3ffrnm tlj? ICtbrarg of ProfpfiHor i?njamtn llmkutrftg* Jiarftclfc Ipqufattjpb bg Ijtm tn % IGtbrarg nf Jlrinreton (tliwjltigtral §>pmittarg 8731 -C55.8 G39 I biles, Chauncey, 1813-1893. Why I am a New Churchman Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/whyiamnewchurchmOOgile WHY I AM A NEW CHURCHMAN. BY THE REV. CHAUNCEY felLES, AUTHOR OF "MAN AS A SPIRITUAL BEING," "THE INCARNATION AND ATONE- MENT," 11 HEAVENLY BLESSEDNESS," 11 THE SECOND COMING OF THE LORI>," " PERFECT PRAYER," "THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN," ETC., ETC. PHILADELPHIA: AMERICAN NEW CHURCH TRACT AND PUBLICATION SOCIETY, Twenty-Second and Chestnut Streets. 1890. INTRODUCTION. The members of the New Church are often asked to give the reasons for their faith. Why are you a New Churchman ? What is your be- lief? How do your doctrines differ from those of other churches ? Do you believe in the Bible as the Word of God? In the Divinity of Jesus Christ ? You take the writings of Swedenborg instead of the Bible, do you not? These and many other questions of a similar character, showing entire ignorance or a total misconcep- tion of the position and principles of the New Church, are often asked. When the interest is more than an idle curiosity, a concise statement of our doctrines and the reasons for accepting them are requested. This little work has been written in answer to this demand. The writer has given it a some- what personal form, though not from any per- sonal motives, in the hope that it might be more iii INTRODUCTION. interesting than a dry doctrinal statement. He has endeavored to present the motives which led him from the common faith of the orthodox churches, and the reasons that have had an irre- sistible influence in inducing him to accept the doctrines of the New Church. He has touched only the most important sub- jects, and has been compelled to treat them in the briefest manner, to keep the work within the smallest limits compatible with the purpose for which it was written. He has been able, in many instances, to do but little more than give a concise statement of a doctrine, and a few hints of the reasons which confirm it, when a thousand particulars could have been adduced which throw light upon it and show its relations to other well-known principles, making of the whole a coherent and harmonious system. The book is more a suggestion than a complete treatise; but a suggestion, it is hoped, that points to the writings of the New Church, and to the "Word and the works of the Lord, in which every principle, doctrine, and fact is clearly revealed. The author has tried to keep within the lines of general truths and leave them to testify in INTRODUCTION. V their own behalf, rather than to appeal to the opinions of men, believing that it is only in its own light that the truth can he clearly seen. " In Thy light shall we see light." It is with the hope that this little treatise may give some help in answering questions and correcting misconceptions concerning the New Church and removing groundless prejudices against it, that it has been written. It may also be useful in encouraging those who are becom- ing interested in the new truths to persevere in the study of them, with the assurance that the more they know of them the more confirmed they will become in the certainty that they are the laws of spiritual life. It' these hopes of service are realized, the friends of the New Church can extend the use of the book by keeping copies of it to hand to those who are inquiring with any interest concerning the truths of the new faith. With these suggestions the little book is com- mended to the members of the New Church, and to all who desire to gain a clear and certain knowledge of the Lord, of their own spiritual nature, and of the laws of spiritual life by which vi INTRODUCTION.. alone they can attain their highest and most sub- stantial good. With the sincere prayer that the truths set forth in the reasons, " Why I am a New Churchman," may be of as much service to others as they have been to the author, he com- mends the little book to all who are seeking for light and rest. WHY I AM A NEW CHURCHMAN. A NEW STATEMENT OF THE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTI- ANITY DEMANDED. There has never been a time in the history of Christianity when there was so loud a call for a clear and positive statement of the essential principles of religion as the present. It is the demand of a deep-felt and honest want. It does not originate in hostility to a pure, spiritual Christianity. It is a hunger and thirst of the soul "for hearing the words of the Lord;" for doctrines derived from the whole of Sacred Scripture, doctrines which are in strict accord- ance with natural laws, satisfactory to enlight- ened reason, and conducive to the harmonious and continuous development of man's spiritual faculties and the attainment of his highest natural and spiritual good. It is a desire for a knowledge of God and of man's spiritual nature and destiny that the doctrines of religion as 7 8 A NEW STATEMENT OF THE DOCTRINES generally taught do not and cannot Batisfy. It is not limited to a few exceptional cases. It pervades the churches and the world, the clergy as well as the laity. It is in the air. It is a presence and power moving the hearts and the intellects of men and women in all conditions of life. NEW TESTS OP DOCTRINE AND INSPIRATION. The first effect of such a power must he a disturbance of old and cherished beliefs. It calls them up for a rehearing, and demands a rational answer to new questions and the means of satisfying new wants. There is abundant evidence that some new and pervading power is operating upon the minds of the Christian world. Every doctrine of Christianity is sub- jected to the keenest scrutiny. The vast re- sources of historical and scientific knowledge are brought to bear upon it by minds thor- oughly equipped with every weapon of offence and defence and skilled in all the arts of criti- cism and dialectics. The Sacred Scriptures, the source of Christian doctrine, have been exam- ined in the light of history and science, phi- OF CHRISTIANITY DEMANDED. 9 losophy, and reason, with results that, to say the least, have greatly modified the opinions con- cerning their Divine authenticity and the abso- lute truth of the doctrines derived from them. EFFECT OF THE NEW KNOWLEDGE. The inevitable result lias been the weakening of confidence in the complete and final truth of the doctrines of Christianity as they have been taught and generally accepted. There is a prevalent feeling in the churches of every name, and especially in those which contain the great- est number of intelligent people, that the doc- trines embodied in the creeds of Christendom do not meet the wants of the present time. They do not remove honest doubts; they do not give the people who accept them strength to bear the burdens of labor and sorrow, and light to guide them in the intricate and perplexing paths of duty; and they fail to provide them with the means of continual advancement into new knowledge concerning their most important interests. They are not taught in the distinct affirmative and emphatic manner they formerly were. They are not taught so much as the 10 A NEW STATEMENT OF THE DOCTRINES words of the Lord as human opinions, and, in many cases, as opinions ahout which the teachers themselves have grave douhts. The prophets speak in a weak and uncertain voice, and there is a growing disposition in the people to question the truth of their teachings. The shepherds give an uncertain call ; the people are bewildered and hesitate to follow them. THE REVISION OF CREEDS NO REMEDY. Some doctrines have become obsolete, or are so far out of harmony with the spirit of the age that they are allowed to lie dormant. Others are supposed to need important modifications. In answer to this demand theologians are discussing the necessity of revising their creeds and forms of worship to adapt them to the wants of the growing intelligence of the people. But it is justly feared by many that such a movement will be attended with extreme danger to the whole system of doctrine ; that when a beginning is made no one can tell where it will end. The most fearless propose only some modification in the terms of expression ; a softening of the tone, keeping some of the hardest points in abeyance OF CHRISTIANITY DEMANDED. 1 1 and bringing those which are more in accordance with the humane and rational spirit of the times into greater prominence. ~No one proposes a now garment, hut only some patches to mend the rents or conceal the defects of the old. But the new wine of spiritual truth, which is fer- menting in so many minds, creating discontent with the old, and awakening an irrepressible desire for larger and clearer knowledge of the Lord, the principles of |iis government, and the methods of accomplishing His purposes, cannot be preserved in the old bottles. Every attempt to do it will fail. Those who expect any per- manent relief from such partial and temporary means will be disappointed. THE ORIGIN AND DIRECTION OP THIS MOVEMENT. The religious world is in a transition state. The movement is towards a new and more cen- tral position from winch to regard all questions relating to man's spiritual nature and- destiny, towards a new and a distinctly higher and clearer knowledge of God, of man, of their relations to each other; of the spiritual world and the means by which man is to attain supreme happiness, 12 A NEW STATEMENT OF THE DOCTRINES the end for which lie was created. The power that is brooding over the hearts and intellects of the Christian world, awakening them to new life and moving them to new activity, is not a local, superficial, and temporary influence. It has its origin in the Lord, and springs up from the inmost deeps of man's nature. It is the dawning of a new day of spiritual knowledge and life. It is a new coming of the Lord in the power and glory of new truth to fulfil His prom- ises, to perform His purposes of love to men and answer the prayer He taught His people to offer that " His kingdom may come and His w ill be done on the earth as it is in the heavens." It is with the purpose and hope of contrib- uting my mite to allay the fears of those who can see nothing in the decay of old beliefs, and the strenuous demands for a rational knowledge of spiritual truth, but danger to religion and all that is good and true in human life, and of showing in clear light to those who are famish- ing with hunger for the bread which gives life and satisfies ever)' want of the affections, and to those fainting with thirst for the living water which the Lord freely offers to all, where they can find OF CHRISTIANITY DEMANDED. 13 the good and the truth that will satisfy all their wants, and how they can gain new life for their affections and new light for the illumination of their understandings, — it is with this hope and purpose that I offer the following reasons — WHY I AM A NEW CHURCHMAN. Having passed through the most important phases of belief and unbelief, in the transition from the old and common belief of the Chris- tian world to an entirely new and distinct faith upon all questions relating to man's spiritual nature and relations to the Lord, — a faith which is orthodox, evangelical, and catholic in the strict- est and largest meaning of the terms, and which satisfies all the wants of my reason, understand- ing, and affections ; in a word, all the wants of my spiritual nature, — it seemed to me that a plain statement of the doctrines which I now hold without the shadow of a doubt and with every faculty of my mind, and my reasons for accepting them as the guide of my life and the basis of my hopes of eternal happiness, might be of service to others; of warning if, in their judgment, I have gone dangerously astray ; of 2 14 NEGATIVE GROUNDS FOR CHANGE OF FAITH. encouragement, aid, and hope in attaining the same or greater light and deeper rest, if they are found to accord with the Word of the Lord, with enlightened reason, and to be helpful to a truer and purer life. „ THE FIRST STEP. The question why I am a New Churchman has a negative as well as a positive aspect. A rational answer requires the cause which im- pelled me to give up the prevalent faith of what is claimed to he evangelical Christianity and seek for something else. The reasons can be stated in a few words. I could not believe the doctrine that was commonly held and taught concerning the nature of heaven and hell, and the purely arbitrary manner in which the right- eous and wicked were separated and adjudged, the one to eternal happiness, the other to eternal misery. I could not believe that the happiness of heaven consisted in eternal worship or that the torments of hell were caused by the stings of remorse or constant burning. It seemed to me to be contrary to man's nature to be satisfied with the eternal monotony of song, and impos- DESPAIR OF FINDING THE TRUTH. 15 sible for a spiritual being to be tormented with material fire, or for a being whose conscience was scared to be excruciated with the pangs of remorse. I could not believe that the Lord would ever exclude any person from heaven who desired to live there, or that a corrupt and wicked man could find his happiness in the employment of the heavenly inhabitants. The whole system seemed to me to be contrary to the character of God and the nature of man. THE SECOND STEP. Doubts having been raised about the truth of one doctrine, they led to the examination of other doctrines and doubts about their truth. I did not doubt because I desired to do so. On the contrary, I clung to every point of the old faith with the greatest tenacity. I clung like a drowning man to the last plank, until I was torn from it, or it failed me and I sunk into the depths of despair. I have no language that is adequate to express the darkness and horror and agony of the state I lived in, if it could be called living, I'm' years. One hope alone sus- tained me. I did not doubt the existence, the 16 JOY AT THE DAWNING LIGHT. wisdom and goodness of God. It was as im- possible for me to do that as it was to believe the representation of His character and conduct towards men as expressed in the doctrines of the prevalent churches. While I had an un- doubted conviction that these doctrines were not true, I had no hope of finding any others, and I settled down to the duties and necessities of life with the purpose of faithfully doing my work and awaiting whatever the future might have in store for me. A RAY OF LIGHT. In this state of darkness and negation, the doctrines of the New Church found me, as it seemed to me then, by the merest accident, but as I have since learned to know and believe, by the Providence and infinite mercy of the Lord. They came at first as a ray of light which ex- cited interest and attention. Whether it was a solitary ray that gave a little light on one special subject and was limited to that, or a star that was to usher in a new morning and a new day, I did not know. But it was precious in itself, and I rejoiced in it. It exactly satisfied one of my wants, and awakened sufficient in- JOY AT THE DAWNING LIGHT. 17 terest to lead me to follow it. It was a grain of gold in a bed of sand, which suggested a vein of precious ore in the mountains. As T followed the stream in whose current it had been borne down to the place where it was deposited, I saw increasing evidence that it came from a rich and inexhaustible source. To change the figure, the light constantly in- ci eased. It was not a solitary ray. It came from a central sun. Special truths harmon- ized and threw light upon one another. Each one was seen to be a part of a rational and ordered system. Confidence was increased and the way of progress become assured. Mysteries with regard to man's spiritual nature, which had been involved in impenetrable darkness, began to give up their secrete. Problems which I had supposed to be beyond the reach of the human mind to solve, began to yield to the power of the new truths and assume rational forms. The darkness that brooded over the chaos of con- flicting opinions was gradually dispersed; the illusions and fallacious appearances with which the natural mind invests and perverts the form and nature of spiritual truth were gradually b 2* 18 SPIRITUAL LAW, THE DIVINE METHOD. dispelled. I could truly say, " "Whereas I was blind, now I see." PRESENCE AND IMMUTABILITY OF SPIRITUAL LAW. As I advanced in the knowledge of the new truths, I saw that the laws of spiritual life originate in the Divine nature ; that they are the methods by which infinite wisdom carries into effect the purposes of infinite love, and conse- quently that they must inhere in the nature of spiritual substances and forces, be intimately related, essentially connected, and immutable in their nature and modes of action. I saw that God cannot act from ignorance, or caprice, or anger, or in an arbitrary way like a human autocrat. So I began to look for order in the appearances of disorder, for an unalterable, steady, and consistent purpose by the wisest means, where human life appears upon the sur- face to be the subject of chance and caprice. I found it, at first imperfectly and faintly, but with constantly increasing clearness and assur- ance, until now.it is as impossible for me to doubt the new truths as it was formerly to be- lieve the old. They are demonstrated as clearly IN WHAT SENSE CAN A TRUTH BE NEW? 19 as any problem in mathematics. They differ from natural science in this : While they carry the same conviction of certainty that they are the laws of the Divine order on the spiritual plane of the creation, illustrating and confirm- ing light constantly increases as we advance in the knowledge of them. They are " the path of the just which shineth more and more unto the perfect day." This is my own experience after a somewhat diligent study of the doctrines of the New Church for more than forty years. I believe it is the experience of every one who has given them a patient and honest examination. This is one ceason why I am a New Churchman and why I cannot be anything else. But this reason may commend itself more forcibly to others when I enter into particulars and set forth as clearly and concisely as I am able what these new truths are? and what grounds we have for calling them new. IN AVHAT SENSE ARE THEY NEW ? It seems to be somewhat important to answer this question before entering upon an exposition 20 IN WHAT SENSE CAN A TRUTH BE NEWf of the particular doctrines of the New Church, in order to remove prejudice and avoid miscon- ceptions. There is an old maxim that " The true is not new, and the new is not true." This maxim is sometimes quoted as a reason for not investigating a new religious doctrine. There is a sense in which it is true. There is a sense in which no truth natural as well as spiritual can he new. A truth must exist before it can be dis- covered. The truth that all bodies attract one another, existed before Newton discovered the universality of the law of gravitation. The same is the fact in every discovery of science. The truths of geology, astronomy, botany, and of every science, have existed since the creation. They have their origin in the Divine nature. No finite mind can create a truth. In this sense the true is not new. But while truths cannot be new in themselves, in the sense that they never existed until known, they may be and are new to man when he first discovers them. It is in this sense that we con- stantly speak of learning new truths. In this sense every truth is new to us when we first learn it. This is the fact with regard to the IX WHAT SENSE CAX A TRUTH HE NEW? 21 truths of natural science as certainly as in rela- tion to the truths of spiritual science. It is in this sense that we regard the principles and doc- trines of the New Church as new. They were new to me, and they will he new to every one who receives them. The idea that no new knowledge concerning God, and man's spiritual nature and destiny is possihle, is contrary to all known laws of the human mind and of human progress. There Avas a time when the doctrines of Christianity as they have heen formulated and generally ac- cepted, were new to men. It is only within a few years that the truths of natural science have been discovered. They are new to the human mind. Is it not absurd to suppose that man reached the limits of spiritual and Divine truth centuries ago, and that there can be no new knowledge of God and man ? Is it not one of His last declarations in the Sacred Scriptures, "Behold I make all things new"? The most solemn and oft-repeated promise the Lord has made to men cannot be fulfilled without new knowledge on all questions relating to Himself, to man, and his spiritual nature and destiny. 22 IN WHAT SENSE CAN A TRUTH BE NEW? The Lord has promised it, trie history of the raee illustrates it, and the nature of man demands it. We have, therefore, every reason to expect it. A NEW DOCTRINE NOT NECESSARILY TRUE. But doctrines may be new and not true. It is not the novelty of the doctrines of the New Church that commends them to my mind and wins its acceptance. The mere fact that they are new is no reason for believing them. It is rather against them. " No man having drunk old wine straightway desireth new, for he saith the old is better." New theories and opinions on many of the essential doctrines of Christianity are frequently presented. The multiplication of sects is caused by them ; many of them attract more or less attention, and then give place to other theories which have no basis in the Divine order. The doctrines of the New Church are not new in the sense of being merely novel. HOW THE NEW DOCTRINES DIFFER FROM THE OLD. Nor are they new in the sense that there was no saving knowledge of God among men before IN WHAT SENSE CAN A TRUTH BE NEW? 23 day were revealed to him. The Lord lias never left man without some knowledge of His ex- istence and of the essential means of salvation. The new truths " do not come to destroy the law or the prophets, hut to fulfil them." They clear away the traditions of men and the glosses -with which genuine truths have heen invested, that their essential forms and ground in the nature of God and the nature of man may he seen. They are new in the sense that all discoveries in the nature and laws of the material world are new. They differ from the old as science differs from isolated facts ; as theories formed from the appearances of nature to the senses differ from the principles that are hased on the essential re- lations of one suhstance to another. Science does not destroy facts. It makes a new use of them. It does not even destroy the appearances of the senses. The stars appeared to the eye of Newton like gems of light, as they appear to the savage and the animal. They can appear in no other form to the material eye. Science only destroys the illusions and false theories which men form from the appearances of nature when they mistake them for truths. The same prin- 21 A NEW ATTITUDE OF MIND- ciple holds in the laws of spirit. The spirit does not destroy the letter. It illuminates it as the sun the cloud. THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT. It is well known that those who are governed by a true scientific spirit spare no labor to see things as they actually exist in nature. They do not seek to put their theories into nature and compel her to conform to them. On the contrary, they try to discover her order and to hear her speak in her own language. They go to nature as honest disciples with watchful eyes and docile minds to learn the qualities of her substance? and the modes of her action. This attitude of the scientific mind has brought men into friendly relations with the laws of the Lord's order and His methods of accomplishing His purposes. Their minds are open to the reception of truth, and the Lord can reveal to them the secrets of His methods and teach them how to make the awful forces of wind and rain, of heat and electricity, the servants of their will. It is due to this new method of investigating nature that more prog- ress has been made in the knowledge of the A NEW POINT OF VIEW. 25 forces and (anilities of the material world during the last century than in all the previous ages of man. A NEW AND HIGHER POINT OF VIEW. It is iu this sense that the New Church is new. It regards every question relating to the Lord, to man, and their relations to each other from a new and a more interior point of view. It accepts as an axiom that the laws according to which the Lord creates and regulates the forces of the spiritual universe, are as immutable in their nature as natural laws ; that it is as impos- sible for man to change them as it is to annul the law of attraction or change the nature of light and heat. Man cannot dictate how the mind shall be organized. He cannot change the nature of goodness and truth ; he cannot teach infinite wisdom; he cannot force his opinions and theories into the nature of God or the con- stitution of the human mind. His true attitude is as a disciple, desiring to be instructed, to learn what the laws of the Lord in the spiritual plane of being are, and to obey them. He must keep his mind open to the reception of truth ; he must desire to know what is true ; and not what will B 3 26 A NEW KIND OF KNOWLEDGE. confirm his theories and preconceived notions. He must demand the authority of the truth itself. This is the attitude of the mind to the Sacred Scriptures and to the Lord Himself which the new doctrines teach and tend to secure. A NEW KIND OF KNOWLEDGE. The result is the same in spiritual as in natural things. It has led not only to new knowledge of the Lord and of man, but also to a new and higher kind of knowledge. It has led from isolated facts to related and ordered knowledge : it has lifted the mind to a higher and more in- terior point of view. From this point of view Ave can see the laws of the Divine wisdom on the spiritual plane of existence as they are, and not as they appear in the guise of natural forms. This is a new and distinct step in spiritual knowl- edge. It introduces the mind into a new world, where it becomes illuminated with a new and more interior light. It is a step in spiritual light like that from the tallow dip to the electric arc ; from star-light to the sun. The change from the old to the new is not simply the rejec- tion of the old, but the attainment of something THE NEW IDEA OF GOD. 27 better. It is the fulfilment of the prophecy : •• For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron. I will also make thy officers peace and thine exactors righteousness." But this general view of the newness and trueness of the doctrines of the New Church and the grounds for their acceptance will appear more clearly in the light of some examples. I cannot enter minutely into the particulars of all the doctrines of the New Church. To do this would require volumes. I can only present some of the fundamental ones; and if I do not suc- ceed by a statement of them in giving good reason for being a New Churchman, a fuller exposition of the doctrines would be of no use. I proceed therefore to state as concisely as pos- sible what these new doctrines teach concerning some of the fundamental principles of Chris- tianity. THE IDEA OP GOD THE CENTRAL TRUTH OF RELIGION. The central doctrine of every religion is the one which teaches us the nature of God and His relations to men. God is the centre of creation, 28 THE NEW IDEA OF GOD. and our ideas of Him are central to all our con- ceptions of life. They enter into every form of human thought and give quality and direction to all human purposes and actions. It is, therefore, of essential importance that our knowledge of Him should he true, distinct, and adequate to every want of the soul. Ignorance of His nature, and misconceptions of His character and relations to men, are everywhere revealed in the Sacred Scriptures as the cause of all error, evil, sorrow, and spiritual death; while "to know Him aright," He Himself declares, " is life ever- lasting." THE PERSONAL UNITY OP GOD. If there is any truth clearly revealed in the Bible, and in full accordance with enlightened reason, it is that there is only one Supreme Being. " Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord," and there is no other, is the constant teaching of the Lord Himself in His "Word. I am a New Churchman because the doctrines of the New Church in every particular are the nor- mal outgrowth of the central truth that " God is one in essence and person," as every branch, THE NEW IDEA OF GOD. 29 twig, leaf, blossom, and fruit of a tree to the least form and special quality is determined by the germ from which it sprung and partakes of its nature. These doctrines do not say one and think three ; they do not teach directly or by inference anything that tends to obscure or qualify the central fact of the personal unity of God. They teach in the most explicit manner that there is only one Divine Being, only one Divine mind, only one Creator, Redeemer, and Saviour; only one Source of life and power, however various the forms it assumes, and the effects it produces. They admit nothing that tends to modify or obscure this central truth either in principle or practice. This doctrine measures every law of spiritual life : it deter- mines the meaning of every passage of Scripture, however diversified the form of expression, and gives the true significance of every object in the creation and every event in human life. AVe cannot implore one Being to have mercy upon us for the sake of or through the mediation of another : we cannot ask one Divine Person to for- give our sins, to save and bless us, for the sake of another Divine Person, because there can be, 3* 3i ) THE NEW IDEA OF GOD. in the nature of things, only one Divine Person who has the power to grant us these favors. By unity much more is meant than that there is only one Divine Being. Unity implies variety and distinctness of parts. " In the Lord infinite things are distinctly one." That is, the Divine Unify consists of an infinite variety of qualities and forms, separate and distinct from one an- other; each one perfect in itself, and acting in perfect harmony with every other faculty. As in the human hody there are an indefinite num- ber and variety of organs, each one of which has its own form and functions, and all com- bined make one body, so in the Lord there are infinite forms and qualities, each of which is perfect in itself, and all are combined in His glorious Divine Person. In their action there is perfect order, perfect harmony, perfect unity. ISTo faculty acts in opposition to another. There can be no conflict between the Divine mercy and the Divine justice. There can be no suppres- sion of the Lord's love. It cannot be changed into hatred, anger, and revenge. The perfect unity of the Lord in every .wise, is the central and immutable truth which must enter into every doctrine THE NEW IDEA OF GOD. 31 concerning Him. No idea or thought must be entertained or interpretation of His Word be ad- mitted that tends in (he least to modify or obscure this immutable and central truth. GOD IS HUMAN AS WELL AS DIVINE. I believe the doctrines of the New Church because they teach me who this Divine Being is. lie is not a diffused and formless essence, an abstract and omnipotent force. It is not in the nature of a human being to love a formless essence, or an abstract power, or a universal law. We cannot love an atmosphere, or a gas, or an ether. Love is a human quality, and can only be exercised by human beings. A gas, or an omnipotent force, cannot exercise or awaken affection. God must therefore be human. When He teaches us that He is love ; that He loves us with an infinite and unchanging affec- tion, He declares in the most emphatic manner that He is human as well as Divine. GOD REVEALED TO MEN IN HUMAN FORM. In accordance with this essential quality of His nature, Jehovah, God, the I Am, the Creator, tin- 32 THE NEW IDEA OF GOD. only Divine Person, took upon Himself man's nature, clothed Himself with a material body, and appeared to men in a human form. The form was not foreign to Him. The formless did not assume it. It was His form before the in- carnation. His incarnation consisted simply in clothing Himself with garments of spiritual and material substances, as every spirit clothes itself with a material body. The garment takes on the form of the spirit. The spirit is not changed into material flesh and bones. It changes ma- terial substances into its own form and uses it to develop and perfect its own nature. So Jehovah, the one and only Divine Person, clothed His Divine with a human nature and a material body. By a human nature we mean a human mind with all its affections and intellectual faculties, all its hereditary evil tendencies, all its limitations and capacities for development, He was not changed into a human spirit and a material body. He organized spiritual and material substances into His own form, and by means of them came into direct personal contact with men. He became Immanucl, God with us. I believe the doctrines of the New Church THE NEW IDEA OF GOD. 33 because they bring Jehovah, the onh' Divine Person, near to me and present Him in a form of which I can gain a distinct conception. When I go to that human form I do not lose Him and find another Divine Person. There is no jug- glery, no illusion in the manifestation. I see Jehovah Himself in His own form, in His own character. " He that seeth me seeth the Father." I hear Him speak. I see Divine love and wisdom shining in His face and embodied in all His words and deeds. I see His patience, His tender mercies, His devotion to men in healing their diseases, in feeding the hungry, in teaching them by precept and example how to overcome evil and gain eternal life. I can love and worship and serve such a Divine Being. I can gain a distinct idea of His form, His nature, His rela- tions to me and to all men. My thought is not divided, my affections do not pass from one to another in doubt which to love supremely. Thought and affection are centred on one glorious Divine Person, and there is no dis- traction of thought or conflict or division of feeling. THE NEW VIEW OF MAN. truth. He can know it and understand it. He can think and reason, — in a word, he is com- pletely equipped with intellectual faculties, be- cause he derives them from Him who possesses them in infinite perfection. According to the same law all the attributes of the Divine nature are finited in man's spir- itual nature. They exist in man, at first as mere possibilities, as germs in the seed. They lie folded up in natural faculties and coverings of flesh and bone, like the tender germ in the tough skin and hard shell of many fruits. But all the forces of the Divine love and intelligence tend to awaken them to action and develop them into distinct existence, as the heat and light of the sun tend to raise into form and life the germs in every seed. THE ORDER OF DEVELOPMENT. The natural faculties are first developed, that they may serve as a basis for the spiritual and become instrumental in forming them. Man has many faculties in common with the animal. But those which constitute his human nature are inherited more directly from his Heavenly THE NEW VIEW OF MAN. 37 Father. These must be "born from above;" natural faculties he inherits from his natural parents. This new birth is an orderly step in his creation. It is the formation of a new and distinctly higher plane of faculties which are spiritual in their nature and capable of re- ceiving life from the Lord in more interior and excellent forms. If man bad never sinned, this step would have been equally necessary, but it would not have been attended with so much diffi- culty. It would have been a normal development, like the three kingdoms in nature, or the perfec- tion of the plant, — " first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." By the generation and development of this plane of his mind he becomes more directly and specifically a child of God. He partakes of His nature in higher degrees and purer forms. He can reciprocate His love. His understanding becomes illuminated with the Divine truth, and he begins to come into the possession of the infinite riches of love, wisdom, and happiness which he inherits from his Heavenly Father. There is nothing arbitrary or technical or merely legal in the bestowal of these favors. 4 38 THE NEW VIEW OF MAN They are the natural effects of spiritual causes. By this new birth man comes into such relations to the Lord that He can bestow these spiritual blessings upon him. THE GREATNESS OF THIS NEW BIRTH. What dignity and grandeur and immeasurea- ble possibilities does this fact give to man's nature ! Descended from God ! Born of God ! Related by natural ties, by blood, to Him who is the Source of all power and life, and in Whom all human qualities exist in Divine perfection! How closely this truth allies us to our Heavenly Father ! It is the ground and possibility of our union with Him. It opens a door into a new world of love and knowledge, and admits us into the deep mysteries of communion with Him. It places us in a position to solve, and gives us the means of solving, many of the problems which have baffled human wisdom, and have been regarded as beyond the reach of human power. I am a New Churchman because the doctrines of the New Church admit me into these mysteries, illuminate them with the glory of Divine truth, and reveal to my understanding the HOW MAN IS RELATED TO THE LORD. 39 beauty, order, harmony, and wisdom which pre- vail where before all was dark and inexplicable. OUR RELATIONS TO THE LORD NOT MERELY LEGAL. Tiny show in a clear and rational manner that our relations to the Lord are not merely legal, mechanical, artificial, and arbitrary. They are not essentially the relations of a dependent sub- ject to an irresponsible and almighty sovereign. They inhere in and grow out of the nature of the Lord and the nature of man. We are re- lated to the Lord as the plant to the seed, as the child to the parent, as effect to cause. All human faculties that have not become perverted are the same in form, mode of action, and nature, as the faculties which constitute the Divine nature. Human love is of the same nature as Divine love; the intellectual faculties in the creature are the same in kind that they are in the Creator. It is true that these faculties in the Lord are infinitely superior in power and purify and every perfection of form. But they are the same in kind, they possess the same qualities, and serve the same uses in man that they do in the Lord. 40 HOW MAN CAN KNOW THE LORD. THIS SIMILARITY OF NATURE MAKES THE KNOWL- EDGE OF THE LORD POSSIBLE. This similarity of nature renders it possible for man to know the Lord. Not that we can fully comprehend Him. We cannot Pally com- prehend anything. All that we can know of the rock, plant, animal, or man is measured by their relations to us, — by the sensations, thoughts, feelings, and affections they cause in us. If the Lord is entirely dissimilar to man in every re- spect, we can form no conception of Him. But if love, intelligence, consciousness, will, under- standing, and power are of the same nature in Him that they are in us, and operate in the same way, then we can form some true, though inade- quate, conception of His nature and of His char- acter. As the smallest globule of mist is of the same nature and in the same form as the ocean, so the feeble motions of love in man are of the same nature as the infinite perfections of the Divine love. The lowest gives us a hint of the highest, and enables the feeblest intelligence to form a true conception of the Divine attributes, though that conception must necessarily fall MAN DERIVES HIS FORM FROM THE LORD. 41 infinitely short of a particular and adequate comprehension of the purity, power, and extent of their perfections. THE LORD IN THE HITMAN FORM. But this central truth that man descends from Jehovah and derives his nature from Him, ac- cording to the universal laws of heredity, applies not only to the qualities embodied in the Divine and in human nature, hut also to the form in which these qualities exist; or, in other words, the form which the various faculties of the Divine and those of the human mind, in their comhined order, assume that they may act to- gether, and compose one personal heing. This form, as we all know, in man is the human. It follows, as a logical necessity and an immu- table law of heredity, that the Lord from whom man descends must he in the human form also.j There are no exceptions to this law in the crea- tion, bo far as we know, and it would he easy to si iow that there can he none. A human child must have a human parent. 4* 42 QUALITIES ESSENTIAL TO PERSONALITY. ALL THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES ESSENTIAL TO PER- SONALITY. This law teaches us that it would in the -.nature of things he impossible for one Supreme Being to exist in three distinct Divine persons, as it would be for one human being to exist in three distinct human persons. The personal unity of the Lord must be' the same in nature and form as the personal unity in man, who was created in His image. The Divine attributes must be embodied in one being ; they are essen- tial to personality. Every attribute or faculty or quality of the Divine nature is an essential factor in the Divine personality. These faculties or attributes could not be divided between two per- sons. If such a division were possible, neither person would be a complete human or a com- plete Divine being. The tripersonality of God is, in the nature of things, as impossible as the tripersonality of man. THE TRINITY ESSENTIAL TO PERSONALITY. But the absolute personality of God does not in the least militate against the fact of a trinity THREE FACTORS ESSENTIAL. 43 in Him. There is a trinity in man, and conse- quently there must be one in God, from whom man derives his form and nature. We have, then, only to look to the trinity in ourselves and see how it forms one man to understand how a Divine Trinity forms one God. A man is com- posed of a mind, or spirit, and a hody, or of a spiritual hody and of a material body, each of which is entirely distinct from the other. They are organized of entirely different substances, and they possess specifically distinct qualities and capacities. But both compose one person, and neither of them without the other would be a man. Besides these two bodies, which, considered in themselves, are merely organic forms, possessing no more life or power in themselves to act than an engine has to move, there is an inflowing of life or power from the Lord, which gives life and the power of consciousness and action to these organic forms. Xow we have the three factors which compose a human being. We have the mind and the body and the influent life which are the essential constituents of one person, one human being. 44 THE NAMES GIVEN TO THEM IN THE LORD. There is tlie same trinity in the Lord, but more distinct and more perfectly united than in man. The three are called by different names, but they hear the same relations to one another, and perform the same functions, and are the essential factors of one Divine person. Before the Incarnation they were love, truth, and power; or Jehovah, God, and Spirit. After the Incarna- tion they are called Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father took upon Himself man's mind and material body. He begat it. He used it as a medium of communication between Himself and man. He dwelt in it as a man's mind dwells in his body. This human mind was the Son, and partook of the nature of the Father and of the mother. Thus this mind was the Son of God and the son of man. But it was not a different person from the Father. He dwelt in it. He did the works. This mind in its first state could do nothing of itself. But it was a perfect in- strument in the Father's hands, and gradually became the voluntary mediator of transmitting the Divine life to men in forms and qualities so modified and adapted to the low and feeble state of the human mind that it could take effect upon THE WHOLE TRINITY IN JESUS CHRIST. 45 it. In the one person of our Lord Jesus Christ we have the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We have a distinct trinity and a personal unity, of the same nature as that which exists in every human being. We have therefore hut one Divine Person, hut one ohject of love, thought, and wor- ship. For me the problem of the unity of the Divine Trinity in one person, " in whom dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily," is perfectly solved. I find examples of it in myself and in every human being. WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES OF THE DIVINE TRINITY AND UNITY. This truth of the unity of the Trinity in the one person of our Lord Jesus Christ is also plainly and specifically taught by the Lord in Hie Word. "The Father dwelleth in me." "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." The Father dwells in the Son, the human nature, as man's spiritual body dwells in his material body. We see Jehovah, the Father, in the person of Jesus Christ, as we see man's spirit when we look upon the material body. The human mind, called the Son, is the medium or the mediator 46 HOW THE THREE MAKE ONE LORD. between man and Jehovah, as the material body is the medium of communication between man's spiritual body and the material world, and the spirits of other human beings. Tbe material eye has no power to see a spiritual form. The material ear cannot hear a spiritual sound. The material senses are too gross to be awakened to consciousness by a spiritual force. They only serve as mediums between spirit and matter. "No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom^of the Father, He hath declared Him." ]STo man ever saw a spiritual being with his natural eyes. The human mind and the material body which Jeho- vah assumed became the medium of transmit- ting the Divine love, wisdom, and power to men, in forms and qualities adapted to their weak and ] kt verted condition. As the material body is the human mind brought down to the material plane of the creation and adapted in the most exquisite manner to the forms and qualities of matter, so the human mind which Jehovah assumed and clothed with a material body, is a perfecl medium adapted to every capacity and condition A REAL ATONEMENT. 47 of man's fallen nature, to enlighten his igno- rance, to correct his errors, to remove his evils, and to restore his fallen and corrupt nature to spiritual life and the perfections of its original image and likeness. TUB ATONEMENT A REAL AND RATIONAL ONE. In this way the doctrines of the New Church give me a real Atonement which satisfies every demand of justice, manifests in the most pathetic manner every quality of mercy, and accom- plishes the work of reuniting man to the Lord and of restoring to him the Divine image lost by sin. They show bow this work was effected by Jehovah. They demonstrate the necessity of His becoming incarnate. All the theories which have been devised by man concerning the pay- ment of a debt — vicarious suffering of the inno- cenl to satisfy the demands of Divine justice upon the guilty, the idea of the transfer of righteousness from the innocent to the guilty, and especially the division of the Divine Being into two distinct persons of diverse if not oppo- site characters, which is the most fatal error in the whole system of theology — arc swept away 48 JEHOVAH TOOK MAN'S NATURE as the Lord dispersed the human traditions by which the Jews had made the Word of God of none effect, and Jehovah in the form of Jesus Christ stands forth in glorious majesty, one God, in one Divine Person, as the only Redeemer and Saviour. This doctrine does not detract one iota from the lost condition of man and the necessity of the incarnation ; it does not minify or destroy the Atonement. On the contrary, it gives us a real instead of a legal and artificial one. It gives us an atonement grounded in the nature of God and in the nature of man. It gives us an atonement which is in perfect ac- cordance with every relation between man, Avho is the recipient of life, and the Supreme Being, who is the only Source of life. It satisfies every demand of love, mercy, justice, immutable law, and the nature of man. OUR SAVIOUR AND FRIEND. This view of the method of salvation presents the Lord to us in a clear, distinct, glorious, and attractive form. 7Tc no longer appears remote and stern, the embodiment of inflexible justice, exacting every drop of blood, and every wrench TO RESTORE HIS J MAGE TO IT. 49 of suffering to appease His wrath and avert His vengeance. It presents Him to us as a Divine Father, as a Being of infinite love and mercy, with a heart full of tenderness for His lost, suf- fering, and dying children, who follows them in every step of their wandering from Him, who never for a moment remits any effort which His infinite wisdom can devise and His omnipotent power carry into effect, to save them from sin and sorrow, and hring them back to His arms and His heart. When all other means had failed, He came Himself, in the only way He could come. He took upon Himself man's fallen nature. He came to man in the guise of a servant. By His own lips He taught man the truth con- cerning his fallen and perishing condition, and showed him by precept and example how to escape from the death of sin and to gain eternal life. He gave sight to the blind, that He might show His power to open their spiritual eyes, blinded by sin to the light of Divine truth. He caused the deaf to bear, that He might open -their ears to the words of eternal life. He raised the dead, that He might give to men in 50 HE LIVED WITH MEN all ages the proof of His power to raise to spiritual life those who are dead in trespasses and sins. He ate with publicans and sinners ; He labored with His hands ; He talked and walked ; He slept and lived in their humble homes ; He wept with them in their sorrows and rejoiced in their joys. He was assaulted by all the infernal hosts, tried and tempted as no merely human being ever was. He was buffeted, spat upon, crowned with thorns, condemned, and crucified. He passed through all human conditions and tasted death for every man, that He might demonstrate to men in every condition His sym- pathy with them and love for them, and provide the means and the way to save them. He did not stand aloof, and in stern majesty close His ears to the imploring cry of suffering and dying men for help, until some one had paid their debt to the uttermost farthing. He did not send another Divine Being to teach, and labor, and suffer, and die for them. He came Himself. Oh, how this truth changes the whole aspect of God towards men ! It gives to His love, wisdom, tenderness, and mercy some meaning. To go yourself, and labor and suffer and die to help TO HELP THEM TO LIVE WITH HIM 51 others, is quite a different thing from sending another, even your own son. How near it brings the Lord to us ! How His kindness and gentle- ness and faithful labor and patient suffering for us while we were His enemies win our hearts and draw us to Him ! He is no longer an inac- cessible God. He has made the way to Him plain and easy. He has bridged the gulf between us and Him. His hand is always held out to help and bless us; His heart is always open to wel- come us. I am a New Churchman because the doctrines of the New Church clear away all the obstructions which human theories had placed between me and the Lord, and restore Him to my understanding and my heart distinct and glorious in personal unity. THE NEW DOCTRINES REVEAL MAN TO HIMSELF. Turning from the disclosures which these doc- trines make concerning the Lord to what they teach us concerning man, I find the same con- vincing reasons for accepting them. They do in reality reveal man to himself. They reverse common opinion concerning the human spirit. It is difficult to find language that will accurately 52 MAN AS A SPIRIT AN ORGANIZED express the ideas and conceptions which have prevailed in the Christian world, and still pre- vail to a great extent, concerning the human spirit. They are vague, undefined, unsubstantial. The spirit is generally regarded as an abstract force, a vital essence, without distinct form or substance, as a motive power which sets the or- ganic forms of the body in motion, and gives life and consciousness to them. It escapes from the body at death, as a breath from the lungs. It is true that many of the ideas concerning it and the qualities attributed to it imply its substantial existence, but they arc so vague and contradic- tory of direct teaching that they leave the mind in doubt with regard to its form and substantial nature. Its existence is affirmed, but there is no knowledge of its essential nature and modes of action. It is the prevalent opinion, after all that is said about it, that no distinct conception or certain knowledge concerning it is possible in this life ; that the Lord for wise reasons has with- held it from us. With only this simple affirma- tion of the existence of the spirit, it is impossible to enter into any particulars of its qualities, modes of action, and relation to other spirits. BEING IN THE HUMAN FORM. 53 Consequently we cannot make it a subject of distinct thought and consciousness. We can- not bring it into tbe domain of the reason and understanding, and all progress in knowledge concerning it is made impossible. I believe the doctrines of the New Church because they draw aside the veil of flesh and introduce me to the spirit itself. They give me a distinct and rational doctrine concerning the spirit, which satisfies all the wants of my affections and understanding, and admits me into a new world of knowledge and life. THE SPIRIT AN ORGANIZED HUMAN FORM. They teach that the spirit is the man himself; that it is in the human form ; that this form is organized as a whole, and in every least part, without and within, in the same manner as the material body ; that it has a heart, lungs, brains, viscera, nerves, arteries, and veins; that these organs perform the same functions for man as a spiritual being that the corresponding organs perform for him as a material being ; that they sustain the same relations to one another, and combined constitute the spiritual man in the 5* 54 THE MIND AND SPIRIT THE SAME. human form. They affirm, and in the most varied and conclusive manner demonstrate, that the human mind and spirit are identical ; that the mind or spirit is composed of these organs, and that these organs are faculties in the same sense that the organs of the material hody are faculties or forms organized for the exercise of special powers. The eye is the organ or faculty of seeing ; the ear, of hearing ; the hrain, of thinking; and all the senses are the means of gaining a consciousness of the forms, relations, and nature of material things. I know it is said that this simply materializes the spirit. But it is an entire misconception of the nature of spirit that leads to this conclusion. The common opinion is that the spirit is without substance and has no form ; that there is only one substance, and that material. But this is a mere assumption, which leads to the most ab- surd conclusions. That which has no substance and no form is nothing. No idea or conception can he gained of it. Existence implies both substance and form. It is impossible in the nature of things to predicate quality or power of a being destitute of substance and form. God SUBSTANCE ESSENTIAL TO EXISTENCE. 55 is a spirit. He is the Creator. Must He not be the most substantial Being in the universe ? If He were without form and substance, it would be absurd to predicate love, wisdom, intelli- gence, power, and action of Him. There would be no subject to which to refer these attributes. THERE ARE DISTINCT DEGREES OF SUBSTANCES. The doctrines of the New Church avoid this absurdity by teaching that substance exists in several distinct degrees; that there are Divine, spiritual, and material substances. We know that material substance exists in distinct planes or degrees. It assumes the form of solid, fluid, gas, ether, and aura. These degrees possess different qualities, have distinct motions, and perform different functions in the creation. The principle of analogy leads directly and inevitably to the conclusion that there can be spiritual substances which are as essential to spiritual existence as matter is to material objects. We have then a solid basis to stand on; we have a substance to work with and a distinct subject of thought and affection. We are not com- pelled to affirm and practically to deny the pos- 56 SPIRITUAL SUBSTANCE NOT MATERIAL. sibility of our affirmation at the same time. The spirit is seen to be the man in substantial, human form, and the subject of all spiritual graces and delights. Definite relations to other spirits, growth, increase in knowledge and power, re- generation, and all spiritual faculties and at- tainments become possible and can be referred to their subjects. The spirit gives form to the body, casts it into its own image, and uses it as an instrument in perfecting itself. THE BEARING OF THIS TRUTH UPON THE DEATH OP THE MATERIAL BODY AND THE RESURRECTION OF MAN. This doctrine, as every one can see, presents in a new light that great step in man's life which we call death. There is no point in which the new doctrines appear in so strong and striking a contrast with the old as in this. The death of the material bod} 7 has been almost universally regarded, especially in the Christian world, as the greatest human calamity. It is the severest penalty known to human or Divine law. It is the most dreaded enemy of man ; it is the direst curse. The strong and the brave tremble at the THE NEW IDF. A OF DEATH. 57 thought of it, the innocent and the guilty shrink from it. It is regarded as the most terrible token of the Divine displeasure and the severest pun- ishment of sin. It is unnatural, a disturbance of the Divine order, an unmitigated curse. ( Ihristians as well as heathen mourn and refuse to be comforted because those who were dear to them are not. They clothe their bodies in black and their faces with sadness. The death of the material body is practically regarded as the end of distinct, conscious, substantial life. How can it be otherwise, when the spirit is regarded as an essence or force without form or substance ? The spirit vanishes away as a vapor; the body returns to dust. This is all the report the senses can bring to us from the departed. The doctrines of the New Church present this change in an entirely new light. As the spirit is the man in a substantial human form, the death of the material body is caused by the resurrec- tion of man from it. The material body is only a material garment woven of material substances, for his temporary use in the material world. It bears the same relation to the man himself that the chaff bears to the wheat, or the worm to 58 DEATH A STEP IN LIFE. the beautiful insect that has burst the bonds of the first stage in its existence, and is rejoicing in the freedom of its heaven of air and light. The death of the body is no interruption to man's life ; on the contrary, it is the continuance of it. It is not a punishment for sin, but an orderly step in his progress. It is not a token of the Lord's displeasure, but a most striking instance of His infinite love and wisdom ; it is not the loss of any faculty or capacity for happiness, but in- troduction to new and more excellent conditions for the exercise of faculties which had been or- ganized in the womb of the material body. It is not death. It is birth into a new world, in which the faculties that had remained quiescent, or which we were only faintly conscious of pos- sessing, gain their freedom and come into joyous life. As the sparrow emerges from its shell and gains room for the action of those organs which were formed in its narrow house, and the means of their exercise, so man rises from the limits of a material life into a new world, where the Lord has provided the most abundant and perfect means for the development of those faculties which existed in embryo in the material body. THE MIND CONSTITUTES PERSOXITV. 59 The death of the body is caused by the resurrec- tion of the spirit from it and its entrance into a new world and a new life. PERSONALITY IS NOT LOST BY THIS CHANGE. But it is not new in being wholly unlike the former life. The man is not dissipated into a formless essence. There is no interruption in the continuity of his existence. He is the same being in the same form. He possesses the same faculties. He sees, hears, talks, acts, and all his internal organs perform the same functions as before. He possesses the same intelligence, the same moral character. He has not lost his identity. He is a human being in the human form, with human affections and capacities for their exercise and the attainment of their delights. He is to his former condition in the material body as the Bparrow after its resurrection is to its former condition. What a grand and glorious change ! The weight of the material body is lifted ; the fixed and solid limitations of time and space are obliterated ; the narrow horizons of a material world remove, and he rises into new light, into new consciousness, into new fields for the exer- 60 THE SPIRITUAL WORLD SOLID AND cise of his faculties, which have no limits but their power to receive and enjoy. Surely the New Churchman has every reason to exclaim, with exultation and joy, " 0 death, where is thy sting ? 0 grave, where is thy victory ?" THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. But this view of the death of the material hody becomes clearer and the step grander as we become familiar with the disclosures which the doctrines of the New Church give us concerning the world into which man is introduced by his resurrection. They teach us that it is a most substantial world and distinct to every spiritual sense. It is not a vacuum where formless abstractions float in boundless space. It is a world in the true and specific sense of the word. It contains all the forms and objects which con- stitute a world. It has mountains and hills and valleys ; seas and rivers and brooks of water. It is diversified and beautified with every form of vegetable and animal life in greater variety and perfection than can be found in any material world. They are made of spiritual substances, and exist in forms of more delicate and ex- SUBSTANTIAL TO THE SPIRITUAL SENSES. 61 quisite beauty than is possible to gross matter. They are liner in texture and glow with more splendid colors. But spiritual objects are not hard and inflexible like those composed of mate- rial substances. They yield to the power of the will and become the* forms and representatives of the affections and thoughts of the inhabitants. The principle is the same that everywhere prevails among men in this world. Every one endeavors to surround himself with objects and conditions that are in harmony with his tastes. Very few, however, are able to accomplish this, owing to the intractable nature of matter and to the limitations of their means. "\Y~e are com- pelled to adjust ourselves to our environment, and content ourselves with such means of com- fort and pleasure as we can procure. But in the spiritual world the relation is reversed. The dress, the dwelling, the landscape, and every- thing without is the form of the thoughts and affections of the inhabitants. Consecpiently the objects which surround the citizens of the spiritual world satisfy their tastes and meet every want. The promise is fulfilled, "Ye may ask what ye will, and it shall be given you." 6 62 ORGANIZATION OF SOCIETIES. THE SPIRITUAL WORLD MAN'S ETERNAL HOME. The spiritual world is the home of all who have heen born upon the earth and passed away from it. It is populous with thousands of generations of men and women. No one has failed to find a home there. But they are not all gathered in one congregation. The same law which we see in operation here — a law of hu- man nature, according to which like seeks lik( — operates with unfailing certainty there. In this world there arc many insuperable impediments to the union of homogeneous natures. But there are none there. They are as certain to find one another there as a stone thrown into the air is to find the earth. The evil seek the evil ; the good seek the good. The gulf which separates the righteous from the wicked is fixed in their own natures, and can be crossed only by a change of character. This law of union and separation operates not only in a general way; it extends to the least particulars. Those who have the most powerful attraction for one another, or, what is the same thing, the strongest love, are drawn the nearest together and come CONSTANT PERFECTION OF SOCIETY. G3 into the most intimate personal relations. In this way families and societies are formed, increased, and perfected by accessions from the material world which was created to be the seminary of heaven. Is it possible to conceive of a state of life more desirable than this, or one more in harmony with the infinite goodness and wisdom of the Lord ? MAN A CITIZEN OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. I am a Xew Churchman because the doctrines of the New Church disclose to me this spiritual world, and prove by evidence which seems to me to be incontestable that man himself is a spiritual being in the human form, and is destined by every faculty of his nature and by every attribute of the Divine character to become the conscious inhabitant of a substantial spiritual world. It is his home. He is a citizen of that world, and is destined to find his place in it by the same immutable law that the fish is destined to the water and the bird to the air. Translation into it is simply carrying out to their legitimate con- sequences tendencies and faculties which we find 64 HOW MAN FINDS HIS PLACE. in our own natures, and which we see exhibited in every movement of human society. HIS ENTRANCE INTO IT NOT A PASSAGE THROUGH SPACE. There is nothing in this view of the future life which contravenes the tendencies, the aspira- tions, and the well-established principles of man's nature. He is a spirit now, and all the opera- tions of his mind take place according to spiritual laws. His transition into the spiritual world does not consist in being changed into a spirit, or in a passage through space. If he were to visit every world in the material universe, he would come no nearer to the spiritual world than he is now. He enters the spiritual world simply by the withdrawal of the veil of flesh, and the conse- quent opening of his consciousness to the influx of spiritual forces into his spiritual faculties. How simple, how orderly, and yet how great is the change ! We leave the material universe never to return. We enter the spiritual universe never to leave it. We find our home in it, and an unlimited field and the amplest means for the development of our capacities for loving, know- GROUNDS OF FAITH IN THESE FACTS. 65 ing, and enjoying, to which there are no assign- able limits beyond which we may not pass. PROOF OF THE TRUTH OF THESE DOCTRINES. But it may be said, and often is said, This may be a very pleasing belief, but what evidence have we that it is true ? Do we rely on the testi- mony of Swedenborg for the truth of our doc- trines concerning the spiritual nature of man and the realities of the spiritual Avorld ? These are fair questions and they demand an explicit answer. If they cannot be answered satisfac- torily, there will be sufficient grounds for their rejection, or, at least, for a suspension of faith in them. I offer the following reasons for implicit belief in them. THERE ARE NO FACTS TO DISPROVE THEM. 1. There is nothing in the nature of man, nor in any human knowledge, nor in revelation, that disproves them. Ignorance is no ground for the rejection of any doctrine or theory upon any subject. The common objection to the substan- tial and formal existence of the human spirit and e 6* 66 NO GROUNDS FOR THEIR DENIAL. of the spiritual world, is that we know nothing about them, and that all definite and certain knowledge of them is impossible. But how can any one he sure of this ? It is impossible in the nature of things. It is absurd to say that nothing more can be known because it has not been known heretofore. That is disproved by the experience of every individual. It is dis- proved by every new discovery in science, art, and every form of human activity. It is dis- proved by the whole history of the human race. If such an idea were universally accepted by men, it would arrest all human progress. PREVIOUS IGNORANCE OF THEM NO OBJECTION. 2. The fact that these doctrines were not pre- viously known is no proof against their verity. The question is often asked why they were not revealed to men before ? The question might be asked, with as much reason, why the printing- press, the steam-engine, the telegraph, all the modern sciences, and the numberless mechanical devices to bring natural forces into the service of man, were not discovered or invented until the IGNORANCE XO PROOF AGAINST THEM. 67 present time. The answer is : Men were not in an intellectual condition to discover and under- stand the secret and universal laws of nature, and they did not need the services which her mighty forces now render to them. "What could the Indian have done with the steam-engine, the railroad, and the factory ? The question resolves itself into the simple one, Why must the infant wait many years for the strength, intelligence, and general capacities of manhood ? Unman ignorance is no objection against the truth of any theory or doctrine, nor the fact that it was not previously known. There must be the first time. These are negative grounds for the accept- ance of the doctrines of the New Church. But there are affirmative reasons of the strongest character. THE TESTIMONY OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. 3. It is often averred that there is no testi- mony of eye-witnesses or personal experience to the existence of spiritual beings in a sub- stantial human form and to a spiritual world adapted to their nature and wants. No one has 68 THE TESTIMONY OF THE BIBLE. risen from the dead and come back to report what lies beyond the grave, it is said. This is not true. There are many well-authenticated in- stances, some of which are given in the Bible, of the return to earth of those who had passed away many years before. There are many in- stances of those still living who have gained entrance into the spiritual world, have seen its objects, conversed with its inhabitants who were seen to be substantial human beings, and who have reported what they saw and heard. The whole book of Revelation is a record of what John saw when he was in the isle of Patmos as to his material body, but in the spiritual world as to his spiritual body. The case of the apostle Paul, who was caught up to the third heaven and heard things impossible to express in human language, is another one in point. The women at the sepulchre, John the Baptist's father, the patriarchs and prophets, and men in all ages, give abundant testimony of the existence and substantial reality of spiritual beings and of a spiritual world. The whole of revelation is based on the fact of the personal existence of spiritual beings and of a substantial spiritual WHY IT IS NOT ADMITTED. 69 world. Take them away and the Bible would be the most unmeaning of books. WHY THE TESTIMONY OF REVELATION IS NOT RECEIVED. But this testimony is not received, even by Christians who profess to believe in the Bible. "What Father Abraham said to Dives is proved to be true by its general practical denial. " If they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." These intromissions into the spiritual world are called visions, hallucinations, the mis- taking subjective fancies for objective realities. The reluctance with which Christians admit the reality of these openings of the spiritual senses, is caused in a great measure by the prevalent opinions concerning the spirit and the spiritual world. From the point of view that the spirit is a formless essence, instead of an intelligent human being, I do not see how we can come to any other conclusion than that a conscious communication with spiritual beings, or knowl- edge of a spiritual world, must be a delusion. 70 THE LORD'S PURPOSE AND METHODS. THE TRUE POINT OF VIEW. But the point of view is not the true one. The Lord, not the imperfections and fallacies of the natural senses, is the immutable centre, lie is the embodiment of power. He is the im- mutable suhstance. He is the uncreated source of life, love, wisdom, and intelligence. As Swe- denborg says, "Infinite things in Him are dis- tinctly one." All forms and forces exist in Him in their origin and potency. As substances recede from Him as their fountain, they lose some of their special qualities and power. They are grosser and less capable of being moulded into the fine and delicate organs of the spiritual body. Finally, they become fixed and hard in the rock and metal. Imperfection increases with distance from the Source of life. Every step in the descent is attended with loss of power and distinct substantial form. Every step in ascent from the insensate, unorganized rock towards Him, is advance into finer substance and more excellent qualities and more noble and exquisite form. Every change in the material world and every truth of revelation testifies in favor of the THE INFALLIBLE TEST OF TRUTH. 71 substantial perfections of the human spirit in form, organization, and personality, and to the objective existence of a spiritual world as solid to the spiritual foot and as real to the touch of the spiritual hand and as distinct and real to the spir- itual senses as this world is to the natural senses. If the ideas, or the absence of knowledge, which have prevailed in the churches concerning spirits and the spiritual world, are true, Sweden- borg's disclosures can have no basis in fact. But if common opinion is correct, other and much more important results must logically follow. All that is preached in sermons and published in books about the future life of man must be a creation of fancy. It can have no basis in certain knowledge, for the possibility of such knowledge is denied. The common theories and opinions destroy themselves, as well as the disclosures of Swedenborg. But if the substan- tial and conscious existence of the spirit sepa- rate from the material body is admitted, one of the greatest obstacles to the admission of Swe- denborg's disclosures concerning the mode of ex- istence and the state of society in the spiritual world will be removed. 72 S WEDENBORG'S TESTIMONY IN REASONS FOR BELIEF IN SWEDENBORO'S TESTIMONY. But arc they to be accepted on his authority alone ? By no means. His authority has great weight, hut no more than it deserves. He was a man of undoubted veracity. His whole life hears testimony to his unswerving loyalty to the truth. It was his constant aim to discover the truth ; to see it in its own form ; to hear it speak in its own voice, and tell its own story. He was as docile as a child to learn the truth, and was gifted with a keen and sagacious intellectual power, which could penetrate the illusions of appearances and detect the presence of immu- table law in all the operations of nature. He was patient and faithful in bis investigations of the substances and forces of nature, and a humble and devout believer in God. If there ever w as a man who could not be deluded by appearances, or seduced by any selfish motives, Swedenborg was that man. His testimony is trustworthy to tbe last degree. It will stand against that of any man or any number of men. If our faith is to rest on authority, as the faith of the Christian to a great extent does in the doctrines of religion HARMONY WITH DIVINE TRUTH. 73 generally accepted, his testimony is worthy of ;ill credence. Any statement he makes demands affirmative consideration and helief. TRUE GROUNDS FOR ACCEPTING HIS DIS- CLOSURES. But he does not ask any one to accept a single fact he discloses merely on his authority, though he repeatedly affirms in the most solemn manner that the doctrines he teaches are true, and that he lias given a true report of what he heard and saw in the spiritual world. He does not ask any one to shut his eyes or reason, and accept the doctrines and disclosures in a blind faith. On the contrary, he counsels every one to open his eyes, to consult the Lord in His Word, to exercise the understanding and learn the rational grounds of the doctrines, and he helps every one in a remarkahle manner to see and understand for himself. He fortifies every position with the sanctions of immutable principles. He advances from the known to- the unknown, and shows how every step is a natural result of former ones. There is no weak point in his logic. His entire system, as a whole and in every least part, is 74 SWEDENBORO'S WRITINGS IN ACCORD organic and related like the organs in the material body. Those who suppose that his writings consist mainly of visions, lahor under the gravest mis- conception. His reports of what he saw and heard in the spiritual world form but a small fraction of his works. His doctrines are not based on them. They are only illustrations and confirmations of immutable principles operating according to immutable law. IN HARMONY WITH ALL WE KNOW OP MAN'S NATURE. The laws which are declared to govern life in the spiritual world are entirely in harmony with all we know of the nature of the human mind as manifested in our own experience and in the history of human life in this world. Take the principles of association in the spiritual world as an example. Swedenborg says the wicked are separated from the righteous by the mutual re- pulsion of their own natures ; that the pure are drawn together into societies by mutual attrac- tion, and that this attraction operates in the most specific and particular manner. Is not that WITH UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES. a universal law of human nature ? Do we not know that it is a principle of our own minds? Does it not operate in the real association and union of men in this world ? It is true that there are many impediments to the union of congenial minds, growing out of selfish and worldly prin- ciples, an artificial life, and the obstacles of time and space. But suppose these ohstacles were removed, would not persons of similar tastes and purposes — would not homogeneous natures come together and find their happiness in the harmo- nies of associated life ? Every one who has any true knowledge of human nature knows that such a result would follow as surely as that water will seek its own level. There are no such ohstacles in the spiritual world to the association of homogeneous minds, and consequently they find one another and dwell together. So in every instance. The laws of spiritual life are the same in the spiritual world that they arc in this world. Man is not changed into something else by a change of worlds. The laws of mental action and development are the same in the spiritual world that they are in this world. The only change consists in more favor- 76 IMPOSSIBLE TO INVENT SUCH A SYSTEM. able conditions for association and action. The mind is treed from the impediments of a material body and the resistance of dead matter. SUMMARY OF THE GROUNDS OF ACCEPTING swedenborg's DISCLOSURES. To sum up the grounds of my belief that Swedenborg has given a true report of the spiritual world and the state of man after the death of the material body : 1. I believe his spiritual senses were opened, as he avers, because the possibility of such a state is clearly revealed in the Sacred Scriptures; and I cannot conceive it possible for any man, sane or insane, to invent so coherent and par- ticular an account of the vast number of human beings who have been born on the earth and passed away from it; an account that is in per- fect harmony with well-known laws of man's nature, and fully in accordance with the revela- tions which the Lord has made in the Bible. 2. I believe the statements because, while they are in harmony with all we know of the laws of spiritual existence, there are no facts and no principles of natural or spiritual life, and TRUTH SWEDENBORGS SOLE AIM. 77 no revelations of the Sacred Scriptures, that tend in the least to show their falsity or dis- credit them. The testimony of ignorance is not allowed in any court. swedexborg's life a proof of his claims. 3. I helieve his teachings because Swedenborg was a truthful man, a devout lover of the truth which he sought with unswerving fidelity during his whole life. lie had no motives for deceiving others, and he was too sagacious and wise to be deceived by any illusions of the senses, or be- wildered by confounding fancies with facts. The gradual maimer in which his spiritual conscious- ness was opened while he was writing one of his profoundest works on the animal kingdom, and the coherent and rational account he gives of it, conclusively show that he had not lost the balance and rational control of his faculties. The works which he wrote at the time that the process of the opening of his spiritual senses was going on and everything he wrote afterwards give indubi- table evidence of the soundness of his under- standing and of the strength and orderly action of all his intellectual faculties. 78 PERSONAL EXPERIENCE ESSENTIAL A KNOWLEDGE OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD CAN BE GAINED ONLY BY EXPERIENCE. 4. I believe his disclosures because there is no other way in which a satisfactory knowledge of the spiritual world and the condition of its vast population can be gained than by personal ex- perience. It is the way all knowledge is gained. Open intromission into the spiritual world and personal acquaintance with its inhabitants and modes of life is the only way in which such knowl- edge could be obtained. He is perfectly rational and consistent, therefore, in constantly asserting that he acquired it in this way. If he had ad- vanced his disclosures as theories or opinions of his own, they would have been open to the same objections as the theories and fancies of others. Swedenborg claims to have done precisely what men demand as the only trustworthy basis of a belief in the substantial existence of the spiritual world and of man as a spiritual being. He claims that his spiritual and his natural senses were open at the same time, so that he could re- port to men what he saw and heard from spirits. He was not in a state of trance. His natural TO KNOWLEDGE OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 79 faculties were not asleep. He could write with his own hand and with his own natural intelli- gence what he saw and heard in the spiritual world, in the same way that he could express in natural language what he saw and heard in this world. He was conseiously in both worlds at the same time. He could go and come from one world to the other by the opening or closing of his spiritual senses. It was not a passage through space : it consisted in a change of state in himself, and was a normal process of which many instances are recorded in the Bible. SWEDEXBORG GIVES EVERY TEST OF TIIE TRUTH OF HIS CLAIMS DEMANDED. This is precisely what men have demanded. Let some one come back and report what he has seen and heard, and we will believe what he says. Swedenborg did this for twenty-seven years. All that he says is coherent with itself and with the universal laws of man's spiritual nature, so far as we have any knowledge of them. He reports nothing contrary to what the Lord has revealed in His Word. On the contrary, Sweden- 80 SWEDENBORQ MEETS ALL RATIONAL borg's disclosures throw a flood of light on the visions of the prophets and on many of the dark - problems of revelation. They do not contain a syllable that is contrary to the whole teaching of Holy Scripture, and they reveal in clear and rational light and most attractive and specific forms the fact of man's continued, personal exist- ence after the dissolution of the material body. They reveal a substantial spiritual world, in which he is to find his home and the most ample means for progress in intelligence, wisdom, and happiness. He has fulfilled all the demands of ignorance, incredulity, scepticism, and scientific illumination, and yet men will not believe ; they will not even take the trouble to investigate his disclosures and their claims to be true. On the contrary, he is regarded as insane ; as honest, perhaps, but the innocent subject of illusions; as mistaking subjective fancies for objective or real existences. Men stand afar off from any true knowledge of his writings, and greet him as his brethren greeted Joseph : " Behold, this dreamer cometh;" and they cast him into the pit of their ignorance and unbelief to perish, so far as re- gards his influence upon them. DEMANDS FOR PROOF OF HIS STATEMENTS. 81 UNJUST TO HIM AND DISASTROUS TO MEN. This is a cruel injustice to the man, and a most disastrous rejection of clear and rational light on the most important questions of man's nature and destiny. I cannot do it. His dis- closures come to me with a power which I can- not and have no desire to resist. They satisfy my reason ; they confirm my belief in the good- ness and wisdom of the Lord, and they open be- fore me the grandest prospects for the attainment of intelligence, power, and happiness. They satisfy every demand of my nature with regard to the continuance of my being in a substantial human form, in a substantial spiritual world. I accept them without a shadow of doubt. They have given me the power to say with undoubting conviction, I am immortal. I am to preserve my consciousness and identity not only untouched but increased and increasing forever. THE TESTIMONY OF REVELATION. But there are other, and, if possible, stronger reasons for full acceptance and unwavering belief in the truths revealed in the writings of Swcden- / 82 REVELATION CONFIRMS THEM. borg. I do not rely upon his testimony alone, trustworthy as I believe it to be. He gives us ampler and more powerful evidence than the tes- timony of any man. He gives us the testimony of the Lord Himself in two forms which corrobo- rate each other. We have the testimony of the Lord's Word, and of His works, and every fact is confirmed by the evidence of these two wit- nesses. Both are in perfect accord with each other. Both give the same testimony in every particular. Swedenborg has given us a perfect system of interpreting the Scriptures ; a system that applies to every passage and every word ; a system that is scientific in the strictest sense of the term, and as independent of the interpreter as scientific truth of every degree is of the scien- tist. My present purpose will allow me to give only a general idea of it, but sufficient, I hope, to be an additional justification of my faith in the truth of the doctrines of the New Church. THE BIBLE A PERFECT BOOK. 1. This system of exegesis is based on the nature of the Author of Revelation, on the nature of man to whom the revelation is made and of A DIVINE REVELATION PERFECT. 83 their relations to each other, and on the nature of the language by which it is conveyed. The author, by general acceptance, is a Divine Being. He is the author of creation, and a Being of infi- nite wisdom. It follows, as effect from cause, that the revelation He has given to men must be per- fect in form, in method, and adequate to every demand which those to whom it is given can make upon it. A Being of infinite wisdom and intelligence could not be the author of an im- perfect book. It must be applicable to every condition of the human mind, to the lowest and the highest intelligence. It must contain no unmeaning terms ; it must contain infinite truth. TWO REVELATIONS ANSWERING TO EACH OTHER. 2. The Lord has made two revelations of Himself. The first was "made by His works. The material universe, with all that is contained in its three kingdoms, is the Divine love and wisdom embodied and revealed in outward form. " The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no language where their 84 NATURE A PERFECT LANGUAGE. voice is not heard." Every one is known by his works. This is a universal truth, and ap- plies to the Lord as well as to man. Every human language has its origin and meaning in this Divine language. It is a natural language. It has its ground in the nature of God. It is a perfect language, because it comes from a perfect origin, by perfect means. It is a language that can be understood. Before man dulled his per- ceptions by evil, and closed his eyes to its forms and his ears to its harmonies, he did understand it, and it was the means of converse between the Lord and man. When man had fallen out of the harmonies of the Divine order and had lost the ability of understanding the spiritual and Divine meaning of this perfect and universal language, the Lord revealed Himself to man in another way. THE REVELATION OF HIS WORD BASED ON HIS WORKS. 3. He gave him a written revelation, which was based upon the first, and made by means of it, and which would have been impossible unless the created language had preceded it. This new ADAPTED TO EVERY STATE. 85 revelation is an adaptation of the old one to the low natural condition and special wants of men. Ir was not made at once, but continued through thousands of years, as the wants of men required. The fundamental principles of Divine truth were engraved on tables of stone ; its truths were em- bodied in composed and real histories ; in para- bles and precepts; in prophetic visions and song; and finally in the record of the Lord's incarnation, His instruction, His example, suf- fering, death, and resurrection. But in all these forms of expression, the spoken and the written word, the sound and the letter, were signs of the unwritten and created Word, which retained their original meaning. The vocal and written lan- guage was only a means adapted to the special office of communicating to men the created Word in a form adapted to the state of their intelligence. Every object of nature and action of men retained the same meaning it had in the beginning, before there was auy vocal or written language. Its application to natural events and human history did not annul its universal mean- ing. It only added a special one. 8 86 SWEDENBORG SAW BOTH SIDES. SWEDENBORG SHOWS THE RELATION BETWEEN THEM. 4. Swedenborg, by his intromission into the spiritual world, and the illumination of liis un- derstanding by spiritual light, while in full pos- session of his natural senses, was enabled to see the relation between spiritual causes and the material forms in which they are embodied. In other words, he was able to see the spiritual meaning of natural objects and human actions, and restore it to men. According to this law every natural object is the form and expression of some affection or truth in the Divine mind, and consequently in the human mind, as man was created in the image of God. The principle is seen and aeknowledged in all human actions. The only knowledge we have of the affections, thoughts, and purposes of others is gained by their manifestation in natural forms and actions. Tears and sighs and wailing are the normal effects of sorrow. They are the natural forms which grief and sorrow assume. And every one without any instruction knows what they mean. According to the same principle, smiles and laughter are the effect and natural expression of NATURE A DIVINE LANGUAGE. 87 delight and joy. These are examples of a uni- versal mode of expression. Every action of the material body is the effect of a spiritual cause ; of some state or action of the intellect and the affections. This is well understood and univer- sally acknowledged. THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE THE EMBODIMENT OP THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES. Precisely in the same way the material uni- verse, including man and the three kingdoms of nature in all the motions, cmalities, and activi- ties of matter, is the form and infinitely varied expression of the love, intelligence, and power of the Lord. Every mineral and plant, every animal and human being, is a manifestation and expression of the affections and thoughts and purposes of the Lord, and an example of His methods of carrying His purposes into effect. They are a created language, and there is no language where their voice is not heard. Ac- cording to this inhei-ent and universal relation between nature and spirit, the creation and the Creator, every natural object corresponds to and represents some quality in the Divine nature and 88 CORRESPONDENCE OF NATURE TO MIND. in man's nature. This relation Swedenborg calls the Science of Correspondences. He regards it as the science of sciences, which it certainly must be if what he says of it is true ; for it is the language in which the Lord speaks to us both in His Word and in His works, and they both have the same meaning. NATURE AND SPIRIT ESSENTIALLY RELATED. 5. Swedenborg shows that the Sacred Scrip- tures are written according to this relation be- tween natural and spiritual things, and that this relation exists in every part and extends to every word. And, more wonderful still, not only have single objects this spiritual meaning, but they are so connected and related that there is a continu- ous and orderly connection between every least part and the whole, and the whole and every least part. According to this idea the Sacred Scriptures are a continuous, orderly, and com- plete unfolding of Divine and spiritual truth, or, which is the same thing, of the laws of the Divine and of human life, from beginning to end, from their inmost principles to their out- most effects. Disconnected and unrelated as NATURE THE INSTRUMENT OF REVELATION. 89 they appear in the letter, in their inner mean- ing the Scriptures are organic and form a unit like the organs of the material body. SWEDENBORO'S MAIN WORK CONSISTS IN DEMON- STRATING THIS RELATION. By far the largest part of Swedenborg's writ- ings is devoted to teaching the inner, spiritual meaning of the Bible. lie gives the spiritual meaning of Genesis, Exodus, and the Revelation, or, to express the same idea in a different form, he has translated the natural objects and events recorded in Scripture into the language of the • spirit. He has done this not merely by giving the general meaning, as commentators do, by inference : he has translated these portions of Scripture chapter by chapter, verse by verse, word by word. He has shown that even the letters have a specific meaning, and that this is the reason for the change of some names, as Abram to Abraham. In this work he has quoted from every part of the "Word and nearly the whole of it. He gives the precise meaning of numerals, of the most common objects and ac- tions, and of the wildest visions of the prophets. 8* 90 THE RELATION OF NATURE AND SPIRIT. He descends to the smallest particulars. He examines the Word with the microscope as well as with the telescope of immutable law, and shows the perfect harmony between the least things and the largest. HE FOLLOWS THIS LAW OF INTERPRETATION WITH UNSWERVING FIDELITY. He adheres to the general meaning of each act and ohject in every place and in every rela- tion; and, when there is any variation in the meaning, he shows why and how it is acquired. The principle of interpretation is never departed from in any of his writings. He shows that there are no unmeaning words, no vain repe- titions, no real contradictions in the Sacred Seriptui'es, as it is impossible there could be if a Being of infinite wisdom is their author. There is infinite variety, as there is in the created Word, but no contradiction, no changes or forms without a sufficient and a special cause. As examples of the special meaning of every form and change, he shows why different names are applied to the Divine Being : that each one is used with absolute precision to express a UNIVERSAL AND CONSISTENT. 91 specific idea. Such a translation would be im- possible in the nature of things, if there were no inherent relation between the natural object and the spiritual prototype. No human intelligence could invent such a system. The statement of the principle, and its application in giving the spiritual meaning of almost the whole of Scrip- ture, embracing every peculiar form of expres- sion, amount to a demonstration of its truth. BY THIS SYSTEM OF INTERPRETATION THE BIBLE IS SEEX TO BE THE WORD OF THE LORD. But there is still further, and, if possible, more conclusive evidence that the Scriptures are written according to this relation between natural and spiritual things. By the application of this science the veil of natural objects, actions, and events is removed, and the Divine truths they were employed to reveal appear in their distinct and genuine forms. The change is like that caused in a grand and beautiful land- scape by the lifting of a dense mist from it. As the air grows clear illusions are dispelled ; veiled forms stand out in a distinct light. The obscure becomes plain, the horizon is indefinitely ex- 92 THE TRUE KEY F6R THE tended, and innumerable tonus and colors that, before were invisible are distinctly revealed in their essential relations. There is order instead of confusion. In a word, a new world is re- vealed. So it is with the Word of the Lord when the cloud of the letter becomes illuminated with the glory of the spirit. Every apparent contradiction is reconciled; every obscure and apparently trivial word is seen to have a distinct and important meaning ; every plant and animal, every insect and worm, even the shadows on the hills and the dust in the street, become exponents of principles in man's nature, and reveal the hidden laws of his spiritual life. The Bible is a new book. Like our Lord on the mountain, it is transfigured before us, and, like His face, it shines as the sun, and the garment of the letter is white as the light. The Lord is revealed to us in His true form and character, and the way is opened for communication and conjunction with Him. Life and immortality are brought to light. I believe, without any shadow of doubt, that Swedenborg, by Divine assistance, has given to men the Key which unlocks the seven seals of INTERPRETATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 93 the Word of the Lord ; that by its application a true and satisfactory knowledge of God, of the spiritual world, and of man's spiritual nature and the means of its continual development can he obtained from the Lord Himself. I believe it because it accords with all true knowledge of the material world, with my highest conceptions of the Lord's love and wisdom, and what must be His purpose in the creation of man. I believe it because in every step I take in examining the Lord's Word and works I find nothing to excite doubt, but increasing confirmations of the truth that the Word has, above and entirely distinct from its natural meaning, a spiritual meaning which the letter was given to express. I know how absurd and impossible such a doctrine seems to those who have not examined the grounds of it in the nature of man and the Lord. I know they call it fancy and regard it with contempt and aversion. But I know equally well that its truth can be substantiated by facts that arc universally accepted ; that it is in the line of all true science, and will bear any test a knowledge of nature or spirit can apply to it. It satisfies every demand which my reason 94 REVELATION FINAL AUTHORITY. can make upon a revelation and every want of my heart. It makes the Sacred Scriptures the Word of God, the embodiment of infinite wis- dom, the fountain of spiritual truth, the supreme and final authority, and in every respect worthy of their Divine Author. I more than believe them. They come to every faculty of my intel- lect and every good affection of my heart with a clearness of light and a power of love that cause an irresistible conviction that they have their origin in the Divine nature and are a reve- lation of the Lord to man and of man to himself. THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH ARE AFFIRMATIVE. I am a New Churchman because the doctrines of the New Church are affirmative. They are not suppositions or guesses. They do not lead to negations and end in denials. They are not based on human opinion. They are statements of the laws of the Divine order which originate in the Lord. Their fine lines traverse the ma- terial universe and become organized in man. These universal truths speak with authority; but it is not the authority of man. It is the authority THE NEW TRUTHS GIVE FREEDOM. 95 of the Lord Himself, expressed in every form and force in the universe, to which every true principle in man responds. This gives them an immense power, not merely over, but in and through, every mind that accepts them. They carry their authority with them. They are their own testimony, and they need no other. THEY GIVE FREEDOM OF THOUGHT. But they not only carry authority and convic- tion with them ; they also give freedom to the mind. They not only free it from ignorance and old errors, but they indefinitely enlarge the horizon of thought and multiply the fields of truth we can traverse. A doctrine or truth that is received by faith alone on authority, without being understood, does not admit of extension ; it is not organic; it has no particulars. Xo door opens into light. Within are mystery and darkness. There is no room for progress. But this is not the case with the doctrines of the New Church. They are formed of living truths. As the material body, which, viewed outwardly, presents one object, but when penetrated is found to be composed of innumerable vessels, single 96 TRUE DOCTRINE ORGANIC. and compounded, and traversed by arteries, veins, and nerves, which extend to every minutest point in the whole system, keeping all the parts dis- tinct from one another, and binding all together into a beautiful order and unity, so a true doc- trine of the Lord or man or nature is organic. It is composed of general and universal truths, which traverse it in every direction, opening out in infinite ways, but definitely related to every specific truth, forming a perfect order and a beautiful whole, and offering to the intelligent mind the richest fields for the investigation and discovery of new truths. The mind moves in freedom, because it follows the paths of a Divine order which open in every direction. "While every step is clear, intelligent, and satisfactory, we come to no limit on which is inscribed, " Thus far shalt thou go and no farther." The freedom which the doctrines of the New Church give is not that of a roving fancy. It is a freedom of law and order. But they give us a new and higher kind of freedom. It is something more than freedom from restraint. They introduce us into a dis- tinctly new world of thought and life. They A NEW KIND OF FREEDOM. 97 open the doors into the wide realms of man's spiritual nature and the spiritual world, and pro- vide us with the means of moving freely in the paths which lead to true wisdom and the Lord. They give us the power of communing with men on the interior plane of their nature. They call a distinctly new class of faculties into play, and enable us to move easily in the paths of spiritual order. Truth is the way, the path of light. The truth gives freedom and the power to penetrate into the deepest mysteries. THE NEW TRUTHS SOLVE OLD PROBLEMS. There are many dark enigmas which have re- sisted every effort of science and philosophy and revelation, as men have understood it, to solve them ; and the faith of many good men in the love and wisdom of God has been sorely tried, and the belief of multitudes has been destroyed or made impossible by their inability to penetrate the mysteries of sin and sorrow. The difficulty of solving these problems does not consist so much in the problems themselves as in the want of higher truths, which throw light on their mysteries and reveal their causes and nature. 98 FALSE PREMISES, FALSE CONCLUSIONS. Having no clear and rational knowledge of man's spiritual nature, and of the existence of a substantial spiritual world, he has been re- garded from a natural point of view. His interests have been estimated by selfish and worldly standards. The essential constitutents of man's nature being unknown, false conclu- sions concerning his permanent and highest good were inevitable. The temporary has been mistaken for the eternal, the shadow for the substance, death for life, evil for good, and falsity for truth. Every error in the factors necessitates error in the product. WHY LIFE IS AN ENIGMA. Life is an enigma because we see ordy a small fraction of it, and practically mistake that frac- tion for the whole of it. To estimate its purpose and value, its forces and possessions, by what comes within the range of our natural faculties, is as absurd, and must lead to as false conclu- sions as to measure the value and qualities of a seed by itself, or to limit the purpose and possibilities of an egg by the substances which compose it. Man's life in this world is only A TRUE POINT OF VIEW ESSENTIAL. 99 the first step in his existence. If we do not know what the next step is, and do not see any relation between the first and the second step, we have no means of judging of the purpose and qualities of the first. We cannot under- stand anything until we can look down upon it from a point of view higher than itself. The real beauty, order, and purpose of this world can be seen only in the light of the spiritual world. The real use and nature of the material body, and the infinite skill with which it is organized and adapted to all the substances and forces of nature to secure the end for which it was created, can be known and comprehended only when its forms and forces and delicate mechanism are regarded from the spirit. The existence of sin and suffering can be understood only when we have some true knowledge of the nature of man and of the Lord's purpose in his creation. THE NEW DOCTRINES GIVE THIS KNOWLEDGE. The question is often asked, but with despair of receiving a satisfactory answer, why the Lord suffered sin to enter the world; why He permits want and pain and sorrow; since, for 100 THE LORD NOT THE AUTHOR OF EVIL. some unknown reason, they have entered and touched with torment every human being, why He does not banish them by the exercise of His omnipotent power. These questions arise from the belief or supposition that the Lord is in some way responsible for the existence of sin and suf- fering, and that He could annihilate them by a word, if He would utter it. But this supposi- tion originates in a total misconception of the Divine character and power, and of the Lord's purpose in creating human beings. If the Lord is a being of infinite love, as most Christians acknowledge in words, He could have no other motive in creating intelligent beings than to make them as happy as possible by com- municating His love to them. If He is a being of infinite wisdom, it would be impossible for Him to provide any other than the wisest means and methods of carrying the purposes of His love into effect. He could not create evil, be- cause that would defeat His intentions. He could not permit it if there were any possible means of preventing it. We cannot suppose that evil crept into the creation unnoticed by Omniscience, or that the Lord would have per- FREEDOM MAKES ERROR POSSIBLE. 101 mitted it if it could have been prevented without defeating His final end in the creation of man. WHY SIN WAS MADE POSSIBLE. The question is sometimes asked why the Lord did not endow man with a nature that would render it impossible for him to sin. The an- swer is not difficult to find. He has created a multitude of things that cannot sin or suffer. The material universe has no power to violate one of its own laws. The rock cannot suffer. The plant has no power to feel pain, however much it may be multilated. Beast and bird and insect cannot sin. Sin is a violation of a spiritual law, and an animal has no spiritual nature. If the Lord had created minerals and plants only, there would have been no evil, no sin, and no suffering, because there would have been no possibility of sensation. SENSATION AN ESSENTIAL FACTOR OF SUFFERING. But He was not content with inanimate and insensate things. He took a higher step, and created a kingdom of living creatures, and en- dowed them with the power of sensation and 9* 102 SENSATION ESSENTIAL TO AN ANIMAL. freedom of determination. But with the capacity of sensation inevitably comes the possibility of suffering. Animals suffer from cold and heat, from hunger and thirst, from fear and injury to their physical organization. The faculties and the only ones which distinguish the animal from the plant, and give the power of conscious- ness, make suffering possible. Does any one ask why the Creator gave the power of sensa- tion to the animal ? The necessary answer is, He would have failed in His purpose of creating an animal if He had not. He would have left out the essential constituent of the animal nature. The product might be a plant or a crystal, but it could not have been an animal. THE SAME PRINCIPLE APPLIES TO MAN. According to His own declaration, it was the Lord's purpose to take another distinct step in creation, and bring into existence a being who should be the crown and glory of His love, wis- dom, and power. " Let us make man," He said to everything He had created. The mineral, the plant, the animal, were steps to this grand result. "Let us make man in our image, after our like- FREE WILL A HUMAN QUALITY. 103 ness." " So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him." The Creator finited the attributes of His own nature in man. He gave him a moral and a spiritual nature. He endowed him with the capacity of receiving His love and reciprocating it. He en- riched his nature with intellectual faculties, which gave him the power of knowing the Author of his heing, of understanding his relations to Him, and of seeing His wisdom, power, glory, and goodness in His works. These faculties also possess the supreme excellence of indefinite en- largement and increase in delicate power. There is no assignable limit to their development in any direction, heyond which they may not pass. FREE WILL AN ESSENTIAL QUALITY OF LOVE. But with the power of loving and knowing comes freedom of choice according to knowl- edge, and the liability to err in choosing. This was inevitable. It inhered in the essential nature of love. Love cannot be forced. It cannot be held by fast lines. It must be free. It must act as of itself, and according to what seems to it to be good. To make it impossible for man 104 MAN A FAILURE WITHOUT FREE WILL. to be seduced by tbe appearance of good and led into sin, moral freedom must be eliminated from his nature. But that would destroy the essen- tial human principle. Deprived of spiritual free- dom, he would not be a man. He would be nothing- more than a beast. The Creator would fail in His purpose to create a man in His own image. WHAT, THEN, SHALL HE DO? Shall He give up the attempt to complete the purpose for which all other things were made to be instrumental, because there is a possibility that some men, deluded by appearances, may make a wrong choice and suffer for their error ? Shall He fail to create a spiritual universe of heavens and fill them with ever-increasing, num- bers of intelligent human beings, whose hearts are glowing with love, whose understandings are illuminated with the glory of Divine truth, and whose whole life is one of serene peace and exquisite joy, because some, through their own choice and folly, may fail of it ? Could a being of infinite . love and wisdom be content with a universe of dead matter, of plants which could have no use, and of animals which are incapable POWER CAN HARM AS WELL AS HELP. 105 of spiritual knowledge and affection ? Could He give up the purpose of creating intelligent beings who could reciprocate His love and become illu- minated by His wisdom, and have no companion- ship but plants and brutes ? Surely there can be but one answer to these questions. To stop creation with rocks, plants, and beasts, because the endowment of a higher nature necessitated the possibility of sin and suffering, would be more absurd than to refrain from creating heat, which is the motive power of matter, for fear of a con- flagration. WHY SIN WAS NOT PREVENTED. The answer which the New Church gives to the question, why the Lord did not prevent sin and suffering from gaining entrance into the universe, is this : Because a free and rational mind, capable of loving and knowing and acting in freedom, and endowed with the supreme attribute of personality, is impossible without possessing qualities capable of being perverted. Freedom implies the ability to feel, think, and act wrong as well as right. Power of all kinds can harm as well as help, can destroy as well as create. 106 ABSURDITY OF SIMILAR QUESTIONS. SIMILAR QUESTIONS OF THE SAME KIND. Reduced to its last analysis, the question why the Lord did not endow man with a nature that was incapable of sin and suffering is of the same kind as a multitude of similar questions which might be asked, whose absurdity is self-evident. As, for example : Why the Lord did not create bones that would not break nor decay : Why He did not so organize human flesh that it could not be cut nor torn, or make nerves that were in- capable of a painful sensation. The answer is, that such a creation is impossible in the nature of things. The real question is not why sin and suffering should be permitted, but whether all the higher orders of being capable of sensation, delight, and happiness should be created, with the possibility, or even the certainty, that these noble faculties, which constitute man's essential nature, would be perverted and become the cause of suffering, or whether the Lord should abandon the work of creation with the vegetable kingdom. This would, indeed, be " beginning to build and not able to finish." When truly understood, sin and suffering give us no grounds SUFFERIXQ NOT WHOLLY EVIL. 107 for doubting the love and wisdom and infinite mercy of the Lord. The more we know of them, the more clearly we shall see that what the Creator said is forever true : " And God saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good." PAIN AND SORROW NOT EVILS. I am a New Churchman because the new truths show that pain and suffering of every kind are not necessarily an evil. They have a most important use. The need of this use does aot appear until man steps out of the true order of his life. Then suffering serves as a warning against danger and becomes a restraint from going further astray. Man has a spiritual mind distinct from his natural mind. This spiritual mind distinguishes him from the animal and constitutes his supreme excellence. Its interests are paramount to all others. Whatever protects them from harm or tends to their development is good. Every influence that injures their del- icate organs, weakens their power, or disturbs the harmony of their action, is hostile to man's highest interests. For this reason a natural loss may become a spiritual gain, by moderating too 108 FAILURE OFTEN A BLESSING. ardent desires for a merely temporal good. Failure in our efforts to gain a desired position, want of success in making money, and the de- feat of our plans to secure worldly prosperity, may show us the uncertainty of all natural pos- sessions, and lead us to turn our thoughts and affections to our spiritual and eternal interests. Our natural affections are first developed, and, unless they are restrained, they gain the mastery over the higher faculties and suppress them. They are like the plant which exhausts its power in hearing leaves. For this reason men often gain a more precious good hy the loss of property than by its possession. For the same reason poverty, privation, failure, hardship, and pain, may he more useful to men than wealth, ease, power, and freedom from all physical suffering or natural disappointment. THE REASON WHY THE LORD PERMITS PAIN. Here we find a satisfactory answer to the ques- tion why the Lord permits so much want and pain and sorrow in the world. He regards primarily the supreme and eternal interests of every human being. Whatever tends to secure THE LORD SEEKS MAN'S HIGHEST GOOD. 109 these is a blessing. Every natural attainment, possession, or delight that is harmful to these interests is a curse which must he averted. In the pure and constant light of the Lord's merci- ful purpose of good to men, the illusions of the senses and the shadows of natural evils which obscure our real good are dispelled ; the contra- dictions of this life are solved, and its apparent inequalities are adjusted. The reason, the under- standing, and the heart respond to the declara- tion, " The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works." THE NEW CHURCH HONORS LABOR. I am a New Churchman because all its doc- trines and principles dignify and ennoble useful labor. The opinion has prevailed that the doc- trines of the New Church are pleasing and fan- ciful illusions, but destitute of any practical value. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. They are directly and personally practical in every particular. " Man," says Swedenborg, " is a form of use, and every one becomes a man according to the degree of his use." " Use is the Lord's purpose in everything He has created." 10 110 THE LORD HONORS USEFUL LABOR. It is not possible that a being of infinite love and wisdom could remain idle or act without a purpose of doing good. Our Lord said, " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." " Every- thing," says Swedenborg, " is created from use, by use, and for use." LABOR NOT A CURSE. The Church has taught that labor was sent upon man as a punishment for sin, and conse- quently that it is to be avoided. This doctrine the world has readily accepted. It is the com- mon opinion that labor, more especially useful labor, is a curse, that there is degradation in it. Men and women who are not compelled by their necessities to labor in any useful occupation are regarded as fortunate. But such was not the example our Lord set us while He dwelt in the flesh. Such is not the teaching of His Word or His works. Labor is a blessing. Idleness is a curse. Labor is a means of being useful to others, and it becomes a blessing to the laborer according to the motives he puts into his work. All forms of useful labor become noble when it is performed from a noble purpose. Labor is USEFUL LABOR A BLESSING. Ill the means by which true charity is exercised and a heavenly character formed. No one can be regenerated who does not render some useful service to men. USEFUL LABOR CONDUCIVE TO HAPPINESS. This view of the use and purpose of labor dignifies and ennobles it. It lifts the burden and the curse from it. If the doctrine were generally accepted and understood, it would change the whole aspect of industrial life. Be- neath the wet brow, the callous hand, and the soiled garments, men would see the noble pur- pose, the faithful work, and the tender regard for the good of others. Through the smoke and din of the shop, the darkness of the mine, and the dust of the field, they would recognize the pure motive and the bright face of charity. They would find faithful servants in the kitchen and store and factory ; faithful servants as master and mistress ; faithful workers among poor and rich, and in every occupation. The noblest in nature and the highest in station, when judged by heavenly standards, would be those who per- formed their use from love to the Lord and man. 112 LIGHT REVEALS DANGER. THE TRUE LIGHT REVEALS EVIL. I am a New Churchman because in the light of the new truths I can see as in a perfect mirror the diseased and perverted state of the natural mind, and how utterly hopeless the possibility of its restoration to spiritual health without the con- stant protection and aid of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I see as clearly as the sun in the heavens that, in and of myself, I have no more power to overcome evil and restore my diseased natural mind to spiritual health than I had in the first instance to create myself. But I see with equal clearness that the Lord is ready to imbue my dormant spiritual affections with the life of His love, and to illuminate my darkened understanding with the light of His truth, so far as I shun evils as sins against Him, and keep the commandments which are the laws of spiritual life. He will never fail to do His part of the work of regeneration, and He will do everything in His power to encourage and assist me in doing mine. "The Lord is on my side; I will not fear : what can man do unto me ?" In this hope and help I rest. THE NEW TRUTHS MAKE A NEW WORLD. 113 THE NEW TRUTHS MAKE A NEW EARTH. I am a Xew Churchman because the doctrines of the Church have made and are constantly making a new world of this earth. In the light of its truths ever}- object in it is new. The rock and the dead mould, the plant and animal, the fish in the sea and the bird in the air, planet and star and sun and moon, insect and flower, — all, singly and in their relations to one another and to man, have a new meaning. They are not the "works of nature :" they are the works of the Lord. They are not things which He once created and cast from His hand, and which no longer have any vital connection with Him. He is creating them now. " Sustentation is per- petual creation." " They are new every morn- ing and fresh every evening." The Lord is a living, a constant Creator. I see what He is doing to-day. I see His love and wisdom and constant care for me and for all His children in all the forms and forces of the earth. I see His methods of creating and providing for human wants and of blessing His children, in the beauty of the flower, the growing fruit, and the ripen- A 10* 112 LIGHT REVEALS DANGER. THE TRUE LIGHT REVEALS EVIL. I am a New Churchman because in the light of the new truths I can see as in a perfect mirror the diseased and perverted state of the natural mind, and how utterly hopeless the possibility of its restoration to spiritual health without the con- stant protection and aid of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I see as clearly as the sun in the heavens that, in and of myself, I have no more power to overcome evil and restore my diseased natural mind to spiritual health than I had in the first instance to create myself. But I see with equal clearness that the Lord is ready to imbue my dormant spiritual affections with the life of His love, and to illuminate my darkened understanding' with the light of His truth, so far as I shun evils as sins against Him, and keep the commandments which are the laws of spiritual life. He will never fail to do His part of the work of regeneration, and He will do everything in His power to encourage and assist me in doing mine. " The Lord is on my side ; I will not fear : what can man do unto me ?" In this hope and help I rest. THE SEW TRUTHS MAKE A SEW WOULD. 113 THE SEW TRUTHS MAKE A XEW EAETH. I am a New Churchman because the doctrines of the Church have made and are constantly making a new world of this earth. In the light of its truths every object in it is new. The rock and the dead mould, the plant and animal, the fish in the sea and the bird in the air, planet and star and sun and moon, insect and flower, — all, singly and in their relations to one another and to man, have a new meaning. They are not the '■ works of nature :" they are the works of the Lord. They are not things which He once created and cast from His hand, and which no longer have any vital connection with Him. He is creating them now. " Sustentation is per- petual creation." " They are new every morn- ing and fresh every evening." The Lord is a living, a constant Creator. I see what He is doing to-day. I see His love and wisdom and constant care for me and for all His children in all the forms and forces of the earth. I see His methods of creating and providing for human wants and of blessing His children, in the beauty of the flower, the growing fruit, and the ripen- A 10* 114 ALL THINGS HAVE A NEW MEANING. ing grain. He comes near to me ; He speaks to me in a voice which I can understand. He besets me behind and before, and lays His al- mighty but gentle hand upon me, to lead me by the love which He gives me to heaven and. Himself. THIS LIFE HAS A NEW MEANING. Life in this world has a new purpose, a new interest, and new significance. How changed everything is ! Where once all was darkness, now there is light. Where I could see nothing but complexity and confusion, now I find order and movement along the paths of immutable law. I find myself a part of that order, and mov- ing along its perfect lines. Everything is fluent and yet stable as the rock. Men are in perfect freedom, and yet are the subjects of immutable law. This life is complete in itself, and yet it is only the first step in an endless journey. The means of happiness are so rich and varied and beautiful and substantial that it seems to the natural mind as though nothing was wanting but abundance and leisure to enjoy it. And yet all material possessions are coarse and crude and THE LORD IS GOOD TO ALL. 115 poor, and only the faint prophecy of what the Lord has in store for us. He makes every step in life as easy and pleasant as possible in itself, and the means of progress to a higher and a better good. He restrains us in love and tender mercy when we wander from the true path, and rewards ns with joy and peace when , we walk in His ways. By these kind, loving, and wise means He wins and leads us to trust in Him at all times, in adversity as well as in prosperity, knowing that He is always on our side, and doing everything in His power to save us from sin and sorrow, and to bestow upon us the richest blessings He can induce us to accept from His hands. Infinite love woos us, infinite wisdom guides us. "We rest on the Rock of Ages. I am a New Churchman because every move- ment in the progress of the human race is a step towards the principles of the New Church which were published to the world more than a century ago. The great currents in the ocean of thought are moving towards them. The rejection of old dogmas, the disintegration of old systems of the- ology from which all life has departed, and the loud call for the revision of creeds are prepara- 116 EVERY STEP CONFIRMS THE NEW TRUTHS. tory steps to the reception of the new truths, and were distinctly foretold by Swedenborg. Every step in natural science is in the direction of the laws of spiritual life disclosed in the writ- ings of the New Church. The discovery that all material substances and forces are inherently related was a distinct and most important step in the knowledge of the material universe. It was a step from faith to knowledge, from facts to principles, from appearances to substances in their true form and order. THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH A SPIRITUAL SCIENCE. This is precisely the step which the New Church has taken in the knowledge of spiritual truth. Its doctrines are a spiritual science. They are a statement of the laws of spiritual substances, forms, and forces, as they exist in the spiritual world and in man's spiritual body. They con- tain the laws and means and processes of its organization — its physiology. They describe the causes which disturb its order and pervert its forms ; the means of curing its diseases and de- veloping its faculties. They state with scientific THE NEW DOCTRINES SCIENTIFIC. 117 precision its relations to the Lord, the Source of its life and power, and to all the forces and influ- ences which tend to retard or promote its devel- opment. In a word, these doctrines are a plain, specific, scientific statement of spiritual laws and Divine laws, in the same sense that a true physiology contains the laws of physical life. They are a true psychology and theology, — that is, they are the science, the related and ordered truths or laws of man's spiritual nature and of the Lord's nature. They will extend man's knowledge of spiritual suhstances and laws be- yond any assignable limits ; they will effect the same beneficent changes in moral and spiritual life that a scientific knowledge of material sub- stances and forces has wrought on the material plane. THIS SCIENCE ITS OWN WITNESS. As this science is learned and understood, it carries with it the same conviction of its truth that a knowledge of natural science does, and for the same reason : it is embodied in the nature of spiritual substances and forms. It is related to the human understanding as light to the eye, as wholesome food to the material body, as 118 THE MIND FORMED FOR TRUTH. natural forces to the senses. The power of seeing the truth and acknowledging it to be the truth, is implanted by Divine wisdom in man's intellectual faculties in the same way that the power of distinguishing between heat and cold is organized in the senses. When these faculties are not perverted by error and blinded by evil, men recognize the truth when they see it, even though, for selfish and worldly reasons, they are not willing to acknowledge it. THE NEW TRUTHS CAN BE UNDERSTOOD. The doctrines of the New Church can be un- derstood, because they teach the laws of the Divine order in spiritual life. For this reason they are adapted to every capacity. A child can gain some knowledge of their general principles which it will never be necessary to unlearn. They are so plain and simple " that wayfaring men, even fools" in scientific and literary culture, need not err therein. But like all scientific truths, the more critically and profoundly they are examined, the clearer their truth becomes. Every new particular throws new light upon them. The certainty THE NEW DOCTRINES UNIVERSAL TRUTHS. 119 that they are a statement of the laws of the Divine order on the spiritual plane of life, in- creases with every step in their examination. This is the crucial test of the truth of every doctrine or theory ; and the doctrines of the New Church hear this test without any failure. This is why I know them to he true. Finally, I am a Xew Churchman because the doctrines of the New Church are derived from the Word of the Lord, which is Divine truth itself, by a perfectly scientific system of interpre- tation, and are in perfect harmony with all true knowledge of the works of God. The spiritual and the natural are complements of each other, and agree in principle in every particular, except that the spiritual is on a distinctly higher plane of the creation than the other. The natural an- swers to the spiritual, as effect to cause, as body to spirit. The Lord is the "Word. The Sacred Scriptures are the written "Word, because they contain and reveal the laws of the Divine order. The material universe is the created Word, be- cause it embodies the same laws in all their forms and forces. Both revelations meet in man, and are the concordant expression of the laws of 120 THEY MAKE ALL THINGS NEW. his physical and spiritual nature, because he was made in the image and after the likeness of God. The laws of his own nature must therefore be found in both books, and he can see himself in them as in a perfect mirror, as he is, distorted by sin, and as he may become by regeneration. He can find the Lord in His "Word, and can see that every truth revealed in it leads to Him, and when loved and lived conjoins man with Him in indis- soluble union. At every step of his progress in the knowledge of spiritual and Divine truth the way becomes plainer and more assured. The reason becomes clearer and sees more acutely, the understanding is enlarged and illuminated, and all the demands of the affections are fully met. We know by blessed experience the truth of the words, " In Thy light shall we see light," and we find the promise fulfilled and constantly fulfilling, Behold, I make all things new. THE FAITH OF THE NEW CHURCH. i. God is one in essence and person. " The first of all the commandments is, Hear, 0 Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul." (Mark xii. 29, 30.) " Hear, 0 Israel : Jehovah our God is one Jehovah : and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul." (Deut. vi. 4, 5.) " I am Jehovah, and there is none else, there is no God besides me." (Isa. xlv. 5.) II. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one God. " Surely God is in thee ; and there is none besides, no God : Verily thou art a God that hidest Thyself, 0 God of Israel, The Saviour." (Isa. xlv. 14, 15.) " Am not I Jehovah ? and there is no God else beside me. Look unto me, that ye may be saved, all the ends of the earth : for I am God, and there is none else." (Isa. xlv. 21, 22.) "/ am Jehovah; and beside me there is no F 11 121 122 THE FAITH OF THE NEW CHURCH. Saviour." (Isa. xliii. 11.) " I and the Father are one." (John x. 30.) " He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." (John xiv. 9.) III. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the three essentials of one dlvine person, and that person is the lord jesus christ. The angel Gabriel said to Mary, " The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." (Luke i. 35.) When Jesus was baptized, "Lo, the heavens were opened, and John saw the Spirit of God, descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him. : and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son in whom lam well pleased." (Matt. iii. 16, 17.) " Go ye therefore and teach all the nations, baptiz- ing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." (Matt, xxviii. 19.) " In Jesus Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." (Col. ii. 9.) IV. Man is essentially a spiritual being. He HAS NO LIFE IN HIMSELF. He IS ONLY AN OR- GANIZED HUMAN FORM AS TO HIS SPIRIT AS WELL THE FAITH OF THE NEW CHURCH. 123 AS HIS MATERIAL BODY, CAPABLE OF RECEIVING LIFE BY CONSTANT INFLUX FROM THE LORD. " God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created He them." (Gen. i. 27.) " And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Gen. ii. 7.) The whole of Sacred Scripture implies that man is a moral and a spiritual heing. He is con- stantly regarded as a being capable of knowing and loving, which are essential spiritual faculties. V. The Sacked Scripture is a Revelation of tue Divine love and wisdom, and of the Lord's methods of creating, governing, saving, and blessing man. llke hlmself, the word is Divine and human ; like man, it is spiritual AND NATURAL. It IS ADAPTED TO EVERY DEGREE AND SPECIAL STATE OF HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. It is the medium of communication and conjunc- tion between man and the angels and the Lord. 11 In the beginning was the "Word, and the "Word was iciih God, and the Word was God." (John i. L) " Forever, 0 Jehovah, thy word is settled in heaven" (Psalm cxix. 89.) 124 THE FAITH OF THE NEW CHURCH. " It is the spirit that quickenetk; the flesh profiteth nothing : the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." (John vi. 63.) " Search the Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have eternal life : and they are they which testify of me." (John v. 39.) " The Spirit of Jehovah spake by me, and His word was in my tongue.'" (2 Sam. xxiii. 2.) VI. Sin is a disease of the natural degree of man's spiritual nature. Salvation is the healing of this disease and man's restoration to spiritual health. It is wholly effected by the Lord while man co-operates with Him by repentance, shunning evils as sins against Him; by faith in Him and a life according to the commandments. 4 ' Bring forth fruits meet for repen tance. ' ' (Matt, iii. 8.) " / have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith Jehovah God: wherefore turn, and live ye." (Ezek. xviii. 32.) " Without me ye can do nothing." (John xv. 5.) " If thou wilt enter into life, keep the command- ments." (Matt. xix. 17.) " He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." (John iii. 36.) THE FAITH OF THE NEW CHURCH. 125 VII. The resurrection of man is his withdrawal from the material body, which is not an essen- TIAL PART OF him. This change takes place at THE DEATH OF THE BODY. THE BODY DIES BECAUSE MAN LEAVES IT. " After two days will he revive us." (Hos. vi. 2.) " Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. " Martha saith unto Him, I know he shall rise again in the reswrection at the last day. " Jesus saith unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life." (John xi. 23-25.) " To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." (Luke xxiii. 43.) " I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God." (Rev. xx. 12.) VIII. The final judgment of man takes place in the "World of Spirits, which is intermediate between heaven and hell, and which he first enters after his resurrection. tlie judgment is effected by an orderly and full develop- MENT OF THE REAL CHARACTER. He CHOOSES HIS OWN ASSOCIATES TO WHOM HE IS DRAWN BY HIS RULING LOVE. If HE IS EVIL, HE IS DRAWN TO THE EVIL ; IF HE IS GOOD, HE IS DRAWN TO THE GOOD, 11* 126 THE FAITH OF THE NEW CHURCH. and associates with them. the righteous are led to heaven by their good love, and the wicked are drawn to hell by their evil love. The book of life, which is man's ruling love, is opened, and every oxe is judged by what is written in it. " And I saw the dead, small and great, stand be- fore God; and the books were opened; and another book loas opened, which is the book of life : and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." (Rev. xx. 12.) THE END. Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. OF THE REV. CHAUNCEY GILES. MAN AS A SPIRITUAL BEING; 12mo. Faper, 20 Cents; Cloth, 30 Cents. "The volume before us is wholly Swedenborgian. We think that nowhere can be found a book from which so clear and so condensed a view of the leading doctrines of this rapidly growing church can be obtained." — Historical Maga- zine. " It adheres rigidly to' the received principles of Sweden- borg's teachings; but it surrounds them with lucid illustra- tions, clears up their apparent difficulties, enforces their logical application, and exhibits their practical scope and bearing in a style remarkable for clearness of statement, as well as argumentative force." — New Fork Tribune. Heavenly Blessedness 81.25 On the Atonement. Boards, 20 cents. Cloth... .40 Our Children in the Other Life. Limp Cloth... .10 The Spiritual World («« Nature of Spirit," and "Our Children," etc., bound in one vol- ume). Flexible 30 The Second Coming of the Lord 75 Human Stewardship. Paper 05 The Forgiveness of Sio 50 Why I am a New-Churchman. Paper, 10 cents. Cloth 25 THE TRUE AND THE FALSE THEORY EVOLUTION. BY REV. CHAUNCEY GILES. 12mo. Paper, 15 Cents. Cloth, SO Cents. " Williams College, May 13, 1887. " Eev. Chauncey Giles : " My dear Sir, — It is seldom in these days that I read a hook through, but I have yours, with much pleasure and profit. I do not see how your view could be better presented. You draw the distinction clearly between theistic and atheistic evolution, and your whole scheme is logical and consistent. Your book is a valuable addition to the literature of this subject." — From President Mark Hopkins. "An admirable little treatise. "Will hold its own in the now extensive library of books upon this subject." — Boston Advertiser. "An admirable treatise." — Public Opinion. " The book is a careful, earnest, conscientious attempt to reconcile the truths of revelation to the truths of science." — Wheeling Register. " The conclusion to which the argument leads up is that the universe is warm with a divine love, bright with a divine wis- dom ; it is moved by a divine hand, and animated with a divine life."— Commercial Gazette, Gin. " In a literary sense this little treatise has the polish of a gem. ' ' — Philadelph ia Bulletin. "Since the publication of Prof. Huxley's Six Lectures, in 18G.3, it is safe to say that no more important contribution toward an understanding of. what is true and valuable in tin; theory of Evolution has appeared. If I were shut up to the choice of three hooks on the subject they should be Darwin's 'Origin of Species,' Huxley's 'Six Lectures,' and Chaun- cey Giles's ' True and False Theory of Evolution.' The book ought to be introducd into every theological school in the land. " — Herald of Gospel Liberty. Will be sent by mail on receipt of the price. For Sale by WM. H. ALTDEN, Agent, 2129 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. DATE DUE toUSA HIGHSMITH #45230