with them."

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church like Christians, because they are not acquainted They are afraid of Christians on account of their lives." "Those who have lived well, according to their religious principles, are instructed by the angels, and easily receive the truths of faith, and acknowledge the Lord," "for they have not formed for themselves any principles of falsity opposed to the truths of faith, which would need to be first removed."

"Although Gentiles are not in genuine truths during their life in the world, they receive them in the other life from a principle of love. The Africans are most beloved in heaven of all the Gentiles, for they receive the goods and truths of heaven more easily than others. They particularly desire to be called obedient, but not faithful; Christians, they say, may be called faithful, because they possess the doctrine of faith; but they themselves not so, unless they receive that doctrine, or, as they express themselves, are able to receive it."-Heaven and Hell.

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Many in the other world, who come from parts of the globe outside of Christendom, and who have been worshippers of idols, have the utmost horror of hatred and adultery, and are afraid of Christians who indulge in these vices, and make no scruple of torturing their fellow creatures. * * * Gentiles who have lived morally, being in mutual charity and innocence, are regenerated in the other life. During their abode in the world, the Lord had been present with them in charity and innocence, both of which proceed wholly from Him. He had also endowed them with conscience of what is right and good according to their religious principles, and into that had insinuated innocence and charity; and when these are present in the conscience, persons easily become principled in the truth and faith grounded in good."-Arcana Cœlestia.

XXXII.

The New Jerusalem.-The Church of the Future. -The Crown of all Churches.

HERE is but one Saviour-our Lord Jesus Christ

THE

and there is but one road to heaven, and that is a spiritual road which every man must perseveringly and faithfully travel for himself, or he will never reach the Heavenly City. We enter that road when we, in acknowledgment of a Divine Being, sincerely repent of our evil deeds, and we walk in it when we earnestly strive to live a life according to the commandments, shunning evils as sins against God, and act honestly and justly towards our fellow-men, and endeavor to do good to all as opportunity offers. The Lord Jesus Christ, or God manifest in the flesh, the one God in one Divine Person, is the cornerstone of the New Jerusalem. This is a central doctrine around which all true doctrines revolve like the planets around the sun. Let us cease following men and look to

the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and to the sacred Scriptures for light to guide us, and especially to the latter as unfolded by the Lord in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg for this incoming new age, and the truth will make us free from the shackles of sectarianism, and from sect and man worship. The exaltation of faith and the doctrines which a man believes, and the sect to which he belongs, above the life which he lives, together with the claiming and usurpation of spiritual dominion in matters of faith by man over his fellow-man, and denying to men religious freedom, has brought the first Christian Church to its end and split it into its innumerable fragments. In the beautiful allegory of creation in the first chapters of Genesis, where, in the spiritual sense, the regeneration and fall of man are described, Cain denotes faith and Abel charity; and when Cain destroyed Abel he became a fugitive and a vagabond, and thus faith ever becomes

when it destroys charity; it separates, puffs up, alienates and arrays man against his fellow-man, and sect against sect. The seer for the New Jerusalem informs us that if charity had retained its proper place in the Christian Church differences of belief would not have separated and divided the church, but men would have been allowed in freedom to hold their own views so long as they lived good lives. Every man should look to the Lord, and read and judge for himself; for it is only that which he in freedom intelligently perceives to be true, and carries out in his daily life, which tends to build up a heavenly life within him. A blind assent to doctrines and creeds, or a blind following of teachers, amounts to little. In this new dispensation men are to receive truth because they perceive it to be true, and not on the authority of a man, or men, or of a church even. Teachers must prove their doctrines true and good, or prepare to see them rejected.

The Christian should recognize but one leader-the Lord; but he should not fail to recognize a brother in every man who believes in a Supreme Being and is striving to lead a good life; for the Lord is no respecter of persons, and the Christian's charity should manifestly extend to all of his Father's children.

The prevalence of a spirit of genuine charity—a charity which thinketh no evil, but strives to excuse rather than accuse, and can tolerate in a fellow-man an honest difference of opinion, without offence, is to be one of the characteristics of the church of the future, or of the New Jerusalem, and another is Freedom; for spiritual liberty, Swedenborg has shown us, has been restored to man. "How has such liberty been restored to man?" the reader may inquire.

If we read carefully the fifth and twelfth chapters of John, we shall find that the Lord, when on earth, executed a general judgment, for He declared: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and

they that hear shall live." "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out." This judgment of course took place in the spiritual world, where all last judgments are executed, for man is to be. judged for the deeds done in the body. It is a recognized doctrine that the New Testament predicts another general judgment. This, like the judgment which occurred when the Lord was on earth, was to take place in the spiritual world; but something must be said in regard to that world, that one not versed in the new revelation may understand the subject.

Swedenborg found the inhabitants of the spiritual world divided into three grand divisions, which he denominates the world of spirits, heaven and hell. The ruling love of every individual here governs his destiny hereafter; and as most individuals when they leave this world are neither angels nor devils, but are in preparation for one or the other of these states of life (as all angels and devils are from the human race), it follows that they cannot at once enter either heaven or hell. Therefore they tarry in the world of spirits, which is an intermediate state, until the good are cleansed from all false doctrines, ideas, and thoughts, and purified from all evil inclinations, when they are received into heaven. The evil confirm themselves more and more fully in their false views and evils, until they have put away even the semblance of genuine truths and heavenly desires, when they go voluntarily or from choice among their like in hell, for they cannot be happy in heaven. All the inhabitants of heaven, he found, acknowledge and worship our Lord. Jesus Christ as the one only God and Saviour, and are actuated by love to the Lord and neighbor in all their acts, words, and thoughts, each striving to do good to all; consequently no penal laws or punishments are required, for every one is striving to keep the Divine commandments, love to the Lord and neighbor constituting heaven. All in hell deny the Lord and His Word; deny that a

man can act from any higher motive than selfishness, and are actuated in all they do, say, and think, by some selfish love. The supreme love of self, or of ruling over others, or of wealth, display, or of sensual gratification, in hell, as in this world, arrays man against his fellow-man, and can never be fully gratified; but it must be restrained there, as here, by laws and punishments, or life in hell would be unendurable, in fact, worse than no existence. Self-love and supreme selfishness constitute hell, as love of the Lord and neighbor do heaven. Heaven is not a place into which a man can be let as a matter of favor; but heaven must be in us, and heavenly affections must rule us, before we can enter heaven, and the way to heaven is a life according to the Commandments. It will be seen that the knowledge of the spiritual world and the life of men there, contained in the revelations made through Swedenborg, has a practical relation to the life of men here, and shows us as in a glass that our every-day acts, words, and thoughts are developing our very souls into the image of heaven or hell, and we are now journeying towards the one or the other state of life slowly but surely. The evil-doer shall not go unpunished, nor the honest and good man fail of his reward, but every one will receive a just reward and recompense for all the deeds done here. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, and His tender mercies are around all His creatures, as well in hell as in this world and heaven; but He compels no one here to love Him and his neighbor supremely; and He cannot do it hereafter, without destroying the manhood of man, and this He never does.

Previous to the Lord's first coming, and between that and His second coming, Swedenborg informs us, those who left this world unprepared for either heaven or hell, remained in the world of spirits, or the intermediate state, and formed vast societies there, or imaginary heavens; and, as the world of spirits is immediately associated with man, in the course of time influx from them into the