solids represent the 
 things of goodness, and liquids represent the things of 
 truth, a dry measure represents the measure of good- 
 ness, the test of the quality of goodness, in the thing 
 
4^0 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 measured. Thus, in a general sense, the ephah repre- 
 sented goodness. The ephah is said to " go forth," 
 when it is put into practical use. 
 
 Speaking of the ephah, the angel said, according to 
 the Authorized Version, " This is their resemblance 
 through all the earth." But the Hebrew literally says, 
 " This is their eye through all the earth." The eye 
 represents the understanding, the intellect, which is the 
 eye of the mind, by which mental things are seen intelli- 
 gently. The reference seems to be to the fact that the 
 ephah was of the usual kind, with the usual appearance. 
 But, spiritually, it refers to the fact that this ephah 
 represents the general kind of natural good, as in the 
 church, that is, goodness as measured in the outward 
 conduct, especially in the acts of piety and devotion. 
 
 LEAD. 
 
 This ephah had a leaden cover, or lid. Lead, as a 
 base metal, represents goodness of the lowest degree, 
 i.e., natural and corporeal good, good as known to the 
 natural senses, sensuous good. The leaden cover was 
 said to be " a talent of lead." The Hebrew talent was 
 a large weight, which varied in different times, but 
 which was about one hundred pounds of our common 
 avoirdupois weight. A talent of gold, and a talent of 
 silver, became common amounts for great enterprises, 
 requiring large sums. In the parable of the talents, in 
 Matthew xxv. 14-30, we have an instance of the use of 
 the term. A talent, thus used in the way of a coin, 
 represented knowledge of truth and of goodness; for 
 knowledge, like money, is not goodness, nor is it truth, 
 but it is only a means of procuring these things. As 
 this large leaden cover represented corporeal and sen- 
 suous goodness, the fact that it was a " talent" of lead 
 indicates that there was, in the mind represented, a 
 
The Women and the Ephah. 421 
 
 knowledge of the things which form corporeal good- 
 ness. This leaden cover was lifted up, or ofif, to expose 
 the contents of the ephah. 
 
 THE WOMAN. 
 
 In this case, the contents happened to be a woman, 
 sitting in the ephah. A woman represents the affec- 
 tional life, good or evil, according to the character of 
 the individual. Here, as the perverted church is pic- 
 tured, the woman represented the love of evil. And, to 
 indicate this fact, the angel, in speaking of her, said, 
 "This is Wickedness" [literally "evil"]. This evil 
 woman represented the general state of the corrupted 
 church. The ephah represented natural good, good in 
 the external action : and the woman represented evil 
 in the heart, the love of evil, dwelling within the 
 external goodness of the piety and devotion of those 
 who constituted the church. The Jewish Church, 
 although still very punctilious about mere externals 
 of worship, very pious, and apparently devoted to the 
 forms of the church, yet indulged all kinds of evils, in 
 the heart. 
 
 We remember how forcibly Jesus exposed those evil 
 conditions, in His denunciation of the " Scribes and 
 Pharisees, hypocrites," who thus represented the Jewish 
 nation in general : " Ye are like unto whited sepulchres, 
 which, indeed, appear beautiful, outwardly, but are, 
 within, full of dead men's bones, and of all unclean- 
 ness." These statements expose the evil character of 
 the Jews, even in the midst of their outward piety and 
 professions. And this is the meaning symbolized by the 
 evil woman in the ephah. 
 
 That she was " sitting" in the ephah, means that her 
 will was fixed in such evil ; for sitting indicates a posi- 
 tion somewhat permanent, and one in which the person 
 
4-22 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 is at rest, and not merely in a transient, changing state 
 of mind. And that she was " in the midst" of the ephah, 
 means that she was thoroughly and fully fixed in such 
 condition. 
 
 SHUT IN. 
 
 After the angel had shown the woman to the prophet, 
 he cast her down again, or crowded her down, into 
 the ephah, and closed the ephah with its leaden cover. 
 This action denoted that the Jewish Church, repre- 
 sented by the woman, was fixed and confirmed in its 
 evils of heart, which existed within all its external 
 goodness of piety and devotion ; and that such in- 
 ward evils were shut in, and covered up, by the sen- 
 suous and corporeal good, in which such men placed 
 religion. And such joining of evil in the heart with 
 outward good in the action, constitutes profanation of 
 goodness. 
 
 When the angel closed the ephah, it is said that " he 
 cast the weight upon the mouth" of the ephah. But in 
 the Hebrew, Hterally, it is called a " stone of lead." 
 Ancient weights were often made of stone. And the 
 weight was commonly called a stone. And, even in our 
 day, in Great Britain, a weight of fourteen pounds is 
 called a " stone." A stone represents truth on the nat- 
 ural plane, natural truth; or, if used in a bad sense, it 
 represents natural truth perverted into falsity. And 
 thus the term " a stone of lead," meaning sensuous fal- 
 sity, is in agreement with the lead, itself, which repre- 
 sented sensuous evil, from whicli such falsities are 
 derived. 
 
 TWO. WOMEN. 
 
 After the ephah was closed, there appeared two 
 women, who lifted the ephah, and carried it away. As a 
 
The Women and the Ephah. 423 
 
 woman represents affection, these two women repre- 
 sented affection existing in other churches, other condi- 
 tions of the church, which perceived the evil character 
 of the Jewish Church, represented by the woman shut 
 up in the ephah ; and so tliey were directed by the Lord 
 to banish her from among them, and to thrust her away, 
 where she could be by herself, without contaminating 
 the other churches. For some of the Gentile churches, 
 although ignorant of clear spiritual truth, were in a 
 state of simplicity, and well disposed towards the Lord. 
 And their natural good affections were protected from 
 contamination by the hypocrisy of the Jews, by allowing 
 them to recognize such hypocrisy, and to reject it from 
 their own life. And there were two of these women, to 
 represent their good natural affections in a state of- 
 union. And, individually, when our good natural affec- 
 tions are united with such truths as we know, our Lord 
 can protect us against the spirit of hypocritical piety, 
 by exposing to us its character. 
 
 WINGS. 
 
 These women " had wings, like the wings of a stork." 
 Wings, which are the arms of birds, represent power, 
 because they are the chief means by which the bird 
 exerts its power. And as birds represent our thoughts, 
 their wings represent the power of thought. And 
 flying represents using the power of thought. And 
 the banishment of the evil spirit of hypocritical 
 piety was effected by thinking over these things; i.e., 
 using the power of thought, which is represented by 
 flying away with the ephah in which was the evil 
 woman. 
 
 And that these two women " had wings like the wings 
 of a stork," means, literally, that their wings were long, 
 powerful, and capable of swift and extended flight. The 
 
424 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 stork represents natural thought, such as is capable of 
 strong and continued thinking. 
 
 THE WIND. 
 
 It is also said of these two women, that " the wind 
 was in their wings," which is a figurative way of saying 
 that their wings made use of the wind. But, spiritually, 
 the meaning is more profound. In physical nature, the 
 blowing of the wind, by which many necessary purposes 
 are accomplished, represents the operation of the Divine 
 Providence, especially in flowing into men's minds with 
 the Divine Truths, by which men are regenerated. And 
 so, in the account of the creation of man, in Genesis ii. 7, 
 it is said that " Jehovah God breathed into his nostrils 
 the breath of life, and man became a living soul." And 
 the same Hebrew word is the root-word from which we 
 translate wind, breath, and spirit. 
 
 THE LAND OF SHINAR. 
 
 These women were to carry away the woman in the 
 ephah, to " the land of Shinar," where they were to 
 build her a house for herself, and where they would set 
 the ephah in order, on its " own base." The land of 
 Shinar was the ancient name of Chaldea, or Babylonia, 
 as is known from Genesis x. 10, where, speaking of 
 Nimrod, " a mighty hunter," it is said ; " The beginning 
 of his kingdom was Babel and Erech, and Accad and 
 Calneh, in the land of Shinar." It is said of the de- 
 scendants of Noah, " and it came to pass, as they jour- 
 neyed from the East, that they found a plain in the 
 land of Shinar; and they dwelt there." (Genesis xi. 
 2.) And there they began to build the great tower of 
 Babel. 
 
 The land of Shinar represents a state of merely ex- 
 ternal worship, joined \yith evil in the heart, which pro- 
 
The Women and the Ephah. 425 
 
 duces profanation of all goodness and truth. It is, for 
 instance, the devoted external piety of the man who 
 believes that he will be saved from the wrath of God 
 by the " Vicarious Sacrifice" of Christ, and who depends 
 on such a salvation, and does not have the desire, or in- 
 tention, to co-operate with the Lord, in changing his own 
 character from evil to good, by repentance, instruction 
 and regeneration, whereby the Lord saves a man from 
 the man's own evils. 
 
 The evil woman in the ephah, carried to the land of 
 Shinar, is a representative picture of the removal and 
 separation of the Church of hypocritical piety, filled 
 with evil in the heart, so that it shall not be mingled 
 and confused with other forms of the church, but shall 
 stand by itself, to fill up the measure of its own destiny. 
 
 And, in the land of Shinar, a house shall be built for 
 that Church. The house is a man's home, where he 
 lives in private. And it represents the man's interior 
 will, in which he lives to himself. And thus, the banish- 
 ment of the evil woman from her associates, and having 
 a house built for her, in a distant land, where she could 
 be " established and set there upon her own base," rep- 
 resent the separation of hypocritical goodness, and its 
 building up of itself, upon its own foundations of char- 
 acter, and thus being known as to its qualities. 
 
 THE PROPHECY. 
 
 Literally, our text seems to be a prophecy of the de- 
 struction of Jerusalem, and of the nationality of the 
 Jews, which, in fact, soon came about, through the 
 Roman conquest of Judea. But, spiritually, the text 
 depicts a judgment upon the Jewish dispensation, and 
 also a judgment upon similar mental conditions, in the 
 individual minds of men, in all ages. 
 
 The Jewish Church, as a dispensation, long ago came 
 
426 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 to an end, banished by its own evils. Individual mem- 
 bers still exist, and its organizations exist in scattered 
 fragments. But, for many centuries, the Jews have been 
 religious outcasts among the Christian nations, and also, 
 to some extent, even political outcasts. Some of the 
 Jews, perhaps many of them, still look forward to the 
 restoration of Israel, and the literal fulfilment of the 
 prophecies of their national return to Jerusalem. But 
 these things will never come, physically. The prophe- 
 cies of the Scriptures are fulfilled spiritually, but not 
 often literally. And where there are literal fulfilments, 
 these are but the results of the spiritual fulfilments. 
 These prophecies were not meant finally for the Jews 
 as a people, but for the renewed and regenerated Church 
 of the Lord, the New Jerusalem, of which ancient Jeru- 
 salem and its people were merely literal and figurative 
 representatives; as with men at all times, the things of 
 our bodily life are merely figurative symbols of the 
 things of our mental life. 
 
 In every age of the church, from the Most Ancient 
 Church to the present times, the evil in man has been 
 the failure to love the Lord and His Divine Goodness 
 and Truth, and to trust in His Divine Providence. But 
 men have sunk into the love of self, and into trust in 
 their own abilities ; and thus they have destroyed spir- 
 itual love and faith and righteousness, in their own 
 hearts and lives. And then, by their own evils and 
 falsities, they are carried away from a state of spiritual 
 freedom, in which they might be regenerated, and they 
 are taken into a state in which they plunge into all 
 kinds of perversions of goodness, and falsifications of 
 truth ; and they dwell in their own self-derived notions, 
 in the practical denial of all the qualities of character 
 which distinguish the God whom they pretend to wor- 
 ship. They are carried to the spiritual Shinar, the 
 mental state of self-love and hypocritical worship; and 
 
The Women and the Ephah. 427 
 
 there, like their ancient prototypes, the descendants of 
 Noah, they seek to build a great tower, which shall be 
 based on their own natural senses, and yet reach up to 
 heaven. But such a tower for self-worship will always 
 end, as did the old one, in confusion of ideas, and in 
 the dispersion of all things which would constitute spir- 
 itual manhood. " It is not in man, that walketh, to 
 direct his steps." (Jeremiah x. 23.) " For his God 
 doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him." 
 (Isaiah xxviii. 26.) 
 
428 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 XLVIII. 
 
 THE FOUR CHARIOTS AND THEIR HORSES. 
 
 And I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and 
 behold, there came four chariots out from between two moun- 
 tains ; and the mountains were mountains of brass. In the 
 first chariot were red horses ; and in the second chariot black 
 horses ; and in the third chariot white horses ; and in the 
 fourth chariot grizzled and bay horses. Then I answered and 
 said unto the angel that talked with me, What are these, my 
 lord? And the angel answered and said unto me, These are 
 the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing 
 before the Lord of all the earth. The black horses which are 
 therein go forth into the North country ; and the white go 
 forth after them ; and the grizzled go forth toward the South 
 country. And the bay went forth, and sought to go, that they 
 might walk to and fro through the earth : and he said. Get 
 you hence, walk to and fro through the earth. So they walked 
 to and fro through the earth. Then he cried upon me, and 
 spake unto me, saying. Behold, these that go toward the North 
 country have quieted My Spirit in the North country. — Zecha- 
 RiAH vi. 1-8. 
 
 The text is a prophecy that doctrines for a new 
 church will be drawn from love and charity; and that 
 such a church will be formed from well-disposed per- 
 sons who have been in ignorance of spiritual truth. 
 
 CHARIOTS. 
 
 Four chariots were seen in vision. All vehicles are 
 made to hold and serve men ; and, therefore, they repre- 
 sent doctrines, forms of statement, which contain truths. 
 
The Four Chariots and their Horses. 429 
 
 in condition for practical use. In Psalm xx. 7 it is said, 
 " Some trust in chariots, and some in horses ; but we 
 will remember the name of Jehovah, our God." To 
 trust in chariots is to trust in doctrines ; and to trust in 
 horses is to depend upon man's own natural understand- 
 ing; but to remember the name of the Lord, is to trust 
 in the Lord for instruction and guidance. 
 
 There were four chariots, which, respectively, were 
 supposed to travel to the four points of the compass, 
 North, South, East, and West, whose significance we 
 shall take up later. 
 
 MOUNTAINS OF BRASS. 
 
 These chariots came out from between two moun- 
 tains. Mountains, as the highest points of land, repre- 
 sent the highest principle in the human mind, the 
 principle of love, especially love to the Lord. Love is 
 the origin of everything that is good. 
 
 There were two mountains, to represent the two dis- 
 tinct forms of love, love to the Lord, and love to the 
 neighbor. 
 
 And these mountains were formed of brass. Brass 
 is a "base metal," useful in many ways, but much less 
 valuable than the " precious metals." Brass represents 
 natural goodness, the good of the natural mind, in the 
 practical life, as distinguished from heavenly good, rep- 
 resented by gold, and spiritual good, symbolized by 
 silver. Thus, the two mountains of brass represent nat- 
 ural goodness, goodness in the natural life, as relating 
 to love to the Lord, and love to the neighbor. And the 
 fact that the chariots came forth from between these 
 two mountains of brass, means that the doctrines sent 
 out from the Lord were on the mental plane of natural 
 goodness, such goodness as the natural man could use, 
 in his love of God and of the neighbor. 
 
430 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 As the streams of water which fertilize the valleys, 
 flow down from the mountains, so all the practical truths 
 of our daily life, which keep our natural conduct in 
 good order, flow down from the mountains of our high- 
 est loves, our profoundest desire for union with our 
 Lord, and for the best consociation with our fellow-men. 
 And, to illustrate the fact that all good comes to us 
 from the tops of the mountains, when Moses, as the 
 servant of the Lord, was given the Decalogue, the Ten 
 Commandments of practical life, for the use of all men, 
 he had to go up to the top of the mountain, to receive 
 them. And every regenerating man, when in trial and 
 temptation, and conscious of the need of Divine guid- 
 ance, sings, with David, " I will lift up mine eyes to 
 the mountains, whence cometh my help. My help is 
 from Jehovah, who made heaven and earth." (Psalm 
 cxxi. I, 2.) 
 
 HORSES. 
 
 The chariots were drawn by horses. The horse rep- 
 resents man's intellectual principle, the understanding, 
 especially man's understanding of the Divine Word. In 
 Ezekiel xxxix. 17, 20, it is said, " Thou son of man, 
 thus saith the Lord Jehovih : Speak unto every feath- 
 ered fowl, and to every beast of the field. Assemble 
 yourselves, and come ; gather yourselves on every side 
 to My sacrifice, that I do sacrifice for you, upon the 
 mountains of Israel. ... Ye shall be filled at My table 
 with horses and chariots, with mighty men and all men 
 of war." And a similar feast is proclaimed in Revela- 
 tion xix. All these things symbolize a spiritual feast, 
 in the truths and doctrines, etc., in the Word of the 
 Lord. 
 
 In our text the chariots, drawn by horses, represent 
 the doctrines of the church, carried along in man's 
 understanding, and by his knowledge of the Divine 
 
The Four Chariots and their Horses. 431 
 
 Word, by each mind according to the quality of its 
 understanding. 
 
 COLORS. 
 
 The different conditions and qualities of human under- 
 standing are represented by the different colors of the 
 horses, red, black, white, gray, and bay. Red is the 
 color of love and of goodness, for goodness is love 
 applied in action. A red horse represents the quality or 
 character of the understanding, as to love, or goodness. 
 And as the chariot drawn by red horses was sent out 
 first, it represents the condition of the mind at the 
 beginning of the formation of the New Church, because 
 the degree and quality of the truth, in the doctrines pro- 
 claimed, is always such as is adapted to the states of the 
 men who are to be helped by it. The Divine Truth is in 
 all degrees, and it reaches all planes of the human mind. 
 And so the Divine Word contains truth on every plane, 
 and in every degree. But, in each particular case, the 
 truth which reaches the man is that phase, or degree, 
 of truth, which is on the level of the man's present 
 mental openness. For this reason, in our text, the 
 chariot with the red horses represents doctrine given to 
 reach men who are in natural goodness and love, but 
 not yet in the knowledge of spiritual truth. For, in 
 general, the New Church will not be formed from the 
 remaining fragments of the First Christian Church, but 
 from the Gentile world; i.e., from those who have not 
 been instructed especially in the doctrines of the First 
 Christian Church, but who are good at heart, and in the 
 simplicity of sincerity. 
 
 The black color represents mental darkness, ignorance 
 of truth, such for instance, as is in those minds which 
 look at everything in a literal and external way. 
 
 White represents the light of truth, and also purity, 
 which is clean. The white horses represent the under- 
 
432 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 standing of the Divine Word, when the mind has ac- 
 quired some knowledge of truth, which shines in the 
 understanding. In Revelation xix. ii, 13 ,14, it is said, 
 " And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse ; 
 and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True : 
 and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. 
 . . . And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood : 
 and His name is called The Word of God. And the 
 armies which were in heaven followed Him, upon white 
 horses, clotlied in fine linen, white and clean." 
 
 Grizzled, or gray, is a mixture of white and black. 
 And the grizzled horses represent a state of understand- 
 ing in which there are some truths known, together 
 with some ignorance, and obscurity as to knowledge. 
 
 BAY, OR STRONG. 
 
 Bay horses were also seen. The Hebrew word here 
 translated bay, means " deep red." And it is the term 
 often used for " strong," as if a strong person would 
 have a deep red color, rather than a pale color. The 
 American Revised Version of the Scriptures gives the 
 word as " strong." " Bay" is defined to be reddish- 
 brown, chestnut-color. As there is no other text in the 
 Scriptures in which the same Hebrew word is used in 
 the sense of color, we cannot gain any idea of it by 
 comparison. The word is used in other texts, but with 
 the meaning of " strong ;" as, for instance, in Psalm 
 xviii. 17, speaking of the Lord; " He delivered me from 
 my strong enemy, and from them that hated me ; for 
 they were too strong for me." 
 
 The idea of the color seems to be that of reddish- 
 brown, a vigorous, healthy color. And the general idea 
 is that of strength. And this idea is in agreement with 
 the representative meaning. The bay (or strong) horses 
 represent a state of the human understanding in which 
 
The Four Chariots and their Horses. 433 
 
 there is sufficient knowledge to enable the man to resist 
 evils and falsities ; and thus to be strong in the power 
 of truth. 
 
 The different colors of the horses resemble similar 
 things mentioned in Zechariah, "and in the Revelation. 
 
 FOUR SPIRITS, OR WINDS. 
 
 When the prophet asked, concerning the horses and 
 chariots, " What are these ?" the angel replied, " These 
 are the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from 
 standing before the Lord of all the earth." In the 
 American Revised Version of the Scriptures it is said, 
 " These are the four winds." In both the Hebrew 
 and the Greek, the same word stands for wind, breath, 
 and spirit. And so, at times, the exact sense is difficult 
 to know. In either case, these horses would represent 
 the Divine influence going out to men, in their different 
 mental conditions, each according to his present mental 
 needs ; for it is said that these horses go forth from 
 standing before the Lord of all the earth; i.e., the God 
 of all the church, in all its parts. In Psalm civ. 3, it is 
 said of the Lord, " Who maketh the clouds His chariot ; 
 who walketh upon the wings of the wind." 
 
 The literal idea refers to the four quarters of the 
 earth ; i.e., the four points of the compass. But the 
 spiritual meaning relates to the fourfold influence 'of 
 the Lord, going out to men, to reach each man on his 
 own level of thought and life. For this reason there 
 were four sides to the holy city, seen by John, in vision, 
 and representing the New Church, which is descending 
 from heaven, into the minds of men, according to their 
 several capacity to receive such a Church. Jesus plainly 
 told the Jews that they were excluding themselves from 
 the kingdom of heaven by their evil character, but that 
 the church would be formed from the Gentiles : " And 
 
 28 
 
434 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 they shall come from the East, and from the West, and 
 from the North, and from the South, and shall sit down 
 in the kingdom of God." (Luke xiii. 29.) And, in 
 John's vision, the horses of different colors came into 
 view " when the Lamb opened the seals" of the great 
 Book, which was the Word of God, whose seals were 
 opened by the Lamb, when the Lord revealed the inward 
 and spiritual meaning of the Scriptures, and sent out 
 its spiritual truths, to reach all men who were willing 
 to receive such truth, in any of its phases. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL QUARTERS. 
 
 In a general sense, the East, where the sun appears 
 to rise, represents the Lord, because the sun represents 
 Him. But, specifically, as referring to men, the East 
 represents love to the Lord, and the goodness which 
 such love forms in the man's heart. A man is said to 
 dwell in the East, spiritually, when he lives in spiritual 
 love to the Lord. The West, opposite to the East, rep- 
 resents a state of love which is natural and external, 
 rather than spiritual and internal. The South, where the 
 sun is at noon, when its light is greatest, represents the 
 light of spiritual intelligence. And the North, opposite 
 to the South, represents a state of natural-minded intel- 
 ligence, holding natural truth rather than spiritual 
 truth, i.e., such phases of truth as are seen from the 
 standpoint of the natural mind. Comparatively, the 
 North and West represent such truth and love as are 
 seen in the letter of the Scriptures, while the South and 
 East represent such truth and love as are seen in the 
 spiritual sense of the Divine Word. 
 
 The text assigns different colored horses to go in 
 different directions. The black horses went to the North 
 country, at first; and, afterwards, the white horses fol- 
 lowed after them. The North represents the colder and 
 
The Four Chariots and their Horses. 435 
 
 darker state of mind, in which the man is in natural 
 loves, and is in obscure light as to truth. And, as black 
 represents a similar condition of mind, it is adapted to 
 the spiritual North. The going of these black horses 
 to the North represents the introduction of the letter 
 of the Divine Word to the well-disposed but ignorant 
 Gentiles, who were to be brought into the New 
 Church, finally. And this was to be brought about, 
 later, by the greater light of truth sent to them, when 
 they should be ready to receive it; and which is repre- 
 sented by the white horses following after the black 
 horses. Thus, after these Gentiles had received the 
 letter of the Divine Word, and had conformed their con- 
 duct to its literal lawSj they would be ready to have 
 their minds opened to higher forms of the truth, ap- 
 plicable to their mental states, as well as to their bodily 
 conduct. 
 
 The grizzled (or gray) horses went to the South 
 country, as they represented a state of mind in much 
 more light of truth than the black horses represented; 
 and they could communicate to the Gentiles intellectual 
 knowledge and understanding of truth. 
 
 The bay (or strong) horses requested to be allowed 
 " to walk to and fro through the earth ;" that is, to have 
 a wide range for their influence. In one sense, the earth 
 represents the natural mind in man, as distinguished 
 from his mental heaven, or spiritual mind. And, in this 
 sense, to walk to and fro through the earth, is to carry 
 the Divine Truth to the natural mind, with such strength 
 of purpose as to enable the man to resist and overcome 
 his natural tendencies to evil, in the light of the Divine 
 Truth, and by its strength, and in the name of the Lord, 
 and in the acknowledgment that His strength produces 
 the change in the man, from sensuous to spiritual 
 conditions. 
 
436 Parables of the Old Testament Explained. 
 
 QUIET MY SPIRIT. 
 
 The text ends with the peculiar expression, " Behold, 
 these that go toward the North country have cjuieted 
 My Spirit in the North country," or, literally, " have 
 caused My Spirit to rest in the North country." The 
 idea is not that anything could be done by the horses 
 and chariots which would make any difference in the 
 Spirit of the Lord, as He is in Himself ; but the con- 
 dition mentioned means a state of mind induced upon 
 men, in their attitude towards the Spirit of the Lord. 
 Representatively, the Spirit of the Lord rests, and is 
 quieted, when men no longer strive against the Lord's 
 Spirit, working in them for their regeneration. The 
 Lord rests in the heart of a regenerate man, whose 
 mutual love affords a resting-place for the Divine Love. 
 The Sabbath rest, after the creation of the universe, 
 was not for the recuperation of a tired Creator, but it 
 represented a spiritual condition of human regenera- 
 tion, in which the Lord could rest in peace and love, in 
 the man's heart. '' Jehovah, thy God, in the midst of 
 thee, is mighty: He will save. He will rejoice over thee 
 with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over 
 thee with singing." (Zephaniah iii. 17.) And, in this 
 state, there is mutual love, and the man rests in the 
 Lord. " Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for Jehovah 
 hath dealt bountifully with thee." (Psalm cxvi. 7.) 
 
 These conditions were to be brought about " in the 
 North country ;" i.e., among the Gentiles, who had been 
 in ignorance, and without the Word of the Lord; but 
 of whom the New Church shall be formed, by means of 
 the Divine Word, first in its letter, and afterwards in 
 its spiritual meaning, also. Little by little, our Lord is 
 building His New Jerusalem, for the permanent Church, 
 in heaven and on earth, various, perhaps, in forms, but 
 one in love and truth. " Look upon Zion, the city of 
 
The Four Chariots and their Horses. 437 
 
 our solemnities : thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet 
 habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down : 
 not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, 
 neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But 
 there the glorious Jehovah shall be unto us a place of 
 broad rivers and streams. . . . For Jehovah is our 
 judge, Jehovah is our law-giver, Jehovah is our king: 
 He will save us." (Isaiah xxxiii. 20-22.) 
 
By the same Author. 
 
 The Parables of the New Testament 
 Spiritually Unfolded 
 
 WITH AN INTROIIUCTION ON SCRIPTURE PARABLES ; 
 THEIR NATURE, USB, AND INTERPRETATION 
 
 By P.EV. EDWARD CRAIG MITCHELL 
 
 The above work gives an exposition of all the Parables of the 
 New Testament, forty in number. 
 
 "This volume is intended to be a plain, practical application 
 of the New Testament Parables to our dail_v life." — Preface. 
 
 "In this handsome volume, sold at a very moderate price, Mr. 
 Mitchell, pastor of the St. Paul Society of the New Church, has 
 presented an explanation of the Parables. He considers each, by 
 giving such information as may be necessary to make the reader 
 understand the scene, and then proceeds to explain, one at a time, 
 the symbols used, drawing out the practical application of each 
 portion. He illustrates every point by references to every-day 
 affairs. His style is clear, and wholly free from uncommon 
 words. . . . Mr. Mitchell has found it best to keep close to 
 his subject, which he treats very thoroughly. . . . The book 
 is especially adapted to a quiet reading, and \\\\\, we are sure, be 
 cordially welcomed by our people." — Ncw-Jemmleni Magazine. 
 
 " It will doubtless prove a useful contribution to the collateral 
 works of the Church. It is well adapted to meet the wants of 
 those who are not familiar with our doctrines." — Nerv-Church 
 Mensenger. 
 
 "A great deal of unexpected light thrown upon incidents 
 which the old Church has coine to understand in an entirely con- 
 ventional way. . . . The value of his work is in the practical 
 spiritual truth which he is able to draw out of these oriental 
 stories, and apply to the actual circumstances of life." — Boston 
 Herald. 
 
 i2mo. 544 pages (5 X 71^ inches). Price, $1.25 
 
 W. H. ALDEN, 
 2129 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa.