«- 
 
 ^w^ 
 
Cornell University Library 
 
 Gift of 
 Swedenborg Library 
 
CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 924 095 280 297 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924095280297 
 
o^tV^ 
 
 .!^^* 
 
 ..j» 
 
THE 
 
 NEW JERUSALEM 
 
 IN 
 
 The World's Religious Congresses 
 OF 1893. 
 
 Edited by Rev. L. P. Mercer. 
 
 
COPYBIGHT BY 
 
 L. P. MEBCEK 
 1894 
 
AFTERWARD 
 
 To F. S. 
 
 These things are yonrs and mine forever more: — 
 The broad, white yision on the western plain, 
 (How doth it like a midday moon remain) 
 
 Of twined frnit and wings; of things that soar; 
 
 Of lifted trnmpets 'mid the lions' roar; 
 Of sinless colonades without a stain 
 Of anarchy, or war, or tears, or pain, 
 
 Where Beanty lies in sunshine at the door; 
 
 Of those who walked therein and were our friends, 
 
 Tnrbaned in love and clad in suns and moons, 
 Symbols of things too mighty to reyeal. 
 And we two on the curved bridge lean and feel 
 
 The warm, still charm of lantern-lit lagoons: — 
 
 These things are yonrs and mine until life ends. 
 
 — Alice Archer Sewall. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Inteoductiok 
 
 pxas 
 The Colnmbian Exposition ix 
 
 BOOK I 
 The f abi,iament of 11ei;IQion 
 
 OHAFTEB 
 
 I. The Genesis of the Religious Congresses of 1893, by 
 C. C. Bonney, President of the World's Congress 
 
 A.uxiliary, 3 
 
 II. A Narrative and Critical Account of the Parliament 
 
 of Religions, by the Rev. Frank Sewall; ... 29 
 III. Papers Presented by New-Churohmen in the Parlia- 
 ment, 71 
 
 1. The Soul and its Future Life, by Rev. S. M., 
 
 Warren, 74 
 
 2. The Divine Basis of Co-operation between Men 
 
 and Women, by Lydia Fuller Dickinson, 82 
 
 3. The Character and Degree of the Inspiration 
 
 of the Christian Scriptures, by the Kev. 
 Frank Sewall, 90 
 
 4. The Incarnation of God in Christ, by Rev. 
 
 Julian K. Smyth, 99 
 
 5. Reconciliation Vital, not Vicarious, by Rev. 
 
 T. F. Wright, Ph. D., 110 
 
 6. Swedenborg and the Harmony of Religions, 
 
 by Rev. L. P. Mercer, 115 
 
 BOOK li 
 
 ThB NEW-jBETTSAIiBM ChTJBOH CoNQBBSS 
 CHAPIEB PAGE 
 
 I. Preparation and Presentation, 127 
 
 1. Address of Welcome, by 0. C. Bonney, . 130 
 
 2. WeloomeandDeolaration,byRev.L. P. Mercer, 133 
 8. Addressof Welcome from Miss A. E, Scammon, 137 
 
 > ; V 
 
VI CONTENTS 
 
 FAGS 
 OBAPTBR 
 
 II. The Origin and Natnre of the New Church. 
 
 1. One Lord, One Church, with its Sucoessive 
 
 Ages, by the Rev. Frank Sewall, . . ■ 1*1 
 
 2. The Church before Christianity, by the Est. 
 
 G.N.Smith, 150 
 
 8. The Chnrch of the First Advent, by the Bev. 
 
 James Eeed, 1^" 
 
 4. The Chnrch of the Second Advent, by the Rev. 
 
 Louis H. Tafel, 167 
 
 6. The Catholic Spirit of the New Church, by 
 
 Rev. Thomas A. King, 173 
 
 III. Its Doctrines the True Basis of a Universal Faith and 
 Charity. 
 
 1. The Doctrines of the Lord, by Rev. John 
 
 Goddard 181 
 
 2. The Doctrine of Redemption, by Rev. John 
 
 Presland, London, 190 
 
 3. The Doctrine of Salvation, by Rev. S. S. 
 
 Seward 198 
 
 i. Doctrine of the Future Life, by Rev. Howard 
 
 C. Dunham, 205 
 
 5. The Science of Correspondence and the Word 
 
 of God, by Rev. John Worcester, . . 216 
 
 6. The Internal Word in its Relation to the 
 
 Religious of the World, by Rev. Adolph 
 Boeder, 226 
 
 •IV. The Planting of the New Church. 
 
 1. Swedenborg's Writings and His Disposition 
 
 of Them, by Bev. C. J. N. Manby, Gotten- 
 burg 241 
 
 2. The Planting of the New Church in England, 
 
 by James Speirs, London, 256 
 
 3. The New Church on the Continent of Europe, 
 
 by Bev. Fedor Gorwitz, Switzerland, . . 267 
 i. The New Church in America, by the Rev. W. 
 
 H. Hinkley, 278 
 
 5. The New Church in Australia, by the Rev. J. 
 
 J. Thornton, ... 285 
 
 6. The Planting of the New Church in Africa, by 
 
 the Rev. E. D. Daniels, 296 
 
CONTENTS -VU 
 
 OHAPTEB PAGE 
 
 7. The Silent Missionaries, by the Rev. G. 
 
 Laurence Allbutt 301 
 
 T. The Future of the New Church. 
 
 1. The Mission of the New Church to the Gentiles, 
 
 by Eev. Albinus F. Frost, 307 
 
 2. The Duty of the New Church to the African 
 
 Race, by Ellen Spencer Mussey, . . . 313 
 
 3. Mission of the New Church to the Christian 
 
 Denominations, by Rev. Julian K. Smyth, 317 
 
 4. The Mission of the New Church to Biblical 
 
 Criticism, by Rev. John C. Ager, . . . 331 
 
 5. The Mission of the New Church to Philosophy, 
 
 by Rev. S. C. Eby 340 
 
 6. The Mission of the New Church to the Histo- 
 
 rian, by the Rev. Philip B. Cabell, . . 350 
 
 7. The Mission of the New Church to Literature, 
 
 by Rev. T. F. Wright, Ph. D., . . . . 360 
 
 8. The Mission of the New Church to Art, by 
 
 Signer Loreto Scocia, 371 
 
 9. The Mission of the New Church to Sociology 
 
 and Government, by Rev. C. H. Mann, . 385 
 
 VI. Woman in the New Church. 
 
 1. The True Relation of Woman's Work to 
 
 Man's, by Mrs. J. R. Hibbard 398 
 
 2. Woman in the Christian World, by Miss Carrie 
 
 E. Rowe, London, 403 
 
 3. Woman in the New Church, by Miss Mary L. 
 
 Barton, 408 
 
 4. Woman as Wife and Mother, by Mrs. S. S. 
 
 Seward, 416 
 
 5. Education for Wife and Mother, by Mrs. J. R. . 
 
 Putnam, 423 
 
 6. The Position and Influence of Woman in the 
 
 Religious World, by Mrs. T. P. Houts, . 429 
 
 7. The Womanly Nature, by Miss Selma Ware 
 
 Paine 438 
 
 8. The Ministry of Gentleness, by Miss Ednah 
 
 C. Silver 445 
 
 9. The Feminine in the Church, by Miss Mary 
 
 A. Lathbury, 451 
 
INTKODUCTION 
 
 The Columbian Exposition was itself a manifestation of 
 the New Age. Divine purposes work long unseen, and divine 
 principles are embodied often long before their source and 
 portent are acknowledged. 
 
 It is explained in this volume that by the New Jerusalem is 
 meant a new dispensation of the Church and of Beligion, which 
 shall be truly Christian ; in which it shaU be allowable to enter 
 inteUectuaUy into the things of faith, and be possible to 
 develop a fuller spiritual and rational life; that this dispensa- 
 tion of the Church is inaugurated by new revelation from the 
 Lord opening the spiritual sense and divine meaning of the 
 Sacred Scriptures; and that it was preceded by a last judgment 
 in the world of spirits from which results a new freedom of 
 willing and thinking among men; and that in it is to be ful- 
 filled the divine promise, "Behold, I make all things new." This 
 new dispensation is the re-establishment and crowning of the 
 Christian Church in that fullness of revelation foretold by all the 
 prophets and promised by the Lord. 
 
 But before truth, rational and luminous, attesting its Divine 
 origin and power, could descend from heaven to set up the 
 tabernacle of God with men, order and obedience had to be 
 founded, rationality established and freedom constituted. In 
 the 144,000 and in the great multitude picked out of every nation 
 and kindred and tongue, John saw the first fruits of the Lord's 
 redemption; but for the establishment of the self -perpetuating 
 kingdom of Divine truth upon earth, the nations of the earth 
 had to be educated. 
 
 It has been a principle of Divine Providence from of old to 
 break the lust of universal dominion by rivalry of selfishness. 
 The evils of personal dominion are mitigated by the struggles of 
 persons for mastery. We may see thus the hand of God in the 
 overthrow of the Koman empire and the rise of feudalism. It 
 brought the hand of authority nearer to the people and trained 
 them in obedience and self-interest. The Church entered into 
 the struggle with its witness to divine authority and opened to 
 the masses the thought of the King of Kings. It demanded 
 obedience from the lords of the obedient, and lent its authority 
 
 is 
 
X INTRODUCTION 
 
 to whomsoeTer would serve it. A larger order succeeded. The 
 king subdued the lords, and monarchy succeeded feudalism. It 
 founded and endowed uniTcrsities and encouraged commerce. 
 It conceded no political privileges to the people, but prepared 
 its subjects to demand them. 
 
 Then came the revival of learning. No further step towards 
 the manhood of men could be taken without the enfranchise- 
 ment of the intellect. The longing of the universities and of 
 the learned for the treasures of ancient wisdom, "hidden and 
 yet insecure in monastic cells and libraries," drew down those 
 currents of inspiration that waited to direct the invention of the 
 printing press. With its advent was shown the Divine hand 
 which had been over-ruling in the civil and social revolutions of 
 Europe. "Its first service was to the people; its first fruits the 
 printed Bible." The story of the revival of learning we need 
 not repeat. It constituted the second step in the preparation of 
 mankind for manhood; first, social order and obedience; second, 
 the enfranchisement of the intellect. But until this last shall 
 become common, and the masses of men rational in their power 
 to think for themselves and with each other, there can be no 
 self-government. Nor was this possible under the despotic hand 
 of custom and privilege entrenched in the monarchies of 
 Europe. Humanity must burst forth at the sides into a new and 
 boundless theater of ambition and enterprise in order to learn 
 its powers of thinking and its capacities for individual charac- 
 ter and self-control. Colnmbus was in training and America 
 was found. How that event opened a new theater for the experi- 
 ment of civil and religious liberty, and changed the face of 
 every European institution as certainly as it founded the most 
 prosperous people and most beneficent civil government in the 
 world, is familiar history. Without that opening of providence, 
 the progress of science, the growth of humanities, the populariz- 
 ation of education and participation in natural plenty had not 
 been possible. 
 
 What concerns us now to note is, that the discovery and 
 colonization of America, together with the new reformation in 
 Europe, made possible the final step in the natural man's devel- 
 opment, — that of self-government. The fermentations of the 
 old world had prepared the founders of the colonies to believe 
 that "liberty consists in taking on law;" that obedience to God's 
 law is the highest liberty to which man may attain; and that 
 man can be a man by self- compelled obedience to the truth. 
 
INTEODUOTION XI 
 
 As this truth has been wrought out in human experience and 
 demonstrated in human suooesses, Boience has advanced, inven- 
 tions multiplied, the conquest of human nature to human uses 
 has progressed, the education and culture of the masses succeeded, 
 and the possibilities of mankind developed. There has never 
 been a state of society in which the natural man has been so 
 strong, BO intelligent, so well poised, and so marvelously equipped 
 for indefinite advancement, as is witnessed to-day. 
 
 The Columbian Exposition was a marvelous exhibition of 
 all this progress in natural freedom and power to will and to 
 think and to achieve. The contrast between the past and the 
 present, the supremacy of mind over matter, the dominanoy of 
 law in mind and matter, and the aU-pervading purpose of law in 
 use, was exhibited and emphasized in the entire arrangement of 
 the wonderful White City for the display of the world's wonders. 
 The motto over the Peristyle, — " Ye shall know the Truth, and 
 the Truth shall make you free, "^Divine in its origin and 
 promise, new in its significance and interpretation, embodied the 
 idea of the Exposition, as it proclaimed the purpose of Provi- 
 dence in all that history which has made a new earth as a founda- 
 tion for the new faith and life which God would open from heaven. 
 
 Keeping in view the mission of this book, to set forth the 
 abundance of spiritual truths which the Lord has opened from 
 His revelation, luminous, self-attesting, rational, and witnessing 
 to their Divine origin, — the object here is to point out that the 
 purpose of Providence in what we call the progress of the world 
 has been to prepare in the natural man, over the widest possible 
 base of humanity, an intelligence and self-control capable of 
 understanding and obeying the spiritual truths which reign as 
 the common law of spiritual life; to prepare in society a com- 
 munity of interests and uses which will make the earth a possible 
 home for mature spiritual men and women, and society a fit 
 theatre for the doing of God's will on earth as it is done in 
 heaven ; in a word, the enf ranchisment of freedom and rationality 
 and the constitution of co-operation for the ends of universal 
 use, or the common good. 
 
 The truths which constitute and are to establish a new 
 dispensation of the Church and of religion are internal and 
 spiritual. It is as it should be that they operate as an inspiring 
 and modifying influence upon thought, even when unrecognized. 
 They have been scattered by the printing press far and wide. 
 They have entered into minds that have become centers of 
 
XU INTRODUCTION 
 
 intellectual currents in science and art and industry, as well as 
 in religion. And thus it is that their permeating and modifying 
 influence is seen not only in the Parliament of Religions, but in 
 the Exposition of the world's progress. 
 
 Director of works Daniel Hudson Burnham, who will be 
 known to the New-Ohurch reader as a grandson of the ReT. 
 Holland Weeks, whose ideals in art and utility are derived not 
 merely from the general spirit of inquiry and experiment, but 
 from the great spiritual principles of truth to which we testify, 
 has given an account of the building of the Exposition itself, in 
 which he pays tribute to the practical wisdom of the men who 
 raised fabulous sums of money for the building of the " White 
 City," in that they " freed the arm of the allied arts which until 
 now had been bound since Columbus' day." " The Directory 
 realized," he says, "that all successful enterprises have been 
 organized and conducted by men specially trained for the work. 
 The result was an advanced human organization, bringing 
 together the men of material facts and those who dwell in the 
 imaginary realm of art. For the first time we were united in 
 healthy, sane collaboration. They felt that all years have led up 
 to this and that the best results are not in the palaces around us, 
 but in the altitude of the workers who designed them, the altitude 
 in which the individual has become subordinate and lives only as 
 a willing contributor to a general result." 
 
 This spirit of co-operation in subordination to the common 
 end, the realization of beauty and use, which resulted so nobly, 
 to the surprise and admiration of the world, was only an 
 ultimate manifestation of that which prevailed in the Religious 
 Congresses. 
 
 As all men form one Greatest Man; as all times and con- 
 ditions and modes of life are parts of the growth and experience 
 of universal man; as the advancement of the whole depends 
 upon universal respect for every part, and the good of each 
 subsists in subordination, not to prejudice and tradition, but to 
 the highest good of the whole; it was, therefore, of all things fit 
 that the Exposition should show the result, not of the rivalry 
 and competition, but of the co-operation and combination of 
 the best results of ages and nations, as the Parliament of 
 Religions was to be a friendly conference of the lovers of right- 
 eousness, bringing out of their treasure " things new and old," 
 not for controversy, but for comparison; not to establish the old, 
 but to make way for the new. 
 
BOOK I 
 
 THE PARLIAMENT 
 OF RELIGIONS 
 
CHAPTEB I 
 
 THE GENESIS OF THE WORLD'S RELIG- 
 IOUS CONGRESSES OF 1893 
 
 C. C. Bonney, president of "The World's Congress 
 Auxiliary," has prepared, at the request of the editors of 
 The Neto-Church Review, on account of the doctrinal 
 basis in his own mind, the practical inception, and the 
 organization and conduct of the Eeligious Congresses, 
 which, as the whole movement under Divine Providence, 
 originated with him, and grew out of his conception of 
 the New Jerusalem, belongs here. He has revised that 
 account for this publication, making some changes and 
 additions, the better to adapt it to the present purpose. 
 Speaking as to friends, he writes in the first person of 
 the preparation which his life experience had furnished 
 for the conception and direction of the Congresses, and 
 especially of Eeligious Congresses which were central in 
 his concern. After referring to his early interest in the 
 study of comparative religions, he says: 
 
 This first stage of preparation was followed by 
 another of still higher significance, under the influence 
 of the Church of the Holy City, New Jerusalem. At the 
 age of nineteen I removed to Peoria, 111., and there, for 
 the first time, saw a New-Church congregation and heard a 
 New-Church sermon. My previous information of the 
 system of Swedenborg had given me the impression that it 
 was a religion for literary and scientific persons, and I was 
 therefore surprised to find that this congregation had no 
 member eminent in scholastic attainments, excepting the 
 pastor. I soon began to read the Church writings and 
 collateral books, and to attend, occasionally, the Sunday 
 
4 PAHLIAMfiNT OF feELIGtOKS 
 
 services and social meetings. In the course of a few 
 years I became satisfied that the New-Church does 
 indeed teach "the True Christian Eeligion "— " the 
 Keligion of Common Sense."— and avowed myself "a 
 receiver of the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusa- 
 lem." I had become convinced that this Church would 
 finally prove the reconciliation and the crown of all the 
 Eeligions of the world. Acting " in freedom and accord- 
 ing to reason," I had accepted its matchless creed of 
 " The Divinity of the Lord, the Holiness of the Word, 
 and the Life that is called Charity." 
 
 Here I was ^taught the fandamental truths which 
 made a World's Parliament of Eeligions possible; upon 
 which rested the whole plan of the Eeligions Congresses 
 of 1893, and which guided the execution of that plan to 
 a success so great and far reaching that only the coming 
 generations can fully comprehend and estimate its 
 infiuence. Among those truths are these: 
 
 There is a universal influx from God into the sonls of men, 
 teaching them that there is a God, and that He is one. (T. C. R. 8.) 
 
 It is of the Lord's Divine Providence that every nation has 
 some Religion, and the foundation of all religion is an acknowl- 
 edgment that there is a God; otherwise it is not called a religion; 
 and every nation which lives according to its religion, that is, 
 which refrains from evil because it is against its God, receives 
 something spiritual into its natural principle. (D. P. 322.) 
 
 It is of the Divine Providence that every man is capable of 
 being saved, and that those are saved who acknowledge God, and 
 lead a good life. (D. P. 325.) 
 
 These are the common essentials of all religions, by which 
 every one may be saved; to acknowledge a God, and not to do 
 evil because it is against God. These are the two things by 
 virtue of which religion is religion. (D. P. 326.) 
 
 It is provided by the Lord that every one who acknowledges 
 a God, and abstains from evil because it is against God, has a 
 place in heaven; for heaven in the complex resembles one man 
 whose life or soul is the Lord. {Ibid.) 
 
GENESIS OF THE CONGRESSES 5 
 
 It is also provided that all who have lived well and acknowl- 
 edge a God, should be instructed after death by the angels; and 
 then those who have been in these two essentials of religion in 
 this world, accept the truths of the Church, such as they are in 
 the Word, and acknowledge the Lord as the God of heaven and 
 the Church. (D. P. 328.) 
 
 It is alleged that those who are out of the Church are not 
 baptized; but baptism does not save any except those who are 
 spiritually washed, that is regeneratid, for baptism is a sign and 
 memorial thereof. It is also alleged that the Lord is not known 
 to them, and that without the Lord there is no salvation; yet no 
 one has salvation merely by the Lord being known to him, but 
 by living according to His precepts. (D. P. 330.) 
 
 The Mahometan Religion was permitted by the Divine 
 Providence of the Lord for the extirpation of idolatries in 
 countries where Christianity would not be received. In that 
 religion there is something out of both the Testaments of the 
 Word; teaching that the Lord came into the world; that he was 
 the greatest prophet, the wisest of all, and the Son of God. 
 (D. P. 255.) 
 
 Every one in the Churches where faith alone is received, is 
 taught that evils are to be shunned as sins. (D. P. 258.) 
 
 It is provided that every one, in whatever heresy he may be 
 as to his understanding, may still be reformed and saved, pro- 
 vided he shuns evils as sins, and does not confirm heretical 
 falsities in himself; for by shunning evils as sins the will is 
 reformed, and by the will the understanding, which then first 
 emerges out of darkness into light. (D. P. 259.) 
 
 Every infant, wheresoever born, whether within the Church 
 or oat of it, whether of pious parents or impious, when it dies is 
 received by the Lord, and is educated in heaven, and according 
 to Divine order is taught and imbued with the affections of good, 
 and by them with the knowledges of truth; and afterwards as 
 perfected in intelligence and wisdom is introduced into heaven 
 and becomes an angel. (H. H. 329.) 
 
 Turning to the Holy Word and the Apostolic Writ- 
 ings, I found abundant confirmatiori of these teach- 
 ings of the Church. A few of the passages which were 
 found most useful and encouraging in connection with 
 the World's Religious Congresses, are given here: 
 
6 PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to do 
 justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? 
 (MiOAH vi. 8.) 
 
 All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, 
 do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets. 
 (Matt. vii. 12.) 
 
 Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father, is to 
 visit the widows and fatherless in their affliction, and to keep 
 unspotted from the world. (James i. 27.) 
 
 That is the True Light which lighteth every man that oometh 
 into the world. (John i. 9.) 
 
 And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, 
 behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with Him 
 and His disciples. 
 
 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto His disciples, 
 Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? 
 
 But when Jesus heard that. He said unto them, they that be 
 whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. 
 
 But go ye and learn what this meaneth: I will have mercy 
 and not sacrifice; for I am not come to call the righteous, but 
 sinners to repentance. (Matt. ix. 10-13.) 
 
 Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the 
 Jews; to them that are under the law, as [myself] under the 
 law that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that 
 are without the law as [myself] without the law (being not 
 without law to God, but under the law to Christ), that I might 
 gain them that are without law; to the weak became I as weak, 
 that I might gain the weak; I am made all things to aU men, 
 that I might by all means save some. (1 CoE. ix. 20, 22.) 
 
 Then Peter opened his mouth and said: Of a truth I per- 
 ceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation 
 he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with 
 Him. (Acts oe the Apostles x. 34, 35.) 
 
 Then Paul stood in the midst of Maxs Hill, and said: 
 
 Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too 
 superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, 
 I found an altar with this inscription. To the Unknown God. 
 Whom, therefore, ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you! 
 (Aotb xvii. 23.) 
 
 God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on 
 all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before 
 
GENESIS OF THE CONGRESSES / 
 
 appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they shonld 
 seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, 
 though He be not far from every one of os. (Acts xvii. 26, 27.) 
 
 One other course of preparation remains to be 
 noticed. For many years before the World's Columbian 
 Exposition was proposed, I enjoyed the inestimable 
 henefits of an intimate and cordial association with 
 members and ministers of many different denominations, 
 and made public addresses on "Law and Order" and 
 " Moral and Social Reforms," in many different churches. 
 Thus I came to know the distinguishing characteristics 
 of various religious organizations; to respect their 
 sincerity and zeal; to understand the reasons for their 
 peculiar views ; to learn that all creeds have meanings 
 which only those who profess them can explain; that the 
 Church essentially consists in certain Divine things, and 
 not in the ever varying views of men respecting the 
 eternal verities. Thus I came into a state of charity, 
 not only toward the various religious denominations of 
 Christendom, but also in regard to the different religions 
 of the world. I came to realize that it is allowable for a 
 devout soul to rest on an apparent truth of Scripture, as 
 for a rational mind to rest on an apparent truth in nature. 
 
 In the Baptist Church at Peoria I was the teacher of 
 an adult Bible class, and after my removal to Chicago in 
 1860, I taught a similar class in St. John's Episcopal 
 Church for some years, while living too far away from 
 the New- Church Temple for convenient attendance there. 
 Upon the establishment of a New- Church congregation in 
 the neighborhood of my residence, I became an active 
 member of that organization, and almost continuously 
 the instructor of a similar class. Before these classes I 
 discussed in a familiar manner and from a layman's 
 point of view the whole range of the religious themes 
 which I had made subjects of study. 
 
PARLIAMENT OF EELIGIONS 
 
 In similar ways it pleased the Divine Providence to 
 provide for dealing, when the occasion should arise, with 
 the other great departments of human progress which 
 were embraced in the World's Congress scheme, but 
 which are not within the scope of the present paper. 
 
 In 1889 the movement for a "World's Fair in cele- 
 bration of the quadro-centennial of the discovery of 
 America by Columbus, took such a course that it appeared 
 probable that such a Fair would be held at Chicago, and 
 the character of the proposed exhibition naturally occu- 
 pied much attention and elicited many suggestions. It 
 was then expected that the celebration would be held in 
 1892, but the magnitude of the project finally caused its 
 postponement till the following year. While thidking 
 about the nature and proper characteristics of this great 
 undertaking, there came into my mind the idea of a 
 comprehensive and well- organized Intellectual and Moral 
 Exposition of the progress of mankind, to be held in 
 connection with the proposed display of material forms. 
 In the course of a few weeks this idea passed through 
 the usual stages of mental evolution, and became a con- 
 viction and a purpose which would not let me rest, but 
 impelled me to action for its realization. I commenced 
 to discuss it with intimate friends, and among them spoke 
 of it to Mr. Walter Thomas Mills, then editor of The 
 Statesman magazine. He at once urged me to write out 
 my proposal, and let him print it in his periodical. In a 
 paper dated Sept. 20, 1889, I complied with his 
 request, and that paper was published in The Statesman 
 for October of that year. In that first statement of the 
 World's Congress scheme, the following paragraphs 
 were contained: 
 
 "The crowning glory of the World's Fair of 1893 
 should not be the exhibit then to be made of the material 
 triumphs, industrial achievements, and mechanical 
 
GENESIS OE *Hll OONdRESSES 6 
 
 victories of man, however magnificent that display may 
 be. Something higher and nobler is demanded by the 
 enlightened and progressive spirit of the present age. 
 
 " In connection with that important event the world of 
 government, jurisprudence, finance, science, literature, 
 education and religion should be represented in a Con- 
 gress of statesmen, jurists, financiers, scientists, literati, 
 teacheiB and theologians, greater in numbers and more 
 widely representative of * peoples, nations and tongues ' 
 than any assemblage which has ever yet been convened. 
 
 " The benefits of such a Parliament of Nations would 
 be higher and more conducive to the welfare of mankind 
 than those which would flow from the material exposition, 
 though it would not be easy to exaggerate the powerful 
 impetus that will be given by the latter to commerce, 
 and to all the arts by which toil is lightened, the fruits 
 of labor increased, and the comforts of life augmented. 
 * "For such a Congress, convened under circumstances 
 so auspicious, would surpass all previous efforts to bring 
 about a real fraternity of nations, and unite the enlight- 
 ened people of the whole earth in a general cooperation 
 for the attainment of the great ends for which human 
 society is organized." 
 
 The same article also enumerated some of the great 
 themes that would naturally be considered on the pro- 
 posed occasion, and this list of subjects was the basis of 
 the subsequent organization of the general departments 
 of the World's Congress work. 
 
 The proposal was received with great public favor, 
 and on Oct. 15, 1889, a general committee of organiza- 
 tion was appointed, with the writer of this paper as 
 Chairman, to carry the project into effect. The present 
 occasion does not require, and the time and space at 
 command do not permit any general sketch of the 
 World's Congress work. Only that part of it which 
 
 2 
 
10 PARLIAMENT OF EELIGIOUS 
 
 relates to the Keligious Congresses can now have more 
 than merely incidental notice, and what relates to them 
 must be but briefly mentioned, for told at length it would 
 fill volumes. 
 
 [After describing the constitution of the "World's 
 Congress Auxiliary of the World's Columbian Exposition," 
 and the appointment of the Committee on Eeligious 
 Congresses with Eev. John Henry Barrows, D. D., as 
 Chairman, Mr. Bonney refers to the representative of the 
 New-Church on that committee, and continues:] 
 
 We often discussed together the New-Church as the 
 true Catholicism and the true Protestantism; the true 
 orthodoxy and the true liberalism; the science of revela- 
 tion and the logic of faith. In the introductory chapter 
 of his admirable Eeview of the World's Eeligious Con- 
 gresess of 1893, Mr. Mercer refers to our personal rela- 
 tions, and says that in the spiritual intimacy of years, the 
 desirability and feasibility of a universal conference of 
 Eeligious was often dwelt upon on the ground of oar 
 common faith, of which he gives the following summary : 
 
 A universal medium of salvation has been provided by the 
 Lord with every nation that has a Religion, and to bring into 
 friendly conference the representatives of all the great historic 
 Faiths, and of the denominations of Christendom, would develop 
 the fact that to acknowledge the Divine and live well is the 
 supreme and universal condition of religion, and would lead to 
 the recognition of a universal bond of brotherhood in faithful- 
 ness to what one understands to be from the Divine and to lead 
 to the Divine. 
 
 With this preparation it is not strange that Mr. 
 Mercer performed the work allotted to him in a manner 
 which endeared him to the Chairman and the other mem- 
 bers of the General Committee, and procured for the 
 New-Church such a hearing before the whole religious 
 world as was never before attained or even hoped for by 
 its apostles. 
 
GENESIS OP THE CONflEESSES 11 
 
 In the "Preliminary Publication'' of the organization 
 of the " Department of Religion," by the President of 
 the World's Congress Auxiliary, the object in view was 
 declared and the duties of the General Committee were 
 defined in these words: 
 
 To unite all Religion against all irreligion; to make the 
 Golden Rule the basis of this union; to present to the world in 
 the Religious Congresses, to be held in connection with the 
 Columbian Exposition of 1893, the substantial unity of many 
 Religions in the good deeds of the religious life; to provide for 
 a World's Parliament of Religions in which their common aims 
 and common grounds of union may be set forth, and the 
 marvelous religious progress of the nineteenth century be 
 reviewed; and to facilitate separate and independent Congresses 
 of different religious denominations and organizations, under 
 their own of&cers, in which their business may be transacted, 
 their achievements presented, and their work for the future 
 considered. 
 
 To that Committee I also mentioned the following 
 themes, to indicate the general scope of the Department 
 of Religion, and to elicit the suggestions of the Commit- 
 tees, Advisory Council, Honorary Members, and others 
 interested, to be utilized in making the final arrange- 
 ments for the proposed Religious Congresses: 
 
 a. The idea of God, its influence and consolations. 
 
 6. The evidences of the existence of God, especially those 
 which are calculated to meet the Agnosticism of the present time. 
 
 c. That evils of life are to be shunned as sins against God. 
 
 d. That the moral law should be obeyed as necessary to 
 human happiness, and because such is the will of the Creator. 
 
 e. That the influence of Religion on the family life is to 
 make it virtuous and pure. 
 
 /. That the influence of Religion on the community is to 
 establish justice, promote harmony, and increase the general 
 welfare, 
 
 g. That the influence of Religion on the State is to repress 
 evil, vice and disorder in all their forms, and to promote the 
 safety and happiness of the people. 
 
12 PARLIAMENT OF RELIGI0N8 
 
 h. That conscience is not a safe guide unless enlightened by 
 Religion and guided by sound reason. 
 
 i. That of a truth God is no respecter of persons, but in 
 every nation he that feareth God and -worketh righteousness is 
 accepted of Him. 
 
 /. That throughout the world the substantial fruits of sin- 
 cere Religion include the following: Improved personal char- 
 acter, better citizenship, better business methods, nearly all the 
 works of charity, improved domestic order, greater public 
 peace, etc. 
 
 k. That the weekly Rest Day is indispensable to religious 
 liberty and the general welfare of the people. 
 
 I. The triumphs of Religion in all ages. 
 
 m. The present state of Religion throughout the world, includ- 
 ing its marvelous advances during the present century. 
 
 71. The statistics of Churches as an answer to the alleged 
 prevalence of infidelity. 
 
 o. The dominance of Religion in the higher institutions of 
 learning. 
 
 p. The actual harmony of science and Religion, and the 
 origin and nature of the alleged conflict between them. 
 
 q. The influence of Religious Missions on the commerce of 
 the world. 
 
 r. The influence of Religion on literature and art. 
 
 s. The coming unity of mankind, in the service of God and 
 of man. 
 
 t. That there is an influx from God into the mind of every 
 man, teaching that there is a God, and that He should be wor- 
 shiped and obeyed; and that as the light of the sun is differ- 
 ently received by different objects, so the light of Divine 
 revelation is differently received by different minds, and hence 
 arise varieties in the forms of Religion. 
 
 u. That those who believe in these things may work together 
 for the welfare of mankind, notwithstanding they may differ in 
 the opinions they hold respecting God, His revelation and man- 
 ifestation, and that such fraternity does not require a surrender 
 of the points of difference. The Christian, believing in the 
 Supreme Divinity of Clirist, may so unite with the Jew who 
 devoutly believes in the Jehovah of Israel; the Quaker with the 
 High Church Episcopalian; the Catholic with the Methodist; the 
 Baptist with the Unitarian, etc. 
 
GENESIS OF THE OONaKESSES 13 
 
 With great anxiety I called that Committee together 
 for an opening Conference, and explained the basis of 
 the proposed Union Congress, and the equal importance 
 of the accompanying denominational conventions. To 
 my great delight I found the Committee in full accord 
 ■with my views, and ready to go forward in the completion 
 and execution of the necessary plans. Prom that time 
 forth the work proceeded silently and with power, as 
 a great river sweeps onward to the sea. The movement 
 was manifestly in the stream of the Divine Providence 
 and carried forward by its mighty tide. 
 
 Dr. Barrows very soon proved his marvelous fitness 
 for the great task entrusted to him, and devoted himself 
 to it with a tireless energy that assured success. He 
 prepared a "Preliminary Address" for the Committee, 
 announcing its purposes to the Religious world, and pro- 
 cured the approval of that address by each member of 
 the Committee. That remarkable document, bearing the 
 names of a Jewish Rabbi, a Catholic Archbishop, Pro- 
 testant Bishops and Clergy, both orthodox and liberal, a 
 Quaker, and a New-Churchman, was printed for the 
 Committee, and thousands of copies distributed through- 
 out the world. Many hundreds of letters were written 
 by Dr. Barrows and his associates to the religious 
 leaders of the different countries. From that address the 
 following extracts are given to show its character and spirit: 
 
 Humanity, though sundered by oceans and languages and 
 widely difEering forms of Religion, is yet one in need, if not alto- 
 gether in hope. 
 
 It is not the purpose to create the spirit of iudifferentism in 
 regard to the important peculiarities distinguishing the Religions 
 of the world, but rather to bring together, in frank and friendly 
 conference, the most eminent men of different faiths, strong in 
 their personal convictions, who will strive to see and show what 
 are the supreme truths, and what light Religion has to throw on 
 the great problems of our age. 
 
14: PABLIAMiiNT or BELIGIONS 
 
 Believing that God is, and that He has not left Himself with- 
 ont witness; believing that the influence of Religion tends to 
 advance the general welfare, and is the most vital force in the 
 social order of every people; and convinced that of a truth God 
 is no respecter of persons, bnt that in every nation he that 
 feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him, we 
 affectionately invite the representatives of all Faiths to aid ns in 
 presenting to the world, at the Exposition of 1893, the religions 
 harmonies and unities of humanity ; and also in showing forth 
 the moral and spiritual agencies which are at the root of human 
 progress. 
 
 From the issuance of this proclamation, the movement 
 for the proposed Keligious Congresses was a triumphal 
 march. It is nevertheless true that there was opposition; 
 but it was unavailing against the manifest will of God 
 that a great advance in the religious unity of mankind 
 should be accomplished in the year 1893. The responses 
 received from every part of the world were most 
 inspiring. 
 
 ********* 
 Thus the success of the Congresses planned for the 
 department of Religion in the World's Congress scheme 
 was practically assured long in advance of the time fixed 
 for their meeting. The success of the Union Congress 
 called the Parliament of Religions, was a suflacient 
 guaranty that the denominational Congresses would also 
 be satisfactory. For these denominational Congresses 
 were planned to anticipate and answer the charge that 
 by taking part in the Union Congress any Church had 
 abandoned or compromised its own peculiar faith. 
 
 Dr. Barrows' report in behalf of the General Com- 
 mittee closed with the following cheering words: " Your 
 Committee thankfully recognize the constant assistance 
 given them by you in the prosecution of their enormous 
 undertaking. We believe that the hope expressed by 
 Cardinal Gibbons will be realized; that the expectations 
 
GENESIS OF THE CONGRESSES 15 
 
 of the most sanguine of those who gave their minds to 
 this plan a year ago will be dwarfed by the gigantic 
 realities; that the Congresses of Religion that shall meet 
 in 1893 will be so noteworthy as to make an epoch in 
 history, and be prophetic of that unity of the nations 
 which the English laureate foresaw in singing of the 
 golden time: 
 
 " When the war-drums throb no longer, and the battle flags 
 are furled, 
 
 In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the World." 
 
 A large Advisory Council, composed of eminent repre- 
 sentatives of faith and morals, selected from the different 
 countries, was appointed to aid the Local Committee in 
 making the necessary arrangements, especially in forming 
 the programme for the great occasion. 
 
 The report also proposed certain general rules and 
 regulations for the government of the Parliament of 
 Religions. These were approved, and became the law 
 under which the Congress was convened. 
 
 It was declared that — 
 
 1. Those taking part in the Parliament are to conform to 
 the limitations and directions of the General Committee on 
 Religious Congresses of the World's Congress Auxiliary, and 
 they are carefully to observe the spirit and principles set forth 
 in the preliminary address of this Committee. 
 
 2. The speakers accepting the invitation of the General 
 Committee will state their own beliefs, and the reasons for them, 
 with the greatest frankness, without, however, employing 
 unfriendly criticisms of other Faiths. 
 
 3. The Parliament is to be made a grand international 
 assembly for mutual conference, fellowship and information, 
 and not for controversy, for worship, for the counting of votes, 
 or for the passing of resolutions. 
 
 4. The proceedings of the Parliament will be conducted in 
 the English language. 
 
 The objects of the World's Parliament of Religions 
 vere also restated and more explicitly defined, in the 
 
16 PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 light of the correspondence to which reference has been 
 made. Those objects have now become of such great 
 historic interest that I deem it important to introduce 
 them here. They will somewhat explain the readiness 
 with which so many eminent representatives of the great 
 Religions of the world agreed to take an active part in 
 the proposed Eehgious Congress. Dr. Bai-rows says: 
 
 After full consideration and conference with representative 
 members of tlie Advisory Council, your Committee propose the 
 following statement of the objects of the World's Parliament of 
 Religions: 
 
 1. To bring together in conference, for the first time in 
 history, the leading representatives of the great Historic 
 Religions of the world. 
 
 2. To show to men, in the most impressive way, what and 
 how many truths the various Religions hold and teach in common. 
 
 3. To promote and deepen the spirit of human brotherhood 
 among religious men of diverse Faiths, through friendly 
 conference and mutual good understanding, while not seeking to 
 foster the temper of indififerentism, and not striving to achieve 
 any formal and outward unity. 
 
 4. To set forth, by those most competent to speak, what are 
 deemed the important distinctive truths held and taught by each 
 Religion, and by the various chief branches of Christendom. 
 
 6. To indicate the impregnable foundations of Theism, and 
 the reasons for man's faith in Immortality, and thus to unite and 
 strengthen the forces which are adverse to a materialistic phil- 
 osophy of the universe. 
 
 6. To secure from leading scholars representing the Brah- 
 man, Buddhist, Confucian, Parsee, Mohammedan, Jewish and 
 other Faiths, and from representatives of the various Churches 
 of Christendom, full and accurate statements of the spiritual and 
 other efifeots of the Religions which they hold upon the Liter- 
 ature, Art, Commerce and Government, and the Domestic and 
 Social Life of the peoples among whom these Faiths have 
 prevailed. 
 
 7. To inquire what light each Religion has afforded or may 
 afford to the other Religions of the world. 
 
GENESIS OF THE CONGRESSES 17 
 
 8. To set forth, for permanent record to be published to 
 the world, an accurate and authoritative account of the present 
 condition and outlook of Religion among the leading nations of 
 the earth. 
 
 9. To discover, from competent men, what light Religion 
 has to throw on the great problems of the present age, especially 
 the important questions connected with Temperance, Labor, 
 Education, Wealth and Poverty. 
 
 10. To bring the nations of the earth into a more friendly 
 fellowship, in the hope of securing permanent international 
 peace. 
 
 This statement was accepted and approved, as 
 embracing all the essential features of the great work 
 then in course of organization, and the Parliament of 
 Religions was accordingly convened for the execution of 
 the definite purposes expressed in the declaration above set 
 forth. Those who were requested to take part were thus 
 explicitly informed of the nature and limitations of the 
 convocation to which they were invited. When the 
 World's Congresses of 1893 were first proposed, it was 
 thought that the leaders of progress in all depart- 
 ments could be assembled in Chicago for a few weeks to 
 hold a series of union and department sessions, but it 
 soon became manifest that the work must be extended 
 through the whole Exposition season, and that each gen- 
 eral department must be assigned to a separate date from 
 the others, except a few cases of kindred departments 
 which could be accommodated at the same time. The 
 first general assignment of' the Congresses for the six 
 njonths of the season, included in the arrangements for 
 June, the Congresses on Religion. But it was found 
 impractical to bring the religious leaders of distant lands 
 to Chicago so early in the year, and it was finally decided 
 to hold the Congresses of that department in the month 
 of September, and the first half of October. So many 
 ftssignments for the midsummer months had previously 
 
18 PARLIAMENT OF RELIfllONS 
 
 been made, that neither July nor August was then at 
 disposal. The General Committee of Organization now 
 devoted all its energies, under the leadership of Dr. 
 Barrows, to the incomparably difficult task of making a 
 working programme for the Parliament ,of Eeligions by 
 formulating specific subjects to be presented in the 
 sessions, and making actual engagements with selected 
 leaders to prepare papers upon the particular themes 
 assigned to them. The marvelous success of that work 
 will be noticed below. In the meantime the applications 
 from the different religious denominations, for an oppor- 
 tunity to present their faith and achievements in separate 
 Congresses, had become so numerous that it became plain 
 that this part of the great undertaking would also be 
 crowned with a most gratifying success. Denominational 
 Committees were appointed to make arrangements and 
 prepare programmes for these organizations. 
 
 * * *!* vp 'F '^ ^ y^ 3|t 
 
 It is but simple justice to declare that the cordial 
 cooperation of the women of the various Churches largely 
 contributed to the great success of the Keligious Con- 
 gresses of 1893. Never before did woman have so large 
 and noble a part in a series of religious assemblages; 
 and never before did she acquit herself in a manner 
 deserving of higher praise. 
 
 ******** 
 
 With wonderful harmony and zeal the work of prep- 
 aration went forward, and early in the World's Congress 
 season it became manifest that the Keligious Congresses 
 would realize the expectations in regard to them, and 
 crown the whole World's Congress scheme with a great and 
 splendid success. The first Eeligious Congress held was 
 that of the Jewish Church, which commenced its sessions 
 on Sunday, Aug. 27, 1893. I had the great felicity 
 of presiding at the opening meeting, and delivering an 
 
GENESIS OF THE C0NGEE8SES 19 
 
 address of welcome which was most cordially received, 
 and which, it seems to me, should here be given as the 
 best possible exemplification of the fundamental principle 
 of the Union Congress of all Eeligions. I shall always 
 gratefully remember the blessings with which my 
 Christian greetings were acknowledged. 
 
 "Masteks and Teachers of Iseael: Officers and 
 Members of the Jewish Denominational Congress of 
 1893: — The providence of the God of Abraham, Isaac 
 and Jacob, who created man in His own image, and gave 
 him from Sinai's glory-crowned summit the law of a 
 righteous life, has so ordered the arrangements for the 
 Eeligious Congresses to be held under the auspices of 
 the World's Congress Auxiliary of the World's Columbian 
 Exposition, that, without any special plan to that end, 
 this Congress of the Jewish Church is the first of the 
 series. . . . Thus the Mother Church from which all 
 the Christian Denominations trace their lineage, and 
 which stands in the history of mankind as the especial 
 exponent of august and triumphant theism, has 
 been called upon to open the Keligious Congresses 
 of 1893. 
 
 " But far more important and significant is the fact 
 that this aiTangement has been made, and this Congress 
 is now formally opened and welcomed, by as ultra and 
 ardent a Christian as the world contains. It is because I 
 am a Christian, and the Chairman of the General Com- 
 mittee of Organization of the Keligious Congresses is a 
 Christian, and a large majority of that Committee are 
 Christians, that this day deserves to stand gold-bordered 
 in human history, as one of the signs that a new age of 
 brotherhood and peace has truly come. 
 
 "We know that you are Jews, while we are Christians 
 and would have all men so; but of all the precious liber- 
 ties which free men enjoy, the highest is the freedom to 
 
20 PAELIAMENT OF EELIGIONS 
 
 worship God according to the dictates of conscience; and 
 this great liberty is the right, not of some men only, but 
 of all— not of Christians, merely, but of Jews and Gen- 
 tiles as well. I desire from all men respect for my 
 religious convictions, and claim for myself and mine the 
 right to enjoy them without molestation, and my master 
 has commanded me that whatsoever I would have another 
 do to me, I should also do to him. What, therefore, I ask 
 for myself, a Christian, I must give to you as Jews. Our 
 differences of opinion and belief are between ourselves 
 and God, the Judge and Father of us all. Through all 
 the Sacred Scriptures of the Old Testament we walk side 
 by side, revering the creation, journeying through the 
 wilderness, chanting the Psalms, and inspired by the 
 prophecies; and if we part at the threshold of the Gospels, 
 it shall not be with anger, but with love, and a grateful 
 remembrance of our long and pleasant journey from 
 Genesis to Malachi. 
 
 "The supreme significance of this Congress and the 
 others is that they herald the death of persecution 
 throughout the world, and proclaim the coming reign of 
 civil and religious liberty. 
 
 "Oh Eeligion! Religion! how many crimes have 
 been committed in thy name! The crimes committed 
 in the name of Liberty are but few in comparison. 
 
 "Against religious persecution all the Religions in the 
 world should be united, and support each other with 
 unfailing zeal. This is not saying that all Religions are 
 of equal worth. This is not saying that any one should 
 yield one jot or tittle of his own peculiar faith. It is quite 
 the contrary. For it is only when one is protected in 
 his proper liberties, and can 'act in fi-eedom according to 
 reason,' that he can properly examine his own faith or 
 that of his fellow men. With perfect religious liberty, 
 with comprehensive and adequate education, and a life 
 
GENESIS OF THE CONGRESSES 21 
 
 according to the great Commandments, mankind will 
 come into closer and closer relations, into a better and 
 better understanding of their social, political and relig- 
 ious differences, and the living power of the truth, guided 
 by the Sovereign Providence of God, will more and more 
 make the whole world one in brotherhood and service, 
 and iinally one in religious faith. 
 
 "Henceforth the leaders of mankind will seek, not 
 for points of difference, but for grounds of union, striv- 
 ing earnestly to know the truth, that the truth may make 
 them free from the bondage of prejudice and error, and 
 more and more efficient in advancing the enlightenment 
 and welfare of the world. 
 
 "With these sentiments I welcome the Jewish Denom- 
 inational Congress of 1893." 
 
 Of the responses to this address, I will only say, at 
 this time, that I wish all Christendom could have heard 
 them and the leading discourse of the day which followed 
 them, and to which I would make further reference if the 
 limits of this article would permit. The remaining space 
 must be devoted to a brief notice of the Parliament of 
 Beligions. 
 
 The first session of this august assembly was held on 
 Monday morning, Sept. 11, 1893. The day arrived. 
 The programme for seventeen days had been prepared, 
 the participants from all parts of the world had come, an 
 intense public interest had been aroused, and a great 
 audience filled the Memorial Art Palace, anxiously seek- 
 ing for seats in the Hall of Columbus. Hundreds of 
 trained and skillful pens have tried to describe the won- 
 derful opening scene, but I think all who were present 
 will agree that no description can convey an adequate 
 idea of the inspiring majesty of the actual event. The 
 assembling of religious leaders in the President's office 
 and reception hall; the gracious interchange of friendly 
 
22 PAELIAMENT OP EELIQIONS 
 
 greetings; the formation of the imposing procession to 
 the platform of Columbus Hall; the stately march 
 through the great throng of expectant people that rever- 
 ently parted to make an open way; the appropriate 
 grouping of representatives in arranging the platform, 
 with Cardinal Gibbons the highest in rank of the attend- 
 ing ecclesiastical dignitaries on the President's right, and 
 Rev. Dr. Barrows, Chairman of the Parliament, on hia 
 left; the great audience, a living sea of eager human 
 souls; the spontaneous outbursts of applause, softened by 
 the solemnity of the occasion; the opening of the cere- 
 monies at a sign from the President, by chanting the 
 Doxology with the organ accompaniment, followed by the 
 hymn "Before Jehovah's Awful Throne;" the announce- 
 ment of a few moments of silent prayer, to be followed 
 by the Universal Prayer, led by the American Cardinal; 
 the grandeur and pathos of that union of hearts and 
 voices from all parts of the world in the appeal to "Our 
 Father Who art in the Heavens;" the addresses of welcome 
 and the addresses in reply; the quick and sympathetic 
 responses of the audience to the noblest utterances of the 
 orators; the moral and intellectual beauty and dignity of 
 the heads and faces that glorified the great hall with the 
 very bloom and fruitage of human progress — what words 
 can adequately picture and reproduce such incomparable 
 scenes as these? 
 
 ********* 
 A brief outline of the programme is given in my opening 
 address to the Parliament, and it seems to me that I can- 
 not write any new words which will convey so ti-ue an 
 idea of the occasion as will those which I used in that 
 address, which is, therefore, here reproduced. 
 
 "WoBSHiPEEs OF God akd Lovees of Man: — Let us 
 rejoice that we have lived to see this glorious day; let us 
 give thanks to the Eternal God, whose mercy endureth 
 
GENESIS OF THE OONGEES8E8 23 
 
 forever, that we are permitted to take part in the Bolemn 
 and majestic event of a World's Congress of Eeligions. 
 The importance of this event cannot be overestimated. 
 Its influence on the future relations of the various races 
 of men cannot be too highly esteemed. 
 
 " If this Congress shall faithfully execute the duties 
 with which it has been charged, it will become a joy of 
 the whole earth and stand in human history like a new 
 Mount Zion, crowned with glory and marking the actual 
 beginning of a new epoch of brotherhood and peace. 
 
 " For when the Keligious Faiths of the world recognize 
 each other as brothers, children of one Father, whom all 
 profess to love and serve, then, and not till then, will the 
 nations of the earth yield to the spirit of concord and 
 learn war no more. 
 
 "It is inspiring to think that in every part of the 
 world many of the worthiest of mankind, who would 
 gladly join us here if that were in their power, this day 
 lift their hearts to the Supreme Being in earnest prayer 
 for the harmony and success of this Congress. To them 
 our own hearts speak in love and sympathy of this 
 impressive and prophetic scene. 
 
 "In this Congress the word 'Religion' means the love 
 and worship of God and the love and service of man. 
 We believe the Scripture that ' of a truth God is no 
 respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth 
 God and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him.' We 
 come together in mutual confidence and respect, without 
 the least surrender or compromise of anything which we 
 respectively believe to be truth or duty, with the hope 
 that mutual acquaintance and a free and sincere inter- 
 change of views on the great questions of eternal life 
 and human conduct will be mutually beneficial. 
 
24 PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 " The Religious Faiths of the world have most seriously 
 misunderstood and misjudged each other, from the use 
 of words in meanings radically different from those which 
 they were intended to bear, and from a disregard of the 
 distinctions between appearances and facts, between 
 signs and symbols and the things signified and repre- 
 sented. Such errors it is hoped that this Congress will 
 do much to correct and to render hereafter impossible. 
 
 "He who believes that God has revealed himself more 
 fully in his Keligion than in any other cannot do other- 
 wise than desire to bring that Religion to the knowledge 
 of all men, with an abiding conviction that the God who 
 gave it will preserve, protect and advance it in every 
 expedient way. And hence he will welcome every just 
 opportunity to come into fraternal relations with men 
 of other creeds, that they may see in his upright life the 
 evidence of the truth and beauty of his faith, and be 
 thereby led to learn it, and be helped heavenward by it. 
 
 "When it pleased God to give me the idea of the 
 World's Congresses of 1893 there came with that idea a 
 profound conviction that their crowning glory should be 
 a fraternal conference of the world's Religions. Accord- 
 ingly, the original announcement of the World's Con- 
 gress scheme, which was sent by the government of the 
 United States to all other nations, contained among other 
 great themes to be considered, 'The grounds of fraternal 
 union in the Religions of different people.' 
 
 "The programme for the Religious Congresses of 
 1893 constitutes what may, with perfect propriety, be 
 designated as one of the most remarkable publications of 
 the century. The programme of this General Parlia- 
 ment of Religions directly represents England, Scotland, 
 Sweden, Switzerland, France, Germany, Russia, Turkey, 
 Greece, Egypt, Syria, India, Japan, China, Ceylon, New 
 Zealand, Brazil, Canada, and the American States, and 
 
GENESIS OF THE CONGRESSES 25 
 
 indirectly includes many other countries. This remark- 
 able programme presents, among other great themes to 
 be considered in this Congress, Theism, Judaism, 
 Mohammedanism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Con- 
 fucianism, Shintoism, Zoroastrianism, Catholicism, the 
 Greek Church, Protestantism in many forms, and also 
 refers to the nature and influence of other Religious 
 systems. 
 
 "This programme also announces for presentation the 
 great subjects of revelation, immortality, the Incarnation 
 of God, the universal elements in Religion, the ethical 
 unity of different religious systems, the relations of 
 Religion to morals, marriage, education, science, philos- 
 ophy, evolution, music, labor, government, peace and 
 war, and many other themes of absorbing interest. The 
 distinguished leaders of human progress by whom these 
 great topics will be presented constitute an unparalleled 
 galaxy of eminent names, but we may not pause to call 
 the illustrious roll. 
 
 "The third part of the general programme for the 
 Congresses of this department consists of separate and 
 independent Congresses of the different religious denom- 
 inations for the purpose of more fully setting forth their 
 doctrines and the service they have rendered to mankind. 
 These special Congresses will be held, for the most part, 
 in the smaller halls of this Memorial Building. A few 
 of them have, for special reasons, already been held. It 
 is the special object of these Denominational Congresses 
 to afford opportunities for further information to all who 
 may desire it. The leaders of these several churches 
 most cordially desire the attendance of the representa- 
 tives of other Religions. The Denominational Con- 
 gresses will each be held during the week in which the 
 presentation of the denomination will occur. 
 
 3 
 
26 PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 "The fourth and final part of the programme of tha 
 Department of Keligion will consist of Congresses of vari- 
 ous kindred organizations^ These Congresses will be 
 held between the close of the Parliament of Religions 
 and Oct. 15, and will include Missions, Ethics, Sunday 
 rest, the Evangelical Alliance, and similar associations. 
 The Congress on Evolution should, in regularity, have 
 been held in the depfirtment of science, but circumstances 
 prevented, and it has been given a place in this depart- 
 ment by the courtesy of the Committee of Organization. 
 
 "Let one other point be clearly stated. While the 
 members of this Congress meet, as men, on a common 
 ground of perfect equality, the ecclesiastical rank of 
 each, in his own Church, is at the same time gladly 
 recognized and respected, as the just acknowledgment 
 of his services and attainments. But no attempt is here 
 made to treat all Religions as of equal merit. Any such 
 idea is expressly disclaimed. In this Congress, each 
 system of Religion stands by itself in its own perfect 
 integrity, uncompromised in any degree by its relation 
 to any other. In the language of the preliminary publi- 
 cation in the Department of Religion, we seek in this Con- 
 gress 'to unite all Religion against all irreligion; to make 
 the Golden Rule the basis of this union; and to present 
 to the world the substantial unity of many Religions in 
 the good deeds of the Religious life.' Without contro- 
 versy, or any attempt to pronounce judgment upon any 
 matter of Faith or worship or Religious opinion, we seek 
 a better knowledge of the Religious condition of all man- 
 kind, with an earnest desire to be useful to each other 
 and to all others who love truth and righteousness. 
 
 "To this more than imperial feast, I bid you welcome. 
 
 "We meet on the mountain height of absolute respect 
 for the religious convictions of each other; and an earnest 
 desire for a better knowledge of the consolations which 
 
&£N£S1S of !fHE OONGRESSEa 27 
 
 other forms of Faith than our own offer to their devotees. 
 The very basis of our convocation is the idea that the 
 representatives of each Religion sincerely believe that it 
 is the truest and best of all ; and that they will, there- 
 fore, hear with perfect candor and without fear the con- 
 victions of other sincere souls on the great questions of 
 the immortal life. 
 
 " This day the sun of a new era of religious peace 
 and progress rises over the world, dispelling the dark 
 clouds of sectarian strife. This day a new flower blooms 
 in the gardens of religious thought, filling the air with 
 its exquisite perfume. This day a new fraternity is born 
 into the world of human progress, to aid in the upbuild- 
 ing of the kingdom of God in the hearts of men. Era 
 and flower and fraternity bear one name. It is a name 
 which will gladden the hearts of those who worship God 
 and love man in every clime. Those who hear its 
 music, joyfully echo it back to sun and flower. 
 
 "It is the Brotherhood op Eeligions. 
 
 " In this name I welcome the first Parliament of the 
 Religions of the World." 
 
 Of the stupendous work of the Religious Congresses 
 of 1893, there is not now space in which- to speak. It 
 may be said, however, that in the dignity, importance, 
 and comprehensiveness of the themes presented; the 
 eminence, eloquence, power and representative character 
 of the speakers; the decorum, sympathy and intense 
 interest of the great audiences; the constant increase of 
 mutual respect, afPection and courtesy; and in convinc- 
 ing assurances that the whole world will be greatly 
 benefited and uplifted by the proceedings, the World's 
 Parliament of Religions is entitled to the very highest 
 rank in the whole history of public assemblies. The 
 spirit of peace and concord was so all-pervading and 
 
28 tAKLIASiENT OF KELiaiONSI 
 
 potent that both speakers and audiences felt and acknowl- 
 edged its sovereign power. 
 
 Such was the Genesis of the World's Religious Con- 
 gresses of 1893. 
 
CHAPTER n 
 
 A NARKATIVE AND CRITICAL AC- 
 COUNT OF THE PARLIAMENT 
 OF RELIGIONS 
 
 BY KEY. FBANK SEWALL 
 From Things Seen and Heard 
 
 HOW IT CAME TO PASS 
 
 Eemarkable as the recent World's Parliament of 
 Religions has been, considered as a signal event in the 
 religious history of the world, it is of peculiar interest 
 to the New Church as affording in many ways a striking 
 corroboration of Swedenborg's statements concerning the 
 religious condition of mankind in the present age of 
 transition from an old to a new Christian dispensation, 
 concerning the essential relation the various Religions of 
 the world bear to one another, and especially concerning 
 the effect produced upon the human mind everywhere by 
 the great judgment which has been enacted in the 
 spiritual world, marlinpf the "consummation of the 
 age " foretold in the Gospel, and the beginning of the 
 era of the New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse. 
 
 "Since that judgment, " says Swedenborg, " men have 
 come into a freer way of thinking about spiritual things." 
 Except for this freedom of the new age the holding of 
 such a Parliament would have been an impossibility, and 
 nothing was so marked a feature of this Parliament 
 throughout all its proceedings as precisely this absolute 
 freedom, not only in thinking, but in speaking and 
 mutually conferring on spiritual subjects. 
 
30 PARLIAMENT OF RELI&IONS 
 
 "It is the unexpected that happens;" which is only 
 another way of saying that there is a Divine Providence 
 that avails itself of human efforts, but often to bring out 
 of them results that no one has anticipated. No one can 
 foretell what the effect on the future course of the world 
 this Parliament is to have; no one who participated in it 
 can feel that it will be without effect; but every one who 
 was there knows that there was a spirit, an indefinable 
 presence and movement, "as of a rushing, mighty wind," 
 in that vast assemblage that none could have foreseen, 
 because it was an experiencie utterly new in the history 
 of the world. It is difficult to describe satisfactorily these 
 proceedings because their power was, as was said, not so 
 much in what was uttered as in what was felt in the per- 
 sonal contact face to face and eye to eye of these heralds 
 and spokesmen of the great Religious Faiths of mankind. 
 
 Let us recall the scene of that ever memorable morn- 
 ing, the 11th of October, when there came upon the plat- 
 form of the vast Columbus Hall, filled with its four 
 thousand spectators, that procession of the leaders and of 
 the ablest exponents of the world's great historic Relig- 
 ions. There were the ancient, "Eastern," and "Western 
 Churches," of Christendom, represented by the highest 
 dignitary of the Catholic Church in America, Cardinal 
 Gibbons, and by tho venerable Archbishop of Zante, of 
 the Greek Church, both in their canonical vest- 
 ments, and attended by their suite of subordinate clergy; 
 the Protestant Church of Christendom represented by 
 Chairman Barrows of Chicago, the Rev. Dr. Momerie of 
 London, Prof. Bonet-Maury of Paris, Count Bernstoff 
 of Berlin and many other prominent ministers and lay- 
 men; the Armenian Christian Church by its delegate 
 from Cilicia, Asia Minor; the Church in Syria 
 by its Archimandrite, Gibora of Damascus, the African 
 Christian Church in America by two of its bishops; the 
 
THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 31 
 
 Greek Church of Eussia by Prince Serge Wolkonski of 
 St. Petersburg; the ancient Confucian Religion of the 
 Chinese represented by a member of the Chinese Lega- 
 tion at Washington with his suite of attendants, bring- 
 ing an essay sent by order of the Emperor of China; the 
 most ancient of Japanese Keligions, that of Shinto, repre- 
 sented by its high priest and scholars all in their quaint 
 ceremonial garments ; the Brahmins of India, represented 
 by Harain of Bombay and by the youthful and happy- 
 faced monk, Suami Vivi Kananda, clad in an orange col- 
 ored garb and golden turban; the vast following of the 
 gentle Buddha, represented by the tall and graceful 
 Dharmapala of Ceylon, clad in pure white; the Religion 
 of Jain, by Gandhi, the thoughtful faced Secretary of 
 their Association at Bombay; the Brahmo-Somaj, the 
 so-called "New Dispensation of India," represented by 
 the deep-eyed and mellow- voiced Mozoomdar, author of 
 "The Oriental Christ," and by the scholarly and gentle 
 Nagarkar; also the leader in Oriental theosophy, Chakra- 
 varti, besides many of the other sects or orders of Brah- 
 mins and Buddhists both, of Japan and India represented 
 by their priests, scholars, pilgrims and monks ; the native 
 African represented by the young and bright-faced Prince 
 Momolu Massaquoi, a Christian convert of the tribe of 
 the Veys, near Liberia; the ancient Religion of Moses as 
 represented by the venerable and eloquent Jewish Rabbis 
 Wise of Cincinnati, Gottheil of New York, and Hirsch 
 of Chicago. 
 
 In the midst of this impressive and august body, 
 with cardinal, archbishops, bishops, priests and scholars 
 of all the Faiths of mankind on his right and left, sat, as 
 president, organizer and director of the whole, a New- 
 Churchman, our zealous and beloved brother, Charles C. 
 Bonney, Esq., and near at hand his pastor, the Rev. 
 Lewis P. Mercer, to both of whom, under providence, 
 
32 PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 mankind is indebted, we have reason to believe, for the 
 first conception of this mighty enterprise, so full of 
 meaning to the whole Eeligious world, and for its suc- 
 cessful conduct through appalling difficulties and dis- 
 couragements to this triumphant and happy issue. 
 Eightfully did President Bonney hold the central place 
 in that assemblage, not only as representing the New 
 Church of this new age, without whose influence and 
 inspiration from above into all the Faiths of mankind 
 this meeting could never have come about, but by his 
 universally acceptable management and direction, his 
 wise judgment, happy manner and broad and liberal 
 comprehension of the scope and purpose of the meeting, 
 proving himself the providential instrument for making 
 the occasion productive of the highest results for good. 
 It was not strange that President Bonney's name, as 
 "the man we all love," was in the mouths of these gentle 
 visitors from the far East, that his appearance was 
 always the occasion for joyous applause from the audi- 
 ence, that his words always seemed most happily to meet 
 the moment, to bring some bright, fresh and happy 
 thought or interpretation to what was going on; nor that, 
 later, in the wonderful closing scenes of the ParUament, 
 the night of the parting, he was hailed and cheered by 
 the vast audience rising to their feet and waving their 
 handkerchiefs; so that it was long before he could utter 
 his words of humble and sincere acknowledgment and 
 gratitude — "Not unto us, not unto us, Lord, but unto 
 thy name give the glory!" 
 
 Thus, as on a second Pentecost, the birthday of a 
 new Christianity, we see the tribes of the earth all 
 assembled by their representatives into this Eeligious 
 Parliament, called together and presided over by a New- 
 Churchman. I say called by a New-Churchman, not 
 with any authority as such, or with any recognition or 
 
THINGS SEEN AND HEAED 33 
 
 knowledge of him as such by those who answered; but 
 as in the providence of the Lord so brought about, and 
 in that Divine Providence resulting in so many remark- 
 able corroborations of the teachings of the Church. 
 
 It will be remembered that at the first day of Pente- 
 cost " there were dwelling at Jerusalem, devout men out 
 of every nation under heaven," who came together to 
 hear the Apostle who had received the gift of the Spirit 
 and spake with tongues. Here were " Parthians, Medes 
 and Elamites, the dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Judsea, in 
 Cappadocia, in Pontus and in Asia, Phrygia and Pam- 
 phylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, 
 strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and 
 Arabians." (Acts ii: 1-11.) And yet neither were these 
 called together by any authority civil or ecclesiastical. 
 They were simply there, at the Lord's appointed lime, 
 for the introduction of a new Religion into the world, 
 " when the day of Pentecost was fully come." And after 
 gladly receiving the Word, which Peter the Apostle then 
 preached to them, some three thousand of these Jews 
 and strangers were baptized and added to the infant 
 Church of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Now it is a remarkable circumstance that the recent 
 Parliament of Religions was the result of no authoritative 
 act of any body of men, either national or ecclesiastical. 
 Not only could no one Church, or no one nation in its 
 civil or ecclesiastical capacity command such a meeting, 
 but in no other country of the world could such a Par- 
 liament have met in the freedom it here enjoyed from 
 everything like the bias, whether of Church establish- 
 ment, or sectarian, or political prejudice of any kind. It 
 is true the United States Government gave its sanction 
 to this Auxiliary Congress, as to every other feature of 
 the World's Columbian Exhibition, but the Religious 
 Parliament never originated in the schemes or purposes 
 
34 PABLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 of any body of the Church or nation, but in the minds of 
 individuals first, and then in the kind and brotherly 
 cooperation of a few large-hearted, far-visioned men, 
 gifted by the Lord with a deep love of the world's wel- 
 fare and advancement, and with the prophetic wisdom 
 that comes from that love. Such a man was the Eev. 
 John Henry Barrows, D. D., of the Presbyterian Church, 
 Chairman of the General Committee on the Religious 
 Congresses, who was one of the first to respond to Mr. 
 Bonney's proposal; such were the other broad-minded 
 men, the true leaders of their, fellow believers, both of 
 Christian and of Gentile faiths, who took in at the out- 
 set the broad and high uses the meeting was designed to 
 subserve for all mankind, and who were loyal enough to 
 their own Faiths not to be afraid to have them confronted 
 with others, while they hoped that each would have some- 
 thing to give to others, to perfect what was already pos- 
 sessed. And so it was at no authoritative call that these 
 Eeligions came together to be thus " with one accord in 
 one place" in the city of Chicago in the year 1893. 
 
 II 
 
 REFLECTIONS SUGGESTED BY THE PLACE AND TIME 
 
 The place and year are also significant. It was what 
 will long be remembered as the Columbian year wHen the 
 civilized world united in commemorating, by a united 
 exhibition of the products of art and industry, the discov- 
 ery of a new world by Columbus— the "Cnnst-bearer.'' 
 Was not this a part of the "new world" to which in iho 
 Lord's Providence he led the way? Was not this one of 
 those revelations of the hidden things of God that lie 
 behind the Divine leadings of men. Listen to whiit 
 Columbus wrote to his friend, on his first return-voyage 
 
THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 35 
 
 from America: "The Lord often grants to men what 
 ihey never imagine themselves capable of effecting, as 
 He is accustomed to hear the prayer of His servants and 
 those who love His commandments even in that which 
 appears impossible; in this manner has it happened to 
 me who have succeeded in an undertaking never before 
 accomplished by man. . . And now ought the whole 
 of Christendom to give thanks to our Savior Jesus Christ, 
 who has granted us such a victory and great success. 
 Let Christ rejoice upon earth as He does in heaven, to 
 witness the coming salvation of eo many people hereto- 
 fore given over to perdition." Such was the prophetic 
 word and vision of the Lord's messenger four hundred 
 years ago, a prophecy to have its fulfillment in many 
 ways still unknown to us as it was to Columbus himself. 
 To extend the commercial intercourse of the world 
 was the secular motive in the enterprise which led to the 
 discovery and the settlement of America; and this com- 
 mercial intercourse, says Swedenborg, is the means 
 especially ordained by the Lord for the carrying of the 
 written Word around the world. ("Earths in the Uni- 
 verse," 116.) Columbus, the discoverer of a land of gold 
 mines and rare fruits and spicks, was also the bearer of 
 God's Word» But to whom ? Not to the natives who 
 have failed to this day to be converted as a race to 
 Christianity, and yet who were not on that account 
 "given over to perdition;" not to the Colonists, for they 
 had the Word already; bat to a great free people that 
 was to be, where — in a land " remote from the Chris- 
 tianity " of that day — there should some day be sown the 
 seed of a new Christianity among the Gentiles of the 
 earth. Even in Swedenborg's time Chicago was an 
 untrodden waste. When be wishes to represent a state 
 of barbarism, as compared with civilization, he mentions 
 the savages of America. Yet here in this waste and distant 
 
36 PARLIAMENT OF KELIGIOXS 
 
 land, in this memorable Columbian year, we behold 
 the Gentiles of the earth coming together to hear the 
 Word of the Lord, and to feel the impulses of that new 
 Christianity which characterizes, throughout, this 
 extraordinary meeting. 
 
 Kecalling the day of Pentecot't two other reflections 
 occur. On that day the recorder of the Acts of the 
 Apostles describes the assemblage as consisting of dwellers 
 "out of every nation under heaven." Noticing the coun- 
 tries there enumerated we find they cover the area of only 
 a small portion of earth, extending from Parthia, ihis 
 side of India, on the east, to the countries immediately 
 about the Mediterranean on the west. The whole area 
 could hardly have equaled the present territory of the 
 United States alone. At the meeting of the races and 
 Religions in Chicago — literally the whole round world was 
 represented; and like the infant Church of Christ ht 
 Jerusalem among the "Jews and strangers and prose- 
 lytes," so was the Christian Church at the Parliament, 
 even counting its many millions of adherents, still vastly 
 outnumbered by the Gentile Religions there represented, 
 the various ordefs of the Hindu and Buddhist Faiths 
 alone numbering some four hundred and seventy-five 
 millions of men. 
 
 Great therefore as has been the outspreading of Chris- 
 tianity since that day of its birth, yet how vast a propor- 
 tion of mankind still constitute that Gentile world out 
 of which we are promised is to spring up the great new 
 Christian Church of the future. 
 
 The other reflection is that on the day of Pentecost, 
 all these various tribes heard the Word preached to them 
 miraculoiisly each in its own tongue. Such, too, was 
 the case in the Parliament of Religions. But what is 
 wonderful is, that the one intelligible tongue of all these 
 assembled races of the world was the English language— 
 
Things seei} and Beaed 37 
 
 the only one used in the addresses at the Parliament, 
 except in a few oases where the Oriental speakers spoke 
 first in their own language to be immediately followed 
 in English by an interpreter. 
 
 Now there is a deep significance in this fact, that this 
 Parliament was held in the English language. On its 
 natural historic side it means that all the world is learn- 
 ing English as the language of the commerce of the 
 earth, and that on the wings of commerce the Bible is 
 being carried to all the races of mankind. "Its sound 
 is gone out into all lands and its words to the end of the 
 world. " Swedenborg tells us that the English speaking 
 nations are in the center of the spiritual world and in 
 the greatest light there, because they are chiefly in pos- 
 session of the Word and enjoy its illumination. This 
 must mean that the Anglo-Saxon people, more than all 
 others, prize and use their Bibles, and more than all 
 others are instruments in the sending out of the Word 
 to other nations. This is borne out by the fact that no 
 Christian denomination makes provision in its liturgy or 
 discipline for so extensive and constant a use of the 
 sacred Scriptures as does the Church of England, both 
 in private and public worship, and no other agency in the 
 world equals those of the British and the American 
 Foreign Bible Society in distributing Bibles throughout 
 the world. Around these English guardians and almoners 
 of the Word of God, are arranged other peoples in spirit- 
 ual order according to their religious illumination from 
 the Word, the Divine center of light: 
 
 For the Word in the Church, although it ia with compara- 
 tively few, is life from the Lord through heaven to all the rest, 
 just as the life of the members of the body is from the heart 
 and lungs. . . This is also the reason why the Christians 
 among whom the Word is read, constitute the breast of that (one) 
 man (which the whole heaven and the whole Church present 
 before the Lord). These are also in the midst of all; and around 
 
88 fAKLlAMENT 01' KELIG10N3 
 
 them are the Papists; around these are the Mohammedans who 
 acknowledge the Lord as the greatest prophet and as the Son of 
 God; after these are the Africans; and the nations and peoples of 
 Asia and the Indies make the outermost circumference. All who 
 are in that man also look towards the middle region where the 
 Christians are. (S. S. 105.) 
 
 Do we see a corroboration of this in the voluntary 
 coming together of these tribes from the circumference 
 to that sphere of Divine light which burns in the center 
 and the breast of humanity where Christians are ? Do 
 we see a wonderful fulfillment of the ancient prophecy 
 realized anew — "And the Gentiles shall come to thy 
 light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising" — in the 
 coming together of these gentle- voiced, tender and 
 humane magi of the East, to testify of their search for 
 the true and living God, and of their efforts to lead 
 others to Him ? By the Gentiles are meant in general 
 those who are in good of life, but in obscurity as to the 
 truth. Do we not note in many of the utterances of the 
 Oriental delegates to this Parliament something which 
 indicates a deep interior searching for the true Christ, 
 even though He be unknown, and so an echo of their 
 ancient message — "We have seen his star in the East, and 
 have come to worship him." For that the light of 
 Christianity is dawning on the minds of the whole Ori- 
 ental world no one can doubt; and many are the sonla 
 that are setting out at the first dawning of that star to 
 journey onward in its light if so they may find the true 
 Messiah, the Savior of the world. 
 
 Ill 
 
 THE AUDIENCE 
 
 Such, then, to recur to that memorable opening morn- 
 ing of the Parliament, was the representation of the 
 Religions gathered together for the first time in the history 
 
THINGB SEEN AND HEAKD 39 
 
 of man. At a word from President Bonney, bidding all 
 to unite in the "universal prayer of mankind," the Ameri- 
 can cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church led in the 
 repetition of the "Our Father" joined in by the deep 
 murmur of the sea of voices of those around him, and of 
 the thousands before him. Here stood with bowed head 
 the Chinese, the Hindu, the Persian, Syrian, Greek, 
 Hebrew, African, Eoman and European worshipers of 
 their several deities after their various Faiths, finding 
 their several deities one, in the one "Father in heaven," 
 to whom all hearts were lifted. Here the worshipers at 
 all shrines found themselves alike obeying the sovereign 
 Word of the gentle Teacher and Lord of all men who 
 said, "After this manner pray ye: Our Father who art in 
 the heavens, Hallowed be thy name!" It is remarkable 
 that the "Our Father" was the only prayer used by the 
 Parliament as its common act of worship from beginning 
 to end; and also that instead of being used only as the 
 Christian's prayer, it was led in, on other occasions, once 
 by Rabbi Hirsch, the Jew, once by Mozoomdar, the 
 leader of the Brahmo-Somaj, and once by Dharmapala, 
 the Buddhist. Another little but significant circum- 
 stance connected with the uttering of this universal 
 prayer is worth mentioning, as showing the broad catho- 
 licity that characterized these meetings, and would brook 
 nothing tha,t savored of sectarian narrowness or dictation. 
 When Cardinal Gibbons led in the prayer, he abruptly 
 brought it to a close with the words, "Deliver us from 
 evil. Amen!" thus, after the wont of the Roman Church, 
 omitting the doxology. The great body of worshipers 
 acquiesced in silent deference to the leader; but for once 
 only; for when on a subsequent day Monsignore Seton 
 led in the prayer and again stopped with an amen after 
 the petition for deliverance, the great sea of voices rolled 
 on unchecked in massive concert: "For thine is the 
 kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen." 
 
40 PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 A word should be said about the audience, not only 
 of its size but of the spirit that moved it. Of course 
 it was largely composed of those of Christian faith and 
 education, although doubtless there was a considerable 
 number of Jews as well as of independent thinkers of 
 all classes. The Coluiabus Hall seated four thousand 
 and the adjoining Washington Hall, used on occasions of 
 the overflow meetings when the addresses had to be 
 repeated by each speaker to a second audience, seated 
 three thousand. The Columbus Hall was generally filled 
 to completion, often leaving a vast audience to fill the 
 neighboring room. On the closing night of the Parlia- 
 ment both halls were filled to their utmost capacity with 
 an audience numbering seven thousand people, while 
 many thousands more were turned away. What was 
 noticeable besides the close and earnest attention given 
 to every speaker was the applause, as an indication of 
 the popular sentiment there represented. But once was 
 there an outcry of disapproval, and that was when the 
 advocate of Mohammedanism uttered what was taken to 
 be an approval of polygamy, when a cry of No! No! 
 came from many sides. In general what may be called 
 peculiar, sectarian or partisan utterances met with no 
 favor; but when the great fundamental and vital truths 
 of universal Religion were forcibly and earnestly pro- 
 claimed the outburst of applause was spontaneous and 
 enthusiastic, often prolonged and accompanied with 
 cheers and the waving of handerchiefs. Especially was 
 this noticeable at the conclusion of the beautiful benedic- 
 tion with which the venerable and fatherly Archbishop 
 of the Greek Church of Zante closed his scholarly and 
 noble address on the position of the Greek Church in the 
 progress of Religions, in which he implored the Divine 
 blessing upon the Parliament, and upon the people of 
 the United States. Direct and pertinent quotations from 
 
THINGS SEEN ANB HEARD 41 
 
 the' Word almost always received the answer of the 
 people's approval, while the usual phraseology of Cal- 
 vinism with its customary appeal to a blind and unreason- 
 ing faith fell flat and ineffectual. If a Catholic dignitary 
 went a little too far in asserting the strong authority of 
 the Church's dogma, as being the utterance of the Holy 
 Ghost itself, the answer would be a kindly smile of 
 amusement rather than the scowl of dissent, wihile none 
 of the speakers received more hearty and tumultuous 
 cries of assent and of thanks from this vast mingling 
 of all sects and Churches, than did these same Boman 
 Catholic leaders when they defended, as they did with 
 the clearest logic and with the Bible as their only 
 weapon, the great doctrines of the personality of God, 
 the divinity of Christ, and_the soill's immortality. If one 
 might trust himself here to be in touch with the true 
 pulse of humanity he would feel justified in two conclu- 
 sions, namely, that theology, or the interest in Keligion is 
 not "decadent" as some writers have been claiming, 
 among the great masses of intelligent people, for such 
 were those represented here; and, second, that the power 
 of Keligion to-day with the great Christian public lies in 
 these two things: The letter of the holy Bible, and the 
 name of Jesus Christ! 
 
 IV 
 
 CHRISTIAN ADDRESSES 
 
 Among the papers by Christian speakers read before 
 the Parliament, to even enumerate which, not to speak of 
 giving their outline, would far exceed our present limits, 
 those that seemed to me the most powerful and stimu- 
 lating, as filled with the light and power of the Divine 
 Word, were those on the subjects above named, namely, 
 
 4 
 
42 PARLIAMENT OF BELiaiONS 
 
 the Personality of God, the Immortality of the Soul, the 
 Divinity of the Scriptures and the Incarnation of God in 
 Jesus Christ, and especially as presented by the follow- 
 ing speakers: The Archbishop of New Zealand, Boman 
 Catholic; the Rev. Dr. Momerie of London, Church of 
 England; the Eev. Dr. Moxom of Boston, Independent; 
 Bishop Keane of the Catholic University of America; 
 Dr. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education, 
 and the Eev. Dr. George Dana Boardman of Philadelphia, 
 Baptist. Another class of papers discussed subjects 
 doctrinal and social, from the rationalistic and humani- 
 tarian standpoint, but as they wandered away from the 
 letter of the Word as their basis, they invariably lost 
 their power, and while often winning the popular favor 
 by the kindlinesss and liberality of their expressions, 
 they failed to strike home to the seat of man's inmost 
 conviction and motive as do the words of holy Scripture, 
 or those that are inspired by a faith in Divine revelation. 
 In the course of the Parliament, which continued for 
 seventeen days, there were read in Columbus Hall six 
 papers from New Churchmen, each of them, we may 
 safely say, before an audience of three thousand people, 
 including the clear and strong declaration by the Bev. 
 Mr. Mercer on the closing day, of the character and 
 mission of the man Emanuel Swedenborg and his relation 
 to the Church of the New Jerusalem, to which a vast 
 audience listened and gave their applause. The other 
 five papers were as follows: On " The Soul and its Future 
 Life," by the Rev. S. M. Warren; on "The Divine 
 Basis of the Cooperation of Men and Women," by Mrs. 
 Lydia F. Dickinson; on "The Nature and Degree of the 
 Inspiration of the Christian Scriptures," by the Rev. 
 Frank Sewall; on "The Incarnation of God in Jesus 
 Christ," by the Rev. Julian K. Smyth; and on "Recon- 
 ciliation Vital not Vicarious," by the Rev. Theodore F. 
 
THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 43 
 
 Wright. Of these papers it is not necessary that I should 
 speak here as they are to appear in full in the following 
 pages. Besides being listened to by the largest audiences 
 ever addressed by New-Church speakers, these addresses 
 were reported at length in the columns of the Chicago 
 daily papers, and so reached immediately hundreds of 
 thousands of readers. I shall, however, mention the cir- 
 cumstances of the delivery of two of the papers as being 
 peculiarly interesting. 
 
 My own paper on the "Inspiration of the Christian 
 Scriptures" was read on the same day with that of the 
 Kev. Dr. Charles A. Briggs, recently of the Presbyterian 
 Church, on "The Truth of the Bible," and that of Mon- 
 signore Seton of the Roman Catholic Church, on "The 
 Catholic Church and the Bible." On the morning of that 
 day, on being introduced to the Eev. Dr. Briggs in the 
 ante-room of the Parliament, before going upon the plat- 
 form, I remarked to him that we were to speak on the 
 same subject, but perhaps from different standpoints, I 
 being a New- Churchman and holding to the teachings of 
 Swedenborg, with which I supposed he was acquainted. 
 "Why, of course," he replied; "the Church has always 
 held them; the symbolic language of the Bible has been 
 recognized from the beginning; a revelation of the 
 infinite truth must be a limitation and so involve imper- 
 fections." "But stop. Doctor," said I, interrupting him, 
 "Are you going to say all this in your paper ? I fear you 
 will leave nothing for me!" "Oh, go on," he said pleas- 
 antly, "you will still have enough left to say!" In his 
 paper Dr. Briggs pursued the well known argument that 
 the Divine truth was in the Scriptures, but that they were 
 not necessarily throughout the Divine truth, and practi- 
 cally he left it to the judgment of every man to determine 
 for himself what was Divine truth in the Scriptures and 
 what was not. While the paper was everywhere reverent 
 
44 PAELIAMENT OF BELIGIONS 
 
 in tone and breathed a spirit of true spiritual regard for 
 the Bible, still it failed as all such arguments fail, from not 
 distinguishing between what the author calls the "errancy' 
 of Scripture and what the doctrines of the New Church 
 describe as the "apparent" in distinction from the "real" 
 truths of the Word. 
 
 The paper of Monsignore Seton which followed was a 
 scholarly and forcible assertion of the Roman Catholic 
 position that the Scriptures derive their authority from 
 the Church and not the reverse — since it was the Church 
 which decreed the putting together of the various books 
 of the Bible and pronounced on their authenticity 
 or established what is called the Canon of Sacred 
 Scripture. 
 
 In the afternoon when my paper was read, the Kev. 
 Dr. Boardman on introducing me as of the "New-Jeru- 
 salem Church" remarked, "that since coniing to this 
 Parliament many of us are beginning to feel as if we 
 had come to the New Jerusalem itself." Before begin- 
 ning my paper I remarked that if anything would justify 
 me in presenting again a subject that had been so ably 
 treated by the two speakers who had preceded me, it 
 would be the fact that one important basis for the doc- 
 trine of Bible inspiration had been strangely over- 
 looked in all that had been offered. The first speaker 
 had treated the subject of the inspiration of the Scrip- 
 tures from the standpoint of the human reason; the 
 second from the standpoint of the dogma of the Catholic 
 Church, it remained to present the doctrine from the 
 declaration of the Scriptures themselves, or from the 
 authority of Him who is the Word incarnate. I then 
 began my paper with the declaration of the Divine Canon 
 of the Word as established by the Lord's words: "All 
 things must be fulfilled which were written in the law, 
 the prophets and the Psalms concerning me," and by the 
 
THINOS SEEN AND HEABD 45 
 
 promise of the Holy Spirit which should "bring to the 
 remembrance" of the Lord's immediate followers "all the 
 things which he had said unto them" when on earth; and 
 finally, to the command in the Apocalypse, "Write"! — and 
 so I continued to present the doctrine not only of the 
 Canon of the Word, but of its Divine dictation and its 
 internal sense from the language of the Scriptures 
 themselves. 
 
 The paper of the Eev. Julian K. Smyth on " The 
 Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ,'' followed that of the 
 Eight Eev. Bishop Keane of the Catholic University on 
 the same subject. The latter set forth with great 
 strength and beauty, and with earnest and affectionate 
 delivery, the doctrine of the Lord's divinity as declared 
 in the letter of the Gospel; and appealed eloquently both 
 to the reason, the faith and all the higher human senti- 
 ments for recognition of the Lord Jesus as the true God, 
 and true light and salvation of the world. Nothing of 
 what is regarded as peculiar to Catholic doctrine or 
 phraseology was here noticeable. All was Scriptural, 
 strong, direct assertion of the great doctrine that the 
 "Lord and the Father are one," that "he that hath seen 
 Him hath seen the Father." 
 
 When Mr. Smyth's paper followed, to which those on 
 the stage, including Bishop Keane, Monsignore Seton and 
 others of various faiths, gave close attention, and besides 
 emphasizing all the Scriptural testimony as to the 
 supreme divinity of Jesus, entered into the explanation 
 of the incarnation itself as a fact in nature as well as in 
 Eeligion, and as capable of being rationally understood 
 and accepted when seen from both its natural and its 
 spiritual side, the true office of the New Church in the 
 midst of the Christianity of to day received a new and 
 happy illustration. The paper was most cordially 
 received and applauded, and the head of the chief 
 
46 PAKLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 Tiniversity of the Catholic Chiirch in America was seen 
 warmly congratulating the New-Church essayist as he 
 sat down. 
 
 THE NEW-CHDRCH PRESENTATION 
 
 At the New- Church presentation meeting on Septem- 
 ber 13th in Washington Hall, where the various religious 
 bodies engaging in the Parliament held meetings for set- 
 ting forth in fullness their distinctive denominational 
 features and teaching, there was in attendance an audi- 
 ence of perhaps three hundred people. Upon the plat- 
 form, besides President Bonney and the Kev. Lewis P. 
 Mercer and Miss Scammon as the chief presiding officers, 
 there were present as distinguished visitors Mr. Mozoom- 
 dar, the leader of the Brahmo Somaj of India; Miss 
 Jeanne Serabji, an accomplished lady and a convert from 
 the Parsi faith ; the young African Prince of the Veys, 
 Momolu Massaquoi ; Dr. Carl von Bergen, delegate to the 
 Parliament from Sweden; a professor from a college at 
 Constantinople, and Mrs. Magnusen, a lady from Iceland, 
 and Bishop Arnett, of the African Methodist Church. 
 Besides the opening welcoming addresses and the 
 responses from Mr. Mozoomdar, Dr. von Bergen and Miss 
 Serabji, the essays read at this opening meeting were, 
 one by the Eey. Frank Sewall on the "One Church and One 
 Lord Through all the Ages," and one by the Rev. Julian 
 K. Smyth on "The Misaion of the New-Church to the 
 Christian Denominations." As all these will appear in 
 the following proceedings of the New-Church Congress I 
 need not dwell upon them here, except to record that in 
 Mr. Mozoomdar's address he stated that when both him- 
 self and his great leader, Chunder Sen, were in London 
 
THINGIS SEEN AND HEABD 47 
 
 some twenty years ago, they learned much about the 
 New Church and received large gifts of the Writings 
 from the Swendenborg Society which they carried home 
 with them, and which they had distributed extensively in 
 India. He remarked also on the great doctrine of the 
 symbolism of natural things as being especially con- 
 genial to the Oriental form of thought and worship. 
 
 VI 
 
 VOICES FROM THE ORIENT. 
 
 Of the addresses made before the Parliament, from 
 representatives of Churches or Eeligions abroad, I will 
 mention only the following as having peculiarly 
 impressed me, since it is not to give a history or general 
 report of this ParUament, but only to record some of my 
 own individual impressions that this paper is written. 
 The very reverend Archbishop Dionysios Latas of the 
 Greek Church, of the Island of Zante, gave a beautiful 
 and impressive account of the position of the Greek 
 nation, the Greek mind and learning as, in the Divine 
 Providence, made the first receptacle of the Christian 
 Faith and doctrine. In the course of his eloq[uent oration 
 on the opening day, he uttered in the original Greek the 
 address of Paul to the Athenians on Mars Hill, regarding 
 their worship of the Unknown God and the declaration, 
 "Whom ye ignorantly worship Him do I declare unto 
 you!" (Acts xvii: 23.) It seemed to me that here was 
 really struck the keynote of the whole Parliament; the 
 revelation in Christianity, not of a God and of a Religion 
 to exterminate all others as hostile and opposed, but as 
 only really revealing more fully the God whom all the 
 World heretofore has been ignorantly worshiping. Said 
 the venerable Archbishop: "Bethlehem, in Judee, gave 
 
48 PAELIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 the virgin mother of the infant Christ; but Greece gave 
 the intellectual soil in which the new truth was to be 
 sown and grow and bear fruit for the world." In. a con- 
 versation which I enjoyed with this venerable speaker 
 afterwards, I told him that this part of his address coin- 
 cided with jwhat Swedenborg tells us of the necessity 
 that the new will by which our fallen humanity must be 
 regenerated, must be born in the intellectual part of the 
 mind, now that the former good will has become wholly 
 spoiled, and that it was gratifying to see that he recog- 
 nized as providential this grand role which the Hel- 
 lenic race had borne in the religious advancement of 
 mankind. 
 
 A number of papers were presented by Christian 
 students of Oriental Faiths and sacred books, but they 
 seemed hardly more in place than would have been Hindu 
 or Mohammedan expositions of Christianity. It was 
 noticeable, among the Christian papers read, how Calvin- 
 ism shrank out of sight as the great banner of the God- 
 Messiah and of his redemption was brought more and 
 more to the front; and how the fissures and rents in the 
 Christian body were everywhere covered up as far as 
 possible, when it came to confronting the Religion of 
 Christ vrith that of Buddha, or Confucius, or Mohammed, 
 or Moses. The weakness of sectarianism, if never felt 
 before, was manifest enough; but if Christians had not 
 often felt it, the Oriental teachers were there to tell us of 
 it. While never undertaking to define Christianity for us, 
 much less to denounce it, these Hindu scholars and 
 priests were not slow to reproach us for our infidelity or 
 lack of piety, our proneness to schism and quarreling. 
 "You profess to believe in Christ and to worship Him," 
 said Dharmapala standing in a pulpit in Chicago on a 
 Sunday morning, "but you do not follow his teachingsl" 
 The most vociferous applause brought out from the 
 
THINaS SEEN AND HEAED 49 
 
 audience in Columbus Hall was that which followed the 
 bold declaration of Hirai, the representative of the 
 Buddhism of Japan, to the effect that twenty years 
 ago he headed a movement to exterminate Christian mis- 
 sions in Japan; so much strife and cruelty and bloodshed 
 were they causing in Japan through the violence done to 
 the ancient religious sentiment of the people and the 
 rivalry and jealousy of contending sects — "not that we 
 would not have welcomed pure Christianity gladly, but 
 these warring and peace-disturbing Christian sects were 
 a source of constant evil!" The Buddhist's reverence 
 for life, kindness to animals, love of contemplation and 
 interior elevation of mind were contrasted with the 
 cruelty of flesh-eating Christians, their impiety, gross- 
 ness and worldliness. "Your slaughter houses in Chi- 
 cago," said Mr. Mozoomdar, "are a sight to make 
 humanity shudder!" A Mohammedan, in his earnest plea 
 for the recognition of the moral excellences of the Mos- 
 lem Eeligion, declared that polygamy was no part of it, 
 that the Mohammedans far exceeded in their piety and 
 reverence, their personal cleanliness and social purity, 
 and their abstinence from intoxicating drinks, the major- 
 ity of Christians. The eloquent and large-hearted 
 Kabbi Gottheil dwelt on the grandeur of Moses, on the 
 great moral foundations for which all Religion and 
 indeed all society are indebted to the law he brought 
 from Sinai, and pleaded the words of the dying Jesus for 
 a spirit of forgiveness and forbearance toward those who 
 offend from overzeal when "they know not what they do!" 
 The poet-souled representatives from Cilicia recited the 
 songs of Armenian captivity, and pleaded for our sym- 
 pathy for his people on the one hand oppressed with the 
 combined tyrannies of Turk, Russian and Persian, and 
 on the other beset by the ignorant and nan-ow- minded 
 Christian missionaries who came to them, the earliest 
 
50 FABLIAMENT OF BELIGIONS 
 
 kingdom converted to Christianity in the days of the 
 apostles, pretending to show them what Christianity is 
 and exhibiting only the ignorance and the bigoted zeal 
 of selfish sectarianism. The system of Confucius, the great 
 moral teacher of the Chinese, was set forth in a prize 
 essay sent from the Chinese Government. Keverence for 
 parents and ancestors, and the search for wisdom as the 
 highest good, are its distinguishing notes. The young 
 African prince, on hearing a statement of the New- 
 Church doctrine of the Lord said, "That Being you 
 describe is the God we Africans have been worshiping 
 all the while." A young and earnest Japanese scholar, 
 now pursuing his studies in this country, after describing 
 the four Religions which prevail in Japan said, "Such are 
 the remnants of the past in four Religions of a country 
 which yet has no one Religion she can call her own, but 
 is ready and is waiting for one!" That coming Religion 
 must be the Christian Religion; but it cannot be the 
 Christianity of the sects. "I was baptized," he said "by 
 a Congregationalist missionary, but I never meant in so 
 doing to be baptized a Congregationalist, but a Chris- 
 tian. What we want in Japan is not Methodism, nor 
 Presbyterianism, nor Protestantism, nor Catholicism, but 
 the pure Religion of Jesus Christ and of His Word! 
 Where shall we find it?" 
 
 VII 
 
 SOCIAL AND PEBSONAL'INCIDENTS 
 
 The social occasions which occurred during the Parlia- 
 ment, in the private and public receptions given to the 
 delegates, were of unusual interest as affording an oppor- 
 tunity for personal acquaintance and conversation with 
 the foreign visitors. It was on these occasions, too, that 
 
THINGS SEEN AND HEABD 51 
 
 the speech of the Oriental guests freed from the formali- 
 ties of the stage broke out into the figures, the poetry, 
 the fables, the song even, which characterizes their Ian. 
 guage and literature. 
 
 It was on one of these occasions that the Armenian 
 sang the lament of his people over their captivity and 
 their longing for freedom; that the Hindu told the tale of 
 the Frog in the Well, contented with the narrow abode 
 so long as he knew nothing wider; and Mozoomdar told 
 the beautiful tale of the bethrothal customs of the ancient 
 Hindus when the bride chose and crowned with laurel 
 her future husband out of all the aspirants to her hand; 
 and Prince Serge Wolkonsky told the story of the 
 stranger guests at a heavenly banquet; and finally that 
 the Archbishop of Zante gave utterance to his admiration 
 for America and for the Parliament in saying: "When I 
 stood in the Court of Honor at the World's Fair I 
 thought — the ancient times are returned and I am on the 
 Acropolis at Athens before the Parthenon, but on coming 
 into this Parliament and into this assemblage I thought 
 — ^we are again at Olympia!" 
 
 It was on one of these occasions that I enjoyed a con- 
 versation with Nagarkar, the thoughtful and scholarly 
 follower of the Brahmo-Somaj, who said on my mention- 
 ing Swedenborg, "Oh, yes, and there is somebody now 
 distributing the writings of Swedenborg in India" — and 
 with Professor Bonet-Maury of Paris, a friend of 
 Charles Wagner the author of the noble book "Youth" 
 now being so widely read in this country, who expressed 
 a warm interest in the New Church desiring especially to 
 learn more of it in this country, being already familiar 
 with the locality and work of our little Church in Paris: 
 "How could it be," said he, "that I should not know 
 Swedenborg, being a professor in a school of theology." 
 
52 PAELIAMENT OF BELIGIONS 
 
 Standing in a group of friends one evening with 
 Mozoomdar I remarked on introducing the others, " We 
 are all New-Churchmen!" "Yes," he replied, "and I feel 
 that our movement in India is in very close sympathy 
 with the New Church. Will you not come and hear me 
 
 on Sunday when I am to preach in Church on the 
 
 Oriental Christ?" Thanking him I asked him: "But 
 how do you regard Christ ? — as one of a series ? " " As the 
 Only," he answered, and our conversation was interrupted. 
 
 It was at a private evening gathering that Mr. 
 Gandhi told us of the Religion of " Jain," that is, of the 
 followers of " the Conqueror." " The Conqueror of 
 what?" "Of their own passions." He spoke of their 
 belief in individual immortality, in distinction from other 
 Buddhists, of their sacred regard for chastity, mercy to 
 animals and the interior life— and yet he said, " We 
 know no God:" while as a matter of fact their temples of 
 worship are among the most imposing structures in all 
 India I 
 
 To the youthful and happy-faced Brahman monk, 
 when I remarked upon that ancient Religion being rep- 
 resented by BO young and happy a votary he replied, " We 
 are not all happy in India; there is sorrow there yet. 
 * * But why should we not be happy if we believe in 
 eternal goodness ? For I accept all, and I receive all, 
 and believe all, knowing that all evil is only the waiting 
 good and that good will come of all in the end!" 
 
 The most memorable of all these personal interviews, 
 however, was that which I had the honor of enjoying at 
 a quiet Sunday evening tea at the house of President 
 and Mrs. Bonney,.with the Greek Archbishop Latas of 
 Zante, who was accompanied by his deacon attendant, 
 the other guests being Mrs. Laura Ormiston Chant of 
 London, and the Rev. Mr. Mercer. The archbishop 
 wore his rich ceremonial dress with the high black beretta 
 
I'HINaS SE£N AND ESABD 53 
 
 familiar in Russian pictures, and his heavy gold and 
 jeweled sacred medallions, the insignia of rank bestowed 
 by the King of Greece. We all stood at table while 
 with uplifted hands and fervent voice he implored the 
 blessing, using the Greek language of his Church's 
 ritual. In the evening our conversation turned on the 
 relation of the Hellenic mind to the introduction of 
 Christianity and on the present relations of the Eastern 
 and Western Churches of Christendom. Then we turned 
 to music, and there followed a pleasant antiphon between 
 the earliest and the latest of the Christian Churches, the 
 archbishop and his deacon standing and singing rever- 
 ently and with the deep resonance and the sweet har- 
 mony which characterizes the ritual music of the Greek 
 Church, passages from their hymns and responses includ- 
 ing a beautiful " AgiosV ("Sanctus"); to which Mrs. 
 Ormiston Chant and Miss Bonney and myself responded 
 in hymns from our New- Church Book of Worship, 
 including the hymn attributed to Swedenborg: 
 
 "In boundless mercy, gracious Lord, appear." 
 Especially did the hymn, 
 
 "Jesus, Lover of my Soul," 
 please our venerable guest; so much so that he asked for 
 its repetition, and his deacon stood with us at the piano 
 and lent his rich voice to our harmony in singing it. 
 
 Before the evening was over Mr. Mercer having left 
 us to attend the evening service, the archbishop, taking 
 me aside, said to me with much earnestness, "Tell me 
 about your Church, the 'New Jerusalem!' What is it? 
 How do you differ from us ?" In a few words I endeav- 
 ored to give him the fundamental ideas of our doctrine of 
 the Lord and of the Word, and, at the close of our inter- 
 view,, with a kind fatherly touch on my shoulder he said, 
 "And so we are all Christians!" Later as our conversa- 
 tion was continued in the carriage that took us home he 
 
54 PABLIAMENT OF EELIGIOKS 
 
 said to me, "It seems to me the effect of your teaching 
 will be to spiritualize the Christian Churches." On my 
 alighting at our Church door on Van Buren street, just 
 as the evening congregation was coming out, he expressed 
 great interest in the building, saying that on some more 
 convenient occasion he hoped he might come and visit it. 
 In return for his autograph card he accepted from me a 
 souvenir copy of Mr. Mercer's admirable little book on 
 "gwedenborg and the New Christian Church." 
 
 A copy of this book I have since learned has been 
 sent to every foreign delegate to the Parliament of 
 Religions. 
 
 vni 
 
 THE CLOSING SCENE 
 
 The scene on the closing night of the Parliament, 
 which I did not myself witness, must have been an 
 impressive and memorable one. The audience munbered 
 in the two halls seven thousand or more people. In the 
 Washington Hall the Kev. Lewis P. Mercer presided and 
 introduced the speakers which President Bonney had 
 introduced first in the Columbus Hall. It was here that 
 the Apollo Club Chorus of eight hundred voices sang, 
 in the course of the evening, Handel's Hallelujah Chorus 
 from the "Messiah," including that triumphant and 
 majestic strain: 
 
 The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our 
 Lord and of his Christ: and He shall leign forever and ever, 
 King of kings, and Lord of lords! 
 
 With what sublime significance those words must 
 have resounded to the ears of Christians and Gentiles! 
 The venerable Dr. George Dana Boardman came forward 
 and said: 
 
THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 55 
 
 Fathers of the contemplative East, Sons of the exeontive 
 West, behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to 
 dwell together in unity! (Applause.) The New Jerusalem, the 
 city of God, is descending; heaven and earth chanting the eternal 
 Hallelujah I 
 
 The Right Rev. Bishop Keane, Rector of the Catholic 
 University of America, said, speaking for the Catholic 
 Church: 
 
 Men and Brethren, whether of the race of Abraham, or 
 children of Shem, or of Ham or of Japheth; I have stood at the 
 side of my Master when, on Mount Tabor, Moses and Elias 
 bowed down to Him! Friends and Brethren, Come to the light! 
 Come to the transfiguration! Lift up your gates, ye princes. 
 Let the King of glory come! Let Him talie possession. Before 
 Him may every human being bow. Woe to the man tliat would 
 have an idea of his own, an ambition of his own, that he would 
 put in place of the Boyal supremacy! May He come! May He 
 rule with the scepter of peace and love! May we all bow^together; 
 and may he reign forever and ever! 
 
 IX 
 
 IMPRESSIONS AS TO THE PBOBABLE RESULTS OF THE 
 PARLIAMENT 
 
 It remains to say a few words about the probable 
 results of this Parliament. And first as to its results to 
 the New-Church organization, since all its other results 
 are to effect in some way that New Church that is grow- 
 ing in the inner spiritual world among men everywhere, 
 and is to embrace in its final perfection all phases of the 
 good and of the true. 
 
 1. The Parliament, together with the Fair, has 
 brought some knowledge of the New Church and of its 
 teachings to vast numbers of people who but for this 
 would have remained unaware of its existence. Thous- 
 ands have listened to these New- Church addresses, many 
 more thousands have seen them noticed or reported in 
 
56 PARLIAMENT 01' RELIGIONS 
 
 the press; the World's Fair souvenir copies of Mr. Giles' 
 book on the "Nature of Spirit," and of Mr. Mercer's 
 little books on "The African and the True Christian 
 Religion," and on "Swedenborg and the New Christian 
 Church," have been carried away by many thousands of 
 people both from the New- Church exhibit at the Fair, 
 from the Church vestibule and from the Art Institute 
 where the Parliament was held; so large a number as 
 nine hundred copies having been taken away from the 
 Fair exhibit in a single day. The Sunday congregations 
 at the Church have been unusually large during the 
 whole summer. Many of the foreign visitors to the 
 Parliament have made special inquiries, or obtained a 
 judicious selection of the literature of the Church to take 
 away for study. Among these are Nagarkar of Bombay, 
 Prince Massaquoi of Africa, the Archimandrite of Syria, 
 Professor Bonet-Maury of Paris, and a young Japanese 
 student who has already some knowledge of the New 
 Church. At the Congress on behalf of African coloniz- 
 ation, Mr. Mercer came in contact with a number of 
 Afro-Americans of marked ability and intelligence, 
 preachers and college professors who showed a deep 
 interest in the teaching of the Church regarding the 
 Africans. There can be no doubt but that the Parlia- 
 ment will stimulate inquiry, at least, in many circles and 
 lands about the new system of Christian theology and 
 philosophy which was brought so prominently to the 
 front in Chicago under the mysterious but interesting 
 name of the "New Jerusalem." 
 
 2. Of the effect produced by the Parliament on the 
 Christian and the non-Christian bodies at large in 
 mutual enlightenment and mutual affiliation and charity, 
 an idea can best be given perhaps by quoting a few 
 of the utterances brought out in the brief farewell 
 speeches of the closing night. 
 
THINGS SEEN AND HEAED 57 
 
 Among the first to speak was Mr. Mozoomdar, of the 
 Brahmo-Somaj, who said in the course of a fervent and 
 eloquent speech: 
 
 The kingdom of heaven is, to my mind, a vast concentrio 
 circle with various circumferences of doctrines, authorities and 
 organizations from outer to inner, from inner to inner still, until 
 heaven and earth become one. The outermost circle is belief in 
 God and the love of man. In the tolerance, kindliness, good- 
 will, patience and wisdom which have distinguished the work of 
 this Parliament, that outermost circle of the kingdom of heaven 
 has been described. We have influenced vast numbers of men 
 and women of all opinions, and the influence will spread and 
 spread. So many human unities drawn within the magnetic 
 circle of spiritual sympathy cannot but. influence and widen the 
 various denominations to which they belong. In the course of 
 time, those inner circles must widen also till the love of man 
 and the love of God are perfected in one Church, one God, one 
 salvation. . . And now farewell. For once in history all 
 Religions have made their peace, all nations have called each 
 other brothers, and their representatives have for seventeen days 
 stood up morning after' morning to pray Our Father, the 
 universal Father of all in heaven. His wiU has been done so 
 far, and in the great coming future may that blessed will be done 
 further and further, forever and ever. (Applause.) 
 
 Prince Serge Wolkonsky said: 
 
 I do not know whether many have learned, in the sessions of 
 this Parliament, what respect of God is, but I know that no one 
 will leave the Congress without having learned what respect of 
 man is. . . I will congratulate the Congress, in the name of 
 the whole humanity, if those who have attended sessions have 
 realized that it is a crime to be astonished when we see that 
 another human being is a man like ourselves. 
 
 Mr. Hirai of Japan, who was the first to thrill a 
 Christian audience through and through, to use the 
 language of Dr. Barrows, as he told us of the wrongs 
 so-called Christian civilization had committed in Japan, 
 said: 
 
 We cannot but admire the tolerant forbearance and com- 
 passion of the people of the civilized West. You are pioneers in 
 
 5 
 
58 f abliaMend OS? keligions 
 
 human history. Yon have achieved an assembly of the World's 
 Eeligions, and we believe your next step will be toward the ideal 
 goal of this Parliament) the realization of international justice. 
 
 Mr. Pung Quang Yu, special Commissioner from the 
 Chinese Government to the EeligiouB Parliament said: 
 
 I have a favor to ask of all the religious people of America, 
 and that is that they will treat, hereafter, all my countrymen just 
 as they have treated me. I shall be a hundred times more grate- 
 ful to them for the kind treatment of my countrymen than of 
 myself. . . Christ teaches us that it is not enough to love 
 one's brethren only. I am sure that all religious people will not 
 think this request too extravagant. 
 
 Shibata, the high priest of the ancient Shinto Relig- 
 ion of Japan, arrayed in rich ceremonial robes and a 
 headdress so strange to our eyes as to be almost 
 grotesque and yet dignified with the genuine dignity of 
 the wearer, said: 
 
 I, who made acquaintance with you only yesterday, have to 
 part with you to-day, though reluctantly. This Parliament of 
 Religion is the most remarkable event in history, and it is the 
 first honor in my life to have the privilege of appearing before 
 you, to pour out my humble idea which was so well accepted by 
 you all. You like me, but I think it is not the mortal Shibata 
 that you like, but you like the immortal idea of universal 
 brotherhood. What I wish to do is, to assist you in carrying out 
 the plan of forming the universal brotherhood under the one 
 roof of truth. You know unity is power. I, who can speak no 
 language but Japanese, may help yon in crowning that grand 
 project with success. To come here I had many obstacles to 
 overcome, many struggles to make. You must not think I 
 represent all Shintoism. I only represent my own Shinto sect. 
 But who dares to destroy universal fraternity? So long as the 
 sun and moon continue to shine, all friends of truth must be 
 willing to fight courageously for this great principle. I do not 
 know as I shall ever see you again in this life, but our souls 
 have been so pleasantly united here that I hope they may be 
 again united in the life hereafter. Now, I pray that eight miUion 
 deities protecting the beautiful cherry tree country of Japan 
 may protect you and your Government forever, and with this I 
 bid you good-bye. 
 
THINGS SEEN AND HEAllD 59 
 
 The tall and gentle- voiced Dharmapala of Ceylon, 
 then said, on behalf of four hundred and seventy-five 
 millions of his co-Religionists, "followers of the gentle 
 Lord Buddha Gautama," — "Peace, blessings and 
 salutations: 
 
 Brethren: — This Congress of Religions has achieved a 
 stupendous work in bringing before you the representatives of 
 the Religions and philosophies of the East. The Committee on 
 Religious Congresses has realized the Utopian idea of the poet 
 and the visionary. By the wonderful genius of two men — Mr. 
 Bonney and Dr. Barrows — a beacon light has been erected on 
 the platform of the Chicago Parliament of Religions to guide 
 the yearning souls after truth. . . And you, my brothers and 
 sisters, born in this land of freedom, you have learned from your 
 brothers of the far East their presentation of the respective 
 religious systems they follow. You have listened with commend- 
 able patience to the teachings of the all-merciful Buddha 
 through his humble followers. During his earthly career of 
 forty-five years he labored in emancipating the human mind 
 from relj^gious prejudices, and teaching a doctrine which has 
 made Asia mild. By the patient and laborious researches of the 
 men of science you are given to enjoy the fruits of material 
 civilization, but this civilization by itself finds no praise at the 
 hands of the great naturalists of the day. Learn to think with- 
 out prejudice, love all beings for love's sake, express your con- 
 victions fearlessly, lead a life of purity and the sunlight of truth 
 will illuminate you. If theology and dogma stand in your way 
 in the search of truth, put them aside. Be earnest and work out 
 your own salvation with diligence; and the fruits of holiness will 
 be yours. 
 
 The Brahman monk, Suami Vive Eananda said, after 
 declaring that his ideal of a universal Religion was that 
 each distinct faith must assimilate the others and yet 
 preserve its own individuality and grow, like the seed, 
 according to its own law of growth: 
 
 If the Parliament of Religions has shown anything to the 
 world it is this: It has proved to the world that holiness, purity 
 and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any Church in 
 the world, and that every system has produced men and women 
 
60 tAEtlAMEKT OF EEtiaiONS 
 
 of the most exalted character. In the face of this evidence if 
 anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own and the 
 destruction of the others I pity him from the bottom of my 
 heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of every 
 Religion would soon be written, in spite of their resistance: 
 "Help and Not Fight," "Assimilation and Not Destruction," 
 "Harmony and Peace and not Dissension." 
 
 Virchand Gandhi, the Jainist secretary from Bombay, 
 after telling the story of the Elephant and the Blind Men 
 said: 
 
 Brothers and Sisters: — I entreat you, I entreat yon to hear 
 the moral of this story and learn to examine the various relig- 
 ious systems from all standpoints. 
 
 The young Prince Momolii Massaquoi of the Vey 
 territory, Africa, was received with applause, and speak- 
 ing, as if in the language of prophetic inspiration, said: 
 
 There is an important relationship which Africa sustains to 
 this particular gathering. Nearly one thousand nine hundred 
 years ago, at the great dawn of the Christian morning, we saw 
 benighted Africa opening her doors to the infant Savior Jesus 
 Christ. . . The very atmosphere seems pregnant with an 
 indefinable, inexpressible something — something too solemn for 
 human utterance — something I dare not attempt to express- 
 Previous to this gathering the greatest enmity existed among 
 the world's Religions. To-night — I dare not sjjeak as one seeing 
 visions, or dreaming dreams— but this night it seems that the 
 world's Religions, instead of striking one against another, have 
 come together in amicable deliberation and have created a last- 
 ing and congenial spirit among themselves. May the coming 
 together of these wise men result in the full realization of the 
 general Parliament of God, the brotherhood of man, and the 
 consecration of souls to the service of God. 
 
 Another to feel this presence of a Pentecostal spirit 
 deeply moving the whole assembly was the Eev. Dr. 
 George T. Cajidlin, a Christian missionary from China, 
 who presented perhaps the best summary of the enlight- 
 ening results of the Parliament in the following words: 
 
 As a missionary I anticipate that it will make a new era of 
 missionary enterprise and missionary hope. If it does not it 
 
THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 61 
 
 will not be your fault, and let those take the blame who make It 
 otherwise. Very sure I am that at least one missionary, who 
 counts himself the humblest member of this noble assembly, 
 will carry through every day of wort, through every hour of 
 eflfort- on till the sun of life sets on the completion of his task, 
 the strengthening memory and uplifting inspiration of this 
 Eenteoost. . . In this school you have learned what no other 
 town or city in the world yet knows. The conventional idea of 
 religion which obtains among Christians the world over is that 
 Christianity is true, all other religions false; that Christianity 
 is of God, while other religions are of the devil; or else, with a 
 little spice of moderation, that Christianity is a revelation from 
 heaven, while other religions are manufactures of men. You 
 know better, and with cltar light and strong assurance can 
 testify that there may be friendship instead of antagonism 
 between religion and religion, that so surely as God is our com- 
 mon Father, our hearts alike have yearned for Him, and our 
 souls in devoutest moods have caught whispers of grace dropped 
 from his throne. Then this is Pentecost, and behind is the con- 
 version of the world. 
 
 Bishop Arnett of the African Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, said among other things the following: 
 
 There is one thing' that we have all agreed upon; that is 
 that the source of the true, beautiful and the good is spirit, love 
 and light of infinite power, wisdom and goodness. . . Another 
 good of this convention; It has taught us a lesson that while we 
 have truth on our side we have not had all the truth; while we 
 have had theory we have not had all the practice; and the 
 " strongest criticism we have received was not as to our doctrines 
 or methods, but as to our practice not being in harmony with 
 our own teachings and with our own doctrines. 
 
 Introduced as representing "the five millions of Method- 
 ists in the United States," the Kev. Dr. Frank Bristol, 
 on our indebtedness to Oriental visitors, said: 
 
 They have brought to us fragrant flowers from the gardens 
 of Eastern Faiths, rich gems from the old mines of great philoso- 
 phers, and we are richer fo-night from their contributions of 
 thought and particularly from our contact with them in spirit. 
 . . A distinguished writer has said, it is always morn some- 
 where in the world. The time hastens when a greater thing wiU 
 
62 PARLIAMENT or RELIGIONS 
 
 be said — 'tis always morn everywhere in the world. The dark- 
 ness has passed, the day is at hand, and with it will come the 
 greater humanity, the universal brotherhood. 
 
 Bishop Keane of the Catholic University of America 
 said: 
 
 We leave here. We will go to our homes. We will go to 
 the olden ways. Friends, will we not look back to this scene of 
 union and weep because separation still continues? But will we 
 not pray that there may have been planted here a seed that 
 will grow to union wide and perfect? Oh, friends, let us pray 
 for this. It is better for us to be one. If it were not better for 
 us to be one than to be divided, our Lord and God would not 
 have prayed to His Father that we might all be one as He and 
 the Father are one. Oh, let us pray for unity, and taking up 
 the glorious strains we have listened to to-night, let us, morning, 
 noon and night cry out: "Lead, kindly light; lead from all 
 gloom; lead from all darkness; lead from all imperfect light of 
 human opinion; lead to the fuUness of the light." 
 
 The Jewish rabbi, Emil Hirsch, spoke of the opening 
 of the Parliament as falling on the same day as that on 
 which 
 
 The trumpet, in our ritual, announces the birth of a new 
 religious year; and here in this Parliament at that very moment, 
 was blazoned forth the clearer blast heralding for all humanity 
 the dawn of a new era. . . . According to an old rabbinical 
 practice, friends among us never part without first discussing 
 some problem of religious life. Our whole Parliament has been 
 devoted to such discussion, and we take hence, in parting, with 
 us the richest treasures of religious instruction ever laid before 
 man. Thus the old Talmudic promise will be verified in us that, 
 when even three come together to study God's law, his Shekinah 
 abides with them. 
 
 With the following beautiful and touching words, Dr. 
 Barrows bade farewell to the visitors from the Gentile 
 lands: 
 
 . . . Christian America sends her greetings through you to 
 all mankind. We cherish a broadened sympathy, a higher 
 respect, a truer tenderness to the children of our common Father 
 in all lands, and as the story of this Parliament is read in the 
 
THINGS SEEN AND HEAKD 63 
 
 cloisteiB of Japan, by the rivers of Southern Asia, amid the uni- 
 versities of Europe and in the isles of all the seas, it is my 
 prayer that non-Christian readers may, in some measure, dis- 
 cover what has been the source and strength of that Faith in 
 Divine fatherhood and human brotherhood which, embodied in 
 an Asiatic peasant who was the Son of God and made divinely 
 potent through Him, is clasping the globe with bands of heavenly 
 light. . . I desire that the last words which I speak to this 
 Parliament shall be in the name of Him to whom I owe life and 
 truth and hope and all things, who reconciles all contradictions, 
 pacifies all antagonisms, and who, from the throne of His 
 heavenly kingdom, directs the serene and unwearied omnipo- 
 tence of redeeming love — Jesus Christ the Savior of the world. 
 
 President Bonhey in reviewing the general conduct 
 of the Assembly said: 
 
 What men deemed impossible, God has finally wrought. The 
 Beligions of the world have actually met in a great and impos- 
 ing assembly; they have conferred together on the vital ques- 
 tions of life and immortality in a frank and friendly spirit, and 
 now they part in peace with many warm expressions of mutual 
 aflfection and respect. The laws of the Congress forbidding con- 
 troversy or attack have, on the whole, been wonderfully observed. 
 The exceptions are so few that they may well be expunged from 
 the record and from the memory. They even served the useful 
 purpose of timely warnings against the tendency to indulge in 
 intellectual conflict. If an unkind hand threw a firebrand into 
 the assembly, let xis be thankful that a kinder hand plunged it in 
 the waters of forgiveness and quenched its flame. If some 
 Western warrior, forgetting for the moment that this was a 
 friendly conference and not a battlefield, uttered his war cry, 
 let us rejoice, our Orient friends, that a kinder spirit answered: 
 "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they say." No 
 system of faith or worship has been compromised by this 
 friendly conference; no apostle of any Keligion has been placed 
 in a false position by any act of this Congress. The knowledge 
 here acquired will be carried by those who have gained it as 
 precious treasure to their respective countries, and will there, in 
 freedom and according to reason, be considered, judged and 
 applied as they shall deem right. And now, farewell. A thous- 
 and congratulations and thanks for the co-operation and aid of 
 ^U who have contributed to the glorious results which we 
 
64 PABLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 celebrate this night. Henceforth the Religions of the world will 
 make war, not on each other, but on the giant evils that afflict 
 mankind. Henceforth let all throughout the world who worship 
 God and love their fellow-men join in the anthem of the angels: 
 "Glory to God in the highest. 
 Peace on earth, good will among men!" 
 
 THE TRUE CHURCH UNIVERSAL 
 
 With the memory of these faxewell words of love and 
 benediction, mutually spoken among the Religions of 
 mankind, lingering in his mind, let the New-Churchman 
 now turn to those descriptions of the true universal 
 Church of God, contained in such passages of the Writ- 
 ings as " Athanasian Creed," 71-75; "Sacred Scripture," 
 104-112, 116, 117, and "Heaven and Hell," 318-328, 
 and will he not feel a new sense of what is here stated, 
 as actual living reality, as an experience which has 
 become tangibly and visibly demonstrated to us? Will 
 he not feel that here is an actual result of the illumina- 
 tion produced in the spiritual world by means of the last 
 judgment there, the opening of the Word in its internal 
 sense and the shining down through all i;ealms of angels 
 and spirits, even of those immediately associated with 
 the various races of man on earth, of the light that 
 proceeds from the glorified and Divine humanity of 
 Jesus Christ, to whom is directed really, even though 
 unconsciously, the gaze of all true seekers after God, 
 and to whom ascends the worship of all sincere wor- 
 shipers of God under whatever name? For in these 
 passages we read that: 
 
 The Lord has provided that all shall have some kind of 
 Religion, and thence acknowledge a Divine Being and possess 
 interior life. . . Heaven is in man, and they who have heaven 
 in themselves go to heaven after death. It is "heaven in man" 
 
THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 65 
 
 to acknowledge a Divine Being and to be led by Him. The 
 precepts of every Religion have relation to worship, for they 
 teach in what manner the Divine Being is to be worshiped so as 
 to render man acceptable to Him. . . The Gentiles live a 
 moral life as well as Christians, and many of them better; and 
 moral life for the sake of the Divine Being is also spiritnal life, and 
 he who leads such a life is led by the Divine. The Gentiles who 
 have lead a moral life and lived in obedience, subordination and 
 mutual charity according to their religious belief, and who have 
 received thence something of conscience, are accepted in the 
 other life and are then instructed in the goods and truths of 
 Faith with solicitious attention. Unlike many Christians the 
 Gentiles when they hear, in the other life, that God was made 
 man and then manifested himself to the world, they instantly 
 acknowledge it and adore tlie Lord saying, that God has indeed 
 manifested himself, because He is the God of heaven and earth, 
 and because the human race is His. It is a Divine "truth that 
 without the Lord there is no salvation, but this is to be under- 
 stood as implying that there is no salvation but from the Lord. 
 There are many earths in tjie universe, and all are full of 
 inhabitants, yet scarcely any of them know that the Lord assumed 
 humanity in our earth; and yet, since they adore the Divine 
 Being under a human form, they are accepted and led by the 
 Lord. 
 
 There are no wise men now like those who lived in ancient 
 times, more particularly in the Ancient Church, which extended 
 over a great part of Asia, and from which Religion was com- 
 municated to many Gentile nations. . . But the Gentiles of 
 the present day, while not so wise as the ancients, are neverthe- 
 less many of them simple in heart, and such of them as have 
 lived in mutual charity receive wisdom in the other life. 
 
 Describing the state of a certain Gentile spirit, 
 Swedenborg says 
 
 I perceived that the interior affection of his worship was 
 much more holy than that of Christians ; in the state in which 
 he was he was capable of imbibing all the doctrines of Faith, and 
 of receiving them with interior affection; because he possessed 
 the compassion which springs from love, and because his ignor- 
 ance was full of innocence; and when these principles are pres- 
 ent all the doctrines of faith are received, as it were, spontan- 
 'eously and with joy. He was afterwards received amongst the 
 angels. 
 
66 PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 The Church of the Lord is spread over the whole globe and 
 is thus universal; it includes all who live in the good of charity 
 according to their religious belief; and the Church, where the 
 Word is and where the Lord is known by the Word, is to those 
 who are out of the Church as the heart and lungs in man from 
 which all the viscera and members of the body derive life accord- 
 ing to their forms, situations and combinations. (H. H. 318, 328.) 
 
 Every man acquainted with the two means of conjunction 
 between God and man, embodied in the two tables of the 
 covenant found with every nation which possesses a Beligion, 
 and who lives according to these principles in agreement with 
 the moral and civil law, is saved; thus every one in his own 
 Religion, whether he be a Christian, a Mahometan, or a heathen; 
 and, what is more, the man who embodies these principles in his 
 life, from a religious motive, although in the world he knows 
 nothing either of the Lord, or of the Word, is in that state with 
 regard to his spirit that from his will he desires to be wise; he is 
 therefore after death trained by the angels, and acknowledges 
 the Lord; he also receives truths according to his affection and 
 becomes an angel. . . Every oae of this description resembles 
 a man who dies an infant, for he is led by the Lord, and brought 
 up by the angels. Those who have no religious worship, in con- 
 sequence of their being born in this or that country, are also 
 trained after death like infants, and according to their civil and 
 moral life, they receive the means of salvation. I have seen such 
 persons, and at first they had not the appearance of men ; but 
 afterwards I saw them as men, and heard them speak sensibly in 
 accordance with the commandments of the decalogue. To train 
 such persons is the inmost joy of the angels. Hence it is evi- 
 dent that the Lord provides that every man should be capable of 
 being saved. (\th. Cr. 72.) 
 
 The Lord provides for every nation a universal medium of 
 salvation. For in every Religion a man is acquainted with the 
 evils and the falsities arising from them which are to be shunned, 
 and when he shuns them he becomes acquainted with the goods 
 which are to be done, and the truths which are to be believed. 
 The medium exists in all its fullness with Christians; it exists 
 also, although not in fullness, with the Mahometans and the 
 heathen. AH other points which form the distinction between 
 them are either matters of ceremony, in themselves indifferent, 
 or they are goods and truths which may either be done and. 
 believed or not, and man yet be saved. In each case the man 
 
THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 67 
 
 sees the quality of goods and truths after evils are removed; the 
 Chriiitian seeing it from the Word, the Mahometan from the 
 Koran, and the heathen from his Religion. The Christian sees 
 from the Word that God is one, that the Lord is the Savior of 
 the world. . . The Mahometan sees from the Koran that God 
 is one, that the Lord is the Son of God. . . The heathen sees 
 from his Religion that there is a God, that He is to be hallowed 
 and worshiped. . . And because most of the heathen perceive 
 God as a man, "and the God- man is the Lord, therefore after 
 death when they are trained by the angels, they acknowledge the 
 Lord and afterward receive truths from Him of which they were 
 before ignorant. (Ath. Cr. No. 73.) 
 
 XI 
 
 THE TWELVE GATES OF ONE PEARL 
 
 In my own mind as I witnessed these proceedings of 
 the Parliament there was constantly sounding, as the 
 keynote of all that was uttered, these Divine words from 
 the Apocalypse: " On the east three gates; on the north 
 three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west 
 three gates." And I felt that the real catholicity of the 
 New Jerusalem was a truth the broadest minds among us 
 had hardly yet grasped. Not that doctrine and a recog- 
 nition of divinely revealed truth was not necessary, nor 
 that the gates to the holy city were not all of one pearl, 
 but that these gates are not all on one side, and conse- 
 quently are not all opened to the same quarter or genus 
 among mankind; but, as the extracts above clearly show, 
 men are to be introduced even to the knowledge of the 
 Lord himself, by means known only to the Divine mercy 
 and the Divine Providence, and adapted to their various 
 religious capacities and circumstances. The gates are 
 not all on one side although they are all of pearl and 
 each is of the one pearl which is truly the special knowl- 
 edge of the Lord vouchsafed to those who enter on that 
 side. 
 
68 PARLIAMENT OF EELIGIONS 
 
 And the question occurred to me whether perhaps 
 the most important practical result to Christians of this 
 Parliament of Religions may not be a consequent recog- 
 nition by Christians of this fact that all are not to enter 
 the holy city of God's perfected Church and kingdom by 
 the same gates by which Christians or Europeans have 
 entered in. This as affecting the whole scheme of 
 Christian foreign missions. And as affecting Christians 
 at home, the further recognition of the truth that mere 
 possession of truth concerning the Lord does not itself 
 ensure a higher or securer peace in heaven, unless there 
 be that practical obedience to it which is described in 
 the above extracts as "being led by the Lord." "For 
 many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit 
 down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the king- 
 dom of heaven : but the children of the kingdom shall be 
 cast out." (Matt, viii: 11, 12.) 
 
 XII 
 
 THE USE OF THE PARLIAMENT 
 
 Finally to consider the supreme subject, the use of 
 the Parliament of Religions, shall we not regard this as 
 equivalent, on the spiritual plane, to the use of the 
 World's Columbian Exposition itself on the material and 
 natural plane ? Or is it not rather an integral and most 
 essential part of this latter use itself, being its own 
 interior and higher degree. The motto of the World's 
 Congress Auxiliary was, "Not Things but Men;" but 
 this motto told truly the meaning, not of the Congress 
 alone, but of the entire Exposition. The material 
 exhibits were really of no interest or use except as they 
 exhibited men, either in their relation to nature or to 
 their fellow-man, or to those Divine ideals which alone 
 
Things seen and heaed. 69 
 
 lead man up from nature to spirit and to God. To 
 know things truly we must know the men who made 
 them, or for whom they were made, and to know men in 
 their essential and differential qualities; to know the 
 conditions that surround them and the ideals that inspire 
 them was the great and sublime use this Congress 
 Auxiliary had in view. To fear the knowledge that such 
 a coming together and such a conference of minds would 
 reveal, would be like fearing the results of a World's 
 Fair upon the industrial and commercial interests of the 
 world. If the attitude of Christian missions has been 
 hitherto " protection by exclusion," the Parliament of 
 Religions will have its use in correcting that mistake and 
 in opening men's eyes to the sublime fact, hitherto so 
 little apprehended even by the wisest of human prophets, 
 that, namely, of the Maximus Homo, the Grand Man, 
 which is the organism not of one civilization, one Religion 
 alone, but of all combined into a reflection of the Divine 
 form of the Maker. Here each member, however small 
 and seemingly insignificant, bears its indispensable part 
 in the universal kingdom of heaven for which the human 
 race is created and in which the perfections of Deity are 
 reflected. For, ' ' All things created by the Lord are 
 uses: and they are uses in the order, degree and respect 
 in which they have relation to man and by man to the 
 Lord their Creator." (D. L. W. 327.) 
 
CHAPTER 111 
 
 PAPERS PRESENTED BY NEW- 
 CHURCHMEN IN THE 
 PARLIAMENT 
 
 It was a principle accepted in the General Committee 
 that the Denominational Congresses should set forth the 
 distinctive truths held and taught by each Religion, but 
 that in the great union meetings known as the Parlia- 
 ment of Religions, while the speakers selected were 
 expected to state their own beliefs with freedom and 
 frankness, it should be done in a catholic spirit and with 
 a view to comparison and development of thought, with- 
 out unfriendly criticism of other Faiths. 
 
 When a tentative programme for the Parliament had 
 been made up and submitted to the criticism of the 
 Committee, before any themes had been finally assigned. 
 Dr. Barrows asked me to select four topics and name 
 four of our representative New-Churchmen whom I 
 should like to have invited to present them. In making 
 the request he remarked that of course one of our men 
 would be expected to present some phase of the subject 
 of " The Future Life." 
 
 In a careful examination of the proposed programme 
 of subjects, I noticed that, while provision was made for 
 treating the Christian Scriptures as a part of the sacred 
 literature of the world, there was no suggestion of the 
 presentation in any form of the doctrine of the Plenary 
 Inspiration of the Scriptures. In like manner while 
 " The Incarnation Idea in all History " was named and 
 would, of course, include a discussion of the person of 
 Christ, the Incarnation of God in Christ as unique and 
 
72 PAELIAMENT OF EELIGI0K3 
 
 universal in its results was not at that time even inti- 
 mated. In regard to man's relation to God, or the 
 problem of sin and reconciliation, the "need of a vicari- 
 ous atonement'' was named, suggesting what only a 
 New-Churchmen could present in contrast, namely, the 
 necessity of a Divine reconciliation of man, which still is 
 not vicarious but personal and vital. 
 
 The way seemed thus providentially open for the 
 presentation to the Parliament of the four fundamental 
 Christian doctrines by respresentatives of the Lord's 
 New Christian Church. When I suggested these sub- 
 jects, "The Soul and its Future Life," "The Plenary 
 Inspiration of the Sacred Scriptures," "The Incarnation 
 of God in Jesus Christ," and "Keconciliation Vital, not 
 Vicarious," with an explanation to Dr. Barrows of the 
 distinctive teachings of the New Church in regard to 
 them, he at once accepted them, suggesting only a change 
 in the form of the second topic so as to read "The Char- 
 acter and Degree of the Inspiration of the Sacred 
 Scriptures." 
 
 An invitation was at once issued by Dr. Barrows to 
 the gentlemen whom I had named as suitable persons to 
 be asked to treat these themes, and in due course it was 
 accepted. It is but fair to the authors of the papers 
 which follow, to say that, in outlining to them the nature of 
 the Parliament meetings, they were urged to observe in the 
 treatment of their subjects the catholic platform of the 
 assembly, and the strict limitation as to the time to be 
 occupied. No doubt they would have written more 
 explicitly of the distinctive character of the New-Church 
 doctrine, and perhaps expounded some points in greater 
 fullness, but for the restraint imposed by the desire to 
 observe the spirit of these requirements. 
 
 As the sessions of the Parliament advanced, it was 
 evident that we had miscalculated the opportunity to 
 
PAPEES tEESESTED 73 
 
 present the distinctive character and claims of the reve- 
 lation made for the New Church and the bearing of the 
 Second Advent of the Lord upon the harmony of 
 Religions, through our New-Church Congress. The 
 interest in the Union meetings overshadowed the Denom- 
 inational Congresses, and if the representatives of the 
 non-Christian Faiths were to be reached and interested, 
 it must be done from the Parliament platform. The 
 programme was being varied from day to day for this 
 reason, to admit themes which had not originally been 
 intended for discussion. Ii was in this way that Ijhe 
 paper on " Swedenborg and the Harmony of Regions" 
 was suggested. The claim of revelation for the d&ctrines 
 contained in the writings of Swedenborg, and their 
 aspect toward Christian and non-Christian Faiths, which 
 was presented in the New-Church Congress by an admir- 
 able series of papers, preserved in this volume, needed 
 to be set forth in a general statement from the Parlia- 
 ment platform to meet the conditions which had not 
 been anticipated. When I opened the matter to Dr. 
 Barrows, he at once and cheerfully made an appoint- 
 ment for me to present the paper on " Swedenborg and 
 and the Harmony of Religions," which had not until 
 then been contemplated. 
 
 The paper of Mrs. Dickenson on "The Divine 
 Basis of Co-operation Between Men and Women,'' was 
 prepared for the women's branch of the Congresses, 
 and when it was determined to introduce the papers 
 prepared by women into the general Parliament 
 programme, it readily secured a place there by its excel- 
 lence, more as representative of woman's thought than 
 as a presentation of New- Church doctrine. For that 
 reason, in preparing it for a place here, some liberty has 
 been taken in editing it into harmony with the intent 
 of this volume. 6 
 
ii PABLIAMENT OF KEMGIONS 
 
 I ^ 
 
 THE SOUL AND ITS FUTURE LIFE 
 
 BY KEY. SAMUEL M. WABREN 
 
 It is a doctrine of the New Church that the soul is 
 substantial — ^though not of earthly substance — and is the 
 very man; that the body is merely the earthly form and 
 instrument of the soul ; and that every part of the body 
 is produced from the soul, according to its likeness, in 
 order that the soul may be fitted to perform its functions 
 in the world, during the brief but important time that 
 this is the place of man's conscious abode. 
 
 If, as all Christians believe, man is an immortal being 
 created to live on through the endless ages of eternity, 
 then the longest life in this world is, comparatively, but 
 as a point; an infinitesimal part of his existence. In 
 this view, it is not rational to believe that that part of man 
 which is for his brief use in this world only, and is left 
 behind when he passes out of this world, is the most real 
 and substantial part of him; every rational mind per- 
 ceives that it can not be so. That is more substantial 
 which is more enduring, and that is the more real part 
 of a man in which his characteristics and his qualities are. 
 All the facts and phenomena of life confirm the doctrine 
 that the soul is the real man. What makes the quality 
 of a man ? What gives him character as good or bad, 
 small or great, lovable or detestable ? Do these qualities 
 pertain to the body? Everyone knows that they do not. 
 But they are the qualities of the man. Then the real 
 man is not the body, but is "the living soul." The body 
 has absolutely no human quality but what it derives from 
 the soul, not even its human form; and all that is human 
 about it departs when the soul leavee the body — even its 
 
PAPERS PEESSiNTEt) 75 
 
 human form quickly vanishes, and it returns to its com- 
 mon dust. Of the body it could be said that 
 "Imperial Osesar, dead and turned to clay, 
 Might stop a hole to keep the wind away." 
 
 But the man endures. If there is immortal life he has 
 not vanished, except from mortal and material sight. As 
 between the soul and the body, then, there can be no 
 rational question as to which is the substantial and which 
 the evanescent thing. 
 
 Again, if the immortal soul is the real man, and is 
 substantial, what must be its form? It can not be a 
 formless, vaporous thing and be a man. Can it have 
 other than the human form ? Reason clearly sees that if 
 formless, or in any other form, he would not be a man. 
 The soul of man, or the real man, is a marvelous assem- 
 blage of powers and faculties of will and understanding; 
 and the human form is such as it is because it is perfectly 
 adapted to the exercise of these various powers and 
 faculties. In other words, the soul forms itself, imder the 
 Divine Maker's hand, into an organism by which it can 
 adequately and perfectly put forth its wondrous and 
 wonderfully varied powers, and bring its purposes into 
 acts. 
 
 The human form is thus an assemblage of organs 
 that exactly correspond to and embody and are the 
 express image of the various faculties of the soul. And 
 there is no organ of the human form the absence of which 
 would not hinder and impede the free and efficient action 
 and putting forth of the soul's powers. And by the 
 human form is not meant merely, nor primarily, the 
 organic forms of the material body. The faculties are of 
 the soul; and, if the soul is the man, and endures when 
 the body decays and vanishes, it must itself be in a form 
 which is an assemblage of organs perfectly adapted and 
 adequate to the exercise of its powers, that is, in the 
 
76 PAELIAMENT of EELiaiONS 
 
 human form. The human form is then primarily and 
 especially the form of the soul — which is the perfection 
 of all forms, as man at his highest is the consummation 
 and fullness of all loving and intelligent attributes. 
 
 But when does the soul itself take on its human form ? 
 Is it not until the death of the body f Manifestly, if it 
 is the very form of the soul, the soul can not exist with- 
 out it, and it is put on in and by the fact of its creation 
 and the gradual development of its powers. It could 
 have no other form and be a human soul. Its organs 
 are the necessary organs of its faculties and powers, and 
 these are clothed with their similitudes in dead material 
 forms animated by the soul for temporary use in the 
 material world. The soul is omnipresent in the material 
 body, not by diffusion, formlessly, but each organ of the 
 soul is within and is the soul of the corresponding organ 
 of the body; so that every organic form of the body, 
 inward and outward, is the material embodiment and 
 counterpart of a corresponding organ of the soul, by 
 which the soul manifests and puts forth its affections 
 and its powers. Thus the saying of the Apostle Paul is 
 literally and exactly true, that, " If there is a natural 
 body there is also a spiritual body" (I Cor. xv. 44), and 
 that "If the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, 
 we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, 
 eternal in the heavens" (II Cor. v: 1). 
 
 That the immortal soul is the very man involves the 
 eternal preservation of his identity; for in the soul are 
 the distinguishing qualities that constitute the individu- 
 ality of a man — all those certain characteristics, afPec- 
 tional and intellectual, which make him such or such a 
 man, and distinguish and differentiate him from all other 
 men. He remains, therefore, the same man to all eter- 
 nity. He may become more and more, to endless ages. 
 
PAPERS PRESENTED 77 
 
 an angel of light, — even as here a man may advance 
 greatly in v?isdom and intelligence, and yet is always the 
 same man. 
 
 This doctrine of the soul involves also the permanency 
 of established character. The life in this world is the 
 period of character-building. It has been very truth- 
 fully said that a man is a bundle of habits. What man- 
 ner of man he is depends on what his manner of life has 
 been. This is meant by the words of the Scriptures, 
 "Their works do follow them'' (Rev. xiv: 13), and "He 
 shall render unto every man according to his deeds" 
 (Markxvi: 27). 
 
 If evil and vicious habits are continued through life 
 they are fixed and confirmed and become of the very 
 life, so that the man loves and desires no other life, and 
 does not wish to be, will not be led out of them, because he 
 loves the practice of them. On the other hand, if from 
 childhood a man has been inured to virtuous habits, these 
 habits become fixed and established and of his very soul 
 and life. In either case the habits thus fixed and con- 
 firmed are of the immortal soul and constitute its per- 
 manent character. The body, as to its part, has been but 
 the pliant instrument of the soul. 
 
 With respect to the soul's future life the first impor- 
 tant consideration is what sort of a world it will inhabit. 
 If we have shown good reasons for believing the doctrine 
 that the soul is not a something forrqless, vague and 
 shadowy, but is itself an organic human form, substan- 
 tial, and the very man, then it must inhabit a substantial 
 and very real world. It is a gross fallacy of the senses 
 that there is no substance but matter, and nothing sub- 
 stantial but what is material. Is not God, the Divine 
 Omnipotent Creator of all things, substantial? Can 
 Omnipotence be an attribute of that which has no sub- 
 stance and no form? Is such an existence conceivable ? 
 
78 PAELIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 But He is not material, and not visible or cognizable by 
 any mortal sense. Yet we know that He is substantial; 
 for it is manifest in His wondrous and mighty works. 
 There is, then, other substance than that which is cogniz- 
 able to the senses, there is even Divine substance; and if, 
 as we have shown that reason clearly confirms, the soul 
 is substantial; there is spiritual substance. And of such 
 substance must be the world wherein the soul is eternally 
 to dwell. That the spiritual world and the things of it are 
 not visible, and not cognizable by any earthly sense, is no 
 evidence that they are unsubstantial and unreal. The 
 interior and most potent things of this natural world are 
 not themselves tangible or visible or cognizable by any 
 sense. It is proverbial that nature works unseen. What, 
 for example, do we know of electricity except by its 
 wonderful phenomena? Its phenomena, its wondrous 
 power in and upon things visible and tangible, give proof 
 of it. But what are these to the stupendous and varied 
 powers of the spiritual within the natural universe 
 which we see about us in all the phenomena of vegetable 
 and animal life, and even in the inorganic things of 
 nature, which as servants of the Divine Creator, Him- 
 self invisible, inspire and effect the numberless and mar- 
 velous activities which make an otherwise inert and dead 
 material world to be quick, and living, and filled with all 
 things beautiful and desirable by man. It is the reality 
 of the spiritual world that makes this world real, just as 
 it is the reality of the soul that makes the human body a 
 reality and a possibility. As there could be no body with- 
 out the soul, there could be no natural world without the 
 spiritual. Moreover, as it is not rational to believe that 
 the body which the soul briefly inhabits is more substan- 
 tial than the soul itself, which endures forever, so it does 
 not satisfy enlightened reason to think that this world 
 Vfhich is the place of m^n's temporary sojourn i§ more 
 
PAPERS PRESENTED 79 
 
 substantial than that which the soul inhabits forever, 
 that the temporal is substantial, and the eternal world 
 spectral and unreal. Indeed every rational consideration, 
 however viewed, goes to confirm the doctrine that the 
 spiritual world is a substantial and real world. 
 
 Not only is that world substantial, but it must be a 
 world of surpassing loveliness and beauty. It has justly 
 been considered one of the most beneficent manifestations 
 of the Divine love and wisdom that this beautiful world 
 that we briefly inhabit is so wondrously adapted to all 
 man's wants and to call into exercise and gratify his 
 every faculty and good desire. And when he leaves this 
 temporary abode, a man with all his faculties exalted and 
 refined by freedom from the incumbrance of the flesh, 
 an incumbrance which we are often very conscious of, 
 will he not enter a world of beauty exceeding the love- 
 liest aspects of this ? The soul is human, and the world 
 in which it is to dwell is adapted to human life; and it 
 would not be adapted to human life if it did not ade- 
 quately meet and answer to the soul's desires. Is it 
 reasonable that this material world should be so full of 
 life and loveliness and beauty, when "Nature spreads 
 for every sense a feast," to gratify every exalted faculty 
 of the soul, and not the spiritual world wherein the soul 
 is to abide forever? Can it be that there is there no 
 loveliness of sight and sound, no springing, joyful life, 
 nothing to excite to noble contemplation and fill the 
 mind with gratitude and joyf It is not so; but rather 
 as it is written: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
 neither have entered into the heart of man the things 
 which God hath prepared for them that love him" 
 (1 Cor. ii: 9). 
 
 And the life of that world is human life. The same 
 laws of life and happiness obtain there that govern here, 
 because they are grounded in human nature. Man is a 
 
80 PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 social being, and everywhere, in that world as in this, 
 desires and seeks the companionship* of those that are 
 congenial to him, — that is, who are of similar quality to 
 himself. Men are thus mutually drawn together by 
 spiritual affinity. This is the law of association here; 
 but it is less perfectly operative in this world, because 
 there is much dissimulation among them, so that they 
 often do not appear to be what they really are, and thus 
 by false and deceptive appearances the good and the evil 
 are often associated together. 
 
 And BO it is for a time and in a measure in the first 
 state and region into which men come when they enter 
 the spiritual world. They go into that world as they 
 are, and are at first in a mixed state, as in this world. 
 This continues until the real character is clearly manifest, 
 and good and evil are separated, and they are thus pre- 
 pared for their final and permanent association and 
 abode. They who in the world have made some real 
 effort and beginning to live a good life, but have evil 
 habits not yet overcome, remain there until they are 
 entirely purified of evil, and are fitted for some society of 
 heaven; and those who inwardly are evil and have out- 
 wardly assumed a virtuous garb, remain until their dis- 
 sembled goodness is cast off and their inward character 
 becomes outwardly manifest. When this state of 
 separation is complete there can be no successful dis- 
 simulation — the good and the evil are seen and known as 
 such, and the law of spiritual affinity becomes perfectly 
 operative by their own free volition and choice. Then 
 the evil and the good become entirely separated into their 
 congenial societies. The various societies and communi- 
 ties of the good thus associated constitute heaven ; and 
 those of the evil constitute hell — not by any arbitrary 
 judgment of an angry God, but of voluntary choice, by the 
 
PAPERS PRESENTED 8] 
 
 perfect and unhindered operation of the law of human 
 nature that leads men to prefer and seek the companion- 
 ship of those most congenial to themselves. 
 
 As regards the permanency of the state of those who 
 by established evil habit are fixed and determined in 
 their love of evil life, it is not of the Lord's will, but of 
 their own. We are taught in his holy Word that he is 
 ever "gracious and full of compassion." He would that 
 they should turn from their evil ways and live, but they 
 will not; as He said of those of Jerusalem — "How often 
 would I have gathered thy children together, even as a 
 hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would 
 not. Therefore your house is left unto you desolate." 
 
 There is no moment, in this or in the future life, when 
 the infinite mercy of the Lord would not that evil men 
 should turn from their evil course and live a virtuous 
 and upright and happy life; but they will not in that 
 world for the same reason that they would not in this, 
 because when evil habits are once fixed and confirmed 
 they love them and will not turn from them, "even as the 
 sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the 
 mire" (II Peter ii: 22). "Can the Ethiopian change his 
 skin, or the leopard his spots ? Then may they also do 
 good that are accustomed to do evil" (Jer. xiii: 23). 
 Heaven is a heaven of men; and the life of heaven is 
 human life. The conditions of life in that exalted state 
 are greatly different from the conditions here, but it is 
 human life adapted to such transcendent conditions; and 
 the laws of life in that world, as we have seen, are the 
 same as in this. Man was created to be a free and will- 
 ing agent of the Lord to bless his kind. His true happi- 
 ness comes, not in seeking happiness for himself, but in 
 seeking to promote the happiness of others. Where all 
 are animated by this desire, all are mutually and recipro- 
 cally blest, 
 
82 PAELIAMEHT OF KELIGIONS 
 
 Such a state is heaven, according to the degree in 
 which it is attained, whether measurably in this world or 
 fully and perfectly in the next. Then must there be 
 useful ways in heaven by which they can contribute to 
 each other's happiness. And of such kind will be the 
 employment of heaven; for there must be useful employ- 
 ments. There could be no happiness without them to 
 beings who are designed and formed for usefulness to 
 others. What the employments are in that exalted con- 
 dition, we cannot well know, except as some of them are 
 revealed to us; and of them we have faint and feeble 
 conception. But imdoubtedly one of them is attendance 
 upon men in this world. It is written, — and the words 
 apply to every man: "He shall give his angels charge 
 over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways" (Ps. xci : 11) ; and, 
 "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to min- 
 ister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" 
 (Heb. i: 14) 
 
 Such, in general, according to the revealed doctrines 
 of the New Church, is the future life of the immortal 
 souls of men. 
 
 II 
 
 THE DIVINE BASIS OP CO-OPERATION BETWEEN 
 MEN AND WOMEN 
 
 BY LTDIA FULLEB DICKINSON 
 
 The paper prepared by Mrs. Dickinson discusses the 
 significance of the new interest in woman's relation to 
 man, and at some length the question of woman suffrage. 
 While many of her conclusions along this line can not be 
 set forth as representing any consensus of interpretation 
 of the teachings of the New Church, what she has to say 
 
PAPEES PRESENTED 83 
 
 of the orginal bond between man and woman, and the 
 Divine basis of co-operation between them, together with 
 her interpretation of the history of their relations and 
 the meaning of the changes taking place, may rightfully 
 appear here. Speaking of the original or creative rela- 
 tion, she says: 
 
 "To those who can accept it, sacred history satisfac- 
 torily answers the question. Prom this source we learn 
 that He who made them in the beginning, made them 
 male and female; that the creative bond between them is 
 the bond of marriage admitting of no divorce because 
 they are no longer two but one, being joined together by 
 God Himself, that is creatively. In a relation of essential 
 oneness, such as is contemplated here, there can of course 
 be no subjection of one to the other, no separation 
 between them. They are complementary to each other. 
 They are each for the other quite equally. It is clear, 
 however, that this prospective relation of essential one- 
 ness between the individual man and woman presupposes 
 two things: — first, a basic marriage in the universal, a 
 marriage of man as man with woman as woman; a mar- 
 riage, in other words, of the essentially masculine with 
 the essentially feminine; such a marriage or oneness of 
 interest and work in all their relations with one another 
 as would lay the proper foundation for a marriage or one- 
 ness of interest and work in their more important 
 because commanding relation with each another, — com- 
 manding because individual marriage although last in 
 time is first in end. It gives the law. As is this relation 
 ideally or actually, such is society, mutually peace-giving 
 and helpful, or the reverse. 
 
 "And second, this prospective relation of essential 
 oneness between the individual man and woman presup- 
 poses a marriage in each individual, an at-one-ment with 
 one's self that would make at-gne-inent yfitix another 
 
84 PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 possible. Christ's words unquestionably refer to a time 
 when, by implication, harmony prevailed on all the planes 
 of our individual and asssociated life. 'In the begin- 
 ning,' He said, 'it was not so.' Divorce was impossible, 
 because 'they were made male and female,' the perfect 
 complements each of the other." 
 
 "According to sacred history, then, marriage, a rela- 
 tion of perfect oneness or equality, a complementary 
 relation precluding the idea of separation, is the original 
 bond between individual men and women, because it is 
 the bond between the masculine and feminine princi- 
 ples, in the individual mind. But marriage, as we have 
 seen, means harmony, and we have discord in ourselves 
 and in our relations with each other. How, then, came 
 the departure from the true ideal ? 
 
 "The separation, we are told, dates from Eden and 
 the sin of Eve; and one of the consequences of the sin is 
 recorded, not, however, as the vindictive judgment of the 
 Almighty, but as the fact merely, in the so-called curse 
 upon the woman for listening to the voice of the serpent. 
 'He,' thy husband, 'shall rule over thee.' 
 
 "Let us for a moment consider the fact in its relation 
 to the individual mind; for all truth is true for us prim- 
 arily as individuals. What we are to others depends 
 upon what we are in ourselves. We have in this declara- 
 tion a case, not of marriage, but of divorce. The mind is 
 at variance with itself. One part rules, the other must 
 obey. For the mind, like man and woman, is dual and 
 is one only in marriage. It is a discordant two when we 
 love what the truth forbids, and a harmonious complemen- 
 tary one when we love what the truth enjoins. By com- 
 mon preception love is the feminine and truth the mascu- 
 line principle. Love, when it is the love of self, leads 
 us astray. It led us astray as a race. It blinded us to 
 the real good. Truth brings us back to our moorings. 
 
PAPEES PRESENTED 85 
 
 But it can only do so by its temporary supremacy over 
 love. This we all know. Our desires must be subject to 
 our knowledge. History repeats the story of our indi- 
 vidual experience in larger characters in the relation 
 between man and woman. Each is an individual, that is, 
 each is both masculine and feminine in himself and her- 
 self; but in their relations to each other, man stands for 
 and expresses truth in his form and activities, while 
 woman stands for and expresses love. Here also, as in 
 the individual, the original bond is marriage implying no 
 subjection on the part of either wife or husband; imply- 
 ing, on the contrary, perfect oneness, mutual and equal 
 helpfulness. But except in the symbolic story of Edenic 
 peace and happiness, none the less true, however, because 
 symbolic, we have no record of that infantile experience 
 of the race. As I have said, we find man and woman 
 separated when history begins, the woman subject to the 
 man, thus at variance with each other, and by conse- 
 quence with all others; the original bond broken, discord 
 and strife the rule, might calling itself right wherever it 
 could prevail. The paradise of unreasoning infancy is 
 lost through perverted love. And so, having gone astray, 
 love, the feminine, woman, — and perforce, women, since 
 they stand for woman in both men and women, — falls in 
 the Divine Providence under subjection. Love blind to 
 the highest good can no longer lead. Truth takes the 
 helm; and man who stands for the truth, comes to the 
 front. 
 
 " Love, when it is love of good, unites the truth in 
 herself. But when it is the love of evil or self, she 
 divorces truth and unites herself with the false. This, 
 briefly, is the meaning of the separation between man and 
 woman in the past; namely, first, the degeneration of 
 love into self-love, and the consequent separation between 
 love and truth in the individual mind, a separation that 
 
86 PAKLIAMENT OF EELIGIONS 
 
 blinding us to the highest good, makes it no longer safe 
 for us to follow our desires. Second, the separation 
 between man and woman in the marriage relation, and, 
 as a further consequence, between man and man socially." 
 
 The paper proceeds to consider the effects of the evils 
 of self-love upon the relations of men and women, and the 
 providential means by which they are led to a relation 
 more in harmony with the creative bond between them. 
 In the view of the writer, the present significance of 
 "Woman Suffrage" and other such questions is a more 
 or less intelligent perception of the truths above laid 
 down. 
 
 " Human history, it is true, is the record of a seeming 
 divorce between them. But what God hath joined 
 together man cannot really put asunder. Creatively 
 one, man and woman cannot permanently be separated. 
 Indeed their temporary separation is providentially in the 
 interest of their higher ultimate union. We are on our 
 way back to relations between them of which those of 
 our racial infancy were the sure promise and held the 
 potency. Truth divinely implanted in the soul is our 
 leader, because truth, being essentially separative or 
 critical can, when necessary, lead against desire. We 
 have emerged from infancy and must prove out human- 
 hood by overcoming the obstacles to harmony we have 
 ourselves created. First nature without us, always res- 
 ponsive to nature within, is in rebellion and must be 
 subdued. Here again ' In the sweat of thy brow shalt 
 thou eat bread' is not a curse, but the provision of Infi- 
 nite Love for our development physically and mentally. 
 Nature no longer responds spontaneously to the needs 
 of man, but brings forth thorns and thistles and yields 
 bread only under compulsion, the compulsion of the 
 clear, cold, masculine intellect, which alone is able to 
 master nature's secrets and resistance. She understands 
 
PAPBES PRESENTED 87 
 
 the law of must, and submits to the might of masculine 
 muscle. Woman has apparently no place in this needful 
 preliminary work save to sustain the worker. Really, 
 however, she not only sustains, she inspires both work Bind 
 worker. True in her representative capacity of love, the 
 highest in both, she is under subjection; yet she sees, not 
 rationally of course in the beginning, but intuitively, the 
 reason why; acquiesces, and hidden from view still leads 
 while she follows, still rules in obeying. For love, or its 
 opposite self-love, is always the very life of man, as love 
 is the life of God who creates him. It is always the 
 woman within us that first, giving birth and then respond- 
 ing to the voice of truth or falsity without, leads us 
 on and out of the wilderness, or sends ua back to wander 
 yet another forty years before we may enter our Canaan. 
 Woman, yes, and women, are primarily, even though 
 sometimes ignorantly, responsible from first to last. It 
 has not always seemed so. The past has been so pre- 
 dominately masculine as seemingly to obliterate the femi- 
 nine by absorption, — to make the man and the woman one 
 and that one the man. Yet only in seeming. In reality 
 woman has been the inspiration of all that has been done, 
 both good and evil. Tennyson does not see clearly when 
 he says, 'As the husband so the wife is.' It is always 
 the other way. It is always the clown within and not 
 without herself that drags down a woman and the man 
 with her. 
 
 "But let us take another step. Our way back involves 
 not only the overcoming of obstacles to harmony in 
 nature without us, the subjugation of nature and the 
 consequent establishment of a scientific consciousness in 
 accord with the spiritual truth that harmony for man 
 presupposes his rightful lordship over all below him; it 
 also involves the overcoming of nature within, an at-one- 
 ment of man with himself. And here the work is alike 
 
88 PARLIAMENT OF BELIGIONS 
 
 for both man and woman, in that both are alike Bubject 
 to the truth. In addition, however, she has been exter- 
 nally subject to him. And her temptation has been to 
 identify the voice of truth within herself with his voice, 
 his idea of the truth for her. This when both are led by 
 love is the true idea for both, since then his voice is the 
 voice of truth. But led by self-love, she, too, must listen 
 to the voice within. And, moreover, she must listen for 
 him as well as for herself. Because so listening, she is 
 the very form or embodiment of that love of the truth 
 which alone can lead them back to harmony in them- 
 selves, with each other and all others. In other words, 
 so listening, she is a revelation of the truth to man. 
 
 "In the concrete man sees his chief good, namely, 
 a saving love of the truth, in woman and only in her. 
 She embodies and expresses this love for him. It is 
 hers, if she so wills, to give him back his perverted idea 
 of the truth, immersed in the sophistries of self-love, as 
 Eve gave the fruit of the tree; or, on the contrary, hearken- 
 ing to the voice within which says, 'Ye shall not eat of it' 
 she may like Beatrice lead him out of Inferno and Purga- 
 torio into the peace and purity of Paradise, because her- 
 self purified through previous self -conquest. 
 
 "The work of self -conquest is of course an individual 
 one. Men are regenerated through the feminine of love 
 within themselves and despite the failure of the particu- 
 lar woman with whom they are associated. Tet this does 
 not in the least lessen the responsibility of the woman 
 any more than the fact that woman, too, must find the law 
 of her life within herself lessens the responsibility of the 
 man to be to her an external confirmation and embodi- 
 ment of that law. 
 
 "Woman subject to man and expressing self-love 
 rather than lov^, through a desire to gain selfish ends by 
 pleasing him, ends that, being subject, she could gain in 
 
tAPEHS PRESENTED 89 
 
 no other way, has not as she is divinely empowered to do, 
 always held him to the highest. She has too often given 
 him back his own idea of the truth immersed in the 
 sophistries of self-love. She has thus promoted discord 
 as well as harmony. She has led to the lowest as well as 
 to the highest. I mean of course primarily the woman 
 principle in both men and women. But as women stand 
 for that principle, it is fair to hold them mainly respon- 
 sible for its practical failure in social life, in so far as we 
 have failed, as we hold and rightly hold men responsible 
 for the imperfect embodiment of truth or wisdom in 
 their especial domain, the domain of law." 
 
 The paper proceeds to discuss the evidences of the 
 dawn of a better appreciation of the true function of love 
 in the domain of justice and progress, and concludes that 
 with it will come a modification of human law as the 
 expression of man's idea of right. 
 
 "A relation of marriage, or in other words, of mutual 
 co-operation all the way through, in all the work of both, 
 is the creative relation between man and woman. It is 
 the basic human relation. It follows that, ias this truth 
 is seen and realized by individual men and women, 
 society will see the same truth as its own law of life, to 
 be expressed, ultimated, in all human relations and in the 
 work of the world. This truth and this alone will lead 
 us back to harmony on all the planes of our associated 
 life. 
 
 "Under a new impulse derived from woman herself, man 
 is abdicatmg his external leadership, his external control 
 over her. This he must do because his leadership and 
 control in the past have expressed separation and not 
 union. He must do it for his own as well as her educa- 
 tion into a higher idea of marriage. He must make the 
 law in all its aspects toward her conform to this higher 
 idea, to the truth that they are complementary to each 
 
 7 
 
So PARLIAMENT OP RELIGIONS 
 
 other. Not 'He for God only^, slie for God and him;' 
 but both alike for God and each other. He must be 
 willing to have her come down into the arena and share 
 his contact with the world, since this is manifestly the 
 providential school in which she is to learn her long 
 neglected lesson of personal responsibility. She is to 
 learn not only that she has feet of her own upon which 
 she must stand; she must also learn for both their sakes 
 how to stand upon them. The questions before us for 
 solution to-day are pre-eminently social rather than polit- 
 ical. They relate to the well-being of society, not merely 
 to the success of party. They therefore include woman 
 as she has never before been included, that is consciously, 
 and in a way externally; in her way, however, not in 
 man's way. They are questions of the very life of man 
 in the act of taking an upward step in his spiritual 
 development." 
 
 in 
 
 OHARACTEB AND DEGREE OF THE INSPIRATION OP 
 THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES 
 
 BY THE REV. FRANK BEWALL 
 
 There is a common consent among Christians that 
 the Scriptures known as the Holy Bible are divinely 
 inspired; that they constitute a book unlike all other 
 books in that they contain a direct communication from 
 the Divine Spirit to the mind and heart of man. The 
 nature and the degree of the inspiration which thus 
 characterizes the Bible can only be learned from the 
 declaration of the Holy Scriptures themselves, since only 
 the Divine can truly reveal the Divine or afford to 
 human minds the means of judging truly regarding what 
 is Divine. 
 
PAPERS PEESENTEC 91 
 
 The Christian Scripture, or the Holy Bible, is written 
 in two parts, the Old and the New Testament. In the 
 interval of time that transpired between the writing of 
 these two parts, the Divine Truth and essential Word, 
 which in the beginning was with God and was God, 
 became incarnate on our earth in the person of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. He, as the Word made flesh and dwelling 
 among men, being himself 'the true Light that lighteth 
 every man that cometh into the world,' placed the seal 
 of Divine authority upon certain of the then existing 
 Sacred Scriptures. He thus forever fixed the Divine 
 canon of that portion of the written Word; and from 
 that portion we are enabled to derive a criterion of judg- 
 ment regarding the degree of Divine inspiration and 
 authority to be attributed to those other Scriptures which 
 were to follow after our Lord's ascension and which 
 constitute the New Testament. 
 
 The Divine canon of the Word in the Old Testament 
 Scriptures is declared by our Lord in Luke, twenty-fourth 
 chapter, forty-fourth verse, where He says: 'AH things 
 must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, 
 and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me.' 
 And in verses twenty-five to twenty-seven: "O fools, and 
 slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have 
 spoken ' — ' and beginning at Moses and all the prophets. 
 He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures things 
 concerning Himself.' The Scriptures of the Old Testa 
 ment thus enumerated as testifying of Him and as being 
 fulfilled in Him embrace two of the three divisions into 
 which the Jews at that time divided their sacred books. 
 These two are the Law (Torah), or the ' Five Books of 
 Moses,' so-called, and the Prophets (Nebiim). Of the 
 books contained in the third division of the Jewish canon, 
 known as the Kethubim or 'other writings,' our Lord 
 recognizes but two: He names by title ' the Psalms;' and 
 
92 fAliLIAMENT OI' RteLicilONa 
 
 JQ Matthew, twenty-fourth chapter, fifteenth verse, when 
 predicting the consummation of the age and His own 
 second coming, our Lord cites the prophecy of Daniel. 
 It is evident therefore that our Lord was not governed 
 by Jewish tradition in naming these three classes of the 
 ancient books which were henceforth to be regarded as 
 essentially 'the Word,' because of having their fulfillment 
 in Himself. In the very words of Jesus Christ the canon 
 of the Word is established in a twofold manner: First, 
 intrinsically, as including those books which interiorly 
 testify of Him and were all io be fulfilled in Him. 
 Secondly, the canon is fixed specially by our Lord's 
 naming the books which compose it under the three 
 divisions: 'The Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms.' 
 The canon in this sense comprises consequently: 
 
 I. The Five Books of Moses, or the ' Law,' so-called. 
 
 II. The books of Joshua, the Judges, First and Sec- 
 ond Samuel, First and Second Kings, or the so-called 
 earlier prophets, and the later prophets, including the 
 four 'great' and the twelve 'minor' prophets. 
 
 in. The. book of Psalms. 
 
 The other books of the Old Testament, namely: 
 Ezra, Nehemiah, Job, Proverbs, First and Second Chron- 
 icles, Ruth, Esther, the Songa of Solomon, and Ecclesi- 
 astes, as well as the so-called 'Apocrypha,' are not only 
 not included by our Lord in the scriptures 'testifying of 
 Him,' but they lack the intrinsic evidence of being 
 'spoken by the Lord' which the scriptures of the Divine 
 canon every where exhibit. 
 
 Of those books, which compose the Divine canon 
 itself, it may be said that they constitute the inexhausti- 
 ble source of revelation and inspiration. We may regard - 
 therefore, as established that the source of the divinity 
 of the Bible, of its unity, and of its authority as Divine 
 revelation lies in having the Christ, as the eternal Word 
 
PAPEES PRESENTED 93 
 
 within it, at once its substance, its inspiration, its 
 prophecy, its fulfillment, its power to illuminate the 
 minds of men with a knowledge of Divine and spiritual 
 things, to 'convert the soul,' to 'make wise the simple.) 
 
 We next observe regarding these Divine books that 
 besides being thus set apart by Christ, they declare 
 themselves to be the Word of the Lord in the sense of 
 being actually spoken by the Lord, and so as constituting 
 a Divine language. Not only do these books claim to 
 be of God's revealing, but the manner of the revelation 
 was that of direct dictation by means of a voice actually 
 heard, as one hears another talking, although by the 
 internal organs of hearing. This holds true of all the 
 prophetical books above enumerated. We ai e met with 
 the constant declaration of the 'Word of the Lord 
 coming,' or the 'voice of the Lord speaking,' to the 
 writers of these books, showing that the writers wrote 
 not of themselves, but from the 'voice of the Lord 
 through them.' Thus it was not the holy prophets that 
 spoke 'since the world began' but it was the 'Lord God 
 of Israel who spake by the mouth of the holy prophet' — 
 (Lukei:70). 
 
 We now turn to the New Testament, and applying 
 to those books, which in the time of Christ were yet 
 unwritten, criteria derived froin those books which had 
 received from him the seal of Divine authority, namely, 
 (I) that they are words spoken by the Lord or given by 
 his spirit, and (II) that they testify of Him and so have 
 in them eternal life — we find in the four Gospels 
 either — 
 
 1. The words "spoken unto us" by our Lord himself 
 when among men as the Word, and of which He says: 
 "The words which I speak unto you they are spirit and 
 they are life," or^— 
 
94 PAELIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 2. The acts done by Him or to Him "that the Script- 
 ures might be fulfilled,' and the words 'called to the remem- 
 brance' of the apostles and the evangelists by the Holy 
 Spirit according to his promise to them in John xiv: 26. 
 Besides the four Gospels we have the testimony of John 
 the Eevelator that the visions recorded in the Apocalypse 
 were vouchsafed to him by the Lord himself, thus show- 
 ing that the Book of Revelation is no mere personal com- 
 munication from the man John, but is the actual revela- 
 tion of the Divine Spirit of Truth itself. 
 
 No such claims of direct Divine inspiration or dicta- 
 tion are made in any other part of the New Testament. 
 Neither the Acts of the Apostles nor the Epistles of 
 Paul or of the other apostles make any claim to be other 
 than the productions of these human writers, comment- 
 ing indeed upon the Gospel and under the promised 
 illumination of the spirit, but in no sense adding to the 
 Gospel itself. Only to the four Gospels and to the Book of 
 Revelation could one presume to apply these words, 
 written at the close of the Apocalypse and applying 
 immediately to it: 'If any man shall take away from 
 the words of the prophecy of this book, God shall take 
 away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy 
 city, and from the things which are written in this book.' 
 In the portion of the Bible which we may thus distin- 
 guish pre-eminently as the 'Word of the Lord,' it is there 
 fore the words themselves that are inspired, and not the 
 men that transmitted them. This is what our Lord 
 declares, when He says: 'The Words I speak unto you, 
 they are spirit, and they are life.' 
 
 Moreover, the very words which the apostles and the 
 evangelists themselves heard, and the acts which they 
 beheld and recorded, had a meaning and content of which 
 Ihey were partially and in some cases totally ignorant. 
 Thus when our Lord speaks of the 'eating of his flesh' 
 
PAPERS PRESENTED 95 
 
 the disciples murmur, 'This is an hard saying; who can 
 bear it ?' And when he speaks of 'going away to the 
 Father and coming again,' the disciples say among them- 
 selves, 'What is this that he saith ? We can not tell what 
 he saith.' In Luke xviii: 34, where our Lord has been 
 predicting his own passion of the Cross the Evangelist 
 writes: 'They understood none of these things, and this 
 saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things 
 which were spoken.' If we look at the Apocalypse, with 
 its strange visions, its mysterious numbers and signs; if 
 we read the prophets of the Old Testament, with their 
 commingling of times and nations, and lands, and seas, 
 and things animate and inanimate in a manner discordant 
 with any conceivable earthly history or chronology; if 
 we read the details of the ceremonial law dictated to 
 Moses on the mount by the 'voice of Jehovah;' if we 
 read in Genesis the account of creation and of the 
 origins of human history — we are compelled to admit 
 that the penmen recordiiig these things were writing that 
 of which they knew not the meaning; that what they 
 wrote did not represent their intelligence or counsel, but 
 was the faithful record of what was delivered to them by 
 the voice of the Spirit speaking inwardly to them. Here, 
 then, we see the manner of Divine revelation in human lan- 
 guage, again definitely declared and exemplified in Jesus 
 the word incarnate, in that not only in His acts did He 
 employ signs and miracles, but m teaching His disciples He 
 'spake in parables,' and 'without a parable spake he not to 
 them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the 
 prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I 
 will utter things which have been kept sacred from the 
 foundation of the world.' 
 
 "We learn, therefore, that the Divine language is that 
 of parable, wherein things of the kingdom of heaven 
 are clothed in the familiar figures of earthly speech and 
 
96 PAELIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 action. If the Bible is Divine, the law of its revelation 
 must be co-incident with that of Divine creation. Both 
 are the involution of the Divine and Infinite in a series 
 of veils or symbols, which become more and more gross 
 as they recede from their source. In revelation the veil- 
 ings of the Divine truth of the essential Word follow in 
 accordance with the receding and more and more sen- 
 sualized states of mankind upon eartli. Hence the suc- 
 cessive dispensations, or church eras, which mark off the 
 whole field of human history. After the Eden days of 
 ©pen vision, when 'heaven lay about us in our infancy,' 
 followed the Noetic era of a sacred language, full of 
 heavenly meanings, traces of which occur in the hiero- 
 glyphic writings and the great world-myths of most ancient 
 tradition; then came the visible and localized Theocracy 
 of a chosen nation, with laws and ritual, and a long his- 
 tory of its war and struggle, and victory and decline, 
 with the promise of a final renewal and perpetuation: aU 
 being at the same time a revelation of God's providence 
 and government over man, and a picture of the process 
 of the regeneration of the human soul and its prepa- 
 ration for an eternal inheritance in heaven. But even <he 
 law of God thus revealed in the form of a National con- 
 stitution, hierarchy and ritual was at length made of none 
 effect through the traditions of men, and men 'seeing 
 saw not, and hearing heard not, neither did they under- 
 stand.' Then for the redemption of man in this 
 extremity 'the Word itself was made flesh and dwelt 
 among us,' and indeed, in the veil of a humanity subject 
 to human temptation and suffering, even to the death 
 upon the cross. Where man receded farthest there the 
 veil was grossest, the cloud most dense, until the prophet 
 cried 'Verily, thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God 
 of Israel, the Savior,' and the dying Christ sent forth 
 the cry, 'My God! Why hast thou forsaken mef 
 
PAPERS PRESENTED 97 
 
 The process of the evolution of the Spirit out of the 
 veil or of the letter of the Scripture, begun in our Lord's 
 own interpretation of the 'Law for those of ancient time, 
 is a process to whose further continuance the Lord him- 
 self testifies. Not only was the ' Law as given by 
 Moses' then succeeded by the 'Grace and truth which 
 came by Jesus Christ,' but the same Jesus says: "I have 
 yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them 
 now,' and also: 'These things have I spoken to you in 
 proverbs, but the time cometh when I shall no more 
 speak unto you in proverbs but shall show you plainly of 
 the Father.' The Lord's future coming or further 
 revelation is every where called a "coming in the clouds." 
 The letter of Scripture is the cloud which everywhere 
 proclaims the presence of the infinite God with his creat- 
 ure man. The cloud of the Lord's presence is the infi- 
 nitely merciful adaptation of Divine truth to the spiritual 
 needs of humanity. The cloud of the literal Gospel and 
 of the apostolic traditions of our Lord is truly typified by 
 that cloud which received the ascending Christ out of the 
 immediate sight of men. The same letter of the Word is 
 the cloud in which he makes known his second coming in 
 power and great glory, in revealing to the Church the 
 inner and spirtual meanings of both the Old and New 
 Testament of His Word. For ages the Christian Church 
 has stood gazing up into heaven in adoration of Him 
 whom the cloud has hidden from their sight, and with 
 the traditions of human dogma and the warring of 
 schools and critics more and more dense has the cloud 
 become. In the thickness of the cloud it behooves the 
 Church to hold the more fast its faith in the glory within 
 the cloud. 
 
 The view of the Bible and its inspiration thus pre- 
 sented is the only one compatible with a belief in it as a 
 Divine in contradistinction from a human production. 
 
98 PARLIAMENT OF KELIGIONS 
 
 Were the Bible a work of human art, embodying human 
 genius and human wisdom, then the question of the 
 writers' individuality and their personal inspiration, and 
 even of the time and circumstances amid which they 
 wrote, would be of the first importance. Not so if the 
 Divine inspiration and wisdom are treasured up in the 
 very words themselves as Divinely chosen symbols and 
 parables of eternal truth. Far from placing a human 
 limitation upon the Divine Spirit, such a verbal inspira- 
 tion as this opens in the Bible vistas of heavenly and 
 Divine meanings such as they could never possess were 
 its inspirations confined to the degree of intelligerce 
 possessed by the human writers, even under a special 
 illumination of their minds. The difference between 
 inspired words of God and inspired men writing thar 
 own words is like that between an eternal fact of nature 
 and the scientific theories which men have formulated 
 upon or about it. The fact remains forever a source of 
 new discovery and a means of ever new revelation of the 
 Divine; the scientific theories may come and go with the 
 changing minds of men. 
 
 It is not, then, from man, from the intelligence of 
 any Moses, or Daniel, or Isaiah, or John, that the Word of 
 God contains its authority as Divine. The authority 
 must be in the words themselves. If they are unlike all 
 other words ever written ; if they have a meaning, yea, 
 worlds and worlds of meaning, one within or above 
 another, while human words have all their meaning on 
 the surface; if they have a message whose truth is 
 dependent upon no single time or circumstance, but 
 speaks to man at all times and under all circumstances; 
 if they have a validity and an authority self -dictated to 
 human souls which survives the passing of earthly monu- 
 ments and powers, which speaks in all languages, to all 
 minds, wise to the learned, simple to the simple; if, in a 
 
PAPERS PRESENTED 99 
 
 word, these are words that experience shows no man 
 could have written from the intelligence belonging to his 
 time, or from the experience of any single human soul, 
 then may we feel sure that we have in the words of our 
 Bible that which is diviner than any penman that wrote 
 them. Here is that which 'speaks with authority and 
 •not as the scribes.' The words that God speaks to man 
 are 'spirit and are life.' The Divine authorship of the 
 Bible, and all that this implies of authority to the con- 
 science of man, is contained, like the flame of the Urim 
 and Thummim on the breastplate of the high priest, in 
 the bosom of its own language, to reveal itself by the 
 spirit to all who will 'have an ear to hear.' So shall it con- 
 tinue to utter the 'dark parables of old which we have 
 known and our fathers have told us,' and 'to show forth 
 to all generations the praises of the Lord,' becoming ever 
 more and more translucent with the glory that shines 
 within the cloud of the letter; and so shall the Church 
 rest, amid all the contentions that engage those who 
 study the surface of revelation, whether in nature or in 
 Scripture, in the undisturbed assurance that the 'Word 
 of the Lord abideth forever." 
 
 IV 
 
 THE INCARNATION OF GOD IN CHRIST 
 
 BY REV. JULIAN K. SMYTH 
 
 It is related that some Greeks once came to Jerusa- 
 lem, and, to a fisherman of Bethsaida, they said: "Sir, 
 we would see Jesus." Hellas came to Israel; the nation 
 of culture approached the people of revelation, and the 
 patrons, if jndeed, we may not say the worshipers, of 
 the beautiful asked to look into the face of Him who 
 "hath no form nor comeliness," whose "visage was 
 
100 PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 marred unlike to a man and His form unlike to 
 the sons of men." A few years later, a Tarsus 
 Jew, a messenger of Jesus of Nazareth, standing in the 
 court of the Areopagites, said to the men of Athens 
 who asked concerning "the new doctrine:'' "Whom ye 
 ignorantly worship Him declare I unto you." And the 
 question of the Greeks has passed from mouth to mouth, 
 as the story of the ' 'man of sorrows" has been carried 
 around the world, until now, in this gathering together of 
 all Religions, it is put forth as a question of humanity. 
 
 To attempt to explain from the Christian standpoint 
 the coming and the nature of that person, the influence 
 of whose life has been so creative of spiritual hope and 
 purpose, is a responsibility, the weightiness of which is 
 felt in proportion as it is believed that to as many as 
 receive Him, to them gives He the power to become 
 children of God; that He is the Word made flesh, and 
 that the glory which men behold in Him is in very truth, 
 "the glory as of the only begotten of the Father." 
 
 Christianity, in its broadest as well as its deepest 
 sense, means the presence of God in humanity. It is the 
 revelation of God in His world; the opening up of a 
 straight, sure way to that God; and a new tidal flow of 
 Divine life to all the sons of men. The hope of this has, 
 in some measure, been in every age and in every Religion, 
 stirring them with expectation. Evil might be strong; 
 but a day would come when the seed of a woman would 
 bruise the serpent's head, even though it should bruise 
 the Conqueror's heel. God in His world to champion 
 and redeem it! This is what the Religions of the ages 
 have, in some form and with various degrees of certainty, 
 looked for. This is what sang itself into the songs and 
 prophecies of Israel: 
 
 And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed; and all flesh 
 shall see it together; for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it. 
 
tAPEHS PRESENTED 101 
 
 Behold, the Lord Jehovah will oome in strength, and His 
 arm shall rule for Him. Behold His reward is with Him and His 
 work before Him. He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He 
 shall gather the lambs with his arms, and carry them in His 
 bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. 
 
 Christianity is in the world to utter her belief that 
 He who revealed Himself as the Good Shepherd realizes 
 these expectations and fulfills these promises, and that 
 in the Word made flesh the glory of Jehovah has been 
 revealed and all flesh may see it together. Even in child- 
 hood He bears the name Emmanuel, which, being inter- 
 preted, is " God with us." He explains His work and 
 His presence by declaring that it is the coming of the 
 Kingdom — not of law, nor of earthly government, nor of 
 ecclesiasticism — but of God. His purpose, to manifest 
 and bring forth the love and the wisdom of God; His 
 miracles, simply the attestations of the Divine imma- 
 nence; His supreme end, the culmination of all His 
 labors, His sufferings, His victories, to become the open 
 find glorified medium of Divine life to the world. It is 
 not another Moses, nor another Elias, but God in the 
 world, God with us, this, the supreme announcement of 
 Christianity, asserting His immanence, revealing God 
 and man as intended for each other, and rousing in man 
 slumbering wants and capacities to realize the new vision 
 of manhood that dawns upon him from this luminous 
 Figure. 
 
 Christianity aflSrms as a fundamental fact of the God 
 it worships that He is a God who does not hide or with- 
 hold Himself, but who is ever going forth to man in the 
 effort to reveal Himself, and to be known and felt accord- 
 ing to the degree of man's capacity and need. This self- 
 manifestation or forthgoingof all that is known or know- 
 able of the Divine perfections is the Logos, or Word; and 
 it is the very center of Christian revelation. From the 
 
102 paeliamen't Of heligions 
 
 beginning, — for so we may now read the "Golden Proem" 
 of St. John's Gospel, with its wonderful spiritual history 
 of the Logos — from the beginning God has this desire to 
 go forth to something outside of Himself and be known 
 and received by it. "In the beginning was the "Word." 
 Hence the creation: — "All things were made by Him." 
 Hence, too, out of this Divine desire to reveal and accom- 
 modate Himself to man, His presence in various forms 
 of Eeligion: — "He was in the world." Even in man's 
 sin and spiritual blindness the eternal Logos seeks to 
 bring itself to his consciousness: — "The Light shineth in 
 the darkness." 
 
 But gradually, through the ages, through man's sinful- 
 ness, his spiritual perceptions become dim, and he sees 
 as in a state of open-eyed blindness only the forms 
 through which the Divine mind has sought to manifest 
 Himself. "He was in the world and the vrorld knew 
 Him not." What more can be done? Type, symbol, 
 religious ceremonials, scriptures — all have been employed. 
 Has not man slipped beyond the reach of the Divine 
 endeavors? But the Christian history of the Logos 
 moves onto its supreme announcement: "And the Word 
 was made flesh and dwelt among us; and we beheld His 
 glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, 
 full of grace and truth." Not some angel come from 
 heaven to deliver some further message; not another 
 prophet sprung from our bewildered race to chide, to 
 warn, or to exhort, but the Logos, which in the beginning 
 was with God and which was God; the Jehovah of the 
 old prophecies, whose glory, it had been promised, would 
 be revealed that all flesh might see it together. 
 
 And so in the Christian view of it, the story of the 
 Logos completes itself in the story of the manger. And 
 so, too, the Incarnation, instead of being exceptional, is 
 exactly in line with what the Logos has, from the 
 
PAPEES PSESEMED 103 
 
 beginning, been doing. God, as the Word, has ever been 
 coming to man in a form accommodated to his need, keep- 
 ing step with his steps until, in the completeness of this 
 desire to bring Himself to man where he is, He appears 
 to the natural senses and in a form suitable to our 
 natural life. In the Christian conception of God, as One 
 who seeks to reveal Himself to man, it simply is inevit- 
 able that the Word should manifest Himself on the very 
 lowest plane of man's life, if at any time it would be 
 true to say of his spiritual condition: "This people's 
 heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing 
 and their eyes they have closed." It is not extraordinary 
 in the sense of its being a hard or an unnatural thing for 
 God to do. He has always been approaching man, 
 always adapting His revelations to human conditions and 
 needs. It is this constant accommodation and manifes- 
 tation that has kept man's power of spiritual thought 
 alive. The history of Religions, together with their 
 remains, is a proof of it. The testimony of the historic 
 Faiths presented in this Parliament, has confirmed it as 
 the most self-evident thing of the Divine Nature in His 
 dealings with the children of men; and the Incarnation 
 is its natural and completest outcome. 
 
 And then we begin to follow the life of Him, whose 
 footprints, in the light of Christian history and experi- 
 ence, are still looked upon as the very footprints of the 
 Incarnate Word. The Gospel story is ^a story of toil, of 
 suffering, of storm and tempest; a story of sacrifice, of 
 love so pure and holy that even now it has the power to 
 touch, to thrill, to re-create man's selfish nature. There 
 is an undoubted actuality in the human side of this life; 
 but just as surely there is a certain Divine something 
 forever speaking through those human tones and reach ■ 
 ing out through those kindly hands. The character of 
 the Logos is never lost, sacrificed or lowered. It is always 
 
104 paeliAmeKT or REtiGioKs 
 
 this Divine something trying to manifest itself, trying to 
 make itself understood, trying to redeem man from his 
 slavery to evil and draw to itself his spiritual attachment. 
 Here, plain to human sight, is part of that age-long effort 
 of the Word to reveal Itself to man; only now through a 
 nature formed and born for the purpose. We are 
 reminded of it when we hear Him say: "Before Abraham 
 was, I am." We are assured of it when He declares that 
 He came forth from the Father. And we know that He 
 has triumphed when, at the last, we hear His promise, 
 "Lo, I am with you always." It is the Logos speaking. 
 The Divine purpose has been fulfilled. The Word has 
 come forth on this plane of human life, manifested Him- 
 self, and established a relationship with man nearer and 
 dearer than ever before. He has made Himself avail- 
 able and indispensable to everyneed or effort. "Without 
 me, ye can do nothing." In His Divine Humanity He 
 has established a perfect medium whereby we may have 
 free and immediate access to God's Fatherly help. "I 
 am the door of the sheep." "I am the Way, the Truth 
 and the Life." 
 
 In this thought of the Divine character of the Son of 
 Man, the early Christians found strength and comfort. 
 For a time they did not attempt to define this faith the- 
 ologically. It was a simple, direct, earnest faith in the 
 goodness and redeeming power of the God-man, whose 
 perfect nature had inspired them to believe in the reality 
 of His heavenly reign. They felt that the risen Lord 
 was near them; that He was the Savior so long promised; 
 the world's hope, "in whom dwelleth all the fullness of 
 the Godhead bodily." 
 
 But to-day man claims his right to enter understand- 
 ingly into the mysteries of Faith, and Eeason asks: How 
 could God or the Divine Logos be made flesh ? Yet, in 
 seeking for an answer to such an inquiry, we are at the 
 
PAPERS PRESENTED 105 
 
 same time seeking to know of the origin of human life. 
 The conception and birth of Jesus Christ, as related in 
 the Gospels, appears, to the reason, a stirange fact. So, 
 too, is the conception and birth of every human being. 
 Neither can be explained by any principle of naturalism, 
 which regards the external as first and the internal 
 as second and of comparative unimportance. Neither 
 can be understood unless it be recognized that spiritual 
 forces and substances are related to natural forces and 
 substances as cause and effect, and that they, the former, 
 are prior and the active, formative agents playing upon 
 and received by the latter. We do not articulate words 
 and then try to pack them with ideas and intentions. 
 The process is the reverse: first the intention, then that 
 intention coming forth as thought, and then the thought 
 incarnating itself by means of articulated sounds or writ- 
 ten characters. 
 
 By this same law man is primarily, essentially, a 
 spiritual being. In the very form of his creation, that 
 which essentially is the man, and which in time loves, 
 thinks, enters eternal life, is spiritual. In his conception, 
 then, the human seed must not only be acted upon but be 
 derived from invisible spiritual substances which are 
 clothed with natural substances for the sake of convey- 
 ance. That which is slowly developed into a human being 
 or soul must be a living organism composed of spiritual 
 substances. Gradually that primitive form becomes 
 enveloped and protected within successive clothings, 
 while the mother, from the substances of the natural 
 world, silently weaves the swathings and coverings which 
 are to serve as a natural or physical body and make pos- 
 sible its entrance into this outer court of life. 
 
 "We do not concede, then, that there is anything 
 impossible or contrary to order in the declaration of the 
 
 8 
 
106 PAELIAMENT OF RELiaiONS 
 
 Gospel, that "that which is conceived in her is of the 
 Holy Spirit." It is still in line with the general law of 
 the conception and birth of all human beings. The 
 primitive form or nature, as in the case of man, is spiritual. 
 But in this instance it is not derived from a human 
 father, but is especially formed or molded by the Divine 
 creative spirit; formed as with us of spiritual substances; 
 formed with a perfection and with infinite possibilities of 
 development unknown to us; formed, too, for the special 
 purpose of being the perfect instrument or medium upon 
 and through which the Divine might act as its very soul. 
 Because that primitive form is divinely molded or 
 begotten, instead of being derived from a finite paternity, 
 it is unique. It is Divine in first principles. In the 
 outer clothings of the natural mind and in the successive 
 wrappings furnished by the woman nature, it shares our 
 weakness. But primarily, essentially, it is bom with the 
 capacity of becoming Divine through the removal of what- 
 ever is imperfect or limiting, and through complete union 
 with the Divine which formed it for Himself. 
 
 Very like our humanities, in all that pertains to the 
 growth of the natural body and natural mind, would be 
 this Hiunanity of the Son of Man. The same tenderness 
 and helplessness of its infantile body; the same possibility 
 of weariness, hunger, thirst, pain, ^the same exposure, 
 too, in the lower planes of the mind, to the assaults of 
 evil, resulting in struggle, temptation and anguish of 
 spirit. And yet there is always an unlikeness, a differ- 
 ence, in that the very primitive, determining forms and 
 possibilities of that Humanity are divinely begotten. 
 
 And so we think of this Humanity of Jesus Christ as 
 so formed and born as to be able to serve as a perfect 
 instrument whereby the eternal Logos might come and 
 dwell among us; might so express and pour forth His 
 love; might so accommodate and reveal His truth; might, 
 
tAPEES PRESENTED 107 
 
 in a word, bo Set Himself on all the planes of angelic 
 and human existence as to be forever after immediately 
 present in them, and so become literally, actually God- 
 with-us. 
 
 Gradually this was done. Gradually the Divine 
 Life of love and wisdom came into the several planes 
 which, by incarnation, existed in this Humanity, remov- 
 ing from them whatever was limiting or imperfect, sub- 
 stituting what was Divine, filling them, glorifying them, 
 and in the end making them a very part of Himself. 
 
 This is in strict harmony with the testimony of the 
 Gospels, and brings into harmony the two elements which 
 we are apt to look upon and keep distinct: the Human 
 and the Divine. For He Himself tells us of a process, 
 a distinct change which His Humanity underwent, and 
 which is the key to His real nature. "The Holy Spirit," 
 says the record, ''was not yet given, because that Jesus 
 was not yet glorified." Some Divine operation was going 
 on within that Humanity, which was not fully accom- 
 plished. But on the eve of His crucifixion He exclaimed: 
 "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified 
 in Him." It is this process of putting off what was finite 
 and infirm in the Human and the substitution of the 
 Divine from within, resulting in the formation of a 
 Divine Humanity. So long as that is going on the 
 Human as the Son, feels a separation from the Divine 
 as the Father, and speaks of it and turns to it as though 
 it were another person. But when the glorification is 
 accomplished, when the Divine has entirely filled 
 the Human and they act "reciprocally and unani- 
 mously, as soul and body," then the declaration is: "I 
 and the Father are one." Divine in origin; Human in 
 birth; Divinely-Human tiirough glorification. As to His 
 soul, or immortal inmost being, the Father; as to His 
 Human, the Son; as to the life and saving power that go 
 forth from His glorified nature, the Holy Spirit 
 
108 tAELIAMENT OF EELiaiOKS 
 
 This story of the Divine life in its descent to man, 
 this coming or incarnation of the Logos in the Humanity 
 of Jesus Christ, it is the sweet and serious privilege of 
 Christianity to carry into the world. I try to state it. 
 I try from a new theological standpoint to show reasons 
 for its rational acceptance. Yet the fact itself tran- 
 scends all explanations. No one in this free assembly is 
 expected to be without his special belief; no one is asked 
 to set it aside. Yet who would not stand with his fellow 
 Christians, and without doctrinal barriers between them, 
 unite in that simplest, most comprehensive creed that 
 was ever uttered: Credo Domino! Denominationalism, 
 dogmatism, aside; aside, too, all prejudice and differences; 
 what is the simplest, the fundamental idea of the Being 
 of Jesus Christ ? Brother men, are we not ready to unite 
 in saying this, and saying it to the whole round world! 
 The Lord Jesus Christ is the life or love of God, mani- 
 festing Itself to man, going out into the world, awakening 
 the capacity which is in every man for spiritual, yes, for 
 Divine life . Is not that the very heart of the Gospel f Or 
 rather, is not that the Gospel t And is it not also true 
 that up to this hour, there is no fact so real, no fact so 
 powerful, no fact that is working such spiritual wonders 
 as the fact, the influence, the Being of Jesus Christ ? 
 
 We are assembled here as the first great Parliament 
 of the Religions of the world. We rightly believe, we 
 unanimously say, that from this time on the Fatherhood 
 of God and the brotherhood of man must mean more to 
 us than ever before; and none can be so timid but would 
 dare to stand here and say, that in this hall the death- 
 knell of bigotry and sectarianism has been rung. Yet it 
 were a sacrilege to suppose that the large tolerance which 
 has been exercised here and which has secured for the 
 representatives of every Faith such a hospitable reception, 
 is the evolution of mere good nature. It is the Spirit of 
 
PAPERS PRESENTED 109 
 
 Him, whose simple words have been inscribed as the text 
 of the Columbian Liberty Bell, already ringing in " the 
 Christ that is to be:" 
 
 A New Commandment 
 
 I give unto you 
 
 That Ye Love One Another 
 
 And the same lips also said: "Other sheep I have 
 which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and 
 they shall hear My voice: and there shall be one fold and 
 one Shepherd." Because of such words we listen with a 
 new eagerness to all that men have to tell of their Faiths; 
 and there is no declaration of truth, however old, from 
 whatever source, by whomsoever spoken, but has called 
 out the heartiest tokens of approval, if only it strikes 
 down to what we feel to be the eternal verities underlying 
 our existence. That these declarations should often bear 
 a striking similarity to some of the teachings of Chris- 
 tianity is to many a surprise, when in reality the marvel 
 of it is but another proof of how far-reaching and all- 
 embracing is the Eeligion and the nature of Him who bore 
 the world-wide title Son of Man. Nor is it to be forgotten 
 that the Christ did not simply teach the truth; He so 
 embodied it, so lived it, that He could justly say, "I am 
 the Truth." And Christianity is not afraid to say: The 
 religion which bears His name is founded, not upon 
 truth in the abstract, but upon a Person; a Person so 
 true, BO perfect in holiness, that we believe, nay, we feel, 
 that He embodies pre-eminently the very life and Spirit 
 of God. And with this manifestation has come a new 
 conception of God as One who is willing to go any length 
 in order to seek and to save that which is lost. And it is 
 this truth — God seeking man, God serving man, God 
 entering into our experiences of joy or of pain, and fairly 
 
110 PAELIAMENT OF EELIGIONS 
 
 tirging upon us His help and forgiveneBS, — this is 
 Christianity's message to the children of men. It is not 
 simply what Christianity has done, it is not simply what 
 Christianity has taught; it is what Christ is that is 
 enduring and vital. Often it has been said that the wise 
 men of the East came to His cradle. May there be even 
 greater cause for thankfulness in remembering that "wise 
 men of the West started from His crosa" 
 
 RECONCILIATION VITAL, NOT VICARIOUS 
 
 BY KEV. T. F. WEIGHT, PH. D. 
 
 There are certain dicta of Scripture, "which are uni- 
 versal because fundamental, and fundamental because 
 universal." One of these is that saying of the Apostle 
 John, "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth 
 in God, and God in him." Once of sympathies so narrow 
 that he was for bringing fire from heaven down upon a 
 village which would not receive his Lord as he journeyed, 
 he was now so tenderly conscious of the infinite love 
 which had sought him out and gathered him that he 
 could say: "He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for 
 God is love; beloved, if God so love us, we also ought to 
 love one another." John had attained to this conviction 
 by the process of religious experience. Others have seen 
 the same infinite fact written in vernal fields and ripen- 
 ing harvests. Others find it in the intricate harmony of 
 natural forces. They all see that there is as the center 
 and source of life a fountain of f atherliness which is ever 
 begetting and niurturing, so that, indeed, we can not con- 
 ceive of the idle God, the neglectful God, or the God of 
 limited interests. Our minds will not work until we 
 place before them the ever-creating God, who neither 
 
PAPERS PRESENTED HI 
 
 slumbers nor sleeps; the ever present help. "Peradven- 
 ture he sleepeth" might be said of Baal, for there was no 
 answer; but when Elijah called on the God of Abraham, 
 of Isaac, and of Israel, "the fire of the Lord fell." It is 
 in the light of this fact of the universal Divine love that 
 the fallen condition of man finds its remedy disclosed. 
 
 There may have been a time when this light was so dim 
 that Judaism fancied its God a partisan, and a regressive 
 Christianity thought that it had ascertained the limits 
 of the Divine care, but now we know that God is one, 
 and that "His tender mercies are over all His work." This 
 being so, it is true to say that the fallen man was succored 
 by the same love that created him. The father of the 
 prodigal does not sulk in his tent while some elder 
 brother is left to search out the wanderer and bring 
 him in, pointing to the wounds he got in rescuing him 
 as a means of softening the heart of the father; nay, the 
 father watches the pathway with longings, and sends his 
 love after the boy, and when the wayward one is yet a 
 great way off, he sees, he hath compassion, he runs, he 
 falls on his neck, he kisses him; he bids them bring the 
 robe, the ring, the shoes, the fatted calf; he reproves the 
 cold vindictiveness of the elder brother; he is all shep- 
 herd- like. 
 
 We need not dogmatize as to the fallen state of man. 
 Intellectually man has not fallen. He is as bright as he 
 ever was. He is growing brighter. The evolution of the 
 intellect is indisputable. But as to the will, what is 
 man? Is he the worshiping child that he once was? 
 Does he eagerly do the truth he learns or does he find it 
 necessary to compel himself to do it ? There is a degree 
 of ignorance, of illiteracy, but it is easy to find a remedy 
 for it in the common school. There is on every side a 
 spectacle of lust, and greed, and indolence, and selfish- 
 oess, and ouy schools touch it not We are making men 
 
112 PAELIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 shrewd, but we are not naaking them good. The human 
 mind wants reaching in its depths. The moti-ves behind 
 our thinking want renewal, else mind- life is like John 
 Randolph's mackerel in the moonlight, which stank as it 
 shone. So was man in the sad days of Roman sensuality 
 and Jewish hypocrisy, and so do our daily chronicles 
 testify to-day. The cure for the lost sheep is to seek for 
 it till it is found. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; 
 we have turned every one to his own way. (Is. liii: 6.) 
 The question is. How should the Divine love accomplish 
 the purpose with which it mast be teeming — the recovery 
 of the lost state f Our answer is in general to say that 
 the remedy was within the keeping of the infinite love 
 and wisdom which had so far made and conducted man, 
 or we must hold some view which limits the Holy One 
 of Israel. If God would come with any mercy He must 
 descend to the place of the fallen. If he would conquer 
 the evil without destroying them, He must contend with 
 them on their own plane. To take upon Himself the 
 nature born of woman would be His means of redemp- 
 tion. He must take on the office of Joshua, who led the 
 people out of the wilderness into their inheritance. And 
 a virgin conceived and bore a son, and called his name 
 Jesus — that is, Joshua. The Wisdom or Word of God 
 was made flesh, so that we behold the glory of the 
 Father. It was the Father in the Son who did the works. 
 How marvelously clear are the prophetic songs of Mary 
 and Zacharias. She said: "My spirit hath rejoiced in 
 God, my Savior. He hath showed siirength with his arm. 
 He hath holpen His servant, Israel, in remembrance of 
 His mercy, as he spake to our fathers." And the father 
 of the forerunner said: "Blessed be the Lord God of 
 Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people; that 
 we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, 
 might serve Him without fear all the days of our lifej the 
 
PAPERS PEESENTED 113 
 
 day-spring from on high hath visited us, to give light to 
 them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to 
 guide our feet in the way of peace." Therefore John the 
 Baptist proclaimed him as "the Lamb of God that taketh 
 away the sin of the world," and therefore he bade his 
 hearers prepare the way of Jehovah, and make straight 
 his path. 
 
 Born of woman, and so open to every temptation, He 
 was early led to find the written Word, his light of life. 
 He went about his father's business by expounding it. 
 Tried in the wilderness, he made no other answer than 
 the law. Going about doing good. He healed the sick 
 and gave sight to the blind, and brought good tidings to 
 the meek At Jerusalem he cleansed the temple of its 
 corruption, even as he was daily rendering his own nature 
 the temple of God. The inevitable conflict was not 
 shunned. The perceived unfaithfulness of many did not 
 provoke a word of resentment. The attempts of habitual 
 sinners of this world and the other to overthrow him 
 failed again and again, but it was inevitable that there 
 must be a last and most direful assault. He foresaw it; 
 but behold the conduct of infinite love! He bathed his 
 disciples' feet in order to teach them the new command- 
 ment of love to one another. He bade them not be 
 troubled, and spoke of the peace he had to give to them. 
 He chastened himself in the garden. On his way to the 
 cross he asked them to weep rather for themselves than 
 for him. He gave the mother a son to care for her old 
 age. To perjured Peter his answer had been but a look. 
 To the false accusations he had been dumb. For his 
 love they were his adversaries, but he gave himself unto 
 prayer. Rising again, he came with indescribable gentle- 
 ness to the recognition of Mary Magdalene. To the two 
 discouraged disciples he was all patience. To doubting 
 Thomas be was infinitely condescending. As he stpod 
 
114 PABLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 there, for the time made visible to their spiritual sight, 
 having entered where the doors were shut, he was the 
 embodiment of prophecy fulfilled, of divine love triumph- 
 ant. He was, he is, "Our Lord and our God," "The 
 brightness of his glory, the express image of his person." 
 This is no merely vicarious act of a subordinate or 
 additional person of God. It was the act of God Himself 
 to restore the vital union between man and Himself, that 
 union which man had severed by increasing self-asser- 
 tion, waywardness, and wickedness, and which could only 
 be renewed by contrition and return and reconciliation. 
 In the case of the man healed of his blindness, in the 
 ninth chapter of John, we have first the evil condition, 
 then the remedy offered, next the remedy accepted, at 
 once the cure effected, and finally a vital union of safety 
 for him established with the Lord, as shown by his say- 
 ing, "Lord, I believe," and by his worshiping Him. In 
 more difficult cases, as we know by some experience, the 
 knowledge of the remedy may be cold and unfruitful in 
 the memory until in seeking to lead a less selfish life, to 
 be worthy of a loving wife or a trusting child, or to con- 
 secrate our lives in full to the Lord's service, we begin to 
 form new motives with the Divine aid; to hate what we 
 once wickedly loved, and to love what we once wickedly 
 hated; and so, little by little, born from above, a new 
 heart is formed within us, and we come to act as faith- 
 ful rather than as unfaitful servants of the Lord, as 
 friends rather than as enemies. So do we cease to do 
 evil and learn to do well, if we will. Thus we may see 
 that the will and the power to rescue and to reconcile 
 wayward souls sprang from the infinite love; that the 
 method is that of the Divine order; and that the result in 
 the individual redeemed through repentance and regene- 
 ration is just what man's fallen state required and re- 
 ciuirea, It is precisely as Paul said ; " God was in Christ 
 
PAPEBS PKE8ENTED 115 
 
 reconciling the world unto Himself." (II Cor. v: 19.) And 
 again he said: "In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the 
 Godhead bodily." (Col. xi : 9.) " We dwell in Him," said 
 John once more, "and He in us; we loved Him because 
 He first loved us." "This is the true God and eternal 
 life." 
 
 That nnoreated beauty, which has gained 
 My laptnred heait, has all my glory stained; 
 His loveliness my sonl has pieposBessed, 
 And left no room for any other guest. 
 
 VI 
 
 BWEDENBORG AND THE HARMONY OF RELIGIONS 
 
 BY REV. L. P. MERCEB 
 
 Before the closing of this grand historic assembly, 
 with its witness to the worth of every form of Faith by 
 which men worship God and seek communion with Him, 
 one word more needs to be spoken, one more testimony 
 defined, one more hope recorded. Every voice has 
 witnessed to the recognition of a new age. An age of 
 inquiry, expectation and experiment has dawned. New 
 inventions are stirring men's hearts, new ideals inspire 
 their arts, new physical achievements beckon them on to 
 one marvelous mastery after another of the universe. 
 And now we see that the new freedom of "willing and 
 thinking" has entered the realm of Religion, and the 
 Faiths of the world are summoned to declare and com- 
 pare not only the formulas of the past, but the movements 
 of the present and the forecasts of the future. 
 
 One religious teacher who explicitly heralded the new 
 age before yet men had dreamed of its possibility, and 
 referred its causes to great movements in the centers of 
 influx in the spiritual \yorld, and (Jescpbed, it as 
 
116 PARLIAMENT OF EELIGIONS 
 
 incidental to great purposes in the Providence of God, 
 needs to be named from this platform — one who ranks with 
 prophets and seers rather than with inquirers and specu- 
 lators; a revelator rather than a preacher and interpreter; 
 one whose exalted personal character and transcendent 
 learning are eclipsed in the fruits of his mission as a 
 herald of a new dispensation in Eeligion, as the revealer of 
 heavenly arcana, and "restorer of the foundations of 
 many generations;" who, ignored by his own generation, 
 and assaulted by its successor, is honored and respected 
 in the present, and awaits the thoughtful study which 
 the expansion and culmination of the truth and the 
 organic course of events will bring with to-morrow; "the 
 permeating and formative influence" of whose teachiags 
 in the religious belief and life of to-day in Christendom 
 is commonly admitted; who subscribed with his name on 
 the last of his Latin quartos — Emanuel Swedenborg, "ser- 
 vant of the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 That Swedenborg was the son of a Swedish bishop, 
 a scholar, a practical engineer, a man of science, a phi- 
 losopher and a seer, who lived between 1688 and 1772, is 
 generally known. That the first fifty years of his 
 remarkable life, devoted to the pursuit of natural learn- 
 ing and independent investigations in science and phi- 
 losophy, illustrate the type of man in which our age 
 believes is generally conceded: Learned, standing far 
 ahead of his generation; exact, trained in mathematical 
 accuracy and schooled to observation; practical, seeing at 
 once some useful application of every new discovery; a 
 man of affairs, able to take care of his own and bear his 
 part in the nation's councils; aspiring, ignoring no useful 
 application, but content with no achievement short of 
 a final philosophy of causes; inductive, taking nothing 
 for granted but facts of experiment, and seeking to 
 ascend therefrom to a generalization which shall explain 
 
PAPERS PRESENTED 117 
 
 them — this is the sort of man which in our own day we 
 consider sound and useful. Such was the man who, at 
 the age of 56, in the full maturity of his powers declares 
 that "he was called to a holy office by the Lord," "who 
 most graciously manifested himself to me in person and 
 opened my sight to a view of the spiritual world and 
 granted me the privilege of conversing with spirits and 
 angels." "From that day forth," he says, "I gave up all 
 worldly learning and labored only in spiritual things 
 according to what the Lord commanded me to write." 
 
 He tells us that, while in the body, yet in a state of 
 seership, and thus able to note the course of events in 
 both worlds, and locate the stupendous transactions in 
 the spiritual world in earthly time, he witnessed a last 
 judgment in the world of spirits in 1757, fulfilling in 
 every respect the predictions in the Gospel and in the 
 Apocalypse; that he beheld the Lord open in all the 
 scriptures the things concerning Himself, revealing in 
 their internal sense and Divine meaning the whole course 
 and purpose of His providence, organizing a new heaven 
 of angels out of every nation and kindred and tongue, 
 and co-ordinating it with the ancient and most ancient 
 heavens for the inauguration of a new dispensation of 
 Eeligion and of the Church universal ; and that this new 
 dispensation began in the spiritual world, is carried down 
 and inaugurated among men by the revelation of the 
 spiritual sense and Divine meaning of the sacred Script- 
 ures, in and by means of which He makes his promised 
 Second Advent which is spiritual and universal, to gather 
 up and complete all past and partial revelations, to con- 
 summate and crown the dipensations and Churches which 
 have been upon the earth. 
 
 The Christian world is incredulous of such an event, 
 and for the most part heedless of its announcement; but 
 that does not much signify, except as it makes one 
 
118 PARLIAMENT OP EELIMONS 
 
 with the whole course of history as to the reception of 
 Divine announcements. What prophet was ever welcomed 
 until the event had proved his message? The question 
 is not whether it meets the expectation of men ; not 
 whether it is what human prudence would forecast; but 
 whether it reveals and meets the needs and necessities of 
 the nations of the earth. " My thoughts are not your 
 thoughts, saith the Lord, neither are your ways my ways." 
 The great movements of Divine Providence are never what 
 men anticipate, but they always provide what men need. 
 And the appeal to the Parliament of Religions in behalf 
 of the revelation announced from heaven is in its ability 
 to prove its divinity by outreaching abundantly all human 
 forecast whatsoever. Does it throw its light over the 
 past and into the present, and project its promise into 
 the future ? Does it illuminate and unify history, eluci- 
 date the conflicting movements of to-day, and explain 
 the hopes and yearnings of the heart in every age and 
 clime f 
 
 There is not time at this hour for exposition and 
 illustration, only to indicate the catholicity of Sweden- 
 borg's teachings in their spirit, scope and purpose. There 
 is one God and one Church. As God is one, the human 
 race, in the complex movements of its growth and history, 
 is before him as one greatest man. It has had its ages 
 in their order, corresponding to infancy, childhood, youth 
 and manhood in the individual. As the one God is the 
 Father of all, He has witnessed Himself in every age 
 according to its state and necessities. The divine care 
 has not been confined to one line of human descent, nor 
 the revelation of God's will to one set of miraculously 
 given Scriptures. 
 
 The great Religions of the world have their origin in 
 that same Word or mind of God which wrote itself 
 through Hebrew lawgiver and prophet and became 
 
PAPEBB PRESENTED 119 
 
 incarnate in Jesus Christ. He, as " the Word which was 
 in the beginning with God, and was God," was the light 
 of every age in the spiritual development of mankind, 
 preserving and carrying over the life of each into the 
 several streams of tradition in the Religions of men, 
 conserving and embodying all in the Hebrew Scriptures, 
 fulfilling that in His own person, and now opening His 
 Divine mind in all that Scripture. The Religions of the 
 world are to be restored to unity, purified and perfected 
 in Him. 
 
 Nor is this with Swedenborg the liberal sentiment 
 of good-will and the enthusiasm of hope, but the 
 discovery of Divine fact and the rational insight of 
 spiritual understaflding. He has shown that the Sacred 
 Scriptures are written according to the correspondence 
 of natural with spiritual things, and that they contain 
 an internal spiritual sense treating of the providence of 
 God in the dispensations of the Church, and of the 
 regeneration and spiritual life of the soul. Before Abra- 
 ham there was the church of Noah, and before the Word 
 of Moses there was an ancient Word, written in allegory 
 and correspondences, which the ancients understood and 
 loved, but in process of time turned into magic and 
 idolatry. The ancient Church scattered into Egypt and 
 Asia, carried fragments of that ancient Word, and pre- 
 served something of its representatives and allegories in 
 scriptures and mythologies, from which have come the 
 myths and fables of the oriental Religions, modified 
 according to nations and peoples, and revived from time 
 to time in the teachings of leaders and prophets. 
 
 From the same ancient Word Moses derived, under 
 Divine direction, the early chapters of Genesis, and to 
 this in the order of Providence was added the law and 
 the prophets, the history of the incarnation, and the 
 prophecy of a final kingdom of God, all so written as to 
 
120 PAELIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 
 contain an internal spiritual sense, corresponding with 
 the letter, but distinct from it, as the soul corresponds 
 with the body and is distinct and transcends it. It is 
 the opening of this internal sense in all the holy Scrip- 
 tures, and not any addition to their letter, which consti- 
 tutes the new and needed revelation of our day. The 
 science of correspondences is the key which unlocks the 
 Scriptures and discloses their internal contents. The 
 same key opens the scriptures of the Orient and traces 
 them back to their source in primitive revelation. 
 
 If it shows that their myths and representatives have 
 been misunderstood, misrepresented, and misapplied, it 
 e-hows also that the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures 
 have been likewise perverted and falsified. It is that 
 very fact which necessitates the revelation of their internal 
 meaning, in which resides their Divine inspiration and 
 the light of rational understanding, for the separation of 
 truth from error. The same rational light and science 
 of interpretation separates the great primitive truths 
 from the corrupting speculations and traditions in all 
 the ancient Religions, and furnishes the key to unlock the 
 myths and symbols in ancient Scriptures and worship. 
 
 If Swedenborg reveals errors and superstitions in the 
 Keligions out of Christendom, so does he also show that 
 the current Christian Faith and worship is largely the 
 invention of men and falsifying to the Christian's Bible. 
 If he promises and shows true faith and life to the 
 Christian from the Scriptures, so does he also to the 
 Gentiles in leading them back to primitive revelation and 
 showing them the meaning of their own aspirations for 
 the light of life. If he sets the Hebrew and Christian 
 Word above all other sacred Scripture, it is because it 
 brings, as now opened in its spiritual depths, the Divine 
 sanction to all the rest, and gathers their strains into its 
 sublime symphony of revelation. 
 
PAPERS PRESENTED 121 
 
 "So much for the indication of what Swedenborg 
 does for catholie enlightenment in spiritual wisdom. 
 As for salvation, he teaches that God has provided with 
 every nation a witness of Himself and a means of eternal 
 life. He is present by His spirit with all. He gives the 
 good of His love, which is life, internally and impartially 
 to all. All know that there is a God, and that He is to 
 be loved and obeyed; that there is a life after death, and 
 that there are evils which are to be shunned as sins 
 against God. So far as any one so believes and so lives 
 from a principle of Religion he receives eternal life in 
 his soul, and after death instruction and perfection 
 according to the sincerity of his life. 
 
 No teaching could be more catholic than this, showing 
 that, "whosoever in any nation feareth God and worketh 
 righteousness is accepted of him." If he sets forth 
 Jesus Christ as the only wise God, in whom.is the full- 
 ness of the Godhead, it is Christ glorified and realizing 
 to the mind the infinite and eternal Lover and Thinker 
 and Doer, a real and personal God, our Father and 
 Savior. If he summons all prophets and teachers to 
 bring their lionor and glory unto him, it is not as to a 
 conquering rival, but as to their inspiring life, whose 
 word they have spoken and whose work they have 
 wrought. If he brings all good spirits in the other life 
 to the acknowledgment of the glorified Christ as the only 
 God, it is because ihey have in heart and essential faith 
 believed in Him and lived for Him, in living according to 
 the precepts of their Religion. He calls him a Christian 
 who lives as a Christian; and he lives as a Christian 
 who looks to the one God and does what He teaches, as 
 he is able to kno* it. If he denies re-incarnation, so 
 also does he deny sleep in the grave and the resurrection 
 of the material body. If he teaches the necessity of 
 
 9 
 
122 l>AilLIAMENT OF EELIGtoUS 
 
 regeneration and union with God, so also does he show 
 that the subjugation and quiescence of self is the true 
 "Nirvana," opening consciousness to the Divine life, and 
 conferring the peace of harmony with God. If he teaches 
 that man needs the Spirit of God for the subjugation of 
 self, he teaches that this Spirit is freely imparted to who- 
 soever will look to the Lord and shun selfishness as sin. 
 If he teaches, thus, that faith is necessary to salvation, he 
 teaches that faith alone is not sufficient, but faith which 
 worketh by love. If he denies that salvation is of favor 
 or immediate mercy, and affirms that it is vital and the 
 effect of righteousness, he also teaches that the Divine 
 righteousness is imparted vitally to him who seeks it first 
 and above all; and if he denies that several probations 
 on earth are necessary to the working out of the issues 
 of righteousness, it is because man enters a spiritual world 
 after death in a spiritual body and personality, and in an 
 environment in which his ruling love is developed, his 
 ignorance enlightened, his imperfections removed, his 
 good beginnings perfected, until he is ready to be incor- 
 porated in the Grand Man of heaven, to receive and 
 functionate hia measure of the Divine life and participate 
 in the Divine joy. And so I might go on. 
 
 My purpose is accomplished if I have won your 
 respect and interest in the teachings of this great apostle, 
 who, claiming to be called of the Lord to open the 
 Scriptures, presents a harmony of truths that would 
 gather into its embrace all that is of value in every 
 Religion, and open out into a career of illimitable 
 spiritual progress. 
 
 The most unimpassioned of men, perhaps because he bo 
 well understood that his mission was not his own but the 
 concern of Him who builds through the ages, Swedenborg 
 wrote and published. The result is a library that calmly 
 awaits the truth-seekers. If the Religions of the world 
 
PAPERS PEKSENTED ' 123 
 
 become disciples there, it will not be proselytism that 
 ■will take them there, but the organic course of events in 
 that Providence which works on, silent but mighty, like 
 the forces that poise planets and gravitate among the 
 stars. 
 
 Present history shows the effect of unsuspected causes. 
 The Parliament of Keligions is itself a testimony to unseen 
 spiritual causes, and should at least incline to belief in 
 Swedenborg's testimony, that a way is open, both in the 
 spiritual world and on earth, for a universal Church in 
 the faith of one visible God in whom is the Invisible, 
 imparting eternal life and enlightenment to all from 
 every nation who believe in him and work righteousness. 
 
NEW-CHUBOH TEMPLE, CHICAGO. 
 
BOOK II 
 
 THE NEWJERUSALEM 
 CHURCH CONGRESS 
 
CHAPTEE I 
 
 THE PEEPARATION AND 
 PEESENTATION 
 
 The Committee on a New- Jerusalem Church Congress 
 was one of the first appointed after the organization of 
 the General Committee, and its preliminary address was 
 the first of its kind, and its tentative programme was the 
 first issued. In the preliminary address, after explaining 
 the scope and aim of the Congresses, the Committee said: 
 
 Snch an Ecumeuioal Conference acquires additional import- 
 ance to the mind of a New-Churchman from the fact that it is a 
 principle of faith with him that "the Lord provides with every 
 nation a universal medium of salvation,'' and that the essential 
 saving truths of faith are common to all Beligions; and that he 
 who, in any Religion, "feareth God and worketh righteousness," 
 is capable after death in the world of spirits of receiving 
 instruction and faith in Jesus Christ as "the only wise God our 
 Savior;" and from the further principle of faith among us that 
 the written Word of God is given on our earth, because "in con- 
 sequence of the communication opened here among all nations," 
 it can be "conveyed from one nation to another and taught in 
 all places." Perhaps no such opportunity for the full, free, and 
 friendly realization of this end of Divine Providence could 
 under any other circumstances be presented. 
 
 It devolves upon the New Church to see that those truths, 
 which it distinctively holds in trust to teach for the help of man- 
 kind, are fitly and adequately set forth in this Parliament of 
 Religions, especially the following, namely: — 
 
 1. The Second Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ in the open- 
 ing of the Spiritual sense and Divine meaning of the Word of 
 God, through the human instrumentality of Emanuel Swedeuborg. 
 
 2. The relation of this fact to the whole history of Religion 
 in the progress of the ages, and the Divine Dispensations of the 
 Church. 
 
 3. The light it throws upon the unities and diversities of the 
 Historic Faiths, and the present conflicts of opinion in 
 Ohiistendotn. 127 
 
128 NEW-CHURCH CONGEEBS 
 
 After correspondence with members of the Advisory 
 Council, a tentative programme was made upon the 
 theory of a general presentation of the claims of the 
 New Church by the President of the General Conven- 
 tion, and the President and Vice-President of the Eng- 
 lish Conference; to be followed in daily sessions with a 
 series of papers which should cover the Origin and 
 Nature of the New Church, the planting of the New 
 Church in the world, and the future of the Church or its 
 mission to the world in the different departments of 
 human thought and acti^?lty. 
 
 A Committee in the Woman's Branch of the Auxiliary 
 was appointed, with Miss A. E. Scammon as Chairwoman, 
 to represent the New Church. In conference with that 
 committee it was determined that, beside taking charge 
 of the provision for the social representation of the 
 Church, the welcome of visitors, and the interesting of 
 strangers during the Religious Congresses in the charity 
 and brotherly spirit of the New Church as well as in its 
 teachings, this Committee should interest and draw forth 
 from the women of the Church an expression of their 
 views upon its life and work The efficiency of this Com- 
 mittee contributed greatly to the success of our work in 
 the Congresses. The social spirit awakened by them not 
 only in the New Church at large, but in the other local 
 committees, had much to do in creating the friendly 
 sphere which prevailed in the Parliament, as well as in 
 and among the denominational Congresses. The labors 
 of this Committee were unremitting through the whole 
 series of Congresses, from May to October; and they drew 
 to their assistance the cordial cooperation of New Church 
 people from all parts of the country visiting in Chicago. 
 When the Christian and non- Christian representatives 
 assembled, therefore, they found our people active and 
 
PKEPAKATION AND WELCOME 129 
 
 influential in the stream of events; and the Oriental 
 delegates especially responded with cordiality, and formed 
 friendships that may be mutually useful in the future. 
 
 Until the preparations were well advanced it was 
 expected that the woman's branch of the Congress Auxil- 
 iary would meet separately. Our Joint Committee was 
 the first to determine that in our own Congress the papers 
 contributed by women should form part of the common 
 programme; and this plan was afterward generally 
 adopted by the denominations and by the Parliament Com- 
 mittee. A selection was made from the many papers 
 offered by the Committee of Women, of such as were 
 deemed most suitable to represent the teachings of the 
 New Church as commonly interpreted among us. Many 
 of the papers, however, treated of themes, or presented 
 views worthy of consideration, but which could not be 
 called representative. They were more suitable to a home- 
 conference than to a presentation of the New Church 
 before the world. This led to a decision to devote 
 the afternoon session of each day to a " Round- Table 
 Conference," at which these papers might be read and 
 informally discussed. They were not entered upon the 
 published programme, nor are they included in this vol- 
 ume, because intended to awaken thought in the Church 
 rather than to declare the thought of the Church. 
 
 The intended programme for the Presentation meet- 
 ing in Washington Hall had to be abandoned. The 
 topics, as arranged to follow the Addresses of Welcome, 
 were as follows: 
 
 1. "The New Church a New Dispensation." By the 
 Rev. Cbauncy Giles. 
 
 2. " Relation of the Second Advent of the Lord to 
 the History of Religion in the Progress of the Ages." 
 By the Rev. R. R. Rogers of England. 
 
130 NEW-CHUECH CONGRESS 
 
 3. " The Light which the Internal Sense of the Word 
 throws upon the Unities and Diversities of the Historic 
 Faiths and the present Conflicts in Christendom." By 
 Kev. J. E. Kendell of England. 
 
 The failing health of the Eev. Chauncy Giles, who 
 has since passed into the spiritual world, precluded his 
 taking the part his brethren had been so much interested 
 in as worthily representative of his whole life's work; 
 and our English brethren were not able to be with us, 
 and did not respond with papers. It became neces- 
 sary therefore to arrange for the Presentation meeting, 
 selecting suitable topics from the analytical programme. 
 The paper by the Eev. Frank Sewall on "The One Lord 
 and One Church, with its Successive Ages," and that by 
 the Eev. J. K. Smyth on "The Mission of the New 
 Church to the Christian Denominations," were admirably 
 adapted to furnish, together with the Addresses of Wel- 
 come, a general view of the mission of the New Church 
 in the world. They are here placed, however, where they 
 belong, in the analytical programme, in order that the 
 series of essays may present as intended a complete view 
 of the origin, nature and mission of the New Church to 
 the human race. 
 
 ADDRESS OP WELCOME BY 0. C. BONNEY, PRESIDENT 
 OF THE WORLD'S CONGRESS AUXILIARY. 
 
 Members and Friends of the Church of the Holt 
 City, New Jerusalem: — In the name of the Only Wise 
 God our Savior, who was in Christ, reconciling the 
 world unto Himself, and in whose glorified and Divine 
 humanity dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, 
 I reverently bid you welcome. 
 
 The Church of the Holy City, New Jerusalem, which 
 comes down from God out of heaven, having the glory 
 
PREPABATION AND WELCOME 131 
 
 of God, and a light like unto a stone most precious, even 
 like a jasper stone clear as crystal, is pre-eminently the 
 Church of Reconciliation. It comes to reconcile reason 
 and faith, science and religion, miracle and law, revela- 
 tion and philosophy. It comes to reconcile the teachings 
 of Sacred Scripture and the results of modern research; 
 the apparent truths of superficial observation and the 
 real truths of human experience; what we know of the 
 spiritual world of causes and our knowledge of the 
 natural world of effects. It comes to reconcile the duties 
 of to-day and the hopes of to-morrow; the best use of the 
 life that now is with the highest preparation for the life 
 that is to come; the warfare with evil and the hunger for 
 peace; the ministry of sorrow and the thirst for joy. It 
 comes to reconcile labor and capital ; industry and learn- 
 ing; government and liberty; self-help and the help of 
 others. It comes to reconcile with each other the con- 
 tending sects of Christendom, and the multiform religious 
 systems of the other parts of the world. 
 
 This Religion of Reconciliation brings in its right 
 hand the Word of God, and in its left the Divine Science 
 of the relation between natural and spiritual things, by 
 which alone that Word can be defended and expounded; 
 and only asks that its teachings be considered in freedom 
 according to reason, and accepted so far as they are seen 
 to be true. 
 
 The New- Churchman loves the followers of the Orien- 
 tal Religions, not only because they, also, are children of 
 the Father in Heaven, and brothers with spiritual needs 
 like our own, but also because he sees in those Religions 
 the remains of the Divine symbolism through which God 
 talked with man in the ancient Church. He loves the Jew 
 for his belief in the Sacred Scriptures of the Old Testa- 
 ment, and because he represents the Divine Law and 
 Prophecy. He loves the Catholic, because he represents 
 
132 NEW-CHURCH CONGEESS 
 
 the stipremaey of Faith, and the sovereignty of the 
 Church Universal. He loves the Lutheran, because he 
 represents the great principle of personal responsibility 
 to God, and the necessity of self-examination and judg- 
 ment according to the Divine law. He loves the Congre- 
 gationalist, because he is the representative of religious 
 liberty in opinion and in worship. He loves the 
 Methodists, because their church is the external form of 
 a great religious movement of the New Age. He loves 
 the Baptists, because they represent fidelity to the letter 
 of the Holy Word in which abides its fullness and 
 power. He loves the Presbyterians, because they repre- 
 sent Divine justice and the punishment of sin. He 
 loves the Universalists, because they represent the infinite 
 love and mercy which gives to every soul all the wisdom 
 and happiness it will receive. He loves the Friends, 
 because they teach the simplicity and purity of the 
 regenerate life. He loves Episcopalians, because they 
 teach the beauty and utility of established forms of 
 religious service and worship. He loves the Unitarian, 
 because he represents the unity of God and the surpassing 
 excellence of the Son of Man. The New-Churi-hman 
 loves all who, in any form, and in any degree, worship 
 God, and strive to do His will. If less favored than 
 himself in religious light and knowledge, all the more 
 they need his sympathy and help. 
 
 So believing, the responsibilities of the New-Church- 
 man are greater and more serious than those of the 
 disciples of any other Faith. When he claims a better 
 light, he acknowledges higher obligations. It is the 
 mission of the New-Churchman to show that the Faith of 
 the New Church is, indeed, " the Religion of Common 
 Sense," and that " all Religion has relation to life, and 
 the life of Religion is to do good." 
 
PftEPAEATION ANi) WELCOME 133 
 
 The New-Churchman must be cosmopolitan. Wher- 
 ever, in all the world, God ia worshiped and man is loved, 
 the New-Churchman should feel at home, able to sym- 
 pathize and ready to help. 
 
 This Congress has -been arranged and the programme 
 for it prepared by a Committee of Organization, of 
 which the Kev. L. P. Mercer is Chairman; and a cooper- 
 ating committee of women, of which Miss A. E. Scammon 
 is Chairman. The programme is in every way worthy 
 of the great occasion, and shows how ably and diligently 
 the committees have done their work. I will only add in 
 conclusion my humble and earnest acknowledgment of 
 the Divine Providence of the Lord, to whom we are 
 indebted for both the idea and the realization of the 
 "World's Congresses of 1893. 
 
 WELCOME AND DECLARATION BY REV. L. P. MERCER, 
 CHAIRMAN OP THE COMMITTEE. 
 
 It is my pleasant duty, in behalf of the Committee of 
 the World's Congress Auxiliary, to whom was intrusted 
 the conduct of this Congress of the New Jerusalem 
 Church, to extend to you welcome, and to our brethren 
 of every Religion throughout the world greeting in the 
 Name of the Only Wise God our Savior. 
 
 There are abundant reasons why the New Church 
 should enter cordially and actively into preparations for 
 a World's Congiess of Eeligions. The youngest of the 
 Historic Faiths, it reaches back to embrace the oldest, 
 and to complete and crown them all with the final 
 revelation which restores their pristine wisdom and Divine 
 sanctions; and this, not as the triumph of human specu- 
 lation, nor as the evolution of natural goodness, but as 
 the gift of the abounding merisy and grace of the Lord 
 God Omnipotent, worshiped in every tongue of man, 
 and on every earth of the starry universe. 
 
134 NEW- CHURCH CONGEfiSa 
 
 All Eeligions look, not only back to the revelations 
 from which they originated, but forward to a culmination 
 promised. They testify, not only to an innocence and 
 wisdom lost, but to a fuller unfolding of the wisdom and 
 power of God, promised and hoped for. The New- 
 Jerusalem Church stands for, and witnesses to all the 
 nations of the earth, the fulfillment of this expectation of 
 the ages, in so far as Divine Revelation can institute and 
 constitute the kingdom of God. It must be received 
 into willing hearts, and build them up into the life of its 
 principles, before the kingdom of God can come; but 
 revelation institutes that movement, and influx of the 
 Divine Spirit impels, directs and consummates that pur- 
 pose in the currents of life in both worlds, and in the 
 experiences of souls even that see not the hand by which 
 they are led. 
 
 We worship the One God, who is the Infinite and 
 Eternal Lover and Thinker and Doer, who has created 
 human souls in such form and structure that He may 
 reveal Himself to them and re-create them into His image 
 and likeness, and impart to them His goodness and wis- 
 dom and the joy of His life. 
 
 We believe that this One God, who is the Absolute 
 Man, has revealed Himself from the beginning as the 
 Heavenly Father; and that the streams of tradition pro- 
 ceeding from that revelation have kept alive a witness of 
 Him with every nation; and that all in any nation who 
 look to Him according to their Religion, are gathered and 
 instructed in the spiritual world into the right knowledge 
 of Him, and protected in the spiritual and heavenly love 
 and service of Him. We believe that all the just who 
 have lived and died on earth, are thus living in the spirit- 
 ual world in the fuller knowledge and love of Him, and 
 that His Spirit, flowing in through a heaven of such, 
 conserves and vivifies all that remains of permanent value 
 in any Religion. 
 
PElPAKATIOij AND WELCOME 1^5 
 
 We believe that He has, "at sundry times and in 
 divers manners," given the revelation which is contained 
 in the Holy Scriptures, so that it should be not only a 
 witness to Him, "in whom is life and whose life is the 
 light of men," but the fountain of light to angels as well 
 as men, and thus the means of light through heaven to 
 the "ends of the earth and to them that are afar off." 
 
 We believe that the Word which was with God and 
 was God, "was made flesh and dwelt among us; "that 
 He assumed our nature through the gate of birth and 
 came into the world, that He might live the Word, assert 
 its power against evil spirits, subjugate the hells, and 
 redeem man from their dominion. We believe that in 
 Jesus Christ he made His human nature Divine from the 
 Divine in Himself, and the Visible God in whom is the 
 Invisible; and that completing the Holy Scripture by the 
 record of His work and the promise of His final coming 
 and kingdom. He fills it with His Spirit and operates all 
 power by means of it in heaven and on earth. 
 
 We believe that the benefits of that redemption, and 
 the quickening life and light of that Word, are extended 
 through Heaven and the world of spirits to all," whosoever 
 in any nation feareth God and worketh righteousness." 
 
 And we believe that even as He promised to come 
 again to men. He has accomplished His Second Advent 
 in the opening of the spiritual sense and Divine mean- 
 ing of the written Word, through the human instrumen- 
 tality of Emanuel Swedenborg. The Lord always makes 
 use of men as His instruments on earth for the revela- 
 tion of His truth to mankind. The whole course of His 
 Providence in this respect has been to reveal at the great 
 crises of the Church, through suitable men, the truth 
 needed for the institution of a new era of the Church. 
 Swedenborg, though largely endowed and marvelously 
 trained for receiving in his understanding and publishing 
 
136 NEW-CHtJECfl CONGEESS 
 
 to men a revelation of spiritual, rational and self- 
 attesting (ruth, ascribes the authorship and authority of 
 them to the Lord alone. 
 
 The New Church, therefore, stands for this new 
 revelation from the Lord — not in iiew Sacred Scriptures, 
 but in the opening of the spiritual sense and genuine 
 meaning of the Word given in the Old and New Testa- 
 ments. This purely Divine work of opening the Sacred 
 Scriptures and of revealing the science of correspondences 
 which was the source of wisdom in the Ancient Churches, 
 throws light also upon the origin and diversities of Eelig- 
 ions, furnishes the key to their sacred books, and leads 
 them to their essential unity in the True Christian 
 Religion and Church, now to be established as the culmi- 
 nation and crown of all the Divine dispensations. The 
 communication of the heavens with the Church on earth 
 is opened anew, aU those gathered into the heavens from 
 every nation and kindred and tongue see a new mean- 
 ing in the Word they have believed; the good from every 
 Religion entering the spiritual world are instructed; and 
 thus a new way is opened, both in the spiritual world 
 and on earth, for a Universal Church in the faith of the 
 One Visible God in whom is the Invisible, the Glorified 
 and Divine Human Jesus Christ, " in whom dweUeth all 
 the fullness of the Godhead bodily," who imparts eternal 
 life to all who look to Him and keep the commandments 
 of righteousness. 
 
 The grounds for this Faith will b§ opened more fully in 
 the papers which are to follow, and more specifically in 
 the future sessions of the Congress. It only remains for 
 me to say that the New Church, from its very nature, 
 cannot be the rival of any. Coming last in time, it comes 
 from the God who creates and regenerates, and points to 
 Him and His saving mercy in every Religion by which he 
 is worshiped. Christian, it is yet neit her a positive nor 
 
PKBPAEATION AND WELCOME 137 
 
 negative development of historical Christianity, but a 
 new dispensation of truth and life from the Lord Jesus 
 Christ which is universal in its spirit, scope and purpose. 
 It is wide as human need, and universal and impartial as 
 Divine love. It transcends sect and nation and extends 
 by invisible chains of influx from society to society, 
 binding all who love the Lord and work righteousness 
 into One Grand Man of which the Divine Man is the 
 transforming soul. It would gather into its embrace all 
 the good and true of former dispensations, and open out 
 into a career of illimitable spiritual progress, 
 
 " Till Christ in men the living Lord shall reign. 
 And HiB One Chnrch all chnrches shall contain." 
 
 ADDRESS OF WELCOME FROM MISS A. E. SCAMMON, 
 CHAIRWOMAN OF TB[E WOMAN'S COMMITTEE. 
 
 More than a hundred years ago an old bell rang out 
 the Declaration of Independence of a people. In this 
 year of our Lord 1893, in the cool air of a September 
 mom, a new bell of Liberty rang out its ten strokes to 
 proclaim another declaration, the message of peace, good- 
 will to men. For at ten that same September morn the 
 ten great Faiths of the world clasped hands, and the 
 prophetic song of David seemed to be fulfilled, "Behold, 
 how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell 
 together in unity." Who that was in that great Convo- 
 cation in this Palace, well-named the Memorial Palace, 
 did not thank God that he had lived to see this day f 
 And as he looked toward the representatives of the great 
 Faiths of the world, their faces illumined by the sunlight 
 of truth, what did he read there ? Eeligious conviction 
 stamped upon the face of everyone; and if he turned to 
 the audience the same eager look of earnest faith was 
 reflected in every countenance. 10 
 
138 NEWCHUECH CONGEESS 
 
 What is the meaning of this great assembly where the 
 East and the West have met together, the forerunner of 
 the time when righteousness and peace shall Mss each 
 other? The meaning is this: Eeligion is the Divine 
 instinct of the human race. It is the touch of sympathy 
 which makes the whole world kin. Man bom in the 
 image of God seeks from the childhood to the manhood 
 of the human race to understand the source of the life 
 within him. "Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt 
 return" has been the sad refrain of the past; " and there 
 shall be no more death, for the former things are passed 
 away " is the gospel of the future. Naturally, therefore, 
 in the evolution of the idea of holding a World's Con- 
 gress, the EeUgious Congress was the first one suggested, 
 and from that sprang into existence the idea of all the 
 other Congresses. Finally, as culmination and comple- 
 tion of the grand and universal circle of thought, the 
 Parliament of Religion takes its place, the grandest 
 parliament ever assembled upon this earth. A priest of 
 Buddhism has told us that a Congress of Religion was 
 held in the Island of Ceylon twenty-one centuries ago; 
 but this is the first Congress wherein all Faiths of the 
 world are represented, and where both men and women 
 make up not only the audience but the Congress itself. 
 No natural event can take place without its spiritual 
 cause. What is the spiritual reason that women have 
 part in this Congress of the Nations? Is it because they 
 wish to be prominent among men? Ah, no! We must 
 search farther for the answer to the inquiry. History 
 and human consciousness give the reply. Every man 
 and woman bears within him and within her the Divine 
 attributes of truth and love; but in man the truth or 
 reason leads, and in woman love. Therefore Religion, 
 whose essence is love, finds a spontaneous response in 
 the very being of woman, and as no life nor any work 
 
PREPARATION AND WELCOME 139 
 
 can be complete unless truth and love are united in it, so 
 no Religious Congress could fulfill its mission without 
 the full co-operation of men and women. This is the 
 reason why the women of the New Age have put aside 
 their disinclination to appear in public, and accepting the 
 invitation of the World's Congress Auxiliary as a call 
 from above to answer for the Faith they love, and to 
 share with others the joy of the truth they possess, they 
 will seek in this Parliament to give the message of 
 womanhood to the world. 
 
 To-day the N,ew- Jerusalem Church presents its decla- 
 ration of faith and adds its welcome. The minister of 
 the New Church in Chicago has given you the leading 
 doctrines of our Church. The women of the New Church 
 add their loving emphasis to his words, and with glad- 
 ness of heart and thankfulness of spirit we welcome you 
 all, and beg you, the representatives of foreign lands, to 
 carry our fraternal greetings back with you to all the 
 people who will watch for your return. We welcome 
 you all, and especially greet as sisters the women who 
 have traveled from far to join with us in making this 
 assembly a veritable feast of love. We are delighted to 
 know that a sister from India, who as a child, joined the 
 circle of Christian believers, is with us; and also an 
 earnest Christian woman from the historic island of 
 Iceland. 
 
 What is the word now for the New-Church woman to 
 utter ? The learned Vivekananda has said that the Brah- 
 man sees good in all Religions. The New Church teaches 
 that all Religions are providential, because they originate in 
 Divine Truth; and that all religion has relation to life, and 
 the life of religion is to do good. Let no thought of 
 personality enter this holy hour. Woman's especial 
 function is to embody in a form of good and use the 
 eternal truths revealed to humanity. We believe that 
 
140 NEW-CHUECH CONGHESS 
 
 the Lord has come again by revealing Himself in the 
 spiritual sense of the Sacred Scripture, and that from 
 that sense are the Doctrines of the New Jerusalem. It 
 i& for the Church, which represents woman; it is for each 
 individual woman of the Church, to seek the truth, the 
 Lord, and to keep alive the affection for Him in herself 
 and in man; to see and provide that every work in which 
 she has a part is an expression of love founded upon 
 truth. 
 
 0, women, sisters all, of whatever race you may be, of 
 whatever creed and clime, let us listen to the voice 
 within; let us be sure we have the truth, and then let us 
 obey it. Let not self-love, love of admiration, of power, 
 of popularity, of wealth or rank, dim our vision. Let us 
 prove all things by the gauge of their use, their good- 
 ness, and the growth of the spiritual life within. 
 
 You, my sisters in the New Church! If we feel that 
 to our Church is given the highest revelation of truth; if 
 we feel that to us, the women of the Church, is vouch- 
 safed the conception of the highest life of Love itself; 
 shall not each of us say, like Mary of old, "Behold the 
 handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to Thy 
 word." 
 
CHAPTER n 
 
 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF THE 
 NEW CHURCH 
 
 I 
 
 ONE LORD, ONE CHURCH, WITH ITS SUCCESSIVE AGES 
 
 BY THE EEV. FRANK SEWALL 
 
 It is from the inmost idea of history that the whole 
 course of the world may be surveyed and comprehended 
 in its unity. The history of the world is never completed 
 and its circle never closed, since it reaches into indefinite 
 aeons of time. The Infinite alone, in whose vision time 
 changes to eternity, can survey the whole of being and its 
 destiny. But if we may regard the course of history as 
 an ever widening spiral, we may, from the form of a 
 series of gyres conceive of the form of the whole after a 
 finite manner. This form of the whole takes its nature 
 from the center from which it is developed, and so the 
 central idea of history is the idea of God. As God is the 
 Form of forms, so the nature of all forms or series of 
 forms can be seen as we comprehend truly the nature of 
 God, and so from the idea of God we can alone survey 
 the course of history according to its unity; that is, 
 according to its true form. 
 
 It is the great privilege of the New Church, to whom 
 is given the revelation of heavenly truths in their essen- 
 tial character, to enter more deeply than has hitherto 
 been accorded to man into the study of the Form of 
 forms, and so to see the history of the world in its unity. 
 Thus seen the history of the world is the history of the 
 
 141 
 
142 NEW-CHDKCH CONGRESS 
 
 evolution of the Divine Love and Wisdom, and thus the 
 development of forms from the original Form, the union 
 of Infinite Love and Infinite Wisdom in the Being and 
 the Person of God. 
 
 "For things each and all to be forms it must be that 
 He vrho created all things is Form itself, and that all 
 things which have been created in forms are from Form 
 itself." "The Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom are 
 Form itself and thus the very and only Thing.'' "The 
 Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom are one in the Lord 
 and proceed as one from the Lord; and the Form makes 
 a one the more perfectly as the things entering into the 
 Form are distinctly different and yet united." (Sweden- 
 borg's Divine Providence No. 4.) 
 
 All the created forms of the world and their develop- 
 ment in a series are therefore nothing else than the evo- 
 lution of the infinite things of the Divine Love and 
 Wisdom which enter into and constitute the First Form 
 — the Creator of the World. 
 
 In this divinely revealed doctrine we shall find the 
 key to the world's history. The succession not only of 
 the great Divine Dispensations or Churches, but of the 
 physical and civil eras of mankind, is but the reaching 
 out of the Divine for embodiment in human society, the 
 shining forth of the Divine Light that it may become the 
 Light and the Life of men. "The end of creation is a 
 heaven from the human race." The history of Keligions 
 has hitherto been regarded from stations on the circum- 
 ference rather than from the center of Life. It has been 
 the history of the fragmentary views of the Divine 
 caught here and there hy men, rather than a history of 
 the Divine revealing itself to men. The Word as now 
 revealed in its interior content is a history of the descent 
 of the Divine into the outermost borders of creation, of 
 its reception and treatment there, of its redeeming work 
 
DISPENSATIONS OF THE OHtlBCH 143 
 
 there, and of its restoration of the world by the great 
 atonement or reconciliation into unity with its Divine 
 Creator and Source. 
 
 The evolution of God, after the first groundwork of 
 creation is laid in the material earths on which man could 
 dwell, is the descent into the consciousness of men — 
 first by direct inflowing and immediate revelation, and 
 afterward by the Word written, and lastly by the Word 
 incarnate in Jesus Christ, and the abiding presence of 
 the Holy Spirit proceeding from His glorified and Divine 
 Humanity. 
 
 The succession of the great Churches or Dispensations 
 among men is the succession of their several modes of 
 understanding, receiving and obeying this ever outgoing 
 Divine Word. Each great Church or Epochal Keligion 
 among men is such according to its peculiar understand- 
 ing of the Word. 
 
 There have been four such great Church eras in the 
 world's history, namely: those named in the Bible, as 
 Adam, as Noah, as Abraham and as that of the Apostles of 
 Jesus Christ. The three names, Adam, Noah and Abraham 
 only symbolize respective modes of receiving the Divine 
 into human intelligence and moral activity; our Lord Jesus 
 Christ Himself is the full reception, or as He Him- 
 self declared, the Fulfillment of the law of the Prophets. 
 These three epochal names are here used, viz: of the 
 antediluvian, postdiluvian and Hebraic epochs, not as 
 representing single individuals or families, but whole 
 ages of religious experience. While there is a distinct 
 demarcation between the Dispensations so named in the 
 Divinely given record of their succession in our Sacred 
 Scripture, it does not follow that in the history of man- 
 kind these distinct religious eras have been the subject of 
 any universal limitation as to the duration of each. 
 Rather have the Dispensations overlapped each other an^ 
 
144 NEW-CHUECH CONGEESS 
 
 become commingled in innumerable ways, and each suc- 
 ceeding age witnesses the survival of the religious forms 
 of preceding ages. Not only does the Jewish Eeligion 
 still retain a hold after centuries of Christianity have 
 elapsed, but even to-day survive among the various forms 
 of paganism, distorted remnants of the Keligions, the rites 
 and the worship of the Noetic age, as witnessed especially 
 in the mythologies, the sacred monuments and hiero- 
 glyphic writings of Egypt and of the Oriental world. 
 Remnants of the Church of Eden may still be preserved 
 among the aborigines in the heart of Africa; and in the 
 calling of the Churches to judgment in the great consum- 
 mation, we are taught that many shall come from the 
 East and from the West, from the North and from the 
 South, and sit down in the kingdom of God, but the 
 children of the Kingdom shall be cast out. 
 
 We are to distinguish, however, between the survival 
 of the forms of a Keligion, and that of the religious life 
 itself which first inspired these forms. The forms, the 
 traditions, the creeds even of a religious era may remain 
 long after their life has ceased to be felt or regarded. 
 It is the tendency of external things to harden and become 
 unchangeable as they grow lifeless; and the perpetuation 
 of many forms and usages which sprang originally from 
 religious impulse, but have since wholly lost their relig- 
 ious meaning, as, for instance, the very language we 
 speak, the alphabet we write and print, all are but sym- 
 bols of the Divine and spiritual realities which once lay 
 visibly embodied in them. Our art of writing, the use of 
 numbers and all hieroglyphics, and mythical deities, are 
 remnants of the Noetic age, once full of Divine meaning, 
 but now having a meaning only as applied to and con- 
 nected with external things. The very language we 
 speak, and especially that of the letter of the Word, is 
 but a translation of what was an interior consciousnesg 
 
DISPENSATIONS OB THE CHURCH 145 
 
 of Di-vine and spiritual realities. " Enoch walked with 
 God, and was not, for God took him." (Gen. v: 24.) 
 The Divine meaning still remains within the letter of 
 the Scriptures as it does within the phenomena of nature, 
 but our eyes and ears perceive only the surface and the 
 symbol. While the interior perception remained, there 
 was the vision of the Divine unity of things, — the worship 
 of the One God. " The whole earth was of one language 
 and one speech." (Gen. xi: 1.) The primitive Religion 
 of the Golden Age was the mother of all Eeligions. The 
 vast variety of its symbols were only expressions of the 
 Infinite things that constitute the one primeval Form, — the 
 Divine Love and "Wisdom which formed the world. 
 
 As the inner vision of the Divine One-in-many 
 became dimmed, the symbols crystallized into as many 
 different deities, each with its own special votaries and 
 rites, and so arose the diversity of Faiths and worships 
 which has gone on increasing to this day. It is as we 
 penetrate to the reality within the symbol that we shall 
 come back to the vision of the One God of all the ages, 
 of all the Churches. 
 
 The going forth of the Divine into the various planes 
 of man's receptivity, even to the last extreme — when God 
 "looked, and there was no man," and hence there 
 remained only the fulfillment, "Lo! I come. In the 
 volume of the book it is written of me" — is an evolution 
 of God necessitated by the Divine Nature itself. Love 
 LIVES IN ITS GOING FORTH. That by which it goes forth is 
 the "Sent of God," it is the Divine Wisdom, the Word 
 which in the beginning was with God and was God, but 
 came into the world in the Incarnation as the "Sent of 
 the Father." "The Father that sent me. He doeth 
 the works." "I and my Father are one." The separation 
 of the Word from the Father, or of the Truth from the 
 Love, necessary to the huinan intellect after it had itself 
 
146 NEW-CHOKCH CONGRESS 
 
 become severed from the high will of its first love and 
 turned to the vision of the symbol only — this is the 
 origin of the diverse Faiths and Eeligions of men. And as 
 the lower will drew more and more the intellect into its 
 service, even down to the plane of sensuous vision only, 
 the idea of God, the Love that sends, became clouded 
 to human comprehension. In scientific thinking it 
 became clouded in the idea of nature; in the pagan 
 theologies in the ideas of separate gods; in the incrusta- 
 tion of Christian theology in the idea of a trinity of 
 persons in the Godhead. But the "Sent" is always and 
 only the "Sent of the Father," and He and the Father, 
 even as the Divine Wisdom and the Divine Love, even 
 as the Word spoken and the heart that speaks it, are ever 
 and forever One. "In Him was life, and the hfe was the 
 light of men." The words that He speaks, they are 
 spirit and they are life. They that have seen Him have 
 seen the Father. He and the Father are One. 
 
 The separation of the intellectual vision, or the 
 human apprehension of the revealed wisdom .of God 
 from the intuitive perception of the love, which separa- 
 tion is the origin of the varying and successive Religions 
 of the world, is itself the result of the closing of the 
 interior planes of consciousness in the souls of men. 
 The highest degree of the human mind — the celestial — 
 was that to which the Divine Love was immediately 
 revealed, and to which heaven and its realities were an 
 open vision. It was the Eden age of mankind; "when 
 Adam and his wife were both naked before God, and 
 were not ashamed." (Gen. ii: 25.) It wasafter this that the 
 intellect entered upon the symbolic age of concealment, 
 or the veiling of realities in the symbols of a language 
 that could equally conceal and reveal. At the same time, 
 with the desire of the intellect "to know good and evil," 
 aad to make itself garroentg, instptid of itself being the 
 
DISPENSATIONS OF THE OH0KOH 147 
 
 gai-ment of the inflowing Wisdom and Love of God — 
 came the closing of the celestial plane of the mind, the 
 passing away of the Golden Age. 
 
 The Divine descent now could find abode only in the 
 plane of faith — the spiritual plane. It is the age of 
 Noah, of the vine and its fruits; of the Flood and of the 
 Ark; the age of inventors, and at last, of the builders of 
 the fatal tower, of the confusion of tongues, and the scat- 
 tering abroad upon the face of the earth. And so passed 
 by the second great age of human history, the mother of 
 religious diversity and dissension. 
 
 Then came the third, the sensuous, or natural age, 
 when, the celestial and spiritual planes of fhe mind being 
 closed, the inflowing of God could only be perceived 
 naturally and representatively in signs and wonders. 
 Faith and love toward God could now only be exercised 
 in the observance of a divinely ordained ritual, and in the 
 obedience to a divinely given law of conduct. From 
 Abraham to Moses, and to the Kingdom and to the Cap- 
 tivity, the history of the Church and this period of the 
 world is necessarily a thing of written Scripture. It is 
 the Old Testament; it is the Word, not in the heart of 
 the lover of God nor in the Faith of the believer, but in 
 the Law and the Prophets; an external system of Eelig- 
 ion, a perfect symbol of God's actual operation on an 
 infinitely larger scale for the redemption of the human 
 soul from the bondage of the natural will, into which, by 
 the perversion of the intellect, it had sold itself. But it 
 is a symbol of whose interior meaning the outward 
 observers of the law became utterly oblivious, so that hav- 
 ing eyes they saw not, having ears they heard not, neither 
 did they understand; and yet within the symbol of the 
 Law and the Prophets was the same watchful and out- 
 reaching God of all the ages, the God of Abraham, the 
 God of Noah and the God of Adam. 
 
148 NEW-CHUECH CONaEESS 
 
 Then in the fourth age of the world, when no longer 
 even the sensual plane of reception of the Divine 
 remained in man, since men had made even the law of 
 God of none effect through their traditions, there was 
 born into the world that Man-child who himself was to 
 become the fulfillment of the Word, and then the very- 
 presence of God in human nature itself. Humanity was 
 to be redeemed and glorified by the reception of the 
 divine in all the degrees of the human mind, the celes- 
 tial, the spiritual, and the natural, even to the corpo- 
 real; and in the descent of God into His world, God 
 came with a sword cutting a swath of heavenly light and 
 purity and peace through the disordered, diseased and 
 rebellious ranks of evil spirits, and their sinful obses- 
 sions of mankind. God's path downward opened man's 
 path upward. Jesus Christ was the Door; by Him man 
 entered again into life and into a knowledge of the One 
 God the Father. 
 
 But not all at once was the ancient vision of the one 
 God of the ages restored. Men in the Christian Church 
 still read "with the veil upon their faces'' as the Jews 
 had done before (II Cor. iii:15), and the glorified Lord 
 entered for a time into a cloud, on the Ascension into 
 Oneness with the Father. But the promise was left with 
 the Church He formed, that He would return; that 
 although He had hitherto spoken even unto his apostles 
 in proverbs, the day would come when He would "no 
 longer speak unto them in proverbs, but would show them 
 plainly of the Father." 
 
 The fifth age of the world, that of the promised second 
 coming of Christ and of the descent of the Holy City New 
 Jerusalem as the tabernacle in which God will dwell with 
 men and be their God, will, then, be the ago of the remov- 
 ing of the veil, the deeper unfolding of the symbolic 
 Word in revelation and the plainer revealings of the 
 
DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHtlKOH 149 
 
 Father. " In that day shall ye know that I am in the 
 Father, and the Father in me." Jesus as the One God 
 of all the ages, the Wisdom in which is and ever breathes 
 and lives the Divine Love — the one Life and Light of all 
 worlds — this is the Faith to be restored to the Churches 
 and the scattered Religions of the earth. It is the Faith 
 in which the promise will find its blessed fulfillment of 
 the " One Fold and the One Shepherd," " of the One 
 King of all the earth whose name is One," even the king- 
 dom of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Alpha and the Omega, 
 the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, who 
 is and who was and who is to come — the Almighty ! 
 
 But the restoration of the unity of the Church will 
 not be a mere intellectual revealing; it will indeed con- 
 sist in the Lord's opening the understanding of men that 
 they may understand the Scriptures and see Christ alone 
 as the very essence of the Word and its fulfillment from 
 Genesis to Eevelation; but the true unity will be the 
 restoration of the union between the understanding of 
 truth and the love of it and the ivill to obey it. To 
 those desiring "to do the will of the Father" will it be 
 given of the Spirit "to know of the doctrine." The 
 return of the Chiirch to its unity in Christ, its Source, 
 will consist in the reunion of faith and charity. This 
 will itself eflPect the reopening of the spiritual con- 
 sciousness of men, the lifting of mankind into that 
 higher plane of vision wherein the veil shall be taken 
 away and the Divine realities again seen. To the 
 restored vision the spiritual meaning of the Scriptures 
 will again be intelligible; the reality of man's spiritual 
 body and his life after death will be an acknowledged 
 fact. The spiritual world will be seen as the inner mean- 
 ing of nature, and heaven as the inner meaning and 
 explanation of the human life; and in all will be recog- 
 nized the One primeval Form revealed anew; the Divine 
 
150 NEW-CHCKOH CONGRESS 
 
 Love and the Divine Wisdom and operation of the 
 Eternal Grod, — the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, united 
 and ever living in the Glorified and Divine Humanity of 
 Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion forever and 
 ever. Amen. 
 
 II 
 
 THE CHURCH BEFORE CHRISTIANITY 
 BY REV. GEO. NELSON SMITH 
 
 The history of the Church in the world is comprised 
 in two grand periods. The point of division between 
 them is the coming of Jehovah, the Heavenly Father, 
 clothed in Humanity for the redemption and salvation of 
 men from captivity to evil. All other events of the 
 Church center around that pivotal event which conjoined 
 men with their Heavenly Father. All before that look 
 forward to it, foreshadow it, and are fulfilled and ended 
 in it. All after that take their rise from it, have their 
 beginning in it, and are efiPects of causes which set it in 
 motion. They are the working out of perfections which 
 it made possible. 
 
 We may call these two epochs of the Church by a 
 name signifying the relation they bear to this event, thus: 
 The Church before, and the Church after the advent of 
 Christianity. They are so distinct and so different that 
 they present distinct and different subjects for con- 
 sideration. We will here consider: The Chui-ch before 
 Christianity. 
 
 It is not a subject that is altogether easy to consider. 
 It is, indeed, the most difficult one in all history, as history 
 is made and understood by the moderns. It reaches 
 back into the prehistoric ages, or the mythological ages, 
 
DISPENSATIONS OF THK CHDECH 151 
 
 as they are sometimes called, of which we have no trace 
 except through mythology, or parable, or allegory, that 
 needs to be interpreted in order to be understood. When 
 we think how universally history shades back into 
 mythology or allegory, we realize how uncertain must 
 be our knowledge of the early history of the race, 
 especially as regards the states of the Church therein, 
 unless we can make sure of the key to the interpretation 
 of myth and allegory. That scholars are not sure of 
 their own invented keys, their perpetual disagreements 
 show. In this perplexity it is a relief to turn to the true 
 key of sacred and Divine correspondences, as found in 
 the Scripture, and unfolded by the revelation of its 
 internal sense, which has been given for the use of the 
 man of the New Church. To do this is to be convinced 
 at sight that in this " science of sciences," in which con- 
 sisted the " wisdom of the ancients," telling of the rela- 
 tion of correspondence between things visible and earthly 
 and things invisible and heavenly, we find the only 
 solution of the mysteries of the ages. This alone can 
 open their " dark sayings of old," and enable us to read 
 them. So sure am I that as I proceed it will be so 
 recognized, that without further preliminary I will make 
 it the basis of our sketch. 
 
 Our subject subdivides into four epochs of the " Church 
 before Christianity." These were: The Most Ancient, 
 or Adamic, a perceptional Church; The Ancient, or 
 Noatie, a correspondential Church; The Hebrew, a sacri- 
 ficial-representative Church; and the Israelitish, a mere 
 form or effigy of a sacrificial-representative Church. 
 
 All these had one, and only one, feature in common. 
 They had all a foreshadowing typical look toward the 
 Incarnation of Jehovah. They all were chiefly " Shad- 
 ows of good things to come," which were to be fulfilled 
 only in that event. And this was for the reason that 
 
152 NEW CHURCH CONGEESa 
 
 only then was the Divine Humanity of God, which had 
 ever existed in potency and by representatives made a 
 full actual and visible Divine Humanity, so that men 
 could "worship and be conjoined to the visible God in 
 whom is the invisible, as the soul is in the body;" and do 
 it directly and immediately, without the aid of repre- 
 sentatives. When the Humanity became the Mediator 
 of access, representative intermediates were abolished. 
 Before that, all alike had needed them, and used them. 
 In every other respect they differed exceedingly. 
 
 The Most Ancient, or Adamic, was especially unique. 
 It differed widely both in origin and nature from any- 
 thing else on earth. In origin, it was not, as has been 
 supposed, an instantaneous creation: man full formed, 
 mature, wise. The myth of the pre-Adamites has this 
 truth in it; that from lower cruder beginnings the race 
 was gradually brought up to the state of goodness and 
 wisdom of the Most Ancient Church. 
 
 The newly created man in his first state was instinct- 
 ive and knowledgeless, like an animal. He differed from 
 the animal more internally than externally. This was 
 because he had in germ the internal degrees of a man 
 with the capacity of their opening and development. 
 He was not evil, as men have ever since been: only 
 simple and undeveloped in human wisdom. His sim- 
 plicity was not fierce and hurtful like that of the savage as 
 we know him, but gentle and innocent, like the unoffen- 
 sive animal. From this state by the gradual opening of 
 his truly human faculties of perception he was raised to 
 the state of full man; wise as well as good; and so the 
 life of the Church was fully implanted in him. Its 
 peculiarity was that it was implanted in simple good and 
 innocence, without having to contend with and remove 
 any of the hereditary evil of later times. It was the lift- 
 ing up into a higher, more hiiman plane, the simple 
 
DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 153 
 
 instinctive goodness and innocence of the first state; 
 making it instead of the good instinct of an animal, what 
 we may call, if allowed the expression, the wise-good 
 instinct of a man. His life was no less impulsive and 
 spontaneous, but it was wisely so. It was that of a pure 
 love of goodness and wisdom flowing forth into pure and 
 clear perceptions of the things of goodness and wisdom . 
 He could not, as we can do, love an evil and think a truth 
 condemning it and admonishing of the duty of is 
 restraint. He could not indeed think separate from his 
 love, nor in fact think in our sense at all ; only love, and 
 see what he loved, without any separate thought about it; 
 all in one and the same life process. It was like the 
 process of desire, thought and act, of a skilled instru- 
 mental performer; all one instantaneous process; only 
 that it was not, as that is, intellectually acquired. It 
 spontaneously and perceptionally flowed in from the Lord. 
 Another unique quality followed from this. It was 
 to be able perceptionally, and without having to learn 
 and memorize, to see the revelations of Divine Wisdom 
 made in the visible things of the Creator's works. 
 Creation was seen to be an outbirth of the Divine Love 
 and Wisdom, and every object in it to be an especial birth 
 of some principle of that Love and Wisdom; so that each 
 corresponded or answered back to it. The sun, giver of 
 natural heat and light, corresponded to the Lord's 
 heavenly sun, the giver of heavenly heat and light, love 
 and wisdom from Him; the moon, receiving and reflect- 
 ing light from the sun, corresponded to faith in men 
 which receives and reflects the light of the Lord's truth; 
 the stars, smaller lights, corresponded to the lesser 
 knowledges of Faith ; the expanses in which they were 
 corresponded to the true heavenly planes of life; clouds 
 obscuring their light corresponded to spiritual obscura- 
 tions of heavenly light; earth, the place of external 
 
 11 
 
Ib4 KEW-CHl)BCfl CONGhESS 
 
 environment and rest for human life, corresponded to the 
 like outer planes of the spiritual life; mountains to 
 heights of love; valleys to humble, lowly states; v^aters in 
 various forms to truth in like various forms; animals, 
 good and evil, to affections good and evil ; birds, clean 
 and foul, to true and false thoughts; trees and plants to 
 the varied perceptive products of the mind; dwellings to 
 the principle of life in which the mind dwells ; husband, 
 wife and children there, dwelling, to intellectual affections 
 and proceeding active principles of the mind. These and 
 thousands like them they saw as correspondences, teaching 
 them of the invisible things of creation, "which were 
 therein clearly seen and known." In this sight and 
 knowledge they found revelation from the Lord, and the 
 means of goodness and wisdom and of the life of the 
 Church with them. 
 
 The loss of this by its closure as an internal 
 revelation from the Lord, and its opening only as a 
 sense of self knowledge; of the serpent-like, prone 
 sense apprehension and persuasion that sense was all; 
 its life the only life, its desires the only good, its 
 conceits the only truth, brought the fall, and with it all 
 evil into the world. What had been spontaneous and 
 instinctive good and wisdom, became spontaneous and 
 instinctive evil and fantasy. This, by generation after 
 generation of going on from bad to worse, ended in a 
 deluge of evils and fantasies thab destroyed this percep- 
 tional state and the Church it had made. The mission 
 of that Church was ended. It could no longer save men. 
 Spontaneous evil loves became as destructive as spontane- 
 ous good ones had been saving. There must be an end 
 of spontaniety or man must be hopelessly lost The 
 whole order of life must be changed. The way must be 
 opened for a process of reflection and deliberation, so 
 
DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 155 
 
 that loves that are evil may be seen to be so and 
 restrained, and better ones may be implanted to grow up 
 in their place. 
 
 This was accomplished by the formation of an 
 understanding for thought separate from the evil loves 
 of the will, and the sowing in that of the germs of new 
 affections and seeds of new truth to guide and bring 
 them to fruition. Among some of the simple and less 
 corrupted Gentiles, a few Noite people were found 
 susceptible of the change. With these was the Church 
 in its new changed form established. This was done 
 through the building up and entering into an "ark of 
 safety" in newly found principles of conscience of right 
 willing and doing. To provide the new formed under- 
 standing with truths, providential preparation had been 
 made through the Enoch men, who gathered, arranged 
 and codified the science of the correspondences of natural 
 to spiritual principles, that had been to the Adam men the 
 means of revelation and instruction. Then they made 
 record of them to be preserved and handed down against 
 the time when they could be used by the Noite men. So 
 far as the Enoch men were concerned, they "were not" 
 as the Scripture expresses it; that is, were not of use, 
 "for God took them" in His Providence to be preserved 
 for the instruction of the Noites, as soon as their capacity 
 for separate thought and understanding could be formed 
 and put to use in better living. Thus came the first 
 written Revelation, or the Ancient Word, now lost. 
 
 A new understanding with such a simple Gentile 
 people could at first be only a very simple and unstable 
 thing, and easily intoxicated with its new-found truths. 
 This drunkenness of the Noite people found two kinds of 
 elements to treat it: one without charity turning it to bad 
 account. Ham's jesting On the occasion; and one with 
 charity turning as far as . possible to good, Shem and 
 
156 NEW-CHURCfi CONGRESS 
 
 Japheth covering with the mantle of charity. These 
 two states worked out their respective results of cursing 
 and blessing, as they went down through the years; 
 Ham's posterity, Canaan, cursed, and Shem and Japheth 
 blessed. The Canaanite element, as we know, early 
 became direfully, cruelly wicked. The others, for com- 
 paratively long ages, maintained their integrity. 
 
 These elements emanating from their central Noatic 
 source spread the new intellectually formed Church over 
 wider extents, through a hitherto comparatively large 
 Gentile world. The Most Ancient Church had not been 
 of large extent, The sacred names, as its four rivers and 
 others, have been preserved with sufficient definitent^ss to 
 locate the lovely Eden state as having its seat centrally 
 in Canaan and its immediate surroundings. The Ancient 
 Church spread more diffusely into the outlying Gentile 
 world and embraced all western and central Asia, north- 
 ern Africa, and shading off and modifying by its signifi- 
 cant symbolisms all Europe and its Islands of the sea. 
 They all caught some of these symbolisms and turned 
 them into the kaleidoscopic myths which are found in 
 Greek, Eoman, Slav, Norse, Teuton, Celtic and Briton 
 lore. 
 
 We now approach the transition period when prehis- 
 toric record shades into historic record. We can begin to 
 verify the prehistoric by the historic. We here find much 
 more of the loving and true life of the Church than we 
 ever do afterwards. The early sacred books of Egypt, 
 Assyria, Persia and India show a worship of one God, as 
 a Being of Love and Wisdom, who is the All loving 
 Father of men, and who brings his children into being to 
 give them good, blessing and happiness, and who is best 
 worshiped and served by Ihem, when they give and 
 receive the good and happiness which He created them 
 for. These records are full of bright and cheerful views 
 
DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 157 
 
 of life, its duties and its destiny. Their theme was 
 thankfulness for the blessings of life, the fruits of the 
 fertile earth, the delights of home and family, and the 
 promises of life to come. They tell of men li-ving simple 
 peaceful happy lives in their quiet homes of loving fami- 
 lies, giving and receiving the blessings of favoring 
 heaven and bounteous earth. A late reviewer of these 
 ancient books says: "It is only after ages of these happy 
 times had passed that we find the change to the gloomy 
 and despairing moods that are seen in all the Religions 
 which have superseded them in which life is regarded as 
 so much torture invented by the arch enemy of men, and 
 its best hope is in its extinction in the fiual "Nirvana" as 
 we now find brought forward in the newly revived The- 
 osophy." Men became mighty Nimrod hunters of new 
 inventions of horrors, and towering "Babel builders" of 
 dismal fantasies. The confusion they worked in the 
 division of Faiths and alienation of hearts is only to-day 
 under the auspices of the New Jerusalem and at the invi- 
 tation of the New Church seeing the first effort at 
 retrievement in the meeting and friendly greeting of all 
 Religions, for the first time in the ages. 
 
 The first step downward in the Ancient Church was 
 in a tendency to materialize their symbolisms. The 
 Noites had thought and talked of self sacrifice for others' 
 happiness. They had thought and talked of offering the 
 hearts' best loves to their Heavenly Father, and to His 
 child, the brother. They had thought and talked of the 
 good and innocent creatures which were forms embody- 
 ing these loves. They grew in successive generations 
 more and more material, and at last became impelled to 
 enact all this in material form, and to make sacrifices 
 and offerings of their symbols. The Hebrew people 
 were the first to make this innovation. They first built 
 altars that were more external than altars of the hearts' 
 
158 NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 
 
 worship, and ofEered on them sacrifices and offerings that 
 were more material than "sacrifices of righteousness." 
 This practice, in the growing materialism of the age was 
 catching. It spread far and wide, so that quite early in 
 the historic period we find animal sacrifices and incense 
 offerings quite general. The result, forgetting the 
 meaning and regarding only the form, surely followed. 
 Early in history this took place. Sacrifice of some victim 
 was the usual propitiatory offering to heaven. 
 
 With this came a degradation of the idea of the God 
 to whom it was to be offered, as pleased with the blood of 
 victims. Instead of the loving Father once wor- 
 shiped, bloodthirsty monsters had come. Every newly 
 invented perversion of Divine attributes into an image of 
 the prevailing cruel thought became a new bloodthirsty 
 cruel God. Even the idea of any one supreme God, to 
 say nothing of any good and living one, was preserved 
 only in the far east of Persia and Bactria in the Magian- 
 izm of Zoroaster. And that was buried under many cor- 
 ruptions of doctrine and shorn of its life and power. 
 Everywhere true doctrine and life was gone. The repre- 
 sentative Church of the Ancients had lost its power to 
 lead men any more to goodness of life. It could no 
 longer check the madness for dominion and greed, rapine 
 and slaughter and every cruelty which blot the early his- 
 tories. Thenceforth till the fullness of time was come 
 when the Heavenly Father could " visit and redeem His 
 people " and give them again a revelation of His love and 
 His saving precepts of love, no true Religion of love could 
 longer be preserved. Only an empty form of it could be 
 secured to fill the gap and hold the earth in anticipation 
 of and preparation for it. The Israel people filled this 
 need. They were capital actors. They dramatized with 
 zeal and care any formal part given them to act. They 
 were of the original Hebrew stock where this tendency to 
 
DISPENSATIONS OF THE OHUECH 159 
 
 enacting forms began. This gonins intensified in them 
 more than in any other people made them the best actors 
 of a Church, while there was no Church in all the world. 
 They cared all for acting — nothing for living. The 
 Church was not in them, for neither of its loves, of God 
 or man, were in them. They were always ready in a 
 twinkling to leave the loving Father for the cruel blood- 
 loving gods of the heathen. They were cruel to their 
 fellow- man on every opportunity. Yet they received and 
 carefully preserved for the ages to come the Divine Word 
 as we have it, that contained the most intensely mono- 
 theistic revelation ever given of the most loving Father 
 ever revealed to wayward children, and a law of the most 
 merciful brotherliness of man with man ever written in 
 moral code. They eagerly performed all the rites that 
 symbolized it; the ritual of sacrifice that set forth the 
 sacrifices of justice; the ritual of offering, of holy loves; 
 the ritual of cleanness, "o'f clean hands and a pure 
 heart;" of punctilious dealing, of brother love and 
 mercy; and so they preserved alive these shadows of good 
 things to come till He should appear in whom they should 
 be fulfilled, filled full of the loving principles that were 
 in them. That they were not a Church makes no less 
 important the preparation which they made for the 
 Church which in the fullness of time was to come. They 
 were given a work like that of the Enoch people. The 
 Enoch men stored and preserved revelations of truth that 
 they could not use till those who should come after them 
 should use them. So the Israel people stored and pre- 
 served the fuller revelations of the oracles of faith and 
 life, using them not themselves, but sacredly keeping them 
 for the use of the Christian Church that should come 
 after. Thus they served an important use in preparation 
 for that Church with its "good things to come," "its sub- 
 stance" to which all the forerunning shadows had pointed. 
 
160 • NEW-CHUECH CONGKESS 
 
 By their zealous use of forms of representative worship 
 they performed another and most important use — that of 
 conjoining earth and heaven. 
 
 The ''whole family in heaven and earth are one." The 
 earthly members cannot be separated from the heavenly 
 and live. In the interim when there was no Church that 
 separation threatened. It was averted by the preserva- 
 tion of the form of a Church by the Israel people. Their 
 rites, devoutly performed, were accepted by simple spirits, 
 who took things for what they seemed, who were drawn 
 near to them while thus devoutly engaged. Through 
 these again angels were drawn in nearer presence to 
 men, and the way of descent of heavenly life from the 
 Lord through heaven held open till He should coine and 
 bring the fullness of God bodily to dwell with men, and 
 so heaven and earth be made forever one. 
 
 Ill 
 
 THE CHURCH OP THE FIRST A.DVENT 
 BT THE REV. JAMES BEED 
 
 The Church of the First Advent is that which was 
 called into existence by the Lord Jesus Christ, when He 
 dwelt visibly on earth. All men know how, from among 
 those who followed Him, He chose certain ones to carry 
 on the work which He had begun. He said to them, 
 " All power (or authority) is given unto Me in heaven 
 and on earth. Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all 
 nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and 
 of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to 
 observe all things whatsoever I harve commanded you." 
 In obedience to His command the apostles went forth, 
 proclaiming the glad tidings of the Gospel, and sealing 
 
DISPENSATIONS OF THE OHOKCH 161 
 
 belief in their Lord by His distinctive sign of Baptism. 
 Thus were laid down the foundations of the Christian 
 Church on which later generations builded. 
 
 Before proceeding farther, let us understand what 
 we mean by a Church. Says Swedenborg: "That 
 which constitutes heaven with man, also constitutes the 
 Church; for as love and faith constitute heaven, so also 
 love and faith constitute the Church." Where the Lord 
 is acknowledged, and where the Word is, the Church is 
 said to be; for the essentials of the Church are love to 
 and faith in the Lord, from the Lord; and the Word 
 teaches how man is to live in order that he may receive 
 love and faith from the Lord. In order that there may 
 be a Church, there must be doctrine from the Word, 
 since without doctrine the Word is not understood. But 
 doctrine alone does not constitute the Church with man, 
 but a life according to it. (H. D. 241, 242, 243.) 
 
 If we bear in mind this definition and apply it to the 
 Church of the First Advent, we see that the coming of 
 the Lord into the world had the effect of producing a 
 new love and faith, which gave birth to that Church. 
 This is an evident historical fact. The Jewish Church 
 had come to its end. Such love and faith as it originally 
 received had died out. The Jews were still in possession 
 of the Word, or Divine Revelation as embodied in the 
 Old Testament; but they had falsified and perverted it. 
 Instead of imbibing its true teachings, they taught for 
 doctrines the commandments of men. Instead of paying 
 the Lord the sincere homage of a genuine worship, they 
 fulfilled the prophetic saying, " This people honoreth me 
 with their lips, but their heart is far from me." Where- 
 fore it became necessary that a New Church should be 
 established, unless all love and faith were to perish from 
 among men. 
 
162 NEW CHURCH CONGRESS 
 
 By the Lord's life and teachings, this needful object 
 was effected. He rekindled the expiring flames of a true 
 Religion. He revealed a new convenant or testament, and 
 breathed fresh meaning into the Old. He gave the 
 impulse which resulted in a new phase of spiritual 
 thought and life on earth. The faith of this New Church 
 was belief in the One God made manifest in Jesus Christ; 
 its love was a life of obedience to His Commandments. 
 The early Christians cherished the Divine Word and 
 valued its teachings as above all price. The essentials of 
 the Church from the beginning of time had been belief in 
 One God, the Creator and Preserver of the universe, and 
 the keeping of His precepts as the means of coming into 
 just and orderly relations with Him. Inseparable from 
 these, was a belief in the revealed Word, which tells men 
 all they know about the Lord and about His precepts; so, 
 when the Christian Church was formed, there was sub- 
 stantially a renewal of the ancient covenant with the 
 Gospel supplementing the Law and the Prophets. 
 
 But the purity and simplicity of the primitive Chris- 
 tianity did not long continue. Metaphysical subtleties 
 arose and clouded the minds of men. Dogmatic differ- 
 ences concerning the nature and person of the Savior 
 obscured and weakened the direct relationship which the 
 Church had borne to Him. As the latter gained in pub- 
 lic recognition, and grew more prosperous in a worldly 
 way, it drifted farther ofp from its first principles. It 
 was already rent with dissensions, when the Emperor 
 Constantino avowed himself a Christian, and brought it 
 under his powerful protection. To this fact, the Council 
 of Nice, assembled by him in the year 325, bears abun- 
 dant witness. The acknowledged pui-pose of that con- 
 vocation was to deal with the heresy of Arius, and its 
 proceedings mostly related to that subject. Out of it 
 was born the Nicene Creed, and later, that which is 
 
DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 163 
 
 coupled with the name of Athanasius. If truly God is 
 one in essence and in person, and our Lord Jesus Christ 
 is God humanly revealed, then did those creeds set up a 
 false standard. By affirming three Divine persons from 
 eternity, they destroyed the idea of Divine unity, and 
 substituted for it what was virtually a belief in three 
 Gods. In the same way they divided the allegiance 
 which had formed its only fit expression in a life according 
 to the Lord's teachings, and they opened the door to the 
 false and pernicious doctrine that man is saved by faith 
 alone. 
 
 Thus, from a spiritual point of view, the primitive 
 period of Christianity was its Golden Era. When that 
 period passed away, its state of comparative purity and 
 innocence was never regained. A process of decline had 
 begun from which there would be no recovery, till the 
 Lord should come again and establish yet another 
 Church. The Nicene Council forms the sharp line of 
 demarcation, from which the decadence is to be traced. 
 The disintegrating elements kept working, till at last 
 they ended in death. This result was finally reached 
 in the middle of the eighteenth century. 
 
 Then it was that the old Christianity died out, and 
 a new Christianity began. Then commenced a fresh era 
 in the world's progress — an era which all men recognize 
 as now existing, though they do not yet perceive the 
 Divine and heavenly source from which it had its origin. 
 
 It is a significant fact that the thousand years follow- 
 ing the Nicene Council are commonly known as the Dark 
 Ages. In them were combined all the elements of dark- 
 ness, ignorance, error, superstition, wickedness. During 
 that period arose the phase of Christian faith and wor- 
 ship which has its seat in Rome. Built on the false 
 assumptions of the Nicene and Athanasian formulas, that 
 system perpetuated the separation between the Church 
 
164 NEW-OHDBOH CONGRESS 
 
 and her Lord which becomes inevitable when there is no 
 clear conception of His natiu-e, and added its pretensions 
 of supreme spiritual domiiiion, which are equally fatal 
 to any true relationship with God. Little by little was 
 developed the theory that the bishops of Kome were the 
 lineal successors of Peter, and held the keys of the King- 
 dom of heaven. But in proportion as it was developed, 
 the Church forsook the guidance of Scripture and sub- 
 stituted her own devices. Human tradition superseded 
 Divine revelation. Saints and virgin, pope and priests 
 were interposed between men and their Lord. All this, 
 claiming for itself His sanction, was the utter denial and 
 rejection of His teachings. How could love and faith, 
 which constitute the Church with man, fail to perish 
 under such conditions? 
 
 The well-known story of the Reformation need not here 
 be told. SufBce it to say, that the oppression and cor- 
 ruption of the Papal power went beyond endurance. 
 Luther protested against the heinous custom of selling 
 spiritual privileges for money, and posted his theses on 
 the Church gate of Wittenberg. In his words and acts 
 of defiance he gave expression to the thoughts of many 
 minds. But his protest was directed against the Romish 
 jjolity and practices, not against the vital teachings ■ of 
 the Church. All the doctrinal misconceptions which 
 were embodied in the Nicene creeds were re-afifirmed, and 
 some of them with added emphasis. A belief in three 
 Divine persons was still demanded, and to each of these 
 persons was assigned his own special office and preroga- 
 tives. God, the Father, was represented as inflexibly 
 severe, condemning to an eternity of suilering all who 
 were not His avowed worshipers, — condemning them 
 for no fault of their own, but for the sin of their first 
 ancestor. His severity could iiot be appeased, except by 
 the blood of a blameless victim; and that victim was 
 
i)ISPEl<SATIONS OP THE CHURCH l6S 
 
 found in the person of Jesus Christ, His only begotten 
 Son, whom the Jews crucified. He was willing to relent 
 in favor of those who should believe in the Son, and 
 accept Him as the sacrifice for themselves. These 
 should have everlasting life; but all others, including the 
 countless millions who never heard His name, should 
 burn in everlasting fire. No excellence of conduct and 
 character, no measure of fidelity in keeping the Com- 
 mandments, would be of the least avail, unless there were 
 the positive assurance of faith in the atoning blood of 
 the Lord Jesus. 
 
 From the distance at which we stand in history, it is 
 easy to understand the extreme doctrinal position taken 
 by the leaders of the Reformation. The Romanists had 
 laid special stress on good works, meaning by them in 
 particular, gifts, bequests, and other benefactions whereby 
 the Church, as an outward organization, was enriched, 
 and her temporal power increased. To those who 
 abounded in these works were promised the highest of 
 heavenly rewards. Luther saw the necessity of pointing 
 out a different road to heaven. He reasoned that man 
 could only be saved by faith. The apostolic saying, 
 " The just shall live by Faith," was always on his lips. 
 In his translation of the Scriptures he even had the 
 hardihood to add a word, and to translate the passage, 
 " The j ast shall live by Faith alone." Thus in trying to 
 avoid the Scylla of a corrupt ecclesiasticism he landed 
 his followers on the Charybdis of .Solifidianism. Nor 
 was the latter doctrine without previous churchly sanc- 
 tion. The reformers found it in the writings of Augustine 
 and other Christian teachers of good repute, and in the 
 public declarations of the Church itself. What Luther 
 urged with characteristic boldness, Calvin enforced and 
 elaborated with all the powers of his singularly aoute 
 mind. 
 
1]86 IjeW- CHURCH coniSeebs 
 
 These and other considerations should show that the 
 Keformation, glorious as it was in certain respects, — as 
 for instance, the restoring of the Bible to men, and 
 insuring their inalienable right of private judgment, — 
 was an improvement in methods, but not in essential 
 principles. All impartial readers of history must admit 
 that the corruption which was sown in the Dark Ages did 
 not disappear at theit close. Wars continued to be fiercely 
 waged, crimes were still perpetrated in the name of 
 Religion. If there was less of open violence there was 
 more of deceit and hypocrisy than in the days of the 
 crusades. The turning point was not reached, tho new 
 age did not dawn, till Protestantism was two hundred 
 and forty years old. 
 
 One who was living at that period, and who had 
 unusual opportunities for observation, — both natural and 
 spiritual, — gives the following graphic description of the 
 prevailing conditions. 
 
 " How few there are at this day who form their lives 
 after the precepts of the Decalogue and other precepts of 
 the Lord from a religious principle 1 How few there are 
 at this day who desire to look their own evils in the face, 
 and to perform actual repentance and thus enter upon 
 worship of the life! Or, who among those that make pre- 
 tensions to piety, perform any other repentance than that 
 of the mouth, which consists in words only, — confessing 
 themselves to be sinners, and praying, according to the 
 doctrine of the Church, and that God the Father, for the 
 sake of His Son, who suffered on the cross for their sins, 
 took away their damnation and atoned for them with His 
 blood, would mercifully forgive their transgressions, that 
 so they might be presented without spot or blemish 
 before His judgment seat? Who does not see that this 
 worship is that of the lungs only, and not of the heart, 
 consequently, that it is external worship and not internal? 
 
bISPfeNSATiONS OF tflE CHDEOfi l6? 
 
 For it is a prayer for the remission of sins, when yet man 
 is not conscious of a single sin that he has; and if he did 
 know of any, he would cover it over with favor and indul- 
 gence, or with a faith that is to purify and absolve him, 
 without any works of his." (B. E. 52.) 
 
 If, as we believe, this picture which Swedenborg 
 gives of his own times is a truthful one, then indeed was 
 the world ready for a new phase of Christian faith and 
 life; then had the Church founded by the Lord and His 
 apostles run its course, and reached its consummation. 
 
 In the unfolding of the Divine plans, that Church has 
 filled its own peculiar and important place; but now, the 
 special state of mind and the special phase of human 
 need to which it ministered, has passed away. The out- 
 ward form of it exists, and may continue to exist, for a 
 long time to come; but the spirit which was originally 
 breathed into it has departed. Its glory is transferred 
 elsewhere. 
 
 The Lord our God has made a new revelation and is 
 calling men to be joined with Him in a new covenant. 
 While we turn our faces joyfully towards the sun rising, 
 and cannot forget the darkness, iniquity and sufPering 
 from which it will deliver us, we remember that in the 
 spiritual, no less than in the natural order of events, 
 one day follows another, and we thank the Lord for what 
 He has done for mankind through the Church of His 
 First Advent. 
 
 IV 
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE SECOND ADVENT 
 BY THE REV. LOUIS H. TAFEL 
 
 The Church of the Second Advent is distinguished 
 from the Church established by the Lord at His First 
 Coming even as the Second Advent is distinguished 
 
168 NEWCBUECH CONGliESS 
 
 from the First. The First Coming of the Lord was in 
 a material body, and therefore limited to a certain place. 
 His Second Coming is in His Divine Glorified Body, and 
 therefore it is spiritual and universal. 
 
 Nevertheless, when rationally viewed, there is a great 
 similarity between the First and the Second Advents of 
 the Lord, and the objects accomplished at these several 
 manifestations. 
 
 At the First Coming, the Lord took on Himself a 
 material body which He glorified and thus rendered 
 Divine and Omnipresent; at His Second Coming He 
 revealed Himself in this Divine body, and disclosed the 
 manner of the glorification of His Human, so that we 
 may now, rationally, and with our whole heart and soul, 
 worship Him, as the infinite God-Man. 
 
 At His First Coming, the Lord also executed a general 
 judgment in the spiritual world which is around us and 
 within the natural world as the soul is in the body. Of 
 this great work the Lord spoke when He said: "For 
 judgment I am come into the world.'' "Now is the judg- 
 ment of this world, now shall the Prince of this world be 
 cast out." "I saw Satan as lightning fall from heaven." 
 In a similar way it is universally expected that at His 
 Second Advent, the Lord will execute the Last Judg- 
 ment. But, just as neither the Jews nor even the 
 apostles saw anything of the Judgment executed at His 
 First Coming, so little will men on earth see, or per- 
 ceive anything of the Last Judgment; for it is executed 
 not on the bodies of men, but on their spirits, which, 
 unseen to us, inhabit the spiritual world around us. 
 
 When this great truth concerning the Last Judgment 
 is realized men may receive with something of patient 
 attention the statement that the Last Judgment has taken 
 place in the spiritual world, and that the Lord, with 
 the angels of heaven, made His Second Coming visibly 
 
DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 160 
 
 before the countless spirits assembled in the world of 
 spirits below the heavens of the angels, and that this 
 took place and was witnessed in the year 1757, by the 
 servant of the Lord, Emanuel Swedenborg, whose spiritual 
 eyes were opened for that purpose. 
 
 As at His First Coming, so also at His Second, the 
 Lord made a new revelation of Divine truth and a new 
 Church founded on such revelation was raised up by Him 
 in either case ; at His First Coming the Lord revealed the 
 Word of the New Testament which completed and 
 finished the Word of God; and on this revelation He 
 founded the First Christian Church which has since 
 spread over so large a part of the earth. But, at His Sec- 
 ond Advent, the Lord revealed the hidden infinite love 
 and wisdom contained in the internal senses of the Word, 
 whereby it can be plainly seen, that the Word is indeed 
 the work of the Infinite Creator, infallible and inerrable. 
 This revelation is given in the writings of Emanuel 
 Swedenborg, and on this revelation is founded the New 
 Church, also called the Church of the New Jerusalem, 
 which starting among few is destined, as we believe, from 
 Holy Writ, to cover all the earth. In the revelation 
 given to the New Church is unveiled the heavenly and 
 Divine wisdom which lies hidden throughout, under 
 the parables of the letter. For it also the Lord has 
 taken away the veil behind which the spiritual world that 
 is all around us lay hidden. 
 
 We now see, that as in man the Lord is present in the 
 inmost soul, thence in the spirit, and thereby in the body, 
 so in the great universe, the Lord is present in the inmost 
 as the center of all, — dwelling in the Sun of heaven, and 
 is thence omnipresent in all the spiritual world, and 
 through this, in the numberless suns and earths that con- 
 stitute the natural world. The higher thus ever flows 
 into the lower, filling it with its presence, and ruling it. 
 
170 NEW-CHUKCH CONGBESS 
 
 Thus the heat of life, which is love, flowing from the 
 Sun of heaven pervades all the spiritual world, and the 
 spirits of men who are part of it; and this love gives 
 life to all spirits and men. In the man of the Church of 
 the Second Advent, this shows itself, even as it does with 
 the angels of heaven, in love to the Lord, in love to his 
 fellow -man, and in pure, conjugal love, which is the mystic 
 tie that forms the homes on earth and the eternal homes 
 in heaven. But the light of life that beams from the Sun 
 of heaven is the glory of the Divine truth, which is the 
 light of heaven, and is also "the light which lighteth 
 every man that cometh into the world." This is the light 
 that guideth the man of the Second Advent, even as we 
 read: "The city had no need of the Sun, neither of the 
 moon, to shine in it, for the Glory of God does lighten 
 it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof." And from the 
 breath of life breathed forth into the world by the Lord 
 Jesus Christ from the Sun of Heaven, every heart in 
 heaven and on earth pulsates and every lung draws breath, 
 and thus evermore " in Him we live and move and have 
 our being." 
 
 The Church of the Second Advent is at the same time 
 the Church of His continual presence. For to it, the 
 Lord reveals Himself, even as He is, the Being of infinite 
 Love, Wisdom and Power, at once, God and Man. To 
 it He has revealed how the Human assumed in the 
 Virgin Mary became glorified, and thus one with the 
 Divine, so that in it now "dwelleth all the fullness of the 
 Godhead bodily;" so that in worshiping the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, the infinite God-Man, we really worship all the 
 Godhead bodily. Since the Church of the Second 
 Advent thus worships the visible God in whom dwells the 
 invisible, she can be conjoined with Him with all the 
 heart and soul, with all the mind and with all the 
 strength; therefore she is called in the Word, "the 
 
DISPENSATIOKS OF THE CHURCH 171 
 
 Bride, the Lamb's Wife." While the Lord is thus ever- 
 more near to His Church on the internal plane of her 
 life, He also is present to her from without, in His Word. 
 Nor does He speak to her from the letter only, but also 
 from the now opened glory of the internal sense, and thus 
 she can be continually guided and directed of the Lord 
 in all her thoughts, and in all her desires, in all her 
 words, and in all her deeds; thus the presence of her 
 Lord is with her continually, and His presence is Peace 1 
 "And God wipes away all tears from their eyes, and there 
 will be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither 
 shall there be any more pain, for the former things are 
 passed away." 
 
 As the nearness and One-ness of earth and heaven are 
 realized, death loses all that used to make it grim and 
 forbidding, and every sincere New-Churchman looks 
 upon the spiritual world as his eternal home, where many 
 that he loves are already living lives of eternal useful- 
 ness, happiness and peace, and where all whom he loves 
 will sooner or later (and in comparison with an unending 
 eternity, it is always sooner) be gathered together to 
 dwell there forever. 
 
 In the Church of the Second Advent, the words of 
 the Lord are therefore literally fulfilled where He says: 
 "He that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." 
 
 And not only death is thus virtually at an end, but 
 also sorrow, crying and pain. The troubles of the day 
 lose most of their power of troubling when men realize 
 that the Lord Jesus Christ, infinite in love, wisdom and 
 power, is indeed present with each one of us continually, 
 ready and willing to save, protect and guide, for then a 
 great calm follows on the anxiety and unrest of the 
 world's busy strife. 
 
 It will soon be realized, indeed, that even a life thus 
 anchored on the Lord is not one of unvaried sunshine 
 
172 NEW-CHUECH CONGRESS 
 
 and calm, but misfortune and trials and temptations will 
 then be received like the rain and the storm on earth, as 
 merely another mode of making known to us our Lord's 
 love and mercy. 
 
 The man of the New Church is not to be merely 
 resigned to the ruling of the Divine Providence, but 
 thankful and trustful in all the Divine ordering of his 
 daily life, knowing that whether it seem to others fortu- 
 nate or unfortunate, to him if he makes the right use of 
 it, the orderings of the Divine Providence will but ever- 
 more lead to greater perfection and happiness. 
 
 Nor will the man of the New Church idly fold his 
 hands and wait for a palpable Divine guidance, which 
 never comes because it is not useful; but he will train 
 his understandings to the utmost, so that he may the 
 better understand his Lord's will, and he will train his 
 will to loyal, unwavering obedience to the Divine Will, 
 when thus revealed; and in thus fully doing bis Lord's 
 will from love, he will find the highest happiness and 
 peace. To root out what is false and evil in himself and all 
 around him, and to cultivate what is true and good, 
 heavenly and Divine, acknowledging that in this heavenly 
 life all the life and power comes from the Lord alone, is 
 the very essence of the life of the Church, — the Second 
 Coming; and as it spreads upon the earth, all evils and 
 imperfections on the religious, the civil and the social 
 planes will disappear, and love and wisdom, order and 
 happiness, — the kingdom of the Lord, — will come, and His 
 will be done as in heaven, so also upon the earth, for the 
 Lord's Church will then be, as it is intended, His heaven 
 upon earth. 
 
 The Church of the Second Advent differs fi-om the 
 Church of the First Advent lastly in this, that it remains 
 forever. The Church of the First Advent had its limit 
 set from the beginning in the promised Second Advent 
 
DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHUKOH 173 
 
 of the Son of Man, with power and great glory. But, 
 after the Second Coming, no farther advent is spoken of 
 in the Word of God, therefore also the Golden City, the 
 New Jerusalem, which describes the Church of the 
 Second Advent, is the last and crowning vision of the 
 Word, so that the New Church is to be forever the Lord's 
 Tabernacle with men on earth, in which he will contin- 
 ually dwell with them, making all things new. 
 
 "He which testifieth these things saith: Surely I 
 come quickly." And the Church of the Second Advent 
 lovingly replies: "Even so, come Lord Jesus. Amen!" 
 
 V 
 
 THE OATHOLIO SPIRIT OP THE NEW CHURCH 
 BY HEV. THOMAS A. KING 
 
 Catholicity can be predicated only of a Church because 
 a Church to be such must involve in its doctrinal structure 
 the universals of a true faith and a real salvation. The 
 Christian Church rent, torn and divided into hundreds of 
 sects does not in any of its almost numberless persuasions 
 present the true idea of catholicity. 
 
 When our Lord was crucified his outer garment was 
 divided among the soldiers; and by the rending of the 
 Son of Man's garment was prophetically set forth the 
 rending of the outer robe of the Divine word by the war- 
 ring sects of Christendom; the fact that each sect as it 
 arose and entered the arena as a combatant for its special 
 dogma cut from the garment of the Son of Man that 
 part which seemed to confirm its doctrines. These sects 
 stand for certain phases of religious doctrines and are 
 special in their relation to the great body of religious 
 tjruth. They are organized expressions of special theories 
 
174 NEW-CHUECH CONGRESS 
 
 of Faith and plans of salvation espoused by their 
 founders, theories upon which sufficient emphasis is laid 
 to give them a distinct form and existence. 
 
 These sects have been dignified by the name of 
 " churches," but when the true idea of what a Church is 
 becomes clearly fixed in the mind it is seen that the name 
 of Church cannot with any propriety be applied to them. 
 They are simply religious persuasions, the special forms 
 of whose dogmas commend them to man, and attract to 
 them those who believe that doctrine is formulated by 
 councils and in no sense a Divine levelation. 
 
 Special pleaders for certain human theories and 
 human interpretations of the letter of the word, none of 
 them can in any just sense be called Catholic, for the 
 simple reason that the true Catholic Church is a Divine 
 whole in^ olving universal principles. It does not stand 
 up to plead for special dogmas; its doctrines are one; a 
 splendid unity pervades them ; so that the acceptance of 
 one of its doctrines leads logically to the acceptance of all. 
 
 The doctrines of the true Catholic Church are the 
 doctrines of the internal sense of the Word illustrated 
 and confirmed by the letter; they are the inner vesture 
 of the Son of Man; they are woven without seam from 
 top to bottom; they are a magnificent whole. 
 
 Where shall we look for such a Church ? The doc- 
 trines of the New Jerusalem furnish the basis of a truly 
 - Catholic Church; and when I say that the New Jerusalem 
 is the true and only Catholic Church I do so on the 
 grounds of no human authority, I do so on the basis of 
 no man's ipse dixit, but solely on the authority of that 
 Divine Word which is forever settled in the heavens. 
 
 The Lord when he was ia the world distinctly fore- 
 told the end of the Church which was established 
 through the ministry of the apostles. "The sun shall be 
 darkened and the moon shall fail to give her light and 
 
DISPENSATIONS OF THE OHCECH 175 
 
 the stars shall fall from heaven," these were the words in 
 which the Son of Man portrayed the consummation of 
 love, faith, and spiritual intelligence in the Church. 
 Where these are dead the Church is dead, and that these 
 elements of the Church perished is a matter of history. 
 
 It is true that magnificent cathedrals lifted their 
 proud spires to the heavens, that choirs chanted holy 
 psalms, that men said litanies on bended knees, that 
 elaborate rituals were observed, and that pews were 
 crowded ; yet the heavenly soul of the Church had departed. 
 The intellectual and moral degradation of Christianity 
 is a matter of history. You all know how from the doc- 
 trine of the tri -personality of the Divine Being, a doctrine 
 formulated by the Council of Nice, there flowed those 
 baleful influences that crystallized into error after error 
 until finally the Headship of Jesus Christ was denied and 
 Christendom shrouded in moral darkness. 
 
 This bad moral state of Christendom was due to the 
 fact that as men from the Christian world migrated to the 
 spiritual, they perpetuated there the evils and falsities of 
 the Church on earth, and there they hung like thick 
 black clouds, shutting out the light of the Divine truth. 
 
 The Second Coming of the Lord brought the Church 
 into judgment; for the Lord's Second Advent was the 
 opening of the internal sense of the Word through the 
 agency of a man prepared for that mission. The Son of 
 Man came. Light Divine flowed from His open Word. 
 The imaginary heavens in the world of spirits departed 
 as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every island and 
 mountain were moved out of their places. 
 
 The passing away of these evil and false conditions 
 was effected by the Last Judgment; for as the light of the 
 open word flowed forth it brought into immediate judg- 
 ment the Church as it existed in the world of spirits. 
 The Lord's coming and the consequent judgment it 
 
176 NEW CHUKCH CONGRESS 
 
 wrought inaugurated the great spiritual movement, the 
 influences of which when they reached the earth aroused 
 men from their spiritual slumber and opened their eyes 
 to see the rising of a new sun and the dawn of a new 
 age. From the new heaven, new as contrasted with the 
 imaginary heavens, there descended the holy city New 
 Jerusalem. That city seen in vision was the symbol of 
 the New Church in its doctrinal aspect. 
 
 The descending New Jerusalem is therefore the coming 
 into human thought and life of the Church of the latter- 
 day glory of the Lord. It stands not for a sect but for 
 a new dispensation of Eeligion. It is here, not as it will 
 be in the ages to come, but as it must be in its infancy. 
 At present it is with a few, but its doctrines are not the 
 coinage of the human brain, not specialized expressions 
 of man's self -derived intelligence, but doctrine whose 
 origin is in God and whose descent from him is in the 
 form of a city fair to behold, golden and beautiful, and 
 the full measure of a man. 
 
 The New Church is not, therefore, a new sect in 
 Christendom. It is here not as a rival to any existing 
 form of faith, Christian or pagan. It is not a combatant 
 in the arena of theology. It is a new Eeligion. It 
 leaves the sects where they are; and is as distinct from 
 the first Christian dispensation as it was from the Jewish. 
 A truly Catholic Church, its spirit is one of deep love 
 for all the heavenly Father's children; a magnificent 
 city, it has gates of beautiful pearl that open and afford 
 entrance to all God's children, wherever they may be. 
 
 It is the crown of all the dispensations. All that the 
 preceding religious dispensations contained, the New 
 Church possesses. It comes as the full revelation of 
 God to man, the completion, the climax of Divine dis- 
 closures. The Ne-\v Church does not come to destroy, but 
 
DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHDECH 177 
 
 to fulfill. It comes with new light to enable all the sects to 
 come into fuller freedom of thought and into a Diviner 
 worship of the Son of Man. It has in its Divinely- 
 revealed system of truth what the Christian world needs, 
 the very light for which good and earnest souls are pray- 
 ing. It comes to lay its hand on the sick and recover 
 them. To proclaim the Gospel of the Headship and 
 eternal reign of Jesus Christ, and thus to restore to 
 Christianity its lost glory and enable it to go forth 
 conquering and to conquer. 
 
 But by the New Church I would have no one under- 
 stand the external organization so-called. Our organiza- 
 tion is simply the agent of the Church; it is human, but 
 the doctrines revealed are Divine and beautifully 
 Catholic in their spirit. They involve universal princi- 
 ples and are applicable to man in all ages of the world 
 and under all conditions of life. The organization called 
 the New Church, formed as it is of those who openly avow 
 their faith in the new revelation, is the custodian of the 
 heavenly doctrines; but, as all organizations are human 
 and of necessity subject to human imperfection and 
 limitation, therefore, the organized New Church does not 
 contain all and does not express all that is meant by a 
 New Church; for, as the sphere of the individual overruns 
 the boundaries of his personality and propagates itself in 
 other lives, so the New Church as the Lord's kingdom on 
 earth extends its influence and saving truth far beyond 
 the boundaries of our local organizations. And this, 
 because its doctrines are Catholic; its mission is to God's 
 children all over the world; its spirit one of universal 
 brotherliness, and its purpose in the world as free from 
 sectarianism as the Divine love itself. 
 
 The catholic spirit of the New Jerusalem grows out 
 pf tfee absolutely catholic character (1) of its doctrine 
 
178 NEW-CHCKOH CONGKESS 
 
 concerning the Lord, (2) of its doctrine concerning the 
 Sacred Scripture, (3) of its doctrine concerning the life of 
 faith and charity. 
 
 The doctrine of the Divine Humanity, the great truth 
 that Jehovah descended and assumed the himian, and by a 
 process of glorification united it to Himself, thereby 
 making a permanent Theophany and affording a channel 
 of the communication of the infinite life to the children of 
 men, at the same time making the Divine visible to 
 thought under the human form. This doctrine is fully 
 catholic in its spirit. The universal fatherhood of God 
 is revealed in it, and it has that in it which no sectarian 
 conception of God has, namely the great truth that the 
 incarnation was prompted by the movements of the 
 Divine love, a love not for a favored few but for every 
 child on this and all other habitable earths in the universe. 
 And not only is the doctrine of the New Jerusalem, 
 concerning the Lord, catholic, a doctrine which brings 
 the saving love of the groat Father to all men, but it 
 furnishes the only true foundation for a united catholic 
 Christianity; for when the glorious evangel of the New 
 Church is heard and believed, Christianity will become 
 one at its very center, one in its thought of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ; and that will give us in fullness what we 
 now have in its mere infancy, the true Catholic Church, 
 with a spirit broad, deep and universal, the spirit of 
 brotherhood, born of Him who said: " He that seeth Me 
 seeth the Father." 
 
 Again, the doctrine of the Sacred Scripture gives to 
 the New Church the spirit of ta-ue catholicity, and makes 
 it impossible for sectarianism to ejdst within her gates. 
 The Word is Divine in its inmost, for there the Lord is 
 who is the Word; then it has its spiritual sense with its 
 discreet degrees of truth, and as an ultimate of all its 
 contents, the letter in which d-vyejls ^1 the fullness o| 
 
DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHUBCH 179 
 
 power. This doctrine of the Word lifts it out of all that is 
 limited and local and teaches how it connects the Church 
 on earth with the Church in heaven, how even those who 
 are outside the pale of the Church are reached by its 
 sphere, as the blood reaches from its center, through 
 the action of the heart, all parts of the human body. 
 This heavenly doctrine of the Word makes the New 
 Church catholic in spirit. Pounded upon the Divine 
 Word it goes where the Word goes and touches with its 
 influence every heart that is really touched by the 
 sphere of the Word. But the New Church would not be 
 a truly Catholic Church if it recognized only the letter of 
 revelation; for that would limit its power and influence. 
 It therefore accepts the letter as merely the body of the 
 Divine soul of the Word, and believes that through the 
 sphere of its internal sense the Lord is present through 
 "the multitude of the heavenly host," not only with 
 those who reverently read its letter, but also through 
 the propagation of its holy sphere in the spiritual world, 
 with all who are in good all over the world. 
 
 The Word is not only here among men, but also in 
 heaven ; so that where men are in touch with heaven be 
 they heathen or Christian, there the sphere of the Word 
 is. "Forever Thy Word is established in heaven." 
 
 The Church that has this divine faith in the Word 
 must of necessity be a truly catholic Church with a 
 genuine catholic spirit, and with a deep love for God's 
 children wherever they may be, or under whatever form 
 of Religion they may have been reared. 
 
 (3) The catholic spirit of the New Jerusalem is seen 
 again in its absolutely catholic doctrine of life. A most 
 beautiful catholicity pervades this doctrine. There are 
 no limits set to the Divine love, and salvation is not 
 proclaimed as the result of subscribing to a mere creed, 
 neither are the gates of heaven closed to those who are 
 outside the pale of the Church, 
 
180 NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 
 
 " All religion has relation to life, and life of religion 
 is to do good." "The first thing of charity is to shun 
 evils as sins, and the second thing of charity is to do 
 good." These statements involve catholic or universal 
 principles, and are applicable to all Religions. They 
 overleap the barriers of sects and make the love of God 
 and the love of the neighbor the sole essence of religion 
 and therefore the ground of salvation. God in His Divine 
 Human • is present with all men to inspire them with 
 goodness of life from Himself, and wherever men look 
 up to that which really brings into their consciousness 
 the desire to be good and do good they find our Father; 
 and He puts His arms around them and leads them to 
 His heaven whether they be heathen or Christian. 
 
 Salvation is spiritual character; and all who live 
 according to the light of their Religion will be saved, 
 because religion is life. 
 
 Now this glorious doctrine of life must give to the 
 New Jerusalem a broad and warm catholic spirit, and 
 eyes to see and love to recognize good of life under what- 
 ever form of Faith it may have been lived. 
 
 Thus on this earth we have a true Catholic Church, 
 with a true catholic spirit, growing out of genuinely 
 catholic doctrines, even the Holy City which John saw 
 descending from God out of Heaven, whose twelve gates . 
 of pearl open to all in whose hearts there is a love of 
 the Divine Man and a desire to do his will. Amen. 
 
CHAPTEE m 
 
 ITS DOCTRINES THE BASIS OF A 
 UNIVERSAL FAITH AND CHARITY 
 
 I 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE LORD 
 BY REV. JOHN GODDAED 
 
 The deepest yearning of the human heart, when it 
 awakens from its earthly dream, is to know God; the 
 living, loving God. There is no permanent rest until He 
 is found. Nor is this need supplied in any wise by 
 thinking of Him merely as the infinite, the absolute, a 
 primal cause, a blind force, an unfathomable mystery. 
 Humanity feels its childish helplessness, its need of a 
 parent's love and protecting care. It longs for a God 
 who is also man — who knows His children by name, 
 and who can be known by them — one to whom they can 
 go, one who can come to them; one who can say: "Come 
 unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
 give you rest." 
 
 This desire for, this faith in, and this search after the 
 God-Man is the one vital theme of all religious history. 
 Obscure or clear, the Christ idea is universal. Its 
 remotest expression is the idol or the fetich; but the 
 intelligence of the world seems always to have believed 
 in and looked for the coming of a Divine Man. The tra- 
 ditions or records of the ancient nations reflect, however 
 dimly or distortedly, the one great truth which gives life 
 and unity to all the diverse Bible books, — the promise, 
 with its fulfillment in the advent, of the Divine Savior. 
 The very sibyls and symbols of the heathen world bear 
 
 181 
 
182 NKW-CHDBCH OONGEESS 
 
 witness to the same great expectation, until, at the birth 
 of the Prince of Peace at Bethlehem, the temple of 
 Janus at Eome, whose gates were always open in seasons 
 of war, is for the first time shut, and the oracles are 
 silent forever. 
 
 In this universal longing to behold the face of the 
 Divine Father we recognize that the creator has made of 
 one blood all the families of the earth; and while they 
 are as yet sheep of different folds, yet this yearning after 
 the one Shepherd is the promise of that future time 
 when all shall be gathered into one great fold. 
 (John x: 16.) 
 
 The coming Messiah is described by the prophet as 
 "the Desire of all nations" (Haggai ii: 7); and this tells 
 not only of the existence of a universal prophecy among all 
 nations respecting His coming, but that He who was to 
 be born at Bethlehem would satisfy all hearts' desires. 
 For we read in Revelation (xiii : 8) that the Lamb of God 
 slain on Calvary was "the Lamb slain from the founda- 
 tion of the world." Need it hurt our faith to hear, in 
 the history of ancient nations, of Christs born of Virgins 
 and crucified before Jesus came? If Abraham saw in 
 vision the Savior's day, and was made glad at the sight 
 (John viii: 56), might not other men behold Him too? 
 Alive to the leading facts of His life through prophecy 
 and vision, is it strange that they should invest certain 
 strong or good men with the halo of the expected Savior, 
 even as the Jews (Luke iii: 1 5) were disposed to do with 
 John the Baptist? Is it not thus that a Zoroaster, a 
 Guatama or a Caesar have found a place among the stars? 
 And is not this the reason that the story of a Thor, a 
 Jason or a Hercules have lived on to tell of the mighty 
 deeds of Him who cometh from Edom, with dyed 
 garments from Bozrah, treading the wine press alone f 
 (Isaiah Ixiii: 1-3.) 
 
NEW-CHXJROH DOOTKINES 183 
 
 . Judging, then, of the Keligion of the future by that 
 of the past, the human heart will always demand a God 
 who, .though unthinkable and invisible on His infinite 
 side, shall yet be visible and lovable on His human side. 
 And can we doubt that He, — whose history, according 
 to eminent legal authority, would stand in a court of 
 law; of whom Napoleon at St. Helena said, "I know 
 men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man;" and 
 whose coming has the most profoundly and permanently 
 stirred humanity, will, — when the Churches shall arrive at 
 a right understanding and love of Him, be the one object 
 of worship, the Light of all the world? 
 
 But who shall satisfy the intellect and heart of this 
 age as to His Divinity? The heart may rest satisfied 
 but the intellect of this age of universal enlightenment 
 is raising puzzling questions. How can the Infinite 
 become finite ? It was enough to the disciples of old to 
 take on trust the word of one who had lived His perfect life, 
 and who by His power had raised the dead, when He told 
 them that whoever saw Him saw the Divine Father (John 
 xiv: 8, 9) for whom the human heart yearns. But Jesus 
 saw that the time would come when more than this would 
 be needed. Shall all the lower stories of the human 
 mind become developed by education, and the higher or 
 religious mind be starved for want of spiritual nutri- 
 ment, stand still in bigotry, or relapse into unbelief? 
 Shall Religion forever debar the intellect from its coun- 
 cils ? It would seem that Jesus recognized the need of 
 more knowledge when He promised to come as soon as 
 men could bear it, and "show them plainly of the 
 Father." (Johnxvi: 12, 13, 25.) Was there ever a greater 
 need of the fulfillment of this promise than now ? 
 
 We believe that the promise is fulfilled, and that a 
 new revelation has been given. One result is, a rational 
 
184 NEW-CHUBCH CONGRESS 
 
 unfolding of the mystery of the Incarnation, whose barest 
 outlines only, can now be portrayed. We behold in Jesus 
 "the Word made flesh." (John i: 14.) This means 
 that the advent was the culmination of an orderly series 
 of descents or revelations of the Divine wisdom, or truth, 
 or " the Word," in orderly adaptation to the various states 
 and needs of man, until, in the " fullness of time " God 
 came in Person. 
 
 Differently from any man, Jesus Christ was conceived 
 of God, and born of the Virgin. From the human race 
 in both worlds, and by heredity through Mary, He clothed 
 His Divinity, in the time of the lowest moral condition of 
 the race, with a finite nature like our own, rendering that 
 nature open and inclined to every kind of human infirmity. 
 The Bible clearly indicates that temptation comes from 
 invisible sources, and personifies the various evil influ- 
 ences of hell under the title of " Satan," or "the devil." 
 Jesus, by virtue of His earthly heredity, became a shining 
 mark for their attacks, while from His Divine side He 
 could resist and overcome. His whole life in the world 
 was a process of overcoming all these evil and selfish 
 inclinations. This was the great " sacrifice," — the sacri- 
 fice of every form of self-love, surface or profound. 
 
 The result upon the hells was to remove what was 
 then their inordinate power. Their insane desire to 
 exert universal dominion, and to destroy the influence of 
 the Lord and the angels over men, was checked. The 
 prophet tells of it, and so does Jesus. "How art thou 
 fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning," eta 
 (Is. xiv: 9-15.) "I saw Satan as lightning fall from 
 heaven." (Luke x: 17-20.) The Lord's overcoming of 
 the powers ef hell was an act of mercy even to the evil, 
 since the unbridled exercise of selfish lusts always brings 
 with it the greatest sufferings. 
 
KfiW-OHDReH DOCTRINES 185 
 
 The result upon the human race was, redemption from 
 the overwhelming influence of the hells, the restoration of 
 spiritual freedom, the nearer presence of the Lord and 
 the angels in human hearts and human affairs. 
 
 The result upon the nature which He assumed from 
 the race through the Virgin was, that little by little that 
 nature, with all its tendencies to evil, and with all its 
 limitations, was forever put away, and in the place of it 
 the Divine nature descended to abide forever with men, 
 to be the Emmanuel or "God with us." 
 
 While in the world, and subject to the influences of 
 hell, our Lord possessed a separate consciousness from 
 the Divine, making Him speak of God and to God as of 
 and to another; but after victory in temptation, there was 
 a nearer consciousness of the Divine. In the one state 
 He said: "I can of mine own self do nothing;" in the 
 other He said: "He that seeth me seeth Him that sent 
 me." And after the full "glorification," or putting off of 
 His assumed nature, the consciousness of unity became 
 perfect and permanent. In this state He said "All power 
 is given unto me in heaven and earth." Therefore we 
 think of the glorified Jesus not as of a separate person from 
 the Faiiier, but we think of Him as God embodied or 
 made visible or manifest to our thoughts and affections, 
 just as our bodies in this world make our minds or real 
 selves manifest to each other. So God in Jesus Christ 
 becomes to men thinkable and lovable. Not only through 
 the gospel picture, or from the outside, but form within 
 the human soul. His own Holy Spirit, which is Himself, 
 can draw near and bear witness to our spirits that we are 
 the children of God, and bring peace to our troubled 
 hearts, provided we follow Him by sacrificing our own 
 selfish lives, and laying them down daily for the brethren. 
 The Holy spirit is nearer now, because Jesus is glorified. 
 (John vii:39.) 13 
 
186 SEW-CHORCH CONGHESS 
 
 Practically, how does this teaching affect our idea of 
 God, and what are its results upon those who receive it 
 and love it ? It does not destroy or injure the thought of 
 the intelligent man about God's infinite attributes. But 
 it tells us that the infinite God, on His human side, is 
 able to draw near to and satisfy the needs of every child 
 of His. It tells us that God is pure and perfect love, and 
 that as fast as our souls grow, through practical sub- 
 mission and daily obedience to His words and spirit, into 
 harmony with His unselfishness, that He will be able to 
 fill us with His own inward grace and peace, which is the 
 human creature's greatest blessing. There is nothing in 
 the Divine infinity which contradicts this Divine Humanity. 
 God does not live for Himself, for He is infinite unselfish- 
 ness, but for His children, who are made in His own 
 image. Infinity means simply love without limit, — love 
 for an infinite number of human beings and for what is 
 eternal or immortal in them. Infinity means, too, the 
 perfect Divine care over the least as well as the largest 
 affairs of life. This doctrine means,therefore, the removal 
 of any temptation to bow down before mere power or 
 greatness, whether in the form of nature's destructive 
 forces, or before some evil or selfish power behind them- 
 One object of worship, and only one, rises before our 
 minds. It is One who answers the highest requirements 
 of the soul. We are not taught, after the simplicity of 
 childhood is past, to think of God from the idea of Christ 
 as He appeared on earth, God is not to be thought of as 
 the carpenter or the carpenter's son, — the weary or 
 suffering one; but we are taught to think of Christ from 
 the idea of Ood, thus from the thought of the infinite and 
 perfect God coming down to reach His children in their 
 lowest estate. If it seems to any mind a degradation of 
 the thought of the infinite God, we reply that, on the 
 contrary, it is clearly the most spiritual and uplifting 
 
NEW-CHUROH DOCTRINES 187 
 
 thought of God that is possible. As it suggests a more 
 ennobling and intelligent idea of the great sun to study 
 the effect of a few rays coming down to our little garden 
 spots, making the flowers to spring up and the birds to 
 sing, than to study its great and distant orb directly, and 
 to learn of its vast size, and its chemical elements and of 
 its blind, stupendous forces, so the effect on mind and 
 heart of God manifesting Himself in Jesus Christ is far 
 more ennobling than the attempt to rest in or to fathom 
 the mysteries of Infinity. For the tendency of those who 
 believe only in the infinite and unknowable and imper- 
 sonal Deity is to cease to look upward for one's help, and 
 rely on one's own power. The tendency is to confuse the 
 distinction between God and the human soul ; and, if out- 
 ward morality is preserved, there is still lacking the 
 humility which alone can prevent man from taking credit 
 to himself for his good deeds, and making of himself a 
 whited sepulchre. "Without me," said Jesus, "ye can 
 do nothing." Not necessarily without Him as we know 
 of Him through the Gospels; but without a personal, 
 revealable, approachable God. It is " a power not our- 
 selves" which makes for real heavenly character; and, 
 unless in our hearts we acknowledge that power, we take 
 to ourselves the merit which is God's alone. We are 
 spiritual thieves and robbers. We climb up some other 
 way than' through the door. (John x: 1.) There is, 
 therefore, a need of faith in God as well as visible good 
 works. And there is need of faith in Christ, though not 
 necessarily under the name of Christ. The faith in 
 Christ may be, and is, in some degree, realized whenever, 
 as in ages past, there is a longing and expectation of a 
 manifestation of a loving God in or through the human 
 form. In this expectation, in some degree, dwells the 
 Divine Humanity, the spirit and power of Jesus Christ, 
 without whom we can do nothing. 
 
18S IjEW-CHtlECH CONGEES^ 
 
 This doctrine of Divine Humanity, the oneness of 
 God in Jesus Christ, meets the need of the human heart 
 in its simplicity and in its wisdom. The Man of the 
 Gospels, in His tender love, answers to the wants of 
 children and of all who are in childlike states; while the 
 picture of the glorified Lord, lifted up on high, answers 
 to the wants of the wisest. It is a doctrine which will 
 meet the hearts of all, as before, and will not ofPend the 
 rationality of any; for it will harmonize at once with 
 the universal longing for a visible and lovable and 
 approachable Deity, and with that perception, implanted 
 deep within every human mind, that God is one in 
 essence and in Person. It is in harmony with the earliest 
 Christian idea of Christ, who was regarded, not as a 
 separate Being from the Divine Father, but His visibilty 
 or earthly expression — the sole object of love and vener- 
 ation. For the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
 calls ' Him the " brightness of the Father's glory, and 
 the express image of His Person;" and Paul said, in 
 Him is "the Fullness of the Godhead bodily;" and 
 the beloved disciple calls Him the " true God and eternal 
 life." (Heb. i: 1-3; and I John v: 20.) 
 
 This doctrine of Jesus Christ meets trinitarian 
 Christians with a rational idea of what the Trinity 
 really is, and removes its former insoluble mystery. 
 The trine is simply the trine of soul, body and operation — 
 God infinite and invisible; God thinkable, revealable and 
 visible; and God active in human souls and experience, 
 redeeming and loving. 
 
 It meets the Unitarian mind with the rational decla- 
 ration that God is one in Person and in essence; that the 
 Christ who in the Gospels is represented as the Son of 
 God, sufPering and tempted and praying and dying, was 
 indeed separate and possessed another consciousness from 
 God while in the world, and under the influence of the 
 
NEW-CHURCH DOCTEINES 189 
 
 mind taken from the human race. He was indeed the 
 Son of God born in time, but not a Son from eternity; 
 the Son of God, however, in a far different sense from 
 that which declares that all men are sons of God ; for His 
 inmost soul from conception, unlike any other man's, 
 was Divine. 
 
 We claim, therefore, that this teaching meets the 
 highest and noblest yearnings of the human soul; that it 
 accords with reason and Scripture, when Scripture is 
 rightly understood; that it explains the differences in 
 Christian doctrine on this subject, and corrects its errors; 
 that it leaves men free to worship the Christ who has 
 been dear to all human hearts in ages past, while it opens 
 their understandings to a rational, ennobling, practical 
 idea of God. It meets the real wants of all intelligent 
 men, — all except those who want no God above them- 
 selves; or those who look for salvation through the merits 
 of a Christ working out a vicarious sacrifice, and saving 
 man through faith alone. 
 
 "Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufiiceth us,'' 
 implored Philip in the large upper room, when he learned 
 that Jesus was about to leave them forever. (John xiv : 
 8.) They knew that their allegiance was due to that 
 Father to whr.m Jesus always deferred, but how could 
 they approach Him, the Invisible One, and love Him, as 
 they had learned to love Jesus ? If they could only see 
 God as they had seen Jesus — real, lovable, tender, for- 
 giving — that would suffice; that would fully satisfy. 
 Listen to his reply, His explanation to the twelve alone, 
 in the esoteric gospel ; hear His deepest, truest, tenderest 
 parting message to those whom He had loved so long, 
 and who were to carry His message to the world: "No 
 man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had 
 known mo, ye wouM have known my Father also; and 
 from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him, 
 
190 NEW CHUECH CONGRESS 
 
 Philip saith unto Him, Lord, shew us the Father and it 
 sufficeth us. Jesus answered, have I been so long time 
 with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip ? He 
 that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest 
 thou then shew us the Father?" (John xiv: 6-9.) 
 
 II 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF REDEMPTION 
 
 BY EEV. JOHN PEESLAND, LONDON 
 
 Webster defines the theological meaning of Redemp- 
 tion as "The procuring of God's favor by the suffering 
 and death of Christ ; the ransom or deliverance of sinners 
 from the bondage of sin and the penalties of God's 
 violated law." Thus he exhibits God's anger and justice 
 as the chief perils from which sinners were redeemed. 
 The doctrines of the New Church, on the other haad, 
 describes Eederaption as "the subjugation of the hells, 
 and the arrangement into order of the heavens ; and the 
 preparation thereby for a new and spiritual Church (T. 
 C. E. 115): these, therefore, represent hell and evil 
 as the only dangers from which men were delivered. 
 
 So far from declaring that sinners were in any sense 
 redeemed froxn God, the Scriptures assert "Thou wast, 
 slain and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood, out of 
 every kindred and tongue and people and nation" (Eev. 
 v:9.) Indeed, God Himself is exhibited as the 
 Redeemer, and the dangers from which He delivered us 
 as those arising from the hostility of His and our 
 enemies. Thus Zacharias, in immediate anticipation of 
 the Incarnation "was filled with the Holy Ghost and 
 prophesied, saying. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; 
 for He hath visited and redeemed His people and 
 
NEW-OHURCH DOCTRINES 191 
 
 • 
 
 hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the 
 house of His servant David, as He spake by the mouth 
 of His holy prophets, who have been since the world 
 began ; that we should be saved from our enemies and 
 from the hand of all that hate us; that he would grant 
 unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our 
 enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and 
 righteousness before Him all the days of our life." (Luke 
 i: 67, 71, 74, 75.) The Jews, interpreting Old Testament 
 prophecy with gross literalism, supposed these enemies 
 to be their Koman oppressors, and rejected a Messiah who 
 repudiated any intention of political enfranchisement, 
 and who declared "My kingdom is not of the world." 
 (John viii: 36.) The Apostle Paul, however, rightly 
 described these adversaries: "We wrestle not against 
 flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, 
 against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against 
 spiritual wickedness in high places." (Eph. vi: 12.) The 
 danger arising from their assaults was most real. The 
 spiritual world, where they dwelt, is not remote from 
 this; it is in close proximity; indeed we are even now its 
 denizens, and nothing is needed to reveal its phenomena 
 but that opening of the eyes of the spiritual body, — the 
 soul animating the material form — which Scripture so 
 frequently records. There, in the vast busy world of 
 spirits intermediate between heaven and hell, is the iirst 
 abode of all who pass from earth; where they come into 
 that free intercourse with each other, and with those who 
 have previously entered their final condition, whether 
 among the blest or the unhappy, which is, essentially, the 
 means of judgment. Thus the ga'hering together of 
 representatives from each of the great divisions of the 
 spiritual world is there. The angels, who are all "minis- 
 tering spirits" (Heb. i: 14), and who encamp about them 
 that fear the Lord to deliver them (Pealm xxxiv: 7) are 
 
192 NEW-CHUKCH CONGKESS 
 
 there. It was there that Elisha's servant saw them when 
 his eyes were opened (II Kings vi:17), and that all the 
 other seers witnessed their various visions. There, too, 
 are our tempters; "hellish foes, confederate for our 
 harm." Both classes, moreover are continually recruited 
 by spirits passing from the world. It is a fallacy to sup- 
 pose that a man's influence ceases here when he is 
 removed hither. Eather are its force and subtlety 
 increased, because exerted on those inward planes of life 
 which supply the springs of action. Thus the good 
 passing hence strengthen and help those struggling 
 upwards here, while the evil are still active to entice and 
 betray. For this reason, gross and wicked periods of 
 history always tend to perpetuate themselves. As gener- 
 ations of selfish men aud women pass into the other 
 world they swell the aggregate of malign and perilous 
 influences operating upon this. At the time of the 
 Incarnation such preponderance of iniquity had reached 
 its utmost limits. Legions of infernals, thronging the 
 world of spirits, interposed like a thick cloud between 
 man and the Divine Sun, and intercepted the free descent 
 of His saving heat and light; the angels whose joy is 
 found in the repentance of sinners and their exaltation 
 to goodness and blessing, were straitened in their benefi- 
 cent activities and delights, and heaven itself eonse- 
 quently impaired; while on earth hell had gained such 
 ascendency that its tyranny prevailed over the very 
 bodies of mankind, and added to the gloomy catalogue 
 of "ills that flesh is heir to" the yet blacker horror of 
 demoniacal possession. 
 
 At that crisis of our race's history, therefore, " the 
 Lord God of Israel Himself visited and redeemed His 
 people" (Luke i:68), That He would do so had been 
 abundantly prophesied. Continually we read declara- 
 tions like the following: "As for our Redeemer, Jehovah 
 
NEW CHUEOH DOCTRINES 
 
 193 
 
 of Hosts is His name" (Isa. xlvii:4); "Thus saith 
 Jehovah, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel ; I am 
 Jehovah, thy God " (xlviii:17) ; " All flesh shall know that 
 I, Jehovah, am thy Savior and thy Redeemer, the 
 mighty one of Jacob " (xlix :26) ; " In His love and in His 
 pity He Redeemed them. . . . Thou, O Jehovah, 
 art our Father, our Redeemer; Thy name is from ever- 
 lasting " (lxiii:9, 16). The reason is, because " Redemp- 
 tion was a work purely Divine " (T. C. R., 123), requiring 
 for its accomplishment no less a power than the arm of 
 omnipotence. Even this, moreover, would have proved 
 ineffectual unless extended into conditions other than 
 those proper to unmodified" Deity. For any force to 
 operate, it must manifestly exist upon the plane where 
 its energy is needed. For Divine omnipotence to accom- 
 plish the Redemption of mankind, therefore, it was neces- 
 sary to bring it down to the sphere of human degradation 
 and bondage. In Himself, Jehovah is the " high and 
 lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy " 
 (Isa. lvii:15). To enable Him to reach our perishing 
 race, therefore, and the hellish crew who were hurrying 
 it to destruction, it was essential to clothe Divinity in 
 a nature which could come into contact with evil; in 
 other words, " Redemption could not have been eifected 
 except by God incarnated. . . . For who can attack 
 an enemy unless he draw near to him and be equipped 
 with weapons for the fight?" (T. C. R., 124). More 
 than this: to afford the required arena whereon the 
 Redeemer could meet and overcome our spiritual foes, 
 the humanity assumed by Jehovah must halve been sus- 
 ceptible to our weaknesses and evils. The process 
 whereby our Lord met and subdued our spiritual enemies 
 was the conflict of temptation ; He " was in all points 
 tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. iv:15). 
 To experience temptation however, a nature must 
 
194 NEW CHUnCH CONGEESS 
 
 include the infirmities to which evil can appeal. Essential 
 Deity, being absolutely perfect, is incapable of such 
 solicitation. "God cannot be tempted with evil" 
 (James i:13); wherefore, to efPect Redemption He took 
 to Himself a nature which could be so assailed, and 
 through the maternal function of the Virgin Mary, 
 "raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His 
 servant David" (Luke i:69). Inheriting through the 
 mother the tendencies inseparable from this genealogy,- — 
 to which were added those of the more remote progenitor, 
 Judah, — the Son of God was indeed sent " in the likeness 
 of sinful flesh " (Rom, viii:3), and thus provided means 
 for the fullest conflict and most complete victory. In 
 very truth, " Jehovah made to meet on Him the iniquity 
 of us all" (Isa. liii:6). The First became the Last; the 
 Alpha was also the Omega; in order that He might 
 thereby leach to redeem and save the last and lowest. 
 Burdened with this heredity, there was no depth, no 
 foulness, no malignity of hell which could not, and did 
 not, hurl itself against the Redeemer; while, since He 
 invariably triumphed over every such assault, there is no 
 diabolical or satanic power which He did not conquer, 
 and from which we are not delivered. Thus He reduced 
 the hells to subjection, and expelling from the world of 
 spirits the legions of darkness that infested it; He 
 restored a free outlet for the activities of the angels, 
 thereby arranging the heavens in order, and preparing 
 for the descent therefrom of a new spiritual Church upon 
 the earth. 
 
 The question arises, however, how does this doctrine 
 harmonize with the " new song " wherewith the heavens 
 praised the Lamb? — "Thou wast slain and hast redeemed 
 us to God by Thy blood, out of every kindred and tongue 
 and people and nation" (Rev. v: 9) and with the many 
 similar declarations of the apostles f Evidently something 
 
NEW-CHUKCH DOCTKINES 195 
 
 beyond bare literalism is required to explain these 
 references. The most rigid advocate for a simply natural 
 interpretation must acknowledge that the Lord's blood, 
 as mentioned in Scripture, often) if not, indeed, always, 
 means more than the material stream which flowed 
 from His wounds in Calvary. We can neither drink this 
 nor be washed therein, yet unless we so apply our Savior's 
 blood we have no life or cleanness (John vi: 53; Rev. i: 8). 
 How, then, are these allusions to be understood ? 
 
 Firstly, as an everyday metaphor for violence and death, 
 blood is appropriately used in the Bible to denote the 
 intense suffering inseparable from our Lord's redeeming 
 work. Even we know, in some measure, the torture of a 
 mind divided against itself, in which the goodness and 
 purity which are loved and honored, albeit too feebly, are 
 assailed by mistrust and doubt, and seem in danger of 
 destruction. Yet, what is the extremity of our anguish 
 compared with His, in whom the spotless innocence of 
 the Lamb of God was exposed to the perilous lusts and 
 blasphemies of the abyss; with the consciousness besides 
 that to yield would have meant the failure of the ends 
 for which He came on earth, the eternal and hopeless 
 ruin of the human race ? Eanged with the mental stress 
 of these conflicts, the bodily pains of the scourge, the 
 thorns, the nails, the weariness and thirst, though among 
 the bitterest which human cruelty could inflict, were 
 almost light. Without them our deliverance would have 
 been impossible; they were unflinchingly endured; where- 
 fore our grateful love confesses, "Thou art worthy" . . 
 " for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by 
 Thy blood." (Rev. v: 9). 
 
 Again: Why should our Lord's sufferings have been 
 pushed to the final crisis of natural death ? Because other- 
 wise his redeeming work would have been incomplete and 
 transient. The maternal heredity, though indispensable 
 
196 NEW CHURCH CONaKESS 
 
 for the admission of temptation and thus for the 
 conflicts and victories which won our freed.om, was incom- 
 patible with that entire and indissoluble union of the 
 Father and Son, which is described in the Gospels as 
 Glorification. Hence everything derived from the mother 
 was put away, in order that nothing might impede the 
 eternal embodiment of "all the fullness of the Godhead" 
 in the Divine Man, Jesus Christ (Col. ii: 9), and the con- 
 sequent maintenance of an open access between inmost 
 Deity and the human race and the securing in perpetuity 
 of the benefits achieved by Incarnation. Glorification, 
 however, was likewise attended by anguish, since " The 
 Captain of our salvation" was made "perfect through 
 sufPerings." (Heb. ii:10.) Each inherited infirmity, as 
 it fulfilled its purpose by admitting the kindred tempta- 
 tion, was expelled, until all that was fi-om the mother 
 expired with the ory, "It is finished" (John xix: 30). 
 Henceforth, God abides forever in His glorified Humanity; 
 and thus, "through the union with His Father which was 
 conipleted by the passion of the cross, the Lord became 
 the Redeemer to eternity" (T. C. R, 127). Since, there 
 fore, this was attained through pain and death, it is 
 appropriately described in the letter of the Word as 
 effected by our Lord's blood (Eev. v: 9). 
 
 We must beware, however, of attaching a wrong 
 importance to this metaphorical significance of blood. 
 The sufferings and death of our Lord, though inseparable 
 frqm His conflicts and victory, are not to be confounded 
 with them; and these, not the sufPerings, redeemed us. 
 If He could have fought and subdued the hells unscathed, 
 we should equally have been made free; if His agony and 
 death had issued in defeat, we should have been still in 
 bonds. While Victor Emmanuel, the first king of Italy, 
 was an infant in the cradle, the curtains of his little bed 
 were one day found on fire. His nurse put out the flames 
 
NEW-CHtFRCa DOCTRINES 197 
 
 and saved the child, but died of the injuries received in 
 doing so. Now, if she could have rescued the prince 
 without danger to herself, he would have been effectually 
 preserved; whereas, her self-sacrifice, unless attended by- 
 success, would have availed nothing. It is similar with 
 the enfranchisement wrought by our Lord. Not His 
 pangs but His victory redeemed us. For the sake of this 
 end the tremendous anguish was unshrinkingly endured; 
 and we are privileged, not simply to triumph in the 
 prowess of our Almighty Deliverer, but to thrill and glow 
 and melt at this proof of His Divine and matchless love. 
 Finally, blood is used spiritually in Scripture, to 
 signify the Divine truth. Just as the "life of the flesh is 
 in the blood'' (Lev. xvii: 11), which receives the nutri- 
 tious elements of food and conveys them to every part of 
 the human microcosm, — so the life of the will, with 
 its varied affections, desires and appetites, is in the prin- 
 ciples of right drawn from the Word, which, circulating 
 through the mind and conduct, fortify them with the 
 essentials of order and welfare. This "blood is drink 
 indeed" (John vi: 55); for "he that believeth on" Jesus 
 "shall never thirst" (v: 35). In this He washes us from our 
 sins (Rev. i: 5), for, if we are clean at all, it can be only 
 through the Word He hath spoken (John xv: 3). This 
 Divine blood is also the medium of Redemption. In all 
 His battles with hell, our Lord triumphed through the 
 truth. In the wilderness three insidious falsehoods were 
 suggested by the tempter, and each was resisted and 
 foiled by an appropriate citation of what is wri'ten (Mat. 
 iv: 1 11). Truth, however, is more than speech, even 
 though absolutely accurate; it is essential reality and law 
 and order, thus the one supreme power against deceit and 
 wrong. Hence we are taught, "It is to be noted that 
 the conflict of the Lord with the hells was not an oral 
 conflict, as between reasoners and disputants. Such a 
 
198 NEW-CHUECH C0KGRES9 
 
 conflict avails nothing here; but it was a spiritual conflict 
 of Divine truth from Divine good, whicli was the Lord's 
 veriest vital (force). No one in hell can resist the influx 
 of this, when presented by way of sight; for "a thousand 
 enemies there cannot endure one ray of the light of 
 heaven, which is Divine truth." (H. H., 137.) "Such 
 power is in it that, at its mere perception, infernal genii 
 flee away, cast themselves into the deep, and creep into 
 caverns that they may hide." (T. C. R., 124.) Hence 
 the declaration of the "new song," "Thou haat redeemed 
 UB to God by Thy blood'' (Rev. v: 9), is paralleled by the 
 old confession of the Psalmist, "Thou hast redeemed me, 
 O Jehovah God of truth." (Ps. xsxi: 5.) 
 
 By Redemption, therefore, we are made spiritually 
 free. The utmost efforts of the enemies of our souls are 
 now so controlled by the Divine Providence, that they 
 cannot exceed the bounds of salutary discipline, Reveal- 
 ing to us the evils which infest and beset us, they enable 
 us, with the Lord's help, to resist and expel them; and 
 thus to co-operate in those further operations of His 
 mercy whereby He seeks to become not only our Redeemer, 
 but our Savior and our Regenerator. 
 
 Ill 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION 
 
 BY THE REV. S. S. SEWARD 
 
 Redemption is one thing, salvation another. Redemp- 
 tion is a Divine work wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ 
 alone (Isaiah lix: 16), without the co-operation or even 
 the knowledge of man (Luke viii: 28). Salvation is 
 the application of that work by the Lord to man, so far 
 as man acts with the Lord by faith and obedience. 
 
NeW-csubch DOCTEIUeS 169 
 
 Man's " enemies," so often spoken of in the Sacred 
 Scriptures and particularly in the Psalms, are the spirits 
 of evil men who have passed on into the other world, and 
 who react, though secretly, upon men in this world (Eph. 
 vi: 12), The Lord redeemed men by overcoming these 
 spiritual enemies. For this purpose He assumed a human 
 nature like our own. By this means He drew out against 
 Himself the assaults of all the evil spirits in all the hells, 
 and by virtue of the Divine power within Him, overcame 
 them all. He was tempted in all points like as we are, 
 yet without sin (Heb. iv: 5). He bore in His bosom the 
 reproach of all the mighty people, wherewith they 
 reproached the footsteps of the Annointed (Psalm Ixxxix: 
 50-51). For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, 
 that He might destroy the works of the devil (I John 
 iii: 8). 
 
 We find the best illustration of this general work of 
 redemption in the Lord's dealings with the demoniacs 
 while in the world. As they were possessed, as individ- 
 uals, by "unclean spirits," without a sense of their con- 
 dition; so the whole race of mankind was at that time 
 under the unconscious influence of the hells. As the 
 demoniacs did not recognize their lost condition, nor 
 make application to the Savior for the intervention of His 
 saving power; so men did not understand their need of a 
 Savior, nor pray to the Lord to come to their rescue. As 
 He interfered on behalf of the demoniacs without any 
 action or co-operation on their part, and commanded the 
 unclean spirits to come out of them as soon, apparently, 
 as He came into their presence; so He wrought the 
 mighty work of redemption without the knowledge of 
 men, and even without a suspicion on their part of the 
 stupendous conflict He was waging for their sake. And 
 as the effect in the case of the demoniacs was to restore 
 them to reason and freedom, and to enable them to show 
 
200 N^W-dHljRCH OONGfiESS 
 
 forth what great things the Lord had done for them, so 
 the redemption resulted in freeing men from the over- 
 weening power of the hells, and in enabling them to look 
 to the Lord and to do His will, if they would. In 
 other words the redemption was a spiritual work, wrought 
 in the spiritual world, by the Lord Himself while dwell- 
 i g in this world. It resulted in the reduction of the 
 heavens io order and the hells to subjection, so that from 
 that time forward the heavens could act as a transparent 
 medium for the transmission of the Divine life to men, 
 while the hells would thenceforth be restricted to such 
 influence over men as men were willing to surrender to 
 them by the choice of evil (True Christian Eeligion, 
 115, 116, 121). It was by virtue of this work that the 
 Lord Jesus said, after His death and resurrection, — " All 
 power is given unto me in heaven and in earth" (Matt. 
 xxviii:18); and without this interposition of the Divine 
 power we are taught that man has no more power against 
 evil, "than a fish has against the ocean, or a flea against 
 a whale, or a particle of dust against a falling mountain" 
 (T. C. E., 68). 
 
 Such being the nature of the general redemption 
 wrought for us by the Lord Jesus Christ, it is not diffi- 
 cult to understand the particular salvation it brings to 
 the struggling soul. 
 
 1. In the first place, it is an actual, and not merely a 
 legal, salvation. It does not consist merely in redeeming 
 men from the penalties incurred by their guilt, but from 
 the guilt itself; not from the punishment of sin only, but 
 from its power. It is an actual combat, carried on by 
 the Lord Himself in the human soul, whereby, as fast as 
 man repents of his evils by ceasing to do them in obed- 
 ience to the commandments, the Lord drives out the evil 
 spirits that excite them, and renders it possible for man 
 to receive the opposite good affections from Him. It is. 
 
KEW-CHUKCS DOOTlllNES 201 
 
 in other words, the working out of a little redemption in 
 the mind and heart of each and everyone of His children, 
 similar to the great redemption which He wrought for 
 the race as a unit when He came into the world. It is 
 what the original Greek word means — a making whole, 
 or sound. It is a casting of Satan out of the human 
 mind (Luke x: 18). It is salvation from all the power 
 of the enemy (lb. 19). It is the actual saving of men 
 from their sins (Matt, i: 21). It is the remission, or send- 
 ing away, of sins (Luke xxiv: 47). It is the fulfillment 
 of the promise in Isaiah: "After those days, saith the 
 Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts and write 
 it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall 
 be my people. And they shall teach no more, every man 
 his brother, and every man his neighbor, saying, Know 
 the Lord: for they shall all know me from the least of 
 them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will 
 forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no 
 more" (xxxi: 33-34). 
 
 2. In the second place, it is a present, and not merely 
 a future salvation; for this world, and not for the other 
 only. Being the result of an actual combat with our 
 spiritual enemies, by the one Omnipotent and everywhere 
 present Lord and God of heaven and earth, and of an 
 actual victory over them; it must be available at all times, 
 for all men, who will take advantage of it by fulfilling 
 the conditions. This is everywhere implied in the Holy 
 Word. If we keep His commandments, the Lord says, 
 we shall abide in His love (John xv: 10); not merely 
 inherit the promise of it in the other world. If we love 
 Hitn and keep His words. He will come unto us and make 
 His abode with us (xiv: 35); not merely bring us unto 
 Him, or into His abode, in the other life. Whosoever 
 eateth His flesh, and drinketh His blood, it is said, hath 
 
 14 
 
202 NEW-CHDECH CONGKESS 
 
 eternal life (vi:54); not shall have it at some future 
 time. "There is no man," it is written, "that hath left 
 house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for 
 the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive mani- 
 fold more in this present time, and in the world to come 
 life everlasting" (Luke xvii: 39, 40). It is not pretended 
 that this salvation will exempt us from temptation to sin, 
 but that it will give us, in the Lord's strength, power 
 against ii No other conception of it is consistent with 
 His command to so many of those whom He healed, — 
 "Go, and sin no more;" while it is only in the light of 
 this truth that we can understand that mystical and 
 wonderful saying, — "The works that I do shall ye do 
 also, and greater works than these shall ye do; because I 
 go unto my Father." (John xiv: 12.) 
 
 3. In the third place, it is not merely a present and 
 actual, but a full and complete salvation. We are not 
 to understand by this that a man is made over by this 
 means, as to "the very substance of his self-hood," into a 
 new being, no longer capable of wishing, thinking or com- 
 mitting sin, but that he is endowed with power under God to 
 resist it; not that he is lifted at once and by miraculous 
 influence above all possibility of temptation, but given 
 the ability to overcome it in the Lord's name. This 
 results from the circumstance that the work of redemption 
 is a Divine work, and therefore perfect. To suppose 
 otherwise is to "limit" the Holy one of Israel (Psalm 
 Ixxviii : 41). It is to deny that the Lord Jesus took unto 
 Himself "all power" in heaven and "on earth." It is to 
 overlook the fullness and reality of the forgiveness, or 
 remission of sins, and to ignore the oft-repeated and 
 unlimited, though never unconditional, promises of the 
 "Word of the Lord. It is inconsistent also with the 
 Divine character, which must have the desire and the 
 ability to bestow full and complete, and not partial and 
 
HEW-caUKCH DOCTRINES 203 
 
 barren, yictory on man. Accordingly the Lord describes 
 Himself as redeeming Israel from all his iniquities 
 (Psalm XXX : 8) ; as cleansing him for all his idols 
 (Ezek. xxxvi:25); as healing all his diseases (Psalm 
 ciii : 3) ; while it is written in the Apocalypse that they 
 shall be "without fault" before the throne of God (xiv : 5), 
 and the Apostle says, "Christ loved the Church and 
 gave Himself for it, that He might present it to Himself 
 a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, nor any 
 such thing; but that it should be holy and without blem- 
 ish." (Eph. v: 25-27.) 
 
 4 In the fourth place the salvation held out to us in 
 the Word of the Lord as explained in the doctrines of 
 the New Church, is not merely finite and human, but 
 iafinite and Divine. It is the result of the presence and 
 operation of Divine forces in the soul, and not merely of 
 human intelligence and wisdom. Its effect is not only to 
 save men from the outer and grosser manifestations of evil, 
 and the actual crimes into which they sometimes fall, 
 but from the secret and impure lusts and desires that lie at 
 the roots of their being. It is admitted that culture and 
 refinement may enable a man to refrain, under sufficient 
 inducement, from actual sin, and give him power to con- 
 ceal his evil nature from his fellow men; but nothing of 
 this kind can change his essential character, or purge 
 and purify the secret springs of his life. Only the Lord 
 JesuB Christ can do ihat, and He only by driving out the 
 evil spirits that excite our evil nature, or by working a 
 little redemption in our minds, as He wrought a great 
 redemption for the whole race when in the world. " Our 
 wrestling is not," says the Apostle, "against flesh and 
 blood," that is, against the lusts of the body and the 
 desires of the world; "but against principalities and 
 powers; against the world-rulers of this darkness, against 
 the spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places " 
 
204 KfiW-CflUECH CONaEESS 
 
 (Eph. vi:12), or, in other words, against the evil spirits 
 in the other world who flow in and excite onr natural 
 appetites. He alone who assumed a human nature in 
 order that He might meet and overcome our spiritual 
 enemies, and who is infinite and eternal in all that He 
 does can give us the victory. For this reason we are 
 taught that if we would be saved we must have faith, or 
 believe in Him : that is, must believe that He has done 
 this work in our behalf, and that He will apply it to 
 our souls if we will fulfill the conditions. For this 
 reason we are taught to come unto Him, and to look 
 unto Him, if we would be saved and find rest (Matt, xi: 
 28; Isaiah xlv:22). For this reason it is declared that 
 except we believe that He — the Lord Jesus Christ — is; 
 or, in other words, that He is the only source of life and 
 goodness and wisdom and power, and that we have no 
 life or goodness of our own; we must die in our sins 
 (John viii: 24). For this reason not only are power and 
 might and honor ascribed unto Him in the Apocalypse, 
 but " salvation " (Kev. vii: 10, 12; xix: 1). 
 
 Salvation, then, is the redemption wrought by the 
 Lord Jesus Christ applied to the individual soul. It is 
 a real, and not merely an imputed, salvation; vyrought 
 for this present time in preparation for eternity, and not 
 for the other world alone ; and is not only as full and 
 complete as the measure of our faith will permit, but 
 absolutely Divine and perfect. All this is briefly and 
 clearly stated in a noteworthy passage in the writings of 
 Swedenborg : — 
 
 "In the combats or temptations of men the Lord 
 works a particular redemption, as He wrought a redemp- 
 tion that embraced the whole while in the world. The 
 Lord in the world, by means of combats and temptations, 
 glorified His human, that is, made it Divine. In like 
 manner now, with man individually, while he is in 
 
NEW-CHUECH DOCTRINES 205 
 
 temptation. In these the Lord fights for him, and conquers 
 the evil spirits who are infesting him, and after tempta- 
 tion, glorifies him, that is, renders him spiritual. After 
 His universal redemption, the Lord reduced to order all 
 things in heaven and hell. With man after temptation 
 He does in like manner; that is to say, He reduces to 
 order all things that are of heaven and the Church with 
 man. After redemption the Lord established a new 
 Church. In like manner he establishes those things 
 which are of the Church with man, and makes him a 
 Church in particular. After redemption the Lord gifted 
 those who believed in Him with peace; for He said, 
 'Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you; not 
 as the world giveth give I unto you' (John xiv : 27). So 
 likewise He gives to man after temptation to feel peace; 
 that is, gladness of mind and consolation." (T. C. K., 599). 
 
 The great prophet of Israel teaches the same lesson in, 
 not less striking and definite language : — 
 
 "Thus saith the Lord that" created thee, O Jacob, and 
 he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not; for I have 
 redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name; thou art 
 mine. "When thou passeth through the waters, I will be 
 with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow 
 thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shall not 
 be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For 
 I am the Lord thy God, the holy one of Israel, thy 
 Savior" (Isaiah xlvii : 1-3). 
 
 IV 
 
 DOCTKINE OF THE FUTURE LIFE 
 
 BY THE REV. HOWARD C. DUNHAM 
 
 The New Church doctrine of the future life, as drawn 
 from the Word of God, and set forth in the writings 
 pf Emanuel Swedenborg — the Columbus of spiritua,! 
 
206 NEW-CHUKCH CONGEESS 
 
 discovery — presentSjit is believed, not merely a marvelously 
 beautiful and attractive theory, but rational and authori- 
 tative truth, and the only sound and Divinely provided 
 basis for a universal faith in the things of the spirit, in' 
 the great spiritual background of all life. 
 
 This doctrine proclaims that the future life, in its 
 normal, heavenly state, is the final, eternal form of all 
 true life; that all the Divine creation has this end in 
 view; and that all the natural universe is a seminary, or 
 nursery, for preparing humanity to enjoy this supreme 
 blessedness. It is shown that, primarily and essentially, 
 man is a spiritual being, and that, even while clothed 
 with a material body in the natural world, as to his 
 spirit, he is ever an inhabitant of the spiritual world. 
 The material body, with the natural senses, cannot 
 rationaly be recognized as the man himself, but merely 
 as the clothing or mechanism through, and by means of 
 which, he is connected with the outside world. Not only 
 is man a spirit, but in point of fact, all life is spiritual. 
 What we see in this natural world is not life, but 
 simply material substance, clothing an inner spiritual 
 life, which moulds, arranges and animates all the varied 
 forms of earth. Plants, trees and animals are outward 
 forms of spiritual life. No plant or tree could have the 
 appearance of life and grow, were it not for the spiritual 
 plant or tree within, which takes up and arranges the 
 particles of matter, and thereby causes each plant or 
 tree to difFer from every other. So with man; the real 
 intelligent, living person is spiritual, while the material 
 body is merely a brief, temporal, outward enswathment, 
 adapted to the uses and purposes of this world of time 
 and space. 
 
 What takes place at death is not in any sense the 
 annihilation of life, but simply the separation which must 
 take place sooner or later, between the living man and 
 
NEW-CHUEOH DOCTRINES 207 
 
 his temporal garment of earth. What is of the dust, 
 returns to dust; but what is from above continues 
 unchanged as to every vital characteristic, and thus the 
 man remains intact with all his personality, faculties 
 and life. But this would not be possible, unless man 
 had a spiritual as well as a natural body. The spiritual 
 body, while not in any sense material, or subject to the 
 limitations of the material world is nevertheless, most 
 real and substantial, and since it formed the material 
 body, it has all the parts and capabilities which char- 
 acterize that, only in greater fullness and perfection. This 
 is, evidently, the teaching of the Apostle Paul, in the 
 famous 15th chapter of First Corinthians, where he says:. 
 " But some will say, How are the dead raised up ? and 
 with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which 
 thou sowest is not quickened except it die ; . . . thou 
 so west not that body that shall be, but bare grain. . . . 
 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a 
 natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a 
 natural body, and there is a spiritual body. . . . Now then, 
 this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit 
 the Kingdom of God." 
 
 If the natural body is aever to be rehabitaled, doubtless 
 some might call in question the use of the word resurrec- 
 tion. But in the light of the meaning of the original 
 term, and of what takes place in the spiritual world, all 
 is made clear. The Greek word translated resurrection 
 is anastasis and means "standing up." It does not 
 mean bringing to life anything actually dead, not the 
 rising or floating upwards in space of anything whatsoever. 
 As already stated, the spiritual body is in the spiritual 
 world, even while connected with a aaturai body; but 
 as all the life, afPection and thought are directed down 
 and out, through the natural body into the world, the 
 person is not conscious of his spiritual surroundings^ 
 
208 NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 
 
 and cannot be recognized by others in the spiritual 
 world. At death, after putting off the natural body, the 
 spiritual body stands forth in conscious, recognizable, 
 spiritual activity. Such is the " anastasis," or bodily 
 resurrection, of which the Bible speaks. 
 
 The spiritual world where this takes place, and which 
 in the future eternal home of humanity is no mere 
 ethereal, formless, shadowy world, but most real, sub- 
 stantial and light-abounding. It is not in any sense 
 material, but nevertheless is substantial. As affection 
 and thought^ which are spiritual, are the most real and 
 substantial part of man, so the whole spiritual world is 
 most real, substantial and lifelike. It is a thoroughly 
 human world of varied attractions, similar to those which 
 here surround us, only richer and more perfect. " In my 
 Father's house are many mansions,'' are the words of 
 our Savior, and all the glimpses of the spiritual world 
 scattered through the Bible, are of scenes similar to 
 those of earth. Mountains, rivers, trees, houses, horses 
 and chariots, armies and the like are spoken of in 
 the Word as being seen in the realm of the spirit. 
 Accordingly, when Swedenborg, after nearly thirty years 
 of actual experience in the spiritual world, tells us that 
 it is similar to the natural world, and characterized by all 
 the forms of life which we see here, we do not accept it 
 on his unsupported word merely, but find that such is 
 the teaching of the Bible, and, furthermore, that it 
 appeals as could no other idea to our rationality. 
 
 The question "where is the spiritual world" has 
 been one of the puzzles of the ages. Material ideas have 
 so far prevailed that it has generally been regarded as 
 situated in space, at some vast distance from earth, either 
 in the sun, moon, or in some planet or star. The truth 
 is, that the spiritual world is at no spacial distance 
 from earth; that, being spiritual, it is in no w:se 
 
NEW- CHURCH DOCTEINES 209 
 
 material or subject to the laws of space and time. As 
 we have said, at death the spirit does not rise in space 
 and make any vast journey, but simply wakes to conscious 
 life in the same realm where it had hitherto led an 
 unconscious life. The spiritual world is within the 
 natural world, as the soul is within the body. 
 
 Since man is a spiritual body, even while clothed 
 with a material body through which his faculties usually 
 operate, it is possible for his spiritual senses to be con- 
 sciously opened to the activities of the spiritual world 
 around him. This has taken place occasionally all 
 through the ages. It was in this way that the Divine 
 Word was given to men. John, the Kevelator, declares, 
 " I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day," and then pro- 
 ceeds to tell what he saw and heard. The prophet, 
 Ezekiel, says, " as I was among the captives by the river 
 Chebar (which was in Babylonia), the heavens were 
 opened and I saw visions of God." The young man, 
 servant of the Prophet Elisha, when his inner eyes were 
 opened by the Lord, beheld " the mountains full of 
 horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." Open 
 vision is spoken of in the book of Samuel; and angels 
 appeared to Abraham, Lot, Jacob, Manovah, Mary and 
 others. They had not material bodies, and did not 
 come from any distant part of the material universe, 
 but the spiritual or inner eyes of those who beheld them 
 were, for the time, providentially opened. 
 
 That he might reveal the inner sense of Scripture 
 and dissipate the incredulity which existed with regard 
 to the spiritual world, Emanuel Swedenborg was pre- 
 pared by the Lord and admitted fully into the conscious 
 life of the spiritual world, for a space of about thirty of 
 our years, while, as to his natural body, he was an inhab- 
 itant of earth. The revelations which he has made, 
 agreeing as they do with the Word and reason, fully 
 
210 NEW-CHUECH CONGRESS 
 
 confirm his claim. Modern spiritaalism is based on this 
 nearness of the other world, and the possibility of inter- 
 course, but since to seek such intercourse is disorderly 
 and hurtful, the visions which they obtain who thus seek 
 to penetrate the veil which mercifully hangs between 
 the two worlds, are at best but dim and delusive 
 appearances. 
 
 Through all these latter ages which have been char- 
 acterized by the perversion and decay of primitive 
 Christianity, the other world has been thought of as con- 
 sisting only of two divisions, — heaven and hell, — and to 
 the popular mind at least the former has been one never 
 ending prayer and praise meeting around the supposed 
 throne of God, while the latter has been a lake of 
 burning fire and brimstone in which the evil were ever 
 tortured without being consumed. It is now known that 
 there are not only three heavens, but innumerable 
 societies in each heaven, and that each society lives a 
 normal, varied, community life of uses, with frequent 
 occasions for devotion and recreation. The word trans- 
 lated heaven in our English Bibles is often plural in 
 the original. For instance, the first verse of Genesis 
 should read: " In the beginning, God created the 
 heavens and the earth." And the Lord's Prayer in the 
 original reads: "Our Father who art in the heavens." 
 The Apostle Paul also speaks of being "caught up to the 
 third heaven." So of hell, the new doctrine teaches 
 that there is not only one hell, but three great divisions 
 of hell, and innumerable congregations in each of these 
 divisions, corresponding to the societies in each of the 
 heavens; evil being the opposite of good, there are neces- 
 sarily varying degrees and kinds of evil life. 
 
 Now as heaven is heaven, because goodness and order 
 ever prevail, it is evident that few who pass from earth 
 are able to come at once into a full heavenly state, 
 
NEW-OHUEOH DOCTRINES 211 
 
 Everyone nearly, even the best, carries with him some 
 external, disorderly habits, which would be entirely out 
 of place in heaven. The doctrine of the intermediate state 
 between heaven and hell, the entrance hall to eternity, 
 was a common doctrine of the early Christian Church. 
 But, becoming corrupted into the Roman Catholic 
 doctrine of purgatory, or place of expiation, it was 
 entirely discarded by Protestant Christianity. But such 
 an intermediate state exists of necessity, not as a place of 
 punishment, but of preparation for either heaven or hell. 
 Shoel in the Old Testament, and Hades in the New 
 Testament stand for the intermediate state, or first 
 receptacle of spirits released from earth. These words 
 have been wrongly translated as hell, or the grave. It is 
 in this intermediate state or world of spirits, that all 
 judgment is effected. For instance, in Eevelation, John 
 records: "I saw the dead, small and great, stand before 
 God," for judgment. This could not have been in 
 heaven, for only those who have been judged good, are 
 there, nor in hell for only those who have been judged 
 bad are there. The "sea," " death and hell (hades) " 
 which delivered up the dead to be judged, refer to dif- 
 ferent portions of the intermediate world. 
 
 The New -Church doctrine of the future life teaches 
 that all the inhabitants of the spiritual world, all angels, 
 spirits and devils have once lived on this or some other 
 earth of the material universe; that none were created 
 angels as such, and that no angels ever fell from grace 
 and became devils. These latter are all irrational ideas 
 which have no real foundation in Scripture. It has been 
 supposed that angels and archangels were a superior 
 order of beings to man. But, when we consider that 
 God alone is the Fountain of Life, and that man was 
 created unto His image and likeness, it is evident that 
 there can be no beings of a superior order between man 
 and God. 
 
212 NEW-CHUBCH C0NGEES8 
 
 Creation -was for the purpose of producing a heaven 
 of angels. God is a Being of infinite love and wisdom. 
 From love he created' free intelligent objects on which to 
 bestow his affection. Our infinitely wise and loving 
 Creator first placed men upon earth that they may 
 here freely choose for themselves the character of their 
 lives; so He provided an intermediate state or world 
 where all the final preparations could be made, so that 
 no disorder or incongeniality should mar the beautiful 
 life of heaven; and men are so created that having once 
 fully and freely made their choice of life, this choice 
 becomes so embodied in the very fiber of their being, 
 that all change thereafter becomes virtually impossible. 
 
 It is evident from the foregoing statement, that men 
 are not judged to heaven or hell in any arbitrary manner. 
 Each human being freely and knowingly makes his own 
 choice in life, and so voluntarily selects his eternal home. 
 Heaven and Hell are, essentially, states of the soul, 
 rather than places — heaven the state of being good, and 
 hell the state of being bad. The attainment of heaven 
 is, therefore, the acquisition of an orderly, happy, heavenly 
 state of life. This is the teaching of the Gospel, when 
 we read: " The Kingdom of God cometh not with obser- 
 vation; neither shall they say, Lo here! or Lo there! for, 
 behold, the Kingdom of God is with you." 
 
 The peculiarity about heaven and the spiritual world 
 is that the outward surroundings are always the result 
 and projection of the internal states of the angels, devils, 
 or spirits. An angel always has good suH-oundings, and 
 a devil, bad. Things of the spirit are not unchangeable 
 and fixed, like those of earth, but easily and quickly 
 respond to the changing state of thore with whom they 
 are connected. An angel's home and garden change 
 according to the changes in the general character of his 
 mind. And his clothing with the particular changes that 
 
NEW-CHUEOH DOCTRINES 213 
 
 mote often come to him. We can see the analogy of 
 this here on earth. So far as we are able, we arrange 
 the character of our houses and surroundings according 
 to our thought of what they should be, and we frequently 
 change our clothing to adapt it for what we are doing. 
 With the angels, this principle is fully carried out, and 
 it adds immensely to the variety and interest of heavenly 
 life. 
 
 Divine Providence wills that all men should become 
 angels. This is strikingly illustrated by the interesting 
 fact noted by Swedenborg, that the highest angels first 
 meet and greet all awaking to the future life, and do 
 for them all manner of kind offices. If these angels 
 are not congenial to the newcomers, then angels of a 
 lower degree approach, and so on, till it is perceived that 
 none of the angelic world are agreeable; and then, only, 
 it is permitted those in the lighter degrees of evil to come 
 forward, and afterwards those in deeper evils, in succes- 
 sive order, till the novitiate spirits finds congenial asso- 
 ciates. Thus, do we see how "the Lord is good to all 
 and His tender mercies are over all His works." 
 
 Of late years there has been considerable agitation 
 over the condition of infants, the insane, the heathen and 
 the ignorant from Christendom in the future life. The 
 doctrine of the New Church places this whole subject in 
 clear, rational light. All who die in infancy are saved to 
 heaven, tenderly cared for and lovingly educated by the 
 angels, among whom they grow to maturity. The insane 
 pass into the other world where the use of their reason is 
 restored to them in the same state with reference to sal- 
 vation in which they were when it was dethroned, and 
 merciful provision is made for them freely to choose their 
 future life. The heathen are saved equally with the 
 inhabitants of Christendom. Every heathen nation or 
 tribe has its Keligion, and accordingly as they faithfully 
 
214 NEW-CHUECH CONdEESS 
 
 live the principles of their belief, be it ever so imperfect 
 and erroneous, they form in themselves a conscience which 
 desires what is good and right, so that all faithful souls 
 even from the darkest heathendom, will, in the future life, 
 gladly receive the truth and become elevated thereby to 
 heaven. This is in accord with the teachings of Peter in 
 Acts x: 34-35, "God is no respecter of persons, but in 
 every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteous- 
 ness is accepted with Him." This same law applies, of 
 course, to the ignorant in Christendom. With all who 
 make an honest use of their opportunities for knowledge, 
 and live accordingly to the best they know, no rational 
 doubt can be entertained respecting their future welfare 
 and happiness. 
 
 Thus does the New-Church doctrine of this future 
 life demonstrate its beauty and rationality. In this light 
 we see that Divine Providence ever preserves man's 
 individuality and essential characteristics, even to eternity, 
 and that the future life in its normal, heavenly state, is 
 very similar to all the nobler phases of this life; for other- 
 wise of what use would be these earthly years as a prep- 
 aration for the life eternal ? All that we truly care for 
 will be found in the future life — if we love the Lord and 
 the neighbor, a heart at peace with itself, happy reunions 
 of congenial spirits, never more to be parted; oppor- 
 tunities for boundless, endless progress in all which 
 interests us; new vistas and fresh experiences of delight 
 ever presenting themselves; and in our persons ever 
 growing toward the strength, beauty and elasticity of 
 eternal youth! A man, however old, worn and disabled 
 his material body when discarded, is ever growing, as to 
 his spiritual body in the heavens, towards the freshness 
 and virility of perfect, early manhood; and a woman, 
 however infirm, wrinkled and faded her material body 
 when put away, if she loves the Lord, and all that ia 
 
NEW-CH0ECH DOCTRINES 215 
 
 good, will also grow toward an exquisite beauty and 
 loveliness of youthful bloom, immeasurably surpassing 
 anything known on earth. 
 
 Such is the transcendent richness of thought and 
 experience to which the New-Church doctrine of the 
 future life invites humanity. 
 
 THE SCIENCE OF CORRESPONDENCE, AND THE 
 WORD OF GOD 
 
 BY THE KEV. JOHN WOECESTEB 
 
 The so-called " Higher Criticism " which has monopo- 
 lized the attention of Bible students of late, occupies 
 itself solely with the attempt to discover the times and 
 circumstances in which the various books of the Bible 
 were written. The discussion of these things, because it 
 unsettles preconceived opinions on these points, is dis- 
 turbing to many minds; as if the Divine character and 
 authority of the Bible depended upon certain men known 
 as prophets or messengers of God and the formative 
 inspiration of the Spirit of God could operate through 
 no other means. 
 
 The effect of the discussion has been wholesome so 
 far as it has freed the thought of the world from servile 
 adherence to particular instruments of revelation, and has 
 brought to view the truth, that the inspiration of the 
 Bible lies in the Divine Spirit, which still is within it, 
 and which has made use of various instruments and 
 various circumstances to teach the essential lessons of 
 spiritual life. There is, in fact, under the impulse of the 
 recent studies, a growing recognition of the truth that the 
 forms of the Bible, its stories, its prophecies, its laws 
 
216 NEW-CHURCH CONGEESS 
 
 and its Psalms, although in the language of men, and 
 founded throughout upon the experience of men mostly 
 of Semitic race, are in some wonderful way types of 
 spiritual experiences which are common to mankind, to 
 men of Aryan, Mongolian, African, as well as of Semitic 
 origin ; and that it is of the Divine Providence and by 
 the Divine inspiration, that this was brought to pass, in 
 order that, by means of the Bible, God might teach the 
 universal truths of Divine and human life to his 
 children. 
 
 The interpretation of these types with a view to 
 learning their spiritual lessons has not gone very far. 
 In our day indeed it is less confident, and perhaps less 
 enlightened, than it was in the Primitive Christian 
 Church. In that most interesting walk with the two 
 disciples to Emmaus, the Lord began at Moses and 
 opened to them in all the Scriptures the things concern- 
 ing Himself. Afterward, appearing to the eleven and to 
 others with them, he told them that all things must be 
 fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in 
 the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning Him; and He 
 opened their understanding that they might understand 
 the Scriptures. Such incidents as these gave an impetus 
 to the searching of the Scriptures for types of the Lord's 
 life, and of Christian experience, which, by some of the 
 early Christian Fathers, was carried away very far. No 
 doubt in the enlightenment of the Spirit of Truth, which 
 was so manifest at that time, there was much that was 
 genuine in these interpretations, and a substantial 
 development of the ChristianFaith was attained by means 
 of them. Yet, there was no svu-e guide in regard to them, 
 and no definite system. And therefore, to the more criti- 
 cal temper of our day, the interpretations seem generally 
 fanciful and unsupported, and have fallen into disrepute. 
 Even the interpretations of the older Scriptures given in 
 
NEW CH0ECa DOCTRINES 217 
 
 the new, which may be supposed to be either some of 
 those which the Lord, Himself, gave to the disciples, or 
 at least from the enlightenment of His Spirit, are regarded 
 in our day as unscientific, or by reverent minds are 
 accepted as true, but belonging to a system of interpre- 
 tation which is not understood. It is evident that the 
 science which, in exclusive devotion to literal structure 
 and fulfillment allows no place for such fulfillment as 
 the Lord, Himself, indicated, is not yet in possession of " 
 the whole truth about the Bible. 
 
 And, does not the same lack appear in our science in 
 relation to other wisdom of the ancients ? Mythologies 
 have come down to us in many lines from remote ages. 
 And our men of science, examining them, tell as that they 
 are all personified descriptions of the sky, the sun, moon, 
 stars and clouds, the sea and the winds, the storms and 
 the rain, the heat and the light. And, while in large 
 part this is probably not to be disputed, it is plain that 
 this is not the whole truth. The supposition that ancient 
 people told fanciful stories personifying the powers of 
 nature, and describing their doings as the actions of 
 human beings, does not at all acaount for the intense 
 religiousness and the universality of their regard for 
 these powers of, — -for example, the universal recognition 
 of the sun as the chief symbol of Deity, and the observ- 
 ance of sacred rites in connection with his rising and 
 setting, and his return to vivify the earth in spring. To 
 account for all this, and for the profound reverence and 
 sense of holiness associated with it, we need to think of 
 other things. We need to remember, for instance, how 
 thoroughly alive all things are to children and to others 
 of childlike character, — alive with human feeling and 
 intent, good or evil. To them there is a human kindness 
 in the sunshine and the showers of spring, and a human 
 
 15 
 
218 Kfi*-CHUSCH CONGRESS 
 
 cruelty in the destructive storms and cold. And such 
 perception of human attributes throughout the world of 
 nature we must ascribe to the ancients to account for 
 their interest in the personifications of the natural forces. 
 To them, these were real embodiments of Divine and 
 human energy intent upon errands of service or injury. 
 
 And as this was the genius of ancient peopleSj not 
 merely in their childhood, but through their whole life, as 
 they were constantly interested with an absorbing interest 
 in the manifestations of will and purpose in the world 
 about them, and generation after generation accumulated 
 experience and discernment of the quality of such will 
 and purpose as manifested in the regular or the extraor- 
 dinary phenomena of nature, they became wise in much 
 mystic wisdom to which men of modern time do not attend. 
 We have evidence that this was the case in the myths and 
 fables, the magic, the riddles and parables, and the sig- 
 nificant narrations with which ancient literature abounds. 
 
 But even this is not sufficient to account for the 
 religiousness of the ancient feeling for the symbolic acts 
 of worship, and for the sense of communion with God, and 
 of instruction from Him, which is expressed so constantly 
 and emphatically in ancient literature. For this we need 
 not only the recognition, for instance, of human benefi- 
 cence in the illumining and warming of the dark, cold 
 earth by the rising of the sun, but also a sense of con- 
 scious relation with that human beneficence and of inward 
 blessing from it; not only a recognition of appropriate 
 forms of acknowledgment and worship of that hidden 
 source of all good, but a consciousness that by the sincere 
 use of such forms they really come into fellow com- 
 munion with it; not only by knowledge of the human 
 qualities expressed in the phenomena of nature, but a 
 conscious instruction from God, in the order of spiritual 
 life, through the orderly relations of these phenomena — 
 
NEW-CfiUECH DOCTRINES 2l9 
 
 to say nothing of the special manifestations by which 
 special instruction may have been given. 
 
 The traditions of many people show that there was 
 in the ancient days such consciousness of communion 
 with God, and of instruction from God, with holy and 
 reverent worship of Him who was their life and the 
 Creator of the life of the universe. Their wisdom was, in 
 the best sense, sensuous, the wisdom of keen observation ; 
 but it was an observation of both outward phenomena 
 and of inward experience. They were open and sensi- 
 tive to heaven, as well as to earth. They had no original 
 science, natural or spiritual, but they hai a child's quick 
 sensitiveness to outward phenomena, with clear intuition 
 of essential quality and perception of a spiritual relation. 
 A full religious life of this childlike quality was enjoyed, 
 wise and deep, open to God, in harmony with the order 
 of His creation. No wonder that men, who enjoyed such 
 life, loved to describe the changes and developments of 
 it by myths and parables, such as abound in the ancient 
 literature, — especially that preserved to us in Egypt. 
 No wonder that they told of the serpent that spoke with 
 them, and of trees that bore wisdom of life or knowledge 
 of good and evil. 
 
 And thus was formed, in accord with their sensuous 
 and spiritual perception, a representative language which 
 the spirit of God might make use of to give Divine 
 instruction about spiritual duties and possibilities. It 
 was the natural language of a wise childhood about holy 
 things. It is a language akin to that of the Lord's own 
 speech, in which He described the states and processes 
 of spiritual life by parables from nature, and stories 
 from natural life. It is in general the language of the 
 whole Bible, from the story of the days of the creation to 
 the description of the Golden City lightened by the glory 
 of God. 
 
220 NEW-CHUECfl CONGRESS 
 
 In the ancient days sueli language as that of the 
 Bible was intelligently understood. When, for instance, 
 they were told a story of creation, beginning with a 
 formless void to which the light first penetrated and 
 ending with man in the image and likeness of God, the 
 wise could not help seeing in it a description of the 
 regeneration, or creation of a heavenly spirit — which 
 they knew to proceed in precisely that order. But in 
 process of time, as the development of natural and social 
 life advanced, and its promises became more engrossing, 
 the perception of the spiritual life within the natural 
 became obscure, and finally was wholly lost; yet, a knowl- 
 edge that there was a representation of spiritual things 
 in natural, lingered for awhile, and the use of represen- 
 tatives in worship survived long after the knowledge of 
 what they represented had disappeared. And then the 
 Spirit of God, which had been a spirit of enlightenment 
 and spiritual delight at the first, ceasing to be thus per- 
 ceived, was felt as a spirit of holiness in the representa- 
 tive worship performed according to the ancient order; 
 and it also provided for itself outward types of regen- 
 erate life which should serve to preserve the lepresenta- 
 tion of such life among men when the actual experience 
 of it ceased. 
 
 Such types we find in the story of Abraham, in his 
 summons to leave the land of his nativity, his sojourn 
 under the care of the Lord in the land of Canaan, his 
 going down into Egypt, the subsequent captivity in 
 Egypt of his descendants, their deliverance, and instruc- 
 tion from heaven and final possession of the Holy Land, 
 holy in its representative character. All of this, we are 
 taught in the New Church, was of the Divine provision 
 as a type of the development of the natural man, his 
 early instruction in heavenly things, his captivity to the 
 knowledge and pleasures of the world, his deliverance 
 
NEW-CHUKOH DOOTEINES 221 
 
 and His later possession of spiritual states. The subse- 
 quent history of the nation in that land, its captivity and 
 its restoration represent the developments of the Church 
 after it comes to some enjoyment of heavenly states and 
 growth in them; with large development also of pride in 
 the understanding and the holiness of them, — a pride 
 requiring a new and deeper deliverance, a more humble 
 and thorough knowledge of God as the Savior and 
 Redeemer. 
 
 Our doctrine is, that not only is the general story of 
 the Bible thus typical of the spiritual experiences of men, 
 but all the details of that story were so provided and 
 arranged by the Spirit of God as to be the Divine and 
 universal types of the states of the Church in individual 
 men and in the race. In the representative worship of 
 the Israelites, for instance, it was deeply significant that 
 the ark containing the Ten Commandments should occupy 
 alone the inmost part of the tabernacle, representing the 
 covenent of the soul with God; that the altar of incense, 
 the candlestick and the table of bread should occupy the 
 second chamber, — the chamber of prayer and praise, of 
 spiritual thought and love; and that the altar of burnt- 
 offering, with the fire of the Divine love always burning 
 upon it, should stand in the court of outer life where 
 the lambs, the kids, and the calves, the wheat and the 
 barley, the oil and the wine, — representing all the ele- 
 ments of good, natural life, its varied affections, its fruit- 
 fulness, its enjoyments, — might be brought to it to be 
 consecrated by the Divine fire. The knowledge of what 
 these things represented had long since vanished, but of 
 the Divine Providence the sense of the presence of God 
 and heaven remained as a sense of holiness in the orderly 
 use of them in the worship of the Church. Their priests 
 down to the days of Caiphas, after which the kingdom of 
 God was taken from them, prophesied of things, which 
 
222 NEW-CHUECH CONGEESS 
 
 they little understood, from the spirit of God. The 
 Divine Spirit was present until then, moulding all the 
 representatives materially, of worship, of tradition, of 
 written history, of holy songs, that had been collecting 
 from the earliest times, into the grand type of regenerate 
 life, which we know as the Bible, or the Word of God. 
 And when the spirit of God departed from them, the 
 sense of holiness was gone from their worship, and such 
 worship soon became impossible. 
 
 With the Jewish Dispensation the childhood of the 
 race drew to a close, and with it the childish way of look- 
 ing upon the natural world as alive with the influences of 
 the spiritual world, and of representing those influences 
 and their effects by natural sculpture and story. The 
 representative Word, therefore, was now shortly com- 
 pleted; and He whom the Word supremely represented 
 came, fulfilling the meaning of it in a Divine human life. 
 
 A new era began in the history of the race — an era 
 characterized by much confusion and obscurity and the 
 development of much that was unlovely, as is necessarily 
 the case in the transition from childhood to manhood. It 
 was an era in which the race was struggling to see the 
 truth rationally, instead of accepting it blindly from 
 another. It was an era charaeteiized by the birth of the 
 scientific spirit and the attainment of all that we now 
 know as science. There has been much that was sad 
 about it, which nevertheless was inevitable in the process 
 of developing a manly reason based upon scientific 
 knowledge. The spirit of denial that has prevailed has 
 been largely a kind of self-assertion inseparable from the 
 desire to see for one's self and a protest against unreason- 
 able forms of belief. And when this change is accom- 
 plished, and it is seen that the God of heaven desires that 
 men should understand and see by reason what He teaches^ 
 we may hope that so much of the spirit of denial will give 
 
NEW-CHURCH DOCTRINES 223 
 
 place to a love of truth for truth's sake, which will accept 
 the truth of the spiritual world as well as that of the 
 natural, and will find pleasure in the harmony between 
 them. 
 
 In the meantime we have the book which was finished 
 and sealed. The very language in which it was written, 
 the language of representatives, is mostly forgotten. The 
 problem of the future, in which the spiritual enlighten- 
 ment of the race depends, is to open it and under- 
 stand it. 
 
 The New Church believes that the seals are already 
 loosed, and the general subjects of which the Holy Book 
 treats, together with many particulars, are disclosed from 
 heaven by the Lord, and explained to the reason, in the 
 writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. The key to the 
 language also is revealed, and it is shown to be the lan- 
 guage of correspondence and representatives, the native 
 language of the childhood of the race. 
 
 The path of wisdom lies in turning and becoming 
 again as a little child. But the race can return to its 
 childhood only in the same sense that is possible to a 
 man. He cannot lose his development of body, his gains 
 of knowledge of life, his maturer reason. He can 
 only become humble and teachable, willing to learn of 
 God and heaven. He will not again have the intui- 
 tions of childhood, the perceptions of the spiritual influ- 
 ence that expresses itself in every object of the earth. 
 The science of maturity is not the child's sensuous per- 
 ception of particulars, open though that be to heaven. 
 It is the knowledge of general ideas gathered from 
 masses of particulars grouped and arranged accordingly 
 to their affinities. The objective phenomena of the outer 
 world and the subjective experiences of the inner mental 
 world, both, can be so grouped and studied, and their 
 essential characters and relationship ascertained. And 
 
224 NEW-CHUECH CONGEESS 
 
 when this study is thoroughly done and the planes of 
 outward phenomena and of inward experience are laid 
 over against each other, it is as clear to the mature eye 
 of reason as to the child's intuition that they answer each 
 to the other, that the outer world is but the manifestation 
 to sense of the influences which constitute the spiritual 
 life. 
 
 To illustrate by a broad generalization. The eye of 
 reason contemplating the two worlds, the inner and the 
 outer, Eees that there are three great groups, or king- 
 doms of spiritual realities as of natural. There are solid 
 facts of existence underlying all mental activity, some of 
 them the primary facts of the Divine nature and of human 
 nature, and some of them accumulated facts of history; 
 and these answer to the rocks of the earth. Then there 
 are varieties of growing intelligence and wisdom, which 
 in their species, in their habits of growth, and in their 
 fruitfulness, answer to the plants of the earth. And the 
 animals of the earth are but the outward forms of affec- 
 tion, which are recognized at once as wholly human. In 
 fact, a careful study with clear eyes shows that there are 
 no phenomena of earth or sky known to any branch of 
 science which are not correspondences of spiritual activi- 
 ties. And these correspondences are manifestations as 
 well; for in the last analysis of force there is no origin 
 in which the mind can rest but the exercise of will. 
 
 Thus we are returning to the wisdom of the ancients 
 and perceiving in a rational way what they perceived 
 with the clear intuition of childhood. And in this 
 return there will be a gain in breadth as is the difference 
 between the broad generalizations of science and the 
 particular observations of a child. 
 
 With this new interpretation of its language, the 
 Word is now to be studied.. As we look in the parables 
 of the Lord, not primarily for lessons in natural history, 
 
NEW-CHUKCH DOCTRINES 225 
 
 nor for incidents of human history, though both of these 
 are undoubtedly there, but for lessons of spiritual life, so 
 we are to read the whole Word. And we shall find 
 there in its simpler parables the necessary lessons for 
 every day, and in its larger representative histories the 
 story of the stages of human development common to 
 the individual and to the race. We shall find the whole 
 truth of human life, with the lessons necessary for every 
 state, — lessons which explain the state, lessons of practi- 
 cal guidance, lessons of humility and prayer, lessons in 
 the thanksgiving and praise that are due. We shall find 
 the lessons which the Lord lived, and by living which 
 He became at once the Word made flesh and Divine 
 Humanity. We shall find the Divine ideal of human life, 
 from its innocent beginning in a Garden of Delight, 
 taught by the Lord God, nourished by the tree of 
 the wisdom of God, and continued through all 
 developments, the captivities, the deliverances of child- 
 hood and manhood to the heavenly order of the Golden 
 City. 
 
 Reviewing then our subject, "the science of cor- 
 respondences and the Word of God" in the light of what 
 has been said, the doctrine of the New Church is, that 
 the Word is written in the language of correspondences 
 and representatives; that the language was familiar and 
 well understood in the Ancient Churches; that it is a 
 natural language easily learned by the rational mind 
 which has at command the science of both worlds, the 
 natural and the spiritual; and that when its language is 
 learned and its seals are loosed by the revelation of the 
 general truths of which it teaches, the Word of God 
 stands forth as the wisdom of God, the Divine Wisdom 
 which forms a humanity in the image and likeness of 
 God. 
 
226 NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 
 
 VI 
 
 THE INTERNAL WORD IN ITS RELATION TO THE 
 RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD 
 
 BY THE REV. ADOLPH BOEDER 
 
 Large trees grow slowly. Heavy bodies move slowly. 
 Great movements among the peoples of the earth must 
 needs be of slow growth and motion. Were we to look 
 only into the lighter and less important interests of 
 humanity, we should find them growing rapidly ; growing 
 with perceptible speed; growing in such ways that their 
 increase is readily recognized. But when we look into 
 the deeper interests of the race, it is natural that they 
 should be of less rapid growth. The region of physical 
 comfort, of industrial interests, of commercial values and 
 goods is one in which the international growth is most 
 readily perceptible. From the days of antiquity forward, 
 the growth of material interests in the interchaage of 
 commercial products has been of steady and of late of 
 remarkable rapidity. The products of any one counlxy 
 readily find their way into any or all of the others. 
 For material interests are of lesser import. 
 
 Take the mental sphere and it will be found that in 
 the interchange of thought there has also been a startling 
 development. Within the past two centuries the thoughts 
 of great men in any one country have been made accessi- 
 ble to the reader in any country of the globe, by skillful 
 translations, by ready commentators. We pick up in our 
 library a novel by Turgenjeff, from a heterogeneous mass of 
 literature wherein figure Ebers, Cervantes, Ohnet, Dickens, 
 Bjoernsterne Bjoernsen, Maartens, and hundreds of other 
 prominent representatives of every nation under the sun. 
 Peacefully side by side in the library of the intelligent 
 student stand the Vedas and the Koran, and the Bible, 
 
NEW-CHURCH DOCTRINES 227 
 
 and the various representative books of the nations. And 
 more and more rapidly are we growing familiar with the 
 thought-life of the peoples all the world over. Growth 
 on this plane is quite decided. 
 
 But when it comes to the heaviest interests of the 
 living soul ; to those interests which most vitally represent 
 its own growth, its own heart-life, when we come, in 
 short, to the ponderous realism of Religion, then growth 
 is slower. Closely as the commercial interests of the 
 nations have become intertwined, nearly as the thought- 
 life of the people has come in contact, the Eeligions of 
 the people are as yet very distinct, and apparently at 
 great variance. But the "apparently" is to be very 
 decidedly emphasized. We have for so many centuries 
 stood silent before this problem of the vital interests of 
 the race, that we hesitate even now to speak, when there 
 begins to dawn upon the soul of man the gigantic 
 thought that God is in very deed a Father of all His 
 children. That the Fatherhood of God, and the consequent 
 brotherhood of man, are not empty phrases framed in air, 
 but living utterances of the great world- spirit in the first 
 dawn of the new day, which is breaking over the eastern 
 hills. The greater thought comes nearer and nearer to 
 the hearts of thinking men, that there is in reality but 
 one great Church, the Lord's Church, and that all the 
 institutions of Religion are but branches of the one great 
 school, whereof the Lord is the Teacher. That with the 
 new light, which the Sun of Righteousness is shedding 
 upon the little earth, the eyes of men are more ready 
 to see the truth which lay slumbering beneath all the 
 varying phases of religious life among the nations of the 
 earth. That in the school of earth there are different 
 classes, each with its own textbook, in which the same 
 story is told with varying degree of detail, always adapted 
 to the mental grasp of the children, by whom that 
 
228 ' NEW-CHnECH CONGRESS 
 
 textbook is to be read. The diligent and unbiased student 
 is beginning to see that the Sacred Scriptures of the 
 nations really tell the same story, — the story of God- Man, 
 in all its diverse incidents; the story of the upbuilding 
 of a soul, from its lowest to its highest point. 
 
 And based upon this slowly growing thought comes 
 an attempt at comparison. Men are beginning to discern 
 faintly that the principle, which they have discovered in 
 their sciences, in their philosophy, in their language, is 
 one that is equally applicable to Religion and theology. 
 There has grown up in the mental world of men a com- 
 parative anatomy, a comparative geology, a comparative 
 philology, and similarly there must and will grow a com- 
 parative theology. As in language we have learned to 
 trace all the varying tongues of the globe back to an 
 original family of onomatopoetics, so in comparative 
 theology we shall soon be able to trace the structural 
 changes of religious thought back to one original fountain- 
 head of truth revealed. 
 
 It is here that the New Church is enabled to do its 
 most thorough work, owing to the fact that it has in 
 the revelations vouchsafed it a method and a key which 
 opens out the channels of communication, the anastomoses 
 of thought, the points of contact between the religious 
 conceptions of one race and those of another. Into her 
 hand is given the most ready means of tracing any one 
 thought or series of thoughts through its evolutional 
 developments. 
 
 This statement will be seen in clearer light, if an 
 illustration be given of the point involved. Every student 
 of ethnology is ready to admit that the sacred books of 
 the nations bear striking resemblances to one another; 
 that for instance the commandments promulgated from 
 Moant Sinai do not differ materially from the funda- 
 mental laws to be found in the moral and ethical code of 
 
KEW-caCRCH ftoCTElNES 229 
 
 any nation on the globe; that the teachings of Jesus are 
 foreshadowed in those of the great teachers of the world 
 at very early periods; that the great fundamental truths 
 upon which Christianity is founded differ in no essential 
 feature from those upon which other systems of religious 
 teaching have been upreared. Familiar as this thought 
 is to the student of history and of Eeligions, it lacks defi- 
 nitenesa until the test of the "opened Word" is applied 
 to it. 
 
 Trace first the idea conveyed by that phrase. All the 
 progress of the race consists therein, that men advance 
 step by step into a more interior knowledge of the objects 
 and phenomena which are thrush upon their attention 
 from within and from without. The anatomy of to-day 
 differs from that of old, in that it gives a wonderful 
 knowledge of the interior detail of structure. It has 
 made of the body an open book, in which he who runs 
 may read. It has disclosed and laid bare the marvelous 
 details of construction concealed within it. -God has 
 revealed to His children all the marvels of human 
 economy and its relations to the remainder of animated 
 creation through the pathways of comparative anatomy. 
 He quickened here and there a giant brain with the 
 thought of the law underlying these associated organisms 
 and thus brought out to light and to the recognition of 
 men the vast truth to be taught. This is true of every 
 science and of every department of human life. A.nd if 
 true of all else, why should it not be true of the Word ? 
 Why should there not be revealed to men a thought of 
 the law of interior structures in this case as in all else ? 
 Why should the theologian be refused that which the 
 anatomist, the astronomer, the geologist, the ethnologist, 
 the philologist have been permitted to learn ? Was the 
 human body to be made an open book ; were the interiors 
 of the earth to be thrown open to the gaze of men ; were 
 
230 NEW-CHUSCH COKGEESS 
 
 the inner workings of the forces of nature to be revealed 
 to men, and the word to remain a sealed Book? Was 
 nature to speak to men and God to remain silent ? Not 
 at all. Pari passu with the finding of laws for the reveal- 
 ment of the interiors of nature, or the work of God, 
 came the teaching of the laws, whereby the revealment 
 of the interiors of the Word of God were to be made. 
 The hand that quickened master minds to a conception 
 of interior knowledge in regard to the structure of the 
 earth and of the body must needs quicken a master mind 
 also to the conception of the inner workings of the soul. 
 And here lies, not the claim of Swedenborg, but the justi- 
 fication of that claim. He proposes to give into the 
 hands of men a system of interpretation which will do 
 for the Word of God what has been done for the work 
 of God. Which will reveal the interior structures of the 
 Word for the instruction of the spiritual man, as the 
 interior structures of the world and of the body have 
 been opened for the instruction of the natural man. And, 
 as such a revelation on the ground of natural thought 
 shows the relation of the physical structure of man to 
 all of animated creation, so the same revelation on spirit- 
 ual ground is designed to show, more clearly than all 
 else, the relation of the revealed systems of Eeligion to 
 one another. 
 
 Basing the process of reasoning upon that which is 
 familiar to the student in other branches of human 
 knowledge, we take any one feature of the Religions of 
 the nations, seek for one distinct detail and trace that 
 along as far as it will carry us, and then apply the 
 "science of correspondences," that process of interpre- 
 tation given to the world through Emanuel Swedenborg 
 to enable men to study the interiors of the Holy Word 
 and to trace distinctly its relation to the revelations given 
 to the nations of the world. Let it be understood that 
 
HEW- Church bocT&iNEa 231 
 
 although we limit ourselves here to one feature, and to 
 one particular detail of that feature, the process of 
 reasoning is by no means so limited. In fact it can be 
 applied to any feature of Eeligion. Any law and custom, 
 any line of thought, any human interest can be traced 
 through the Religions of the world in the same way, and 
 the connections shown, by means of the "science of 
 correspondences. ' ' 
 
 We limit ourselves here then to one feature of 
 Religion. We take the symbolical form of worship. It 
 is sufficiently prevalent, and the knowledge of its preva- 
 lence sufficiently large and distinct to require no further 
 word of introduction. All nations use symbols in their 
 worship. The cross, the star, the folding of hands, the 
 uplifting of arms, the bending of the knee, letters, marks, 
 tokens, pictures. Let us seek one among these which has 
 any one similarity, any one line of resemblance. Choice is 
 difficult among the mass of material which offers itself. 
 But let us take the winged creature; and with the mention 
 of the word, the winged serpent, the winged bull, the 
 winged horse, the winged lion, the winged sphinx, the 
 winged cherub, the winged man or angel, immediately 
 present themselves to view. And somehow, even in the 
 very grouping of them together, the fact of these creat- 
 ures all having wings impresses the mind with sufficient 
 force to obviate the necessity of a long dissertation on 
 coincidence of thought. Of course every rational being 
 will be prepared to admit that we have here to do with 
 the same thought presented in the garb of different 
 expression, according to the nationality of the people 
 among whom the symbol arose. 
 
 Trace the development or evolution of the thought 
 back of these pictures with me, and we will have learnt 
 the outlines of a law, worthy of the most thorough study 
 and attention on the part of him who has learned to set 
 
232 NEW-CHtmcH CONGfiESS 
 
 aside the unpleasant distinctions of spiritual nationality, 
 or Eeligion, and has come to recognize all men as 
 brothers, children of the same Father, to each of whom 
 God speaks in his own beloved mother-tongue, and 
 according to the nature of his heart. First, then, we let 
 the science of correspondences tell us a few facts. Among 
 them these, that the wing represents any rational, intel- 
 ligent or mental effort designed to uplift the mind up to 
 or beyond any given point. Next we let it tell us, that 
 in the symbol-language of nature, which is the natural 
 language of all peoples, and nations, and tongues and 
 tribes, there is first a distinction made, when speaking of 
 man as a human being, into the brute nature and the 
 human nature of the man. Types of the beast teem in 
 all languages, in all sacred literature, in all profane 
 literature. The fox, the serpent, the bull, the lion — in 
 fact all animals have from time immemorial served to 
 express characteristics of the human nature. The bear, 
 the bull and the lamb of financial circles are as legitimate 
 expressions of this thought, as the lion of Great Britain, 
 the eagle of America, the bear of Russia. It is natural 
 for people to use these types in just this way; and being 
 natural, being spontaneous, proves this habit of expressing 
 human traits under animal figures to be of Divine origin. 
 For "vox populi, vox Dei," may have more meanings 
 than the traditional one of simple brute force. 
 
 So far the thought coincides with the glimpses attain- 
 able without the science of correspondences. But another 
 step, and a more important one in the line of our subject, 
 is the one opened out by a second suggestion made by 
 this science. The science of correspondences teaches us 
 to see in the opened Word certain definite outlines of 
 pictures representing certain definite evolutions of human 
 character. Anyone who roads with care the story, for 
 instance, of the ark of the Lord will note the various 
 
NEW-CHURCa DOOTEIWES 233 
 
 evolutional points of the picture. He will find the picture 
 first introduced as the ark of Noah afloat upon the broad 
 expanse of the waters. He will next see the ark as a 
 smaller picture on a smaller body of water. It is the 
 little ark in which lies the babe Moses. Next he sees the 
 ark as a box carried about upon the land, and next he 
 sees it in heaven. And a study of the details of the evolu- 
 tion, if of this type, of its rise from the water to the land 
 and thence to the sky, the change of its contents, the con- 
 ditions of its environment, the miracles attending its 
 various journeyings — all this would be of large interest if, 
 time permitted us to stop. 
 
 But return again to the group of winged creatures 
 cited, and advance along this line of thought the second 
 step, that is, let them be so grouped as to demonstrate 
 the evolutional idea. Give the thought somewhat in this 
 way. Admitting that the intelligent minds of every 
 nation were able to see the value of a symbol, it would 
 be most natural to conceive that they would be con- 
 fronted by the same problems, and that their solutions 
 would differ according to their genius and their nation- 
 ality. Let us suppose a problem, and have it faced by 
 the religous philosophers of different nations. The 
 problem common to all mankind may be this : In every 
 life, whether its lines be cast in pleasant places, or 
 whether the shadow of the unknown be upon it from its 
 very inception, there must needs arise changes of 
 state. There must needs be day and night. There must 
 needs be times of peace and of unrest. There must 
 needs be times when the mind is in a state of content- 
 ment and when it is in a state of distress. The one 
 state satisfies all its own demands, but the other always 
 presents problems for solution. When the mind is at 
 peace, when it is quiet, when it is content, no questions 
 
 16 
 
234 NEW-CHUHCH CONGRESS 
 
 can possibly arise, no troubles darken the horizon. But 
 when the times of discontent come, when the night 
 shadows the earth of the mental world, when the spirit 
 is touched with the keen sense of its own unrest, then 
 arise the problems of life; and first and chief est among 
 them, the eternal question: "What shall I do to obtain rest, 
 contentment, peace?" Here it is that the answers of 
 religious philosophers begin to differ. From the far 
 north comes one answer. To overcome the thought of 
 unrest, saith the philosopher of that region, sink the 
 mind in oblivion. Sink it into the heaviness and stupor 
 of the sense world. Let the mind be blunted by such 
 sense impressions as wDl dull its pain. "Go, see, hear, 
 satisfy the cravings of the senses, forget yourself in the 
 beauties of the world and in its allurements. And so will 
 you be lifted beyond the thought of pain. You will for- 
 get pain." But the sense-world of man is represented 
 in the science of correspondences by the serpent. Hence, 
 the north puts wings on the serpent, and we have the 
 dragon born, the dragon whom St. George fights, the 
 dragon which attacks the woman of the Apocalypse of 
 John; the dragon and the grifSn of the Saxon; the drink- 
 evil of the modern temperance reformer, the great ser- 
 pent, which to him arises from the wine cup and is called 
 "that old serpent, Satan," ready to deceive and destroy 
 a whole world, yea, and to pull down one-third of the 
 stars in heaven. "When the difiSculties of life are 
 overcome by any activity of the senses, whether in the 
 pleasant form of change and travel, in the more vicious 
 form of drug or alcohol, in the yet more vicious form of 
 sexual crime, then are wings put on the serpent. 
 
 But other philosophers found other answers to the 
 question. Sinking care in pleasures of sense does not 
 overcome care. It does not strike at the root of the evil. 
 And Assyria voices another thought She tells her 
 
NEW-OHtJBCS DOCITEINES 235 
 
 children that there is in every man a certain amount of 
 physical resistance. There is a certain dogged resistance 
 to care in simple work. Just work. Work hard. Give 
 your hands employment; keep busy. Slave, toil, carry 
 the burdens of the day. Set your teeth firmly. Take up 
 the yoke like a man. . . . And the Assyrian put 
 wings on the bull. 
 
 And the Parsee found yet another answer. It is not 
 physical, dogged strength that overcomes trouble. There 
 is a certain moral strength requisite. Work may blunt 
 the senses to the pain of discontent for a time, but soon 
 they will awake again, and then there must be pitted 
 against the opposing forces of misfortime the moral 
 strength of the man. He must meet the questions of life 
 not with the inebriety and riot of the senses, not with the 
 doggedness of resignation. He must stand up against 
 them with the dignity of man. . . . And he put 
 wings on the lion. 
 
 And yet again the Greek found another answer. To 
 the more delicate structure of the Greek mind the thought 
 of sense-pleasure, the thought of dogged resignation, 
 even the thought of self -poised dignity came with an odor 
 of the non-sesthetic. "No, my friend," he said to the 
 questioner and the to question. " Thought is the man. I 
 think, therefore, I am. Ponder the questions well. Exer- 
 cise the power of intelligence over them. Solve your 
 life problems intelligently, and they will be forever 
 solved." . . . And he puts wings on the horse. 
 
 But to the Egyptian was left the nearer approach to 
 the true solution. He pondered the matter well. It 
 seemed to him that trouble is not really overcome by the 
 exercise of any one faculty. There are always more_ 
 Two, perhaps even three. There is a certain amount of 
 physical resistance, of brute force, and also a certain 
 amount of true humanity necessary. " Not that it is for 
 
236 NEW-CHOECH CONGEESS 
 
 me to decide what particular traits are employed in the 
 overcoming of misfortune," he would say to his pupil, 
 "that is not for me to say. So much, however, I am 
 assured is true that, when trouble is really to be met, 
 both the brute and the human side of man's nature must 
 engage in the struggle." . . . And he made a com- 
 bination of the brute and the human and put wings on the 
 sphinx. 
 
 And now the thought had grown to adult proportions 
 The distinctness of single traits and the necessity of co- 
 operation had been taught to God's children all the 
 world over. He had done as He had ever done in the 
 development of a thought. He had entrusted the various 
 parts of the one thought to different nations, just as He 
 entrusts the various organic functions of the body to its 
 different organs. He makes the eye do all tiie seeing, 
 the ear do all the hearing, the foot do all the walking, the 
 heart do all the throbbing and the brain do all the think- 
 ing for the whole body. And he gathers them altogether 
 into one great unit. So, when the thought had so far 
 developed, He gathered its various points together into 
 one type. So evident a gathering together as this can 
 nowhere else be found. Listen what He taught the Jew 
 to say: "Trouble is overcome only by a thorough co-oper- 
 ation of the different traits of the brute and the human 
 nature of man. No one faculty alone, no two faculties 
 alone will meet the demands of the question. Trouble is 
 not really overcome, man is not really lifted beyond the 
 mists of his mental valley, until he is able to give full play 
 to all his faculties." . . . And he gathered the thought 
 together under the surveillance of Providence into this 
 distinctively artificial composite figure : "And out of the 
 midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. 
 And this was their appearance: they had the likenesses 
 of a man. And every one had four faces, and every one 
 
HEW-OHUKCH DOCTEINES 237 
 
 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 polished copper. And 
 they had the hands of a man under 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.'' 
 (Ezekiel i.) How patiently He waits for the growth of 
 His symbols through the channels of the national mind; 
 and then how diligently He joins the whole picture into 
 one, and how unostentatiously He says "And their wings 
 were joined," and how calmly He counsels His despond- 
 ing children "and their wings were stretched upward." 
 And so the Jewish scribe put wings on the cherubim; 
 strange composite growths of a single truth. Marvelous 
 evolution of a symbol through the heart of the nations ! 
 But the world grew older. Gradually through the 
 battles of the ages the great struggle of the man and the 
 beast is drawing to its end. Gradually brute nature is 
 being subdued. Men are no longer the refined animals 
 they were a few centuries ago. They are beginning to 
 be men. God is nearer the end of His great work now, 
 which began with the words "Let us make man," and 
 which has not yet reached its end. He is gradually mak- 
 ing that man whom He promised Himself in the begin- 
 ning. He is gradually fashioning into the hearts of His 
 children the blessed lines of true humanity, and the 
 beast is slowly being overcome. The number of the 
 man, that is of the angel, is being written upon the tab- 
 lets, where once was engraved the number of the beqst, 
 
238 NEW-CHDRCH CONGKESS 
 
 And synchronous with the ripening of this thought in 
 the race-heart grows the final evolution of the symbol, 
 and the Christian philosopher is permitted to say to his 
 pupil: "It is not the single faculty of the man that over- 
 comes trouble. It is not the developement of any number 
 of faculties and their co- ordination in any number of ways. 
 It is the development of the wliole man that answers the 
 problem of life and lifts man upward beyond the valley 
 of the shadow of death; — and he put wings on the man, 
 and called the figure — an angel. 
 
 And thus in every phenomenon of religious life, in 
 every problem presented by the varying ages of the 
 world, " the opened Word," the revealed knowledge of 
 correspondence, gives into the hands of men the ability 
 to understand and to see the larger law that lies back of 
 all life's littlenesses. And once the larger law is seen the 
 question has attained its answer ; the problem has reached 
 its solution. For it is the larger law which men must 
 needs learn to see. It is the greater miit which is back 
 of all the changing attitudes of life which men want to 
 grasp and to understand. When once we have attained/ 
 a knowledge of this giant unit, whose distorted and broken 
 shadow falls upon the pathway before us, all questionings 
 of the shadow cease, for we have realized the light behind 
 it. The science of the opened Word will teach men to 
 grasp the larger unit back of the fractions which men 
 have created. It will enable them to understand, — faintly, 
 perhaps, and imperfectly, yet to understand,- — the One, 
 the Unit, the Great One, who is and who was and who 
 shall be, the Almighty; fi-om whom all life proceeds; 
 from whom all blessings flow; from whom all souls are 
 born; upon whom all things depend, and from whom all 
 things proceed, as the branches proceed from the vine; as 
 
NEW- CHURCH DOCTRINES 239 
 
 the arms of the candlestick proceeded from its central 
 shaft; as the horns of the altar proceeded from the 
 corners of it. 
 
 And men instructed from the opened Word will cease 
 to study the history of men; they will study the history 
 of Man ; for back of the little history of men, back of 
 their little battles and victories, their little successes and 
 failures, lies the great history of Man, the giant-man of 
 the race. And they will forget to study the problem of 
 the churches. It will have sunk in the problem of Ihe 
 Church, — God's great school of many classes, where the 
 children of His mercy learn the lessons of His truth, and 
 whence they graduate through the gateway of death, 
 through the great final " Commencement," the real begin- 
 ning of life, the life hereafter. And in its classrooms are 
 all His children studying carefully, diligently, wisely, 
 excitedly, painfully; each with his own little problem 
 before him; each with his own way of solving it; each 
 with his own manner of understanding the Great Teacher. 
 And in infinite tenderness He speaks to all His children ; 
 unto each in his own sweet mother -tongue, which is sweeter 
 to him than honey or the honeycomb, and more beautiful 
 than the stars of a summer night. And unto each of His 
 children He gently whispers the secret of life: "Come 
 unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
 give you rest." " Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the 
 ends of the earth; for I am God and there is none else." 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE PLANTING OF THE NEW 
 CHURCH 
 
 SWEDENBOKG'S WRITINGS AND HIS DISPOSITION OF 
 THEM 
 
 BT THE KEY. C. J. N. MANBY, GOTTBNBTJEa 
 
 In the Government of Providence nothing is done 
 suddenly, without preparation. Great events will have 
 great and long preparations. The morning star 
 with the aurora prepares for the coming day and the 
 day-star. 
 
 The Second Coming of the Lord was to be a most 
 momentous event for the whole humanity of the earth, to 
 say the least. The preparations for that immeasurably 
 grand event were going on during centuries. The 
 Reformation was one of them ; the invention of the print- 
 ing press was another, and a preparation for the Refor- 
 mation itself. The inventions succeed each other with 
 astonishing, velocity. It may be difficult to determine 
 which of them is the grandest and most important one 
 generally speaking, and we have here at the World's Fair 
 the most favorable occasion to see and admire thousands 
 of them; but circumscribing the field to spirit more 
 strictly speaking, as the proper object of the Parliament 
 of Eeligions, you all will, I dare hope, concede the palm 
 to the printing press. 
 
 There is, certainly, no better missionary than a book. 
 A representative of the " living voice " would perhaps 
 
 341 
 
242 NEW-CHUBCH CONGRESS 
 
 quarrel with you if you happen to be of another opinion 
 than he or she; but the book you may lay aside and it 
 will lie there patiently, silently, until you perhaps choose 
 to take it up. 
 
 A new time; new means. The first Christian Gospel, 
 although that, too, had to be laid down and fixed in 
 books, had to be propagated mainly by the living voice, 
 the spoken word. The second Christian Gospel, or, if 
 you like, the Gospel for and in the second Christian 
 Church, " New Jerusalem," we can scarcely doubt will be 
 propagated mainly by the printed page. That comes 
 where no other missionary comes; that leaves, more than 
 any other agent, fellow-men in liberty and free-will undis- 
 turbed. And this our time, perhaps more than any 
 previous, demands for its members, at least of the old 
 Christian nations, liberty, — liberty of thought and liberty 
 of action. The translating of the Bible, the Word in its 
 letter into hundreds of languages and the spreading 
 broadcast of this holy book over all parts of the earth, 
 goes on as the mightiest preparation, because the most 
 necessary, to the glorious Second Coming of the Lord as 
 the Word in its " Spirit and Life." 
 
 The New Church believes that the Second Coming of 
 the Lord is an accomplished fact already, by the Lord's 
 revealing of the internal sense of the Word, through His 
 chosen servant, Emanuel Swedenborg, from his very 
 youth prepared for this grand work. But to the individ- 
 ual members of mankind, this inner light, with its life, can 
 come only gradually as also the Gospel of the Lord's 
 First Coming was spread gradually over the world, — so 
 slowly indeed, that hundreds of millions of people will 
 hear of the Lord's First Coming first in this age of His 
 Second Coming, and perhaps together with the light 
 from His Second Coming, so that the "Sun of Righteous- 
 ness" will shine at once with "the light of seven days." 
 
PLANTING THE CHURCH 243 
 
 Already the printed pages illumined by the light of the 
 Lord's Second Coming have been spreading broadcast, 
 and some rays have begun to shine also over the non- 
 Christian world, for instance India and Africa. 
 
 In order to show Swedenborg's own thought concern- 
 ing the relation of the printing press to his work as the 
 herald of the Lord's Second Coming I may let himself 
 speak. In his last work, the True Christian Religion, 
 779, he says: "Since the Lord cannot manifest Himself 
 in Person, as just shown above, and nevertheless has fore- 
 told that He will come and found a new Church which is 
 the New Jerusalem, it follows that He will do this by 
 means of a man who can not only receive the doctrines of 
 this Church with the understanding but can also publish 
 them by the press. That the Lord manifested Himself 
 before me, His servant, and sent me to this office, and 
 that He afterward opened the sight of my spirit, and so 
 has intromitted me into the spiritual world, and has 
 granted me to see the heavens and the hells, also to con- 
 verse with angels and spirits, and this now uninterrupt- 
 edly for many years, I testify in truth." 
 
 The Second Coming of the Lord ought to be accom- 
 panied by a "last judgment;" such a one as took place at 
 the Lord's First Coming, as the Lord says: "Now is the 
 judgment of this world" (St. John xii :41) ; and Swedenborg 
 testifies that such a judgment has taken place at the end 
 of every "age" or dippensation of the Church. Such an 
 event cannot take place in this natural world of ours, 
 but in the spiritual world, where we go by what we call 
 "death," the death of the material body. But the effects 
 of such a judgment are to be seen in this world in forms, 
 especially of new light and new liberty. And I think we 
 may, if we like, see those effects of the judgment both at 
 the Lord's First and at His Second Coming. The latter, 
 Swedenborg says, took place in the year 1757. Tljig 
 
244 NEW-CHnECH CONGKESS 
 
 much has been said in order to understand Swedenborg's 
 disposition or arrangement of his writings — afterwards 
 we will speak of the disposition in the sense of distribution. 
 The year 1757 forms the line of demarkation between 
 the two ages of the Church, the First Christian, and the 
 Second Christian or New Jerusalem age. A revelation 
 of new truth had to be made, as we should expect, before 
 the judgment. And so it was. Before the year 1757 
 Swedenborg published (in London) his first and largest 
 theological work, Arcana Coelestia. This work, eight 
 large quarto volumes, is to be considered as a fountain 
 work in which all his later writings, in a certain 
 sense, are enclosed, and from which they are brought 
 forth, some of them almost verbatim, others in their main 
 principles. Arcana Caelestia or Heavenly Secrets is an 
 exegetical or explanatory work, giving the inner meaning 
 of Genesis and Exodus, but in such a way that in a 
 manner the whole Word is explained, Swedenborg always 
 following that recognized principle to let Scripture 
 explain Scripture. In that work, of course, we have the 
 common law laid down according to which the whole 
 Word is written, the law of correspondences between 
 natural things as effects and spiritual ones as causes. 
 Besides in Arcana there are especially between the chap- 
 ters interpersed doctrinals and other things of use for 
 knowledge, faith and life. Thus we say, the Word has 
 been opened in that grand work; and the opening of the 
 Word constitutes the Lord's coming again as the Word 
 to His Church. For in the open Word we see the Lord 
 Jesus Christ as the one only God in heaven and on earth, 
 the Word in its innermost sense treating only about the 
 Lord. But created as we are, images of the Lord, we 
 have in the lower senses of the Word, according to the 
 law of correspondences, expositions of the regeneration 
 of man and of the Church here and in heaven, as the 
 
PLANTING THE OHUKCH 245 
 
 Kingdom of our Lord. And so we have in that work a 
 Psychology, a doctrine of the soul, of such grandeur 
 and beauty as God only can give, for it is from His Word. 
 Says Swedenborg in the before cited number (T. C. E., 
 779), "I testify in truth . . . that from the first day of 
 that call I have not received anything which pertains to 
 the doctrines of that Church from any angel, but from 
 the Lord alone while I have read the Word." 
 
 On the other side of the line of demarkation, the year 
 1757, we have of necessity a series of works that could 
 not be given before, and among them also an exegetical 
 one, Apocalypsis Revelata (the Apocalypse Eevealed), an 
 explanation of the Book of Eevelation. As is the case 
 with all Biblical Prophecies, they cannot be fully under- 
 stood before their fulfillment, so, also, with this last pro- 
 phetical book in the Word. That could not fully be 
 understood, and thus explained before the last judgment, 
 because it is a prophecy about that event and the states 
 of the Church before and after that. Therefore, the 
 Apocalypse Revealed was written after the judgment, 
 and published at Amsterdam in the year 1766 in a heavy 
 quarto volume. 
 
 It was, we have said, necessary to open the Word 
 before 1757, before the consummation of that "age," as it 
 was necessary for the Lord to come the first time before 
 the consummation or full end of the Jewish age, and. to 
 preach then the "Kingdom of heaven." The end of the 
 Jewish age was come when the Lord executed the last 
 judgment upon that "age," which judgment (in the 
 spiritual world) was ultimated and represented before the 
 external senses in this world by the destruction of Jeru- 
 salem and the Jewish temple, the last remnant of the 
 representative dispensation. The momentous event called 
 "Last Judgment" executed in 1757, Swedenborg has 
 described in a special minor work, '^Concerning the Last 
 
246 NEW-CHORCH CONaEESS 
 
 Judgment," published in London, 1758, and iu a "Con- 
 tinuation Concerning the Last Judgment and the Spiritual 
 World," published in Amsterdam, 1763, and of course in 
 the before-mentioned work on the Apocalypse. 
 
 Other writings, more or less dependent on the same 
 act, and therefore to be written or at least published after 
 that were: On Heaven and Hell "from things heard and 
 seen," or concerning the spiritual world as a most real 
 world, where men go immediately from this one and 
 choose their homes therein according to their ruling love; 
 On the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, mostly 
 extracted from the Arcana, in its main articles an exceed- 
 ingly concise doctrinal exposition; On the White House, 
 an explanation of that subject in the 19th chapter of the 
 Apocalypse ; On the Earths in the Universe, stating that 
 the planets in the various solar systems are destined by 
 the Creator as seminaries for human beings, and thus for 
 heaven. (Those four works, with exception of Heaven 
 and Hell not very extensive, were published in London, 
 1758). These were followed by The Doctrine of the New 
 Jerusalem: 1. "Concerning the Lord" 2. "Concerning 
 the Sacred Scriptures" as the very "Word of God and the 
 means of conjunction between the heavens and the earth; 
 3. "The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem," 
 "according to the Ten Commandments," the opening 
 sentence being: "All Religion has relation to life, and 
 the life of Religion is to do good;" 4. "Concerning 
 Faith," as an " internal acknowledgment of the truth." 
 Those small but really '' Leading Doctrines," as they are 
 called, were published in Amsterdam, 1763. Two writings, 
 more extensive, called with the common name "Angelic 
 Wisdom:" 1. "Concerning the Divine Love and the 
 Divine Wisdom," on the natui-e of God and the creation 
 and preservation of the world. Of that work it has been 
 said that it is the "focus in which the rays of the new 
 
PLANTING THE OHTJEOH 247 
 
 ligM are concentrated." We have in it an exposition of 
 the important doctrine of "discrete degrees,'' the very 
 key, one may say, to the science of correspondences — a 
 "correspondence" expressing the relation between dis- 
 crete degrees, or more especieilly between the natural and 
 the spiritual. (Amsterdam, 1763.) 2. " Concerning the 
 Divine Providence," as the " Government of the Lord's 
 Divine Love and Divine Wisdom." (Amsterdam, 1764.) 
 Further: "The Delights of Wisdom Concerning Conjugal 
 Love," and its opposite, an extensive work presenting in 
 strong colors the spirituality and holiness of true marriage 
 as a union of minds and souls, being an expression 
 of the union of Love and Wisdom in the Lord and 
 from the Lord. (Amsterdam, 1768.) "A Brief Exposi- 
 tion of the Doctrine of the New Church," contrasting 
 the new and the old doctrines, and being a forerunner to 
 Swedenborg's last work. (Amsterdam, 1769.) "Inter- 
 course Between the Soul and the Body," a small treatise 
 on an important subject, illustrating also the doctrine of 
 the discrete degrees and correspondences (London, 1769). 
 And lastly: "The True Christian Religion, containing 
 the universal theology of the New Church foretold by the 
 Lord in Daniel (chapter vii: 13-19) and in the Apocalypse 
 (chapter xxi: 1, 2)," a large quarto volume, published in 
 Amsterdam, 1771 (the year before Swedenborg's decease), 
 wonderfully arranged in its fourteen chapters with their 
 subdivisions, as a "City" with its streets and lanes, to use 
 the very correspondential image from the Holy Scripture, 
 in which the soul may abide. 
 
 We speak here to-day of "the planting of the New 
 Church" in the world. Emanuel Swedenborg must first 
 have that New Church planted in himself, as the Lord's 
 disciples must have the First Christian Church planted 
 in themselves; and then he must be the first agent of 
 
248 NEW-OHDEOfl CONGftfiSB 
 
 planting it in the world about him. This he did mainly, 
 if not exclusively, by distributing his writings, as we shall 
 now see. 
 
 Swedenborg's writings were intended to be the 
 property of the whole world, and I think we may see a 
 providential act in the very fact that they were written 
 in Latin, a "dead" language not exposed to be changed, 
 and acessible alike to all civilized nations. It seems also 
 to be significant that they were published in London and 
 ■Amsterdam, the then two centres of the commercial 
 world, I would almost say the "heart and lungs" of 
 Christendom, and thus most fit to be centres of distri. 
 button of a world's literature to be. 
 
 Remarkably enough the English was the first language 
 into which anything of Swedenborg's writings was trans- 
 lated and thus made accessible to the large public. We re- 
 member that the Arcana was printed in London and the 
 second volume was issued both in Latin and in English, 
 the translation being made by Mr. John Merchant. Yet 
 the work was not spread very quickly, although it was 
 "exceedingly cheap." Swedenborg notes in his diary 
 (N. 4422) that not more than four copies had been sold 
 within two months. But Swedenborg used generously to 
 give away his .books. In all cases, there were no more than 
 nine copies of the whole Arcana remaining when the 
 Rev. Arvid Ferelius, pastor of the Swedish Church in Lon- 
 don, after Swedenborg's last communion, received from 
 Swedenborg's own hands a copy of that work, and those 
 nine were to be sent to Holland, as he himself narrates. 
 One of the best sources of information of Swedenborg's 
 distribution of his writings is his letters to his friend, the 
 Rev. Dr. Beyer of Gottenburg, one of the first receivers 
 and perhaps the first public propagator of the new doc- 
 trines. Some hints we also have in Swedenborg's writ- 
 ings published by himself. On the first of October, 1765, 
 
PLANTING THE CHTJROH 249 
 
 Swedenborg sent to Dr. Beyer two copies of the begin- 
 ning of the Apocalypse Revealed and on the eighth of 
 April, the following year he sent him eight copies of the 
 same work now completed, one for himself, "the rest for 
 distribution." In March Dr. Beyer had expressed his 
 delight in the way the glorious truths were beginning to 
 shine before him, and asked for certain volumes of the 
 Arcana that he had not been able to obtain. Some 
 volumes he seems to have received immediately after his 
 acquaintance with Swedenborg, probably in the summer 
 of 1765. In August, 1766, Swedenborg wrote him from 
 London: "I send you herewith a complete set of the 
 Arcana Coelestia, and likewise the last volume of those 
 which were still wanting in yours." In February, 1767, 
 Swedenborg wrote to Beyer, amongst many other things, 
 "The Universities in Christendom are now first being 
 instructed, whence will come new ministers." 
 
 On this we wish to lay the utmost stress. The 
 universities would be centers in various countries for 
 spreading the new light, or at least depositories or treas- 
 uries for these books, which were as many granaries for 
 future centuries. Consequently we find Swedenborg 
 distributing his works among universities and libraries 
 with a free hand, till the editions were exhausted. So 
 he writes to the Secretary of State in Stockholm: "I 
 have at last finished the explanation of the Book of Eeve- 
 lation and circulated it in all the universities in Holland, 
 Germany, France and England, and am going to send 
 seventy copies to Stockholm, of which your honor will 
 please take five and give them to the following senators: 
 Senator Hopken, Senator Scheffer, likewise to Norden- 
 crantz, the Counselor of Commerce, and the Bishops 
 Menander and Serenius; the other five you will please to 
 distribute among your friends. The remaining sixty 
 
 17 
 
250 NEW-CHUECH CONGRESS 
 
 copies I desire to be kept safe until my return home. 
 I intend to distribute them among the academies and 
 libraries of Sweden, and among clergymen who are quali- 
 fied for a more than ordinary position. Four I intend 
 to present to the court, and the remainder to universities 
 and theological seminaries in foreign parts." 
 
 In March, 1769, Swedenborg writes again to Dr. 
 Beyer. " I had the pleasure of receiving yours of 
 November 23, 1768. The reason I did not answer it 
 sooner was that I postponed until a little work was pub- 
 lished, entitled A Brief Exposition of the Doctrines of 
 the New Church Signified by the New Jerusalem in the 
 Book of Revelation, in which work are fully shown the 
 errors of the hitherto received doctrine of justification by 
 faith alone, and the imputation of righteousness or merit 
 of 'Christ. This treatise was sent by me to all the clergy 
 in Holland, and will come into the hands of the most 
 eminent in Germany. I have been informed that they 
 have attentively perused it, and that some have already 
 discovered the truth, while others do not know which 
 way to turn; for what is written therein is sufficient to 
 convince any one that the above mentioned doctiine is 
 the cause of our having at the present day no theology 
 in Christendom." " Here (in Amsterdam) they frequently 
 inquire of me respecting the New Church, when it will 
 come. To which I answer — By degrees, in proportion 
 as the doctrine of justification and imputation is extir- 
 pated; which perhaps will be brought about by this work. 
 It is known that the Christian Church did not take its rise 
 immediately after the ascension of Christ, but increased 
 gradually." . . . 
 
 The Kev. Dr. and Lector Beyer, together with his 
 friend and colleague, the Eev. Dr. and Lector Bosen, also 
 of Gottenburg, did not go free from persecution, but they 
 defended themselves manfully. Swedenborg himself 
 
PLANTING THE CHtjROH 251 
 
 wrote to the king on their behalf. In his statement, dated 
 in Stockholm under the tenth of May, 1770, he says, 
 amongst other things, the following of special importance 
 to our subject, "That our Savior visibly revealed Himself 
 before me and commanded me to do what I have done, 
 and what I have still to do; and that thereupon He per- 
 mitted me to have intercourse with angels and spirits, I 
 have declared before the whole of Christendom, as well 
 in England, Holland, Germany and Denmark, as in 
 France and Spain, and also on various occasions in this 
 country before their Eoyal Majesties, and especially when 
 I enjoyed the grace to eat at their tables, in the presence 
 of the whole Royal family, and also of five Senators and 
 others, at which time my mission constituted the sole topic 
 of conversation. Subsequently, also, I have revealed this 
 before many Senators; and among these Count Tessin, 
 Count Bonde and Count Hopken have found it in truth to 
 be so; and Count Hopken, a gentleman of enlightened 
 understanding, still continues to believe so, without men- 
 tioning many others, as well at home as abroad, among 
 whom are both kings and princes." . . . 
 
 In the same statement he speaks of his book De Amove 
 Conjugiali (Conjugal Love) of which a small box had 
 been sent from Holland for the Diet in Nonkoping, 
 Sweden, 1769, but had been confiscated by Swedenborg's 
 relative, Bishop Fe.lenius. He refers to a place in that 
 work and says: "His Excellency Count Ekeblad and His 
 Excellency Count Bjelke possess the book." 
 
 Noteworthy is it that Swedenborg sent copies of the 
 said letter to the King, to the Chancellor of Justice, and 
 to the three Swedish Universities. In April, 1771, he 
 wrote from Amsterdam to Dr. Beyer, — " I wonder that 
 they keep stirring up this affair at Gottenburg. I will 
 complain of them at the next Diet when I send over my 
 Universa Theologia Novi Coeli et Novce Ecclesice (' The 
 
252 new-Church: congress 
 
 True Christian Religion,') -which will leave the press 
 towards the close of the month of June. I will send two 
 copies of this work to each House," (the Houses of the 
 Swedish Diet then were four) " and request them to 
 appoint for its consideration a general committee from 
 all the Houses, in order to i)ut an end to the affair 
 in this way. I am certain of this, that after the appear- 
 ance of the book referred to, the Lord our Savior will 
 operate both mediately and immediately towards the 
 establihhment throughout the whole of Christendom of a 
 New Church based on this ' Theology.' The New Heaven, 
 out of which the New Jerusalem will descend will very 
 soon be completed." On July 2d, he again writes to Dr. 
 Beyer, — " Captain Sjoberg informed me that he was com- 
 missioned by Mr. Hammarberg to purchase some sets of 
 the works written by me, namely, four of each, and among 
 them also the last book which appeared a few days ago. 
 On account of the strict prohibition the captain did not 
 dare to purchase more than one cupy of each; besides 
 this I presented him with a copy of the last work pub- 
 lished. Perhaps Mr. Hammarberg may know of some 
 way by which he could receive another copy if it were 
 sent afterwards. In a few days I will send to Stockholm 
 by the skipper Casper Nyberg two copies of the work 
 just published, entitled Vera Meligio Christiana, one for 
 Bishop Menander and the other for Bishop Serenius; and 
 among other things I will give them to understand that 
 as soon as the Diet is properly organized I shall tender a 
 formal complaint of the course of proceeding of the 
 Privy Council in the Gottenburg matter, in respect to you 
 and myself; from which I hope a favorable result. . . . 
 With my kindest regards to Dr. Kosen I remain, with all 
 friendship and affection, your most obedient servant and 
 friend, 
 
 Emanuel Swedenborg." 
 
PLAHTING THE CHURCH 253 
 
 The " stirred up affair at Gottenburg " at last was 
 silenced. The Doctors Beyer and Rosen were allowed 
 to retain their offices but were prohibited from teaching 
 theological matters, because of their " erroneous doctrinal 
 opinions." Swedenborg alluded to Ihe persecution now 
 mentioned in his work, True Christian Religion (N. 137). 
 Regarding the distribution of his writings, he speaks also 
 in his published works, for instance in The Apocalypse 
 Revealed (N. 716), where we read: " I have spoken in 
 the spiritual world with certain bishops of England; and 
 there concerning the small works published at London in 
 the year 1758, which were 'Concerning Heaven and Hell,' 
 ' Concerning the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly 
 Doctrine,' ' Concerning the Last Judgment,' ' Concerning 
 the White House ' and ' Concerning the Earths in the 
 Universe;' which small works were presented to all the 
 bishops, and to many of the nobles or lords. They said 
 that they received them and saw them, bat did not think 
 them valuable, although skillfully written, and likewise 
 that they persuaded as many as they" could not to read 
 them. I asked, ' Why so ? when yet there are there 
 Arcana concerning heaven and hell, and concerning the 
 life after death, and other things most worthy of atten- 
 tion, which have been revealed by the Lord for those who 
 will be of His New Church, which is the new Jerusalem.' 
 But they said, ' What is this to us ?' and they poured out 
 censures against them as formerly in the world.' 
 
 Thus having seen how copiously, and in all directions 
 Swedenborg distributed his writings in almost all coun- 
 tries of Europe, we can not wonder that we hear of friends 
 to him and his doctrines from his own days, in almost 
 every country. Thus we know of early friends in Eng- 
 land. The Rev. Thomas Hartley, a clergyman of the 
 Church of England, Rector of Winwick, Northamptop.- 
 shire, was one of them. From him we have a most 
 
254 NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 
 
 respectful letter to Swedenborg, written in the year 1769. 
 Mr. Hartley translated and prefaced several of his works 
 for the English public. Dr. H. Messiter, a physician, 
 was another English friend. Swedenborg's confidence in 
 Dr. Messiter was shown by his requesting him to send 
 some of his theological works to the Professors of Divinity 
 in the Scottish universities. So Dr. Messiter wrote to 
 the Professors of Divinity at Edinburgh, at Glasgow, and 
 at Aberdeen- 
 
 In Germany the known prelate Oettinger translated 
 and published, during Swedenborg's lifetime, certain 
 portions of the "Arcana CcBlestia." Jung StiUing 
 esteemed Swedenborg, and perhaps more so the renowned 
 Lavater, who wrote two letters to Swedenborg, the one 
 of Sept. 24, 1769, showing that Swedenborg's works 
 had very much influenced his views. The celebrated 
 Father Oberlin of Ban de la Roche (born in Strass- 
 burg in the year 1740) was a warm friend, in pos- 
 session, we see, at least of the work "On Heaven and 
 Hell." Of Kant we know that he purchased the "Arcana 
 Coelestia," but finding that it contained only explications 
 of Scripture, he could not find any interest in it. In Den- 
 mark General Tuxen became acquainted with Sweden- 
 borg at Elsinore in the year 1770, and became a warm 
 friend of his writings. Says he: "For my part I thank 
 GUI' Lord, the God of Heaven, that I have been 
 acquainted with this great man and his vyi-itings." Also a 
 Eussian friend, we hear, says Robsahm in his memoirs 
 (N. 19): "The chaplain of the Imperial Russian Lega- 
 tion, Oronoskow, who was in Stockholm during the time 
 of the ambassador. Count Ostermann, was a monk of 
 the Alexander-Newsky order, and led an orderly and pious 
 life. He became acquainted with me, and I lent him 
 Swedenborg's book which he said he read with the great- 
 est delight." He desired to see Swedenborg, and to talk 
 
PLANTING THE CHCECH 255 
 
 with this remarkable man. I complied with his desire, 
 and invited Swedenborg and him to dinner, in company 
 with several named friends. As to Finland we know 
 that it in Swedenborg's time belonged to Sweden, one of 
 "the three Swedish universities" before mentioned, being 
 there. Concerning France we know that, in the beginning 
 of the last quarter of the former century, a Paris book- 
 seller sent to Amsterdam, and bought up all the copies 
 he could find of the True Christian Religion. 
 
 This glance will enable us to see how Swedenborg's 
 writings during his liftime were spread in Europe, mostly 
 by his own exertions. Specially in Sweden there have 
 been, and yet are, many signs of the wide circulation of 
 Swedenborg's own editions. During my staying at the 
 university of Upsala, as a student there, it happened 
 very often that such books were sold at the book 
 auctions. Thus I bought a copy of the Apocalypsis 
 Revelata in 1866, precisely a hundred years after its 
 being printed; btit — discouraging to say — it was not cut. 
 Also copies of several other works of the original editions 
 I have been happy to purchase in somewhat similar way, 
 but they did not seem to have been read. 
 
 Emanuel Swedenborg's own editions of his theolog- 
 ical writings — all of them in Latin — are to be found, I 
 think, in almost all parts of the earth, being more and 
 more searched for. They will soon have to be weighted 
 up with gold. Thus the seeds have been sown from 
 which the New Church has sprung up in various places. 
 This sowing has gone on until our days and certainly will 
 go on increasingly in days to come. The New Church has, 
 to use another image, grown up already to a tree spread- 
 ing its branches to parts of the earth where they in 
 Swedenborg's lifetime had no knowledge either of his 
 writings nor even of Christianity. 
 
256 NEW-OHUBCH CONGEESS 
 
 II 
 
 THE PLANTING OP THE NEW CHURCH IN ENGLAND 
 
 BY JAMES SPEIRS, LONDON 
 
 The writings of Swedenborg purport to contain a new 
 revelation of truth given for the especial purpose of 
 reviving the Church, upon earth, and doing so with a 
 purity and spirituality due to the doctrines being drawn 
 not from the letter which instructed Jew and Christian, 
 but from their disclosing to men on earth the Word 
 which is settled in heaven. We have no occasion in this 
 place to detail these doctrines or to attempt to prove them. 
 That will be done by other writers. What we have to 
 state on the threshold is that a new system of doctrines 
 having been accepted, they have naturally given rise to 
 a new organization constituted of those who in the past 
 received them as revealed truth, and of those now living 
 who so receive them. . . . 
 
 The few, therefore, to whom the Scriptural expositions 
 contained in Swedenborg' s writings carried conviction 
 at once began to direct the attention of their friends and 
 fellows to them. And as the only effectual way of 
 doing so in this country, they individually or collectively 
 proceeded to translate and print and circulate them as 
 far as they had the means and power to do so. The 
 sowing of the seed proceeded in this manner, with very 
 great activity from 1778, when the Kev. T. Hartley, 
 rector of Winwick, translated Heaven and Hell, followed 
 by the True Christian Religion in 1781, translated by the 
 Rev. John Clowes, M. A., rector of St John's, Manchester, 
 Mr. Clowes was indeed the Apostle Paul of the New 
 Church, not as an organization, but as a heaven-given 
 system of doctrine. He taught New-Church doctrine in 
 the existing sanctuaries of worship, just as our LoM 
 
SLANTING THE CHURCH 257 
 
 Himself taught in the synagogues. The first attempt at 
 united action on the part of supporters of these new 
 views was in the formation of a society, in order to print 
 them, which was founded in Manchester in 1782. Mr. 
 Clowes translated seventeen volumes of Swedenborg, 
 including the largest and also most important of his 
 works, called the Arcana Coelestia, besides writing fifty 
 volumes — some very large works — in their exposition and 
 defense. Mr. Clowes' high personal qualities, to which 
 De Quincey so beautifully testified, gave him, independ- 
 ently of his high scholarship and great ability, a power 
 and influence which were far-reaching. This is shown 
 in the cluster of societies formed around Manchester, 
 within to the radius of his influence, which still exist to 
 witness to his zeal and devotion. Lancashire became 
 then a great stronghold of the New Church, and it con- 
 tinues to remain so, as is evident from the fact that a 
 third of all the societies in Great Britain are situated in 
 it, and more than one-half of its entire registered mem- 
 bers. The force of ■ spiritual consanguinity is shown in 
 the further fact that these societies originated as pro- 
 fessedly New-Church Societies, in opposition to Mr. 
 Clowes' judgment of what was wise and proper. He 
 taught them the doctrines; they thereafter formed their 
 own special organizations, in which they could give free 
 and undisturbed expression to them in their worship. 
 Whilst this active work was going on in Manchester, 
 London was also bestirring itself. Mr. Eobert Hind- 
 marsh, who may be called the founder of the external 
 organization, sought in 1783, by the very modern device 
 of a newspaper advertisement, to bring together all who 
 were acquainted with Swedenborg that they might hold 
 meetings for the extension of their personal knowledge 
 of the writings, and the consideration of how to make 
 them better known to the world. In answer to this 
 
258 NEW-OHUKCH CONaEESS 
 
 public announcement five persons met at the Queen's 
 Arms Tavern, St. Paul's Churchyard, London, on Dec. 
 5, 1783, at 5:00 o'clock, where they engaged a private 
 room, drank tea together, and planned future meetings. 
 They were all, as might be expected, men of strongly 
 marked character, both as to will and intellect. They 
 decided to hold a weekly meeting to advertise it and 
 invite all interested to attend. They met in New Court, 
 and took the name of "The Theosophical Society." 
 although in quite a different sense from what would be 
 now attached to a society socalled. Among those who 
 joined the society were the Rev. J. Gilpin Fletcher, of 
 Madeley's curate; John Flaxman, the sculptor; William 
 Sharpe, the engraver; Barthelemon, the musical composer; 
 Lieut. -General Kainsford, afterwards governor of Gibral- 
 tar. Whilst they considered it important to improve their 
 own knowledge of the doctrines of the internal sense of 
 Scripture, beyond that they held their main work to be 
 to address the public, and especially the clergy. For 
 this purpose the printing of the posthumous Latin works 
 of Swedenborg, and of translations into English of his 
 others was vigorously carried on. Nor was this done in 
 a half-hearted fashion; the energy was not expended 
 solely in producing them; they were thereafter sent 
 throughout the globe. The early converts to Sweden- 
 borgian doctrine were large-minded and large-hearted 
 men. They included some of the most ardent advocates 
 for the abolition of slavery, and that at a time when the 
 Church by law established was united almost without 
 exception in upholding it. The writings of the New 
 Church were taken out to Botany Bay, with the first con- 
 victs sent thither, by the medical officer attached to the 
 vessel. Even Captain Cook, on sailing from Plymouth on 
 his last voyage of discovery (1776), started from the 
 
PLANTING THE CHURCH 259 
 
 house of the zealous New-Churchman William Cook- 
 worthy, the personal acquaintance of Swedenborg and 
 translator of his works. 
 
 The Rev. Jacob Duche, chaplain to the Female Orphan 
 Asylum, St. George's, London, who had adopted the doc- 
 trines, was well known in New- Church circles as a 
 preacher of them ; and consequently his public ministra- 
 tions were attended by all favorably disposed, for whom 
 it was convenient. He even held reading meetings at his 
 house, which were occasionally attended by as many as 
 thirty persons. 
 
 As missionaries in the usual sense, we may refer to 
 Messrs. J. W. Salmon and E. Mather, who in 1785 and 
 1786 set out to proclaim the new truths in town and vil- 
 lage throughout the Midlands of the North. They 
 preached much in the open-air, frequently in the market 
 places, and were often listened to by as many as a thou- 
 sand persons. They aroused great interest, and prepared 
 the way for further efforts. The scattering of the seed 
 thus proceeded actively by both the written and the 
 spoken word. The Rev. Joseph Proud, afterwards one 
 of the most distinguished ornaments of its ministry, was 
 brought to an acceptance of the New-Church doctrines by 
 their preaching. 
 
 Among the followers of John Wesley, five prominent 
 preachers became converts. This created much alarm 
 until they were, as a gangrene on the Wesleyan body, 
 only to be cured by. desperate surgical treatment, cut off 
 from connection. This, however, was perhaps only short- 
 sighted policy; for though they were debarred from 
 preaching the new doctrines in their accustomed circuits, 
 it aided if it did not indeed suggest the cours.e which 
 was next taken, not indeed by all the members of the 
 Theosophical Society, nor even a majority, but by a 
 
260 NEW-CHDECH CONGRESS 
 
 minority, who comprised all those who had been cut off 
 from their previous religious connection on account of 
 these views. 
 
 They came to the conclusion to establish a Church, 
 and to institute public worship, not only for their own 
 satisfaction, but before the world. This step was con- 
 sidered BO momentous that the Rev. John Clowes came 
 expressly to London to expostulate with them, and, if 
 possible, induce them to alter their decision; but they 
 had well weighed the point in the light of the teachings, 
 and although they had heard him respectfully, he could 
 not convince them that, as he contended, it was at that 
 time inopportune. 
 
 Those who had thus determined that it was their 
 right and their duty to separate met together and 
 formally organized themselves as the New Jerusalem 
 Church on May 7, 1787 ; but until they could secure a 
 suitable place of worship, they continued their week day 
 and Sunday meetings at friends' houses. They were 
 soon fortunate enough to secure a church in Great East- 
 cheap, which, after being fitted up for them, was opened 
 for public worship, with specially prepared liturgy, by 
 the Eev. James Hindmarsh and the Rev. Isaac Hawkins, 
 on Jan. 27, 1788. Having attained to this point, the 
 Theosophical Society, as though it served only a tempor- 
 ary purpose, like the outer sheath of the leaf or Hower of 
 some plants, first shrank in numbers and importance, and 
 then was discarded as having fulfilled its use. 
 
 The organization which was then begun was consoli- 
 dated and developed as time went on. Their own orders 
 of ordination, baptism, the holy supper, etc., were pre- 
 pared and adopted. A further step then suggested itself, 
 and this was to call a General Conference of all the 
 receivers which were known to exist throughout the 
 country for mutual counsel and edification. This 
 
tLAmiNQ THE OHCEOH 261 
 
 Conference was held in Great Eastoheap from April 13 to 
 April 17, 1789, and was a most useful and enjoyable 
 gathering. We learn something respecting the attend- 
 ance there-at from the statement that from sixty to seventy 
 dined together daily. Among the subjects dealt with were 
 publications for the religious instruction of the young, 
 and a recommendation of Sunday schools, the Sunday 
 school itself being a product of the new age, the first 
 having been formed in the year 1764. 
 
 In the year following this first Conference, the first 
 journal of the infant Church was started. It was called 
 the Neio Jerusalem Magazine, and its first number bears 
 the date of January, 1790. It did not last long, although 
 it was very ably conducted. It was followed by others; 
 sometimes two appeared together; sometimes, on the 
 other hand, there was a long blank, and so it continued 
 until 1812. Like an attempt to kindle a fire, which after 
 some efforts which come to nought, is successful, so was 
 it with the periodical literature of the New Church. In 
 1812 The Intellectual Repository was begun, which has 
 continued down to the present year, though under a 
 change of name. Whilst this has regularly appeared, it 
 has often had one, and sometimes two companions in the 
 field. It has had its complements also in magazines for the 
 young people, one of which — The Juvenile Magazine — 
 has now been issued . for over half a century. Later it 
 has had weekly contemporaries, one of which — The Morn- 
 ing Light — has now been issued for sixteen years. So 
 that there continue to exist at the present time all the 
 three forms of journalism which have commended them- 
 selves in the past. 
 
 A S'.^cond conference assembled in 1790; in fact, sub- 
 sequent to the first there were sis held prior to 1815, 
 since which they have met in an unbroken annual series. 
 And from time to time, by the teaching of experience, by 
 
262 NEW-CHUfiOH COilGfeESa 
 
 the needs shown from increasing numbers, the work of 
 consolidation has been carried on, and every requirement 
 of Church hfe provided for. The Liturgy, first prepared 
 in 1828, was revised and extended in 1875. The Hymn 
 Book, of which there were originally three private collec- 
 tions in use, was provided for general use by a Conference 
 Committee in 1823, and revised and enlarged in 1880. 
 Conference was enrolled in the High Court of Chancery 
 in 1822, and was incorporated under the Companies' 
 Acts in 1872. Many of the affiliated institutions have 
 come into existence from the business brought before its 
 annual sessions. 
 
 It is impossible to dwell minutely upon its growth and 
 development as a Church. The first church specially 
 erected was one in Birmingham, which the Rev. Joseph 
 Proud opened in June, 1791. Mr. Proud was a truly 
 eloquent preacher, and made an extraordinary sensation 
 here, and also later at Cross street, Hatton Garden, 
 London. The Manchester friends, after deprecating 
 separation in 1788, a few years later took the same step, 
 erecting the well-known Peter Street Church, which was 
 opened in 1793, and only passed out of use in 1888, 
 when the Society was parted into two bodies, each of 
 which seem already to be as large as the original Society. 
 A Church was opened in Liverpool later in the same year, 
 to whose pulpit the Kev. W. Hill was called soon after 
 the opening. Occasionally, too, seed sown in a village 
 has shown a vigor and power of growth which the generally 
 more enlightened town has not displayed. This occurred 
 at Accrington, where a Society was formed in 1802, which 
 has long occupied the position of the largest Society in 
 the New Church in Great Britain. 
 
 About 1815 missionary work was the great subject 
 before the Church. Previous to that, except by means 
 of the press, and except in founding places of worship. 
 
t'LAliTING ME GHUJfiOa 1^63 
 
 which, however, were only in a secondary sense for the 
 benefit of the inquirer and the stranger, work purely 
 missionary had chiefly been undertaken by private per- 
 sona A Missionary Committee was appointed by the 
 Conference in this year, and the Kev. J. Proud sent out 
 on most successful journeys. This work was ably con- 
 tinued for years by Rev. J. Bradley, Rev. R. Hindmarsh, 
 Rev. S. Noble, Rev. W. Bruce, and others. Many per- 
 sons were confirmed, many first heard of the new doc- 
 trines, and many societies of varying promise were origi- 
 nated during these journeys. The outcome of this Con- 
 ference action was the formation of the Missionary and 
 Tract Society in London in 1821, whose permanent com- 
 mittee has since dealt with missionary work on behalf of 
 the cause. The Manchester and Salford Missionary 
 Society, founded in 1813, chiefly to provide missionary 
 preachers to the smaller societies around Manchester, 
 a few years ago assumed a wider field of labor and a 
 wider name, as the North of England Missionary Society. 
 At diflPerent times local missionary societies have been 
 established in Yorkshire, in Scotland, in Birmingham, the 
 West of England, and Lincolnshire. The year 1857 was . 
 the centenary of the existence of the New Church as a 
 spiritual system, and in celebration of that fact a National 
 Missionary Institution was founded and endowed, and 
 with this, as a parent or general overseer, the other local 
 missionary societies or committees have been more or less 
 closely affiliated. 
 
 The publication of the writings of Swedenborg was 
 first undertaken by a few friends conjointly, though some- 
 times by a single person, as there were wealthy men 
 connected with the early Church and with the society 
 which preceded it. But the lack of continuity, the want 
 of system, the absence of plan in carrying on the work, 
 suggested as the numbers increased, the establishment of 
 
264 NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 
 
 a society to keep the whole of the works in print, to see 
 to their circulation and distribution as occasion offered, 
 and especially as offering a use to which all could con- 
 tribute, whether living in town or country. This was 
 done in 1812, when a capital sum of £407 was raised, 
 a sum not equal to the annual income it now receives 
 from interest alone. It has kept well in view the object 
 for which it exists; and the variety of languages (fourteen 
 in all) in which these writings can be had, shows the extent 
 to which an interest in them has extended, and the assiduity 
 there has been to provide them in additional tongues. 
 
 Although these works are the kernel of all New- 
 Church literature, the collateral books connected with 
 New- Church doctrine have been growing all the time in 
 extent and value. In fact no denomination of the same 
 dimensions has a Uterature so rich and valuable, or one 
 which has had so much influence on the religious thought 
 of the time. Beginning with Clowes and Hindmarsh, 
 some of whose works are complete armories of argument 
 and information, writers of promise and fulfillment, too, 
 have appeared in regular succession. An attack on the 
 New Church, for instance, drew forth a reply which con- 
 stitutes the most perfect apology which the New Church 
 possesses. This was the Kev. S. Noble's Appeal on 
 behalf of the Writings of the New Church, which, 
 divested of the temporal character of its first edition, has 
 taken its place as a classic (first edition, 1826; twelfth 
 edition, 1893). Spiritual simplicity distinguishes the 
 writings of the Rev. O. P. Hiller. Correctness of style and 
 clearness of interpretation those of the Eev. W. Bruce. 
 Deep, scholarly inquiry the Kev. A. Clissold. Brilliance 
 and cogency of application to present conditions, the 
 Kev. John Hyde. A magnetic influence which touched 
 all who met him personally is also felt in the writings of 
 Dr. J. Bayley. A grasp of all the facts as a basis for 
 
PLANTINfi THE OHCKOH 265 
 
 his conclusions is found in the logical method of the Rev. 
 Dr. Tafel. It is recorded of the Manchester Printing 
 Society alone that, in the comparatively early period 
 from 1780 to 1818, it circulated considerably over a quar- 
 ter of a million of books and tracts. 
 
 The wants of the organization which from time to 
 time forced themselves upon the attention of the Church, 
 also suggested new departures. Thus, as early as 1818, 
 Societies began to multiply so rapidly that ministers 
 adequately trained could not be provided for them. The 
 consequence was a proposal to raise a literary fund for 
 the education of young men for the ministry. When 
 first suggested, it was regarded as impracticable. But it 
 was not forgotten, its need was indeed more acutely felt, 
 and in the end it was attained. In 1852 a college was 
 founded, which, in addition to handsome buildings, has 
 acquired an endowment of nearly £8,000. It is now 
 able to provide well and adequately for the education of 
 future ministers and missionary preachers. The Students' 
 Aid Fund, established in 1854, provides for the main- 
 tenance during their years of study of all those whom 
 Conference adopts as students for its ministry. 
 
 Another want which made itself felt was that after 
 being trained, ministers were often placed in small Socie- 
 ties which could not adequately maintain them. Hence 
 there was founded a Ministers' Aid Fund in 1854, and 
 as the conception grew, an Augmentation Fund in the 
 year 1877. Another want was that ministers thus inade- 
 quately maintained could not provide for old age and for 
 their widows. Many who adopted the ministerial career 
 in the past, and these by far the finest men of all, were 
 actuated by love of the Church rather than a love of 
 reward. The Pension Fund was founded to provide for 
 such cases, and now the annual outgo is about £450, 
 
 18 
 
266 NEW-OHTJROH OONGEESS 
 
 Later still (1881) an Orphanage was establislied, the 
 requirements of the Church and the philanthropic spirit 
 of its members again suggesting it as a work which 
 should be undertaken. 
 
 The first centenary of the New Church as an external 
 body was held by the Conference at Camden Boad 
 Church, London, August, 1883. The development, and 
 the ratio of development, may be gathered from a com- 
 parison of the number of societies, ministers, members, 
 and the accumulated funds at the intervals since its 
 formation of fifty, seventy-five and 100 years, with the 
 same facts for 1893, the year now current. In 1833 
 there were forty- four societies, nine ministers, 1,659 mem- 
 bers, and an endowment of £4,627. In 1858 forty-eight 
 societies, eighteen miniBters, 2,954 members, endowment 
 £5,733. In 1883, sixty-three societies, thirty-sis min- 
 isters, 5,409 members, endowment £58,019. Now in the 
 year 1893, these stand as follows: — seventy-six societies, 
 forty-two ministers, 6,157 members, endowment £68,241. 
 It is necessary to mention that a number of small societies 
 remain unconnected with Conference, and that the 
 non-separating policy which the Rev. John Clowes repre- 
 sented more than a century ago stiU holds its ground, 
 but on the whole, those who are non-separatists now are, 
 as a rule, such by th6 force of circumstances rather than 
 deliberate principle. This class, and it is a very large 
 one, cannot be estimated, but it forms one of the influ- 
 ences which like leaven is helping to modify the public 
 thought to a very large extent. 
 
 As may have been gathered from what precedes, the 
 constitution of the New Church is independent and con- 
 gregational. The Conference may advise and counsel, 
 it cannot compel the obedience of the Societies. This 
 has permitted a freedom of development which has 
 impressed a different character upon different portions 
 
PLANTING THE CHUROH 267 
 
 of the Church. The Church was also in the beginning 
 characterized by an early apostolic fire, which has now 
 become more tempered. The intensity of the opposition, 
 the force of the persecution, at first brought out the 
 qualities required to deal with them. For instance it 
 carried on a long correspondence with the king of 
 Prussia; it failed not to seize an opportunity to com- 
 municate with the Bey of Algiers; it established free 
 day-schools long before they were thought of by the 
 state. But if it had the temperament of youth, it was 
 subject also to something corresponding to its ailments. 
 It was infested at various times by adventurers of various 
 kinds — by Jesuits, for example, at one time; by spiritists 
 at another; and such inf esters were able sometimes to 
 injure it, but seldom to do more than retard its growth. 
 This has been on the whole slow but steady. Its present 
 position may therefore be regarded as solid, and its 
 further progress as certain. For it has not only grown 
 in numbers and in wealth, its literature also has grown, 
 its missionary efforts have grown, its influence on the 
 general thought of the world has grown, and there has been 
 a widening of its basis which has gone on concurrently 
 with the deepening of its roots. 
 
 Ill 
 
 THE NEW CHURCH ON THE CONTINENT OP EUROPE 
 
 BUT THE REV. FEDOB GOERWITZ OP SWITZERLAND 
 
 The New Church is being planted on earth by the 
 reception of its heavenly doctrine, which is the true doc- 
 trine from the Word, in the minds of men; and the means 
 by which it is conveyed to human minds are the theo- 
 logical writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, whom the Lord 
 filled with His spirit to teach the doctrines of the New 
 
268 SEW-OHUSCH CONGEESS 
 
 Church, through the Word, from Him, and who was able 
 not only to receive them in his understanding, but also to 
 make them known by the press. 
 
 Since these writings were written and published in 
 the Latin language, they were at first accessible to men 
 of learning only, and to bring them within the reach of 
 wider circles their translation and publication in modern 
 languages was necessary as the next step required for the 
 planting of the New Church in Europe. Under the 
 Divine Providence of the Lord, this work has been going 
 on ever since these writings were given to the world. At 
 this day the theological works of Swedenborg are pub- 
 lished completely in the English, French and German 
 languages; considerable portions of them in Swedish, 
 Danish and Italian; some works in Dutch, Polish, Ice- 
 landic and Welsh, and extracts in Spanish and Russian; 
 two works (Heaven and Hell and the Doctrine of Charity) 
 are in course of publication in one of the Hindu dialects 
 and the same works are in course of translation into 
 Arabic. 
 
 As early as 1782 and 1783, societies for the transla- 
 tion and publication of Swedenborg's Theological Works 
 were formed in England; and this, under the Divine 
 Providence of the Lord, led to the establishment of New- 
 Church worship, to the creation of a New-Church 
 ministry, and to the formation of an organized body of 
 the New Church in that country, and shortly after in the 
 United States of America. 
 
 On the Continent of Europe the establishment of New- 
 Church organization has been considerably retarded by 
 the want of religious liberty and of political freedom. 
 Under the Divine Providence of the Lord, these hind- 
 rances have, however, been more and more removed, and 
 to day religions liberty is recognized bylaw in most of 
 the European countries. New-Church organizations now 
 
PLANTING THE CHtTKOH 269 
 
 exist, or are in the process of formation in various Euro- 
 pean countries, and I will give a sh3rt sketch of them in 
 the following order: First, the Church in Scandinavia 
 (Sweden, Norway and Denmark) ; second, in the German 
 countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland); third, in 
 France; fourth, in Italy. 
 
 In Sweden, Svvedenborg's native country, his works 
 had already, during his lifetime, found ardent admirers 
 and adherents, foremost amongst whom stands Dr. G. A. 
 Beyer, — that faithful defender and thorough student of 
 the heavenly doctrines, whose name will forever remain 
 endeared to the Church. That the interest in the writings 
 remained unabated in Sweden for quite a number of 
 years, is proved by the formation of the Philanthropic 
 Exegetic Society, which was formed in 1786, by C. F. 
 Nordenskiold, after his return from England, where he 
 stayed three years. This society, the object of which 
 was to publish the writings of Swedenborginthe Swedish 
 language, and to collect documents respecting him, counted 
 200 members, amongst them men of learning and high 
 social position, also outside of Sweden. It existed how- 
 ever, only a few years. Alchemy and mesmerism, favored 
 by some of the leaders, found their way into the society, 
 and thus led to its dissolution in 1789. It was succeeded 
 in 1796, by the society called "Pro fide et charitate," 
 which also had for its aim the spreading of the theo- 
 logical writings of Swedenborg. This society existed 
 until 1820, when it gradually decreased and died out. 
 The Swedish translations which were printed at that time, 
 comprised the True Christian Religion; the New Jeru- 
 salem and its Heavenly Doctrine; Brief Exposition; 
 Doctrines of the Lord and of the Sacred Scriptures; 
 Divine Love and Wisdom; Intercourse between Soul and 
 Body; and an extract from Apocalypse explained; they 
 W3re mostly published at Copenhagen, Denmark, as the 
 
270 NEW-CHUEOH CONGRESS 
 
 stringent press laws of Sweden prevented their being 
 printed there; for a time the works of Swedenborg and 
 of his followers were proscribed and the receivers of the 
 writings were either fined or deprived of office. 
 
 In 1866, when religious liberty had made greater 
 progress, also in Sweden, the cause of the New Church 
 was again taken up. A small number of persons (15) 
 held a meeting on September 25th, and chose a Board of 
 Managers. A report of this meeting was sent to the 
 President of the American Convention, — Kev. Thos. 
 Worcester. In 1877, a number of meetings took place in 
 Stockholm, in the Hotel du Nord, at which the Eev. A. 
 T. Boyesen, then pastor of a New-Church Congregation 
 at Copenhagen, was present; and spoke. By these meet- 
 ings New-Church services were instituted, and have been 
 kept up regularly since. In 1875, the society of the 
 " Confessors of the New Church " was formed in Stock- 
 holm, and in 1877, the Eev. A. T. Boyesen, who until 
 then had visited Stockholm only at intervals, removed to 
 that city to take charge of the society. 
 
 A few years later, a New-Church society was formed 
 in Gottenburg, which chose and ordained the Eev. C. J.. 
 N. Manby as its pastor, and lately, a sec;:nd New-Church 
 society has been formed in Stockholm, under the pastoral 
 charge of the Eev. A. Bjorck, a graduate of the New- 
 Church Theological School at Cambridge. So three New- 
 Church ministers are now active in Sweden; lectures have 
 been delivered by them in seventy out of the ninety -seven 
 towns of Sweden; New-Church Monthlies are being pub- 
 lished in Stockholm and in Gottenburg. The translation 
 and publication of the writings in the Swedish language 
 is progressing in a satisfactory manner. 
 
 In Denmark, one of the first persons who favored 
 the cause of the New Church was General Tuxen, 
 inspector- general of customs at Elsinore, a member of the 
 
PLANTING THE OHTJEOH 271 
 
 Philanthropic Bxegetic Society of Stockholm. The first 
 Danish translation of one of Swedenborg's works did not, 
 however, appear until 1856, when the doctrine of the 
 Lord was translated and published by Baron Dirckinck 
 Holmfeld. This was followed in 1860-61 by the Doct- 
 rines of the Sacred Scriptures, of Life and Faith, and in 
 1870 by the Brief Exposition. The Baron did not, how- 
 ever, favor the formation of a New-Church organization. 
 In 1868, a reading circle was formed in Copenhagen by 
 Miss Julia Conring, a highly gifted lady, born of Danish 
 parents in Holstein, who had become acquainted with the 
 heavenly doctrines through correspondence with Dr. 
 Immanuel Tafel of Tubingen. In 1870 Mr.W.Winslow, 
 who at that time lived in Chicago, encouraged Mr. A. T. 
 Boyesen, a Norwegian by birth, to go to Copenhagen and 
 found a New- Church society there. Mr. Boyesen assented, 
 and, after having been ordained in England, he com- 
 menced work in Copenhagen in the fall of 1871. He 
 remained pastor of the society founded by him until 1877, 
 when he removed to Stockholm. In 1878, Mr. W. Wins- 
 low, who had just returned to his native country from 
 America, became minister of the society. Under the 
 ministry of Mr. Boyesen and Mr. Winslow, the Church in 
 Denmark has made satisfactory progress. Besides the 
 above mentioned works, translated by Baron Dirckinck 
 Holmfeld, Heaven and Hell, Divine Love and Wisdom, 
 The Last Judgment, The New Jerusalem and its Heav- 
 enly Doctrine and a part of the True Christian Eeligion 
 have been translated into Danish. Heaven and Hell by 
 Mr. Winslow, the others by Mr. Boyesen; and a New- 
 Church Monthly is being published by Mr. Winslow in 
 the Danish language. 
 
 In Norway there is as yet no New- Church organiza- 
 tion; in 1891 and 1892, the Key. Mr. Manby delivered 
 some lectures in Christiania and Trondhjem. In 1892 
 
272 NEW-CHUECH OONflEESB 
 
 also, the Rev. Mr. Boyesen visited the latter place, and 
 during a stay of about a month gave a series of lectures 
 there. 
 
 The first translation into German of any part of the 
 •writings were made by Prelate Oetinger of Wiirtemberg, 
 who became acquainted with Swedenborg's works in 
 1762, and who, in 1765, published a translation of the 
 Memorable Relations contained in Vol. 1, of the Arcana 
 Ccelestia. At the request of the Wiirtemberg consistory, 
 the whole edition was confiscated, and Oetitnger was 
 reprimanded. In 1770 he published, without his name, 
 a translation of " Earths in the Universe," and transla- 
 tions of other works, made by various translators, soon 
 followed: The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doc- 
 trine, in 1772; Heaven and Hell, in 1775; Intercourse 
 Between Soul and Body, in 1776; Brief Exposition, in 
 1786. Of the True Christian Eeligion a German edition 
 appeared in 1784 at Altenburg, and another in 1795 
 at Basel. In 1813, a copy of the Basel edition of the 
 True Christian Religion came into the hands of Immanuel 
 Tafel, then a youth of 17. The Doctrine of the 
 Trinity made a deep impression on him, and this led to 
 his subsequent thorough study of the whole of Sweden- 
 borg's works, and to his great and comprehensive labors 
 for the Church, which he commenced in 1821, and con- 
 tinued until his death in 1863. By his Latin editions 
 of a considerable portion of Swedenborg's works, this 
 eminent scholar (Professor of Philosophy and Librarian 
 of the University of Tubingen) has performed a lasting 
 use for the Church at large. For the German Church 
 he has done an eminent service by his works in defense 
 of the New-Church doctrines, and by the translation and 
 publication of a great part of the writings. After his 
 death this was continued, first by a small printing 
 society formed by friends of the cause in Germany and 
 
PLANTING THE CHURCH 273 
 
 Switzerland, then by Mr. Theodore Miillensiefen, and 
 afterward by Mr. J. T. Mittnaoht. At this day all the 
 theological works of Swedenborg are published in the 
 German language; the Spiritual Diary is translated, but 
 not yet published. 
 
 In 1848 a "Union of the New Church in Germany 
 and Switzerland" was formed by Immanuel Taf el, number- 
 ing about one hundred members. The main object of 
 this Union was, the furtherance of the publication of 
 Swedenborg's writings in the German language. Quar- 
 terly meetings were also held by this Union, for a 
 number of years, at or near Stuttgart, at which lectures 
 on the Doctrines were held by Immanuel Taf el; he also 
 (in 1850), at the request of seven members, drew up a 
 plan for a church organization, giving a sketch of the 
 constitutions of the Church in England and in America, 
 and recommending their adoption isherever practicable, 
 yet no organization was formed at that time. 
 
 The plan of an organization was most energetically 
 taken up again, by Mr. T. G. Mittnacht, who in 1870, 
 returned from America to Germany, his native country, 
 and who in 1872, together with Dr. Rudolph Tafel of 
 London, commenced the publication of a New- Church 
 Journal, which he continued from 1875 to 1883, under 
 his sole editorship. By means of this periodical and the 
 active efforts of Mr. Mittnacht, those interested in the 
 doctrines in Germany, Switzerland and Austria were 
 brought into communication with each other, and as a 
 result the Swiss Union of the New Church was formed 
 in 1875, in Switzerland, and the German New-Church 
 Society in 1876, in Germany. The German New-Church 
 Society has a few years since (1891) been transformed 
 into the German Swedenborg Society, and is now con- 
 tinuing the publication and sale of Swedenborg's writings. 
 The Swiss New-Church Union on the other hand, has 
 
274 NEW-CHUECH CONUEESS 
 
 been more and more developed into an organized body of 
 the New Church. Divine Service is held in Zurich, in 
 Berne, and in several places in Eastern Switzerland, The 
 Union has also a depot for the sale of New-Church books 
 at Zurich, and holds annual meetings in that city. The 
 President and Pastor is the Kev. Fedor Goerwitz, who in 
 1879, was ordained in New York, and is a minister of 
 the American Convention. The New-Church Periodical, 
 which in 1872, was originally issued as a weekly, and 
 later, twice a month, is being continued by him as a 
 monthly, since 1884. He also has pastoral charge of a 
 small New- Church Society in Vienna, Austria, which he 
 visits annually. In Vienna, the late Rev. Herman Peisker, 
 who was ordained in 1871 in England, worked for several 
 years (1872 to 1880). 
 
 In Buda-Pesth (Hungary), there is a small circle of 
 receivers of the Doctrines keeping up regular Sunday 
 worship in the German language. Two collateral works, 
 " Letters to a Man of the World " and " Skepticism and 
 Revelation " have been translated into Hungarian, but 
 none, as yet, of Swedenborg's works. 
 
 In France the writings of the New Church early 
 foimd adherents and defenders amongst men of rank and 
 learning, among whom may be named the Marquis 
 Thom6, and the Librarian Moet, who both were mem- 
 bers of the Philanthropic Exegetic Society of Stockholm. 
 The first work translated into French was Heaven and 
 Hell, which wa% translated (very incorrectly, however,) 
 and published by Abb6 Pernety in 1792. Soon after 
 French translation of several of the smaller works 
 appeared in London, — in 1782, the New Jerusalem and 
 its Heavenly Doctrine; in 1785, Intercourse between 
 Soul and Body; and in 1787, the Last Judgment, the 
 Doctrine of the Lord and the Doctrine of Life. A com- 
 plete translation of all the theological works of Swedenborg 
 
PLANTING THE CHUEOH 275 
 
 except the Apocalypse Explained, was made by Mr. 
 T. P. Moet of Versailles, who commenced this work in 
 1786. These translations remained, however, in manu- 
 script until about 1820, when Mr. John Augustus Tulk 
 of London acquired the manuscript from the widow of 
 Mr. Moet (who had died in 1804), and, subsequently, 
 had a portion of them published at his own expense. 
 
 About 1838 J. F. E. Le Boys des Guays commenced 
 the publication of his most excellent and accurate transla- 
 tions of the writings, beginning with the Arcana Ccelestia, 
 which has not yet been published from the Moet manu- 
 scripts. He translated and published all the theological 
 works of Swedenborg, including the Apocalypse 
 Explained, — the expense being covered mostly by con- 
 tributions; considerable amounts were contributed by 
 Count de Lascases (who bequeathed 70,000 francs in his 
 last will for this purpose), and by Mr. de Chazal of 
 Mauritius. To the Church at large, Le Boys des Guays 
 has rendered eminent service by his General Lidex of 
 passages from the Word quoted in Swedenborg's writings, 
 and by his Latin editions of parts of the Sacred Script- 
 ures with explanations of the spiritual sense, in which 
 work he was assisted by his learned friend, Mr. Aug. 
 Harl6 of Paris. To Le Boys des Guays belongs also the 
 merit of having worked earnestly and openly for an 
 organization of the New Church, and of having com- 
 menced public New- Church worship in France. Several 
 talented French authors have written works presenting 
 the Doctrines of the New Church, without, however, 
 mentioning Swedenborg's name, and thus without refer- 
 ring to their source. Le Boys des Guays, however, in 
 his magazine " La Nouvelle Jerusalem, Eevue Eeligeuse 
 et Scientifique, " which he commenced in 1838, and con- 
 tinued to publish until 1848, openly unfolded the banner 
 of the New Church. He instituted public New-Church 
 
276 NEW-CHUEOH CONaEESS 
 
 worship at his house in St. Amand on November 18, 
 1837. It was continued there until his death in 1864, 
 and for a number of years afterwards. The large stock 
 of books left by Le Boys des Guays is at present in the 
 possession of the Soci^t^ Swedenborgienne of Paris, of 
 which Mr. Charles Humann is president. Mr. Humann is 
 also the leader of a New-Church Society in that city, 
 which some years ago ordained him as its minister. 
 
 In 1883 a New-Church Temple, situated on the Kue 
 Thouin, in the neighborhood of the Pantheon, was dedi- 
 cated t o the worship of the Lord God Jesus Christ. Regular 
 Sunday worship is held there. A New-Church book- 
 room in charge of the Soci6t6 Swedenborgienne is con- 
 nected with this building. From manuscripts left by Le 
 Boya des Guays and his co-laborer Harl^, the publication 
 of Swedenborg's Latin translations of parts of the Word, 
 with explanations of the Spiritual sense is being continued 
 by Mr. Edward Chevrier of Paris. Since October last, a 
 New-Church Monthly entitled "L'Eglise de 1' Avenir" is 
 being published by Mr. Humann, in conjunction with the 
 Decembre-Alonnier. 
 
 In Italy, as everywhere, the writings needed first to 
 be translated into the language of the country, and this 
 work is being done with great energy and success by Mr. 
 Loreto Scocia. Sig. Scocia, who grew up a Catholic, 
 thereafter became a convert to the Protestant Religion 
 through the instrumentality of a Methodist Minister 
 while on a visit to the Island of Corsica, and acted as a 
 missionary of that denomination for seven years. In 
 1868 he resigned the position and was for a short time 
 Professor of Languages in Lausanne, Switzerland; here 
 he became acquainted with the doctrines of the New 
 Church, and an ardent desire to make them known to his 
 countrymen arose in his mind. Through the agency of 
 the Rev. Mr. Ford of Florence, an appeal for aid was 
 
PLANTING THE OHUECH 277 
 
 made to the New Churcli in Great Britain and America; 
 in 1870 Sig. Scocia took up his abode in Turin, and com- 
 menced to translate the writings into Italian. He also 
 gave some lectures and established a monthly paper, 
 "La Nuova Epoca." In 1873 Mr. Scocia removed to 
 Florence, where two or three English New-Church families 
 were then residing. 
 
 The following works have been so far translated and 
 published in the Italian language: Heaven and Hell, 
 Earths in the Universe, The New Jerusalem and its 
 Heavenly Doctrine, Doctrine of Life, Divine Love and 
 Wisdom, Divine Providence, Brief Exposition, Intercourse 
 ■ between Soul and Body, and the True Christian Religion. 
 They have been distributed to many libraries and offered 
 by circulars to the Catholic Clergy gratuitously. The 
 scattered readers and receivers of the Doctrines in Italy 
 and Sicily have been brought into communication with 
 each other and by twenty-two of them Mr. Scocia has 
 lately been elected as their minister. A New- Church 
 Liturgy in the Italian language has been issued by Mr. 
 Scocia and services have recently been commenced in 
 Florence. 
 
 The New-Church organizations on the European conti- 
 nent, as is shown by the preceding sketch, are beginnings 
 only. Yet they are organizations of the New Church of the 
 Lord God Jesus Christ, and under His Divine Providence 
 they will contribute to the fulfillment of the Divine promise 
 that all people, nations and languages shall worship Him. 
 We are taught (A. R., 587) that the falses of the 
 former Church must first be removed before the truths of 
 the New Church can be received. The removal of these 
 falses, which all originate in the doctrine of three Divine 
 persons, is obviously going on and progressing in the 
 Protestant Church all around us; with their removal, 
 however, also the acknowledgment of the Divinity of the 
 
278 NEW-CHUfiCH CONGKESS 
 
 Lord and of His Word, is more and more losing ground, 
 and if the Lord's Divinity be denied, the Christian Church 
 expires. (T. C. E., 636.) 
 
 Salvation from this danger can only come through 
 the heavenly doctrines of the New Church, which replace 
 the falses of the former Church by genuine truths from 
 the Word. These truths are represented by the organiza- 
 tions of the New Church, feeble as they may be in their 
 beginnings, and we may confidently trust in the Lord 
 that He will take them under His Divine Protection. 
 
 IV 
 
 THE NEW CHUBOH IN AMERICA 
 
 BY THE REV. WILLARD H. HINKLET 
 
 Every true Church must have a Divine origin. The 
 truth itself; which is the foundation of the Church in the 
 human mind, is from God. It descends from God out 
 of heaven, and is the " light that lighteneth every man 
 that Cometh into the world." From the earUest times 
 this light has shone forth. " In the beginning was the 
 Word and the Word was with God and the Word was 
 God." This is the Eternal Logos, the creative power of 
 God. Man is simply a recipient of it and not the creator 
 of it. It has descended from the highest to the lowest, 
 and man has received it as the earth receives the seed 
 that is planted in it. 
 
 The Church, then, is " the Bride, the Lamb's wife," 
 the Mother of all the children of God, the repository of 
 the truth; fruitful or barren, as the truth has become 
 vivified by the spirit of the Divine love, or deadened by 
 man's own selfishness and evil. 
 
PLANTING THE CHDECH 279 
 
 New dispensations of the Church are inaugurated 
 by New Divine revelation. In His First Coming the Lord 
 did not reveal the heavenly or spiritual meaning of His 
 Word. He simply revealed Himself as the Word. His 
 early followers had only a dim perception of His Divine 
 character; the philosophy of Beligion was unknown; and 
 the spirit and life of His own words was known only in 
 part. Having descended to the lowest and having over- 
 come all evil and risen again, ascending up above all 
 the heavens it was necessary that the steps by which He 
 accomplished this work, or glorified His humanity and 
 made it Divine, as He regenerates man and makes him 
 spiritual, should be made known as they are delineated 
 in His life. This required a new revelation, not a new 
 word but a revelation of the doctrines and principles that 
 underlie that Word which although Divine in itself was 
 written in human or natural language, in figures and 
 types which required to be unfolded or explained. This 
 was the more necessary as the men of the first Christian 
 Church fell into a state of naturalism and thence into 
 error and evil, so that the primitive faith of Christianity 
 became wholly obscured and a false one substituted. 
 God was divided into three and the Lord into two; charity 
 was separated from faith; belief in the reality of the future 
 life grew very dim and the light of the Word was again 
 obscured by the doctrines of men, formulated by Councils 
 of the Church. 
 
 The Lord, therefore, came again, not as before in per- 
 son, but in the spirit and power of His Word; not only 
 to execute a judgment, but to establish a New Church 
 which should acknowledge and worship Him alone. He 
 made known a system of doctrines and a religious phi- 
 losophy through the instrumentality of a man whom he 
 filled with His spirit, opening the interior degrees of his 
 mind so that he understood the spiritual meaning of the 
 
2S0 NBW-OHDKOH CONFESS 
 
 Word and saw and heard things in Heaven, in Hell and 
 in the intermediate state called the "World of Spirits. 
 His spiritual experiences unlike those of any other man, 
 living before or since his day, enabled him to understand 
 heavenly mysteries, especially the heavenly meaning of 
 the Word, and to communicate them to the world by 
 means of the press. This man was Emanuel Sweden- 
 borg and his writings contain the truths of the New 
 Church which have been planted in the minds of men 
 and women now for more than a century. These writ- 
 ings in the Latin language were printed and published 
 for the most part by Swedenborg himself, in Holland and 
 England, and were sent by him to Clergymen of the 
 Church of England and to pubhc libraries. In this way 
 and somewhat through the efforts of his London publisher 
 who was instructed to circulate them gratuitously, they 
 fell into the hands of a few men in England who received 
 them and appreciated them, believing them to have come 
 from a Divine source. Some also in Sweden, France 
 and Germany received them before the death of Sweden- 
 borg in 1772. 
 
 It will be seen from these statements that unlike the 
 Gospel, the truths of the New Church were made known 
 at first principally by means of the press, and not solely 
 nor indeed hardly at all by the living voice. In the days 
 of the apostles the art of printing was unknown and but 
 few manuscripts were circulated. The Gospel was 
 preached, not printed. But in the very beginning of 
 the New Dispensation, in Swedenborg's own time soon 
 after he had written his books of heavenly truths, they 
 were printed and circulated. He never preached nor 
 founded a sect or a Church. Is not the fact that these 
 new doctrines were received by educated and intelligent 
 men, especially by Clergymen, like Hartley and Clowes 
 of the Church of England, without persuasion or entreaty, 
 
tLANTlNG THE CHURCH 281 
 
 one of the best evidences of their Divinely given char- 
 acter f These evidences, produced by the silent and power- 
 ful influence of the truth itself, have multiplied unto 
 this day. 
 
 From England the seeds 'were wafted across the seas 
 to America. No apostle was sent to proclaim them; one 
 man, James Glen of London, a Scotchman by birth, came 
 to this country about the year 1784 and delivered lectures 
 on the new doctrines in Philadelphia and Boston. He 
 was not an ordained Minister but a simple layman moved 
 by a love for these new truths and a desire to make them 
 known to others. It does not appear that these lectures 
 gained any converts although the attention of a few was 
 arrested. They were, according to advertisement, 
 intended to explain the law of correspondence of natural 
 things with spiritual by which the Holy Scriptures are 
 written. Doubtless they were regarded as visionary and 
 were unsuited to the apprehension of his hearers. The 
 advertisement of them was headed "For the Senti- 
 mentalists." But James Glen was the instrument under 
 the Divine Providence of introducing these truths to the 
 minds of a few persons in Philadelphia by means of some 
 of Swedenborg's works which he sent to that city and 
 which were disposed of at public sale, after his departure. 
 By this means, Francis Bailey, the State printer of 
 Pennsylvania, John Young, judge of one of the State 
 courts, Miss Hetty Barclay and two or three others 
 became firm believers of the new doctrines and communi- 
 cated a knowledge of them to others. Mr. Bailey 
 became very active in their promulgation — and soon 
 communicated with the believers in England from whom 
 he received some of the smaller works of Swedenborg 
 and the early writings of the Eev. John Clowes in 
 vindication and explanation of Swedenborg's teachings. 
 
 19 
 
282 SEW-CHDECH CONGRESS 
 
 About the same time, or somewhat later, Mr. Henry Fol- 
 som, a bookseller of Boston, received some of the books 
 from England. Mr. Joseph Roby, the earliest receiver 
 of the Doctrines in Boston, is believed to have received 
 them from Mr. Glen. In 1787 Mr. Bailey printed "A 
 Summary View of the Doctrine," the first New-Church 
 book published in America; and in 1789 he published the 
 first volume of the "True Christian Religion." Among 
 others Benjamin Franklin and Robert Morris were sub- 
 scribers to it. 
 
 Thus little by little and very slowly the seeds were 
 sown on American soil, and began to take root. The 
 truth gained power over old errors by its own evidence. 
 No preacher in the New World had yet attempted to 
 teach them from a pulpit. Men and women gathered 
 together in small circles, in private, and read these 
 wonderful revelations and believed them, and spoke of 
 them to their neighbors and friends. It is possible that 
 the writings of Swedenborg were received in America by 
 others than those few persons in Philadelphia, and at an 
 earlier date. It has been said that Parson Schlatter, the 
 founder of the early Lutheran missions in Pennsylvania, 
 Maryland and Virginia, had the original Latin editions 
 in his library and read them. It was common in those 
 days for professional and literary men to have their 
 booksellers in London supply them regularly with new 
 publications. From Philadelphia the new truths spread 
 to Baltimore and across the Alleghanies. 
 
 From the year 1784 to 1794, a number of prominent 
 men in this country became earnest advocates of them, 
 and the new believers were occasionally visited by dis- 
 tinguished foreigners. Among the latter were Col. Vahn 
 Rohi', by birth a Swede, who had seen Swedenborg and 
 knew his family; Mr. Chalmer, a Danish gentleman; a 
 Frenchman named Bayard ■ and Baron Henry William 
 
tLANTiNG The chuech 283 
 
 Von Bulow, an eccentric Prussian. In Virginia, Col. 
 Kobert Carter of Nominy Hall, Westmoreland County, 
 called Councilor Carter because he was, before the 
 Revolution, one of the Council of the Royal Governor of 
 Virginia, became an ardent believer and spent large sums 
 of money in aid of the cause, especially in printing a 
 Liturgy for the use of a Society organized in Baltimore 
 in 1792, and in aiding Francis Bailey of Philadelphia, in 
 his work. At this early date the doctrines of the New 
 Church had found a foothold in Southwestern Virginia 
 in the town of Abingdon where Robert Campbell and his 
 brother "William, the hero of the battle of King's 
 mountain, resided. In Eastern Virginia, Robert Carter 
 and Thomas, Lord Fairfax, also a believer and after- 
 wards connected with the New-Church Society formed in 
 Baltimore in 1798 were instrumental in making known 
 the new doctrines. It is belived that Washington 
 received some knowledge of them from Lord Fairfax. 
 
 In Boston and vicinity the Rev. William Hill as early 
 as 1795 began to make known the Doctrines. He was a 
 Minister of the Church of England who had received the 
 new truths from hearing the Rev. Jacob Duch6 preach 
 them in England. The latter was the clergyman who 
 made the first prayer in the Continental Congress. He 
 returned to England by the advice of Washington as he 
 did not sympathize with the idea of separation from the 
 mother country, but afterwards came back to Philadelphia 
 with his family. The Rev. Mr. Hill subsequently mar- 
 ried his daughter, Esther Duch6. Mr. Hill was a good 
 scholar and translated the work of Swedenborg called 
 " The Apocalypse Explained." He was also instrumental 
 in having several of Swedenborg's smaller works printed 
 in Boston. 
 
 By this time, 1795, the new believers in Boston, Phila- 
 delphia and Baltimore had become acquainted with each 
 
284 KEW-OHUlBCH CONGRESS 
 
 other and corresponded. The first society for worship 
 was formed in the City of Baltimore in 1792, and the 
 first New Church sermon was preached in the Court 
 House in that city on Sunday, April 1st, in that year. 
 But this society was afterward dissolved and the first 
 permanent Church was organized in Baltimore in 1798, 
 when Ralph Mather and John Hargrove, the latter an 
 ex-minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, were 
 ordained by the laying on of hands of ten laymen, repre- 
 senting the Church. This was the beginning of the 
 organized New Church in America, if we except a small 
 society formed in Halifax, N. 8., in 1791, which had a 
 short existence. Societies or Churches were afterwards 
 formed in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, New York, Boston and 
 other places. By their means a Ministry was established. 
 The General Convention of the New Church in the United 
 States which meets annually was formed in 1817 in Phila- 
 delphia. State Associations and Boards or Societies for 
 publishing Swedenborg's writings and collateral works 
 were formed many years later. 
 
 In presenting this brief sketch of the planting of the 
 New Church in America we must not omit the fact that 
 many of those who first received the truths of the New 
 Church did not believe in a separate organization of the 
 New Church distinct from the Old; and there are many 
 who still hold this view. Experience has taught us, how- 
 ever, that these truths would not have been published in 
 the world without organized effort. Without sowers the 
 seed could not have been sown, nor could the human mind 
 receive these truths freely and fully until it was liberated 
 in some degree from old errors. Freedom to worship 
 the Lord in His Divine Humanity could not be given 
 where the New Church was not ac knowledged. This is 
 measurably the case to-day, but as civil freedom has 
 advanced in this noble nation of ours, religious freedom 
 
PLANTING THE CHUECH 285 
 
 has prevailed more and more, until now it is possible for 
 men to receive and openly acknowledge the doctrines 
 taught by Swedenborg without incurring obloquy or con- 
 tempt. Ministers of the Gospel of a'l denominations 
 throughout the United States, — many of whom have 
 received some of Swedenborg's works through the noble 
 gift of the late L. C. Jungerich of Philadelphia, — now 
 openly acknowledged their indebtedness to the writings 
 of Swedenborg for new light which has enabled them to 
 understand the Word and to explain it in their pulpits 
 as they could not have done without this new revelation. 
 The doctrine of the New Church cannot as yet be 
 universally acknowledged. The woman is still in danger 
 of being "carried away by the flood of water which the 
 Dragon casts out of his mouth." She is still in the 
 wilderness. The New Church exists as yet in fullness 
 only with a few. Because this doctrine has been revealed 
 out of heaven by the Lord it can only be received by 
 those who are prepared by inward change of thought 
 and afPection, by the removal of prejudices, by honest 
 living and by seeking light from the Lord. The Holy 
 City will descend and the Bride will be adorned for her 
 Husband, and the glory will be revealed as men love the 
 truth and obey it, and are thus united with the Lord and 
 abide with Him forever. 
 
 V 
 
 THE NEW CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA 
 BY THE HEV. J. J. THOKNTON 
 
 The east of the Australian continent became known 
 to the British in 1771. This was before the death of 
 Swedenborg, which took place in London in the following 
 year. Three years previously, between 14th and 26th 
 
286 NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 
 
 June, 1768, Captain Coot, then about to undertake the 
 now celebrated voyage which brought him to Australian 
 shores in the bark "Endeavor," was a guest in the 
 house of William Cookworthy, the Quaker, at Plymouth, 
 Devon. Curiously enough, Cookworthy had already 
 completed and published in the same city his first English 
 translation of Swedenborg's " Doctrine of Life." In con- 
 junction with the Rev. Thomas Hartley, the same worthy 
 Friend, who was well known among the literati of south- 
 ern England, subsequently translated " Heaven and Hell," 
 and personally visited Swedenborg in London before his 
 death. That Captain Cook should then have been the 
 guest of so ardent and practical an admirer of Sweden- 
 borg's works, especially when another distinguished 
 Swede, Dr. Solander, joined the company, is at least 
 remarkable. Swedenborg was at that time a topic of 
 conversation among the scientific and literary men of 
 Europe, and therefore there would be nothing diflScult 
 in affirming that Cookworthy might have introduced his 
 own translation of Swedenborg's tractate to Captain 
 Cook, whose natural reserve and robustness covered 
 depths of character not usually revealed. Sir Joseph 
 Banks was another guest at the same house. That these 
 celebrated discoverers should have started on their mem- 
 orable voyage to the shores of the then unknown Aus- 
 tralia from the home of an active propagator of Sweden- 
 borgian literature at least connects the discovery and first 
 settlement of the great southern colonies with the 
 practical beginnings of the New Church in England, 
 and illustrates the statement that, in respect to the time 
 of its unveiling, eastern Australia is emphatically the 
 land of the New Dispensation. Indeed, it is at least 
 possible that some spiritual thoughts, directly originating 
 with Swedenborg's works, may have traveled in the 
 bark "Endeavor," and reached Australia with the 
 
PLANTING THE OHnROH 287 
 
 gallant company who, after circumnavigating New 
 Zealand, first sighted the beautiful coasts of New South 
 Wales in 1770. 
 
 The colonization of Australia having commenced 
 after the New Church had begun its activities in Eng- 
 land, there naturally flowed forth in the ordinary stream 
 of immigration a few who had received into good hearts 
 the seed of holy truth taken from the granary of the New 
 Jerusalem; and, so far as the Divine Love and Wisdom 
 of the only Lord, the Savior Jesus Christ, dwelt in them 
 and among their fellow colonists, "the kingdom of 
 heaven, which is as a grain of mustard seed," was 
 planted in their midst. Some of these men and women 
 might be mentioned by name, but the limit of time for- 
 bids. It is sufficient to say that avowed New-Churchmen 
 could occasionally be found among distinguished persons 
 who filled the highest positions in the Australian Com- 
 monwealth while yet in its infancy and who were leaders 
 in important works under the Southern Cross. Among 
 the very humblest, on the other hand, were exemplary 
 New-Churchmen. For example, in 1833 a freeman, set- 
 tling near Botany Bay, began in his own house the wor- 
 ship of the Lord Jesus as the only God, acknowledging 
 Him to be Jehovah in His Divine Human. By a faithful 
 and modest life he diffused the pure spirit of his Relig- 
 ion, and may be said to have erected in his own cottage- 
 home an altar to "the Visible God in Whom is the 
 Invisible," which remained for fifty years a constant 
 witness in the sight of heaven to an Australian acknowl- 
 edgment of the Second Advent and the glorious reign of 
 the Lord God Jesus Christ. 
 
 There were others of all ranks who acted similarly 
 in South Australia, Victoria and Queensland, and no one 
 will ever be able to trace the silent and beneficent cur- 
 rents of distinctive New-Church teaching that, from 
 
288 NEW-CHDECH CONGRESS 
 
 earliest; times havecontiaued to penetrate the extending 
 settlements of Australasia. It must indeed be acknowl- 
 edged with regret that there have been some possessed of 
 the heavenly treasure who would not sustain the trials 
 of isolation and ridicule, or the temptations to worldly 
 aggrandizement which at times abounded. These did 
 forsake the Church of the New Jerusalem. But they 
 were exceptions. Scattered abroad, far from the great 
 centers of population, are to be found men and women 
 true to the Divine Light, who often read the Holy 
 Scriptures and meditate well on the Heavenly Doctrine 
 drawn therefrom by the Lord Himself, and revealed in 
 Swedenborg's writings. Such persons can also be found 
 in the "bush-homes" of Tasmania and New Zealand, 
 Better than wealth or pleasure is a pure marriage rela- 
 tion, a sanctified home,, persevering industry and true 
 religion to these brave and faithful souls. For years 
 uncared for by any human agency, unencouraged by the 
 fellowship of brethren and unaided by the ministrations 
 of pastors able to counsel and teach them, they have, 
 nevertheless, obtained for the New Church a secure foot- 
 ing in the land of their adoption. Their number is only 
 known to the Lord. In Victoria from the extreme East 
 to the utmost West; in New South Wales from the Mur- 
 ray to the Northern border; and in the vast regions of 
 Queensland and South Australia there are these thinly 
 scattered New-Church homes. And, so far as population 
 has extended, the same is true of Western Australia. 
 
 No agencies have hitherto proved more helpful to the 
 New Church in Australia than the English printing and 
 tract societies of London and Manchester. Latterly, the 
 assistance of the American Societies has also been grate- 
 fully enjoyed. The first work done was that of the silent 
 mission, "a still small voice" in which the Lord was (I 
 Kings xix: 12). That voice is being mentally heard 
 
PLANTING THE OHUROH 289 
 
 to-day, and is surely extending its sphere in the minds of 
 the Lord's children. It finds its way into the great 
 religious organizations now operating in the colonies, 
 exercises among them a distinct influence, which though 
 continually contradicted and opposed, repeats its mes- 
 sages and questions. Not unfrequently it finds expres- 
 sion in the pulpits of the historic Churches. It will be 
 heard more clearly as time goes on. The circulation 
 and actual reading of the literature of the New Church 
 is advancing steadily in Australasia. 
 
 Between the years 1842 and 1865, small groups of 
 New-Church people began to gather, meeting in houses, 
 but rarely attracting public attention in any locality. 
 These • gained a few adherents to the new doctrines, but 
 very slowly. Two groups, unknown to each other, some- 
 times met simultaneously. This was the first gentle wave 
 of unification among a scattered people. Their faith 
 itself — so different on all points from that commonly pre- 
 vailing^ — drew them together, if indeed they knew each 
 other. The forming of small societies first began to be 
 possible in the large cities. Such Societies were formed 
 at Adelaide in 1844; at Melbourne in 1854; at Sydney in 
 1854, and at Brisbane in 1865. Hitherto all these have 
 had a struggling and difficult career. One of the four 
 entirely collapsed three or four times before it obtained 
 its present permanent footing. Without exception, all 
 have undergone severe trials; and to this day they are not 
 acknowledged by those whose doctrines rest on natural- 
 istic or 'materialistic interpretations of Scripture and on 
 the historic creeds. Nevertheless they have ardently 
 striven, and do strive, mutually to minister to each other's 
 needs. A second Victorian congregation of the New 
 Church began to be formed at Eodborough, a hundred 
 miles from Melbourne in 1878. In New Zealand the 
 early experience of the New Church made similar 
 
290 NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 
 
 demands on the patience and self-sacrifice of its sons and 
 daughters. A Society existed at Christ Church, in the 
 South Island, from 1865 to 1868, which, having no one 
 capable of presenting the doctrines of the New Church, 
 fell into the hands of a religious adventurer, by whom it 
 was wrecked. In that city a few true-hearted, though 
 scattered, adherents await the advent of some capable 
 New-Churchman under whose leadership they may again 
 rally. At Auckland, in the North Island, a Society was 
 projected in 1879 and actually formed in 1883. It has 
 become an active and permanent agency in New Zealand. 
 The Societies in Australia have enjoyed the services 
 of three of their own ordained Ministers, and those of 
 probably thirty laymen, who have acted with admirable 
 devotion as Leaders or Eeaders, doing a large part of the 
 Church's work. These latter have rendered very im- 
 portant and valuable service. One of them, a Physician 
 of New South Wales, was distinguished as an extensive 
 author and poet; others have proved powerful exponents 
 or effective missionary preachers. In early years Aus- 
 tralian Societies appealed repeatedly, but in vain, to the 
 New Church in England to send them Ministers. In 
 January, 1861, a letter was addressed to London offering 
 £200 as an evidence of earnestness and asking for a visit 
 from "an ordained Minister." Even on these terms no 
 response was obtainable. The first English Minister 
 went out in 1877. He was charged with special responsi- 
 bilities relating to the sacred office, and was publicly 
 invested therewith at London in the same year, under 
 the auspices of the General Conference of the New 
 Church. One Minister in Australia has voluntarily 
 labored without stipend throughout his entire pastorate. 
 Another has ministered during lengthy intervals under 
 the same disadvantageous conditions. All who have en- 
 engaged in the work have done so with much self-sacrifice. 
 
PLANTING THE CHURCH 291 
 
 There are now six congregations of the New Church 
 in Australasia regularly celebrating the public worship 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ. Each of these has a Sabbath 
 School and a Free Lending Library . of New-Church 
 Literature. To facilitate their work five Societies have 
 erected places of worship. That these are all small may 
 appear from the fact that their total seating capacity 
 does not exceed 700. The buildings at Adelaide, South 
 Australia, and Kodborough, Victoria, are both substantial 
 stone structures. The Church at Melbourne is stuccoed 
 with stone foundations, and stands on a lot of land large 
 enough to contain a building three times the size of the 
 present one. The Brisbane structure is of wood, and in 
 front of it stands a house owned by the Society. Three 
 of these are in central and commanding sites in great 
 cities. The Sydney Society is making preparations to 
 erect a House of Worship and have extensive funds both 
 in possession and in prospect. The Auckland Society 
 have a Hall formed out of two attached two-storied 
 dwellings, in Pompallier Terrace, Ponsonby. 
 
 In 1880 the Australian Societies, recogniziug their 
 essential spiritual unity, resolved to render this unity 
 actual by practical and avowed absociation. In the 
 strength of mutual love, they refused to view each other 
 as separate and isolated. All possible principles and 
 aims, doctrines and interpretations, effects and uses, 
 springing from the love and worship of the only Lord, 
 conspire to one grand and whole-souled argument in 
 favor of such unity in the New Church. 
 
 Though the two nearest Societies were five hundred 
 miles apart and traveling was then both difficult and 
 costly, two Ministers and four Kepresentatives, accom- 
 panied by thirty-five sympathetic New-Church people, 
 attended the first "Australasian Conference of the New 
 Church," held on the Eastern Hill, Melbourne, on the 
 
292 NEW-CHUBOH CONGRESS 
 
 5th of February, 1881. Succeeding meetings were held 
 in Sydney, 1883; Adelaide, 1887; and Melbourne 1889. 
 It is intended to hold the next in Brisbane. 
 
 This Association was formed with the sanction and 
 authority of all the Societies known to exist in Australa- 
 sia in 1881 ; and its members in their General Confer- 
 ences have performed several important services. At the 
 beginning they made a few simple and fundamental affir- 
 mations which gained publicity. First: They worshiped 
 the Divine Human of Jehovah God, the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, affirming that He is the only God of heaven and 
 earth and that the Divine Trinity is in Him alone. They 
 enumerated the thirty-four books of Holy Scripture (the 
 five books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, I and II Samuel, I 
 and II Kings, Psalms, all the prophets from Isaiah to 
 Malachi, the four Gospels and the Kevelation) which 
 have the Internal Sense (A. C. 10,325), affirming these to 
 be "The Word," which is "Divine Truth proceeding from 
 the Lord," in its first origin purely Divine, and in its 
 descent accommodated to angels and men. They affirmed 
 that in His Second or spiritual Advent, the Lord "has 
 come again into the world in the Divine Truth which is 
 the Word, and that unless he had so come no flesh could 
 be saved." They acknowledged the Heavenly Doctrines 
 of the New Jerusalem, revealed in the theological writ- 
 ings of the Lord's servant, Emanuel Swedenborg. They 
 were especially emphatic in declaring that it is necessary 
 a man should do the work of Repentance, which consists 
 in self examination as to his motives, thoughts, actions 
 and words, searching out the evils of his own heart; con- 
 fessing them before the Lord; charging himself with 
 them; desisting from them; holding them inwardly in 
 aversion as sins against God; and living a new life accord- 
 ing to the Divine Commandments. They declared that 
 to be in the Lord's New Church, "a man must also do 
 
PLANTING THE CHURCH 293 
 
 good wotks as from himself, but by the Lord's power, 
 which he should implore." They embraced the institu- 
 tions of Baptism and the Holy Supper with new inter- 
 pretations of their spiritual power and uses; the spiritual 
 nature and Divine origin of Marriage; and the office and 
 services of the Christian Ministry, exercised in the free- 
 dom and power of the Divine Love, according to the 
 spirit of the Divine Wisdom. 
 
 Thus "The New Church in Australia" was firmly 
 planted upon the acknowledgment of the only Lord God, 
 whose Humanity is Divine; upon the holiness of His 
 Divine Word; and upon the Heavenly Doctrines re- 
 vealed therefrom at His Second Advent, for the restora- 
 tion of pure and undefiled religion among the nations. 
 These, in the hearts and lives of the people, are insepa- 
 rable from the activities of the New Jerusalem, which is 
 "the tabernacle of God with men." 
 
 Beyond declaring the standards already mentioned, 
 and recognizing the institutions most essential to the 
 Church, the Association of the New Church in Australia 
 has as yet no ecclesiastical constitution. It has, how- 
 ever, the Memorandum and Articles of Association. In 
 1880 the Minister, who afterwards became the first Presi- 
 dent, refused to propose any other constitu'.ion or rules 
 than those afforded by the Divine Word and the writings 
 of the Church, trusting the future of the organization to 
 the formative power of the Lord's own life, going forth 
 into the uses of His Kingdom among the people. 
 
 In addition to the important services rendered in the 
 unification of the Church and in these valuable declara- 
 tions, the members of the Association have also taken 
 the following steps : 1. They have twice made provision 
 for the ordination and licensing of Ministers and Lead- 
 ers. 2. In 1883 they adopted measures to establish a 
 representative Library of New-Church Literature, as one 
 
2&4 JSfEW-CfiDtlCfi CongHess 
 
 step towards the future formation of a Theological 
 School. 3. In 1887 they began the issue of a monthly 
 journal called The New Age. which has rendered 
 important service. 4. In 1889 they inaugurated a mis- 
 sionary movement, and issued two addresses of an explan- 
 atory character, one on the Divinity of the Only Lord, 
 the other on Divine Inspiration. 
 
 In 1888 the incorporation of the Association was car- 
 ried out under the Company's Statute, 27 Victoria, No. 
 190. The Memorandum and Articles of Association 
 were drawn up with much foresight by a judge of the 
 Supreme Court of Queensland, himself a member of the 
 New Church. They were signed by seventeen repre- 
 sentative men — two in Brisbane, four in Sydney, five in 
 Adelaide, four in Melbourne and two in Eodborough. 
 
 Among the simple good who look to the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, there are many in Australia who are being 
 ripened to receive a purer Christian doctrine and a new 
 Christian life. It is becoming a task of great magnitude 
 to give to these the heavenly truth revealed for them. 
 The New Church in Australia needs the raising of funds 
 for the ways and means of purchasing and distributing 
 her literature. The letter of Holy Scriptures, imper- 
 fectly presented and scattered broadcast by the Bible 
 Society, is not sufficient. The means of spiritually under- 
 standing and applying its holy Truths are absolutely 
 necessary, and must be supplied. Australian New- 
 Churchmen want to see a grand center for the manage- 
 ment and direction of this work and training colleges 
 for the efficient instruction and preparation of the work- 
 ers, on whose generalship, earnestness and tact — under 
 the love and wisdom of the only Lord — much will 
 depend. 
 
PLANTING TSE CH0ECH 295 
 
 The Lord is acting in and through "His people;" and 
 the Divine Government among a people ruled by His 
 Holy Spirit is not government for the glory of men or for 
 man's self-love, but for the glory of the Lord, which con- 
 sists in the salvation and eternal happiness of all in the 
 human race who willingly yield to the Divine Love of 
 Him who "draws all men" unto Himself, that he may 
 bless them. "They shall be His people, and God Himself 
 shall be with them, and be their God." (Kev. xxi: 3.) 
 This state has begun in Australia and, although at pres- 
 ent feeble and obscure, it is distinctly proper to the New 
 Dispensation. It can really exist and be perpetuated 
 among those who actually do the work of repentance 
 and remove evils because they are sins against God. To 
 such Jesus Christ is "the Alpha and the Omega; the 
 Beginning and the End; the First and the Last." (Kev. 
 xxii:13.) 
 
 VI 
 
 THE PLANTING OF THE NEW CHURCH IN APKIOA 
 
 BY THE REV. E. D. DANIELS 
 
 The New Church is not a sect, but a new dispensa- 
 tion, both as a life and as an ecclesiasticism, and in its 
 universal sense includes all sincerely good persons. But 
 not in its specific sense. There are many who are in it,^ but 
 not of it. Christian fellowship is one thing, Church fellow- 
 ship another. That we acknowledge persons as Christians 
 at heart, and even unite with them in certain branches of 
 Christian work, does not imply that they are members of 
 the New Church, or that we invite them into our pulpits. 
 The Church as a life from the heart is broader than the 
 Church as an institution. 
 
296 NEW-CHUECH CONGRESS 
 
 The New Clmrcli as an institution must be established 
 mainly in virgin soil, with some race who are in a state 
 of simplicity, receptive of its influx from within, and 
 of its doctrines from without. Such a race exists in 
 Central Africa. The Doctrines of the New Church, which, 
 though in Swedenborg's language are not his invention, but 
 are from the Lord, penetrate the veil of appearances, and 
 give much and particular information concerning the 
 interual state of the Africans from the quality of their 
 life as it is manifested in the spiritual world. 
 
 The different nations among them are distinguished 
 according to their reception of heavenly light. The 
 good occupy an elevated region, toward the middle of the 
 Continent from Ethiopia, shaped somewhat like a rude 
 crescent with wide center, and horns pointing eastward. 
 From this region the nations decrease in goodness as 
 they dwell nearer the coasts. Our doctrines treat chiefly 
 of those who dwell in the interior, whom they call "the 
 best of the Africans." 
 
 These are of a celestial disposition, supereminent in, 
 this respect on earth, as the highest angels are in heaven, 
 superior to others in interior judgment, and therefore, 
 professing superior light. Hence their aptitude for receiv- 
 ing truth whenever it is presented, and their innocent 
 rejection of falsity. They do not allow strangers to pene- 
 trate their country; but in a few instances Christian monks 
 would have done so, and taught falsities; wherefore they 
 were sent away. They are incapable of conceiving how 
 Christians can profess their doctrines without living them. 
 They do not believe it possible that any one can have an 
 idea of God as a diffused principle; for they themselves 
 more readily than others, worship Him as a Divine human 
 being. 
 
 The idea is implanted in them, that the Lord mani- 
 fests himself as man, and hence they are more receptive 
 
tLANTINfl THE OHUEOH 2^7 
 
 than others of truth. Ingenious wickedness they call 
 stupidity. Their excellence is of heart, rather than of 
 the intellect, for they desire to be called obedient, but 
 not faithful, unless they receive the doctrines of faith, or 
 as they say, are able to receive them. Thus they excel in 
 meekness. Such is their quality as revealed in the spiritual 
 world, and such is their real state in the natural world. 
 
 Our contact with the negroes seems not to confirm 
 this, for they were brought not from the better tribes of 
 the interior, but from the coasts. But even they have 
 traits which approach those just mentioned. They are 
 afPectionate, subordinate, sympathetic, and their evils are 
 of a superficial kind, the love of pleasure rather than the 
 deeper loves of self and the world. They are incapable 
 of the deep cunning and concealment of the white men; 
 and the reports of African explorers concerning the 
 interior contain many confirmations of the New-Church 
 teaching on this subject. 
 
 The Doctrines of the New Church are being orally 
 dictated to the Africans of the interior — not from with- 
 out, but by influx from within. Spirits in the other life 
 speak with certain ones in the interior of Africa, not in 
 the manner of open communication known in spiritism, 
 which is diEorderly, but "their speech with them falls 
 especially into their interior perception, and they per- 
 ceive this influx, and so receive the revelations with 
 illustrations." These enlightened persons are the in- 
 structors of the people. Hence the wiser among them 
 think in a becoming manner of the Lord, and concerning 
 the marriage relation. They know how many things 
 concerning heaven and hell, of which Christians are 
 ignorant, and, in a word, they know the truths of the 
 New Church in themselves. Hence it is that they have 
 Holy books, written in correspondences by enlightened 
 
 20 
 
298 NfiW-CHUROH CONaRESS 
 
 men, treating internally of the Lord, wHch books are to 
 them the Word, but not like ours. This revelation has 
 been expected by these people; and even the angels 
 rejoiced when it was made, because through the Africans 
 they could have access, as never before, for the regenera- 
 tion of the human race. 
 
 This revelation among the Africans radiates from a 
 given center, but not to the coasts, because there it would 
 come in contact with falsities from Christendom, and so 
 become corrupted. To prevent this, the Divine Providence 
 has kept the best of the Africans isolated for ages from 
 the rest of the world by hitherto almost impassable bar- 
 riers; but communication with them is now being 
 opened, because the time is near for the New Church as 
 revealed through the internals of the Africans, to come 
 forth and meet the New Church, as revealed in doctrine 
 from heaven. 
 
 Judging from appearances, there is not much hope of 
 the growth of the New Church in Central Africa. The 
 cultivation of the people is more of the affections than of 
 the intellect. They have no railroads, steam engines, 
 factories or electrical machines. Their manners are 
 simple, and their governments heaven-instituted and 
 antique. They do many things, which, judged by the 
 moral law, are vreong. But we are not to judge by 
 appearances. The good Africans are in innocence and 
 the main hope of the angels for the New Church is cen- 
 tered in this "nation, far distant from the Christian World, 
 and therefore removed from infestors, which nation is 
 such that it is capable of receiving spiritual light." This 
 hope the angels communicate to the Africans. Hence it 
 is that they have "hope of the propagation of this new 
 gospel into the surrounding religions." 
 
 The grounds of this hope as we in Christiendom know 
 them, are the prophecies of the Words: "Princes shall 
 
]?LANTIN(1 THE dHUEOH 29S 
 
 Come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch forth her 
 hands to God." "Ethiopia'' means, literally, the sxin- 
 bumed or black races, and according to ancient writers, 
 and modern ethnologists, includes the races of interior 
 Africa. These shall "soon" stretch forth their hands to 
 God. By "soon" is meant not soon as to time, but surely 
 or certainly. The princes to come out of Egypt, denote 
 the principles of truth pertaining to the spiritual man, 
 while the hands to be stretched forth denote the works, 
 the obedience, the will of the celestial man, which is 
 appropriate to the genius of the Africans. The time 
 shall certainly come when the Black Races will come forth 
 to the perfect knowledge and worship of God. 
 
 What can be done for the Africans by the New 
 Church in Christendom working from the coasts inward ? 
 The same in essence that bandages do for a wound,^ — 
 holding externals in order, so that the internal life may 
 work. The people of interior Africa do not have an 
 ecclesiasticism, with priesthood, sacraments and ritual 
 complete, according to doctrine revealed from without. 
 They have certain general truths of doctrine, but not the 
 particulars. And even the generals are not adequately 
 defined. They carry their general truths with them into 
 the other world, and there they are instructed in true 
 doctrine, which they readily receive, because there is 
 nothing in them to preclude it. But it is necessary that 
 it be presented, and they rejoice when it is pre- 
 sented. They have an idea of the Lord as the spiritual 
 sun of the universe, and of the Divine Humanity; but 
 they must be taught by doctrine from without, either in 
 this world or in the next, before they can have their ideas 
 adequately defined and terminated. But when thus 
 taught they easily grasp the particulars of doctrine, for 
 they love to know truths. 
 
SOO NEW-CHUECfl dONGEESS 
 
 The influx in the good Africans would have been 
 terminated and corrupted long ago if they had not been 
 kept by their isolation from meeting false doctrinals. 
 The Lord gives nothing subjective unless he also gives 
 something objective. The Africans could have had no 
 interior revelation at all but for the existence among 
 them of true doctrine from the Word of the ancient 
 Church called " Noah," which spread over Africa as weU 
 as other countries. That doctrine in their minds is the 
 containant of the internal revelation they receive. But 
 it is not a sufficient containant; and the time is near, if 
 not now, when the good Africans must be given the doc- 
 trines of the Church even in this life. In the seven- 
 teenth century Nordenskiold, an intelligent New-Church- 
 man, lost his life in trying to carry the heavenly doc- 
 trines into Central Africa; believing that the New 
 Church would never grow until communication was 
 opened between Central Africa and Europe, which he 
 likened to the union of the will and understanding. At 
 bottom he was right, but the time had not yet come for 
 such a movement. But in the Lord's good time it will 
 come. Let the New Church be ready! 
 
 Not by missionaries who teach f alses can this work 
 be done, but by those who teach only doctrines revealed 
 from heaven. Such doctrines answer to the revelation 
 now being made in Central Africa, as a matrix to its die, 
 or as a mold to liquid metal. Not by sword and crucifix! 
 The once powerful Portuguese were almost invincible, 
 but they signally failed in their attempts upon Centi-al 
 Africa, which country they could not invade, and whose 
 people held aloof. Nor yet by military organizations 
 and powerful corporations! When these have failed, as 
 fail they must, and as some of them have, it shall be 
 found that the doctrines of the New Church will ofPer to 
 the good Africans the only temple of faith which will 
 
PLANTING THE CHUECH 301 
 
 induce them to come forth from their long and mysteri- 
 ous isolation. Then will the swallow have found a nest 
 for herself, even thine altars, O Lord of Hosts. 
 
 vn 
 
 THE SILENT MISSIONARIES 
 
 i 
 BY THE KEV. G. LAWRENCE ALLB0LTT 
 
 Silent, but yet speaking! Silent to the ear, yet appeal- 
 ing to the thought by means of printed characters, the 
 literature of the New Church has won, and will increas- 
 ingly win triumphs of the most worthy kind. 
 
 The Holy Word is written, and millions upon millions 
 . of copies have been produced and circulated far and wide 
 in the present century alone, in many, many tongues, 
 through the instrumentality of the printing press, that the 
 promise may be realized: "It shall accomplish that which 
 I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent 
 it." (Is. Iv: 11.) 
 
 The doctrines of the New Church are an unfolding 
 of the word. The Herald of the Lord, Emanuel Sweden- 
 borg has declared: "The second coming of the Lord is 
 effected by means of a man, before whom He manifested 
 Himself and filled with His spirit, to teach the doctrines 
 of the New Church through the Word from him" (T. C. 
 R., 779), and he asserts that this will be accomplished by 
 a man "who is able not only to receive the doctrines of 
 this Church in his understanding, but also to make them 
 known by the press" (No. 779). The special use of this 
 great civilizing agent is thus attained. Use is the law of 
 the kingdom of the Lord. All things are, under Provi- 
 dence, sent or directed towards the promotion of a salu- 
 tary end. The h ippiness of mankind is what the Divine 
 mercy and wisdom ever regard, and henceforth printing 
 is to "move the world." 
 
302 NEW-OHUEOH CONGRESS 
 
 This art sublime is to carry the messages of mercy 
 to heal and bless the nations. Side by side with the 
 great Bible Societies, now exist the American and English 
 Swedenborg Societies, instituted and equipped for the 
 purpose of translating and publishing the writings of this 
 " Servant of the Lord," whereby the genuine truths of 
 the Word are disclosed to the mental sight. Apart from 
 the publication in the English language of these words, 
 they have altogether or in part been published in Danish, 
 Dutch, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, 
 Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Welsh; also in 
 Hindi. At its last annual meeting, the English Sweden- 
 borg societies resolved upon the translation of the volume 
 "Heaven and Hell" into the Arabic language. "The 
 planting of the New Church" in the great Continental 
 regions, Europe, America, Australia, Asia, Africa, though 
 feeble, comparatively speaking, in its present develop- 
 ment, will progress as new centers are opened up through 
 the multiplying power which the press, mighty engine 
 for the extension of the truth, aifords. 
 
 How divinely blessed this agency has already been in 
 causing the light of the Word to shine, originally written 
 in Latin! The works published in that language have 
 been furnished to the great universities of the world and 
 to many other institutions intended for the public use, 
 that the learned in particular might have access to the 
 truths which the Lord has revealed. But that every 
 class may be provided for, and every one in his or her 
 own tongue may have the opportunity of becoming 
 acquainted with the good news of the kingdom henceforth 
 to prevail, the abilities of our translators will be in in- 
 creasing demand, since "All the ends of the earth shall 
 remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kingdoms 
 of the nations shall worship before thee." (Ps. xxii: 27.) 
 
 *:» H^ if ^- ^ ^ ^ ^ 
 
PLANTING THE CHUEOH 303 
 
 In Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, Philadel- 
 phia, San Francisco and Washington, on this side the 
 Atlantic, and in London and Manchester in England, books 
 may be daily obtained at our bookrooms during the ordi- 
 nary business hours, and as the means are forthcoming, this 
 service will be extended successively to other localities. 
 Meanwhile the free distribution of the writings and col- 
 lateral books is engaged in to a large extent. The dona- 
 tion to clergymen and theological students of all denomi- 
 nations who requested "The True Christian Eeligion," 
 "Heaven and Hell," "The Apocalypse Eevealed," and the 
 "Life of Swedenborg," was for the year ending December 
 31st, last, at the rate of more than one hundred sets a 
 month, being a total of 5,092 volumes for the entire year, 
 and 109,062 since this mode of distribution was first 
 adopted. By the generous provision of the lungerich 
 fund, and of the American New Church tract and publi- 
 cation society, the free circulation of these four volumes 
 among religious teachers and those preparing for this 
 office in the two countries which form the North Ameri- 
 can Continent will be continued for an indefinite period, 
 thus aiding most effectually in the dissemination of the 
 heavenly doctrines in the ranks of theologic opinion. 
 Very numerous are the letters of thankfulness already 
 received from the class alluded to for invaluable assist- 
 ance in the spiritual career thus conferred. And when 
 to this effort we take into account the thousands of copies 
 of the smaller treatises disposed of in a smaller way, 
 though not confined to the clergy and students of theol- 
 ogy, but scattered broadcast among all willing to accept 
 them, also the zeal displayed by our various institutions 
 in supplementing this process by a judicious assignment 
 of periodical and other literature explanatory of the great 
 principles which the writings at first hand announced, 
 shall we not rejoice indeed at the results that have 
 
304 NEW-CHUEOH CONGRESS 
 
 followed? It is calculated that there are now 20,000 
 receivers of the doctrines of the New Church altogether 
 in the world. This is not a small number, after the lapse 
 of a little over a century, to constitute the nucleus of 
 that renovated Christianity which, in the twenty-first 
 chapter of the Apocalypse is divinely promised. The 
 preaching power has largely operated in bringing about 
 this desirable issue ; but missionary enterprise derives its 
 main instrument of assistance from the printed page to 
 enkindle farther the interest which by oral proclamation 
 has been aroused. As it is now the privilege of mankind 
 to enter with the understanding into the mysteries of 
 faith, the thought must be employed, the reason, under a 
 sense of reverence for the glorious truths revealed, must 
 be exercised in relation to them. Quiet reflection, and 
 that just criticism which is determined that allegiance to 
 the truth shall alone be served by the researches made, 
 requires the help of a counselor continually in the field, 
 A book, a tract, repeats its message again and again. Its 
 assertions are constant, most unobtrusive in its deliver- 
 ance, not answering unless questioned; yet is it ever 
 ready to explain, console, or warn, as the case may be, 
 when consulted for this purpose. . . . 
 
 It may seem an astonishing fact, but the British Museum 
 Catalogue of books added, from January, 1880, to August, 
 1883, discloses that during the period in question there were 
 four times more publications devoted to the advancement 
 of this sacred cause than to any other form of belief. 
 The same ratio is probably still maintained. There is 
 vitality in these productions such as no other class of 
 literature can supply. This is the reason why the duty 
 is so imperative of making the most ample provision to 
 give them publicity. The " Silent Missionaries " often 
 penetrate into regions where no other evangelizing effort 
 pan go. Their traveling expenses are limited to the postal 
 
PLANTINfl THE CHUEOH 305 
 
 rates. TJntiringly they proclaim their message, unen- 
 cumbered with the restrictions that are attached to utter- 
 ance by the living voice. But thus the way is prepared 
 for the living voice to be lifted up. 
 
 The periodicals of the New Church are doing good 
 work in promoting intelligent interest in the great 
 evangel. They report progress at regular intervals as 
 to how the work is proceeding. They meet special need 
 in clearing away prejudices, checking false ideas and 
 implanting correct ones. They aim at adapting the sub- 
 lime truths of the new dispensation to the present or 
 everyday requirements of the people, dealing with topics 
 that are foremost in the public mind, and seeking to turn 
 each opportunity given to account in directing attention 
 to the light from the opened Word now shining, that 
 what is wise and just from the Lord, in the realm of 
 thought and conduct, may have sway. 
 
 The New Church Messenger is our principal organ in 
 America, and is issued every week in New York, a goodly 
 sixteen-page periodical, laden with well-written articles 
 on current and other subjects, a sermon, juvenile depart- 
 ment, and interesting record of the hold which the 
 doctrines are taken throughout the world. The Helper, 
 issued from Philadelphia, except in the summer months, 
 is the bearer of a sermon or lecture in tract form to 
 thousands of grateful readers every week. Last year, 
 323,300 copies in all were distributed, as well as thou- 
 sands of other ta-acts, of which we possess many noble 
 series. Ten other English periodicals, weekly and 
 monthly, are published in this continent and in Great 
 Britain, advocating the doctrines; also here and in 
 Europe several German papers. Efforts in other parts 
 of Europe, and in Australia and India, to convey the 
 precious tidings through the channels of a magazine, are 
 earnestly carried on, 
 
306 NEW-OHUECH CONGRESS 
 
 Tear by year tbe fields are -widening. We must be 
 equal to the occasion, by the adequate employment of 
 all the means at our command, in the pulpit, on the plat- 
 form and through the press, to communicate what is so 
 essential for the furtherance of the heavenly life of 
 mutual usefulness and good will, from love to the Lord, 
 among mankind. 
 
CHAPTEE V 
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE NEW CHURCH 
 
 I 
 
 THE MISSION OF THE NEW CHUBCH TO THE GENTILES 
 BY BEV. ALBINOS F. FKOST 
 
 It is estimated that the population of the globe, 
 divided according to Keligions, is as follows: 
 
 Jews 8,000,000 
 
 Christians 353,000,000 
 
 Mohammedans. . .• 120,000,000 
 
 Parsees 1,000,000 
 
 Fetichism of the aboriginal 
 
 tribes of Africa, America ' 
 
 and Polynesia 189,000,000 
 
 Buddhists 483,000,000 
 
 Total 1,274,000,000 
 
 The Jews, Christians and Mohammedans are mono- 
 theists, all the rest being polytheists and idolaters. The 
 Jews possess the Old Testament Scriptures; the Chris- 
 tians the Old and New Testament Scriptures; and the 
 Mohammedans the Koran. The Mohammedan Keligion 
 acknowledges Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, the 
 wisest of men, and the greatest of prophets, and that 
 Keligion was raised up by the Divine Providence to 
 destroy the idolatries of many nations. In the Koran 
 mention is made of many of the persons spoken of in the 
 Bible. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that at least 793,000,000 of the 
 inbabitants of the earth are the Nations, Gentiles ov 
 
 807 
 
308 NBW-CHUROH CONGRESS 
 
 Heathen, referred to in the Bible, having no knowledge of 
 our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as the Creator, Redeemer 
 and Savior. In all these people the New Church is 
 profoundly and sympathetically interested. How and 
 why may be known from what Swedenborg says of their 
 condition and needs in the " Arcana Coelestia," Nos. 
 2589, 2590, as follows: 
 
 " It is a general opinion that they who are bom out 
 of the Church, and who are called Pagans and Gentiles, 
 cannot be saved, by reason that they are without the 
 Word, and consequently are ignorant of the Lord, with- 
 out whom there is no salvation. But still, that these 
 also are saved may be known from this single considera- 
 tion, that the mercy of the Lord is universal, — that is, 
 extended to every individual man, and that they who are 
 born out of the Church are nevertheless men, as well as 
 those within the Church, who are comparatively few in 
 number, and that it is no fault of theirs that they are 
 ignorant of the Lord; wherefore the nature and quality 
 of their state and condition in another life was made 
 known to me, by the divine mercy of the Lord. I have 
 had abundant information that the Gentiles who have led 
 a moral life, and have been obedient, and have lived in 
 mutual charity and have received something like con- 
 science agreeable to their religious principles, are 
 accepted in another life, and are there instructed by the 
 angels with the utmost care in the goods and truths of 
 faith; and when they are instructed they behave them- 
 selves modestly, intelligently and wisely, easily receiving 
 and imbibing what they are taught, inasmuch as they 
 have formed to themselves no principles contrary to the 
 truths of faith, which principles must be previously 
 removed; much less scandals against the Lord, as in the 
 case with many Christians, who have led an evil life. 
 ]j/Lqreo\er, such Gentiles indulge no hatred towards 
 
MISSION OF THE CH0ECH 309 
 
 others, never revenge injuries, nor give in to cunning 
 strategems and artifices; no, nor wish ill to Christians, 
 although Christians on their part despise the Gentiles, 
 and do them injury to the utmost of their power, but the 
 latter are delivered by the Lord from the unmercif nlnees 
 of the former, and are protected. For with respect to 
 Christians and Gentiles in another life, the case is this : 
 Christians who have acknowledged the truths of faith 
 and who at the same time have led a life of good, are 
 accepted in preference to the Gentiles, but such Chris- 
 tians at this day are few in number; whereas, the Gentiles 
 who have lived in obedience and mutual charity are 
 accepted in preference to the Christians who have not 
 led a good life. For all persons throughout every earth 
 in the universe are accepted and saved who have lived 
 in good, good being the very essential principle which 
 receives truth, and the good of life being the very ground 
 of the seed, that is, of truth, which evil of life is incapable 
 of receiving; for, if they who are principled in evil were 
 to be instructed a thousand ways, and this instruction 
 was of the most perfect kind, still the truths of faith 
 would enter with them no further than into the memory, 
 and would never penetrate into the affections of the 
 heart; wherefore also the truths of their memory are 
 dissipated and become no truths in another life." 
 
 In his "Eeflections respecting the Works of Sweden- 
 borg and the Doctrines of the New Jerusalem," published 
 by the Swedenborg Society, London, 36 Bloomsbury 
 street, 1 879, Kao Bahardur Dadoba Pandurung, a Hindoo 
 gentleman of Bombay, India, himself a Gentile convert 
 to the New Jerusalem, quotes the above passage from 
 Swedenborg with great satisfaction, as giving light, hope 
 and blessed relief respecting the eternal state of untold 
 millions of God's creatures. 
 
310 HEW-CHXJHOH CONGSESS 
 
 The Gentiles are by no means destitute of religious 
 knowledge, principles and worship. They have temples, 
 altars, sacrifices, forms of external worship and devotion, 
 a priesthood, and sacred writings of their seers, prophets 
 and wise men. They believe that there is a God, a life 
 after death and a heaven and a hell. They also believe 
 that it is sinful to steal, murder, commit adultery, lie, 
 covet and blaspheme. Whence then, did they learn all 
 these essential truths of Religion and salvation? We 
 know now that they came from the ancient Church, reve- 
 lation, priesthood and worship, established by the Lord 
 after the flood with Noah and his posterity; Noah rep- 
 resenting that ancient Church, and not being an individual 
 man as has been supposed. Of this ancient Church 
 Swedenborg has much to say which throws great light 
 on the nations of antiquity. We can only refer to this, 
 and then say that the Gentiles of the present day are the 
 degenerate races of a true and spiritual revelation, 
 Church and worship. That there are great evils and fal- 
 sities among the Gentiles of the present time, is most cer- 
 tain; but that they still have the means of being saved,, 
 is equally certain. 
 
 The Gentiles, like all other men, whether in this or 
 the other world, need those truths of faith which are 
 revealed only in the Old and New Testament Scriptures. 
 Hence we read, " The Gentiles shall come to thy light" 
 (Is. lx:3). "Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which 
 set in darkness saw a great light" (Matt, iv: 15, 16). 
 "And the nations of them that are saved shall walk in 
 the light of the New Jerusalem" (Eev. xxi: 24). Thus 
 throughout the Word the Nations, Heathen and Gentiles 
 are represented as being in darkness or ignorance, and 
 as coming to the light, to the truth therefore; yea, to 
 those truths of faith which they need to make their 
 present life of humility, obedience, mutual love and 
 
MISSION OF THE OHtrBOH 311 
 
 charity, perfect and saving. This light or truth is given 
 to them in the other world after death, if they did not 
 know of it in this life. Such is the mercy of the Lord 
 to the Gentiles. 
 
 But it is always the mission of the Church to which 
 the Lord has given His Word to carry the light of 
 revealed truth to all nations. And during the past 
 century the Scriptures have been printed in very many 
 of the languages of earth, so that there is now scarcely 
 a nation without the means of learning of the life, words 
 and works of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Redeemer 
 and Savior. The New Church, or the New Jerusalem, 
 has, as we believe, received from the Lord in the writings 
 of Swedenborg a revelation of the spiritual sense of the 
 Word, the doctrine of the true Christian faith, and a 
 knowledge of the state of man after death. This enables 
 the men of that Church to disperse the errors and false 
 doctrines of the former Christian Church, and to offer 
 to all the world, Jew, Christian, Mohammedan, and 
 Gentiles alike, those genuine truths of faith which every 
 one needs, and must eventually have, in order to make 
 him sincere, humble, and his loving desires and efforts to 
 live a rehgious life, full, spiritual and perfect. 
 
 It is interesting to observe that the ancient Gentile 
 nations, such as the Greeks and Romans, were among 
 the most enlightened people of whom we have any knowl- 
 edge. They were highly educated in philosophy, art, 
 literature, oratory and the drama, and produced generals 
 and statesmen of great ability. Such names as Homer, 
 Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Demosthenes, Livy, Caesar, 
 Virgil, Cicero and Seneca, are well known to all scholars 
 in Christian lands. It is impossible to believe that such 
 men as these, and all their fellow citizens are among the 
 lost in hell. The Gentiles of modern times, as the Jap- 
 anese, Chinese, Hindoos, Africans and Indians, are not 
 
312 NEW-CHtJRCH CONaEllSS 
 
 as wise and enlightened as those of ancient times. Yet 
 in Japan, China and India, we find a high degree of civil- 
 ization extending back thousands of years. And even 
 the naked and partially civilized people of Africa, of the 
 islands of the Pacific Ocean, and the Indians of North 
 and South America, when first known to the Christian 
 world, show wonderful capacities for what is just, kind 
 and merciful. It is well known that they greatly fear 
 Christians, who most unjustly and cruelly treat them and 
 lead them into great evils, especially intemperance and 
 licentiousness. 
 
 If the New Church has a mission to these Gentiles it 
 must exemplify to them the Christian Eeligion in all its 
 virtues of love to God and charity towards the neighbor, 
 in lives which are honest, truthful, chaste, temperate and 
 merciful. Many of the Gentiles have myths or tradi- 
 tions respecting the creation of the world, and the first 
 men, the Garden of Eden and the Flood. All these and 
 similar things the New Church can fully and rationally 
 explain. The New Church can tell the Gentiles that the 
 Lord received all their forefathers in the spiritual world 
 after death, and by his angels instructed them in the 
 genuine truths of a heavenly and eternal lifa The New 
 Church can unfold to the Gentile world a complete sys- 
 tem of information respecting life, death, resurrection, 
 judgment, heaven and hell, to take the place of the 
 unsatisfactory and, in many ways, false teachings they 
 have possessed on these subjects. The New Church can 
 teach the Gentiles the origin and meaning of their 
 altars, sacrifices, idols, temples, sacred fires, fasts, festi- 
 vals, and various rites and formalities of external 
 worship. 
 
 Suppose there were published to the Gentile world, 
 the first one thousand pages or more of Swedenborg's 
 " Arcana Ccelestia," explaining the Creation, Garden of 
 
itISSION OF THE OH0ECH Sl3 
 
 Eden, Serpent, Flood, Tower of Babel, and the call of 
 Abram, together with what is said concerning the state 
 of man after death, especially of the Gentiles themselves, 
 would not an intelligent Gentile be able to quickly and 
 easily realize the true character of the first chapters of 
 Genesis as portraying the spiritual history of all the 
 races and Churches of men for a long period of time, and 
 would he not rejoice to perceive how good and merciful 
 the Lord has been in providing both in this world and 
 in the world to come for the salvation of all His children ? 
 Surely this is the mission of the New Church to the 
 Gentiles. That Church turns the tides of Gentile life 
 upward and heavenward. 
 
 II 
 DUTY OF THE NEW CHURCH TO THE AFRICAN RACE 
 
 BY ELLEN SPENCER MUSSEY 
 
 "The Africans are more receptive of the heavenly 
 doctrine than others on this earth, because they freely 
 receive the doctrine concerning the Lord. They have it, 
 as it were, implanted in them, that the Lord will appear 
 altogether as a man. They are in the faculty of receiv- 
 ing truths of faith and especially its goods, because they 
 are of a celestial nature." (Last Judgment, 118.) 
 
 When we consider the above statement and many 
 others of like import in the writings of the Church, is it 
 not strange that the first hundred years of organized 
 New-Church work in America should have been directed 
 entirely toward the Anglo-Saxon race? And may we 
 not well doubt whether we have done wisely in this 
 matter? Since the late war the various denominations 
 of the Christian Church, with the exception of the New 
 
 21 
 
314 NEW-CHUECH C0NGEES8 
 
 Church, have been untiring in their efforts toward church 
 extension among the colored people. Nearly every 
 denomination has its fund specially set aside for this 
 work. The colored membership of the Methodist, Bap- 
 tist, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Episcopalian and 
 Catholic Churches are all counted by tens and hundreds 
 of thousands. To a race specially adapted to receive the 
 true doctrine of the Lord has been taught the doctrine 
 of three Gods; to a people who desire to be called the 
 "obedient" has been taught the doctrine of the vicari- 
 ous atonement; always a gentle people, and in heaven 
 the " most loved of all Gentiles," they have been terrified 
 by an angry God and a hell of fire and brimstone. 
 
 Religious instruction so illy adapted to their genius 
 has not improved their daily life. Popular education, 
 rather than Religion, has been the lever which has ele- 
 vated the colored citizen. It is also true that as he is 
 advanced intellectually, he leaves behind the child-like 
 states which are the peculiarity of his race, and takes 
 upon himself the skeptical tendency, which, in his white 
 brother, is the great barrier to religious receptivity. 
 
 The intelligent New- Churchman cannot read that 
 wonderful book of Dr. James Garth Wilkinson on "The 
 African and the True Christian Religion" without giving 
 careful consideration to the proposition that " The True 
 Christian Religion is the Africans' Magna Charta." 
 Who can prophesy what would be the effect upon the 
 African of substituting true doctrine for false? Who 
 can estimate its far reaching possibilities upon the eleva- 
 tion of the race f As a Church and individually we have 
 been derelict in our duty, in that we have not told our 
 colored brethren that his physical freedom was only one 
 of the many blessings in store for him through the 
 Second Coming of the Lord; and we most humbly accept 
 
Mission or the chdech 315 
 
 our responsibility for the evils that may result from the 
 teachifig of false doctrine, when the true might be more 
 readily accepted. 
 
 The practical experience some of us have had in this 
 work show that the people readily accept the doctrine of 
 the Lord and in a short time seem to entirely drop the 
 idea of the ttinity of persons. They accept more slowly, but 
 none the less surely, the " Second Coming." They drink 
 in with delight the spiritual sense of the Word, and often 
 express their thankfulness at the New Eevelation. I 
 have yet to meet a full-blooded African who was Godless, 
 or who disputed the inspiration of the Word. But, it is 
 in a discussion of the other life and of the effect of the 
 other world upon this, that the interior genius of the 
 African most deeply impresses the teacher. It was the 
 privilege of the writer to discuss with an adult class of 
 fifteen, the Holy Communion; and it was an occasion 
 never to be forgotten. To them the conjunction with the 
 Lord through His angels is a reality not a theory ; and 
 one who looked into their earnest faces could not but 
 feel that Swedenborg had described truly their celestial 
 genius. 
 
 This people can be reached in two ways, through 
 the combined religious instruction and education of the 
 young, and through the ministers of their own race. The 
 former method is that adopted with such success in 
 Washington and Baltimore by the Episcopal Church. 
 This Church has for years carried on an extensive edu- 
 cational and industrial work. It has reached the children 
 and, through them, the parents and so improved the home 
 life. We may learn from their experience, and if we 
 unite their methods to New-Church instruction, we may 
 hope to accomplish such a work as will bring about the 
 real elevation of the Colored Race, and caase us to rejoice 
 that the Lord has allowed us to assist in the descent of 
 
316 NEW-CHCECH CONGEESa 
 
 the New Jerusalem. Twenty-two Colored Ministers are 
 now learning of the New Church; eighteen of these are 
 in Alabama and Georgia, and desire to come into the 
 New Church, bringing with them many of the people 
 under their charge, if the New Church were ready to care 
 for them. 
 
 Only the Lord can foresee the far-reaching possibilities 
 of New-Church work for the African race. But when we 
 reflect upon the failure of the missionary work of other 
 denominations in far-off Africa, we can but consider the 
 statements in Dr. Wilkinson's book, as to the plans for 
 African Colonization in 1779 when Charles Wadstrom 
 and Henry Gandy, readers of Swedenborg, visited Africa 
 for the purpose of promoting such a movement. The 
 Africans in the United States have taken up for them- 
 selves similar schemes. It is suggested by Dr. Wilkinson 
 that this new movement must include the present 
 religious heads of the race. " It must be a religious 
 exodus." If this be so, it is our duty to see that those 
 religious leaders go to the new field with the truths of the 
 New Church. The field in Africa is virgin soil; let us, 
 as a Church, sow the good seed, and the Lord will give 
 the increase. If we truly desire the Lord's Kingdom, to 
 come upon earth as in heaven, we cannot longer neglect 
 our African neighbor. It is a work in which we have 
 every reason to expect the most wonderful assistance from 
 the other world. It is a work which will help the New 
 Church in j ust the ratio in which it gives itself to it. In 
 the Grand Man we each need the other; who can say 
 what help the New Church will receive from the African f 
 Perhaps wo need him as much as he needs us. We are 
 told that "In heaven the Africans are the most loved of 
 all Gentiles; they receive the goods and truths of heaven 
 more easily than the rest; they wish to be called tlie 
 obedient, not the faithful." (H. H. 326.) 
 
MISSION OF THS OHnBOH 317 
 
 ni 
 
 THE MISSION OF THE NEW OHUECH TO THE 
 CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS 
 
 BY REV. JULIAN K. SMYTH 
 
 The Church is in the world to receive and make known 
 the Word of God. As to the prophet of an older dispen- 
 sation, so to her now, the divine admonition is addressed: 
 "He that hath My Word let him speak My Word faith- 
 fully." There were not a few in the prophet's day who 
 "spoke a vision out of their own heart, and not out of 
 the mouth of the Lord." There were many who went 
 about prophesying false things, and by their falsities and 
 "the lightness of their speech," caused the people to err. 
 The prophet that hath a dream let him tell a dream; and 
 he that hath My Word let him speak My Word faithfully. 
 What hath the straw to do with the wheat, saith the Lord ? 
 It was all-important then, it is all important now, that 
 the Word of God should be known from the word of man; 
 that the former should not be spoken as if it were the 
 latter, and that the latter should not be offered as a 
 substitute for the former. 
 
 The Church of God should stand as a constant and 
 living witness to the fact, that there is a Word, and that 
 that Word is addressed to the spiritual life of man ; and 
 the end of her highest endeavor must be to receive with 
 open mind and beating heart the message of God to His 
 children, and then with all possible power and unction to 
 make it known. It would be quite aside from our pur- 
 pose to argue the possibility of revelation. We shall 
 assume that an omnipotent Being finds it possible to 
 reveal Himself to those whom he created in His image 
 and likeness, that they might know and love Him. We 
 
318 NEW-CHtTECH CONaKESS 
 
 shall assume that a Being of infinite wisdom finds some- 
 thing to reveal, which man can understand and needs to 
 know. And we shall farther assume that a Being of 
 infinite love cannot fail to make Himself available to the 
 intelligence and afPections of His people. Biit, having 
 assumed this, the question gi'ows all the more imperious. 
 Where is that knowledge to be had ? Where is such a 
 revelation to be found? What, in short, and where is 
 this Word of God, and how is Its message to be known ? 
 We consider only the Christian answer to this question. 
 And we consider it both because it is one of pressing and 
 vital importance, and because the answer to the question 
 proposed should meet another inquiry which especially 
 concerns us, namely: What is the New Church for, and 
 what is its mission to the Christian Denominations ? 
 
 The Christian Bible, which by many is still regarded 
 as in some way the Word, abounds in such statements as 
 "The Word of the Lord came;" and reverent scholar- 
 ship still affirms that " God did of old time speak unto 
 the prophets by diverse portions and in divers manners." 
 And striking indeed is it to see with what variety the 
 Word was given, and with what confidence as to Its 
 reality It was received. Sometimes the Word, or message 
 of God, comes in a vision or dream, as to Abram, with 
 whom God makes a covenant, to Moses standing with 
 bare feet before the burning bush and receiving his com- 
 mission as the liberator of his people, to Elijah standing 
 at the opening of the cave in Horeb, and burying his 
 face in his mantle, as the " still small voice " speaks to 
 his soul, to Ezekiel, gazing upon the great white temple. 
 Sometimes the Word comes in audible messages, which, 
 whether the hearer understands them or not, or whether 
 they can be heard by others or not, are too real to be 
 mistaken. Sometimes the Word comes by that individual 
 contact of the Divine Spirit with the spirit of man, which 
 
MISSION OF THE CHUKCH 319 
 
 always has been possible, and whicli directs the message 
 to be spoken. Eightly, men say, that the proof that 
 such experiences are a coming of the Word must be in 
 the charactor of the message in which that Word 
 embodies Itself. And yet the reality of that experience 
 with those claiming to have had it is not to be overlooked. 
 " But the Word of God, which through many advanc- 
 ing centuries had come in syllables and letters to the 
 men of old, a Divine language finding expression in 
 human lips, at last, in the fullness of time came not in 
 this fragmentary way, lisping in alternate exclamations 
 and silences, but embodied in a Person full of grace and 
 truth." {Verhum Dei.) This is the statement of one whose 
 recent utterances have produced a profound impression, 
 and we welcome it for its testimony to the completeness of 
 the Word in the historic Person of Jesus the Christ; and it 
 is testimony of a kind which may be trusted to multiply, 
 for there is a portion of the Christian world which year 
 by year grows more fond and sure of that declaration of 
 the Fourth Gospel, " And the Word was made flesh and 
 dwelt among us; and we beheld His glory, the glory as 
 of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and 
 truth." More and more this becomes, as, indeed, it has 
 been called, " the touchstone " for testing the Word. 
 
 These two convictions, then, we find in at least a 
 portion of the great Christian commonwealth: First, 
 that it is true, that the Word of the Lord was given in 
 divers portions and in divers manners unto men who 
 were "like the eye and the ear and the tongue of the 
 people to which they belonged;" and that these mes- 
 sages have been preserved in the Christian Bible; and, 
 second, that in the Person of Jesus Christ, there is an 
 embodiment or personification of the Word, or Truth of 
 God, which is positive and perfect. There is a thought, 
 however, which is meeting with favor, and which needs 
 
320 NEW-OHDECH C0NGBES8 
 
 to be considered, namely, that there is a Word of God 
 outside the Scriptures and the Person of the Word made 
 flesh. 
 
 1. The study of ethnology and of comparative phil- 
 ology has certainly widened our view of the operation of 
 the Divine Spirit, and helped us to recognize the marks 
 of Its gracious touch in the so-called lower Keligions. 
 The hieroglyphs of Egypt, it is declared, have revealed 
 that "the dwellers by the Nile, four thousand years 
 before Christ, sang hymns to God which we might use 
 to-day." The decipherment of the ourriform inscrip- 
 tions bring to light a primitive world-history strangely 
 similar to the early chapters of Genesis. The "Book of 
 the Dead," or the Eig-veda, or the Zend-avesta, or the 
 teachings of Confucius and Menzius, all tend to widen 
 our horizon of the sphere of the Divine operations, and 
 encourage us to believe that God has never left Himself 
 without some witness among the children of men, 
 
 2. Nor is this operation limited to men of old. Age 
 after age, even when the Church has suffered from cor- 
 ruptions, the Woi'd of the Lord has in some measure or 
 degree found its way to earnest hearts. Thomas a 
 Kempis, St. Bernard, Luther, Wesley, Maurice, Rob- 
 ertson, Horace Bushnell, Phillips Brooks, — these are 
 names which are often mentioned as receiving and uttering 
 something of the eternal Word. 
 
 3. And not men alone but nature, through which we 
 are learning to see that " the invisible things of God may 
 be clearly seen, being understood by the things that are 
 made;" Art, forever striving to express the beautiful; 
 Science, bearing its witness to the eternal order of the 
 Cosmos; Philosophy, in its search for causes, and pro- 
 claiming "the existence and the verdicts of the moral 
 sense;" Poetry, "chanting the psalm of the earth and its 
 teeming life " — these are also looked upon as the eyes and 
 
MISSION OF THE CHDEOH 321 
 
 ears, and tongues through which the Word of the Lord 
 becomes apprehended, and which grows with the ages. 
 
 It is at this very point, where the fragments of wis- 
 dom, of ancient Religions, and the wonders of the Cosmos, 
 and the creations of Art, and the searchings of Philos- 
 ophy, and the rapturous song of Poesy, all deliver their 
 messages as if with prophet's voices, that men of to-day 
 are apt to surrender their faith, not in a Word, but in the 
 Word; not in a Eevelation, but in the perfect, crowning 
 Revelation, of whose content of Divine wisdom these 
 other words are often forerunners and witnesses. It is 
 this very widening of our visions to the omnipresence of 
 God's spirit, which leads many, not to deny that the Bible 
 is the Word, but to withhold from it the belief that it is 
 such in any exceptional or final way. Everything, accord- 
 ing to this thought, whether in facts of nature of history, 
 in literature, religious or secular, in the phenomena of 
 spiritual experience, — everything which reveals the true 
 and the beautiful in God, in His Word; the Scriptures 
 along with the rest, yet not differently from the rest. 
 And the thought gains currency even in Christendom, 
 because it appears to be so intensely religious. And the 
 term ''Bibliolatry" is applied to those who still maintain 
 that the Christian Bible is the Word of God, uniquely 
 and pre-eminently. And they who make the claim are 
 called upon to show upon what ground, other than that 
 of pious tradition, such a claim rests. It is a just sum- 
 mons. It is a tremendous responsibility. If these Script- 
 ures are in any adequate sense, not a Word, but the Word 
 of God, "the fountain of wisdom for angfls and men," 
 the Christian Church has no more important duty than 
 to show the reason for it and to demonstrate it; not for the 
 sake of dishonoring these other "words," or bidding them 
 be still as if they had hostile messages, but to maintain 
 this Word in its integrity, and to bring to Christian faith 
 
322 NEW-CHUECH CONGRESS 
 
 and consciousness fresh evidences of its certainty and 
 power, and of its being the most perfect medium of 
 spiritual life. Precisely this it is which the Christian 
 Church is now more than ever called upon to show; to 
 "search the Scriptures" in sure and fond belief, that in 
 them there is eternal life ; to open them, as the Book in 
 Heaven was opened; to reveal their spiritual content. 
 Here, then, we believe is the great necessity; not disclaim- 
 ers of other messages of God, not mere claims of the 
 superiority of this Word of God, but demonstration of 
 Its Divine character, by the revelation of Its spiritual 
 contents. 
 
 And here is where the New Church longs to be of 
 service to the Christian denominations. For when we 
 ask them, What steps do you take, what means do you 
 employ for unfolding this Scripture and gaining a knowl- 
 edge of Its divine contents ? What are the answers ? 
 
 1. Study: Stady of all kinds; general study of the 
 Book as a whole, special study of separate books, philo- 
 logical and exegetical study, devotional study, study of 
 the facts around us, the signs of the times, the movements 
 of thought, the trend of development. 
 
 2. Meditation: The steadfast setting of the mind on " 
 things unseen and eternal, on God and the soul, on the 
 authority and dictates of the moral law, on life and human 
 destiny. 
 
 3. Prayer: In humble temerity andwith resolution made 
 firm by weakness, grappling with God, spirit to spirit, 
 knee to knee, band to hand, since He graciously permits it. 
 
 Who shall say that these are not worthy and even 
 necessary means for searching for the "Word of Life," 
 which the Scriptures contain? Who shall say that they 
 are not being faithfully employed by many of Christ's 
 servants; and that often as a result of their efibrts, "there 
 ariseth light in the darkness ?" And yet what one of those 
 
MISSION or THE CHURCH 323 
 
 servants will claim that by such efforts this Word of the 
 Lord, this completest of ■written revelations; is now fully 
 opened, and its spiritual contents, from that primitive 
 world history to the symbolisms of the Apocalypse, are so 
 revealed that they can be fully and systematically set 
 forth to the children of men ? 
 
 Is there not one other means which should indeed be 
 linked with these others, and which the Lord by His 
 own act to those whom He sent forth to preach His 
 Word, has given us a right to expect ? For this'is what 
 He did: "Beginning at Moses and all the prophets. He 
 expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things con- 
 cerning Himself. . . . And He said with them, These 
 are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet 
 with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were 
 written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in 
 the Esalms concerning Me. Then He opened their 
 understanding, that they might understand the Script- 
 ures:" (St. Luke xxiv: 27, 44, 45.) There was a 
 way then, there must be a way now, of so opening 
 the Word to human understanding, that it may 
 see with the eye of intelligence the underlying 
 meaning of histories and prophecies and songs and 
 parables; and so to see them that in their deepest and 
 most spiritual content they shall all testify of the life and 
 work of Him who fulfilled the Scriptures and became the 
 Word Incarnate. Just as when He took that frag- 
 ment of Israelitish history and held it up, saying, " As 
 Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must 
 the Son of Man be lifted up," men, from that day on, 
 have seen how wonderfully, although unconsciously, that 
 act of Moses in the desert expressed a truth which waited 
 for its fulfillment in the lifting up of the Son of Man. 
 We often say, — the whole Christian world unites in 
 saying, — that the Bible reveals Jesus Christ, but it is 
 
324 NEW-CHUKCH CONOEESS 
 
 equally a truth that Jesus Christ reveals the Bible; for 
 "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.'' 
 And it is the mission, the precious and glorious mission, 
 of the New Church to say to the Christian world: That 
 which the Christ once did for His messengers can be 
 done now. For in the fullness of time, and in fulfill- 
 ment of His promise to tell us many things, and show us 
 plainly of the Father, He has revealed a knowledge of 
 His Word, of Its structure, of the meaning of Its symbols, 
 by means of which It can be, nay, has been opened; and 
 always with this result, which is the surest sign of Its 
 having been done by the same gracious hand, that from 
 end to end, in Its deepest depths, there is revelation in every 
 part of the life and work of Him who said, " They testify 
 of Me." And it is the mission of the New Church to the 
 denominations to say to them from actual experiences: 
 This new knowledge of the Word of God is not ofPered 
 as our guess as to Its mystical meaning, but as a revela • 
 tion from the spirit of the Lord, made known through 
 the instrumentality of a man raised up and spiritually 
 prepared to receive in his understanding truths which 
 will open the Word to Christian minds and reveal th 3 
 Son of Man coming in its cloudy letter "in power and 
 great glory." At least, do not ignore this claim; do not 
 set aside this system of Bible interpretation as impossible 
 until, like us, your Christian brethren, who seek to know 
 the Lord in His Word as you seek to know Him, you 
 have included it in your study, and have brought it to 
 the Word; and there, with the prayer which the Word 
 Itself puts upon your lips that your eyes may be opened 
 to behold wondrous things out of the Law, test it ! 
 
 But our subject is not complete unless and until we 
 speak more fully of Him whom the Word reveals, and 
 who embodies in His Person the Truth which the Word 
 contains. There have been holy men, there have been 
 
MISSION OF THE CHUKCH 32S 
 
 religious teachers and leaders, but to no one who ever 
 trod upon this earth has the question asked of Him been 
 put so persistently and with such a sense of its 
 importance: "Who art Thou? What sayest Thou of 
 Thyself ? " He was, comes our answer, a man endowed 
 in a remarkable manner with the Spirit of God, which, 
 while leaving His nature wholly human, yet gave to His 
 life the ethical and spiritual value of Divinity. That 
 answer is not intended as irreverent. It claims the actu- 
 ality of the human; of "the Man of Sorrows and 
 acquainted with grief." It afSrms the value and inspira- 
 tion of His example, and of His fellowships in all our 
 experiences and conditions. And yet, how can the 
 answer ever be regarded as complete? If He, a 'mere 
 man," was endowed in a remarkable manner with the 
 Spirit of God, must He not have known the real quality 
 of His nature ? And if He knew Himself to be " only 
 human," how could . He have claimed such divine pre- 
 rogatives, and used language with reference to Himself 
 which nothing can justify unless the nature that spoke 
 them was divine? How could "only a man," however 
 "remarkably endowed," allow men to worship Him? 
 How could he assume the right to forgive sin? How 
 could He seriously say, not, " I can bring you the Bread 
 of Life," but, " I am the living Bread that came down 
 from Heaven. If any man eat of this Bread he shall 
 live forever!" How could He say, not, "I can tell you 
 of the Eesurrection and of Life," but, "I am the Resur- 
 rection and the Life!" If He was only a man, what 
 amazing self-assurance, to bid His disciples baptize in 
 His name; or to institute the Holy Supper which was to 
 be commemorated in remembrance of Him! Why does 
 He so constantly present Himself as indispensable to 
 man's spiritual life, actually saying: " Without Me ye 
 can do nothing;" " No man cometh unto the Father but 
 
326 NEW-cHt)RCH coiiaEESa 
 
 by Me." "Why that constant "Follow Me!" "Follow 
 Me! " Why this founding of a Church upon Himself as 
 the Bock, against which the gates of hell are never to 
 prevail ! Why this hope, this promise to draw all men 
 unto Him, — unto Him, the " mere man," — if only He is 
 lifted up! 
 
 We are to put aside such declarations, we are some- 
 times warned, as of doubtful authority, and because they 
 may be additions of over-zealous followers. But they 
 cannot be put aside! They are as much a part of the 
 record as any other portion from which we derive our 
 knowledge of Him. All the Gospels and the beliefs of 
 the early Church are alive with this thought of His 
 Divinity. Strike them all out, strike out the records of 
 the birth, "the works" to which He appeals, the resur- 
 rection and ascension, which turned Galilean fishermen 
 into heralds of a new age, and nothing, not even the 
 " mere man," remains. And this is certain: the accusa- 
 tion made against Him by the religious leaders, and 
 which led to His death, was that of blasphemy ; blas- 
 phemy on this ground, and which was thus expressed: 
 " Because that Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God!'' 
 
 Ah, pleads a new voice, urging upon faith a new 
 motive, it does not matter what the Christ was, whether 
 human only, whether divine, whether actual even, pro- 
 vided we maintain the Christian ideal which has sprung 
 up and which may be quite independent of " Him who 
 first made it shine into our souls;" provided, too, we 
 believe in the spirit of sympathy, from which the deeds 
 of His life were said to spring; since "it is the spirit 
 apart from its objective manifestation in the Chiist of 
 the New Testament, which is essential." This is the 
 new call to what has been styled " a more spiritual appre- 
 hension of the Gospel." A spiritual apprehension we 
 surely need; but it is not to be gained by discarding nor 
 
MISSION OF THE OStJKOH 321 
 
 even slighting the facts from which both the ideal and 
 the spiritual impulse to attain it have sprung. For it is 
 well claimed that " there is no reasonable doubt that the 
 Church was founded on the implicit belief in the perfec- 
 tion of His earthly life; and every group of Apostolic 
 witnesses confirms to us this fact. And the figure of 
 this matchless Person remains the one in whom the ideal 
 of man has been once for all realized, the source of a 
 regeneration of society which, as it proceeds to its 
 farthest limit, will ever more completely embody, while 
 it will never outgrow the spirit of Him in whom it 
 began." ("The Place of Christ in Modern Thought.") 
 
 Furthermore, how are we to know that the ideal is 
 true, or how is it to be maintained, if it be separate from 
 any objective manifestation? If the ideal of truth and 
 love, of God and Man, which reason has ever sought to 
 picture to itself, is not founded upon the fact of its actual 
 manifestation in the historic Person of Jesus Christ, whom 
 St. John declares, "we have heard, whom we have seen 
 with our eyes, whom we have looked upon and our hands 
 have handled of the Word of life," but is only a mental 
 creation, by what possibility can we be sure that it, the 
 ideal, is not a spirited phantasm f Rightly it is said that 
 "the historic Christ becomes for the first time wholly real 
 to us, when He authenticates His living energy by the 
 power of His Spirit within us." But the energy, that 
 which draws and sustains, and strengthens, must be the 
 infinite energy of a Person, who manifests and gives rise 
 to the ideal, who knows our needs and capacities, and 
 above all, who gives us the power, the life, to mount 
 toward that ideal. 
 
 In all ages the heart and flesh cry out, not simply 
 for an ideal, but for "the living God." To have that 
 God manifested in a person whom we can know and 
 follow, is to satisfy the deepest want and the supremest 
 
S28 neW-chdecS coSgeeSs 
 
 need of the human heart. Not a human example 
 simply, not an image having no objective reality, but a 
 Person, human in His outward manifestation, divine as 
 to His inmost soul or being, from Whom there proceeds 
 a Spirit of Infinite regenerating povcer. God manifest 
 in the human as the human form of God, the eternal 
 Word personified in the flesh, — that is what wins the 
 confession: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast 
 the words of eternal life; and we believe and are sure 
 that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." 
 " The Son of the living God," as the body might be 
 called the son of the indwelling soul, manifesting its 
 life, inspiring the lips, doing its behest, and not as a 
 second or separate person of the Godhead. The early 
 Church looked upon their Lord as " the only wise God, 
 our Savior, in Whom dwelleth all the fullness of the 
 Godhead bodily." They thought of the Father as in 
 Him, and of the Holy Spirit as from Him. They 
 preached repentance and the remission of sins in His 
 name. " They went forth and preached everywhere, the 
 Lord working with them and confirming the Word with 
 signs following." It was only in later years when, under 
 the impetus of Greek philosophy, men began to inquire 
 how God could be in Christ, and what was the exact 
 relationships between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that 
 heresies arose and multiplied; and in order to preserve 
 the thought of the Divinity of Christ, the dogma of 
 three co-equal and co- eternal Persons, was promulgated. 
 But before this doctrine, reason has always stood 
 perplexed, and will no longer be satisfied with the 
 declaration that " it is a Divine mystery which must not 
 be inquired into." It had never been able to explain why 
 one Divine Being should sufPer to satisfy the justice of 
 another Divine Being; or why, if these Beings are 
 C07equal and co-eternal, one of them should speak of the 
 
MISSION OF THE OHUECH 329 
 
 other as greater than Himself; or say, that of Himself 
 He could do nothing; or, that the doctrine which He 
 proclaims is not His but His that sent Him. It has never 
 been able to reconcile this doctrine with a strict mono- 
 theism, or harmonize it on rational grounds with the 
 Divine declaration: "Thus saith Jehovah that created the 
 heavens, God Himself that formed the earth and made 
 it; I am Jehovah, and there is none else; a just God 
 and a Savior; there is none beside Me." 
 
 But now, the Spirit that has provided for the opening 
 of the written Word has also provided through the same 
 means for a rational understanding of the incarnation of 
 God in Christ, and of the Trinity as a trinity of attri- 
 butes, or essentials of one Person. Especially has it 
 revealed a knowledge of that process which our Lord 
 called His " Glorification," by which the Divine Soul 
 conformed to Itself the Human which was put on by 
 birth, through the putting off of everything that was 
 infirm and finite, and the putting on, or substitution, of 
 the Divine within, thus forming a Humanity which is 
 Divine, in which He ascended, which we can see in 
 thought, and approach with affection, and which is 
 forever the perfect, the sensitive, the personal medium 
 by which the Divine Spirit is immanent with men. 
 
 And it is the great privilege of the New Church to 
 make this truth, and all that helps to explain it, available 
 to the thought of Christendom; to bear its vyitness to 
 the Divine character not only of the written Word, but 
 of that Personal Word, in Whom Its revelations are for- 
 ever embodied and verified in a Form, a Being, whose 
 nature shines before us, whose invitations haunt us, and 
 whose spirit searches and befriends us. 
 
 King of Kings and Lokd of Lords, was He called 
 whom John beheld in Apocalyptic vision seated on a 
 
 22 
 
S30 Uew-ohukoh congkess 
 
 white horse, going forth conquering and to conquer. 
 And He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True. 
 And His vesture was sprinkled with blood. And His 
 name is called "The Wohd of God." It is a type, the 
 heavenly, the prophetic type of the victorious might which 
 there is in the spiritual truth of the written Word, and 
 of the Word Incarnate. In the positive assurance of 
 this double truth, we would go to the Christian Denomi- 
 nations and say: "Though our numbers should be few, 
 and though we should often be misunderstood and mis- 
 represented, we bear our unanimous and unfaltering wit- 
 ness to the truth, that the Scriptures are pre-eminently 
 the Word of God, and that the Lord Jesus Christ, who 
 embodied ia His gracious Person the spiritual truth con- 
 tained within that Word, is the one perfect all-loving, 
 ever-present Savior of men. Divine in origin, human in 
 birth, Divinely-human through "glorification." As to 
 His soul or inmost Being, the "Father;" as to His Human, 
 the "Son;" as to the life and saving power that go forth 
 from His glorified nature, "the Holy Spirit." And we 
 come to you, not to proclaim these truths as if unsup- 
 ported by reasons, but we hold out to you, with hands 
 that would take yours in fraternal sympathy, the helps 
 and interpretations which have opened our eyes to a new 
 belief in these things, which we neither offer nor accept 
 as mere personal opinions, but which, after the most 
 earnest examination, we sincerely believe to have been 
 divinely given; that the facts of our common faith may 
 be seen in new and clearer light, and that new and 
 authoritative truth maybe provided for the growing needs 
 of this new and growing age. Upon us as upon you rests 
 the solemn, yet precious duty of ministering to the spirit- 
 ual .life of men. For us, as for you, there is no dearer 
 privilege than to open the Word of God and cause their 
 hearts to burn with new hopes and desires. To open 
 
MISSION OF THE CHUEOH 331 
 
 the Word, and be able to reveal always and everywhere, 
 the face and form of Him, who bore our griefs, and car- 
 ried our sorrows; God-in- Christ, the God-with-us. The 
 world, our own great Christian world needs this ministry, 
 needs to have the Word opened and the Divinely-human 
 nature of the Word Incarnate made clear to faith. For 
 other messages are being spread abroad; other Christs 
 are saying, "Come unto Me." But God is in His Word 
 and will preserve it; and we trust the lips that said in 
 anticipation of many an inward and outward change that 
 would transform the religious world: "Heaven and earth 
 shall pass away; but My Words shall not pass away!" 
 
 IV 
 
 THE MISSION OP THJi NEW CHURCH TO BIBLICAL 
 CRITICISM 
 
 BY THE HEV. JOHN 0. AGEK. 
 
 The mission of the New Charch to Biblical Criticism, 
 the topic I am asked to consider, is the mission of spiritual 
 truth to scientific research and its results. For Biblical 
 criticism, in a strict or scientific sense, is simply the appli- 
 cation of the accredited methods of scientific investigation 
 to the ancient documents that we call the Bible. The sci- 
 entific spirit of the age demands that every object of human 
 interest shall be made a subject of exact and exhaustive 
 study and investigation, that is, shall be made to declare 
 just what it is; and an object of such supreme interest as 
 the Bible cannot be made an exception to this requirement. 
 The general feeling of its holiness that has pervaded 
 Christendom has doubtless retarded the application of 
 these methods to the Bible; but no such feeling can long 
 withstand the imperative demand of our times for exact 
 and verified knowledge on every subject. The student of 
 
332 Kiw-cacEdH conaeess 
 
 secular history cannot subject all other ancient documents 
 to Lis methods and tests and leave these most important 
 of all ancient documents unscrutinized. Biblical criticism 
 is demanded, therefore, in the interest of secular history 
 and its allied sciences. The student of the history of 
 doctrine or opinion cannot ignore these investigations, and 
 must join in them in order to verify or disprove them. 
 And the results of these studies will vitally affect, in 
 many ways, existing religious doctrines. Such investiga- 
 tion or criticism of the Bible is therefore inevitable, and 
 no intelligent student of the Bible can ignore its results. 
 
 But in considering this subject certain careful dis- 
 criminations are necessaiy. In the first place, there 
 must be a careful discrimination between the scientific 
 method and any temporary conclusions or opinions that 
 may be associated with it or may claim its sanction. 
 The so called scientific method is a method of studying 
 phenomena to ascertain the truths or verities that the 
 phenomena reflect. No intelligent person can question 
 the value of the method. Within certain limits it 
 is the best known help in ascertaining or discovering 
 truth. Within much wider limits it is the only method 
 by which truth that comes to the mind in other ways 
 can be verified and established; and in some respects all 
 opinion and doctrine must be tested by it. 
 
 It is therefore a false or ignorant reverence for the 
 truth that would disparage the scientific method, or the 
 application of it to things we esteem holy. It must be 
 applied to all subjects of human inquiry, and its testi- 
 mony must be allowed its full value. 
 
 What then is this scientific method of investigation 
 that is called, in its application to the Bible, Biblical 
 criticism? 
 
 It is, in the first place, an exhaustive scrutiny of all 
 the facts or phenomena or data that are related to a 
 
MISSION or THE OHUEOH 333 
 
 subject, and of the relations of these to one another. It 
 is, in the second place, an effort to ascertain the meaning 
 of the facts or data; or the truth they reflect. And this 
 is done by assuming the explanation of the facts that 
 seem most probable, and then proceeding to compare 
 the assumed explanation with all the facts to ascertain 
 how far it explains, and how far it fails to explain, and 
 accepting, modifying or rejecting it accordingly. This 
 assumed explanation or hypothesis or theory may be an 
 existing belief, or it may be suggested by related beliefs 
 or verified principles, or it may be a product of the 
 student's imagination or insight. But from whatever 
 source it may come, and however valuable or valueless it 
 may prove to be, this assumed explanation or hypothesis 
 is an essential feature of the investigation. There must 
 be first the hypothesis, then the careful comparison with 
 the data, then the conclusion as to the validity of the 
 hypothesis or theory. No one has ever questiored the 
 excellent statement of this point by Comte in his Positive 
 Philosophy: 
 
 No real observation of any kind of phenomena is possible 
 except so far as it is first directed by some tiieory, and after- 
 wards interpreted by it. . . . Tiie facts that must form the 
 basis of a positive theory could not be collected to any purpose 
 without some preliminary theory which should guide their 
 collection. Our understanding cannot act without some doctrine, 
 false or true, vague or precise, which may concentrate and 
 stimulate its efforts, and afford ground for enough speculative 
 continuity to sustain our mental activity. 
 
 And it is this necessity for preliminary theory or 
 doctiine in all profitable investigation that made the 
 theological period, according to Comte's theory, the first 
 stage of intellectual development. 
 
 This is a truth we must keep distinctly in mind in 
 estimating the merits or the results of any phase of 
 scientific investigation, or in judging of the applicability 
 
334 NEW-CHUECH CONGRESS 
 
 of the scientific metliod to religious questions. Failing 
 to diEcriminate between the method and its legitimate 
 results, and the mass of unverified theory and hasty 
 conclusion and extravagant opinion with which the 
 method is surrounded, it is claimed by many and feared 
 by many others that the application of the scientific 
 method to religious beliefs would wholly disprove such 
 beliefs and sweep them from the earth. These are idle 
 claims and idle fears. The history of scientific investiga- 
 tion makes clear that the scientific method is applicable 
 to all departments of human knowledge and belief, and 
 that any belief that cannot stand its scrutiny must ulti- 
 mately be set aside. But it also makes clear that the 
 attainment of permanent results by scientific investiga- 
 tion is a very slow process, and that thus far, in respect 
 to the final verification of theory or of principles or a 
 true philosophy of nature, it has been an almost com- 
 plete failure. The concrete results of scientific study 
 fill every mind with wonder; the philosophical results 
 can be contemplated only with sadness. This is true of 
 every branch of science. Theory aficr theory has been 
 adopted only to be proved untenable. Even in chem- 
 istry, the simplest and the oldest of this class of sciences, 
 the changes of theory and classification still going on 
 are almost revolutionary. No conservative scientist 
 to-day regards the great mass of scientific concepts as 
 anything more than convenient working theories. It is 
 very clear that in all departments of human knowledge 
 the marriage of verified data with true philosophy is yet 
 a thing of the future. 
 
 All this is equally true of this new science that is 
 claiming our attention. Biblical criticism, although it 
 claims Erasmus as its fathei", has taken on the forms and 
 claims and pretenses of a science only within a few years. 
 It is in its infancy, although it is an infant with suclj 
 
MISSION OF THE CHTJECH 335 
 
 lusty lungs as to make us forgetful sometimes of its 
 age. It is an attempt to ascertain and analyze and 
 classify a wholly new range of facts. It is in the same 
 condition that all other sciences are in their infancy. 
 It is sadly deficient both in right theory and in verified 
 data; and its disciples are exhibiting the same lack of 
 caution and modesty that has been exhibited by the 
 disciples of every other science in its infancy. And the 
 development of this science will doubtless follow the same 
 steps as other sciences have followed. We shall see the 
 same readiness to take up inadequate theories drawn 
 from other branches of science, the same slowness to 
 recognize the pertinence of neglected data, the same 
 boldness in asserting unverified conclusions. But the 
 method is not to be judged by the follies of unwise 
 disciples. 
 
 It has been asserted repeatedly, and is believed by 
 many, that science disproves the existence of the soul, 
 because the chemist; applying to the body the methods of 
 his science, and the anatomist dissecting and scrutinizing 
 every part and organ of the body, and the microscopist 
 subjecting every cell and atom to the highest magnifying 
 powers of his instrument, are all compelled to testify that 
 no trace of a soul can be found. But the inadequacy of 
 this verdict comes from applying to this subject tests and 
 methods that do not pertain to it. The chemist and the 
 anatomist and the microscopist can furnish much infor- 
 mation about the human body that is of incalculable 
 value, but that does not entitle them to give us the final 
 verdict respecting the vital force that animated the body, 
 or the soul that formed and used it. In the decision 
 of that question physical tests and methods wholly fail; 
 and a wholly new range of tests and methods must be 
 brought into play. 
 
336 
 
 HEW-CHTJECH CONGRESS 
 
 When we turn to Biblical criticism, do we not find it 
 employing, thus far, almost exclusively the methods of 
 an allied but different science, namely the science of his- 
 torical criticism ? Historical criticism has been busying 
 itself for many years with ancient documents and tradi- 
 tions; and the results of its investigations have wholly 
 changed the face of ancient history. A treatise on the 
 history of any ancient nation written a. generation ago 
 is to-day comparatively worthless as exact history. Meth- 
 ods and tests have been devised and have been perfected 
 by use, that enable the scholar to pronounce with great 
 confidence upon the age of any ancient document, and 
 upon its authenticity and veracity, and the historical 
 value of its contents. 
 
 Biblical criticism consists thus far almost exclusively 
 of the application of these methods and tests, which 
 have proved so valuable in historical study, to the ancient 
 documents contained in the Christian Bible; and the 
 dominant assumption seems to be that the documents are 
 to be studied in the same way as other historical docu- 
 ments, that is, are amenable to the same tests and 
 methods that have been so long and successfully applied 
 to other historical material. The assumption is, in other 
 words, that the Bible is simply a collection of literature 
 that has come down to us from the past, a product of 
 human thought, and is consequently to be judged, and 
 its value determined by the same tests and methods as 
 have been applied to other ancient documents. If this 
 assumption is true, these accredited methods of historical 
 criticism are undoubtedly the best attainable methods of 
 Biblical study; and the results are to be welcomed as 
 precious additions to our intellectual treasures. But if 
 this assumption is not true, if the Bible differs from other 
 literature, as a living plant differs from the soil out of 
 which it grows, or as a living man differs from all that 
 
MISSION or THE CHUECH 337 
 
 chemistry and biology and microscopy can tell us about 
 his body, then the results of our present Biblical criticism 
 must not be taken as the sum total of what we are to 
 think about the Bible . 
 
 And do not the illustrations referred to make clear 
 the weak point in these and all other scientific investiga- 
 tions ? Two kinds of results are to be expected from 
 scientific research; first, an accumulation of facts or data, 
 and the application of these to practical uses, and 
 secondly, the enrichment of the mind by the acquisition 
 of truth, or the establishment of a true philosophy of 
 things. In the former field scientific research has done 
 wonders, in the latter almost nothing. And is there any 
 other plausible reason than that the scientific mind is not 
 yet ready for the true philosophy of things? When- 
 ever that is recognized, science will have in all its 
 branches the theory that will harmonize all its facts, and 
 that will be completely verified by all the facts; and 
 science and Keligion will be no more twain, but one 
 flesh. 
 
 This is the mission of the New Church to all scientific 
 investigation. We of the New Church claim that 
 Emanuel Swedenborg has given to the world the true 
 philosophy of things, the true theory or hypothesis for 
 which science has been waiting; and without which it 
 must needs be fruitless in philosophical results. When 
 this has been married to true science, as it will be in the 
 centuries to come, both nature and the Bible will be open 
 books, which will furnish, not merely the dry husks of 
 natural knowledge, but the laws of existence and of all 
 true and noble living, which will be the veritable water 
 of life to all true thirst for truth. 
 
 What Biblical criticism needs, then, to make it 
 fruitful in permanent results is a true theory of Divine 
 revelation. That, we claim, has been given by Sweden- 
 
338 NEW-CHDRCH CONGRESS 
 
 borg. This doctrine it will be the province of other 
 speakers before this Conference to set forth. I may be 
 permitted to say of it that in its general form it is 
 not a new doctrine, but is older than Christianity. 
 But it could not be disclosed and elaborated in its par- 
 ticulars until the human mind had been made ready for 
 right conceptions of natural things. So a century and a 
 quarter ago, when the new kingdom of science was at 
 hand, the new philosophy, which is to be its helpmeet, 
 was given to the world. 
 
 The keynote of that philosophy is its definition of 
 the relation between the natural and the spiritual. It 
 shows that the revelation of God in natural phenomena 
 and the revelation of God in the Sacred Scriptures are 
 to be interpreted by the same law; a law based on the 
 general fact that the natural or phenomenal is always 
 and everywhere both the effect and the complete reflec- 
 tion of the spiritual. This is Swedenborg's law of cor- 
 respondence, a principle that is becoming widely recog- 
 nized in all spiritual philosophy. 
 
 This law makes all Divine revelation, by the very 
 necessity of things, a parable. The Divine wisdom can 
 be brought down to man only by means of types or sym- 
 bols, in which there are meanings above meanings that 
 the finite mind can never exhaust; for anything short of 
 this would not be a revelation of the Divine wisdom. And 
 by the inherent relation of the Divine intelligence to 
 human intelligence, this chain of meanings is adapted 
 to all the successive grades and conditions of human 
 understanding. 
 
 This doctrine of revelation makes the literal sense of 
 Scripture, as we find it in our Bible, simply a means or 
 instrument for conveying Divine truth in this way to 
 liiipiau minds, and to all grades and phases of human 
 
MISSION OF THE CHUKOH 
 
 comprehension that Divine truth in any form can touch 
 and move. This is the Divine purpose that makes the 
 Bible just what it is. Every fact stated in the Bible is 
 there because it is the best fact to serve this purpose. 
 The facts are arranged in just the order in which we find 
 them because that is the best order to serve this purpose. 
 The forms of expression are just what they are because 
 thosfe are the forms that will best serve this purpose. 
 
 This, in brief, is the doctrine or theory of Divine reve- 
 lation which the New Church offers to Biblical criticism. 
 It is a philosophical doctrine, and it will continue to assert 
 itself until it has been fully considered. If it shall be 
 found to be out of harmony with the facts, it will be 
 silenced. But if it shall be found to be in harmony with 
 the facts, the Christian Church will have a verified and 
 established doctrine of Divine revelation that will amply 
 meet all its needs, doctrinal, philosophical, ethical and 
 spiritual. 
 
 This, it seems to me, is the mission of the New Church 
 to Biblical criticism, namely, to fm-nish scientific research 
 with the doctrine or theory without which its efforts must 
 prove fruitless. Biblical criticism has a great work 
 before it. The Bible is a wonderful book ; and the more 
 it is studied, the more will its wonderful scope and 
 structure become evident. Almost as little is now known 
 about it as was known about the human body a century 
 ago. And as all that science has been able to teach us about 
 the human body tends to confirm more fully, in the light 
 of true philosophy, the existence of the soul, so we may 
 believe that all that Biblical criticism will be able to teach 
 us about the body of the Divine Word wiU only make 
 more clear, in the light of true philosophy, its higher 
 meanings, by which the natural thought of man is linked 
 tp heaven and to the Lor4- 
 
340 NEW-OH0EOH aONGEKBS 
 
 V 
 
 THE MISSION OF THE NEW CHURCH TO PHILOSOPHY 
 BY THE KBV. S. C. EBY, LONDON 
 
 The aim of philosophy is to establish a logical ratio 
 between the human mind and all the objects of its 
 thoughi Philosophy does not seek to pacify the long- 
 ings of the heart. That is the province of religion. 
 Neither does it endeavor to satisfy man's thirst for 
 knowledge of facts. This is done by science. Nor does 
 it mean the fusion of the senses in the intellectual and 
 ideal. That is achieved by art. The precise function of 
 philosophy is to give such an intellectiaal apprehension 
 of truth as will satisfactorily meet the questions of the 
 rational understanding. Without this rational element 
 which philosophy is designed to supply, religion, science, 
 art, life are unrelated objects of thought. They are in a 
 more or less chaotic condition. The true end of philos- 
 ophy is to introduce a principle of unity into this unre- 
 lated and unordered world of the mind, so that the mind 
 may become a veritable microcosm finding in itself a self- 
 conscious response to the rhythmic order of a divinely 
 governed universal cosmos. 
 
 In the first place, the New Church has a mission to 
 philosophy which can be fulfilled only by bringing in the 
 element of unification in regard to the Divine and the con- 
 flicting aims and speculations of the several schools of 
 current philosophy. The New Church is qualified to 
 harmonize the difFerenfc theories by bringing them into 
 line with her comprehensive, consistent scheme of 
 doctrine. 
 
 By this I do not mean that the New Church adopts 
 from the different philosophical systems so much of their 
 diverse tbeorizings as seems to agree with some standard 
 
MISSION OF THE CHtJECH 341 
 
 of truth slie has set up. The philosophy of the New 
 Church is not electric, not a patchwork of ideas borrowed 
 from abroad. What I claim is, that the New Church 
 presents a system of rational doctrine which covers the 
 whole field explored by the speculative philosophy of the 
 past, and applies to the survey a principle of unity which 
 co-ordinates the demands made on philosophy in different 
 ages of human thought, and answers one set of questions 
 without ignoring the existence or denying the importance 
 of any other set of questions. 
 
 At one time philosophy was confined almost exclu- 
 sively to cosmological questions concerning the substance 
 of that which exists as a created entity. Eeduced to its 
 ultimate analysis, the object was to determine what was 
 the primal element of nature. One school contended for 
 tire, another for water, another for air. Here the mind 
 is looking outwardly with the consuming desire to know 
 what nature, considered objectively, really is. This is 
 at once a very ancient and a very modern tendency of 
 the mind. English and French writers and thinkers of 
 to-day are as truly seeking a cosmological solution of 
 philosophical problems in electricity, magnetism, etc., as 
 Thales and Anaximenes were in endeavoring to find it in 
 what they conceived to be the primal elements. 
 
 Turning from the thing created, the phenomenon, 
 other philosophers have dwelt emphatically on the subject 
 of Creator, or the ideal fountain of the real. This 
 theological formulation of philosophy is strictly of one 
 essential quality, however manifold may be its clothing 
 in words. Plato, the Neo-Platonist, the Gnostics, the 
 Schoolmen and the theist of to-day, have the same 
 motive, — the definition of God as the fountain of life, as 
 distinguished from the existence of things manifest. 
 The cosmological question is: What are these things of 
 which we are conscious, or which we recognize as 
 
342 SEW-cmjBoH congeess 
 
 endowed with objective entity? The theological question 
 is, How did these things come to «xist? Who made 
 them? 
 
 The third form under which philosophy has appeared 
 is the psychological. This is the most vigorous phase of 
 modern philosophy and is notably exhibited in the writ- 
 ings of Immanuel Kant. Professor Max Miiller simply 
 voices the feeling of modern serious thinkers when he 
 says that if philosophy will make progress it must go 
 back to Kant, and learn to know what can and what can- 
 not be known. When Professor Wm. James calls his 
 survey and summing up of philosophy "Psychology," he 
 aptly reveals the prevailing temper of modern specula- 
 tion. The question is not, What is the world? or, Who 
 made the world ? But, How do I come to think about 
 the world ? That is the absorbing problem. Of course 
 both the early Greek philosophers and the schoolmen 
 sometimes dwelt on the purely subjective side of their 
 questions, but this was always subordinate to other con- 
 siderations. As the ancient Greek philosophy was 
 cosmological and the Mediaeval philosophy was theological, 
 so modern philosophy, dating, say from Des Cartes and 
 Locke, is pre-eminently psychological. 
 
 I am persuaded that the New Church has a mission 
 of incalculable promise and preciousness to philosophical 
 thinkers of the present day. She has the rational equip- 
 ment that qualities her to take possossion of the field and 
 to give that primary instruction concerning the nature of 
 the human mind without which all speculative psychology 
 must be in vain. The secret lies in the doctrine of dis- 
 crete degrees and its twin doctrine of correspondences. 
 Knowledge is not in the first instance acquired by the 
 mind voluntarily or self-consciously. All speculations 
 concerning the operations of the mind must be futile 
 which in any way overlook the objective sources of the 
 
MISSION OF THE CHURCH 343 
 
 contents of the mind. Hence a psychological philosophy, 
 which is not at the same time cosmological and theo- 
 logical, is as illogical and unfruitful as one that is 
 cosmological or theological and not psychological. The 
 . New Church does not start the mind on its philosophical 
 course, with the Cartesian postulate, "I think; therefore 
 I am." This is really a superfluous affirmation. The 
 ejdstence of one's subjectivity is a matter of no doubt 
 whatever. The question, what is the nature of that sub- 
 jectivity ? is neither superfluous nor absurd. But it is 
 repeatedly affirmed even now that the thought of one's 
 self is the primary thought of philosophy, from which all 
 mental development dates. This is an error. The mind 
 is formed and furnished from the world with sensuous 
 ideas long before it can formulate any maxim of self 
 consciousness, such as ' 'Puto : ergo sum." What the mind 
 absorbs so easily through the senses answers readily to 
 another class of ideas concerning God on the source of 
 phenomena. The thought that there is a God and that 
 He is one, comes as normally to the mind as the thought 
 that things exist and that they are many. 
 
 Now, all knowledge of self, instead of preceding, 
 and giving character to man's knowledge of nature and 
 of God, is strictly the fruit of that knowledge of God and 
 nature. "Know thyself," is a command that can be 
 obeyed only by degrees, as one comes into the experience 
 of things which are natural and principles which are 
 Divine, and learns to make them correspond. Ignorance 
 of God and nature involves a commensurate ignorance of 
 one's self. There are three clearly defined planes of 
 thought, — the lowest, or sensuous, consisting of the 
 knowledge of external things; the highest or spiritual, 
 consisting of the knowledge of God and of those internal 
 things which emanate from God; and the intermediate, 
 
344 NEW-OHTTltoa OOlTC^BEaS 
 
 or rational, consisting of the knowledge of the corres- 
 pondence between the external or sensuous and the 
 internal or spiritual. 
 
 The philosophy of the New Church implies revelation. 
 Indeed, it makes revelation pre-eminently the conditio 
 sine qua non of all rational thought, of all philosophical 
 development. It is founded upon a recognition of the 
 truth, that the great Creator (as the fountain of life) and 
 man (the sum and summit of created things, the image 
 and likeness of the Divine) are complementary and 
 necessary to each other. God is life itself. Man is not 
 life itself, and to the extent that he enjoys life or has it, 
 he must receive it, God's eternal necessity is so to give 
 life that the recipient may know it, delight in it, and 
 reproduce it. This involves reciprocation as well as 
 reception. Hence the problem with God is how to make 
 Himself known to man, and progress with man means 
 the development of his knowledge of God. " This 
 is life eternal, — to know Thee, the only true God, and 
 Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent " as the apprehensible 
 manifestation and medium of the Divine. In this view 
 revelation is no afterthought on God's part, but an 
 essential function of His being. Philosophers, led on by 
 a desire to achieve what they conceived to be the libera- 
 tion of the intellect, have supposed that they must 
 exclude all theological influence. They have desired to 
 give the mind independence, leaving it free to excogitate 
 from its own resources an adequate and satisfying system 
 of rational thought. It has seemed to them that the 
 idea of Divine revelation is inseparable from gross and 
 carnal dogmas concerning creation and consciousness. 
 In thus denying the possibility of Divine enlightenment, 
 philosophy has done in the rational world precisely what 
 a' man would do in the physical world who should 
 exclude the light of the sun and depend on his unaided 
 
MissiOii Of THE oHnsoH 345 
 
 imagination for a representation of the phenomena of 
 the universe. But the philosophy of the New Church 
 recognizes the validity of theological questions, and does 
 not hesitate to seek to explicate the nature of God. 
 Similarly, it perceives that pyschology is the only means 
 of understanding man as the recipient of love and 
 wisdom from God. 
 
 But again. The New Church acknowledges the per- 
 tinence of the cogmological inquiries of philosophy. 
 For God (the Giver of the spiritual life of love and 
 wisdom) and man (the conscious, joyous recipient and 
 reciprocator of that life) can not be imagined as placed 
 in juxtaposition without an adequate menstruum to give 
 the finite consciousness projectivity from the infinite, and 
 to modify and adapt the infinite, for appreciation and 
 acceptance on the part of man. For this reason we 
 have nature, or the world — the sphere of phenomena 
 and the senses. 
 
 It is to the credit of Kant that he demonstrated that 
 we can have knowledge only as we have a realm of 
 external experience in which to bring to visibility or 
 consciousness our a priori intuitions. But he had no 
 means of knowing any realm of experience, save the 
 physical or sensual. Hence he concluded that all knowl- 
 edge is confined to the world of external or sensuous 
 phenomena. The spiritual world is a sealed book. The 
 philosophy of the New Church recognizes the truth 
 involved in Kant's doctrine, but finds demonstration in 
 the writings of the Church that the spiritual world is as 
 palpably the realm of sensation and experience as the 
 natural world. Swedenborg's audita et visa are of great 
 philosophical significance, and give the truth, that knowl- 
 edge depends on experience, which seemed to Kant a 
 discovery, a far wider and deeper meaning. Experience 
 
 23 
 
346 . Nfiw-caciicfi coNdfiESs 
 
 on tlie higher /planes of the "mind, or in the spiritual 
 world, is indispensable to a , rational knowledge of God 
 and the laws of life; but that experience is possible, 
 because the soul has real senses in a real world No 
 one could teach clearly or scientifically the spiritual side 
 of truth until some qualified observer and classifier of 
 facts could represent things as they' are on the planes 
 of the spiritual world. This once done by a qualified 
 explorer, thei knowledge of correspondences would enable 
 every man, born into the experience of the sensuous world 
 to advance indefinitely in the theory or doctrine of celes- 
 tial planes of existence. It is only as philosophy becomes 
 aware of the iPxistemce; of a spiritual world proceeding 
 from and dependent on God, that we become able to 
 understand nature. The more nature becomes familiar 
 to iScientists who i are unenlightened by revelation, the 
 more inexplicable it becomes to the professional philoso- 
 pher. So true is this, that scientists are generally dis- 
 posed to drive philosophy, or rational thought concerning 
 causes from the field, and to substitute for it an endless 
 accumulation and mechanical classification of facts. On 
 , the other hand, those who have a real instinct for philos- 
 ophy are constrained to repudiate science in its pretense 
 to be philosophy, and to betake themselves to the expec- 
 tation of the processes of the mind.: < j 
 
 But in the New Church nature becomes of paramount 
 importance, and cosmology is placed side by side with 
 psychology and theology. This is seen in its fullness 
 when we study the doctrine : of influx, the doctrine of 
 degrees, and the doctrine of correspondencea 
 
 The doctrine of influx shows that the creation is not 
 accomplished by unintelligible magic or arbitrary fiat, is 
 not God's bringing something out of nothing. . But, 
 on the contrary, this, doctrine shows creation to imply, 
 first, the emanation from God (as the infinite substance 
 
MISSION OF THE CHtJECH 347 
 
 and source of life) of finite planes of substanoe; and, 
 secondly, of life that perpetually operates on and 
 through all forms of substance that have come into 
 existence. 
 
 The doctrine of degrees shows how the several forms 
 of created substance are in different and varying measure 
 receptive or non receptive of life. It becomes clear that 
 matter is destitute of vitality in its own right. By con- 
 sequence, we see it in its mineral form in a condition 
 where life has been so completely eliminated from it 
 that it is suited to become the skeleton of a superimposed 
 living creation. Plant and animal are the fruit of the 
 creative endeavor to clothe this mineral framework with 
 flesh. The same series of degrees repeats itself in the 
 spiritual world, where again we have natural, spiritual 
 and celestial, answering to the three kingdoms of nature. 
 Spiritual substance must be thought of as truly as physi - 
 cal; heavenly or hellish forms are as clearly thinkable as 
 natural, sensuous forms. The wide varieties and ascend- 
 ing scale of manifestation of life in nature make very 
 clear the possibility and necessity of the manifold degrees, 
 discrete and continuous, of the forms of life in the 
 spiritual world. 
 
 The doctrine of correspondences shows that each 
 plane answers to the one above it as an effect, and to 
 the one below it as a cause. It makes the spiritual world 
 the true cause of the natural, and the end of nature to 
 furnish an alphabet and vocabulary to the soul, whereby 
 through things external and sensuous it can come to know 
 things internal and spiritual. The rational meaning of 
 nature is understood only when it is seen to be the basic 
 plane of what is created, and thus the prepared object 
 of the mind's operations when it is first stimulated to 
 action. 
 
348 liEW-CHUECH OOUGfiESa 
 
 Thus, the theological, eosmological and psychological 
 aspects of philosophy are seen to be parts of a unified 
 system of thought. 
 
 The New Church has a mission to philosophy in 
 reference to the relation subsisting between science and 
 Religion. Philosophy accomplishes its end only as it 
 introduces unity among the contents of the miiyi- Reli- 
 gion is the outcome of man's nature ag related to the 
 supersensuous sphere of his consciousness; science is the 
 fruit of his effort to become happily related to the world 
 without him. Natural Religion (or Religion not yet made 
 spiritual) is full of bigotry, exclusiveness, vindictiveness, 
 Pharisaism and superstition. Natural science (that is 
 science not yet adjusted to spiritual uses) is shallow, 
 vapory, noisy, intolerant, pretentious, culinary and mer- 
 cenary. Between these two phases of human development 
 there must necessarily be perpetual war, unless one is 
 subjected to the other, so long as they remain carnal and 
 unredeemed. The New Church is qualified by her philo- 
 sophical or rational truths to take natural Religion and 
 expurgate it, and natural science and exalt it to heavenly 
 uses. 
 
 The perusal of a work like Frederick Denison Mau- 
 rice's "Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy," brings 
 the conviction that the most learned and devout mind is 
 unable to frame a consistent philosophy founded on the 
 literal interpretation of scriptural verities. Only a 
 recognition of the fact of the external and internal planes 
 of the mind, and of the correspondence between the 
 outward phenomena of nature and the spiritual plane of 
 ideas above and within it, can furnish a point of view 
 from which to study with rational satisfaction the subject 
 of Divine Revelation, and of man's relation to God, 
 together with nature's place in that relationship. If 
 the mind has its sensuous plane contiguous but not 
 
MISSION OF THE CHUKCH 349 
 
 continuous with the spiritual,— if nature has its sensuous 
 plane contiguous but not continuous with a spiritual 
 plane above it, then Divine Kevelation, in order to 
 reveal anything, necessarily implies two planes and two 
 messages, — one addressed to the sensuous mind, and 
 one addressed to the spiritual ; a letter couched in the 
 appearances of nature, and an inner spirit clothed with 
 the light of heaven. The philosophy of the New Church 
 is simply rational thought agreeing with the truths of 
 the internal sense of the Word. By consequence, it 
 stands on the vantage ground of heavenly wisdom, and 
 is able to comprehend in one survey all that belongs to 
 the religious and all that belongs to the scientific develop- 
 ment of the human mind. Religion and science are seen 
 to be as necessary to each other as the heart and lungs 
 in the body, or the cerebellum and cerebrum in the brain. 
 Only science can aerate and purify the natural religious 
 consciousness; only Eeligion can vitalize and sanctify the 
 scientific faculties. No controversy exists between 
 science and Religion when they are both exalted out of 
 the carnal and earthly, and established in the clear light 
 of the spiritual and heavenly. 
 
 The mission of the New Church to philosophy 
 involves also the establishment of a just relationship 
 between metaphysics and the conduct of life. 
 
 To most men philosophy has seemed a dry and barren 
 subject. Philosophers have done much to confirm this 
 prejudice ; for they have been led by the conceit of self- intel- 
 ligence to the separation of themselves and their work 
 from the ordinary, healthful activities and purposes and 
 sentiments of men in the world. On the other hand, 
 the -so-called practical man has been satisfied with external 
 affairs, and has overlooked the value of philosophy, sup- 
 posing it to be the occupation or amusement of men 
 devoted to unfruitful theorizing. The philosophy of the 
 
350 NEW-OHUBCH CONGEESS 
 
 New Church is the theory or doctrine of' the practical. 
 "I believe that to be deepest philosophy," said Maurice, 
 "which underlies the business of life and explains it." 
 The New Church enlarges the sphere of the mind's 
 theorizing, and invites men to a larger apprehension of 
 the practical. It enters into every department of our 
 common life and furnishes a philosophical foundation for 
 all our experiences. It shows the reason, the use, the 
 standard, the limit of all common things. Art, work, 
 politics, society, marriage, education, recreation have a 
 thoroughly philosophical explication and defense. New- 
 Church philosophy is fully qualified to redeem the mind 
 from every form of athieism, pessimism and sensualism^ 
 and to create it anew, formed and furnished with the 
 wisdom of heavenly life. Thus metaphysics becomes 
 the niost practical and fruitful pursuit of the mind, for 
 it means the bringing of the spiritual meaning and motive 
 down into the actual^ that so the tabernacle of God may 
 be with men. 
 
 VI 
 
 THE MISSION OP THE NEW CHURCH TO THE HISTORIAN 
 
 BY THE EEV. PHILIP B. CABELL, A. M. 
 
 The Koman historian, Livy, in his admirable preface 
 mentions two conspicuous advantages to be derived 
 from the study of history — namely, first, the examples 
 which it furnishes of human lives, admirable or detest- 
 able; and, second, the essential aid which, such study 
 gives in the conduct of states, and governments. 
 
 Biographies of the great and good are unquestion- 
 ably of great value in educating the young, and a knowl- 
 edge of the heroic defeds of former generations affords a 
 
MISSION OF THE OHUEOH 351 
 
 healthful i, stimulus to the patriotic exertions of the 
 present one. , The leaders and statesmen, of every age do 
 undoubtedly prpfit by the wisdom of their predecessors, 
 whether gained by success or by failure, and perhaps 
 there is no class of students who profit more by historic 
 lore than they. In general we may say that these two 
 lessons, fthe moral and the political,, the historian gener-" 
 ally has in mind to teach andshis readers to learn. 
 
 , "V^^ith Christianity, however, there springs up a new 
 class of events of which the classic author mentioned 
 had no , knowrledge, ; and which, taking i their rise from 
 confessedly supernatural causes and influences, required 
 separate record from the beginning, adding also new 
 motives rand objects for historic composition and study. 
 Ecclesiastical or church history, owing to the spiritual or 
 supernatural element in it, is of peculiar; value, in that it 
 invites to:the stxidy of causes as well as of events. How 
 this; element of advantage works shall presently be 
 explained. . ,■ i 
 
 It is true that the histories of : religious movements 
 and. ,qf churches abound in ^ admirable biographies; of 
 characters well worthy of imitatiouj and that they furnish 
 account of some detestable lives, 'thus (teaching moral les-, 
 sons of a higher and nobler < kind than any record of 
 purely secular impqrt,, It is true also that the experience 
 o:f those who have goyernedi churches-, and the effectsfof 
 various forms of ecclesiastical policy,. furnish most.valuM 
 able instruction > for tthpse who would i intelligen,tly and 
 copscientiously perform, those . uses , at the present day; 
 but the study of C|hui-chi history, and indeed of all. history, 
 sacred ecclesiastical, .political and profane,! is icapabld 
 o:^ eleyation by a whole degree of , profitablepess; and 
 importance. ... , ; . ' ,..>r-rt.'(i -.'■-,. -t ^ !•'•■■ 
 
 The contemplation pf historical evemtsi (which in them^ 
 selves, 3.re only; 6fleqts), whije fixing in the naiad the Inere 
 
352 NEW-CHDKCH CONaEESS 
 
 order of their occurrence, is an exercise bewildering in 
 the extreme, burdening the mind with an endless succes- 
 sion of names and dates, and soon palling upon the 
 most acquisitive appetite for such knowledge. But hap- 
 pily there has of late years, by advanced thinkers, been 
 introduced into historical study new methods, attended 
 by ever-increasing profit and delight on the part of 
 teachers and learners. Of these new methods, the most 
 important and efficient is the study of causes above 
 mentioned. 
 
 The modern historian who adopts this method revels 
 in discovery. He delights to trace the origin of any 
 given movement, political, moral or religious, back to its 
 fountain-head in some new idea, whether it be a mechan- 
 ical invention, a political principle, or a revealed truth, 
 and to see how it has spread and worked like a thing of 
 life, moulding men and events to suit itself, long after 
 the supposed author or original inventor has passed from 
 the stage of this life. 
 
 Now ideas, which are inventions, principles of action 
 or of government, and abstract truths of various kinds, 
 belong wholly to the region of causes. Their discovery 
 and propagation furnish a simple key to thousands of 
 historical events otherwise of little interest. 
 
 To this method of study we owe the discovery of the 
 now generally recognized fact that the current of history 
 is a sort of evolution; that one age seems to be born of 
 another, and in its turn seems to beget a new order of 
 things wholly distinct from its own, yet plainly owing its 
 origin to what has gone before. Take any of those institu- 
 tions, industries, arts or sciences, which together make 
 up the wonderful complex of our modern social fabric, 
 and it may be traced back to some small beginning, ten, 
 fifty or a hundred years ago. And to do this tracing 
 skillfully and well is one of the most pleasing and helpful 
 
mSSION 01" THE OHUKCH 353 
 
 tasks of the historian, one which raises him far above the 
 level of the mere chronicler of events. He is the student 
 of causes, and to this particular phase of historic composi- 
 tion and study the doctrines and revelations of the New 
 Church furnish most efficient aid. To the historian of 
 causes the New Church has a mission indeed, but espec- 
 ially to him who would devote himself to one great 
 class of causal influences, that, indeed, which is soon to 
 be recognized as the only class worthy that name — 
 namely, the workings of the Divine Providence in the 
 affairs of men. To see the hand of God in history is the 
 inestimable privilege which the new revelation grants as 
 no other revelation has granted before. 
 
 This we should expect. These writings reveal the 
 spiritual world, which is the world of causes, lying every- 
 where prone upon this natural world, which is in itself one 
 vast theater of effects. The causal world inhabits nature 
 as a man's soul inhabits his body. Most powerfully does 
 it environ human life and human activity, suggesting 
 the thoughts, animating the desires and prompting all 
 the actions of men, they retaining only the freedom of 
 choice between good and evil, and between wisdom and 
 folly. 
 
 To know how men act and re- act upon each ether, to 
 study the lives of great men and good, are indeed 
 valuable privileges, but to know the influences which act 
 upon men from above and within, independently of their 
 natural surroundings, to gain some knowledge of the 
 purposes for which heroes and great men are raised up, 
 and to what end they are inspired, this were a privilege 
 indeed, and this is what an acquaintance with the New 
 Church and her teaching grants in wonderful degree. 
 For not only do those writings tell us of spiritual causes, 
 as the means by which the Creator works out His 
 
354 NEW-CHDECH CONGRESS 
 
 beneficent designs for the good of men, but they* reveal fco 
 us with a clearness never before vouchsafed, the 'very 
 end and purpose of human existence. ■ '■ 
 
 ■For example: What a sublime truth is that here for 
 the first time fully made known, that the sole object or 
 end of the creation of the universe and of man iipon it, 
 was the formation of a heaven out of the human race! 
 When once possessed of this marvelous piece of infoima- 
 tion, the historian, taken so far, as it were, into the con- 
 fidfence of his Maker, cannot fail Ot a more exalted concep- 
 tion of the excellencBof his office. How easy is it, then, for 
 him to see the hand of the Divine Providence working to 
 that mighty and merciful end in all the strange histories 
 of the past! He looks upon his brethren of the race with 
 new interest, as the favored yet 'singularly wayward 
 children of some beneficent power, whose boundless 
 wisdom and untiring love will one day in spite of their 
 waywardness and folly yet accomplish for them and 
 through them all that was originally intended. 
 
 Another statement equally pregnant with meaning is 
 that without a true Church somewhere in 'earth, pos- 
 sessing through revelation a knowledge of the true God^ 
 the human race would lose all connection with heaven 
 and would thus perish, because the true Church acts as a 
 heart and lungs to the great body of mailkind, which 
 actually stands before the Lord aS one Grand Man, a 
 maximus homo. In this statement the historian finds 
 explanation rational and full of all the mysteries of 
 sacred history, of the selection of the otherwise unworthy 
 descendants of Abraham and Jacob to perform a certain 
 office for the good of mankind, causing them for a time 
 to appear and to believe themselves the favorites of heaven. 
 
 This also explains why Christianity was for so man^ 
 ages confined to Europe, and accounts in great' measure 
 for the mysterious superiority of Christian nations over all 
 
MISSION OP THE OHUEOH 355 
 
 others, a superiority which they derive from the presence 
 among them of God's written Word. The power, neverthe- 
 less, which such superiority brings, the nations now Chris- 
 tian are; likely to lose unless they make wise use of it, in 
 living righteously themselves, and assisting others to do 
 the same. This lesson all history, both sacred and 
 profane, teaches, if it teaches no other. 
 
 Again; what a significant historical fact is that 
 revealed in these marvelous volumes, that from the 
 beginning there have been four Churches upon the earth, 
 the Adamic, the Noetic, the Israelitish and the Christian, 
 respectfully corresponding to and synchronous with the 
 infancy, the childhood, the manhood and the old age of 
 the human race, which would have gone out in the 
 gloom of winter and of night unless by the Divine mercy 
 it were permitted and enabled even now to enter upon a 
 new and everlasting age whose glories are unspeakable 
 and whose perfection shall be greater than those of the 
 Eden days. 
 
 The Second or New Christian Church we are assured 
 will be the crown of all churches, because it will worship 
 the one only and true God, visible to the mind in 
 human form; and because the race has now attained 
 to a state of advanced rationality, that can enter intelli- 
 gently into the mysteries of faith. By this means it will 
 also, in time, acquire the innocence of wisdom such as 
 now only the angels enjoy. 
 
 But descending from these sublime generalities which, 
 though historic in themselves, are to the historian as 
 much a matter of revelation as they are to us, we may 
 now briefly allude to some of those particulars which 
 belong more properly to his province, and which in the 
 light of the New-Church teachings it will be his privilege 
 and delightful task to interpret. These particulars are of 
 course the recorded facts of history, ancient and modern. 
 
356 NEW-CHDBOH CONGRESS 
 
 Intelligent historians, adopting as one of their 
 methods the stud/ of cause and effect, have already per- 
 ceived that many movements and events of the past were 
 directed to the attainment cf certain ends clearly of the 
 Divine Providence. Thus it has long ago been discov- 
 ered that the coming of our Lord the Savior into the 
 world was an epoch or pivotal event, breaking up an old 
 order of things and ushering in one entirely new. The 
 birth of Christ is an era to the unbelieving historian as 
 well as to the believing Church. To that mighty event 
 the ancient world seems to look forward for deliverance 
 from encroaching evil, and all subsequent history looks 
 back to it as the source and spring of all that is of good- 
 ness and wisdom among men. As a preparation for the 
 coming Savior, sacred records clearly show that the Jew- 
 ish Church and polity were instituted, and after captivity 
 restored; historic proof of which is seen in the fact that 
 so soon as the Advent was accomplished, and the infant 
 Church established first among the remnant of that peo- 
 ple and had gained a footing with the Gentiles, Jewish 
 nationality and Jewish worship at Jerusalem forever 
 passed away. The thoughtful reader of history also per- 
 ceived that for the wider reception of the truths of Chris- 
 tianity the Greek philosophy and learning were intended ; 
 one outward evidence of which is that the books of the 
 New Testament were written in Greek. Moreover can any 
 one suppose that the translation of the Old Testament 
 from Hebrew into Greek, by the seventy sages, and by 
 order of a heathen Egyptian king several eenturies before 
 our era, was a mere matter of chance and not a part of 
 the world's preparation for the Kedeemer yet to come ? 
 
 Equally evident is it to the believing mind that with- 
 out the instrumentality of the Boman Empire the Chris- 
 tian system would, humanly speaking, never have been 
 taken from the exclusive custody of Jews and Greeks 
 
MISSION or THE CH0KCH SS*? 
 
 and been allowed to extend its beneficent influences to 
 the then known world. To rewrite the history of the five 
 hundred years which preceded the Christian era, and of 
 an equal period following, and to do this in the light of 
 this new revelation of ours, is a task of wonder and of 
 love which some devout historian will yet have the honor 
 and the delightful privilege to perform. 
 
 But in supplying the true interpretation to modern 
 history, in wisely digesting and arranging the voluminous 
 records of those centuries which have elapsed since the 
 discovery of the art of printing, in ihe intelligent 
 grouping of those stirring events which have occurred 
 since Europe awoke from the sleep of the dark ages, and 
 especially in showing the connection of these with two 
 mighty events in the world of causes, asserted to have 
 taken place there by the doctrines of the New Church, — 
 in all this lies the most important and practical mission 
 of the New Church to the historian. 
 
 These two events the reader of these writings will 
 recognize as the Second Coining of the Lord and the 
 Last Judgment, which attended it, which latter took 
 place, according to Emanuel Swedenborg, in the spiritual 
 world in the year 1757. 
 
 The Second Coming of the Lord was, or is an event 
 as necessary to the salvation of the world as was His 
 First Coming, and yet by reason of the fact that it is 
 a coming, not in person, but in spirit, it was a movement 
 far more perceptible at the time in the spiritual world, 
 or world of causes, than it was here in the natural world 
 of eflfects. There it was attended witli all those portents 
 and disturbances among the wicked which the language 
 of prophecy describes, here the first and most import- 
 ant visible effect was the revelation and publication of 
 the spiritual sense of the Word contained in the writings 
 of the New Church. Tet since the date of the Last 
 
358 NEW-cflOKCH Congress 
 
 Judgment, a change has come over the world and in the 
 spiritual condition of mankind, no less remarkable than 
 that described as having taken place in those regions of 
 the world of causes lying next to us. 
 
 This modern age of ours every intelligent mind 
 recognizes as new. It is obvious that a sun of light and 
 love has risen upon the world somewhere, though 
 invisible to men's natural eyes. This is a morning time 
 in which we live, whose direct jsolar rays may be hidden 
 from most minds by the clouds of prejudice and error, 
 but whose difPused light all perceive and acknowledge. 
 
 But there was never a morning without its daybreak 
 and its twilight of dawn. Assuming the truth of Sweden - 
 borg's assertions concerning the Last Judgment, that it 
 is a historic fact, and pui'suing the analogy of ancient 
 history interpreted in the hght of the Lord's First Coming, 
 we infer that as the incarnation was preceded by a prep- 
 aration to make the first advent effective of its purpose, so 
 the Second Advent would, like a coming sun, be heralded • 
 by historical events and changes, indicative of it and 
 preparatory for it. Among these causal agencies, which 
 are supposed by some to have ushered in the new age, 
 but which were given from heaven to make its blessings 
 permanent and world-wide, we may mention three: 
 1st.— The Art of Printing, 
 2d. — The Discovery of Gunpowder, 
 3d. — The Mariner's Compass. 
 
 Without the printing press the truths of the new age, 
 which are those of the Holy Word and its internal sense, 
 would never have been spread abroad, and as a prepara- 
 tion for these we should never have had the revival of 
 learning, the Eeformation, or that wide diffusion of 
 education and knowledge, which civilization now enjoys. 
 
 It is to gunpowder, humanly speaking, that the world 
 owes its emancipation from the cruel oppressions of the 
 
MISSION OF THE chuhch 359 
 
 past. I By putting men on physical equality, it set free 
 the weak from the power of the strong, , and f oreyer 
 dethroned brute force from that seat of insolent advantage 
 it had so long enjoyed and abused. As Mr. Carlyle glee- 
 fully observes concerning the pistol bullet, "That was the 
 inyention which everywhere made the little David 
 equal to the big Giant." To the very destructiveness of 
 the impleaients of modern warfare the world is likely 
 soon to owe the general cessation, by mutual agreement, 
 of war itself ; and what more delightful theme for the 
 historian than the origin and -progress of a change so 
 desirable ? ; 
 
 And, lastly, without the mariner's compass, we should 
 never hajie known this glorious American Continent which 
 had lain for so long hidden in the sea, the future home 
 of liberty and learning, and, let us hope, of the Church 
 that is to be. Placed in the hands, of that bold navigator, 
 this implement so wonderful, yet so small,, invented just 
 at the right time, made possible all that we see and hear 
 around us. Followed as it was soon by steam and elec- 
 tricity,! , and following as it did the invention of the 
 . printing press, the mariner's compass, we may say, was 
 one efficient cause which created modern commerce, 
 which brought all lands into proximity and all nations 
 into one neighborhood, making necessary and probable 
 these exhibitions of the industries of all the world, and 
 (shall we say it?) this Parliament of Keligions which we 
 do now attend. 
 
 Yet it is not any single invention, or any thousand 
 inventions that can in one or two centuries change the 
 face of the civilized world. The moving cause which lies 
 behind the change was expressed in the first sentence 
 that was ; sent from Washington to Baltimore over the 
 electric wire, "Behold! V^^t hath God, wrought." 
 
§60 NEW-CHUBCH C0N6eES& 
 
 It will be a glorious day for the world when all men 
 shall be able to see the guiding hand of Providence in its 
 own history, and when blind chance or an unfeeling 
 fate shall no more be thought of as an element entering 
 into the warp and woof of events past, present or to come. 
 
 In the sending of blessed inventions from heaven just 
 at the time when they are needed; in the multiplication 
 of industries to afford healthful employment to the mill- 
 ions; in the ever increasing resources of nature to sustain 
 an ever increasing population; in the cessation of wars; 
 in the now almost universal prevalence of the American 
 doctrine that " All government is for the good of the gov- 
 erned;" in the raising up of a great man here and of a 
 hero there, to accomplish certain desirable ends; in all 
 these the historian of the future will be able more and 
 more clearly to see the Divine hand working to one great 
 end, the establishment in freedom according to reason of 
 a new and glorious and universal Church, which shall be 
 in a. natural world without end, the perpetual seminary of 
 heaven ! 
 
 To trace out all this and to teach it to men will be the 
 delightful task of the historian that is to be. And to 
 enable him efficiently to perform it, surely the New 
 Church has a mission. 
 
 VII 
 
 THE MCSSION OP THE NEW CHURCH TO LITERATURE 
 BY THE KEV. T. F. WEIGHT, PH. D. 
 
 It was wisely said at the dedication of the public 
 library, that such an institution "contains the diary of the 
 human race." It is certainly true that the field of litera- 
 ture is that of human thought so far as it has recorded 
 itself in papyrus or parchment or clay or stone or book. 
 
MlSSIOil OF THE CHtJBCfl 36l 
 
 To define the mission of the New Church to literature it 
 is only necessary to tell what is its bearing upon the lit- 
 erature of the age with which it connects itself. It 
 should be understood, however, that the books of any 
 generation not only exhibit the distinct progress of that 
 generation in the onward movement of new thought and 
 discovery, but also indicate the changed views which may 
 have come to be held in regard to all that has gone 
 before. "There is no past so long as books shall live," is 
 Bulwer Lytton's sounding phrase, and it not only tells 
 the truth that the past surrounds us in our libraries, but 
 it suggests that many books of the present are simply new 
 views of the past, so that the whole field seems to be 
 always open, almost as if never hitherto explored. A 
 new point of view leads to the production of new books 
 quite as much as a new disco-^ery, or an event in poli- 
 tics, and, if the New Church has a mission to literature, 
 it will lead to the production of new books as well as the 
 vrriting of old ones and the rehandling of old themes. I 
 have therefore to note here, not only certain new lines of 
 literary work, but certain others in which less original but 
 equally faithful work may be done, and in a most inter- 
 esting and hopeful degree is doing. It will be found 
 here, as in other aspects of this great subject, that, under 
 the Divine Providence, such fruit of the New Age has 
 already been borne that I need not speak in the future 
 tense, as if attempting to be prophetic, but may to some 
 extent, chronicle as ground for heartfelt gratitude what 
 has already been accomplished, so far as a limited acquaint- 
 ance with the subject, which fell to me through an 
 exchange of topics for another's sake, may enable me to 
 speak. 
 
 Literature has been variously divided for purposes 
 of library classification. An ingenious and generally 
 
 24 
 
362 NSW-CHUKCH conGkess 
 
 accepted division makes nine principal classes, each of 
 which is then further divided into nine, and each of them 
 again into nine; but for the present purpose it will be 
 sufficient to pass rapidly over the leading divisions and 
 to note only a part of the major subdivisions. The great 
 divisions are theology, philosophy, sociology, philology, 
 natural science, useful arts, fine arts, history and belles- 
 lettres. 
 
 In the field of theology only the Bible is eternal and 
 unchangeable: " My words shall not pass away." But, 
 while the Word of God does not lose one jot or tittle, the 
 books written for the purpose of interpreting and apply- 
 ing it receive a new inspiration from the opening of the 
 spiritual meaning by the explanation of the correspond 
 ence of spiritual objects with natural, causing a transfer 
 of the point of view from the material to the spiritual 
 plane. Judaism was a Keligion of external rites, the 
 significance of which was not understood by the people. 
 Christianity is a genuine Religion of the heart and mind, 
 but in the hands of men of material thought it sank so 
 far towards Judaism that resurrection was supposed to 
 involve a restoration of the physical body, that redemp- 
 tion was supposed to have been the paying of God's 
 price for His clemency, that the promises of the Lord's 
 Second Coming were given an earthly meaning as to the 
 destruction of this world, and that the Divine trinal 
 nature was spoken of as if three Divine beings, having 
 each one his mind and his duty, occupied as many 
 thrones. 
 
 As to all the enormous mass of literature produced by 
 monk and legalist and commentator, the mission of the 
 New Church was to judge it and essentially to modify it. 
 The mighty volumes of scholasticism would become mainly 
 monuments of human toil in darkness. The institutes of 
 Calvin, the treatises of Arminius and their fellows would 
 
MISSION OF THE CHURCH 
 
 m 
 
 be laid aside in favor of a literature which would have 
 its source in its recognition of the living Christ. Com- 
 mentaries from a dogmatic point of view, must go quickly 
 to the rear in favor of such as closely and clearly embod- 
 ied the results of examination of the text itself. A new 
 class of books must arise, namely, studies of our Lord's 
 life, and these when made by such unbiased students as 
 Geikie and Edersheim and Farrar and many others of 
 less note, would reach a wider circle of readers than had 
 ever been reached by theological works before. The 
 spirit of careful scientific research was to arise and put 
 aside the treated discussions of partisans. The study 
 of the text of the Bible, the exploration of Bible lands 
 in order to ascertain the exact meaning of words, and 
 the whole development of Biblical as distinguished from 
 dogmatic theology were called for in the new light. 
 Instead of the barrenness of mediseval theology with its 
 negative tendency under its system of last things by 
 which the world would end, of creation from nothing in 
 six days, and of natural catastrophes attributed to Divine 
 wrath, scientific theology must assume its true place as the 
 helpmeet of rationally interpreted revelation, and must 
 furnish a luminous fundamental corroboration of dogmatic 
 theology such as is foreshadowed in Professor Drum- 
 mond's "Natural Law in the Spiritual World." Natural 
 theology thus rises to a new dignity and serviceableness, 
 and no longer utters the rebelliousness of reason against 
 irrational dogmas. The work of Professor Shaler on 
 " The Interpretation of Nature," is distinctly prophetic in 
 this same direction, and there is developing from the pens 
 of adequately instructed scientists, acting in perfect liberty, 
 a literature of natural theology only possible under the 
 new light. A new literature has also sprung up under 
 the heads of "Progressive Orthodoxy" and "The New 
 Theology,'' with reference to the redemption and 
 
864 NEW-CHUECH CONfiEESS 
 
 eschatology, while the subject of the spiritual world opens 
 for the first time to clear thought. 
 
 There have been devotional boots before, but it 
 waated the clear sense of the Divine presence in the 
 Christ to beget a fresh hymnology, to bring worship into 
 the language of the common people, and to open the 
 door for books of sermons, not controversial, but nutri- 
 tious and uplifting. Minor books of pastoral theology, 
 consoling the afflicted, offering daily readings, and 
 guiding the mind to devotion, were, too, brought into 
 being. The whole work of church history was to be done 
 again. Without unreasonable condemnation of all that 
 had been done with much labor befor^, larger views were 
 to be taken. There were to be less pursuit of every little 
 parting of the stream about some heretical rook, and a 
 broader outlook of the entire current. Especially must 
 the ostensibly just but really partisan and indicatory 
 work of the church historian come to an end. 
 
 Thus books as to sects must be re -written in a more 
 generous spirit, and the Gentile systems must be treated 
 without contempt or hatred. Carefully examining all 
 that claimed to be true, the discriminating critic must 
 apply a higher test than his inherited prejudices, and 
 must address a larger reading circle than that of his 
 partisan sympathizers. An entirely new literature, — that 
 of Christian missions, must be developed and must take 
 the place of the former anathemas. Men must learn 
 how to adapt sympathetic teaching to all races, must 
 give over their attempts to force tritheistic conceptions 
 upon the Gentile monotheists, and must learn to address 
 them with respect, and to instruct them upon the basis 
 of what they already know of truth, however little. 
 
 Thus the whole field of theological literature receives a 
 new light,- and it is no wonder that the production of such 
 books has become nearly, or quite the most numerous. 
 
MISSION OF' THE CHURCH 365 
 
 In the thinking of thinking, as Hegel tersely and cor- 
 rectly described it, there was much work in the past 
 which is not of great virtue at present, but no reader of 
 the history of philosophy can have failed to notice the 
 distinct effort of fundamental thinking to free itself from 
 its dogmatic slumber (to use Kant's appropriate phrase), 
 and to seize upon a firm basis of mental analysis. This 
 was found in a recognition of the spirit, in a rational 
 idealism. In spite of all the vagaries which prevailed in 
 the Komantic School of Fichte and Schelling and the 
 Schlegels and Novalis, we cannot deny that they labored 
 for the transcendance of the spirit over the flesh, and that 
 the outcome of the storm and stress was more intelli- 
 gent and more resolute thinking for humanity. When 
 Swedenborg was born in 1688, philosophy had formed 
 three schools, — the skeptical, represented by Hume and 
 Hobbs, the mystical, of Eckhart and Behmen, and the 
 moralist of Cudworth and Shaftesbury. Descarts and 
 Bacon and Spinoza and Locke and Leibnitz had labored ; 
 Kant and Hegel and Jonathan Edwards and Lotze were 
 to enter into those labors and do new work. As Pro- 
 fessor Seth says in his volume "From Kant to Hegel," 
 "Hegel restored spirit to its place." 
 
 While in the present generation, the old is constantly 
 reappearing in skepticism or pantheism or theosophic 
 magianism, yet there is a slow upbuilding of a truly 
 spiritual philosophy, based upon a carefully ascertained 
 psychology. 
 
 At the same time a new field has opened in the intel- 
 ligent application of philosophy to the dealings of men 
 with each other. In politics we have an increasing recog- 
 nition of the rights of every man, while in the former 
 time, only one man was free in a nation, and he was the 
 sovereign. In political economy, the hard and fast sel- 
 fishness which formerly was its principle has now yielded, 
 
36(5 NEW-CHXTECH CONGEESS 
 
 thanks to the urgent and partially successful theorizing 
 of Spencer and George and others, to a more humane sys- 
 tem. The laborer is no longer dumb, the people are no 
 longer satisfied with "bread and games," libraries are 
 public, education is for all, speech is free, represen- 
 tation of all in the legislature is recognized more and more 
 fully; the wage earner's savings are cared for, and a home 
 is within his reach ; parks for wholesome recreation are 
 provided, and such institutions as homes for orphans, for 
 defectives and for the fallen testify to the high value now 
 placed upon every human life. The development of fra- 
 ternal orders has created a large literature also. Books 
 on the regulation of trade now appear. Travelers' tales 
 are no longer records of mere exploits, but are intelligent 
 studies of the customs and capacities of remote nations 
 and of the production of their territories. And, in all 
 this, we may see the working out of the new wisdom, the 
 descent of the Holy City of four sides and twelve gates. 
 In the department of education we have to note a 
 development as remarkable as in any. The methods of 
 education had been in the last degree imnatural and 
 unsuccessful; but through the prophetic mission of 
 Pestalozzi and Froebel and all their successors and 
 imitators, we have new text books of marvelous adaptation 
 and methods still better than the books; and no one can 
 read what is said in the work on "Heaven and Hell" as 
 to the education of those who pass into the other life in 
 infancy, without seeing that our best methods are the 
 simple transfer to earth of the ways of heaven. Till the 
 New Age had opened, there were no books for little 
 children, but now no class of readers is better provided 
 for. Till then the blind could not read, but now they 
 have a full literature. Till then newspapers availed 
 little, but now they help to educate every household- 
 
MISSION OF THE CHTJEOH 367 
 
 The comparative study of languages has formed a 
 department of its own. The recognition of their common 
 roots and principles has led the way to a more just 
 appreciation of man's development than was had before. 
 The study of hieroglyphs has opened the minds of 
 scholars to admit a general symbolism and to find in the 
 world of matter a counterpart of the world of thought. 
 Attempts, so far unsuccessful, have been made to con- 
 struct or compile a universal language, and this may yet 
 be done; but it will result, if at all, from a perception of 
 the innate speech of common emotions and affirmations 
 rather than from an adaptation, like Volapiik, of one 
 language with arbitrary additions. 
 
 The literature of natural science can be summarily 
 remarked upon, because in our era it has grown to its 
 strength. Astronomy has thrown off its astrology, — 
 chemistry has put away its alchemy, and the truly 
 scientific has been everywhere developed. A new spirit 
 has come into science, — a spirit having no fear of priestly 
 prosecution, a spirit of thorough and unbiased research, 
 recording its observations with patience and printing 
 volumes of monumental industry. Men have gained a 
 true respect for nature; they no longer worship it, but 
 they do it no violence. Every object of animal or vege- 
 table or mineral life has become precious. Museums 
 have been made the deposits of instructive specimens, 
 and some knowledge of science is found essential to the 
 theologian, the lawyer and the statesman. While 
 theology was utterly unscientific in its cosmology and 
 eschatology, it was natural that science should, in turn, 
 be contemptuously skeptical, but now that theology 
 grows rational science becomes reverent, and the athe- 
 istical scientist is already behind the times. The work of 
 the specialist in science makes very little display, but the 
 books which he produces after many years of toil do him 
 
368 NEW-CHTJRCH CONGKESS 
 
 honor and foretell the approach of a general recognition 
 that all matter corresponds to spirit. Swedenborg was 
 no dreamer, but a thorough scientist in metallurgy and 
 human physiology, and an inventor of useful appliances, 
 and his science was the basis of his theological enlight- 
 enment. We shall yet see marvelous wisdom in' men of 
 strictly scientific pursuits, while men of mere book 
 learning will lose their pre-emimence in Uterature. 
 
 Of all the boots that have been produced under the 
 impulse of the New Age in the department of useful arts, 
 it is impossible to speak adequately. There was already 
 much done in architecture, but homes were cheerless; yet 
 now the books show how fully skillful minds have devoted 
 themselves to the improvement, for the sake of the family 
 and especially of the children, of domestic architecture. 
 Agriculture was always a dignified employment, but it 
 now has become scientific and professional. The books 
 on navigation, the telegraph and telephone, on food and 
 fuel and house furnishing and domestic economy in gen- 
 eral, on engineering and manufactures and therapeutic 
 agencies testify of the new zeal for making all things 
 promote the welfare of man. The whole business in con- 
 nection with patents, shows what has been done to make 
 man the master of the universe. 
 
 Into the department of fine arts has come a new 
 spirit, which is slowly ultimating itself in all the higher 
 forms of architecture, in the adornment of public parks, 
 in the preservation of scenery, and in a very general 
 diffusion of artistic taste through school methods of art 
 culture and through public museums. In music, with a 
 large development of instruments, there has been also a 
 hearkening to nature in composition which has given 
 power to modern dramatic music. It is singular that the 
 drama has gained as yet no perceptible benefit except 
 from Wagner, but it may be that it waits for thq 
 
MISSION OF THE CHURCH 369 
 
 recognition of those whose wealth can endow a righteous 
 and effective theatre, which can never exist while the 
 stage is devoted only to that which pays. 
 
 It is in the field of history that we see a strongly 
 marked improvement under the impulse of the New Age. 
 Biography has now become a rich department, and the 
 lifer stories of true men and women are studied as never 
 before. The entire field of archseological research has been 
 entered upon for the first time in a truly scientific spirit, 
 and the result already is a vast accumulation of monu- 
 ments which had been buried, and inscriptions which had 
 been lost to sight. We are "heirs of all the ages," as 
 our fathers were not. From the height of our present 
 interest in all that pertains to human life, we look far 
 back over the whole distance which man has traversed, 
 and our knowledge is to grow more full and distinct until 
 the hidden things shall be revealed that we may "build 
 the old waste places and raise up the foundations of many 
 generations." In this and in all historical work there is 
 seen less regard than formerly for the exploits of great 
 men and the conflicts of great armies and more regard for 
 the fate and fortune of the common man as he has been 
 affected by events. Thus archaeology is studied for the 
 sake of ethnology, and ethnology for the sake of ascer- 
 taining the lines of most noble and successful human life. 
 It is found that human history is the history of Eeligions 
 and that it is impossible to study the human past from 
 any other point of view with success. Thus we are led 
 straight to that interpretation of the Word of God which 
 shows it to be an account of man in all his periods. 
 Histories of philosophy have lately been made for the 
 purpose of getting a clear view of the evolution of man's 
 mind. 
 
 I have purposely reserved to the last place that depart- 
 ment which in libraries is classed as literature proper 
 
370 NEW-CHURCH CONGKESS 
 
 or belles-lettres, and which includes works on folk-lore, 
 essays of a critical or summary character, fiction of the 
 unhistorical type, occasional addresses and the produc- 
 tions of humorists. If poetry be classed in this depart- 
 ment, it is its most important part, for true poetry is 
 always interpretative of nature and always finds human 
 analogies in lower things. Epic poetry had reached 
 great perfection in the far past, but our era has developed 
 a higher form of lyric poetry in Wordsworth and 
 Tennyson, and some Americans. Fiction has become 
 very acute in its delineation of human life of all kinds, 
 and has acquired with many a distinctly religious tone. 
 It is here, as in the case of the drama, that commercialism 
 seems to have held back the development of a most 
 effective means of edification. The writers of fiction, 
 thus urged on by material motives, tend to a remarkably 
 general decline in power and reputation, so that their 
 first works are their best. While some have effectively 
 used our teachings in constructing noble romances, yet, 
 as a rule, fiction waits to be raised to that standard of 
 child life and adult life and especially of married life 
 which our principles clearly set forth. 
 
 Under this head I would enumerate, in closing, certain 
 books issued within this century, and showing the new 
 spirit: 
 
 1830 Lyell's Geology 
 
 1833 Agassiz's Fossil Fishes 
 
 1846 Grote's Greece 
 
 1856 Lotze's Microcosm 
 
 1861 Miiller's Lectures on Language 
 
 1871 The Recovery of Jerusalem 
 
 (By Wilson and Warren.) 
 
 1880 Wallace's Ben-Hur 
 
 1880 Geikie's Life of the Christ 
 
 1883 Drummond's Natural Law in the 
 
 Spiritual World. 
 
 1889 Le Conte's Evolution and Its 
 
 Belation to Religious Thought. 
 
MISSION OF THE CHtTECH 371 
 
 Of the books issued by our own people I find but 
 one of general reputation: Grindon's " Life; Its Nature, 
 Varieties and Phenomena," which appeared in 1875. 
 
 As the early light at dawn catches the mountain tops, 
 so some men have caught the light of the new day, 
 which in due time will shine for many more, though that 
 time is not yet. The Mission of the New Church to 
 Literature is to illumine it and to inspire it with the 
 zeal and purity and wiedom which are felt in the pres- 
 ence of the Lord. At present we must gratefully recog- 
 nize the "cheerful dawn." With the poet, we behold, — 
 
 Hues of the rich unfolding morn, 
 
 That, ere the glorious sun be born, 
 
 By some soft touch invisible, 
 
 Around his path are taught to swell.— £e&2e. 
 
 YIII 
 
 THE MISSION OP THE NEW CHURCH TO ART 
 BY SIG. LOKETO SCOCIA 
 [Translated by Alice Archer Sewall.^ 
 
 Art, as it is generally defined, is an ability acquired 
 by practice of working with the reason, or according to 
 the internal laws of any material. Art, therefore, com- 
 prehends in its fullest significance all the exercises of the 
 mind and of the hand of man, exercises more or less 
 noble and refined. Whence the distinction between the 
 mechanical and the fine arts, or those which demand a 
 rare and special genius. 
 
 That spirit of the New Age which breathes everywhere, 
 and which has produced such marvels in every branch of 
 human activity, will exercise without doubt, a potent 
 jnfivience on the fine and noble arts; inasmuch as that 
 
372 NEW-OHUECH CONaRESS 
 
 spirit comes from the spiritual world, and is according to 
 the Divine promise to make all things new. 
 
 Invited to write upon the mission of the New Church 
 to Art, I shall endeavor briefly to demonstrate what shall 
 be the influence of the New Church upon those arts which 
 have for their object the represeni ation of the beautiful; 
 but inasmuch as it is necessary to set forth at first some 
 preliminary ideas regarding the beautiful ; and as this, 
 according to the general notion, is divided into natural 
 beauty and artificial beauty, I shall discourse briefly first 
 upon natural beauty and afterwards on the artificial, and 
 from the last I shall proceed to my subject. 
 
 Beauty made itself visible upon the natural world, 
 during the second period or state of the regeneration of 
 the most ancient men, that which is described symboli- 
 cally in Genesis in the six days of creation. This is 
 signified, when, at every period of the Divine progress it 
 is repeated, beginning upon the second day, that the 
 Creator found very good the works of His hands. 
 
 The word good, besides conformity to purpose, signi- 
 fies also beauty, which in common language often con- 
 founds itself with the goodness from which it is derived. 
 In fact the writings of the New Church teach us that 
 all that is beautiful comes from the good, and that the 
 beautiful is derived from the good in which is innocence. 
 
 In the six days of the creation, or of the regeneration, 
 man and all the terrestrial forms were unfolded and 
 reduced to the perfection of their forms, to the adequate 
 expression of the spiritual types to which they corresponded 
 and which they represented. Every morning of those 
 joyous and magnificent intervals is marked with the 
 apparition of new marvels and beauties. Man made in 
 the image and likeness of God is invested as a king, 
 with the dominion of the world. He gives names to the 
 animals. His sojourn is in a garden of delights, an Eden. 
 
MISSION OS THE CHUEOa 373 
 
 a paradise, because then man lived according to order; 
 wherefore everything upon the earth was beautiful and 
 perfect in its kind. The bad, the brutal, the deformed 
 was unknown in fact as well as in name. 
 
 The reign of beauty began then in the completion of 
 the cosmogony, destined to increase perpetually, if evil 
 resulting from the abuse of human freedom had not 
 intervened. This is the golden age, indistinctly recorded 
 in the oriental and occidental myths of the pagans. 
 
 Nevertheless the first cosmic age divides itself into 
 two grand periods, the one of which was physical and 
 preparatory, the other spiritual, sesthetio and comple- 
 mentary. In the first there was a view to the production 
 and disposition of the earthly materials. In the second 
 the composition of its form through the operation of the 
 Divine Wisdom. It was at that time that the Word, 
 "without which was not anything made that was made," 
 according to the sublime expression of the evangelist, 
 began to be immanent in the world. 
 
 It was in the aesthetic period that man, from the 
 simple animal or from not man, became the image and 
 likeness of God through the regeneration which the Lord 
 worked in him. Wherefore this period was, in respect to 
 the preceding one, a second creation, but more complete 
 because it exalted the form of the first creation to a 
 superior power, making spiritual types to shine forth 
 and predominate in all sensuous things. In fact in the 
 formless matter and in the coarsely organized bodies, as 
 in fossils, the form was wanting, or was subordinated to 
 the material; while in the aesthetic period the con- 
 trary came to pass, and, the principle of formation pre- 
 vailing, matter was animated and somewhat spiritualized. 
 
 The Divine Art 1=, in fact, the complement of creation, 
 and distinguishes the second creative cycle from the first. 
 
374 NEW- CHURCH CONGEEaa 
 
 If the primitive order established in this second 
 period had not been spoiled, the beautiful would have 
 continued to simplify and perfect itself. But man hav- 
 ing destroyed in himself that primitive and Divine order 
 through the abuse of free will, and the Divine germs of 
 good and of truth having been poisoned by contrary prin- 
 ciples, even earthly beauty was affected by this calamity, 
 and suffered in proportion. The ugly, which is the form 
 of evil and falsity, entered with these into the world and 
 took possession of its various parts, destroying the beauty 
 of form, or at least diminishing or obscuring it. This 
 ought not to seem wonderful, because among the various 
 organic species of the earth man has the control, being 
 himself the principal end of creation, and everything 
 being made for him and referring to him. The beauty of 
 things had to alter itself in consequence, becoming less 
 the correspondence of objects with their types. 
 
 Perfect beauty is perhaps not found at present in any 
 work of nature; therefore Art has now the advantage. 
 Wherefore, although Art can never touch the height of 
 perfection, nor does in any case the ungrateful material 
 respond entirely to the intention of the artist; still in the 
 hands of valorous genius it may swerve less from the 
 excellence of the ideal than does nature. 
 
 ■ The elements of the cosmic harmony reduce them- 
 selves to three, which are, — the good, the true and the 
 beautiful. These united in their subjects constitute the 
 order of the world in its fullness. To each one of these 
 three is opposed a correlative defect by alteration or by 
 want, — that is to the good, the evil; to the true, the false; 
 to the beautiful, the deformed. These two series of good 
 and evil accompany each other in the actual course of 
 terrestrial life. "Whence is born that state of violence and 
 of combat, which is the natural condition of the globe 
 
MISSION OF THE CHURCH 375 
 
 whicli we inhabit, and results from the propensity of 
 every part to make itself the center of all, undermining 
 the true principle of universal unity and harmony. 
 
 The legitimate center of things is God, Who, inform- 
 ing the intellects and the hearts of men, directing their 
 operations, reflecting Himself in all sensible objects, and 
 harmonizing all the objects of the world, shines for 
 every created thing as the good, the true and the 
 beautiful. The Divine will once weakened, and the 
 splendor which is derived from it and dispenses itself 
 universally once lessened, the negative qualities which 
 before hid themselves in the depths of their being as 
 simple powers, come to the front and produce that mix- 
 ing and continual interchanging of truth and error, of 
 pleasure and misfortune, of virtue and crime, of beauty 
 and of deformity, which is the inheritance of man, and in 
 proportion of every inferior species. This is repugnant 
 to the perfect rhythm of the creation, in which variety 
 ought to Conduce with unity, every part according to the 
 whole, and the whole with the parts. 
 
 It is according to the Divine Providence that order 
 shall be re-established, and this shall be through the 
 Second Advent of the Lord, causing a gradual progress 
 in the good, in the true and the beautiful, a beauty 
 which shall result from the greatest possible perfection 
 in the cosmic type, therefore in the whole as in the part. 
 Such shall be the fruit of human regeneration, which 
 shall have as its consequence the renovation of all things. 
 
 Artificial beauty belongs to the present epoch, as the 
 natural and perfect beauty belonged to the golden age 
 and the beginning of the world. This is because the 
 actual state of the world discording with the cosmic 
 type, or that which is with that which ought to be, man 
 creates the beauty of art to supply in some way the 
 defect of nature. Artificial beauty is composed of two 
 
376 NEW-OH0BCH CONfiEESS 
 
 elements, the one sensual, the other intellectual. The 
 intellectual is that which is commonly known as the 
 ideal, which produces the beautiful by transforming 
 itself into a fantastical type through the aid of the 
 imagination. Wherefore this type, being purely an 
 internal sensibility, or, it may be, a modification of our 
 mind, does not exist outside of ourselves. For example, 
 the conception of a picture is an internal sensibility, a 
 phantom of the imagination, because it is the imagina- 
 tion of the desire of a person, or of a corporeal entity, 
 which does not exist outside of the fancy of the artist, 
 before he has drawn it on his palette or canvas or wall. 
 
 In short, the perfect beauty is the ideal, which, 
 dwelling no more among earthly things, must arise in 
 the minds of the poet and of the artist. And thus, 
 as natural beauty reigned in the beginning of the world, 
 and shall come at last to be perfectly re-established, 
 artificial beauty is as a renewing of the primitive order, 
 and an anticipation of the terminative and final order. 
 The fancy which creates it is in a certain sense the 
 diviner of a past of which few traces remain, and the 
 augurer of a future, whose germs shall flower and bear 
 new and more excellent fruit through man's regeneration, 
 which shall produce in nature a new and more perfect 
 creation. In the same way that the ingenuity of Cuvier 
 remade the old world, re-composing those decayed and 
 deformed beings which peopled the earth in its first period, 
 the poet and the artist will renew the happy principles of 
 the age following the golden age when man lived in 
 the delights of Eden, and all things were very good. 
 
 It is just in this that that ideal consists, of which 
 many discourse without having a clear or precise con- 
 ception of it. The ideal is a harmonious composition of 
 
Mission of thK cHUEofi 877 
 
 the first and last perfection of created things; it is a 
 tradition and a prophecy, a memory and a presentiment, 
 a desire and a hope, a retiring into the past and a 
 launching into the future. Wherefore the poetic fire, 
 the genius of the tirue poet and of the true artist are as 
 a Divine inspiration in the natural order; whence a Latin 
 poet could say with truth: 
 
 "Est Deus in nobis: agitante 
 Calescimus illo." 
 The two elements which constitute artificial beauty 
 are not equal and parallel to each other, neither has each 
 been endowed with the same reciprocal dependence; 
 wherefore one of them ought to be able to prevail over 
 the other, to govern and rule it in such a manner that it 
 neither offends nor tyrannizes it; which would certainly 
 befall if the less noble principle had the majority. It is 
 necessary, therefore, that the spiritual type be the princi- 
 pal one and greater than the other element. Therefore 
 beauty annuls itself or at least diminishes and darkens 
 itself, when the sensuous shines the brightest 
 and even succeeds in overtaking and obscuring the 
 intellectual. 
 
 But how can it be that man supplements with art the 
 lost beauties of nature, if his fancy, like all other terres- 
 trial things, is subjected to the common calamity ? How 
 shall one infirm faculty be able to cure others and 
 itself? Whence shall it obtain that ideal which enters 
 less into man than into the external world since that beauty 
 had been changed in us as in other terrestrial things ? If 
 the spiritual and physical organism of man and all beings 
 are in discord with the perfection of their types, how can 
 the poets and artists procure for themselves a true 
 
 25 
 
378 NEW-CHUBCB COKGEESS 
 
 knowledge of this perfection and restore the representation 
 of it ? In vain one would try to remove the objection 
 by saying that artificial beauty is also imperfect, and that 
 few men arrive at any exact conception or expression 
 of it, because there still remains to be explained how the 
 few escaped the common fate, and how Art can sometimes 
 conquer nature. The difficulty is insoluble if one stand 
 within the limits of natural reason. It is necessary, 
 therefore, to recur to a higher principle, since the super- 
 natural is legitimate when it is required to put nature in 
 accord with itself. Let us seek this principle therefore; 
 and if we find that it is the same principle which here 
 gives us the key to all human origin and explains every 
 part of man's civilization, it will increase not a little the 
 strength and the soundness of our conclusions. 
 
 From what has thus far been observed it is clear 
 that for the resurrection of Art from its present state 
 of decadence, the restoration of the imagination 
 is absolutely necessary. Because, as we have seen, 
 it is the imagination that creates artificial beauty, 
 uniting together a sensuous form given from the 
 senses, and an intellectual type furnished by the reason. 
 From this composition emerges "il tipo fantastico," 
 which this faculty is always able to inform, to animate, 
 to vivify mentally, vesting it in those colors, motives, 
 acts and resemblances which give to it a kind of body 
 and individuality. 
 
 But imagination in its present state is infirm and 
 perverted, because of that predominance of the senses 
 in which consists the radical disease and corruption of 
 the human mind. In fact, from the predominance of 
 the senses proceeds the obscurity of the reason, the 
 weakening of the judgment, the corruption of the affec- 
 tions, and finally the languor and the license of the 
 imagination which, controlled in its operation as it is 
 
MISSION OF THE CHDECH 379 
 
 by the less noble faculties, deprives the intellect of its 
 control, or does not know how to give to its fancy that 
 ideal life in which dwells the beautiful. Whenever all 
 these human powers withdraw from this sensual tyranny, 
 every one of them recovers its nerves, harmony re enters 
 the soul, the will above all recovers its lost liberiy and 
 ■ the lordship of man ; and in the degree that this faculty 
 presides over the exercise of all others, its liberation is 
 the beginning of a general improvement. But before 
 the restoration of the imagination and of all the other 
 spiritual faculties of man ought to come that of the 
 intellect, because it is the illumined intellect of truth 
 which teaches to every one what ho ought to believe, to 
 desire and to do. Whence it follows that the beautiful 
 ideal in Art cannot be restored if first the truth is not 
 re-established; or, in other words, that the re-inaugura- 
 tion of the beautiful is inseparable always from that of 
 the true. 
 
 Divine revelation is a supernatural fact, which gives 
 to us the keys of all origins and explains to us every 
 part of human civilization. It was Divine revelation 
 which gave to the first men a reflective knowledge of the 
 intellectual or spiritual types of created things. This is 
 signified in Genesis, chapter ii, verses 19-20, where in a 
 language symbolical and representative, it is told that 
 immediately after the creation of every beast of the field 
 and every bird of heaven, they were brought to Adam 
 that it might be seen what name he would give to each. 
 
 To give a name signifies to know the quality, since 
 the ancients by name meant nothing else than the essence 
 of the thing. Behold, then, the beginning or the funda- 
 mental doctrine of creation, which indicates to us the 
 spiritual types of created things in the ideas of the 
 creative mind. 
 
380 SEW-CHtECH OONSEESS 
 
 And every one may be gradually confirmed in this 
 truth iu the degree that with the external objects there 
 appear to the eyes of the reason the specific ideas corres- 
 ponding to them, and he will consider natural objects in 
 their relation to the idea which has produced them. 
 Hence arises that stupendous similitude and conjunction 
 that runs through nature and Art, cosmology and 
 aesthetics. Wherefore the beautiful cannot be restored 
 to the dominion of Art if the mind of the artist is not 
 raised to these sublime principles of the supreme doctrine 
 of truth. 
 
 The pantheists and the materialists, scorning this 
 guide, cannot learn this legitimate process of the ideal, 
 and therefore are incapable of feeling or finding perfect 
 beauty; because, following their false systems, they not 
 only confound everything, mixing the substance with the 
 form, and matter with spirit, but, worse still, they give 
 the predominance to the inferior elements, and thus they 
 disturb the hierarchy of created things. 
 
 As created things in the three kingdoms of nature 
 are unequal among themselves in worth and complete- 
 ness, and concur in this diversity to produce the uni- 
 versal harmony, thus the spiritual types which they 
 represent form a graduated scale of afiection and per- 
 ception, which have for origin and beginning the Divine 
 mind, and for their end, man. 
 
 History teaches us that in olden times, as in modem, 
 as often as these truths have been disregarded, the ideas 
 of men have become confiised, because intellectual order 
 has been dibturbed in equaling or preferring the inferior 
 to the superior, inanimate and bestial nature to man, 
 matter to spirit, and the sensuously useful to the delight- 
 ful and , to the morally good, to the true and to the 
 beautiful. Whence have arisen in ethics, in politics, in 
 culture, every sort of enormity, as idolatry, human 
 
MISSION or THE OHUECH 381 
 
 sacrifice, the tyranny of a man or a caste, cannibalism, 
 slavery, the deification of brutes, and atrocities and 
 wickedness of every kind, which all proceed from the 
 radical confusion of the ideas introduced by pantheism 
 and by materialism. 
 
 And from this same confusion comes the perverted 
 custom of to-day among descriptive artists and poets, of 
 preferring the type of inanimate and irrational nature to 
 that of man. But the abuse of a descriptive style is a 
 small matter compared with that most degraded taste 
 which to-day prevails in Europe, where the poets, the 
 comedians, the romancers, the painters, the artists, from 
 the lowest up, seem to contend among themselves in 
 representing the low, the vulgar, the deformed, the ugly, 
 the atrocious; and the most of them prostitute their 
 wit and genius to a glory ephemeral and vain, having no 
 higher purpose than their own reputation. 
 
 The New Church is the instrument of God in the 
 world for the regeneration of the human race. To this 
 end there has been given to it by means of the writings 
 of Emanuel Hwedenborg, an understanding of the spirit- 
 ual sense of the Holy Scriptures, and there have been 
 confided to it treasures of doctrine fall of such angelic 
 wisdom as has never before been heard on this earth. 
 Great, therefore, is its mission for men,— that spiritual 
 educator and promoter of every civil culture. The 
 influence which this can exercise by re-establishing the 
 idea] beauty in Art is entirely spiritual, and is grounded 
 in the faithful and effectual promulgation of the great 
 truths contained in its heavenly doctrines, and principally 
 of the following: 
 
 " Everything in the universe had been created by the 
 Divine Love and Divine Wisdom of God-Man. 
 
 '' The universe was not created from nothing, because 
 from nothing it is impossible tp bring forth ahythiag; 
 
882 NEW-CHDECH CONGRESS 
 
 but the creation was made by means of the sun of the 
 angelic heaven, following the laws of correspondence. 
 
 " Man being the final end of creation, each and every- 
 thing was created for him;" "wherefore the uses of all- 
 created things ascend by degrees, from the lowest to man 
 and from man to God." 
 
 "All created things are uses, and they are uses in 
 that order, degree and respect in which they refer to man, 
 and through man to God." 
 
 " The evil uses, which embrace all injurious animals 
 and vegetable productions, have not been created by 
 God, but have had their origin in a hell which has been 
 formed by men." 
 
 "The Divine Providence orders that the evil uses, 
 such as the wicked and the false, serve for equilibrium, 
 for relation and the purification, and thus for the con- 
 junction of the good and the true in others." 
 
 These truths once known and received, one can have 
 a just idea of the cosmic type, and it is no more possible 
 to confound the discreet and heavenly order of created 
 things, and thus one is on the way which leads to the 
 restoration of the ideal in Art; because the ideal is 
 found, wherever this perfect beauty dwells. But as the 
 things of nature differ from each other in worth, thus 
 the aesthetic ideals vary from each other in perfection 
 and compose a hierarchy of which man is the summit. 
 Descending from this height to the lowest regions of 
 nature, there is not a single thing that, in its order, 
 degree and relation, may not have its own type, and be 
 capable of an ideal beauty of its own, when the model 
 shines for us in its perfection. 
 
 Thus the New Church sets up again the genuine 
 scale of spiritual types, restoring and assigning to each 
 one of them that grade and importance which is proper 
 to it. The type of man, prince of the earth, compendium 
 
MISSION or THE OHUECH 383 
 
 and likeness of the Creator, is the apex of the beautiful 
 ideal ; and therefore the human type ought to prevail in 
 that art which is devoted to expressing the harmony of 
 things and the perfect idea of the vporld. 
 
 Restoring thus to man his legitimate supremacy, 
 subordinating him to the Creator, teaching him the 
 divinity of his origin in the excellence of his primal state, 
 the degenerate condition in which he is fallen through his 
 own fault, the debt which he owes and the means which 
 are ofPered him for redemption, and the supreme blessed- 
 ness for which he is destined, the New Church will with- 
 draw Art from the anarchy, the license, the extreme 
 baseness into which it is fallen, from being no longer 
 governed by a superior light. 
 
 It shall do more. Its doctrines show that Art comes 
 from heaven, because the Lord, whose divinity completes 
 and forms heaven, and produces for us continually new 
 wonders and beauties, is the first and greatest Artist ; and 
 that human art is a weak imitation of His Divine 
 working. 
 
 The means by which Art comes from heaven is an 
 immediate influx, of which the writings of the New Church 
 thus speak: 
 
 "From the immediate influx of truth proceeding from 
 the Lord results that light which gives the faculty of 
 understanding. It is of this light as of the light of the 
 eye's vision. In order that the eye may see the things 
 that are before it, it is necessary that there be a light, 
 from which results a general illumination. In this light 
 the eye sees and discerns objects, and is affected with 
 beauty and with the pleasiu-e resulting with their harmony 
 with order. It is similar with the vision of the internal 
 eye which is the intellect. In order that this may see, it 
 is necessary that there be a light whence shall arise 
 general illumination, in which shall appear the objects 
 
384 NEW-OHUECH CONGEESS 
 
 which are the things of intelligence and wisdom. This 
 light comes from the Divine Truth, which proceeds 
 immediately from the Lord. 
 
 "When man is in good and thence in truth, he is 
 elevated into this Divine light, and more or less internally, 
 according to the quantities and qualities of the good; 
 whence there is through him a common light, in which 
 by Divine grace he sees truth's innumerable." 
 
 With this doctrine the New Church becomes the true 
 fountain, from which spiritual types may spring, and it 
 shows that God is the origin of all aesthetic conceptions;- 
 and thende of the beautiful in Art; 'because thei Di'vine 
 light which renders intelligible all truths and give^tS bur 
 intellects the faculty of understanding them, is itself that 
 which inspires those ideals, without which it is impossible 
 to create the beautiful. 
 
 Governed by these high principles. Art purifies and 
 elevates itself. Its followers recognize that the poetic 
 fire, the genius with which they are endovred, they derive 
 continually from the supreme Artist of the universe. 
 These are talents confided to them for a good use, and 
 ought to serve for the spiritual and moral progress of 
 humanity. Whence they shall be preserved from the 
 insane pride of attributing to themselves these Divine 
 gifts, or of applying them to the single aim of acquiring 
 riches and honors, instead of promoting the general 
 progress towards the good, the true and the beautiful. 
 They do not therefore seek the glory which is derived 
 from the opinions and judgment of men, but most truly 
 that glory which comes from works done according to the 
 eternal truth, because this is a glory splendid and 
 enduring, like the Divine origin from whence it comes. 
 
 Brought back to its true principles, purified of the 
 base motives which have contaminated and corrupted it, 
 directed to its high and noble ideals, Art regenerated 
 
MISSION OF THE CHXJECH 385 
 
 shali be a most powerful means of spiritual progress. 
 Because it has the strength to lift the soul from sensuous 
 things, transporting it on the wings of the beautiful to 
 a higher world, where it may breathe an air more pure 
 and vital than that which environs it below. And this 
 miracle is produced by all the noble and fine arts, but in 
 particular by music, which among all the arts is most 
 potent for snatching us from the world in which we are 
 and lifting us into an ideal abode where all is harmony 
 and beauty. 
 
 The contemplation of the beautiful, elevating the 
 mind from sensuous things, accustoms man to the pre- 
 eminence and the dominion of truth over fact, of spirit 
 over flesh, and of things imperishable and eternal over 
 mortal pleasure . and ' interests. Thus commences that 
 liberation of the human soul from sensual servitude, which 
 is afterward^ completed -by morality and by Keligion in 
 this life and in the' life to come. 
 
 IX 
 
 THE MISSION OF THE NEW CHUKCH TO SOCIOLOGY 
 AND GOVERNMENT. 
 
 BY EBV. CHAELE8 H. MANN 
 
 The mission of the New Church to sociology and 
 government is as the revelator of the divine doctrine of 
 the organic solidarity of the human race; and of its 
 communal reception of divine life, together with the 
 sociological principles which follow from this doctrine. 
 The solidarity of the race is an ancient' teaching; but its 
 organic" solidarity is a doctrine peculiar to the New 
 Church. ' By organic solidarity we mean a universal 
 brotherhood ^of peculiar character and significance. It 
 is not a brotherhood merely from a common divine 
 parentage; that has always been recognized. Nor is it 
 
NEW-CHUECH CONGKESS 
 
 a brotherhood from common sympathies; that is a 
 brotherhood more ancient than history. Nor is it a 
 brotherhood, heavenly though such a brotherhood would 
 be, in which every man seeks in his individual capacity 
 to do good to others; that is a brotherhood which has 
 commanded the homage of all men of spiritual ambition 
 in all ages. But organic solidarity is a brotherhood 
 which springs from the organic oneness of all human 
 beings; and which in a subordinate way exists in many 
 combinations of human beings. Men are not a mere 
 congregation of brothers; they are organically parts the 
 one of another. They are not merely individually of 
 a divine fatherhood, and therefore entitled to equal 
 consideration; each is but a part of one whole, which 
 is the racial unit in which God dwells. 
 
 This new aspect of human brotherhood is found in 
 the unique New-Church doctrine of the Maximus Homo, 
 from which we learn that the whole human race, in 
 heaven and on earth, before the eyes of the Lord is a 
 perfect unit, and that this oneness is not a mere bind- 
 ing together into one as a bag of sand is one on account 
 of the oneness of the bag, but that it is an organic unity 
 in which all the parts are dependently inter-related, as 
 are the parts of a man's body, each man taking his indi- 
 vidual position according to his service to the whole. 
 The absolute inter-dependent oneness of all men, in 
 heaven, on earlh and in hell, from the Alpha to the 
 Omega of life, from the first to the last of every man 
 who has been or who ever will be born, is the meaning 
 of the doctrine of the Maximus Homo. 
 
 But this doctrine teaches not only the organic unity 
 of all humanity, taken in its entirety, it includes in its 
 application those engaged in the service of any common 
 use or interest. All such are not to be regarded as 
 separate personalities, whose contribution to the world is 
 
MISSION or THE OHUECH 387 
 
 the sum of what they individually accomplish — they are 
 in a special way also parts of one another — they are an 
 organic one — a greater man — a Major Homo ; even as in 
 the grandest way the whole race of men is the greatest 
 man, the Maximus Homo. 
 
 The doctrine of the Maximus Homo, and if I may be 
 allowed to coin an expression, the doctrine of Majores 
 Homines, is practically realized in the spiritual world, 
 where men live in perfect, divinely organized societies, 
 organized on the basis of mutual service ; that is, where 
 the use which the individual performs is what determines 
 all questions as to his position, possessions and honor. 
 
 In this one, all-extensive teaching of the Maximus 
 Homo, and in the illustrations of it to be found in the 
 descriptions our doctrines give us of the society organiza- 
 tions of the spiritual world, and still further in the great 
 principles which are derived from these, may be found 
 what the New Church has to contribute to the science of 
 sociology and government, and to the solution of the 
 sociological problems now agitating the world. The 
 presentation of heavenly society life to be found in this 
 doctrine supplies us with a perfect pattern of a true 
 society or government. We have here a conception of 
 society in which at once the best rights of the individual 
 are preserved and the most perfect society life attained; 
 in which the infinite love of God, going put equally to 
 every person, is harmonized with the seeming difPerences 
 among men; in which justice towards every one, without 
 distinction, is preserved without making all men of the 
 same condition; in which every one is made equal before 
 the law and in society rights, while the freest scope is 
 given to each to realize from his individual efforts all that 
 his special talents and gifts can bring him. In this 
 doctrine we have a conception of society in which each 
 has all the share in society privileges the communist could 
 
388 NEW-OHUKCH CONGEESS 
 
 ask, and in which individual rights to personal posses- 
 sions are preserved as vyell; in which each is individually 
 as free as the anarchist could demand, and yet in which as 
 perfect a society is constituted as the socialist could demand. 
 We can not in this brief treatment of the subject bring 
 out exhaustively the great principles which are involved 
 in this doctrine, but I will enumerate a few which will 
 enable us to see the scope of what the New Church has 
 to contribute to the science of sociology and government, 
 and to the solution of the urgent problems now agitating 
 man in social and governmental reforms. 
 
 1. The first great principle .is, that in society rela- 
 tionships man not only is to realize his highest destiny, 
 but that only in such relationships can any of his pur- 
 poses be successfully carried out. All achievements of 
 our earthly life, great and small, can only be fully 
 accomplished by organic bodies of men; and at the 
 same time the very height of heavenly life is to be 
 attained through this organic brotherhood. The higher 
 the heavenly state of men is, so much the more perfect is 
 their realization of organic brotherhood. As the late 
 Henry James expressed it, "Society is the redeemed form 
 of man." In his devotion' to society, therefore, and in his 
 looking to society for the supply of his needs, does the 
 individual accomplish all the purposes of his being. This 
 principle places the questions of sociology and government 
 upon their true bases, and tells us where to look for light 
 in their consideration. This doctrine, it will be observed, 
 is the opposite of solitairism, or of the conception that the 
 greatness of life's rewards are to be secured by individual 
 heroism or separation from fellow man. The most 
 absolute indentification with one's fellows is the only true 
 road to the realization of the purposes of our creation. 
 
 2. Again, the law for gradations in social positions 
 is brought out in a new way by this doctrine of the 
 
Mission of the chuech 38& 
 
 Crganic solidarity of man as expressed in a heavenly- 
 society organized on the basis of use. Social varieties 
 are not done away with, but the basis for their existence 
 is changed. They can rightly exist only as the external 
 expression of grades of uses. All men are not made alike; 
 nor would it be desirable that they should be. But dif- 
 ferences in the way that men are made are expressed in 
 corresponding differences in the uses they severally per- 
 form, and thence in similar differences in the society 
 positions they severally hold. But in a society formed 
 according to the principles of the organic solidarity of 
 man, all merely artificial distinctions are eliminated, and 
 all social positions are determined according to one's 
 service to society. Every man must serve. No one more 
 than another can in a true society be allowed to escape 
 this law. It is true that some have higher' uses to per- 
 form than others; but that is because such is the form of 
 their wisdom, and those who perform humbler uses have 
 neither the wisdom nor the desire to devote themselves to 
 these higher uses. It is true that some will have the 
 greater wealth ; but that is because they need greater 
 wealth for the adequate performance of their uses in life, 
 and for the gratification of theiir peculiar affections. But 
 in the laws of justice derived from the organic solidarity 
 of the race, such differences when for such reasons they 
 exist, are recognized as an orderly feature of such 
 brotherhood, and are seen to be for the best happiness of 
 every one. These differences in a true society are not, as 
 is too often the case in this world, based on arbitrarily 
 established differences in the privileges of life, but arise 
 from differences in disposition, talent, tastes and power, 
 and thence differences in use, by which some, for use's 
 sake, will have more, and others also for use's sake will 
 have less — but never from externally devised differences 
 will any one have either more or less than his neighbor. 
 
390 NEW-CfiUECH OONGRBSS 
 
 While every member of society, therefore, partakes equally 
 of the right to its happiness, its glory and its wealth, each 
 practically and actually partakes of that glory and wealth 
 according to his capacity for service and for reception. 
 
 3. To the question of government, and of vesting 
 power in certaia duly appointed men to make and to exe- 
 cute laws, the doctrine of the organic solidarity of man 
 brings us this principle; that to administer the functions 
 of government is neither a right nor a privilege, but is a 
 use and a service. To hold official positions in the gov- 
 ernment may require higher than ordinary faculties, and 
 should command a deference — which is extended to the 
 use through the person; but the service itself does not 
 essentially differ from other uses either professional or of 
 labor; and official honor is never extended to the person. 
 As one manufactures goods, and another distributes them; 
 as a third teaches, and a fourth labors with his muscles; 
 so others administer the government by devising, exe- 
 cuting and interpreting the laws — laws which should not 
 be expressions of the wishes of those who govern, nor 
 enactments for the upbuilding of their interests, but 
 should express their best understandings of the princi- 
 ples of justice and vrisdom. Like other functions of 
 society, this is a service. Under the application of this 
 principle, there must be no hereditary positions in the gov- 
 ernment, nor must any appointments be made to govern- 
 mental positions from any other grounds than that of 
 fitness for the performance of the uses of the office. And 
 in administering the affairs of the government, neither 
 the personal predilections of any one, nor even the will 
 of the majority, but truth and justice are the authorities 
 whose word is to be wrought into law and carried out. 
 
 4. In societies or in governments, in which this soli- 
 darity is recognized as a dominant end to be served, every 
 individual should have an opportunity to realize his best 
 
MISSION OF THE CHURCH 391 
 
 self. He who accomplishes this, is in his heaven, and 
 supreme justice for him is attained. If an individual 
 differs from his fellow men by being more than they 
 endowed with talents, such an endowment is for the 
 blessing of others, and all are thereby benefited and 
 thence made glad by his possessions, not jealous on 
 account of them. By those possessions he is only the 
 more efficient servant. Neither jealousy nor adulation is 
 in such case possible; and thus in a society in which 
 use is king, both the worship of geniuses and the lack of 
 respect for those having less than ordinary endowments, 
 are inconceivable. 
 
 But the doctrine of the Maximus Homo, and the 
 society life it tells us of, contain within them the promise 
 of special blessings, which shall surely come upon the 
 earth, when they shall prevail. Since the organic 
 solidarity of the race teaches us the communal reception 
 of divine life, that is, that a heavenly community receives 
 a life possessing a character all its own, that it does not 
 consist of the mere sum of the lives of those constituting 
 it, it follows that every member of such a society, par- 
 taking as he does of the society's life, receives a more 
 heavenly life, according as his society is more heavenly. 
 Hence as these true sociological principles shall prevail 
 in earthly societies, men will receive in them a new life, 
 excelling all that has been heretofore bestowed. This will 
 be a fulfillment of the Lord's promise to bestow a special 
 life upon those who approach Him in communal relation- 
 ship: "Where two or three are gathered together in my 
 name, there am I in the midst of them." 
 
 And again, since societies are only greater men, this 
 doctrine means that vrith the prevalence on the earth of a 
 true society life, there shall also come into existence here 
 a new kind of grander personalities; that is, that the 
 earth will be inhabited by what we might call mighty 
 
392 NEW-CHURCH CONGEEBS 
 
 men, men like the societies of heaven composed of myriads 
 of individuals, yet possessing their own distinct and 
 beautiful qualities of character exceeding every possibility 
 of any individual to attain by his separate personal efforts. 
 The day of individualism, and of individual heroes set up 
 for men to worship^ has passed. We have come now to a 
 day when a mightier kind of men, of men composed of 
 men, shall prevail on the earth. For such shall the 
 societies of the earth become when in them shall be 
 realized the principles of the organic solidarity of the 
 human race as revealed in the doctrines of the New Church. 
 By what practical methods these principles may be 
 realized, it is not the province of the Church to point 
 out. Her mission is to reveal the principles. It is a 
 matter of wisdom with each one to enter into the advo- 
 cacy of those measures of reform which according to his 
 best judgment look to the establishment of society and 
 the government on this Divine pattern — a pattern in 
 which differences in the external positions of its members 
 shall be only the' outer expression of the differences of 
 their inner life, talent and dispositions, in which the 
 officials of government shall be the men best adapted by 
 their wisdom to perform the high function of bringing 
 the truth to the earth by making righteous laws, execu- 
 ting them, and interpreting them; in which the fullest 
 opportunity wUl be afforded the individual to make what 
 he chooses of himself; and in which, in one word, the 
 principle that man can in society relationships most fully 
 secure all the right purposes of life, shall be most evi- 
 dently illustrated. The existence of such a society, or 
 government would mean heaven on earth ; but the practi- 
 cal conception of such a society, and a practical concep- 
 tion is the iirst essential for obtaining it, is the contribu- 
 tion of the New Church to sociology and government 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 WOMAN IN THE NEW CHURCH 
 
 I 
 
 THE TRUE RELATION OF WOMAN'S WORK TO MAN'S 
 BT MBS. J. B. HIBBABD 
 
 We are assembled here as an integral part of this 
 Congress of Religions. From all parts of the world, 
 representatives of creeds, both ancient and modern, have 
 come together to exchange thoughts on the various ideas 
 concerning God, and the relation of His creatures to 
 Him, and the papers ■which will be presented will draw 
 their inspiration from the source of Divine Truth as it 
 may appear to each writer, whether he be Hindoo or 
 Chinese, Mahometan or Christian. Our thoughts as 
 expressed must likewise be drawn from the source of our 
 religious inspiration. We are women, professing to be 
 members of the New Church, and it is therefore new 
 thought that we are to present to those who come to 
 hear. What does it involve to be members of the New 
 Church f What is this New Church that we profess? 
 As I understand it, it consists of a revelation from the 
 Lord of principles and laws of life by which those who 
 acknowledge a belief in it may form thoughts, may 
 mould their lives, so that from a new standpoint of 
 spiritual truth ignored by, or perhaps unknown to the 
 world at large, they may investigate, weigh and form 
 conclusions on all subjects occupying the attention of 
 those who think. This revelation inaugurates a new 
 dispensation which constitutes the Second Coming of the 
 
 26 
 
 393 . 
 
394 SfiW-OHUKOH CONGEESa 
 
 Lord, foretold when He was upon the earth. This is not 
 a coming in person, but consists in an unfolding of the 
 spiritual sense of His Holy Word, the literal sense of 
 which He fulfilled at His First Coming. Many times in 
 the lapse of ages the Lord has appeared to His children 
 on the earth and always as a man, whether in the form 
 of an angel, by the prophets or in His own incarnation 
 as the Son of God,^so in this day of His Second 
 Coming He restores a true knowledge of Himself through 
 a man, Emanuel Swedenborg, whose rational mind was 
 prepared to do the Lord's work and under whose guid- 
 ance He was enabled to reveal the laws of life, which, 
 rationally acknowledged and obeyed, will lead the indi- 
 vidual to a state of spiritual regeneration; the congrega- 
 tions of individuals will form larger bodies or societies, 
 the societies nations, the nations churches, until the 
 whole world will bow to the Lord Jesus Christ in His 
 Divine Humanity as the only God, and human life will 
 be at one with the Divine life that is in obedience to the 
 laws of goodness and truth, as they are formulated by 
 the Divine Love and Wisdom of the Divine Creator. 
 
 It is a beautiful thought that in the sight of the 
 Lord, the human race is as one man, and has developed 
 as such, — in its beginnings an infant, wholly dependent 
 upon Him for spiritual sustenance, receiving its idea of 
 the Divine Being from the angels, its conscious life being 
 near to heaven, and its natural life being only partly 
 conscious of the earth, — an innocent man- animal. In 
 this golden age of its development, man was called 
 "Adam." It grew to childhood; it no longer listened to the 
 angels, but its wayward, self-assertive life had to be gov- 
 erned by external precepts taught through the senses by 
 pictured image of the great invisible Father, and by story 
 and song concerning Him. In this second stage the 
 name is changed to "Noah." But as the centuries roll 
 
WOMAN IN SHE CHUHCfl 39S 
 
 on, God is again forgotten, and idols take His place, and 
 the race is in its boyhood, and must receive anew the true 
 thought of the Creator. But the restless, fiery spirit of 
 the youth brooks no control save that of fear of punish- 
 ment, and only as Jehovah shows Himself in the guiding 
 fiery pillar, or in the thunderings of the cloud-hooded, 
 thundering Sinai, is He obeyed, and the law must be 
 laid down "line upon line, precept upon precept," and 
 even this was made void in time, and the thread of con- 
 tact between God and His human family had worn so 
 thin that nothing but the visible presence of the Father 
 in Jesus Christ, and His actual example in overcoming 
 the powers of evil could save the spiritual life of this 
 wandering child of His creation, — this human race. 
 Through this stupendous work of redemption, the race, 
 sick unto death, nursed back to life by the patient minis- 
 try of love and a faith in the Lord Jesus, grew until a 
 long lapse into selfishness and love of dominion again 
 brought it into the valley of the shadow of spiritual 
 death. But the babe, the child, the youth, the adolescent 
 had become a man, and needed to be taught as such, 
 namely by truth that would appeal to his rational mind, 
 now fully alive to its own power. Then the Sun of 
 Righteousness again arose with healing in its wings, and 
 once more the true idea of God is sent upon the earth 
 and with a finger of light it is written Nunc Licet — now 
 it is allowable to enter into the mysteries of faith. It is 
 a little more than a hundred years ago that this took" 
 place, but what are a hundred years of time when "a 
 thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday ?" "We 
 are, therefore, only at the dawn of this new day. The 
 rosy glow announces the coming of the brilliant dawn; 
 and the clouds and mists of ignorance and falsity are 
 rolling back to give place to the glorious Sun of Heaven. 
 
396 NfeW-CH0EOH OONSKESS 
 
 We are to-day ia this semi-darkness, in this age 
 of transition. We welcome the new era, but as yet the 
 wisest can only " see through a glass darkly." True 
 charity, trae faith, and the heavenly works of use that 
 should be the embodiment of these two correspondents 
 of the 'Lord's love and wisdom, are but a glimmer amid 
 the darkness of self-derived intelligence and the works 
 that have self for their end, rather than the Lord who is 
 so little known in His true character. . Can we look for- 
 ward into the ages to come and picture the manhood of 
 the race, living according to the principles of eternal 
 truth, rationally incorporated into the daily doing ? Then 
 shall things assume their true relationships, and men 
 and women will live in the order of their creation. What 
 then will be the form of society ? The Lord will be the 
 head, His Church the body, and society the feet and 
 hands, anxious to perform the service to the neighbor 
 dictated by Him, according to the laws and principles 
 taught as doctrines in the Church. What a contrast to 
 the life of to-day I Is not the body politic inverted? 
 Alas! the fact must be apparent to every mind which 
 reflects upon the signs of the times. Surely the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, the only God of Heaven and earth, is last 
 in science and religion when He should be first! Has 
 society not substituted the traditions of men for the 
 Word of the Lord? 
 
 In its growth toward its riper manhood and the 
 wisdom of old age, the race must pass through the many 
 phases of the development of this last dispensation, now 
 just begun, and to me, the science of correspondences, 
 which was the language of its childhood, strikingly 
 illustrates this advance onward and upward, in the 
 three typical trees of the Bible lands — the fig, the palm 
 and the olive — which symbolize the three degrees of life, 
 the natural, the spiritual and the celestial, one contained 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHTJECH 397 
 
 within the other, but developed successively. " First 
 there must be that which is natural, afterwards that 
 which is spiritual." The new age must begin in the 
 natural; and this must be marked by stages of trans- 
 ition from the old order of things to the wonderful ever- 
 changing phases of the new. 
 
 Let us consider for a moment the characteristics of 
 the fig-tree, the type of this first period. I have seen it 
 growing wild on its native soil, with the embryo fruit on 
 the end of every twig, before the leaves were fully 
 developed. These, when grown, are large and palmate, 
 making a protecting, inviting shade in the sun-scorched 
 land, but the day of blossoming never comes, — the flower 
 so prominent in the two other trees, is never seen except 
 as we look for it in the ripe fruit, enclosed in the purple 
 or green sac with the seeds. Can we trace the spiritual 
 correspondence in these peculiar features ? The fig-tree 
 typifies a state of natural good which inspires and brings 
 forth good works before the truths are fully formulated 
 and adopted which should guide all charitable efforts. 
 The palmate leaves signify the thoughts of benevolence 
 which shape the work of our hands into kindly deeds 
 towards our fellow men. Asylums of every kind, 
 societies for the profection of the oppressed and the 
 amelioration of suffering spring up all over the land. 
 But the flowers, those spiritual truths that instruct in 
 what true charity consists, are not visible as yet, are not 
 acknowledged in the world. Often our charities are mis- 
 applied, our benevolent efforts often cloak unsound 
 principles, and wealth and strength are wasted in reforms 
 that bring no satisfactory results, because not founded 
 upon charity in its highest new acceptation. In this age 
 of the fig-tree lives the race to-day. It is an age of 
 experiment, an age of investigation, analysis, a breaking 
 up of tradition, an age of stern realism. Because of the 
 
398 NEW-CHXJKCH CONGRESS 
 
 emancipation of all sorts and conditions of men from the 
 shackles of a superstitious obedience to custom and tra- 
 dition, women are trying their newly- fledged wings to bear 
 them into the atmosphere of so-called "progress." They, 
 too, are experimenting, are investigating new paths, 
 making for themselves new uses, and as the Lord always 
 leaves man in freedom to work out his regeneration, and 
 allows him to enjoy or suffer the result of his good or 
 evil doing, so will woman in this day, when every one 
 must learn through doing, try to accomplish results 
 wherein she must fail; she will venture into ways that 
 have no opening for her, and she must retrace her steps, 
 sadder and wiser; she will soar into realms where she 
 will feel oppressed for free breath and vnll gladly 
 exchange the new life for a truer atmosphere, — and all 
 because the flower of the fig-tree is not seen. Mistakes 
 are made, failures are encountered, but notwithstanding 
 it is an age which all may warmly welcome, for " when 
 the fig-tree puts forth leaves, we know that summer is 
 nigh, even at the door;" and the women of the New 
 Church should, with sympathizing heart, lend a helping 
 hand to all humanitarian work, but we must do more. 
 We can read by the flicker of the new light pouring in 
 upon us, yet so faint that it is unnoticed by others, the 
 truths that teach what true wse is, and by going forth 
 with our little lamps burning, we can perform our use, 
 because, the Lord says, this is woman's work, and not 
 only because the pressure of the world around us urges 
 us to action. 
 
 And now we come to the keynote of this paper, — 
 Uses; and ere we can unfurl our standaid as New- 
 Church women we must, like the Marys and Marthas of 
 old, sit at the feet of the Lord and learn of Him in the 
 Writings of His New Dispensation that we may be 
 guided to the true sense of our relation to mail as » 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHDKCH 399 
 
 helpmate and colaborer. Let us, therefore, quote the 
 passage from Arcana Ccelestia, 997, which suggested 
 this paper. 
 
 " Those who are in charity, that is, in love towards 
 the neighbor, look for the fruition of no pleasure unless 
 it be manifest in the works of charity, since it consists in 
 use. Such is the life of the universal heaven, for the 
 Lord's Kingdom is a kingdom of uses. The angels 
 receive happiness from the Lord according to the 
 essence and quality of the use which they perform. So 
 it is with every pleasure, for the more distinguished its 
 use, so much the greater its delight. Thus for instance: 
 Conjugal Love, which is the seminary of human society, 
 and from which is formed the Lord's Kingdom in the 
 Heavens, is the most important of all uses. All pleas- 
 ures are according to the excellence of their uses, which 
 indeed are so numerous that it is scarcely possible to 
 divide them into their several genera and species, 
 although all of them regard the Lord and His Kingdom." 
 
 We are here taught that Conjugal Love, or the state 
 of true marriage, is the foundation of the life of the 
 highest use, because its end is the perfecting of the 
 heavens by angels who to become such must first be 
 born upon some earth in the great universe. From 
 this we may plainly see that the state of wife and mother 
 is the noblest condition of human life attainable by 
 woman, and when society shall be regenerated by the 
 living truths of the new age, the aim of all education 
 will be to fit her for this highest prerogative of tier 
 being. From this central use flow all other uses, and 
 we are told in the passages quoted that these are "innu- 
 merable." But you will say we have not reached this 
 millennium, and what shall become of us while the times 
 are out of joint f We cannot all be wives and mothers. 
 Qrant?4- But we can all be spiritual wives and mothers, 
 
400 NEW-CHUECH CONGBESS 
 
 that is, forms of affection in some one of the innumer- 
 able uses, as members of the Lord's great family. We 
 are to be helpmates to the other sex. Just here I 
 would like to present to your notice some conclusions 
 drawn from many passages which you have no doubt 
 read in your studies of late, so that I need only recall 
 them to your minds. 
 
 1st. The very essence of the masculine mind is the 
 love of acquiring wisdom. The essence of the feminine 
 mind is the love of wisdom when acquired. (C. L. 32, 
 88, 90.) 
 
 2d. The male sees, concludes and acts from intellect, 
 or more properly from reason, the female from affection, 
 which gives her perception. The feminine mind receives 
 the internal form and brings it forth into effect — out 
 into the external, clothing and decorating it. (C. L. 115, 
 122.) 
 
 3d. The duties of the sexes are different, owing to 
 the different essence of their mental conformation, but they 
 are conjunctive. (C. L. 100.) 
 
 4th. The duties of men are those in which the 
 understanding and judgment predominate and relate to 
 public uses performed away from the home. Women's 
 duties tend to the forming, developing, making practical 
 in all ways, by the activity of her perceptive affections of 
 use, the rational wisdom of the man, a wort he cannot do. 
 (C. L., 9. 174, 175, 176.) Women are more wise in some 
 things than men. They sometimes discourse wisely and 
 with eloquence. (C. L. 168, 208, 293, 330.) 
 
 An intelligent study of the Writings will teach us that 
 in every use to be performed there must be found the con- 
 junction of two essential principles. May not these be 
 represented by the two sexes, — one part to be more fitly 
 performed by the man, and the other suited to the genius 
 of tbe women, — and will pot tbe fise be more perfectly 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 401 
 
 accomplished when men and women work together side 
 by side in the fear of the Lord and for His sake? The 
 man using his rational faculty to judge, analyze, and put 
 into a general form a thought of use; while the woman 
 with her perception of what is fitting, her love of orderly 
 detail, her tender sympathy and encouragement, will 
 carry to completion this thought which has taken form 
 in his understanding. When this relation is accepted 
 between man and woman, there can be no question of 
 inferiority on the one hand or superiority on the other. 
 Each, in freedom to act according to the quality of the 
 reason which Gcd the Creator has bestowed, shall work 
 for the perfection of that use which can only become 
 perfected by their conjunctive effort. Man cannot exist 
 in fullness without woman; and when they are conjoined 
 in the performance of any use, then there is in it that 
 trine which exists in every perfect creation of the Lord. 
 In the ancient Eeligions of the East, this trine in the 
 Divine Being was symbolized to the senses of the wor- 
 shipers by a triad of beings, — a man, a woman, and a 
 child; and no matter what the attributes of the invisible 
 Creator, to be expressed, it was always pictured in the 
 walls of the temples in this trinal form. By making a 
 practical application of this principle of creation to all 
 the general uses of life in this world, it seems to me there 
 will be no lack of avenues for legitimate work for women. 
 Medicine, the law, fine arts, mechanics as applied to indus- 
 tries, all offer opportunities for the exercise of the especial 
 form of woman's mind, and if she be true to the God- 
 given instinct of her being, she will not walk in the path 
 of the man; but side by side they will be true help-meets, 
 the one to the other. To enable her to fulfill this exalted 
 mission, her intellect must be developed and educated. 
 Let her have colleges, her higher education, not that she 
 may study as men do, or become more like them; but 
 
402 NKW-CHUKCH CONflKESS 
 
 developed according to her own especial mental conforma- 
 tion, that she may be more fully the perfect woman. 
 In the broad field of the education of the young, her 
 duty is plainly taught in the doctrines of the New 
 Church, and by obeying the precepts therein unfolded, 
 she may do much toward setting the inverted body of 
 society on its feet again. This use is especially that of 
 the wife and mother, and her education should prepare 
 her for it. Old methods of instruction must pass away; 
 and already the true keynote has been struck in the Kin- 
 dergarten, by whose principles, properly understood, the 
 senses are brought into service, to lay the foundation 
 stones of that storehouse, the memory, where the remains 
 of innocence must be preserved until the quickening touch 
 of the great Husbandman calls them forth to life. And 
 more important still to the youth of both sexes are the 
 Industrial Schools springing up in every large city where 
 the affection of use is formulated by a thought expressed 
 in the works of the hands. Truly the Lord is making 
 all things new and the most solemn exhortation I can 
 make to my sisters in the New Church and out of it is to 
 learn how to "live truly;" and by that I mean, how to 
 bring into active use to the neighbor, the capabilities 
 with which each one is endowed by her Creator. Every 
 one, whether man or woman, comes into this world to 
 fill an allotted part in the ever-widening sphere of God's 
 universe, and the ability, the faculty, to perform this serv- 
 ice as a co-worker with the Lord, is innate, God-given. 
 Cultivate it when you feel its awakening, for the sake of 
 use; the Lord will unfold the conditions which will make it 
 active. In its exercise will be found true happiness. To 
 some the great King commits five talents, to some two, to 
 some one. Let every woman look to it that she lay not 
 away what is given to her "in a napkin." When He 
 Qometh from the far journey, may He say, not only to 
 
WOMAN IN THE OHUECH 403 
 
 the faithful wives, but to every woman, whether she wear 
 the crown of motherhood or not: "Ye have been faithful 
 over a few things. Enter ye into the joy of your Lord." 
 
 II 
 
 WOMAN IN THE CHRISTIAN WOELD 
 BY MISS CARRIE E. ROWE, LONDON 
 
 The supreme test in the New Church of all things 
 and of all movements is their use. This divine law, 
 clearly seen or dimly discerned by the large minds that 
 govern the world of thought and stimulate the world of 
 action is, in her doctrines, shown to be distinctly funda- 
 mental to all true order and happiness. Its study is one 
 of the heavenly sciences of which the hard-headed 
 scientific world of to-day is almost absolutely ignorant; 
 and yet it is the one before whose final tribunal all its 
 conclusions will be arraigned, and accepted or condemned 
 according to their agreement with or difference from it. 
 The Sacred Scriptures define the highest work of 
 woman to be help-meet for man; such is the expressed 
 purpose of her Creator, and such has been the place 
 assigned her by the good and true men of all ages. 
 From the lips of his most consummate villain, lago, our 
 own Shakespeare gives us the lowest estimate of woman, 
 the merely sensual, "to suckle fools." The intellectual, 
 highly cultured lago is at heart a savage, and the purity 
 and gentleness of Desdemona arouse in him neither pity 
 nor remorse. But in the pages of Shakespeare we find 
 his own ideals, the most perfect examples of womanly 
 beauty and dignity of which any literature can boast- 
 It is noticeable that with the dawning light of the 
 New Church since the completion of the last Judgment, 
 a greater pre-eminence has gradually been accedecl to 
 
404 NEW-CHTJECH CONGEESS 
 
 woman as " wife." The Christian Church has until 
 recently looked askance at the relationship which the 
 new revelation shows to be the only enduring one. 
 The Madonna drew the hearts of men to her worship as 
 " the mother;" emblem of all that was purest and 
 sweetest in the world; and the tender reverence of poet 
 and painter glorified her in that dignified and holy use. 
 But Tennyson and Browning speak for the New Era, and 
 attest the spirituality of the marriage union, a imion pre- 
 figured by the descent of the Holy City as the Bride, the 
 Lamb's wife. With this New Era, the emancipation of 
 woman, as it is called, has been gradually effected; her 
 right to greater freedom of action and thought insisted 
 upon; and the way opened for her to various professions 
 that until lately were deemed the sole province of man. 
 The question for the New Church to consider, therefore, 
 is whether the new movement is in the direction of com- 
 pleter womanhood; whether the new avenues open up 
 for women the more perfect use. The purpose of the 
 Creator is unchanged: " help-meet for man" is still the 
 highest destiny for woman; what are the ends and aims 
 of the manhood of the present generation which our 
 women are seeking to share ? Is the trend of the present 
 day thought toward the Lord and His Kingdom ? Women 
 aspire to the pulpit; do men there testify to the reality, 
 nearness and eternity of either ? They will be scientific, 
 and present day science is full of unconcealed antagonism 
 to religion. Medicine is a favored field of use for men; 
 but the horrors of vivisection, and the increasing list of 
 operations where final cure is impossible are spreading 
 evils. Politicians are striving for power and place; 
 women seek seats in the forum; will they become deter- 
 rent forces, or will they go with the tide? To-be rich 
 is the main end of the rnajority ; will women be witnesses 
 of the delight that lives in simpler pleasures, healthier 
 
WOMAN IN THE OHCEOH 405 
 
 aims, and purer ends ? Are women in these departments 
 attaining a higher calling, or is it not a sorrowful fact 
 that men have fallen short of the dignity of theirs ? In 
 both there is a growing distaste to the ties of marriage, 
 and the responsibilities of motherhood are regarded as 
 irksome and inconvenient. 
 
 A pessimistic outlook, truly ! No, my sisters ; pessi- 
 mism knows no God, no future. We believe in both. 
 Evils seen and acknowledged are on the road to removal. 
 
 In the doctrines of the New Church, in the writings 
 it is her privilege to possess, the distinctive character of 
 man and woman is drawn from the source of all wisdom, 
 and their mutual dependence and helpfulness fully and 
 perfectly illustrated by the same Divine authority. 
 
 We read in "Conjagal Love," — "It is believed by 
 many that women can perform the duties of men, if 
 initiated into them at an early age. They may be initi- 
 ated into the exercise of such duties, but not into the 
 judgment upon which their rectitude interiorly depends; 
 wherefore women so initiated are bound in matters of 
 judgment to consult men; when they will select from 
 such counsels what favors their own love." Here it is 
 conceded that women can do the work of men, but dis- 
 tinctly, affirmed that they cannot do it in the same way. 
 Doubtless some women will do it better than some men, 
 but the basis of their action is the wise thought con- 
 sciously or unconsciously drawn from the masculine 
 mind. Again in the same paragraph we are told that the 
 works of learned Buthoresses are the production, not of 
 judgment and wisdom, but of ingenuity and wit. A hard 
 saying, but one no true woman will deny if she be loyal 
 to the Writings, and acknowledge their teachings of the 
 radical difference between her and man. Due stress 
 should, however, be laid on the term "learned;" the love 
 messages, the love language of woman, is all her own; 
 
406 HEW-CHCEOH OONdBESS 
 
 when her heart speaks the world hushes its tumult to 
 listen, and lays its reverent homage at her feet. But in 
 these facts lie the great difficulties for advanced women 
 workers; are they willing to admit the God-implanted 
 difference? Let us balance the apparent disappoint- 
 ment with one of the most perfect pictures of feminine 
 happiness that our Heavenly Father has vouchsafed to us. 
 
 In an abode near the Temple of Wisdom, Sweden- 
 borg converses with a wise one, and observes that his 
 home, divided into two, is still one. He asks the reason, 
 and has for answer, " I am not alone; my wife is with me; 
 we are two, yet not two, but one flesh.'' Swedenborg 
 replies, " I know that you are a wise one, but what has a 
 wise one to do with a woman ?" The wise one puts the 
 question to other inhabitants of this glorious region of 
 the spiritual world, and the smiling answer is given from 
 the heart happiness of all: "What is a wise one without 
 a woman, or without love f A wife is the love of a wise 
 man's wisdom." After a talk on the heavenly origin of 
 female beauty the wife appears and Swedenborg is sensible 
 of her living presence in the very speech of her husband, 
 " for in its tone was her love." 
 
 " Yes, that is all very well for the happily married," 
 it will be said, "but how is it for those who are unequally 
 yoked, or those who miss what you call their proper use 
 and destiny?" Dear sisters, this world is not all; here is 
 the school-time of life, the single-handed labor needed 
 for the shaping and development of man and woman 
 alike. Let us never forget that, mated or alone, our 
 destiny in the order of God's Providence is to be help- 
 meet for man. Physical motherhood does not necessarily 
 imply real motherliness; that is a use that reaches into 
 the heavens, the children are about us; let our hearts 
 and hands go out to the little ones of our Father if we 
 have none of our own to call us "mother." True 
 
WOMAS IN fHE OfiCROH 407 
 
 wifehood is sadly rare; but wise, not ignorant unselfishness 
 is its basis, and in the aftertime will be its continent for 
 full fruition. We are not all alike in gifts and attain- 
 ments; neither are men. How glorious a prospect is 
 our heaven of infinite variety as contrasted with the 
 dying idea of one of eternal sameness! Cultivate the 
 best that is in you, but do not strive for greatness for its 
 own sake. Be careful that you do not miss the use that 
 lies near you in straining for that which is far off; the 
 latter may bring fame; the first may bring heavenly 
 delight. If you are lonely, books are good company. 
 The study of the Word and the Writings brings the 
 angels nearer to us, and one of the delights of life is in 
 the high thought and inspirations of great men. In 
 woman cannot be the love of a man's wisdom without 
 the intelhgence that underlies her more perfect percep- 
 tion; ignorance is no preparation for anything. 
 
 One all-important earthly use for women is the true 
 feminine art of needlework. How the swift motion of 
 the tiny tool unconsciously softens worries, allays griefs 
 and quiets disturbed thought. Kemember this is a use 
 that lives in heaven, and let that thought bring angelic 
 ministrations to lighten even weary mending. There- 
 fore let all girls be won to love such a means of helpful- 
 ness. And for such as find home life too narrow, home 
 ties too confined a sphere, or for those whom the stress 
 of circumstances drives into the world's arena of hurry 
 and strife, there is one rule as for wife and mother too, — 
 " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy 
 might." Be not slipshod or half-hearted. 
 
 Wonldst thou go forth to bless ? Be sure of thine one ground, 
 Fix well thy center first, then draw thy circle round. 
 
 There is one center of life for man, pre-eminently 
 so for woman, inasmuch as love lives within wisdom. 
 
408 NEW-OHOEOa OONGEESS 
 
 Let them go forth, trusting in the Lord alone, acknowl- 
 edging that without Him they can do nothing; and ever 
 mindful of His purpose in their creation, they will 
 become not imitators of, nor antagonistic to man, but 
 true helpers, ever seeking to develop his higher nature, 
 and so to bring the world into harmony with the God 
 and Father of all. 
 
 Ill 
 
 WOMAN IN THE NEW CHURCH 
 
 BY MISS MAKT L. BARTON 
 
 If we have a movement in society it is because the 
 force behind or within it shows that it is a living issue, 
 and that being so it concerns us, closely or remotely, as 
 it bears upon those things which are vital to human 
 welfare. 
 
 There never has been, there never can be, any matter 
 of more importance before the world than the one which 
 we call, with loose nomenclature, The "Woman Question; 
 and it is of this grave nature for the reason that the 
 problem of right living is inextricably involved with it 
 If the Divine intended us for certain ends, and planned 
 us for these, and we fail to co-operate with Him that 
 they may be brought to pass, what but perverted lives 
 can result? Created, as we must believe we were, 
 according to Divine order or design, we cannot get into 
 any disorderly ways without turning aside from that 
 channel of communication from the Lord, through 
 which only can come to us the power that makes for 
 righteousness. Nor is the subject one that affects 
 woman in much the greater way. So close are the inter- 
 ests of the two sexes that what one thinks concerning 
 
WOMAK IN THE OHUEOH 409 
 
 any affair and what one does in regard to any matter 
 becomes directly productive of either good or harm in 
 the life of the other. 
 
 In the tenth chapter of the Gospel of Mark, sixth 
 verse, we find these words of our Lord: " But from the 
 beginning of the creation God made them male and 
 female." Taken alone, then, a man or a woman is but a 
 fraction — the two halves must be considered together in 
 order to present a unit. That such is indeed the truth 
 every one recognizes in some degree, but of how man 
 acts upon woman and woman reacts upon him, under har- 
 monious conditions, there is much for all of us to learn. 
 
 Family life is the ideally useful life. As we array 
 ourselves for or against the preservation of all its sacred 
 formS; the real quality of our souls determines itself. 
 Celibacy may be enforced upon us, or we may choose it 
 for some perfectly allowable reason, but if we confirm in 
 our hearts the love of a single life, because we wish to 
 escape the duties and the sorrows of the married life, 
 we dwarf the spiritual side of our nature, and the effect 
 is an arrested or one-sided development. "What God 
 has joined together " may not be sundered by man with- 
 out the result being that hardness of heart that follows 
 all violations of a spiritual law. 
 
 When living together in harmony, the duties to each 
 other and to society of a man and his wife is the back- 
 ground that throws into relief the obligations incumbent 
 upon all, whatever their condition in life may be. There 
 is not one kind of virtues becoming as spiritual gar- 
 ments for the inarried alone, and another of a distin- 
 guishing cut in which the unmarried should seek to 
 clothe their souls, to express therewith other ideas of duty, 
 of equal excellence. The traits of character needed by the 
 wife in her relation as such are just as necessary to any 
 
 27 
 
410 NEW-CHtTRCH CONGSESa 
 
 single woman for the proper unfolding of her life. A 
 good theory of education will look to provide for the 
 development of a girl into a round womanhood, which is 
 not only the wise way of training her for wifehood, but 
 the only school in which she can learn those truths of 
 her own nature which may get her safely by the shoals 
 and quicksands that lie in the path of all who are not 
 guarded against those destructive ideas which point to 
 an existence centered on self. 
 
 Any theory regarding the sexes, that does not take 
 into account their absolute dependence upon each other 
 in all things, will act as a hindrance to the spiritual and 
 mental development of those who fail to perceive the 
 truth of the matter. So far as the apparent difficulty is 
 concerned of treating ourselves as parts of a dual being, 
 we should recognize the fact that union is effected on the 
 spiritual plane of our lives. A more or less complete 
 conjunction with others is, in truth, a necessity, and is 
 the condition under which existence is possible. We live 
 in two worlds, or on two planes, at one and the same 
 time. Every incentive to thought or action comes to us 
 from the spiritual world — a world made up of living 
 human beings. Isolation for any of us is an impossi- 
 bility. We are environed by souls. From every one 
 there is an influence going forth from the activities of his 
 thought or spirit, that seeks for a reception in some mind 
 just suited to take it in and to give it a home. A more 
 interior union, that may grow continually toward perfec- 
 tion, is possible between man and woman, because each 
 is the complement of the other, each supplying what the 
 other has not. 
 
 The woman of the New Church does not need to grope 
 around in the dark for those principles of wise thinking, 
 and right living, that she wants for the guidance of her 
 life. To no self-derived intelligence of either man or 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 411 
 
 woman should she appeal for help to define the respec- 
 tive duties belonging to the two sexes. As to a fountain 
 of exhaustless wisdom may we all turn to the writings of 
 that servant of our Lord Jesus Christ, Emanuel Sweden- 
 borg. * * * * But there are two modes of 
 investigating any subject. A wise person, having learned 
 that there is something good therefore something true in 
 everything, will look for it in everything, and he finds 
 the good and the true because he seeks for them. 
 Another hunts for error, and naturally, as perfection is 
 nowhere in this world, he discloses the fault. One who 
 goes to Swedenborg with the idea fixed in his mind of see- 
 ing what nonsense he supposes him to have written, has 
 closed his mind efPectually against perceiving anything 
 else. IndBed, such a person cannot long read him. He 
 has no word for the like. His writings are for those 
 who hunger and thirst after the spiritual nutriment they 
 never before have had proffered them. Who say, in pur- 
 pose, "I will not give sleep to mine eyes, nor slumber to 
 mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, a 
 habitation for the mighty God of Jacob." No one, who 
 does not have an earnest desire and affection for truth, 
 for the sake of living a good life, can read understand- 
 ingly the works which treat of eternal realities. Do we 
 women bring to the question of our duties in life such a 
 spirit as this ? If we do, we may feel the assurance that 
 light will shine on our pathway as we walk steadily on 
 in it. 
 
 But what do we find concerning the respective genius 
 of men and women in Swedenborg? So much that there 
 is time but for the briefest references and extracts. 
 First, then, we are told that man is a form of the under- 
 standing, and that woman is a form of the will. That is 
 to say, that man is of such a nature that he loves prima- 
 rily those things which relate to knowledge and science. 
 
m NEW-CiTOROH 0ONG«BS8 
 
 To him, in his natural state, the most important thing is 
 the accumulation and storing up of facts in his mind. 
 He considers it his privilege to investigate everything 
 intellectually. He does not want to do anything unless 
 he first understands why he should do it. 
 
 Woman, on the other hand, being a form of the will, 
 or voluntary principle, is representative of the affections, 
 and values the exercise of them above everything else. 
 If her heart is not satisfied her brain wearies. Love 
 takes precedence, and this prompts her to act without 
 her knowing why, or caring very much to know the 
 reason why she would do some specific thing. 
 
 Yet, in separating the two, man and woman, for the 
 purpose of analysis, we have divided those whose very 
 nature is indissoluble; for we may see that, in fact, some- 
 thing of love, the feminine principle, must enter into 
 everything a man does, and even into his thoughts, 
 because he cannot do anything, or think of anything, 
 unless prompted by the will, and something of the under- 
 standing, the masculine principle, must be in every 
 woman, or she would not know how to carry out her will. 
 The essential difference between the two sexes is, that 
 in man the understanding leads, but in woman this takes 
 the second place. But there is no room for an arrogant 
 assumption of superiority on the part of either man or 
 woman; for, as Mrs. Browning says, " thought can never 
 do the work of love." Neither, we may add, can love be 
 a substitute for thought, or either, by itself, bring any- 
 thing to fruition. 
 
 But what is taught by Swedenborg is, that man 
 receives his understanding immediately from the Lord, 
 and his love mediately through woman; and that woman 
 receives her love immediately from the Lord, and her 
 understanding mediately through man. Now, when 
 we get into any trouble it is because we do not always 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHCECH 413 
 
 see clearly, or agree with each other, how to apply this 
 doctrine to the affairs of life. Any woman, for instance, 
 will accede to the truth, as an abstract proposition, that 
 the understanding should lead the will to do its bidding; 
 but let the concrete form of the understanding, repre- 
 sented by an individual man, try to enforce this piinciple 
 on her, and something wrong to her or in her is straight- 
 way manifested. It may be the stubbornness of her 
 unregenerated will asserting itself, indeed this must be 
 part of the cause, but it is likely, also, that the man has 
 let escape from him, without his being aware of it, some 
 of that spirit of contempt for qualities of fouI that he 
 does not possess in his own right, so to speak, with which 
 his external nature seems to be rather overstocked. 
 
 That sex is of the soul, that it is not interchangeable 
 or eradicable, we may perceive at any time that we are 
 willing to arrange our lives on the basis of this truth. If 
 we doubt this proposition, or live as though we would break 
 through the barriers imposed upon us at our birth, we are 
 committing a fatal error. In the twenty -second chapter of 
 Deuteronomy we find this prohibition: "The woman shall 
 not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall 
 a man put on a woman's garment; for all that do so are 
 abomination unto the Lord thy God." Clearly this has 
 little point to us in the mere sense of the letter, but con- 
 sidered as having a deeper meaning, and referring to 
 those spiritual qualities that clothe a person as with a 
 mental garment representative of his true character, it 
 teaches us that what is proper to one sex cannot be suited 
 to the wants of the other. 
 
 There is, however, work for both, and owing to their 
 mutual subjection its successful performance depends as 
 much upon the one as upon the other, for it is the prod- 
 uct of both minds, with the two principles of masculine 
 and feminine working together in harmony; though the 
 
414 NEW-CHUKCH CONGRESS 
 
 objective expression is now by man and now by woman, 
 as the quality of the work partakes more of the genius of 
 the one sex, or of that of the other. Why then do we so 
 often act as though we have interests that may be divided 
 without a mutual loss? It is because we are yet in 
 bondage to the spirit of selfishness. When we care more 
 that a thing shall be done well, and the whole world gain 
 by it, we shall let its merit tell its own story, and neither 
 man nor woman will care to boast of having exclusive 
 jurisdiction in any field; and when the love of use shall 
 have dominion, regenerated souls will have that "spirit 
 gauge" that vsdll determine any question like that relating 
 to the proper sphere of woman. 
 
 There are times when a woman seems to have no 
 choice left her but to take up an occupation which will 
 bring her into competition with men on their own plane 
 of life. If she does it from necessity, and not from a 
 desire to take a man's -position before the world to the 
 neglect of that which she could do better, that else will 
 remain undone to somebody's loss — we submit that from 
 the standpoint of our present position this seems allow- 
 able for her. Still, as we cannot speak from the knowl- 
 edge that a more advanced state of regeneration will 
 bring, it may be that we shall find some day that this, 
 too, is a violation of the law which forbids us to wear 
 "that which pertaineth to a man," that the necessity 
 believed in was but an appearance and not a reality. 
 
 For more relating to this point we quote Sweden- 
 borg: " That the wife cannot enter into the duties 
 proper to the man, nor on the other hand, a man into 
 the duties proper to the wife, is because they differ just 
 as wisdom and its love, or as thought and its afPection, 
 or as understanding and its will ; in the duties proper to 
 the men, understanding, thought and wisdom take the 
 lead, but in the duties proper to wives, will, affection 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 415 
 
 and love take the lead; and the wife from the latter does 
 her duty, and the man from the former does his; where- 
 fore their duties from their own nature are diverse, but 
 still conjunctive in a series. It is believed by many that 
 women can discharge the duties of men, provided they 
 are initiated into them from the earliest age, in the man- 
 ner that boys are; they may indeed be initiated into the 
 exercise of them, but not into the judgment, on which 
 the rectitude of the duties interiorily depends; where- 
 fore those women who have been initiated into the 
 duties of men are constrained in matters of judgment to 
 consult the men, and then from their ctiunsels, if they 
 are free to decide as they please, they elect what favors 
 their own love. It is also supposed by some that women 
 are equally able to elevate the sight of their under- 
 standing into the sphere of light into which men do, 
 and to view things in the same altitude; which opinion 
 has been induced in them through the things written by 
 certain learned authoresses; but these, when explored in 
 the spiritual world in the presence of the authoresses, 
 were found to be, not of judgment and wisdom, but of 
 genius aild grace; and the things which proceed from 
 these two, from the elegance and neatness of the compo- 
 sition of the words, appear as if sublime and erudite, 
 yet only in the presence of those who call all ingenious- 
 ness wisdom. The reason that men cannot enter into 
 the duties proper to women, and discharge them aright, 
 is because they cannot enter into the affections, which 
 are altogether distinct from the affections of the men." 
 (C. L., 175.) 
 
 There is far more in the passage just quoted than we 
 are able to grasp in one hearing of it, or in several. We 
 cannot fairly represent any writer by taking single para- 
 graphs from his books. Particularly is this true of 
 Swedenborg, for words used by him have often a peculiar 
 
416 NEW-OHURCH CON&EESS 
 
 significance which needs to be understood. Wisdom and 
 love, understanding and will, which he puts in apposition, 
 not in opposition be it noted, are those qualities of the 
 spiritual man which are to bring under subjection the 
 thoughts and the affections of the natural mind. While 
 still bound to the love of the flesh-puts of Egypt men 
 feel triumphant and women indignant upon reading 
 assertions like those made in the paragraph just given; 
 but when nourished with manna out of heaven, a new 
 growth in humility leads the spirit not only to perceive 
 but to rejoice in the superiority of others. The command 
 is to "Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteous- 
 ness," then follows the promise as to natural good 
 Therefore, before this kingdom is established within our 
 hearts, we have no right to expect to find our paths 
 illuminated our duties defined, or our lives regulated in 
 any way. 
 
 IV 
 
 WOMAN AS WIPE AND MOTHER 
 BY MRS. S. S. SEWARD 
 
 Woman in the home occupies a position of influence 
 that is not circumscribed by the home limita The home 
 is the center of her Divinely-appointed sphere ; and in the 
 loving discharge of duties that seem, perhaps, trivial, she 
 is confirming in herself traits that make the truly 
 womanly character, and impressing on the minds and 
 hearts of all around her those important lessons in life 
 that go so far toward moulding their natures and giving 
 them the true bent. 
 
 How important that woman should realize the sacred- 
 ness of building up a home! If she did she could not 
 venture to take the most important step in life without a 
 
*> WOMAN IN THE OHUKCH 417 
 
 sense of the Divine presence and blessing. How naturally 
 that would lead her to look forward to the family altar 
 as a necessity, as well as a privilege, and how the sense 
 of her strong desire would make the husband delight in 
 taking his first steps in the Christian life, even if, in the 
 pride of youth, he had before felt loo self-reliant to 
 experience the need of the Divine aid! 
 
 With the family altar established when the home con- 
 sists only of two, the home is being built on a sure 
 foundation. In the gradual growth of two lives into 
 one, little discordant notes will necessarily be struck at 
 times. How important that the little difiPerences should 
 be explained before they have time to grow. Hand in 
 hand at the family altar, a loving pair could never rise 
 without forgiveness in their hearts, and a happy starting 
 together in their respective duties. 
 
 The first steps in home-making well taken, how beau- 
 tifully and naturally the rest follow. The two lives so 
 sweetly blended are blessed in bringing into being other 
 precious lives. How can we overestimate the privilege 
 of receiving from the Divine hand these precioiis proofs 
 of His love, and being allowed to rear them for Him! 
 
 The loving mother realizing the sacredness of her 
 m'ssion, will not wait for the precious burden to be laid 
 in her arms, but from the moment of its conception will 
 commend the life just started, and herself as the hand- 
 maid of the Lord, to His tender care. With that holy 
 thought in her heart from the beginning of the tender 
 life, is the beginning of a mother's care for her child. 
 While she is preparing in sweet outward ways to receive 
 the embodiment of her hopes, her thoughts and prayers 
 are far more with the little soul that is through her 
 receiving the impressions that will mould it, while it is 
 being clothed with the body through which it will move 
 and act all through its earthly life. 
 
418 NEW-CHUECH CONGRESS * 
 
 After a mother has spent nine months in sweet 
 co-operation with the Lord while he is making her the 
 instrument of introducing a new life into the world, who 
 can describe her happiness when the precious expression 
 of His love is first placed in her hands; or, better still, 
 when she sees it lying in the strong arms of its happy 
 father, and feels that in this gift of the Lord's love 
 father and mother are really one. 
 
 The care before birth was to guard herself from every 
 unholy thought, act and expression, for the sake of the 
 little one. After birth, the care is that the little one 
 itself may be so surrounded by sweet and loving influ- 
 ences that it may always be in states to receive the 
 precious germs of spiritual life the Lord loves to store 
 in earliest infancy. Kealizing how important a part the 
 mother has in this earliest guarding of the precious life, 
 she could ntver consent to be separated from her child by 
 delegating her duties to those who have not a high sense 
 of responsibility. Most precious germs are stored up by 
 the Lord in infancy; and all through early childhood, 
 when the self-life is apt to be awakened, the most loving 
 care should be exercised to keep the child surrounded by 
 good influences and in happy and obedient states. The 
 mother makes a great mistake if she tails to use her 
 most loving influence at this tender age. She could not 
 put her little one in a motherless nursery if she knew 
 she was losing her best opportunity to co-operate with 
 the Lord in storing up the seeds of its future spiritual 
 growth. 
 
 In daily watching the development of the child, the 
 mother is startled to find hereditary traits appearing. 
 Her care should be not to hide them, but never to allow 
 them to grow by exercise. The better she does this work 
 the easier it will be for the child when he must accept in 
 later life from her hand the responsibility of overcoming 
 
WOMAN IN THE OHUKOH 419 
 
 them in himself. He will have a hard fight in the battle 
 of life, no matter how well she may do her work; but 
 how cruel to add to what will surely remain for him to 
 do by the consequence of her neglect. For her sake he 
 may not say, "O, that my mother had checked this when 
 I was young;" but he will have the right to think it, and 
 will. 
 
 There should be' the most intimate confidence 
 between the mother and child. In that is the mother's 
 greatest stronghold. Loving care knits the hearts of 
 mother and child together and she is naturally its confi- 
 dant. Let her never lose that place in its heart. At night 
 when laying her little one to rest, there is a lull after the 
 excitement of the day and the child can be reached as at 
 no other time. Then is when the mother can lovingly 
 impart heart lessons, and be sure of their being well 
 received. Then is the time the child feels the Lord very 
 near — and all sweet and gentle influences. It is then 
 that the mother can better make it realize any little act 
 of wrong than at any other time. Doing wrong is always 
 more or less accompanied by states of self-defense. 
 These are quieted in the sweet evening hour, and the 
 spiritual vision is clearer. 
 
 And after the child is old enough to be associated with 
 others at school or elsewhere, the evening hour is the 
 time the mother should lovingly draw out all the events 
 of the day, and so detect any possible exposure to the 
 child, and counteract its effects before there is any chance 
 for the w;rong to take root. 
 
 Later it is the mother who, step by step, must be the 
 one lovingly to answer all the questions that naturally 
 arise in the children's minds. It is from her they should 
 learn the wonderful story of their birth as she only can 
 tell it; first in a way adapted to their childlike percep- 
 tions, and afterwards, as their minds are prepared to 
 
420 NEW-CHUKCH CONGRESS 
 
 receive more fully. How many lives are marred and 
 ruined by a mistaken thought on the part of parents 
 that the subject is too delicate to be spoken of by them, 
 while it is left to the accidental teaching of circumstances. 
 
 When girls are prepared for the fuller knowledge of 
 themselves, it is still the mother's privilege to instruct 
 them; but when boys arrive at the age of their fuller 
 development, the father naturally goes hand in hand 
 with the mother in their care in a fuller way than ever 
 before. He then becomes not only father, but older 
 brother, in the loving way in which he leads them into a 
 realization of their manhood, and in his care for their 
 preparation to enter into its duties. 
 
 As the subject is the " Woman in the Home," I have 
 necessarily confined myself to her distinctive uses, but 
 with the undertone to my thought of how perfect the 
 mutual relation of husband and wife in the discharge of 
 all these duties, and how really impossible to separate 
 them! It is this cordially and happily working together 
 that makes the happy home we wish our children to 
 remember. Children have an object lesson in religion 
 in their homes from their earliest perception. When we 
 all gather around the altar, morning and evening, they 
 should never be made to feel it is perfunctory, but an 
 earnest desire on the part of the parents to commit them- 
 selves and their little ones to the Lord's loving care. 
 When we meet around the family board and implore the 
 Lord's blessing on what he has provided for us, they 
 should learn the lesson of thus early tracing every bless- 
 ing to His hand. When from their earliest childhood 
 they are taught to reverence the Lord, and to store their 
 minds with its precious precepts, the influence can never 
 be lost. 
 
 Children know if their parents are living united and 
 Christian lives, for there are no disguises in the home. 
 
W6MA1iT in the CHTjiSCH 421 
 
 Where the children have questions to be settled they 
 will know that love and judgment must unitedly settle 
 them, and thus it is easy for them to realize how father 
 and mother are really one. The holiness of marriage 
 can never be taught as efPeetively as by the example of 
 parents in the home of their daily living. 
 
 And how in the home, especially where there is a large 
 family, can lessons of self-control be learned by daily 
 living, — control of temper, of the indulgence of appetite, 
 of habits of indolence, of carelessness and thoughtless- 
 ness. If these faults are brought to the surface they can 
 early be corrected in the family home, and not left to the 
 severer teachings and harder experiences of after life. 
 
 Above all, the home is the place for the exercise of all 
 good affections. When the loving acts are for each other 
 quietly in the home, not stimulated by the desire of out- 
 side approval, the growth in right living is genuine, 
 and can be relied upon, with the Lord's help, in the 
 formation of character. 
 
 Let it not be thought that keeping a home is simply 
 house -keeping, though that should be perfect; but home- 
 making. Surrounding the loved ones with holy and 
 happy influences, and providing them with literature that 
 will best cultivate in them the habits and uses that we would 
 have them cany through life; freely discussing with them 
 at the table and by the fireside all questions of general 
 interest, impressing them with earnest views on all sub- 
 jects, and thus gradually preparing them to take their 
 part in outside uses; helping them to limit their desires 
 to the easy possibihty of fulfillment,— thus teaching them 
 the important lesson of livincr within their means, not 
 only, but of sharing as they go along in all good work, 
 trusting in the Divine blessing for the future as they have 
 done in the past. 
 
422 NEW-CH0EOH OONGEESS 
 
 With these ideas of home women can seldom fail to 
 find an outlet for their affections. If they have no 
 special home of their own they can help elevate the 
 home in which they are placed, making it a center for 
 loving work in the larger family outside. With no chil- 
 dren of their own they can interest themselves in 
 shielding and earing for neglected children in the larger 
 family. They can lovingly shield the tender one from 
 harm, can plead with the erring one, can in thousands of 
 ways administer help and comfort, can guide the mental 
 and spiritual growth of children, can throw the sweet 
 mantle of charity over their erring sisters, and sweetly 
 lead them back into right thoughts and habits. Woman 
 can use her personal influence in true and womanly 
 ways to help young men who are deprived of mothers 
 and sisters to live true, manly and noble lives. Let 
 woman exalt true manliness, making every man more 
 truly manly for her influence, and every woman more 
 truly womanly for her loving regard and sympathy. 
 
 In the home the wife loves to avail herself of the 
 advice of her husband as far as possible. Why, in the 
 larger family, should she not make man realize how she 
 loves to depend upon him for right judgment, rather 
 than to make him feel how well she can do without him ? 
 She pleads with her children personally when they do 
 wrong, and instructs them in sweet and womanly ways 
 in which she feels her advantage; but in the discussion 
 of vexed questions she loves to consult with her hus- 
 band, and assents if her perceptions are in accord with 
 his thought. She would not in the home be so happy in 
 taking the lead in everything as in deferring to the hus- 
 band in those things which belong naturally to him. 
 
 So in society, which is the larger family, should 
 woman wish every position of influence, or should she 
 not unselfishly love to accord to man the things he 
 
WOMAN IN TflE OHUECH 423 
 
 naturally loves best, and do well herself the things she 
 naturally does best? Do we wish to do away with all 
 the sweet amenities between the sexes ? Is it not better 
 to look to the men for the proper discharge of their 
 part of the world's work, as well as have them look to 
 us for the loving and womanly discharge of all such 
 earnest duties as are unquestionably our own, and which 
 can never be performed, if we neglect them f 
 
 EDUCATION FOR WIPE AND MOTHER 
 BY MRS. J. E. PUTNAM 
 
 "The purpose of the Lord in creating man was that 
 He might raise up to Himself a heaven of angels." So 
 speaks the New Church to her children. The means by 
 which this purpose may be ultimated is the education of 
 our children in a knowledge of and a life according to 
 the laws of heaven. The definite beginnings of this edu- 
 cation, beginnings perfectly in accord with the writings 
 of the Church, are clearly outlined in Froebel's philoso- 
 phy. "It is," he declares, "the destiny and liJEe work of 
 all things to unfold their essence, — to reveal God in their 
 external and transient being. It is the special destiny 
 and life work of man, as a rational and moral being, to 
 become clearly and f uUy conscious of his essence, of the 
 Divine influence in him, to render this essence active, to 
 yield himself to a conscious, free representation of the 
 inner law of Divine unity." "I would," continues Froebel, 
 "educate beings who with their feet stand rooted in God's 
 earth. I would so educate man that his head will reach 
 into heaven, and there behold truth; in whose heart is 
 
424 NEW-CtoECH CONflftESa 
 
 united both earth and heaven, — the .varied life of nature 
 and earth, and the glory and peace of heaven, God's 
 earth and God's heaven." 
 
 It is most interesting to note how universally Froebel's 
 language will bear the application of the key to natural 
 and spiritual relationships. One who has any knowledge 
 whatever of the law of correspondences is constantly 
 tempted to read between the lines, especially in the 
 "Mother-Play Book," and fancy that the coincidence is 
 rational, rather than an intuitive perception of the fitness 
 of things. 
 
 With an educational aim such as has been indicated 
 in this quotation, surely the requirements leading to its 
 fulfillment will demand a method peculiar to itself. A 
 plan is needed by which life's inner essence and outer 
 manifestations may be reconciled, and the true " measure 
 of a man, that is, of an angel," may be understood. The 
 practical question for us is, how shall we lead the 
 children to know and express this law, already written in 
 their members? We know that all power is in ultimates; 
 what are the ultimates of the new education? How 
 are we to bring its true theories down to the sensuous 
 planes of our children's lives in the nursery, the kinder- 
 garten, the school? What avails it that we who have 
 children to educate know that there is a spiritual origin 
 and equivalent for all that we term force, form, color, 
 number, direction, etc., etc., if with this knowledge there 
 is not a clear, practical realization of the particulars of 
 these attributes of matter, which, it is true, the young 
 child receives only with sensuous perceptions, yet which, 
 after all, are coming to be recognized as the bases of 
 the " invisible things of God?" 
 
 A long experience with many children leads me to say 
 that where there is one mother who feels and can supply 
 the needs of the child in these matters, there are tens, 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHDRCH 425 
 
 aye, hundreds of parents who are blind and deaf and 
 absolutely dumb before the questioning eyes of their 
 children. Who knows better than we that "the will is 
 the life of man?" Yet do we as New-Church parents 
 demand anything of the educational institutions of our 
 day and place in regard to the training of this will ? If 
 it is true that the hand is the supreme organ of the will, 
 how can we be so apathetic on the question of manual 
 training? Why do we not demand and work for such 
 teaching as will enable our children to see accurately? 
 For without the right seeing and doing, we know there 
 can be no at-one-ment in life. How few people realize 
 that it makes any difference, or why it makes any differ- 
 ence that baby should have one kind of toys rather than 
 another — the desire being only that the child shall be 
 safe and temporarily amused, forgetting altogether that 
 these toys will furnish food for thought or else hinder 
 the expression of thoughts. How few who have not 
 studied Froebel remember that only in so far as the child 
 is made to feel the law which binds everything in his 
 environment into one great whole, will he be prepared 
 for the life -lessons which are to link him to nature, to 
 man, and to the Lord. 
 
 Proebel's gospel of motherhood is a strange thing! 
 At times the inother laughs with joy at the simplicity of 
 his philosophy, and she exclaims: " I have always played 
 with my child after this fashion; do I need an apostle of 
 education to teach me these simple, natural lessons?" 
 Yes, my friend, you, too, need the lessons, for you have 
 done only from instinct that which now needs doing from 
 a calm, clear insight. Until the natural mother instinct 
 has been regenerated and born anew on a mental as well 
 as a spiritual plane ; until we learn to see how each deed 
 reacts upon a child's consciousness, revealing that of 
 
 28 
 
426 NEW-CHURCH CONGEESS 
 
 which we know nothing; until she can know and apply 
 the laws of spiritual and mental as well as bodily develop- 
 ment, a mother can not have more than a passing 
 glimpse of that heavenly blessedness which it is her 
 special privilege to hold in her mind, as well as ponder 
 in her heart. 
 
 Just as we read of that first garden whicK was 
 watered by a mist that "went up," so in Froebel's 
 " Paradise of Childhood " are dimly seen and gently felt 
 these truths which are the basis of all joyful, intelligent 
 living with children. Let me illustrate: The " Mother- 
 Play Book" opens with a picture of the mother who 
 feels her love and thought going out to her baby who 
 lies before her. Through her playful, rhythmical guid- 
 ing of the baby impulse to move, the little one comes 
 gradually to feel that there is something outside of 
 himself; that the indefinite, impulsive movement spring- 
 ing from within, is led to a definite purpose by some- 
 thing external to himself. To this feeling is added a 
 further presentiment, for the mother voice tells or sings 
 the story of the seed from which in the mill was made 
 the oil for the lamp which burns in the dark night, and, 
 like her love, is constant, yearning always for the child's 
 true growth. Baby, too, must come into the movement of 
 life, and with feeling and thought prepared for it, must 
 enter upon life's uses and stamp out the oil (the good) 
 for himself. . 
 
 In every play in this unique book, Froebel recognizes 
 that from the beginning of its developmont each sense, 
 each faculty is to be trained, not only to receive outer 
 benefits, but to express its inner affection in a definite 
 ultimate form; thus these eight uses of sensuous things 
 become " Fine steps whereby the queenly soul comes 
 down from her bright throne to view the mass she hath 
 dominion over.'' 
 
WOMAN IN THE OHDECH 427 
 
 To the law given by Moses has now come the Gospel 
 of Grace and Truth which have come from the Lord 
 Jesus Christ; and Froebel's "Science of Education" 
 offei's to every one, especially to every woman, an oppor- 
 tunity to learn this lesson from the heart and by heart. 
 It is time that every woman everywhere should recognize 
 the fact that it makes every difference what our babies 
 first see and hear and smell and taste and touch. It 
 makes a great deal of difference how our boys and girls 
 shall learn reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, his- 
 tory and literature. We are too ready to itake ''chances" 
 on our children's school experiences, and know too little 
 what should be done and what should be left undone. 
 So few women to whom little children come realize that 
 there is any science of education, or that a knowledge of 
 the laws of a child's mental and spiritual growth are 
 written in his actions. In all of the professions one 
 can now find help in almost any college in our land, but 
 our girls are still considered well educated when they 
 have mastered Greek, Latin, higher mathematics, even 
 though they know nothing of the psychology of child- 
 hood. The experiments of vivisecting and probing the 
 minds and hearts of our children still go bungling on, 
 and the old master's call, " Come let us live with the 
 children," is looked upon as a truism hardly worth utter- 
 ing. This scientific study of childhood is almost never 
 undertaken, except by those who expect to _teach as a 
 means of livelihood, and too often the larger number of 
 the teachers iii our public schools give no thought to it, 
 though the need of it is plainly to be seen every day by 
 those whose eyes have been opened. 
 
 Of all people to whom this study should be a delight, 
 the New-Church woman should find especial pleasure. 
 With eyes accustomed to look for spiritual counterparts, 
 
428 NEW-OHDECH CONGEESS 
 
 she would readily and eagerly see in it a new demon- 
 stration of that light and love which is making all things 
 new. To her especially should the old ways of dealing 
 with children's minds as vessels to be filled with dry facts 
 be recognized as inadequate and irrational. To her the 
 symbolic stage of childood has a special significance, and 
 our young girls, at least, should be taught those things 
 which make for an intelligent, holy appreciation of the 
 duties of motherhood ; for whether she ever has children 
 of her own or not, no woman lives who at some period of 
 her life is not likely to be called to minister to little 
 children; and of all pitiable sights, the woman who is 
 out of sympathy with childhood, who is -yet called by 
 the force of circumstances to this office, is one of the most 
 painful, and one for which at this day there is little 
 excuse. 
 
 In the motto of the song of the Flower Basket, Froebel 
 says: 
 
 " Try to give outward form to thonght; 
 
 That stirs a child's heart day by day; 
 For even a child's love left unsought, 
 
 Unfostered, droops and dies away." 
 
 So it is, I think, with this talent for "mothering" 
 children. It lies at the very core of every woman's life 
 in greater or less measure; what is needed is that it shall 
 be trained to a wise use. Unused power is wasted power, 
 and the joy which comes when we "work with the Lord 
 at the fountain head " (that is with the beginnings of a 
 child's life) only a mother or she who -stands in the 
 mother's place, can know. 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 429 
 
 VI 
 
 THE POSITION AND INFLUENCE OF WOMAN IN THE 
 RELIGIOUS WORLD 
 
 By MRS. T. r. HOUTS 
 
 The agitation of these questions in regard to woman's 
 rightful place in the world is itself proof t-iat her condi- 
 tions have hitherto been out of harmony with the true 
 order in which the human race was created. In a state 
 of true order each would find his and her own place and 
 work, with no conflict or thought of the superiority of the 
 one above the other, and with no disposition to define 
 and limit the sphere of the other's activities. It is only 
 necessary to refer to the facts of the past to prove the 
 importance of giving this question a fair and impartial 
 consideration, that we may be better fitted to deal with 
 the problems of the present and the issues that may arise 
 in the future. 
 
 The history of our race is not one continuous march 
 of progress and development. There have been revolu- 
 tionary changes, not only in the globe we inhabit, but in 
 the mental and moral structure of mankind. The Divine 
 Father has adapted His revelations as well as Providential 
 leadings, to the changed conditions, so as to avert evil 
 and lead to the greatest possible good. By looking into 
 the laws of adaptation we may see reasons why they are 
 not perpetual, and while this new age brings new 
 problems to the front, the treatment of which may help 
 or hinder progress in the near future, with which we are 
 the most closely connected; for the over-turning process 
 must go on until true order is attained. Can we find a 
 rational answer as to why woman has not always stood 
 at the side of man, — ^his true "helpmeet" and companion, 
 
430 NEW-CHUKCH CONGRESS 
 
 as in Eden ? We are told ttat there was perfect harmony 
 in their nature between the will and the understanding. 
 "Being also internal men, external objects were only of 
 interest and value as they led them to reflect on internal 
 and heavenly things, that thus their thought might be led 
 to the Lord, — their all in all. As their marriages were 
 their chief sources of happiness, they were led from them 
 to reflect on the celestial marriage of love and wisdom; 
 whence, and on this account, they called the understand- 
 ing in the spiritual man male and the will female, which 
 when acting in unity were spoken of as married. Prom 
 that church was derived a form of speaking which came 
 afterwards into general use, whereby the Church itself, 
 by reason of its affection for goodness, was called 
 "daughter," "virgin," and also "wife." (A. C. 54.) 
 
 When man had lost innocence, all the fashion of 
 the thoughts of his heart was only evil (Gen. vi: 5), and 
 he turned to the love of self and corporeal things. * "Then 
 man had no will, but mere lust instead of will, which is 
 supposed by him to be will and so called. The reason 
 why daughters signify the things of the will, and, where 
 there is no will, lust, and why sons signify the things of 
 the understanding, and where there is no understanding 
 of truth, phantasies, is because the female sex is such 
 and so formed that the will reigns in them more than the 
 understanding. . . . Whereas the male sex is so formed 
 that the intellect or reason rules. . . . Hence the mar- 
 riage of the two is as of the will and understanding in 
 every man; and since at this day there is no will of good 
 remaining, but only mere cupidity, and still something 
 intellectual or rational is capable of being communicated; 
 this is the reason why so many laws are enacted in the 
 Jewish church concerning the prerogative of the husband 
 (vir.) and the obedience of the wife." (A. C. 568.) 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHUKCH 431 
 
 This, it is to be noted, refers to the time previous to 
 the coming of the Lord, and the establishment of the 
 Christian Church, when there was no internal or spiritual 
 church, and the externals of worship were only repre- 
 sentative. And yet the Jewish Church had its wise 
 women — mothers in Israel, and prophetesses sometimes 
 raised up to be deliverers and avengers; — Huldah, to 
 whom King Josiah sent to inquire of the Lord, answered 
 the messengers with all the authority of a true and 
 recognized prophet; speaking both words of warning and 
 of comfort with the usual prophetic declaration, "thus 
 saith the Lord." The songs of Miriam and Hannah are 
 given as a part of the inspired Word. 
 
 All students of the New-Church writings know that, 
 after the fall, by woman is signified the Church as to the 
 proprium which it loved, and by the husband is denoted 
 the rational (principle) because in consequence of the 
 destruction of wisdom and intelligence, by eating of the 
 tree of knowledge, no higher principles remain." (A. C. 
 265.) That the representative character of woman 
 changes when different states of the Church and different 
 planes of the mind are treated of, is made clear in the 
 Writings. (A. C. 770 and 8,994) 
 
 Now we have entered upon a new age. The discus- 
 sion of this question grows out of the new order of 
 things. Now the proclamation has gone, and is going 
 forth, " Behold, I make all things new." Nowhere else 
 has this message come with such awakening and thtilling 
 power as into the heart of woman; and nowhere does it 
 meet such responses as with the Annas, who have waited 
 and worshiped in the courts of the temple night and 
 day, waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. In all the 
 world, especially the Christian world, women have been 
 waking up, shaking off, little by little, the thralldom of 
 ignorance and superstition, looking about for new fields 
 
432 NEW-CHUEOH CONGEESS 
 
 of activity, where these awakened faculties could come 
 into fuller play, — showing great eagerness for knowledge, 
 scientific, rational and spiritual, — and with the acquisi- 
 tion, earnestness and tact in adapting it to the uses of 
 life, and making it serve for practical good. 
 
 What, then, is to be woman's work and influence in 
 the religious world, in this new age the spirit of which is 
 abroad as the dawning of the morning of a new day f 
 It will not do to take a few paragraphs from the revela- 
 tions given to us, and apply the letter of them to meet 
 all cases, ignoring the broader spirit of the general 
 teachings of the Church. Neither can we judge from the 
 position the man of the Church has taken in the past; 
 for "every Church in its beginning becomes acquainted 
 only with the general principles of doctrine; for it is 
 then in its simplicity, or, as it were, in its childhood. In 
 the course of time it adds particulars, which are partly 
 confirmations of general principles, partly additions 
 which are not repugnant to the general principle, — and 
 also explanations, that open contradictions may be ana- 
 lyzed and not clash with what common sense dictates." 
 (A. C. 4,720.) And again: "The New Church in its 
 beginning will be external." (A. E. 403.) 
 
 How often in the past have isolated messages from 
 the Word of the Lord, applied in a natural and external 
 sense, been made to sanction the most malignant forms 
 of hatred, persecution and oppression, until, by the 
 broader spirit of a later age, the common perceptions of 
 justice given to those outside of the Church, these church- 
 men were led to read their own Scriptures in a new light, 
 and to see and acknowledge their errors. From the 
 present outlook it seems probable that other questions, 
 particularly those in regard to woman, are to be solved 
 in the same way. 
 
WOMAN IN THE OHCECH 433 
 
 Let UB turn now to the contemplation of a state of 
 true order as described in the Writings of the New Church. 
 In the true Church, the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, 
 love and truth are not to be separated. "The city was 
 pure gold, like unto pure glass, signifies, therefore, that 
 the all of that Church is the good of love flowing in with 
 light out of Heaven from the Lord . . . love formed by 
 the truths of wisdom." (A. E. 912.) "All the laws of 
 truth and rectitude flow from celestial principles, or from 
 the order of life of the celestiaj man, — in an especial 
 manner does the law of marriage." The law that there 
 shall be one husband and one wife was not only revealed 
 to the men of the most ancient Church, but also inscribed 
 on their internal man. "From the beginning of creation 
 God made them male and female." (Mark x: 5-9. 
 A. C. 163.) ^ 
 
 In the past it has been said the man represents the 
 Lord and the wife the Church; "the husband does not 
 represent the Lord and the wife the Church; because 
 both together — the husband and the wife — constitute the 
 Church." (C. L., 125.) That perfect and equal freedom 
 should be accorded to woman in the home is evidenced 
 from H. H. 369. " Every one, man as well as woman, 
 possesses understanding and will; but still with man the 
 understanding predominates, and with woman the will; 
 and the character of the person is determined by what 
 predominates. But in marriages in heaven there is no 
 predominance." "What is done from a principle of love 
 truly conjugal, this is done from freedom on both sides, 
 for all freedom is from love. To be willing to exercise 
 rule in marriage destroys genuine love, for it takes away 
 its freedom, thus also its delight. The delight of exer- 
 cising rule which succeeds in its place begets disagree- 
 ment and sets minds at enmity and causes evils to take 
 
434 NEW-CHUECH CONGRESS 
 
 root, according to the quality of dominion on one part 
 and the quality of servitude on the other." (A. C, 
 10,173.) 
 
 If freedom and equality are fundamental in a true 
 family life, they are not less the Divine order in true 
 Church life. " Who can be forced to believe and to love ? 
 The internal is so averse to force that it turns itself 
 away. The reason of this is that the internal wills to be 
 at liberty and loves liberty, for hberty is of one's love or 
 life. Therefore, when liberty perceives itself to be 
 forced, it withdraws itself, as it were, vrithin itself, and 
 averts itself, regarding force as its enemy; for the love 
 which makes a man's life is exasperated and causes him 
 to think that he is not his own. The reason why a man's 
 internal is such is grounded in the laws of the Divine 
 Providence of the Lord that a man should act from free- 
 dom according to reason." (D. P., 136.) 
 
 " The male and female were created to be the essential 
 form of the marriage of good and truth " (C. L. 100.) 
 AfEection, or the qualities specially embodied in woman 
 are needed in everything of religion, as is abundantly 
 illustrated in the following selections from the Arcana: 
 "When faith is disjoined from love, the desire of his 
 own praise or gain rules a man's heart and moves him to 
 speak." (A. C 712.) " The will comprehends in it 
 intellectual things, but the understanding does not com- 
 prehend in it those of the will." (A. C. 712.) " By truths 
 no one is in any sort instructed, but by the affection of 
 truths; for truths without affection flow indeed into the 
 ear like sound, but they do not enter into the memory; 
 what causes them to enter into the memory and remain 
 therein is affection." (A. C. 3,066.) "If there be no 
 affection, or, what is the same thing, no love, there would 
 not be any perception." " The Church is never predicated 
 of the intellect, but invariably of the will; for the 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHUECH 435 
 
 scientific or rational principle of faith by no means con- 
 stitutes the Church, or the man of the Church, these 
 being formed by charity, which belongs to the will, from 
 which is derived all that is essential. Thus neither do 
 doctrines constitute the Church, unless both generally 
 and particularly they have relation to charity. The 
 Church of the Lord, like the Kingdom of the Lord in the 
 heavens, has its ground solely in love and charity" 
 (A. C. 809.) " Science and knowledge are represented by 
 men, but affections by women. It is according to Divine 
 order that men should be in scientifics, but women solely 
 in affections." (A. C. 8,994.) 
 
 On the difPerent planes of life, woman's work will be 
 different and varied, as is illustrated by the comparison 
 of barbarous peoples. Woman's field of activity is graded 
 according to the degree of civilization attained. There 
 is every reason to expect an increase in the "diversity of 
 gifts" with both men and women as the infiuenee of the 
 new age advances. 
 
 If there were prophetesses in the Jewish Church, as 
 we have seen, and is also shown in Judges 4:4; and in 
 the early Christian Church, Acts 21:9; and if the history 
 of the Churches follows in successive order; when the 
 day of Pentecost comes again,— not in the exact form of 
 the first, but not the less really because on a more interior 
 plane, and from the reception of more interior truth, — is 
 it not to be expected that the accompanying gifts shall 
 rest equally upon men and women when it is directly 
 asserted (Joel 2: 28, 29) that in the "last days," when 
 the spirit is poured out upon all flesh, the daughters of 
 the Church shall prophesy? "To pour out the Spirit 
 upon them, is to instruct concerning truths; and to 
 prophesy denotes to teach and proclaim these truths." 
 (A. 0. 4,682.) 
 
436 NEW-OHUBCH CONGRESS 
 
 When this inspiration comps, or the Lord sends a 
 message of comfort, as He did to the sorrowing disciples 
 when He appeared first to woman after his resurrection 
 and said, " Go tell my brethren," — who shall fix rules as 
 to how and when and where the message should be 
 spoken ? Why may not woman be left free to follow the 
 instincts within her in finding her right place and work 
 in religious and in other fields ? Is not the law of her 
 God written upon her heart, teaching her through her 
 own interpretations of His revelations, by her perceptions, 
 and by her inclinations and adaptations, what she ought 
 and can best do f 
 
 " The intelligence of woman is in itself modest, 
 elegant, pacific, yielding, soft, tender." (C. L. 216.) 
 From the very structure of her nature, then, man is the 
 gainer from inviting and admitting womanly co-operation, 
 especially in all efforts to make religion practical, — where 
 truths are to be applied for the correction of the evils of 
 life. Here is a field requiring ready sympathy, unfailing 
 patience, steadfast faith, hope and courage and unceasing 
 effort. It has been recently said by a New-Church editor: 
 " The work of the woman is all of the heart, — she must 
 obtain her inspiration from the Divine love." It is equally 
 true that she must be instructed by means of the Divine 
 wisdom. It is for her also to delight in truth, and study 
 to know the truth, not for the sake of delighting the mind 
 with the sciences of truth, but for the good to be gotten 
 out of the practice of it, which is real wisdom. 
 
 Among all the organized efforts that women are 
 making for the suppression of intemperance and other 
 evils, and for Church uses at home and missionary work 
 abroad, I think there are few cases where it would not 
 be better for men and women to work together. In tem- 
 perance, for example, the work women are trying to do 
 for men and boys, in seeking, to remove external tempta- 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHUECB 437 
 
 tioDS, is much less effective than in working with them, 
 seeking to infuse nobler aspirations and draw out manly 
 qualities. While man will resent the first as an interfer- 
 ence with his freedom, he may welcome the influence 
 that will stir him to do the work for himself. 
 
 While we deprecate the exclusiveness and arrogance 
 man has shown in denying to woman the freedom and 
 equality before the law that he claims as his rightful inher- 
 itance, and the injury done to domestic and social life by 
 the organization of secret brotherhoods, and political, busi- 
 ness and social clubs without end, let us not try to correct 
 the evil by a counter movement in the same direction, and 
 resort to woman's clubs, where the interest and work will 
 tend to lessen the sympathy between men and women in 
 their home and social life. Let one great end be kept in 
 view, to elevate and purify the marriage relation, to 
 make home the seminary of heaven. The maternal 
 instinct will no doubt be intensified with the increased 
 reception of the influences of the new heaven and the 
 formation of the new earth, so that the love and care for 
 children will form the principal employment during a 
 considerable part of most women's lives, but not to the 
 exclusion of social and religious interests. 
 
 Woman will find her place more readily and do her 
 work better when man is willing to let her have the same 
 freedom he asks for himself. This is not saying that she 
 can or will want to do his work. Some may attempt it, 
 but will sooner find their error if left in freedom. Says 
 a well known New-Church writer: "There will be no 
 permanent rescue of woman from her sufferings and her 
 degradation until woman herself, indoctrinated into the 
 spiritual truths of the New Church, shall learn her true 
 position and office. She will then discover that her gen- 
 uine work is not to save herself, but to redeem man; and 
 that in her redemption of man she will most effectually 
 
438 NEW-CHTTHCH OONGEBSS 
 
 save herself and purify and elevate the social life of the 
 race. . . . Let her plunge her whole soul into 
 home duties and social reforms, into sanitation, education, 
 and personal and vital religion. . . . She 
 is in a deep sleep, disturbed by distressful dreams, from 
 ■which she can only be awakened by the light of the new 
 heavens which is faintly beginning to dawn upon the 
 earth. In that light, which is the light of the New 
 Church, man and woman are one and inseparable." (Dr. 
 W. H. Holcomb.) 
 
 VII 
 
 THE WOMANLY NATURE 
 MISS SELMA WARE PAINE 
 
 As the lapidary, when he tests his jewels, puts aside 
 those he knows are faultless, may we not, also, put aside 
 from discussion, the admitted propositions: First, that, 
 all other things being equal, the life of true marriage is 
 higher and fuller than the single life, and, second, that 
 the difference between men and women is innate, inerad- 
 icable and eternal? Then, as the jeweler selects some 
 brilliant gem that has a slight flaw, and says, "How 
 beautiful it is, even if it is not perfect;" so I should like 
 to have admitted that the single life lived aright offers 
 more opportunities for usefulness and joy than any one 
 being is able to improve. What is necessary is that 
 there be the marriage of good and truth within us. If it 
 is there, we are quite independent of present external 
 conditions. Life can flower and fruit in any. 
 
 Be the cause what it may, there are in our country 
 thousands of unmarried women. They are, many of 
 them, in the prime of their working activity, and must 
 have some outlet for their power besides the home-life of 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHDEOH 439 
 
 the wife and mother. They are perfectly happy and 
 contented. They only look out on the great world and 
 say, "I have my one, my three, my five talents given me. 
 My Lord is not a hard master. What shall I do so that 
 when he comes I shall hear, 'Well done, good and faith- 
 ful servant?'" What she shall do with her talents; that 
 is the question that confronts not only such, but every 
 living soul. 
 
 There is not room for this host of women in the 
 households of their married sisters. There the mother is 
 appointed to rear her children. Then again the children 
 grow, oh, so quickly; become themselves family centers, 
 and the mother has once more unused help to offer. To 
 this army are to be also added, the widows, and those, 
 happily few, whom their husbands cannot or will not sup- 
 port Nor is this the case in America only, — in nearly 
 every land of Europe there is a large class who are obliged 
 to join the breadwinners if they would have bread. 
 
 In the discussion of this question we have to consider 
 not only the fundamental doctrines as to the nature of 
 men and of women contained in Swedenborg's works, but 
 the application of them to existing conditions in- society. 
 The doctrine of "marriage love" is at the root of the sub- 
 ject, in every phase of it. But it is the nature of roots 
 to be hidden. Let the botanists study their construction, 
 if he will, but when he does this, the special plant he 
 studies must cease to live. At the root of our earthly 
 lives is the united action of heart and lungs. How exactly 
 they move without our heeding! Let the doctors, the 
 physiologists study their laws, but too great a conscious- 
 ness of their action prevents its perfection. 
 
 We are all men and women, it is true, but we are, also, 
 human beings in whom is the man and the woman. 
 Woman is not all will and man all understanding, or, if 
 we look at the deeper and higher celestial, men all good 
 
440 NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 
 
 and woman all truth. Each, man has will and under- 
 standing, each woman, also; or as Swedenborg expresses 
 it. No. 568 of the Arcana, she is " such and so formed 
 that will reigns more than the understanding." 
 
 We see glorious parallels to this everywhere. In the 
 old idea of the heavens, made to suit the Ptolemaic 
 system, we read of cherubim and seraphim. Each was 
 love and truth, but the seraphim had love in excess, the 
 cherubim, truth ; yet each was a perfect angel. 
 
 I know of no conception which the human mind is 
 able to grasp so overpoweringly lofty, as that of Sweden- 
 borg's Grand Man. Each world in the starry universe 
 peopled with beings different among themselves, and yet 
 BO alike in general that its world and its heaven must fill 
 one particular part in the harmonious whole, the Maximus 
 Homo, and can fill no other. Yet is each separate being 
 ia each separate sphere a whole in himself, or, in Sweden- 
 borg'a words, " In the most perfect form the whole is as 
 the parts, and the parts as the whole." If, in the 
 inhabitants of Mercury, the memory of things not 
 material is so marked that they are as memory to the 
 whole great man, yet each inhabitant has eye and ear and 
 heart to exercise. 
 
 It is on all our powers that the common exterior 
 duties of life make demand. In whatever is chosen the 
 woman will do it as a woman, the man as a man. The 
 wiser each one is, the more will she adjust her manifest 
 duty to her nature. To the man-soul, to the woman- soul is 
 given the great unquenchable freedom of choice between 
 good and evil; to each the judgment to decide what is 
 good or evil for him or her. If the judgment happens 
 to be weaker in any one or in all women, that does not 
 excuse her except as her free choice counsels her, in each 
 instance, to use that of a man. She must walk by the 
 light of her own prayerful, God-led reason just as she 
 
■woman in the CBTTllOH 441 
 
 must tread the earth by the light of her own earthly- 
 sight. With this freedom given the individual soul was 
 also given the obligation to use it. That can be neither 
 evaded or forced from her. "The will if it does not will 
 it, cannot be extinguished " says Dante. 
 
 It is often, nay, in the true sense, always, the privi- 
 lege of freedom that it serves voluntarily. Its highest 
 master is good and truth from the Lord; its next highest 
 master is what holds or interprets that good in a fuller 
 or a difPerent measure. It may be the husband that 
 does this for the wife, it may be the wife that does this 
 for the hiisband, and low indeed would be that nature 
 which would have anything but joy in being led by what 
 is higher. To recognize superiority is a burst of sun- 
 shine in life that warms it and makes it luminous. 
 
 It is, then, to the creature of will and understanding, 
 of good and truth, to the men and women alike that the 
 greater part of Swedenborg's instruction is given. 
 Again and again he reiterates the duties of human 
 beings, but very seldom does he distinguish between 
 those of men and women. 
 
 After the golden rule it is written, " For this is the 
 Law and the Prophets," — and after the two Great Com- 
 mandments " On these hang the Law and the Prophets." 
 The rest of the Bible teachings are but details of the 
 applications of these rules. They hold Religion itself. 
 Whatsoever good is at variance with them, is so only in 
 seeming. In all Religions, the essential, living part is 
 eternally true and of universal application. In the 
 Upanishads are truths that are illuminated Swedenborg. 
 Every human being that ever existed, that ever will exist, 
 can guide himself by the two great commandments forever 
 and ever. 
 
 Swedenborg has, also, points from which hang his 
 law and his prophets. His doctrine of use is certainly 
 
 29 
 
442 NEW-CHUECH CONGRESS 
 
 one. I think we wrong him deeply by applying any minor 
 detail of his instruction so as to conflict with his general 
 spirit. We take from the Diary: "Women can enun- 
 ciate with affection but not teach," and yet, again and 
 again, he dwells on the province of women in heaven in 
 teaching. It is also quoted: "Women who think like 
 men concerning religious things, speak much concerning 
 them, and still more, if they preach in assemblies, destroy 
 the womanly nature." May this not mean if they do it 
 "like men?'' That we agree is an abomination. 
 
 Often very fortunate is that woman whom her evident 
 use leads in what her world recognizes in her day as the 
 way of her womanly nature. It calls her, she must 
 follow. She treads a beaten path. A strong arm pro- 
 vides for her the shelter she loves. It holds her back 
 from the stifling dust of the mart, from the irksome toil 
 of money-getting. Her troubles come. They are of a 
 character men can understand. She struggles with them, 
 and if she is victor, those about her rise and call her 
 blessed. 
 
 But there are other women to whom their evident 
 use says, " You cannot walk in the common highway. 
 You are not most fit for that. You must pass, alone, 
 through the forest. You must climb this mountain. 
 You must descend into that dark and hidden valley." 
 Or, perhaps it says, "Not for you the quiet of a sheltered 
 home until you have earned it. For you, the glare of 
 the counting-house; for you to sweeten the fevered air of 
 the hospital; for you, to fix visions of beauty on canvas; 
 for you to use the power of command in overseeing 
 workmen; for you, to give in the pulpit the message that 
 burns within you." Her duty calls her, she must follow. 
 Perhaps the voice is stern and sounds like words of 
 exile. Perhaps it is pleasing to her ear. That makes 
 no difference. She is as worthy of honor as her sister 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHTJEOH 443 
 
 if she obeys; as unworthy, if she refuses. Of one thing 
 only let her beware, that she mistake not the voice. 
 
 Says Victor Hugo in grand verse that I fear I 
 render into stumbling prose: " When the evil and the 
 good couple that beset us, fixing on us their eyes, demand- 
 ing of us our aid, show to our steps two ways — one that 
 descends, one that mounts. . . . shame to the man 
 that does not choose. He who starts back may cause an 
 immense ruin. Great, little, God alone knows where 
 forco commences, alone where feebleness ends. When 
 the mountain gives way, the grain of sand, if it could 
 prevent the fall, is responsible for the crimes of the block 
 of granite." 
 
 The teaching is affirmed that the wife cannot enter 
 into the proper duties of the husband; but jast what all 
 those proper duties in their superficial form may be for 
 each, time must decide by its need. One thing is certain, 
 nothing can ever reverse the primal love of the wife for 
 husband and child. This is the essential; the point 
 from which the law and prophets hang, but the new 
 ways in which she can best serve them with that love, 
 thought and experience show her as the centuries pass. 
 
 Is it not of the first importance that we recognize the 
 temporal, the accidental, and accommodate ourselves to 
 that under higher laws ? The world moves always in its 
 changeless course around the sun, but on earth the sea- 
 sons come and go and no two are alike. In some years 
 our battle with the cold must be longer than in others, 
 and we must lay in more abundant store. There is thus 
 ever new variety under old perfect laws. There is a 
 constant creation of new needs. Old forces must fill 
 tiiem, and we almost always find these forces are wait- 
 ing, throbbing with repressed activity. 
 
 That only can be the perfect Religion that holds in it 
 fidelity to the eternal and adaptability to the new needs 
 
444 NEW-OHUKCH CONGEESS 
 
 of life. How, tried by this standard, the Divine Evan- 
 gels shine out, how the Epistles take a second rank. 
 Nowhere in the Gospels is the place of woman prescribed 
 or limited. To her is each of its everlasting teachings. 
 She must not receive her seed among thorns or in stony 
 places. 
 
 New-Churchmen have been accused of considering 
 their Religion the best of all. I can not enter into the 
 thought of the man who made the criticism. Is not 
 the Religion of every man that which he believes to have 
 the most of truth ? Is it not absolutely necessary to the 
 existence of the soul that it hold itself open to the truth 
 from whatsoever quarter it may come? If I sincerely 
 thought Mohammedanism offered me the highest good, 
 ought I not to be a Mohammedan to-morrow, nay, am I 
 not one from the moment I recognize its superiority? So 
 to us who belong to the New Church because it appears 
 to us as the highest, we are filled with fear least our lives 
 bear no evidence to its priceless gift. 
 
 We think of the glory of its positive teachings; that 
 it builds up so much and tears down so little. We 
 think of the sublimity of its story of the universe; of its 
 explanation of the Divine Humanity. We think of its 
 implicit trust in Divine Providence which makes beautiful 
 life and death and all before and after. We think of the 
 grand simplicity of daily living when we know that faith 
 cannot exist without good works. We think of the inex- 
 pressible meaning and extension of Correspondences, illum- 
 inating the dark, revealing the hidden, and harmonizing 
 the contradictory; covering what is too fine for us to touch, 
 tempering what is too dazzling for us to see, and protect- 
 ing the holy, descending to the least, rising to the highest 
 and binding all together — and almost faint with unutter- 
 able gratitude we say "We have a goodly heritage." 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 445 
 
 It is on this account we would wish to have stripped 
 from our ideas of the Church all that would hamper any 
 living soul. It is dreadful when the conscience stands 
 on one side and the directions of the Church on the other: 
 when the one says, " This;" the other, " That." Be sure 
 if it happens the Church is misinterpreted or misunder- 
 stood. Follow the spirit of the two Great Commandments. 
 Follow Swedenborg's larger teachings. Do not hide 
 yonr talent — and if a humble, reverent and prayerful 
 soul, with an eye single to the truth, be yours, man or 
 woman, you can not go far astray. 
 
 Today is the fourteenth of September. My thoughts 
 are led to the great Dante, the anniversary of whose 
 death it is. I think of his Paradise. I think of his 
 regal intellect, his mighty genius, his perfect faith 
 struggling in a loyalty at once pathetic and sublime 
 with the truth the Church received in his age. What 
 incomparable ingenuity he shows to reconcile the love of 
 God with the explanation his Church gave of the atone- 
 ment. He does wonderfully well, but, thinking of it, 
 my unutterable gratitude grows deeper yet for the truth 
 that has been given our day. Oh! may the Church never 
 trammel it by the shadow even of a dogmatic chain! 
 
 VIII 
 
 THE MINISTRY OF GENTLENESS 
 BY MISS EDNA 0. SILVER 
 
 If we go back 3,000 years we find one of the most 
 remarkable characters in song or story — the classic deity, 
 Minerva. Gradually evolved from the pagan mind in a 
 period of unknown antiquity, she was vivified and 
 strongly individualized by the genius of Homer, and 
 
446 NEW-CHUKCH CONQEESS 
 
 became truly an immortal. The Greek philosophers 
 looked upon her as symbolic; Homer's conception of her 
 is more diflBcult to solve; but one thing is certain, within 
 the panoply of the warrior maiden, beneath the super- 
 natural authority of the goddess, one detects the woman. 
 She was a celibate, but not from asceticism. Most of 
 the Olympian divinities were Epicureans, none were 
 Stoics; three — Minerva, Apollo and Diana — were dis- 
 tinguished by purity of life. Closely allied to this 
 characteristic was another, a quality which is almost 
 more of the heart than of the head, viz: keen moral 
 perception; hence Homer's reiterated description, "clear- 
 eyed Minerva." 
 
 Observe her introduction in the Odyssey where her 
 earliest solicitude is a wifely one. She makes a plea for 
 the home; her heart is distressed at its invasion by the 
 intrusive suitors, at its loss through the absence of 
 Ulysses detained by- Calypso. 
 
 Note a second phase of her character. While pos- 
 sessing regal power, scarcely second to that of Jupiter, 
 and holding time and space under supernatural control, 
 she is still seen at her best when presiding as a sort of 
 pagan guardian angel over the young Telemachus. 
 Other deities, even the wholly perverted Venus, can pro- 
 tect mortals from physical danger; Minerva saves from 
 moral danger also. She coaxes, pets, chides, instructs, 
 warns, encourages and inspires Telemachus in truly 
 motherly fashion. She does not uniformly appeal to the 
 higher motives as would a Christian guardian angel; 
 nevertheless paganism was striving toward an ideal 
 motherhood in Minerva's approximately enlightened 
 ministry of gentleness. 
 
 Not far from the time when the Grecian bard was 
 singing the praises of Olympus, the Hebrew psalmist 
 was singing the praises of heaven in inspired verse. In 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHDRCH 447 
 
 depicting the glories of victory, David exclaims, "Thy 
 gentleness hath made me great;" (Psalm xxii:36.); a 
 striking acknowledgment from the lips of the warrior 
 king of the Divine source of all real strength. 
 
 A thousand years later the world saw this quality of 
 gentleness exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ, a life 
 whose luminous beauty stands in vivid relief against a 
 background of violence and hate. With all power in 
 heaven and in earth, He appeared neither in the wind 
 nor in the earthquake, but under the gentle guise of 
 infancy, leading men later by the ministry of lowly serv- 
 ice, gentle teaching and kindly touch; laving the tired 
 feet; pointing to the humility and ingenuousness typi- 
 fied by the child; laying his hands in blessing on the 
 little ones. The terms of childhood lingered on his lips; 
 at the "Last Supper" He called the sturdy fisherman His 
 "little children." (John xiii:33.) 
 
 His spirit lingered when the bodily life ceased. The 
 character of the early Christians was warmed and soft- 
 ened by the sunshine of the Divine Presence, so that even 
 paganism paid tribute to this spiritual element, exclaiming, 
 " See how these Christians love one another," while Eoman 
 civilization aided Christianity in partly subduing the 
 sterner nature of mankind. But gradually the Christ- 
 life among the people grew feebler, and the infusion of 
 Northern barbarism revived the turbulent spirit, so that 
 brute force again gained sway. 
 
 Now this superior physical power gave men, in contra- 
 distinction to women, a great advantage. As it was con- 
 stantly called into requisition, and was at a premium, 
 those who chiefly possessed it formed a strongly dominant 
 element. This same empire of force also governed the 
 relation of men to each other, making the unarmed peas- 
 antry tributary to the mail-clad baron. It must not be 
 forgotten that brute force was in many ways used benefi- 
 
448 ISEW-CHUECH CONGKESS 
 
 cently, as in the industrial arts; but found an enormous 
 outlet in organized military life, or in independent fight- 
 ing, so that violence and unrest crowd the annals of those 
 days. 
 
 Gentleness, although holding minor sway, still found 
 expression. When the warrior, bruised and torn and help- 
 less, was borne home, loved ones were there to undo some 
 of the harm wrought. It was precisely the recognition 
 of this softer element that constituted chivalry at its best; 
 it was a tribute to gentleness and tenderness in an age of 
 war and turbulence. It gave great impetus to — in fact 
 I think it created — the worship of the Virgin Mary; 
 especially as the Deity of mediaeval theology — a God of 
 justice rather than of mercy — scarcely touched the finer 
 sympathies. 
 
 As the centuries rolled on, brute force diminished in 
 value. Water and wind were more and more used for 
 motive power, and the triumph of mind over matter 
 increased. To-day water power only holds its sway by 
 being itself converted into electrical energy. Thus more 
 subtle physical forces are gaining the ascendant over 
 lower, while simultaneously the presence of invisible 
 forces on a still higher plane is becoming more and more 
 manifest. 
 
 Now in this subordination not primarily of brute force 
 to higher material force, but of all material forces to the 
 sway of finer spiritiial forces, religious, ethical and social; 
 in this subordination lies woman's opportunity for 
 extended service. Her privilege is hereby vastly 
 increased for fostering the better elements of human 
 life — keenness of sympathy, clearness of intuition, quick- 
 ness of response; all these are urgently demanded as 
 never before. There is the same tremendous unrest now 
 as in the earlier days, only it is transferred from the 
 physical to the mental plane; therefore into greater 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 449 
 
 requisition come repose and steadfastness of spirit and 
 all womanly gentleness. This added opportunity is no 
 cause for self -elation; it is only another Scriptural talent 
 to be finally rendered up with usury. 
 
 At the same time woman's outward territory of use- 
 fulness is constantly enlarging. Once, she mitigated the 
 horrors of war almost wholly in her own house, whether 
 castle or hut, by nursing the wounded warrior. Now, a 
 large field of organized work in this direction is open to 
 her. Florence Nightingale entered it early, when moral 
 courage and resolute will most supplement sympathy and 
 skill. Later came increased perfection of organization 
 and wonderful executive ability under Clara Barton, also 
 serving sufferers by earthquake, fire and flood. 
 
 But I wish to draw attention especially to work in 
 which the motherly element in woman finds expression. 
 The care of child- widows in India by Madame Eamabai, 
 co-operation for the prevention of cruelty to children, all 
 kindergartening, primary school instruction, Sunday- 
 school instruction, Day Nurseries, assistance in Orphan- 
 ages, aiding Working Girls' Clubs, the service of female 
 physicians among homeless girls. Mothers' Meetings, 
 where the educated woman works indirectly for children 
 by instructing the untutored mother; the labor in the 
 Woman's Christian Temperance Union to save young 
 men from the perils of the saloon, the efforts through 
 the White Cross Society to build higher the legal safe- 
 guards around young girls — all this is simply the func- 
 tion of motherhood enlarged; home, or the love of home, 
 should be the inspiring center of it all. 
 
 As by the University Extension System, our higher 
 institutions are reaching out friendly aid to those at a 
 distance, so a Home Extension System is forming itself 
 by a natural and half unconscious process. A strong 
 current is setting out from the home into the world, and 
 
450 HEW-OHUECH CONGRESS 
 
 women are being borne on its tide, while conscientious 
 people are asking, Shall this current be checked, or 
 encouraged, or wisely directed ? I have only endeavored 
 to answer this by studying her relation to philanthropy. 
 
 The subject of the Woman's Movement, approached 
 from the direction I have taken, seems to me to resolve 
 itself under two chief heads — Woman as a Mother, 
 literal or representative, and Woman in her relation to 
 Man. Eegarding the former of these two vital relations, 
 I would emphasize the point that the maternal attitude 
 toward the young, the tempted or the friendless, should 
 in no degree supplant or weaken the direct home-life of 
 the worker herself ; the best vitality should of course be 
 given to those nearest and dearest. No power of hers 
 will ever be so potent as that exercised upon the plastic 
 and sensitive nature of her own child; a nature of which 
 she should possess the most sympathetic interpretation. 
 
 But the heart may be larger than the home. The 
 key-note of all that is best in modern public effort is that 
 love of God which finds new and more extended expres- 
 sion in love toward humanity irrespective of creed or 
 race or nation. The ear of home must be more finely 
 trained to detect the cry of need beyond the threshold, 
 the eye of home must be keener to see the way hither, 
 the heart of home must be warmer to respond with 
 sympathy, the mind of home must be better educated to 
 decide wisely, the hand of home must be more skillful to 
 fulfill the need. The tendency in this direction on the 
 part of both men and women is simply that large and 
 inclusive unselfishness which we call pubUo spirit, and of 
 which the Divine love is the inspiring force. 
 
WOMAN IN THE OHOROH 451 
 
 IX 
 
 THE FEMININE IN THE CHURCH 
 
 BT MISS MARY A. LATHBDET 
 
 It is useless to ignore the fact that there is now in 
 progress a movement among women which is growing in 
 breadth and momentum with every added year. It has 
 been recognized for several decades, chiefly by the char- 
 acter of its surface agitations and counter- currents. It 
 marks the confluence of the old with the new in the 
 stream of the Ages. The real movemient has been on a 
 much more interior plane of life. Wherever this interior 
 movement has been felt, it has, as a rule, been sacredly 
 guarded and held in abeyance for a riper time. As Mary 
 "kept all things and pondered them in her heart," so the 
 woman of the Church, feeling the tremendous pressure 
 of a descending life within her, has waited for Him who 
 "openeth and no man shutteth" to set before her an open 
 door. 
 
 The question in the air is, "What shall we do, or be, 
 or claim in the New- Church Societies? Shall we teach, 
 preach, legislate?" These things are propounded for 
 women, but not by her. With me the question is a far 
 deeper one, and concerns her life as a whole, rather than 
 as a half. Her question is, "Are we, the women of the 
 New Church, ready for the coming of the Lord? We 
 form half the channel for the descent of a New and 
 Celestial Church. If by disuse we have become atro- 
 phied, or by misuse we have become selfish, and worldly, 
 what shall we do to make ready for the Lord?" 
 
 As the Lord looks upon the Church, does he see a 
 form of truth alone, or does he see her as a bride adorned 
 for her husband? "The marriage of the Lamb is come;" 
 has the wife made herself ready ? Is the love principle 
 
452 NEW-CH0RCH CONGRESS 
 
 in the Chiirch. of equal growth with its intellectual life ? 
 If not, she is not ready. It is for the womanhood of the 
 Church to pray with a deeper humility, "Thy will be 
 done," if we would see the fulfillment of the prayer, "Thy 
 Kingdom , come. " 
 
 Perhaps we have lived too much in the external and 
 social life of the societies, and too little in the Church in 
 the atmosphere of the Word. Or we have not dared to 
 assume that the celestial life of the Church could descend 
 through us in any least degree, and so we have been con- 
 tent with external living, when we should have been look- 
 ing to the internal life. Perhaps we are not ready; but 
 heaven is coming, and shall we not at least open our- 
 selves, as the flower opens heavenward to receive 
 sunlight, shower and dew, to receive whatever heaven 
 sends ? 
 
 Perhaps we have lived in the house at Bethany, and 
 have been active and loving in our service with Martha; 
 or we have been sitting at the feet of the Divine Truth 
 with Mary, or following Him to minister to Him and to 
 hear His Word, as women have done through all the 
 spiritual states of the Church. But now what if our 
 state is changing? What if the Lord is calling us by 
 name after the resurrection ? He said " Mary !" And 
 by an interior perception we reply with her " Master!" 
 There is no explanation of the new state, for it is one in 
 which there is the perception of love. " He is risen 
 from the dead, and behold, he goeth before you into 
 Galilee; there ye shall see Him," is the angel's message; 
 and the Lord Himself, who meets our obedience and 
 faith, adds, "Be not afraid; go tell my brethren that 
 they go into Galilee, and there shall they see Me." 
 
 Can it be that He is saying these things to us? The 
 Lord has ascended all the steps of the spiritual degree, 
 and conquered in the awful conflict with his enemies and 
 
WOMAN IN THE CHUECB 
 
 453 
 
 ours. Now He is descending through the celestial degree 
 into the natural, and it is the woman who has been wait- 
 ing in the early dawn for the stone to be rolled away, 
 who first enters into a perception of His risen life, and 
 receives His message to His disciples. " Love enables 
 truth to perceive.'' And the Church will reply, " The 
 Lord is risen indeed!" if it does not add, "and hath 
 appeared unto Mary." 
 
 If this sounds like a plea for woman that ehe may 
 preach the Gospel of a New Life, it is not meant to con- 
 vey any such external meaning. It only suggests that 
 the woman who follows the Lord through the long battle 
 with self and sin; through the humiliation, death and 
 burial; may come into a new state. And is not the 
 whole Church entering upon that state? In the very 
 morning, while it is yet dark, she may be the first to 
 hear the voice of Divine Love, and the first to announce 
 that tie Lord is risen to the other disciples. She tells 
 it to Peter and John, to faith and love, and they tell it to 
 the rest. The message is just as new cs it ever was. To 
 the perception of love it is given to say: "Go tell My 
 brethren that the Celestial Church is descending into the 
 natural degree of life." It is for love to teach in love's 
 way. " Man believes that truth enables him to perceive 
 what is good, because it teaches ; but this is an appear- 
 ance. It is good that enables truth to perceive, for good 
 is the soul or life of truth. Man believes that tru'h 
 introduces to good when he lives according to the truths 
 he has learned, but it is good that flows into truth, and 
 introduces it to itself." (A. C, 3,207.) 
 
 If then we have any perception of the New Life 
 what have we to do but to be obedient to the heavenly 
 vision, the heavenly will ? We need not fear. No mes- 
 sage of His will ever send us away by ourselves to form 
 a separate Church, and so form interests separate from 
 
454 NBW-CHUECH CONGKESS 
 
 those of the brethren. No, He sends us to them and bids 
 us wait with them in the "upper room" until we shall be 
 "endued with power from on High," — ^the double baptism 
 of the spirit and fire. 
 
 It is a time of perplexity for the women of the Church, 
 who must grow with it or fail out of it (for she may be 
 included in its external form while lacking its life). In 
 the clamor outside of her she hears very little that helps 
 her. A great English novelist has said: "The unadult- 
 erate truth is only to be had by faith in it and by waiting 
 for it." There seems to be little else for us to do beyond 
 the faithful performance of known duty, except to be 
 found daily in the "upper room" with those who worship 
 the Lord and wait for His coming. 
 
mf