find that our Lord declares, by means of these correspondences, that He alone is the source of everything good and true, and that He alone is good and true.

In the sixth chapter of John, thirty-third and following verses, you read, "The bread of God is He that cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto Him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the Bread of Life; he that cometh unto Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst."

In the fourth chapter of John, you will read that our Lord said to a woman of Samaria, who met Him at the well of Jacob, "Give me to drink?" And when she replied, inquiring how he came to ask of her, "Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; from whence, then, hast thou that

living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us this well, and drank thereof, himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water, shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life."

In the beginning of the fifteenth chapter of John, you read, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. I am the vine, and ye are the branches; he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing." In the twentieth chapter of Luke, verse seventeenth, you read, "And He beheld them, and said, What is this, then, that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corThe head-stone of the corner, or the corner-stone, is the principal stone of the building, and that upon which, more than upon any other, the building rests. It is in this sense that Jesus

ner."

Christ, who was rejected and crucified of men, is the corner-stone of the church. Upon Him, and upon Him alone, it rests and stands. Without Him it could have neither natural truth nor spiritual truth; and were it not supported by His continual presence and help, it could not possibly exist a single moment; and without the truths concerning Him which are contained in the words of the Bible, there could be nu truth in the church, and no church; for on these truths all other truths rest.

LESSON

SEVENTEENTH.

I am now about to say something concerning correspondences, which is quite different from anything I have said before. And this is, that all correspondences may have two opposite meanings, one good and the other bad. I will try to explain this to you.

You know that all things which have correspondence, correspond either to something of the will or to something of the understanding. We have said, in the fifteenth lesson, much about this already. Now you can see that the things of the will or our affections may be good or bad; that is, they may have in them and be governed by a love of the Lord or a love of one's neighbor, in which case they are good; or they may have in them and be governed by a love of one's self and of forbidden things, in which case they are bad. Suppose, for instance, you love to go to school and learn your lessons; now, if you love to do this because your parents

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wish it and advise it, and because you can learn in school how to be good and useful,—then this is a good love. But if you love to go to school in order to be vain of what you learn, and to be proud if you know more than another, or for any other bad reason, then it is a bad love. And so

it is with every other love; it is good if it seeks good things in good ways, and if not it is bad.

You can see, I think, that a similar thing may be said of whatever is in the understanding; that is, of our thoughts and knowledges.

In the first place, whatever is true, the opposite of it is false. Thus, if it be true that two and two make four, it is false that two and two do not make four. If it is true that we ought to love our neighbor as ourselves, it is false that we ought to love ourselves best. If it is true that the Lord reigns, it is false that things happen by chance, without His will or permission. Thus, you see, every thing true has its opposite false.

In the next place, if you think or know a true thing, you may use it for a bad purpose. You may know that we ought to love our neighbor as