It will ever be the case, by the law of opposites, that the possession of elevated truth, or a deep insight into the mental operations of man, will have its counteractive in a corresponding depth of craftiness and subtlety. A man gifted with lofty capabilities of thought may, under the influence of a depraved will, employ the profoundest arts of dissimulation in any career upon which he may enter, from motives of personal aggrandizement and ambition. It becomes us, then, not only vigilantly to scrutinise the impulses and bias of our own affections and thoughts, but at the same time, to use equal caution, lest we come within the baneful influence of those who merely bear the semblances of charity and truth. That there is just reason for this warning, there are few without experience enough to prove. Private life, as well as the career of public men, afford living proof of the fact.

If we were called upon to point out one source of spiritual mischief, ruin, and desolation, more wide-spread than another, we should raise the finger to that man who has clothed himself in the white robes of religion, shaped his course along the path of notoriety, developed zeal to all appearance genuine, evoked applause by the simulation of meekness and piety, enlisted the affections of the simple, entangled their judgments in his sophistic meshes, woven with laboured diligence, and yet, after all, has but said within himself, Go to, let us make us a name." Sooner or later such a one, like Babel, will be confounded, and his works will lie around him exposed in utter desolation. Such a character carries retribution within itself, and may be said to be combustible, requiring but a single spark from its own self-love, some day to explode.

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We have here drawn no exaggerated picture of possible cases, for we need but look around to verify it. The temptation to form such a character is by no means a slight one. While so many thousands of our countrymen exist among the gloomy shadows of false doctrine, need we be surprised at enterprising spirits availing themselves of the light of New Church truth, with which to go forth and dazzle the eyes of wondering multitudes, certain of acceptance with some, and relying on their tact to ingratiate themselves with many. A wide El Dorado opens to their ambition, and their genius prompts them to explore its regions. Happy for such if they meet with checks in their career, leading them to reflect that the love of rule in any form is Babylon, after all. Happy for their proselytes if they too shall discover, that all is not gold that glitters. The above remarks will apply themselves to a thousand positions of social life and rank, and are intended as some illustration of our Saviour's words, "Judge not according to the appearance." We have

now to advert to another form of character in the New Church which is apt to grow out of a superficial application of the new commandment "That ye love one another."

It is among the earliest efforts of a receiver of the doctrines, to mould the feelings, thoughts, and conduct, to the standard of truth. Now the peculium of New Church truth is the doctrine of charity or love. This is indeed the essential basis of the true Church in the soul of man. But there is a wide gulf fixed between genuine and spurious love. The young receiver is, at first, prompted so to modify his external man, as to exhibit this doctrine in a mere outward form. He cultivates the arts of pleasing, the amenities of social intercourse become his study, his language and the tone of his address reveal a disposition to conciliate the good-will of every one; he is bland and affable to a degree, willing to set his hand to any enterprise of doing good, and he shortly stands in the foremost rank of the zealous and the active. If he stop here, as, alas, too many do, he imposes upon himself with the mere mask of charity, which hides behind it the yet unchanged countenance of the hideous unregenerated mind. This character cannot often be sustained long without certain open indications of the real character concealed, which, when it manifests itself, blights the fair buds of hope and promise in the minds of all observers, and creates repugnance deep and lasting as the deception was complete. Such a one too readily becomes a passive instrument in the hands of men of the character before described.

It is, however, one of the most striking features of our religious philosophy, that it lays the axe to the root of the tree. It is clearly demonstrated to us that all man need concern himself about in the formation of his new, regenerate character is,-the shunning of evils as sins against the Lord; to study well the nature of sin, and shun its every form. "Take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself; sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." On this account the divine law consists not of positive but of negative commands. It says not-Thou shalt do this or that specific good, but ratherThou shalt not do that sin,-for it is evident to reason, that if evil be desisted from, good must be done. "Take no thought for the morrow," then, points out this important duty,-that as to-day marks out man's present relation to the things of time, his spiritual day points to his present spiritual state in relation to eternity. To-morrow, then, evidently refers to the future states into which the soul must enter in its regenerating career. With these man has nothing whatever to do. Sufficient for the present state is the evil we have now to contend with.

Directing all our energies to this, to prevent evil, unburdened with anxieties about future states, it will be found that a new and genuine character will spontaneously grow up from holy principles within, having their foundation in simplicity of mind. True simplicity of mind is a state unconcerned about mere human opinion, whether good or bad. It is intent only upon the spiritual duty we have pointed out. It is the humblest, yet the highest and happiest condition to which we can attain; and the Lord ever opens to such, fields and vineyards of use, so fast and so far as they are internally qualified to work therein. Let it then deter us from too forwardly proffering our self-prompted assistance; perchance we should find at length, despite all outward appearances, that we have done to others and to ourselves more real inward harm than specious outward good, by an over-officious zeal. Simplicity of character is marked by diffidence in undertaking offices which the zealot is but too anxious to monopolize. It pursues the even tenor of its way unattended by the noisy bustle and clamour of its disorderly rival, who cannot travel far without resorting to certain artifices by which he may attract the ear, and elicit the applause of such as are likewise in mere external life.

It may always, then, be taken as an index of the genuine character, that it seeketh no applause," save that of an internal dictate, "well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over few things.” Few things do not satisfy the seeker of applause, many things and numbers move the springs of all his zeal. If the eye be turned outwardly to catch the smiles of men, how true it is that angels' faces quickly turn away. But if there be a constant satisfaction felt in the labours of love, for their own sake, then is the Word embedded in such hearts—“ in keeping Thy commandments there is great reward." Every act of true obedience is accompanied by an influx from the heavens, which is felt as joy and "peace which the world cannot give." The unpresuming character carries with it great weight and influence for good. The pretender soon draws so largely upon the confidence and sympathy of his admirers, that they discover how liberal are the allowances that must be made for self-glorification and magniloquence. The simple and unassuming are seldom found employed in enterprises which bear the marks of "notoriety;" while the presumer, impelled by the desire for notice, launches forth into untried depths, which terminate at length in utter spiritual loss and ruin.

If, from the Word itself, we are able to gather any evidence as to the constituents of genuine character, it must be seen at once, stamped in the heavenly lineaments of one who "spake as never man spake." He is our true model, and He teaches, both by life and precept, that self

renunciation, as opposed to self-exhibition, entering the closet, letting not the left hand know what the right hand doeth, and in every other respect opposing the self-love promptings to gain the good opinions of "the world," is that "narrow way" along which only we may pass in safety to the realms of everlasting bliss. EVITA.

EXTRACTS FROM SWEDENBORG'S SPIRITUAL DIARY.* (Not hitherto translated.)

The Differences of State in general between Men and Spirits. 2019. There are many differences between the states of spirits and of men, concerning which I have frequently spoken. Here I will only observe,-1st. That men have the objects of the senses, which move, change, and modify their internal senses; but this is not the case amongst spirits. 2nd. That men live in associations, and, indeed, of such a character, that they are associated together from various causes ; thus in this kind of association men may be of a dissimilar character; it is otherwise with spirits, who can only be associated with those who are of a similar character. 3rd. Men have a corporeal memory, from which they derive and understand what they say; but this is not so with spirits. 4th. Men can contemplate things to come from the past; but spirits cannot do this, because they have not the memory of past things, except when it is awakened for specific purposes. 5th. Men do not much penetrate into the thoughts of others, but spirits do this much more acutely; but they see with distinction; thus also it is with other things which flow from them, 6th. The thoughts of men are bound to corporeal principles, like substances to their organic forms; but it is not so with spirits, -May 20th, 1748.

That the Thoughts and Deeds of a Man who is in the [true] Faith, are not his own.

1910. By much experience, continued for several years, I know, as a great certainty, that the thoughts of a man who is in the [true] faith, are not his own. If these thoughts are evil, they belong to evil spirits,

* As various applications have been made to the Editor, to continue to insert portions from the untranslated volumes of Swedenborg's Spiritual Diary, we have agreed to print occasionally certain extracts, which, it is thought, will not only increase our knowledge, but add distinctness and clearness to our ideas and perceptions of spiritual things.-ED.

who believe that they think from themselves; wherefore, they are imputed to them, as is the case with men, who think and believe in like manner. If the thoughts are good, they belong to the Lord alone. These things I know as most certainly true, from long and daily experience and reflection upon the fact.

1911. When I at length became so accustomed to this fact, that I could think nothing from myself, it was, as it were, delightful to me; for I could thus reflect upou the things infused into my mind, and that I was exempt or free from evil thoughts. I was even permitted to know what sort of spirits, and whence they were, who infuse evil thoughts, with whom I have often spoken about those evil infusions. Yea, I have even been permitted to know the quality of the least spark or particle of thought, also from whom and whence it came; and to reflect upon these facts was pleasant to me.

1912. But the spirits who infused the evil thoughts imagined that thus I could think nothing at all; on which subject I have often conversed with them; wherefore they themselves were not willing to be in such a faith, or of such a character, because they then think that they lose everything of their own, and are consequently nothing, which idea they dread, and some hold it in aversion; but the fact is altogether otherwise; on which subject, through the Lord's mercy, I intend to speak elsewhere.-May 9, 1748.

The Lord's Prayer.

1790. When the Lord's prayer, which comprehends in itself all. celestial and spiritual things, is read, there can then be infused into every minute particular so many things, that heaven itself is not capable of containing them; and this, according to each one's capacity and use. The more interiorly it proceeds, the more copiously or the more abundantly the things in the heavens are understood; but in the lower parts [of the heavenly world] they are not [so fully] comprehended, but are arcana to the inhabitants there. Some things can only be understood by an intellectual faith, and some are ineffable. The more celestial ideas, all which come from the Lord, descend, or enter into a man of inferior spiritual development, the more the prayer appears closed, so that, at length, it seems as something hard, in which there are but few things, and even nothing besides the sense of the letter, or the ideas of the words. Hence from the Lord's prayer, it was permitted to know what the quality of souls, as to their doctrine of faith, had been in their bodily life, when they were permitted to have their own sense of that prayer, whilst they were repeating it.-1748, April 1.-Thus the idea of inter