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YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

ALBERT H CHILDS
YALE '61
MEMORIAL COLLECTION

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The New View of Hell.

THE

New View of Hell

ITS NATURE, WHEREABOUTS, DURATION, AND
HOW TO ESCAPE IT.

BY
B. F. BARRETT,
AUTHOR OF "Lectures on the New Dispensation," "The Golden City/
"Letters to Beecher on the Divine Trinitv," Etc. Etc

jtftb mmm.

PHILADELPHIA:
THE SWEDENBORG PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION.
900 Chestnut Street.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washintfton.

CONTENTS.

PAGB
L — The New Dispensation  9
II. — The Old Doctrine of Hell  26
III. — The New View  36
IV. — The Scripture Argument. — Sheol, Hades,
Gehenna, and the Lake of Fire .... 46
V. — Hell. — The Chosen Home of All Who
GO There  73
VI. — The Duration of Hell  87
VII. — Some Evidence of its Duration. — Philo
sophical AND Scriptural  100
VIII. — PVbt Cannot the Ruling Love be Changed
After Death ?  112
IX. — Displays of the Divine Benignity in Hell 125
X. — Is Hell to Undergo any Change? If so,
of what Nature ?  145
XI. — The Devil and Satan  163
XII. — Practical Bearings of the Question.... 177
XIII. — How TO Escape Hell  193
5

PREFACE.

There are few subjects within the compass of revealed or
speculative Theology, upon which inquiring minds have been
more exercised within the last hundred years, than the sub
ject of Hell. And there are few, perhaps, which have been
the occasion of more strifes and divisions in the churches,
which have caused more trouble to Christian believers, or
upon which there are at this moment more anxiety, doubt
and disagreement among religious teachers themselves.
There is no doubt that the popular mind of Christendom
has undergone a considerable change on this, as on many
other subjects, since the commencement of the present cen
tury. The old representations of the Divine justice, and of
the condition of the wicked in the great Hereafter, would
hardly be listened to with patience — -certainly not with satis
faction — by any intelligent Christian congregation of to-day.
"The idea which men once had of hell and of divine jus
tice," says the occupant of a distinguished orthodox pulpit,
"was a nightmare as hideous as was ever begotten by the
hellish brood itself And it was an atrocious slander on
God. I do not wonder that men have reacted from these
horrors — I honor them for it." 7

8 PREFACE.
But what have the Christian teachers of to-day to offer as
a substitute for the old idea, which is confessedly becoming
obsolete in nearly all of the churches ? Many of them,
nothing — literally nothing, that can af once satisfy the reason
of thoughtful inquirers, and meet the demands of the lan
guage of Scripture. And some are frank enough tp confess
their destitution. Said a distinguished Presbyterian clergy
man, writing on this subject some time ago : " It is all dark,
dark, dark, to my soul ; and I cannot disguise it."
The aim of the present work is to unfold and present tht
New view of Hell, as set forth in the theological writings of
Emanuel Swedenborg ; to show that it is at once rational
and Scriptural, in harmony with the perfect love and wisdom
of God, as well as with the teachings of human experience
and the profoundest spiritual philosophy ; and that its prac
tical influence upon the character of believers, cannot be
otherwise than beneficent.
How far I have succeeded in this, the reader himself must
judge. But if I have achieved even a partial success, and
presented the subject in a light to relieve and profit only a
few troubled souls, I shall be more than satisfied — I shall be
thankful.
B. F. B.
Germantown, Jan. 14, 1878.

THE
New View of Hell.

I.
THE NEW DISPENSATION.
'' I ^HE theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are
^ regarded by many — by all, indeed, who have read
and studied them with care — as a new revelation. They
boldly claim for themselves this distinction, and chal
lenge a candid examination of their claim in the light
of Scripture, reason, philosophy, history, and all human
experience. They are held to be (and this, too, is their
own claim) a new Dispensation of spiritual . truth : that
Dispensation referred to in the Apocalypse under the
symbol of the New Jerusalem which John saw coming
down from God out of heaven. They are believed to
contain, not raerely the reasonings and conclusions of a
great and pious mind — not a theological or doctrinal
system wrought out by patient labor and hard study, but
a system of spiritual truth so luminous in its nature and
so grand in its proportions, as to be itself the fulfillment
of the prophecy concerning the second coming of Him

IO NEW VIEW OF HELL.
who is "the Light of the world." They are declared to
be a revelation of new and heavenly truth made by the
Lord himself through his own chosen servant, whom He
raised up and prepared for this work, and in due time
graciously and wonderfully illumined by his Spirit.
The stupendous system of truth, therefore, contained
in the writings of this man, is not to be considered his,
but the Lord's. He was but the chosen instrument to
receive and make known to men, truths which no amount
of labor or study could ever have enabled him to dis
cover. Hear what the seer himself says on this subject :
"Since the Lord cannot manifest Himself in Person,
and nevertheless has foretold that He would come and
establish a New Church which is the New Jerusalem, it
follows that He will do so by means of a man who
can not only receive these doctrines in his understanding
but can also publish them by the press.
" That the Lord manifested Himself before me his
servant, and sent me to this office, that He afterward
opened the eyes of my spirit and so intromitted me into
the spiritual world, granted me to see the heavens and
the hells, also to converse with angels and spirits, and
this continuously now for several years, I affirm in truth ;
as also, that, from the first day of that calling I have not
received anything whatever pertaining to the doctrines
of that Church from any angel, but from the Lord alone
while I read the Word." {True Christian Religion, 779.)
And elsewhere in his writings he repeats the same

THE NEW DISPENSATION. ll
Statement — in substance if not in words. Thus in his
preface to the Apocalypse Revealed, he says :
"Any one may see that the Apocalypse could no how
be explained but by the Lord alone, since every word
of it contains arcana which never could be known with
out some special illumination and consequent revelation.
Wherefore it has pleased the Lord to open the sight of
my spirit and to teach me. It must not, therefore, be
supposed that I have given any explication of my own,
nor that even of any angel, but only what I have had
communicated to me from the Lord alone."
And in his treatise on "The Intercourse between the
Soul and the Body," he relates a conversation that he
once had with "a man of reason," explaining to him
how it was that from a philosopher he became a theolo
gian. After telling him that it was " for the same reason
that fishermen became the disciples and apostles of the
Lord," adding that he also " from early youth had been
a spiritual fisherman;" and after explaining what this
means, and confirming what he says by citing passages
from the Word which speak oi fishermen, unfolding at
the same time their spiritual meaning, his interrogator
" raised his voice and said :
"'Now I can understand why the Lord called and
chose fishermen to be his disciples ; and therefore I do
not wonder that He has also called and chosen you,
since, as you have observed, you were from early youth
a fisherman in a spiritual sense, that is, an investigator

12 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
of natural truths. The reason that you are now become
an investigator of spiritual truths, is, that these are
founded on the former.' To this he added, being a man
of reason, that ' the Lord alone knows who is the
proper person to apprehend and teach or communicate
the truths which should be revealed for his New
Church.' "—Ibid. 20.
Swedenborg further claims that this new revelation
made through him as a chosen medium, is in fulfillment
of the prediction made by the Lord himself, concerning
his second coming, which was to be in the clouds of
heaven. This coming, he says, is not to be external and
natural, cognizable by the eye of sense ; but internal and
spiritual, cognizable by the understanding and the heart.
It is to be a coming of the Word of God, that is, of the
deeper meanings of the Word — a coming of its spiritual
or heavenly sense to the minds and hearts of men, and
exerting upon them a new and renovating power. And
the clouds in or upon which it is said He would come,
are the clouds of Scripture — the obscurities, more or less
dense, of the literal sense, in or upon which the spiritual
and true sense comes as the sun's light through a cloud.
To cite again his own language :
"It is the prevailing opinion at this day [1770] in
every church, that the Lord, when He comes to the last
judgment, will appear in the clouds of heaven with
angels and the sound of trumpets ; that He will gather
together all who are then dwelling on the earth, as well

THE NEW DISPENSATION. 13
as all who are deceased, and will separate the evil from
the good, as a shepherd separates the goats from the
sheep ; that then He will cast the evil, or the goats, into
hell, and raise up the good, or the sheep, into heaven ;
and further that He will, at the same time, create a new
visible heaven and a new habitable earth, and on the latter
He will cause a city to descend, which is to be called the
New Jerusalem, and is to be built according to the de
scription given in the Revelation (Ch. xxi.) of jasper
and gold ; and the foundation of its walls of every precious
stone ; and its height, breadth and length to be equal,
each twelve thousand furlongs ; and that all the elect are
to be gathered together into this city, both those that are
then alive, and those that have died since the beginning
of the world ; and that the latter will then return into
their bodies, and enjoy everlasting bliss in that magnifi
cent city, as in their heaven. This is the prevailing
opinion of the present day, in all Christian churches,
respecting the coming of the Lord and the last judg
ment." — True Christian Religion, n. 768.
And a little further on he says :
"That the second coming of the Lord, is a coming, not
in person, but in the Word ¦which is from Him, and /r
Himself. — It is written in many places that the Lord will
come in the clouds of heaven; as Matt. xvii. 5; xxiv.
30; xxvi. 64; Mark xiv. 62; Luke ix. 34, 35; xxi. 27;
Rev. i. 7; xiv. 14; Dan. vii. 13; but no one has here
tofore known what is meant by the clouds of heaven,
2

14 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
and hence mankind have believed that the Lord will
appear to them in person. But it has remained undis
covered to this day, that the Word in its literal sense is
meant by the clouds of heaven ; and that the spiritual
sense of the Word is meant by the power and glory
in which also the Lord is to come. . . . Now since the
spiritual sense of the Word has been opened to me
by the Lord, and it has been granted me to be with
angels and spirits in their world as one of themselves,
it has been revealed to me that the clouds of heaven sig
nify the Word in its natural sense ; and glory, the Word
in its spiritual sense ; and power, the effectual operation
of the Lord by the Word." — Ibid., n. 776.
There can be no doubt, then, about Swedenborg's
claim — extraordinary though it be, and incredible as it
may seem to those who have not examined his writings.
He claims to have been called of the Lord in an extra
ordinary manner, and to have been specially illumined
by his Spirit, to make a new revelation ; — a revelation,
that is, of new and heavenly truth concerning Himself,
his Word, the nature of heaven and hell, and the con
dition of different classes of men in the great Hereafter.
He declares that it is the Lord who opened the eyes of
his spirit ; that it is the Lord who taught him the true
meaning of the Word, and what doctrines to promul
gate ; that the Lord had actually come (agreeably to his
promise), to establish a New Church by means of the
doctrines which it was given him to receive, understand

THE NEW DISPENSATION. 15
and publish, to the world ; that these doctrines were not
his own — not the result of any labor or study on his
part, nor received from any angel, but communicated to
him by the Lord alone. "From the first day of that
calling," he says, "I have not received anything what
ever pertaining to the doctrines of the New Church from
any angel, but from the Lord alone while I read the
Word." It is not my purpose here to enter upon any discussion
of this claim, or to adduce evidence to show that it is
well founded. The need there was of a new revelation
at the time Swedenborg lived and wrote, as shown by
the doctrinal beliefs and teachings in all the churches of
his day; the luminous and extraordinary character of his
theological writings; the sweet and heavenly and catholic
spirit that they breathe throughout ; the elevated and ra
tional views they contain on all subjects — views that har
monize with the teachings of Scripture and reason and
science, and with all we know of the laws of the human
soul and the ways and workings of God's providence ; —
all these combine to force an acknowledgment of his
claim from every intelligent and candid mind who thor
oughly examines and understands his writings. Such
an one admits his claim because he cannot help it. He
finds the evidence so overwhelming, that it is easier to
accept than to reject it. He sees that here is, indeed, a
new revelation ; that here is a system of spiritual truth so
grand and harmonious and rational, so comprehensive

1 6 AEW VIEW OF HELL.
and majestic, and so admirably adapted to human wants
in this age, that it could have none other than God him
self for its author. He accepts Swedenborg's teachings,
therefore, as a new Dispensation of spiritual truth, bear
ing the impress of God's own finger. So abundant and
overmastering is the evidence, that he cannot do other
wise ; he cannot reach any other conclusion.
But those cannot admit his claim, who have not studied
his writings. How can they ? — for they have not weighed
the evidence; they have not seen it, indeed. And no
where but in his writings themselves, can satisfactory evi
dence of his claim be found. They may, from having read
a few pages or chapters of his works, admit that he saw
and taught much truth ; but we cannot expect them to go
beyond this — nor ought they — until they have studied
his writings sufficiently to enable them to discern, in some
measure, their wondrous depth and comprehensiveness
and philosophy and unity. Such persons, (and they are
not a few) stand toward this New Christian Dispensation
in the same attitude as those stand toward the first Chris
tian dispensation, who admit that Jesus Christ was a wise
and excellent man, and that much truth is to be found in
the New Testament ; but who do not admit the proper
divinity of the one, nor the inspiration of the other ;
who regard the Saviour as a merely finite and human
being, and the writings of the Evangelists as merely
human compositions. And while some of these persons
may have more of the spirit of Christ than mani who

THE NEW DISPENSATION. 17
know and believe more of Him and his gospel, still they
would not be regarded, popularly or doctrinally speak
ing, as Christians ; for they do not acknowledge Chris
tianity as a new Dispensation, or in any proper sense as
a new Revelation.
So, popularly speaking, those are not of the New
Christian Dispensation (they may belong to it really
but not nominally^ who do not see or acknowledge that
any such dispensation has commenced, or that the
writings of Swedenborg are, indeed, a new and divinely
authorized revelation of heavenly truth — though they
may have in their hearts more 'of the spirit and life
of the New Church than some who accept its doc
trines. But many persons — and these inhabiting the most en
lightened portions of Christendom — are beginning to
admit that Swedenborg's claim is well founded. They
believe that he wrote under a special divine illumination,
and that his writings are or contain a new revelation.
And what is implied by this admission ? That no mis
take, however trivial, is anywhere to be found in his writ
ings ? That in every sentence and word he penned aftei
his illumination, he was immediately directed by th(
Lord ? That every word he wrote is as certainly true as ii
it had been written by the finger of God himself? Noth
ing of this sort is involved in the fullest and most cordial
admission of his claim. We may admit his divine illumin
ation; we may believe that he was enlightened and taught

1 8 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
of God as no other man ever was ; and that his writings are,
as they claim to be, a new and divinely authorized reve
lation ; and yet we may believe that his illumination
was not precisely the same at all times ; that he was not
absolutely infallible ; that his pen, and even his thought
on some minor points, might momentarily have slipped,
making him teach or seem to teach in one place, some
thing contrary to his general teaching upon the same
subject. But an admission of this man's claim, or the belief
that his writings are a new dispensation of spiritual truth
to men, does involve the belief, that, upon all important
doctrines — ^upon all questions which have hitherto en
gaged the attention of Christians, and in which they are
likely always to feel a deep interest — he has spoken with
authority, because he wrote under an extraordinary divine
illumination.' It involves the admission that, in what he
wrote and published concerning the Lord, the Sacred
Scripture, Redemption, Regeneration, Salvation, the
Resurrection, the Judgment, the nature and duration of
Heaven and Hell, and all the great facts and laws of the
spiritual world, he has not given us his opinion merely,
bnt the truth which God was pleased to reveal through
him. It involves the belief that, upon such momentous
themes he was illumined by the Holy Spirit, and has
taught only what the Lord authorized and directed him
to teach. So that what his writings contain on such
subjects, is not his own opinions or conclusions merely.

THE NEW DISPENSATION 19
but is what the Lord himself teaches or is trying to teach
mankind through him.
Let me endeavor to make my view more clear by an
illustration : —
A man is duly accredited by our government to the
court of St. James. Upon all important matters between
the two countries, he receives his instruction from Wash
ington. And if he acts according to his instruction,
the things he does as the authorized agent of the govern
ment, are not to be regarded merely as his acts, but the
acts of the government ; and the government alone is
responsible for them. But in carrying on some negotia
tion, Mr. Adams or Mr. Motley, in the exercise of the
freedom and discretion of a plenipotentiary, may here
and there drop a word or use an expression which his
government might not approve ; but that is of small con
sequence if it does not prevent nor in any way interfere
with the negotiation. He may not, in every interview
with the British minister of foreign affairs, or at every
court dinner, do and say exactly the thing that the gov
ernment from which he is accredited would approve ;
but if he carries out his instructions generally, does his
duty faithfully, and so accomplishes the purpose of his
mission, is he any the less the accredited American min
ister, or his acts any the less cheerfully endorsed by his
government because of an occasional and unimportant
remark made by him, which the. authorities at Wash
mgton might not approve ?

20 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
So Swedenborg — though it might be shown that he has
here and there said things, unimportant in themselves but
not in agreement with the general tenor of his teaching
— is to be regarded as none the less a divinely accredited
teacher or a divinely authorized expounder of sacred
mysteries, if his teaching upon all important and funda
mental points be true, or such as meets the approval of
heaven's own King.
But though it is, or claims to be, a New Dispensation,
it is a dispensation of rational religious truth. It ad
dresses us as rational beings, endowed with the capacity
of discriminating between right and wrong — truth and
falsehood. It declares that Rationality, or the ability to
understand spiritual truth when presented, and to judge
between it and error, is one of the noblest gifts of God.
And it holds it to be every one's solemn duty to respect
this gift, by faithfully exercising his own understanding
upon whatever is offered him for religious truth. It
teaches that no one ought to accept what his own under
standing rejects, even though it should be proclaimed by
a messenger from heaven, or have the unanimous vote of
all Christendom in its support.
No one, therefore, is expected to receive for truth what
Swedenborg has taught on any subject, unless the teach
ing approve itself to his rational intuitions ; t'nat is, un
less he himself sees it to be true. Each one must use
his own eyes, and not allow another to see for him. The
great seer himself says :

THE NEW DISPENSATION. 3 1
"This tenet, that the understanding is to be kept in
subjection to faith, is rejected in the New Church ; and
in its place, this is to be received as a maxim, that the
truth of the church should be seen in order that it may
be believed. . . . What is truth not seen, but a voice
not understood?" And again he says: "The angels
have wisdom in consequence of seeing truths. Where
fore when it is said to any angel that this or that is to be
believed although it is not understood, the angel replies.
Do you suppose me to be insane, or that you yourself
are a god whom I am bound to believe?"
This Dispensation, moreover, is catholic, comprehen
sive, universal, in its spirit. It breathes throughout the
sweetest charity. It inculcates the largest liberty of
thought. It encourages the utmost freedom of religious
inquiry. It asserts with new and increased emphasis the
great Protestant principle — the right of private judgment
in matters of faith, however that judgment may differ
from the solemn decree of popes, prelates, councils,
synods, assemblies or conventions. It upholds, there
fore, and furnishes new and powerful weapons in defence
of religious liberty. It is tolerant of all forms of error,
innocently imbibed and conscientiously held, and shows
the possibility of salvation under all of them. It con
demns no individual, no sect, no people — not even Ma
hometans or Pagans — merely on account of their beliefs ;
but teaches that infinite Love is for ever brooding over
all ; and for ever seeking, through such forms of fni'-h

22 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
and modes of worship as are best suited to the wants of
each, to lift them up into clearer light and a higher
life — into fuller communion and sweeter fellowship with
itself. It is full, therefore — this New Dispensation —
of the all-embracing and all-reconciling spirit of the
Lord. The following extracts — and a volume of similar ones
might be quoted from the writings of Swedenborg — will
exhibit something of the large and catholic spirit of this
New Dispensation : —
"Notwithstanding there are so many various and dif
ferent doctrines [believed by Christians], still, if all who
hold these doctrines did but acknowledge charity as
the essential of the church, or what is the same, if they
had respect to life as the end of doctrine, they would to
gether form one church ; . . . for every one in the other
life is gifted with a lot from the Lord according to the
good of his life, not according to the truth of his doctrine
separate from that good." — Arcana Cxlestia 3241.
"If charity were in the first place and faith in the
second, the church would have another face. For then,
none would be called Christians but they who lived the
life of charity. Then, too, there would not be many
churches distinguished by their different opinions con
cerning the truths of faith ; but the church would be
called one, containing all those who are in the good of
life."— Ibid. 6761.
"Schisms and heresies would never have arisen if

THE NEW DISPENSATION. 23
charity had continued to live and rule in the church.
For then they would not have called schism by the name
of schism, nor heresy by the name of heresy ; but they
would have called them doctrinals agreeable to each
one's particular opinion or way of thinking, which they
would have left to his individual conscience ; not judging
or condemning any for their opinions, provided they did
not deny fundamental principles — that is, the Lord,
eternal life, and the Word — and maintained nothing con
trary to the commandments of the decalogue. "^Ibid.
1834. " He who is in goodness of life does not condemn
another because he differs from him in opinion, but
leaves it to his faith and conscience ; and he extends this
rule even to those who are out of the church — [those,
that is, in heathen lands]. For he says in his heart that
ignorance cannot condemn any, if they live in innocence
and mutual love." — Ibid. 4468.
" Within the church there are some of all denomina
tions who have a conscience ; though their conscience,
however, is more perfect according as the truths which
form it approach nearer the genuine truths of faith." —
Ibid. 2053.
"Every one, of whatsoever religion he be, may be
saved — even the Gentiles who have no truths from the
Word — if only he has had regard to the good of life
as an end." — Ibid. 10648.
"Let this truth be accepted and confirmed in the out-

24 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
set, that love to the Lord and charity toward the
bor are the essentials of all doctrine and worship, then
heresies would be no more ; and one church would be
formed out of many, however they might differ in doc
trine and ritual. ... In this case, all would be gov
erned as one man by the Lord ; for they would be like
the members and organs of one body, wLich, though
dissimilar in form and function, still have reference to
one heart, on which they all depend both in general
and in particular, however various their forms. Then,
too, every one would say of another, in whatsoever doc
trine or external worship he might be. This is my broth
er ; I see that he worships the Lord, and that he is a
good man." — Ibid. 2385.
" Persons in a blind or persuasive faith, since they do
not see truths, are not willing that the doctrines of their
church should be approached and examined rationally
with the understanding ; but they say that these are to
be received from a principle of obedience, which is called
the obedience of faith ; and it is not known whether
the things received in such blind obedience be true or
false ; nor can they open the way to heaven, for in heaven
nothing but what is seen, that is, understood, is acknow
ledged as truth." — Apocalypse Explained iioo.
"The dogma that the understanding is to be kept in
subjection to faith, is rejected in the New Church ; and in
its place this is to be received as a maxim, that the truth
of the church should be seen in order that it may be be-

THE NEW DISPENSATION. 25
lieved ; and truth cannot be seen otherwise than ration
ally. How can any man be led by the Lord and con
joined to heaven, who shuts his understanding against
such things as relate to salvation and eternal life ? Is it
not the understanding that is to be illumined and in
structed? And what is the understanding closed by
religion but thick darkness, and such darkness, too, as
rejects the light that would illumine?" — Apocalypse Re
vealed 564.
These quotations might be extended indefinitely. But
the reader may gather from the few here given, some
thing of the large, free, tolerant and truly catholic spirit
of this new Dispensation. And if we recognize in
nearly all the churches of to-day, a steady increase of
this same spirit, that is only additional evidence that
"old things" — the old bigotry, narrowness, intolerance,
denominational hatreds, and high partition walls of the
last century — are passing away, and a new and more
truly Christ-like spirit taking their place ; agreeably to
the Divine promise: "And he that sat upon the throne
said. Behold I make all things new."
3

n.
THE OLD DOCTRINE OF HELL.
A /T ORE than a hundred years ago, Swedenborg an-
•^'-'- nounced the end or consummation of the first
Christian Church or Dispensation, and the commence
ment of a new one. Repeatedly, and in the calmest and
most emphatic language, did he declare that the Lord
had manifested Himself to him in person ; had opened
his spiritual senses ; had permitted him to see and con
verse with the denizens of the other world as men see
and converse with each other ; had vouchsafed to him a
clear understanding of the spiritual and true meaning of
the Sacred Scripture ; and had authorized and directed
him to make a new revelation of heavenly truth for the
instruction of all Christians and for the benefit of man
kind. Up to this time comparatively few have openly em
braced this new revelation. Yet its power has been seen
and its influence felt in the gradual and steady modifica
tion of the old theological beliefs, which has been going
on in nearly all of the sects for the last hundred years.
This is admitted by some of the keenest observers and
26

THE OLD DOCTRINE. 2^
most advanced thinkers in all the churches. Says a
learned critic of rare candor in the New York Independ
ent (March i8, 1869) :
' ' More than any other form of religious thought, Swe-
denborgianism is a leaven 'hid in three measures of
meal.' To a careless reader of ecclesiastical statistics,
the Swedenborgian Church would seem to be one of the
least of the great household of faith. To a careful stu
dent of religious thought, it appears to be among the
most important. It has made very few converts from the
faith of orthodoxy; but it has materially modified that
faith. . . . As a little salt changes the contents of a large
vessel of water, so Swedenborgianism, seemingly lost in
the great multitude of churches, has more or less modi
fied the form of faith of all."
And this very candid writer, and careful observer of
the theological and religious tendencies of these new
times, specifies some of the modifications already wrought
in the old theological beliefs by the teachings of Sweden
borg. After referring to the old doctrines of the Trin
ity, the Atonement, and the Sacred Scripture, and show
ing how these have been already modified by the writings
of the Swedish seer, he concludes his list of specifica
tions thus :
"The church [meaning all the so-called orthodox de
nominations] holds fast to the solemn truth, which no
one has ever taught more vividly than Christ himself, that
after death is the judgment, and after judgment heaven

28 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
and hell ; but it has accepted, unconsciously, from Swe
denborg, his teaching that every man carries heaven or
hell in his own bosom ; and remits to the Past the fear
ful pictures of Edwards and his cotemporaries, of literal
torments and a remorseless and pitiless God."
And with equal truth and plainness (though with a
little less candor, perhaps, in not hinting at the real cause)
the distinguished pastor of Plymouth Church (Brooklyn),
said in a sermon on "Future Punishment" preached
some months ago : " that the educated Christian mind
of all lands, for the last hundred years [note the period]
has been changing" in regard to the nature of punish
ment in the great Hereafter.
"It is certainly true," he continues, "that theories
have been changing from gross material representations
[of hell], more and more in the direction of moral repre
sentations. It is very true that this subject is not preached
as it used to be— not as it was in my childhood. It has
not been preached so often, nor with the same fiery and
familiar boldness that it used to be. Multitudes of men
who give every evidence of being spiritual, regenerate,
devout, laborious and self-denying, find themselves
straitened in their minds in respect to this question,
and are turning anxiously every whither to see whence
relief may come to them. There has been a profound
change [within the last hundred years, observe] in the
sentiment of Christendom in regard to those gross rep
resentations of future punishment, which were handed

THE OLD DOCTRINE. 29
down to us from the past. ' ' And he gives, as among the
reasons of those gross representations, "the mediseval
literalization of the Bible figures."
Now, to judge correctly of the need there was of a
new revelation a hundred years ago, we should go back
to the time when Swedenborg wrote, and see what
were the then accepted teachings upon the various
points of Christian theology. Since that time the be
liefs of Christians have, through the light of the New
Dispensation (which is "as the lightning that cometh
out of the east and shineth even unto the west"), be
come so modified, that, on many subjects, they bear but
little resemblance to those held previous to that time.
Very few are aware of the changes in theological opinion
that have taken place in nearly all the churches during
the last hundred years, and that are still going on at a
rapid pace ; and fewer still are aware of the cause of
these changes.
Take, for illustration, the doctrine concerning hell, or
the future punishment of the wicked. At the time Sweden
borg wrote, the commonly received doctrine in all the
churches was according to the literal teaching of the
Bible. It was believed and taught for Christian verity
that hell is literally a lake of fire and brimstone ; — a
place created by the Lord at the beginning for the ex-
^.ress purpose of inflicting upon all who die in their sins
as much suffering as infinite ingenuity could possibly de
vise. It was held that sinners, after death, were to be
3*

30 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
cast alive into this burning lake by order of the Supreme
Judge of the universe, as criminals on earth are cast into
prison by order of the judges of criminal courts. And
that they were always to remain there, perfectly con
scious, indued with the most exquisite sensibility to
pain, forever burning yet never consumed, writhing and
groaning in eternal agony. And as if this were not tor
ment enough, the gross imaginations of religious teachers
often added other horrors equally revolting. Mr. Buckle,
in his History of Civilization in England, speaking of the
clergy of the seventeenth century — especially the Scotch
clergy — and their view of hell and its torments, says :
" In the pictures which they drew, they reproduced and
heightened the barbarous imagery of a barbarous age.
They delighted in telling their hearers that they would
be roasted in great fires and hung up by their tongues.
They were to be lashed with scorpions, and see their
companions writhing and howling around them. They
were to be thrown into boiling oil and scalding lead.
A river of brimstone broader than the earth was prepared
for them ; in that they were to be immersed. . . . Such
were the first stages of suffering, and they were only the
first. For the torture, besides being unceasing, was to
become gradually worse. So refined was the cruelty,
that one hell was succeeded by another ; and, lest the
sufferer should grow callous, he was, after a time, moved
on, that he might undergo fresh agonies in fresh places,
provision being made that the torment should not pall

THE OLD DOCTRINE. 31
on the sense, but should be varied in its character as well
as eternal in its duration.
" All this was the work of the God of the Scotch clergy.
It was not only his work, it was his joy and his pride.
For, according to them, hell was created before man
came into the world ; the Almighty, they did not scruple
to say, having spent his previous leisure in preparing and
completing this place of torture, so that, when the human
race appeared, it might be ready for their reception.
Ample, however, as the arrangements were, they were in
sufficient ; and hell not being big enough to contain the
countless victims incessantly poured into it, had, in these
latter days, been enlarged. But in that vast expanse
there was no void, for the whole of it reverberateitwith
the shrieks and yells of undying agony. . . . Both chil
dren and fathers made hell echo with their piercing
screams, writhing in convulsive agony at the torments
which they suffered, and knowing that other torments
more grievous still were reserved for them." (Vol. II.
pp. 294, 295.)
Now every statement that Mr. Buckle here makes,
finds ample confirmation in the works of distinguished
theologians of that period and some of the previous cen
turies. Rutherford in his Religious Letters, speaking of
the future punishment of the wicked, says: "Tongue,
lungs and liver, bones and all, shall boil and fry in a tor
turing fire" (p. 17); — "a river of fire and brimstone
broader than the earth." (p. 35.) And Boston, in his

32 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
Human Nature in its Fourfold State, treating of this sam ,•
subject, says: " They will be universal torments, every
part of the creature being tormented in that flame. When
one is cast into a fiery furnace, the fire makes its way into
the very bowels, and leaves no member untouched : what
part then can have ease when the damned swim in a lake
of fire burning with brimstone?" (p. 458.) And Rev.
Thomas Halyburton, in his Great Concern of Salvation,
says : " Consider, Who is the contriver of these torments.
There have been some very exquisite torments contrived
by the wit of men, the naming of which, if ye under
stood their nature, were enough to fill your hearts with
horror ; but all these fall as far short of the torments ye
are to endure, as the wisdom of man falls short of that
of God." (p. 154, Edinburgh edit., 1722.)
Such was the generally accepted doctrine concerning
hell in all the Christian churches at the time Sweden
borg wrote. Such, too, had been the doctrine for cen
turies previous, as we learn from Christian writers and
Christian artists. These latter aimed to embody or repre
sent upon canvas the prevalent Christian thought of the
period in which they lived. Thus Michael Angelo, in
his picture of the Last J^udgment, tells us more plainly
than words could tell, what idea Christians of his day
had of the future punishment of the wicked. Truly did
Mr. Beecher say in one of his sermons not long ago :
"If you will take this picture, you will better under
stand what was the real feeling of the age in which he

THE OLD DOCTRINE. 33
lived on the subject of reward and punishment, than by
reading any amount of theological treatises. Let any
one look at that ; let any one see the enormous gigantic
coils of fiends and men ; let any one look at that defiant
Christ that stands like a superb athlete at the front,
hurling his enemies from him and calling his friends
toward him as Hercules might have done ; let any one
look upon that hideous wriggling mass that goes plung
ing down through the air — serpents and men and beasts
of every nauseous kind, mixed together ; let him look at
the lower parts of the picture, where with pitchforks
men are by devils being cast into caldrons and into burn
ing fires, where hateful fiends are gnawing the skulls of
suffering sinners, and where there is hellish cannibalism
going on — let a man look at that picture and the scenes
which it depicts, and he sees what were the ideas which
men once had of hell and of divine justice. It was a
nightmare as hideous as was ever begotten by the hellish
brood itself; and it was an atrocious slander on God.
. . . I do not wonder that men have reacted from these
horrors — I honor them for it. ' ' {Plymouth Pulpit for Oct.
29, 1870.)
And this bold and eloquent divine further adds in the
same discourse :
" To allow such a stream of human existence to be fed
and renewed in every generation, which was pouring
over the precipice at the rate of thirty millions a year,
into such torments as the old method of representation
c

34 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
presented to us, and at the same time to teach that God
was a loving Father — these two things have seemed so
difficult to multitudes of persons, that they have fled
from the attempt to reconcile them, and have abandoned
all belief in them."
And how does Mr. Beecher himself reconcile them ?
Or how does he understand and interpret the language
of the Bible which refers to the.future state of the wicked ?
He frankly confesses his own blindness and confusion
here. He don't know what to make of this language.
" It goes to my heart to say these things," he says — i. e.
the things he finds in the Bible. "Yet it is there, and
if I am faithful to my whole duty I must preach it. As
a surgeon does things that are most uncongenial to hira
self, so sometimes do I. And I do this with tears and
with sorrow. It makes me sick."
It is plain, then, what was the old and universally re
ceived doctrine among Christians concerning hell at the
time Swedenborg wrote.
Very few, however, believe this doctrine now. The
light that has been flowing into all minds from out the
new angelic heavens for the last hundred years, has so
clearly revealed its hideousness, that you will hardly find
an intelligent Christian of any denomination now-a-days,
who does not reject it. Most people have no rational
and clearly defined doctrine to take the place of the old ;
but this latter nobody now accepts.
The old doctrine, therefore, being such as we find it —

THE OLD DOCTRINE. 35
SO irrational and monstrous and cruel in itself — so utterly
repugnant to every true Christian feeling and to every
just conception of the character and government of God
— is it unreasonable to suppose that the Divine Being
would some day vouchsafe a further revelation to his
children on this subject ? If there ever was a subject on
which the minds of men were in utter and impene
trable darkness, and on which, therefore, a further reve
lation was needed, is it not the very subject we are con
sidering ? And at what time should we expect the reve
lation to be raade, other than that when it seemed most
necessary — the time of densest spiritual darkness, when
such preposterous ideas as to the nature of hell and future
punishment as those I have here presented, were gener
ally taught and accepted for revealed truth ?

III.
THE NEW VIEW.
WE have seen what the doctrine of hell was, which
was generally taught and accepted by Christians
a hundred years ago. It was a doctrine quite in agree
ment with the sensuous appearances of truth in the letter
of the Word ; and in agreement, therefore, with the gross
conceptions of men in a carnal and sensuous state. It
taught that hell was, literally, a lake of fire and brim
stone ; — a place into which the wicked were to be finally
cast, not out of mercy to them, or from any consideration
of their comfort, improvement, or best welfare, but from
a feeling of Divine wrath and vindictiveness. It was
the generally a'ccepted belief when Swedenborg wrote,
that this fiery lake was created for the express purpose of
inflicting upon sinners the most excruciating tortures
which Divine ingenuity could invent.
Moreover, according to the doctrine of that period,
the Supreme Judge of all the earth took a fiendish delight
in casting his rebellious offspring into that fiery gulf,
listening to their agonizing shrieks, and gazing on their
ceaseless and indescribable sufferings ! And no incon
siderable part of the joys of heaven, it was also believed
36

THE NEW DOCTRINE. 37
and taught, would spring from a clear view, given to
those there, of the dreadful torments of the damned,
and from a contemplation of the contrast between the
miserable condition of these latter, and their own happy
condition in the realms of bliss !
Such was the dreadful doctrine taught from most if
not all of the pulpits in Christendom a hundred years
ago ! — taught for the revealed truth of God ! — taught by
the professed expounders of the Word of God ! — by the
acknowledged teachers and guides of the people in mat
ters pertaining to man's immortal life !
Yet intelligent people gravely ask. What need was there
of any new or further revelation at the time Swedenborg
lived and wrote? Considering how the Word of God
was then misunderstood and falsified by its professed ex
pounders — in what fearful darkness the minds of pro
fessing Christians were then immersed, not only upon
this subject but upon others also pertaining to religion,
it would, indeed, have been strange if a new revelation
had not then been made.
Nor need we wonder, in view of this horrible doctrine
concerning hell, which was commonly taught a hundred
years ago for Bible truth (to say nothing of other doc
trines equally revolting), that so raany in Christian lands
should have lost all faith in the Bible as a Divine revela
tion; and that many others who retain their faith, should
have come to deny the existence of any hell whatever in
the other world. Among the last and sure results of

38 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
false teaching, are suspicions, doubts, denials, and finally
the total eclipse of all faith.
See how good men — ministers of the gospel even — who
have not accepted the rational and heart-cheering truths
of the New Dispensation, are troubled even in this our
day by what they suppose the Bible to teach in regard to
the future state of the wicked. Says the late Rev. Dr.
Barnes, one of the raost distinguished of the Presbyterian
ministers of our country: —
" That any should suffer for ever, lingering on in hope
less despair, and rolling amidst infinite torments without
the possibility of alleviation and without end ; that since
God can save men and will save a part. He has not pro
posed to save all — these are real, not imaginary, difficul
ties. . . . My whole soul pants for light and relief on
these questions. But I get neither ; and in the distress
and anguish of my own spirit, I confess that I see no
light whatever. I see not one ray to disclose to me why
sin came into the world ; why the earth is strewn with
the dying and the dead ; and why man must suffer to all
eternity. I have never seen a particle of light thrown
on these subjects, that has given a moment's ease to my
tortured mind. ... I confess, when I look on a world
of sinners and sufferers — upon death-beds and grave
yards — upon the world of woe filled with hosts to suffer
for ever; when I see my friends, my family, my people,
my fellow-citizens — when I look upon a whole race, all
involved in this sin "and danger — and when I see the

THE NEW DOCTRINE. 39
great mass of them wholly unconcerned, and when I feel
that God only can save them, and yet He does not do so,
I am struck dumb. It is all dark, dark, dark, to my
soul, and I cannot disguise it."
How many other good men are there among the Chris
tian ministers of to-day, who, if they would but confess
the honest truth, would tell you that they are in just the
same darkness and distress that Dr. Barnes here confesses
to — if not upon the same subjects, then upon some others
no better understood. Yet Dr. Barnes himself, I pre
sume, was so confirmed in all the dogmas of the Presby
terian church, that the light of heaven as it beams out
from the luminous pages of Swedenborg, would have
seemed to him darkness as thick, perhaps, as that in
which he confessed himself to be ; — it could hardly have
seemed more dense. Verily, "the light shineth in dark
ness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not."
Certainly, then, a new. revelation concerning the nature
of hell, or concerning the condition of the wicked in
the great Hereafter, was greatly needed when Sweden
borg wrote ; and therefore it was to be expected.
Let us now examine the New doctrine on this subject,
and see whether it is really worthy of the origin claimed
for it ; or whether it be as irrational as the Old one
which it comes professedly to displace.
According to the new doctrine of the immortal life,
the human soul is in the same form as the material body
— that is, the human form. It is organized of spiritual

40 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
substance, as the natural body is of material substance.
It is the real individual — man, woman or child. It is
that in us which thinks, remembers, reasons, loves. It is
endowed with the senses of seeing, hearing, feeling, etc.
— far more acute and perfect, too, than the bodily senses.
It is not subject to decay or death, but lives on after the
natural body dies. When that change which we call
death (and which is the death of the body) takes place,
the soul passes consciously into the spiritual world. It
was there before death, but 2^«-consciously while its out
look was into the realm of nature ; just as the body in a
state of sleep is, unconsciously, in the natural world ;
and when it awakes, it becomes fully conscious of its
abode here.
While the soul tabernacles in the flesh, its senses are
ordinarily closed ; but when released from all connec
tion with the body, its senses are all opened. It awakes
to a consciousness of its existence in the spiritual world.
It is then brought into open and sensible intercourse with
the people and objects of that world. Its eyes and ears
being opened, it sees and hears other spirits as plainly as
we see and hear one another.
And when the body dies, the character of every soul
is, and continues to be, essentially the same as it was
before death. And every one's character depends on
the nature of his supreme or governing purpose— that
is, on the character of his ruling love. If he were wise
and righteous before death — if he took delight in serving

THE NEW DOCTRINE. 41
and blessing others, he will be wise and righteous after,
will find still greater delight in serving and blessing, and
feel a more intense desire to serve and bless. But if he
loved himself supremely — if his chief aim in life was to
get gain for himself alone, to secure his own ease, com
fort and advancement, and promote his own welfare,
careless of the welfare and the rights of others, he will
be in precisely the sarae state after death ; he will be
just as indifferent to the wants, the woes, the welfare and
the rights of others as he was before. If he had no
genuine love of the Lord and the neighbor before, he
will have none after. If meanness, dishonesty, lust,
tyranny, hatred, contempt of others in comparison with
himself, and selfish greed of gain, were in his heart be
fore, he will be full of these same unclean and hateful
vermin after. As it is written : " He that is unjust, will
be unjust still ; and he that is filthy, will be filthy still ;
and he that is righteous, will be righteous still ; and he
that is holy, will be holy still."
Heaven is within the soul ; so says the new doctrine.
It is essentially a state of life, not a place ; — a state of
supreme love to the Lord and the neighbor. It consists
in the reception and exercise of the Lord's own unselfish
love, which for ever seeks not its own, but the welfare
and happiness of others. The happiness of heaven re
sults from the exercise of unselfish love. This love is
the angels' breath of life ; and the purer and more in
tense it is, the more exalted is their bliss.
4»

42 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
We see how well this agrees with the teaching of our
Lord. For not only does He tell us that the sum of all
which the Law and the Prophets teach, is comprehended
in the two great commandments which require us to love
the Lord supremely and our neighbor as ourselves, but
He says also that "the kingdom of God is "within you."
And the. kingdom of God is the same as the kingdom of
heaven. Wherever love — pure, unselfish love — reigns,
there the Lord reigns ; there his kingdom is established
and his laws obeyed.
And as the kingdom of heaven is within, so also (says
the New doctrine) is the kingdom of hell. As heaven
consists essentially in love to the Lord and the neigh
bor, which is the love of doing good and serving, so
hell consists essentially in the opposite kind of love — in
the love of one's own self; and this love is real hatred of
the neighbor.
Hell, therefore, is a state of life the very opposite to
that of heaven. It is a state in which the love of self
-has absolute dominion in the heart. This love is the
fountain of all other evil loves. It is the primal source
of all infernal deeds. When it reigns supreme in the
heart, there is no evil thing which a man will not do
unless restrained by force, or by fear of loss, suffering or
damage of sorae sort. Hence the Lord says : " For out
of the heart proceed evil thoughts, raurders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemy" — all the

THE NEW DOCTRINE. 43
things which defile a raan, or render him spiritually un
clean. We see, then, where hell is and what it is, according
to the New doctrine. It is in the soul, and consists essen
tially in the supreme love of self which prompts to all
infernal deeds. To have hell in the soul, or to be in a
state of supreme self-love, is to be in hell ; just as having
heaven within, or loving the Lord supremely and the
neighbor as one's self, is to be in heaven.
Now all men are by natural inheritance more or less
selfish. Naturally, therefore, we are all in the low state
denoted by hell ; for we are dominated more or less abso
lutely by the love of self. This is a low — a merely ani
mal love ; and as our corporeal or animal life unfolds
and matures, this love also unfolds and strengthens ; so
that when we have attained to full maturity, it is usually
the strongest — the ruling love. But this is not our true
state. It is not the properly human state. It is not the
orderly or blissful state for which we were created. It
is not the state in which the Lord desires that we should
reraain, because He desires that all should be happy.
Therefore He is in the constant effort to lift us out of
our carnal selfish state, and to make us unselfish and
loving like Himself. For this end He assumed our
natural humanity. For this end He has revealed the laws
of our higher or heavenly life. For this end He has
shown us very clearly the way to rise out of our natural
state of self-love, which is hell, into that higher and

44 NFW VIEW OF HELL.
nobler state — that state of sweet unselfish love, which
is heaven.
This great change (for it is, indeed, a great change), or
this passing out of a low, natural, selfish state of life, into
one that is higher, richer, nobler— in short, into the
truly human state, is spoken of in the Bible as a "resur
rection to newness of life;" as a "putting off of the
old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful
lusts," and a "putting on of the new man, which after
God is created in righteousness and true holiness;" as
" passing from death unto life ;" as being " born again "
— " born from above " — " born of God," without which,
we are assured, no one can enter the kingdom of heaven.
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the king
dom of God."
Now although the Lord desires that we should all pass
out of our low or hellish state, into that high and heav
enly one which He has made us capable of attaining,
although He has told us how we may do so — has made
the way very plain — has assumed our nature with all its
hereditary and selfish proclivities that He might thereby
become to us THE WAY — yet He uses no compulsion.
He leaves all in freedom to either remain in their low
natural state, which is hell, or to rise out of it into that
exalted and unselfish state, which is heaven. He has
raade known the conditions upon which alone we can
rise ; and He is ever ready to lend us all needed help.
He is continually calling to us and saying, This is the

THE NEW DOCTRINE. 45
way ; walk ye in it. But He does not take hold of us
like a policeman, and force us to walk in that way. No
one can be forced to heaven ; for no one can be forced
to shun evils as sins, nor to love ivhat is good and true for
its o^wn sake. To go to heaven, we must freely comply
with the conditions ; and the conditions are, that we
voluntarily obey the laws of the heavenly life ; — that we
struggle with and overcome our selfish and evil propen
sities; — that we deny self, take up our cross, and follow
the Lord in the regeneration.
Such, briefly, is the New doctrine concerning hell —
where it is, what it is, and how to escape it. Is there
anything in it absurd and revolting, as we have seen that
there is in the Old? Is there anything here against
which enlightened reason utters its emphatic protest? —
anything which impugns the wisdom or love of our
Heavenly Father ?
But how does this doctrine, it will be asked, accord
with the teaching of Scripture ? It may be reasonable — -
far more reasonable than the Old doctrine. But is it
also Scriptural ? This is the question — and an important
one it is, too — which next claims and will receive atten
tion.

IV.
THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT.— SHEOL, HADES, GE-
HENNA, AND THE LAKE OF FIRE.
I HAVE said that while the Old doctrine of hell is
sensuous, and in agreement with a sensuous philoso
phy and a sensuous interpretation of Scripture, the New
is eminently spiritual, and in harmony with the higher
spiritual philosophy and with the spiritual interpretation
of the Word.
For the essential difference between the Old and the
New doctrine, lies in this : That the Old represents hell
as a place, created by the Lord at the time of man's
creation, previous to his lapse into sin, and for the express
purpose of tormenting sinners ; while the New declares
it to be a certain internal state, wrought out in freedom
through the voluntary infraction of the soul's own laws,
or the laws of our higher life. Your child may reside in
the ^.dcsxiQ place with yourself — beneath the shelter of the
same roof, and surrounded by the same beautiful objects.
But by a course of willful disobedience or unreasonable
self-indulgence, that child may have destroyed its health,
impaired its senses, and rendered itself miserable and
wretched generally. And until its habits are changed
46

SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 47
and its health renewed, it will find rest and comfort in
no place however beautiful.
Both hell and heaven, according to the New Theology,
are within men. They are not places but states of life.
But in the other world, these states project themselves
outwardly, making all the surroundings of each spirit a
perfect rairror, as it were, of himself; — reflecting with
mathematical precision his own affections and thoughts.
Heaven is a state the very opposite of hell ; as opposite
as day is to night, light to darkness, health to sickness,
love to hate, good to evil. The essential life of heaven,
is the life of disinterested love — love to the Lord and
the neighbor. The essential life of hell, is the life of
self-love ; and this is real hatred of the neighbor.
Heaven is a state in which the understanding is illu
mined by the light of truth ; hell is a state in which it is
obscured by the darkness of falsity. Heaven is a state
of spiritual health, order, peace and joy unutterable;
hell is a state of spiritual sickness, disorder, unrest and
comparative sorrow. In the most exalted heavenly state,
every one loves others even more than he loves himself;
in hell, and in all hellish states, every one hates others
in comparison with himself. Heaven is a state of hu
mility, self-forgetfulness, and of sweet and serene trust
in the Lord ; hell is a state of pride, self-seeking, and
inward alienation from and opposition to the Lord.
Heaven is a state of the most delightful freedom, in
which every one finds his highest gratification in the

4S NEW VIEW OF HELL.
performance of good uses from love to the Lord and
his neighbor ; hell is a state of spiritual thraldom, in
which no useful act is performed from love of or delight
in the use, but only by compulsion, as a slave works
under the lash.
It should be said, however, that the love of self is evil
and makes man an infernal only when it is the supreme
and ruling love. Then it is out of its place and the soul
is in disorder. In its right place, which is a state of
subordination and coraplete subjection to the nobler
love of heaven, it is good and useful. Says Sweden
borg: " These three loves [the love of heaven, the love of
the world, and the love of self] are related to each other
like the three regions of the body, the highest of which
is the head, the intermediate the chest and abdomen,
while the legs and feet and soles of the feet form the
third. When the love of heaven forms the head, the
love of the world the chest and abdomen, and the love
of self the feet with the soles of the feet, then man is in
a perfect state according to creation, because the two
lower loves then subserve the highest as the body and
all its parts subserve the head." (^True Christian Relig
ion, 403.)
But when the love of self or of the world is as the
head — is supreme — then the true order is reversed ; the
man is turned, as it were, upside down ; the love of
heaven is as tlf e feet, and he tramples on the laws of

SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 49
justice and neighborly love as often as his ruler (self-
love) dictates.
Such, according to Swedenborg is the essential nature
of heaven and hell. They are both within the human
soul, and consist in essentially opposite states of life —
opposite kinds of love — resulting by inevitable sequence,
in character, conduct, modes of government, and an
outward or objective world, as different as are the loves
that rule in these two kingdoms respectively.
Surely there is nothing unreasonable in all this. But
how does it agree with the teachings of Scripture ? That
is the question for present consideration. And the first
thing that claims attention, is the meaning of the word
Hell. To ascertain this, we raust go to the original lan
guages of the Bible. SHEOL and hades.
The Hebrew word translated Hell, is Sheol. And
Sheol, according to its primary literal import, means the
under "world, or a vast subterranean place pervaded by
thick darkness. Hence this word is sometimes translated
the grave, as in Genesis xxxvii. 35 ; xiii. 38. The corre
sponding Greek word is Hades. This has the same
meaning as Sheol, and is always used instead of it in the
Greek version of the Old Testaraent. And as further
evidence of their identity of iraport, we find the passage
from the sixteenth Psalm, "Thou wilt not leave my soul
in hell" etc., quoted in the Acts of the apostles (ch.ii.).
5 D

50 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
And in the Old Testament the Hebrew word for Hell in
this passage is Sheol, and in the New it is Hades,— •proY-
ing that these words have .one and the same meaning.
Such being the plain literal import of the Hebrew
She'ol, and its Greek equivalent Hades, some theologians
have contended that our English word hell ought to be
restricted in its meaning to the natural world ; for,
according to the strictly literal import both of the Greek
and Hebrew word, it means simply the grave, or a lo"w and
dark place — a place underground ; and has no reference
whatever to the condition of the wicked in the other
world, or to anything beyond the natural realm.
And if the Bible is to be literally interpreted — if it
contains no raeaning beyond that which lies upon the
surface, and which is obvious to the merely natural or
sensuous mind, these theologians certainly have the best
of the argument. What answer can the literalist consist
ently give ? For how, according to his theory, is this
word hell made to refer to the condition of the wicked
in the other world ? Why should it not be restricted in
its raeaning, to that which it literally denotes, viz., the
grave, or a dark sicbterranean region ?
Yet there are insuperable difficulties which those who
contend for such a limitation of the meaning of this
word, have to encounter. For, to be consistent in their
hermeneutics, they should limit the meaning of the term
heaven in precisely the same way. They should insist
on restricting the meaning of this word also to the realm

SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, E'TC. 51
of nature ; and should maintain that it has no reference
to the condition of the righteous in the other world — for,
in its obvious literal sense it has not.
The word in the original Hebrew, translated heaven in
our English version, is shdmayim ; and the literal signifi
cation of this is, the firmament, or the space above the
earth. It comes (so the best linguists tell us) from an
obsolete root, shdmd, whose meaning in the cognate
Arabic language is, to be high, or lifted up. And to this
Arabic radical lexicographers refer the Hebrew terra as
denoting an elevated locality — a high place. The Greek
equivalent of this Hebrew word is ouranos, which is also
translated by our English heaven, and means the sarae as
shdmayim ; that is, the space above the earth, or the vast
concave that surrounds the earth. And according to
raost philologists it comes frora the Greek radical orao,
which means to see — referring to the space above or
around the earth, where by raeans of the sun's light
objects are visible.
We find, therefore, that the words heaven and hell,
which occur so often in the sacred Volume, refer — in
their plain, obvious, literal sense, as gathered from the
Hebrew and Greek terms — to merely natural localities ;
one, to a place that is high, or to a region above the
earth, involving also the idea or possibility of clear-
seeing ; the other, to a place that is low, or to a region
beneath the earth, involving also the idea of darkness,
or great difficulty in seeing. And if the literalists, or

52 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
those who deny that the Scripture everywhere contains a
spiritual sense, would be consistent, they should restrict
the meaning of both these words to the natural world —
and to things -without, not within the soul of man. For
all good Biblical scholars know that neither heaven nor
hell, according to the literal import of their equivalent
Greek and Hebrew terras, conveys an idea of anything
above the realm of nature.
But there is abundant Scripture evidence that these
terms are not to be thus restricted in their meaning.
There is evidence that they refer to states and conditions
of two widely different classes of people in the spiritual
world. Thus the seer of Patmos tells us of persons and
things that he saw in heaven, when he was "in the
spirit," or when "a door was opened" to him in
heaven. Surely the myriads of angels whom he beheld,
were not seen with his natural eyes, nor in that region of
natural space above our earth. No : John's spiritual eyes
were opened, and this enabled him to see the beings
and objects of the spiritual world.
The Apostle Paul tells us that, on a certain occasion,
he was "caught up to the third heaven," and heard
there things which natural language cannot express.
How "caught up"? Was the apostle's material body
lifted through natural space into the upper regions of
the air ? No one, I presume, believes this. No one sup
poses that his corporeal part underwent any change of
place. No doubt there was to the apostle the appearance

SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 53
of being suddenly lifted up; but this appearance was
caused by, and was in perfect correspondence with, a
change which took place at that tirae in the condition
of the apostle's own mind. It was produced by a sudden
opening of his spiritual senses even to the third degree.*
No one ever was or ever can be carried to heaven — the
heaven of which the Bible speaks — by being elevated
bodily to the upper regions of space ; — no, not even if
he were lifted higher than the stars.
Then in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, we find the
rich man represented as alive and in hell after the death
and burial of his material body ; which proves conclu
sively that the hell of which the Bible speaks, is not any
region of natural space, but the state or condition of the
wicked — and a state, too, in which they find themselves
after the death of the body.
How, then, are we to arrive at the true Scripture im-
* According to Swedenborg, man is endowed with spiritual senses,
which are ordinarily closed during his sojourn in the flesh. Yet
these senses may be and sometimes are opened during his abode on
earth; and when opened, he is intromitted into the spiritual world,
and sees the objects and hears the sounds of that world as plainly as
with his natural senses he sees and hears the objects and sounds
of the natural world. And if the spiritual senses are opened to
the third or inmost degree (for there are three degrees to the mind
corresponding to the three angelic heavens) the individual is there
by intromitted into the third or highest heaven. This, Swedenborg
tells us, is the way in which he was admitted into heaven while on
earth. And it was the way in which Paul vvas "caught up."
5*

54 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
port of the terms heaven and hell? — for in their obvious
literal sense, they are both used to designate natural
localities — one a high and illumined, the other a low and
dark place. According to what principle or law is their
true meaning to be elicited ?
Swedenborg answers this question, as no one else has
ever answered it. (Let the reader, if he would appre
ciate the full force of the answer, bear in mind that the
Bible everywhere represents heaven and hell as opposite
kingdoms — opposite as light and darkness, love and hate,
truth and falsity, righteousness and sin, happiness and
misery) — He tells us that the written Word is composed
throughout upon the principle of correspondence ; that,
between all natural and spiritual things, there is a cor
respondence like that existing between the body and the
soul; and that the Sacred Scripture, therefore, in each
and all its parts, contains both a spiritual and a natural
sense, which stand related like the spiritual and the nat
ural worlds, or like the soul and body of man. The
spiritual sense is as the soul ; the natural sense, as the
body. As the body's life is from the indwelling soul or
spirit, so the life of every part of the written Word is
frora the spiritual sense. The body of man without the
soul, has no life ; neither is there life in the letter of the
Word when divorced from its inner spiritual meaning.
It is by virtue of their spiritual sense that the Lord's
words are spirit and life; for he says: "The words that
I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." And

SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 55
the apostle also clearly recognizes the sarae truth when
he says : " The letter kiileth; but the spirit giveth life."
Agreeably to this doctrine of the Sacred Scripture,
therefore, the words heaven and hell have each a natural
sense such as I have already explained, and a spiritual
sense with which the natural corresponds. Natural space
corresponds to spiritual or raental state. Hence all
words of Scripture, which in their natural sense refer to
space, in their spiritual sense denote states of the mind.
Accordingly there is natural elevation, and spiritual eleva
tion ; elevation in space and elevation in state. And the
term heaven, which in its natural sense refers to elevation
in space, in its spiritual sense denotes elevation of state ;
— that exalted condition of mind and heart, that state of
clear perception of whatever is beautiful and true, and of
disinterested love for all that is good and right, in which
the angels are.
So, too, there is natural lowmess, and spiritual lowness ;
the former having reference to space, the latter to state.
And the terra hell, which in its natural sense denotes a
low place or a region under ground, in its spiritual sense
denotes a low groveling state of raind ; — that state of
carnal desire and selfish craving and obscure perception
and blunted moral sensibility, in which the devils are.
We often use the words high and low in their spiritual
sense in familiar discourse ; and always when we have
occasion to apply them to moral or human qualities,
though in their primary literal signification they have

56 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
reference only to natural space. We employ them to
designate superiority and inferiority of character, or of
mental and moral attributes. Thus we speak familiarly
of a high order of intellect, of a high-vs\\rAtii man, of
lofty souls, superior worth, exalted wisdom and love.
We say of an individual that he stands high in the com
munity, high in the church or in the state, that he is
above others, etc., when our meaning is that he is spirit
ually or mentally above them — superior in wisdom, skill,
integrity, and moral worth. And equally often in famil
iar discourse is the wOrd low used in a similar way. As
when it is said of a mean and selfish man, that he is a
person of a low mind, low desires, low motives, or that
he is a low fellow. Indeed, the correspondence between
the natural and spiritual iraport of these terras, is so
obvious that it has never been lost sight of. Every one
perceives it frora common influx.
The Lord is called the Most High in Scripture, and is
said to dwell on high, above the earth, and above the
heavens. Surely it is not with any reference to natural
locality that such things are predicated of the omnipresent
One. No rational mind thinks of interpreting such lan
guage literally ; for no one thinks of localizing the Divine
Being. He is in all space — in the depths beneath as
truly as in the heights above — yet is Himself without
space. But on account of the infinite purity and excel
lence of his character — because, in respect to the human
attributes of love, wisdom and power. He is infinitely

SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 57
exalted above men and angels. He is said to be above all
the earth, above the heavens, the Most High, etc.
Yes : — The Scripture has everywhere a deeper meaning
than that of the letter. It was given, not to teach us
natural but spiritual truth. And it is by means of the
law or rule of correspondence now revealed, that its true
spiritual meaning is to be elicited. Space corresponds
to state. And the words high and low, therefore, which
in their natural sense refer to opposite regions of space,
in their spiritual sense denote opposite mental states — ¦
opposite kinds of love. The Lord is spiritually the Most
High. Therefore those who draw near to Him spirit
ually, who become like Him in the spirit and temper of
their minds, are spiritually exalted. And because all the
angels are images and likenesses of Hiraself — because
they resemble Him in their love, wisdom and works —
because their affections, thoughts, motives, purposes are
all pure, noble and elevated, therefore they are said to
dwell on high ; or, what is equivalent, in heaven.
And on the other hand those who are spiritually most
remote frora the Lord, who are most unlike Hira in dis
position and character, whose aims are altogether selfish,
whose affections, thoughts, motives and actions are low
and ignoble, and contrary to the nature of the Divine
Love, and who are, therefore, in a state the very opposite
to that of the angels, are said to dwell in a low place,
betieath the earth ; or what is the same, ijt hell.
I have said, moreover, that the Greek word translated

58 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
heaven, involves the idea of light, being derived from a
verb which signifies to see ; and that the original word
translated hell, involves the idea of darkness, being
composed of two words, which together mean impossible
to see, or where one cannot see. Here, again, let that
magic Key, the law of Correspondence, be applied ; and
observe the result.
Light and darkness, like all other objects, have a two
fold signification — an outer and an inner, or a natural
and a spiritual meaning. Light in its natural sense, is
the light of the natural world, which affects our natural
organs of vision. But spiritual light is of a different
nature, though in perfect correspondence with the natural.
It is the light of the spiritual world ; and although in its
essence it is divine truth, it appears before the eyes of
the angels as light. They see by means of it. This light
proceeds from the Lord who is the Sun of the spiritual
world — a Sun that appears to the angels immeasurably
more brilliant than the sun of our world appears to us. It
is the light of this spiritual Sun which illumines the minds
of both angels and men. This is "the true light which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world."
And as natural darkness is the absence of natural light,
so spiritual darkness is the absence of spiritual light.
But there are two causes of natural darkness ; one is the
absence of light, and the other is a diseased state of
the organs of vision. The darkness from the first of
these causes is seldom of long duration; and if the

SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 59
organs of vision are preserved in a healthy condition,
we shall be able to see when the light coraes. But the
darkness produced by the second cause is, indeed, de
plorable. However brightly the light may shine, it is (if
the eye-sight be gone) as if the sun were blotted out.
The brightness of noon-day is as midnight darkness
to us.
So, likewise, there are two corresponding causes of
spiritual darkness. One is, the absence of truth, or
spiritual light. But this kind of darkness may soon be
dispersed. For a person may be ignorant, and therefore
in spiritual darkness ; yet he may preserve his mind in
such an honest and healthy condition, that he will be
able to understand and receive the truth so soon as it is
presented to him. But there is another and far more
deplorable kind of spiritual darkness. It is that which
results from disobedience to the known laws of the
heavenly life. It is the darkness into which those fall,
who, under the influence of selfish and evil loves, confirm
themselves in various false ideas contrary to the revealed
Word of the Lord. For everywhere and always is it
true, that "he who doeth evil hateth the light, neither
cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved."
Persons who, under the prompting influence of infernal
loves, disregard and trample on the laws of their inner
life, and so obscure their moral perceptions, come at last
to hate the light of truth, and shun it as owls and bats
shun the light of day. Their understanding becomes

6o NEW VIEW OF HELL.
diseased ; their mental eye, adjusted to error. And how
ever bright the truth raay shine, they do not see it. To
them it appears as falsity. They " put darkness for light
and light for darkness." Therefore the Lord says : "If
thine eye be single [or raore correctly, sound, healthy']
thy whole body shall be full of light ; but if thine eye be
evil [i. e., a;^-sound, diseased], thy whole body shall be
full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in thee
be darkness, how great is that darkness ! ' ' Matt. vi.
22, 23.
Agreeably to this, Swedenborg often tells us that the
denizens of heaven dwell in light inconceivably more
brilliant than the light of this world ; while those in
hell live in great darkness — for their understandings are
darkened by innumerable falsities originating in evil
lusts. Milton had a perception of this great truth when
he sang :
" He that hath light within his own clear breast,
May sit in the centre and enjoy bright day;
But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts,
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun.
Himself is his own dungeon."
There is a great darkness within all evil spirits, and this
produces the darkness without ; for in the other world
everything without is but the reflection, under the great
law of correspondence, of the state or quality of life
within. But evil spirits do not appear to themselves to

SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 6l
be in such darkness as they really are. Neither do evil
men, whose understandings are darkened by falsities
originating in evil loves. They even imagine themselves
in clearer light than others. And so do the devils think
they see far better than the angels. But their light is the
light of fatuity — the dim (yet mercifully accommodated)
light of perverted natures — which, compared with the
light that shines in heaven, is as the light from ignited
coals compared with the splendor of the noon-day sun.
From what has been said, and from the correspond
ence of light and darkness, we may see why the Divine
Saviour — the embodiment and living manifestation of
the Truth — calls himself "the light of the world " ; and
why He says to those who had not previously known the
truth, but had nevertheless kept themselves in a state to
receive it, "They that sit in darkness and in the shadow
of death, upon thera hath the light shined." We raay
see also why it is said that " God is light, and in Him is
no darkness at all"; and of the wicked, that "they
walk in darkness," and will finally be "cast into the
outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of
teeth." All who do not, while here on earth, resist and over
come their evil loves, find themselves in that "outer
darkness ' ' when they enter the other world ; for through
the indulgence of their evil lusts they shut out the light
of God and the things of his wisdom frora their rainds.
They are, therefore, excluded from the kingdom of

62 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
heaven, having no heaven, and no love for the things
which constitute heaven, in their hearts. Whatever
truths they have ever known, they now reject and turn
away from, because such truths condemn their evil loves.
And so they immerse themselves altogether in falsities,
for these are in agreement with their evils. Hence
there are endless strifes and bickerings among them ; for
each one fights for his own falsity, and calls it truth.
And the jarring discord and angry disputes among those
who are in falsities, joined also with mutual hatred,
derision and contempt, are what the gnashing of teeth
corresponds to, and what it, therefore, spiritually denotes.
GEHENNA AND THE LAKE OF FIRE.
But the Bible speaks of a fire in the great Hereafter —
of the fire of hell, the everlasting fire, a furnace of fire;
a lake burning with fire and brimstone, etc. And in
this hell-fire, or lake of fire, it is said that the wicked
will have their part. And the rich man in the parable is
represented as saying, " I am tormented in this flame ; " —
and this, after he had died and was buried.
I presume few intelligent Christians now-a-days think
of interpreting such language according to the strict
sense of the letter — as it was interpreted a hundred years
ago. They will tell you that this language is figurative,
though none of them may be able to tell precisely what
was meant to be conveyed by it. But Swedenborg, in
his great doctrine of Correspondence, has furnished the

SHEOL, HADES, GEHENiV.4, ETC. 63
true key to its meaning. He has given us the spiritual
meaning of hell-fire, or the Gehenna of fire, and told us
what it is in the human soul that fire corresponds to.
But as the literal sense is the foundation of the spir
itual, it is necessary always to give careful attention to
this first.
In the original Greek, Gehenna is the word translated
hell, where the fire of hell, or the hell of fire, is spoken of
And Gehenna is a Hebrew word transplanted into the
Greek, with but little variation in its form. It is coraposed
of two other Hebrew words, Gai or Ge, which means a
valley, and Hinnom, the name of a man. The literal
raeaning, therefore, of Gehenna is, the valley of Hiniiotn.
This valley was south-east of, and near to, Jerusalem.
The brook Kedron ran through it. Here the Jews at
one time practiced the most impious idolatry. They
had an iraage dedicated to Moloch, to which they offered
in sacrifice not only bulls, lambs, rams, etc., but even
their own children, who were placed in the arms of the
image previously heated by a fire within, and thus were
quickly destroyed. On this account the place subse
quently came to be regarded with such abhorrence, that
it was made the coramon receptacle of all the filth and
rubbish of the city. The dead bodies of animals as
well as of the most notorious criminals, were there
thrown into one common heap. And a fire was kept
continually burning to prevent the atmosphere from be
coming pestilential — the worms, meanwhile, reveling in

64 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
a luxurious repast upon the remains of the rubbish which
the fire failed to consume.
Here we have the primary, literal signification of the
Gehenna of fire, which our translators have rendered hell-
fire. It means the fire that burned in that loathsome
valley of Hinnom. And as the last punishment and dis
grace of condemned criminals was, to cast their dead
bodies into that valley or that fire, the place came to be
used as an appropriate symbol of the condition of those
in the other world, who had violated, and persisted in
violating, the laws of eternal love and justice revealed
in the Divine Word.
But what is the precise spiritual meaning of this hell-
fire, or Gehenna of fire, as elicited by Swedenborg's
grand Key — the rule of Correspondence? And we
must never forget that the spiritual meaning of Scripture,
if we can ascertain what that really is, is its true mean
ing. For the Lord has himself declared that his words
"are spirit and life."
What, then, is the spiritual correspondent of fire?
Swedenborg answers, "Love." Love, he says, is spirit
ual fire or heat. Love is life ; and every man, therefore,
has some kind of love, because he has life. To wholly
deprive him of love, would be to extinguish the vital
spark — yes, to annihilate hira. Love is the raotive
power in whatever a man thinks, wills, says or does.
As heat is the proximate cause of all activity, germina
tion, expansion and growth in the natural world, so love

SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 65
is the cause of all activity, germination, expansion and
growth in the moral or spiritual realm. Deprived of all
love, a man would be like the earth deprived of all heat
— unproductive and dead. While the more passionately
he loves any object or being — it may be a woman, it
may be wealth, it may be literary or scientific fame, it
may be civil or military glory — the raore alive and
active he is. See how the lower kinds of love — the
purely selfish and worldly — the love of gold or glory,
incite men to days of toil and nights of watchfulness !
And the higher and nobler kinds — loves purer and more
angelic — are the springs of action in all men's higher
and nobler achievements, in all deeds done to improve
and bless mankind. Take away all love from human
hearts, and what would raen do then ? And the less pas
sionately one loves, the more sluggish he is in thought and
action — the less is he alive. So obvious is it that love is
the quickener and enlivener of the human soul, the very
fire of every man's life. And the character of each one,
therefore, or the quality of his life, is according to the
nature of this fire.
The correspondence between natural and spiritual fire,
or natural and spiritual heat, is placed beyond a doubt
when we reflect upon the fact that the body grows warm
in proportion as any kind of love is enkindled or inten
sified in the soul. The love may be impure and devil
ish, such as those feel who are full of anger or revenge ;
still it produces bodily heat ; the face reddens and the
6* E

66 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
circulation is quickened. Again, the body grows cold
as love departs, or as its activity ceases. All of which
proves that there exists, between natural heat or fire and
spiritual heat or love, a relation like that between cause
and effect. And this kind of relation is what Sweden
borg means by Correspondence.
It is for the same reason, also, that the bodies of chil
dren and young persons are usually warmer than those
of the aged. They have more love in their hearts, or
their love is more active ; and this quickens the circula
tion of their blood. For a similar reason, again, we call
persons whose hearts are full of love and sympathy,
w«r»z-hearted ; and those who seem to have no love for
anybody, <r<7/(/-hearted. Then how often do we hear
Christians pray that the Lord would kindle in their hearts
a heavenly fire ! And sometimes they pray that He
would warm thera with his love. For the same reason
we hear it said of an angry man, especially if his anger
breaks forth in deeds of violence, that he is inflamed,
burns with anger, is all on fire, etc. And does not the
internal fire at such times manifest itself in the counte- ,t
nance as well as in the gestures and tones of the voice ?
Furthermore, the wise man says: "A hot mind is a
burning fire." And the inspired Psalmist calls the Lord
" a consuming fire ' ' ; and says that " a fire goeth before
Hira, and burneth up his eneraies round about Him."
Does any one believe that the Lord is literally a con
suming fire? or that He literally burns up his enemies?

SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 67
No : This language, like all of the inspired Word, is
the language of correspondence. It contains a spiritual
meaning. And in this, which is its true meaning, it ex
presses the intensity of the Divine Love, and its effect
upon the wicked. Those who are in states of opposition
to the Lord, change his love in themselves into its oppo
site ; just as the deadly night-shade changes the sweet
dews and sunshine into poison. They cannot receive
his love as it is, because of their own state. They feel it
as something wrathful, fiery, burning. To them it is as a
consuming fire ; for they change its nature at the moment
of receiving it. In its origin all love is pure and good ;
for it is all frora Him who is Love itself But its quality
or nature is changed in the recipient subjects. {See Swe
denborg' s Heaven and Hell, n. 569.)
Now there are in general two very different and even
opposite kinds of love. There is a love of the Lord and
the neighbor, which is good ; and there is a love of self
and the world, which, when it reigns supreme in the
heart, is evil, and prompts to all kinds of wickedness.
And one or the other of these loves bears rule in every
man, spirit, or angel, and constitutes the very fire of his
life. Good men and angelic spirits live in the former,
and wicked men and evil spirits live in the latter kind
of love. There is, therefore, a heavenly and a hellish
love ; or, speaking in the language of correspondence,
there is a heavenly fire and a hell fire — the term fire de
noting the love or delight which constitutes the life.

68 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
"Infernal fire," says Swedenborg, "is the love of
self and the world ; therefore it is every lust which
springs from these loves ; for lust is love in its continuity,
since a man continually lusts after what he loves ; and
it is likewise delight, for what a man loves or lusts
after, he perceives as delightful when he obtains it ; nor
is heart-felt delight communicated to him from any other
source. " Infernal fire, therefore, is the lust and delight which
spring from the love of self and the world as from their
fountain. The evils originating in these two loves, are
contempt of others, enmity and hostility against those
who do not favor them, envy, hatred and revenge, and
as a consequence of these, savageness and cruelty. And
in regard to the Divine, they consist in the denial, and
hence in the contempt, mocking, and reviling of the holy
things belonging to the church; and after death, when
man becomes a spirit, these evils are turned into anger
and hatred against those holy things. . . . These are the
things signified by fire in the Word, where the wicked
and the hells are treated of." — Heaven and Hell, n. 570.
The supreme love of self, therefore, according to the
New Theology, together with all the unholy passions and
malignant feelings which proceed from it, and the infer
nal delight felt in the indulgence of filthy lusts, is what
is meant by hell-fire in the true spiritual sense. This is
what the Gehenna of fire corresponds to ; for the delight
arising from the gratification of mean, base, and purely

SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 69
selfish desires, is a flame supported by that heap of spirit
ual filth and rubbish, which renders the heart of man
unclean. From what has now been said, the meaning of that
"lake of fire burning with brimstone" spoken of in the
Revelation, in which "the fearful, and unbelieving, and
abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sor
cerers, and idolaters, and all liars ' ' shall have their part,
is sufficiently obvious. Brimstone corresponds to the
filthy lusts of the natural man. These, through un
bridled indulgence, feed and support the flame of infer
nal love, as brimstone feeds and supports the flame of
natural fire. Such lusts are spiritual brimstone.
Those, therefore, who are immersed in evil concupis
cences originating in the love of self, are in precisely
the state which corresponds to being in a " lake that burn
eth with fire and brimstone." Such a lake is a perfect
symbol, framed under the law of correspondence, of the
spiritual condition of the wicked. Hence it is said that,
in the great Hereafter, they will have their part in this
lake. They are in it now and here, but.not so entirely
as they will be then and there.
But a smoke is said to issue frora that lake. "The
smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever. '
What does this mean ?
If the fire and the brimstone are not to be literally in
terpreted, neither is the smoke. If the former are syra-

yo NEW VIEW OF HELL.
bois of soraething spiritual, the latter sho.uld be so like
Avise. And so, indeed, it is.
We know it is the tendency of all infernal passions
and propensities originating in the love of self, to darken
the understanding in. spiritual things; — to obscure our
perceptions of what is just and true and good. While
the more unselfish a man is, the more reverently he heeds
the still small voice within him, the more earnestly he
strives to do the will of the Heavenly Father, the clearer
becoraes his moral vision, the keener his perception of
the true and right upon questions involving the higher
and more permanent interests of humanity. Hence we
read : "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be
full of light ; but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body
shall be full of darkness." "If any man will do his
will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be from
God." "He that doeth truth, cometh to the light."
Which texts conspire to prove that purity of purpose and
the faithful doing of the truth, are indispensable to clear
ness of mental vision upon subjects of profoundest in
terest. But where the love of self is supreme, and there
is no regard for God or duty, and no respect for the
great laws of love and justice, there the understanding
is darkened ; there the moral perceptions are obscured,
and the true and right are not seen. As saith the in
spired penman: "The sun and the air are darkened by
the smoke of the abyss. ' '
From this we may see what is meant in the spiritual

SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, E7^C. 71
sense by "the smoke of the pit," and the smoke that
"ascendeth up for ever and ever." It is that darkened
understanding, that mental obscurity which results from
the fire of a supremely selfish love, which is the fire of
hell. And in the other world where all outward appear
ances correspond to internal states, a cloud of smoke
actually appears round about infernal societies when they
are seen in heavenly light.
Thus we see that the doctrine announced by Sweden
borg concerning the nature of hell, however it differs
from the literal teaching of the Bible, is in perfect agree
ment with the teaching of its spiritual sense. No candid
mind can deny that it is, indeed, the very doctrine of
the Bible on this subject, and in harmony with the whole
scope of its teaching as well as with all we know of the
wisdom of God and the nature of man.
Then look at its obvious, practical tendency. By
showing hell to be a state instead of a place, it teaches
every one to look within himself, at his own heart ; to
examine carefully his dominant love, his ends and aims in
life, his ruling principles of action. It teaches us, more
over, what that state is : and that those, and those only,
go to hell, who carry in their bosoms the loves that rule
in hell; and therefore that those only escape it, who
resist and overcome these loves. It shows us that only
those shun hell, who shun as sins against God the indul
gence of the dispositions and loves of hell; — who shun,

72 NEJl.' VIEW OF HELL.
from religious principle, all wicked arts and devices, all
base and dishonest actions, all falsehood, fraud, deceit,
revenge and hate, all dispositions and actions that tend
to separate us from God and heaven and bring us into
fellowship with devils. It teaches further, that if we do
not, here on earth, strive to do the Heavenly Father's
will, and so vanquish within us the loves of hell, we
shall carry those loves with us into the other world,
where they will burst forth with quenchless rage.
Thus the practical tendency of this doctrine is good,
and only good. It tends to make men less regardful of
self, and more regardful of God and duty; — more
honest and sincere in their conduct, more kind and
generous in their feelings, more correct in their prin
ciples, more exalted in their aims, more pure in heart
and life.

V.
HELL — THE CHOSEN HOME OF ALL WHO GO
THERE.
'TT^HAT the reasonableness and truth of the New doc-
-*- trine of hell may be raore apparent, and the sharp
contrast between it and the Old be more clearly seen —
as well as its consistency with the perfect wisdom and
love of God, something more must be said about that
essential element of our humanity — freedom.
We have seen that the Old doctrine is based upon the
literal teaching of Scripture wholly divorced from its
living spirit; and that it is in harmony with the sensuous
conceptions and sensuous philosophy of a by-gone Age ;
while the New is eminently spiritual, in strict accord
with the spirit of the Word, and with the highest spiritual
conceptions of the most enlightened minds of this New
Age. The Old makes hell a place, and the casting into
it a purely arbitrary and willful act of Omnipotence ;
the New declares it to be a certain state of life which
each individual forms or develops for himself through
the voluntary abuse of his own freedom and rationality.
Every one, therefore, who goes to hell, goes there as
7 li

74 I^EW VIEW OF HELL.
freely as the tippler goes to the gin-shop, or the profli
gate to the brothel.
Here is one born, we will suppose, and living in a
miserable, barren, dreary region, where there is little to
delight the eye or regale the senses. Yonder is a rich
and fertile country, charming to look upon, abounding
in fruits and flowers, singing birds and running brooks,
splendid habitations and magnificent gardens, with
everything therein that can charm or gratify the senses.
But the way to that beautiful country is over a rough road
— across deep ravines and miry places — and sometimes
through turbulent waters and up steep and slippery ac
clivities. But there is no other road to that delightful
region. Whoever would take up his abode there, must
encounter all the difficulties of the way. He must climb
the precipices, and wade the bogs, and wallow through
the miry places, and ford the swiftly running streams.
And the dweller in the desert, we will suppose, knows
all this. Now he may have his choice : — he may remain
in the dreary region where he was born, or, if he is will
ing to endure the hardships of the journey, he may go
to yonder region so rich and .fair, and snuff its balmy
breezes for the remainder of his life, and gaze upon its
beautiful scenery, and inhale its sweet perfuraes and taste
its delicious fruits. The choice is offered him ; and he is
free to choose. He may stay where he is, or go to the
l.iiid of beauty and promise. But if he goes, he must
endure all the fatigues and hardships of the journey.

THE CHOSEN HOME, ETC. 75
He must accept the conditions, else he can never reach
there. The proprietor of the country uses no compul
sion. He simply says : There it lies ; and this is the
way to it ; and there is no other. Go or stay, as you
please. But remember, the going involves labor and
hardship. If you are willing to endure these, that beau
tiful country, or as rauch of it as you desire, shall be
yours forever.
Let this desert region represent man's natural state,
and the beautiful country }'onder, the state which he is
made capable of attaining through spiritual labor and
conflict with the foes of his own household, and the illus
tration is complete. By rising out of or migrating from
that state of life denoted by hell, we come into the state
denoted by heaven. It is not by any change of place,
nor through any exercise of immediate Divine mercy
that this is effected. It is a purely spiritual migration.
It is a passing out of a low or exterior spiritual condition,
into a higher or more interior one.
And though this change of state is as much a matter of
the individual's own volition as an act of natural migra
tion, or a change of natural locality, and cannot, indeed,
take place without the exercise of his own free choice,
yet it has its laws or conditions; and without the observ
ance of these the change cannot be effected. And no
one can be forced to comply with the conditions. He is
left to his own free choice. He may remain in Egypt,
and delve there under the lash of his old task-masters.

76 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
and get what comfort he can from the flesh-pots ; or he
may (if he choose) leave that country, and go to the land
of promise— "a land of brooks of water, of fountains
and depths that spring out of valleys and hills ; a land
of wheat and barley and vines and fig-trees and pome
granates ; a land of oil — olive and honey."
But if he choose the latter course, he voluntarily places
himself under the Lord's government and guidance, and
may expect at times the chastening hand of paternal
love to keep him in the right way. "Thou shalt also
consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son,
so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee." He must endure
all the perils and hardships of the journey. He must go
"through that terrible wilderness, wherein are fiery
serpents and scorpions and drought — where there is no
water." But multitudes choose to remain and do remain in
Egypt. They are not willing to accept the conditions
on which alone they can rise out of their natural into a
heavenly state of life. They are not willing to deny
self, take up the cross, and follow the Lord in the regen
eration. They are not willing to deny themselves the
indulgence of their selfish and inordinately greedy pro
pensities. They have no desire and make no effort to
overcome these propensities, or to bring them into due
subjection to higher and nobler loves. They prefer
to follow the bent of their inclinations, and to do as

THE CHOSEN HOME, ETC. 77
their pride and love of self and greed of gain and lust
of power prompt.
Multitudes of this class pass from the natural into the
spiritual world every year. Sorae of them ultimate their
supreme selfishness here, in words and deeds befit
ting devils ; — in falsehood, fraud, theft, blasphemy, adul
tery, murder and other abominations. But some of them
are, outwardly, quite respectable people. Some of them
are members of churches — professedly very religious ; and
at times, when they have some selfish end to serve, they
are (on the outside, at least) kind and benevolent. But
inwardly, at heart, they are supremely selfish. It is this
class (and they are to be found among Christians to
day, as certainly as they were among the Jews eighteen
hundred years ago) whom our Lord addresses when He
says : " For ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which
indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of
dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Even so ye
also, outwardly, appear righteous unto men, but within ye
are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." Every one's real
..haracter depends on the quality of his heart — on the
nature, that is, of his ruling love. All whose ruling love
is the love of self, are devils at heart, though they may
be saints to outward appearance.
Now the Lord does not desire to punish these people
in anyway — either in this world or in the world to come.
He does not desire that they should suffer, nor permit
them to suffer, except for their own ultimate good. He
7*

78 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
forever desires to improve their condition, and perpet
ually works toward this end. But He cannot overcome
their inordinate self-love without their willing co-opera
tion. Before He can do this, they must recognize this
love as essential evil when it is allowed the mastery, and
must compel themselves to deny its cravings and to obey
the laws of neighborly love. So far is the Lord from
hating these people, or frora any desire that they should
suffer one atom beyond what He knows will be for their
own good. He pursues them with his infinitely wise and
pitying love, in the other world as He had previously
pursued thera in this.
On their first entrance into the spiritual world, they
find themselves attended and cared for by wise and loving
angels. And the angels remain with them and perform
for them every kind office in their power, so long as
their company is agreeable, or so long as the new-comers
are willing that they should remain. But soon their in
terior selfishness becomes active. Their internals come
forth into their externals. Their devilish dispositions
and feelings manifest themselves in corresponding looks,
words and actions. Their interior and real character
throws off whatever mask it had previously worn on
earth, and reveals itself as it really is. The previously
hidden or concealed quality of their hearts comes out
there, and is openly and fully revealed. Agreeably to
these words of the Lord : " For there is nothing covered
that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be

THE CHOSEN HOME. ETC. 79
known." Their externals are brought into perfect agree
ment with their internals ; and they show by their looks,
tones, words and actions, just what they are. They no
longer have a divided mind ; but they appear outwardly
just what they are inwardly. The avenues in their souls
through which they had previously held some comrauni
cation with heaven, or retained some perception of
heavenly things, are all closed — closed in tender mercy
to thera.
Is it not infinitely better for a wolf, that he be wolf
all through, frora inmosts to outmosts ? Suppose the
wolf possessed a kind of human internal, which enabled
him to see the dreadful ferocity and cruelty of his na
ture, and filled him with keenest self-reproach every time
he invaded the sheep-fold. Suppose he were human in
side, but wolf outside ; yet the wolfish propensities were
so strong and overmastering that they could not be held
in check. Can we not see what unutterable misery that
poor creature would endure ?
It is from tenderest mercy to the selfish and inwardly
evil, therefore, that, in the great Hereafter the heavens
of their minds are closed ; that their moral sense, or
their perception of right and wrong, is completely be
numbed or lost ; and that their externals are reduced to
a state of perfect agreement with their internals. When
this takes place, they no longer desire to remain in com
pany with the angels. The angelic sphere becoraes ex
tremely disagreeable to thera — painfully so ; and they

So NEW VIEW OF HELL.
withdraw from it as instinctively as owls and bats with
draw frora the light of day. And then they gravi
tate each one to the society of spirits whose character
is nearest like his own. For in the hells as in the
heavens there are innumerable societies, some in one
kind of evil and some in another ; and some more des
perately wicked than others — for there are various kinds
and degrees of wickedness in the other world, as there
are in this. And the great law of spiritual affinity, which
is as universal and constant in the spiritual world as the
law of gravitation is in this, tends to bring those of like
character together, and to hold them together.
Every evil spirit, therefore, soon as his interior cha
racter is fully developed, gravitates with unfailing cer
tainty toward " those who are most like himself. Nor
does he go reluctantly among his like ; he goes there
willingly, gladly, joyfully, as thieves and profligates on
earth go araong those of like character. He seeks their
society in perfect freedora, because he finds it congenial ;
because he prefers it to the society of the good and wise ;
and he prefers it, because they are like himself. With
thera he feels raore at home, raore free, more contented,
more happy than any where else ; — and it is the Lord's
ceaseless desire and effort to make every one as happy as
possible. He does not force a single individual to go
where he does not wish to go in the Hereafter. And
those who go into any of the societies of hell, go in free
dom and from choice. They go there because they find

THE CHOSEN HoME, ETC. Sl
such society raore congenial than that of the angels. If
forced to live in heaven, or in the society of the wise
and good, they would be out of their proper element ;
nay, they would be unspeakably miserable. It would be
far more cruel than it would be to compel persons whose
eyes are diseased, to dwell in the bright blaze of the
noon-day sun. Accordingly Swedenborg says :
"Spirits who come from the world into the other life,
desire nothing more than to be admitted into heaven.
Almost all seek to gain admittance, imagining that heaven
consists only in being introduced and received. There
fore also, because they desire it, they are conveyed to
some society of the lowest heaven ; but when they who
are in the love of self and the world approach the thresh
old of that heaven, they begin to be so distressed and
tormented interiorly, that they feel hell in themselves
rather than heaven. Therefore they cast themselves
down headlong thence ; nor do they find rest until they
come into hell among their like.
"It has often happened also that such spirits desired
to know what heavenly joy is ; and when they heard that
it is in the interiors of the angels, they have wished to
have it comraunicated to themselves. Therefore this
also was granted, — for whatever a spirit desires, who is
not yet in heaven or in hell, is granted him if it be bene
ficial. But when the comraunication was raade, they
began to be tortured to such a degree that they knew not
into what posture to screw their bodies on account of thf"
F

82 lYEW VIEW OF HELL.
pain. I saw them force their heads down even to their
feet, cast themselves upon the ground, and there twist
themselves into folds, in the raanner of a serpent ; and
this by reason of the inward agony. Such was the effect
which heavenly delight produced upon those who were
in delights frora the love of self and the world." {Heaven
and Hell n. 400.)
Again he says :
" Most of those who go from the Christian world into
the other life, carry with them the belief that they are to
be saved by immediate mercy. But when they are exam
ined, they are found to believe that to come into heaven
is merely to be admitted ; and that those who are ad
mitted are in heavenly joy, — being totally unacquainted
with the nature of heaven and of heavenly joy. Where
fore they are told that heaven is not denied to any one
by the Lord ; and that they can be admitted if they
wish, and tarry there as long as they please. They who
have desired this, have also been admitted ; but when
they reached the first threshold, they were seized with
such anguish of heart, from the breathing upon them of
heavenly heat which is the love in which the angels are,
and from the influx of heavenly light which is divine
truth, that they experienced infernal torment instead of
heavenly joy ; and in consequence of the shock they cast
theraselves headlong thence. Thus were they instructed
by living experience, that heaven cannot be given to any
one from immediate mercy." — Ibid. 525.

THE CHOSEN HOME, ETC. 83
We see this great law of affinity exemplified here on
earth — among animals as well as the human race. Those
of the same species or general characteristics, always
prefer the society of each other. Beavers love to be
with beavers, bears with bears, wolve^ with wolves, mice
with mice. None of these creatures feel quite contented
or at home in the society of animals of a totally different
nature. And so with the merabers of the huraan family. Not
only do the evil, when left to act in perfect freedom,
shun the society of the good, but they group themselves
together according to the kinds and degrees of wicked
ness in which they are. Pirates choose the society of
pirates ; thieves the society of thieves ; counterfeiters the
society of counterfeiters ; tipplers, gamblers, burglars,
profligates, the society of persons of their own profession
— persons most like themselves. So obvious is this truth,
that it has passed into the proverbs, universally accepted,
"Birds of a feather flock together;" and "A man is
known by the corapany he keeps. ' '
There can be no doubt, then, that this law of affinity
is one of the unchangeable laws of the moral universe ;
and it must, therefore, govern in the arrangements of all
in the spiritual world — the evil as well as the good. It
must group congenial spirits into innumerable associa
tions. And a most wise and beneficent provision it is,
too ; — a provision whereby every human being, whatever
be his character, shall have a home in the Hereafter

34 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
among just that class of persons whose society he prefers
and finds congenial to his tastes.
But the societies of the hells, selfish and wicked as
they are, are under a government as well as those of the
heavens. And this government, too, is provided by the
Lord, and is most wisely and mercifully adapted to their
condition and wants. It is provided for the best good
of the devils themselves, as well as for the good of all
other parts of the moral universe. It is precisely such a
government as they require ; the only one, indeed, that
is suited to their state — a government not of love, but of
fear and force ; for there is no love of the neighbor in
their hearts, and therefore no desire to promote the
coramon good. Hence their violent and raalignant pas
sions can only be restrained by fear of punishment.
Says Swedenborg :
"All the inhabitants of hell are governed by fears;
some by fears implanted in the world, which still retain
their influence ; but because these fears are not sufficient,
and likewise lose their force by degrees, they are gov
erned by fear of punishraents, and this fear is the prin
cipal means of deterring them from doing evil. The
punishments in hell are various, more gentle or more
severe according to the nature of the evils to be re
strained. For the most part, the more raalignant who
excel in cunning and artifice, and are able to keep the
rest in a state of submission and slavery by punishments
and the terror thereby inspired, are set over the others;

THE CHOSEN HOME, ETC. 8$
but these governors dare not go beyond the limits pre
scribed to them. It is to be observed that the fear of
punishment is the only means of restraining the violence
and fury of those in the hells. There is no other."
{Heaven and Hell, n. 543.)
Who cannot see that this is the very best kind of gov
ernment for those in hell — the only kind, indeed, that is
suited to their state and needs ? We see that punishment
there has a beneficent design and a beneficent tendency.
It is not directly from the Lord, though it results from
the unfailing operation of laws that He has established.
"Wherefore," says Swedenborg, "when evil is done
from an evil heart, then, because it casts away from itself
all protection from the Lord, infernal spirits rush upon
him who does the evil, and punish him. This may be
illustrated in some measure by crimes and their punish
ments in the world, where also they are linked together ;
for the laws prescribe some punishment for every crime,
so that whoever rushes into crime, rushes also into the
punishment thereof. The only difference is, that in the
world crime may be concealed ; but in the other life
concealment is impossible. From these considerations
it may be seen that the Lord does evil to no one ; and
that the case herein is similar to what we find in the
world, where not the king, nor the judge, nor the law,
is the cause of punishment to the guilty, since neither of
them is the cause of the crime committed by the evil
doer." (Ibid. n. 550.)

86 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
Look, now, at the intrinsic reasonableness of this New
doctrine of hell ; and compare, or rather contrast it with
that believed and taught a hundred years ago. While
our reason protests against the Old as utterly absurd, it
freely and cordially accepts the New. The Old is a
purely sensuous doctrine, in accordance with a sensuous
age, a sensuous philosophy, and a sensuous interpretation
of holy Scripture ; while the New is eminently spiritual,
in harmony with the conceptions of spiritually minded
men, with the higher spiritual philosophy, and the spirit
ual interpretation of the Divine Word. The Old is ar
bitrary — lying quite outside of the domain of law and
order ; while the New is seen to be in perfect accord
with the known laws of the human soul — the inevitable
result, indeed, of the violation of these laws. The Old
presents God as a very monster of cruelty; while the
New exhibits Him as a wise and tender and .loving
Father, forever pursuing his rebellious children into the
lowest depths of sin and suffering ; clasping his arms
around even the devils in hell ; providing a congenial
horae for all in the great Hereafter ; ^xAfust such a home
as each one, by the life that he has voluntarily formed,
strengthened and confirmed, is fitted to enjoy, and will
hiraseli freely choose.
Who, that is not utterly blinded by prejudice, can fail
to see that this New doctrine, as compared with the Old
and once generally accepted view, is as the light of
noon-day compared with the darkness of midnight !

VI.
THE DURATION OF HELL.
HAVING shown where and what hell really is, and
having exhibited the sharp contrast between the
Old and the New doctrine in respect to reasonableness ;
— having shown, also, that the law according to which
all spirits, the evil as well as the good, associate in the
great Hereafter, is unquestionably a law of the human
soul, and must therefore be as enduring in its operations
as the soul itself, I proceed next to consider the moment
ous question : —
Is the condition of the wicked in the other world, as
Swedenborg was permitted to see and commissioned to
reveal it, to continue substantially the same throughout
the ages of eternity ? In other words, will those who
pass into that world in a hellish state of life, remain for
ever in that state ? Or can men repent, and their ruling
loves be changed from evil to good, after death ? Can
the great work of spiritual renewal be cominenced in the
other world (with those who have died in a state of con
firmed evil), if it has not been begun in this? Or, as
some believe and confidently affirm, are "the inverted
forms of the natural degree which constitute the external 87

88 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
body of the infernal in the hells," to be finally destroyed
through "the unrestrained ultimation given to the ruling
infernal loves"? — so that the man (when these forms
are destroyed), "freed from his prison-house in the
hells," will be "restored to his original infant state of
conscious existence," ? — will " at once ascend to the plane
of the New Heaven — his eternal Home — and there, from
this new point of departure, advance in and to Eternal
Life"? These interrogatories, it will be seen, are only differ
ent ways of presenting one and the same question, which
is commonly stated in this form: "Are the hells to be
unending in their duration?" — or this: "Will those
who go to hell after death, always remain there ? Will
they always continue in an infernal state?"
This inquiry is not only natural, but it is one which
cannot be kept down. It rises spontaneously to the
thought, however its utterance by the lips or pen may be
suppressed. And where shall we look for an answer to this ques
tion ? To the intuitions of the natural reason ? or to the
unequivocal teachings of Revelation ? Is the verdict of
natural reason worthy of implicit reliance in questions of
this nature? — perverted, distorted, beclouded as all will
admit this reason to be. Were reason alone sufficient to
assure us of our continued and conscious existence aftei
the body dies? Reason may have nothing to urge
against the doctrine of the soul's immortality — nay, it

ITS DURATION. 89
may have much to urge in favor of it; but could it prove
it in such a raanner as to give us anything like a com
forting assurance of its truth ?
And if unaided reason could not discern or clearly
demonstrate even the soul's existence apart from the ma
terial body, what could it tell us about the nature, facts
or laws of that realm which it is to inhabit after the body
dies ? What assurance could reason alone give us of any
hell or heaven after the death of the body, or what could
it tell us of the nature of either ? — to say nothing of the
more profound and subtle questions like that now before
us. What need was there of any revelation concerning
the life after death, if huraan reason of itself could have
learned all about it ?
Obviously the Lord saw the inadequacy of reason to
such sublime discoveries ; and therefore, in tender com
passion and love toward us. He supplements the deficien
cies of reason by the clearer light of revelation. He
opens the eyes of chosen seers and prophets, and through
them reveals truth concerning man's immortality and the
life after death, which no one's reason without such reve
lation could ever have found out.
Plainly, then, the question before us narrows itself
down to this : What is the teaching of revelation on the
subject? Has the infinitely wise and gracious Lord — ¦
aiming to instruct and bless mankind through his own
chosen and gifted seers — deigned to tell us anything in
regard to the duration of the hells ? If so, what is it ?

>jO NEW VIEW OF HELL.
Any one may reject the revelation, or refuse to believe it
if he chooses ; but in that case he either denies that any
divinely authorized revelation has been made on the
subject, or he sets his reason above that revelation ; he
assumes "to be wise above what is written," yea, wiser
than the Lord hiraself He plants himself outside of or
above revelation, on precisely the ground occupied by
the Deistic and rationalistic schools. I cheerfully
concede everyone's right to do this; but doing it, he
has no right to complain of the logical consequence.
He has no right to find fault with others for casting him
into the ranks of those whose fundamental idea he delib
erately accepts.
Have we, then, a divinely authorized revelation on this
subject? And is that revelation clear and unmistak
able ? This is the question for those to consider who
believe in revelation ; and my argument is addressed
exclusively to such. And it is a question which should
be approached with judicial calmness, and with as much
freedom as possible from the biasing or blinding influence
of our own private judgments, feelings, or wishes in the
case. The question is : Has the Lord spoken on this
subject? And if so, what has He said ?
Nowhere but in its literal sense, does the Scripture teli
us anything about the duration of hell ; for in the
higher or spiritual sense of the Word, no idea is any
where conveyed of time or duration in the sense com
monly understood by these words. And it cannot be

ITS DURATION. ui
denied that, so far as the Bible in its literal sense
teaches anything about the duration of hell, it teaches
that it will be unending. The same terms to indicate
endless duration, that are applied to heaven, are also
applied to hell. Its punishment is said to be "ever
lasting," and its fire "the fire that never shall be
quenched." "And these [the wicked] shall go away
into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into ever
lasting life. ' '
And the great majority of the First Christian Church
have believed, according to the plain teaching of the
letter, that the hell of which the Bible speaks is to be
unending in duration, and that those who go there after
death will remain there for ever. It is plain that the
Lord intended that those who received his Word (as
Christians have hitherto for the most part) in its literal
sense, shouldh€ti.tvQ in the eternity of hell. Otherwise,
we may be sure that very different language would have
been employed from what we find wherever the duration
of hell is spoken of And if it be argued, as it some
times is, that the words "eternal" and "everlasting"
are occasionally applied in Scripture to things known to
be of temporary duration, and if the force of the argu
ment be admitted, what follows? Why, simply that the
Bible teaches nothing in regard to the duration of hell,
and that no argument can be drawn from its languags
either for or against its eternity.
Let us turn, then, to that more recent revelation which

92 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
the Lord has been pleased to make for the establishment
and upbuilding of a New Christian Church ; — a revela
tion wherein are disclosed many things concerning the
life after death, which the First Christian Church was
not able to bear. Upon no one subject, perhaps, has the
Lord's servant been more explicit, than upon the dura
tion of the hells. The following are some of his clear
and emphatic statements :
"Every raan's ruling affection or love remains with
him after death, nor is it extirpated to eternity; since
the spirit of man is altogether such as his love is ; and
(what is an arcanum) the body of every spirit and angel
is the external form of his love, perfectly corresponding
to the internal form [i. e. to the quality of his love].
It is therefore manifest that man reraains to eternity of
the same character as his ruling affection or love is. It
has been granted me to converse with some who lived
seventeen hundred years ago, and whose lives are well
known from the writings of that period ; and it was
found that every one was still influenced by the love
which ruled him when he lived in the world." {Heaven
and Hell, n. 363.)
" Man, as to his entire life [or character], remains for
ever such as he is at the time of his death." (Ap. Ex., n.
174.) "As man is when he dies, such he remains to
eternity." (Ibid. 125.)
" It is man's will-faculty that lives after death, and not
his thinking-faculty except so far as this has been in

ITS DURATION. 93
agreement with his will-faculty. ... It may be imagined
by those who are not instructed concerning the life after
death, that they can then easily receive faith when they
see that the Lord governs the universal heaven, and when
they hear that heaven consists in loving Him and their
neighbor. But they who are principled in evil, are as far
from being able to receive faith after death, that is, from
being able to believe from a ground in the will-faculty, as
hell is frora heaven. ... If it were possible for spirits
to believe and become good from mere instruction in
the other life, there would not be a single individual in
hell ; for the Lord is desirous of elevating all, how
many soever there be, to Himself in heaven. For his
mercy is infinite, because it is the Divine [Love] itself;
and is exercised toward the whole human race, alike
toward the evil as toward the good." {Arcatia Ccelestia
2401.) "The life of a man cannot be changed after death,
but must reraain for ever such as it had been in this
world; for the character of a raan's spirit is in every
respect the same as that of his love ; and infernal love
can never be changed into heavenly love, because they
are in direct opposition to each other. This is what is
meant by the words of Abraham addressed to the rich
man in hell : ' Between us and you there is a great gulf
fixed ; so that they who would pass from hence to you,
cannot ; neither can they pass to us who would come
from thence.' (Luke xvi. 26.) Hence it is evident that

94 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
all who go to hell, remain there for ever." {New ffcrti-
salcm and its Heavenly Doctrine n. 239.)
"He who is in evil in the world, is in evil after his
departure from the world; therefore if evil is not removed
in the world, it cannot be removed afterwards. Where
the tree falls, there it lies. So also does a man's life,
when he dies, reraain such as it was. Moreover, every
one is judged according to his deeds ; not that these
are recounted, but because he returns to them and does
them as before ; for death is a continuation of life, with
the difference that the man cannot then be reformed."
{Divine Providence n. 277.)
"Because it has been granted me during many years
to be with the angels, and to speak with new-comers
from the world, I can with certainty testify that every
one is there explored as to the quality of the life he had
led ; and that the life which he contracted in the world
remains with hira for ever." {Conjugial Love 524.)
" Since it has been granted me for raany years to be in
corapany with the angels, and to converse with those who
have left the world, I can testify with certainty that every
one is there exarained as to the quality of his past life,
and that the life which he had contracted in the world
remains with him to eternity. I have conversed with
those who lived many ages ago, whose lives I was ac
quainted with from history ; and I found them to be of
a character sirailar to the description given of them.

ITS DURATION. 95
I have also heard frora the angels that no one's life can
be changed after death." {Brief Exposition n. no.)
" I have been told by the angels that the life of the
ruling love [after death] is never changed with any one
to eternity, since every one is his own love ; wherefore
to change that love in a spirit, would be to deprive him
of his life, or to annihilate him." {Heaven and Hell n.
480.) "I can testify from much experience, that it is impos
sible to implant the life of heaven in those who have led
an opposite life in the world." Then — after relating
some experiments made with persons who had imbibed
the notion that they might receive the life of heaven in
the other world, however they had failed to obey the
laws of that life in this — the writer concludes: "From
these and other experiments, the simple good were in
structed that no one's life can possibly be changed after
death ; and that evil life can by no means be changed
into good life, nor infernal life into angelic, since every
spirit from head to foot is of the same quality as his love,
and therefore of the same quality as his life; and that to
transmute this life into the opposite, were to destroy the
spirit altogether. The angels declare that* it were easier
to change a bat into a dove, or an owl into a bird qf
paradise, than an infernal spirit into an angel of heaven."
(Ibid. n. 527.)
(See also Arcana Ccelestia n. 3762, 3993, 4464, 4588,
5145, 7186, 8206, 9061, 10,243, 10,284; Trtie Chris-

96 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
tian Religion n. 531, Doctrine of Life n. 8, and other
places, where the sarae doctrine is plainly taught.)
The above quotations and references (and many sim
ilar ones raight be raade), leave us in no doubt as to what
the doctrine revealed for the New Church on this subject,
is. I have quoted freely, that the reader may see how
explicit and uniform and positive Swedenborg is in his
teaching concerning the impossibility of any essential
change of character taking place in the other world.
The time in which the several works here quoted were
written, stretches over a period of more than twenty
years; yet the essential fact stated is always the same.
There is not a single point of doctrine on which he has
been more explicit or more positive.
Nor does he proclaim the endless duration of the hells
as his belief or opinion merely, but as a part of the reve
lation which he was divinely comraissioned to make.
And not only does he declare the fact over and over
again, and without any essential variation throughout the
long period of his illumination, but he tells us that this
is what the angels believe and teach on the subject, and
is what is meant by the passage in the Word which
speaks of a gulf that cannot be passed over after death.
And not only so, but he assures us that he saw and con
versed with persons known to him from history, who had
been dead, some of them seventeen hundred years, and
some for ages, and whose characters had not essentially
changed since that period. And elsewhere he tells us

ns DURATION. 97
why the character cannot be changed after death, as will
be shown in a future chapter.
Now no one is under obligation to accept Sweden
borg's teaching on this or any other subject. He raay
accept or reject it as suits his inclinatitin. But I subrait
that he cannot consistently accept this man as a teacher
sent of God — as one divinely illumined and commis
sioned to make a new revelation — and at the same time
discredit or reject such explicit teaching as we find in
the foregoing extracts.
Can we suppose the Swedish seer to have been enlight
ened as no other man ever was upon spiritual subjects
generally, yet more in the dark on this one — and by no
m.eans an unimportant one, either — than some of us who
give no evidence of, and make no pretensions to, any
special illumination ? There is as little reason for be
lieving hira raistaken in regard to the duration of the
hells, as there is for believing him mistaken in regard to
a hundred other things that he tells us he was commis
sioned to reveal concerning the great Hereafter.
We cannot, therefore, reject Swedenborg's teaching on
this subject, without virtually discrediting his claim as a
divinely commissioned messenger, and claiming for our
selves a higher degree of illumination than he enjoyed —
upon one subject, at least.
The eternity of the hells, then, is not a human inven
tion. It is not the conclusion of natural reason, nor the
offspring of an unenlightened raind. It is a matter of di-

98 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
vine revelation, as rauch so as the immortality of the
soul, the nature and time of the resurrection, the nature
of heaven and hell, and the law that determines the asso
ciates of each one and the appearance of his surround
ings in the Hereafter. Whoever rejects the doctrine,
therefore, sets his own reason above revelation, or as
sumes to be "wise above what is written." Yet the
revelation is not contrary to enlightened reason, but
quite in accordance with it, as will be shown hereafter.
But let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that the
hells are not to be eternal ; — that, ultimately, all the devils
will become, through a process that no one yet under
stands or is able to explain, shining and happy angels.
Supposing this to be the fact, the time may come when
the Lord will reveal it to the children of men. But cer
tainly that time has not yet arrived. The Lord has not
yet made such a revelation as justifies any man who
plants himself upon revealed truth, in maintaining the
non -eternity of the hells. What right, then, have we to
preach, on such a subject, a doctrine which the Lord in
his infinite wisdora has thought proper not to reveal —
nay, a doctrine the very opposite to that which He has
revealed ? If it were best for the world in its present
state that this doctrine be preached, certainly God would
have known it, and would have vouchsafed the needed
revelation. But since He has not done this, but has told
us in the most explicit language that the hells are eternal
— that a man's ruling love cannot be changed after death

ITS DURATION. 99
— shall we assume to be wiser than the Most High, and
proclaim in advance a doctrine, which (supposing it to
be true) the Lord in his wisdora has thought proper
hitherto to conceal frora the children of men ?
No : Let us scrupulously guard against such presump
tion. Let us reverently acknowledge that the infinitely
wise One knows what truth, or what measure of truth, is
adapted to human wants, and what is the proper time to
reveal it. Under the New Dispensation the Lord has
plainly taught the eternity of the hells. True or not, it
is clearly His will that it should be believed and preached
— for the present, at least — yes, during the continuance
of this Dispensation. And to believe or teach a different
doctrine, is either to discredit the revelation that has
been made, or to assume to know better than the Divine
Being himself what is true on this subject, or when is the
proper tirae to proclaira this truth.
We see not, therefore, how any one who professes to
believe in Swedenborg's divine illuraination — who re
gards him as a man especially prepared, authorized and
sent of God to make a new revelation — can for a mo
ment think of rejecting or questioning his teaching in
regard to the duration of the hells, or of substituting for
it the more than doubtful conclusions of his own under
standing. Surely it is not wise to shut ourselves in a
dark room and invoke the feeble glimmer of a lamp,
when the great orb of day is shining in meridian
splendor.

VII.
SOME EVIDENCE OF ITS DURATION— PHILOSOPH
ICAL AND SCRIPTURAL.
EVERY individual has some ruling love ; and this
love is his life. His character is according to the
nature of this love ; — heavenly if the love be good, in
fernal if the love be evil. And this love each one takes
with him into the other world, because he takes there his
life — his character — his own spiritual organism which
the ruling love has moulded ; and he can take nothing
else. And according to Swedenborg the ruling love cannot
be changed after death. If, therefore, it be of an infer
nal character, it remains so for ever. The individual will
have no desire to change his character in the other
world, or to be anything else than his ruling love
makes him ; and without such desire we cannot con
ceive how any essential change in hira can possibly take
place. And if the character or ruling love undergoes
no change after death, then the wicked will remain so
for ever, and the hells will be unending in their duration.
And this is the solemn fact disclosed by Swedenborg.
ino

EVIDENCE OF ITS ETERNITY. IOI
Upon no single subject is he raore explicit in his teach
ings, than upon the unchangeable state of the wicked in
the other world, and the consequent eternity of the
hells. The extracts in the preceding chapter furnish
sufficient evidence of this. And although this question,
like all others concerning the life beyond the grave,
is one to be settled mainly by the light of revelation, yet
revelation rightly understood will ever be found in agree
ment with the highest reason. Let us, then, examine
Swedenborg's teaching on this subject in the light of rea
son and of that comprehensive system of spiritual phil
osophy which his own writings furnish.
Consider, first, what takes place with the evil in this
world ; — and by the evil I mean all those who act, not
from principle, or from any regard to what in itself is
just and right, but from purely selfish considerations.
We know that the love of self is strengthened by being
indulged; and weakened only as its cravings are denied.
Like every other faculty and propensity, it acquires
strength by exercise. The more it is allowed to have
complete sway, and to outwork itself in all the multifa
rious forms of villany — such as falsehood, fraud, theft,
adultery, raurder — the more hardened does the soul be
come, the more benumbed its sensibilities, the dimmer
its perceptions and the feebler its desire for whatever is
true and just and right in itself Let a person go on
cheating and defrauding from month to month and year
lo year, and he will find himself steadily growing more
9 »

I02 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
and raore blind to the odiousness and moral deformity
of this vice, and less and less inclined to change his
course. Or let him practice for a considerable time,
lying, stealing, profane swearing, adultery, or any other
vice, and his perception of its sinfulness will gradually
grow more and more obscure, and his inclination to turn
frora it more and more feeble.
So with every sinful habit in which a man indulges.
The longer it is pursued the more fully does the evil in
clination take possession of him, the more overmastering
becomes its sway, the darker his understanding, and the
weaker his inclination to return to the path of innocence
and rectitude. No fact is better established and no law
of the human soul is more certain than this.
Now, under the operation of this law, can we conceive
how spirits in the other world, when self-love, which is
essential evil, has taken full possession of thera, so that
they are the very forras of that love ; — so that they turn
from and loathe the society of the good, and love and
seek the companionship of the wicked ; — so that they
put darkness for light and light for darkness, and say to
evil, "Be thou my good" ; — so that they hate and shun
the light of heaven as owls and bats shun the light of
day ; — so that they find their delight in doing evil, as a
wolf finds his in destroying sheep, or a hog his in wal
lowing in the mire ; — so that they go from choice each
one to some congenial society in hell, as freely as the
tippler, the gambler and the profligate go to their chosen

EVIDENCE OF ITS ETERNITY. 1 03
haunts ; — when spirits, I say, are brought into this state,
can we see in any rational light how they are ever to be
brought out of it ? Can any one give us any rational or
philosophical explanation of the modus operandi? To
suppose that they may be brought out some time or
other and in some way or other, is scarcely less absurd
than to suppose that a .wolf may be changed into a lamb
or a serpent into a dove. The supposition has neither
reason, philosophy, experience, nor historical fact to
support it.
If heaven could be given by an act of immediate
mercy, undoubtedly all would finally go there ; and there
would be no hell. But it cannot. It is an internal state
which cannot be developed or reached without the indi
vidual's own volition and active co-operation. The heav
enly character must be developed, the heavenly organism
and tissues must be formed, else the light and warmth of
that sweet realm would be as uncongenial as our atmo
sphere is to fishes, or as the light of the noon-day sun is
to owls and bats. Agreeably to this Swedenborg says : —
"Many spirits entertain the opinion that heaven may
be given to every one from immediate mercy; and on
account of their belief they have been taken up into
heaven ; but when they came there, because their interior
life was contrary to that of the angels, they grew blind
as to their intellectual faculties till they became like
idiots, and were tortured as to their will faculties so that
they behaved like madmen ; in a word, they who go to

104 AEW VIEW OF HELL.
heaven after living wicked lives, gasp there for breath,
and writhe about like fishes taken from the water into the
air, and like animals in the ether of an air-pump, after
the air has been exhausted." — Heaven and Hell, 54.
Again he says :
" Conscience is the Lord's presence with man ; and
this is nearer in proportion as a man is in the affection
of good and truth. If his presence is nearer than is
suitable to the degree of a man's affection for good and
truth, the man comes into temptation. The reason is,
that the evils and falsities in hira tempered with the
goods and truths in him, cannot endure a nearer pres
ence. This may appear from circumstances existing in
another life, viz., that evil spirits cannot possibly ap
proach any heavenly society without beginning to expe
rience anguish and torment: — also that hell is reraoved
from heaven, because it cannot endure heaven, that is,
the Lord's presence which is in heaven. Hence it is said
of them in the Word: 'Then shall they begin to say to
the mountains. Fall on us ; and to the hills, Cover us.'
Luke xxiii. 30." — Arcana Cxlestia 4299. See also n.
4225, '6, 5057, '8, 4674, 7519.
It is in tenderest mercy to the wicked, therefore, that
they are not compelled to live in heaven ; for they would
be far more wretched among the angels, than they are in
their own chosen and congenial homes in hell.
But the heavenly life, some think, will be at last and
gradually developed in the devils, so that they will aU

EVIDENCE OF ITS ETERNITY. 105
finally become angels. Again I ask. How? Will it be
developed like vegetable life, without the volition or
active co-operation of the spirits themselves ? Is moral
character ever developed or formed under the laws of (he
vegetable kingdom? Can it be? And are the condi
tions and surroundings and influences in the hells, and
the kind of government that exists there, favorable to the
development of the heavenly life ? Or is this life to be
gradually unfolded and strengthened there, in spite of all
the adverse influences ? If so, will any one tell us how.
Will he show us the law, or give us some hint of the
philosophy of this development.
But God, it is said, wills the salvation and happiness
of all men. And can we suppose that His will is to be
frustrated ? — that He will not be able finally to accom
plish his purpose ?
And does not God will that men live righteously
here on earth ? — that they shun falsehood, theft, hatred,
adultery, murder, as sins ? — that they practice toward
each other the laws of neighborly love ? But is the Di
vine will accomplished ? As a matter of fact, do all raen
live as the Lord wills that they should? And if not,
then is not the Divine purpose so far frustrated ? And if
frustrated here and now, then why not there and always ?
No argument for the non-eternity of the hells can be
based upon the omnipotence of the Divine will, unless
it can be shown that this will with reference to man is
never frustrated. And in order to show this, we must

Io6 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
concede that all the abominable deeds which men com
mit, are done in accordance with the will of God. For
if not, then the omnipotence of that will does not always
ensure the accomplishment of the Divine purpose.
But the mistake arises from overlooking the proper
characteristics of man, or the nature of the properly hu
man faculties. If he were a machine, he might be dealt
with as a machine ; and the builder or operator would
alone be responsible for its moveraents or defects. But
being mail, and endowed with the faculties of liberty
and rationality, he becomes himself responsible for his
actions and his character. His salvation and happiness
are not things that can be forced upon him — no, not
even by Omnipotence itself They are states to be freely
chosen, sought after, labored for, by himself; and in no
other possible way can they ever be attained. If we
could conceive of those, who have becorae so thoroughly
confirmed in evil as to love and seek the companionship
of devils, desiring and laboring for the exalted and un
selfish life of heaven, then we might concede the possi
bility of the devils being all ultimately converted into
angels, and the hells blotted out or changed into heavens.
Then there is a judgment which all have to undergo
in the other world. And Swedenborg has described
very fully the nature of that process. It consists in such
a coraplete developraent of each one's internals, or such
a thorough immersion of the individual in his own
dominant love, whatever that may be, that he no longer

EVIDENCE OF ITS ETERNITY. 1 07
has a divided mind ; — no longer wears any disguise, or
appears outwardly different from what he is inwardly.
This judgment, or letting each man drop, as it were,
into himself, takes place in the intermediate state, or
world of spirits. And it is accomplished by means of
the all-revealing light of truth. " The Word that I have
spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." Swe- .
denborg says :
"With the wicked, all those things which belong to
the exterior thought from which they speak, and to the
exterior will from which they act, are not properly theirs,
but those things which belong to their interior thought
and will.
" When the first state [after death] is passed through,
which is the state of the exteriors, the spirit is let into
the state of his interiors. ... In this state he thinks
from his own will, therefore from his own affection or
from his own love ; and then his thought makes one with
his will, and so completely one that he scarcely appears
to think but raerely to will.
"All men without exception are let into this state after
death, because it is the proper state of their spirits. . . .
When a spirit is in the state of his interiors, it mani
festly appears of what character the man was in himself
when in the world; for he then acts from his selfhood.
He who was evil in the world, then acts foolishly and
insanely — more insanely, indeed, than he did in the
world, because he is in freedora and under no restraint.

loS NEW VIEW OF HELL.
" No one goes to hell until he is in his own evil and in
the falsities of evil [or until there is a perfect union of
will and understanding] ; since it is not allowed any one
there to have a divided mind, that is, to think and speak
one thing and to will another. Every evil spirit must
there think what is false derived from evil, and must
speak frora such falsity ; in both cases frora the will, thus
frora his own proper love and its delight and pleasure, as
he did in the world when he thought in his spirit, that
is, as he thought in himself when he thought from inte
rior affection. The reason is, that the will is the man
himself, and not the thought, except so far as it par
takes of the will ; and the will is the man's very nature
or disposition; therefore to be let into his will is to be
let into his nature or disposition, and also into his life,
for man puts on a nature according to his life ; and after
death, he remains of such a nature as he had procured
to himself by his life in the world, which, with the
wicked, can no longer be amended and changed by
means of thought, or the understanding of truth.
" Every one goes to his own society in which his spirit
was while he lived in the world ; for every man as to his
spirit is conjoined to some society, either infernal or
heavenly. . . .The spirit is led to that society by succes
sive steps, and at last enters it. An evil spirit, when he
is in the state of his interiors, is turned by degrees toward
his own society, and at length directly to it before this
[second] state is completed ; and when completed, the

EVIDENCE OF ITS ETERNITY. 109
evil spirit of his own free choice casts himself into the
hell of those whose character is similar to his own." —
Heaven and Hell 502-510.
We see frora this that the judgment which every one
undergoes after death, is merely the bringing of a man's
externals into perfect agreeraent with his internals, or his
thoughts, words and actions, into agreeraent with his
ruling love. It is turning the "whited sepulchres" in
side out. It is letting the man drop into himself; so
that he no longer has a divided raind as he had when in
the flesh, but is of the sarae character all through frora
centre to circumference. Unless, therefore, he is subse
quently to undergo another stupendous change, of which
revelation has told us nothing — unless he is to be brought
back again into his former double-minded state, and the
heavenly part of him then to be aroused into strong and
persistent action so as to completely overpower the in
fernal part, we cannot see how he is ever to be brought
out of his hellish state. For we must remember that
there are no germs of heavenly life in man — no "remains ' '
of good and truth implanted by the Lord — which can
develop under the laws of vegetable growth, or without
the individual's own volition. We know of no such in
voluntary development of the heavenly life in this world ;
nor can we conceive of any such in the world to come.
Equally unphilosophical, too, and alike unsupported
by reason and revelation, is the idea that, at some indefi
nite period after the judgment here referred to, the
to

no NEW VIEW OF HELL.
sinner will die or be destroyed " that the man may be
saved " — meaning by the sinner "the inverted forms of
the natural degree, which constitute the external body
of the infernal in the hells." There is no such "sinner"
then and there, apart from the living, conscious, im
mortal individual; — no such "external body" that may
be sloughed off, leaving "the man in his original infant
state of conscious existence" — " the actual state of the
infant man of the New Heaven." All this is mere
theory, without the slightest foundation in fact, philos
ophy, or duly authenticated divine revelation.
Swedenborg's teaching, then, in regard to the eternity
of the hells, is clearly in accordance with reason and the
highest spiritual philosophy of which the world has any
knowledge. And the Bible, so far as it teaches anything on the
subject, confirms the testimony of reason and philos
ophy. It speaks of the wicked in the Hereafter, going
away "into everlasting punishment," while the right
eous go into "everlasting life"; — of a great gulf be
tween the evil and the good, which cannot then be passed
over; — of a fire that "never shall be quenched." It
assures us that, in the other world, every one will be
judged and rewarded according to his works. "The
dead were judged out of those things which were written
in the books, according to their works " "The word
that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last
day." The blessing of the higher, even the heavenly

EVIDENCE OF ITS ETERNITY. Ill
life, is promised to none but those who keep or do the
Lord's commandments ; nor do we find in Scripture any
warrant for the belief that others will ever enter in
through the gates into the city ; — for what other way is
there, save by religious obedience to the laws of the
heavenly life ?
"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 without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremon
gers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth
and maketh a lie."
Nor does the Bible tell us, or any where intimate, that
these latter will ever enter into the blessedness of eternal
life. But all who thirst for and are willing to take of its
waters, may enter in. Therefore it is written again : " Let
him that is athirst, come. And whosoever will, let him
take the water of life freely. ' '
But Swedenborg has himself told us why a man's
ruling love cannot be changed after death ; and why,
therefore, the hells must be unending in their duration.
It may be alike interesting and instructive to consider
some of his reasons, which I shall proceed to do in the
next chapter.

VIII.
WHY CANNOT THE RULING LOVE BE CHANGED
AFTER DEATH?
'TT^HE doctrine revealed for the New Church — revealed
-•- so clearly, too, that there is no ground for a dif
ference of opinion on this subject — is, that the love
which rules supreme in the heart of man at the time of
or previous to his death, will forever remain unchanged
in its nature. Very often does the illurained herald of
the New Church declare, that, " As man is when he dies,
such he remains to eternity. " " The life of a man cannot
be changed after the body dies. " "If evil is not removed
[from the soul] in the world, it cannot be removed after
ward." "The life which a man contracts [or forms for
himself] in the world, remains with him for ever."
"To change the ruling love in a spirit, would be to de
prive him of his life, or to annihilate him." " No one's
life can possibly be changed after death." "Evil life
can by no means be changed [after death] into good Hfe,
nor infernal life into angelic." "The angels declare
that it were easier to change a bat into a dove, or an
owl into a bird of paradise, than an infernal spirit into
112

CHARACTER REMAINS UNCHANGED— ll'H Y ? 1 13
an angel of heaven." "Infernal love can never be
changed into heavenly love [after death]. . . . This is
what is meant by the words of Abraham addressed to the
rich man in hell : ' Between us and you there is a great
gulf fixed,'" etc. "Hence it is evident that all who
go to hell, remain there for ever."
In such clear and explicit declarations on this subject,
do the writings of Swedenborg abound. If then, we
accept his teachings concerning the future life, as a di
vinely authorized revelation of the solemn realities of
the spiritual world, we raust believe that a person's ruling
love cannot be changed after death ; and therefore that
the condition and character of the wicked in the Here
after, will remain essentially the same to all eternity.
And we cannot reject this doctrine, or set up another
in its place, viz. this : — that all who pass into the other
world in an infernal or supremely selfish state, will ulti
mately be brought out of that state and become shining
angels — without undermining or deranging the entire
system of Swedenborg's spiritual philosophy. To be
consistent, we must set aside his doctrine of degrees ; his
doctrine concerning the nature of the final judgraent ;
his doctrine of human freedora and the law of moral
growth ; his doctrine of spiritual equilibrium ; together
with his great law of spiritual affinity which determines
all associations in the spiritual world. So intimately are
all truths linked or dovetailed together, that it is no easy
matter to remove one, or substitute a falsity in its place,
10 » H

114 AEW IVEW OF HELL.
without disturbing the entire system of which that truth
makes a part.
The great Svifede's doctrine on this subject, then, has
the merit of perfect consistency; while any different
doctrine is seen, upon slight examination, to be in direct
conflict with other facts and laws announced by him, the
obvious truth and rationality of which compel the assent
of intelligent and candid minds.
But not only has Swedenborg declared the fact that a
man's ruling love cannot be changed after death, but he
has told us why it cannot. In proclaiming the endless
duration of the hells, he has at the same time given us
the philosophical reason. It is, that when the ruling
love is fully unfolded, and everything that disagrees with
it is rejected, hated, loathed, the individual is then pre
cisely what this love makes him from centre to circum
ference. If it be the love of self, then he is selfish all
through ; just as a crocodile is a crocodile, a wolf a wolf,
or a serpent a serpent all through. And he has no more
desire to change that love, or to receive an unselfish,
heavenly love in lieu of it, or to become any other than
the supremely selfish being that he is, than a wolf has
to become a sheep, or a serpent a dove. And without
the desire to overcome the love of self, and to have the
opposite heavenly love implanted or developed in the
soul, can we conceive it possible that this change will
ever take place ? Human character in this world or in
the world to come, is not, as I have before remarked,

CHARACTER REAL4INS UNCHANGED— WHY ? I15
developed under the law of vegetable growth. Its for
mation everywhere implies the exercise of huraan voli
tion, and never takes place without it. A vegetable germ
unfolds into a plant or tree according to an implanted
instinct or law of its nature, and without volition. But
is there any human germ, hidden away in the inmosts or
elsewhere of the human spirit, — can there be any — that
will ever develop into true raanhood or womanhood in
like manner? — that is, without conscious volition on the
part of the individual ? And if the properly human or
heavenly growth can never take place without volition,
how can the needed volition spring up in the soul of
one who has passed the ordeal of judgment, and become
thoroughly and supremely selfish ?
True, there is but one life ; and all life in derivative
forms, is one and the same in its origin. The sam-e
exhaustless Fountain that vitalizes the organism of the
sheep, supplies the wolf also with life. The form into
which the life flows, makes all the difference in its qual
ity or manifestations. And we cannot conceive how a
wolf could be changed into a sheep, without such a com
plete change in its entire organism, as would utterly
destroy its identity. And this destroyed, where is the
original wolf? Annihilated, beyond question.
Let us hear, now, the reasons which Swedenborg him
self has given, showing why a man's ruling love cannol
be changed after death. He says :
"I have also heard from the angels that no one's lift

Il6 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
can be changed after death, because it is organized ac
cording to his love and faith, and hence according to
his works ; and that if the life were changed, the organ
ization would be destroyed, which can never be done.
They further added, that a change of organization can
only take place in the material body, and by no means
in the spiritual body after the former has been rejected."
{Brief Exposition 'c\. no; Conjugial Love ^2i,.')
"I have been told by fhe angels that [after death] the
life of the ruling love is never changed with any one,
since every one is his own love ; wherefore to change
that love in a spirit, would be to deprive him of his
life, or to annihilate him. They also stated the reason,
which is, that man after death is no longer capable of
being reformed by instruction as in the world, because
the ultimate plane which consists of natural knowledges
and affections, is then quiescent, and cannot be opened
because it is not spiritual ; that the interiors which
belong to the rational and natural raind, rest upon that
plane like a house on its foundation ; and that it is for
this reason that a man remains for ever such as the life
of his love had been in the world." {Heaven and Hell
n. 480.)
" By washing the feet is meant to purify the natural
principle of raan ; for unless this principle in man be
purified and cleansed when he lives in the world, it
cannot afterward be purified to eternity ; for such as his
natural principle is when he dies, such it reraains ; nor

CHARACTER REMAINS UNCHANGED— WHY > ITJ
is it afterward amended, since it is that plane into which
interior things which are spiritual flow, it being their
receptacle ; therefore when this is perverted, interior
things when they flow in, are perverted in like manner.
The case herein is as when the eye is injured, or any
other organ of sense or raember of the body ; on which
occasion interior things feel and act by them no other
wise than according to reception therein. Therefore it
is that man can never be purified to eternity if he be not
purified as to his natural principle in the world ; this is
meant by the Lord's words, ' What I do thou knowest
not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.' " {Arcana Cce
lestia 10,243.)
Then there are degrees belonging to the mind ; and
the influx of life is through the higher degrees to the
lower ; and the quality of the life that inflows, or the
character of the individual, is according to the form of
the natural degree whicii receives the influx. If this
degree is in a disordered or hellish forra, it changes
God's love and wisdom as they flow in, into their oppo
sites; comparatively as the fox-glove or deadly night
shade changes the sunshine and the rain and the sweet
dews of heaven into poison. But if this degree be re
generated or restored to order, then the whole man is
regenerated. Life being received into an orderly nat
ural form, is felt and manifested as the true life.
The character, therefore, of the lower or natural degree
of a man's mind, since it determines for ever the quality

Il8 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
of the life that inflows, must necessarily determine for
ever the character of the man. The interior life is ter
minated in, and therefore takes on the character of, the
external or natural life, just as the light and heat of the
sun, terminating in hideous forras and excrementitious
substances, take on the ugliness of the one and the offen-
siveness of the other. Accordingly Swedenborg says :
"A raan's interiors are distinguished into degrees, and
in every degree are terminated, and by termination sepa
rated each from the interior degree ; and this from the
inmost to the outermost. . . . These degrees in man
are most distinct ; hence, if he lives in good, he is as to
his interiors a heaven in its least form, or his interiors
correspond to the three heavens. And therefore if a
man has lived the life of charity and love, he can after
death be translated even into the third heaven : but in
order to acquire such a capacity, it is necessary that all
his degrees be well terminated, and thus by terminations
be distinct from each other ; and when they are termin
ated, or by terminations are made distinct, every degree
is a plane in which the good inflowing from the Lord
rests and is received. Without these degrees as planes
good cannot be received but flows through, as through
a sieve or a perforated basket, even to the sensual [plane],
and in that is changed to what is filthy, viz., into the
delight of self-love and the love of the world, conse
quently into the delight of hatred, revenge, cruelty, adul
tery, avarice, or into mere voluptuousness and luxurious-

CHARACTER REMAINS UNCHANGED— WHY ? 119
ness, which delight appears to those who are in it as
good. . .
"In the other life especially it is discovered whether
the things of a man's will have been terminated or not.
With those in whom they have been terminated, there is
a zeal for spiritual good and truth, or for what is just
and right; for they had done good for the sake of good
and truth, and had acted justly for the sake of what is
just and right, not for the sake of gain, honor, and the
like. All those with whom the interiors of the will have
been terminated, are elevated to heaven, for the influent
Divine can lead them ; but all those with whom the inte
riors of the will have not been terminated, betake them
selves to hell, for the Divine flows through and is turned
into what is infernal, as in the case of the sun's heat,
which falling upon filthy excrements, produces a foul
stench." {Arcana Cxlestia 5145.)
"With things relating to spiritual birth, the case is
such that reception raust be altogether in the natural
principle. This is why, during man's regeneration, the
natural principle is first prepared to receive ; and so far
as this principle is rendered capable of receiving, so far
interior goods and truths can be brought forth and mul
tiplied. For this reason also, if the natural man be not
prepared to receive the truths and goods of faith in the
life of the body, he cannot receive them in the other
life, and therefore cannot be saved. This is what is
meant by the expression so often used, that, as the tree

120 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
fall's, so it lies ; or, as a man dies, so his state remains.
For man has with him in the other life all the natural
memory, or the memory of the external man, but is not
perraitted to use it in that life ; wherefore it is there as a
fundamental plane into which interior truths and goods
fall; and if that plane is incapable of receiving the truths
and goods which flow in from an interior principle, they
are either extinguished, perverted or rejected." (Ibid.
4588.) These degrees of the raind, Swedenborg tells us, exist
in every man, "from his birth potentially, and actually
when opened." And he tells us, also, how the higher
or heavenly degrees of life are opened ; and that every
one after death, "enters that degree which was opened
within him in the world." {Divine Love and Wisdom
238.) But evil, or the indulgence of a supremely selfish
and worldly love by the natural mind, closes more and
more firmly the higher or heavenly degrees.
"In such a raan — [one who 'delights in all kinds of
wickedness, as in adultery, fraud, revenge, blasphemy,
and so on'] — the spiritual mind is more and more
firmly closed ; the confirmation of the evil by the false
especially closes it. Therefore evil and the false once
confirmed, cannot be extirpated after death ; this can
only be done iu the world by repentance." (Ibid. 262.)
I have quoted freely that the reader may see the rea
sons given by Swedenborg himself, why a man's ruling
love cannot be changed after death ; and why, therefore.

CHARACTER REMAINS UNCHANGED— WHY? 121
the hells must be eternal in duration. And they are
reasons, we observe, growing out of, harmonizing with,
and making indeed a part of, his grand and comprehen
sive system of spiritual philosophy. So that, in adopt
ing a different view from the one he has taught in regard
to the duration of the hells — in denying their eternity,
and insisting that, sorae time or other and in some way
or other, the ruling love will be changed after death,
and the devils be all converted into angels — we not only
reject a doctrine as clearly revealed as anything can be,
but we are compelled also to sweep away so much of his
spiritual philosophy as would leave his whole system tot
tering. We are compelled to deny that the life's love
can become so inwrought into the spiritual organism
during one's earthly pilgrimage, that an entire change
in the quality of the love would involve annihilation, or
a total destruction of the soul's organism (C. L. 524;
H. H. 480). We are compelled to deny, what we are
repeatedly assured the angels affirm, that the interior
things of the mind, resting for ever on the ultimate or
natural plane of life developed here on earth "like a
house on its foundation," will for ever be in harmony or
correspondence with that plane. (Ibid.) We must deny,
too, that there is any such eternal and indissoluble con
nection between the life here and the life hereafter, as
Swedenborg has declared ; or that any such cleansing of
the external or natural man here below as he alleges, is
essential to that internal purification without which there
11

122 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
can be no heaven. (A. C. 10,243.) We must deny the
declared existence of degrees to the mind ; or that no
higher degree of life can be entered and enjoyed in the
other world, than the degree which has been opened in
this. We must deny that the lower or natural degree
bears any such fixed and permanent relation to the
higher, as the eye bears to seeing or the ear to hearing.
And considerably more must we deny, if we would be
consistent. Who that has studied Swedenborg enough to grasp a
tithe of his deep and comprehensive philosophy, and
has felt constrained by the illuminating power of his
writings to acknowledge that he was, indeed, a man or
dained and sent of God, dares venture on such a string
of denials ? Yet they all follow inevitably from the de
nial of his doctrine concerning the eternity of the hells,
or the assumption that a man's ruling love may be
changed after death.
Then apply to the doctrine taught by Swedenborg on
this subject one other test — that most searching one
of all — that divinely authorized touch-stone of truth and
of error expressed in the formula, "By their fruits ye
shall know them."
Judge the doctrine by its fruits — that is, by its obvious
influence on the character of believers. Compare it
in this respect with that other doctrine which some
would substitute in its place — viz., the doctrine that
a man may repent and his ruling love be changed in

CHARACTER REMAINS UNCHANGED— WHY ? 123
the other world, and the devils be ultimately all con
verted into angels.
The New Church doctrine says: "Keep the com
mandments ; shun evils as sins ; deny self, take up the
cross and follow the Lord. For if you do not, while on
earth, begin the great work of building up the kingdom
of heaven in your heart, you will have no inclination to
begin this work beyond the grave ; and that blessed
kingdom will, therefore, never be yours."
The other doctrine, stripped of its fine rhetoric and
speaking in the plainest language, says: "It is best, of
course, to keep the commandments. This will carry you
to heaven quickest. But live as you will — sin as you
may — trample on all the laws of God as you choose — in
dulge your avarice, your lust, your pride, your selfish
ness, your hate, to any excess — develop and strengthen
within you the life of hell to whatever extent — and God
will some day, spite of yourself and every other obstacle,
bring you out of that hellish state, and raake you a
shining and happy angel."
Now which of these doctrines is it best for men to
believe ? Which is raost stimulating to the better part
of our nature, and most helpful in repressing and re
straining the worse ? Which is most likely to excite to
prayer and watchfulness ? to patience and self-denial and
holy endeavor ? to inward and persevering conflict with
the foes of our own household ? Which is the most
wholesome doctrine to preach ? — which the most benign

134 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
in its practical tendency and effects? It is not difficult,
I think, to answer these questions. And let us remember
that "a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither
can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." Nor is it
possible for a false doctrine to exert upon the hearts and
lives of men a more benign influence than the truth.

IX.
DISPLA YS OF THE DIVINE BENIGNITY IN HELL.
MAN alone, of all created beings, is endowed with
Liberty and Rationality. These are the properly
human faculties. Without them he would not be man.
These are the faculties which alone render him morally
accountable. Without them, he would have been inca
pable of either sin or holiness ; and to have been inca
pable of these, he must have been something other than
man — a very different being from what he is.
Why is not the wolf or the bear morally responsible ?
Why is every other creature incapable of sin ? Simply
because man alone is endowed with what belongs to no
other creature — a moral sense — the power to discrimi
nate and the liberty to choose between justice and injus
tice, right and wrong; or in other words, with the
faculties of rationality and liberty, which alone distin
guish him from the brute creation and make him man.
But the very possession of these faculties involves a
responsibility corresponding in magnitude to the dignity
and worth of the endowment. It involves, moreover,
the liability of their abuse and utter perversion by the
11 « 125

136 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
possessor, and the possibility, therefore, of a spiritual
lapse. And this must have been foreseen by the great
Giver of these faculties. And now comes the question :
. What shall be done with a man when he fails to dis
charge the obligations which the gift bestowed on hira
imposes ? — when he abuses his properly human faculties,
and yields to the promptings of his lower, carnal, animal
nature, regardless of his obligations as a m.orally ac
countable being ? What provision should infinite Love
and Wisdom make for those who violate, and persist in
violating, the laws of their spiritual or properly human
nature? To say that their condition will be the same and
their happiness the same in the Hereafter, as if they had
faithfully obeyed these laws, is to utter what every en
lightened mind sees to be absurd. As reasonably might
one maintain that no penalty ought to be attached to the
violation of physical laws ; that raen ought to be per
mitted to eat arsenic without being poisoned ; to handle
red hot iron without being burned ; to leap from the top
of Bunker Hill monument without being bruised ; or to
stick their bodies full of pins without suffering pain.
There is everywhere and always a penalty attached to the
violation of law. This is both wise and right. Other
wise laws would be without meaning and without force.
But infinite Love must make the best possible provision
which infinite Wisdom can suggest, for those who abuse
their human faculties, and obstinately persist in violating
the laws of their spiritual being. It is bound by its very

THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 127
nature to do this. And who can doubt that it will do it ?
The illumined Swedenborg assures us that it actually does
do it ; and he tells us how. Nothing can exceed the
extent and beauty of the Divine beneficence, as dis
played in the provision made for those in the other
world, who, by a life of evil here on earth, have con
firmed themselves in a state of opposition to the Divine,
and to the laws of their own inner and heavenly life.
"Life is love," is a remark often raade by Sweden
borg. And a man's ruling love is his life. His cha
racter is according to the nature of this love ; — pure and
heavenly if the love be pure ; vile and infernal if the
love be selfish. The ruling love is the inner and ever
active force, perpetually working to mould the whole
outer man — his words, tones, looks and actions — into
perfect correspondence with itself
Look at the face of an inveterate raiser. How visibly
is the spirit that prompts and sways him imprinted there !
Or that of the confirmed inebriate — is it not the very
image of bestiality? Or listen to the tones of the hard
hearted, cruel and raalignant — are they not in perfect
agreement with the affections from which they proceed ?
So with hate, revenge, jealousy, despair — every strong
passion or deep feeling long indulged — its manifest tend
ency is to mould the countenance and the whole outer
man into perfect correspondence with itself And on
the other hand who has not seen the very beauty, bright
ness and joy of heaven beaming from the face of one in

128 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
whose heart love to the Lord and the neighbor has long
been the ruling principle of action ?
Now under the operation of this law — a law too gener
ally recognized and too long established to be for a mo
ment called in question — what ought to be the appear
ance of evil spirits in the other world, where infernal
loves have taken full possession of their souls, from centre
to circumference ? Why, they ought to be monsters in
form as they are in feeling and purpose. Their looks
and tones ought to be the true expression of the infernal
loves that rule them. Accordingly Swedenborg says :
"All the spirits in the hells, when inspected in any
degree of heavenly light, appear in the form af their
own evil ; for every one there is the effigy of his own
evil, because with every one the interiors and exteriors
act in unity, — the interiors exhibiting themselves visibly
in the exteriors, which are the face, the body, the speech,
and the gestures. Thus their quality is known as soon
as they are seen. In general, they are forms of con
tempt of others ; of menace against those who do not
pay them respect ; of hatred of various kinds ; also of
various kinds of revenge. Ferocity and cruelty from
their interiors are transparent through those forms. But
when others commend, honor, and worship them, their
faces are contracted, and have an appearance of gladness
arising from delight. It is impossible to describe in a
few words all those forms, as they actually appear, for no
one of~them is similar to another. Araong those, how-

THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLA YED. 1 29
ever, who are in a similar evil, and thence in a similar
infernal society, there is a general likeness, frora which,
as from a plane of derivation, the faces of all there
appear to bear a certain resemblance to each other. In
general, their faces are hideous, and void of life like
corpses; in some cases they are black; in others they
are fiery like little torches; in others, disfigured with
pimples, warts, and ulcers. . . . Their bodies also are
monstrous ; and their speech is like the speech of anger,
hatred, or revenge, — for every one speaks from his own
falsity, and in a tone corresponding to his own evil. In
a word, they are all images of their own hell." — Heaven
and Hell, n. 553.
And mark here the unspeakable love and mercy of the
Lord ! — the wonderful display of the Divine benignity !
The devils are not perraitted to see themselves or each
other as the hideous creatures they really are. They
only appear under these disgusting and loathsome forms
when seen, as Swedenborg saw them, in the light of
heaven ; for this light alone reveals the real quality of
persons and things. Seen in the false and fatuous glare
of hell, nothing appears as it really is. And so the true
character of the devils — their internal and external de
formity — is mercifiiUy concealed from themselves and
from each other. Their dreadful wickedness does not
seem to them wickedness, but praiseworthy shrewdness.
Their unmitigated foolishness seems to them not foolish
ness at all, but rarest wisdom. They do not appear to
I

130 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
each other like the horrid monsters they are, but like a
very respectable class of people. In their own light, and
to each other's eyes, they look not hideous but quite
human. Their bitter and fiendish tones have in them
nothing harsh or grating to each other's ears; on the
contrary they seem quite agreeable and even musical to
them. Accordingly Swedenborg, after describing tbe
loathsome appearance of the devils as seen by himself in
the clear light of heaven, adds :
"It is, however, to be observed, that such is the ap
pearance of infernal spirits when seen in the light of
heaven; but among themselves they appear like men.
This is of the Lord's mercy, that they may not appear as
loathsome to each other as they do to the angels. But
this appearance is a fallacy ; for as soon as a ray of light
from heaven is let in, their human forras are turned into
monstrous ones, such as they are in reality, as described
above ; for in the light of heaven everything appears as it
really is." — Ibid.
Again he says :
" Among the wonderful things which exist in the other
life, this also is one : that, when the angels of heaven
look into evil spirits, these latter have a totally different
appearance from what they have when seen among them
selves. Among themselves and in their own fatuous
light, which is like that of a coal fire, as before re
marked, they appear to themselves in a human form, and
also, according to their fantasies, not without beauty ;

THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 13 1
but when the same spirits are looked into by the angels
of heaven, that light is instantly dissipated, and they ap
pear with entirely different faces, each according to his
character ; some dusky and black as devils ; some with
pale ghastly faces like corpses ; — some like skeletons ;
and, more wonderful still, sorae like monsters, the de
ceitful like serpents, and the most deceitful like vipers ;
and others in other forms. But as soon as the angels
remove their sight from them, they appear in their above
mentioned forms, which they have when seen in their
own light." — Arcana Ccelestia n. 4533. See also A. C.
4798.— H. H. 481.
A wonderful display, indeed, is it of the Lord's un
speakable love and mercy, that He does not permit in
fernal spirits to see themselves or one another as they
really are !
And we have similar illustrations of the Divine be
nignity here on earth. The desperately wicked never
see their own moral deformity. Their eyes are blinded
out of tenderest raercy toward them ; for to see them
selves as they appear in the light of heaven, would cause
them unutterable agony. Take any class of the most
hardened villains you can find — those of a character
nearest allied to that of devils, such as gamblers, thieves,
swindlers, murderers, fornicators, pimps, pirates — does
any one imagine that these people see themselves to be
the dreadful creatures they really are ? Have they .iny
idea of their terrible moral deformity? Not one of

132 FTEW VIEW OF HELL.
them, in their ordinary evil state. How can they ? for
they are not in the all-revealing light of heaven, but in
the fatuous light of hell ; and this light which is real
darkness, forever blinds and bewilders. In their own
infernal light, these fellows appear to each other very
respectable — appear, indeed, like men ; but in the light
of the Divine Word, or as viewed by heavenly minded
people, they appear not as men but as monsters.
And not only are the faces and the whole personal ap
pearance of the devils in exact correspondence with their
evil loves, but all their surroundings exist under the
very same law, and are produced in the same way. All
the objects they look upon are but the embodied forms
of their own evil loves. So that their whole outward or
phenomenal world is a perfect reflection, under the law
of correspondence, of their internal or spiritual condi
tion. Accordingly we are told that the devils appear clad in
filthy and tattered garments ; that they dwell in deserts,
bogs, and miry places — some of them in caves and dens
like those of wild beasts ; that among the objects by which
they are surrounded, are dreary deserts, rocky and barren
wastes, thorns and thistles, ferocious beasts and venom
ous reptiles, dirty pools and heaps of filth. And these
things (all of which are spiritual in their nature) are but
the embodied forms, under the law of correspondence,
of the filthy and infernal loves of the evil spirits them
selves. To quote again from Swedenborg :

THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 133
"How the delights of every one's life are turned into
corresponding delights after death, may indeed be known
from the science of correspondences ; but because that
science is not yet generally known, I will illustrate the
subject by some examples frora experience.
"All those who are in evil, and have confirraed thera
selves in falsities against the truths of the church, and
especially those who have rejected the Word, shun the
light of heaven, and betake themselves to subterranean
places, which through the openings appear very dark,
and to the clefts of rocks, and there hide themselves.
And they seek such retreats because they have loved
falsities and hated truths ; for such caverns, and clefts of
rocks, and darkness also, correspond to falsities, and
light corresponds to truth. It is their delight to dwell
in such places, and undelightful to them to dwell in open
plains. "In like manner do those who have taken delight in
clandestine and insidious plots, and in the secret con
trivance of fraudulent schemes ; these, too, are in those
caverns, and enter into chambers so dark that they can
not even see one another, and there they whisper in each
other's ears in corners. This is what the delight of their
love is turned into.
"They who have studied the sciences with no other
end than to acquire the reputation of learning, and who
have not cultivated their rational faculty by means of
them, and have taken delight in the things of meraory
12

134 NFW VIEW OF HELL.
from pride thence derived, love sandy places, which they
choose in preference to fields and gardens, because sandy
places correspond to such studies.
" They who have been acquainted with the doctrinals
of their own church and of others, and have not applied
any of their knowledge to life, choose for themselves
rocky places, and dwell among heaps of stones, shunning
places that are cultivated, because they dislike them.
"They who have ascribed all things to nature, and
they also who have ascribed all things to their own pru
dence, and who by various artifices have raised them
selves to honors, and have acquired wealth, apply them
selves in the other life to the study of magical arts,
which are abuses of divine order, and find therein the
highest delight of their life. They who have applied
divine truths to gratify their own loves, and thus have
falsified them, love urinous places and odors, because
these correspond to the delights of such love.
"They who have been sordidly avaricious, dwell in
huts, and love swinish filth, and such nidorous exhalations
as proceed from indigested substances in the stomach.
They who have passed their life in. mere pleasures, have
lived delicately, and indulged their appetites, prizing
such enjoyments as the highest good of life, love excre
mentitious things and privies in the other life. These are
delightful to them, because such pleasures are spiritual
filth. They shun places that are clean and free from
dirt, because such places are undelightful to them."

THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 135
Here, again, we are called to admire the unspeakable
love and mercy of the Lord as manifested toward those
in the other world who are " enemies to him by wicked
works. ' ' For we must remeraber that all the objects which
greet their senses — though in reality just as Swedenborg
has described them — appear very different to the devils
from what they did to him, or from what they do to our
imagination — for we are able to contemplate thera in some
degree of heavenly light. The regions they inhabit are
certainly dismal enough ; but not dismal to them. All the
objects by which they are surrounded, are really hideous
and loathsome to angelic natures ; but not hideous or
loathsome to them. The odors they inhale, so fetid and
offensive to angels, are by no means offensive to them.
On the contrary the devils find these things quite agree
able and even delightful ; for they accord perfectly witli
their nature ; they agree with their desires or loves ; they
are in exact correspondence with their life.
Everywhere and always life seeks that which is in
agreement with its nature. Nothing else will satisfy its
cravings. Such is the nature of the devils, that the
scenery of hell, so dismal and repulsive to our iraagin
ation, is quite agreeable to them ; — more beautiful, indeed,
to their eyes than would be the splendors and magnifi
cence of heaven. Their life being what it is — degraded,
bestial, infernal — the objects that surround them are the
very ones with which they are best pleased ; for they suit
heir tastes, being in perfect correspondence with their

136 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
life. To them, their dens and caverns seem preferable
to the most gorgeous palaces of heaven ; their filthy rags
more seemly than the shining garments of the angels;
their fetid stenches raore grateful to their nostrils than
would be the sweetest perfume frora the gardens of the
blest. "It is delightful to the devils," says Swedenborg,
"to inhabit such places [as caverns and clefts of the
rocks], and z^«delightful to them to dwell in open fields."
"They love sandy places, and prefer them to fields and
gardens." "They love mean and squalid brothels."
"They love the filth of swine." "They love urinous
places and scents, because these things correspond to the
delights of their life."
I am aware that this will sound very strange to minds
much confirmed in the old ideas. It will seem to them
utterly incredible that such unsightly and disgusting ob
jects as those above mentioned, should be delightful to
the devils. But they will see upon reflection that nothing
could be raore reasonable. For are there not animals
that delight in just such sights and smells here on earth ?
If so, then these things are agreeable to some kinds of
life. They are in perfect correspondence with some
natures, as truly so as beautiful gardens and the perfume
of sweetest flowers are in correspondence with the nature
of angels. To crows and kites the smell of carrion is
not unpleasant, but delightful. Owls and bats prefer
darkness to light. Mire and filth are not unsightly, but
beautiful to the eyes of swine ; and the stench of their own

THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 137
Stye is quite agreeable to their nostrils. Serpents and
vipers love the clefts of rocks ; foxes love deserts ; rats
prefer cellars and subterranean regions ; turtles and croc
odiles seek marshy places ; and to the eyes of wolves and
bears their own dens, undoubtedly, seera more beautiful
and home-like than would the palaces of kings.
Who cannot see that the things which such creatures
prefer for food, the odors they delight to inhale, and the
places they love to inhabit, affect their senses in a man
ner very different from what they do ours? And the
only reason to be assigned is, that their life is very dif
ferent from the properly human. Their loves and conse
quent tastes are different from ours. And they choose
and delight in what is agreeable to their life, as we do
what is agreeable to ours. Says Swedenborg :
"The delights belonging to the lusts of evil, and those
belonging to affections for the good, cannot be com
pared ; because resident within the former is the devil,
and within the latter is the Lord. If a comparison must
be drawn, the delights of the lusts of evil can only be
compared to the lasciviousness of frogs in ponds, and of
serpents in slimy places ; while the delights of affections
for the good may be compared to mental delights in
gardens and flowers. For things sirailar to those which
are pleasing to frogs and serpents, are also pleasing to
those in the hells who are in the lusts of evil; and
things similar to those which are pleasing to the mind
in gardens and flowers, are also pleasing to those in the
12 «

1 38 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
heavens who are in affections for the good. For as
before stated, unclean correspondences are pleasing to
the evil, and clean correspondences to the good." — Di
vine Providence n. 40.
And are there not, even in this world, people who
seem to prefer disorder, filth and squalor, to order, neat
ness and cleanliness? Have you never seen persons,
who, if -they were presented with the most magnificent
habitation, filled and surrounded, too, with everything
beautiful, and arranged in the most orderly and tasteful
manner, would, if left to do precisely as they pleased,
convert that palatial residence into a vile and loathsome
place in less than six months ? Are there not some
whose nature (inherited, or acquired by habit,) is so
near akin to that of certain animals, that they would
very soon convert the sweetest and most lovely place
of abode, into a squalid and disgusting stye? Their
nature is such that cleanliness and order seem far less
agreeable to them, than filth and disorder. And, place
them where you will, they will very soon reduce all their
surroundings to a condition that will reveal with great
clearness the state of their own minds. So on the other
hand, place people of refinement and culture in the
humblest cabin, and they will soon make that cabin
reveal to the careful observer something of their refined
and cultivated tastes. And the reason of this is, that every
kind of life is delighted with, and therefore seeks, 'hat
which corresponds with its own nature.

THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 139
But it does not appear after all, some may say, how
the devils, having once been men in the natural world,
can find delight in things which here on earth are known
to be agreeable only to a low order of animals.
It does not? Let the reader reflect for a moment.
What has made those people devils ? What kind of life
is theirs ? — the life, too, that they have freely chosen ?
It is not angelic life. It is not properly human. It is
the life of self and sense — mere corporeal or animal,
not celestial life. They have marred and spoiled their
truly human life ; or have suffered it to become stifled
and overrun by a rank luxuriance of thorns and thistles
and noxious weeds, which, if not carefully and betimes
rooted out, are sure to spring up and take possession of
tha natural heart. Only a kind of bestial life, therefore,
is left them — such life as corresponds to, and forms the
very essence of, animals like those above mentioned.
This life, therefore, must from its very nature, seek and
find delight in scenes and objects which are agreeable to
such animals.
Considering the nature of the devils, therefore, or
the kind of life they have freely chosen and made their
own, it is raost reasonable that the hideous and loath
some objects by which they are surrounded, should not
appear hideous or loathsome to them, but pleasant ami
altogether agreeable ; for they are all in perfect corre
spondence with their life's love. And whatever corre
sponds to this, is always perceived as delightful.

14° NEW VIEW OF HELL.
But if this be really so, some will say, what is there,
after all, to choose between heaven and hell? What
great advantage has one over the other ? The devils,
you say, have their delights as well as the angels, though
they are not delighted with precisely the same things.
They have what is most agreeable to their nature. Their
surroundings as well as their associates are such as they
prefer. They go in freedora where they wish to go —
into the society of congenial spirits ; and there they feel
quite at home. What great inducement is there, then,
to strive for heaven, or to shun hell ?
It is true that every kind of love has its delights. But
the nature of the delight is according to the quality of
the love. The purer the love, the more exalted the
delight. The delights of the devils, therefore, as com
pared with those of the angels, are as the delights of
bears and crocodiles compared with those of Christ-like
men ; yea, they are as the sweetness and tranquillity of
love, compared with the bitterness and unrest of hatred.
Why is God so unspeakably happy — the happiest Being
in the universe? Because He is the best. Because his
love is the purest. It is the love of others out of Him
self — the love of imparting happiness. And the more a
man grows to be like God — the raore he receives of His
unselfish \o\z, the more does he enjoy _of that sweet
peace which it is in the very nature of this love to bestow.
While the less of this love he receives — the more selfish
and z^«-like the Lord he is, the more does he experience

THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 141
of that inward unrest which it is the nature of this oppo
site love to produce.
Who that has ever truly loved — be it husband, mother,
wife or child — does not know that in the exercise of dis
interested love, there is an unspeakable bliss which the
world cannot give ? The Lord promises peace — his own
peace — to all who humbly acknowledge Him, and wil
lingly consecrate themselves on the altar of duty.
" Peace I leave with you," says He to all such — "my
peace I give unto you." There is true peace nowhere
but in Him ; — nowhere but in the reception and exercise
of his unselfish love. Therefore He says: "In me ye
shall have peace." And when those who have followed
Him in the regeneration, enter the spiritual world and
come more fully into their life's love, they will receive
in greater fullness than ever before the delights of that
love. They will then know, from the sweet seraphic
joy that floods their souls, the full meaning of the words,
"Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
But they who have yielded habitually to the prompt
ings of their lower nature, regardless of God and the
good of the neighbor, and have not denied self, taken
up the cross, and followed the Divine Master — these,
when they enter the other world, come more fully into
the life and delights of self-love. And what are these ?
The delights of fraud, hatred, revenge, adultery, blas
phemy, wickedness of every kind; — delights, indeed, to
those whose ruling love is the love of self, but torment

142 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
and unmitigated misery when compared with the pure
ecstatic delights of angelic love. Therefore these per
sons are represented as receiving the sentence, " Depart
from me, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and
his angels."
The truth, then, summarily stated, is: that all life,
from that of the highest angel in heaven down to that
of the meanest creature here on earth, has its delights ;
for life is love, and all love has its delights. The degree
of happiness which each creature enjoys, depends upon
the character of his delights ; and the character or ex
altation of his delights, depends on the nature or quality
of his love. And as far as the human transcends in dig
nity the bestial life — as far.as man surpasses the brute in
wisdom or in the extent and variety of his powers, so far
has he the capacity of enjoyment above (yes, and of
misery beloitJ) that of the brutes, and so far does the
happiness of the angels exceed that of the devils.
Is not this new view of hell in the highest degree ra
tional ? What can be more reasonable, (in view of the
kind of life which infernal spirits have voluntarily made
their own) than that they should be totally oblivious of
their own condition ? — that they should be unable to see
themselves or one- another or the objects that surround
them, as they really are ? — that everything should seem to
them quite different from what it is, and from what it act
ually appears when viewed in the light of heaven ? — that

THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 143
they should reraain forever ignorant of realities, and
spend an eternity in the midst of shadows and phan
tasms? (See Arcana Ccelestia 4623.)
And what unspeakable benignity in our Heavenly
Father, does this doctrine display ! When his children
have wandered far from the way of his commandments ;
when they have shut their souls against the light of his
wisdom and the purity of his love, and confirmed them
selves in a life of evil ; He loves them still — loves them
too tenderly to permit them to see where and what they
are. He loves them, and, for their own good, merci
fully provides that they remain forever oblivious of what
they were created to be ; that they shall not be permitted
to see themselves or each other as monsters, but as men ;
that the loathsome objects which surround them, and
which their own evil loves create by an unfailing law,
shall not seem loathsome but pleasing to them ; that they
shall still enjoy what they call delights — delights, too, as
elevated as the kind of life they have formed for them
selves, will possibly admit of.
Where shall we find a more striking display of the
Lord's infinite and unspeakable mercy, than is presented
in the wonderful provision He has made for the comfort
and highest welfare of the devils? His love is, indeed,
unfathomable. " His mercy is forever." Who can un
fold his marvelous loving-kindness? "Who can show
forth all his praise?"

144 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
" The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are
over all his works."
" Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall
I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven,
thou art there ; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou
art there."
"Ye have heard that it hath been said. Thou shalt
love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy.
" But I say unto you. Love your enemies, bless them
that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray
for thera which despitefuUy use you and persecute you ;
"That ye raay be the children of your Father which
is in heaven : for He maketh his sun to rise on the evil
and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on
the unjust."

X.
IS HELL TO UNDERGO ANY CHANGE? IF SO,
OF WHAT NATURE?
SWEDENBORG has disclosed with great clearness
the condition of the wicked in the other world.
Nor does he pretend to give us merely his opinion on the
subject, but to set forth what he actually heard and saw
when his spiritual senses were opened. He has told us
what sort of people he found in hell, or of whom it con
sists. To cite his own language :
"Hell consists of spirits who, while living in the
world, denied God, acknowledged nature, lived contrary
to divine order, loved evils and falsities (although not so
much before the world on account of the appearance)
and who, therefore, were either insane in regard to truths,
or despised and denied them, if not with the mouth, yet
in heart [and in their lives]. Of all such, who have
lived from the creation of the world, hell consists." —
Athanasian Creed n. 41.
The wickedness of the infernals is described as terrible
— surpassing all belief. Speaking of their " malignity,
cunning, fraud, deceit, and cruelty," he says:
" These are such and so great that, if they were told
13 K 145

146 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
only in part, scarcely an individual in the world would
believe it. The infernals are so cunning and artful, and
likewise so wicked — in short they are of such a cha
racter, that they cannot possibly be resisted by any man,
nor even by any angel, but by the Lord alone " — A.C.
6666. And speaking of those who have lived wicked
lives on earth, and have interiorly denied the Divine, he
says: "Such persons in the other life, when they come
into the state of their interiors, and are heard to speak
and seen to act, appear as if infatuated ; for from their
evil lusts they break out into all manner of abomina
tions — into contempt of others, ridicule, blasphemy,
hatred and revenge. They contrive plans of mischief,
some of them with such cunning and malice, that it can
scarcely be believed that anything of the kind could
exist in any man." "They lay snares; they cherish
hatred ; they burn with revenge, and seek to vent their
rage against all who do not submit themselves to them.
... At last they deliberate with themselves how they
may climb up into heaven so as to destroy that, or be
worshiped there as gods. To such lengths does their
madness go. Those of this class who have been of the
Roman Catholic religion, are more insane than the rest. ' '
" [When on earth] they desired to be worshiped as
gods, and therefore burned with hatred and revenge
against all who did not acknowledge their power over the
souls of men and over heaven. They still cherished the
same disposition which distinguished them in tbe world,

ANY REFORMATION THERE? 1 47
that is, the same hatred and revenge against those who
oppose thera. Their greatest delight is to exercise
cruelty; but this delight is turned against theraselves;
for in their hells one rages like a madman against an
other who derogates from his divine power. ' ' And, as
niight be expected, " within their habitations, they are
engaged in continual quarrels, enmities, blows and fight
ings, while in the streets and lanes of their cities are rob
beries and depredations" — Heaven and Hell 506, '8, 86.
Such is the sad condition in the great Hereafter of
those who, while on earth, have disregarded and tram
pled on the laws of their spiritual and heavenly life, and
have thereby brought theraselves into a state to love
darkness rather than light, and evil rather than good.
And the ruling love, we are told, can never be changed
in the other world.
Swedenborg has told us of various kinds of hells which
he was permitted to inspect* — for no two of the infernal
societies are precisely alike ; and their punishments are
* In order that he might learn the actual state of things in hell,
from his own personal observation, he says : " I was sometimes let
down thither. To be let down into hell, is not to be translated from
one place to another ; but it is an immission into some infernal so
ciety, while the person remains in the same place." On one of
these occasions, he continues, " I clearly perceived that a kind of
column, as it were, encompassed me, which became sensibly
stronger ; and I perceived also that this was the wall of brass spoken
of in the Word, formed of angelic spirits, in order that I might be
let down in safety among the unhappy." — Arcana Ccelestia 699.

14S NEW VIEW OF HELL.
as various as their characters, but admirably adapted to
their states and needs. Thus he speaks of " the hells of
those who have spent their lives in hatred, revenge, and
cruelty;" of " the hells of those who have lived in adul
tery and lasciviousness;" of "the hells of the deceit
ful;" of "the hells of the covetous and of robbers;" of
"the hells of those who have lived in merely carnal
pleasures," etc. And while the ruling spirit and general
features of them all are the same, each has its peculiar
ities. Without attempting any detail of these, I will
quote one or two passages frora his account of "the hells
of those who have passed their lives in adulteries and
lasciviousness," and leave the reader to form his own
judgment. "Those who find their chief delight in the spoils of
virginity, having no regard to marriage or issue, and
who, after compassing their lustful ends, conceive an
aversion for their victims, and then leave them to prosti
tution, suffer the most grievous punishment in the other
world. For their life is contrary to all order, natural,
spiritual, and celestial. Not only is it contrary to con
jugial love, which in heaven is accounted raost holy, but
also to innocence, which they wound and destroy by se
ducing innocent beings into a course of prostitution, who
might have been initiated into conjugial love ; for the
first delights of love, as is well known, introduce virgins
to chaste conjugial love, and conjoin the minds of mar
ried partners. And since the sanctity of heaven is

ANV REFORMATION THERE? 149
founded on conjugial love, and on innocence, the de
stroyers of such love must needs be murderers interiorly. ' '
And after giving some account of the terrible punish
ment which this class of persons have to suffer in the
other world, he continues :
"This punishment returns many times for a hundred
and a thousand years, until they become affected with
horror at these lusts. I have been informed that the off
spring of such parents are worse than other children on
account of their constitution, derived hereditarily from
the father, partaking of his nature. Therefore children
are seldom born from such connections ; or if they are,
they do not remain long in this world." — A. C. 828.
And what does he say of the innocent victims of these
wicked persons, some of whom he met in the other
world ?
"There are young girls who have been enticed to
prostitution, and persuaded that there was no evil in it,
who in other respects were well disposed. These, not
having yet attained to an age capable of knowing and
judging correctly of the nature of this kind of life, have
a certain instructor set over them in the other world, who
is very severe, and chastises them whenever they give
their thoughts to such wantonness, and of whom they are
much afraid. In this way they become vastated." That
is, they are carried through a certain reformatory course
of discipline; and "when the time of vastation is over,
they are taken up into heaven ; and being novitiates.

150 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
they are instructed in the truths of faith by the angels
among whom they are received." — A. C. 1106, '13.
But very different is it with another class of females
whom he met in the spiritual world, and who were, when
on earth, persons of most captivating manners, but de
ceitful, ambitious and destitute of conscience.
"There are some of the female sex who have lived in
the indulgence of their inclinations, regarding only
themselves and the world, and making the sum total of
life and its delights to consist in external decorum, in
consequence of which they have been particularly es
teemed in polished society. They have thus, by prac
tice, acquired the power of insinuating themselves into
the good graces of others by specious pretences and a
fair exterior, for the purpose of gaining an ascendency
over them. Hence their life has been one of simulation
and deceit. They used, to frequent churches like other
people, but for no other purpose than to appear upright
and pious ; being, moreover, destitute of conscience,
and extremely prone to wickedness and adulteries when
able to conceal thera. Such persons in the other world
think as they did here, not knowing what conscience is,
and making a mock of those who speak of it. They
enter into the affections of others by a pretended hon
esty, piety, compassion, and innocence, which with
them are a means of deceiving ; and whenever external
restraints are removed, they plunge into the most wicked
and obscene practices. These are they who in tiie other

ANY REFORMATION THERE? 151
world become enchantresses or sorceresses, some of
whom are denominated sirens, who become expert in
arts unknown on earth."
Some of these arts are described. " They can assume
the likeness of others" at will. By cunning artifice
"they can inspire every one with an affection for them."
"They have the power of representing to the view of
spirits a bright flame encompassing the head, and this —
which is an angelic token — to several at the same mo
ment. They can feign innocence by various methods,
even by representing infants whora they kiss ; they also
excite others whora they hate to raurder them. . . .
Their nature is so persuasive that no one suspects them ;
and hence their ideas are not communicated like those
of other spirits ; for they have eyes resembling those as
cribed to serpents, seeing every way at once, and having
their thoughts present everywhere.
"These sorceresses or sirens are punished grievously,
some in Gehenna, others in a kind of court among ser
pents ; others by being, as it were, torn asunder and sub
jected to various collisions attended with intensest pain
and torture." — Ibid. 831.
And this, too, for their own good. For there is noth
ing of vindictiveness in the punishments of hell. They
are all repressive, corrective and reformatory in their
design and tendency.
But will the hells remain forever as they were when
Swedenborg saw thera ? Is there to be no change — no

152 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
improvement — in their condition ? If so, of what na
ture ? — and how is the iraprovement to be effected ? The
answer to these questions has been already anticipated in
a measure ; but I will endeavor to make it clearer and
more definite.
" The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are
over all his works." He, therefore, has regard for, and
continually endeavors to promote the best good even of
the devils. He governs the hells as well as the heavens ;
and his love and wisdom are as conspicuous and as
active in the one realm as in the other. But the devils
cannot be governed in the same way, or by the same
methods, as the angels. The latter, because they love
the Lord above all things, and their neighbor even better
than themselves, can be led and governed by love — by
the love of what is just and true and good. But the
former, since they have no love of the Lord or their
neighbor, but love themselves supremely, can be gov
erned only by fear. Self-love is perpetually encroaching
upon the rights of others ; perpetually grasping at Un
limited power ; perpetually seeking, not to serve and
bless others, but to subjugate them to its own control.
It is, therefore, from its very nature, forever threatening
the peace and welfare of the moral universe. And the
only way this love can be restrained in its insane en
deavors, is through fear — the fear of punishment.
The only way, therefore, that the Lord can reach the
hells, and exert upon thera a controlling influence, is

ANY REFORMATION THERE? 1 53
through the medium of fear. It is in this way that He
comes to, and manifests his love for, the devils. Lie does
not hate them. He does not turn his face away from
them. He does not take delight in tormenting them, as
Christians have hitherto believed and taught ; — far from
it. On the contrary his love for them is like that of a
kind and benignant father for his disobedient children,
only infinitely more tender. It is not less strong for
them, than it is for men on earth, or even for the angels
in heaven ; — no, nor less active in its efforts to promote
their highest welfare. But because they have quenched
his holy Spirit in their hearts — because they have refused
to listen to his loving voice, which evermore seeks to
lead men freely in the path to heaven, therefore they
must be governed like wayward and rebellious children.
They cannot be governed as the angels are — by love ;
they can only be governed by fear. Therefore the Lord
permits them to be punished from time to time, with
more or less severity according to the stubbornness of
their dispositions or the measure of their perversity.
And this, too, for their own good ; precisely as a wise
and loving father will chastise his disobedient children,
not because he delights in causing them pain, but because
he wishes, for their good, to subdue their rebellious dis
positions, and prevent them from injuring themselves and
others through the unrestrained indulgence of their
wrong inclinations.
It is precisely in this way that the Lord deals with the

154 NEV/ VIEW OF HELL.
evil spirits in hell — his disobedient and rebellious chil
dren. He permits thera to suffer punishment from time
to time, but never without an end of use ; — never, but
for their own or others' good. As Swedenborg says :
"The Lord turns all punishment and torment [in the
other life] to some good use. It would be impossible
that there should be any such thing as punishment, un
less use were the end aimed at by the Lord ; for the
Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of ends and uses." {Ar
cana Ccelestia 696.)
And this is the use intended by punishment in the
hells, and the use which it actually accomplishes : It
excites fear and dread by the pain it produces ; and thus
the devils are constrained, through fear of punishment,
to moderate their insanities, and restrain in some meas
ure their evil inclinations. And although the lust of
doing evil forever remains, yet the condition of the
devils is rendered vastly raore tolerable when they have
been reduced to a state in which they dare not do the
evil to which they are inclined ; and are kept in this
state through fear of punishment.
Under a government of fear and force, therefore — the
only kind of governraent suited to the states of the in
fernals — and through the instrumentality of punishments
administered by divine permission, a change in the con
dition of the hells is perpetually going on, though not
such an internal reformation as will result in obliterating

ANY REFORMATION THERE? 155
their existence, or in finally converting the devils into
angels. Swedenborg says :
" All the inhabitants of hell are governed by fears ;
some, by fears implanted in the world, which still retain
their influence ; but because these fears are not sufficient,
and likewise lose their force by degrees, they are gov
erned by fear of punishment ; and this fear is the princi
pal means of deterring them from doing evil. The
punishments in hell are various, more mild or more
severe according to the nature of the evils to be re
strained. For the most part the more malignant who
excel in cunning and artifice, and are able to keep the
rest in a state of submission and slavery by punishments
and the terror thereby inspired, are set over the others ;
but these governors dare not go beyond the limits pre
scribed to them. It is to be observed that the fear of
punishment is the only means of restraining the violence
and fury of the hells : there is no other. ' ' — Heaven and
Hellt^M. "They who have not in the world acknowledged the
Lord, and that all good and truth are from Him and
nothing from man, cannot resist evils as of themselves
after death; for they are in evils and in the delight
thereof grounded in love ; and to resist the delight of
their love, is to resist themselves, their own nature and
their own life. On one occasion the experiment was
made whether they were able to resist evils while the
punishments of hell were announced to them, yea, while

156 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
they were seen and likewise felt ; but it was in vain, fox
they hardened their minds, saying, let come what will,
provided only that we are in the delight and joy of our
hearts while we are here. We shall not suffer more evii
than many others. But after a stated tirae they are cast
into hell, where they are compelled by punishments not
to do evil ; but punishments do not take away the
will, the purpose, and consequent thought of evil;
they only prevent the evil act." — Apocalypse Explained
n. 1165.
" While man lives in the world, he is kept continually
in a state capable of being reformed, provided he desists
from evil from a free principle. But his life follows him
after death, and he remains in the state which he had
procured to himself by the whole course of his life in the
world. Then he who was in evil, is no longer capable
of being reformed ; and lest he should have comraunica
tion with any society of heaven, all truth and good are
taken away from him, in consequence of which he re
mains in the evil and false, which principles increase ac
cording to the faculty of receiving them which he has
acquired in the world ; but he is not permitted to pass
beyond the acquired bounds. . . . His state then is such
that he cannot any longer be amended as to his interiors,
but only as to his exteriors ; and this by fear of punish
ments, which, being often repeated, compel the spirit at
last to abstain from evil, which he does, not in freedom
but through compulsion, the lust of doing evil still re-

ANY REFORMATION THERE? 1 57
maining; this lust is held in check by fears, as was said,
which fears are the external and compulsory means of
amendment. Such is the state of the evil in the other
life." — Arcana Cmlestia 6977.
"Every evil spirit in the other life brings punishment
and torment on himself, by casting himself into the
midst of the diabolical crew who act as the executioners.
The Lord never sends any one into hell, but desires to
bring all out of hell ; still less does He inflict torment.
But as the evil spirit rushes into it himself, the Lord
turns all punishment and torment to some good account.
There would be no such thing as punishment if use were
not the end aimed at by the Lord ; for his kingdom is a
kingdom of ends and uses ; but the uses which infernal
spirits are able to perform are most ignoble ; yet when
they are engaged in the performance of these uses, they
are not in a state of so great misery [as at other times]."
—Ibid. 696.
"Man in the other life enters into new states and un
dergoes changes. They who are being elevated into
heaven, and afterwards when they have been elevated,
advance forever towards perfection. But they who are
being cast into hell, and afterwards when they have been
cast in, endure sufferings more and more grievous, which
are continued until they dare not do evil to any one.
And afterwards they remain in hell to eternity. They
cannot be drawn out, because they cannot be gifted with
the ability to do good to any one, only not to do evilirora
14

158 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
fear of punishment, the lust of doing it always remaining."
—Ibid. 7541.
Such, then, is the nature of the change that is going on
in the hells, and siich the raeans by which it is accom
plished. And even in the punishraents which are there
inflicted, we have a manifestation of the Divine benevo
lence. For the purpose of these is, the amelioration of
the condition of the devils ; — an end altogether worthy ¦
of infinite Love, but one which infinite Wisdom sees
could not be attained without the instrumentality of pun-
ishraent. To withhold the exercise of this instrumental
ity, therefore, would not be an act of benevolence, and
hence not agreeable to infinite Love ; for this Love for
ever regards the end to be accoraplished, and wisely per
mits temporary suffering as a means toward the attain
ment of that end.
Through the instrumentality of punishments, therefore,
severe and oft-repeated, the hells are undergoing an im
provement not unlike that which goes on in a well gov
erned penitentiary here on earth. They are being re
formed outwardly, but not inwardly ; — not as to their
spirit or ruling purpose, for no internal reformation is
ever effected by punishment or the fear of it. All that
punishment can ever do, is to intimidate and restrain,
and so prevent the actual coraraission of evil deeds, the
disposition to commit them still remaining.
By means of a strong police and severe punishments, a
community of thieves and murderers may be restrained,

ANY REFORMATION THERE? 1 59
and kept in some degree of external order ; but theft and
murder (or the spirit that prompts them) still reraain in
their hearts ; and will break forth into outward act as
soon as the police are out of the way, or there is no
longer any fear of punishment. You cannot drive love^
pure, unselfish love — into human hearts with bullets or
bludgeons, by infantry or artillery, by cavalry or police.
Our state prisons furnish a good illustration of the
hells as described by Swedenborg ; and the external im
provement which has been going on in many of these for
the last thirty years, through a wise adrainistration and a
firm government, will give us some idea of the nature
and extent of the improvement that is going on in the
hells. And while this is not such as will result in finally
changing their essential character or ruling love, let us
hope that it may, however, be carried so far as to render
the condition of the devils quite tolerable if not happy.
Let us hope that, ultimately, they may be reduced to
such a state of external order, that life — even the low
and selfish kind of life which they have chosen and
made their own — will be esteemed by them a blessing
and not a curse.
In a community here on earth, where a great majority
of the people have a conscience and are actuated by
principle, the sphere of law and order, of justice and
right, is usually so strong that there is rarely any out
break of the hells through the minority. These latter
arf kept in subjection and order by purely selfish and

l6o NEW VIEW OF HELL.
prudential considerations — from an enlightened regard
to their own temporal interests, or through fear of dis
grace, punishment, or worldly loss of some sort. So from
like considerations, and under the rigid discipline to
which the devils are subjected and which I have here
hastily outlined, the universal hell may ultimately be
brought into such complete subjection to the angelic
heaven, (whose numbers and influence, it is believed, are
continually increasing), that the violent commotions and
outbreaks which are now so frequent, will entirely cease.
When this takes place, we can easily see that, although
the hells will still remain unchanged as to their essential
nature, they will be like the tamed tiger — submissive,
and therefore harmless. We can see, too, that, by their
subjection to the heaven of angels, or to the emanating
and controlling sphere of law and order, their own peace
and comfort will be increased, and the welfare of the
moral universe promoted to an extent beyond the power
of imagination to conceive.
Such is a brief outline of the New Doctrine of Hell ;
— a doctrine which builds itself impregnably upon the
constitution and laws of the human soul, which accords
with the teaching of sound philosophy, with the dictates
of reason, with the facts of history, with the record of
human experience, and with the teachings of Scripture
rationally and spiritually interpreted.
How different this doctrine is from the one taught in

ANY REFORMATION THERE? l6l
the literal sense of the Word, and generally accepted
among Christians a hundred years ago ! It presents us
not with an angry and vindictive God delighting in the
sufferings of his disobedient children, but with a tender
and loving Father pitying their infirmities, and pursuing
them with outstretched arras of mercy through all their
wanderings, and even into the lowest depths of degrada
tion and sin. And if, in the exercise of the freedom
vouchsafed to every human being, they choose to unfold
only the lower or sensuous part of their nature — choose
to make their bed in hell, behold the loving Father is
there, restraining, correcting, controlling and governing
them in the manner best suited to their condition and
needs ; chastising them for their own good, and granting
them the enjoyment of such delights as belong to the
life which they have developed within them and raade
their own; mercifully closing their minds against the
light of heaven, that they may not see where and what
they really are ; providing for each and all a home in
the society of congenial spirits — a home which their
nature impels them to seek, and to which they go as freely
and as willingly as the inebriate goes to the gin-shop or
the leopard to his lair.
And the practical tendency of this doctrine, like that
of every other that is true, is most salutary. While it
proclaims the infinite love and mercy of God, and his
ceaseless desire and effort to save all, it at the same time
shows us that salvation is a work which not even almighty
14 » L

1 62 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
Love itself can accomplish without our willing co-opera
tion ; that the heavenly life cannot be forced upon us nor
into us by almighty power, but can only be wrought out
by our own volition — or built up through struggle and
conflict and self-denial and obedience to the laws of that
life, — the Lord meanwhile "working in us to will and to
do of his good pleasure" ; and that unless we begin to
live the life of heaven here on earth — begin to deny
self, take i]p the cross and follow the Master — we shall
have no desire to engage in this work in the realm be
yond the grave. The heaven of our minds will then be
closed in tender compassion for us ; and the peace and
joy and unutterable bliss of heaven will, therefore, never
be ours.
So tremendous are the moral sanctions with which
this new doctrine is invested ! So benign and quicken ¦
ing is it in its practical tendency !

XI.
THE DEVIL AND SATAN.
XTO treatise upon the subject that has thus far en-
• -^ ^ gaged our attention, would be satisfactory to an
inquiring mind, which did not embrace an explanation
of the terms Devil and Satan. These words occur very
often in the New Testament, and in the closest possible
connection with the terra Hell. What is Swedenborg's
explanation of them ? Or what is the doctrine revealed
through him concerning the Devil and Satan ?
We know what doctrine had been generally taught and
accepted by Christians up to the time he wrote. It was
that of a personal Devil — an individual of unparalleled
malignity, the implacable enemy of both God and man,
and endued with little less than omnipotent power. And
this idea agrees with the literal teaching of the Bible.
It also appears from the literal sense of some passages
(and this, too, has been the accepted doctrine among
Christians) as if this alraost omnipotent evil spirit, was
once an inhabitant of the highest heaven — foremost
among the heavenly host in wisdom and all angelic
graces ; — one 163

,164 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
"  who, in the happy realms of light,
Clothed with transcendent brightness, did outshine
Myriads though bright;" —
but who, on account of his impious attempt to overthrow
the divine governraent and establish himself on the
throne of the universe, was cast down from heaven, and
became thereby the prince of the bottomless pit, the
commander in chief of all the hosts of hell. (See Is.
xii. 14; Jude 6th v. ; Rev. ix. ir.)
Such was the generally accepted doctrine of the Devil
a hundred years ago. And it is belieVed by many at the
present day. A high authority where definitions are in
question (Noah Webster), defines Satan to be " the grand
adversary of man ; the devil, or prince of darkness ; the
chief of the fallen angels; the arch-fiend." And in an
abridgement of his great work, we find Devil defined
thus: — " In the Christian theology — a fallen angel ex
pelled from heaven for rebellion against God ; the chief
of the fallen angels."
From these definitions we learn that the notion which
Christians have generally attached to these words, has
been precisely that expressed by Milton in his great epic,
where he introduces Satan as one
"  cast out from heaven, with all his host
Of rebel angels ; by whose aid aspiring
To set himself in glory above his peers.
He trusted to have equaled the Most High
If He opposed ; and with ambitious aim

THE DEVIL AND SATAN. 1 65
Against the throne and monarchy of God,
Raised impious war in heaven, and battle proud,
With vain attempt. Him the almighty Power
Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky,
With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition ; there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire,
Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms."
But there are not a few at the present day, both within
and outside of all the churches — and their number is
steadily increasing — who do not believe a word of this
old and once popular doctrine of the Devil. They
reject that whole story about the war in heaven, and the
overthrow and expulsion of the rebel hosts, as fabulous.
And if any one is curious to know the origin of this no
tion about the "fallen angels," let him read attentively
the critical remarks of Dr. Moses Stuart on the Apochry-
phal book of Enoch, from which it is evident that the
apostle Jude quoted. The conclusion of this learned
writer is briefly stated thus: " Probable I must deem it
to be, that Jude has quoted the book of Enoch ; because
he seems, in what he says of the angels who kept not
their first estate, but left their habitation and are reserved
in chains of darkness, to allude to the account of apos
tate angels as given in the book of Enoch." {Stuart on
the Apocalypse, Vol. I., p. 51-73-)
The old doctrine on this subject, then, is clearly one
that belongs to a superstitious and unenlightened age.

1 66 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
It bears about it the air of fable. Our reason and the
enlightened sentiment of the present day repudiate it
utterly. Let us turn, now, to the new doctrine revealed through
Swedenborg ; and see if that be as unreasonable or im
probable as the old. What, according to this new rev
elation, is the Devil and Satan of Scripture ?
Consider that evil spirits are not all in the same kind
or degree of evil. They are not all alike, any more than
men on earth or angels in heaven. There are innumerable
varieties of evil in hell, as there are of good in heaven.
And those who are in sirailar kinds and degrees of evil,
prefer to be together. They are therefore drawn by the
law of spiritual affinity into the same society. Every
devil is carried to that particular society whose general
character most nearly resembles his own. There he
finds himself at home. He is drawn to it by an irre
sistible attraction — for in the other world each one goes
where his ruling love leads him. Spirits can no more
resist or cut themselves loose from the law of spiritual
attraction, than our earth can resist or cut itself loose
from the law of material attraction.
By virtue of this law, and of the endless variety of
goods and evils in the other world, both in kind and in
degree, there are in heaven and in hell a countless num
ber of societies, each one of which is in some specific
kind and degree of good or evil. All the societies in
heaven, viewed collectively, constitute one gigantic Man

THE DEVIL AND SATAN. 167
or Angel ; and are often called by Swedenborg Maximus
Homo — the Grand Man. The meaning of this is, that
the connection, interdependence, and mutual relation
of the innumerable societies composing the whole angelic
heaven, and the uses which they severally perform, cor
respond to the harmonious relation existing between the
different organs of the human body, and their respective
functions. And since the mutual relation and dependence of all
the angelic societies is such that the whole heaven appears
before the Lord as one symmetrical and colossal Man or
Angel, so the infernal societies are so related and united
that all hell appears as one gigantic and deformed Mon
ster or Devil. The difference in their appearance cor
responds exactly to the difference in their- character.
And this is as the difference between a single angel and
devil, one of whom is a form of all that is pure and
good, and therefore indescribably beautiful; the other a
form of all that is evil and loathsome, and therefore
hideous. This, according to Swedenborg, is what we are to un
derstand by the Devil and Satan so often mentioned in
Scripture. Each of these is a collective term when used
in its widest sense, and denotes all the infernal societies
viewed as a single individual. There is an organic con
nection among infernal spirits. One life pervades them
all, and that is the life of self-love and the lusts therein
originating, — ^just as one kind of blood, pure or impure.

l6S NEW VIEW OF HELL.
courses through all parts of the human body even to its
remotest extremities. And as the whole body conspires
in producing the slightest motion of any limb — a foot,
an arm, a hand or a finger — so all hell conspires in the
perpetration of every wicked deed — in every evil pur
pose, word, or work.
We see, then, that, according to the New doctrine, no
single individual as chief of the fallen angels, is meant
by these Scripture terms, but all evil spirits in the com
plex, — or some one of the infernal societies with whose
every act and purpose the whole conspires. Devil is the
term employed when hell is spoken of with more especial
reference to the evil loves that reign there ; and Satan,
when it is spoken of with more especial reference to its
false persuasions.
And because all hell is in a state of opposition to what
is good and true, and perpetually conspires to destroy
man spiritually, by the sphere of evil and falsity which
continually issues from it as a poisonous exhalation,
therefore we read that the Devil "was a murderer from
the beginning, and abode not in the truth because there
is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh
of his own [i. e., according to his own nature] ; for he
is a liar and the father of it." Nothing but falsity is in
agreement with evil. Therefore nothing but lies can
come forth from the hearts of those who are essentially
evil — supremely selfish — when they speak from their own
nature.

THE DEVIL AND SATAN. 169
So reasonable is the view here presented, and so much
more satisfactory than the Old doctrine, that we are not
surprised to find it beginning to be accepted by some of
the acutest minds and profoundest thinkers even among
those commonly reputed orthodox. To cite here, by
way of illustration, a single passage from that most fas
cinating work. Nature and the Supernatural, from the
pen of Dr. Horace Bushnell, unquestionably one of the
ablest theologians in America. Speaking of the doctrine
of the Manichees or disciples of Zoroaster, this writer
says: " If their good principle, called God by us, is taken
as a being, and their bad principle as only a condition
privative ; one as a positive and real cause, the other as a
bad possibility that environs God frora eternity, waiting
to become a fact and certain to become a fact whenever
the opportunity is given, it is even so. And then it fol
lows that the moraent God creates a realra of powers, the
bad possibility as certainly becomes a bad actuality, a
Satan, or Devil, in esse; not a bad omnipresence over
against God, and his equal — that is a monstrous and hor
rible conception — but an outbreaking evil or empire of
evil in created spirits, according to their order. For
Satan, or the Devil, taken in the singular, is not the
name of any particular person, neither is it a personation
merely of temptation, or impersonal evil, as raany in
sist; for there is really no such thing as impersonal evil
in the sense of moral evil ; but the narae is a name that
15

l7o NEW VIEW OF HELL.
generalizes bad persons or spirits, with their bad thoughts
or characters, raany in one. That there is any single
one of them who, by distinction or pre-eminence, is called
Satan, or Devil, is wholly improbable. The name is one
taken up by the imagination, to designate or embody, in
a conception the mind can most easily wield, the all or
total of bad minds or powers." — pp. 134, '5.
I do not know whether this learned writer derived the
view here expressed from Swedenborg, or whether he
reached it by a kind of spiritual intuition. In either
case the testimony of such a mind is equally valuable.
The doctrine, we see, is identically the same as that
revealed through Swedenborg.
Pursuing our inquiry, — we find that the word Angel is
used in Scripture in a manner similar to the word Devil,
as explained by Swedenborg. Sometimes it is used to
denote a single individual, sometimes a single angelic
society, and soraetiraes the whole angelic heaven which
is an angel in the largest form. Thus the seer of Pat
mos speaks- of the angels of the churches of Ephesus,
Smyrna, Thyatira, etc., by which are meant the angelic
societies connected with and presiding over these churches.
We read also in Psalms: "The angel of the Lord
encampeth round about them that fear Him, and deliv-
ereth thera." Here "the angel of the Lord" raeans
the whole angelic heaven.
But heaven is the same in each and all of its parts, as
it is in the whole. Therefore the word angel, which is

THE DEVIL AND SATAN. 1 71
sometimes used in Scripture to denote the whole angelic
heaven, or some society thereof, is also used in the plural
{angels) to denote two or more individuals ; for every
angel is a heaven in the smallest forra.
Sirailar remarks may be made with reference to the
use of the word devil. It is used in the singular as a col
lective term to denote all hell in the complex; and
again we find the same word often used in the plural
{devils), denoting individual evil spirits, or the constit
uent parts of hell, which are similar in character to the
whole. We use the term man in precisely the same way. We
sometimes apply it to a single individual, and sometimes
to the race. It is often used in this latter sense in the
Bible, as a collective term. As where it is said : " God
made man in his own image." " Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of
the mouth of God shall man live." Again we use this
word in the plural {men), when speaking of a number of
individuals, or of mankind in general. '
And what is more common than to hear a country,
a kingdom, or state, or other community of persons
spoken of as a single individual. Every one speaks of
England, France, Germany, the United States, etc., or
the people of these countries viewed collectively, as one
person, with the .same familiarity and the same confi
dence of being understood, as he would speak of Mr.
Smith or Mr. Jones, his next door neighbor.

172 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
Now if Man is often used as a collective term to denote
the entire human race, and Angel in like manner to de
note the whole angelic heaven, why should not Devil
be used in the sarae way to denote all evil spirits in the
complex? or, as Dr. Bushnell expresses it, "the total
of bad minds ' ' ? These are all animated by one and
the same bad spirit; they all breathe hatred, cruelty,
revenge and murder ; they are all joined in an alliance
of evil; they all conspire to work deeds of darkness;
and viewed collectively, what are they but one inhuman
Monster or Devil ?
And this view has the clear testimony of Scripture as
well as of reason in its support. For we read of one
"that was possessed with the devil," who was "always,
night and day, in the mountains and in the tombs,
crying and cutting himself with stones." This poor,
devil-possessed creature met Jesus as He came out of the
ship ; and as soon as he saw Him " he ran and worshiped
Him, and cried with a loud voice, and said. What have
I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high
God?" And Jesus, commanding the unclean spirit to
come out of the man, "asked him. What is thy name?
And he answered, saying, My name is Legion ; for we
are raany." — Mark v. 9. And iraraediately after, this
same unclean spirit, called in verses 15 and 16 "the
devil," is spoken of in the plural as "the unclean spirits."
and "all the devils."
There are a number of other names by which the Devil

THE DEVIL AND SATAN. 1 73
is called in Scripture, each of which expresses something
c f the essential nature of hell ; such as, Angel of the
bottomless pit. Prince of this world. Prince of darkness.
Destroyer, Beelzebub, Belial, Adversary, Accuser, De
ceiver, Liar, Murderer, Tormentor, Serpent, Lucifer,
Leviathan and Dragon. Such are the significant naraes
which we find in the Bible sometimes applied to the col
lective body of evil spirits in the other world, who,
viewed as one individual, are more frequently called the
Devil and Satan. And how completely do such names
justify the following language of Swedenborg :
"As heaven, from the Lord, by mutual love, consti
tutes as it were one Man or one soul, and thus regards
one end which is the preservation and salvation of all to
eternity ; so on the other hand hell, from proprium, by
self-love and the love of the world, that is, by hatred,
constitutes one Devil or one mind, and thus regards one
end, which is the destruction and damnation of all to
eternity. That such is the tendency of each has been
granted me to perceive many thousands of tiraes."
{Arcana Ccelestia 694. )
We thus see that the New doctrine on this, as on other
subjects, is quite different from the Old. The Devil,
according to Swedenborg's disclosures, is not the per
sonal one described by Milton, and hitherto believed in
by Christians generally. Nor is he a fabulous or imag
inary being, but one whose existence, and reality the
philosphic inquirer readily admits. Nay, he is one
15 *

1 74- NEW VIEW OF HELL.
whose existence we are compelled to admit, the moment
we admit that each one takes his own character with hir i
into the other world, and that those of similar character
are there drawn together, and held together and act to
getlier as one.
And something — nay, much, I think — is gained, when
the Devil, whom intelligent people were fast coming to
look upon as a fabulous sort of being, is so presented
that all doubt about his existence and reality as well as
his nature, is banished. It places the Scripture in a dif
ferent light, and inspires fresh confidence in its divinity.
And seeing what the essential nature of the Devil is,
we may see what it is to be influenced and led by him —
and what to be led by the Lord. When we earnestly strive
to know and do the right — when we look to the Lord
and seek to regulate our lives according to his revealed
will, then we suffer ourselves to be led and governed by
Him. But when we seek only to do our own wills — when we
heed the promptings of self-love raore than the still small
voice of truth and duty, then we breathe the atmosphere
of hell ; our spirits act in conjunction with the infernals ;
we are led and governed by the Devil.
And when we consider what legions there are who con
stitute the Devil, and who are banded together in a con
spiracy against all that is good and true and holv in
human hearts and human society, how clear and imper
ative becomes the need of an almighty Arm to save us !

THE DEVIL AND SATAN. 1 75
and how earnestly should we seek the Divine protecting
sphere ! How anxious should we be to know the truth,
and how careful to govern our lives according to its
requirements — ever acknowledging the Lord's own im
mediate presence and power in the truths we learn and
do ! This is the only way we can secure for ourselves the
protection of that Arm which alone can shield us against
the power of hell.
How imminent is our spiritual danger, how watchful
we ought to be over our hearts and lives, how much we
need the Divine protection, and how that protection is
best ensured, will appear from the following extract from
Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell :
" Every spirit is his own good or his own evil, because
he is his own love. Therefore, as an angelic spirit
thinks, wills, speaks, and acts from his own good, so
does an infernal spirit from his own evil ; and to think,
will, speak, and act, from evil itself, is to do so from all
the things which are included in the evil. It was other
wise when he lived in the body. The evil of the man's
spirit was then restrained by the bonds, in which every
one is held by the law, by his love of gain and honor,
and through fear of losing them ; on which account the
evil of his spirit could not then break out, and manifest
itself in its own intrinsic nature. Besides, the evil of
the man's spirit then lay wrapped up and veiled in exter
nal probity, sincerity, justice, and the affection of truth
and good, of which such a man has made an oral profes-

176 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
sion, and has assuraed an appearance for the sake of the
world. Under these outward semblances, the evil lay .so
covered up and concealed, that he was scarcely aware
hiraself that his spirit contained so great wickedness and
subtlety, or that in himself he was such a devil as he
becomes after death, when his spirit comes into itself,
aud into its own nature. Such wickedness then manifests
itself as exceeds all belief There are thousands of evils
which burst forth from evil itself, among which, also,
are such as cannot be expressed in the words of any lan
guage. I have been permitted to learn and comprehend
their nature by much experience ; for it has been granted
me by the Lord to be in the spiritual world as to my
spirit, and at the same tirae in the natural world as to
my body. This I can testify, that their wickedness is so
great, that it is hardly possible to describe a thousandth
part of it ; and furthermore, that unless the Lord pro
tected man, it would be impossible for him ever to be
rescued from hell ; for there are with every man both
spirits from hell and angels from heaven ; and the Lord
cannot protect a man, unless he acknowledge the Divine,
and live the life of faith and charity ; for otherwise, he
averts himself from the Lord, and turns toward infernal
spirits, and thus becomes imbued as to his spirit with
similar wickedness." — 577.

XII.
PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF THE QUESTION.
BESIDES this outer world of matter, there is another
realra of being ; — a world of spirits, both good and
evil ; — a heaven of angels and a hell of devils. Nor is
this realm remote from the world in which we are now
living and acting, but intimately present with it, inter
penetrating every part of it, as the -soul of raan pervades
and animates every part of his body.
In the midst of this viewless host our own souls live
and breathe and act. With one or another class of
spirits we internally hold close companionship; and are
powerfully influenced by them for good or for evil.
Heaven and hell are not far away. Both are present and
potential realities — none the less so because their deni
zens are invisible to the natural eye. And the moment
this fact is recognized, the important practical bearings
of the subject discussed in these pages, becomes apparent.
For if hell be a present reality, or if it can come near to
men and exert upon them a potent influence, it is import
ant that we understand its nature.
And all who accept the Sacred Scripture as a revelation
from God, must recognize this fact. For on almost
M 177

178 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
every page of the Bible, the existence of a realm above
nature — of a world peopled by spirits, good and evil — is
clearly implied if not distinctly asserted. Angels and
devils are spoken of as often, and with as much familiar
ity, as are any other objects whose reality no one ever
dreamed of questioning. Their existence is everywhere
assumed. There is never an attempt to prove it, any
more than there is to prove the existence of the sun,
moon or stars.
Angels are spoken of as often seen by persons in the
flesh ; as conversing with and sustaining an intimate re
lation to them ; as feeling a lively interest in humanity,
and exerting an influence upon the condition of mortals.
They were seen, for example, by Jacob, Gideon, Manoah,
Zacharias, the shepherds of Bethlehem, and the women
"who were early at the sepulchre." Myriads of them
were beheld, and their voices heard, by John when he
was in the spirit. And as evidence of their interest in
and their sympathy with people here on earth, we are
told in the gospel of Luke that " there is joy in the pres
ence of the angels of God over one sinner that re-
penteth." Equally explicit, too, is the Scripture in its teaching
respecting evil spirits or devils, and their malign influ
ence upon the inhabitants of this world. When our
Saviour was on earth, multitudes were possessed b)' them ;
and we are told that "He cast out the devils with his
word." He also gave his disciples "power over unclean

PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF IT. 179
spirits to cast them out." And when He sent them forth
to preach the gospel of the Kingdom, He gave them a
commission to "heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise
the dead, and cast out devils." When the evil spirits
saw Him, they (or the persons possessed by thera) cried
out for fear, fell down before Him, or qmckly fled away
as from one whose sphere was insufferably painful. And
"with authority," it is said, "He commandeth the un
clean spirits, and they obey Him." And on one occa
sion when He was met by a poor demoniac who had his
dwelling among the tombs, " He said unto him, Come
out of the man, thou unclean spirit." And when he was
asked "What is thy name?" he answered "My name is
Legion ; for we are many. ' '
Then look at the character of the Devil as portrayed
in the Bible ; — and this term, as shown in the previous
chapter, is applied to the congregated hosts of hell, or
all evil spirits viewed collectively. His character is
clearly indicated by the several names applied to him.
For he is called a liar, a destroyer, the accurser of the
brethren, the adversary, the deceiver, a murderer, the
old serpent, the tempter, the wicked one, the spirit that
worketh in the children of disobedience. He is repre
sented, moreover, as the enemy of God and the human
race; as opposed to the establishment of the Redeemer's
kingdom, or to the reign of justice, liberty and love in
human hearts; as earnestly bent on man's destruction;
as the inspirer of all wicked thoughts, and malign pur-

I So NEW VIEW OF HELL.
po.ses ; as putting it into the heart of Judas Iscariot to
betray the blessed Saviour ; as corrupting and misleading
men by craft and subtlety; as "going about like a roar
ing lion, seeking whom he may devour."
The Scripture testimony on this subject is abundant
and conclusive. We see not how it could be more ex
plicit. If the existence of an innumerable company of
angels and devils, their close proximity to man, and their
intense desire and earnest effort, the one class to do him
good and the other to do him harm, be not plainly taught
in the Bible, then it would be difficult, I think, to say
what is plainly taught there.
And yet the explicit teaching of Scripture on this mo
mentous theme, has come to be quite -overlooked or
ignored by many Christians ; and so explained by others
as to cast doubt on the very existence of spirits, good or
evil. These facts go to show how important it was that
some one should be intromitted into the spiritual world
in the manner that Swedenborg was (or, if you please,
claimed to be), that he might thereby be enabled to make
a truthful revelation concerning that world.
That the practical bearings of the question discussed
in these pages, may be more distinctly seen, I will give
a brief outline of the spiritual world, even at the risk of
treading upon some ground that has already been trav
eled over.
I observe, then, that the spiritual world is one of sub
stantial realities — more real, indeed, than the one in

PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF IT. l8l
which we are now living. It is not remote from this
world as to space, but is intimately present with it as the
soul is with the body. It is peopled by a countless
multitude of beings, all of whom are in the human form
and were once inhabitants of the natural world. These
are organized- in general into two grand divisions, — a
heaven of angels and a hell of devils. The angels are
distributed into innumerable societies, corresponding, in
their mutual relations and in the functions they respect
ively perform, to the different merabers and organs of
the human body ; so that together they constitute one
Grand Man or Angel. And to the Lord they actually
appear as one, and constitute his heavenly kingdom.
These are spoken of in the Bible as ' ' the angel of the
Lord" and "the host of heaven."
And the angels are all good and wise, although there
is a wide diversity of character among them. Some are
in a high and others in a comparatively low degree of
wisdom ; some in one kind of good, others in another.
But love to the Lord and the neighbor is the chief in
spiration — yea, the very life-blood of all their hearts.
They are all, to some extent, images and likenesses of
the Lord. They have been with Him and learned of
Him ; — learned to be meek and lowly in heart, forgetful
of themselves and thoughtful only of the good of
others; — learned to do justly, to love raercy, and to
walk hurably with their God. These constitute that
bright angelic throng, of whom it is said that they
16

l82 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
"came out of great tribulation, and have washed their
robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
They are all of them children of the Heavenly Father,
having their hearts stamped indelibly with the irapress
of his spirit — which is what is meant by their having
" his name written in their. foreheads." Their love is like
God's, pure and unselfish. They love each other even
better than themselves, and find their chief delight in
doing good and communicating happiness to others.
Having in their hearts the very spirit of the Lord; they
love only what He loves, and delight to do only those
things that He delights to have them do. Their rul
ing desire and purpose are the same as his ; their ends
and aims the same. For they desire above all else to
impart unto others the delights of heavenly life. They
desire to dissipate the spiritual darkness, to heal the
spiritual sickness, to restore the spiritual health and renew
the spiritual strength of the world. Swedenborg's writ
ings are full of the most beautiful and inspiring pictures
of angelic life, from which people here on earth may
learn lessons of the highest practical wisdom. Thus he
says :
" The angelic life consists in the perforraance of uses,
or in the goods of charity. For to the angels nothing
is more delightful than to instruct spirits coming from
the world ; — to serve mankind by inspiring them with
what is good, and by restraining the evil spirits attend
ant on them from passing their proper bounds; --to raise

PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF IT. 1 83
up the dead to eternal life, and afterwards, if their souls
be of such a character as to render it possible, to intro
duce them into heaven. In the performance of these
offices they experience an unspeakable delight. Thus
they are images of the Lord, for they love their neighbor
more than themselves ; and where this feeling exists,
there is heaven. Angelic happiness, therefore, is in use,
from use, and according to use ; or in other words, it is
according to the goods of love and charity. . . .
" Some of the best educated [who were met with in the
other world], declared heavenly joy to consist in a life
separated from the good offices of charity and in merely
praising and worshiping the Lord, — calling this an active
life. They were told, however, that praising and wor
shiping the Lord, is not such an active life, but the
effect of such life; for the Lord has no need of men's
praises, but desires that they perforra the good works of
charity. According as they do these, they receive hap
piness frora the Lord. Yet these most learned spirits
could have no idea of delight, but of servitude, in these
good works of charity ; but the angels testified that such
good offices are compatible with the most perfect free
dora, and attended with inexpressible felicity." — Arcana
Ccelestia 454, 456.
Again he says :
" Charity is nothing unless it manifests itself in works
of charity. It exists only in exercise, or in the perform
ance of uses. He who loves his neighbor as himself.

184 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
never perceives the delight of charity except in its ct-
ercise, or in use; the life of charity, therefore, is a life
of uses. Such is the life of the whole heaven ; for the
Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of uses, because a king
dom of mutual love. Therefore every pleasure derived
from charity, has its delight from use ; and the more
exalted the use, so much the greater its delight. Hence
the angels have happiness from the Lord according to
the nature and quality of the uses they perform." —
Ibid. 997.
Such is the nature of angelic life — the life which we
are all raade capable of attaining, and which the Lord is
forever seeking to develop or build up within us. Such
is the character of that heavenly kingdom whereof the
Bible so often speaks — a kingdom of righteousness, joy
and peace — a kingdom of pure and loving hearts — the
very kingdom for which we pray when we breathe that
inspired petition, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done on earth as it is done in heaven."
And people are continually passing into that kingdom
— passing from earth to heaven. What class of people ?
The Bible tells us. All those righteous ones who walked,
while here below, in the law of the Lord ; — ^those lowly
ones who, through repentance and regeneration, have
becorae as little children ; — the meek, the merciful, the
poor in spirit, the pure in heart, those who have prac
ticed self-denial, and earnestly sought to do the will of
the Father which is in the heavens.

PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF IT. 1 85
We thus see what the kingdom of heaven is ; and that
all who enter that kingdom after death, must have heaven
within themselves. That is, they must carry the loves
and purposes that rule in heaven, and be able to find de
light in such works as are delightful to the angels.
But there is another kingdom in the spiritual realra of
which the Bible tells us — a hell of devils. These, too,
are arranged, in like raanner as the angels, into many
different societies according to the kinds and degrees of
evil in which they are. Nor is there anything arbitrary
or compulsory in this arrangement. They come into it
in perfect freedom. Each one goes into the society for
which he has an affinity — into the one whose general
character is nearest like his own. And these societies of
evil spirits, like those in heaven, are all so united, that
together they constitute one huge monster, called in
Scripture "the Devil."
The character of these evil spirits is quite the opposite
of that of the angels. They have no love of the Lord
or the neighbor ; and therefore know nothing of the
heavenly delight resulting frora the exercise of this love.
The love of self is the supreme and ruling love of them
all ; and this is real hatred toward those who refuse to
minister to its gratification.
And as self-love is the source of all other evil loves
when it reigns supreme, therefore the devils are thor
oughly immersed in evil. They are full of hatred,
malice, craft and subtlety; — full of falsehood, tyranny,
16 »

1 86 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
cunning and cruelty. Their life is one of unmitigated
selfishness. It is their delight to do all manner of mis
chief; — to foment hatreds, strifes and divisions ; — to stir
up envies, jealousies and revenges ; — to intensify all the
worst passions of the huraan heart ; — to blind, and mis
lead, and if possible make slaves of, all who come within
the sphere of their influence.
Such, biiefly, is the character of that legion of infer
nals in the spiritual world, who, taken collectively, are
called the Devil. What a contrast to the character
of those shining ones in the realms above !
Consider, now, that as to our spirits we are always
living in the spiritual world, even while clothed with
material flesh and blood ; and are actually associated
with one or the other class of spirits above described.
We may flee the society of persons in the flesh ; but we
can never be alone. We can never rid ourselves of the
society of spirits. Wherever we are, an invisible com
pany attends us — in solitude no less than in society. We
do not see them, nor sensibly perceive their influence.
Yet their presence is none the less real on that account,
nor their influence less positive. We do not hear their
voices — certainly not with our outward ears ; yet they
converse with us during all our waking hours. Through
the intricate and mysterious galleries of the soul they
whisper to us a blessed gospel of peace and good will —
thoughts of kindness, usefulness, justice, mercy, forbear-

PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF IT. 1 87
ance, benevolence, and willing self-sacrifice for the good
of others ; or they suggest ways and means whereby our
pride, vanity, ambition, lust of dominion, love of ease
or pleasure, or selfish greed of gain, may most surely be
gratified. Yes: one or the other of these two classes of spirits, —
according as we are more willing to listen to the soft
pleadings of the angels, or to be beguiled by the glozing
flattery of devils, — one or the other of these classes are
our intimate associates, our bosom companions. Of one
or the other we take counsel day by day, however uncon
scious we may be of the fact. To one or the other we
listen from hour to hour. With one or the other we
think and feel and act in the ordinary intercourse of our
every-day life. There is no escape from this. The laws
of our spiritual being, and the arrangements and consti
tution of the moral universe, render it a necessity. Our
spirits breathe, and must breathe, the atmosphere of
heaven or of hell. They may — oftentimes they do
— breathe that of each by turns.
But the Lord vouchsafes to every one the liberty of
choice. We are as free to choose our invisible as we are
our visible associates. Nay, we do choose them, whether
we think of it or not. We have actually chosen them,
though it may not be for eternity; for we have the power
to change our invisible as well .as our visible companions.
Indeed, the whole work of regeneration — every inward
change we experience — involves a change in our spiritual

l8» NEW VIEW OF HELL.
associates, or the passing out of one spiritual society and
the entering into another.
And now comes the momentous question ; Is there
any way of ascertaining the character of our invisible
associates? Is there any test whereby we may know
with certainty whether our spirits consort with angels or
devils ? — whether we inhale from day to day the balmy
air of heaven, or the noxious and soul-disordering exha
lations of hell ?
Most undoubtedly. There is a universal law that gov
erns all associations in the spiritual world — those in hell
as well as those in heaven. It is the law of spiritual
affinity which has been repeatedly spoken of in the fore
going pages. This law forever impels spirits to seek the
companionship of those most like themselves. Under
its operation, therefore, kindred spirits are drawn to
gether and held together in the same society. Those in
a similar kind and degree of good, or in a similar kind
and degree of evil, have an affinity for each other.
They love .to be together. Their sphere is mutually
agreeable. Therefore they gravitate toward each other
by force of mutual attraction.
And it is this same law which determines the character
of our invisible companions. Through its operation,
spirits are attracted to us who are similar in character to
ourselves. The prevailing tenor of our thoughts and
affections — the nature of the love that rules in our hearts
— the kind of motives from which we generally act —

PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF IT. 189
the principles which govern us in our ordinary inter
course with men — these are the indices which reveal the
character of our spiritual associates. If our prevailing
desire and effort be to know and do the will of the Lord,
then angels are our companions ;• our spirits consort witli
the white-robed throng ; we breathe the atmosphere of
heaven. But if our ends be mean and selfish ; if we are heed
less of the Divine comraands, or deaf to the still small
voice of duty ; if our prevailing purpose be to do our own
will- rather than the will of God ; then, our spiritual asso
ciates belong to the realms below ; we are in fellowship
with devils ; we breathe the polluting air of hell.
We have but to look, therefore, at our governing prin-
ciples of action — at our dominant feelings, dispositions
and motives — at our chief end and aim in life, in order
to learn the character of our invisible associates. Accord
ingly Swedenborg says : —
"All spirits are distinguished in the other life by this :
They who intend evil to others, are infernal or diabolical
spirits ; but they who intend good to others, are good
and angelic spirits. A man may know which class he is
among, whether angelic or infernal spirits. If he intends
evil to his neighbor, thinking nothing but evil concern
ing him, and actually doing hira evil whenever it is in
his power, and finding delight in doing it, then he is
among the infernals, and also becomes an infernal him
self in the other life. But if he intends good to his

190 AFW VIEW OF HELL.
neighTDor, and thinks nothing but good respecting him,
and actually does him good when it is in his power, then
he is among angelic spirits, and also becomes an angel
himself in the other life.
" This is the criterion. Let every one examine hiraself
by it. It matters not that a person does not do evil
when he either cannot or dare not, nor that he does
good from some selfish consideration ; such abstinence
from the one and performance of the other, have their
origin only in the man's externals ; and these are re
moved in the other life, where he is such as his thoughts
and intentions make hira." — Arcana Ccelestia n. 1680.
Again he says :
"A man's end is his very life; for that which belongs
to his life, or what is the same thing, to his love, he re
gards as an end. When the good of the neighbor, the
general good, the good of the church and of the Lord's
kingdom is the end regarded, then the man as to his
soul is in the Lord's kingdom; for His kingdom is none
other than a kingdom of ends and uses having respect to
the good of the human race. The angels themselves
attendant on man, are in nothing else [or have regard to
nothing else] but his ends. As far as a man's end is the
same as that aimed at by the Lord's kingdom, so far the
angels are delighted with him and unite themselves to
him as to a brother ; but in proportion as he is actuated
by a selfish end, the angels recede, and evil spirits from

PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF IT. 19I
hell draw near ; for no other than a selfish end rules in
hell. " From these considerations it is evident how important
it is for a man to examine and know the origin of his
affections ; and this can only be known from the end at
which he aims." — Ibid. 3796.
In view of what has now been said, the practical
bearings of this question are sufficiently obvious. When
these great truths are recognized, that man is essen
tially a spiritual being ; that, within our outer material
vesture, is a spiritual and substantial body which con
tinues to live after the material body perishes ; that, as
to our spirits we are now and always living in the spiritual
world, in close companionship with an invisible com
pany whose character is determined by our own gov
erning motives and cherished purposes ; that the cha
racter we form while here on earth will go with us into
the other world, and continue essentially the same for
ever ; that the spiritual associates we now choose and
bind to us by an unfailing law, are the very ones whose
companionship we shall prefer and seek in the life beyond
the grave ; that we are already /« hell, however uncon
scious we may be of the fact, if our ends and aims be
similar to those that rule in the realms below ; and that
our only hope of deliverance is in looking to the Lord
in humble acknowledgment of our dependence on Him,
and religiously obeying the laws of life that He has re
vealed ; — when these truths, which are all involved in

192 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
the New view of hell, are seen and acknowledged, the
practical value of this view will then be perceived and
confessed. For all who desire to rid themselves of the society
of evil spirits, and to come internally into fellowship
with the angels, will see the absolute necessity, not only
of a good outward or moral life, but of cleansing ' ' the
inside of the cup and of the platter" — of acting from
right motives — of making the love of use, or the desire
to serve others from love to the Lord and the neighbor,
their ruling principle of action. To this exalted state,
therefore, will they aspire. For this they will long ; for
this they will labor ; for this they will pray.
And fully conscious that they cannot attain to this
state of right desire and feeling, as well as of right living,
by their own unaided strength, they will be led to look
beseechingly to, and humbly to acknowledge their de
pendence upon Him who hath all power in heaven and on
earth; and who has said, "Without me, ye can do
nothing."

XIII.
HOW TO ESCAPE HELL.
WE have seen that hell, according to the New
Theology, is not a place to which a certain
class of people are at last sent against their will, as dis
orderly people in this world are sent to the lock-up, or
criminals to the penitentiary; but that it is a state 01
quality of life which each one freely chooses, and which he
strengthens or confirms by habit. It is a low condition
of humanity — a disorderly or inverted condition — one
in which the higher part of our nature is in absolute
subjection to the lower, the human to the bestial, the an
gelic to the infernal. It is not a state of unmitigated
misery ; for every kind of love, as we have seen, has its
delights. The more unselfish is the love that we develop
and strengthen — the more it is like God's own love, so
much the sweeter and more heavenly is the delight felt
in its exercise, and so much the purer and more exalted
our happiness ; but the more wwlike we are to God in
character, feeling and purpose — the more supremely sel
fish we grow to be, and the more indifferent to the wants
and woes and welfare of others, the lower is the form of
17 N 193

194 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
life or quality of love developed in the soul, and the
nearer, therefore, does the delight experienced in its ex
ercise, approach to the delights of some of the brute
creation — to the delights of serpents, tigers, dogs and
swine. In the natural world nothing is positively evil per se.
All things are good and useful in their proper places.
The ordure from our barns and stables, the filth and
refuse of our filthiest cities, the droppings of wild or
domestic fowls, and even the dead and decomposing
bodies of animals — offensive and hateful as all such things
are when out of place, in our parlors or libraries — are ex
cellent in the field or garden ; and in the hands of the
skillful florist or agriculturist, may be turned to profitable
account. So, too, all the implanted instincts and proclivities of
our natural humanity, including even the love of self
with all its numerous offspring, arc not wrong or sinful
per se. They are all of them gifts of God, and in their
proper place are good and useful. But what is their
proper place? Not that of rulers, but of servants.
Dogs and horses would make poor masters ; but as ser
vants subject to man's direction and control, they are
very useful. In the order of man's creation, the body
coraes first. Next the bodily senses are developed ;
then the lower parts of the mind — those lying nearest
the body — the selfish and sensual propensities ; then the
knowing and intellectual faculties; then the rational and

HOW TO ESCAPE IT. 195
religious. And the highest or God-like part of his na
ture — the spiritual and truly human — the angel (for tnis
is "the measure of a man," Rev. xxi. 17) is unfolded last
of all. But this takes place only when the man is " born
from above, ' ' or created anew in the image of his Maker.
In this case, none of the passions or propensities of the
natural raan are destroyed, but simply brought under sub
jection to the spiritual and more regal part of his nature
— to the true and heaven-born man.. In due subjection
and subordination to the divine human love, everything
belonging to the natural raan is good and useful.
This is plainly taught in the spiritual sense of the very
first chapter of the Bible ; in which sense this chapter
treats of a spiritual creation, that is, of the normal devel
opment of the human soul from its natural, dark, chaotic
state, into one of heavenly order and life — into the image
and likeness of God himself. Note the order in this
creation. First, we have the earth without form, and
void, — and darkness brooding over it. Then comes the
grass, and the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yield
ing fruit. Then the fishes and the fowls — the "living
creatures which the waters brought forth abundantly after
their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind." Then
"the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after
their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth
after his kind." And last of all the tnan — a living soul
— created in the image and likeness of his Maker.
"So God created man in his own image; in the

196 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
image of God created He him ; male and female created
He thera.
"And God blessed them; and God said unto them.
Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth and
subdue it ; and have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing
that moveth upon the earth. . . .
"And God saw everything that He had made; and
behold it was very good."
When truth in the understanding becoraes firmly
wedded to love in the will, or in other words, when the
great law of unselfish love (which is the properly human
life) comes to rei^ throughout the soul, having complete
dominion over all the feelings, inclinations and thoughts
of the natural mind, then the true man is created — the
properly human understanding and will. "Male and
female created He them, and called their name Adam,"
that is, man. And when this is the case — when all the
instincts, feelings, thoughts and propensities of the nat
ural man are brought under perfect subjection to the
great law of love, then everything is seen to be " very
good." The inclinations of the natural man are evil
only when they are allowed to rule. In a state of proper
subordination and subserviency to the celestial principle
— the truly human — they all are very good.
But this exalted and heavenly state, when the soul is
so filled and pervaded by the Divine spirit that it may
truly be said to be created "in the image of God,"

HOW TO ESCAPE IT. 197
cannot be suddenly attained. Many previous states must
be passed through — states of inward labor, and conflict
with the foes of "our own household." These states,
however, are all indispensable to the final evolution or
creation of the man; and are what is meant in the spir
itual sense by the six days of creation spoken of in Gen
esis. Accordingly Swedenborg says :
"During regeneration the cupidities and falsities [of
the natural man] cannot be instantly removed ; for that
would be to destroy the whole man, "seeing that the life
of these is the only life he has yet acquired. Therefore
evil spirits are permitted to continue with him for some
time, that they may excite his cupidities. . . . And un
less the Lord defended raan every moment, yea, even
the smallest part of a moment, he would instantly perish
in consequence of the indescribably intense and mortal
hatred which prevails in the world of spirits against the
things relating to love and faith toward the Lord.
"The times and states of man's regeneration in gen
eral and in particular, are divided into six, and are called
the days of his creation. For by degrees he is elevated
out of a state in which he possesses none of the qualities
which properly constitute a man, until by little and little
he attains to the sixth day, in which he becomes an
iraage of God.
"During this period the Lord fights continually for
him against evils and falsities, and by means of [these
internal and spiritual] conflicts confirms him in the true
17*

igS NEW VIEW OF HELL.
and the good. The time of the warfare is the tirae of
the Lord's operation ; therefore a regenerate person is
called by the prophets, the work of God's fingers. And
he does not rest until love becomes his ruling principle ;
then the conflict ceases. When the work has so far pro
gressed that faith is united to love, it is then called very
good ; for the Lord then treats him as a likeness of him
self. At the end of the sixth day the evil spirits depart,
and the good ones draw near." — Arcana Ccelestia, 59-63.
Then comes the sabbath of the soul ; — that state of
inward peace and rest which resembles the sweet and
serene peace of heaven ; — a state in which the natur.il
man yields a perfect and cheerful submission to the
spiritual, or what is the same, to the will of the Heav
enly Father. Of this state, Swedenborg speaks thus :
" What the tranquillity of peace of the external man is,
on the cessation of conflict, or when he is no longer dis
turbed by evil desires and false persuasions, can be known
only to one who is acquainted with the state of peace.
So delightful is this state as to exceed every conception
of delight. Not only is it a cessation of conflict, but life
proceeding from an interior peace, and affecting the ex
ternal man in a manner that cannot be described." —
Ibid. 92.
What it is, according to the New Theology, to escape
hell, must by this time be obvious. It is to escape, or
rise out of, that low state in which the selfish propen
sities of the natural man — pride, avarice, ambition, love

HOW TO ESCAPE IT. 199
of ease or pleasure, lust of power or glory — have com
plete dominion in the heart, and to come into that ex
alted and truly human state in which love to the Lord and
neighbor have supreme control. And this is something
which cannot be suddenly accoraplished. It is a life-long
work. And how shall we do it ? How is the spiritual to gain
the ascendency over the natural man ? How, from loving
self and the world supremely, shall we be brought into a
state to love the Lord above all else, and our neighbor
as ourselves? For to undergo this change, is to be lifted
out of a hellish into a heavenly state. In other words,
it is to escape hell, and enter upon the state denoted by
heaven. It is to experience such an inward renewal or
change of character, that when we enter the other world
we shall loathe and shun the society of devils, and be
drawn by the force of spiritual attraction to that of the
angels. How to do this, is the question of questions. Yet the
Lord has pointed out the way, and made it very plain to
all who are willing to walk in it. He says: " If thou
wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." But this,
on account of our hereditary selfishness, requires the
practice of much self-denial, and the endurance of many
inward conflicts with the foes of our own household.
The cross is the symbol of these conflicts ; and engaging
in them, therefore, is what is meant in the spiritual sense
by " taking up the cross." Hence the Lord says :

200 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
"If any man will come after me, let him deny him
self, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoso
ever will save his life, shall lose it ; and whosoever will
lose his life for my sake, shall find it."
Our true life is the heavenly life — the life of pure unsel
fish love — the Lord's own life in us, yet perceived as ours.
y^tfind or receive this life, only as we overcome or lose
our hereditary selfish life for the Lord's sake ; and this
we can do only by denying to our natural and inordinate
love of self the gratification which it craves, and en
gaging in many a fierce conflict with the evil inclinations
which spring from that love. This is the way the Lord
himself overcame the evil in his assumed humanity, and
made that humanity Divine. And we, if we would fol
low Him, or come into full sympathy and spiritual union
with Him (and without this there is no heaven for us),
raust do the same. That is, we must deny self, and take
up our cross.
" Keep the commandraents," was the blessed Saviour's
answer to the young raan who "came and said unto
Him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I
may have eternal life?" And to every inquirer in every
age. He returns the self-same answer. And He goes
further and specifies the commandments that are to be
kept: " Thou shalt do no raurder : Thou shalt not com
mit adultery : Thou shalt not steal : Thou shalt not bear
false witness : Honor thy father and thy mother : And
thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

HOW TO ESCAPE IT. 201
Now the commandments may be kept — in the letter,
at least — by one in whom there is no acknowledgment of
the Lord, and no sense of dependence on Him. A man
may refrain from falsehood, theft, adultery, murder, etc. ,
from purely selfish and woridly considerations; — from
fear of the law, or of losing his property or reputation,
or from hope of winning the good esteem of others.
He may keep all the commandments of the Decalogue,
in the outward form, with a heart brim full of pride and
self-conceit. He may do it in the spirit of the self-
righteous Pharisee, who thanked God that he was so
much better than other men. Those who keep the com
mandments in this spirit, are deficient in one essential
qualification for the kingdom of heaven. They lack
humility. They lack a sense of utter dependence on
the Lord for whatever good they do, or whatever power
they have to shun evil. They abound in self-righteous
ness. All the good they do, they regard as their own,
and claim merit on account of it. Some of this class
have " great possessions " — large investments in merito
rious deeds.
This was the spirit in which that young man had kept
the commandments. "All these things," he says, " have
I kept from my youth up : What lack I yet ?' ' And
what was the Lord's answer? "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 follow me. But

202 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
when the young man heard that saying, he went away
sorrowful ; for he had great possessions."
We may keep the commandments, then, or shun the
deeds which they forbid, yet in such a proud spirit or
from such selfish motives, that we shall not be shunning
hell at the same tirae. We may shun fraud, falsehood,
theft, adultery, etc., merely from fear of the law, or of
some personal or worldly loss. In that case we shun the
evil from prudential considerations, not because it is
wrong or sinful in itself; and this is not really shunning
the evil at all.
If, therefore, we would shun hell, we must keep the
commandments from a religious ground. We must re
gard the evils which they forbid, as sins against God,
and shun them because they are sins. If our self-love
prompts us to deceive or defraud our neighbor, or to
take any undue advantage of his weakness or ignorance,
or to injure him in any way, we must regard and shun
the doing of such wrong as a sin. If we are in the habit
of using profane language — of taking the Lord's name in
vain — we must regard and shun this habit, not merely
because it is ungentlemanly or disreputable, but because
it is sinful. If we are inclined to deprive another, with
out his knowledge or consent, of anything that justly be
longs to hira — be it honor, property, reputation, social
position, political or religious influence — -we must regard
and shun such robbery as a sin. If we are inclined to
speak evil of others, to slander them — which is a kind of

HOW TO ESCAPE IT. 203
moral murder, for it is stabbing one in the dark — we
must inwardly acknowledge the sinfulness of this before
God, and shun it because it is a sin. If we are inclined
to invade the freedom and trample on the rights of
others, to domineer over them — over our families, our
children, our brethren, our domestics, our employes — to
compel them to do our will and gratify our wishes, to
their own injury, loss, or discomfort, we must regard
such disposition as sinful, and shun its indulgence as a
sin. And so with every inclination which originates in the
love of self, and whose indulgence is condemned by the
Lord's commandments, being utterly contrary to their
whole spirit and teaching. These inclinations are all of
them but streams which flow frora hell ; and their exist
ence and craving are indications of the presence of hell
within us. And it is only when we regard and shun
their indulgence as a sin against God, that we are really
shunning hell.
According to the New View, then, as herein unfolded,
the way to escape hell becomes very plain. We raust
first have a clear perception and a firra conviction of
what hell really is. We raust recognize it as a state, and
must understand the nature of that state. That is, we
must know what kind of life or love belongs to it.
And the next thing necessary is, a sincere desire to be
delivered from this state. And since we have no power
to deliver ourselves — for no man can of himself change

204 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
his ruling love — we must rely on One who alone is able
to deliver ; we must look to Him and pray to Him
who hath "all power in heaven and on earth." No one
ever was or ever can be delivered from a state of bond
age to evil or the love of self, without first desiring to be
delivered. And a sincere desire for deliverance,
implies a perception and acknowledgment of the low
state in which we are, and from which we seek to be
delivered. But the desire alone, however intense, is not enough.
Prayer for deliverance, however earnest, is not enough.
Confession of our clearly discerned selfishness and sin,
however penitent, is not enough. Necessary as all these
are, they are of no avail without a life of practical obedi
ence to the Divine precepts. " Not every one that saith
unto me. Lord, Lord," says the great Teacher, "shall
enter into the kingdora of heaven ; but he that doeth the
will of ray Father which is in heaven. ' ' We enter into
the kingdom of heaven, just in the degree that we enter
into that state of love to the Lord and the neighbor,
which is the essential thing in that kingdora. And we
enter that state by keeping the commandments, that is,
by doing the heavenly Father's will ; and a part of this
consists in shunning, as sins against Him, the things
which are contrary to his will.
To come out of darkness, is to come into light. To
escape sickness, is to enjoy health. To get rid of weak
ness, is the same as coming into the possession of strength.

HOW TO ESCAPE IT. 205
And to escape hell, is to come into the opposite kingdom
— heaven .
"If thou wilt enter into life, keep the command
ments." This is the only way — the way pointed out by
God's own finger — to escape hell and reach heaven.
"The commandments" are the laws of the heavenly
life. For all life has its laws ; and it is only by con
formity to these, that the blessings of any kind of life can
be enjoyed.
Take, for example, our corporeal life. This has its
laws ; and these laws must be obeyed if we expect to en
joy physical health. Our bodies require food, and
drink, and exercise, and sleep, and pure air, and pro
tection frora rain and frost. These requireraents are
the body's laws — unchangeable, God-appointed laws.
And in the degree that they are transgressed, the body
suffers. And this suffering is the penalty with which
the Framer of our bodies visits such transgression. The
transgression and the suffering, the violation and the
penalty, are inseparably connected, like cause and
effect. And the soul, too, has its laws, as well as the body.
And these can no more be violated with impunity, than
can the laws which preside over our physical organism.
In the violation of spiritual as in that of physical laws,
a penalty follows with undeviating certainty ; — not a pen
alty arbitrarily inflicted, or in the way that human tri
bunals punish offenders against civil enactments, but a
18

Zo6 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
penalty linked with transgression as effects are linked
with causes.
But that higher life of the soul which those come into
who escape hell — the life which we call heavenly — the
life which allies us to God and the angels — that which
the Scripture calls "eternal life," whose very breath is
that unselfish love enjoined by the two great command
raents — that life has to be begotten, forraed, developed,
born in us, generally after the corporeal life has reached
maturity. This is the new birth- — the birth into a higher,
even the heavenly state — to which our Lord has reference
when He says : " Except a man be born again, he cannot
see the kingdom of God."
How does this new birth of the soul take place ? or
how is this higher life developed and matured ? In the
same way that art-life, mechanical ingenuity, industrial
skill, oratorical or mathematical power, is developed and
perfected. Each follows as the normal result of self-
compelled obedience to certain principles or laws.
Ask those who have attained a proud distinction as
poets, artists, mechanics, scholars, statesmen, how they
won their lofty eminence. And they will tell you that,
under God, they are indebted mainly to their own per
sistent efforts ; — to their ceaseless study, their tireless in
dustry, their resolute struggles, their unflinching perse
verance, their unremitting toil. They labored while
others lounged. They studied while others slept. They
were busy while others were idle. They were climbing

HOW TO ESCAPE IT. 207
up the mountain while others were reposing in bowers
of ease.
No : Eminence in any art or profession was never
achieved in any other way than through the individual's
own voluntary and persevering efforts ; — through the
patient learning and faithful application of the rules of
that art or profession.
And so we may say, men are born into the kingdom
of heaven — that is, born saints or angels, in the same
way that they are born artists, mechanics, scholars,
statesmen. For they inherit naturally the capacity or
aptitude for each of these ; and some have by inheritance
a larger capacity or aptitude than others. But they be
come neither the one nor the other without personal
effort and much self-imposed labor ; — without first learn
ing certain principles or laws, and then reducing these
laws to practice.
Take, for illustration, the accoraplished rausician.
How has he become such ? He inherited the talent or
aptitude for music, just as we all have inherited the capa
bility of becoming angels. He has the musical talent
while yet a child — but undeveloped. And so we may
say the musician is there in potency. But as yet he is in
embryo. The individual is all unconscious of his latent
powers; — as unconscious of the sweet entrancing de
lights which the music now wrapped up and hidden with
in him will one day produce, as an infant before birth is
unconscious of its yet latent capabilities, or of the joys

208 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
of its post-natal state. Properly speaking, the musician
is not yet born. He has only an embryonic or latent
existence in that individual, like that of the angel in the
unregenerate man.
Observe, now, the manner of his birth, — for this will
illustrate the manner in which every one who becomes
regenerate, is born from above and becomes a true child
of God. It will show us how we are to be brought out
of the state in which we love ourselves supremely, into
the opposite state of love to the Lord and the neighbor ;
or how " the new man " created in the image of the Lord
Jesus Christ, comes forth from "the old man" that is
"corrupt according to the deceitful lusts." In a word,
it will show us how hell is to be escaped and heaven
gained. First, that individual places himself, or is placed,
under the instruction of a Master. He becomes a pupil
— a disciple or learner. He takes lessons of a music-
teacher. He acquaints himself with the rules of the art
— certain musical laws — and then reduces these rules to
practice. He does not learn all the rules at once, but
only a few, and the very simplest at first. When he has
practiced these for a time, then he learns other and more
difficult rules; and straightway proceeds to reduce these
also to practice.
Thus he goes on, learning and practicing the rules of
the art. But he finds little pleasure in these first lessons.
He compels himself, however, to go through with thera.

HOW TO ESCAPE IT. 209
It is all labor, task-work, drudgery, in the outset, which
he performs reluctantly and without one thrill of delight,
yet with the hope of sorae day becoming a musician.
How stiff and clumsy his fingers are at first ! How
slowly and awkwardly they hobble over the keys, like a
child just beginning to walk ! How rauch more readily
they go wrong than right ! And he finds it vastly more
difficult to practice the rules, than to commit them to
memory. But he struggles on, sometimes hopeful, some
times discouraged.
At last, by dint of patience and perseverance and
much hard parctice, the difficulties are all overcome.
The musical laws are incarnated in him. They flow out
from the tips of his fingers the moment he seats himself
at the instrument. He is now able to render with facility
and effect the most difficult compositions of Beethoven
or Mozart. And he finds, too, that by practicing, and
thereby learning to give faithful expression to, the laws
that govern in the realm of music, he becomes more and
more enamored with the art. Strange and unlocked for
raptures transport him. He is introduced, as it were,
into a new world. Sweet melodies are rippling all
around him. His soul is flooded with the charms of
music. He experiences a delight in executing, or in
listening to the execution of, some grand composition, of
which, at the beginning of his musical education he
could form no conception.
It is in this way that the musician is born ; and in
18-" 0

2IO NEW VIEW OF HELL.
no other. He comes forth, not suddenly nor in any mi
raculous manner ; but slowly, gradually, after years of
hard study, close application and unremitting toil.
The student learns certain musical rules or laws, and
then compels himself to reduce those rules to practice.
And so at last the musician is produced, developed,
formed, or born.
And the painter, sculptor, architect, and mechanic are
born in the same way. Each of these comes forth, gen
erally not until the physical raan has attained maturity.
The individual first makes hiraself acquainted with the
rules of the art, and then learns, through patient and
protracted effort, to reduce these rules to practice.
And in a way precisely similar is "the new man " or
angel born. In other words, we are introduced or born
in a similar manner, into a state of supreme love to the
Lord and the neighbor ; — are lifted out of that low nat
ural state, which is hell, into that high spiritual state,
which is heaven. And this is what is meant by being
"born again," "born of the Spirit," "born from
above," and "born of God," whereof the Bible speaks.
The only possible way, therefore, of escaping the
hellish and attaining unto the heavenly state, is, by first
learning the laws of the higher or heavenly life, and then
(in humble acknowledgment of our utter and constant
dependence on the Lord) reducing them to practice.
These laws are all contained in the Sacred Scripture, and
are full of the Saviour's own life which is love. Bui

HOW TO ESCAPE IT. 211
they must be reduced to practice — they must be relig
iously obeyed — they must be made the laws of our life,
before we may hope to experience the love and delight
that are wrapped up within them.
We cannot, of course, learn and practice all these
laws at once. That is not expected or required of us.
But we are to do it by little and little, just as Raphael
learned to paint and Mozart to play. And the task of
learning the laws of our higher life, or of receiving truths
into the understanding merely, is coraparatively easy.
Obeying thera — living them — practicing them, in the
parlor, in the kitchen, in the office, in the shop, in the
counting-house, in the market-place, in the school-room,
on the farra, at the fire-side, and in legislative halls —
everywhere and always conforming our dispositions and
conduct to their requirements, and so weaving these laws
into the very fabric of our spiritual being, and making
them, as it were, a part of ourselves — this is the labo
rious and difficult part of the work. And so it is T/ith
every art, trade or profession. Learning the rules is
comparatively easy ; reducing them to practice, is a task
of far greater difficulty.
Hence we may see why doing the truth is so often
urged and so strongly emphasized in the Sacred Scrip
ture. " Blessed are they that' do his commandments,
that they may have right to the tree of life. " " Why call
ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?"
"My mother and my brethren are those who hear the

212 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
Word of God and do it." "Whosoever heareth these
sayings of raine and doeth them, I will liken unto a wise
raan who built his house upon a rock." But "whoso
ever heareth and doeth them not, shall be likened unto
a foolish man who built his house upon the sand." Who
soever doeth the will of the Heavenly Father," shall
enter into the Kingdom.
It is impossible, therefore, to escape hell and win
heaven through ya///4 alone; that is, by simply learning,
understanding, and believing the truth. Only those who
religiously do as the laws of the heavenly life require,
can hope ever to attain unto that life, or to have an in
ward experience of its joys.
And the first steps in the way of obedience, are, like
all first steps, the raost difficult. They have to be taken
frora a sense of duty — taken laboriously, with an effort,
through self-corapulsion, and without one throb of heav
enly delight. They have to be taken when our natural
incfftiations urge us in the opposite direction. But as
we go on practicing the laws of the higher life, every
successive step becomes easier and more delightful. And
as obedience becomes raore and more the habit of the
soul, hell and its delights recede, and the life and joy
of heaven flow in with continually increasing fullness.
No : not by faith alone, or by a mere knowledge and
acknowledgment of the truth, can a man ever escape
hell or reach heaven ; but by yielding a voluntary,
though at first a self-compelled, obedience to the laws of

HOW TO ESCAPE IT. 213
heavenly life. Through obedience to these laws— at tlie
same time acknowledging the Lord as their source, and
the source of all our disposition and power to obey them
— the interiors of the soul are opened toward heaven,
and the influx of hell is lessened, and the Lord's life
flows in with ever-increasing power and fullness; pre
cisely as, through obedience to the laws of our physical
life, physical debility and disorder recede, and bodily
health, strength and elasticity flow in.
We cannot love the Lord supremely and our neighbor
as ourselves, by simply desiring or willing to do so ; —
no, nor by the power of faith alone however strong, or
prayer however sincere and fervent. But this love is sure
to flow into our hearts in the degree that we humbly ac-
knowdedge its source, and compel ourselves to obey its
laws. Shun falsehood, fraud, deceit, adultery — all known
evils — as sins against God, and by degrees you will come
to hate and loathe these vices. Devote yourself re
ligiously to some useful calling, and you will gradually
grow into the love of that use. Practice the laws of
charity, and the life of charity with its delights will be
imparted unto j'ou more and more. Obey the law of
kindness, and there will be a constantly increasing influx
of the spirit of kindness into your heart. Do justly,
because such is the will of God, and you will grow more
and more in love with justice. In all your dealings and
intercourse with your fellow men, be careful to obey the
laws of neighborly love, and to regard and shun their

2 14 NEW VIEW OF HELL.
infraction as a sin, and that love with its unspeakable
delights will flood your soul raore and raore.
But pursue the opposite course — disregard the laws of
the soul's higher life — violate the precepts of heavenly
charity — trample on the rules of love and justice in your
intercourse with your fellows, and your soul will become
emptied of the Lord's life, and more and more insensible
to its ineffable sweetness ; your love of self will grow con
tinually stronger, and your heart more and more like the
nether mill-stone ; your sympathies will becorae raore
contracted and deadened; your sense of justice will grow
more and more benumbed ; your raoral perceptions more
and more beclouded ; your appreciation of, and your
aspirations after, the gifts and graces of heaven, more
and more feeble ; and the angel life in you become more
and more marred and crushed, and the demon life more
vigorous and flourishing.
And thus will your soul, created with the capacity of
endless progress in wisdom, holiness, and love, and with
boundless capabilities of enjoyment, be lost and ruined.
Yes — lost and ruined ; because, through your voluntary
neglect or infraction of the revealed and everlasting laws
of love — the laws of your soul's higher life, that life is
dwarfed and spoiled, or fails to become developed with
in you. Having chosen darkness rather than light, you
cannot help missing the glorious boon which you were
made capable of attaining — Heaven and its unutterable
delights. Verily, saith the Lord :

HOW TO ESCAPE IT. 21 5
"What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole
world and lose his own soul ? Or what shall a-raan give
in exchange for his soul ?"
The nature of heaven and of hell is revealed. The
way of escape from one and of entrance into the other,
is made plain. The Lord ever watches, and waits, and
strives to draw all unto Himself But He uses no com
pulsion. He cannot force one soul to heaven. He leaves
us all in perfect freedom ; and says to every one :
" I have set before you life and death, blessing and
cursing. Therefore choose life, that both thou and thy
seed may live :
" That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, that thou
mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto
Him; for He is thy life, and the length of thy days."
Each one is free to choose for himself. He must and
does choose for hiraself.
"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord,
choose you this day whom ye will serve."

THE END.

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