Bride or the Church, in our will, which the truth in ́our Adam, or our understanding, is to love and embrace. And it is said of them, "What God hath joined together let no man put asunder."

And here we have the true scripture symbol of the conjugial relation between a man and his wife. It is the same as the relation between the Lord and His Church or Truth and Good or between love in the proprium of man, and the Lord, as the Divine truth, in the understanding. The world is now in great darkness upon this very subject-the human proprium. It is, indeed, in deep sleep, and can only be aroused as the Lord takes from its side a rib, and makes thereof a woman-a good affection-and brings it to the darkened understanding, and they embrace each other.

And this cold, dead bone is being taken away, and the warm living flesh given in its place, whenever men faithfully resist temptations and keep God's laws, as of themselves, with the acknowledgment that the will, the understanding, and the power to do so are of the Lord alone. Thus no person is regenerated without God's taking from his side, or from his affections, the cold rib of his selfhood and putting in the place thereof, warm and generous love to God and the neighbor; and thus forming a union of goodness and truth in his soul, whereby goodness in his heart is the church wedded to the Lord as the Truth. Thus, as in all sacred scripture, we are here taught the way of salvation.

CHAPTER XII.

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF WATER.

"His voice as the sound of many waters." (Rev. i. 15.)

WE speak this evening upon the spiritual signification of water.

Water constitutes one of the leading features of the Holy Word. This is because it denotes one of the principal elements either of the human or of the Divine Mind. It also constitutes one of the leading features and principal elements of the natural world. It signifies truth. And as water is essential to the production and growth of natural things, so truth is essential to the production and growth of mental things. Water, therefore, in every instance in which it is mentioned in the Holy Word, signifies either truth or falsity. And, by the sense in which it is used, it is at once known which way it is to be understood.

Now, because it signifies truth, it is used as an introduction into the church, by baptism. For it is truth which introduces a person into the church. Truths, in

the mind, show us our evils, and teach us

how to put

them away. And, as we repent of our evils, resist

temptations and obey the Lord, through the light and power of the truth, we are cleansed from our evils and filled with goods and truths. Baptism by water denotes this cleansing by the truths. It is, therefore, a beautiful and appropriate ordinance of the church, and stands as the great index, pointing the way to heaven by regeneration. Water performs the same use to the body, in cleansing it, and quenching its thirst, and in nourishing and sustaining it, as the truth does to the soul for the correspondence is perfect.

The very first expression of the operation of God's Spirit, in the Holy Word, is upon the face of the waters. This is made at the commencement of the Divine Word; or, at the beginning of the spiritual creation of the human mind. "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." The face denotes the affections; and the waters, truths. The first effort of the Spirit, after there is light, is, to incline us to have an affection for

that light or truth.

Again, water is expressed, as being connected, not only with the first movings of the Spirit mentioned in the Holy Word, but also in the very last exhortation of the Lord to man, in this divine Book. He there says, "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

And not only in the first and the last parts, is water used, but also throughout the whole Word. Wells, and rivers, and streams, and rains, and seas, and floods are, all the way, brought to notice. One who has never

examined the Divine Word as to the use made of wells of water; the finding, digging, moving, and destroying of wells, as a means of spiritual instruction, would be forcibly struck with a view of that feature of the Sacred Scriptures.

In 2 Kings we read that the Moabites cast stones on all the good ground, stopped all the wells, and felled all the good trees. Now, if we turn our thoughts from natural things to spiritual, and lay the scene in our own mind, we shall see at a glance, by correspondence, that the Moabites are evil principles or spirits; that the stones they cast on all the good ground are hard falsities cast on the ground of the mind; that the wells, stopped, are the sources of truth from the Word hidden from the mind; and that the good trees, felled, are all the noble and lofty principles of the soul destroyed. What an impressive lesson the Lord here teaches us! That evils, indulged, will fill our hearts with falsities, close them against the truths of the Word, and destroy the highest and best principles of the soul.

Again, it is recorded in Genesis, that Hagar was sent away from Abraham's house with her child; that she left the lad under a shrub to die for the want of water, and sat down to weep; and that God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and she gave the lad to drink. Now, what eyes did the Lord open ? Was it only the natural eyes? Hagar was not blind. in those eyes. Let us then look into our own minds for the illustration: for the Lord would teach us spiritual things. The instruction is given expressly for the present

age. Hagar denotes the female element of the mind or our affections, and the child, a new principle or rule of life from the Lord, which our affections love; and Abraham represents the Lord. And now, if we let these affections go away from Abraham's, or the heavenly Father's, house with the child or new principle, and not continue to look to the Lord for wisdom to feed it, the child will surely die of thirst, or for the want of the water of life. But if, in our wanderings, we feel its need of truths, and fear its death, and set ourselves down to weep and repent of our waywardness, the Lord will open our understandings to the divine truth, and we shall see a well of water springing up from the Holy Word, and we shall give the child to drink.

Again, between Abraham and Abimelech, king of Gerar, there was a falling out; because Abraham had digged a well, and Abimelech's servants had taken it away; that is, had taken the credit of digging it. And Abraham and Abimelech entered into a covenant, which was this: Abraham took seven ewe lambs and said to Abimelech, "These ewe lambs shalt thou take, that they may be witness unto me, that I have digged this well." Now, what can this mean? Why has our heavenly Father recorded such a narrative? And why is he now giving it to all the world in all languages? It must be because it contains food for the souls of men. And if we know that the things here mentioned denote things of the mind, and will look within ourselves for them, we shall then see their use and their beauty. Abraham, who is often called father Abraham, represents the Lord as Divine Good. He denotes a