m

FROM THE LIBRARY

OF

JOHN WHITEHEAD
1850-1930
PRESENTED TO
BY HIS HEIRS

LIGHT

THE LAST THINGS.

By WILLIAM B. HAYDEN.

PHILADELPHIA:
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
1873.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by
JOS. E. PUTNAM, Manager,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New York.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. Page
New truth for a new age ; the extraordinary mental activity
and increased knowledge of our times a preparation for
a new disclosure of holy truth from the Word of God,
through a better understanding of its meaning  9
CHAPTER II.
Reality and extent of the other world ; all the previous
generations of men on our earth, now living in societies
there ; illustrations from the Bible  , . •?  17
CHAPTER III.
Seership, or the sight opened ; the seers of the Old Testa
ment men who had the capacity of looking into the
other world ; its nearness to this world ; the ' ' Visions
of Angels" effected by the opening of the "sight" in
men  ,  , , . . 25
CHAPTER IV.
The spiritual body contained within the natural body, being
withdrawn from it at the decease of the latter; and
man rises, almost • immediately at death, in a, perfect
human form, into the spiritual world. Illustrations from
Scripture  ,  ,  31
CHAPTER V.
Proofs from the Old Testament showing that " Sheol,"
being a place of the departed into which good and evil
alike went, can mean neither heaven nor hell, but an
intermediate world of spirits  43

Vl CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI. , Page
Proofs of the same with respect to_ ' ' Hades " from the New
Testament. The parable of the wheat and tares :
representations of the Apocalypse  50
CHAPTER VII.
That intermediate world needed, as a place where the
"Judgment" occurs, and where the well-disposed are
instructed and prepared for Heaven. The Truth judges,
while men are left in moral freedom : but the separa
tion between good and evil becomes at length complete
and final. God punishes none ; but the evil cast them
selves down  60
CHAPTER VIII.
The history of that intermediate world, drawn from Scrip
ture. Brief view of the Apocalypse : most of the scenes
described in that book occurred in Hades; instances
cited in illustration  78
CHAPTER IX.
History of " Sheol " under the old dispensations. Several
"Judgments" have been effected in it; one in the
days of Noah, another in the days of Lot  89
CHAPTER X.
An important part of our Lord's work lay in Hades ; con
sisting of a "Judgment," or separation of evil spirits
from the good, the overthrow of the infernal powers,
the elevation of the good, and the consequent deliver
ance of men from the bondage of hell. Fulness of
the prophecies in this respect. , Isaiah, Jeremiah, Mal
achi, etc  101
CHAPTER XI.
The LordJs work on the unclean spirits, when He appeared.
The gospel history. His intercourse with, and opera-

CONTENTS. VII
Page
tion in, the unseen world, oonstant and important ;
resulting in a -" Judgment," the overthrow of the in
fernal crew, and the redemption or deliverance of man
kind   112
CHAPTER XII.
The end of the world not foretold in Scripture ; but only
the "Consummation of the Age ;" i.e., the closing of
the apostolic dispensation, and the beginning of another,
viz. : the apocalyptic dispensation or age of the New
Jerusalem  126
CHAPTER XIII.
The symbolism of prophecy implying,- in the letter, physi
cal destruction and commotion, means really, impor
tant moral and spiritual changes in the Church and
world. Proofs and illustrations. The prophecy in 2
Peter, in., considered  134
CHAPTER XIV.
The stability and perpetuity of the physical earth, in its
present form, argued from Scripture, and the indica
tions of geology in regard to its past periods  149
CHAPTER XV.
The perpetuity of the earth argued further, from its own
indestructibility, and the divine purposes in regard to it. 157
CHAPTER XVI.
The visible heavens not to be destroyed. The stars too
large to fall to the earth. Astronomy demonstrates the
permanent stability of the planetary system. The
earth to remain forever, as a field or plane for the ful
filment of all the glorious prophecies with respect to the
Church  .,  164

VIII CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVII. PAGB
The " Clouds" in which the Lord is predicted to make His
second appearing, are the symbols in the letter of His
Word, which cloud or veil the truth of the prophecy,
until it is fulfilled; and when it is fulfilled and the
meaning explained, He then comes, according to the
intent of the prophecy  170
CHAPTER XVIII.
The "Eye" meant is the eye of the mind, or the rational
thought, to which He now comes, in a new age of
light, in a new and wonderful disclosure of sacred and
heavenly truth. Illustrations from the signs of the
times.  173
CHAPTER XIX.
The mourning of the tribes of the earth is the opposition
felt by the evil conservatism of the age, to the or
ganic changes which the establishment of truth, jus
tice, and true Christian love, requires  184
CHAPTER XX.
The New Jerusalem a New Church on earth. The end of
the apostolic dispensation came about the middle of the
' last century ; the Last Judgment occurred in the World
of Spirits in 1757 ; the second coming of the Lord
effected by the revelation of the new heavenly truth ;
the New Jerusalem, the real Church of the Future,
already beginning to be established. Its platform of
catholic doctrine  187

CHAPTER I.
NEW TRUTH FOR A NEW AGE.
"And I saw heaven opened." — Rev. xix. 11.

The mental activity of our age is without a
parallel in history. The human mind is wider
awake than ever before. Rational inquiry, upon all
subjects, is pursued with greater animation and a
quicker intelligence, than it used to be in the former
ages. Since the middle of the last century a new
era, — by common consent,— has dawned in human
affairs ; and human society everywhere wears a new
aspect. As we look abroad and contemplate the scene, in
its multiform details, we can see, all around us, the
words of the prophecy, — " Behold, I make all things
new," — in the process of rapid fulfilment.
Even before it began, the Seer of the New Jerusa
lem had declared that the movement would come,
and had laid open in his writings the spiritual causes
which were to produce it. He had announced that
1*

10 NEW TETJTH FOE A NEW AGE.
the things foretold in the Book of Revelation are at
this day fulfilled ; that the Last Judgment predicted
in the Scriptures was executed in the World of
Spirits, intermediate between heaven and hell, in the
year 1757. This, consisting as it did of a separa
tion — a simple separation — of the good from among
the evil, and of the evil from the good, sending each
to their permanent abodes — above and below, cleared
that intermediate world of its old inhabitants,
thns removing the dark cloud of bad influences
which hung upon mankind, leaving that world open
and free for the descent, through it, of pure and
good influences to men out of heaven, or through
heaven from the Lord.
And, in connection with this, he announced, too,
the second Advent of the Lord ; taking place, not as
a personal and visible return of Him to our earth
to destroy the world, but coming, as He is represented
here in the 19th chapter of Revelation, as "the
Word of God," i. e., in and through a fuller revela
tion of His own Divine Truth ; by an exposition of
the deeper meanings of His Word, from beginning
to end ; by the disclosure of the exact meaning of all
divine prophecy ; by unfolding, in his writings, the
states of the departed and of life among the angels.
These events, coming together, mark the com
mencement of a New Dispensation, indicated in so
much divine prophecy, and looked forward to in all
ages of the Christian Church as the "la.tter day
glory ;" predicted in Daniel as the-divine or heavenly
kingdom to be established in the latter days, to

NEW TEUTH FOE A NEW AGE. 11
endure forever ; and signified by the New Jerusalem
in the Book of Revelation.
It is these great causes, — instruments in the hand
of Divine Providence, and vivified by a constant in
flux descending from Him, — that, as we believe, have
inaugurated this New Age and are pushing forward
its developments. Look at the vast preparations
which are and have been making everywhere
around us for the introduction of some new state of
human society, and the commencement of some new
phase of the world's history ; old abuses everywhere
melting away and being removed out of sight ; a
quickened sense of justice and of right everywhere
prevailing, so that institutions of all kinds are forced
— sooner or later — to square themselves by them;
benevolence towards the unfortunate classes every
where felt; political and civil freedom coming to
be aceorded to the masses, nearly the world over;
great movements taking place in the religious world
towards the liberalization of sentiment, and the
exaltation of a true Christian life as the great thing
to be aimed at; intelligence quickened and illus
trated by vast stores of new and extraordinary
knowledge ; a new continent given to the world in
the discovery and settlement of America ; and a new
sky given in the discovery of the Copernican system
and the revelations of astronomy, as preparations for
this new age ; and, since, a new opening of the phy
sical earth to our view, in the revelations of geology.
Later still, by the explorations of every sci
ence known to man, thought is excited and in-

12 NEW TEUTH FOE A NEW AGE.
quiry stimulated, until at length, a new and occult
universe has been discovered; latent, and hidden,
as it were, within the other. The invisible and im
ponderable agents of nature have been drawn forth
from their lurking-places and harnessed in the ser
vice of man. Steam, heat, electricity, magnetism,
have become working powers and available agents
in lifting man to a higher plane. They labor for
him against the impediments of space and time
until those impediments seem well-nigh extinguished ;
for, to-day, all Christendom,' with a large part of
heathendom, is brought together in momentary com
munication, like the population of a single city, or,
more, perhaps, like one vast human body ; its rami
fied network of telegraphs acting like an immense
nervous system, radiating from the great capitals of
the world as from so many ganglionic centres of
vital force, binding the whole together into one body
of sensation, and into a common consciousness of
thought and feeling.
He who supposes that all* these grand develop
ments mean only physical and civil progress, has not
yet mastered the great problems of the sacred philos
ophy of history. Who does not see at a glance, that
great spiritual forces are at work, turning the wheels
of events, and that the end and drift of all these
mighty achievements is spiritual and moral pro
gress ? Religion is, after all, the very core and centre
of every man's life ; and, hence, under the constant
supervision of Divine Providence, the church is the
great axle upon which the wheel of human history

NEW TEUTH FOE A NEW AGE. 13
revolves. A new, more enlightened, and better
phase of the Church Universal is the object and final
goal of all these preparations.
This expansion of natural knowledge is needed
to form a basis for the reception and understanding
of spiritual knowledge. The grand analogies of the
universe hold good throughout. The former revela
tions of heavenly truth were conformed to the limited
range of men's natural knowledge. There is just as
vast a universe of new spiritual knowledge to be
opened and revealed to human thought, as these later
centuries have opened of natural science. But the
natural must come first, to enlarge the range of
ideas, break up narrow prejudices, illustrate the intel
ligence, quicken the thirst for knowledge, and fur
nish visible analogies in which exalted truths and
great spiritual realities may be seen and viewed as
in so many mirrors of reflection.
How could man comprehend, appreciate, or realize
the vast, complicated, and subtle system of forces,
which play through *ind operate from the spiritual
world, until he had discovered, as if by his own intel
ligence, something of that mysterious system of
invisible forces which play upon and mould the
phenomena of the material world ? How could he
appreciate a revelation concerning the powers and
functions of the spiritual body until he had known
something of the wonderful and inexplicable things
contained in the physiologies and chemistries of the
mortal body ? or, how could he be ready to believe,
or intelligent enough to understand, that, everywhere

14 NEW TEUTH FOE A NEW AGE.
within and beneath the letter of the Word of God,
there lies concealed an inexhaustible mine of spiritual
and heavenly truth, until, after having explored the
visible universe, he had found the march of physical
science to be only the constant unveiling of hidden
mystery, from beginning to end ? Not a square yard of
sky, to which he has directed his optic tube, nor a foot
of earth decomposed, but has opened to him concealed
wonders of which his senses never told him, though he
had enjoyed their observations for thousands of years.
Hence, we conclude, that a new revelation of holy
truth, instead of being at this day improbable, is,
on the other hand, the very thing to have been ex
pected, and that a new and better understanding
of Sacred Scripture is precisely what all this great
movement of natural intelligence seems to foreshadow
and predict. We may as soon suppose that an intel
ligent human parent at this day among us would
withhold from his children the common information
afforded by our schools and books, as that the great
Heavenly Parent of us all shoflld withhold from the
great family of men the new spiritual knowledge
suited to the advanced maturity at which they have
now arrived.
He has not done so. The revelation has been
made, and we have it. According to the pre
diction of our text, heaven has been opened, and
the doctrinal system of angels has been given to men.
The light of the New Jerusalem is beginning to
shine in the world for the benefit of all who desire or
are willing to walk by the light of it.

NEW TEUTH FOE A NEW AGE. 15
I shall be able to mention but very few of the
things contained in the writings of Emanuel Sweden-
borg. The most I can expect to do is to lead inquir
ing minds into the vestibule of the great temple of
truth; leaving them to enter subsequently and ex
plore for themselves. There are no writings which
so richly repay the reader for the trouble of perusal
as these.
We are a reading people. We almost literally
devour books — novels, poetry, biography, history,
-philosophy. There is a plentiful supply of very
good, popular, religious literature; and yet I am
able to testify, after many years experience, both of
what is in these writings and of what other books
contain, that there is no bterature in the world —
outside the Bible — equal to them ; no writings that
can be found where so much truth can be learned ;
none where so much elevating thought, and so
much satisfying mental food obtained, or with so
little labor. Considered even as a literary and phi
losophic achievement, they are more worthy of peru
sal than any other volumes that can be taken from
the shelf. And, as the great Atlantic cable, though
apparently a failure at first, yet, in the very nature
and progress of things, was sure to be a final success,
so these writings are sure to attract, more and more,
the attention of mankind, insuring careful and can
did perusal, until they form the connecting medium
between the two great continents of mind; — until
religion and philosophy are bound together in one
indissoluble, rational tie, and the thought of men be

16 NEW TEUTH FOE A NEW AGE.
brought into harmony and correspondence with the
thought of heaven.
These doctrines are not to be blindly received,
Like all real truths, they are addressed to the intel
lectual understanding and quickened intelligence of
men. It is important that religious truth, especially,
be received into a perfectly free ground in the will,
and be rationally implanted ; that so the religious
affections can act in unison with the reasonable con
victions of the mind, and the whole man be fed and
elevated. In exploring such subjects as those which are now
before us, the great requisite is to pass, as far as
possible, out of the region of obscure, vague, and in
definite thought into one of intelligent illustration
— of clear ideas, and definite, fully formed concep
tions. By a little patient thinking, a great deal
more may be known on subjects of this kind than
those who have never examined them are at all
aware.

EEALITY AND EXTENT OF THE OTHEE WOELD. 17

CHAPTER IT.
REALITY AND EXTENT OF THE OTHER WORLD.
" — A great multitude, which no man could number." — Rev. vri. 9.

The Apostle Paul frequently speaks of " the pow
ers of the world to come," and of the great influence
of those " powers " upon us, either for good or for
evil; while the Sacred Scripture throughout is full
of such references and allusions.
We shall be helped to realize the actualness (so
to speak) of that world, by simply considering, for a
while, its extent. As we thoughtfully contemplate
its vastness, the sense and impression of its reality,
too, will gradually deepen. In Swedenborg's work
on Heaven and Hell, a chapter is devoted to what
he calls " The Immensity of Heaven," in which a
great many interesting and instructive things are
contained ; among others, this one, that in it (i. e.,
in heaven) the great mercy and goodness of the Lord
are displayed in His receiving into it, not only good
Christians of all denominations, but also all good
men — every one who has in his heart looked up to a
divine Being, and led a good, sincere, honest, and

18 BEAUTY AND EXTENT OF THE OTHEE WOELD.
orderly life, according to the best of his knowledge,
in whatever age of the world he may have lived, or
from whatever country he may have come ; whether
he were Jew or Gentile, or whatever may have been
his religion while in the world.
This thought alone will suggest to us something
of how immense the present population of heaven
must be ; for it is constantly and rapidly receiving
additions, every year and every day. And when we
add to this another fact taught us in these writings,
namely, that all infants likewise are received there,
and educated under the auspices of the Lord ; and
reflect that, according to extensive medical statistics,
it is calculated that about half the human race die in
infancy (*. e., under five years of age), we have an
other vast source from which the population of that
realm has been increased.
The Scriptures frequently refer to this vastness.
When the. Psalmist would give an idea of the infini
tude or incomprehensible greatness of the Creator,
he expresses it by saying that " even the heaven of
heavens cannot contain Him ;" thus making use, for
comparison, of heaven, as the greatest among known
things for immensity or vastness.
And the Apostle John, in the Revelation — when,
as we read, a portion only of that population was
opened to his view — speaks of them in these well-
known words : " After this, I beheld, and lo, a great
multitude, which no man could number, of all na
tions, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood
before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in

BEAUTY AND EXTENT OF THE OTHEE WOELD. 19
white robes, and palms in their hands." Now, when
we consider that this multitude included none of the
angelic host, none of the sealed among Jews or
Christians, but was composed of " the nations,'1'1 i.e.,
of Gentiles, and of people from beyond Christendom,
we can see what a fragment they were of the inhab
itants of heaven ; and yet the Apostle declares them
to be a multitude so great as to defy the powers of
human reckoning to compute ; that is, for human
thought to realize or comprehend by any definite ex
pression. So in many other places, especially in the
Revelation, are the inhabitants of heaven spoken of
as immense in numbers, existing in vast concourses
or communities, and constantly receiving accessions.
But even the whole heavenly world is only one
department of the spiritual world. There are vast
populations in other departments of it. There are
those spirits who are not yet prepared for heaven,
but are on the way thither. There are those who
do not like to- be in heaven — who do not love its
light, or its order, or its goodness— who a great deal
rather obey the impulses of their own selfish desires
than obey the Lord and His holy truth ; and so they
have residences apart. And there is a very great
multitude of them. In the very nature of the case,
viewed rationally and from what we see and know
of human nature in this World, the population of those
communities there, who choose evil rather than good
for themselves, must be immense. So much for the
extent of that world.
Let us remember, too, its permanency — the abi-

20 BEAUTY AND EXTENT OF THE OTHEE WOELD.
ding character of its communities and their inhab
itants. The population of our earth increases. In two
thousand or twenty-five hundred years it has gone
up, it is computed, from something over 200,000,000
to nearly 1,200,000,000. The inhabitants of China,
it is estimated, in a much less time than that, have
risen from about 20,000,000 to over 400,000,000.. In
our own country we are witnesses of a similar aug
mentation of numbers to a remarkable degree. Our
city, within our own memories, has largely increased.
We have seen it grow and expand before our eyes.
And yet, while all this takes place in our earthly
communities, think how short the stay of men in
this world is, after all ! How many we lose every
year by death! And in how short a period the
whole mass is removed, and a new generation is on
the stage !
In this respect, our countries form a striking con
trast to the communities in the spiritual world.
They do not lose any of their inhabitants by death.
They are receiving accessions as rapidly as births ocr
cur in this world; and what they get. they keep.
When a man who has gone into the spiritual world
enters a heavenly society, to abide permanently as a
member of it, he remains there forever, he goes no
more out. Hence we can see with what constant
rapidity those communities must be swelling in size
by the increase of numbers. Swedenborg in one
place says, that to go from any part of the natural
world to any part of the spiritual world, is like

BEAUTY AND EXTENT OF THE OTHEE W0ELD. 21
going from a small country village into a large and
populous city, so immense is the concourse of spir
its one everywhere encounters.
In every permanent community in that world
there are, of course, those who have been there for
ages. Those communities began to be formed when
history began ; — as soon as men began to be removed
from this world to that. Hence, many of them are
several thousands of years old. There are the ante
diluvian patriarchs, still alive. And their descend
ants, the world's population in all the ages since ; —
perhaps a thousand generations of men. The world's
past has not been blotted out, it has only been trans
ferred to a still more living scene of action. The
great nations of antiquity are all there, — still active
and flourishing : the men and women who formed
the successive populations of Babylon and Nineveh,
of Thebes and Memphis, of Greece, Rome, and
Carthage. Our Lord, in His day, to the Sadducees, who de
nied that there is any resurrection, i. e., that there is
any immortality to the soul, or any life after death,
said, — "Sow that the dead are raised, even Moses
showed at the bush, when he called the Lord the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob, for God is not a God of the dead, but of the
Kvin-g; for, to Him, all are living." They had
never died. They had simply put off their external
bodies, their mortal part, and risen into the spiritual
world. And there they were, and are, alive, and all
their ancestors, and all their descendants, with them.

22 BEAUTY AND EXTENT OF THE OTHEE WOELD.
Members of the Jewish Church lived in the ex
pectation of seeing those patriarchs, as well as their
own immediate ancestors, when they should go into
the spiritual world. Hence the phrase so frequent
ly occurring in Scripture, in relation to a man when
he deceased, that "he was gathered unto his fa
thers," meaning thereby that he had gone to live
with his ancestors in the spiritual world. And, in
the 14th chapter of Isaiah, the different nations and
people in that world, who had gone thither from the
great oriental empires, are represented as rising up
to meet the King of Babylon at his decease, and
greeting him on his entrance into their world.
On the mount of transfiguration, as we read in
the Gospel, Moses came and stood by the side of our
Lord, and the three disciples saw him. Moses had
been gone about fifteen hundred years, and all that
time had been living in the spiritual world. The
prophet Elijah, also, stood there, and was seen by
them. And he had been in the other world a little
less than a thousand years. And, so, one of the an
gels who was seen by John, in the Revelation, with
M'hom he conversed, and who, as he says, showed
him many of the things seen in that remarkable vis
ion, told him that he was a human being, like him
self, and that he had been, when in this world, one
of the former prophets. Now, whichever of those
prophets he may have been, he must then have been
living in the spiritual world at least six or seven
hundred years.
This, concerning the spiritual world of our own

EEALITY AND EXTENT OF THE 0TIIEE WOELD. 23
earth. But we are taught in our writings that
there are other earths in the universe; that there
are multitudes of other planets, some in our solar
system, but vastly many more beyond our solar sys
tem ; that nearly all of them are covered with in
habitants, as our earth is, that being the object for
which the planets are created, — that they may be
peopled with inhabitants. We are told, too, that
those inhabitants are men,- — human beings like our
selves, — though in great variety, even as there is a
great variety in the inhabitants of our own globe ;
and thus that this saying of the Lord in the Gospel
is true, in its largest sense, — " And other sheep have
I, also, which are not of this fold ; — them also must
I bring, that there may be one fold and one shep
herd." In the highest or universal heaven all are gath
ered under one Shepherd, and into one fold, no
matter from what earth or planet they may have
come. These things in regard to the visible heavens, or
floating bodies of our sky, are confirmed by the
discoveries of astronomy, and by the rational con
clusions of astronomers founded thereon. Wo have
introduced the topic briefly, here, merely to bring
Jnto view, in passing, some conception of tho vast
ness, or real immensity of the universe of the Crea
tor, — of the small province in it which our world
constitutes, and of the limited number of which
the present population of our globe consists, -when
compared to the untold myriads included in the

24 EEALITY AND EXTENT OF THE OTHEE WOELD.
entire family of human beings, as that is seen and
viewed by the eyes of the Lord our God ; or, even
by the eyes of angels.
Our principal interest of course must be confined
to the spiritual world of our own earth, and it is to
this, therefore, that I propose to direct the rest of our
attention and inquiry.

SEEESHD?, 0E THE SIGHT OPENED. \

CHAPTER III.
SEERSHIP, OR THE SIGHT OPENED.
" He that is now called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer."
—1 Sam. ix. 9.

A question which naturally arises with many, is,
Where is this vast spiritual world, and its throng
ing populations ?
Under the instructions of the New Jerusalem, we
answer, it is not far off. It is not located in any
physically remote region of the universe. It is near
by, and close around us. Internally, and as to our
minds or spirits, we are in constant association with
it, and our spiritual associations are according to
our affinities. They depend for their character upon
our own states of thought and feeling. We are
always in communication with just those portions of
the spiritual world to which our prevailing desires
incline us. Here, in this world we naturally draw
about us those with whom we are in sympathy and
for whom we feel an attraction, while we avoid and
separate from those for whom we feel an aversion.
It is so with respect to our internal association with
2

26 SEEBSHIP, OE THE SIGHT OPENED.
inhabitants of the spiritual world. We draw near to
those whose association we love, and they draw near
to us, in mutual sympathy, while those spirits, who
are widely different from us in character and feel
ing, have no bond or attraction by which they can,
or desire to, come and associate with us.
This nearness of the spiritual world is constantly
set forth in the Bible. And, as we read, it was in
the early ages very frequently rendered visible. All
divine revelations come, of course, from that world,
being communications from inhabitants of that world
to inhabitants of this. Hence, whenever a revela
tion has been made, it has been effected by an
opening made between this world and that, a
lifting, so to speak, of the thin veil which separates
the two worlds from each other. It is most properly
called an opening ; for it is effected by an opening
in men oi. perceptions which are usually closed up,
that is, by an opening of the spiritual senses.
Every man has these senses, by virtue of having
been born an immortal spirit. They are the senses
which come into operation the moment the physical
body is laid aside, and man enters the spiritual
world. They are the senses by which he then holds
his intercourse with his fellow-beings, by which
he sees, hears, touches and converses with spirits
in that world, as he formerly held intercourse or
conversed with men in this world. They are the
eyes, the ears, and the hands of his spiritual body ;
which body is within the mortal body while he lives
here in the world ; but, as a bird in the shell has

SEEBSHIP, OB THE SIGHT OPENED. 27
its wings, and all that wonderful apparatus by which
it is hereafter to fly aloft in the air, folded up, hidden,
and scarcely developed at all, so these spiritual senses
in men, are, while they remain here in the world,
rudimental, for the most part unused, being covered
over and concealed by the shell of the mortal body.
Now these inward senses, which every one posses
ses, are capable of being opened, or brought into
exercise whenever it pleases the Lord that they should
be; whenever any heavenly or divine purpose can
be accomplished by it. And whenever they are
brought into exercise, then the spiritual world around
us immediately becomes visible to that individual ;
he sees some of its inhabitants, and hears them
speak. In the early ages this open intercourse with the
spiritual world was common, and before the Fall of
Man it was constant. Such is the state that all the
prophets of the Old Testament were in when they
had their visions. They were said to be in holy
vision, and conversed with angels, and had many
heavenly things shown to them. A vision, as applied
to them and in its real sense, means something that
is distinctly seen. A vision is not a mere dream, as
some may be apt to fancy, but a visible reality, actu
ally seen ; as we are told concerning the women at
the sepulchre, that they had seen a vision of angels,
who had told them that the Lord had risen from the
dead. And John, in the Revelation, declares over
and over again, in relation to the things there de
scribed, that he saw and heard them : " I, John, saw

28 8EEESHD?, OB THE SIGHT OPENED.
these things and heard them," — a declaration which
is repeated more than a hundred times in this book
alone, and several hundreds more in other parts of
the Bible.
Hence, in the ancient times, the prophets were
called " seers," because there was opened in them
this capacity of seeing what to other men is invisible,
— the other world and its inhabitants.
In the 24th chapter of Numbers we read of Ba
laam, the Syrian prophet, who foretold the grandeur
of Israel : " The man whose eyes are open hath said ;
who heard the words of God and saw the vision of
the Almighty ; falling into a trance, but having his
eyes open." So in the 9th chapter of 1st Samuel we
read of Saul, who went to find Samuel, where it
says : " Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to
inquire of God, thus he spake, Come, and let us go
to the seer / for he that is now called a Prophet was
beforetime called a Seer." And as Saul went, he in
quired where the seer's house was. When he arrived,
he asked, " Is the seer here ? " And when he had
found him, Samuel, said to him, " 1 am the seer.'"
While, in some of the prophets, we are told of wick
edly disposed persons, who " say to the seers, see not !
and to the prophets, prophesy not ! " They did not
¦want to hear of heavenly things. Such is the con
stant representation of Scripture.
Another striking instance is found in the 6th chap
ter of 2d Kings, where the Syrian army had come
down against Dothan, where the prophet Elisha was,
to take him prisoner : " And when the servant of

SEEESHD?, 0E THE SIGHT OPENED. 29
the- man of God had risen early and gone forth, he
boid a host encompassed the city, both with horses
and chariots. Arid his servant said unto him, Alas,
my master, how shall we do ? And he answered,
Fear not, for they that be with us are more than
they which be with them. And Elisha prayed, and
said, Lord, I pray thee open his eyes that he may see.
And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man ;
and he saw : and behold the mountain was full of
horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha."
That was the angelic host, the heavenly host, en
camped round about the man of God to deliver him.
They were invisible to men in their ordinary states
of vision. They were invisible at first to the young
man of the prophet ; but as soon as the eyes of his
spiritual body were opened, his sight became clearer
and more intense. He could then discover things
which were concealed from his outward, material
organs. For the time, he became a seer, as Elisha
was. How full the Bible is of these things ! I
should only cause impatience by citations in confir
mation, from the angels seen by Abraham and Lot
to the closing pages of the Book of Revelation. The
testimony is manifold, constant, uniform, throughout
the whole history of divine revelation, from begin
ning to end.
And sometimes these senses are opened in persons
who have finished their course here, and are. about
to pass away. Just as the spirit is leaving the body,
persons will make exclamations, or give other signs
that they have caught a glimpse of scenes that are

30 SEEBSHIP, OB THE SIGHT OPENED.
not visible to those about them ; withdrawing their
sight from earth, and having their attention fixed
towards heaven. How frequently do we read or
hear of such instances.
Elisha's young man did not have to be transported
to a great distance through space to have those things
shown him ; the ancient prophets did not have to be
so transported ; nor did John, in the Isle of Patmos,
have to be so carried in order to have heaven opened
to him. They each stood still in their places, and
saw all by having the inward eyes opened within
themselves. All these things show us that the, other world is
not far away, but is only a higher and purer state of
existence, distributed all about us, and covered from
our sight now only by the veil of flesh which hangs
down over our eyes.
With these views, then, of the vastness, perma
nency, living reality, and constant nearness of the
eternal world, we will pass forward ; adding only the
thought, that knowledge concerning that world and
its laws is not only in itself the most interesting that
can engage our attention, but also of the very high
est kind, and the most useful that men can study or
know.

THE EISING INTO THE OTHEB WOELD. 31

CHAPTER IY.
THE RISING INTO THE OTHER WOELD.
" And he said unto her, What form is he of? Aud she said, An
old man eometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul
perceived that it was Samuel." — 1 Sam. xxvni. 14.

Two of our previous chapters have presented a few
general ideas about the spiritual world. We have
considered its vastness, the immensity of its numbers,
its reality, its permanency, and its constant near
ness to our world.
We purpose now to present some other of its
features. There are abundant reasons why our
thoughts should frequently ascend into that world.;
why, at appropriate times, our minds should dwell
on it, and- why our sympathies and feelings should
flow out a good deal towards it ; and foremost
among these, is the fact that we all4iave friends
there, who remember, and hence who are think
ing of us. The recent population of our city is
there; — the friends and acquaintances with whom
we formerly mingled, and who have gone forth

52 THE EISING INTO THE OTHEE WOELD.
from us within the last ten or fifteen years, or, later,
within the last year, month, and even the past
week. When we think of them we have not lost
our interest in them, nor have they by any means
lost their interest in us. All are partakers of this
experience in some degree, while we who have
passed a little beyond middle age, have a majority
of our friends and relatives already there. Every
single family is represented there ; for every family
circle has been broken ; some of its members, going
forward before the others, have changed their re
sidence, and been transferred from this world to
that. In some, grand-parents and parents have
gone. In others, relatives not quite so near. In
some, a husband or a wife; in others, children of
different and of all ages, even to the little infant
whose stay among us seemed only long enough to
call forth our affections, and develop the love of the
family circle towards it. All these have gone, and
carried a portion of our affections along with them.
And these successive departures of those to whom
we are strongly attached in sympathy and in love
are some of the means which the Lord in His pro
vidence makes use of to lift up our minds, and by
degrees transfer our hearts from the persons and
things of this world to the persons and things of the
eternal world.
Another point of interest which that world should
have for us, arises from the fact that it is to be our
own everlasting home. This furnishes abundant
reason why we should inquire concerning it with the

THE EISING INTO THE OTHEE WOELD. 33
most studious interest. If any place in the natural
world was soon to become our permanent residence,
we should at once begin to inquire about it, gather
ing all the information we could ; and should imme
diately have our eyes turned thither, taking a deep
interest in its circumstances, and in all that con
cerned it, and this, when our stay in it, in the nature
of things, can at most be but a very few years ;
how much more, then, in that community where we
are to abide forever ! Shall we not inquire and
search for knowledge concerning it, when we are
constantly told' by the Lord in His Word, that our
lives here are, or ought to be, a wise and constant
preparation for that world ?
The question comes, when is the resurrection?
When and where does it take place ? When does
man arise, and ascend into the spiritual world?
We answer, immediately after death. There is
no protracted sleep of the spirit. As soon as the
outward body is off, and fairly cast aside, the man
gradually opens his eyes upon the scenes of the other
world, recovers by degrees his consciousness of
thought, and at length rises, entering into life and
mingling with the inhabitants there.
Resurrection does" not mean something to occur
only at the end of the world, or thousands of years
hence, — but, as we have said, comes to every individ
ual at his own decease, or departure out of this
world. To us, to whom it has not occurred, it
is, of course, a future event; it always remains
future to the generation abiding here, and in this
2*

34 THE EISING INTO THE OTHEE WOELD.
world must always be spoken of as future. But
everyone passes through it as soon as he departs
hence. The resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, is stated by the Apostle to be a type and
earnest of the resurrection of us all, a proof that
the dead are raised, and a ground for our belief and
hope that we, too, shall be raised in like manner.
And this is the application and use which the Chris
tian Church has made of that fact in all ages. But
our Lord was raised on the third day ; He did not
wait till the end of the world. The crucifixion
occurred on a Friday afternoon, and early on the
following Sunday morning, a company of angels was
seen around the tomb, arid they gave the information
that He had already risen, and was with them in
their world. He soon appeared, too, to the women
and to the other disciples. He became visible to
them in His glorified body by an opening of their.
spiritual eyes, as we plainly read in Luke xxiv. 31,
where it is said that, as he brake bread in their com
pany, " their eyes were opened and they knew him."
Now, if our Lord's resurrection is a type of ours,
(and from the Scripture we know that it is), then our
resurrection occurs on or about the third day after
the decease of the mortal part, as soon as the
spirit has had time to be entirely withdrawn from its
former body, and the mind has recovered its wonted
action. So the prophet Hosea, in the 6th chapter, speak
ing of this subject, in a passage that has been gene-

THE EISrNG INTO THE OTHEE WOELD. 35
rally overlooked, says distinctly — first referring to the
dissolution wliich the Lord works upon our mortal
frames through disease, causing death —
" He hath torn, [but] He will heal us ;
He hath smitten, [but] He will bind us up ;
After two days will He revive us ;
In the third day He will raise us up ;
And we shall lime in His sight"
What can be plainer than this ? Though our mortal
frames are dissolved, and we are dead in the sight of
men, yet " after two days He will revive us ; on the
third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in His
sight, " and in the sight of angels, agreeably to our
Lord's words already quoted, that " to Him all are
Uvmg."
Agreeably, too, to what the Apostle says, 2 Cor. v. 1 :
"For we know that if our earthly house of this
tabernacle [i. e., our body] were dissolved, we have
a building of God, a house [». e., a body] not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens."
The time of rising varies according to circum
stances. With many the time is shorter than the
third day. The nature of the disease creates differ
ences. A violent death, like that on the field of
battle, causes sometimes an almost instantaneous
entrance into the other world. Samuel told Saul
that he and his sons would be raised the very next
day. (1 Sam. xxviii. 19.)
We see, then, not only that man rises almost
immediately on the decease of the mortal body, but

36 THE EISING INTO THE OTHEE WOELD.
also that he rises in a body, and is in a distinct and
complete human form as he was before. It is not a
material body, like that which he wore here in the
world, but what in Scripture is called a spiritual body,
or the body of the spirit; one that is not mortal —
not subject to decay— not visible to mortal eyes —
eternal and fitted for the heavens; and therefore
called also by Paul the celestial body.
Now that body in which man lives forever, is not
a case or covering,' as it were, into which the soul is
put after being freed from the physical body ; as any
one may see, that would be a most unnatural and un
likely proceeding, — but it is the very living form in
which we all now are. It is the living human form,
which now vitalizes the physical body, giving it not
only life and animation, but also imparting to it
sensation and feeling. This inner body dwells every
where,, in every minute portion of the outer body.
It is what gives tbe form to the man here, using the
particles of matter as its covering or clothing.
We are apt, unless we seriously reflect, to do most
of our thinking and employ most of our expressions
under a set of fallacious appearances. If we put
forth the hand and touch an object, we say that the
skin feels it. And physiologists perhaps may tell
you that the sense of touch resides in the skin. It
would be more correct to say that it resides within
the skin ; for the skin itself cannot feel, as is perfect
ly and easily demonstrable. Take away the man, —
let the man depart out of a material body, and then
try it, and see whether it can feel ; — or whether it

THE EISING INTO THE OTHEE WOELD. 37
have any other kind of sensation left in it. The skin
is all there in the dead body, every whit, as it was
before. But the sense and perception of touch is
totally gone ; the man took that all away with him
when he went.
And the moment we take a piece of skin, and
come to analyze it chemically, the reason of all this
becomes obvious at once. There is nothing really
vital in it ; nothing capable of perceiving or feeling.
It is composed of a little carbon, the same substance
we burn in our stoves as coal, mixed with a little
oxygen, and a little hydrogen gas. What is there in
either of these substances that can exercise sensation
or feeling ? Certainly nothing. It is the finger of
the spiritual body that feels, through the covering of
the other ; just as a man may continue to feel, though
less distinctly, with his hand still further covered —
with a glove.
It is the same with the other senses. It is not the
convex lens, nor the crystalline humor, nor the cor
rugated retina of the eye that sees. The material
part of the eye is only an instrument, like a spy-glass,
which the real man within uses to direct his vision.
All the seeing in every case is done by the spiritual
eye behind the other. Take that away, and all the
seeing ceases. You may throw light into the mate
rial organ, but it will be in vain, there will be " no
speculation in those eyes ; " you might as well
direct the light into a cast-off opera-glass.
It is so with the hearing, and with every vital
function of every portion of the human frame ; all

38 THE EISrNG INTO THE OTHEE WOELD.
the vital powers, forces, and operations belong to the
spiritual body, residing and inhering in that; con
stantly moving and changing the particles of the
material body according to its uses and needs ; wrap
ping itself in it, while here on earth, as a man wraps
himself in a garment.
But as soon as, either from old age or disease,
this outward body becomes incapable of performing
the functions expected of it, the spiritual body then
casts it off, and the man rises forth, in freedom, into
the greater light and clearness of the spiritual world,
as a bird rises forth out of the egg when the shell
is broken ; or, to use the analogy of the apostle in
1 Cor. xv., as the stalk of grain rises out of the very
core and centre of a kernel of seed-corn, when that
is cast into the ground, so the spiritual body of man
rises forth out of the material body.
From this point we can see and appreciate the
truth of all the corresponding representations made in
Scripture. The spirit is always in a perfect human
form. It has every sensation and every faculty it
ever had here. The man sees, hears, feels, walks, and
converses as before ; has all thought and intelligence
he ever exercised, with memory, desires, will. In
short, he leaves nothing behind him which consti
tuted any portion of his vitality before. The laying
aside of the mortal body changes him no more, in
respect to his qualities as a man, than the laying
aside of an overcoat, or the cutting of his hair and
the paring of his nails did while in this world.
Hence, all the angels that have ever been seen

THE EISING INTO THE OTHEE WOELD. 39
had perfect human forms. So like in aspect are they,
and in every feature, that at first they are always
mistaken by the beholders for men, and are al
most uniformly called men in the sacred narra
tives. This is a fact of Scripture usage which has
been generally overlooked, in its bearing on this sub
ject. When the three angels came to Abraham, at his
tent door, it is said that " he lifted up his eyes and
looked, and, lo, three men stood by him."
When the two angels went down into Sodom to
find Lot and to save him from the coming destruc
tion, he received them, invited them to his house,
and entertained them as two men. And when the
angel of the Lord appeared to Joshua at his first
entrance into the land of Canaan, it is related in
these words : " And it came to pass when Joshua
was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked,
and, behold, there stood a man over against him
with his sword drawn in his hand : and Joshua
went unto him and said unto him, Art thou for us,
or for our adversaries ? And he said, Nay, but as
captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.
And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did
worship, and said unto him, What saith my Lord
unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's
host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy
foot ; for the place whereon thou standest is holy.
And Joshua did so." (Josh. v. 13.)
This is so in every case. Indeed, when we come
to reflect, we cannot well conceive of a human spirit

40' THE EISrNG TNTO THE OTHEE WOELD.
as being in any other form. It would be painful to
try to think of them in any other.
From this we see, that, after having once put off
the material body, men never come back to it any
more. There is no need of it. It would be to
retrograde. It would be for the great laws and
processes of life and growth, and immortality, to
reverse themselves, and turn backwards. They, as
spirits, have far better bodies than we have, — even
those which are not liable to be destroyed by disease,
or to decay from old age. It would be an immense '
disadvantage to them ever to come back to a material
or physical body. Nor do they ever again become
visible to the outward or merely natural eye.
Following the Scripture narratives throughout, it
is remarkable with what distinctness and constancy
they all assert the same thing. Not only are angels
described as being in all cases in perfect human
forms, but so like their former appearance while on
earth as to be readily recognized by those who had
known them here. Remember the ancient prophet
who talked with John in the vision, and then think
of all those vast multitudes which John saw so
distinctly, clothed in white robes, worshipping before
the throne. They had had their resurrection, and
were then living and acting in that world as they
are going to live forever.
We are taught in the Doctrines of the New Jerusa
lem Church, that when a person enters the spiritual
world, he carries with him the aspect which he wore
before departing, so that in all respects he looks

THE EISING INTO THE OTHEE WOELD. 41
exactly like himself. If he were aged when he de
parted, he appears aged there, when lie first enters,
and for a period afterwards. The same if he were
middle-aged. The distinction of sex likewise re
mains; a man being still a man, and a woman a
woman. So they who pass in infancy, enter as in
fants, remaining so for a time, but gradually growing
to maturity, as they would have done if they had
remained here.
Thus it will be seen that we give the same answers
to questions hke these that are given them in the
Scriptures, and that these doctrines are, in fact, noth
ing else than an opening of the true and real meaning
of Scripture, from beginning to end.
If it be asked, as the apostle says it was asked in
his day, How are the dead raised, and with what
body do they come? we answer, as he did, that they
are raised at once, and in spiritual bodies, rising forth
out of their material bodies as the stalk of new grain
rises out of the old seed.
And when the question is asked which Saul asked,
What form is he of? or, as it is in the Hebrew, " What
is his form ? " we answer, as Saul was answered, " A
mem eometh up." It is the human form. And in
Saul's case it was an old man. And his person was
so described to, him that Saul immediately knew that
it was Samuel. Thus we see that when Samuel was
seen in the spiritual world, not a great while after
his decease, he still wore so nearly the aspect he had
borne in the world as to be recognized at once, even
from a description of his person.

42

CHAPTER V.

"SHEOL" AN INTERMEDIATE WORLD OP SPIRITS,
NEITHER HEAVEN NOR HELL.
"I will go down into Sheol unto my son mourning." — Jacob, is
Gen. xxxvtl 35.

We come now to another department of our sub
ject. Some questions naturally arise in the intelli
gent mind with respect to that state of existence.
Where does the departing spirit find himself when he *
thus arises into another life ? Into what kind of a
world, or into what part of that world, does he first
go ? And by whom is he surrounded ?
In the writings of our Church we are taught that
he enters what is called, to distinguish it, the " World
of Spirits." It is not heaven, nor is it hell ; but a
province, or a region of the spiritual world interme
diate between them. It is important to understand
the characteristics of that region, and to know some
thing about it ; for it sometimes has great multitudes
of human beings sojourning in it, and it performs a
very vital function in the spiritual and historical
economies of the universe. In it good spirits and , ,

" SHEOL." 43
evil spirits are still mingled together, somewhat as
good men and bad men are mingled in the commu
nities of this world. Into it all men first go on their
departure from our world, and remain there for
longer or shorter periods. In it judgment is effected ;
for there, by degrees, a separation takes place be
tween the evil and the good ; the evil being drawn
away to their various abodes apart, while the good,
being gathered into congregations for the purpose,
are there instructed and prepared for heaven.
The heavens are above that region, being higher or
more elevated than it, while the hells, or the com
munities of the evil, are below it, being in a lower
or more degraded portion of the spiritual world.
Without taking that middle region into view in our
thought, and knowing some of the work that is done
there, we shall not be able to understand much that
ought to be understood in theology and concerning
religion. We shall be unable to unravel many things
which at first sight appear inconsistent in the system
of future rewards and punishments set forth in the
Bible. A large part of the Scripture itself will have
for us no definite or adequate meaning ; while much
of the work which our Lord and Saviour performed
while in the world, for the redemption and salvation
of our race, we shall lose sight of entirely.
I desire more particularly to call attention to
this subject, and invite a candid consideration of the
evidences of the existence of that intermediate region,
because most of us have been educated to think oth
erwise. The common method of New England

44teaching has been adverse to it, pushing it out of
view, or covering it over and avoiding reference to
it, until it has come to be thought a heresy, or al
most a heresy, to believe it. But from what I shall
endeavor to bring forward, I hope to be able to
show that a belief in it is so far from being a heresy,
that those only will be found in heresy to true Chris
tian doctrine who overlook or deny it.
In the first place, it is the constant teaching of Sa
cred Scripture. It is only from the want of a correct
translation that it does not appear, as plain as day,
in the letter of our common Bibles. The word by
which it is denoted in the Hebrew of the Old Testa
ment is sheol — ra word which is variously rendered
in our English version. Most frequently it is trans
lated hell, or the place of everlasting punishment, the
final abode of the wicked. Sometimes it is called the
pit / at others, the grave. But, as is well known to
scholars, none of these are adequate or even proper
translations. Sheol does not mean pit or grave;
there are other well-known words in Hebrew for
both those objects. It means simply the world of
departed spirits, the place into which all souls go at
the decease of the- mortal body, and where both good
and evil are more or less contiguous to each other.
This is its uniform application ; it has no other sense
or meaning. That our translators well knew that it
does not mean the grave or tomb is very clear from
the fact that they usually translate it liell, the abode
of living spirits and the last home of the wicked.
But that it does not mean the last home of the

45
evil you will see from the fact that all men alike
went to it, the good as well as the evil. Every one
who died — patriarchs, kings, and prophets — went to
gether into sheol, and were always regarded by the
Jews as living there together. Every Jew, however
good he was — however consistent his life had been in
conforming to the Law of God — expected to go to
sheol when he died, and to find his friends there.
As a single instance, we will take the words of Ja
cob (Gen. xxxvii. 35). They were uttered when the
blood-stained garment of his son Joseph was brought
to him, and he supposed that he had just been de
voured by a wild beast : " And all his sons and all
his daughters rose up to comfort him : but he refused
to be comforted ; and he said, For I will go into sheol
¦unto my son, mournings Thus his father wept for
him." Now, could it have been into hell, do you think,
that Jacob spoke of Joseph as having gone, and intp
which he himself expected to follow him, — even seem
ing desirous to go ? No ; of course not any of us can
suppose that. Nor did the translators of our Bible
suppose it, for when they came to this passage they
suddenly forebore from their common practice of
calling sheol hell, and translated it grave, making
Jacob say that he would go down into the grave\mto
his son, something which he did not say. He said
he would go to sheol, the place of departed spirits ;
the place where the Jewish Church was taught and
believed that all the dead were gone ; the place into
which Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph went, where

46 Aaron, Joshua, David, Solomon, with all the judges,
kings, prophets, and worthies of their church were
gathered together ; the place understood by His
hearers to be referred to by our Lord, in the Gospel,
where He says, with reference to Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, — that " God is a God of the living, for to him
all are living."
Now, that word occurs in the Old Testament
sixty-five times ; and hence if it were properly
translated, we should have this world of spirits, of
which we have been speaking, and concerning which
we are taught so much in the writings of the New
Church, — mentioned directly by name no less than
sixty-five times, in the Old Testament alone. And
in confirmation of this mode of translating we have
the authority and practice of the Septuagint version,
a translation of the Old Testament made before the
beginning of the Christian era, and well known to
embody the learning and ability of that age. Those
translators always call sheol the world of departed
spirits, rendering it by the Greek term hades, a word
meaning, as all Greek scholars are aware, the place
of the departed, whither all go at death, — the good
and the evil alike. And when we call to mind that
our Lord and his disciples made constant use of that
version, and that all the quotations from the Old Tes
tament found in the apostolical writings are made
from it, we have the highest authority for believing
that that translation is a good one.
Besides being so many times mentioned by name
in the Old Testament, the world of spirits is also fre-

47
quently referred to there incidentally without being
named ; and in some of these its existence is as clearly
taught, or set forth by inevitable inference, as though
it were actually named. We could easily and profit
ably occupy two or three chapters in considering
these evidences in the Old Testament alone, but we
must be content now with adducing a single one. This
is afforded us in the 28th chapter of the first book
of Samuel.
Saul, perplexed to know what he should do, be
thought him that if he could only obtain an inter
view with Samuel, whom he had been in the habit of
consulting as prophet while he lived here,— that Sam
uel might unveil to him something of the future, or
tell him what to do, and so relieve him of his anxiety.
So he went by night to the Witch of Endor, a per
son who had familiar spirits, and by unlawful means
opened communications with the spiritual world.
This was strictly forbidden, for it is always unlaw
ful, contrary to divine order, and even dangerous
for any one to seek of themselves to open the door
between the two worlds, or to come into sensible com
munication with spirits. So Saul disguised himself
and went by night. To his first inquiry, the woman
said that she saw gods — that is, spirits — ascending
as if out of the earth. And when he inquired as to
his appearance, she said, " An old man eometh up,
and he is covered with a mantle : "—precisely as he had
appeared in life ; and Saul knew that it was Samuel
from the description which she gave. Saul did not
see the form of Samuel, but he heard him speak,

48 and one of the things which Samuel said to Saul is
this :— " And to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be
with me."
It is not too much to say that this passage is too
generally read without stopping to consider its
meaning, or to get an intelligent idea of what it
necessarily, implies and involves. A great deal is
taught in it. Saul was to be killed next day (as he
was) in the battle. And where was he to go ? Was
he to descend into the grave and be shut up there in
a state of unconsciousness or sleep, or be annihilated ?
Not so ; he was to go immediately, the very next day,
into the same world that Samuel was in, — Samuel
— who stood there alive, in full human form, con
versing with him. Well what part of the spiritual
world was that, that Samuel was then in ?. Was it
heaven? A good many maybe disposed to think
that Samuel would be taken up immediately to
heaven. But would Saul be taken up there? Saul
and his sons, wicked men, who lost their lives on
account of their persistent rebellion against the
word of the Lord,— where would they go ? Many,
not well informed on the subject, might think that
such persons would go immediately to hell. Such
is not what Samuel the prophet says, however.
He says that they should b« with him, where he
was. The very day after their decease, Saul and his
sons, wicked men, were to arise and appear alive in
the very world, and in the very part of the spiritual
world, into which Samuel, a good man, a holy pro-

" SHEOL." 49
phet, and a servant of the Lord, had already arisen,
and was then living.
What, then, is the inevitable inference? Why, of
course, there can be but one conclusion. They all
went to the common receptacle of souls, where all are
together until judgment is effected, and the good
separated from the evil ; neither heaven nor hell, but
a world of spirits, intermediate between them. This,
too, is the testimony of Josephus, in reference to this
account, and such is the repeated, uniform, constant
teaching of the Old Testament.

50 HADES.

CHAPTER 7L
HADES [SHEOL] A WORLD OP SPIRITS BETWEEN HEAVEN
AND HELL,
" Por David is not ascended into the heavens."— Acts n. 34.

On passing, next, to the New Testament, we
observe something of a change. It is the common
impression of the Christian world that, in accord
ance with the declaration of the Apostle, in the Gos
pel, life and immortality are brought to light, and
that declaration applies very fully to that part of
the subject we are now treating. There is greater
clearness about it, than in the Old Testament. The
three great departments of the spiritual world are
here marked off with greater precision and distinct
ness ; each being called by its appropriate name.
There is hades, called so in the Greek, the world
of departed spirits, the part of the spiritual world in
closest contact with this world ; supposed to be, and
by correspondence represented to be, on a level with
our earth, — into which all souls go at death; the
part of the spiritual world most frequently becoming
visible to men who had their spiritual eyes open ;

HADES. 51
the part from which the possessions by unclean
spirits came, and from which the temptations of our
Lord proceeded; the part in which our Lord
sojourned forty days, from the time of His resurrec
tion until His ascension into heaven ; the part
where He said He would receive the repentant thief
on the cross, and the part where He went and
preached to the spirits whoj as Peter says, had been
shut up in Hades since the time of Noah ; the
part, too, in which the Apostle John saw a large
portion of the scenes described in the book of Reve
lation. And it was in that part, also, in which the
rich man was, when, beginning to feel tha torment
of his own evils, he lifted up his eyes and saw
Lazarus, happy and peaceful, in Abraham's bosom.
This region is mentioned by its own distinctive
name at least thirteen times in the New Testament,
while it is taught by inevitable inference and inci
dental allusion probably more than one hundred times.
Next, there is the region above hades ; the abode
of the good, the home of angels, the principal seat
of the Divine Kingdom, called ouranos in the Greek,
and shummayim in Hebrew, Heaven, about which
there is no dispute.
And lastly, there is the region below hades ; called
in the Psalms, the lowest sheol, and in Isaiah denoted
by tophet; denominated in the New Testament
Greek, gehenna, in our version of the Bible,and in all
others, I believe, always rendered hell, the place into
which the rejected go, the home of the devils, and
the final abode of the wicked, called also the lake

52 hades.
of fire, and the bottomless pit, and once, by the
Apostle Peter, named Tartaros, in which he
employed the corresponding term from the Latin.
This region, besides being mentioned by its own dis
tinctive names some eighteen or twenty times, is also
frequently referred to by incidental allusion.
We have, then, as the result of our inquiries, that
in the New Testament Scriptures, these three regions
or grand divisions of the spiritual world are marked
off and as clearly distinguished from each other, as,
in our school geographies the three distant conti
nents, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
We could give many illustrations of this, if time
permitted. We could easily, and usefully, occupy a
chapter or two with them.
We will, however, stop here only to mention two or
three instances of that kind of allusion to hades, this
intermediate region, which we have spoken of as
teaching it by inevitable inference.
The first of these that we shall bring, is our Lord's
well-known parable of the tares and the wheat. The
point of the parable, as you will remember, is this : —
that the wheat and the tares were not to be hastily
separated from each other. That they were to remain
together, mingled, and grow together until the har
vest, when they were to be separated, and each ap
pointed to its appropriate destiny. And in the ex
planation of the parable which our Lord gave to his
disciples, He says distinctly what He means, viz., that
the harvest is the end of the world, or end of the
dispensation, the time of his second coming and the

HADES. 53
time of the Last Judgment. That until then, the
good and the evil are to go on together, but that when
that time arrives, He will send his angels forth, and
they shall gather the evil from among the just, —
gathering the wheat, or the just, into his garner above,
but letting tares go " with the chaff, into the lake
which burneth with fire unquenchable."
Undoubtedly each of you has read this parable at
least one hundred times. But did you ever stop to
ask yourselves the question, where it was that this
waiting is to take place ? Where did the good and
evil remain and grow together for all that long period
included between the first coming and the second
coming of the Lord ?— 1,700 or 1,800 years ? The
separation was not to come till the end, — till the
judgment. Where can they have been staying to
gether all this time, then ? They have not been
waiting in this world, the world of men. No one
stays here longer than the appointed time, — fifty,
seventy, or one hundred years. Good and evil both
finish up their period here and pass on together into
the other world. More than fifty generations of men
have lived on this globe and passed away from it
since our Saviour uttered those words. Where is it
that these multitudes have been waiting in the mean
time for the judgment to take place ? Have they all
been in heaven ? Do wheat and tares live and thrive
together there ? Or, have they all been in the
lower regions of the spiritual world ? Is any of the
wheat suffered to go and make a prolonged stay in
the final abode of the wicked ? Surely none of us

54 HADES.
will be ready, nor do the Scriptures allow us, to say
either of these things.
What is 'the inference, then, to which we are shut
up as a conclusion in this case ? Why, to this clear
ly, that there must be some third region of the spir
itual world, which is neither heaven nor hell, in which
the good and the evil stay, and where at length the
judgment takes place.
Another instance of the same kind is contained in
the sermon, or discourse of the Apostle Peter on the
day of Pentecost, given in the 2d chapter of Acts.
After enumerating some of the prophecies and facts
connected with the resurrection of our Lord, and
referring once to David, he then distinctly states
(verse 34) that " David is not yet ascended into the
heavens." That, too, I suppose, is a statement which
most persons read without reflecting on its import,
or getting the idea which it implies. If David had
not yet ascended into heaven in the days of our Lord
and his apostles, where -was he ? He disappeared
from this world about one thousand years before the
day of Pentecost. Where had he been staying all
that time ? In what part of the spiritual world had
he been living? The apostle says distinctly that he
had not been in heaven ; and I presume none will
desire to place the " man after God's own heart " in
the lower regions — in Tophet or in Tartaros — for all
that time.
Now, as all may see, this is a question which will
not be pushed aside ; it must be met, and we see
as clearly that there is but one answer that can ra-

HADES. 55
tionally be given to it. He must necessarily have
been living in some third region of the spiritual
world which is not the final abode of the evil or of
the good. Peter and his hearers without doubt be
lieved him to be then in hades, and to have been
there the whole of the intervening period.
Let us read now the opening passage of the 20th
chapter of the Book of Revelation : " And I saw
an angel come down from heaven , having the key of the
bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he
laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, the devil,
and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and east
him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and
¦set a seal upon him."
These words afford another illustration of the sub
ject we are treating ; that is, they introduce us, in
the most distinct manner, to hades, the intermediate
world of the departed — as, indeed, does the entire
;chapter. That part of the spiritual world, besides
rbeing here brought before us in full view, is twice
mentioned in the chapter, by its own proper name,
as being the region in which all the scene here de
scribed is said to be transacting.
I suppose we have all read this passage before, a
great many times, as we do many others, without re
flecting much on its import, or getting a full idea of
what its statements really imply. Let us call to mind
the circumstances in which these words were spoken.
There stood the Apostle John, " in the spirit," see
ing as to his spirit, in a state of holy vision, with his
spiritual senses opened, looking out into the other

56 HADES.
world, witnessing occurrences taking place there.
How do we know that he was not then looking into
heaven nor into hell, but into a middle region in that
world which is between them ? We answer, because
the passage itself distinctly declares it. Let us read
it again : " And I saw an angel come down from
heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a
great chain in his hand." We see at once that the
angel could not then have been m heaven, for John
distinctly declares that he had just come down out
of heaven. Heaven was above them both, as they
two stood there, the one beholding the other.
How do we know that the scene which the apostle
then saw enacted was not in hell either ? We answer
again, because the declaration is equally clear with
respect to that point. It says that the angel laid
hold on the dragon, bound him with his chain, and
— what did he do with him? Did he leave him
there, in that part of the spiritual world in which
the" angel was then standing, and into which John
was looking? No, obviously not. He cast him
forth out of that world down into another, which was
beneath or below them, even into " the bottomless
pit," in other words, into Gehenna or hell, the lake
of fire.
Here, then, we have that middle world of the de
parted set before us, in the letter of the Word of
God, as plainly as it is possible to describe any
thing in the world, and, in accordance with what
we have already mentioned, that that region is con
stantly represented as being on a general level with

HADES. 57
our earth, in close contact with it, and readily visible
from it, as soon as any one's spiritual sight is opened
to behold such objects.
But further on in the chapter it is again plainly
declared in what part of the spiritual world John
saw all those things done which are related in this
portion of his vision. It is said that they were in
hades. In the 13th verse, as it is translated in our
common Bible, we read : " And death and hell de
livered up the dead which were in them, and they
were judged, every man, according to their works."
But in the original Greek there is no such declara
tion. It does not there say that hell gave up its
dead to be judged. There is no such declaration
made in any part of Scripture. There is not a sen
tence, or part of a sentence, from the beginning to
the end of the Bible, that declares, or implies, or in
any way allows to be inferred, that any one, after
having once, of his own accord, gone into hell, is
ever called back again to be judged. Where would
be the rationality of such a proceeding? Where
would be the use of such a return ? In that case,
every result of a judgment is already over with him ;
there is nothing more to be done or attained ; and
we may be sure that in those great general and mer
ciful laws by which the Creator arranges the affairs
of the universe, nothing is required or done for the
sake of formality, for we may add that those laws
are wise and economic also.
Neither is there anyjntimation given in Scripture,
nor does it seem to be suggested by sound reason,
3*

58 HADES.
that any one, after having worked lis way through
the trials, temptations, and tribulations of this world,
and, coming out. right and true, 'has been elevated
into heaven, and commenced his abode there, should
be brought back at some future time, to stand trial
again, and go through the process of being judged.
A right understanding of. Sacred Scripture and of the
true geography and processes of the spiritual world,
dissipates such fallacies or obscurities of view at once,
bringing out a different class of facts.
In the original it reads, " and death and hades de
livered up the dead which were in them." The de
ceased who were still living in. hades were those who
were judged;, none others. None who were in the
lake of fire were called back. None who were in
heaven were called down.
This general idea is still further illustrated in the
14th verse, where we read :—" And* death and hell
were cast into :the lake of fire: this is the second
death." -The impropriety of this translation may be
seen from the circumstance that it affirms hell to have
been cast into the lake of. fire ; thus making the
Scripture to say that hell was cast into hell ; a mani
fest incongruity.
In the original, of course, it is " death and hades "
that were so cast down ; that is, the evil in hades-;
those who, as it says, were subjects of the second
death. Dead, not only as to their mortal bodies, but
also spiritually dead; — as the apostle expresses it,
< dead in trespasses and sins ; dead as to any vital spark
of heavenly life; with souls dead as to goodness.

HADES. 59
Thus, the more this 20th chapter is read with
care, as well as all the other parts of the book of
Revelation in which the judgment is set forth, re
membering the condition in which John was when he
saw it all, the clearer will it become to every eye,
that the judgment goes on in hades, the middle
world of the departed, for heaven is constantly repre
sented as being above it, while Gehenna is as con
stantly represented as being below it.
In inviting attention , to the doctrines of the New
Jerusalem Church, and consent and adhesion to its
principles, we do, as we believe, with respect to the
Word of God, simply what the geologist does with
.respect to the physical earth, and what the astrono
mer does with respect to the sky, — open the hidden
truths it contains^inviting to a more careful study of
its pages, to a more intelligent understanding of its
-teachings, and a better apprehension of the inex
haustible treasures of wisdom, and heavenly knowl
edge stored away within it. Every doctrine of the
New Jerusalem is a genuine truth, growing immedi
ately out of .the eternal realities of the universe.

CO THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WOELD OF SPrEITS.

CHAPTER YIL
THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WORLD OP SPIRITS.
" It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment."
— Heb. ix. 27.

Aftee what has now been adduced on this topic .
from the Sacred Scripture, is it surprising that we
find a belief in that intermediate world so general in
the Jewish Church, and universal in the primitive
Christian Church ? The idea was thoroughly im
pressed on all their thinking. Not one of the early
Fathers whose writings have come down to us has
called the doctrine in question or undertaken to
deny it. And even the heathen world had preserved
in their traditions from the ancient revelation a
very similar conception.
In addition to the concurrent testimony of so many
ages, let us appeal, too, to some of the rational con
siderations in its favor. Let us call to mind the uses
of such an intermediate world, and the very necessary
functions it performs in the grand spiritual distribu
tions of the universe. As we turn the subject over
in our minds and look at it on its various sides, does

THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WOELD OF SPTEITS. 61
it not seem, after all, as though some such intermediate
region is absolutely required in the nature of things
to fulfil the wants of the universe ? Must not there
be provided some place where all these things in re
lation to the departed can have their occurrence;
where they are judged ; where the good are sepa
rated from the evil, and where they are afterwards
instructed and led towards heaven.
It does not take place here, in the world of men.
It never will take place here ; it is useless to expect
it ; it is contrary to the uniform testimony of Scrip
ture, as, in part, we have seen. But, in addition, Paul
distinctly tells us that it is appointed unto all men
once to die, and after that the judgment. How
plain that is ! No man comes to judgment until
his mortal part is put off; and then it comes in that
world into which he has gone as to his spirit. How
useless, then, to look for it as an event to occur in this
world, or, a great day that is to burn up the material
earth, or be visible in any way to mortal eyes ? It
is not an event belonging to this world at all, and
all such general conflagration, or great visible de
monstration, will be looked for in vain.
Again, consider for a moment the general condi
tion in which men are when they leave this world.
Think of their mixed characters and partially de
veloped states. What a variety of moral and intel
lectual attainment ! What different degrees of moral
and spiritual elevation, and, too, of mental, moral
and spiritual degradation !
Now set up in your minds the heavenly standard

62 THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WOELD OF SPIRITS.
of life and character, as that is revealed to us in the
Bible, and as our rational intelligence must paint it to
us, and then pass out into the community around us,
and see how many you think come up to it. How
many are ready for that kind of life now ? How
many when they depart out of this world are fit
companions for angels, ready to associate with them
on equal terms in their communities ? How many,
do you think, are wise enough and good enough to
go at once to heaven and become citizens of that
holy city into which " there in nowise entereth any
thing that defileth, or worketh abomination, or
maketh a lie?"
The further you extend the search out into
the world's great populations, visiting the larger
cities, and calling to mind the partially Christianized
regions of the globe, the more "painful and apparent
will the discrepancy between the standard and the
actual attainment become. How few there seem to
be, comparatively, who have formed just conceptions,
or who have a realizing sense of the character they
need to form, or of. the kind of men and women they
must actually become in order to enter heaven!
And, yet, what are. you going to do with all these
populations ? A large proportion are not essentially
bad men. Place them in good moral and religious
circumstances and they will be willing to obey the
laws and lead tolerably orderly and useful lives, and
so, be willing to grow better. As they are, they have
suffered from many impediments. Some have been
reared in ignorance, surrounded by evil influences ;

THE JUDGMENT IP IN THE WOELD OF SPIRITS. 63
others, in want. Some are in bondage, or under
oppression. Millions have never even heard of the
Gospel, and have scarcely any notion of the true way
of salvation, while multitudes who have heard, have
never come to definite or clear ideas of what they
ought to do, or how they ought to live.
Some there are undoubtedly, and have been in
all ages, — so we are taught in the doctrines of
our Cburch, — of lives so pure and aspirations so
devout, as to be well prepared for heavenly society
when they enter the other world, and such are
detained in hades but a very little while. After a
short stay, and a little preparation, they are taken
up and enter the communities of the blest.
So, again, as we are taught and as common obser
vation extensively confirms, there are some men so
bad before they leave this world, so bent on doing
evil and infringing on the rights of the neighbor, as
to have acquired in the popular phraseology the
name which we apply to residents of the pit, and
whom all good citizens would be very glad to see be
take themselves away, and go .to dwell by themselves
.in a community apart. This is what actually oc
curs in the other life. The openly and manifestly
Wicked go at once, or very soon, to the abode towards
which they tend, — in the lower regions of that world ;
staying in the world of spirits but a very short
time. But then the question remains in regard
to the other ; the great multitude who belong to
neither of these extremes. If you should go to some
great metropolis, — New York for instance, with a

64 THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WOELD OF SPIRITS.
population of 1,000,000 souls — and were gifted with
angelic perceptions, so as to be able to select the diffe
rent classes, and, like the two angels going into Sod
om, could lead out. the genuine servants of the Lord,
after taking 50,000 persons as an estimate of their
number, and 50,000 on the other hand, as the number
of the extremely bad, you still have 900,000 left
who need to have something done for them, — to
have some new developments take place in them
in order to fit them properly either for heavenly,
or for the opposite kind of society.
Is it not so ? If the appeal were to be made to us
individually to-night, should we be ready at a day's
notice, should we be willing, left in perfect free
dom, to assume to-morrow the duties and responsi
bilities of heavenly society ? Should we be willing
or ready to join a community and begin at once to
live in it whose rules required us to forget self, and
our selfish interests, to love our neighbor exactly as well
as ourselves, to love our enemies, and to do good to
those who despitefully use us ? Are we ready ? For
one, I am free to say that I should desire for a time
first to enjoy the light of heavenly instruction, and a
leading and training in goodness by the help of
angels, and with their examples before me, and I
am thankful, a thousand times, that such a place is
provided of the Divine Mercy, where all this can be
done ; where the ignorant can be instructed, where
the weak can be strengthened, where the unjustly
bound can be liberated, where the infirm can be
healed, where the downtrodden can be lifted up.

THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WOELD OF SPIEITB. 65
where the well-disposed of every clime, age, and
degree, can be helped forward on their way, and
where the good can be further enlightened and puri
fied, even the Paradise of God in hades, the place
into which our Saviour said he would receive the re
pentant thief on the cross, and the place elsewhere
called, by figure, Abraham 's bosom, in which Lazarus
was. Paradise does not mean heaven. It is a figura
tive expression, borrowed from the Garden of Eden.
And the Garden of Eden was not heaven, but a
place meant by Divine Mercy for the residence of
good men; a place where they would prepa/re for
heaven. So it is applied in the Scriptures, as the
name of that place in the intermediate world in which
the good are instructed and prepared for heaven.
It is in just such mental conditions — just such
spiritual states as we are in to-day, as the population
of our city is in — that men are called away, and are
constantly leaving for the other world. Think of the
amount of preparation which the average have
when they go, and is it not clear that the judgment,
separation, and final disposal of the world's -masses,
as they flock forward into the other world, cannot be
the work of a moment, or of a day, or of a year ?
What discrimination, and what a sifting of character
must go on before even the good and the bad can all
be separated from each other !
Thus we see in what conditions the multitudes of
men pass on towards the judgment.
The laws of the spiritual world are in many
respects the laws of this world. The mind is essen-

66 THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WOELD OF SPDJITS.
tially the same in both worlds. Hence, by a careful
observation and analysis, we can discover these laws
in their beginnings and tendencies — in their rudi
mentary forms, — at work in human society here,
and in the light of what is plainly written in Scrip
ture on the subject, we can get a clear view of the
principles which there continue to operate.
The human spirit is always left free, free in its
choices, free in respect to the thoughts it will harbor
and the dispositions it will cherish, though not free
always with respect to the exent it can realize these
in act, free as to the ends of life it will pursue and
the character it will form to itself. Hence the
actual process of judgment in the other world is
different from what some have imagined it to be;
quite different. It is the simple separation of one
class of people from among another, of wheat from
tares, of sheep from goats, and their gathering into
communities apart.
The Scriptures, as we all know, and as is well un
derstood, speak of many things connected with the
judgment, in strongly figurative language, using,
to describe it, the common imagery of prophetic
symbolism, and by a careful study of that symbol
ism the principles of the judgment may be clearly
deduced. They are intended to set forth the impor-
tanceand certainty of it, and the majesty of the Divine
Truth by which it is effected, but do not imply the
presence of a visible throne, or the personal appear
ing of the Lord in order to execute it. The Lord is
spiritually present in and by His word, and by His

THE JUDGMENT IS IS THE WOELD OF 8PIEITS. 67
truth. And He himself says in the Gospel, " I judge
no man, for every man hath one which judgeth him,
even the word that I have spoken (the Divine truth),
it shall judge him at the last day." — (John xii. 48.)
It is the truth that judges — that effects a separa
tion between the different classes of men. As it is
said, they are judged out of those things which are
written in the Books. Books of two kinds are here
meant. First, there is the one Great Book, the Book
of Life, which is the Sacred Scripture, the Word of
God, the Book of Divine Truth. This contains the
standard by which they are judged. Then, there
are the other books. The record of each one's indi
vidual life, inscribed on his own memory, and carried
with* him in his own spiritual organization wherever
he goes. It is by these that the judgment goes on.
It is a little remarkable, and a fact well worthy of
note, that in every reference made to the final award
after death, works only are spoken of.
The judgment is always said to be according to
the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or
evil. No other criterion is ever held up. And this
is frequently repeated; in the Gospels and in the
Epistles, and in the Revelation. No other standard
¦of judging a man finally than "according as his
work shall be" is ever once raised in the Scripture.
Now this is very instructive, teaching us that every
thing is dependent upon the quality of the lives we
lead here, — on the disposition and bent of character
which is thus formed.
The actual freedom in which every one is allowed

68 THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WOELD OF SPIEITS.
to take his own direction in the other life, and
pursue his own way to the final abode to which his
ruling impulses carry him, may be illustrated by the
arrival of a steamship loaded with passengers, at one
of our seaports in this world. The Great Eastern,
for instance, arrives in the city of New York, with
10,000 people on board, persons removing from the
Old World to the New. They are made up of every
possible variety. They come from many different
climes and nations ; speak different languages, and
have different objects in view. Every individual of
the crowd, indeed, will have some distinct purpose of
his own, different from all the rest.
Those people, as soon as they land, come under
the laws of the United States, and our Government
has appointed commissioners of immigration to super
intend their reception; to preserve order; to take
charge of those who are unable to provide for or
take care of themselves ; to give information to those
who require it respecting the country, the routes of
travel, and the means of reaching the different points
of destination;. to protect them from the imposition
of sharpers, and afford them shelter and a staying
place until they are ready to proceed on their way.
They require them to conform to certain rules for
the order and convenience of all, but they do not
molest them in the pursuit of their final purpose.
Every one enjoys his freedom in that.
And so, after the lapse of a brief period — longer or
shorter, according to circumstances — we shall find
the ship's whole company dispersed and disposed of.

THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WOELD OF SPrEITS. 69
By various routes they will be on their ways to their
manifold destinations. Some will have gone directly
to a home that was near ; others will be pursuing a
journey of greater length ; while each one of the
whole will have sought some kiud of company or
companionship most congenial to himself, and most
consonant to the business upon which he had come.
The foreign ambassador and the seeker of political
knowledge will have gone to the Capitol at Washing
ton. The broker, who came to inquire as to the
value of American securities, would find it in Wall
street. The purchaser of our domestic manufactures
would seek the market where they are to be found.
The agricultural immigrant will be seeking the lands
of the far West. The philanthropic explorer would
have inquired out and made the acquaintance of some
of those American philanthropists whose names he
had heard. The preacher of religion would natu
rally have sought those here of his own denomina
tion. While those who, coming from similar haunts
of wickedness in the Old World, had crossed the
ocean for the purpose of trying their skill in picking
the pockets of our countrymen, in counterfeiting our
currency, or in committing burglaries in our moneyed
institutions and houses, would in a similar manner
have sought their congenial, companionship, and
found, or be on the way to find, the places where
they could practise their nefarious arts. So that at
length the whole, acting in freedom, will have scat
tered, and been distributed to almost as many different
points as there are individuals composing the crowd.

70 THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WOELD OF SPIRITS.
Now, something not very unlike this is constantly
going on at the entrance into the eternal world. The
great company that is arriving there is like the dis
charging of a mighty ship. The population of the
globe has of late years so increased that the emigra
tion from this world to that has already become
immense. A number nearly equal to all the people
at present in New England and New York com
bined have gone, since the commencement of our
war, from this country alone, equal to seven States
of our Union ; and from the whole world it amounts
to 100,000 a day ; 4,000 an hour. Four thousand
persons have arrived on the shores of the other world
since you, reader, sat down over the pages of this
book. Well, how are those people received there ? We
answer, they are received by angels, sent forth for
the purpose. The Lord says that He will send forth
His angels, and they shall gather His elect from the
four winds, from one end under heaven to another.
And we know, from nearly all the passages that
speak of it, that angels are the agents by which the
Lord executes this work, as they are the agents He
employs in so many others of His beneficent opera
tions. They are the heavenly commissioners having
charge of this great tide of emigrating spirits arriving
in their world ; and they take care of them in a not
very dissimilar way. Those commissioners, however,
are endowed with heavenly love and heavenly wis
dom. They receive aU kindly when they arrive.
Of themselves, they turn away from none. If any

THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WOELD OF SPrEITS. 71
turn away from tJiem, it is from a desire to reject
their offices. Hence the angels do not leave even an
evil spirit, but the evil spirit goes away and leaves
them. The office of the angels is to seek out and gather
the good, all the well-disposed, and render them
assistance ; rescue them from the frauds of wicked
ly disposed spirits, protect them on their way, and
point them forward in the right direction. And
those angels are gifted with such perception of char
acter, that they can tell in a very short time whether
one speaks the language of Canaan, or whether his
words tell of a speech which is foreign to their
heavenly world, as readily as one of our commission
ers could tell whether an immigrant spoke Eng
lish, or could utter himself only in some foreign
tongue. Those angels are endowed with power to execute
their offiee. The laws of the heavenly kingdom
prevail in the world of spirits so far as to maintain
order and preserve the equal rights of all. Thus
they bind Satan while he is in that intermediate
world, and he is not allowed to act himself out till
he gets to his own abode. But the angels never in
terfere with the final purpose of any. All are per
mitted to enter, and all receive good treatment after
they have entered. And then, as soon as they desire
it, the different classes are allowed to seek such
companionship as they inwardly desire to associate
with. While some, as we have seen, are quite ready to

72 THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WOELD OF SPERITS.
go to one extreme region or the other, the great
multitude are not. They must have time to show
themselves out. The hidden parts of their characters
will have to be brought to the surface, and hence
for this more time is required. The great mass
passes on to temporary homes in the world of spirits.
And so in process of time great communities accu
mulate there, in which good people who are not very
good, and bad people who are not very bad, or who
are not openly and manifestly bad, live mingled to
gether. But they cannot always live thus ; the time comes
when they must separate. And how is this effected?
How shall this mixed multitude be called "to judg
ment, and the judgment executed, and yet all left
in perfect freedom to do as they choose ? The pro
cess is simple, though at first sight it might appear
difficult. It is done merely by the preaching of the
angels. It will be remembered by all that one of
the prominent features of the judgment, as described
in the Bible, is the blowing of the trumpets ; one
prophet says that in that day, the Great Trumpet
shall be blown. Our Lord says, that then the angels
shall be sent forth with the great voice or sound of
trumpets ; and in the Revelation, where the actual
occurrences are set forth, the constant accompani
ment is the sounding of the angels with their trum
pets. In chapter after chapter, we behold this kept
up ; the seven angels with the seven trumpets, and
as they sounded the judgment went on.
Now, every one in any degree familiar with the

THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WOELD OF SPIEITS. 73
common works on prophecy, is aware of the meaning
of this figure. As is well understood, it is typical
of the promulgation of the truth — of the proclama
tion of the Gospel. To blow a trumpet is to pro
claim the truth — preach it, make it known. Hence,
this is precisely what the angels go about, and what
they continue to do in those communities. How
could they do otherwise? How could they help
proclaiming and making known the heavenly truths
which constitute their own intelligence, and in which
their own hearts are so warmly engaged.
And that is all they need to do in order to cause a
judgment, and bring about a separation of the good
from the evil. They would then by degrees divide
of their own accord. Those who believe the truth
and love it, receive it and confess it, and openly ad
here to it. And this is what every one who is good
at heart actually does in the other world; while
the evil do not receive it. It does not aid them in
carrying out their bad purposes of life ; they have no
use for it ; some do not believe it, — at least they do
not love it, and so they turn away from and leave it ;
rejecting, and generally opposing it. Hence we see,
at once, that two parties are thus created, and spirits
are free to arrange themselves with either of them.
Thus they separate.
We see the truth performing similar operations
in this world. Strong propositions, affecting vital
human interests, produce similar results when thrown
in upon communities in our world. Thus, at the
time of the Reformation, when the appeal was made
4

74 THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WOELD OF SPHilTS.
to the Sacred Scripture, the receivers of the Bible
and its testimony split off from the adherents of
the Papacy and its traditions.
And so we see moral and spiritual truths constant
ly performing a certain process of judgment in all
the communities of our world, creating a specfes
of separation between those who favor them, and
those who do not. Silently and unostentatiously
arranging the good ont»neside, and the evil on the
other, by allowing every person, in perfect freedom, ,
to take sides, arranging himself with good men or
with evil men, on the side of the truth or against
it. What we see going on silently and imperfectly
in our communities here, is what goes on more dis
tinctly, more manifestly, and more perfectly there,
until the entire result sought for is accomplished,
until all the good are entirely separated from all the
evil ; and, the good being gathered out and led off in
one direction by themselves, a distance is interposed,
a great gulf fixed, so that the evil can no more
molest, while the evil are then left to themselves,
to pursue their own ways of life, following them out
to their natural results. They then plunge into such
self-indulgences as they severally delight in, which
is signified by their being cast, into the lake of fire,
or as it is called in the original Greek—" the gehenna
of fire " — the hell of fire. Well, what is meant by
fvre in the prophetic language of Scripture? Of
what is visible, material fire the constant type and
symbol in the Bible ? Why, the vital spark in man,

THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WOELD OF SPIEITS. 75
as every one is well aware who. is even partially
acquainted with Scripture usage; the flame that
animates his life and warms his heart. It ought to
be neighborly affection, heavenly love, as it is when
he receives the baptism of fire by the Holy Spirit.
But when the man is evil, it is then the zeal of bad pro
pensities, the flame of passion, lust, appetite. When
man is selfish and perversely disposed— when his heart
is set on evil things, then, as expressed in the prophet,
" Wickedness burneth as afire, and the people become
as fuel for the fire; no man spareth his brother."
Hence that region of the spiritual world in
which none but the evil dwell — where only men of
bad dispositions and bad passions • are found — is
called " the lake of fire." The angels cast no one
into that lake of fire ; the evil spirit casts himself
in. Do not bad men here cast themselves down into
that degraded state of feeling and habit which con
stitutes their wickedness, and which burns in their
own hearts ?
And so, too, the angels punish no one. The Lord
punishes none. The heavenly commissioners lay
positive inflictions upon no one. Do we not read
that it is "evil" which " slays the wicked? " And
do we not see that wickedness brings its own pun
ishment ? All wrong-doing and all sinful feeling, by
its own nature, carries with it a certain miserable
state of mind and life; and that miserable state,
joined to the annoyances of the bad company with
which it associates, is its own punishment ; some
thing from which it can never be delivered. In order

76 THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE .WOELD OF SPIRITS.
to be delivered from it, we must, while here, form
better states, come up out of those dispositions and
propensities, and, in obedience to divine command
ments and the holy precepts of the Gospel, live
according to good thoughts and in the exercise of
right feelings.
The only restraint put upon the evil in those lower
regions is one of mercy, to prevent their injuring,
and inflicting too much punishment upon each other.
That the divine power and the administration of the
angels extends to those regions is seen in the fact that
the angel seen by John cast Satan into the pit bound,
and shut him up, and set a seal upon him— acts which
represent the exercise of power still over those thus
enclosed. Hence they are -bound by laws which re
strain the too violent bursting forth of their evils ; as
in this world we place under martial law those dis
tricts which are in insurrection, or whose inhabitants
are not willingly obedient to good order and law.
It must not be inferred from what we have said
of the freedom and gradual development of the other
life, that that, too, is another state of probation like
the present ; that that is a world for repentance
and regeneration; that one who has pursued an
evil course here can turn round and pursue a good
course there. Such is not the fact. A man's per
manent quality is inwardly fixed here. " As the
tree falleth, so it lieth." As a man is when he leaves
the body, so he remaineth. Such is the nature of
the human mind, that, at that stage of his existence,
a man does not choose to change what has then

THE JUDGMENT IS IN THE WOELD OF SPIRITS. 77
become the confirmed habit of his life, and so in
wrought into the texture of his spiritual constitution.
The direction is taken here. The seed is planted
and the germ started here ; what it does there is to
branch forth, and bear its legitimate fruits.
With what satisfaction of mind we can now turn
our eyes, and follow, in the light of Sacred Scrip
ture, the company of the good who have been thus
separated, as, conducted by angels, they pursue their
happy way to the place of instruction ! What a
prospect of blessings opens before them, and what a
glorious and useful future beckons them on ! Sepa
rated from the evil ! Do we realize the full meaning
of that? That very fact brings them nearer to
heaven, and heaven nearer to them, with all dis
turbing influences removed, the exciters of disorder
and the doers of wrong taken away, with nothing
left but to learn further what is right, and perfect
freedom to do it, with no other work to occupy
their minds but that of usefulness and improvement,
with all the means afforded them for the highest
and best culture of head and heart, for the acquisi
tion of the largest stores of knowledge, for the culti
vation of the brightest intelligence, and for the ex
ercise of the widest philanthropy and the most
exalted wisdom. Can the contemplation of the
circumstances of any community be more inspiring
or elevating than this? Let us all resolve and
persevere to lead such lives while here, that we,
too, may join them, and make progress with them
when we go there.

78 THE HIST0EY OF HADES.

CHAPTER VIII.
THE HISTORY OP HADES.
" And he opened the bottomless pit : and there arose a smoke out
of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air
were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit." — Rev. ix. 2.

What a desire there has always existed in the
Christian Church to understand the Book of Reve
lation ! — to acquire some definite knowledge of the
meaning of its successive visions.
This it is not difficult to do. Only take the right
stand-point, and the book will unfold to you its mean
ing as readily as any other part of the Scriptures.
That stand-point is found in Hades, the middle world
of the departed, which we have already endeavored*
to place before you, with some degree of fulness and
distinctness of view.
All we have to do, is simply to take the book as
it says, itself, and then, follow it out. The Apostle
tells us over and over again, that what he saw and
heard was seen and heard in the other world, the
spiritual world, and not in this world, the world of
men. He says, too, that by far the larger portion

THE HIST0ET OF HADES. 79
of it was seen in hades, the middle region of that
world, and neither in heaven nor in hell. And we
see from the character of the scenes described that
such indeed must have been the case.
In this idea, then, we have the key of the book ;
we can now read it in a new and clear light.
What, then, do we find as the leading characteris
tic of this book, as we turn its successive pages, with
this thought in mind, remembering that what it
describes are vast movements going on in the inter
mediate world of spirits ? What is the great, promi
nent fact constantly set forth ? Why, clearly, it is
this,— that that is the world through which spiritual
influences are transmitted to men. This is the one
great idea of the book. Open almost any chapter
you please and examine, and this will be found to be
the burden of the vision. That is the world through
which spiritual influences of both kinds, good and
evil, are spread out, flowing on and operating, until
they finally take effect upon the minds of men here
in the world, and human society is affected and
moved by them.
You who are readers of it, call to mind the various
chapters, and you will remember.
In its pages we always have, — either, on the one
hand, " heaven opened," and from it descending, the
Lord and His angels, with divine and heavenly truths'
and all holy and benign influences, producing with
them salutary effects on the well-disposed in hades,
and through them affecting favorably the minds of
men on the earth, turning them to good; — or, on

80 THE HISTOEY OF HADES.
the other hand, we have the pit opened, and noxious
influences arising from that, flowing forth into the
world of spirits, inciting the bad populations there
to activity, and, through them, operating unfavorably
and deleteriously upon men here in this world.
This is the programme, and the key of the book.
As soon as perceived and rightly understood, the
machinery of the other world is here laid open to
us, especially of that middle region from which we,
men, receive all our influences. ,
How clearly this idea is carried out in the chap
ter from which our motto is taken ! First, the bottom
less pit opened, and a great smoke issuing from it,
darkening the air and the sun (the malarious influ
ences of the kingdom of darkness), these influences
setting in motion the unpropitious multitudes of
that invisible world, and they, going forth with a
fiery zeal of wickedness, running everywhere through
that world to spread the infection to men. Read
any chapter in which the darker scenes are pre
sented, and you will find this to be the law of the
movement. In the 16th chapter it says : " And I
saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the
mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the
beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
For they are the spirits of devils working wonderful
things, which go forth unto the kings of the earth
and of the whole world, to gather them to the
battle of the great day of God Almighty." Those
emissaries of the pit are bent on making converts.
And so they ply men everywhere, with their persua-

THE HIST0EY OF HADES. 81
sions, and their unclean incitements, by flowing into
their minds secretly with their influences ; striving
to gain adherents, so that when these same men put
off the mortal body and go into their world, they
may draw them over to their side, and strengthen
their party for the great battle, — the battle of Ar
mageddon — that is constantly going on in their world ;
the battle between light and darkness, between
right and wrong, between good and evil. And it is
sorrowful to behold with what facility they are able
to recruit their army with ready volunteers from
every portion of our visible world !
It is noteworthy to observe with what constancy
in these accounts, these bad influences issuing from
the pit keep on in their course until they have
succeeded in influencing the action of men here,
producing bad results in our world. Here is where
they strive to produce their effects. Thus it is said,
that they should " hurt men," that " they should have
power to take peace from the earth " — and to cause
that men " should kill one another." In one place
it is averred that " by them a third part of men were
killed ; " while it is represented throughout that in
and through these influences all kinds of plagues and
torments descend to and take effect upon men.
And is it not all true ? Is it not one of the most
manifest things in the world, that on account of these
bad influences issuing from the pit, actuating spirits
in the world of spirits, and thence entering into the
hearts of men, being willingly received by them,
our world has become a theatre on which plagues
4*

82 THE HIST0EY OF HADES.
and evils of all kinds have been and are displayed ?
Have they not induced men to kill one another, —
taking peace from the earth, — and to inflict all other
possible injuries upon each other ? What has sin
and unholy passion not done? And what plague,
or disease, or affliction is there which they have
not brought upon mankind, destroying soul and
body? But, as we have said, these are not the only in
fluences displayed in this inspired Book. The
forces of heaven are seen at work on the other side.
The Lord and His angels are as active and powerful
in shedding forth good influences, and producing
good results. Interspersed between these dark
chapters all along, there is given another series in
which are described scenes and operations of a pure
and heavenly order. Light flows down to scatter
the darkness. The powers of evil are resisted and
overthrown. The armies of heaven go forth upon
white horses following their leader, the Captain of
our salvation. Good spirits are rescued, standing
with the Saviour upon the Mount Zion of the
spiritual world. True witnesses, apparently "dead,
are restored to life, while captive souls, in prison
under the altar, are liberated from their bondage.
And these influences flow on, too, until some good
final results are effected in our visible world, until
the New Jerusalem descends ;— until the tabernacle
of God comes down to be with men, until the
children of the heavenly Father are left in perfect
freedom to love and serve Him. — and until peace,

THE HISTOEY OF HADES. 83
order, and righteousness of life, are instituted as the
sure and prevalent state of human society.
Now, what is clearer than this general picture set
forth in this book ? and what is more conformable
to sound reason than the laws of human existence
thus laid bare to our view ?
Why should not the populations of that interve
ning world have a powerful influence upon us, and
sensibly affect for good or for evil the conditions of
human society? We have already alluded to the
nearness of that world to this, and this is a general
fact well worth remembering. The association is
internal, mental, and therefore very close. We
think we have very near neighbors, when their houses
join up against ours. But the dwellings of the spir-
- itual world not only join our houses, but some of
their inmates are even inmates of ours, at the same
time. Such must be the case with those few with
whom we are in most intimate communion. Our
Lord says that a man's foes are they of his own
household, and we can plainly see that it is so. A
man's most dangerous enemies are those invisible
spirits of evil which gain access to him by means of
the bad things to which he is inclined, and whom he
draws into close association with himself every time
he indulges them. And so, Paul, to the Ephesians,
speaking of the Christian's warfare, says : " Put on
the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to
stand against the wiles of the Devil. For we wrestle
not against flesh and blood (i.e., men in mortal bod
ies), but against the principalities and powers, the

84 THE HBT0EY OF HADES.
rulers (or authors) of the darkness of this world, —
against wicked spirits in high places ; " while the
Apostle James says that " the tongues of the wicked
are set on fire of hell." And such is the constant
representation of Scripture.
So, too, the good influences are as near us, ready
to come at our call, whenever our hearts are right,
when we invoke their aid, and are ready to cherish
right thoughts and holy affections. " The Angel of
the Lord encampeth around them that fear Him, and
delivereth them." The angels are " all ministering
spirits, sent forth to minister to those who shall be
heirs of salvation." The Lord is also ever ready to
communicate the influences of His holy spirit.
We see contiguous populations situated in this
world affect each other for good or for evil. The
state of thought and feeling in Boston and Phila
delphia influences New York; the influence of
New York reaches the whole country; the East
acts upon the West; the West reacts upon the
East. How deeply movements and opinion in
Europe affect us on this side ! — and, in turn, how
forcibly we react upon them ! Ever since the
days of our revolution there has gone forth from
the opinions and institutions of this country, a
moral power that has pervaded the nations like
an atmosphere, working constant changes towards
freedom and amelioration. This has not been the
exertion of outward force, but the silent operation of
ideas, — the latent power of one volume of mind to
influence and affect another volume of mind. So,

THE HIST0EY OF HADES. 85
throughout the world's history, have human commu
nities acted and reacted thus upon each other, the
whole helping the earth's progress to be wrought
out. Why, then, should not the communities of that
world affect powerfully the communities living in
this ? They are nearer to us than the communities
of this world are to each other. Those from whom
we receive immediately our influences are nearer to
us than the people of Boston. The connections by
which they communicate with us were complete be
fore the Atlantic Cable was laid, while there is no
storm so violent as to throw down the posts or impede
the electricity of those wires.
Think of the thousand ways in which the various
atmospheres of the spiritual world must be constantly
working through into this ! — through every chink
and cranny that is opened, into every phase of
thought or mood of feeling, insinuating, percolating,
sifting through.
We have already referred to the vast numbers of
that world, — but think of it once again, in connec
tion with this special subject. When great commu
nities act, they act with great power. And wher
ever the Bible opens those communities to us, it
shows them to be immense; — great, multitudinous
concourses. We think of thirty, forty, or fifty mil
lions of people in this world, as a large population •
sometimes saying that they constitute a mighty
empire. But what should we say to some of the
empires of that world, where not merely one gene-

86 THE HIST0EY OF HADES.
ration of men are living, but where a number of succes
sive generations are often collected together ? Think
of the mass of men — spirits which, in the sixteenth
verse (Rev. ix.) the Apostle says he saw moving in one
body ! — " And the number of the army of the horse
men was two hundred thousand thousand. And I
heard the number of them. And thus I saw the
horses in the vision, and them that sat on them."
How distinct and emphatic ! And he was com
manded to write what he saw and heard in a book,
for that the words were true and faithful, being the
true sayings of God, two hundred chiliads of chil
iads ! as it is in the Greek, — in other words, two hun
dred millions of men ! Such are the concourses
both of good and evil which the Scriptures constantly
represent as constituting the communities of that
world! With what immense power, then, those
communities must act ! — especially when under any
strong excitement of thought and feeling ! On sober
reflection, in rational light, it will be seen that many of
the extraordinary and unaccountable fervors, enthusi
asms, and excitements that have now and then broken
out in this world, the causes of which nobody could
trace, must have been stimulated into action and
in part produced by influences flowing in from the
other world, and must, therefore, have been more
or less connected with events of a somewhat similar
character occurring, there. We may justly infer
that all the great popular excitements occurring in
this world are intensified by the influences flowing
in from that world, — having their fires increased, as

THE HIST0EY OF HADES. 87
it were, by the flowing in of their invisible atmos
pheres. In our late struggle there must have been intense
feeling in some part of the world of spirits in relation
to what was going on. Our citizens who had de
parted from 1840 to 1860 were living there. Mr.
Calhoun was there. Mr. Webster and Mr. Clay
were there, with their associates and colaborers of
the preceding twenty and thirty years. Can we sup
pose these' men to have lost their interest in causes
for which they had so zealously labored, and in affairs
amidst which they had spent the active portion of
their lives ? Certainly we cannot. And we may be
sure that the interest and anxiety felt in our commu
nities here were increased, were stimulated and aid
ed, by the mental magnetism existing and flowing in
from there.
Whatj then, is the general truth at which we have
at length arrived ? What new elevation have we
reached from which to contemplate the events of the
world's history? Can we not, from the point on
which we now stand, look back over the ages, view
ing them with a new interest and in a new light ?
What, then, do we behold, struggling along down
the great pathway of the generations ? Not one line
only — not simply the visible men and women who
have acted their successive parts upon the earth's
surface and then passed away— but, too, close beside
these, another population, equal in interest, vaster in
numbers, more vigorous in action, more potent in in
fluences — the two moving along down the stream of

88 THE HIST0EY OF HADES.
time together, bound in one compact, associated in
the same general communion of mind, and, to a cer
tain extent, leading a common or mutually related
life — the spiritual community all the time acting
with vital, power upon the earthly community, and
the earthly community in turn reacting with con
siderable force upon that.
Who will sum for us, then, in the light of a clear
intelligence, the totality of the world's annals ? In
what human book shall we read the true philosophy
of history ? or what considerate thinker shall tell us
that we have an adequate account of the earth's
events, with the larger populations and the most po
tential factors in the results left out of view ?

HIST0EY OF THE WOELD OF SPIRITS. 89

CHAPTER IX.

HISTORY OP THE WORLD OP SPIRITS FROM ADAM TO
CHRIST.

- Now, one great difference between the inspired
histories of the Bible and ordinary histories lies in
this, that the Bible does not leave those invisible
populations out of view ; it always takes them, into
the account. All along down it has constant ref
erence and allusion to the presence of those spiritual
communities and of their action upon us. The
visions of the ancient prophets were all " openings "
vouchsafed them through into the other world ; and
many of the wonderful things beheld by them were
seen by their getting a passing view of some of those
inside communities.
Another view opened to us by these descriptions
of the Bible is, that those communities, like ours, are
in motion. There is life and activity in them.
They are not at a stand-still. They are not composed
of drowsy, stagnant populations. There is movement
and change of condition, and hence historical devel
opment and alteration among them. Recall for a
moment the animated scenes described in the Book

90 HISTOEY OF THE WOELD OF SPrEITS.
of Revelation. What a succession of vigorous enact
ments ! Every time the door is opened stupendous
movements are seen to be on foot, equal to or sur
passing in interest and grandeur the most stirring
periods in the annals of our own world ; and so, to
a lesser extent, in other parts of the Bible.
And why should it not be so ? The factors of
history are all there. The great men of the past, the
master-spirits of their several ages, have all had their
day or period, too, in that intermediate world —
Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne,
Hildebrand, Martin Luther, Napoleon, George
Washington. And when men are out of the mate
rial body their faculties are not thereby diminished.
If they are good and true men, moving in the right
direction, all their mental perceptions and powers
are increased and exalted, and therefore still more
effective in action.
OnV whatever side we turn it, then, we have this
fact remaining : — that hades has been a stirring
world from the beginning, having a most active his
tory of its own ; and, that the conditions and move
ments of that world have, all along down, powerfully
influenced and affected the moral state and historical
events of this world.
When our world has been dark, degraded, and
gloomy, that world, too, has been given over to evil
and the smoke of the pit.
But when the heavenly powers, reacting, have
rescued that intermediate world from the grasp of the
evil, the cloud has been lifted ; better influences have

HISTOEY OF THE WOELD OF SPTEITS. 91
been poured into our world, and humanity has en
joyed brighter and more hopeful days. There have
been some striking illustrations of this, in the past
history of the world.
In examining this general subject, did the question
ever occur to you, — why is the great day prophesied
by Daniel, referred to in the New Testament and
described in some parts of the Revelation, called
the last judgment ? If there were one great day, on
which everybody that had ever lived were to be col
lected into one mass, and the whole judged together,
once and for all, why not call it simply the judgment
day ? That is sufficient. Why apply to it the term
. last, if it is the only one ? I will tell you one reason
why that judgment is called the last. It is because
it is not the first. There have been other judgments
before it. More than once before, in the long and
varied history of that world, has it been necessary
for the Lord and His angels to descend into that
middle region with renewed power, and, by causing
a separation to take place between the good and the
evil, effect a casting down of the evil, and so restore
that world to a state of equilibrium and order.
The constant tendency of evil, you know, is to
wards anarchy and misrule. If left to itself and
allowed to have its own way, it would keep on, ar
rogating more and more power to itself, destroy free
dom, and trample on human rights of every kind and
degree. This is its essential nature here, and still
more emphatically so, when it comes into the freedom
of the spiritual world, where by degrees it throws off

92 HISTOBY OF THE WOELD OF SPERITS.
its disguises. We see, then, at a glance, that when
the population of our world has become very wicked,
when most of those passing away by death go for-
Mrard in an evil state, so that the tide of emigration
pouring in there is a corrupt tide, the effects are
very bad upon the state of that world. A corrupt,
domineering, anarchic population rapidly accumu
lates there. And if many succeeding generations go
on in the same way, the effects become all the more
saddening and disastrous. For their corrupting in
fluences spread all around in that world andback into
this. The heavenly Father is forbearing, and long-suf
fering. He always gives men freedom enough for
every useful purpose, and he allows all a great deal
of scope to act themselves out, both in this world and
in that. But, nevertheless, He does retain the
government of the universe. His superintending
Providence reaches everywhere, and He exercises a
controlling influence for good. He employs subor
dinate agencies to perform many portions of the work,
but the oversight and the power emanate from and
centre in Him.
He suffers evil as long as it is bearable. And so
He suffers those. mixed and troublesome populations
to accumulate in the World of Spirits for long peri
ods of time, providing methods by which they are
retained in a certain degree of order, — allowing
some of the wheat and the tares to remain there to
gether, as He himself says, from the end of one dis
pensation to the end of another.

HIST0EY OF THE WORLD OF SPERITS. 93
But the times come when they can be no longer
restrained in freedom ; when their wickedness can
no longer be endured, on account of threatening the
safety of all the surrounding populations, in both
worlds. And so, now and then, in the long reach
of the ages, the Lord in His Providence interferes, —
brings on a crisis^ as it is called in the original
Greek, — sends down the power of His truth so
strongly into that world as to judge the state, en
lightening the eyes of the righteous, leading them
forth from among the evil, — causing a separation.
Thus, the disruption, and division of those communi
ties is effected ; as empires in this world are some
times overthrown and dissolved ; while the evil
there flee away of their own accord, and betake
themselves to those regions represented by the lake
of fire.
It has been necessary, as we have said, a number
of times in the world's history that Satan should be
thus bound and shut vp for a season.
Very similar principles of administration have
eome, too, under Divine Providence, to prevail in
our world; good governments not unfrequently
bear long with disobedience, opposition, and insubor
dination, until at length, when these have broken
out into open violence, insurrection, and rebellion,
then the strong arm of power is put forth to quell
them, — to protect the weak, restore order, and banish
the persistently evil to foreign parts.
There are several of these great days of crisis ; of
judgment and separation, mentioned in Scripture;

94 HISTORY OF THE WOELD OF SPIEITS.
or, as they are frequently called, in the prophets,
days of visitation and vengeance. They are named
days of visitation, because, as we have seen, the
angels go down and visit those communities at such
times, searching out the good and leading them
away from the coming destruction. The amount
that is written on this subject in the Bible will be
altogether surprising to those who have not paid par
ticular attention to it.
The occurrence of those days, or crises, are what
mark the changes of dispensation in our world.
They always inaugurate a new era. They always
terminate, or close up, one great period in the sacred
history of the world, and begin another. They are
accompanied by some great visible change in the
divine economy with respect to the universal church.
Thus, the antediluvian period was terminated by
such a crisis. He who reads with penetrating eyes
the remarkable account of the deluge given in
Genesis, remembering that the whole is an inspired
document, a communication coming to us from the
invisible world, cannot fail to see, that while the
outward action of the event has reference to -our
world, yet, that while descriptive of something occur
ring here, it has at the same time a very close connec
tion with something taking place in the other world.
The more will this become obvious as we look to
those passages in the prophets where the flood is
spoken of as a past event. It is there called, a crisis,
a day of visitation and of judgment. Is it not
commonly understood, from the language of Scrip-

HIST0EY OF THE WOELD OF SPIRITS. 95
ture in reference to it, as well as in the theological
phrase of the Church, — to be a " judgment" ? —
something visited upon the antediluvian world for
its wickedness ; a crisis brought upon them on ac
count of their excessive depravity, and intended to
bring it to an end ; — to break up that state of prev
alent wickedness and remove it? This, as all are
familiarly aware, is uniformly the Scriptural allega
tion with respect to the nature, and divine purpose
or intention, of that event,— a judgment upon the
wicked antediluvians.
But, where were the wicked antediluvians at the
time when that event occurred ? Only a single genera
tion of them were present here in the natural world.
By far the larger portion of them had already gone
away and left it. At least nineteen-twentieths of
those wicked people, and perhaps ninety -nine out of
a hundred of them — all the generations since Adam,
were living in Sheol, the world of spirits, — and there
fore, a judgment which should affect only the in
habitants of the visible world, would not reach
them, nor produce any special result upon their
state. We can see, then, that by confining the opera
tion of that judgment to its effects in our world
only, we should defeat the main purpose the Lord is
declared to have had in bringing it about, viz. : — to
visit, and break up the den of wickedness that had
thus been created. What good purpose would it
have served, to have visited only our world, remov
ing a few millions from the mortal body, sending
them forward in all their wickedness thus suddenly

96 HISTOBY OF THE WOBLD OF SPIRITS.
into the world of spirits, and still left that vaster
multitude, twenty times as large, indefinitely, more
wicked, which had collected like a mighty social
tumor in the intermediate world, and lay there,
spreading its moral and spiritual gangrene all
around? That immense mass of corrupt mind, rest
ing down with its entire weight upon men, in close
contact -everywhere with their. minds, and pressing
in to be received, was the very seat of the disease.
It was itself the chief cause of the intense accumula
tion of wickedness in this world. And, as may be
readily perceived, our world could not have been
permanently benefited, and the tide of corruption
checked, unless a crisis had come there ; unless that
mighty mass had been visited, removed, and dispersed.
While, therefore, we believe that the event meant
and typified by the flood, was an actual historical
occurrence, coming in our world, affecting the
bodies of men, and the conditions of human society
here, — we believe, also, that by far the larger portion
of the event, and its most important operations, took
effect in that middle world, where by far the larger
part of the men to be visited were then collected
together, and where, consequently, the Scriptures
continually assure us such events do occur.
Again, at the close of the patriarchal dispensation,
beginning with Noah and ending witli Melchizedek,
another of these judgments occurred, which, too,
had its visible ultimate or effect in this world.
After Abraham had been called, and a preparation
thus begun for a new dispensation in the line of the

HISTOBY OF THE WOELD OF SPIErTS. 97
Jewish Church, then, as we read, there came the de
struction of Sodom and Gomorrah. This, too, came,
we are told, because in that region, in the five cities
of the plain, the accumulated wickedness of the whole
preceding period had culminated or come to its head.
They were sinks of iniquity. And they had be
come so, because they were the earthly focus upon
which rested the vast cloud of influences in the oth
er world. Nineteen-twentieths of the wicked Sod
omites and Gomorrahites were there in the world of
spirits, still hanging about their old haunts, hover
ing immediately over the cities of the plain, a vast
spiritual incubus, like some of those masses described
in the book of Revelation. It was this larger body
of evil which the Lord and His angels came down
to judge on that occasion. And it was only because
they afforded a basis and stronghold for that spir
itual multitude, that those visible cities had to be de
stroyed and their populations removed. We shall
always find some general principle involved in every
act of divine administration. In whatever is done,
the conditions and requirements of both worlds are
taken into the account.
The spiritual eyes of Abraham were opened to see
a little of these things. The Lord told him that the
cry of Sodom had come up into heaven, the influence
of its wickedness had become so great, that He must
come down and visit it. And several of the angels
who were sent down came to Abraham's tent door on
their way. How many angels there were present in
all we do not know, for we are not told. Their

98 HISTOBY OF THE WOELD OF SPIEITS.
numbers may -have been very large. Only two. of
them became visible in the visible city of Sodom, and
that was because they had amission to perform there,
in rescuing and leading out the family of Lot. Thai;
is always the law of the judgment. First, the good
are searched out and led forth, and then the overthrow
of the evil comes as a consequence — as a matter of
course. Thus, as soon as the Lord had gathered Noah
and his family and shut them in the ark, the. flood of
waters came and overwhelmed the others. And as
soon as the angels had rescued Lot and his family,
the fire came, destroying those cities,, In like man
ner, in the spiritual world, when the angels have
led forth all the good they can find in one of those
mixed communities, the judgment or dispersion
comes at once.
It is on this account that our Lord uses the extra
ordinary language in respect to, these two judgments,
which we find recorded in Luke xvii. The disciples
had asked Him about the. last great day,^-to oc
cur at His second coming ; and He had told them
that the kingdom of heaven eometh not with obser
vation ; neither should they say, Lo here, or Lo. there ;
thus, that the judgment day would not be visible
to the natural eyes, nor would it be an event that
could be found in the natural world — nevertheless
that there would be some visible tokens or signs of,
its effects given among men. He then refers back, by
way of comparison, to these two ancient judgments
that had already occurred— saying— " And as it was
in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of

HISTOBY OF THE WOELD OF SPIRITS. 99
the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they
married wives, they were given in marriage, until
the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the
flood came and destroyed them all.
" Likewise, also, as it was in the days of Lot ; they
did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they
planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot
went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from
heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it
be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed."
The days of judgment being events of the other
world, neither their approach nor their occurrence
. is visible to men, but still, when they do occur,
some visible signs, as effects, do make their appear
ance in our world.
We cannot now say all that might be said in re
lation to this subject. Our principal object in
bringing forth so much of it here is to prepare the
way for something else. We desire to speak ere long
of the work which our Lord and Saviour performed
while He was in the world. And this work no one
can understand in its reality and its fulness, until he
takes into view all the regions and populations to
which it extended. He had an important mission,
too, with respect to Hades. He came to do a work
in the world of spirits as well as in the world of
men ; — a work that is too commonly omitted or left
out of view. He came down to bring on a crisis, — to
execute a judgment, to rescue the good, to separate the
evil, to roll back the kingdom of darkness, and to save
the world from impending destruction. And the more

100 HISTOEY OF THE WOELD OF SPIRITS.
that work is studied in the light of all that the Bible
says of it, the more definite will our ideas become, and
the greater, in all respects, will that work itself be
seen to be.
It will be seen, therefore, that these things all have
a direct practical bearing ; and the more so, the
better they are understood. By a laying open of the
laws and influences of the other world, we are the
better able to avoid and resist what is evil, as well as
to become the more strongly fortified in what is
true and good. "The book of Revelation itself, in
stead of being any longer a dark problem, an
unsolved riddle, becomes at once luminous with
great truths, shedding down upon us a flood of' bril
liant light, rendering its pages among the most in
structive, and the most strictly practical, of any we
can find in the Bible.
Is not a proper understanding of the Holy Scrip
tures, — to know what they really mean, — the one
great want of our time ?
And is it not a manifest proof, both of the great
providence of God and of the real inspiration of the
Bible, — that He has reserved, folded up within its
leaves, such a mighty mass of spiritual and heavenly
truths (as He reserved the corresponding truths of
the physical universe), to burst forth from its pages,
as of themselves, for the light and illustration of
men, as soon as the general culture has proceeded
far enough to perceive them, and when the advance
ment of the human race has reached a point at
which such additional light is clearly needed for its
guidance and use ?

THE PEOPHECY OF OUE LOBD's WOEK. 101

CHAPTER X.
THE PROPHECY OP OUR LORD'S WORK AS ONE OP
JUDGMENT AND DELIVERANCE.
" But who may abide the Day of His coming 1 " — Mal. m. 2.

We have promised to give some account of the
work which our Lord Jesus Christ performed, while
He was in the world, for the redemption and salva
tion of men. This, our previous course has in some
measure prepared us to do. For, it has been our
endeavor all along to bring into view, and place
distinctly before you, that region of our universe in
which a large and important portion of that work
lay, — the world of spirits, intermediate between heav
en and hell. We have beheld it, as opened to us in the
Scriptures, to be a great, real, populous, and living
world ; with its communities distributed very conti
guously to the populations of our world, constantly
operating with great power upon them. And we
are ready now, therefore, to contemplate His mis
sion as reaching through to that invisible realm;
and in support of this we shall be able to bring
together a larger array of Scripture evidence, than
we have had for anything we have hitherto said.

102 THE PBOPHECY OF OUR LOED's WOEK.
We believe that the Lord, our Heavenly Father, —
one single Divine Person, Jehovah, — is the sole
Ruler of the universe; that He has, at various suc
cessive times, revealed Himself to His children, as
their needs suggested, and performed such things
as were required for their instruction and salvation.
In the days of Noah He came, manifesting Himself
by granting open vision to those who saw and heard
Him, executing a judgment upon the wicked in
both worlds, gathering Noah and his family into
the ark, and saving the good.
In the days of Lot He came down again, to visit
and explore the wickedness of men ; manifested Him
self to Abraham, executed a similar judgment in
both worlds, saving the good. Then He came to Moses,
speaking with him face to face, as a man talketh with
his friend; and after that, to the prophets in suc
cession. But the time arrived when this kind of manifesta
tion was not enough. Such visitations did not ac
complish all the work that was needed to be done.
Something more was wanted, to break up the power
of evil, to subdue the kingdom of darkness in such a
way as to place limits to it, keeping it in subjection
and so, permanently secure the freedom and protec
tion of the human race.
This He did by coming into the world. As before,
He had always rendered Himself visible in a human
form, so He did in this case. In the older times, He
showed Himself to the prophets in and through an
angelic form, — " the Angel of Jehovah." But when

THE PBOPHECY OF OUE LOED's WOEK. 103
He came into the world, "He,"— as the Apostle
says,— no longer " took on Him the nature and form
of angels, but took on Him the seed of Abraham."
In an angelic human form He was visible only to
spirits in their world, and to the {ew men in this who
had holy vision ; who had their spiritual sight opened.
But the manifestation now was to be to men, for
their benefit also. He came to present Himself to
them, and to manifest His truth and His power in our
world. So He assumed a bodily human form. The
outward form itself, with certain external things of
the mind, was born of the Virgin Mary, and called
the Son ; but the Heavenly Father was present in it,
dwelt in it, filled it completely with His own infinite
Spirit, spoke through it, did the works through it ;
in it dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily ; and
by so dwelling in it, the Supreme Divinity finally
glorified that form, arid took it up above all the heav
ens, as its own perpetual robe or covering, in which
it forever dwells, as a man's soul dwells in its body.
In the prophecies of the Old Testament relating to
the subject, it is uniformly declared that it would be
Jehovah Himself who should come and redeem and
save His people. No Other Saviour or Redeemer is
ever once promised, or even so milch as spoken of.
Thus, in Isaiah : " That all flesh may know that 1,
Jehovah, am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer." And,
again : " As for our Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts is
His name." And, in Hosea, Jehovah says : " There
is no Saviour besides Me." And, in another place
in Isaiah, we read : " Thy Redeemer is the Holy One

104 THE PBOPHECY OF OUR LOED's WOEK.
of Israel : the God of the whole earth shall He be
called." These texts could be multiplied indefinitely, for it
is the uniform testimony of the prophets throughout.
And Isaiah says of the Son that was to be born into
the world, that He should be called " the Mighty
God, the Everlasting Father."
There is another class of prophecies, however, rela
ting to our Lord's coming in the flesh, to which I wish
to call attention, which is very apt to be overlooked.
His appearing in the world is always foretold as a
day of judgment. Did you ever think of this?
Was it ever pointed out, or did it ever occur to you
before? You will remember, of course, that all
through the old prophets a day of judgment is spoken
of, the great day of the Lord, the day of vengeance,
the day of wrath, the day of His fierce anger — of the
destruction of His enemies, &c. But when you
come to examine you will find that the day there
foretold is not called the last judgment. Only Dan
iel, I believe, of all the Hebrew prophets, speaks of
the final judgment. The other prophecies of it are
contained in the New Testament. But the day men
tioned by all the other prophets, is a judgment to
occur at the end of the Israelitish Church, at the
winding up of the Jewish Dispensation, and to be
executed by the Messiah Himself, when He should.
make His first appearance in the world. If the
thought is new to you, it is a fact worth pondering.
In this connection, let us recur for a moment to
that remarkable passage respecting the Messiah

105
which is recorded in the sixty-third chapter of Isaiah :
" Who is this that eometh from Edom, with dyed
garments from Bozrah ? This that is glorious in
His apparel, travelling in the greatness of His
strength ? I, that speak in righteousness, mighty to
save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and
thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine vat ?
I have trodden the wine-press alone ; and of the peo
ple there was none with me ; for I will tread them
in mine anger, and trample them in my fury ; and
their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments;
and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of
vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my re
deemed is come. And I looked, and there was none
to help ; and I wondered that there was none to up
hold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation
unto me, and my fury it upheld me. And I will
tread down the people in mine anger, and make them
drink in my fury ; and I will bring down their
strength to the earth ! "
Now, this is certainly a remarkable passage. And
how does it apply to the work of our Saviour ? What
is there in the life and actions of the meek and lowly
Jesus, as they are commonly set forth, to meet and
fulfil such prophecies as this? Surely, that view
which takes into account only His visible actions
among men, as He walked, a passive sufferer, the
plains of Judea, is wholly inadequate to explain the
representations of Scripture. There is clearly set
forth a struggle against enemies, and a judgment
upon them ; a casting down and a vanquishing of
5*

106 THE PBOPHECY OF OUR LOED's WOEK.
the opposing forces, while the impression all along
carried is that their hosts were numerous and power
ful, that their presence threatened destruction, and
that there could be no salvation without their re
moval. At what cost the victory is represented as
being gained ! And He alone did the work. Is it
not an exact counterpart of a judgment, as described
in the book of Revelation ?
But this is not a solitary passage ; the prophets
are full of such declarations. Such is the work which
they all uniformly predict the Messiah would come
to do.
And here we see their reference to the populations
of the other world. It was in the intermediate re
gion that the wicked had accumulated. It was there
that Satan had his stronghold. It was there that the
enemies of the Church had congregated in an over
whelming mass, threatening, at the time our Lord
came, the overthrow of moral goodness in the world,
and thereby the total destruction of the Church;
and with it, of course, the destruction of the souls
of men. Wickedness had so increased, both in the
world of spirits and in the world of men, that" no
door stood open for the salvation of the race.
Hence, one great part of the work to be done was
to remove that spiritual incubus from the minds of
men ; to take off that supernatural pressure flowing
in upon them from the invisible world, carrying them
down to destruction, and destroy its influence.
This work is the burden of the prophecies. He
was to come to vanquish this multitude of enemies

107
against the souls of mankind, and deliver them
from the bondage in which these powers of hell were
keeping them bound. This operation appears al
ways to be spoken of by the prophets as constitu
ting, peculiarly His work of redemption. This will
be seen more clearly perhaps as we go on.
Let us call to mind that well-known passage in the
sixty-first chapter of Isaiah.
" The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me,
"Because Jehovah hath anointed me,
" To preach glad tidings to the meek.
"He hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted,
" To proclaim liberty to the captives,
" And the opening of the prison to the bound:
" To proclaim the acceptable year of Jehovah,
"And the day of vengeance of our God."
Here, we see the work'to be done is the liberating
6f souls held in direful bondage, and the execution
of a judgment upon the evil powers holding them in
bondage, proclaiming the day of God's vengeance,
which is always the representation of the judgment
day. As many will remember, this is the passage which
Our Lord read, when He went into the synagogue on
the Sabbath day, and there was handed to Him the
book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had
closed the book and sat down, He said unto them,
" This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears."
We see therefore that there is no doubt about the
date of its fulfilment. It applied to his first coming.
In another place in the same prophet it is said

108 THE PBOPHECY OF OUE LOEd'b WOEK.
of Him, " He put on righteousness as a breast-plate,
and the helmet of salvation upon His head, and
He put on garments of vengeance, and covered
Himself with zeal as with a cloak ; then He came to
Zion as a Redeemer." (Isaiah Ixix. 16.) And fol
lowing out the subject, speaking of His enemies who
fought against Him, it is said, in Jeremiah, " They
were dismayed, their, strong ones were knocked
down; they fled apace, neither did they look back;
that day is to the Lord Jehovah of hosts a day
of revenge, that He may take vengeance on His
enemies." How do such representations as these apply to the
outward, visible work of Jesus among men ? Did
He put on wrath thus, and institute war, and take
vengeance on His enemies ? We see that there is
no application of these prophecies, until we turn to
His work upon the spirits of the unseen world. All
then becomes clear, and every passage falls into its
right place ; for the moment we open the four Gos
pels and read, we find how prominent a place is
there given to that work. The Lord is surrounded
by evil spirits from the pit. He is tempted by the
devil, grievously, successively, and in a variety
of ways. His active mission opens by operations
performed upon these unclean spirits or devils ; con
founding them in their possessions of ^ men, casting
them out, reprimanding them, and driving them
away from their victims ; assuming the tone of
power and authority over them, saying, " Come out
of him, thou foul spirit, and enter no more into him."

109
The evil spirits themselves feared him, recognized
Him in something of His true character, perceived,
too, something of the mighty import of his mission,
and were apprehensive of their own final defeat and
overthrow. On one occasion, the devil said to Him,
" If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down ; foi
it is written, He shall give His angels charge con
cerning thee ; and in their hands they shall beai
thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against
a stone." (Matt. iv. 6). Again, a band of the
spirits said to Him, " We know Thee who thou art,
the Holy One of God." On another occasion they
exclaimed, " Why hast Thou come to torment us
before the time?" while we behold another com
pany beseeching Him, that if He cast them out from
the men, He would at least allow them to go into
the herd of swine. And they had leave, to the num
ber of two thousand.
Is not this work, which He performed upon the
spirits of the unseen world, a great burden of the
Gospels? The declarations concerning it are con
stant, plain, simple, and clear. Allusion is made to
it in more than sixty passages of the Gospel history.
Looking back, then, to those old prophecies we can
see what they mean. We have before us the warfare
which He waged, the enemies against whom He
fought, the victory He achieved, and the casting
down or judgment which He accomplished. And
we can read such passages as the following in the
Messianic Psalm, in a new and clearer light : " Gird
on thy sword upon thy thigh, O thou most Mighty ;

110 with thy glory and thy majesty, and in thy majesty
ride prosperously, because of truth, and meekness,
and righteousness ; and thy right hand shall teach
thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the
heart of the king's enemies; whereby the people
fall under thee. Thy throne, O God, is for ever
and ever ; the sceptre of thy Kingdom is a right
^sceptre." (Ps. xiv., 3 et seq.)
From this point of view we can Understand, too,
the application of the remarkable prophecy of Mal
achi in relation to His coming: "Behold, I will
send my Messenger, and he shall prepare the way
before Me ; and the Lord whom ye seek, shall sud
denly come to His temple, even the Messenger of
the covenant, whom ye delight in ; behold He shall
come, saith the Lord of Hosts. But who may abide
the day of His coming ? or, who shall stand when
He appeareth ? for He is like a refiner's fire, and like
fuller's soap. * * * And I will come near to
you to judgment." (Mai. iii. 1-5.) " For, behold
the day eometh that shall burn as an oven ; and all
the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be
stubble, and the day that eometh shall burn them
up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them
neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my
name, shall the Sun of righteousness arise with heal
ing in His wings. * * * * Behold, I will send
you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the
great and dreadful day of the Lord." (Mai. iv. 1-5.)
Here is one of the most distinct prophecies of
a judgment day there is in the whole Bible.

THE PEOPHEOY of oue loed's Woek. Ill
What is clearer than that that day was to be brought
about by the appearance of the Messiah in the
world ? Every sentence points to that. And So, the
corresponding prophecy of Joel, — in which the same^
great and notable day of Jehovah, that was to come
to burn up the wicked, judging them and scattering
them, and which the prophet says shall come at the
end of his people Israel, the end of the Jewish
Church, — is quoted by the Apostle Peter, in his ser
mon on the day of Pentecost, in the second chapter
of Acts ; and he tells his hearers that in his own day,
and by the appearance of our Lord in the world,
was that prophecy fulfilled. So there is no doubt
about the application of these predictions. Such is
the tenor of all the prophets.

112 OUB LOED'S WOEK OF JUDGMENT, ETC.

CHAPTER XL
OUR LORD'S WORK OP JUDGMENT AND REDEMPTION.
" Por judgment I am come into this world." — John ix. 39.

At the time our Lord came, the world of spirits
was in a worse condition than it had ever been in
before. The wicked had accumulated there in vast
numbers. There had been no general or universal
judgment since the days of Noah. The judgment
in the days of Lot had reached only one portion of
the people then in sheol or hades, as appears from
some parts of Scripture, and hence there were per
sons still there who had lived in all the generations
since the days of Noah, but more of those who be
longed to the generations since Abraham ; thus,
over a period, according to the chronology of the
LXX., of more than three thousand years. And in all
that time the general morality of the race had been
declining, while the population of the world had
greatly increased.
On a little reflection, therefore, we can form some
faint conception of the state of that intermediate

ETC. 113
world. From ninety to a hundred generations of
men had lived on our earth. By far the larger por
tion of them had been idolatrous, wicked men ; and
on passing into the other world, had immediately
become evil or unclean spirits, or " demons."
There they lay, an immense mass, in immediate
contact with men, infusing their influences into their
minds, hanging over them in a dense cloud, and
effectually preventing the descent to men of good.
influences from the Lord and the angels.
Thus had accumulated a great body of corruption.
Evil had come to predominate over good throughout
that intermediate world. In those days the king
dom of Heaven suffered violence, and the violent
took it by force. The evil crew from the pit were
let loose, and flocked up into the world of spirits,
re-enforcing the side of wickedness, and adding their
weight to the heavy scale of woe that was pressing
down upon mankind. The powers of hell had the
whole field to themselves in hades. The devil and
his crew had literally become, as he is called, the
prince or ruler of this world. By their craft they
had spiritually overwhelmed mankind, to the de
struction of their souls. They had done more. They
had at length gone so far as to be able to destroy
human freedom; to take away a man's power to
think and feel as the dictates of his own mind should
prompt him, and could compel him to think, feel,
and act as they wanted to have him. Thus they be
gan to take actual possession of mankind, both soul
and body, and to turn them into mere mediums or

114
machines of their own. They threw them into
paroxysms, so that they would fall on the ground
and " wallow, foaming ;" caused them to be deaf
and dumb; made them throw themselves into the
fire, and into the water ; drove them out from among
their kindred to dwell among the tombs, and in
desert places; at times rendering them so fierce
that no man might pass by that way. At their
option, they caused their victims to cut themselves
with stones, or other sharp instruments ; sometimes
withering up their limbs, so that they could no
longer use them ; in short, inflicting pain and dis
ease, and causing death in almost any manner they
pleased. This terrible state of. things was not confined to
Judea. It extended into the populations around;
and, indeed, abounded throughout that Eastern
world. It was, too, fearfully on the increase, and
was the dreaded plague of the common people of
that day and generation.
Had it continued, universal destruction must have
been the consequence. No human power could stay
its influences or arrest its progress. In no great
length of time, human society must have been re
duced to the most deplorable conditions. Men could
not long have survived under such influences. Ere
long, the population of the world must have become
extinct. And passing forward, in a degraded state
themselves, into the world of spirits, where every
inch was occupied by the infernal powers, the whole
mass must have moved on together towards the

ETC. 115
lower regions, to be overwhelmed in one common
destruction at last. Except those days had been
shortened, no flesh could have been saved.
It Was to meet this state of things that the Lord
came into the world ; and we can see something
of the mighty work which stood before Him to be
done. He was to withstand all this mighty force.
Lie was to meet this vast tide of evil influences from
hell, and break its power. He was to stand in the
breach and save His people; receiving the shafts
of the enemy into His own person, resisting for us,
engaging in the conflict for our sakes, conquering
for us ; overcoming the powers of darkness, rolling
back the tide, casting Satan down, liberating men
from the infernal bondage, and instead, bringing
down a host of heavenly influences into that inter
mediate world.
Hell was to be conquered ; Hades was to be judged ;
mankind were to be redeemed ; and the kingdom of
God to be instituted both in the world of spirits and
in the world of men.
From the first moment He began, as the
prophet says, " Satan stood at His right hand to
resist him." All the infernal powers were stirred up
to oppose his work, and, if possible, overwhelm His
person. This was the great pressure which lay upon
His soul all the time He was in the world — this con
stant spiritual effort of the infernal powers to over
whelm and destroy Him, that they might defeat His
work. Into the human part, which He had assumed
to appear in the world, He received their assaults.

116 oub loed's woek of judgment, etc.
In that way He was tempted and suffered. " He
was tempted in all points like as we are," the apos
tle says, " yet without sin." How grievous some of
those temptations were, we may infer from the forty
days in which he did eat nothing, but was in the
'wilderness ; from the agony endured in the garden of
Gethsemane, and the last great suffering on the
cross. Speaking of His followers, " For their sakes," He
says, " I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanc
tified " through the truth. The whole was endured
for human redemption, regeneration, and salvation.
From the first moment of his public ministry, the
Devil, as we read, began to assault Him. He
endeavored to turn Him aside from His work. But
He constantly overcame the devils by the Word of
His mouth : by the power of His Truth, saying,
" Get thee behind me, Satan ; for it is written, thou
shalt not tempt the Lord thy God ;" again, " Thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt
thou serve." And, again, " It is written that man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
From His very constitution and nature, our Lord
enjoyed constant communication with the unseen
world. He is called the great, and the greatest
Prophet. A peculiarity of the prophetic office
is, that it constitutes one a seer, opening his spiritual
sight, and giving him a view of the invisible world.
Our Lord was in the prophetic state all the time.
He needed not that any should testify of men, for He

oub loed's woek of judgment, eto. 117
knew what was in men. The spirit was given unto
Him without measure. Holy vision was His perma
nent condition. The world of spirits was as present
to Him and as open to His view as the world of men.
Both populations were equally before Him; both,
equally, held communication with Him : constantly
came the evil spirits; constantly came the angels.
When, for a moment, upon Mount Tabor, the three
disciples had their vision opened, they, too, saw Him
as He was, as He appeared to angels all the time ; they
saw Him as if transfigured ; they saw Him in His
own spiritual form, glorified and heavenly. And
they saw Moses and the prophet Elijah standing
beside Him. When the cloud came and covered
them, Moses and Elijah did not go away and leave
Him ; only, the vision of the three apostles closed up.
The beings of the unseen world were constantly
about Him thus. All the time He was on earth
He was living a life and performing a work in that
world, as fully as He was living a life and performing
a work in this world.
On several occasions we read, that " angels came
and ministered unto Him ;" " ministered unto Him."
I suppose that, as we read this passage ordinarily,
we are very apt to misapprehend its real meaning.
There are two ways in which one person may minis
ter to another. A superior may minister to an infe
rior, by affording him needed help. Such is the
ministration of -angels to men, to us. _ But, again, an
inferior may minister to a superior, by serving him,
obeying his commands, and executing his behests.

118 oue lobd's woek of judgment, etc.
It is in this latter sense, no doubt, that we are
to understand the ministration of angels when
applied to the Lord. Constituted as He was, He
could not have taken anything or received any help
from the angels ; for He himself had all power, in
heaven and on earth. We read, too, that the
angels are " ministers of His, to do his will." For
this purpose were they called about Him while
He was in the world : — that they might be there,
ready to execute whatsoever He should command
them ; ministering to Him by serving Him.
As in the world of men, He had about Him a
body of disciples, whom He sent forth from time to
time into the places round about to preach the word,
heal diseases, and cast out devils ; so, too, He had
about him in the other world a similar body of angels,
through whose agency He was in like manner extend-
ing His own work through hades, reaching the
populations there, seeking out the good and rescuing
them from the dominion of the evil, preaching the
word, creating separations and commotions there;
in short, executing a judgment — overturning the
foundations of that evil society, and causing the.
crew of the evil one to be cast down, and shut up in
their own abodes.
When, as on the occasion mentioned in John,
xii. 30, the tumult and commotion of that world
caused itself to be heard through into this,: — the.
voices from that unseen region falling upon the ears
of the multitude who stood around Him, like the
roar or noise of thunder; and when all eyes were

oue lobd's woek of judgment, etc. 119

turned to Him for an explanation of what they
heard, He says, with reference to what came to their
ears from the other world, and with reference to
what was going on there, " Now is the judgment of
this world : now shall the prince (or unseen evil
ruler) of this world be cast out." In other words,
the judgment is now going on in that other world,
and the devils there are now being cast down.
When His disciples, on one occasion, returned to
Him from a mission into the neighboring towns and
cities, they said unto Him, — " Lord, even the devils
were subject unto us through Thy name," He im
mediately answered, and said unto them, — " I beheld
Satan, as lightning fall from heaven." His eyes
were open to that world, and saw the whole, process
as it was going on. The work which the disciples
in this world had been doing, in casting out the evil
spirits and removing them from men, was aiding,
too, in the great general work that was then going
on under His supervision throughout the world of
spirits. He saw how they were being cast down
from those exalted seats or elevated positions in that
world which they had arrogated to themselves, and
which they had actually taken possession of, as we
read, by violence or force.
In this view, we can see, too, the fulness of mean
ing and application in those grand words in Luke,
which are so often chanted or sung throughout the
Christian world :
" He hath showed strength with His arm ;

120 oue lobd's wobk of judgment, etc.
" He hath scattered the proud in the imagination
of their heart ;
" He hath cast down the mighty from their seats."
Such words come home to us with new power and
feeling, as we come to gain a definite idea of the great
importance and magnitude of the work to which
they refer ; while volumes of new light and mental
illustration, and rational thought, burst forth from
passage after passage as we read along, where before
we gathered only vague and indefinite impressions.
As we read through the Gospels, we shall find that
it was this control which He had over the beings of
the other world, and the consequent power which He
exercised in casting out these unclean spirits and rid
ding men of their infestations, which, more than
anything else, drew the crowds after Him.- It was
this 'that excited most widely the popular attention,
extending His fame throughout all Syria. It was
the most prominent element in that profound interest
with which He was regarded everywhere by the
masses. The great multitudes went after Him, flock
ing to Him from remote distances, because by Him
they could have the demoniacal diseases healed, and
the infesting spirits driven away. As we have
said, they were the great plague and torment of that
age. The most constant and fervent prayer that
went up from the hearts of the people was that the
unclean spirits might be rebuked, and the torment
ing devils cast out.
And, as we see, the Lord came, and brought deliv
erance to them and to all mankind.

etc. 121
Hardly anyone, we presume, at the present day
will need to be told that He did not come to deliver
men from the wrath of God ; that, indeed, no require
ment or necessity of that kind existed. Hell was the
power that was holding them in bondage, and hence
it was from this great adversary, and its emissaries
that He came to redeem them, to deliver and save
them. And hence, too, such is the constant language
of the Scripture respecting His work. If persons
have never paid attention to the fact, the universality
of the teaching will surprise them. Throughout the
Psalms of David and all the prophets, the great
work laid out for the Messiah to do is for Him to
deliver His people from their enemies. Well, who
were, and are, their enemies, in a real and Scriptural
sense ? Who are the enemies of the Church and of
all mankind, against whom we all have to fight?
Can they be any other than the evil spirits of the
pit ? The Jews, undoubtedly, understood by their
enemies, the nations around them. But who will say
that such is the true Christian sense ? When our
Lord came, He did not deliver the nation from the
Romans, the visible enemies, whom the Jews then
hated and feared. Who cannot see at a glance that
the host of enemies all along referred to and meant
was that vast congregation of bad spirits in the
intermediate world which He was to sweep away
by the word of His mouth and the arm of His
strength ?
In this connection let us call attention to the words
of the Benedictus, that new Testament hymn given
6

122 oue loed's woek. of judgment, etc.
us in Luke. In a few inspired sentences it suras
up for us the Lord's work of Redemption and
Salvation. And how does it describe it ? Let us
listen :
" Blessed be the Lord God of Israel ;
" For He hath visited and redeemed His people;
" And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us,
" In the house of His servant David,
" As He spoke by His holy prophets,
" Who have been since the world began ;
" That we should be saved from our enemies,
" And from the hand of aU that hate us.
" To perform the mercy promised to our fathers,
" The oath which He sware to our father Abraham;,
" That He would grant unto us ;
" That we, being delivered from the hand of our
enemies,
" Might serve Him without fear,
" In holiness and in righteousness^
" All the days of our life." ,
Such is the testimony ; and the burden of it, as
will be seen, is the deliverance from enemies, and the
consequent liberty of loving and serving the' Lord,
while this is declared to be the fulfilment of the
covenant, and the one teaching of all the prophets^
since the world began.
Can anything be plainer, or more distinct in affir
mation, than this ?
After our Lord's career on earth had ceased, He
remained in that intermediate world — in hades— a
while, to finish there the work which He had in-

oue loed's woek of judgment, etc. 123
augurated. As it is written in the Creed, " He de
scended into hell." But, as is well known, this is an
incorrect translation. It simply means, that He
went into the world of departed spirits. In it our
Lord remained during the forty days after His re
surrection, and before His ascension into heaven.
While there, He frequently appeared to His disciples
by the opening of their spiritual sight. While there,
too, He went and preached to captive souls, who had
been held in bondage there ever since the judgment
that had been executed in the days of Noah.
This last fact has of late years been thrown into
some doubt in the mind of the general reader, .sim
ply by the obscurity of translation in our New Testa
ment. As the passage stands in our Bible (1 Pet.
iii. 18, 19, 20), it reads, after speaking of Christ as
having come to bring us salvation, "being put to
death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit : by
which also He went and preached unto the spirits
in prison, which sometime were disobedient while
once the long suffering of God waited in the days
of Noah, while the ark was preparing." As we
notice, the thought is here coveyed with a degree of
indistinctness. On turning, now, to the Peshito version — the edi
tion of the New Testament prepared as early as the
second century for the use of the Syrian Christians,
and translated, some say, under the eyes of the
apostles themselves — we find the idea more clearly
expressed. It reads : " And He died in (as to) His
body, but lived in (as to) spirit. And He preached

124 OUE LOED S WOEK OF JUDGMENT, ETC.
to" those souls which were detained in hades, which
were formerly disobedient in the days of Noah, when
the long suffering of God commanded an ark to be
made, in hope of their repentance.
Here, as we see, the affirmation is distinct that
those spirits had been detained in hades ever since
the days of Noah. And hence, too, the judgment in
the days of Lot could not have been entirely univer
sal, for these spirits had still been left in that inter
mediate world.
Is it surprising, then, that, with the vast amount
of Scripture testimony there is to the point, followed
by the constant teaching of the apostles, we find the'
primitive Christian Church full of this doctrine?
The Lord's great work in the unseen world was a
prominent theme in all their teaching and writing.
Not long since, an entire volume was published in
Boston, made up of extracts on this point from their
writings. For five hundred years, the early Church
comes forward to us, with an unbroken front, having
this doctrine of Redemption inscribed on its banners.
And shall not we, too, let it into our creeds ?
[The Doctrine of Reconciliation or "Atonement,"
and the grand theme of the glorification of the hu
manity assumed by our Lord, the making it Divine,
and thence the plenary unition of the Humanity
with the Supreme Divinity, though of the utmost
importance, and every way inviting, are subjects
which we do not now purpose to discuss. J
There is a general impression abroad that we live
on the eve of great events with respect to the

OtTE LOED's WOEE OF JUDGMENT, ETO. 125
Church. Christians almost everywhere are looking
for some new manifestations of light and life, and
this impression, we feel assured, is well founded.
The Lord will be present with men in greater ful
ness of power. This is the day of His second
coming, and He is now in the world through the
medium of His Truth, and the influences of His
Spirit. He is here to institute His Latter-day
Church, the Church of the New Jerusalem. His
angels are with Him in the world of spirits, to act
as His agents in carrying on the work. They press
in to be received by men. And they will continue
to pour the influences of the spiritual world upon us
until their work- is accomplished. New light and
illustration are to break out and continue to flow
from the pages of His Holy Word. True Christian
doctrine is to be restored, the Bible is to be better
understood, new life is to be infused into the Church ;
men are now called to serve Him with greater faith
fulness and purity ; while there will be granted them
more power in subduing their own evils, in renova
ting their lives, and being obedient to His command
ments.

126

CHAPTER XII.

THE "END," NOT "OF THE WORLD," BUT OP THE
DISPENSATION.
" And as He sat npon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came
unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be ?
And what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of
the world." — Matt. xxiv. 3.

The " end of the world " is a subject which has
attracted considerable attention. That such an
event is to take place has long been a doctrine in
the Christian world. It has been supposed that this
habitable globe will be destroyed, the ground or
earth be consumed by fire, the stars fall from the
visible heavens overhead, the heavens themselves
being rolled together like a scroll, be swept from ex
istence, the history of nations cease, and the birth
or propagation of mankind come to an end.
These views have been drawn from the Sacred
Scripture. Two classes of passages in the Bible
have been supposed to teach or imply them, viz. :
first, those in which, as in the above, the end of the
world is distinctly spoken of, and, secondly, those

127
others in which the sun, moon, and stars are spoken
of as falling from their places or being darkened,
the sea being no more, and the earth as being de
stroyed, or purified, or burned up by fire.
Much has been written to expand, illustrate, and
define these views. Confirmations of them have
been sought from a variety of sources. Heathen
traditions have been made to contribute their share;
while various facts of science have, in former times,
been so read as to have them appear to favor the
same conclusions. Various theories of the event
have been devised, and while the discoveries of
modern science have served to modify the views in
many respects, as held among the learned, yet we
may put it down as the common idea of the Chris
tian world, that the earth is going to be destroyed in
no great length of time. The greater the attention
'which any men pay to this class of subjects, and
the more they search the prophecies in that view,
the more disposed do we find them to believe that
the time is at hand, and therefore to declare that the
end of all things draweth nigh.
Now we, of the New Church, have points of agree
ment with this general Christian view. We believe
in the actual and complete fulfilment of all divine
prophecy. We believe that these passages of Scrip
ture do foretell very remarkable events to happen in
the course of the world's history. And we further
agree with the great body of Christian commentators
that their fulfilment may properly be expected in
or about this age of the world : that these are the

128
times spoken of as the latter days ; the days in which
the prophecies of the Holy Word run to their culmi
nation. We look upon the centuries now passing,
therefore, as a great transition period in the affairs of
the Church, and consequently in human history.
But we differ in our understanding of the Scrip
tures. We do not agree with the interpretation
which they put upon much of the Bible language.
We are accustomed to read there a different line
of thought on these subjects from that which they,
for the most part, seem to find. Therefore we
are expecting a different kind of fulfilment ; we are
not looking for the same sort of events to happen as
those for which they are looking.
We believe, according to the repeated declarations
made by the Lord in the volume of His Word, that
He hath created the earth and established it that it
may abide forever; that He hath given it fixed foun
dations that it cannot be moved ; that He made it
to be inhabited, and that He hath given it as a per
manent possession to the children of men. " One
generation passeth away and another eometh, but the
earth abideth forever."
We are told that the object which our Heavenly
Father has in view is the formation of a heaven out
of the human race, which may go on increasing in
purity, in happiness, and in numbers to eternity.
The earth, therefore, is required as a seminary for
heaven — as a place for the birth and education of the
human race — as a place from which the population
of heaven may be continually increased by the emi-

129
gration of good people from this world to the other,
through the process of natural death.
Hence we believe that the earth will endure;
that men will not cease to be born and grow up on
this planet. No outward change will come to break
up the' onward flow of human history. The nations
will go on and develop as heretofore. The stars
will move on in their courses, and all the visible
heavens remain as they are. The solid framework
of the globe will abide. Ita surface will remain
undisturbed, save as it may be gradually altered by
the operation of certain geological forces which are
constantly at work. The population of the globe
will increase, and one who should revisit this earth
a thousand years from now — a hundred thousand
years from now — will find it much as it is at present
in its essential features ; only more populous, civili
zation more advanced, and more widely extended,
the Gospel more diffused, more unity of sentiment on
the great themes of religion, and men, on the whole,
at the end of each great cycle, possessed of more wis
dom and endowed with greater degrees of goodness,
morality, and social order.
It will naturally be asked, then, How do we dis
pose of the two classes of passages in Scripture com
monly understood to predict the destruction of the
world? And to this question we will endeavor
briefly to reply.
1. When we lay aside our common translation of
the Bible and turn to the Greek Testament, we do
not find the " end of the world " foretold at all.

130 THE " END," NOT " OF THE WOELD."

There is no such expression there. Nor is there any
phrase or expression that answers to it.
There is in the Greek a common and familiar
word to express our idea of the visible world. And
that word is Kosmos. It is peculiarly and distinct
ively fitted to translate it, standing in the Greek
mind for just the idea that our common word world
does in the English mind ; meaning sometimes visi
ble nature, and sometimes also the men inhabiting
visible nature. Now this word was familiar to the
writers of the New Testament in just this sense, and
they constantly employed it in this sense. Whenever
they desired to speak of the world of nature, or of
the world of men inhabiting nature, they used the
term Kosmos. It occurs no less than a hundred and
ninety-one times, in this sense, in the New Testa
ment, and is always so translated in our common
version. We see, therefore, what they said when
they wanted to say world ; they said Kosmos.
Now this phrase which we are here considering,
" end of the world," occurs seven times in our copies
of the New Testament; five times in Matthew, and
twice in the Epistles of Paul. But in these seven
cases the word Kosmos is not used. It is never said
that the Kosmos is going to eome to an end, but
another term is employed. The word Awn is intro
duced to denote that which closes up or comes to an
end. It is always the end of the Awn that is fore
told, and of the Aim only. Now this is a term
which relates to time, expressing the idea of dura
tion or length. It answers vei-y nearly to our word

THE " END," NOT " OF THE WOELD." 131
age; and means the period or cycle through which
anything lasts. This will be found by consulting
the common Lexicons of New Testament Greek.
Different things have their aion or age, the period
through wliich they endure. Thus the age of man
is said to be seventy years ; a tree has its age ; an
empire has its aion or period of endurance. And so
there are great aions or ages, or periods in the Church,
under successive Divine dispensations, and the aion
or age is the time during which a dispensation lasts.
Thus the period from Adam to Noah constituted one
of these ages or Divine dispensations, which was
brought to an end by the flood. The Jewish aion,
age, or dispensation, commencing from the call of
Abraham, or from Moses, was finished or came to an
end when our Lord appeared in the world.
In two of these seven instances where this phrase
is used in the New Testament it is applied to the
Jewish dispensation ; viz. : 1 Cor. x. 11, and Heb.
ix. 26. The apostle refers to the termination of
the Jewish age, the Jewish order of things in the
Church — saying in one place, " Now all these things
happened unto them for examples: and they are
written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of
fhe world are come." Here we see that the apostle
declares himself and brethren to be living at the
time of the end of the world, if we accept the com
mon translation. But he did not mean to say that.
He says that they are living at the end of an aion
or a series of alons, meaning thereby the end of the
Jewish age or dispensation, and of those which had

132
preceded ; and hence Conybeare and Howson [cler
gymen of the Church of England, who have given
us the best translation of the Epistles] render this
passage, " Now all these things befell them as sha
dows of things to come ; and they are written for
our warning, on whom the ends of the ages are
come." This is the proper translation.
So, in the other passage, Heb. ix. 26, speaking of
our Lord, the apostle says : " But now once in the
end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin
by the sacrifice of Himself."
Now, if we accept the common translation, the end
of the world was to be then, at the first coming of
our Lord. But it did not happen then. Nor did
the apostle mean to say that it would. Conybeare
and Howson render this passage, " But now once in
the end of the ages, hath He appeared, to do away
sin by the sacrifice of Himself." This is the correct
translation, for the word here occurs in the plural, as
in the other passage just cited. Dr. Robinson, in
his Lexicon of the New Testament, says that the
apostle in these two instances undoubtedly refers to
the end of the Jewish dispensation ; and such is the
common consent of scholars.
In Matthew, in the five instances named, the word
occurs each time in the singular, the end of the age,
and is used by our Lord to designate the time when
the last judgment should occur in the world of the
departed, the first Christian age or Apostolical, dis
pensation cease, and the age and dispensation of the
latter day Church, *. e., the New Jerusalem, should

THE
commence. In the writings of the New Church this
phrase is translated, the consummation of the age,
which is equivalent to the closing or winding up of
the dispensation : a rendering which is now every
where concurred in by the best scholarship of the
time. Thus, it will be perceived, that, in accordance with
our Lord's words, we are not looking for the de
struction of the world, nor for violent commotions in
visible, material nature, but for important changes,
and the commencement of a new order of things
with respect to the Church, both in the spiritual world
and in the natural world ; or in the world of spirits
and in the world of men ; a new age already com
menced, and now progressing.

134 MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTEUOTION.

CHAPTER XIII.
MEANING OP THE SYMBOLISM OP DESTRUCTION.
" And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-
tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty
wind." — Rbv. vi. 13.

We come now to the other class of passages, viz. : —
those which speak of the sun as ceasing to shine,
of the moon as being turned to blood, of the stars
as falling from heaven ; and of commotions, like
earthquakes and conflagrations in the solid frame
work of the habitable globe. With respect to all
this class of passages, we have this one general re
mark to make: they occur in the prophets; the
prophetic style is highly figurative, universally ac
knowledged to be so. It constantly veils spiritual
things in natural things. It speaks by correspond
ences, setting forth things belonging to the heavenly
kingdom by images of corresponding things seen in
the natural kingdom. Its language is that of sym
bolism, while its particular words are so many distinct
emblems. Now, in a general way, this truth is acknowledged

MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTEUOTION. 135
by all commentators, and hence so many elaborate
works on the symbolism of Scripture, and the best
methods of understanding and interpreting it. But
the doctrine that this visible world is to come to an
end, and the earth be burned up with fire, is one
so dear to the heart of many theological thinkers,
that they are slow to give it up, and so hold on to
any passage which may seem to give it support or
favor. But the prophets speak by inspiration from on high.
Their discourse is of Divine and heavenly things.
They speak of the Church, and of man as a member
of the Church, and hence they describe spiritual and
heavenly things. When our Lord came, and He
and His apostles explained any of the old prophecies,
they gave them a meaning quite distinct from that
which the Jews had learned by following the letter.
They interpreted all the prophecies as relating to the
Lord's kingdom or Church, as having a Christian sig
nification, apart from their Jewish sense. The
sun, and the moon, and the stars, do not mean those
literal, visible bodies in the outward world, but stand
in the sacred text as hieroglyphics, or emblems of
spiritual things, which hold the places in the Church,
and perform functions there corresponding to the
offices which these visible bodies hold in the outward
sky. Those bodies are the visible dispensers of heav
enly light and heat, and so, are used as types of those
inward things which are the mediums of heavenly
light and heat to the soul. The symbolism is simple,
distinct, and clear. The sun is the greater light ; the

136 MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTEUOTION.
moon the lesser ; while the stars are the more nume
rous, but still smaller lights.
Now, in the Church, the first thing is charity, or,
more properly perhaps, love, heavenly love — love to
God and love to man. This is the central principle.
And when this love is vigorous and active and alive
in the Church, then the sun shines, for the Lord, who
is the real sun of the spiritual universe, sheds down
the light of His countenance upon us. We see Him
as He is ; while we are warmed and vivified by the
rays of His spirit.
The second light is faith ; while the lights of lesser
degree are those knowledges of heavenly and Divine
things^those knowledges of revealed truth from the
Divine word which the men of the Church learn and
store up in their memories, and so keep shining in
their thoughts. Hence, it is evident that when these
several things decay successively from the mind of
the Church, the heavenly lights become darkened.
Thus, when charity wanes or dies out, or, as our
Lord expresses it in this very prophecy, when true
Christian "love waxes cold," then it is said in the
prophets that the sun goes down or becomes dark
ened ; because, as we at such times withdraw from
the Lord, hiding, as it were, our faces from Him, the
light of His countenance fails to reach us, ceasing
thus to shine upon and influence us.
So, when there is an eclipse of faith in the Church,
when there is doubt andobscurity, and only a half-way
belief in the higher spiritual truths taught in the Scrip
tures, men knowing hardly what to believe, then the

MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTEUOTION. 137
moon is said to withdraw her shining, or to be turned
to blood, the appearance presented in a literal eclipse.
And, when the knowledges of Divine and heavenly
things, the teachings of holy Scripture, fade from the
memories of men, and they forget them, no longer
recurring to them in thought, but grope on without
them, immersed in the thought and feeling of self
ish and worldly things, then the stars are said to fall
from their places, or to cease from shining, and so
disappear. For at such times the whole heaven be
comes dark ; men no longer look up. There is no
longer any illumination as to spiritual things. And
He who came to be the light of the world is no lon
ger able to shine at such times or in such a class of
minds by any of the lamps of His truth.
Such being the meaning of this symbolism, there
fore, at one place in the prophet Isaiah, where the
New Jerusalem is spoken of, after it shall have ar
rived at its full, and so, a happy and prosperous state
of the Church is depicted as coming in the latter
times, there a contrary form of speaking is employ
ed; and to the Church there addressed it is said,
" Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy
moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine
everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning
shall be ended ;" -whereby is signified and meant the
last or full state of the true Christian Church in the
latter times ; described also in the last chapter of
Revelation, in which charity or love shall no more
decay, nor a genuine, rational, and living faith be
come extinct.

138 MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTEUOTION.
Confirmations of the truth of this view of the
prophecies are numerous and constant. The pro
phets of the Old Testament repeatedly employed the
same sort of symbolism to describe the changes which
were to occur, and which have occurred at other
great crises or epochs, the closing up of certain im
portant historic periods. The fall of ancient Baby
lon was foretold under a similar form of emblematic
representation. The prophecy is contained iii Isaiah
xiii. The whole chapter is occupied with it. The
title is, "The burden ofy Babylon." After descri
bing the wickedness on account of which the destruc
tion is to come, it says (v. 10), " For the stars of
heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give
their light ; the sun shall be darkened in his going
forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine."
The prophet then returns to speak of the abound
ing corruption and wickedness which have brought
about the overthrow of her empire.
So, too, it is common for them to speak of the
Jewish Church, age, and dispensation, as closing up
or coming to an end in a similar manner. We have
room here, of course, for little more than the gene
ral remark ; but that the memory may have some
thing distinct to rest upon, we will cite one or two
remarkable instances. The first occurs in the eighth
chapter of Amos. " The end is come !" the prophet
begins. "The end" — of what? Of the physical
world? No: "the end is come upon my people
Israel ;" the end of the Jewish Church. tf Shall not
the land tremble for this ? (lie continues), and every

MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTEUOTION. 139
one mourn that dwelleth therein ? and it shall rise
up wholly as a flood ; and it shall be cast out and
drowned as by the flood of Egypt. And it shall
come to pass in that day, saith the Lord Jehovah,
that I will cause the sun to go down at noon. And
I will darken the earth in the clear day."
Thus, we see, are depicted the moral convulsions,
and the moral darkness, that were to exist when our
Lord should appear in the world, and thence the
Jewish economy come to its end.
One other instance may help to make this subject
still clearer. In the prophet Joel, the closing up of
that dispensation is described in these remarkable
words : " The earth shall quake before them ; the
heavens shall tremble ; the sun and the moon shall
be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the
earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The
sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into
blood, before the great and terrible day of Jehovah
shall come ;" and a little further on, he says again,
" For the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of
decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened,
and the stars shall withdraw their shining. Jehovah
also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from
Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall

So we could bring many passages of similar im
port, if it were necessary, to confirm the truth. It
is the common way in which the prophets describe
the moral declension of such periods, and the changes

140 MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTEUOTION.
which thus come in the Church. That they refer to
the closing up of the Jewish economy is quite clear
from what they severally assert. Besides, we have
no room for cavil or doubt on this point. For the
Apostle Peter, standing up before the assembled
multitudes on the day of Pentecost, quotes at length
this very passage we have now given from the pro
phet Joel, referring to the prophet for it, telling them
that it was then and there fulfilled, in the events
they were then beholding, in the coming of the Mes
siah and the beginning of a new age.
The passage from Acts ii., 14 to 21., inclusive, is
as follows : " But Peter, standing up with the eleven,
lifted'up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of
Judea, and all ye that dwell in Jerusalem, be this
known unto you, and hearken to my words' ; — for
these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing that it
is but the third hour of the day. But this is that
which is spoken by the prophet Joel, And it shall
come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour
out my Spirit upon all flesh ; and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall
see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams ; and
on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour
out in those days of my Spirit ; and they shall pro
phesy ; and I will show wonders in heaven above,
and signs on the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and
vapor of smoke ; the sun shall be turned into dark
ness, and the moon into blood, before that great and
notable day of the Lord come. And it shall come to

" MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTEUOTION. 141
pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved."
The apostle then goes on to show that the things
meant by this prophecy were then being fulfilled,
in the circumstances of that time, the appearance,
death, and resurrection of the Messiah, in the
spiritual changes thus wrought, and in the closing
up of the old dispensation, thus brought to an end.
Hence, therefore, the argument is a short one ;
and, as we think, both a sound and a clear one. As
such movements and convulsions did not take place
in the physical heavens and in the habitable globe,
when the empire of ancient Babylon was destroyed,
nor yet when the Jewish economy came to its ter
mination, at the time of the first coming of our Lord ;
so we believe they will not occur at the end of the
first Christian dispensation, when the Lord introduces
what is meant by His second coming. . But whereas,
at the time of that end, a new spiritual order was
introduced, and the Christian Church arose, so we
believe that now, at this "end," a new spiritual
order is introduced, and that the Church of the New
Jerusalem arises, beginning to form and to spread.
We believe that the prophetic symbolism used by
the writers of the New Testament to describe these
latter day events has the same spiritual meaning that
the same symbols have in the older prophets, and there
fore ought to be similarly interpreted. Those pro
phecies of the Old Testament did receive an actual,
and complete fulfilment in the circumstances of
those times, and in the spiritual changes which then

142 MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTEUOTION.
took place— changes in regard to the Lord's King
dom or Church, both in the World of spirits and in
the world of men. And so we believe that the
similar prophecies of the New Testament receive
their actual and complete fulfilment in the circum
stances of these times, and in the spiritual changes
which now take place, changes in respect to impor
tant things relating to the Lord's Kingdom or
Church; both in the world of spirits, and in the
world of men.
The pressure of arguments like these has borne
strongly upon the methods of Scriptural interpreta
tion, and has produced its results. They have
modified, and still are modifying, more and more,
the views which modern commentators take. The
best writers are constantly nearing the New Church
on these points. The number of those who hold to
a literal castastrophe is diminishing. Such has been
the process with one text of Scripture after another,
that we believe we shall state the matter exactly
when we say, that there is now but one single pas- '
sage left, in the whole Bible, which, in the estimation
of advanced scholars, is still thought to point unmis
takably to a physical commotion, and consequent
ending of the World. This is the prediction con
tained in 3d chapter 2d Epistle of Peter, where he
says that " the heavens and the earth which'now are,
are kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the day
of judgment ; " that " the heavens shall pass away
with a great noise, the elements shall melt with fer
vent heat ; the earth also ; and the works that are

MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTEUOTION. 143
therein shall be burned up." He then refers to the
promise given in Isaiah, of " new heavens and a
new earth." Many find it quite difficult to give up
this passage in its literal application, passing it over
into that class of predictions which speak by pro
phetic symbolism or imagery. But for ourselves,
we must confess we can discover no such difficulty.
It seems simple and clear to us that the Apostle is
speaking here in the spirit, and according to the
general usage of Holy Prophecy. He is speaking
of the same events that are elsewhere foretold, and
he uses a very similar form of language.
When we come to reflect upon it, we shall see
that one of two things, here, is true.
Either the apostle, having his spiritual eyes open,
was in holy vision, in which a symbolical representa
tion of the coming event was shown him, as it was
to the other prophets ; or else, these predictions of
his are meant to be a reference to and a summary of
the prophecies concerning this event given by other
prophets, and contained in other parts of Scripture.
He must here be speaking as a prophet himself, or
as quoting other previous prophets. In either case,
it seems to us, the mode of interpretation must be
the same. He must be understood in the same way.
For, if he spake as one in vision, certainly the sym
bols he employs and the images he uses must be un
derstood according to the common rules of prophetic
language, and interpreted as the same or similar
symbols are when elsewhere occurring in the pro
phets.

144 MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTEUOTION.
But, there is no evidence here that Peter spoke in
vision. He does not seem to be uttering an original
prophecy, then given him by the Lord to communi
cate to the world, but appears, rather, under Divine
influence, to give a recapitulation or paraphrase or
summary of the prophecies already known on the
subject, especially of our Lord's words, uttered in
the presence of His disciples, and recorded in Matt.
xxiv., as well as in one of the last chapters of Luke.
And the closing words of the paragraph^ we may
say, render this quite certain. For he adds,^-
" Nevertheless, we look, according to His promise,-
for new heavens, and a new earth, in which dwelleth
righteousness," thus referring to what had been fore
told in Isaiah.
Of course he did not mean to put a new interpre
tation on those prophecies ; his object is simply to
recall them to mind. We think that the passage
here in the Epistle is akin to that other one, already
cited, in the sermon of the same apostle on the day
of Pentecost, in which, as we have seen, he quotes
and comments on the prophecies of the prophet Joel.
We do not think he had changed his view of the
meaning of the prophecies between the time he
preached and the time he wrote. And as he gave
them a spiritual interpretation, treating the language
in which they are conveyed as figurative language
then, so we believe he intended to be understood in this
latter instance ; the language quoted being employed
as figurative or symbolical, and meant to be under
stood in a spiritual or significative sense. And there

MEANTNG OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTEUOTION. 145
are not wanting commentators who, within the last
few years, have come to this view, outside of the New
Church, from, the simple study of the Scriptures them
selves. Thus, writers increase who give up all belief
in a physical catastrophe. An opening of the Divine
prophecies according to the laws of correspondence,
renders clear all the subjects to which they relate ; it
removes the obscurities and brings us face to face with
those great realities of which the Bible treats. It en
lightens our minds by disclosing the actual meaning
of the Scriptures and placing before our thought the
enduring truths of heaven and the Church.
We have already seen they are the interpretations
which the Scriptures themselves, when rightly ex
amined, induce us to put upon them. They "are the
Lord's own commentary on His own Book. They
express exactly what the Bible says and means when
it is allowed to bring out its whole thought.
It is the mode of interpretation that our Lord and
His apostles applied to the Old Testament scrip
tures, when they came and told the Jews that they
were no longer to look for the establishment of a
great earthly kingdom, but only for a new spiritual
kingdom : that the Messiah, instead of being a great
earthly Monarch, of vast power and influence, sitting
upon the literal throne of David, was a spiritual
Monarch, ruling by the convincing power of His
truth, and through the influences of His spirit upon
the hearts of men. It seems to us that Christianity
is a broader, more interesting, more real, more im
portant fact than a universal Jewish empire would
7

146 MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTEUOTION.
have been, though it had covered the whole earth ;
while the spiritual fact is far more useful to man
kind than the literal fact would have been.
And so now, we get clear, definite, rational, con
sistent views of higher, nobler, and more enduring
realities by opening our eyes to the spiritual sense and
, meaning of Divine prophecy and Holy Scripture,
than by confining our thoughts to the mere letter or
outward symbol of the Bible ; the shell or husk in
which the pure wheat of heavenly truth lies inclosed,
and, to some, concealed.
An event wliich affects the mental and spiritual
states of mankind, operating to mold their charac
ter and their destiny through a succession of ages, is
far greater, and holds a better place in the memo
ries of men, than one which affects merely physical
bodies, like convulsions of the earth. How little do
we remember or care to recall the great eruption of
Vesuvius which overwhelmed the cities of Pompeii
and Herculaneum ! The simple preaching of Paul
in the city of Rome was a more significant fact, and
one that lives more vividly in the hearts of men.
That great earthquake, which more than a hundred
years ago shook the Lusitanian peninsula, opening its
chasms along the shores of Portugal, swallowing up
the city of Lisbon, burying houses and people
beneath the soil, has almost faded from the memory
of men ; few ever recur to it, while the memory of
such a man as Robert Raikes, an humble individual,
doing so simple a thing as to open and organize a
Sunday-school, lives on, growing brighter and fresher

MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTEUOTION. 147
as time advances, becoming stronger from the
accumulation of its effects. So, a convulsion of
nature which should shake the Mississippi valley,
changing the course of the river, opening chasms in
the Alleghany mountains, and bringing up volcanic
islands in the Gulf of Mexico, would not be so great
a fact, and would not impress itself so livingly or
forcibly upon the minds of men, as the simple land
ing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock, or as will
that mental and moral earthquake which has been
shaking our social system for the last few years, and
which is working such changes in human opinion
and in the conditions of our American society.
So, in this day, by withdrawing the mind of
the Church from the outward convulsions of nature,
which in themselves are comparatively uninteresting
and dead, and which have no moral force or efficacy,
accomplishing no good, and directing that mind to
the grand events which are really happening in this
age, we turn it from the husks and give it the corn.
We open for it the shell of Divine prophecy, and give
it the meat. By bringing into view the judgment
accomplished in the world of the departed, the open
ing of .the spiritual meaning of the Bible, the revela
tion, from the bosom of Holy Scripture, of the heav
enly system of doctrines, and the formation of a
church teaching those doctrines, in fulfilment of
the prophecy concerning the New Jerusalem, thus
opening a new, perpetual Age of development and
progress, ministering to the elevation and improve
ment of mankind, calling upon them to acknowledge

148 MEANING OF THE SYMBOLISM OF DESTEUOTION:
and serve the Lord in His second coming, — we give to
the religious thought of the Church substantial reali
ties upon which to rest, and open its eyes to the
actual intent and meaning of Holy Prophecy.

BCIENTTFIO CONFIEMATION. 149

CHAPTER XIY.
SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION; THE PAST OP THE EARTH.
" The Lord reigneth ; He is clothed with majesty ; the Lord is
clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the
world also is established, that it oannot be moved." * * "Say
among the heathen that the Lord reigneth ; the world also shall be
established that it shall not be moved." * * *
" Thy throne is established of old, Thou art from everlasting."
* * " One generation passeth away, and another generation i
eometh, but the earth abideth forever." — Ps. xom. 1, 2 ; Ps. xovx
10 ; ECCL. I. 4
These words convey an idea of perpetuity and
endurance : they leave an impression on the mind
of fixed and immovable stability with respect to the
visible creations of God. For abiding permanency
they are compared to His very throne in the heavens,
which is from everlasting to everlasting.
We believe they are to endure : and in preceding
chapters have given a brief view of the Scriptural
argument : endeavoring to show that the destruction
of the visible heavens and the habitable globe is no
where intended to be foretold in the Scripture.
We proceed now to present a different side of the
argument, bringing into view various rational and

150 SCIENTIFIC CONFTEMATION.
scientific considerations which go to confirm tho
doctrine of perpetuity.
The one we shall first call attention to is tho
argument drawn from the evolution of the Divine
purposes. We know that the Lord is stable ; that
His plans do not fail of being carried out; and that
His purposes run on with a steadfast consistency
unto the end. We have already hinted at what this
purpose is, as made clear to us in the revelations of
His Word, viz. ; first of all, that there may exist a
heaven out of the human race, composed of willing
beings, loving and serving Him forever ; and that
this heaven may be continually increased by the re
ception into it of new persons, born, and educated,
and regenerated, and grown up for that purpose:
And, therefore, secondly, that this earth is wanted
and intended by the Creator as a seminary for that
heaven ; as a place for the birth, increase and edu
cation of mankind. There is no other origin for the
population of the spiritual world. All the angels
have been men, and all the inhabitants of heaven
have been men, having mortal bodies, and dwelling
on some material earth. For, as the Apostle alleges,
that is first which is natural, and afterwards that
which is spiritual. Hence, the planets were created
for this purpose ; created to be lived on by men ; as
much so as the houses along the streets in any of our
cities were built to be inhabited or dwelt in. ,
Now this is the object for which our earth was
made, and the human race placed here upon it ; that
heaven may be increased by good men going from it.

SCIENTTFIO CONFIEMATION. 151
In order to get a full impression of this idea and
the weight of the argument growing from it, we
must go back a little. We must follow the evolu
tion of this divine purpose from its earlier stages.
We must go back also for another purpose. It will
be useful to look at the state of religious opinion a
hundred and twenty-five years ago, and then mark
some of the changes which have since occurred in
it. In that day the popular idea of time was very
limited indeed. All time, as it related to this world,
was thought to be contained within a very narrow
space. Six or seven thousand years were supposed to
be its utmost extent. The earth, with all the starry
worlds above us and around us, had been created, it
was believed, in six consecutive days of twenty-four
hours each, about six thousand years ago. And all
these were to be destroyed, going back to nothing
again, from whence they came, in no great length
of time. They might possibly endure a thousand
years longer, but there was faint hope even of that.
From one to three hundred years was looked to by
most minds as being the probable limit of its future
duration. It was a very common idea that the
whole of time as related to our world, from its be
ginning to its end, would be included in a period of
seven thousand years.
Such was the teaching, and such was the common
belief while this was fortified and confirmed by
the science of the time. Science, then in its infancy,
had many crude notions as well as theology. A

152 SCIENTrFIC CONFTEMATION.
great many of its conclusions were hastily and im
perfectly formed. It brought to the aid of theology
the indications of aqueous disturbance found on the
earth's surface, as so many evidences of a universal
deluge. It pointed to the volcanic flames bursting
forth in so many places, shaking the earth with con
vulsions, and spreading such devastation around, as
confirmation strong that the earth was to come to
an end and be burned up with fire. While, looking
up into the starry heavens, and discovering there
certain changes and irregularities in the motions of
the planets, it inferred that the clock would soon run
down, that it contained within itself the seeds of its own
destruction, and that the heavenly bodies were al
ready hurrying into that whirlpool of irregular motion
in which the whole vast mechanism would at length
be overwhelmed.
Now, down into that world of opinion, thus con
stituted, of theologic and scientific thought, came the
New Church system. It opened the Word of God,
and called attention to the new meaning everywhere
involved in it — meaning, which till then had been
overlooked, only a few fragments of it having before
been obscurely or dimly seen. On this authority it
declared new doctrine or opinion on all these subjects,
drawing the attention of the thinkers of that day to
a higher set of rational considerations, and saying to
them, in effect : " Time has no such narrow bounda
ries as you are setting to it. The real spirit and
meaning of the Holy Scripture is above the letter, as
a soul is higher .than the body in which it dwells.

SOIENTTFIO CONFrEMATION. 153
The first eleven chapters of Genesis, preceding the
call of Abraham, are documents of an earlier time
than the days of Moses. They are not simple history
like the rest. They are essentially prophetic in their
structure ; composed of ancient hieroglyphics written
down, after the manner of the earliest times ; and
under a* garb of natural and worldly figures, treating
of the church, its history, of the Lord's kingdom and
of heavenly things. They were written for the spir
itual instruction of the people to whom they were
given, and not for the purpose of treasuring up the
memory of natural things. The creation there meant
and described is not the literal creation of the out
ward world. The antediluvian ages are not the lit
eral ages of individual men ; the deluge described is
not a deluge of literal water covering the whole earth ;
the tower of Babel is not a literal tower piercing the
clouds. The creation is older than you think. Men
have been longer on the globe than you are aware.
The Creator has been long in perfecting his plans.
And, more than this, the earth is not going to be de
stroyed ; the inhabitable globe will not be burned up
or disturbed ; the visible heavens are not going to
pass away. The creation which God has made is
stable, and will last forever."
Thus, it challenged the whole thought of that
age on every one of these points. It took those nar
row limits which had been set to earthly time, and
pushed them indefinitely back at either end ; on the
one hand far away into the past,' and on the other
interminably forward into the future.
7*

154 SCIENTIFIC CONFrEMATION.
Since then the intelligent opinion of the world
has changed. There probably is not on record a more
remarkable instance of the corroboration of spiritual
truth by scientific discovery, than that which has
been afforded to New Church views by the develop
ments since that day. The whole progress^ of dis
covery from that time to this has been one steady
and constant march over from those old views, for
ward towards the new. Every step that scientific
knowledge has taken has been in this one direction,
with no retrograde movement, and not so much even
as a looking back. Every ten years has added some
thing to the stock, and taken the rational mind to a
greater distance away from the old conclusions. On
all points are the great accepted doctrines of scien
tific demonstration not only in harmony with the
New Church principles, but in many remarkable
ways affording distinct corroborations of them.
To-day men do not believe in the modern origin
of our earth, nor in a creation in six literal days.
Geology has come, and slowly turning with her steady
hand, one after another, those ponderousieaves of the
earth's crust upon which the whole process of creation,
in every one of its successive stages, has been indeli
bly recorded, has been reading to us from thence its
interesting and wonderful disclosures. A hundred
thousand years are seen, now, to be no more than as
it were a single hour marked off on the great dial-
plate of time. For a half million of years has the
earth been in a state of comparative rest : the conti
nents and the general configuration of the surface

SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION. 155
having been all that time in very nearly the condition
in which we find them : while the ages which pre
ceded can be counted only by millions, and in -con
templating them the mind becomes lost in a simple
maze of indefinite duration. Stars have come within
the field of the Rosse telescope whose light, it is esti
mated, has been on its way hither three and a half
millions of years, and how much longer they have
been shining we do not know.
The order of the visible creation is seen to be quite
different in many particulars from that mentioned in
the letter of Genesis. All traces of a literal deluge
as having occurred since man came upon the earth,
are now known to be fallacious appearances. There
are no evidences of such a deluge. Dr. Hitchcock,
in his book on the subject, says that if there ever
were any such physical evidences, they must have
been miraculously removed from the planet, for
none now exist. On the other hand, the evidences
are all against it. The scientific considerations all go
to show that there has never been any such cataclysm
or flood as had been supposed.
A great part of this change in public opinion has
been wrought within the distinct recollection of
many of us. Not more than thirty or thirty-five
years ago, when Prof. Silliman, in his Lectures on
Geology, began to bring out in this country the evi
dences of the great age of the earth, and the long
process of creation, he received letters from clergy
men in various parts of the country, urging him to

156 SCIENTIFIC CONFORMATION.
desist, and setting forth the great peril that would
thus arise to the current views in theology.
Within the last five years, while we in this
country have been principally absorbed in carrying
on a prodigious war for the preservation of our na
tional existence, researches have been going on
abroad which add to the long catalogue of these
confirmations, looking towards other important and
interesting conclusions. The antiquity of man has
been a prominent topic of inquiry, and the. evi
dences of the presence of men here in very remote
times are rapidly accumulating. More than fifty
localities have been discovered in which human re
mains, bones, and various works of art, are found
embedded in fixed strata. From down under the
London clay, a hundred and fifty feet deep, they
have been brought up, as well as out of the chalk
basin underneath the city of Paris. To what con
clusions alLthese researches may at last bring us, we
are of course unable to say, but it is enough for us
at present that they all look towards the extension
of past time, and the prolongation of human chro
nology on the planet.

S0IENTIFI0 CONFIEMaVnON. 157

CHAPTER XV.
SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION; THE WORLD TO ABIDE
IN THE FUTURE.
11 The heaven, even the heavens are the Lord's ; but the earth
hath He given to the children of men."— Ps. oxv. 16.
"He hath established them for ever and ever." — Ps. cxivni. 6.
So much for the past. We see how patient the
Creator has been in maturing His plans, and how
much time He has employed in developing His de
signs to the point where we now find them. Literally,
a thousand years have been to Him as if they were
only a single day ; while everything that has been
done has been continuously instrumental in carrying
forward His principal purpose, of preparing here a
dwelling-place for men.
And when we look around us, what do we now
behold? Everything completed ? Everything hav
ing been converted to its use, having fulfilled its
purpose— having performed all that it is capable of
performing — and so worn out, and ready to be re
moved ? No ; we do not find that. We find nature
nowhere worn out; quite the contrary. We find
her everywhere vigorous, as ready to perform her
usual functions as ever ; nowhere does she exhibit
any signs of decay.
And, more than this, the Divine arrangements are
manifestly not yet completed. The machinery is in

158 SCIENTIFIC CONFIEMATION.
motion, running on in a most perfect and beautiful
order towards the fulfilment of the final purpose;
but the purpose itself, we can see, is as yet only
partially accomplished.
Were a stranger to visit the city of Portland at
the present moment,* and traverse the streets in the
burnt district, what is it that he would behold ? He
would see motion, great energy, activity, and enter
prise everywhere at work. But what is the most
general fact that from the whole would strike his
perceptions ? Is it not this ? He would see every
where a general plan, as yet only partially carried
out. He would witness the activity of a general
purpose — the purpose of rebuilding, in the midway
of its accomplishment. He would find streets well
marked out; stores, erected, with business already
begun in them ; work-shops already in use, sending
forth the sound of the saw and the ring of the anvil ;
with dwellings furnished, habitation commenced,
and home-life formed in them.
He would discover everywhere around him,
too, the signs of incompleteness. He would see large
portions of streets without rows of buildings along
them ; squares of land as yet uncovered ; lots, with
only foundations laid upon them ; stores and dwell
ings at different stages in the process of erection,
and, all about him, piles of material intended for
building purposes, not yet employed or brought into
use. He would argue that at least as much work re
mained to be done as has already been accomplished.
* Written not long after the great fire of 1866.

SCTENTTFia CONFIRMATION. 159
Well, entirely analogous to this is the scene which
our world presents, as laid open by science to the
rational or philosophic eye. In it we witness the
divine purpose in the midway of its completion.
The human race is as yet in its mere youthfulness
upon our globe ; has not yet arrived even at its full
historic manhood, to say nothing of the middle age'
that is to follow. It.has not yet made itself eVen tol
erably well acquainted with all the mysteries and ca
pacities of its earthly home ; has not developed a
thousandth of its resources, nor brought into active
use one ten thousandth part of its building material.
Think of the timber-bearing capacities of the
great Amazonian valley ; the inexhaustible piles of
marble and granite stored in the mountain ranges ;
the hills of iron scattered over the globe ; the vast
coal measures of our own and other continents ; the
oil, lead, tin, copper, silver, and gold, lying hidden
under the surface ; the other innumerable forms of
material, serviceable to man, evidently intended to
minister to his wants, immeasurable in value and
boundless in extent, as yet unimproved, and only
just beginning to be brought into use !
The globe itself is a habitation in the process of
building, a dwelling not completed. Accommoda
tions for future peoples are being added and" extended
all over its surface. The revolutions of the seasons
are disintegrating the mountains ; their particles,
bome down by the streams, are spread out into broad
and increasing deltas at the mouths of all great
rivers, where they are converted into rich grain and

160 SCTENTIFIC CONFrEMATION.
fruit-bearing soils. The shores of great continents
are in a slow process of steady upheaval, bringing
forth vast tracts of dry land out of the ocean's bed.
Immense desert regions of sand and broken rock are
being slowly invaded by the lines of vegetation and
life. Myriads and myriads of builders — in the
forms of little coral insects — are incessantly at work,
rearing their walls of solid masonry amidst the
waters of the sea, constructing large islands all over
the Pacific Ocean, which are soon to become the
habitations of men, and serve as hotels and station-
houses along that great highway of commerce.
Within the limits of our own Union, the land now
Occupied by the State of Louisiana has been added
in recent periods, by the Mississippi River ; while
that of the State of Florida has been added by the
coral insects.
Who, that looks at it from an elevated intelligence,
or with any good degree of sound reason, cannot see
at a glance that the benevolent Creator has not yet
nearly finished this earthly mansion of man ?
And as for mankind themselves, they have not yet
half filled the house with inhabitants, have not occu
pied one-half the domain, nor cultivated one-half the
estate. We may indeed safely say that they have
scarcely begun to realize their own high destiny, or
to recognize properly the magnitude and importance
of the physical, social, civil, moral, intellectual, and
spiritual work still remaining for them to do upon
this planet.
Is it not clear, then, from the active development

SCIENTTFIO CONFIRMATION. 161
of the Divine plans all around us, that it is not the
intention of the Creator to allow this earth to be
destroyed ? From the long preparation in the pro
cesses of building, we may argue long continuance in
the performance of its normal functions.
If we see a wise and judicious man laying his
plans, and with much expense of time and money,
going through the process of building a ship, we do
not expect that when he has her about ready for sea,
with men and cargo on board, he will suddenly
scuttle and sink her, or otherwise destroy her. No,
we expect he will use her as long as he can for the
purposes for which she was built.
Or, if we observe another, of similar character, go
carefully to work in a similar manner and erect a
cotton-mill, we do not expect him to stop midway
of his object, and destroy his building : with walls
laid, water-courses complete, and spindles ready to
run, — setting fire to the whole, and burning it up.
No ; we expect more rational consistency than' that
in the conduct of .weak and fallible human nature.
How much more safely, then, may we not reason
thus from the plans of the great Builder of the uni
verse, who is the Father of intelligent economy, all-
wise, who is not liable to fickleness of purpose, who
sees the end from the beginning, and whose plans
are in no danger of contingent frustration !
Our conclusion from this survey, then, is that the
Lord has not yet even finished the great cosmical
ship on whose deck we all are moving, — much less,
got ready to destroy her ! The rational indications

162 SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION.
we are able to discover in every department of
knowledge, like the leaves on a pine cone, all lean
one way, all the considerations look' towards the
same point. We now very well know, what in for
mer times they did not know, that the stars are all
too large to fall to the earth ; most of them, indeed,
being many times larger than the globe.
Of late years, the science of chemistry, too, has
been interrogated, and made to bring in its testi
mony. The students of natural history have dis
covered that every stratum or layer of the earth's
crust is composed of oxidized substances; while
nearly every mineral bed is in the same condition.
All the rocks, and all the earths and soils are of this
character. Chemically speaking, they have all
passed through the process of burning, and are now
in a state of ashes or cinder. Besides the coal beds
and the timber growing on the surface, there is no
fuel in the world for a fire to feed upon. Natural
science, therefore, would say that the earth's surface
cannot be burned up ; and recent authors have made
use of this fact to controvert the idea of a future con
flagration of the globe. An interesting as well as a
very able argument to this point may be found in
the Rev. Dr. Hitchcock's work on " The Religion of
Geology." Many days, as we know, have been set for this
catastrophe to occur. But the days came — and went
— marking no change. And thus it will be with all
days that may be so set, forever !
We do not believe it to be material fire that is to ¦

SCIENTIFIC CONFrEMATION. 163
burn the earth up. Such is not the fire meant in the
Scriptures : but prophetic fire — spiritual fire — fire
kindled within the soul, and flaming up in the
hearts of men. The material earth is good enough.
That does not need purifying. It has never sinned.
It is the same earth our parents had in Eden before
the fall, when they were in innocence, and is capa
ble, as it is^ of performing every function required
of it. It is pure enough to have Eden realized on it

But the fire burning in the hearts of men is of two
kinds, good and evil ; pure and impure. A love for
what is true, and just, and right, with a desire to
extend truth and goodness and justice : and on the
other hand, a zeal in what is wrong ; the desire of
doing evil ; with the flaming forth of passion and
lust. Now these two kinds of fire are burning ; and
they are having their effect on the earth. By the
evil fires the wicked are burned up and destroyed, as
to their characters, and are then removed out of the
world; while the heavenly fires, which flow into
men's minds from above, are also burning in the
hearts of the good ; and are purifying them as to
their characters, and are christianizing them more
and more. Thus is the earth being changed all the
time. The good fire • is gaining, and so continually
removing the old earth that was, and much of which
is, the old earth of corruption and sin ; and as
gradually creating and establishing a new earth, an
earth of greater intelligence and virtue, an earth in
which dwelleth righteousness.

164 THE STABILITY OF THE VISIBLE HEAVENS.

CHAPTER XVI.
THE STABILITY OP THE VISIBLE HEAVENS.
"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament
showeth the work of His hands." — Ps. xix 1.

One of the most beautiful and sublime confir
mations of this view comes to us from the science of
astronomy. It is said in the prophetic song of
Deborah, in the Book of Judges, that " the stars in
their courses fought " for Israel. And so it may be
equally said at this day, that the stars in their
courses fight for, that is, testify to, the truths of the
New Church. In what we are about to say on this
subject we shall use the words of one better able to
speak with authority in relation to it than ourselves.
We quote the language of the late Professor Mitchell,
the well-known American astronomer, and Superin
tendent of the Observatory at Cincinnati ; and more
recently remembered and lamented as a Major-
General in the armies of the United States, laying
down his life in the service of his country. The fol
lowing extract is taken from his popular work on
the Planetary Worlds :
" So far then, as the organization of the great

THE STABILITY OF THE YTSD3LE HEAVENS. 165
planetary system is concerned, we do not find with
in itself the elements of its own destruction. Alter
ation and change are everywhere found — all is in
motion — orbits expanding and contracting — their
planes rocking up and down — their perihelia and
nodes sweeping in opposite directions round the sun,
—but the limits of all these changes are fixed. These
limits can never be passed ; and, at the end of a vast
period, amounting to many millions of years, the
entire range of fluctuation will have been accom
plished, the entire system, planets, orbits, inclina
tions, eccentricities, perihelia, and nodes, will have
regained their original values and places, and the
great bell of eternity will then have sounded one !
" Thus do we find that God has built the heavens
in wisdom to declare His glory, and to show forth
His handiwork. There are no iron tracks with bars
and bolts to hold the planets in their orbits. Freely
in space they move, ever changing, but never
changed ; poised and balancing ; disturbing and dis
turbed ; onward they fly, fulfilling with unerring
certainty their mighty cycles. The entire system
forms one grand piece of celestial machinery ; circle
within circle ; wheel within wheel ; cycle within
cycle; revolutions so swift as to be completed in a
few hours; movements so slow that their mighty
periods are counted (only) by millions of years.
" Are we to believe that the Divine Architect con
structed this admirably adjusted system to wear out,
and to fall in ruins, even before one single revolution
of its complex scheme of wheels had been performed ?

166 THE STABILITY OF THE VISD3LE HEAVENS.
No! I see the mighty orbits of the planets slowly
rocking to and fro, their figures expanding and con
tracting, their axes revolving, in their vast periods ;
but stability is there. Every change shall wear away,
and after sweeping through the grand cycle of cycles,
the whole system shall return to its primitive condi
tion of perfection and beauty!"
The same author elsewhere affirms that about thir
teen millions of years are required for our solar sys
tem to complete a single one of these great revolu
tions. Such, then, is the language of the science of
astronomy, speaking through the lips of one of its
most eminent expounders. And such, too, ought to
be the language of theology ; ought it not ? Such
is' the language of the New Church theology. And,
let us be reminded, such was the language of the New
Church theology more than a hundred years ago, when
science gave back no echoing voice in the matter ;
before the stability of the planetary system had been
proved or mathematically demonstrated; when as
tronomers still thought that the solar system con
tained, in its own irregular motions, the seeds of
decay; and while geologists and chemists yet sup
posed that the earth carried concealed in her bosom
the fiery elements of her own destruction.
What do we behold, then, in these doctrines, as
the picture presented to us of the world's future ?
No break or catastrophe to come in the history of the
human race. No disheartening chasm to open sud
denly across the track of its onward progress ; but,,
on the contrary, the globe, like a vast patrimony de-

THE STABILITY OF THE VISIBLE HEAVENS. 167
scended from the Heavenly Father, given in perpet
ual trust to the children of men, a rich temporal in
heritance whose fruits they will continue forever to
improve and enjoy ! An immense landed estate, of
untold value, of unimagined resources, which they
are to occupy and cultivate, subdue and replenish,
converting everything to use, and bringing forth into
realization every form of utility and beauty ; render
ing back, year by year and day by day, to the divine
Owner and Husbandman His own fruits of rental in
joyful acknowledgment of His bounties, in obedience
of life and manners, in thanksgiving and praise, and in
deeds of mutual love and charity among each other.
Thus the earth becomes a domain for the increas
ing fulfilment of prophecy. The Eden-like picture,
drawn by inspired language in the last chapter of Rev
elation, is held up before us as the glorious culmina
tion towards which all things are providentially tend
ing. Our immediate future, under Divine guidance,
is to lead that way ; while the present moment, full
of a heavenly pressure descending upon us from
above, is warming with its impulses, and girding it
self for the great race of righteousness and love thus
set before it. The last great campaign of the king
dom of heaven upon earth is opening before us, and
the inmost heart of christianized humanity is beating
in unison with the movement : while the utterances
of the ancient prophets become the sacred watchwords
of the hour, the inspired directions for the march,
and the songs of holy joy that are set to the music
of the campt.

168 THE STABILITY OF THE VISIBLE HEAVENS.
• " All nations whom thou hast made shall come
and worship before thee, O Jehovah, and shall glo
rify thy name." * * *
" The wilderness and the solitary place shall be
glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the
rose." * * *
" In the days of these kings shall the God of
heaven set up a kingdom that shall never be destroy
ed ; it shall break in pieces and consume all these
kingdoms, and it shall stand forever."
"And there shall be given Him dominion and
glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations and
languages should serve Him; His dominion is the
dominion of an age which shall not pass away,
and His kingdom that which shall not be de
stroyed." * * *
" The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the
Lord, as the waters cover the sea." * * *
" After those days, saith the- Lord, I will put my
law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts ;
and I will be their God, and they shall be my peo
ple ; they shall all know me from the least unto the
greatest, saith Jehovah, for I will forgive their
iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
" Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habita
tion, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down ; not
one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, nei
ther shall any of the cords thereof be broken." " Be
hold, the tabernacle of God is with men."
" I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, com
ing down from God out of heaven."

THE STABILITY OF THE VISIBLE HEAVENS. 169
" Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give the glory
unto Him," that our lot is cast in these latter times ;
that we are permitted to live at the day in which all
these things are beginning the march of their fulfil
ment, and that, in His merciful provision for human
want, the Lord has caused to break forth from the
bosom of His Word, a system of theology and phi
losophy,, not man-made but heaven-descended, which
leads — by a thousand years — the highest aspirations
of human thought, fitted to the age — to serve as a
lamp to the movement ; " the glory of God to lighten ''
us, and to instruct us aright on these great themes.
And let us, one and all, lend our hearts and our
hands to this movement ; working where we stand
in aid of its fulfilment, and helping, as far as in us
lies, to bring about in our time some of its blessed
results.

170 THE LOED COMING A SECOND TTME.

CHAPTER XYII.

THE LORD COMES A SECOND TIME BY OPENING THE
MEANING OP HIS WORD.
" Behold, He eometh with clouds." — Rev. i. 1.

The Book of Revelation is a prophetic vision. It
relates to the second coming of the Lord.
In the first chapter are described some of the
prominent features of this coming, its most striking
characteristics. In the first verse, it is called a
" Revelation of Jesus Christ ; " and the whole book
relates to Him and His second advent. This may
partly be seen from the fact that it was not given
until two-thirds of a century after His first advent
had been finished and He had ascended up into
heaven. These things are here veiled in the common sym
bolism of the prophets. It begins by saying that
the Lord sent by an angel and signified it unto His
servant John. In the original it reads, " and showed
it by signs unto His servant John." " By signs,"
that is, by types and emblems.
Now these signs, or types, or symbols, are the

THE LOED COMrNG A SECOND TIME. 171
" clouds " with which, or on which, or in which, the
Lord comes. We must remember that the visible
things here mentioned are all " signs," and we must
inquire, therefore, as to what they signify. There is
something peculiar about the " clouds," in which it
is said the Lord will effect His second advent. They
are not the material vapors floating in our earthly
atmosphere. These are only their " signs," or em
blems. The real ones meant are called by our. Lord
in the Gospel, " heavenly clouds," — " clouds of
heaven." And these types and symbols mentioned
in the letter of Sacred Scripture are termed " clouds
of heaven " because they, as it were, cloud heaven
from our view. They veil over, and so partially
hide, or obscure — while they contain — -the heavenly
meaning of the Divine prophecy. ,
It was thus that the phraseology of the old proph
ets hid from the eyes of the Jews the chief charac
teristics of our Lord's first advent, and the nature
of His kingdom : acting like a " veil," as the apostle
says, whenever they read the Old Testament. But
he speaks of a time when " the veil shall be taken
away " from their eyes ; and then they shall read
with a better understanding. On account of this
peculiar quality of the letter of the Bible, as con
taining deeper things within its bosom than appear
on the surface, it has in all ages been compared to a
cloud. It was symbolized by the cloud which rested
upon Mt. Sinai, concealing the Lord from their view,
up into which Moses was called, when the Word of
the Old Testament began to be revealed. A similar

172 THE LOED COMTNG A SECOND TIME.
cloud, enfolding a fire within itself, was shown to
Ezekiel in holy vision as the Word of the Lord first
came to him by the river Chebar ; while a similar
truth is signified by that cloud which received the
spiritual form of the Saviour out of the sight of the
disciples, as they stood, being in vision, gazing up.
into heaven, as He ascended from them, on Mt. Oli
vet. This figurative mode of speaking of intellect
ual things has passed into most languages.
Now, the Lord makes His appearance in these
clouds, as soon as the heavenly meaning of the sym
bols is made clear, and they all are seen to relate to
Him. As we read, then, with an unveiled understanding,
it is He alone who comes forth everywhere to our
view. We behold Him standing on the clouds : for
it is Him alone that the whole Word reveals.
These things are now made known because this Is
the day of their fulfilment. The events foretold in
the Book of Revelation are now taking place, and it
is one great object of the writings of the New Jeru
salem to unfold the meaning of this holy prophecy*
The Lord is thus effecting His second advent ; it has
already commenced ; and in consequence He is pro
ducing the most remarkable changes in the Church
and throughout the world, in every department of
human thought and action.

HIS COMTNG NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT. 173

CHAPTER XVIII.
HIS COMING NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT.
" And every eye shall see Him." — Rev. i. 1.

" And every eye shall see Him." — " Every eye."
According to a most familiar analogy, this bodily
organ is here employed as a " sign " of that inward
organ by which the mind gets its perception of holy
truth. It is the soul's eye to which the coming of
the Lord is revealed, for it is by the exercise of
spiritual intelligence that a man gains sight of the
convincing proofs of sacred things. The symbol
has become a common figure of speech in all langua
ges. Abundant, too, is the Scripture usage which
confirms it. The prophets speak of some as having
their eyes blinded, and being unwilling to see, be
cause they were unwilling to inquire about sacred
truth that they might understand it. Our Lord
complains of the Jews that they were blind and un
willing to see, because they would not lift their
minds sufficiently to understand His doctrine. And
because they said they saw, when they saw not,
therefore He told them they had the greater con
demnation.

174 HIS COMTNG NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT.
The Apostle, in Ephesians, says to the disciples
that he prays for them, that " the Father of glory
may give you the spirit of wisdom and revela
tion for the acknowledgment of Him; the eyes of
your understanding being enlightened, that ye may
know what is the hope of His calling," and what the
riches of his inheritance. And further on in this
prophecy the Church is enjoined to anoint her eyes
with eye-salve that she may see.
We learn, then, what is meant by the " eye " that
shall " see Him : " every spiritual understanding,
every truly enlightened mind. The " eye-salve "
for the anointing of this eye, and calculated to
stimulate and increase its power of sight, is an affec
tion for the truth : a real desire to know about it, to
inquire into it, and to understand it. As it is
written, " He that hath an ear, let him hear what
the Spirit saith unto the churches ; " so, we may
paraphrase this text, and say, he that hath an eye,
let him see what the Spirit showeth unto the churches
by signs. For every one capable, and willing to
exercise truly rational thought on religious subjects,
not only may, but throughout the Book is earnestly
invited to " come and see : " while we are enjoined
by our Lord in the Gospel, to observe the signs of
the times, and to interpret them with spiritual dis
cernment. This coming of the Lord in our day is exactly
suited to the mental eye. It is of such a character
that in order to be seen it must be intellectually per
ceived. For it is an advent of light, and the effects

HIS COMING NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT. 175
of light. Our Lord in the Gospel calls Himself the
Light of the world, because He came as the Divine
Truth ; and it is the Divine Truth, flowing forth and
shining, that enlightens men's minds, giving them
spiritual illustration, and making them wise unto
salvation. John the Baptist " came for a witness, to
bear witness of the Light, that all men through Him
might believe." John " was not that Light, but
was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was
the true Light, which enlighteneth every man that
eometh into the world."
He then came in bodily form, teaching His truth.
But that advent has been accomplished. As He
said of it at its close, " it is finished," and in that
form, glorified and made Divine, He has ascended
up, out of human sight, above all the heavens. He
will never perform the same mission again. He
will not present Himself again in a body before the
natural eyes of men in the world. That work, once
done, is accomplished forever. The Divine economy
never repeats itself in history, but moves constantly
forward to higher manifestations.
He tells us in the Gospel that His next advent will
be of another order, different in kind. Then, He,
in person, was visibly and locally present. Men
could follow His form in crowds, and say, — " Lo, He
is here, or, lo, He is there ! " At one time it could
be said of Him, " He is gone away into the desert to
be tempted of the devil," and at another, " He is
gone privately into an upper chamber with His dis
ciples." But He tells them, when asked for a sign,

176 HIS COMING NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT.
that at His second advent it will not be so. Neither
shall they be able truly to say in that day, " Lo,
here is Christ, or lo, there." " Wherefore, if they
say unto you, Behold, He is in the desert ; go not
forth : Behold, He is in the secret chambers ; believe
it not." It will not be a personal or visible appear
ance in any place, but a shedding forth of light, for
the beholding of the mental eye. " For as the light
ning eometh out of the east, and shineth even unto
the west (or, as coming from one part under heaven,
shineth unto the other part under heaven), even
so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be."
What a striking figure of this coming is the
" sign " here used ; the lightning of heaven ; an ex
traordinary manifestation of heavenly light! Light
from above, His light, breaking forth wonderfully,
and shining more strongly and powerfully than ever
before ; light for the mind ; light for every spiritual
and discerning eye ; light for all who are willing to
become children of the light ; not confined, no
where locally concentred or shut up, but flowing
forth, everywhere diffused, shedding its effulgence
from east to west, shining into all the four quarters,
out of one part under heaven even unto the other
part under heaven.
And in our day how manifest are the effects of this
light ! How it has been flowing in for the last hundred
years, a new dispensation of light ; stimulating human
thought, arousing dormant faculties, illustrating the
intelligence, penetrating the masses ; giving to all
rational inquiry a keener sight— that it can search

HTS COMING NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT. 177
the fields of science as with a new and brighter lamp
in its hand. With what a quicker perception all
the higher relations of things are now seen than in
former times ! Men are seeing how to apply knowl
edge as they never did before. More useful inven
tions have been discovered in this one century than
in the whole six thousand years that went before.
Is not this of itself a wonderful sign that the new
age has commenced, and that this one feature of the
New Jerusalem is being realized, viz. : that " the
Lord God giveth them light ? " Under its influence
the whole world is gradually moving forward into
realms of better thought. Juster ways of thinking
on all subjects are getting to be installed. Men are
becoming more rational. Religious topics are viewed
from new standpoints, with greater discrimination.
What modifications of view do we see thus going
on! How the light shineth in the darkness, and
how it is illuminating the deep valleys of man's ob
scurity ! The darkness is moving away, the murky
vapors that used to shut down so closely over human
thought, deadening its intelligence, are beginning to
lift, and rise, and float away.
Whence the origin of all this light which is so affect
ing men's minds in our day ? Where does it come
from ? We answer, it flows down out of heaven. It
proceeds from the Lord in His second coming. It is
a New Dispensation of His Truth. It is a shining
forth or illustration from Him. He has closed the
first Christian age, the Apostolical Dispensation, and
has begun a new one. He himself is the source of
8*

178 HIS COMING NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT.
the light, and the medium through which it comes
is His own Holy Word. The Book has been opened,
its seals taken off, and so its inner, its heavenly
meaning is disclosed. Thus a flood of light is made
to burst forth from the bosom of the Word, illumi
nating the clouds of the letter. Prophecy is un
veiled, the life after death is revealed, and innumer
able mysteries of the soul and of the spiritual nature
of man are made clear. The thought of angels is
brought down for the instruction of men. The in
fluences of the heavens are brought nearer, while the
Spirit of the Lord, flowing ' in with renewed power,
sheds forth the rays of this light far and near. All
men see its effects, but all are not equally aware of
its meaning or of its source.
But the church and the world are so generally
affected by it, and so generally moved by it with new
impulses, that they are quite disposed to acknowl
edge it as something extraordinary, as, indeed, a
very significant sign of the times, and the forerunner
of great events. Not a few argue from these things
that the coming of the Lord is near, even at the
doors. But, we do more ; we consider them as indi
cations that He has already appeared, in the manner
He predicted. For, as when we behold in nature
the mountain tops, as it were, ablaze, all gilded and
burnished, the valley depths everywhere flooded with
light, and the waters brightly flashing back the
beams of day> we consider it a token, not that the
morning is near, and the sun about to rise, but that
the day has come, and that the sun is already risen,

HIS COMING NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT. 179
so we, when we see all the corresponding things
taking place in the human world, believe it to be a
sign that the sun is already risen, and that the Son
of Man is come. All these remarkable things are
not merely the forerunners, but the visible effects of
His coming. As soon as the subject is carefully ex
amined in the light of history, a fact will appear
which will be new to many — perhaps to most people ;
namely, this, that the visible effects of this first
century of our Lord's second coming, in altering the
aspects and conditions of human society, the world
over, are greater, many times greater, than were the
effects of His first coming, in the same period of
time. In the former age there was given light with
less heat ; in the present age there comes not only
more light, but also' an increased proportion of
spiritual heat, warming and animating the hearts of
men. It is added in the verse of Scripture from which
our motto is taken, that " even they who pierced
Him " shall be able to see Him. The effects of His
coming are so manifest, in their kind, that even they
who have not believed in Him hitherto, may now,
if they will, discover grounds of belief: of belief that
there is a higher power moving in history, and of
belief, too, in the Bible as the Word of God, when
they come to see the fallacies of its letter explained,
and all its inner teachings shown to be in accordance
with real truth : true philosophy and true religion
.going hand in hand. As is pretty well understood,
to pierce Him, in a religious or prophetic sense, is to

180 HIS COMING NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT.
deny Him and oppose His influence : to deny His
Truth, His Divinity, His mission ; and those who
practically deny His pure and holy qualities of
character by leading wicked lives in despite of His
teaching, may be said to pierce Him, also, in a
spiritual sense. In this age, in this dispensation, and
in the writing which contains its revelation, such an
array of knowledge is given, so ample a disclosure
of new truth is made, that the obscurity of man's
thought with respect to holy things is enlightened,
and, if he desires it, his former difficulties in under
standing and believing such things may be moved
out of his way, and an open door set before him,
leading into the mysteries of faith.
In a simply literal and historical sense, there was
but one man who pierced Him ; and he a Roman
soldier, standing by the side of the cross. But never
theless, the Jewish people are sometimes understood
to be meant, in a prominent sense, by "they who
pierced Him ; " because it was through their action
that the piercing came ; just as they are said to have
crucified Him, because their tribunal condemned
Him, and their voices demanded His execution;
And they have continued to pierce Him in a spiritual
sense during the centuries since, by denying His
Divine character and disbelieving the truth of His
mission. Thus the Jews have remained steadfast to
their old ideas for eighteen hundred years, through
out the first Ghristian period. Thus, in His first
coming, they have never been able to see Him, never
been able to acknowledge Him as their Messiah.

HIS COMING NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT. 181
But in this prophecy we are told that at His
second advent they who pierced Him will be able to
see Him, that those who have denied Him hitherto
will be able to acknowledge Him — so strong will be
the Hght. In the light of this prophecy, and
of what we believe to be now taking place, it will
be interesting to notice some things that are going
on among the Jews. They, like all the rest of the
world, are beginning to be affected by the powerful
influences of this new age. As is known to some,
movements of a remarkable kind are commencing
with this people. A new school of interpretation
has of late sprung up among them, which is disposed
to put a new reading upon their ancient Scriptures.
The old, material, and strictly literal mode of under
standing them they assert to be insufficient, and they
are disposed to see another and better sense in
them. They have started independent periodicals,
advocating the new views, and are organizing new
theological schools. In the city of New York, a
weekly meeting has been opened for the purpose of
discussing the question, Whether the Lord Jesus
Christ be indeed their Messiah? while in some
parts of the great West the movement may be said
to have become still more distinctly pronounced. So
fully persuaded are they that the latter times spoken
of in their sacred books have come, and that the
prophecies are now having their fulfilment, that for
the last two years they have been building in Cin
cinnati, a new temple, which they have just finished.
The first temple that has ever been attempted out-

182 HIS COMING NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT.
side of Judea : their places of worship hitherto having
been always only synagogues. Some of the words of
their chief Rabbi, on laying the corner-stone, are
noteworthy in connection with our present subject.
He mentioned that the events of the last one hun
dred years had been so extraordinary as to induce
them to put a new interpretation on the prophecies
of the Old Testament. They now no longer looked
for a Messiah who should be a temporal prince, or
even for one who should yet personally appear.
They held that the Messiah's kingdom was set up
wherever the principles of His kingdom were estab
lished and began to reign. This, they beheld ful
filled in these days of liberty, light, and moral order.
Under the government of this country, the children
of Judah had secured to them all their rights and
privileges. They here enjoy every blessing promised
them in the prophets: peace, prosperity, security of
person and possessions, every civil immunity, and
freedom to worship God. What more could a prince
of their own bestow upon them ? What more could
they enjoy if transported to their ancient land?
Therefore they consider the prophecies as now
being fulfilled, are rebuilding their temple on this
new ground, finding here their promised land, ac
knowledging here to be Messiah's kingdom, and so
here taking up their final inheritance, preparing to
abide. These, certainly, are interesting developments in
the light of New Church teaching, a kind of inde^
pendent and unconscious testimony to our views ; a

HIS COMING NOW IS TO THE MENTAL SIGHT. 183
remarkable confirmation in the signs of the times,
and suggesting forcibly this thought, viz. : that while
the first coming of our Lord did not send into the
mental atmosphere of the world a light sufficiently
strong to enable every eye to behold Him — not
enough to show him thus to the Jews, yet, the
clearer light — the more powerful and lightning-like
shining of his second coming — is so strong, that even
" they who pierced Him " can " see Him " ; even the
unbelieving and literal-minded Jews are having their
minds awakened to acknowledge and confess His
presence. The time spoken of by the Apostle has
arrived. The veil is beginning to be taken away
from before their eyes, and they are beginning to
read the letter of those ancient Scriptures according
to a better sense, nearer their real meaning.

184 THE OPPOSITION OF THE NATURAL MIND.

CHAPTER XIX.
THE OPPOSITION OP THE NATURAL MIND.
" And all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Hm." —
Rev. l 7.

"All the kindreds of the earth shall wail because
of Him ;" that is, on account of His coming, and of
the effects it will produce. What can this mean?
We should suppose that in view of all the glorious
things that are spoken of this age, so many of which
we see progressing around us, all men would rejoice
in their fulfilment, and be glad. What, then, can
this universal wailing mean, of all the kindreds or
tribes of the earth ? A little reflection on the signifi
cant import of Scripture language will enable us to
understand it.
There is a part of us that belongs to the earth, and
is earthy. There is a little mental earth in each one
of us. The feelings of this part of our nature are
naturally selfish and worldly. They love such pos
sessions, and are prone to cling to things as they are.
These are what are opposed to reform, and what
stand in the way of every improvement. In view,
therefore, of the mighty changes which this coming
of the Lord effects, the selfish desires of man, in all

THE OPPOSITION OF THE NATUBAL MIND. 185
their kindreds, are caused to wail and lament. In
the course of its progress, this advent of the Lord
is to overturn and reconstruct human society. He
that sits upon the throne says, Behold I make all
things new. While in another place it is written, I
will overturn and overturn and overturn, until He
whose right it is to reign shall sit supreme ; until
the laws of justice and righteousness shall every
where prevail. We behold this already going on ;
and, in the course of its progress, all those feelings
of attachment with which men regard things as they
are, by which they lay hold of the former things,
will have to be sacrificed and come to grief. Old
institutions in Church and State are one by one un
dermined and moved out of the way, while the
affections which loved those time-honored institu
tions, and thought them enduring, first oppose their
removal, and, after they are gone, still mourn and
lament over then* destruction. This is so the world
over. And hence the two great parties of conserva
tism and progress that are everywhere seen.
So it is in every individual experience. The
Lord would send in the light of His truth, and
establish His coming within us. He desires to set
up His reign within us, instituting His kingdom
in our hearts and lives ; and, in order to this,
what a renovation has to take place in our affec
tions ! How many selfish and evil desires must lose
their delights, and be left to bewail the loss of their
objects and the hunger of their appetites !
But it is encouraging to know that these selfish

186 THE OPPOSITION OF THE NATUBAL MIND.
and earthly things, which are opposed to the coming
of the Lord, have nothing really vital in them ; they
need not form any part of our real life, they need not
enter into any living connection with the soul. We
can do very well without them." Nay, we can do a
thousand times better without them than with them.
The Lord brings them to grief, to induce us to. part
with them. And He desires us to let them go that
He may give us far better things in their stead. If
we will let Him, He will come and create a " new
earth" in us ; " a new earth in which dwelleth right
eousness : " a new set of feelings and a new set
of affections in the natural part of our minds ; a set
of affections that will desire and love good and or
derly things.; that will be obedient to the laws of the
heavenly kingdom ; that will look up to the Lord as
the Father of all, and, regarding the neighbor as a
brother, will love him as well as self is loved.
Let us all receive His holy work with the
affirmation which the prophet here appends to hia
prediction ; saying, " Even so, Amen ! "

THE NEW JEEUSALEM A NEW CHUECH ON EAETH. 187

CHAPTER XX.
THE NEW JERUSALEM A NEW CHURCH ON EARTH.
" Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with mem" — Rev. xxx 3.

It remains, then, in conclusion, to sum in brief our
doctrines on these last great points. -
We are living in the age meant by "the last
days." The predictions of the Bible relating to the
latter times are now finding their realization. The
prophecies of Daniel are in the course of fulfilment.
The words of our Lord in the Gospels, respecting
His second coming, have come to pass. All things
foretold in the Book of Revelation are likewise at
this day receiving their fulfilment.
The change of dispensations, described in the nine
teenth chapter of Revelation, occurred about the
middle of the last century. Then came the " end "
foretold, — the lisuntelia tou aionos ;" that is, the
closing or winding up of the first Christian or Apos
tolic dispensation, and a New Dispensation com
menced. The Apostolical commission to the former
church then ceased ; its mission was completed, and
a new spiritual system begun.

188 THE NEW JEEUSALEM A NEW CHUECH ON EABTH
The Last Judgment, foretold by Daniel, and in
the book of Revelation, took place, as described in
that book, in the World of Spirits in the year 1757,
upon those who had accumulated there since the
Lord's first appearing, thus finishing the dispensation
in hades. The last judgment once inaugurated, con
tinues to " sit," as expressed in Daniel ; it constantly
proceeds hereafter, as explained in chapter vii. ; the
vast accumulation of the evil communities there,
will no more be allowed ; it takes effect upon the
multitudes who arrive, at longest, in a very few
years. The wicked will no more prevail in the in
termediate portion of the spiritual world. Emanuel
Swedenborg was the Seer chosen to witness the judg
ment and report it to the world of men. That event
brought a new era in that intermediate region,
separating the good from the evil, and casting the
evil down. The good were instructed and taken up,
and " New Heavens " were formed for them and of
them, in the higher regions of the spiritual world.
This removed evil influences, for the most part, from
the intermediate world, replacing them with good
influences. The heavens, by the increase of num
bers, and by an increased endowment of love and
wisdom from the Lord, became more powerful, and
began immediately, as a consequence, to shed down
their influences more powerfully upon mankind, the
church, and the world. And they were moved
nearer to men by the Lord that they might effect
this purpose.
This brought a new era also in our visible world,

THE NEW JEEUSALEM A NEW CHUECH ON EABTH. 189
which began to take effect almost immediately. Old
ways of thinking began to give way. It was not
long before human society began to be moved to its
lowest depths by new impulses, and from that day
to this, the history of the times has been one of ex
traordinary change and improvement. All men see
and feel the impetus that has been given to the
human mind. No age has before occurred, in the
least approaching it, nor indeed would human fore
cast have imagined as possible much that we are now
witnessing. Thus has a new, universal dispensation of spirit
ual light been inaugurated throughout the world : a
dispensation to all men, and for all men ; a dispensa
tion calculated to bring in even more important
changes, and achieve still more glorious results than
any which have yet been realized. Thus, what has
been sometimes called the " Apocalyptic Age," but
known in Scripture as the dispensation of the New
Jerusalem, has already commenced.
The second coming of the Lord consists in the
disclosure of new truth which He makes, suited to
this age, fitted to instruct and guide it, and which is
caused to spring forth from the bosom of His own
Word. Emanuel Swedenborg was the man, com
missioned to receive this truth in his understand
ing, and to write out for the use of mankind the
spiritual and heavenly meaning of the Divine Word ;
especially of the prophecies contained therein, and
of the Book of Revelation. His works contain the
genuine and authoritative commentary on the sacred

190 THE NEW JEEUSALEM A NEW CHUECH ON EABTH.
Scripture; its truths, however, appeal directly to
man's highest reason, and he is to acknowledge them
by seeing them rationally in their own light. His
works contain, too, by consequence, the true and
heavenly system of Christian doctrine. Therefore,
¦when these writings were published, and so the
truth of the second coming promulgated in the
world, that coming took place, so far as it rests on
the visible, instrumental fact. The bringing forth,
thus, of the truth into the world, is symbolized in
the Book of Revelation by the birth of the Man-child.
This publication was in general concurrence with the
Last Judgment and its attendant events in the
spiritual world; while the influences of His own
Holy Spirit, and the heavenly influences of His
angels cooperating with Him, poured out over all the
world, and the diffusion of His Word, are the
higher ¦ means the Lord is using to carry on His
work, preparing for and inaugurating the latter day
glory of His Church. His first coming was to the
outward eye, and His visible work was the cure of
bodily diseases ; His present coming is to the inward
eye, and the work He proposes is the removal of
spiritual disease from the hearts and minds of all
who are willing to receive Him, believe on Him, and
obey Him.
The New Jerusalem is the heavenly Church, estab
lished upon the earth ; established, not by heavenly
beings descending in visible bodies to our earth, and
here taking up their abode, but, by men them
selves, servants serving Him, willing to be guided

THE NEW JEEUSALEM A NEW CHUECH ON EABTH. 191
by the heavenly doctrines, which have descended
from God out of heaven, by revelation, mercifully
given for light and guidance ; thus, a Church estab
lished by the Lord through the obedience of men
willing to adopt and act from the heavenly system
of belief. This Church, as to its system of holy
truths, which it draws from the Word, as well as
some of the effects which will flow from entire
obedience to these doctrines, is symbolically described
by the heavenly City in the twenty-first and twenty-
second chapters of Revelation. All the promises of
prophecy look forward to the establishment and
general prevalence of this Church as the fulfilment
of the Lord's merciful designs with respect to man
kind on earth, and as the providential culmination
and crowning glory of human history.
This Church, already, has a visible existence in all
parts of the world, and in nearly every civilized
country on earth, while the great multitude of
good men, which no man can number, invisibly pre
paring for its reception hereafter, are known only to
the Lord himself. All communions are affected and
benefited by its descending light and heat.
The three essential points, which form the basis
of its fellowship, are simple and comprehensive, and
at the same time distinctive and clear.
1. An acknowledgment of the Lord Jesus Christ
as the only God of heaven and earth, one in person
and in essence, the Father manifested in the flesh ;
one in whom the divine and human natures exist
together, and in whom the fulness of the Godhead

192 THE NEW JEEUSALEM A NEW CHUECH ON EABTH.
dwelleth bodily — one whose humanity, unlike the
humanity of other men, has been glorified by Him,
being fully united to His own supreme Divinity, and
so rendered wholly divine. Hence, He becomes the
Lamb, who alone is to receive homage or be wor
shipped. Therefore He says, " I Jesus have sent mine
angel to testify unto you these things in the churches."
(Rev. xxii. 16.)
Those who enter the New Jerusalem bring with
them a belief, acknowledgment, and confession of
this grand, primary truth.
2. An acknowledgment of the sanctity or holiness
of the Word ; that the Sacred Scripture is inspired
from on high, the very Word of God, the only rule
of faith and life, and the great source of instruction
to angels and men ; those parts of the letter which
are clothed in symbol and the appearances of truth,
being all capable of receiving a rational interpreta
tion, according to a genuine spiritual or heavenly
meaning. 3. The way of salvation is a life according to the
divine commandments. Such a life, when full, in
cludes charity, faith, good works, and every Chris
tian virtue. Repentance, with an effort to lead such
a life, is accepted by the Lord, and the influences
of His Spirit freely given. Without His help none
could or would be disposed to lead it. By con
formity on the part of man to the requirements of
holy precept, the Lord regenerates and saves him.
This conformity on the part of man is what,
alone, will renovate human society, restore to man-

THE NEW JEEUSALEM A NEW CHUECH ON EABTH. 193
kind the lost conjunction with their Maker, bringing
man into the Apocalyptic Eden, and spiritually ful
filling the prophecy to give him dominion over the
beasts of the field, over the fowls of the air, and
over the fishes of the sea ; thus putting all things
under his feet.

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Man in the World of Spirits.
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LIGHT ON THE LAST THINGS. By W.
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Redemption effected in- Hades. <
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New Truth for a New Age.
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, An Important part of our Lord's Work
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Introduction. ¦ f The Way of Life.
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OUR CHILDREN IN HEAVEN. By Wm.
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Price $175.

I. Is there no Light?
¦ II. How are they raised ?
III. What bodieshave they?
IV. Wheredo they go ?
V. Who takes care of them?

; Contents. VI. What are they doing I
VII. Can 'we communicate?
VIII. Why<did~not the Lord prevent?
IX. Why did they die?
X. What good can come of it ?

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DEUS-HOMO. GOD-MAN. By Theophilus
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OBSERVATIONS ON THE GROWTH OF
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" Hitherto I have known nearly nothing of Swedenborg ; or indeed I might say
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OBSERVATIONS ON THE AUTHENTI
CITY OF THE GOSPELS. By a Layman. I vol.
i6mo. Price, cloth, $1.00 ;. gilt edges, $1.50.
Contents.

Testimony of the Evangelists.
Tone of Existing Skepticism and Un
belief. . '
Bishop Colenso.
Strauss's Life of Christ
Renan's Life of Christ
The Fourth Gospel.
The Synoptical Gospels,
Effort of Modern Skeptics.
Swedenborg's Doctrine of an Internal
Sense.
Historical Evidence Unanswerable, but
not Satisfactory.

Second Coming of the Lord.
The Science ef Correspondences not
"Mere Symbolism.
A Universal Language.
The Scriptures written on this Principle.
The Science of Correspondences known
to the Ancients.
Mr. Palfrey's Account of Josephus.
Difficulties in the Literal Sense of the
Bible. ;
Character of Swedenborg.
Essays of Mr. Parsons.
List of the Works of Swedenborg.

Thisis a concise statement, by a Layman, of the present state of the controversy
respecting the authenticity and genuineness of the Gospels. It contains accounts
of the theories of Renan, Strauss, and others bn the subject. The author comes to
the conclusion, that the theory of Biblical Interpretation contained in the writings
of Emanuel Swedenborg is the true one, removing the infidel's objections. The
work also contains a statement of the doctrines of Swedenborg on this point
SWEDENBORG, THE PHILOSOPHER. By
Rudolph Leonard Tafel. i vol. crown 8vo. 333
pages. Price $2.25.
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OUR ETERNAL HOMES. By a Bible Stu
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Contents.
I. What is Heaven f V. Do theDepartedforget us.
II. Guardian Angels. I VI. Man's Book of Life.
III. Heavenly Scenery. VII. Infants in Heaven.
IV. Death the Gate of Life. I
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