directions. And between these contradictory endeavours, which may be compared to the wind blowing from opposite quarters, the waves of the sea begin to swell. The ship of the man of the Church now mounts up to heaven; that is, at one time he clings to the teaching which he has learned from God's Word, and he makes that the rule of his life; and at another time he goes down into the abyss, he suffers himself to be carried away by selfish and worldly lusts; so that in the end his soul fairly melts because of evil, by which is meant that he feels his own utter incompetence to do good from himself. And on the other hand we read that he reels to and fro, and staggers like a drunken man, and his wisdom is at an end. A man's wisdom is always at an end when he looks upon himself, and men like himself, as the measure of the truth, and when he cuts himself loose from revelation; thinking that from his own finite, natural ideas he can reach spiritual truth, and compass the things of heaven and of the Infinite God. All those who deny the Scriptures, and who deny our Father in heaven, reel to and fro; they indeed walk straight in their own eyes, but in the sight of God they totter about like a drunken man, now inclining to one set of ideas, and then again to another. But if he cry to the Lord in his trouble, and if he acknowledge Him as his Saviour and his God, and as the Source of all goodness and truth, then the Lord will bring him out of his distress, and He will make the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. And the man of the Church is glad, because he is quiet; and so the Lord brings him to his desired haven. This haven is heaven; but heaven, the kingdom of God, is within us. Hence the two opposite shores are also within us. Our native shore is in our external, sensual man, and the opposite shore is in our spiritual man; and the whole work of our life consists in making a highway between them, and in striving to journey from our natural into our spiritual nature, with a view of making our permanent abode there. No man can from himself press into this higher and more interior state; but is dragged and kept down into the selfish state of the natural man below. The Lord alone can bring us into the higher nature of which man is capable, where His kingdom in our soul resides, and He does so by the doctrines and truths of His Divine Word, which are represented in our text by a ship. Every man should allow the Lord to be the Captain of his ship and let Divine Truth be the pole-star by which he allows himself to be directed from a narrow contracted life of selfishness into the large and glorious life of an unselfish, heavenly love of the neighbour. As long as the love of self still exercises sway over our thoughts and actions our life will be agitated, and in a constant state of turmoil; but in proportion as we allow the Lord to build up and construct the other shore in our hearts, and in proportion as we press thither in our thoughts and aspirations and in our words and deeds, in the same proportion the Lord can bring us out of our distresses, and make us enjoy the calm which invariably comes after the storm. R. L. TAFEL. ITEMS OF INTEREST. The American Swedenborg Society has, we understand, nearly ready for publication a new Latin edition of the "Doctrine of Charity," prepared from the photo-lithographed MSS. This will be followed by Latin editions of "The Heavenly Doctrine" and "The Apocalypse Revealed," neither of which has ever been republished. A tract written by the Rev. Chauncey Giles has just been published, called The Apparent Contradictions of the Sacred Scriptures Reconciled. This subject, more fully treated by Dr. Bayley in his Scripture Paradoxes, and by Mrs. Hume-Rothery in her Obscure Texts of Scripture Explained, is intended, in its present form of a penny tract, for the widest circulation, and takes for its typical illustration the statements that "the Lord is gracious and full of compassion," and "the Lord revengeth and is furious." The Rev. G. H. Smith, formerly at Bolton, began his duties as the minister of the Accrington Society with the New Year. We have pleasure in referring to a very beautiful way of introducing our views which has been adopted in Birmingham. It has been determined to present to the parents of every child which dies there a copy of Mr. Giles' work on The Spiritual World and our Children there. When the soil of the human mind has been so deeply ploughed up by affliction, then certainly one of the most favourable opportunities occurs to sow a few seasonable seeds of truth. The Society has prepared a neat label to affix in it which says: "This little work is presented by the Missionary Committee of the New Church, Wretham Road, Handsworth, in token of sympathy, and with the hope that it may be of lasting. service to the recipient." The Missionary Committee referred to consists of the Birmingham branch of the Auxiliary Mission and Tract Society. The first lecture in the Camberwell Society's new building was delivered on Thursday, the 10th inst., by the Rev. Dr. Sexton, upon "Theories of Evolution in reference to the Origin of Man." The learned lecturer noticed in detail the adaptation theory of Lannarck, the development theory of the author of Vestiges of Creation, and the natural-selection theory of Darwin, showing the shortcomings of each theory when submitted to the remorseless logic of facts. The room was well filled by an audience which gave abundant evidence of its appreciation of Dr. Sexton's power to popularize some of the highest results of modern scientific thought. We are glad to learn that the Rev. Dr. Sexton is proposing to publish the substance of the above lecture, together with a reprint of several others of his discourses and essays on the errors of the modern materialistic philosophy, including his reply to Professor Tyndall's celebrated Belfast address, in a substantial volume. The Rev. C. H. Mann, of Orange, New Jersey, has succeeded the Rev. Chauncey Giles as editor of The New Jerusalem Messenger. Mr. Giles has kindly volunteered to be an occasional contributor to the pages of Morning Light. The Guardian appears almost to go out of its way to cite the the following quotation and to give the following expression of opinion:-"In a review of a book, The Evening and the Morning, the School Board Chronicle, which we hope in this case is not the organ of School Boards, speaks thus of Swedenborg: We are of opinion that within the last half century a larger number of intellectual sceptics have been brought back within the pale of Christianity by the doctrines of the founder of the New Jerusalem than by all other forms of Christian faith together; and, therefore, a book like this, in which one who has passed through the sceptical into the Swedenborgian stage endeavours to meet the unbeliever on what he well knows to be the unbeliever's own ground, and in which this is done with great ability and a large mastery of the whole subject, should not be put aside unread by reason of a preconceived notion of what Swedenborgianism is. The reader must be extremely well acquainted with the voluminous works of the modern seer if he does not find much in this volume to surprise and enlighten him.'" The Guardian should rather, we think, give its reasons for dissenting from the verdict of the School Board Chronicle by reviewing the book itself, a copy of which it received for the purpose; and if it think that the work contains erroneous teaching it should endeavour to expose it by argument. In the notice of The Evening and the Morning above referred to, which appeared in the School Board Chronicle of January 5th, the following additional statements were made which deserve to be recorded. It gives its general estimate of the book thus :-"In these days of religious controversy there ought to be a host of readers for this book. The author grapples with the supreme problems of existence, of the origin of things, of eternity, immortality, and revelation, in a manner which must be fresh to ninetynine hundredths of the readers of speculative theology." After giving an outline of the story he proceeds: "Nowhere within the covers of the volume does the author explains all difficulties and misgivings, while to the outsider it is only the finest and most extraordinarily consistent specimen given to the world in modern times of the purely arbitrary solution of the great problem." A learned Roman Catholic priest writes from Sicily to Professor Scocia as follows:-"From the various accounts I have received, I come to the conclusion that La Nuova Epoca has made a good impression upon those who have read it. Let us hope that the light will shine for all. I continue to study the 'True Christian Religion,' and I assure you, I have received great comfort from it. It has dispersed many of those doubts which are partly the children of the old theology which I studied, and partly of incredulity and materialism drawn from the superficial study of natural sciences. The Lord be thanked, who by the works of Swedenborg has put me in the right! But if I were socially and financially freer, I should be disposed to preach publicly the doctrines of the New Jerusalem. We must hope and pray that the chains that fasten me down and hold me in bondage may be soon broken. Ah! dearest brother, it is indescribable torture for a man who feels the want to be free and is constrained to remain in Providence !" expressly state the fact—which, nevertheless, is quickly slavery. May it be according to the ordination of Divine realized by the experienced reader--that the form of Christianity which has reconciled the hero to the religious faith which he once rejected is that whereof Emanuel Swedenborg is the great apostle and propounder." And finally the reviewer says: "In the theological region the hero is very strong. He is a thorough master of his subject, and, better than any little book we have seen before, The Evening and the Morning lifts the curtain at the entrance of the study of that marvellous new aspect of the Religion of the Bible which, to the initiated, The Rev. A. T. Boyesen, it should be remembered, has to depend largely on the generosity of English and American friends. He needs help much at present, and subscriptions on his behalf will be thankfully received and promptly remitted either by the Secretary of the Foreign and Colonial Missions Committee, the Rev. Dr. Tafel, 149 Tufnell Park Road, N., or by Mr. Gunton, 19 Oseney Crescent, N. W. Two plans of lessons are given to suit those Societies which have school both in the morning and afternoon. THE WINDS AND WAVES REBUKED. February 3, Morning.-By entering into a ship spiritually is signified to enter into the knowledge of what is good and true as derived from the Word. The knowledge of what is evil and false are the ships of Tarshish which the day of the Lord was to supplant. The tempest which arose signifies the commotion and trials the Divine truths first cause in the natural man, and the ship being covered with the waves means the obscured state of mind which that produces. Jesus being asleep typifies the fact that in temptation He seems to be far from us; we do not regard His Divine Presence; and the sleep attributed to Him is the sleep in which man really is as to his perception of eternal things. By the disciples coming to Him is signified a turning of their affections towards Him; and by awaking Him, a lifting of the understanding towards spiritual things. "Lord, save us, we perish," signifies the perception of their danger from evils and falses, and prayer to the Lord who alone can save. "Why are ye fearful? O ye of little faith!" is meant to indicate a defect in their spiritual principles. "Then He arose,' signifies His exaltation in our minds as the supreme Good and Truth. His rebuking the winds and the waves signifies the exercise of His Omnipotence to subdue the influx from hell, signified by the wind, and the evils and errors of the natural man signified by the waves. The great calm which follows signifies the gentle rule of heavenly principles which follow the removal of their opposite. NOAH. February 3, Evening-The first part of this chapter (Gen. vi.) treats of the decline of the Most Ancient Church, the increase of evil affections signified by daughters, and the steeping of everything true in self-love signified by the giants then born. Noah signifies the Church which followed and which existed after the flood. His three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, signify three kinds of doctrinal teaching into which that Church parted. The Lord foretelling the flood and the destruction of all save Noah and his family was in consequence of the impossibility of regenerating the members of the Most Ancient Church, whose wills and understandings had been sunk and degraded beyond possibility of being elevated and purified : consequently they perished. Printed by MUIR AND PATERSON, 14 Clyde Street, Edinburgh, and published. by JAMES SPEIRS, 36 Bloomsbury Street, London, W.C. 47 48 49 50 WHAT DOES SWEDENBORG REALLY Ninth Edition, crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. An Appeal in behalf of the BY THE Rev. S. NOBLE. "Here is a volume in which they are honestly expounded and the life and character of Swedenborg honestly described. So that by the perusal of a work of not quite 500 pages every reader can judge for himself who and what Swedenborg was and what he taught. We think that the unprejudiced reader will find that Swedenborg had far better grounds in reason and Scripture, for some of his views at least, than is commonly imagined. Like Professor BUSH of America, we have been astonished at the extent to which Scripture is quoted, and fairly enough too, in support of those views, and at their reasonableness and general harmony with the nature and order of life as indicated by science. . . . We say then to all who want to know what Swedenborg taught: Get this book and read for yourselves." -The Christian Age. LONDON: JAMES SPEIRS, 36 Bloomsbury Street. THIRD EDITION. In foolscap 8vo, cloth gilt, 2s.; cloth extra, 2s. 6d. EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, THE SPIRITUAL COLUMBUS. LONDON: JAMES SPEIRS, 36 Bloomsbury Street. EVENING AND THE MORNING. A Narrative. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. "It is not often that one meets with a book of this kind, so entirely free from religious cant, bigotry, and bitterness, and yet so full of wise and reverent thought and of earnest belief."-The Standard. "We are prepared to admit that it is decidedly "We have rarely read any treatise, however learned, it would become a powerful agent for the dissipa- Tatler. "Controversial romances are seldom pleasant reading, but The Evening and the Morning,' while directed against the views maintained in these columns, is an exception to the rule. The victory is given with considerable ability to a sort of good-hearted Swedenborgian Christian, and the book, which is very neatly printed, is above the usual level of novels written for propagandist purposes."-The National Reformer. "Unlike most books of theological controversy, this is not dull; and, though it may be objected that the writer has both sides of the controversy in his own hands, no one will say that he uses his opportunities unfairly."-Morning Advertiser. "The author, who writes a style terse, vigorous, and beautiful, has evidently passed through the several phases of speculation which he puts behind and beneath him with no little dialectical skill."-Ipswich Journal. "The tale before us is written with an excellent purpose. It is the story of a young man who is led gradually from unbelief to Christianity; and though the subject is in itself trite enough, it is not treated in a common-place manner."-Westminster Gazette. "The events are pleasantly related; and the arguments are real arguments, not mere rhetorical ninepins obviously set up for the author to bowl over, and of such feeble stability that the weakest logic would suffice for their subversion."-Intellectual Repository. LONDON: JAMES SPEIRS, 36 Bloomsbury Street. SOHO HILL, BIRMINGHAM. Conducted by T. C. LOWE, B.A. Assisted by highly competent resident Masters, English and Foreign. THE HE course of instruction comprises thorough English, Ancient and Modern Languages, Mathematics, Physical Science, Music, Singing, Drawing, and Gym nastics. A large number of Pupils have passed University and other Examinations. INCLUSIVE TERMS. Prospectuses on Application. By the Rev. A. CLISSOLD, M.A. Or, the Holy Supper explained on the prin- The Literal and Spiritual Senses In their relations to each other and to the Svo, cloth, 6s. Or the passing away of Ages or Dispensations, LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, & Co. BUTTESLAND STREET NEW CHURCH Outlines of the Religion and Philo- DUNN & HEWETT sophy of Swedenborg. By THEOPHILUS PARSONS, LL.D. Now ready, small crown Svo, cloth, 2s. 6d. "An elegant and scholarly little work, which will be regarded with approval in a wider circle than that of the admirers of Swedenborg."-Public Opinion. Swedenborg's Rules of Life. Beauti fully illuminated card, price 8d., or for distribution, 6s. per dozen. On Human Science, Good and Evil, and its Works; and on Divine Revelation and its Works and Sciences. By J. J. ARE ALSO MANUFACTURERS OF DUNN'S ESSENCE OF COFFEE. SOLUBLE COCOAS, AND SOLUBLE CHOCOLATES. GARTH WILKINSON, M.D. Svo, cloth, CHOCOLATE CREAMS. price 165. Sown in the Springtime: Addresses delivered to the New Church Sunday School, Camden Road, London. Foolscap 8vo, handsomely bound in cloth, Is. 6d. Character: Its Elements and Development. Second edition, By a BIBLE STUDENT. crown 8vo, cloth, 4s. ; gilt edges, 4s. 6d. The Angels. By a BIBLE STUDENT. Second edition, crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. ; or, with gilt edges, 45. Paul, Luther, and Wesley compared with Swedenborg. Three Lectures by the Rev. R. GOLDSACK, Liverpool. 8vo, 37 pages, price 4d. Talks to the Children: Addresses delivered to the New Church Sunday School, Camden Road, London. Now ready, foolscap 8vo, handsomely bound in cloth, Is. 6d. Good Tidings says:-"A delightful little volume. It is a book that should be in every New Church Family and Sunday School.' The Literary World says:-"Twelve admirable little addresses. . . The Talks' are sensible and practical, and can hardly be read without profit." LONDON: JAMES SPEIRS, 36 Bloomsbury Street, The Spiritual Body, the Unseen World, and the Divine Humanity. BY THE REV. H. N. GRIMLEY, M. A., Professor of Mathematics in the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, and sometime Chaplain of Tremadoc Church. "These sermons form a very edifying and beautiful volume. The style is clear, elegant, and affectionate. They are signs of new life and thought in the Church of England."-Intellectual Repository. "Mr. Grimley makes it his aim to show that some of the newest discoveries and speculations of modern science are in perfect harmony with the Christian revelation, and indeed illustrate some of its more obscure and mysterious intimations."-Scotsman. "The author urges all earnest Christians reverently to contemplate the sublime mysteries of the unseen world."-- Morning Post. "Professor Grimley impressively dwells on the idea that huraanity is ever being inspired and educated by God, and advocates the view that the phenomena of nature are but types of the invisible things of the spiritual world."-Birmingham Daily Gazette. "The volume bears throughout the stamp of originality. Mr. Grimley speaks because he has something to say."--Bayswater Gazette. "Full of freshness and beauty. Some of them are gems."-Nonconformist. "There is a freshness, an originality, and an unconscions eloquence about this volume which make it delightful reading." Wrexham Guardian. "Their chief title to esteem seems to us to consist in their intense realization of things unseen, of that invisible world which is in truth nearer to man than the universe of matter." -Aberystwyth Observer. London: C. KEGAN, PAUL, & Co., (successors to Henry S. King & Co.). To be had of all Booksellers, and of JAMES SPEIRS, 36 Bloomsbury Street, London. SWEDENBORG'S WORKS. All the Theological have been translated into English, French, and German; and some of them into Welsh, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Russian, Italian, Polish, and Icelandic. A brief summary of the following work is given below: The True Christian Religion; or, The Universal Theology of the New "The Faith of the New Heaven and the New Church in its universal form is, that the Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, came into the world that He might subdue the hells, and glorify His Humanity: that without Him no flesh could have been saved; and that all will be saved who believe in Him.' "It is a universal of faith, that God is One in essence and in person, in whom there is a Divine Trinity, and that the Lord God the Saviour Jesus Christ is that God... that no flesh could have been saved unless the Lord had come into the world.. that He came into the world to remove hell from man. .. to glorify His Humanity, which He assumed in the world; that is, to unite it with the Divinity of which it was begotten. The universal of faith on man's part is, that he should believe on the Lord; for by believing on Him he has conjunction with Him, and by conjunction salvation. CHAP. I., under the heading of God the Creator, treats of His Unity; His Infinity or His Immensity and Eternity; His Essence, which is Divine Love and Wisdom: His Omnipotence, Omniscience and Omnipresence; and the Creation of the Universe. CHAP. II. treats of the Lord the Redeemer, and Redemption: Redemption was a work purely Divine and could not possibly have been effected except by God Incarnate. It is a fundamental error of the Church to believe the Passion of the Cross to be Redemption itself; and this error, together with that relating to three Divine Persons, from eternity, has perverted the whole Church, so that nothing spiritual remains in it. CHAP. III. The Holy Spirit and the Divine Operation. The Holy Spirit is the Divine Truth... proceeding from the One God, in whom there is a Divine Trinity, thus from the Lord God the Saviour... A man's spirit is his mind and whatever proceeds from it. The Divine Trinity... consisting of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are the three essentials of One God which make a One, like soul, body, and operation in a man. CHAP. IV. The Sacred Scripture, or the Word, is the Divine Truth itself in which is a spiritual sense hitherto unknown. . . The literal sense is the basis, the continent, and the firmament of its spiritual and celestial senses. The doctrine of the Church ought to be drawn from the literal sense of the Word and to be confirmed thereby.... Without the Word no one would have any knowledge of God, of heaven, and hell, or of a life after death, and much less of the Lord. CHAP. V. The Decalogue explained as to its external and internal senses. CHAP. VI. Faith. A Saving Faith is a Faith in the Lord God the Saviour Jesus Christ, and this because He is the visible God in whom is the invisible (John v. 37; i. 18; vi. 46; xiv. 6; xiv. 7-9). CHAP. VII. Charity, or Love towards our neighbour, and Good Works. To love our neighbour, considered in itself, is not to love his person, but the good which is in it. Charity and Good Works are as distinct as willing what is good and doing what is good. CHAP. VIII. Free-determination. A man, during his abode in the world, is held in the midst between heaven and hell, and thus on a spiritual equilibrium, which constitutes Free-determination. If men were destitute of Free-determination on spiritual things, it would be possible for all men throughout the whole world, in a single day, to be induced to believe in the Lord; but this is impossible, because nothing remains with a man which is not freely received. CHAP. IX. Repentance. Actual Repentance consists in a man's examining himself, knowing and acknowledging his sins, supplicating the Lord, and beginning a new life examining not only the actions of his life, but also the intentions of his will. CHAP. X. Reformation. Since all are redeemed, all have a capacity to be regenerated, every one according to his state. CHAP. XI, Imputation. An imputation of the Merit and Righteousness of Christ is impossible. . . . Thought is imputed to no one, but will. CHAP. XII. Baptism... signifies spiritual washing, which is a purification from evils and falses, and thus Regeneration. CHAP. XIII. The Holy Supper . . is to the worthy receivers as a signature and seal that they are the Sons of God. CHAP. XIV. (1) The Consummation of the Age: (2) The Coming of the Lord and the New Heaven; and (3) The New Church. (1) In the present day is the last time of the Christian Church which the Lord foretold and described in the Gospels, and in the Revelation. (2) Is a Coming not in Person, but in the Word, which is from Him, and is Himself. This is effected by the instrumentality of a man, before whom He has manifested Himself in person, and whom He has filled with His Spirit, to teach from Him the doctrines of the Now Church by means of the word. Supplement. Memorable Relations. SWEDENBORG SOCIETY, 36 Bloomsbury Street. No. 5.-Vol. I. B SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1878. THE CREED OF THE NEW CHURCH. OY the Divine mercy of the Lord I propose to write a series of chapters in elucidation and defence of the principal doctrines of the New Church. The foundation, and, so to speak, the texts of these chapters will be supplied by the Creed contained in the Catechism. officially adopted by the General Conference of the New Church in Great Britain, and printed in their first Liturgy, which was published in 1828. The Order of Baptism likewise refers to the same document; the parents and friends of the infants baptized receiving the charge, "Let them become well acquainted with the Word of God, and learn by heart the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and, in due time, the Creed of the New Church." The author of the composition is unknown, but most probably it was the joint production of the numerous and able Committee which prepared the Liturgy of 1828; and it certainly presents within a brief compass, and in language of dignified simplicity, the chief doctrines of the New Jerusalem. The Creed is as follows: THE CREED OF THE NEW CHURCH. "I believe in One God, in whom is a Divine Trinity; who is a Being of infinite love, wisdom, and power; my Creator, Redeemer, and Regenerator: and that this God is the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who is Jehovah in a glorified human form. "I believe in the Sacred Scripture as being the Word of God, or the Divine Truth itself; which is the fountain of wisdom to angels and men, and is able to make me wise unto salvation. "I believe that, if I would be saved, I must shun all evils as sins against God, and live a life according to the Ten Commandments. "I believe that when I die as to my natural body, I shall rise again in a spiritual body, and shall be judged according to my works; and that, if I am good, I shall go to heaven, and become an angel, and be happy for ever; but if I am wicked, I shall go to hell, and become an infernal spirit, and be miserable for ever. "I believe that Now is the time of the Second Coming of the Lord, and of the commencement of the New Church called the New Jerusalem." CHAPTER I. THE GODHEAD. "I believe in One God, in whom is a Divine Trinity; who is a Being of infinite love, wisdom, and power; my Creator, Redeemer, and Regenerator and that this God is the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who is Jehovah in a glorified human form." B GOD IS ONE. ELIEF in God forms the centre and foundation of every religious system, and, according to its truth and purity, or superstition and grossness, determines the quality of such system, and the lives and characters of its professors. For the conception each one forms of the Deity inevitably supplies his standard of right and wrong, and thus, to an incalculable extent, underlies and directs his entire conduct. This is implied in the declaration of the inspired Word that "all people will walk every one in the name of his God" (Mic. iv. 5), the profound wisdom of which is confirmed alike by history and observation. The worshippers of Moloch and Ashtaroth were cruel and profligate; those who adored Jupiter and Juno, Mars and Hercules, were haughty and warlike; while the votaries of Venus and Bacchus were sensual and gluttonous. And still, throughout heathendom, a similar correspondence binds into an organic unity of cause and effect, action and reaction, the attributes of the false divinities ignorantly honoured, and the characters of their misled devotees; the idolaters of deities sanguinary, bestial, or unclean, always reflecting those evil qualities of which they have exalted the personifications to the chief place in their regard. All, therefore, who desire true usefulness and blessing, must diligently seek a clear and just estimate of God, as the only foundation of genuine righteousness and secure peace. Yet it is painfully apparent that upon this all-important irreconcilably divided. subject the opinions of Christendom are widely and For many centuries, during which men were content to receive their religious creeds on authority, confession was made with tolerable uniformity in the doctrine established by the Council of Nice in 325 A.D., which described the Deity as "three Persons and one God;" the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit being affirmed as each separately and independently Divine, and yet as comprising in their aggregate, not three Gods, but One. Within a comparatively recent period, however, the human mind has been wonderfully roused from the torpid, unintelligent acquiescence of past ages, and now scrutinizes very closely, and with daring originality, this and many other dogmas formerly accepted with submission. But unhappily the theories most favoured by the new schools of theology, while removing some difficulties of the Trinitarian hypothesis, introduce others equally or even more questionable. To escape the obvious paradox of the phrase "three Persons and one God," many keen reasoners incline towards an estimate of the Saviour so merely humanitarian as entirely to deprive Him of Divine honours. And since this dethronement can only be effected by denying or explaining away much emphatic testimony of the Scriptures, it adds to the violence inflicted on the Lord's Divinity this further most dangerous assault on the belief in any genuine. revelation. Yet serious as are these negations, no one can deny their extensive influence on contemporary religious opinion, and, what is especially to be noted, among many whose brilliant abilities and honesty of conviction and motive it would be presumptuous impertinence to doubt. In fact, wherever Christian thought is most free, and the noble desire for a faith based on rational assurance is pursued with the greatest ardour, we observe an anxious, almost agonized inquiry respecting the person and character of God. In response to this inquiry, then, the New Church invites attention to a doctrine concerning the Deity which unites whatever is true in both the systems to which allusion has been made, while avoiding alike their intellectual and their biblical dilemmas; which, to the Trinitarian reverence for the Divine Redeemer, and for the Sacred Scriptures as indeed His Word, adds the rational clearness of Unitarianism, with its consistent assertion of the fundamental truth that in essence and in person God must be One. And let no one decline such an investigation from an idea that, in subjects so extremely holy, the "dim religious light" of mystery is more favourable to true humility and reverence than an effort to obtain intellectual satisfaction at the possible cost of the destruction or To do so modification of opinions previously cherished. would surely be to ignore some of the plainest and most forcible teachings of the Divine Word, which, so far from exhibiting ignorance as a sacred state, conducing to humble veneration, continually asserts it the privilege and duty of every true member of the Church to attain |