of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you" (Matt. xvii. 20). Hence the very important truth appears that unless we now, while in ultimates, endeavor to remove and reject, through the Lord's mercy and power, evil as the governing principle of our lives, we cannot possibly remove it after death when we leave the world of ultimates, any more than a man can walk without feet, which are his ultimates, or than a locomotive can speed its way without wheels, which are in a like manner its ultimates.

This, then, was the reason why the strength of Samson resided in his hair; and why the Nazarite was not allowed, during his Nazariteship, to cut his hair. For hereby was represented the power of celestial good in ultimates: hence we may see the reason why Jesus was called a Nazarene, and why He dwelt in Nazareth (Matt. ii. 23); and also why, when the Lord acknowledged himself to be Jesus of Nazareth, the officers who came to take Him went backward and fell to the ground (John xviii. 6), to denote the divine power which came from Him as the Divine Nazarite so remarkably represented by Samson who was a Nazarite from his infancy.

We may now see the signification of " well-set hair" in the passage quoted above. This finish and adornment to the body is a type of the orderly arrangement of all principles in ultimates; that is, in our sensual and corporeal affections and appetites. When these are well-set, that is, when they are subordinated and arranged under higher principles of spiritual and heavenly order, the Lord can flow in and bless with his divine operation and presence, every state of our lives from inmost to outermost principles. We may also see the reason why Jerusalem is commanded in the passage quoted above, "to cut off her hair and cast it away," to signify the cleansing of our sensual and corporeal states, that new ultimates may be formed denoted by the new growth of the hair. It is also evident why the Lord is said, in reference to the king of Assyria, to shave" the head and the hair of the feet," and to "consume the beard" (Isaiah vii. 20); which implies that all who from sensual fallacies as to the ultimate principles of thought, have cherished skepticism and infidelity against Divine Truth, will, at the time of judgment, be rejected. Hence we may also see why baldness was considered a reproach in the representative church. (See Lev. xxi. 5; Isaiah iii. 24, xv. 2; Ezekiel vii. 18.) For this imperfection signifies the destitution of truth in ultimates, which is the case with those who are

confirmed in false doctrines, and also with those who, from inordinate worldly love and selfishness, are unconcerned about the knowledge of divine truth, except they can turn it to account in promoting some selfish advantage in the way of honor and gain.

As the case of Absalom and his wonderful hair is very peculiar, involving mysteries of wisdom which should be known in order that the Word may be rationally and spiritually discerned, and thus vindicated from the insults and assaults of infidelity, we shall resume the subject together with the correspondence of the skull in another paper. SCRUTATOR.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE TRUE WORSHIP OF THE LORD REPRESENTED BY THE OFFERINGS OF THE WISE MEN FROM THE EAST. THE SPIRITUAL MEANING OF Gold. FRANKINCENSE AND MYRRH, AS UNFOLDED BY CORRESPONDENCE.*

NOTHING is more precious to us than time, and the opportunitics

it every moment presents of working out our salvation by the subjection of every purpose, thought, imagination and act of our external to some divine and spiritual principle from the WORD OF GOD in our internal man. Thus "to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" is our great and blessed duty, as well as the great safeguard against evil of every kind. The performance of this duty, through faith in the Lord, and the love and practice of his holy precepts, brings with it the blessed assurance that whensoever the Son of Man cometh to summon us hence, He will find us ready, "with our loins girded and our lamps burning."

Our months and days here are most precious because in time, during our probation in the world, we form the plane and the basis of our spiritual and eternal states. We are now in the ultimate plane of creation; and as regeneration can only be commenced in ultimates, "now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation"; the more we cultivate our privileges here, the more extended, deep and solid will become the plane or base upon which our mansion of bliss hereafter can be erected. This plane or base can be cultivated to an indefinite extent; every moment may add something to its extension and culture. Our natural state may be compared to a vast wilderness, like the uncultivated plains of Australia or America, which in their natural state grow nothing useful for man;† but which are susceptible of cultivation to an indefinite extent, and of producing fruits in every variety for the good of mankind. Thus, whilst we are here, the

* From the Intellectual Repository for Jannary, 1851.

+ See Major Mitchell's account of Australia, in which he says, "that after travelling many miles in every direction, although there was much vegetation and many wild

|

animals, yet they could find nothing truly useful for man." It would hence appear that everything truly useful for man is the result of culture, or of our coöperation with the Lord's Providence.

cultivation of our natural state can be enlarged, and the portions already brought under spiritual culture may be still improved as to quality and capacity for the production of the more exalted fruits of righteousness and of happiness. But when we leave this world, the ultimate of creation, we cannot extend and perfect the base upon which our mansion in heaven is constructed.

Now, all this spiritual culture of our natural state is denoted by the true worship of the Lord. Hence it was that the Latins used a term to denote worship which signified culture, namely cultus. Thus Cicero says "Religio Deorum cultu pio continetur." But the true worship of the Lord is involved in the offerings which the wise men brought unto Him at his nativity, an event which we have recently commemorated. These offerings were Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh; and the men who brought them were guided to Bethlehem by a star, which went before them.

All these particulars respecting the Lord's nativity are recorded, not merely as historical events, but for our instruction in righteousness, "that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." The Magi, or the wise men who came from the east, were in possession of knowledges from ancient revelations and traditions, that the Lord would come into the world to accomplish the redemption of mankind by subjugating the hells, glorifying his Humanity, and establishing a new dispensation of his mercy and goodness, or a New Church upon earth. There had always been from the first prophecy that was delivered, "that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head," an anticipation in the minds of the pious of this great event; and when the "desire of all nations" was about to come, this hopeful anticipation was exceedingly active. The star which guided the wise men was the emblem of the knowledge they possessed respecting the Lord's Advent; and in reference to us of the New Testament Dispensation, and especially of the New Jerusalem Church, this star of spiritual knowledge should shine more brightly to our minds than it did to the wise men of old. This knowledge should bring us to the Lord at the commemoration of his nativity, and induce us to bring spiritually, in genuine worship, our offerings of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

The Lord's nativity in itself is to be infinitely distinguished from the nativity of every other man. And unless this infinite distinction is in some measure seen, it is impossible to form a true idea of his Humanity, and of his being one with the Father even as the soul is

one with the body. The reason why the Christian world in general thinks of the Lord's human nature as similar to the human nature of another man, and why they separate his Divine nature from his Human, is owing to the fact of their not having true ideas concerning his conception and nativity. If they would but think, as the Word plainly teaches, that his Father was the Divine Being Himself, of whom He was conceived, and that, of consequence, his soul was infinitely distinct from the soul of all other men who are conceived of merely human fathers, they would begin at the right point, to contemplate the true nature of the Lord's Humanity, and would see, as the apostle declares, that "in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," and that, consequently, his human nature must needs be divine, and not merely human; since no merely human nature, however exalted, could possibly contain all the fulness of the Godhead.

But as everything good and true, everything innocent, holy and happy must be born in us, if we are to become the subjects of regeneration, and thus prepared to enter into heaven; therefore the Lord's nativity, or his being born into the world, represents the birth of everything spiritual and heavenly from Him into our individual world, that is, into our natural man. "Christ in us," says the apostle, "is the hope of glory;" therefore the Lord, as to his divine love and wisdom, must be born in us, as the only hope of attaining to our glorious destiny in heaven. When, therefore, we commemorate the Lord's Nativity, we should remember that the most profitable way of contemplating this subject is, that the Lord as to all the principles of his kingdom (see Luke xvii. 21), must be born within us and that this birth is effected by the acknowledgment of Him in his Divine Humanity.

The Lord was thus born into the world to become our Redeemer and Saviour, in order that his redeeming and saving love and truth might be born in us individually. This blessed spiritual nativity, or this re-birth of man, is accomplished by virtue of the genuine principles of a living, holy worship. This worship is denoted by the offerings of the wise men; and we become truly wise in proportion as we offer up this holy worship to the Lord.

Gold, as the emblem of the first principles of a living worship, signifies the worship of the Lord from pure love or goodness. This is the first essential of all worship and of all genuine religion; and gold so frequently mentioned in Scripture, is the proper correspondent