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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
WHICH IS BEST? 
 
 LIGHT OR DARKNESS, GOOD OR EVIL? 
 
 PURITY OR FILTH, HEAVEN OR HELL? 
 
 CHOOSE YE, BUT FIRST READ 
 
 WHY PEOPLE 
 
 LOVE TO GO TO HELL; 
 
 OR, THE 
 
 WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE 
 
 OF 
 
 A NEW YORK REPORTER. 
 
 
 «* Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, 
 As, to be hated, needs but to be seen ; 
 Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, 
 We first endure, then pity, then embrace." 
 
 "Let sober moralists correct their speech; 
 No bad man's happy, be he poor or rich." 
 
 LOWELL : 
 PUBLISHED BY ALBERT COLBY, 
 
 39 Middlesex St., Clark's New Block. 
 
 1871. 
 
 Price 50 Cents for paper binding, or $1.00 for cloth gilt. 
 

 #.• 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, 
 
 By ALBERT COLBY, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, 
 
 By ALBERT COLBY, 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 Stereotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry, 
 No. 19 Spring Lane. 
 
Nos. 2 & 3. 
 
 WHICH IS BEST? 
 
 LIGHT OR DARKNESS, GOOD OR EVIL? 
 
 HEAVEN OR HELL? 
 
 CHOOSE YE, BUT FIRST READ 
 
 WHY PEOPLE LOVE TO GO TO HELL, 
 
 OR, THE 
 
 WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE 
 
 OF 
 
 A NEW YORK REPORTER. 
 
 "Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, 
 As, to be hated, needs but to be seen; 
 Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, 
 We first endure, then pity, then embrace.'* 
 
 41 Let sober moralists correct their speech; 
 No bad man's happy, be he poor or rich." 
 
 ALSO READ, 
 
 TRUE HISTORY OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 LOWELL : 
 PUBLISHED BY ALBERT COLBY, 
 
 39 Middlesex St., Clark's New Block. 
 
 1871. 
 Price 30 cents for paper binding, or 6G cents for cloth gilt. 
 
 Sold by Travelling Agents* 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 In publishing No. 2 and No. 3 of " Which is Best?" series of 
 pamphlets, I will say, No. 4 will be published as soon as copies 
 enough are ordered to pay for printing." No. 1 is now ready, and 
 several pages of it are appended to this volume, with title page of 
 No. 4. I propose to give away some of these books, and if any 
 person receives a copy who is not pleased with it, return the same 
 to me and I will repay your postage ; but if you are pleased and 
 benefited, then help to please and benefit others by ordering more 
 books, and persuading others to read them. To love God supremely 
 and our neighbor as ourselves, is the whole of true religion. If we 
 strive to do right because it is right to do right, and a duty we owe 
 to our Creator, and if we also strive to do by all just as we would 
 be done by if our circumstances were reversed, then are we truly 
 the Lord's children. 
 
 After spending many years in publishing and selling books, I re- 
 tired from the business and devoted seven years of my life to other 
 pursuits ; but hoping to do more good by returning to the book busi- 
 ness, I would respectfully announce that I will supply any book by 
 mail, postage free, at publishers' regular retail prices, and to book- 
 sellers at regular wholesale prices; and I hope to manufacture a 
 class of books that will enable agents to secure good wages for them- 
 selves, while they are laboring to benefit others. 
 
 ALBEUT COLBY. 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by Albert Colby, 
 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
DO PEOPLE ACTUALLY LOVE TO 
 GO TO HELL? 
 
 There being more than one thousand different 
 religious creeds in the world, all of them cannot be 
 absolutely right ; but no doubt there are good, hon- 
 est people in all churches, and something of Truth 
 underlying the foundation of every creed. A vast 
 majority of all the inhabitants of the earth inherit 
 their religious opinions, and are Pagans, Moham- 
 medans, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, 
 Episcopalians, or other sectarians, for the sole rea- 
 son that their fathers were such before them. They 
 have been educated to believe certain religious 
 dogmas, and r just as the twig is bent the tree's 
 inclined." No one is -to blame for his honest belief; 
 and Swedenborg instructs us, that every one's early 
 religious opinions should be sacredly respected, and 
 that the Lord Himself never wishes violently to 
 break such opinions, but to bend them only with the 
 utmost gentleness and moderation. In fact, all the 
 religions that ever have existed have been needed in 
 the world's progress, and had the Lord violently 
 destroyed those churches which he permitted to 
 prosper, something worse would have taken their 
 
 3 
 
4 SWEDENBORGIANISM 
 
 place ; or man's freedom would have been destroyed, 
 which would have been infinitely worse still. The 
 Lord protects every person's freedom, as the most 
 tender parents would protect their children's very 
 eyes. 
 
 That all may have freedom, the Bible has been 
 given to us in a language of correspondences, that 
 no person may be forced to believe what he does not 
 wish freely to accept. The perfect meaning of the 
 Word of God lies concealed in Its Internal Sense, 
 though the Words of Jesus are " Spirit," and "Life," 
 and they appear throughout the Bible as the pure 
 metal appears upon the surface of the gold-bearing 
 quartz of California. 
 
 The external or literal reading of the Bible some- 
 times apparently contradicts itself, but the Internal 
 and True meaning is never contradictory, but always 
 perfectly harmonious. All the sects of Christendom 
 find abundant passages of Scripture, which, under- 
 stood literally, fully substantiate their peculiar dog- 
 mas. For instance, the Roman Catholic reads the 
 16th chapter of Matthew, and finds abundant proof 
 in verses 16, 17, and 18 that Christ appointed Pe- 
 ter the first Head of the Christian Church ; and in the 
 19th verse of this chapter, and the 23d verse of 
 John xx., he also finds proof that Peter and his suc- 
 cessors were authorized to forgive sins. The good 
 Catholic also finds John vi. 48 to 58, perfect literal 
 proof that the sacramental bread and wine are mi- 
 raculously transformed into actual flesh and blood. 
 
 The Calvinist rejects the literal meaning of 
 
TURNED INSIDE OUT. 5 
 
 these verses, but finds the terrible doctrine of 
 foreordination in the literal sense of other passages 
 of this same chapter. The Shaker and the Cath- 
 olic Priest feel it their duty to follow the advice of 
 Paul, as laid down 1 Corinthians vii. 1 ; but the 
 Mormon replies, that David, and Solomon, and 
 hosts of other Old Bible saints, had a plurality of 
 wives, and polygamy is nowhere forbidden in the 
 Bible. Said an honest Mormon once to me, K Show 
 me a single passage in the Christian's Bible against 
 polygamy and I will give it up." I quoted many 
 passages, which he "explained away " as easily as a 
 Universalist explains away hell, or a Methodist ex- 
 plains away the injustice of eternal burnings ; 
 and, he concluded, " If God, is the Author of the 
 Bible, and polygamy is a sin, why does not some 
 simple verse state plainly that a Christian shall not 
 have but one living wife at a time ? " 
 
 I replied, that all men may have freedom, and be 
 individuals, and be responsible for all the deeds 
 done in the body, and choose of their own free will 
 and accord right or wrong, light or darkness, good 
 or evii. Why is it that Modern Spiritualism and 
 Infidelity are outrunning Christianity in point of 
 numbers, and the Philosophers and learned Sceptics, 
 like Ralph Waldo Emerson, are continually repeat- 
 ing, in their orations, that " Christianity is almost as 
 dead as Paganism ? " Why are Roman Catholic 
 Churches taking the place of the Congregational 
 Meeting-Houses of New England, and of other 
 Protestant sects throughout the country ? Why are 
 
6 SWEDENBOHGIANISM 
 
 the purest, the most refined and educated among 
 the Methodist denomination continually uniting with 
 the Roman Catholic Church, quite often stopping 
 at the half-way house of the Episcopalians for 
 change of baggage? It is because the Internal 
 Meaning of the Bible is rejected, and the letter only 
 is preached by too many of the Methodists and other 
 Protestant sects. w For the letter killeth." No 
 intelligent person living will honestly deny but what 
 the 16th chapter of Matthew and the 6th chapter 
 of John, accepted literally, will fully establish the 
 two leading doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. 
 Why, then, do so many Pro tes tent ministers mis- 
 represent, misquote, and deny Swedenborg's expla- 
 nations of the Scriptures, and hide from them, just 
 as owls and bats hide from the light of the natural 
 sun? Why does the Internal Meaning of God's 
 Word disturb these persons, just as water disturbs 
 men and dogs, and other animals suffering from 
 hydrophobia ? It is because such ministers are hire- 
 lings (see John x. 12 and 13), and for other rea- 
 sons to be found in the 23d chapter of Matthew ; 
 and they continually cry — K Great is Diana of the 
 Ephesians ! " or some other equally mercenary, dog- 
 matic falsehood. 
 
 With permission from the proper authorities, I 
 copy from The New York Daily Sun the following 
 dialogue between a w Methodist raised " reporter and 
 Mr. Thomas „ Hitchcock, omitting only a few intro- 
 ductory words of the reporter. The article from the 
 Sun is as follows : — 
 
 f 
 
TURNED INSIDE OUT. 
 
 HEAVEN, EARTH, AND HELL. 
 
 SWEDENBOKGIANISM TURNED INSIDE OUT. 
 
 A Sun Reporter Learns the Philosophy of Going 
 to Hell -^- Also the Difference between Angels 
 and Devils and the Rest of Us — Also what Be- 
 comes of Babies that Die — And how Things 
 go on in Heaven ■ — And how the Lord takes the 
 Nonsense out of Fools — Something about Ward 
 Beecher and Bishop Clarke. 
 
 A Sun reporter having been sent forth to find out 
 what Swedenborgianism is, and what its teachers 
 and upholders are driving at, he betook himself to 
 the Cooper Institute, where he remembered to have 
 seen a sign huns; out, statins; that the fountain of 
 pure theological truth was flowing hard by, and 
 inviting all to come and slake their spiritual thirst, 
 without money and without price. Having arrived 
 at the Cooper Institute, we, the reporter aforesaid, 
 discovered that Room 20 was the fountain in ques- 
 tion, and venturing therein, we inquired who was 
 the head man of the sect hereabouts, as we wanted 
 to find out what the Swedenborgian doctrines are. 
 To which a gentleman replied : — 
 
 " There is no head man in our sect ; that is to say, 
 there is no one whose lead we follow without ques- 
 tion. We all think for ourselves, although, of 
 course, some are more familiar with the writings of 
 Swedenborg than others." 
 
8 SCIENCE OF RELIGION. 
 
 f? Do you understand the doctrines?" we asked. 
 
 w I do. I have studied them about twenty-two 
 years/' 
 
 w Suppose I interview you, then?" 
 I have no objection." 
 Will you oblige me with your name ? " 
 
 " My name is Thomas Hitchcock." 
 
 " Are you known among the Swedenborgians 
 pretty extensively?" 
 
 W I am pretty well known among them." 
 
 "Very well. I'll now begin the interview, if you 
 please." 
 
 M Go ahead," said Mr. Hitchcock. 
 
 THE INTERVIEW. 
 
 Reporter. Well, what are you Swedenborgians 
 driving at? 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. We think we have the true sci- 
 ence of religious truth, and want to teach it to the 
 world. 
 
 Reporter. Science of religious truth ! Do you 
 mean to say there is any science in religious truth ? 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. We mean to say, and we do say, 
 that religious truth is as capable of scientific ar- 
 rangement and explanation as any other truth, and 
 that we are able to give this scientific explanation.. 
 The Swedenborgian theology bears the same rela- 
 tion to all other theologies that the Copernican sys- 
 tem of astronomy bears to the Ptolemaic, the Arabic, 
 the Hindoo, and the Chinese systems of astronomy. 
 Those systems of astronomy were based on the mis- 
 
KEY TO SWEDENBORGIANISM. 9 
 
 taken appearances of things, whereas Copernicus 
 and his followers got at the realities . Just so other 
 systems of theology are based on appearances, while 
 the Swedenborgian system is based on the real 
 truth. 
 
 Reporter. What do you mean by "appearances"? 
 
 THE KEY TO SWEDENBORGIANISM, 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. I mean the way that things ap- 
 pear to the senses. For example, the sun appears 
 to rise and set, and to go daily round the earth. The 
 sky appears to come down to the earth all around, 
 forming what we call the horizon. The earth ap- 
 pears to be stationary in the centre of our universe. 
 The sun appears to be a small orb, not a millionth 
 part as large as the earth ; the planets seem no big- 
 ger than marbles ; and the fixed stars appear to be 
 mere twinkling points. All these appearances are 
 controverted by science, and the senses have to yield 
 to reason. It is the same in spiritual and religious 
 matters, which abound with fallacious, misleading 
 appearances, and these appearances have to be cor- 
 rected, and in the Swedenborgian system of theol- 
 ogy are corrected by spiritual science. 
 
 Reporter. That all sounds very well, in a general 
 way ; but let us get at something specific. What' do 
 you say, for example, to the doctrine of total de- 
 pravity? I used to know a pious old lady, when I 
 was a boy, who was strong on that doctrine, and 
 who always closed every argument on the subject by 
 saying, K Well, when you take away my 
 
10 WHAT IS TOTAL DEPRAVITY? 
 
 TOTAL DEPRAVITY, 
 
 you take away all my religion ! " What do you say 
 to that? 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. Our doctrine as to that matter is, 
 that all human beings are born with sinful inclina- 
 tions, but need not commit sin unless they choose 
 to do so, and are not accounted guilty of sin unless 
 they do actually commit it. 
 
 Reporter. Then you must hold that all children 
 that die before they reach the age of moral account- 
 ability go to heaven, no matter how wicked or hea- 
 thenish their parents may be. 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. We do, most emphatically ; it is 
 a monstrous error to suppose otherwise. 
 
 Reporter. But if no babies whatever go to hell, 
 what becomes of the doctrine of infant damnation ? 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. I'm sure I can't say, unless it 
 goes to hell instead of the babies, as it certainly 
 should. 
 
 Reporter. But if the doctrine of total depravity 
 is not true, what need have we of a Saviour? 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. To save us from our sinful incli- 
 nations, and from actual sin committed by every one 
 personally. 
 
 Reporter. How did He, or how does He do 
 that? 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. It is not easy to tell, off-hand, 
 how He does it. In order to explain it, it is neces- 
 sary, in the first instance, to explain our views of 
 the intimate connection between this world and the 
 . spiritual world, including both 
 
WORLD OP SPIRITS. . 11 
 
 HEAVEN AND HELL. 
 
 Reporter. That is just what I want to get at. 
 Please go ahead. 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. The spiritual world is not remote 
 from this world, on some unknown planet, as is com- 
 monly supposed. It is right here; close to this 
 world, and within it. When* a man lives a good 
 life, he draws angels and good spirits, who inhabit 
 the spiritual world, near to him ; if he lives an evil 
 life, he draws evil spirits and devils around him. 
 
 Reporter. What is the difference between a good 
 spirit and an angel, and an evil spirit and a devil. 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. A good, spirit is a good human 
 being who has passed from this world, but has not 
 yet become an angel. An angel is a good human 
 being who has been perfected in the spiritual world 
 up to the status of angelhood, and been thereby 
 elevated into heaven. An evil spirit is a wicked 
 human being who has passed from this world, but 
 has not yet become a devil. A devil is a wicked 
 human being, who, having passed into the world of 
 spirits, has blossomed out into full-blown devilhood, 
 and gone to his home in hell. 
 
 Reporter. You talk about the 
 
 WORLD OF SPIRITS 
 
 as though it were a place to which good and bad 
 spirits go in common, previous to their being sent 
 to heaven or hell. 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. Yes, the world of spirits is an 
 intermediate state between heaven and hell. It is 
 
12 THERE IS BUT ONE GOD. 
 
 where we all go immediately after death, before we 
 are finally sorted out and disposed of according to 
 our real characters. Now, to come back to the 
 spirits which a man draws around him in this world 
 by his life, and on which I must predicate my expla- 
 nation of the work of salvation which the Saviour 
 did for us. By the instrumentality of good spirits 
 and angels, the Lord is always trying to save us 
 from the machinations of evil spirits and devils. 
 But when the whole human race is unspeakably 
 wicked, as it was at the time of the Lord's appear- 
 ance on earth, special efforts to this end are neces- 
 sary. At the time of the Saviour's advent, the evil 
 spirits and devils had got such a hold upon men as 
 to take possession, not only of their minds and 
 hearts, but of their bodies also, as we read in the 
 Gospels, and the instrumentality of angels and good 
 spirits was not sufficient to resist them. The Lord, 
 therefore, came Himself down to the plane of human 
 life, and on that plane fought with His own omnipo- 
 tence against 
 
 HELL 
 
 and its allies, drove them back, and thus saved men 
 from destruction. 
 
 Reporter. Do you mean that it was God Himself 
 who did this ? 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. Yes, I do. There is but one God. 
 The Son of God is the name given to His manifes- 
 tation of Himself here on earth, and the Holy Spirit 
 is the holy influence that proceeds from Him. 
 
GOD IS LOVE. 13 
 
 Reporter. What becomes of the vicarious atone- 
 ment then ? 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. The vicarious atonement, as ex- 
 pounded by old-fashioned theologians, is a miscon- 
 ception of the truth, just as the Ptolemaic system 
 of astronomy was a misconception of astronomical 
 facts. It rests upon the assumption that God was 
 angry with His creatures, and needed to be pacified, 
 and would not let up on the offenders until some- 
 body had been adequately punished for their offences. 
 God's alleged anger is an appearance produced by 
 our guilty conscience. The truth is, that God 
 
 LOVES THE SINNER 
 
 just as much as He loves the saint, and always 
 seeks the sinner's good. To remove this appear- 
 ance of anger, it is only necessary for us to repent 
 of our sins and turn to the Lord ; just as, to come 
 from night to day, it is necessary for the earth to 
 turn, and not for the sun to change its position. 
 The sun shines on just the same all the time, 
 whether it be hidden by clouds or shut out from us 
 by the earth's turning away from it; and so, too, 
 does the Lord's love shine on just the same all the 
 time, no matter how it may be obscured by the 
 clouds of evil, or shut out of our hearts by our. 
 turning away from the Lord. So you see that re- 
 demption was a deliverance from the powers of 
 hell, to enable us to turn again to God, and was not 
 a deliverance from the wrath of God, as that phrase 
 is usually understood. The work which the Lord 
 
14 WHAT THE PREACHERS SAY. 
 
 did in redemption waslndeed vicarious. He did in 
 Our place what we could not do for ourselves. 
 Atonement, again, means reconciliation — or, as it 
 is sometimes spelled, at-one-ment ; and it is we who 
 are reconciled to God, and not God to us. He does 
 not need any reconciling, but we do ; because it is 
 we who have 
 
 GONE ASTRAY. 
 
 It is we who must be brought back. To repeat 
 our astronomical illustration, there is no change in 
 God any more than there is in the sun ; it is the 
 earth which must turn in order to receive the sun's 
 heat and light. 
 
 Reporter. All the preachers say the same thing 
 ~ that we must turn to the Lord and seek salvation. 
 Is your way of doing that different from theirs ? 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. I will not attempt to state their 
 method, but will only tell you what ours is. Our 
 way of turning to the Lord is to repent of one's 
 sins, pray to the Lord for help, and above all, to 
 keep the commandments. 
 
 Reporter. That seems to be Orthodox. I was 
 brought up a Methodist, and that is just what they 
 preached. There does not seem to be much practi- 
 cal difference, after all, between you and the rest of 
 the religious world. 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. I should be very glad to believe 
 that that was so. The use of all religion is to make 
 good men and women on earth, and angels in 
 heaven. So far as the Methodist, Catholic, or Mo- 
 
RELIGIOUS ERRORS OF THE DAY. 15 
 
 hammedan religion * can do that, it has my hearty 
 sympathy. Indeed, Swedenborg teaches that, in the 
 providence of the Lord, believers of all forms of re- 
 ligion are saved, if they only live good lives, accord- 
 ing to their religious precepts. 
 
 Reporter. What is the advantage of your form 
 of religion then over others ? 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. The advantage consists in being 
 free from the errors and misconceptions which em- 
 barrass and mislead believers in other systems. 
 
 Reporter. What errors and misconceptions do 
 you refer to? 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. That of God's being angry with 
 us, and demanding a victim to appease 
 
 HIS WRATH, 
 
 for example, and the consequent misconception of 
 the real nature of the atonement, the trinity of 
 three distinct persons, the doctrine that heaven and 
 hell are arbitrarily given by the Lord, and are not 
 the result of eternal laws ; these, and kindred errors 
 flowing from them, puzzle and confuse people's 
 minds, and prevent them from doing as well as they 
 would if they knew the truth. 
 
 Reporter. If the Lord does not send a man to 
 hell, who does send him there? 
 
 A SWEDENBORGIAN STUNNER. 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. He goes there of his own ac- 
 cord, and because he likes it better than he likes any 
 other place. 
 
16 THE REPORTER FRIGHTENED. 
 
 Reporter. That's a stunner. If you will enable 
 me to comprehend that, and to see that it is true, 
 you will contribute much to my peace of mind. 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. How so? Would it contribute 
 to your peace of mind to see that if you should ever 
 become an inmate of one of those loathsome hells 
 of the Fourth or Sixth Ward, — say a negro dance- 
 house, — it would be because you had become so 
 degraded that you would go there, and live there, 
 and make your living by living there, from pure love 
 for such a life ? 
 
 THE REPORTER FRIGHTENED. 
 
 Reporter. Merciful heavens ! The very idea 
 makes my soul turn sick. 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. Very well ; then how can it con- 
 tribute to your peace of mind to see and believe that 
 if you go to hell from the world of spirits it will be 
 because you will have become so vile and loathsome 
 in all the attributes of your spiritual nature that you 
 will prefer the society of devils to that of angels, 
 and the wickedness and corruption of hell to the 
 purity and holiness of heaven ? 
 
 THE REPORTER CAVES. 
 
 Reporter. Come to reflect upon it, I do not think 
 my peace of mind would be re-enforced by such a be- 
 lief. But I want you to explain how people go from 
 the spiritual world to heaven or to hell. 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. Before I do that, tell me what 
 vour idea of heaven is. 
 
WHAT IS HEAVEN? 17 
 
 Reporter. Heaven is the eternal home of the re- 
 deemed ; it is the home of never-ending rest ; it is a 
 place of eternal happiness. 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. What makes heaven a place of 
 happiness ? 
 
 Reporter. Why, God makes it so, of course. 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. But how does He make it so? 
 In what does the happiness of heaven consist? 
 
 THE REPORTER'S IDEA OF HEAVEN. 
 
 Reporter. Why, in being happy, I suppose. And 
 the redeemed are made happy by contemplating the 
 glories of their Redeemer ; by singing endless praises 
 to Him ; by wearing golden crowns and robes of 
 spotless white, and roaming those sweet fields which, 
 as the old Methodist hymn says, beyond the swelling 
 flood stand dressed in living green. 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. That is to say, the happiness of 
 heaven, according to your views, consists in having 
 what might be termed a never-ending religious 
 holiday, with nothing to do except to sing praises 
 to God, and feast on what you call heavenly de- 
 lights ? 
 
 Reporter. Yes ; that is about it. 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. How would you like that here 
 on earth ? How would you like to stand in a temple 
 or a garden for years, wearing a white robe, and 
 with a gold crown on your head and a gold harp in 
 your hand, and with nothing to do but to sing 
 psalms? Or, to put it briefly, how would you like 
 to live in everlasting idleness here, if you could? 
 2 
 
18 WHAT HEAVEN IS. 
 
 Reporter. It would be intolerable, of course* 
 It would kill me, or 
 
 DRIVE ME CRAZY. 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. Exactly : just as it has killed or 
 driven crazy many a man who, having amassed 
 wealth, and foolishly imagined that it would be 
 heaven on earth to live in splendor and idleness, has 
 supplied himself with a luxurious home, and quit 
 business to enjoy it. Does not every such man find 
 out his mistake? 
 
 Reporter. Yes. I went up to Connecticut last 
 year and interviewed one of those very men. He 
 had an earthly paradise, but the devil was in it, in 
 the shape of idleness ; and the poor rich old man 
 told me he was going to start an orphan asylum, and 
 run it. himself, just to have enough to do to keep 
 him from going crazy or committing suicide. 
 
 NEW IDEAS ABOUT GOING TO HEAVEN. 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. You have hit it exactly. Activity 
 is a law of life. Idleness leads to stagnation, and 
 stagnation is death. Every man must be active. A 
 good man wants to be all the time doing something 
 useful ; an evil man wants to be all the time doing 
 something harmful. The old gentleman that you 
 interviewed in Connecticut, being a good-hearted 
 man, his irrepressible craving for activity burst out 
 in a charitable direction, and he founded an orphan 
 asylum. If he had been a bad-hearted man, his 
 activity would have taken an evil direction. In the 
 
HYPOCRITES AWAY FROM HOME. 19 
 
 spiritual world, every one has the same passions 
 and desires that he had here. The good spirits seek 
 to be useful, and the bad spirits seek to gratify their 
 evil dispositions. The same laws govern the coales- 
 cence of the inhabitants of the world of spirits into 
 societies or communities which govern the same 
 thing here. In this world the vicious seek out and 
 consort with the vicious, and the good seek out and 
 consort with the good. Take the people who arrive 
 in this city, for example, on any given Saturday 
 night and Sunday morning, from all parts of the 
 country. They are here relieved from the conven- 
 tional restraints which keep them in order at home, 
 and every one is free to gratify his appetites at his 
 will. You understand such things, and very well 
 know that many of those persons who, if at home 
 on that Sunday would go to church, and exhibit a 
 deal of 
 
 HYPOCRITICAL PIETY, 
 
 will go to the haunts of vice in this city, and scoff 
 at religion, and wallow in wickedness. Every one 
 of them who loves the company of the vicious, will 
 seek out vicious companions, and go where he will 
 enjoy himself most. On the other hand, those who 
 really love the Lord, and in their very hearts want 
 to do the right thing wherever they are, will seek 
 out some church on that Sunday, or will in some 
 way show out and act out the love for the Lord and 
 his people which dominates their lives. So, when 
 people arrive in the spiritual world, where all con- 
 
20 HELLS OF THIS WQELD. 
 
 ventioiral restraints are removed, every one acts out 
 his real nature- The wicked gradually sort them- 
 selves out from the good, and gravitate by choice to 
 the hells. A hell is simply a society in which wick- 
 edness holds entire sway ; and the worse the wick- 
 edness, the worse the hell. 
 
 Reporter. But how about the punishment for 
 sin? Is not hell a place of torment? and if it is, 
 why do even the wicked like to go there ? 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. Why do the wicked go from 
 choice into the 
 
 HELLS OF THIS WORLD, 
 
 and voluntarily accept the loss, disgrace, ruin, dis- 
 ease, suffering, and death, which come of going 
 there ? People are the same in the world of spirits 
 that they are here ; that is to say, they are human 
 beings. Suppose you and I should be struck dead 
 this moment, and pass into the spiritual world. 
 You would be you, wouldn't you, and I would be I? 
 We should have the same spiritual natures which 
 we have now. You would like there what you like 
 here ; and it would be the same with me. If we 
 really love God and our neighbor here and now, we 
 should love God and our neighbor there and then. 
 If we love what is pure and holy here, we should 
 love what is pure and holy there. But if we really 
 in our hearts love self, and the world, and evil and 
 wickedness here, we should love the same there, no 
 matter what we may pretend to love here. And 
 loving wickedness, we should go among the wicked, 
 
HOW DEVILS BEHAVE. 21 
 
 because we would prefer to do so. And being 
 among the wicked, we should, of course, have a 
 wicked and unhappy time of it, and grow worse and 
 worse, and become 
 
 VERY DEVILS, 
 
 and be tormented by our own burning passions and 
 by our fellow-devils, and suffer unspeakable an- 
 guish ; and yet we would prefer that devilish state 
 to heaven, just as the human devils in this world 
 prefer their horrible life and surroundings to the 
 society of good Christians. 
 
 Reporter. I understand how it must naturally be 
 as you say ; but still I do not see where the punish- 
 ment which God inflicts on sinners for the sins they 
 committed in this world comes in. 
 
 HOW SINNERS GO TO HELL. 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. The Lord does not punish people 
 hereafter for deeds done in the body. K Sufficient 
 unto the day is the evil thereof." In the Lord's 
 dealings with his creatures there is no such thing 
 as punishment, in the sense in which that word is 
 generally used, but only philosophical consequences. 
 If you take hold of hot iron, it burns you. The 
 burning is not a punishment, arbitrarily inflicted, 
 but only a natural consequence. If a man eats 
 anything poisonous or hurtful, the inevitable con- 
 sequence follows, and his body is injured, or perhaps 
 his life sacrificed. So, too, if a man commits sin, 
 his soul is injured, as a spiritual consequence ; and 
 
22 HOW ANGELS ARE MADE. 
 
 by continuing in sin, he comes to love it, and his 
 soul gets such an appetite for it that he continues • 
 sinning in the world of spirits, and grows in wick- 
 edness, and finally goes to hell as a spiritual conse- 
 quence of his sins, just as a drunkard finally goes 
 to a drunkard's grave, not as a punishment arbitra- 
 rily imposed upon him for his offence, but as a phys- 
 iological consequence of his excessive indulgence in 
 strong drink. 
 
 Reporter. Do men go to heaven on the same 
 principle? 
 
 HOW WE GO TO HEAVEN. 
 
 Mr, Hitchcock. Precisely. By cultivating dur- 
 ing this life love to the Lord and to the neighbor, 
 a good man, with the Lord's help, acquires the habit 
 of enjoying the exercise of his good affections, and 
 in the other life seeks the society of companions of 
 a like character. It is easily seen that a community 
 of people, all loving and obeying the Lord, and 
 all loving one another, and trying to do the greatest 
 possible good to one another, must make a heaven 
 wherever they may be. 
 
 Reporter. What chance is there for doing good 
 to your neighbors in heaven? Doesn't the Lord 
 give your neighbors all they want there, without 
 your help? 
 
 TOO MUCH SWEETENING. 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. He does not do it any more there 
 than He does here. You must remember that our 
 
HOW BABIES ARE PROVIDED FOR. 23 
 
 happiness comes through the right use of the facul- 
 ties which the Lord has bestowed upon us. To 
 exist in heaven as a sort of spiritual oyster or 
 sponge, with the Lord pouring molasses over us to 
 all eternity, would be altogether too sweet and 
 stagnant to be wholesome. The Lord works by in- 
 strumentalities in heaven the same as He does here. 
 For example, He here uses the relation of husband 
 and wife, of parent and child, of teacher and 
 scholar, to bring into activity, and to gratify our 
 deepest and tenderest affections ; and it is only in 
 this way — that is, by the exercise of our affections 
 — that we can get any development. 
 
 Reporter. Do you mean to say that there are 
 the relations of husbands and wives, parents and 
 children, and teachers and scholars, in heaven? 
 
 HOW BABIES ARE PROVIDED FOR. 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. I do. There are husbands and 
 wives in heaven, as there are on this earth ; and 
 though no children are born there, yet the children 
 who die in this world, and who all go to heaven, 
 have to be brought up and educated to adult age. 
 So, too, the ignorant good people among Christians, 
 and the good among the heathen, who all go to 
 heaven, have to be instructed there. And, in fact, 
 what do the wisest of us know in comparison with 
 the angels who have been in heaven for thousands 
 of years? As arrivals there are incessant, there is 
 never any cessation of the work of instruction. 
 Hence there is the exercise of the parental office 3 and 
 
24 A REASONABLE RELIGION. 
 
 the relation of teachers and scholars. Did it never 
 occur to you to imagine what has become of the 
 myriads upon myriads of infants that have died and 
 gone into the world of spirits? Do you suppose 
 that infants that died five thousand years ago are 
 kept bottled up somewhere as infants still? Are all 
 the infants that have died, and that are dying, and 
 that will hereafter die, to be kept for ages upon ages 
 in an infantile state, and then be finally judged as 
 infants, and sent to their doom as infants, and kept 
 as infants — myriads of them not an hour old — 
 throughout eternity? Do you suppose there is to 
 be any such waste of immortal material as that? Is 
 it not more reasonable to suppose that infants grow 
 up in heaven, and become intelligent beings there? 
 Is it not also reasonable to suppose that the Lord, in 
 the exercise of His infinite love and wisdom, has 
 made % provision for their care, and comfort, and in- 
 struction? It would be justly considered an act of 
 
 ATROCIOUS CRUELTY 
 
 to send countless babes off to some distant land, 
 without making any provision for their welfare 
 when they should arrive at their destination. And 
 is there any reasonable religious being on earth who 
 would dare to imagine that the Lord has not made 
 ample provision for the welfare of all His little 
 ones that go in their helplessness to the unseen 
 land? 
 
 Reporter. All the mothers will be apt to accept 
 your doctrine as to the fate of babies in the other 
 
HOW HEAVEN FIRST APPEARS. 25 
 
 life. It looks reasonable. But if Swedenborg's 
 views are correct, it strikes me that a great many 
 good Christians are foredoomed to disappointment, 
 and will not find the heaven they longed for. 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. There you are mistaken. Swe- 
 denborg expressly says, that every good person, on 
 his first arrival in the world of spirits, finds exactly 
 the heaven he believes in. 
 
 Reporter. Why is that ? 
 
 TAKING THE NONSENSE OUT OF THEM. 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. To take the nonsense out of hira. 
 You know when a confectioner takes on a new ap- 
 prentice, he always tells him he may eat just as much 
 candy and confectionery as he likes. The appren- 
 tice, of course, gives full sw r ing to his appetite, and 
 in a few days becomes so disgusted with candy and 
 confectionery that they are forever after intolerable 
 to his palate and stomach. Just so, when people 
 imagine that heavenly happiness consists in endless 
 worship, or singing, or sitting on beds of flowers, 
 or roaming in paradisiacal gardens, or feasting with 
 the patriarchs, or merely getting into a place called 
 heaven, they are allowed to try it on, till they 
 become so disgusted that they want to break jail, 
 and escape to some place where they can find some- 
 thing useful to do. They are then instructed that 
 heaven consists in performing uses — doing useful 
 things — in the name of the Lord ; and right glad are 
 they to learn that lesson. The essence of heavenly 
 
26 OCCUPATIONS IN HEAYEN. 
 
 delight is the doing of good to others, and not* the 
 selfish gratification of one's own desires. Sweden- 
 borg says that the angels not only love the neighbor 
 as themselves, but better than themselves, and find 
 ineffable delight in ministering to their neighbors. 
 That is in accordance with the teaching of the Lord 
 while on earth : " But he that is greatest among you 
 shall be your servant.' 7 (Matt, xxiii. 11.) 
 
 Reporter. But what do angels find to do in 
 heaven ? 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. Everything that good men and 
 women would find to do in a perfect state of society 
 on earth, with, of course, such exceptions as grow 
 out of the difference between the material and the 
 spiritual worlds. Some are teachers of religious 
 truth to new comers from this w r orld. Some, par- 
 ticularly women, take care of infants and children. 
 Immense numbers are engaged in watching over 
 us who still live here in this world, and as many, 
 if not more, in ameliorating the miseries of the in- 
 mates of hell. It is there, as it would be here in a 
 community of good and benevolent people, ■ — each 
 one does what he is best qualified for to promote the 
 general welfare and happiness. 
 
 WE SHALL KNOW EACH OTHER THERE. 
 
 Reporter. Will people know each other there ? 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock. Yes ; but if that knowledge is 
 only of the outward seeming, as it often is in this 
 world, and not of real interior character, it will soon 
 
SWEDENBORGIANS IN ALL THE CHURCHES. 27 
 
 pass away, because there, everybody at length has 
 to show his real character. No hypocrisy is possi- 
 ble there. Hence, unless people have an interior 
 affinity for one another, they do not remain together 
 in the spiritual w r orld. 
 
 Reporter. How many Swedenborgians are there 
 in the United States ? 
 
 Mr. Hitchcoch. Something over five thousand, I 
 suppose, who call themselves New Churchmen. 
 But there are thousands who receive the doctrines, 
 who do not avow it. We have about a hundred 
 societies, and seventy ministers. We have a church 
 in this city, in Thirty-fifth Street, and one in Brook- 
 lyn, at the corner of Clark Street and Monroe Place. 
 There are also societies in Jersey City, Newark, 
 Orange, Poughkeepsie, Mount Vernon, and Eiver- 
 head. 
 
 Reporter. Do you administer the usual ordi- 
 nances ? 
 
 Mr. Hitchcoch. We administer the rite of Bap- 
 tism, and the Sacrament of the Holy Supper, and 
 carry on our worship very much like other Christians. 
 We are liberal in our notions as to other sects, and 
 wish them all God speed. The fact is, the New 
 Jerusalem is coming down out of hea?ven among 
 men in all parts of the world, and in all denomina- 
 tions. It has transformed the theology and the 
 preaching of Christendom within a century. 
 
 HENRY WARD BEECHER 
 
 preaches more of the essence of the New Church 
 
28 HOW TO READ SWEDENBORG. 
 
 doctrines than some of our own ministers. Bishop 
 Clark, of Rhode Island, does the same. By the 
 essence of our doctrines, I mean love to God and 
 the neighbor carried out in actual daily life, by keep- 
 ing the commandments, both in their letter and their 
 spirit. 
 
 Thus ends the " Sun " article. One more ques- 
 tion should have been asked by the Reporter, viz. : 
 Which of Swedenborg's books would you recom- 
 mend to a beginner? and I would have replied, 
 The "True Christian Religion "to a Christian, for 
 that was the last of the writings, and is simplest, and 
 plainest, and best of all. But to a philosopher, I 
 would say, read "Heaven and Hell " first ; but a phi- 
 losopher only should read it — common minds must 
 study it, just as they study geography, grammar, 
 arithmetic, or algebra. Weak brains need not 
 bother with it ; neither need those theologians de- 
 scribed by Paul, in 2d Timothy iii. 6, 7, 8. Such 
 poor hirelings say Swedenborg was insane, or, 
 perhaps, obscene in some of his writings ; but ask 
 them to read the thirty-eighth chapter of Genesis ; 
 and they will probably reply, " Never! in the pres- 
 ence of gentlemen; such parts of the Bible were 
 written expressly for the ladies and the clergy ." 
 That eminent philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson, 
 in his book called "Representative Men," mentions six 
 persons only, representative of the human race, viz. : 
 Plato, Swedenborg, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Napo- 
 leon, and Goethe. ' Emerson says Swedenborg is 
 
INFALLIBILITY AND PERFECTION. 29 
 
 " one of the missourians and mastodons of litera- 
 ture." He also says, "Not every man can read his 
 works ; but they will reward him who can ! " He 
 finds only one fault with him. Swedenborg " was a 
 bishop's son," and his education made him a Chris- 
 tian. O, Emerson, would to God thou also wert a 
 Christian ! 
 
 Poor, earnest, honest John Wesley was too busy 
 fighting the dogma of " foreordination " to see Swe- 
 denborg till it was too late. After Swedenborg had 
 passed away, John Wesley was imposed upon, lied 
 to, deceived, and made to believe that the* great 
 author was at one time insane ; but Wesley himself 
 was thought to be insane by multitudes of people ; 
 even Paul was accused of the same infirmity ; and 
 so was Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself (see Mark iii. 
 21). Was Swedenborg infallible? I hope not; 
 for Heaven's sake, I hope not; for "there is none 
 good but one, that is God," and His Word, which 
 was in the beginning with God, and was God. 
 
 After turning several doctrinal sommersets regard- 
 ing perfection, John Wesley finally concluded there 
 was a perfection pertaining to men, and another 
 pertaining to angels ; but that God alone is abso- 
 lutely perfect. But in spite of John Wesley, the 
 great mass of the Christian world still continue to 
 believe in only one kind of perfection, and the other 
 qualities they prefer to call by other names ; for " a 
 rose by any other name smells just as sweet." In 
 conclusion, I would say, Enoch of Bangor, your 
 Pond may drown a few insects, but honesty intelli- 
 
80 PAUL, POND, AND PAINE. 
 
 gent minds are not influenced by such one-sided 
 special pleadings against the truth as it is in Christ 
 Jesus. 
 
 Thou didst write a book, Enoch, and thou seemest 
 to have borrowed thy arguments from Thomas 
 Paine's Age of Reason, without giving Thomas the 
 proper credit. On page 25 of thy book thou dost 
 ask why Swedenborg did not tell us all about undis- 
 covered planets, &c, &c. Thy brother Thomas 
 Paine asks these same questions about Jesus Christ 
 and the New Testament writings. On page 120 of 
 thy book thou tellest what is not true ; and " thy 
 whole book is as full of errors as an egg is full of 
 meat." Did Paul go to hell, poor Enoch? If so, 
 he went as a missionary, even as the Lord Jesus 
 Christ went to preach to the w spirits in prison " 
 (see 1 Peter iii. 19) ; and Paul, or some other good 
 man, may go there again to open thy poor blind eyes, 
 and thou mayest yet be saved, even as Jonah was 
 saved out of the belly of hell, if thou art only ig- 
 norant and honest, and dost not persistently sin 
 against the Holy Ghost. Read my " History of the 
 Bible, Its Nature and Teachings," and then pray 
 God to heal thee of thy great blindness, or forgive 
 thee of thy great wickedness. 
 
 Honestly, truthfully, and for Jesus' sake, 
 I am thy friend, 
 
 Albert Colby. 
 
No. 3. 
 
 WHICH IS BEST? 
 
 LIGHT OE DAEKNESS, TEUTH OE EEEOE? 
 HONEST HISTOEY, OE FALSE FABLE? 
 
 CHOOSE TE, BUT FLEST BEAD THE FOLLOWING 
 
 TRUE HISTORY OF THE BIBLE, 
 
 ITS NATURE AND TEACHINGS. 
 
 " All Truth is divine." - 
 
 For Jesus says, " The Truth shall make you free." John viii. 32. 
 
 " I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life." John xiv. 6. 
 
 " For this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness 
 unto the Truth." John xviii. 37- 
 
 LOWELL : 
 WRITTEN AND PUBLISHED BY ALBERT COLBY, 
 
 39 Middlesex St., Clark's Neyy^ Block. 
 1871. 
 
 Sold by Travelling Agents. Price 18 Cents. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 TRUE HISTOEY OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 Number of Chapters, Verses, Words, Letters, &c. 
 King James, or the English Protestant Version, 
 douay, or eoman catholic version, . 
 
 Nature of Inspiration, 
 
 Josephus' Account of Hebrew Scriptures, 
 Adam Clarke and Roman Catholic Writers, 
 Emmanuel Swedenborg continually quotes 
 
 Paul's Writings, 
 
 Great Value of Paul's Writings, 
 
 What Paul says of his own Writings, 
 
 Paul preached Jesus (not Paul;, 
 
 Paul compared with Moses and the Prophets 
 
 What Paul says about Jesus, 
 
 What Jesus says about Himself, 
 
 What Moses and the Prophets say about Jesus, 
 
 Nature of the Trinity, .... 
 
 Why Jesus prayed to the Father, 
 
 What is God the Father? .... 
 
 Good Men always desired to see God in a Body. 
 
 or Temple, or Form, .... 
 What is the Holy Ghost? .... 
 How many Sons of God are there? . 
 Which is best, Faith or Works? 
 Repentance comes before True Faith, 
 What is the New Birth? .... 
 Who should partake of the Holy Supper ? 
 Appeal to Clergymen of all Denominations, 
 
 2, 7 
 
 6,7 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 12 
 12 
 3, 23 
 3, 35 
 14 
 15 
 16 
 17 
 17 
 20 
 
 22 
 26 
 27 
 29 
 30 
 32 
 35 
 40 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by Albert Colby> 
 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress,, at Washington* 
 
THE HOLY BIBLE: 
 
 ITS HISTORY, NATURE', AND TEACHINGS. 
 
 Bible means Book ; and the Sacred Scriptures 
 were •first called Bible by John Chrysostom, in the 
 early part of the fifth century. 
 
 To the Hebrews or Jews was first committed 
 the care of the Sacred Writings, and for many ages 
 they were in a manner confined to that chosen peo- 
 ple. There was then no need of translations into 
 other languages ; yet was the providence of God par- 
 ticularly manifest in their preservation and purity. 
 The Jews were so faithful to their important trust, 
 that, when copies of the law or the prophets were 
 transcribed, they observed the most scrupulous exact- 
 ness ; they not only diligently compared the one 
 with the other, but even counted the number of let- 
 ters in each book, and compared and recorded the 
 numbers, and every jot and tittle was made to corre- 
 spond exactly with the original. 
 
 The first translations that were made of the Old 
 Testament were after the Babylonish captivity. 
 They are called the Targums, which word, in the 
 
 (3) 
 
4 THE HOLY BIBLE: 
 
 Chaldean language, signifies Translations. .They are 
 also often called the Chaldee Paraphrases. Some of 
 them are exact translations of different parts of 
 Scripture ; others are properly paraphrases, contain- 
 ing enlargements, explanations, and even additions. 
 Several of them are yet extant, and they are often 
 mentioned by the ancient fathers of the Christian 
 church. Some have affirmed that the five books 
 of Moses and that of Joshua were translated into 
 Greek before the days of Alexander the Great. But 
 the most remarkable translation of the Old Testa- 
 ment into Greek is called the Septuagint, whiph, if 
 the opinion of some eminent writers is to be credit- 
 ed, was made in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, 
 about two hundred and sixty yeans before the Chris- 
 tian era. At any rate, it is undoubtedly the most 
 ancient that is now extant, and on many accounts 
 deserving notice, though not to be put on a level 
 with the Hebrew text, as has been sometimes done. 
 
 The New Testament was originally w r ritten in 
 Greek ; and no sooner was the gospel spread through 
 the nations, than it was found necessary to translate 
 the inspired writings for each into its proper tongue. 
 Some translations of the Old Testament, different 
 from the Septuagint, were made into Greek from the 
 year of Christ's birth 128 to 200. It is generally 
 believed that the church of Antioch was favored 
 with a Syrian translation of the Bible as early as 
 the year 100. The Ethiopians of Abyssinia have a 
 version of the Bible, which they ascribe to Frumen- 
 
this, of the fourth century. Chrysostom, who lived 
 in the end of the fourth, and Theodoret, who lived 
 in the middle of the fifth century, both inform us 
 that they had the Syrian, Indian, Persian, Armenian, 
 Etm'opic, and Scythian versions. The ancient Egyp- 
 tians had the Scriptures translated into their lan- 
 guage. The Georgians have a version in their an- 
 cient language. The most ancient German trans- 
 lation is supposed to have been made by Ulphilas, 
 A. D. 360. The Old Testament of all these trans- 
 lations, except the Syrian, is taken from the Septu- 
 agint, and not immediately from the Hebrew text. 
 
 We will now give some account of the transla- 
 tions of the Bible into the English language. There 
 have been some who have affirmed that Adeline, 
 Bishop of Sherburn, who lived in the beginning of 
 the eighth century, translated the Psalms into the 
 Saxon tongue. That, however, is uncertain, as 
 some of the best historians make no mention of it ; 
 yet it is possible, as he was a man of great parts, 
 and of great learning for those times, and said to be 
 the first Englishman who wrote in the Latin lan- 
 guage. About the same time, or a little after, Bede, 
 commonly called the Venerable Bede, translated some 
 parts of the New Testament, some say the whole 
 Bible ; but that is not probable. Near two hundred 
 years later, King Alfred translated the Psalms into 
 the same language! In 1382 Wiclif finished his 
 translation of the Bible, which is yet extant ; that is 
 to say, there are copies of it in some public and 
 
6 THE HOLY BIBLE: 
 
 private libraries. All these translations were made 
 from the Vulgate. In the reign of Henry VIII. 
 several editions of the Old and New Testaments 
 were published in English ; one of the most re- 
 markable is that of William Tyndal, in 1530. The 
 translation of the New Testament was made from 
 the original Greek, but probably the Old Testament 
 either from the Latin of the Vulgate, or the Greek 
 of the Septuagint. This was soon followed by the 
 improvements of Coverdale and Mathews. By order 
 of the king, Tonstal, Bishop of Durham, and Heath, 
 Bishop of Rochester, made a new translation, which 
 was published in 1541 ; but, not pleasing Henry, it 
 was suppressed by authority. In the reign of King 
 Edward VI. another translation was made ; two 
 editions of which w^ere published, one in 1549, and 
 the other in 1551. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth 
 another translation was made, which, being revised 
 by some of the most learned of the bishops, went by 
 the name of the Bishops' Bible. This professed to 
 be translated from the Hebrew of the Old Testa- 
 ment and the Greek of the New, though, in some 
 instances, when there was a difference, it preferred 
 the Septuagint to the Hebrew. 
 
 This last circumstance, with some others, induced 
 King James I. to select fifty-four persons, eminent 
 in learning, and particularly well acquainted with 
 the original languages in which the Old and New 
 Testaments were written, to make a new translation 
 of the whole Bible. In the year 1607, forty-seven 
 
ITS HISTORY, NATUBE, AND TEACHINGS. 7 
 
 of those persons, the other seven probably having 
 died, assembled together, and arranged themselves 
 into committees, to each of which a portion was 
 given to translate. They were . favored not only 
 with the best translations, but with the most ac- 
 curate copies and the various readings' of the original 
 text. After about three years' assiduous labor, they 
 severally completed the parts assigned them. They 
 then met together, and while one read the transla- 
 tion newly formed, the rest had each a copy of the 
 original text in his hand, or some one of the ancient 
 versions, and when any difficulty occurred they 
 stopped, till by common consultation it was deter- 
 mined what was most agreeable to the inspired ori- 
 ginal. This translation was first published A. D. 
 1610, and is the one which has been ever since that 
 time printed by public authority, and generally used 
 in the British dominions, as well as in the United 
 States of America. It may be added with safety, 
 that it has been generally approved by men of learn- 
 ing and piety of all denominations, of which its hav- 
 ing never been superseded by any other, for over 
 two hundred and sixty years, is a sufficient proof. 
 
 This translation of the Bible contains sixty-six 
 Books ; thirty -nine in the Old Testament, and twenty- 
 seven in the New. 
 
 
 Old Testament. 
 
 New Testament, 
 
 Total. 
 
 Chapters, 
 
 . . 929 
 
 260 
 
 1,189 
 
 Verses, . 
 
 . . 23,214 
 
 7,959 
 
 31,173 
 
 Words, . 
 
 . . 592,439 
 
 181,253 
 
 773,692 
 
 Letters, . 
 
 . 2,728,100 
 
 838,380 
 
 3,566,480. 
 
8 - THE HOLY BIBLE : 
 
 The w Douay Bible " (Roman Catholic) has seven 
 additional books, called by Protestants "Apocry- 
 phal," and the third chapter of Daniel contains only 
 thirty verses in the Protestant Bible, but one hun- 
 dred in the " Douay," and other considerable parts 
 of the " Catholic Bible " are left out of the Protestant 
 or English version. 
 
 This translation was made in France, by Dr. 
 Gregory Martin and three assistants, at an English 
 College established at Douay for the purpose of 
 educating English boys in a Roman Catholic coun- 
 try. For certain reasons this college was moved to 
 Rheims, where the New Testament was first pub- 
 lished in 1582. Afterwards they moved back to 
 Douay, and first published the Old Testament there 
 in 1609. The Roman Catholics publish quite a 
 large volume of what they call errors in the Protes- 
 tant Bible ; but Protestants reply by saying they 
 have at least as many errors in their own translation, 
 and that some of them are apparently wilful errors, 
 and that they prohibit the common people from read- 
 ing even their own translation of the Scriptures ; but 
 it is hoped the Roman Catholic clergy will not much 
 longer forbid their own people to possess and read 
 the Roman Catholic Bible, for any translation is 
 better than no Bible. 
 
 There are about three thousand different lan- 
 guages in the world, and about one thousand dif- 
 ferent religious sects, and it would be impossible for 
 any human power to translate all the books of the 
 
Bible into all those different languages, to suit all 
 those different sects ; consequently different trans- 
 lations and commentaries are expected By all in- 
 telligent Christians ; and as comparatively few are 
 well versed in tjie original Hebrew and Greek, it is 
 by comparing these translations and commentaries, 
 and exercising our common sense and reason, that 
 we are enabled to form our opinions regarding all 
 the teachings of 'the Sacred Scriptures; though the 
 Ten Commandments, and all the sayings of Jesus, 
 seem so plain that a wayfaring n^n, though a fool, 
 need not err therein. I never saw a translation of 
 these parts of Scripture which was not plain enough 
 for my understanding. 
 
 The nature of the " Inspiration " of the Bible is a 
 matter not fully agreed upon by Christians of emi- 
 nent learning and piety. Some believe that the 
 whole language of the Bible is perfectly inspired in 
 the original tongues ; while others believe that the 
 ideas only are inspired, while the language is human 
 and fallible, requiring the deepest study of most 
 eminent scholars to explain the true ideas of the 
 writers. Others, still, say neither the language nor 
 the ideas are inspired, but the men themselves were 
 inspired. Professor Calvin E. Stowe, formerly of 
 Andover, Massachusetts (Congregational Trinita- 
 rian), expresses this last opinion. Such may be 
 the case with some of the books, including Paul's 
 Epistles, but Emanuel Swedenborg says the Lord 
 Jesus Christ appeared to him, and showed him that 
 
10 THE HOLY BIBLE: 
 
 Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Kevelation, in the 
 New Testament, and twenty-nine books of the Old 
 Testament, are the Perfect Word of God, without a 
 fault or a mistake in the original languages, and that 
 
 © © © ' 
 
 the writers were only instruments in the hands of 
 God, just as a pen is an instrument in the hands of 
 any writer ; and that every chapter, verse, and syl- 
 lable of these thirty-four books contains internal 
 meanings, which will be the study of angels to all 
 eternity, while the writers, in their times, under- 
 stood only the external or natural meanings. 
 
 The apostle Paul recognizes an internal meaning 
 of the Scriptures in Galatians iv. 23-31, and in 
 other places, especially when he says "the letter 
 killeth, but the spirit giveth life." The twenty- 
 nine perfect books of the Old Testament are the five 
 books of Moses, the book of Joshua, the book of 
 Judges, the two books of Samuel, the two books 
 of the Kings, the Psalms of David, the Prophets 
 Isaiah, Jeremiah, the Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, 
 Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Na~ 
 hum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and 
 Malachi. All the other books of the Bible are just 
 what they pretend to be, and are, doubtless, as near- 
 ly perfect and as worthy of our veneration as Dr. 
 Stowe, and thousands of other preachers and teach- 
 ers, regard any part of God's Most Perfect Word. 
 Josephus tells us the Jewish Scriptures were divid- 
 ed into twenty-two books ; that also being the num- 
 ber of letters in the Jewish alphabet. All Christians 
 
ITS HISTORY, NATURE, AND TEACHINGS. 11 
 
 agree that the Words of Our Lord, as recorded in 
 the New Testament, and the Ten Commandments, 
 written upon tables of stone by the Lord Himself, 
 as recorded in the Old Testament, are the plainest 
 and most precious parts of the Bible, and compared 
 to the rest, are like the purest of diamonds, in gold 
 and silver settings. " God is love," and hell itself 
 is no worse than this world would be if the best half 
 of its inhabitants and the BIBLE were taken away. 
 Some persons imagine that Swedenborg rejects 
 Paul's epistles, in the same sense that the Protestant 
 Churches reject certain books of the Roman Catholic 
 Bible ; but this is a great mistake. Swedenboro; 
 continually quotes from the epistles of Paul, and 
 accepts them for just what they claim to be, and 
 regards them as highly as the apostle Peter did in his 
 time ; for Peter says, in the third chapter of his 
 epistle, that in brother Paul's epistles "are some 
 tnings hard to be understood." 
 
 The most intelligent clergymen, of all denomina- 
 tions, at the present day, read and study Sweden- 
 borg's explanations of Scripture. Only the bigot 
 confines his reading and study to the writings of his 
 own sect. Adam Clarke, in the preface to his Com- 
 mentaries, says, among the Catholic writers many 
 valuable commentaries are to be found, which he 
 enumerates. Swedenborg says what he wrote he 
 had directly from the Lord, and that he was used 
 as an instrument to explain the Word of God. He 
 never added a word to the Bible, or took anything 
 
12 , THE HOLY BIBLE : 
 
 from the Bible. He never organized a church, or 
 attempted it, but he wrote at the command of the 
 Lord explanations of the Bible, which he published 
 with his own money, and gave away to colleges and 
 to clergymen of different denominations. Bigoted 
 hirelings, who preach for pay the doctrines of sects 
 instead of the commandments of God, — who think 
 more of a few peculiar forms and ceremonies than 
 they do of all the sayings and teachings of Jesus, — 
 accuse Swedenborg of rejecting Paul's epistles. 
 Paul's writings are very valuable, for he wrote 
 near the time of our Saviour, and had opportunities 
 to see our Lord's immediate followers ; but there is 
 no evidence that he ever saw the Lord himself while 
 in the flesh. Paul's espistles are just what they 
 pretend to be ; but they are not to be compared 
 with the words of Jesus. He spake as "never man 
 spake." He "spoke by authority, and not as the 
 scribes." But Paul says (1st Corinthians vii. 6), 
 "But I speak this by permission, and not of com- 
 mandment. " 
 
 Paul wrote, in his epistles, as follows: "That 
 which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but 
 as it were, foolishly;" "I speak as a fool;" "I 
 speak foolishly; " "I lie not," &c, &c. Paul was 
 not converted till after the day of Pentecost, and he 
 assisted in the murder of Stephen, the first Chris- 
 tian martyr. Jesus had finished His work on earth, 
 and had ascended to glory. He had perfected the 
 Temple of his Body, and had assured his followers 
 
13 
 
 that all power was given Him in heaven and on 
 earth before Paul was converted. Yet some preach- 
 ers, who claim to be Christians, take more texts 
 from Paul than from Jesus ; and others, still, take 
 more texts from Paul than from all the rest of the 
 Bible. Such should be called Paulists instead of 
 Christians. Jesus says (John v. 39), "Search the 
 Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have eternal 
 life : and they are they which testify of me." But He 
 does not refer to Paul's epistles, for they were not 
 then written. When Jesus refers to "Moses and 
 the prophets," He refers to higher authority than 
 Paul, for God spoke through them His most perfect 
 word, but Paul spoke of himself — his own honest 
 opinions. Let any candid person compare the 
 language and style of Moses and the prophets 
 with that of Paul, and they must see at once the 
 one is human and the other divine. Moses says, 
 "And God spake all these words, saying, I am 
 the Lord thy God." Isaiah commences, "Hear, O 
 heavens, and ,give ear, O earth ; for the Lord hath 
 spoken," &c, &c, through all the prophets. Paul 
 never pretended to have any such authority, but 
 continually disclaimed it. Paul never said, Believe 
 on Paul, or Apollos, or Silas, or any other man; 
 but "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
 shalt be saved, and thy house." 
 
 Who is the Lord Jesus Christ? Many persons, 
 calling themselves Christians, believe he was the 
 natural son of Joseph. So thought Christ's dis- 
 
14 THE HOLY BIBLE: 
 
 ciples at first. We read (John i. 45), Philip said to 
 Nathanael, M We have found Him, of whom Moses 
 in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of 
 Nazareth, the son of Joseph." But Jesus was of 
 higher origin than Joseph. He is called, in the 
 Bible, the son of Joseph, the son of David, the 
 Son of Man, and the Son of God ; and Emanuel 
 Swedenborg is the only writer who fully explains 
 all these terms perfectly clear and with harmony ; 
 and I beg all, who may read this little book, to pro- 
 cure Swedenborg's True Christian Religion. It 
 will do for you what Philip did for the Ethiopian : 
 it will preach to you Jesus. By the blessing of 
 God it caused the scales to fall from my eyes, and 
 it gave me faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Swedenborg's writings first showed me that Jesus 
 is God, our Creator, our Heavenly Father, in the 
 form of a man. That is to say, the Soul of all 
 things, the Lord of Light and Glory, took upon 
 Himself a human form, and lived a life of poverty 
 and sorrow, and allowed Himself to be derided, spit 
 upon, and crucified, by wicked men, that He might 
 bring life and immortality to light, and conquer 
 death and hell, and save a lost world. And Paul 
 says, " God was manifest in the flesh." "God was 
 in Christ, reconciling the w r orld unto Himself." 
 "For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the God- 
 head bodily." But Paul was human, and some- 
 times made mistakes ; and he says he sometimes 
 spoke "not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly*" 
 
ITS HISTORY, NATURE, AND TEACHINGS. 15 
 
 So let us^ turn to the words of Jesus, for " they 
 are spirit and they are life," — and He never made 
 a mistake. Jesus says, "There is none good but 
 One." "I and my Father are One." " The Father 
 is in me, and I in him." "He that hath seen me, 
 hath seen the Father." "If ye had known me, 
 ye should have known my Father, also ; and from 
 henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him." And 
 after the resurrection, "Jesus came, and spake unto 
 them, saying, All power is given unto me in 
 heaven and in earth." And in Eevelatiori, we read, 
 in the first chapter, " I am Alpha and Omega, the 
 beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, 
 and which was, and which is to come, the Al- 
 mighty." "I am He that liveth, and was dead; 
 and behold, I am alive forever more." And to 
 make this perfectly clear, about the same words are 
 repeated in the last chapter of Revelation, and the 
 following, with others, are added: "I, Jesus, have 
 sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in 
 the churches. I am the root and the offspring of 
 David, and the bright and morning star." 
 
 7 D O 
 
 Can any person believe these words of Jesus to 
 be true, without concluding, in the language of Dr. 
 Adam Clarke, that "Jesus of Nazareth is the True 
 God " ? There appeared to me so many contradic- 
 tions in the Bible, that I could not believe it until 
 I read Swedenborg, and found all these contradic- 
 tions were only apparent, but not real — simply para- 
 doxes, that could be perfectly explained. Moses and 
 
16 THE HOLY BIBLE: 
 
 the prophets repeatedly foretold of One God only, who 
 should take upon Himself a human form ; but for want 
 of space, we will only quote a few passages. " Hear, 
 O Israel ; the Lord our God is one Lord." "Hear, 
 
 Israel, I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have 
 no other gods before Me." Such is the language 
 of the five books of Moses. The following are 
 among the many passages to be found in Isaiah : 
 "Therefore, the Lord Himself shall give you a sign ; 
 Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and 
 shall call^his name Immanuel." "For unto us a 
 child is born, unto us a son is given ; and the govern- 
 ment shall be upon his shoulder : and his name shall 
 be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, 
 The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of 
 the increase of His government and peace there 
 shall be no end." "Before me there was no God 
 formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, 
 am the Lord ; and beside me there is no Saviour." 
 " There is no God else beside me ; a just God and 
 a Saviour, there is none beside me. Look unto 
 me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth : for 
 
 1 am God, and there is none else." Our Lord also 
 says, in Hosea xiii. 4: "I am the Lord thy God, 
 • • • and thou shalt know no God but me : for 
 there is no Saviour beside me." 
 
 This same God is Jesus ; for Jehovah God, or 
 The Lord God of the Old Testament, is the same 
 identical Jesus Christ of the New Testament ; and it 
 is just as absurd to call the soul and body of a man 
 
ITS HISTORY, NATURE, AND TEACHINGS. IT 
 
 two men, as to call God The Father and Son two 
 Gods. 
 
 Jesus is not an advocate, a mere attorney, a 
 pleader for criminals ; for He says He is the Judge 
 — "King of kings, and Lord of lords," Pie has 
 " a name above every name ; " and there is nothing, 
 known or unknown, visible or invisible, above Jesus, 
 who is the Triune God, for He is Creator and Ruler 
 of all. God is a Triune Being, just as man is ; for 
 man is created in the image of God. The body of 
 a man, the soul or life of a man, and the will or 
 love of a man, form one whole and complete man, 
 and not three men, or two men. So the Father, 
 Son, and Holy Spirit form One whole and Perfect 
 God, and not three Gods, or two Gods. How 
 beautifully John says, in his first epistle, "For there 
 are Three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the 
 Word, and the Holy Ghost : and these three are 
 one." And how sweetly the Gospel according to 
 John commences : " In the beginning was the Word, 
 and the Word was with God, and the Word was 
 God." "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt 
 among us." Paul not only speaks of soul and spirit 
 (Hebrews iv. 12) , but soul, body, and spirit (1 Thes- 
 salonians v. 23). Every human being is a trinity, 
 in the image of our Creator and Saviour, Jesus Christ 
 our Lord. 
 
 Some ask, Why did Jesus pray to the Father? 
 But we may also ask, Why did David address his 
 own soul so often? "Why art thou cast down, O 
 2 
 
18 THE HOLY BIBLE: 
 
 my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me?" 
 Why do all persons in trouble say, K O my soul, 
 what shall I do?" In our Lord's parable (Luke 
 xii. 19), He refers to a man talking to his own soul 
 as follows: "And I will say to my soul, Soul, 
 thou hast much goods laid up for many years ; take 
 thine ease ; eat, drink, and be merry." If Jesus, 
 the "Temple," or Body of God, had not addressed 
 Himself, or the Soul of All things, as all men in 
 trouble address their own souls, then would the 
 Bible have been unfinished, and we should not have 
 the perfect proof £hat God has created us in His 
 own Image. The soul of every man is father to his 
 body, in the following sense : The soul, — that is to 
 say, the life, the love, or the works of a man, — shapes 
 his face and head, and moulds the whole man, and 
 he will carry through this life, and beyond the grave, 
 and to all eternity, upon his forehead, the mark of 
 The Lamb, or of the beast, as described in Revela- 
 tion ; and his own conscience, his own memory, his 
 own life can be read from the man himself when the 
 books are opened, and the dead shall be judged 
 "according to their works." (See Revelation xx.) 
 The Lord did not make the world in one day, neither 
 did he make his own body in one day, or in one 
 year ; but wise men and angels worshipped the Babe 
 of Bethlehem ; for in Him was destined to dwell " all 
 the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Years after- 
 wards, when He stilled the waves of the sea, and 
 raised the dead, — when the Jews said, " Herod will 
 
ITS HISTORY, NATURE, AND TEACHINGS. 19 
 
 kill thee," He replied: "Go ye, and tell that fox, 
 Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to-day and 
 to-morrow ; and the third day I shall be perfected." 
 But after His perfection, after His resurrection, He 
 informed His disciples that all power was given Him 
 in heaven and in earth. 
 
 Let us, then, pray to Jesus, just as sinking Peter 
 prayed to Him, and just as the blind men by the 
 wayside prayed to Him, and just as the thief on the 
 cross prayed to Him. Suppose a governor of a 
 State is also a merchant, and the father of a family. 
 If you want to marry his daughter, you address him 
 as the father of her you desire ; if you want to get 
 trusted for goods, you address him as a merchant ; but 
 if you are a criminal, you address him as governor; 
 but still he is only one man. So God is one, yet 
 having many names, — for there are three thousand 
 different lano-uao-es in the world. But Jesus is the 
 highest name of all ! He is all the God that ever 
 was seen, or ever can be seen, and the only Being 
 who ever hears and answers prayer. And when we 
 address "Our Father, who art in heaven," we ad- 
 dress Jesus; for He says, "I and my Father are 
 one." While our Lord was upon the earth He had 
 two natures. He had His own nature from the 
 Father, and a human nature assumed from Mary ; 
 and He was speaking from this human nature when 
 He said, "The Father is greater than I;" and He 
 said that before His perfection, before the Temple 
 was completed, before in Him dwelt all the fulness 
 
20 THE HOLY BIBLES 
 
 of the Godhead bodily ; yet it seems quite consistent 
 with all the rest of His sayings if we understand it 
 in the sense that the soul is greater than the body or 
 temple, or at any rate was, before the temple was 
 completed. His life on earth perfected the Templ^ 
 of His Body, and His human nature was made 
 wholly Divine, and all the infirmities of the human 
 race, inherited through Mary, were overcome, and 
 the last remnants crucified, and God in Christ is 
 now the only object of Christian worship — King 
 of kings, and Lord of lords. 
 
 What is God The Father ? Many persons among 
 all the sects on earth believe God is a Principle — 
 The First Great Cause — The Original Cause of all 
 causes and all effects ; and this belief is justified from 
 the Lord's Prayer, and the whole Sermon on the 
 Mount, w T here the expression, "Our Father which " 
 art in heaven, is repeatedly used ; and if God were a 
 person, say the creedists, the word who should be 
 used. The Creed or Discipline of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church says, on page fifteen, "There is 
 but one living and true God, everlasting, without 
 body or parts." The Presbyterian, and most other 
 so-called Evangelical churches, use about the same 
 language in their creeds, yet a majority of their 
 members do not believe this. They actually believe 
 that God the Father has body and parts, and they 
 speak and pray about His right hand and His left ; 
 His eyes and ears, and other parts; though their 
 creeds say, and their leaders believe, He has neither 
 
ITS HISTORY, NATURE, AND TEACHINGS. 21 
 
 K body or parts." The creeds all say that the Father 
 and Son are one, yet the great rank and file believe 
 they are two individuals (contrary to all Scripture) ; 
 and they speak and pray about Jesus being at the 
 right hand of God, while their creeds state distinctly 
 that God has no right hand, neither "body or parts." 
 Swedenborg says God is a substance, and the only 
 real substance, or essence, which fills the universe ; 
 that preserves all things, that created all things, and 
 out of which all things were created, and in which all 
 things exist. He is a Spirit; the life, and the only 
 true life, of the universe ; but Swedenborg says 
 this Essence, this Spirit, this Life of the Universe, 
 and the whole universe of God itself, has the form 
 of a man, and human beings are made in the image 
 of God and of the universe. The Bible says, w God 
 is a Spirit : and they that worship Him, must worship 
 Him in spirit and in truth." "For in him we live, 
 and move, and have our being." He is everywhere. 
 We read in Psalm cxxxix. : If we ascend up into heav- 
 en, He is there, or if we make our bed in hell, behold 
 He is there. The All-seeing Eye of God is always 
 upon us, and nothing can hide from His presence. 
 The prophet Amos says (ix. 2) : " Though they dig 
 into hell, thence shall mine hand take them ; though 
 they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them 
 down." That He is the only First Cause and Su- 
 preme Ruler of the entire universe, the Bible clearly 
 teaches from beo'innino; to end. Moses of old de- 
 sired to see this God, this Creator and Ruler of the 
 
22 THE HOLY bible: 
 
 Universe, but was told that no man could see God 
 and live. How could a finite being see the Infinite 
 that fills all space, and all space doth occupy? The 
 best and purest people of all countries and ages, 
 like Moses, have desired to see God. God's most 
 precious and purest jewels, among all nations, have 
 most desired to see God. The nearer a person has 
 lived to God, the more earnestly has he always 
 desired to see Him. Hence the origin of images 
 or idols. The principle of love, so powerful that 
 men and women have always been found ready to 
 suffer, and even die for those they love, was re- 
 cognized by the ancient heathen as a sort of First 
 Cause, and worshipped as a god, named Venus. Im- 
 ages and paintings were made of the form of the 
 heathen ideal of what this Principle, or God, ought 
 to be, temples were built to her honor, and from the 
 Cause or Principle originally worshipped by the phi- 
 losophers, the lower classes learned to worship the 
 image only. The Cause of Wars — the passion orthe 
 emotion which led armies to battle and to death — 
 "The Sweet Madness of Battle "was worshipped, 
 and an image of the Cause, or God of War, was 
 made, and "Mars," in the form of a man, was 
 adored by the heathen. So it was with the cause 
 or principle in wine, that cheers, and intoxicates, 
 that too was deified, and an ideal image made, called 
 Bacchus; and so with other causes, principles, and 
 emotions, deified and worshipped by the ancient 
 heathen. They all wanted to see some form cor- 
 
23 
 
 responding to their ideal of every cause. But be- 
 yond Wine, Women, and War, and everything else 
 that mortals could comprehend, was a First Cause 
 that they could not comprehend. They saw the 
 effects of the Cause that created and ruled all other 
 causes, and this Principle, or Power, they feared 
 and worshipped as "The Unknown God." (See 
 Acts xvii. 23.) 
 
 Paul says, K Whom ye ignorantly worship, Him 
 declare I unto you;" — and Paul preached Jesus. 
 K In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead 
 bodily." " God was in Christ" — like the soul in 
 the body of a man. What God's children, in all 
 ages, have most desired, God provided for them, and 
 ordained it, and brought it about. " He bowed the 
 Heavens also, and came down." "Behold, the 
 Tabernacle of God is with men." (Revelation xxi. 
 3.) The Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, 
 the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, took 
 upon Himself a Human Form, or Body, or Temple 
 (Isaiah ix. 6), and Jesus is the Body of God, as 
 God is the Soul of Christ. They are one, like the 
 soul and body of a man, never to be divided. They 
 are two, like the soul and body of man, but never to 
 be divided. "The Father is in Me, and I in Him," 
 saith Jesus. 
 
 You may find, in all Roman Catholic churches, an 
 image of Jesus, as a babe, and a- larger image of 
 Mary, the mother of Jesus. But Jesus is not now a 
 babe — He has risen from the manger, and has 
 
24 THE HOLY BIBLE: 
 
 passed through all the stages of human •life, and 
 has conquered death and the grave, and is now 
 Lord of lords and King of kings. The Roman 
 Catholic Church, and all those Protestant Churches 
 that have risen out of the Roman Church, persist in 
 seeking the living among the dead — they worship 
 Jesus as He was, but not as He is. If the women 
 who sought Jesus in the tomb, needed angels to 
 instruct them, — "Why seek ye the living among 
 the dead? He is not here, but is risen," — how 
 much more do the sectarians ©f to-day need that 
 God should raise up a man like Emanuel Sweden- 
 borg to explain the true meaning of the Scriptures ? 
 K The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." Sec- 
 tarian hirelings are preaching, for pay, literal non- 
 sense, scientific falsehood, and unreasonable im- 
 possibilities. They feed the people upon the letter 
 of the word, which, like the burr of a nut, has no 
 life of itself, but inside of the burr is a shell, and 
 inside of the shell is the nut — the real meat, the 
 food that supports life. The Shakers and Mormons, 
 the Advents and Methodists, the Sects established 
 by John Calvin, and John Wesley, and John Mur- 
 ray — believers in a material hell, and in a mental 
 hell, and in no hell at all ; believers in a hell, out 
 of which the wicked will be, some day, restored ; 
 believers in a hell, in which they will be burnt up, 
 or annihilated ; and believers in a hell, in which the 
 wicked will be forever tormented and never die — 
 all claim to get their doctrines from the same Bible, 
 
ITS HISTORY, NATURE, AND TEACHINGS. 25 
 
 and to worship the same Christ : but this cannot be 
 true. As our Lord foretold that false Christs should 
 arise to deceive many, we must conclude that some 
 of the above sects worship a false Christ, and that 
 they cannot understand the real truth of the word 
 of God. Jesus says, in the sixteenth chapter of 
 John, "I have yet many things to say unto you, 
 but ye cannot bear them now." 
 
 "Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, 
 He will guide you into all truth : for He shall not 
 speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, 
 that shall He speak : and He will show you things 
 to come." Never was this promise of Jesus ful- 
 filled literally, until, directed by our Lord Him- 
 self, Swedenborg wrote " Heaven and Hell," and 
 the " True Christian Religion." In a spiritual sense 
 it refers to God's own Holy Spirit of love, but not 
 in a literal sense. 
 
 As soon as the world was ready for a true ex- 
 planation of the internal meaning of the Scriptures, 
 God raised up Swedenborg for the work. How 
 many professed Christians worship the Lord Jesus 
 Christ as He is now, perfected, arisen, Lord of 
 lords and King of kings? Ah, how many rather 
 worship a false Christ ; for, as our Lord foretold, 
 many false Christs have arisen. Whoever goes to 
 the tomb for a dead Christ, or goes behind and back 
 of the tomb for a man of sorrows, worships a false 
 Christ, just as much as the Roman Catholic, who 
 bows before the image of a helpless babe. Jesus 
 
26 THE HOLY BIBLE 2 
 
 said to the weeping women who followed Him to 
 the cross, "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for 
 Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children." 
 So Jesus says to-day to those so-called Christians 
 who meet regularly to weep and exhort, with the sor- 
 rowful countenance of a Don Quixote. Why weep 
 and talk about Jesus as a man of sorrow ? Has He 
 not risen, ye poor, blind mourners? 
 
 Better spend your time in doing good — feed the 
 hungry, clothe the naked, watch with the sick, do 
 good any way, if you want Christ's approval. What 
 are your works? What fruit do you bear? These 
 are the questions Jesus will ask, when rewarding us 
 all according to the deeds done in the body. Read 
 the w Words of Jesus, and then wipe your w r eeping 
 eyes/' for it is easy to be a True Christian ; for 
 Jesus says His yoke is easy and His burden is light. 
 
 What is the Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit? The 
 Roman Catholic, and all other churches which 
 sprung from the Roman Catholic Church, say the 
 Holy Ghost is a person, or a sort of a third-rate 
 God ; but the Bible nowhere mentions anything of 
 the kind. That is a pagan doctrine, handed down 
 by the Roman Catholics to the present time. As 
 the old heathen Romans personified human love, 
 which they called Venus, so the daughters of the 
 Roman Catholic Church personify the operation of 
 God's Love, and call it an individual, to whom they 
 pray ; but the Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit, is not a 
 person ; it is an essence, a principle, a power. It is 
 
ITS HISTORY, NATURE, AND TEACHINGS. 27 
 
 what God breathed into Adam. It is what Jesus 
 breathes into all His followers. 
 
 We read in the twentieth chapter of John, after 
 Jesus arose from the tomb, He appeared to His 
 disciples, and "He breathed on them, and saith unto 
 them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:" Nowhere in 
 Scripture is this operation called a person. It is in 
 the creeds, but in them only. Jesus is the Triune 
 God, "in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the God- 
 head bodily." Whoever says Jesus is only the Son 
 of God, must reject Moses and the prophets, and 
 they really deny Jesus, as much as ever Peter did. 
 Solomon is called, in Scripture, the Son of God. 
 In Job we read of many Sons of God. The wicked 
 antediluvians are *called Sons of God in Genesis 
 vi. 2, and Adam is called the Son of God in Luke 
 iii. 38. If Jesus is only the Son of God, and Mary 
 w r as His mother, and Adam is the Son of God with- 
 out any mother, is not Adam made greater than 
 Jesus? Any intelligent person who will give the 
 writings of Swedenborg as much study as they have 
 given to grammar, or arithmetic, or geography, or 
 any other scientific subject, will understand the 
 nature of the Bible ; but without these writings the 
 Bible is a sealed Book, and blind " mystery" will be 
 preached. 
 
 ~The Teachings of Jesus are plain. Simply do 
 right. Do as you would be done by. He says in 
 His Sermon on the Mount, " Whatsoever ye would 
 that men should do to you, do ye even so to them : 
 
28 THE HOLY BIBLE: 
 
 for this is the law and the prophets." "Not every 
 one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into 
 the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the will 
 of my Father which is in heaven." 
 
 Belonging to a -church neither makes nor unmakes 
 a person a Christian. Counting beads, like Roman 
 Catholics, and saying prayers in Latin or English, 
 and speaking in meeting, are all on an equality. 
 But doing good, watching with the sick, feeding 
 the hungry, clothing the naked, doing for others 
 what you would have them do for you, if your cir- 
 cumstances were reversed, is what pleases our Father 
 in Heaven, who "is good to all" (Psalm cxlv. 9), 
 " For He is kind unto the unthankful and to the 
 evil." (Luke vi. 35.) Jesus says, "If thou wilt 
 enter into life, keep the commandments ; " and over 
 and over, from Genesis to Revelation, we are told 
 to "keep the commandments." We must live pure 
 lives, for to all eternity a life awaits us correspond- 
 ing to the life we live in this world ; but whoever 
 does as well as he knows how, does well enough ; 
 for the Lord only asks us to account for the talents 
 given; and He says, "Whoever knoweth not his 
 master's will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with 
 few stripes." The Bible clearly teaches that all 
 honest people go to heaven, but dishonest people, 
 be they church members or not, are hypocrites, and 
 a dark future awaits them. Yet such is the wonder- 
 ful love of God, that the vilest person living, or that 
 ever did live, will have as comfortable a future as 
 
29 
 
 his nature will permit. Not what a man professes 
 to think, but what he honestly does, meets the ap- 
 proval of Our Father in Heaven. The apostle 
 James says, w For as the body without the spirit is 
 dead, so faith without works is dead also." 
 
 Some foolishly think that Paul teaches, that a 
 person may be justified by Faith without good 
 works ; but Paul refers only to the Jewish ceremonies, 
 spoken of in Mark vii., but not to the Ten Com- 
 mandments, and He distinctly says (Galatians vi. 
 7), "Be not deceived : God is not mocked : for what- 
 soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap ; " and 
 in 1 Corinthians xiii. 13, "And now abideth faith, 
 hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these 
 is charity." Better preach charity without faith, 
 than faith without charity ; that is to say, we had 
 better preach " do right " than " think right ; " but 
 better still, to think ri^ht and do as we think. John 
 the Baptist preached Repentance, and Jesus Himself 
 preached Repentance before belief; and Our Lord, 
 everywhere, in speaking of the Last Judgment, 
 refers to our works, and not to our opinions. (See 
 the parable of the sheep and the goats.) Not what 
 people thought, but what they did, decided their 
 position in that parable. (See also Revelation xx. 
 13.) Jesus says, "Blessed are the pure in heart: 
 for they shall see God." Pure-minded people, who 
 do as well as they know how, will finally reach 
 Heaven, no matter what their opinions. 
 
 The most eminent theologians, of all denomina- 
 
80 THE HOLY BIBLE: 
 
 tions, admit that all the pure-minded among the hea- 
 then, who never heard the name of Jesus, will go to 
 Heaven, just as infants go there. Our Lord says, 
 if we know not His will, and do it not, we shall be 
 beaten with few stripes ; but they that know His 
 will, and do it not, are the ones that shall be beaten 
 with many stripes. These are they who sin against 
 the Holy Ghost. If good people go to Heaven, and 
 bad people da not (some may ask), what is the use 
 of Faith ? What benefit do we derive from it ? A 
 person who has faith is in heaven. Faith is Salva- 
 tion. The pure in heart will finally reach Heaven ; 
 but, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you are in 
 Heaven. 
 
 The purer any person lives on earth, the more he 
 needs Faith ; the harder a person tries to do right, 
 the more he feels lost without Faith in Christ — 
 like a man lost in the woods, or upon the ocean, 
 without sun, star, or compass, so the man seeking 
 to do right, moves round and round, without advan- 
 cing, till Christ appears. Faith saves, if it is Bible 
 Faith, but Faith without works is the faith of devils, 
 who believe and tremble. Faith without works is 
 like a bird with one wing. It is not True Faith. 
 It is a spurious, galvanized coin, perfectly worthless 
 at the toll-gates of Heaven. Charity and Faith 
 must go together. Repent and Believe, says Jesus. 
 Repentance and Faith are the two angels that led 
 Lot out of Sodom. They are the Two Tables of 
 Stone given to Moses. They are the Moses and 
 
ITS HISTORY, NATURE, AND TEACHINGS. 31 
 
 L, I^IWUU, 
 
 Aaron that led Israel out of bondage. They are 
 the Caleb and Joshua that led them into a land flow- 
 ing with milk and honey. They are the Two Wit- 
 nesses, killed and raised to life again, as recorded in 
 Kevelation xi. 
 
 Any person who tries to do right, and whose 
 heart is honest before God, is not far from the 
 kingdom of Heaven. That is a state of true re- 
 pentance — a turning from nature to grace ; and add 
 to that person Faith in Jesus as the God of Heaven 
 — Lord of lords and Kino- of kings : Who regards 
 the fall of every sparrow, and Who numbers the 
 very hairs of our heads ; to Whom all things are 
 known, the smallest as w 7 ell as the greatest ; from 
 Whom comes all good, and by Whose permission all 
 evils are permitted, to prevent greater evils, and to 
 preserve man's freedom, and that Faith is saving. 
 Such a state is Heaven. Such was the Faith of 
 Daniel in the Den of the Lions. Such was the 
 Faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Such 
 was the Faith of all the martyrs who went to Heav- 
 en through a fiery death of the material body. Such 
 is the Faith of all True Christians. They are always 
 contented and always happy. 
 
 The apostle John says, in his 1st Epistle (chapter 
 v.), "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, 
 is born of God," but believing Jesus is the "An- 
 ointed," implies obeying Him ; that is to say, " keep 
 the commandments," — and they are all easier kept 
 than broken. God's commandments are all made in 
 
32 THE HOLY bible: 
 
 perfect love, and for our present as well as everlast- 
 ing good. Solomon, the wise, says, in Ecclesiastes 
 xii. 13 : " Let us hear the conclusion of the whole 
 matter; Fear God and keep His Commandments, 
 for this is the whole duty of man." And our Lord 
 Jesus Christ says, "The first of all the Command- 
 ments is, Hear, O 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, and with all thy 
 mind, and with all thy strength. This is the First 
 Commandment." " And the second is like unto it : 
 Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these 
 two Commandments hang all the Law and the 
 Prophets." 
 
 What is the New Birth? "Mystery," says the 
 Roman Catholic Church, and "Mystery" repeats all 
 the daughters of that mother of churches. (See 
 Revelation xvii. 5.) But the New Birth, Jesus 
 makes as simple as the wind that blows. Only the 
 Roman Lady and her daughters preach Mystery. 
 The Religion of the Lord Jesus Christ is no mys- 
 tery ; it is simply the Golden Rule — old as the race 
 — equal with God. Jesus says, "Before Abraham 
 was I am." Human beings are naturally selfish. 
 Alexander the Great conquered the world, and then 
 wept for other worlds to conquer. Swedenborg says 
 nothing would satisfy the ambition and natural de- 
 sire of any unregenerate human being but to own 
 the universe and conquer God. 
 
 Whenever any person submits to God, and honest- 
 
33 
 
 ly says, "What suits God suits me," and tries to do 
 just as he would be done by, that person has a 
 change of heart, and is turned from nature to grace. 
 That person is born again ; Jesus has breathed on 
 him, and the loves of self and the world are con- 
 quered, and love of God and the neighbor are his rul- 
 ing loves, and the kingdom of heaven is within him, 
 and hell is cast out. Heaven and hell are states 
 (not places) , corresponding to daylight and darkness. 
 Daylight is not a place, it is a condition. (See 
 Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell.) Sudden changes 
 of heart are not apt to be lasting. A person may 
 start suddenly on a journey, but a steady walk is 
 better for a long journey than a fast run. Sudden 
 starts are good, and sometimes hard jumps from im- 
 pending danger are very necessary, but the journey 
 of life must be performed in a regular manner.* 
 
 The apostle says, First the blade then the ear and 
 then the full ripe corn. Jesus says, The kingdom 
 of heaven is like leaven hid in three measures of 
 meal ; the whole subject of a new life is fully ex- 
 plained by Jesus Himself; but were He to come 
 again, and live over the same life He led while on 
 earth, nearly nineteen hundred years ago, few if 
 any of the churches of the present day would receive 
 Him. Were He to appear in a modern noisy prayer 
 meeting, and repeat the sixth chapter of Matthew, 
 "Away with Him" would be demanded by the shout- 
 ing worshippers. The difference between a noisy 
 religion and the True Religion, is fully described, 
 3 
 
84 THE HOLY bible: 
 
 1 Kings xviii. 17, &c, and chapter xix. concludes 
 the subject. (See especially verses 11, 12, and 13.) 
 Compare the fasting, as preached by hireling priests, 
 and that recommended by Jesus. (See Matthew 
 vi. 16, &c. ; see also Isaiah Iviii. 6.) Noisy, igno- 
 rant preachers may have been as necessary in the 
 world's development as Pagan, Mohammedan, and 
 Papal teachings ; but the Newman Halls, the Spur- 
 geons, and the Beechers of the present day are the 
 bright morning stars in the dark horizon of old 
 theology, and the changes and improvements they 
 are trying to establish in their respective denomina- 
 tions indicate that the Sun of Righteousness is about 
 to arise upon a priest-ridden world. 
 
 The days of hireling preachers, of old sectarian 
 dogmas, will soon be over, for the New Jerusalem 
 is coming down from God out of Heaven, as 
 foretold by John the Revelator. Henry Ward 
 Beecher has already dared to say from his pulpit, 
 that no person is to blame for his honest belief, and 
 not an infant, or an honest man, or an innocent 
 person can be found in all hell. The Baptist Spur- 
 geon advocates an open communion ; and well he 
 may argue that the Lord Jesus Christ made the 
 most Holy Bread that ever was broken, and gave it 
 to the multitude. He also made large quantities of 
 wine at Cana of Galilee for the multitude, and at 
 His Last Supper, which was the First Most Holy 
 Supper ; unbelieving Thomas was there, swearing, 
 lying Peter was there, and devilish traitor Judas was 
 
ITS HISTORY, NATURE, AND TEACHINGS. 35 
 
 there, and the Lord Himself gave them of the feast ; 
 and dare any mortal man refuse the Sacrament to 
 any who desire it at the present day? The priest or 
 minister should always say, "This is the Lord's 
 Table, and all who feel that He invites them, are 
 welcome." Wherever these words (or their equiv- 
 alent) are used, I always partake, and wherever they 
 are not used, I do not feel invited. 
 
 Whoever refuses one of the least of God's children, 
 refuses the Lord Himself. Antipodal Sectarians get 
 their hire for distorting and deifying Paul's Epistles ; 
 but if Paul, in 1 Corinthians xv. 28, contradicts 
 Isaiah ix. 6, 7, all True Christians will give Isaiah 
 the preference ; for, as I have before stated, Paul no- 
 where pretends to claim the authority which Isaiah 
 had, and the authenticity of what Paul is supposed to 
 have written is infinitely below what Isaiah wrote. 
 
 Appleton's American Cyclopedia says (vol. 3, page 
 229), "Not a fragment of writing from the hand 
 of an evangelist or an apostle survived the early 
 generations that used the original manuscripts, and 
 wore them out." They did not feel the importance 
 of laying them securely aside, as the Jews did their 
 Sacred Writings, but the more valuable the New 
 Testament writings, the more extensive their use, 
 and consequently the briefer their existence. For 
 the chancres made in these writings during the dark 
 aires, and down to the Protestant Reformation in the 
 sixteenth century, see the valuable work above 
 mentioned. No tribe of Levi was set apart to guard 
 
36 THE HOLY BIBLE: 
 
 the New Testament writings, and count, with the 
 most costly care, every letter, jot, and tittle of every 
 copy made; but the forty-seven learned men, who 
 translated our present English Bible, found multi- 
 tudes of Greek copies of Paul's Epistles, and they 
 made a compromise of the various readings, and no 
 single Greek version is equal authority to the good 
 old English compromise that has been in use more 
 than two hundred and sixty years. 
 
 Many of the Sects of the present day are dis- 
 satisfied with our present English New Testament, 
 and they translate the whole or a part of some 
 favorite Greek version that appears better to uphold 
 their peculiar dogmas. The Universalists, Second 
 Advents, and many others, do this in the form of 
 commentaries, but the Methodists have sold many 
 editions of an independent translation of the entire 
 New Testament made by John Wesley ; and the 
 Baptists are about publishing a new translation of 
 the whole Bible, by an Association called the "Amer- 
 ican Bible Union," of New York; but I would ad- 
 vise them all to read Swedenborg's explanations of 
 Scripture, instead of bothering about new transla- 
 tions. Swedenborg says Moses and the prophets, 
 in the internal sense, treat exclusively of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ and His kingdom, and the last chapter 
 of Luke proves this. (See especially verses 27-44, 
 45, &c.) I have not used the language of Sweden- 
 borg in this work, but that of Moses and the proph- 
 ets, and whoever rejects them will reject Sweden- 
 
ITS HISTORY, NATURE, AND TEACHINGS. 37 
 
 borg; but the Ponds and the Pikes, and all other 
 sons of the woman spoken of in the seventeenth 
 chapter of Revelation, are proofs of the Truth of 
 Christ's words as recorded Luke xvi. 31 : " If they 
 hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they 
 be persuaded, though bne rose from the dead." 
 Moses and the prophets repeatedly say there is but 
 one God. Isaiah says (xliii. 10, 11) : "Before me 
 there was no God formed, neither shall there be 
 after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me 
 there is no Saviour." 
 
 Swedenborg confirms the words of the prophets, 
 and proves how reasonable and beautiful they are, 
 even perfection itself as originally written ; and can 
 we expect that hirelings, who preach a doctrine of 
 three personal Gods, and Jesus the second person 
 of these three, will not reject Swedenborg? There 
 is something in the Bible to correspond to every 
 part of a human being. This is necessary, or it 
 would not be perfect ; and hirelings, who never dared 
 to read the thirty-eighth chapter of Genesis in 
 public, are wicked enough to call Swedenborg vul- 
 gar for writing twenty times less homely truths. 
 
 The Lord Jesus Christ is our best Friend. He is 
 our Creator, our Heavenly Father, Who bowed the 
 Heavens also> and came down ; and behold the Tab- 
 ernacle of God is with men. He places good and 
 evil before us that we may have freedom, and may 
 choose the right, and avoid the^ wrong. Tempta- 
 tions are necessary, that we may have need to pray 
 
38 ** . THE HOLY bible: 
 
 to be led out of temptations, and delivered from 
 evils. As a loving parent wishes to bless his chil- 
 dren, and make them as happy as possible, so our 
 Heavenly Father loves to bless us, and give us all 
 the happiness we will accept from Him ; but in or- 
 der that we may have freedom, the Lord permits 
 evils; for if no evil was permitted of the Lord, then 
 man could not have freedom, or intelligence, or 
 be a man, but must, of necessity, be a fixture, an 
 object, a mere thing. So let us all try to do as 
 well as we can, for a life in the future world awaits 
 us corresponding to the life we lead here. 
 
 Time with each one of us will soon end, and then 
 we will be in eternity, where all who have the spirit 
 of a Lazraus will enjoy Blessed Peace forever, but 
 they who abound in self-righteousness, and are rich 
 in their own religious views (living a life of selfish- 
 ness or wickedness, like Dives), must forever abide 
 with those who will be tormented with their own 
 wicked natures. Their own selfish loves and wick- 
 ed desires will attend them to all eternity, for take 
 away from wicked people all their wickedness, and 
 they would be annihilated. " God is Love," and 
 hell would be just as good as heaven if the inhab- 
 itants were the same. In heaven all are free to do 
 just as they please, for they all love to do right. 
 In hell wicked people are compelled to perform uses, 
 and to do comparatively right ; but law, force, and 
 punishments are necessary to keep bad people from 
 injuring each other, and the Blessed Loving Jesus 
 
ITS HISTORY, NATURE, AND TEACHINGS. 39 
 
 makes all in hell as comfortable as their evil natures 
 will allow. 
 
 Read Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell, and his 
 True Christian Religion, carefully and prayerfully, 
 and they will help you to understand The Holy 
 Bible. No subject was ever so high or holy but 
 what it could be ridiculed by unbelievers, if no op- 
 portunity was given for explanation or reply. Even 
 the words of the Lord upon Mount Sinai, and the 
 birth of the Lord in a manger, have been ridiculed 
 by infidels. But the Bible is the Perfect Word of 
 God, and it will be the study of angels to all eter- 
 nity. Every person should read it through, at least 
 once, by course. Read twenty-three chapters every 
 Sunday, or three chapters every week day and five 
 every Sunday, and you will read it through in a 
 year, and seven chapters besides. Psalm cxvii. is the 
 middle and shortest chapter, and John xi. 35 is the 
 smallest verse. Wherever in this world the Bible 
 is not read and believed, there women are bought 
 and sold like cattle, and human beings live about as 
 vilely as the most filthy animals. 
 
40 THE HOLY BIBLE : 
 
 Christian Ministers of all Denominations: — In 
 concluding, I appeal to you. I hope I have not 
 written this book as a sectarian, but rather as a 
 humble servant of " Our Lord Jesus Christ ; " and 
 He is saying to-day to all The Pure, The Faithful, 
 and The True among all denominations of Christians 
 throughout the world, "Other sheep I have, 
 which are not of this fold : them also I must bring, 
 and they shall hear my voice ; and there shall be 
 one fold, and one shepherd." 
 
 Almost nineteen hundred years ago John forbade 
 a person to cast out devils, " because he followeth 
 not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there 
 is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, 
 that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is 
 not against us is on our part." Christian Ministers 
 of to-day, whom do you follow, John or Jesus? 
 Eead what I have here presented, honestly and 
 candidly. Do not be hypocrites. (See Matt. vi. 
 2, 5-16; also, xxiii. 13-15; also, xxiv. 51.) 
 To have our "portion with the hypocrites," is to go 
 to hell. Be honest, for " God is not mocked." 
 You profess to have been called of God to preach 
 the Gospel. Perhaps I may be pardoned for saying 
 I too have felt compelled, against my wishes, and 
 the earnest advice of my nearest earthly friends and 
 relations, to cry out with Paul, " Necessity is laid 
 upon me; yea, woe is me, if I preach not the 
 Gospel." Let us not find fault with each other, but 
 turn to God, like Paul, and say, "Lord, what wilt 
 thou have me to do?" No two persons are alike in 
 
ITS HISTORY, NATURE, AND TEACHINGS. 41 
 
 looks, thoughts, or actions, and ministers of Christ 
 have no right to judge each other ; by our fruits we 
 may be known ; but there is only one lawful Judge, 
 and even He says, "I judge no man." "I came 
 not to judge the world, but to save the world." But 
 His Words, that is to say, the Truth, shall judge us 
 all in the last day. I desire to follow the Lord 
 only, and to be one of His most humble and obedi- 
 ent servants. Like Paul, I am willing to dispute 
 in the " market daily," or anywhere else that the 
 Lord shows me work to do ; but, like Paul, I must 
 be free. He says in the 1st chapter of Galatians, 
 "But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which 
 was preached of me is not after man. For I neither 
 received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by 
 the revelation of Jesus Christ. But when it pleased 
 God, who separated me from my mother's womb, 
 and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, 
 that I might preach him among the heathen, imme- 
 diately I conferred not with flesh and blood : neither 
 w r ent I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles 
 before me ; but I went into Arabia, and returned 
 again unto Damascus. Then after three years I 
 went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with 
 him fifteen days. But other of the apostles saw I 
 none, save James, the Lord's brother." It seems 
 that Paul was converted while Peter and most of the 
 other apostles were still alive ; but Paul was not 
 dictated by them. He even "withstood" Peter "to 
 the face, because he was to be blamed " (see 
 Galatians ii. 11) ; and if Paul did not need to sub- 
 
42 THE HOLY bible: 
 
 mit to Christ's chosen Apostles, I need not be dic- 
 tated by the sectarians of the present day any more 
 than they need be subject tome. When Peter asked 
 the Lord what John should do, He replied, "What 
 is that to thee? Follow thou me." In this same last 
 chapter of John the Lord repeatedly charged Peter, 
 " Feed my sheep." He says the same to us. Jesus 
 is the "True Shepherd," and we are either His true 
 servants, or else we are only false hirelings ; wolves 
 in sheep's clothing. When John the Baptist sent to 
 Jesus to ask if He was the Christ, the Lord did not 
 reply directly, but said, " Go and show John again 
 those things which ye do hear and see : The blind 
 receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are 
 cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, 
 and the poor have the gospel preached to them." And 
 He concludes this eleventh chapter of Matthew as 
 follows : " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are 
 heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my 
 yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am meek and 
 lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 
 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." 
 
 Ministers should try to be practical. Poor people 
 cannot feed upon theories or moonbeams. It is all 
 very well to make tracts and give them away ; but 
 do not forget to make bread also, and give that away 
 with the tracts. 
 
 Jesus preached free to all, and then He made 
 bread and gave that away without money and without 
 price; and we read, "The common people heard 
 Him gladly." When He raised Jairus's daughter 
 
ITS HISTORY, NATURE, AND TEACHINGS. 43 
 
 from the dead, He "commanded that something 
 should be given her to eat." Jesus says (Luke xiv. 
 12, 13, 14), "When thou makest a dinner or a 
 supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither 
 thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors : lest they also 
 bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But 
 when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, 
 the lame, the blind : and thou shalt be blessed ; 
 for they cannot recompense thee : for thou shalt be 
 recompensed at the resurrection of the just." Our 
 Lord says truly, " The children of this world are in 
 their generation wiser than the children of light." 
 Politicians pay out immense sums of money to 
 feed their constituents. Before election all parties 
 forget " Maine Laws," and even the poor Irish- 
 man's shanty is free from State Constable search and 
 seizure. "Eat, drink, and be merry," say the poli- 
 ticians, "for to-morrow we die, politically, unless 
 you vote for us." Why do not "rich Christians" 
 make to themselves friends of the " mammon of this 
 world?" Why do they not feed their converts? 
 Why not get up feasts, and rides, and picnics for all 
 children and " newly converted " persons as soon as 
 they can repeat the " Lord's Prayer " and the " Ten 
 Commandments?"" Try it, Christians. Try it, for 
 the time may come when Jesus will say to you, 
 "For I was a hungered, and ye gave me no meat; 
 I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink ; I was a 
 stranger, and ye took me not in : naked, and ye 
 clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited 
 ine not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, 
 
44 THE HOLY BIBLE": 
 
 Lord, when saw we thee a hungered, or athirst, or 
 a stranger, or naked y or sick, or in prison, and did 
 not minister unto thee ? Then shall He answer them, 
 saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did 
 it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to 
 me/' (Matt. xxv. 42-45.) 
 
 These words have a literal meaning as well as a 
 spiritual. (See Swedenborg's True Christian Re- 
 ligion, Nos. 433 and 434.) 
 
 Jesus was practical. He was born in a manger* 
 
 " Who is He in yonder stall, 
 At whose feet the shepherds fall? 
 'Tis the Lord, O, wondrous story, 
 9 Tis the Lord, the King of Glory ! 
 At His feet we humbly fall, 
 Crown Him, crown Him, Lord of all/* 
 
 He learned of Joseph the carpenter's trade, and 
 worked at it the most of His life. 
 
 " Who is He in yonder cot, 
 Bending to His toilsome lot? 
 'Tis the Lord, O, wondrous story*,' 
 Tis the Lord, the King of Glory." 
 
 He worked freely for others, and bore our infirmi- 
 ties, and even washed His disciples feet. He also 
 bore His own cross and our sins and those of the 
 whole world. He told the story only once of the 
 poor widow who gave her last money to the church, 
 and that was not till after she had given it ; but there 
 is no record that He ever passed around a contribu- 
 tion box to gather up " poor people's pennies " in all 
 
ITS HISTORY, NATURE, AND TEACHINGS. 45 
 
 His life. I have no objection to clergymen receiving 
 pay for their services, like school teachers, or legis- 
 lators, or policemen; for Paul says, "They which 
 preach the gospel should live of the gospel ; " but 
 Paul also says that he worked with his own hands, 
 lest he might be chargeable to his brethren. Jesus is 
 higher authority than Paul, and He warns us against 
 hirelings ; and when a man preaches for pay, and 
 stops preaching when the pay stops, is not he a hire- 
 ling ? I have felt it my duty to spend several years 
 of my life in preaching, writing sermons, and dis- 
 tributing Bibles, Testaments, and other good books, 
 sometimes at cost, sometimes at less than cost, and 
 sometimes giving them away at my own expense. 
 I have always preached free to all ; if ever I become 
 penniless I shall take money for preaching, but not 
 till then. In the language of Paul, I will add, I say 
 this "not of commandment," and some may think 
 I had better also add, " I speak foolishly ; " but He 
 who has a name above every name, is my Judge and 
 ■yours. Not the Babe of Bethlehem now, or the 
 "Man of Sorrow," but the Risen Jesus, Lord of 
 Lords, and King of Kings, the Almighty. Not 
 Jesus as He was, but as He is : the Temple of His 
 Body Perfected, Consummated, Finished. 
 
 " Who is He that on yon Throne, 
 Kules the World of Light alone ? 
 'Tis the Lord, O, wondrous story, 
 'Tis the Lord, the King of Glory. 
 At His feet we humbly fall, 
 Loye Him, serve Him, Lord of all." 
 
46 THE HOLY BIBLE, 
 
 Ye well-fed, well-paid, regularly-ordained preach- 
 ers of the Seven Churches of the present day, does 
 not Jesus repeat to some of you the Words of 
 Revelation? "I know thy works." .... 
 "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with 
 goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not 
 that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, 
 and blind, and naked : I counsel thee to buy gold 
 tried in the fire, that thou may est be rich ; and white 
 raiment, that thou may est be clothed, and that the 
 shame of thy nakedness do not appear ; and anoint 
 thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see. As 
 many as I love, I rebuke and chasten : be zealous 
 therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, 
 and knock : if any man hear my voice, and open 
 the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with 
 him, and he with me. . . . He w r hich testi- 
 fieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly : 
 Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." 
 
No. 1. 
 
 WHICH IS BEST? 
 
 GOD'S WAT, OR THE DEVIL'S WAY ? 
 
 CHOOSE YE, BUT FIRST READ 
 
 BELIEVE AND RECEIVE; 
 
 OR, THE 
 
 PLAIN AND EAST ROAD TO HEAVEN. 
 
 M And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are 
 the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth : Yea, saith the Spirit, 
 that they may rest from their labors; and {heir works do follow them." 
 
 Rev. xiv. 13. 
 
 11 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God ; and the books 
 were opened : and another book was 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. 
 
 WRITTEN BY ALBERT COLBY, 
 
 WHILE A PREACHER IN THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 
 AND FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1867. 
 
 LOWELL : 
 
 39 Middlesex Street, Clark's New Block. 
 1871. 
 
 Sold by Travelling Agents. Price 21 Cents. 
 
PERSONS AND SUBJECTS 
 
 KEFERKED TO IN THIS WORK. 
 
 Page. 
 The New Birth, 3 ^ 
 
 Honest Blindness, 3 45 
 
 Reasonable to Expect to Live Beyond the Grave, 4 
 
 Heavenly Joys, 5 
 
 Pleasures of Hell, 5 
 
 The One Thousand Different Religious Creeds, 5 
 
 True Object of Life on Earth, .... $ 
 
 Evangelical Churches Differ but Little, . 6, 1G, 18, 19 
 
 Deity of Jesus, 12, 13, 17, 18, 32, 39 
 
 The Holy Trinity, 17, 18, 46 
 
 The Lord's Prayer, ....... 22 
 
 The Ten Commandments, 29, 48 
 
 Natural Bodies and Spiritual Bodies, ... 15 
 
 Dr. Adam Clarke, > . • 4 
 
 Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, .... 23, 54, 57 
 
 Daniel Webster, 17, 42, 46 
 
 Theodore Parker, 2, 41, 42, 43 
 
 Rev. Nehemiah Adams, ...... 17 
 
 Emanuel Swedenborg, . . . .17, 19, 42, 54, 56 
 
 The Blessed Virgin Mary, . . . , . 23, 24 
 Moses and Samuel, Noah, Daniel and Job, . . 24 
 
 Methodism, 14, 55 
 
 Universalism, . . . . . . . . 5, 58 
 
 Unitarianism, 5, 40, 58 
 
 Spiritualism, 41, 43, 44 
 
 Romanism, 21 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by Albert Colby, in the Clerk's 
 Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
PREFACE TO PRESENT EDITION. 
 
 When I wrote and first published this little book, 
 I only claimed to begin to see men as trees walking. 
 (See pages 3 and 4.) From Methodist, and other 
 " evangelical" Christians, my book received the warm- 
 est praise ; but a constant and prayerful study of 
 God's Word, during the past few years, has some- 
 what changed my mind regarding one of my opin- 
 ions. While a member of the Methodist Church I 
 honestly thought a noisy religion commendable and 
 profitable (see page 37) ; but in my undeveloped 
 state I mistook apparent truth for Real Truth. Our 
 Wonderful Counsellor, whose highest title is Prince 
 of Peace (see Isaiah ix. 6), says, "The kingdom of 
 God cometh not with observation." It is "within 
 you." The kingdom of God, or kingdom of Heav- 
 en, Jesus says, is like seed cast into the silent ground, 
 or like leaven, which a woman hid in three measures 
 of meal (see Matthew xiii. and Luke xiii.). Read 
 1 Kings- xviii., and see the difference between the 
 short prayer of one true servant of the Lord and the 
 noisy demonstrations of the prophets of Baal and of 
 the groves. See also verses 11, 12, and 13 of the 
 next chapter. 
 
 The shouting Jews, at Jericho, were a wicked set. 
 The Hebrew race was always cruel and revengeful. 
 They stoned the prophets and killed them, and their 
 descendants murdered the Lord Himself. So I have 
 sometimes found the most noisy professors of religion 
 to be the greatest hypocrites and rascals, and too 
 often their children fill prisons, and other bad places. 
 I would not be understood to say that noisy religious 
 exercises are absolutely sinful, but rather that the 
 still small voice is a better and more heavenly mani- 
 festation. When our Lord was crucified, where were 
 
 (1) 
 
2 PREFACE TO RECENT EDITION", 
 
 the shouters that attended his triumphant entry into 
 Jerusalem? Perhaps it may be necessary for un- 
 educated, ignorant people to make noisy demonstra- 
 tions in attempting to worship God, but there is a 
 higher state of religion than the noisy kind. An 
 orderly, quiet, peaceful, righteous life is what best 
 fits us for the eternal presence of the Prince of 
 Peace. 
 
 With honest motives I united with the M. E. 
 Church. I was led so to do by Methodist clergy- 
 men, who claimed to believe in only one God, and 
 that the prophecy of Zechariah xiv. 9 was literally 
 fulfilled in the Methodist Church ; but to my sorrow 
 I found that a majority of Methodist ministers per- 
 sistently preached the doctrine of three Gods, and con- 
 tinually repeated the old pagan Fable that the anger 
 of one God demanded the death of another as a sac- 
 rifice or an atonement. Consequently I asked for, 
 and received an honorable discharge from their body. 
 I never would have left the Methodist Church if my 
 brethren had preached Faith in the Lord Jesus 
 Christ as the only God of Heaven. That such was 
 the faith of the early apostles, is abundantly proved 
 from the Book of Acts. 
 
 After Jesus arose from the dead, He charged His 
 disciples to baptize all nations, in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost 
 (see last chapter of Matthew), and they continually 
 baptized in the name of the. Lord Jesus, proving 
 they believed Him the Triune God, in whom Paul 
 says, "dwelleth all the fulness of- the Godhead 
 bodily." He is the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 
 See Acts ii. 38; viii. 12 and 16; x. 48; xix. 5. 
 See also my History of the Bible, at close of this 
 work, and Swedenborg's explanations of Scripture^ 
 especially his True Christian Religion. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 was originally 
 
 This little book i^written and published^for gra- 
 tuitous distribution among my own personal friends 
 and acquaintances, for the following reasons : I was 
 in my thirty-ninth year when I was converted to 
 Jesus. When I started in life, I promised my Cre- 
 ator that one tenth of all my gains should be devoted 
 to charity ; but becoming confirmed in Unitarian and 
 anti-Christian views, I actually took the Lord's tenth 
 and gave it to the devil. I bought the writings of 
 Thomas Paine and Theodore Parker, and gave them 
 away as a deed of charity, actually thinking I did 
 God service. I thought I was a very good man, 
 and that I was keeping God's commandments, and 
 was on the road to heaven ; while I was going down 
 to hell blindfolded, just as fast as the devil's omnibus 
 could carry me. But on the 23d day of April, 1865, 
 the words of Jesus reached me, " Why persecutest 
 thou me?" and I had abundant evidence that the 
 Lord Jesus Christ was my Creator and Saviour. I 
 believed on him for the first time in my life, and he 
 breathed on me, 'and scales have been dropping from 
 my eyes ever since, and I begin to see men as trees 
 
 (3) 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 walking. I am on my journey to that celestial city 
 whose maker and builder is God ; and if this selection 
 of Scripture may lead one erring soul home to his 
 Father's house, then I will be doubly happy, for I 
 have had many sweet seasons of prayer and praise 
 while writing the book. I have read the Bible through 
 by course once since commencing it, and Dr. Adam 
 Clarke's Commentaries, Cruden's Concordance, and 
 the Bible have been my constant companions. I 
 have had many seasons of shouting aloud in my 
 closet, Glory to Jesus ! and I have seen light and 
 evidences perhaps improper to mention. I know the 
 Bible is the Word of God, and that all men by 
 nature are great sinners, and none more blindly 
 depraved than I have been ; but I can say with'Paul, 
 tf I did it ignorantly in unbelief." God's Word tells 
 us, It shall be well with the righteous, but ill with 
 the wicked from, beginning to end ; and we carf con- 
 firm the Bible by nature and reason if we wish ; but 
 if we turn our backs upon Jesus, the devil stands 
 ready to confirm falses and teach lies, for he is the 
 father of lies. 
 
 Don't reason teach us that men become angels of 
 light or darkness just as naturally as worms become 
 butterflies and other winged insects, and eggs be- 
 come birds, both clean and unclean? Hogs and other 
 filthy animals eat carrion in the ditches, and think 
 sheep and lambs very silly, foolish creatures for 
 eating grass and flowers upon the hills and the moun- 
 tains. So wicked men and devils- look upon good 
 men and angels* It is an old proverb that one's 
 
INTRODUCTION, 5 
 
 meat is another's poison. Tobacco is very offensive 
 to the taste of nearly all of those unaccustomed to 
 its use, yet how fond of it are its consumers I I 
 know persons who are always made very sick by 
 tasting some particular kinds of food ; for instance, 
 to taste of strawberries will make some people vomit ; 
 bees' honey has the same effect upon others ; and 
 few people can be found but what have a dislike 
 for some kinds of food greatly admired by others. 
 So heavenly joys would distress the inhabitants of hell. 
 No person would enjoy a summer ramble or a winter 
 sleigh-ride without proper clothing. Any man would 
 be better off in a badly-ventilated cellar, with a good 
 fire, than to go shooting, entirely naked, on a cold 
 day, where game was ever so plenty. So the spirits 
 of the damned are better off in hell, no matter if it 
 is too hot, than to go to heaven unclothed with a 
 garment of righteousness. Put on the wedding 
 garment, or you will be speechless when you stand 
 before the Lord Jesus. You will call for the rocks 
 and the mountains to fall on you and hide you 
 from the face of the Lamb. In the world ye shall 
 have tribulation, but in Jesus there is perfect peace. 
 It is estimated that the population of the globe is 
 about one thousand millions, speaking over three 
 thousand different lano;uao;es, and having over one 
 thousand different forms of religion ; that thirty-five 
 thousand millions of men have died by war, and un- 
 known millions have died by famine and pestilence. 
 What millions of children have died by contagious 
 diseases, to which children only are subject, and how 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 quick a generation passes away, and how few com- 
 paratively live to be old ! Don't these things teach 
 us that this world is not our home? only a potter's 
 field, where the form is cast and we are moulded for 
 eternity? And how soon we pass on where the filthy 
 shall be filthy still, and the righteous shall be right- 
 eous still ! After the vessels are finished, so they 
 remain ; and we all have our choice to be vessels of 
 honor or vessels of dishonor. God never works 
 without giving the devil a fair chance to play his 
 hand also, that man may have a free choice, and 
 become a free-will angel or devil. As the magicians 
 were empowered to withstand Moses, so when Chris- 
 tians praise, the devil reigns nowadays ; but if we 
 will resist the devil, he will flee from us. Trust in 
 Jesus, for only in his strength are we safe. 
 
 If any thing has been said in this little book too se- 
 vere of any person, or class of persons, I call God to 
 witness that I have no object in view except to do his 
 will and to follow Jesus ; for I have given all for 
 Christ, and my only object is to meet him in glory. 
 I take the liberty to refer for the close of my preface 
 to Acts iv. 13, for there you will see the only claim 
 of the poor, blind, weak, unworthy author. 
 
THE 
 
 TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION; 
 
 OR, THE 
 
 PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 
 
 Part L— "BELIEVE." 
 
 "And they said, JBelieve on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" 
 
 Acts xvi. 31. 
 
 • The prophet Isaiah says, chapter xxxv. 8-10, 
 " And a highway shall be there, and a way, and 
 it shall be called The way of holiness ; the unclean 
 shall not pass over it ; but it shall be for those : the 
 wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. 
 No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall 
 go up thereon ; it shall not be found there ; but the 
 redeemed shall walk there: and the ransomed of 
 the Lord shall return, and come to Zion w T ith songs 
 and everlasting joy upon their heads : they shall ob- 
 tain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall 
 flee away." And Solomon says, "The fear of God 
 is the beginning of knowledge ; " " Happy is the 
 
 (?) 
 
8 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 man that findeth wisdom ; " " Her ways are ways 
 of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." And 
 we read, in Ezekiel xviii. 31, 32, "Cast away from 
 you all your transgressions, whereby ye have trans- 
 gressed ; and make you a new heart and a new 
 spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? 
 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that 
 dieth, saith the Lord God ; wherefore turn your- 
 selves, and live ye." And our blessed Lord and 
 Savior says, in Matthew xi. 28-30, "Come unto 
 me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I 
 will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and 
 learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart : and 
 ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is 
 easy, and my burden is light." Our Lord also says, 
 in Matthew xix. 29, "And every one that hath for- 
 saken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or 
 mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's 
 sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit 
 everlasting life." And we have the same in Mark; 
 and we read in Luke xviii. 29, 30, "And he said 
 unto them, Verily I say unto you, There is no man 
 that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, 
 or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, who 
 shall not receive manifold more in this present time, 
 and in the world to come life everlasting." 
 
 In 1 John v. we read that God's commandments 
 are not grievous, and every converted person will 
 testify that it is easy to become a Christian ; and if 
 it costs anything to be a child of God, it costs in- 
 finite! v more not to be one. The farmer will sret at 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 9 
 
 least as o-ood crops ; the mechanic will get at least 
 as crood wages ; the clerk will find at least as steady 
 employment, and as good a salary ; and the mer- 
 chant will find as many* and as reliable customers. 
 But life is short — a dream, a bubble ; and. eternity 
 never ends ; and this is what should attract our atten- 
 tion. "Rejoice not," says our Savior, in Luke x., 
 to the seventy, "that the spirits are subject unto you, 
 but rather rejoice because your names are written in 
 heaven." 
 
 We find in Hebrews ii. 9, "But we see Jesus, 
 who was made a little lower than the angels, for the 
 suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; 
 that he by the grace of God should taste death 
 for every man." And in 2 Peter iii. 9, "The Lord 
 is not slack concerning his promise, as some men 
 count slackness, but is long-suffering to us-ward, not 
 willing that any should perish, but that all should 
 come to repentance." Also in last chapter of Mark, 
 that our Lord, after his resurrection, sent his disciples 
 into all the world to preach the gospel to every 
 creature ; and we read in Scripture that God is no 
 respecter of persons, for "All souls are mine, saith 
 the Lord ; " and the question at once arises, What 
 shall we do to be saved ? All evangelical Christians 
 will unite in saying, " Believe on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ ; " for that is what Paul and Silas said to the 
 keeper of the prison, and the whole teaching of the 
 Bible is the same. See Matthew ix. : "Jesus said 
 unto the blind men, Believe ye that I am able to do 
 this?" and all they had to do was to believe, and 
 
10 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 the Lord touched their eyes, and they were opened. 
 We read in John iv. that Jesus told the woman of 
 Samaria that he was the Messias ; and he addressed 
 her in a conversational way thus : " Woman, believe 
 me." And what he said to her he says to all : "Be- 
 lieve me." If we ask he will give us the water of 
 life, of which we may drink and never thirst. Turn 
 to John vii. 37—39 and we find, " In the last day, that 
 great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, 
 If any man thirst, let him come unto me,. and drink. 
 He that belie veth on me, as the Scripture hath said, 
 out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 
 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that 
 believe on him should receive ; for the Holy Ghost 
 was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet 
 glorified.)" And in Mark xvi. 15, 16, "And he 
 said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach 
 the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and 
 is baptized shall be saved ; but he that believeth not 
 shall be damned." Look at 1 John v. 1-3 : "Who- 
 soever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of 
 God : and every one that loveth him that begat 
 loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this 
 we know that we love the children of God, when we 
 love God, and keep his commandments. For this is 
 the love of God, that we keep his commandments : 
 and his commandments are not grievous." And this 
 explains what our Lord said to Nicodemus, in John 
 iii. 1-9 : "There was a man of the Pharisees, named 
 Mcodemus, a ruler of the Jews ; the same came to 
 Jesus by night, and said unto him, Kabbi, we know 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 11 
 
 that thou art a teacher come from God : for no man 
 can do these miracles that thou doest, except God 
 be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, 
 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be 
 born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 
 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born 
 when he is old? can he enter the second time into 
 his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, 
 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be 
 born of watet and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into 
 the kingdom of God. That which is born of the 
 flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit 
 is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must 
 be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, 
 and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
 whence it cometh and whither it goeth : so is every 
 one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered 
 and said unto him, How can these things be? " 
 
 Language cannot convey a clearer knowledge of 
 the new birth than this. Whenever a person ex- 
 periences a change of heart, it is simply believing on 
 the Lord Jesus Christ ; and whoever believes on 
 him accepts the Bible as the Word of God, and it 
 will read different from anything the natural or un- 
 converted heart can understand or imagine. The 
 Bible will seem plain and 'all parts will harmonize 
 where once were apparent contradictions. The be- 
 liever understands at once how "the letter killeth, 
 but the spirit giveth life." The believer reads the 
 Bible with pleasure, and delights in everything said 
 of the Savior, and feasts upon every word our 
 
12 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 Lord spoke himself. Compared to other parts of 
 Scripture, his words are as diamonds set in gold. 
 When the writer first believed that Jesus Christ is 
 the very God, as he assures us he is, from that mo- 
 ment a hatred and horror of all sin, a love for God and 
 all his creatures, and a distaste for the world and all 
 selfish interests, followed, and the Bible was all new. 
 Before it was read as a duty, but now as a pleasure. 
 The first day was spent in weeping, prayer, reading 
 the Scriptures, and testifying to a dyifrg world the 
 great goodness and love of God, and the joy of being 
 counted a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, and feel- 
 ing his acceptance with him ; and he has never ceased 
 to wonder how he could have read the Bible through 
 and through, by course and otherwise, and still call 
 himself a Unitarian. No wonder Unitarian leaders 
 and preachers deny the plenary inspiration of the 
 Bible, for this and the Deity of Christ must stand or 
 fall together. 
 
 How plainly the Gospel according to St. John 
 commences : "In the beginning was the Word, and 
 the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 
 The same was in the beoinnin°; with God. All 
 things were made by him ; and without him was not 
 anything made that was made. In him was life ; and' 
 the life was the light of men." And then read verse 
 14 : " And the Word was made flesh and dwelt 
 among us." Then turn to chapter xiv. 8-15 : 
 "Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, 
 and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I 
 been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 13 
 
 known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen 
 the Father ; and how sayest thou then, Show us the 
 Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, 
 and the Father in me ? The words that I speak unto 
 you I speak not of myself: but the Father that 
 dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me 
 that I am in the Father, and the Father in me ; or 
 else believe me for the very works' sake. Verily, 
 verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, 
 the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater 
 works than these shall he do ; because I go unto my 
 Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, 
 that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in 
 the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I 
 will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments." 
 Our Lord says, in John v. 39, " Search the Scrip- 
 tures ; for in them ye think ye have eternal life : arid 
 they are they which testify of me." O, how true this 
 is ! Only look at Isaiah ix. 6, 7 : "For unto us a child 
 is born, unto us a son is given : and the government 
 shall be upon his shoulder ; and his name shall be 
 called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The 
 everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the in- 
 crease of his government and peace there shall be 
 no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his 
 kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judg- 
 ment, and with justice from henceforth even for- 
 ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform 
 this." There is no power above Jesus, for he is one 
 with the Father ; and all parts of the Word of God 
 point to Jesus and his divinity just as plainly as all 
 
14 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 the roads about any great city lead to the city itself. 
 Take any one of these roads, and turn your back 
 upon the city, and the farther you go the more dis- 
 tant the city ; and so is it with Scripture. Ask God 
 in prayer, in honest, fervent, secret prayer, to guide 
 you, and every chapter and verse will lead you to 
 Christ; but turn your back upon God, and go to 
 work in your own strength, and to your sorrow, but 
 perhaps too late, you will find how true are the apos- 
 tle's words, "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth 
 life." Reader, " believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 Only look at John vi. 47, "Verily, verily, I say 
 unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting 
 life ; " and then at John xi. 25, 26, "Jesus said unto 
 her, I am the resurrection and the life : he that be- 
 lieveth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live : 
 and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never 
 die. Believest thou this ? " 
 
 Glory to God ! I believe this ; and I hope I can 
 say, from the bottom of my heart, with Paul, " O 
 death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy 
 victory ? 
 
 5 Our Lord also says, in John viii. 51, "Verily, 
 verity, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he 
 shall never see death." Scripture tells us, "The 
 wages of sin is death ; " also, " The soul that sin- 
 neth, it shall die : " and the poet says, — 
 
 ' ' It is not all of life to live, 
 Nor all of death to die." 
 
 There is a second death ; and Scripture tells us, "The 
 first shall be last, and the last shall be first." Adam 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 15 
 
 and Eve died the second death first. " In the day 
 that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," said the 
 Great Creator. Many dead men may be found in the 
 world breathing, occupying a body, but dead as Adam. 
 I had been dead, many years dead, but by the grace 
 of God I heard the Lord knocking at the door of my 
 heart; I opened the door, I believed, I was raised. 
 Glory to God ! I have had part in the first resurrec- 
 tion, and over such the second death hath no power, 
 providing they endure to the end. (See Revelation 
 xx. 6. ) Paul speaks of two kinds of bodies — terres- 
 trial bodies and celestial bodies, of natural bodies and 
 spiritual bodies ; and our Lord says, in Matthew x. 
 28, "And fear not them which kill the body, but are 
 not able to kill the soul ; but rather fear Him which 
 is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." And 
 then in verse 39, "He that findeth his life shall lose 
 it ; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find 
 it." Any one can see that two kinds of life and 
 death are spoken of here. 
 
 " God is love" and has done everything to save 
 man that he can do and leave man an individual ; 
 and if we do not believe, must we not of necessity 
 have our portion appointed with the unbelievers? 
 (See Luke xii. 46.) If we believe, John tells us, 
 we are born of God, and if we are born of God we 
 shall love God, and if we love him we shall keep his 
 commandments ; and his commandments are not 
 grievous. This is all very plain. Jesus says, 
 " Before Abraham was I am." He tells us he 
 has power on earth to forgive sins ; and after his 
 
16 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 resurrection, that all power is given him in heaven 
 and in earth (see 18th verse of last chapter of Mat- 
 thew) ; and if we believe this, we are prepared to 
 worship him, to serve him, and to obey him, and to 
 say, with Thomas, "My Lord and my God." Ac- 
 cept the fact that Jesus Christ is God. Simply 
 believe, and you are on the heavenly road ; and keep 
 stepping right after Jesus, and don't bother about 
 doctrines, but follow the Lord, and you will surely 
 reach heaven. (See John xxi. 22.) Peter asked 
 the Lord a question which did not concern him, and 
 Jesus answered, w What is that to thee? follow thou 
 me." 
 
 Look at Genesis ii. 16, 17 : "And the Lord God 
 commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the 
 garden thou mayest freely eat : but of the tree of 
 the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat 
 of it : for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou 
 shalt surely die." It is thought by many eminent 
 Christians that this tree was the doctrine of fore- 
 knowledge and foreordination, or election, and where- 
 ever it is preached a dead church and lukewarm 
 Christians are the result. This doctrine is in the 
 mouth of all wicked persons, and continually repeated 
 by them. It is evidently used by the devil to keep 
 sinners unreconciled to Jesus, and to prevent the 
 natural man from submitting to God. We have no 
 right to question our Creator as we would a school- 
 boy, or a witness in a lawsuit. By so doing we 
 prove ourselves enemies of God, and vainly attempt 
 to put ourselves on an equality with him ; and this 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 17 
 
 explains Genesis iii. 22, "And the Lord God said, 
 Behold, the man is become as one of us." It is 
 enough for us to know there is no power above God. 
 We have in the Bible all we need to know, and if we 
 needed more, God would have given us more Scrip- 
 ture ; but if we follow Jesus, and are born of God, 
 and experience a change of heart, we shall receive 
 evidence upon evidence, till our souls are perfectly- 
 satisfied ; only believe, and all these other things will 
 surely follow. The great hinderance to the conversion 
 of myself was, I thought I could not understand the 
 Trinity. I read in a printed sermon of an eminent 
 Congregational Trinitarian clergyman of Boston, the 
 Rev. Nehemiah Adams, as follows: "The doctrine 
 of the Trinity is, by itself, of no practical value, any 
 more than it is to know whether there be six or seven 
 stars in the Pleiades ; " and he alluded, in the same 
 sermon, to Daniel Webster's reply to a Unitarian : 
 " Neither you nor I understand the arithmetic of 
 heaven." I also read, in a little book called "Light 
 in Darkness," by a clergyman of the same denom- 
 ination, as follows : " The old phrase, ? There are 
 three persons in the Godhead,' 6tands between many 
 Unitarians and the light." And he goes on to say that 
 manifestations, instead of persons, approaches nearer 
 the true meaning of the word, and says Christians of 
 undoubted soundness in the faith — such men as Jacob 
 Abbott — actually use that expression ; and I found, 
 by conversing with Christians of all the evangelical 
 churches, there are many of all the denominations 
 who accept Swedenborg's views of the Trinity : that 
 2 
 
18 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 God the Father is the soul, that God the Son is the 
 body, and that God the Holy Ghost is the spirit or 
 influence of the same One Triune God ; and that, 
 as Scripture says, man is made in God's own image, 
 so it is with man : every man is a trinity of spirit, 
 soul, and body. See 1 Thessalonians v. 23 ; He- 
 brews iv. 12; Genesis i. 26, 27; 1 John v. 7. 
 More will be said on this subject in the History of 
 Christianity, which I will publish at some future 
 time. But whoever will read the first chapter of 
 John, and what our Lord says to Philip in the four- 
 teenth chapter of John, and read the seventh verse 
 of the fifth chapter of John's first epistle, and then 
 turn back to the sixth and seventh verses of the ninth 
 chapter of Isaiah, will be perfectly satisfied, with 
 Paul, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall 
 bow ; for he has a name above every name. Read- 
 er, do you believe? Then go at once and seek 
 admission into any evangelical church you choose. 
 Confess to the world that you have faith in Jesus ; 
 for he has said, if we deny him before men, he will 
 deny us before angels. Think of the shortness of 
 life, think of the changes of the past year, or the 
 past few years, and you will admit life is compara- 
 tively a moment, a bubble, a tale that is told, and we 
 soon fly away. 
 
 After I experienced the new birth, I waited nearly 
 two years before joining any church ; and when I was 
 asked why I did not unite with some church, I re- 
 plied that I wonted to join all the churches, for I 
 loved all God's children, and wanted simply to be 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 19 
 
 known as a humble follower of Jesus. But I finally 
 united with the Methodist church, and only regret 
 that I neglected that duty so long ; for it is a powerful 
 help to a weak Christian to belong to any church of 
 true Christian worshippers. But before uniting with 
 the church I read the creeds of all Christian churches. 
 I read Swedenborg extensively, and would recom- 
 mend his works on "Heaven and Hell," and "The 
 Apocalypse Revealed," to every follower of Jesus ; 
 and others of his works may be read with profit. 
 But the Bible is the fountain of all revealed knowl- 
 edge, the true Word of God ; and the Bible is my 
 creed ; yet the Methodist church is my home. Jesus 
 says, in John x. 16, " And other sheep I have, which 
 are not of this fold : them also I must bring, and 
 they shall hear my voice ; and there shall be one 
 fold, and one shepherd." There is but one church 
 in heaven ; but in this world there are many churches, 
 and I thank God that there is a home for all — that 
 there are many folds, and the Good Shepherd has a 
 fold for every sheep. But woe to the sheep that has 
 no fold, as the wolf seizes such ; so the devil will 
 be apt to lay claim to that Christian who joins 
 no church, and does nothing to help support the 
 gospel. 
 
 But remember, Jesus tells us to pray without ceas- 
 ing. Read some portion of the Bible every day ; 
 but don't offer sacrifice to Paul, for he and Barnabas 
 both forbade that. Paul says, in 1 Corinthians vii. 
 6, "ButT speak this by permission, and not of com- 
 mandment." And in xv. 9, " For I am the least of 
 
20 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, 
 because I persecuted the church of God." 
 
 Moses was not permitted to enter the land of 
 promise, because, David says, in Psalm cvi., ^He 
 spake unadvisedly with his lips." Moses took 
 honor to himself and to Aaron. See Numbers xx. 
 9-12: "And Moses took the rod from before the 
 Lord, as he commanded him. And Moses and 
 Aaron gathered the congregation together before the 
 rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels ; 
 must we fetch you water out of this rock ? And 
 Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote 
 the rock twice ; and the water came out abundantly, 
 and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. 
 And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because 
 ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the 
 children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this 
 congregation into the land which I have given them." 
 We read, in Matthew xvi., that when Peter spoke 
 from the Lord, Jesus blessed him ; but when he 
 spoke from himself, the Lord said, " Get thee behind 
 me, Satan" 
 
 There is none good but one, and that is God ; and 
 to the Triune God be all the clorv and honor, forever 
 and ever. See Revelation xv. 3, 4 ; xix. 10 ; and xxii. 
 8—11 : "And I John saw these things, and heard them. 
 And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to wor- 
 ship before the feet of the angel which showed me 
 these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do 
 it not ; for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy 
 brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 21 
 
 sayings of this book : worship Gocl. And he saith 
 unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this 
 book : for the time is at hand. He that is unjust, 
 let him be unjust still : and he which is filthy, let 
 him be filthy still : and he that is righteous, let him 
 be righteous still : and he that is holy, let him be 
 holy still." What a rebuke we have here to Roman 
 Catholics, and to modern spiritualists, and to all 
 searchers after strange doctrines, apocryphal books, 
 rapping mediums, and devil-worshippers generally ! " 
 Don't worship men or angels, saints or devils; for 
 whoever is willing to accept worship, save God alone, 
 to whom belongs all honor, and glory, and worship, 
 is a thief and a robber, and a devil. Whoever loses 
 his humility cannot be a servant of God ; and who- 
 ever does or says anything good, or receives anything 
 good from any source, and does not acknowledge 
 God as the author and giver, becomes a satan or a 
 devil. 
 
 Worship God in prayer and praise. Our God 
 is a prayer-hearing and a prayer- answering God. 
 Prayer moves the arm that moves the universe. See 
 James v. 17, 18 : "Elias was a man subject to like 
 passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it 
 might not rain : and it rained not on the earth by 
 the space of three years and six months. And he 
 prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth 
 brought forth her fruit." Jesus tells us how to pray, 
 in Matthew vi. 5—15: fr And when thou prayest, 
 thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are : for they love 
 to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners 
 
22 THE TEUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily 
 I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, 
 when thou pray est, enter into thy closet, and when 
 thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is 
 in secret ; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall 
 reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain 
 repetitions, as the heathen do ; for they think that 
 they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not 
 ye therefore like unto them ; for your Father knoweth 
 what things ye have need of before ye ask him. 
 After this manner therefore pray ye : Our Father 
 which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy 
 kingdom come. Thj* will be done in earth, as it is 
 in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And 
 forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And 
 lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil : 
 For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the 
 glory, forever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their 
 trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive 
 you . but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, 
 neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." 
 And our Lord gives us two forms of prayer in Luke 
 xviii. 10-14 : " Two men went up into the temple to 
 pray ; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. 
 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself: 
 God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, 
 extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this pub- 
 lican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all 
 that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, 
 would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, 
 but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 23 
 
 to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to 
 his house justified rather than the other : for every 
 one that exalteth himself shall be abased ; and he 
 that humbleth himself shall be exalted." When 
 praying to God, do not repeat words coined to be 
 heard of men. That is as anti-Christian as praying 
 out of a book ; and Henry Ward Beecher says he 
 would as quick go courting with his father's old love 
 letters, as to pray to the Lord Jesus Christ out of a 
 prayer-book. At the Christian Convention, recently 
 held in Boston, praise meetings were recommended 
 instead of prayer meetings. (See "Zion's Herald" 
 of Jan. 2, 1867.) A few words of honest, zealous 
 praise to God, is better than long, stereotyped pray- 
 ers without spirit ; but a long prayer may also be a 
 spiritual one. Read Solomon's prayer in 2 Chron. 
 vi. : " The king knelt and prayed, and God answered 
 the prayer." *See also chapter vii. Let us be hum- 
 ble, and God will take care of us and bless us. 
 
 O, the love of God ! What unspeakable love 
 Jesus bears towards all his followers, and towards 
 even the vilest sinners ! For he loved us before we 
 loved him. See Matthew xii. 49, 50: "And he 
 stretched forth his hand towards his disciples, a*nd 
 said, Behold my mother and my brethen ! For who- 
 soever shall do the will of my Father which is in 
 heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and 
 mother. Yes, glory to Jesus ! Christianity is a 
 leveller ; God is no respecter of persons. In Luke 
 i. 46, 47, 52, 53, see the words of the blessed virgin 
 herself among other things : "And Mary said, My soul 
 
24 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in 
 God my Savior. He hath put down the mighty from 
 their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath 
 filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he 
 hath sent empty away." If God ' has work to be 
 done he must of course choose instruments ; but that 
 does not make him a respecter of persons. All true 
 servants of the Lord Jesus Christ have the same in- 
 terest in him, and the same claim upon his promises, 
 as any of the prophets or apostles. None but the 
 Triune God himself is worthy of worship, or divine 
 honor and glory ; and none other can aid us when 
 we stand before Christ's judgment seat. See Jere- 
 miah xv. 1 : "Then said the Lord unto me, Though 
 Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind 
 could not be towards this people : cast them out of 
 my sight, and let them go forth." Also see Exodus 
 xxxii. 32, 33, and Ezekiel xiv. 14: "Though these 
 three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they 
 should deliver but their own souls by their righteous- 
 ness, saith the Lord God." 
 
 Did the Lord not call Peter Satan? and did he 
 not rebuke the seventy for rejoicing because the 
 devils were subject unto them? " Rejoice rather," 
 said our Lord, "that your names are written in 
 heaven." We can, afford to love our enemies and 
 suffer persecution for Christ's sake, if we may have 
 eternal bliss in heaven for our reward. The soul 
 that sinneth, it shall die ; but if you love Jesus you 
 shall never see death. 
 
 Praying to God without ceasing that these few 
 
THE PLAlft AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 25 
 
 passages of Scripture laid before you may assist to 
 lead you to the Lamb of God which taketh away 
 the sins of the world, I will close by saying the 
 second part, w T hich follows, will point out the Chris- 
 tian's duty ; for unless we abide in the ship we can- 
 not be saved ; unless we endure to the end we have 
 no promise of life, but rather the assurance that God 
 will spew us out of his mouth, and that our names 
 shall be blotted out of the Lamb's book of life. 
 Trusting you now believe, all you have to do is to 
 receive. The feast is ready, and you are invited. 
 Put on the wedding garment, so that you will not be 
 found speechless when you stand before Christ's 
 judgment seat ; and when you see the angel of 
 death approaching, you can say with Paul, 2 Tim- 
 othy iv. 7, 8, "I have fought a good fight, I have 
 finished my course, I have kept the faith : henceforth 
 there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, 
 which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me 
 at that day : and not to me only, but unto all them 
 also that love his appearing." 
 
THE 
 
 TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION; 
 
 OR, THE 
 
 PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 
 
 Part II. — "RECEIVE." 
 
 **A.nd ivhen he had said this, he breathed on 
 them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy 
 Ghost." — John xx. 22. 
 
 This was after our Lord's crucifixion and resurrec- 
 tion. This is the new birth, spoken of by our Lord 
 to Mcodemus. "This is the first resurrection;" 
 and we read, "Blessed and holy is he that hath 
 part in the first resurrection ; on such the second 
 death hath no power, but they shall be priests of 
 God and of Christ." This is Christ's baptism. This 
 is what John speaks of in Matthew : " I indeed bap- 
 tize you with water unto repentance : but he that 
 cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am 
 not worthy to bear : 'he shall baptize you with the 
 Holy Ghost and with fire." 
 
 This is what the prophets foretold (see Matthew 
 
 (26) 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 27 
 
 iii. 3, and Acts ii. 16, 17) ; and whoever experiences 
 this blessed change can see all parts of Scripture 
 pointing to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, just 
 as plain as all the roads about a large city lead to the 
 city itself. The believer knows there is a reality in 
 religion. He knows Christ's words are true. He 
 knows Christ's promises can never fail. He knows 
 where two or three are met together in the name 
 of Jesus, that he will be amongst them, and he will 
 breathe on them, and they will receive the Holy 
 Ghost. The true Christian knows all this. First, 
 believe, and then, receive, and our joys are immor- 
 tal. We shall never see death ; we shall live right 
 on through the grave; for Jesus has promised this. 
 He said to the thief on the cross, w This day shalt thou 
 be with me in Paradise." Glory to Jesus ! Praise 
 the Lord ! Bless his holy name ! Death has no 
 sting, and the grave has no victory, for the Christian. 
 
 " Jesus hath broken the bars of the tomb ; 
 Joyfully, joyfully, will we go home." 
 
 Dear reader, you believe in the promises of Jesus ; 
 you believe all he said is true ; you believe religion 
 pays in this world and in the world to come. It is 
 good to live by and good to die by, and it secures us 
 an entrance into heaven. You are born again ; you 
 believe the Bible ; our Lord tells us, if we follow 
 him we shall have a hundred fold reward in this 
 present life, and in the world to come life everlasting. 
 You believe the Lord's yoke is easy and his burden 
 is light. You believe heaven is a place of rest, 
 prepared for the people of God, and that it is a 
 
28 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 delightful place, a place of great happiness ; for that 
 is all true Bible doctrine. Paul says, in 1 Corin- 
 thians, ii. 9, "But as it is written, Eye hath not 
 seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the 
 heart of man, the things which God hath prepared 
 for them that love him." Here he refers to and 
 indorses the words of God by the prophet Isaiah, 
 lxiv. 4 : w For since the beginning of the world men 
 have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath 
 the eye seen, O God, besides thee, what he hath 
 prepared for him that waiteth for him." 
 
 You love to read the Bible, of course, and read 
 some part of the Word of God daily, and you pray 
 daily in your closet that God will help you to under- 
 stand his word. Pray without ceasing. As God is 
 our Creator, and we his creatures, of course we be- 
 long to him, and ought to obey him as a duty ; for 
 of right his own creatures belong to him, — it would 
 be too weak a comparison to say he has the same 
 right to us that we have to any property of our own 
 earning, — and of course you are willing to obey 
 God ; you are willing to keep his commandments. 
 Jesus says, " If ye love me, keep my command- 
 ments." Well, what are his commandments? Why, 
 in one sense, all the Bible ; for Jesus is the Author 
 and Finisher of the whole world ; without him was 
 not anything made that was made. He is the Word 
 that was with God and was God, and the Word be- 
 came flesh and dwelt among us. But the essence of 
 the whole will of God, the sum and substance of all 
 God's commandments, were written by the finger of 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 29 
 
 Jehovah God, himself, upon two tables of stone, and 
 given us by the hand of Moses ; and we have them 
 all in Exodus xx., as follows : — 
 
 " 1. And God spake all these words, saying : — 
 
 "2. I am the Lord thy God, which have brought 
 thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of 
 bondage. 
 
 w 3. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 
 
 " 4. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven 
 image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven 
 above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in 
 the water under the earth : 
 
 ?f 5. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor 
 serve them : for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, 
 visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children 
 unto the third and fourth generation of them that 
 hate me ; 
 
 ' r 6. And showing mercy unto thousands of them 
 that love me and keep my commandments. 
 
 " 7. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord 
 thy God in vain ; for the Lord will not hold him 
 guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 
 
 " 8. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 
 
 " 9. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work ; 
 
 " 10 . But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord 
 thy God : in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor 
 thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy 
 maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is 
 within thy gates : 
 
 "11. For in six days the Lord made heaven and 
 earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested 
 
30 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 the seventh day : wherefore the Lord blessed the sab- 
 bath day, and hallowed it. 
 
 "12. Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy 
 days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy 
 God giveth thee. 
 
 "13. Thou shalt not kill. 
 
 "14. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 
 
 "15. Thou shalt not steal. 
 
 "16. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy 
 neighbor. 
 
 "17. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, 
 thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man- 
 servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his 
 ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's." 
 
 These ten commandments are what is referred to 
 by our Savior so often. In the language of heaven 
 ten means the whole. There are but ten characters 
 in figures, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and ; all other 
 figures and numbers are made up from these ten 
 characters. The commandments are here copied and 
 versed exactly as in the Bible, but not numbered ; and 
 all Christians, even Roman Catholics, agree that here 
 are the whole ten commandments. These cannot 
 be mistaken for the law of Moses, given for the 
 hardness of the hearts of the Hebrews, for these 
 were written by God's own finger, on two tables of 
 stone ; and these two tables, if followed, believing 
 in Jesus, will surely lead us to heaven. On the first 
 table we have our whole duty to God, and on the 
 second table our whole duty to our fellow-man ; and 
 when our blessed Lord was in the flesh, and dwelling 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 31 
 
 on this earth, he was asked which was the greatest 
 of the commandments ; and he did what none but 
 God could have done — he gave the essence of the 
 whole ten in two. Here are his words, Matthew 
 xxii. 37-40 : w Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love 
 the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all 
 thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and 
 great commandment. And the second is like unto 
 it : Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On 
 these two commandments hang all the law and the 
 prophets." 
 
 Here we have the whole duty of man. Here are 
 both tables of stone — the first, love to God ; the 
 second, love to man. The words of Jesus are al- 
 ways new ; and he says of the essence of the whole 
 second table, in John xiii. 34-38, "A new com- 
 mandment I give unto you, That ye love one an- 
 other ; as I have loved you, that ye also love one 
 another. By this shall all men know that ye are my 
 disciples, if ye have love one to another. Simon 
 Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? 
 Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not 
 follow me now ; but thou shalt follow me afterwards. 
 Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee 
 now? I will lay down my life for thy sake. Jesus 
 answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my 
 sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock 
 shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice." 
 Poor, weak Peter ! Poor, weak mortal ! No won- 
 der David said to the Lord, "What is man, that 
 thou art mindful of him ? " and Paul refers to David's 
 
32 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 words, indorsing them of course. Our Lord said, 
 "There is none good but one, that is God;" and 
 without God's help, without a living, active faith in 
 Jesus, and a humble reliance upon our blessed Lord, 
 and a perfect dependence upon him, we are dead. 
 We cannot keep his commandments in our own 
 strength ; but if we go to Jesus, he says, whoever 
 cometh unto him, he will in no wise cast out. Jesus 
 says, % * Seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall 
 be opened unto you." We all have the same blessed 
 privilege which John enjoyed, to lean on Jesus's 
 breast ; and that is a foundation to lean upon that 
 death and hell can never remove. While we lean on 
 Jesus, we are safe ; but do not lean on yourself, like 
 Peter. Do not lean on any man, or saint, or angel, 
 but God alone ; for he is the only foundation. Jesus 
 is the vine, and we are the branches ; and we have 
 no life of ourselves, but it all comes from the vine ; 
 and if we abide not in him, we are dead. If we 
 remain not servants of Jesus, and if we give not to 
 him all the glory, we are dead. For our good, 
 Jesus warns us, in Luke xvii. 10, "So likewise ye, 
 when ye shall have done all those things which are 
 commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants : 
 we have done that which was our duty to do." 
 
 We must believe in Jesus, remain subject to Jesus, 
 and keep his commandments, or we are none of his. 
 In that great day when the division is made, we shall 
 receive the sentence, "Depart from me, ye workers 
 of iniquity." We shall go to the left, and not to 
 the right; we shall go with the goats, and not with 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 33 • 
 
 the sheep ; we shall be counted tares, and not 
 wheat — unless we believe on him, remain sub- 
 ject to him, and keep his commandments ; and 
 his commandments are not grievous. See John 
 xv. 10-14: "If ye keep my commandments, ye 
 shall abide in my love ; even as I have kept my 
 Father's commandments, and abide in his love. 
 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy 
 might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. 
 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, 
 as J have loved you. Greater love hath no man than 
 this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 
 Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command 
 you." And then look at John xiv. 1-7 : "Let not 
 your heart be troubled : ye believe in God, believe 
 also in me. In my Father's house are many man- 
 sions : if it were not so, I would have told you. I 
 go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and 
 prepare a place for you, I will come again, and re- 
 ceive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye 
 may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the 
 way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we 
 know not whither thou goest ; and how can we know 
 the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the 
 truth, and the life : no man cometh unto the Father, 
 but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have 
 known my Father also : and from henceforth ye know 
 him, and have seen him." Whoever sees Jesus sees 
 the Father; for Isaiah calls Jesus "the Wonderful," 
 "the Counsellor," "the Mighty God," "the Everlast- 
 ing Father," " the Prince of Peace," hundreds of years 
 3 
 
34 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 before he took upon himself a human form to conquer 
 death and hell, and save man ; and then in the same 
 chapter follows Philip's desire to see the Father ; and 
 Jesus says, "Have I been so long time with you, 
 and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that 
 hath seen me hath seen the Father," &c. But I 
 • have not space to repeat all the Bible. Read for 
 yourself, and God will lead you, if .you ask him 
 alone in your closet, in spirit and in truth. But 
 God is not mocked. Be honest with God, and 
 heaven will be your home. Fellow-Christian, in 
 the name of God, let us examine our conduct each 
 day by the ten commands, or ten words, or two ta- 
 bles, or the Decalogue ; for if we do not keep those ten 
 commands, hell is our portion. Jehovah God wrote 
 them with his own finger, and over the pearly gates 
 of heaven are written the ten commandments ; and no 
 one who breaks those commandments can ever enter 
 without repentance and forgiveness ; and all scholars 
 tell us that the word repent means change, and if we 
 ever break any one of these commandments, we must 
 change and cease to break them ; and Jesus Christ 
 has power on earth to forgive sins, and will forgive us 
 if we repent, and, believing on him, ask forgiveness. 
 Let us grow in grace, and in the knowledge of the 
 truth, and Jesus will breathe on us, and we shall be 
 baptized continually with his spirit ; and we shall so 
 grow into the love of God that it will be impossible 
 for us to break any one of his commandments. To 
 obey God must at first be done as a duty, and we 
 must begin with the fear of God ; for the wise man 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 35 
 
 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of 
 knowledge ; but as we walk on towards the city 
 of our God, duty soon becomes pleasure, and fear 
 becomes love. The cross is only to start with ; but 
 it soon becomes a crow^n. John tells us, perfect love 
 casteth out fear ; and if we follow Jesus we shall 
 soon realize the truth of his promise that we shall 
 receive one hundred-fold reward in this life, and in 
 the world to come life everlasting. But remember 
 Lot's wife ! remember how many times the Scriptures 
 speak of blotting names out of the book of life ! 
 and they could not be blotted out if they were never 
 in there. Read Ezekiel xviii. and xxxiii., and re- 
 member that unless you endure to the end, you had 
 better never have started ! Do not turn back like a 
 dog to his vomit again, or like swine to their wallow- 
 ing in the mire. 
 
 Jesus says, in Matthew xi. 21, 22, "Woe unto 
 thee, Chorazin ! woe unto thee, Bethsaida ! for if the 
 mighty works which were done in you, had been done 
 in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long 
 ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, It 
 shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day 
 of judgment than for you." O ye thieves, liars, 
 adulterers, and profane swearers, who profess to be 
 Christians, and seek admission into churches without 
 repentance ! O ye hypocrites ! your places in hell will 
 be far down below the heathen, — there are degrees in 
 hell as well as in heaven , — and Jesus says truly that 
 the harlots shall enter heaven sooner than you. If 
 God had a spare seat in heaven, and must of neces- 
 
36 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 sity go to hell for an occupant, he would take a harlot 
 or a heathen quicker than a hypocrite. Whited sep- 
 ulchres ! blind guides ! hypocrites ! how can you 
 escape the damnation of hell? Don't the Bible say, 
 without holiness no man shall see the Lord ? Luke- 
 warm Christians, read the following message of Jesus, 
 from Revelation iii. 12-16: "Him that overcometh 
 will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and 
 he shall go no more out : and I will write upon him 
 the name of my God, and the name of the city of my 
 God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down 
 out of heaven from my God : and I will write upon 
 him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him 
 hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And 
 unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write : 
 These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true 
 witness, the beginning; of the creation of God : I 
 know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot : 
 I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou 
 art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew 
 thee out of my mouth." 
 
 Wake up, ye lukewarm Christian, and blow the 
 trumpet as God commands in Ezekiel xxxiii. Don't 
 be afraid to cry aloud and shout in meeting, " Glory 
 to God ! Amen ! " Don't be ashamed of Jesus. 
 Put on the wedding garment, or you will be speech- 
 less in the day of judgment. Look at Revelation 
 vii. 9-12: "After this I beheld, and, lo, a great 
 multitude, which' no man could number, of all na- 
 tions, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood 
 before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 37 
 
 white robes, and palms in their hands ; and cried 
 with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God 
 which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. 
 Arid all the angels stood round about the throne, and 
 about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before 
 the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, say- 
 ing, Amen : Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and 
 thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be 
 unto our God forever and ever. Amen." 
 
 Remember you read in Job xxxviii., that when the 
 world was made all the sons of God shouted for joy. 
 When Christ made his triumphant entry into Jerusa- 
 lem they praised God with a loud voice. See Luke 
 xix. 37—40: "And when he was come nigh, even 
 now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole 
 multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise 
 God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that 
 they had seen ; saying, Blessed be the King that Com- 
 eth in the name of the Lord : peace in heaven, and 
 glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees 
 from among the multitude said unto him, Master, 
 rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said 
 unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their 
 peace, the stones would immediately cry out." 
 
 Did not shouting bring down the walls of Jericho ? 
 I tell you, when Christians shout, hell trembles. 
 Good old-fashioned Methodist shouting does our 
 souls good, and helps to lead us away from tempta- 
 tion, and out of evil ; but we must remember to 
 keep God's commandments, for only thus can w^e 
 praise him in spirit and in truth. Let us not neg- 
 
38 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 lect the spirit while we attend to the letter. Jesus 
 says, " These ought ye to have done, and not to leave 
 the others undone." 
 
 See the words of Jesus as recorded in Matthew vii. 
 21—28 : " Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, 
 Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but 
 he that doeth the will of my Father which is in 
 heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, 
 Lord, have w T e not prophesied in thy name? and in 
 thy name have cast out devils ? and in thy name done 
 many wonderful works? And then will I profess 
 unto them, I never knew you : depart from me, ye 
 that work iniquity. Therefore whosoever heareth 
 these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken 
 him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a 
 rock : and the rain descended, and the floods came, 
 and the winds blew, and beat upon that house ; and 
 it fell not : for it was founded upon a rock. And 
 every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and 
 doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, 
 which built his house upon the sand : and the ram 
 descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, 
 and beat upon that house ; and it fell : and great was 
 the fall of it. And it came to pass, when Jesus had 
 ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his 
 doctrine." 
 
 Jesus is the Rock of Ages on which we all must 
 build, for there is no other name under heaven where- 
 by men can be saved. In him dwelleth all the fulness 
 of the Godhead bodily. He is the beginning and 
 the end, the first and the last. Jesus says, Before 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 39 
 
 Abraham was, I am. Don't we read in John i. that 
 the Word which was made flesh, and dwelt among 
 us, created all things, and without him was not any- 
 thing made that was made ? 
 
 Jesus led Israel out of bondage. See what he 
 said to Moses : " And God said unto Moses, I AM 
 THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say 
 unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto 
 you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus 
 shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord 
 God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God 
 of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto 
 you : this is my name forever, and this is my memo- 
 rial unto all generations. And God spake unto 
 Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord : and I 
 appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, 
 by the name of God Almighty ; but by my name 
 JEHOVAH was I not known to them." 
 
 In Isaiah ix. 6 we read the different names of our 
 Lord : the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Mighty 
 God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. 
 And all these names and titles, and everything that 
 is good, everything that ever was good, and every- 
 thing that ever will be good, is all concentrated into 
 one word — JESUS. Bless his holy name! He 
 has all power in heaven and in earth ; and don't it 
 pay to obey his commandments, and to follow him, 
 and to try to be like him, and to worship him, and 
 to say with Thomas, "My Lord and my God"? 
 
 John says, in his first epistle, ii. 3-6, w And hereby 
 we do know that we know him, if we keep his com- 
 
40 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 mandments. He that saith, I know him, and keep- 
 eth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is 
 not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him 
 verily is the love of God perfected : hereby know we 
 that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him 
 ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." 
 
 It is evident no man in his own strength can keep 
 the ten commandments, or the decalogue. We must 
 believe in Jesus, and be baptized of the Holy Ghost. 
 Jesus must breathe on us, and open our spiritual 
 understanding for us before we can see the beauty, 
 the spirit, and the life of the ten commandments ; 
 but if we will ask him, he will surely do these things 
 for us. But no Unitarian can receive the baptism 
 of Jesus. I vainly attempted to seek the new birth 
 eighteen years ago. I was a Unitarian. But God 
 had prospered me beyond my expectations in material 
 things, and I, a poor vile worm of the dust, thought 
 I could pay him by accepting eternal salvation. So 
 I went to Congregational meetings, and to Methodist 
 meetings, and arose for prayers, and told them I 
 wanted to be a Christian ; but I still clung to the 
 Unitarian delusion that Jesus Christ was not equal 
 with God, and that the Bible was not a book of ple- 
 nary inspiration. I suffered terribly. God in Heaven 
 only knows my agony. I was convicted of sin, but 
 could not see my total depravity. I had miraculous 
 warnings ; the stones almost cried out to me to follow 
 the Lord Jesus. I went about mourning, but I re- 
 ceived no evidence. For months I desired death ; and 
 I even attempted to take my own life ; but God spared 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 41 
 
 me, even as he spared Jonah. I was redeemed like 
 a brand plucked from the burning, or a piece of an 
 ear from a lion's mouth. Why did I suffer all this? 
 I can see now. I did not take the first step towards 
 regeneration. I did not believe on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. That Unitarian demon still held me in its 
 hellish grasp. I still thought Jesus was only a good 
 man ; I did not believe he was God ; and I groped 
 in worse than Egyptian darkness. I turned my back 
 upon the Light of the world. I sought to enter in 
 at some other door ; and I did not see myself a thief 
 and a robber, in common with other Unitarians : and 
 while in this condition I met Laroy Sunderland, an 
 apostate Methodist minister, and he told me a change 
 of heart was a humbug, and that there was no reality 
 in experimental religion ; then I met J. S. Loveland, 
 another apostate Methodist minister, who confirmed 
 what Sunderland had told me. And the Unitarian 
 demon took with him seven other spirits more wicked 
 than himself, and I became not only a disbeliever in 
 the Lord and the Bible, but a "modern spiritualist;" 
 and I accepted the "all right" doctrine. I became 
 a fatalist, and my favorite authors were Thomas 
 Paine and Theodore Parker — those twin T. P.'s of 
 the devil. But Voltaire was my man of sound doc- 
 trine ; for I believed whoever accepted Theodore 
 Parker, and his elder brother Thomas Paine, would 
 accept their superior, Voltaire. I considered Parker 
 only a stepping-stone to fatality and the all right " 
 doctrine, so I attended his church, bought all his 
 books, and thought him a prophet ; and a prophet he 
 
42 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 was, but a prophet of lies, a blasphemer, and a false 
 prophet, who, like Judas, has gone to his own place. 
 Jesus says, in John iii. 12, "If I have told you 
 earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye be- 
 lieve if I tell you of heavenly things?" Let us 
 examine Theodore Parker as a prophet. In his dis- 
 course, which he claimed was occasioned by the death 
 of Daniel Webster, delivered October 31, 1852, how 
 the foolish ass kicked the dead lion ! On page 223, 
 in his "Additional Speeches," he says, after quoting 
 Webster, "Do you think he believed that? Daniel 
 Webster knew better." And on page 228, Parker 
 says, "There was not any danger of a storm; not a 
 single capful of bad weather between Cape Sable and 
 the Lake of the Woods." Daniel Webster had said 
 a civil war was brewing, and that the Union was in 
 danger ; but Theodore Parker insulted the dead states- 
 man by accusing him of bidding for the presidency, 
 and telling what he knew to be false. A few short 
 years have proved Webster the true prophet, and 
 Parker the prophet of lies. In Weiss' Life of The- 
 odore Parker, page 77, vol. i., a letter is printed 
 styling T. Parker a little more refined than T. Paine, 
 but advocating the same doctrine. Page 287 says 
 he was very fond of bears, and calls his wife "the 
 great original bear." Now Emanuel Swedenborg 
 tells us, in No. 573 of the "Apocalypse Revealed," 
 that bear, in the Bible, has reference to those who 
 read the Word of God and do not understand it — 
 that it is a correspondence of fallacies. On page 
 250 of vol. ii., samples of prayers at Park Street 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 43 
 
 Church are given, where Christians prayed for the 
 death of Parker. Well, the prayers were answered, 
 and where is T. Parker now? The modern spiritu- 
 alists say he spends much of his time in the company 
 of T. Paine, and other kindred anti-Christ spirits, at 
 the " Banner of Light Office ; " and if there is any 
 truth in the so-called " new philosophy " this may be 
 true, for the " Banner of Light" abounds in "Parker 
 philosophy." I have heard Theodore Parker say, in 
 Music Hall, that he could not help fearing the devil, 
 though he knew there was no such a beino;. And 
 since my conversion I often shudder at the blasphe- 
 mies I have heard that man utter against our Lord 
 and Savior Jesus Christ ; and it is just so with the 
 "Banner of Light." I have ^ before me a copy of 
 that paper, dated November 4, 1865, in which the 
 spirits purport to say Jesus Christ and the devil are one 
 and the same individual. The spirit answer reads, 
 " We believe the two are one ; " and after stating that 
 the devil spoke through Jesus, they say, "We affirm 
 again, we have seen both." — -"We know something 
 of this devil, something of this Christ." This is the 
 spirit of Parkerism distilled, and given for truth by 
 the spirits of the damned through the "Banner of 
 Light." See 1 John iv. 1-3 : "Beloved, believe not 
 every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of 
 God : because many false prophets are gone out into 
 the world. Hereby know ye the spirit of God : 
 Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come 
 in the flesh is of God ; and every spirit that confess- 
 eth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not 
 
44 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 of God." W. M'Donald's Spiritualism, published 
 by the Methodist Society, contains many good warn- 
 ings, but the Bible contains the best warnings of all. 
 See 1 Timothy iv. 1 : " Now the Spirit speaketh ex- 
 pressly, that in the latter times some shall depart 
 from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and 
 doctrines of devils." And whoever disputes the 
 Deity of Jesus, or the plenary inspiration of the 
 Bible, is an agent of hell, whether he be called T. 
 Parker, an angel from heaven, or the devil himself. 
 See Galatians i. 8: "But though we, or an angel 
 from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than 
 that which we have preached unto you, let him be 
 accursed." The words of Acts xiii. 8-10 apply 
 equally to Unitarian mortals and Unitarian spirits 
 and their mediums, the sorcerers of the present day : 
 " But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by inter- 
 pretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the 
 deputy from the faith. Then Saul (who also is called 
 Paul), filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on 
 him, and said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, 
 thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteous- 
 ness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways 
 of the Lord ? " These passages of Scripture at the 
 close of brother M'Donald's book are perfectly appli- 
 cable : w Let not thine heart incline to their ways ; 
 go not astray in their paths. Their house is the way 
 to hell, going down to the chambers of death. The 
 dead are there, and their guests are in the depths of 
 hell." These doctrines kept me in the valley of the 
 shadow of death for sixteen years, but while hunger- 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 45 
 
 ing and thirsting after righteousness, on Sunday 
 morning, April 23, 1865, about sunrise, I was 
 standing alone on Boston Common, and the Lord 
 Jesus Christ breathed on me ; and I have never since 
 doubted the Deity of my Redeemer. If a whirlwind 
 had taken me a mile into the air and landed me back 
 safely on the same spot, it would have been no better 
 evidence to me. I know I am born of God, and 
 have been growing in grace from that moment. I 
 hated my sins from that moment, and my conversion 
 consisted in believing in the Deity of Christ and the 
 surety of all his promises ; and since then I have 
 loved what I before hated, and I have hated what I 
 before loved ; for I had rolled sin like a sweet morsel 
 under my tongue ; I had loved myself and the world 
 supremely, but now I love God supremely, and my 
 neighbor as myself. Perhaps there are no two con- 
 versions exactly alike. Doubtless many persons, 
 who are not as selfish and wdcked as I was, may be 
 converted without knowing the exact time of the new 
 birth, — they may have first the blade, then the ear, 
 and then the full ripe corn, — but desperate diseases 
 require desperate remedies, and where sin abounds 
 there grace much more abounds. Old, hardened 
 sinners, such as I was, must have sudden changes. 
 We who have passed from death unto life must love 
 the brethren, and love our enemies, and love and pity 
 the Lord's enemies, for he said, on the cross, "Father, 
 forgive them, for they know not what they do ; " but 
 it is wrong to discuss the nature of the Trinity with 
 Unitarians; it is casting pearls before swine, and 
 
46 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 Scripture forbids that ; and Paul says, in Titus iii. 10, 
 " A man that is an heretic, after the first and second 
 admonitions, reject." Daniel Webster's reply is the 
 best that can be made (see page 17), but I have 
 heard scoffers confused by saying, "Any Christian 
 man who supports aged parents is a dutiful son, 
 and if he has a wife he is an affectionate husband, 
 and if he has a family of children he is a kind father ; 
 but still he is only one man." There is a trinity that 
 any person can understand, — son, husband, and 
 father, all in one ! Glory to Jesus ! Whoever be- 
 lieves in his Deity, and in the plenary inspiration of 
 the Bible, and keeps the commandments, is sure of 
 heaven. Any true Christian would rather be an 
 instrument in the hands of God for converting one 
 sinner than to own the whole world, for his trust is 
 in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he rejoices that his 
 name is written in heaven ; but it is vain to trust in 
 Jesus without believing in him. If he was not God, 
 he was not good. If he was not Deity, he was the 
 direct opposite to everything good. Jesus says this 
 himself in Matthew xix. 16-22 : "And, behold, one 
 came and said unto him, Good Master, what good 
 thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And 
 he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there 
 is none good but one, that is God : but if thou wilt 
 enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith 
 unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no 
 murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt 
 not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honor 
 thy father and thy mother : and, Thou shalt love thy 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 47 
 
 neighbor as thyself. The young man saith unto him, 
 All these things have I kept from my youth up : 
 what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt 
 be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to 
 the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven : 
 and come and follow me. But when the young man 
 heard that saying, he went away sorrowful : for he 
 had great possessions." 
 
 Here you see how deceitful the human heart is, 
 and desperately wicked. That young man broke the 
 first of the ten commandments. He had another 
 god besides his Creator.' He had an idol. He loved 
 his possessions better than he loved God. Here you 
 see Jesus referred to the second table first, that is to 
 say, to our duty to our brother man ; and the young 
 man thought he kept all the commandments ; but 
 when our Lord referred to the first table, or our duty 
 to God, the young man went away sorrowful. The 
 fact is, he broke all the commandments in spirit, and 
 none but a truly converted follower of Jesus can keep 
 any command of God as it should be kept, in spirit 
 and in truth. Remember how great a Savior we 
 have ! by whom the worlds were made ; and his 
 promises can never fail. Remember the Scriptures 
 tell us that faith without works is dead, and that devils 
 believe and tremble. Jesus came not to destroy the 
 law or the prophets. He came to offer salvation to 
 every creature. God is love, saith Scripture. 
 Jesus wept, saith Scripture. He wept over Jerusa- 
 lem, at his triumphant entry. We read, " And when 
 he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over 
 
48 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 it." O, the blessed Jesus is grieved at our sins ! 
 He died to save us. Reader, do you love Jesus? 
 Then fear to grieve him. If you loved a child, or a 
 parent, or a companion, you would not wish to grieve 
 them. Keep the commandments. Examine your 
 conduct each day by the decalogue. It is comfort- 
 ing to breathe a secret prayer daily somewhat like 
 the following : — 
 
 O, our blessed Creator and Savior ! Help us to 
 keep thy commandments, and to have no 'other gods 
 but thee, and to have no regard for idols. Help us 
 to use no profane or idle words. Help us to keep 
 thy Sabbaths as shall be pleasing in thy sight. Help 
 us to respect our parents and superiors, and the aged 
 and wise, while we live. Help us to never murder. 
 Help us to never commit adultery. Help us to never 
 steal. Help us to never lie or deceive. Help us to 
 never covet the property of others. Help us to love 
 thee with our whole heart, mind, and soul, and our 
 neighbors as ourselves. And thine shall be the praise 
 forever and ever. Amen. 
 
 Be pure, be holy. Eead Revelation xxii. 14, 15 : 
 ff Blessed are they that do his commandments, that 
 they may have right to the tree of life, and may 
 enter in through the gates into the city. For with- 
 out are dogs, and sorcerers, and w r horemongers, and 
 murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and 
 maketh a lie." Remember James says, "And if 
 the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the 
 ungodly and the sinner appear ? " 
 
 The Bible nowhere promises a reward for keeping 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 49 
 
 the commandments. But, w In keeping them there 
 is great reward." (Psalms xix. 11.) "Behold, the 
 kingdom of God is within you." (Luke xvii. 21.) 
 Jesus says, "Every plant which my heavenly Father 
 hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them 
 alone," &c. (Matthew xv. 13, 14.) " Fret not thy- 
 self because of evil-doers." (Psalms xxxvii. 1.) 
 " Vengeance is mine ; I will repay, saith the 
 Lord." (Romans xii. 20.) "Overcome evil with 
 good." (xii. 21.) 
 
 True Christians will never punish wicked persons 
 unless they can feel God requires it. We must love 
 our enemies, and if we feel it a duty to punish them, 
 do it in the fear of God, for their own good. We 
 must do by wicked men just as we would be done by 
 if we ourselves were as wicked, and remember God 
 loved us before we loved him. If a person steals our 
 goods, we must correct him in such a way, if possible, 
 as will reform him ; but we must do it for God's sake, 
 and our neighbor's sake, and not for our own private 
 revenge. But, says the sinner, "God is love." 
 (1 John iv. 8, 16.) Yes, we reply. Again, says 
 the sinner, "The Lord doth not afflict willingly, nor 
 grieve the children of men." (Lamentations iii. 33.) 
 "The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but 
 that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter iii. 9.) 
 Jesus Christ is the sinner's friend, — "the same yes- 
 terday, and to-day, and forever." (Hebrews xiii. 8.) 
 And, continues the sinner, he is unchangeable, for 
 James tells us (i. 17), with him is "no variable- 
 4 
 
50 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 ness or shadow of turning ; " consequently, after 
 death, he will make us all happy. 
 
 O, poor deluded sinner ! Life is the time to serve 
 the Lord, for over the gates of heaven are written 
 the ten commandments, and he that is filthy let him 
 be filthy still ; and you will call for the rocks and 
 mountains to fall upon you and hide you from the 
 presence of the Lamb of God, who was slain for 
 the sins of the world. You will be unable to stand 
 God's presence, and the light of his lovely counte- 
 nance will be to you worse than the light of the 
 sun of the natural world to the owls and bats, which 
 love darkness rather than light. Then you will 
 thank God you have a hell to flee to, for you will 
 not be clothed with a garment of righteousness. 
 Jesus has prepared one for you, but you refused to 
 put it on, and you will be speechless. God will 
 make you in hell as comfortable as he can, consis- 
 tent with the safety and comfort of his other chil- 
 dren ; but a division must be made, and you must 
 be counted tares, and not wheat. You must go to 
 the left with the goats, and not with the sheep. You 
 must spend eternity with the condemned. You have 
 had your choice, and have chosen for your father the 
 devil, for his works you have done all your life — 
 and your works must follow you ; that is, in accord- 
 ance with God's laws, which never change. " For 
 the Son of man shall come in the glory of his 
 Father, with his angels ; and then he shall reward 
 every man according to his works." (Matthew xvi. 
 27.) r And shall come forth; they that have done 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 51 
 
 good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they that 
 have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." 
 (John v. 29.) "For we must all appear before the 
 judgment-seat of Christ ; that every one may receive 
 the things done in his body, according to that he hath 
 done, whether it be good or bad." (2 Corinthians v. 
 10.) " And the dead were judged out of those things 
 which were written in the books according to their 
 works." (Revelation xx. 12.) Numerous other sim- 
 ilar passages we omit for want of space. 
 
 Read the first chapter of Isaiah and the seventh 
 chapter of Jeremiah, and see that professions will 
 not save us unless we bring forth fruits meet for re- 
 pentance. God justifies not the hearer, but the doer, 
 of the law. (Romans ii. 13.) To obey is better than 
 sacrifice. (Samuel xv. 22.) We all have a duty to 
 perform ; we must obey God's commandments. Sins 
 of omission may send us to hell as well as sins of 
 commission. See Matthew xxv. : When Jesus shall 
 separate the nations like sheep and goats, the goats 
 go to the left, not for doing wrong, but .for neglect- 
 ins: to do right. I once heard an eminent Methodist 
 preacher say in a sermon, "Jesus is our Savior. He 
 saves us from our sins, and if we do not forsake 
 them, and hate them, and commit them no more, we 
 are not truly converted, for if we do not leave our 
 sins we are not saved from them." 
 
 I will close with Ecclesiastes xii. 12-14: "And 
 further, by these, my son, be admonished : of mak- 
 ing many books there is no end ; and much study is 
 a weariness of the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion 
 
52 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his com- 
 mandments : for this is the whole duty of man. For 
 God shall bring every work into judgment, with 
 every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it 
 be evil." 
 
 Dear reader, may we meet in heaven. And to the 
 Triune God be all the praise, and honor, and glory, 
 forever and ever. Amen. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 Note A, 
 (See page 16.) 
 
 Much has "been written and said upon the subject of election, or fore- 
 ordination ; but I never yet found a person who claimed that this doctrine 
 ever caused a conversion or led to one. Why, then, is it preached ? Some 
 answer, " Because it is in the Bible." But the most learned and pious men 
 that ever lived, say there is no such doctrine in the Bible, from Genesis to 
 Rev ^tion; and they refer you, for a clear refutation of this troublesome 
 dogma, to the 18th and 33d chapters of Ezekiel, and such texts as the follow- 
 ing:— 
 
 " And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it 
 grieved Him at His heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man, whom I 
 have created, from the face of the earth ; both man and beast, and the creep- 
 ing thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made ' 
 them." (Genesis vi. 6, 7.) 
 
 " The Lord is good to all." (Psalms cxlv. 9.) 
 
 "At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a 
 kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it. " If that nation 
 against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the 
 evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak con- 
 cerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it. "If 
 it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the 
 good wherewith I said I would benefit them." (Jeremiah xviii. 7-10.) 
 
 " They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire 
 for burnt-offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, 
 neither came it into my mind." (Jeremiah xix. 5.) 
 
 " For the Lord will not cast off forever. But though he cause grief, yet 
 will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he 
 doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." (Lamentations 
 iii. 31-33.) 
 
 " For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." 
 (Matthew ix. 13.) 
 
 " God is no respecter of persons." (Acts ix. 34.) 
 
 " The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come 
 to repentance." (2 Peter iii. 9.) 
 
 " God is love." (1 John iv. 8-16.) 
 
54 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 One Christian minister, who is a successful evangelist, told me he found 
 this doctrine of election a greater hindrance to the conversion of sinners 
 than both Universalism and infidelity together. Very few Christians doubt 
 but what God foreknew everything from the foundation of the world; but 
 the difference between foreknowledge and predestination is clearly shown 
 by Emanuel Swedenborg in his " Heavenly Arcana," numbers 6488 and 6489. 
 He says, while in one of his trances and he was in the spirit world, talking 
 with the souls of the departed, "there was discourse concerning predestina- 
 tion, and many of the spirits, from principles imbibed in the world, were in 
 the opinion that some are predestinated to heaven, and some to hell; but I 
 heard a reply from heaven, that in no case is any one predestinated to hell, 
 but that all are predestinated to life eternal. * * * For evils are foreseen, 
 and goods are provided ; and the evils which are foreseen, by the provident 
 arrangement of the Lord, are continually bended towards good, for the 
 divine end to good universally reigns : hence neither is anything permitted 
 except for the end, that thence some good may come forth ; but whereas man 
 has freedom, in order that he may be reformed, he is bended from evil to 
 good so far as he suffers himself to be bended in freedom, and continually 
 from the most grievous hell, into which he labors by every endeavor to plunge 
 himself, into a milder, if he cannot be led to heaven." We are taught by 
 Swedenborg that man is created by God a reasonable, accountable being, 
 and given freedom ; which freedom God preserves to all eternity, and pro- 
 vides hell for the wicked with just as perfect love as He provides darkness 
 for owls and bats and filthy food for ravens and ravenous beasts. Few 
 Christians can be found in any church at the present day who really believe 
 in the old-fashioned Jewish doctrine of election. (See 16th chapter of Rev. 
 Henry Ward Beecher's "Norwood.") How pharisaic and selfish for any man 
 to think God provided him a mansion before the foundation of the world, 
 and left the great mass of just as good human beings unprovided for, or what 
 is still worse, provided with eternal torture. What a blasphemous libel upon 
 the God of Love — for "God is Love." "Thy Maker is thy husband," 
 says our Lord by the mouth of His prophet Isaiah. Said the angel to John, 
 in Revelation xxi. 9: " Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the lamb's 
 wife." Whoever is truly regenerated loves God with the whole heart and 
 soul and mind, and his neighbor as himself, and is conjoined to Christ in 
 heavenly marriage, as the branch to the vine ; and no earthly being ever loved 
 a partner with so pure, so ardent, and so constant a love, as the truly regen- 
 erated, sanctified Christian continually loves the Lord Jesue Christ, who is 
 no respecter of persons, but who will make all souls as comfortable as their 
 natures will admit, to all eternity. Some think they find this doctrine of a 
 partial God in Paul's epistles, but they must remember that those epistles 
 were written to those self- righteous, egotistic and very wicked nations, the 
 Romans, Greeks and Hebrews, who believed themselves to be the elect 
 nations, or the especial favorites of Heaven; but their subsequent history 
 proves that God is no respecter of persons or of nations. Peter says (2 
 Peter iii. 15, 16) that these epistles are " hard to be understood"; " for Paul 
 was so earnest to convert those nations, that he catered to their prejudices 
 and became " all thi^js to all men." But he says he sometimes spoke '' not 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY KOAD TO HEAVEN. 00 
 
 after the Lord," and he sometimes apologized for his mistakes. Christian 
 ministers ought to preach Jesus instead of Paul, for Jesus never made a 
 mistake. (See Swedenborg's " True Christian Religion.") 
 
 Note B. 
 
 (See page 19.) 
 
 I am often asked why I joined the Methodist Church, as I am a reader and 
 admirer of the writings of Swedenborg ; and his views first led me to " believe 
 on the Lord Jesus Christ." After my conversion, I felt a strong desire to 
 partake of the Lord's Supper; and I became acquainted with a Methodist 
 minister, who is truly a follower of John "Wesley ; and he baptized me, and 
 received me into the Methodist church. He told me I had a right to my 
 peculiar views, for no two persons agree in all their ideas. People differ, 
 and have a right to differ. " But," said he, " if you believe man is by nature 
 in a lost state, and needs a Saviour, — that the life, sufferings, death and 
 resurrection of the Saviour were necessary for your salvation, — in other 
 words, that Jesus bled and died for you, and you think you have already been 
 breathed upon by Him, — that you have had a baptism of the Holy Spirit, — 
 all you need to do is to conform to the customs of the church, receive the 
 external baptism, unite with the church ; and then grow in grace, and go up 
 higher and higher, until you are sanctified or thoroughly regenerated, and 
 get, even in this world, so thoroughly grafted into the Living Vine, that the 
 devil will have no further power or control over you." Now let us look at 
 the liberal views of John Wesley, and see how perfectly they agree with the 
 above : We read in Stevens's " History of Methodism," Vol. I, page 245, the 
 following, in Wesley's own language : 
 
 " The Methodists are in nowise bigoted to opinions. I will not quarrel 
 with you about any opinion. Only see that your heart be right towards God, 
 that you know and love the Lord Jesus Christ; that you love your neighbor, 
 and walk as your Master walked, and I desire no more. I am sick of opin- 
 ions, I am weary to hear them. My soul loathes this frothy food. Give me 
 solid and substantial religion ; give me an humble, gentle lover of God and 
 man, a man full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without 
 hypocrisy; a man laying himself out in the work of faith, the patience of 
 hope, the labor of love. Let my soul be with these Christians wheresoever 
 they are, and whatsoever opinion they are of. ' Whosoever [thus] doeth the 
 will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, 
 and mother.' " 
 
 And in Vol. II, page 387 : " One circumstance more is quite peculiar to the 
 people called Methodists; that is, the terms upon which any person maybe 
 admitted into their society. They do not impose, in order to their admission, 
 any opinions whatever. Let them hold particular or general redemption, 
 absolute or conditional decrees. They think, and let think. One condition, 
 and one only, is required — a real desire to save their souls. Where this is, 
 it is enough : they desire no more ; they lay stress upon nothing else ; they 
 ask only, ' Is thy heart herein as my heart ? if it be, give mjg thy hand.' " 
 
56 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR 
 
 On pages 388 and 389 of same volume, Mr. Stevens quotes what John Wesley 
 said when he was eighty-six years old, and says : " His only restriction on 
 opinions in his societies was, that they should not be obtruded for discussion 
 or wrangling in their devotional meetings ; not the creed of a man, but his 
 moral conduct respecting it, was a question of discipline with primitive 
 Methodism. The possible results of such liberality were once discussed in 
 the Conference. Wesley conclusively determined the debate by remarking : 
 { I have no more right to object to a man for holding a different opinion from 
 me, than I have to differ with a man because he wears a wig and I wear my 
 own hair; but if he takes his wig off, and begins to shake the powder about 
 my eyes, I shall consider it my duty to get quit of him as soon as possible.' " 
 
 John "Wesley had errors, of course. He believed in the immortality of 
 the souls of animals, and some other things not accepted by Methodists of 
 the present day. He never saw Swedenborg during his life, and it is said 
 that he believed the false report, circulated by wicked men, that the great 
 author was insane ; but that same class of people told just such falsehoods 
 about the Lord of Glory himself, and accused the early Christians at the day 
 of Pentecost of being drunken. That same class of people called Wesley 
 himself an insane man, and they call the Methodists of to-day a crazy set; 
 but that amounts to nothing. The most eminent Methodists now living, both 
 among the clergy and laity, accept Swedenborg's explanation of the Scrip- 
 tures; and I have the best of living proof that Francis Asbury, while our 
 first bishop, said there was nothing in the writings of Swedenborg to conflict 
 with the teachings of Methodism. The most successful preachers, in all the 
 different denominations at the present day, get their new and startling ideas 
 from Swedenborg. When Rev. Newman Hall, from London, said in Dr. 
 Kirk's church, not long since, that God would give to every soul in the future 
 world as good a place as that soul was fitted to occupy, he only quoted what 
 Swedenborg wrote more than one hundred years ago. 
 
 The following, from Dr. Guthrie, went the rounds of the religious press 
 of America, a year or two ago, and attracted no small share of wondrous 
 admiration : " They say I am growing old, because my hair is silvered, and 
 there are crow's-feet upon my forehead, and my step is not so firm and 
 elastic as of yore. But they are mistaken. That is not me. The knees are 
 weak, but the knees are not me. The eyes are dim, but the eyes are not me. 
 The brow is wrinkled, but the brow is not me. Tins is the house in which I 
 live. But I am young — younger now than I ever was before." 
 
 The following is from Swedenborg: "They who are in heaven are con- 
 tinually advancing towards the spring of life; and the more thousands of 
 years ttiey live, so much the more delightful and happy is the spring to which 
 they attain, and this to eternity, with increase according to their progress in 
 love, charity, and faith. Of the female sex, they who have died old and 
 worn out with age, and yet have lived in faith in the Lord, in charity towards 
 their neighbor, and in happy conjugal love with a husband, after a succes- 
 sion of years come more and more into the flower of youth, and into a beauty 
 which exceeds every idea of beauty anywhere perceptible to the sight of the 
 material eye. Goodness and charity is what forms and makes a resemblance 
 of itself, causing the delight and beauty of charity to shine forth from every 
 
THE PLAIN AND EASY ROAD TO HEAVEN. 57 
 
 part of the face, so that they themselves are forms of charity. The form of 
 charity, which is seen to the life in heaven, is such, that charity itself is -what 
 is effigied, and this in such a manner, that the whole angel , especially the 
 face, is as it were, charity, which manifestly appears and is perceived; which 
 form, when it is viewed, is ineffable beauty, affecting with charity the very 
 inmost life of the mind. In a word, to grow old In heaven is to grow young; 
 they who have lived in love to the Lord and in charity towards the neighbor, 
 become such forms of such beauties in the other life." 
 
 Swedenborg's mission was not to add anything to the "VTord of God, but 
 to explain its internal meaning. He tells us that every chapter, verse, and 
 word has thousands of internal meanings, that will be the study of angels 
 to all eternity ; and none but God alonp will ever perfectly understand the 
 whole of the Bible. Yet enough of it is so plain, " that the way-faring man, 
 though a fool, need not err therein." 
 
 Swedenborg never established an external church. He lived and died a 
 member of the Lutheran church. He tells us that whoever does as well as 
 he knows how, does well enough ; and that all innocent people, from all 
 churches and all countries,, go to heaven, while the vast amount of church- 
 members, of all denominations, who live lives of hypocrisy, and do not keep 
 God's Ten Commandments, go to the deepest hell — far below harlots and 
 heathens. God, not man, is the Final Judge, and He will surely give to every 
 Boul as good a place as that 6oui is fitted to occupy. 
 
 Note C. 
 (See page 23.) 
 
 In quoting this remark of Mr. Beecher, I did not mean to assert that a 
 liturgy for the Methodist, or the Episcopal, or any other church, was posi- 
 tively sinful, or even of necessity objectionable ; but that while attending to 
 the letter, we ought not to neglect the spirit. 
 
 Perhaps there may be neither merit nor demerit in repeating prayers ; but 
 our Heavenly Father wants our love. To love Him with our whole heart 
 and soul and mind, and our neighbor as ourself, is the all of religion. God 
 is love itself and goodness itself; and He has created us to love Him, and 
 to be loved of Him. But if we reject His love and refuse to love Him (which 
 He gives every human being freedom to do), even then, to all eternity, He 
 will make us as comfortable as He can without destroying our freedom. 
 All praise, and honor, and glory to the God of love ! I have heard minis- 
 ters pray, who would have improved greatly by confining themselves to a 
 prayer-book. The following is a case in Mr. Beecher's own denomination, 
 which Zion's Herald, of Dec. 19th, 1867, quotes from the " Congregation- 
 alist " : " "We could tell a good story of a clergyman, who, in spite of * * * * 
 a jerk at his coat-tail from a brother behind him, prayed fifty minutes at the 
 funeral of another minister, and the next day was surprised to find that he 
 had occupied more than a quarter of that time. At a united Thanksgiving 
 service, in this city, not many years since, a prayer of forty minutes preceded 
 a sermon by another minister, that occupied but thirty-five minutes. Many 
 
58 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 prayers at our Sabbath services are too long, as those who make them will 
 readily see, if they will but note the time at the beginning and then at its 
 close. One of the wisest and most venerable pastors in Massachusetts 
 expresses the opinion that eight minutes is long enough for this service. The 
 gifc of brevity is one that clergymen cannot afford to despise." A liturgy 
 would obviate all this difficulty, but, perhaps, it might be still better to repeat 
 the Lord's Prayer only. All Christians should repeat daily the Ten Com- 
 mandments and the Lord's Prayer. This may be done mentally, while engaged 
 in labor, or in the closet, or at the family altar ; and if it be truly a heart ser- 
 vice, great will be the benefit sure to follow. 
 
 " G-od is a spirit : and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit 
 and in truth." " G-od is not mocked." Not lip service, but, in the language 
 of Bishop Heber, " The heart's adoration " is what pleases (< our Father who 
 art in the Heavens." 
 
 Note D. 
 
 When Unitarians are spoken of in this work, reference is had to those who 
 deny the deity of Christ; but the best Christians now living are Unitarians, in 
 the following sense : They believe Jesus is God manifest in the flesh, that is 
 to say, that He is the body or the telbple of The One only and True God, 
 united like the soul and body of a man. Also, the Universalists spoken of in 
 this work, are those who believe all will be equally happy immediately after 
 death ; but those persons who believe in degrees of happiness in the future 
 world, and that God will give to every soul as good a place as that soul is 
 fitted to occupy, are among the " salt of the earth ; " and John Wesley 
 admitted such Unitarians and Universalists into the primitive Methodist 
 churches. 
 
 Henry Ward Beecher says no person ought to be blamed for his honest 
 religious belief. And if this great truth were recognized by all professors of 
 religion, there would be less hypocrisy and more true Christianity in the 
 world. I have before me a very interesting account of the prosperity of a 
 church in New England, which is composed of Baptists, Congregationalists, 
 Swedenborgians, Methodists, Episcopalians, &c. God is no respecter of 
 persons. No soul was ever forced into heaven by miracles or lost for want 
 of proper evidence ; but some have more warnings and evidences and more 
 wonderful conversions than others ; but with all these advantages goes the 
 additional accountability to G-od. Pharaoh saw miracles, but his heart was 
 hardened to balance. The Jews saw miracles in the days of our Savior, but 
 they were addressed in parables to balance ; and we of the present day have 
 those same miracles recorded, and the same parables explained. I weep 
 alone in my closet when I think of the warnings God has given me ; and if I 
 am not faithful unto death, I shall never wear a crown of life. If I do not 
 keep God's commandments, I shall never enter heaven. That we may all 
 finally reach that blest realm, where there shall be but one fold and one 
 Shepherd, is the prayer of the writer of this little book. 
 
The Congregational Church and Rev. Henry Ward 
 Beecher. 
 
 No church in America has done more for the advancement of 
 human freedom, liberal education, and good morals, than the 
 Congregational Church. It is said that Thomas Jefferson pro- 
 nounced their church government more democratic than that 
 of any other sect on earth. I have witnessed the admission of 
 members into this church when the officiating clergyman read 
 the creed, and said it was not expected that all would understand 
 it alike, for there were no two faces or two minds exactly alike, 
 and but two primitive questions were absolutely essential. 
 1st: Do you accept the Bible? and, 2nd: Will you try to 
 follow its teachings? If the Puritans had faults, no sect of 
 their time had less, and well may their, descendants be proud of 
 their virtues. 
 
 Among the many learned clergymen of the present day who 
 believe that Science, and Reason, and True Religion are in per- 
 fect harmony, none stand above Henry Ward Beecher. I always 
 embrace every opportunity to hear him preach or lecture, and 
 always with a great deal of pleasure. He often speaks volumes 
 in a few words. I have before me some of his printed ser- 
 mons, in which, speaking of conversion, he says, "People often 
 say they wish they were Christians," but, he says, "whenever 
 any person really wishes to be a Christian, he is one from that 
 moment." He says, " Many persons are Christians with6ut 
 knowing it, just as a new clock will not start till some one swings 
 the pendulum, or a new watch will not tick till some one starts 
 the movements by shaking or otherwise ; yet the watch or clock 
 may be a good one, and properly wound up. So young Chris- 
 tians need to be helped to tick." 
 
 While free to express his opinions, Mr. Beecher never desires 
 to force them upon others. He does not believe in the resur- 
 rection of the natural body, but says he does not propose to 
 speculate upon this subject, but to stand upon the ground laid 
 down by the apostle, that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the 
 kingdom of God." He says you might as well attempt to raise 
 a ship from the bottom of the ocean, and leave down there all 
 the wood and iron, as to raise a natural body without flesh and 
 blood. We shall have spiritual bodies and not natural ones ; 
 and speaking upon this subject, a Presiding Elder in the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church once said to me, "If I can identify 
 my friends and they can identify me, I do not care whether my 
 body weighs one pound or one hundred pounds." I once heard 
 a colored minister say, in a sermon, " Many people worry about 
 the resurrection, but it is all wrong. God will take care of that. 
 If we go down to the grave right, we do our part and the Lord 
 Jesus Christ will take care of the rest." The apostle says, if 
 we "have not charity we are nothing; " and Jesus says, "Other 
 sheep I have, which are not of this fold." May God's blessing 
 attend all such churches as the Congregational Church, and all 
 such ministers as Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. 
 
A: 
 
 ND Pilate wrote a Title, and put it on 
 the Cross. And the Writing was, — 
 
 JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OFTHE JEWS. 
 
 This Title then read many of the Jews ; 
 for the Place where Jesus was crucified was 
 nigh to the clty : and it was written in 
 Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. 
 
 John XIX. 19, 20. 
 
 D^wrt ij^a ^sSi $y6* 
 
 Geeek. 
 
 1 Itjcjovg 6 NatpQcuog 6 fiaatlevg twv 'Iovdaloov. 
 
 Latin. 
 
 Jesus Nazarenus, Rex Jud^eorum. 
 
 U5£ 
 
 And it came to pass, as they Were much 
 perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stopd 
 by them in shining garments : 
 
 And as they were afraid, and bowed down 
 their Faces to the Earth, they said unto 
 
 THEM, — 
 
 WHY SEEK YE THE LIVING AMONG THE DEAD? 
 HE IS NOT HERE, BUT IS RISEN! 
 
 Luke XXTV. 4, 5, 6. 
 German. 
 
 2Sa§ fucfcet tfjt btn SeBenbigen bei ben £obten? (Sr tft nicbt fiier, er tft 
 
 auferftcmben. 
 
 French. 
 pourquoi cherchez-vous parmi les morts celui qui est vivant ? 
 Il n'est point ici ; mais il est ressuscite. 
 Spanish. 
 
 I Para que andais buscando entre los muertos al que esta vivo ? 
 
 NO ESTA AQUI, SINO QUE RESUCITO'. 
 
No. 4. 
 
 WHICH IS BEST? 
 
 LIGHT OR DARKNESS, MIND OR MATTER? 
 SPIRIT OR LETTER, SUBSTANCE OR SHADOW? 
 
 The Substantial, Imperishable, Spiritual Body, 
 Or the Material, Perishable, Natural Body? 
 
 CHOOSE YE, BUT FIRST READ AND CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING 
 DISCUSSION OF THE QUESTION: 
 
 "Is it national or Scriptural to Hxpect 
 
 a Resurrection of the Natural Body 
 
 after it lias Gone to Decay ? " 
 
 c « Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die : 
 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, 
 but bare [naked] grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain : 
 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his 
 own body." * * * u It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. 
 There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." * * * " Flesh and 
 blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." 
 
 Paul, in Fifteenth Chapter of First Corinthians. 
 
 LOWELL : 
 COMPILED AND PUBLISHED BY ALBERT COLBY, 
 
 39 Middlesex St., Clark's New Block. 
 
 1871. 
 
 Sold by Travelling Agents, Trice 21 Cents* 
 
JUST PUBLISHED— A NEW EDITION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LIFE OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR 
 
 JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 BY THAT EMINENT SCHOLAR AND PLEASING WRITER, 
 
 REV. RUFUS W. CLARK, D.D., 
 
 OF ALBANY, N. Y. 
 
 To which is added The Lives of all the Writers of the New Testa- 
 ment, from the writings of Adam Clarke ; also, The Religious 
 Creed and History of the Jews, from the earliest Period down to 
 the present Day ; and a True History of the Bible, its Nature 
 and Teachings. 
 
 This is no sectarian work, but the Bible history and common sense are 
 proved to be in perfect harmony. 
 
 The Life of Christ tells you how our Saviour can teach senators wis- 
 dom. How kings reign by his aid, and princes decree justice by his 
 teachings. How the wisest man that ever lived grows wiser, if Christ 
 teaches him ; and the greatest man becomes greater by sitting at his feet. 
 The poet sings more sweetly, if the spirit of Jesus touches his harp ; while 
 the orator rises to a loftier place, if he borrows his fire from the altar of 
 God. 
 
 The Life of Christ tells you how the palace of the king is more beauti- 
 ful for having Christ in it, and the halls of legislation more honored 
 where our Saviour presides. How he walks among the stately buildings 
 of the great city, and makes the air purer and the inmates holier. How 
 he goes to the cottage, and sows beside the door a plant called Content- 
 ment, which grows and covers the poor man's home, and makes all within 
 happy. • 
 
 The Life of Christ tells you how he comes to the bed of sickness, and 
 leaves an Angel there, whose name is Submission, and the feeble one 
 weeps no more. How he comes to the little child and becomes his com- 
 panion, and with holy teachings fits him for the kingdom of heaven. 
 How he comes into his earthly garden and there gathers those lilies 
 which he places in his garden above, where, tended by his gentle hand, 
 they bloom in never-ending sunshine through all eternity. 
 
 Published by Albert Colby, in large 12mo size, of nearly 500 pages. 
 Printed upon nice white paper, and bound with beautiful red cloth gilt 
 covers. Retail price, $2.00 per copy. Agents wanted for every county 
 and town in the United States and Canada, to whom the most liberal 
 commissions will be allowed. 
 
 QCP Address all letters to 
 
 ALBERT COLBY, Lowell, Mass, 
 
K2-x/72y