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LESSON

SIXTEENTH.

Water and wine are both liquids, and are both used as drinks; and they both signify truths. But water signifies natural truths, and wine signifies spiritual truths.

If you understood, and now remember, what I said to you in lesson ninth about the difference between the Jewish church and the Christian church, you will understand in some degree what is the difference between natural truth and spiritual truth. Natural truth is more external, and spiritual truth is more internal. Natural truth relates to the conduct, or bodily action, and thus to the body; spiritual truth relates to the motives and affections, and thus to the spirit. Natural truth tells us what we should do; spiritual truth tells us how we should feel and think. Natural truth instructs us as to our outward life; spiritual truth instructs us as to our inward life. And thus you may know what I mean when I say that water represents and signifies nat

ural truth, and wine represents and signifies spiritual truth.

You may remember, from what I said of the Jewish and the Christian churches, and also from what you have read in the Bible, that nearly all the precepts of the Jewish church related only to what we should do, but the precepts of the Christian church, as you find them in the gospels, relate to what we should think and how we should feel. I repeat this, because it has something to do with what I am about to tell you.

In the second chapter of John, you may read that our Lord changed water into wine, at a marriage in Cana of Galilee. I wish you would turn to the chapter, and read it as far as the twelfth

verse.

You find there were "set six water-pots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews." And after relating that our Lord changed this water into wine, the gospel says, "This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory." This was the first or beginning of our Lord's miracles, because

it was the sign and token of the great work He was about to do, in establishing a spiritual instead of a natural church, and so "manifesting His glory." Before this, in establishing the Jewish church, He had given natural truths, which might be applied to cleansing one's life, "after the manner of the purifying of the Jews," that is, in the way the Jews were taught and were able to cleanse themselves from sin. But the time had come when these were not enough, and men "" wanted wine," as it is said in the third verse; that is, needed spiritual truths for their salvation; and therefore our Lord changed this water into wine; that is, He established a church to which He gave abundance of spiritual truths.

This miracle has therefore the same meaning as all those passages in the sermon on the mount, in which our Lord says, Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill-thou shalt not forswear thyself-an eye for an eye-a tooth for a tooth-ye shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say unto you, be not angry-swear not at all-resist not evil-love

your enemies, and "Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." I have not copied the words exactly, and I wish you would turn to the fifth chapter of Matthew, and read from the twenty-first verse to the end of the chapter, and then you will understand better the difference between natural truths and spiritual truths.

In the relation of the miracle at Cana of Galilee, the water is said to be in six water-pots of stone. And the reason of this is, that stones also correspond to and signify natural truths, though of a different kind from those which water corresponds to and signifies.

In Matthew, twenty-fourth chapter, second verse, our Lord says, speaking of the temple of the Jews, which stood in Jerusalem, "See ye not all these things? Verily, I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone standing upon another." Now the temple of the Jews, in which their worship was conducted, corresponded to and signified their church; and this church, as I have already told you, possessed only natural

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truths; and these words of our Lord signified and foretold the utter ruin and desolation which was about to fall upon that church.

In the second chapter of Revelation, verse seventeenth, it is said, "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna; and I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it." A white stone is a stone without spot or stain; and these words signify, that, with the regenerate, even their natural truths will become more free from error; and that they may perceive within them a new name, that is, the spiritual truths which they represent and signify by correspondence, and which none truly know, but those who receive them as the gift of the Lord, and apply them to life. You apply a truth to life when you obey it, and govern your life by it, and conduct yourself in agreement with it.

Bread signifies good; water signifies natural truth; wine signifies spiritual truth; and a stone signifies also natural truth.

Keeping these significations in mind, you will

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