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understanding of the relation between cause and effect; secondly, a thorough understanding of the spiritual world or of the world of cause; and thirdly, an adequate understanding of the natural world, or the world of effect. We shall now say a few words of his attempt at making a "critical examination" of the science of correspondence as a system of biblical interpretation.

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His stand-point in this case is that of a man of whom it has been proved that he has not the faintest conception of what the "science of correspondence" is, making use of this pretended knowledge in declaring as to the reality of the spiritual sense of Sacred Scripture. His own quotation from Swedenborg (?) concerning this sense is as follows: "This spiritual sense is within the literal sense as the soul is in the body, or as thought is in the eyes, and affection in the countenance, and which act as one, like cause and effect" (p. 16).

Swedenborg himself speaks of this sense in the following words :-" The spiritual sense of the Word is henceforth not given to any one, unless he is in genuine truths from the Lord. The reason is, that no one can see the spiritual sense except from the Lord alone, and except he is in Divine truths from the Lord. For the spiritual sense of the Word treats only of the Lord and His kingdom, and in this sense are His angels in heaven; for His Divine Truth is there. This may be violated by man, if he is in the knowledge of correspondences, and by this desires to investigate the spiritual sense of the Word from his own power. For from a few correspondences known to himself he may pervert that sense, and bend it also so as to confirm thereby a falsity, and this is doing violence to the Divine Truth, and hence to heaven, where this resides. Wherefore if any one desires to open that sense from himself and not from the Lord, heaven is closed to him, and when this is closed, man either does not see any truth, or he becomes spiritually insane. .. Lest, therefore, any one enter into the spiritual sense, and pervert the genuine truth, which is of that sense, guards are placed there by the Lord, which in the Word are understood by cherubim " (T. C. R., 208).

These guards have evidently been doing their duty even in the present case, and they have struck with blindness the disciple of a merely sensualistic and materialistic science, and they have done their work so effectively, that the author of this "Critical Examination of the Science of Correspondences" has been unable to form to himself the least positive idea of what correspondence really is. As a knowledge of correspondence, however, is the only key by which the spiritual sense may be seen; and as he wholly perverted his own knowledge of that key, he was utterly unable to comprehend the first iota of the spiritual sense as revealed by Swedenborg; as may be clearly seen by a perusal of pages 16 to 20 of his pamphlet, which he devotes to a discussion on the doctrine of the internal sense. Nay, it seemed to have produced in his mind a real obliquity of vision, so that he was no longer able to quote correctly Swedenborg's own words, as may be seen by a reference to the only passages that he quotes from Swedenborg in this connection.

On p. 17 he says, "In illustration of the style of interpretation, let us take the treatment of the seventy-fourth verse of the eighteenth chapter of Exodus :-'And Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law.' This signifies an effect according to the orderly arrangement of the Divine good, as appears without explanation. For Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, represents Divine good; Moses the Divine truth which proceeds from the Divine good (A. C. 8644). Without a man can be said to proceed from his wife's father, analogy here set forth, to say the least of it, is rather far-fetched."

The passage in question is not found in A. C. 8644, but in A. C. 8724, where it reads as follows:- "And Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law [and did all that he said].' This signifies an effect according to the orderly arrangement of the Divine, as appears without explanation; for Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, represents Divine Good (n. 8643), and Moses Divine Truth, which proceeds from Divine Good (n. 8644.)" In the rest of the number Swedenborg explains how Divine Truth proceeds from Divine Good; and in No. 8643, to which he refers, but which reference is omitted by the writer, he explains at great length why "Jethro, the priest of Midian," represents Divine

Good. The writer, by the suppression of this reference, gives his readers to understand that Swedenborg makes here a simple assertion without giving any reason for it.

In a similar "critical" way the writer treats the only other quotation he makes from Swedenborg in this connection, viz., from A. C. 2070, where the following summary exposition of the spiritual sense of Genesis xvii. 17 is given: "And Abraham fell on his face, signifies [adoration; and laughed, signifies] the affection of truth; and said in his heart, signifies that so he thought; shall a child be born to a son of a hundred years, signifies that then the rational of the Lord's human essence would be united to the Divine." Here the words in brackets have been quietly dropped out by the writer.

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That this explanation seems "very obscure" to the writer, we can very easily believe; but so is everything else that Swedenborg says concerning the Lord and the spiritual world, and concerning man's spiritual organization. A man who denies the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the existence of a spiritual sense in the Sacred Scripture, must not be surprised if he cannot understand what that spiritual sense teaches concerning the Lord's Divine Humanity, and concerning His union with His Kingdom, or the Church. the same reason also he is utterly unable to understand the spiritual signification of Moses and Jacob, on pages 17 and 18. Besides no one is able to form a rational conception of the various terms used by Swedenborg in upholding the spiritual sense of Scripture, unless he has a clear idea of the doctrine of discrete degrees. Of this doctrine, however, the writer, as has been shown by us, has not the remotest idea, wherefore all those terms which Swedenborg uses respecting the Lord's Divine Humanity, and which have been collected by the writer on p. 20, are to him “little more than a jangle of unmeaning words; just as any scientific or philosophical treatise is a collection of "unmeaning words" to those who are not mentally able to compass their meaning.

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Thus far, i.e., to p. 20, the writer "examines critically" Swedenborg's science of correspondence; the remainder of his pamphlet is devoted to a sketch of Swedenborg's life and character. We content ourselves with remarking here that this sketch is as much a caricature of Swedenborg's real character as the writer's presentation of Swedenborg's science of correspondences is a caricature of that science.

As the present pamphlet, according to the best of our knowledge, contains the first attack made upon Swedenborg from the camp of modern science, we considered it our duty to discuss its contents at greater length than we otherwise should have done. In conclusion, we venture to express a hope that any future critics of Swedenborg's system of correspondence will approach their subject better prepared, and discuss it in a spirit of greater fairness and justice than has been done by the anonymous author of the present publication.

R. L. T.

THE ANNIHILATION THEORY (Speirs) is a tract by the Rev. J. Deans, written to prove from Scripture that the wicked as well as the righteous have a future life. So far as the testimony of the Word is concerned the doctrine is well established. But as people err on this subject for want of knowing in what the immortality of the soul is grounded, we think Mr. Deans would have made his tract more complete if he had given reason as well as Scripture on the subject.

THE DAILY READING OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURES is a tract of which Mr. Speirs is both author and publisher, intended to enforce as a duty, especially on the young, the daily reading, individually and privately, of at least ten verses of the Bible. This used to be inculcated, we believe with excellent effect, by Mr. Prescott Hiller, and it is a practice the uses of which are well set forth in this Sunday school address.

HELL AND HEAVEN, by Theologicus (Ross, Newcastle), is a very well-written tract, which might usefully be circulated among those who have vague and unsatisfactory, as well as erroneous, notions respecting the eternal world.

SWEDENBORG.-The

Miscellaneous.

writer, 'unquestionably that of a profound thinker,' though it comprises errors more fundamental than those he combated—is most explicit in his teaching on Purgatory." A writer who maintains the authority of Romanism, and regards the rejection of any one article of her creed as destructive of the whole, will naturally find in Swedenborg much that is opposed to his faith, and which, in his judgment, is fundamentally erroneous. He will also find on closer examination that Swedenborg's doctrine of the intermediate state is not a revival of the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory, but the intermediate condition into which all enter as they leave this life, in which the interiors of the mind are manifested, and the true character fitted for its final and unalterable abode; and that over this state the Church on earth has no power and exercises no authority whatever.

Contemporary their tenets rebelled against it. Thus, Review for January has two somewhat for instance, Swedenborg, whose theomarked allusions to our author. The logical system was mainly shaped by his first occurs in an article on "Eternal repulsion from the Lutheran theory of Perdition and Universalism, from a justification, and is, to quote a modern Roman Catholic point of view," by the Rev. H. N. Oxenham. Several of the numbers of this Review furnish abundant evidence of the change of sentiment which has so extensively taken place among religious teachers respecting the final lot of the wicked; and the writer notices in the objectors to the orthodox belief, the "quiet assumption of superiority which implies that the argument from reason, and even from the general tendency of revelation,' is so overpowering' against the received belief that it is difficult to conceive any one but a fool or a fanatic continuing to uphold it." A prominent feature of the writings opposed to the popular doctrine of hell, is the statement that it involves the damnation of the vast majority of our race. This opinion, moreover, has widely prevailed among Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, but especially the latter. "It was, indeed," says Mr. Oxenham, " 'an inevitable and expressly avowed consequence of the teaching of all the leading Reformers on original sin and justification. Their violent distortion of the Catholic doctrine of original sin reduced all heathen virtues, not simply to splendid vices,' but to acts which Melanchthon calls 'shadows of virtues,' which, according to Calvin, deserve damnation, and which Luther expressly designates mortal sins."" Against this opinion the author presents the doctrine of Purgatory, as offering a hope in the future lot of the departed, and a possible escape from the terrible conclusion so persistently urged against the orthodox teaching. It is in the discussion of this doctrine that the writer introduces Swedenborg. In support of his arguments in favour of this doctrine, he instances some outside the Catholic Church who have taught it. "So directly," he says, "did the Reformers contradict the instincts of natural religion, as well as the testimony of revelation in their denial of this truth, that many who have been brought up in

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A second notice of Swedenborg appears in an article on the "Fallacies of Testimony," by Dr. Carpenter. The writer's special studies have led him to take great interest in the question of testimony, and to investigate the curious phenomena of mesmerism, spiritualism, etc., and the general result of these inquiries "has been to force upon him" the conviction "that as to all which concerns the supernatural, the allowance that has to be made for prepossession is so large, as practically to destroy the validity of any testimony which is not submitted to the severest scrutiny according to the strictest scientific methods." Accordingly not only this phenomena, but the miraculous element in the Word itself is to be subjected to this searching criticism, and clearly with most destructive consequences. In illustrating what may be termed "waking dreams," the writer pounces upon Swedenborg :

"The faith anciently placed by the heathen, as well as the Jewish world, in dreams, visions, trances, etc., has thus

its precise parallel in the present day; to claim of disbelieving what she taught. and it is not a little instructive to find a The Catholic Church put no force or very intelligent religious body, the strain upon mankind further than the Swedenborgians, implicitly accepting as jurisdiction which evident truth laid over authoritative revelation the visions of a the intellect and over the conscience." man of great intellectual ability and strong religious spirit, but highly imaginative disposition, the peculiar feature of whose mind it was to dwell upon his own imaginings. These he seems to have so completely separated from his worldly life that the Swedenborg who believed himself to hold intercourse with the spiritual world, and Swedenborg the mechanician and metallurgist, may almost be regarded as two distinct person alities."

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All history," writes Dr. Carpenter, "shows that nothing is so potent as religious enthusiasm in fostering this tendency; the very state of enthusiasm being the possession' of the mind by fixed ideas, which overbear the teachings of objective experience." The disorders arising from religious enthusiasm are nowhere more fully recognised than by Swedenborg. His readers are not, therefore, influenced in the manner Dr. Carpenter supposes by his revelations respecting the unseen universe. These revelations form but a small portion of his published writings, and are accepted on the ground not merely of the most trustworthy testimony, but of their agreement with the perceptions of enlightened and cultured religious consciousness, and the laws of the spiritual life, the phenomenal development of which is our inheritance in the future. These revelations, therefore, neither excite a morbid imagination nor turn the mind aside from the sober studies and practical duties of life. They show the relation of worldly duty to future usefulness and joy; and are in perfect harmony with the golden stateinent of Swedenborg-" All religion has relation to life, and the life of religion is to do good."

ROMAN CATHOLICISM. Cardinal Manning, in an inaugural address at the opening of the Manchester Academia, an institution for the scientific education of Catholic youth in harmony with the doctrines of the Papacy, is reported to have said "If the Catholic Church had the liberty to teach all mankind, that did not necessarily deny to all mankind the liberty which mankind seemed

This statement has naturally excited some surprise on the part of well-informed persons outside the audience to which it was addressed. It forms so marked a contrast to much that is reported of Catholic opinion, teaching, and practice where the Church is in the ascendant, that it is difficult to persuade one's-self of its sincerity. Ascendancy, "power over the souls and bodies of men," is what this formidable perversion of the Gospel has ever steadily pursued, and in the pursuit of which she seeks to bend all agencies, and especially those of education, to her purpose. We give in a separate article some evidence of the kind of teaching by which, in the countries in which she has supreme authority, she enslaves the mind and binds the masses to her service. Of her boasted regard for the liberty of others, let the following examples testify :-In a letter addressed by the Bishop of Montpellier to the deans and professors of faculties in the university of that place, the absolute authority of the Vatican over the opinions and consciences of men is set forth in the strongest and most unmistakeable language. The Holy Church, they are told, "holds herself to be invested with the absolute right to teach mankind," and "she is so sure of the infallibility conferred upon her by her Divine founder" that "even in the nature of things scientific or philosophical, moral or political, she will not admit that a system can be adopted and sustained by Christians if it contradict definite dogmas." Furthermore, "she considers that the voluntary and obstinate denial of a single point of her doctrines involves the crime of heresy; and she holds that all formal heresy, if it be not courageously rejected prior to appearing before God, carries within it certain loss of grace and of eternity.'

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The English Independent of December 30, gives the following specimen of her feeling towards heretics, from the Shepherd of the Valley, the organ of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of St. Louis, America :-"The Church indeed tolerates heretics here, where she is under restraint, but she hates them mortally, and employs her forces to secure their

annihilation. As soon as the Catholics are here in possession of a considerable majority,―as certainly they will be some day, although the moment may delay its coming, then religious liberty will have come to an end in the United States. Our enemies say so, and we agree with them. Our enemies know that we do not pretend to be better than our Church; and as to what concerns that Church, its history is open to the eyes of all. They know, then, how it acted with heretics in the middle ages, and how it acts with them now wherever it has the requisite power.

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hiler, in Russia, to the effect that being seriously ill with the dropsy, he, the said bishop, finding himself growing much worse, invoked the Blessed Virgin, and began to drink a few drops of Lourdes water on July 25 (August 6), 1874, continuing this process every day for two months, without, however, neglecting the remedies prescribed by medicine, and steadily mended, clearly through the miraculous virtues of the water; and accordingly sent 500 francs and his statement to the keepers of the Grotto, with due authentication of signature, seal, and endorsement by the metropolitan !" Another case is the following:-"The Bishop of Digne, and the Superiors of the Great and Little Seminaries of that diocese, attest this case. A child, after being attacked by typhoid fever, resulting in paralysis of the right leg and inflammation of the femur, was slowly dying; but after all medical efforts had failed, an old stocking of the Pope's, put on the diseased limb, effected a thorough cure !"

ULTRAMONTANISM.-The stealthy progress of this form of Roman Catholicism is matter of alarm to not a few in the Roman communion. It is, however, the prevailing power at the Vatican, and seeks to subject to its control the mind and action of all the modern teachers of the Papacy. Its teaching and cultus tend directly to Paganism. It gives greater prominence to the worship of the Virgin than of the Saviour; and there is a growing tendency to exalt the Pope to a state of equality with the Virgin Mother, and even of the Saviour Himself. In the January number of the Contemporary Review, the Rev. R. F. Littledale, D. C. L., has given specimens of recent Ultramontane popular literature. The examples given show the advantage taken of the ignorance of the people, and the encouragement of almost incredible credulity and superstition. Among the publications cited, prominence is given to certain almanacks published in France for general circulation among the peasantry. In one of these, the Almanach du Pélerin, "after the calendar, there is a list of the appointments for pilgrimages in France and Belgium for 1876. Of these there are no fewer than 120, ranging from two each in January and February, to thirtysix in September. A few special favourites, such as Lourdes, La Salette, and Issondun, are repeated, but in most cases each shrine has but one day in the year allotted to it."

A feature in these publications is the fictitious miracles recorded. Of these the following are specimens:-The following testimony "appears in a formal document issued by the Latin Bishop of Anthedon, and countersigned by his metropolitan, the Latin Bishop of Mo

In his concluding remarks, Dr. Littledale says:-"The insolent and aggressive faction,' some of whose utterances I have here transcribed, dominates the Latin obedience everywhere now, and every recruit who joins henceforwar must do so under its banner and pledge l to its behests, and in so doing accept a teaching whose two most repellent fea tures to myself are the abysmal ignorance of Holy Scripture disclosed by its hierophants, contrasting forcibly with the unequalled familiarity with every nook and corner of the Bible I have habitually found in mediæval divines,— and the coarse mercantile element introduced into religion everywhere, so that no prayer can be extorted for the love of God or one's neighbour, unless the worshipper be bribed with an indulgence for himself; and again and again the notion is presented to us that the Pope has gained over the Blessed Virgin by giving her a new title, so that she is bound to repay her debt by restoration of the temporal power and the complete accomplishment of the whole Ultramontane programme.

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SWEDENBORG SOCIETY.-The Apocalypse Revealed, after a careful and thorough revision by the Rev. W. Bruce, is in the press. It will be bound in one volume, and the present intention of the

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