as a man through whom he could reveal to men the science of correspondences, the spiritual sense of His Word in accordance with this science, true doctrines; or the truths of His Second Coming in the clouds of heaven; together with the actual state of man in the spiritual world. And you will be further satisfied that Swedenborg was permitted by the Lord to enjoy privileges such as no other man has ever enjoyed, and such as we have good reason to expect that no other man will enjoy for many centuries to come, at least.

You can hardly fail to be satisfied that the revelations made through Swedenborg are immeasurably better calculated to benefit man, and elevate our race, than are the revelations and phenomena of modern Spiritualism.

XXII.

Doctrines of the New Jerusalem.-God.

HAT there is but one God, in one Divine person,

is clearly taught in the first commandment, and throughout the sacred Scriptures, when they are correctly understood. When the Divine declaration was made: "Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah," it was not a truth then for the first time revealed; for it was well known by the Most Ancient or Adamic Church, and also by the Ancient or Noachian Church, that there is but one God; and, as all the inhabitants of the world have descended from the members of those ancient churches, some knowledge of this grand central truth, more or less obscured by the doctrines of men, is to be found in the earliest religious or sacred writings and traditions of all nations.

This one God is thus described in the Vedahs: "Perfect truth; perfect happiness; without equal; immortal; absolute unity; whom neither speech can describe, nor mind comprehend; all-pervading; all-transcending; * * understanding all. Without cause, the first of all

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causes; all-ruling; all-powerful; the Creator, Preserver, Transformer of all things; such is the Great One, BRAHM.' This is in reality no other than a paraphrase of the 'I AM;' but, says Mr. Squier, 'The supreme God of Gods of the Hindus was less frequently expressed by the name BRAHM than by the mystical syllable O'M, which corresponds to the Hebrew JEHOVAH' (or AM). The same Divine Being, as to His infinite and eternal essence, is described on Egyptian monuments, and in the Hermetic books, as KNEPH, the first [or inmost quality of] God, immovable in the solitude of His Unity, the fountain of all things, the root of all primary, intelligible, existing forms, the God of Gods.' The same idea prevailed among all the Scandinavian nations; and in the ancient Icelandic mythology He is called 'the author of everything that existeth; the Eternal, the Ancient, the Living, the Awful Being, the Searcher into concealed things, the Being that never changeth.' By the ancient Mexicans He is called the Creator of Light,' the Giver of Life,' the God of battles or 'God of Hosts,' the 'Almighty,' etc. Also as the Supreme Lord of the Universe; the Disposer, and Ordainer of all things; the Confounder of His enemies, the Bestower of Wisdom, the Father of mankind,'" etc.

The Ancient Druids taught that "There is but One Supreme Being, the Creator and Governor of the Universe, of an eternal, mysterious, and immaterial nature, which pervades all space. In Him consists the plenitude of life, knowledge, power, and love, which are sources of all His actions and dispensations. These being in themselves most beneficial and harmonious, necessarily tend to annihilate the power of evil, and bring man to everlasting happiness."

With the North American Indian are found the remains of this doctrine, for he worships the Great Spirit, the Creator of all things on earth, and the "beautiful huntinggrounds" to which his fathers have gone.

We have already alluded to the fact, that all this knowl

edge of God has come from revelations from God, made in the early ages of the world, and is not of human invention or discovery. "Revelation," says Rev. John Hyde, "must reveal God and explain man. Nature does not teach the existence of God. That is, the origin of the idea is not attributable to the nature of the universe, or the nature of man. Nature is the plane of effects, not of causes. The consideration of effects can carry us no higher than effects, the first effect and the final natural cause. The idea of God's existence being known, nature can abundantly furnish man with illustrations of Divine operation, and proofs of the Divine continuance. Atheists assert themselves careful students of nature, and in spite of the existence and predominance of the idea among men, they testify that nature does not teach or communicate it. Yet it is. The idea exists. If nature taught it, they say nature taught a lie. If nature did not teach it, and could not teach it, it must have been taught of revelation. Admit their testimony, and we must deny their conclusion. But all will admit that if God communicates a revelation, he must reveal HIMSELF. Nature does not teach the object or the destiny of man's existence. The cradle and the grave are its limitations, the twin boundaries that circumscribe our being. If a revelation be given, it must transcend external and visible nature, and teach us wisdom on super-natural subjects. These must be the themes which it will treat, and subordinate to these themes must every statement, every precept, every narrative be. If God has given a revelation of Himself, of man's nature, and of man's destiny, this Revelation must as evidently be the Word of God, as external nature is the Work of God."

If now we return to the sacred Scriptures, we shall find the unity of God most clearly and beautifully taught; and also that He is our Saviour, and the Being whom we are to love supremely; for the following command is given by this one God: "Thou shalt have none other gods before

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me;" and again in the sixth chapter and fifth verse of Deuteronomy: "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." That this one God is our Saviour, is abundantly taught in almost innumerable passages in the Old Testament, as in the following, in the forty-third chapter of Isaiah: "Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, fear not; for I have redeemed thee." "For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour." "Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no Saviour." the forty-ninth chapter of Isaiah we read, "That all flesh may know that I Jehovah am thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Jacob." Also in the forty-fifth chapter: "There is no God else beside me, a just God and a Saviour, there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else." In the third chapter of Second Samuel, we read: "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; the God of my rock; in Him will I trust; He is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my Saviour." In the nineteenth Psalm will be found the following: "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer;" and in the one hundred and thirtieth Psalm we read: "Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption, and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities;" and in the thirteenth chapter of Hosea: "Yet am I the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no God but me, for there is no Saviour beside me."

We have quoted comparatively few of the numerous passages which clearly teach us that there is but one God, and that He is our Saviour, and that there is no other Saviour. And in the eighth verse of the forty-second

chapter of Isaiah, He distinctly declares: "I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another."

But we have predictions in the Old Testament of the coming of a Saviour, and all Christians acknowledge, that in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ those predictions were fulfilled. Let us inquire then, whether the Jehovah, or Lord and Saviour, of the Old Testament is the Saviour of the New Testament, or whether He has given His glory to another, contrary to His express declaration. In order to settle satisfactorily this point we shall need to examine the prophecies in regard to the coming of the Saviour into the world.

XXIII.

The Incarnation.

"BUT," say "be born without a natural father,"

UT," say some, "it is contrary to the laws of Nature

and thus, without further consideration, they decide the question. If it were certain that they understood all the laws of nature, their conclusion would be reasonable, and undoubtedly correct; for we do not for a moment suppose that the Lord violates His own laws. But, in the light of known and acknowledged facts, let us examine this question. Science shows conclusively that the time has been when no man or animal lived on this earth, and now it is peopled with men of various races, and there are also a great variety of animals. It follows that not only man, but a pair-a male and a female-(and perhaps several of them) were actually created without either a natural father or mother: now, if the above objection to the idea of the Incarnation holds good, what a tremendous violation of the laws of nature there was in the creation of the first pair-four times as great at least as the incarnation of the Lord by a natural mother. It matters not whether man was originally created in the human form, or was