Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

66

the angels' God. You have read what John saw and heard in heaven; Angels singing with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, riches, strength, honor, glory, and blesssing. Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who is, and who was, and who is to come:" and have we not, when standing at the threshold of your school rooms, heard the children singing,

While ranks of shining hosts above,

All Holy, Holy, Holy, cry,

Jesus, thou God of truth and love,

Amen, Amen, our hearts reply.

In one instance, it is the Hallelujahs of the mighty choir of the angelic hosts, in the other, it is the softly responding hymn of children; but the feeling is the same-the sentiment is the same-the object of worship is the same; viz., the Lord Jesus Christ in his glorified humanity.

Again. The principle which animates you in your work, is that from which flows all the actions of the angels. You communicate the knowledges of good and truth to the young; angels are constantly employed in the same work; and in both instances the love of doing good is the moving cause. You engage in this employ from a desire to be useful; and what is the religion of the angels but voluntary usefulness! This is their business and their delight.

In the work of Sunday-school tuition, you are not merely cooperating with the angels of heaven, but you are also by this means preparing yourselves for their blessed abodes. My friends, what a happy place is heaven! There, every inhabitant communicates his affections, his thoughts, his delights to all: how great then-how incomprehensible-how endlessly increasing must be the happiness of that heavenly state! But in doing good-in instructing the children of the poor from a love of doing good, you are actually preparing yourselves for the employments and enjoyments of the heavenly host: you are kindling a flame of holy benevolence which will glow with unextinguishable ardor in that blessed world where each loves every other better than himself. And may we not add, that in instilling into the minds of youth the doctrines of the New Church, you are "There is an influx co-operating with the Lord God of heaven. universal from God into the souls of men, teaching them that there is a God, and that He is one." The truths of our holy and beautiful city, the doctrines of the Sacred Scriptures, the influences from the God of heaven, are all in perfect harmony-they all teach that Jesus Christ is the one only God, and that the road to heaven is by keeping his commandments. And his commandments are all included in the

love of being useful. Then, "brethren, be stedfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor shall not be in vain in the Lord."

Birmingham.

J. SIDNEY.

A REPLY TO FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON THE YEAR IN WHICH E. S. RECEIVED HIS DIVINE MISSION.

HEREUPON I have now only to observe, that, having found that clear statement of the matter in the Diary of E. S., as given in the Intellectual Repository, for September last; and as of the day in which it was written there can be no question, the dates preceding and succeeding all running in regular rotation, I conceived it to be my duty to give the information to the New Church generally, together with the accompanying corroborative proofs, through the medium of the Intellectual Repository.

The discrepancy hereto, in the passage produced by Mr. Bradley, may arise from the title page having been written, and the book commenced a year before he completed it; for the former Treatise on the Last Judgement, has on its title page, 1758, five years preceding.

As to the reference, by Mr. Editor, from the Apoc. Expl., the year is given merely in figures, without any clue whereby to form a judgement when it was written. It may be remarked, that much dependence cannot be placed on mere figures; as in that respect E. S. may appear to differ from himself. In printed works, one figure is often found put for another; of which the very quotation in the Intellectual Repository is a proof, for 1774, is given instead of 1744. M. SIBLY.

I

ON THE DURATION OF THE EARTH.

To the Editors.

GENTLEMEN,

PRESUME you will agree with me, that it is desirable that no part of the Theological Writings of Swedenborg, published under his immediate direction, should be regarded as being liable to objection. In page 383, you appear to admit an objection to something that is stated in A. C. 931, respecting the duration of the earth. This objection I do not consider to be well founded; and if you will take the trouble to refer to the analysis of the passage in the volume of the Intellectual

Repository, for 1828-1829, especially in page 302, you will, I trust, be induced to alter your opinion. You will there find that the objection you appear to admit is triumphantly obviated, it being conclusively shewn, that if one line of the passage, when taken by itself, be ambiguous, the context shews beyond dispute, that E. S. did not believe, at the time he wrote that passage, that the earth would ever be destroyed. It is surely something in favor of the examination of the passage there presented, that it led to no questioning of its accuracy at the time.

W.

ATTACK ON SWEDENBORG IN "THE BRITISH

MAGAZINE."

DURING the last few months the readers of The British Magazine— which circulates chiefly among the established clergy-have repeatedly had their attention drawn to Swedenborg and his doctrines. This was begun by a writer, under the signature "H.," who appears to adopt the ideas of Professor Rosetti respecting Swedenborg, which are wild and absurd in the extreme. The professor maintains that while Swedenborg "professed to write a narrative of realities in another world, his object was in truth confined to this world, and was that of the destruction of the papal power and of the order and peace of society."

The remarks of "H." called for two papers by "Anti-theorist," in August and September; in the former of which, as a contrast to Rosetti's views, he gives those of Möehler, Professor of Theology at Munich, and known on the continent as one of the great champions of the papacy. Although undertaking to refute Swedenborgianism, he candidly states in reference to E. S.,

The conviction of this prophet, as we believe, and as Joseph Goerrès has shewn, was sincere; the uprightness and probity of his character do not permit us to suspect any fraud.

*

*

The system of supernatural vision (presented in the works of Swedenborg) is not, he remarks, exclusively speculative, as one might suppose at first sight; it is above all practical and moral. The Protestant doctrine of justification, as well as the principles connected with it, revolted the mind of Swedenborg: the whole of this sort of instruction appeared to him contrary to Scripture, and pernicious to a Christian life. Behold here the one fixed idea, so to speak, from which the whole of Swedenborgianism proceeds.

He observes, in regard to Swedenborg's anti-papal spirit,— Whatever may be the prejudices of Swedenborg against the Roman church, he does not shut against us the gates of heaven. If the Catholics have done works from a principle of charity, and if their thoughts have been more con

cerning God than the pope, Swedenborg tells us they enter as easily into happiness as a person would into a palace, the guards of which forbade no man, or as they would into a temple, the doors of which always stand open.

In the September No., "Anti-theorist" gives extracts from a Roman Catholic periodical, The Echo of the Vatican, shewing the progress the new doctrines have made among the papists, which is an especial cause of lamentation to them, as several of their most talented and respectable men-whom they name-have deserted their banners. See pages 357, 8, & 9, of the last vol. of the Repository.

But it is upon "H.'s" letter in the October No. that we have to remark. It contains several charges, which, if they were well founded, would be serious indeed. In reference to Swedenborg's discovering Queen Ulrica's secrets, he says, "it is known by what person he had been previously put in possession of her secret counsels:" but he does not offer any evidence in the way of proof; as if both the imposture and its detection were notorious. Then come two other equally unsupported assertions; one that, "at the same time when he set up for an inspired visionary or prophet, he made a sudden and astonishing display of riches, to the amount of several millions French, which he scattered around him with ostentatious liberality;" the other about a conversation he was reported to have had with the Virgin Mary. These gratuitous assertions are made with the avowed purpose of convicting Swedenborg of imposture: but we do not feel called upon to disprove what there has been no attempt to prove; we therefore pass them over in order to notice a case in which there is an attempt to produce evidence.

He quotes, in the original Latin, a part of the first sentence in n. 38, of the De Telluribus (The Earths in the Universe) describing an interview in the spiritual world between some spirits of the planet Mercury and Christian Wolf, subsequent to his decease; and then triumphantly exclaims, "This was actually printed six years before the death of Wolf!" thereby making out, to his own satisfaction, a clear case of imposture. But what is the fact? Why, that Wolf died in 1754, and the De Telluribus was printed, as appears by the title page, in 1758; that is, not six years before, but four years after Wolf's decease! We are willing to believe the mistake an unintentional one, and therefore think it probable that in the book to which "H." referred for the date of Wolf's death, there was a printer's error,-1764 being given instead of 1754; but we consider he must possess at least as much credulity as he gives the Swedenborgians credit for,-who, he says, "chew such opium,”—or he would not have believed that so

shrewd a man as he esteems Swedenborg to have been, would have put it into the power of Wolf and others so effectually to expose his "charlatanism."

It is remarkable that "H." did not quote the whole of the sentence. Was he withheld by an instinctive fear that if he did, it would have a tendency to produce an impression in favor of Swedenborg's views? The sentence concludes thus: "for every one, in another life, discourses spiritually, or by spiritual ideas, only so far as he had believed on God during his abode in the world, and materially, so far as he had not believed on God." A sentiment, one would think, that must be cheerfully assented to by every sincere Christian.

"H.'s" ignorance of the laws that govern the spiritual world, and of its intimate connection with this world, will account for his being offended at Swedenborg's declaration, that the last judgement took place in 1757, which “H." calls "a quiet year." Now, he must know that a natural effect frequently does not take place till a long time after the existence of the cause that produces it. For instance, spring-tides do not happen till about three days after the new or full moon that causes them: the hottest part of the day and of the year is not till some time after noon and midsummer: and what can be more quiet than the state of the weather which usually precedes an earthquake or a hurricane? Had "H.," then, reflected sufficiently on the astounding events that have occurred in rapid succession since 1757, he would not have deemed quietness a proof that causes of the greatest magnitude were not about to take effect. He seems also to have overlooked the fact, that the all-important event, which forms the foundation of the Christian's hope,- -our Lord's personal advent as the Redeemer of his people was so little known at the period, even by the people among whom he dwelt, that,-with the exception of Josephus, of questionable authority—no cotemporary historian makes mention of it.

That he has read Swedenborg very little, and to very little purpose, we may infer when he says, "that life, death, resurrection, &c., in Swedenborg, are merely terms expressive of certain transactions in this present life." After intimating that Swedenborg does not mean what he says, he proceeds, "what reason remains to us for concluding that Christ means the man of Nazareth, son of Mary? Judging by such data as I possess, I disbelieve that Swedenborg means our Lord Jesus when he makes a shew of speaking of him." It appears, then, that he would have been content had he met with a proof of the manhood, but that he had not the discernment to see the demonstration of 3 U

N. S. No. XI.-VOL. I.

« AnteriorContinuar »