The "New Church" "A Great Voice out of

Heaven"

~

BY THE

Rev. H. GORDON DRUMMOND

~ JI ~

The ~~New Church" "A Great Voice out of

Heaven"

BV THE

Rev. H. GORDON DRUMMOND

FirJt Edition 1933 Serond Edition 1934 Third Editiotl 1938

NEW-CHURCH PRESS, LTD.

20 HART STREET,

LoNDON, W.c. l

CONTBNTS PA.GE

What the New Church 1s 5

The Word of God ]6

The Day of Judgment 4]

A Christian Church 7

What is a Church ? 8

Jesus, Divine . 12

Salvation and Atonement 20

Providence and Chance . 24

The Second Coming of the Lord 30

Life after Death . 36

The Christian . 44

A Fulfilment of Prophecy 45

The Creed of the New Church 47

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What the New Church Is

Perhaps the answer to the question, "What is the New Church ?" can best be given by stating in as simple and brief a wery as possible what the New Church teaches.

But ftrst it should be dearfy understood that the New Church is deftnitefy and unfalteringfy Christian. It is founded upon a belief in the Divinity of the LordJesus Christ, to whom it looks for enlightenment and direction in ail matters.

The New Church teaches that in Jesus Christ we have the /tillness of the Divine,. the Father, according to His own statement, being in Him, and the Hofy Spirit proceeding from Him, as when He breathed upon His disciples and said, " Receive ye the Hofy Spirit."

It teaches that the inspired books of the Old and New Testa­ments were dictated by His Spirit,. that within the sense of the letter there is a Spiritual and Divine sense, having reftrence solefy to the things of heaven and the Lord,. and that their inspiration, and their daim to be the Word of God, consist in and are proved from this.

It teaches that Salvation is deliverance not from the conse­quences of sin, bllt from sinning,. and that the Atonement is the reconciliation not of God to man, but of man to God.

It teaches the continuity of life after death,. and the reality of the spiritual world,. that ail are immortal,. that those who bave loved goodness and truth and tried to do right, to serve God and their neighbollr, go to heaven, and are happy for ever ,. and that onlJ those who have chosen evil ftnd their place in hell.

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lt leachu Ihat ail are created for heaven, and none for hell and that they who go to hell do so of their own accord.

lt teaches that Judgment is the disclosing of charactsr, .nti that our final abode hereafter is with our own kind.

lt teaches that the Divine Providence rules ail things,. that it is the Government of Divine Love and Wisdom,. that nothing con happen in this or any other world apart {rom it,. that then is no such thing as Chance.

lt teaches the Second Coming of the Lord as an event that has alreacfy oceurred,. not in any dramatic or physical manner, but in the opening of the spiritual sense of the Word whereby He is enabled to come in the fullest possible wCfJ to the conscious­"ess of the individual soul.

lt teaches that he onfy is a Christian who lives as a Christian.

The New Church is the fulftlment of the Scripture: "And l, John, saw the Hofy City, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for ber hus­band.' And of the promise: "Behold, 1 make ail things New."

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The" New Church"

A Christian Church

FIRST, it should be clearly understood that the New Church is definitely and unfalteringly Christian; it rests upon the old foundation: "For other foun­

dation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ"; it is Christianity itself, re-stated and re-born.

The New Church is founded upon the rock of Faith in the sole and absolute Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom it looks for enlightenment and direction in ail matters.

By a belief in His Divinity is meant the acknowledg­ment that He, and He only, is God over all-Divinity itself; the self-existent Maker of heaven and earth.

The New Church makes this acknowledgment with­out reservation or qualification of any kind, not merely as an item of its creed but as the fundamental and universal principle, the beginning and end, first and last of al! it has to teach.

The New Church holds that apart from this acknow­ledgment there is no true Christian religion, and can be no true Christian Church.

A Christian Church is a Church in which Jesus Christ is held supreme.

The acknowledgment of this supremacy of Jesus is no mere matter of Hp confession: no lip confession can make a Church. It is more than knowledge: the Church does not exist from knowledge. It is more than inte1­lectual assent. The Church of the Lord exists from love of Him.

The true Christian Church is found where the Lord Jesus Christ is recognized and confessed as God of heaven and earth; where His commandments are obeyed, and He is loved with al! the heart and ail the mind and aU the might.

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What is a Church ? l

Ta know al! that the New Church is would make one wiser than the angets of heaven. But we may, by a little effort, get to know enough to make us

considerably wiser than perhaps we are. In attempting to answer the question of what the

New Church is, in such a way that even the simplest inquirer may fol!ow, if he will, it may be wel! to consider first the meaning of the term Church. What is it that actual!y constitutes a Church ?

The first and simplest meaning with which ail are familiar is, a building set apart for the worship of God.

To such a building it is usual to give the name of Church; but refleetion shows that this must be far from the true or essential meaning: it is never a building that makes a Church, but only the purpose for which the building exists. When a building ceases to serve the purpose of a Church it is no longer a Church. Moreover, as the purpose of a Church involves people, and has no existence apart from them, it fol!ows that they alone who entertain and seek to achieve the purpose form the Church. If the same people were to meet in the rudest barn or cave, or even under the open sky, the Church would be there; for it would be in them.

The purpose of a Church is to worship God. Worship, therefore, is that which constitutes the Church.

But before there can be worship, there must be know­ledge of Truth; we must know whom or what we wor­ship. Worship from ignorance is impossible.

The New Church is a new spirit of worship, from a new realization of Divine Truth.

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II

WHEN it is said that the purpose of a Church is to worship God, further questions at once arise: Who is God? And how do we worship Him ?

Let us take the second of these questions first. The term worship is a contracted form of worth-ship, and implies the acknowledgment on the part of the wor­shipper of supreme worth. It is when one sees the superlative value or worth of God that one is in a position to worship Him, and not until. This implies, of course, a knowledge of what He is; and such knowledge of necessity implies revelation. Revelation is the making known to man of things otherwise unknowable, beyond the range of physical sense. Revelation is The Word of God. If there were no Word of God in the world, nothing would be known of Him. No man by searching, that is, by the exercise of natural intelligence, could find Him out. Even the cry, " 0 that l knew where l might find Him l' would be impossible without some previous revelation and acknowledgment of His existence. For no one would think of seeking the altogether unknown.

The New Church is a new worship of God, from a new knowledge of Him, through the fuller revelation or opening up of the inner or spiritual contents of His Word.

III

T HE question as to who is God is now to be answered for us, in the only possible way, by reference to the Ward itself. For in it alone we find the record of

His Being and Doing. His Word is the answer to ail man's questioning. It gives us the name of God; it shows His face; it speaks with His authority; it is the assurance of His presence.

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From it we get to know not only that there is a God, but what kind of a God He is. And, what is more, exactly what kind of people we are and ought to be. We ought to be like Him. And this we cannot be until we learn to worship Him. To worship Him is to esteem His worth above ail other values; to set Him on the highest pedestal of our adoring regard, and to love Him with ail the heart.

The name of the God who thus invites, and also renders possible, this attitude of adoration, worship and love, is that of Him who came in love and pitYto redeem man­kind; to save His people from their sins: "Thou shalt cali His name, Jesus."

The New Church is the worship of the Lord God, the Saviour, Jesus Christ.

IV

THE New Church is the Christian Church, reborn. It is the Christian Church, from natural made

spiritual. Its newness is no mere circumstance of time. "Time

cannot wither it, nor custom stale." When countless ages have passed away it will still be new. For it is the Church of the new-born spirit, the regenerated human soul, the "new man," the "second birth." It has the newness of the" new heaven" and the "new earth." To it the "many things" the Lord had yet to say to His disciples have been revealed in the "spirit" and " life" of His Word. The ineffable things of His love and wisdom, veiled in mercy to the eyes of His first followers, because they could not bear them then, are now to it and through it by His mercy made known, to ail who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

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They have been made known through the instrumen­tality of a man of unique enlightenment and incomparable genius, prepared of Divine Providence for the special work, endowed with all the necessary gifts of intelligence and perception, able to avail hirnself of the richest fruits of the world's scholarship, gathering into himself the sum of earthly knowledge, and, through the opening of spiritual faculties, granted the extraordinary experience, during many years, of the life and circumstances of the world beyond; an intimate of kings on this side and of angels on the other; the great Swedish writer, scholar, scientist, philosopher, and theologian, Emanuel Swedenborg.

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Jesus, Divine the FAITH OF THE NEW CHURCH, which fonns aI N

_ preface to the LlTURGY issued by the General Con­ference, the opening words are, "That there is one

God, in whom there is a Divine Trinity, and that He is the Lord Jesus Christ."

This is what the New Church teaches, in briefest surn­rnary, with respect to God; it is its answer to the question, Who is He?

He is the Lord Jesus Christ 1 There is no other God in heaven or earth. He it was

who came into the world in fuifilment of His promise, repeated through the ages, "1 will come and save you " ; "Look unto Me and be ye saved aIl the ends of the earth, for l am God, and there is none else"; and of whorn it is written, " His narne shal! be cal!ed Irnmanuel, which being interpreted is, GOD WITH us."

Thus the New Church proclairns that the notion of three Persons in God is contrary to Scripture, and in itself beyond rational acceptance; a quite unthinkable proposition, only to be entertained by the suppression of reason and the denial of cornrnon sense.

It is indeed rnost true that the idea of a Divine Being who is Maker of heaven and earth and al! things therein, transcends the capacity of the nnite hurnan mind to grasp in all its issues. But the idea of a Divine Being does not therefore contradict what the human mind is able to lay hold of; the faith that entertains it is a faith that sees 1

The faith that sees is that of an enlightened intelligence -enlightened frorn above-and, strictly speaking, there can be no other faith.

Faith has been supposed to irnply a belief in things that cannot at al! be seen. But this would declare faith

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blind. Whereas a blind faith is a contradiction in terms. Faith cornes by enlightenment, through the hearing of the Word and by the exercise of the organ of aIl vision, both natural and spiritual, which is the eye of the mind. It is the mind that sees in every case; and only the intelligent, seeing mind can have real faith. To say that you have faith in what you do not see to be true is to deceive yourself. You may believe that what you see faUs short of the reality; but you cannot believe if you see nothing.

True faith is seeing God! It is the inward perception of His presence 1

The God who is seen must be a Person ; there is no seeing of an impersonal Deity. Neither is there any seeing of a Being who is more than one. The idea of three persons making one God, as suggested by the Athanasian Creed, is beyond conception. Even to caU it an " idea " involves contradiction; for an "idea" is something sem; and who is there that can see a God who is both One and Three?

The New Church teaches, and by its teaching enables the intelligent, affirmative mind to see, that there is one God in whom there is a Divine trinity. •

The trinity in God is not one of persons, but of attri­butes or aspects and essential parts.

There is a like trinity in every created thing. It may be recognized in a flower, a bird, a human being. There exists a trinity even in a grain of sand. It is not in these indeed such as is the Divine trinity; but it is one in which the Divine is surely reflected; it is a three­in-one of substance, form and proceeding sphere. These three make every one thing. But three flowers do not make one flower at any time; nor do three birds make one bird; or three human beings one human being. But three essentials make one God; and these are speci­ficaIly the Divine substance, the Divine form, and the emanating Divine sphere. The Divine substance is His Love; the Divine form is His Wisdom; and the Divine

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sphere is His going forth to influence, sustain and bless­the all-pervading effluence and operation by which the universe is created and maintained. In these three con­stituents the fullness of the Godhead consists. They are all that the Divine is, has been, or ever can be. And there is nothing more than these in heaven or earth. All that presents itse1f to the senses is but their reflection and expression.

The New Church teaches, and by its teaching enables the intelligent, affirmative mind to see, not only that this is the fullness of the Divine, but that all this fullness was embraced in Jesus, and is in Him still. He was and is Incarnate Love; He was and is Incarnate Wisdom, the visible and effective embodiment of these constituent e1ements. He was these effectually focused and brought down to earth to dwell with men. And these are the superlative things, possessed of greatest worth, inviting human worship, promising heaven to all who can receive them, because they are Divine. They are not abstractions; neither do they exist in ether or in air; but their dwelling is in persons, and their fullness is the Personal God.

The New Church teaches that there is one God in whom is a Divine trinity; and that He is the Lord Jesus Christ 1 •In Him the Divine of Love, Wisdom and Power were manifested and contained according to His own repeated declarations: "The Father, who is in me, He doeth the works." "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." "1 and the Father are one." And that the Holy Spirit was no other than His own all-vivifying sphere, the creative breath of His life, He clearly showed in breathing upon His disciples and saying to them, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit."

" Breathing is an external representative sign of Divine inspiration."

Does He not thus breathe upon us now, that we too may have the true breath of life from Him, the quickening and reviving influence of wisdom and of love, the in­spiration of every living soul ?

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The Father who was in Jesus, as the soul of a man is in the instrumental body, was that impelling Love by which He sent Himself into the world; the all-originating soul of the living God. Love itself is Father of us ail ; Parent of ail good. There is nothing born into the world except from Love. Love begets Wisdom, and Wisdom issues forth in Power to bless. Thus in the beginning the heavens and the earth were made, and do still subsist. Thus were we created, and are now maintained, in being from moment to moment. Love is our Heavenly Father. Yet in no impersonal or abstract sense is this the case. The Love that is our Father is that which stooped in Jesus to our estate. It is HIS Love. This was His Father, and also ours. It is this that has ail power in heaven and on earth. Nothing else has any power. For Power is the proceeding of Love, by Wisdom, into Effect. There is no other power.

We have power-so-called-to destroy. You can crumple up a rose in your fingers and ruin it beyond ail recognition; you may trample it under your feet. But to create one of its delectable petaIs is beyond you. You have sorne ability to take life, but none to give it. How poor a thing-how utterly deceptive-is your " power" when you come to examine it; it is only a semblance, a shadow, a mere usurper and pretender of power. Power itself is productive of ail good, from truth. Jesus alone had this power. It was in Him and it proceeded from Him. By it He caused the deaf to hear and the blind to see, the lame to walk and the dead to live again. He created them anew. And ail that He did was good. He set imprisoned spirits free. He opened the gates of heaven. He went before; for He was the Way, the Truth and the Life. And no man cometh to the Father but by Him. For in Him dwells al! the fuilness of the Godhead bodily. He is "one God over ail, blessed for ever."

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The Word of God The New Church teaches that the inspired books of

Old and New Testaments were " dictated" by the Spirit of the Lord, which means that the writers were under a unique control and guidance, not only as to the sub­stance of what is written therein, but also as to the very form or "letter" in which it is presented; they heard voices speaking from within, and they also had visions of the things described. The voices and the visions were of God.

It teaches that the result of this dictation and control is the LETIER OF THE DIVINE WORD.

It teaches, further, that within the sense of this Letter, which is occupied with earthly and human affairs, and with temporal events, there is a Spiritual and Divine sense, having reference solely to the things of heaven, which are enduring and timeless, the things of the soul and of the Kingdom of the Lord. Their inspiration and claim to be " the Word of God " consist in and are proved from this.

Not aH the books of our Bible are of this uniquely inspired character. AH indeed are serviceable, in varying degrees, to the purposes of religion and the Church. They are instructive to the student of Divine things, and have proved helpful in preserving a sense of the Divine among the people. It is not to be doubted that the inclusion of such books as Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon in the Old Testament, and the Epistles of Paul and others in the New, has been of the Divine Providence. But this does not involve their having the same character, quality or value as the books that were dictated and directed by the Spirit. The dictated and directed books are written throughout in symbolic language, the lan­guage of inspired parable, of metaphor and "corre­

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spondence." Such are the books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, the Psalms and aU the Prophets of the Old Testament; with the four Gospels and the Revelation of John in the New.

By the "correspondence" according to which aU the books of the Divine Word are written is to be under­stood the intimate and vital relation of natural things to spiritual, of earth to heaven, and the body to the soul ; it is the relation in which every efficient cause stands to its produced effect, and every produced effect to its efficient cause. This may be illustrated by the living play of expression in a human face, every feature of which has its corresponding emotion in the mind. Other instances occur in customary speech; as for example, when the heart is mentioned as the recognized seat and symbol of love, and the hand, of power. These are not only figures of speech, but actual correspondences.

Because the inspired books of the Word have been written according to "correspondence," not merely in a general way, but in every detail, they must be so inter­preted if they are to be correctly understood. Wherever natural and earthly things are mentioned, spiritual and heavenly things are indicated and involved. Where the narrative appears to be concerned with matters of time and space, infinite and eternal things are its theme.

Thus understood, the Written Word becomes the inexhaustible source of knowledge concerning the Lord, our relation to Him, His purposes to usward, and con­cerning the world and life beyond.

The New Church teaches that the W ord of God is a Divine Revelation, not only of what He is, but of what

. wc are; that we could not know even ourselves without it; that it makes known to us the things that would otherwise be undiscoverable. By its means the inmost secrets of the universe and of the human spirit are brought forth to view.

Men need no supernatural Revelation of matters with which their senses make them acquainted. History,

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geography, the discoveries of science and art, lie outside its scope. What is known of these-all that is necessary to be known-is the outcome, the gathered fruit, of patient study, experiment and research. The natural faculties of man are sufficient for these tasks. No voice from heaven is wanted to tell us that the sky is blue, that water runs down hill, and the river finds its way even­tually into the sea. But we need a Revelation to inform us that there is a God, a Being of Love, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent; that there is a heaven and also a hell; and that we are destined to live for ever. For these are not among the facts dicoverable by observation, or by any exercise of an untaught and unenlightened reason. Nature alone does not in any of its phases prodaim the existence of a God. All that Nature can do is to lend its confirmation to the truth when the truth is ascertained; to show it, as it were, in a mirror. Nature gives assurance to the mind when it is already informed and disposed to the conclusion; but the information and the disposition to believe must first be there. Belief in God involves the will to believe. And the will to believe comes only by influx from heaven. The will to believe opens the eyes to the evidence. Without the will the eyes are dosed. The teaching that there is a God, and that He is Love is Revelation from on high.

The New Church teaches that the inspired books of the Old and New Testaments are not the Word of God in an exclusive sense; for there is no nation, no tribe or community of people throughout the world with any daim to rationality, that is without a religion of some sort, or without a knowledge of the existence of a God. All have the knowledge, as we have it, from Revelation. All have their cherished traditions, and their revered and sacred writings.

Prior to the time when the books of the Old and New Testaments were written there was a Word in existence,

~

a Divine Revelation, from which some of the contents of the Old Testament were taken. This is spoken of in New

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Church writings as "The Ancient Word." Moses, we are told, took his account of Creation, of the Garden of Eden, and the Flood, with the rest of the early Genesis stories, from it. Similar stories occur in practically all the sacred writings and traditions of the human race. They have a common origin.

And before the time of the Ancient Word there was Oral Tradition, instruction in Divine things conveyed from mouth to mouth. And there was, from the very beginning, communication between earth and heaven.

There has never been a time, since time began, when the world was without a revelation of the existence and nature of the all-creating and sustaining God.

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Salvation and Atonement

What Jesus Came To Do

The purpose for which the Lord came into the world is variously stated in the Scriptures. It is both negatively and positively given; we are told not only what He came to do, but also what He did no! come to do. He did not come to send peace; nor to caU the righteous; nor to judge the world.

That He did not come to send peace is perhaps the most surprising of the negative statements; for it seems to contradict a number of passages in which peace appears to be of the very essence of His purpose in coming. The Christmas angels sang "Peace on earth." And Isaiah prophesied that His name should be caUed "the Prince of peace." He said Himself to His disciples, "These things have l spoken unto you that in Me ye might have peace." "My peace l give unto you." "Peace be unto you." Yet against this may be set the equaUy inspired words of the aged Simeon to Mary, "This child is set for the faU and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shaU be spoken against." And when Hcrod the king had heard of the star seen in the east, "he was troubled and aU Jerusalem with him." His advent did not bring peace to these. Even to Mary it was to bring a sword, piercing her soul.

Jesus came to "caU sinners to repentance." The caU to repentance is meant to have a disturbing rather than a soothing effcct.

He came to bear witness to the Truth. His witness to the Truth resulted in the frenzied cry of the multitude, " Crucify Him, crucify Hirn ! "

He came that whosoever might believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting Hfe. But the attainment

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of everlasting life necessitated the more or less painful laying down of the earthly life, for His sake. He came that we might have peace after couillct, but the conflict must come first.

He said, "He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."

But the great purpose of His coming-as to which there can be no question in any mind-was " to save His people from their sins." It was the purpose of SALVATION !

The Church, as with one voice, proclaims this; and the world also acknowledges it. For if Christianity is to have any meaning, for us or for the world, it is summed up in the word, " Salvation."

But as to the nature of the Salvation for which Jesus came, what it involves and how it is accomplished, there may be many questions. And on this subject the New Church has much to say that is both new and true­rational, practical, and at the same time entirely Scriptural. It shows very definitely what Jesus came to do; and what He is doing now; it teaches what Salvation actuaHy is. It does this negatively; and it does it positively. It tells us definitely what Salvation is not 1

It declares Salvation to be no mere deliverance from the consequences of sin. Jesus did not come into the world to save sinners from suffering the results of their wrong­doing; He came to save them from sinning. He came to prevent them from doing wrong. "The soul that sinneth, it shaH die" was declared by the mouth of His prophet long years before He came. His coming did not make the declaration any less true. It is not less true for us to-day. "Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death " -not the death of the body, which is quite another thing, but the death of the soul. Death for the soul is alienation from its Source; it is being, as it were, cut off from God. Even as to live is to be in communion with Him.

The death of the body is the soul's release; it is a joyous birth into the spiritual world.

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Salvation is deliverance, not from penalties of sin, but from love of evil and from aU desire to do the wrong.

The New Church teaches that a saving faith is to believe in the Saviour. To believe in Him is to have confidence that He will save. And as none can have this confidence but those who make the effort to do His commandments, this also is included. There is no saving faith that excludes or ignores the life of obedience, which consists in the continuaI effort of shunning evils as sins against God.

Jesus came into the world " not to caU the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Repentance precedes Salva­tion. Repentance is more than confession of sin; it is more than contrition for having sinned or even than trusting in the Saviour's grace. It is the personal abhor­rence and avoidance of sin. Until this is realized there can be no Salvation for any one. ,

Jesus came as "the Saviour of the world." He was this to the extent that by Him Salvation was made possible for aU; whosoever wiU may receive it. But it does not foUow that the world is therefore saved. He is the Redeemer of the world. Every member of the race, without exception, whatever his birth, heredity, environ­ment, religion or state of life may be, is a subject of the Redemption Jesus wrought. This redemption was wrought, once for aU, in subduing the powers of heU, so that men couId no longer be coerced or dominated by heUish influence beyond their ability to resist. The redemption wrought by Jesus set men for ever spiritually free; it secured to them the liberty of thought and will, that in the hour of temptation they might choose life and not death.

But Redemption did not save them 1 It only made their Salvation possible. It prepared the way. No man can be saved against his will, or without his willing co-operation. None can be delivered until they choose. Salvation cornes in the fulfilment of the Divine covenant. And the covenant is in the Ten Commandments. " If thou wouldest enter into life," the Saviour said, " keep

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the commandments." To enter into life, and to be saved, are the same.

J es,us " did not come to caU the righteous "; for they who daim that title are without the sense of sin. They are the self-righteous, and the self-righteous are the self-deceived. They know no need of repentance. They have no ears to hear the Saviour's caU.

The New Church teaches that the ATONEMENT made by Jesus was a reconciliation not of God to man, but of man to God. It dismisses altogether, as unworthy and even blasphemous, the idea of a God offended and estranged, needing to be reconciled, willing to accept the sacrifice of the Innocent for the guilty and to admit men to heaven on the basis of a vicarious act. It maintains, with overwhelming confirmation from the inspired Word, that He who came in love and pitY to redeem and save mankind was no other than the Omnipotent Being who created the heavens and the earth; who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. There is no other God. "l, even l, am Jehovah," is His word, "and beside Me there is no Saviour."

The New Church teaches that we share in this Atone­ment to-day, not through the blood of Christ, understood in any merely literaI or historical sense; not, that is to say, by His death upon the Cross, which was the last of the temptation trials by which He brought His earthly labours to a dose. But we are saved by His Blood in the purely sacramental sense, whereby that blood becomes identified with Life itself, and with the revealed Truth of which the eartWy life of Jesus was the completely adequate expression. He caUed Himself "The Truth." And "he that drinketh My blood," He said, "hath eternal life."

We are saved to-day to the extent in which we receive His Truth, foUow Him in that life, and are daily guided by Him in thought and word and deed.

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Providence and Chance Milton prefaced his Paradise Los! with the prayer,

What in me ig dark Illumine, what is low raise and support; That to the height of this great argument 1 may assert etemal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men.

And Shakespeare wrote, There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will.

The ways of God are ways of Providence. And Pro..; vidence is the Divinity that shapes our ends, even from the beginning.

Among the distinctive messages of the New Church to the world its teaching with respect to the Divine Providence has a foremost place. Nothing more com­forting, satisfying and tranquillizing to the believing spirit could weil be imagined. To those who can receive it it brings peace in the midst of the turmoil and stress of daily life; peace to the troubled heart.

Peace. perfect peace. our future ail unknown ? Jesus we know; and He is on the throne 1

That He is on the throne of the universe we are assured; the government is upon His shoulder, and His name is Prince of peace. He has ail power in heaven and on earth.

The New Church teaches that the Divine Providence controls all things, from the least to the greatest, from centre to circumference; and that nothing can happen in this or any other world apart from its jurisdiction; it declares that there is no such thing as Chance.

Chance is a phantom; the substanceless creation of an infatuated mind.

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According to the literaI meaning of the term, Provi­dence is the seeing of things before they come into existence; it is Foresight.

Providence on the part of God becomes prudence on the part of man. Human prudence involves so mething of foresight; we have the capacity to anticipate events. And we find it an extremely useful capacity; we exercise it freely in all our affairs. Without foresight the business world would soon be in confusion. But with all its usefulness, and our dependence upon it, we are sadly conscious of its limitations; we are rarely, if ever, quite sure of it. Foresight with us is largely guesswork. We assume from past experience that things will take a certain course. Alas, too often we have to admit ourselves mis­taken ; even the wisest among us errs. Life, we say, is full of surprises, pleasant and unpleasant-the unpleasant seeming to outnumber the pleasant. Which is a faithless, and surely a false conclusion to come to, due largely, if not altogether, to our unhappy habit of paying more attention to the unpleasant, taking the agreeable for granted, and forgetting how much we have to be thankful for in "the trivial round, the common task "; in the enjoyment of food and sunshine, sleeping and waking, the ability to see, to hear, and to remember.

Providence is Foresight; and something more. When we speak of Divine Providence we imply not only Fore­sight but Over-sight, and Through-sight; not only the Divine Seeing but the Divine Doing; arranging, devis­ing, restraining, impelling; a continuaI preparation for all that is to come. Providence sees the end from the beginning-that is, not merely in time but from eternity -and makes ready for it; causing all earthly circum­stance and events to work together for eternal good.

Now the end, foreseen and provided from the begin­ning, is nothing else than a happy people, a heaven of angels from the human race, a place in realms of joy for all. This is the thing anticipated, proposed, and rendered possible. For this we were created, and are now sustained ;

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and there is nothing that can by any possibility happen to any one of us that is not either designed or perrnitted, 6tted and directed to the furtherance of this great project, no matter how unfavourable it may appear to be. Pro­vidence secures to each the requisite opportunity and the urge; it even brings pressure to bear-short of com­pulsion. The Divine Providence cannot compel. For to compel would be to destroy; compulsion would defeat the end. Only that which is effected in freedom remains with a man. There is no place in heaven for those who have not freely chosen it and are prepared to 611 it. For heaven is made for man; even as man is made for heaven. There are no angels there who were not once human beings like ourselves living on earth. Angels are not another order of creation. "Angels are men, in lighter habits clad; and men are angels loaded for an hour."

Heaven is made for man; but man must do his part in getting to it. It is a covenanted mercy, to be realized through co-operation. Neither God alone, nor man alone, is able to accomplish it; but the two together; one acting and the other reacting; the Divine proposing and the human being disposed. The invitation is given, " Come unto Me. Ail things are now ready. Behold l stand at the door and knock; if any man will open the door, l will come into him and sup with him, and he with Me." There is nothing between them but the door, which only man can open.

" They who are in the stream of the Divine Providence," we read in the work by Swedenborg on this subject, " are borne continuaily towards happiness, whatever may he the arpearance of the means; and they are in the stream 0 Providence who put their trust in the Divine, and attribute all things to Him."

They who are in the stream of Providence are at peace, whatever may be the appearance of the means. The appearance is not always what one would choose; often, alas, it is quite otherwise. "God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform." In the world only those

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things that seem favourable to our desires are accounted "Providential." When threatening troubles are averted, or dangers escaped, we speak of a "Providential" de­liverance. And it is right that we should do so. For the deliverance is surely from above. AU good is from the Lord alone. And aU tbat is from Him is fortunate. But what one bas to remember is that Providence may be no less in what seems to us unfortunate, even to the extreme. The most unfortunate of happenings may prove occasions of the greatest blessing. When troubles and disappoint­ments come, it may seem that Providence has failed. But the truth is, Providence never fails 1 it is only we who fail at times to appreciate the issue.

It is hard for most of us to realize that we are not in this world merely to get what we would like; we are here rather to get experience and discipline; we are here to be prepared for things to come. Providence bas us in its care. Providence sees the way. It has the necessary foresight; and it commands the means. Jesus said, " The very hairs of your head are aU numbered." By the hairs of the head are signified the least things of human life. To be numbered is to be known. "He knoweth our frame; He remembereth." "There is not a word in our tongues, but 10, 0 Lord, Thou knowest it altogether."

The Divine Providence is the government of the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom.

It is not a matter of interference, or of any mere intervention, either in human affairs or in the order of Nature.

The universe as we know it, as every intelligent and truly rational mind perceives it, as science has discovered it to us, and as every tireless investigator into the more recondite things of Nature invariably assumes, is no haphazard affair. Things did not faU fortuitously, we may be sure, into the amazing relation and perfect adaptation of parts-the interdependence-in which we find them. Everything is seen to be connected, mutuaUy supporting, and harmoniously working to a common end. Every­

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where we are enabled to trace the features of a consistent scheme; design is manifest throughout; purpose is assumed; Infinite Wisdom is displayed. Nature is nothing else than a theatre or stage on which the opera­tions of a Wisdom passing aU understanding are exhibited from day to day.

And surely not less evident, to those who have eyes to see, is the universality of Divine government in the aifairs of men. Just at the time when events occur we may be too near the circumstances to see the trend or to recognize the directing and controlling Hand. But as we look back upon the past the vision clears.

Othe wondrous Loving-kindness Planning, working out of sight 1

How wisely we have aU been led, despite our way­wardness 1 How lovingly we have been guided and prevented, along the earthly road 1

But while it is comforting to know that nothing can by any means happen to one apart from the Divine Providence, it is not therefore to be concluded that what­ever cornes is according to the will of God. For this would be a serious mistake. Things certainly happen, on a large scale and a smaU, at home and abroad, that are not at aU as He would have them, or as they would be, if we were diiferent. Things come to us according to our need of them. Is it not from sorne recognition and acknowledg­ment of this fact that George Bernard Shaw has written in his mordant way, "Every drunken skipper trusts to Providence. But one of the ways of Providence with drunken skippers is to run them on the rocks"? Provi­dence does not run even drunken skippers on the rocks, but it permits sorne of them to get there at times.

The trials and the mishaps, the disappointments of life, are things permitted; but they are never sent. Al! that is sent us is for gladness and delight. Fain would the Heavenly Ruler make smooth the way before us, He wouldbrighten al! the path in which we rove. The

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troubles and the sorrows of our experience He permits, as not being quite preventable; yet are they permitted only to the extent in which they may b~ of use as means towards a happier time in stdre.

They who truly and devoutly put their trust in Divine Providence are in its stream. They go with it; they are carried along by its beneficent current. They meet the future-all unknown-without a fear.

For" Jesus they know; and He is on the throne."

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The Second Coming of the Lord It is usual to think of the promised Second Coming of

the Lord as still awaiting fuIfilment in the dim and distant future; and as an event involving catastrophic happen­ings in the visible universe; a grand finale in the cosmic play, and a " last day " for all. This has been concluded from a literaI interpretation of the answer given by Jesus to the question of His disciples. "Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world ? "

The New Church teaches that this conception is based upon a misunderstanding of the Scripture; that what is said in Matthew is to be understood spiritually and metaphorically rather than naturally or literally; that the Second Coming of the Lord has already occurred; not in any spectacular, or physical manner, but in the opening of the spiritual sense of the Word, whereby He is enabled to come in the fullest and most directly possible way to the enlightened consciousness of the individual sou!. It assures us that He has fulfilled His promise and is still fulfilling it in individual experience; and that He will continue to fulfil it thus in the experience of ail who are ready to receive Him, through time and to eternity.

The Second Coming of the Lord is a distinctly spiritual eventl

To look for spectacular happenings or dramatic demon­strations is to be in danger of missing the experience altogether. Just as the manner of His First Coming was 50 different from all human expectation, that when it took place there was hardly a soul to recognize the fact ; so with the second. And still with respect to it may it be said: "The light shineth in darkness; and the dark­ness comprehendeth it not." He was in the world, and

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The "New Church "

the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even. to them that believe on His name."

Even the First Coming of the Lord is an event still in procus 1 In the work entitled The True Christian Religion, Swedenborg has written, " The Lord is present with every man and is urgent to be received; and when a man receives Him, which he does by acknowledging Him to be his God, his Creator, Redeemer and Saviour, it is then His nrst advent."

Regarded in the light of this statement, the First Coming ceases to be a mere historical and local event and takes on a universal and timeless character. It happens daily. It is accomplished in the acceptance of the inspired record, in the experience of aU who acknowledge Jesus to be their God. To those who are brought to believe the Gospel story He cornes afresh. "It is then His nrst advent," in their experience.

And in making thus His First Advent the promise is renewed, that He will come again 1

The Second Coming of the Lord is not to be thought of as any mere repetition of the nrst. He does not do the same thing twice. What He does He does once for ail. Yet the fact rernains that in doing things once He is doing themall the while; they continuaUy recur. For He is "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." He cannot change; He does not cease at any time to be or to do; He is like the sun which goes on shining ail the while. He is "the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

His First Advent was predieted by seers and prophets through long ages. That Jehovah-God, the Creator of the universe, would eventuaUy visit the earth and show Himself in Human Form, was known and believed by the instructed people of the earliest cimes. The need of such a happening was foreseen, and the necessary

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provision made; accredited messengers were sent from time to time to prepare the way.

Not to meet an unexpected crisis, and not into a whoHy unexpectant world did the Promised One appear.

It is true that He found darkness when He came; gross darkness covered the people. Yet even in the dark­ness there were eyes straining upwards to the light; inheritors of ancient wisdom watched the heavens for a sign; there were those who waited patiently for the consolation of Israel.

Some there were who proved ready to follow Him at a word. And there was Mary, the humble and the willing handmaid of the Lord.

These formed a nucleus of reception. To these He came. With these His First Advent was begun. Through them it cornes to us.

As with the First Advent, so with the Second; it was an event foretold. Jesus said to His disciples, "1 will come again and receive you unto Myself."

That His disciples remembered His words, and were expectant of a fulfilment, is quite evident. As He sat upon the Mount of Olives they came to Him saying, " Tell us, when shaH these things be ? and what shaH be the sign of Thy coming?" And He answered them in strange, apocalyptic manner. The sun, He told them, would be darkened, and the moon would fail to give her light, the stars would fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens would be shaken. And then would appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and they would see Him coming in the clouds ofheaven with power and great glory.

Where were the heavens in which these extraordinary happenings were to take place? Were they in the skies of Nature?

" The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shaH ye say, Lo here, or 10 there. For behold the Kingdom of God is within you." It is within that one must look, and not outside, for the phenomena of the Kingdom, and for aH the signs of the coming of the

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King. It is here that He will keep His promise; it is here that He has kept it. For" Now iJ the lime of the Second Coming of the Lord! "

Lo, He cames, in cIouds descending 1 The " douds " that carry Him are not in space but in

the Word; they are its literaI messages; the adum­brations of ancient prophecy; the obscurities of its natural sense. And they are also the like obscurities and adumbrations in the minds of those who so dimly appre­hend Him-minds shadowed and bewildered by the concealing circumstances of time and sense.

The heavens also, in which the sign of His Second Coming appears, are tobe recognized in the Book that tells of Him, that shows His face and brings to us the consciousness of His love and power. They are where we 6nd ourselves as we read it, most near to Him; in the gracious sphere of His Presence, with minds enlight­ened by His truth; exalted and strengthened by His Spirit; where eyes that once were blind now see, and the inmost prayer of the heart has been answered: "Even so come, Lord Jesus 1"

o send Thy Spirit, Lord, now unto mc ; And do Thou touch mine eyes, and make me sec 1 Show me the truth concealed within Thy Word, That in Thy Book revealed 1 sec Thee, Lord-

Where the satis6ed heart makes thankful confession: Here, 0 my Lord, 1 see Thee, face to face: Here faith can rouch and handle things unseen ; Here 1 would grasp with finner hand Thy grace, And ail my weariness upon Thee Jean.

" Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world ? " His disciples asked. And they were answered, "If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him, and We will make Our abode with him."

Wherever He is truly loved, and His words are faith­fully kept, He takes up His abode. He cornes to receive His own unto Himself.

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The "New Church"

Would spectacular happenings in the skies, or llmong the douds of Nature, a reeling universe, a darkened world bring assurance of greater actuality ?

Does not the inward experience provide its own entirely adequate conviction?

He has come again ( His First Coming was and is of necessity to sense per­

ception 1 To the bar of sense perception ail things must first be brought. From the testimony of the senses we aU begin to learn. We use our eyes and ears, they give us the starting-point of knowledge.

But they do not carry one very far. Other faculties and endowments must be brought to bear on matters for their correction, and for their indefinite extension.

We acquire our acquaintance with things from without; but if we are to know them truly we must learn them again, from within. Everything must come to us a second time, not by mere repetition but by another route, before it can become our very own, or enter and dweU within us.

The nrst time it is a matter of memorizing; the second it is a matter of life. The first time it is the natural mind alone that is engaged; the second, it is the spiritual mind in charge. The nrst time it is a question of believing in what we see and handle or can form a natural conception of; the second rime it is a perception or a realization of the invisible and enduring things of God.

Jesus comes into the world a first time for aUI When the story of His coming is received, and the confession made, tbat He who was born in Bethlehem was veritably God, the timeless miracle of the ages has been wrought in cime; the central happening of bistory is realized. The Lord is then present with man, saying, "1 will come again, and receive you unto Myself."

He must come again, in power and in glory, that we may behold Him from within, in that spaceless place of the spirit where every eye may see Him, as in His trans­figuration with Face sbining as the sun and raiment as

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the light; even as He appeared to John in Patmos, with eyes as a Rame of tire, saying, "1 am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, who is, and who was, and who is to come."

He must come again that we may look on Him with spiritual eyes; that we may hear Him with the quickened ears of the spirit; and touch .Him with the extended hand of faith and of will to personal service, recognizing and acknowledging Him as our only Lord and God, " To Whom be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and ever, Amen."

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The" New Church"

Life after Death The New Church teaches the unbroken continuity of

Life after Death ! It gives the assurance that there is no such thing as death,

in the sense of life's extinction; death is a passage from one experience of life to another; it is a change of state.

There is no end to life. It thus confirms the well-known lines of Longfellow;

" There is no death; what seems so is transition." But it carries the poet's vision a little further in declaring that what seems death is not merely a transition but an exaltation, an immeasurable opening out and lifting up of life.

What we calI death is but the removal of an encum­brance, the setting aside of what has usefully served, but has now ceased to be of use. The body laid in the grave at death is but a covering that was lent for use in the world; it is committed to the dust, as being itself of the nature of the dust; it is no part of the living man. Man himself is a spiritual and immortal being, made after the image and likeness of his Creator.

God Himself, we are told, is a Spirit. A spirit is no mere wraith or ghost; but a fully equipped

and substantial being, in organic form. A spirit has eyes to see with, and ears to hear with; it is endowed with every sense and faculty which we associate with the idea of a man. A spirit has hands and feet; a heart and brain. There is, in short, no difference at all between a man and a spirit, except that man, while he is in the world, has an instrumental material frame by means of which he is able to have commerce with material things. AH that is living in him; aH that is conscious and effective, belongs to the spirit, even while it functions and manifests itself in the material body. The instrumental frame, with every organ

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The" New Church"

and aptitude for use, is shaped and distinguished in all parts, and given efficiency, from the spirit within. In a word, the flesh owes everything to the spirit; while the spirit owes nothing to the flesh save a debt of gratitude for temporary assistance.

Apart from the flesh the spirit is still a man, lacking nothing essential to his existence as a man; he hears and sees precisely as before, only more acutely; he thinks and feels exactly as before, only more intensely; he moves about as before, only more easily and swiftly, relieved of the handicap of physical weariness and fatigue. He derives his life from Life Itself, just as he did before. How should he be or feel any different ?

Physical death is deliverance from the burden of a frame no longer capable of résponding to the behests of the spirit, and which has thus become a hindrance instead of a help.

Physical death is this indeed; but it is more: it is liberation for the spirit; it is man's entrance upon a wider field, a more interior and therefore higher and more perfect plane of living. Death brings us swiftly nearer to the heart of things, and to the Living Source from which ail our ability and ail our vitality are derived.

The New Church not only teaches the endless con­tinuity of life; it also proclaims the nearness and reality of the spiritual world.

The truth that there are two worlds, one natural and the other spiritual, one temporal and the other eternal, is a necessity of thought, as weil as of life. For we are living in these two worlds even now. There is the world of Nature of which we are aware; it lies outside of us.lt is the realm of material things, a universe of measurable time and space. In it alone the eartWy body dwells. The eartWy body occupies a measure of space; it exists in a measure of time; it is limited and conditioned by these at every point. It is held subject to the so-called laws of Nature. It breathes the air; it is warmed by the sun­shine; it is fed and nourished by material bread.

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Not so the spirit. The spirit lives and moves and has its being in a realm that is in all respects distinct. The spirit occupies no space. It is affected by no time. It has food to eat that the body knows not of. No circum­stance of matter has ever entered into the realm of thought. The extent of human love is neither ascertained nor determined by any physical scale. Hearts are not to be estimated according to the foot-rule.

For the simple reason that the spirit belongs to an entire1y different sphere; it has its own peculiar world to live in, and is subject ooly to the special laws, the circumstances and conditions of that world.

There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body; there is a natural world, and there is a spiritual world. We are living in the spiritual world even now, as to our spirits; ooly withheld from the immediate conscious­ness of the fact by our prevailing physical sensations.

You do not see the spiritual world because you are looking through the eyes of the flesh 1 They blind you for the time being to its existence.

The New Church teaches the reality of the spiritual world. It is the realm in which ail who have passed from this world are now living. It is no realm of shadows ; but is peopled by men and women like ourse1ves-not ghosts, not disembodied spirits, but substantial men and women, as real and as human, as capable as any of those with whom we are now in daily conscious association.

It teaches that we are irnmortal; destined to live for ever, by virtue of the amazing fact that we have been created capable of knowing and loving our God 1 To know Him is life everlasting.

In this capacity we are discretely separated and eternally distinguished not ooly from one another but from every other form of life. Ail life is one, in the sense that it has a cornmon Source; it is derived from Him who has life in Himself. In the opening of His hand the desire of every living thing is satisfied. Thus the life of the animal and of the vegetable is as truly a life derived from Him as is

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The "New Church "

the life of man. But in the case of the man tbere is recep­tion and response, a capacity of will and understanding­of willing good and understanding truth-of knowing and loving-Iacking in the lower creation.

" Unless above himself he can erect himself, how poor a thing is man," the poet wrote. He wrote in this, perhaps, more truly than he knew. For it is in the possession of this ability of apprehending and aspiring to what is "above himself" that man is distinctly man. What is " above himself" is God. It is from this distinguishing ability that he alone, among created things, may be said truly to live. Ali other things exist.

Life is something more than existence. Life itself is love. And He who is Love Itself is Life.

The life of man is nothing but his love. It is from love that we are actuated and impelled to think, to purpose and to carry purpose into effect; by love we are sustained. Our aspirations and desires are nothing but the activities of love. If love were to cease within us we should immediately cease to be. Love is our very life.

From this alone-because the love that is our life is actualiy not only a derivation from, but a response to, the Divine love-we are immortal.

The New Church teaches that aU who love goodness and truth, and are in the effort to do right according to their opportunities, to act unselfishly, from a principle of love to God and their neighbour, go to heaven when they leave this world. They take their own heaven with them where they go. Wherever they find themselves hereafter it is heaven.

For heaven, we are assured, is primarily and essentialiy a state of mind and life; and only secondarily a place. The place is a projection of the state. Angels live in the rnidst of beautiful surroundings, surpassing aU descrip­tions, because they themselves are beautiful within; they have love1y minds. The surroundings reflect and give expression to their loveliness.

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It is quite impossible for any one to go to heaven unless heaven is within him.

AB have been created by the Lord for heaven; but aH, alas, do not go to heaven. They go where their love leads them! They who love evil gravitate to heH; they are not sent there; but move thither of their own accord; they seek the company of their kind.

To be with their kind does not give loyers of evil happiness. For only they who are in heaven are reaHy happy. But it makes them somewhat less miserable. HeH need not be thought of as a place of torture; except for those who fil1d pleasure in torturing others. The punish­ments of heH are self-inflicted. AH evil tends to punish itself.

God is no punisher; for He is Love itself and Mercy itself. He seeks to comfort and to bless even the evil­doer; He mitigates sufferings, and makes existence even in the lowest heH a thing that may be borne.

For the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to ever­lasting, and it is over aH His works.

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The" New Church"

The Day of Judgment The New Church teaches that Judgment is essentiaUy

the disclosing of character. In the Epistle to the Hebrews it is written, "It is

appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judg­ment." The passage is familiar to most of us, from frequent quotation. It gives convenient expression to two widely recognized and accepted truths: (1) that we must aU die; and (2) that we must aU be judged.

Mter death cornes the Judgment. But what is the Judgment ? In the Gospel of Matthew we find what purports to be

a description of the Last Judgment. The picture there presented is that of a King seated on a throne with aH nations gathered before him to be separated, " as a shep­herd divides his sheep from the goats." In the separation the sheep are set on the right hand of the throne, but the goats on the left. Those on the right hand are caUed to inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the founda­tion of the world; while those on the left are dismissed into everlasting nre.

It is an impressive picture, and in sorne respects a formidable one; it terrifies. Other pictures, even more formidable and terrifying, appear in the Revelation of John. Are we to take these inspired pictures as presenta­tions of literai fact ?

We are told concerning Jesus that He spoke at aU times in parables; "for without a parable spake He not unto them." Nowa parable is admittedly "an earthly story with a heavenly meaning "; in other words it is a statement of spiritual truth in terms of natural fact, or, as we say, "according to correspondence."

Correspondence is the relation in which aU natural things stand to their spiritual causes.

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The" New Church"

The Word throughout, we are assured, is written " according to correspondence." Jesus spoke in terms of correspondence. John also wrote his Revelation in sirnilar terms. What he describes for us so dramaticaHy is a series of spiritual events or experiences portrayed in representative eartWy forms.

Now it is to be understood that aH spiritual events have relation to and actuaHy take place in the mind; they have nothing whatever to do with the body, or with Nature, or with the things of space and time.

John was in the spirit when he had his visions, as aH the prophets were. We also must be in the spirit if we are to see what they denote.

To be " in the spirit" is to be dissociated in thought from aH that is olltside; and to be concentrated upon what is within.

The Judgment, and aH that is connected with it, takes place in the realm of spiritual experience, which is within the mind.

Whether we say the spirit, or the mind, or the soul of man, or the very man himself, it is the same.

Jesus said, "For judgment l am come into the world." But He also declared, "I judge no man. If any man hear My words, and believe not, l judge him not: for l came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth Me . . . hath one that judgeth him: the word that l have spoken, the same shaH judge him in the last day."

By " the word that l have spoken " is to be understood the Truth itself. There is no other judge but Truth. AH things are judged, righteously,from the standpoint ofTruth. A man of sound judgment is one who knows Truth, and forms his conclusions from it. AH Truth is of the mind.

When one's mind is equipped with Truth it sits, as it were, upon a throne; high and lifted up, to see the things that are beneath it; and it sees them there in their relation one to another; thus it has circumspection; it is a wise judge.

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So when we are lifted up after death, to see things in the light of Truth, and thus to know them for what they reaUy are, we shaUlook at them not " as through a glass darkly, but face to face"; not as they who know only in part, but knowing even as we are known. We shaU know ourselves; stripped of aU pretences and aU cover­ings; with our illusions dissipated and our conceits dispeUed. We shaU have one that judges us: even the Word that He has spoken-the Truth that is in us.

Judgment hereafter is the process-begun and continued even in this world-of the disclosing of character, and it i s the discovering of what we actually are! It is the discovering also of our kindred, and of our final place.

For in the other world there is no mixing of the kinds. "Birds of a feather flock together." This is a spiritual as weU as natural law. Inevitably we gravitate, each to the company and quarters of those who are most like ourselves. For only with these can we enter into any­thing approaching to a state of satisfaction and of rest ; only there we settle down.

The settlement is not to be accomplished aU at once; only by degrees is the full discovery made; only graduaUy are the coverings removed and the hidden things exposed.

The length of the process is according to the nature and extent of our cherished self-deceptions. Sooner or later for aU, in that intermediate realm into which we are introduced immediate1y the earthly veil is rent, the experience cornes, "There is nothing covered that shaH not be revealed; neither hid that shall not be known."

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The Christian The New Church teaches that He only is a Christian who lives as a Christian! In other words, it puts the whole significance of the proud

tide, and the justification for its use, not in creed, nor in any kind of Hp profession, but in the aetuaHties of daily life 1

It caHs to our remembrance, with renewed emphasis and a persistence that is never satisfied, the teaching of the Word-made-flesh: "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them "; "Not every one that saith unto Me, ' Lord, Lord,' shaH enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the will of My Father who is in heaven " ; " He that doeth truth cometh to the light." ,

And it proclaims again the message of the prophet Micah: "He hath showed thee, 0 man, what is good ; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy GÇ>d?"

What is it to live as a Christian? Surely it is above aU things to obey the law of love. Jesus said, "A new commandment l give unto you, That ye love one another ; as l have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shaH aH men know that ye are My disciples."

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A Fulfilment of Prophecy It is claimed for the New Church that it is itself the

fulfilment of the Scripture: "And 1, John, saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" ; and also of the promise: "Behold, l make aH things new."

Scripture is fulfilled when its inner content has been realized; it is accomplished in the experience of the developing human soul.

The essence of aB Scripture, God-inspired, is Revela­tion; and Revelation is the opening of faculty, it is being given 10 see !

There is no Revelation of things on the natural plane; nor any fulfilment of prophecy to be looked for there.

Jesus said, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shaB ye say, ' Lo here ! or, 10 there ! ' for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you."

In the Holy City, New Jerusalem, seen by John as coming down from God out of heaven, the kingdom of God-the ceaseless topie and the end in view in aB our Lord's teaching-is envisaged and presented in figure. In the figure of a city it should not be difficult to see the representation of a Church. For a city is a complex of human relationships and activities; it is essentiaBy a com­munity of life. The Holy City is the ideal Community, the perfect human life; it is the achievement of that Fellowship of the Spirit for which the Church exists, and of which it is, ideally, the embodiment.

And in the figure of the Bride adorned for her Husband, the symbolism of a Church is hardly less manifest; the Woman is the Church in relation to the Divine Being who has caBed it into existence, who bestows upon it aU its beauty, and inspires it with His life.

If the existence of a New Church in the world is

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The" New Church"

conceivable; if the possibility of such a thing is aUowed, this claim to be the ful@ment of Scripture can hardly be rejected: if there is, or can ever be, a New Church in the world, it must be this, it can be nothing less.

If there is a New Church in the world to-day--and he surely would be presumptuous indeed who would deny the possibility-its newness will be seen, and proved beyond aU controversy, in the fact that it reveals new things, which are also true things; new readings of the life inspiring and sustaining Word; new visions of the world to come; "new thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven."

It will show itself to be the Church of the new man, who is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him.

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The" New Church"

The Creed of the New Church 1, l BELIEVE that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ

is the one God of heaven and earth, the Creator and Preserver of aU things.

2. 1 believe that our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world for our redemption, and is now making His Second Advent through His Word with power and great glory.

;. 1 believe that the Sacred Scriptures are the inspired Word of God, the fountain of aU wisdom for angels and men.

4. 1 believe that, if 1 would be saved, 1 must, in the Lord's strength, shun aU evils as sins aga,inst Him, and walk in the way of His Cornmandments.

5. 1 believe that when 1 die as to my natural body 1 shall rise in my spiritual body in the World of Spirits, and be judged according to my works.

6. 1 believe that heaven is the home of aU who die in childhood, and of those in every nation who fear God and work righteousness; and that heU is the chosen abode of those who love evil rather than good.

7. 1 believe in the universal and constant Providence of our Lord, whose tender mercies are over all His works.

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